A look into some of the strangest comments made by Enkanomiya’s residents
Note: this post is incomplete, I’m just starting the new year by clearing out some of my old drafts… maybe I’ll go back and fill these in better one day :)
Draft last updated 2022-12-26
In the Beginning…
Eboshi: Before Byakuyakoku fell into the deep sea, the whole world had a single unified culture.
Eboshi: Later, a great war broke out, in which the heavens capsized and the earth was ripped asunder. This land was then plunged into the dark ocean depths.
Eboshi: However, the heavenly order seemed to not wish for those who remembered all this to remain on earth. We searched for a road of return, but there was none to be found.
Eboshi: Much, much later, heaven’s powers of prohibition would gradually weaken. This did Watatsumi Omikami manage to fall into this place.
Out of Heaven’s Reach
Eboshi: They are primordial elemental beings, unbent and unbowed by the power that came from the heavens owing to their living deep underwater.
…
Eboshi: Watatsumi Omikami, due to ill-fortune, fell into this place, beyond the jurisdiction of the heavenly order.
Holy Soil Phenomenon
Eboshi: The Holy Soil phenomenon is, in fact, the expansion of their habitat. That means that the primordial elemental power of the three realms is growing stronger.
Eboshi: Only by using Watatsumi Omikami’s life force to awaken its second servant could we convert this raw, raging elemental power.
…
Tsumi: According to what I have read, the fundamental purpose of the Watatsumi Goryou Matsuri is to use the serpent god’s life force to awaken its second familiars: the Sangacorallia.
Tsumi: They are creatures that break down raw, primitive elemental energy into the milder elemental energy of the human realm. The giant coral is a symbol that the Sangacorallia have been awakened by the serpent’s blood.
…
Tsumi: Things are even more complicated than usual this time. The darkness from the Void Realm seems to be surpressunf things in the Light Realm and the Human Realm, causing them to come to a standstill.
Tsumi: You may need to use the power of the Bokuso Box to dispel the darkness and allow the ecological transformation to continue.
Orobashi’s Sacrifice
Eboshi: Unfortunately, by making contact with us, it also grasped a truth that came before it’s own existence. Thus, it was forced by heaven to sacrifice itself.
Eboshi: The truth behind this sacrifice had to remain unknown to all. Only this could the people of Byakuyakoku be allowed to live under the rule of The Seven.
Forgetting & Discovering the Truth
Eboshi: Due to the phenomenon known as Sinshades, the “past”, “history”, and “truth” of Enkanomiya would endure even if left to their own devices.
Eboshi: As such, a great effort was expended, not that we might remember but that we might “forget”. Lady Sangonomita was of this view.
Eboshi: The trial to obtain the branch was intended to limit the number of people coming after us who could know the whole truth of the matter.
Eboshi: As for me, I supported leaving records of the truth. As such, Watatsumi Omikami permitted me to add another trial path that, if passed, would lead to knowledge of our secrets.
Eboshi: “In the faintness of everlasting night, beyond the rushing of the river Styx, within the sinless flow of heavenly light.”
Eboshi: Release the seal on The Emanant Skylight. Then, you may ascend to the Gate of Heaven and access the site of the trial.
Vishaps
Eboshi: They are actually very intelligent, and they are adept at evolving. They would even evolve into different elemental forms throughout the history of their war against us.
Eboshi: I would not be surprised at all if they have learned language or perhaps even evolved into lizard-people of a sort.
The Traveler
The sinshade of Clymene, caretaker of the Sunchildren, recognizes the Traveler’s garb.
However, she then goes on to say that she was born in Enkanomiya (post-sinking) and that she’s never seen someone from outside of it.
For Clymene to have seen it, but to also never have left/met an outsider, implies that the Traveler’s Outfit existed in Enkanomiya.
She also makes a comment about not having seen it in awhile. This could be due to her either being a sinshade and not having perception of time, or the outfit being a carry-over from Enkanomiya’s society before it sank, and thus was as common post-sinking…
??? (Clymene): Hmm? How strange. I have not seen someone in your garb for a many long years…
??? (Clymene): From your mannerisms, you are not from Byakuyakoku either. Are you some guest from afar who fell into this place?
Traveler: That’s more or less correct…
??? (Clymene): To think that there were ways to access Byakuyakoku from the outside world… Shocking news indeed.
??? (Clymene): I was born here, and I have never seen anyone from the outside world.
Memories
Clymene: It has passed through the hands of every Sunchild, and the memories it has inherited are enough to fill the gaps in their souls.
Clymene: … Even though these memories are double-sided.
Traveler: Double-sided? Memories have sides?
Clymene: of course. In this case, the memories are two-fold. On one hand, you have your own memories, and on the other, you have others’ memories of you.
Clymene: Thus the gaps are being filled by both the Sunchildren’s own memories, imprinted upon the bridle… As well as the memories of them as the children who were blamed by Byakuyakoku, of those who became children of sin.
Clymene: my own memories are insufficient, and so I had to supplement them with those of the people of our nation.
Clymene: and it is thanks to these transgressions that have been laid upon them that they have now been remembered by Byakuyakoku, and can now leave their afterimages behind.
Clymene: Thank you, Traveler. My greatest wish now lies fulfilled. Yes, I… can finally be with those children again… I can finally… be at ease.
Arlecchino tells us that Furina does not carry the Hydro Gnosis, and that she appears to be under some sort of curse. She also implies that Furina is not the true Hydro Archon.
Furina doesn’t seem to have any knowledge on how the Oratrice actually works, despite supposedly being the one who built it.
Neuvillette is the Hydro Sovereign, and also does not have the gnosis (since that would make him a “complete” dragon, which he says he isn’t at this time due to not having gnosis). This also rules him out as being the Hydro Archon
So we have a Hydro Dragon who needs to gnosis to be “complete” working alongside the Hydro Archon (who SHOULD have said gnosis). That alone is an odd situation, especially when considering how Neuvillette gives the vibe that he doesn’t think Furina is very competent…
Why would he support someone who is essentially holding part of his power hostage? And if Arleccino can sense that Furina isn’t holding the gnosis, then surely Neuvillette can as well…
Which is why I think Neuvillette made some sort of deal with Furina allowing him to give judgment in the future for Fontaine’s past transgressions by evaluating the present.
Then maybe part of the deal would be Furina locking away part of her divinity, hence seeming cursed?
But why lock it away, and where is the gnosis?
The Oratrice seems like the most likely location for the gnosis, since the gnosis could essentially serve as the “judgement energy battery” for the machine the same way the dendro gnosis acted as a “wisdom-dream” battery for the Akasha.
If that was the case, then maybe Furina’s curse (and apparent lack of “godliness”) is because her divinity (divine… memory?) is sealed within the Oratrice to allow it to function… similar to how Nahida was trapped in the Sanctuary to power the Akasha.
It could also explain why Furina doesn’t understand how the Oratrice works. If her memories related to its function/purpose are no longer “available” because they are trapped within the Oratrice itself.
It would also explain the female voice echoing from the Oratrice’s core.
And maybe this also explains the duality of her eyes. Potentially representing her split… soul? Memories? Yeah….
Anyways, the question is then… why would Furina make a deal that let Neuvillette potentially decide the fate of Fontaine and/or locked away part of her divinity?
The prophecy.
Fontaine must atone for the sins of the past… sins which may include things like killing/trapping the previous hydro sovereign in the abyss… also maybe stealing his cup. Also maybe tampering with human composition using dragon ichor… the sin isn’t super clear at this point… but the fact they must be punished is.
And apparently that requires dissolving.
We’ve already seen an attempt at making Fontaine “atone” when the primordial sea burst through the seal in the Fortress, and the reason this attempt didn’t succeed was due to Neuvillettes intervention.
Which… if getting Neuvillette on Fontaine’s side was Furina’s goal with the potential deal she made, then his response would be considered a “success”.
I’m running out of time, so here are some closing thoughts…
Rene and Jakob ALSO seem to have a plan that involves dissolving people, so the prophecy as multiple antagonists capable of making it come true it seems
Additionally, after Rene dissolved himself, Alain was determined to find an energy source not reliant on elements… and the elemental energy source for Fontaine is Indeminitium. This might imply that Rene’s dissolving route involves Indemnitium somehow… which might explain why Alain founded an institute to find alternative energy for Fontaine.
Leviathan is coming based on end of 4.1, so that’s still a thing as well. Hopefully that means we get some Skirk lore too! Also very curious how Childe’s vision connected to him even though he was no longer holding it…
Rene also mentioned getting “the sword” as part of the plan’s execution… which could refer to the sword shown on the Archon statue. A sword that shares a similar design to the Oratrice… and could also tie things back to Indemnitium. It’s also worth noting this sword is seen on statues in Remurian ruins as well.
~~~
Ok that’s all I have time for before the livestream… can’t wait to find out in a few minutes I went the completely wrong direction XD!
Also, didn’t have time to proofread so I’ll go back through and fix things later 😅
[4.0]: A Theory On Rhinedottir, Alchemy, and the Meaning of Sin
“One thought may end all calamity, and there will always be thoughts that may transcend time.” -The Meaning of Aeons
“Separate the dust in the flames with joy, and extract the exquisite from the crude. For all in the universe comes from a single source, and all things may be derived from a single thought.” -Cinnabar Spindle
I’ve been wanting to do some Rhinedottir speculations for a while. With the new Ancient Colors world quest in Fontaine, I think now is a good time to propose a theory about this mysterious member of the Hexenzirkel, her approach to alchemy, and the reason she is a “sinner,” especially within the context of one of the Archon Quest’s central questions: what does it mean to be “born with sin”?
SPOILERS: Up to Act II of the Fontaine AQ (just Primordial Sea stuff), and Ancient Colors.
Although Rhinedottir is never mentioned by name in Ancient Colors, all of the signs of her are there: Mamere’s identity as an artist, Elynas’ otherworldliness and similarities to Durin, and the differences between the Melusine’s perception of the world and our perception of it (or their aesthetics, which we will touch on later). Ancient Colors is trying to remind us of Dragonspine and, if you were playing during this time, Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, and I believe it is doing so because it is key to the secret of the Primordial Sea and the prophecy of Fontaine.
We’ve heard Rhinedottir’s perspective only twice so far, and that was in the Windblume festival from this last year and in Cinnabar Spindle’s lore. Though we still don’t know much about her, she does identify herself as a “mother” of many children, and that she is raising the only son she has left. This, of course, is Albedo.
We also know that she is considered a "sinner" at the center of the Cataclysm who unleashed "an army of shadowy monsters" onto Teyvat, but we have very little grasp of what exactly is meant by "sinner," and what if any consequences this label has had on her since then. Although every Hexenzirkel witch will undoubtedly be very important to uncovering the truth of Teyvat, Rhinedottir presents a particularly interesting case as the only one whose activities may have caused cataclysmic destruction, as opposed to Alice's general mischief and strange sense of humor.
It’s almost nothing to go off of, but I hope to demonstrate in this speculative theory that it’s more than enough to arrive at some answers.
Psychoanalysis 101, Round 2
To better explain what Durin, Elynas, and Rhinedottir’s other children are, we need to use an analogy rooted in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of dream interpretation. This is a super TL;DR version of it and way oversimplified, but if you’re interested I wrote a more detailed theory about the significance of dreams in Genshin that has a full explanation of it there. (Also, it should be said that these were just Freud’s theories, please do not take any of the following as an accurate description of the human psyche and how it works. We are just having some fun for the sake of media analysis.)
Freud thought that dreams are the mind’s means of expressing unfulfilled wishes, and that the psychological purpose of dreaming is to “fulfill” those wishes. In A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, he gives an example of this through a little girl’s dream where she was sailing on a lake: this dream was born out of an unfulfilled wish in her waking life, where she had to stop sailing on the lake despite wishing to continue. Hence, “I wish to sail on the lake” becomes “I am sailing on the lake” through the dream.
Further, Freud thought these unfulfilled wishes are “forgotten” in our unconscious mind when we are awake, censored by the ego to protect our conscious mind, but that at night this censorship is weakened. This is what allows a dream to occur while we sleep.
These unfulfilled wishes are often more complicated than a childish wish to keep sailing on a lake. Think about it this way: a wish is, at its core, a thought in our head, or a desire. What do we do with the thoughts we don’t like, the ones that are unbecoming of us or are unacceptable to fulfill?
We deny them.
Specifically, we repress them into the unconscious, where they are forgotten. Thing is, even if we temporarily forget these thoughts, they won’t just disappear from existence - they fester in the unconscious, waiting to be expressed. The dream, therefore, is the unfulfilled wish/repressed thought’s attempt to cross the boundary from the unconscious mind into the conscious mind - to be acknowledged, or indeed remembered.
“Unfulfilled Wishes”
Making sense so far? If so, try to think of Teyvat like this: everything that is visible, everything above ground that the light touches and that can be perceived is like the ego and conscious mind. All of these things are what you’re aware of, things that you “know” and can make sense of, things that you understand, things that fit into rules and laws and order.
Now, think of everything in Genshin that is “unseen” and “unknown”: the Abyss, the spaces underground, forbidden knowledge, things that are “not from this world,” from beyond the firmament…these are like things from the unconscious mind, the repressed thoughts that we deny in ourselves because they may reveal a truth we are unwilling to face. These things are comparatively chaotic in nature, things we’d rather avoid, or things that we wish to forget.
We know that Elynas’ and Durin’s bodies are composed of matter that’s foreign to Teyvat, and that this is a major reason why they are incompatible with Teyvat and cause its destruction. This would make them more similar to a repressed thought, something that we don’t understand or know, and attempting to understand it destabilizes our sense of self, our “truth.” It follows that their home, the Abyss, is most similar to our unconscious mind, and Teyvat is most similar to our conscious mind.
Elynas: Before I was born, I floated in the cosmic darkness. It was cold there, and lonely. I was so sad, then, and I would often cry.
So, as their mother, who or what is Rhinedottir in this analogy? Well, we can be a lot more specific than calling her a “sinner.” In fact, she’s a dreamer, and alchemy is the medium through which she “dreams”:
This was a story from long ago...
Unborn life, unfulfilled wishes,
Tragic dreams at the edge of the universal darkness that could never come true,
Indwell my body, and descend unto this world.
Then, my lovely children,
Like rainwater flowing into creeks, and plants growing towards the sun,
Go unto a lovely place, and display your own beauty there with pride.
This is a memory, a memory that a child named Durin had of his mother…
"Thank you, Mother, thank you."
"You gave me wings to soar and a mighty form."
"Mother, I wish to go to a land of lovely songs,"
"I will tell them about you, Mother, and about everyone else."
"I shall tell them that the place where I was born is beautiful."
-Festering Desire
Rhinedottir’s children, then, are like thoughts or ideas that she is bringing to life, or “making conscious,” by moving them from the Abyss to Teyvat. It may even be the reason why the sword from The Chalk Prince and the Dragon is called Festering Desire in the first place - it’s a reference to the idea of repressed thoughts, wishes, and desires festering in the unconscious.
Should the analogy hold true, it provides some insight into what her intentions may have been in creating her Abyssal dragons. But before that, we need to take a little detour into Enkanomiya and brush up on some lore.
Denouement of Sin
Eboshi: However, the heavenly order seemed to not wish for those who remembered all this to remain on the earth. We searched and searched for a road of return, but there was none to be found.
Remember these hologram-looking dudes? They are the Shades of Tokoyo, also known as Sinshades. They are described as afterimages of the former citizens of Byakuyakoku preserved by Istaroth’s favor, specifically those citizens’ most powerful emotions, and they are only visible during Evernight:
Eboshi: Due to the phenomenon known as Sinshades, the “past,” “history,” and “truth” of Enkanomiya would endure even if left to their own devices.
Eboshi: As such, great effort was expended, not that we might remember, but that we might “forget.” Lady Sangonomiya was of this view.
Like a dream, Sinshades only appear at night, and they are a kind of embodiment of history or “truth” that Watatsumi Island has chosen to forget, representing the thoughts and emotions of those who once lived in Enkanomiya. Using Freud’s theory of dream interpretation as a framework, Enkanomiya then functions as Watatsumi Island’s unconscious mind.
Put another way, if all Sinshades are the result of strong emotions preserved in time through Istaroth’s favor, then those emotions are like thoughts, and that would make the Sinshade a “physical” form or expression of those thoughts. So, when we call the afterimages the “Sins of Tokoyo,” we are in effect calling them the “Dreams of Tokoyo,” because they are the thoughts and emotions of Enkanomiya given form, and that’s what dreams do: they convey thoughts and feelings through a series of images.
Through the Sinshades, we see an implicit association with the concepts of dreaming and sinning in Genshin’s worldbuilding, and through them we understand that they are not so different from one another.
A Brief Note on Aesthetics
Jakob: Look at your feet. Blood, flowing like a river, fertilizing the very dust of the earth with their filthy fat.
It may have struck you how various Melusine perceived reality in a way that greatly differs from the things we see, as if at times their perception was “flipped,” if not somewhat strange. By the end of Ancient Colors, it’s clear that this is due to the Melusine being born of Elynas, who is not from this world. A similar phenomenon can be seen in both Durin and Elynas, the former imagining itself dancing with the people of Mondstadt before it “woke up” from this dream to Dvalin’s fangs in its neck, and the latter realizing that the things that it finds fun are destructive and harmful to the people of this world.
This is a part of the commentary present in several world quests and commissions in Fontaine that deal with “aesthetics,” or one’s own sense of beauty. Aesthetics are principles that differ on both large and small social scales, varying between groups of people and between individuals (see Salsa’s and Ubu’s aesthetic disagreement), and they can change throughout time as values change. In other words, they are informed by perspectives.
For example, think of what we know so far about the Primordial Sea. Neuvillette wonders how the Primordial Sea could be capable of giving life and then “suddenly reversing itself” so that it instead “devours life,” but this is just his judgment of what the sea does, and ultimately his perspective. Many others view the properties of the Primordial Sea differently from him: to them, the prophecy is comforting because it signals a “return,” or a “homecoming.” To take it a step further, Neuvillette may be making an assumption by stating that the sea has reversed itself. Perhaps this is just how the sea is, perhaps this is its “truth.”
Verenata: The "truth" will not be limited or constrained by the eyes and perspectives of the viewer, and won't be distorted by what is in their heart. It objectively exists, and it just is...like the white sand, like the bones of seastars, like the waves that crash and pound...those are "truth."
Now, imagine that you are staring at a 3D object from a 90 degree angle. If I ask you to describe the object from where you're standing, you'll be able to accurately tell me about what roughly half of the object looks like, but you won't be able to accurately describe the other half of it without help from someone standing on the other side of the object.
But how can you be sure there even is another side of the object, or that it's any different from the one you see now? From your perspective, what is already visible to you may seem sufficient to describe the object in its entirety. In other words, your perspective becomes your "truth."
It is only through considering additional perspectives that we broaden our own understanding of reality and expand on our "truth." However, broadening our perspective is usually not a comfortable experience, as is typical when we engage with ideas that differ from our own. Part of expanding our "truth" requires us to shatter our current understanding, pick up the pieces, and reassemble them into a shape that makes space for these other ideas and their "truth."
For example, when we confront Jakob at Elynas' heart, he describes the rushing currents beneath our feet as Elynas' blood. To the player, who has been swimming around in that for a couple of hours by that point, this idea is macabre and horrifying. However, when we consider Jakob’s perspective, his “truth,” it also expands our understanding of Elynas as a being that is somewhere between dead and alive, sleeping if you will, and that he is more than capable of waking up from his slumber with the appropriate stimulus. Another example is Canotila, who saw the wasteland in Rene's Book of Esoteric Revelations as a peaceful forest. When we consider Canotila's "truth," her aesthetic sense doesn't change the way we see the wasteland, but it does show us something equally important: the way that we experience the wasteland is not the only way it can be experienced.
If we return to the other ever-present metaphor of alchemy as a form of painting, we can see that Rhinedottir’s aesthetic sense greatly differs from what is acceptable and compatible with Teyvat. But, just like Mamere, she paints regardless of whether her paintings are understood by a greater audience. In time, Teyvat's "aesthetics" may change again, and perhaps her "art" will be received differently when that time comes.
Concluding Thoughts
(A pool full of Water from the Primordial Sea. Countless sins were born of it…)
So, that is why I think Rhinedottir was deemed a sinner. She sinned by “dreaming” up these chaotic life forms that were not from this world, bringing them into being through the Art of Khemia, and telling those chaotic life forms that they were beautiful, too, that the ordered and lawful world of Teyvat just needed to realize how beautiful they were. Maybe Rhinedottir was dreaming of a new world, one where her children’s wishes could be fulfilled, where they could exist with everyone, and maybe creating that world required the destruction of this one. You could also think of her as someone who has introduced “external variables” into Teyvat, which, hmmm..:
“...No matter how many times I derive it, the result remains the same, though this result is not expected... Unlike the world depicted in these ancient texts, there will be no more new civilizations born... Unless we consider introducing "variables" from outside the system... If it was that sort of power, there might be a chance…” -Enigmatic Page I, Book of Esoteric Revelations
In this way, her “children” (thoughts) were all “born with sin,” or are born from sin (dreams). If Rhinedottir is a dreamer, then alchemy is the way that she dreams: it allows her to give forms to these thoughts. And if you buy that, then there are some serious implications to consider from this whole notion of Fontainians being “born with sin,” and just what exactly the Primordial Sea might be. Definitely something to think about while we wait for 4.1.
One last point that is more of an aside than anything else: Rhinedottir’s only remaining child is Albedo, but through this lens we see that he is not just the culmination of the Primordial Human Project, the creation of a human through the power of alchemy, but also the only known example of Rhinedottir’s “ideas” that coexists with Teyvat as it is now. As for her known extant grandchildren, they have integrated with Fontainian society and don’t seem to cause them any trouble. I wonder if she knew something like that could happen?
But…that’s just my take on it so far. What do you think?
(also, fun fact: there is a parallel storyline to this one unfolding in Honkai Star Rail right now as it relates to being deemed a “sinner” for creating life, and another parallel storyline in Honkai Impact 3rd about creation and rebirth and “returning home to the sea” and I just love when Hoyoverse connects their games like that)
EDIT (9/8/2023): Touched this up a bit and made some grammatical corrections. Thesis is the same, some added support and re-phrasing was done to better convey it.
Sources
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
Kabbalah in the Worldbuilding of Genshin Impact; Part 1: The Tree of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Written by Schwan (@abyssalschwan on twitter) and Sabre (trashcanlore, @paimoff on twitter)
During the Sumeru Archon Quests, we learned that the Irminsul is a (real! (ish)) tree that grows upside down, seemingly underground, and that the roots of the tree are the Ley Lines, which extend throughout Teyvat and the Abyss. Irminsul stores all knowledge and memories in the world, and the Ley Lines are the mechanism by which the tree acquires this information. Ley Lines move elemental energy through Teyvat, which acts as both a storage medium for information but also a source power that can be utilized for combat, alchemy, an energy source (Azosite), etc.
The origin of the name Irminsul (unique to the Western localizations) in combination with the many names from Norse mythology associated with Khaenri'ah, suggest that the inspiration for Irminsul is Yggdrasil, the world tree and central axis of the cosmos in Norse mythology. Here we propose an additional inspiration for Irminsul and the associated worldbuilding and elemental system of Teyvat: The Kabbalistic Tree of Life. In this model, Teyvat’s elemental energy is comparable to the creative energy described by Kabbalah as the foundation for the creation of reality and the world. Specific attributes of elemental energy can be channeled by unique individuals in Teyvat and these attributes manifest as distinct elements, which can be directly compared to the 10 sefirot, or emanations, described in Kabbalistic literature.
What is Kabbalah?
Kabbalah (lit. received, tradition) is a school of thought originating in Jewish mysticism. In general, Kabbalah focuses on the relationship between the infinite (God) and the finite universe and how it was created. The goal of studying this mysticism can vary depending on the group studying and their motivations. Many of the esoteric and religious influences on Genshin lore and worldbuilding were influenced by Kabbalah, or vice versa. These include Gnosticism, Hermeticism, alchemy, Freemasonry, the occultist branches of Theosophy and Thelema (Golden Dawn), astrology, symbolic interpretation of the tarot (also specific to the Golden Dawn) and more [2]. In short, Kabbalah is everywhere. Additionally, its concepts are used as symbolism in several pieces of media that directly or indirectly inspired Genshin and other games in the Hoyoverse.
If you have frequented Genshin lore topics, you might have heard that one of the main sources of inspiration for it is Gnosticism. The problem is, Gnosticism is a bit vague or contradictory when it comes to how the world was created and how the whole existence thing works. At this current moment in the storyline of Genshin, we have very little information on the very beginning of existence in Teyvat. This information seems to be a crucial part of the “truth of the world” and appears to be purposefully hidden by powerful factions like Celestia. This entire theory was born out of trying to make sense of what little we know about the creation of Teyvat and comparing it to esoteric commentaries on the well known creation myth of the Torah (Old Testament). The “Biblical world structure” interpretation of Teyvat has been around since the early days of Genshin lore and with good reason; there are frequent mentions of the firmament, as well as the name Teyvat sounding very similar to the Biblical Hebrew word for ‘ark’ (although the grammar is a bit mangled). There are also several references to stories from the Bible in in-game texts, including Before Sun and Moon.
Kabbalah generally focuses on understanding and describing the process of how the world was created and the underlying principles of reality, as well as how spiritual practice can change that reality (either metaphorically or literally). To summarize something very complex, Kabbalah describes the “true nature of God,” which is equal with the entirety of existence, as something very vast and completely impossible to grasp. This incomprehensible infinity emits an “limitless light” that is the origin of all creation. Elemental energy (the ubiquitous source of everything in Teyvat) is often found compared to light, something we’ll discuss in more detail later. The “limitless light” of Kabbalah is way too powerful for existence to bear, much like how elemental energy is to normal, non-Vision having humans. That’s why this light needed to be “filtered” down. This happens through the process of creation, which passes the light through the spiritual attributes that form the Tree of Life, which is like a sort of diagram for how the universe came into being [3].
The Tree of Life
The tree of life and its 10+ nodes, known as sefirot, is one of the most well-known concepts from Kabbalah to make its way into popular culture. As mentioned previously, the tree has been used as rule-of-cool symbolism in anime such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Fullmetal Alchemist, two pieces of media that likely are significant influences on Genshin (If you doubt that HYV loves NGE, play some Honkai). The sefirot are also depicted on the floor of the Schicksal HQ map in Honkai Impact 3rd, for some reason.
The sefirot and their organization and interactions with each other can be found depicted in many ways, such as the tree format that is the most popular, or a spiraling nested scheme that is really cool, or even very stylized, like the work of Robert Fludd.
Sefirot
Sefirot comes from the root word in Hebrew meaning “to count,” but you can also find it translated as “sphere” in some texts. The term originated in a book on Jewish mysticism called the Sefer Yetzirah, or “Book of Formation/Creation.” which describes the combination of the “sefirot of nothingness” and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the foundation of reality (remember the hypostasis codenames?).
The Sefer HaBahir (lit. the book of brightness, 13th century France) introduces the idea that the sefirot are emanations of the divine. Interestingly, this book refers to the sefirot as ma’amarot (sayings), which builds on an important concept in classical Jewish philosophy – the idea that God spoke the world into existence. [We’ll get back to the Sefer Yetzirah and the role of language in creating the world in a subsequent part of this theory].
Historically, Kabbalah might have taken this rough concept from a very different school of thought: Pythagoreans or neo-Platonists. Briefly, the connection between the Pythagoreans and the Kabbalistic sefirot is that both groups considered the world as being made of numbers. This ties back into Genshin worldbuilding because of how much Platonism is related to Gnosticism. Something else to keep in mind is that Pythagoreans (who had a cool history that connected Egypt and Greece to the magic of ✨math✨ but also hey Genshin lore hello Deshret) were known to use lyres as their instrument of choice while making mathematical studies of music. More sus Venti lore for the collection? This is also interesting to consider in the context of Nahida, who is deeply connected to the Irminsul, and has animations that are reminiscent of computers.
Later in the 13th century, the Kabbalist Isaac the Blind would 'canonize' the list of sefirot (there’s still some variation to this day) and organize them into a sequence that would become the basis for the famous Tree of Life structure. His writings described the sefirot as attributes of the divine and their role in the creation of the world. In his model, the sefirot originated from lights that emerged from a primordial soup of potential, and these sefirot/lights would then ‘flow’ and emanate into each other. His student, Azriel of Gerona, expanded on this with a neo-Platonic lens and introduced the concept of the Ein Sof, the infinite nothingness that cannot be comprehended and is the origin of everything. In this model, being flows from an infinite resource of potential, which the divine can utilize through the framework of the sefirot, eventually creating the world [4]. In simple terms, the Ein Sof, which contains everything, emits a primordial light that then differentiates into the sefirot. In our Genshin analogy, this primordial light would be like extremely pure elemental energy that differentiates into elements, like light passing through a prism.
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, an important figure in the development of Kabbalah, described the process of the sefirot differentiating with the analogy of light shining through a stained glass window:
Imagine a ray of sunlight shining through a stained-glass window of ten different colors. The sunlight possesses no color at all but appears to change hue as it passes through the window. The light has not essentially changed though it seems so to the viewer. Just so with the sephirot. The light that clothes itself in the vessels of the sephirot is the essence, like the ray of sunlight. That essence does not change color at all, neither judgment nor compassion, neither right nor left. Yet by emanating through the sephirot -- the variegated stained glass -- judgment or compassion prevails. (Pardes Rimmonim by Moses Cordovero, translated in Essential Kabbalah by Daniel Matt)
Cordovero considered the sefirot to be completely independent of each other, but the later Lurianic school of Kabbalah (we’ll get into them more in later parts) considered the sefirot to be constantly dynamically interacting with each other and also assigned them personas.
Sefirot and the Genshin Elemental System
Achievement grinders amongst us may recall the descriptions of the namecards you get upon completing the Elemental Specialist achievement series:
Achievement: Colors of the Rainbow: Light can refract into countless colors, but people stop at seven because they're too lazy to count. Perhaps the elements are like that, too.
Achievement: Seven Lights: Anyone can play a tune that belongs just to them, and like the dew under grass, can reflect the seven lights of heaven.
Another example of the elements being compared to light is the Latin text found on the magic circles on the door of Mona’s future house in Mondstadt and generated by the hypostases during their missile attacks. The text reads:
Ex culmine lucis in magno elementorum, which translates to "From the peak of light, to greatness of the elements."
It’s interesting to see this text appearing in association with the hypostases since they are described as “life forms which have completely abandoned their former appearance and biological structure, making them able to reach the highest level of elemental purity. They are ultra-compact structures with a high mass, and are the highest forms of elemental structures.” The hypostasis code names are also all Hebrew letters, as mentioned earlier.
Mona’s astrolabe during the Unreconciled Stars event features a similar text:
Ex culmine locis in magno elementorum; Lux se effundat in mentes dei, which translates to "From the peak of light, to the greatness of the elements; May light pour out, into the minds of god."
The Abyss Lector catalysts contain a text that mirrors these two examples:
Ex culmine lucis in mango obscuritas. Lux se effundat in mentes abysso, or “From the peak of light, to the greatness of darkness. May light pour out into the minds of the abyss.”
The Genshin elements are also described as flowing. For example, a loading screen tip specifically describes the Ley Lines as “A mysterious network that links the whole world together, within which flow the elements.” The Silver Twig description states: "All knowledge, memory, and experience flow through this giant tree, just like a stream flows into a river, the river joins a sea, the sea turns into clouds, and the clouds rain onto the ground — just like life itself."
The 10 (sometimes 11) sefirot are:
Keter: Crown (this one is even more symbolic that the rest, is described as “the most hidden of all hidden things" in the Zohar, represent things that are above the mind’s comprehension and the very beginning of the process of turning potential into reality)
Chokhmah: Wisdom
Binah: Understanding/Reasoning
(Da’at: Knowledge, as a fusion of Chokhmah and Binah)
Chesed: Loving Kindness or Mercy
Gevurah: Strength/Severity, (sometimes Din, Judgement, or Pachad, Fear)
Tiferet: Beauty/Harmony, is associated with balance of the Tree of Life
Netzach: Eternity/Endurance
Hod: Splendor/Glory
Yesod: Foundation (as in, foundation of reality)
Malkhut: Kingdom/Sovereignty
You’ve probably noticed by now that while we are claiming that the concept of the sefirot applies to the elemental system in Genshin, there are 10 sefirot and only 7 elements (for now). Fortunately for us, the Kabbalists love metaphors and categories. In addition to the sefirot representing the procedure used to ‘emanate’ and create the world, there are other methods of interpretation that further subdivide and rank the sefirot. For example, one metaphorical interpretation of the Tree of Life assigns each of the sefirot to a part of the human body.
In the Chassidist Kabbalist tradition of interpreting the tree, the 10 sefirot are divided into two categories: Intellect (Keter, Binah, Chokhmah) and Emotions (they’re actually more like character traits), which contains the remaining seven. These categories are meant to parallel how the soul is also divided into the intellect and emotional components. The first three sefirot are also referred to as the “three mothers,” because they are the source of the lower seven [5].
Having a group of seven sefirot is very convenient for comparing their traits to the elements and their ideals, but what about the role of the higher three in Genshin worldbuilding? This next section requires a bit more conjecture than some other comparisons here.
The source of all elemental energy in Teyvat, whatever that actually is, could be compared to Keter (crown), the most hidden and incomprehensible of the sefirot. (Big stretch, but think of the crowns over the Irminsul trees in domains.)
Next, we have the Ley Lines, which contain dreams and memories (these are basically the same in Teyvat, see Dream Solvent description), and these can be compared to Binah (understanding/reasoning) and Chokhmah (wisdom). During the Sumeru Archon Quest, Rukkhadevata says that dreams are the source of the wisdom she upheld as her ideal. Memories play an important role in discerning the truth of the world, as the traveler has now found themselves to be the only person to remember certain people/events, and has been told to trust their memories rather than what they can see.
Comparison of the 'Lower' Sefirot to the Genshin Elements and Their Ideals
Chesed (loving-kindness); Cryo (unknown, theorized to be love)
The Cryo Archon’s ideal is theorized to be love, as it’s the only characteristic mentioned in relation to her in the Travail trailer. Wanderer’s voiceline about her directly mentions love and describes her as being kind and benevolent, while Childe describes her as extremely gentle. These are the characteristics of Chesed, which represents the trait of completely selfless love: the all forgiving, all giving love of a god towards their creations. When it comes to the Cryo element itself, two things are worth mentioning: one is the way that all of Snezhnaya is perpetually covered in snow, as if this were the (ironic) physical expression of the Tsaritsa’s love blanketing them. The second is the promise of a world-encompassing snowstorm that will envelop everything as the Fatui advance on their war against Celestia. Although it’s hard to find one absolute constant in Vision granting stories, it’s notable that most Cryo users got their Vision at a moment when they had to selflessly be there for others (Diona, Chongyun, Mika), or after a decisive moment where they put aside their personal comfort for an ideal that would result in benefit for others (Kaeya, Eula, Layla).
Gevurah (Severity); Hydro (Justice)
Gevurah is associated with divine judgment, the kind that punishes humanity and causes world-altering catastrophes like the flood or the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The Hydro Archon organizing her nation around a Court that attempts to judge both deities and humans parallels this. In a more positive sense, Gevurah is also related to moral judgment that allows one to tell good from evil Likewise, Hydro in-game is often associated with purity and separation of clean and unclean matter. When it comes to Hydro Vision wielders, one common characteristic is that they all live by a personal ethical code, and their commitment to it is what granted them their Vision.
Tiferet (Beauty/Harmony); Anemo (Freedom)
Tiferet balances the other sefirot on the tree and has direct connections to almost all of them (except for Malkut). Similarly, Anemo can facilitate many elemental reactions via its Swirl reaction. In our opinion, something almost all the Anemo characters share is that their moment of receiving a Vision coincides with a moment of balance and harmony with themselves or their environment. See Jean and Kazuha’s Vision stories and the cutscene where Scaramouche/Wanderer gets his Vision. As an aside, comparing harmony to Anemo is funny because Venti is a bard and harmony is also a musical term: in music theory, harmony is the way we analyze the interactions between different voices that can be heard at the same time.
Netzach (Eternity); Electro (Eternity)
The quality of “Eternity” in Netzach is related to victory against enemies, referring to eternity as being the most powerful combatant remaining among defeated adversaries. Likewise, in Genshin the story of the Electro Archon features many battles during the Archon War where Ei and Makoto ended up victorious. As for Electro users tend to have their Vision granted at a moment when their ambition “defeated” the obstacles of reality, as was the case with Fischl, Kuki and Lisa. Cyno’s Vision story makes sense when you compare it to the illumination of Buddha during meditation, and how this was victory over the temptation of the demon Mara.
Hod (Glory); Pyro (War)
Natlan and its Pyro Archon are possibly the most mysterious of all the regions, so we can only speculate. We know that the Pyro Archon is called the God of War, and that the Pyro Gemstone mentions battles, pilgrimages and truth. The sefira of Hod, translated as Glory or Splendor, is linked to being able to connect with God and therefore also associated with prophecy (as in the way a human can carry a message from God). In the Travail trailer, the Pyro Archon tells the traveler that “the rules of war are woven in the womb.” It's also theorized Natlan will be based on Mexica culture (where sacrifice of both enemies and self sacrifice was a way to connect with the gods) and via Iansan's name, the Caribbean diaspora version of Yoruba religion (where many rites involve the gods making themselves present in the material world).
Yesod (Foundation); Dendro (Wisdom)
Back when we started to think about this theory during version 2.8, we decided on Yesod largely via process of elimination. One piece of our rationale was that in the Jewish tradition, each of the lower seven sefirot are used to represent a primary personality trait of seven archetypal figures in the Torah. The person related to Yesod is Joseph, who is well known for his prophetic dreams, and because of the events of the Golden Apple Archipelago, we decided that was close enough. However, the 3.x version confirmed that a) Irminsul did actually exist, b) Dendro as an element has a deep relationship with the tree, with the Dendro Archon acting as its avatar, c) the ideal of wisdom as both Dendro Archons interpreted it has a lot to do with dreams, and d) Irminsul and the Ley Lines act as the foundation for how reality is perceived in Teyvat. Yesod is also associated with biological life, as it represents the reproductive organs in the human body scheme of the sefirot.
Malkut (Kingship); Geo (Contracts)
Malkut is associated with the connection between the spiritual "above" of the Tree of Life and the concepts it contains, and the "below" of the material world, where these concepts manifest into material reality. For this reason, Malkut is associated with the earth [6]. In many Geo item descriptions, like the Geo Hypostasis drop or Albedo's elemental skill, the motif of geo trying to reach the sky is a constant. From a religious POV, the relationship between the divine and humans living in the material world has also been one of "covenants," or "pacts", in a similar way to how the Geo Archon is the God of Contracts. Furthermore, contracts are the basis to have a working state (government), and a kingdom is one of the first forms of a state. Malkut also being related to earth and everything material parallels how Geo is an element that works in making constructs. Geo Vision users are likewise involved in making or maintaining structures, like the Knights of Favonius is for Noelle, or the tradition of alchemy is to Albedo, as well as opera to Yunjin and in a way, even the Oni identity for Itto.
The Origin of Evil and Why Irminsul is Upside Down
Along with Kabbalah's very detailed explanation of how the world and all its positive attributes was created, there is also an explanation of how evil came to be. The analogy used in this explanation is vessels being filled with a liquid, which refers to the primordial light from Ein Sof described earlier, also referred to as "Limitless Light." After filling the vessel, the liquid then overflows into more vessels beneath the original. The higher vessels have the purest form of this liquid, and the more it’s poured "down", the more diluted it is. When the upper "vessels” of the higher sefirot were filled everything was fine, but when the vessel of Judgement (Gevurah) was being filled, the power of the Limitless Light overflowed and the vessel broke. In other words, Judgement or Severity got out of control, and this caused a catastrophe. Eventually creation continued, but (at least in the dominant, Lurianic Kabbalah tradition, as there are many interpretations) the vessel of Judgement remained broken [7].
One could compare this perpetual dysfunction of Gevurah to the mismanagement of Teyvat by the Heavenly Principles. The Heavenly Principles, who seem to be in charge of keeping the "good" of life in Teyvat separate from the dangers of the "evil" abyss, don't seem to be in control enough to keep their efforts from destroying the lives of innocents or even entire civilizations.
Even though the Judgement of God is severe, Kabbalists still consider it part of divine nature, and therefore inherently good. So what does this imbalance in Gevurah have to do with the origin of evil?
After the vessel that contained the overflowing Judgement broke, the shards of the broken vessel fell beyond the "space" of creation, into the void left behind during the creation of the world. These "shards'' are also referred to as "husks" (Qlippoth, lit. husks or shells) and become the origin of evil in the form of demonic beings [8]. Sounds familiar? We actually have an enemy with this name in-game; the "shadowy husks" (the CN name for these enemies literally translates to "empty shell"). In Kabbalah, the "husks" and the demons born from them form a "dark" mirror to the Tree of Life (it's sometimes called Tree of Death in Western esotericism, but it's not a term original to Jewish Kabbalah).
However, unlike the very well defined 10 sefirot of the Tree of Life, Kabbalists don't seem to agree about the identities of the Qlippoth that form the "left hand side", or as it is called in Hebrew, the Sitra Achra. Some names for these demons are consistent, such as Lilith, Samael, and Asmodeus, who make a sort of "mother, father, son" trio. As for the rest, and also the many other demons that were born from them, scholars generally agree that Kabbalists blended traditions from nearby cultures depending on where they lived, leading to Arabic, Spanish and Germanic legends mixing into the Jewish tradition [9]. There's a strong possibility Hoyoverse did something similar and filled in the missing names with the names of the demons of the Ars Goetia.
Theory/speculation time: The demons of the Sitra Achra are none other than the Archons that rule the modern Teyvat, including both the ones defeated during the Archon War and the current Archons that rule the nations.
Besides the concept of the mirrored Tree and associated demons, another piece of evidence is the similarities between the role of the Gnoses (and the power they give the Archons) and the nature of the Qlippoth. When the shards of the broken vessel of Gevurah fell into the void, they still retained some "sparks" of the Divine Light, like embers that jump out of a fire. But just like embers, these sparks couldn't sustain themselves when separated from the Limitless Light inside the void. That's why the demon-like Qlippoth have to prey on the living beings of the material world who are more directly descended from the divine, so they can "steal" some of their life energy [10].
The Archons in Genshin require a similar system. In the Flower of Paradise Lost artifact lore, the Goddess of Flowers explained to Deshret and Rukkhadevata that when the Seelie race was disgraced, they lost their connection to Heaven and, literally, their power of "enlightenment". After that, the Archon War was started with the promise of each winning god being granted a Gnosis that would give them exceptional power. Both Nahida and Venti have described the Gnoses as being a very advanced tool that concentrates elemental energy: it channels it, but it doesn't create it. Archons have inherent powers related to their nature, but when it comes to controlling elemental energy, they aren't creators but channelers of it, just at a much bigger proportion than humans who have Visions.
So now we have our explanation as to why the Irminsul is upside down. Or rather, it's the residents of Teyvat who are standing on the opposite side: the Teyvat we know today is the Teyvat of the Sitra Achra, ruled by demons.
However, this doesn't mean Teyvat is condemned. Just as Traveler has slowly been setting the chaos of elemental energy back into order (by, for example, returning the elemental Oculi to the Statue of the Seven, among many other things), so too is there a concept in Kabbalah describing the importance of righting the wrongs of the universe so that the sefirot are stable and creation is in harmony with the divine. This is called Tikkun Olam, or the repairing of the world. Stay tuned for part 2 where we go into wayyyyy more detail about what this means for the Traveler's journey through Teyvat!
Reasons why you should read Durandal's Visual Novel for Hoyoverse Lore even if you don't play Honkai
Disclaimer: this is not an in-depth summary of the story.
Rather, this post will go through a single conversation to show people the depth of lore hidden in Durandel's VN… and maybe convince you to consider reading it if you want to expand ideas for Hoyo lore.
Since I'm not going to be covering the story here, there will be events and things referenced that I won't be giving anything but a brief explanation of, but even without knowing all the details... I think the lore will speak for itself
I guess the most important thing to know before reading is that two people (Valkyries) from the Honkai Impact 3rd world - Durandal (Bianka) and Rita - have used a device called a Genius to travel to a new world… universe… thing ... which we will simply refer to as a world for the context of this post...
Onward!
***
First, it mentions how there are different versions of people across different worlds. Not super mind blowing if you’re familiar with hoyo lore… but good to cover the basics of the hoyo multi-verse lore.
Bianka: Uh… can I ask a question now?
Darwin: Go ahead. What’s the matter?
Bianka: Just now… you said your last name was Darwin, right? It wouldn’t be the one from “Origin of the Species”…
Darwin: Oh, you mean my dad? Indeed, before I left that world he was planning on writing such a book.
Darwin: I’m happy to learn that his book changed people’s worldview for the following century.
Bianka: Oh… you’re his “daughter”?
Bianka: But in that case, wouldn’t the “Origin of the Species” you read be the work from a different world’s Professor Charles?
Darwin: Nope. As far as I’m aware, from all known worlds, there is only one Darwin who published “Origin of the Species”, married and had children, who is my father.
***
Then we revisit an earlier event in the story where the High Priestess is converted into data in the Sea of Quanta (and its not a good experience for her I can tell you that...). This part of the story (the Zarathustra portion) is so incredibly lore heavy... and the fact Zarathustra connects to Genshin, Honkai, and Star Rail....
Anyways, what should be focused on here (aside from the Sea of Quanta data portion) is the acknowledgement of Different Universes
Bianka: Huh?
Bianka: Then just like the “High Priestess” of the Yucatan, you spent so long in the form of data in the Sea of Quanta that it resulted in an apparent time leap?
Darwin: …It’s essentially different.
Bianka: But… in your case we can’t use “Different Universes have different starting points and different flows of time” as an excuse!
Darwin: Because that’s not the case. And I’m not immortal like the “snake” you met.
***
But then things get REALLY SUPER INTERESTING because now we're talking about people who are copies of others.... (Theory of Forms intensifies), but also... it covers the results of death and how these copies are a result of the world's structure
(The term Star Whisperer is also an important concept but that is also out of scope for this junk post)
(Edit from original post: the Ether Anchor is kind of like the core/backbone of the world…)
Darwin: The reason why there is a time contradiction in what I said is--
Darwin: I’m a Star Whisperer born from the death of someone. A mere copy.
Bianka: “Born from death”? “Copy”? What are you talking about?
Darwin: The real “Anna Charles Darwin” died of illness at the age of 10.
Darwin: The one standing in front of you is just an afterimage inherited from the Sea of Quanta.
Bianka: ……？！
Darwin: Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m a ghost or a spirit. This is just the result of applying the Ether Anchor’s ability of “copying the world” on “people”.
***
Theeeeeennn we start talking energy shenanigans.... Selene designed to put Honkai Energy under control to use it for creating new Negentropy....
(I'm going to stop highlighting things at this point I trust if you've read this far that you want to find the goodies and I don't need to convince you further)
Darwin: Be it the achievements of civilization or intelligent life, they are ultimately an amount of “Negentropy”. You can use the “Ether Anchor” as a “medium” to “balance” the "Negentropy".
Schrodinger: …And Negentropy and Imaginary Energy - That is, Honkai Energy - are associated with each other.
Schrodinger: In theory, we could indeed do the opposite: Use Honkai Energy under control to create new Negentropy.
Schrodinger: -That is the basic principle behind the “Selene”.
Darwin: Haha, as expected of Dr. Schrodinger, who proposed the theory behind Negentropy - You already seem to understand what I’m talking about.
Bianka: Well, what are you talking about?
Schrodinger: ……
***
Our next topic is energy manipulation to copy things out of thing air.... (*looks at teapot and puts adepti energy into super sus category*)
Additionally, the Ether Anchor (the "backbone" of the world they're in) is "salvaging info from the sea of quanta"... hm...
Schrodinger: Valkyries, do you know the power of the “First Herrscher”?
Bianka: You mean the “Sovereign” of Anti-Entropy? He can copy all kinds of mechanical devices, Sacred Relics and even Divine Keys out of thin air, right?
Schrodinger: A good summary, but if we’re being technical… he doesn’t make those copies out of “thin air”.
Schrodinger: On the contrary: By manipulating the Honkai Energy stored in his body he creates reason, making constructs out of something similar to “Negentropy”.
Schrodinger: Generally speaking, Honkai Energy is almost impossible to control - but he is a herrscher, a superpower beyond human comprehension.
Schrodinger: Miss Darwin… Your “Ether Anchor” has a similar power, but you can’t manipulate it as you wish, correct?
Darwin: Hmm… To be more precise, the “Ether Anchor Point” can’t be controlled at all.
Darwin: It, by itself, is “salvaging” information that can be restored from the Sea of Quanta - An ocean of data.
***
This next portion is covering why the two characters from the Honkai world are able to appear in this world as themselves instead of as copies
Darwin: Those two Valkyries there must have gone through the experience of being informatized and later rematerialized.
Darwin: - That is a specially targeted “salvage”.
Darwin: This type of “salvage” is always happening in the “present continuous”, therefore their souls and consciousness also remain the same - Even if they show up on the other side of the world, they are still themselves.
Darwin: But the information of “Anna Charles Darwin” is already “past perfect”, the Ether Anchor just happened to read this vanishing data from the Sea of Quanta and restore it.
Darwin: …That’s why I can be sure I’m just a copy of a historical figure.
Darwin: Perhaps there is a more complex mechanism out there that can truly revive the dead - But this world’s “Anchor” can not.
Anyways... that's all for now!
Read the VN!! (it’s available in CN and EN… not sure about other languages)
There's collective consciousness, Alice, Zarathustra, snake-y things, people turning into dragons... and much more!
One twin “of-the-world”, one twin “divine”? That doesn’t sound familiar at all…
Gnosticism is a term used to refer to a number of religious systems that believe salvation is achieved through gnosis, the “knowledge of spiritual truths”. Humanity contains “divine sparks” that are trapped in the material world (typically a reflection/imitation of the divine world), and are only harvested saved through gnosis.
There’s also a lot of philosophies that influenced or were influenced by Gnosticism (*cough*theory of forms*cough*) … but that’s a topic for a different day.
For now, what DOES matter is that the Genshin developers told us the basis for the world of Teyvat is Gnosticism. However, across Gnosticism, there is an incredibly wide variety of beliefs… and I’m under the impression that when hoyo said they pulled ideas from Gnosticism… they meant Teyvat is a smörgåsbord composed of bits and pieces of different Gnostic ideas… and also non-Gnostic ideas… but I really can cover so much…
This post will be covering Manichaeism (personal thoughts will be colored blue) one of the few (if not the only) Gnostic religions to make it’s way all the way to China~
… and that was a really long into into what is basically just going to be a notes post. Oof.
Disclaimer: this post will be updated as I find new notes, expand on ideas, and fix errors… additionally, there’s multiple differences between Persian and CN Manichaeism but it’s really hard to find info so I did my best… anyways.
Manichaeism - General
Manichaeism was founded by Mani. Mani was called the “Lightbringer” by his followers (lightbringer… bringer of light… morning star… I’ll end the rabbit hole there since it’s definitely not the route the belief was going)
Manichaeism intended to be ecumenical - of, relating to, or representing the whole body of churches -> integrate partial truths of other religions/prophets that came before him (Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus)
In additional to “prophets” given above, in China Mani was viewed as the reincarnation of Laozi (Daosim)
I listened to an audio sermon for this storyline, so if it’s wrong 😑
The Godhead rules the Realm of Light (RoL), and is known as the 4 phased god.
The outer realm, the Realm of Darkness (RoD), is ruled by a terrible dark king -> The dark king is heavy, course, unwieldy, inflexible -> realm of darkness translates to matter.
The dark king’s kingdom is turbulent and disorderly. It’s own restlessness (turbulence) caused it to pass beyond its own boundaries into the RoL. Once there, it desired to mingle with and possess the light.
Thus, the RoL, invaded/violated by a dark external force, is attacked. (this is comparable to the Sophia portion of Sophia-sinner Gnostic branches)
With the integrity of the RoL broken, it was initially helpless to defend completely against the dark invasion, but eventually repelled the denizens of the RoD.
To prevent this from happening again, the God of Light descended a portion of itself into the RoD… to track the evildoer down and neutralize it.
This portion of the God of Light is called the Primal Man primordial one much? (Antropos / Ormazhd / The Spirit). The Primal Man and his hosts go to the RoD to capture and defeat the darkness. But during the battle, the hosts mingle with the darkness (captured / sacrificed). In order to accomplish the defeat, they themselves must be captured/sacrificed.
Primal Man is scattered/dismembered; essence now co-mingled with the darkness (this is the 2nd catastrophe) [god is dead - thus spoke Zarathustra ?]
1st catastrophe (Invasion of light realm) and 2nd catastrophe (defeat of the primordial one primal man) occur before the material world is created.
But now it’s created I guess (this isn’t really explained except one source saying that the world was intentionally created to become a prison for the prince of darkness, but the divine are still harvesting their scattered primordial one out apparently maybe)
The Awakened (those with gnosis) liberate light within themselves -> as their light awakens, can liberate and awaken those around them -> the light in oneself reaches out and returns the light of those around them (even without those around them awakening) [this might be a parrallel for gnosis and visions, or visions and visionless … thinking on how vision holder story quests are always helping out a rando npc]
Shape of light / columns of light -> vehicles for light to gather and return the light to its source. (suspicious stare at archon light columns) The body is also a vehicle, which gathers light from food and consumed … things… as well as from interacting with others. Hence people with gnosis are “light-gatherers”
Mani uses moon as symbol — Moon is the shape of light. Moon fills with light, then unloads it’s light into the heaven (symbolic?) (maybe genshin moon can’t unload cause the heavens are dead idk)
Semi-Random Scriptures(?)
I found the ships. Ships like the sun and moon, ferry me to the sun and moon. Oh, ferry boat of light that hovers over the 3 realms, disperse this dark cloud that is before my eyes. […] take me to the land of the angel gods
3 realms? Angel gods? Ships ferrying souls?
Jesus came and went in the land and looked for the stones. Went to the seashore and gathered the pearls. The stones are the hard encasement in which the (?) dwells. He went and found the jewels and brought them to the treasure house
Treasure house = Celestia?
HEAVENLY TWIN TIME
So, Mani had a divine heavenly twin, sometimes referred to as their twin angel.
Divine twin -> dualism of Mani is rooted in the duality (dichotomy) of the human ego (terrestrial personality?), and the transcendental being. Angelic part of the human. Divine twin is one’s higher self.
Similar to “shining being” (Greek) -> with divine twin, you can join the heavens.
Mind/body are not part of the higher self, because they can be corrupted by matter. (Divine spark is higher self then? … I’m not sure it explained)
To be continued…
(But seriously I have so many notes but this is a good starting point probably)
The Source Song splits into individual melodies of the soul.
1. The Heavens Create Time
“The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called planets, were created by him in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of time…” - Plato (Timaeus)
Note: In many Gnostic branches, the sun, moon, and 5 planets are associated with the 7 archons.
Furthermore, the existence of the heavens (created by the demiurge) and time cannot be separated.
“Time, then, and heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together.” - Plato (Timaeus)
2. The Heavens Create Music
Musica universalis. Harmonice Mundi.
Music of the spheres. Harmony of the World.
Per the Harmonice Mundi wiki entry, Johannes Kepler wrote on on the harmonic proportions in music, astrological configurations, and planetary motion.
The Nymph’s Dream Artifact Set & The Story Within (Part 1)
WARNING: This post contains spoilers for quests in the Genshin 3.6 update
Ok, with the spoiler disclaimer out of the way, it’s time to get started theorizing about the Nymph’s Dream artifact set and it’s rather abstract story!
The story within the artifact set can be broken up into 3 categories
The prophecy, recorded as a fairytale
The story of the children of the Narzissenkreuz Institute
The overviews of “story-telling devices/themes”
To try and cover all these different aspects in a coherent manner, the post is broken up into the following sections.
Section 1: The Story’s Identities — covers speculation on who the people in the story are, as well as the purpose of the institute. The most important part of this section are the names of the speculated children, but I included speculation for other roles as well for funsies
Section 2: The Story of the Hero and the Dragon — a re-telling of the story of the children using the identities defined in Section 1
While the next two sections won't be included in this post, they will be included in Part 2
The Prophecy — who’s involved, what it’s about, and how it connects Section 2 to Section 4 :)
The Story-Telling Devices — the importance of these sections, and what they mean when looking at the past, present, and potential future (based on existing lore).
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Section 1: The Story’s Identities
In this section, the most important characters for the speculated story are Alain and Rene. I’ll be covering other characters/roles in this section… but most of the artifact set (per my interpretation) is about them.
The Narzissenkreuz Institute
The purpose of the Institute, ran by the Director and Vice Director, isn't exactly clear, but let's go over what we know or can infer.
Based on the Heroes' Tea Party artifact, the Institute appears to be located underground, or at least in a place where that "would not see the light of either sun or moon".
It contains many children that often play out the roles of heroes and dragons in stories, but more importantly, these children seem to be elemental/seelie beings.
The first hint of this is also in the Heroes' Tea Party, when the Director hugs the little girl... resulting in her clothes getting soaked... which sounds a lot like what would happen if you hugged one of the lochfolk.
We also learn from Rene's notes that he and Jakob are of "a similar composition" to the "sacred lotus".
If we super summarize the origin of the sacred lotus as "from the Goddess of Flowers"... then Rene and Jakob having a similar composition means they're very similar to something that comes from a Seelie... which also lines up with the watery-hug in the previous example coming form the lochfolk.
We're also told that Oceanids come to the Vourukasha Oasis in search of their god, which could line up with Rene and Jakob's trip.
They aren’t a super great fit since previous Oceanids have names that align with Oceanids in mythology, and they're always female in myths... but since we don't know what creative liberties hoyo might take, I still think it's a possibility.
Ok, so the Instistute is hidden from the sun and moon, and holds at least a couple of children who may or may not be related to the Seelie's. But why?
Clarification: the next statement is pure speculation, and in no way related/important to understanding the artifact set…
...but I think it could have to do with statements made by the Goddess of Flowers about not being able to look upon the heavens and struggling to maintain her form. If those two ideas are connected (maintaining form by not looking upon the heavens) ... then maybe the Institute helps hide seelie-related-children who haven't lost their form from the "light of the heavens"... or something.
... Might also explain Rene and Jakob's very strange idea of growth (3 teeth... what...)
Definitely a stretch, and not super important to the story within the set... so lets get back on topic.
The Hydro Archon as the Director (or Vice Director)
From the Vourukasha Oasis artifact set, as well as multiple other references, we know the Hydro Archon was killed during the cataclysm, and her body became the Amrita.
Also during the cataclysm, the Director and her sisters journey to 'defeat the evil at its source'...
Considering the Vourukasha Oasis is located in the same area as a large door to Khaenri'ah, the Amrita is there, and a significant number of abyssal creatures flooded out from the area... I think its very likely the location the Director went to was the Vourukasha Oasis… and that she is the Hydro Archon who died there.
Now, one thing that threw me off a bit about the passage was the use of the term "Director and her sisters". The term 'sisters' immediately made me think Hexenzirkel, and a Hexenzirkel member being part of the Institute feels like it would go well with the "prophecy being turned into a story" part of the artifact set...
If the Director isn't the Hydro Archon, I think they’d still be a part of the story, just as the Vice Director instead. Support for the Hydro Archon in this role might be found on Rene’s notes:
In Rene's notes, he comments on how "seeing all this" (the Vourukasha Oasis), he believes the Vice Director will be "unable to return".
So, if they thought that the Vice Director was the one at the Vourukasha Oasis, and the Oceanids who journeyed their were in search of their dead god (per Zirvan), then maybe the Vice Director was the Hydro Archon instead.
Phew… so far we've speculated the identity of the Director and Vice Director, as well as the purpose of the institute. Now, it's time to talk about who actually matter for understanding the story...
The children of the Narzissenkreuz Institute.
Alain as "The Machine Lover" & "The Hero who slays the dragon"
Alain Guillotin is the founder of the Fontaine Research Institute of Kinetic Energy Engineering, and was considered a genius inventor. In particular, he was renowned for his inventions related to clockwork mechanisms and kinetic energy.
From Rene's notes, we also learn that he was at the Narzissenkreuz Institute. It doesn't specifically state that he was one of the children there, but there's a couple of descriptions related to clockwork and energy that would line up with him well.
We're told one of the children loved machines, and made a pocket watch eventually gifted to a friend...
We're also told the story of the hero, after becoming victorious over the dragon, 'conceives a kingdom powered by machines and energies not derived from the elements'.
Considering that the research institute established by Alain is specifically for "Kinetic Energy"... this description lines up well with researching power sources not derived from the elements (if that wasn't obvious already).
The question is... is Fontaine's power source a result of "kinetic energy research", or did the push for "kinetic energy research" result from the 'special' power source Fontaine runs off of?
I believe it's the latter... which bring us to the next character
Rene as "The Fell Dragon"
We learn in the "Fell Dragon's Monocle" set that the dragon "thinks of the time he once spent with the hero" prior to being slain, implying that the hero and dragon spent time together at some point.
Additionally, the one who Alain gave the pocket watch to eventually "fell into the primordial liquid that dissolves all"... which sounds very similar to the description of the dragon falling into the "chasm that dissolves all things".
So, then why Rene for this role? Well, out of three names we're given... (Alain, Rene, Jakob)... Rene seems like the best fit to me. It's very possible the role belongs to someone we haven't been introduced to yet... but we'll stick with Rene for now.
While I don't want to go to far in depth on Rene's notes (since evaluating those really needs a thread of its own), there's a couple of important points that make him a good fit for the fell dragon role:
The fact that his notes are being used by the Abyss Order in the first place makes the content of his research pretty suspect.
He uses some 'taboo' energy to keep Jakob and himself from weakening... and based on the description of Rene's notebook... with the goal of "surpassing mortality."
He and Jakob are running calculations to prevent the "destruction" caused by a certain "impact"... and eventually they come up with a solution they want to bring back and share with Alain.
In summary, Rene and Jakob go to the Vourukasha Oasis, possibly in search of the Director / Vice-Director, discover a way to utilize a certain energy to prevent some type of destruction (possibly of Fontaine... maybe from something like a divine nail dropping?), and want to bring the info back to Alain.
Assuming they actually make it back to Fontaine... If we consider that Rene was utilizing power with potentially dark implications... then it seems very likely that he, like almost everyone else who messes with taboo power, could have ended up becoming "evil"... at least in the eyes of Alain.
Rhodeia as "The New Arrival at the Institute"
As mentioned in the Institute subsection, a little girl gave the Director a hug that ended up with the Director getting soaked.
While I think this role could probably belong to any of the lochfolk, I'm giving it to Rhodeia because of what we learned about her during the Wishful Drops event.
During that event, Endora tells us that Rhodeia "fled Fontaine, harboring a longing for the previous Hydro Archon."
Rhodeia only desired to "keep the dreams of yesteryear alive."
Her desire to keep the dreams of yesteryear alive reminded me a lot of one of the sections about the children in the Odyssean Flower:
Some still reminisce endlessly over the afternoon adventures that have yet to continue...
Jakob
I don't want to leave Jakob completely out since he was one of the children at the institute, but I don't have too much to say about him. As far as the story goes, I speculate that when the Vice Director asks [redacted] to watch over [redacted], she's asking Rene to watch over Jakob, and that's why they're traveling together.
EDIT (added 2023-08-08)
It was pointed out in the comments by opticor that Jakob would be a good fit for the evil mage:
“regarding the [redacted] names, the children who are urged not to fight (the "knight" and "dragon") both have 2-symbol names, matching how Alain and Rene are written in Chinese; the second pair of children have 3-symbol names, and so does the one who is given the Vice Director's feather. given Jakob's preoccupation with her, i would assume he is the "evil mage" of the group (Jakob is spelled with 3 symbols)”— opticor
I really like the idea of Jakob as the evil mage… both Rene and Jakob having “evil” roles aligns well with them both being involved in the questionable energy experiments.
And looking at the feather description:
But in the end, this feather would never become the mystical staff used by some evil mage.
It would instead follow its new owner and reach the source of that which caused the calamity of parting, before returning to from whence it came...
The part about going to the source of the “calamity of parting” could refer to Rene and Jakob’s trip to the oasis!
END OF EDIT
Section 2: The Story of the Hero and the Dragon
Reminder: this story (more like a small fanfic XD) is based on the speculations in Section 1
The Narzissenkreuz Institute, run by the Director and Vice Director in a location hidden from the light of the Sun and Moon, is the home of many children.
The children, when not taking snack breaks, spend most of their time playing out the stories of heroes and dragons. While their existence is rather stagnant when looked at over the course of time… they live happy, carefree lives...
Until one day, the Director and Vice Director tell the children they have to leave on important business.
“... don’t go running outside,” the Vice Director tells them.
Sound advice, considering the world is being ripped apart by a cataclysm.
After giving Rene Jakob her prized feather, and promising to return, the Vice Director heads off the Director.
… but they never come back.
Eventually, Rene and Jakob leave the Institute, making their way to the Vourukasha Oasis in search of the directors.
Slowly, as they continue their research and experiments in the area, it becomes more and more clear that the Director and Vice Director won't be coming back as promised.
Their state slowly begins to weaken due to the unfavorable conditions, and Rene begins to become concerned that their trip back to Fontaine will become impossible.
Utilizing a power considered 'wrong' by pedantic adults, he alters his and Jakob's compositions so that they're able to live without sustenance. Not wanting Mr. Karl to becomes suspicious of the power he used, Rene tells Jakob they must continue to pretend to require sustenance, and to continue eating even though they no longer need.
They continue their research. Running experiments to prevent a 'greater destruction' caused by an 'impact', eventually theorizing that combined with their power and the divine will extracted out of an energy source, they can reflect the imminent destruction.
They return back to Fontaine, sharing what they've learned with Alain.
They utilize the energy source in Fontaine, and all is well for awhile.
Until one day, Rene's corruption from continuing to use the taboo power finally reveals itself. Alain learns the truth of the 'not fully understood' power Rene uses, as well as of his increasingly radical mindset.
Having no other choice, Alain knows he must slay the dragon to stop him.
Thus, Alain and Rene, children who grew up acting out tales of heroes and dragons with each other, become the hero and dragon of our story.
“... but if you had seen what I had…”
Alain, bittered by how the unnatural power darkened his friend, vows to never again believe in anything that the sum of human knowledge cannot completely grasp and understand, and to the end of his days, strives to make Fontaine a country powered by machines and energies not derived from the elements.
He founds the Fontaine Research Institute of Kinetic Energy Engineering, determined to free Fontaine from the unreliable and questionable power that Rene and he had put in place.
(Alternatively, Alain slays Rene as soon as he returns, and the unreliable energy source used by Fontaine is kinetic energy.)
The End
Ending Summary
So, there you have it! I know this theory makes a lot of assumptions, so it's certainly a super stretch, but I hope you enjoyed!
Part 2 will cover The Prophecy (why Narcissus is the Director, but not the dragon) and Story-Telling Devices that appear (taking a look at to Dehya's Story Quest, Rene Girard), so keep an eye out for it!!
... and maybe Part 3 to actually talk about the symbolism of the different names and such, but that seems a little overzealous, so going to try and finish up Part 2 first XD.
Thanks for reading!
Edited on 2023-08-08 to fix typos and add comment from opticor to Jakob’s section
In an effort to get a visualization on how complicated Genshin’s lore is, and in the stupid hope that I could possibly understand it, I’ve started transcribing all the info into Obsidian.
First I just started off with all the playable characters and their relationships
Then I categorized them all by element, region, and weapon type, so I could filter that out when needed.
Then I thought to myself “Artifact lord should be easy, it’s not that complicated right?
Right?
Oh how I wish I could tell earlier me the horrors I was about to experience
This is me 4 hours into mapping out the artifact lore. At this point I’m not even halfway through (to be fair 1 of those hours was just me trying to make the formatting look pretty)
Anywho, I’ve done a bit more work since then, and this is what the Lore Bubble looks like now
It’s getting there, and it’ll be a fun side project for now. Just did not realize how complex the artifact lore was. I had to do some major digging XD
I’m kind of focused on other lore shennanigans right now so I don’t have much to say on the livestream (for once), but here’s a few random thoughts for funsies.
Pari
Oh hey, Sorush looks like the door at the sanctuary… kind of…
Pari seem similar to a Seelie… like how the sanctuary door seems similar to the dragonspine domain’s floor diagram…. I wonder if Pari, Seelie, and Devs (abyss monsters) will turn out to be 3 variations of the same source.
Devs/Abyss Monsters: festered dream (chaotic jnana energy… the “unseelie”)
Seelie: grounded dream (cast out of heaven, trapped on earth. Regular transient dream energy)
Pari: ascended dream (maximized Jnana energy)
Anyways, that’s really it on that topic for now. Wiki Links I haven’t really looked into yet but seem related:
Peri — Sorush — Perispirit (the last one is unlikely, but since we don’t know much about Pari/Sorush’s purpose yet… and I’ve apparently had the tab open on my phone on Perispirits since Oct 2021… dropping the link in case maybe it finally matters 😅)
Abyss
The portal is a triangle in a circle at first… familiar much? Yes, yes it is. (Think darshan logos and iron coins)
Red + Blue = Purple… yay color coordinated triangle
More seriously (but only a little), the stars in the portal look closer to the starry pattern seen when walking on the eternal oasis water than anywhere else… imo.
Speaking of portals… is the dendro energy holding the portal shut? Hm…
Apep
I’m not going to go over the helix and spiral moves because I think we all get the point that spirals and helixes matter.
Instead…
LOOK AT THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL
Is Apep in the wall? In the ball? Does Apep exist at all? … 🤡
LOOK AT APEP DISSOLVING MATERIAL FOR SUSTENANCE
This part could actually be more important than it seems because it isn’t sucking the life out of the plant like the withering would. Instead, itseems to be dissolving the plant for the material it is made out of… which per theory of forms, is elemental energy… which makes sense for an elemental dragon originating from the pre-ordered elements era…
Ok yeah that’s all I got right now… thanks for reading!
Deshret, through the Goddess of Flower’s sacrifice of herself and the oasis, is able to learn the secrets of the elixir of life... the key to breaking the shackles of the material world.
The Goddess of Flowers, in her role as the goddess of dreams, was able to act as a bridge between the mortal (material) and the divine.
Dream images (phantasms) are created by the perception of the material world, and allow for transition/connection to the divine through phantasia. The process is doable due to her “divine sacrifice creating the bridge to salvation” (higher knowledge).
However, creating the bridge is not the only thing required, since it’s creation is useless if someone does not become saved (learn the truth of ascension, which luckily Deshret is able to do through pure willpower.
Deshret returns to the mortal realm. Using the dreams of the sacrificed, the dissolved material of the sky, the divine nail, and the gold stones deep within the earth he creates his mirror of the divine, his illusory paradise. The only difference between his illusion and that of the material realm os that he is the ultimate authority in his bubble… the determiner of fate. The laws are his to define.
[The Unified Civilization, but Deshret]
Now that the formula for the elixir of immortality is known, the only thing left to do is churn it through the dreams of mortals. In truth, the mortals are giants. Nephilim. The long-lived half-god off-spring spawned from the Watchers (most likely Deshret).
One of his divine envoys, Liloupar, finds the person she believes is capable of being Deshret’s proxy, Ormazd. With the help of Liloupar and the Jinn, he rebuilds the Eternal Oasis, and swears to protect it.
And that is where things begin to go wrong. Ormazd, consumed by power and ambition, cares not for the people coming under his rule. He becomes a tyrant like those before him.
[The Anger of the Divine Envoys]
Liloupar, disgusted by her mortal lover’s transgressions decides to punish him for 3 generations. Their daughter Shirin is a curse in waiting, as is her future husband who is unknowningly also her half-brother, Kisra.
Strange… the divine envoys of the primordial one were also angered by human arrogance…
Kisra appears at first as a boon to Ormazd’s campaign to unite the 99 brass and mortar cities across the desert. Invincible. Hero. The Spirit of Victory. Ormazd adopts him and offers his daughter Shirin’s hand and marriage… a meer orphan risen to the pinnacle of royalty.
But what are the chances of Kisra and Shirin ever ruling when there are 300 other children of Ormazd?
Pretty high when Liloupar plots them all to be murdered.
Through an accidental delivery by Shirin of the poisoned honeyed… the nectar of the gods and truth corrupted through her mother’s insidious plot… Ormazd and all 300 of his children are slain.
And thus does Kisra rule.
Kisra’s corruption was almost immediate, if not long in the making. Like a seed waiting for the right moment to sprout.
Liloupar teaches him the forbidden knowledge of the skies. Of the machines and their power. How to infuse the Jinn into them.
In the darkness of dreams, she teaches him of a machine to eat dreams to create an infinite deluge of objects. A machine he is more than happy to create, and is more than willing to further break the mind of Shirin for to get her distorted jinn creations to use as fodder.
Oh, Sophia…
[Arrival of the Apocalypse]
The abyss has truly taken root in Deshret’s illusory realm, but it isn’t until the battle escalates beyond control that the corruption gains Deshret’s attention. Kisra has turned into a dark monster, likely from the assassination by his son, Shiruyeh. The city is drowning in blood and slaughter until it’s swallowed by the abyss, and Liloupar basks in her success.
[Elemental Balancing]
Deshret, furious at her actions, splits her soul into 7 parts, spread out across 7 points to align with the elements. An attempt to combat the destructive power of the abyss by spreading out the karmic seeds across elemental points.
Which almost works. (Kind of like the archon war maybe almost worked).
Except forbidden knowledge has already permeated the dreams of the realm. The samsara begins, and the sins repeat like the reflections of a shattered mirror. The details change, but their fates are the same, their sins unchangeable. They are a permanent reflection of corrupted human ambition, jinn vengeance, and abyssal poison.
The elixir of immortality could not be created through Deshret’s realm. The Amrita formed through the ocean of dreams, the key to breaking the shackles of the world, forever out of reach.
But he can’t let the poison spawned from his actions, the poison he “accidentally consumed”, spread outside of his illusion.
With the help of Rukkhadevata, he sacrifices himself. Destroying the spread of forbidden knowledge, and sinking his dream beneath the sand forever.
… or so we’re told…
The End… for now
This is a very rough draft hc on Deshret’s realm mimicking the failures of the primordial one (unified -> divine envoy -> destruction -> 7 cities -> destruction -> the primordial one is gone), so don’t take it too seriously . Also I’ll edit it multiple times so yeah.
Based on combo-ing ideas for:
“Alistor, or The Spirit of Solitude” poem ; amrita ; eternal recurrence ; Plato’s theory of forms ; philosophical view of phantasms ; Gnostic concepts ; vibro-crystal harmonics ; and uh… probably other stuff I don’t feel like linking anymore I’m lazy
So what if Visions are powered by defeated/de-powered gods, which allowed their dreams/powers (ex. Orobashi/Guoba) to be used post-archon war to to establish elemental resonance with humanity (similar to vibro-crystals).
So defeated gods result in their dreams being utilized as an energy source to power elemental power in humans who resonate with them.
Phantasmagoria. Family lines. Helix symbols. Hm
Edit (April 3rd, 2023): Added Apep picture to top because hopefully it helps explain things without me having to explain things… elemental genetic heritage lying dormant in seeds within humanity until activated by resonating with dreams… (think vishaps… and their evolution seeds)
Genshin Lore Notes: The Power of Memory — Artifacts & Constellations
Is the power of artifacts similar to the power of constellations 🤔?
It might seem like a weird question to ask, but consider this…
Artifacts derive power from their original bearer’s ambitions and memories, and ambition is the key component for receiving a vision.
But memories are mentioned as well, and those don’t have anything to do with a vision, do they?
Well… remember Leonard’s “constellation” being pulled out of the sky in Unrelnciled Stars and it contained his memory? The one closely tied to his ambition?
While Leonard never received a vision as far as we know… we do know that a single “core” star housed his will… and this is where visions come in.
Somewhat of a topic change, but Xiangling is from a family of chefs. Kazuha is from a family of people who dreamed of traveling, and his family either never did, or never did with true “freedom” of purpose.
What sets Xiangling and Kazuha apart from those before them in their family is that they are the accumulation of the choices and dreams of those before them…
They’re the result of the continued grind of the chefs and dreamers-of-freedom in the generations before them… the accumulation of legacy that crystallizes in an ambition that resonates with a god.
Or something along those lines.
I got off topic…
Um… something about artifacts chaining to create power… and constellations are a chain of copies of a character… but the formulation of that constellation might be related to the failed dreams made by the memories of ancestors that resonate with the dreams of gods…
Yeah I lost the train of thought and got into way too complex territory to cover here… gotta save it for phantasmagoria XD !!
