History Characters / HonkaiStarRailAstralExpress

** The Trailblazer's fighting style varies depending on their Path; a melee fighter as a Destruction and Preservation character, or a ranged fighter as a Harmony. Due to their selectable gender, they can share a dynamic that is played straight or inverted with Dan Heng or March 7th depending on if the Trailblazer is Stelle or Caelus, and what Path they are classed as.

* LovedByAll: Throughout their travels, the Astral Express crew have grown to be well-loved and considered to be great friends by those they met on each world.

* OutOfFocus: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Almost the entire Astral Express crew takes a backseat in the first Penacony mission "The Sound and the Fury", which focuses primarily on the Trailblazer and their interactions with the various factions gathering on the planet and vying for their favor. The second mission "Cat Among Pigeons" though has a greater participation from the Astral Express crew with the exception of Dan Heng, and even then he messages the crew asking whether he should rejoin them or not, though he eventually gets pulled into action after [[spoiler:he comes into contact with Boothill, who was also invited by Acheron and Black Swan to help deal with Penacony's Stellaron crisis]].

* RammingAlwaysWorks: During the final battle against [[spoiler:Sunday, the Astral Express itself can be called upon to directly ram Sunday for massive damage]].

* WhereItAllBegan: This trope is the Astral Express Crew's ultimate goal. They wish to retrace Akivili's steps, repair the Star Rail network that was destroyed by the Stellarons, seal said Stellatons, and eventually reach their final destination: Pegana, Akivili's home planet and the Astral Express' starting point.

* MultipleChoicePast: PlayedWith by the game [[spoiler: but ultimately averted. During Kafka's Companion Mission, the player has a chance to ask her two questions about themselves with the caveat that one answer will be a lie and the other a truth, with a false and true answer for each possible question. The second question allows an option that lets the player figure out whether her first answer was true or false, and players pieced the true answers together: the Trailblazer is an ArtificialHuman [[RaisedAsAHost created to host a Stellaron]] and was modified by an unspecified Aeon to be able to do this. Elio handed them to Kafka, saying that if things transpire according to what he foresaw, she and them would "change each other". In the time before the Stellaron's implantation into them, Kafka taught the Trailblazer everything from general knowledge to combat skills before wiping their memory just before the Stellaron was inserted. Blade confirms at the end of the mission that they have worked with Kafka before and had been with her for a while.]]

* RageBreakingPoint: Should they refuse the [[spoiler: dirty money]] offered in ''Clockwork: Oksana'', [[spoiler: they eventually snap and beat the ''absolute crap'' out of her, attracting a Hound to the scene.]]

** In Penacony, the Trailblazer earns the glance of Xipe. Sunday speculates that Xipe was touched by the resonance of the Paths of Trailblazing and Harmony, caused by the Nameless known as the Watchmaker passing on his will to the next generation of Nameless. Himeko speculates that Xipe simply wanted to witness who will hold the future of Penacony.

* WasItAllALie: [[spoiler: While not saying this in front of Firefly's face after their reunion at the end of the 2.1 story "The Cat Among Pigeons" (since the story ended before their dialog continued), returning to Firefly's secret base after finishing the story will cause the Trailblazer to question if all the moments they've had in Penacony were lies.]] Since the Trailblazer has spent a good portion of the 2.1 main story being traumatized [[spoiler:from [[IShouldHaveBeenBetter failing]] to save Firefly (which turned out to be a deliberately faked death by her own decision) after [[ShipTease their meeting]] with her, it's a certainty that the Trailblazer is feeling they've been betrayed in many ways despite their confusion on how to process their emotions on the matter at the end of the 2.1 main story. Following the 2.2 story, however, the dialogue at the secret base will change once again to reflect the time Firefly spent with the Astral Express crew, with them admitting that their earlier mixed feelings have now faded and the fond memories have come back, finally content knowing the time they spent with Firefly was real and hoping to see her again.]]

'''Type:''' [[NonElemental Physical]]\\\

During the Antimatter Legion's attack on the Herta Space Station, the Trailblazer recklessly uses their own body to shield people from a deadly attack, attracting the gaze of Nanook, the Destruction.\\

** Their technique is also the only one who heal your party ''outside combat'', with other character with similar healing only happen [[CombatExclusiveHealing in battle]] and being {{Regenerating Health}} instead.

During their adventures in Jarilo-VI, the Trailblazer proves themself willing to sacrifice their own life to protect their friends and all of Belabog, attracting the gaze of Qlipoth, the Preservation.\\

During their adventure to uncover the truth lurking beneath the memoria-infused depths of Penacony's Dreamscape, the Trailblazer finds themselves the inheritor of the will of Mikhail the Watchmaker, a former Nameless and savior of Penacony, and gazed upon by Xipe the Harmony.\\

The Trailblazer makes their foes dance to their beat by tossing Mikhail's magical hat on them, either one at a time with their Basic Attack, ''Swing Dance Etiquette'', or followed with four random strikes with their Skill, ''Halftime to Make It Rain''; should either attack Break foes, their Talent, ''Full-on Aerial Dance'', immediately restores some Energy, which feeds into their Ultimate, ''All-Out Footlight Parade'', where they dance together with Clockie to bestow the "Backup Dancer" buff to the party for as long as the Trailblazer's three turns, during which they gain a heightened Break Effect (which they can also manually do so for two turns through their Technique, ''Now! I Am the Band!'') and converts their Toughness Reduction into Super Break damage whenever they target Broken foes.[[note]]When fully upgraded, they enjoy heightened Energy Regeneration Rate for the first three turns of battle, as well as allow the party to delay their target's turn upon being Broken; their Skill can now automatically reimburse 1 SP for its first use in battle, as well as sees its random hits increased to six; and Super Break damage increases in potency inversely proportional to the number of enemies in the field[[/note]]

* CooldownManipulation: Their sixth-ascension Bonus Ability, ''Hat of the Theater'', allows the party's attacks to delay enemy turns by 30% should they be Broken.

* GatheringSteam: Their second-ascension Bonus Ability, ''Dance With the One'', adds a 20% buff to Super Break damage if there are at least five enemies active, with an additional 10% for every one less foe (hence a maximum of 60% if there is only one left).

* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Their kit heavily encourages Breaking enemies and keeping them like that while the team lays on the damage, with the Backup Dancer buff allowing allies to inflict additional Super Break damage against Broken foes, proportional to the attack's Toughness Reduction stat.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: They are the only unit in the game who can bestow the ability to inflict Super Break, a type of Break damage (scaling with Break Effect) that affects Broken enemies and scales off of the user's Toughness Reduction instead of their Type or their target's Max Toughness.
* MoneyMauling: Their Skill causes a cascade of giant coins in Clockie's image to rain from the sky, damaging the initial target once before striking random targets four times.[[note]]With damage worth 25–55% of their Attack stat per hit[[/note]] Their fourth-ascension Bonus Ability, ''Shuffle Along'', increases the Toughness Reduction of the initial strike by 100%, while their sixth Eidolon Resonance, ''Tomorrow, Rest in Spotlight'', extends the random hits to six.

* TheRedMage: Like any Harmony Pathstrider, the Trailblazer is built around supporting other characters and enabling the team to do more damage. Unlike most of them, they're also fully capable of doing the heavy hitting ''themselves'' by inflicting astronomical amounts of toughness damage (and subsequently break damage) unleashed by their skill.

** Their Talent allows them to regenerate 5–11 Energy whenever the party Breaks foes.

** Their Ultimate bestows the party the Backup Dancer state for as long as three turns of the Trailblazer, during which they enjoy a 15–33% boost to their Break Effect and convert their Toughness Reduction into Super Break damage whenever they attack Broken foes.

* SupportPartyMember: They are a Harmony Pathstrider with a unique focus on augmenting the party's damage output with the Super Break! effect granted by their Ultimate. Unlike most Harmony characters, who tend to provide strictly passive roles or have otherwise mediocre damage output, the Trailblazer in this form is designed to be aggressive, using their Skill to quickly build their Energy and then inflict massive damage with Super Break! using their high Break Effect stat.

* UndyingLoyalty: Dan Heng considers himself first and foremost an Astral Express crew, and insists [[spoiler:he is ''not'' Dan Feng, his previous incarnation. Such is his loyalty that at the end of his Companion Quest, he turns down Jing Yuan's offer to stay at the ''Xianzhou Luofu'' despite his banishment having been revoked, choosing instead to continue journeying the stars with his friends]].

* InsaneTrollLogic: March 7th tends to veer into this whenever she tries to piece something together on her own. An example appears in Luocha's Companion Quest, where she watches camera footage of Luocha entering an alley, then another clip that shows that Yinshu was the only person shown leaving the area for two hours afterwards. Her conclusion? Yinshu ''is'' Luocha, having somehow genderbent and de-aged himself into a little girl. Even the Trailblazer, as spacey as they are, can become confused by her thought process.

* MeaningfulRename: Justified, as she doesn't remember her real name, but she calls herself March 7th after the date she was discovered. [[spoiler:The end credits of the 2.2 Penacony quest even credits her as "??? as March 7th".]]

* MysteriousPast: She was found in a block of ice with zero idea of her identity or origins. Her Companion Quest has her consult Fu Xuan in an attempt to seek out answers to her origins. [[spoiler:Whatever her past was, it's apparently significant enough for a Messenger from the Garden of Recollection to actively impede her attempts at doing so, telling her that the past is meaningless and she should only keep moving forward. Even the credits of the 2.2 Penacony quest obscures her "real" name as "??? as March 7th".]]

* ChekhovsGunman: It is revealed that [[spoiler:he is the old man Acheron had been talking to that points her to Penacony. He also entrusts a sacred Galaxy Ranger relic to her which she passes on to Boothill and he subsquently uses it to summon the rest of the Galaxy Rangers to aid the Astral Express]].

* UnfinishedBusiness: [[spoiler:His spirit lingers at the Dead Sea due to his regret at never being able reunite with Legwork. He only manages to pass on thanks to Acheron promising to deliver his relic to where it is needed]].

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: He shares last name with the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

* WhereItAllBegan: In an interesting case, this trope happens to Amundsen's hat. When Legwork left the Astral Express to stay in Penacony, he was given Amundsen's hat as a parting gift. Legwork would then entrust the hat (and with it, the Watchmaker's Legacy) to the Trailblazer after his death. In other words, the hat started out on the Astral Express and eventually returned to the Astral Express.

* EmotionControl: At some point during the Penacony Trailblaze Mission, they meet Clockie, who asks them for help in calming down an angry gangster threatening Misha and Acheron. Because this is caused by negative emotions boiling over, they are taught the power of Clockwork to counter it, which instantly changes a person's mood to happy, sad, angry, or calm. The targets of this power never seem to notice that anything is wrong unless they have enough experience with the Path of Harmony, but observers of the Trailblazer's new ability have been left stunned at the sudden MoodWhiplash.

A spacefaring train created by Akivili, Aeon of the Trailblaze, to fulfill their yearning to explore the universe, along the way creating the Star Rail tracks and gathering like-minded individuals henceforth called "the Nameless." Centuries after the passing of the Aeon and the original group, a scientist named Himeko rediscovered the Express, repurposed it for herself, and has gathered her own companions in traveling the universe and lending a helping hand to those who need it.

* WhereItAllBegan: This trope is the Astral Express Crew's ultimate goal. They wish to retrace Akivili's steps, repair the Star Rail network that was destroyed by the Stellarons, seal said Stellatons, and continue to travel until they reach their final destination: Pegana, Akivili's home planet and the Astral Express' starting point.

** Dan Heng fights with a spear, while March 7th uses a bow to snipe enemies from afar. The Trailblazer can also share the smashing role with Dan Heng if Caelus is chosen as the player character.
** If [[spoiler:Dan Heng as Imbibitor Lunae is accounted for, he (who shapes water to strike enemies from afar) can share an inverted dynamic with the Trailblazer if Stelle is the Trailblazer]].

* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Their Ultimate on this path is the only one with two modes of operation (enhanced Basic Attack or Skill) and whose animation plays immediately upon activation before selecting the target.

* TheDrifter: They never stay in one place for long and Pom-Pom preserves to leave a world within a week of arriving at it. As a result, they meet a lot of people and say just as many goodbyes, as thousands of years can pass between visits from the Astral Express. But they always try to explore and understand every world they visit while trying to leave it in a better place than when they arrived. That being said, Fu Xuan claims at the end of the Xianzhou Luofu Trailblaze Mission that she has foreseen that they will come back and meet her again someday. 1.4 update's stories shows that they can and do go back to the worlds they've visited if they so choose, likely using the Space Anchors.
* ExposedToTheElements: Akivili's blessing protects those following the Path of the Trailblaze from the elements, which comes in handy when the group visit the icy world of Jarilo-VI. This doesn't apply to those around them, though, as seen when the Trailblazer and Natasha go out into the snow plains to look for her brother.
* FamilyOfChoice: None of the Astral Express crew are related by blood but they are extremely close as any family would be. Their unwavering loyalty and devotion to one another ensure that [[ThePowerOfFamily they will never hesitate to come to each other's aid in any fight, no matter how challenging]].

** If [[spoiler:Dan Heng as Imbibitor Lunae is accounted for, he (who shapes water to strike enemies from afar) can share an inverted dynamic with the Trailblazer if Stelle is chosen as the player character]].

* OutOfFocus: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Almost the entire Astral Express crew takes a backseat in the first Penacony mission "The Sound and the Fury", which focuses primarily on the Trailblazer and their interactions with the various factions gathering on the planet and vying for their favor. The second mission "Cat Among Pigeons" though has a greater participation from the Astral Express crew with the exception of Dan Heng, and even then he messages the crew asking whether he should rejoin them or not.

!!!'''Introduced:''' April 26, 2023 (v1.0 "The Rail Unto the Stars" [game launch])\\
'''Stelle is voiced by:''' Chen Tingting (Chinese), Creator/YuiIshikawa (Japanese), Kim Ha-ru (Korean), Rachael Chau (English)\\

!!!'''Trailblazer of Destruction'''

During the Antimatter Legion's attack on the Herta Space Station, the Trailblazer recklessly uses their own body to shield somebody from a deadly attack, attracting the gaze of Nanook, the Destruction.\\

!!!'''Trailblazer of Preservation'''

The Trailblazer gains the ability to protect their allies by drawing enemy aggression and countering at them with a fiery lance. Their Talent, ''Treasure of the Architects'', allows them to gather up to eight stacks of Magma Will whenever they take damage or use their Basic Attack and Skill, respectively ''Ice-Breaking Light'' and ''Ever-Burning Amber'' (the latter draws enemy aggression unto themselves), which are consumed four at a time to enhance the damage potency and radius of the former, in addition to allowing both abilities to generate Shields for the party. Their Ultimate, ''War-Flaming Lance'', thrusts their lance to scorch all their foes and upgrade the next use of their Basic Attack with a negated Magma Will Cost, while their Technique, ''Call of the Guardian'', generates a Shield for themselves for their first turn in battle.[[note]]When fully upgraded, they enjoy a boost to Attack and regenerate some Energy whenever they have an active Shield at the start of their turn, as well as automatically gain four stacks of Magma Will at the start of battle; their enhanced Basic Attack can now heal the Trailblazer; their Skill can now reduce the party's damage intake for one turn; and both their enhanced Basic Attack and Ultimate can now build up to three stacks of a Defense boost.[[/note]]

!!!'''Trailblazer of Harmony'''

During their adventure to uncover the truth lurking beneath the memoria-infused depths of Penacony's Dreamscape, the Trailblazer finds themselves the inheritor of the will of the legendary Watchmaker, savior of Penacony and ex-Nameless, and gazed upon by Xipe, the Harmony.\\

Making foes dance to the beat with Imaginary-based attacks such as their Basic ATK and Skill, ''Swing Dance Etiquette'' and ''Halftime to Make it Rain'' respectively, they turn on the charm with the power of their Ultimate, ''All-Out Footlight Parade'', granting the ability for allies to inflict massive damage to Weakness Broken enemies with their unique Super Break! effect that lets them repeatedly inflict Break DMG to foes. Their Talent, ''Full-on Aerial Dance'', allows them to regenerate Energy when foes are Weakness Broken, letting them ready up their dance number, while their Technique, ''Now! I'm the Band!'', boosts Break Effect for all allies by 30% for 2 turns, letting allies bring the pain with a Weakness Breaking showstopper.

* BoringButPractical: Their 6th Eidolon, ''Tomorrow, Rest in Spotlight'', increases the number of hits inflicted by ''Halftime to Make it Rain'' by +2. This improves the Energy generation of their Skill and adds an additional +15 x 2 Toughness damage to their Skill, letting them break Toughness faster and make their Super Breaks hit even harder.
* DanceBattler: The Trailblazer's entire kit in this Path is themed around dance. All of their Traces reference dancing in some way, some of their voicelines in battle have them talk about dancing or keeping the rhythm, and their Ultimate has them performing a dance routine with Clockie.

* HatOfPower: The Path of Harmony arms the Trailblazer with the hat of Mikhail the Watchmaker (which previously belonged to another legendary Nameless, Falcon Amundsen), which they not only wear as an accessory but also use to attack foes with hat throws and magic hat spells.
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Their kit heavily encourages breaking enemies and keeping them like that while the team lays on the damage, with their ''Backup Dancer'' buff allowing allies to inflict additional break damage when attaching a weakness broken enemy, based on the how much toughness damage the attack dealt.
* MechanicallyUnusualFighter: They are the only unit in the game who can bestow the ability to inflict Super Break!, a type of Break damage (scaling with Break Effect) that affects Weakness Broken enemies and scales off the user's Toughness damage instead of the user's Type or enemy's Max Toughness.
* MoneyMauling: Their Skill causes a cascade of giant coins in Clockie's image to rain from the sky, damaging the initial target once before striking random targets after the first.
* TheRedMage: Like any Harmony character, the Trailblazer is built around supporting other characters and enabling the team to do more damage. Unlike most of them, they're also fully capable of doing the heavy hitting ''themselves'' by inflicting astronomical amounts of toughness damage (and subsequently break damage) unleashed by their skill.

* MeaningfulRename: Justified, as she doesn't remember her real name, but she calls herself March 7th after the date she was discovered.

* MysteriousPast: She was found in a block of ice with zero idea of her identity or origins. Her Companion Quest has her consult Fu Xuan in an attempt to seek out answers to her origins. [[spoiler:Whatever her past was, it's apparently significant enough for a Messenger from the Garden of Recollection to actively impede her attempts at doing so, telling her that the past is meaningless and she should only keep moving forward.]]

* TouchedByVorlons:

* UniqueProtagonistAsset: The Trailblazer has the unique ability to switch between different Paths, which also changes their damage type (as of v2.2, Destruction, Preservation and Harmoney).

->'''Aeon:''' Nanook\\