| Medissa | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Appearance | Tales of Berseria |
| Hometown | Hellawes |
| Race | •Human (former) •Therion (current) |
| Japanese Voice Actor | Takako Honda |
Medissa (メディサ Medisa?) is a supporting character in Tales of Berseria. She is a devout woman who condemns the Abbey for killing her daughter who turned into a daemon out of her jealousy of Medissa's fiance.
History[]
After Medissa gave birth to her daughter Diana (ディアナ?), she knew that she needed more support on raising her. She fell in love with an exorcist of the Abbey, and eventually got engaged with him. Diana, misinterpreting her mother's actions, became jealous of Medissa's fiance and thought she stopped loving her. As soon as Diana's emotions of jealousy, anger, and likely of betrayal, started to overwhelm her, she transformed into a daemon. Horrified, Medissa tried her best to hide Diana, but they were discovered by Medissa's fiance who killed Diana in cold blood. Enraged, Medissa lashed out and killed her daughter's murderer.
Out of resentment toward the Abbey over the death of her daughter, Medissa barricaded herself inside the sanctuary and kept screaming how daemons have feelings and emotions too. When she was about to be executed, an exorcist discovered that she was receptive to Innominat's power and spared her. After taking her to the Faldies Ruins, the exorcists tell her that Diana became a daemon because she radiated malevolence. Despite her resentment, Medissa eventually sides with them in order to prevent cases such as hers from ever happening again. Drawing in malevolence of "conceit", she becomes a therion sealed within the Faldies Ruins to consume daemons.
In their attempt to retrieve all therions, a group of misfits, led by Velvet Crowe, seeks her out and, assuming her to be a victim of the Abbey, attempts to free her upon finding her deep within the ruins. However, she assumes a vicious, Medusa-like form and attacks them. Even though she is knocked down once, Medissa declares that she will fulfill her duties to her dying breath. Before another fight could break out, the reasonable members of the group tell her that they came here, not only to rescue her, but because "enough mothers have died." They mention that one such mother offered her own life to feed her hungry daughter, Kamoana, whom the Abbey, unlike Medissa, turned her into a therion against her own will. Retracing the memories that brought her into this mess, Medissa passes out.
Defeated, she wakes up under a binding arte and finds herself walking with the group, being taken on the Van Eltia to Titania in order to be kept with the other therions. She is initially threatening, but Eleanor Hume opts to release her when she comes into contact with Kamoana. Recognizing her failure and blaming herself for her own daughter's death, Medissa becomes a motherly figure for Kamoana and eventually adopts her as a daughter after her marriage to Dyle at the end of the story, all three returning to their human forms.
Appearance and Personality[]
Medissa is an adult woman with bright red eyes and long, blonde hair.
As a human, Medissa wears a purple hood over her head, a white dress, a black shirt, a white overshirt, a white corset, black shoes, all of which are outlined in the same purple, and black leggings.
As a therion, Medissa's left eye transforms to have a dark red sclera, a black iris outlined with yellow, and a star-shaped pupil in the same yellow. She also grows two fangs in her mouth. Additionally, she has two different forms.
In her passive form, Medissa's hair locks morph into snake tails. Her outfit is changed to a white corset with purple in the middle, and a black "bra" attached. On each of her arms, Medissa has a separate, white sleeve with black hands, and purple claw-like fingernails. In addition, Medissa loses the overshirt, exposing her chest, her leggings are white, her shoes are also altered, and she wears a purple, diamond-patterned choker, a pattern that can be found all over her body.
In her hostile form, Medissa's skin and hair turn purple as four large snakes grow out of her head. She loses the corset, replacing it with white scales that expose her midriff. Her hands turn bloodred as her fingers turn into blue claws, and her lower body turns into a snake's tail.
Trivia[]
- A savvy old man can be talked to in Hellawes. Revealed to be Medissa's neighbor, he expresses empathy for what happened to her.
- Her name is probably inspired by the Gorgon Medusa from Greek mythology. Medissa's Therion form resembles that commonly attributed to Medusa, with the hair replaced by snakes and the legs replaced by a snake's tail.