Lanz

Lanz (, Lanz) is a playable character in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and a soldier from Keves.

Appearance and personality
Lanz has a remarkably tall and muscular physique with distinctive grey skin and white hair. The golden lines along his face and arms resemble the skin of Machina, however for his age and his appearance is closer to that of a Homs. He wears military style grey cargo pants, a tight grey tank top, some kind of black and blue coat adorning the Keves symbol, and black metallic boots. Additionally, he wears metallic gloves. During his time as a soldier, Lanz wears full sleeves underneath his coat, and black pants. His term mark is located on his chin. Lanz uses a Shieldblade in battle that also acts as a shield, as well as a turret, which he uses to protect his friends.

He is known as reliable ally who goes great lengths to protect his friends, even if he puts his own life in danger.

As Ouroboros
When interlinking with Sena, Lanz takes on one of two Ouroboros forms: one associated with himself, the other with Sena. Lanz's Ouroboros form is a broad, deep-purple humanoid with a glowing core in its chest. Its upper body is surrounded by concentric rings resting on its shoulders, which support two large upright turrets behind the head. Its main weapons are large gauntlets on its fists, which may be turned around to function as a front-facing scattershot laser cannon.

Lanz's Ouroboros is extremely effective at directly taking hits to shield allies. Its shield is strong enough to tank a sustained attack from a Ferronis's main cannon, and its effective blocking size is several times larger than the Ouroboros form itself. Its offensive capabilities consist of slow shots from long or short range, combined with faster punches and grapples when close-up.

Prologue
A young Lanz and her friends Noah, Eunie and Joran are seen dashing through a crowd for the Queen's anniversary in. When the clock strikes six, time appears to stop and everyone except for Noah freezes in place.

Chapter 1
Lanz, Noah, Eunie, Mwamba and Riku take part in the battle against Colony Sigma in which they are victorious. Lanz the asks why Noah sent off the fallen Agnians despite being enemies. He then laments the fact that the transports took off without them, forcing the party to make the long trek back to on foot.

In a flashback, a young Lanz is shown fighting in a training exercise alongside Noah, Eunie, and Joran. They end up losing the standoff with Garvel's team after Joran decides to put himself in harm's way in order to heal Lanz. Afterwards, an angry Lanz attempts to punch Joran for his recklessness only for Noah to stop him, followed by Eunie who claims that Joran did the right thing. She later reminds Noah of his birthday, which he forgot about. The next day, the four friends attend a Homecoming; one that is conducted by the Queen of Keves herself. Lanz remarks that someday that he will reach his Homecoming.

Back in the present, the party heads to the bathing tent after arriving to Colony 9. While in the tent, is revealed through conversation that Joran had died a couple of years ago. Eunie asks Noah if he is still hurt by Joran's loss, to which he replies that he's "not over it, but getting there", pointing out that Lanz had been the most affected and that they should worry about him instead. Lanz is seen talking to Mwamba before he joins them in the bath, he and Eunie get into an argument about who earned the most points in the earlier battle.

The next day after waking up, Lanz blames Riku for messing up his power frame for his lack of sleep, a royal decree is issued by the Castle. Colony 9's mission is to destroy a large ether source of unknown origin in the Alfeto Valley. Agnian forces are noted to also be targeting the ether source, alongside a potential third party. With these orders, the main group (accompanied by Mwamba and Riku as before) make their way into the valley.

As a party member
Lanz's primary class is Heavy Guard, a Defender class focusing on maintaining the enemy's aggro and tanking hits. He can interlink with Sena.

Concept art
Lanz