Almost, "Imaginary" as a type is named such because of the abstract concept (i.e. imaginary numbers in mathematics) from which the Imaginary Tree derives its name (the Imaginary element icon alludes to this with its dendritic shape), rather than the concept of creativity. Additionally, all of Welt's attacks are gravity-based, which is not within the authority of Reason—such capabilities come from him wielding his signature Divine Key, Star of Eden/Cosmic Harmony. The only use we've heard of Welt commanding the authority of Reason within Star Rail is projecting old episodes ofArahatoto the Astral Express crew. Still, to draw on the authority of Reason, a Herrscher Core is said to need to use the Imaginary Tree as a channel.
Gepard and Serval have strong parallels to Barbara and Jean from Genshin Impact with their ages flipped. Not only they look similar with blonde hair and white clothes with blue accents, Gepard and Jean are both prominent members in their town guards, and Barbara and Serval are musicians, an idol and guitarist respectively. Their elements and roles in the party are also similar, with Gepard having ice attacks with an his ultimate shielding the party, while Barbara is a healer with water elements and Serval having lightning and Jean having wind are mainly damage dealers. However, the their relationship is reversed, with Jean and Barbara being a bit estranged as their parents are divorced, while Serval is ostracized from her family except for Gepard.
Doubling as Call-Back, though Aeons are entities which are first introduced to the Honkai Multiverse within Star Rail, there have been multiple instances of entities similar to them existing or being hinted at.
In Houkai Gakuen 2nd or Gun Girls Z Part 2, the Will of Honkai is revealed to be once a race of lifeforms from an Alternate Universe, who used the Honkai to ascend and assimilate all other forms of life, becoming one with the Honkai itself of their universe. It is suspiciously similar to what Tayzzyronth the Propagation attempted to do in the past of Star Rail universe.
In Honkai Impact 3rd, the Honkai is revealed to be a force put in place by mysterious beings to reflect the lifeforms of any particular world into understanding themselves, and exists to allow physical and spiritual transformations for intelligent life. Due to humanity being in a habit of seeing the Honkai as an alien, corruptive force, on top of being flawed at best and bastards at worst, it results in the Honkai becoming the existential threat it is in the story. At the climax of Part 1, after Kiana figures out the Honkai for what it really is, she uses it to become one with the Cocoon of Finality — a cocoon representing the true nature of Herrschers and Honkai — which allows her to halt the flow of Honkai from Imaginary Space into the physical universe, and utilize it as she pleases. This is eerily similar to how Aeons are stated to be once lesser lifeforms who, according to the parables of Aha's birth, climbed the highest branch of the Tree of Existence — just like how Kiana reached the Cocoon of Finality by ascending to the highest realm of Imaginary Space, which is a branch of the Imaginary Tree representing The Multiverse.
This, in turn, might explain why the Honkai seems absent in the Star Rail universe; with so many Paths created by just as many Aeons across the universe, the Honkai is being thoroughly filtered and harnessed by the Aeons in accordance to their respective Paths and philosophies. The Aeons themselves are deified because Honkai is, or rather was, a universal issue which Aeons can put to stop and shelter lesser lifeforms from.
Tying in to all this, then, would be the somewhat more traditionally "Honkai-like" behavior of Nanook and the Antimatter Legion, and the idea that after several thousand Amber Eras, the can may not be so tight anymore.
The Path of Erudition favors the route of logic and intelligence, and all of the playable Erudition-type characters showcase it in some way.
Himeko is an accomplished scientist who managed to repair the Astral Express.
Herta is known to be among the most intelligent people in the universe, having a seat in the Genius Society. Founding the Herta Space Station, an intergalactic research hub, is just the tip of the iceberg for her achievements.
Serval was a talented military scientist and researcher before becoming a mechanic and rock star.
Qingque might seem like an oddball for this Path at first since her deliberate slacking-off would make her a better fit for the Nihility Path instead, but her character bio and quests show that she genuinely is very intelligent and insightful, she just prefers to slack off as much as possible.
Jing Yuan is a highly cunning and effective strategist whose feats led to peace in the Luofu for centuries.
Why is the symbol for the Path of Destruction a tower? It's because Nanook (and the Path of Destruction by extension) represents the Tower Arcana, associated with upheaval, adversity and ruin, which all can relate back to Nanook: they are a force of entropic upheaval in the universe, they are known as the Ruin Author, and, if Elio's prophecies are to be believed, they will serve as a Final Boss at the end of time. Nanook is even framed as the Tower in his artwork!
When the Garden of Recollection Messenger that has taken up residence on the Astral Express is asked whether she can restore memories, she states that she is expressly forbidden from doing so. While it at first seems like the Messenger is trying to hide the Trailblazer's past, it's revealed in March 7th's Companion Mission that the very same Messenger is responsible for suppressing March 7th's memories and preventing her from remembering them. If the Messenger ever acknowledges she can restore memories to the Trailblazer, the Trailblazer would obviously ask if the same could be done to March 7th.
If Kafka is right about the Trailblazer being an Artificial Human, it could explain how spacey their behavior is in the game because they never learned how to behave like a normal human (especially if they were originally her minion if Blade is right) until they met the Express crew. Their pop-culture references could also be a lingering influence from Silver Wolf and her gaming obsession.
Topaz's second Ascension Bonus Ability turning her basic attacks into follow-up attacks, and thus able to accelerate Numby's attacks against their marked enemy, makes perfect sense because her gun fires good coins, a treasure for Numby to hunt down that's now in the hands of the enemy.
The Trailblazer has an unfortunate habit of going on Dumpster Dives for treasure. Perhaps that is symbolism for how the Trailblazer finds value in what other people consider to be garbage in contrast to the Final Boss, Nanook, who considers the universe itself to be garbage they are burning down.
Sampo is a Nihility character for gameplay purposes, but in-story, he's a follower of Aha, the Elation. What are Aha's followers called? Masked Fools. He's "masking" himself as a follower of the Nihility to hide his true allegiance. Similarly, Sparkle is also a Masked Fool (bonus points for having masks as a major part of her motif) who loves masking herself as different people to mess around, and as such it would not be out of character for her to masquerade as a follower of Harmony.
Likely unintentional, but Dan Feng's "unpardonable sin" came about due to the death of Baiheng (who was once a Nameless) leading to him to try to bring her back to life. After his forced rebirth, the powers of the High Elder were split into two: the healer Bailu, and the Nameless Dan Heng.
Dan Heng sitting out the Penacony trip makes sense- considering his past, he probably wouldn't enjoy staying in a hotel that used to be a prison.
He's also forced to confront his past in the Xianzhou Luofu right before the Penacony trip since the Stellaron Hunters decide to divert the Astral Express there and Dan Heng heard Blade is in the Luofu while the Trailblazer, March 7th and Welt are there. Originally, the Astral Express would have gone straight to Penacony after leaving Jarilo-VI, and he has a room booked in the hotel by the Crew. Further, prior to the Luofu trip, he, March, and the Trailblazer were almost arrested in Jarilo-VI while they were staying in a hotel despite Cocolia's earlier reassurance. With those fresh in his mind, Dan Heng probably made the connection between what happened to him in Jarilo-VI and the Luofu, and what Penacony was in the past, so while he may have originally been willing to go to Penacony, he would now be reminded of his traumatic past.
Aventurine's whole plan to trick Sunday. His decisions may look impulsive, but his scheme to smuggle his Cornerstone into the heavily-guarded Penacony is so intricate that not only does Sunday fall for the decoy, Sunday falls for the fake "betrayal" by Aventurine's companion, Dr. Ratio. After all, who would suspect the logical Doctor who's been snapping at his infuriating companion the whole trip for claiming the Cornerstone being presented is fake and that the real one is hidden in plain sight? Surely no sane person would shatter their own source of power or plan for their death, right?
Why of all the Paths and associated factions Acheron could choose to hide her true Path, she chooses the Path of the Hunt and one of the factions that follows it, the Galaxy Rangers? According to her backstory, she was once one of the strongest fighters of Izumo in their war against the Kami from Takamagahara. This probably made her a Pathstrider of the Hunt before she laid her eyes on the Nihility. Aside from that, Acheron presents herself as a Galaxy Ranger because they keep roaming through the universe in the name of justice, while the Xianzhou Alliance has a more defined path to kill the Abundance. Thus, the Galaxy Ranger's nomadic ways fit with Acheron's aimless existence.
"Sam" isn't as masculine as you think it is—it could be a diminutive of not only Samuel but also Samantha. Fitting, considering "his" true identity as Firefly, who is a woman.
Ten Stonehearts: Aventurine of Stratagems leans heavily into Gameplay and Story Integration. With his goal to goad Acheron into "killing" him, his entire game plan is designed to be exploited by her. Lightning is one of his main Toughness vulnerabilities, his attacks frequently drain your team's energy, which she can conveniently No-Sell, and heavily incentivizes the player to bring area of effect attacks, which are commonly present on Path of Nihility characters' ultimates. On the flip side, this is all too effective at countering the Path of Harmony, as if to demonstrate his contempt for Xipe and The Family. The only Harmony character that isn't strictly single target is Asta, who happens to have connections to the IPC, even if she would rather not acknowledge it, and her ability to hit multiple targets happens to be a gamble in of itself. On another note, his game plan also makes using a team of the present members of the Astral Express Crew (Preservation!Trailblazer, March 7th, Himeko and Welt) a viable team composition against him as they all have access to area of effect attacks to deal with him, so whether it's Acheron or the Astral Express Crew who deal the final blow, Aventurine will still get to "die" at either of their hands.
Additionally, even with his Cornerstone being broken, Aventurine still shows after the fight that he could well have wiped out the crew with ease. He shrugs off Himeko's Kill Sat, catches the Trailblazer's lance, and shows no reaction to March 7th's arrows. His actual attacks in the fight are strong, but not as overwhelmingly powerful as his final attack, and his dice-rolling mechanic offers a chance for the player's team to get even stronger. If he were trying to actually kill any of them, why would he offer that possibility, even with his gambling motif? Then you realize: he wasn't. He was holding back the entire time, giving the crew and Acheron a fighting chance. He only uses his strongest attack when he's "growing impatient", because he's still on a time limit. He needs to get either the crew or Acheron to kill him before Sunday's Geas does, but Acheron won't act if he keeps holding back. He isn't actually trying to kill the crew: he needs them to play their part, even if they don't know their part.
Along with that, notice that the dice mechanics that Aventurine of Stratagems has makes it difficult for characters from the Hunt path to perform in combat, which attacks in unitarget (so in general they will end up penalized when fighting Aventurine). Now with that said, that means that Dr. Ratio and Topaz (who, while they find some of Aventurine's ways of acting and thinking somewhat annoying, really care about him in their own ways, so they wouldn't agree to his death if they can avoid him and would like him to live [as seen with Dr. Ratio's note/"recipe" and how Topaz's voice sounds when she delivers the news that aventurine is losing its light) they have difficulty fighting him, since they will be constantly penalized. And the brilliance comes double when you see and realize that Aventurine as a boss resists Imaginary damage, the same type of damage that Dr. Ratio's attacks do (you know the person [who along with Acheron later] gives him words of encouragement, wishes him the best and gives Aventurine a reason to live [that someone really cares about you and wants you alive])
While Acheron is officially and storywise a Nihility character, she has also shown that she's smart, perceptive and sharp-witted; traits primarily associated with Erudition. Appropriately, her gameplay is closer to an Erudition character (focusing on Ultimate and Herd-Hitting Attack) than Nihility. Not only that, the "Raiden" archetypes in previous Hoyo games have always been smart in one way or another, and Acheron is no exception.
While investigating Sunday's manor, one of the pieces of documentation laying around is a ludicrously long list of potential suspects ranging from a Pepeshi dream factory worker with a soda obsession to one of the major Family heads. This list seems nonsensical at first, but if you pay attention to Sunday's last conversation with Gallagher, it turns out to be a comprehensive list of the Family members that Gallagher took traits from. Fifty two members to be precise, which likely also implies a playing card theme where Gallagher shuffles himself into the "deck" as a "wild card".
Given that Ratio's "betrayal" of Aventurine, selling out the information about the Cornerstones to Sunday, was all a part of Aventurine's plan, why was Aventurine angered when Ratio approached him, spelling out that Ratio betrayed him? Take note of how he emphasizes his words, as if reminding him of it. He is reminding Ratio of the "betrayal", because they're in the middle of Golden Hour, where Sunday has eyes watching everyone everywhere. Ratio talking to Aventurine out in the open, where Sunday might spot them, runs the risk of blowing the whole plan by revealing that Ratio is on Aventurine's side. Aventurine is angered because Ratio is taking a reckless gamble that could end the whole plan in failure, and "reminding" him that they're supposed to be at odds with one another, even if Ratio wanted to check on him and make sure he still had things under control.
An observant player can notice the tipoffs that the Trailblazer is currently trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine before Black Swan reveals the biggest flaw in the dreamscape.
Sunday’s boss health bar doesn’t have multiple bars like other Echoes of War bosses and doesn’t have a special attack the player can use during the battle like the other world’s final bosses.
Dan Heng and Jing Yuan seemingly arrive at the battle with the whole Xianzhou Fleet, which shouldn’t be possible given how you are currently in the dreamscape while the fleet are in reality.
Everything is wrapped up all nicely and the Astral Express crew no longer have to worry about the state of Penacony and can immediately move on to the next world. Belobog and Xianzhou both had to deal with the aftermath of their plots long after the main perpetrators were dealt with.
You are given a choice for which world you can go to next. Since Star Rail is a game that’s updated regularly with new worlds planned in advance, having several new worlds a player can immediately go to with no plot connecting them wouldn’t be possible.
One of the daily missions involves Sheila, an android designed in the image of a researcher's Lost Lenore. The researcher asks the Trailblazer to teach Sheila how to behave more like a human, which always results in her getting the wrong idea and developing a bad habit. At the start of every new daily, the researcher mentions that Sheila's memory has been reset and she's beginning with a blank slate. When you initially meet Sheila, she thought she was an ordinary human and each subsequent meeting involves a Sheila that has been completely reset to erase her previous personality because she'd been "led astray". In short, Sheila is in a constant state of Death of Personality, because her creator isn't satisfied with the result of her lessons.
The relic sets all have their own backstory tied to them, but one in particular is connected to a playable character: Passerby of Wandering Clouds, which is Blade's outfit. In the lore for the gloves, the Roaming Dragon Bracer, it is mentioned that Blade only has one, and can feel traces of the owner of the other. Who has the other one? Dan Heng. He's been able to track Dan Heng down regardless of what planet he's on because he has one of his bracers; it isn't confirmed if Dan Heng can feel Blade's presence in turn, but it basically means Dan Heng has a beacon on him telling Blade where he is, and the only thing keeping Blade from continuing to hunt him down to kill him is Elio's script.
Unlike other morally ambiguous characters such as Sampo, Ruan Mei cannot be called out at the end of her associated Trailblaze Continuance quest. This likely has a connection with the spiked cake she gave the Trailblazer earlier in the same quest which does not allow the latter to directly mention her during conversations with other people regardless if they are thinking about doing so. Considering her paranoid nature, directly speaking against her may not be out of the scope of the drug's capabilities.
Black Swan's Mind Rape when she tried to look into Acheron's past during the "Rondo Across Countless Kalpas" animated short is actually worse than one would initially think. When she peeked at Acheron's past, she saw nothing - basically, she saw the Nihility itself. Black Swan is a Memokeeper, a memetic entity empowered by Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance, who embodies the ideal that all memories of the universe should be preserved because they hold meaning. The Nihility is the exact antithesis of the Remembrance, as it believes that the universe itself and everything in it are meaningless and worthless. And since Acheron is an Emanator of IX, the Aeon of Nihility, she would at least have a fraction of the Aeon's power. Additionally, due to being a Self-Annihilator, Acheron's memories are constantly being erased as part of the price she pays for IX's power. As such, just witnessing that power and that abyss of memories could have killed Black Swan. No wonder Black Swan is left terrified of Acheron afterward.
After Sunday placed his Geas on Aventurine and gave him seventeen hours to solve Robin's murder, he noted that Aventurine could no longer leave the Dreamscape. Given that he was the only one of the IPC invited to the banquet, Topaz and Jade were relegated to the lobby in reality, while Aventurine was trapped in the Dreamscape with less than a day left to live. The only ally he had that could travel between the two and relay any information is Ratio—meaning he likely watched as Aventurine's body in reality died and was the one to report Aventurine's death to Topaz and Jade.
During a random daily text message with Pela, the player is given the option to say that they've been a fan of her and Serval's band, Mechanical Fever, for 10 years. Pela takes this seriously, which would seem to indicate that the band was formed at least around 10 years ago. However, as we learn in Lynx's companion quest, Pela is 16 years old. Given that Mechanical Fever was formed by like-minded reserve officers studying at Belobog's military academy, and that Pela was previously stated to be one of it's founding members, this means that Pela was a reserve military officer and cadet in training at 6 years old.
Although it's also possible that Lynx was messing with the Trailblazer about Pela's age due to her short height.
Another possibility could be that the Belobogians measure years differently from the rest of the cosmos due to being disconnected from space for so long, so Pela may actually be older in cosmic years.
Though it's also possible that given Belobog's isolation, and its losing war against both the elements and the Fragmentum, plus Pela being an orphan of parents who were well respected in Belobog, it's not out of the question that she was recruited into the Silvermane Guards as a Child Soldier.
There are photo cutout boards in Clock Studios Theme Park where the player can invite friends to take a photo—but given that the park is in the Dreamscape, how did they get there to take the photos so quickly, and likely without invitation? Moreover, one character who can be invited is Dan Heng, who explicitly gives up his reservation to the player and unintentionally leads to the player meeting Aventurine when the reservation name didn't match up.
