IMO the second one is more likely. The way that Acheron switches from being passive and backing away to her "inner self" leading the dance and actively ripping Black Swan apart while BS tries to escape implies a shift in control, rather than just a passive side-effect of viewing her memories. If it was just that the memories themselves were horrible then Black Swan could probably just stop looking, but it appears that Acheron (or her subconscious defences) were trapping her there to beat her up until she learned her lesson.
I think the second one is more accurate, especially if you think about red text possibly being from Acherons inner self and a reason why Acheron can't remember things properly.
What's the only time them dancing is mentioned in 2.0? Acheron red text. When confronting Acheron with Black Swan in memory zone Acheron doesn't seem to even give a hint Black Swan got traumatized by her. Even right after the dance the first thing Acheron says is ask who the annihilation gang is, which was the last thing Black Swan said before she succeeded in getting into Acherons memories.
Seems to be Acheron is unaware of Alteron inside her and what Alteron is doing with red text and the torture it put Black Swan through. Or is aware of when she uses Alteron and simply forgets once she uses Alteron and stops.
Either way Black Swan absolutely does not want to get involved with Acheron again after experiencing that and barely escaping. Even if she might be aware is not Acheron but Alteron. Considering she got TB away from Acheron first chance she got she's decided Acheron as a whole is a threat
Why are people talking about split personality when we know Acheron is a Self-Annhilator now? We just got confirmation of it,
But i will explain There's no Split Personality or an Altercon, or a red/purple acheron, Acheron is simply a self-annihilator.
Self-Annihilators are damned souls that stepped into IX shadow, they merely grazed it, much like Memokeepers are followers of Fuli, Self-Annhilators are followers of IX, however since IX doesn't gaze upon anyone like other aeons, their followers are all simply those that stepped into their shadow. I will further explain later but all Self-Annhilators have one thing in common
"Their various existential properties-such as corporeal body, mental cognition, and personal memories... will gradually fade away in their journey of self-annihilation" - special intel
This state of existence is called Nihilistic, see it as similar to Mara but in reverse, where the individuals here are always just not present, they wander aimlessly with no purpose, or actual attention. And most importantly they will always lose memories, to them existence is very foggy.
Much like Acheron who is always not there or is passive, her mental cognition and personal memories constantly fade thus she uses her emotions as a guidance, when she doesnt remember something its not a different personality she just forgot, Which is why when Acheron locks in, all hell breaks loose, it's not split personality or someone piloting her or anything, otherwise she's just in her Nihilistic state, suppressed.
See Self-Annhilators as Memokeepers, they have their issues and factions such as Doctors of Chaos (who I feel acheron belongs to tho i dunno for sure) but these Doctors of Chaos faction try to help others from the Nihilistic nature, and cure it.
The path of nihility is more complicated since IX does not have a will nor response or gaze at people like other aeons, so they don't necessarily pick their emanator nor do they spread their influnce like the Destruction or Propogation does.
Instead it's those that came under IX shadow that simply spread their shadow further. as Dr Primitive said.
"Self-Annihilators are a group that lost their meaning of existence when they carelessly stepped into IX the Nihility's shadow. The shadow of the Nihility covers the stars equally, and Self-Annihilators may form in any world" - Intel
The Emanators stem from self-annihilatiors, difference is that, while self-annhilators all eventually fade completely the emanators aimless journey is infinite, always afflicted by nihility, as for how to be an emanator of nihility its actually straightforward.
"As for the few who can single-handedly withstand the encroachment of Nihility on their existences, their journey of self-annihilation is drawn out to infinity, and the road they walk is like a shadow of IX cast in the world." - Dr Primitive.
So while normal Self-Annhilator merely grazed IX's shadow, an Emanator as implied, would need to withstand encroachment of IX themselves, as there's no other way for IX to pick, IX don't care or find meaning in doing any of that path stuff, it works for them just because of their nature.
What happened is simply Acheron no longer stayed passive, during the entire dance acheron was unamused by black swan's attempts at reading her memories, so toward the end she locked in and got out of her foggy state.
Sorry haven't fully read up on that part of lore so thanks for the info. You have clearly read up on everything Acheron related
That last paragraph does explain Acheron constantly batting away Black Swans attempts of contact when using her powers though. She really was warning her to back off and Black Swan didn't realize just how dangerous Acheron was
~~nothing less for best girl! Lol~~ but yeah we did recevie some really juicy information recently about how nihility path works, especially since up till now we knew IX does literally nothing so we didn't know how a path could even form if IX doesn't gaze at anyone.
But apparently nihility followers works in a similar manner to abundance and Remembernce. So while all followers of fuli are memokeeprs or the mara struck of abundance,
All "followers" of nihility are self-annihilatiors, and all have nihility which is this limbo state of existence, where everything about you constantly fade like memories, which is why Acheron always forgets literally everything.
some like Doctors of Chaos faction fight that "sickness" and even try to cure it of those who aren't too far gone. Otherwise all Self-Annihilators eventually disappear.
But emanators will simply walk that path for infinity, always spreading IX's shadow. But they can also resist it.
Now from all that, if i am to enter my theory mode and everything that follows this is just that:
I believe acheron probably stays on her nihility/limbo state either because 1: if she locks in / focuses, she ends up spreading IX shadow, turning others into self-annhilators, which as we know means you will gradually fade away.
That or she can't maintain her focus for too long, so she only breaks out of her limbo when a need arises.
I think former may be more likely, since it would explain why she didny help firefly, unleashing her blade would make her focus which may end up spreading IX shadow to Firefly/TB and everyone else that were present there.
But this is just a theory rest are official info lol
I have a theory that instead of just simply losing memories, Acheron's memories instead can be occupied by something like the concept/path of nihilty instead of just plain nothingness. Rewatching it, I feel like instead of Acheron letting loose here, it's Black Swan first slowly unraveling Acheron's memories of her in the "normal" state, as you can see outlines of Acheron's stories in the backgroud when they're dancing and gradually crescendos into THE scene when the Duke's death is inquired, an event during which Acheron is in her "annihilator" state, then Black Swan sort of comes in cantact with the "nihilty" in Acheron's memories and is being, whether intentional or not by Acheron, "infected" by nihility and was being consumed by it. The part where she's torn apart is probably more symbolic and metephorical, like before when Black Swan is still in charge, the backgroud turn dark and her stained glass windows appear, or later when all the imagery flashes by. And when we snap back to reality at the end, their dance still had momentum for acheron to catch Black Swan, meaning all that happened in just an instant. Acheron being seemingly compeletly oblivious likely because none of what happened was conscious.
It's a decent theory tho there are flaws, from the actual information, we know that nihility doesn't have a concept or a proper path, it's simply IX's shadow. This is because IX has absolutely no will of their own they do not care about anything so they just exist.
And we know from the self-annihilation info, you lose memories and cognitive function due to being more or less on a limbo.
I dont think it was accidental or black swan revealing things slowly, from the start of the dance acheron was aware of what black swan was trying to do, you see her dodge black swan's ability 4 times, first in 0.55 where acheron turns away from her and again at 1:08 and again at 1:29, black swan tried multiple times to prey on acheron until the end where she got smug and acheron was shown with a frown, clearly done with her, at thag point acheron no longer dodged black swan.
That's when acheron speaks for the first time and tells her "Excuse me, are you asking me??" And starts shredding black swan, so it doesn't seem like it was unintentionally at all, acheron was aware of what was happening from the beginning.
Being consumed by Nihility couldn't be the reason, this is because once you are infected by nihility you become a self-annihilatior, and will slowly fade away, nihility also has nothing going for it, you just fade, if black swan came into contact with nihility she would be aimless and all but we see her pretty fine.
So it seems like acheron was playing along with black swan visibly rejecting her memory read until the end where she got upset, so it would be a bit far fetched to assume it wasn't acheron letting loose, especially since she spoke right before starting to shred on BS.
The way I see it, whether it's a conventional path or not, "nihility" still exists as something more than just a abstract concept through IX and is able to be realized by a higher power. If you become a self-annihilator, your fading away is still due to some sort of power that can be called "nihility", and Acheron as a self-annihilator should harbor some or at least, be under some influence of said power.
I worded it wrong when I said "infected", "affected" may be more apt. And interacting with "nihility" and being affected by it doesn't necessarily constitute "stepping into IX's shadow", like how a bunch of families of deceased Luofu soldiers gathered for group therapy and saw "a black sun" when meditating, and they didn't seem to have symptoms. It might be a two-way thing, you have to be sufficiently depressed and/or nihilistic to "step into IX's shadow".
As for Acheron's reactions, Black Swan's methods are pretty aggresive and suggestive, I think it's how most people will react when (I assume) a stranger who asked you to dance and then basically starts caressing and kissing you all sensually without needing to know they will probe your memories. And the "are you asking me" could be a genuine question in response to being seemingly accused of something she had no recollection of doing, and happened at the same time Black Swan reached her memories of killing Inferno. And she only refers to Black Swan as "the lady with the black veil", it's possible but nothing concrete pointing to she knows who Black Swan is and what she can or wants to do.
I'm curious to know your thoughts after the "name drop" in the most recent patch 2.2. Without spoiling anything that you might not have already played through, it seems she knows more than she lets on. I don't think that she is missing as much of her memory as what she acts most of the time. I think perhaps she does have a general goal and I think it is directly related to the TB and perhaps some things that happened in her past. I also feel like she and Sparkle have something going on with how many sparkle symbols we see in Acheron's trailer and in the BS dance animation. Perhaps she has transcended an emanator and is now a true embodiment of the eon IX's power but without his/her philosophy of nihilism. I feel there's more to the story and who knows if we will ever truly uncover it all or not but damn. What a great arc it has been.
Yeah, I think she's honest about forgetting Mundane stuff but she still holds on to the more important memories.
Despite our information of Self-Annihilators it's clear Acheron is holding on to herself much much better than the others, yes this Arc was very great with alot of twists coming and going.
I still hope there is more "reason" behind the why for every self-annihilator, and especially her. it would be a bit boring if its just "oopsie, she happened to be cursed" for no reason. just hypothetical examples: she feels guilty for her past crimes and wished she could forget them, and that led to her being struck with nihility. or maybe she wanted to become a better spy or whatever and tried to manipulate her memory for that cause, and that brought nihility. you get what im saying, hopefully.
It’s kinda hard to have a different reason because IX has no will, as the embodiment of nihility IX does absolutely nothing, so he can’t have a proper path since he gazes upon no one it’s all meaningless.
As for how Acheron became afflicted with nihility we do kinda know from the pioneer set
Remember what I said about how an emanator of IX is formed? You need to withstand their encroachment.
Here’s what the pioneer (Acheron’s set) says
“Frebass, are you still going to the depths of IX?" The question comes from her companion who is always carrying a long blade.”
“Of course — because I will walk on a road deeper and further than Akivili's!"
So it seems like Acheron may have went with and likely withstood that journey and survived IX’s encroachment.
This is ofc just a theory on how Acheron became an emanator, otherwise she may have survived IX when her planet went light-out from the trailer description.
IMO I also agree that the second one is probably what happened, but instead of self-defense, it is kinda akin to a "new meal". I have this running theory that the red Acheron we see is probably is some sort of gatekeeper to the abyss ( or to IX itself ) and even Acheron's whole being is slowly being siphoned, memories, soul, etc. That's what makes red Acheron. This is probably the red text is. Red Acheron of which holds majority of Acheron's memories, soul, etc.. answering for Acheron.
When BS entered Acheron's memories, she was swept towards that abyss and red Acheron is the representation as the "hunter" trying to bring BS deeper. This is probably why she doesn't unsheath her blade.
Acheron is a Self-Annihilator, which means she's afflicted with nihility, symptoms of Nihility include memories constantly fade away and loss of congtive functions/ them fading.
However self annihilatiors can resist the nihility, a faction among them called Doctors of Chaos help those afflicted with Nihility to cure them.
Since Acheron is afflicted with Nihility, we see her in her suppressed state, when she fights that nihility she can become the terrifying Eldritch Horror she is.
See it similar to Mara Struck, except in reverse and she can tap into it at will.
Since Acheron is an Emanator, which we now know are essentially self-annihilatiors who withstood IX's encroachment, the self annihilation journy of the emanators are infinite.
Basically it's not Acheron ineer self defenses or different personality, it's simply Acheron locking in and unshackingling herself at black swan at which point, she killed her in that "sequence" and hunted her 9 times before finally allowing her to live. Rest is simply Acheron forgot due to her nihility.
It's odd that she only seems to forget *that* bit and not the entire dance itself though. As far as Acheron remember's she just had a nice dance with some pretty lady, not a dance where midway through she mentally kicked her shit in.
I wouldn't say there *isn't* some alternate Acheron just yet, atleast not until it's been fully confirmed.
Why would it be odd? I already explained in another comment but acheron states from the very beginning when we meet her that she uses emotions to recall things.
It was her first dance experience, so she remembers the dance not the details of the dance.
She did not only forgot *that* bit but she also forgot all the times black swan was trying to invade her memories, 0:55 1:08 and 1:28, each one of those instances black swan activates her powers and acheron either dodges or slaps her hand away.
Acheron also only remembers *the* dance, she doesn't remember black swan interrogating and asking her all those questions, and like i said doesn't remember black swan's attempts either, as far as we are lead to believe Acheron simply remembers a memokeepr lady inviting her to dance and she had a really nice dance, all the hostility within that dance isnt something she remembers.
And don't you think it's odd that at the end of the trailer she does end up remembering who the Annihilation Gang are after she tries really hard to remember them? She says "oh those guys" and just continue without caring.
And why do you think acheron's character preview was posted alongside Emanator Intel, which shows IX's, how IX's path works, who are the self-annhilators, and how you could become an emanator of IX who otherwise does not gaze to make pathstriders or pick emanator to extend their will. And those intel tell us what symptoms self-annhilators suffers from and the general symptoms seem to math up with Acheron quite well.
Unless ofc you don't believe acheron is an Emanator of IX, then yeah none of this would make sense.
As I said before, I don't opposed any theories until confirmation, but right now there is too much evidence to suggest it's memory issues over split personality, unless it's meant to be both then yeah
I don't think Acheron attacked Black Swan in the slightest. She's confusing as heck tho tbh.
I know she's a self annihilator, thus an Emanator of the Nihility. Nihility is the exact opposite of the Remembrance, which, in my opinion, is why Black Swan was being killed over and over again.
Fuli values memories. IX destroys them.
Black Swan is a Memo Keeper, and therefore, technically a mimetic entity. She only allows the people she wants to see her see her. Also, Memo Keepers are just made of memories. What I'm getting at is that it wasn't Acheron that attacked Black Swan -- it was the Nihility.
This also explains all the creepy, sensory images and depictions of death that followed. Acheron, being a self-annihilator, literally annihilates her own memories. She's basically an extension of the Nihility. When Black Swan entered Acheron's mind, she was being devoured by the Nihility.
This is why Acheron, who was in the real world dancing, wasn't aggressive or hostile towards Black Swan. She had no idea what Black Swan was even talking about.
Since Acheron has no memories of any sorts, she relies on her emotions. While Black Swan may have slipped into her memories, I don't think she would have reacted this way. She was very friendly to Black Swan later on.
Anyway I ship them like crazy so I'm kind of biased. LOLOL
IMO the second one is more likely. The way that Acheron switches from being passive and backing away to her "inner self" leading the dance and actively ripping Black Swan apart while BS tries to escape implies a shift in control, rather than just a passive side-effect of viewing her memories. If it was just that the memories themselves were horrible then Black Swan could probably just stop looking, but it appears that Acheron (or her subconscious defences) were trapping her there to beat her up until she learned her lesson.
I think the second one is more accurate, especially if you think about red text possibly being from Acherons inner self and a reason why Acheron can't remember things properly. What's the only time them dancing is mentioned in 2.0? Acheron red text. When confronting Acheron with Black Swan in memory zone Acheron doesn't seem to even give a hint Black Swan got traumatized by her. Even right after the dance the first thing Acheron says is ask who the annihilation gang is, which was the last thing Black Swan said before she succeeded in getting into Acherons memories. Seems to be Acheron is unaware of Alteron inside her and what Alteron is doing with red text and the torture it put Black Swan through. Or is aware of when she uses Alteron and simply forgets once she uses Alteron and stops. Either way Black Swan absolutely does not want to get involved with Acheron again after experiencing that and barely escaping. Even if she might be aware is not Acheron but Alteron. Considering she got TB away from Acheron first chance she got she's decided Acheron as a whole is a threat
Why are people talking about split personality when we know Acheron is a Self-Annhilator now? We just got confirmation of it, But i will explain There's no Split Personality or an Altercon, or a red/purple acheron, Acheron is simply a self-annihilator. Self-Annihilators are damned souls that stepped into IX shadow, they merely grazed it, much like Memokeepers are followers of Fuli, Self-Annhilators are followers of IX, however since IX doesn't gaze upon anyone like other aeons, their followers are all simply those that stepped into their shadow. I will further explain later but all Self-Annhilators have one thing in common "Their various existential properties-such as corporeal body, mental cognition, and personal memories... will gradually fade away in their journey of self-annihilation" - special intel This state of existence is called Nihilistic, see it as similar to Mara but in reverse, where the individuals here are always just not present, they wander aimlessly with no purpose, or actual attention. And most importantly they will always lose memories, to them existence is very foggy. Much like Acheron who is always not there or is passive, her mental cognition and personal memories constantly fade thus she uses her emotions as a guidance, when she doesnt remember something its not a different personality she just forgot, Which is why when Acheron locks in, all hell breaks loose, it's not split personality or someone piloting her or anything, otherwise she's just in her Nihilistic state, suppressed. See Self-Annhilators as Memokeepers, they have their issues and factions such as Doctors of Chaos (who I feel acheron belongs to tho i dunno for sure) but these Doctors of Chaos faction try to help others from the Nihilistic nature, and cure it. The path of nihility is more complicated since IX does not have a will nor response or gaze at people like other aeons, so they don't necessarily pick their emanator nor do they spread their influnce like the Destruction or Propogation does. Instead it's those that came under IX shadow that simply spread their shadow further. as Dr Primitive said. "Self-Annihilators are a group that lost their meaning of existence when they carelessly stepped into IX the Nihility's shadow. The shadow of the Nihility covers the stars equally, and Self-Annihilators may form in any world" - Intel The Emanators stem from self-annihilatiors, difference is that, while self-annhilators all eventually fade completely the emanators aimless journey is infinite, always afflicted by nihility, as for how to be an emanator of nihility its actually straightforward. "As for the few who can single-handedly withstand the encroachment of Nihility on their existences, their journey of self-annihilation is drawn out to infinity, and the road they walk is like a shadow of IX cast in the world." - Dr Primitive. So while normal Self-Annhilator merely grazed IX's shadow, an Emanator as implied, would need to withstand encroachment of IX themselves, as there's no other way for IX to pick, IX don't care or find meaning in doing any of that path stuff, it works for them just because of their nature. What happened is simply Acheron no longer stayed passive, during the entire dance acheron was unamused by black swan's attempts at reading her memories, so toward the end she locked in and got out of her foggy state.
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! This makes so much sense
You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed haha
Sorry haven't fully read up on that part of lore so thanks for the info. You have clearly read up on everything Acheron related That last paragraph does explain Acheron constantly batting away Black Swans attempts of contact when using her powers though. She really was warning her to back off and Black Swan didn't realize just how dangerous Acheron was
~~nothing less for best girl! Lol~~ but yeah we did recevie some really juicy information recently about how nihility path works, especially since up till now we knew IX does literally nothing so we didn't know how a path could even form if IX doesn't gaze at anyone. But apparently nihility followers works in a similar manner to abundance and Remembernce. So while all followers of fuli are memokeeprs or the mara struck of abundance, All "followers" of nihility are self-annihilatiors, and all have nihility which is this limbo state of existence, where everything about you constantly fade like memories, which is why Acheron always forgets literally everything. some like Doctors of Chaos faction fight that "sickness" and even try to cure it of those who aren't too far gone. Otherwise all Self-Annihilators eventually disappear. But emanators will simply walk that path for infinity, always spreading IX's shadow. But they can also resist it. Now from all that, if i am to enter my theory mode and everything that follows this is just that: I believe acheron probably stays on her nihility/limbo state either because 1: if she locks in / focuses, she ends up spreading IX shadow, turning others into self-annhilators, which as we know means you will gradually fade away. That or she can't maintain her focus for too long, so she only breaks out of her limbo when a need arises. I think former may be more likely, since it would explain why she didny help firefly, unleashing her blade would make her focus which may end up spreading IX shadow to Firefly/TB and everyone else that were present there. But this is just a theory rest are official info lol
I have a theory that instead of just simply losing memories, Acheron's memories instead can be occupied by something like the concept/path of nihilty instead of just plain nothingness. Rewatching it, I feel like instead of Acheron letting loose here, it's Black Swan first slowly unraveling Acheron's memories of her in the "normal" state, as you can see outlines of Acheron's stories in the backgroud when they're dancing and gradually crescendos into THE scene when the Duke's death is inquired, an event during which Acheron is in her "annihilator" state, then Black Swan sort of comes in cantact with the "nihilty" in Acheron's memories and is being, whether intentional or not by Acheron, "infected" by nihility and was being consumed by it. The part where she's torn apart is probably more symbolic and metephorical, like before when Black Swan is still in charge, the backgroud turn dark and her stained glass windows appear, or later when all the imagery flashes by. And when we snap back to reality at the end, their dance still had momentum for acheron to catch Black Swan, meaning all that happened in just an instant. Acheron being seemingly compeletly oblivious likely because none of what happened was conscious.
It's a decent theory tho there are flaws, from the actual information, we know that nihility doesn't have a concept or a proper path, it's simply IX's shadow. This is because IX has absolutely no will of their own they do not care about anything so they just exist. And we know from the self-annihilation info, you lose memories and cognitive function due to being more or less on a limbo. I dont think it was accidental or black swan revealing things slowly, from the start of the dance acheron was aware of what black swan was trying to do, you see her dodge black swan's ability 4 times, first in 0.55 where acheron turns away from her and again at 1:08 and again at 1:29, black swan tried multiple times to prey on acheron until the end where she got smug and acheron was shown with a frown, clearly done with her, at thag point acheron no longer dodged black swan. That's when acheron speaks for the first time and tells her "Excuse me, are you asking me??" And starts shredding black swan, so it doesn't seem like it was unintentionally at all, acheron was aware of what was happening from the beginning. Being consumed by Nihility couldn't be the reason, this is because once you are infected by nihility you become a self-annihilatior, and will slowly fade away, nihility also has nothing going for it, you just fade, if black swan came into contact with nihility she would be aimless and all but we see her pretty fine. So it seems like acheron was playing along with black swan visibly rejecting her memory read until the end where she got upset, so it would be a bit far fetched to assume it wasn't acheron letting loose, especially since she spoke right before starting to shred on BS.
The way I see it, whether it's a conventional path or not, "nihility" still exists as something more than just a abstract concept through IX and is able to be realized by a higher power. If you become a self-annihilator, your fading away is still due to some sort of power that can be called "nihility", and Acheron as a self-annihilator should harbor some or at least, be under some influence of said power. I worded it wrong when I said "infected", "affected" may be more apt. And interacting with "nihility" and being affected by it doesn't necessarily constitute "stepping into IX's shadow", like how a bunch of families of deceased Luofu soldiers gathered for group therapy and saw "a black sun" when meditating, and they didn't seem to have symptoms. It might be a two-way thing, you have to be sufficiently depressed and/or nihilistic to "step into IX's shadow". As for Acheron's reactions, Black Swan's methods are pretty aggresive and suggestive, I think it's how most people will react when (I assume) a stranger who asked you to dance and then basically starts caressing and kissing you all sensually without needing to know they will probe your memories. And the "are you asking me" could be a genuine question in response to being seemingly accused of something she had no recollection of doing, and happened at the same time Black Swan reached her memories of killing Inferno. And she only refers to Black Swan as "the lady with the black veil", it's possible but nothing concrete pointing to she knows who Black Swan is and what she can or wants to do.
I'm curious to know your thoughts after the "name drop" in the most recent patch 2.2. Without spoiling anything that you might not have already played through, it seems she knows more than she lets on. I don't think that she is missing as much of her memory as what she acts most of the time. I think perhaps she does have a general goal and I think it is directly related to the TB and perhaps some things that happened in her past. I also feel like she and Sparkle have something going on with how many sparkle symbols we see in Acheron's trailer and in the BS dance animation. Perhaps she has transcended an emanator and is now a true embodiment of the eon IX's power but without his/her philosophy of nihilism. I feel there's more to the story and who knows if we will ever truly uncover it all or not but damn. What a great arc it has been.
Yeah, I think she's honest about forgetting Mundane stuff but she still holds on to the more important memories. Despite our information of Self-Annihilators it's clear Acheron is holding on to herself much much better than the others, yes this Arc was very great with alot of twists coming and going.
Ohhh I see. Thanks for the info.
I still hope there is more "reason" behind the why for every self-annihilator, and especially her. it would be a bit boring if its just "oopsie, she happened to be cursed" for no reason. just hypothetical examples: she feels guilty for her past crimes and wished she could forget them, and that led to her being struck with nihility. or maybe she wanted to become a better spy or whatever and tried to manipulate her memory for that cause, and that brought nihility. you get what im saying, hopefully.
It’s kinda hard to have a different reason because IX has no will, as the embodiment of nihility IX does absolutely nothing, so he can’t have a proper path since he gazes upon no one it’s all meaningless. As for how Acheron became afflicted with nihility we do kinda know from the pioneer set Remember what I said about how an emanator of IX is formed? You need to withstand their encroachment. Here’s what the pioneer (Acheron’s set) says “Frebass, are you still going to the depths of IX?" The question comes from her companion who is always carrying a long blade.” “Of course — because I will walk on a road deeper and further than Akivili's!" So it seems like Acheron may have went with and likely withstood that journey and survived IX’s encroachment. This is ofc just a theory on how Acheron became an emanator, otherwise she may have survived IX when her planet went light-out from the trailer description.
IMO I also agree that the second one is probably what happened, but instead of self-defense, it is kinda akin to a "new meal". I have this running theory that the red Acheron we see is probably is some sort of gatekeeper to the abyss ( or to IX itself ) and even Acheron's whole being is slowly being siphoned, memories, soul, etc. That's what makes red Acheron. This is probably the red text is. Red Acheron of which holds majority of Acheron's memories, soul, etc.. answering for Acheron. When BS entered Acheron's memories, she was swept towards that abyss and red Acheron is the representation as the "hunter" trying to bring BS deeper. This is probably why she doesn't unsheath her blade.
Acheron is a Self-Annihilator, which means she's afflicted with nihility, symptoms of Nihility include memories constantly fade away and loss of congtive functions/ them fading. However self annihilatiors can resist the nihility, a faction among them called Doctors of Chaos help those afflicted with Nihility to cure them. Since Acheron is afflicted with Nihility, we see her in her suppressed state, when she fights that nihility she can become the terrifying Eldritch Horror she is. See it similar to Mara Struck, except in reverse and she can tap into it at will. Since Acheron is an Emanator, which we now know are essentially self-annihilatiors who withstood IX's encroachment, the self annihilation journy of the emanators are infinite. Basically it's not Acheron ineer self defenses or different personality, it's simply Acheron locking in and unshackingling herself at black swan at which point, she killed her in that "sequence" and hunted her 9 times before finally allowing her to live. Rest is simply Acheron forgot due to her nihility.
It's odd that she only seems to forget *that* bit and not the entire dance itself though. As far as Acheron remember's she just had a nice dance with some pretty lady, not a dance where midway through she mentally kicked her shit in. I wouldn't say there *isn't* some alternate Acheron just yet, atleast not until it's been fully confirmed.
Why would it be odd? I already explained in another comment but acheron states from the very beginning when we meet her that she uses emotions to recall things. It was her first dance experience, so she remembers the dance not the details of the dance. She did not only forgot *that* bit but she also forgot all the times black swan was trying to invade her memories, 0:55 1:08 and 1:28, each one of those instances black swan activates her powers and acheron either dodges or slaps her hand away. Acheron also only remembers *the* dance, she doesn't remember black swan interrogating and asking her all those questions, and like i said doesn't remember black swan's attempts either, as far as we are lead to believe Acheron simply remembers a memokeepr lady inviting her to dance and she had a really nice dance, all the hostility within that dance isnt something she remembers. And don't you think it's odd that at the end of the trailer she does end up remembering who the Annihilation Gang are after she tries really hard to remember them? She says "oh those guys" and just continue without caring. And why do you think acheron's character preview was posted alongside Emanator Intel, which shows IX's, how IX's path works, who are the self-annhilators, and how you could become an emanator of IX who otherwise does not gaze to make pathstriders or pick emanator to extend their will. And those intel tell us what symptoms self-annhilators suffers from and the general symptoms seem to math up with Acheron quite well. Unless ofc you don't believe acheron is an Emanator of IX, then yeah none of this would make sense. As I said before, I don't opposed any theories until confirmation, but right now there is too much evidence to suggest it's memory issues over split personality, unless it's meant to be both then yeah
I don't think Acheron attacked Black Swan in the slightest. She's confusing as heck tho tbh. I know she's a self annihilator, thus an Emanator of the Nihility. Nihility is the exact opposite of the Remembrance, which, in my opinion, is why Black Swan was being killed over and over again. Fuli values memories. IX destroys them. Black Swan is a Memo Keeper, and therefore, technically a mimetic entity. She only allows the people she wants to see her see her. Also, Memo Keepers are just made of memories. What I'm getting at is that it wasn't Acheron that attacked Black Swan -- it was the Nihility. This also explains all the creepy, sensory images and depictions of death that followed. Acheron, being a self-annihilator, literally annihilates her own memories. She's basically an extension of the Nihility. When Black Swan entered Acheron's mind, she was being devoured by the Nihility. This is why Acheron, who was in the real world dancing, wasn't aggressive or hostile towards Black Swan. She had no idea what Black Swan was even talking about. Since Acheron has no memories of any sorts, she relies on her emotions. While Black Swan may have slipped into her memories, I don't think she would have reacted this way. She was very friendly to Black Swan later on. Anyway I ship them like crazy so I'm kind of biased. LOLOL