Illua

Illua (イルア) is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. A high-ranking member of the crime syndicate Khamja, she is a merciless woman in search of power armed with a beautifully adorned katana.

Story
Illua first appears in-game in a flashback at the Nazan Mines, where some of the memories of Luso, Cid, and Adelle are released after the defeat of the Oversoul. One of Cid's memories is that of Illua approaching him in a dark alley of Graszton, drawing a gun, and shooting the Revgaji at close range. It is not known as to whether Luso or Adelle are aware of the exposure of the memory, as they do not question Cid about it when the stream of memories fade.

Illua premieres in the flesh to Adelle at a Pub. Without any introduction at all, she invites Adelle to "work for her". Slightly intimidated, Adelle declines Illua's offer, her excuse being that she is a member of Clan Gully. Illua politely brushes off this rejection and mysteriously comments on Adelle's talents before taking her leave.

The next encounter with the Nightshade proves to be potentially deadly. Abandoning the pleasantries she showed to Adelle, Illua posts an anonymous request at the pub for Luso's clan to meet at the Ruins of Delgantua. When they arrives at the ancient fortress, Illua is waiting for them, next to Ewen, whom Clan Gully had previous run-ins with. Cid immediately recognizes her, and the conversation between the two hints at their enmity relating to Khamja.

He attempts to probe Illua about her aspirations and plots, but she cuts the banter short, unsheathes her katana, and steers the meeting into violence. She even goes so far as to draw out dark magicks from her Grimoire, barring Clan Gully's Judge from the engagements, unless the party had previously protected Ezel Berbier from an attack following him charging a party 20,000 gil for a useless weapon, after which he gives Clan Gully a card which he labeled as being worth 80,000 gil, protecting their judge from her magic.

When Illua is defeated, her Khamja allies flee and Luso, Cid, and Adelle surround her. They take note of Illua's Grimoire, and Luso withdraws his own magick journal. Immediately recognizing the journal as a holy Grimoire, Illua redraws her blade and attempts to slice the tome in two. The journal blocks the katana with an aura of light, and transports Clan Gully to Zellea, the Forbidden Land, where they must fight a hand of the the demon Neukhia before returning to Lezaford's cottage.

Illua appears later to Adelle when the thief leaves Clan Gully. Illua brainwashes Adelle and sends her to take Luso's Grimoire, but Luso manages to break through the conditioning and the scheme fails.

The Nightshade later sends out another invitation to Clan Gully, beckoning them to witness a ritual she plans to enact at the Hall of Blessings at the Ruins of Delgantua. Though she is defeated once more, she reveals that she has forged a pact with the God of Time, Zomala, and calls upon an ancient spell which transports Clan Gully and herself back to Zellea. Amongst the misty wasteland of To Touch the Heavens, she brings out her grimoire for the final time, intent on using it to open the Rift and receive its power.

Though she fell once more to Clan Gully and died on the plains of Zellea, Illua succeeded in opening the Rift and summoning the Neukhia in full fury. Before dying, she asked Cid to pity her because "Power is all I am". Once she was defeated, and her power broken, she was nothing. As she dies, she dissolves into a purple mist, and vanishes.

Equipment and Abilities
The exclusive Nightshade Job belongs to Illua, granting her dominion over archaic and dark spells, such as Dimensional Rift, that make her a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Illua equips katanas as her weapon of choice, though she usually opts to fight with her legion of crippling magick. She also holds the Impervious Support ability, granting her immunity to all debuffs.

Trivia

 * Her name may be a pun of the fact that she is considered a master of the grimoire, which is, to all outward perception, a book, and images featured in books are illustrations.
 * Illua can be obtained as a clan member by using an Action Replay cheat device. She is permanently in the Nightshade Job, but has mastered every Hume ability as well as seemingly every Support and Reaction ability (including enemy-only ones). However, she can cause the game to lock up if anything that is not normally possible occurs, such as attempting to press Y for "Help" on her Job menu (since there are no Jobs listed to be examined) or if she happens to get an Opportunity turn, which is only fully preventable by not using her in battle. Like all preset characters, she cannot be sent on Dispatch quests; this may imply that, at some point in FFTA2's development, she was set to join the party.
 * Illua herself may, like Luso, be an otherworlder from the "real world" who has been in Ivalice far longer than Luso; it would explain why she even has a grimoire to begin with.