Milla Maxwell | |
---|---|
Information | |
Appearance | •Tales of Xillia •Tales of Xillia 2 |
Hometown | Nia Khera |
Age | •20 (ToX) •21 (ToX2) |
Height | 5'6" / 168 cm |
Race | Spirit |
Occupation | Lord of Spirits |
Weapon | Sword |
Japanese Voice Actor | Miyuki Sawashiro |
English Voice Actor | Minae Noji[1] |
Character Designer | Mutsumi Inomata |
Milla Maxwell (ミラ=マクスウェル Mira Makusuueru?) is one of two main protagonists of the game Tales of Xillia. Created as the incarnation of Maxwell, the "Lord of Spirits", Milla controls the Four Great Spirits: Efreet, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome. She holds the duty to protect the world and everything that resides in it. Sensing the death of a great number of spirits, Milla travels to Fennmont to investigate the cause.
History[]
Past[]
Milla was raised in her shrine about an hour away from Nia Khera by Efreet, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome. The four often left her on her own for awhile as they fought Exodus on their own until Milla could handle the responsibility. The young Milla was curious about the cries she could hear from the lesser spirits, and the Great Four eventually explained to her about Exodus and spyrixes. The same day, the four decided to take her with them to an Exodus base on an island north of Leronde. Upon arriving, the 6-year-old Milla was left in the care of Gnome while Efreet, Sylph, and Undine left to investigate. However, she was able to escape Gnome and go exploring. Eventually, she stumbled upon two children, and they played for a bit.
Before leaving, they gave her a glass bead, which is the same bead that she would give to Jude Mathis fourteen years later, and brought her to the village. She wandered around and eventually stumbled upon a crying baby, revealed to be Jude, left outside a house. Curious, she played with the child for a bit and calmed him down for a while, but he began crying again and pulled at her hair, causing her to cry as well and run away with him. The two children found themselves in the Exodus base, where she and baby Jude were assaulted by the cries of the lesser spirits. Her desire to protect Jude led to her awakening as Maxwell and summoning the Great Four to her side. They destroyed the base and its spyrixes almost immediately. In the aftermath, Milla reluctantly left baby Jude near a carriage to be found by his parents, but not before leaving him with a kiss on the cheek.
Tales of Xillia[]
In Milla's arc, she begins her journey traveling from her shrine in Nia Khera to the city of Fennmont, the capital of Rashugal. Sensing the death of many spirits, she investigates the cause and meets Jude Mathis along the way. Entering a research building from underground, they discover human experimentation and the Lance of Kresnik, a weapon of mass destruction that Milla refers to as a "spyrix". Deeming it as the cause for the mass spirit annihilation as well as other threats, Milla attempts to destroy it by summoning the Four Great Spirits when they are interrupted by a mysterious girl in red clothing.
After engaging in a fight and defeating the girl, she activates the lance, causing massive mana absorption, consuming the Four Great Spirits leaving Milla powerless. Before the floor collapses under the power of the lance, Milla manages to steal the key required for activation, stopping the machine. Jude saves her from drowning as they fall through the floor into a water reservoir. Leaving the sewers, they are soon apprehended by knights of Rashugal and placed under arrest for treason; however, Alvin, a wandering mercenary appears and saves them as they board a boat and begin their journey to regain Milla's powers and stop the Lance of Kresnik.
Being marked a fugitive along with Jude, Milla finds herself powerless without the aid of the Four Great Spirits. Regardless, she still holds strong to her duty to protect the world. With Jude wanting to follow her since she needs help, and having nowhere to go being a fugitive now, they continue their journey with Alvin. Despite wielding a sword, she has no practical experience, and asks Alvin to train her in basic combat since he is thoroughly experienced being a freelance mercenary, paying him with the rewards of a quest. Milla explains to the party the nature of spyrix. Similar to magitechnology from Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Symphonia, spyrix is a form of technology that is fueled by the power from spirits, ultimately causing their death.
Without spirits, life on Rieze Maxia slowly withers away. In particular, the Lance of Kresnik is a weapon of war, adding additional danger to its existence. Reaching the town of Hamil, they are treated to a rather hospitable environment. There, they have a close encounter with knights from Rashugal, before leaving with the aid of Elize Lutus. They arrive at the village of Nia Khera, where a shrine dedicated to Milla is located. The residents all revere Milla, bowing in her presence recognizing her as Maxwell. At her shrine, Milla attempts a ritual to resummon the Four Great Spirits to regain her powers, but the process fails. They conclude that the spirits are still alive and trapped within the Lance of Kresnik, and set their next goal as finding away to release them.
Leaving Nia Khera, the party travels back through Hamil. There, they re-encounter Elize, who is being shunned by the village, completely contrary to the initial welcome they received, blaming her for the arrival of the knights resulting in injuries to the village people. Jude wants to take Elize with the party instead of leaving her there, but Milla initially objects since she would only be a burden to their cause; however, she eventually allows it, showing a more compassionate side to her and Elize joins the party as a non-playable character. Upon reaching Sharilton on their journey, they encounter Driselle Sharil, and her butler, Rowen J. Ilbert. Milla demonstrates her knowledge of Efreet as they meet Driselle in a market place where she is picking out a tea set. The shop owner claims the set was created to the liking of Efreet with his emblem, but Milla explains otherwise, describing Efreet's own tastes along with Rowen noting the date of creation, being younger than the last time Efreet was summoned. Despite the fraud, Driselle purchases the set, taking a liking to its appearance, and invites the party to her home later as a sign of goodwill for the help Milla provided.
Soon, Milla and Elize are kidnapped by the Rashugal army and taken to the Fort Gandala where they finally meet King Nachtigal Fenn. After a brief confrontation, Milla's legs become paralyzed, caused by an explosive trap wall. Jude takes her to Leronde and with the help of his childhood friend Leia Rolando, restore the use of Milla's legs using a painful aspyrixis device and a long period of rehabilitation. The party then decides to infiltrate Fennmont by other means, mainly by flying there with wyverns found in Auj Oule. As they meet the king of Auj Oule, Gaius, it is revealed that a war between the two countries in nearing and that the party must rush to Fennmont to stop Nachtigal.
However, as they travel there and defeat the king, they soon realize that the Lance of Kresnik has been taken away from the palace. They head to the battlefield to stop the Lance and the war once and for all. But the Lance is fired despite their efforts and is revealed to not being as a weapon, but a tool to destroy the schism surrounding Rieze Maxia. As the party head to stop the invading Elympios army ontop their flagship E.S.S. Zenethra, Milla sacrifices her mana, and her life, to save Jude and his friends from a deadly trap. It is later revealed by Muzét that she was not the real Maxwell, but only a part of the Lord of Spirits acting as a bait to destroy the remaining Elympios troops in Rieze Maxia, Exodus.
Milla's soul is taken to be reborn like all other humans, but the Four Great Spirits intervene due to how close they became in the last twenty years. The Milla that they rescue is nothing but a shell at this point, lacking both personality and memories. The Four Great Spirits know that their lives are now forfeit because they have disobeyed the true Maxwell, so they decide to travel with Milla as she wanders into familiar landscapes, including Hamil and the Aladhi Seahaven, and discovers that she is being hunted for the sin of false reincarnation. At the Seahaven, Milla dreams of Jude and is told the truth of what the Four Great Spirits did, so she returns Nia Khera, where they are confronted by Muzét.
The Four Great Spirits give themselves up to reincarnated while telling Milla that she is now free to be anyone without being bound by the name "Milla Maxwell". She is unable to let it go and follows them to her shrine, where she confronts and defeats Muzét after the Four declare their allegiance to Milla as opposed to Maxwell. They then obtain a light orb that contains Milla's memories, which they use on the Nia Khera Hallowmont. There, Milla witnesses Jude and the group's struggle against Maxwell in the Temporal Crossroads and incarnates herself in a physical body, helping to first break Maxwell's barrier and then defeat him. Afterward, Milla and Jude manage to convince Maxwell to drop the schism, but Gaius and Muzét refuse to let them, so they are blown into Elympios.
In Elympios, Milla takes in the plight of a resource-starved world dependent on spyrix to function. As they travel and behold the world, Jude figures out that Milla died and returned as a spirit based on the fact that the aspyrixis is no longer functioning. Milla confirms this fact, acknowledging that her time in the human realm is now limited. This fact does not slow them when they are challenged by Gaius and Muzét over the future of the two worlds: whether to place their faith in a future of spyrite technology that mirrors spyrix without their spirit-killing downside, which Jude, Milla, and their group advocate, or Gaius and Muzét's plan to uphold the schism until Elympios dies out. The party confronts Gaius and Muzét in the Temporal Crossroads, where they defeat the pair and then convince them to view things their way.
In the end, with all parties united in purpose, Maxwell dispels the schism and disappears. Milla ascends to the position of Maxwell and the Lord of Spirits, leaving for the Spirit Realm and keeping watch over all humans and spirits.
Appearance and Personality[]
Milla takes the appearance of a tall, beautiful young woman with pink eyes and long, blonde hair that reaches down to her waist. She is said by Jude to have amazing curves. In the first game, she wears a rather revealing outfit, consisting of largely lavender material, with dark red and black gloves on her hands and a pair of lavender boots on her feet. This outfit is later revealed in a skit to be one of Ivar's choosing.
Having lived twenty years together with the Four Great Spirits, Milla has had little human contact except with her worshippers in Nia Khera. As a result, her social skills are dangerously lacking. Contrary to popular belief, Milla does not know everything (e.g. she doesn't know what a spirit clime is until Jude explains it to her) and her knowledge of human behaviour stems largely from what she has read in books, leading her to have many odd mannerisms. The problem is that she seems to believe just about anything she reads in books, and Jude questions on more than one occasion exactly what kind of books she's read. She also heeds no mind to her rather light attire, claiming that it is comfortable and easy to move in, despite Jude's initial discomfort. In spite of her odd mannerisms, Milla is frequently shown to be extremely wise, as noted by several characters, including Rowen, who would expect no less from the Lord of Spirits.
Milla is shown to have been highly dependent on the Four Great Spirits before losing them; she always relied on their help to guide her arm when fighting with a sword, and so after losing them she had to learn how to use a sword from scratch, though she learned how to use one fairly quickly, implying that she's a fast learner. She also initially considers walking for long periods of time to be gruelling, since she was used to having Sylph fly her everywhere and only ever walked when she used Undine to travel across water. In spite of all this, she refuted Alvin's claim that she treated them like her own personal servants, claiming that if anything, they were the ones who pestered her, going so far as to call them 'a bunch of bickering in-laws', much to Jude and Alvin's surprise. Even after reuniting with the Four, Milla doesn't depend on them nearly as much as she used to, having learned to rely more on her own strength.
Milla frequently muses at the behavior that makes humans "human", giving a lot of insight to Jude as they journey together. Milla also shows a rather deep fondness of food, not knowing the delight of eating for the first twenty years of her life due to Sylph and Undine giving her all the energy she needed. She is often caught drooling while any food subjects are mentioned and claims humans should learn to enjoy simple pleasures such as eating. However, Milla is a lot more human than even she realizes, or at least would like to admit e.g. she can be surprisingly vain and somewhat envious, which she only manages to veil thinly.
Milla consistently shows a strong determination to play her role as Maxwell despite losing the power of the Four early in the story. She shows that she is willing to go to any lengths to uphold her duty, at many points risking her very life to accomplish this. However, this can sometimes be to a fault; after having her legs crippled, she still refuses to give up on her mission, even after Jude tries to convince her that there's no other choice and that she has to accept reality. Ultimately, he decides to help heal her, as he knew that if he didn't, she'd "waddle off somewhere and get into trouble." After gaining the aspyrixis, Milla starts to push herself very hard with little to no concern for her well-being, as noted by Jude and Alvin. She states, however, that the pain she's going through is a small price to pay, as to her, there is no greater pain than having something to do and being unable to do it. By the time she reunites with the group in Elympios, however, she seems to finally learned to take it easy; when the group are on their way to the final battle, it is she who suggests that the group return to Rieze Maxia to finish whatever business they may have there beforehand.
Milla holds her duty of protecting the world above all else. She states that it is synonymous with the name Maxwell, as being the Lord of Spirits it is her responsibility to protect all living things. At first, she even shows disregard for people if it were for the greater good and the sake of completing her mission, such as not caring what happened to the people of Hamil even after what they had done for her and the others, prompting Jude to ask how she could be so cold. She reasons this with her belief that she doesn't have time to be sentimental and getting emotional could possibly interfere with her mission. She also starts off with a somewhat low opinion of humans, considering them to be infants that she must babysit. After spending time with the party, however, she gains a greater appreciation for individual life, eventually telling Jude that all life, whether human or spirit, is both equal and precious to her.
Fighting Style[]
Milla wields a traditional sword like many Tales protagonists. Her stats gained from the Lilium Orb are rather balanced with a slight focus on intelligence and strength. Her physical artes mainly consist of close range attacks that use the blade of her sword or short range magic projectiles. She can also summon the four great spirits to do quick attacks, unlike other Tales games where spirits are used like spells and require an incantation time. Through the Magic Stance skill, she can trade her quick melee slashes for a slower style consisting of ranged light strikes.
Her unique Spirit Shift (魔技 Magi?, "Magic Arte") special ability allows her to use close range elemental attacks that take the place of her spirit magic when the "artes" button is not held down. Milla has Spirit Magic of elements from the four great spirits but focuses more on fire and wind, as well as having access to lightning, a combination of fire and wind, and light magic. She can be played as an offensive spell caster or as a melee attacker. Her spirit-shifted artes allow for fast elemental damage, compared to spirit artes that require incantation time but cover wide areas.
Milla excels more in aerial combat, exemplified by her many aerial skills that allow for better mobility and damage while in midair. Almost all of her artes have aerial enabled with quick speed to allow combos to be easily performed. Milla's partner skill is Bind (バインド Baindo?). While Milla is the secondary partner, any time the monster targeted by the primary partner is stunned, she will bind them with a magic circle, disabling the target while the former is free to attack. Milla is best utilized against Speed-type monsters who are too fast to hit easily.
Other Appearances[]
Tales of Innocence R[]
In Tales of Innocence R, Milla makes a cameo appearance in the coliseum.
Tales of Berseria[]
Milla and Jude are taken from Rieze Maxia and sent to another world by Goldipen the Harbinger of the End to help pass judgement on said world. However, Milla gets separated from Jude. She encounters Velvet Crowe and her group in the Figahl Icecaps and attacks them, believing that they are hunting pengyons. After the fight, Velvet states that she is just like how Jude described her. Hearing this, Milla asks her where he is, saying that she has been looking all over for him, with Velvet revealing that he is the pengyon that is standing next to her. Despite being a pengyon, Milla is able to recognize him, much to his surprise. After hearing from Jude what has happened and how he was able to find her, Milla apologizes to Velvet for the misunderstanding. Afterwards, Milla and Jude, along with a gold pengyon they encountered in the area, part ways with the group, with both of them hoping to find a way to return to their world.
Both Milla and Jude are encountered again on Normin Island after the group learns that the Harbinger of the End appeared there. After arriving there, Milla and Jude reveal that the Harbinger of the End wants them to fight Velvet's group in a battle of judgement, with Jude reverting back to human form. After Velvet's group defeats them, the Harbinger of the End appears as a golden light and offers to grant Velvet's group any wish they desire. Having no desire to run from her past, Velvet instead wishes for Milla and Jude to return to their world. As a result, Velvet passes Goldipen's test and, after revealing itself to be the golden pengyon from earlier, takes Milla and Jude back to their world.
Tales of Asteria[]
Star Fragments[]
In Tales of Asteria, Milla and the Four observe occurrences from the spirit realm that do not appear natural. To prevent the mana from declining any further, Milla travels to the human realm to confront the source of the shortage. She stars by travelling to Barona, where she learns of a strange illness from Inir.
On the road, she comes across Yuri Lowell, and Elle Mel Marta, and accompanies them. Upon arriving, Milla notices the low mana in the vicinity. The party is shocked by how many people are already on the ground after only a month. To find the source of the illness, Milla splits from the party while Yuri and Elle investigate the eastern side. After a while of searching, she comes across a man collapsed on the ground. After nursing him to health, she runs into Kyle Dunamis and Reala. They speak of the blastia in a local facility that was supposedly causing the residents to fall sick.
After reuniting with Yuri and Elle, the three relay each other's information. Apparently, the king had ordered a facility to be built a few months prior, hiding a blastia that could siphon mana, resulting in the current illness.
Echoes of Paradise
In the fourth arc, Milla's memories and identity is altered. Now known as Roar (ロアー Roaa?), she serves Holy Empress Lazaris of Entelestia, as one of the three elite members of the White Lion. In a decisive battle, Jude and Velvet Crowe fight Roar and succeed in restoring her memories.
Tales of Crestoria[]
In Tales of Crestoria, Milla's mission is to wipe out the remaining incarnations and she cannot allow herself to die until she does so. One night, an incarnation she had killed came at a price. She found a woman name Velvet Crowe screaming in agony, her left arm completely incinerated. It turned out she and her brother Laphicet were caught in the blast. While Velvet survived, Laphicet was not so lucky. Suddenly, another incarnation, desperate to live, replaced Velvet's left arm. Filled with rage, Velvet swore bloody revenge until Milla offered her own life in return for helping her wipe out the incarnations. Velvet agreed to the terms and worked with Milla to complete her mission.
The Wake of Sin[]
A year later, Milla appears alongside Velvet, saving Kanata Hjuger from a monster in Dalchia before the two disappear.
Side Story: Velvet[]
Velvet and Milla are overwhelmed by a swarm of monsters and are separated from each other.
Granblue Fantasy[]
In July 2015, Milla appeared as a part of the collaboration between Tales of Asteria and Granblue Fantasy, in the latter. She retains Supreme Elements as her special attack.
Trivia[]
- In her artwork, Milla uses the "Balanced Blade", which appears as her default weapon in her crossover appearances.
- Milla's Tales of Xillia 2 outfit appears as a legacy costume for Rose and Alisha Diphda in Tales of Zestiria.
References[]
- ↑ Xillia Wondercon - Minae Noji's Video YouTube (2013-03-30) Retrieved on 2013-08-06.