Edna (エドナ, Edona^?) is an Earth seraph in Tales of Zestiria and the younger sister of Eizen from Tales of Berseria. She distrusts humans and behaves mostly apathetic, but will become emotional when the situation involves her only living family member, her older brother. Her true name is Hephsin Yulind (ハクディム＝ユーバ, Hakudimu Yuuba^?), meaning "Early-Bloomer Edna".

History

Edna was born from an earthpulse point in a sacred mountain centuries prior to the events of Tales of Berseria, and for decades she was looked after by her senior, Eizen, who had been born from the same earthpulse^[2]. There were other malakhim born from said earthpulse, but they only developed a sibling bond with each other. However, after Edna became older and started fixing meals, a continuous streak of unfortunate events began to happen around them: Edna would get into danger constantly, and even a dragon tried to kidnap her^[3]. Eventually, Eizen realized that his domain causes misfortunes to those near him, and he decided to leave Edna behind to not get her involved in his "curse", going on a journey to find a way to lift it^[3]. Edna tried to convince Eizen shortly after to return through a letter, telling him that she wanted to be with him no matter how dangerous it was, to no avail^[4]. At some point Eizen actually returned once to pay her a visit, but his curse dragged Edna into danger once more, and after that Eizen vowed to himself to never come back^[5].

Eizen frequently sent letters and gifts to Edna, but that did not preclude her loneliness. Edna was noted to rarely write Eizen back^[4][6] but the truth was that she actually kept a lot of letters that she never could bring herself to send.^[7] Sometime after meeting the normin Phoenix, Eizen tasked him with Edna's protection, including from himself once he eventually became a dragon from taking on too much malevolence^[7][8]. The wind malak Zaveid was also tasked with killing Eizen once he became a dragon^[9][10].

Sadly, the next time they would see each other, Eizen had already transformed into a dragon. Having come back home, this time as a dragon, Eizen lived in isolation in Rayfalke Spiritcrest under Edna's watch for several centuries^[9], with Edna being notably the only seraph living there, despite the mountain's formerly dedicated shrine, now abandoned^[11][12]. Eizen lost all traces of his original self and became a mindless beast, devouring countless humans and seraphim and no longer being able to recognize his own sister. During this time, Zaveid would occasionally show up, intent on killing the dragon in order to fulfill his promise to Eizen. Edna did not know about the reason behind Zaveid's visits, or about the promise^[13][14].

During the events of Tales of Zestiria, the new Shepherd Sorey appears in Rayfalke Spiritcrest looking for an earth seraph to help build a bridge. Edna joins Sorey on his journey after he promises her to discover a way to save Eizen.

Appearance and Personality

Despite her old age, Edna appears as a young teenager. This is because the physical growth of seraphim stop once they reach the peak of their powers, and Edna reached hers at a young age^[15]. She has blue eyes and fairly short blond hair, which becomes a deeper shade of yellow toward the tips. There is a brown hairband above her head, and her side ponytail is tied with a green ribbon. Edna wears a short yellow and white dress with a big flowery bow on the back. She also wears a single brown glove wrapped in the same ribbon used to tie her hair on her right hand. She has big brown boots with buckles and yellow ribbons wrapped around her legs. She uses her umbrella to protect herself from the weather and for battle. Phoenix is the name of the orange creature hanging from Edna's umbrella. Disguised as a mascot, he's in fact the strongest normin that exists, and was asked by Eizen to protect Edna. Some of the other accessories were also given to her by Eizen as gifts. Her right glove is from a matching pair, the other belonging to her brother, and her boots were also previously owned by Eizen, which were then adjusted to fit her foot size^[16]. Her stone pendant is also a gift from her brother^[2]. Eizen also gave her ribbons and old artifacts he found in ruins^[17], which also explains how she has a Divine Artifact to make a Sub Lord pact with Lailah despite rarely leaving the mountain.

Contrary to her innocent appearance, Edna often behaves with an air of apathy. She is critical of human flaws, sarcastic, and enjoys teasing others, especially Mikleo, Alisha Diphda and Rose. When she teases Mikleo, she often calls him "Meebo" (ミボ, Mibo^?), and her excessive teasing leads her to create puns like "normincarena" (ノルミンダンス, Norumindansu^?, "Normin Dance"), a parody of the popular song, "Macarena", much to Alisha's confusion. She also easily becomes blasé and has a tendency to sound bored when attacking low-level enemies. She can be spoiled and irritable, often losing patience whenever a tease, intentional or otherwise, is thrown her way.

She does possess a softer side, though most often when her memories of Eizen surface. After frightening a Minotaur hellion in her impatience during the Earth Trial, she shows a gentler side to it and apologizes after discovering that it is the culmination of suffering children. The night of Dezel's death, Edna attempts to comfort Sorey's feelings on the matter, though she has trouble properly expressing her intention. Likewise, she tells Mikleo that it is fine if he wants to cry following the reveal that he was a human sacrifice, though Mikleo claims that he is not sad, just surprised.

Fighting Style

Edna is left-handed like her brother, and like seraphim usually are too. Her fighting stance resembles Eizen's, which shows her placing her right hand on her hip while brandishing a weapon on her left one.

Being an Earth seraph, Edna fights with an umbrella, which represents Earth's dominance over Water, enhancing her power^[18], as well as giving her both a varied arsenal and solid fundamentals. She can fire projectiles at threatening enemies from afar while waiting for a chance to swoop in and wallop them.

Due to her nature, Edna is able to perform seraphic Earth artes, which primarily consists of using rocks. She is also able to combine some of the other elements with Earth to an extent, creating a variety of attacks, such as creating snow-like powders and projectiles of ice when combining with Water, as well as combining Wind with Earth to create voids and gravitational fields.

Edna also has the ability to cast artes that have a delayed reaction to them, such as Rock Trigger, Gravitrigger, and Quake Trigger. These artes are activated by certain hit counts achieved either by herself or with her allies, making it useful if the player wants to increase their hits against an enemy.

According to her words, Edna has a slender build and cannot carry heavy things, hence the umbrella as her choice of weapon, and her body also gets sore while using her map action Giant's Strength^[19]. Despite her small frame, however, Edna possesses a high defense stat and can cast Barrier to assist others. On her own, Edna has two mystic artes: Terra Mine and Shooting Stars. She gains a third mystic arte, Earth Revolution, when she is armatized with either Sorey or Rose.

Other Appearances

Tales of Arise

In Tales of Arise, Edna makes a cameo appearance in one of The Otherworld's areas as an optional boss. She later pairs up with Eizen in another area after the party fought her.

Tales of Asteria

Edna makes an appearance in "The Crystal That Sleeps in Avalon" chapter of Tales of Asteria.

Edna leaves her mountain to join Sorey in his travel to Avalon Island after hearing from him about a legend involving a mysterious gemstone that can grant any wishes. Much like her brother Eizen, Edna wants to use said gemstone to lift his Reaper's curse. Edna, however, doesn't tell the group about her plan and, much to Lailah's confusion, frequently looks around the tower of Elpis on her own, which has the zapphire at the top but whose door is kept sealed. Eizen, who is also around, hears her voice at one point but doesn't see her when he turns around. He asks about her whereabouts later, but he doesn't find her either.

One day Edna's attacked by Emeraude's men. Emeraude, who wants to become a god ruling over all races, needs someone to control the manalis, a derivative of the zapphire. Because the manalis' usage cost is the user's lifespan, Edna's seraphic nature and therefore infinite lifespan makes her a perfect choice for Emeraude who, by virtue of being a humanoid, has no concept of lifespan and cannot use the manalis. Despite Phoenix's attempt to protect Edna, Edna ends up kidnapped. Her clothes are changed, and a black collar created by Emeraude is attached to her neck to strip her of will and control her body like a puppet. The device also allows Emeraude to read the user's memories and mimic their speech.

Phoenix looks for Eizen to tell him what has happened and to apologize for breaking his promise of protecting Edna in his stead. After Ruca's suggestion, the group leaves to the port, where they find Senel. Senel confirms that he saw Edna boarding a ship and, having a sister and therefore sympathizing with Eizen, offers to help.

Edna is found standing at the helm of a ship, and doesn't respond to anyone talking to her. Emeraude sends Edna to attack the research group. Eizen, the target of her attacks, doesn't want to defend himself and risk hurting his sister, and he tries to make her snap out of it by shouting at her instead. Emeraude reveals that Edna cannot hear Eizen's voice because she's controlling her, showing her a happy dream-like future in which Eizen's curse has been lifted with the zapphire's power. It is a world Edna has always wished for, one in where Eizen returns to the mountain to live with her.

During this time Edna speaks to her supposed brother within her mind. Through interrogating him, and knowing that Eizen would never renounce to his way of life just to stay with her, Edna breaks away from Emeraude's control and stops moving, a moment that Eizen takes advantage of to break the controlling collar. Edna returns to normal, though the strain of using manalis renders her unconscious right away. Emeraude also reveals that Eizen won't be able to use the zapphire to lift the Reaper's curse, that it will fail much like his previous attempt with the manalis, because they cannot grant wishes that the user does not have the potential to obtain.

After Emeraude jumps into the ocean, the group returns to the headquarters. Eizen stops by the laboratory to find Sorey, who had actually been looking for Edna with Lailah and Mikleo. Eizen explains what has happened and asks Sorey to take Edna with him back to the mainland. He also asks them that they do not tell Edna that he was in the island too, explaining that he cannot be with her due to the Reaper's curse.

Edna recovers consciousness sometime after Eizen leaves. Lailah comments how worried she was, and Sorey asks if Edna remembers what happened. Edna says that she was attacked near the lake, but everything after it is vague. The group fills her in, but do not tell her who rescued and brought her back. Sorey informs Edna that their ruins investigation is over, and they will return to the mainland, formally asking her to join him on his journey as the Shepherd. Edna, remembering briefly how she met him before on the ship, realizes that this is Eizen's doing and that he must have asked Sorey to take her away so the curse doesn't affect her. Edna, however, doesn't say anything about that, merely accepting Sorey's proposition. Sorey and Mikleo go get a permission to leave the island and, now alone with Edna, Lailah asks what was it that Edna dreamed with while she was unconscious. Edna lies, saying she already forgot and thus it must have not been important.

After Eizen returns to his room after enjoying the festival with the rest of the research group for a while, with the intention to prepare for next day's mission at the Tower of Elpis, Sorey and Alisha look for him to give him a letter from Phoenix. Phoenix writes that he's borrowed the manalis to boost his blessing and make Eizen's reunion with Edna possible, albeit the effect will only work for a night. Being seraphim, and therefore not needing to sleep, the two siblings spend the night speaking together. By the time morning comes and with it the time for them to go separate ways again, Edna informs Eizen that she's planning on joining Sorey and the others rather than returning to the mountains before she leaves.

Edna isn't seen again until the very last chapter of the arc, after the research group saves Heldalf and decides that destroying the zapphire is for the best of everyone. Eizen is seen on a beach reflecting about his adventures in the island, and notes how he feels someone is calling him despite the beach being empty. He shrugs it off, saying it must be his imagination. The scene changes to Edna actually saying goodbye to Eizen, unseen by him.

Though Edna never appears again in the main story of Tales of Asteria, a fractured counterpart of hers in Arc 6 is mentioned to have been killed during the seraphim and human war that broke out in a fractured dimension.

Tales of the Rays

In Tales of the Rays, Edna is exoflected into Tir Na Nog, making her first appearance in the "Sweetopia Ruins and Cake of the Gods" event. She also has a form change named "Edna (Puppet Wearing Darkness)", which she received during the "Welcome to Tirug Land -A Guide From Another World-" event, in collaboration with Tales of Asteria.

Tales of Crestoria

Born with tremendously bad luck, Edna has earned the nickname of "the Reaper" in Tales of Crestoria. Due to the many misfortunes that befall her, she is pessimistic and always carries an umbrella in preparation for sudden downpours. Since her parents' deaths, she has been living alone on a frozen mountain, far from others.

Side Story: Eizen

After 10 years, Edna is reunited with her brother whom possess extraordinarily good luck. While secretly happy to see Eizen, Edna is quick to reject his presence for fear of hurting him. When Eizen refuses to leave her again, Edna packs her bags and makes to leave the mountain herself. Predictably, her bad luck triggers and traps both she and Eizen in a cave, where she becomes forced to travel with him. After their escape, Eizen continues to stay with Edna for the coming days.

One day, Eizen offers to give her a ride on his ship. While hesitant to go, Edna agrees, deciding that a quick look would be harmless. Sensing her unease, Eizen hands Edna his treasured coin, which he often let her hold when she was upset as a child. Despite her fear that she will lose it, Eizen lets her keep it. The two eventually board Eizen's ship, but their joyride becomes plagued by misfortune, as intense weather and monsters begin to threaten them. Edna understands her responsibility for it, and brings herself to the edge of the ship. She informs Eizen of the reason she had been so inhospitable, and tells him how much seeing him again has meant to her, before throwing herself from the ship in a bid to keep him safe.

Eizen discovers some of Edna's belongings washed up on the shore, including a letter from their mother which details the reason for the two siblings' extreme luck. When Eizen was a child, he was continuously beset with ill fortune, driving him to the brink of death. In an effort to save him, his parents asked the Spirits for aid, and a deal was made so that Eizen's luck would remain positive. In exchange, his then-living family would bear his misfortunes. Eizen made a miraculous recovery and, months later, Edna was born. Shortly after, the parents came to the realization that Edna had been in her mother's womb at the time the deal was made, resulting in cursing her. Eventually, Edna and her parents left while Eizen was away in order to protect him from their fates. Years later, their father was killed by his curse, and their mother died shortly after.

Having survived falling into the ocean, Edna washes up on shore before being apprehended by the local villagers who recognize her as the Reaper. The village puts her on Vision Central, blaming her misfortune for the season's bad harvest. Edna avoids condemnation, however, due to the ridiculous accusation. Despite Eizen's and Patty Fleur's efforts to rescue her, the village then drags Edna to a frozen lake, in hopes that the local monster will kill her. Once more Eizen comes to her aid, and the monster is defeated. Eizen, having learned the secret behind their extreme luck, convinces Edna to travel alongside him in an effort to break both of their curses.

Gallery

Main article: Edna/Gallery

Trivia

• According to Minoru Iwamoto in an interview, Edna was initially more with-drawn as a character, never speaking a word and only opening up to Sorey as the one who took her out of the mountain. This changed as Tales of Zestiria continued its development.
• In the Aifread's Hunting Ground of Tales of Zestiria, when viewing the tree with the wild orchids, a skit appears about a flower named "Edna" that she was named after. The flowers, modeled in the game to perfect likeness, are in fact real flowers.
  • In addition, after Laphicet reads one of the letters Edna wrote to Eizen in Tales of Berseria, Eizen reveals that he was the one who named her.
• Edna's seraphic blessing is one that grants perfect health. According to her, this is how she survived being by her brother's side, even after he turned into a dragon^[20].
• Edna said once that she tied Eizen to the mountain with an oath, presumably to keep watch over him and reduce the number of his victims. She keeps the oath's real cost hidden much like the rest of the seraphim do, joking that it makes her eat an amount of peanuts every day equal to her age instead^[21].
• Edna is mentioned on many occasions by Eizen in Tales of Berseria, and makes a cameo in the form of an illusion created by Melchior Mayvin. The siblings appear to exchange letters in order to remain in touch, but they stay apart to prevent his "Reaper's Curse" from affecting her.
  • Edna's aforementioned appearance as an illusion in Tales of Berseria has her looking identical to how she does in Tales of Zestiria, to the exception of missing her characteristic glove and being barefoot.
• Edna's character entry in Tales of 20th Anniversary Tales of Series 1995-2016 mentions that Eizen and her used to watch shooting stars from the summit of Rayfalke together. Her second mystic arte is also called Shooting Stars.
• In her artwork, Edna uses the Cherished Umbrella, which appears as her default weapon in her crossover appearances.
• Edna was the one who realized first what happened with Eizen and his curse, but did not say anything because she knew that he would leave her if he knew^[22].
  • Edna's favorite food is palmiers because that was the first human sweet that Eizen ever gave her^[23].

References

External Links

• [JP] Character エドナ Tales of Zestiria (Official Website)