| “ | The truth will set you free... however... before you look for salvation in truth, you must question what truth really is.
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Melisse Ortus (メリス・オルタス, Merisu Orutasu) is a playable character from the side story Xenosaga: Pied Piper. She is an ambitious young investigator who worked under Captain Jan Sauer in the 1875th Federation special-ops detachment squad.
Personality[]
Melisse is a no-nonsense woman, passionate, insecure, who yearns to be a strong leader and succeed in her field. She has a strong sense of justice, yet whenever she acts on her principles it seems to get her in trouble. She is quick to take action, frequently placing the team in danger by acting on her own judgment.
She expresses great admiration for Jan, who is something of a mentor to her. Though it is hinted at that she has many admirers on the force, she seems to have no time for such pursuits and has no main love interest. She is very close to Mikhail Ortmann, and some scenes in the game suggest that their relationship runs deep. When Mikhail is killed, she falls into a deep shock.
Xenosaga: Pied Piper[]
At the beginning of the game, Melisse is extremely ambitious and determined to prove herself and become a captain. However, her inexperience as a leader and inability to control people costs her the lives of six policemen, an event which shadows her through the rest of the story.
Through the course of the game she grows significantly, and at the end she is present at the suicide of Jan Sauer. The shock of this experience, and a fairly ugly series of events afterward, gave her a deep drive to find the truth amidst the many technologies of the U.M.N.
She is arrested by the Federation Police as part of a group of suspects immediately after Voyager's attack on the Pilgrimage Meeting in T.C. 4667. However, her culpability was questioned on the grounds of her unsound mental condition, and she was later acquitted. She was subsequently sent to a treatment facility, but disappeared after her release.
In search of truth, Melisse resigned from the Federation police force and joined Veritas Liberabit Vos (V.L.V.), an anti-U.M.N. organization. There she came into her own as a leader, and she organized Scientia, a galaxy-spanning anti-U.M.N. resistance movement that Shion Uzuki joins in Episode III.
Trivia[]
- Fans have theorized that Melisse and Doctus may be the same person, although this is not stated outright in the game text. With their mutual connection to Scientia and Lactis/Canaan, as well as similar character designs and recurring themes of justice, it's possible that Melisse is remotely operating the android body of Doctus.
Gallery[]
