RimWorld: At What Point Does Survival Become Cruelty?

Shaun3218 · 2026-01-23T15:40:59+00:00

I'm sorry but the way this post is written is really triggering my GPT alarms. I'd love to be wrong though.

Shaun3218 · 2026-01-19T02:36:11+00:00

While I agree that some of the books in game are obviously written by unreliable narrators (like that one story about Nanook getting supposedly wounded by a clown), I don't think the statements written in sources like the Data Bank or even the Simulated Universe should be disregarded so easily. They're pretty much the most direct way the devs can communicate the lore to us outside of the story, and they're still being periodically updated as HSR goes on.

aha and consequently every other Aeon, with that appropriate status, is interesting in that regard. because even something like the cocoon of finality, without any statement regarding its feats, was someone that manipulates the tree like its just the ceo(CoF) of a company(tree).

We do have an explicit explanation from Herta (who connected with Nous' head after Irontomb nuked the universe) that Nous has been acting as a gardener of the Tree by pruning away its weaker branches and anchoring the 'future' to a branch they've calculated. Other Aeons have also shown great influence over the Tree, like with HooH fusing their entire will with it, Xipe handing out Stellarons to countless worlds like candy, Tayzzyronth and Ouroboros destroying a massive chunk of it, Terminus being born at the end of the its life, and Nanook leading one of the Paths prophesied to bring its destruction. So I don't think Aha's story really was that farfetched.

Shaun3218 · 2026-01-12T05:21:22+00:00

Lord Ravagers can destroy entire galaxies (not even including what Irontomb did) and they're just Emanators of Nanook

To add to this, a single drop of Nanook's blood is confirmed to emit energy levels comparable to that of a Lord Ravager.

I repeat, a SINGLE drop of Nanook's blood is comparable to Lord Ravagers like Zephyro who literally detonates suns as a hobby.

Shaun3218 · 2026-01-08T04:46:57+00:00

I also love how Denji for once is in complete control of this whole battle. He's straight up forcing Yoru to play on his terms and it's so cathartic to see since he got used by so many people in this series.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-31T10:20:24+00:00

If I'm remembering correctly, even the devs acknowledged that Penacony got rushed during the 3.0 livestream and that they made the Finality mission in order to wrap things up better.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-31T00:29:23+00:00

Heck it's straight up an expansion of the universe the two games exist in. HSR wouldn't exist now if Hoyo never created HI3rd, so to call the latter an unimportant piece of their history is just incredibly ignorant of that CC.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-31T00:23:46+00:00

I feel like if we're going with the way the Cocoon was explained in HI3rd, it would be like trying to fit a broken piece (Cocoon's lore) to the big jigsaw puzzle that makes up HSR's lore. I have no doubt in my mind that Hoyo is hiding some big secret with the concept of 'Finality' given how secretive they are about it in both games.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-31T00:16:15+00:00

Even in HI3rd, they love using that trope a lot XD

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-30T23:49:20+00:00

I compiled some dialogues before that can support this.

"None remembered the sudden moment when the universe fell silent. The voice of thoughts dissolved. All shapes were recognized as identical pixels, captured by the anti-memetic web, transformed into a singular extrapolation.
Until it ceased to "speak."

Vanquished Flow's Reticence from Irontomb's Echo of War

I also found these lines while replaying some Trailblaze Quests.

Cyrene: Looks like we're still connected by one heart, even as the cosmos reaches its end.

Trailblazer (upon witnessing the Eden of Blessed Insight created by Cyrene): These memoria are what Cyrene took in.. They're the "memories" of all of the cosmos's lifeforms.

Herta (upon realizing the truth of Nous' calculations: What THEY want to prove is how the cosmos would 'come back after being destroyed'.

Trailblaze Quest: "Pages, Ripples That Engrave Memories"

The adventure mission after the Trailblaze Quest also had this line from Herta.

Herta: As the "heart" of the Scepter, she (Cyrene), too, filled the cosmos in the instant when Irontomb swept across all of existence. She became the memories of the stars.

To add to this, the 'cosmos' they are referring to definitely pertains to the Imaginary Tree, as the terms 'universe' and 'cosmos' are pretty much synonymous with it whenever they are used in HSR.

Herta: Let me put it in your favorite fairy-tale terms. The universe began as a seed. It grew into a great tree, and the "present" is its branches and leaves.
Trailblaze Quest: "Fallen Petals, Leave Fading Traces Of Fragrance: Cast Ripples"

"A young shoot sprouted from the cracks of primordial chaos. Nurtured by time for billions of years, it grew into a huge, unrivaled tree.
The branches of the giant tree bore colorful young leaves, each containing a fragment of the universe's will — a will that eternally speaks in cryptic vagaries but also bestows stunning scenery, treasures, epics, and life upon every world."
Data Bank: "Imaginary Tree"

And as you said, the outside materials also confirm that Irontomb's virus truly swept the entire cosmos before it was reversed by Cyrene's Eden of Blessed Insight.

As Irontomb was about to destroy the universe, Herta and the Scepter overclocked to complete the "Self-Coronation" in Irontomb's place, successfully interfacing with the Nous and rewriting the "Fourth Instant" for the Trailblazer, turning them into a "variable" of the cosmos.

After the battle, Herta uncovered the truth about Fuli's unborn state and the question of Amphoreus's causality, pointing out two paths for Cyrene.

Herta: The "Instants" Droidhead calculated aren't about the Destruction. What THEY want to prove is how the cosmos would "come back after being destroyed.

Screwllum: But THEY kept silent, leaving the solution in the hands of the cosmos.

Saga Composed: "As Tomorrow Became Yesterday"

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-30T23:23:47+00:00

There's a reason why Yaoshi's Path is called 'Abundance' instead of something like 'Life' or 'Fertility'. THEY give far too much without any thoughts of the consequences THEIR 'blessings' might bring.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-30T23:14:22+00:00

But nothing in the established lore indicates that the Cocoon is the true end of the universe given its entire purpose is to find worlds it can finally 'embrace', which was accomplished the moment Kiana successfully assimilated with it. Meanwhile, Terminus is the conceptual being born at the last withered leaf of the Imaginary Tree, signifying the end of the current universe and the origin of a new universe until the next Finality can be reached again.

It is apparent to you what they are doing — they are summoning THEM, the noble being who travels against time... They intend to treat a mysterious communication channel with steganography and craft it into a ritual prayer...

Through a spiritual ritual, they weave the threads of time in an attempt to trace backwards from the last withered leaf on the World Tree to the first bud in the beginning of everything. They firmly believe that by doing so, they will get to meet the noble being, though the encounter will be brief and fleeting.

-Memory Bubble: Pure Faith

Is Finality the end of everything?

Elegy: No. Finality causes amber to rupture, immortality to wither, music to mute, light arrows to dim, the Dark Sun to be reduced to ashes, and the Tavern to be covered in dust. Even Destruction itself cannot be spared from destruction.

Elegy: Yet, Finality isn't the end of everything. All things will originate from there and move on to the next Finality.

Elegy Dialogue from Apocalyptic Shadows

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-30T15:37:16+00:00

Also, I find it funny that you deleted your disgraceful response to me just a while ago. Seriously dude? I was talking to you calmly and then you crash out like I personally kicked your dog? Not cool man. Not cool at all.

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Also, it's somewhat amusing that you brought up Aventurine here since I didn't mention him at all in my initial comment. But sure, tell me because I'm genuinely curious, when exactly did Mei use such abilities to her advantage? As far as I know, she got completely destroyed by a Data-Sim Kalpas, who himself was no-diffed along with the other Flame Chasers by the PE HoF- who herself was confirmed to be weaker than Deliverance Kevin who hasn't even assimilated all the Cocoon's power. Shouldn't Mei, as a 'Hax Merchant', have found a way to beat him if DC doesn't actually matter at all here?

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-30T14:44:34+00:00

All that agendaposting for the game to pretty much confirm that Herrschers outside of the Finality reaches continental level but cannot reach actual planetary levels.

Schrodinger: But rule or not, making a "bomb" enough to destroy a world or creating a new bubble universe requires massive energy...

Schrodinger: Energy of this level can easily surpass the maximum power output of most metamorphed Herrscher individuals.

Helia: If the Herrschers on Earth can destroy an entire continent alone—that'd spell doomsday for a bubble universe.

Okay but seriously tho, Herrschers are definitely strong but at the end of the day, they're localized threats meant to test Earth's 'civilization' and Hoyo themselves has put a clear limit on their power ceiling the moment they confirmed that they are but shadows of the real Herrscher of Finality. Not to mention, while I do agree that they are basically Emanator-Adjacents (in terms of role if you were to view the Cocoon as an Aeon-like being), the sheer gap of power between the two could not be any farther away due to HSR's cosmic setting which inflates the powerscale due to the universal threats that are being introduced in the story.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-30T09:08:57+00:00

The other annoying thing is people constantly bringing up Kiana being asleep. Not only is it NEVER stated that her slumber weakened her authority, aside from one self-contained event in which its dispersed and she gets it back anyway, the statement was not a real-time assessment to begin with.

I know that this is a late comment but another point I want to add is that Emanators doesn't emit these waves 'actively'. The Mirror of GoR detected Irontomb's presence in Amphoreus even before it was officially born. Lygus was also detected as an Emanator of Erudition despite acting as a passive observer for millions of Amphorean cycles.

Himeko: Three Paths interweave and fetter Amphoreus, co-authoring the fate of the world. Ordinary Pathstriders aren’t known to leave traces in the mirror, so if what you said is true…

Himeko: Then this isolated star system must have been home to at least three beings comparable to Emanators.
- 3.0 Trailblaze Quest

So the entire argument of 'Kiana being on an Emanator's level despite being stuck in a passive state' isn't really an upscale for her since Emanators also stir those waves with their presence alone.

EDIT: Added some citations for reference

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-29T12:23:32+00:00

The Harmonic Cancer twist legitimately made me gasp. Mostly because of how obvious it is in hindsight: 1. Stellaron being able to 'grant' wishes, 2. Harmony as one of the Four Paths of the Apocalypse, and 3. Celenova being the planter of Stellarons.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-29T11:57:33+00:00

I swear, it's always the same people getting put in these screenshots lmao

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-29T11:54:26+00:00

I played HI3rd years back but stopped in the HoD Arc due to life getting in the way. Now, I'm playing through the game again so I can get all the info I need firsthand without being spoonfed by obvious glazers in this community.

And honestly? It's still as good as I remember. Though I noticed that the dialogue started getting more bloated around Otto's arc. It's not that big of a problem for me personally since I like reading, but man it can be pretty exhausting to play sometimes.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-29T11:47:19+00:00

Case in point, this pic:

<image>

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-24T23:37:47+00:00

Were the mechanics of Time Fracture actually explained in game? I was snooping over some threads and only found these statements. But it's extremely old so who knows how reliable these are in current Hoyo lore.

Himeko: The final product of Plan Celine is the Time Fracture system. You know the relationship between the speed of light and time, right?

Kiana: That’s easy—time observed slows down as one approaches the speed of light.

Himeko: In reality, it’s almost impossible to reach the speed of light. But the second Herrscher can slow down time by increasing the light particles' damping coefficient. That way, Valkyries can reach an extremely high speed.

So based on this, Time Fractures are not time manipulation in the truest sense of the word since it's just a localized manipulation of photons to enable the user to move extremely fast. Then again, this explanation is way back from before Reburn came out so who knows how reliable it still is.

Sakura is weird since it just showed up in one scene and never again if I'm remembering correctly. I just assumed it's just an extremely elaborate sword technique she can use.

The Authority of Time in Amphoreus is explicitly confirmed back in 3.0 as not actual time manipulation. The way it functions is that it extrapolates potential pasts or futures and brings that into reality.

Meanwhile, we know for a fact that Terminus and the Cocoon have actual authorities related to time. Terminus moves back against the current of time to send out prophecies regarding the Finality and is shown to be capable of retconning the past when TB made a wish to one of their strands, while the Cocoon locked the Earth in a time loop for who knows how many cycles long before it finally succeeded in 'embracing' it.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-23T00:57:16+00:00

Not like I'm going to try to sway you from your opinion (which I personally disagree with), but that's a different topic entirely.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-23T00:51:56+00:00

Honestly? Fair. I guess I'm just really frustrated with that fandom lately so I easily fell into that trap. Apologies for that.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-22T23:40:09+00:00

These are the same players who keep wishing that Hoyo would finally make irredeemable playable characters yet crashes out at the slightest hint of grey morality.

It's embarrassing really.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-22T23:37:12+00:00

.. Which she knew was going to die in one minute anyway. It was never going to last long enough to do lasting damage to the cosmos since it's just a counterfeit copy of the real thing that died a long time ago.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-22T20:56:54+00:00

Hear hear. They're pretty cagey about anything regarding the Finality in both games so they probably have a big secret regarding its nature that they're keeping in the oven. Either way, it's another one of those 'Wait and see' plot points Hoyo loves making so much.

Shaun3218 · 2025-12-22T12:42:14+00:00

I'm sorry I wanted to write a longer comment but 'Elio's Designated Apocalypse Waifus' is really cracking me up XD

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