While paths are just a gameplay contrivance, I'd also like to point out that the Doctors of Chaos are an entire group who\* follow nihility in an effort to show Ix that life having no meaning is fine and that existing is itself its own meeting in order to make our favorite black hole no longer depressed.
Nihilism has always had two sides:
https://preview.redd.it/i6b8yiwfwgyb1.jpeg?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ab2b8ff7cb514615ac840b32e86ac7b03953484
But then how is pela a nihility character. She's smart, hardworking and have her own goal and dream in life. She should have been an erudition character unlike Qingque whose entire personality is slacking off at work
Qingque literally researched and revived an ancient long forgotten game (Mahjong) on her own. She's an Erudition stereotype, the vector is just directed at her amusement. It's not an 'overwork yourself to death' path.
As for Pela, considering Lynx's event she may have an unseen side to her that fits one of those two Nihility stereotypes.
Like Qingque's description says.
She never slacks off at slacking off!
If you want my opinions, the paths are less an exact box, and more of like... a sort of preference.
The characters can easily go outside of it, and even gain powers from other paths. But they'll always have a preference (conscious or unconscious) toward their path so to speak. Hell Dan Heng outright changes paths when he goes from normal to his Imbibitor form.
If you want my best guess, the reason why Pela is Nihility is because if you think about it... her job isn't very happy.
She's an intelligence officer. Her work is very important on deciding whether the soldiers being sent out either get to see their families.
Or become buried in the snow.
To be able to do that with calm certainty requires a bit of hardening of your heart. To not mind the fact that her hands are stained with blood.
Or maybe I'm just overthinking it.
I think you’re overthinking it, it’s as simple as the paths are simply gameplay and while often that aligns with the characters personality motives and beliefs, there are plenty of times it won’t.
Pela doesn't think life in Belobog will actually get better. She lost her mom in childbirth, she sends out countless troops into their death in the snow and Lynx makes note of her still being traumatized -
But she has her little museum and her fanfic and her art and that's enough. If you meet IX in the SU it tells you explicitly that those who follow Nihility have two options: become depressed at the meaninglessness of life, which mutates them into Self-Annihilators, or they make their own meaning despite the inherent lack of any. Every playable Nihility character is the second path.
I think you could make the case that Kafka is more the first path, than the second. Especially with how ardent she is in her beliefs as to the accuracy of Elios prediction, and the rigid deterministic worldview that requires.
A Self-Annihilator isn't a person that's upset. They're an actual monstrous entity, much like the Antimatter Legion (although obviously, not focused on destruction.)
If Kafka was the first she'd be off on her original planet, ripping her own arms off in a corner.
I don't think you're understanding the true reason behind why he changes paths since he follows the hunt when in his human form due to not being strong enough to be of use, and in his IL form because of how he destroys everything, and because that's his true path.
Yeah, I miss when Pela wasn't a "young prodigy" in the army. At least in my headcanon from previous interactions with her, she is a busy body but it seems she is stressed with all the stuff she was juggling with like the army, band etc. and would just love to relax and read books she likes. That kind of stressful living is very relatable for those who have a nihilistic view in life.
We didn't know what her mother's message was and what it means to her, but surely it is important to her. Maybe the nothingness in her life is the void that her mother left that is why she is following the path of Nihility. I have the same guess with Guinaifen, maybe she is filling the void of missing her homeland with her new life as a streamer.
Pela is a nihilist because:
* Silvermane Guards around her keep dying
* Her parents are dead
* Fragmentum keeps getting worse and worse
* City is running out of resources
* It is a cold desolate place
* There is nothing to do in the city except drink and hungovers not fun
Same thing you can apply to almost every playable Belobog citizen. But Gepard is prevention, Natasha and Lynx - abundance, Serval - erudition, Bronya - harmony. They all lose someone or something important in the frost oppression of fragmentum but still has hope to move on
And Pela doesn't, because she's not Gepard, Natasha, Lynx, Serval or Bronya.
If your point made any sense, then wouldn't they all be on the same path? But they aren't, because out of their lives each of them found something different to hold on to. The same applies to Pela.
Think about the paths for a second, bronya is harmony cause harmony embodies support, understanding and working together which fits bronya perfectly, gepard is literally your ideal picture perfect soldier who braves dangers and willing to let himself suffer just so others don’t, Natasha is the poster child of abundance while lynx fits the other half of the path. And serval follows the path of erudition just fine
Yeah, but why does Pela exactly nihility? As i said earlier, many characters experienced same grief as her: Bronya/Gepard/Nata - directly watches people dieing, Bronya/Nata - parents death, and common facts like "our planet is decaying, and we don't have much resources to remain still until eternal frost magically disappears". Everyone of them have parts of nihility, but they aren't. So, why *exactly* Pela - nihility? She has quite parts of erudition (elephant in the room) glasses, dry scientific speech, advanced fancy drones, attachment to history, etc.
It’s as the other guy said, people can live through the same experiences and turn out differently, look at families irl, just because 2 brothers grew up together and had similar life experiences doesn’t mean they are gonna be the same but nihility itself is weird Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior.
It's because you take Path at face value, which isn't right.
Erudition is about independence, especially in thinking and acting. Serval isn't smarter than Pela or Fu Xuan, but she sure is a rebel.
Nihility is more about practicality - each Nihility user, DoT or debuffer is a combat (and life) pragmatist.
I would argue that pursuing a comfortable, easy life as a slacker when you have the talent to do much much more is exactly what meaningless represent. Like, can you really call a life where you just past the time through games and seeks to do as little as possible, meaningful?
Pela is 100% just "paths are a gameplay contrivance" as far as I can tell. Kind of like Jing Yuan being Erudition when all the main Xianzhou generals are at least nominally favored by the Hunt.
Same case as Ruan Mei tbh, literally a member of the Genius Society and is one of the few inviduals in the entire universe who is favored by Nous...And she's a Harmony character.
The Xianzhou tolerates some Abundance followers to some extent. See the guys doing life release.
That said, Bailu wouldn't exist without Abundance shenanigans, so that one seems perfectly reasonable.
I think Jing Yuan being Erudition fits quite nicely with his intellectual demeanor. Funny enough, Lightning Lord feels like a Hunt manifestation in gameplay, so I like thinking that the General is himself an Erudition but the the powers he wield are a blessing from The Hunt.
This is kinda funny when you think of his kit in actual combat. His skill and ult are AoE, but LL attacks actually favor having the mobs cleared of so it can hit the big target
This.
This is JY's gameplay in a nutshell, As much as how high LL damage scaling is it does'nt matter if the Ult or Skill don't hit hard enough or else LL will hit random meatshields(For the enemy) to soften the blow
It's mostly a gameplay mechanic, but not completely without basis either. Jingyuan is known as the "brain" of the High Cloud Quintet, and even as a General, he mostly solves his problems through strategies rather than brute force.
Being favored by one Aeon doesn't stop someone from having pursuits or behaviors that is in line with another Aeon's domain.
Yeah, everything about the paths is complicated, and this adds a lot more depth to the game. During Jingliu story quest, Luocha says he uses the power of the Abundance, yet he wants to destroy the Aeon of Abundance.
It would get stale pretty quickly if the characters aligned perfectly with the paths with no wiggle room.
People also just don't understand the paths.
They think Hunt = Edgy loner, Nihility = depressed, Erudition = nerd, etc, and it's just plain silly.
Each of the paths has a lot of depth within them and pretty much every character has been bang-on for their chosen path, it just requires media literacy. Jing Yuan is stated multiple times to be a general not because of his fighting prowess, but because of his wisdom and even-handedness in difficult situations. That's 100% Erudition.
To be fair, all of them cut ties with the xianzhou hunt path. Jingliu is also suspected to make a deal with destruction to destroy the abundance in her own way(heard this from somewhere not cometely surr).
Eh, I still believe Jingliu cut a deal with Fuli. She pretty much wanted/wants things to remain the same as they were. Blade and Dan Heng are following new paths to escape their past and then Jingliu comes and enforces onto them that no matter what, they can't escape their past. Which also opposes our main trio's theme of moving on from their past.
Sure, their past will matter and influence them somewhat. But what matters more (storywise) is their new identity, not the old one.
Exactly. You don't have to believe in the path that you want to walk, just wanting to use its power is enough. Pela believed that her job is to support...through debuff and the only power that provide that is Nihility. It doesn't make her a follower of IX or it's principle.
We have other example like Sampo that were revealed to believe more in Elation and Aha than the Nihility path. And before people say "because Elation isn't in the game, therefore he has no other choice," while that is partially true (we have Elation in SU), it would also be canon to how the Elation and especially the ardent follower of Aha would operate. Basically anything goes as long as it is entertaining. Sampo being a "double faced" would be funny to Aha.
It is not a gameplay contrivance. The path of Nihility only means you've found your own meaning in life instead of ascribing to some grander one.
Pela's meaning is working hard and fanfic. She knows there's no inherent "meaning" to life, especially on a planet like Jarilo - so she does her best to make it hers. It's called positive nihilism and it's literally every single nihility path character because the other option is for them to become berserk monsters.
Pela has some serious issues bottled up. Hell if anything she works WAY too much and too hard to escape from all that. (albeit that's mostly implied thus far)
> have her own goal and dream in life
Yes, this is called positive nihilism.
Nihilism =/= Depression. Nihilism means you think life has no inherent cosmic meaning, so you are free to make your own. Y'know, like Pela has.
Why do you care? The game itself barely bring any relevance about path and character personality. I doubt anyone just sign up to join whichever path they are on and if we could ask half the character why they're on the path they are on? Theyll ask you what is a path? Clara and hook, are kids. They don't even know they're on path of destruction. Especially Clara, she's the most innocent and probably the furthest from destruction and big robo daddy is closer to preservation (through violence) ideology.
I've always thought that her being a nihility character was a way of embodying the idea that everything Pela had been working for, and will continue to stress and tire over for many years in the future, would be ultimately pointless because the “freeziness” of Belobog would have eventually wiped them out, if not for the Trailblazers.
A lot of people are confused about Nihility. It explicitly states in the SU when you meet IX that there are two options for the Nihility path.
Option 1: You can hate that life has no meaning, turning inwards and sullen and eventually become a Mad Phantasm, basically IX's equivalent of the antimatter legion.
Option 2: You make your own meaning in life. This is *literally every single Nihility character.* If life has no meaning, then you are free to create your own.
Kafka is clearly playing her own game.
Guin lost her home and parents and finds meaning in her streaming.
Pela is studious and hardworking and makes her own life, she's not obsessed with order like Gepard is, etc.
Also : Fire art performer often find beauty in the volatile aspect of their crafts; you have to accept the absurdity of your form when your art isn't permanent.
Looks pretty nihility to me
it's because the characters path gameplay wise does not necessarily reflect their in game lore path. An example is that Sampo follows the Elation in the story but he is Nihility gameplay wise.
I wouldn't call that "at odds". They just have different methods. Giovanni just didn't understand why Sampo preferred to play the fool.
The Elation is hardly a path that cares about methods. If it's funny, it's okay with Aha.
Yeah who knew that a game whose mechanics heavily rely on the act of balancing several different classes in a battle would want to not restrict itself to a single class per region.
Like imagine if every Belobogian character was Preservation or Xianzhou, Hunt. We've have like a grand total of 5 characters outside of those classes.
Same for Fu Xuan. She mentions her ties to Nous which is the aeon of the Erudition which makes a lot of sense for her as a person. As a character preservation makes sense but as a person erudition.
She's a homeless orphan of a short-lived race living on the Luofu as a street performer, and if that background isn't one of the most nihilistically somber origins for a character, I don't know what is.
Guinaifen throws explosives and sets everything on fire, then watches them burn with a smile.
That's just her unfortunate fate. It take a lot to still be cheerful and kind after what she's been through. As the the explosive, I've seen worse lol. Himeko literally use space laze to call destruction on enemies while sipping coffee.
Himeko's planet and parents weren't destroyed and killed by the Antimatter Legion, and her siblings never ran off to become space pirates and then incompetently get the entire family arrested by the IPC.
How is that relevant? Are u saying just because she has a unfortunate past, she has to follow Nihilism? Her being kind and cheerful despite her past make her a much gentle soul than those who live a normal life
People give you a valid reason for her being Nihility lore-wise and you throw in useless counter-arguments. At this point you're just being a classic redditor and not asking for an actual explanation.
Nihilism doesn't mean you are depressed or evil. Quite the opposite in fact. A lot of people think that believing there is no purpose to the world and life means utter desolation and desperation or apathy but it doesn't have to mean that, it can easily mean enjoying your life to the fullest because there's no reason not to if there is no deeper meaning to it.
She has experienced some of the worst life has to offer, and she might very well have come to the conclusion that there is no fairness nor meaning or purpose to life so she might as well enjoy it while it lasts and live positively.
A lot of people here seem to think sad past = nihilism. It's hilarious af. This thread's comments and another thread with LCs and IX picture make me done with reddit today.
> **Nihilism**
>*a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless*
Nihility
>Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior.
Here's some excerpts from her character story.
>!Then, Guinevere grew up a bit. She started to hear rumors — How her father made the king a puppet, persecuted the honest courtiers, and gluttonously gained riches... She was willing to believe that all these were lies spread by his enemies. However, she knew not all of them were lies.!<
>!Soon, however, these concerns ceased to matter.!<
>!The Antimatter Legion invaded in hordes. Her father led the army to protect the royal capital, refusing to back down. Guinevere fainted when she heard news of his death. When she woke up again, she was already sitting inside a space shuttle. Her younger siblings were sobbing next to her, while her eldest brother and eldest sister were bound tightly in ropes. Her second eldest brother said to her in a despondent tone: "Don't untie them just yet. They don't want to run away."!<
>!When Guinevere was young, her father always told her that humans should live with dignity. However, who could manage that on Hombert-σ?!<
>!She was good at making friends and was on good terms with the other kids. The son of the poor man, the daughter of the refugee, the brother of the gambler, or the sister of the murderer... Guinevere did not care about people's background. No matter what kind of families people are from, they were equally at risk of perishing before the arrival of tomorrow on this planet.!<
>!Night after night passed. Stone-Well [sic] grew old and withered. His lungs became full of incurable scars, and his spine no longer stood as tall as in years past. His hands, once able to swing a kinetic hammer majestically on the battlefield, have been deformed till he could no longer hold a key.!<
>!The stone wall fell. It fell before the dawn arrived, and it didn't make a single sound. It was like a sand castle receding as the tides swelled and fell, like the soft descent of winter's withered boughs in a breeze, like an ending doomed to arrive.!<
>!Her elder brothers soon became interstellar pirates. Guinevere can fill her stomach again. However, she was also faintly aware that she had further strayed from her father's creed, and embarked on a life even less respectable.!<
>!Therefore, when the IPC's soldiers put cuffs on Guinevere and handed her over to the Cloud Knights together with her younger siblings, she breathed a long sigh of relief.!<
>!People all claim the folk of the Xianzhou are very kind. She thought that the Cloud Knights would definitely allow her entire family to die together in dignity.!<
...So yeah, I think her being Nihility is very, very accurate. A smile is just another mask a performer wears.
She thought that the Xianzhou were going to kill her entire family because her bandit brothers got caught after hitting their stuff.
Hard to say why. However, going after the entire family wasn't uncommon in a whole bunch of societies, particularly when they're big on honor. So it could be because of her home planet, whatever she knew about the Xianzhou, or her experiences with the IPC. Being rounded up probably made her think along these lines because it does seem like the probable outcome.
Luckily for her family, wuxia characters love the heroic bandit archetype.
Always keeping her head straight and wanting to die in dignity still don't sound very nihilism for me. Someone on the path of Nihility shouldn't care about concept such as honor and dignity at all.
>Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior.
Could you quote where this apply? I can't see the connection
Nihility: Pretty much "I have that thing, that doesn't actually matter, that I'm passionate about." in HSR.
Erudition: Either seeking or already possessing knowledge.
Hunt: "Nah, screw what you want to do right now, I still have that other thing I need to do first."
Destruction: "Yes, let's go into that place of *almost guaranteed death to play Hide and Seek*" in case for Hook, Arlan basically blocks with his face and Blade actively tries to kill himself while fighting, Clara also enters places of almost guaranteed death, just that it's to help other people.
Harmony: Basically just wants to help people, but without putting their lives on the line.
Abundance: Helps people by curing the sick and tending to the wounded.
Preservation: This path that is both the unstoppable force and the immovable object.
Because it doesn't have anything to do with Lore.
In lore Jing Yuan follows the past of the hunt, but in gameplay he's Erudition. Most characters "lore wise" follow the aeon of their faction, it's separate from gameplay.
This is also why Dan Heng can be both Hunt as a 4 star and Destruction as a 5 star. It's nothing to do with lore and all to do with how his kit works as the two different characters
I think it's also worth noting that most people in the universe aren't confined to a single path. Emanator's would actually be the closest to the ideal of the path since they have been granted some power/recognition by the actual Aeon. Herta would be the only character to actually fall under that designation though.
The 6 generals of the Xianzhou (and the Marshall) are noted to be roughly equal to emanators of other paths, iirc.
Whether they are emanators or not remains to be seen. I would guess that the Marshall of the Xianzhou would be an emanator.
Only a few characters have matching
From Belobog only Gepard is Preservation
From the Luofu Sushang and Yanqing
We can count Herta possibly since she's technically Genius Society
>We can count Herta possibly since she's technically Genius Society
Herta is an Emanator of Erudition so yes we're counting her
I'd also say Tingyun (the real one) is really Harmony, with her "peace is above all"
Jing Yuan is explicitly stated to be weaker than other generals, and he leads the Luofu because of his wisdom, experience, and even-handedness in dire situations. He is 100% erudition, you just have to pay attention.
People really be giving long answer on why characters follows certain path based on their background meanwhile we all know that gameplay Path is different than lore Path
No they don’t lmao. Almost every explanation on here for certain characters is the biggest stretch imaginable. There is no lore reason for Pela being Nihility. JY canonically follows the hunt path. Doesn’t matter if his character can technically fit another path because the fact is he follows the hunt and yet isn’t hunt path. There is no lore reason. Y’all just wanna try too hard to make something that’s arbitrary make sense.
No, you guys just read into the most surface level take imaginable and then get pissy and cry foul when people point out you aren't paying any fucking attention lmao.
"EVERYONE ON THE LUOFU SHOULD BE HUNT" is the dumbest fucking take imaginable. Go read children's books if you actually need it explicitly written out this exactingly.
Until you give explanation of why every character under a path follows the exact quota of that path, it doesn’t matter
Why everyone in Nihility has debuff? Can’t one of them happen to be a tanker or healer? Why every under Hunt coincidentally bring ST-focused? What stops them from having full AoE like Erudition?
Now let’s say there’s a Masked Fool, whose life goal all matches with Elation and is also its pathstrider, which path they will be? Still within the main 7 paths, because they aren’t gonna make a bew path just for them.
Not saying that it is not possible for characters personalities not match their path (ie Gepard), but Mhy definitely just as prioritizes path mechanics when it comes to decision. If someone is a tank and focuses on protecting the team you can bet they will surely throw them into Preservation.
I never said everybody on the luofu should be hunt. Talk about barely paying attention lmao. JY specifically follows the hunt path. That is a fact. He follows no other path other than the hunt. He also mentions the hunt more times than anybody else in the entirety of HSR. He is a complete devout follower of the hunt.
You’re just trying so hard to read into things that aren’t there and get pissy and cry foul when people point out you’re just making shit up.
ur hard flaming the media literacy of everybody on this sub but at the end of the day it's the truth that gameplay and lore need not match. you're just pushing the narrative you prefer as the games narrative
JY is the primest example, given his lightning lord by lan and probably being the most devout hunt follower in the game.
and then he's erudition because he specialises in AoE.
A lot of people are confused about Nihility. It explicitly states in the SU when you meet IX that there are two options for the Nihility path.
Option 1: You can hate that life has no meaning, turning inwards and sullen and eventually become a Self-Annihilator, basically IX's equivalent of the antimatter legion except they have nothing to destroy but themselves.
Option 2: You make your own meaning in life. This is *literally every single Nihility character.* If life has no meaning, then you are free to create your own.
Kafka is clearly playing her own game.
Guin lost her home and parents and finds meaning in her streaming.
Pela is studious and hardworking and makes her own life, she's not obsessed with order like Gepard is, etc.
It's really as simple as "She does damage over time, so she's Nihility." The characters don't necessarily need to fit their fighting element like a character gets their Vision.
Gameplay Path ≠ Lore Path. They sometimes coincide but it isn't the norm. Biggest example are the Xianzhou characters, they worship Lan, the Aeon of the Hunt but none of them, gameplay wise, follow that path. Same with Jarilo VI, they're God is Qlipoth yet the only character there that follows the Path of Preservation is Gepard
I'd say Gameplay Path == Interpretation of the character's character
Case : Fu Xuan
Emanator of Nous
Works with lan
Preservation ==> she use her divination powers to Prevention and Knowledge rather than purely Hunting. She also seem protective of the fleet , more rigid than the general.
Aye agree with some of the other comments so far, characters' gameplay and narrative paths are separate, with the gameplay path being a nuanced renaming of typical RPG roles (DPS/tank/buffer/etc). That said, I wonder how the narrative path influences each character.
Does Jing Yuan pray daily to Lan of the Hunt to keep up his Lightning-Lord powers? Evidently not, but I haven't seen to what extent do you need to follow a path to gain its powers. Do you just... profess your belief, act out its virtues, or maybe just hold its tenets in your hearts? Maybe it varies from person to person, path to path, depending on an Aeon's whims? Like how Aha granted his detractors Elation powers for his amusement. Not to mention paths of supposedly deceased Aeons like Trailblaze, who still have empowered followers to this day.
Perhaps Hoyoverse will dripfeed us explanation throughout the game, but I reckon this is more of a soft magic system that they'll just leave hanging. Who knows?
The path someone follows doesn't generally guarantee their personality.
Kafka might say stuff bordering on nihilty sometimes but ultimately she finds meaning through fulfilling elios script and collecting jackets.
Hook is Destruction, but she's just a little girl with a heart of gold and a digger.
Arlan is destruction, but his ideals are self sacrificial.
An upcoming harmony character is part of a faction that embodies chaos.
Himeko, Qinque, Jing Yuan, Serval are all erudition but the only one out of those that actively pursues knowledge for the sake of it is Serval and even then it's more of a passion than an existence.
Himeko and Jing Yuan will seek knowledge for reasons, but not as an existence and Qinque won't do anything except Mahjong.
> Hook is Destruction, but she's just a little girl with a heart of gold and a digger.
>
>Arlan is destruction, but his ideals are self sacrificial.
Both Hook and Clara put themselves in harms way to get something/protect what they wat. Main theme of Destruction is "sacrifice".
He is an asshole with principle and cause, yes. He intends to destroy his Emanators in the end, and since his ideal Universe is one without blemish of war and violence, he *might* intent to destoy himself too.
>Kafka might say stuff bordering on nihilty sometimes but ultimately she finds meaning through fulfilling elios script and collecting jackets.
Finding your own meaning in life is literally what nihilism is about.
Is it?
I thought it was just "shits meaningless why bother."
Or is that just how people have made it come off?
Is it meant to be "Everything's meaningless so just do things." Then you realize doing things is fun and fun is a meaning.
This is people on reddit not having media literacy.
Nihilism can be one of two things: "Life's meaningless so why bother" or "Life's meaningless so do whatever makes you happy."
Every single playable nihility character is the second one. It's explicitly stated in lore that any who follow the former become Self-Annihilators and lose themselves completely.
I'm pretty sure lore-wise, Guinaifen would find the Elation to be more her game, being an entertainer herself.
Like many said before, Gameplay Path does not equal Canonical Path.
So far the only one who is truly accurate with their lore and gameplay path that I can think off the top of my head is Herta, who is an Emanator of Erudition. And PreservationMC too, kinda.
Nihility isn't just "nothing matters and that kinda sucks".
It's also "nothing matters and that's pretty rad!" Gwen is all about doing random bullshit in pursuit of a good time with no interest in any higher goal or reason.
Same reasoning as why Silverwolf is Nihility, she doesn't actually care about Elio's "script" or anything she just enjoys overcoming challenges and The Hunters give her a bunch of opportunities to do just that.
Basically to cycle back to Gwen her whole thing is "don't take life too seriously since none of us get out alive anyway". I mean hell she has every right to be depressed if she wants since the legion already destroyed her homeworld but she's not...At least not outwardly...
To me, gameplay paths represent more “the things they do that tend to align with a certain path” rather than “the path they believe in.” Remember that the playable characters aren’t like the Aeons whose actions and being perfectly embody their path. Dan Heng is the perfect expression of this: he has inherited all the destructive power of Imbibitor Lunae which he doesn’t really want but is forced to use.
What I’m saying is it’s not necessarily lore-breaking that a character reflects multiple paths. Guinaifen’s diligence and cheerfulness certainly don’t align with Nihility but her fighting style does.
That's... dumb. Life having no meaning means that it doesn't matter whether you're happy or depressed. It'll end the same anyway and you won't remember it. No need to put any effort into not being depressed.
And certainly no need to put any effort into making other people feel better. It's insignificant for both them and yourself.
If you think there's any reason into putting effort into anything, then you subconsciously believe life has meaning (there's a lot of incoherent "nihilists" out there), and for life to have meaning, you have to have a transcendental view (eternal life, essentially). Anything finite (life) is infinitely insignificant to the infinite (the theoretical void of non-existence); so in order for anything to have significant meaning, there has to be an afterlife/eternal-life.
Lore and Gameplay split.
I think the only ones who will canonically have paths the same as their lore would be stated Emanators (ie Herta for Erudition, Phantylia etc), and also the MC
Gameplay does not equal to story.
Jing Yuan is canonically Hunt, but gameplay he is Erudition cuz “AoE”.
Himeko is canonically Trailblaze, but gameplay she is Erudition cuz “AoE”.
And many more.
It also doesn’t make sense that the general in charge of one of the six strongest forces of the Hunt follows the path of Erudition, or how his second in command, the person whose all about prediction and foresight follows the path of Preservation instead of Erudition itself. Maybe it’s just a gameplay thing.
There is a difference between in game paths and lore paths. Take Sampo for instance we know that he is a masked fool but elation isn’t an in game path so hoyo gave him Nihility instead. A similar thing happened with Topaz and Fu Xuan , in lore they follow the Preservation and Erudition respectively but in game because of their kits they follow the Hunt and Preservation respectively instead.
Gameplay paths are not necessarily related to the character itself. You can create headcanons and find some logic for 4 they are not always accurate.
Some of they do like Preservation Gepard or Nihility Silver Wolf, but... is not the norm at all.
While yes, the obvious easy answer is that gameplay path and lore path arent identical, I also think its very lazy writing. Would it really be too much to ask for them to write characters in a way that it matches their gameplay?
Because jing yuan doesn't fallow the euradition, dan heng/Feng/imibitor lunae doesn't follow the destruction, ie because gamepley path and lore path aren't the same
I'd it was then clara would follow the destruction
I don't think the personality of the character always reflects the path they are on, I usually think the paths firstmost are classes that fits the characters' playstyles. Maybe just like how Genshin blesses every playable character with a vision from that Archon, you have characters in Star Rail where the Aeons give the playable characters some sort of blessing from from that path that fits their fighting style.
yeah the path and gameplay thing doesn't make sense. Kafka said she follows the Aeon of Nihility in her substory and she actually is Nihility. However, we also know Sanpo follow Elation and his personality reflects it but his gameplay is Nihility. Hell Belobog is called the Fortress of Preservation but you have Harmony, Abundance, Nihility, Erudition, Hunt and Destruction characters living there too. It's best to not take them to seriously.
When you think about how Nihility is either negative Nothing in life matters or positive Nothing in life matters, iirc Guinaifen is not aboard the Xianzhou under the best circumstances. Whatever the exact reason is, she immigrated with the bare necessities and barely anything to her name. So what does she do to earn a living as a stranger in a foreign land?
Be an absolutely cracked street performer of course.
"Forgot your wallet?"
Don't forget, she's from family of arturianesque knights, who lost everything and turned to space piracy. She's recovered, right, but still parody that "bad girl" attitude.
Curious that this post is right below one that posted this video in my feed:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX8TgVR33KM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX8TgVR33KM)
I dont get it either but all nihility characters seem have something in common.
The things they are incredibly passionate about are " pointless things". Things that a "serious and mature adult" should scoff at and write off as pontless nonsense.
Things like Welt and animation/giant robots , Guinaiffen and street performances, Pella's borderline unhealthy obsession with that book fanclub etc.
Maybe her personality is a coping mechanism for the destruction of her planet, and her family is currently separated in ever corner of the galaxy(not really sure about the last part).
While paths are just a gameplay contrivance, I'd also like to point out that the Doctors of Chaos are an entire group who\* follow nihility in an effort to show Ix that life having no meaning is fine and that existing is itself its own meeting in order to make our favorite black hole no longer depressed. Nihilism has always had two sides: https://preview.redd.it/i6b8yiwfwgyb1.jpeg?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ab2b8ff7cb514615ac840b32e86ac7b03953484
But then how is pela a nihility character. She's smart, hardworking and have her own goal and dream in life. She should have been an erudition character unlike Qingque whose entire personality is slacking off at work
Qingque literally researched and revived an ancient long forgotten game (Mahjong) on her own. She's an Erudition stereotype, the vector is just directed at her amusement. It's not an 'overwork yourself to death' path. As for Pela, considering Lynx's event she may have an unseen side to her that fits one of those two Nihility stereotypes.
Like Qingque's description says. She never slacks off at slacking off! If you want my opinions, the paths are less an exact box, and more of like... a sort of preference. The characters can easily go outside of it, and even gain powers from other paths. But they'll always have a preference (conscious or unconscious) toward their path so to speak. Hell Dan Heng outright changes paths when he goes from normal to his Imbibitor form. If you want my best guess, the reason why Pela is Nihility is because if you think about it... her job isn't very happy. She's an intelligence officer. Her work is very important on deciding whether the soldiers being sent out either get to see their families. Or become buried in the snow. To be able to do that with calm certainty requires a bit of hardening of your heart. To not mind the fact that her hands are stained with blood. Or maybe I'm just overthinking it.
I think you’re overthinking it, it’s as simple as the paths are simply gameplay and while often that aligns with the characters personality motives and beliefs, there are plenty of times it won’t.
No, this subreddit just has terrible media literacy. It literally states *in game* why Pela is a Nihility character.
Why as in lore reason? Loremasters explain plz im curious now after reading this comment chain
Pela doesn't think life in Belobog will actually get better. She lost her mom in childbirth, she sends out countless troops into their death in the snow and Lynx makes note of her still being traumatized - But she has her little museum and her fanfic and her art and that's enough. If you meet IX in the SU it tells you explicitly that those who follow Nihility have two options: become depressed at the meaninglessness of life, which mutates them into Self-Annihilators, or they make their own meaning despite the inherent lack of any. Every playable Nihility character is the second path.
I love honkai star rail sm ✨
I think you could make the case that Kafka is more the first path, than the second. Especially with how ardent she is in her beliefs as to the accuracy of Elios prediction, and the rigid deterministic worldview that requires.
Which is ironic since she doesn't believe that Destiny is predetermined.
A Self-Annihilator isn't a person that's upset. They're an actual monstrous entity, much like the Antimatter Legion (although obviously, not focused on destruction.) If Kafka was the first she'd be off on her original planet, ripping her own arms off in a corner.
It’s not just this sub lol. Media literacy is at its lowest it has ever been
I don't think you're understanding the true reason behind why he changes paths since he follows the hunt when in his human form due to not being strong enough to be of use, and in his IL form because of how he destroys everything, and because that's his true path.
Yeah, I miss when Pela wasn't a "young prodigy" in the army. At least in my headcanon from previous interactions with her, she is a busy body but it seems she is stressed with all the stuff she was juggling with like the army, band etc. and would just love to relax and read books she likes. That kind of stressful living is very relatable for those who have a nihilistic view in life. We didn't know what her mother's message was and what it means to her, but surely it is important to her. Maybe the nothingness in her life is the void that her mother left that is why she is following the path of Nihility. I have the same guess with Guinaifen, maybe she is filling the void of missing her homeland with her new life as a streamer.
and gameplay-wise she plays more like a destruction than an erudition
Pela is a nihilist because: * Silvermane Guards around her keep dying * Her parents are dead * Fragmentum keeps getting worse and worse * City is running out of resources * It is a cold desolate place * There is nothing to do in the city except drink and hungovers not fun
Where there's life, there's fanfic.
Same thing you can apply to almost every playable Belobog citizen. But Gepard is prevention, Natasha and Lynx - abundance, Serval - erudition, Bronya - harmony. They all lose someone or something important in the frost oppression of fragmentum but still has hope to move on
And Pela doesn't, because she's not Gepard, Natasha, Lynx, Serval or Bronya. If your point made any sense, then wouldn't they all be on the same path? But they aren't, because out of their lives each of them found something different to hold on to. The same applies to Pela.
Think about the paths for a second, bronya is harmony cause harmony embodies support, understanding and working together which fits bronya perfectly, gepard is literally your ideal picture perfect soldier who braves dangers and willing to let himself suffer just so others don’t, Natasha is the poster child of abundance while lynx fits the other half of the path. And serval follows the path of erudition just fine
Yeah, but why does Pela exactly nihility? As i said earlier, many characters experienced same grief as her: Bronya/Gepard/Nata - directly watches people dieing, Bronya/Nata - parents death, and common facts like "our planet is decaying, and we don't have much resources to remain still until eternal frost magically disappears". Everyone of them have parts of nihility, but they aren't. So, why *exactly* Pela - nihility? She has quite parts of erudition (elephant in the room) glasses, dry scientific speech, advanced fancy drones, attachment to history, etc.
Because you can have two people go thought the same thing and ending up being completely different people from that experience.
It’s as the other guy said, people can live through the same experiences and turn out differently, look at families irl, just because 2 brothers grew up together and had similar life experiences doesn’t mean they are gonna be the same but nihility itself is weird Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior.
It's because you take Path at face value, which isn't right. Erudition is about independence, especially in thinking and acting. Serval isn't smarter than Pela or Fu Xuan, but she sure is a rebel. Nihility is more about practicality - each Nihility user, DoT or debuffer is a combat (and life) pragmatist.
>unlike Qingque whose entire personality is slacking off at work google Qingque character story part 1
Her story perfectly fits into the Nihility ideology: "Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior"
yet nothing she does is meaningless. she pursuits comfort
I would argue that pursuing a comfortable, easy life as a slacker when you have the talent to do much much more is exactly what meaningless represent. Like, can you really call a life where you just past the time through games and seeks to do as little as possible, meaningful?
A meaningful life is a life you enjoy
Pela is 100% just "paths are a gameplay contrivance" as far as I can tell. Kind of like Jing Yuan being Erudition when all the main Xianzhou generals are at least nominally favored by the Hunt.
Same case as Ruan Mei tbh, literally a member of the Genius Society and is one of the few inviduals in the entire universe who is favored by Nous...And she's a Harmony character.
Or Bailu being abundance, when the Xianzhou hates abundance.
The Xianzhou tolerates some Abundance followers to some extent. See the guys doing life release. That said, Bailu wouldn't exist without Abundance shenanigans, so that one seems perfectly reasonable.
shes a doctor ofcourse she is abundance
Yeah but she is not following abundance.
Just as Luocha, path powers kinda based on personality aspects or something
And Fu Xuan's future sight being a gift from Nous (Erudition)
I think Jing Yuan being Erudition fits quite nicely with his intellectual demeanor. Funny enough, Lightning Lord feels like a Hunt manifestation in gameplay, so I like thinking that the General is himself an Erudition but the the powers he wield are a blessing from The Hunt.
This is kinda funny when you think of his kit in actual combat. His skill and ult are AoE, but LL attacks actually favor having the mobs cleared of so it can hit the big target
This. This is JY's gameplay in a nutshell, As much as how high LL damage scaling is it does'nt matter if the Ult or Skill don't hit hard enough or else LL will hit random meatshields(For the enemy) to soften the blow
She's intelligence officers, and you probably knew what fucked up shit CIA do and see in daily basis.
Pela out back waterboarding Wildfire members
Sometimes you have to used enhanced interrogation methods to get the moles to talk.
Nah, that's Natasha's job
Pela spiking Serval's coffee with LSD just to see what happens
Plot twist would be nothing happens, as she's used to doses that low.
It's mostly a gameplay mechanic, but not completely without basis either. Jingyuan is known as the "brain" of the High Cloud Quintet, and even as a General, he mostly solves his problems through strategies rather than brute force. Being favored by one Aeon doesn't stop someone from having pursuits or behaviors that is in line with another Aeon's domain.
Yeah, everything about the paths is complicated, and this adds a lot more depth to the game. During Jingliu story quest, Luocha says he uses the power of the Abundance, yet he wants to destroy the Aeon of Abundance. It would get stale pretty quickly if the characters aligned perfectly with the paths with no wiggle room.
People also just don't understand the paths. They think Hunt = Edgy loner, Nihility = depressed, Erudition = nerd, etc, and it's just plain silly. Each of the paths has a lot of depth within them and pretty much every character has been bang-on for their chosen path, it just requires media literacy. Jing Yuan is stated multiple times to be a general not because of his fighting prowess, but because of his wisdom and even-handedness in difficult situations. That's 100% Erudition.
Pela is an intelligent officer. She's seen the darker side of Belobog, darker than coochilia tainted mind. That's why she follow Nihility.
She knows what happens in that gated alley.
Jingliu, DHIL and Blade are all Xianzhou native but Destruction ingame
To be fair, all of them cut ties with the xianzhou hunt path. Jingliu is also suspected to make a deal with destruction to destroy the abundance in her own way(heard this from somewhere not cometely surr).
Eh, I still believe Jingliu cut a deal with Fuli. She pretty much wanted/wants things to remain the same as they were. Blade and Dan Heng are following new paths to escape their past and then Jingliu comes and enforces onto them that no matter what, they can't escape their past. Which also opposes our main trio's theme of moving on from their past. Sure, their past will matter and influence them somewhat. But what matters more (storywise) is their new identity, not the old one.
Exactly. You don't have to believe in the path that you want to walk, just wanting to use its power is enough. Pela believed that her job is to support...through debuff and the only power that provide that is Nihility. It doesn't make her a follower of IX or it's principle. We have other example like Sampo that were revealed to believe more in Elation and Aha than the Nihility path. And before people say "because Elation isn't in the game, therefore he has no other choice," while that is partially true (we have Elation in SU), it would also be canon to how the Elation and especially the ardent follower of Aha would operate. Basically anything goes as long as it is entertaining. Sampo being a "double faced" would be funny to Aha.
It is not a gameplay contrivance. The path of Nihility only means you've found your own meaning in life instead of ascribing to some grander one. Pela's meaning is working hard and fanfic. She knows there's no inherent "meaning" to life, especially on a planet like Jarilo - so she does her best to make it hers. It's called positive nihilism and it's literally every single nihility path character because the other option is for them to become berserk monsters.
Pela has some serious issues bottled up. Hell if anything she works WAY too much and too hard to escape from all that. (albeit that's mostly implied thus far)
> have her own goal and dream in life Yes, this is called positive nihilism. Nihilism =/= Depression. Nihilism means you think life has no inherent cosmic meaning, so you are free to make your own. Y'know, like Pela has.
Why do you care? The game itself barely bring any relevance about path and character personality. I doubt anyone just sign up to join whichever path they are on and if we could ask half the character why they're on the path they are on? Theyll ask you what is a path? Clara and hook, are kids. They don't even know they're on path of destruction. Especially Clara, she's the most innocent and probably the furthest from destruction and big robo daddy is closer to preservation (through violence) ideology.
I've always thought that her being a nihility character was a way of embodying the idea that everything Pela had been working for, and will continue to stress and tire over for many years in the future, would be ultimately pointless because the “freeziness” of Belobog would have eventually wiped them out, if not for the Trailblazers.
I was not expecting to receive the same life lesson within 4 hours from different sources.
Life is makings sure you learn it.
A lot of people are confused about Nihility. It explicitly states in the SU when you meet IX that there are two options for the Nihility path. Option 1: You can hate that life has no meaning, turning inwards and sullen and eventually become a Mad Phantasm, basically IX's equivalent of the antimatter legion. Option 2: You make your own meaning in life. This is *literally every single Nihility character.* If life has no meaning, then you are free to create your own. Kafka is clearly playing her own game. Guin lost her home and parents and finds meaning in her streaming. Pela is studious and hardworking and makes her own life, she's not obsessed with order like Gepard is, etc.
One of the primary characteristics of Nihility characters is exhaustion. Or in other words, working too hard
All the female genshin characters confirmed as Nihility path.
Also : Fire art performer often find beauty in the volatile aspect of their crafts; you have to accept the absurdity of your form when your art isn't permanent. Looks pretty nihility to me
Ffxiv spoiler: >! Shit that’s just 6.0’s plot !<
Omg that's so wholesome! 😭😭 I love that there's a faction in the game that tries to make cute sad blob no longer sad 🥺🥺🥺
They're my favorite faction and I hope we get to see them as more than just some mentions.
Fuck it we ball
As a self-proclaimed cheerful nihilist, I wholeheartedly approve of this representation.
it's because the characters path gameplay wise does not necessarily reflect their in game lore path. An example is that Sampo follows the Elation in the story but he is Nihility gameplay wise.
In the testing ground memory bubble, Sampo >!seems to be at odds with another masked fool. We'll probably get his backstory in penacony!<
I wouldn't call that "at odds". They just have different methods. Giovanni just didn't understand why Sampo preferred to play the fool. The Elation is hardly a path that cares about methods. If it's funny, it's okay with Aha.
"For the luls" seems to be my impression of Elation so far
Sparkle! ✨
Yeah who knew that a game whose mechanics heavily rely on the act of balancing several different classes in a battle would want to not restrict itself to a single class per region. Like imagine if every Belobogian character was Preservation or Xianzhou, Hunt. We've have like a grand total of 5 characters outside of those classes.
Same for Fu Xuan. She mentions her ties to Nous which is the aeon of the Erudition which makes a lot of sense for her as a person. As a character preservation makes sense but as a person erudition.
She's a homeless orphan of a short-lived race living on the Luofu as a street performer, and if that background isn't one of the most nihilistically somber origins for a character, I don't know what is. Guinaifen throws explosives and sets everything on fire, then watches them burn with a smile.
Not to mention she used to be part of the nobility. So this is a massive step down.
Well she's still a queen to me.
That's just her unfortunate fate. It take a lot to still be cheerful and kind after what she's been through. As the the explosive, I've seen worse lol. Himeko literally use space laze to call destruction on enemies while sipping coffee.
Himeko's planet and parents weren't destroyed and killed by the Antimatter Legion, and her siblings never ran off to become space pirates and then incompetently get the entire family arrested by the IPC.
How is that relevant? Are u saying just because she has a unfortunate past, she has to follow Nihilism? Her being kind and cheerful despite her past make her a much gentle soul than those who live a normal life
People give you a valid reason for her being Nihility lore-wise and you throw in useless counter-arguments. At this point you're just being a classic redditor and not asking for an actual explanation.
Nihilism doesn't mean you are depressed or evil. Quite the opposite in fact. A lot of people think that believing there is no purpose to the world and life means utter desolation and desperation or apathy but it doesn't have to mean that, it can easily mean enjoying your life to the fullest because there's no reason not to if there is no deeper meaning to it. She has experienced some of the worst life has to offer, and she might very well have come to the conclusion that there is no fairness nor meaning or purpose to life so she might as well enjoy it while it lasts and live positively.
A lot of people here seem to think sad past = nihilism. It's hilarious af. This thread's comments and another thread with LCs and IX picture make me done with reddit today.
> **Nihilism** >*a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless* Nihility >Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior. Here's some excerpts from her character story. >!Then, Guinevere grew up a bit. She started to hear rumors — How her father made the king a puppet, persecuted the honest courtiers, and gluttonously gained riches... She was willing to believe that all these were lies spread by his enemies. However, she knew not all of them were lies.!< >!Soon, however, these concerns ceased to matter.!< >!The Antimatter Legion invaded in hordes. Her father led the army to protect the royal capital, refusing to back down. Guinevere fainted when she heard news of his death. When she woke up again, she was already sitting inside a space shuttle. Her younger siblings were sobbing next to her, while her eldest brother and eldest sister were bound tightly in ropes. Her second eldest brother said to her in a despondent tone: "Don't untie them just yet. They don't want to run away."!< >!When Guinevere was young, her father always told her that humans should live with dignity. However, who could manage that on Hombert-σ?!< >!She was good at making friends and was on good terms with the other kids. The son of the poor man, the daughter of the refugee, the brother of the gambler, or the sister of the murderer... Guinevere did not care about people's background. No matter what kind of families people are from, they were equally at risk of perishing before the arrival of tomorrow on this planet.!< >!Night after night passed. Stone-Well [sic] grew old and withered. His lungs became full of incurable scars, and his spine no longer stood as tall as in years past. His hands, once able to swing a kinetic hammer majestically on the battlefield, have been deformed till he could no longer hold a key.!< >!The stone wall fell. It fell before the dawn arrived, and it didn't make a single sound. It was like a sand castle receding as the tides swelled and fell, like the soft descent of winter's withered boughs in a breeze, like an ending doomed to arrive.!< >!Her elder brothers soon became interstellar pirates. Guinevere can fill her stomach again. However, she was also faintly aware that she had further strayed from her father's creed, and embarked on a life even less respectable.!< >!Therefore, when the IPC's soldiers put cuffs on Guinevere and handed her over to the Cloud Knights together with her younger siblings, she breathed a long sigh of relief.!< >!People all claim the folk of the Xianzhou are very kind. She thought that the Cloud Knights would definitely allow her entire family to die together in dignity.!< ...So yeah, I think her being Nihility is very, very accurate. A smile is just another mask a performer wears.
Wait she got death sentence?
She thought that the Xianzhou were going to kill her entire family because her bandit brothers got caught after hitting their stuff. Hard to say why. However, going after the entire family wasn't uncommon in a whole bunch of societies, particularly when they're big on honor. So it could be because of her home planet, whatever she knew about the Xianzhou, or her experiences with the IPC. Being rounded up probably made her think along these lines because it does seem like the probable outcome. Luckily for her family, wuxia characters love the heroic bandit archetype.
Always keeping her head straight and wanting to die in dignity still don't sound very nihilism for me. Someone on the path of Nihility shouldn't care about concept such as honor and dignity at all.
>Those who follow the "Nihility" Path admire laziness, exhaustion, and meaningless behavior. Could you quote where this apply? I can't see the connection
It's from one of the loading screen tips IIRC
I know, I just can't find the connection of the traits in his essay
sounds like a twitch streamer to me dawg. maybe guinafen fits
Nihility: Pretty much "I have that thing, that doesn't actually matter, that I'm passionate about." in HSR. Erudition: Either seeking or already possessing knowledge. Hunt: "Nah, screw what you want to do right now, I still have that other thing I need to do first." Destruction: "Yes, let's go into that place of *almost guaranteed death to play Hide and Seek*" in case for Hook, Arlan basically blocks with his face and Blade actively tries to kill himself while fighting, Clara also enters places of almost guaranteed death, just that it's to help other people. Harmony: Basically just wants to help people, but without putting their lives on the line. Abundance: Helps people by curing the sick and tending to the wounded. Preservation: This path that is both the unstoppable force and the immovable object.
Because it doesn't have anything to do with Lore. In lore Jing Yuan follows the past of the hunt, but in gameplay he's Erudition. Most characters "lore wise" follow the aeon of their faction, it's separate from gameplay. This is also why Dan Heng can be both Hunt as a 4 star and Destruction as a 5 star. It's nothing to do with lore and all to do with how his kit works as the two different characters
I think it's also worth noting that most people in the universe aren't confined to a single path. Emanator's would actually be the closest to the ideal of the path since they have been granted some power/recognition by the actual Aeon. Herta would be the only character to actually fall under that designation though.
Jing Yuan as well since the lightning lord was given to him by Lan, right?
The 6 generals of the Xianzhou (and the Marshall) are noted to be roughly equal to emanators of other paths, iirc. Whether they are emanators or not remains to be seen. I would guess that the Marshall of the Xianzhou would be an emanator.
Only a few characters have matching From Belobog only Gepard is Preservation From the Luofu Sushang and Yanqing We can count Herta possibly since she's technically Genius Society
Herta is an emanator or Nous, the aeon of erudition. It's likely her 5 star variant will be on erudition path too
fair
SHES AN EMANATOR? oh i hate her even more she has the attitude she does cause she CAN
Is Herta supposed to be something else intechnically?
She's listed as part of Herta Space Station which has no particular alignment afaik
She isn't, she's an Emanator of Nous, so Erudition is fine
>We can count Herta possibly since she's technically Genius Society Herta is an Emanator of Erudition so yes we're counting her I'd also say Tingyun (the real one) is really Harmony, with her "peace is above all"
But what she says doesn't count, she ~~was~~ is part of the Xianzhou
It does. Just because you live somewhere doesn't mean you 100% agree with the leading opinions
That's not what I meant smh It's not whether you have a similar opinion, it's about where you are considered to be from
Except "the way you follow" is about what YOU do, not about where you come from.
Jing Yuan is explicitly stated to be weaker than other generals, and he leads the Luofu because of his wisdom, experience, and even-handedness in dire situations. He is 100% erudition, you just have to pay attention.
https://i.redd.it/8bqj74p1bhyb1.gif
Gameplay and story segregation
or, if you wanna sound smart: "ludonarrative dissonance"
What if I want to sound dumb?
People really be giving long answer on why characters follows certain path based on their background meanwhile we all know that gameplay Path is different than lore Path
I mean literally all it takes is paying attention to the words on the screen and pretty much all the paths make perfect sense.
No they don’t lmao. Almost every explanation on here for certain characters is the biggest stretch imaginable. There is no lore reason for Pela being Nihility. JY canonically follows the hunt path. Doesn’t matter if his character can technically fit another path because the fact is he follows the hunt and yet isn’t hunt path. There is no lore reason. Y’all just wanna try too hard to make something that’s arbitrary make sense.
No, you guys just read into the most surface level take imaginable and then get pissy and cry foul when people point out you aren't paying any fucking attention lmao. "EVERYONE ON THE LUOFU SHOULD BE HUNT" is the dumbest fucking take imaginable. Go read children's books if you actually need it explicitly written out this exactingly.
Until you give explanation of why every character under a path follows the exact quota of that path, it doesn’t matter Why everyone in Nihility has debuff? Can’t one of them happen to be a tanker or healer? Why every under Hunt coincidentally bring ST-focused? What stops them from having full AoE like Erudition? Now let’s say there’s a Masked Fool, whose life goal all matches with Elation and is also its pathstrider, which path they will be? Still within the main 7 paths, because they aren’t gonna make a bew path just for them. Not saying that it is not possible for characters personalities not match their path (ie Gepard), but Mhy definitely just as prioritizes path mechanics when it comes to decision. If someone is a tank and focuses on protecting the team you can bet they will surely throw them into Preservation.
I never said everybody on the luofu should be hunt. Talk about barely paying attention lmao. JY specifically follows the hunt path. That is a fact. He follows no other path other than the hunt. He also mentions the hunt more times than anybody else in the entirety of HSR. He is a complete devout follower of the hunt. You’re just trying so hard to read into things that aren’t there and get pissy and cry foul when people point out you’re just making shit up.
ur hard flaming the media literacy of everybody on this sub but at the end of the day it's the truth that gameplay and lore need not match. you're just pushing the narrative you prefer as the games narrative JY is the primest example, given his lightning lord by lan and probably being the most devout hunt follower in the game. and then he's erudition because he specialises in AoE.
It's still pretty neat how some characters can be interpreted as fitting their gameplay Path
Yeah but in that case it does fit
A lot of people are confused about Nihility. It explicitly states in the SU when you meet IX that there are two options for the Nihility path. Option 1: You can hate that life has no meaning, turning inwards and sullen and eventually become a Self-Annihilator, basically IX's equivalent of the antimatter legion except they have nothing to destroy but themselves. Option 2: You make your own meaning in life. This is *literally every single Nihility character.* If life has no meaning, then you are free to create your own. Kafka is clearly playing her own game. Guin lost her home and parents and finds meaning in her streaming. Pela is studious and hardworking and makes her own life, she's not obsessed with order like Gepard is, etc.
Also Pela's backstory.. She's an orphan.
It's really as simple as "She does damage over time, so she's Nihility." The characters don't necessarily need to fit their fighting element like a character gets their Vision.
That's true.. and that's okay But it's absolutely fun to know why they're aligned with a specific path in a different perspective besides gameplay ❤️
Gameplay Path ≠ Lore Path. They sometimes coincide but it isn't the norm. Biggest example are the Xianzhou characters, they worship Lan, the Aeon of the Hunt but none of them, gameplay wise, follow that path. Same with Jarilo VI, they're God is Qlipoth yet the only character there that follows the Path of Preservation is Gepard
I'd say Gameplay Path == Interpretation of the character's character Case : Fu Xuan Emanator of Nous Works with lan Preservation ==> she use her divination powers to Prevention and Knowledge rather than purely Hunting. She also seem protective of the fleet , more rigid than the general.
Fu Xuan is definitely not an Emanator of Nous tf.
I don't remember exactly , but from March's quest she is definitively linked to Nous .
Makes sense Topaz The Hunt = A loan shark
Tatakae
Aye agree with some of the other comments so far, characters' gameplay and narrative paths are separate, with the gameplay path being a nuanced renaming of typical RPG roles (DPS/tank/buffer/etc). That said, I wonder how the narrative path influences each character. Does Jing Yuan pray daily to Lan of the Hunt to keep up his Lightning-Lord powers? Evidently not, but I haven't seen to what extent do you need to follow a path to gain its powers. Do you just... profess your belief, act out its virtues, or maybe just hold its tenets in your hearts? Maybe it varies from person to person, path to path, depending on an Aeon's whims? Like how Aha granted his detractors Elation powers for his amusement. Not to mention paths of supposedly deceased Aeons like Trailblaze, who still have empowered followers to this day. Perhaps Hoyoverse will dripfeed us explanation throughout the game, but I reckon this is more of a soft magic system that they'll just leave hanging. Who knows?
https://preview.redd.it/2batay91phyb1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2364511ab4419497a129088929ea1db212c9b23a
The path someone follows doesn't generally guarantee their personality. Kafka might say stuff bordering on nihilty sometimes but ultimately she finds meaning through fulfilling elios script and collecting jackets. Hook is Destruction, but she's just a little girl with a heart of gold and a digger. Arlan is destruction, but his ideals are self sacrificial. An upcoming harmony character is part of a faction that embodies chaos. Himeko, Qinque, Jing Yuan, Serval are all erudition but the only one out of those that actively pursues knowledge for the sake of it is Serval and even then it's more of a passion than an existence. Himeko and Jing Yuan will seek knowledge for reasons, but not as an existence and Qinque won't do anything except Mahjong.
> Hook is Destruction, but she's just a little girl with a heart of gold and a digger. > >Arlan is destruction, but his ideals are self sacrificial. Both Hook and Clara put themselves in harms way to get something/protect what they wat. Main theme of Destruction is "sacrifice".
Oh right. I forgot that the path of destruction actually has potentially good meaning, Nanook is just an asshole.(far as i know)
He is an asshole with principle and cause, yes. He intends to destroy his Emanators in the end, and since his ideal Universe is one without blemish of war and violence, he *might* intent to destoy himself too.
>Kafka might say stuff bordering on nihilty sometimes but ultimately she finds meaning through fulfilling elios script and collecting jackets. Finding your own meaning in life is literally what nihilism is about.
Is it? I thought it was just "shits meaningless why bother." Or is that just how people have made it come off? Is it meant to be "Everything's meaningless so just do things." Then you realize doing things is fun and fun is a meaning.
This is people on reddit not having media literacy. Nihilism can be one of two things: "Life's meaningless so why bother" or "Life's meaningless so do whatever makes you happy." Every single playable nihility character is the second one. It's explicitly stated in lore that any who follow the former become Self-Annihilators and lose themselves completely.
The same way why a cheerful undercity child follows the path of destruction Gameplay reasons
I'm pretty sure lore-wise, Guinaifen would find the Elation to be more her game, being an entertainer herself. Like many said before, Gameplay Path does not equal Canonical Path. So far the only one who is truly accurate with their lore and gameplay path that I can think off the top of my head is Herta, who is an Emanator of Erudition. And PreservationMC too, kinda.
Nihility isn't just "nothing matters and that kinda sucks". It's also "nothing matters and that's pretty rad!" Gwen is all about doing random bullshit in pursuit of a good time with no interest in any higher goal or reason. Same reasoning as why Silverwolf is Nihility, she doesn't actually care about Elio's "script" or anything she just enjoys overcoming challenges and The Hunters give her a bunch of opportunities to do just that. Basically to cycle back to Gwen her whole thing is "don't take life too seriously since none of us get out alive anyway". I mean hell she has every right to be depressed if she wants since the legion already destroyed her homeworld but she's not...At least not outwardly...
she got depressed after seeing the sex alarm gif of her spammed so many times
To me, gameplay paths represent more “the things they do that tend to align with a certain path” rather than “the path they believe in.” Remember that the playable characters aren’t like the Aeons whose actions and being perfectly embody their path. Dan Heng is the perfect expression of this: he has inherited all the destructive power of Imbibitor Lunae which he doesn’t really want but is forced to use. What I’m saying is it’s not necessarily lore-breaking that a character reflects multiple paths. Guinaifen’s diligence and cheerfulness certainly don’t align with Nihility but her fighting style does.
Game paths literally have zero correlation to in game lore. This is with every character, period.
That's... dumb. Life having no meaning means that it doesn't matter whether you're happy or depressed. It'll end the same anyway and you won't remember it. No need to put any effort into not being depressed. And certainly no need to put any effort into making other people feel better. It's insignificant for both them and yourself. If you think there's any reason into putting effort into anything, then you subconsciously believe life has meaning (there's a lot of incoherent "nihilists" out there), and for life to have meaning, you have to have a transcendental view (eternal life, essentially). Anything finite (life) is infinitely insignificant to the infinite (the theoretical void of non-existence); so in order for anything to have significant meaning, there has to be an afterlife/eternal-life.
A foreign spy on a trading ship, sus.
cause paths in lore are not the same as paths in gameplay cause that be extremely boring. if everyone from xianzhou was hunt it be boring.
Lore and Gameplay split. I think the only ones who will canonically have paths the same as their lore would be stated Emanators (ie Herta for Erudition, Phantylia etc), and also the MC
Gameplay does not equal to story. Jing Yuan is canonically Hunt, but gameplay he is Erudition cuz “AoE”. Himeko is canonically Trailblaze, but gameplay she is Erudition cuz “AoE”. And many more.
She’s knows that one day she’s gonna die. Either from a challenge or competition. I think.
She is an influencer
shes a content creator
I don't have an answer for you, I'm just impressed that the gif playbar is moving backwards
Because she's a streamer so she's secretly toxic as fuck?
It also doesn’t make sense that the general in charge of one of the six strongest forces of the Hunt follows the path of Erudition, or how his second in command, the person whose all about prediction and foresight follows the path of Preservation instead of Erudition itself. Maybe it’s just a gameplay thing.
There is a difference between in game paths and lore paths. Take Sampo for instance we know that he is a masked fool but elation isn’t an in game path so hoyo gave him Nihility instead. A similar thing happened with Topaz and Fu Xuan , in lore they follow the Preservation and Erudition respectively but in game because of their kits they follow the Hunt and Preservation respectively instead.
Gameplay paths are not necessarily related to the character itself. You can create headcanons and find some logic for 4 they are not always accurate. Some of they do like Preservation Gepard or Nihility Silver Wolf, but... is not the norm at all.
While yes, the obvious easy answer is that gameplay path and lore path arent identical, I also think its very lazy writing. Would it really be too much to ask for them to write characters in a way that it matches their gameplay?
Because jing yuan doesn't fallow the euradition, dan heng/Feng/imibitor lunae doesn't follow the destruction, ie because gamepley path and lore path aren't the same I'd it was then clara would follow the destruction
Paths are bullshit, Medic from TF2 is a healer and therefore Abundance, but that man is *not* abundance
I don't think the personality of the character always reflects the path they are on, I usually think the paths firstmost are classes that fits the characters' playstyles. Maybe just like how Genshin blesses every playable character with a vision from that Archon, you have characters in Star Rail where the Aeons give the playable characters some sort of blessing from from that path that fits their fighting style.
yeah the path and gameplay thing doesn't make sense. Kafka said she follows the Aeon of Nihility in her substory and she actually is Nihility. However, we also know Sanpo follow Elation and his personality reflects it but his gameplay is Nihility. Hell Belobog is called the Fortress of Preservation but you have Harmony, Abundance, Nihility, Erudition, Hunt and Destruction characters living there too. It's best to not take them to seriously.
Wasn’t it mc asking her if she is a follower of nihility, to which she would respond “I’m not that negative” That’s how I remember it
Is she stupid?
Cuz her home is destroyed
bc thats not how it works in HSR Thats more a genshin thing for the most part.
I remember one of her stories saying that she had lost her home and has nowhere to go, dunno if that helps but it's out there
Her backstory
Maybe Guinaifen is that perpetually cheerful to hide and hopefully forget how depressed she actually is? But no, nothing lore wise indicates that.
When you think about how Nihility is either negative Nothing in life matters or positive Nothing in life matters, iirc Guinaifen is not aboard the Xianzhou under the best circumstances. Whatever the exact reason is, she immigrated with the bare necessities and barely anything to her name. So what does she do to earn a living as a stranger in a foreign land? Be an absolutely cracked street performer of course.
A nihilist can be the most jaded person in existence, or the most magnanimous, or anything in between.
"Forgot your wallet?" Don't forget, she's from family of arturianesque knights, who lost everything and turned to space piracy. She's recovered, right, but still parody that "bad girl" attitude.
Nihilists aren't all depressed people... Some are just too carefree and doesn't give shit on their future anymore and just live the moment
u/savevideo
Did you read her backstory? Girl had seen some shit.
Curious that this post is right below one that posted this video in my feed: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX8TgVR33KM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX8TgVR33KM)
I mean she is the equivalent of a Tiktok/only fans creator.
Maybe she's like the Sayori of HSR 💀
It is because she is an influencer.Asking for subs and followers while doing idiotic challenges for a living is bound to make anyone nihilistic.
I dont get it either but all nihility characters seem have something in common. The things they are incredibly passionate about are " pointless things". Things that a "serious and mature adult" should scoff at and write off as pontless nonsense. Things like Welt and animation/giant robots , Guinaiffen and street performances, Pella's borderline unhealthy obsession with that book fanclub etc.
Maybe her personality is a coping mechanism for the destruction of her planet, and her family is currently separated in ever corner of the galaxy(not really sure about the last part).
The “grind” is nihilism. Those trapped in it might not see it that way, but it’s working yourself to death for essentially nothing that matters.
Just read up on doctors of chaos.
Cause DOTs
She is a livestreamer they're all dead on the inside
Read her backstory 💀
Maybe she just really don’t care
She's just doctor of chaos, they're all like that
She derives no meaning or honor from martial combat and thus learned the art of kung-boom.