Melia Antiqua

Melia Antiqua is a major character of the Xenoblade Chronicles series. She is the tritagonist and one of the seven playable characters in the video game Xenoblade Chronicles, the main protagonist of Future Connected and one of the overarching protagonists of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. 
She is the current empress of the High Entia, a highly-advanced angel-like species who reside on the head of the Bionis and a powerful mage who lives in the Royal City of Alcamoth prior to the game's events.
She is voiced by Shiori Katsuta in the Japanese version and Jenna Coleman in the English version, the latter of whom also plays Clara Oswald in Doctor Who, and Ember Manning in The Jetty
==Background==
Melia is the daughter of the High Entia Emperor Sorean Antiqua and his second consort. Imperial tradition states that the emperor take two consorts; one a High Entia, and the other a Homs. Melia, daughter of the Homs second consort, is of mixed High Entia and Homs heritage. Melia's mother is never seen and is only alluded to in dialogue as, due to the difference in the rate of aging between Homs and High Entia, she died of old age sometime before the events of the game. An NPC in the imperial palace however does state that Melia has grown up to resemble the second consort as a young woman.
== Personality ==
When Shulk, Dunban, Reyn and Sharla first meet her, Melia comes off as a typical spoiled and haughty princess when she slaps Shulk for touching her. However, this is immediately proven false when she instantly apologises and offers to help the Homs in exchange for saving her life. In truth, despite her status as the princess (later Empress) of the most advanced race on Bionis, Melia is a very humble, modest and kind person, never once looking down on Homs as inferior beings, though this is partially because she is half-Homs herself.
Initially, Melia is very reluctant to accept the Homs' help to take down the Telethia who killed her comrades, insisting she is perfectly capable of doing it herself and doesn't need any assistance. Whether this is because of pride, grief over her friends' sacrifices or a simple desire not to get strangers involved is open to interpretation. However, she reluctantly accepts their help after Chief Dunga provided the group with Riki, having come to realise her limits. She is also very sceptical about the Monado at first, believing Shulk's ability to see the future was rubbish. Only after the group defeated the Telethia does she finally grow accepting of its power.
Being a princess and due to a fairly strict upbringing, Melia is partial to polite and formal behaviour, and one of the most serious members of the group along with Dunban. In spite of this, she retains a sense of humour and doesn't seem to mind Riki calling her "Melly". However, when she does joke, she normally does so with a completely straight face, so people, particularly Reyn, usually think she's being serious, as shown in a Heart-to-Heart when she jokingly demands that Colony 9 pays Alcamoth for their use of Ether Cylinders from the Ancient Wreckage, which Melia deducts to be a crashed High Entia ship.
== Abilities ==
Melia's abilities are based upon Ether Arts, being a mage-like character with low health and physical strength, while excelling in ether combat and defense, making her very useful against enemies with high physical defense or specialize in ether attacks. Her main arts do not immediately damage opponents: rather, they produce an elemental summon, which float above her head with a specific spherical design, and give off an aura that increases the party's stats while they are in the vicinity of Melia. Up to three of these summons can be in play at the same time, including three of the same summons which will subsequently stack their effects (eg. 3 aqua summons for high health regeneration). Her Talent Art effectively uses the elementals she has summoned to attack, meaning that Melia's main form of dealing damage is to summon and then release these elements, while she can also keep the elements passively active to buff her party members. Every released summon that attacks an enemy fills her Talent Gauge, allowing her to enter Element Burst state when maxed, granting her access to some powerful abilities as well as doubling damage caused. Initially she can summon Flare (which buffs the strength of all around her), Aqua (which gives everyone the Regenerate Status) and Bolt (which gives everyone near her an Ether boost), but learns more as she gains levels. As a perk, due to Melia using her Talent Art in order to attack, she can be extremely useful during Chain Attacks as Talent arts can be categorized with any other Art type, allowing her to easily stack the Chain Attack art multiplier regardless of what Arts her other party members use.
Similarly, she also has a few spells that cause statuses on enemies. She can inflict Sleep using a special hypnosis spell, heal a party member at the cost of her own health, and even Topple a single target by herself at close range. Once she reaches Element Burst state, she gains a single-use ability to either Bind the foes' movement, or seal enemy Arts for a period of time, status ailments that other party members are unable to cause themselves.
==Gallery==
Melia Antiqua 2.png
Melia Antiqua.jpg
Melia and Riki.jpg|Melia and Riki
Melia with her brother.jpg|Melia with her brother, Kallian
Melia as the Queen of Keves.jpg|Melia after Noah and his friends free her.
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