Lucia (Shadow Hearts)

"And here comes your fortune."

- Lucia

Lucia is a Florentine fortuneteller working for an old and wise mystic named Carla in the game Shadow Hearts: Covenant. She works as a fortuneteller for Carla and distinguishes herself from most others by not only using prestidigitation to draw the cards but to do so while preforming exotic dances.

Background
Lucia was taken-in by Carla at a young age. Carla was a member of a terrorist group when she was young called Sapentes Gladio, Carla had accepted the groups request for her after becoming jaded to her fellow-man by all the men who her used her and threw her out. Sapientes Gladio wanted Carla to teach wayward young girls the mystic arts so they could be recruited mystics in the organization. But over time Carla saw the violence her student Veronica was being made to undertake and fled Sapientes Gladio rather than train more mystics only to have them end up murders. When Carla left Sapientes Gladio she was still training Lucia and so she took her with her and raised her as both a student and foster child.

Carla opened a fortune telling stand in Florence Italy and when Lucia was old enough she worked there plying her skills while also using her looks and charm to keep costumers coming back for Carla had her preforming exotic dances while drawing and reading fortunes. Over the years Lucia and Carla had been bothered by Sapientes Gladio several times, either attempting to woo her back or posing as normal patrons at her fortunetelling stand in an attempt to ambush the two. The standard way of dealing with Sapientes Gladio was to lull the agents into a compromised state with an exotic dance, have Lucia take them some place private, Carla's summer home on Manmariana Island, once there Lucia would lead the assassins to the boudoir were she would release Andre', Carla's giant man-eating cat and once the assassins were eaten Lucia simply strolled back into town.

Manmariana Island
One day Carla and Lucia got some new costumers, Yuri, Karin, Blanca, Gepetto and Joachim. The five looked strange, had strange powers and skills each and were asking about Sapientes Gladio. They said they were sent by an old friend of Carla and Lucia's named Laurence but Carla knew better than to rust them just for mentioning an old friend. Carla humored their request and said she needed a flower called the Adriatic Magnolia to help them so she had Lucia guide them to the island were it grew, Manmariana Island...

Events on the island took an unexpected turn for Lucia when Andre', whom was quite hungry, tried eat her instead. Yuri and his friend saved Lucia, defeated Andre' and helped put him back in his cage but wanted an explanation. Lucia apologized and took them back to Florence to have Carla explain. Carla had been using a divination of hers to keep an eye on them from a distance and already knew what had happened when they came back. Carla apologized as well and thanked them for saving Lucia then told about her history with Sapientes Gladio. Yuri, Karin and the others were enemies of Sapientes Gladio themselves and looking for a friend of theirs named Roger Bacon who Sapientes Gladio had kidnapped. Once Carla was convinced the five were trustworthy she told them without further delay where they could find Sapientes Gladio's headquarters. Carla requested that they take Lucia with them, for there was only so much Lucia could still learn in Florence and accompanying them would both set things right with them and help Lucia become stronger. Yuri and the others accepted her help and Lucia was eager to go exploring and hopefully become a better trained mystic and alchemist in the process.

Skills & Abilities
Lucia has two main abilities to employ in battle once part of the party, the first is her Tarot Card ability and the second is her Aromatherapy. For her Tarot Card ability Lucia draws from her deck of greater arcana tarot deck. Each card in Lucia's deck possesses a certain ability that aides the party or harms the enemies. The shuffle of the deck makes the cards circle around face-down until the player chooses one at random which then is revealed and releases it's effect. However, if the card is pulled out in reverse the effect of the card is detrimental, employing the opposite effect in the cases of buffs or effecting the party instead of the enemy in the cases of debuffs. The deck nearly always starts out with their positive effects at the beginning of the draw so if selected quickly before the shuffle reaches a full rotation the outcome will almost always be positive as opposed to negative, this however may cheat the player on more exotic effecting cards. Tarot draws can only be used once per battle and are best employed near the start so the effects help end the battle fast. Lucia's second special move, Aromatherapy, is much easier to control as Lucia needs to intentionally mix an effect from the extracts. Once mixed the extracts release a mist that gives an effect to the entire party, healing or boosting some stat across all other members without wasting an item to do so.Lucia is immune to the effects of her oils and extracts but radiates the effect, making even her passive presence in the rest of the battle useful. While Lucia herself does not know the effects of her mixtures at first, trial and error of every extract in her possession will permanently reveal their effects after the first use, the order of the mixture makes a difference as well so to acquire all potential buffs the player must try every extract in every combination at least once. Greater Arcana and the Extracts/Oils can be found in various locations throughout the game. Once acquired the items are never lost or diminished, ensuring Lucia's effects are constantly employable in battle. Lucia's greatest is her Luck stat, which ups the chance of higher payout after battles and ups the critical damage of both physical and magical attacks, the higher the stat gets as Lucia levels the more reduced the scattering or reversed cards in Lucia's Tarot Card draw.

Tarot Cards
Upright- Damage displayed is always doubled.
 * The Fool

Reversed-  Damage displayed is always doubled. Upright- Magic consumption is reduced by half.
 * The Magician

Reversed- Magic consumption is doubled. Upright- Allies MP is restored by 50% of maximum value.
 * The High Priestess

Reversed- Enemies' MP is restored by 50% of maximum value. Upright- Allies' evasion rate is doubled.
 * The Empress

Reversed- Enemies' evasion rate is doubled. Upright- Enemies' agility is cut in half.
 * The Emperor

Reversed- Allies' agility is cut in half. Upright- Allies' HP is restored by 50% of maximum.
 * The Hierophant

Reversed- Enemies HP is restored by 50% of maximum. Upright- HP, MP and SP are all restored by 50% of maximum.
 * The Lovers

Reversed- HP, MP and SP are all reduced by 50% of maximum. Upright- Causes damage to all enemies by 50% of maximum HP.
 * The Chariot

Reversed- Causes damage to all allies by 50% of maximum HP. Upright- Allies' attack damage is doubled.
 * Strength

Reversed- Enemies attack damage is doubled. Upright- 50% of allies max SP is restored.
 * The Hermit

Reversed- 50% of enemies max SP is restored. Upright- Allies Luck stat is multiplied by 128
 * The Wheel of Fortune

Reversed- Enemies Luck stat is multiplied by 128. Upright- Lucia is instantly killed while the entire party is fully healed.
 * Justice

Reversed- Lucia is instantly killed. Upright- All enemies lose one round of actions.
 * The Hanged Man

Reversed- All allies lose one round of actions. Upright- Instant Death on all enemies.
 * Death

Reversed- Instant Death on all allies. Upright- SP is depleted half as fast as normal.
 * Temperance

Reversed- SP is depleted twice as fast as normal. Upright- Causes a random negative status effect on all enemies.
 * The Devil

Reversed- Causes a random negative status effect on all allies. Upright- Current held cash is doubled.
 * The Tower

Reversed- Current held cash is halved. Upright- All allies' max HP is raised by 50%.
 * The Star

Reversed- All enemies' max HP is raised by 50%. Upright-  All allies' max MP is raised by 50%.
 * The Moon

Reversed- All enemies' max MP is raised by 50%. Upright-  All allies' max SP is raised by 50%.
 * The Sun

Reversed- All enemies' max SP is raised by 50%. Upright- The player will get a chance to reselect a card, which will always be positive.
 * Judgment

Reversed- The player will get a chance to reselect a card, which will always be negative. Upright- Cash, EXP and Soul Energy received at the end of battle is doubled.
 * The World

Reversed- Cash, EXP and Soul Energy received at the end of battle is halved.

Oils and Extracts

 * Above chart is borrowed from Shadow Hearts Wiki.