The Nerd Hoard

Where I put a ton of whatever I'm currently interested in.

[fishfoodnoodle]

Fairy ring (1/5)

[thenerdhoard]

Apep saying 'I have felt the Hydro Sovereign has seized his authority' etc. Meanwhile there was no actual seizing on Neuvillette's part? The Hydro Archon did all the work, split herself in half and tortured both parts for centuries before killing herself to give Neuvillette the Hydro Authority, meanwhile he seemed largely fine with hanging out with the Archon and humans, made no moves to harm Furina and get it back by force, and was in fact upset by the execution even knowing it was being done to return his powers and save Fontaine which he also wanted to do. And then he gives a chunk of it back to her afterwards.

Apep's out here like 'HAHA the WAR we RISE' meanwhile Neuvillette was sitting pretty as the unwitting passenger princess to the Hydro Archon's centuries-long plan of sacrifice and suffering to straight up shove the authority into his hands.

[thenerdhoard]

"We don't want to cause widespread panic" Buddy, half the country is getting relocated, I'm pretty sure people are panicking.

[aphel1on]

collei:

the dead god remains sealed in her body:

[thenerdhoard]

The NPC zooming around the ceiling on a book page in the Temple of Space's library might actually have the most insane backstory of anyone in the game, not gonna lie.

Her family lived in terror of literally everyone from every direction trying to kill them? Her entire village was skinned? And the war lord who did it left her alive to be his sex slave? And then one of the dragonlords took pity on her and gave their power, at which point she strangled the guy to death under water?

And then on top of all that she eventually got kidnapped by a space alien god and turned into a museum exhibit with a bunch of other random kidnapping victims from across time and space? Then said space god eventually ditched them in favor of a person trying to end the world and left her mentally ill servant in charge to torment them all?

This woman has never had a break in her life.

[nagarnia]

Hydro dragon hydro dragon, don't cry...💧

[kingthekoshka]

Your dvalin and venti art is so wonderful… you capture all his beautiful feathery bird butterfly stained glass window winged glory… i can’t stop looking at the art of venti holding little dvalin melting in his arms like a puppy with his wings all splayed out oh my heart…

I haven’t drawn him yet (cause he’s so complex design wise i’m a little intimidated) but I am a Dvalin fan who has a few songs to share!!!

(First encountering Venti and calming Dvalin in the woods vibes)

(Venti playing the holy lyre to Dvalin at Starsnatch Cliff)

(The whole mondstadt story in a bottle, “I will be here, don’t you cry” ugh that’s his baby 😭)

These two make me so emo… and you always depict them so perfectly so thanks once again for sharing your art with us 🙏

Hello!! Thank you very much!!! Thank you for all the lovely song recommendations, I listened to all of them and I agree they deffff fit venti (also I love Celtic woman).

I was gonna respond yesterday but I was zonked TF out.

If you want any non-angsty music that fits venti's vibes, I recommend these (I don't have Spotify so imma just list them):

Thus Always to Tyrants by The Oh Hellos (the lyrics are harder to decipher but it's a song about admonishing tyranny for its oppressive and harmful nature while emphasizing the beauty and value of freedom. Also any song by The Oh Hellos is automatically venti coded)

To The Sky by Owl City

Melpomene by The Dear Hunter (imagine this with whatever wholesome ship you like)

Something Wild by Lindsey Stirling

Battle Cry by The Family Crest

[fruity-mond]

I keep forgetting to post art on here funnily enough. I'll just be yapping half the time. God, dude. Drawing this actually made me feel a pit in my stomach...

[osmanthusbard]

If Cryo is related to the Preservation of Memories then my crack theory is that Zhongli made a contract with the Tsaritsa to prevent Azhdaha's erosion.

(But if you want to look at this from a non-shipping lens it's still related to erosion anyway.)

[thenerdhoard]

I think you're not far off in the sense that I legitimately think that is part of his goal. If the Tsaritsa is trying to resurrect the Third Descender, then perhaps Zhongli was also hoping to ressurect someone. Because what could possibly make a fair deal for a literally priceless material item?

Initially my guess was Guizhong, and then there was this most recent Lantern Rite, where due to the actions taken by the Fatui, one of Zhongli's dead friends was reformed and ressurected.

Since Zibai's ressurection was possible because the Frost Moon was restored, and the Tsaritsa already had Columbina in her pocket when she would've made that deal with Zhongli, the chance to bring back Zibai may very well have factored into the deal.

And now with the idea of memories being related to Cryo in Genshin itself (and not just the general Hoyoverse), it may well be a mix of the two. Zibai, Azhdaha, Guizhong, Guoba, maybe even other dead adepti?

Even if one is to rule out the fully dead ones as fully gone, that's still Azhdaha and Guoba left to share the memories.

[myakushek00]

baby varka with the wolves

[thenerdhoard]

"He seems to really like you guys. I'm sure he'll make a great partner."

Ma'am this is my child.

[pixe7ed]

"just an after-patrol midnight snack" done for @kakashizine

find more about the zine here: kakashizine.carrd.co (leftover sale ongoing!)

[frostwinddandelion]

I'm sure this has happened at least once...

[phantajam]

[thenerdhoard]

Just starting the Sanatorium quest, locking in my guess, Zeitlind is Istaroth in disguise, or at the very least another fragment of the Thousand Winds. Dodgy about her name (and the one she gives includes the word time), skips right over confirming if she's younger than the dead sister, seems confused about some action said sister took, she's here for answers and to say goodbye... It's been my guess since she showed up in the trailer, but I'm going with it for sure now.

[thenerdhoard]

Her sister's name is freaking Space-battle.

[thenerdhoard]

Returnee? From the Sea of Stars?!

[thenerdhoard]

A side of crack theory to go with the somewhat more plausible Zeitlind-is-Time theory, you know who else Zeitlind has some similarities too? And who looks even more eerily like Istaroth? Amos.

So my new crack theory is that Amos was a fragment, deadly self, avatar, or human form of the Ruler of Time.

To pile pure crack onto that theory, since the Old Mondstadt artifacts came out I've seen a number of people float the theory that Venti is the Nameless Bard. Between Columbina's bootstrap paradox and the numerous deities of Teyvat splitting themselves into multiple entities of varying independence, I do kinda lean that way myself now.

The wild ingredient is that I've also previously seen a number of fic which put the Bard as the child of Decarabian and Amos. Don't know if anyone actually strongly theorized that, but it is a fun concept to work with.

Put together, this combines into the buckwild 'Decarabian is the Shade of Time's baby daddy' theory (also the infinitely sadder 'Everyone in this family unit managed to simultaneously kill each other' theory), which is almost certainly wrong. Unless! I'm right, in which case I'm a genius.