Sera

Sera, full name Seraphita and also known as the Cyber Shaman, is a character in the Digital Devil Saga duology.
==Appearances==
*Digital Devil Saga: Major Character
*Digital Devil Saga 2: Playable Character
*Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
==Profile==
===Digital Devil Saga===
Sera makes her first appearance in Digital Devil Saga after a pod-like object that appeared in the Junkyard burst, releasing a bright light that turned everyone in the battlefield (and, ultimately, in the whole Junkyard) into demons. Just after Serph, the leader of the Embryon, and his comrades calmed down, they spotted Sera at the remains of the blast. Later, Sera was brought back to Muladhara, the home base of the Embryon. There, everyone was puzzled to see Sera's unique black hair, and the fact that she did not possess a tag ring, a virtual necessity in the Junkyard. Upon Serph attending the meeting of the Tribes in Sahasrara, the Karma Temple issued a new law: "Devour the other Tribes and bring the black-haired girl to Nirvana," deepening the hostility between tribes. The Embryon understood who the black-haired girl was and decided to keep Sera's presence a secret. When Serph, Heat and Argilla went to negotiate with the Vanguard tribe, Gale succumbed to his hunger, and started attacking members of the Embryon. Sera stopped his berserk state with her singing.
Sera exclaimed that she had come to the Junkyard to help the inhabitants, but confessed she had no memories, as if the song she was singing earlier was the only thing she remembered. As their eventual negotiations with the Maribel tribe were successful, Serph, Heat and Argilla were sent to attack Anahata, the Solids' base. Their plan backfired, however, under the intervention and betrayal of Bat, the second-in-command of the Maribel. As a result, Jinana, the leader of Maribel, was killed.
Argilla broke the silence policy on Sera's whereabouts to the dying Jinana, not knowing Bat was nearby, listening. This gave Bat the chance to report back to the Solids so they could launch a heavy assault towards the Embryon while they were busy reclaiming Manipura. Sera was abducted by the Solids in this raid, but they left Cielo alive to taunt the Embryon and lure them to Coordinate 136.
Upon venturing to the highest level of the castle, Mick, leader of the Solids, is shown holding Sera captive, along with Bat. Bat taunts Heat, offering him to join forces by killing Serph, allowing him to have Sera to himself when they reach Nirvana. Heat assaults Serph, but later reveals that he has been putting up an act all along. They coordinate for a near-perfect attack on Mick, but Sera doesn't realize the fight is a trick and tries to jump off the building, sacrificing herself so they'd have no reason to continue trying to kill each other. Mick catches her, but Sera uses a strange power that forces Mick to let go of her. As she falls she loses consciousness, and later has no memory of using the power or that she has powers at all.
Bat, however, managed to divebomb and rescue her, but instead of giving her back, he announced he would take her and betray Mick to the Brutes. Cielo intervened at that moment, blasting Bat's wings and retaking Sera. After returning to Muladhara, they realized that since Bat was still alive, Sera's presence had been revealed to the other tribes as well. Knowing Bat had sided with the Brutes, Gale proposed a plan to lure a large contingent of Brutes inside a deserted ship and then blow up the ship with explosives. While exploring the landlocked vessel, however, Sera has slight hints of flashbacks, and expresses a desire not to destroy the ship.
While the others were busy at the ship, Heat took Sera to their new base. While alone with her he tried to convince that he is stronger and a better protector than Serph. Surprised by Heat's exclamation, Sera tried telling him that strength isn't everything. Desperate to show her how he felt, Heat grabbed her and kissed her. Surprised and hurt by the forceful advance, Sera began to cry and ran away from him.
Sera's memories were finally restored during the Embryon's assault upon Ajna. At the Brutes Base, all members of the Embryon except for Gale felt a warm familiarity towards the manor that had appeared in the place, something even they couldn't explain. After defeating the guards, they were ambushed by the leader of the Brutes, Varin Omega (who had started referring to himself as Colonel Beck. While the Embryon attempted to attack him, he fended them off one by one, angrily questioning why they did not remember being killed by Serph, confusing the party. As Heat tried to attack, Varon asked him how many times Heat would die for Sera, and forcefully activated Heat's Atma virus, igniting his hunger. With Sera's help, Heat recovered. Enraged, Varin engaged the party in battle. During the battle, Sera aided the party with her Prayer song, calming the hunger ignited by Varin's attacks.
After his defeat, Varin revealed that everyone in the Junkyard originally came from Nirvana, but had died there and been reincarnated in the Junkyard. Before dying, he exclaimed that Sera was the witch destined to destroy the world. Upon Varin's death, Sera began to recover her memories and secretly left the party. Realizing she had disappeared, the others anxiously searched for her. While gone Sera discovered a photo that triggered her memories, restoring them. Entering Ajna's last room, Serph encountered an illusion of Sera, who promptly disappeared. Serph picked up the photo Sera was holding earlier, and finally realized the reason behind their familiarity with the mansion: Sera once lived there. Realizing this, the others began to worry that what Varin said was true. As the Embryon is the last tribe standing, the eternal rain finally stops. Knowing Sera has gone to the Karma Temple and to the gates of Nirvana, the main Embryon members decide to go there to find Sera.
Sera entered Sahasrara, long before the Embryon did. She was addressed as "mother" or "cyber shaman" by the non-human demons and the Temple Guards protecting the Temple, and was shown to be a respected figure. Sera would later order the demons of Sahasrara to deter the Embryon's presence, much to the Embryon's confusion. Upon reaching the highest level of the Karma Tower, Sera confronted a mysterious woman, Jenna Angel. Sera pleaded with her to stop the activation of the Junkyard's destruction, to no avail. To protect the Embryon, she froze them to the spot when they reached the top of the tower, so they would not fight Jenna.
Unwilling to give up, however, Serph and Heat tried to move, and Serph ultimately even turned into his Atma form, reaching Jenna. Amused by their strength, Angel pulled Sera's hair so the pain would make her lose concentration and cancel their bonds. She then engaged the party in battle. It is revealed that Angel was the one responsible of implanting the Atma Virus into the citizens of the Junkyard, turning them into fiends.
Sera had to use her song to keep Angel from igniting their hunger, but eventually Angel was defeated. Serph, in his atma form, tried to strike a finishing blow on Jenna. However, his attack backfired, destroying Angel's control sphere. This accelerated the Junkyard's destruction. Gale urged the others to run to the tower's exit portal; however, Serph had been blasted to the edge of the platform and didn't have enough time to escape, and was separated from the others. Before disappearing, Sera told Serph that she would "find him," and cried, leading to the events of Digital Devil Saga 2.
====The Two Princes====
Inside Coordinate 136, the four Embryon members arrive there. A fairy tale is told as they ascend the amusement park castle (which resembles a literal fairy tale castle). They encounter the recurring portrait of a "princess" who greatly resembles Sera. According to the local "navigator," a fairy statue, the place is known for its tale of a princess and two princes, the good prince and the evil prince. It grows more twisted as they reach higher levels. The good prince was known as a charismatic, kind prince whereas the evil prince is known for his brash and haughty behavior, but holds a soft spot for the princess. The two princes admired the princess, and tried to steal her heart. However, the princess herself was attracted by the good prince, and fell in love with him. According to the tale the evil prince sought out to stop the good Prince from meeting up with the princess, and eventually tried to kill him. Towards the end of the tale, the princess found out that the Evil prince was the only one who truly cared for her all along, and in an ironic twist, the Evil Prince was killed by the Good prince. The Good prince was revealed to be a cruel, manipulative young man, but the story ended abruptly. In reality, the tale reveals Sera's past, a story not revealed until Digital Devil Saga 2 which is a reference of the connection between Serph Sheffield, Heat O'Brien and Sera.
===Digital Devil Saga 2===
Sera is in the possession of the Karma Society at the beginning of the game, having interfaced with the Junkyard, which was in reality a virtual reality program, through the EGG facility. The Embryon's (minus Heat, who was still missing) quest to locate her and have their questions answered is part of their motivation for aiding the Lokapala. A document found in the EGG Installation mentions that Sera regained consciousness and made at least a partial report concerning the events in the Junkyard. Margot Cuvier and Jenna Angel originally planned to lobotomize her so they could use her demon-calming powers without pause (although secretly Jenna wanted to get Sera out of the way entirely, so she wouldn't be able to interfere in Angel's plan to turn everyone into demons with no safeguard for their hunger), but Madame quietly vetoes the notion without stating why the plan had changed. At this time it is revealed that Jenna Angel is Sera's one and only parent: as a hermaphrodite, Angel was both Sera's mother and father.
Immediately after Sera is retrieved from the EGG by Serph and the others, Heat appears and mortally wounds Serph, and the two of them fall into the EGG fluid together. Sera's distress over this scene caused the machine to overload, sending tremendous amounts of corrupted data to the Black Sun. In retaliation for humans inflicting so much pain on each other, God began to upload data from the planet itself, at such a rate that the entire planet would be absorbed in less than a day. Depressed and exhausted, she passes out and the others have to carry her through the Power Plant as they attempt to cut the power and end the data transfer. Awakening as they realize the plan failed, she is pessimistic about their chances until Argilla helps her realize the sacrifices being made for her sake. This gives her the will to fight, and she inherits Serph's Water Crown Atma and his mastered Mantra. She becomes Varnani, the female version of Serph's Varna, and takes over his role as leader of the Embryon.
Returning to the EGG in hopes of convincing God to stop consuming the planet, Sera and the Embryon encounter Heat, having grown massive and mutated from the corrupted data in the EGG into the insane Vritra. Heat wishes to devour Sera and be with her forever. As Sera and the others fight, Serph (inside the EGG chamber, which is inside Heat) learns many things about his origins from Schroedinger. He also discovers that the stress from the experiments on Sera have caused her aging to accelerate: outside the EGG's life-sustaining fluid, she's dying. He also learns the truth of the person he was based on. Sheffield had manipulated everyone and was after the power of God, and was only stopped from killing Sera when O'Brien (Heat's original) sacrificed himself. Serph defeats the data remnants of Sheffield and breaks free from Heat, and is tearfully reunited with Sera. Heat is restored to his human form and regains his sanity, but is unable to survive the wound inflicted by Serph's escape. After bidding a final farewell to his former comrade, Serph rejoins the Embryon.
With the EGG destroyed, Sera mentions a second facility from which she might be able to send her data to God and convince him of mankind's worth. She does not expect to return, and declares that she will undertake this mission alone, but Serph, Gale, and Cielo refuse to stay behind. As they are about to steal an airplane to take to the second facility, they are confronted by Sera's parent, Jenna Angel. Sera refuses her parent's demand that she return, escaping while Gale distracts Angel.
En route to the HAARP Facility, Cielo is killed by their pursuers, and Sera finds her only source of strength is Serph. They are able to successfully activate the process to allow Sera to communicate with God, but the intense strain of the data transfer catches the HAARP building ablaze. As the building collapses around them, Serph and Sera hold hands and are killed in the flames and rubble of the collapsing HAARP. After their deaths, as their own data flies into the Sun, they embrace to protect each other from the overwhelming crush of solar data and fuse together, becoming Seraph.
Despite being a perfect fusion of Serph and Sera, Seraph speaks with Sera's voice. This could be because Sera was much more talkative than Serph, making her aspect the more appropriate one for communication. It could also be that until their minds became fully fused, Serph's aspect wanted to be careful not to repress Sera's in any way.
Although Seraph achieved enlightenment, some aspect of Sera and Serph did not, and was later reincarnated back on Earth.
===Quantum Devil Saga===
Much different from the game, while Sera still sings, her true means of pacifying the Atma hunger is by allowing the demon to consume some of her blood. The exact amount depends on how severe the Atma has taken control of the host. For a demon of minor symptoms, few drops would do, but more is required if the patient is on the verge of totally giving in to their Atmas. After the core members of Embryon have defeated Harley in Vanguards' headquarter, Sera sneaks through all the Embryon guards to reach Serph, Argilla, Cielo and Gale, who begin to lose control of their Atmas due to refusal to devour, in order to offer her blood to save them. Upon learning the mystic power of Sera's blood, Gale begins to harvest her blood to produce capsules and distribute them (in the guise of medicine rationed from the Church of Karma) to all Embryon members and ammo for suppressing their opponents in their Atma form. The Embryon is therefore the only tribe in the Junkyard that is free of cannibalism which happens gruesomely in the other tribes.
Sera's presence among the Embryon has been kept confidential since the Church (actually Angel) amends her being another necessity for the champion tribe to reach Nirvana, but the capsule produced from her blood is used by Serph to negotiate with Jinana for alliance between the Embryon and the Maribel. During the joint raid on the Solids' citadel in Anahata, they learn their plan has been sold by Bat to Mick the Slug of the Solids. Realizing the headquarters of Embryon is likely to be invaded in the meantime, Serph orders Cielo to fly back to the base at full speed and hide Sera to safety. Cielo is deeply injured but still manages to keep Sera from being found by the Solids, partially because Bat and Mick do not know that Embryon is keeping the girl who is demanded by the Church and her connection with the Atma-suppressing capsule. This allows Sera to successfully save Jinana from her doom.
While staying by Cielo's side during his rehabilitation from the surgery, Heat tosses a handgun at Sera and coldly tells her to learn to use some weapon instead of whining. He suggests that she can threaten her enemies by pointing the gun at herself to buy some time for the rescue. This theory frightens Cielo and Argilla, but Sera insists and asks Serph to teach her the usage. Although it is proven that any traditional firearm is no longer capable of scratching any Atma, Serph agrees that allowing Sera to learn shooting does more good than bad and asks Argilla to watch over Sera's progress. Sera's fragile hands are snipped by the gun due to the recoil, but she is determined to practice shooting daily despite Argilla's protest.
In later books, she is taken by Karma Society. Before being killed, Serph successfully saves Sera from the EGG capsule. As such, she does not inherit Serph's Atma. She and Gale go to hack in the city's systems and take control of them, silencing Karma Society's battle bots.
She and Serph go to the facility to talk to God, however Serph falls victim to his hunger and Sera lets herself be eaten. It's Serph who talks to god (possibly Sera's power has been absorbed by him), and later, Sera, Serph and Heat appear in the Sun, being called the Trimurti by Schroedinger. Unlike in the game, Serph (after having absorbed Sera and Heat) does not speak with Sera's voice and retains his personality (possibly because Serph isn't a silent protagonist in Quantum). 
==Gallery==
;Digital Devil Saga
Sera.jpg|Sera as she appears in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
;Digital Devil Saga 2
File:SeraphitaDDS.png|Sera as she appears in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
File:01410 Sera Back.png|Sera as she appears in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
File:01410 Sera Bust.png|Sera as she appears in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
Sera & Varnani.jpg|Sera and Varnani as they appear in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
Seravarnani.jpg|Sera and Varnani as they appear in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
SeraVarnaniConcept.jpg|Sera and Varnani as they appear in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
SeraCG.jpg|Sera as she appears in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
Digital Devil Saga 2 Berserk Sera.jpg|Sera's berserk form as it appears in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
Varnanikillspabilsag.jpg|Varnani killing an enemy in Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
;Quantum Devil Saga
Quantum_Devil_Saga_-_Avatar_Tuner_III.png|Volume 3 cover
Quantum_Devil_Saga_-_Avatar_Tuner_V.png|Volume 5 cover
;Other Appearances
P3D Aigis Sera DLC costume.png|Aigis as Sera in Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
==Trivia==
*Sera closes her left eye while shooting her pistol, a bad habit that lowers depth perception.
Category:Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner Characters
Category:Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 Characters
Category:Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner Allies