Materia
The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the planet calling up magic...or so they say. -Sephiroth
Materia are items in the Planet that allow a character to cast spells, summon, and use new command abilities. They can also be used for other various reasons. It forms the basis of the skill and ability system for SOLDIER, and also plays a prominent role in character skills in other games.
Contents
Description
Materia is crystallized Mako. Metaphysically, Materia calls upon the wisdom of the Lifestream in order to manipulate nature itself. This manifests as the phenomenon of magic for most Materia, although other Materia pieces enhance the user's abilities. Unless one is descended from the Cetra, Materia is the only way normal humans can use magic. When explaining how Materia is created to Zack and Tifa on Mt. Nibel, Sephiroth mentions that he and Professor Hojo debated the nature of Materia. Hojo objected to the term "Magic" being applied to powers from Materia, but could offer no better explanation.
Materia is able to occur naturally at "Mako Springs," places where the Lifestream leaks through the surface of The Planet and condenses, such as on Mt. Nibel. However, this is a rare occurrence, taking centuries for the Mako to crystallize into Materia, and in Crisis Core Shinra scientists mention that most Materia in use is artificially produced. It is never stated if natural Materia has any appreciable difference in usage and power from artificial Materia, but the White Materia, Black Materia, and the four Materia pieces found in the Materia Caves are much stronger than other Materia pieces, so natural Materia appears to be stronger than artificial Materia.
Though the process varies from game to game, Materia can level up, increasing its powers further. In Final Fantasy VII Materia learned new abilities as it leveled up and when mastered spawned a copy of itself. In all other games in the Compilation, Materia pieces are linked only to a single ability that becomes more potent as the Materia gains power: in Crisis Core Materia gives higher stat boosts as it levels up, while in Before Crisis Materia has a higher chance of affecting the user's weapon and/or armor as it increases in level.
The size of Materia seems to be ambiguous throughout the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. In the original Final Fantasy VII and in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, most Materia, excluding the White, Black, and Huge Materia, are about the size of a marble. However, in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Crisis Core, Materia appear to be just smaller than a tennis ball, about the size of the White Materia in the original game. As Materia is referred to in Final Fantasy VII as "growth" when leveling up, Materia may increase in size to denote its level of power, explaining the ambiguities here.
Use
Materia, as simple a 'Magic' system as it is, should be noted, is a learned ability. It took SOLDIERs quite some time to learn to use Materia properly, and even longer to actually develop the Materia's powers. First, one needs actual armour or weaponry that can accommodate Materia to actually use it. Second, one needs to know how to draw out their powers to cast spells. finally, the user must have enough magical energy to actually cast the spells. Mako infusion made sure all SOLDIERs could cast spells from almost any Materia from the get go.
One does not simply pick up a Materia and call forth the Knights of the Round. It's worth mentioning that a Materia in a weapon or armour piece is harder to remove than simply yanking it off, as well. Materia has been used in many ways in the past.
Before the Sephiroth Crisis
Materia in Crisis Core works similarly to the way it is used in Final Fantasy VII. However, a new feature called Materia Fusion allows for two Materia to be fused together to create a stronger Materia with higher stats. As weapon and armor cannot be adjusted in Crisis Core, the number of Materia slots depend on Zack's SOLDIER rank. Green, Yellow, Purple, Blue, and Red Materia are still the five colors, but different shades are used. Only Summon Materia are solely red.
- Magic Materia is divided into Dark Green for offensive magic, Light Green for curative magic, and Yellow-Green for defensive magic.
- Command Materia is divided into Pale Yellow for attack commands and Gold Yellow for item-associated commands.
- Independent Materia is divided into Light Purple for DMW Materia and Dark Purple for stat-enhancing Materia.
- Support Materia is divided into Light Blue for elemental and status-related Materia and Dark Blue for SP abilities.
War with Sephiroth
Materia can only be used when slotted into a weapon or a piece of armor. Once slotted into an equipment piece the wearer is able to call upon the Materia's powers. Using Materia has both pros and cons. Depending on the type and strength of the Materia equipped, some abilities may be hindered or enhanced.
Winning battles earns Ability Points, which are Experience Points for Materia. Materia levels up when it gains enough AP. Some Materia allow access to stronger commands when leveled up, others allow the user to use the granted command more times, others give a stat bonus that grows larger, and so forth. When Materia reached its highest level, it is "mastered", and a second Materia with the same powers is born. Thus, with patience and enough leveling up, even one-of-a-kind Materia could be reproduced infinitely.
Materia can be slotted into a single slot or a connected slot. When slotted into a connected slot, the Materia can be joined with a Support Materia to varying effects, including adding elemental properties to the slotted equipment, allowing the Materia to target multiple targets, etc. Some weapons and equipment have no Materia slots at all.
Remnants of Sephiroth
Materia is used by Kadaj and his brothers to attack Cloud several times after stealing a case of Materia from him. In this instance, rather than equipping Materia to slots in weapons and armor, Materia is inserted directly into the remnants' arms. In the Reunion Files, it is mentioned that, as Materia is a by-product of Mako and Mako is no longer used, Materia has also begun to fall out of use.
Types
There are five basic Materia types, distinguished by color.
| Color | Icon | Ability | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red |  |
Summon | Used to summon creatures to aid in battle. |
| Green |  |
Magic | Used to cast spells, including Black, White, and status-inducing spells. Also affects Strength and Magic stats. |
| Yellow |  |
Command | Allows the use of extra commands in battle like Throw and Steal. |
| Blue |  |
Support | Can be linked to other Materia in order to enhance their effects. |
| Purple |  |
Independent | Various functions, including increasing stats and auto-abilities such as Cover. |
In addition to the above, there is the unique Command Materia, the Enemy Skill Materia, which teaches Enemy Skills to the player.
Crisis Core uses different shades of each color to further classify Materia types.
Special Materia
- The Black Materia is used to call the Ultimate Destructive Magic, Meteor, which can destroy the planet.
- The White Materia is used to call Holy, the ultimate protective magic which cleanses the planet.
- Huge Materia are special Materia formed from compressing Mako in a Mako Reactor. Four of them are found in Final Fantasy VII.
- Master Materia are available for Command, Magic, and Summon Materia, and contains all or most of the commands for that particular type.
- In Dirge of Cerberus, there is the Protomateria, which is used by both Lucrecia Crescent and Shelke the Transparent to help Vincent control his Chaos form.
- In Before Crisis, there is a Summon Materia which summons Zirconiade, the ultimate summon. It was split into many pieces to prevent Zirconiade from being called.
- In Crisis Core, there is an enormous red Materia called "The Goddess Materia" which resides in the depths of the Banora Underground. Genesis ends up using this Materia in order to transform himself into Genesis Avatar.
Trivia
- Though Final Fantasy VII establishes five Materia colors each with different uses, other entries in the Compilation show that color has little to do with a Materia's abilities - Kadaj uses a blue Materia in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children that allows him to use Enemy Skills and summon Bahamut SIN. Vincent's Fire Materia in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- is red, and Shelke has an orange Materia which she claims is Shield Materia. Normally, the Fire and Shield Materia would be green, and the Materia Kadaj used would be red.
- In Final Fantasy Tactics, White Materia, Black Materia, Blue Materia, and Red Materia are Artefacts that can be collected. They are described with the following text:
- These stones, developed by the ancient Saronians, are the result of experiments in storing knowledge within gems for later generations. They are said to enhance the abilities of the possessor.
- In Dissidia and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, one of Sephiroth's HP attacks is named "Black Materia," which calls forth a meteor to strike his opponent. This is a direct reference to the Black Materia in Final Fantasy VII which is ultimately used to summon Meteor to destroy the world. As well, Cloud's crystal is a Materia piece, and resembles Aerith's White Materia. Furthermore, Materia is an item available through battlegen that is created by destroying stage elements in the Planet's Core.
- In the fan-made series Dead Fantasy, Tifa Lockhart uses Materia magic in combat. Such spells used so far include Fire, Ice, Lightning, Time, Gravity, Ultima, Barrier, Poison, All, and Blind. As of the fifth episode, Tifa has lost most, if not all, of her Materia to Hitomi.
- Final Fantasy XIV's Materia Crafting System, was inspired by (and named after) Final Fantasy VII Materia.
