[3.0 Spoilers] On Amphoreus, the Elysian Realm, and March's true identity

Hello. I have found yet another topic to be autistic about, and I will now make it everyone elses problem.

This is a thorough analysis of Amphoreus and an attempt to solve the story before it's out. Spoilers, obviously — for both HSR and Hi3rd.

Now, here's the plot hook.

March 7th is Cyrene, who is the Aeon of Rebirth and the 13th Titan.

Read more to find out why.

1. — Elysian Realm

It really is no secret what Amphoreus is inspired by. There are overt parallels — 'Flamechasers', 12 Titans/12 Flamechasers, and a character that is literally just Elysia. It really does not need to be explained, but what's more interesting is the nuances in this comparison that weren't really pointed out before. More specifically, how things line up aside from the obvious, and how this could influence the story of Amphoreus.

The story of the Elysian Realm

Spoilers for that arc, obviously. I also recommend playing Hi3rd. It's actually really good. The beginning can be a bit slow in Part 1 and 2, though. This summary won't cover everything because it really is a massive arc, but it'll cover the parts I think are relevant.

The world in Hi3rd had a previous era that was reset by the Herrscher of Finality (not the same thing as the Finality in HSR, it's an entirely different thing). Herrschers are basically Honkai Gods, similar to Aeons, except they have the express purpose of fighting humanity.

That previous Era developed something called MANTIS soldiers to combat the Herrschers. MANTIS soldiers are injected with Honkai Genes (those genes are called ICHOR, btw) that give them both superpowers and some kind of 'side effect' from those superpowers, not necessarily negative.

Example: One MANTIS was Aponia, a nun who was given the genes of the Honkai Beast Mitra. She gained the ability to basically mind control people, with the caveat being that the meaning of the order she gives to others can be skewed depending on the person it's given to. However, she also gained the ability to see the future. The downside is that it is physically impossible for her to change the future, and any attempt of her to try was met not only with failure, but actively made things worse.

She used her mind control to influence people into changing the future — she ordered others to "not lose hope", which manifested into them killing an unawoken Herrscher, the Herrscher of Corruption, who at that point had just been a little girl. This murder caused the girl's awakening, and she ended up destroying most of the remaining human cities.

After most of the Herrschers had been killed, it was found out that Elysia was a Herrscher, too; specifically, the Herrscher of Origin, or the first one. She lived among humans and tried living life as a 'normal' girl. However, she ended up revealing her identity as a Herrscher after the incident with the Herrscher of Corruption, in order to once again unite humanity by making her out to be a villain they could defeat.

She was documented as the 13th Herrscher that was killed by Kevin, another Flamechaser. In reality, she sacrificed herself to rewrite the literal rules of the world (the specifics of this I'm a bit muddy about, but her sacrifice essentially ended up giving Herrschers in the next era an 'Ego', or rather an identity rather than just being mindless murder machines; the ability to reflect on their own existence. She also changed destiny in some major way, but I feel like discussing that will murder the word count).

There's a lot more to this, but this, for now, suffices as a summary of the more important events. Individual characters will be discussed more down the line.

1.1. — Elysia/Jesus Christ/Cyrene

(I literally cannot wait for the inevitable discussion of whether Elysia/Cyrene is a Mary Sue. The answer is yes. That is quite literally the intention.)

So, the key character of the story — obviously. Elysia is a rather simple character to understand. She truly loved humanity, and was willing to sacrifice herself and destroy her memory to ensure that humanity would thrive. She is quite literally Jesus Christ; the Flamechasers are her 12 Apostles, as she founded the group, and she has an item called a 'Thorned Crown' associated with her. She was born from 'God' aka Honkai. It's not very subtle. Elysia died for our sins.

What's not often brought up is that Elysia is incredibly connected to 'Remembrance' as a concept. It's no wonder that Cyrene is, too, and that makes the Cyrene = Mem connection all the more obvious. The Elysian Realm is a Realm created to store memories of the Flamechasers so that they can live on for future generations; they are sims built on memories that are sometimes even selective. Some sims don't know crucial parts of their past to make sure they don't literally go insane.

Elysia had her own 'Mem', too: an ELF Elysia that had a typewriter that could reveal anyone's memories by typing the right questions into it. On top of that, Elysia's fate was invisible to the person who could literally see the future, Aponia. She had the ability to erase herself from history.

During the story of the Elysian Realm, she ends up being deleted by the Herrscher of Corruption, who was born inside the data of the Elysian Realm and began wreaking havoc to survive, even taking on Elysia's appearance. To 'revive' her, all the Flamechasers have to put their memories together to recreate Elysia.

All of this probably sounds incredibly familiar. This gives me very good reason to believe that this expy is more than just a resemblance, but that their personalities and stories could also be incredibly similar in a lot of ways. I will elaborate more when we get to the theorising.

1.2. — Phainon/Kevin

The other important character. Kevin, aside from having a hilarious name, unfortunately, is a very tragic figure. His MANTIS surgery robbed him of the ability to touch his girlfriend since his body started to become literally too cold to touch, and he was at a constant subzero temperature.

He started off as happy, optimistic, and even flirty. Basically, pretty normal. Unfortunately, over the course of the previous Era, he became so disillusioned that he even confessed he no longer gave a shit about humanity. He had very little hope for humanity and didn't believe they could even survive on their own any longer. Not unfounded; they were getting slaughtered, pretty much, and humanity was turning on themselves. He was part of Project CHIMERA, which basically gave him the genes of almost every Honkai Beast, making him the strongest person by far. For reference, his final form, powered by other plot things, was more powerful than the literal Herrscher of Finality. Elysia's death was incredibly traumatic for him, too — it was the first time he cried since he became a MANTIS. Even his tears turned to ice.

The main thing I want to note as important in his story are twofold:

  • He was imbued with several Honkai Genes to become basically God.
  • He became disillusioned with humanity after his surgery.

2. — The connections to Amphoreus

Now that the backstory is mostly out of the way, what does this mean for Amphoreus?

Whew, boy.

2.1. — Cyrene's identity

So, first things first. I fully believe that Cyrene was an Aeon herself. Why do I believe this?

  • There is explicit evidence in the text of a '13th Titan'. In the book Destiny Weaver's Missives (iirc I found it near Janusopolis, on a bridge to the right. But I can't mark it, sorry gamers) the Destiny Weaver's detail that the threads of destiny seem to be completely in disarray. They can no longer make any predictions. Not just that, but records pertaining to a certain Titan are being erased or downright changed — 'Re■■■■■ to the Era Chrysea' being changed to 'Returning to the Era Chrysea'. The Titans themselves are affected by this, and they also note the start of a 'black tide'. TL;DR: A 13th Titan is being erased from history. The Titans are all acting weird, and destiny is being obscured. The black tide starts.
  • A '13th Titan' is also mentioned in 'Anecdotes of a Numerophile' (found near the Janus' Steed shop in Okhema). This one is branded as 'heresy', but we obviously know this isn't the case — we have evidence from Janusopolis itself that the 13th Titan was real. They pose that the 12 Titans aren't real, and merely a type of illusion created by nature. However, they do believe in a 'One True God', or a 13th Titan, that grants the world 'chaos, from which order emerges'. They are also known for being instigators of the black tide. Now, I don't know if they're entirely right, but this belief, coupled with what we learned from the previous text, is extremely interesting. TL;DR: Non-Okheman cultures sometimes believe in a 13th Titan. The 'Chaotic' Numerophiles believe that a 13th Titan exists, and the black tide is chaos that will bring order in the end. They believe all other Titans are 'fake'.
  • When we confront Oronyx, they refer to the Aeon as 'Sky Father' (and March is referred to as 'Mother', but this is for a later section). So — an Aeon most likely created the Titans. Quick dive into mythology, but the 12 Gods of Olympus are also all related to Rhea and Cronus, two titans, with the 6 eldest being their direct offspring and the others being Zeus' tomfoolery. Curiously, Cronus and Rhea also came from the 'Sky Father', Uranus, and 'Mother Earth', Gaia. Just food for thought. The 12 Gods also ended up waging a war against the Titans, and Rhea ended up retiring, and supports the gods from the sidelines. I strongly believe that Mihoyo also borrowed heavily from this mythology; they love doing that shit, so it comes as no surprise. TL;DR: Greek mythology says that the 12 Olympic Gods had a mom and dad. Now we're cooking.
  • Elysia's previous identity as a Herrscher. She was the one who founded the Flamechasers, and a godlike being. The dots are starting to connect themselves.
  • The existence of the 'unknown' third path. This one depends on your view, and I fully accept that parts of this are, for now, theorising based on available evidence. Now, for now, I personally believe that it's the path that Cyrene used to represent. It's unknown because it's been quite literally forgotten by history — it's been erasing itself from time due to the corruption. The Destiny Weaver's missives give us a hint: Apparently it's something with 'Re■■■■■■■■ to the Era Chrysea' (this number of black squares isn't exact). You could put in Remembrance. But I'm not sure why this would be 'erased'? Now, since it was replaced by returning... how about rebirth? Revival? Remembrance very much has the ability to 'rebirth' things by gathering memories and then reconstructing the past. It is quite literally what Mem does. The past era of Kremnos is reborn from memories. The symbol of Amphoreus is shaped like an infinity symbol. Or... an ouroboros. You know. The endless cycle of life and rebirth.

TL;DR: Cyrene created the Titans, is the '13th Titan' and the Aeon of Rebirth/Revival.

2.2. — What happened to Cyrene (and who is March?)

Now this one's fun. So, now that I hopefully more or less established my belief of Cyrene's identity... can we find out what actually happened to her? Warning: this is all theory. Obviously, none of the text states this outright.

Referring to Fuli as 'Sky Father' is very interesting. As I noted earlier, 'Father Sky' is also the name for Uranus, the father of the Titans in Greek mythology. The counterpoint to this is... Mother. March?

2.2.1 — Why the hell did Oronyx call March Mother?

Specifically, it was March's camera, but the intent seemed very, very clear to me. As soon as the Trailblazer takes out March's camera, Oronyx has a very strong reaction to it, and calls out for their Mother. Not just that, but Fuli also ends up gazing at us, granting us the power of Remembrance.

So... what is March?

March is Cyrene. She's the human part of the Aeon of Rebirth.

2.2.2. — Hear me out

March and Elysia always had some VERY obvious parallels. Here's some of them.

  • They look similar. This alone isn't really evidence, but it's the first thing I noticed about her. Pink.
  • March insists that her six-phased ice is actually crystal. She was found in a block of this 'crystal'. Elysia also has the ability to 'revive' herself: in gameplay, when she drops to 0 HP, she encases herself in crystal and then pops out alive instead of dying.
  • Elysia, notably, is of the Ice Element in her Herrscher form. Both of her forms use a bow.

Not just that, but her story outright namedrops some of the things I've talked about. Just... this whole section:

March 7th - Story I

'A spirited and quirky young girl who is into all the things girls her age are interested in, such as taking photos. She was awakened from a piece of drifting eternal ice, only to find that she knows nothing about herself or her past. Though initially feeling dejected, she decided to name herself after the date of her rebirth. And thus, on that day, March 7th was born.'

Rebirth. Eternal ice. Just a normal girl.

Yeah, okay. Really subtle.

The question is: How? What? Huh?

March's connections to Amphoreus are incredibly obvious. She became sick and now is literally turning to ice like she's having an averse reaction to the planet itself. Something is messing with her memories. Now, you could say that she's just an Emanator of Remembrance or something, but... this doesn't really explain anything? If anything, I'd struggle to explain Oronyx calling her 'Mother'. Emanators are really powerful, but so far, we have far more evidence of Aeons usually ruling over planets and creating the laws there (Idrila, for example). What was created on Amphoreus is a whole system.

Her memories were sealed by an Aeon. Most people just kind of assumed it was Fuli, but... we are currently gathering evidence and proof for there being another Aeon in the picture, specifically on Amphoreus. March's memories were sealed not by Fuli or anyone else, but by Cyrene. I don't think it's a coincidence either that Mem popped up after we took out March's camera and Oronyx called her Mother.

This theory ties everything up in a neat bow and gives it a kiss on the head. To summarise the steps we are at so far:

  1. There is a 13th Titan. This 13th Titan is Cyrene/Mem. This 13th Titan created the Titans, and is the Aeon of Rebirth.
  2. The Titans were created by a 'Mother' and 'Father'. Father is Fuli, Mother is seemingly March.
  3. March's memories are said to be sealed by an Aeon. She has a lot of similarities to Elysia, the person that Cyrene is based on. She has an averse reaction to Amphoreus specifically.
  4. The Aeon that sealed her memories is Cyrene.

Next: Why do I think that March is a part of Cyrene?

A massive part of Elysia's character was her desire to live as a normal girl alongside humans. Not just that, but the other massive part concerned recollection — remembrance, if you will. She had a whole realm where memories turned into people. March ticks all of these boxes. She is a normal girl, who has the innate desire to make memories by photographing. If you noticed, Mem also has a similar way of taking photographs to literally recreate the past.

March has no memories of her past life; no wonder, because an Aeon could never truly become a human. This theme is also present in Amphoreus: Aglaea states that her humanity is fading due to being a demigod. How would it be for an Aeon? Mem is similar as well; born without any memories, and then slowly regains them through the coreflames specifically.

There are way too many parallels between Mem and March for it to simply be coincidence. Notably, Mem also has their powers, while March has nothing, pretty much; only the ability to create six-phased ice. It is like the split between someone's godhood (aka their powers, and literal loss of humanity (Mem is literally an animal, too)) and their humanity. March is what Elysia/Cyrene always wanted to be. Her... Human Ego. Roll credits.

The details could be different. I can also argue that Mem is the 'sealed' memories of March themselves; Mem is Cyrene's mind, while March is the body. In the process of locking March's memories away; they were externalised, and manifested in the form of Mem. By the end of the quest, March got worse, too, just as Mem started to regain memories.

It would give Cyrene's story a happy ending, too. Unlike Elysia in Hi3rd, she does manage to become just a regular girl who lives her life however she chooses, making precious connections. This is why the Memokeeper warned her against regaining her memories: regaining her godhood and memories of it would go against her own wishes. I don't believe that it's simply a painful past; many people in this game had a pretty tragic past, and yet there was no Aeon sealing their memories. It's not just painful, it would outright change March as a person, if not destroy her.

Edit: Someone brought up the Holy Trinity in regards to this, and I can also roll with that: A situation like mind, body and soul (Mem, Cyrene and March? Whichever way it ends up being.), with the Aeon itself being the origin of those 3 parts.

2.2. What happened to Cyrene?

Now that that's out of the way... what happened? We can't know all the details, of course, but we can guess, simply because something like this happened in the Elysian Realm story.

A black corruption is slowly destroying the world, spreading uninhibited. It's caused by the death/disappearance of the 13th Titan. This black tide seems to also erase all records of the 13th Titan. We have Mem (who, by this point, we know is a form of Cyrene) who gains their memories back from their Titans, once again becoming whatever they used to be.

...Yeah. This is how it happens in the Elysian Realm:

The Herrscher of Corruption deletes Elysia and slowly takes over control of the Elysian Realm. The Herrscher of Corruption takes on the form of Elysia. To defeat it, Elysia is reborn from the memories of the 12 Flamechasers, with one of them sacrificing themselves entirely to make her whole. She defeats the Corruption this way, and the whole Elysian Realm is deleted along the way.

Wow. That's, uh, real familiar. The Herrscher of Corruption and the corruption in Amphoreus even look the same. We even have the Titan who 'sacrificed' their coreflame, Kephale. Think back to the Numerophiles, and their belief of the 13th Titan being the Corruption. They may not be wrong — Corruption has taken over whatever there used to be of the 13th Titan. In addition, Mem is also gaining memories back as coreflames are gathered, mirroring an eventual rebirth of Cyrene.

This is why everything is acting whack. The 13th Titan died, for whatever reason, and now the black tide has assumed control of the world, slowly corrupting everything.

It's been said that to defeat the black tide, the coreflames must be gathered — but there have been subtle hints that this is not what they should be doing. That gathering the coreflames is hastening the demise of the world, somehow. Not just that, but the Titans, like Oronyx, curse humans repeatedly.

Humanity is indeed the bad guy here. Aside from what happened to Nikador, and Oronyx' enslavement to use their powers, even if it brings pain, the corruption seems to affect them, too, reducing their powers. The Titans are very much sentient and have minds of their own — it seems that it's humanity's involvement that is causing the Titans pain. Almost as if... humans are the corrupting force.

Humanity itself is represented by the black tide. It's eating itself alive. Castle Kremnos notes that their efforts of defeating the black tide are way less effective than Okhema's — they basically throw people at it until it's gone, while Okhema relies on Kephale's protection and is much more successful. They note that the black tide steadily grows, too, and their casualities are growing too quickly.

Castle Kremnos, in general, is an excellent example of humanity causing their own downfall, and likely a microcosm of what will happen throughout this story. They caused their own Titan to go mad. The king became power-hungry, and even poisoned his Queen to have no resistance against his plans. In their hubris, they went against the creed of the Titan they serve.

Okhema, too, is starting to feel it. Aglaea and the Elder have beef, which is extremely likely to escalate. People are starting to question and become unhappy with the situation. It's a safe haven... for now. Humanity's own hubris will once again be its downfall.

I believe, once again, that this corruption is caused by humanity, and fed by it. Perhaps in this version of the story, Cyrene was 'killed' by humans. Perhaps not literally, but she became the villain — so she believed she had to go. Perhaps Aedes Elysiae was perfect, until humanity ruined it. Phainon witnessed this, too, and perhaps that's why he's conflicted. He doesn't want revenge against the Titans, but humanity.

It's Deliverance against the black tide — humanity itself.

3. The End

Holy shit, this was long. There's still so much I could talk about. Here's a small list of stuff I couldn't really get into:

  • Parallels between other Flamechasers and Chrysos Heirs. Vill-V and Castorice could be a fun one.
  • Kephale being also referred to as 'Sky Father' (same characters as Fuli!) and being said to have created humanity. Him also sacrificing himself for humanity, supposedly, and also walking the earth as a human — I wonder if this happened, or if this is the legend of the 13th Titan being attributed to Kephale?
  • The Trailblazer being this world's Raiden Mei. Raiden Mei came into the Elysian Realm and brought change. She was the one who introduced the Herrscher of Corruption, actually. She also came there to gather information and become stronger; she ended up gathering the different 'sigils' there. Think of them as the coreflames of the Flamechasers. Her experience also let her become the next Herrscher of Origin later on.
  • 'As I've Written' and how stories are a form of rebirth, too. In Hi3rd, the whole grand plan of Kevin Kaslana's is to use humanity's stories to form one grand being. There is a ton of philosophising about stories carrying humanity and being a form of rebirth in and of itself. Considering my previous theories, I suspect this theme will be strongly represented in the future.
  • Project CHIMERA and Phainon — maybe Amphoreus' CHIMERA will be Phainon carrying every coreflame in the end to bring deliverance, and becoming not a demigod, but a god, just as prophesised. Aglaea also implied this when she talked to Tribios.
  • Edit: In addition, the parallels between Irminsul (Genshin) and the way that the 13th Titan was forgotten — just as in Genshin, true events became stories/fiction instead, and the actions and past of the forgotten person were attributed to others (Nahida and Rukkhavedata as the most obvious example). In the future, I'll look at Amphoreus' mythology, their legends and stories to see if there are other links that could be made.

I will be eagerly looking forward to future patches and seeing how things unfold. I'm very confident in all of this, although I haven't yet managed to unlock every book in Amphoreus. Maybe there's some super secret lore that proves me wrong, IDK. Thank you for reading!

Addendums/Edits:

If someone can figure out the missing character

Returning to the Era Chrysea = 「重返黄金世」(with JP: 「黄金紀復興」

"Re█████ to the Era Chrysea = 「重█黄金世」(With JP: 「黄金紀復█」

Choice to pick in Chinese

Choice to pick in Japanese: 復習 (review), 復活 (revival), 復讐 (revenge)

The character used is '重' (Chóng). '重生' (Chóngshēng) translates to rebirth in Chinese as well. Ladies and gentlemen we are cooking

Comments I left on other interesting comments that follow up on new thoughts/theories that weren't explored here: