Exploring the Honkai Universe
Foreword
If you have played any of miHoYo’s games, chances are you’ve seen people talk about ‘the multiverse’ and ‘the Imaginary Tree’. It’s definitely an interesting subject: The idea that all these games are linked in some way. The problem is, there’s also a very large chance you’ve been told wrong things.
Note: Hoyoverse is a global brand for the company miHoYo
Today we’re going to take a deep dive into the concept of the ‘Honkai Universe’. A narrative framework miHoYo has been building up since 2014.
Before we get started, we’re going to have to discuss some ‘ground rules’.
Behold, the Tenets of Lore
1) Translation cannot be trusted
There are many reasons a localisation might differ from the original. Some changes are intentional, some accidental. Regardless, it makes the translated texts very unreliable, and miHoYo’s work is full of discrepancies between versions. This is why it’s important to check the Chinese text as well when possible.
2) Be careful about hearsay.
There is a lot of untranslated content. Unless you see a proper translation, take anything people say about the Chinese texts with a grain of salt.
3) Anything said by a character can be wrong.
miHoYo loves to tell the story through characters that have a very limited perspective. Major parts of the story revolve around these characters verifying their theories and subverting their understanding of the universe they inhabit. As such, any descriptions given regarding the nature of the universe have good odds of being subverted or recontextualised in later stories.
4) Narrators will often use a character’s perspective.
miHoYo likes to cheat with its narration. While the narrator may give info the characters are not aware of, it is very common for miHoYo’s narration to bind itself to a character’s perspective. As such, lines like ‘he was dead’ may be bound to a character’s conviction that someone’s dead, whereas in reality said person may still be alive.
5) There’s always something missing.
This is perhaps the most annoying part. miHoYo’s lore is vast and spread across lots of different media. Bits of lore and many author’s notes get stuck behind language barriers or buried in obscure posts on social media platforms. We’re also missing transcripts for lots of content. This page will be delving into the stuff we managed to dig up and discover, but keep in mind that there is always something more, and often small details that could change the perspective on a piece of lore greatly.
Aside from this webpage, we also recommend looking into the Hoyodex wiki. It’s currently still small and under development, but it’s growing alright. We try to include sources and Chinese texts, and are also making terminology pages that can help us try and make sense of the cosmology.
This webpage alone cannot cover everything there is to say, so we’ll try and stick to the most important parts. This page is not the incontestible truth. We intend to update and improve it as more discoveries are made, and our understanding of these moments and concepts changes.
Extra note:
Sharing this page around is encouraged and appreciated. However, please remain polite and civil when discussing these topics. We’ve seen some people present this page in a hostile manner, and it doesn’t reflect well on us and our community. We’re here to have fun and figure things out.
History of the Honkai Universe
Guns GirlZ
In 2014, miHoYo’s first live service game was coasting off the back of a strong release. Bēnghuài Xuéyuán 2, which would later be known worldwide by the titles Houkai Gakuen 2 and Guns GirlZ, GGZ for short, became their first big ongoing narrative experience, succeeding the short lived and storyless Bēnghuài Xuéyuán.
GGZ introduced us to some major members of the recurring cast, including Kiana Kaslana, Raiden Mei and Bronya Zaychik.
According to miHoYo CEO Cai Haoyu, it was in 2014 that miHoYo came up with the idea of building a shared lore for their stories. In broad strokes, Cai Haoyu and Liu Wei compared this to the Marvel Universe. This idea was ‘the Honkai Universe’, and would also serve them in their long term goal to build an immersive ‘metaverse’.
…our company has a goal in mind, which is to create the Honkai Universe. Something like a meta universe we mentioned recently, I guess. We first had this idea in 2014, long before we started Genshin Impact. It is not difficult to see our goal if you look at our history. To see the games we made from Guns GirlZ to Honkai Impact and Genshin Impact.
Sure enough, head writer Lingyi Niang produced a story that would lay the foundations for it.
Announced late 2014 and published early 2015, ‘Otherworld’ was a story event that explored the protagonist Kiana Kaslana meeting with the mysterious K.K, an alternate world version of her called Kevin Kaslana. Kevin became a minor antagonist and was given a boss battle in the game.
The event itself left it up to the players’ imagination whether this Kevin was real or not.
“It’s just that our worlds are relatively close to each other, so you will come here in a dream.”
只不过我们的世界相邻的比较近，所以你会在梦中来到这里。
This story was also the first time a playable character died, as Kevin solidified himself as the antagonist by killing Bronya Zaychik. Since this was a parallel world, it essentially gave the writer free reign to do whatever she wanted.
This event would later be rewritten as a short light novel posted through the game’s social media. This time, the idea that it could be a dream was scrapped, confirming beyond a doubt that this Kevin is indeed real, and he is from a parallel world.
“You mean… this world is a hypothetical world created by the Honkai?”
Faced with Kiana’s question, Kevin shook his head.
“In areas where the source of Honkai is strong, the original laws of nature will be disrupted and even time and space will be distorted. But this world is not a fake created by the Honkai, but a world that actually exists in the Universe.”
“What do you mean!?”
“Yes, for each different choice, a new parallel world will be generated in the universe.”
Kevin turned his head and looked at Kiana: “And this is but one of many worldlines that diverge with Kevin Kaslana’s decisions at the centre.
Everything you see is just a bubble in the tiny Universe.”
“你是说……这个世界是由崩坏制造出来的假想世界么？”
面对琪亚娜的疑问，凯文摇了摇头。
“在崩坏源强烈的地段，原本自然的规律都会被打乱，就连时空都会遭到扭曲。但是这个世界却不是由崩坏所创造出来的赝品，而是真实存在于宇宙中的世界。”
“你的意思难道是！？”
“没错，根据每一个不同的选择，宇宙中就会生成一个新的平行世界。”
说着凯文回过了头看向了琪亚娜：“而这里，则是以凯文•卡斯兰娜的选择为中心，扩散出来的庞大世界线中的一条罢了——
你所看到的一切，也只不过是渺小宇宙中的一抹泡影而已。”
During the story, we are given a look at how miHoYo handles the concept of ‘parallel worlds’.
Using this info, the model for the universe would look like this:
Some of you may recognise this as a version of ‘Many Worlds Interpretation’, which forms the basis for lots of media’s versions of a Multiverse. It is however immediately noticeable that they did not choose to adopt the popular version of the terminology. The popular version is a ‘multiverse’ containing ‘universes’. Instead they chose the idea of the ‘universe’ containing many ‘worlds’, which is more in line with the MWI’s original description. This will be very relevant later.
One small extra note: The concept of ‘bubble worlds’ as we know them is not yet established here. When Kevin says ‘bubbles in a tiny universe’, he’s referring to the limitations of 3D spatial structures or ‘conventional’ space. This concept will be touched upon again later.
Houkai3rd
Later in 2015, GGZ ended the run of its EX manga series after only one story: Sakura Arc. Shortly thereafter, they started the Bēnghuài 3 manga, also known as Houkai3rd , which used the EX manga as a part of its story, but otherwise diverged strongly from the stories told in GGZ.
This release was a tumultuous time, and we saw two other building blocks for the Universe appear around this time: The aforementioned novel style rewrite of Kevin’s Otherworld story, and the arrival of Seele Vollerei, whose storyline introduced the concept of Quantum mechanics into the lore.
You can find confirmation that the Houkai3rd storyline was set in an alternate worldline to GGZ’s storyline in the old notes from Houkai3rd’s Sakura Remembrance arc, and the more recent Second Eruption series.
The fact that these were parallel stories was very palpable. Characters would appear in GGZ, and soon after they would pop up in Houkai3rd, and vice versa.
Honkai Impact 3rd
In 2016, Bēnghuài 3 launched as a game using the global title Honkai Impact 3rd, continuing the story they set up in the manga.
Not long after, the manga arc Azure Waters came out with more backstory for Bronya Zaychik and Seele Vollerei in Houkai3rd’s worldline. Lingyi made a special post recontextualising the manga for GGZ too, so that it would count for both stories.
Lingyi would remain the head writer for GGZ and a new team would be formed to write the continuation of HI3. Lingyi did remain involved to write the first coloured series of the HI3 manga that came out after the game’s launch. Her current level of involvement with HI3 is unknown.
Stigma Spaces
The Gratitude Arc of the Houkai3rd manga introduced us to Yae Sakura’s Stigma Space. Stigma Spaces would become a recurring concept in the games, most famously explored in the Firemoth DLC storyline of GGZ.
Stigma Spaces would exist outside of the regular world as dreamlike metaphysical dataspaces, tied to a character’s ‘Stigma’, a genetic marker of sorts. Characters would be able to project their minds into these spaces and experience all sorts of strange scenarios.
Samsara
In 2017, GGZ ended its first storyline with a bombastic finale. This finale is often mistakenly thought to be the actual ending of the game, but that is not true. The first storyline was labelled ‘Retro’, and then a second one started called ‘Reborn’.
It was also revealed that the world was locked in a Samsara. A repeating cycle of sorts. The ‘Samsara’ as a concept was introduced into these stories earlier during the Gratitude Arc of the Houkai3rd manga, but this was the first time it took on such a massive scale. That being said, hints of its existence had been laid out throughout the stories prior, so it’s not known how long this had been planned.
Samsaras would become a recurring theme in these games, and a defining factor for both GGZ and HI3’s Earths.
Anti-Entropy VN
Also in 2017, miHoYo began the release of a Visual Novel about Anti-Entropy, detailing some world history for Honkai Impact 3rd. This VN incorporated alternate versions of real life scientists, such as Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Schrödinger and Thomas Edison.
They also made heavy use of academic theories, referencing Feynman’s take on Quantum Physics as well as Stephen Hawking’s description of M Theory, which posits the Universe as an 11 dimensional structure. The latter is called out explicitly when a sentient Benjamin Franklin dollar bill talks to Edison (it’s a weird story).
1. The story still adheres to the preestablished concept of several timelines. ‘Possibilities’ can be sacrificed for power.
2. The Universe is 11D. Higher dimensional beings exist and can observe.
The “string theory ” in theoretical physics (later developed as “M
theory”) believes that all elementary particles can be [expressed] as special X
[waves] in a special space (ten-dimensional) (called “strings”) , “String ” is
represented by the more essential “brane” in M theory). Therefore, it is
based on eleven-dimensional space-time (ten-dimensional space plus one
dimensional time).
“People are very fortunate to discover a new kind of symmetry…. One
way is to say that time and space have additional dimensions besides the
dimensions we experience . These dimensions are called Glassman dimensions
because they are used The number of the so- called Grassmann variable is
not measured by the usual real numbers…. For a positivist like me, the
question of’do extra dimensions really exist?’ is meaningless. People can only
ask at most : Can a mathematical model with extra dimensions describe the
universe well ? “
-Stephen Hawking , “The Universe in a Nutshell”
Genshin Impact
Also in 2017, miHoYo began work on a new property: Genshin Impact. Using the working title ‘Honkai 4’. It would allow them to expand upon the Honkai Universe as a concept. Using the same main cast and themes as GGZ and HI3 as building blocks, they built a new fantasy world for the game to explore. They also drew inspiration from an old project that never became a full game known to fans as Legend of Saha.
However, miHoYo did have a problem. At the time, they had applied for the stock market, but were denied on the basis of having only one major IP: Honkai. So they did a little trick. They didn’t put the word ‘Honkai’ in the title.
Funnily enough, this would end up not mattering much because they withdrew their application for the stock market.
Whether they had ever planned to include the word in the title is unknown. However, Cai Haoyu’s own words did confirm that the game was designed as a Honkai game from the outset.
Sanguine Nights
Aside from HI3’s main story, miHoYo had been running time limited events. However, since these events weren’t allowed to affect the main story too much, these were often fluff. The writers weren’t happy about that, so they decided to make use of their cosmology to craft a new continuous storyline independent from the main story, told in installments through these events.
This new storyline would follow the adventures of the faceless ‘Captain’, a mysterious character from whose perspective we play with a big helping of reverse dramatic irony, as the character is privy to a great deal of knowledge the player is not. He was loosely based on the player persona, also called Captain, and the players would experience these stories from his perspective, hiding his face behind the camera.
This storyline, later dubbed ‘Captain’s Bizarre Adventure’, known as Captainverse for short, would follow the Captain in a non-chronological quest across many worlds.
Sanguine Nights introduced the concept of ‘Consciousness Mapping’, a practice wherein a character could control another person by mapping onto them in another world. The story showed us another world where vampires roamed, and familiar characters had different lives. It did not yet establish that the worlds the Captain visited were of a different kind to the established Earths of GGZ and HI3’s main story.
Second Eruption
The Second Eruption manga arc for Honkai Impact 3rd gave us a little more insight into the Samsara cycle on HI3’s Earth. It also gave us a plethora of author’s notes. One such note is the one we mentioned earlier that reaffirms HI3’s story is in an alternate worldline to GGZ’s.
Another important note is the explanation of the concept of Imaginary Space.
Firstly, an explanation on what an Imaginary Space is.
Generally speaking, within our experiments we have tested a constant relationship (such as that of the length or size of objects, the order which time follows, increments of speed, etc.) which have allowed us to determine that there is only a single space in which they exist at the same time, and is also the four dimensional space around us (the only space of real numbers).
If this four dimensional space (space + time) is seen as a single “World Sphere”, then all the space outside of this sphere would be Imaginary Space. Imaginary Spaces can exist in infinite amounts.
As the capability of Sirin is to connect the bond between spaces of real and imaginary numbers, she reflects what exists within the space of imaginary numbers into that of real numbers, in that manner transforming them into tangible objects. That is also why Judah was easily pierced by a Subspace Lance, as it was an intangible object prior to the transformation into a Subspace Lance, and as such could not interfere with objects existing within the space of real numbers.
It is only as Sirin uses it that it acquires the various properties of tangible objects. As such Theresa is heavily harmed, as in that moment the Subspace Lance was completely reflected as a tangible, existing object.
In this translation, we used the word ‘world sphere’. It is worth noting that in English terminology for Many-Worlds Interpretation, this concept is often referred to as a ‘world bubble’, but since it’s a different term from ‘bubble world’ entirely, it seemed like a bad call to use it, as ‘bubble worlds’ will also be coming up soon.
Durandal VN
In 2018, the Durandal Visual Novel would give us the introduction of another major concept within the lore: The Sea of Quanta.
Otto Apocalypse explained the Sea of Quanta as an existence between dimensional manifolds. A chaotic space parallel to the ‘conventional’ world.
The VN follows Bianka Ataegina and Rita Rossweisse as they enter a specific world in this Sea. The world they visit turns out to have a rich and tumultuous history, and is shown to be a place where many lost things in the Sea may end up.
Mathematically speaking, the “Sea of Quanta” does not belong to the known 4-dimensional space, instead our “here” is a “Parallel World” that exists in parallel to it.
[…]
Unlike the “classic dimension” we live in, the “Sea of Quanta” is “fragmented” on a large scale—
Basic physical laws change continuously as the coordinates shift, resulting in the worlds being unstable like soap bubbles—
—However, in the gap between said fragmented worlds, there are countless “stable zones” fixated by the “Ether Anchor”.
Those worlds, like ours, follow a fixed set of laws.
从数学上概括的话，“量子之海”不属于已知的四维时空，是平行于我们而存在的一大类“折叠位面”；
[…]
和我们生存于其间的“经典时空”不同，“量子之海“在大尺度下可谓“支离破碎”——
甚至连基本的物理参数也会随着坐标的偏移而不断变化，世界们就像肥皂泡一般毫无稳定性可言——
——但就是在这种支离破碎之间，却也存在着无数被“以太锚点”所“锚定”的“稳定岛”；
那里的世界，就像我们这里一样，自有一套固定的法则。
During the VN, we get another more detailed explanation of the Sea of Quanta from ‘Iron Mask’, who has been in the Sea for a while at this point.
“量子之海”并非真实的海洋。
它既不属于某颗特定的星球，也不是由水这样的液态流体构成的。
事实上，你应该把它当作某种不属于任何“单个宇宙”的“基石”，当作一种能够承载各种可能世界的“介质”。
坦率地说，我们无法在3维或4维的数学体系里，完整描绘它的结构——
但这并不妨碍我们，将各种各样、由相同或不同的基本维度和基本法则展开的、千差万别的宇宙，想象成一个又一个的“世界泡”——
——在这种比喻的意义上，“量子之海”，就是那个容纳着所有“世界泡”的“海洋”。
……嗯，其实你喜欢的话，也可以把它当成一口浴缸。
因为，构成“量子之海”的“以太”，它们在“涨落”中会自然形成各种“膜”，而这些“膜”都有机会进化成“世界泡”。
我们知道，三维的肥皂泡会形成一个近似二维的球面；
而这些“世界泡”，对于“以太浴缸”所拥有的全部11个维度，其继承也各有“取舍”。
举例来说，我们熟知的“那个宇宙”，就是一类“4个维度无限延伸、7个维度有限蜷缩、并且各种常数均符合日常经验”的“膜”。
而你们的奥托主教所称的“锚点”，应该就是指那些可以将“膜”稳定成“世界泡”的偶然机遇或特殊结构。
当两张稳定的“膜”的“相似性距离”足够小时，它们就会互相产生影响——比如物质上的交流。
一般来说，物质从“较小的膜”前往“较大的膜”是容易的，但反过来则很难——
——这样，“较小的膜”在结构上就很容易发生退化，并导致它可以被更多其他的“膜”所影响。
最终的结果，就是形成一类被称为“投影”的特殊“膜”：
在“投影”上，只有受到其他“膜”稳定影响的区域还保持着存在——其余的空间，则完全消失于无形。
作为一个实例，“喀里多尼亚号”目前所在的“世界”，正是一个由若干性质相似的“膜”所共享的“投影”。
也因为如此，来自某一个世界的你们，才会成为来自另一个世界的“船长莎士比亚”的客人。
From these explanations, we can discern several things:
- The Sea of Quanta is like an Ether Bathtub, and it is an 11D structure.
- You can think of the conventional universe as an 11D structure. Note that one of those dimensions is ‘time’, meaning the universe could still follow the same structure as previously described. (Kevin’s description) However, Iron Mask brushes over this.
- The Ether Bathtub is filled with smaller, less complete ‘universes’ you could call ‘Bubble Worlds’.
- Bubble worlds can inherit any number of dimensions (measurable extents) from the Ether Bathtub.
- Bubble worlds find more stability near Ether Anchor Points.
- There may be other universes of the 11D scale.
- Iron Mask initially uses ‘universes’ as a layman’s understanding of what a Bubble World entails, but then clarifies that ‘The Universe as we know it’ is an 11D structure.
- The text does not clarify whether the ‘real worlds’ in the explanation are analogous to universes.
It is worth noting that Captain Shakespeare aloofly refers to the theory as a Multiverse theory.
We also witness several ways character alternate versions can exist. We see the Star Whisperers, reflections of data of ‘real’ people. One such Star Whisperer is Anna Charles Darwin, whose counterpart in the ‘real’ world died as a child, but we also see people who simply existed in other worlds as alternate versions and ended up falling into the Sea.
Project: Genshin
Also in 2018, miHoYo released the first chapter of the Genshin Impact manga. It opened with the character of Venti, who seemed strangely reminiscent of Honkai Impact 3rd’s Wendy. Venti would then also mention the name Murata, which was very familiar to GGZ and HI3 players as it’s a name shared with Murata Himeko.
The manga does not specify what kind of world the story takes place in cosmologically.
The year after that, GGZ would introduce its own version of Wendy, solidifying the connection between the games.
The MWI problem
Starting from chapter 9 EX2 and heading into the arc of chapter 10-12, we saw what is often called the ‘Sea of Quanta arc’. During this arc in 2019, we were formally introduced to the concept of the Sea of Quanta in the game of Honkai Impact 3rd itself.
Once observed, a quantum collapses countless parallel universes to form one specific universe.
This is the basis of the famous Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI).
[…]
Assume the Universe as a glass of water surrounded by an infinite number of other glasses of water.
Overflowing water will flow along the glass walls to form a puddle in the middle of the table.
This puddle does not belong to any glass… but the water of the puddle may be from any glass.
[…]
People of the Previous Era found this “puddle” dimension between the parallel universes.
This “puddle” was named as the Sea of Quanta.
[…]
It’s just a theory… and no one ever saw the other end of the Sea of Quanta.
宇宙间万物都由量子组成，而量子具有不确定性。
当量子被观测时，会从无数个不同状态的平行宇宙中坍塌出一个特定的宇宙。
这就是量子物理中著名的多世界诠释 (The many-worlds interpretation)。
[…]
如果，把我们的宇宙看作是一杯水，那么在它周围还有无数个相似但不相同的水杯。
现在，让杯子的水往外溢出，沿着杯壁流动，在桌子中心处汇聚成一个小水洼。
这个“水洼”不属于任何一个“杯子”，但水洼中的每一滴“水”都可能来自任何一个“杯子”。
[…]
前文明纪元的人发现，在平行宇宙之间确实存在着这样一个神奇的维度。
——他们将这片“杯子之间的水洼”称作量子之海。
[…]
理论终究只是理论而已，没有人亲眼见识过量子之海的另一头是什么。
This is also where we’ll have to address the elephant in the room: The translations.
From this point onwards, miHoYo will be fairly consistent with its usage of terminology. But not before one last confusing notion.
宇宙 (yǔzhòu)(uchū) means ‘universe’, ‘cosmos’ or ‘(outer) space’.
世界 (shìjiè)(sekai) means ‘world’.
世界泡 (shìjiè pào) means ‘bubble world’.
Einstein however says 平行宇宙, meaning parallel universe, whereas later on this would always be 平行世界, meaning parallel world.
This is where it gets really complicated from a linguistic point of view.
First things first, let’s discuss MWI.
Many-Worlds Interpretation is a theory for the structure of existence that likens the universe to a sort of ‘tree’, with each branch representing a branch in time.
It essentially states that the universe consists of ‘many worlds’ as the name implies.
MWI was proposed to ‘fix’ a problem with modern Quantum Physics. Scientific Theory is built on a simple principle: Cause and effect. We identify causes through observing effects, and we predict effects by observing causes. This means that modern science functions on the presumption of a ‘deterministic’ universe, where everything has a discernible relationship and everything can be ‘solved’.
Quantum physicists ran into a problem when they found special circumstances (let’s refer to these as ‘Quantum Events’) wherein no singular mathematical conclusion could be drawn. In other words: It contradicted the basis upon which modern science is built. If the effect of a ‘Quantum Event’ is not a singularly determinable outcome, then cause-and-effect is void.
MWI fixes this problem by stating that the effects of such a Quantum Event are simply all simultaneously true. If you liken a Quantum Event to a coin flip, then rather than the coin landing heads or tails, it lands both. The world simply splits off into two different versions: One where the coin lands heads, and one where it lands tails.
The theory has many different versions and variants, with each interpretation differing in the details. Nevertheless, the ‘core’ version of the theory is often considered DeWitt’s interpretation of the Everett- proposal.
Popularly, human choices are often regarded as Quantum Events in media interpretations, despite this having no significant scientific basis.
Due to the existence of many versions of this theory, there also exist several approaches to its terminology. Most popular media, including informative media, will ‘simplify’ the theory by regarding the ‘worlds’ in the theory as the ‘conventional universe’, i.e. a 3 dimensional structure. Then the ‘universe’ in the theory becomes a ‘multiverse’.
So in comes the question: Does miHoYo do this? Well, up to this point, yes and no.
Kevin’s explanation of the Universe stuck closer to the terminology of the core version of the theory.
Iron Mask likened Bubble Worlds to universes in layman’s terms, hence the word ‘imagine’, but she did stick to the idea that the Universe itself is an 11D structure.
Einstein uses the popular version instead, but only in this chapter.
Starting from the next chapter onwards, they always stick closer to the classic MWI terminology rather than the popular version, leaving Einstein’s explanation an anomaly.
A world is the totality of macroscopic objects: stars, cities, people, grains of sand, etc. in a definite classically described state.
The concept of a “world” in the MWI belongs to part (ii) of the theory, i.e., it is not a rigorously defined mathematical entity, but a term defined by us (sentient beings) to describe our experience. When we refer to the “definite classically described state” of, say, a cat, it means that the position and the state (alive, dead, smiling, etc.) of the cat is specified according to our ability to distinguish between the alternatives, and that this specification corresponds to a classical picture, e.g., no superpositions of dead and alive cats are allowed in a single world.
Another concept, which is closer to Everett’s original proposal, see Saunders 1995, is that of a relative, or perspectival world defined for every physical system and every one of its states: following Lewis 1986 we call it a centered world. This concept is useful when a world is centered on a perceptual state of a sentient being. In this world, all objects which the sentient being perceives have definite states, but objects that are not under observation might be in a superposition of different (classical) states. The advantage of a centered world is that a quantum phenomenon in a distant galaxy does not split it, while the advantage of the definition presented here is that we can consider a world without specifying a center; our usual language is just as useful for describing worlds that existed at times when there were no sentient beings.
The concept of a world in the MWI is based on the layman’s conception of a world; however, several features are different. Obviously, the definition of the world as everything that exists does not hold in the MWI. “Everything that exists” is the Universe, and there is only one Universe. The Universe incorporates many worlds similar to the one the layman is familiar with. A layman believes that our present world has a unique past and future. According to the MWI, a world defined at some moment of time corresponds to a unique world at a time in the past, but to a multitude of worlds at a time in the future.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/#QuanStatWorl
So what gives? How can we explain Einstein’s inconsistent use of terminology? Well, there are several possible explanations.
1) The people working on the story were not all on the same page about what version of the terminology to use.
This theory does have some basis, as when Einstein is explaining the ‘glass of water’ comparison, the background shows ‘world’ in the place of each glass rather than universe. miHoYo also is known to often leave writing errors be without addressing them.
By the next chapter, Bronya is already quoting Einstein’s conversation using the word ‘worlds’ instead of ‘universes’, as if Einstein never used the term ‘universes’ to begin with.
(The translation does not reflect this, instead keeping ‘universes’)
2) It doesn’t matter.
The terms 平行宇宙 (parallel universe) and 平行世界 (parallel world) are functionally interchangeable in most media. This is because when most media that brings up the concept of a parallel universe it remains rather limited in the scope of what is explored, ensuring there is functionally no difference between the two terms. The translation for HI3 would choose this approach, taking the popular ‘many universes’ version of the Many-World Interpretation as its basis.
This however has massive issues down the line both in the Chinese text and in the translations.
Within the translations, we find that the English version would translate 世界(world) as universe and as world interchangeably, but the word 宇宙(universe) as universe as well. This essentially gives you ‘a universe of universes’, which makes little sense. That being said, there is precedent for this kind of conflicting homonym version of universe to be used for both structures within a single text in write-ups about MWI.
In the Chinese texts, this one of very few instances 平行宇宙 (parallel universe) is used (that we have found thus far). Another time is when we later meet a character in GGZ who outright rejects the idea of parallel universes, as separate universes by nature cannot be parallel.
Meanwhile, the concept of a ‘multiverse’ does appear in later lore, meaning that the 11D universe cannot properly be described as a multiverse of many universes without messing with terminology higher up the ladder.
Nevertheless, it is possible that at this point in time, miHoYo had either not chosen a consistent definition for these terms, or they chose character perspective over rigid lore.
3) Einstein’s uninformed.
Einstein admits herself that she knows very little about the concept in comparison. Anti-Entropy has not been able to explore the concept in great depth, and the Sea of Quanta is beyond her understanding.
From this context, it is believable that Einstein would use simplified ‘layman’s terms’ when trying to explain the concept to Bronya.
Worth noting is that after this point, Einstein too would adhere to the classic MWI terminology that posits the universe as an 11D structure of many worlds.
Regardless of which of the above reasons is correct, the Chinese text moved on to consistently use classic MWI terminology, whereas the English localisation would continue to flip flop between translations, creating a confusing and muddy mess.
Going forward, the exact scope of ‘worlds’ would largely depend on the context of whoever’s speaking.
However, MWI does not provide proper terminology for anything between the scope of a world and ‘everything’. Wanting to delve into concepts like the Sea of Quanta and other structures outside or encompassing the 11D megastructure of the Many-Worlds tree, miHoYo chose to break the rule that the Universe is ‘everything’, instead making it a description of a connected space-time over 11 dimensions.
From the Deep Ocean
After the interaction with Einstein, we get some exploration of the Sea of Quanta, and we learn several more things:
- Characters with sufficient control can manipulate spaces and ‘create’ bubble worlds to some extent.
- Bubble worlds can have reflections of ‘real’ worlds, including alternate versions of people.
Seed of Sumeru
The ‘Seed of Sumeru’ is a bubble world tied to the 2nd Divine Key that contains a tree. This tree is crowned by leaves, each representing ‘a possibility’. Using this tree, Su would observe alternate worlds to look for methods to defeat the Honkai. He specifically observed worlds that had close proximity to his own, as all that mattered was finding an answer to how his world could survive.
After the plot in the Seed of Sumeru is resolved, the 2nd Key returns to normal behaviour and a plethora of stars become visible through the portal.
Su notes that the worlds that fail to defeat the Honkai eventually lose stability and deconstruct into bubble worlds before eventually dissolving.
Notably, the official translations swap world for universe in most cases and even makes the terrible mistake of stating worlds on the Imaginary Tree are bubble worlds, which they are not.
The Imaginary Tree
During Chapter 17 of Honkai Impact 3rd, Otto Apocalypse, after studying notes left from the Previous Era and working at it for 500 years, explains a metaphor of a Tree of Imaginary Numbers, called the Imaginary Tree in translation.
It’s a huge tree, it’s peak cannot be seen, its branches and leaves cover the sky.
Under the tree, there is a vast sea, its depth undetectable, and its boundaries untouchable.
Between the heaven and earth, there is only one Tree and one Sea, so they began a never-ending competition.
The Sea keeps expanding and accumulating, and the giant Tree keeps taking root and growing. While wanting to drown each other, they want to absorb each other.
The Tree spent a Gangā-Nadī-Vālukā of years under the infiltration of the Sea, split off into an asaṃkhyeya of branches, and bore a nayuta of leaves and flowers.
In the course of this endless cycle, in some insignificant corner, among the buds of a newborn plant, a civilization called humanity was born.
Imagine it! The Imaginary as the start of humanity and the beginning of civilization.
Time flows from the trunk of the Imaginary Tree, like a canopy, splitting out into an infinity of worlds.
Every branch is a form of civilized existence. Every flower and leaf is the present and the past they left in the dimension of time.
A mechanism of natural formation, a mechanism derived from the Imaginary, a mechanism of nurturing and nourishing, a mechanism of baptism and elimination.
For mankind, that is a disaster called Honkai.
That’s right, that’s right, humans will never be able to escape from Honkai.
Mankind can only move forward, because the Imaginary Tree must grow. If that was not the case, we would eventually decay and wither like those failed worlds, becoming another bubble in the Sea of Quanta.
If we want to achieve permanent tranquility, mankind must return to the starting point of civilization and return to the Imaginary.
And the answer I am looking for must exist in the Imaginary Tree-
“现在, 让我们想象一棵树, 虚数之树”
“有一棵巨大的树, 它的树尖目不能视, 它的枝叶遮蔽天空
“在树下, 是一片广袤的海, 它的深度无法探测, 它的边界不可触及。”
“天地间, 只有一树一海, 于是它们开始了永无止境的竞争。
“大海不断扩张积涨, 巨树不停扎根生长。 一边想要淹没对方, 一边想要吸收对方。”
“树在海的浸润下度过恒河沙的岁月, 分叉出阿僧祇的枝干, 结下了那由他的花叶。 ”
“就在这漫无尽期的过程中, 在某个微不足道的角落里, 在某株焕发新生的叶芽间“
“名为人类的文明, 诞生了。”
“想象一下! 虚数才是人类的起点, 是文明的起始”
“时间在虚数之树的树干上流动, 像树冠一样, 分叉出无限的世界。”
“每一株枝干, 都是一种文明存在的形式。 每一片花叶, 都是它们在时间维度中留下的现在与曾
经。”
“然而世界的发展需要约束。在与量子之海的竞争中, 枝叶生长的方向不断遭到一种机制的筛选与纠正。”
“一种自然形成的机制, 一种源于虚数的机制, 一种哺育、 滋养的机制, 一种洗礼、 淘汰的机制。”
“对于人类, 那便是名为崩坏的灾祸。”
“没错, 没错, 人类永远也无法逃离崩坏。”
“人类只能前进, 因为虚数之树必须生长。 若非如此, 我们终会像那些失败的世界一样衰败凋零, 成为量子之海中的另一个泡影。”
“若想获得永久的宁静, 人类就必须回归文明的起点, 回归于虚数。”
“而我所追寻的答案, 必然存在于那虚数之树中——”
In the official English translation ‘between Heaven and Earth’ is translated as ‘in the universe’. Machine Translation will say ‘in the world’. In actuality, it’s a fancy way to say ‘in existence’.
Gangā-Nadī-Vālukā, asaṃkhyeya and nayuta are all numerical units drawn from ancient language, and that carry significance in religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. They are ‘very large numbers’ which can often be used as a poetic representation of ‘countlesness’, but within this context may carry heavier religious implications, suggesting Otto may perceive the universe as cyclical in nature.
Whether the Sea of Quanta may be considered part of the same universe as the Imaginary Tree is up for debate, and this consideration might not be consistent from character perspective to character perspective.
Otto here describes the Imaginary Tree and the Sea of Quanta as a system of duality, where only these two structures exist and they are in constant battle. We know his assertion is not entirely correct, as there are other things around than one Tree and one Sea, but here he does lay the groundwork for what would become the semi-definitive model for the cosmology going forward.
His interpretation of the Honkai was going in the right direction, but would still prove to be flawed in later chapters.
At this point, lots of the terminology becomes way more solid. It is also worth noting that in many Chinese dialogues, the characters will not mention ‘The Universe’ , instead simply saying ‘The Imaginary Tree’ or ‘The Sea of Quanta’, which does relieve pressure from the terminology problem.
Rosemary and the Dragon
During this same arc, the 2nd Divine Key is used again and we catch a glimpse of other things happening throughout the universe.
Here we see Fallen Rosemary, a version of Rita that appeared in the Captainverse storyline, reestablishing that the Captainverse stories were happening out there somewhere in the Sea of Quanta.
We also get to see Dvalin, the wind dragon from Teyvat. It was then confirmed by the developers that this is indeed the case.
Tears of Themis
The next game to come out was Tears of Themis, a gacha where you play out a courtroom drama in a visual novel style, mixed with dating simulator mechanics for the 4 pretty men that help you on the case.
The game does not delve much into metaphysics. Although it contains many references and easter eggs towards the other games, there is neither confirmation nor denial that it is a part of the Honkai Universe.
Genshin Impact
Not so long thereafter, Genshin Impact released. Following one of two twins that had been traversing the Sea of Stars, but ended up stranded in the mysterious microcosm of Teyvat. The game stays true to the core identity of Honkai, sharing themes as well as alternate versions of the main cast, most of which fulfill key roles in the plot.
A Post Honkai Odyssey and Alien Space
HI3 released a special gamemode called ‘A Post Honkai Odyssey’, exploring the story of an alien invasion upon HI3’s Earth. As a companion piece, a manga called Alien Space was made, detailing some of Welt Yang’s history with these aliens, and forming a bridge to the new exciting adventures that would later turn out to be Honkai: Star Rail.
During the story, Welt discovers a secret plot of an alien civilisation called ‘the Sky People’ who scavenge worlds for Honkai energy. At one point, he sees a screen on a spaceship and recognises his student, Murata Himeko. This would turn out to be a different Himeko from another world. In Honkai: Star Rail, the Sky People would instead be translated as the Ones Above.
Here as well, the term ‘world’ is translated as ‘universe’ in the official translation, leading to lots of confusion among players regarding the scope of the story.
Honkai x Genshin
As a special event, miHoYo wanted to do a crossover between Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact. This came however with a problem: Being part of the same lore, having them cross over would have major implications.
To remedy this, they set the crossover event in three special ‘game proposals’, stories created by Otto in a parallel world storyline sometimes referred to by fans as Idolverse, known for its silly antics. This avoided compromising the storylines of both games.
In the English translation of info videos, the world of Honkai Impact 3rd is often referred to as ‘the Honkaiverse’. In Chinese however, the devs refer to it as ‘the world of Honkai’ instead.
This is not to be confused with The Honkai Universe , which is the English term CEO Cai Haoyu used to describe the shared Universe of these games.
Kolosten
The Kolosten arc in HI3 also gave us a couple more explanations of the Imaginary Tree. These were more designed to reinform lost players and to bring characters up to speed, as well as to set up its time travel shenanigans.
Nagamitsu gives us the database comparison:
- The Universe can be compared to a great game server. Different choices unlock different paths, but as the player you cannot see the other path, so your version of the game is your ‘reality’.
- If one were to theoretically go back to an earlier save point, one could replay that part and make a different choice.
Otto gives us the beach comparison:
- If you imagine lines of footsteps in the sand, then each different path someone chooses would create a different line.
- He quicky abandons the comparison because he can’t quite make it fit, returning to his trusty Tree analogy instead.
We also learn a couple more things:
- Beings do not have to be constrained by the flow of time.
- Time travel could be possible by destroying a worldline and reusing its energy to create a new one.
- It’s possible to use the ability of renormalisation to swap the properties of finity and infinity. This can be abused to make someone with infinite energy vulnerable, or to create new worlds from a point with no future.
The Moon’s Origin and Finality
HI3 would reach the end of Part 1 of its storyline in 2023, and during the final two arcs, several ideas were explored.
- It was shown that great cataclysm upon a regular world can cause new bubble worlds to get ‘shaved off’, creating a small unstable reflection of the regular world at the time of calamity.
- Miniature bubble worlds reflect other worlds.
- Symmetry breaking can cause strange phenomena, such as the creation of an anomalous person.
- Pseudo-time crystals can exist, wherein a segment of a world’s timelines can be perceived in a loop.
- While exploring spaces in the Sea of Quanta, characters happened upon a shadow of a character from Captainverse, once again connecting the storylines.
- The Honkai is controlled by a merged existence evolved from an alien civilisation that propagates by assimilating worlds through the Samsara process, using higher dimensional powers as tools in this process. (Nevertheless, the Honkai was still not fully understood. This is Dr MEI’s theory)
Firstly, as you know, the Sea of Quanta is not a real sea.
It does not belong on a particular planet, nor is it made of liquid substances like water.
To make it easier to understand, you can liken it to a foundation similar to the Imaginary Tree, a medium that can carry all sorts of parallel worlds.
If you’d like… think of it as bathtub filled with bubbles. When someone enters the tub, some of the bubbles will reflect the image of that person.
And because these bubbles reflect an image that exists in the real world, we can call them bubble worlds.
The size of each bubble world varies. The bigger the bubble world, the closer it is to a real world, and it is also less susceptible to external changes.
On the contrary, those miniature bubble worlds can be seen as mirrors in the real world. In fact, I’m using them as a means to communicate with all of you right now.
首先——如你所知，「量子之海」并非真实的海洋。它既不属于某颗特定的星球，也不是由水这样的液态流体构成的。
从方便理解的角度上说，你应该把它当作一种与虚数之树彼此相当的「基石」 ，一种能够承载各种可能世界的「介质」。
如果你喜欢的话……请不妨将它理解成一口充满泡泡的浴缸。有人入浴的时候 其中的一些泡泡就会映射出那个人的影子。
而因为在这些泡泡中实际保存下来的是所谓「现实世界」的影子——所以我们 会将它们称呼为「世界泡」。
世界泡的体量有大有小。越大的世界泡会越接近一个真实的世界，也越不容易 受到外在变化的自发影响;
而反过来，那些微型的世界泡则可以当作现实世界的一面镜子 现在和你们进行通信的方式也正基于此。
Lambda and Metanarrative
Throughout the entirety of HI3’s run, the writers have often played with presenting pieces of fiction in the story that reflect other stories within the same Universe. The creation of video games based on ‘real’ events or coincidentally reflecting them would become a recurring trope.
Lambda took this to a whole new level. AI-chan Lambda got a special event where it was shown that she had made a video game based on the events of HI3’s story, inspired by witnessing those events on repeat in the pseudo-time crystal.
She managed this game from a special space of her own making, and distributed it to many worlds for players to experience the story. Notably, the game differs slightly from the game we play, as it has special VR capabilities.
Lambda made use of this to channel energy from the many ‘Captains’ of the game (not to be confused with the Captain from Captainverse). As observers, the Captains collectively counted as a higher dimensional being, giving them some control over the narrative.
miHoYo used this to break the fourth wall, allowing players to project on these fictional Captains.
What had GGZ been up to?
With a smaller playerbase and no proper translations, GGZ doesn’t have great documentation. To make matters worse, the Global servers shut down in 2021 after years of running on fumes. After all, the lack of proper translations and marketing didn’t really draw in new players.
Nevertheless, the Chinese and Japanese servers continued to thrive, and its stories continued to expand.
Since we don’t have a lot of good sources or release dates at this time, we’ll hold a brief summary of some of the major points:
- GGZ has held an annual crossover with HI3. In the early ones, they would introduce a GGZ version of a HI3 character as a permanent addition to the story. In later ones, characters would meet mysterious ‘phantoms’, which left in the middle whether the character was the same person as in HI3, or some sort of shadow or reflection of them.
- During the Legacy Arc, Fu Hua confronted a being which taunted her by describing how she didn’t live by her oath in other worlds. In the list, we also get a description of Fu Hua in HI3. This reaffirmed HI3 as an alternate worldline.
- The Sea of Quanta and Imaginary Tree have not yet been mentioned by name as far as we could find.
- According to the writings of YUI, a being that eats worlds, other universes cannot be parallel, and the universe is deterministic despite its range of possibility, which adds up with the philosophy of the Many-Worlds Interpretation.
- Outer Gods, beings from outside the Universe, and other Gods from before the Universe as it’s known were introduced through ‘Kizuna’ lore, short texts tied to weapons, and events. Lots of this is tied to the Babylon Academy storyline, but we lack the context to truly verify the reliability of these stories.
- One major story of this type is that of Thanatos. The Lord of Myriad Realms creates Thanatos to end the eternal war of the gods by enforcing ‘death’. Zeus defeats all the gods and absorbs their concepts, becoming the Universe. Thantos then kills him, leading to the Big Bang from which time springs forth, branching into infinite possibilities.
- The Reborn arc’s finale ran in parallel with HI3 Part 1’s finale, reaffirming many of the same concepts in the cosmology.
- There exists something described as ‘the Soul World’, but it’s nature is not as simple or as kindly as a haven for the dead. It’s still fairly mysterious.
- It is suggested that time is retroactive in nature, with the future defining the present rather than the opposite.
- The Honkai was also revealed to be controlled by a merged existence evolved from an alien civilisation that propagates by assimilating worlds through the Samsara process, using higher dimensional powers as tools in this process. It is specified this civilisation consisted of ‘energy beings’.
- This alien civilisation was revealed to have come from ‘a different universe’, and traversing universes required the energy of destroying many star systems. Here, the word ‘universe’ is used explicitly, and not ‘world’. While there is no way to confirm with absolute certainty that this isn’t another ‘Einstein’s vocabulary’ moment where it’s meant to describe the same thing as world, the context suggests it’s a structure independent from the Many-Worlds structure. The requirements to travel from one universe to another are far beyond those we’ve seen of travelling between worlds.
Honkai: Star Rail
Honkai: Star Rail gave us a story of magnificent scale, as finally we start exploring the Universe as a whole.
Nevertheless, translations would once again prove to be an issue, as many of the dialogues in Star Rail would make a complete mess of things. Worlds, star systems, galaxies, universes…
Everything got mixed and matched in some way at some point, which makes the English text often useless in trying to discern the scope and nature of any particular term when it comes up.
From its texts, we learn several more things:
- Aeons exist and embody concepts. As higher dimensional beings, they function over more than 3 dimensions, but not more than the 11 that comprise the Universe.
- Aeons have limited reach, needing to travel to go places.
- Not everybody knows about Aeons.
- IX’s entry specifically mentions a multiverse or many universes. It gives us no context, so we don’t know for certain what it refers to. This may be referencing the actual metaphysical multiverse they set up, or it may be another ‘Einstein’s vocabulary’ moment.
- Zandar’s theory of the Imaginary Tree is similar to Otto’s, albeit less focused on the existence of the Sea of Quanta and less focused on Civilisations as a core aspect.
- The Astral Express was created to traverse the Tree, effectively jumping from world to world and crossing the Universe.
- ….
The Imaginary Tree is a theory of the universe widely accepted by the modern scientific community.
This theory compares the various worlds existing in different time and space to a tree-like structure. Every branch is a form of world existence; each flower and leaf is the present and past they left in the time dimension. Because the crown of the Tree absorbs the masterless Imaginary Energy from the space-time vasculature, there remains a dynamic state. New shoots grow, withered leaves fall, and countless births and deaths occur among the endless Universe. Describing the Universe’s structure as a “tree” may be an attitude that views the Imaginary Tree as life.
Before the theory of Imaginary Tree was put forward , the Universe had been addressed as “a void and indiscernible object” because of its unobservable nature. After the theory was developed, people would outline its working principle using imagination: The untamed imaginary energy surges endlessly through space-time vasculature, and forms at its tips what we know as “star systems”- that is, countless worlds. And between each world, just as their is a separation of space between leaves, there is Imaginary Space that is difficult to traverse.
The Intelligentsia Guild had once thought that Harald Punch, the 2nd member of the Genius Society, was the first to propose the original theory of the Tree of Imaginary Numbers. After multiple assessments on the influence of the History Fictionologists, the scientific community now commonly accepts Zandar One Kuwabara as the person to have proposed it.
「虚数之树」 是现今学术界普遍接受的一种宇宙理论。
该学说将不同时空的不同世界比作树状结构: 每一株枝干, 都是一种世界存在的形式; 每一片花叶, 都是它们在时间维度中留下的现在与曾经。 树冠因汲取时空维管中无主的虚数能量, 而始终存在动态的结构——新芽生长, 枯叶脱离, 无垠宇宙中上演着无数的诞生与终结…将宇宙结构比喻为 「 树」, 或许是一种将 「虚数之树」 视为生命的态度
宇宙在 「虛数之树」 学说被提出之前, 曾因其无法被观测的性质, 被称为「虚空恒盲之物」 ; 而学说诞生之后, 人们便能借助想象勾勒其作用原理: 无主的虚数能量, 经过时空维管不停地奔流, 在末梢形成了我们所认知的 「星系」 ——即不可胜数的世界。 而在世界与世界之间, 就像树叶与树叶之间存在空间上的阻隔一般, 是难以跨越的未知虚数空域
博识学会一度认为天才俱乐部#2哈那德•庞奇率先提出了 「虛数之树」 的起源学说; 反复审度虚构史学家的影响后, 现在学界普遍认为#1赞达尔•壹·桑原才是首位提出者
In the ancient times before Akivili the Trailblaze traversed the Sea of Stars, people were already casting their eyes to the mighty Galaxy beyond the sky. With infinite curiosity towards the unknown, countless civilizations embarked on a journey of interstellar exploration. But without exception, their attempts ended in failure.
In the Imaginary Tree theory put forward by Zandar One Kuwabara, 1st member of the Genius Society, the Universe is filled with unpredictable and mysterious Imaginary Number Energy. Imaginary Numbers isolate star systems from each other and even light cannot move in this energy. Therefore, human space exploration is often limited by the boundaries of their individual worlds, and it is difficult to go beyond. At this time, Zandar also posed a theory: that is, if humans would be able to master and use Imaginary Energy, people will master the Universe. It was a romanticised fantasy for a long time. Until the Emanators of Aeons appeared, making it a reality.
早在「开拓」星神阿基维利巡弋星海的古老岁月之前,人们已经将视线投入天穹之上的浩瀚银河。怀揣着对未知的无尽好奇,无数文明开始了星际探索之旅。但无一例外地,他们的尝试均以失败作结。
在天才俱乐部#1赞达尔·壹·桑原的「虛数之树」理论中:宇宙中充盈着神秘莫测的虚数能量。虚数将一个又一个星系隔绝,即使光在这种能量之中也寸步难行。因此,人类对星空的探索,往往只能停留在各自世界的边界,再难深入。同时,赞达尔也提出了一个构想:即若能掌握并运用虚数能量,人们就将掌握宇宙。在很长时间内,这都是一种浪漫化的空想。直到星神的令使出现,使构想成为了现实。
“Countless shooting stars streak across the night sky… If you can pick the right one, it will carry your wish to thousands of distant worlds.”
Fables About the Stars by Adrian Spencer Smith
There are three directions on the compass of destiny – the Unknown, the Known, and the Unknowable. You can tolerate the Unknown, but you must not submit to the Unknowable. Akivili left the isolated world of Pegana and continued to exploring the unknown edges of the universe, trying to find an endpoint of the Tree of Existence. Unfortunately, Akivili’s destiny was abruptly ended due to an accident.
「无数流星划过今夜的天空…如果选中了正确的那一颗,它将把你的愿望带向千百个世界。」
——阿德里安·斯宾塞-史密斯,《有关星空的寓言集》
命运的罗盘上标着三个方向:未知 、已知和不可知。可以忍受「未知」,却绝不能屈服于「不可 知」。 阿基维利离开孤绝世界裴伽纳,不断开拓着宇宙未知的边界,试图找寻存在之树的端点。但祂的命运 因意外而终结。
“Choo! Choo! Sit tight, no one fight, warp jump watch your head. Choo! Choo! Seat belt, fasten-up, buffet car speeding up!”
Astral Express Safety Instructions (Pom-Pom version)
After the fall of Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze, their trailblazing will was inherited by their followers, the Nameless, including the Astral Express that the Aeon once rode on. However, as the Cancer of All Worlds continued to spread, the silver rails that the Express runs on also fell victim. The Express could barely move before the blight descended, and had no choice but to quietly run aground when the rails became overly obstructed.
Years and months passed until a girl with red hair discovered the desolate Express. She was fascinated by the wordless stories the engine and the silver rails had in store. She spent countless hours repairing the cracks and evening the dents, restoring the Express to function. The curious girl then set foot into the Express and began her trailblazing voyage that surveys the Universe.
The Astral Express stops at every station, with passengers boarding and exiting along the way. Many join and leave the Express’ journey. The travelers come from different worlds, shoulder different burdens, and head to different destinations. However, while they are on the Astral Express, they would share the same voyage. That is why even if the passengers have their own ideas and their own ghosts, Himeko and the Express do not mind- As long as someone is willing to go on a strange journey together, the door will be generously opened for them.
「呜!呜!排排坐,莫站立,瓦普跳跃要小心。呜!呜!安全带,随时系,餐车不是打牌地!」
《星穹列车安全指示(帕姆版)》
「开拓」的星神阿基维利陨落之后,祂的开拓意志被追随者「无名客」们继承,其中就包括祂曾搭乘的星穹列车。然而「万界之癌」恣肆蔓延,列车所枕银轨也未能幸免。疾疫未至时,列车就已步履维艰;道阻且塞时,便不得不悄然搁浅。
如此经年累月,不知过了多久,一位红发少女与荒废的列车相遇了。她被遗落在引擎和银轨之间无言故事所吸引,花费时间填补了裂隙、抚平了磨损,将列车上下修葺一新。于是,好奇尚异的少女踏入列车的车厢,开始了丈量宇宙的开拓之旅。
星穹列车逐站停靠,乘客也来往匆匆,不断有人加入列车的旅途,又不断有人离去。旅者们来自不同的世界,背负不同的过往,奔赴不同的终点,但只要身处列车之中,他们便共享同一段旅程。因此,即便旅客们各怀心思,甚至心怀鬼胎,列车和姬子对此也毫不介意——只要有人愿意共赴奇旅,车门便慷慨地为其开启。
The Terminology Problem
As we touched upon earlier, miHoYo’s work has a lot of problems with the localisation of recurring terminology. We will expand on this more in the Hoyodex, but I’d like to cover some key points here still.
宇宙 (yǔzhòu) means ‘universe’ or ‘space’. It is often used in the context of ‘space’, which may confuse some (fan) translators. It is important to recognise that within the context of this lore, ‘universe’ surpasses the 3-dimensional, and is an 11D structure as consistent with M Theory.
多宇宙 (duō yǔzhòu) means ‘many universes’ or ‘multiverse’. We have only found one instance of this being used, namely IX’s Data Bank entry. It is very unlikely that it refers to the Tree.
多重宇宙 (duōchóng yǔzhòu) is another word that translates to ‘multiverse’ or ‘multiple universes’. We only found it used in Shakespeare’s comment about Iron Mask’s explanation, prior to the establishing of the Imaginary Tree theory.
银河 (yínhé) means ‘Galaxy’ or ‘Milky Way’. It is used often throughout GGZ and HSR, and is typically used synonymously with Universe. This can be confusing. It is however important to keep in mind that it strictly reads as ‘Silver River’, so it’s a visual description.
星海 (xīnghǎi) means Sea of Stars. This is used in all of the games despite not being a preestablished term, meaning it’s a term specific to miHoYo’s work. It is translated in many ways, sometimes nonsensical ways.
We know the term refers to a traversible space, but the scope of it is unclear. Usually it’s used in the context of people travelling the Universe, but it was also used in the description for an Outer God when describing things beyond the Universe.
世界 (shìjiè) means world and is flexible in its use. In HSR and Zandar’s more rigid version of the Imaginary Tree theory, it often appears synonymous with 星系 (xīngxì), ‘star system’. Both these terms are often mistranslated.
The terms ‘galaxy’ and ‘star system’ have the extra problem in English that they are homonyms with several different meanings, making the whole thing more complicated. In some texts, the localisation chose to swap star system for star cluster. This reduces the ability to confuse it with the Silver River, but does technically have a difference in cosmic scale.
Due to the nuances of miHoYo’s terminology and the difficulties of translation, it’s reasonable to conclude that trying to deliteralise translations can be needlessly complicated. As such, the idea of shifting the terminology down one step to describe ‘worlds’ as ‘universes’ and ‘universe’ as ‘multiverse’ comes with many challenges and issues. In this sense, Honkai Impact 3rd failed entirely to create a consistent lexicon in the English language.
Attempts from fans to make things ‘simpler’ by shifting terminology this way can only serve to make things more complicated, as the consensus shift further and further away from what the text actually states. When spreading information about the lore, adhering to the Chinese version of the text and explaining mistranslations is by far the most sensible, as it is the most consistent.
Meanwhile, sticking to the English terminology will result in a multitude of misconceptions as the meanings of words and explanations change erratically, sometimes even within the span of a single dialogue.
Branches and Leaves
As you might have noticed by now, the Tree metaphor is not always presented in the exact same way. This is because it’s a visualisation, and thus depends on how the person constructing the visual thinks they can best get the point across.
Sometimes it’s about worlds, sometimes it’s about civilisations. Sometimes leaves are the world, sometimes leaves are the stages of a world.
Character Versions
Throughout the Universe, we meet various ‘versions’ of the same characters. Through the info we’ve summarised prior, many of these are due to the cosmology.
Versions can exist because of any of these things:
- Alternate timelines
- Parallel development
- Cloning
- Data shadows
- Star Whisperers
- AI consciousness copies
- Cyclic rebirth
- Reconstruction
- etc.
The Welt Dialogue
Being the first character to completely cross over from one game into another, Welt Yang gives a bunch of extra insights. Nevertheless, miHoYo smartly plays it vague, keeping the required knowledge for new players to a minimum.
Still, Welt gives us some great dialogues to work with.
As you know, there are infinite worlds in this universe that can be similar but different from each other in various ways. The same is true of the people on those worlds.
That’s why it’s possible for us to run into individuals on multiple worlds who share an appearance, but not a personality… For all we know, in some faraway world, March’s adorable face might belong to an intergalactic pirate.
However… in most cases, their fates will walk a similar course.
The Canonising of Fearsome Fanfare
There is one more term I’d like to address: 多元宇宙 (duō yuán yǔzhòu)
This term means ‘multiverse’, ‘many metaverses’. It’s a term used in the ‘Multiverse Vistas’ video.
Multiverse Vistas was an event outside the game regarding fanworks. In the video, it is stated that there are ‘many metaverses’ existing ‘beyond the starry sky’. This suggests that to some extent, fanworks can be considered as truly existing in the lore, albeit outside of the Universe these games inhabit. This is just one possible interpretation.
Although this is likely mostly just a nod to the fans, it does make one wonder if maybe IX came to the conclusion that the multiverse is pointless after it witnessed some bad fanfiction.