Lan isnt death but culling of the herd, Hunting literally. Overpopulation causes imbalance in nature and thus Hunters kill the overabundance of a specie.
@@danidan2174 the propagation was most likely killed by an alliance of many aeons and races. It's concept is similar to abundance but taken to the absolute extreme.
Yoashi is pretty representative of a goddess of life, she's more concerned about one aspect of the cycle and rejects the aspect that is just as important. Hence why I don't see Lan ever succeeding in his quest, for there to be one there must be the other.
@@mofutofu2620 Yaoshi is referred as "they" on the simulated universe when they kiss Akivili (that is also referred as they). So it's neither she or he.
I love the design of Yaoshi. The color scheme gives them a gentle look and the hands remind me of Guanyin but somehow Yaoshi looks very menacing/dangerous (probably the red eyes)
I was so surprised when she was first showed. Like I thought they were going to be very gentle and pure looking but they're... very creepy and beautiful?? Absolutely love the design
I mean, we have to consider that Lan is not simply Death as a concept. They are the Hunt. The Path they embody is one that targets specific things, and pursues them at all cost. In the archives, it mentions that anything that comes between Lan and Yaoshi is likely to be considered as acceptable collateral. No negotiation, no second chances. This is not the ideal of an indiscriminate and inevitable death, but rather a single-minded pursuit, an obsession. Not to mention, the other faction of Lan mentioned in the archives has nothing at all to do with death. They were heroes that fought villains and sought justice. It is true that in the current Xianzhou story arc specifically Lan symbolizes Death, but that is only because they, the Hunter, have designated Life as their Prey. Also, from what I read, I never got the impression that Dan Shu turned against Lan because of life-death philosophy. In fact, Dan Shu herself says that both sides of the conflict have their merits, and that we chose Xianzhou just because we met them first. I believe she is acting purely in self-interest, just like us. Since both sides have ups and downs, and the Aeons are mindless chasing their ideals, she chose the one that fit her individually. Hope of healing her eyes, spite for the death of Yufei... just matters of personal circumstance.
Well from what I see, people who fallow Lan are not dealing with core problem but simply with a symptoms, Lan will not cure them from getting mara struck. On the other hand Sanctus Medicus are at least trying to fix things. We also don't know why they have imperfect immortality while other races don't have such problems, it might be that xianzhou betrayed Yaoshi or mara is simply temporary state and they would turn into true version of their race after some time, so mara would be like cocoon faze of a butterfly.
In this story arc themes. Lan and Yaoshi and aeons in general sort of act like the Kami in Japanese folklore. They represent specific aspects of nature and their path’s concept. But not the entire idea. More specifically Lan and Yaoshi represent specific parts and flavors of life and death.
At first it came out of nowhere in the Darilo-VI arc when Dan Heng made that reply to March when she asked about how long humans can live. He said it can reach hundreds but by then you can't call them human anymore. With the Xianzhou arc it's now clear where that idea came from. I really like how the Mara Struck were portrayed or shown as being humans that no longer have control over their bodies or minds sometimes because that's technically what would happen even in real life. In a sense it's like immortality can only work for beings that can be immortal. You try forcing immortality on a mortal, it ends up upsetting the being's natural balance (which btw is a real thing called homeostasis for humans at least) and would mean that any characteristics formed as a result of said immortality would already mean they can no longer fit the idea of being human just because they can't die.
@@thwartificer In simple terms it's basically the idea or sense that the body wants to maintain balance (whether it's temperature, blood pressure, etc.) while also adapting to certain external environments if needed.
@@dustinabigan2776 That doesn't really apply to aging though, which after puberty complete is just a slow degradation of DNA through destruction of telomeres (little parts on the end of DNA that protects the important stuff from being cut off as it replicates imperfectly). Star rail actually addresses this later on, through it's in-depth description of the love life/immortality. The longer lived races, once they hit a certain age, stop getting older and stay as essentially "perfect" forms, which includes blindness they were born with and any other DNA based ailments. While humans could get replacement eyes, those species would have their old, broken ones grow back over time, showing how what the Aeon does is constantly make those telomeres and repair any damage that would interfere with the "completed" form of that being's DNA. I gotta say, paying attention in biology never felt so good.
I find this whole 'paths' concept very intriguing. Taking The Hunt and Abundance for example, where the hunt is against prolonging life and Abundance about sustaining it, but when we are talking actual game mechanics you usually want to pair a Hunt path character with an Abundance path character in order to make sure that you dish out damage but at the same time remain alive to do said the damage. Very conflicting but necessary for optimal synergy And that's where I agree with what you said that HSR is showing good promise with clashing philosophies and creating stories from these different paths. And merging the all together into the MC. Very exciting! Thank you for another banger of a video! 😀
@@aj7515 Yeah I totally agree with you, it is just purely a need basis, but can you not then argue the same for the bigger picture? Yes there will be instances where you can wipe out an opponent with just one single damage character and then the needs for that instance will be met. But just like that, that same need bias will carry unto the story, where a pure Hunt path (or not) might be the best option. What my comment was supposed to convey was that we need all of these paths to function, just like we as humans combine different philosophies to get to our paths, so too will these characters have to do the same thing. And I can't wait to see more of these conflicting ideals clash and how Hoyoverse is going to let it play out. Exciting stuff!
Also, it's just that while Paths and Aeons are often cited as one and the same, they are also still different too. The Xianzhou are against Yaoshi and they're immortality plus gift giving, but not healing or long living in general
There's many aspects of abundance immortality it's just one of them just as in the hunt death it's just one aspect is incredibly well done because it allows for the different ways the paths manifest in the characters skills
the reminder about how aeons aren’t good or evil leads me to rethink the way i feel about this backstory. it’s less of a hero’s tale and more of an origin story, explaining how Lan and Yaoshi are intrinsically linked. i don’t think one can exist without the other. Lan as an aeon clearly exists *because* of Yaoshi. meanwhile, without Lan, Yaoshi would’ve continued to grow and multiply until they became this uncontrollable abomination of something else entirely.
Yeah when you really think about how Yaosha doesn't seem to be able to see the problem with the suffering and resource issues caused by their idea of a blessing, it seems like their ideal reality is one where mara struck people are all that are left, likely after an insane amount of death and suffering from the resource war caused by the unstoppable forces of the Abundance constantly growing and encroaching on the free world. Considering abundance means 'enough for everyone' and this eventual fate is the opposite of that, i can't help but think that its literally impossible for Yaosha to actually flourish as rheu wish to because in the process they'd destroy their own ability to exist by eventually creating an absence of almost everything instead of an abundance of it. A force like Lan was necessary to balance out the effect of Abundance to allow for Yaosha's constant growth to actually have room to grow into, you know? It really is a lot like the actual cycle of life and death
I love how the Aeons have disfigured/different designs & not the typical anime characters, honestly they look so cool Lan, Nanook & Yaoshi are my favourite designs.
i love the thought put into the writing for dan shu with her agony at never escaping her blindness and her loss after yufei(and their romance is so painful). It makes me so curious about the circumstances that led to yaoshi themselves becoming an aeon. The data bank mentions that she cant bear to witness death, so i'm sure her ascension arose from grief?
i see Yaoshi as a kind of genie during this part of history. they simply gave the alliance exactly what they wanted. sure, their power is pretty terrifying, but as far as i understand, yaoshi isn't using it maliciously. if the alliance hadn't asked, yaoshi wouldn't have forced the "blessing" upon them
What is more we don't know if mara was actually result of the blessing or if they betrayed him or got cursed somehow (they could have been affect by stelaron for example, like how we see now them getting mara struck much more often). Their problem with resources could have been solved with imaginary element to create stuff from nothing ( like mirror/memory world exists and you gain real things from it, there is even cyber world which in lore is able create stuff) and universe is constantly expanding if it works like ours. Lan way is to simply deal with symptoms, killing mara achieves nothing in the end accept having more death and pain, like we literally see that mara could become "normal" and we even see that they can be cured.. IT is like in our world someone gets flue and people would kill him because he has sickness....
@@greedier-7661 TRUE TRUE TRUE. i feel like they were just trying to shift the blame of someone and yaoshi got the blunt of it. yes, immortality is terrifying, but they should have thought of that before begging for it. and like you said, there were many ways to handle the fallout. they really don't think things through do they 💀
I see it more as Yaoshi was truly _incapable_ of giving the alliance exactly what they wanted. It could only give them the closest thing which fit its path. I assume, due to it being the aeon of abundance, it is only capable of giving them uncontrolled, proliferating life running rampant. Immortality with the specific caveats needed to fit the wish of the Xianzhou would inherently go against the very concept of abundance, as it would require things such as infertility and incomplete, non-regenerative healing.
@@dandelienn Bailu during her first appearance was talking about giving them medicine (so they should be able get reverted) and we can see how "something" medicus mara were sentient so you could think of them as cured. So even if her medicine can cure becoming mara shortly after transformation it proves that they could do it even later. Killing mara is not a solution to the problem, you don t cure cancer by killing people with it....
Amazing video, however the idea of Lan chasing Yaoshi representing death chasing life is interesting when Nanook is brought into the equation. Both Lan and Nanook represent elements of death. However perhaps is Lan represents natural death/the natural cycle whereas Nanook represents death brought about by war.
Not really: Data Bank "If the increase of entropy is a fundamental law of the universe, then the heat death would be the inescapable destiny of the material world. So, why is it that we bother to struggle to survive? Expansion, fusion, and then annihilation. If we wish to welcome the new, then we must first embrace the end." - From a scientist just before pressing the button for nuclear detonation, 2152 AE The birth of the universe is a mistake. If civilization is a cancer emerging quietly from the boundless stars, then war is the only common language known to all intelligent life. To correct this mistake and to clean up this tainted universe, Nanook became the avatar of entropy. Also text from Fables about the stars dedicated to Nanook: At the universe's core lies a flame It burns ever so intensely Till entire galaxies are incinerated For the sole purpose of embracing a splendid destruction At the end of all reality Nanook`s destruction is more about embracing the inevitable death of everything including the universe itself.
lan isnt death, hes the hunt that means focusing one target until its completely dead hes already done it to the propagation and now his target is abudance
lan isnt death as in yaoshi isnt life. they are literally called aeon of hunt and abundance. life and death was already a thing before them and balanced, but their path granted more with yaoshi giving too much life and therefore, no balance and causes insanity of inmortality, lan only hunts abundance of life. not life itself. for nanook, i'd say he's antithesis would be qlipoth the preservation.
@@Sky-rw5vqcorrect, wolf hunted deers means death to deers, but abundance of deers means death to all. wolf is the instrument of death to eliminate excessive deers, as in lan the instrument of hunt to eliminate excessive life. the problem has always been the abundance. its an evergrowing tumor with hunt kept it from growing more.
1:05 " *x* years in standard time" might be the way it is because of the IPC (followers of Qlipoth) having their own year system- the Amber Era, which pertains to each time period Qlipoth expands his celestial wall.
If I remember correctly, they talk about it in the lore as being whenever he swings his hammer, unfortunately, they are never the same length of time >_>
I love that detail. The mega-corp forces so much of the universe to operate by a time system that actually sucks, just because it's what the corp uses and the corp just uses it because it makes them and their figurehead seem more important. Like the Amber Era is such a terrible way of measuring time on every level.
@@android19willpwn true. what's funny is the IPC's efforts to "assist" Qlipoth have never ever been recognized, even by the Amber Lord. Their goal was to gather construction materials that Qlipoth may use for their wall expansion, but Qlipoth has never used any of said materials even after all these years. Even Herta said that the IPC was stupid for collecting wood, steel, etc to offer to Qlipoth when the Aeon makes their walls out of literal stars.
I looove how the philosophies in hsr actually feel so three dimensional and well rounded (which makes sense since every character has a defined philosophy). they're really well written so multiple people can read and interpret the texts and come to their own opinions or conclusions about the philosophies. I think genshin suffers a little from clunky writing when it comes to philosophy so not all the players would really engage with them, even if they are really interesting questions in their own right, so im glad that ideas like longevity and immortality are explored in this game as well
HYV pretty much had most of its improvements for its later games so whatever hiccups they had in HI3 and Genshin, were pretty much minimized upon entering Star Rail.
Using the word "Mara" to name the phenomenon Mara-Struck is pretty clever honestly, because you see the name "Mara" used universally in various mythologies. You would come across gods and demons alike, with a common theme of doom, death or similar. E.g.: • Mara, the demon king in Buddhism: who is the antithesis of Enlightenment. Mara prevents liberation from samsara; this is probably the likely origin of the term Mara-Struck • Mara, the Latvian mother goddess: who takes the bodies of the dead while her masculine counterpart Dievs (another interesting word with many cognates) takes the souls • Mara/Marena/Marzanna/etc, the Slavic goddess of death and rebirth
You know the amazing thing here? That baizhu's story quest perfectly compliments the current story of the Luofu. Great video as always. Thank you so much for what you're doing. You're a blessing on this community:)
Thank God you are here to help me understand Honkai because I literally will not read through all the lore books and other stuff these games throw our way. It's literally just so much and I have ADHD and can't handle it 🤣
Hi, I'm the son of the CEO of Nintendo and my Daddy happens to know the CEO of miHoYo. He visits us for dinner when he comes to Japan. The name is because honkai the honk is the last aeon, who follows the path of the honk. He will be an important story related character who will become an aeon through out the story. Also a playable character and extremely broken.
@@eiarsan i think star rail part > honkai part. looks like the "honkai" in honkai 3 is just....a stellaron land on earth..which created by 1 aeon(Nanook?)... but in star rail part, there are so many aeons... So I feel like star rail worldview is bigger than honkai 3
@@李荣-n7s while that's true, i would like to change a "stellaron" to the literal aeon of finality themselves. i don't know specifically, but it would hint that the earth in hi3's universe is plagued by terminus The Finality (the cocoon of finality) repeating the world over and over again. in HSR, terminus the finality is here to "reset everything" at the end of the time. finality is the embodiment of the philosophy "The end signifies a new beginning", or "The finality signifies a new origin."
@@sabsain2399 no, literally the thing about cancer is that mutates a lot because of the inactivation if oncogenes. These mutations will give cancer different capabilities. Depending on how many of these capabilities cancer cells have activated, you get different stages of cancer. Actually normal cells are the ones that want to maintain themselves the same.
@@elygoner6995 sorry I'm not a medical student, but does that mean that infinite regeneration technically will be immune to cancer as your telomeres are never deteriorating?
@@indiomie nop, if that infinite regeneration can't reduce the rate of mutations, eventually your cells and bodily structures will be to degraded to keep on working (aging) or produce cancer cells, just that one of the five main degradation producers doesn't effect.
one thing with Lan being "Natural Death" is more that Lan is "Natural Death through Predation". A wolf hunting down a deer. Yaoshi seems to have some symbolism with deer (they have antlers, and there is the deer boss), which is interesting because in places that lost wolf populations and other predators, deer populations can become so large that they run out of things to eat and have mass die offs. Thus humans have to cull deer populations in order to keep that from happening. So Lan as a concept of Natural Death inherently represents a painful one. The prey will not die peacefully, they will suffer. But it is a death that is required; for without it, there will only be far more suffering. I.E: the civil wars that affected the Xianzhou.
That insert of Stephen Colbere to further explain the philosophy of how these two paths clash was perfect. Thanks for such a comprehensive video, you've allowed me to enjoy HSR so much more thanks to your explanations so genuinly, thank you
Star Rail has a lot of Lore and I really glad someone took the time to organize it, it will probably be updated in later versions as well. But its hard to keep track of everything like this.
Usually not fond of lore videos (i have a short attention span) but you managed to keep me hooked for the entire duration of the video whoaaa Everything was explained very well and i love the inclusion of outside game content to probe your points
just a small note but i think its also important to mention that mara-struck are also triggered by the accumulation of memories and negativity that may be associated with them so theres an emotional aspect to it as well
That god you made a video on Dan Shu. I was getting tired of seing people say that Dan Shu story is boring and irrelivent while in fact she is the imbodiment of the comflict and, as you said, will most likely become the boss fight soon enough
Literally Dan Shu was the best part of the freaking entire Xianzhou storyline. Freaking Fu Xuan and Jing Yuan's arc of the quest was just so freaking long and pointless and it doesn't help that Fu Xuan is so annoying and insufferable.
Lmao March 7 being your "talking persona" for star rail like how you use Yanfei for Genshin makes so much sense cause she tends to ask the most questions about everything omg I love it
And it's also important to note that Yaoshi's involvement was because the Xianzhou natives asked for it. Yaoshi doesn't give blessings to people that don't want them. Every blessing gifted was asked for. So rather than Yaoshi's fault, it's the fault of the Xianzhou and by extension the ruler that desired immortality. They never thought about the potential problems that came along with being immortal even if the Mara problem wasn't even thought of.
Yeah, I really like the story, and Dan Shu's motivations: that she can't see, both literally and figuratively, her humanity drives her in a inhuman pursuit. And it is because she called me friend in the story, that we stop her (I think? I guess we wait for 1.1 for that one).
Why would we stop her? If I had a choice, I would support her instead. She proved that it is possible to keep conscience after being mara struck, so the biggest hurdle for immortality is no more. I would rather side with aeon of abundance than aeon of hunt.
Honestly I can understand why she would turn on lan for killing her friend. I can understand to an extent their hatred of “abominations”, but I feel the alliance ignores the innocents caught in their path.
@@mishtrong It is quite the conundrum indeed. We know even the mighty starfleet blessed by an Aeon can't stop the marastruck from occurring, so whatever causes it has to be related to the "cancer" that results from cells working too long and replicating too much. While we don't know the exact cause, I can hazard a guess that it's a matter of willpower, those with strength to live on with a goal to achieve will live while those without become mindless monsters. That's just me personally though.
@@danilolopez3005the alliance as being a long life species sometimes overlook things which are precious to short life species or other long life species with different cultures Even in story the residents of the ship has this pitty type of look towards short life species and they see less value in life For them their mission is greater than the concerns or other species who got caught between their war of eradicating so called abominations of abundance
I also love the whole story/history/lore of Xianzhou! The concept of immortality and their way of life is fascinating. Thank you for such a video, Ashikai!
I like how we can see two different type of cocerns in the game On one side you see residents of jario-6 who are desperate to survive one more day and at the verge of deadth of their whole species And at the same time you see the lianhou residents or the alliance whose concern is that they want death and to eradicate other abominations by hunting down the worshippers of abundance People of the ice planet are concerned about what happens tommorow And people of alliance are concerned about what would happen in 100 years The way there is difference between the perception of time on each species fascinate me W game
So i find it so funny how they went on a hunt for immortality, got it for free and did not think about how immortality could come back and bite them. Then when it did decided to blame Yoashi for giving them what they asked for XD Like no one considered that just free immortality might not have some side effects?
18:12 That's a correlation fallacy, death being a foundation for empathy, but empathy comes from understanding and death is not needed to gain understanding, it is but one of the many ways that gives the need for understanding, but death is not necessary for it as there are many others. The causation for empathy is of the need to understand more of the world, death simply being one of the many parts of it, but it is not integral for it. This is an issue that humans can only think of with their limited understanding, much like how it's impossible to comprehend what it means for Existence to have a beginning or to have always existed, where Time always was a thing and has no beginning, people can't comprehend something beyond a beginning and an end.
"Death gives meaning to Life just as Life gives meaning to Death. They give each other purpose in the endless cycle. That is why we do what we do." not sure where thats from but i remember it and honestly live by it
Ohhhh it’s so interesting! I didn’t read her diaries! I guess I should! Thank you so much! I didn’t know lavn was human before. And I love the idea of those paths concepts and death chasing life. So much food for thought
Moon, tree, immortality, and archers blowing up stars. Yeah Lan and Yaoshi is definitely based off Houyi and Chang'e. Regarding how other denizens of abundance are fairing. Travelogue on Xianzhou: Long-life Species I stated that "The life-extension protocols of the Denizens of Abundance are intrinsically connected to their genetic make-up - cannibalism, interspecies blood transfusions, a hive mentality, rejuvenation via hibernation or molting... Despite easy access to longevity, most of the Denizens of Abundance lose their minds as they warp into twisted beasts". So either this blessing is mostly likely not curable or that most of them think going crazy is not a big deal.
I mean, "interspecies blood transfusions" is basically what Dan Shu's medicine is, so maybe it is a viable option to stave off the Mara. You know, if they can get enough marrow from Long's Scions...
Dan Shu lost her kin. Maybe not by blood but essentially the only person who she shared that type of connection with. Worse than dying naturally, Yufei was “ground to dust with not even a single bone left behind”. I gotta imagine when that type of thing happens, all logic and reason go out the window and it’s time for war.
Wow, your video editing is great, your narration is awesome, full of personality and humorous smirks, which turns what could be a really boring topic into a very captivating one... I loved, and I am not even a native english speaker... great job! Please, keep doing this for HSR, and if you don't mind, HI3rd XD
This lore guides are so insightful and well explained. I started playing HSR a while ago and breezed through the story, just focusing on the gameplay, but then i started to feel i was missing something. Thank you for recapping it so succinctly 🙌 Can you do something with Penacony and Jarilo VI?
Ashikai using a clip of my favorite interview with one of my favorite celebrities to explain this part of the lore is probably the thing that will convince me to play star rail xd
I find that there maybe some mistakes when it comes to the history of Xianzhou. 1. Lan is used to be a Yaoqing native, not Yuanqiao. Yaoqing ship is also where Susang comes from. These two word looks similar, but they are pronounce differently and they are different ships in game. Ashikai keeps pronouncing Yuanqiao in the video. 2. Yaoqing ship's distinct mark: moon, is not given by Yaoshi. Yaoqing grabbed it from Borison. Only Luofu got the blessing from Yaoshi directly. 3. The flint emperor were captured and then used to power the Zhuming ship, not Yuanqiao ship.
Woo-hoo, so excited to see lore videos for Star Rail from you! This is gonna be a very interesting journey, and I can't wait to take it with you! ❤ You really brought out the big guns with that Colbert clip. Purposely depriving oneself of the experiences needed in order to form healthy relationships and regulate your emotions and all that jazz is so dangerous. I was so surprised Dan Shu as a healer, and as someone watching over a child similar to herself doing that. Its as if she has seemingly forgotten empathy existed.. but at the same time that's the thing about loss. It can build you up, but it can also tear you down in ways you don't see and can't imagine. Overall, super stoked for the livestream tomorrow, and the update next week 🎉
Was anyone else reminded of Ho Tao and her dislike of Baizhu trying to become immortal? Like we have a doctor that has some disability Trying to go against the natural order, I have to wonder whether Baizhu getting out of NPC jail So close to starrail’s release was purposeful. The Vidyadhara reminding me of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata saying that Nahida is her in the next samsara. I have to wonder whether were going to learn about this in the small scale, so later on, we’re going to be able to understand the concept without needing any outside knowledge. We know the Stellaron hunters are trying to guide the world to the one path where The world doesn’t end, and that the MC is important to their goal, we need to be here to get allies, but I wonder whether we’re also here to learn about the concept of samsara. We were told that we shouldn’t regret our choices, and even though it’s probably going to be a scripted choice, whether it’s going to still be a difficult one. Maybe it will be a choice between saving the universe and ending the samsara, or the astral express. Thank you for taking the time to read my word vomit :) Edit: The Mara Struck are giving me abyss order vibes and I just connected those dots. They were once human that became immortal by some divine ‘gift’ and slowly lost their mind and then became monsters. I wonder whether star rail is going to start out darker then Genshin and also what that means for the end of the story
Dan Shu is unforgivable. Whatever her affinity for the Abundance, and how understandable that is, given her circumstances, she ultimately does a deal with a Lord Ravager and I feel she's wise enough to know what that must ultimately pertain.
I started playing 2 weeks ago to see what the hype was about and now I'm hooked. All caught up with the story and TL 40. I'm glad you're making lore videos on HSR because I feel like I might have missed out on some things because I rushed a bit.
Imagine believing you can correct the blessing given by a god. That’s the height of hubris right there. Only people I could see doing that is members of the genius society, since the first was actually able to create an aeon. And recall how special the members of the genius society are. Out of the entire universe, only 84 people have been members, over a time span long enough for the earlier members to become distant legends…
A couple of mistakes, There is no logical fallacy at best is an informal fallacy (false cause) yet Lan does wants the Anihilation of all life Second one, death or loss isn't the origin of empathy, is one of its causes yet no the foundations Third, she's mad cause she lost her daughter to death (Lan) therefore she worships Life (Yaoshi) cause she's mad at Lan. A contradiction would be that she kept worshipping what took her daughter from her, so it makes sense she stopped worshipping Lan, and there's no fallacy cause the first cause was a emotional reaction to Lan's ambition to bring death. Even that, it wouldn't be false cause because as u said, Santus Medicus wants to bring a cure to Yaoshi's side effects
dan shu is a perfect mirror of Yaoshi. they both ''help'' people but not out of the kindness of their heart, rather because of how that help can benefit their own goals. Yaoshi ''heals'' because it pushes the concept of abundant life throughout the universe, making her stronger, dan shu ''heals'' because it both furthers her goal of curing her own blindness but also builds a cult around her that she can use to hunt the...well hunt. It's very clear from both how she talks to and (doesn't) treat the blind girl as well as her mara struck and the fate that falls befalls them that she only uses the people around her for her own goals. like yaoshi she's decided that ''healing'' is simply the most effective way to those goals, regardless of the consequences.
Qlipoth and their lore was interesting but the relationship between Yaoshi and Lan made Aeons extremely interesting. It'll probably be a few months before we get a new planet, assuming they're releasing a new planet the same way a new nation in Genshin releases, but I'm already looking forward to seeing different kinds of philosophies in regards to paths. I feel like that the MC will definitely get the power of the Hunt during their journey through the Xianzhou, but what about when they get the power of Abundance? Will it be a planet that's just like the Alliance or will it be a place that has a counter argument against their ideas? To be fair to Yaoshi I would think anyone would ask, what about land and resources? If everyone is immortal, then doesn't that mean that there will only be more and more mouths to feed as time goes on? Not too mention places for people to live?
I am straight up giddy that you're going to follow, and cover, Star Rail as well. It's SO good!!!! The folks at Hoyoverse are SUCH good storytellers through gaming, and this is such a different flavor of story than Genshin. On the note of Genshin, how about that Yoimiya chapter? Disney hasn't managed to put out such a grab-you-by-the-heart-in-a-happy-way... maybe ever. This was Pixar levels of magic and I'm still reeling. It even got me to roll for Yoimiya while I'd been building up toward Yae Miko. ... and then got QiQi. My first one. I laughed so hard.😂
The core theme of Honkai Impact 3rd, one of MiHoyo's first games, is the importance of experiencing tragedy to grow and the fundamental inseparability of joy and sorrow. My favorite video game company, by far.
I finished the Dan Shu's questline and I can't understand why it is going this way. Turns out 70% of the plot is shoved into many books. Thank you for the explained video. This helps me a lot.
Ngl, this comment confuses me consider the Dan Shu storyline is pretty easy to follow even if you haven’t read the books (as is the case for me). The books just give greater context more than anything from what I’m understand in this video, so acting like “70% of the plot is shoved into many books” feels like a bold face lie.
On the drilling into star part it’s possible and it would definitely make sense why the Xianzhou would’ve needed their engines to do it, red dwarf stars are the smallest and coolest kind of star with the least density compared to other stars. They undergo nuclear fusion which requires massive amount of density and gravity. It would make sense that Xianzhou ship engines would’ve relied on a form of antigravity, thus through engine modification and ship positioning the Xianzhou could essentially make a giant drill through antigravity fields generated by the engines which would’ve stopped the nuclear fusion process. However after the red dwarf is not longer affected by the antigravity fields the red dwarf would rapidly collapse into itself due to the lack of nuclear fusion and would cause a supernova and leave behind a blackhole (they pretty much sped up the stars death).
I never expected to see a clip of Steven Colbert, a late night talk show comedian, in a RUclips video on Honkai Star Rail lore, an anime gacha game, let alone it being a profound analysis on loss and the human experience… what a time this has been
While I understand over all point, I think Lan way is wrong. Yes Yoshi immortality created a lot of suffering, but even then Lan death still gives them suffering (it is easy to understand if someone ever lost someone they care about). And while mara also create similar loss suffering, they are symptom and not the problem of this situation. Lan is only dealing with symptoms, while Sanctus Medicus want to solve underlaying problem. As we know that people can work perfectly well with blessing of Yaoshi, it shows that xianzhou either betrayed the trust of Yaoshi so his blessing turned into a curse or Mara struck is not the end of transformation and there might be a step after that where they would turn into real new long-lived species and not this half immortal versions. While media, books and people already put into our minds why immortality would be scary and there would be problem with resources, that is shallow thinking. Humanity/and other creatures don't actually have any physical (yes mind is physical too) reasons to have problem with living for eternity (as in if we could we would not be in pain) and while resources would be a problem for our civilization, that is the world where you can create stuff from memories, believes or using magical forces. Like there is literally element of imaginary that could solve such problems and as far as our world knows world is infinite and constantly expanding. So in honkai star rail world resources would not be a problem if they focused on manufacturing using memory, magic and imaginary element. Mara sickness would not be a problem if they either gained Yaoshi forgiveness our, managed to cure(which is also his domain) this illness, just like in our world we can cure cancer. and all that is left is to fix mentality of the people so that they would be able to live normally for eternity (so get therapy) Even now we see them not having a problem with living for long times so they don t have a problem with that aspect, they also become over proud from it, looking down on others as lesser races (it is not shown much but you can feel it from many characters) Tldr: Lon is for loosers that can not deal with actual problems. We don't know whole story why yaoshi made them turn into mara struck. Sanctus Medicus at least try to deal with illness and not a symptom .
This whole stuff with Yaoshi and the meaning of life that you talk about in the end of the video REALLY makes me remember a part of the FFXIV endwalker storyline (spoilers of FFXIV main quest below, please don't read if you want to experience it - and you definetively should) In the expansion we learn that a long time ago humankind lived almost as gods, with an endless lifespam, no diseases, etc etc. But when faced with the complex question of "what is the meaning of life?", they couldn't handle it, and an experiment gone haywire was treating the whole existence (I promise that it makes sense in the story). Hydaelyn / Venat, one of the major npcs of the expansion, shatered the existence in 14 different reflections / alter realities, precisely to fragment humankind power and remove their godlike status, so we could experience suffering and endure it, in order to understand life. Obviously it's way more complex than I'm stating here, but I think its quite poetic this connection, and it all comes back to the lyrics of one of FFXIV main musics, "Answers", which is revisited in the game, being used in the rework in 2013 and in the expansion in 2021: "Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die" It's great stuff, you guys should play FFXIV, it's worthy!
When has Hoyo games not been about philosophy XD ? People just treat the small talks as filler, but they are the manifestation of the thoughts characters have. Each phrase and in chinese/japanese each word have hidden meaning based in several different philosophical paths.
I'm watching this because I'm stuck at a certain lvl in game, and left this game for a year and 5 months. I don't plan on playing it, but I do plan on playing it when a confirmed total of 10/15 Eons are mentioned.
I understand why Dan Shu hates Lan more than Yaoshi. While Lan's entire existence is a byproduct of Yaoshi's existence, this doesn't make Yaoshi responsible for Lan's actions. And I think there is merit in what Sanctus Medicus is chasing... but that we need to see exactly how things are going among the people of Abundance. I feel like this arc will be really interesting, especially if that means we get to side with them, or help them, knowing full well that the whole point of the Xianzhou's arc was to make an alliance with them... whose entire purpose is to destroy anything accepting Yaoshi's blessing.
The propagation wasn't absorbed it was killed by multiple other aeons (stated by kafka). however Herta did mention that both abundance and propagation used to co-exist while being similar which is weird. We also know that propagation/Tayz came into being after permanence was "split in half"
I haven't finished the Dan Shu quest yet but I keep thinking that she's connected to Dan Heng, you know, because of their names. That may also be one of the reasons her backstory is so elaborate (I'm sorry if it's already confirmed, I'm not caught up yet)
If the body of those from Xianzhou age slowly, I think it would make sense given how some NPCs would tell the Trailblazer that they are actually older than MC due to the Abundance's "blessing". If that's really the case, then it's cute how Jing Yuan, with a body that looks like a young child, is actually older when Jingliu trained him in the trailer.
Simulated Universe is the best way for me to immerse myself in Aeon lore while having fun collecting and experimenting blessings and curios to my characters…sometimes i chose the troll answers in the dialogue options just to see what happens lol…
Great video as always, very helpful for sorting all this info out and making sure I understand it before 1.1. (BTW - "Draught" is pronounced "draft", just thought you should know. Blame the British.)
Me, who has decided not to play this game because of time restraints and only watch your lore videos: thankyou. A lot doesn't make sense, but a lot more does so I'm taking what I can from here ❤
Thank goodness for Ashikai for being there to fill the gaps and help clear up some confusion I have with the current story. Keep up the excellent work!
![[1.2] Dan Feng's Mistake: The History of the High Cloud Quintet - Honkai: Star Rail Lore](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zTXV7lu3y-4/mqdefault.jpg)
![[1.2] Dan Feng's Mistake: The History of the High Cloud Quintet - Honkai: Star Rail Lore](/img/tr.png)
![[2.3 HSR] Aeons Come in Pairs - A Honkai Star Rail Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/iMRtiNQHmQo/mqdefault.jpg)
![[2.7 HSR] Unraveling the Stellaron Mystery - A Honkai Star Rail Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t1pb0bxCQqk/mqdefault.jpg)
![[4.2] Archon + Patch Recap and Analysis - Genshin Impact Lore & Theories](/img/1.gif)
I love the symbolism of Lan, representing death, always chasing Yaoshi, who symbolizes life.
Lan isnt death but culling of the herd, Hunting literally. Overpopulation causes imbalance in nature and thus Hunters kill the overabundance of a specie.
No it represent revenge
@@mxz2296 no
not death but hunt, its in the archive hes already hunted the propagation
@@danidan2174 the propagation was most likely killed by an alliance of many aeons and races. It's concept is similar to abundance but taken to the absolute extreme.
Yoashi is pretty representative of a goddess of life, she's more concerned about one aspect of the cycle and rejects the aspect that is just as important. Hence why I don't see Lan ever succeeding in his quest, for there to be one there must be the other.
she???? he looks like a femboy to me lmao
@@mofutofu2620yeah isnt he caled the plage maker?
Thas what ots qorring my about the hunt what will happen when the hunt end qirh him what will happen to all of tje long lives
@@mofutofu2620 aeons are almost always refered to as they i dont think they care about what gender do you think they are
@@mofutofu2620 Yaoshi is referred as "they" on the simulated universe when they kiss Akivili (that is also referred as they). So it's neither she or he.
I love the design of Yaoshi. The color scheme gives them a gentle look and the hands remind me of Guanyin but somehow Yaoshi looks very menacing/dangerous (probably the red eyes)
I was so surprised when she was first showed. Like I thought they were going to be very gentle and pure looking but they're... very creepy and beautiful?? Absolutely love the design
She looks like Mila from fire emblem echoes
I mean, we have to consider that Lan is not simply Death as a concept. They are the Hunt. The Path they embody is one that targets specific things, and pursues them at all cost. In the archives, it mentions that anything that comes between Lan and Yaoshi is likely to be considered as acceptable collateral. No negotiation, no second chances. This is not the ideal of an indiscriminate and inevitable death, but rather a single-minded pursuit, an obsession. Not to mention, the other faction of Lan mentioned in the archives has nothing at all to do with death. They were heroes that fought villains and sought justice. It is true that in the current Xianzhou story arc specifically Lan symbolizes Death, but that is only because they, the Hunter, have designated Life as their Prey.
Also, from what I read, I never got the impression that Dan Shu turned against Lan because of life-death philosophy. In fact, Dan Shu herself says that both sides of the conflict have their merits, and that we chose Xianzhou just because we met them first. I believe she is acting purely in self-interest, just like us. Since both sides have ups and downs, and the Aeons are mindless chasing their ideals, she chose the one that fit her individually. Hope of healing her eyes, spite for the death of Yufei... just matters of personal circumstance.
Very well said
people forgot that there are actual mara stuck soldier in the game that we fight in the map and downplay the abudance problem
Well said.
Well from what I see, people who fallow Lan are not dealing with core problem but simply with a symptoms, Lan will not cure them from getting mara struck.
On the other hand Sanctus Medicus are at least trying to fix things.
We also don't know why they have imperfect immortality while other races don't have such problems, it might be that xianzhou betrayed Yaoshi or mara is simply temporary state and they would turn into true version of their race after some time, so mara would be like cocoon faze of a butterfly.
In this story arc themes. Lan and Yaoshi and aeons in general sort of act like the Kami in Japanese folklore. They represent specific aspects of nature and their path’s concept. But not the entire idea. More specifically Lan and Yaoshi represent specific parts and flavors of life and death.
At first it came out of nowhere in the Darilo-VI arc when Dan Heng made that reply to March when she asked about how long humans can live. He said it can reach hundreds but by then you can't call them human anymore. With the Xianzhou arc it's now clear where that idea came from.
I really like how the Mara Struck were portrayed or shown as being humans that no longer have control over their bodies or minds sometimes because that's technically what would happen even in real life. In a sense it's like immortality can only work for beings that can be immortal. You try forcing immortality on a mortal, it ends up upsetting the being's natural balance (which btw is a real thing called homeostasis for humans at least) and would mean that any characteristics formed as a result of said immortality would already mean they can no longer fit the idea of being human just because they can't die.
Can you elaborate on your perceived definition of homeostasis?
@@thwartificer In simple terms it's basically the idea or sense that the body wants to maintain balance (whether it's temperature, blood pressure, etc.) while also adapting to certain external environments if needed.
@@dustinabigan2776 That doesn't really apply to aging though, which after puberty complete is just a slow degradation of DNA through destruction of telomeres (little parts on the end of DNA that protects the important stuff from being cut off as it replicates imperfectly).
Star rail actually addresses this later on, through it's in-depth description of the love life/immortality. The longer lived races, once they hit a certain age, stop getting older and stay as essentially "perfect" forms, which includes blindness they were born with and any other DNA based ailments. While humans could get replacement eyes, those species would have their old, broken ones grow back over time, showing how what the Aeon does is constantly make those telomeres and repair any damage that would interfere with the "completed" form of that being's DNA. I gotta say, paying attention in biology never felt so good.
The VA for Dan Heng really portrayed the pain when saying that. It immediately caught me off guard and suddenly the rabbit hole begins.
Im immortal
I find this whole 'paths' concept very intriguing. Taking The Hunt and Abundance for example, where the hunt is against prolonging life and Abundance about sustaining it, but when we are talking actual game mechanics you usually want to pair a Hunt path character with an Abundance path character in order to make sure that you dish out damage but at the same time remain alive to do said the damage. Very conflicting but necessary for optimal synergy
And that's where I agree with what you said that HSR is showing good promise with clashing philosophies and creating stories from these different paths. And merging the all together into the MC. Very exciting! Thank you for another banger of a video! 😀
@@aj7515 Yeah I totally agree with you, it is just purely a need basis, but can you not then argue the same for the bigger picture? Yes there will be instances where you can wipe out an opponent with just one single damage character and then the needs for that instance will be met. But just like that, that same need bias will carry unto the story, where a pure Hunt path (or not) might be the best option. What my comment was supposed to convey was that we need all of these paths to function, just like we as humans combine different philosophies to get to our paths, so too will these characters have to do the same thing. And I can't wait to see more of these conflicting ideals clash and how Hoyoverse is going to let it play out. Exciting stuff!
Also, it's just that while Paths and Aeons are often cited as one and the same, they are also still different too. The Xianzhou are against Yaoshi and they're immortality plus gift giving, but not healing or long living in general
The same is true of Abundance and Destruction, especially with destruction characters' high hp pool, and especially especially Blade, it seems.
There's many aspects of abundance immortality it's just one of them just as in the hunt death it's just one aspect is incredibly well done because it allows for the different ways the paths manifest in the characters skills
Essentially, Lan's Hunt is preventing Yaoshi's Abundance from becoming a second Tayzzyronth-level horror.
the reminder about how aeons aren’t good or evil leads me to rethink the way i feel about this backstory. it’s less of a hero’s tale and more of an origin story, explaining how Lan and Yaoshi are intrinsically linked. i don’t think one can exist without the other. Lan as an aeon clearly exists *because* of Yaoshi. meanwhile, without Lan, Yaoshi would’ve continued to grow and multiply until they became this uncontrollable abomination of something else entirely.
Yeah when you really think about how Yaosha doesn't seem to be able to see the problem with the suffering and resource issues caused by their idea of a blessing, it seems like their ideal reality is one where mara struck people are all that are left, likely after an insane amount of death and suffering from the resource war caused by the unstoppable forces of the Abundance constantly growing and encroaching on the free world. Considering abundance means 'enough for everyone' and this eventual fate is the opposite of that, i can't help but think that its literally impossible for Yaosha to actually flourish as rheu wish to because in the process they'd destroy their own ability to exist by eventually creating an absence of almost everything instead of an abundance of it. A force like Lan was necessary to balance out the effect of Abundance to allow for Yaosha's constant growth to actually have room to grow into, you know? It really is a lot like the actual cycle of life and death
I love how the Aeons have disfigured/different designs & not the typical anime characters, honestly they look so cool Lan, Nanook & Yaoshi are my favourite designs.
i love the thought put into the writing for dan shu with her agony at never escaping her blindness and her loss after yufei(and their romance is so painful). It makes me so curious about the circumstances that led to yaoshi themselves becoming an aeon. The data bank mentions that she cant bear to witness death, so i'm sure her ascension arose from grief?
i see Yaoshi as a kind of genie during this part of history. they simply gave the alliance exactly what they wanted.
sure, their power is pretty terrifying, but as far as i understand, yaoshi isn't using it maliciously. if the alliance hadn't asked, yaoshi wouldn't have forced the "blessing" upon them
What is more we don't know if mara was actually result of the blessing or if they betrayed him or got cursed somehow (they could have been affect by stelaron for example, like how we see now them getting mara struck much more often).
Their problem with resources could have been solved with imaginary element to create stuff from nothing ( like mirror/memory world exists and you gain real things from it, there is even cyber world which in lore is able create stuff) and universe is constantly expanding if it works like ours.
Lan way is to simply deal with symptoms, killing mara achieves nothing in the end accept having more death and pain, like we literally see that mara could become "normal" and we even see that they can be cured..
IT is like in our world someone gets flue and people would kill him because he has sickness....
@@greedier-7661 TRUE TRUE TRUE. i feel like they were just trying to shift the blame of someone and yaoshi got the blunt of it. yes, immortality is terrifying, but they should have thought of that before begging for it. and like you said, there were many ways to handle the fallout. they really don't think things through do they 💀
I see it more as Yaoshi was truly _incapable_ of giving the alliance exactly what they wanted. It could only give them the closest thing which fit its path. I assume, due to it being the aeon of abundance, it is only capable of giving them uncontrolled, proliferating life running rampant. Immortality with the specific caveats needed to fit the wish of the Xianzhou would inherently go against the very concept of abundance, as it would require things such as infertility and incomplete, non-regenerative healing.
@@greedier-7661 mara can be cured? Where i can read this?
@@dandelienn Bailu during her first appearance was talking about giving them medicine (so they should be able get reverted)
and we can see how "something" medicus mara were sentient so you could think of them as cured.
So even if her medicine can cure becoming mara shortly after transformation it proves that they could do it even later.
Killing mara is not a solution to the problem, you don t cure cancer by killing people with it....
Amazing video, however the idea of Lan chasing Yaoshi representing death chasing life is interesting when Nanook is brought into the equation. Both Lan and Nanook represent elements of death. However perhaps is Lan represents natural death/the natural cycle whereas Nanook represents death brought about by war.
Not really:
Data Bank
"If the increase of entropy is a fundamental law of the universe, then the heat death would be the inescapable destiny of the material world. So, why is it that we bother to struggle to survive? Expansion, fusion, and then annihilation. If we wish to welcome the new, then we must first embrace the end."
- From a scientist just before pressing the button for nuclear detonation, 2152 AE
The birth of the universe is a mistake. If civilization is a cancer emerging quietly from the boundless stars, then war is the only common language known to all intelligent life. To correct this mistake and to clean up this tainted universe, Nanook became the avatar of entropy.
Also text from Fables about the stars dedicated to Nanook:
At the universe's core lies a flame
It burns ever so intensely
Till entire galaxies are incinerated
For the sole purpose of embracing a splendid destruction
At the end of all reality
Nanook`s destruction is more about embracing the inevitable death of everything including the universe itself.
lan isnt death, hes the hunt that means focusing one target until its completely dead hes already done it to the propagation and now his target is abudance
Can you say a wolf pack that hunts deer represents death?
lan isnt death as in yaoshi isnt life. they are literally called aeon of hunt and abundance. life and death was already a thing before them and balanced, but their path granted more with yaoshi giving too much life and therefore, no balance and causes insanity of inmortality, lan only hunts abundance of life. not life itself.
for nanook, i'd say he's antithesis would be qlipoth the preservation.
@@Sky-rw5vqcorrect, wolf hunted deers means death to deers, but abundance of deers means death to all. wolf is the instrument of death to eliminate excessive deers, as in lan the instrument of hunt to eliminate excessive life.
the problem has always been the abundance. its an evergrowing tumor with hunt kept it from growing more.
1:05 " *x* years in standard time" might be the way it is because of the IPC (followers of Qlipoth) having their own year system- the Amber Era, which pertains to each time period Qlipoth expands his celestial wall.
If I remember correctly, they talk about it in the lore as being whenever he swings his hammer, unfortunately, they are never the same length of time >_>
I love that detail. The mega-corp forces so much of the universe to operate by a time system that actually sucks, just because it's what the corp uses and the corp just uses it because it makes them and their figurehead seem more important. Like the Amber Era is such a terrible way of measuring time on every level.
@@android19willpwn true. what's funny is the IPC's efforts to "assist" Qlipoth have never ever been recognized, even by the Amber Lord. Their goal was to gather construction materials that Qlipoth may use for their wall expansion, but Qlipoth has never used any of said materials even after all these years. Even Herta said that the IPC was stupid for collecting wood, steel, etc to offer to Qlipoth when the Aeon makes their walls out of literal stars.
I looove how the philosophies in hsr actually feel so three dimensional and well rounded (which makes sense since every character has a defined philosophy). they're really well written so multiple people can read and interpret the texts and come to their own opinions or conclusions about the philosophies. I think genshin suffers a little from clunky writing when it comes to philosophy so not all the players would really engage with them, even if they are really interesting questions in their own right, so im glad that ideas like longevity and immortality are explored in this game as well
HYV pretty much had most of its improvements for its later games so whatever hiccups they had in HI3 and Genshin, were pretty much minimized upon entering Star Rail.
Using the word "Mara" to name the phenomenon Mara-Struck is pretty clever honestly, because you see the name "Mara" used universally in various mythologies. You would come across gods and demons alike, with a common theme of doom, death or similar. E.g.:
• Mara, the demon king in Buddhism: who is the antithesis of Enlightenment. Mara prevents liberation from samsara; this is probably the likely origin of the term Mara-Struck
• Mara, the Latvian mother goddess: who takes the bodies of the dead while her masculine counterpart Dievs (another interesting word with many cognates) takes the souls
• Mara/Marena/Marzanna/etc, the Slavic goddess of death and rebirth
I came here for star rail lore, and then I finished the video with a genetics degree and knowledge of magical space cancer.
You know the amazing thing here? That baizhu's story quest perfectly compliments the current story of the Luofu. Great video as always. Thank you so much for what you're doing. You're a blessing on this community:)
Thank God you are here to help me understand Honkai because I literally will not read through all the lore books and other stuff these games throw our way. It's literally just so much and I have ADHD and can't handle it 🤣
Crazy thing is, it's just the Star Rail part. We haven't even reached the "Honkai" part yet. Which is pretty wild to understand ngl.
@@eiarsan ashikai already explained the honkai part. Why "honkai" word with star rail. It's not that deep.
Hi,
I'm the son of the CEO of Nintendo and my Daddy happens to know the CEO of miHoYo. He visits us for dinner when he comes to Japan.
The name is because honkai the honk is the last aeon, who follows the path of the honk. He will be an important story related character who will become an aeon through out the story. Also a playable character and extremely broken.
@@eiarsan i think star rail part > honkai part. looks like the "honkai" in honkai 3 is just....a stellaron land on earth..which created by 1 aeon(Nanook?)... but in star rail part, there are so many aeons...
So I feel like star rail worldview is bigger than honkai 3
@@李荣-n7s while that's true, i would like to change a "stellaron" to the literal aeon of finality themselves. i don't know specifically, but it would hint that the earth in hi3's universe is plagued by terminus The Finality (the cocoon of finality) repeating the world over and over again. in HSR, terminus the finality is here to "reset everything" at the end of the time. finality is the embodiment of the philosophy "The end signifies a new beginning", or "The finality signifies a new origin."
"The cancer cells revert to a previous state because of the reactivation of the telomerase" bit killed me inside as a biomedics student.
Oooooo tell us, was that accurate??
@@sabsain2399 no, literally the thing about cancer is that mutates a lot because of the inactivation if oncogenes.
These mutations will give cancer different capabilities.
Depending on how many of these capabilities cancer cells have activated, you get different stages of cancer.
Actually normal cells are the ones that want to maintain themselves the same.
@@elygoner6995 sorry I'm not a medical student, but does that mean that infinite regeneration technically will be immune to cancer as your telomeres are never deteriorating?
@@indiomie nop, if that infinite regeneration can't reduce the rate of mutations, eventually your cells and bodily structures will be to degraded to keep on working (aging) or produce cancer cells, just that one of the five main degradation producers doesn't effect.
one thing with Lan being "Natural Death" is more that Lan is "Natural Death through Predation". A wolf hunting down a deer. Yaoshi seems to have some symbolism with deer (they have antlers, and there is the deer boss), which is interesting because in places that lost wolf populations and other predators, deer populations can become so large that they run out of things to eat and have mass die offs. Thus humans have to cull deer populations in order to keep that from happening.
So Lan as a concept of Natural Death inherently represents a painful one. The prey will not die peacefully, they will suffer. But it is a death that is required; for without it, there will only be far more suffering. I.E: the civil wars that affected the Xianzhou.
That insert of Stephen Colbere to further explain the philosophy of how these two paths clash was perfect. Thanks for such a comprehensive video, you've allowed me to enjoy HSR so much more thanks to your explanations so genuinly, thank you
Star Rail has a lot of Lore and I really glad someone took the time to organize it, it will probably be updated in later versions as well. But its hard to keep track of everything like this.
Your lore analysis videos have always been my favorite since I started playing Genshin, so happy to see you creating content for Honkai Star Rail too!
Usually not fond of lore videos (i have a short attention span) but you managed to keep me hooked for the entire duration of the video whoaaa
Everything was explained very well and i love the inclusion of outside game content to probe your points
just a small note but i think its also important to mention that mara-struck are also triggered by the accumulation of memories and negativity that may be associated with them so theres an emotional aspect to it as well
That god you made a video on Dan Shu. I was getting tired of seing people say that Dan Shu story is boring and irrelivent while in fact she is the imbodiment of the comflict and, as you said, will most likely become the boss fight soon enough
Literally Dan Shu was the best part of the freaking entire Xianzhou storyline. Freaking Fu Xuan and Jing Yuan's arc of the quest was just so freaking long and pointless and it doesn't help that Fu Xuan is so annoying and insufferable.
Lmao March 7 being your "talking persona" for star rail like how you use Yanfei for Genshin makes so much sense cause she tends to ask the most questions about everything omg I love it
And it's also important to note that Yaoshi's involvement was because the Xianzhou natives asked for it. Yaoshi doesn't give blessings to people that don't want them. Every blessing gifted was asked for. So rather than Yaoshi's fault, it's the fault of the Xianzhou and by extension the ruler that desired immortality. They never thought about the potential problems that came along with being immortal even if the Mara problem wasn't even thought of.
Agreed she’s not evil or malicious. She merely gives people what they ask for and that comes with a natural consequence. It’s not her fault.
Yeah, I really like the story, and Dan Shu's motivations: that she can't see, both literally and figuratively, her humanity drives her in a inhuman pursuit. And it is because she called me friend in the story, that we stop her (I think? I guess we wait for 1.1 for that one).
Why would we stop her? If I had a choice, I would support her instead. She proved that it is possible to keep conscience after being mara struck, so the biggest hurdle for immortality is no more. I would rather side with aeon of abundance than aeon of hunt.
Honestly I can understand why she would turn on lan for killing her friend. I can understand to an extent their hatred of “abominations”, but I feel the alliance ignores the innocents caught in their path.
@@mishtrong It is quite the conundrum indeed. We know even the mighty starfleet blessed by an Aeon can't stop the marastruck from occurring, so whatever causes it has to be related to the "cancer" that results from cells working too long and replicating too much.
While we don't know the exact cause, I can hazard a guess that it's a matter of willpower, those with strength to live on with a goal to achieve will live while those without become mindless monsters. That's just me personally though.
@@danilolopez3005the alliance as being a long life species sometimes overlook things which are precious to short life species or other long life species with different cultures
Even in story the residents of the ship has this pitty type of look towards short life species and they see less value in life
For them their mission is greater than the concerns or other species who got caught between their war of eradicating so called abominations of abundance
What would've happened if we let her go btw? I picked the option to stop her so i fought the mara struck with her
I like how this also comes back in Baizhu's and Hu Tao's stories.
I also love the whole story/history/lore of Xianzhou! The concept of immortality and their way of life is fascinating. Thank you for such a video, Ashikai!
I like how we can see two different type of cocerns in the game
On one side you see residents of jario-6 who are desperate to survive one more day and at the verge of deadth of their whole species
And at the same time you see the lianhou residents or the alliance whose concern is that they want death and to eradicate other abominations by hunting down the worshippers of abundance
People of the ice planet are concerned about what happens tommorow
And people of alliance are concerned about what would happen in 100 years
The way there is difference between the perception of time on each species fascinate me
W game
I love that whole philosophical ending bit. You're so right, grief and loss are the foundation of empathy, a core part of what makes us human
So i find it so funny how they went on a hunt for immortality, got it for free and did not think about how immortality could come back and bite them. Then when it did decided to blame Yoashi for giving them what they asked for XD Like no one considered that just free immortality might not have some side effects?
18:12 That's a correlation fallacy, death being a foundation for empathy, but empathy comes from understanding and death is not needed to gain understanding, it is but one of the many ways that gives the need for understanding, but death is not necessary for it as there are many others. The causation for empathy is of the need to understand more of the world, death simply being one of the many parts of it, but it is not integral for it. This is an issue that humans can only think of with their limited understanding, much like how it's impossible to comprehend what it means for Existence to have a beginning or to have always existed, where Time always was a thing and has no beginning, people can't comprehend something beyond a beginning and an end.
Thanks!
"Death gives meaning to Life just as Life gives meaning to Death. They give each other purpose in the endless cycle. That is why we do what we do."
not sure where thats from but i remember it and honestly live by it
Thx for this video, ashikai! Now I have a better understanding of the story of the last zone. Didn't get what was going on at all. :D
Ohhhh it’s so interesting! I didn’t read her diaries! I guess I should! Thank you so much! I didn’t know lavn was human before.
And I love the idea of those paths concepts and death chasing life. So much food for thought
What you said about the philosophy there might be in this game makes me stoked for stuff about Aha and IX
I love these videos! They really shine light on things that the mass majority of players will miss in the story
Moon, tree, immortality, and archers blowing up stars. Yeah Lan and Yaoshi is definitely based off Houyi and Chang'e.
Regarding how other denizens of abundance are fairing. Travelogue on Xianzhou: Long-life Species I stated that
"The life-extension protocols of the Denizens of Abundance are intrinsically connected to their genetic make-up - cannibalism, interspecies blood transfusions, a hive mentality, rejuvenation via hibernation or molting... Despite easy access to longevity, most of the Denizens of Abundance lose their minds as they warp into twisted beasts".
So either this blessing is mostly likely not curable or that most of them think going crazy is not a big deal.
I mean, "interspecies blood transfusions" is basically what Dan Shu's medicine is, so maybe it is a viable option to stave off the Mara. You know, if they can get enough marrow from Long's Scions...
Yaoshi is Yaochi is chinese, just not a goddess but a mythical beast. Also was Slain by Houyi.
Dan Shu lost her kin. Maybe not by blood but essentially the only person who she shared that type of connection with. Worse than dying naturally, Yufei was “ground to dust with not even a single bone left behind”. I gotta imagine when that type of thing happens, all logic and reason go out the window and it’s time for war.
Wow, your video editing is great, your narration is awesome, full of personality and humorous smirks, which turns what could be a really boring topic into a very captivating one... I loved, and I am not even a native english speaker... great job! Please, keep doing this for HSR, and if you don't mind, HI3rd XD
This lore guides are so insightful and well explained. I started playing HSR a while ago and breezed through the story, just focusing on the gameplay, but then i started to feel i was missing something. Thank you for recapping it so succinctly 🙌 Can you do something with Penacony and Jarilo VI?
Ashikai using a clip of my favorite interview with one of my favorite celebrities to explain this part of the lore is probably the thing that will convince me to play star rail xd
honestly the whole xianzhou luofu demonising yaoshi seems ridiculous to me, when the fault lies solely in xianzhou luofu's ancestral generation
Exactly. She gave them exactly what they asked for.
This video had no business going this hard. 😂 I damn near shed a tear. Bravo, honestly.
I love how Yaoshi's leaf is based from Autumn Gingko Biloba which signifies longevity and health hence immortality.
The ending of the video was really good. I will definitely be looking towards more such discussions in future videos :D
I find that there maybe some mistakes when it comes to the history of Xianzhou.
1. Lan is used to be a Yaoqing native, not Yuanqiao. Yaoqing ship is also where Susang comes from. These two word looks similar, but they are pronounce differently and they are different ships in game. Ashikai keeps pronouncing Yuanqiao in the video.
2. Yaoqing ship's distinct mark: moon, is not given by Yaoshi. Yaoqing grabbed it from Borison. Only Luofu got the blessing from Yaoshi directly.
3. The flint emperor were captured and then used to power the Zhuming ship, not Yuanqiao ship.
Thank you for the HSR vid, going more into the mara struck and the aeons was really intersting!
Woo-hoo, so excited to see lore videos for Star Rail from you! This is gonna be a very interesting journey, and I can't wait to take it with you! ❤
You really brought out the big guns with that Colbert clip. Purposely depriving oneself of the experiences needed in order to form healthy relationships and regulate your emotions and all that jazz is so dangerous. I was so surprised Dan Shu as a healer, and as someone watching over a child similar to herself doing that. Its as if she has seemingly forgotten empathy existed.. but at the same time that's the thing about loss. It can build you up, but it can also tear you down in ways you don't see and can't imagine.
Overall, super stoked for the livestream tomorrow, and the update next week 🎉
Was anyone else reminded of Ho Tao and her dislike of Baizhu trying to become immortal? Like we have a doctor that has some disability Trying to go against the natural order, I have to wonder whether Baizhu getting out of NPC jail So close to starrail’s release was purposeful.
The Vidyadhara reminding me of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata saying that Nahida is her in the next samsara. I have to wonder whether were going to learn about this in the small scale, so later on, we’re going to be able to understand the concept without needing any outside knowledge.
We know the Stellaron hunters are trying to guide the world to the one path where The world doesn’t end, and that the MC is important to their goal, we need to be here to get allies, but I wonder whether we’re also here to learn about the concept of samsara. We were told that we shouldn’t regret our choices, and even though it’s probably going to be a scripted choice, whether it’s going to still be a difficult one. Maybe it will be a choice between saving the universe and ending the samsara, or the astral express.
Thank you for taking the time to read my word vomit :)
Edit: The Mara Struck are giving me abyss order vibes and I just connected those dots. They were once human that became immortal by some divine ‘gift’ and slowly lost their mind and then became monsters. I wonder whether star rail is going to start out darker then Genshin and also what that means for the end of the story
Commenting for the algorithm. Thanks for such a good, concise summary of the lore, it's useful stuff!
Can't wait for all the other lore videos, hopefully more dichotomies of different paths.
P.s. Nice fade away at the end of the video
Dan Shu is unforgivable. Whatever her affinity for the Abundance, and how understandable that is, given her circumstances, she ultimately does a deal with a Lord Ravager and I feel she's wise enough to know what that must ultimately pertain.
17:08 "She just sees it" lmao (love the video btw)
At some point I always just skip the dialogue but then something interesting happens and I'm clueless. I'm so glad this channel exists.
I started playing 2 weeks ago to see what the hype was about and now I'm hooked. All caught up with the story and TL 40. I'm glad you're making lore videos on HSR because I feel like I might have missed out on some things because I rushed a bit.
These videos come in clutch. thank you Ashikai
Imagine believing you can correct the blessing given by a god. That’s the height of hubris right there. Only people I could see doing that is members of the genius society, since the first was actually able to create an aeon.
And recall how special the members of the genius society are. Out of the entire universe, only 84 people have been members, over a time span long enough for the earlier members to become distant legends…
warhammer fan spotted
I've been looking forward to your Star Rail videos
Thank you for making this ❤️ Looking forward to more videos from you
Indeed, an excellent video as always, Ashikai, and a very interesting lore also in this game! Thanks!
WAITING FOR NEXT YOUR NEXT UPDATE AHHH, without you I wouldn't be able to understand the game even more 😭😭
A couple of mistakes,
There is no logical fallacy at best is an informal fallacy (false cause) yet Lan does wants the Anihilation of all life
Second one, death or loss isn't the origin of empathy, is one of its causes yet no the foundations
Third, she's mad cause she lost her daughter to death (Lan) therefore she worships Life (Yaoshi) cause she's mad at Lan. A contradiction would be that she kept worshipping what took her daughter from her, so it makes sense she stopped worshipping Lan, and there's no fallacy cause the first cause was a emotional reaction to Lan's ambition to bring death. Even that, it wouldn't be false cause because as u said, Santus Medicus wants to bring a cure to Yaoshi's side effects
dan shu is a perfect mirror of Yaoshi.
they both ''help'' people but not out of the kindness of their heart, rather because of how that help can benefit their own goals. Yaoshi ''heals'' because it pushes the concept of abundant life throughout the universe, making her stronger, dan shu ''heals'' because it both furthers her goal of curing her own blindness but also builds a cult around her that she can use to hunt the...well hunt.
It's very clear from both how she talks to and (doesn't) treat the blind girl as well as her mara struck and the fate that falls befalls them that she only uses the people around her for her own goals.
like yaoshi she's decided that ''healing'' is simply the most effective way to those goals, regardless of the consequences.
bless this channel for reading all those lore books that i'm too lazy to read myself.
3:30 Ashikai is March 7th on this universe
Qlipoth and their lore was interesting but the relationship between Yaoshi and Lan made Aeons extremely interesting. It'll probably be a few months before we get a new planet, assuming they're releasing a new planet the same way a new nation in Genshin releases, but I'm already looking forward to seeing different kinds of philosophies in regards to paths. I feel like that the MC will definitely get the power of the Hunt during their journey through the Xianzhou, but what about when they get the power of Abundance?
Will it be a planet that's just like the Alliance or will it be a place that has a counter argument against their ideas?
To be fair to Yaoshi I would think anyone would ask, what about land and resources? If everyone is immortal, then doesn't that mean that there will only be more and more mouths to feed as time goes on? Not too mention places for people to live?
I am straight up giddy that you're going to follow, and cover, Star Rail as well.
It's SO good!!!! The folks at Hoyoverse are SUCH good storytellers through gaming, and this is such a different flavor of story than Genshin.
On the note of Genshin, how about that Yoimiya chapter? Disney hasn't managed to put out such a grab-you-by-the-heart-in-a-happy-way... maybe ever. This was Pixar levels of magic and I'm still reeling. It even got me to roll for Yoimiya while I'd been building up toward Yae Miko.
... and then got QiQi. My first one. I laughed so hard.😂
The core theme of Honkai Impact 3rd, one of MiHoyo's first games, is the importance of experiencing tragedy to grow and the fundamental inseparability of joy and sorrow. My favorite video game company, by far.
Yoooooo love ur story vids
I finished the Dan Shu's questline and I can't understand why it is going this way.
Turns out 70% of the plot is shoved into many books.
Thank you for the explained video. This helps me a lot.
Ngl, this comment confuses me consider the Dan Shu storyline is pretty easy to follow even if you haven’t read the books (as is the case for me). The books just give greater context more than anything from what I’m understand in this video, so acting like “70% of the plot is shoved into many books” feels like a bold face lie.
Thank you so much have been waiting for your video! I got lost with the lore and gave up on reading things 😂
Oppenheimer is going to be revived after seeing how a red dwarf broke all laws of physics and created a black hole just because
i love how the entire xianzhou alliance is just a massive reference to qin shi huang lol
I love the biology session,this is what all multimedia content like movies and videogames should be ,acculturing and entertaining
On the drilling into star part it’s possible and it would definitely make sense why the Xianzhou would’ve needed their engines to do it, red dwarf stars are the smallest and coolest kind of star with the least density compared to other stars.
They undergo nuclear fusion which requires massive amount of density and gravity.
It would make sense that Xianzhou ship engines would’ve relied on a form of antigravity, thus through engine modification and ship positioning the Xianzhou could essentially make a giant drill through antigravity fields generated by the engines which would’ve stopped the nuclear fusion process.
However after the red dwarf is not longer affected by the antigravity fields the red dwarf would rapidly collapse into itself due to the lack of nuclear fusion and would cause a supernova and leave behind a blackhole (they pretty much sped up the stars death).
I never expected to see a clip of Steven Colbert, a late night talk show comedian, in a RUclips video on Honkai Star Rail lore, an anime gacha game, let alone it being a profound analysis on loss and the human experience… what a time this has been
While I understand over all point, I think Lan way is wrong.
Yes Yoshi immortality created a lot of suffering, but even then Lan death still gives them suffering (it is easy to understand if someone ever lost someone they care about).
And while mara also create similar loss suffering, they are symptom and not the problem of this situation.
Lan is only dealing with symptoms, while Sanctus Medicus want to solve underlaying problem.
As we know that people can work perfectly well with blessing of Yaoshi, it shows that xianzhou either betrayed the trust of Yaoshi so his blessing turned into a curse or Mara struck is not the end of transformation and there might be a step after that where they would turn into real new long-lived species and not this half immortal versions.
While media, books and people already put into our minds why immortality would be scary and there would be problem with resources, that is shallow thinking.
Humanity/and other creatures don't actually have any physical (yes mind is physical too) reasons to have problem with living for eternity (as in if we could we would not be in pain) and while resources would be a problem for our civilization, that is the world where you can create stuff from memories, believes or using magical forces.
Like there is literally element of imaginary that could solve such problems and as far as our world knows world is infinite and constantly expanding.
So in honkai star rail world resources would not be a problem if they focused on manufacturing using memory, magic and imaginary element.
Mara sickness would not be a problem if they either gained Yaoshi forgiveness our, managed to cure(which is also his domain) this illness, just like in our world we can cure cancer.
and all that is left is to fix mentality of the people so that they would be able to live normally for eternity (so get therapy)
Even now we see them not having a problem with living for long times so they don t have a problem with that aspect, they also become over proud from it, looking down on others as lesser races (it is not shown much but you can feel it from many characters)
Tldr: Lon is for loosers that can not deal with actual problems.
We don't know whole story why yaoshi made them turn into mara struck.
Sanctus Medicus at least try to deal with illness and not a symptom .
This whole stuff with Yaoshi and the meaning of life that you talk about in the end of the video REALLY makes me remember a part of the FFXIV endwalker storyline (spoilers of FFXIV main quest below, please don't read if you want to experience it - and you definetively should)
In the expansion we learn that a long time ago humankind lived almost as gods, with an endless lifespam, no diseases, etc etc. But when faced with the complex question of "what is the meaning of life?", they couldn't handle it, and an experiment gone haywire was treating the whole existence (I promise that it makes sense in the story).
Hydaelyn / Venat, one of the major npcs of the expansion, shatered the existence in 14 different reflections / alter realities, precisely to fragment humankind power and remove their godlike status, so we could experience suffering and endure it, in order to understand life.
Obviously it's way more complex than I'm stating here, but I think its quite poetic this connection, and it all comes back to the lyrics of one of FFXIV main musics, "Answers", which is revisited in the game, being used in the rework in 2013 and in the expansion in 2021:
"Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die"
It's great stuff, you guys should play FFXIV, it's worthy!
When has Hoyo games not been about philosophy XD ? People just treat the small talks as filler, but they are the manifestation of the thoughts characters have. Each phrase and in chinese/japanese each word have hidden meaning based in several different philosophical paths.
I'm watching this because I'm stuck at a certain lvl in game, and left this game for a year and 5 months. I don't plan on playing it, but I do plan on playing it when a confirmed total of 10/15 Eons are mentioned.
I understand why Dan Shu hates Lan more than Yaoshi. While Lan's entire existence is a byproduct of Yaoshi's existence, this doesn't make Yaoshi responsible for Lan's actions. And I think there is merit in what Sanctus Medicus is chasing... but that we need to see exactly how things are going among the people of Abundance. I feel like this arc will be really interesting, especially if that means we get to side with them, or help them, knowing full well that the whole point of the Xianzhou's arc was to make an alliance with them... whose entire purpose is to destroy anything accepting Yaoshi's blessing.
Yaoshi prolly absorbed The Propagation and The Permanence. They're too similar to "The Abundance."
The propagation wasn't absorbed it was killed by multiple other aeons (stated by kafka). however Herta did mention that both abundance and propagation used to co-exist while being similar which is weird. We also know that propagation/Tayz came into being after permanence was "split in half"
I think the reason that yaoshi is the abundance is because unlike the propagation they have another aeon balancing them out
@@Ackane Yaoshi probably doesn't want to absorb propagation because it was Nanook before Nanook was a thing AKA enemy of the entire universe.
I haven't finished the Dan Shu quest yet but I keep thinking that she's connected to Dan Heng, you know, because of their names. That may also be one of the reasons her backstory is so elaborate (I'm sorry if it's already confirmed, I'm not caught up yet)
If the body of those from Xianzhou age slowly, I think it would make sense given how some NPCs would tell the Trailblazer that they are actually older than MC due to the Abundance's "blessing". If that's really the case, then it's cute how Jing Yuan, with a body that looks like a young child, is actually older when Jingliu trained him in the trailer.
Simulated Universe is the best way for me to immerse myself in Aeon lore while having fun collecting and experimenting blessings and curios to my characters…sometimes i chose the troll answers in the dialogue options just to see what happens lol…
Great video as always, very helpful for sorting all this info out and making sure I understand it before 1.1.
(BTW - "Draught" is pronounced "draft", just thought you should know. Blame the British.)
A banger video as always
Me, who has decided not to play this game because of time restraints and only watch your lore videos: thankyou.
A lot doesn't make sense, but a lot more does so I'm taking what I can from here ❤
Tectone told me you're the premiere person to come to for the lore condensed better for everyone to understand.
Oohh I just want to point out that i love how you compared the mara-struck to real world cancer cells!!! 👏👏 Like yeah good point
Awesome work! May I suggest a Sampo lore video? There’s a lot more to that man than comic relief & an odd dream.
I love your lore videos! Please make more to Honkai Star Rail if you have the time.
I have to say I enjoy the video is very good. I look forward to seeing more of your work I’m a fan of the Lors
Thank goodness for Ashikai for being there to fill the gaps and help clear up some confusion I have with the current story. Keep up the excellent work!
Some interesting parallels between the Mara struck and Genshin's Curse of Immortality / Curse of the Wilderness.