Nia

Nia is a playable character in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. She first appears as a member of, but escapes the Ancient Ship together with Rex and the others.

Appearance and personality
Nia is a Gormotti with silver hair and yellow eyes. She wears a poofy yellow suit with a white hood, gloves, and boots.

Story arc
Nia first appears as part of the elite salvaging crew hired by. She isn't happy about being given a child in Rex as a crewmate, and butts heads with him a couple times, but comes to understand him a bit better after asking him about what he believes about the World Tree and Elysium. This makes it upsetting when Jin kills Rex because he touched the Aegis, the crew's target. Malos then demands she kill all the remaining salvagers so none would tell tales of the task, which she refuses to do. The revived Rex and the escaped Pyra then fight Malos, and Nia decides to side with them, along with her Blade Dromarch. After rescuing each other, Azurda appears, and they escape. However, Azurda is shot down, and crashes onto Gormott.

After Nia is being found by Rex and Azurda turning into his larval form, she escorts them to the Gormotti town of Torigoth. At the town entrance, they find a humiliating wanted poster of her, as well as of Malos and Jin. She gets furious and rips hers into pieces. She tells Rex, Pyra and Azurda that she will part ways and go back to Torna after she leads them to an inn. However, they are attacked by a group of Ardainian soldiers lead by Captain Padraig. At first, they manage to fight them off, but soon after, Brighid, Blade to Special Inquisitor Mòrag of Mor Ardain, arrives as reinforcement. They manage to capture Nia and Dromarch, who tells Rex to flee. Nia is interrogated by Mòrag and accidentally mentions Rex's name. At the same time, Rex asks the people of Torigoth about information about Nia and he finds out that she is being held captive in the Ardainian battleship and that they plan to execute her within the next few days. With the help of and his artificial Blade Poppi, they sneak into the battleship and free Dromarch and later Nia, who was surprised to find Rex saving her, and not Jin. She was also surprised when being told about her execution, and it became clear that the Ardainians spread rumours to lure Rex, and with him the Aegis, into the battleship. They are attacked by Dughall and then by Mòrag and Brighid, but this time manage to escape. After being far enough from Torigoth to be safe, Nia once again tells the others that she needs to part ways, but Rex convinces her to stay together with them and travel to the World Tree. They borrow a ship from Tora's uncle Umon and set sail for the World Tree, but are attacked by Ophion and then swallowed by the Urayan Titan.

After Akhos attacks Garfont Village, Nia wants to tell about her past as a member of Torna, but finds it difficult. After asking both Pyra and Rex for help, she nervously starts telling Vandham of her relationship with Akhos, but he interrupts her not long after and tells her that it only matters that he is with Rex's group now. On their way to Fonsa Myma, they encounter Zeke and his Blade Pandoria with whom she first fought verbally and then physically. After watching The Heroic Adventures of Addam in Mymoma Playhouse, she tells Rex that he should talk to Pyra about the play, without telling him how. During the battle at Olethro Playhouse, Akhos tells her she knows "better than anyone [...] what humans are really like" after telling the party that they plan to erase all of humankind. Vandham saves her, but when he was in a dire situation later, she holds back and is hesitant on helping him before he is eventually killed by Malos.

Nia continues to travel through Alrest with the rets of the party. They eventually arrive at Mor Ardain where she, Poppi and Mythra take a bath at the Smùide Hot Spring. As Nia is about to head out and stands up, Mythra asks "Nia, are you...?". Nia confirms her guess and they agree to keep this quiet.

Much later in chapter 7, the party enters Spirit Crucible Elpys to search for the third Aegis Sword. Azurda explains that the strength of Blades is drained in this location. Nia assures Dromarch multiple times that she does not plan to turn back, explaining that she is 'putting herself to the test'. Rex asks if she is alright, and she replies that she is struggling to breathe and feels dizzy. Rex gives her advice on how to deal with it. As they go deeper, she struggles more and more. Mòrag notices her condition and proposes to take a break. Rex gives her emergency air and teaches her how to use it most effectively, and she quickly gets much better. Rex mentions that the other salvagers acted like his parents and Nia starts talking about her own family. Her father was a well-known lord in Gormott. She had to study how to behave like a proper lady, although she hated it. However, she adds that those were the happiest days of her life. She also mentions her sister, who was very frail. In order to help her sister, their father looked for a cure, hired doctors, spent all his money and lost his position as a lord. Nia's sister died shortly after that. When the party almost reaches the end of the Spirit Crucible, Nia hears a voice calling "Her life is tied to yours...". She gets flashbacks of her father standing next to her sister's dead body, explaining that Nia has a life within her now. He tells her to address her as "father" from now on. She then gets flashbacks of her father's passing. In these flashbacks, she takes Dromarch's Core Crystal, which used to be her father's, and reawakens him. The present-day Dromarch calls Nia and her flashbacks end here. Nia reassures the party that she is fine and finishes her story by adding that her father died not long after her sister. She started running from the Indoline Praetorium together with Dromarch. Another flashback plays, showing the two running from a group of Indoline calling her a "cannibal" and "flesh-eating Blade". It then shows Jin breaking her out of a prison cell, similar to what she dreamt when she was imprisoned in Gormott before being freed by Rex and Poppi. Nia tells Rex that Jin took him in and that she saw a way out in him.

The party arrives at the destination, but are challenged by Addam's Phantasms. Rex struggles to defeat them and gets hit by one of the Phantasms. Nia screams that she does not want to hide who she is any more and starts to transform into her true form: She was a Blade, a Flesh Eater. She approaches Rex and explains that it's thanks to him that she is burdened no longer, and confesses her love to him. Rex replies that he loves her too "and all you guys!" Together, they fend off the Phantasms and pass Addam's trial.

Lore

 * Nia's Father was the lord of Echell Village in Gormott about a decade before the events of the game (as mentioned by Moui during her imprisonment).

As a Driver
Nia is a playable Driver in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. She first joins the party on the Ancient Ship together with and, but isn't playable until they reach Gormott. Her default Blade is.

As a Blade
Nia can be used as a Blade exclusively by after the battle against the Phantasms in the Spirit Crucible Elpys. She can be swapped between Driver and Blade form in the menu by pressing X while she is selected.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Nia appears in  as a. There also exists a based on her. She appears on the stage in the background.

Gallery
Nia