Alhaitham is King Deshret megapost
Genshin Impact Lore / Speculation
I’m fairly certain that Alhaitham is either King Deshret reincarnated or is related to him in another way. There’s plenty of visual and lore evidence to back this up, hence I decided to compile it into this post. Note that I didn't include the latest content from 3.4 as I didn't familiarize myself with the new lore. This is a copy of my twitter thread.
This post is by no means 100% complete, since I couldn’t find all of it myself and I will be adding more once other evidence is presented. Feel free to send me more lore and visual hints via DMs and replies and I will add them to the thread. And if you have your own theories, please discuss them in the replies or rb with your own thoughts.
Part 1: Visual Evidence
A bit of storytime.
I’ve been familiar with the King Deshret theory a while back, but I wasn’t 100% convinced back then. However, during my time exploring the Mausoleum of King Deshret I encountered this. Notice the symbol on the ceiling, looking like the symbol on Alhaitham’s chest.
That’s when I stopped having doubts.
After looking closer, I’ve noticed many other design choices from Alhaitham’s appearance to motives of King Deshret’s civilization. I will list them below, note however, that this isn’t all of them, because I’ve only selected the most important ones, despite there being dozens of smaller ones, for the sake of making this post as concise as possible.
Motive of a blue eye
Symbol on Alhaitham's chest, motive of feathers
Motive on his boots
Motive oh a hawk
There were many statues of hawk like creatures, possibly being the statues of Deshret himself. It's also notable that Alhaitham means "young hawk" or "young eagle" in arabic. There's also a lot of other bird motives which I might list later, if you'd like.
Okay, but all of the above is just clothing and coincidences, isn’t it? These things could be attributed to him being a Haravatat member, and his interest in ancient scripts (so history and culture too) of King Deshret, no?
Ignoring the fact that Haravatat mainly focuses on linguistics, whereas it’s Vahumana that focuses on history and culture, there are other visual clues to suggest that Alhaitham isn’t who he seems.
This gem, however weird it might be, doesn’t seem to be a part of his clothing, given that it’s detached from it. Instead, it looks like it’s a part of his body. Despite the color change (more on that later) it’s suspiciously similar to these symbols.
This likeness of King Deshret also conspicuously has a gem in the chest area. The gem also is highlighted, meaning it’s probably important.
This isn’t even subtle.
While weird pupils are not uncommon for Sumeru’s playable characters, Alhaitham’s eyes are a direct copy of King Deshret’s likeness from the cutscene. The choice of blue/green iris combined with an orange pupil is peculiar, because nowhere in the game do we see such different colors just clash with each other. This choice was deliberate and I believe it’s hyv giving us a hint.
Part 2: Lore evidence
There is also some evidence in the lore of both characters.
But first, a little bit of Honkai lore.
This won’t be long, because I’m not as familiar with Honkai lore. Most of my research here is based on what I found from the internet and wiki and not the original source material. However, it’s important to mention it, because Alhaitham is a Su expy and some more concrete evidence is found in Su’s lore.
Su, in Honkai universe, is a leader of Project Valuka. This name doesn’t sound familiar at first, until you remember the Aranara questline.
“Valuka” is Aranara speech for the desert, and the ruler of Valuka is none other than King Deshret.
If Alhaitham is a Su expy and Su has a lot in common with King Deshret, then the parallel between these characters seem more than just neat design choices.
However, it gets even more interesting. Because Su from Honkai prior to the game’s events “had imprisoned himself in the Seed of Sumeru as an act of redemption” - (direct quote from the wiki).
Which smoothly brings me to my next point, which is:
Part 3: The why - how is it even relevant?
Okay, so they are similar in their design. But does that mean they’re actually the same person? And how is it relevant?
Well, it brings the personality of both in another perspective.
If you’re unfamiliar with King Deshret’s lore, here’s a quick recap of the most relevant points.
King Deshret was one of the three rulers of Sumeru with Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and Goddess of Flowers. He was also deeply in love with the Goddess of Flowers and she was aware of his affections. He was proud and foolish. After the archon war ended was offered a gnosis by the Celestia, but he declined.
One day, he told her what his greatest dream was. Though unspecified, his dream involved rebelling against the divine. Despite her warning, he insisted she showed him “all there is to know about the skies and the abyss”. As a result of this ritual she perished, though King Deshret was unaware she did it intentionally.
After her passing, King Deshret was unable to move on and his sorrow drove him to madness. He created an utopia, which was supposed to be “free of worry, schemes and slavery”. He either created it to eradicate forbidden knowledge, but failed, or he tried to create an utopia and caused the forbidden knowledge to spread (more likely according to “The Lay of Al-Ahmar. Note that the validity of this book isn’t determined). Whatever the case might be, the result was that countless of his people died that very night.
After the leakage of forbidden knowledge, King Deshret and Rukkhadevata joined efforts to get rid of it. In order to do that King Deshret sacrificed himself and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata used most of her powers.
You might have noticed that these two characters, despite few similarities, are completely different from one another. One is cautious and reserved, and another is foolish, ignorant and sentimental. So, here’s my theory.
I believe that Alhaitham is King Deshret’s reincarnation, but without his memories. Not only that, but in my opinion the difference in their personalities seems intentional. Whether it was King Deshret’s reflection upon himself or Alhaitham’s own choices, it looks like Alhaitham purposely avoids acting like Deshret.
Deshret doesn’t think before he acts - Alhaitham’s demo trailer is literally called “Think before you act”. Deshret becomes a king and destroys his own kingdom - Alhaitham avoids situations in which he’d be placed as a leader, saying he’s not good in this role.
It could be King Deshret’s or Rukkhadevata’s design (more on that later) or Alhaitham’s conclusion based on his research in King Deshret’s legacy. It’s possible he’s even aware or suspects his own relation to him, as he’s very intelligent.
Part 4: The how- Is it even possible?
In short, yes. There are many hints towards the possibilities of reincarnation in the story. This might be simply another samsara or a more direct intervention, for example of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
Nahida, being Rukkhadevata in the next samsara is just the beginning. In the Aranara questline, the Aranara say that death is just a loss of memories. Next we have Flower of Paradise Lost artifact set, in which it is said "Those who bloom like flowers, die like flowers, and rise again with the seasons like flowers can never be troubled by the likes of 'death.’” (these are the words of the Goddess of Flowers, perhaps about herself, but I can’t say that for sure).
Staff of the Scarlet Sands polearm description says: “Fear and grief must be torn down, and so the barrier between life and death must be removed”. (This is about him building his own utopia, mentioned previously).
Even if those interpreted individually mean different things, having so many mentions of rebirth is certainly worth taking into account. But how did King Deshret in particular get reincarnated?
Notice, how in this cutscene, King Deshret is removed to a single crystal, before disappearing. It appears as purple at first, but then changes color to a greenish blue.
Very similar in fact, to another gem.
In my opinion, this is Deshret’s soul - an empty husk without his memories. Why does it appear green in Alhaitham’s chest? Well, I think it was the Greater Lord who rescued him. Using her power of life she gave him another chance. It could have happend in another way, but I find it the most plausible.
Either way, regardless of the means, we can’t rule out reincarnation as a possibility.
Part 5: Conclusion
Keep in mind that this evidence isn’t directly stating that Alhaitham is King Deshret. Other than his eyes being the exact copy of King Deshret’s image (which usually would imply the same soul/identity), all this evidence is pointing out to them having a relation, not necessarily being the same person.
With that said, I am fairly convinced on that being the case. I encourage you to discuss it in the reblogs and share any interesting evidence you’ve found.
