Accept the Prequel. Draft the Sequel. (Honkai Impact 3rd)

What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No one can defeat it.

I often think about Tyrion's speech in the final episode of Game of Thrones. It may be nothing more than the self-aggrandising ramblings of two woefully unequipped writers, but it nevertheless spoke to the impact that narrative can have. That impact is embodied through the appropriately titled Honkai Impact 3rd, exploring the impact of narratives (in whatever form they take) in the face of grief, limitations, and loss of identity.

Part 1: Idea and Narrative

Everything we experience in reality is a narrative; there is a story being told, an idea being conveyed. Reality itself is an imperfect physical manifestation of intangible concepts and ideas. Whenever we take in these narratives, our interpretations give it new meaning and carry it onward. Weaving narratives are the only way we can immortalise ourselves: even if our names are forgotten, the impact of our ideas will continue long after we succumb to mortality. Such is the truth that the founder of The Thirteen Flame-Chasers Elysia (as well as her sim) embraced and dedicated the end of her life to.

As our successors, you can follow our trails and the imprints of our souls to find your own answers.

Elysia's sacrifice in returning to the Honkai (much like the ascension of Jesus Christ of whom she is an allusion to) allowed for many of the Current Era's Herrschers to gain humanity. This emotion was the key difference that gave the Current Era an advantage over the Previous Era: the Herrschers could be influenced by narrative (with obvious examples being Senti and the Herrscher of Thunder). Elysia gave mankind the chance to defy their fate by creating stories. This meant that the Herrschers ceased to be the embodiments of authorities, to become narratives derived from the original perfect forms of those authorities.

This is in-line with how Otto describes the dynamic between Herrschers and humanity in chapter 27: "for [Honkai], Herrschers represent the ultimate freedom whereas our civilisation is the cage that imprisons it." In that lower plane of existence, the narrative spawned from the Honkai was out of their control explaining why the Honkai seemingly grow in tandem with human civilisation. It is also seen in the primordial conflict between the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta. From chaos of the sea came order of the tree, and the tree seeks to maintain control over its ideas.

The ultimate villain of the game (the reason why Honkai oppose humanity) is the higher force known as "Finality" which seeks to "embrace" civilisations by evolving them to the same metaphysical plane of existence as itself to become intangible concepts. Should its Herrschers fail to embrace civilisation, a 50 000 year cycle shall begin again. This motif of a derivate "lesser" reality is an allusion to Plato's Theory of Forms: the idea that our world and everything in it are mere shadows of essential ideas. There exists a variety of dogs reality, but all share the essential basic idea of a "dog." Finality views this existence as imperfect, and Project STIGMA is an attempt to compromise: uniting humanity into a single being (Adam Ruhani) where they shall exist in dreams while all of their thoughts become realised as new beings known as "Ideas" that are incapable of being targeted by Finality as they are, in part, of Finality themselves.

Part 2: I Am that I Am

Finality's desire to attain complete control one's reality is reflected in and overcome by the game's protagonist Kiana Kaslana. Early in the game, the upbeat starry-eyed girl has her repressed memories forcefully unlocked, remembering all of the traumatic events in her life including the fact that she was not the daughter of Siegfried and Cecilia, but instead a clone of the real Kiana Kaslana designated K-423. Her inability to accept reality and the loss of identity and grief that came with it led to the death of her mentor Himeko Murata, ending with Kiana nearly taking her own life. And yet, she learns to accept herself, recognising that the person she had become was moulded by her experiences and the people around her. Bronya even says to her that "everyone is a mirror that reflects how the world treats them." Everyone is a narrative of the ideas of others.

Kiana came to terms with the fact that she was only a fragment of the Second Herrscher Sirin, embodying the girl's desire for connection and a mother while the Herrscher of the Void persona embodies Sirin's desire to destroy. Even her initial desire to save people stemmed from a deeper need to connect with the man whom she called her father, Siegfried Kaslana. She wished to live up to the Kaslana title and find a sense of identity in that name, hoping that he would smile at her once more.

In accepting that she had no control in where she came from, she was strong enough to regain control over her body and subdue the Herrscher of the Void into dormancy. Her evolution into the Herrscher of Flamescion had her become the valkyrie she had always aspired to be: one that could protect not only the people she cared about, but embody humanity's legacy, the ever bright flame.

That flame was the will of the Previous Era, Elysia and her Flamechasers, and everyone that came before her. Her story was not begun by her and yet, unlike Finality, Kiana did not seek to trap herself in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, to attain complete control over her narrative. While no one can be responsible for their trauma, they are capable of taking responsibility for their healing. Kiana recognises that "good and evil co-exists in everyone's hearts," that the world is flawed, and chooses to love it all regardless. She accepts being a flawed mosaic of narrative and evolves further beyond Flamescion to becoming the Herrscher of Finality itself, stating:

Because this world raised me.

This power was given to her through the authorities of her fellow Herrschers: the people who helped define her. She found the free will to "defy fate" within determinism by making peace with her life and not lashing out against the world, instead loving it for what beauty existed within. This reflects the game's tagline: Fight for all that is beautiful in the world!

Bronya too comes to the same conclusion. As a young girl in growing up in a post-apocalyptic Sibera, she was forced to experience the absolute worst of humanity. But that only gave her the resolve to protect the best of it. Her power as the Herrscher of Reason came from her faith in humanity to still do good, and it was that faith that allowed her to transcend into the Herrscher of Truth as she had literally accepted the cruel truths of the world head on.

Part 3: Endless Kindling

"Fire" is a recurring motif being analogous with human civilisation and legacy. The AI Prometheus hacking the Cocoon of Finality is what allowed for the Current Era to defeat their Herrschers so easily much like how the mythical titan Prometheus gave humanity fire so that they may grow and develop. That fire was hope, the very hope that Elysia wished for the Flamechasers to inspire in people.

Project EMBER was a plan to teach Current Era humans Previous Era knowledge to overcome Finality, a plan that was seemingly all for naught until Raiden Mei entered the Elysian Realm and met sims of Elysia and the Flamechasers, leading to her becoming the new Herrscher of Origin. Only in accepting her inability to control what the future humanity would do long after her could Elysia actually create a strong ground for that future humanity to build upon. Her younger self travelled the world only to learn that it was round and had no end, resolving to create a paradise herself. This resolution mirrors Kiana's who, before facing Kevin and ascending to godhood proclaims:

That's why I came. To become a lightning blot that strikes the tree. And as for what humanity can create from the kindling... we're yet to find out.

While Finality (as its name implies) wishes to have the final say, Kiana takes control of that power and instead breaks Finality's samsara by absorbing the Honkai energy, literally taking in all of the negative parts of the world that raised her. Only through that acceptance can she allow humanity to move on from its stagnant grief like she did.

Much is said about humanity having to go beyond its childhood, but the initial understanding of what it meant for civilisation to grow up was incorrect. Kevin Kaslana chose to be the antagonist, to finally score a basket even after all of his friends were no longer around to watch, because he still wanted to have faith in humanity to find a better path when his generation could not. Project STIGMA was carried out by him as if it were part of Project EMBER. Unlike Kevin, Kiana grew up and moved passed that childhood, with the song for the final "Graduation Trip" cutscene saying:

One has to eventually grow up. Spending a lifetime to taste the love and pain.

Before attaining the Authority of Origin, Mei proclaims that "there won't be a second you but it's alright because every will be you," recognising the interconnectedness of the world and how civilisation consists not simply of ideas and concepts, but of overlapping narratives constantly evolving. Friction stemming from arrogance and pride lead to novelty. Even Project STIGMA underwent numerous revisions as it improved from its original idea. She calls humans "the real gods of the world," moving past the stigmata (a term originally referring to the wounds corresponding to Jesus's wounds) that connected her and the valkyries to divinity (the Imaginary Tree) to carve out her own future. Rather than hiding from reality and escaping into ideal dream worlds, one must instead become Icarus: the first bird whose lofty heart inspired all birds after to fly even higher than him. The world is never ending, and whatever tragedy you may face is never the end, but simply the beginning of hope.

Evolution is not beautiful. On the contrary, it's ugly, but only through the ugliness can we reach life's true beauty.

Part 4: The Meta of HoYoverse

I began by talking about two writers using their work to comment on what it means to be a writer, and that is ultimately what Kiana's struggle against Finality and Project STIGMA represents for HoYoverse. The writers were much like Finality, wishing to control their ideas entirely. This was made impossible for two reasons, the first of which being the restrictions placed on them by the country they are based in. Love is an ever-present theme in Honkai Impact 3rd, and a significant amount of the characters (including the core trio) are queer. Yet, these vital parts of the story had to be censored, taking away any chance of a goodbye kiss between Kiana and Mei when their relationship was extremely romantic. But in accepting their reality and working within those limitations, the writers managed to create a powerful narrative with queer relationships at the forefront that managed to leave an impact.

However, they had no control over what would come from that impact, much like how the actions of the players distorted Finality's ideas into a narrative that it could not control. To achieve freedom, HoYoverse had to accept their determined path. I believe they ultimately did accept it given the significance of the Captainverse: a once non-canonical series of events where the players themselves interacted with the narrative. Kiana would have been unable to overcome Kevin and Finality if not for all of the players who participated in the events of the Captainverse and left messages of encouragement to others. They were proof that, despite there being a longer way ahead, HoYoverse's flame would be everlasting, that Honkai did indeed have its Impact.

May you, the beauty of this world, always shine.