Kefka Palazzo

Kefka Palazzo is the main villain from Final Fantasy 6. One of the more insane Final Fantasy villains, Kefka also has the distinction of having actually succeeded in ruining and ruling the world for a full year. As such, he can be considered one of the few truly successful villains of the series. He is also stark, raving mad. "Palazzo" means "palace" in Italian.

History
In the story of Final Fantasy 6, beings called Espers provided much of the world's magic. The Gestahl Empire, lead by, of course, Emperor Gestahl, wishes to procure the use of Magic by their soldiers for military purposes.

As such, various experiments are performed to give humans magical powers. One of these experiments is to infuse a human being with magic directly, thus hopefully allowing them to cast spells. Kefka, a general in the Empire's army, is the first test subject for this process. While successful, the experiment takes a huge toll on him psychologically, and drives him completely insane. Thus, he became a nihilistic, clownish psycho, prone to fits of laughter.

(As a side note, these experiments eventually resulted in Celes, who was infused with magic while still a baby. She was a success, without the psychological damage Kefka suffered.)

Still a useful member of the army, Kefka kept his General rank, and aided the Empire during its takeover of the world. Over time, Kefka gained a reputation as a murderous bastard, needlessly killing innocents and treating his troops like an expendable, unending, screaming resource. A reputation which, in this case, is absolutely correct. Kefka's psychosis led him to hold human life as worthless, and he enjoyed squandering it.

The true beginning of the end came when a girl named Terra was placed into Kefka's care; fitting her with a Slave Crown to control her will, he sent her out for testing in Magitek Armor. Terra destroyed three Imperial soldiers also in Magitek Armor, her magic apparently boosting its power output significantly. Kefka relished in the girl's power, laughing insanely as flames burned around them.

An indeterminate but presumably short time later, a frozen Esper was unearthed in Narshe (Final Fantasy VI). The Empire, seeking to capture said Esper, dispatched Terra and two soldiers to secure the creature. Kefka watched as the group, piloting Magitek Armor, set off towards the snowy town.

The group failed; the Esper appeared to wipe the escort soldiers, Biggs and Wedge from existence, and knocked Terra out. Terra was saved by a man named Arvis, and began a quest that would lead to the downfall of civilization. But, that's neither here nor there.

Presumably, the Empire was unsure of what happened to the group in the end, as all soldiers that were sent after Terra were killed by Locke and a group of Moogles. Possibly, more troops were sent to Narshe later, but as a Returners town, the citizens moved the Esper to protect it. At this time, Kefka was sent to check the desert castle of the Kingdom of Figaro for Terra. While there, he met with King Edgar Roni Figaro, making idle threats about dangers to the kingdom should Edgar be aiding the Returners.

Or not so idle. During that night, Kefka and his troops began burning the castle, laughing at Edgar and his troops. Edgar, however, being the resourceful king he was, ordered the submergable Castle Figaro to bury itself beneath the sand, and transport itself away. Edgar escaped on a Chocobo, accompanied by Locke and Terra (who it happened had arrived only a short while before Kefka), leaving Kefka coughing up sand as Castle Figaro sank. Being that he was quite angry, Kefka sicced his Magitek troops on the gang, though somehow they failed to defeat three people on Chocobos. This could basically be chalked up to Stormtrooper Syndrome.

After this, Kefka was absent from the main story for a short time. It seemed that he was recalled from the search for Terra, and instead was sent to the battlefields of Doma. Once there, Kefka showed his usual lack of caring about troops, insulting and brushing off those who happened across him. Sabin and Shadow, two of the protagonists, watched as Kefka strutted his stuff, so to speak. A short time later, the current commander of the Doma Castle assault, General Leo, was recalled to the Imperial Capital of Vector. After a short confrontation with Kefka, both commanders displaying their differing points of view towards humans lives (Leo being more or less Kefka's polar opposite), Leo left to do his duty.

Almost instantly, Kefka ordered that the water supply of Doma Castle be poisoned, killing all inside. Even when told his own troops were prisoners there, Kefka demanded that the water be poisoned. Before this could happen, Sabin and Shadow confronted Kefka, chasing him across the camp. Despite catching up to him multiple times, and being subject to his horrible puns, they were unable to stop Kefka from reaching the Doma River, giving a macabre speech, and poisoning the entire river a purple Koolaid color with what could only possibly be a magical vial of unending, super fast acting poison.

A magical poison that forced everyone in the castle to drink it at the same time.

At this point, one of the few survivors of Doma Castle, Sir Cyan Garamonde, attacked the Imperial camp for revenge. He did not encounter Kefka, however, as he, Sabin, and Shadow made their escape in Magitek Armor a few moments later.

A short time later, Kefka was apparently back on the trail of that frozen Esper in Narshe, as he led an attack against the town to reclaim it. The Esper had been relocated to a cliff behind the town, and the newly reunited Returners were charged with its defense. The town of Narshe was apparently thought by the Empire to be neutral, and the vast majority of the townspeople may very well've been just normal citizens, but that didn't stop Kefka.

He lead a small portion of the Imperial Army into Narshe, ordering them to destroy all who opposed them. Kefka eventually lead his troops to the cliffs, and sent them against the Returners. Eventually, when confronted in battle, Kefka ended up fleeing to fight another day. In the end, the Returners kept control of the Esper, but another exposure to it turned Terra herself into an Esper, beginning a quest to hunt her down.

It would appear that Kefka was once more called back to the Imperial City of Vector, as the Returners would later encounter him there. After finding Terra, the heroes had been given a mission by the Esper Ramuh to go to the Imperial Magitek Facility, and free the Espers there. During their infiltration, they stumbled across Kefka, disposing of two drained Espers. As Kefka kicked Ifrit and Shiva into a trash heap, he ranted about collecting Espers, extracting magic, and restoring "the statues" (in FFVIA, Kefka refers to a "Warring Triad" instead), a rather cryptic quote at the time.

Following this, Kefka left for the moment, leaving the Returners to speak to the dying Espers. Kefka would next encounter the heroes a short while later, as they spoke to Professor Cid about Espers and Magicite. As Cid accidentally implicated Celes as a spy for the Empire, Kefka entered and derided Cid for his failure to learn about Magicite. Thinking quickly, he also picked up on the Returners' new doubts about Celes, and spoke to her like a comrade in arms. He ordered her to bring him the Magicite shards, and claimed that she had worked for the Empire all along. He then commanded her to exterminate the others, in one of his vicious rages. Celes claimed that she wasn't a spy, and worked her magic, apparently warping herself and Kefka away. Kefka's rants here confuse matters slightly; he seems amazed that Celes would disobey his orders in such a way. It may be that Kefka truly believed that Celes was a spy, and that he acted upon these beliefs. More likely, it could possibly be that in his crazed mind, what was a lie moments ago became to him the truth, and he couldn't tell the difference.

The respite Celes granted the heroes was temporary at best. Cid swiftly led the now Magicite-laden party to an escape tunnel, where they would ride a mine cart to freedom. Almost as soon as the player stepped onto the mine cart, Cid exclaimed that he heard Kefka approaching. As the clown's laugh echoed in the background, the cart led the Returners to freedom (or mandatory battles and the obligatory boss, whichever works).

By the time the party reached Setzer's airship, Kefka had moved to the roof of the Magitek Facility. Declaring that the heroes won't get away, Kefka ordered that they be attacked with the facility's cranes. Cranes which can apparently reach up and menace airships.

The party succeeded in defeating the cranes with their monster crushing skills, and flew on. At this point, the party would return to the thief town of Zozo, and awaken the comatose Terra. A line of events that began here would end with a visit to the Sealed Gate, where the Esper World connected to the human world. Just as Terra began to open the gate, Kefka approached the party from behind. Here, it was revealed that the Empire had allowed Terra to fall into the hands of the Returners, and allow them to open the gate. Feeling that the forces of good had outlived their usefulness, Kefka attacked.

The battle was a stalling action by the Returners, allowing Terra enough time to fully open the gate. The plan by the heroes to petition the Espers for aid fell through, however, when the magical beings flew by and ignored the humans. Kefka, feeling anxious and sensing "frightful energy", was driven off.