The Boar Princess, The Drunkard’s Tale, and Andrius’ connection to the First Seelie.
So we know from Wolfy in the imaginarium theater
Since the “rabbits” are pretty clearly Seelie the “Boars” are the Angels
And that would make the “Boar Princess” the “Angel Princess” which appears to be the First Seelie/Dawn Maiden”
But another important detail is that “wolves” are also devolved Angels. Something we also see in Moonlite Bamboo Forest
Wolves are the children of the moon too
Now let’s turn back to the Boar Princess and another character, the wolf cub
This wolf cub is described as similar to Andrius and I suspect he is an allegory for him.
The cub eats an evil squirrel who curses him with a spike through his heart to be unable to know hope (hey, remember what Venti is the God of?) (I suspect the squirrel was a metaphor for the abyss because it’s the evilest thing in the lands)
More important as a result of that spike he starts repaying kindness with “the harshest of words or the most woeful of deeds” until “the pup lost all his friends. The forest welcomed the lonely pup no more, so he had no choice but to head north.”
Now an interesting detail I found in drunkards tale is this: “Legend tells of a lone wolf that roamed a barren wasteland far, far away… The wolf-king grew older with each passing day, and the other wolves gradually dispersed. As time went by, the wolf pack's history faded into distant memory, until finally only the aged wolf-king remained, the sole survivor of its pack.”
Andrius is alone wandering the barren wilderness when he finds the abandoned palaces of the Seelie and hears singing
"Never before have I heard a sound so pleasing to the ears, whether it be a song of bird or insect, that it stays the pangs of hunger in my starved stomach as this tune does.”
Notice how he mentions his hunger?
This is reminiscent of the Wolf Pup who is starving in the final volume of the Boar princess. And to add to that, this meeting is taking place in a cold, barren wasteland between a wolf and a boar (Angel)
Now in this meeting the Boar Princess sings to him about the fall of the Seelie and he follows along with “our song”, which if Moonlite Bamboo Forest is anything to go by is the song of the moons. And if Wolves are also deformed Angels, they are singing the same song, which explains how the wolf was able to understand her (something he marvels at)
Now Etherlight Spindlelute expands upon this specific Seelie, and confirms that a wolf came her long ago was now gone (we will come back to this)
Her song is now expanded to include mention of the full fall of the Seelie including this line “Yet even the ignorant can dream, and in her dream, a new future revealed itself."
Now this line can be taken to mean this Seelie is a different one, but I think otherwise. Because the Dawn Maiden had her mind wiped. What she knows of this time would be largely second hand.
And later when the Seelie speaks of the end of the dream it is this:
"All that vanished the moment she awoke, as if it had never happened."
"All that remained was the indescribable glance from those star-like eyes."
"Was that love? Perhaps it was just delusion woven from hope, ambition, and a longing for death."
These lines make me think she cannot remember this clearly or the events, just the Star-eyed Youth (Voyager’s body) and even then she can’t remember if she really loved him.
I also find it interesting that when the Wolf enters this palace he sees this:
“…[the wolf] passed by a broken sarcophagus, on which a portrait of the deceased ruler was still clearly visible.
Which is a very interesting detail. Because who is this deceased ruler?
It could be the moons, or some human king from Hyperborea. But I think it could also be a portrait of the Star-eyed Youth, the husband of the Dawn Maiden.
Which would explain why she’s here. Even if she can’t fully remember him.
Now back to the Drunkards Tale. The story of this wolf is framed as a story telling completion between a drunkard and a wolf (who are clearly telling the others back story). And when we switch to the wolf’s tale he tells of the Drunkards past and his drunken dreams of becoming the wolf (Andrius)
“he drunkenly dreamt that he had become a lone wolf. Somewhere in the long-lost past or possibly the far-flung future, he fought fang and claw with rival wolf packs, battled with humans for food in the midst of a raging snowstorm, and met the first Seelie.”
So yes. This is the First Seelie who met Andrius all those years ago. And becuse of how well the stories match, I think she is also the Boar Princess.
Whcih does mean that something more happened.
Because at the end of the Drunkards tale about the Wolf’s Past, ends with the wolf and the Seelie singing together. But this ending is interrupted by the wolf going "And then? ...The story ends here?"
And since this wolf is pretty clearly the same wolf from the story, as he later includes the detail of which Seelie it was, would know that wasn’t the end of the story.
And it isn’t the end of the Boar Princess. When the Boar and the Wolf Pup meet and then she decides to kill her two companions (a fox and a turtle) and feed them to him.
Which could mean she turned him into a consecrated beast but with Seelie remains, or could mean she helped him take out two other gods (there is a god of foxes and the turtle god (possibly Decerabian)).
But it could also mean she taught him how to gain more power/feed the hunger by killing other gods…possibly what kicks off the archon war
On a slightly related note: the conversation between the Drunkard and Andrius seems to be a look at the world view of Andrius and Venti (or his people). They seem to be united in dreams but have very different ways of responding to them (which I suspect means to visions/ambition)
“The human who knew only the wind and snow yearned for the wasteland where the lone wolf runs freely, but the lone wolf was fearful of the human's desire. It could not understand why this human was captivated by dangerous illusions and sought hope from within them.”
(So remember how the wolf pup lacked hope?)
This takes on a different meaning with the rest of the context, because Andrius knows everything about the Seelie rebellion through the eyes of a regretful First Seelie. So he fears the humans desires and sees them as captivated by an illusion (eggshell/Teyvat).
