SO THERE’S THIS OCEAN OF BLOOD

not a photogenic guy. I spent way too long on this. But I like the idea of him having whale things around

Who's to say Astral isnt one either?

See, all we know about Astral came from Eliphas. Eliphas is proven to be an unreliable narrator, as his words on chaos, not that i can fully recall them, were incorrect. Therefore we can view everything Eliphas says up until his defeat with a pinch of salt. Astral is also an unreliable narrator; his views were heavily, if not entirely, influenced by Eliphas, his memory was fractured for the longest time, and he even couldn't tell whether the zexal morph he saw in his mind was the past or future (of course this implies he also can have future visions which explains a lot about Yuma's dreams-)

And so we can't believe Eliphas or Astral about him.

If I recall correctly, Astral World was where people who had achieved... something, would be reborn after moving on from the human world. The Emperors of Barian World meanwhile were deliberately cursed and taken into Barian World by Don.

Now, the link between Astral and the Emperors is that they are all the most powerful of their respective worlds, as well as all having Numbers. Astral, in particular, had Numbers which had memories of the Barian's human lives. Now, I'm not sure if Don had to do with this or not, but if it isn't Don... then Astral at some point must have known the Barians in the human world.

Why in the human world specifically? Because that's the only way he could have have had direct memories of the events, as he saw them as memories and not a narration or vision, just memories. Eliphas wouldn't have told him about them either, I doubt Eliphas knew about them himself. The only way he could have known is if he was there experiencing it for himself.

Now, obviously we didn't actually see Astral in any of these memories, however all the Barians were alive at the same time period, I think anyway, and all had great reputations. Anyone alive in the right place at the right time would have known about at least one of them. If they travelled, they could potentially have experienced all the Barian's stories or have heard of them directly from others. And so, Astral's memories of the Barian's stories could be from him either experiencing the events as a bystander, or being told about them by travellers or being a traveller.

If we squint even more, we can infer that perhaps he, just slightly ironically, is originally from Vector's kingdom, and maybe even was from the palace. I may be misremembering but I believe he had memories of Vector's past life. Vector. Vector whose backstory would have been secret to everyone else. The events that traumatised him were very much private. The only ones who could have known were those of the palace (and Don-I think)

In fact, Astral may have even been one of Vector's surviving servants. Because Vector actively went around the world killing people. I don't know if he came into contact with Alito and Girag or Mizar, but he definitely fought Nasch, Marin (my beloved), and Dumon. When invading a territory, you would first have to scout the enemy out, and maybe Astral was that scout.

Regardless, for Astral to have access to that private information, he must have been alive at the time the events occured. And so it's incredibly likely he is an actual ghost of someone who was once among the barians.

Another thing we can point out is why him? Why is he the one who is Astral World's weapon?

Because the thing is, even at the start Astral did actually have personality traits, which seem robotic compared to his later self, and are also negative. He's stubborn, sarcastic (although that may just be a Yuma-induced thing- that level of pettiness is especially Sibling), selfish, and a coward. The fact that he's selfish and cowardly is most important. Why would Eliphas design a weapon who refuses to take a single risk? The only time Astral really gambles before episode 17-18 (i think) with the fortune teller weirdo was episode 8, and in that case he had a personal reason involved. Even if he had a heavy sense of duty, how would Eliphas know it would be enough for him to try win?

Additionally, in the case of Nelson, Astral had to be convinced by Yuma. That doesn't seem like a good choice for a weapon, does it? Astral's main priority early on was his own safety, and sure it was to ensure he could complete his mission, but how do we know that if back then he had to pick between himself and his mission he would actually chose the mission? His self sacrificing nature is active regarding people he cares about. Now, we know Astral, in the end, would do it. But it's not what we know, it's what Eliphas would think. Would he actually consider that to be a design flaw? Most probably.

In fact, if he designed Astral I believe Astral would have been totally blank from the start, and entirely robotic, and even more focused on the mission. He wouldn't be curious at the world he's in. He wouldn't have relied on Yuma as much as he did. He wouldn't have been lonely. His refusal to aid Yuma in that duel against the fortune teller wouldn't have been because he was scared but because it had no relevance to the mission. He wouldn't have feared Kite, he would have seen him as a huge obstacle to remove. All those moments of character wouldn't have existed, because if we reason from Eliphas's pov, they would all have been flaws.

And yet he's the weapon. How?

Because he must have been chosen instead of designed, reincarnated instead of created.

Astral also has lots of good qualities, we know this. While I think courage isn't natural to him and may come from encouragement, the characteristics that would make him powerful as a weapon are his intelligence (which is pretty high, even if his fears can shake it), his strategic mind, and his ability to endure things despite being scared. Sure, he won't directly face an opponent he's scared of, but he will tolerate horrible situations. Not to mention, he seems to have some natural power of his own, and along with these qualities he's also young, therefore easier to control than an adult would. So while he's got the mental skill of an adult, everything else is still very much of a child's. And easy to control. So while not perfect, it's as near as you can get when picking someone for Astral's job, and so Astral must have been picked rather than created.

Also let's not forget his name, 'Astral'. I've gone on for too long and I'm hungry, so I'm not going into too much detail, but the simple way to put it is that it sounds like a name you would give someone picked to serve the world; it sounds like a codename.