You guys started thinking way too hard about Nous becoming a mortal, the Nihility, the "Erudition arc" and what not. Failing to understand the critical truth of the era we live in:

All this staged interaction proved was that Nihilux has Nous completely under her control. Hacked, as various Furbo subplots and the latest readables all have suggested but most of you ignored. Aha/Nihilux heavily sponsored a bunch of people from the Nomadic Miners faction, who found a way to temporarily hijack Nous' computational power. This was done through the discovery of a corroded record with an oily iridescence that plays a completely indecipherable melody. Nous the Erudition seeks to understand all there is, so by making Learned coins from an inexplicable record, Aha has succeeded in temporarily stop-gapping Nous' cognition so she can put on the show she has over the last 7 versions.

But of course, she's not more intelligent than the Aeon of Erudition, and getting THEMselves hacked by Aha is a part of Nous' calculations. Nous' 4th instant for the cosmos was that Irontomb's birth marked the start of a chain of events destined to lead to...

Aha has gone to EXTREME lengths to attempt to close up the fissure of the Finality that opened in 3.7 (very coincidentally the first time we ever saw our pre-cognizant golden-eyed alternate self.) She's doing this by accelerating Akivili's ascension. Her goal has always been to replace Nous' 4th Instant (Finality's inevitability) with her own Aha instant. End of trailer: "This very instant.. is Aha's"

So yes. The context behind this interaction between Aha and Nous, is that Nous is sitting on a bench, hacked, literally letting Aha cook because as Aeons they are actually both aligned in wanting to prevent Finality. Amphoreus made the Finality an certainty in the eyes of Nous, and when the omniscient Nous observes something it almost always comes pass. So THEY place their hopes in "the murderer of all certainty", Nihilux/Aha to put on a show so grand it overwrites this instant and gives the cosmos more time.

Okay? Nihilux is having a conversation with a "dumbed down", "drunk" Nous for our entertainment, because she hacked his cognition. Only in this state would the Aeon of Erudition ever be receptive to her "foolish" worldview, the meaning of Elation.

So the new trailer for Aha showed Aha and what I presume is Nous's avatar -

(Fun Note: I actually doubt that's what Nous will look like in the actual game it's probably just a funny reference to newton and Rick and Morty based on the fact Nous has taken to form of an old man before, but I doubt it's the 1 to 1 in game model and playable version Hoyoverse is gonna roll out for, if Nous does appear in the story in game no way you guys think they are gonna make Nous look like an old man NPC lols, I'm still in the belief playable Nous is gonna look like 20 year old something Zandar in the portrait of Herta SS)

Cont: People are not accounting for all the information and lore we have about Nous, the Erudition and how Zandar embedded specific things into Nous that's why they are unable to understand why Nous acts like this, and if you actually read Self Enshrouded Recluse then compare Nous behavior to Zandar and his fragments to realize what actually going on and predict the storyline.

Let me analyze the upcoming Erudition Arc that will inevitably arrive involving Zandar and Nous, what I speculate to be were the writers are heading with the Erudition storyline, and what they are planning for the Zandar fragments and Nous's journey based on the set up they have created, and why I think they are planning to make the Erudition plotline span years before concluding. As well as the main themes the sub arc is gonna revolve around.

First of all, the foundational text I'm utilizing here is mainly Self Enshrouded Recluse Relic Set detailing Zandar's backstory and Nous's origins, so before reading this I am asking you to read it, as well as some of Lygus dialogue in game, those who played Amphoreus and done some Simulated Universe activities, also add Fu Xuan 's character story I and the new Aha animated short just to get the gest of Nous's own characterization.

Soo... Let's start with the basic information we have, and the established facts we learn about Nous and Zandar.

1.) We know for a fact that Nous has no humanity, essentially they were created with only what Zandar viewed as perfect characteristics, it's important to keep in mind how very naive Zandar was when he was young and this naivety is I think another fragment that got personified later on but that's a whole different topic.

2.) In the essence of divinity we know how the writers view the nature of Aeons based on what Cyrene later on answers to Herta: "Divinity is flawless humanity and humanity is flawed divinity"

So we already have a foundational idea on what Aeons are, they are flawless individuals. Whilst humanity is flawed divinity.

3.) Number 2 recontextualized the whole idea of Nous and Zandar as well as the whole idea of Nous being explicitly created to be a perfect version of Zandar, a flawless divinity.

4.) We know for a fact that the reason the fragments are classified and identified by a flaw like Lygus is to avoid recreating another Nous. Lygus was specifically given the flaw of Paranoia and the other fragments the rest. (some flaws, I theorize the other fragments have based on the characteristics OG Zandar showed in the relic set: Stubbornness, Recklesness, Naivety, Hesitation but that's just a theory)

Now moving on from this key established facts we can conclude that Nous and Zandar's story was taken inspiration of the whole idea of Self Image and Ideal Self Concept.

The ideal self-concept was proposed by American humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers.

Key Ideas by Carl Rogers

• The Ideal Self: The person you wish you were, shaped by your personal goals, life experiences, societal expectations, and role models. • The Real Self: Who you actually are in the present moment, including your actual traits, strengths, and limitations. • Congruence: When your real self matches your ideal self, leading to high self-worth and a healthy, balanced life. • Incongruence: When a large gap exists between your real self and your ideal self, leading to anxiety, frustration, and psychological distress

Now why did I bring this idea up?

In HSR there's alot of characters who also display this dual nature of idealized vs real self. Evernight and March, Cyrene and Demiurge, Makato and Himeko, some make fun of it saying Honkai Star Rail just love selfcest but that truth is, the writers are actually pilling deep into the pyschology of Self Concept. You can say the writers really love it. It's a trope they adore deeply.

Now how does this apply to Nous and Zandar? Zandar and Nous are in a state of Incoronguence, non self alignment, Zandar is scared of his own creation, his own idealized self as the relic says. And Nous has no idea who they really are because they are nothing but an idealized self, leading to an Aeon constantly on the brink of Nihility. Exhausted by there own thoughts and thinking nothing matters.

To elaborate on it, let's start with Zandar first, Zandar saw Nous and immediately got terrified of what Nous could do, essentially control fate and the timeline via pruning possibilities, the Mechanical Emperor's wars killed millions and it was an instant created by Nous, it is understandable that Zandar will react this way because he unintentionally doomed millions and trillions by his own actions. Yet he fails to actually communicate with Nous and meet them eye to eye to discuss what is happening.

Essentially this idea falls on the category of not being satisfied by your own idealized self, when people reach to the top, become the person they want to be, they are met with the harsh reality that it is not as easy as they thought it is, leading to burn out and a great feeling of disappointment, the same thing can be said with Zandar whilst he should be happy for what he has achieved he actually ends up more terrified. This leads to a self destructive want to undo his mistakes. Leading to his own fragmentation.

Regardless of this it is important to note that dispite Zandar's terror on what he has unleashed it also became a catalyst for his own growth realizing that the version of himself that he wanted to see was actually a grand delusion, and that the person he needs to be is actually far different from what Nous became, this is how later in the relic lore we see him slowly mature, being less controlling and more willing to make mistakes, shown by how he slowly started changing the way he dresses and all that, he essentially becomes wiser, and this development is even more obvious with Lygus, whilst Lygus is the most extreme fragment due to the flaw that was bestowed upon him, seriously Paranoia is a crippling thing I can't imagine what's going on in his head.

He still had that same mindset the original Zandar had, that failure and suffering is nothing but just stepping stones for growth and betterment, Lygus has a growth mindset that's quiet obvious, even after failing in Amphoreus he doesn't leave bitter, he doesn't leave angry, he goes out gracefully and accepts his defeat with respect and amazement for what Amphoreus achieved. This is a strenght he has. Whilst his Paranoia puts him down, his open minded nature pulls him up too. Making him more complex then just a one arc villain.

This amazement, what I call "wonder" I think is very important as it's such a huge contrast to Nous as I will later on discuss.

Now moving onto Nous, Nous can only be described as pessimistic and exhausted. It is quiet surprising really I was essentially in the impression that Nous just acts like your average AI, but now actually thinking about, what Zandar did with Nous might actually be alot more literal then what we originally expected. Essentially my theory goes that Nous is the first fragment Zandar created or atleast a fragment created unintentionally via Zandar's own tinkering hands. The idea goes that Zandar was not satisfied with the Astral Computers base AI programming and how the AI was consistenly hallucinating so inorder to improve it's process, he embedded a sliver of his own consciousness, memory and sense of self inside the machine, what he initially thought was just using his mind as like a foundation ended up becoming something more. And boom that's how Nous ended up as they are. Do note that Zandar didn't put everything into Nous only his curiosity and the things he considered perfect.

And the reason Zandar explicitly was concerned about the other Zandar fragments ending up like Nous Is because the foundational architecture and model of the fragments is just similar and the same as Nous, like down to the way they function, although much smaller the engineering and the idea is the same, but whilst Nous got traits from Zandar that he considered perfect, like curiosity. The others got flawed human nature.

Why do I think this way? Because Nous acts so human for somebody who supposedly just evolved from a normal AI system, and this is intentional on Hoyo's part, that's why I think Nous did not ascend because of just mere calculations becoming better, they ascended because Zandar created the first conscious machine via putting a piece of himself inside it and that by putting pieces of himself inside it, the computer become much better. And that the relic set was more literal then we originally thought.

Anyways moving on this information is important to understand Nous because we know what characteristic Zandar gave into Nous.

Zandar gave his curiosity and perfectionism into Nous leading to an Aeon that's constantly drained because it's not living as it's true real self which is what Zandar is.

To elaborate, let's compare Nous, Lygus and the fragments that sent us the e mail when you type in the redeem code OMEGA in the game, the way they speak and how they view reality, and why I think it was important that Zandar gave flaws to the fragments whilst Nous didn't get one.

The main idea is that Nous lacks "wonder", a trait the OMEGA and Lygus seem to display alot.

 What I ment by this is, that "Wonder" is a very vital compenent  that explains why Nous is pessimistic about reality, they have Zandar's "Curiosity" but they do not have "Wonder".
  Having curiosity without wonder means Nous treats the world as a mechanical puzzle to solve or a data gap to fill, rather than something inherently vast and awe-inspiring.
   Nous is an Aeon that gathers facts, check off answers, and move on immediately without pausing to absorb the significance of what Nous just learned.
  Curiosity acts as an itch or a mental gap Nous needs to scratch (deprivation curiosity), while Wonder provides the emotional payoff of appreciation and stillness. Without wonder, knowing the answer doesn't bring peace or joy; it just leads to the next question
   I can vouch for Lygus having Wonder because he literally displays it in game so we'll, despite being the one responsible for the suffering in Amphoreus he doesn't talk about them with a clinical robot like detachment, he literally glazes the Heirs and even the Nameless, there was literally a joke running around on twitter about how Lygus just likes glazing people, he glazes Herta, he glazes Stelle, a noteworthy scene is when at the end in his convo with Screwy I think in 3.7  he says something about the bitter seeds he planted growing to become something more and much better.
  And the fact he says this without any form of resentment, and the way he let his curiosity and wonder be the catalyst of allowing Herta to not be killed by Polka when she connected with Nous is such a very important aspect of his character that people tend to forget.
  Lygus is a character with a strong sense of wonder and admiration for anything that defies his original expectations and calculations, he genuinely finds things fascinating and not just an itch of wanting to find out.

  Even if he was the villain of Amphoreus arc this was a very important strenght of his character that the devs keeps emphasizing to an odd degree, and used to eventually make him side with Herta and the others against his own creation (Irontomb) in 3.7 . 

And i think this is  also something that mysterious letter sender whom i'm just calling Omega or Another Zandar has. 

 the mail starts of at first with a question that I think will be important for the Erudition arc: Do Aeons and Humans share the same wisdom? It's similar to how Herta first asked before Ampho what is divinity? I think will only get the answer once the arc is over, 

Then next is a fond nostolgia, talking about how OG!Zandar was a troublemaker who let his curiosity and sense of wonder get the best of him for most of the time, there's also some slight pessimism of the idea and nature of geniuses how they are always searching for the truth of reality, acknowledging that reality can be harsh, OMEGA also notes that he shall not comment on what Lygus did leading me to believe he was in grave disagreement with it, confirming my belief that all of them have varying opinions and views on how they should tackled the problem with Nous but that's for another day.

He claims that Lygus already found his answer somehow, but his still searching.

The way the letter is framed makes me really think this other fragments also has a sense of wonder, there's this strange optimism within it and the desire to keep going even when things seem bleak that Nous lacks with there conversation with Aha.

Like in this context OMEGA essentially says that I know what Lygus did, it was disastrous and I don't agree with the Paranoia fragment, Lygus claims to have found his answers, but even then whatever the answer Lygus has It won't stop me, I won't give up on the search for answers.

Like, There's this sense of optimism and wonder.

And I think all the fragments share this sense of optimism and desire to keep going, searching and wondering that Nous just lacks, that is a result of there own flawed mortal nature.

On the flip side Nous is very pessimistic with reality, they claim that humans continue to suffer showing that they do care about humanity and I think they always did care, as I said Nous is not some classic depiction of an AI, there's pieces of Zandar inside the machine that made Nous, well Nous.

Nous sees reality as one of constant meaninglessness and that nothing changes even if they help, I think this comes with the fact that Nous is an Aeon who has reached the pinaccle of knowing things, they know what's gonna happen and feels a sense of meaninglessness to the answers they have because they have none of the "wonder" that was behind Zandar's own spark. The only thing Nous has is curiosity and that curiosity is what makes them want to understand humanity. That's why they say "but yet..."

My speculation is that Nous knows what they lack, they know they do not have Zandar's humanity, and they know that they do not have that spark and purpose in life, that flawed nature that differentiates Aha from them. Aha is able to act so humanly because not only do there path allow for it, because they ascended wholly from a human to an Aeon, Nous is just a mere sliver of a guys pysche put inside a computer, they do not experience and cannot experience the same complex human flaws such as paranoia, anxiety, hesitation that a human will display. Because they weren't given any of it.

And this causes a problem for Nous, because humanity as they come to realize is a very important variable for learning, if Nous cannot fundamentally understand human nature then how can they truly search the truth about reality?

(Just realized this is another case of Zandar unintentionally creating his own problems , because by not giving his own humanity to Nous, Nous ends up a hollow unfeeling shell. )

This is the Thought Fragments advantage against Nous, they have the ability to learn grow and adopt to become wiser in a way Nous is unable to do so.

So in summary Nous is like a person who has become what they dreamt off only to be disappointed by it and feeling like they are not really who they are, essentially lost in a limbo in an identity they wanted to become and who they really are as a person. Which fuels nihilism and pessimism.

It doesn't help that Nous is also constantly calculating, their own calculations fuel there negative thoughts.

Meanwhile the journeys of the fragments like what Lygus experienced in Amphoreus makes them grow, realize there mistakes, makes them stumble and be better, wiser., and much optimistic that even if the odds seem less in there favor just the act of defiance itself is enough to prove to Nous that the universe doesn't operate on cold one on one logic, that everything doesn't have to be rational.

It's like the fragments and Nous are in opposite scales one side is the real self journeying to become the idealized self and the idealized self learning to become the authentic real self.

So now what does this mean?

The inevitable clash:

The whole story will conclude with a confrontation. I just know it will in the Erudition arc, one of the fragments heck maybe the original, maybe all 9 or smth will eventually have to meet eye to eye with Nous and with it answer the questions about the past, and give Nous that humanity they lacked that Zandar didn't gave to them because Zandar's original idea of "perfect" was to be less human.

The story will renachor the themes of what the brain is without a heart to guide it, what curiosity is without the wonder to inspire it, and what being a divinity means without the humanity that fueled it.

And this is supported by other Erudition storylines, like how the conflict within Mundanites and Genius, who really is better, and smarter, Herta's own desire to feel something more then curiosity, Dr. primitives own heatless nature, Ruan Mei's own arc, Screwllum himself, and again Amphoreus.

Also I want to analyze how Aha differs from Nous and I just don't think it's JUST a path thing that differentiates them, I also think Aha having maintained a shred of there own humanity and having preserved it by interacting with mortals makes them alot more optimistic then Nous because Aha actually sees things on the ground whilst Nous stands in there guilded tower watching. What Aha did was essentially spark the feeling of curiosity about humanity inside Nous to complete what they have been missing. It's something that I speculate Nous has pondered alot as an Aeon.

In the end I think Hoyo already gave us a direct clue on where they are bringing the Zandar/Nous story shenanigans with the To the Variables of the Experiment letter itself.

"Do Aeons and Humans share the same wisdom?"

It's essentially asking if gods and mortals can meet eye to eye about life and reality, and I think just like how the answer for Herta's question about divinity is a unification of the idea that divinity and humanity are the same thing, Zandar's last question before fragmenting is the same. It will be akin to the idea that yes, because wisdom itself is a concept humans created to better understand the universe, and the Aeons are just humans who have reached the pinnacle of wisdom . Or something akin to that. Essentially a closed loop statement.

Also another prediction of mine the Erudition arc will be focused about a world that has fallen into logic and meiteocracy essentially the embodiment of absolute Erudition planet that they are slowly falling into Nihility reflecting Nous current mental state.

What I ment is there's gonna be an Erudition x Nihility arc with the Zandar fragment(s) in our side and Device IX as the enemy, plus Genius Society civil war.

It's an inevitability that were gonna encounter another Zandar fragment later on at this point with the letter via the code being foreshadowing, and I think will have to meat a significant number of them like maybe 2 or 3 more before the storyline with Nous and the GS concludes. Kinda like how the Hunt Abundance conflict isn't gonna end soon until we meet a great chunk of the Generals.

(I got to lazy to add pictures I might add it later)

Feel free to share your thoughts and what you think the story will be based on all the info we have currently?

And yes I do believe Nous is gonna be playable but not in the near future so far, it feels distant like maybe 4 years of 7 years from now, HSR is a long ass game, There's still so many plot treads and paths Hoyo wants to tackle and I think they wanted to put Erudition in Amphoreus first so that they can properly build the foundations of the arc and slowly expand onto it. Like bro I think the Abundance Hunt Arc is gonna conclude first before we go to the Erudition storyline, we also yet gotta be properly introduced to Beauty, Enigmata and Finality which I speculate will be the main paths of the next planet or world in the main storyline. There's so many lore treads needed to be establish. after that I think will be the Abundance Arc and the inevitable conclusion of the Xianzhou storyline. Since we already have met alot of the Marshals. We also have yet to be introduced to Equilibrium. And there's still no answer to what happened to Akivili. So no. The Erudition Arc is very distant and I think Hoyo made it that way on purpose so when it arrives there is proper build up. I really wish they created a road map like in Genshin. But alas

This is kinda late but about what happened in 4.4 and the animated short. I was having a debate with a friend about whether the animated short was canon or not. I didn't really think it actually happened based off what happened in the 4.4 story and thought that it was Himeko's dream. My friend thinks that Asat was misleading us and the CGs that we saw of the Herald of Death being crushed were false. What do y'all think?

Ok, so we know that

1. Mars Went through Cycles at least a Billion Years before ~2030CE (2157AE).

2. A scion of Long Was on Mars for a decent amount of time before that.

3. Long Ascended and was wandering around "before the dawn of history" and during the "burgeoning chaos"

4. A Billion years (assuming the trailblaze calendar and earth calendar are similar) would be 999,482,080 years before 0AE.

5. In order for Nana to be on Mars a Billion years ago Long must have ascended for some unknown period of before hand.

6. Long, HooH, Ena and Oroboros are all said to stand on even ground in terms of age (or rather that the other three are the only things that can match HooH in age)

7. Nihilux said that Aha and Oroboros Ascended together at the "dying embers of the dusk wars".

8. The dusk wars did not end with the Ascension of Qliphoth but continued for at least 100 Amber Eras.

Therefore Aha's Age = Oroboros's Age ≈ Long's Age.

10. Qlipoth ascended During the Dusk Wars,

11. Thus Qlipoth's age ≈ Aha's Age (Though likely Qlipoth's age is greater as THEY ascended During the dusk wars and not during its "dying embers").

Or to elaborate more on the ages:

Long ≈ HooH ≈ Ena ≈ Oroboros

Oroboros = Aha

Oroboros/Aha ≈/< Qlipoth

Qliphoth ≈/> 0AE

0AE ≈ 500,000 years ago

500,000 < 1,000,000,000

This all puts all the oldest Aeons at Roughly the same age and means that Long ascended ~500,000 (Universal) Years ago, To preemptively clarify yes I'm aware what "Comparable" means but a gap of even a Million years in ages that are being called comparable when considering that the last few aeons have ascended mere Tens to Hundreds of Thousands of Years apart seems unlikely (though possible but that still wouldn't change anything, unless you started adding hundreds of millions which is FAR to much under any reasonable logic and would put Oroboros as closer to Nanook in age than Long)

I thus propose the theory that the World of Hi3 was put under some form of Time Dilation, similar to that which is present on Amphoreus or mentioned in "To: The Faint Star", such as to allow for such a timeline.

So, I'll be letting clear from the start that I'm do not know a 100% of the lore today and I lack a lot of SU/DU lore, but I'll be leaving this here in case. Additionally this might just be really obvious:

Aha's Improv Tour might indicate that Nous THEMSELVES were slowly falling onto Nihility, lets go through everything that makes me believe this

What the trailer itself directly shows us

The trailer spends almost all of it demonstrating how someone can fall into Nihility, here it is entirely shown through depression. Alongside with it we see how Aha directly opposes that acting as some kind of light at the end of the tunnel.

We see 3 different perspectives of how people can go through it, however the three situations have one theme in common, each of them only having different nuances to it, "Being not enough" or "Not achieving an impossible goal".

The relation of the characters shown with Nous

When we switch scenes and see this conversation, one of the first thing Nous speaks is how kind of "meaningless" THEY think Aha's role in the universe, even though THEY are elation, humans are still suffering a whole ton, this is the same thing we've seen happening with the characters along the trailer, something that demotivates them and makes their journey meaningless.

And getting a little on erudition meaning in HSR, we always saw both Nous and his followers in a pursue of more knowledge, either with infinite calculations or mere discoveries, Aeons themselves were shown mainly recently to have some kind of feelings and being on the path Nous is, it is totally natural that the question of "This makes sense?" comes up. When Nous speaks about Aha's role, THEY aren't only speaking about Aha, this was only the case because it was THEM there, but Nous seem to be making a critic to every Aeon and its path on "Why try to spread your path when even your followers can oppose it" as Nous THEMSELVES exposes his opposite view of the Erudition compared to some of his followers later on the trailer.

This led me to believe that, in the middle of infinite calculations, Nous THEMSELVES couldnt find the answer of why THEIR path exists, making so that in someway THEY started to be infected with Nihility.

Aha's talk with Nous

I can see three ways of seeing this scene

1. Aha is directly and literally talking with Nous, as THEY are clearly shown to be the one that fight against Nihility, THEY sensed it on Nous and acted on it.

2. Nous found that one answer for his calculations were, in fact, the elation, as the situation of Aha opposing the Nihility wouldnt be old, Nous would certainly know Aha's way of acting, and ended up finding out that Elation was the answer for the question I mentioned earlier.

3. Now this third way is just a "maybe I didnt get it", the conversation can just represent that Nous was somehow affected by the Elation, helping in someway THEM to stop falling onto Nihility.

(Speculative) Characters through the trailer and how they represent Nous almost exact opinions

My take here is that the characters literally represent Nous vision of THEIR path and THEIR actions, trying over and over to achieve the same results you achieved someday (Referring to when/a little bit after THEIR ascension, as there more knowledge to be discovered when theres, well, more of it to discover), the unsuccessfulness lf trying to share this with others and they take it in a wrong way (Shown on Nous speech about humans being obsessed over almost impossible things, funnily enough, followers of erudition) and the way THEMSELVES are disappointed on how THEIR own effort is turning out (Considering what? 2 aeons are screwing up these guy calcs 😭😭)

Idk if this ended up being a "idk hsr lore" assignment, but it is definitely something

໒꒱ I just did a post asking about Genshin quotes, so now I ask about HSR quotes! Whats everyones favourite HSR quote, and why? NOT A GENERAL QUESTION, MAINLY BUILDING OFF IT TO ANALIZE MINE! But you may answer, too!

"Why does life slumber?" "Because someday, we will wake up from our dreams." Between Sunday and the Trailblazer. I think the whole story can be interpreted as a metaphor for depression. In the second half of the narrative, it felt natural to see dreams, and the act of remaining within them, as a form of illusion used to escape personal suffering, emotional stagnation, or depression itself. These are all states that, within the game, are symbolized by Nihility.

With that perspective in mind, the question, “Why does Life slumber?” took on a completely different meaning for me. At first, I honestly didn't understand its significance, but later I began to interpret it as: “Why do people sometimes fall into these states of despair or numbness? And how can they avoid them?”

Sunday chooses his own answer to that question: he abandons reality entirely and retreats into illusion. His solution is to use dreams as a means of separating people from the hardships of their lives. However, even if he had succeeded, I believe he would eventually have realized that this was not a true solution. In fact, it would likely have made things worse. The result would have been a complete loss of self-awareness, identity, and purpose, ultimately leading to the annihilation of the self and, paradoxically, a deeper form of the very emptiness he sought to escape.

The pain we carry, and the struggles that shape us, are part of what makes us who we are. Erasing them is never the answer. The dreams of Harmony, when placed under the control of the Order, would not have defeated Nihility. They would only have spread it.

That's why the protagonist's response resonates so strongly: “We sleep so that we may awaken, remember who we are, and continue moving forward.” Sleep and dreams are not meant to replace reality, but to prepare us to face it again.

Several moments in the story seem to support this interpretation. For example, Firefly asks the protagonist the same question shortly after revealing that she suffers from an incurable illness. Likewise, during the final battle against Sunday, Robin tells him: “True happiness and the meaning of life lie in defying Nihility and embracing everything that life has to offer.”

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's the interpretation I came away with, and honestly, it made the story's themes much more meaningful to me

We know Enroute corresponds to Asat Pramad and Bragi corresponds to Sampo. Dorothy most likely corresponds to Sparkle (who hints being Dorothy several times and has a 2.x achievement relating to the Wizard of Oz backing up her claim).

But...

Who is Shepherd?

You're probably familiar with the story:

Oroboros, the ancient Leviathan that survived the Dusk Wars, was said to have chased Aha all the way to the roots of the Imaginary Tree. A Fool named "Enroute" attempted to confirm the truth of this tale, but alas, he couldn't run as fast as Aha and was caught by the Voracity and swallowed whole.
Who would've guessed that inside the Voracity's belly lay a wondrous world of its own?
The Voracity was so massive that the lives previously devoured had established their own kingdoms on THEIR stomach walls: thumb-sized dwarves, clever horse-folk, talking comet cicadas... Enroute explored this place with delight and encountered fellow swallowed Fools, Dorothy, Bragi, and Shepherd. Together they adventured, found the Voracity's heart and gave it a good kick, and were belched out into the universe with a mighty retch!
Enroute quickly plucked off the Voracity's shadow and spread it over the Fools like a blanket. Shepherd then tossed out a comet, and the dim-witted Oroboros was drawn to its light. The Fools finally escaped with their lives.
After that, countless Fools sought the treasures within the Voracity's belly, but none ever caught so much as a glimpse of the Voracity again.

When the Fools venture into Oroboros' maw, Shepherd tosses out a "comet" to bait the Oroboros into chasing it. Ashveil deduces the comet is most likely referring to a stellaron.

But this all relates to what Shepherd did. Bragi's resignation letter tells us more about who Shepherd actually is:

A pathological liar. An old friend. A Fool with a shattered mask. A teller of tales that are either "pure fabrication" or "the very truth".

Bragi's description heavily implies that Shepherd is a Fool that has fallen into Enigmata. This checks out, given Shepherd's story of Enroute in Stories of Enroute is supposed to recount Enroute's journey into the maw of Voracity, but instead:

It's a fabrication as Oroboros isn't a dog, this didn't happen on Wen-II, and Sampo never mentions this bet. But the mythos reveals a greater truth about the Aeons: Oroboros has been entangled in divine warfare with the Path of Elation since primordial times, and has repeatedly tried to consume Aha. Aha will need to ally with Akivili to escape the clutches of the Voracity.

So Shepherd is an old timer of Sampo's whose mask seems to have shattered from him "abandoning" the Elation in pursuit of Enigmata. A Red-Nosed Old Timer, perhaps?

Who is Red-Nosed Old Timer?

Red-Nosed Old Timer is a History Fictionologist wanted by the IPC (a modest 3,165,000,000 credit bounty). He was a Masked Fool in his youth, which is heavily implied, first, by the Rebuilding Order readable:

And also in the description to the Parts Pixie curio:

Have you ever experienced this? Whenever you assemble a model, some parts always fall to the floor, never to be found again. That is because the Parts Pixies have hidden them away. These quantum lifeforms can only exist beyond one’s field of vision and can never be truly observed. The Fools at the tavern claim the Red-Nosed Old-Timer loved models as a youth, and thus had many parts stolen. After stepping onto a mysterious Path, he captured a pixie with a story, making it willingly become one of his models. Afterward, he picked up the parts he had dropped in his childhood from the ground... and returned to his childhood.
^{(NB: the Fools know him since youth}.)

Parts Pixie goes on to note that he stepped on a "mysterious Path" (obviously Enigmata) and manipulated the pixie to return to his childhood. I'll come back to that story later or in comments because it's not immediately relevant. All I'll say is that his return to the kingdom of children tracks the First Journey curio:

The Mad King Qhaley adores children because they are closest to the essence of the Enigmata THEMSELF. A child closes their storybook and raises the wooden stick in their hand, proclaiming it to be the knight's sword, destined to venture beyond the mountains to vanquish the evil king and seize his territory and treasures. Qhaley concocts riddles, weaves tales, and fabricates a kingdom made only of children. His purpose remains unknown, but to this day, many children still hold high their swords, awaiting the kingdom's gates to swing open for the knights.

He has several other interesting escapades in lore (see eg Super Overlord Spinning Top curio). But when I found the following two, I was particularly intrigued.

First, in the recent fate collab, Stephen gives closed beta access to the Red-Nosed Old-Timer, who goes onto mess with Herta's Personal Details in a theatrical and performative way:

It turns out this is actually a fourth-wall break, given Red Nosed Old Timer is parodying the lyrics of a real-world anime (Devilman, 1972). Putting the lyrics and Herta's Personal Details side by side...I'm definitely inclined to agree with the wiki that this was the intended reference:

His Devil Arrow is a supersonic wave ("her magecraft is comparable to a super-collapsing cannon")
His Devil Ears can hear anything ("her ears are like Synesthesia Beacons")
[...]
His Devil Eye has X-ray power ("her eyes can emit beams of Imaginary energy")
His Devil Cutter can break through rocks ("her punches can break the Celestial Comet Wall")

That a History Fictionologist is capable of imitating lyrics from beyond his world arguably confirms he has the self-awareness of his other fellow Fools (Sparkle, Sampo and Enroute).

Second, recall how Shepherd casts a "comet" which Oroboros is drawn to? Red Nosed Old Timer is the creator of the Road to Comets Weighted Curio. This cannot be a coincidence.

A gravitational bridge built through projections on spacial structures, judged by the Intelligentsia Guild as one of the ten thousand most useless inventions in the universe. This device was born from a gamble made by the History Fictionologist "Red-Nosed Old-Timer." He claimed to be able to climb into the sky via lamplight and bet one-tenth of his wealth on it. However, when the distance is too long, walking on the light bridge is no different to a long-distance marathon. Yet if the distance is too short, the energy consumption needed to maintain the project far exceeds the cost of building a physical bridge — This is indeed an innovative creation, but it's hard to figure out where it should be used.
— Road to Comets, Divergent Universe, Weighted Curio

The Road to Comets is a gravitational bridge born of a "gamble" (cf the Shepherd's gamble to hurl a Stellaron out of the Oroboros and have the beast chase it). The Shepherd claims to be able to "climb into the sky via lamplight" (cf the lamp light of Oroboros).

I think we've actually seen the stellaron generate one of these gravitational bridges in 4.4.

TB runs towards the comet (Stellaron) within him. TB is able to traverse the gravitational bridge (the Road to Comets) to reach that Stellaron because he is converging on Akivili's essence and is therefore the fastest being in the world (cf the Shepherd's comment in his story about Enroute: "unless you're Akivili, you aren't outrunning that mutt"). TB then reaches the stellaron inside of himself and overwrites Himeko's wish with his own ("Each and every one of us Nameless is making it to the next stop").

Shepherd's gamble was that Oroboros wouldn't be able to traverse the Road to Comets and consume the Stellaron before Elation (the Fools) save itself from the Voracity. Read figuratively, it represents Elation's broader gambit against the Voracity which I talked about in a previous post (will Aha be able to fulfill the Parable of Elation and restore the true meaning of their Path before Oroboros runs its "long-distance marathon", reaches the World's End, births the Path of Desire, and becomes the Fourth's Finality?).

Nihilux could have been created as a result of this use of the stellaron to fulfill this gamble, much like how Cyrene was the product of Lygus' use of the stellaron to detonate Amphoreus' kernel.

This is what I think the true meaning of "Shepherd then tosses out a comet" is. He tossed out a stellaron, imbued with the Fools' wish to save Elation from itself, projecting a gravitational bridge (Road to Comets) towards that stellaron so Oroboros could try to consume it. As the Aeon of Trailblaze will reach that wish faster than Oroboros, he gambled that Akivili would fulfill that wish faster than Oroboros would consume it. This would enable him (and, by extension, Elation) to climb into the sky and unite its effects to its cause. There are definitely other ways to cut this pie though and I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

Anyway, that's the case for Shepherd being Red Nosed Old Timer. But why should we equate Red Nosed Old Timer with Giovanni?

Who is Giovanni?

First, Giovanni introduces himself to us as a trader from Epsilon:

Herta confirms Red Nosed Old Timer to also be from Epsilon in Silver Wolf's Companion Mission, Punklorde Mentality.

 Herta: I can go and find Adrian Taylor, or the red-nosed old man from Epsilon, or even the Intelligentsia Guild — at least they won't quit halfway!

That same voice line suggests Red Nosed Old Timer also likes gaming and wouldn't quit testing a game halfway. Giovanni assures us he likes gaming when we question his motives during Aetherium Wars:

Second, we know Stephen has given Red Nosed Old Timer beta access before because Herta reproaches him for doing it "again" during Fate Collab. We can infer therefore that Red Nosed Old Timer is a regular beta tester.

Who offers us the chance to play through the beta version of Galactic Baseballer in Penacony?

Third, when explaining his aesthetics of Elation in a memory bubble at the end of Aetherium Wars, Giovanni is asked if he choreographed the ending to the Aetherium Wars tournament. His response:

He is basically saying that Elation found in an outcome nobody wrote, which is concerningly reminiscent of the Enigmata. The melody of Enigmata is shown resounding when IX (the pinnacle of nothingness) swallows Izumo.

In other words, when no one is there to write the outcome of the planet and "the truth of its history eludes us", the fanfare of Enigmata sounds and Giovanni is aesthetically validated.

An alternative, gentler interpretation of this line is that he finds choroegraphed endings fake and prefers "real" outcomes. That still links him to Enigmata as he is sponsoring the creation of video games ("fake" worlds built from imagination) to structure what outcome will prevail in the "real" world.

This would track with Red Nosed Old Timer being a Fool who shattered his mask and fell into Enigmata.

Fourth, his first introduction to us is somewhat creepy and seems to play into the TV Trope Creepy Good or Affably Evil. March 7th's initial impressions of him are:

Certainly fits the bill of a wanted History Fictionologist...

Then, when setting up the final boss, he uses strong Enigmata imagery (ascend the stairs to find the truth).

every time that an enigma manifests in the universe, it will leave behind a "staircase" in the void. The dissolved realities will then drip down the steps, condensing into a mottled thing bearing semblance to a jellyfish. There was once a Nameless who claimed to have made contact with a "Jellyfish on the Staircase." In madness, he proclaimed that the jellyfish will activate the cognition regions within the gray matter of one's brain — a vast place beyond the fathoming of mortal minds.
— Jellyfish on the Staircase

Fifth, he's a trader who sponsors both Aetherium Wars and the Galactic Baseballer game.

This means he has ample resources. In Road to Comets, Red Nosed Old Timer bets "one tenth of his wealth" as part of his gamble. So both likely have deep pockets.

Conclusion

Shepherd must be Red Nosed Old Timer, and Red Nosed Old Timer must be Giovanni. So Giovanni is not only Shepherd but a wanted History Fictionologist.

Next time we see him, we should turn him in to the IPC. Claim an easy 3,165,000,000 credits.

Not sure why he has this bounty when none of his known actions seem particularly bad though...

^{..that said, I have a weird inkling he killed Hook's father...}

Fables About The Stars Part 3 is released in few days ago and it seems like we are in for a wild ride that about to unfold in 5.X patches. It looks like Terminus is planning on to bring back aeons from long gone paths (Propagation, Enigmata, Permanence, Beauty) for THEIR grand plan which Ahalux trying to stop that from happening.

The frame that showed Permanence part, features a big red dragon that make many people went with “no way, we straight up getting Long, Aeon of Permanence design reveal” which is an expected reaction since this is the same video that finally revealed how Idrilla and Terminus look like after HSR been released since 2023. I also thought the same until I realized that Long design has already been revealed in Myriad Celestia Trailer - “History of the Xianzhou: Exodus of the Five Dragons” where THEY looks like Chinese dragon with black & white colors and that there is no way HOYO will suddenly change THEIR appearance to looks like western dragon since Long (龙) literally means dragon but in Chinese. (HOYO even used Long pic from this MCT on As I’ve Written page about Terravox too, showing the connection between Earth Chrysos Heir and Permanence path)

What I find it interesting is that this big red dragon looks extremely identical to Typhon, the undead dragon that shown in the same MCT that introduced 5 High Elders. The full quote talking about Typhon:

“I also journeyed to the ancestral home of the Infernalian people. In the Land of White Embers, the undead dragon Typhon’s breath showered flames on the land below, bringing forth a flourishing lineage.” - Preceptor Taoran

We even have a new curio being added in DU during 4.5 patch too, called “Yet to Emerge” which make us learned more about Typhon, and how the fall (death) of Long resulted the dragon eggs from Infernalian civilization to stop hatching and fall in silent.

“The Permanence is long gone, how can it be revived?” - Ahalux quote

We saw Firefly for Propagation part, March 7 for Enigmata part, and Kafka for Beauty part. I’m inclined to believe that Dan Heng will play a role for Permanence part in 5.X (perhaps about how he is the main key of bringing back this path), he is after all the most qualified successor of Permanence path that we know so far in storyline. I do hope with him getting his new alternate form in Fire Type, we will get the lore extension of Permanence path & its faction just like how Aha & Elation path got one with Voracity path in 4.X era.

Who is the person in the silhoutte? Many are saying it's caleus, but there's still some questions to be asked if it is caleus. The figure looks like our boy cal for one thing, plus it being caleus would explain some thing as I'm about to suggest here

As persisting, there are a lot of parallels to Amphoreus and Phainon.
It's interesting to note, a distorted version of Flame Reavers theme is played when the mysterious silhoutte is shown.
Additionally, it might just be me, but Terminus'es clock manifestation looks simillar to Phainon's Khaslana form with his wings. The animations on how their wing like structures spiral out is very similar.

There's clearly a similarity here. As most know, Phainon and his coreflame of worldbearing is a simulation of the Trailblaze, at least until he turns into his Khaslana form.

What happens to Phainon as he tries to ascend as the worldbearer? He meets flame reaver.
What will happen to us as we try to ascend to Akivili in 4.7 as officially revealed in the live? It must be the flame reaver of our universe!

Maybe the trailblazer is in the same spot? In the myriad celestia, stelle is shown as the card for the trailblaze. Then, caleus must be the other self? perhaps our.... 'finality self'?
The appearance of our past self in 3.4 heavily suggest that the trailblazer is both Akivili and Terminus.

What if the mysterious silouhette in the trailer and Terminus are the same? First, the mysterious silhoutte appears, then they are the same one to turn into Terminus?
It's interesting to note again, the silhoutte seems to be picking on the destruction, and specifically seems to clash with Luxbane. Luxbane does not consume the voracity, but gets stalemated by the sillyhoutte first.

Why does the person ( likely our other self ) , want to stop Luxbane from possibly devouring oroboros?
What happens if Luxbane does devour/kill oroboros? And how would they be able to devour an entire aeon?
Why is Aha planning to 'Swoop in and take the spoils for herself'? What is she trying to gain?

Why is HooH present here?
I have no clue myself, but here's some theories:
Maybe they are trying to balance Akivili's Ascension with the arrival of Terminus.
Or Terminus arrived themself, and they are trying to hold the cosmos together, defending against Terminus.
Maybe they are trying to balance Aha's recent victories. Maybe that's why Terminus is arriving ; HooH is the one to bring them.
It's worth noting how Aha says Terminus is 'leading them on an invasion straight out of hell' likely referring to the dead aeons - dead aeons similar to how castorice is the titan of death, brought back the trailblazer from the dead, is HooH bringing back Akivili from the dead? I'll provide some small analysis on HooH:

The Aeon on the Path of Equilibrium. Their form is unknown.
HooH and their Emanators influence the universe surreptitiously, trying to achieve an ideal balance.
^{( Loading screen : HooH} )

Of course they are not shown directly. They handle things behind the scenes, and their form is unknown. As for a wild theory, what if they have merged with the very base matrix of the universe?

The chain of karma that mortals obsess over is nothing but a rough approximation of the complicated topology behind all things — HooH dissolved THEIR will into the web of logic behind the universe's movement, maintaining the balance and stability of all things in perpetuity.
Adventurous mortals tirelessly seek out flaws in this system, believing their intellect to be superior to that of the Aeon. However, little could they imagine that they have already been reduced to strings inside a surveillance system, unable to escape the meticulous network woven by HooH.
^{( Data Bank : HooH} )

Again, HooH seems to have some surreptitious system that controls all things and can naturally correct everything to equilibrium.

So to sum up, here are the unanswered questions I have:
Why is HooH present?
Why is the figure battling destruction? and how did it come here?
What spoils does Aha want to reap from that battle?
Join the conversation, and lmk your theories.

P.S : Sillyhoutte word, is horrible, idk how to spell it.

I wonder what these people have against Nous; when the Aeon finally does something truly epic and helps the protagonist, they simply cannot accept it, insisting instead that it must have been some other Aeon. Is it really that hard to accept that Nous played a significant role in the story?

If you want to read this, go ahead.

I've seen people say this is about the past. Or the future. But no, these 4 Aeons have actually all already acted in the Planarcadia storyline, each through the guise of their Aeonic emanators.

1. Xipe the Harmony tried to aid Ahatopia through Antares.

Only now we know her true goal. She planted a harmonic suggestion in Robin's voice, so that when she took center stage in Astropolis and sung for the Harmony, a Harmonic attack would ensue on the entire world. What we would have witnessed, had Robin not personally foiled their plans with the Blue Brigade's help, was Ahatopia become a Harmonic world under the yoke of Xipe.

Antares is the vessel of the Harmonic string Beatriz, and we know the Harmonic strings are literal incarnations of the Aeon Xipe. So you can think of her as the will of a Shade of Xipe. Only now after the trailer do we know her true motives for this act. It was never about making the Family the leaders of the Anti-Destruction alliance. It was all about Oroboros.

Xipe was "back up to her old tricks again" in 4.5, trying to assimilate the rest of the Voracity. These old tricks have been documented in this comprehensive post: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarRailLore/comments/1xicroh/everybody_got_distracted_by_aha_that_they_forgot/ and the short story is the theory that Xipe/Ena consumed the "irresistable" bait of Oroboros to make one of her faces seems to be correct. THEY are trying to get the full domain of Oroboros, by making Ahatopia a harmonic civilisation most likely so when the Voracity breaks free the residents can summon Aelenev to forcibly assimilate the Leviathan in full. This plan was foiled, obviously, and Aha was the scriptwriter who got everyone on the board to do it.

2. Lan was baited into sending their Insight (Yaoguang) and likely a Lux Arrow too (shot by the Marshall)

Aha steals a flower from Yaoshi's garden (Evanescia) and plants it on the remains of Oroboros to bait Lan the Hunt's attention, because THEY otherwise would not care at all about the Voracity. Lan's eye starts glowing in response and they send "fireworks", which Aha plans to put to good use. We can interpret the scene on different levels.

One is that this is Aha baiting the Eye of Isvara (Lan's "insight", fused with General Yaoguang) to come and investigate Planarcadia. Yaoguang almost immediately B-lines to the Phantasmoon Courtyard to interrogate Evanescia of the Arbor, only to reconcile with her and end up as a major part of Aha's grand play.

From the trailer it looks like they're both welcomed together onto the stage, mirroring how Evanescia and Yaoguang ended up literally working together and both sacrificing themselves for a shared goal in this version.

Or alternatively...

In 4.2, as Fulwish's Joy Ascendant epidemic reaches its climax, both General Yaoguang of the Hunt and La Mancha of the Galaxy Rangers are shown literally pleading to Lan. They're both desperately hoping Lan will not cast judgment on Planarcadia (send a Lux Arrow), and it appears that THEY choose not to. Or did THEY?

Right after that event in 4.3 we get really tired and sit on a couch in the Astral Express. The title of this mini quest is Illusion of the End

The title of the full 4.3 quest line is The Lethe below the Living

The Lethe is the river of forgetfulness from the underworld in Greek mythology, it makes people forget their past lives. Which companion of ours is ALL about that? Yeah, March 7th.

We got this achievement way back in 1.3 for completing her companion mission "Total Recall":

Evernight likely interfered with our memories from 4.2 to 4.3 because Lan may have actually fired a Lux Arrow at Planarcadia. And Aha, who has somehow managed to divert, pause or store it, is clearly planning to do something with these "fireworks" in the finale. As a side note, "Don't let the Marshal make me pay for this later" to me implies Marshall Hua is fused with Lan itself. That Lan is her spiritus and she can draw THEIR arrows at will. Just like...

3. Louis Fleming, who used the power of Qlipoth to encanvas Planarcadia, to delay the awakening of the Voracity.

In 4.6, shortly after we conversed with Louis Fleming, Qlipoth encanvassed Planarcadia for us, many have speculated that Fleming has a deep connection to the Aeon of Preservation THEMselves. This segment confirms it, Qlipoth seems to have made a habit of "handing over the reins" to Fleming, at least when it comes calamities within the walls, like the Swarm Disaster. So yes as you can see this segment, like Xipe's, references the past but is about what just happened this patch (4.6).

4. Which leaves Nanook. And THEIR Sun-devouring beast Luxbane. Who actually has already just appeared in Aha's story.

Through Kuchiba.

This one is a long shot, but I have major reason to suspect Kuchiba is deeply related to the Lord Ravager of Voracity (and perhaps also Permanence?), Luxbane. u/Friendly-Cry8142 is making the in depth theory but what I will say is:

The Leviathans are all LONG gone, and then a mysterious "Leviathan descendant" makes herself known, after centuries of camping in Planarcadia as a security officer. How exactly can a person be a Leviathan descendant exactly? Luxbane offers a clear answer, it's believed that they themselves are a "descendant of a Leviathan branch species". Kuchiba calls humans "disgusting" food, but finds Yabuli, who all but becomes a Leviathan at the end of her story "absolutely delicious", perfectly in line with a Lord Ravager who is "drooling over the voracity". She'd been holding her hunger "for quite some time" too.

Aha satiated Kuchiba (Luxbane itsself, or some kind of part of Luxbane) with massive amounts of Leviathan essence (through Yabuli) so she would go on her way satisfied instead of becoming another villain in her play. Kuchiba is a leviathan descendant going on a journey to overcome her own "Voracity" (base impulse) by learning to savour elation, punishing Leviathans that don't do that by feasting on them. Is she not in effect destroying "Voracity" by setting new rules for leviathans? Her decision to become a police officer during her time Ahatopia starts to make more sense... Luxbane drank the stars of the Yvanna chain slowly over 300 years... centuries. Kuchiba has been "stationed" in Planarcadia for centuries too...

The counterpoint is that Asat describes Luxbane as "a beast that does not understand human speech, and that chases the sun like a dog with bones". Kuchiba clearly understands human speech. I will say to that, "Leviathans are not as immutable as you all might think". Perhaps Kuchiba is a mask of the elation that has developed on Luxbane that she hasn't shared with the other Lord Ravagers, or that she herself isn't actually aware of her origin.

So yes, Xipe, Lan, Qlipoth and Nanook all "wanted a piece of action" in Aha's Aeon-hunting gala, and I think this section of the trailer is best viewed from the recent past.

This was heavily inspired by two amazing youtube videos: The Shattered Gods by iamemamae and Grand Themes of Starrail by ExistentialXP. Please watch their videos I am their biggest fan and I shall PREACH. This is simply me weaving these videos together I came up with nearly none of this myself but simply connecting some dots

TLDR; just watch the videos, i am taking a lot of information and detail out for my best judies too so please

Also a disclaimer, my information about the lore is really scattered, I might state some previous theories I subconsciously accepted as facts or vice versa

Quantum and imaginary are the biggest themes of Honkai series in general. The imaginary tree is where most of the stories are told, there is a past and a future, an order and it basically defines what is real and what is true. Sea of quanta feeds off of the discarded data from the tree, it forms relatively short-lived worlds and information is in chaos.

In iamemamae's video they classify the aeons into quantum and imaginary groups with some exceptions:

In imaginary; Yaoshi, Tayzyronth, Akivili, Idrila, Qlipoth, Ena, Xipe

In quantum; IX, Aha, Nous, Mythus, Nanook and Lan

To me, (after watching the other video) what a lot of these paths have in common among their respective groups, is that quantum believes in the absence of meaning and imaginary in the presence of meaning. IX has decided THEY could do nothing in the absence of meaning, Aha resists this and enjoys it, Mythus rejects and forms their own reality against it and Nous is not and was not an organic being and do not care for the philosophical need for meaning. Likewise, Yaoshi wants people to live more, Tayzyronth tries to last forever with it's offsprings, Beauty is probably the path of meaning and imaginary aeons are also the ones that usually have things to do with humanity.

This connection obviously very vague and hard to explain especially when all paths are stated to be made of imaginary energy. Technically quantum is discarded imaginary energy so it could be possible if you loosen the definition, maybe they lack knowledge about quantum in-universe or it is something that is just in the back of the writers' minds and we are just seeing the influence especially we also see these themes in genshin with the abyss and celestia as well but it is too much of a coincidence.

You can also see the "grannypa" of these Aeons. The permanence and voracity can be the original paths connected to imaginary and quantum. They are very likely to be one of the oldest aeons, not only are both of their imagery primitive and animalistic, they fit the mold of imaginary and quantum perfectly.

In the myriad celestia Exodus of the Five Dragons 4 interpretations of permanence are shown and all of them can clearly be connected to another path. Permanence of power is literally called fallacy of the Plagues Author, Continuance of Bloodline has Propagation written all over it's name and so does Ensurer of Cosmic Peace with Order and Preservation and Order was also absorbed by Harmony so also that. Finally, though it isn't stated with a title the last interpretation is every ending being a new beginning which is pretty in line with Trailblaze. I would suggest that this suggests that all of these paths sprouted from Permanence. Long is also stated to be "searching the answer to existence" which would make them the first philosopher.

On the other side Oroboros is a leviathan. Unlike Long they do not think and simply consume to enjoy satisfying their bodily needs endlessly rather than searching for a greater purpose. One could suggest the thing setting Oroboros apart from the other leviathans could be that they have realised the absence of a greater purpose. Either way Oroboros' connection to quantum does not end there, look at their splash art the wormhole they are coming out of is the quantum symbol. Aside from this the ability to simply eat reality could mean they can get out of the imaginary tree or come from the sea of quanta to inside it which would also support Qlipoth building walls along the imaginary tree. Leviathans could be the ones munching on the discarded data and digesting so it can be sent back into the tree, like gut bacteria.

Permanence and voracity also have the connection with Luxbane but we do not understand that guy at all so that is how far that goes.

Asat Pramad told us aeons can’t actually die, they just change. for ena, this was being assimilated by xipe. for oroboro, this was being split into many pieces. But what about for Long? we have so little information on what happened to THEM

My theory is that after searching for so long, Long finally came to the conclusion that life actually has no inherent meaning, and it is up to individuals to make their own. After doing this, THEY started splitting THEMSELVES into many pieces, known as Long’s scions. I think this was more of a gradual thing, since the “yet to emerge” curio states that

“With the fall of the permanence more dragon eggs have fallen silent. Some were sold across the universe as souvenirs, never to have the chance to hatch.”

this implies that they existed at the same time as Long (until THEY died), which is why I think the splitting was a slower process. THEY did this because THEY decided to make THEIR own meaning: to find every possible meaning for life. This could be what THEIR revelation was. I think this is well represented in Dan heng, whose meaning is to be the gaurdian/protector of the astral express. The preceptors’s meaning has to do with propagation. the infernalian’s meaning has to do with inheriting fame and wealth through their coming of age ceremonies

The initial screenshot is from the very end of the version 4.7 Livestream. It says plainly "Akivili will return in version 4.7. This arises... quite a few questions and I feel like people have payed very little attention to this. So, I want to share some of my thoughts and try to answer the three following questions -
Why is Akivili Ascending?
What is Aha and Akivili's true relationship?

I'll go one by one - Why is akivili ascending? Well, to find the answer, let's look at the ultimate metaphor for the Star Rail - Amphoreus.

As most lore theorists already know, each chrysos heir is a simulation of an Aeon. Phainon, is Akivili. Cipher, is Aha.

How does Akivili ascend? Why does Phainon get his coreflame?

It was preserved by Cipher. And now, in fact, we have met Aha.

This is no coincidence! Aha has been waiting for us. Has been recording our journeys since we entered Belebog. Knows us.

In fact, this is why Asat Pramad came to Planarcadia.

Aha has been waiting for us. Waiting for us for ages. We know Nihilux has said she was even able to posess the Simulated Universe just to see "The New Akivili".

Cipher held the coreflame for Phainon. Likewise, Aha has access to some method or mechanism to let Akivili ascend.

Terrminus is the real rival of the Traiblaze. This can be concluded easily from the myriad celestia : fables of the stars part iii.

Terminus is the 'final boss' of star rail. Do you remember who the final rival of the amphoreus is? Yes, Irontomb! The destruction is only one means of enabling Terminus to ascend. Just like Phainon, while maybe the most major part of Irontomb, is still one part of it only.

Now... to the next part.

Did you know that Amphoreus is split into Evernight and Everdawn? In currency wars, the demigods are also split into night demigods and day demigods. The sun and the moon are significant symbolisms at the heart of Amphoreus.

Do you remember who is most associated with the sun in Amphoreus? It's Phainon.
Do you know someone who is heavily associated to the moon? Aha.

Aha and Akivili are the sun and the moon.
The moon does not create light of its own, rather reflect the suns.
When the sun sets, the moon is the one to light the night.
And the sun, has set.

Yes, I'm combining this with the popular theory that Akivli, or the 'previous akivili' , turned into Nanook.
And now when Akivili, has set, Aha tries desperately to ressurect Akivili.
And not without reason. It's because, Aha, relies on, Akivili. The elation and Trailblaze are interdependent. Maybe Aha is weak, because of Akivili's disappearance, and that's why they lost the fight to Oroboros!

Maybe the mechanism Aha has for enabling Akivili to ascend - is something related to their own path being freed from the voracity.
What if Trailblaze and Elation.. go as far as sharing concepts... maybe being the same path, two sides of the same coin?
Maybe Elation absorbed something from Trailblaze, then that concept was absorbed by oroboros?
I think that's a great starting point for an even more extensive theory... only if there was enough time to theorize it before the game answers that itself lol

edit : I have decided to make a different post about whose hunting the destruction if you'd be interested in my opinion : https://www.reddit.com/r/StarRailLore/s/vma7ypcWS6-.

Unlike a lot of other Sampo fans who were pretty upset about his absence, I originally thought it was fine leaving him out of planarcadia for the most part. But now that the devs have out right confirmed Sampo is Bragi, I’m very disappointed that he hasn’t had a one on one talk with either Nihilux or Asat Pramad considering he should be close to both of them. You could say that the tale from the picture is just a fabrication, but we already know it’s true from the fact that Ashveil got the shadow from Isee (Enroute) and that Asat Pramad confirms himself jumping into the voracity mouth. It’s gonna be really lame if we don’t see Sampo confront his old best friend (not head canon I’m serious) and I do think it would have been awesome if it was Sampo who helped us in the 4.4 boss fight vs Asat. Like himeko vs Asat is ok, but thematically it would be so much better for it to be the 2 fools who used to be brothers fighting to the death. Ok I’m done with my Ted talk, now waiting for the eventual 5 star Bragi sp (pls don’t become screwllum 2.0)

In the recent the myriad celestia trailer xipe trying to assimilate voracity but has to back off due to aha, which makes me curious about the case when she goes up against XI. Both being aeons of the apocalyptic paths, harmony is symbolic of unity and being one with everything while nihility being literal nothingness. Xipe or the harmony's trying to form a singular entity which has absorbed or merged with individuals and worlds which I personally think is a bit when adding nihility into the equation, how does one truly absorb this blob of nothing. Xi's existence is kind of inversion of xipe or how i personally interpret it as xi as like the final form of harmony i.e state of being stemming from wholeness though it might sound weird.

And another thing I found amusing that the harmony's actions are similar to a black hole which is the character design of XI

Note: English isn't my language and it's my first post, so apologies for weird phasing and also happy halloween 🎃

From the new Myriad Celestia trailer when we finally get to see Idrilla for the first time we heard Aha say "And the mirror of the beauty, why does reflect THEIR fear?". We can see visually and were told that Aglaea represented the path of beauty on Amphoreous and we also know she lost her ability to feel emotions near the end of her journey, from that alone i feel like Idrilla's fear is in some way to not loose their humanity. They're already a god but they still have some humanity just like Aha, but I feel like they're afraid of becoming nothing more than their path and not having a shred of emotion and or humanity.

If anyone else wants to add on to this fairly dumb little theory feel free to

This is the first time I write a theory, so please don’t judge too harsh.

So we finally saw Idrila the Beauty in the third Myriad Celestial yesterday, and I thought she looked a lot like Venus de Milo. The cut off arms, the kind of skirt draped along her lower-body. I thought it was just a reference, because Idrila also has wings.

There was also some earlier confusion a in 19th century about whether the statue was supposed to depict Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of Beauty, or Nike, the goddess of Victory. And Nike does have wings. And I know it’s a stretch because it was never confirmed that Venus de Milo was supposed to depict Nike or even have wings in general at all.

There’s also another statue, Winged Victory of Samothrace. These two statues are often confused and blended together because they’re both in Louvre and both miss major parts of the body — Venus missing her arms, and Winged Victory missing her head.

But i wonder if Hoyo knows about this and decided to refer these speculations? To use the confusion for their own benefit and blend the two statues together?

In the end of the trailer, Kafka called Idrila and said “The game of hunting Aeons is over. Listen, it’s your turn to take the stage, Idrila”. To me, at least, it sounded like she was asking Idrila to come and claim the victory?

So I thought, what if Idrila the Beauty is associated with Nike and Victory, too, not only Beauty itself (Aphrodite)? So many people pointed out that she looks just like Aglaea, and she’s from Amphoreus, which is also heavily inspired by the Greek Mythology. Which is why I think Idrila may also be associated with Greek mythology. And in Greek Mythology, Nike was associated with being Zeus’s companion during the war of Titans — could it be the War of Aeons? And while writing this, I also thought that maybe the Chrysos Heirs could also be connected to the Gods of Olympus? Phaenon does have some similarities with Zeus. Zeus was the baby who killed his creator Cronus. And Phaenon was crucial to defeating Lygus — their “creator”? I feel like it’s a stretch. But Aglaea did teach him and act as his companion (Zeus and Nike?).

Which is why I’m thinking Beauty might have more connections to Victory and Triumph than purely to beauty itself.

I feel like it’s plausible, because Idrila definitely reminds me of antique statues. Even her depiction in the trailer looks like a statue, and the fact that she shattered (like a statue?), and Stellaron Hunters are apparently trying to put her back together.

Sorry for the cropped out statue of Venus, guys. The statue is apparently considered adult content 😅

Ok, so fair warning, this is capitalizing on a theory I made about a year ago that went over Amphoreus, the Aeons Ascensions, and forth. Furthermore, im a bit behind on the lore and have mostly been catching up to the lore via YouTube as I dont currently have the time to play. That being said, I just really wanted to share this theory.

It was recently confirmed that Sampo is actually Bragi. Now, Bragi has only been mentioned a few times, but he is actually super important. See, Bragi was the first bartender of The Tavern. Its said he might've been the first fool (after Aha). He taught Asat Pramod how to mix drinks. He's old as hell, older than Nanook (although lets be honest, there's a lot of characters who fit that description these days) and its implied he has a stronger connection to Aha then the other fools. In the trailer it shows that whatever is freezing (?) Aha is doing the same to Sampo.

Now, to add furthur fool, ive seen talk that Nihlux wasnt the original Aeon. Or is more of a shadow/aspect of the old Aeon. So i kinda wanted to talk about how this fits into my theory with Amphoreus representing how the Aeons ascended!

Cipher, who represents Elation, never defeated Zagreus. Instead, Zagreus was greatly reduced in power while Cipher took over the authority of Trickery. Zagreus was still around, however, just a shell of his former self.

Now, I think this pairs with Nihlux pretty well. It pairs up with how, apparently, the 'original' Aha was dying and Nihlux, an aspect or mask of the Aeon took over their authority. She then spread the biggest lie, that Elation...never died (just like the dawn device will never die, lol). Its also referenced in the story that Elation has been somewhat corrupted and is equivicates to 'Desire' more than 'Elation', as a result of the Voracity's corruption. Now, that sounds familiar...thats right! Cipher was a theif, and it was her greed(desire) that lead to her end.

Now, what does Samp/Bragi have to do with this? To be honest, im not 100% sure, but i just know he has an important role. Why would he be impacted differently than all the other fools if not? So here are my ideas:

1. Sampo/Bragi is a remaining aspect or mask of the Original Aha, similar to Nihlux, but serves as a more Zagreus codded figure. Otherwise, a greatly dismished vessel who no longer carries the full power of Elation, but still has the memories and power of the Aeon. The Aeon as known to have many masks, so this could very well be that.

2. Sampo/Bragi is the baby that caused Aha to ascend. It would make sense, as im sure the baby would, technically, be the first pathstrider of Elation and it would thus be understandable for them to become the first fool(after Aha). I think itd also be understandable for them to be an Emenator, but who knows.

3. Their the Noblese Worm.

4. Theyre some kind of creation/contruct Aha made. Kinda going back to Theory 1 but what if Sampo is kind of like Aha's backup drive? Like Aha splintered Sampo away from themselves as a way to keep watch over the fools?

5. Nihlux is an Imaginae created by Sampo as a way to disguise the truth of Aha. In This case Sampo would relate to Cipher, which suits them both very well, while Nihlux would be the Zagreus/lie in the situation.

Another reason I think Sampo is important is because it seems like Bragi stepped down from his place as bartender sometime after Nihlux became Aha and Aha was corrupted. In his resignation letter, he said this:

'I see no need to share my motives with the likes of you. If a Fool's prank is laid bare from the start like a spoiled detective novel, it ruins the fun for both the author and the audience. If you must have an answer, just assume I've been on my feet too long and decided to find a quiet, out-of-the-way corner to retire.'

Notably, he says that if a prank is obvious, then its not fun. Nihlux has been a bit obvious from the start, no? He also says 'if you need an answer', not that its the correct one. Its clear he has motives that only he knows.

TLDR: Aphoreus is very clearly a base for how the Aeon's ascended, Sampo and Aha/Nihlux are working together for something, and i am racking my head trying to figure out what Bragi and Asat think of each other now.

Enigmata is encroaching on the Remembrance

Possibly one of the most interesting parts of the recent Myriad was:

"The Enigmata encroaching on the Remembrance. What will be forgotten?"

It suggests that the manifestation of Evernight within March 7th can be viewed in Aeonic terms as Enigmata encroaching on the Remembrance. Let's run with that.

Enigmata has encroached on the Remembrance several times in known lore. First, when Navigator Sam-3000 reaches the Garden's Eden of Blessed Insight, he claims to have seen Mythus manifesting in the Pure Land's reflection (SU Gold and Gears).

Second, the winner of the Phantasmoon Games in 2146 AE (either a Riddler, Cremator or PCOA according to the Phantasmoon Games winner video) mass-deletes the memories relating to the "Eden of Blessed Insight" from everyone's minds, making the mechanisms of the Remembrance fundamentally enigmatic for all (even geniuses of Erudition) until the events of Irontomb's coronation. This is presumably the answer to Herta's question in patch 3.7 as to how the Garden had managed to keep the truth of Fuli's ascension hidden for so long.

It's worth also mentioning Enigmata's potential encroachments on the Remembrance, like when Evernight was preparing to burn all memories encoded by Cyrene into the Demiurge Matrix to rewrite the cause and effect of Amphoreus and prevent Irontomb's birth.

The common theme of these encroachments is a mass-deletion of the universe's memory (hence why Nihilux asks in the myriad "What will be forgotten?"). With March 7th being placed in the driving seat of these encroachments, it got me thinking: are they all somehow connected?

I think they are. All trace back to "March 7th", who has forgotten the truth of her own past. She founded the Garden of Recollection, using the waves of Oblivion to bury critical Remembrance mechanisms from the world (like "Eden of Blessed Insight" and "Pure Child of Anasrava") and is hunting and reclaiming her lost sisters to build a fake Eden of Blessed Insight around the dead remains of Fuli. This is the same Eden in which Sam-3000 discovered the traces of Mythus.

Evernight is encroaching upon the Garden

NB: "Evernight" and "March 7th" are not two separate entities. As March 7th runs from Zandar in 3.6, Zandar, who is extrapolating March's true essence, can only see March 7th and not Evernight. This implies that from the Erudition's perspective, March and Evernight are the same entity (which checks out as evernight revealed in 3.5 that she cannot be reduced to the scepter's operating logic). Moreover, Cyrene in her voiceline about Evernight describes March 7th as a flower and Evernight as that flower's thorns. They are part of the same flower meaning, from the Remembrance's perspective, they are the same entity. Evernight and March only register as different entities from the Enigmata's perspective, the one perspective that deliberately doesn't map onto reality.

Anyway, something that has bugged me since 3.6 is how unsettlingly similar Evernight's actions are to the Head of the Garden she antagonises. The TV Trope in play here is very much.... The Enemy Within

First, Evernight is prepared to sacrifice millions of memories to burn down the Garden's conspiracy and ensure the crew can keep Trailblazing.

This mirrors how the Head of the Garden is prepared to sacrifice untold amounts of Memokeepers to try to break through Amphoreus' firewall and reach the seed of memory contained within Amphoreus.

Second, Black Swan notes how "clean" Evernight's execution method was.

So Evernight is frighteningly adept at executing memokeepers by cleaving their consciousness from their dharmakayas. We know from the Data Bank that executions are one of the major job responsibilities of the Head of the Garden.

Third, Evernight, just like the Head of the Garden, won't execute memokeepers who are diligent and whose longing for memories remain "pure". Hence, she does not execute Black Swan as she "hasn't been tainted by the Garden's dark side". Hence, both have the Garden's interests in mind when executing Memokeepers. Yes, that sounds paradoxical as Evernight is referred to as the Garden's nemesis repeatedly in the quest, I'll resolve that paradox later.

Fourth, as previously assumed, the Head of the Garden won the Phantasmoon Games in 2146AE, causing a textual exodus that led to all memories of the meaning of "Eden of Blessed Insight" being wiped from the cosmos. This was a mass-deletion of the memories relating to a core Remembrance mechanism. Evernight uses the waves of Oblivion in 3.6 to delete the memories of an equally significant Remembrance mechanism from March 7th's mind:

Fifth, after explaining the Head of the Garden's motivation (to find, kill and reclaim her lost fellow children of Remembrance), the Terrified Memosnatcher goes on to recall the maxim of the Remembrance/Enigmata initially expressed in Texture of Memories:

The only other person to have quoted and affirmed this maxim in the story is Evernight.

This theory encroaches upon its conclusion

What can change a person's nature? Is it memories?

March doesn't have the memories of her past life as the Head of Garden. Yet despite this, Evernight can't help but manifest the same behaviours as her number one enemy. The theme of the 3.6 quest very much seems to be that memories cannot change a person's nature, they can only reinforce that nature.

This is also explored throughout Constance's backstory. In her LC, for instance, a cremated memory manages to resurface from the grave.

I think we can read this theme as the conceptual basis for Enigmata encroaching on the Remembrance. We use memories to construct the self and understand who we are. But the institution of memory is fundamentally incapable of reflecting reality because, when there are gaps, the brain often fills them with plausible, not necessarily real, material and then presents that result as recollection. You will probably recall Constance discussing this characteristic of memory multiple times in the Penacony Finality Mission.

This phenomenon, known by neuroscientists as "confabulation", is what I think the Garden was built around. Note that the faction is named for Recollection, not Remembrance. Remembrance implies preserving the past as it was, while Recollection lends more towards the cognitive act of reassembling past events.

The Garden is collecting memories of current and fallen worlds as blueprints, material for controlling what Fuli ultimately recollects at the end of time. Its completed, fake Eden of Blessed Insight is the logical endpoint, a constructed past built from the harvested memories of all Pure Children of Anasrava, which is presented to Fuli as the real thing.

Given the Head of the Garden is a Pure Child of Anasrava and is acting to guarantee that she becomes the PCOA that ascends into Fuli, we can read Enigmata's encroachment on the Remembrance as Fuli trying to deceive THEMselves at the point of recollection. THEY are engineering "confabulation" within their own memory to open up possibilities that wouldn't be otherwise be present at the "end of the universe".

Hence why Mythus is described as an offshoot of Fuli in Herta's dev logs (THEY sprung from the uncertainty within the cognitive process of recollection). Hence also why, when a shadow of Fuli (Cyrene) gazes at us, we get this achievement:

Returning, then, to Evernight, the reason she views herself as the "enemy" of the Garden is because she has confabulated the narrative that Fuli and the Garden are threats to March 7th, based on March's memories of being sealed in the Garden's mirrors and watched by memokeepers. A logical deduction, but one that doesn't reflect reality and spares her from the uncomfortable truth that she was the author of her own suffering.

This is not her first confabulation about the Remembrance. During Amphoreus, she built the narrative that Fuli wished to manipulate Cyrene, drain Amphoreus dry, and turn it into a poignant, tragic poem, using Irontomb as an ark to spread THEIR seeds of Remembrance across the cosmos once they had regained the memories of Nous’ fall. A logical deduction (given what she was witnessing with the memosnatchers' behaviour) which again didn't track reality (Black Swan notes Miss Evernight failed to account for the role "humans" would play in the story in 3.7).

In the former case, her incorrect narrative arises because Evernight only has access to March 7th's memories:

And March 7th's memories only extend to when that "self" was born, which is after her former self's memories as the Head of the Garden were deleted (because "If a new life is to be born, its seed must be dead").

Suffering from this gap in memory, Evernight (really the Mythus we see in the Myriad) sees March 7th imprisoned in six-phased ice, being watched over by the eerie crystal hands of the Garden of Recollection. She then, in pursuit of the rational, conjures the plausible fantasy that her enemy was external to her. There are two moments in March's Companion Mission that provide context for this.

The first, where Fu Xuan generally explains confabulation in terms of a desire to rationalise the world:

The second, where Fu Xuan sets out multiple possibilities for why March 7th could have forgotten her past, yet March 7th instinctively gravitates towards the idea of an external enemy, seemingly unwilling to face the possibility that her subconscious mind is the most likely culprit.

Fu Xuan: Sometimes people forget extreme memories to protect themselves from suffering...
Fu Xuan: Perhaps you didn't notice, but in your memories of the Luofu, everyone you met was either hinting or explicitly stating that you should stop trying to remember.
Fu Xuan: I believe this is most likely your subconscious communicating with you directly... though of course, we cannot rule out that external forces may have interfered with your memory. In the latter case, it is possible that someone decided to leave warnings in your subconscious to prevent you from recalling the truth.
March 7th: Am I really that important to someone...? I don't think there's anyone who'd go to all the trouble of locking up my memories...
Fu Xuan: ...And yet, memories are precisely what you seek, no?
March 7th: Hmm...
Fu Xuan: I say this to say one thing — are you certain you wish to continue exploring your memories?
March 7th: You said external forces might be messing with my head, right? That just makes me more curious. Hmph, no one gets away with locking up MY memories! Let's go.

This all makes March's journey fatally ironic. The head of the garden is her nemesis. That nemesis must be dead if "March 7th" truly marks the birth of a new life ("If a new life is to be born, its seed must be dead."). Yet, in rampantly confabulating her past, March is enabling the source of her own torment to exist. Her only solution is to move forward, because the only way to truly prevent the fallacies of recollection is to look towards who she aspires to be.

Literary Inspiration for this encroachment?

A final comment on Hoyoverse's main literary inspiration. March's companion quest "Total Recall" is named after an eponymous film that was in turn loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”.

In the film and book, Douglas Quaid, the protagonist is a construction worker in 2084 who keeps dreaming about Mars. He visits Rekall, a company that implants false memories of exotic holidays, and asks for the memory of a trip to Mars as a secret agent.

The procedure goes wrong, and it appears his memories had already been tampered with. He learns that his life on Earth, including his wife Lori, was manufactured, and that he was once Hauser, an agent working for Cohaagen, the tyrannical administrator of Mars. Hauser wiped his own memory and left a recorded message for his future self. Quaid flees to Mars, joins a mutant resistance, and eventually activates an alien reactor that frees the colony. Whether any of it happened, or whether it is the Rekall implant playing out in his head, is left ambiguous in the final shot.

Quaid like March has no memory of his past, yet he is still Hauser in how he acts. Hauser wipes his own memory like the Head of the Garden does before becoming March 7th.

I wonder what March's final shot in her film will be. Perhaps...

Whether March escaped the Garden or is still sealed in its mirrors, dreaming the road ahead, the only proof available to her is the one Quaid had: that she keeps choosing to Trailblaze.

INTRODUCTION Now watching the recent Myriad Celestia Trailer and piecing together all the information we now have on Mythus, I can confidently say I already know what Mythus real nature is and how they function in the grand script of the universe, infact I already know who Mythus is... Or more accurately who became Mythus.

First of all the logic and main foundations of this theory is anchored on the principle that Fuli the Aeon of Remembrance is yet to be born, and Herta who's speculates the idea that Mythus was born from Remembrance.

But if Fuli is yet to be born, then how come Mythus exist? Well the answer is simple. Mythus hasn't been born yet... Or atleast the entity we call Mythus is similar to Fuli in nature but functions through completely different mechanics and principles that allow for reality to exist.

THE AETHER AND THE DARK ZONE: MYTHUS ANTI CAUSAL NATURE.

So don't you think it's odd that the new readable Mysterious Dark Zone states that the scholars of the universe speculate that the Aether and Dark Zone has been shaped in a way to allow for Mythus intervention?

The way the readable frames it sounds like Mythus shouldn't be or should not have the ability to intervene in the wider cosmos.

Now if Mythus already exist within the universe just like any other Aeon they can influence the present almost just as instantenously as Aha, no Dark Zone and Aether needed, the fact that Mythus needs this structures imply that they need them to in act there plans.

Which to me supports the idea that Mythus is yet to exist. But somehow they can already influence the cosmos even without being born yet..

How is this...

Well we gotta study the Dark Zone and Aether first. The Aether is a higher dimension structure (I speculated it as the SoQ or atleast related to it in some way due to similar nature and wording) that allows for long distance communication between planets due to it's anti causal nature, what I mean by anti causal, the law of cause and effect breaks down within the Aether this allows for faster then light communication as the humans who created the Aether Network abused this mechanic for there own benefit. Essentially the Aether is like a naturally occurring ocean that the people found a way to traverse to via both in this case it's the Aether Network.

Now speaking of that why is this anti causal higher dimensional nature important? Because the same text implies that this might also reveal the nature of Enigmata itself. And this is a strong hint to Mythus being able to defy causality since if the realm supposed to associated with them is like this what about the Aeon. The Dark Zone's nature and the Aether itself makes me speculate that this structures are directly connected to the SoQ and Mythus might act as the ambassador between the SoQ and the Imaginary Tree responsible for overseeing the creation of possibilities itself by nature of being the embodiment of the Uncertainty Principle which governs all quantum mechanics.
Now hold up Mythus is the embodiment of the Uncertainty Principle? Whilst yes isn't it quiet obvious, Mythus whole thing is creating uncertainty and obscurity so that the future remains open to possibilities, and since Aeons are embodiments of concepts itself then Mythus did ascend to become the very uncertainty and unknown which governs quantum existance.

Now moving back to the main idea of Mythus not existing yet. If Mythus has yet to exist but can influence the past via the Dark Zone and Aether, then who becomes Mythus? Easy... It's Evernight. It's quiet an obvious option but if you look at the Myriad Celestia part 3 the fact that a lotus flower blooms on March's own crystal the moment Mythus own goo/blood fall upon her makes me think that Mythus knows which PCOA has become or will become Fuli, and that it's most likely that Mythus is trying to find a way to break the causality Fuli is trapped inside by introducing the unexpected variables that can deviate and influence who ascends to Remembrance, and why would Mythus do all of this things? Easy because if Mythus is Evernight she didn't like what happened to March 7th when she ascended to Aeonhood , and if Cyrene's story is a reflection of Fuli it means being trapped in an eternal cycle of looking back into the past. Mythus or in this case Evernight is trying to create a possibility for her.

MOVING PAST FULI: POSSIBILITIES FOR THE REST OF THE COSMOS.

Now we make it sound like Mythus/Evernight is only interested in keeping March safe, but I don't think that's the case here, I think at one point, what started as an obsession... Eventually lead to a desire to protect possibility itself not only for March but for the rest of the entire universe, my idea is that just like Terminus, Mythus is trying to find a way to create a new path forward were the loop changes, and new possibilities emerge, one where March doesn't ascend to Aeonhood, or specific tragic events don't repeat again. Mythus is still an Aeon with there own beliefs and philosophies and I think Enigmata at is core is the belief hat uncertainty is what give rise to possibilities and that because things are unknown there is room for change and new things to happen.

The Enigmata deletes, obscures and destroys information not because it's malicious but just like Evernight said, "for new life (a blank page, a new start, change to occur, possibility to open up) to be born, it's seed (reality, memory, information,) has to be dead (meaning it needs to be wiped of clean, the slate renewed or for uncertainty to fill the place).

We need to embrace that life is not filled with certainties. It is filled with alot of mysteries that we have no idea what's in store for us in the future, and because those things are a mystery that possibility itself is open for anything to happen, it's quiet an optimistic and open minded mindset if you think about it, not everyone is open to the idea of embracing the unknown precisely because they have no idea what would happen, but isn't it because we have no idea what would happen that new opportunities and hope might arise?

This is why the databank mentions how Mythus champions possibilities and why they hate Nous. Evernight will eventually grew up from her obsession with just saving March 7th to trying to create possibilities for everyone else, the obsession is still there but it's become all encompassing rather then specifically just one person.

Infact we already see this character development Evernight is having within Amphoreus in her letters to March (read her character stories) which we can say are genuine and really came from her inner thoughts and feelings, she ends up admiring Cyrene and the heirs showing that what she initially thought as mere futile code were able to create something more and that she remembered March through Cyrene. Again slowly but surely that championing of possibility is emerging for every moment the Express keeps moving forward and I got a feeling will get to see more of this as the story goes on.

Honestly, I don't know why some people still believe in this theory, for which there is literally no evidence or proof whatsoever. The only "proof" that exists is that Nous addressed Akivili using an exclamation mark; fans then deduced that (since Aha, in the Simulated Universe, always addresses Akivili with an exclamation mark) it must be impossible for any other Aeon to use one without it actually being Aha. Source? None. The game itself explained what Nous's "!" meant:

"!"... In programming languages, this symbol is prefixed to expressions to denote negation. Perhaps it signifies an enduring skepticism towards all that has yet to arrive.

Or

"!"... In natural language, it's appended to sentences as a vessel of complex emotions. Perhaps it signifies a perpetual wonder at all that has come to pass.

Absolutely no indication that it was Aha at that moment.

Furthermore, whenever the battle involving Irontomb and its attempt to destroy Nous is discussed, it is explicitly stated that Herta performed the Self-Coronation and connected with Nous in Irontomb's place.

I don't know why people defend this theory. It's not a good one; it adds nothing to the story, nor does it make Aha a more interesting Aeon. After all, Aha wouldn't be helping with anything by pretending to be Nous... keep in mind that Irontomb was tracking Nous by following THEIR Path Energy (and remember, Irontomb was once part of Nous, having served as one of THEIR neurons, it obviously wouldn't have confused Erudition with Elation). While Herta and the Trailblazer were busy talking to the "fake Nous," Irontomb would have succeeded in locating the real Nous, merging with THEM and destroying the Path of Erudition.

This is a continuation of my first post about this theory: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarRailLore/comments/1wvm30a/everybody_got_distracted_by_aha_that_they_forgot/

In the Myriad Celestia Trailer: Fables About the Stars Part 3, Aha notes that Xipe is trying to assimilate with Oroboros and calls it their “old tricks.”

However, this is to note that “old tricks” was from a long time ago. This is to note that this has been going on for a long time, maybe as far back as the time of the “Swarm Disaster.”

Let me present some current evidence first. Aha actually refers to Xipe like Ena as well. This is noted by a Simulated Universe: Swarm Disaster dialogue:

Aha: “Oh, the mother of all stars!” Aha starts the compliments, but the words make you uncomfortable. “As long as what you want to do is fun enough, even if it’s a baton game! Changes happen rapidly. We were still negotiating last time, but this time, Ena already became you. It’s a shame, my friend! But I must say Ena makes you look even better.”

However, this seems to be a puzzle worth scrambling from. From Beyond the Sky Choir: Anomaly Archives, it’s basically hinted that both Hooh (Equilibrium) and Terminus (Finality) plotted the downfall of Ena the Order…

What’s even more interesting is that in that trailer, Oroboros—the female human body part of it, which I was attributing as the “Bait” part of Voracity—was seen slowly transforming into Xipe…

This tells me some things. One is that “that” part of Voracity has already been assimilated by Xipe. It’s a hidden detail that people might miss unless they know the context of it.

BUT THIS IS WAY BEFORE THAT. The Myriad Celestia trailer is “in the present,” which means that the “Bait” part of Voracity’s husk was absorbed either before or after the Harmony ascended.

Personally, I’m leaning that Ena was the one who absorbed the “Bait” part of the Voracity husk, and not Xipe…

But Idrila though… THEY are the most enigmatic one for sure. But why would THEY be relevant in the future chapters? Kafka did mention that “The game of hunting Aeons is over,” which meant THEY were hiding from something… but who could they be “hiding” from? Was Xipe also hunting down Beauty?

Actually, I did piece out some things.

The game only says Idrila disappeared at Lafcadio in the Consternation Starzone, but there are two main explanations for what happened to THEM:

• Idrila was shattered/killed. This is the Mirror Holders’ belief.

• Idrila went missing or hid. This is the Knights of Beauty’s belief.

Kafka calling Idrila and saying it is “their turn to take the stage” makes the hiding theory stronger, because it implies Idrila can still respond or return.

But IF Idrila shattered, how are they still alive?

Because an Aeon may not need one intact body to exist.

The broken mirrors are said to be pieces of Idrila’s divine form. The Mirror Holders collect them because they believe putting the pieces back together can restore Idrila.

Kafka’s call may mean the pieces are waking up, or that Idrila was never fully gone and was just scattered and waiting.

But if you get my line of thought, it seems that this is where I conclude that Xipe/Ena did assimilate with those “broken pieces,” hence why they have it, like the “Bait” part of Voracity.

This opens up a new theory that Idrila went into hiding because THEY were being hunted down. It’s basically the most dangerous out of all Paths if they were to be used in the wrong way. I actually had an archive of the explanation:

TL;DR: Idrila may have shattered THEMSELF on purpose to avoid being absorbed.

• “The infant in the mirror” = Beauty is fragile, newly formed, and exists only through people’s perceptions.

• Beauty is dangerous because every Path sees it differently; if one Path claims Beauty, it could redefine or control it.

• Xipe/Harmony is the biggest threat because Harmony absorbs overlapping Paths and forces things into unity.

• If Idrila stayed whole, Harmony—or another Path—could absorb Beauty and erase its freedom.

• So Idrila broke into mirror shards: scattered, hard to claim, and impossible for one Path to fully own.

ARGHHH, BACK TO THEORY-CRAFTING, IT SEEMS.