**NOTES AND CORRECTIONS** - several people have pointed out that a rooster can be associated with fenghuangs which to me never had too much of a real association with Xiao, HOWEVER- somehow I missed one line in the developer insights that actually addresses the rooster directly by referencing someone called Mekhila. This is apparently one additional source of inspiration for him which would actually make him line up with the rest of the Chinese zodiac theory. It still does not apply to Pervases though, unless the takeaway here is that that slot could just be any bird which I admit is very possible at this point. I am surprised no one noticed this before I did ahahaa...
I'm CRYING because I've been studying Xiao's chronology and lore for MONTHS and when someone on twitter showed me this channel I couldn't believe how similar (practically the same) our theories/reflections are!! So more details for you to chew on! -In one of The Chasm quests, the Sumeru guy told us that The Chasm show signs to have been a forest/have been under the sea long long time ago, and that only through unnatural forces it became the zone we know now. So, being The Chasm Liyue Territory (i suppose) modeled by Morax' hands, it makes sense that long ago part of Sumeru was part of the Dream God's territory. In fact, locating Bosacious quest in The Chasm emphasizes this yaksha-the chasm-sumeru related thing. -Related to this is what Xiao says about Bosacious in The Chasm quest. "You were Morax's first yaksha". So, for me, it made sense that yakshas were adeptus that "became" yaskhas through training (like Pervases tried), and they all "adopted" a new name when becoming a yaksha for "their king". Alatus, Bosacious, Pervases... all Latin names related to their animal form. So maybe that's why I think they don't call Xiao, Xiao? Cause they all call each other by their military rank? -About WHEN Xiao got his new name from Morax: I don't really know about the Dream God slaving Xiao with his true name. ALTHOUGH, Xiao's chronology has always given me headaches until I realized that MAYBE Morax didn't gave him the name Xiao when saving him from the evil lord but LATER! Freed Xiao joined the yaskshas, where they call him General Alatus. No one called him Xiao then.... because (in my theory) Morax gave him this name to protect him from Celestia, 500 years ago, after sealing Azhdaha. (Remember your theory about Menogias having been designed after a figure that fought the Heavens...?) -The lost treasure and Azhdaha. There's this quest about a treasure about an Adeptus whose name was erased from the chest we retrieved from the ruins and it looks purposely scratched. Who would want to erase an adeptus' name from history? Well, we have lore about an Adeptus who was Ascended to Celestia (Guhua) and another about the three adeptus who helped Rex Lapis to contain Azhdaha. One of them is unknown, as their name was scratched. (1000 years ago). Taking Celestia as the bad guys, maybe they got their eye on Xiao, the perfect martyr, and Morax changed his name and all the records about him in order to prevent his Ascension? "Alatus" was never mentioned again, only Xiao. // Or maybe the Geo yaksha was lost here? -Fischl dragon: having the dragon in her play sidequest saying that eating dreams was eating the people's ambitions, I thought that maybe Xiao was forced to eat "Visions"/elementary power... That would be a valuable soldier, if he can turn every enemy into a lost soul like it happened in Inazuma. -Chronology: I also thought the Dream God was the Sea God that destroyed Liyue+provoked Ghizhong's death. Morax created the jade spear to kill him, saved Xiao from him and then gave Xiao the jade spear as a symbol of freedom (when Morax had to create another spear in order to take down Osial. Xiao was already under Morax' command when facing Osial for the first time, 2000 years ago). So, again, being The Chasm originally underwater, and "related" to the yaskhas, I thought The Chasm may had been this Sea/Dream God territory. But being so close to Sumeru, maybe this Sea God was indeed /from/ Sumeru. SORRY FOR THE LONG TEXT I JUST LOVE DISCUSSING XIAO'S AND ZHONGLI'S LORE. PS: it has always baffled me how all adeptus wore Liyue's colours but Xiao wore teal, white and lilac... colours of forests and flowers. (Not only referring to his anemo symbolism, the teal one)
“This is batshit if it actually works. There’s a 90% chance I might be wrong. But I play Gacha games! And 10% sounds pretty spicy.” Ashikai gambling addiction confirmed.
as I can see it "Adepti" is just the local name for the deities that live in liyue are going by. ln inazuma there equivalent are the "Yokai" so for xiao being originally from sumeru is very passable.
@@mariapazgonzalezlesme 仙人 translated is "divine human" actually, at least from my own knowledge. ofc, i cant just assume you don't know the language yourself or if youre specifically referring to the title of 仙人 at all in the first place so correct me if im wrong
its a little strange because im not sure inazuma mentions the yokai by such a name, i know that by japanese mythos they are but by genshin lore its not explicitly said
@@alexblack4048 like I said it's my opinion I could be wrong. But just like how it is in the real world God and deities have different names based on what part of the world you are in and the supernatural beings of inazuma are the yokai. So it's my conclusion that "Adepti" and "Yokai" are the same thing the only different is that one region based on china and the other one of japan.
Fischl's mirage island theaters featured a dragon eating tasty dreams as its main villain and ate only good dreams. Bad, empty, and shallow dreams were a no-go... seems a little too coincidental to me if Xiao's orders were to eat good dreams. But that's just me.
most of these mythology references were from Hinduism and Buddhism, so I wouldn't be shocked if Xiao has sumeru origins, since Hinduism and Buddhism both originated from India, which is one of the references for sumeru- a good theory, i approve!
ashikai‘s yaksha video is like kfc gliders, somewhat of a meme but it finally came LOL excited to watch this! edit: just finished watching, great video as always! there is one thing I noticed tho and it’s is in 1.3 story quest, it was the geo yaksha that dealt the final blow to the hydro yaksha, but in the 2.7 archon quest, it was the other way around. Idk if it means something but the pyro yaksha had the same thing in both cutscenes, screaming in pain, but in a different camera angle. With how deliberate hoyo is with small details, I wonder if it is sus or not.
The story if I remember correctly went like this; The Hydro Yaksha, in a descent into madness, struck the Geo Yaksha's heart, and the Geo Yaksha dealt the final blow to the Hydro Yaksha in retaliation, then bled out slowly right next to her, til they both died.
This is really interesting with the parallels of the group in the chasm to the Yakshas. Mainly how Yelan and Itto seemed to be pretty at each other's throats.
actually I have a theory about this... Since Ashikai told us that the reference of Menogias is "Mythical Zoan Saru-saru no Mi : Model Sun Wu Kong" :v It became so possible to think that he still alive and became "capitano"... In legend, one of Sun Wu Kong's abilities is to "replicate" or let's call it "cloning himself". By this ability it self, we can assume that Menogias Death became so sus, since in the Cutscene where the Hydro Yaksha stabs Menogias with her claws depicts the death of Menogias, then what about the death of the hydro yaksha herself? who "killed" her if it was the Hydro Yaksha who won? Well my theory is, the one who fought the Hydro Yaksha was Menogias's Clone, and right now he still alive and became the Harbinger with "black hair" :v Well its just a Theory afterall, if that's became true, then Xiao's Arc still hasn't ended in 2.7, and he'll likely return when Capitano showing his face to Travelers or Xiao... Well, to be honest, Capitano and Menogias' situation here reminds me about the situation of Obito Uchiha and Tobi (Fake Madara with Swirling Mask) in Naruto Shippuden...
I think it it was because originally we were hearing it from a book that talked about the yakshas which was later then said by xiao was a piece of “literature fan-fiction” and fast forward to the current flashback it’s being shown to us by bosacious who saw everything go down directly or maybe I’m just looking to much into it idk (｀・∀・´)
Also wanna point out how u mentioned Xiao's connection to Sumeru and i think further the proof would be his constellations having mentions of Eon which is Time ...in the artifact section too the Sands is called 'the sands of Eon' .. and.. the sands in sumeru with the hourglass shaped mountain... Xiao is somehow connected and doesn't feel like a coincidence. Amazing video as ever. Watching ur videos give me motivation to keep playing this game eventho there's no content. Just makes me connected to the game even more!! :)
I am constantly blown away by all of the mythological references found in Genshin, and how you and the other lore theorists can tie them all together, I can imagine the developers watching these with a big grin. Even if these connections won't be "confirmed" in game it's very satisfying when it all clicks for head cannon. Also you have convinced me that Capitano is the geo yaksha, even just the hair and design similarities, hiding his face definitely seems suspicious.
Oh my god.. I LOVED this video! As a Xiao main and stan, this absolutely warmed my heart and you have such a good point about the relation that he has with Zhongli, especially during the Perilous Trail quest! I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who felt like his constellations we're hints of him growing as a character, moreso as we saw him recently. Thanks so much for making this vid, your videos remind me how much I love this game and its lore 🤍🍃
Actually, what if the Fatui put Menogius’ ley line memories into the suit of armour? It’s more likely than you think, because Pierro might have wanted the buffest of buff members.
HOLY CRAP WE MIGHT SEE THE MONKEY KING! That’s like the strongest character in Chinese mythology. If Hoyoverse makes a Sun Wukong equivalent in Genshin then they will be OP!
@ashikai Here's something related to adeptai and humans that i found interesting: The quote from genshin's lead character designer: "On the Continent of Teyvat, humanity shoulders a responsibility that is more noble than the Immortal ways upheld by the Adeptai. As such, in order to differentiate human's uniqueness from the rest of the races, only non-human creatures are referred to as Adeptai in Liyue." (Suggesting humans are called something else when reaching an immortal/ascended form - Perhaps he's referring to Allogenes aka Genshins?) Source: CN Developer diary web page on the design of Xiao.
Assuming that Menogias is a reference to Son vo kong, Sson vo kong was sealed under a rock while Menogias died fighting the hydro Yaksha. This is confirmed in the Bosiecious story cutscene where we see him getting stabbed / slashed by the hydro Yaksha as he falls. Also Xiao himself says that he knows the fate of all the fallen Yakshas except Bosiecious ( before the interlude). Tho this theory would be really cool, it won't happen unless the Fatui or Menogias himself were able to trick Xiao and Morax. Although now that i think about it there's a possibility, maybe when Menogias died he left behind a fragment (like Bosiecious that Xiao wanted to bring with him) or a curse ( i mean killed by a close ally does sound like a peaceful death) and Capitano might be that fragment/ curse given a physical forn. We've seen something like this happen in the story so i wouldn't be surprised if it's the case. That's a really interesting connection brought up of dreams. Xiao's former master forced Xiao to eat dreams, while the first Dendro Archon Rukshadevata made it so that his people cannot dream and then we have Kusanali who can give dreams of string willed people a physical form. The Mount Sumeru from the myths I've read is considered to be the Center of any and all physical, metaphysical ( might be referring to something like the dream troller art ) and spiritual universes. I'm guessing Xiao's former master was targeting Sumeru as it seems kinda drastic for the 1st Dendro Archon to stop people from dreaming completely, but if this is the case then how and why did Morax went and killed Xiao's master. Not to mention the Adepti and Morax can invade people's dreams and bring people out of dreams as a soul kinda thing. Unless Morax and Rukshadevata had some ties with each other, it's a stretch but possible.
Morax sniped the evil god from afar with a bow (primordial vista), probably since the evil god specialized in mind control. She forced xiao to eat the dreams so she could get drunk on "pure hatred and revulsion" that comes after.
I’m pretty sure Kusanali wasn’t the one who gave the mirages a physical form? That was just the fatui machine. But the dialogue at the end of the summertime odyssey did say somethings about “a power that has something to do with me” so she maybe still has dream related powers.
If Menogias really is based on Son wukong then deceiving people is something he is an absolute master at. Son Wukong had the abiltity to create clones of himself, it is one of his most famous abilties among his 72. This ability could've easily decieved Xiao.
Great work! really like your wild theories. The lore of Yakshas is kinda obscure even for Chinese players. I can't imagine how much time you had spent to fight with all those strange terms and piece all information together. However, there are still a few mistakes, mostly due to translation mistakes. The Chinese name of Bonanus 伐难（Fa Nan）doesn't mean "difficult to cut" but "conquering disaster". The Fa used here is a verb meaning "Conquering", and 难（Nan, 4th tone not 2nd tone）is "disaster" (Yeah, it's one of the tricky polyphonic Chinese words, and only in 2nd tone, it means "difficult"). As for her General name, actually……we Chinese players also don't have a clear idea why she is called 螺卷大将 (General Snail Spiral). My best guess is that she is referring to Santhila from the twelve Heavenly Generals (the twelve guardian yakshas in Chinese Buddhism) who is said to be a woman/goddess with a snail shell-like bun (another explaination is that she holds a sea snail catalyst when she appears). However, as you said, the other four Yakshas are referring to four different mysterious animals, and I'm not sure why she doesn't follow this pattern. Also, though many materials would tell you that Mind-Monkey is Sun Woo Kong, '心猿' (Mind-monkey) is actually a much older term in Buddhism than Journey to the West. its original meaning is 'unquiet mind (a mind like a restless monkey)'. So, sorrry , your Menogias-Capitano theory now only has 1% chance to be true. 😁 I also have a feeling that Xiao has some thing to do with Sumeru. The Golden Peng plays a very important role in Hinduism and Buddhism, and the dream elements also add some suspicious connections.
BTW, do you have a discord or something? Judging from some of your videos, I guess you are suffering with finding correct Chinese translations and Chinese legends which, as a Chinese, I might offer some help.
I appreciate the correction but I have to disagree on the Sun wukong. He is distinctly referenced by name in the developer insights article as well as the novel journey to the West so it's pretty explicit that they are referencing this novel and not the original roots of the name. I do have a discord but right now it's for members only because I'm not prepared to make it a public one. That requires staff.
Oh my goodness this is an amazing video!! I've been looking forward to it from all your mental breakdowns on twitter, which is a whole mood for any sort of creative outlet. I'm honestly floored that you can even dig up all this information. You must be amazing at any and all trivia games (that being said I do research a lot of random things but forget it near immediately). Your theories are so mind blowing and insightful. I wish I could say more, but right now I'm only capable of word vomiting
This might mean nothing, but in the novel 'Journey to the West', one of the antagonists is the Golden Winged Great Peng. So there's one more connection between Xiao and Menogias
I forgot this was suppose to come out before the Fatui lmfao. Now Sumeru is around the corner I would love to hear a video about what you expect from Sumeru.
I'm not certain if anyone's pointed it out already, however, some Genshin fans noticed that during the Perilous Trail Quest, each of the party aside from the Traveler corresponds to one of the four other Yakshas. Yelan corresponds to Bonanus. Shinobu corresponds to Bosacius. Yanfei corresponds to Indarius. And Itto corresponds to Menogias.
As someone with depression and going into a hard time with traumas at a young age, Xiao means so much for me. Since the very beginning he is my main in genshin and I can’t get enough of seeing him and the process of him seeing himself as a worthy life. I‘m going through the same process, so he means a lot for me. Thank you for this video! I wanted to learn more a out him and this helped me to understand ^^
I was so excited for your yaksha video to come out and wasn't disappointed with the result!! You always present information so clearly and unravel your thoughts like they're a big story in and of themselves. This video in particular helped me understand the nuances of Xiao's arc and just AGH made me like his character even more (and Morax too!!). Hoyo has such good character stories to tell but I dont always feel like they're executed in full detail so I miss a lot... I feel lucky to have a player like you dig in and share it all with us! Thanks for your hard work :)
First of all, it somehow just feels right hearing your lessons about the Yaksha from Yanfei, lol. Second, hearing your theories about the overall plot and your knowledge of the real world influences to the mythos just solidifies my belief that you are my go-to source for the LOREEEE! Keep up the great work, Ash! EDIT: Also forgot to mention that for 13:35, Xiao himself brings up more evidence for Bonanus being the one to find the solution difficult to solve, as he even quotes Bonanus’ observation that “it is rare for a Yaksha to find repose for their soul.”
You mentioning the kalpas/eons name in Xiao's constellations reminded me of Zaura's thread on Twitter, explaining the meaning behind Teyvat's chapter III "虛空劫灰往世書/The truth amongst the pages of Puranas", and giving new ways to interpret it by the original Chinese text. It was proposed two different translations, based on how you can read certain Chinese characters. "The Puranas and the False Kalpa of Emptiness", with 空劫 meaning Kalpa of Emptiness while 劫 meaning Kalpas. The other proposed translation is "The Puranas and the Akashic Kalpa", with 虛空 meaning Akashic. Xiao's second constellation makes use of the two terms. It's translated as 空劫·虛空華開敷變/Annihilation Eon: Blossom of Kaleidos/Kalpa of Nothingness: Changes of Flower Blooming in Void (the latter is a literal-meaning translation from the wiki page). Here we see 空劫 being used as the Chinese characters for Annihilation Eon/Kalpa of Nothingness, and the second part uses 虛空 to mean Void (another form of interpreting the Akashic Records as a compendium of thoughts/events in a non-physical/astral plane). Anyway, this could be seen as a stretch/reach to imply/strengthen a possible Sumeru reference. Or it's just wishful thinking. Anyway. Amazing video as always
Wow this was a massive work from you. Thank you for that and I´m glad we share the same thoughts about Xiao. Most people seem to put characters into a label and not look deeply into what makes them unique.
29:52 "they might still have the same attributes" fast forward to "Kirara meets Diona" and "Xiao talks to Chongyun about Diona's Callirhoe curse of sweet mix"
As someone that has being doing chinese zodiac illustrations the past 6 months... The rooster can be any bird.. sometimes is depicted as a fenix like bird not necessarily a rooster
@@Ashikai uff... I dont remember where I read it... I've translated a lot of korean sources throughout these past 6 months, bc the english and spanish ones where to "fortune telling" like and I wanted more mythological and historical references for my illustrations... I now I was reading about depictions of the rooster in different cultures throughout Asia and some have discrepancies between them, one of those being the rooster and it had a pretty valid reason why you can depict it as any bird(something about the origin of the name I think)... including as a Feng Huang.. (although rooster is pretty much the standard now) I would try to search in my bookmarks if I saved the pages that spoke about that and link them to you I did a rough translation so maybe I misunderstood something...
I will always appreciate genshin lore UA-cam channels cause you guys bring depth to the game that hoyo could never 😍👌🏼 I’ve been cut off lore stuff for a while and now I’m trying to come back to it
Now that you mentioned it Drowzee is also a reference to Baku which also has an ability called Dream Eater. very informative and very mind boggling video as always 👍
I am so happy! Let me say first that I dig the theory with Menogias so hard! Xiao is my favorite character (and the only one who came early when I wished for him deeply) and it would be such a treat to have him for some part of our Sumeru travels! Garuda is one of my favorite mythological figures also (since Digimon, the best anime ever) and it's just all combining so well together with him! Your video was amazing, thank you so much for sharing it and putting all that effort! (Thanks to Surfshark also and every potential sponsor out there )
When Zhongli saved Xiao I almost cried, it was so touching!! I mean... He really was watching over him like a parent following their child who attempts to go to school alone the first time. Worried, but still fully aware, the loved one needs to do this alone... And yes, it was obvious from the permission asking scene that he was worried about Xiao - stating it is dangerous. It didn't sound like an "I forbid you, my subject" conversation at all. I just love them both... which is funny, because at first neither was symp.
Here's just a random thought/theory that I had while watching this video (not related to the yakshas). But I just noticed that in that cutscene where before the yakshas are presented, we have Zhongli standing on two giant hands, much like the new Raiden weekly boss has. So maybe this "new" version of the Shogun, is actually how she looked like at the prime of the Archons, and perhaps they all had these big weird hands lol. So that kinda leads me to believe we may someday see the other archons in game with their former "outfits" at a last battle or something, maybe even when they all join the Tsaritsa against Celestia haha. But this is also kinda supported by Diluc's new outfit, which depicts him as an "older version" so I don't see why that can't happen with the archons.
I think you are totally right about the Yae Miko comment. In the real world itself there's depictions of dragon-like creatures all over the land, even when there was no way to communicate with each other. The same with building pyramide type of temples. The only difference was the culture and how they believed the constructs or magical beings worked. Like a dog is a dog even tho in some countries the national dog is a St. Bernard (Switzerland) which looks nothing like a Shiba Inu (Japan), and they have different "jobs" or traits, but they are still the same species. I see it like a German Shepherd (Germany) is used for protection and "police work" and Dalmatians (Croatia) used to be firefighter dogs. It's a silly analogy but I think it works. Same type of being but different in culture, "job", the way people see them and treat them. (I am only using this example as an comparison of "dragons" and MYTHS, not as sacred figures and belief systems!, not religion at all, okay? sorry if it sounds rude for anyone)
You know, Do you think General Alatus could actually be a reference to Atlas? The Titan from Greek Mythology who was condemned to hold up the entire weight of the sky by himself? It makes sense, considering the connections to the sky connecting to Anemo as well as the crushing suffering that Atlas was condemned to lines up well with Xiao
wonderful video, i very much appreciate the way how you describe and explain in depth about xiao and zhongli/morax's relationship because widespread headcanon made everyone believe they're father and son which is not true at all. sometimes, they cant even see that zhongli and xiao's relationship, at its core, is a king/god - general/loyal devotee kind of relationship
tbh Xiao was that tsundere emo kid to me, too, for a long time. The recent events including him finally made me think otherwise of him and your video also helped so much to understand him even better. I actually like him now :D Thank you for sharing this! Awesome video as always. (also I really love that tinfoil hat theories xD)
29:18 - I clearly see a future relations between General Alatus and General Mahamatra! It'll be wonderful friendship or camaraderie with boundless respect while trying to find out how strong the other one is in combat
Great vid! Tsym for working so hard to get it out before sumeru! I thought I knew most of the yaksha lore, but learning about the buddhist references in the names makes me appreciate how the characters are themed even more. When you mentioned each yaksha had some aspect of performance associated w them that kind of solved my question why the pyro yaksha looked like a bianlian costume (aka mask changing art form related to peking opera) 34:00 🥺🥺🥺 Xiao learns he has someone who gives him unconditional love Also I wish they elaborated on the crystal heart in the quest bc it would have made that scene even more meaningful
Lmao not the crack theories making more sense! XDD I had a lot of fun watching this. Xiao & Yaksha lore is always such a fun topic to research, and as always, Ashikai makes great videos. Really hoping we get another Xiao Quest someday, because perilous trail was honestly one of the best quests to date imo. So many parallels and dichotomies, and interesting details! GAH! it’s great.
As someone who understand and speak chinese, I am impress with your work. For you info 疾 this word have relationship with disease where disease is written as 疾病. As you can see 病 means sick. You can see the similar writing structure. 疾苦 means suffering. 疾 is a pretty negative word in chinese. Xiao is the Plague doctor in genshin? Plague doctor mask are use in commedia dell’arte sometime. commedia dell’arte link to harbringer.
If we stuck xiao, diluc, and kujou Sara in the same room and then we threw itto in how far would we need to run before we were safe from the resulting war?
Thank you so much for this video!! I love Xiao so much, he's one of my (if not the most) favourite character from Genshin! I started playing because of Zhongli and stayed for Xiao haha Anyway, I really enjoy reading yaksha lore so it was so great to know more about them! I really can't wait to see more about Capitano so we can see if the Menogias theory turns out to be right! It'd be a cool twist
Hi, I don’t know if anyone knows about this yet but if you go to the roof of The Knight of Favonius’s HQ in Monstadt, next to one of the doors there’s a mysterious brick that you can investigate, I’m very sure they are Diluc and Kaeya’s past exchanges and there’s even confirmation of what’s behind Kaeya’s eye patch
Am I the only one who'd want an episode focusing on all the genshin machines... From the ruined guard, ruined hunter, etc even the mechanical array.... Just their lore and unique functionalities in a "robot army" so to speak😭Id really love an episode focusing on that
When I first saw Xiao it was honestly “he’s just an emo boi” but every time we interact with him… idk at the end of this event I was just really in awe of his character
I won't lie, I had to do a double take when I saw that video.I almost hought that the yaksha video isa myth at this point.But hey, it was worth waiting.
Okay, okay, listen. I was rewatching this video and Fatui one and then it hit me. If you're right about nails being Capitano's constellation, him being a RESURRECTED yaksha makes so much sense. Like, passion of Jesus includes his death and ressurection. IS THIS WHAT THIS CONSTELLATION MEANS, THAT CAPITANO DIED AND WAS REBORN
just a heads up, minu actually means "to soften anger", which would probably make more sense. Also, fa nan(bonaous' title) means to blow out all challenges/crisis/obstacles in Chinese.
I just started watching your vids, and I'm in too deep into your lore rn. Haha, btw since you mentioned that Xiao's old master might be from Sumeru, could it be that his old master is the Scarlet King?
I found your channel and watched a whole bunch of your past videos. Some connections I made, many I didn't, but your reasoning is very sound. What I was wondering is how much of such lore, if true, will make it into the final story explicitly and how much is going to be left to the player? Not that anyone has an answer to that in advance. But I apricate knowing where their worldbuilding decisions (may have) come from.
The fact that you say that the geo yaksha was imprisoned, maybe he was contained under the gunyun stone forest , why? Because the fact the mountain looks like a hand and if menogias = sun wukong, then if you read the sun wukong legend he was imprisoned under the sea for 500 years by a god, for betraying him, if thr karmic debt made him insane, then perhaps il capiteno = menogias is possible. (Sorry for my bad english, it isn't my first language)
Going off of what you said about the illuminated beasts not all being from Liyue, I'm starting to wonder if maybe that makes the four winds of Mondstadt Illuminated beasts. We haven't seen their human forms, if they have one, but since we know that at least one of them, Dvalin, could speak in a human tongue. Also, if Lupus Boreas is the Wolf of the North, then that makes two of the four Winds able to speak in a human language which to me means that the other two, the Falcon of the West and the Lion of the South, likely could as well. All of this kind of makes me think that maybe the analogy you made in the beginning about Yaksha's being Adepti but Adepti not always being Yakshas might also apply to Adepti and Illuminated beasts. Perhaps Adepti is a title just like Yaksha, and Illuminated beasts is the name of the species/race. If that's true, then I think it further supports the idea that Yae Miko is an illuminated beast or something like an illuminated beast, and the crossbreed creatures we encounter in the game like Gorou, Diona, Sucrose, etc. are descendants of such marriages or unions between Illuminated beasts and humans. Speaking of Mondstadt, I've long had the belief that if Mondstadt gets an underground area like the Chasm and Enkanomiya, it's going to be underneath the middle of old Mondstadt AKA Stormterror's lair. We can even see strange, swirling clouds around the bottoms of the pillars if you go to the lowest platform in the tower where you can battle Dvalin at the top. What do you think about that Ash? is there any likelihood to that idea? Perhaps, just like in Enkanomiya and the Chasm we have the Bathysmal Vishap herd and the Ruin Serpent respectively, maybe we can fight a fragment of Decarabian's power, and maybe that's where the next act of Venti's story quest will go. After all we've got two story quests for Zhongli and Ei, but only one for Venti, and both of their second quests culminated in them fighting a powerful figure in their pasts/a dangerous foe that's related to them in some way, being Azhdaha in his current state, and the Shogun Puppet, so perhaps Venti will follow this trend and we get a glimpse at what he fought, or saw people fight during the fall of Decarabian's reign. I don't know, just some food for thought.
I got an idea, could Professor Ashikai maybe make educated guesses for all characters constellasions like not likey true C6 ningguang is cannon as we are shown her badass shooting rocks at a god's wife necks so 2 characters we know is C6 ningguang and C5 Xiao could you turn to a video BUT do it if your intrested! I dont want your work load to explode k? Remeber your breaks minimun of 1 hour rest from knowledge or excersie or genshin! Kay? Gud well have a good day~
@@champagnepapi3742 bro, people that are on that spot know that they're loved, they just can't love themselves despite all that, they can't comprehend why they're loved by other people even tho they know for a fact they're worthless, because nobody knows you better than yourself... How I know? I'm also one of said people hahaha
“If you've got time to fantasize about a beautiful death, why not live beautifully until the end?” Gintama. We gonna die anyway, sooner or later, it is just a matter of time. why not live beautifully until that last moment?
![[3.2] Genshin Impact Chapter 3 Act 5 Recap & Analysis](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wAY3zGC4DTI/mqdefault.jpg)
![[3.2] Genshin Impact Chapter 3 Act 5 Recap & Analysis](/img/tr.png)
![[2.8] Kusanali & Sumeru Speculations - A Genshin Impact Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ctA7eFzNoIY/mqdefault.jpg)
![[3.4] The Lore of Lantern Rite - Genshin Impact Speculation](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bsAe1J0Fe7M/mqdefault.jpg)
![[4.0] Dottore was in Fontaine - A Genshin Impact Theory](/img/n.gif)
**NOTES AND CORRECTIONS**
- several people have pointed out that a rooster can be associated with fenghuangs which to me never had too much of a real association with Xiao, HOWEVER- somehow I missed one line in the developer insights that actually addresses the rooster directly by referencing someone called Mekhila. This is apparently one additional source of inspiration for him which would actually make him line up with the rest of the Chinese zodiac theory. It still does not apply to Pervases though, unless the takeaway here is that that slot could just be any bird which I admit is very possible at this point.
I am surprised no one noticed this before I did ahahaa...
so.. Xiao Hua when, do you think?
He kinda like a Oni
Chickens are not birds
What makes Xiao different from other yakshas? Well, firstly, he's still alive...
That was my first thought.
dang beat me to it lol
TOO SOON
Lmao same 😭😭 ihms
Ooof!
I'm CRYING because I've been studying Xiao's chronology and lore for MONTHS and when someone on twitter showed me this channel I couldn't believe how similar (practically the same) our theories/reflections are!!
So more details for you to chew on!
-In one of The Chasm quests, the Sumeru guy told us that The Chasm show signs to have been a forest/have been under the sea long long time ago, and that only through unnatural forces it became the zone we know now. So, being The Chasm Liyue Territory (i suppose) modeled by Morax' hands, it makes sense that long ago part of Sumeru was part of the Dream God's territory. In fact, locating Bosacious quest in The Chasm emphasizes this yaksha-the chasm-sumeru related thing.
-Related to this is what Xiao says about Bosacious in The Chasm quest. "You were Morax's first yaksha". So, for me, it made sense that yakshas were adeptus that "became" yaskhas through training (like Pervases tried), and they all "adopted" a new name when becoming a yaksha for "their king". Alatus, Bosacious, Pervases... all Latin names related to their animal form. So maybe that's why I think they don't call Xiao, Xiao? Cause they all call each other by their military rank?
-About WHEN Xiao got his new name from Morax: I don't really know about the Dream God slaving Xiao with his true name. ALTHOUGH, Xiao's chronology has always given me headaches until I realized that MAYBE Morax didn't gave him the name Xiao when saving him from the evil lord but LATER! Freed Xiao joined the yaskshas, where they call him General Alatus. No one called him Xiao then.... because (in my theory) Morax gave him this name to protect him from Celestia, 500 years ago, after sealing Azhdaha. (Remember your theory about Menogias having been designed after a figure that fought the Heavens...?)
-The lost treasure and Azhdaha. There's this quest about a treasure about an Adeptus whose name was erased from the chest we retrieved from the ruins and it looks purposely scratched. Who would want to erase an adeptus' name from history? Well, we have lore about an Adeptus who was Ascended to Celestia (Guhua) and another about the three adeptus who helped Rex Lapis to contain Azhdaha. One of them is unknown, as their name was scratched. (1000 years ago). Taking Celestia as the bad guys, maybe they got their eye on Xiao, the perfect martyr, and Morax changed his name and all the records about him in order to prevent his Ascension? "Alatus" was never mentioned again, only Xiao. // Or maybe the Geo yaksha was lost here?
-Fischl dragon: having the dragon in her play sidequest saying that eating dreams was eating the people's ambitions, I thought that maybe Xiao was forced to eat "Visions"/elementary power... That would be a valuable soldier, if he can turn every enemy into a lost soul like it happened in Inazuma.
-Chronology: I also thought the Dream God was the Sea God that destroyed Liyue+provoked Ghizhong's death. Morax created the jade spear to kill him, saved Xiao from him and then gave Xiao the jade spear as a symbol of freedom (when Morax had to create another spear in order to take down Osial. Xiao was already under Morax' command when facing Osial for the first time, 2000 years ago). So, again, being The Chasm originally underwater, and "related" to the yaskhas, I thought The Chasm may had been this Sea/Dream God territory. But being so close to Sumeru, maybe this Sea God was indeed /from/ Sumeru.
SORRY FOR THE LONG TEXT I JUST LOVE DISCUSSING XIAO'S AND ZHONGLI'S LORE.
PS: it has always baffled me how all adeptus wore Liyue's colours but Xiao wore teal, white and lilac... colours of forests and flowers. (Not only referring to his anemo symbolism, the teal one)
THIS IS SO COOL
thank you for sharing all that with us
❤️
OMG THIS INFO IS AMAZING
Thank you so much 😊 for your works
“This is batshit if it actually works. There’s a 90% chance I might be wrong. But I play Gacha games! And 10% sounds pretty spicy.”
Ashikai gambling addiction confirmed.
Thats relatable tho💀. We need help!!!
Archon of gamblers
My luck is too shit to gamble with tbh XD
@@Ashikai so you’re like tsunade from naruto.
as I can see it "Adepti" is just the local name for the deities that live in liyue are going by. ln inazuma there equivalent are the "Yokai" so for xiao being originally from sumeru is very passable.
Exactly my thought
On the CN, their actual title is "Perfected Lord."
@@mariapazgonzalezlesme 仙人 translated is "divine human" actually, at least from my own knowledge. ofc, i cant just assume you don't know the language yourself or if youre specifically referring to the title of 仙人 at all in the first place so correct me if im wrong
its a little strange because im not sure inazuma mentions the yokai by such a name, i know that by japanese mythos they are but by genshin lore its not explicitly said
@@alexblack4048 like I said it's my opinion I could be wrong.
But just like how it is in the real world God and deities have different names based on what part of the world you are in and the supernatural beings of inazuma are the yokai.
So it's my conclusion that "Adepti" and "Yokai" are the same thing the only different is that one region based on china and the other one of japan.
Fischl's mirage island theaters featured a dragon eating tasty dreams as its main villain and ate only good dreams. Bad, empty, and shallow dreams were a no-go... seems a little too coincidental to me if Xiao's orders were to eat good dreams. But that's just me.
most of these mythology references were from Hinduism and Buddhism, so I wouldn't be shocked if Xiao has sumeru origins, since Hinduism and Buddhism both originated from India, which is one of the references for sumeru- a good theory, i approve!
ashikai‘s yaksha video is like kfc gliders, somewhat of a meme but it finally came LOL excited to watch this!
edit: just finished watching, great video as always! there is one thing I noticed tho and it’s is in 1.3 story quest, it was the geo yaksha that dealt the final blow to the hydro yaksha, but in the 2.7 archon quest, it was the other way around. Idk if it means something but the pyro yaksha had the same thing in both cutscenes, screaming in pain, but in a different camera angle. With how deliberate hoyo is with small details, I wonder if it is sus or not.
The story if I remember correctly went like this; The Hydro Yaksha, in a descent into madness, struck the Geo Yaksha's heart, and the Geo Yaksha dealt the final blow to the Hydro Yaksha in retaliation, then bled out slowly right next to her, til they both died.
This is really interesting with the parallels of the group in the chasm to the Yakshas. Mainly how Yelan and Itto seemed to be pretty at each other's throats.
OH ACCURATE! Only difference is that Ashikai’s videos actually do come out! ;>
actually I have a theory about this...
Since Ashikai told us that the reference of Menogias is "Mythical Zoan Saru-saru no Mi : Model Sun Wu Kong" :v
It became so possible to think that he still alive and became "capitano"...
In legend, one of Sun Wu Kong's abilities is to "replicate" or let's call it "cloning himself". By this ability it self, we can assume that Menogias Death became so sus, since in the Cutscene where the Hydro Yaksha stabs Menogias with her claws depicts the death of Menogias, then what about the death of the hydro yaksha herself? who "killed" her if it was the Hydro Yaksha who won?
Well my theory is, the one who fought the Hydro Yaksha was Menogias's Clone, and right now he still alive and became the Harbinger with "black hair" :v
Well its just a Theory afterall, if that's became true, then Xiao's Arc still hasn't ended in 2.7, and he'll likely return when Capitano showing his face to Travelers or Xiao...
Well, to be honest, Capitano and Menogias' situation here reminds me about the situation of Obito Uchiha and Tobi (Fake Madara with Swirling Mask) in Naruto Shippuden...
I think it it was because originally we were hearing it from a book that talked about the yakshas which was later then said by xiao was a piece of “literature fan-fiction” and fast forward to the current flashback it’s being shown to us by bosacious who saw everything go down directly or maybe I’m just looking to much into it idk (｀・∀・´)
Also wanna point out how u mentioned Xiao's connection to Sumeru and i think further the proof would be his constellations having mentions of Eon which is Time ...in the artifact section too the Sands is called 'the sands of Eon' .. and.. the sands in sumeru with the hourglass shaped mountain... Xiao is somehow connected and doesn't feel like a coincidence.
Amazing video as ever. Watching ur videos give me motivation to keep playing this game eventho there's no content. Just makes me connected to the game even more!! :)
I am constantly blown away by all of the mythological references found in Genshin, and how you and the other lore theorists can tie them all together, I can imagine the developers watching these with a big grin. Even if these connections won't be "confirmed" in game it's very satisfying when it all clicks for head cannon. Also you have convinced me that Capitano is the geo yaksha, even just the hair and design similarities, hiding his face definitely seems suspicious.
Oh my god.. I LOVED this video!
As a Xiao main and stan, this absolutely warmed my heart and you have such a good point about the relation that he has with Zhongli, especially during the Perilous Trail quest! I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who felt like his constellations we're hints of him growing as a character, moreso as we saw him recently.
Thanks so much for making this vid, your videos remind me how much I love this game and its lore 🤍🍃
Actually, what if the Fatui put Menogius’ ley line memories into the suit of armour? It’s more likely than you think, because Pierro might have wanted the buffest of buff members.
HOLY CRAP WE MIGHT SEE THE MONKEY KING!
That’s like the strongest character in Chinese mythology. If Hoyoverse makes a Sun Wukong equivalent in Genshin then they will be OP!
I doubt they will make em OP but maybe just strong
@ashikai
Here's something related to adeptai and humans that i found interesting:
The quote from genshin's lead character designer:
"On the Continent of Teyvat, humanity shoulders a responsibility that is more noble than the Immortal ways upheld by the Adeptai. As such, in order to differentiate human's uniqueness from the rest of the races, only non-human creatures are referred to as Adeptai in Liyue." (Suggesting humans are called something else when reaching an immortal/ascended form - Perhaps he's referring to Allogenes aka Genshins?)
Source: CN Developer diary web page on the design of Xiao.
Assuming that Menogias is a reference to Son vo kong, Sson vo kong was sealed under a rock while Menogias died fighting the hydro Yaksha. This is confirmed in the Bosiecious story cutscene where we see him getting stabbed / slashed by the hydro Yaksha as he falls. Also Xiao himself says that he knows the fate of all the fallen Yakshas except Bosiecious ( before the interlude). Tho this theory would be really cool, it won't happen unless the Fatui or Menogias himself were able to trick Xiao and Morax. Although now that i think about it there's a possibility, maybe when Menogias died he left behind a fragment (like Bosiecious that Xiao wanted to bring with him) or a curse ( i mean killed by a close ally does sound like a peaceful death) and Capitano might be that fragment/ curse given a physical forn. We've seen something like this happen in the story so i wouldn't be surprised if it's the case.
That's a really interesting connection brought up of dreams. Xiao's former master forced Xiao to eat dreams, while the first Dendro Archon Rukshadevata made it so that his people cannot dream and then we have Kusanali who can give dreams of string willed people a physical form. The Mount Sumeru from the myths I've read is considered to be the Center of any and all physical, metaphysical ( might be referring to something like the dream troller art ) and spiritual universes. I'm guessing Xiao's former master was targeting Sumeru as it seems kinda drastic for the 1st Dendro Archon to stop people from dreaming completely, but if this is the case then how and why did Morax went and killed Xiao's master. Not to mention the Adepti and Morax can invade people's dreams and bring people out of dreams as a soul kinda thing. Unless Morax and Rukshadevata had some ties with each other, it's a stretch but possible.
Morax sniped the evil god from afar with a bow (primordial vista), probably since the evil god specialized in mind control. She forced xiao to eat the dreams so she could get drunk on "pure hatred and revulsion" that comes after.
I’m pretty sure Kusanali wasn’t the one who gave the mirages a physical form? That was just the fatui machine. But the dialogue at the end of the summertime odyssey did say somethings about “a power that has something to do with me” so she maybe still has dream related powers.
If Menogias really is based on Son wukong then deceiving people is something he is an absolute master at. Son Wukong had the abiltity to create clones of himself, it is one of his most famous abilties among his 72. This ability could've easily decieved Xiao.
@@bloody4558 damn that could have even fool the geo archon himself
@@bloody4558 Geo Yaksha recieving the Geo Archon, it's hard to believe that would be the case
Great work! really like your wild theories.
The lore of Yakshas is kinda obscure even for Chinese players. I can't imagine how much time you had spent to fight with all those strange terms and piece all information together. However, there are still a few mistakes, mostly due to translation mistakes.
The Chinese name of Bonanus 伐难（Fa Nan）doesn't mean "difficult to cut" but "conquering disaster". The Fa used here is a verb meaning "Conquering", and 难（Nan, 4th tone not 2nd tone）is "disaster" (Yeah, it's one of the tricky polyphonic Chinese words, and only in 2nd tone, it means "difficult").
As for her General name, actually……we Chinese players also don't have a clear idea why she is called 螺卷大将 (General Snail Spiral). My best guess is that she is referring to Santhila from the twelve Heavenly Generals (the twelve guardian yakshas in Chinese Buddhism) who is said to be a woman/goddess with a snail shell-like bun (another explaination is that she holds a sea snail catalyst when she appears). However, as you said, the other four Yakshas are referring to four different mysterious animals, and I'm not sure why she doesn't follow this pattern.
Also, though many materials would tell you that Mind-Monkey is Sun Woo Kong, '心猿' (Mind-monkey) is actually a much older term in Buddhism than Journey to the West. its original meaning is 'unquiet mind (a mind like a restless monkey)'. So, sorrry , your Menogias-Capitano theory now only has 1% chance to be true. 😁
I also have a feeling that Xiao has some thing to do with Sumeru. The Golden Peng plays a very important role in Hinduism and Buddhism, and the dream elements also add some suspicious connections.
BTW, do you have a discord or something? Judging from some of your videos, I guess you are suffering with finding correct Chinese translations and Chinese legends which, as a Chinese, I might offer some help.
I appreciate the correction but I have to disagree on the Sun wukong. He is distinctly referenced by name in the developer insights article as well as the novel journey to the West so it's pretty explicit that they are referencing this novel and not the original roots of the name.
I do have a discord but right now it's for members only because I'm not prepared to make it a public one. That requires staff.
Oh my goodness this is an amazing video!! I've been looking forward to it from all your mental breakdowns on twitter, which is a whole mood for any sort of creative outlet. I'm honestly floored that you can even dig up all this information. You must be amazing at any and all trivia games (that being said I do research a lot of random things but forget it near immediately). Your theories are so mind blowing and insightful. I wish I could say more, but right now I'm only capable of word vomiting
This might mean nothing, but in the novel 'Journey to the West', one of the antagonists is the Golden Winged Great Peng. So there's one more connection between Xiao and Menogias
I forgot this was suppose to come out before the Fatui lmfao. Now Sumeru is around the corner I would love to hear a video about what you expect from Sumeru.
I'm not certain if anyone's pointed it out already, however, some Genshin fans noticed that during the Perilous Trail Quest, each of the party aside from the Traveler corresponds to one of the four other Yakshas. Yelan corresponds to Bonanus. Shinobu corresponds to Bosacius. Yanfei corresponds to Indarius. And Itto corresponds to Menogias.
As someone with depression and going into a hard time with traumas at a young age, Xiao means so much for me. Since the very beginning he is my main in genshin and I can’t get enough of seeing him and the process of him seeing himself as a worthy life. I‘m going through the same process, so he means a lot for me. Thank you for this video! I wanted to learn more a out him and this helped me to understand ^^
I was so excited for your yaksha video to come out and wasn't disappointed with the result!! You always present information so clearly and unravel your thoughts like they're a big story in and of themselves. This video in particular helped me understand the nuances of Xiao's arc and just AGH made me like his character even more (and Morax too!!). Hoyo has such good character stories to tell but I dont always feel like they're executed in full detail so I miss a lot... I feel lucky to have a player like you dig in and share it all with us! Thanks for your hard work :)
First of all, it somehow just feels right hearing your lessons about the Yaksha from Yanfei, lol.
Second, hearing your theories about the overall plot and your knowledge of the real world influences to the mythos just solidifies my belief that you are my go-to source for the LOREEEE! Keep up the great work, Ash!
EDIT: Also forgot to mention that for 13:35, Xiao himself brings up more evidence for Bonanus being the one to find the solution difficult to solve, as he even quotes Bonanus’ observation that “it is rare for a Yaksha to find repose for their soul.”
Oh snap good catch!
You mentioning the kalpas/eons name in Xiao's constellations reminded me of Zaura's thread on Twitter, explaining the meaning behind Teyvat's chapter III "虛空劫灰往世書/The truth amongst the pages of Puranas", and giving new ways to interpret it by the original Chinese text.
It was proposed two different translations, based on how you can read certain Chinese characters.
"The Puranas and the False Kalpa of Emptiness", with 空劫 meaning Kalpa of Emptiness while 劫 meaning Kalpas. The other proposed translation is "The Puranas and the Akashic Kalpa", with 虛空 meaning Akashic.
Xiao's second constellation makes use of the two terms. It's translated as 空劫·虛空華開敷變/Annihilation Eon: Blossom of Kaleidos/Kalpa of Nothingness: Changes of Flower Blooming in Void (the latter is a literal-meaning translation from the wiki page). Here we see 空劫 being used as the Chinese characters for Annihilation Eon/Kalpa of Nothingness, and the second part uses 虛空 to mean Void (another form of interpreting the Akashic Records as a compendium of thoughts/events in a non-physical/astral plane).
Anyway, this could be seen as a stretch/reach to imply/strengthen a possible Sumeru reference. Or it's just wishful thinking. Anyway. Amazing video as always
I love this video! Honestly, don’t be afraid to drop 1 hour+ videos because your theories are always so interesting
Wow this was a massive work from you. Thank you for that and I´m glad we share the same thoughts about Xiao. Most people seem to put characters into a label and not look deeply into what makes them unique.
29:52 "they might still have the same attributes"
fast forward to "Kirara meets Diona" and "Xiao talks to Chongyun about Diona's Callirhoe curse of sweet mix"
As someone that has being doing chinese zodiac illustrations the past 6 months... The rooster can be any bird.. sometimes is depicted as a fenix like bird not necessarily a rooster
I've never seen it as a non-rooster or fenghuang. Do you have a source where I can read about it?
@@Ashikai uff... I dont remember where I read it... I've translated a lot of korean sources throughout these past 6 months, bc the english and spanish ones where to "fortune telling" like and I wanted more mythological and historical references for my illustrations...
I now I was reading about depictions of the rooster in different cultures throughout Asia and some have discrepancies between them, one of those being the rooster and it had a pretty valid reason why you can depict it as any bird(something about the origin of the name I think)... including as a Feng Huang.. (although rooster is pretty much the standard now)
I would try to search in my bookmarks if I saved the pages that spoke about that and link them to you
I did a rough translation so maybe I misunderstood something...
I will always appreciate genshin lore UA-cam channels cause you guys bring depth to the game that hoyo could never 😍👌🏼 I’ve been cut off lore stuff for a while and now I’m trying to come back to it
If that Ashikai says and it seems to be true , we are getting Xiao in action again
Let's get it, the long-awaited yaksha video 🙏🏾 she delivers
that was the smoothest and silliest add transition i've ever heard
the shark caught me off guard 😭
Now that you mentioned it Drowzee is also a reference to Baku which also has an ability called Dream Eater.
very informative and very mind boggling video as always 👍
Ashikai realizing the Menogias-Capitano theory actually holds some merit is very entertaining to watch 😭😭
It gets worse
I am so happy! Let me say first that I dig the theory with Menogias so hard! Xiao is my favorite character (and the only one who came early when I wished for him deeply) and it would be such a treat to have him for some part of our Sumeru travels!
Garuda is one of my favorite mythological figures also (since Digimon, the best anime ever) and it's just all combining so well together with him! Your video was amazing, thank you so much for sharing it and putting all that effort!
(Thanks to Surfshark also and every potential sponsor out there )
That segue into the ad was so clever that I just couldn't bring myself to skip ahead like I usually do. Ashi, you clever devil.
Ooooohhh talking about Morax with Kuber is so cool. They both are related to money. Both are worshipped for wealth.
When Zhongli saved Xiao I almost cried, it was so touching!! I mean... He really was watching over him like a parent following their child who attempts to go to school alone the first time. Worried, but still fully aware, the loved one needs to do this alone... And yes, it was obvious from the permission asking scene that he was worried about Xiao - stating it is dangerous. It didn't sound like an "I forbid you, my subject" conversation at all. I just love them both... which is funny, because at first neither was symp.
Here's just a random thought/theory that I had while watching this video (not related to the yakshas).
But I just noticed that in that cutscene where before the yakshas are presented, we have Zhongli standing on two giant hands, much like the new Raiden weekly boss has. So maybe this "new" version of the Shogun, is actually how she looked like at the prime of the Archons, and perhaps they all had these big weird hands lol.
So that kinda leads me to believe we may someday see the other archons in game with their former "outfits" at a last battle or something, maybe even when they all join the Tsaritsa against Celestia haha. But this is also kinda supported by Diluc's new outfit, which depicts him as an "older version" so I don't see why that can't happen with the archons.
I think you are totally right about the Yae Miko comment. In the real world itself there's depictions of dragon-like creatures all over the land, even when there was no way to communicate with each other. The same with building pyramide type of temples. The only difference was the culture and how they believed the constructs or magical beings worked.
Like a dog is a dog even tho in some countries the national dog is a St. Bernard (Switzerland) which looks nothing like a Shiba Inu (Japan), and they have different "jobs" or traits, but they are still the same species.
I see it like a German Shepherd (Germany) is used for protection and "police work" and Dalmatians (Croatia) used to be firefighter dogs. It's a silly analogy but I think it works.
Same type of being but different in culture, "job", the way people see them and treat them.
(I am only using this example as an comparison of "dragons" and MYTHS, not as sacred figures and belief systems!, not religion at all, okay? sorry if it sounds rude for anyone)
also sorry for my broken english, I be dumb and not my native language.
Smarter than me. I only speak one language with any level of fluency.
You know, Do you think General Alatus could actually be a reference to Atlas? The Titan from Greek Mythology who was condemned to hold up the entire weight of the sky by himself? It makes sense, considering the connections to the sky connecting to Anemo as well as the crushing suffering that Atlas was condemned to lines up well with Xiao
wonderful video, i very much appreciate the way how you describe and explain in depth about xiao and zhongli/morax's relationship because widespread headcanon made everyone believe they're father and son which is not true at all. sometimes, they cant even see that zhongli and xiao's relationship, at its core, is a king/god - general/loyal devotee kind of relationship
tbh Xiao was that tsundere emo kid to me, too, for a long time. The recent events including him finally made me think otherwise of him and your video also helped so much to understand him even better. I actually like him now :D Thank you for sharing this! Awesome video as always. (also I really love that tinfoil hat theories xD)
29:18 - I clearly see a future relations between General Alatus and General Mahamatra! It'll be wonderful friendship or camaraderie with boundless respect while trying to find out how strong the other one is in combat
Great vid! Tsym for working so hard to get it out before sumeru!
I thought I knew most of the yaksha lore, but learning about the buddhist references in the names makes me appreciate how the characters are themed even more. When you mentioned each yaksha had some aspect of performance associated w them that kind of solved my question why the pyro yaksha looked like a bianlian costume (aka mask changing art form related to peking opera)
34:00 🥺🥺🥺 Xiao learns he has someone who gives him unconditional love
Also I wish they elaborated on the crystal heart in the quest bc it would have made that scene even more meaningful
Him being from Sumeru would explain why they gave a whole story section to the book about Yakshas we can only find in Sumeru
Lmao not the crack theories making more sense! XDD
I had a lot of fun watching this. Xiao & Yaksha lore is always such a fun topic to research, and as always, Ashikai makes great videos. Really hoping we get another Xiao Quest someday, because perilous trail was honestly one of the best quests to date imo. So many parallels and dichotomies, and interesting details! GAH! it’s great.
alright, gotta give it to you, that transition to the sponsor was very good
As someone who understand and speak chinese, I am impress with your work.
For you info 疾 this word have relationship with disease where disease is written as 疾病.
As you can see 病 means sick. You can see the similar writing structure.
疾苦 means suffering. 疾 is a pretty negative word in chinese.
Xiao is the Plague doctor in genshin? Plague doctor mask are use in commedia dell’arte sometime.
commedia dell’arte link to harbringer.
If we stuck xiao, diluc, and kujou Sara in the same room and then we threw itto in how far would we need to run before we were safe from the resulting war?
Holy shitttt yesssss. Every video coming from you is a treat. And personally Xiao is one of my favorite characters!
Every time you post it makes my day a little bit better
This was a very insightful and interesting video loved it ty!
You made me sob. Thank you. 💜 keep up the amazing work
u just earned a sub xiao is like my favorite character
Got me thinking that maybe in the next lantern rite xiao finally gets to see the lanterns close in liyue lol
Thank you so much for this video!! I love Xiao so much, he's one of my (if not the most) favourite character from Genshin! I started playing because of Zhongli and stayed for Xiao haha Anyway, I really enjoy reading yaksha lore so it was so great to know more about them! I really can't wait to see more about Capitano so we can see if the Menogias theory turns out to be right! It'd be a cool twist
Thank you, I have a new appreciation for Xiao.
Who remember the theory linking the archon to the height immortals.
I love how you actually analyze and see Xiao for who he is instead of ‘edgy edgelord mc’edgeface’
that video was so good thank you
Bosacius(Marshal Soaring Snake) = Indala(snake)
Menogias(General Mind-Monkey) = Antila(monkey)
Indarias(General Fire Rat) =Vikala(mouse)
Bonanus(General Curled Snail) = Saṇṭhila(horse)
i didn't expect to cry during this video
"What makes Xiao so different from the others?"
My immediate answer: He's alive lol
FIRST I THINK (maybe not but i clicked faster than electrocharged) YAY NEW VIDEO
Such a great video.
Hi, I don’t know if anyone knows about this yet but if you go to the roof of The Knight of Favonius’s HQ in Monstadt, next to one of the doors there’s a mysterious brick that you can investigate, I’m very sure they are Diluc and Kaeya’s past exchanges and there’s even confirmation of what’s behind Kaeya’s eye patch
Ngl i almost cried on that chasm quest.
Real
I dunno, Menogias seems like he’d be kinda dead after getting _impaled_ by blue girl
Wait if Constellations are a characters story would that mean the travelers final form is all of the elements together? 7 elements=6 constalatioms +1
Ye!
yeeey new ashikai video to relax for the day ^^
Am I the only one who'd want an episode focusing on all the genshin machines... From the ruined guard, ruined hunter, etc even the mechanical array.... Just their lore and unique functionalities in a "robot army" so to speak😭Id really love an episode focusing on that
I'd love to do one but I have very little to work with at the moment.
When I first saw Xiao it was honestly “he’s just an emo boi” but every time we interact with him… idk at the end of this event I was just really in awe of his character
Ashikai is a confirmed Xiao simp. Subscribed.
Incredible as always.
Great video as always!
after mihoyo's uploads setting things back, it's finally here!
I won't lie, I had to do a double take when I saw that video.I almost hought that the yaksha video isa myth at this point.But hey, it was worth waiting.
Xiao makes me so soft 🥺💌
Apparently in original Chinese Morax title isn’t war god but martial arts god
Okay, okay, listen.
I was rewatching this video and Fatui one and then it hit me.
If you're right about nails being Capitano's constellation, him being a RESURRECTED yaksha makes so much sense.
Like, passion of Jesus includes his death and ressurection. IS THIS WHAT THIS CONSTELLATION MEANS, THAT CAPITANO DIED AND WAS REBORN
... And somehow up until this exact moment the resurrection connection eluded me.
xiao is my favorite boi, he needs to be happy at the end PLS
just a heads up, minu actually means "to soften anger", which would probably make more sense. Also, fa nan(bonaous' title) means to blow out all challenges/crisis/obstacles in Chinese.
I can't believe the chances of Geo Yaksha being capitano are bigger than my chances of getting Scaramouche off-pity
I just started watching your vids, and I'm in too deep into your lore rn. Haha, btw since you mentioned that Xiao's old master might be from Sumeru, could it be that his old master is the Scarlet King?
Good story I enjoyed it!
i searched up Xiao's name and i got Little as his meaning
What makes Xiao different from other yakshas? I don't know, they are all hot... 😩
I found your channel and watched a whole bunch of your past videos. Some connections I made, many I didn't, but your reasoning is very sound. What I was wondering is how much of such lore, if true, will make it into the final story explicitly and how much is going to be left to the player? Not that anyone has an answer to that in advance. But I apricate knowing where their worldbuilding decisions (may have) come from.
I would say probably about 25% will make it explicitly into the main story. Maybe a little less
@@Ashikai At the very least I leave with some foresight of how to draw connections. I love the mention of Anahida in a video you published months ago
great video thnx for you time and efforts
sun wukong is f***ing epic
personly id love to have the fire and water ones as player charicters but sadly they be dead so we dont ever get them
The fact that you say that the geo yaksha was imprisoned, maybe he was contained under the gunyun stone forest , why? Because the fact the mountain looks like a hand and if menogias = sun wukong, then if you read the sun wukong legend he was imprisoned under the sea for 500 years by a god, for betraying him, if thr karmic debt made him insane, then perhaps il capiteno = menogias is possible.
(Sorry for my bad english, it isn't my first language)
Deva = God
Naga= snake
Gandharva= fragrance/ male ,not sure
Garuda= eagle
Asura= demon
Going off of what you said about the illuminated beasts not all being from Liyue, I'm starting to wonder if maybe that makes the four winds of Mondstadt Illuminated beasts. We haven't seen their human forms, if they have one, but since we know that at least one of them, Dvalin, could speak in a human tongue. Also, if Lupus Boreas is the Wolf of the North, then that makes two of the four Winds able to speak in a human language which to me means that the other two, the Falcon of the West and the Lion of the South, likely could as well. All of this kind of makes me think that maybe the analogy you made in the beginning about Yaksha's being Adepti but Adepti not always being Yakshas might also apply to Adepti and Illuminated beasts. Perhaps Adepti is a title just like Yaksha, and Illuminated beasts is the name of the species/race. If that's true, then I think it further supports the idea that Yae Miko is an illuminated beast or something like an illuminated beast, and the crossbreed creatures we encounter in the game like Gorou, Diona, Sucrose, etc. are descendants of such marriages or unions between Illuminated beasts and humans.
Speaking of Mondstadt, I've long had the belief that if Mondstadt gets an underground area like the Chasm and Enkanomiya, it's going to be underneath the middle of old Mondstadt AKA Stormterror's lair. We can even see strange, swirling clouds around the bottoms of the pillars if you go to the lowest platform in the tower where you can battle Dvalin at the top. What do you think about that Ash? is there any likelihood to that idea? Perhaps, just like in Enkanomiya and the Chasm we have the Bathysmal Vishap herd and the Ruin Serpent respectively, maybe we can fight a fragment of Decarabian's power, and maybe that's where the next act of Venti's story quest will go. After all we've got two story quests for Zhongli and Ei, but only one for Venti, and both of their second quests culminated in them fighting a powerful figure in their pasts/a dangerous foe that's related to them in some way, being Azhdaha in his current state, and the Shogun Puppet, so perhaps Venti will follow this trend and we get a glimpse at what he fought, or saw people fight during the fall of Decarabian's reign. I don't know, just some food for thought.
I got an idea, could Professor Ashikai maybe make educated guesses for all characters constellasions like not likey true C6 ningguang is cannon as we are shown her badass shooting rocks at a god's wife necks so 2 characters we know is C6 ningguang and C5 Xiao could you turn to a video BUT do it if your intrested! I dont want your work load to explode k? Remeber your breaks minimun of 1 hour rest from knowledge or excersie or genshin! Kay? Gud well have a good day~
Even after playing genshin for so long I didn’t know that it has this much influence of Indian mythology.
"there's a 90% chance I'm wrong, but I play gatcha games so that's a 10% odds and that sounds kinda spicy"
Is the best quot for genshin theorists
10% is more than 10x the chance of pulling an early five star, the gacha system really messed with my judgement XD
Best quote for literally anything ever said by a gacha player
pretty inspiring tbh 😂
As someone who also struggles immensely to see their life being of any worth, I can barely put into words how much Xiao as a character means to me
You are loved bro. Keep fighting so you can get your C6 irl, like what Xiao is doing atm! :)
Hope you're doing alright dude
@@champagnepapi3742 bro, people that are on that spot know that they're loved, they just can't love themselves despite all that, they can't comprehend why they're loved by other people even tho they know for a fact they're worthless, because nobody knows you better than yourself...
How I know? I'm also one of said people hahaha
“If you've got time to fantasize about a beautiful death, why not live beautifully until the end?”
Gintama.
We gonna die anyway, sooner or later, it is just a matter of time. why not live beautifully until that last moment?
@@ShyDeath Because the one is more likely than the other.