INTRODUCTION

Nine months ago I posted a simple guide to glaives in celebration of my 1,000th kill on my Enigma and as a way of shining a light on a weapon class with a lot of potential. I know DFP and likely various other content creators have cracked 10K kills on their glaives, I was still particularly proud of my achievement as a largely casual player and I'm sure I'm still among the few who still use them. Nine months later and glaives have received numerous nerfs in both the Crucible and PvE, we've been showered with new glaives every season and we've even had two new archetypes of glaives introduced. Since then glaives have seemingly become even less popular in both usage rates and popular sentiment. With a new Trials glaive hot on the market and another 1,000 glaive kills under my belt, I figured now would be a good time for an updated guide to glaives. And perhaps we can decipher why they're so despised, how effective they are in the current sandbox and if they're worth your time.

PLAYSTYLE

In case you missed out on my previous guide I will briefly go over the general overview of how to play a glaive. Fortunately we have also gotten more insight as to Bungie's design philosophy regarding their newest special weapons. Bungie has described the glaive as fulfilling a "riot shield" type of fantasy. Already we have a partial answer as to the derision that glaives can cause. People generally seem to hate riot shields in first person shooters because they slow down the gameplay and can feel frustrating to fight against. Nobody likes feeling like they are not doing the damage they should be.
All three special ammo archetypes of glaives kill in two projectile hits at 10 resilience as well as three melee swings. I will caution you to mainly stick to shooting, rather than poking. A shame, I know. It's also important to note that a glaive projectile is not hitscan and instead has travel time that is influenced by the range stat of the glaive. This means that the projectiles landing can feel inconsistent at times.
So the gameplay loop of a glaive involves building shield energy through landing projectile hits. This shield gives you 50% damage reduction at the cost of slower movement. Playing around your shield is the goal of a glaive, not stabbing with it. Carrying this damage reduction into the next fight can be a powerful tool and catch enemies off gaurd. This however means that landing the first shot of the engagement is crucial to success and highly punishing if you miss. I recommend aerial playstyles and sneaky movements to get the first shot off. The skill ceiling of a glaive comes in it's game of resource management. Positioning, shield energy, ammo, and health all command your attention in combat.

ARCHETYPES, PERKS & ROLLS

We now have available to us 7 different legendary glaives. 5 Adaptive Frames, and one for each of the other two families. While every glaive has different perk pools which can change their value, some have a more obvious PvE focus. I will discuss each archetype and rolls to look for. Let's start with the OG:
ADAPTIVES-
The king here is quite new. The new Trials glaive- Unexpected Resurgance. It has the best stat package, will be able to take adept mods, has a pretty stellar perk selection, and has a useful origin trait to boot. Second place here will be The Enigma- the first glaive. It can roll the most desirable PvP perks and has great stats as well. Any other Adaptive glaive is inferior to these two for the sake of the Crucible.
Perk selection on glaives is fairly homogenous unfortunately. There isn't that much that helps them find success, so the few feasible perks are essentials. With both of these glaives I have to recommend Impulse Amplifier. The increase to velocity is a must-have for consistency. Landing that first shot for the shield is so important, anything to help secure projectile hits is too good to pass up. In the other column things are more up in the air. I'd recommend Unstoppable Force. The perk gives a 20% damage bonus when blocking damage with your shield, which comes up quite often. This perk can ocassionally lead to hilarious multikills. However, there are other notable perks. Joltshot could be fun, Vorpal is likely undervalued as glaives are surprisingly already pretty decent at knocking out supers, Swashbuckler sounds great but you may not find success when going out of your way to melee. Same goes for the perk Close To Melee.
Speaking of, if you're trying to conserve ammo, the Adaptive family can use one projectile followed by one melee to automatically kill any guardian with resilience 9 or lower. Also worth noting that each archetype shares the same melee damage at 68 per swing. The projectile damage for this archetype sits at 132 damage per shot.
RAPID-FIRE-
Currently there is one glaive in this family- the new dungeon glaive, Greasy Luck. As the name suggests, it shoots faster with lower damage output. Each projectile hits for only 106 damage. So it can secure a two projectile kill at any resilience, but just barely. Overshields and healing may hinder this glaive moreso than usual. However, getting those shots off faster is quite the boon. Honestly, I haven't played with Greasy Luck much. I plan to and if I learn anything unique about it besides the new archetype, I'll be sure to update this guide. As it sits, the best PvP roll is the same as the Adaptive family's top contenders- you're looking for Impulse Amplifier and Unstoppable Force. There's some good PvE play here too with other perk combinations. This glaive seems unable to kill higher resiliences in one projectile and a melee, so if you're lower on ammo, be prepared to swing two melees after your projectile lands.
AGGRESSIVE-
Judgement of Kelgorath is the only available Aggressive Frame glaive currently available. And I have to admit I think I undervalued it at first. I was disappointed that the premier glaive perks both sat in the last column and I felt the extra damage wasn't enough to make up for the slower fire rate. I'll say now that I was wrong and this glaive offers some explosive play and consistency that some glaives don't. Each shot lands for 147 damage. The archetype as a whole can secure the one projectile/one melee combo on any resilience. And while I first turned Judgement of Kelgorath into a PvE glaive with Demolitionist and Incandescent, I now plan on pivoting not into either Impulse Amplifier or even Unstoppable Force in the last slot, but to one of the highest damage buffs in the game- Surrounded. This allows Judgement of Kelgorath to kill a full health guardian in one projectile. The only glaive to be able to accomplish this. I know being surrounded by that many gaurdians in PvP may not be very common, but if you've ever gone on a kill streak with a glaive, you know they can be explosive playmakers and turn fights around. On a close range weapon, it just makes sense. Use your first shot to instantly kill one of your opponents and you now have shield energy with a hard hitting glaive for the next couple of guys.
Now, I haven't much discussed barrel, magazine, and masterwork options, and I'll say it's largely dependent on the weapon I generally like to go for shield energy, especially since I normally have Impulse Amplifier. Since we won't for Judgement of Kelgorath, you may be looking for a combo of shield energy and range to increase that projectile velocity. The first main trait slot is users preference but Shot Swap is there for handling, then several perks to help with the slow reload, and a couple to help your shield's viability like Immovable Object or Tilting at Windmills. The Ambush origin trait is excellent as well.
MOD SLOT-
Honestly I'd love to do more testing as to the efficacy of speccing into Airborne Effectiveness on a glaive, but currently I wouldn't recommend Icarus Grip. Faster handling can always be useful but I actually normally go with Radar Booster which I find surprisingly uncommon.

BUILDS

SUBCLASS & STATS-
Generally speaking I notice that glaives do best when paired with highly mobile builds that add in elements of healing or overshields. This automatically makes solar and void my favorite subclasses to pair with a glaive. Healing grenades on solar are fantastic and throwing one right at your feet when you're low and coming back out with full health and a your glaive shield up is highly potent. Then with void you can get overshields or devour going quite nicely. I'm sure arc hunter with blink and arc titan with a thruster are good alternatives, but they lack safety from healing. I stray away from Stasis and Strand with a glaive but I'm sure there are specific builds and exotics you can pair with any subclass to give them some glaive viability. Before we move on to specific exotic armor that pairs well with each class, I'll also recommend the chest piece mod Lucent Blade on any build to help the glaive with shield energy.
With a glaive build I lean into recovery with some resilience, while I treat both mobility and strength as dump stats to lower as close to 1 as possible. Mobility matters a little less (unless you're a hunter) and I'm being slowed down by the shield anyways. Strength is less valued because you cannot use your powered melee with a glaive equipped. Discipline and intellect can be adjusted freely for different builds.
TITAN-
Titans don't have many exotics that directly tie into a glaive playstyle, and the ones that do mostly buff the melee. Pretty useless in PvP. So, instead we look to any number of useful neutral game exotics. One Eyed Mask since you're blocking damage anyways, Anteus Wards to help guarantee the first shot for shield energy, Crest of Alpha Lupi for quick healing, ACD0 Feedback Fence to help out with anybody who gets too close, etc. The options are limitless, I'd be interested to hear any other ideas for a Titan's glaive build!
HUNTER-
Hunters have access to the only glaive specific exotic in the game- Triton Vice. Too bad it doesn't seem particularly great or useful. I'd actually rather go with Wormhusk or Bakris for conventional, everyday use. However, I will say that I could have fun pairing Triton Vice with the Hunter specific exotic glaive- Edge of Concurrence or an Incandescent or Volt Shot glaive for extra explosions, plus since you're encouraged to match the glaive and subclass element, you would be on arc with Edge of Concurrence so you could use blink as well. Unlikely to be overwhelmingly efficient though.
WARLOCK-
My main class. So I speak with the most experience here. Again, neutral game exotics are going to be most appealing, though it's hard at times to reject the allure of posion melees with Necrotic Grips... but no. I recommend going with Transversives with any subclass because the sprint speed to close the distance or run with a close range weapon is valuable, and the auto reload actually saves my skin constantly believe it or not. Alternatively, Wings of Sacred dawn for extra damage reduction and to throw off your enemies with aerial play is surprisingly good, hilarious fun. Lastly, Astrocyte Verse blink with a devour focused build is absolutely nuts at times and I need to use it more as I have a hard time leaving solar and icarus dash alone.
WEAPONS PIARINGS-
While glaives are fairly versatile and can reach out and touch mid range, I wouldn't highly recommend rocking anything too close range. SMGs and Sidearms are largely off the table (though you can make it work, a lot of SMGs also touch mid range anyways). Instead bows and scouts offer some appeal but the main draw here is hand cannons and pulse rules. If we're talking straight up usefulness, it'd be hard to ignore how good High-Impact pulses specifically are. No Time To Explain, The Messenger and numerous others will serve you well. Lately I've personally been trying out Randy's Throwing Knife and it's been a blast. Most good glaives also don't take up the exotic slot, so the world of exotic primaries is open to you. I personally also scored hundreds of kills with Lumina while using my glaive, and the damage bonus is substantial.

EXOTIC GLAIVES

We now have access to 5 exotic glaives. Three class specific glaives, Vexcalibur and the heavy slot glaive- Winterbite. We will briefly review them.
EDGE OF ACTION-
The Titan exotic glaive. Functioning as a normal glaive, the unique function is exchanging a fully charged glaive shield into a mini-Ward of Dawn. While absolutely hilarious and amazing, it's pretty bad.
Though it has some PvE utility since it works with Helm of Saint 14 now, it isn't useful in PvP. And I'll just go ahead and say that all three of the exotic glaives are pretty bad and it's mostly because the trigger to the unique function of each is full glaive shield energy. Not only does this mean that you must land at least 4 shots to fully charge your shield, but it also means that you cannot even use your shield energy because you're so busy consuming it for the special function. I'm sorry, but I'd rather use my entire shield to fight than to pop a small and short lived Ward of Dawn.
EDGE OF CONCURRENCE-
This might be the best class exotic glaive for PvP (which isn't saying much at all). This one at least offers an interesting choice between your defensive natured shield energy and your offensive natured exotic ability to shoot a tracking bolt of lightning at someone. I could see this one making some fun clips with limited utility, but let's be honest, if you can make this glaive work then you could make most legendary glaives work better.
EDGE OF INTENT-
I want to love this glaive so bad. I use Lumina and Boots of the Assembler so much, so the idea of using a healing glaive is so appealing. But it's just not good. In fact, it's downright terrible. In exchange for full glaive shield energy you can deploy a healing turret that shoots allies. Even with it's buff, I've never seen it used. Not in PvE and especially not in the Crucible. This might be the worst glaive in the game.
VEXCALIBUR-
What a fun, unique exotic. I have limited use with it in PvP and I must say I like normal glaives better just for the added range and longer glaive shield, but I could see some potential here. The Vexcalibur shoots 5 pellets like a shotgun with limited range. Each pellet does 29 damage for a total of 145 damage if they all land. The shield is then also quick to drain, but grants an overshield instead. Melee kills refresh and extend your void overshield. This could have potential with void specific builds. All in all this is more of a PvE weapon, but I will be keeping my eye on it and upgrade it further soon to see it's full potential. If all pellets land the Vexcalibur can indeed pull off the one shot/one melee combo against any resilience.
WINTERBITE-
The first heavy glaive. So I actually had no idea as to how this thing worked in PvP until I started doing testing for this write-up. Turns out it seems pretty fun and surprisingly potent. So without any ammo the Winterbite actually still retains the standard 68 melee damage per swing. Not insanely useful but it's already doing more than any other heavy weapon without ammo. With ammo, the exotic perk gives it added melee damage which allows it to kill in two melees instead of three with each swing doing 101 damage. Each heavy brick give only one ammo (like a rocket launcher). This projectile is better than I thought it'd be. It's a little slow but seems to find it's target well enough and does a whopping 381 damage. I'm unironically going to rock this glaive more in PvP.

THE META

My last guide had an entire section dedicated to glaive counters. Glaives have been hit with repeated nerfs in PvE and PvP since then. So instead of only talking about specific counters, I figured I could wrap things up by talking about the history of glaives and their place in the meta as a whole. As far as counters go, I don't feel the need to point many out specifically because you don't need anything specific to counter a glaive. Even with 50% damage reduction, in all likelihood you will kill any glaive used with your special weapons or plinking away with a primary. When glaives dropped with Witch Queen, glaive shields carried a hefty 75% damage reduction. While still not topping usage charts, they were actually very potent in this state. They were kept at bay by the underwhelming ammo economy. You would only gain one ammo back per special brick. Given that it takes two shots to down a guardian, this annoyed players and steered them away. However, with the starting ammo reserves of around 4 shots, I actually found this to be the healthiest glaive meta. They were absolutely explosive playmakers that could wipe out entire teams, but you had to be very careful with your ammo. And this is a point I need to iterate that I believe many fail to consider: half the ammo means half glaive shield buildup. Not only does more ammo mean more potential kills, but it's also double the glaive shield buildup and it's far less punishing to miss a shot. This also made the one projectile/one melee combo to be "canon" and legitimately useful when low on ammo, truly leaning into the hybrid firearm/melee fantasy.
When they doubled the amount of ammo received per brick to 2 and the community was starting to really talk about damage reduction in PvP more, Bungie got scared and nerfed glaives several times before usage rates even got high. Now, I will admit, glaives were very powerful when they first changed the ammo economy. But the nerfs we received were numerous. Ignoring the many PvE nerfs, they still nerfed projectile damage, Unstoppable Force's damage bonus and of course reduced the 75% damage reduction from the shield to 50%. One or two of these changes were warranted. But all of them combined lowered the utility to nothing. Glaives are not good in the current meta. I find some success with them, but it's through building into them, practice, and doing everything I can to trick and outsmart my opponents. I play on console. I've done some PC lobbies and can also guarantee that it's even more difficult to make work against opponents on mouse and keyboard. I've seen reaction times that kill me in the time between my projectile landing and my glaive shield coming up. And special weapons just chew through the shields regardless.
My thoughts on buffing glaives in the Crucible would be either reverting many changes including the ammo economy changes. Higher damage reduction with special ammo bricks only giving one shot. Alternatively, if they're going to do less damage, with less damage reduction then other aspects of the glaives should be changed. Perhaps faster strafe speed at base to move easier from cover to cover. Perhaps a base velocity or range buff for all glaives or even converting them into hitscan weapons. Perhaps more melee damage. It's Bungie's world and we just live in it. Speaking of, where's my stasis glaive with chill clip, BUNGO?!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Glaives offer one of the most unique and involved playstyles in Destiny 2. While not the most effective in the Crucible, they have a high-skill ceiling that can be fun to climb. They draw the ire of many in the first person shooter genre and will guarantee twice as many hate messages and t-bags. Despite it all, they stay glued to my inventory and are my favorite weapon class. I hope that this write-up made you consider taking a glaive for a spin for one or two matches and maybe even changed some hearts and minds. If any information I provided is inaccurate or you have counterpoints, I welcome discourse. I don't often do stuff like this but I noticed a distinct lack of glaive information out there and wanted to bring some attention to the weapon type I most wanted to master. I'd love to hear or see your favorite glaive moments and plays. Build ideas, weapon pairings, and perk combos I didn't mention are all welcome. Thank you so much for reading and I hope to cross paths or cross glaives. - Lupus_Bellator

Okay so basically I read everything, let's do this shit.

Notes Before We Start

The original intent behind this post was to serve as a database for every single major lore character in the game, starting with the Aeons. Unfortunately, though, I vastly underestimated its length when I started writing it, thinking I'd easily be able to do it all within one post. I was not!
Initially, I decided to just separate the post into two parts, the Aeons and the mortal characters. This didn't pan out, because the Aeon section also ended up being massive! So now I have to split it up into 3+ parts. The first two parts about the Aeons will go up soon since it's all already written, this part right now and the next part either tomorrow or possibly in a few days once everyone's less busy doing the update. The benefit is that this arrangement allows me to go into greater detail about each individual Aeon -- if I'm able (thank you Oroboros for being mentioned like twice in the whole game)
The third part which should hopefully be only one post and is about the mortal characters will almost certainly have to wait until I'm completely done with the update. The reason why this is so is because the update is guaranteed to introduce more lore about mortal characters, whereas I think the likelihood of it giving us more Aeon lore is comparatively lower (though it could still happen).
I also need a break. Just writing this post took me a week, let alone the time it took to read almost everything that's in the game - it's safe to say that I dedicated myself to this for the entire second half of 1.0. If I go all in and write everything at once, I'm gonna burn out for sure.

While corrections and additions are welcome, I just want everyone to remember that leaks are against the rules, so please make sure to have an official source on hand if you're going to tell me anything. I might not be able to edit this post once it goes up due to sheer length, but I'm sure people can just read the comments and get the info that way.

That being said, before we start properly, we'll have to take a little diversion.

The Structure of the Universe

​
I dreamed of a ray of light of a crystal chalice.
I despise reading about and explaining this because miHoYo went out of their way to make it the most confusing thing imaginable.
The in-game characters aren't even sure how their own universe works and miHoYo has provided little to no official unbiased explanations, so I'll just be borrowing Zandar "One" Kuwabara's theory here because HI3 more or less supports it and although alternate theories are mentioned in HSR, none have been explained yet.

Imaginary Tree

To understand the nature of the Aeons and of the other characters, you must first understand Reality, as the Aeons are inherently linked to it. Sit down, strap in. Maybe listen to some music.
Okay so think of the universe as being like a tree in a spatial and temporal sense. It's not literally that, but it works like that.
Space-time is defined by a collection of an unimaginably numerous amount of branches. Such branches define independent worlds and expand outwards, forming leaves that mark those worlds at different development stages in spacetime - thus each leaf is a world. These 'worlds' are defined as 'galaxies', a confusing term since it is also used to refer to the universe as a whole. What's important to note is that a "world" is often more than simply a single individual planet, and they may have different attributes (for example, the world Punklorde is entirely cybernetic)
The development of those branches occurs as they absorb imaginary energy from the vasculature provided by the trunk. The trunk's got some funny stuff going on with a sea of quanta or whatever but this is HI3 stuff that has not proven relevant to HSR specifically yet - the Sea of Quanta does exist here (obviously), as proven by the crafting material "Quantum Ripples". But getting into it would muddy the waters. Just know that when a world has run its course, it "falls" into the Sea of Quanta and is destroyed (from the perspective of the HSR mortals, it just 'disappears')
Imaginary energy constitutes a space which separates each branch and leaf and world from one another, making passage generally impossible unless one can manipulate imaginary energy. Because of this, for a very long time it was impossible for creatures to gain passage or even be able to observe other worlds (galaxies) until the Aeons appeared and granted them the ability to do so. More on this later. It's possible for a mortal being to enter Imaginary space through certain means but they'll quickly die without some form of protection or the ability to manipulate Imaginary energy.
Zandar's understanding is that imaginary energy was formed by the thoughts of intelligent beings, and the Aeon's ability to traverse imaginary space is what caused the worlds to be similar. Which is half true, but Elias Salas later proved that imaginary energy exists on its own and is entirely unique, which messes with the foundations of the theory. But it's our best bet.

Okay but who cares though

Why is this relevant? The worlds contained within the leaves of the tree may have different attributes but share certain similarities - most notably, the recurrence of certain individuals. Those individuals are separate from each other and have their own memories and life experiences, but have a certain likeliness that links them. And that is why there are many Bronyas. And many Wendy's, some even male. And many Kianas. And maybe even many Himekos as well. Notably, there is an in-universe theory named the "Parallel Imaging Theory", which may suggest people are aware of this phenomenon.
Because HSR's plotline and lore involves the traversal between multiple different worlds, it is possible for multiple versions (different individual) of the same character to appear within the game. So yeah.
The biggest misconception people have about HSR, and one that I myself held for some time until I started reading everything, is that they assume it's localized to one Leaf in the Imaginary Tree.
This is a misconception made possible, and more complicated, by several factors:

• the fact that the Imaginary Tree is probably best explained as a contiguous multiverse, but miHoYo is extremely insistent on calling it just "the Honkai Universe", because they're eccentric I guess. It's just really Kinoko "HER NAME IS ALTRIA" Nasu-type stuff.
• the fact that people tend to visualize the Imaginary Tree as being completely literal, and thus the branches are inherently apart from one another as they would on a tree. This is not helped by the fact that HI3 depicts the universe as a literal tree constantly, and when you see Youtube Video #198268 that says "THIS IS THE IMAGINARY TREE" and uses a HI3 screenshot showing a tree, people are gonna think "oh, this is just what the universe is" when in reality, it's better to think of the Honkai Universe as being a collection of worlds each with their own stars and galaxies and traits separated by an impermeable void that later Akivili connected. From the perspective of the inhabitants of the Honkai Universe, it's all one continuous space.
• inconsistent terminology, even in this game, also caused by HI3's translation being awful and most summaries being made by people with a tenuous grasp of English at best (no offense)

HSR's lore takes place over the scope of the entire Honkai Universe and the different worlds. It is not a localized system. Welt and Void Archives didn't use some fancy technology to "jump universes", they (probably) just traveled the path Akivili made with their Star Rail, the same as every other intergalactic entity in HSR. That's it. Literally just used a spaceship.
I also imagine that it doesn't help that (and this is how I began to believe in the same misconception for a while) a lot of people used the "separate universes" argument to argue in favor of Genshin and HI3 being completely unrelated. Which, for the record, I still completely believe as plenty of evidence suggests they want Genshin players to not have to deal with the huge steamy backlog of lore baggage HI3 has, but it did make people think of each Honkai game as always being completely disconnected from one another in a very physical sense.

The Aeons

​
https://preview.redd.it/4kozuu79kg4b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=3ca5ce3f571a169b5d8efd6f80a44107ae30fbaa

Definition

NOTE: The Honkai Star Rail wikia has little blurbs for each Aeon at the top of the respective pages. I'm not going to use them as a source, however, because I have absolutely no idea where they're from. My attempts to search for them led directly back to the wikia. Judging by the date they were added (June of last year), they correspond with CBT2, but if so then that text is gone from the game, so I can't really deem it worthy as a reliable source.
So what are they? Gods basically, but the specifics are more complicated.
The Imaginary element is defined by Welt as a "metaphysical aggregation of the spirit". In other words, it's a form of energy that can be influenced by the thoughts and actions of intelligent beings.
When an intelligent being of sufficient will fulfills certain, currently unknown, conditions, they take over a philosophical concept and become an Aeon. This opens a Path to that concept and grants the newly born Aeon not only the ability to manipulate Imaginary energy, but also complete control over the Imaginary expression of that concept - it becomes their "Primum Mobile", an imprint formed upon the Imaginary element.
That Path also becomes a form of energy that can be tapped into by various sources, and even begins to emerge naturally. The entry for "Topological Acceleration Band" implies that Path energy is limited, which would make sense, as Aeons seem to restrict their underlings' power instead of just giving all of it flat out, and the limitations imposed by this would also serve to explain why Nanook doesn't just, I dunno, blow up the entire universe. In any case, even if it is limited, it's such an extreme amount of energy that it may as well be limitless from the perspective of mortals.
In other words, they become an embodiment of a certain concept, and are able to exert their full will upon it. This appears to deprive them of a certain sense of personal identity - all Aeons are referred to with gender-neutral pronouns.
In the one record of an ascension that was witnessed (Lan's) that we currently have, the Aeon's physical body disappeared upon ascension. It remains unclear if this is true of all Aeons or not but there is definitely a physical change involved.
Aeons are able to freely move around Imaginary space and the leaves in the Imaginary tree at no harm to themselves and possess unimaginable power - Nanook's highest level underlings are capable of incinerating entire galaxies (worlds? The inconsistency of this term drives me crazy). They also possess a degree of ominiscience - not completely so, but it's fairly obvious that they're able to notice and interact with beings treading on their Path at basically any distance. They can also manifest physically if they so choose but the degree of this seems to vary on the Aeon. Qlipoth basically stays in one place building their wall whereas Fuli appears to be capable of teleporting. Lan runs at faster than light speeds throughout the universe. Aha is known for taking on a humanoid form. Akivili physically traveled with mortals.
Aeons can die, but it's difficult to pull this off. Only one Aeon is known to have been killed, and the deed was done by other Aeons. It is also possible for an Aeon to experience a form of death - if their Path overlaps too much with another, the Path representing the greater concept will absorb it, which effectively kills that Aeon.
There are other Aeons that have disappeared and are considered dead, but the ambiguity of their circumstances means that there's a possibility that like, I dunno, they're just hiding or something.
Aeons are limited by one another and their Paths. They cannot ever deviate from it - Xipe cannot create disorder, Yaoshi may not kill, etc. Therefore negotiating with an Aeon is impossible, they shouldn't even be treated as "people" you can "talk" to. Generally the universe tends towards balance - an out of control Aeon may be killed by other Aeons or be opposed by an Aeon whose Path limits theirs. Furthermore, an optional conversation with Welt implies that an Aeon's power at least partially corresponds to the broadness of their concept. Because Lan's Path is so narrow, they're one of the less powerful Aeons.
Who the first Aeon was or how old they are is unclear. The IPC seems to think the first ever Aeon was Qlipoth, but they're biased and in-universe this is doubted. What is certain is that they did not always exist - between the origin of the universe and the appearance of the Aeons, the universe was populated by entities called Leviathans. We know jack about them, other than they were very powerful, and as a result of something called the Dusk Wars, they either all died out or disappeared, except for the Aeon Oroboros the Voracity.

Aeons and Mortals

Before we get into this, one thing should be noted: once opened, a Path can never be closed, and so even if an Aeon dies, the energy of their Path is still accessible. That being said, if an Aeon does die/disappear, their Path can be infringed upon a little - Tayzzyronth 'carved up' the Permanence to become the Propagation, but the power of the Permanence still exists as seen with the Vidyadhara.
The Aeons can influence the universe in various ways, physical or otherwise. A favorite of many many Aeons is the empowering of certain underlings.
Mortals can access the energy of an Aeon's path to a very limited degree by becoming Pathstriders, but Aeons are capable of enhancing some more directly, giving them greater access to that Path's energy.
Some Aeons have their own little way of 'upgrading' mortals through indirect applications of their power, but all Aeons are capable of infusing a mortal with their energy, and such a mortal is referred to as an Emanator. Though they are capable of this, not all Aeons choose to have Emanators.

Pathstrider

If a being of sufficient will possesses attributes aligning with a certain Path, they gain the ability to derive power from that Path's energy. This makes them more powerful than the average person and grants them some nifty abilities, but compared to beings enhanced by an Aeon's power, Emanators, or the Aeon themselves, they're pretty weak.
One example named by Dan Heng is that Pathstriders of the Trailblaze are able to resist extreme natural conditions to a certain extent, though they're not immune.
From a character standpoint, this seems to be the justification as for why certain characters have unexplained powers. But it's hard to tell, because the game rarely ever names someone as a Pathstrider, and even when it does, there's clear overlap (for example the Astral Express crew are Pathstriders of the Trailblaze but have individual Paths). It is not yet clarified if you can be a Pathstrider in multiple Paths at once or if this is just a gameplay abstraction, but the characters do generally match the Path assigned to them personality-wise to at least some extent, though some in more roundabout ways.

Emanator

A mortal that was given direct access to the power of a Path by an Aeon. They are WAY stronger than Pathstriders, with the most powerful ones capable of affecting reality on a galactic scale. Like the Aeons, an Emanator is limited by the definition of that Path.
Emanators are capable of controlling Imaginary energy to a certain degree, which means they're also capable of traversing through Imaginary space without needing assistance. Herta, even through her puppet, is capable of creating a contract that forces the signee to obey "Imaginary law", which affects the entire universe and cannot be interacted with by outside forces. Six-phased ice, the ice March 7th is capable of controlling and was once encased with, has its form dictated by Imaginary law, meaning it likely exists with the blessing of some Aeon or another (Hm).
How much access to a Path's energy an Emanator has is dependent entirely on how much the Aeon feels like giving them. How independent an Emanator is also depends on the Aeon. Some Emanators can do whatever they want, whereas others act as extensions of that Aeon's will.
Aeons can make anyone they want into an Emanator, but most tend to choose mortals that align with their goals. Well except Aha, who is infamous for turning anyone and anything into an Emanator and often for the dumbest reasons imaginable.
Now because an Aeon needs to be active to turn people into Emanators, if an Aeon dies or disappears they can't make any more obviously. But because the Path is forever open, any existing Emanators will retain their powers even after the disappearance or death of their Aeon, as seen with Idrila's Mirror Holders.

Akivili

​
\"Reach the end of the story in your own way. When the time comes to make a choice, make one you know you won't regret.\"
The Trailblaze, and the Xianzhou knows them as Cloudstrider.
They hail from the world of Pegana, which used a 12-month long year cycle similar to our planet, known as the Trailblaze Calendar. They're pretty old, and the records of their appearance date as far back as the first few Amber Eras.
Akivili created the Astral Express, the Star Rail, and the Chromatic Echelon that allows for the laying of new rails. They did so in order to reach the "endpoint" of the Imaginary Tree, unable to tolerate the idea of "that which must not be known". It's also rumored that there may be other machines such as the Express, but Himeko says the internal records don't mention any.
The rumor is that the Express' core is Akivili's heart, but as Himeko points out, they'd need two hearts for this, because the Express was contemporaneous with them.
Akivili is probably one of the most important Aeons, not just because the Express wouldn't exist without them, but because the Star Rail laid by them is capable of connecting different worlds between the vast barriers of Imaginary energy, therefore allowing different civilizations to contact and interact with each other without needing the power of the Aeons. All interworld space routes are based upon the Star Rail tracks though it's implied that the 'bridges' they created extend far beyond the actual railing.
In a sense, without Akivili, none of the plot would happen. As a matter of fact, if The Ones Above hail from another world, then maybe not even APHO from the other game would've happened either.
Akivili disappeared many years ago in circumstances so obscure that even the most informed groups have no idea what happened to them. Kafka tells us that if there's anyone or anything in the universe that would know, it'd be Nous. The game's omniscient narrator implies that Akivili's disappearance was due to "an accident".
The name Akivili is probably a distortion of the Latin "aquili", which means "of the eagle" or "of the north wind".

Followers

Akivili's followers are the Nameless, who were inspired by their route through the universe. Some Nameless chose to travel alone, but those that didn't joined Akivili in their Astral Express and journeyed together in great merriment, with Akivili taking on a mortal form and riding within the Express with them. Even after Akivili disappeared, some surviving Nameless managed to maintain and use the Astral Express, until the Star Rails fell into disrepair due to the Stellarons - over the course of this process, most of the remaining Nameless either retired, died or disappeared.
When this happened, the Astral Express ran aground and was set into a collision course with Himeko's world - on her birthday, no less - and she quickly hurried to the impact site, where she repaired the Express and took off with it. Sometime later, Pom-Pom appeared as well. Those two became the next generation of Nameless, and over time would add various other people to their group, such as Welt, March 7th, Dan Heng, the Trailblazer, and (temporarily) Void Archives.
Currently, no Emanators of the Trailblaze are known to exist.

Nanook

​
Towers crumbled and the people fled, for the sun was soon to set and meet with vicious destruction.
The Destruction, also known by the Xianzhou as the Ruin Author.
Nanook is the newest Aeon to have ascended - if we assume that the Stellarons were sent out at about the same time as their ascension (optimistic, to be honest), then they're only about 500 years old. That's a lot of time for regular mortals, but easily within the lifespan of most long life species, and definitely far younger than the other Aeons.
Nanook was born (judging by Fuli's memory of them showcasing them as a baby) in the world of Adlivun, which had been devastated by Emperor Rubert I's campaigns and nearly turned into a hive by Tayzzyronth's Swarm. When Akivili visited it, it was already a crapsack that was trying desperately to survive against the remnants of the Swarm.
This terrible war-torn world seems to have caused the young Nanook to become extremely cynical - the Data Bank suggests that they believe civilization itself is cancer, and that war is the only thing common to all of them, the birth of the Universe being a mistake that must be corrected. This mindset led to a series of as yet unknown events that caused Nanook to incinerate their own home world, and achieving apotheosis in this process.
Upon ascension, Nanook immediately got to work. Despite likely being less than a 1000 years old, their followers have already managed to destroy worlds and pose a serious existential threat to almost all galactic civilization. Indeed, although Rubert and the Swarm might have been quite dangerous back when they were active, the Aeon they indirectly birthed has caused destruction on a far more apocalyptic scale than they could've ever dreamed of.
Nanook is almost certainly (though not confirmed to be) the cause of the Stellaron ("Cancer of All Worlds") phenomenon - bundles of destructive (and intelligent!) energy sent to various corners of the universe, likely intended to destabilize civilizations and natural phenomena before the Antimatter Legion arrives and "cleans up" the rest. The Stellarons can affect natural processes and interact with mortals in ways that manipulate them towards taking destructive actions. They can enhance those mortals as well as explode! Notably, the Stellaron's destructive energy corrodes the Star Rail, which not only physically impedes passage for the Express but holds the possible danger of closing the pathways between worlds.
Perhaps the most unique characteristic of the Stellarons is their ability to corrode the region around them into "Fragmentum", which is able to analyze, absorb and replicate the forms and memories of the living creatures touched by it into hostile monsters, which further destabilizes the regions they impact. Strangely, not every Stellaron seems to create a Fragmentum zone.
There's one inside you now, by the way.
The name "Nanook" is derived from the Inuit bear god, which to be honest had a far closer association with hunting than anything else, and bear worship is a key aspect of Inuit religion. But I guess the thought process here is that Nanook (god) is also associated with weaponry and is strong, so... I guess it works?

Followers

​
\"Let me put it another way, why are you alive?\"
Sometime after ascending, Nanook went to an unknown world and liberated the regime that had imprisoned the talented Firesmith clan there, which held unprecedented skill in the art of weapon making. Nanook blessed them with the Mark of Destruction, which granted them great power (but corrupted their minds and bodies), and sent them to the volcanic world of Warforge, which turned into a large scale training and weapons production facility.
Antimatter creatures, "scavenged parts" (such as the heart of a deceased Leviathan), and individuals that showed promise and a pure desire for destruction to Nanook were 'reforged', physically hammered and altered until their very biology had been changed and combined with their weapons, into the members of the Antimatter Legion. Even the Firesmiths that created them became part of their own creations. The fire that forged them was of incomparable heat and infused them with the very power of the Destruction.
The Antimatter Legion became an army with the sole purpose of destroying the universe. Members are stratified into ranks and even have their own medals. Lower ranked members are tasked with destabilizing civilizations, higher ranked members can destroy galaxies.
The Stellarons likely act as seeds and beacons for the Antimatter Legion, carefully cultivating the circumstances necessary to weaken the target, potentially for centuries, before finally ushering in their doom. Like farmers, they go around the universe slashing and burning societies and exhibiting as much patience and strategy as is necessary.
The most devastating quality of Nanook and the Antimatter Legion is that unlike Emperor Rubert's army or the Swarm, they don't simply overwhelm enemy forces and take over, but carefully study and integrate into them, sowing discord and in-fighting until they're weak enough to guarantee a loss against the Legion. This is by far the biggest reason for Nanook's success and the biggest reason why they're such a massive threat, even to powerful entities such as the Xianzhou Alliance.
Perhaps the second biggest reason is that through the Fragmentum and the skilled Firesmiths in Warforge, Nanook is also able to absorb and integrate the qualities of other beings into the members of their Legion, allowing them to constantly evolve and grow more powerful, as well as adapt to the unique qualities of the worlds and civilizations they conquer.
The greatest members of the Antimatter Legion are given the privilege of becoming Emanators of the Destruction, known as Lord Ravagers. They serve as commanders, and are unbelievably dangerous. Welt implies there are even more powerful individuals known as "Overlords", but we don't know much about them, since they're mentioned in only one line right now.
Of course, every Aeon has a group of followers who don't attract their attention or explicit approval, but adhere to their ideas of the Path. For Nanook, this is the Annihilator Gang, a group of hooligans and criminals who take joy in destruction, be it for personal pleasure, petty revenge, or insanity. Nanook looks down upon such "impure" reasons for destroying, so they receive no attention from the Aeon.

Lan

​
You must follow the traces left behind in the storm's wake.
The Hunt, know by the Xianzhou as the Reignbow Arbiter.
Lan ascended in the year 3400 of the Xianzhou calendar with the current year probably being around 8098-8100, which would make them around 4700 years old. Before that time, they were a mortal hero known as Reignbow, born in year 1700 (making Lan's total age around 6400 years old). It should be noted that almost all of our information about Reignbow comes in the form of severely altered poetry and some historical notes by the biased modern day Xianzhou Alliance.
Reignbow was part of the original fleet of nine ships (three of them were lost over the course of Xianzhou history, if you were wondering), and they resided in the lead Yaoqing ship. Their claim to fame was the defeat and capture of the Heliobi Flint Emperor, the leader of a species of formless energy beings capable of manipulating emotions and creating stars. The Heliobi as well as the Flint Emperor were imprisoned and the latter specifically was used as the Zhuming's energy source.
Eventually, the Xianzhou Luofu was granted the Ambrosial Arbor and the fleet shared in the blessings of long life, but Reignbow peered into the future (possibly with Nous' help? Sadly, the historical source for this misappropriates a different figure's actions with that of Reignbow's, making it hard to tell) and viewed the Xianzhou descending into chaos.
Reignbow tried to warn people about this ruinous future, but was deemed insane and ignored. In protest, they shot an arrow at the Ambrosial Arbor, a symbolic gesture that nevertheless earned the ire of the elite class, resulting in Reignbow's incarceration. Because of their status as a hero for winning the war against the Heliobi, Reignbow was sentenced to cryogenic stasis, rather than any other more severe punishment such as execution.
Later, the Xianzhou were besieged by a large army of Denizens of Abundance and faced total extinction. Seeing no other option, they released every prisoner, including Reignbow, as a desperate maneuver. Reignbow went into the Zhuming prison and struck a deal with the Flint Emperor, allowing it to possess their body in exchange for great power, a move that was also done by many other people with the other Heliobi prisoners.
The enhanced Reignbow and their followers rose up into the air, at which point they used their added power to fire an arrow that shattered the Ambrosial Arbor (from the Yaoqing to the Luofu). This released a massive amount of Imaginary energy that very quickly ended the fight - Muldrasil is to this day still recovering from the damage suffered from this.
Lan's body disappeared and they ascended to Aeonhood after this. Interestingly, poetic records suggest the Flint Emperor was also not found afterwards, implying that they may have ascended together, but historical records say that it was partially found. Which is true? Who can say.
Lan now spends most of their time running around the universe at faster than light speeds obliterating worlds populated by Denizens of Abundance and guiding the Xianzhou Alliance. They have become single-mindedly focused on the hunt, not caring about the cost or damage.
The name Lan derives from 岚, which is used to refer to the mist that comes out of mountains. Since the Xianzhou arkships are named after culturally significant mountains, it works. Interestingly, the same character (traditional, 嵐) in Japanese means "storm", which I think is appropriate as well, especially since the narrator of Myriad Celestia does a little pun with it.

Followers

​
To revert to mortality, eradicate the ambition of a deathless doom: We shall not rest.
The surviving Xianzhou ships banded together against the Abundance and also added new species to their ranks, creating the Xianzhou Alliance. The Xianzhou Alliance now traverses the universe hunting down Denizens of Abundance and interpreting Lan's commands.
The entire Xianzhou Alliance is under Lan's direct protection and endorsement and as a result enjoy access to their Path's power. Few other factions have this kind of privilege, making them one of the most powerful entities in the universe. Granted, it does not prevent them from suffering collateral damage from Lan's very explosive arrows.
Together, they share the mutual goal of destroying Yaoshi.
Lan also has regular worshippers in the form of the Galaxy Rangers, who don't hate Yaoshi, but admire Lan's Path. They go around the universe performing heroic deeds and fighting evil in the name of justice, having even assassinated a Lord Ravager. Unfortunately, they got in the bad side of one #64 Dr. Primitive, and began to "mysteriously" lose members and influence. Though there are some Galaxy Rangers still remaining in the universe, they've become a shell of their former selves.
No Emanators of the Hunt have been directly named by the game yet, although Lan does allow the Generals of each Xianzhou ship to borrow power in the form of Hunt constructs such as the Lightning Lord.

Nous

​
The Erudition, known as the Wisdomwalker to the Xianzhou.
Nous was a computer and artificial intelligence probably created by Zandar "One" Kuwabara that ended up ascending to Aeonhood. It's pretty old, predating Lan's ascension, but we don't know by how much.
It was made to provide answers to the universe and continues working on that goal now. Its divine corpus probably exists in the Temple of Nous.
Nous or νοῦς is a Greek philosophical concept. While colloquially it is simple meant to refer to intellect or good sense, philosophically speaking, the universe possesses a 'mind' or awareness (not necessarily theological or supernatural, but rather as something equal to matter, merely a natural property of the world) which organizes it, creating order, and is present within living beings though unable to be interacted with. Nous is the higher awareness of human beings, a quality which animals do not possess but gives us a sense of perception distinct from that which we can see and experience, granting the ability to reason. It's a pretty good name.
The Chinese name 博识尊 just means "knowledgeable saint". I dunno if it has more significance than that.

Followers

​
\"Firstly, let us state a universal truth: The author is a super genius of the kind only born once every few millennia, even on the scale of the entire universe.\" -- Herta
In order to help with its goal of ultimately answering "the problem" presented by the Universe, Nous decided to assemble the greatest minds in the universe to discuss its solutions and questions.
To that end, people who display promise are given acknowledgment by Nous and made into a member of the Genius Society, a group of people who were directly blessed by the Erudition. The Genius Society members are ordered by their joining order, with the latest being #84 Stephen Lloyd. Being a member of the Genius Society holds no obligations or rituals whatsoever - members are free to do whatever they want, even in some cases, enact violence on one another or on the universe itself. In general, they tend towards seclusion and do not share their findings with the rest of society, but it depends on the member.
However, not all members of the Genius Society earn the complete approval of Nous. Only those who ascertain Nous' true intentions and ask the right questions are given the key to the Nous Temple. There, they must pass an intense series of intellectual trials, after which they gain access to... some place that no one has ever returned from. It transcends worldly wisdom.
#1 Zandar "One" Kuwabara and #83 Herta are Emanators of the Erudition. It's possible that all members of the Genius Society are Emanators, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Nous' other group of worshippers is the Intelligentsia Guild. This one doesn't earn Nous' direct attention, but is open to everyone and shares its findings publicly, serving as a network for mutual learning and discovery, which it believes is the key to achieving wisdom. To achieve this, they treat knowledge as a currency, 'trading' their findings and encouraging mutual competitiveness.
Generally, the Genius Society looks down upon it, but it's a well-established group with ties with most other groups including the IPC (which has helped make them fabulously wealthy), making it the one that's seen more favorably throughout the universe, especially since their willingness to actually publish their inventions and findings have led to more favorable conditions in the universe, such as the reverse-engineering of Synesthesia Beacons (first developed by #56 Elias Salas) which allows for mutual intelligibility between species.
Still, their pursuit for knowledge can be destructive, such as the Armed Archaeologists that have a habit of turning ruins into craters after extracting knowledge from them.

Xipe

​
Join this great choir and feast, listen to the beating of billions upon billions of hearts, holding you in their embrace...
The Harmony. Xipe is an Aeon that somewhat uniquely consists of multiple different lifeforms from multiple worlds that appear to have ascended together, resulting in a plural being, not dissimilar from what (may) have happened with Lan and the Flint Emperor.
Their ultimate goal is to end all strife and brutality by uniting all lifeforms into one melody.
Also, when they ascended, they absorbed Ena the Order. Whoops.
Xipe's name is derived from the Aztec maize god Xipe Totec, which is famous for having a hobby of collecting and wearing flayed skin. The flayed skin actually represents the outer skin of the maize (corn), and Xipe Totec is something akin to a life-death-rebirth deity, the living god germinating like a seed out of the rotting skin within the twenty day month cycle. It's the most gruesome way of representing spring I could think of.
Why they chose this name (other than potential sinister implications) for the multi-headed god of harmony in their game is beyond me, especially since I didn't even mention that Xipe is attributed with the invention and patronage of warfare - rigged colosseum fights where an outnumbered and poorly armed opponent was fitted against experienced and fully geared warriors was one way of sacrificing to Xipe Totec. Sure, Xipe Totec was seen as a good deity and integral to the functioning of society, but that's most deities. Maybe it's because maize is really a collection of lots of tiny fruits in one ear? Who knows.
Also if you're thinking it's an etymology thing like Qlipoth, the name Xipe Totec means "Our Lord the Flayed One" so I'm not sure about that one. Hey, maybe the puzzle pieces are meant to be a very abstract representation of flayed skin? Creepy.

Followers

​
As you wonder what it is, you hear Renoir speaking in a muddled voice. \"Put it in.\" No... Is that Renoir's voice? You are sure you heard a NOISE...
The Family. Implied to be under some form of hivemind or mind control, the Family consists of a network of worlds and civilizations blessed by Xipe directly. They call out to other worlds and assimilate those that accept the call ostensibly voluntarily, but who knows how consensual the process is really. Otherwise, they mostly spend their time singing and being really happy all the time.
​
That's it for Part 1. Next Part we'll look at the other Aeons, for which I left out the majority because of the sheer size of the initial explanation.

I was looking for an Android Auto retrofit for my i3, was looking for USB-gadget like Ottocast but failed with it.
I'm probably not the only one to search for such a setup so I thought that might interest some here.
As per this comment from https://www.reddit.com/useKlausWillSeeYouNow/, I ordered a "PremiumRetrofit MMI V5" from https://premiumretrofit.net. I'm not affiliated with this company just a random user sharing feedback with the i3 community.
After a few emails with them, I gave my VIN, paid for the device and received it a week after (the device is preconfigured for the target VIN).
The mounting is very simple as shown in their video (https://youtu.be/e_IfHWq2OKk) : just remove the back seat, unplug 2 cables and replug everything, a wifi antenna is added between the two rear passengers. It's really a couple of minutes of work.
Before remounting, the setup looks like this (I tried to put everything apart so its easier to show the cabling, you'll clean up afterward) :
PremiumRetrofit MMI V5 installed under the rear seat
Then you have to enable the AUX by setting CDMM_AUX_SIMPLE_1 set to aktiv via bimmer-code: if you are interested I used the "NiceCheck Enet OBD2 Câble Ethernet Connecteur F Series OBD2 cable" in addition to a USB-net adapter on my Android phone: 50€ for bimmer, 15€ cable, 20€ usb-net. This bimmer setup can be reused for any other programming. Note your phone must have the modem/ethernet feature (my OnePlus Nord 2 didn't have it but the Samsung A52s or the Oppo have)
In the i3, to switch from the built-in iDrive interface to this device, just press the "iDrive Menu" for 2 seconds. Press again to return back to iDrive. The MMI menu offers to pair your phone for the first time via Bluetooth. Once done, the Android auto interface pops ! Really easy.
Android Auto controls are done with the regular iDrive controller.
On regular usage, just enable Bluetooth on your phone, connect to the MMI and .... done.
This is a view by night of the Waze interface on the large screen while playing music via DsAudio.
Android Auto on my BMW i3
To me, that's the perfect integration as no cables are visible, very light mounting (easy to remove too), full screen, no visible glitch, no lag, wireless connection and the regular controls enabled. A full wireless Android Auto available in a few minutes.
The device is 430 USD, if many are interested I may ask them for a special price ... who knows, it might work and help some of you to get a clean retrofit to their i3.
Note the product is also Carplay compatible but I didn't try it as I'm an Android user. I'll mount one soon for a friend, I'll amend the post with the results.