Maquia

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**Maquia** is one of the main protagonists of *Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms*. She is an orphaned Iorph who escapes after the Mezarte Kingdom launches an attack on her home. Lost and alone, she finds an infant in the arms of his dead mother and decides to raise him as her own, giving him the name Ariel.

## Story

Maquia lives in Iorph alongside her friends Leilia and Krim. During Mezarte's assault, she is taken away by a rampant Renato. She wanders into a caravan and adopts an orphaned infant, raising him at Helm Ranch. When Ariel is a child, she leaves with him to travel the lands. After living in Dorail for a time, Ariel leaves her and Maquia is kidnapped by Krim shortly after. During the invasion, she ends up helping Dita deliver her baby, then comes to tend to Ariel's wounds following the battle. She leaves him and frees the last living Renato, before flying off with Leilia. She returns to Helm Ranch to say goodbye to Ariel on his deathbed, then departs to continue her journey.

## Appearance

Like all Iorphs, Maquia has blonde hair and red eyes. As a young Iorph, she appears to have the body of a 15-year-old throughout the film. She ties the front of her hair with a white ribbon and wears traditional Iorph clothes of a long white robe, a gold belt, and white sandals.

After being separated from her clan, she dyes her hair orange to match Ariel's. She wears a gray shirt, a black skirt, and dark gray boots. In Dorail, she puts her hair up in a twisted ponytail tied with a blue ribbon, and dresses in a blue shirt, a dark gray skirt, and brown slippers.

During her time in captivity, her hair grows out beyond her waist, traditionally only allowed by mothers in Iorph. Krim then cuts it to its normal length, returning her hair to its original color. She also returns to wearing Iorph clothes during the invasion on Mezarte.

She is last seen wearing a white shirt, a blue skirt, and black shoes, and carrying a brown bag containing a burned piece of Hibiol.

## Personality

She is shy and soft-spoken, as well as being an emotional young girl who is quick to cry, according to Elder Racine. She believes herself to be alone, with no family to speak of, when she finds Ariel. She decides to raise him as her own, genuinely coming to love him from the moment she holds him. She learns what she can from Mido, but retains a lingering doubt of her ability to be a mother to Ariel. She initially struggles to adapt to her new life, but quickly becomes accustomed to it by the time Ariel has become a teenager. She tries her best to be strong for him and supports him even as he grows distant from her, and is heartbroken upon his leaving to become a Mezarte soldier. Even so, during her years in captivity just the thought of Ariel is enough to keep her going. Later, she readily helps Dita to deliver her and Ariel's baby, and is overjoyed at Millia's birth. Upon reuniting with Ariel, they share a heartfelt conversation before she leaves, smiling softly as he begs her to stay. She then comforts Leilia as they fly away on the back of the last Renato. After many decades pass, she goes to visit Ariel one final time and cries at his death, recalling all of the moments she spent with him. Even so, she affirms that even with the pain of loss, she is happy to have been Ariel's mother.