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.
At long last, the Chasm will be released in patch 2.6, in just over a week from now. This post series will preview the Chasm using lore that already exists in the game (no leaks) to help paint a picture of how this place came to be, and what happened there before the Traveler arrived.
Let’s start with how the Chasm formed, and how it relates to western Liyue’s ancient civilizations.
DISCLAIMER: This post series will be spoiler and leak free. It will also be relatively free of speculation or theorizing, but I will state if and when I am making an assumption about a piece of information. Still, this is all just my interpretation of the lore - information may be incomplete, I may misunderstand something, and I also may miss some details. I have done my best to provide a starting point, but it is by no means definitive or exhaustive - and please correct me if there are mistakes :)
A Star Approaches
The story of the Chasm begins over 6000 years ago in-game, placing it millenia before the Archon War. The majority of the formation event is currently discoverable in Records of Jueyun Volume 6: Hidden Jade. It states that the Chasm was formed when a star descended to the “barren plains west of Liyue,” a detail of note given that Liyue’s land historically has periods of high floods followed by the seas being raised by Rex Lapis, such as in Lingju Pass + Qingxu Pool, as well as Dihua Marsh (once a plains land). When the star landed, a fragment of it may have broken off (“legend has it”) and landed in northern Lisha, forming a basin-like shape into the valley that is visible from Mt. Tianheng. As Dunyu Ruins is the northernmost portion of Lisha before the Minlin province begins at Tianqiu Valley, it is commonly theorized that this meteorite fragment would have formed Dunyu Ruins’ geography specifically.
Dunyu Ruins as seen from the top of Mt. Tianheng. Notice the "stepped" rock formations to the right and spiral shape reminiscent of promotional pictures for The Chasm.
This star, however, had its own “temper” that differed from the rocks within the earth. The author claims that the star did not appreciate the discordance from the Archon War, and after nearly 3,500 years of resting in that western plain, the star actually “leaped away towards the heavens,” despite the earth formation of the Chasm itself pleading with the star to remain with it.
When the star fled, the people discovered bounteous fields of jade in the strange chasm formation left behind. It is unclear whether this jade already existed beneath the earth at this location, or whether the star’s impact created it, though it should be noted that Records of Jueyun refers to the star as “heavenly jade” in a later passage. The author then claims that people built “great cities and mighty fortresses” within the Chasm, “finding refuge and shutting themselves in with the leftover inheritance of that fallen star.” A good future research question might ask what exactly these people found refuge from, and whether these cities were built during the Archon War or afterward.
From left to right: Qingxu Pool, Lingju Pass, The Chasm, and Dunyu Ruins.
What is certain is that the Dunyu civilization is separate from Rex Lapis’s people in Liyue Harbor, with whom this civilization “maintained prosperous relations” over the millennia following the Archon War. Records of Jueyun refers to Dunyu’s ancient structures as “redoubts,” suggesting they had a defensive purpose. Again, defense from what exactly? This also appears to be the time when the mining industry was established in the region. The Chasm is not the only place where the mining industry boomed in Liyue - Mingyun Village and the Blackcliff Forge more recently also prospered with the Geo Archon’s dominion, with the Blackcliff Forge serving as both a forge for ore found in the Chasm, as well as a mining operation of its own right operating in Mt. Tianheng (More About Zhongli II). EDIT: Oh yeah also this kinda sorta huge thing happened once mining was established at the Chasm - after a long time, Azhdaha went berserk as the mining activity damaged the Ley Lines, which sustained him as a geovishap made of elemental crystal. With his mind already eroding, the mining that occurred between the end of the Archon War and the Cataclysm drove him to madness, and he began attacking Liyue. It took Morax and several adepti to subdue him, with their battle spilling out from the Chasm into western Liyue, eventually ending in Azhdaha’s sealing beneath the Dragon-Queller tree. This was a major loss for Morax, among one of the events that he attributes to his own erosion. Don’t know how I could have missed that one.
It was only upon the advent of the Cataclysm 500 years ago that prosperity broke down and the ancient city was sealed away by the Dunyu civilians. At this time, it is unclear if the upside-down city seen in the version 2.6 trailer is the city Dunyu sealed away. None who survived the Cataclysm will speak of what occurred at Dunyu.
…And that’s about it for the early history! The Cataclysm era is the real meat of the Chasm’s currently available history, and that will be covered in the next post. It will discuss the Han family, the Yun family (yes, as in Yun Jin), and the descent of yet another star into the mines. EDIT: As of Patch 2.6, this was a misunderstanding of Tenacity of the Millelith. The only meteorite that ever descended was this first one.
