The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 art book was released a few months back, and in addition to providing an in-depth look at character designs, it also provided a huge amount of lore via its included interviews. Xenoblade Chronicles games are famous for their lore, and all 3 numbered titles provide story tidbits at the end that sort of re-contextualize cutscenes from earlier in the game. The interviews included in the art book are with game director Tetsuya Takahashi, and a good chunk of the new lore he reveals in them re-contextualizes certain cutscenes from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in the same way. Today, we’re looking at the Xenoblade 3 art book and all of the new story details – and what they mean for the game’s overarching plot. This will contain full spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2, and 3, so keep that in mind before you continue.
What is Origin?
In a sense, Origin is perhaps the biggest plot device in the entire Xenoblade series. As explained in the base game, Origin was created to save the land of the Bionis and Alrest from merging back together and canceling each other out. While we could describe that in more detail, we’re focused specifically on new information from the Xenoblade 3 art book today, and those tidbits are well-enough explained in both base Xenoblade 3 and Future Redeemed.
In Future Redeemed, Alpha (formerly Alvis) appears seemingly out of nowhere with the intent of destroying Aionios, leaving behind all of Keves and Agnus, and taking the people of the City to a new virtual world he creates inside Origin. One question is how he commands such power, and how it compares to Z and Moebius’ power. This is partially explained in Future Redeemed itself; A reminds Shulk that the Kevesi side of Origin is based on the infrastructure of Alvis’ Core Crystal. The Xenoblade 3 art book gets a bit more specific, calling Aionios something of a “virtual world” for the sake of a metaphor. In this metaphor, Alvis is responsible for the management and upkeep of Origin’s systems, and is in a sense its primary administrator. When Aionios was first formed, Alpha, the primary administrator, was still present. However, Z and Moebius appeared as a partial administrator since they were born from the collective unconscious of the souls stored within Origin. Alpha appears at the beginning of Future Redeemed to purge Origin of its Moebius infection and regain full control of the administrator role, so to speak.
At the end of Future Redeemed, Shulk, Rex, and A talk about becoming “avatars” for Aionios. It might not be immediately clear what they’re referring to, but since Alpha has been defeated, Aionios no longer has a primary administrator. Shulk, Rex, and A therefore step up to fulfill this role. This part is all speculation, but take a look at the world of Xenoblade 1. You have Shulk’s Monado, which corresponds to Ontos. Then you have Zanza’s Monado, which could correspond to Logos, and Meyneth’s Monado, which could correspond to Pneuma. In a similar sense, you could say that A corresponds to Ontos because they’re one and the same, Shulk corresponds to Logos due to his connection to Zanza, and Rex corresponds to Pneuma. In a way, when the three of them disappear at the end of Future Redeemed, they’re fulfilling a “new” Trinity Processor of sorts. And even if that’s not the case in reality, it’s still a really neat instance of symbolism!
Where are Pyra, Mythra, and Fiora?
When Xenoblade Chronicles 3 first released, a good chunk of players wanted to know what happened to Pyra and Mythra. That wasn’t answered until the very end of Future Redeemed, and even then it takes a bit of explaining. According the interview present in the Xenoblade 3 art book, characters in Aionios can incarnate into that world in different ways. Shulk and Rex, for instance, incarnate as themselves – they’re presumably revived by Origin for the express purpose of defeating Alpha and taking the role of the avatar. Other characters, however, incarnate as objects, and that’s our answer to what happened to Pyra, Mythra, and Fiora.
As shown in the ending of Future Redeemed, Matthew’s Ouroboros Gauntlets contain a shard of Origin Metal that corresponds to Pneuma’s soul – both Pyra and Mythra at once. Furthermore, the interview also states that the soul of Logos is present in N’s Sword of the End, though we don’t know how that’s possible given that Malos is killed at the end of Xenoblade 2. That being said, Malos does seem to talk to Pneuma for a moment at the end of that game, so it’s possible his soul or essence lived on in some way. Interestingly enough, during the fight against Alpha, N hears Rex wish that “those two were here”, and in response joins the power of his Sword of the End with Matthew’s Fists of the End (weapons with “of the End” on their name presumably have an Aegis’ soul inside). How would he know about them? In any case, combining the power of Pneuma and Logos gave birth to full Ouroboros interlinking for the first time, and we see the main cast in Xenoblade 3 make heavy use of this technique as well. In a way, N’s help unlocked the ability for Ouroboros to interlink, which eventually led to his downfall.
Another fun tidbit here is that Ontos is the Trinity Processor’s arbiter. As spoken by A, Ontos is predicated on the existence or opinions of Logos and Pneuma. Without them present as a direct part of Origin’s administration, he lost his humanity and reverted to a cold, machine-like state bent on abandoning Aionios. It’s interesting, then, that what leads to Alpha’s demise is essentially Pneuma and Logos combining their power to override Ontos’ determination for the future of the world. It’s even cooler when you consider that this is possibly reversed in Xenoblade 1 – with Shulk’s Monado from Ontos overriding Zanza’s determination for the future of that world.
Getting back on track, Fiora is present in Aionios as Lucky Seven, a sword that Melia supposedly forged herself and one that Noah uses throughout the main story. The Xenoblade 3 art book notes that this fact is never stated within the base game or the DLC, but there are a few hints. The biggest one is near the end of Future Redeemed on Black Mountain, where Riku (carrying Lucky Seven with him) reminds Shulk that he’s not alone. Shulk seems surprised to see the sword, and the sight of it seems to give him confidence to head up to Origin to face Alpha. This doesn’t confirm anything on its own, but given the fact that we have confirmation from the director of the game himself, this small scene has much more meaning when you go back and rewatch it.
By the time the base Xenoblade 3 game happens, Pyra and Mythra are located within the sheath of Noah’s sword, which can transform into a gauntlet similar to Matthew’s Ouroboros Gauntlets. This is because the sheath is actually a re-tooled version of Matthew’s Ouroboros Gauntlets, maintained and handed down by Riku. The sword the sheath is protecting is Lucky Seven, which contains Fiora’s soul as we mentioned. It makes it… interesting, then, that Noah flings Lucky Seven (both the sword and the sheath) into the ocean at the end of the game.
How do Nopon fit in to Aionios?
Speaking of Riku, he’s notorious among Xenoblade fans for telling a lot of lies. Throughout the base game, he tries to convince Noah that his having Lucky Seven is just a coincidence. In reality, the Xenoblade 3 art book confirms that Riku was waiting for N to reincarnate into Noah at some point, and Future Redeemed confirms he integrated himself into Keves specifically to give him Lucky Seven. The DLC also confirms that Riku’s masterpon is Melia, who originally gave him Lucky Seven to bestow upon a worthy wielder. The interview also indicates that Riku is one of Riki’s many sons – and that Nopon do not age in Aionios because they are external to its “source code”. In other words, they live forever. The interview also mentioned the fate of the people of the City, which we already covered in another post.
Overall, the Xenoblade 3 art book reveals lots of interesting facts about the game that either weren’t properly explained or not stated at all. We’re not too sure if it’s a good idea to limit these facts to a currently Japan-only art book, but this new information does re-contextualize several cutscenes from both the main game and the DLC. If you’d like to see a full translation of the interview, you can do so here.
In the meantime, what do you think about the lore added to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 almost 2 years after release? Feel free to let us know in the comments down below.
