a short recap/analysis of 'the pale princess and the six pygmies'
i've been re-reading the in-game books and i'd like to remind you of / introduce you to the wonderful anomaly that is 'the pale princess and the six pygmies'!
it's the book that an abyss mage is trying to steal during lisa's quest (which is not optional!), claiming it held an important secret relevant to the abyss order; at first, everyone was kinda confused by it: why are they looking for a/that specific fairytale? yes, it could be real, but what's so special about it? WELL, after this most recent (3.3) archon quest we know why - fairytales can survive irminsul memory erasure!! so the story in this book is highly likely to be one of those parables like the one nahida tells
the first (and only available) volume provides a character description: the Night Mother (with no heart and no mouth, sin incarnate) who rules over the Land of Night and the Pale Princess who rules over the Moonlight Forest (where pale, blonde, blue-eyed people lived)
the previews for the other volumes introduce the other characters:
the Light Prince and the Six Pygmies. the former teams up with the Pale Princess to "*save* the Moonlight Forest". the pair then meets the six pygmies. however, the subsequent volumes insinuate that the pygmies are the antagonists/traitors - vol 5 describes the pygmies' plot as "sinister", and vol 6 describes their plot as "nefarious". this is a far cry from snow white and the 7 dwarves which the title seems to parallel (the dwarves weren't generally evil)
nevertheless, the "meeting" between the princess, prince and pygmies (vol. 4) seems to indicate an attempt at a truce. the last volume (vol 7) is just said to include the Night Mother's prophecy (which is most likely the main part relevant to the abyss order)
NOW, there are so SO many analyses (and i'll cover some), but before I do I would like to point something out:
the fact that so many stories from vastly different periods could somehow fit this one story outline is VERY interesting, especially given the new context provided by the samsara quest, and the idea that "in this world, everything runs in a loop"
could this be the tale of the overall loop of teyvat?
anyways, i'll cover the following analyses in more or less detail:
note on abbreviations: NM - the Night Mother, PP - the Pale Princess, LP - the Light Prince, 6P - the Six Pygmies, MF -the Moonlight Forest
NM - celestia*, PP - gold, 6P - archons, LP - ?albedo/dain/7th pygmy, MF - khaenriah
the Night Mother could be symbolizing Celestia. the best piece of evidence for this would be the quote "her punishments were always unexpected", which could be alluding to the celestial nails (at the same time, after a few of them you'd think they'd be more expected lol just don't make progress and try to know more than you should, and you should be good, ok? /j)
also! it has not been said that the night mother doesn't have eyes (unlike a mouth and a heart), which is interesting because visions have been described as "the heavens' eyes" by nahida
it is then possible that the moonlight forest could be Khaenri'ah. some evidence:
not ruled by the night mother (Khaenri'ah was said to be a goddless nation ruled by the people)
there was a "constant lack of sunlight" (Khaenri'ah was underground)
additionally, the following quote:
"The only thing she could not bear was the occasional ray of moonlight that made it through the clouds. The light that penetrated the walls of darkness always irritated her."
that light could represent human achievement / progress / arrogation, which we have repeatedly seen irks Celestia (most prominently in the case of Orobashi and Khaenri'ah)
this would make the Pale Princess someone like rhinedottir/gold, a.k.a. albedo's creator, as a master of the Art of Khemia and Alchemy (which has been shown to possess the ability to create life)
the Light Prince would then be someone who would be willing to help save Khaenriah, like dain or pierro or albedo (aether could also fit the description, especially after the most recent archon quest, but this wouldn't work for lumine so i'll discard it for the time being); alternatively it could be another Khaenrian (the king) or the 7th pygmy, but that means it would have to be either Venti or Zhongli (the only two male archons)
2. (the current-ish events) NM - ?; PP - 7th pygmy (tsaritsa?); LP - a khaenrian (pierro?); 6P - archons; MF - a nation (snezhnaya?)
the trouble here is the NM, bc Celestia does rule over the tsaritsa, so MF would be a part of the land of night, and i currently don't have an alternative
3. for the distant past it could be telling the story of the second who came and the seelie demise, and the seelies definitely match the description of the "light" inhabitants as well, so the LP could be the "master of the heavens" and the 6P would be the second who came (for some more "fall of the seelies" lore, please refer to this artifact set)
note that the analyses also heavily depend on how you answer the following questions:
are the Six Pygmies under the Night Mother's or the Pale Princess' juristiction, or are they independent entities? if so, which land are they native to?
is the light prince an inhabitant of the moonlight forest?
so, yeah, much to think about! (i also wanted to include a cross-referential analysis of the Night Mother/Pale Princess and Nottfriga/Madgalene from Hex & Hound, but dw we'll leave that for another day lol)
and that's a wrap!! that was a lot, and if you made it all the way here kudos to you, thanks for reading - here's a flower!
do let me know of any mistakes i made or any alternative analyses you enjoy!
[ more on my twitter @glazelilybloom ]
