I just wanted to ask if u have researched Hangeh Afrasiyab? All of the underground in the new area INCLUDING the gate is under that name. And im quite sure its 100% related to the Khanrieh gate and the mourning flower cause of the connection with king. If u have the time to research it id say u should its just so fascinating and interesting
I need that meme of Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter asking "Why is it when something bad happens, it's always you three?" except its Deshret, Zhongli, and Venti with the Traveler asking them the question.
Can't wait for a return to Mondstadt, where they expand the region and the lore around it since it feels like it is so tiny now compared to the newer regions, specially Sumeru.
Leak warning (not lore related): Mondstat is leaked to get an expansion in 4.3 and Venti is leaked to get his second story quest along with it. I'm assuming his story quest will drop a huge lore bomb. My speculation is that it will involve Istaroth Edit: This aged poorly. At least I was right about getting an expansion, just not the one I was hoping for. Tbh, I don't think we'll get Mondstat expansion until the end of Natlan because Dormon port is probably going to be our way to Sneznaya
Can't wait for more Jean lore. :D And also hopefully some underground areas that look like Mondstadt domains, but you can actually explore the entire thing rather than being limited to a few tiny platforms.
@@Iuckie I mean we are indeed getting a bunch of new Mond characters during the 4.s patches and they’re all more or less all pirate/sailor coded meaning we’ll probably unlock the northern part of the territory. Chances are Venti’s quest need some context we’ll get in Fontaine considering Celestia will be literally watching from above.
it’s fascinating that Kaveh and Alhaitham are allegorical incarnations of Deshret but represent Deshret in Life (Ra) vs. Deshret in Death (Osirus) which just drives their “mirrors” concept even deeper.
But at the same time Kaveh has the same hair accessory Ma'at has in the Egyptian mythology (and they both wear it the same way) Their color schemes are also similar, blue, teal, red, and black/white. Ma'at is also the wife of the Divine Scribe, Thot, who judges humanity objectively, and records everything. She is also is the symbol of everything that's good, and a symbol of an ideal universe.
Looking at this information, it'll really be weird to ship them together now. If the two represent 2 versions of one person, shipping them would be akin to shipping focalors and Furina or dottore with one of his segments.
omg does that mean they're drawn to eachother because they're both pieces/have pieces of Deshret trying to reassemble themselves like weird god shard soulmates? (thematically probably not literally but I'm connecting these dots)
i like how the khvarena quest confirms what Dainsleif was up to. I found it strange that the Aranara only talked about Nara Varuna but never mentioned Dainsleif. I think you even released a video when 3.0 just came out theorizing that they might already have split up because of that. But in this quest, the Pari only talk about Dainsleif and reveal he only met up with the sibling once they had fixed the sign of apaosha. This makes me think while the sibling was cleaning up the problems in the rainforest and hanging out with the abyss order founder, Dainsleif was cleaning up the problems in the desert with the Pari. It's kinda cute to think about
He also mentions it, I don't remember how, but if he mentions a blonde who accompanied Dainslief (I don't remember how he tells him), it can be said that the trip began there, they possibly reached the Aranara in Sumeru, surely Dainslief didn't look at it, only the other twin that's why he left to do other things, then the caliberto thing. If you look, it is an understandable route where it does not pass through any capital and they did not even go to Inazuma, it is certain that they went up to Fontaine and then to Znensnaya, finally arriving at Monstatd making a route and never meeting the archons.
This is more and more giving me greek myth vibes, w the dragons being primordials, the heavenly principles and moon sisters being titans, and the archons being gods fighting for their places in Olympus. Is cool to think of deshret as a Prometheus type character too
Especially since Enkanomiya was full of Greek names. And the Romans (Spartans specifically) were known to be more warlike than the Greeks, or at least more focused on war and the military.
@@RenaissanceRockerBoy I think it’s so cool too because the demon god names can (incredibly loosely) also be linked to Romans and later Christianity, as Christians would say that Roman rituals (so the archons) was steeped in demonology and the only way to save your soul was to get baptised. I think flipping the moralities around is a really interesting way to view the lore
In my opinion a more fitting argument for Al-Haitham’s connection to Deshret than just his eyes would be the fact that he’s probably named after/based on Ibn al-Haytham, a mathematician now titled the Father of Optics as he published a book on the nature of light and reflections. The argument then being that Al-Haitham as a character references mirrors very often and the whole technology of the desert revolving around the use of light rays and their consequent redirection. (There’s also the fun fact that Ibn al-Haytham once pretended to go mad to avoid an execution.)
What I find so entertaining is that venti and zhongli have really really really close ties to the Lore in this game and it’s kind of ironic considering that Venti is a queen and zhongli is a rook which in chess is considered the major pieces in the game and if we follow this line theory it’s safe to assume that the Cryo archon could be the other rook which means that she might have close ties to Celestia or khaenriah
allow me to possibly help out with your chess irony: the king & queen pieces on Pierro's board were swapped, meaning the "rules" for those pieces could be swapped too. y'know another fun swapping thing you can do in chess? castling. (i first thought of this theory with the premise of the Cryo Gnosis being the 2nd Rook, just like you had but from a different direction: the "castling" idea works just as well with our 1st Rook, albeit within an earlier timeframe required)
Can I ask a question? I am gonna ask a question... the current Celestia, current Heavenly Principles, is that the Second Who Came or The Primordial One? Because I am kinda confused... do we know 100% who is the one ruling Teyvat right now?
@@retubey it’s not exactly confirmed at the current celestia is the primordial one or the second who came there are many theories that it’s the second who came but I personally believe that it’s the primordial one it is very confusing, but that’s Genshin lore for you lol
Rukhadavada being younger than apep need not mean Irminsoul is younger as well. The avatar could have formed after, while the foundation of irminsoul could have existed before. Given the assumption that it took energy to manifest an avatar, and knowing that growth, time, energy, memories are all the same thing, it would have taken time for irminsoul to gather enough energy to do this and thus, Irminsoul should be much older than rukhadavada
The goblet of the “flower of paradise lost” set describes how and where the Goddess of Flowers died: She sacrificed herself at the top of Mt Damavand by showing Deshret forbidden knowledge, followed by her getting struck by a celestial nail, killing her, and showing him how the celestial nails interact with forbidden knowledge / the abyss. So when the game says “she made sure her death was so sorrowful that everyone would remember it” it meant she sacrificed herself for her friend’s dream. She even tells him that there will be a high price to pay for the knowledge he seeks, and that he should be sure to remember what he sees. Not because she was cruel and wanted to hurt people with her death, but because she wanted to make sure it wasn’t wasted and that Deshret would know the truth of the world, and he’d have to see her die at Celestia’s hands to do that. That’s why we see the glowing blue light in the sandstorm, it’s the remains of a celestial nail now deep underground. The goddess of flowers sacrificed the original garden of paradise alongside herself to show the effects of abyssal corruption and celstial nails to Deshret. It broke the mountaint and created the crater at the center and all the lifted sections of it. The impact shattered the land harder than anywhere else we’ve seen so far. And Deshret recreated the garden of paradise into the Eternal Oasis using the power of the Celestial nail deep underground to keep it in stasis. The celestial nail is likely under the eternal Oasis that we see in the game. Anyway sry to Ashi if you’ve already read it. But I thought it would be important for other people to know the context if they didn’t already.
(3.7) Kaveh’s hangout has an ending where we go to his favorite spot, a deshret dune in the desert. Probably not worth mentioning buy he did joked lightheartedly about fate wanting him to pay for sins he committed in a past life
I think Rukkadevata implied that she was not the first avatar of Irminsul to create the new version. Rukka might be younger, but she was probably not the OG Teri-teri.
@@TangledRivers Couldn't it be Rukka just...... using her powers too much that she became small? just like nahida said that if she used too much power she would turn into twig?
Wei had an interesting theory that I’d like to address: Apparently, Nibelung was defeated alongside the Seven Dragon Sovereigns and sought a “power from beyond” to get his revenge against the Primordial One, aka the power of the Abyss. However, we all know how the power of the Abyss transforms people and other beings into creatures of darkness and the void. Which means that when Nibelung transformed his appearance after gaining this power, it ALSO means that he was unrecognizable to the gods of Celestia. Therefore he is the one referred to as the “Second Coming”… And the war between him and Celestia was said to be so powerful that it “tore heaven and earth asunder…”
Wei’s theory makes a ton of sense to me too. The Dragon King lost the first war with primordial one, left and found otherworldly powers and came back to retake Teyvat, and was reduced to the black crystal known as the Sinner, and has been manipulating humans into trying to resurrect him. Maybe Durin was Khanriah trying to give the Sinner a body.
@@AstraLuna-o9i And the part of the plan of the Loom of Fate which involved the limbs of Osial to create a mechanized god is possibly another attempt at creating Nibelung’s new vessel…
29:40 yeah, after reading the 3rd letter I started calling Babel 'Chestbuster'. She literally went full Xenomorph on her mom... Regarding Jeht, you probably already know this but there's a letter a little south of Pyrrho's tent (the one where we met Sorush the first time) that tells us about her current whereabouts - it's called Nameless Researcher's Notes IV . I'm happy that she is fine.
The correlations between Kaveh and Alhaitham are interesting. Honestly, as a writer and artist, I see them as two two voices like the devil and angel that might fit a little better. To an artist and writer, you have two voices in your head, the muse and the critic. The muse (Kaveh's counterpart here) is one who's always coming up with ideas and wanting to do everything without making any changes. However, the critic (Alhaitham's counterpart) is a little more on the practical side who's like, "Yeah, you really don't need ten references to Doctor Who and you're already 1,000 words over the limit for the assignment so you have to cut it down." (That's a writer's example, but it's similar for artists as well.) They do embody those voices of the artistic mind. Kaveh's always coming up with new ideas and wanting to do everything everywhere all at once. Alhaitham, on the other hand, has a more practical mind and speaks truth on the situation no matter how much you don't want to hear it.
To my understanding, Nahida really deleted just the source of forbidden knowledge. So the effecte will still be there but it shouldnt get worse. So hopefully it will get better as things get fixed
I'm very happy to get on the Zhongli-ex-Dragon-King bandwagon! Venti gets a lot of attention but grandpa is also very sus. Considering the phrasing around his origin ("descended", "existed", basically any descriptor except "born"), his clear dragon imagery, that mora (Teyvat's "gold" but also a catalyst for transformation) originates from HIM instead of Celestia, and his interest in finding a way to preserve the true history of Teyvat (implying he is aware that memories can't be relied on ((OSMANTHUS WINE))) Plus he's under a contract that renders him unable to tell the Traveler anything more about their sibling but he willingly gave away his gnosis as part of a "contract to end all contracts". Dude is a prisoner trying ways to break out imo
I mean, it was logical to have a region - story cycle - where we'll progress to the secrets of the dragon's, in depth, as we never learned much about them before and they're crucial to the whole story... And as dragons are reptilians, Natlan was a good guess. You know, it being warm and released later in game... Or... At least I suspected long ago that Natlan will be more vishap heavy than most lands.... Of course, not to the point where we'll travel like them and such - can't wait 😊😊😊
Thank you for mentioning the voiced music tracks! It's been bothering me for quite some time now. Iirc, you can hear them in Windrise (usually at night), in Enkanomiya, in the Eternal Oasis, and in the Vouroukasha Oasis. Idk if it counts but Stormterror's Lair also has a voiced music track.
All of them have feminine tones. Idk if they have relation to the Moon Sisters given that their names are somehow music-related. Just throwing them here because my brain's too smooth to process them. 😭
With all of the imagery from Sumeru World quests, i wonder if Irminsul is actually somebody turned to tree (think Arama), be it one of the dragons, a shade or Primordial One themself. If it is PO, it might also explain why we don't hear about them in modern time that much and hear only about celestia. It would also be a great way of keeping a kind of control over Teyvat at all times based on the rules PO themself put i guess
"Legend of the Shattered Halberd" refers to a "Divine Halberd," i.e. the same kind of being as the literary Princess Fischl, named "Irmin" who pierced the Axis Mundi(the navel of the world in comparative mythology, often taking the form of a world tree). Thus, I think it's very likely that Irminsul was once a living divine being of some variety, probably a Shade considering that the "Divine Halberds" are the creations of the "God King."
I mean Music probably has some sort of mystical power in this game since Genshin is inspired by Zelda and in Zelda, music absolutely does have some powers like with the ocarina of time, in fact the aranara questline shows this 1st hand
Music or hymns have always been considered to be mystical. Zelda isn't the be all and end all of everything. Genshin seems very loosely based on one LoZ game. If Istaroth has a flute or something like that though I'll concede.
This bit here 24:48 about the False Sky reminds me a lot of The Tower of Babylon, a novel written by Ted Chiang. Spoilers for the novel (bear with me ehehe): the Tower of Babylon finally touched the sky. A group of miners is sent to mine the sky and discover what lies beyond. Most of the story is about their ascension in the tower, slowly giving away details about how the world functions in the novel (they cross the sun height, the stars height...). At the end, the protagonist accidentally mines into a rainwater pocket, and is forced to swim upward (so into the sky vault). When he finally finds an exit, he finds himself in the desert, near Babylon. In this novel, the world is compared to a cylinder on which the world we perceived in engraved in 3D. If you were to roll the cylinder on clay, it would "draw the world", giving it a direction. The ground would on the bottom half of the clay plate while the sky would be on the upper part. This is how we perceive the world. But you have to get that the world is not what's drawn on the clay plate, but the actual cylinder. It loops back on itself. Could Teyvat be built in such a way ? The abyss would be both underground and above the sky. Inverted towers like the Spiral Abyss could actually be... regular towers. You could see it as a tower upward (from the abyss and to the sky) or downward (from the sky and to the abyss). It would work both ways.
There was a certain lore video I came across here in YT that pointed out Dainsleif having a Ring, which might be the Ring of Nibelung. Also saying that, perhaps there was no "Second who came" but its actually just Nibelung corrupted and disfigured that he/she is unrecognizable and to the Primordial One who at that time was already ruling Teyvat and won the first war against the dragons, did not recognize and thought that it is another invader from beyond. I don't know, I knew something was odd in Apep's recounting of the history but these things make sense in my smooth brain.
"This means elemental energy and memories are interchangeable" Wait, did you just explain the whole Inazuma arc in one sentence? I mean, there is a force that transforms thoughts (wishes, memories) into visions, that's the answer for Zhiqiong's questions in the Chasm storyline!
The idea that Zhongli is a Nahida-esque incarnation of Nibelung and Venti is a Pari-esque remnant of Istaroth is pretty funny if you think about it. In their original forms, they were enemies, but as Archons they became close friends along with the rest of The Seven.
@@rubyaddison5446I’m gonna assume that’s the case for many bc oh my god was this last area so underrated. It gave us so so much of interesting lore, and was fun to explore imo, but all I got from the community was that they were tired of “sand” 🫠we are in a f*ing desert god forbid there’s sand🫠. We will get a lot of unironic “too much water” comments from the community in Fontaine, Im not ready
Thanks for your hardwork since most player didn't had the capacity and capability to go through this vast lore exploration or even read 100 words of text. This was like hoyo writters are bookworms through and through.
@@aoihitori You get that on and off. Like how a loud part of Genshin's community likes attacking people for shipping and attacking VAs for every reason under the sun, Honkai's had a loud part that acts like it's the superior game. Just remember: both sides are a small part of a much bigger community.
Might be onto something with the Otto-Deshret thing. If Deshret is King Irmin then it would fit since Otto also has a lot of Odin parallels as well. Otto lived in a floating city above Europe. He commanded an army of Valkyries. He built robots that were named after Aesir Gods and terms(Heimdall, Baldr, Mystletainn). His best Valkyrie fell in love with a warrior named Siegfried and he tried to break them up. He's also a trickster that likes to disguise himself to mess with people. And he is the only character who ended up managing to directly touch The Imaginary Tree(the tree that holds all the worlds on it's branches) and gained power from that act(and also willingly giving his life to perform this act).
Scarlet King Split Himself Into Body and Soul, (What if he further split his soul to his various aspects [Horcrux style]) On another Note: "Practice? Me? There's no need - I already know every song in Teyvat!" - Venti
Bringing up red for Deshret and then that Alhaitham wears green reminds me that green and red are opposites on the color wheel. Probably doesn't mean anything, but interesting if you want to go down that rabbit hole and wonder what it could mean!
Amazing video as always, great refresher for all things 3.6. About the songs, maybe Venti gave the goddess of flowers the idea to avoid celestia erasure
you're so awesome!!! predicted that Natlan is a nation full of dragons 5 months before the Final Archon quest in Fontaine happened. you have a brilliant mind.
@Ashikai excellent video as always! Thanks for delivering excellent lore content! I do have one question, which I hope you'll be replying to later: do you think we'll ever get to learn the whole picture about the game's lore? Somehow it all leads me to think that Hoyoverse will have this dreadful intent of leaving lots of unanswered stuff for when the end comes and we'll end up having to make choices in what we choose ti believe about Teyvat... Also, not spoiling, but Yoimiya's Story Quest Act 2 throws a very sneaky couple of lines that will make your loreseeker mind ask a loooooot of questions, as much as I did 🤔
Lately, I’ve been having this feeling that Hoyoverse will be leaving a lot of loose ends. Kinda like an open ended question- it depends on your prospective, and I honestly wouldn’t like that. After all the intense complicated lore, players need a closure kinda
Oh man I am so waiting for that Memories/Elemental Energy video, I've been brainstorming this and there is a bunch of stuff there. Here are some things I wanted to mention, not all of them are necessarily true but I like wondering. Of course we have the leylines absorbing memories and cycling around elemental energy, kinda like blood carrying oxygen and co2 but I digress. There is the guobafication as you mentioned, elemental beings releasing their power and loosing memories and reversing their growth in the process. I wonder if we could link erosion to the whole thing, it simply being a long lived species slowly loosing their memory because of regular power use. It's possible that visions are powered by, or are a crystallization of the bearer's particularly powerful memory of their wish/conviction/ambition. That's why for some people when their vision is taken away, their personality takes a drastic shift because that moment of conviction was so important to who they are as people, and why for others losing it is not that big of a deal, the stolen moment just wasn't as formative for them. Also can we for a second wonder if Memories count as Moments? Something something God of Moments. The last one I am not certain about but, could we say that elements make the world of Teyvat? Anyway at the end of the prologue chapter of the webcomic the traveler asks Venti "Does entering Celestia makes you a god?" and Venti just kinda goes into this monologue about primeval beings in other distant worlds giving their body parts like blood and brain to fashion them into stuff like rivers and clouds. It makes me wonder if we could say that the entirety of the world is made of, or at least sustained by the memories of beings that lived in it, converted into elements.
On the thought of music having power and influence, it reminds me of the concept of tonal architecture practiced by the dwemer/dwarves of the elder scrolls who would have at their peak of progression all suddenly vanish as a race simultaneously(minus 1 confirmed dwarf), presumably being transported to another dimension or plane of existence. It almost seems like a parallel to it. Though for the aranara, what if they weren't just outright created, but already existing and just brought into teyvat by the songs. Then it would be a complete 180 of the theory I just described which I just find super neat
At this point Ashikai is the dude next to the conspiracy theory board with all the red strings compulsively repeating “IT’S ALL DESHRET!” I’m sorry Ashi you gotta let him go.
Ok, just a weird side-thought that I had and still have about Apep claiming that the area was a lush rainforest in her time. So Apep says that when she ruled Sumeru, the area was a large and lush rainforest. But the book of Sun and moon says the primordial one created all plant life. Here's the thing- couldn't Apep's rainforest be mainly made up of like, Fungi? Because fungi and mushrooms aren't actually plants at all, and the Book of sun and Moon doesn't actually say the primordial one created all life, just flowers, grass and trees, so plant life. But as we just said, mushrooms aren't plants, sooo yeah. I think apeps rainforest was full of mushrooms. Just a little mini-theory but I thought it was worthy of being added in the comments.
Well that was one heck of A-Pep talk! 🤭🤭🤭 But on another note, I'm not sure what is more impressive, your analysis in putting all of these wildly disparate data points together, or Hoyo for putting them in the game in the first place. I never cease to be blown away by this game and just how deep the lore goes. And I wouldn't have an inkling of that if it wasn't for lore crafters like you guys revealing this. I lost track of the number of times I genuinely had audible gasps of shock during this video. And by the time you got to the Ring Cycle, I was done. DONE. This is TOO awe inspiring!
Wei theorized that the War with the Second who came, was actually The Dragon Kings return with Abyssal Energy to fight Primodial one. Also we know that the gods are pure elemental energy and the Apep pretty much was birthing elemental energy beings, so does that mean that the gods of Teyvat are descendants/creations of the dragons? Seems to me that all the elemental life forms seem to be creations from the dragons, and the beings who are not, like humans are Primodial Ones creations. Also I do think that Dehsret is Genshin’s Otto Apocalypse. Interesting that you brought up the light power the travelers use, as it strongly resembles Imaginary energy from Honkai Impact and Honkai StarRail, whereas the purple energy of the Abyss looks suspiciously like Quanta energy. We know from the Honkai Impact that the Sea Of Quanta and Imaginary Tree are at Odds with each other, and it really seems like Irmisil is a smaller version of the Imaginary Tree. I know a lot of Genshin only players bemoan genshin content creators covering its similarities or possible connections to Honkai Impact and now StarRail, but they are essentially exist on the same branch of of the imaginary tree and thus are subject to the same universe rules. I really hope that you make a video series covering the ties between the three games.
One thing I was pondering, when I tried to write my own story and reflected on Genshin's. I always thought the central theme of the game was the gnostic myth, but now, If I were to resume it into a single word, it would be memory. I mean, Liyue's Archon Quest was about passing the torch because Zhongli was suseptible to erosion, and his two quests were about erosion. Ei's reason to isolate herself was to fight erosion too, and her desire for a eternal stillness was to avoid Erosion too. The visions introduced the idea of them being linked to one's memory, not just ambition, meanwhile Ei's second quest introduced the idea of manipulating history with the Sakura Tree being planted in the future and nobody but Ei noticing it's sudden come to existence. Sumeru's whole lore centers about the idea of memory explored in so many forms, from the dreams to erasing history to forbidden knowledge which kinda resembles corrupted files in a way. I don't think any story can be wholly about a single word, and memory alone don't define Genshin, but just like I expect every bit of Gnostic lore to appear in Genshin at one point, from Sophia to Yaldabaoth to Pleroma, I expect all possible explorations of the idea of memory to appear at some point. For example, The Eternal Oasis being a sort of Memory Card or Flash Drive that store Rukkadevata's name intact, to someone using Defragging tools on Irminsul to allocate more memory blocks, to names acting like "pointers" in Irminsul just like they work in c++, etc...
1:23 THANK YOU! I thought I was losing my mind with everyone saying she was one of the Sovereigns as if it was confirmed! Sure it is very possible but it isn't explicitly said, and I kept telling people around me that we can't say for SURE that she is one of the original sovereigns, but no one listened to me :( As always, love the content!
Regarding the point about kaenriya technologies and that they work on elemental energy. When we climbed in the first giant kaenria robot, there was a backup power supply system, that instead of chaos nuclei, used accumulators with the energy of the laylines, which are there, since this is an old model, and in the future they were abandoned in favor of chaos nuclei, which I think use the power of the abyss. The chaos core of the ruin golem can then be found in one of the quests with the aranara, where the abyss lector did something with the core praising the energy from this, as a gift and the energy from the core had a detrimental effect on the environment.
Yeah I was going to comment this as well- by the sounds of it, Khaenri'ah had been smelting elemental energy into Azosite to power their tech but were finding it limiting somehow (there's a note saying something about how Azosite also follows the rules of elemental energy). Because of this they had been researching more effective energy sources and it's strongly implied they'd started trying to use Abyssal energy in some form- but Anfortas' squad had gone back to using Azosite for their machines because he'd been warned it was a bad idea (I forget by who exactly, but my hypothesis is that this is one of the things Pierro might've originally warned King Irmin about).
please make a video on all the connections or similarities between genshin and honkai lore, when you mentioned how Deshret was similar to otto everything clicked on my head!
Kvarena translates more directly as Glory, or Divine Light, or Divine Presence or will. Light being the operative word here. It's used to mean the literal pressure of the presence of a God or other such Divine beings
Hey so idk if you noticed this or not, maybe you showed it and i just missed it But in the Kvahana quest when you're going thriugh the giant Kaenri'an robot there is a note (i dont remember where exactly sorry) that directly talks about another realm and that is the realm where humans are from originally which is storng evidence i feel like that Teyvat is the realm of light and humans have come from somewhere else, somewhere that potentially exists
Random thought on Zhongli. He appears to be wearing gold rings. Normally I'd just think that's a neat design choice, but I think he's the only playable character with rings at the moment. Also worth mentioning that they're gold. Could just be a neat design choice.....or just some more symbolism
I can't shake the feeling that the Nibelung ring of power is also the Seal of Solomon (signet ring). There's a very interesting story from the Talmud ("The Story of King Solomon and Ashmedai") about Solomon chaining up and forcing Ashmedai/Asmodai into building him a temple. Asmodai eventually tricks Solomon into giving him the ring, eats it, basically yeets Solomon a thousand miles away, and impersonates him. If the two rings were one and the same that would give whoever is holding it command over demons.
Another amazing video! I absolutely love your Genshin lore videos and have been a fan for a while now. I was wondering if you could add CC subtitles to your videos? Sometimes, I need to check the spellings of Genshin-specific words (like Irminsul or something) and the auto-generated subtitles just can't recognize these words. As a fellow lore enthusiast, I'm sure you understand how important it is to get these details right. Adding CC subtitles would be a huge help and make your already amazing content even more accessible. Thank you again for all the hard work you put into these Genshin lore videos!
Thanks for your work! I always look forward to your vids! Now this is heavy speculation bordering on delusion on my part but as someone primarily invested in character arcs, I think Al-Haitham will slowly gain more death flags in future quests. First we have the Su comparison, and now we have the Osiris parallels, and both Su and Osiris exist in a state of undeath. What is curious to me as well as that he has the eye symbols that can be found on the Golden Wolflord on his cape, and I feel that it might foreshadow his eventual descension into the Abyss, caused by a fight between him and Kaveh over ideological differences that is similar to the fight between Kevin and Su in the 2nd Key manga - Al-Haitham is unflinchingly pragmatic while Kaveh would want to work towards the most ideal solution at the expense of himself. But basically I think Al-Haitham and Kaveh have a high chance of separating again if not by their own volition then by circumstances outside of their control, but if they manage to have some character development there is a slim chance that whatever crisis they face in the future will help them bring them closer to reconciliation regardless of what happens. Oh and the Interdarshan championship is foreshadowing the story beats of a future Archon quest - Kaveh increasingly gets burdened by his guilt as the stakes become higher, and he will have to make a decision at the climax (perhaps something similar to the crown that would give him a lot of knowledge/power but bring him pain) should accept something that that depends on whether has learnt to be less self-sacrificial/recognise and accept goodwill as something others willingly want to give him. This is just all a roundabout way of concluding that I think Dottore burning the tree which may or may not be Irminsul is not supposed to metaphorically representing the events of Acts I - V of the Archon quests (especially since given his capacity of violence, simply just providing his expertise in helping others build a god feels "not at his true abilities") but literally teasing a future quest that Kaveh will be a prominent part of (since he has all this prior narrative build up), as well as Collei and Wanderer as they still have unresolved issues with Dottore. Wanderer is obvious, but I think Collei has been growing up quite nicely in a safe environment that allows her the freedom to hope and dream of a better future, and reckoning with Dottore will allow her the opportunity to fulfil that her desire protect those her life and those that are dear to her, which has been present since the end of the manga. As to why Dottore wants to burn Irminsul, I feel that he would want to investigate the truth of the false sky that Irminsul is hiding.
what's insane, and what doesn't come up in this video for obvious reasons, is that the pari quest is where we find the first breadcrumbs of the narzissenkreuz questline. i'm playing this quest now well after finishing narzissenkreuz, and seeing rene, jakob and alain's names pop up in nasejuna's notes hit me like a ton of bricks.
remember in the chasm when Dain said something like "how can Halfdan still be alive without it?" (i can't remember the exact quote)? Well what if that "it" that allows him to avoid the curse of the wilderness is Nibelung's ring?
Ive been waiting for this! I swear the pari storyline i would read the lines and not understand what was being said at all 😅 Nahidas quest i understood but i was so lost in the new region story tbh.
oh my god same. for some reason, the dialogue not being voiced really made it hard for me to process what was going on. had the same problem with the aranara quest, especially when I don't have assistance with name pronunciation so I end up just calling all of them "Ara-something", which did not do anything to help with my ability to differentiate between them.
so glad to see someone else bring up the kaveh = deshret allegory because i think it's so, so cool. on top of all the symbolism, the parallels between their stories are really neat. just throwing another theory out there because i've been thinking about it for a while & have yet to see anyone really talk about it: i feel like alhaitham actually fits really well as an allegory for the goddess of flowers - especially given his relationship with kaveh. to me, it seems like kaveh & alhaitham's role in the story is to mirror deshret & GoF, maybe giving us some further insight/perspective on what happened in the past.
Sumeru lore feels like a overwhelming bomb of seemingly random information that doesn't make sense at first glance and, when you try to put it together, the info makes sense but 300 new info appears out of nowhere to the party. It sounds like Sumeru is America in alien invasion movies: everything happened there
8:00 hmmm, as interesting as this point may be, I’m not sure if I can fully take this one. The liyue cutscene kinda felt like an adepti energy jumpstart to the traveller’s abilities, rather than elemental synchronization, as I don’t believe every element was actually present in that fight, but correct me if I’m wrong. However, in the 2nd cutscene of the scaramouche boss fight, we actually see the traveller utilizing that same golden strike, albeit to a much lesser degree than on the jade chamber, without any other elements present, hence my jumpstart comment. So I’m going to have to respectfully disagree here. Regardless, I think you made a lot of good points here, and I really appreciate this recap! Historical references have proven difficult to me as a budding theorist, but you always got my back in that regard. You da best. :))
I think the most curious part in all this is that we don't know if dragons are affected by Irminsul, since the 7 sorveigns are now confirmed to be older than Irminsul. Makes you wonder what the hell the tree actually is...
4:30 I think we've got decent evidence of that elsewhere. Tsurumi Island gets covered in fog, the Chasm moves and seems to be a weird boundary with the Abyss regardless, while Mondstadt as a whole during the archon war was covered in blizzards. I know the game says Andrius did that, but the coincidence of the nail that caused Dragonspine to be covered in blizzards right next to the nation covered in blizzards is too coincidental to not be on purpose for me. If there's so weird terraformed place in Fontaine (probably underwater) I'd guess the nail would be the cause.
As someone who speaks Bangla all my life I've called fairies 'pari/pori' because that's the word for fairies in South Asian languages can't believe it's now an official thing in Genshin Impact
For the nitpick at 10:30 Nahida says "It's uynderstandable that they will eventually become The Withering" Could we think of withering zones at something similar to the black ooze in the Chasm then? Like it's not exactly forbidden knowledge, but a transformed version of it that's less harmful. This would make sense since the black ooze in the Chasm wasn't deleted either. I feel like I'm missing something obvious here with this conclusion though so correct me if my line of thinking is wrong
The forbidden knowledge that was eliminated was that of the irminsul and this affected the remnant of Rukkhadevata, she herself could not be eliminated, and since it was a "memory" it was transmitted through it to humans, so she wanted it to be forgotten to cut the connection and Thus being able to eliminate that connection with the energies of the abyss that ended up becoming hilichurs in the best of cases or with a horrible death in the worst. but that only affected those who had a connection with rukkhadevata, those who absorbed the abyssal energy directly were not affected, so the hilichurs were not affected nor were the elemental beings that feed on elemental energy, remember the abyssal energy is energy, it's like if there was food something poisonous. the withered areas and the mud of the chasm did not come from the connection with rukkhadevata but from another side.
I just want to say these lore recap videos make my brain vibrate in such a way. the offhand way you put some of your theory tidbits in these things...... I haven't been able to get Zhongli as Nibelung or Venti as Pari equivalent out of my head since you put this out. And neither of those was really even the point of the video.
It would actually be pretty funny if both Alheithem and Kaveh represented the different sides of King Desresch it would also be another reason why they bicker so much. I would also like to imagine that sometime later after we finish the story partway through in Fountaine, where we would finally get to the second part of Venti's story quest and we would have our questions answered.
I wonder if the "source song" that was used to create all the diffrent sentient creatures from aranara to djin, what if thats how the primordial one made humans? or at the very least his shades?
Thanks there's a people like you who dedicated themselves just to summarize all current available quest in Genshin. So dialogue skippers like me can now understand the whole story of the side quests that will may be a very important part of the main quest
![[3.0] Sumeru Lore Roundup - What we learned from the Archon and Aranara quests](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yP72tbDlk8k/mqdefault.jpg)
![[3.0] Sumeru Lore Roundup - What we learned from the Archon and Aranara quests](/img/tr.png)
![[3.5] A First Look at the Hexenzirkel - Genshin Impact Lore & Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J4DMk5M3MP8/mqdefault.jpg)
![[3.6] The Beginner's Guide to Sumeru - Genshin Impact Lore](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wSy8z-QieEw/mqdefault.jpg)
![[4.1] Speculating Arlecchino's Possible Identity - A Genshin Impact Theory](/img/n.gif)
**NOTES/ANNOTATIONS**
- I said "Nahida sealed Deshret" when I meant "Rukkhadevata sealed Deshret." Slip of the tongue.
Dang, that Irminsul tampering is really getting to you.
Rukkhadevata who?
I just wanted to ask if u have researched Hangeh Afrasiyab? All of the underground in the new area INCLUDING the gate is under that name. And im quite sure its 100% related to the Khanrieh gate and the mourning flower cause of the connection with king. If u have the time to research it id say u should its just so fascinating and interesting
@@kanishkjaiswal5088 former dendro archon
@@kanishkjaiswal5088 Rukkhadevata Skywalker
I need that meme of Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter asking "Why is it when something bad happens, it's always you three?" except its Deshret, Zhongli, and Venti with the Traveler asking them the question.
omg lol yes🤣
Can't wait for a return to Mondstadt, where they expand the region and the lore around it since it feels like it is so tiny now compared to the newer regions, specially Sumeru.
Leak warning (not lore related):
Mondstat is leaked to get an expansion in 4.3 and Venti is leaked to get his second story quest along with it. I'm assuming his story quest will drop a huge lore bomb. My speculation is that it will involve Istaroth
Edit: This aged poorly. At least I was right about getting an expansion, just not the one I was hoping for. Tbh, I don't think we'll get Mondstat expansion until the end of Natlan because Dormon port is probably going to be our way to Sneznaya
"Mondstad" and "Sumero"
Can't wait for more Jean lore. :D
And also hopefully some underground areas that look like Mondstadt domains, but you can actually explore the entire thing rather than being limited to a few tiny platforms.
@@justsomeguywithoutamustach3978 That was posted on April 1st y'know..
@@Iuckie I mean we are indeed getting a bunch of new Mond characters during the 4.s patches and they’re all more or less all pirate/sailor coded meaning we’ll probably unlock the northern part of the territory. Chances are Venti’s quest need some context we’ll get in Fontaine considering Celestia will be literally watching from above.
it’s fascinating that Kaveh and Alhaitham are allegorical incarnations of Deshret but represent Deshret in Life (Ra) vs. Deshret in Death (Osirus) which just drives their “mirrors” concept even deeper.
But at the same time Kaveh has the same hair accessory Ma'at has in the Egyptian mythology (and they both wear it the same way) Their color schemes are also similar, blue, teal, red, and black/white. Ma'at is also the wife of the Divine Scribe, Thot, who judges humanity objectively, and records everything. She is also is the symbol of everything that's good, and a symbol of an ideal universe.
Looking at this information, it'll really be weird to ship them together now. If the two represent 2 versions of one person, shipping them would be akin to shipping focalors and Furina or dottore with one of his segments.
@@nobinofun9332 You can say,
They complete eachother
(I'll see myself out)
@@Twocat5side no don't youre onto something there come back-
omg does that mean they're drawn to eachother because they're both pieces/have pieces of Deshret trying to reassemble themselves like weird god shard soulmates? (thematically probably not literally but I'm connecting these dots)
i like how the khvarena quest confirms what Dainsleif was up to. I found it strange that the Aranara only talked about Nara Varuna but never mentioned Dainsleif. I think you even released a video when 3.0 just came out theorizing that they might already have split up because of that. But in this quest, the Pari only talk about Dainsleif and reveal he only met up with the sibling once they had fixed the sign of apaosha. This makes me think while the sibling was cleaning up the problems in the rainforest and hanging out with the abyss order founder, Dainsleif was cleaning up the problems in the desert with the Pari. It's kinda cute to think about
He also mentions it, I don't remember how, but if he mentions a blonde who accompanied Dainslief (I don't remember how he tells him), it can be said that the trip began there, they possibly reached the Aranara in Sumeru, surely Dainslief didn't look at it, only the other twin that's why he left to do other things, then the caliberto thing.
If you look, it is an understandable route where it does not pass through any capital and they did not even go to Inazuma, it is certain that they went up to Fontaine and then to Znensnaya, finally arriving at Monstatd making a route and never meeting the archons.
This is more and more giving me greek myth vibes, w the dragons being primordials, the heavenly principles and moon sisters being titans, and the archons being gods fighting for their places in Olympus. Is cool to think of deshret as a Prometheus type character too
Even more interesting when the fatui are given Italian - Roman iconography as a rival to the Greek imagery
Especially since Enkanomiya was full of Greek names. And the Romans (Spartans specifically) were known to be more warlike than the Greeks, or at least more focused on war and the military.
@@RenaissanceRockerBoy Spartans were Greek, not Roman.
@@RenaissanceRockerBoy I think it’s so cool too because the demon god names can (incredibly loosely) also be linked to Romans and later Christianity, as Christians would say that Roman rituals (so the archons) was steeped in demonology and the only way to save your soul was to get baptised. I think flipping the moralities around is a really interesting way to view the lore
Yep, the inspiration has been apparent since the very start, it's basically obvious now
In my opinion a more fitting argument for Al-Haitham’s connection to Deshret than just his eyes would be the fact that he’s probably named after/based on Ibn al-Haytham, a mathematician now titled the Father of Optics as he published a book on the nature of light and reflections. The argument then being that Al-Haitham as a character references mirrors very often and the whole technology of the desert revolving around the use of light rays and their consequent redirection.
(There’s also the fun fact that Ibn al-Haytham once pretended to go mad to avoid an execution.)
What I find so entertaining is that venti and zhongli have really really really close ties to the Lore in this game and it’s kind of ironic considering that Venti is a queen and zhongli is a rook which in chess is considered the major pieces in the game and if we follow this line theory it’s safe to assume that the Cryo archon could be the other rook which means that she might have close ties to Celestia or khaenriah
It was a pleasure meeting you.🚶🏻♂️
allow me to possibly help out with your chess irony: the king & queen pieces on Pierro's board were swapped, meaning the "rules" for those pieces could be swapped too.
y'know another fun swapping thing you can do in chess? castling.
(i first thought of this theory with the premise of the Cryo Gnosis being the 2nd Rook, just like you had but from a different direction: the "castling" idea works just as well with our 1st Rook, albeit within an earlier timeframe required)
Can I ask a question? I am gonna ask a question... the current Celestia, current Heavenly Principles, is that the Second Who Came or The Primordial One? Because I am kinda confused... do we know 100% who is the one ruling Teyvat right now?
@@retubey it’s not exactly confirmed at the current celestia is the primordial one or the second who came there are many theories that it’s the second who came but I personally believe that it’s the primordial one it is very confusing, but that’s Genshin lore for you lol
@@isaiahhaley4816 oh thanks ❤️
Rukhadavada being younger than apep need not mean Irminsoul is younger as well. The avatar could have formed after, while the foundation of irminsoul could have existed before. Given the assumption that it took energy to manifest an avatar, and knowing that growth, time, energy, memories are all the same thing, it would have taken time for irminsoul to gather enough energy to do this and thus, Irminsoul should be much older than rukhadavada
The goblet of the “flower of paradise lost” set describes how and where the Goddess of Flowers died:
She sacrificed herself at the top of Mt Damavand by showing Deshret forbidden knowledge, followed by her getting struck by a celestial nail, killing her, and showing him how the celestial nails interact with forbidden knowledge / the abyss. So when the game says “she made sure her death was so sorrowful that everyone would remember it” it meant she sacrificed herself for her friend’s dream. She even tells him that there will be a high price to pay for the knowledge he seeks, and that he should be sure to remember what he sees. Not because she was cruel and wanted to hurt people with her death, but because she wanted to make sure it wasn’t wasted and that Deshret would know the truth of the world, and he’d have to see her die at Celestia’s hands to do that.
That’s why we see the glowing blue light in the sandstorm, it’s the remains of a celestial nail now deep underground. The goddess of flowers sacrificed the original garden of paradise alongside herself to show the effects of abyssal corruption and celstial nails to Deshret. It broke the mountaint and created the crater at the center and all the lifted sections of it. The impact shattered the land harder than anywhere else we’ve seen so far. And Deshret recreated the garden of paradise into the Eternal Oasis using the power of the Celestial nail deep underground to keep it in stasis. The celestial nail is likely under the eternal Oasis that we see in the game.
Anyway sry to Ashi if you’ve already read it. But I thought it would be important for other people to know the context if they didn’t already.
(3.7) Kaveh’s hangout has an ending where we go to his favorite spot, a deshret dune in the desert. Probably not worth mentioning buy he did joked lightheartedly about fate wanting him to pay for sins he committed in a past life
I replayed that part and It’s not really lighthearted xD i feel bad for him
I think Rukkadevata implied that she was not the first avatar of Irminsul to create the new version. Rukka might be younger, but she was probably not the OG Teri-teri.
Thats what I thought too, Its not the first samsara that teyvat went through
@@Sacration That makes sense. Wasn’t it said that Nahida isn’t the first time Rukka got smaller?
@@TangledRivers During her second story quest, the elemental fungi-thingy in the Chasm said that she had became small "again"' 🙏
@@TangledRivers Couldn't it be Rukka just...... using her powers too much that she became small?
just like nahida said that if she used too much power she would turn into twig?
@@koteghe7600 is implied this happened when she sealed the King
Wei had an interesting theory that I’d like to address:
Apparently, Nibelung was defeated alongside the Seven Dragon Sovereigns and sought a “power from beyond” to get his revenge against the Primordial One, aka the power of the Abyss. However, we all know how the power of the Abyss transforms people and other beings into creatures of darkness and the void. Which means that when Nibelung transformed his appearance after gaining this power, it ALSO means that he was unrecognizable to the gods of Celestia. Therefore he is the one referred to as the “Second Coming”… And the war between him and Celestia was said to be so powerful that it “tore heaven and earth asunder…”
the part where he said the dragon king is the sinner makes sense to me
Wei’s theory makes a ton of sense to me too. The Dragon King lost the first war with primordial one, left and found otherworldly powers and came back to retake Teyvat, and was reduced to the black crystal known as the Sinner, and has been manipulating humans into trying to resurrect him. Maybe Durin was Khanriah trying to give the Sinner a body.
@@AstraLuna-o9i And the part of the plan of the Loom of Fate which involved the limbs of Osial to create a mechanized god is possibly another attempt at creating Nibelung’s new vessel…
@@nickter745thebold8 HOLY FUCK. THIS MAKES EVEN MORE SENSE. WEI IS A GENIUS.
29:40 yeah, after reading the 3rd letter I started calling Babel 'Chestbuster'. She literally went full Xenomorph on her mom...
Regarding Jeht, you probably already know this but there's a letter a little south of Pyrrho's tent (the one where we met Sorush the first time) that tells us about her current whereabouts - it's called Nameless Researcher's Notes IV . I'm happy that she is fine.
The correlations between Kaveh and Alhaitham are interesting. Honestly, as a writer and artist, I see them as two two voices like the devil and angel that might fit a little better. To an artist and writer, you have two voices in your head, the muse and the critic. The muse (Kaveh's counterpart here) is one who's always coming up with ideas and wanting to do everything without making any changes. However, the critic (Alhaitham's counterpart) is a little more on the practical side who's like, "Yeah, you really don't need ten references to Doctor Who and you're already 1,000 words over the limit for the assignment so you have to cut it down." (That's a writer's example, but it's similar for artists as well.) They do embody those voices of the artistic mind. Kaveh's always coming up with new ideas and wanting to do everything everywhere all at once. Alhaitham, on the other hand, has a more practical mind and speaks truth on the situation no matter how much you don't want to hear it.
Considering all the water horse stuff, do you think it’s safe to say that the hydro gnosis will resemble the knight chess piece?
We will see but maybe not during version 4 xD
@@groundmeatier agreed 👍. Maybe 4.2 or Somethin.
To my understanding, Nahida really deleted just the source of forbidden knowledge. So the effecte will still be there but it shouldnt get worse. So hopefully it will get better as things get fixed
I'm very happy to get on the Zhongli-ex-Dragon-King bandwagon! Venti gets a lot of attention but grandpa is also very sus. Considering the phrasing around his origin ("descended", "existed", basically any descriptor except "born"), his clear dragon imagery, that mora (Teyvat's "gold" but also a catalyst for transformation) originates from HIM instead of Celestia, and his interest in finding a way to preserve the true history of Teyvat (implying he is aware that memories can't be relied on ((OSMANTHUS WINE)))
Plus he's under a contract that renders him unable to tell the Traveler anything more about their sibling but he willingly gave away his gnosis as part of a "contract to end all contracts". Dude is a prisoner trying ways to break out imo
Oh this is gonna be some good shit can’t wait for this. Ashikai is feeding us some lore fam
28:40 ye after 4.2 it's confirmed natlan is indeed the nation of dragons
Damn ashikai prediction thing entire versions earlier. Like damn
I mean, it was logical to have a region - story cycle - where we'll progress to the secrets of the dragon's, in depth, as we never learned much about them before and they're crucial to the whole story... And as dragons are reptilians, Natlan was a good guess. You know, it being warm and released later in game... Or... At least I suspected long ago that Natlan will be more vishap heavy than most lands.... Of course, not to the point where we'll travel like them and such - can't wait 😊😊😊
Thank you for mentioning the voiced music tracks! It's been bothering me for quite some time now. Iirc, you can hear them in Windrise (usually at night), in Enkanomiya, in the Eternal Oasis, and in the Vouroukasha Oasis. Idk if it counts but Stormterror's Lair also has a voiced music track.
All of them have feminine tones. Idk if they have relation to the Moon Sisters given that their names are somehow music-related. Just throwing them here because my brain's too smooth to process them. 😭
With all of the imagery from Sumeru World quests, i wonder if Irminsul is actually somebody turned to tree (think Arama), be it one of the dragons, a shade or Primordial One themself. If it is PO, it might also explain why we don't hear about them in modern time that much and hear only about celestia. It would also be a great way of keeping a kind of control over Teyvat at all times based on the rules PO themself put i guess
Agreed, especially after reading the rest of the Pale Princess series, if those don't wind up changing in their final release.
That is actually so interesting.
"Legend of the Shattered Halberd" refers to a "Divine Halberd," i.e. the same kind of being as the literary Princess Fischl, named "Irmin" who pierced the Axis Mundi(the navel of the world in comparative mythology, often taking the form of a world tree). Thus, I think it's very likely that Irminsul was once a living divine being of some variety, probably a Shade considering that the "Divine Halberds" are the creations of the "God King."
I mean Music probably has some sort of mystical power in this game since Genshin is inspired by Zelda and in Zelda, music absolutely does have some powers like with the ocarina of time, in fact the aranara questline shows this 1st hand
Music or hymns have always been considered to be mystical. Zelda isn't the be all and end all of everything. Genshin seems very loosely based on one LoZ game. If Istaroth has a flute or something like that though I'll concede.
Thank you!!! I am so glad you didn't abandon us for the star rail!
why did I read the thumbnail as Dragons & Therapy
Because u don't see
The Pari
@@FlandreScarletMadalin i saw it but read it as therapy fsr
@@lawierdwitch good u did it
28:44 she accurately predicted that Natlan was going to be a nation full of dragons.
This bit here 24:48 about the False Sky reminds me a lot of The Tower of Babylon, a novel written by Ted Chiang.
Spoilers for the novel (bear with me ehehe): the Tower of Babylon finally touched the sky. A group of miners is sent to mine the sky and discover what lies beyond. Most of the story is about their ascension in the tower, slowly giving away details about how the world functions in the novel (they cross the sun height, the stars height...). At the end, the protagonist accidentally mines into a rainwater pocket, and is forced to swim upward (so into the sky vault). When he finally finds an exit, he finds himself in the desert, near Babylon.
In this novel, the world is compared to a cylinder on which the world we perceived in engraved in 3D. If you were to roll the cylinder on clay, it would "draw the world", giving it a direction. The ground would on the bottom half of the clay plate while the sky would be on the upper part. This is how we perceive the world. But you have to get that the world is not what's drawn on the clay plate, but the actual cylinder. It loops back on itself.
Could Teyvat be built in such a way ? The abyss would be both underground and above the sky.
Inverted towers like the Spiral Abyss could actually be... regular towers. You could see it as a tower upward (from the abyss and to the sky) or downward (from the sky and to the abyss). It would work both ways.
Amazing video as always!
I think it would be exciting if Fontaine was about celestia, and natlan was about dragons.
:)
There was a certain lore video I came across here in YT that pointed out Dainsleif having a Ring, which might be the Ring of Nibelung. Also saying that, perhaps there was no "Second who came" but its actually just Nibelung corrupted and disfigured that he/she is unrecognizable and to the Primordial One who at that time was already ruling Teyvat and won the first war against the dragons, did not recognize and thought that it is another invader from beyond.
I don't know, I knew something was odd in Apep's recounting of the history but these things make sense in my smooth brain.
you mean wei's video that ashikai mentions in this video?
@@Evitzeoshowerthoughts I don't really remember whose was it coz it just came across my recommendations lmao.
@@rinz5027 Yep, that's Wei's "Hoyoverse really thought we wouldn't notice" video
That mushroom caught under the mud in the Chasm was aware that Nahida shrank at least twice.
I wouldn't mind Honkai lore ramble/videos honestly! Especially when the general Hoyoverse lab is interconnected like that, it's fascinating
Archon of lore collabing with Herrscher of lore when???
"This means elemental energy and memories are interchangeable"
Wait, did you just explain the whole Inazuma arc in one sentence? I mean, there is a force that transforms thoughts (wishes, memories) into visions, that's the answer for Zhiqiong's questions in the Chasm storyline!
the way that ashikai just predicted accurately about the nation of natlan after the 4.2 quest
Been refreshing for this all week 😅
The idea that Zhongli is a Nahida-esque incarnation of Nibelung and Venti is a Pari-esque remnant of Istaroth is pretty funny if you think about it. In their original forms, they were enemies, but as Archons they became close friends along with the rest of The Seven.
i definitely would love a video going more in depth on the theory about kaveh and alhaitham being two sides of desheret!
THANK YOU. I did not pay attention to this quests at all.
Same as well
Major skill issue
I’m interested in the lore but at the same time in the moment my ADHD brain can’t take a super wordy quest 😅
@@tartnouveau3652relate to this 😭 I hate how I only pay attention when it’s the archon and dainsleif quests
@@rubyaddison5446I’m gonna assume that’s the case for many bc oh my god was this last area so underrated. It gave us so so much of interesting lore, and was fun to explore imo, but all I got from the community was that they were tired of “sand” 🫠we are in a f*ing desert god forbid there’s sand🫠. We will get a lot of unironic “too much water” comments from the community in Fontaine, Im not ready
Thanks for your hardwork since most player didn't had the capacity and capability to go through this vast lore exploration or even read 100 words of text. This was like hoyo writters are bookworms through and through.
Well, they made two visual novels before Genshin, so yeah.
@@kibousn1686 I doubt everybody read that as well.
@@aoihitori Of course. Not everyone has picked up HI3rd and GGZ was beyond underground globally.
@@kibousn1686 yeah speaking underground, what I don't like in HI3rd community was they was like elitist and extremist or some sorts.
@@aoihitori You get that on and off. Like how a loud part of Genshin's community likes attacking people for shipping and attacking VAs for every reason under the sun, Honkai's had a loud part that acts like it's the superior game. Just remember: both sides are a small part of a much bigger community.
Might be onto something with the Otto-Deshret thing. If Deshret is King Irmin then it would fit since Otto also has a lot of Odin parallels as well. Otto lived in a floating city above Europe. He commanded an army of Valkyries. He built robots that were named after Aesir Gods and terms(Heimdall, Baldr, Mystletainn). His best Valkyrie fell in love with a warrior named Siegfried and he tried to break them up. He's also a trickster that likes to disguise himself to mess with people. And he is the only character who ended up managing to directly touch The Imaginary Tree(the tree that holds all the worlds on it's branches) and gained power from that act(and also willingly giving his life to perform this act).
And the fact that people joked about deshret attempting to ressurect nabu malikata got them feeling sus
28:43 and here we are again in the future with Neuvilette line in 4.2 and u are absolutely RIGHT 👏🏼 how does it feel to be the maioral????
oh...i have a feeling we might get some oceanid lore soon , it makes sense why the new area had a little bit of it
You ateeee this comment
And people say genshins story sucks, i love the lore in each region and they keep making it better confusing yes but still much better
this video is about to go crazy, i didn't even watch i just know since 3.6 was one THE lore patches
Scarlet King Split Himself Into Body and Soul, (What if he further split his soul to his various aspects [Horcrux style])
On another Note: "Practice? Me? There's no need - I already know every song in Teyvat!" - Venti
Bringing up red for Deshret and then that Alhaitham wears green reminds me that green and red are opposites on the color wheel. Probably doesn't mean anything, but interesting if you want to go down that rabbit hole and wonder what it could mean!
I mean red cancels out green, and green cancels out red
when you haven't played the quest but just wanted to know what happened.
Amazing video as always, great refresher for all things 3.6.
About the songs, maybe Venti gave the goddess of flowers the idea to avoid celestia erasure
you're so awesome!!! predicted that Natlan is a nation full of dragons 5 months before the Final Archon quest in Fontaine happened. you have a brilliant mind.
What an amazing video, had me wide eyed multiple times with the connections you made !!!! Thank you for your hard work.
@Ashikai excellent video as always! Thanks for delivering excellent lore content!
I do have one question, which I hope you'll be replying to later: do you think we'll ever get to learn the whole picture about the game's lore? Somehow it all leads me to think that Hoyoverse will have this dreadful intent of leaving lots of unanswered stuff for when the end comes and we'll end up having to make choices in what we choose ti believe about Teyvat...
Also, not spoiling, but Yoimiya's Story Quest Act 2 throws a very sneaky couple of lines that will make your loreseeker mind ask a loooooot of questions, as much as I did 🤔
Lately, I’ve been having this feeling that Hoyoverse will be leaving a lot of loose ends. Kinda like an open ended question- it depends on your prospective, and I honestly wouldn’t like that. After all the intense complicated lore, players need a closure kinda
Elemental energy and memories having a connection makes sense as to why people with confiscated visions lost their memories of how they earned it.
Oh man I am so waiting for that Memories/Elemental Energy video, I've been brainstorming this and there is a bunch of stuff there. Here are some things I wanted to mention, not all of them are necessarily true but I like wondering.
Of course we have the leylines absorbing memories and cycling around elemental energy, kinda like blood carrying oxygen and co2 but I digress.
There is the guobafication as you mentioned, elemental beings releasing their power and loosing memories and reversing their growth in the process.
I wonder if we could link erosion to the whole thing, it simply being a long lived species slowly loosing their memory because of regular power use.
It's possible that visions are powered by, or are a crystallization of the bearer's particularly powerful memory of their wish/conviction/ambition. That's why for some people when their vision is taken away, their personality takes a drastic shift because that moment of conviction was so important to who they are as people, and why for others losing it is not that big of a deal, the stolen moment just wasn't as formative for them.
Also can we for a second wonder if Memories count as Moments? Something something God of Moments.
The last one I am not certain about but, could we say that elements make the world of Teyvat? Anyway at the end of the prologue chapter of the webcomic the traveler asks Venti "Does entering Celestia makes you a god?" and Venti just kinda goes into this monologue about primeval beings in other distant worlds giving their body parts like blood and brain to fashion them into stuff like rivers and clouds. It makes me wonder if we could say that the entirety of the world is made of, or at least sustained by the memories of beings that lived in it, converted into elements.
On the thought of music having power and influence, it reminds me of the concept of tonal architecture practiced by the dwemer/dwarves of the elder scrolls who would have at their peak of progression all suddenly vanish as a race simultaneously(minus 1 confirmed dwarf), presumably being transported to another dimension or plane of existence.
It almost seems like a parallel to it. Though for the aranara, what if they weren't just outright created, but already existing and just brought into teyvat by the songs. Then it would be a complete 180 of the theory I just described which I just find super neat
I absolutely LOVE your VO work. You are SO freaking talented!
At this point Ashikai is the dude next to the conspiracy theory board with all the red strings compulsively repeating “IT’S ALL DESHRET!”
I’m sorry Ashi you gotta let him go.
The accident was 1000 years ago Ashikai, you have to come to terms with it
Look at her channel banner, might wanna say it again???
Ok, just a weird side-thought that I had and still have about Apep claiming that the area was a lush rainforest in her time. So Apep says that when she ruled Sumeru, the area was a large and lush rainforest. But the book of Sun and moon says the primordial one created all plant life. Here's the thing- couldn't Apep's rainforest be mainly made up of like, Fungi? Because fungi and mushrooms aren't actually plants at all, and the Book of sun and Moon doesn't actually say the primordial one created all life, just flowers, grass and trees, so plant life. But as we just said, mushrooms aren't plants, sooo yeah. I think apeps rainforest was full of mushrooms. Just a little mini-theory but I thought it was worthy of being added in the comments.
Well that was one heck of A-Pep talk! 🤭🤭🤭
But on another note, I'm not sure what is more impressive, your analysis in putting all of these wildly disparate data points together, or Hoyo for putting them in the game in the first place. I never cease to be blown away by this game and just how deep the lore goes. And I wouldn't have an inkling of that if it wasn't for lore crafters like you guys revealing this. I lost track of the number of times I genuinely had audible gasps of shock during this video. And by the time you got to the Ring Cycle, I was done. DONE. This is TOO awe inspiring!
Wei theorized that the War with the Second who came, was actually The Dragon Kings return with Abyssal Energy to fight Primodial one. Also we know that the gods are pure elemental energy and the Apep pretty much was birthing elemental energy beings, so does that mean that the gods of Teyvat are descendants/creations of the dragons? Seems to me that all the elemental life forms seem to be creations from the dragons, and the beings who are not, like humans are Primodial Ones creations. Also I do think that Dehsret is Genshin’s Otto Apocalypse. Interesting that you brought up the light power the travelers use, as it strongly resembles Imaginary energy from Honkai Impact and Honkai StarRail, whereas the purple energy of the Abyss looks suspiciously like Quanta energy. We know from the Honkai Impact that the Sea Of Quanta and Imaginary Tree are at Odds with each other, and it really seems like Irmisil is a smaller version of the Imaginary Tree. I know a lot of Genshin only players bemoan genshin content creators covering its similarities or possible connections to Honkai Impact and now StarRail, but they are essentially exist on the same branch of of the imaginary tree and thus are subject to the same universe rules. I really hope that you make a video series covering the ties between the three games.
I love the lore but sometimes I just want to finish the dang quest..so this helps! A bunch!
One thing I was pondering, when I tried to write my own story and reflected on Genshin's. I always thought the central theme of the game was the gnostic myth, but now, If I were to resume it into a single word, it would be memory.
I mean, Liyue's Archon Quest was about passing the torch because Zhongli was suseptible to erosion, and his two quests were about erosion. Ei's reason to isolate herself was to fight erosion too, and her desire for a eternal stillness was to avoid Erosion too. The visions introduced the idea of them being linked to one's memory, not just ambition, meanwhile Ei's second quest introduced the idea of manipulating history with the Sakura Tree being planted in the future and nobody but Ei noticing it's sudden come to existence. Sumeru's whole lore centers about the idea of memory explored in so many forms, from the dreams to erasing history to forbidden knowledge which kinda resembles corrupted files in a way.
I don't think any story can be wholly about a single word, and memory alone don't define Genshin, but just like I expect every bit of Gnostic lore to appear in Genshin at one point, from Sophia to Yaldabaoth to Pleroma, I expect all possible explorations of the idea of memory to appear at some point. For example, The Eternal Oasis being a sort of Memory Card or Flash Drive that store Rukkadevata's name intact, to someone using Defragging tools on Irminsul to allocate more memory blocks, to names acting like "pointers" in Irminsul just like they work in c++, etc...
1:23 THANK YOU! I thought I was losing my mind with everyone saying she was one of the Sovereigns as if it was confirmed!
Sure it is very possible but it isn't explicitly said, and I kept telling people around me that we can't say for SURE that she is one of the original sovereigns, but no one listened to me :(
As always, love the content!
28:15 now we know that Natlan is nation of dragon or something
Regarding the point about kaenriya technologies and that they work on elemental energy. When we climbed in the first giant kaenria robot, there was a backup power supply system, that instead of chaos nuclei, used accumulators with the energy of the laylines, which are there, since this is an old model, and in the future they were abandoned in favor of chaos nuclei, which I think use the power of the abyss. The chaos core of the ruin golem can then be found in one of the quests with the aranara, where the abyss lector did something with the core praising the energy from this, as a gift and the energy from the core had a detrimental effect on the environment.
Yeah I was going to comment this as well- by the sounds of it, Khaenri'ah had been smelting elemental energy into Azosite to power their tech but were finding it limiting somehow (there's a note saying something about how Azosite also follows the rules of elemental energy). Because of this they had been researching more effective energy sources and it's strongly implied they'd started trying to use Abyssal energy in some form- but Anfortas' squad had gone back to using Azosite for their machines because he'd been warned it was a bad idea (I forget by who exactly, but my hypothesis is that this is one of the things Pierro might've originally warned King Irmin about).
I really want to see what is the connection between the dragon king with Durin , maybe durin is the dragon king's reborn
I am ALL IN for making Zhongli even more OP. He's the dragon king?...well I'll help him become one lol😂
please make a video on all the connections or similarities between genshin and honkai lore, when you mentioned how Deshret was similar to otto everything clicked on my head!
Kvarena translates more directly as Glory, or Divine Light, or Divine Presence or will. Light being the operative word here. It's used to mean the literal pressure of the presence of a God or other such Divine beings
Hey so idk if you noticed this or not, maybe you showed it and i just missed it
But in the Kvahana quest when you're going thriugh the giant Kaenri'an robot there is a note (i dont remember where exactly sorry) that directly talks about another realm and that is the realm where humans are from originally which is storng evidence i feel like that Teyvat is the realm of light and humans have come from somewhere else, somewhere that potentially exists
Love your content Ashikai. Best Genshin CC by far
Random thought on Zhongli. He appears to be wearing gold rings. Normally I'd just think that's a neat design choice, but I think he's the only playable character with rings at the moment. Also worth mentioning that they're gold. Could just be a neat design choice.....or just some more symbolism
Around the time that Zhongli was originally released, there was a theory that Zhongli was also an archer because he's wearing rings.
I can't shake the feeling that the Nibelung ring of power is also the Seal of Solomon (signet ring). There's a very interesting story from the Talmud ("The Story of King Solomon and Ashmedai") about Solomon chaining up and forcing Ashmedai/Asmodai into building him a temple. Asmodai eventually tricks Solomon into giving him the ring, eats it, basically yeets Solomon a thousand miles away, and impersonates him. If the two rings were one and the same that would give whoever is holding it command over demons.
Another amazing video! I absolutely love your Genshin lore videos and have been a fan for a while now.
I was wondering if you could add CC subtitles to your videos? Sometimes, I need to check the spellings of Genshin-specific words (like Irminsul or something) and the auto-generated subtitles just can't recognize these words. As a fellow lore enthusiast, I'm sure you understand how important it is to get these details right. Adding CC subtitles would be a huge help and make your already amazing content even more accessible.
Thank you again for all the hard work you put into these Genshin lore videos!
Thanks for your work! I always look forward to your vids!
Now this is heavy speculation bordering on delusion on my part but as someone primarily invested in character arcs, I think Al-Haitham will slowly gain more death flags in future quests. First we have the Su comparison, and now we have the Osiris parallels, and both Su and Osiris exist in a state of undeath.
What is curious to me as well as that he has the eye symbols that can be found on the Golden Wolflord on his cape, and I feel that it might foreshadow his eventual descension into the Abyss, caused by a fight between him and Kaveh over ideological differences that is similar to the fight between Kevin and Su in the 2nd Key manga - Al-Haitham is unflinchingly pragmatic while Kaveh would want to work towards the most ideal solution at the expense of himself. But basically I think Al-Haitham and Kaveh have a high chance of separating again if not by their own volition then by circumstances outside of their control, but if they manage to have some character development there is a slim chance that whatever crisis they face in the future will help them bring them closer to reconciliation regardless of what happens.
Oh and the Interdarshan championship is foreshadowing the story beats of a future Archon quest - Kaveh increasingly gets burdened by his guilt as the stakes become higher, and he will have to make a decision at the climax (perhaps something similar to the crown that would give him a lot of knowledge/power but bring him pain) should accept something that that depends on whether has learnt to be less self-sacrificial/recognise and accept goodwill as something others willingly want to give him.
This is just all a roundabout way of concluding that I think Dottore burning the tree which may or may not be Irminsul is not supposed to metaphorically representing the events of Acts I - V of the Archon quests (especially since given his capacity of violence, simply just providing his expertise in helping others build a god feels "not at his true abilities") but literally teasing a future quest that Kaveh will be a prominent part of (since he has all this prior narrative build up), as well as Collei and Wanderer as they still have unresolved issues with Dottore. Wanderer is obvious, but I think Collei has been growing up quite nicely in a safe environment that allows her the freedom to hope and dream of a better future, and reckoning with Dottore will allow her the opportunity to fulfil that her desire protect those her life and those that are dear to her, which has been present since the end of the manga. As to why Dottore wants to burn Irminsul, I feel that he would want to investigate the truth of the false sky that Irminsul is hiding.
what's insane, and what doesn't come up in this video for obvious reasons, is that the pari quest is where we find the first breadcrumbs of the narzissenkreuz questline. i'm playing this quest now well after finishing narzissenkreuz, and seeing rene, jakob and alain's names pop up in nasejuna's notes hit me like a ton of bricks.
venti gets so suspicious that we’re just used to it lol
remember in the chasm when Dain said something like "how can Halfdan still be alive without it?" (i can't remember the exact quote)? Well what if that "it" that allows him to avoid the curse of the wilderness is Nibelung's ring?
i really like the idea that Kaveh and Alhaitham are like the 2 different version of Deshret
28:40 crazy how you called this... 0o0
28:45 Ashikai once again proving she's a prophet.
Ive been waiting for this! I swear the pari storyline i would read the lines and not understand what was being said at all 😅
Nahidas quest i understood but i was so lost in the new region story tbh.
oh my god same. for some reason, the dialogue not being voiced really made it hard for me to process what was going on. had the same problem with the aranara quest, especially when I don't have assistance with name pronunciation so I end up just calling all of them "Ara-something", which did not do anything to help with my ability to differentiate between them.
@PatriciaKerri totally understand! Even when i read nothinggg was computing
The fact that during it is shown that allegory can survive irminsul's erasure, and Venti knows ALL THE SONG & POEM THAT HAS AND WILL EVER EXIST
that port ormos bgm for the finale slaps hard ✨👌
Genshin keeps delivering the good, honestly - even if the mood around it been kinda gloomy recently. And in turn, Ashikai delivers great content!
It's always gloomy in the last few patches before a new nation
so glad to see someone else bring up the kaveh = deshret allegory because i think it's so, so cool. on top of all the symbolism, the parallels between their stories are really neat. just throwing another theory out there because i've been thinking about it for a while & have yet to see anyone really talk about it: i feel like alhaitham actually fits really well as an allegory for the goddess of flowers - especially given his relationship with kaveh. to me, it seems like kaveh & alhaitham's role in the story is to mirror deshret & GoF, maybe giving us some further insight/perspective on what happened in the past.
Sumeru lore feels like a overwhelming bomb of seemingly random information that doesn't make sense at first glance and, when you try to put it together, the info makes sense but 300 new info appears out of nowhere to the party.
It sounds like Sumeru is America in alien invasion movies: everything happened there
8:00 hmmm, as interesting as this point may be, I’m not sure if I can fully take this one. The liyue cutscene kinda felt like an adepti energy jumpstart to the traveller’s abilities, rather than elemental synchronization, as I don’t believe every element was actually present in that fight, but correct me if I’m wrong. However, in the 2nd cutscene of the scaramouche boss fight, we actually see the traveller utilizing that same golden strike, albeit to a much lesser degree than on the jade chamber, without any other elements present, hence my jumpstart comment. So I’m going to have to respectfully disagree here.
Regardless, I think you made a lot of good points here, and I really appreciate this recap! Historical references have proven difficult to me as a budding theorist, but you always got my back in that regard. You da best. :))
I think the most curious part in all this is that we don't know if dragons are affected by Irminsul, since the 7 sorveigns are now confirmed to be older than Irminsul. Makes you wonder what the hell the tree actually is...
4:30 I think we've got decent evidence of that elsewhere. Tsurumi Island gets covered in fog, the Chasm moves and seems to be a weird boundary with the Abyss regardless, while Mondstadt as a whole during the archon war was covered in blizzards. I know the game says Andrius did that, but the coincidence of the nail that caused Dragonspine to be covered in blizzards right next to the nation covered in blizzards is too coincidental to not be on purpose for me. If there's so weird terraformed place in Fontaine (probably underwater) I'd guess the nail would be the cause.
As someone who speaks Bangla all my life I've called fairies 'pari/pori' because that's the word for fairies in South Asian languages can't believe it's now an official thing in Genshin Impact
For the nitpick at 10:30
Nahida says "It's uynderstandable that they will eventually become The Withering"
Could we think of withering zones at something similar to the black ooze in the Chasm then? Like it's not exactly forbidden knowledge, but a transformed version of it that's less harmful. This would make sense since the black ooze in the Chasm wasn't deleted either.
I feel like I'm missing something obvious here with this conclusion though so correct me if my line of thinking is wrong
The forbidden knowledge that was eliminated was that of the irminsul and this affected the remnant of Rukkhadevata, she herself could not be eliminated, and since it was a "memory" it was transmitted through it to humans, so she wanted it to be forgotten to cut the connection and Thus being able to eliminate that connection with the energies of the abyss that ended up becoming hilichurs in the best of cases or with a horrible death in the worst.
but that only affected those who had a connection with rukkhadevata, those who absorbed the abyssal energy directly were not affected, so the hilichurs were not affected nor were the elemental beings that feed on elemental energy, remember the abyssal energy is energy, it's like if there was food something poisonous.
the withered areas and the mud of the chasm did not come from the connection with rukkhadevata but from another side.
I just want to say these lore recap videos make my brain vibrate in such a way. the offhand way you put some of your theory tidbits in these things...... I haven't been able to get Zhongli as Nibelung or Venti as Pari equivalent out of my head since you put this out. And neither of those was really even the point of the video.
i was waiting this so badly, i lost track of what the heck was happening in the world quest , thank you!
Phanes really just said “Yeet the Nails”
It would actually be pretty funny if both Alheithem and Kaveh represented the different sides of King Desresch it would also be another reason why they bicker so much. I would also like to imagine that sometime later after we finish the story partway through in Fountaine, where we would finally get to the second part of Venti's story quest and we would have our questions answered.
I wonder if the "source song" that was used to create all the diffrent sentient creatures from aranara to djin, what if thats how the primordial one made humans? or at the very least his shades?
i love listening to your videos because it feels like a friend ranting about their hyperfixation
Need Ashimommy to overdose me on genshin lore.
An incredible video! My brain was blown out several times!
Thanks there's a people like you who dedicated themselves just to summarize all current available quest in Genshin. So dialogue skippers like me can now understand the whole story of the side quests that will may be a very important part of the main quest
Venti, upon being asked about any of this, "Ehe."