Raine Sage

Raine Sage (known in the Japanese version as Refill Sage) is a fictional character in Tales of Symphonia, a video game by Namco. Raine is Genis Sage's older sister, and also Iselia's school teacher.

Raine is the equivalent of a white mage, specializing in healing, protective and limited offensive magic. When she first starts out, she only knows the basic healing ability "First Aid," which Kratos already knows. Because of this, players may ignore Raine in the beginning. However, once she levels up, her healing magic grows progressively more powerful, especially when she learns abilities such as "Cure" or "Revitalize." She becomes one of the most useful allies in your party, as she is the only playable character that uses support magic such as "Acuteness" or "Barrier," and more importantly, she is one of the few that can use light-magic. Like Genis, Raine's spells have variations depending on whether she is a Technical or Strike Type. Technical abilities such as "Healing Circle" and "Ray" focus on healing, supporting, and damaging groups, while Strike abilities like "Permaguard" and "Holy Lance" focus on single allies and enemies. Raine's weapon of choice is a rod. Her Devil's Arm is Heart of Chaos, which she receives from Koton of Hakonesia Peak, in exchange for one of her own relics (she mysteriously says it holds "too many memories.")

Raine's knowledge is even greater than that of Genis, and she is often seen correcting Lloyd or Genis whenever they misbehave (often accompanied with a kick/slap), although she has to do so less often as the journey progresses. She is a horrifically bad cook, and supposedly cannot do laundry, either, causing her to rely on Genis to do housework and cooking. She is also completely and utterly obsessed with ruins and magitechnology; it's revealed later in the game that she was always looking for the Otherworldly Gate, the ruin which she and Genis were abandoned at, and which she subconsciously associated with going back home. However, her obsession remains; in a skit when one character brings up the legend of an underwater ruin, she becomes fascinated with it.

History
Raine, like her brother, is a half-elf, a race whose people are scorned in Sylvarant and Tethe'alla alike. When her parents abandoned her and Genis in the Otherworldly Gate, she was forced to be not only an older sister, but a mother-figure for Genis. One should note that Raine is 23 years old at the beginning of the game, and Genis is 12; Genis was an infant when he was sent to Sylvarant, as he has no memories of Tethe'alla, and Raine can hardly remember it either. Therefore, one can assume that Raine was only eleven or so when she was abandoned and forced to care for her younger brother. This helps explain her high level of maturity. (It is likely that the Otherworldly Gate does not have a single location where its users are always dropped off; when the party uses it, they arrive outside of Palmacosta. It is desperately unlikely that Raine, an eleven year-old with her infant brother in her arms, would have been able to make it from Palmacosta to Iselia unharmed, or even would have had a reason for shunning Palmacosta in favor of the far-off Iselia. Therefore, the Otherworldly Gate must have deposited the half-elves just outside of Iselia.) Raine, though young, must have remembered the prejudice she suffered from being a half-elf in Tethe'alla, for she told the members of the village that she was a pure-blood elf. Raine and Genis were then accepted into the village. After taking some tests, Raine became a certified teacher for Iselia.

Later in the game, when the group travels to Exire (the floating city of half-elves) at some point during their efforts to cure Colette, Raine discovers that her mother, Virginia, is actually living there. Lloyd and friends accompany Raine to visit her, but when they arrive, they discover that Virginia is in a greatly disturbed state, and thinks a doll she is cradling is a baby Raine. They realize that Virginia has become delusional and amnesiac, perhaps from the trauma of abandoning her children, and is permanently stuck in her own past (when the group asks her about Genis, Virginia is surprised that they knew what she would name her second-born if it was a boy). Raine receives Virginia's diary from the elder of Exire, which reveals the reason they were abandoned. The Imperial Research Academy was desperate to take the already very intelligent Raine, and possibly Genis as well, to raise and study at the Academy. In order to prevent the Imperial Research Academy from reaching them, Virginia and her husband, Kloitz, constantly fled. It was while they were escaping from their pursuers that Raine fell from a ship into the ocean, causing her hydrophobia. Eventually, Virginia decided to put Raine and Genis through the portal of the Otherworldly Gate, hoping to give them a brighter future in the fabled land of Sylvarant. Shortly thereafter, she and her husband collapsed in the Ymir forest, presumably in an attempt to return, and were found by the Elder of Exire. Kloitz died and Virginia was taken to Exire. Raine and Genis are pleased to learn that their mother abandoned them because she loved them, not because they were a burden.

Personality
Raine is a cool, calculating thinker. She is relatively pragmatic, and tends to think of longer term consequences rather than the short term need to help someone; when Cacao is to be executed, she opposes intervening, because doing so would possibly result in the Desians attacking the village. She also is somewhat cautious, and is hesitant to help Sheena in Luin, fearing that her comrades will ambush the group (Sheena had revealed that she was fighting for her homeland). Later, it is shown that Raine is generally distrusting of virtually everyone, which may be a result of feelings of betrayal toward her mother. She is willing to sacrifice herself for her beliefs, if necessary. After Zelos betrays the party and kidnaps Colette at the Tower of Salvation, it is Raine who realizes that the party might have to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to achieve Lloyd's goals. She discusses this with Regal, the companion she considers most rational, in a Z-Skit at the time, saying that they must take the course with the highest odds of success (which is ensuring that Lloyd, with the power of his special Exsphere, survives the trip to the Great Seed Chamber. His Exsphere, with the powers it gained from the Angelus Project, is the only real chance they have at defeating Mithos and rescuing Colette, she says).

That time comes, and Raine sacrifices herself to save Lloyd by operating a machine that opens the doors that Lloyd passes through, but causes the room she is in to collapse. She says that she believes in his ideals, in a world free of discrimination. Even if she dies, she says, her soul will live on in the world Lloyd creates. Lloyd is forced to leave her, but she is saved from the trap by either Kratos or Zelos (depending on whom the player spoke to in Flanoir). Clearly, her goal for trying to regenerate the world is to end the discrimination that she, as a half-elf, has suffered from all her life, the discrimination that drove her to pose as a pure-blood elf.

In Welgaia, Raine confronts her resentment towards her mother before rejoining Lloyd. She also seems to appreciate Lloyd's focus on the individual; she notes that he came to save them rather than head directly to confront Mithos. This scene may assume that Raine's visiting her mother did not take place before she went to Welgaia (although the player must go to Exire before traveling to Welgaia for the first time to trigger the scene); Virginia is labeled as "Mother" and Raine refers to her as "a mother who was too weak to stand up against (the world's hatred)" regardless of whether or not the party has met Virginia. In the end, she travels around the world with Genis to help half-elves gain acceptance, but knowing that Iselia is their home.

Raine shows in a cutscene that above all, she hates not being able to save people's lives, and will attempt anything to change that. After Governor-General Dorr dies after her attempts to save him with healing arts, she deeply regrets her failure.