u/TaxoLikesCalcium

Today we saw quite an interesting trailer in my opinion, it entailed Asat Pramad telling us about his life, from the start in the tavern to his current “occupations”. Aside from being a “backstory” reveal (which it wasn’t, it was already revealed in 4.3) I think what is much more interesting is his apparent ultimate motivation for doing what he’s been up to the last patch, but also for everything he did 15 years ago and maybe even as far back as the cindearth era.

To start this little theory I first want to take stipulate what exactly we saw that is so interesting in my opinion. The line of dialogue I want to centre around is: “So, look forward to these seeds I’ve sown for a wonderful show of true elation. Just imagine, the nameless setting off again yet they push the Trailblaze to it’s demise… What a splendid joke!”

We can gleam a few things from this: a) Asat Pramad is not simply a lord ravager against the elation but is a lord ravager who inflicts destruction through the act of elation as a rule he does not deviate from. b) Asat wants to destroy the path of the trailblaze. c) He plans on doing this by making the nameless destroy themselves in a sense a la Phantylia.

Aside from this I also want to use another piece of promotional material to lay the foundation of my theory, namely the text on the second image.

It’s vague and cryptic but here is what makes most sense based on the existing context: the crash site refers to the initial crash site of the express in Graphia’s era. A stellaron heard someone’s wish for the express to be reignited, which did happen. All this did happen on the condition of the trailblaze meeting with another path eventually and that meeting resulting in the fall of someone or something.

This paints a pretty clear picture to me, which I find excitingly satisfying. Himeko was the one who made the wish to the stellaron, consciously or unconsciously (maybe manipulated by Asat), for the express to take flight again. We were confused for a while how Himeko got the express working again, the assumption held for a while that she used the power of winning the phantasmoon games for it but last version we learned she used up all her wishpower to defeat the herald of death, leaving every supplicant either dead or without any wishpower, so no winner was selected that year.

She didn’t use the phantasmoon’s power to get the express working again, but the stellaron’s. And which path is linked to the stellarons? Yes, the harmony. But more importantly the destruction! The wish to get the express working again came with a price, namely that the trailblaze will meet with the destruction again and that leading to the demise of the path and / or Himeko herself. The one speaking “personally bring your journey… its end” is likely Asat I think. This foreshadows our imminent showdown against him next patch.

So, what was that all about watching the astral express take flight once again only for it to push the trailblaze to its demise? Well, exactly this. Asat learned from Graphia that the Murata bloodline is closely linked to the trailblaze. the members of the family have an inseparable bond to the path. He used that information to take Ryusuke’s place and basically “groom” Himeko into wanting to become the navigator one day. It was all planned that the bloodstained games would end in no winner that year, so Himeko would be forced to wish upon the stellaron in her hour of need.

That resulted in the express taking flight again, but on a condition. Namely the one that they would one day meet with the destruction and go up in flames when doing so. Power lent needs to be give back someday after all.

This is what I think is the current predicament were in and what gives Asat such a major advantage. As he said in his final speech of 4.3: “For fifteen years, it was I – Asat Pramad – who delivered every promise of beauty to this arcadia in advance. Now, please indulge in these long overdue surprises” This does not simply refer to the peace he granted Planarcadia, but the prosperity of the express too. All this “positive” karma is his to cash back in now. And he does not plan on playing nice.

I was writing a document analysing the active parties in hsr as of 4.2 but I got to a point where I felt the document was getting too lengthy and I should just split it up. I will publish a document every few days about a specific faction, their status and motives and possibly next moves. I want to compile all these documents together into one at the end, with your additions and corrections and use this as a base to theorize off for future theories. I feel this would add to the quality and efficiency of theorizing. To start I have a quick introduction:

I want to start this theorizing session with stating that I think the theorizing community of hsr is in a pretty unique spot it hasn’t ever been in before. After penacony we were in a position where the world was already very big and we had knowledge of many factions and unique actors in the hsr universe, but the depth that knowledge reached was fairly limited. Then we entered the amphoreus saga, which was by definition self-contained but had deep, detailed lore.

Notable exceptions are Zandar as the first genius who created Nous, the nature paths, the coronation and defeat of Irontomb, Cyrene as the demiurge of the scepter who evolved (always was?) a pure child of Anasrava and the details of all the paths they are linked to. These all furthered our cosmic understanding of the hsr world by a great margin.

Now that we left amphoreus though and have re-entered the pan-cosmic playing field of factions within the hsr universe – that is more heated than ever with the encroaching war among the aeons that has been hinted at multiple times now – the amount of details and how widespread they are among different facets of the world have skyrocketed astronomically.

All that in addition to the dual and dynamic nature of the 4.x patch where we will go to Astropolis halfway through where many parties will make an appearance makes theorizing not a matter of analysing a set amount of facts about a few factions and phenomena but about more than half of all the active (and dormant-but-soon-to-be-woken) forces.

One thing I wanted to focus on here, to start with a basis for further theorizing and to not overwhelm myself is: what will transpire / what will be the main point of interest that connects the current parties that have been introduced and have been teased to be relevant. First, lets start with a discussion and summation of these forces:

Astral Express:

The most obvious force is the Astral Express connected to Akivili the aeon of Trailblaze. A few things of note I wanted to mention about the AE that I imagine will be relevant are obviously the fact the express departed again after having been out of order for quite some time fifteen years ago in game. Fifteen years ago, directly after the phantasmoon games. Himeko participated in these games and what is extremely notable here is that she allegedly defeated the herald of death. What she exactly means with having defeated him I am unsure about. He was handed over to the IPC to be executed as Kuchiba stated in 4.0, was this a cover? Did Himeko kill him?

Another thing notable about this is that we are unsure who actually won the phantasmoon games fifteen years ago. Was it Himeko? Did she wish for the express to depart again? It would make sense, since the express is a not just some train, it’s a magical object directly connected to an aeon that has gone “missing”. Also notable is that the express crash landed on the phantasmoon, which is a creation of Aha, an aeon that is very much connected to Akivili in spirit (trailblaze and elation are the only two paths of which we know the aeons to have a close and intimate connection to their followers) and personally. What this means I imagine will be discussed more in 4.4, rumoured to be Himeko’s most important patch.

The last thing I wanted to note about the AE is the fact that Ashveil got the shadow in his arm (which is obviously connected to the voracity which will be discussed later) from the express navigator before Himeko, which also was the last navigator before the express stopped running before it crashed: the starseer Isee. He has been discussed as a very important figure in lore. He supposedly was seen on a planet showing souls that have been passed on which was created by a previous phantasmoon winner. After leaving the express he also founded the omen vanguards which is a group following the finality just like the stellaron hunters.

At the end of 4.2 we also got a huge lore drop from Evanescia. Apparently Graphia never truly died. After having turned the entirety of Benzaitengoku into the world in canvas she inflicted the weathering curse on her descendants. This means that around the age of thirty the men go mad and the women wither away. At the same time she went into slumber at the heart of this world in canvas and stayed there, apparently even now after the IPC salvaged the world back into the physical realm. Whether the IPC or anyone else knows about this is unknown, but highly unlikely. We got the mission from Evanescia to warn Graphia about Asat Pramad’s return since her initial act was to protect the world from him in the first place.

Something to note is that we also learnt the remains of Oroboros the voracity are slumbering in the heart of the world in canvas “deep under the surface”. Are they in the same place? Has the voracity infected Graphia now?

Its highly likely the weathering curse has something to do with Yaoshi, since we know the blessing did not come from the elation and the whole “eye for an eye” ordeal has massive Abundance flags.

Evanescia’s possible involvement as a seal to protect the cosmos from the voracity by being the ringleader of the phantasmoon games AND being a denizen of abundance thus maybe having been the link between Graphia and Yaoshi establishing the weathering curse makes for a very interesting triangle between elation – voracity – abundance.

I imagine the elation flagship will change down the line just like it did with remembrance so nothing can be for sure but I'm looking for an approximation within the current status of the game. Looking at sparxie and yao guang, will getting either one of their e1s or lightcones be more important for the team? Very maybe I'll be able to get an E2 for either one of them, but I'm looking for advice on what the next E1 / S1 has to be really. Thanks in advance!