Transcription
Welcome back, Trailblazers. This is episode five of our Honkai Star Rail Amphoreus journey recap. This time around, the spotlight is on Phainon and, to a lesser degree, Cyrene and Lygus as well. All three of their stories are critical in understanding the purpose of Amphoreus and why its story repeats itself on an endless loop.
Now, because this recap dives deep into Amphoreus' true nature, if you wanna get the most out of it, you're kind of gonna need to have a background knowledge of Emperor Rubert I and II and their shenanigans. I've provided a comprehensive recap of all of their lore in this video and also a basic primer in the previous recap episode. Watching either of those videos will provide you with enough context to understand what's going on in this quest. So, in the interest of time, I'm not going to be going into too much detail on those contextual events. But that's my disclaimer out of the way, so that means it is time to start this recap, and we will do so by quickly going over the events of the previous episode.
Previously, on Amphoreus: a group of assassins known as the Cleaners corner several Chrysos Heirs and their allies all across Amphoreus all at once, attempting to distract them from their main operation in Okhema. Elder Caenis, a Cleaner herself, was threatening Aglaea, who conceded defeat and relinquished her own life in the process, but not before ensuring her Nymphs carried out her last wishes. She asked Cipher to protect Kephale's Coreflame and Chartonus to imbue a bracelet she received from a child with the remains of her soul, which would then be entrusted to Phainon. Phainon assumed Aglaea's leadership position and accompanied Hyacine, Dan Heng, and the Trailblazer to the fortress in the sky, so Hyacine can retrieve Aquila's Coreflame. There, they learned the truth behind the legend of Seliose, a hero from the Skyfolk who proved it was possible to rise up against the Titans. Khaslana later confirms that Seliose was a reason why the Flame-Chase Journey became a thing, and we didn't really learn that until the current chapter. Seliose's companions, Solabis and Lunabis, chased Aquila out of their hiding place in the Celestial Mural, only for Aquila to challenge the Chrysos Heirs to an incredibly epic battle that ended with them all falling to their deaths. Aquila disappeared in a pool of molten gold, but Phainon, Hyacine, Dan Heng, and the Trailblazer were spared that fate thanks to Aglaea's bracelet, which activated at the last moment and then joined Aquila in the molten gold. But then Aquila revived themselves with the Black Tide for round two. After defeating Aquila for the second time, Hyacine secured the Coreflame of the Sky and stayed behind in the sky fortress to prevent the sky from falling down. The others rushed towards the location of Kephale's Coreflame, only to find it missing. They decide to trust that Cipher has fulfilled her promise to Aglaea and has moved the Coreflame somewhere safe. So, they chart a course for the Vortex of Genesis because they've run out of time. The Dawn Device that was sheltering Okhema was only really supposed to last for about 300 years. But Cipher made everyone believe in a lie that the device would last forever. Everyone's belief in that lie made the lie real through the power of trickery. But when the Flame Reaver caught up to her and killed her, the power of her lie disappeared along with her life. The Flame Reaver quickly caught up to the rest of them as well. Mydei and Castorice tried to buy them all time, but, in the end, it was Dan Heng that held him off. Phainon stopped the Trailblazer from following him into the Vortex, insisting that they and Dan Heng escape Amphoreus via their repaired train car while they still could. Phainon then enters the room alone, only to meet Trinnon and Bartholos. Turns out Bartholos was not only the previous Trickery Titan but he also had Kephale's Coreflame in his stomach the entire time, which is what kept him alive. He gave it to Phainon and then disappeared. When Phainon finally entered the Vortex, he was met with Lygus and Cyrene. We'll come back to these three later, but for now, let's follow the Trailblazer, who's begrudgingly following Phainon's request for them to escape.
So, the Trailblazer rushes to pick up Dan Heng, expecting a very difficult fight from the Flame Reaver in order to secure their escape route, but, oddly enough, the Flame Reaver is frozen in place. Neither of them really understand what's happening until they meet a projection of Screwllum outside the bath house. Screwllum explains that he was responsible for freezing the Flame Reaver in place. He then tells them that Amphoreus was a simulated world made of data and memoria, that was controlled by a giant, planet-sized supercomputer known as a Scepter. These supercomputers were so powerful and so dangerous that they were capable of wiping out entire galaxies on their own. To prevent them from being misused, the IPC decommissioned or destroyed every Scepter they could find. But a few of them—like the one powering Amphoreus—escaped their notice. Screwllum had conveniently encountered an undiscovered Specter once before. And he made it a subject of study, and that is how he knew how to freeze the Flame Reaver in time. His studies into the Specter also resulted in the development of the Chronocognitive Anchor. Its purpose is to stabilize its carrier's body while inside digital spaces like the ones created by the Scepters. This way, the carrier cannot be lost in the flow of data and can still be located from the outside. The problem is Screwllum only has one of these. It's with this in mind that Screwllum makes a request. He and Herta would like either Dan Heng or the Trailblazer to remain on Amphoreus to watch the simulated world reset from the inside and provide Herta and Screwllum an anchor point from which to gather data from the outside. This action is of paramount importance because the geniuses have uncovered an even deeper truth about Amphoreus. It's not just a prison for a Lord Ravager, as we learned. It's a cradle. The Lord Ravager the rest of the universe identifies as Irontomb has actually been incubating in this simulated world for ages, carefully being cultivated by Lygus. Any and all sightings of Irontomb in the outside universe have been mere test runs so that Lygus can collect more data for it. And after all this time and careful cultivation, Irontomb has become an incredibly devastating force of destruction and cannot be allowed to roam the universe freely. They have to find a way to either deactivate or destroy this Ravager, and for that reason, they need someone to stay on the inside and get more information. He assures them that the Chronocognitive Anchor will make sure that they're not disassembled or contaminated by the flow of data in the process. So, Dan Heng reluctantly returns to the Astral Express, while the Trailblazer stays behind with Mem to go find Phainon. And, obviously, they take the Chronocognitive Anchor with them. Oh, and around this time, Screwllum also mentioned that Lygus is behind everything and that March is also here somewhere, so that's just more reasons to stick around.
Once inside the Vortex, the Trailblazer immediately accuses Lygus of knowing way more than he lets on, supporting Phainon's suspicions and provoking Lygus into sharing more information than expected. Regardless of the revelation, though, Phainon plans to go through with initiating Era Nova anyway, so he offers up the Coreflame to the Vortex of Genesis, and we're rewarded with a dramatic villain monologue! Huzzah! Now, the stuff Lygus has to say is actually quite interesting and reveals a bit more about the purpose of the Path of Destruction. Although, he's a little all over the place with how he presents his ideas, but based on what he says here and his experiment logs, we can learn the following: Emperor Rubert II was actually guided by Nous to construct the Scepter system as a sort of brain expansion. Nous intended to use this brain expansion as a means to answer some of life's unanswerable questions, like what is the prime mover of life? Or, to put the question another way, for what reason does life exist? One of the Scepters charged with unraveling this mystery was the Amphoreus Scepter. Now, there is no concrete answer provided here to the question of "what is the prime mover of life?" but what we do know is that when a Scepter is set to solve the riddle of life's prime mover, the result is always the anti-life equation. This equation destroys life, and it's also the equation that birthed the Lord Ravager Irontomb. You can kind of think of him as, like, the embodiment of the equation itself. For that reason, Lygus concludes that life begets destruction. Ergo, the prime mover of destruction is the prime mover of birth, not necessarily of life, but I guess it's close enough. The logic is more or less that the end of one cycle is the beginning of another, and the two represent a loop that never ends: destruction and rebirth, basically. And I suppose that would explain Amphoreus' odd, mobius-strip-like shape. Lygus also tells us some stuff about the Nousporists, but it's not super relevant to us right now, so I'm gonna leave that for another time.
Once Lygus finishes his monologue, he allows the Trailblazer to participate in what he calls "immersive theater." Basically, it means that we can both view and interact with Phainon's memories, and then he disappears backstage. The Trailblazer is kind of stuck in Phainon's hometown, Aedes Elysiae, now, so there's very little choice but to follow him and meet up with Cyrene in his memories. Cyrene is then revealed to be the missing Chrysos Heir of Time, and she's been missing because she's been dead this whole time. But don't think about that too deeply yet. Just kind of roll with it. Now, Cyrene kinda breaks the proverbial fourth wall here as she recognizes the Trailblazer for who they really are: the Trailblazer, and not this fictional best friend of Phainon that Lygus has set us up to be. But she still plays along so as to not interrupt the performance, 'cause, you know, she's definitely aware of what's going on here. It's like she's already seen this play a million times, or maybe 33,550,335 times. Also, we saw her chilling in Path Space earlier, which is already suspicious because it means that she's transcended Amphoreus, but we'll come back to that later.
Throughout our time in Aedes Elysiae, we get to see just how optimistic Phainon used to be: a child dreaming of being a hero and protecting the whole world, which was only as large as Aedes Elysiae at the time. This carefree group of three reminisce about those times when they used to play with Cyrene's oracle cards, and then they decide to go looking for them, but one of the fairies seems to have taken them into the Membrance Maze. So, in they go, and all of the fairies are Mems, apparently. That's not suspicious at all. And the book of oracle cards they took is also Mem's book, "As I've Written." Apparently, the Mems took the book because they wanted a reading from Cyrene. They sensed that a new Mem will be arriving in the Membrance Maze soon, and the arrival of a new Mem always precedes a great calamity. The oracle reading is about Phainon primarily, and each oracle card features one of the important people that he's going to meet on his journey; each one of them a Chrysos Heir that we've already met. And his role in all of this is to bear the wishes of the many and answer the world's call—hence his titles of Deliverer and Worldbearer. As soon as the reading ends, a Mem rushes in and tells them that Aedes Elysiae is burning and the Black Tide is rolling in. Phainon rushes to aid the people of the village, but as he cuts through the hordes of monsters, he realizes that they aren't monsters at all but the very people he was trying to protect, simply corrupted by the Black Tide. When the flames finally went out, he buried those he couldn't save and left the village, wandering Amphoreus and helping whoever he could as he worked through the veil of his own grief. Until finally, Aglaea, impressed with his deeds, called him to Okhema, where he joined the other Chrysos Heirs in the Flame-Chase Journey. And Cyrene joined as well. And as their journey continues—a journey that is very different from the journey that we have been through as players—Phainon and Cyrene finally reach the end. That part of the story where the Black Tide swallows everything, and there's not a single thing they can do to stop it except for initiating Era Nova and allowing the world to be reborn. So, they retrieve the final Coreflame from Oronyx and enter the Vortex.
I wanna pause here for a moment to explain what's actually happening because the game is kind of jumping between scenes from different timelines, and I feel it's a little confusing if you're not really paying attention. So, do you remember how we talked about Amphoreus being a simulated world within a Scepter made of data and memoria, and how its purpose was to calculate the Primum Mobile of life, which resulted in it creating the anti-life equation? Okay. Lygus wanted to refine the anti-life equation, but since it was the answer to life's Primum Mobile, he needed to study life itself. So, he designed an extrapolation experiment, a deep-learning tool, wherein the data simulation of life would be created, and then he would observe its growth trajectory until that life was extinguished, because the destruction of life is inevitable. He would then take the data from that cycle, feed it into the next one, and run the cycle again, observing any changes that may occur. His experimental model would be based on twelve core variables (also known as core factors) as simplified models of life's Primum Mobile. These would eventually become the authorities of the Twelve Titans of Amphoreus. And yes, we finally got confirmation that these twelve factors are indeed linked one to one with twelve of the Paths. For example: Trickery is confirmed to be the Path of Elation, Reason is confirmed to be Erudition, and Time is confirmed to be Remembrance. Lygus started off with inorganic life the size of organic cells, watching as they evolved over time into more complex mechanical structures. By the 9910th cycle, the structure gained some level of sentience but would always terminate itself at a certain stage of cognitive development. He continued the inorganic simulations for 50,122 cycles before switching to Phase Two of his experiment, which used organic life as a base model instead. Reason being that towards the end of Phase One, the inorganic life-forms began exhibiting traits of organic life-forms, which rapidly sped up its evolutionary progress. So, by swapping over to organic life exclusively, that evolutionary progression should continue to accelerate exponentially. Also worth noting, that same cycle, 50,121, a life-form codenamed "Chaoz666" caught a glance from Nanook. Remember this. Now, it took until the 90,123rd cycle for these organic life-forms to start developing civilization. By cycle 176,100, life in the simulation naturally gravitated towards hominids. So, humans. And finally, in cycle 11,749,183, the destruction equation began to manifest as the Black Tide; visual glitches within the system representing data forms infected by the destruction equation. This was also the very first time a simulated life-form tried to absorb the memories of other life-forms in order to preserve them. In other words, this was the birth of the concept of what Kephale does. By cycle 19,110,218, the simulation was named Amphoreus, and the tradition of one life-form absorbing the memories into themselves as a form of preservation resulted in those memories being directly cycled into the next one automatically. This is where the concept of Era Nova originated, and where Anaxa's claim of the Chrysos Heirs of today become the Titans of tomorrow after Era Nova comes from. It was true that one entity would take on the role of Kephale and absorb all of the memories of the marked Chrysos Heirs into themselves and directly cycle their memories into the next cycle. And this continued to be the case until at least cycle 28,371,272. The real final number of cycles isn't known, but the final cycle was the one that we just witnessed. The one with Phainon and Cyrene witnessing the end of the world together.
At the end of that final cycle, Cyrene and Phainon noticed something very off about the sky. To them, it looked like a shattered screen. And that's when they realized that the voices of the Titans had been coming from the Black Tide the entire time. They became aware that they were just characters performing the same show on a stage over and over and over again for the audience's enjoyment. And Lygus just so happens to be the audience and the director. When confronted about this, Lygus admits to everything and urges them to complete the final cycle and finally allow Phainon to become Irontomb so he can fulfill his destiny and destroy Nous, the Erudition. Because, in case you didn't know, Nanook's Lord Ravagers are forces of destruction custom-tailored for each Aeon's demise. So, as a cosmic virus capable of wiping out all life, Irontomb was designed to destroy Nous specifically, 'cause, you know, a virus would easily destroy a cosmic supercomputer. But Cyrene reasons that if Nous and Nanook can both cast their glances at Amphoreus, so too can any other Aeon. And if this wasn't the case, then there would have been no need for Lygus to try and push them towards his desired end. He could have just simply sat back and watched. So, she suspects that Amphoreus has been under the gaze of an entirely different Aeon for a long, long time. And that means they no longer have any reason to do as Lygus commands. There's another path for them to take, so to speak.
Cyrene's plan is simple: to prevent the coming of Era Nova and Irontomb's escape, they'll trap Amphoreus in a loop. Fuli, the Remembrance, records the time of Amphoreus, so if time in Amphoreus were to stop moving forward, they should cast their gaze towards that missing time. But in order for time to vanish, the demigod of time has to vanish as well. And since Cyrene is the Chrysos Heir of Time, she's the one who has to die. And her death makes it impossible for the Chrysos Heirs to complete the Flame-Chase Journey, so Era Nova will never arrive. Meanwhile, Cyrene should be able to gain the power to reset time through Fuli's gaze. She can then imbue that power within her ceremonial blade, bequeath it unto Phainon, thus granting him the ability to reset the cycle indefinitely. But that dooms Phainon to the most tragic fate of all: to that of the Eternal Recurrence.
So, fun fact time. The eternal recurrence, also known as the eternal return, was a philosophical belief that all time exists in a loop, that the universe was always destroyed then recreated exactly as it was in the beginning of the previous cycle. This was a rather popular belief in ancient Greece, especially among the Stoics, but it is more commonly associated with Friedrich Nietzsche, as he repopularized the concept in his novel "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." HoYoVerse loves this book and the concepts it presents, so it comes up a lot throughout their games, probably because, at its core, it's not so much a discussion on the model of time but a debate between the concept of fate and free will. See, if the universe is truly trapped within an eternal return, then everything that will happen is fated to happen because it has already happened in the previous cycle, and therefore, it will happen again in this cycle. Ergo, there's no such thing as free will because everything's already determined. I'm obviously oversimplifying this concept, but I think it's important that you at least understand the basic idea.
Now, Phainon and Cyrene don't expect the Eternal Recurrence to be necessary forever. They believe that, one day, someone will come and break the cycle and rewrite the ending of Amphoreus in such a way as to completely avert the fate that Lygus has constructed for them. They need only hold out until such a person arrives, so they do exactly that. Using the power of the ceremonial blade, Phainon resets the current loop, marking the very first cycle of the Eternal Recurrence. He hopes that he can just explain the situation to each Chrysos Heir, collect the Coreflames peacefully, and then just wait for the promised day before once again using the blade to reset the cycle. This is when he's faced with a ghostly golden figure: his so-called Hero Within. It's a manifestation of the person he always wanted to be but simply isn't, because that hero is a real person, not a construct of numbers and memoria. So, he leaves this pure ideal form in Aedes Elysiae. That way, he won't waver as he walks towards his own fate of destruction.
Now, here's the tricky thing. Having reset time by resetting the cycle, Phainon appeared in the world outside of Aedes Elysiae long before the Phainon of this cycle was supposed to be born. So, there are technically two Phainons present in each cycle now. One of them is actually Phainon, the one who knows nothing, that is born within the cycle, and the other bears Phainon’s real name of Khaslana. Khaslana is the one that keeps going back in time, and as he keeps going back and resetting the cycles, he retains all of his memories. So, Khaslana goes out, he slays all the Titans, he collects all the Coreflames, and then he just sits around and waits for Era Nova. But once the Phainon of that cycle was properly born, Khaslana had to explain what was actually going on to this future but also past version of himself, who did not like what he heard and tried to kill him. So, Khaslana had to kill himself in the form of Phainon. So, at the end of the first Eternal Recurrence cycle, Khaslana took all twelve Coreflames into himself and reset time, and he repeated this process again, and again, and again. Each reset, each cycle was another twelve Coreflames trapped inside him. Another opportunity to break the cycle lost. 108,642 Eternal Recurrence cycles passed, and Khaslana was reaching his mental and emotional limit. He started hallucinating. His patience grew thin. His emotional stability hit an all-time low as he killed his friends over, and over, and over again. Cycle 2,304,032 came and went. 24,041,184 Coreflames consumed, and still, he had to keep going. But by cycle 4,000,001, Khaslana was starting to lose his resolve and his hope that a true hero would ever truly appear. With forty-eight million Coreflames alight inside of him, it was only a matter of time until he burned to cinders and became what we know of as the Flame Reaver. This cycle was his limit, so he came up with a new plan. He decided to let the flames consume him. That way, he could become the driving force behind the Phainon that's born in each cycle. He would kill Cyrene and become the Phainon of each cycle's motivation to move forward. And when they reached the end, he would allow Phainon to kill him. But in doing so, that Phainon would consume all of the memories and Coreflames that Khaslana had accumulated, and this cycle continued until it numbered 33,550,336. Because that was a cycle where a hero made of flesh and blood finally descended from beyond the sky, picked up the missing mantle of time, and added an unexpected variable into the Scepter's extrapolations. This was the hero that Khaslana longed for, the one represented by the ghostly hero within his heart. And that's why, as time went on, it began to resemble the Trailblazer little by little. But perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Trailblazer was the only person to whom Khaslana could entrust the task of destroying Irontomb to and to save the world that Khaslana and Phainon loved. In other words, in this cycle, the final cycle of the Eternal Recurrence, the Trailblazer will shoulder the mantle of Kephale and rewrite the world's history however they please. Khaslana becomes a Flame Reaver one last time. He allows the Phainon of that final cycle to kill him, take his memories and Coreflames, and he tells himself to never bow his head to Nanook. And that's how we enter the final cycle of the Eternal Recurrence. Cycle number 33,550,337. Oh, it ends in 37—March 7th. Interesting.
Okay, a few fun facts to share here. So, after Phainon merges with himself, he sends a Trailblazer back in time so the Trailblazer can take on the role of the Deliverer in Phainon's place. By going back in time, Mem is finally able to recover all of her memories and remembers her true identity as Cyrene. But that Mem becomes a part of the Trailblazer and promises that there will be a Cyrene of the future waiting for them at the beginning of time, which is where they're headed. Also, remember Chaoz666? The program that received Nanook's glance initially? Well, that was probably the precursor to Phainon because Phainon's true name, Khaslana, means "the one who bears chaos." So, it's very likely that Phainon's lineage descends from Chaoz666. Interestingly, despite receiving a glance from Destruction, all references to chaos in the quest are not destructive at all. Instead, they're references to the primordial chaos from which life is birthed. Hence why The Hero Within says that the memories Phainon Khaslana carries are part of the chaos of rebirth. If you really stop and think about it, birth as chaos makes a lot of sense because newborns are technically bundles of infinite possibilities. Their futures are not set in stone, so they are not ordered and linear. They're chaotic and uncertain, and that's a good thing. And you know how I said all Lord Ravagers represent the antithesis of the Paths that they seek to destroy? Well, the opposite of destruction is rebirth, isn't it? If you're fated to be destroyed, you are subject to order. If you are set to be born, you are subject to chaos. So, Phainon Khaslana being a representative of birth and wanting to destroy the Destruction is fascinating in that he also represents the goal of the Scepter's inquiry into life's Primum Mobile, which always results in the anti-life equation. And that is why Lygus said in his notes that the prime mover of destruction is the prime mover of birth, or rather, rebirth. We rise from the ashes, so to speak.
Also, one more fun fact before we wrap things up. A lot of people are conflating Phainon's name with Paimon, but actually, Phainon is the Greek name for the planet Saturn. And to the Romans, Saturnus was the equivalent of the Greek Titan Cronus. Cronus is not only the Titan of Time but he's best known for not wanting his successors to overthrow him. So, he swallowed them whole as babies—right up until Zeus came along. When Zeus’ turn came, Rhea gave him a stone swaddled in a baby blanket to swallow instead. Now, this stone was also called Omphalos, or rather, the navel of the world. And in Chinese, Amphoreus is actually called Omphalos. So, if you think about it, Phainon swallowing the Coreflames is basically a reference to Cronus swallowing his children. But one of those so-called children is actually a decoy. Is that foreshadowing? I don’t know. But I do love mythology.
But okay, enough fun facts. There’s still one scene I haven’t talked about yet. Back at the beginning of this chapter, we actually got to see March, or at least a projection of March’s consciousness. Somehow, she ended up in Path Space. The Trailblazer tends to end up in Path Space whenever they switch Paths or need to reach an Aeon, so it's a rather odd place for March to be. But it's even stranger that she's not even here alone, because, apparently, whenever Cyrene dies, she ends up in Path Space as well. And she just kind of chills here until time on Amphoreus resets itself, and she gets sucked back in. At least, I think that's how this works. She greets March rather cheerfully, commenting on how similar they both are with their pink hair and cheerful demeanors. But she gets quite serious when some Memokeepers or Memosnatchers show up and try luring March into Amphoreus. Cyrene warns her not to enter because she’s never seen anyone return successfully. But March knows her friends are on the other side of that door, so she kind of has to go. So, she bids farewell to Cyrene and walks through that door. So, if we’re lucky, we might be seeing March again real soon.
And with that said, we can finally conclude this episode. This quest was easily my favorite of the Amphoreus chapter, so I hope to see you in episode 6 where we finally enter the next and final cycle of the Eternal Recurrence: Number 33,550,337. Again, 37—March 7th. That’s when she’s showing up. Is that a coincidence? I feel like it might not be. Anyway, take care of yourselves out there, and I’ll see you all in the next one. Bye-bye.