Name: [1.0] A Beginner's Guide to the Lore of Honkai: Star Rail
Uploaded: 2025-02-09T03:53:19.000Z
Duration: 15 min 50 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Okay, if you've clicked this video, you're probably thinking about playing Honkai Star Rail, and if you've seen any of the promotional material, you probably realize that it's a pretty story-heavy game.

And story-heavy games tend to have a lot of new stuff to remember, especially sci-fi games, like this one.

And that steep learning curve often makes for a confusing first few hours while you wrap your head around what's going on and what it all means.

This time, dear viewer, you have me, Ashikai, lore and theory enthusiast, to assist you in understanding this brand new world of Honkai Star Rail.

So this video is a gentle, mostly spoiler-free introduction to the world and lore of Honkai Star Rail.

The general idea here is to help ease you into some new terminology and give some more context for how the world within the game works, so you're not totally blindsided and confused or overwhelmed when you pick up the game for the first time.

Now, I did say mostly spoiler-free, because there will be some minor spoilers for the first hour-ish of the game just because the context is needed.

But before we begin, I know a good chunk of you are probably wondering, do I need to play Honkai Impact 3rd to understand the story of Honkai Star Rail?

Because, you know, they both have Honkai in the title.

While playing Honkai Impact may increase your enjoyment of Honkai Star Rail, the two games take place in entirely different universes, so even if characters in Star Rail share looks and names with characters from Honkai Impact, they're not the same people, so you don't need to worry about not knowing their backstories or anything.

There is one exception to this rule, though, but we'll talk about him later.

But if you are still worried that you might be missing out on some important lore or world-building by not playing Honkai Impact, I will start this video by explaining the most relevant part of Hoyo's multiverse setup that carries over from the world-building of Honkai Impact.

It's short, simple, and it'll probably get explained independently in Star Rail at some point anyway, but here you go.

Now, within Hoyo's multiverse setup, which I will now just call the Hoyoverse, there are two primal forces, the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta.

So it might be easier to think of them as the Tree of Order and the Sea of Chaos.

It's a gross oversimplification, but I think it's easier for the unfamiliar people to conceptualize it this way, since the forces of order and chaos are generally at odds with each other, and the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta are trying to devour each other, so same kind of concept.

Now, metaphorically speaking, the Sea of Quanta is basically this pool of infinite possibilities, from which grows this Imaginary Tree, which takes those possibilities and orders them, branching out into countless directions.

The leaves that sprout at the end of these branches each contain an entire universe in and of themselves, and because these universes are part of this Imaginary Tree, they all operate based on the laws of the, quote, Imaginary.

So this Imaginary Energy from the Imaginary Tree makes up the basis that is called Honkai, in Honkai Impact, but Starwheel just calls it Imaginary Energy.

Imaginary Energy is pretty important in Starwheel, as eons and paths, which we will go over in a bit, are very powerful entities made up of Imaginary Energy.

Regardless of how it manifests, though, Imaginary Energy is likely the reason why Honkai Impact and Honkai Starwheel share the Honkai in their names.

That's where the connections between the games end, and where our introduction to the unique world of Starwheel begins.

But if you're still worried you're missing out on something, I will leave a link to Island XD's guide to Honkai Impact for Starwheel players.

Now, let's set all that Impact talk aside and get familiar with the world of Starwheel.

Starwheel's concept of paths, and those who walk a path, are known as Path Striders.

Paths are basically philosophical ideas given some kind of metaphysical form through the accumulation of Imaginary Energy, which makes them incredibly powerful forces.

By believing in and practicing the concepts of a chosen path, a person can draw on the powers of that path and become a Path Strider.

Now, like I said, a path is a philosophical idea or a concept.

Those who follow a path believe in its philosophy.

For example, Path Striders of the path Destruction may believe that the universe is a mistake and therefore must be destroyed.

However, mortals are not bound to any one singular path any more than they are bound to any one way of thinking.

If their philosophy changes, their path can change as well.

For gameplay purposes, paths manifest as a type of class, if you will.

Those who follow the path of Abundance, for example, might be considered to have the class of a Healer or a Cleric, while someone following the path of Destruction has abilities more like a Fighter or a Berserker.

Now, if one finds themselves completely committed to a path and manages to explore the deepest parts of it to truly comprehend it in its entirety, they may transcend their mortal form and become something known as an Aeon.

Now, you'll notice I did not specify that the One Ascending had to be human, and that's because they don't.

Any sentient life form, whether organic or inorganic, has the capability of becoming an Aeon, so that includes things like Artificial Intelligence.

As for what an Aeon actually is, they are something like the embodiment or master of a path.

While they're not traditional gods, they are beings of god-like proportions.

To put it into context, they're kind of like an ocean, while a Path Strider is a mere droplet of water.

And while they are ageless, they are not actually immortal, as they can be killed by either another Aeon or by ceasing to walk their path.

Because remember, they're the embodiment of their path, so without their path, they're basically nothing.

This means that an Aeon is forever bound to their path, and they cannot stray from it.

The Aeon of Destruction can't just wake up one day and decide to walk the path of Harmony, for example.

To become an Aeon, you trade your ability to change for incredible power derived from one singular path.

Now as god-like entities of cosmic proportions, an Aeon's interest in mortals may vary, with some Aeons choosing to meddle more than others, but ultimately the lives of mortals are small and inconsequential to them.

Sometimes, though, a person with a powerful affinity or talent within a given path will pique the interest of an Aeon.

This is known as drawing the gaze of an Aeon.

Those who have been gazed upon by an Aeon become something called an Emanator, which is kind of like the Aeon's will given mortal form.

Emanators are extremely powerful and often attract other followers of the same paths.

In doing so, they form something called a Faction, which is really just a fancy way to group followers of an Aeon together under one kind of cohesive label.

Now, though Factions tend to follow the will of an Aeon, forming a Faction doesn't necessarily guarantee any sort of special blessing or assistance from the Aeon, regardless of whether or not a Faction contains an Emanator.

In the end, Factions are just people bound by a common way of thinking, so it's handy to know the philosophy of each Aeon and their path in order to understand the goals of their associated Factions.

Although, since Factions are mortal creations, their understanding of their Aeon's path can often be twisted or far removed from its original intended meaning.

The meaning of things is pretty subjective, after all.

Currently, there are 18 known Aeons, but only 7 of these Aeon's paths are available to playable characters.

Every Aeon will play a role in the story at some point, and I will probably make a video going over all 18 at some point, but there are only two that we're going to familiarize ourselves with today.

Those are Akavili, the Trailblaze, and Nanook, the Destruction.

Akavili was one of those rare Aeons that enjoyed mingling with mortals.

In fact, they're considered to be the Aeon that was closest to mortals.

They were also responsible for laying down the rails for the Astral Express train system throughout the universe, and they invited mortals to board these trains.

Those who did so joined the Trailblaze path and formed the Faction known as the Nameless.

Akavili would often adventure alongside their path striders, making them very unique among the Aeons.

But I'm using past tense here because Akavili died in a mysterious accident that derailed the Astral Express and wrecked many of its train cars.

Without the Astral Express, the Nameless also vanished.

But as luck would have it, one of those broken trains landed on the planet Himiko was from.

She managed to repair it, reforming the Nameless Faction and making the Trailblaze path accessible once again.

This is the Astral Express train car that we board as a player.

Now, rumor has it that Akavili's heart is in the core that powers the Astral Express, and that's what allows the train to travel across the galaxy, but there's no evidence to support that claim.

But there must be some level of truth to the nature of the core of the train, if only because without the power of an Aeon, travel via the Express would be difficult for just a normal path strider.

Unlike the free-spirited and benevolent Akavili, the Aeon of Destruction known by the name Nanook believes that the birth of the universe was a mistake and desires the destruction of all civilizations.

Their followers are known as the Antimatter Legion, or just the Legion, and actively attack civilizations with the goal of total annihilation.

Nanook is the one responsible for the distribution of Stellarons throughout the universe, and Stellarons play a huge motivating role in StarRail's story.

So while we don't really understand Nanook's motivations beyond destroy everything, he is a key Aeon to pay attention to because of his connection to the Stellarons.

Well, a Stellaron is widely believed to be a seed of destruction, created and distributed by Nanook the Destruction.

They're also called the Cancer of All Worlds.

These seeds fracture reality and spawn rifts that lead to interdimensional spaces called Fragmentums, and those attract monsters, so you can see why that would be problematic.

The genius Herda claims that Stellarons are actually a type of lifeform, since they do appear to have some sentience and have been known to communicate with those of a certain aptitude.

She also claims that Stellarons can tether themselves to an Aeon's path, and that they are capable of responding to the cumulative desires of a world or planet that it happens to find itself on.

In certain circumstances, it can even fulfill those desires, but that comes at a cost.

Stellarons are the seeds of Nanook, after all, and even if they can perform miracles, they ultimately bring disasters.

Now within the first hour or so of the game, we, the player, and the crew of the Astral Express will learn that the Trailblazer has a Stellaron inside of their body, of all places.

This is highly unusual, and while it seems to be pretty stable in there, it's too risky for the Trailblazer to stay in any one place for too long.

If the Stellaron becomes unstable for any reason, they could bring destruction to any ship, space station, or planet that they happen to be on.

Luckily, the Nameless aboard the Astral Express are quite experienced in dealing with the Stellaron, since simply having an unstable Stellaron within range of the train tracks can cause the train to come to a complete stop, and it won't move again until the offending Stellaron has been neutralized.

But as long as the Stellaron inside the Trailblazer's body is stable, the Astral Express can move unimpeded.

If it becomes unstable, though, well, there are at least people around who can deal with it right away.

All in all, the Astral Express is the safest place for the Trailblazer to be.

I've mentioned the Nameless faction quite a bit, but I haven't really talked about them individually, so let me rectify this now because as members of this faction ourselves, we'll be spending a lot of time with them.

To start, we have the elegant scientist Himiko, also known as the one who found and repaired the Astral Express, and that kinda makes her the boss.

She might also look pretty laid back, but Welt says she's extremely driven and may be chasing a very big but unknown dream.

Now, she does share looks and name with a popular character from Honkai Impact, but it's very important to note that they are not the same person.

Next, we have Dan Hong, who's level-headed and clever.

He boarded the train to escape a path that he doesn't like to talk about, and he kinda functions as the train's guardian.