When a fal’Cie takes a mortal to be one of its l’Cie servants, that person is given a Focus to be completed. Should the l’Cie fail to fulfill this Focus before his or her brand advances to its final stage, that l’Cie becomes a Cie’th.
Mired in eternal sorrow and regret, and robbed of all free will, Cie’th are damned to wander the world unliving and undying, until their corrupted flesh at last can move no more. For Cie’th, there is no salvation.
The Cie’th are the non-sentient remains of a former l’Cie. They move on instinct and are hostile toward living beings, including their former friends, which makes them widely feared as they can wield magic. This is specially true to the Undying, a group of Cie’th whose hatred towards their former fal’Cie masters has made them all the more dangerous.
Only when they turn into Cie’th Stones do the Cie’th show some of their former humanity, mostly their regret of failing their Focus and asking somebody to complete it in their stead so they can rest in peace.
When chosen by the fal’Cie, a l’Cie is marked with an incomplete brand, a tattoo-like inscription. The brand completes over time, working as a timer for the l’Cie to complete their Focus, a mission dictated by the fal’Cie that branded them. Should the l’Cie fail, or the time runs out, the l’Cie loses their humanity and crystals cover and twist their body. Their heart is sealed in endless despair, a fate more torturous than death.
It is said the rate at which a l’Cie becomes a Cie’th depends on their psychological state: the more panicked and distressed, the faster they will turn. As time runs out the l’Cie brand sprouts arrows and eventually an eye, and when the eye is fully opened, the l’Cie is transformed. It appears that some l’Cie can partially transform into Cie’th willingly, taking on Cie’th-like qualities and sometimes keeping their minds. This mode of transformation can be reversed with help from an outside agency. Fal’Cie can transform humans instantaneously into Cie’th by branding them without assigning them a Focus.
It is possible for Cie’th to still complete their Focus. Over the course of years, the energy of a Cie’th may dry out, and they turn into a crystalline tombstone, unable to move about but gaining the ability to communicate and ask others to complete their Focus for them. These Cie’th Stones are found in abundance throughout Gran Pulse.
Cie’th are outsiders who live on the Material Plane.
Cie’th possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry) as summarized here.
- Immunity to mind-affecting effects.
- Damage reduction 5/adamantine or crystal.
- Spell resistance 11 + CR.
- Unlike other native outsiders, Cie’th have no need to eat, drink, or breathe.
- Unlike other outsiders, all Cie’th (save the Undying) are mortal in some sense, although they are still immune to aging effects.
- Power of Hate: All Cie’th that have a caster level use their Wisdom score to determine the effects and DCs of their spells, their MP, and how high of a level they can cast, regardless of what spellcaster they are drawing spells or MP from.