u/Strict-Extension-695

Leaks and Spoilers for 4.6 and 4.7

TLDR: Sampo has also been a stand in for Aha in many ways, like their matching feelings about wanting to quit, the matching descriptions in the Fables about Aha readable, and now matching death motifs are just another thing they have in common.

Nihilux is weird and I still don’t think she’s the real original Aha based on Asat’s reaction to seeing her and the new relics describing what sounds like her experience as a baby and troupe master in 4.1, but with the last update, I also started thinking about death in this context, which Sampo has a fair number of connections to. I think Sampo is still a contender for old Aha in some way or another, but regardless, he does have some interesting ties to death for anyone who just wants to hear about Sampo. 

When I read that Aha was dead, the first thing that stood out was this Eidolon where the highlight in his eye is gone. It's a common trope to have a dead character lose the light in their eye, although I’ll admit that this can also be used to convey trauma. However, in the case of HSR, it is more associated with death. Blade is one such case, as he has died over and over, and the highlight is absent from his models. Xueyi loses the light in her eyes when she gets killed by Hoolay during the War Dance. In the 3.8 quest where you watch Firefly fade away, she loses the sparkle in her eyes as she dies. Cerydra also loses the light in her eyes as she dies. 

There are two exceptions: Hanya and Jingliu. Hanya is clearly supposed to mimic the look of a dead person with her ghost theme and mentions of coffins, so I feel it's fair to say her lack of highlights is to reinforce the association with death. Jingliu is really the only exception, but you can interpret being marastruck as a form of death through the loss of oneself. I will leave her case up to personal discretion, but I feel like it's pretty clear that the artists want us to associate death with a loss of highlights and not just trauma. 

Memetic entities like Misha and Gallagher keep the light in their eyes because they aren’t really “dead” but rather manifestations of memoria from others, so the lack of a highlight is exclusive to those that have already died/we are watching truly die. 

Now back to Sampo’s eidolon, he has lost the light in his eyes in this instance. Since the loss of light is seen in more cases where the character is dead than traumatized, I wonder if this could be a sign of him already being dead. The earliest interactions we get about Sampo with NPCs are them wishing he’d die, and his lightcone also features him in a sniper’s crosshairs. With Aha being a shapeshifter and Tingyun having highlights while “alive,” maybe this Eidolon could be a moment where his “mask slips”, but I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t have more to back this up than eyes lol.

Looking at where he gets his name, the Kalevala, the Sampo mill of myth was shattered beyond repair, and being named after something that gets destroyed is not a great look for a guy who may or may not be dead. Sampo also sings part of the Kalevala poem in his pop-up shop, showing he is aware of the myth and the ending, but still chose to name himself after a magical entity that gets destroyed. 

His beta sheet also states he was inspired by Loki. Aside from being a god associated with trickery like Aha, the story of Loki and Ragnarok has influenced the lore of Planarcadia.

 Ragnarok parallels Planarcadia in that both stories focus on the world being destroyed by a snake-like creature (Jörmungandr and the voracity) and war among gods (Voracity/Elation and Preservation). Before Ragnarok and his death, Loki existed in a suspended state; specifically, he was being tortured by a venomous snake dripping poison on his head, which appears to be what the “old Aha” boss we’ll see next patch is also experiencing: their head being damaged by a snake, tortured, and waiting for the final blow. 

Jörmungandr is also an example of an ouroboros spending most of its time biting its own tail, only stopping when it's time for Ragnarok, so I feel like it's fair to say Ragnarok (along with Loki’s story, aka Sampo’s inspo) was on their mind when they wrote Planarcadia. 

Also, Thor, the god of thunder, was the one to fight Jormungandr, and Elation TB is a lightning element, and you can’t tell me that lightning TB fighting enemies themed around a giant snake that eats its own tail isn’t a reference to Norse myth. 

Some other tidbits associate Sampo with death, like this picture of him from the first anniversary with Acheron and Luocha. At first I thought this was just some picture of the emanators together, but I think this could have been a playful way of the writers foreshadowing his story. Looking at the characters thematically, you have a man with a coffin and a woman whose mission was to fulfill a dead man’s wish + whose name is the river that leads to the entrance of the land of the dead. Sure, it could be a coincidence, and they just wanted to draw three emanators, but these characters have never interacted, Sampo’s emanator status has never been addressed, and ⅔ of the people here who have been explored in depth have death motifs, so it's pretty odd, and if I were one of the devs I’d feel pretty smug about putting a guy who may or may not be dead/dying next to two people who tend to the dead. 

Back to Sampo’s early content, getting death threats from NPCs early in the game 

1. Would be funny to threaten someone who’s already dead
2. This could be foreshadowing that he/old Aha is dead/going to die

Anyways, the coincidence of Sampo having snake themes, an invalid rating, special animations, not being allowed on the express, not having an overworld location, and the ability to go to other universes was already sus, but now the mysterious dead-eye eidolon and Ragnarok themes when we get a dead-ish aeon and anime Ragnarok is not letting him beat the Aha-lligations in my book. 

Could you imagine if he really is Bragi or something, and the writers just fell ass backwards into this many coincidences? I wouldn’t put it past them to tease Aha-po and then end it on a cliffhanger to mess with people because it's something old Aha would like. I mean, they did retcon Penacony because they ran out of time, and Planarcadia def suffered from rewrite syndrome. 

this knowledge hit me like a truck, and I never even posted my bragi theory from 4.0 and now it’s too late 😭

yeah hes totally bragi

no more Sampo slander we glaze the trash king

im losing my mind he HAS to do something next patch

found this on twitter and had to pause to appreciate how good he looks, god I need a 3d printer now 😭

original source

https://x.com/GrayWorldCorp/status/2095257375657582892

for context, this is a song they included and gave a special animation to during the first anniversary star rail concert, dedicated just to him 🥹, good times will befall us comrades

thank you nihilux for taking the blame for the most controversial patches. If sampo was in her place we'd never get a male character again, let alone see sampo afterward. Maybe his writer could have saved things, but who knows

If someone has to flop at least its not him

As many of you know star rail takes a lot of inspiration from its sister game hi3, but it also references genshin quite heavily. For instance here’s a wind glider on Hertas station and Paimon’s dialogue stops you when you try to explore out of bounds areas in belobog. These two references in the early game showed that developers were thinking about genshin while writing the initial story at least somewhat, however comparing the overarching themes between regions also shows even more, strong similarities between the two games, and these may provide hints at the ending of planarcadia along with a role for Sampo. 

Belobog and Mondstat are the first regions which focus on freedom, are lead by wind characters, focus on small communities and end with befriending the large ancient protector of the nation. For conciseness I left the other region explanations in the images above, but hopefully this gets the idea across.

Clearly there are strong parallels between each version's story and their counterpart in genshin, and Planarcadia may have the most so far. For example, both stories have a strong focus on a murder mystery in the beginning that are committed by someone doing experiments that turn locals into a hive mind. In both cases the latter half of the story revolves around a god with a secret identity who hates their divine authority, but maintains it to save their followers/feeling they cannot give up yet despite the exhaustion it brings them. 

Regarding Genshin, the 4.x story revolves around Furina, a woman selected to inherit the divine authority of the hydro element when the original archon was sentenced to death. Along with taking up the mantle of hydro archon Furina was given a prophecy that her nation of Fontaine would be destroyed and there was nothing she could do about it. However, she was able to trick the prophecy and save her nation, eventually being freed from playing the actress in her role as a god when she’s able to return the authority of hydro to one of the reborn dragon sovereigns who ruled before her. 

There is a clear similarity with Aha here. In both cases Furina and “Aha” are entities who don’t want their title, have secret identities, are associated with theater and acting, and suffer due to their role, plus nihilux is voiced by the same actress in English. With this many not so subtle parallels it stands to reason that the ending for Fontaine may also be similar. 

Fontaine ended with Furina finding a loop hole and returning the authority to rule back to the dragon sovereign, Neuvillette, so that he may forgive the nation and save them from a prophecy that would otherwise kill them. Furina returning the authority of hydro is an incredibly important aspect of the ending and including one of the sovereigns at all was a major shift in Genshins story. Nihilux/Aha also wants to give away their authority in this case, but there’s been no indication of the “returning” authority aspect so far.  Here is where Neuvillette comes in.

 In Genshin's story he was Furina's first in command, essentially with him being the one responsible for running the nation for her. He is the one to receive the authority of hydro and has the final say in saving the nation. Despite his popularity however, he has had no clear parallel within the Star Rail story so far.  There have been hints that Nihilux was not the original aha and that she, like Furina, inherited the title. If we were to translate this to Star rail we might expect to see her return the authority back to the original Aha. But who might this original be? You’re reading this on the Sampo mains sub so take a guess, the 4* who has a cameo on every planet, the guy with 3 collabs, the guys who’s body matches Ahas silhouette, the guy with special animations, the guy who’s not allowed on the express and has no consistent set point to see him like every other belobog and Luofu character, none other than the man, the myth, the mill, Sampo Koski.

Sampo fills the role of neuvillate pretty well here too. He does a lot for the fools having acted as a bartender, saving the people stranded on planarcadia by bringing them to the tavern, and looking after the protagonist which mimics how Neuvillette maintained the state for Furina, even playing a larger role in the story than Furina until the ending, just like how we’ve spent the most time with Sampo than any other elation character. Since nihilux seemed desperate to get rid of her authority >!And leaks say she wants it gone, she has to give it to someone right? Might as well be Sampo. Watch her say she sent her power back to where she got it or whatever while Sampos in the background lmao!<

 TLDR: they’re a copying genshins story and Nihilux will give the authority of aha to Sampo the way Furina gave Neuvillette back the authority of hydro 

cope my fellow soldiers

source: https://x.com/quasarus\_catt/status/2097827081979580635?s=46

Source (#Sampo): https://x.com/Amiri\_ri\_ri\_ri/status/2093427459735552265/photo/1

there is no bird with legs in nihilux’s reveal. this is the same bird that in the “its showtime” trailer, mocks/mimics sampo for not being able to find the mask sitting on his face and calling out for it. I dont know what this could mean or if the bird itself is a reference but the rest of the aeonic image is accurate so why take this out? Is it a reflection of Sampo since it does mimic him? Average sampo enjoyer thoughts.

they can’t rerun Kafka and hyselins with anyone else because the mog difference would be lethal