Houkai

Honkai / 崩壊Houkai / 崩坏Bēnghuài, is a cyclical natural disaster phenomenon which periodically adjusts the universe.

Every once in a while, the Houkai will break out. The outbreak of the Houkai is irregular and unpredictable, making it highly dangerous. It has manifested in the past as a plague, meteors, volcanic activity and currently as a horde of beasts.

The Houkai has also been hinted to have their gender as female because most Herrschers are referred to with she/her pronouns. The Houkai also favours females as a vessel and females in general have higher houkai adaptability.

## Manifestation of Houkai

The manifestations of Houkai are unpredictable. It can come in the form of wars, infectious diseases, climate disasters, comet impacts, and even the arrival of giant monsters (known as Houkai beasts).

* According to the interpretation of Schicksal, the Houkai is a manifestation of the unpredictable Will of God. From obtained scientific results, it has brought about a large number of extinctions of the species that used to dominate this world.
* The Black Death of the 14th century was one example of a manifestation of a Houkai that has killed millions, acting on humans who dominated the world at the time, directly or indirectly causing the destruction of one third Europe’s population.
* The extinction of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period is also a manifestation of Houkai. History books have no confirmed explanation of why the dinosaurs went extinct.
* Houkai Beasts are creatures of destruction created within places with high amounts of Houkai Energy. They only know destruction and death and have no consciousness other than their will to destroy humankind.

## Houkai Energy

Houkai releases a kind of energy that has never been seen in past technology - Houkai Energy.

The efficiency of Houkai can far exceed any energy currently found in the world; Houkai energy possesses the ability to turn humans and animals without sufficient resistance and immunity that come into contact with it into mindless zombies.

## Houkai Infection

Houkai Infection can cause hosts to go through the following changes:

* Loss of emotions (Happened to Bronya. Raven said that Kiana "faked all her painul cries" and she is actually emotionless)
* Loss of consciousness
* Pain suppression
* Access to Houkai hive mind
* Enhanced physical abilities
* Gaining of unknown abilities (Always found on Herrscher)
* Quickly breaks down organic tissue and begins to evolve the existing specimen into a new organism with characteristics and functions ideal for survival and self-defense.

## Houkai Source

The Houkai might have characteristics of mutual attraction, and they will attract each other to form a “Houkai source”.

* The Houkai source is not stable, constant, or evenly distributed in the universe.
* Numerous small Houkai sources will gradually aggregate and become a larger Houkai source, but this aggregation will not develop indefinitely.
* The bigger the Houkai source, the more unstable they will destroy the steady state under external disturbances and break through the critical equilibrium, causing huge explosions.
* When Houkai explodes, a large amount of it may be consumed in a short time, which can cause distortions in reality.
* In this process, the physical properties of the spacetime will be disrupted on a large scale. However, this is destined to come at the cost of a huge catastrophe.

## References

1. ↑ Azure Waters chapter 10 ending
2. ↑ Chapter XVI 16-13