Plot summary of Xenoblade Chronicles 3

This page describes a plot summary of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It is not a full description nor a complete novelization, but simply an overview of major events.

Chapter 1: Ouroboros
A group of four kids dashes through a dense crowd awaiting the Queen's Anniversary. The clock strikes six, and time stops for all but one of the children. He looks up to see a planet in the sky, its shadow casting over the land.

In a starry abyss, two masses of energy meet. Across an unknown landscape, spherical chunks of terrain vanish in flashes of light. A battlefield comes into view, with footsoldiers and giant machines on both sides. Keves is the side wearing black and blue, while Agnus is in white and yellow. The battle is eventually won by Keves, and the Agnus machines are depleted and fall.

In this world, Aionios, killing the enemy faction empowers one's own with their life force. People are "born" as child soldiers, said to be from the Queen of the country, and know nothing but fight. They only live up to ten years (called "terms"), and those who survive that long are honoured in a Homecoming by the Queen as they fade away. The narrator, Noah, is an "off-seer", one who plays a flute melody to honour the dead (by battle or by Homecoming). He grew up in a friend group of himself, Lanz, Eunie, and Joran; today, he fights in a unit with Lanz, Eunie, Riku, and Mwamba. Since Noah likes to see off the enemy if their off-seer is dead, they tend to get left behind, and they must make the trek on foot back home yet again.

On arriving back to, the gang hits the showers. It's implied that Joran was killed shortly after a disagreement in the group's youth, and it's part of why Noah became an off-seer.