#hsr terminus

[jeyfeather1234]

Just realized the symbol for Finality in the Honkaiverse is an octagon or eight-pointed star.

Top to bottom: Background image for Kiana's Herrscher of Finality stigmata (hi3), Aeon symbol in the databank, screenshot from Exotale 8 trailer, screenshot from Death in the Afternoon/MAPPA collab PV

[hsrmeta]

The Science of Finality & Trailblaze

As many theorists have noted for as far back as predecessors like Gun Girlz Z, games within the shared Hoyoverse are connected by a complex cosmogony that takes concepts from real world anthropology (like religions and mythology) to sciences and mathematics. Because of the vastness, it's likely impossible (or at the very least, highly difficult) to encapsulate everything that comprises the Hoyoverse when it would likely take huge amounts of study to begin comprehending every single concept that may or may not be present in its cosmogony.

In such an instance of brevity, for the sake of this post, I wanted to focus on two of the most fascinating Paths in HSR: Finality and Trailblaze.

As a disclaimer, it should be noted that not every theorem/concept may be accurate, nor will this contain every concept out there that could fit. I don't have a background in the sciences (outside of IT), so my understanding will be very casual at best and some of these may be wrong, so don't take it completely seriously. Without further ado:

The Torodial Model of the Universe

A tentative cosmological torus model for describing the re-bounce of the universe in a circular universe concept. This geometric approach models the information Universe at fractal scales. The surface trajectory of information quanta is shown in grey patterns (see also inset left above), including their interactive processing in the inner core of the torus with potential wave coupling/conjugation by superposition (see inset right middle). The nested (self similar) aspect and 4-D dimension of the torus are indicated via the insets left below. The dynamics of the torus is implicit by an inherent rotation axis and recurrent flow of wave information in a bi-spiral flow pattern. The integral state of the torus depicts a supposed stage of our universe in which all information is collected and gravitationally compressed into a terminal black hole, in which all information is holographically projected on a virtual screen (its event horizon). Information is projected on the black hole horizon and proposed to be passed through a wormhole structure that is inherently connected to a white hole. The latter is instrumental in dispersing the particular information into a next (nested) version of a cyclic universe (Meijer, 2015). Aspect of time in the model is represented by the colored triangle planes: red plane depicts the present time as a back projection of past and future waves, according to the transactional interpretation of quantum physics by John Cramer, green plane below indicates the past time, and green plane above the future time. (Figure modified from Stan Tenen, 2002 as shown in a PPT presentation of Amoroso, on Dirac spherical rotation). - Consciousness in the Universe is Scale Invariant and Implies an Event Horizon of the Human Brain The Toroidal Universe Theory proposes that the universe may not actually be expanding but only appears to be because space-time dynamically flows with the geometry of a torus. So the universe may be simultaneously expanding and contracting in a closed loop – stretching at the top where space-time emerges from the centre of the torus, and contracting at the bottom where space-time flows back into the centre. The Toroidal Universe Theory also explains why time only flows in the one direction – forwards.- Toroidal Universe

To begin, the first concept I want to introduce is known as the Toroidal Model of the universe. According to this theory, the known and unknown universe as we know it begins and ends in the shape of a Torus--and as the Hoyoverse is governed by the notion of ideals and philosophies taking literal form as the Aeons and Paths, I thought this idea fits here well enough.

Simply put, space-time flows in the shape of a torus, and the universe with it. And as Trailblaze and Finality are believed to be cyclical mirrors of one another, being the most prominent Paths that are connected with the concept of time, it seems to connect with what we know of Finality and Trailblaze.

In Pages, Ripples That Engrave Memories of the MSQ, As Tomorrow Became Yesterday, during the conversation with Nous when Herta self-coronated with the Aeon to partially rewrite the Fourth Instance, Herta deciphers the conclusion that many theorists of have speculated about Akivili's fate: that Akivili went on to become Terminus at the end of time, and that THEIR disappearance was, in fact, a metamorphosis.

By the Toroidal Model of the universe, these two concepts seem to fit together snugly. Akivili is born at the beginning of time, and Terminus is always born at its end. In the Toroidal Model, Akivili seems to best be represented by the White Hole that moves time towards the future while Terminus, the Black Hole, moves through the past until they loop at each cycle's beginning. As Terminus is born at the end of time and "lives" through it backwards, it makes sense that THEY would flow through time this way, just like the Toroidal Model's Black Hole.

The brain is a prediction machine

The brain is a prediction machine. It is always trying to predict what is going to happen next so that we are ready for whatever life throws at us. New research published today by Oxford University researchers in the journal Neuron found that people have an advance sense of how well they will do at a task even before they try it. This advance sense of how well we will do guides us towards tasks and problems we are likely to solve, and away from those that might be too hard. A brain activity pattern in the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex tracks this estimate of how well we are likely to do. - The brain is a prediction machine: It knows how well we are doing something before we even try In a very broad sense, predictive processing refers to any type of processing which incorporates or generates not just information about the past or the present, but also future states of the body or the environment. Such directedness towards the future has long been recognized as relevant and beneficial for different aspects of information processing, such as perception, motor and cognitive control, decision making, theory of mind and other cognitive processes in humans as well as, in a more rudimentary form, animals. Historically, the investigation of anticipatory mechanisms and representations started almost in parallel in the contexts of perceptual and motor processing. One of the first proposals that expectations are intrinsically related to actions was formulated in the 19th century within the ideomotor principle which has recently been revisited by theories suggesting the existence of shared or common codes between perception and action (James, 1890; Prinz, 1990; Hommel et al., 2001; Stock and Stock, 2004).  - Prediction, Cognition, and the Brain

Between Letter From the Comet Hunter, Trailblaze Power, and Trailblaze Compass, it paints an extremely interesting picture in this theory. Simply put, the essence of Trailblaze parallels the notion of the mind as a predictive machine.

As it can be understood, the essence of Trailblazing is moving forward. As the mind is the vehicle in which humans operate from, its predictive way of anticipating the immediate future mirrors Trailblaze very closely.

In Farewell, Penacony's chapter, Stranger in a Strange Land, Welt seems to confirm this by stating how the Astral Express operates like a perpetual motion machine: Trailblaze energy keeps it moving, and the Astral Express constantly moves forward. While perpetual motion machines are impossible in reality, in HSR, they seem to describe a core aspect of Trailblazing. Whether in the mind or in their reality, Trailblazing is moving forward, especially into the unknown.

The Relativity of Simultaneity

The Principle of Relativity directly predicts effects that initially seem strange — even weird. Strange or not, weird or not; logical argument demonstrates them and experiment verifies them. One effect has to do with simultaneity: Let two events occur separated in space along the direction of relative motion between laboratory and rocket frames. These two events, even if simultaneous as measured by one observer, cannot be simultaneous as measured by both observers. Train Paradox: Two lightning bolts strike simultaneously for ground observer (Figure Above) Einstein’s Train Paradox illustrating the relativity of simultaneity. Top: Lightning strikes the front and hack ends of a moving train, leaving char marks on both track and train. Each emitted flash spreads out in all directions. Center: Observer riding in the middle of the train concludes that the two strokes are not simultaneous. Her argument: "(I) I am equidistant from the front and hack char marks on the train. (2) Light has the standard speed in my frame, and equal speed in both directions. (3) The flash arrived from the front of the train first. Therefore, (4) the flash must have left the front of the train first; the front lightning holt fell before the rear lightning bolt fell. I conclude that the lightning strokes were not simultaneous." Bottom: Observer standing by the tracks halfway between the char marks on the tracks concludes that the strokes were simultaneous, since the flashes from the strokes reach him at the same time. -3.4: Relativity of Simultaneity

The Relativity of Simultaneity, a branch of the infamous Theory of Relativity, deals with the conundrum of simultaneity where it regards an observer. If lightning strikes simultaneously at two different points, while it may appear simultaneously for one observer, what if there were two who saw the two lightning bolts strike at different times?

According to Finality's Vision, the game system introduced some time ago, Finality and Trailblaze are two Paths seen as anathema to one another due to moving in two different directions. And yet, like the two lightning strikes at opposite ends of a train, time may be our lightning strikes and the two observers could be Akivili and Terminus in this simulacra, but according to this theory and how it can connect, lightning strikes at the same exact time regardless of who is observing. One may look ahead, and the other looks backs, but it's all the same.

The Andromeda Paradox

Piggybacking off of the Relativity of Simultaneity, the Andromeda Paradox is a similar theory that explores the discrepancy between two different observers.

The Andromeda Paradox is a thought experiment proposed by physicist Roger Penrose to demonstrate a strange consequence of Einstein’s special theory of relativity: that different observers can disagree on what is happening right now, even at galaxies millions of light-years away. - The Andromeda Paradox

"In this diagram:

The vertical axis represents time.

The horizontal axis represents space.

The coloured lines represent the different planes of simultaneity for Alice and Bob.

The Andromeda galaxy sits far to the right.

Depending on their motion, Alice’s and Bob’s “now” slices intersect different moments in the distant galaxy. Note that in this illustration, Bob is stationary for the sake of simplicity.

In physics, especially in special relativity, when we say that “different observers slice up the universe differently”, we mean that they divide spacetime into what they consider the past, present, and future differently, depending on their motion.

So for each observer, there’s a different “slice” of the universe that they call “now”, a plane of simultaneity."

In As Tomorrow Becomes Yesterday, Pages, Ripples That Engrave Memories, Trailblazer meets a reflection of themselves that stand back to back, staring in opposite directions; by their dialogue, the MC looks towards the future/Trailblaze while their "clone" gazes back, this clone interrogating them and demanding to know why they Trailblaze.

In a way, it matches the Andromeda Paradox because it represents two different observers looking in the opposite yet converging direction, seeing the same thing differently: Trailblaze (MC) looks ahead and sees the future while our opposite (represented by the gender opposite the one you choose) looks back towards the "past."

The Block Universe

Called the “block universe,” it is essentially a static brick that encompasses all of space and all of time. Rather than a three-­dimensional place that evolves, the block universe is a static, four-dimensional entity (the fourth dimension being time). You can imagine it as a vast block of glass or ice, stretching out in every direction in space as well as back and forth in time, containing all the connections and events that make up the universe. - The Block Universe A new challenge emerged a century ago with Minkowski’s space–time [2] as it provided support for viewing the universe as a four-dimensional space–time block that exists as one entity. In this view, called the block universe (or eternalism in philosophical discussions), there is no basis for singling out a present time that separates the past from the future because all times coexist with equal status. As such, it has profound implications for how we view our experience of existing in the present moment, able to reflect on the past and plan new actions in a variable future. Indeed, if all times coexist with equal status, the future is as fixed as the past and so humans can only act in compliance with the future; this directly conflicts with the notion that humans can act freely. - The quantum theory of time, the block universe, and human experience

The block universe is a theory that, within the cosmos, the past, present, and future all coexist simultaneously. Everything that has, will, or could happen all exist.

In both the 3.7 MSQ (As Tomorrow Became Yesterday/Pages, Ripples That Engrave Memories) and Long Day's journey Into the Night/The Knocking at Ungodly Hours, it demonstrates the possibility of all directions of time and its possibilities existing at the same time, as Acheron can seemingly observe; this version of Pom-Pom, meanwhile, notes how the Trailblazer is repeating history, in a way, exactly as Akivili had.

If the HSR universe exists by the Block Universe theory, then this makes sense as the past/present/future and all its potentials already all exist. They can be accessed, traversed, or seen depending on the individual, much in the way Akivili can still live and be dead simultaneously, just as Terminus could rise from THEIR death and travel back in time, all at the same time.

[stxrblazer]

Same-lore channel . About tree and Mythus

🔥 Mifus — Creator of the Universe

💫 The most widely accepted and relevant theory regarding the structure of the cosmos is the Theory of the Tree of Imagination, which has been repeatedly expanded upon by many scholars. According to this theory, shoots sprouted from the Crack of Nihility and grew into the Tree of Being, which is the universe itself.

However, where did this crack in Nihility, which gave birth to the universe, come from? With the development of technology, people increasingly turned their gaze to higher dimensions, refining theories of the universe’s structure. And the answer to this question was provided by the book of the current patch—Enigmata.

💫 Mythus is the most ancient Aeon who, like IX, existed even before the birth of the universe. Nihility absorbs everything into itself, while Enigma rebirths everything within Nihility.

Mythus is the Aeon that erases cause and effect. In her domain, effect exists before cause and without cause; the arrow of time is reversed, and entropy does not increase but decreases.

💫 Originally, the Sea was almost empty, filled only with infinite aether and quanta. Its surface remained stable, but the deeper one plunged, the more chaotic the information became.

In the depths of the Sea, Mythus created Shadow Zones—aethereal black holes containing within themselves all possibilities, all causes and effects. They absorb the surrounding aether, but, unlike real black holes, they are extremely unstable, constantly collapsing and immediately reforming, creating a circulation of aether.

Shadow Zones reside in the depths of the Sea and do not rise to its surface. However, one day, one such zone decided to reach the Sea’s boundaries. The Shadow zone collapsed at the upper boundary of Nihility and was reborn into Being, causing the aether within to become omnipresent. For this reason, scientists consider Mythus to be the creator of the universe’s foundation.

Around the universe, in Nihility, Mythus created the outermost protective layer—the aetheric network. Today, it is used as an intergalactic internet, transmitting information through the aether and higher dimensions to any point in the universe.

💫 Scientists agree that it is not Terminus but Mythus who is behind the universe’s reboots. When Finality arrives, Terminus gathers all causes and effects, preserving the information.

Then Mythus creates the Shadow Zone, into which all possibilities merge, absorbs the entire Tree and Sea, and then, based on information from Terminus, restarts the universe from scratch in the new Shadow Zone.

The idea of Mythus being the one to recreate the universe instead of Terminus makes me think back to Amphoreus, actually.

Specifically the cycle in which Evernight started her bullshit, because in that cycle Evernight was more or less acting as Mythus over Fuli, and Trailblazer as Terminus.

(The interesting thing is that it didnt work though..)

Amphoreus, oh you sweet microcosm of the universe.. how you haunt my waking and sleeping thoughts.

[thedeerus]

let's discover finality together

[stxrblazer]

“Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back”

A phrase that is split in two more than not, with the meaning being wholly different without its second half.

Generally, I consider the phrase fairly accurate to Trailblaze & Finality.

Trailblaze pushes forward. It keeps going, no matter what. The next expedition, the next journey, the next adventure. Always meeting new people, always exploring new worlds, always experiencing something new. Right up until the very end, which it hopes will never come. (But every journey has a destination.)

And Finality comes back. It is the end of all things, the terminus of the universe. But it comes back. It goes back to the very beginning. Once the end has been reached, it turns right around. The end of all things is the beginning of all things. (But neither the end nor beginning is the journey.)

Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back

Beyond the love Hoyo has for cats (considering their usage multiple times over), i think thats another reason why both Trailblaze & Finality are represented by a cat. A white cat and black cat both with gold eyes. Hey fun fact, didja know white cats can turn black and vice versa? (Though, full coat changes are like… not.. common.. or much of a thing at all. But this is space fantasy, so like.)

Its another reason why Im so insistent on Catblazer. Yes, they’re themed as a raccoon, and i doubt they’ll turn from that much, but they are HEAVILY associated with cats. That is undeniably true.

Emanator of Cat joke how you haunt me…

[joyboystrappola]

(terminus x reader (implied normal) drabble, i love terminus. kinda ambiguous if romantic or not.....)

TERMINUS tends to appear to you as a black cat, many of thousands. THEY cross your path in this form, to the point you start to think that a black cat is the aeon that somehow always makes time in THEIR journey to bask in your presence. you sometimes think if these cats are simply like a hive mind or multiple TERMINUSES existing simultaneously, walking backwards to reach Origin. you wonder if you've ever truly met THEM at all, or simply THEIR fragments. in the end, are you just a simple amusing stop in THEIR divine journey? the black cat this time never speaks, simply stares at you as you speak your worries.

truth is, TERMINUS avoids to gaze you. THEY know THEIR power, and what THEY brought upon THEIR birth. THEY have lifted the wheel of time, THEY became the destroyer of worlds, and THEY will travel to what all perceive as the Beginning to signal THEIR End. THEIR existence is a never-ending cycle, bound to repeat as long as AKIVILI, THEIR antithesis, journeys from one planet to another, till THEIR fall catches up to the waywarding Aeon.

THEY are doomed as THEY are blessed.

yet... your presence is a guiding constant, in every cat THEY manifest into. no matter what time, what moment, you seem to be always there, always ready to welcome THEM. no matter what Finality, you were always a constant. its a comfort, though TERMINUS long left a mortal emotion in the cracked egg of THEIR mortality.

as such, THEY will never gaze you. not until the time is right. for THEY while they wish an early Finality so your path will end in THEIR embrace, THEY will not strip you of this journey of life.

for now, TERMINUS, the Shapeless Prince, is long content of being a cat stopping in its favorite spot. fleeting, yet always there. till one day, Finality swings and brings you to THEIR hold.

Then, together you will witness the Origin of this Universe... and the End of Finality.

[vileiguana]

That's what the end of all things will be like? Just some absurd looking god half quoting Oppenheimer and then exploding into a ton of cats?

[vileiguana]

I can get down with the idea that the inevitable end of all things manifests as like 1000 intangible black cats.