Ah, yes. Here is a major spoiler. Don't read it unless you don't care about some of the characters.

(SPOILER)Rydia is not dead. You get her back once you enter the Dwarven Castle in the Underworld. Palom and Porom are merely petrified, and get restored later by the Mysidian Elder. Golbez is only very weakened by Meteor. Yang doesn't die either, you find him later in the Sylph Cave. Tellah, on the other hand, is permanently dead. He is the only character in the game that dies permanently, except for the real King of Baron.