Giving Natlan Characters Beef for Plot improvement
Natlan character group dynamics aren’t grabbing me like other group dynamics in Genshin have, and i’ve figured out why: No one has beef. There’s no conflict between the characters for them to overcome and grow from. (With a few exceptions, we stan a grumpy granny) Or to drive each other up the wall with for our entertainment. So in the interest of spicing things up, i’ve decided to play fast and loose with cannon character dynamics to add friction
Xilonen Vs. Kachina
These two should have been sisters. Half sisters perhaps, but sister’s none the less.
It just makes sense. Kachina’s character stories reveal that her father has put all his hopes in his eldest daughter, but why? Kachina literally has a sacred name! Unless they also had a sacred name, and could even forge more! Even kachina couldn’t compete with that!
It would make Kachina’s bullying make sense, why are people giving her such a hard time for having a sacred name? Because they don’t think she earned it. They think Xilonen made one for her, and since no one wants to say anything to Xilonen about it, they take it out on Kachina.
Kachina would then have reason to resent Xilonen, both for stealing their father’s attention, and for all the bullying. She knows its not Xilonen’s fault, but it still bothers her.
She doesn’t want to tell Xilonen about her strugglrs, because she feels like she’s so much less impressive than her, she doesn’t want to admit just how bad it is and how much its getting to her.
Xilonen for her part, is a lot older than Kachina and the rest of her siblings. She might even be her dad’s only child from a previous marriage (1st spouse died in war). The two are a lot closer because of that shared grief, and when her dad moved on, Xilonen struggled to find her place in this new family, especially now she no longer lives at home.
Xilonen loves her little siblings, but feels distant from them, and prob jealous of Kachina for being able to so easily bond with the younger ones. She expresses her love for Kachina and the others by making them things, fancy toys and the like.
If Kachina needs twirly whirly fixed, she never has to wait in line, Xilonen won’t hide from her, and will happily do so, as a way of showing her care.
This backfires because Kachina has thr reputation of being spoiled by Xilonen, leading to the rumor about Xilonen forging Kachina’s ancient name
Crucially, these two sisters do love each other, and with a little help from the traveler can slowly work on their bond.
Mualani vs Kinich
Less of a conflict and more of a personality clash.
Mualani is a major extravert who is in her own words “a lot” sometimes (she’s so Nuerodivergent coded)
Kinich is someone who is used to living by himself and struggles to open up to others
To put it simply, Mualani overwhelms him. But she’s also one of the few people he can count as a friend, so he’s stuck with her.
The two of them have worked on it a lot in their friendship, it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to players, but it could festure in charscter stories or events.
Things like: kinich trying to avoid Mualani because he’s very low on social battery but also doesn’t want her to feel guilty about it
Mualani sending us to talk to kinich sometimes when she knows he’s tired and doesn’t want to make it worse
Mualani dragging kinich into social activities outside his comfort zone (which turn out to be good for him)
Just the: reluctant friend and their extravert bff dynamic
Kinich vs Chisara
Chisara has beef with Ajaw, but she should have had beef with kinich as well
Picture this: Chisara doesn’t trust Kinich because of how mercurial he is, he in turn dislikes how she uses fear to control others. (I know its more complicated for both, but they’re running off of reputation, not the person themselves)
Chisara might suspect Kinich of being willing to sell them out to the fatui in the early days of them working together
Kinich sees her suspicion and thinks of her like those village kids who didn’t understand how the real world works and got him driven from school
Ajaw makes everything 100 times worse
Eventually Kinich and Chisara bond over a shared past of parental abandonment and having to live in the wilderness. Both realize the other is far more then their reputation.
Although Kinich is still definately jealous she got happily adopted and he didn’t, not that he’ll ever admit it to himself
Varesa vs Iansan
Iansan is annoyed with Varesa’s tardiness, but really, she has a great opinion of her
So where is the confict? With the masked warrior of course!
To Iansan, the masked warrior is an untrustworthy stranger and a menace who makes huge messes that Iansan has to make sure are cleaned up
Someone powerful but unknown who might hold ill intentions, and who Iansan fears if they turned their violence on the Collective, she wouldn’t be able to stop
Iansan might have had a run in with a certain dragon sage in disguise and be a bit traumatized by those who hide behind masks as a result (which also puts her in conflicts with a big part of the collective’s culture and its chief)
As her prize pupil, Varesa is determined to help her handle this masked menace, not realizing that it is in fact, her.
She does notice how some of her adventures tend to get mixed up with that mysterious masked hero’s though, and worries what Iansan will think of her for making the same “mistakes”
Thus she tries to downplay and even hide her heroism from Iansan, unknowningly growing the problem
Iansan vs Kachina
Iansan finds Kachina frustrating.
Kachina reminds Iansan of her younger self, bullied for her sacred name, joining the war really young, that drive to prove herself, its all there.
But the problem is Kachina is constantly relying on others and getting insecure and messing up when insulted as opposed to Iansan’s own spite based drive
Iansan sees kachina as taking the easy road, and believes she won’t improve untill she learns to build up a shell.
She fuels this into well meaning training camps with Kachina, trying to get her to work on improving everytime they meet, even giving her homework
Kachina is flattered by this help from such a famous coach, but finds Iansan’s methods and constantly on-the-go attitude overwhelming
Iansan is also struggling to teach kachina because of her projection, leading to failure which Iansan is not used to as a coach.
They’d have to talk for Iansan to realize her mistake and adjust her behavior
