Rayfa Padma Khura'in

"Rayfa Padma Khura'in"

- Here in Khura'in, my power of Spirit Communion reveals all we need to know.

Rayfa Padma Khura'in is the princess and royal priestess of Khura'in. She is notable for her ability to performe the Divination Séance, a ritual which utilizes a "Pool of Souls" to reveal the sensations experienced by murder victims in their final moments.

Early life
Rayfa was born on Christmas Eve of 2013 to Queen Amara Sigatar Khura'in and her husband Dhurke Sahdmadhi, who was the leader of the Defiant Dragons. The two were living in hiding at the time, with Amara having abdicated the throne to her younger sister Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in eight years previously due to an assassination attempt and Dhurke being wanted by the Ga'ran regime, as he was believed to be responsible for the crime. Shortly after Rayfa's birth, her parents were discovered by the regime; Dhurke was forced to flee, while Amara was taken back to Ga'ran Palace and told to conceal her identity so her husband would not find her again.

Rayfa was subsequently raised by Ga'ran and her husband, the Minister of Justice Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, believing them to be her biological parents. Amara took on the position of Rayfa's personal attendant under the name "Nayna", taking care of the princess' basic needs; although unaware that "Nayna" was in fact her real mother, Rayfa developed a close bond with her as well as her adoptive father Inga. Once her spiritual powers developed, Rayfa began to act in her capacity as royal priestess, which entailed performing the Divination Séance – a ritual which allowed a deceased person's final memories to be witnessed in a pool of water called the "Pool of Souls", and which was required as part of all murder trials in Khura'in. Due to the apparent irrefutability of the Divination Séance as evidence and the fact that the defense attorney profession had died out in Khura'in, Rayfa came to view her the Séance and her powers as infallible.

The foreign attorney

 * Main article: The Foreign Turnabout

During the trial of Ahlbi Ur'gaid, foreign defense attorney Phoenix Wright objected to the guilty verdict. She was soon prompted to perform the Divination Séance, which she claimed was all that was needed to be known. However Wright, found inconsistencies between what was shown and the evidence, ultimately resulting in Ur'gaid's guilty verdict being overturned. Shocked and somewhat panicked, she insisted she could not be wrong and arguing with the judge over letting the trial continue or not, eventually resorting to insults to his faith. She was ordered to leave due to her disruptiveness, which she did while cursing Wright the whole way with various torments in the Twilight Realm.

Disillusionment

 * Main article: The Rite of Turnabout

About a week later, she accompanied Wright in his investigation of Tahrust Inmee's death, to make sure he was not up to anything illegal. She quickly proved to be bitter after her embarrassment in court, being extremely quick to take offense throughout the investigation and eager to insult Wright for any reason she could think of. However, once in the trial it was shown she had learned to deal with defeat more gracefully, remaining relatively calm after Wright disproved her next Insights, staying in court long enough for the murder of Rheel Neh'mu to be discovered-and that he was an assassin carrying out the will of her father. Horrified and upset by the revelation that Inga was willing to sponsor murderers and that the Divination Seance was not a perfect system by any means, Rayfa left the trial in a depressed haze, no longer sure of herself, her nation, or her moral convictions.

Inga's death

 * Main article: Turnabout Revolution

A week after Maya Fey's trial, her father Inga Karkhuul Khura'in is murdered by her mother Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in. Rayfa is shown a picture of Amara holding a baby that appears to be Rayfa, and finds out that her real mother and father are revealed to be Amara Sigatar Khura'in and Dhurke Sahdmadhi respectively. Rayfa was taken into care by Ga'ran and Inga as an infant when they recaptured Queen Amara when she ran away with Dhurke Sahdmadhi, and Rayfa was used to blackmail Nahyuta and Queen Amara into doing Ga'ran's bidding. This also makes Nahyuta Sahdmadhi her brother and Apollo Justice (technically) her adoptive brother. Following the forced abdication of her aunt, she becomes the next Queen, with Nahyuta Sahdmadhi as regent until she can properly channel spirits.

Personality
Rayfa initially came across as rather haughty and aloof, especially when faced with defense attorneys. She believed, as much of Khura'in did, that her powers made her infallible when passing judgment on the accused, giving her a somewhat overinflated view of herself and an arrogant disposition. She regarded crime, especially that which insulted her country, as a blasphemous personal affront, and would often grow impatient with trials that required more than the Divination Séance and become irritable when contradicted or her "imperfections" (namely her lack of omniscience or her liking of things seen as immature) were brought up. As shown by her less-than-proper reaction to the first time her Insight was truly contradicted, she was not used to being proven wrong or told off for her ego, and when upset could become petty and immature. She also had a rather dark sense of humor, once remarking that the heavily-armed bailiff of the court would "be happy to oblige [Wright] with a bullet or two" as a "souvenir".

However, Rayfa occasionally showed considerable maturity for her age, soon learning to swallow her pride after making a scene at Ur'gaid's trial. She took her responsibilities very seriously and made a great effort to live up to her own and others' expectations of her, and in fact a lot of her outbursts came from her belief that she must come off as infallible. When not acting in her capacity as the royal priestess, she would display a far more casual and emotional personality, even a bit playful at times. She also has an extensive vocabulary, but sometimes runs out of flowery language she knows, leading her to stutter and awkwardly invoke far simpler language to finish her sentences.

Despite Rayfa's outwardly imperious personality, Ga'ran's cold and aloof parenting style, combined with her lack of affection for her adoptive daughter, made her underconfident and high-strung, which would cause her to become depressed when failing in even the most subjective way and culminated in a nervous breakdown after Inga's death and being asked to perform a Divination Séance on him, leaving her to publicly wonder if she should even become queen given her self-declared incompetence. With the encouragement of Wright and Justice, however, she was able to break free of Ga'ran's malevolent influence and developed the ability to accept partial success and minor failures, as well as not being the sole voice of truth in trials.

Name

 * Her middle name, "Padma", is one of the names given to Nelumbo nucifera, a species of lotus that plays a central role in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.

Development

 * Rayfa's hairstyle was designed to be reminiscent of the shaman queen Himiko, with the hair loops also being meant to resemble the Holy Mother's halo, as well as the hairsyles of Maya Fey and Pearl Fey.
 * Her staff was modeled after the Buddhist khakkhara, while the bells on her wrists are based on Japanese suzu bells, whose sound is associated with spiritual power. The ribbon between her arms is meant to make her resemble the butterflies that carry the souls of the departed to the Twilight Realm in Khura'inism.

Note

 * Rayfa is one of only four characters in the Ace Attorney games to have a known birth date. The only other characters to have a known birth date are Dustin Prince, an unseen and unnamed relative of one of Shi-Long Lang's subordinates, and Paul Atishon.