Bits I don't understand!

[Curaga]

Hey. I finished completing this game again a while back. Like most, I consider this game to be a true masterpiece. However, I was just wondering if anybody could answer these questions three to do with the tale itself? I most likely have just missed out on some events in the game's plot.

.What was Kefka's motivation? I once heard he was driven to insanity because he was the first human to be infused with magic by the Empire, or something like that. Or is he nothing more than a sadistic, nihlistic clown?

.How was the Empire first founded? Is there any history?

.What was Shadows backstory? I know you should view his dreams to find this out, but that takes a while and I never use Shadow. I ask because of his actions during the escape from Kefka's tower.

[Spooniest]

.What was Kefka's motivation? I once heard he was driven to insanity because he was the first human to be infused with magic by the Empire, or something like that. Or is he nothing more than a sadistic, nihlistic clown?

You know, I've always been of the opinion that he was no peach to begin with, just maybe not nearly as axe crazy.

.How was the Empire first founded? Is there any history?

685 years before the game begins, according to this.

That's the first thing I found.

.What was Shadows backstory? I know you should view his dreams to find this out, but that takes a while and I never use Shadow. I ask because of his actions during the escape from Kefka's tower.

Clyde and Billy (or Baram in the Woolsey) were train robbers. One night, a robbery goes bad and Billy is hurt while they are escaping. He orders Clyde to abandon him and run, because his wounds will only slow them down.

Before Clyde slips away, Billy asks Clyde to kill him, and Clyde refuses.

At an unspecified later date, Clyde winds up in Thamasa and presumably stays there long enough to father a child, but leaves for reasons that are somewhat vague in every translation available.

Relm is that child.

Is that all very clear to you?

[espritduo]

It should be noted that the "regular" Empire was founded 685 years ago, but the Evil Empire as we know it, the Gestahlian Empire, was founded with Gestahl's father's coup d'etat 59 years before the start of the game. Before that, the Empire seemed like a pretty good deal, focusing on bringing people together to prevent another global war.

And yeah, all we know of Kefka is that he didn't go crazy until the unperfected magitek infusion process warped his mind. What he was like before that, who knows? But I generally agree that he probably was never a very nice guy, insane or not.

[the_best_noob]

Which is why Interceptor is so attracted to Relm, and why Shadow says "Baram, i can finally stop running" He can finally stop running from the shadows and nightmares of his past.

[Wolf Kanno]

.What was Kefka's motivation? I once heard he was driven to insanity because he was the first human to be infused with magic by the Empire, or something like that. Or is he nothing more than a sadistic, nihlistic clown?

Square has largely kept this as a mystery, even Dissidia goes out of its way to highlight this fact in his Bio section for the game. Kefka was the first Magitek Knight created by Cid's process, he went insane but quickly rose to power within the Empire, most likely because he was more than willing to do the dirty work Gestahl needed done to win his world war.

Kefka's motivation is largely to obtain power and then use it to cause as much damage and destruction as possible. For this reason he becomes interested in the Magitek Infusion process and the Warring Triad all to increase his power. After he becomes a magical god, he eventually succumbs to nihilism as the boredom of his continual cycle of destroying things and watching it rebuild gets tedious and he comes to the conclusion that life is utterly meaningless and plans to destroy the world once and for all.

Dissidia gives another possible motive as Kefka speaks a lot of his dialogue from the actual game when he is defeated. In the game, you almost get the sense he's being playful and arrogant but in Dissidia he's literally dumbfounded by his questions and Terra postulates that Kefka somehow lost the ability to love (Everyone has amnesia in Dissidia so most characters don't remember each others back story) and thus Kefka could only justify his existence through destruction.

.How was the Empire first founded? Is there any history?

The Timeline given in the thread posted will give you an idea, for the most part it seems the Empire was formed as a sort of global police force to prevent another major world war but over the centuries Gestalh's family became prominent and his father took control of the Empire within the last century.

Bear in mind their are some inconsistencies with the timeline and other sources such as Gestalh's age, so it is very likely this Timeline has been made obsolete. Though other sources check out so its kind of up in the air. Ultimately choose what you want to believe because its unlikely SE will ever feel the need to address.

.What was Shadows backstory? I know you should view his dreams to find this out, but that takes a while and I never use Shadow. I ask because of his actions during the escape from Kefka's tower.

Spooniest pretty much covered this.

[Roogle]

.What was Kefka's motivation? I once heard he was driven to insanity because he was the first human to be infused with magic by the Empire, or something like that. Or is he nothing more than a sadistic, nihlistic clown?

He was driven to insanity by the Magitek infusion process. I believe that there were plans to portray Celes as having mental health issues from her Magitek infusion, too, but this idea was lated scrapped and reused for Cloud in Final Fantasy VII.

[Curaga]

Thanks for the information. Now I think on it, there is usually some process that distorts some aspect of a character in the games proceeding VI.

Magic infusion --> Mako infusion --> GF junction etc

I suppose Square continued the trend huh?