Acheron/Story

Profile

Acheron, real name Raiden Bosenmori Mei, is one of the Self-Annihilators who has successfully endured her self-annihilation, turning into an Emanator of Nihility.^[1] She is the watcher of the Acheron, guarding the Horizon of Existence, and stops those who are hesistant to be annihilated by Nihility.^[2] She is currently on the hunt for the location of Device IX, believing it to be the key to killing IX,^[3] while investigating the actions of the Lord Ravager, Zephyro.^[4]

Acheron was an Oni who came from the world of Izumo, a world which orbited a Shadow of IX, and a neighbor to the world of Takamagahara. She was the wielder of the Edict Edge of Howl, the Bearer of Origin, and eventually, wielding the Bearer of Naught.^[5] She can also cook food, but is unable to taste them due to the effects of the Nihility.^[6]

Appearance

Acheron is a tall woman with long, dark purple hair that reaches her thighs with fringe that covers her left eye and frames her face. Her fringe has two white streaks, and the sides are pinned to the back with a black, white, and purple hairpiece. Her eyes are bright violet with pink highlights, diamond-shaped pupils with red eyeliner. She wears a silver ear cuff reminiscent of a snake, with a violet gem hanging from it on her right ear.

She wears a black croptop with a small upside-down V-shape cutout on her chest and straps connecting to a purple and black choker connected to a black spine-shaped piece on the back. Over she wears a backless unbuttoned white jacket with one right furisode sleeve with intricate details and a purple oni face with flame designs. From the back four coattails extend out, fading from white, purple, and black; the inside is ash blue with a flame design. Acheron also wears high-waisted, black shorts with a black belt and spine-shaped silver buckle, as well as a purple strap on her right hip.

Acheron dons black asymmetrical stiletto boots with silver heels and purple soles; the left boot reaches her thigh while the right boot reaches just below her knee. She also has a red and purple flame tattoo on her left thigh. Acheron wears black gloves, the right reaching up to her forearms with a purple cuff; her fingers are covered by a fingerless glove with metallic finger guards. Additionally, she wears a silver shoulder guard on her right shoulder.

In her alternative form, she has silver hair that reaches all the way to her calves, red eyes with slit pupils and highlights in a pink color, and pale white skin. She loses her right glove and jacket, but keeps the sleeve and coattails, which now connect to her crop top. Her outfit is also now colored in red, white, and black. Red cracks are visible on her neck, midriff, right forearm, and right thigh, and a few desert rose flowers are found on her arms, chest, and shoulder guard.

In the "Kyoden: A Cleave Across the Transient World" trailer as well as a still in Trailblaze Mission Stranger in a Strange Land, she wore a traditional white kimono with a red obi around her waist and okobo sandals. She also had two red horns on her head, with the right horn longer than the left.

History

Izumo

Acheron was a maiden of an unknown shrine. When the Kami of Takamagahara invaded Izumo, the people of Izumo would go on to kill them, creating the Edict Edges. She would presumably go on to wield the third Edict Edge known as "Howl," and together with the other wielders, they would protect Izumo for 10 Amber Eras.^[7] However, destruction would still arrive, and the Edict Edges would be shattered and reforged into the Bearers of Origin and End. Acheron, wielding Origin, won against Hakuhatsu Ki, who wielded End. However, it was for naught, as Izumo was still heading into the Shadow of IX. Distraught at seeing her home world brought to destruction, she severed both Izumo and Takamagahara using the Shadow of IX, erasing them from the universe.^[5][7]

Wandering the Universe

Acheron would go on and depart to "seek revenge" against IX the Nihility, going on a journey to find Device IX.^[3][8] During her journey, she met Frebass and accompanied her for 30 days. At the end of Frebass's journey, she bid farewell to Acheron and dove into a Shadow of IX to walk a road further than Akivili's.^[9] She also encountered the Doctors of Chaos, who used attempted to use the Revitalization-310 tincture on her, but failed.^[10]

Setting forth on her journey again, Acheron met the Sin Thirster of Tiernan, whose original self had passed away after participating in the mission to assassinate Zulo. Performing her duties as the watcher of the Acheron, she watched over Tiernan until he was ready to move on. Before he died, he left behind a burial relic and asked her to return it to the Galaxy Rangers.^[3] Honoring Tiernan's wish, she began to travel towards Penacony, taking up the Galaxy Ranger mantle. But the impersonation of a Galaxy Ranger alerted Boothill, who began to hunt her down.^[11]

Penacony

On the way to the feast, she killed Duke Inferno and stole his invite to get into Penacony's Charmony Festival.^[12] The memories residing in the invitation would be infected by the Nihility.^[13]

Arriving at Penacony, Acheron killed the Trailblazer in the border between reality and Ena's Dream, making the Trailblazer wake up in Ena's Dream.^[14] Not long after, she wandered into the Trailblazer's hotel room, before excusing herself.^[15] Parting, she went to a ball without realizing it, and was invited by Black Swan to dance. Unbeknownst to Acheron, Black Swan tried to peer into her mind, but was stopped by the energy of the Nihility residing within Acheron.^[16] Eventually, she accidentally got into a fight with a gang, and the ruckus caused another meeting with the Trailblazer at Golden Hour.^[17] However, because of Sparkle, she got transported to the Primordial Dreamscape along with Black Swan, and together, they were able to reconvene with the Trailblazer who was also sent by Sparkle to the dreamscape. They began searching for the missing Firefly, yet when they finally found her, Something Unto Death killed her, which was able to make Acheron falter, completing Firefly's mission to halt Acheron's blade.^[13][18] Because Firefly's death was unknown to them, they began searching for clues, which allowed Firefly to switch her identity to SAM and engage with Acheron in an attempt to separate her from the Trailblazer in accordance to Elio's script. But Acheron already knew of Firefly's identity, and stopped the fight, bidding farewell to Firefly.^[13]

When Aventurine accused Acheron of causing Robin's death,^[19] Welt, in his investigation, met with Acheron, and the two talked about their experiences with their respective enemies.^[20] During Aventurine's fight against the Astral Express crew in a gamble to have Penacony fall into the IPC's hand, Acheron stepped in, killed Aventurine, transporting him into the primordial dreamscape.^[21][22] This led her to be kicked out by Gopher Wood from the Dreamscape,^[23] leading her to returned to the rift between the real world outside Ena's Dream. When more people returned to the rift, a three-phase plan was soon created to defeat Sunday and destroy Ena's Dream, in which her mission was to destroy the dreamscape, shaking the foundation.^[24]

Present

After Sunday's defeat, the Trailblazer and Acheron had a farewell, in which the Trailblazer forgot about Acheron.^[3] In Amphoreus, when the Trailblazer was walking back from the River of Souls, an illusion of Acheron beckoned them towards the exit.^[25] Another illusion of Acheron appears when the Trailblazer gives their answer to Evanescia on if they'll be changed by the Elation.^[26]

When the Trailblazer is partaking in the "All-You-Can-Lose" challenge, Acheron coincidentally ended up meeting with them, in which the Trailblazer suggests on buying her a navigation device or a supply of peaches.^[27]

Trivia

• Acheron's Faction is initially listed as "Galaxy Ranger." Upon completing Trailblaze Mission A Walk Among the Tombstones, her Faction changes to "Self-Annihilators."
• The leitmotif of Honkai World Diva is used throughout the Myriad Celestia Trailer "Kyoden: A Cleave Across the Transient World."
• The missing text in the title of Acheron's Keeping Up With Star Rail, Another Fall of Rain, _______ _____ ______, is her Trace Activation voice-over: "Another blank canvas."^[28]
  • The blank description of the video is her Something to Share: Weapon voice-over: "When unsheathed, it unveils the memories stored within — every instance I've swung it, in the beginning, the end... and nothingness."
• Acheron's Ultimate resembles that of Raiden Mei's Herrscher of Origin Battlesuit's Ultimate, wherein she is locked in onto and begins dealing a barrage of slashes against an enemy.
• Acheron's Character Trailer, "Your Color", is a reference to a Unity rendering demonstration music video featuring Raiden Mei and the Vocaloid song 君色に染まる (Dyed with Your Color), produced by miHoYo staff in 2017.
• Acheron is the first character to have a unique mechanic for activating her Ultimate, Slashed Dream Cries in Red. To activate her Ultimate, using Atop Rainleaf Hangs Oneness, she requires 9 points of "Slashed Dream," which can be obtained when allies apply debuffs to enemies.

HoYoverse Shared VAs

• Acheron shares the same English voice actor, Allegra Clark, with:
  • Beidou in Genshin Impact
  • Fairy, Cecilia, Reed, and Dante in Zenless Zone Zero
• Acheron shares the same Chinese voice actor, Juhuahua (菊花花), with:
  • Carmella
  • Raiden Mei and Dr. MEI in Honkai Impact 3rd
  • Raiden Mei in Houkai Gakuen 2
  • Raiden Shogun and Makoto in Genshin Impact
  • Tsukishiro Yanagi in Zenless Zone Zero
• Acheron shares the same Japanese voice actor, Sawashiro Miyuki (沢城みゆき), with:
  • Raiden Mei and Dr. MEI in Honkai Impact 3rd
  • Raiden Mei in Houkai Gakuen 2
  • Raiden Shogun and Makoto in Genshin Impact
• Acheron shares the same Korean voice actor, Park Ji-yoon (박지윤), with Raiden Shogun in Genshin Impact.

Etymology

• Acheron is the name of a river located in Thesprotia in Epirus, Greece. In Greek mythology, it is one of the five rivers of the underworld, nicknamed the "river of woe," and is depicted as its entrance.
  • In some mythological depictions, the Acheron is the river that the ferryman Charon rows through to transport the dead to the underworld.
• 黄泉 Huángquán (lit. "yellow spring"), her Chinese name, is a synonym for the underworld in Chinese mythology, while 黄泉 Yomi, her Japanese name, is the name of the underworld in Japanese mythology.
• Acheron's real name, 雷電忘川守芽衣 Raiden Bousenmori Mei, can be split into three parts:
  • 雷電 Raiden, a surname, meaning thunder and lightning.
  • 忘川守 Bousenmori, an archaic Japanese-style courtesy title with two parts:
    • 忘川 Bousen literally meaning "river of forgetting," likely a reference to the Lethe river, another one of the five rivers of the underworld.
    • 守 mori, meaning the guardian or protector. This is likely a reference to the archaic Japanese naming tradition of official titles, which includes the location name followed by 守 kami, e.g. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the 三河守 Mikawa-no-kami.
    • This name references how she "guards the path to the abyss of the Nihility," and tries to rescue the souls who end up there.^[2]
  • 芽衣 Mei, a given name, where 芽 means a "bud" or "sprout," and 衣 means "garment."
• Acheron's Japanese Ultimate dialogue, 涙雨… 降りて溢るる、渡り川… Namida ame... furite afururu watarigawa..., references a poem from the Kokin Wakashū, Part 16, Laments 829 written by Ono no Takamura.
  • The original text reads:
    泣く涙 Naku namida
    雨と降らなむ ame to furanamu
    渡り河 watarigawa
    水まさりなば mizu masarinaba
    かへり来るがに kaeri kuru ga ni
    
    "Let the tears that flow from my eyes fall as rain. Let the waters of the Sanzu River rise and let that person not be able to cross over to the other side and return to this world."
    • 渡り川 Watarigawa refers to the Sanzu River.

References

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