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Arecia Al-Rashia (アレシア・アルラシア, Areshia Arurashia?) is a supporting character from Final Fantasy Type-0, and is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka.
Appearance and Personality
A member of the Eight-Seat Parliament and the Director of the Magic Bureau, the wing of the Academy responsible for the oversight of magic in the Dominion of Rubrum. The students in Class 0 think of her as their mother. She is a genius in every sense of the word, single-handedly bearing most of the responsibility for the development of magic in Suzaku as it is used today. Even though she has an unpredictable and somewhat mysterious personality, she is well-respected among her peers. No one knows her age or when she first came to Suzaku.
Arecia has pale skin and hazel eyes and wears red-rimmed glasses. She has long black hair held back with a lavender headband except for two slim sidelocks that frame her face. She wears a layered white top, black gloves and slim flared pants that fade from lavender to gray. She wears dark red low-heeled boots and several scarves: a plum-colored one wrapped around her neck, and two long gray and green scarves draped over her shoulders. Arecia wears an ornamental necklace and carries a cigarette in a holder. According to the Crimson Codex, Arecia's age is unknown and she is 165cm tall.
Regarded as a genius, Arecia's job is to develop and reform magic around Suzaku's Peristylium. She is eccentric to the point of considering Class Zero as her family, while she assumes the role of "mother".
Story
Final Fantasy Agito
Template:Sideicon She can be found in the Magic Department during the afternoon and night. Template:Sec-stub
Final Fantasy Type-0
Arecia is head of Suzaku's magic division and oversees magic development, but also acts as a doctor within the school. No one knows when she came to Suzaku, and she is viewed as a sorceress who can do the impossible. In the year 833, Arecia created Class Zero from certain children who became students in Peristylium Suzaku, the Magic Academy of the nation of Rubrum. In time, Arecia conditioned the children to see her as a motherly figure.
As a result over the years, Rubrum's government came to mistrust both her and Class Zero. But for reasons unknown, after having Class Zero execute the plan to liberate Rubrum's capital city from Militan control, she left her position to develop and reform magic around Suzaku's Peristylium, with Kurasame taking her place.
She seems to be monitoring Rem's condition and informing her that she doesn't have much time left, and that her illness will cause her pain. Rem replies that she understands and asks that she keep her condition a secret from Class Zero, especially Machina. Arecia is also visited by Cater at one point, and she assures her not to worry of the strange deja vu that she is feeling during her class's missions. As Finis begins, Arecia appears before Class Zero to tell them that while everything before them was preordained, they are destined to make an ultimate decision.
Arecia standing before Machina and Rem's crystal.
Towards the game's end, she is seen approaching Machina and Rem's crystal and reviving them. It would turn out that she is actually a higher being who witnessed the events of Type-0 repeat endlessly where the world is destroyed by the actions of Cid Aulstyne. Furthermore, whenever her "children" were on the verge of death against powerful opponents that would hinder their destined demise, Arecia would intervene on their behalf with Eidolons.
However, a suggestion from Tiz and Joker convinces a curious Arecia to revive Machina and Rem to know the details of her former students changing the fate of the world by refusing to become l'Cie as originally expected, while restoring the Oriencians' ability to remember their dead. Soon after, Arecia eventually decides to remove the four crystals from Orience's history. In this new timeline, in a scene of the alternate ending, Arecia negates the war of the previous and thus ensuring that Class Zero and the others who perished in the war would continue to live.
Arecia's Experiment
It has been revealed that Arecia and Gala are actually deities who respectively follow the will of Pulse and Lindzei, each seeking out Etro's Gate through different means: Gala chooses to "sacrifice billions of lives" to force the gate to open, while Arecia focuses on certain souls with great power, resulting in minimal loss of life. They set up four crystals to civilize the people of Orience and to keep the world balanced. Also, they set up the repeating events of Type-0.
According to the Nameless Document featured in the Crimson Codex, sixteen "constellations" were found at the same time. The Sixteen will arrive the world at a certain moment in the form of human beings, to see if they have the strength to prevent Finis from occurring and open Etro's gate.
Four of them were abandoned by Arecia in the past 600,104,971 experiments, leaving twelve:
- The First - Ace - represents the power of trust.
- The Second - Deuce - represents the power of gentleness.
- The Third - Trey - represents the power of knowledge.
- The Fourth - Cater - represents the power of bravery.
- The Fifth - Cinque - represents the power of innocence.
- The Sixth - Sice - represents the power of persistence.
- The Seventh - Seven - represents the power of understanding.
- The Eighth - Eight - represents the power of calm.
- The Ninth - Nine - represents the power of action.
- The Tenth - Jack - represents the power of ignorance.
- The Eleventh - Queen - represents the power of intelligence.
- The Twelfth - King - represents the power of resolve.
- The abandoned four represent the powers of fear - Machina, love - Rem, pain - Joker, and decrepitude - Tiz.
Previous experiments ended with failure: when the balance was broken (one of the Four Nations took control of the whole of Orience), Gala's Lulusath Army began to wipe out Orience as a sacrifice, the chosen Twelve chose to become l'Cie and died trying to defend their land, and Finis arrived. The l'Cie Arbiter, a human chosen and possessed by Gala, collected the Twelve's phantoma in order to prepare for the next time. In the 600,104,972nd repetition, though the experiment fails again, after Joker and Tiz inform Arecia about the Twelve's last moment, Arecia decides to give up the experiment and leaves Orience.
Musical Theme
Arecia has her own eponymous theme, "Arecia Al-Rashia".
Other Appearances
Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Template:Sideicon Arecia appears on a card in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game depicting her in the pose from her official render with Suzaku's emblem in the background. Another card depicts her official artwork.
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Gallery
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Etymology
Arecia's English name, when translated into Arabic, means "Laid anchored" (أرسى الراسية, "Arasia al-Rasya") or may also be translated to mean; "Laid on the Anchored".
Trivia
- Arecia shares her Japanese voice actress with Ultimecia from Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and Rosso from Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-.
- After Zhuyu is forced into crystal stasis, Arecia stops the Lulusathian warriors, as she is interested in the reason that Class Zero refuse to become l'Cie.
- According to Ace, Arecia taught him how to sing the song "Zero".
References
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