#Kafka says there are three ways to kill an Aeon. She tells us two and leaves the third to our imagination

[epicyonbeforeidie]

The new fables about the stars made me think much more about Nanook and THEIR connection to the Trailblaze, so I want to talk about it.

The entire story of Honkai Star Rail is marked by two Aeons, Akivili and Nanook. We play as the Nameless, retracing the steps of the missing Aeon of Trailblaze. And our journey seems closely tied to destruction, the Trailblazer carries a Stellaron within them, which is heavily theorized to be connected to the Path of Destruction. Nanook was the first Aeon to cast THEIR gaze upon us, and so far, every planet we’ve visited bears fragments of destruction in some form.

Nanook is said to be the youngest of the Aeons. They were born on Adlivun, a planet devastated by the Emperor War and the Swarm Disaster. Interestingly, Akivili visited Adlivun before Nanook ascension, and even more curiously, disappeared suddenly around the same time.

In the Swarm Disaster, we see intriguing artwork of a person with dark skin, bright hair, bandaged arms, and golden blood. It unmistakably evokes Nanook. This figure also holds an Astral Express ticket, and it looks like someone else may have given it to them. (Was it perhaps Akivili?)

In the Simulated Universe, Fuli appears to show us Nanook memories as a human

“Reaching out to catch a shooting star” and “You laughed at the exploration.” The Astral Express often appears as a shooting star, and exploration is central to the Trailblaze. It really seems like Nanook, in THEIR human life, was either a Nameless, or at the very least, someone who tried to walk the Path of Trailblazing.

In game, we’re told that “Nanook probably ignited their own home.” That word probably is especially interesting. Maybe Adlivun burned because Nanook ascended. Or maybe Nanook ascended because Adlivun burned, who knows.

In Fables About the Stars, Celenova says, “Trailblazing always ends up igniting something, no?” Did Akivili caused the spark that ultimately triggered Nanook ascension? It’s entirely possible.

Kafka tells us that our goal is to destroy Nanook. If Akivili played a role in Nanook ascension, it would only be fitting for the Trailblazers recreating Akivili steps to try to fix THEIR mistake.

[ihatechosingnames]

Honkai Star Rail Lore and Spoilers?

So, this is actually the second attempt. The first got lost.

Kafka, even as an enemy, is exceptionally helpful in terms of lore. And with the Data Banks, we can fill a lot of plot holes, maybe left on purpose.

So, we capture Kafka and interrogate her, first with the Diviner, then alone. People leave us alone with Kafka, even when they don't trust Kafka to not pull some kind of brainwashing and even when they see a strange connection between Stelle (the female MC) and Kafka herself.

So, Elio, her boss, has already foreseen everything, even our questions, and that make Kafka tell us everything she knows, which is only a tiny part of what Elio knows. I can't wait to actually meet him. So, they lead us with tiny crumbs to do what they want, in this case, ally ourselves with Xianzhou because in the future we are going to fight Nanook the Destruction.

She actually says "in the best and the worst cases", so if we stay on a neutral case there is a tiny chance that we are not going to fight an Aeon. But I don't think we are going to have that much of a choice: Kafka telling all of that could mean two things:

1 we can fight against this prophecy, which can end up as a self-driven prophecy or we can avoid altogether this scenario

2 we do nothing and the prophecy can or not happen.

Since the Stellarion hunters are working so hard to give us all the help we may need, it's possible that we cannot avoid fighting Nanook. This may be the reason why we have a Stellarion inside our body. And the cutscene ends with Kafka telling us that even Aeons can die, and soon after our point of view changes to Dan Heng and his side of the adventure. Basically in this world, Dan Heng is a protagonist just as much as Stelle, I'm going to analyze it later.

Back to Kafka, Stelle, LORE, and juicy information.

So, in the game, up to this moment, 5 Aeons are already dead, killed, or disappeared. The names are Long the Permanence, Idrila the Beauty, Ena the Order, Tayzzyronth the Propagation, and Akivili the Trailblaze.

Kafka is giving so much information that she also tells us how two of these five died:

So, that explains why we don't have any information about Ena in the Data Bank, they were assimilated by another Aeon. But how does Kafka know it?

From the Data Bank, Tayzzyronth duplicated himself "a torrent of infinite propagation. [...] fluttered across the worlds until their advances were halted by fate in some way."

Funnily enough, Dan Heng's side starts with Luocha talking about the Propagation and the mortality of Aeons.

But nobody says which Aeon did the deed. Could it be it was the Hunt while he was searching for the Abundance? After all, their names share a similitude:

Propagation: 1. the breeding of specimens of a plant or animal by natural processes from the parent stock

Abundance: 1. a very large quantity of something.

It may be a theory since the Abundance's symbol is wheat and in the game is associated with plants, such as the Big Tree.

Theory number 1: Lan the Hunt killed the Propagation while pursuing the Abundance.

Back to Kafka, Stelle asks about Akivili's fate:

Nobody knows. In the Data Bank: "Akivili's destiny was abruptly ended due to an accident", which tells nothing. Curiously, even Idrila the Beauty disappeared with no one knowing a thing: "The Aeon of Beauty suddenly vanished one day. It was just as mysterious as when they first appeared." So Akivili disappeared one day and it was not something decided by fate; Idrila disappeared, probably in the same way they appeared.

Of the five Aeons, three were discussed by Kafka and two by Dan Heng's party. And color me surprised, they talked about Long the Permanence.

So a specie that lives in Xianzhou is a descendant of an Aeon, Long the Permanence. And they are related to dragons. Since Sushang is someone who doesn't like school, it's Dan Heng, Mr "I can't set foot on Xianzhou for multiple reasons regarding my backstory", which tells us what we need.

And say, Dan Heng, how do you know all of this? It's more than what normal people should know, more like inside knowledge.

Theory number 2: Dan Heng, since his nickname is Cold Dragon Young, is a Vidyadhara and he was banished because he messed up a serious and important rite regarding Blade. But from the character story, it looks like he ran away and changed his name and face (maybe he reincarnated like they said about the Vidyadhara, even though it's said they have draconic features) to avoid detection and he is scared of someone (Blade, if we connect the dots with the Light Cone "Nowhere to Run") who has a killing intent against him, bad enough to follow him and destroy every single ship he (Dan Heng) was on. Dan Heng possibly is one of the rare descendants that inherit the trait to become a dragon. Whatever it means.

Side note: Am I the only one to see that Luocha and Dan Heng have similar clothing? Luocha is hella sus with a huge casket, his knowledge, the fact he was on the port after the blockade, his Path being the Abundance... This all leads to him being a kind of enemy, but it's such a huge red flag that is natural to put the focus on him.

The wiki also says "Luocha, also known as Rakshasa, are a type of evil spirit in Buddhist mythology who eat human flesh". Great way to name a character who is a healer, Hoyoverse. It's like they are trying to shout "LOOK AT HIM AND HIS HUGE RED FLAG".