Oerba Dia Vanille

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Oerba Dia Vanille [væniːl] is a playable character in Final Fantasy XIII. She is a mysterious young girl with red hair tied up in pigtails. Despite facing many hardships, she remains an upbeat and caring person. Vanille serves as the game's narrator, and in the English dub she has a Southeast Australian accent. Her full name stands for 'Vanille of the Dia clan, from the village of Oerba'.

Appearance and Personality
Despite her chronological age, Vanille has the physical appearance of a young woman of nineteen. She has red hair that she ties into pigtails, striking green eyes, and both her ears are pierced, adorned with small silver hoops. She wears a light pink top, a short orange skirt, and brown boots. Vanille very much likes to accessorize, as most notably seen by the long fur sash she wears around her waist, which she attaches her weapon to when not using it. Her wrists are also adorned with numerous bracelets, and she wears three bead necklaces around her neck, along with an assortment of beads she attaches to her clothing. Her outfit is apparently inspired by the traditional clothes of the Namibian Himba women. According to Dengeki PS3, the fur sash she is wearing was made from a bear she managed to defeat herself. Vanille's l'Cie brand is located on her upper left thigh, hidden beneath her skirt.

Vanille seems to have a child-like innocence. When she is with Hope, she shows a compassionate and playful side. Vanille also cares deeply for Fang and constantly worries for her. Throughout the game, Vanille is shown to be very caring and at times somewhat stubborn. She also mostly appears to be happy and cheerful when, truthfully, she is afraid. She usually tries to cope with her fears by closing her eyes and "losing herself in happier days." During her time with Sazh, as he talks about his son Dajh, Vanille starts to show guilt for the part she played in his accident. Once Jihl Nabaat reveals the truth to Sazh, which she, herself, was about to do before the interruption, Vanille breaks down and runs off crying. She ultimately feels guilty for her lies causing many innocent people grief.

Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero: Promise
Vanille is a resident of Gran Pulse, and resides from the village of Oerba along with Oerba Yun Fang. She is a l'Cie like the rest of the main cast. Five centuries before the events of the game, during the War of Transgression between Pulse and Cocoon, Vanille and Fang both lost their families at the hands of Cocoon's l'Cie and fal'Cie. After meeting at Oerba's orphanage, they quickly became close friends. When Fang became a l'Cie in order to protect her and Pulse, Vanille, worried about Fang and not wanting to be left alone, tagged along with Fang and decided to become a l'Cie, too. By the powers of Pulse's fal'Cie, Vanille and Fang are granted the power of Ragnarok and given the Focus to destroy both sides. In the climax of the Great War, Vanille is too scared to use the power of Ragnarok so Fang is forced to become Ragnarok on her own. Fang's incomplete Ragnarok is unable to destroy Cocoon, yet she and Vanille were crystallized by the Goddess in an attempt to save Cocoon's citizens from harm.

Five-hundred years later, Vanille and Fang awake from crystal stasis on Cocoon. They find themselves inside of the Pulse Vestige, which was taken to Cocoon by Galenth in the aftermath of the War of Transgression. Vanille discovers that Fang has lost her memories of the events surrounding their previous Focus and Ragnarok. Not wanting to hurt more innocent people, Vanille decides to lie and pretends that she has forgotten her Focus as well in order to hide the truth and prevent Fang from risking her life again. Although Fang's l'Cie brand is scared, scorched and unchanging, Vanille's brand appears to still be active and is progressing at a steady rate. Fang is unwilling to simply stand by and watch Vanille become a Cie'th, and in a desperate attempt to remember their Focus, she attacks the Cocoon fal'Cie at Euride Gorge. Things quickly spiral out of control, and Vanille is eventually separated from Fang. Lost and alone, she returns to the Vestige at Bodhum. A few days later, the Sanctum announce the Purge after discovering the Pulse fal'Cie Anima deep within the Vestige. Believing that the Purge is just a forced migration to Gran Pulse, Vanille decides to board the Purge train out of her own free will. Although she doesn't want to leave Fang behind on Cocoon, she figures that if she can return home to Gran Pulse she can prevent her Focus from causing more suffering.

Final Fantasy XIII
As the game opens up, Vanille is among those saved by Snow Villiers and the members of NORA from the Purge train. After Hope Estheim loses his mother, she provides him some comfort and encourages him to follow Snow in order to get the pain off his shoulders. Together, they ride an air vehicle into the Pulse fal'Cie. Hope asks hers if she is scared, and she says "Not so much." After Hope criticizes Vanille for not understanding the danger of the situation, she pouts at him and does a speedy explanation of the current events in what she calls, "The Purge in a nutshell." Hope worries that PSICOM will try to Purge them again for being in the fal'Cie. Vanille hugs him and tells him to calm down, but Hope pulls away from her. After journeying further into the fal'Cie together, they are assaulted by Cie'th, but Snow comes to their aid and helps fight them off. Snow explains that he is seraching for Serah, and allows them to tag along out of concern for their safety. Vanille takes Hope's wrists and says, "Let's go with him. You've gotta talk to him, Hope. If you don't take this chance, you'll regret it forever." They eventually find Serah and when Vanille sees her, she gasps in shock. She and the rest of the party witness Serah's transformation into a crystal. Afterward, the door to the fal'Cie Anima opens, and the rest of the party are transformed into l'Cie.

After waking up in Lake Bresha, the party discuss their fate and Snow asks Vanille if she was transformed into a l'Cie as well. Even though she was already a l'Cie, she decides to lie and pretends that she too was transformed by the fal'Cie, and shows the party her l'Cie brand. Everyone starts wondering how to complete their Focus, so Vanille tells them that how to complete it is entirely up to them. A while after separating from Snow with Lightning, Hope, and Sazh, they come across some ancient ruins. Vanille runs ahead to explore the area despite Lightning's warning, but she is soon chased by a Garuda Interceptor. She outruns it and hides behind Sazh. After the creature is defeated, Vanille finds a Sanctum airship, and the party boards it and fly out of the ruins. Soon, they crash in the Vile Peaks, and several events separate her and Sazh from Lightning and Hope.

Following their separation from Lightning and Hope, Vanille spends a fair part of the game traveling with Sazh, and the two develop a close friendship. As they go through the Sunleth Waterscape, Vanille listens to Sazh about his son Dajh. However in Nautilus, their friendship is tested when, thanks to Jihl Nabaat, Sazh learns of Vanille's inadvertent role in his son becoming a l'Cie, something Vanille herself had been about to tell Sazh before getting attacked by Jihl and a squadron led by her. Vanille runs off crying with Sazh following. Coming across the Fiendlord's Keep, she has a vision of Sazh calling her a cold-blooded killer pretending to be like the others, and how she brings them suffering by being alive. Admitting fault, Vanille tells Sazh to shoot her for all the suffering that she caused him and his son, and after Sazh asks her if she thinks he will forgive her if she dies, Vanille asks him what he wants from her, since she can not live yet can not die. After Sazh summons Brynhildr, who is about to strike him, Vanille stands between them in order to shield Sazh. She helps him defeat and tame Brynhildr, but still feels that she has to die for her sins. Soon after, Sazh almost commits suicide, they are both captured by the Sanctum, and she is restrained in a Purge robe walking in a funeral procession overseen by Jihl while Sazh is encased in the casket.

During their captivity aboard the Palamecia, Vanille tells Sazh about how she became a l'Cie to fight Cocoon centuries before, how she and Fang awoke in Cocoon with a new Focus, and how Fang lost her memory. Vanille says that she was afraid of their new Focus hurting innocent people, so she "played dumb," and pretended that she did not remember anything either in an attempt to run away from her Focus. This would later be the reason behind Serah and Dajh being tured into l'Cie themselves. Sazh forgives Vanille when he realizes what happened to Dajh was an accident and not really her fault. They manage to escape from captivity after learning that Lightning and the others are there to rescue them, and Vanille fights her way through the Palamecia with Sazh. They eventually meet up with the rest of the party, and Vanille is finally reunited with Fang.

Later on in the Fifth Ark, Vanille reveals to Lightning that she got onto the Purge train of her own free will in order to return to Gran Pulse and prevent the possiblity of her Focus harming anyone. After everyone defeats Cid Raines, Vanille helps Fang tame Bahamut with Lightning. After a Pulse monster attacks their airship, she gets sucked out along with Hope. She manages to grab his wrist before losing her grip on the ship, but they are eventually saved by Fang and Bahamut. Much later in a section of Pulse called the Mah'habara Subterra, upon realizing Fang had remembered that she was responsible for the destruction of their tribe, Vanille tried insisting that Fang was not. This causes her to go into a state of emotional distress, and her l'Cie brand begins to glow, initiating the start of her battle with her Eidolon, Hecatoncheir. After the Eidolon appears, Vanille learns that Fang was lying about getting her memories back in order to get the truth out of her. Vanille is forgiven by Fang for all her lying after they tame Hecatoncheir. In the Sulyya Springs, Vanille reveals to Snow that she had met Serah, after the latter helped Vanille when she scraped her leg on the beach. Vanille told Serah that she wanted to apologize to Fang for lying to her. Serah told her to face it later if it was too much to deal with (something Vanille would repeat to Hope four days later), and that running away from the ones that she cares about is not love. Although Vanille might want to shut them out for their safety, that will hurt them even more. Vanille takes Serah's hand and touches her bandage with her other hand. She gets on her knees and apologizes to Serah for her role in the latter becoming a l'Cie. This encounter with Serah inspired Vanille to prevent her Focus from destroying Cocoon.

At the end of the game, the fal'Cie Orphan forced her and Fang to become Ragnarok to complete their intended purpose. However, Fang decides to once more assume the form on her own in an attempt to destroy both the fal'Cie and herself. But when Fang turns out to be unable to assume the form, Orphan tortures her to force Vanille into becoming Ragnarok, almost accepting the fal'Cie's demand were it not for their friends saving Fang. After Orphan's destruction, Vanille and Fang manage to become Ragnarok together to stop Cocoon from crashing into Gran Pulse by crystallizing it, and themselves.

Abilities and Equipment
As a l'Cie, Vanille summons Hecatoncheir, a many-armed Eidolon that transforms into a bipedal mech with four machine gun turrets. In battle, Vanille's weapon is a unique rod called the Binding Rod. The Binding Rod's head piece looks like a pair of antlers and the body consists of four long wires with hooks that deal damage to enemies by latching on and pulling. She concentrates on casting magic spells from a distance, as opposed to the close combat style of Lightning and Snow. Vanille is ranked second (along with Lightning) for highest Magic Attack making her a good Ravager, with the ability to learn all elemental spells up to the -"ra" rank with Fire and Ice being her -"ga" specialty. She also makes a very effective Saboteur, possessing abilities the majority of enemies are weak to. There's even her full ATB skill, Death, that deals non-elemental magic damage to an enemy and may inflict instant KO. Vanille truly shines in the Medic role, where she rivals with Hope when it comes to effective healing.

Musical Themes
In Final Fantasy XIII, Vanille's Theme is composed of solo piano. There is a variant of her theme "Memories of Happier Days," which plays when Sazh tells Vanille about his son in Nautilus, and the moment between her and Serah.

Trivia

 * Her Japanese voice actor, Yukari Fukui, has also voiced Terra Branford in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Though a coincidence, Hecatoncheir's Gestalt Mode slightly resembles Terra's Magitek Armor from Final Fantasy VI.
 * Vanille's crystal is in the shape of an apple.
 * Vanille shares her middle name with the spell Dia from Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy XI.
 * In the English version, Vanille occasionally calls her Eidolon by the pet name "Hecaton".
 * Vanille is the oldest of the series' "perky young girl" characters, with Krile, Relm, Yuffie, Selphie, Eiko, Rikku, and Penelo also included.
 * Vanille's major roles are Ravager, Medic, and Saboteur.