#sampo theory

[notmxverick]

y'all my brain isn't working and I'm not sure if anyone has deep dived into this one, but I'm surely not the only one that has questions about this.

Fym Icarus and Diogenes? Those are obviously Greek names and the first Greek thing in HSR that popped up in my head is the upcoming planet Amphoreus.

I found some short descriptions about them and honestly, as a non-theorist, I have no idea what this could mean.

My gut says that Sampo is most likely gonna be there on Amphoreus for whatever reason again. But what do y'all think?

[m-says-hi]

Hello!

I have more sampo thoughts! Surprisingly, not about the recent event but an old event. Or not even the event itself, but something from after it

The memory bubble you get after Aetherium Wars.

Couple of things about memory bubbles before I bring up Sampo or this particular bubble’s contents. After some (admittedly brief) research on bubbles, I’ve learned they’re created by Memokeepers to preserve memories and are usually stolen from the original memory holder. In the game there are 21 memory bubbles. 20 of them belong to Herta and can be found around the Space Station. The last one is the one from after Aetherium Wars and is found on Jarilo VI.

I haven’t interacted with any of the memory bubbles myself, but I have read through all the dialogue and descriptions on the wiki. The 20 belonging to Herta all seem to put you in the pov of the memory holder. It tells it more like a story, kinda similar to Simulated Universe?

But the Aetherium Wars Bubbles only gives dialogue (very similar to Sampo’s character stories) making us more like an observer and not part of the memory. Unless we’re watching the memory of someone who was watching the conversation, but I feel like there’d be more description of the setting if that were the case.

I could go on about the content of the conversation, but I think we’ve all read through it multiple times. What really caught my attention was the beginning and end dialogue of the bubble.

(taken from the wiki. I haven’t done aetherium wars yet ;-;)

Four things stick out to me right away:

The game/The trailblazer’s thoughts notes this feels different

As I mentioned before, there is no description of the scenery showing up before you, but just two figures. My guess as to why is that this bubble wasn’t created by a stolen memory, but was made by the memory holder (or at least the memory holder was involved in the process). The memory holder being Sampo

2. There’s an implication that this bubble was left on purpose

This only adds to the point above. There’s a strong implication that Sampo left this for the Trailblazer to find. You also get an achievement for finding this bubble called Confessions of the Mask which. That kinda says it all.

But now I have two questions, the first being how? It's not said explicitly, but in a conversation with Herta it's implied that Memory Bubbles are only made by Memokeepers. So, if this was left by Sampo, either he got a memokeeper to help him (extremely possible) or he has the power to do it himself (extremely interesting)

My second question is why? 

Why would he tell us? Why is he telling us in this indirect way? My guess is it has something to do with his mask. The conversation in the bubble mentions Penacony and Sparkle. So,this was probably around the time Sampo started planning to go to Penacony to get his mask. I discussed this with a friend, and she suggested it might even be some sort of warning, which is why it’s done with a memory bubble. 

That sort of reminds me of the recent event, where Sampo spills a lot about the Fools and the Tavern, information that you would only really know as a Fool, but said it in a way that implied he wasn’t a fool. That he heard it from somewhere else, someone else, not that he knew it first hand. I wonder if his mask is sort of.. Making him unstable? (He grew increasingly dark every day) And the 7 day event was another warning. Warning of who he might become when the mask fully takes hold and a warning to not become like him

3. The game/the Trailblazer’s thought recognizes that there are multiple mysterious things about Sampo

Maybe this isn’t as important as I’m making it out to be. After all, we all know something is very Off about Sampo. But the Trailblazer recognizing it feels significant to me. It feels like further confirmation that eventually we will unravel these mysteries. Eventually.

4. “When talking to one who wears a mask, always keep your wits about you.”

This. THIS. This statement has been driving me mad since I first saw it. When I read those words I immediately thought of the translated statement from Topaz’s trailer:

“One who is unaccountably solicitous is hiding evil intentions”

(if you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s one of my first posts)

The statements are not the same. But they feel so strongly similar, like they go hand in hand. Both are warnings. Both tell you to be careful about people who are not how they appear, people with masks and people who are falsely sincere. Both are talking about Sampo. Looking into this made me realize just how many times we've been warned about Sampo. Half of those times being Sampo himself

Something about it just makes my brain light up with possibilities and I feel like I keep pushing the statements together waiting for something to make sense and explain everything else, but I’ve yet to figure it out. So I’m left here just kind of going insane

But that’s all I have for now! Maybe someone else will have something

[joceannatenaya]

sketch…

I think so much about his childhood.

My head hurts from thinking (joke🥹🙏🏻)

[0w0rlordsyaptopia]

Imagine being me, wanting to create a discussion about a character you like but your main blog randomly gets shadowbanned for no reason.

So now people can't see your reblogs of your own theory post.

People who reblog it dont have their reblogs show up on the tags either.

I WANT TO EAT DRYWALL, THIS IS SO ANNOYING.

Anyways... I just wanted to inform people that I am here until my main blog is fixed by support (hopefully).

I also recorded the original post and reblogs to put it up there.

Let's try to add on to this post instead so it isn't like:

[q-theeccentric]

I've got a theory about why Sampo is so particular about enemies to "watch the face".

And it's not because he's a narcissist.

Sure, he may talk positively about himself, with all that "I take care of my friends", "I say what I mean and I mean what I say", and "Tall, Blue, and Handsome" thing going on, but what if he wants his face to be kept in tact so that when he goes into disguises, he wouldn't be caught?

Because if Sampo got a scar on his face and dressed up as Brughel Poisson, people would immediately recognize that both persons have that wound on the exact same spot, notice their other similarities, and put two and two together.

Therefore, Sampo being concerned for his handsome face may not only be related to this self-praise thing of his (which may also be an act to keep up a certain persona, but that's a theory for another day), it may also be because he wants to keep both of his identites a secret.

[redr0sewrites]

unpopular opinion but i really dont think that sampo and itto are super similar? i get they have some similarities but sampo is more intelligent and definitely has more con-man trickster type tendencies, and while itto can be a joking person i dont think he has as much malicious intent as sampo, like i genuinely dont see itto scamming someone or manipulating someone 😭 and im not saying that sampo is totally evil either, he does have his good sides and hes more morally grey than anything, but i feel like sampo is more tricky and sly comedic relief while itto is more of the type of comedic relief where he himself is the joke if that makes sense? to put it as simply as possible:

itto has more dumb but endearing himbo energy and is more happy-go-lucky, and is more of the comedic relief in the sense that ur laughing at him and just how overall goofy he is

sampo is more intelligent and a trickster type comic relief cuz he is just kinda morally grey but heroically aligned and u never expect what hes going to do next

theyre both just silly little sillies <3

[ooka-fez]

I wanna share a theory about the silly blue haired scammer boi

So… I do believe he’s an Emanator of Aha! There’s proof of it too! So as some of you know Sampo doesn’t get a rating from the rating gun Herta has! Acheron and Jing Yuan don’t get one either and they’re Emanator's! The only thing to disprove this gun being able to spot Emanator's is the fact that Herta gets 4 points! We know Herta is an emanator! What I’m thinking is it’s rating her puppet and not Herta herself! Another thing I’ve noticed is that all the Emanator's we’ve seen have grey or white hair. This doesn’t count for Herta since she’s using a puppet and not her true self. Jing yuan has white hair, Acheron has grey streaks, phantylia‘s hair was even white at one point! Sampo has white tips on his hair. Another thing! WARNING FOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

In some leaks someone shared, Aha gets 6 lines in game… I feel like those lines could be long lines to confirm if sampo is an emanator or not! Yet something else I’ve noticed is that Sparkle when added into a team with sampo calls him The Fool. I think this could be a code name for emanator! Also how does Sampo know where we go all the time? Either he’s on a mission assigned by Aha where he has to watch the Trailblazers or maybe he wants to learn more about the Aeon they follow. Finally we know as a fact that we will get a five star sampo… he asked sparkle for his mask meaning he isn’t full powered! Anyway… there’s more but I’m almost at school so I’ll share it all when I’m back!

[spark-circuit]

hello Emanator!Sampo theory enjoyers. is this anything.

[softringing]

There's always been a question that bugs me about sampo. Obviously, there are several, but this one specifically, has to do with his ideologies involving elation.

If sampo cares about people so much and desires to make everyone happy, why did he not take direct action in those 8 years he remained in belebog?

We all know sparkle said sampo has a line that he won't cross, and that line is very clearly not hurting people, well at least the ones who have already been hurt enough.

We see this from sampo's actions in the underworld vs overworld. For some reason, even tho sampo is a scammer and values money, he has never attempted to scam underworlders. In Hook's companion mission, hook's father had a rare mining item that was stolen by an npc named Skipper(?) I believe.

While Skipper was trying to sell this item to sampo, sampo kept insisting that he was selling it at such a low price. His direct words were "Are you sure you want to sell this at this price to me?"

And he kept hesitating until hook and tb found skipper and took the item back. We can see cleary that sampo means no harm to those who are weak but when he's in the overworld, he's known for scamming ppl like Chavez from Anti-Blue Scam Society without much remorse.

From all this, it's clear sampo has never done something to hurt anyone seriously, and to add to this, shields is the name for the belebog currency. Yet, in sampo's idle, we see him holding a different currency.

This pretty much implies that to sampo, belebogian currency would be useless. Although we know he's a scammer, we don't really know why he cares about money so much other than this text we got in game from him

Sampo seems personally tired of doing this :( but says that he has to to feed few mouths which we can take as him trying to help the ppl in the underworld with the money he 'earns'.

So, here we return to my initial question, why didn't sampo directly help ppl of belebog with their disaster if he has so much power?

He is hiding from a certain someone-- as mentioned by @/samposillies, in sampo's LC, the exact same currency he's holding is shown & his eidolon

(money model from @/kittykattz)

If u look really closely into his LC, you can see not only that it's from a POV of a sniper, but also another assasin behind sampo, holding a gun and wearing a foreign attire to belebog. The description also matches that someone's obviously trying to kill him, as told by the sniper himself.

At first, I assumed it was the ipc but their outfits lean towards red rather than plain black. Plus, although it looks like sampo isn't in belebog, there are two posters in the lc on the brick background and you can find these coffee posters in belebog at the location "Backwater pass".

But the thing is, sampo uses the non-belebogian currency (assumed to be Kalevalan currency) to convince the sniper to talk to him.

The lc's name is Eye of the Prey-- and although it's from sniper's POV, Sampo is clearly the Hunter, while the sniper is the prey.

This led me to think that someone from Kalevala is perhaps trying to kill sampo while he was in belebog, which is strange bc the world believed Jarilo-IV did not exist before the astral express saved them. Meaning that whoever is trying to kill sampo probably always knew about his whereabouts hence sampo decided to keep a low profile and decided to help underworlders in such a silent approach.

Not to mention, the currency sampo's holding doesn't have the usual hsr language on it (pointed out by @/samposillies)

(maybe it needs horizontal flipping ill check it later)

Therefore, we can assume sampo didn't help belebogians directly by bringing an end to the stelleron bc he's being chased by someone. and even tho sampo appears non-chalant or calm about it in his lc, maybe he just doesn't want that person to come and specifically show up in belebog.

We don't know why that person's trying to kill sampo but there are lots of reasons, just like the fact that sampo is LITERALLY the 'device' from Kalevala as referenced in his event. He CAN legit create ancient relics,

he laughs it off as a typo BUT HE CAN CLEARLY MAKE THESE RELICS!! GEPARD ALSO MENTIONS IN HIS LINES ABT HIM THAT HE SELLS A NUMBER OF ANCIENT RELICS!!

"ancient" MEANS OLDDD, like really old!! How can a normal person make such things?? Not to mention sampo can make his bombs and is immune to their poison and a MEMORY bubble (in autheirum wars), which had the description of being "abnormal or unusual"!! Only memokeepers can make memory bubbles, and herta has several of them in her space station. So he either stole one or knows how to make one himself!! Sampo also made those items in his pop-up shop event with some materials the tb brought so there's no doubt he's the object that's supposed to 'bring wealth'.

Or could it be that sampo is like Giovanni? He prefers natural endings rather than artificial ones? he's still a masked fool no matter how different his aesthetics are after all... LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU ALL THINK!!

Edit: Here's the flipped image of his money but I still can't read what it's supposed to mean and tried to google translate in Finnish but didn't. Work

[honeyflashbang]

My theory on Sampo's true identity...

(Minor Spoilers for 2.4) (also, I’m no expert in… anything, really, but these are just my ramblings).

So, this has probably been mentioned before, but I have a teeny-tiny theory about Sampo’s true identity, and it relates to Finnish mythology.

So, “Sampo” in and of itself doesn’t have a set meaning, but it has its roots in Finnish mythology, particularly the “Kalevala” which is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry. In it, a blacksmith god by the name of Seppo Ilmari(nen) forges the mythical device known as “The Sampo”. It’s never quite explained what The Sampo really is; some versions depict it as a mill, others as a cornucopia from which bountiful creations flow from, and some even have it as being a world tree/world pillar, so what The Sampo really is, isn’t entirely known. But, what is known, is that it brought riches and good fortune to its holder (again, the same as the cornucopia from Greek mythology).

But why am I mentioning all of this? Why bring up the Kalevala? It could be that Hoyo just chose the name “Sampo” for some flavour��befitting of a character who magics up relics from seemingly thin air and is trying to create riches—and yeah, it’s a possibility…

Until I saw these two screenshots from the 2.4 story:

You know what this means, right? 

Kalevala is a real planet in Hoyo’s Star Rail universe, and I find it awfully coincidental that they would use this name for a planet and not have it related to a certain blue haired conman, especially since The Sampo is such a pivotal element in the plot of the Kalevala—there is no way this is a coincidence (I refuse to believe it).

This leads me to believe that Kalevala is Sampo’s real home world, and is where he originates from.

Now, this is all well and good, knowing where “The Sampo” hails from, but I want to focus on its creator—Seppo Ilmari(nen)—and his parallels to a certain blue haired conman. For one, Ilmari(nen)��s name is quite interesting as the ‘Ilma’ part is Finnish for ‘air’ or ‘weather’, and as we know, Sampo’s element is that of ‘wind’ (And also the fact that Ilmari(nen) is credited as “Godlike smith-hero and creator of the sky”. I could go into a whole spiel about Ilmari(nen) and Qlipoth swinging their giant hammers in tandem together for all eternity (Go Sampard! Geppie is Qlipoth's true heir, you can't convince me otherwise!), but that’s for another conspiracy theory lol).

So, ‘Ilma’ means ‘air’, and Sampo wields ‘wind’.

Cool.

If the parallels ended there, I’d just say I was being crazy… but there’s more.

Sampo’s 4th (and arguably best) eidolon is called “The Deeper the Love, the Stronger the Hate”. Two out of his six eidolons refer to 'love', whilst the other 4 are to do with wealth and riches. The wealth and richest aspect leans towards The Sampo of mythology, whilst the ‘love’ aspect, well…

According to the story, Seppo Ilmari(nen) is the unluckiest bastard alive when it comes to love. Like, seriously. His whole storyline is that he can’t find a woman. For one, Seppo Ilmari(nen) is double crossed by his so called buddy, Väinämöinen, into creating The Sampo for the evil witch Louhi of Pohjola in exchange for her daughter’s hand in marriage (which, Ilmari didn’t even want in the beginning), but when the poor guy actually sees the daughter and falls in love with her (and subsequently creates the Sampo—after failing miserably a number of times, mind you—he creates a crossbow, a boat, a cow(wtf?) and a plough, all which are somehow either evil or flawed), she ups and just leaves him hanging! (in the original runes, however, he is successful in gaining a wife, as his ‘unlucky in love’ spiel was later added by Lönnrot in compiling the Kalevala).

As with any mythology and re-telling of it, there’s so many different versions of the same event. In “The Maiden of the North”, a 1898 opera written by Oskar Merikanto, both Ilmarinen and Väinämöinen compete for the chance to marry Louhi’s daughter, who is then mentioned as being “Ilmari(nen)’s first wife” and who later dies to Kullervo’s curse (apparently she was a bit of a bitch to Kullervo by taunting and tormenting the poor boy—who was a child slave mind you!). Distraught, Ilmari(nen) forges himself a wife of gold and silver, but he finds her to be too cold and callous—he forges her out of love but only finds hate—so he tries to gift her to Väinämöinen (who doesn’t want her either, lol), and suggests he cast her back into the furnace and to “forge from her a thousand trinkets”.

Here’s the accompanying poem:

Never, youths, however wretched,

Nor in future, upgrown heroes,

Whether you have large possessions,

Or are poor in your possessions,

In the course of all your lifetime,

While the golden moon is shining,

May you woo a golden woman,

Or distress yourselves for silver,

For the gleam of gold is freezing,

Only frost is breathed by silver.

It is apparently your standard Aesop’s fable of “money can’t buy happiness”, which is something else I see in our dear old Sampo Koski. During our time in Belobog, we see how different he acts with the Underworld and Overworlders. To the poor, he actually seems approachable (albeit a bit of a nuisance), going so far as to help the Underworlders (an example being the questline “Survival Wisdom” in which he and Peak set up a business together renting out his tools to help the miners make a decent wage to support their families). In contrast, we actively see Sampo being very hostile towards the Overworlders, scamming them and putting the nobles in their place or setting them up to be caught by the Silvermane Guards (an example being during the museum questline where you discover his identity as “Mr Cold Feet”. Sampo clearly states to who he thinks is his mark that ‘we are not friends’ in a very hostile manner, something which we’ve not seen from Sampo before as he is usually quite amicable). 

For all Sampo’s showboating and flashing his money around, he helps where it counts. He wants to make money, sure, but not at the detriment of the people who need it the most, only to those with excess.

Anyway, back to him being unlucky in love…

In another rune entitled “Kosinta”, Ilmari(nen) goes on a journey to compete for Hiisi’s daughter, and wins by completing various feats, one of them being “ploughing a field full of snakes”:

And as we know, Sampo is very heavy on the snake motifs (the head of the snake on his shoulders, the spine wrapped around him, the daggers are its fangs…etc.)

So that’s another interesting link between Seppo Ilmari(nen) and Sampo Koski.

So, why have I gone on this long winded tangent about Seppo Ilmari(nen) when I’m supposed to be talking about Sampo Koski?

Well, that’s because I think Sampo Koski’s real name is (or a variant of) Ilmarinen.

In the Hoyo universe, I believe Ilmarinen came from the planet Kalevala and ‘created’ the persona of Sampo Koski, much like how in the Kalevala, Seppo Ilmari(nen) forged The Sampo.

As I’ve listed above, there’s so many links between the two:

“Air” as a name and “Wind” as an element.

Seppo Ilmari(nen) ploughed a field of snakes to win Hiisi’s daughter’s hand in marriage, whilst Sampo Koski relies heavily on snake motifs for his attire.

Sampo’s two eidolon names that relate to love (which are completely different from the other 4 eidolon names), whilst Seppo Ilmari(nen) is known to be unlucky in love.

I’m pretty damn sure Sampo creates his own bombs and tinkers with the old relics to bring them back to life, whereas Seppo Ilmari(nen) is a smith who created the dome of the sky! They’re both artificers!

And now the revelation that a planet by the name of “Kalevala” exists is no mere coincidence.

So, either Sampo is Ilmari(nen) - or! - Sampo is a puppet (like Herta) created by someone called Ilmari(nen). 

(I would love if his 5* version is him with this name).

Right, I’m finished rambling. Gonna go huff some copium...

[notmxverick]

I'm not a theorist, just a rambler, but recently I've seen people compare Sampo's design to that one new Amphoreus enemy that strangely has similar stuff in design yet look hella different. Some people even believe this could be his 5* form.

On the other side, there are people that think this is not Sampo and rather just a regular enemy on Amphoreus. Like in the latest trailer you basically just see two enemies (one big one and one with those snake motives) that the upcoming characters are fighting against. This, honestly, could be just a showcase of what the enemies could look like on Amphoreus. Like Hoyoverse always puts at least some enemies in trailers.

Idk if I'm wrong but, I've seen some even call this enemy "grey snake" or something, if I remember correctly. Not sure if that is canon, but that's what I ever read😭

Honestly, there could be a possibility that it's really him, since the design is pretty snake like motives, like the mask and Sampo's shoulder pad. However, something is also telling me that it isn't him.

This reminds me of the time when we were comparing Moze and Sampo's design because it looked so similar. In the end there was nothing between them. I don't think if they even know each other.

But, I mean we're still waiting for his 5* character. There is no denying anymore that this is just a rumor. We will surely get this 5* form. But I don't think that grey snake enemy will be his 5* character.

Btw this was just me rambling. Like I said before, I'm not a theorist so I don't really have proof for anything but the stuff I have observed from others. Though, I am hella curious to what your opinions are or if y'all have even more proof for it.

[m-says-hi]

okay so i finished and processed the first day of the sampo event. and I have somethings to say.

I already talked about the words that flash buy when you create the product here

But the premise of this entire event feels... off to me. Sampo Koski, finding a way to make money... and yet he gives us all the cash? That doesn't feel like him. This entire thing screams scheme and it probably is. But it feels strangely out of character for him to do it so obvious with us

There's also a moment where he mentions the World's End Tavern. But not as if he's ever been there, but more... to make a point?

He uses it as an analogy. But he still talks about the tavern in an oddly intimate way for someone who, so far, seems to be pretending not to be a fool.

and then? If you talk to him afterwards? he says this

That is the most Masked Fools thing Sampo has ever said directly to the Trailblazer.

It's important to remember that even if we know Sampo is a Fool and the Trailblazer technically knows thanks to Masquerade Duet, it's unclear if he knows we know.

so it's strange to me that he's all of a sudden coming out here with Masked Fools like words and stories. It makes me wonder if it has anything to do with him getting his mask back.. since this is actually the first time he's talked to the trailblazer since then (as far as I'm aware?)

that's all I have but god i'm going insane and it's only the first day. and we're going to get six more days.

[joceannatenaya]

Well, when passing the sampo event, I noticed a detail. At the end, he was talking about the miller, referring to himself. this is a reference to kalevala, because in the sampo epic itself it is melinitsa. It's kind of easy, don't you think? I still think he's Ilmarinen

[0w0rlordsyaptopia]

I have a huge post in my notes app about Sampo theories but I wanna like finish the hi3 event first so I don't miss anything.

[q-theeccentric]

i know aventurine has taken over this blog

BUT we can't forget about what sparkle said about sampo needing his fool's mask.

something coming to belobog?? bigger than the fragmentum disasters?? are they bigger because sampo needs his mask ??? chat is this real ????

[glytchedmuffins]

Something I noticed about most "Sampo is an Emanator of Elation" theories/takes is that they tend to be very angsty.

Which is valid, I know people like their angst, and with how... unstable, Aha is, and considering what little we do know about THEIR Emanators, it's indeed very plausible.

But personally, I think Sampo not giving two shits about being an Emanator is far funnier.

Like, Aha blessed him, most likely via his mask, and Sampo was like "neat" and then proceeded to never use his powers.

For the simple reason that it takes the joy out of everything. Doing things on his own the hard way without divine powers makes things so much more fun! So why should he use these powers, it would be like cheating! And Sampo is a fair and honorable guy, after all.

It's also why he didn't bother getting his mask back from Sparkle before, and why he only does so now that Jarilo VI is in danger, because he kinda actually needs it now.

I also think Aha would find it all very hilarious, especially if Sampo tends to forget he even is an Emanator most of the time.

Would probably put on an act when Sampo gets his mask back about how "cruel" Sampo is for forgetting all about THEM and only coming back when he needs something. How could Aha's own Emanator treat them this way? Truly such a tragedy!