dain (sends a blurry meme): if i had a dollar for every pixel in this image i’d have 15 cents
surtalogi: if i had a dollar for every ounce of rage i felt in my body after i read this comment i would have enough money to buy a cannon to fire at you
hroptatyr: actually I did the math, they would have $225, not $0.15
dain: sir i’m right here….
rerir: if i had a dollar i would buy a can of soda :)
tholindis: while you’re there could you buy me an apply juice please?
rerir: sorry i only have a dollar
tholindis: :(
rhinedottir: hroptatyr is wrong, they would have $22,500 not $225
rerir: if i had $22,500 i would buy a can of soda and an apply juice
dain: you can buy anything you want with $22,500?
enjou (here to be unhelpful): yeah and they want soda and apply juice
thrain, who just walked in, confused: apply juice to what
dainsleif didn't show up to that victory feast because the outcome was no victory to him. it wasn't a moment of triumph after a long struggle, it was the loss of a dear friend for a second time, it was a moment of renewed grief and the guilt of doing what he knew he had to do. if you. even care.
Soooo apparently, when Rerir teleports, you can see the same pixelated "smashed screen" colours the holes in the fake sky of the Ancient Sacred Mountain in Natlan had. Sinners and the powers they shouldn't have, huh ...
Hello everyone, anyone here want a Dainsleif theory? Because I think I just figured out about 2/3rds of what went down in the Cataclysm regarding Dainsleif
Specifically why the Abyss Sibling blames Dain for the Cataclysm, while Dain blames the Five Sinners
Now a lot of this hinges around the datamined volumes of the Pale Princess and the Six Pigmies so if you want to wait, spoilers below the cut:
Hello everyone who is still here.
So when the Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies came out, every theories I know was quick to say this was about the five sinners+ Dain and I agree, and what I’m going to do is fit that in with the new Dain lore we got in the wings.
This story starts with these paragraph in the Xbox wings:
This moment where the Abyss sibling is coming down and Dain is going up. Where they accidentally meet when Dain is trying to save his brother with the four other sinners is this moment from the six Pygmies:
Notice how they save Vedrfolnir first? The one Dain was trying to save?
Them then having to save the rest of the Pygmies has me suspicious that Dains rescue attempt did not go as smoothly as he had hoped.
Now what else happened? What was the noble deed? What is this paragraph all about?
Well, I think it’s this moment :
Now why did they do this? Before we get in to it, let me clear something up. The Prince of light is the abyss sibling in this allegory. They are the one from beyond the moon, who saves the kingdom, and is taking the Pale Princess with them. (Now why not the Traveler? Because the traveler is “Greatest foe who wields the sword that heralds the dawn” from the Night mothers prophecy at the end)
So now we know it’s the abyss sibling who’s getting betrayed here…the question is why? Didn’t they save them?
Well I think it has something to do with the abyss sibling and the traveler planning to leave eventually.
As we see from the Pygmies:
We know Khaenri’ah was obsessed with summoning a descender since the days of Perinheri. And now the abyss sibling want so leave, when they are the solution to this great problem.
And you know what Dain says about the sinners?
You know who just absorbed the abyss? The Abyss sibling.
And the Pygmies plans to use the prince :
The Shrunken Pygmy is probably Rhinedottir who used the power taken from the abyss sibling to make those abyssal monsters like Rifthounds that end up getting out of control (RIP Durin)
So the five sinners and Dain, because I’m sorry Dain you took some, the Six Pygmies is very clear that even if the disfigured Pygmy didn’t want to do so out of guilt, he didn’t stop it and seems to have agreed (since he gets cursed too)
Now you might be wondering, why? Did they think they were getting descender powers and instead got the abyss that got absorbed?
And I think the answer is yes. But not just yes, they thought they were getting descender powers. I think they actually did get descender powers.
Because isn’t it odd that only one of the siblings is a descender? And what does Dain call this power they stole from the “princes”/“abyss sibling”
Huh what could a world-shattering power be? Perhaps something to “rival an entire world”?
And as I said before, Khaenri’ah really, really wanted a descender.
So it seems like the six Pygmies (five sinners plus Dain) stole the abyss siblings descender powers for themselves…
And wait a second this sounds familiar…
The gnosis
Not to say they created the seven gnosis, but instead that they created six of their own, already corrupted with the abyss the abyss sibling had absorbed. But if we are comparing six parts to seven, should have been a fraction more powerful then those the gods wielded.
The arrogation of mankind cannot stand.
No wonder the Heavenly Principles called as many archons to Khaenri’ah as they could.
(I’m at the photo limit on this post so bear with me)
Dain is angry the sinners did not defend Khaenri’ah…and yet the sibling blames him for being unable to handle the problem by themselves. Why?
Let’s turn to the Raiden Shogun (specifically Ei’s) voice lines
“I'm fearful because of what I witnessed five hundred years ago — her demise and that thing. But, if... If it were you, everyone would be safe. You would've saved the world.”
The traveler would have saved the world huh?
Well of course, it should have been no problem for a descender…oh wait.
The five sinners (plus Dain) took the descenders powers.
No matter they should be able to defeat it if they all world together right?
But only Dain showed up.
This is why the sibling blames Dain for failing to stop it, Dain had a fraction of their powers and failed, proving those powers should never have been taken in the first place.
And why Dain blames the sinners, because if they had just worked together perhaps they could have stopped it.
But there’s still one more problem with this theory, the abyss sibling is recorded in Irminsul.
But you know what happens at the end of the Six Pygmies?
“Devastated, the pygmy wandered around in sorrow and regret. He hid the body in a tree hole and walked off alone into the night, and into a self-imposed exile.”
Dainsleif puts the body of the Abyss sibling in a tree.
Dainsleif, the Bough-keeper, put the Abyss sibling into Irminsul. He wrote them into the world. Why? Probably to bring them back in a way that allows them to still walk about Teyvat and cause trouble for us.
This also explains why Rukkhadevata was called back to tend to the tree and not sent to Khaenri’ah. What if the source of the corruption she had to make Nahida and erase herself to overcome, the forbidden knowledge’s heart…is the corrupted body of the abyss sibling that Dain wrote into the world?
(This might be why the Fatui want to burn Irminsul, a Homa cleansing ritual for the abyssal corruption written into it when it accepted the corrupted Abyss sibling).
Now we have come to the end of the theory and you might be wondering, but wait. This is leaving out one crucial character: if the abyss sibling is the light prince, the traveler is the Greatest Foe, and the Pygmies the sinners and Dain…aren’t we missing a few crucial characters?
And yes. We are.
Most likely, the Night mother is the Heavenly Principles. There is a chance she’s the Abyss itself. But i suspect she’s the heavenly principles what with the curse she puts on the Pale Princess’ people.
And there’s our main problems. Because the Pale Princess reveals something very crucial about this story:
We are missing a major player from the Cataclysm.
Who is she?
Easy answer? Probably Paimon. Or whoever Paimon was before she became small.
Other options: Angelica , either symbolically (the abyss sibling loved freedom above all else, hence the fear they would leave) or as I’ve theorized before Angelica herself could be an angel/envoy who went to Khaenri’ah once and is currently a “horse adeptus” from Moonlite bamboo forest (remember how the Pale Princess is from the Moonlite Forest?)
Fun option: somehow related to the Tsarista, aka a lover she lost in the Cataclysm. The Seele to her Bronya (if that is the direction they end up going with her).
Option that has many pieces I need to think on: Renova has a lot of motifs that look like Arlecchino and I’ve seen theories the Crimson Moon Dynasty worshiped the moon before realizing it was a god. That god might be the pale Princess (Renova or Istaroth) who despite not being worshiped was still around.
