Mana Goddess

The Mana Goddess, also known as the Goddess of Mana, is a recurring character in the Mana series.

Background
The highest and most holy deity of any world in which the series takes place, the Mana Goddess is oft positioned as the benevolent, yet stalwart creator god and maker of all things living, Her powers so vast as to defy description by any language. Embraced by good and pursued by evil, She exists as the very essence of the Mana Tree, from which all life and spiritual force are said to emanate. She is even rumored to grant the fondest wishes of one's heart and soul should She be approached with pure intent.

Yet in spite of possessing such far-reaching, world-shaping power, the Mana Goddess is not a perfect deity by definition. She often enters the world as a mortal regardless of whether She is a spirit or not; and so, a common plot in each world involves the selection and/or appointment of a chosen champion to ensure Her will is done and Her consciousness kept safe from all harm; as She goes, so goes the world She oversees. Any significant presence of darkness therefore gravely weakens the Goddess so that if She falls, Her world falls with Her. However, a female of any tribe closely linked to the Mana Tree may succeed Her to prevent the world's collapse. This often comes at the cost of the woman's mortal life and body, with the added effect of mana power becoming dormant until the new Goddess matures, at which point the cycle may repeat.

Echoes of Mana
Serving as the player's main guide through the early story, the Mana Goddess first appears as the benevolent presence that awakens the twins Quilto and Quilta from their nightmare. She seeks to restore the Echoes, memory fragments of worlds past and present, to rebuild what is now a wasteland devoid of life and memory. The twins have the unique ability to travel into worlds borne of Her sacred fruit. As they progress through the Echoes, the Goddess sends the heroes to resolve ever more complex corruptions of each world they visit as they seek out the Mana Sword.

As the twins and their allies hop from memory to memory, they meet with many heroes who have wielded the Mana Sword in their time and place, but also find that none of these swords is the Mana Sword they need. Their quest is interrupted when the forces of darkness finally apprehend them and pull them into the Voidfig and the emptiness between worlds. There, the Mana Sword is manifest from the harvester pole in their very hands. With it, they defeat the Ebon Knight in a brutal battle, and peace comes within their grasp.

When the twins report back to the Mana Goddess with sword in hand, however, "She" makes the unusual request that they slay Her. They do so with reluctance; and in the blink of an eye, darkness pours out of the Goddess' body, for Her task was a ruse that ultimately awakened Dema, the False Goddess, an entity bent on erasing all worlds from existence in order to halt the cycle of mana that has killed the Goddesses of each and every world. By manifesting herself as the False Tree, Dema sends her roots and her agents of destruction to help her perform this feat.

Yet, as all seemed lost, the true Mana Goddess, Nona, extracted the hero from the "Hollow World" to once again restore the Echoes as Dema's corruption threatens all of existence.