Hi guys! I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!
I've been making a whole bunch of predictions lately. They're spread across a wide range of things like what's going on with Sunbringer, what was the plan back in the day, what's the Creator's plan, what's TOPS up to, what's Serpico's role in it, what's Truvia's role in it, what Porcelloy really is, how the patches would roll out for Season 3, that there'd be a B Team to handle the TOPS stuff vs the Roscaelifer stuff and so on. What I never would have imagined was that so much of it would play out right now in v3.2.
To start, I recently realized that I'd made an oversight when it came to the patch rollout and so I addressed it right before we got the current update. I said that without a shortened v3.0, the climax would have to be bumped up to v3.4 since v3.5 would cover the Chinese New Year holiday which meant it would have to be our annual Gilded Carrot Day patch. That meant my original belief that we'd head back down to the ground for v3.2 and then v3.4 would have to be merged together as a single v3.3 patch dealing with TOPS while v3.2 replaces that original v3.3 dealing with Flint Workshop and Claret's debut. So that did play out. But also the two patches worth of back down on the ground TOPS stuff did too. It turned out Flint Workshop isn't located in Roscaelifer but actually back down on the ground thus v3.2 despite being Flint Workshop is still a TOPS patch. And based on the ending of v3.2, we will be in v3.3 with the debut of Phoenix and Severian to conclude this TOPS side which will likely end with our triumphant return back up to Roscaelifer in time for the climax.
What I got wrong about this prediction though is something I really didn't want to be wrong about. I was hoping that Phaethon would be relegated to just the Roscaelifer side of the story dealing with Sunbringer and revealing the truth of her plot with Arche which would set up for Season 4. I was hoping the TOPS side would leave them out of it so we could explore a more fitting team that being Nicole, her Cunning Hares sans Billy, their resident hacker Rain because of Youkai, Evelyn since she knows Rain, maybe even the Angels of Delusion through their connection to Evelyn (ie: Astra Yao and Cecilia) because we never got a satisfying explanation for the scars on Nangong Yu's back and we could further expand on Aria's history, Krampus specifically Promeia and finally the star of this side of the story, Cissia which then of course ropes in her boss Severian.
This setup needed to take place without Phaethon because it was meant to be something that was happening in the background while Phaethon's group dealt with the actual operation by Mosseint. They'd handle the direct assault on Roscaelifer and while Mosseint's attention is focused on that, this B Team would be discovering the details of his plan in order to assist Phaethon's side from behind the scenes. Since Youkai is assisting, we'd need people who know how to infiltrate hence Rain as his direct opponent and then Evelyn with Promeia to run covert ops. Severian could direct all forces and our combat crew would consist of the combat droid Aria, Cunning Hares in particular Anby and then Cissia who'd slowly reveal her true identity and purpose as a member of Epaphus.
miHoYo's had a slight issue with this. All of their games focus on a single main character who then needs to star in every single story. It made sense in Genshin because the Traveler is the Witness and part of their role is to be a living record of the world. But Phaethon doesn't have this role thus they don't need to be there for everything. It would have also added tension if the group this time, let's say just Claret, Remielle and Lindverne who then meet up with the B Team end up unable to return to Roscaelifer so contact with Vyrium is cut off on Phaethon's side just when they need more intel from Remielle.
Side Note: Funny enough, had miHoYo gone with the shortened v3.0 it might have actually rolled out better in terms of theme. It's pretty obvious v3.2 is a Halloween patch. Not only are Claret and Roxy vampires, the main event of the patch gives Phaethon witch themed accessories even though the event itself is about pinball. In my prediction, this Claret and Roxy patch would have been v3.3 which would have taken place at the end of September and concluded in early November meaning it would take place during the entire month of October right in season for Halloween. Having it now where the patch will end on October 20th means we celebrated the holiday with Zenless a month early.
But moving on.
I had predicted that Serpico had been saved from death by being turned into an Intelligent Construct that looks entirely human which would be explained through the Sunbringers who also don't look like robots. This was confirmed but this theory was founded on the idea that Icarus was the identity of at least one of the two voices from Where the Miracle Began. I called them Epaphus. In a revised theory, it became clear in v3.1's story that Icarus is definitely not related to Epaphus. Instead, Serpico was just Mosseint's pawn and likely the one using Youkai as the Bangboo virus. That part ended up also confirmed but with a caveat. Serpico is probably just dead. His humanlike robot body is Youkai. (actually robots possessed by Youkai who could pass for living creatures was already seen in v2.8 with the Romeul clones)
This also builds into the B Team theory that is no longer a B Team just a B Side of the story because again that side of the story was meant to deal with Mosseint and specifically Youkai. I hope in v3.3 we'll still get Rain vs Youkai because if it's just Phaethon it ruins it a little. They'd hinted about Rain coming back into the story a few times in the Season 2 Epilogue patches and a hacker is the best opponent for a computer virus.
Speaking of Serpico being Youkai, I had never once believed that Sunbringer was a robot. It didn't make sense. I did buy the idea that the current Sunbringers were though because one look at Lindverne's "horns" screams antenna. There were theories suggesting that the Dracaene Ethereal was actually the Hive Lord Hollow and Sunbringer hadn't actually defeated it like the records said but I don't think anybody would have guessed that she was the hollow's original Enchainer thus there was never any need to defeat the hollow at all.
That said, I doubt it's as simple as that. Why of all six original Enchainers is Sunbringer on humanity's side? Why did Vike turn into a creature with a tail and the Enchainer larva look like any other Ethereal but Sunbringer just looks like a girl cosplaying as a dragon's human form? Why does she look like Kiana Kaslana?
I had a theory about miHoYo's intention for this game.. Based on the conclusion of Honkai Impact 3rd's Part 1, I suggested that the entire Zenless universe was manufactured by the good folks of the HI3 universe in order to perform the same miracle Kiana had, getting the Cocoon of Finality to side with humanity. When Kiana became the Herrscher of Finality, she stopped the cocoon from resetting the world again. That meant the Imaginary Tree stopped plaguing the world with honkai, its method for pruning the leaves that it felt were lost causes. If they could get the tree on their side, why not the Sea of Quanta as well? It is a far greater undertaking but if it could be done, humanity would have no more existential threats.
My other related theory was that Sunbringer is an emissary of the Imaginary Tree who failed and this is why the Zenless universe is in the sorry state it's in. However these theories conflict as they are. If the HI3 universe deliberately made the situation in Zenless as bad as it is to lure out the Sea of Quanta, why would they also have a Will of the Honkai in this universe? Wouldn't it complicate things? How would they get an emissary to show up in this universe in the first place? But now if the real Sunbringer was an Enchainer, that resolves the problem. This universe needs to focus on the Sea of Quanta so they need an inside man and who better to cover for a Herrscher of Finality that could potentially get through to the Creator than the Creator's own brand of "Herrscher?"
How could they even hope to do this? Well, they already did. Also in HI3, the humans of the Previous Era were able to replace the Cocoon of Finality with Prometheus. Prometheus under the guise of the Will of the Honkai then manipulated all of the events of HI3's current era which led to the creation of K-423 instead of the real Kiana Kaslana, Durandal. Then this clone of Kiana eventually became the Herrscher of Finality that they needed. And that's the formula. The original Sunbringer is a "Prometheus" who took the place of the true original Hive Lord Hollow Enchainer in order to manipulate events in Zenless to accomplish the same goal. And that's my Kiana Sisters Arc theory.
Remember this from the Prophecy music video?
Side Note: Her eyes could now make even more sense. Kiana's heterochromia was the result of the Herrscher of the Void activating inside of her and then Himeko suppressing it to let Kiana regain some measure of control over it. The yellow eye represents the Herrscher - Sirin who was being manipulated by the Will of the Honkai - and the blue eye is Kiana. Sunbringer could be the same with the yellow "HOV" eye representing her Enchainer self under the control of the Creator while the blue eye is the plant.
Youkai is helping Mosseint get the Karma Cores out of the Sunbringers. He revealed that he knows what they really are. So he kidnapped Anby and ran experiments on her in a facility that housed devices to control Ethereals and a cage to suppress Lindverne.
My theory was that Sunbringer is no Herrscher of Finality. Just like Prometheus, she's just the mole in the operation that can get us a Herrscher of Finality. Cloning was the means back in HI3 so why wouldn't it work this time? So Sunbringer and Arche's early experiments were to clone Sunbringer in order to gain a copy that had the potential to become the Creator's one true Enchainer. Sigrid is a Durandal expy and therefore might be a clone but she's a failure because she has no Void Hunter potential. Her lore states she may be powerful like one but that's not the same thing. (that's why both Durandal and Sigrid have Kiana's natural blue eyes with no hint of yellow) Phoenix may be another clone which is where her resurrection power comes from. The devs even give Lindverne the line that if Phoenix had been Sigrid, she might believe her surviving a fall to the ground from Booastrum. (this is also more likely the reason she'll be central to v3.3's story and not just because she's from High Ambitions Corp) Anyway if you wanted to create tech that could cage a Sunbringer, wouldn't a really good idea be experimenting on someone with a blueprint of her physical properties and virtually none of her immense Enchainer power? (physical properties particularly her Enchainer nature seeing as how Anby and her sisters all have yellow eyes) TOPS already knew Anby was active thanks to the events of v1.6. They'd know she survived the Silver Squad program and it'd be easy enough to find out she was now a member of the street level Cunning Hares Faction.
Cissia is still as suspicious as ever. She's already happened to do several things that are questionable like bungling security at Gilded Carrot Day which let Youkai hack in, speaking in Youkai's defense when it was using the robo Romeuls to talk, blurting out the exact circumstances that Nicole encountered that prevented her from taking part in the Hollow Champion contest which then let her take Nicole's place and somehow planting a bug on a first gen Void Hunter which shocked everyone including Remielle herself.
Now she magically knew Carinus was the turncoat? And she just happened to be the one that knocked Phoenix out when Phoenix was trying to seek out Phaethon. Now Phoenix gets to do so on the ground away from Roscaelifer which has been hacked by Youkai. And Cissia was originally going to go with Phaethon and Billy to Vyrium but changed plans at the last second so now the Proxy's sibling has someone to protect them since they had decided to go to Vyrium later. And Billy got to reunite with the Cunning Hares too.
Side Note: You could actually figure out that it was Carinus though because he is named after the last Roman Emperor of the Crisis of the Third Century who was killed by his own men due to his incompetence. This led to Diocletian's rise and reformation of the empire into the Tetrarchy which saved it from falling. Carinus will likely have a similar storyline, possibly intending to become the puppet leader of Roscaelifer under TOPS. (And also I mean you could figure it out because the man looks creepy as all get out!)
However, my original prediction was actually the reverse. Since I was hoping for a B Team instead of the story still focusing on Phaethon, I wanted Cissia back on the ground dealing with the TOPS side of things while Nicole would act as liaison between the two sides. Now it looks like Nicole's on the ground team while it's Cissia that'll be able to make contact because of Severian.
Also given her strong reaction to Billy's S-Rank makeover, I think that helps my prediction that Season 3's Epilogue will give us an S-Rank upgrade for her just like Season 1's Epilogue gave us Soldier 0 and Season 2's gave us Silly.
I was not counting on v3.2 to draw upon so many of my predictions. Let's run down the list:
- The update rollout for this year includes switching gears from Roscaelifer to reveal the TOPS side of the story in v3.2 and v3.3. Then v3.4 will reconvene for the climax back up in Roscaelifer.
- Some disproven parts of my prediction are a result of my wanting Phaethon to only be involved with Roscaelifer and Sunbringer while a more fitting team dealt with Youkai and TOPS.
- Serpico was turned into a humanlike Intelligent Construct just like Romeul in v2.8. Youkai is assisting Mosseint and using this robot body.
- Sunbringer was revealed to not be an Intelligent Construct of course. But she's probably not just a simple Enchainer either.
- Sunbringer is more likely the Enchainer replacement but in a much more significant way than just becoming a Karma Core carrier like the other Void Hunters. She's meant to be the Prometheus for this game and achieve the same goal of creating a "Herrscher of Finality."
- Youkai wanted to create a cage to contain Lindverne. He experimented on Anby for that purpose. This is because Anby is one of Sunbringer's clones of herself in order to create that Herrscher of Finality just like K-423 was a clone of Kiana Kaslana.
- Cissia is as sus as ever. She predicted that Carinus was the inside man. She also set things up perfectly so that she could protect the Phaethon sibling while likely still being able to contact Severian thus letting our player Phaethon and their group know what's happening up there.
- Nicole's reaction to Billy's upgrades might confirm that she will get her upgrade in this season's epilogue.