into the war, however, when they attempt to steal the Goddess's Magicite—later revealed to be the Dusk Shard—from the Dalmascan Royal Palace. Vaan gets to the magicite first, and when Balthier and Fran confront him, the three of them are caught up in the chaos of a rebel assault on the palace. Balthier is Archadian by birth (as evidenced by his English accent, which is used by Archadian characters in the game), and eventually reveals he is , the son of Imperial magicite researcher Dr. Cid (Cidolfus Demen Bunansa). Balthier received many privileges as Cid's son, including being made an Imperial Judge, but eventually cut ties with his father when Cid became consumed by his experimentation with nethicite. He left the service of the empire, stole an Archadian airship, and took a new name. Balthier is now a renowned career criminal with a sizable bounty on his head, and must be careful to avoid the attention of both the law and the bounty hunters seeking the reward for his capture. He originally joins the resistance in the hope of reacquiring the Dusk Shard, but when he learns it is actually a piece of nethicite, he sees too much of his father's obsession in his own quest and decides to abandon the search. After the party defeats Dr. Cid at the Pharos, Balthier makes peace with his father and helps the group to destroy the Sky Fortress Bahamut as penance for Cid's deeds. Balthier says that he is to be the "leading man" of the story many times throughout the game, and insists that this makes him invincible, since the hero always emerges in one piece. He and Fran are feared dead after they go down with the Sky Fortress Bahamut, but later reappear to retrieve the Strahl from Vaan and Penelo and leave a note for Ashe. Both he and Fran intend on finding the Cache of Glabados, which is resolved in Revenant Wings when it turned out to be tied to Eternal. Balthier was at first intent to take Lemures' treasure, the Auracite, but knew the truth behind it and attempted to destroy the Auralith, eventually rejoining Vaan's group to fight the Judge of Wings, letting Vaan be the "leading man" while he himself leaves the limelight. Balthier was voiced by Gideon Emery in English and by Hiroaki Hirata in Japanese. He made a crossover appearance in Final Fantasy