Honkai: Nexus Anima Animaster Guide: All Characters
Meet the Animasters of Honkai: Nexus Anima: what Sovereigns and Novarchs are, who runs Iia, and which characters matter most in the Evolution Test.
By Nexus Anima Hub
Animasters are the characters of Honkai: Nexus Anima: the people who bond with and command Anima. The current roster tracks 19 Animasters, spanning ordinary townsfolk, faction leaders in the starting town of Iia, and legendary Sovereigns and Novarchs out of the game’s deep lore. Here is the short version: the Animasters running Iia matter most for the early Evolution Test story, while the Sovereign and Novarch names are your window into the wider world. This guide sorts who’s who and who to care about first. For the full profiles, browse the Animaster roster.
Note: the game is in closed beta (the Evolution Test), so the roster below is a snapshot. Nine Animasters are confirmed, four have details pending, and six are upcoming, so expect names and roles to fill in as reveals continue. Anything marked unconfirmed may shift before launch.
Key takeaways
- 19 Animasters are tracked so far: 9 confirmed, 4 with details pending, and 6 upcoming.
- The Iia locals matter first. Olympia, Kiana, Nanafey, and Hua drive the opening Evolution Test beats you actually play through.
- Sovereigns and Novarchs are the lore tier. Their titles read as a number plus an era, and their domains match the Aspects your Anima are built on.
- Many Novarchs used to be Sovereigns. The two titles belong to different eras, split by the Sundering, and some characters carried both.
- Animasters are characters, not dex entries. You do not catch them; they model the same Animaster-Anima bond you build yourself.
- Do not over-plan the upcoming six. Let the reveal cadence catch up before building expectations around them.
What an Animaster actually is
An Animaster bonds with Anima and leads them, the trainer-companion role at the heart of the game. That is the same thing you do as a player, which is the point: the cast is a mirror of your own loop. When you raise an Anima and fight alongside it, you are doing on a small scale what these characters do across the story.
Many Animasters are defined by a signature Anima. Olympia is paired with Noctumbra, and Hungrille with Chowpownd. Others are defined less by a single companion than by their place in the world’s power structure, as former rulers or current ones.
That split, personal bond versus institutional rank, is the fastest way to read the roster. Some Animasters you meet as people in a town. Others you meet as titles out of the history books. The bond guide covers how the Animaster-Anima relationship maps onto your own team, and it is worth reading alongside this one if you want the mechanical side of that connection.
It also matters for how you use this roster. You do not recruit Animasters the way you catch Anima, so there is no “which Animaster should I pull” question to answer. They are the cast, not the collection. What they give you is context: a signature Anima tells you which creature the story treats as iconic, and a rank tells you where a character sits in the wider power structure. When you are deciding what to actually build, that work happens in the Anima dex and the team builder, not here.
Sovereigns and Novarchs: the legendary tier
The heavy hitters of the roster come straight out of the lore: the old order of Sovereigns and the current rulers of the Planes, the Novarchs. Their domains are the same conceptual dualities your Anima’s Aspects are built on, so this tier doubles as a lore key for the systems you build teams around.
Sovereigns are the pre-Sundering order. Each mastered a paired concept, a duality like Reality and Illusion or Love and Hate. Novarchs are the current rulers of the 81 Planes. The crucial detail is that these are different eras, not different people: several Novarchs were once Sovereigns, which is why a single character can carry two numbered titles.
The paired-concept framing is worth sitting with, because it explains why the roster’s domains come in opposites. A Sovereign of Love and Hate held both halves of one duality. When that order broke, the current Novarch tier tends to hold a single side instead: Parayaya now rules Hate specifically, not the old Love-and-Hate pair. Armand is the clearest case of the overlap, listed as both the 8th Sovereign and the 17th Novarch of Darkness, mastering Light and Dark. Reading a title as “which half, which era” is usually enough to place a character before you know their full story.
| Animaster | Title | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| Kumyo Kyo | The 4th Sovereign | Reality & Illusion |
| Armand | The 8th Sovereign, 17th Novarch of Darkness | Light & Dark |
| Parayaya | The 29th Novarch (former 14th Sovereign) | Love & Hate |
| Bai Mei | The 8th Novarch of Reality | Reality |
| Prabhas | The 16th Novarch, the Sunfire Monk | Light |
| Hungrille | The Novarch of Satiation | Satiation |
| Blade | The 22nd Novarch, a Phoenixbreaker | The Peak |
| Sir Champion | The 34th Novarch (former Sovereign) | Competition & Cooperation |
Kumyo Kyo, the 4th Sovereign, sealed the World-Ender and then vanished.
The World-Ender thread
Two of these anchor the central plot. Kumyo Kyo sealed the World-Ender and then vanished, and that disappearance hangs over the setting. Blade, the 22nd Novarch and master of the Plane called The Peak, is a Phoenixbreaker searching for the missing 11th Sovereign. Parayaya, once the 14th Sovereign of Love and Hate and now the 29th Novarch of Hate, is a Phoenixbreaker too.
If a character’s title reads like a number and an era (“the 8th Sovereign,” “the 29th Novarch”), you are looking at this tier. See the lore primer for how Sovereigns became Novarchs, and the aspect synergy guide for how those same paired concepts turn into team-building levers.
The Iia locals: who you actually meet first
The Evolution Test opens in the town of Iia, and its day-to-day cast is who you will spend the most time with early on. These are the Animasters you meet as people, not as titles, and they carry the opening story.
- Olympia is Acting Director of the True Nexus Syndicate’s Iia branch, decisive and quick to reorganize the local office. Her Anima is Noctumbra.
- Kiana is a Planestrider who handles Anima corrupted by Aspect contamination, working on behalf of the Committee for a Joyful Iia.
- Nanafey is an ordinary student who becomes an early ally, debuting in the Evolution Test.
- Hua is a passionate young Animaster you meet in the same early stretch.
- Deputy Arena Masters Cassio Rollex and Maple Manybell staff Iia’s competitive scene.
You meet ordinary Animasters like the student Nanafey first, before the legendary tier.
Kiana’s job, cleaning up Anima corrupted by Aspect contamination, is a useful hook: it ties the town’s problems directly to the same Aspect system that governs your teams. The corruption is a story problem for her and a synergy axis for you.
Four of these six are confirmed; Nanafey and Hua sit in the details-pending group along with the two Deputy Arena Masters, so expect their profiles to fill in. For where these characters and locations sit on the map, see the exploration guide.
The Arena and the competitive scene
Iia’s competitive circuit gives you a second cluster of Animasters worth knowing. The Arena is run by Jalily Belau, the Arena Master, currently flagged as an upcoming reveal. Under that role, the two Deputy Arena Masters, Cassio Rollex and Maple Manybell, staff the day-to-day scene and sit in the details-pending group.
The Arena matters because it is where the auto-chess formation loop lives in the fiction. The same formation and Aspect synergy decisions you make in the team builder are what these characters oversee in-world. If you want a sense of how competition is framed as a concept rather than just a game mode, Sir Champion, the 34th Novarch of Competition (formerly a Sovereign of Competition and Cooperation), is the lore anchor for it.
That gives Competition a rare double presence: a deep Aspect on the roster and a named Novarch who personifies it. If you plan to build around it, the aspect synergy guide covers the mechanical side.
Institutions and the upcoming cast
Six Animasters are flagged upcoming, and most of them fill out the world’s institutions rather than the town’s daily life. Treat these as future arrivals, not characters to plan around today.
| Animaster | Role | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Herocrates | The Nexus Association’s “Professor,” leads its Scientific Research and Public Welfare departments | Upcoming |
| Shilian | A revered Planar Geography teacher at Montemar Academy | Upcoming |
| Otto | A young obliviasis researcher chasing a cure | Upcoming |
| Jalily Belau | The Arena Master of Iia’s Arena | Upcoming |
| Sir Champion | The 34th Novarch of Competition | Upcoming |
| Breadhead | Currently exclusive to the tutorial | Upcoming |
A few of these hint at systems the beta has not fully shown. Otto is chasing a cure for obliviasis, which points at a condition the story treats as a real threat, and Herocrates leading both research and public welfare suggests the Nexus Association is a significant institution. Shilian teaching Planar Geography at Montemar Academy ties into the 81 Planes structure the lore primer lays out. None of this is worth planning a roster around yet, but it tells you where the world is likely to expand.
How to read a new Animaster reveal
When a new Animaster appears in the Evolution Test, three quick checks place them without needing the full lore.
- Read the title. A number plus “Sovereign” or “Novarch” means the legendary tier and a concept domain. A job title (student, teacher, Deputy Arena Master) means a local or institutional character.
- Note the signature Anima, if any. A named companion, like Olympia’s Noctumbra or Hungrille’s Chowpownd, is a strong signal of who the character is built around. Cross-check it in the Anima dex.
- Check the status flag. Confirmed characters have real profiles now; details-pending and upcoming ones will fill in. Do not build expectations on an upcoming name.
This is also the fastest way to tell story-relevant characters from lore-relevant ones. The Iia locals move the plot you play; the Sovereigns and Novarchs frame the world that plot sits in.
Which Animasters to prioritize
- For the early story, follow the Iia locals. Olympia, Kiana, Nanafey, and Hua drive the opening beats of the Evolution Test, so they are who you will engage with first.
- For lore and long-term investment, watch the Sovereign/Novarch tier. Kumyo Kyo, Parayaya, and the Phoenixbreakers carry the World-Ender plot that the whole game hangs on.
- Do not over-plan the upcoming cast. Six Animasters are not fully revealed; let the reveal cadence catch up before building expectations around them.
If you are brand new, pair this with the beginner progression guide for the order things unlock, and the reroll guide for your first big Anima decisions. Neither depends on knowing the cast, but both read better once you do.
Bottom line
Animasters are the trainers and rulers of Honkai: Nexus Anima, 19 tracked so far, split between the Iia locals you meet early and the Sovereign and Novarch legends who carry the lore. Follow Olympia, Kiana, and the town cast through the Evolution Test’s opening, and read the lore primer to place the Sovereigns and Novarchs. When you are ready to sign up for the beta itself, the Evolution Test sign-up guide and the Evolution Test FAQ cover the details. Browse every profile on the Animaster roster.