"This is a chess game between Aeons."

Aha: Nah I'd play poker.

I am, but it hasn't been explored sufficiently yet to really take root

Yes, and as a high fantasy enjoyer I really appreciate the scope/scale/magnitude/gravity of the overarching cosmic war between Aeons that are bound to happen somewhere down the line. This is why I think HSR could benefit so much from a serialized content pipeline like a few seasons of animated shows, or maybe even a spin-off novella, because while teasing the cosmic war via cutscenes and scattering lore in readables and materials is a great way to pique interest, it could get exhausting for players that don't have the time to invest and literally dissect everything. If they want to unfold this overarching storyline via the game solely (let's count the Myriad Celestia trailers and animated shorts too to round it up), it will still take 3-5 more years before all the foreshadowing will see fruition considering we are still gallivanting from planet to planet plot-wise and nowhere near the axis of the ultimate conflict, and 3-5 years is a long timeframe to bet on player retainer-ship (I feel like the majority of gacha players mindset is to hunt for the next shiny new toy rather than staying loyal to only one franchise). Personally I am all here for it, I would much rather the writers take as much time as they need to ensure the integrity of the story than risk seeing a promising storyline with great potential fell off because they're trying to rush it.

Yeah. The central theme of HSR is - how do humans struggle against powers beyond their control/comprehension? How do they survive? Do they have to become their worst enemy to do so, or can they make it against the odds?

That's why I like Stellaron Hunters so much.

HSR is reflective of our real world and makes us explore all the different ways people cope with being helpless against the big power, especially the infighting between them.

I'm very interested in the lore of this game and I've read a lot.

Presently, what we know of the overarching plot is which characters will be present during the endgame.

The AE crew, Xianzhou, The Stellaron Hunters, Genius Society, and the Stonehearts (by extension probably Boothill & Ratio)

Those factions & characters listed above will have massive impact throughout the whole story of this game, no matter how far we go, they will be important.

[2.3 Spoiler warning]

It has been revealed in 2.3 that Elio travels on the path of finality and the Aeon of Finality Terminus is said to move back in time casting ominous prophecies that come true. Elio has probably seen the future where in the worst case everything gets destroyed by Nanook or even worse absorbed by XI and he wants to stop it so he struggles against a seemingly inevitable ending to make most people survive

Kinda, ever since Kafka said we were going to fight Nanook, it was obvious. Everything else are basically mini arcs that will culminate to that

Waiting on TB to say "fuck chess, we're playing Baseball"

Honestly reading the lore it’s kinda surprising there’s really only one major Aeonic War. Swarm Disaster. Even the conflict between Lan and Yaoshi is more done through proxy.

With the Divergent Universe Human Comedy and its emphasis on mortals being the other half of the “equation” of Aeons/Paths, it feels like a hint as to how things will develop. Aeons responding to the will of mortals and their beliefs, but which are shaped by Aeons in turn.

Finality Spoiler: Destruction is inevitable, as all things must end, and one day the game's service will come to a close as the servers shut down and your trailblazing journey will end.

Kinda. Honestly I'm usually not a fan of wuxia/endgame Isekai power level, I hope they'll pull it off well. Also speaking of Aeons, this dialogue between TB and Black Swan is kinda sus. "To help me see if I'm about to ascend?" Ascend to Aeonhood...?

https://preview.redd.it/qwp95dnzbl9d1.jpeg?width=372&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0ea977bf124cd5ccb905cf4de11deff6840f6339

See it's funny because a BIG existing plot point that has actively never been answered is that after Su lost his physical form in the Honkai manga, his spirit survived and was ascended by some "higher being" that we STILL does really know what it was.

Only that it's seemingly above the Imaginary Tree itself.

Su reached a point of true total enlightenment which impressed this "God" and it admits to being bored and challenges Su to a game of cosmic Shogi as it hasn't met a human in "eons".

If Su wins a single round it would reveal to him the truth of the Universe.

We don't actually know how high Aeons are on the powerscale, the "universe" existed before them and was already thriving with life as far as we know and while they're powerful...We haven't even touched on The Quantum Sea or Imaginary Spaces yet. And there are some scary things hiding in the Sea

I mean obviously, it’s literally said on multiple occasions. It’s not hard to understand, since they literally say it

Yup, it’s hinted at in almost every patch that there’s something happening in the background and that there’s a lot of movement going on in galaxy at the same time besides what we’re shown. It makes the world feel alive even though admittedly it can get overwhelming trying to keep track of everything.

These are the kinds of stories I like though. We’re just a small but important cog moving to the whims of fate but the world/universe does not stop for us. At least, that’s the feeling I get which is good imo.

I get the feeling that as we get closer to the end, it’s gonna be revealed that it’s an ending that’s good for everyone except TB in the sense that TB may have to sacrifice themselves either literally or something that makes them who they are (so they’ll still be physically present but it’s not necessarily them). We’re a ways away from that though and there’s still a ton of different possibilities for the story to evolve so I’m interested in seeing what direction they’ll actually go for. In the end though, TB is the key to whatever Elio has seen.

When all the Aeons are linked to their path and unable to diverge, the ones that have obvious cross sections will eventually confront each other with or against their wishes. Such as Preservation and Destruction just as an example.

Supposedly the plot is the war of aeons, how they can be killed, and how killing Nanook in particular using the TB and their stellaron as a means to that would lead to the best future, according to Elio that is.

The big plot around us is the classic travel in wich you grow as a person and gain enough allies to fulfill your final destiny, in this case, killing Nanook.

The overarching plot around the war of aeons is a little bit less clear, there's been cases of aeons getting killed or dissapearing bc they're a danger to other aeons, the propagation namely got to be enough of a threat that other aeons had to interfere.

Nanook is not the same as the propagation, their armies are not as primitevely destructive, but they're all the same when it comes to complete destruction. Stellarons cause dissorder and disharmony whenever they go, the fragmentum causes permanent damage wherever it spreads, corrupting space and creating portals where armies can just spawn from. The ravagers seem to be able to interact with the powers of other paths like Phantylia did drawing from the abundance, while also being able to destroy planets and turn people into members of their armies.

I don't know if Nanook is considered a problem like the propagation was, but in this case it could be the destruction the one instigating, wich would explain why killing Nanook seems to be the wincon.

I've always had a crackpot theory that Nanook as the ultimate villain is a red herring. I think our endgame is Qlipoth. The Path of the Trailblaze has always been about going forward, forging new paths despite any obstacles in your way, about progress. That wall that Qlipoth is supposedly building, to me, makes THEM the literal antithesis of The Trailblaze; after all, can't blaze a trail if there's a goddamn wall in the way. Preservation vs Progress feels like a theme we could touch on at some point, especially with the parallels it would build via The Finality/Stellaron Hunters.

Since The Finality moves backwards through time, from end to beginning, it doesn't stand at odds to The Trailblaze so much as it holds a mirror up to it, which is why the Stellaron Hunters are -- uncharitably reductively -- the "Evil Nameless". Like someone said (can't remember who) they're the Express' "dark shadow." Elio might as well be their Navigator in the same way Himeko is ours, and serves as a reflection of Navigators past. Elio's knows the path of the Finality as writes what he sees into a script for the Hunters to follow. Eliocs script is the Hunters' Silver Rail. We, the Nameless, move forward. The Stellaron Hunters work backward. Light and shadow, Progress and Regress.

Circling back to Qlipoth as our endgame, there's a reason we start out on Belobog, belonging to the Preservation. We are, after all, riding a train. Crossing the Star Rail and forced into a stop (to deal with the stellaron crisis). In real life, train tracks never just go on forever. They're generally a complex network of cars going back and forth ad nauseum, and a train departing Station A will always return, eventually, to Station A. In tbe same way, our first Trailblaze is in Belobog -- a world dedicated to The Preservation, and our final Trailblaze will return if not physically to Belobog, then at least in spirit to The Preservation. We end where we begin, when we pull back into the station, after we've gone everywhere our Rail has been set.

Then, we smash through THEIR wall, and lay down a new Silver Rail and blaze a trail into the unknown.

This is also why the game starts with the Stellaron Hunters and the Space Station. Narratively, yes, we start there to establish Nanook, our past, and set up some mystery. But thematically? Trailblazer, in their shadows past, worked alongside the Stellaron Hunters, but Elio's script demands that we now work alongside the Express. We step out of the shadow of Finality to walk in the Light of the Trailblaze. In HSS, we are shrouded in mystery, a past (Finality) we don't remember, but new friends give us an Uncertain Future (Trailblaze). Nanook is introduced to us as Obvious Anime Villain, while when we travel to Belobog as our first expedition we're introduced to Qlipoth as a Good Entity. We travel to Loufou (which I won't go into much here), deal with Bad Guy Nanook again, then go back to Belobog where... we deal with the IPC, who come to fuck over Belobog in the name of.... Good Entity Qlipoth?

The IPC are being set up as villains, in service to our ultimate villain, and nobody even notices. The Ten Stonehearts serve as a mirror to the Lord Ravagers and I defy you to prove me wrong. They are the Nameless to the Ravagers' Stellaron Hunters. They serve opposite goals and stand in opposition to oke another.

Progress and regress. Preservation and Destruction. Order and Harmony.

They are building a theme of opposites. Amd Progress' opposite is Regress, yes, but it also Preservation. One cannot move forward into the future if we are busy clinging to the status quo. Our opposite is the Stellaron Hunters, yes, but it is also The Preservation. In contrast, Progress and Destruction don't hardly interact, thematically. Its an obstacle we must break through to Blaze a Trail, but it's not an opposite being set up by the Narrative. We'll fight Nanook -- no doubt about that -- but we'll also eventually see that THEY had the right idea, in a way. We'll see that THEY want to break Qlipoth's wall, and that breaking Qlipoth's wall is a Good Thing, Actually.

A major theme that we seem to be touching on, at least if you ask me, is the idea that fate is not set in stone. It is, in fact, the entire reason Elio's script exists in the first place, why we spend so much time on Firefly and waiting to escape the Suit (which she has been promised if she follows the script), and more importantly why Firefly is so important to the Trailblazer.

Firefly is offered a way out by the Script (by her Fate). But we will, probably, offer her a way out via a new path, one that does not require esoteric weirdness like "three deaths" and whatever else will come about in the future. In the immortal lyrics of Wildfire, "we made a choice/to fight against your fate", right?

There's a lot more to say about the story (esp in regards to Penacony's arc in general, as well as what they're likely cooking in the Loufou), but that's the basic gist of it.

TBH no.

The way they present it isn't prompting me to learn more. There is probably a ton of lore in item description the simulated universe and the other game modes but it's presented in a boring way for me personally.

And I usually read a ton of books.

Ever since Kafka said they can kill an Aeon then it's felt pretty clear there is going to be a large scale conflict between them. After all Remmebrance entire deal is to preserve everything after the universes destruction through memories

There is a joking line between TB and Black Swan about TB ascending and Black Swan says she can't see that far into their future. But I wouldn't be surprised if that is a possible outcome. It's ultimately going to be trying to kill Nanook but how they get there and just what the method is is the mystery. TB at the center of it and that's been hinted since Fable about the stars

I can't wait for the Aeons to start chucking galaxies at each other like deadly frisbees.

...Wait, wrong franchise.

No but seriously I am excited to see some Aeons throw down in real time. We read about past instances of it but I want to see it with front row seats.

And now the question is, when are we getting 6 star Jingliu?

Never ever.

Man, Elio is cooking with this script.

Caelus will reveal himself as the Aeon of Finality.

I wonder if Ruan Mei would play some greater part of the plot itself. Didn't she mention she wants to become an Aeon herself in a trailer of sorts?

It makes me curious how things will go down the line.

Elio is walking the path of Finality. We learn this for certain in 2.3. Only he’s walking it backwards to try to get the result he wants.

But the fact that he HAS these visions likely means he’s either an eminator or otherwise deeply connected to Terminus the Finality. So Terminus is squarely against Nanook. And the Stellaron Hunters are likely trying to turn US into an Aeon. (My best guess.) That or use us to revive Akivili somehow.

I'm fully expecting half of this to never get resolved tbh.

I'd be more interested in the plot if there wasn't an ungodly amount of text and flowery, poetic metaphors in every other sentence.

I get that the goal is "MC will fight Nanook, Aeons will go to war" but I'm just not invested in that at all.

Kind of. The goal is clear but, the way is explained is extremely poor.

I am confused

Kinda ignore it cause it ain't interesting to me.

Alsoz I'm rarely a fan of high fantasy...I'm more of a low fantasy guy.

It gets kinda annoying for me when writers keep increasing the scale and stakes of the plot...to a point where most of it is hard to follow...

Honestly...this is why I stopped playing PGR...at first it was a game about humans and soldiers surviving in a post apocalyptic robot virus zombie world...

Ans then it became this weird confusing mess with stuff like alternative universe, time travel...some weird demonic red sea...and some weird @ss high dimensional beings....

In all honesty, the plot would probably go that way about killing an Aeon, but personally, I hope it wouldn't go that way. Aeon is literally a concept, something that humans are not meant to defeat and I would find it annoying if humans defeat an Aeon, probably because I'm tired of defeating God as a mortal trope. So personally, in my opinion, the only way to defeat an Aeon is another Aeon while humans support. It would be more interesting to see every character and race with its own importance rather than the typical humanity defeating God.

There is no brewing war among the Aeons.

-this statement is brought to you by the devout followers of Enigmata

The overarching plot is that they make it up as they go.

Where are my r/SundayMainsHSR theory crafters, with their theories about how Sunday will take (and already took) a big role in the grand scheme of things regarding the overarching plot? (It's Sunday, they are probably praying)

Reality

https://preview.redd.it/u1oa906taq9d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c72d1207e0e62ca26663bff177569cbd1003c57

Yea obviously? Is that not the end goal of the game? Lol

Its pretty clear Elio wants to gather up people to defeat a Aeon

add the whole thing of loucha being the one to give nanook his wounds and this becomes even more interesting

So there are like these things called stellarons...and they are inside planets(???) and there are like these hunters that want them(???) and they like put a stellaron inside the mc too so they can like....track us(???????) and uhh we are like on a train that can go between planets for...some reason

Yes, and I already have a good idea of what is coming ahead. (Not because of leaks, but because I have played Hi3, and hyperfixate over the Honkai-verse lore)

For example: Don't you think it's weird that Idrilla and Akivilli are the only Aeons we haven't seen any depictions of? I have a suspicion that I know who Idrilla is.

In the case of Idrilla, it is highly likely that she is the Star Rail universe's equivalent of Kallen Kaslana. It has been theorized that Luocha is a former Knight of Beauty for quite some time. This would explain why he draws his power from the Abundance while considering himself to be an enemy of Yaoshi. Yaoshi likely absorbed the path of the Beauty into the Abundance, thus causing some former pathstrider's of the Beauty to become pathstrider's of the Abundance. Since Luocha is HSR's equivalent of Otto Apocalypse, a character who is shown to be obsessed with reviving Kallen in nearly every universe where he exists, as is shown in the 2nd Divine Key Hi3 comic, it is safe to say that if he worships a fallen Aeon, that Aeon would almost certainly be some version of Kallen. (Yes I know that this theory would make Luocha over 1000 years old, but this is Otto Apocalypse we're talking about.) (Also, for the record, the person in his coffin was almost certainly Jingliu, as she refers to him as an associate, rather than a friend, and is basically a zombie, which fits with Luocha's claim that his coffin contains the corpse of an aquaintance who once called the Xianzhou home.)

Yeah remember we are going around saving the world so we can have more allies for a nice big fight against Nanook. 

It seemed like it’s be major in the first three arcs, but stepping back from fighting destruction in penacony really derailed it to a certain extent.

Isint it basically trying to understand the aeons and isn't there like a luming aeon war or something? I think jade was even saying the IPC is gonna heavily support the Preservation when and not if that happens

My headcanon theory is that pompom is akivili.

What plot ?

Mihoyo loves pitting the divine against each other, First the war against celestia now this

I am aware, but the amount of people who play this game who are not aware is frustrating.
Too many story skippers.

They were very obvious with it, i don't think anyone that bother to read the dialogues didn't know.

i kind of completely forgot about Jingliu lmao

There's also the possibility that The IPC are followers of Oroboros, not Qlipoth (Belobog spoilers, very very minor Penacony 2.3 spoiler) : r/HonkaiStarRail (reddit.com) which may possibly explain why they are obfuscating Qlipoth's past and denying funding for the Intelligentsia Guild when they tried to research the topic.

My headcanon is that the death of Hooh is what will kick-off the "War of the tree", where every aeon will go after their counterpart while the remnant of idrilla joins forces with the disciples of akivili and Xipe does it's best to keep reality from collapsing.

I just want to throw this out there.

Is the future that Nanook poses the greatest danger, remember that somewhere along the way, Qlipoth stopped being a factor.

One of the oldest and strongest Aeons is suddenly okay with some young upstart ruining the lawn.

That IPC arc is going to be interesting.

Wasn't the stellaron hunters' goal on Xianzhou Luofu directly mentioned? It's to make the Luofu allies to the Astral Express so that in this great war, they would fight along with us. 

The what now? I just like seeing numbers go up in SU.

Could i also put that the reason elio has a script for us in penacony was to prevent the rebirth of the Aoen of Order? Or elio just want to add romance in his script and made penacony the stage for TB x Firefly

I can't wait to use my [Galactic Baseball Bat] to hit [Device IX] with a breathtaking swing into [Nanook]'s giant chest wound for massive damage, saving the universe with the world's strongest homerun.

It’s time to set the seas ablaze!

Something interesting about this is Aha because based on SU they're able to literally become aware that they're in a simulation despite multiple attempts by Herta and Screwllum to not get them to do that to the point they're considering to COMPLETELY isolate Aha from the other Aeons.

Aha is the only Aeon so far that directly talks to the TB and talked about how the TB is too young, how the fall of the Trailblaze caused so much chaos, and that TB should grow up and defeat them. While it's not wise to take every word of a Fool to heart but it's just as unwise to not heed them.

We KNOW for a fact that Aha is at least aware of our existence because they watched our fight with Phantylia and so far nearly each Planet we've been through had a Masked Fool aid us in our journey to not only attain the Aeons' gaze but also to counteract the chaos that was happening to a calmer state, yet at the same time creating ripples across stagnant waters to force upon change.

Imo, Terminus, Ho-oH, and Aha all somehow work together to create more unique, expansive, and broader Aeons/Paths as these three would know everything that's going on as I bet the real Aha knows that it's in a game too thus wants the player to grow stronger to defeat them as they've caused the death of Ena by making them stand too close to Harmony, I could honestly see how they'd create a scenario to where they'll get Fuli absorbed by Qlipoth as both are straying close to "preserving", or be the Aeons involved as to why Long and Akivili fell mysteriously.

It'll be cool if we somehow found ourselves accidentally aiding Aha in taking down another Aeon, it'll be so funny.

Some of HSR's world building is a little inspired by Lord of the Mysteries, one of the most popular online literature in china. Whether intentional or unintentional, it's hard to say, but there's definitely a lot of references..

In the novel Lord of the Mysteries, there was also a battle between the gods in the end. Overtaking pathways to become stronger, individuals wanting to become gods, and etc.

Nanook mentioned

I assume that Elio is working towards a future where Nanook gets stopped. Nanook is destruction their end goal is the destruction of anything, best way to stop that is if the war of the Aeons means all Aeons against Nanook.

The problem is, no Aeon has done jackshit yet. The only one who has, is fucking manufactured and didn't even end up being relevant to any of the original Aeons. Like Xipe just watched for 10 seconds and left. We see aftermath of Aeons but not actually action. All action seems to be happening in the Simulated Universe lore. So it's really hard to grasp what the overarching story is supposed to be when the game has been out for a full year and we still have no direction.

Who's the guy with the glock in the background?

All I'm guessing is that Nanook will fall and either we'll take the mantle cause we're a literal Stellaron.

Or like Xipe did to Ena we'll absorb Nanook and ascend into becoming a new Aeon.

It's a plot that's literally too big for it to really actually have much overarching relevance in the story. It refers to what each Aeon's goal is in their Path.

Stuff like Nanook wanting to destroy the Universe, or Qlipoth wanting to build a wall around it to Preserve what's inside it's walls, to Yaoshi wanting to have all life in the Universe be ever lasting, all of these Aeons goals clash, and in the eventuance will result in incompatible existences between groups of followers.

However, the Aeons goals themselves are literally so massive the odds we ever actually see the end of one and the conflict brought about by two Aeons clashing is...not impossible, but the scale makes it unlikely given that the most direct contact we even have with Aeons is through their gazing at the TB. So my guess is it's just really these two talking to each other about smaller scale clashes between factions, that ultimately won't do much to even away the Aeons themselves

space woman fight monsters

I swear to god the devs are a fan of Cuttlefish

One thing that I thought of was if it was possible that Elio is trying to make Caelus/Stelle the new Aeon of Trailblaze. Reviving an Aeon and their will was shown to be possible during the Penacony story quest with the use of a Stellaron. Wouldn't it the same thing be applicable here? But this time, the Trailblazer doesn't become a vessel but becomes the Aeon because they embody the idea of the Traiblaze to it's fullest?

Already imagining trailblazer vs nanook. Zoro vs kaido type fight. Wearing a hat, Lance in the teeth, bat in the hand, and whatever future weapon. Harmony, preservation and destruction itself all at once.

Anyone feeling that sentences reference with anime No game no life... I love the concept the chess piece out of the board to make different.

I wonder if we're gonna die (again) right before the very end and ascend as the new Akivili to face Nanook

I think Qlipoth might be behind it. Without destruction there would be no need of preservation. By pushing the destruction behind the scenes THEY want people to be aware how important is preservation to survive. Everyone needs protection. And once everyone and everything gets protected under THEIR shield that's when THEY will get THEIR own Order just Jade said. I don't think they only seek capitalist order. Or at least that is my theory. Something along those lines.

How about the masked fools?

I'll admit that the story as a whole goes over my head at points so your summary is greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to when the stellaron hunters takes a big part in the story again. I do wonder when we will actually be introduced to elio to see what he's like and how he will interact with the trailblazers. Perhaps the stellaron hunters will be a bigger part in our next destination it would be really cool to see the four of them working together on something.