hsr 3.2 gives so much importance to art and ephemera that it makes me tear up a little. castorice, not knowing how to mourn, writes thousands of poems about the beauty of the lives she's taken. anaxa, practically dead himself, is understood by few and respected by even fewer -- until dan heng and hyacine find the records of his past life and realize what he's been working for all along. and at the end of the river of souls, trianne's drawing is what reminds castorice of how miraculous it is to love, to be loved, to have people to remember. castorice says the drawing is her life after aidonia, and in some ways, that's not a metaphor at all.
the 3.2 quest asks "what are we really?", and the answer has been there since the beginning, when castorice tells us that it's human nature to leave records of things. the people of amphoreus are creatures of ink and paper and memory. though the next era nova will not preserve their bodies, they still will leave something behind: scraps of alchemical formulas and poetry and art -- memories, the evidence of life. recorded, remembered, and then made anew.