Oerba Dia Vanille

PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Moss
✖ Contact: stonegathers @ AIM and plurk
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: n/a

CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Oerba Dia, Vanille
✖ Canon: First game, when the party is on their way to Oerba
✖ Character Appearance: Link!
✖ Character Age: She's physically 19, but was in crystal stasis for centuries
✖ Pick A Number: 13, 47

✖ Canon Setting:

The god Bhunivelze—because he's a huge, greedy jerk—killed his mother so that he could take full control of the Mortal World. That would have probably been the end of it, but no, Bhunivelze ended up thinking she had cursed the world, and so he set out to find a way into the Unseen World so he could completely obliterate her. He couldn't get there without giving up his control over the Mortal world, however, so he created some fal'Cie dieties; Pulse, Etro, and Lindzei. Pulse was made to look for a way into the Unseen World, and Lindzei was made to protect the world, and to wake Bhunivelze when the time was right. Poor Etro, though, was given nothing, because whoops whoops he accidentally made her look like his mother, which clearly means she should be feared.

Once all that was taken care of, Bhunivelze went into crystal sleep. Pulse and Lindzei, to expand and protect the world, created a bunch of fal'Cie and l'Cie of their own. Etro couldn't create these powerful lesser-beings, and so she became kind of lonely. She died and created humanity from her blood. From the Unseen Realm, Etro gave humans heart (chaos), which kept balance in the world. Humans ended up worshiping all three fal'Cie deities before humanity became divided. They saw Pulse as the leader, Lindzei as the protector, and Etro as death.

At some point in time, humanity became divided between Cocoon, a hollow, mini-world in the sky, and Gran Pulse, the main world below where Vanille is from. The people who live inside Cocoon have everything from artificial sunlight to food provided for them by the Cocoon fal'Cie, and overall they live comfortable, technologically-advanced lives. Gran Pulse is different. It's a wild land ruled by the “whims of the fal'Cie”, where survival is key. The people who live on Gran Pulse live simpler lives, and are a strong people because they have to be to survive. By the time the main events of the story take place, civilization on Gran Pulse is nearly wiped out due to the war of transgression.

You see, the people of Gran Pulse and Cocoon, despite being essentially the same, feared each other. This fear led to the war of transgression, which was fought between the l'Cie of Cocoon and Gran Pulse. l'Cie are beings branded by the fal'Cie to protect them. They're given a focus--a task that they must complete--and are granted magic to aide them in their task. If they succeed they turn to crystal and, essentially, live forever. If they fail they turn to Cie'th, monsters that wander the land haunted by their unfulfilled focus. Two of the l'Cie that were created during the war of transgression are Fang and Vanille. Their focus was to become Ragnarok and destroy Cocoon. Vanille ran from her focus and left Fang to become an incomplete Ragnarok. Fang was able to damage Cocoon's outer shell, but she and Vanille were turned to crystal by Etro before she could do any more damage.

This event is important to note outside of the history section, because it helped shape the setting as it is at the start of the game. The war of transgression cemented the fear the people of Cocoon had for Gran Pulse--a place they see as a living hell--which lead to fearing anything from Gran Pulse, and anyone who came into contact with things or l'Cie from Gran Pulse.

Cocoon is ruled by the theocratic government, Sanctum. On the surface, it seems like a by the people for the people kind of thing, but really Sanctum's ruler, Dysley, is the fal'Cie Barthandelus. Barthandelus is using the fear of Cocoon's citizens to further his own goals, and it's through him you realize that the fal'Cie only really see humanity as a bunch of pawns. To try and open the way to the Unseen Realm and reawaken Bhunivelze, Barthandelus--in cahoots with the other fal'Cie--plans to destroy Cocoon and all the people on it by any means necessary. Because the fal'Cie can't go against their own purpose, so they use l'Cie as a means to an end.

✖ Character History: Wiki link aww yeah

✖ Character Personality:

Vanille is someone who always has a spring in her step, no matter how bleak or depressing the situation. At the start of the game, in the middle of the purge, where people are dying left and right, she's got a smile on her face and more energy than anyone else. She comforts Hope, tells him to deal with his heartache later, and then runs off cheerfully, as though all the horrible stuff around her isn't actually happening. She puts on a smile in the worst of times, and no matter how she may actually feel or how desperate the things around her are, she always tries to keep her outlook positive. She's conversational and friendly, and is someone who will do her best to lift other's spirits. She's always there to try and comfort the people around her, too, especially her friends. Really, at heart, Vanille is a very kind hearted, optimistic girl.

But she's also a coward. When she tells Hope to deal with his problems later? Yeah, that's basically how she deals with life. Vanille runs from her problems, her feelings, and her guilt. To protect herself and others, she lies about who she is and what she's feeling, and does everything she can to keep what secrets she does have under wraps. She pretends everything is okay, and does a pretty good job of pulling that facade off. That's not to say her cheerfulness is a complete farce, because Vanille is genuinely a kind person who feels for the people around her. She's just harboring a lot of guilt and sadness, none of which she knows how to deal with. So instead of dealing with it, she pretends it doesn't exist. Running from her problems isn't always effective, however. Sometimes it gets a little too hard to bear, and her cheerful nature slips. When she finds out she'd been the catalyst in Sazh's son, Dajh, becoming a l'Cie she starts to cry, and even then she tries to escape from her feelings. She runs out into a rainstorm to hide her tears, acting like she's just out there to have fun.

Did I mention she's harboring a lot of guilt? Because boy oh boy does she have a lot of guilt. She's consumed by it, even though she acts like she isn't. She left Fang to deal with their focus alone, lied to her friends, dragged innocent bystanders into their mess, and inadvertently caused a lot of people to die because her and Fang had attacked Euride Gorge, and made Sanctum aware of their existence as Pulse l'Cie. She carries a lot of weight on her shoulders, weight she's willing to do anything to get rid of. She doesn't want to complete her focus and kill even more people, so she decides she'll just let her time run out and become a Cie'th. And when Sazh finds out Dajh is a l'Cie because of her, she's more than willing to let him shoot her to make up for her sins. By the time the party reaches Gran Pulse, she's gotten a little better at dealing with what bothers her, but it's still something she's working on and has to overcome.

That said, while she might be a coward when it comes to all things emotional, Vanille is very good at dealing with physical dangers. She grew up on a planet where the fittest survive, so she can definitely hold her own in battle. The fur butt-skirt she wears? Yeah, it came from a bear she killed. She never backs down when she needs to defend herself and others. At the start of battle she says; “I'm not all smiles and sunshine!” which shows that despite her outward appearance, she's definitely willing to put up a fight to survive.

Vanille is also very empathetic. She cares a lot about the struggles and feelings of others, especially Fang's. Fang is Vanille's most important person. She follows along with what Fang tells her to do, even if she doesn't agree with it (at least, most of the time) and looks to her for strength. Vanille relies on Fang, though she feels awful about leaving her to complete their focus alone. Because of this, Vanille tries to take on responsibility of her own. She tries to keep Fang from having to do the hard stuff, even if it means Vanille will turn into a Cie'th. She wants to make it up to Fang if she can, even if that means lying about and skirting around their focus.

Vanille's ever-present cheer tends to have her come off as an odd duck. From an outside perspective, the things she does and the way she acts make her seem like she's oblivious to her surroundings (she's not) or is off on some other world, especially when she's putting on a smile in times of adversity. She's not all cheer and good nature, though. She can be stubborn and irritable, as seen when Sazh comments on her 'just being a kid'. She spits the words back at him and storms off. She does come off as childish in moments like these, and with her demeanor as well. She seems innocent and oblivious, when really she's very mature. Vanille narrates a good chunk of the game, and through her narration you can see how she views the world. The way she talks about events, people, and places show she has an understanding of how the world works and how other people are, which shows she's not nearly as innocent and naive as she first appears.

✖ Character Powers: Depending on what role Vanille is playing in battle, what abilities she uses change. Here are a breakdown of the spells she knows, I left out some of the one's that wouldn't really be relevant in-game;

Ravager:

Aero | Aerora ( Wind element spell )
Water | Watera ( Water element spell )
Fire | Fira | Firaga ( Fire element spell )
Thunder | Thundara ( Thunder element spell )
Blizzard | Blizzara | Blizzaga ( Ice element spell )

Saboteur:

Deshell | Deshellga ( Lowers enemy's magic defense )
Deprotect | Deprotectga ( Lowers enemy's physical defense )
Poison | Poisonga ( Poisons enemy )
Quake ( deals Earth element damage )
Fog ( Prevents enemy from using magical attacks )
Pain ( Prevents enemy from using physical attacks )
Death ( Deals massive damage and has a 1% chance of instantly killing an enemy )

Medic:

Cure | Cura | Curasa | Curaja ( Heals character )
Esuna ( Removes status ailments, like poison and such )
Renew ( strong healing spell that affects entire party, in-game it'll work on characters in Vanille's immediate vicinity. )
Raise ( brings characters back to life, in-game it'll only work on characters close to death and won't actually bring dead characters back to life. )

Other:

l'Cie brand: She still has this, it's still active and the source of her magic. It's a ticking time-bomb, one that will eventually turn her into a monster. I imagine the CDC would have some kind of a fix for this, either by stopping the brand from becoming a problem or giving her something during drops that slows the process down.

Weaknesses: Outside her magical abilities, Vanille is just an ordinary girl. She's not super human, and while she's able to hold her own in a fight, she's not overly powerful on that front, and can get hurt just as easily as any other human being.

CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: ( 1 ), ( 2 ), ( 3 ), ( 4 )

✖ Third Person POV:

As Lightning, Fang and the others forge on through the plains of Gran Pulse, Vanille hangs back a little ways. She threads her fingers together in thought, worried about her new-found family; her friends. They were all running out of time, and part of her fears that they won't find anything when they reach Oerba, that there won't be a solution to their problem or anyone there to help them. It's a worry that gnaws at her. The others don't deserve this, they don't deserve to be l'Cie, bound to a focus and followed by the looming danger of turning into a Cie'th. The deserve to be happy.

She wishes there was a definite way out of it. A way to protect Cocoon and her friends, and as if on queue, an unfamiliar voice calls out from behind her, "So, you want to protect Cocoon, right? Escape your focus?"

Vanille turns to the stranger. She should be wary. She should be wondering where he had come from, considering Gran Pulse had seemed void of human life up until now. But his words have her interest and attention in a vice grip. She takes a few steps towards him. "You know of a way?"

"Yeah, you just need to join the CDC."

"Of course! I'll do anything, so please--" She should ask more questions, demand specifics. This solution seems too good to be true, after all. It's too convenient, but Vanille's desperate. Her friends are running out of time, Cocoon is running out of time, and right now that's all she can think about.

"So, you'll join us?"

"Yes." She should be doing a lot of things, but it's too late to back down, now.

CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Orange

✖ Mission Freebie: A picture of her and Fang
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: Her binding rod

✖ Character Inventory:

She doesn't have anything but the clothes on her back, really.