“I am Maia... The workings of the Pleiades shining in the heavens shall be yours, bearer of the full moon...!”
Maia is the initial Persona of Maya Amano and a Demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series. She is the mascot Persona of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.
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.
It evolves into Maia Prime after making all the right choices and meeting Philemon at Mt. Iwato, and later evolves into Artemis.
Physical Appearance[]
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.
Design Variants[]
Maia appears as a spell card.
Maia evolves into Maia Custom and has longer appendages and more armor.
As Maia Prime she wears more red and has fans.
As Reverse Maia his colors are more muted when she is wielded by Shadow Maia.
In Eternal Punishment, Maia's design changes slightly and she has more black elements in her design.
In-Game Appearances[]
| Sprites | |
|---|---|
 Maia's sprite in Innocent Sin |
Mythological Origins[]
In Greek mythology, Maia is the daughter of Atlas and Pleione and the patron goddess of Nursing mothers. She is the eldest, shyest and most beautiful of the Pleiades, the seven sisters. Her beauty attracted Zeus who bred with her and so she gave birth to Hermes.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Reverse Maia shares the same base sprite sheet as Maia Prime with a different palette instead of the initial Maia.
- Aside from the fact that Maia is used by Maya, her oriental design references the interpretation that the Atlas' seven daughters, the Pleiades, derive from the Chinese Jade Emperor's seven daughters. Both are related to constellations (though the stars they represent differ) and have their youngest daughters, namely Merope and Zhinü, romantically involved with mortal males.
- Maia's mythological connection to Hermes parallels the relationship between Maya and Jun Kurosu. Where Maya and Jun were mother and son figuratively in childhood, Maia and Hermes were literally mother and son in lore.
- Maia and Maia Prime are the only Initial and Prime Personas who are not exclusive to one character, as Yukino can use them.
- In Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, if the player does not return or delete Maia Custom before Restarting their save file, the flag for triggering Maia's mutation to Maia Custom will not be reset, making them unobtainable.
Cover Gallery[]
