![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiritshiftedPlayer Information:
Name: Kat
Age: 27
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
beautify
Game Cast: I'm new here!
Character Information:
Name: Milla Maxwell
Canon: Tales of Xillia
Canon Point: Postgame
Age: 20
Reference:
http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Milla_Maxwell
Setting:
Tales of Xillia takes place in a world called Rieze Maxia, a reasonably temperate planet that is as yet not fully explored by its inhabitants, and an “outside world” called Elympios.
The main focal point of the world and its culture is the symbiosis between humans and spirits. Humans in Rieze Maxia have a special region in their brain called the mana lobe, which produces a form of energy called mana. Spirits consume this mana in a contractual exchange for their spirit artes, which can take many forms – a burst of flame, a gust of wind, or even a healing arte. (Do note, however, that healing artes cannot heal every ailment or disease. While doctors on Rieze Maxia do use artes to heal basic wounds, there are some diseases that require special materials such as spirit fossils, herbs, gels, or special tools to cure a patient. And, of course, not every disease is curable.)
Spirits are a constant influence in the culture and an ever-present topic of study in institutions of higher learning across Rieze Maxia. There is some talk on what the culture of the world must have been like before the beginning of the symbiotic human-spirit relationship, but nothing conclusive has been discovered. Spirits are tied to what are called spirit climes, which are climates based on spirit activity in an area. A city called Fennmont has a night clime, for instance, which means it’s dark and starry all the time. Another city is blanketed under snow, and another one is stuck at permanent sunset. Since spirit climes and indeed nature itself are tied to spirit activity, if powerful spirits are silenced, seasons may not even change.
There are four elemental spirits that control much of the world’s spirit activity: the Four Great Spirits. Representing fire, earth, water, and air, the Four are Efreet, Gnome, Undine, and Sylph. These Four function as demigods; they influence the seasons and are beholden to the Lord of Spirits, also known as Maxwell.
Maxwell is an ancient spirit, commonly regarded as the greatest spirit, and is able to take a human form. The greatest act of protection of Maxwell’s was the Schism, a two-thousand-year-old persistent spirit arte that effectively completely separated the world of Rieze Maxia from what lay outside, a barren yet bustling world called Elympios where those without mana lobes reside. The Schism is now gone, the barrier torn down, but up until very recently it featured very prominently in both of the worlds.
The major political players in the world of Rieze Maxia are threefold: two countries, Rashugal and Auj Oule, and a group called Exodus.
Exodus is not a country, but a group of people from Elympios who were trapped on Rieze Maxia twenty years ago. Their goal has been to kill Maxwell and dispel the Schism in order to return home. Their technology includes spyrix, a largely destructive yet quite accessible way to cast spirit artes without the use of mana. Throughout the plot, the party constantly rails against the use of spyrix because it destroys spirits and offsets the natural spirit-human balance.
Rashugal is a structured country governed by six ruling noble houses, ruled by King Nachtigal until quite recently. Its capital is Fennmont, an eternally dark city with luminous foliage and gold-tinged buildings. Other notable cities include Sharilton, the seat of House Sharil, known for its trading, and Leronde, a mining island with a dash of tourism. Rashugal’s people tend to value law and order, and endure some social stratification. The country is rather focused on scientific military pursuits and development: at one point, with the goal of world domination, in a large laboratory it created the Lance of Kresnik, what was thought to be a weapon that would unite the world with military might. Instead, the Lance was a spyrix, developed under the secret leadership of Gilland, an Exodus mastermind, and its purpose was to destroy the Schism so that Exodus was able to get home.
Auj Oule is a looser, more religious, clan-based country, united under King Gaius. This society, where once clans warred over trivial issues, is now largely merit-based. Its capital is Kanbalar, a snowy, hilly religious hub, but also of note is Xian Du, a bustling tournament town with a canal down it, Hamil, a sleepy farming town, and Nia Khera, the spiritual seat of Maxwell. Auj Oule, too, is the source of many technological developments such as the booster, or an item intended to boost mana lobe output at the cost of one’s vigor. Auj Oule and Rashugal are united by the end of the game, despite the longterm war, as a result of Elympios’ threatening them both and King Gaius taking the helm.
Elympios is considered an “outside world” to Rieze Maxia, and it is almost completely dead in terms of nature and mana because of so much spyrix use. Their mana energy situation is incredibly dire as a result of this, so some have proposed an “Otherworld Reactor Plan” to suck the mana out of the abundant supply in Rieze Maxia. This would be Bad in many ways for the world, so the efforts of our protagonists through the end section of the game revolve around finding a way around this happening. Due to the efforts of some Elympian scientists, there is hope in the form of spyrite, which is basically spyrix without the terrible spirit death, made from spirit fossils.
For the past twenty years, there has been a woman brought up by the Four Great Spirits to think of herself as Maxwell, who uses the Four to protect the humans and spirits of Rieze Maxia and rid it of potential threats. Her name is Milla. She fights knowing that it is her will and goal to protect the world. She fights alongside Jude Mathis, a young medical student; Leia Rolando, an energetic nurse who’s a childhood friend of Jude’s; Rowen Ilbert, a former Rashugal tactician; Alvin, an Elympian of questionable loyalty; and Elize Lutus, a young girl with a booster.
I don’t want to get too far into specific events that happen in game, but some important things that have happened to Milla which have caused major development to this point include:
-Losing the Four when they are bound by the Lance of Kresnik.
This causes Milla to start experiencing the world like a normal human, without extremely strong spirits to assist in every facet of her day. She has to learn to do things like eat!
-Meeting Jude and crew.
This causes Milla to start wanting to protect humankind in addition to spirit kind. Her heart begins to grow softer, and she starts developing what are closer to normal emotions. Her proximity to her friends strengthens her but also makes her much more of an emotional being than one might expect from her early-game.
-Seriously injuring her leg escaping from military prison.
Milla begins relying on Jude and the rest of the group a little more as a result of this - she meets Leia while crippled, and so begins a sisterly bond between the two of them. She also learns her limits… a little bit. Because of her reliance on Jude, and having learned the human idea of “gifts,” she presents him with a treasure of hers, a glass bead, as a token of her friendship.
-Meeting Muzét, her sister, and dealing with her
Milla begins pondering the idea of family and what it means now that she’s sorta kinda in one. Also sparks new emotions in Milla, such as jealousy.
-Sacrificing herself
While this doesn’t develop Milla’s personality too terribly much per se - it’s the kind of thing she’d probably do again if she really had to - after she comes back to life her purpose is reaffirmed. During her “death” she is taken into the spirit world by the Four, who decide to rebel against Maxwell as he isn’t doing that good of a job at being a spirit god, and they take Milla’s side.
-Encountering Elympios
This is where Milla’s goals change and separate her goals from what would become Gaius’ goals. Since by this point in her development she cares for all humans, seeing their reliance on spyrix for things like healing and making their lives less difficult sparks a desire in her to find a different way. Her goal shifts from destroying all spyrix to encouraging a partnership between the two worlds, using spyrite. She’s quite a bit less harsh now, and much better at seeing shades of gray in morality rather than her previous black and white.
-Becoming Maxwell
She’d always thought of herself as Maxwell. Now she takes the true mantle, creating a better world, nurturing a spirit world that will take care of the needs of both Rieze Maxia and Elympios. She has become a caring, benevolent god by this point.
Personality:
Though Milla is a human, she has been brought up to think of herself as Maxwell, Lord of Spirits, made flesh. As a result, she feels and acts separate and ‘other’ from typical humans. Extremely self-aware, she takes great notice when she feels an unexpected emotion such as fear of loss. She certainly has these emotions, she simply didn’t have the stimulus growing up to develop a reasonable expectation for those kinds of things. Indeed, at the beginning of the game, upon meeting Jude, she makes it very clear she has no time for emotions, that they’d just get in her way - but throughout the course of the story she begins to develop more and more feelings and realizes that feelings are useful in their own way, despite them occasionally getting in the way of logic. She becomes benevolent.
As a result of being preened to be strong all her life, she did not have much of a childhood. She can remember playing with other children one time, but… that’s it. So with twenty years of that, Milla is a bit of an old soul in a young woman’s body.
Though she was raised (and, to some extent, coddled) by the Four Great Spirits growing up, she is not soft. She has always had her mission to stubbornly protect the world’s spirits from dangers like spyrix, and she has pursued that goal with everything she has, with little care to consequence. She has left children without parents if those parents are spyrix users destroying the careful balance between humans and spirits, and we see her kill those very same children when they come to avenge their fallen parents. It’s not to say she’s heartless, certainly - she just does things for the greater good. She does not relish killing in itself, it’s more that she sees it as necessary when someone’s life is in the way of the continued prosperity of Rieze Maxia. She’s simply a logical utilitarian to a fault, although throughout the course of the game it becomes a little bit more difficult for her as she realizes she wants to protect not only the spirits in the world, but the humans as well. At this point, she’s much more well-versed in moral shades of gray than she was.
This singleminded, stubborn utilitarianism extends itself even to the point of self-sacrifice. Though she has believed herself to be a god among spirits made flesh for so long, it is no problem to her to die if she thinks it will end up benefiting her world. This kind of thought process has the tendency to disturb those around her, but she’s never self-destructive without what she feels is a very, very good reason to be.
Milla has had the tendency to want to read about other people’s experiences instead of experiencing something herself. She has read a number of books about everything from parenting to bondage, and references these books often as she speaks about things that are new to her. Books mean a great deal to her, and seeing a rare out-of-print version of something excites her terribly. In fact, she doesn’t really get too outwardly excited about much of anything besides books and food.
Speaking of food, Milla often does not notice what humans often think of as “life’s little pleasures” until she experiences them. For example, she had never eaten anything before almost collapsing from hunger after she was first separated from the Four. They had always taken care of all of her nutritional needs - and her walking, running, and fighting needs as well - so there was never a need to eat. Hunger was a new experience to her, and so was eating. However, once she ate for the first time, she really began to realize that food was not just human fuel but a form of pleasure as well, and she dug in with abandon.
Despite being quite the reader and happily embracing a logical solution if presented with one, Milla’s singlemindedness often causes her to take a force-based approach to problems. Rather than attempting to find a clever way past a door, she is often likely to bust right on in. Having more thoughtful people around her, such as the strategist Rowen and the kind Jude, has tempered her approach a little bit, but she is a woman of action, and occasionally violent action, first and foremost.
It’s worth noting that Milla can be a little bit gullible - occasionally taking what people say at face value. In serious situations, she’s not likely to be fooled, but if someone jokingly tells her that having a developed mana lobe might make someone’s face sharper-looking, she’ll do facial exercises to see if making her face stronger would, in turn, improve her mana lobe.
Milla talks quite plainly most of the time - treating certain things that the average person might find a little bit out of this world as very matter-of-fact. Rowen, for example, is surprised to hear that the Four Great Spirits, pretty much four gods to the people of Rieze Maxia, bicker about little things like oversleeping, but Milla is able to speak plainly about it. It’s just everyday stuff to her, but she feels no need to dress it up.
She can get jealous, too! She’s got a bit of a soft spot in her heart for Jude, and when during the course of events of the game Jude ‘direct-tethers’ with Milla’s ‘sister’ Muzét, a very attractive female spirit, and fills her with mana - which seems to be equivalent to some kind of sexual bond? - Milla reacts in a huff. As if some spirit could just march in and direct-tether with her best friend!
Because of having been worshipped in Nia Khera for most of her life, Milla still occasionally thinks of humans as pets; they do things that endear themselves to her, and she is often reminded of their mortality. As a result of this, she can be very forgiving and even understanding of human transgressions. For example, she suggests Alvin stay on Rieze Maxia with the group immediately after he points a gun at her head. While it can be argued that she’d rather keep an eye on Alvin and have him help fight their battles than have him tag along behind them, it shows a willingness to forgive that almost seems a little naive.
Despite all of this, really, Milla is generally quite a nice person. This is perhaps getting a little meta, but she is a main character of an RPG, and she does end up helping all kinds of people with tiny little dinky quests, over and over and over. She is rather accepting - as long as you’re not killing spirits or humans willy-nilly - and, being that she’s spent most of her life around quirky little spirits that bicker with each other constantly, she is comfortable with oddities.
As for how she will react to being in the land between Life, Death, and Dreaming, Milla will be surprisingly understanding of it - she’ll accept it and take it as it comes, and try to improve it as much as possible once she makes a connection with the kedan and foreigners. She’s been dead, and she’s also been thrust into an unknown world before, after all, without much of a reaction. She’ll simply take it as she takes all new experiences - the kedan will be interesting to her, and she’ll probably have some fun times in the Dreaming, since dreaming, like many human things, are new to her in general.
Appearance:
http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111006083411/aselia/images/5/5e/Milla_Maxwell.png
Milla stands at 5’6”, but it’s kind of a tall 5’6” because she carries herself with such purpose. She has extremely long, wavy strawberry blonde hair tipped with lighter blonde, and a large piece that sticks out fades to green at the tip. She has pink eyes, long muscular legs, and what the game refers to as … “bazongas.”
Bazongas… are the burning fire at the heart of manhood.
Anyway, she typically wears a short cropped top, long laced boots and arm guards, and a little skirt, with ribbon crisscrossing her body.
Abilities:
Milla is a pretty darn good swordfighter by this point, though in the beginning when she first got split from the Four she had to learn basic swordswinging. She specializes in aerial attacks that send enemies (and often herself) flying in the air. Her mana lobe - the part of her brain dedicated to exchanging mana with spirits - is very developed, and as a result she is very good at spirit and magic artes. Many of her attacks use the four elements of fire, earth, wind, and water, but the majority are fire and wind, with a significant amount of light elemental attacks as well.
Unique to Milla are Magic Artes, which are done through a process called Spirit Shifting. This is basically a quick version of a Spirit Arte that goes off if one ends up needing to cancel a cast Arte, which definitely takes time. She’s pretty versatile in that this allows her to be able to cast from afar or fight up close.
Since there are no spirits to speak of on Tu Vishan, Milla’s spirit casting will be limited to the spirits that she brings with her. In this case, since she is coming from postgame, Milla will continue to be tethered with The Four - Efreet, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome. Efreet can modify fire, Undine can produce water and ice, Sylph has dominion over wind, and Gnome can manipulate earth. These spirits do not interact with anyone outside of her and each other, and for all intents and purposes live in her head at almost all times when she is in possession of them, bickering occasionally and only coming out when they are summoned - they work similarly to summon monsters in typical RPGs, but they are only out for a second at a time. She will not rely on them to feed her, hydrate her, or fly her around as they once did - she has firmly begun to enjoy the pleasures of eating and experiencing things - but should a fight come up or a fire need putting out or something like that, she will have their spirit artes available.
[Note: I’ll be roleplaying this the way it’s demonstrated in game - once she reunites with the Four, they’re really only present very occasionally. Sometimes she will mention offhand that Undine says this or Sylph says that, but once they’re back they are really more of a background presence than anything - I’ve read the ‘canonical duos’ section and it’s… honestly not even so much of that, even, as just kinda summons that talk to her sometimes.]
People with Lilium Orbs, pretty much a web of spheres which make leveling up fun and/or tedious, can Link with one another and use Linked Artes, which take one of each person’s special move and make a stronger sort of attack. It’s basically an upgraded version of teamwork. Anyway, if she’s linked with someone, she has a chance of Binding an enemy, essentially rendering them magically immobile for a short time.
Finally, Milla has been granted the power of Maxwell. This is not really spelled out fully at the end of the game, but it appears that as a result of the mana spreading across the land when the Schism was dispelled, her and the Four’s actions and use of mana caused a plant to sprout in the sterile ground of Elympios. It implies that she is capable of rejuvenating tired land using her mana and the power of spirits.
Inventory: She’ll have her sword, Lilium Orbs, armor, clothes, and a few healing gels, namely a couple of apple and orange gels - these are HP and TP-restoring items. As for spirits, she will only have access to the Four, as detailed in the Powers section.
Suite: Milla has mentioned she prefers quiet areas like her hometown of Nia Khera with its calm, devout people, who are kind and open, so I’d like her to reside in the Water Sector. (She’s also likely to intensely enjoy the mom-and-pop restaurants…) Only one floor will be needed - Milla’s residence in canon is rather sparse. She doesn’t really care about decorations that much, so she won’t really need that much room.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
So this was Keeliai. More importantly, now, this was the food of Keeliai.
Milla’s stomach was growling in spite of itself. Fuel, it said. She was beginning to get used to hunger and the constant refueling her body needed but she’d found that actually choosing what she wanted to eat had been a decision best left to Jude and the rest. For her, the pleasure of eating was intense, but… the more she’d traveled together with them, the more she began to realize that it wasn’t always the bread being broken that was important as the ones she was breaking bread with.
Eating was… social. A social activity. From the impressive-seeming stuffed Chicken Leronde that they’d all promised to eat together for Jude’s next birthday, to the everyday mabo curry that Rowen’s beard kept dipping into (to his chagrin!) - every meal was an opportunity to enjoy the company of those who had helped her on her mission.
And today, she had discovered, she would eat alone.
So now, traversing the canal-lined streets in the Water Sector, she watched the kedan interact. She’d already gotten used to humans, and the kedan were clearly different from humans, but sometimes so similar in their ways. They laughed with each other, smiled and joked, gave gifts to one another. It was so similar to how the humans interacted in Rieze Maxia, but different in a way she could not put her finger upon. Perhaps she would grow to desire to protect the kedan, too, in time.
Juulan in hand, Milla paused at a food stand, eying a fried dumpling sizzling on a grill in front of her. The kedan turned to her with a kind expression, and Milla stroked her chin for a second before facing her.
“These dumplings are very aromatic.”
Not leaving time for the kedan to respond after the abrupt compliment, her hands fell to her hips and she nodded matter-of-factly. She’d never been good at cooking, it’d been something far better left to the food vendors of her world, or Jude in a pinch, but perhaps… if she knew how… she could get closer to her new friends by making something --
“Teach me how they’re made.”
Network:
[The video feed pops on: in front of a blank, undecorated wall, there is a woman, pencil-straight posture, with a serious and somewhat serene look on her face. This is Milla: even-tempered until she’s given a reason to be otherwise. Her hair is still wet - it takes some time to dry twenty years’ growth, and she had planned on wasting no time in finding her friends and a purpose in this world. In fact, with the way its sopping yellow mass sits around her face… her hair had, perhaps, not crossed her mind at all. And despite the cold, she has made no effort to put on anything warmer than what appears to be a crop top.]
Yes, hello there. This is Milla Maxwell speaking.
[She nods her wet head once, understanding from the screen that her movement and voice have registered to the network. So while she might be new to these kinds of things, preferring to leave them to the more technologically-minded members of her party to activate and/or destroy, she has executed this video program without an issue.]
I understand that the concept of Maxwell does not exist in this world, and the spirits appear largely unreachable. It is my understanding that this is the last remaining turtle of many. What have we done to prevent the death of this one? If possible, I would like to assist in that.
If that means fighting, then so be it.
[Okay, she’s gotten to the point. She nods once, then leans into the camera a little bit, eyes widening as she strokes her chin.]
I do look forward to finding my place in this world.
[r-r-r-r-rumble. That's her stomach.]
...I also look forward to dinner. Where can I eat?
Name: Kat
Age: 27
Contact:
Game Cast: I'm new here!
Character Information:
Name: Milla Maxwell
Canon: Tales of Xillia
Canon Point: Postgame
Age: 20
Reference:
http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Milla_Maxwell
Setting:
Tales of Xillia takes place in a world called Rieze Maxia, a reasonably temperate planet that is as yet not fully explored by its inhabitants, and an “outside world” called Elympios.
The main focal point of the world and its culture is the symbiosis between humans and spirits. Humans in Rieze Maxia have a special region in their brain called the mana lobe, which produces a form of energy called mana. Spirits consume this mana in a contractual exchange for their spirit artes, which can take many forms – a burst of flame, a gust of wind, or even a healing arte. (Do note, however, that healing artes cannot heal every ailment or disease. While doctors on Rieze Maxia do use artes to heal basic wounds, there are some diseases that require special materials such as spirit fossils, herbs, gels, or special tools to cure a patient. And, of course, not every disease is curable.)
Spirits are a constant influence in the culture and an ever-present topic of study in institutions of higher learning across Rieze Maxia. There is some talk on what the culture of the world must have been like before the beginning of the symbiotic human-spirit relationship, but nothing conclusive has been discovered. Spirits are tied to what are called spirit climes, which are climates based on spirit activity in an area. A city called Fennmont has a night clime, for instance, which means it’s dark and starry all the time. Another city is blanketed under snow, and another one is stuck at permanent sunset. Since spirit climes and indeed nature itself are tied to spirit activity, if powerful spirits are silenced, seasons may not even change.
There are four elemental spirits that control much of the world’s spirit activity: the Four Great Spirits. Representing fire, earth, water, and air, the Four are Efreet, Gnome, Undine, and Sylph. These Four function as demigods; they influence the seasons and are beholden to the Lord of Spirits, also known as Maxwell.
Maxwell is an ancient spirit, commonly regarded as the greatest spirit, and is able to take a human form. The greatest act of protection of Maxwell’s was the Schism, a two-thousand-year-old persistent spirit arte that effectively completely separated the world of Rieze Maxia from what lay outside, a barren yet bustling world called Elympios where those without mana lobes reside. The Schism is now gone, the barrier torn down, but up until very recently it featured very prominently in both of the worlds.
The major political players in the world of Rieze Maxia are threefold: two countries, Rashugal and Auj Oule, and a group called Exodus.
Exodus is not a country, but a group of people from Elympios who were trapped on Rieze Maxia twenty years ago. Their goal has been to kill Maxwell and dispel the Schism in order to return home. Their technology includes spyrix, a largely destructive yet quite accessible way to cast spirit artes without the use of mana. Throughout the plot, the party constantly rails against the use of spyrix because it destroys spirits and offsets the natural spirit-human balance.
Rashugal is a structured country governed by six ruling noble houses, ruled by King Nachtigal until quite recently. Its capital is Fennmont, an eternally dark city with luminous foliage and gold-tinged buildings. Other notable cities include Sharilton, the seat of House Sharil, known for its trading, and Leronde, a mining island with a dash of tourism. Rashugal’s people tend to value law and order, and endure some social stratification. The country is rather focused on scientific military pursuits and development: at one point, with the goal of world domination, in a large laboratory it created the Lance of Kresnik, what was thought to be a weapon that would unite the world with military might. Instead, the Lance was a spyrix, developed under the secret leadership of Gilland, an Exodus mastermind, and its purpose was to destroy the Schism so that Exodus was able to get home.
Auj Oule is a looser, more religious, clan-based country, united under King Gaius. This society, where once clans warred over trivial issues, is now largely merit-based. Its capital is Kanbalar, a snowy, hilly religious hub, but also of note is Xian Du, a bustling tournament town with a canal down it, Hamil, a sleepy farming town, and Nia Khera, the spiritual seat of Maxwell. Auj Oule, too, is the source of many technological developments such as the booster, or an item intended to boost mana lobe output at the cost of one’s vigor. Auj Oule and Rashugal are united by the end of the game, despite the longterm war, as a result of Elympios’ threatening them both and King Gaius taking the helm.
Elympios is considered an “outside world” to Rieze Maxia, and it is almost completely dead in terms of nature and mana because of so much spyrix use. Their mana energy situation is incredibly dire as a result of this, so some have proposed an “Otherworld Reactor Plan” to suck the mana out of the abundant supply in Rieze Maxia. This would be Bad in many ways for the world, so the efforts of our protagonists through the end section of the game revolve around finding a way around this happening. Due to the efforts of some Elympian scientists, there is hope in the form of spyrite, which is basically spyrix without the terrible spirit death, made from spirit fossils.
For the past twenty years, there has been a woman brought up by the Four Great Spirits to think of herself as Maxwell, who uses the Four to protect the humans and spirits of Rieze Maxia and rid it of potential threats. Her name is Milla. She fights knowing that it is her will and goal to protect the world. She fights alongside Jude Mathis, a young medical student; Leia Rolando, an energetic nurse who’s a childhood friend of Jude’s; Rowen Ilbert, a former Rashugal tactician; Alvin, an Elympian of questionable loyalty; and Elize Lutus, a young girl with a booster.
I don’t want to get too far into specific events that happen in game, but some important things that have happened to Milla which have caused major development to this point include:
-Losing the Four when they are bound by the Lance of Kresnik.
This causes Milla to start experiencing the world like a normal human, without extremely strong spirits to assist in every facet of her day. She has to learn to do things like eat!
-Meeting Jude and crew.
This causes Milla to start wanting to protect humankind in addition to spirit kind. Her heart begins to grow softer, and she starts developing what are closer to normal emotions. Her proximity to her friends strengthens her but also makes her much more of an emotional being than one might expect from her early-game.
-Seriously injuring her leg escaping from military prison.
Milla begins relying on Jude and the rest of the group a little more as a result of this - she meets Leia while crippled, and so begins a sisterly bond between the two of them. She also learns her limits… a little bit. Because of her reliance on Jude, and having learned the human idea of “gifts,” she presents him with a treasure of hers, a glass bead, as a token of her friendship.
-Meeting Muzét, her sister, and dealing with her
Milla begins pondering the idea of family and what it means now that she’s sorta kinda in one. Also sparks new emotions in Milla, such as jealousy.
-Sacrificing herself
While this doesn’t develop Milla’s personality too terribly much per se - it’s the kind of thing she’d probably do again if she really had to - after she comes back to life her purpose is reaffirmed. During her “death” she is taken into the spirit world by the Four, who decide to rebel against Maxwell as he isn’t doing that good of a job at being a spirit god, and they take Milla’s side.
-Encountering Elympios
This is where Milla’s goals change and separate her goals from what would become Gaius’ goals. Since by this point in her development she cares for all humans, seeing their reliance on spyrix for things like healing and making their lives less difficult sparks a desire in her to find a different way. Her goal shifts from destroying all spyrix to encouraging a partnership between the two worlds, using spyrite. She’s quite a bit less harsh now, and much better at seeing shades of gray in morality rather than her previous black and white.
-Becoming Maxwell
She’d always thought of herself as Maxwell. Now she takes the true mantle, creating a better world, nurturing a spirit world that will take care of the needs of both Rieze Maxia and Elympios. She has become a caring, benevolent god by this point.
Personality:
Though Milla is a human, she has been brought up to think of herself as Maxwell, Lord of Spirits, made flesh. As a result, she feels and acts separate and ‘other’ from typical humans. Extremely self-aware, she takes great notice when she feels an unexpected emotion such as fear of loss. She certainly has these emotions, she simply didn’t have the stimulus growing up to develop a reasonable expectation for those kinds of things. Indeed, at the beginning of the game, upon meeting Jude, she makes it very clear she has no time for emotions, that they’d just get in her way - but throughout the course of the story she begins to develop more and more feelings and realizes that feelings are useful in their own way, despite them occasionally getting in the way of logic. She becomes benevolent.
As a result of being preened to be strong all her life, she did not have much of a childhood. She can remember playing with other children one time, but… that’s it. So with twenty years of that, Milla is a bit of an old soul in a young woman’s body.
Though she was raised (and, to some extent, coddled) by the Four Great Spirits growing up, she is not soft. She has always had her mission to stubbornly protect the world’s spirits from dangers like spyrix, and she has pursued that goal with everything she has, with little care to consequence. She has left children without parents if those parents are spyrix users destroying the careful balance between humans and spirits, and we see her kill those very same children when they come to avenge their fallen parents. It’s not to say she’s heartless, certainly - she just does things for the greater good. She does not relish killing in itself, it’s more that she sees it as necessary when someone’s life is in the way of the continued prosperity of Rieze Maxia. She’s simply a logical utilitarian to a fault, although throughout the course of the game it becomes a little bit more difficult for her as she realizes she wants to protect not only the spirits in the world, but the humans as well. At this point, she’s much more well-versed in moral shades of gray than she was.
This singleminded, stubborn utilitarianism extends itself even to the point of self-sacrifice. Though she has believed herself to be a god among spirits made flesh for so long, it is no problem to her to die if she thinks it will end up benefiting her world. This kind of thought process has the tendency to disturb those around her, but she’s never self-destructive without what she feels is a very, very good reason to be.
Milla has had the tendency to want to read about other people’s experiences instead of experiencing something herself. She has read a number of books about everything from parenting to bondage, and references these books often as she speaks about things that are new to her. Books mean a great deal to her, and seeing a rare out-of-print version of something excites her terribly. In fact, she doesn’t really get too outwardly excited about much of anything besides books and food.
Speaking of food, Milla often does not notice what humans often think of as “life’s little pleasures” until she experiences them. For example, she had never eaten anything before almost collapsing from hunger after she was first separated from the Four. They had always taken care of all of her nutritional needs - and her walking, running, and fighting needs as well - so there was never a need to eat. Hunger was a new experience to her, and so was eating. However, once she ate for the first time, she really began to realize that food was not just human fuel but a form of pleasure as well, and she dug in with abandon.
Despite being quite the reader and happily embracing a logical solution if presented with one, Milla’s singlemindedness often causes her to take a force-based approach to problems. Rather than attempting to find a clever way past a door, she is often likely to bust right on in. Having more thoughtful people around her, such as the strategist Rowen and the kind Jude, has tempered her approach a little bit, but she is a woman of action, and occasionally violent action, first and foremost.
It’s worth noting that Milla can be a little bit gullible - occasionally taking what people say at face value. In serious situations, she’s not likely to be fooled, but if someone jokingly tells her that having a developed mana lobe might make someone’s face sharper-looking, she’ll do facial exercises to see if making her face stronger would, in turn, improve her mana lobe.
Milla talks quite plainly most of the time - treating certain things that the average person might find a little bit out of this world as very matter-of-fact. Rowen, for example, is surprised to hear that the Four Great Spirits, pretty much four gods to the people of Rieze Maxia, bicker about little things like oversleeping, but Milla is able to speak plainly about it. It’s just everyday stuff to her, but she feels no need to dress it up.
She can get jealous, too! She’s got a bit of a soft spot in her heart for Jude, and when during the course of events of the game Jude ‘direct-tethers’ with Milla’s ‘sister’ Muzét, a very attractive female spirit, and fills her with mana - which seems to be equivalent to some kind of sexual bond? - Milla reacts in a huff. As if some spirit could just march in and direct-tether with her best friend!
Because of having been worshipped in Nia Khera for most of her life, Milla still occasionally thinks of humans as pets; they do things that endear themselves to her, and she is often reminded of their mortality. As a result of this, she can be very forgiving and even understanding of human transgressions. For example, she suggests Alvin stay on Rieze Maxia with the group immediately after he points a gun at her head. While it can be argued that she’d rather keep an eye on Alvin and have him help fight their battles than have him tag along behind them, it shows a willingness to forgive that almost seems a little naive.
Despite all of this, really, Milla is generally quite a nice person. This is perhaps getting a little meta, but she is a main character of an RPG, and she does end up helping all kinds of people with tiny little dinky quests, over and over and over. She is rather accepting - as long as you’re not killing spirits or humans willy-nilly - and, being that she’s spent most of her life around quirky little spirits that bicker with each other constantly, she is comfortable with oddities.
As for how she will react to being in the land between Life, Death, and Dreaming, Milla will be surprisingly understanding of it - she’ll accept it and take it as it comes, and try to improve it as much as possible once she makes a connection with the kedan and foreigners. She’s been dead, and she’s also been thrust into an unknown world before, after all, without much of a reaction. She’ll simply take it as she takes all new experiences - the kedan will be interesting to her, and she’ll probably have some fun times in the Dreaming, since dreaming, like many human things, are new to her in general.
Appearance:
http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111006083411/aselia/images/5/5e/Milla_Maxwell.png
Milla stands at 5’6”, but it’s kind of a tall 5’6” because she carries herself with such purpose. She has extremely long, wavy strawberry blonde hair tipped with lighter blonde, and a large piece that sticks out fades to green at the tip. She has pink eyes, long muscular legs, and what the game refers to as … “bazongas.”
Bazongas… are the burning fire at the heart of manhood.
Anyway, she typically wears a short cropped top, long laced boots and arm guards, and a little skirt, with ribbon crisscrossing her body.
Abilities:
Milla is a pretty darn good swordfighter by this point, though in the beginning when she first got split from the Four she had to learn basic swordswinging. She specializes in aerial attacks that send enemies (and often herself) flying in the air. Her mana lobe - the part of her brain dedicated to exchanging mana with spirits - is very developed, and as a result she is very good at spirit and magic artes. Many of her attacks use the four elements of fire, earth, wind, and water, but the majority are fire and wind, with a significant amount of light elemental attacks as well.
Unique to Milla are Magic Artes, which are done through a process called Spirit Shifting. This is basically a quick version of a Spirit Arte that goes off if one ends up needing to cancel a cast Arte, which definitely takes time. She’s pretty versatile in that this allows her to be able to cast from afar or fight up close.
Since there are no spirits to speak of on Tu Vishan, Milla’s spirit casting will be limited to the spirits that she brings with her. In this case, since she is coming from postgame, Milla will continue to be tethered with The Four - Efreet, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome. Efreet can modify fire, Undine can produce water and ice, Sylph has dominion over wind, and Gnome can manipulate earth. These spirits do not interact with anyone outside of her and each other, and for all intents and purposes live in her head at almost all times when she is in possession of them, bickering occasionally and only coming out when they are summoned - they work similarly to summon monsters in typical RPGs, but they are only out for a second at a time. She will not rely on them to feed her, hydrate her, or fly her around as they once did - she has firmly begun to enjoy the pleasures of eating and experiencing things - but should a fight come up or a fire need putting out or something like that, she will have their spirit artes available.
[Note: I’ll be roleplaying this the way it’s demonstrated in game - once she reunites with the Four, they’re really only present very occasionally. Sometimes she will mention offhand that Undine says this or Sylph says that, but once they’re back they are really more of a background presence than anything - I’ve read the ‘canonical duos’ section and it’s… honestly not even so much of that, even, as just kinda summons that talk to her sometimes.]
People with Lilium Orbs, pretty much a web of spheres which make leveling up fun and/or tedious, can Link with one another and use Linked Artes, which take one of each person’s special move and make a stronger sort of attack. It’s basically an upgraded version of teamwork. Anyway, if she’s linked with someone, she has a chance of Binding an enemy, essentially rendering them magically immobile for a short time.
Finally, Milla has been granted the power of Maxwell. This is not really spelled out fully at the end of the game, but it appears that as a result of the mana spreading across the land when the Schism was dispelled, her and the Four’s actions and use of mana caused a plant to sprout in the sterile ground of Elympios. It implies that she is capable of rejuvenating tired land using her mana and the power of spirits.
Inventory: She’ll have her sword, Lilium Orbs, armor, clothes, and a few healing gels, namely a couple of apple and orange gels - these are HP and TP-restoring items. As for spirits, she will only have access to the Four, as detailed in the Powers section.
Suite: Milla has mentioned she prefers quiet areas like her hometown of Nia Khera with its calm, devout people, who are kind and open, so I’d like her to reside in the Water Sector. (She’s also likely to intensely enjoy the mom-and-pop restaurants…) Only one floor will be needed - Milla’s residence in canon is rather sparse. She doesn’t really care about decorations that much, so she won’t really need that much room.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
So this was Keeliai. More importantly, now, this was the food of Keeliai.
Milla’s stomach was growling in spite of itself. Fuel, it said. She was beginning to get used to hunger and the constant refueling her body needed but she’d found that actually choosing what she wanted to eat had been a decision best left to Jude and the rest. For her, the pleasure of eating was intense, but… the more she’d traveled together with them, the more she began to realize that it wasn’t always the bread being broken that was important as the ones she was breaking bread with.
Eating was… social. A social activity. From the impressive-seeming stuffed Chicken Leronde that they’d all promised to eat together for Jude’s next birthday, to the everyday mabo curry that Rowen’s beard kept dipping into (to his chagrin!) - every meal was an opportunity to enjoy the company of those who had helped her on her mission.
And today, she had discovered, she would eat alone.
So now, traversing the canal-lined streets in the Water Sector, she watched the kedan interact. She’d already gotten used to humans, and the kedan were clearly different from humans, but sometimes so similar in their ways. They laughed with each other, smiled and joked, gave gifts to one another. It was so similar to how the humans interacted in Rieze Maxia, but different in a way she could not put her finger upon. Perhaps she would grow to desire to protect the kedan, too, in time.
Juulan in hand, Milla paused at a food stand, eying a fried dumpling sizzling on a grill in front of her. The kedan turned to her with a kind expression, and Milla stroked her chin for a second before facing her.
“These dumplings are very aromatic.”
Not leaving time for the kedan to respond after the abrupt compliment, her hands fell to her hips and she nodded matter-of-factly. She’d never been good at cooking, it’d been something far better left to the food vendors of her world, or Jude in a pinch, but perhaps… if she knew how… she could get closer to her new friends by making something --
“Teach me how they’re made.”
Network:
[The video feed pops on: in front of a blank, undecorated wall, there is a woman, pencil-straight posture, with a serious and somewhat serene look on her face. This is Milla: even-tempered until she’s given a reason to be otherwise. Her hair is still wet - it takes some time to dry twenty years’ growth, and she had planned on wasting no time in finding her friends and a purpose in this world. In fact, with the way its sopping yellow mass sits around her face… her hair had, perhaps, not crossed her mind at all. And despite the cold, she has made no effort to put on anything warmer than what appears to be a crop top.]
Yes, hello there. This is Milla Maxwell speaking.
[She nods her wet head once, understanding from the screen that her movement and voice have registered to the network. So while she might be new to these kinds of things, preferring to leave them to the more technologically-minded members of her party to activate and/or destroy, she has executed this video program without an issue.]
I understand that the concept of Maxwell does not exist in this world, and the spirits appear largely unreachable. It is my understanding that this is the last remaining turtle of many. What have we done to prevent the death of this one? If possible, I would like to assist in that.
If that means fighting, then so be it.
[Okay, she’s gotten to the point. She nods once, then leans into the camera a little bit, eyes widening as she strokes her chin.]
I do look forward to finding my place in this world.
[r-r-r-r-rumble. That's her stomach.]
...I also look forward to dinner. Where can I eat?
