Maia

Maia (マイア, Maia) is a Persona from the Persona 2 duology.

Appearances

 * Persona 2: Innocent Sin: Moon Arcana
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Moon Arcana

History
In Greek mythology, Maia is the daughter of Atlas and Pleione. She is the eldest, most shy and most beautiful of the Pleiades, the seven sisters. Her beauty attracted Zeus and she gave birth to Hermes.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Maia is the initial Persona of Maya Amano. As a child, Maya was able to conjure her Persona, whom she believed to be a guardian angel. Years later when she and the other main characters are attacked by a group of monsters, she summons her Persona again to protect themselves and learns the ability to invoke her Persona at will ever since. Maia's appearance is overall pink, red and black. Her clothes seems to be a combination of Japanese traditional clothing and the Gothic style. During the arson attack 10 years ago, Maia was able to break her host out of the shrine before the flames consumed her.

If the player let Maya rescue Akari Hoshi in the Sky Museum when it was on fire, after the Mount Iwato scenario Philemon will grant her Maia Prime for overcoming her pyrophobia.

Despite being Maya's signature Personas, Maia and Maia Prime can be equipped by Yukino, albeit with lower affinity (higher SP consumption).

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Maia returns as Maya Amano's initial Persona. Following the events of Innocent Sin, Maya has completely forgotten her memories, but she is able to summon her Persona once more when she is attacked by JOKER. Maia's appearance is somewhat changed. Her stats and battle skills remain almost the same, but now excels at the water element instead of the ice element. In Eternal Punishment's universe, Maya was never caught in the arson attack, and so never summoned her Persona until the JOKER attacked her.

Trivia

 * Aside from the fact that Maia is used by Maya, her oriental design references the interpretation that the Atlas' seven daughters, the Pleiades, derive the Chinese Jade Emperor's seven nymphs, Tensen Nyannyans. Both are related to constellations (though the stars they represent differ) and have their youngest daughters, namely and, romantically involved with the mortal males.