Regarding the subject of Kefka being mentally ill—I’ll be playing him as having mental issues from the magitek infusion, which is canonically stated to have warped him, rather than as having an rl mental illness. This is partially because the game says outright that the magic did it and partially because people with mental illnesses, in general, don’t act like Kefka.
Kefka’s mind being warped by magic was caused by the magitek infusion and pushed Kefka into increasing violence and instability. This is mentioned by one NPC in the party’s first visit to Vector: “That guy Kefka? He was Cid's first experimental Magitek Knight. But the process wasn't perfected yet. Something in Kefka's mind snapped that day...!” (SNES quote, alas)
In the game, it is implied that magic makes whoever and whatever it touches more aggressive—random encounters are magical and attack, Terra’s magical form is summoned by her rage when she fights Humbaba, the espers destroy Vector in an uncontrollable rage—magic and anger are connected.
Magic also seems to pop up stronger with strong negative emotions. Phoenix activates when Locke feels deep sorrow for not being able to bring his girlfriend back to life; Terra’s other magical freak out happened when she was confused and upset about finding out her esper side; Wrexsoul the magical ghost boss monster wants to eat Cyan’s soul because it’s full of sorrow and rage, as do the Three Dream Stooges. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it seems to be fairly common, so I think it’s fair to extrapolate that magic is attracted to and is strengthened by negative emotions and thus would cause them more.
These effects of magic, then, would push Kefka’s personality changing to be more aggressive and a lot more prone to anger and other negative feelings and feeling them strongly. It’s also given him an obsession with gaining more magic. I’d say that part of this is biological and part of this is …well, magical.
(It doesn’t help that his job is, pretty much, “kill as many as enemies as possible without getting killed.” Give how Nazi-esque the Empire is, I’d imagine the taboo on horrible mass murder is much less. Although he’s well aware that killing is a Bad Thing in general, he does it because not only does it make him happy, but it’s culturally acceptable and he’s getting employed for it! If there was more of a taboo, he’d be more likely to go around killing wildlife and, say, running a clothing shop, but since there isn’t in the Empire and people telling him ‘killing is bad’ isn’t going to change that his job is to horribly murder people, he’ll stay a horrible murderous thing.)
(And as a god, his job is to do whatever he wants, which is why he doesn’t seem to be doing anything. He is doing things! Just not where team good can see.)
Kefka also has some issues with depression and has had them before the magic changed him, but these are unrelated to the magic’s changes. For him, life feels like it has very little meaning except for magic and destruction and so he pushes himself into those whenever possible. When not utterly focused on destruction or caught up in an emotional fit, he feels like he’s in a grey blah. He is not suicidal or self-harming, although he may discuss issues concerning that given his fixation on destruction and death, and so I’ll ask the mods and put up a warning beforehand if those seem likely to come up.
Kefka’s understanding of this is—well, I imagine that his world’s understanding of mental illness is somewhere in the mid-19th century, but he thinks about himself using terminology from the War of the Magi; he identifies as having ‘melencholia,’ which in the context of his world would be ‘an affliction of brilliant magi, a hazard of creativity and thinking,’ from texts dating back to the Wars of the Magi. He is aware that the magic has changed his brain chemistry and his personality, but believes it is an acceptable exchange for gaining magic. He’s not aware of how drastically his personality has changed.
Kefka Palazzo, 5/???
Regarding the subject of Kefka being mentally ill—I’ll be playing him as having mental issues from the magitek infusion, which is canonically stated to have warped him, rather than as having an rl mental illness. This is partially because the game says outright that the magic did it and partially because people with mental illnesses, in general, don’t act like Kefka.
Kefka’s mind being warped by magic was caused by the magitek infusion and pushed Kefka into increasing violence and instability. This is mentioned by one NPC in the party’s first visit to Vector: “That guy Kefka? He was Cid's first experimental Magitek Knight. But the process wasn't perfected yet. Something in Kefka's mind snapped that day...!” (SNES quote, alas)
In the game, it is implied that magic makes whoever and whatever it touches more aggressive—random encounters are magical and attack, Terra’s magical form is summoned by her rage when she fights Humbaba, the espers destroy Vector in an uncontrollable rage—magic and anger are connected.
Magic also seems to pop up stronger with strong negative emotions. Phoenix activates when Locke feels deep sorrow for not being able to bring his girlfriend back to life; Terra’s other magical freak out happened when she was confused and upset about finding out her esper side; Wrexsoul the magical ghost boss monster wants to eat Cyan’s soul because it’s full of sorrow and rage, as do the Three Dream Stooges. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it seems to be fairly common, so I think it’s fair to extrapolate that magic is attracted to and is strengthened by negative emotions and thus would cause them more.
These effects of magic, then, would push Kefka’s personality changing to be more aggressive and a lot more prone to anger and other negative feelings and feeling them strongly. It’s also given him an obsession with gaining more magic. I’d say that part of this is biological and part of this is …well, magical.
(It doesn’t help that his job is, pretty much, “kill as many as enemies as possible without getting killed.” Give how Nazi-esque the Empire is, I’d imagine the taboo on horrible mass murder is much less. Although he’s well aware that killing is a Bad Thing in general, he does it because not only does it make him happy, but it’s culturally acceptable and he’s getting employed for it! If there was more of a taboo, he’d be more likely to go around killing wildlife and, say, running a clothing shop, but since there isn’t in the Empire and people telling him ‘killing is bad’ isn’t going to change that his job is to horribly murder people, he’ll stay a horrible murderous thing.)
(And as a god, his job is to do whatever he wants, which is why he doesn’t seem to be doing anything. He is doing things! Just not where team good can see.)
Kefka also has some issues with depression and has had them before the magic changed him, but these are unrelated to the magic’s changes. For him, life feels like it has very little meaning except for magic and destruction and so he pushes himself into those whenever possible. When not utterly focused on destruction or caught up in an emotional fit, he feels like he’s in a grey blah. He is not suicidal or self-harming, although he may discuss issues concerning that given his fixation on destruction and death, and so I’ll ask the mods and put up a warning beforehand if those seem likely to come up.
Kefka’s understanding of this is—well, I imagine that his world’s understanding of mental illness is somewhere in the mid-19th century, but he thinks about himself using terminology from the War of the Magi; he identifies as having ‘melencholia,’ which in the context of his world would be ‘an affliction of brilliant magi, a hazard of creativity and thinking,’ from texts dating back to the Wars of the Magi. He is aware that the magic has changed his brain chemistry and his personality, but believes it is an acceptable exchange for gaining magic. He’s not aware of how drastically his personality has changed.