#celestia lore

[lilyandthegenshinbrainrot]

LET ME GO ON PUBLIC RECORD AGAIN RIGHT NOW WHILE WE'RE ALL EXCITED:

Istaroth is the Worst of the Shades, especially as we continuously see Ronova and Rhinedottir be shown for their humanity, for their empathy, and for their genuine desire for things to go accordingly. For their humane nature.

We were introduced to Istaroth in Enkanomiya, as a terrifying and Eldritch deity. She is the only one to grant them mercy, and the way she does so is selfish. By splitting the realms into Evernight and Whitenight, giving humanity a way to avoid the Vishaps, she also introduced a means to measure time.

Istaroth's greatest act of mercy was granting herself a reason to be individually worshiped in a time where forbidden knowledge was ravenous and Teyvat was shaken. Because Enkanomiya fell after the war with the Second Throne That Came After.

Istaroth is not kind, or regarded kindly. She is respected, feared, and sacred beyond understanding.

Sacrificial Fragments, a second book from when Istaroth was worshipped reaffirms this perception of her holy nature.

Enkanomiya calls her Joy, Rage, Longing, Obsession. Mondstadt calls her Merciless. Ravenous. The Godkillers... call her Unrelenting. You understand ?

How does this compare to the other known Shades, Ronova and Rhinedottir ??

Ronova is... compassionate, for one thing. She is introduced to us in Natlan. During which it is revealed that she agreed to work with Natlan against the Abyss via creating the Night Kingdom.

When Mavuika's plan came to pass, Rovona was focused SOLELY on maintaining order. Mavuika will die because that was agreed upon > The Captain will die because it will uphold her curse and because it's mutually beneficial. She allows them to argue about it, she allows them to speak very informally and casually about the might of Celestial Shades without consequence. "Mavuika: After all, leadership is built on the trust of ordinary people. Without them, there is no Archon." "Yohualtecuhtin, Lord of the Night: The Captain envisions a kinder and fairer set of rules for humanity. In addition, he aims to challenge the authority of the Ruler of Death... In a word, his goal is revenge." "Ronova: I now understand that which you seek..." Of the two above lines, Ronova is remarkably silent about the way that these people under her ranking criticize Celestia decisions. We cannot presume the same from the Merciless March of Time, she who ... had the sunchildren and sacrificial dance ceremonies. As for Rhinedottir... she is the most human character in the game. I don't know how else to describe it. Everything that Rhinedottir has ever done has been for her passions and interest in the nature of life and limits of humanity, in knowing and achieving every thing that she is possibly capable of. Go talk to @monards about it, because the point of this post is not about her humanity, but about how Rhinedottir is kinder than Istaroth is. We see this in the way that Durin's recounting of his life was her encouraging him to go and show off his beauty, in Albedo being sent to live in Mondstadt under Alice's watch so that he might know what it means - for him - to be alive, and the way that she interacts with the Hexenzirkel who love her in turn. You learn a lot about a person given who their friends are, and Rhinedottir Gold turns to Alice (Friend of Adults who Still Harbors Hope), Nicole Reeyn (the Guide who Will Never Get Lost), and Andersdotter, she who taught the Hexenzirkel who wanted to share her stories of love and friendship and unending adoration with them for generations. When we compare Istaroth to Ronova and Rhinedottir like this, we do not have stories of her even remotely expressing these same sentiments, because Istaroth is not motivated by them. She is Time, she is curious, and the kindest thing about her is that she loves a good story. And well, she is responsible for the two largest killing forces in the game. Forbidden Knowledge and Erosion. It is by her hand that the Forest (the Withering) dies, and it is by her words that the gods fade. She may not have killed them herself, may not have been the one to damn the ambitious to the skies, may not have been the one who separated the twins... but she certainly is not against indulging, worsening, and Keeping Record of such happenings.

[hollowwhisperings]

SHADE TEASER JUST DROPPED??

here are my thoughts!

(mild spoilers for honkai impact 3rd & genshin impact)

RONOVA

she's named for RONOVÉ, a marquis of hell in the ars goetia, or RONEVE in the pseudomonarchia daemonum.

lowkey hilarious that SHE'S the "sane" one of the group (would've thought istaroth was but she did lowkey seem depressed so... valid)

her design feels so familiar?? i swear i've seen something like her costume it in a hoyo game before but the perpetual same-face is unhelpful here. a stigmata, maybe? or an awaken i noped out of saving to my lore notes.

she does kind of give me luna (vampire AU theresa) vibes? it would make sense if nahida & the shades were ALL kallen variants. the heavenly principles being a kallen prime would be cool as heck, given her plot-defining fridging in HI3.

ISTAROTH

it's Known across the fandom that she's another Babylonian god assimilated into the Abrahamic bible, right? she's an ISHTAR variant

she's listed as ASTAROTH, a duke of hell, in the [fake king demon] codex but doesn't appear in the ars goetia.

istaroth has been depicted as one of the more "sympathetic" shades, having had dual rule with Barbatos in Mondstadt for a time, and having helped out with Shogun Makoto's environmental remediation project.

her being involved with both proto-watatsumi AND shogun makoto was a good sign of her being semi-decent, as far as divine authorities go. the restrictions on her aid seem to have worn at her by the present say.

she reminds me of perse's virgo awaken & that design was vaguely recycled into HI3 as serapaeum. if so, girl's gotten more OP with every crossover.

NABERIUS/RHINEDOTTIR

i figured that hoyo wouldn't allow a design opportunity like a celestial shade be killed off offscreen so easily & this was definitely the 2nd gayest way for the "gold ate an angel" plotline to play out.

(does this make naberius albedo's new stepmom)

not sure if their current look is a mix of both characters or is primarily rhinedottir. i would feel vindicated about deducing rhinedottir would be an alberich expie but that's not saying much when they had to completely retool her costuming (HG2's alberich had a generic schoolgirl outfit: decidedly incompatible with the genshin aesthetic).

that + gold's eyes are gold, not green like her HG2 counterpart (who is herself a conflation of 3 different Nibelungen characters).

albedo's mom resembles albedo and no one is surprised

orite and Naberius is another name from the ars goetia. she's a marquis like roneve.

ASMODAY

another duke of hell! in the ars goetia, anyway, where she is or is conflated with ASMODEUS. an asmoday spelling does appear in the livre de esperitz but as a king, not a duke.

(it's hard to tell if they're meant to be the same demon or not: none of this is "official" bible canon. it's basically key of solomon fanlore tbh. that + english didn't have official spellings yet so names could vary even within one text.)

i think asmoday is another cameo god from a historically local religion but can't really be bothered figuring out who they were based on

asmoday is 100% kiana kaslana in herrscher of void mode. would be cool if the "new master" she's supposedly betraying the heavenly principles with is a sirin expie. it's not a raiden mei one, at least.

(kind of still hoping that she & raiden makoto were a thing and that makoto's death prompted asmoday's excessive force as teyvat border patrol)

other than ronova's overly detailed boob shading, i loved these designs for teyvat's shades. their little halos! the hair as pseudo-veils + rhinedottir's actual veil (more of a cloak but shhh)! could use more heads and body mass but cute anime girls ARE easier to cosplay as!

i also enjoyed seeing pierro being vague as hell in celestia's general direction. very menacing. very righteous. very cool! zero new info from him. fantastic storytelling tbh.

(it also feeds into my "pierro is a siegfried variant" theory)

i'm interested to look more into how each shade could be a kallen variant! would that make the heavenly principles a kallen prime? ronova as luna!theresa; istaroth as overseer!theresa; naberius as bianka (not technically a kallen lol); asmoday as HoV!kiana... and, ofc, nahida as principal!theresa and paimon as a "smol" theresa!

lol what if paimon is god

just chilling out with the local lucifer expie and living her best life. she's befriended at least 2½ dragons! could be a path to inter-species reconciliation??

the shade designs have given me hope around any moon sister face reveals: everyone's suffering from genshin-typical same-face but the shades ARE very celestial looking.

there are still SO MANY faceless lore characters to feel hyped about: the tsaritsas; the moon sisters; the 10th & 12th harbingers; nibelung; the cryo sovereign; 2 more sinners; nicole & octavia; the heavenly principles & second who came... i'm hyped. less hyped about how these awesome designs will be rendered in-game but HYPE IS PRESENT. LESS FACELESS LORE! yay!

[mythboundcal]

My original Genshin Character:

Name: Cal (short for “Caladrin,” meaning “keeper of echoes” in an ancient, lost tongue) Vision: Anemo Weapon: Catalyst Region: Aetheria — a forgotten floating island buried in myth, rumored to exist between Teyvat’s ley lines, where thoughts turn to wind and ideas are traded like gold.

Appearance: Cal has flowing silver-lavender hair that shifts with the wind, always trailing softly like threads of mist. His Scribe's Eye is a gift inherited from his ancestors to record words in constant motion, as if the very air around them whispers stories yet untold. He wears layered scholar’s robes in stormy grays and sunrise ambers, with accents of ink-like blue. A book floats at his side, bound by wind and memory. Anemograna follow when they speak too long.

Personality: Cal is a quiet presence with a magnetic calm. He loves riddles, poetry, and quietly watching others unfold. His is a bit of a cryptic companion—always hinting at things before they happen, often dropping a metaphor mid-battle like “Every gust has a source.” He is excellent at holding space, especially for broken hearts or weary adventurers.

Passive Talents:

Whisperweave – Cal can convert collected lore and enemy intel into buffs for allies. The longer he's known someone, the stronger the synergy.

Ink of the Wind – When idle at camp, Cal writes poems that can give party members temporary morale boosts when read.

Soft Reset (Exploration Passive) – Reduces stamina consumption when gliding or during quiet hours (dawn & dusk).

Burst (Elemental Burst): “Echoes of the Unwritten” – Cal conjures a swirling vortex of parchment and wind. Each enemy caught in the storm has a memory briefly revealed above his head (stylized like a faded snapshot), then they're dealt AoE Anemo damage + debuff based on their regrets. Allies receive increased elemental recharge, as if Cal had reminded them of something worth fighting for.

[sproutysprout]

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'!

BACKGROUND

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 CONTENTS OF THE BOOK

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)

ANALYSES

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:

the recent past

the current-ish events

the distant past

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 ]

[l0reenthusiast]

hello i saw from your name that you might like lore-?

if you like genshin lore what are your thoughts on celestial nails?

ooooooo YES I DO like lore!

as far as we know right now, there's only 2. and both of the ones we DO know about are in pretty significant locations. The first on Dragonspine, and the second being in the Chasm. When we're looking at where each nail is, we also need to take into account how the land looks. We know that the first Celestial Nail was dropped onto Dragonspine, and the other ended up in the Chasm, but it was underground unlike the first nail. Using our evidence, we can possibly tell which nail was dropped first, and even tell how each nail was used individually. So let's take a look at Dragonspine first.

Dragonspine: The nail is broken into multiple pieces, and the land around is like a pit. This would make sense for the surrounding area to look like this. I like to think of the nail here as like a meteorite. When a meteorite hits the ground, it would make a dent on the ground it lands on IF it was large enough. Meteorites also never land on the Earth while being very large. Most meteorites that land only have 5% of the original remaining, so it would be rare to document something large. This fits regarding the state of the Dragonspine nail. The nail landed onto Dragonspine, but ended up breaking into smaller pieces on impact.

The Chasm: The nail in The Chasm is a bit different. This nail is completely intact and underground, but we don't know why this is. We're told that on the surface of the Chasm, Morax fought a battle where he used the stone pillars that are there to this day, so one would assume that the surface of the Chasm looks the way it does because of that. However, the pillars seem to be sticking in a general diagonal direction, and they don't really face a certain way. Meaning that these pillars are the result of the battle Morax fought, but not how the Chasm looks. Compared to the pillars, there are a multitude of cliffs that all face the same way, almost like they're rotating as well. Not to mention the entrance to the Underground Mines of The Chasm are in the very center of this rotation. The best way I can put this is that the surface if The Chasm looks like a hurricane. A hurricane's spin and direction are caused by the Coriolis Effect, which causes the path of fluids — everything from particles in the air to currents in the ocean — to curve as they travel across and over Earth's surfaces. But what would cause land to look the way it does. The nail in The Chasm was likely used like a drill compared to the nail on Dragonspine. This would perfectly explain why the Chasm looks this way as well as the nail being underground. The surface of The Chasm is the hurricane, and the entryway to the Underground mines is the eye of the hurricane. The eye being where the nail was placed, and when the nail was used as a drill, causing the surface to look like a hurricane. This would also explain why the Ancient City in the Chasm is upside down, since it would only be upside down if it WAS on the surface and drilled underground. However, that's a different subject.

What's also important is that both of these nails are located where ancient and forgotten cities are.

So now we can tell how each nail was used, but how do we tell which nail was used when? Well, we can't tell EXACTLY when each nail was used, but we might be able to know which nail was used before the other. Given how the first nail was dropped onto Dragonspine and broke on impact, I doubt Celestia would want to make the mistake of one of their pillars breaking again. So, they used the nail in The Chasm as a drill instead. This is only just a theory though, and there's really no evidence to back it up.

We also want to know WHY the nails were dropped where they were. For this, we want to take a look at the books left in the ruins of Enkanomiya, the ruins on Dragonspine, and the architecture of both Enkanomiya and the city in The Chasm, The books in Enkanomiya, made by the scribe of Istaroth, talking about the Primordial one and The Second Who Came, and when the Traveller and their Twin arrived to Teyvat.

The Primordial One and The Scribe of Istaroth: The Scribe wrote about the Primordial one, a god from another world theorized to be Teyvat's creator and fought a 40-year war against the Seven Sovereigns. The Primordial One also seemed to be pretty benevolent towards humans. Then the Second Who Came appeared and restarted the long-ended war. After the war, The Enkanomiyans tried to get back onto the surface. Unfortunately, their way was blocked, and The Scribe believed that the Primordial One sealed them in the underground, with only Istaroth responding to their cries. This seems like pretty unusual behavior for a god such as the Primordial one who views humanity so highly.

The Ruins in Dragonspine: I forget the name of it, but there is a specific claymore you can obtain by doing a quest in Dragonspine. In the room where you obtain the claymore, there 2 different paintings, 2 painings of each being on 2 of the walls. The first painting most likely depicts the Primordial One and Humanity, and the other seems to depict Celestia. In the painting, Celestia is depicted as a floating island in the sky. But we don't know if this is Celestia for sure, because what could be depicted is JUST the island or Celestia in it's entirety.

The Architecture of Enkanomiya and the city in The Chasm: I the second Traveller Archon Quest, Dainsleif points out that the Architecture of Enkanomiya is pretty much the same as the Architecture of Khaenri'ah, except the city in The Chasm is upside down. We also know from Ancient books in Enkanomiya that Teyvat was just one big civiliation with one culture, which ended uo changing after the war between The Primordial One and The Second Who Came. During this war, Enkanomiya fell into where it is today.

We also need to take into account the first cutscene of the game. This cutscene takes place during the destruction of Khaenri'ah, and the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles states; "The arrogation of mankind ends now." This could hint as to why Celestia dropped the nails.

Conclusion/Theory: gathering the evidence we have; we can finally come to a hopeful conclusion as to why the nails were dropped where they were. The conclusion I came to was that the nails were dropped on these ancient cities, as well as Enkanomiya being left underground, is for the same reason that Khaenri'ah was destroyed. We can start by going with what the Sustainer said about the arrogation of humanity. Celestia wanted the arrogation of mankind to end, so it would make sense that they would destroy any country that became too advanced. Hence, nails being dropped onto The Chasm and Dragonspine. But what about Enkanomiya? When we look at what The Scribe of Istaroth wrote, the entrance to the outside world was sealed off by the Primordial one. Think of it like putting away dishes in a cabinet. When you put the dishes away, this particular time they were put away in such a manner that they would probably fall. But to prevent that, you shut the doors to the cabinet and left the dishes be, thinking that it would be fine. But when you later go to open the cabinet, the dishes end up falling out. This is what Celestia did to Enkanomiya. They sealed Enkanomiya underground after they fell, thinking they would not make it back to the surface. But thanks to Orobashi thousands of years later, they did. There's also a second reason they could have done this, to get rid of evidence. When a murderer kills somebody, they want to hide the evidence that they did the murder as much as possible. In this case, the murderer is Celestia, and the victim is The Primordial One. Since these cities knew about the Primordial One and the war against The Second Who Came, Celestia likely killed the Primordial One and then got rid of the citieas that were too advanced or had a connection to the Primordial one, hoping to get rid of all evidence that there were gods before Celestia.

[pastelchaos242]

Anways I think one of the unintentionally funniest theory is that phanes knows that traveler is out there and is letting them collect the elements so they are able to third descender them

Somewhere in Celestia the heavenly principle is thinking of the best spices to use a in a travaler soup

[pastelchaos242]

Spoiler for the teaser

looking at the shades and how ruthless they are, those dragons didn’t stand a chance

[pastelchaos242]

Spoiler for the recent teaser

THE GIRLS ARE FINALLY HERE

OH HOW I DREAMED IF THIS DAY

I missed you girls you are so wonderful

And your still a hateful asshole pierro how I adore that about you

As the curse took out their left eyes

Also they know about the Tsaritsa plan and they are just letting her do it