Honkai: Star Rail - Rondo Across Countless Kalpas

Synopsis

Two worlds bound by a shared catastrophe circled one another in an unending dance around a pitch-black great sun, their fates forever intertwined in tragedy. In the beginning, humanity emerged upon one of these worlds. Gazing downward, they named the land beneath them "Izumo." Gazing upward, they called the realm above "Takamagahara." On a day lost to the records of time, the Yaoyorozu-no-kami descended from Takamagahara. These monstrous beings, called Kami, toppled the heavens, set rivers and oceans ablaze, and shattered the earth itself. Humanity soon realized with terror that this was no invasion for conquest, dominion, or plunder—the evil Kami had come for one purpose alone: slaughter. With the planet teetering on the edge of annihilation, Izumo began its crusade against the Kami. The nation poured every ounce of its strength into slaying the calamity known as the "Sovereign of Revelation," and from its monstrous body, they forged the very first Edict Edge. Turning the Kami's own power against them, those who wielded these blades could recite the mantra sealed within the weapon to command the divine might of Takamagahara, using it to battle the evil Kami and protect the people. From that moment onward, Izumo embarked upon a long and grueling holy war—countless lives sacrificed for the fall of each Kami, and innumerable mortal swords shattered to forge the twelve Sentinels. In that merciless struggle for survival, Izumo harnessed the power of the Edict Edges to illuminate their benighted world in fewer than ten Amber Eras, raising cities gleaming with neon brilliance. The distant Takama Divine Realm, once so unreachable, now lay within their grasp— Yet history came to an abrupt halt. Both planets ceased to exist in an instant, vanishing into nothingness. Today, the past of the border planet Izumo survives only in scattered whispers drifting through the universe. Scholars hold many theories regarding its disappearance, yet none can unravel the mystery. Izumo's history should have flowed like a long, unbroken river, but it was severed with a single cut, its past and future alike cast into the void on the far shore of emptiness. Did it never truly exist, a mere fabrication spun from nothing? Did its events never unfold, stranded upon the shores of reverse causation? Was it yet another horrifying experiment by Dr. Primitive, or a sign of the Voracity stirring once more from the edge of the Cosmos? Only that pitch-black great sun knows the answer, yet THEY remain silent, never uttering a word. For all that has occurred shall one day regress to its end, and all that has ended is certain to occur again. The universe turns in eternal recurrence beneath THEIR shadow, and Izumo is nothing more than a footnote beneath an ellipsis.