Hilda Rhambling

A beautiful but cold fortune teller, revealed to be a Half (half Huma, half Gajuma, similar to the Half-Elves in other Tales games); she attacks with magic cards in battle but is best suited to casting offensive magic. Hilda should be protected by other characters while she unleashes her magical arsenal uninterrupted. Hilda uses the Force of Lightning.

She is voiced by Sayaka Ohara.

Painful Childhood
Hilda was born as a Half from a Huma male Amgil and Gajuma female Naira, which grants her horns and animalistic ears. As a Half, she was constantly subjected into bullying due to her 'impure' nature. Halves also run the risk of dying very early due to their frail body. When Hilda suddenly fell sick, this very reason drove her parents into panic. Amgil was getting ready to risk everything in a journey to find the cure, but miraclously, Hilda recovered.

Unfortunately, shortly after, they ran into Tohma of the Four Shields. Surprised that he found a Half, a rare species, he decided to take Hilda away from her parents. In process, Amgil was killed, but Naira was spared as Tohma did not want to kill a fellow full-blooded Gajuma. From that point on, Hilda was raised as a cold hearted soldier, with Tohma lying about her past that she was an infant abandoned by her parents because her body was impure and that other than the Four Shields, there is nowhere else that Halves can be accepted. She befriended a fellow Half named Militsa, who is later promoted into one of the Four Shields.

As her past was very dark, usually Hilda would look at pictures shown in tarot cards in her free time to forget about her pain from the past. This develops into a hobby and soon after she started learning the arts of fortune telling. However, she couldn't forget her past and ends up hating her own Half heritage, which causes her to eventually break her own horns and hide them and her ears with a hat. She also became desperate to find a way to swap her body into either a Huma or a Gajuma.

Defection
At one point, Tohma promised both Hilda and Militsa that if they accomplish one certain mission, he will give them a way so they can get a new body. Their mission was to assassinate Eugene Gallardo and his entourage. Hilda awaits them in Sannytown, where she posed as a girl who has been kidnapped per the orders of Agarte Lindblum. This attracted Eugene and his companions, and after they confronted Tohma; Hilda attacked them from behind. However, even her magical prowess were not enough to defeat them.

Tohma, disgusted at her defeat, berated on how useless she is and starts dropping hint on how Hilda is a Half. Despite her protests, he decided to use his Force of Magnet to remove Hilda's hat, to her anguish, revealing her broken horns and ears. Tohma then boasted that he actually lied about the method of getting a new body, as the method really doesn't exist. Angered at Tohma's constant toying at her emotions, her Force went berserk, and Tohma left her to fight her original targets. She is calmed down by both Veigue Lungberg and Annie Barrs.

When she woke up from defeat, Hilda attempted to commit suicide with her card. However, her plans were thwarted by Tytree Crowe who berates her for trying to harm the body that her parents gave. Still believing Tohma's past story, Hilda cursed at the parents that abandoned her and soon fell unconscious. When she woke up at Sannytown, Militsa was already ravaging the town to search for a girl she will capture. Hilda later rushed to Militsa, revealing Tohma's lies and hoping that she'd join him. Militsa refused. After she is defeated, Militsa retreats; and Veigue offers Hilda a place in his team. Hilda grudgingly accepted as she desires to take revenge on Tohma, and she is also searching for a place where a Half can belong.

Search For Power
Her journey takes her back to Balka, where Hilda participates in the battle against Geyorkias. Afterwards, Hilda separates from the team to look for a power to rid herself of her Half body. When learning of a certain 'Power of Darkness' in Razilda, Hilda stayed there for research, while witnessing many racism tendencies amongst the villagers. She is quickly reunited with Veigue and his friends, except Eugene, who is suffering hateful thoughts that he could attack Humas anytime. Hilda then rejoins the team to find a cure to Eugene and investigate about the hateful thoughts that has been plaguing the land with racism thoughts.

It turns out that the 'Power of Darkness' she sought was the power of the Sacred Beast Eephon, one of the servant of Geyorkias. After witnessing Tytree receiving the power of Eephon, Hilda began to feel envious on the team that she, being the one who sought the power, wasn't favored by the Sacred Beasts. She tried to request the power of the next Sacred Beast Fenia, but she was still refused. However, the fourth Sacred Beast Shaorune eventually revealed that the next Sacred Beast will grant her power.

Reunion
The journey takes them to a village named Mocrado, where Halves reside, on the hint that there is someone who is using the same set of tarot cards like Hilda. This person turns out to be Naira. However, after a brief, sweet reunion, Naira suddenly tore Hilda's cards and harshly tells her to leave and never set foot to the town again. Frustrated with the rejection, Hilda starts to hate her mother even more for not only abandoning her, but also refusing her. When Claire Bennet tried to calm her down and asks her for visiting Naira again since she's acting strange, Hilda berates her for not understanding her painful past as she had a normal childhood, but after a slap from Claire, she calms down and tried visiting Naira one more. Once again she is refused.

Further asking from the townspeople reveals that Naira has been looking all over the world for her daughter, but Hilda dismisses it as a worthless sob story judging from her second reaction. The team persuades her to visit Naira once more, but this time they're interrupted by Tohma who intends to stop them from reviving any more Sacred Beasts. This time, Naira angrily stepped forward, confronting Tohma for what he did to her, causing him to reveal Hilda's actual past and parents, that once again Tohma lied to her. To make matters worse, when Tohma tried to attack her, Naira covered her and took the full brunt of the attack, killing her, but not after she gave Hilda her own tarots and apologized. In anger, Hilda attacked Tohma with a hidden power, causing him to flee. After all was done, Hilda was angered that Naira died before her, when she still has much questions to ask, just when she accepted her as her true mother.

Later on, Hilda received a letter written by Naira before her arrival, which sums up how much she loves her and that she is the pride of her family. The team also found out that there was a prophecy about 'A woman with two horns carrying a set of Tarot Cards' arriving to Mocrado and will be returned to Earth. Which means that Naira was refusing Hilda because she was the woman in the prophecy and she was protecting her from death. Realizing that she never once called Naira 'mother' in front of her, Hilda broke down crying and decided to leave the town, after learning the location of the Sacred Beast that will grant her power.

The Sacred Beast in subject was Gillione, whose temple was actually visited by Amgil and Naira in the past. Hilda was confronted with her past and her Half heritage as his trials and when she meet him, Gillione offered his power to turn her into a Huma or a Gajuma. However, Hilda refused them, as she has started to take pride on her body, her parents' pride. To test her resolve, Gillione summoned a phantom image of Hilda for her to fight. With her new resolve, Hilda prevailed and was granted his power.

Final Battle
Hilda accompanied the team further in reviving the last of the Sacred Beast, Randgriz. With the revival of the Sacred Beasts, the hateful thoughts vanishes. However, the conflicts created from it doesn't and it slowly gives birth to Yuris, who will destroy the world. Eventually, it is agreed that they must revive Geyorkias once again in Mount Sovereign. There, they were stopped by the whole Four Shields Generals. The team fought against them and prevailed.

After Walto surrendered, Militsa denounced him traitor and tried to kill him, only to be stopped by Hilda who reminded her that the Four Shields aren't the only place that Halves can belong. Militsa eventually gave in and left the scene. For a moment, Hilda contemplated to kill the unconscious Tohma. However, she decided not to give in to her vengeance and left him at the entrance. Tohma later killed his partner Saleh and he was killed by him in return.

On the revival of Geyorkias, the team finds out that he cannot defeat Yuris at this state and it's up to the team to defeat him. The team eventually prevails with the help of Agarte Lindblum and her Force of Moon, and the world is saved. However, Agarte died in fatigue. The team once again went separate ways.

At this point Hilda has gained enough confidence to discard her hat. Her ending picture reveals her to be attending an orphanage where the children accepted her regardless of her race.

Trivia

 * A Half's power source is said to be on their horns. Since Hilda broke her own horns, the party has wondered on how powerful she could be, had she not broken her horns.