HoYoLAB/Articles/The Xianzhou Luofu Trailblaze Index

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===VOL 01===
The Xianzhou Luofu
Trailblaze Index
What made Honkai: Star Rail create the Xianzhou Luofu world?
There are many stories that base their lore on the Chinese culture, so we wanted to design a unique lore that extrapolates Chinese elements to a sci-fi environment
The principle of worldbuilding is to "create worlds with a hint of difference."
Take Jarilo-VI for example, it is a world covered in ice and glacier that shows what the world becomes when "technological power is unable to overcome a disaster." In Xianzhou, we hope to incorporate elements of the rich and lasting Chinese civilization's history and culture into the story.
THe inspiration for the Xianzhou Luofu comes from the pre-Qin Dynasy myth of "seeking immortality." Based on this inspiration, we changed the fleet's departure from "beyond the seas" to "beyond the sky." A fleet set out to seek immortality from the gods out in the universe, and eventually brought back immortality as they wished.
As we flesh out the world, the Xianzhou Luofu's image becomes clearer and clearer to us. Combining prosperous jade technology with ancient architectural culture, the Xianzhou is our reimagining of the ancient Chinese civilization with a certain distance and fantasy with the real world.
It can be said that the Xianzhou is not the Chinese civilization of the past, nor is it its future develoepd based on the current situation. It is a sci-fi world existing within an imagined space and time.
===VOL 02===
The Xianzhou Luofu
Trailblaze Index
How to create Honkai: Star Rail's unique Chinese sci-fi?
Even if a world is technologically advanced, there will still be hustle and bustle on the streets.
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke famously said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Therefore, the technique of "disguising sci-fi setting in mythology" appears in many classic science fictions.
For example, in Roger Zelazny's Lord of Life, he dressed the higly developed science and technology in the book into Hindu mythological concepts such as "Brahma," "Shiva," and "reincarnation."
Walter Michael Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz also employed a similar technique as it packaged the destruction and rebirth of human civilization into a legendary epic in the European medieval style. We have benefited freatly by drawing inspiration from these classic works.
The first time Trailblazers land on the Xianzhou Luofu, they will be greeted with a variety of magical wonders, the essence of which is the Xianzhou technology to be explored by players.
Taking the exploration in the Starskiff Haven as example, Trailblazer will encounter "starskiffs" that zip around the sky within the city area.
What is a starskiff? In an essay titled "Floating Rafts in the Eight Month" in Zhang Hua's Bowuzhi (or Records of Diverse Matters) of the Jin Dynasty, it is described that in the old days, "the sky and the sea were connected" and people traveled by floating raft and saw "bull-riders" in the sky.
This floating raft may be ancient people's fantasy of spaceflight. In the world of the Xianzhou, the mythological floating raft is incorporated as a commonplace transfportation, be it for jouneys or for space combats.
There are many such "retro" contents on the Xianzhou, such as the divination and observation used by the Divination Commission. They followed a unified design logic — those familiar and peculiar phenomena whose essence can be attributed to not-so-familiar scientific explanations.
The merging of these science fiction elements with the cultural elements of the Chinese civilization forms the unique Chinese sci-fi narrative and Xianzhou's worldview formation in Honkai: Star Rail.
In addition, from the production point of view, we want to create a world with a high degree of technological development, but at the same time would like to introduce a sense of warmth in it. Just imagine what people's lives would turn out to be in a highly developed world if every segment of life was done by cold steel and technology.
Therefore, we retained a "retro" sense in the city atmosphere and life experience in the Xianzhou Luofu while adding cultural elements to the design of street shops. Players will be able to hear crosstalk performances and hustle-bustle of street vendors.
They can also approach to gain an understanding of long-life species' joys, frustrations, sadness, and bliss.
In the Xianzhou Luofu, you will see a world where high technology is combined with rich life.
===VOL 03===
The Xianzhou Luofu
Tralblaze Index
How to create the Xianzhou Luofu's society?
Use Huizhou architecture as a design base and build the Xianzhou with the concept of a ship.
When we first learned about the settings of the Xianzhou, we hoped to make breakthroughs in artistic style and design to achieve a Chinese style that is different from the existing system on the market.
After much discussion, we've decided to focus on two elements: the technology and the cmobination of architecture.
On the basis of Huizhou architecture, we recombined the special elements of the buildings in various places through painting and other forms of design. This is not to gratuitously mix all the elements into one, but to develop a central theme for the buildings while ensuring an overall direction can be determined.
From there, we thought about what elements are suitable for the design and controlled the degree to which each element fits with the theme.
The architectural design of the Xianzhou Luofu is based on the structure of a ship. We also added a giant building at the port in hopes that it becomes the iconic landmark of the port and was later named the Palace of Astrum.
For the center of the port, we designed the eaves of the building in reference ot hte style of a ship.
However, a single ship doesn't stand out in the city, so we added the design concept of the castle-esque high wall and incorporated the raising of the whole Palace of Astrum in layers. This allows the ship-like roof ridge to be noticed more easily and evokes the feeling of erchitectural grandeur.
After settling on the concept of a ship, the entire social structure of the Xianzhou Luofu relies on that concept for maintenance and function.
===VOL 04===
The Xianzhou Luofu
Trailblaze Index
How to create the Xianzhou Luofu's society?
How would a society made up of Xianzhou residents look like?
The Xianzhou is a long-living society. A society made up of people with extended lives is different from the modern society that we are familiar with. The Xianzhou populace comprised of various long-life species, including the Xianzhou natives with a near-immortal life expectancy, the Vidyadhara that go through a process known as "hatching rebirth," and the foxfolk Foxians who have sharp reflexes.
We think that one of the charms of the sci-fi genre comes from the creators' imagination and the amount of details that they deducted and hypothesized. Different sci-fi works will differ in their worldview and their expression of their settings.
For example, golden-era sci-fi authors like Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein all lean towards scientifically accurate settings with plausible details in their lore.
Many post-New Wave sci-fi authors are more inclined to set realistic details for their anthropological and sociological elements.
Influenced by classic works, we also have preference for the latter design mindset when coming up with the worldview for Honkai: Star Rail. In other worlds, rather than focusing ont he technological aspect on the Luofu, we ask ourselves this question: "In what way would a society completely led by long-living lifeforms express themselves?"
For a society steeped in longevity and eternal life, we want to explore the different possibilities that thrive and survive within the world through its many different inhabitants; to create an evocative story belonging to a long-live society with tumultuous scenarios.
In this creative process, rather than building a societal structure of Xianzhou from the top-down, we provided one of many ways to explore and discuss, and we built a platform that can shoulder reflections and expansion.
In the Xianzhou Luofu, the Trailblazer will also encounter new associates and companions, such as General Jing Yuan who commands the Xianzhou's Cloud Knights, his sword-obsessed retainer Yanqing, a compassionate fresh Cloud Knight Sushang, a procrastinating diviner of Divination Commission Qingque, a lively and adorable Vidyadhara healer Bailu, the Foxian Head Representative of the Sky-Faring Commission merchant guild Whistling Flames Tingyun, among others. The experiences and stories to be had with them, we'll leave the Trailblazers to explore in-game!
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