The Potioneer, the old man and the Researcher
Just some observations but…
I think that Xiangjun's grandfather, the herb gatherer of Qiaoying, could be Bravais or at least be a parallel for him and the Potioneer of Dryas Woods because there's some interesting things here that are worth looking at !
To begin, the Potioneer and the Grandfather share some common points, they both live secluded (Dryas Woods and Northeast of Qiaoying), create remedies, are dead (or “dissolved”) and the apparition of blue flowers followed their disappearance. Obviously they are not the same person, only similar, should I add that the Potioneer was a young man and that the grandfather is, well…Old enough to deserve this title ?
Oncle Luo tells us that the Grandfather is from a foreign land, the closest to Qiaoying village being Fontaine. I wanted to see if Bravais could be this old man, since that's where he is from. Both of them are taking care of or protecting a plant, the old man with his Xiangjun and Bravais with the mysterious animal/plant creature he received. Oncle Luo also tells us that the herb gatherer died three years ago after being attacked by monsters while trying to get the sacred water, he was then buried by the villagers.
Close to Desnos (the coffee guy) in the Research Institute's ruins we can find documents, one mentioning that construction workers found an “undocumented human-excavated tunnel” leading to the deceased Senior Researcher Bravais’ private lab, but without any explanation about his death.It seems that nothing can really contradict the idea that they could be the same person, but then what was Bravais doing in Liyue ? He retired like Bossuet did in Petrichor ? And then where did his interest for Arkhium and research go ?An interest for plants and pharmaceutical stuff is more similar to the Potioneer’s activities before his disappearance.
Since the grandfather reminds me of Bravais, I also thought about the possible similarity shared by Xiangjun and the researcher’s “biological samples” of that strange plant. They are both similar to a plant but at the same time, like an animal (or rather human, in Xiangjun's case).
However, the grandfather acts in a different way towards his “granddaughter”, like a family, compared to Bravais when he got the “biological samples” from who knows who. After all Bravais is a scientist, only taking care and observing the growth and behavior of his subject, when he realizes that further experimentation is pointless he decides to stop feeding it at once. So he does not seem to have any attachment to the plant, he was also ready to give it to “that person” living in Dryas Woods.It still needs to be verified but as far as I remember we can only find those Xiangjun flowers in the Grandfather’s yard and around the solitary Suanni boss. Maybe there's a deeper link between these flowers and the adeptus? Like for the fact that we can find the Soulscent Bloom artifact in the yard…So, what specific thing is required for these plants to grow?
After Doing some quick research I found a real flower called “dryas octopetala” that looks kinda like the Xiangjun flowers to me, but in white ?
There's something else that I find rather interesting, the Potioneer is like another Narcisse (with Narzissenkreuz) in Genshin, the man disappeared in the waters, only leaving a flower behind. But Xiangjun seems to be a sort of opposite, or the two at once : a human flower.
In all these stories water plays an important part. We have the “blessed waters”/Xuanlian sacred water that the herb gatherer tried to bring back to Qiaoying. Of course it reminds me of the “pure water” invented by the Potioneer. So here we have two kinds of water with miraculous properties that can give “purity” to the plants that are watered with it or have something to do with consciousness.
But from this point there's also the Amrita that is important ! (What's going on with God's remains?) I'm not gonna retell the whole story but from this, Rukkhadevata made the Havisptokhm (the tree) grow to anchor Egeria’s consciousness to the mortal realm. Do what you want with these informations because I'm losing myself.
Anyway what tf was the meaning of that Villains Quest ? Simple references to the Narzissenkreuz ? What is Celestia doing hanging in the sky ? Who are Blanche’s parents ? Does this foreshadow something for our dear Childe ? Why is he the bus driver now?
A wise man (Tricky Bulle Fruit) once said : “Dew drops that have formed by absorbing essence... Maybe that's the truth behind the power of water?”
