Any chance that Asat Pramad is actually...
>! Void Archives? !<
Hey all!
Long-time lurker who's played through both all the main story of HSR and Hi3. I love coming up with theories which connect both universes, but have yet to see much about this one in particular, so I figured I'd write something out to see everyone's thoughts before the next update.
Disclaimer: My knowledge is mostly based around my own progress in game, and there's a ton of stuff I haven't read in the simulated universe and both games' readables yet. I did a few searches in the wiki about specific questions, but if I'm misunderstanding / misrepresenting I hope you'll smack me down exactly like our Ravager-of-the-Patch would.
- Re-watching the "Death of Elation" trailer today, I had to stop for a screen-cap of the following scene because I noticed there's a HoodedLittleBitch lurking behind the bar where that (step)Dad joke-of-a-robot stands for us in the present day.
2-3) That's when my brain just started Theoros-ing and remembered that we first saw that particularly horrendous purple-yellow color combo all the way back in the Hi3 manga when we were introduced to the previous era's Herrscher of Reason, aka Void Archives.
4-7) In the in-game cutscene, we get these two sequences back-to-back (see appropriately numbered images of symbols and robots) where Asat Pramad confronts the HSR heros. At one point after beginning his assault (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3LbTotxM04&t=2m05s) he says "its been a while, old friend." During this, a pink shield (which looks similar to a copy of Void's mask imo) and robot (likely Himeko's, though it doesn't seem 1:1 with the model from her Nova flare [again, imooo]) appears before him, but as soon as he finishes saying that the cut is to a scene of him fighting Welt.
Old FrieeeeeenDDd here could be Welt?
8-11) You know, the guy he's conveniently referred to as "Old Friend" when he was setting up the whole situation that would cause him to leave Earth before the start of HSR. Wouldn't THAT make it make sense why gramps is looking a little more 'ornery than usual and busting out his 3rd impact aura farming pose??
12+) How does that account for him fighting in multiple places at once? Void archives is shown doing that after fully taking over Otto's Soulium bodies (which, being nanoteech, can morph into whatever appearance he likes). He's also shown the ability to utilize (nerfed versions of the) powers of all the Hi3 Divine Keys -- that could contribute to his ability to so accurately counter all his opponents.
Add that to those small little elements like Ryusuke thinking Shush's jokes are hilarious, the fact that Welt left his original Hi3 Universe shortly killing his universe version of Ryusuke (also Himeko's Dad -- check me on that Hi3 friends?) and the fact the Void Archives showed up very recently in that OST with no current story relevance makes me veryyyy suspicious!
The biggest problems with this idea so far are:
a) the timeline: since Welt came into the HSR universe at the same time as Voids, some serious shenanigans must have occurred for this to work with all the other world destroying Asat's been up to: ie, the void archives Himeko picked up with welt must have been only one of many soulium bodies possessed by VA, AND some crazy time dilation stuff must have been going on while they were on Salsotto. Reading the descriptions from the wiki (along with other in game anecdotes), that doesn't seem totally out of the realm of possibility.
b) The probability specific powers. Not something explicitly spelled out in Hi3. Encyclopedic knowledge of the previous era and all the powers of the divine key might be able to help him feign something like what we've seen so far? Dicians and further lore would seem to strongly contradict this, though.
c) the young child and the Golden Rose: the video suggests this is Enroute's childhood before he becomes Isee -> Asat. The implied story telling is that this was "recent" in his near childhood before growing up. Is there any chance that the childhood depicted here is also from the Earth's previous era, before he became the previous era's herrscher of reason? The Hi3 lore is completely blank of the old HoR before the modern era. A child being able to turn something into gold seems in line with the HoR powerset.
Objections aside, his entire ethos of "causing mankind to suffer to bring out the only noble things in them," just feels like something that Void Archives would do, considering that their motivation at the end of APHO was STILL about eliminating Honkai (inadvertently protecting people, even at the cost of their lives). It fits with all the internet posts he does, where he's unable to see any contradiction between loving his neighbors and causing them to lose their lives.
Anyway, this took way longer than I anticipated to write, and I think I'm kinda giving up 3/4 through. Maybe I'll put together something slightly more coherent if this is fun at all for anyone?
Thanks for skimming / reading!
PS other question for Hi3 lore masters: can void archives emulate the herrscher of corruption since that divine key was never finished until the new era (if ever, canonically)? Google was not particularly helpful with that timeline, and I didn't remember anything beyond the sealing that happened in Sakura Samsara.