Rita Mordio

Rita Mordio (リタ・モルディオ) is a researcher who studies blastia and hates to be interrupted during her research. She is eccentric and has a poor social disposition.

Fighting Style
Rita's primary weaponry is made up of scrolls and whips, with books taking a secondary place. Her best weapon for physical attack is the Ivy Blade, whereas the Aspion is preferred for magical attack. As Rita is a token mage character, her main offense is provided through a large arsenal of spells, accompanied by a small selection of melee artes. She is able to use spells that encompass five of the six elements, namely fire, water, wind, darkness and earth. Her mystic artes include Ancient Catastrophe and - in the PS3 port of Vesperia - Indignation.

Of particular note is Rita's prowess when paired with any level of Over Limit in Tales of Vesperia; as Over Limit allows the immediate casting of any spell, the ability can be paired with powerful area spells such as Tidal Wave or Meteor Storm as well as powerful single target spells such as Violent Pain to wreak havoc on the enemy.

Early Life
Virtually nothing is known about Rita's early life or immediate family, except that she lost both parents and was forced to take care of herself from a relatively young age. Rita has stated that she can't even remember the faces of her parents. An optional conversation between Rita and Judith, in which the two discussed a pioneer in blastia research whom discovered the truth behind them and searched for a way to destroy them, implied that the aforementioned researcher had been Rita's father. Pursuing the series of conversations to its fullest, however, reveals that said researcher was in fact Judith's father.

The Famed Mage of Aspio
Contrary to what her young age would make one believe, Rita is actually one of, if not the most, intelligent mages of Aspio, the city of scholars. Despite this, she was treated as a weirdo due to her obsession with research and with blastia. When Yuri Lowell] first inquired about the famed mage, Mordio, Aspio residents were in awe as to 'why he wanted to see that weirdo'. It is explained later in the game that the reason for her obsession was that they were all she had due to her status as an orphan and her lack of any friends or family. Her lack of social skills also stems from the fact that she always had to worry about herself instead of taking the time to socialize with others, and thus wasn't used to having friendly relationships. To add to the oddness around, there's also something in her dresser than even [[Estelle is shocked about, and although there are many theories about what was in Rita's dresser, it is never found out for sure.

In the end credits, it shows that Rita has continued to be a researcher, conducting experiments with chemicals and flying around in a device of her own build. She flies by Estelle and is later seen having tea with her, indicating that she maintains her friendship with the princess. At the end the entire gang are seen at a reunion.

Relationships with Other Characters
Despite her cold-hearted attitude, Rita has made friends with most of her group, specifically with Estellise Sidos Heurassein, who saw past Rita's harsh exterior. Over time, Rita became quite taken with Estelle's kind demeanor and optimistic, positive attitude, and eventually became very protective over the Princess. Though Rita won't admit it, she cares about Estelle very much and doesn't want to ever see her hurt and becomes the closest person to a best friend she has.

Because of the problem between her and Yuri Lowell, they don't have as much interactions. Like with everyone else, Yuri is normally sarcastic with Rita ("Aww, I've always wanted to hold your hand, Rita"). His apology wasn't very convincing either. However, as the game goes on, Yuri and Rita seem to form a relatively strong friendship. Later in the game, when Yuri was injured and went missing, Rita passively claimed to have "looked all over" for him, trying to sound as if the task had been annoying. However, Estelle and Judith notice that Rita is happy that Yuri is okay and comment on it, resulting in her embarrassment.

Rita is also one of the few people that Repede has taken an interest in. At first, Rita is afraid of him, and has even admitted that she would never eat any gels that were in his mouth. She refers to him as just "the dog" or "the pooch" in the first half, but she eventually begins to compliment him, and use his name in the third part of the game.

Her relationship with Karol Capel is more humorous than anything else. Karol is actually nothing more than Rita's punching bag. Whenever Karol acts up, she's quick to give him a smack in the head to set him straight. She has also smacked him when he almost squealed, gave something a stupid name, and just because he was there when she was freaked about ghosts. Also, in a sidequest at Nam Cobanda Isle where the group act out a play, she used her spells to set Karol's head on fire to make up for the 'lame special effects'.

Though Karol is her usual punching bag, Raven is pretty close behind. Whenever he says anything even remotely perverted, she is quick to deal a brutal punch, kick, slap, and sometimes even a spell, to knock him over or send him flying. The two seem to love to annoy each other, and are frequently engaged in sarcastic banter. However, Rita does seem to hold at the very least a shred of care for him. When the group was forced to fight him, she shouted rather emotionally that she hated him, but when he appeared to have died after saving their lives, she almost broke down in tears when she tried explaining what happened to Leblanc. Later, when he unexpectedly rejoined them without noticeable injury, the party proceeded to pummel him, with Rita delivering the strongest blow.

Rita's relationship between her and Judith saw the greatest changes throughout the story's progression. At first, without even knowing it, Judith was just a "dragon freak" that destroyed her precious blastia. When she finally discovered the secret, she told Yuri that she was going to beat her to a pulp if she saw her again. When the group met up with Judith again, after she explained the reasons for her actions, Rita had a quick change of heart, and decided to help Judith on her quest to stop Hermes blastia, realizing the danger. Eventually, the two met in Aurnion before the final battle.

Tales of Graces
Upon preordering Tales of Graces, a costume of Rita Mordio is available for Cheria Barnes as free downloadable content.

Tales of VS.
Rita appears in Tales of VS. as a magician from the Free City Union of Dyne, looking for a lot of mana. She is paired up with Judith from her original game. She plays no real significance during the story that much, but she does appear in most of the story modes as a opponent. During the events of Jade's story mode, Dhaos from Tales of Phantasia creates a replica of her and Judith to fight Jade Curtiss and Anise Tatlin.

Trivia

 * Rita's Japanese voice actor's name, Rika Morinaga, is similar to Rita's full name, Rita Mordio.
 * Her spell book equip doesn't appear on her in animated cutscenes and her offical artwork.
 * Rita seems to like cats, or at least have an affinity for them. One of her artes involves a giant cat paw, and she also has a spell that involves the summoning of a golden, good-luck cat. She also interacted with a stray cat in town; she gets into character when she wears the kitty costume.
 * When casting spells in Over Limit, she will often state, "Blah blah blah..." in place of the incantation, and cast it almost immediately afterward, regardless of it level.
 * Because she devotes so much time to research, Rita makes absolutely no effort into cooking. AS such, the meals she prepares tend to be plain, but not unpleasant.
 * Rita is ranked 6th in the recent popularity poll and also the only female who had gotten into the top 10 in the same poll.