so a set of 24 postcards might be a little too ambitious, esp since i want to do more fandoms than just genshin…i’ll set it at 12 for now, but if there’s demand for more i’ll see where it goes from there
nod krai and snezhnaya are NOT only based off russia please y’all i’m gonna lose my fucking mind
the slavics / baltics in nod krai:
“kyryll chudomirovich” (flins) is bulgarian, he’s based off a bulgarian painter from what i’ve seen and his name is an amalgamation of english words translating broadly to “miracle peacekeeper”.
lauma is based off the woodland spirit in latvian/lithuanian mythology of the lauma (laumé), from her deer appearance and love of nature it seems she’s based slightly more off the lithuanian characterisation—since in the latvian version she’s an assistant in birth and takes on the role as a spiritual foster mother to children who have lost their mothers.
“jahoda” is directly slavic, in czech and slovak, jahoda means “strawberry” and in polish, it means berry in general. it’s also just a fairly common surname in czechia, slovakia, and poland. and fun fact, berries were quite often given as gifts/offerings to our forest spirits (leshy/lesní muži) or as part of midsummer traditions!
varka’s name is confusing because it has multiple roots and varied meanings. in russian it means boiling / brewing / cooking, but it could also be a nickname from varvara (slavic form of barbara) which i actually find fucking hilarious so i’m taking that as canon.
if you cared even the slightest about the accuracies of culture in natlan and sumeru and went out of your way to complain or change it in your personal art/writing, i hope you share the exact same energy for slavic/baltic countries. our cultures are already stolen and belittled to nothing but either inferior to or adjacent to russian, we deserve our own identities and cultures to shine without it being related to the one country in eastern europe you know.
others:
the name “nicole” is common everywhere in europe and i don’t know enough about the character to understand if it’s just the general name or a deeper root. but you can’t go to poland and not find at least six women in the span of a few feet named nicole xD
aino’s name originates in finnland (like actually quite a few terms that i’ve seen pop up in nod krai), the name translates to “only one" or "unique", and it originates from finnish mythology, popularized by the national epic, the kalevala.
nefer is unrelated to any slavic or baltic mythology, her name is taken from nefertiti to mean “beautiful”.
columbina’s name (like the other harbingers) is based off a character in the italian “commedia dell’arte”, where columbina is the clever maidservant. her name also translates to “little dove.”
there’s more to the east than russia, china, japan and korea 📍
