Zahra
From the moment she received her first oud as a child, everyone knew Zahra was destined for greatness. As she grew older, her fame in the region also grew, and stories of her music inspiring heroes in battle, entrancing wild beasts, and even helping a barren woman to conceive, began to spread.
The leader of a nearby tribe caught wind of this and sought to use her skills to his own advantage. Thinking he could use her music to inspire his warriors to victory, he kidnapped her and pressed her into service. But Zahra's sullen song on the eve of battle affected him so deeply that he negotiated peace with his rivals that very night.
She now wanders the land, going where her heart takes her, hoping to spread joy to all through song.
1) Not going to make you lose Incarnations. We want players to get to play how they want to play as much as possible, and forcing people to give up party members was just about our least favorite things in Valkyrie Profile.
2) I mean, I think we haven't done our jobs if every encounter can be optimally beaten with a single team by the end of the game?
But in keeping with "letting people play how they want to," I'm not sure this is really a problem? A lot of people LIKE doing the optimal thing over and over in an RPG once they figure it out, after all.
There will be story quests that require you use certain characters, though, so I think there will be a certain amount of forced churn / experimentation from that.