Citizen, Listen to Those Roaring Tides

Patch: 3.2 · Chapter: Through the Petals in the Land of Repose · Mission 08 of 10Previous: Sea of Flowers, Adored Only by Death · Next: Scholar, Let Us Meet Again Before the Gates of Truth Wiki: https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Citizen,_Listen_to_Those_Roaring_Tides

Official summary

As the fifteenth Entry Hour approached its end, Phainon, on behalf of the Chrysos Heirs, delivered a stirring speech urging the continuation of the Flame-Chase Journey at the citizens' assembly, earning widespread approval. Anaxa's soul, witnessing the twin within Kephale's mind, realized that finishing the journey would make him a Titan of Era Nova. With that, he cast his final shard, securing the assembly's vote to proceed with the journey. After betraying the Council, Anaxa revealed his sin of blasphemy and told the citizens that the Council had committed the same crime as he did.

Synopsis

This mission is played entirely from the perspective of Anaxa (Anaxagoras) via the Fate's Ensemble system — the game hands the player Anaxa as the viewpoint character, and the "Trailblazer" is offstage until the very end. The whole episode is framed as the culminating act of a long argument between Anaxa and the Titan Cerces dwelling inside him, and as the last public performance before Anaxa's own soul is "placed on the scales of life and death." It resolves the political question that has hung over Okhema since 3.0: whether the city will continue the Flame-Chase Journey or suspend it. The setting is the "Demigod Council" Dawncloud, where a citizens' assembly convenes at the close of the fifteenth Entry Hour.

Anaxa and Cerces: the cyclical-history theory

In Okhema, distant cheering signals the assembly nearing its end. Cerces (speaking as the voice inside Anaxa) notes that once "this farce is over," Anaxa's soul will be weighed on the scales of life and death, and asks whether he is ready. Anaxa is impatient and contemptuous of the crowd — Cerces teases that Anaxa is no less arrogant than the "conceited fools" he disdains, which Anaxa cheerfully concedes. Cerces reminds him that this arrogance is exactly why Cerces chose him, and asks whether Anaxa finally has an answer to the Titan's question — and, crucially, how he intends to prove it.

Anaxa lays out his central thesis, picking up where he and Cerces last left off: Amphoreus's history is cyclical. He argues that the demigods who bear Coreflames eventually become the new Titans at the end of the world.

Anaxa: The demigods that bear the Coreflames eventually become the new Titans at the world's end...

As evidence he cites the holy mountain: Calypso (Cerces' human guise) and Gnaeus (Nikador's Reason-fragment) both departed the world as their destined ends approached, "leaving only the twins, who were fated to succeed Death." He admits that although the parallels — Cerces/Calypso, Nikador/Gnaeus — support the pattern, he could only ever produce a "rough sketch," because the past cannot be recovered and proving that the Heirs are the legacies of past heroes seemed hopeless.

That changed, he says, when he met a girl named Polyxia and her sister. His reasoning: if Castorice was genuinely sent from the past into the present for a Titan's self-serving purposes, then — having "lived through two cycles," with Styxia as the pivot — she is the link that connects everything. If the twins of Death can bridge two cycles and reunite "at the shores of the Sea of Souls," then his hypothesis becomes proven fact, and Cerces will finally have the answer to its question.

Cerces warns that if there is the slightest error, "the girl will be shattered." Anaxa dismisses the risk: the most important quality a scholar can have is foolhardiness, because excessive caution means never taking the first step and never producing change. He declares that he, Anaxagoras, is "destined to overturn this farcical world," and goes to teach the crowd "one final lesson."

At the assembly: Anaxa and Phainon

Approaching the Council, Anaxa sees that the Heirs have left the closing debate to Phainon. Caenis is whipping the crowd — "Let those Chrysos Heirs who started this terrible war hear the voices of the people!" — to fanatical cheering. Anaxa remarks that "that woman knows how to stir up a crowd."

Phainon is surprised Anaxa bothered to come; Anaxa replies that everyone must vote or the assembly is pointless. Phainon, tense, admits he feels like he is walking to an execution chamber rather than a podium, and voices the real doubt gnawing at him: is it wise to entrust the fate of the world to an assembly like this — or, as Anaxa cuts to the heart of it, is Aglaea making the right choice in entrusting the world to him?

Anaxa refuses to answer, but reframes the question as a lesson (he reminds Phainon he was once his professor — and that Phainon took longer than the usual four years to graduate). The question of whether Aglaea is right to trust him is Aglaea's to answer, not Phainon's; fretting over it means Phainon still thinks of himself as her pawn. Instead:

Anaxa: Flip your perspective around and ask yourself this instead, "What should I do to ensure that the world doesn't stray from the correct path?" That is what you should be thinking about.

He tells Phainon not to report the answer to him but to "those begging for salvation from the gods." Phainon thanks him. Asked who he will vote for, Anaxa says only that it will depend on how well Phainon performs, and dismisses him with "May Cerces safeguard your thoughts."

A Military Runner informs Anaxa that Caenis has reserved him a special seat, and leads him to the special seating section to hear the final speaker.

Phainon's speech

Lygus, the Theoros (the presiding official of the assembly), introduces "Phainon of Aedes Elysiae, virtuous citizen of Okhema and the last speaker of the assembly." The crowd mutters — some recognize him as "the penniless lad working for Aglaea" and wonder why the Goldweaver would send him rather than appear herself.

Phainon delivers the mission's centerpiece oration. He opens by acknowledging the citizens' fear of the discord between the Chrysos Heirs and the Council of Elders, then pivots to the true threat looming beyond Kephale's horizon. He describes his beloved hometown, Aedes Elysiae — a "village forgotten by time," with the freshest breeze and wheat fields running to the sea — and then reveals that it, and everyone he loved, was long ago devoured by the black tide.

He names his dead, one by one (recounted here as past events, told in the speech):

• His father Hieronymus, who fought "with a broken sword to his last breath" to protect his child.
• His mother Audata, "ripped apart by monsters" so that Phainon might live.
• Galba, a hunter whose arms embraced his son Piso as they both died.
• Pythias, a teacher crushed by a burning beam while saving her students.
• Livia, Pythias's daughter, and Piso, and many other children — Phainon's childhood friends — all swallowed by the black tide and turned into monsters.

He recalls the words they repeated even as he was forced to grant them "eternal peace with my sword":

Phainon: "Why, Phainon? Aren't we the best of friends?"

Aglaea listens in silence. Phainon presses the political point: Caenis has promised that with the Three Titans of Calamity gone Okhema will return to an Era Chrysea, but the danger has not passed. Even with the Strife demigod Mydei holding the line, "they" are still coming — and the Flame Reaver, the black-robed swordmaster, has "risen from death" and hungers for the Coreflames of the gods (the "roaring thunder" being Mydei's warning). When an Arrogant Citizen objects that Okhema is peaceful precisely because no such enemy exists, Phainon turns it around: the peace is no gift of fate — it exists only because the Chrysos Heirs, and Aglaea's golden threads, shield the city.

He then escalates to open accusation. The Council claims Aglaea will one day forsake the people because her divinity is eroding her body and soul; Phainon asks why, instead of aiding her, the Council chooses to push Okhema away from the Flame-Chase Journey. The answer, he says, is a truth "stained in blood and buried in greed, fear, and vanity":

Phainon: It is because the Council of Elders, which bears Okhema's history and honor, along with this citizens' assembly we once took so much pride in, are now infested with vermin!

Over the crowd's outrage he insists Aglaea has never failed Okhema even as these "vermin" slander her, and challenges the citizens to look at those around them and judge whether they see "the good heart of a human... or the poisonous glands of a pest" — and, conversely, to see "the light of humanity" in the demigods. He closes by pledging that no matter how the vote falls, Aglaea, Tribios, and he will remain the people's faithful guardians, a vow to be "passed on to future Flame-Chasers" and endure through the ages.

City representatives cast their pottery shards into the dolium. Lygus announces that on Talanton's scales, the votes for continuing and for suspending the Flame-Chase Journey stand in perfect balance — a tie. Anaxa notes drily that this is "the moment when the Flame-Chase Journey is the closest to its end." He holds the last shard; his vote will break the impasse. Lygus invites him to vote, wishing that he "bring much-needed change to this farcical world."

Anaxa's vote and the vision of Empedocles

At the dolium, Anaxa first compliments Phainon's performance, then formally announces that he votes "on behalf of the Seven Sages of the Grove of Epiphany and the scholars of Amphoreus." Before casting, he publicly asks Aglaea whether she — as Phainon promised — will stand by the assembly's decision regardless of outcome. Aglaea, "in the interest of fairness," refuses to promise, so as not to influence him; Anaxa thanks her for her honesty.

He stalls theatrically as the crowd grows angry and chants at him to vote. When Caenis tries to remind him of their arrangement, he silences her with his rules ("Do not call me Anaxa... Never interrupt me. Silence is golden"). Cerces asks whether Anaxa will exploit every hardship to his advantage; Anaxa answers that his split state is itself a tool:

Anaxa: How else am I supposed to make use of this situation where my body and soul are separated? O Cerces — or should I say, Calypso — accompany me on this final journey. Let us journey to the nether realm and see how she will substantiate the answer to your question and validate my decision. We need only to follow the sound of the tides...

As he casts the shard, the scene shifts (the internal-journey cutscenes are titled "Olive, Cast to the Conference Chair"). Anaxa encounters Empedocles, his teacher — a Sage of the Venerationists — in what plays as a farewell vision/memory during the soul-casting. Empedocles congratulates him: "Just as I foresaw, you have achieved great things." He marvels at the irony of "a blasphemer raised in the doctrines of the Venerationists," likening Anaxa to "a foal kicking its mother in the belly after taking all her milk," but bears him no ill will. Though as the Sage of the Venerationists he is duty-bound to oppose Anaxa, as friend and mentor he blesses the pursuit:

Empedocles: Go forth, for the truth is already in your hands... And when you reach the end of this journey, may we meet again with the truth before us.

They exchange "May Cerces safeguard your thoughts." As the vision fades, Anaxa affirms that his "lonely pursuit is about to welcome a new chapter" and repeats the farewell — "May we meet again with the truth before us, Empedocles." (This encounter is the moment the official summary glosses as Anaxa's soul "witnessing the twin within Kephale's mind" and realizing that completing the journey would make him a Titan of Era Nova.)

The Great Performer's proof: casting the deciding vote

Back at the dolium, Anaxa silences the crowd and declares that "here at the center of the world" he will write the final step of his proof, "for this place is but one step away from the truth." In a brief cutscene, Castorice reports, "Professor... I completed the proof you wanted," and Anaxa thanks her — the answer is "plain as day." His vote goes to the Flame-Chase Journey and nothing else, declaring, "I have deciphered the truth of this world."

Lygus confirms the balance is shattered: Okhema has voted to continue the Flame-Chase Journey. Caenis erupts, accusing Anaxa of betrayal and threatening harsh punishment. Anaxa is unmoved — he reminds her that he has never switched sides, because factions and politics are jokes to him:

Anaxa: Because I, and I alone, am the truth.

Lygus rules that the assembly's democratic decision must be honored, and orders the resolution posted on the Wall of Heroes.

Anaxa's confession and self-condemnation

Rather than exit victorious, Anaxa asks leave to "entertain" the assembly further. He announces that despite supporting the outcome, he "challenges" the resolution: who among them dares swear on Kephale's name that Era Nova will truly be the fairy-tale ending the Chrysos Heirs promise? He interrogates citizens one by one, then even Phainon and Aglaea — none will make the promise (Aglaea tells Phainon to "let him continue with his performance"). Anaxa seizes on this: no one but he can promise the new world, yet the assembly passed the resolution anyway. So he delivers "one final lecture," declaring that everything the Flame-Chase Journey promises is true, and stating outright the mechanism he calls the truth of Era Nova:

Anaxa: Phainon of Aedes Elysiae, the prophesized demigod who shall succeed Kephale, will reforge each and every one of us in the new world with his complete, intact memories!

Anaxa: The Coreflame-bearing Titans were the Chrysos Heirs of yesterday, and the Chrysos Heirs who carry the Coreflames today will become the Titans of tomorrow. All of our souls shall endure for eternity in the miracle of the Worldbearer, and all under Kephale's protection shall step into that new world!

This is Anaxa's cyclical-history thesis, now proclaimed publicly as prophecy: Titans and Chrysos Heirs are the same beings across successive cycles, and Phainon is the Heir destined to succeed Kephale the Worldbearer and remake all souls with their memories intact.

When Caenis demands proof and calls him a blasphemous liar, Anaxa reveals the source of his knowledge — and, deliberately, his own crime:

Anaxa: My statements are based on my experiments on the divine body of Kephale themself!... With the tacit approval of Caenis and the Council of Elders, I fused my soul with a god through alchemy and learned the truth behind Era Nova!

He confesses grave blasphemy against Kephale, declaring that he "deserves nothing less than death" — and, in the same breath, that the Council of Elders, which granted him consent and aided his atrocity, must be punished alongside him. This is the trap: Anaxa's public self-condemnation drags the Council down with him. Caenis frantically disavows all knowledge, insisting Anaxa acted alone. Lygus, unbothered, rules that if the accusation is true he will acknowledge it, and — invoking the fairness of Talanton and the justice of Kephale, and Okhema's Codex — asks Aglaea, "as the only demigod among us," to oversee the judgment. Aglaea accepts: "The honor is mine to bear."

Aglaea's judgment

Exercising the assembly's right of judgment under Okhema's Codex, Aglaea rules on two matters. First, Caenis and Lygus the Theoros are accused of neglecting their duties and abusing the law, enabling blasphemy against a god; she orders a committee formed before the seventh Action Hour to investigate and publish its findings for public judgment. The assembly agrees; Caenis curses him.

Second, concerning Anaxa, who has confessed to grave blasphemy against Kephale: per the Codex, the accused must hear the "people's voice" before execution, for a chance at reduced sentence or pardon. The crowd chants "Let him die!" over and over. Phainon calls out "Professor..."; Aglaea hesitates. Anaxa himself urges her on — "Enough with the hesitation, Aglaea. This is not like you." At last Aglaea pronounces sentence:

Aglaea: Then, in light of the "people's voice"... O Talanton on high, may you bring death upon him.

The crowd erupts in fanatic cheering. (This unlocks the achievement The Law as the Crown of Peace.) The mission closes by returning to the Trailblazer's point of view with the line: "When you have a chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret."

Key characters

• Anaxa (Anaxagoras) — Point-of-view character. A Chrysos Heir and Grove of Epiphany scholar hosting Cerces' Coreflame, with soul and body separated. He manipulates the tied assembly into voting to continue the Flame-Chase Journey, then deliberately confesses his blasphemy (fusing his soul with Kephale's divine body) to implicate the Council of Elders and secure his own death sentence — all as the final step of a self-designed experiment to prove Amphoreus's history is cyclical.
• Cerces (Calypso) — The Reason Titan dwelling within Anaxa; his interlocutor and the one who set him the guiding "question." Warns of the risk to "the girl" if Anaxa's hypothesis is wrong, and accompanies his soul on the "final journey" to the nether realm.
• Phainon — Delivers the assembly's closing speech on the Chrysos Heirs' behalf, publicly reveals his own origin (the fall of Aedes Elysiae) and the return of the Flame Reaver, and rallies the citizens behind Aglaea and the Flame-Chase Journey. Reframed by Anaxa as the demigod prophesied to succeed Kephale.
• Caenis — Council of Elders leader pushing to suspend the Flame-Chase Journey. Thought Anaxa was her ally; is blindsided when he votes for the journey and then implicates the Council in his blasphemy, leaving the Council facing investigation.
• Aglaea — Present but silent through most of the assembly; declines to promise she will honor its outcome. As the only demigod, she is handed judicial authority and, after hesitating, sentences Anaxa to death by the "people's voice."
• Lygus — The Theoros presiding over the assembly; announces the tie and the final result, and defers the judgment to Aglaea per Okhema's Codex.
• Empedocles — Anaxa's late teacher and a Sage of the Venerationists, encountered in a farewell vision as Anaxa casts his vote; blesses Anaxa's pursuit of truth despite being doctrinally bound to oppose him.
• Castorice — Appears briefly to report she "completed the proof" Anaxa wanted; central to his cyclical-history experiment as one of the "twins of Death" said to bridge two cycles.
• Military Runner — Minor soldier who seats Anaxa in Caenis's reserved special section.

Lore notes

• Cyclical history / "Titans of tomorrow." Anaxa's core thesis, stated twice: the Chrysos Heirs who bear Coreflames today become the Titans at the world's end, and today's Titans were the Chrysos Heirs of a previous cycle. This directly advances the digest's open question of whether demigods "literally become their Titan" — Cerces greeting the ascended Mydei as "Nikador" (3.1) is now framed as evidence of the same cycle. Supporting cases Anaxa names: Cerces/Calypso and Nikador/Gnaeus.
• Era Nova mechanism. Anaxa publicly proclaims that Phainon, the demigod destined to succeed Kephale the Worldbearer, will "reforge each and every one of us in the new world with his complete, intact memories," and that "all of our souls shall endure for eternity in the miracle of the Worldbearer." This gives concrete content to the long-promised Miracle of Genesis / Era Nova and reframes Phainon's "Deliverer" role. [?] Whether this is literal truth or Anaxa's rhetorically useful hypothesis remains ambiguous — he preaches it as certainty while privately treating it as a theory still needing proof.
• The "twins of Death." Anaxa introduces Polyxia and her sister, and names Styxia as the "pivot" through which Castorice "lived through two cycles." Castorice is cast as one of two "twins of Death" fated to succeed Death (Thanatos), and Anaxa's proof hinges on the twins "reuniting at the shores of the Sea of Souls." This advances the digest thread of Castorice's missing "other half" and her tie to Death. [?] Exact relationships among Castorice, Styxia, Polyxia, and Polyxia's sister are not fully spelled out here.
• Anaxa's blasphemy. Confirmed: with the Council's tacit approval, Anaxa fused his soul with Kephale's divine body through alchemy to learn the truth of Era Nova — this is the source of his knowledge and the crime for which he is condemned. Fits his Nousporist soul-gold alchemy background (3.1) and his separated soul/body state.
• The scales of life and death. Cerces frames the whole episode as a prelude to Anaxa's soul being weighed; Anaxa engineers his own death sentence, treating execution as the means to "journey to the nether realm" and validate his hypothesis about the twins bridging cycles. His death is thus deliberate, not a miscalculation — a self-designed experiment. [?] The intended outcome and how his death advances the proof carry into the next mission.
• Phainon's backstory, expanded. The fall of Aedes Elysiae to the black tide is given named victims: his father Hieronymus (died fighting with a broken sword), mother Audata (torn apart by monsters), the hunter Galba and his son Piso, the teacher Pythias and her daughter Livia, and other childhood friends who turned into monsters and whom Phainon killed himself. Their refrain — "Why, Phainon? Aren't we the best of friends?" — deepens the trauma behind his failed trial of divinity and his vendetta against the Flame Reaver. (Note: this is recounted in a speech, not shown as a present event.)
• The Flame Reaver "risen from death." Phainon publicly confirms the black-robed swordmaster has returned and again hunts the gods' Coreflames — advancing the digest's open thread on the Flame Reaver's identity and true fate. The "roaring thunder" is presented as a warning from the Strife demigod Mydei, who is holding the line off-screen.
• New terminology / institutions. Theoros — the presiding official of the citizens' assembly (Lygus). Venerationists — a religious/scholarly school opposed to Anaxa's blasphemy, of which Empedocles is a Sage. Okhema's Codex — the legal code under which judgment is passed, granting the sole demigod judicial authority. Wall of Heroes — where the city's resolutions are posted. Dolium — the vessel into which pottery shards (votes) are cast. Action Hour (Noon) — an Okhema time term, alongside the established Entry Hour (dawn). Votes are weighed "on the scales of Talanton," the Law Titan.
• Connections:
  • Advances open thread: "Do demigods literally become their Titan?" (3.1) — Anaxa's cyclical thesis argues yes, across cycles.
  • Advances open thread: Castorice's tie to Death and her missing "other half" (3.0/3.1) — reframed via the "twins of Death," Styxia, and Polyxia.
  • Advances open thread: Anaxa and Cerces — "What exactly are 'we'?" (3.1) — Anaxa's public proof and self-sacrifice are his attempt to answer Cerces's question.
  • Advances open thread: Phainon's destiny / the "only one survives" design (3.0/3.1) — Phainon is named the prophesied successor to Kephale who will remake all souls.
  • Advances open thread: the Flame Reaver's identity and fate (3.1) — confirmed risen and hunting Coreflames again.
  • Advances open thread: Council of Elders vs. Chrysos Heirs (3.0/3.1) — the assembly resolves in the Heirs' favor; Caenis and Lygus face investigation, and the Council is publicly tainted by Anaxa's blasphemy.
  • Resolves (locally): the citizens' assembly on suspending the Flame-Chase Journey — Okhema votes to continue.

Sources

• Citizen, Listen to Those Roaring Tides — HSR Wiki

Hindsight (full arc)

• Reread — Phainon named "the demigod who shall succeed Kephale... reforge each of us with intact memory." Literalized in 3.3 (Worldbearer) and 3.4 — but 3.4 inverts the triumphal framing: the Worldbearing trial is an endless self-consuming duty, and Phainon is also the Flame Reaver of every prior cycle.
• Reread — Anaxa's engineered death sentence is not an ending. He re-emerges having transmuted himself into a Philosopher's Stone inside the caged Zandar (3.6) and consecrates Erudition in 3.7.
• Reread — "the Coreflame-bearing Titans were the Chrysos Heirs of yesterday." True within the simulation; the machine truth (Scepter / Nanook / Irontomb) arrives in 3.4, and the "intact-memory" survivor is ultimately Cyrene, not Phainon.
• Foreshadowing — the fall of Aedes Elysiae Phainon recounts is his own origin, replayed and deepened in 3.4 as the Scepter's staged boyhood; the companion missing from that home is Cyrene / PhiLia093.
• [?] resolved — "how Anaxa's death advances the proof": Castorice's twin-reunion at the Sea of Souls confirms the recurrence thesis (m07a); Anaxa reports "the proof is complete."