Tia

Tia (ティア), also known as the Other Goddess, is a game adaptation-original character in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. Like her older twin sister Premiere, she is a Non-Player Character (NPC), born from the creation of Sword Art: Origin.

Appearance
Tia looks almost identical to Premiere, the only identifying difference between the twins being the absence of Premiere's small mole right under the corner of Tia's right eye. Like Premiere, Tia has blue eyes and short black hair, which turned gray and silvery white respectively after she initiated the events of the Great Separation. Her outfit is identical to Premiere's, with matching hair decorations, shirt, skirt, and sandals. After being found by Genesis, she began carrying a rapier.

After encountering a data-generating singularity that altered her appearance, Tia's body was aged into an adolescent form, with her hair grown longer and bound by dull gold accessories into two loops on the sides of her head and a ponytail at the back. Her outfit now consists of a form-fitting blue-green shirt that exposes her cleavage and midriff, with gold diamond patterns on the forearms of her sleeves, and low-hanging gray-green pants held up by a brown belt with a gold buckle and a strip of white cloth covering her backside. Additionally, she wears black fingerless gloves and knee-high brown leather boots with silver metal decorations on the cuff and toe boxe, and wields a large black greatsword identical to Genesis's. For a while after her encounter with the singularity, she wore a black hooded cloak with purple patterns and silver pauldrons, along with a silver mask that covered the top half of her face. After accepting Premiere and her group as friends, Tia replaced the cloak and mask for a white cape with light blue patterns and silver pauldrons. Once she severed her residual connection to the singularity, she is able to switch between her adolescent and preadolescent forms.

Personality
Like her sister, Tia was originally a null NPC, having no pre-programmed responses or behavior. However, after encountering and spending time around Genesis, she began adopting many traits of his attitude, including his belief in survival of the fittest and his disregard for other NPCs. She also developed an intense hatred for other people, due to their openly hostile attitude and contempt towards Genesis.

Hollow Realization
The Other Goddess was first encountered wandering the streets by Kirito. Mistaken for Premiere, she was led outside the Town of Beginnings, quietly minding Kirito's attempts at conversation while they climbed a hill overlooking a vast expanse of land. Staring into the distance, she listened to Kirito's speech on the endless possibilities provided by their world and his desire to experience all of them with everyone. Upon hearing disturbed laughter at that moment, they investigated the source of the sound, finding a player hallucinating under the effects of a digital drug. When the player was forcibly logged out by his AmuSphere, the Other Goddess stated she had no explanation for the phenomenon they had just witnessed.

After the defeat of the boss of the Jeweled Peak Lakes, the Other Goddess was encountered by Genesis, who was furious at the developers for hiding the real boss behind a decoy, and at Kirito's group for defeating it.

Later, the Other Goddess was spotted by Kirito, Klein, and Agil, who stopped for a quick meal at a popular ramen restaurant. Mistaken for Premiere yet again, she was invited to join them. Accepting the offer, she found the food immensely enjoyable but was slightly confused when Kirito suggested having everyone else along to eat with them for the next time.

After Genesis learned of the alterations performed on the Ground Quest, the Other Goddess, who was named Tia by Genesis, assisted him in finding and obtaining the fifth Sacred Stone. When Genesis unveiled his presence and possession of the item to Kirito and Premiere, who reached the dungeon later, Tia revealed herself to them and observed her twin during Genesis's speech. At the end of the speech, she obediently followed Genesis as he departed from the dungeon.

While Kirito and the others were occupied with a barrier in the Kurjiez Desert, Tia was taught how to wield a rapier by Genesis, and thus expressed her gratitude to be of service after dispatching a monster. However, she lost her footing against another monster, thus requiring Genesis to intervene. After the monster was dispatched, they were approached by several orange players, who declared their intentions of settling their grievances with Genesis. At that moment, the Other Goddess intervened, offering herself as their opponent and ordering them to either fight her or flee. When the players decided to withdraw, Tia and Genesis resumed the lesson.

Shortly after the defeat of the boss of the Kurjiez Desert, Tia and Genesis found the instanced location of an encampment holding the sixth and last Sacred Stone. When the NPCs guarding the stone refused to give them the stone without the presence of both Goddesses, the Other Goddess coldly obeyed her master's orders to execute them. When Kirito and Premiere arrived moments after Tia eliminated the last NPC, she emotionlessly explained her actions to them upon their request. After Genesis appeared and taunted Kirito, the Other Goddess reported she had collected the Sacred Stone. When Genesis learned of the requirement to bring both Goddesses to the Temple of Prayers and Kirito refused to comply, Tia was ordered by the former to defeat the latter and seize her twin.

Quickly engaging in combat with Kirito, Tia threatened to kill him if he did not surrender. After several blows, the Other Goddess questioned him on his refusal to attack her, but was confused by his response, and stunned when he asked if her current actions were what she truly wanted. She stood still for several moments after Genesis launched a surprise attack on Kirito that left the latter stunned and open, after which she was forcibly kicked by the former into finishing him. Regaining her composure, the Other Goddess charged at Kirito, declaring she still had something she needed to do. However, at that moment, her blow was intercepted by Asuna, forcing Tia back. When Genesis's attempt to handle Kirito and Asuna failed, the Other Goddess compliantly followed him as they retreated from the area.

Some time later, Tia followed Genesis deep into the Temple of Prayers and waited for Kirito and Premiere. When her sister and the swordsman finally appeared, the Other Goddess stepped forward but was immediately commanded by her master to not interfere. After the greatswordsman was defeated by Kirito, she fled deeper into the temple.

When Kirito and Premiere reached her at the Altar of Prayers, Tia named all the things Genesis had done for her and how his banishment from Sword Art: Origin had left her alone again. In her eyes, the loss and treatment of the first person to care for her confirmed Genesis' opinion that players were despicable people who would want to hurt them. Announcing that they had no need of a world or people who would reject them, she invited Premiere to pray with her and complete the Ground Quest. Surprised by her sister's refusal, Tia angrily tried to persuade her that their suffering would be perpetuated by other players. Seeing that her twin would not be convinced, she decided to destroy Ainground by herself, and thus forcibly summoned the Sacred Stones.

As the Sacred Stones floated around her, Tia folded her hands in prayer and teleported from the Temple of Prayers to hover over Ainground. Dispassionately watching the land below her, Tia bowed her head and folded her hands once more to initiate the Great Separation. While chunks of the earth were torn skyward and coalesced amid lightning to form Aincrad, Tia ominously declared Premiere would be unable to fight against her purpose and would become one with her.

However, with her power alone, Tia was only able to create an incomplete version of the floating castle, leaving much of the land below intact. Therefore, she began influencing the module coding the destruction of Aincrad to compel Premiere to aid her in finishing the Ground Quest. When that attempt failed due to Kirito's intervention, she rewrote the quest data to force the castle to crash into Ainground, utterly devastating Sword Art: Origin.

Deep within the core of Aincrad, Tia slept inside the Prayer Conduit, until it was damaged by Kirito's party. At that moment, Tia awoke and modified the construct, crafting multiple weapons for it, before hatefully repeating her resolve to obliterate their world. Despite her best efforts, Tia was unable to prevent Kirito and the others from destroying the Prayer Conduit and severing her connection to the module, which resulted in the arrest of Aincrad's fall. Despairingly believing her loss now marked her as one of the weak people Genesis had derided, she took her rapier and prepared to commit suicide. However, she was stopped at the last moment by Premiere, who told her she still had much to live for and many opportunities for change.

When Tia expressed her uncertainty of the future, she was asked by Premiere to simply trust in her honesty and friends, hoping for the best. Remembering the view she had seen outside the Town of Beginnings the first time she met Kirito, Tia sheathed her sword and asserted she could not blindly believe her sister's words. Nevertheless, she wondered how things would have been different if she or Genesis had lived in a world as kind as Premiere's. Remarking that their circumstances could still be different, she teleported to an unknown location.

Warriors of the Sky
Inspired by Premiere's words, Tia searched Ainground for a place she could belong, but to no avail. During her journeys, she encountered a data-generating singularity created by Aincrad's formation, disguised as a small bright light. The moment she looked directly at the light, the singularity analyzed all of her memories and emotions, using the data to simulate the consciousness of a potential future Tia that never found anywhere to belong, which then began to reconstruct the original Tia's data. Though she managed to escape before the overwriting process could be completed, the newly aged young woman suffered frequent migraines from her simulated future consciousness's attempts to finish the process. Overwhelmed by the thoughts of extreme loneliness and despair that accompanied these headaches, Tia sought a way to reach the singularity's core to stop the data overwrite attempts. Her exploration led her to wander the Stalvatos Ruins, where she was eventually spotted by Kirito's group.

Explorer of Illusory Mists
Sometime later, Tia learned she could access the singularity's core by acquiring certain items located in the newly created areas in Aincrad. Desperate to halt the data overwrite process, she entered the Vulcanus Citadel in search of the first item, during which she encountered Kirito's group. Upon seeing Premiere experiencing a debilitating headache, the young woman realized aloud the data overwrite attempts were also affecting her sister. When Kirito approached her to learn what she knew about her twin's condition, the greatswordswoman warned the boy at swordpoint not to follow her or interfere with her activities, before quickly leaving.

Having reached the volcano dominating the landscape, Tia began traversing its depths, handling the monsters blocking her path. While fighting one particularly strong group of monsters, the greatswordswoman suffered another migraine, but the timely intervention of Kirito's team enabled her to defeat the pack. Before she could converse with the others following her victory, though, the approach of a band of players hunting her forced the young woman to flee.

Not long afterwards, Tia snuck into the boss arena of the Vulcanus Citadel while Kirito's band was occupied assisting a raiding party with defeating the boss, surreptitiously looting a treasure chest containing one of the items she needed. As she was leaving the area, however, she was confronted by Kirito, who demanded answers on what she knew and was doing. Before the young woman could respond, she experienced a particular powerful headache that temporarily reverted her to her preadolescent appearance. When the bewildered boy inquired on what had happened to her, she simply stated she needed to go to where she could face her destiny, ordering the swordsman to refrain from interfering with her again before quickly withdrawing.

Tuner of Causality
Sometime later, Tia entered the Northazrod Tundra to locate the second item needed to access the singularity's core, avoiding players hunting her all the while. In the middle of her exploration, she was forced to contend with a small but tough group of monsters despite suffering a headache at the time, though the arrival of Kirito's band allowed her to handle them. Afterward, the young woman asserted she had to solve her problem by herself and quickly took her leave while everyone else was preoccupied with Premiere experiencing a migraine of her own.

Gallery

 * See Tia/Image Gallery

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Tia