Yaoshi's garden is inside Voracity's maw.

Let's focus on Yaoshi the Abundance (praise be). The lore we've gotten from Evanescia indicates that all those who acquire the blessing of immortality become trees in Yaoshi's garden. We don't know where this garden is. Or do we?

We're told that Aha stole a branch from Yaoshi's garden and planted it in Ahatopia so as to teach it the meaning of Elation. What if..."Aha" did this at the same time it was devoured by Oroboros in the Fables? That can be paralleled with the time Enroute was consumed by a Leviathan and managed to break out, stealing Aftertaste from the Voracity.

A really neat way to tie these story events together would be to say that Yaoshi's garden is located within Oroboros and a mask of Aha (Enroute) discovered this upon being devoured by the Voracity.

I'm now going to present all my proof for this theory, then explore its conceptual implications, then connect it to Terminus' possible future presented to us in the 4.4 story quest.

***

Why Yaoshi's garden is inside Voracity's maw

1. Blade and Shuhu

Blade's arc in 4.3 could just be read as a generic "prisoner imprisons their captor" arc and honestly that's how I've been reading it until recently. However it has things to say on the meaning of "being a craftsman" and "forging blades" that are clear metaphors for the relationship between Abundance and Voracity.

First, Huaiyan's teaching to Blade (yellow text btw):

>"Waste not the bounty of this world, but perfect it through craft". To take what is useless, to take every failed scrap and forge it anew, isn't that our very mission as craftsmen?

Oroboros devours the bountiful resources of the world. If this "bounty" is not used, the devoured slop will remain as "failed scraps", existing in an imperfect, fallible form. This is unacceptable from the Abundance's perpsective (which believes "there must be a miracle somewhere in the universe that can cure the disease known as finality"). So the Abundance "reforges" the life Oroboros devours, "draining" it to grow a garden of immortal trees from within Oroboros' stomach.

It's not as crazy as it sounds. Leviathan conception theory implies that, although Leviathans consumed stuff in the cosmos (stars and nebulae mainly)...

>"their decomposed cells became the seedbed for organic organisms, and their dissipating life force became wandering Astral Spirits."

So (assuming this theory holds at least some truth), Leviathans never really consumed without giving back to the cosmos and Abundance is the logical way of expressing the "Compassion" they had to offer the world upon death. Oroboros obviously ascended from a Dusk Leviathan and it makes sense that this compassionate side of Leviathans would eventually emerge from within the Voracity.

I mean think about it. How many planets and bugs did Oroboros devour during Swarm Disaster? What unscrupulous amount of life energy did THEY get as a result? Abundance's growth from within Oroboros can be seen a necessary "penance", and makes narrative sense as a result.

Anyway let's move on to another voiceline, again from Blade in 4.3:

>Gazing upon the weapons I forged in days past, I can only feel a surge of endless regret. / The hammer falls and cannot be undone, yet I have spent my life taking one wrong step after another.

Here, Blade's looking at his own forged blades and reading them as instruments of harm and wrongness. This is basically the uncomfortable flip side of "nothing is wasted in Voracity's maw" perspective. If Voracity's maw is a forge that guarantees nothing taken in is lost, that also means nothing taken in can be undone.

This makes Yaoshi's compassion somewhat twisted, because it cannot be taken back and cannot be granted without cost. What do I mean by that?

As Evanescia's character story IV indicates, Yaoshi has to burn through life energy to grant those who seek immortality for themselves (Elixir Seekers) their wish.

>She was tireless on her quest for the elixir. Yet behind her hurried steps, death followed like a shadow.
Using life itself as fuel, the slender hands tending the mystical garden finally extended toward her a branch of favor.

So Yaoshi can be seen as a "prisoner" inside Oroboros because THEIR Path requires them to forge undying bodies and tend to THEIR eternal garden, but the price of doing that is the consumption of living matter. She must use death to help others overcome death.

>You are nothing but an echo of THEM, a slave trapped within your mission of "Compassion" ... You are Yaoshi's most pathetic prisoner.

So you can see how this line was heavily meta right? Shuhu is Yaoshi's prisoner because he must be there to offer the possibility of long-life to those who wish for it. And Yaoshi is the Voracity's prisoner because to fulfill the promise of immortality, they must consume life energy to forge life anew.

2. Rahu

Anyway let's move to older lore. You guys remember how the Xianzhou Cangcheng died? For those who don't know, the Xianzhou wasn't originally a Hexafleet and there were three more ships that were destroyed in various ways. The Cangcheng (Jingliu's homeworld) was destroyed by Shuhu in a rather shocking and cinematic chain of events that desperately need to be animated.

Shuhu descended on the Xianzhou Cangcheng with an "incarnosphere", the living planet Rahu. He had been sighted reviving this planet (it was previously dead) by a disciple of the Sanctus Medicus. We learned in 4.0 that the planet was actually revived in a monstrous way, very unlike what the Sanctus Medicus recorded:

>"[Shuhu] turned planets into living beings and merged billions of people into flesh spheres" (for those of you who played the Elden Ring DLC, it's basically a repeat of what the Hornsent did to the Numen lmao)

Elegy, a Creed Exequy who hasn't beheld Terminus, has a memory bubble of the Cangcheng's fall:

>Elegy: The Xianzhou that follows The Hunt pursued those who were blessed by Abundance, only to find themselves falling into a carefully laid trap.

Elegy: The living crimson star hovered in the sky over the singular ship. It pulsated like a living creature, causing the shell formed by flesh and withered vines to crack before enveloping the entire ship.

Elegy: The crimson star was akin to a behemoth's stomach in charge of regurgitation, as well as a hotbed of corruption made of flesh.

Elegy: At that moment, every Xianzhou native who was swallowed had only one wish — death.

Elegy: The blessing of immortality turned into a curse. The Xianzhou people underwent countless cycles of dissolution and re-structure in the repeated regurgitation.

Elegy: Ultimately, the concept of "individuals" is lost. The blessing of immortality joined friends and foes into one.

Where do I even begin...

First, Shuhu uses the power of Abundance to "forge" a dead planet into a star eating monstrosity that goes on to consume a ship filled with long-life species already blessed by the Abundance. This is literally Voracity eating its own tail (a planet of Abundance consumes those blessed with immortality in a countless cycle until all distinctions fade and existence returns to unity).

Next, look at the name. "Rahu" actually comes from Hindu cosmology, where he was the severed head of the asura (think: demon) Svarbhanu. The asura snuck a sip of amrita (the elixir of immortality) during the churning of the cosmic ocean by devas and asuras. Vishnu beheaded him the instant the nectar touched his throat, yet, since the nectar had already worked, the head survived as Rahu.

Out of vengeance for being beheaded, Rahu eternally begins swallowing the sun and moon. But he's unable to keep these celestial bodies down since he has no throat below the cut. Hindu cosmology used it to explain why eclipses start and end (Rahu swallows the sun/moon, and it slips out of his open throat a while later).

What does this story mean? There are just so many ways to take it.

You could equate Rahu with Oroboros and you have two drinkers of worlds that cannot ever be satisfied because they're bodiless and endlessly hungry respectively.

But I think a better interpretation is that the Rahu story shows Oroboros has no control over what happens to the life it consumes.

Rahu the asura was doomed to never enact his vengeance (the sun and moon would just slip through his open throat and resurface).

Rahu the planet equally couldn't enact its vengeance against the Hunt (i.e., actually swallow the Cangcheng) because the ship was full of Xianzhou natives blessed with immortality. This is probably why Elegy describes it as "akin to a behemoth's stomach in charge of regurgitation"; the planet was consuming and regurgitating their undying flesh in an endless loop.

Both suggest on a conceptual level that Oroboros' stomach can never be a true end-state for the universe and instead constitutes the grounds in which Abundance can forge new life.

3. Oroboros and Yaoshi design features

The ouroboros is a greek symbol representing the idea of eternity or infinity. Yaoshi is looking to create eternity within the cosmos through her garden (see eg the Abundance trace material "Flower of Eternity").

Also I'm sure you guys remember those pictures with Cyrene and Phainon where if you line up their splash arts one under the other, you get an infinity sign (or at least a kind of moby strip). The Aeon splash art for Oroboros when placed beneath Cyrene's creates the same effect.

As for Yaoshi, all of her Aeonic appearances have been accompanied by surfaces of water. When THEY gaze on Blade in 4.3, it is through a veil of water that ripples on the surface. When THEY appear in the first Myriad Celestia Trailer, THEY are perched above a lake of water.

Oroboros has long been associated with the sea.

>Simulated Universe: The odd sounds... Where is Fuli? As the delicate and intermittent sounds are drowned out by the sound of waves, you find yourself in the middle of the ocean! It is a sea of red...

>Oroboros: Yes, it's red! Under the scarlet sun, the ocean turns red! A beautiful and alluring singing voice comes from the choppy waves toward you... It is the Aeon's bait to lure you into a trap. The fanged and tentacled neck is as massive as the mountain and the sea, and its writhing flesh threatens to devour you.

Story implications

IPC have put a bounty on the remains of Rahu, which sits just above their bounty for the Stellaron Hunter Blade. They are looking to investigate these remains, presumably to advance their longstanding goal of understanding and commodifying the blessing of immortality. Ties in with the work they're authorising in the Mock Crimson Moon curio, and with whoever was funding the Herald of Death incident.

Given Yaoshi's garden is only reachable through the maws of Voracity, it means the unsealing of Oroboros may not be the final goal of whatever Department is interested in Oroboros' legacy.

I personally agree with the theory that Oroboros is the third face of Xipe and that Ena entwined with Oroboros thanks to the great transmuter Qlipoth in a "forging" that eventually takes its form as a new Path (Abundance) from within Oroboros. So, when Oroboros returns to the cosmos later this version, it will probably induce a dissolution from within Xipe, also returning Ena to the cosmos.

Moreover.

Oroboros and Tazzyronth have long since been arch enemies. These Aeons have fundamentally contrdictory ways of viewing and using the life energy in the cosmos. In this video, lore theorist Allegory explained THEIR conceptual clash as differing responses to the Revelation of the Permanence (what is the meaning of immortality?).

For Tazzyronth, the meaning of existence is to leave a legacy through your descendants (basically equating living with endless self-replication).

For Oroboros, the meaning of life can't just be bloodline continuation because we will die if we do not consume. Hence, the meaning of existence is found in sustaining oneself.

I think Tazzyronth is the divine infant in Terminus' observed future who is going to come back into the cosmos once Oroboros re-enters and begins THEIR sacred feast.

>In eight days, a beast will begin its sacred feast, a divine infant will fall to the mortal world. With its first cry, it will usher in an era of "madness" for the entire cosmos.

Imo Tazzyronth kinda "has" to return this version. Recall in the Swarm Disaster when Propagation was reaching its zenith. Oroboros (who seemed kinda reluctant to act beforehand) eventually must declare war on Tazzyronth otherwise Tazzyronth's view on the meaning of immortality will prevail over THEIR own, impeding Oroboros from pursuing THEIR own concept (Voracity). The same may happen with Tazzyronth if Voracity gains too much Path energy from the consumption of Planarcadia. Tazzyronth will be forced to birth itself back into the world (think: reclaim the concepts Qlipoth sealed in amber) to ensure THEY can pursue THEIR own concept (Propagation).

Tazzyronth is one of the few Aeons to have been called a divine infant in lore when THEY first entered the cosmos, so I don't think I'm reaching that hard .

>Herta: Can you hit yourself on your head and focus? Take a closer look - we've derived Tazzyronth."

Simulated Universe: Tayzzyronth? Everything happens so fast that you aren't ready for the change. You look up, and a beam of light flashes across the sky all of a sudden...

Tayzzyronth: A peculiar cry suddenly comes from somewhere, and you are certain it is the first suckling sound of an infant insect to the air. Along with it comes the melodic tone of red butterflies sucking honey from lilies. The saliva of different scents such as the scents of orange, blood, and tropical fruits is dripping, making you feel as though you were immersed in an ocean of soda.

I wonder how Yaoshi will respond to the return of Propagation in the world? She'd probably fuse with the Voracity to create something akin to the boundless beast we see in Blade's Finality as seen by Elio. (That's of course assuming she hasn't done so already considering Voracity and Abundance are heavily aligned...)

>In the "Finality" Elio revealed, he glimpsed a sea of spider lilies scattered with bones, a boundless beast skewered through, and a furnace belching flames. Black hair turned white as snow, and the aged artisan could finally embrace death. Yet the root of the immortality calamity had already bloomed anew elsewhere...
He still has a chance to change it all.

I want to talk about the implications this has for the godslayer protocol to kill the Abundance, but that's probably better as a separate theory so I'll leave things here. All I will say is that there is a reason the protocol involves the divine corpus of Voracity's arch-nemesis and that, if Yaoshi's corpus and garden located within Oroboros, it makes the protocol more complex but also more narratively entertaining to execute.

This will be an analysis on the playable path of Elation and how or why specific characters are on this path. (This is simply discussion and theory for fun)

To start with the basics, how did Aha ascend to Aeonhood?

A parable mentions that: "Aha climbed to the highest branch of the Imaginary Tree, and THEY saw how meaningless the universe was. THEY continued looking until THEY saw a baby fall to the ground and cry. THEY burst into laughter."

So in short, Aha isn't simply about laughter. Aha is the combination of staring into the void and laughing despite the meaninglessness of it.

Enlightenment + Joy. Elation is feeling of joy but also comes from the latin root word 'elatus' which means "lifted up".

What does this mean for our characters?

With this in mind, let's take a look one by one at each elation character. (Note that there is faction path and personal path. I'll get more into it later).

Yao Guang

Yao Guang is a Physical Elation character. While she is a general of the Xianzhou Yuque (Faction Path of Hunt), she herself is on the path of Elation (Personal path). This is due to her powers of being a diviner, able to see into the various futures. She is enlightened by being able to see into the future but she also jokes around with Tingyun during 4.0, she's able to enjoy the joys of life despite the misfortune hanging above her head.

Sparxie

Sparkle is already is part of the Masked Fools (Faction path) and a chaos gremlin (Personal path). But while we accompanied her during the Tavern, we heard her monologue when she was stuck to the hospital bed. She laments about how meaningless the universe is and how the masked fools gain a new perspective when they put on a mask. Enlightenment. When she confronted Sparxie at the school and she was told that she was the abandoned mask (up in the air, either way they merged back anyway). What did Sparkle think? She thought that it was cool. She was happy despite confronted about the meaninglessness of her existence.

Evanescia

An Emanator of Abundance that Aha put on Planaracadia. At first she simply searched for immortal life, starting out as a "beast of blind love and hate" but Aha promised her enligthen her and teach her the meaning of true joy. After being the arbitrator of the games, she gained an new appreciation and love for fleeting life and the joys of it.

Silver Wolf 999

She literally is at the pinnacle. 999 is her limit before she reaches to the level of the Aeons. Despite being confronted with the meaningless future Elio foresaw or being stuck at 999, she joined the Stellaron Hunters to make her own future and even have a little found family.

Now what about Aventurine?

I can't say anything for certain, obviously. But we can speculate with the information we currently have. Perhaps while he is searching for the traitor in the stonehearts (mentioned in the livestream), maybe we come to learn and experience how much Penacony changed and affected his viewpoint (at the end of 2.1, he talks to a younger version of himself and confesses that he's not ready to meet his family and plans to prepare for when that time comes to make them proud). Perhaps he's finally learned to not just live, but to live for himself. Or maybe he learns something deeper about the IPC and a means to finally avenge the deaths of his family. Who knows.

There's even Pearl but I'll leave that to when 4.6 is almost here, but with this information I'm sure you can make your own theories about her.

Just a random thought that I got after today's stream.

As you know, Oswaldo Schneider is the current head of IPC Marketing Development Department and he alongside his department are infamous for many different horrible things like aggressive expansionism, genocide and etc

As of recent we know that Marketing Development is responsible for getting the bioweapon to Planarcadia (from what I remember it wasn't supposed to be Shuhu flesh).

In 4.3 in the conversation between Pearl and Yao Guang about rumors circling about IPC there was one which basically says (I'm paraphrasing) that the Marketing Development is in kahoots with the Destruction.

In the Livestream that was today, we saw Planarcadia citizens trying make their signal reach Astropolis, but someone was trying to interfere and block it... like if someone didn't want the IPC to know about Qlipoth's arch nemesis flesh awakening. Turned out it was two dudes working for Oswaldo.

So what if as the title says, Oswaldo Schneider is actually an agent of Archforger? What if Archforger wants to provocate another Borderstar Trade War ?

So I've been thinking about the endgame of Honkai: Star Rail... and I think I've cracked it. Not just the lore, but the mechanics. Here's the thing: HoYoverse has already done this before. And if you look at the clues, the ending is practically screaming at us.

1. The Trailblazer's Philosophy

"Rules are meant to be broken" — The paramount statement of the entire game.

Every Aeon is a prisoner of their Path.

The Trailblazer consistently rejects fate, authority, and cosmic mandates.

2. The Unchosen Trailblazer

The opening cutscene shows two Trailblazers.

The unchosen one already walked the path of Aeonhood.

They became Terminus, or Fuli, or Akivili reborn... and they failed.

The chosen one is the variable... the one who can choose differently.

3. The Stellaron Hunters' True Goal

Kafka, Elio, Silver Wolf, Firefly, Blade. They're all slaves to destiny.

Elio's script isn't a plan for world domination. It's a blueprint for liberation.

They want a future Elio can't predict. True chaos, true freedom.

4. The Paradox of Aeonhood (with great power comes great restraint)

Akivili (Trailblaze) - If you're forced to be free, you're not truly free

Qlipoth (Preservation) - You can only defend, never fight

Idrila (Beauty) - Beauty is subjective. You'll chase perfection into madness

Nous (Erudition) - You can only know, never create

Nanook (Destruction) - You'll eventually destroy yourself

Yaoshi (Abundance) - You trap souls in eternal agony

Fuli (Remembrance) - You can only preserve, never create

Honkai Impact 3rd basically already did this:

Elysian Realm = simulated past memories

Part 1 / Part 2 split = universe reset with old content preserved

Replayable chapters = nothing is permanently lost

Chronicles = side stories outside the main timeline

The Ending (The Prediction)

The Choice:

Accept → Become the Admin. Take the burden. Protect everyone. Become the eternal prisoner.

Refuse → Destroy the system. Kill the Aeons. End the Paths. Create a universe without gods.

The Trailblazer chooses Refuse.

The Reset:

The universe reboots.

No Aeons. No Paths. No cosmic mandates.

Powers still exist — but they're no longer governed.

The Cost

Blade → Finally dies. It's a mercy.

Cyrene → Remains a lost memory, trapped in the past.

Phainon → Already dead, fused with Irontomb.

March 7th → Survives, but changed. Her connection to Fuli is severed. She and Evernight split, becoming twins — one memory, one future.

Evernight → No longer a shadow. She becomes her own person.

Kafka → Finally free. She can make her own choices.

Firefly → Freed from her programming. She can live.

Welt → Survives. He's the anchor, the witness, the one who tells the story.

I'm not saying this is 100% confirmed. But if you look at the clues, the pattern, and HoYoverse's history... this is exactly where we're heading. The Trailblazer isn't just a hero. They're a liberator. And their greatest act won't be saving the universe... it'll be freeing it.

OH AND IN THE ADMIN UNIVERSE YOU COULD HAVE ACCESS TO ALL CHARACTERS (it would only make sense since you're the admin) AND YOU NO LONGER NEED TO WARP OR WHATEVER FOR CHARACTERS. YOU CAN CREATE ALL THE MATERIALS... BASICALLY ALL MATERIALS YOU HAVE ARE AT INFINITY... kinda like Minecraft story mode

Call me Sanji because I'm cooking. Call me Herta because I'm a genius. And call me the Trailblazer because I'm about to break every rule in the universe. 😌✨️😏

&gt;!The livestream bench had brought up Sugilite's name(speculation). I think it's more than that. This is Diamond's commission to Aventurine. Now, some possible candidates:!<

&gt;!1) Aventurine: I know, "Why would Diamond make Aventurine look for himself?\*. The thing is Aventurine's backstory. Aventurine is a person who plays for the bigger fish, and has made comments about switching sides for the bigger better. That is why some of his colleagues don't trust him(Sugilite, the unknown Stoneheart in his character story).!<

&gt;!2) Sugilite: Aventurine describes him as a man with a very twisted humour(reminded me of Asat tbh). Also, he was brought up as a potential traitor in the livestream. All we know about him is that he is very anti-Aventurine(for a very good reason).!<

&gt;!3) Agate: In the Stonehearts Myriad video, Obsidian says that they are probably dead striking a mystery regarding their disappearance. In the side by side name cards of the stonehearts, agate is shown as a dark shadow figure with red eyes behind their statue which is being worshipped(there are incense sticks)(the statue is apparently based on a Chinese deity pertaining to wealth). Maybe, Agate is playing behind the scenes.!<

&gt;!4) Amber: Don't know much about them but one thing we know is that they are a neutral player, probably not much interested in IPC matters. This aspect of their character makes them either someone willing to stab IPC in the back or even stay out of IPC matters.!<

&gt;!The big question is, what has happened for Diamond to give such a task to Aventurine? Who do you think could be the traitor?!<

I’m writing this after a very long day and while mildly sick. Take everything I say with appropriate grains of salt.

Regardless, in terms of theories, both among the few I’ve shared and the many I haven’t, this may be my Magnum Opus.

Let’s talk for a second about version 2.3. Back in ‘Farewell, Penacony,’ a trend started: the Trailblaze was portrayed as a counterpart to the Finality for the first time, something that would repeat in Finality’s every mention going forward. The wiki even says it.

Logic even says it.

One is forward motion and the march towards the universe’s end. The other is backward motion, and the march towards the universe’s beginning. One is Freedom. The other is Fate.

But there are two things that feel a bit off here, when you squint.

First of all, how can Trailblaze be the equal opposite of Finality when Trailblaze is, according to 4.4, itself a Finality? That would innately take away the equal part of equal opposite, right?

And second of all, is a question that first came into my mind all the way back when the game first started and the Trailblaze became the act of carving your own path forward.

Why does the representation of Inevitable and Inescapable fate have multiple possible outcomes? And why is the representation of Freedom and the ability to defy fate…

…on literal rails?

Let’s start with the first question, as it can be used to answer the second.

#Part 1 - A Theory Of 8 Finalities

Kafka once told the player to mark this number: 4.

This is, supposedly, because there are 4 Finalities. But that LITERALLY can’t be true, thanks to our new best friend when it comes to Lore, the Asat Pramad quiz game.

See, Asat confirms, many times, that he will never outright lie in that game. And yet, he presents 3 possible Finality candidates. Even if you assume that Preservation being a Finality was the lie part of the Failure Roll Half-Truth, that is 5 Finality paths, when there should only be allowed to be 4, and he is apparently unable to lie during this game. And sure, maybe you can say that we have no reason to trust anything he says as full truth, but if we give THAT concession, then the game had no point to begin with and should be universally discarded since Success and Critical Success rolls apparently can’t be trusted.

So he isn’t lying when he says both Elation AND Trailblaze are the 4th Finality. Which also could put Preservation back on the table.

Now, we have 7 Finality candidates, including the potential for Remembrance to be a candidate, one of which is supposed to be the Equal Opposite of the path and thus shouldn’t be a candidate in the first place yet is the candidate provided by a Critical Success!

Honestly, screw you Asat. Until I came up with this theory, I genuinely wanted to punch drywall.

Ok, so let’s back it up: we know all of that is apparently true, but need to find a framework under which it makes sense.

I decided to examine the specific Paths, and figure it out from there.

Trailblaze, Destruction, Preservation, Harmony, Remembrance, Elation, and Nihility. Excluding that last one, doesn’t something there seem familiar?

It’s the Trailblazer’s paths. We have our first connection. After all, to quote Ruan Mei, when coincidences start to pile up, they cease to be coincidences.

So, let’s ask another question: if the Stellaron Hunters supposedly want to stop the Finality, why give the Trailblaze path, the most likely 4th Finality, a new god? Because that DOES seem to be what’s happening. Asat said it, but we’ve also seen it ourselves. As far back as version 1.

After all, SU Aha, who knew it was a simulation and you were a player inserting as Akivili…

…still called you Akivilli.

We were told to mark the number 4. But we can’t necessarily trust the Hunters here. Because we are, by their own admission, being manipulated for the script. A script Asat has claimed to have both glimpsed, and be capable of writing.

Moreover, our other self, who is likely Terminus, has corroborated with Asat on something: the number to keep in mind here isn’t 4, it’s 8. Exactly double. Interesting.

What if, and just hear me out, we were never lied to? It’s just that we weren’t told the whole truth.

We know that, no matter what path Terminus takes, even if THEY change things along the way, THEY arrive at the exact same Beginning. We have been told, no matter what road WE take, we’ll arrive at Finality, the only difference being whether or not we ‘Transcend’ it.

So, the four paths that bring Finality are Destruction, Harmony, Nihility, and a variable 4th. Except it’s not variable. It IS Trailblaze.

The only question is which Path will become Trailblaze. THAT is the variability.

Let’s observe a pattern:

In Belabog, despite a story focused on Preservation,

In Penacony, despite a Harmony, Nihility, and Order focused story, we wrapped back around to it being about Trailblaze, something 3.8 reinforced.

In Amphoreus, not only were we directly told that Remembrance would become a Finality SPECIFICALLY IF WE GAVE IN TO IT, but the act of the Flame Chase, usurping gods to restart the world, was about ‘Breaking Free and Trailblazing.’

And in Planarcadia, Elation’s virtues of moving forward and changing tilted on their head to become synonymous with Trailblazing by 4.4

Call it slightly sloppy and trope-centric writing if you want, but I don’t buy it.

Because this works PERFECTLY.

We can have a specific 4 possibilities be fated, with a variable fourth, only if the fourth ISN’T variable, and in truth, is always the same. A way to have our cake and eat it too that also reinforces the ideas and themes the game has been pushing since day 1 about Experiencing The Paths across the duration of our Trailblaze, while also continuing the mirroring of Trailblaze and Finality.

So there ARE 4 Finality Candidates, and also 4 Trailblaze Candidates. And now we have 8. The apparently all-important number. But one entry sticks out: Penacony. How can Harmony be both a Trailblaze AND Finality. There are two possible answers, both of which fit well.

The first is that, whatever the 3rd face of the Harmony is, also happens to be a Trailblaze; likely Beauty. The second is that the Finality itself is a Trailblaze, and thus all Finality candidates are Trailblaze candidates. I admittedly think that one fits better, since it furthers the mirroring, while also physically forming an 8 if you order the numbers, since the 4th of each set is in the other set, thus making an infinity shape, or 8.

So what are our Trailblazes?

Well, we have Remembrance as a phenomenal candidate, becoming a Finality when it converges with Trailblaze while also being a way to pave the way for those who come next, a motif of the Trailblaze. We also have Elation, as a listed Finality second in truthfulness to Trailblaze, while constantly being tied to the Trailblaze. Third, we have Preservation, or if a certain theory regarding the name Qlipoth ends up holding water, given Qlipoth means something empty, or a husk, as a viable option, since it being a Trailblaze would certainly hold up as a ‘half truth’ when asking what the 4th Finality is, and being one of TB’s paths like the others. And lastly, we have Finality, enough said.

#Part 2 - The True Ugliest Lie Of The Trailblaze (The ‘Honkai’ in Honkai: Star Rail)

Now for the second question: why does the aesthetic of something that’s supposed to represent absolute freedom, place it on LITERAL rails? I mean, when we feel we have no free will in a game, we call it being ‘on rails!’ That’s like, a thing! That’s how blatant and strong the metaphor is! What gives?!

According to Asat, Akivilli longed to ascend the Imaginary Tree, and was obsessed with the ‘Origin and End.’ These are terms that also appeared in Acheron’s Myriad Celestia as the stand-ins in her Honkai cycle for the Herrschers of Origin and Finality. Let’s put that to the side for a minute.

Assuming the Part 1 information of this theory is correct, it makes a certain name make more sense. Terminus. That isn’t just Latin for end, it’s the name for the last stop along a Train’s stations. Akivilli’s last stop is Terminus. But then, all of a sudden, we have to confront a truth.

The Trailblazing expedition was always meant to end.

The Finality’s trip, as the first Fables About The Stars trailer put it in the subtitles, against the current? Was also meant to end. Specifically, to end back at the start of the road that, according to Pom-Pom, our original Aeon once stood at the start of, hesitating.

Hesitating over what? This. Hesitating over all of this.

Acheron once asked us, the potential new god of the Trailblaze, what we would do if we grasped the Journey’s ending right from its inception. And apparently, the choice that the future Aeon of Trailblaze chose, was to still Take the Journey.

According to Asat, the ending the Stellaron Hunters wish to avoid is a Finality where every possibility is frozen. It can’t be Remembrance, despite how it sounds, because if it was, their plan would already be over: the Remembrance is no longer a Finality, implying its lost its ability or candidacy for Trailblaze.

But this unending loop would also freeze all ‘possibilities,’ would it not?

Lygus hated the Erudition for sealing off all possibilities. He seemed to respect us greatly, someone the Stellaron Hunters engineered the life of, all to surpass Finality.

To quote the Dicehead, “What Elio has glimpsed may be an end that goes beyond Destruction itself, a point where all things settle into complete stillness and Nihility.” I think an undying, meaningless loop that creates all things anew would definitely qualify.

This is the Finality they want to stop: the eternal looping of Trailblaze, into Finality, into Trailblaze again.

Now, back to that first point about Origin and End.

In Honkai: Impact 3rd (I know, I’m sorry, bear with me,) we learn that the Honkai’s true purpose is to give worlds trials. It tests whether a world is worthy of ‘Embrace,’ or if it should prune it from the Imaginary Tree. The main tools it uses to do this are the Herrschers, which all stem from the ultimate two Herrschers: Origin and Finality, the latter of which was once called ‘End.’ Finality creates Herrscher Authorities, and Origin, seemingly, separates them.

Asat, when telling us about our Stellaron, says the Trailblaze seeks to create infinite variations.

Trailblaze is Origin, separating Authorities. Finality is End, creating the road that Origin walks.

Which means that the HSR universe’s Honkai cycle…

May just be this.

I’ve been wondering why Honkai was in the game’s title for literal years. After all, Genshin canonically exists in the Honkai Multiverse, a fact we know thanks to HI3’s Genshin collab, as well as that time Otto Apocalypse was observing the multiverse and saw Dvalin. We also found the Glider in the Herta Space station. Plus, ZZZ may just exist here too, thanks to the upcoming collab. It’s not like any game in the multiverse structure HAS to have Honkai in the name. But HSR does.

So what’s the true ugliest lie of the Trailblaze that I promised?

The journey was always going to end, and Akivilli knew it.

The Trailblaze may represent freedom, but we have always been on Rails.

EDIT

Just to be really clear, I don’t think Akivilli is, like, a secret villain. If anything, I think the bit may be that THEY thought they could change fate anyway, and when they couldn’t, they left it to us. Paving the way IS a theme of the Trailblaze.

We are almost certainly going to transcend Finality. This theory isn’t contradicting that, this is me saying “I think this is the truth of the Finality we’re trying to transcend.”

And the Honkai bit is really just a wild swing at something that may be the writer’s intent, but will never be said in lore. That Trailblaze and Finality may be meant to mirror the Honkai.

Sorry for the pace-breaking edit at the end. Just anted to tack this on now that I realized it was a little unclear

TLDR:

Cyrene factually cannot grow, yes, it's her flaw, but even before becoming the demiurge, despite her biologically being unable to become an adult, she grew up like everyone, gained her own agency, and guided people, especially Phainon with her Wisdom. She is never treated like a child we must protect and teach. This isn't about sex, but not treating someone more mature than many ones as if she isn't capable to live on her own terms like an adult

..

..

I keep seeing even today the fact that Cyrene, by the fact that her fatal flaw is the fact she is fated to die as a child and cannot grow up, is only a child. And I want to state my pov on the subject.

First, there are no denials about her fatal flaw. This is literally shown. Even after spending her whole life alongside the chrysos heirs (only shown on screen with Phainon who grew up like a big boy), she still remained short, in the same form as a child.

Biologically speaking, Cyrene cannot grow up.

Yes, eventually since she's the demiurge she gets to grow up in a different way, but that isn't the topic now.

Now my question is: is she treated as a child?

Do you need to babysit her? Is she someone unable to have her own agency, to express her consent, and everything we suppose even some adults cannot do but should?

Cyrene stated several times that despite the fact she's way shorter than Phainon, she's way more mature, and it's not just her saying this. She explicitly guided him to face his responsibility, to become a hero because fate won't wait for him.

When he is in trouble, she often comes here to monitor him. If anything, she is mostly the one babysitting him if we want to be extreme.

It's like Tribbie and such, even if tribbies situation is still different because they act way more like kids: they are still everyone's seniors and are treated as such.

And as a priestess of time, someone very mature, wise and responsible, she is treated like everyone else despite her flaw.

In the Recurrence where the TB was sent to the Exomyth, she is the one that inspired others to work together by her wisdom, knowledge and social skills.

And if we look at Irl, even if some psycho physiologist mentions the fact that the growth is done on two levels, both mentally and physically, we still dissociate them.

Yes, growing up biologically brings changes in how we perceive the world: the sexual libido mostly, but we are sensible to the world in a different way after hitting puberty, and even afterwards.

However, even without that we aren't doomed to be kids forever. Life will still keep going, and by the sole purpose of surviving, we will have to grow more mature anyway.

People were supposedly way mature in the past, because 18 yo at some points was considered half of someone's life. I'm not saying they're smarter, but they learn things that we generally don't get to learn today before 16-18 yo.

Just all of that to say: Her flaw makes her unable to grow, but even before becoming Demiurge, she still had to grow more mature to live, guide people, especially Phainon. She had to learn many things such as having her own agency, and many things we teach to grown ups. No one ever treats her as a child. Because she is not one in terms of maturity.

If you are unable to grow up physically, do you mean you'll just remain a kid your whole life?

Considering that Finality is arguably the most important Path in HSR’s overarching lore alongside Trailblaze, and the Trailblazer has already unlocked 5 of the 7 elements, if their 6th Path ends up being Finality, then surely their 7th and final Path would be Trailblaze. I just can’t think of any Path that would be more significant for the Trailblazer than Finality, other than Trailblaze itself.

If that’s the case, HSR’s main story could end much earlier than many of us expected, potentially around Version 6.X.

Do you all think the story is progressing too quickly? Or would ending this chapter of HSR’s story in Version 6.X feel like the right pace?

I’m very late with this since I only recently finished Amphoreus from 3.5 onwards up to the Penacony chapter so I have no idea what the current state of theorycrafting is (please no spoilers for Planacardia).

During Amphoreus when we were all theorizing what Paths the Heirs were representing I was convinced that Tribios was a parallel to the Trailblaze, obviously that turned out to be wrong with the confirmation that she was simulating the Harmony. That never fully sat right with me because there were just so many parallels to the Trailblaze with Tribbie. The creation of „pathways" aside she also talks about creating a ship from the moon:

"I’ll turn the moon into a ship and the stars into sails to go find Mama!" I remember writing this down when that patch came out and thinking that it might be a reference to the starting screen with the Astral Express and a destroyed planet, possibly a moon? This is where I might be reaching a little bit but hear me out, Tribbie looks a lot like Pompom lmao. Same blue eyes, red color scheme and I was weirdly validated several patches later when they wanted Tribbie to try on Pompoms clothes on the train (don't take this too seriously). Back then I theorized that Tribios relationship with her lost mother might've been a parallel to Akivili and Pompom.

I had basically accepted that my theory about the similarities between Tribios and the Trailblaze was wrong but the recent Penacony chapter changed my mind a bit. During the quest I realized that Xipe isn't tied to only one dead Path like Ena but several death/unascended Paths. Gopher Wood mentions that he tried to find out what Path their third face represented and up until that point I hadn't realized that their three faces literally represent Paths that were absorbed. So besides Ena my guess was either the Remembrance (hence the "unascended" since Fuli is in that limbo) or Idrila (which would make more sense since the Beauty is presumably an actual dead Path but I also have my theories about them possibly being connected to Fuli so either way it would explain the importance of memoria for Xipe).

Essentially my mini theory is that Xipe also absorbed the dead Path of the Trailblaze. All the Four Paths of the Apocalpyse seem weirdly tied to the Trailblaze (I think it's either because Akivili and Terminus are "twins" or because they are the same entity/two halves at two different points of time) so this would kind of fit in?

For Destruction we have the simulated dynamic between Phainon and the Trailblazer which probably foreshadowed our confrontation with Nanook in the future, though we still need to find out what happened when Akivili visited Adlivun.

Nihility in my opinion is already hinted at multiple times vaguely both through Hysilens arc and Acheron in the recent Penacony patch.

"She guarded the vortex at the depths of the sea." Hysilens is guarding the core of the world/Amphoreus.

Evernight: "The deepest place in this world is exactly the ideal location for the Trailblaze to reunite" , "Because there is absolutely nothing here, except a cold, empty void!"

Acheron: "Indeed...behind the shadow of the Nihility, there must exist the most blazing source of light in the world." , "Death/Nihility will always be the destined finale and the last reunion."

The core of the world that Hysilens guards is the Vortex of Genesis, and Genesis is the simulated Path of the Trailblaze. So my other theory is that similar to Hysilens, IX possibly "guards" the "remnants" of Akivili or the slumbering Terminus, since Acheron for some reason was aware that the Finality was still not awake. Maybe at the Genesis/Trailblaze/Rebirth of the cosmos the light originates from the vortex beyond the "shadow of the Nihility" after the Finality/End of the universe is completed.

That's all! I only intended for this to be a mini-theory about Tribbie :( I'm excited to play Planacardia though. I had so much fun theorizing during Amphoreus and hope I get a similar experience in the new patches!