If it really does end up being that we're cleansing the leyline with resin then maybe that's why we get so many bad artifacts. It's the best the tree can do since it's infected 😭
This actually highlights something I've been thinking about lately how it feels like a lot of people just assume that Celestia is/was this whole big totalitarian evil that cursed Khaenri'ah but I can't help but feel like it's much more nuanced and not that black and white. When Roneth calls it the "nail of retribution" I feel like that implies some crime or wrongdoing has been committed and the nail is Celestia's response and with the nail in the chasm, it's placement being buried so deeply into the chasm seems less like a haphazardly drop but more like a surgical implant in order to deal primarily with the mud and not the people. I feel like Celestia in the past was much more directly involved with mortal life but after the cataclysm deemed their involvement to bring too many negatives than positives and chose to remove themselves and become more distant as we know them now. So now I'm actually starting to wonder if the story of the archons of the nations are going to reflect the motivations behind Celestia of the past with Venti philosophizing the implications of freedom (when to intervene, how much is too much, etc), Zhongli wanting to give his people independence, and Ei struggling to govern her people in a balanced and healthy way. Then (based off of the "Travail" trailer) the dendro archon could reflect mortals trying to seek too much knowledge than might be good for them and struggling to discern when or if to intervene, the hydro archon could reflect the moral implication of law, order, and justice and passing judgement, the pyro archon could reflect the implications and intricacies of war and the aftermath and the role of the "victors" and "losers", and then the Tsaritsa could reflect the almost reluctance of resorting to violent methods but deeming it necessary for the greater good and the whole "if not us, then who?" mentality. I'm really interested in what we see in Sumeru because being the nation of wisdom I feel will actually impart some pretty significant info in general considering where we are currently in the main story.
I wonder why is it that so many people miss the obvious: Khaenri'ah was on its way to become a militaristic empire that wanted to control all of Teyvat. Snezhnaya is dangerously close as it is. We shall see.
Could anything possibly justify dooming _everyone_ though? Civilians, children, elderly? Sure, something probably needed to be done, but whatever it is the leadership was building towards the entire population can't possibly all be guilty. If not evil (which is a very subjective thing to begin with), it certainly is still tyranny. Most of the archons certainly do not seem the most enthusiastic about that outcome. Just that nobody save for the Tsaritsa is resolved to take the risk to challenge it.
I have a feeling Celestia nuked whatever civilisation Khaenria was a part of, in response to something infectious but it didn't necessarily work out in their favour.
celestia is absolutely evil. you know about enkanomiya people who rose to watatsumi island right? watatsumi and the people were punished by celestia with starving and epidemic just because oroboshi accidentally read the before sun and moon book. oroboshi choose to be killed by shogun so that watatsumi island were protected under raiden shogun(a god that is under celestia). if oroboshi didn't do that, watatsumi is gonna be another khaenriah and dragonspine
just wanted to submit my interpretation of "The God of Wisdom's Enemy is Wisdom Itself". I take the Chasm as a prelude to Sumeru, so by interpreting the roots of a tree digging into soil as a metaphor for digging up knowledge, it may mean that the pursuit of knowledge will corrupt the Dendro Archon (and others), by exposing them to impure leyline energy, giving delusions of 'Truth' and whatnot.
Or it could be something similar case to Orobashi. He knows too much so he need to go. Since Dendro archon is god of wisdom he/she may knows more than other archon but pretending to be oblivious in order to protect his/her people but this cause the scholars to see Dendro archon as a god that lack wisdom thus no good enough to lead them. So Wisdom become Dendro archon enemy in two way, her/his people became too knowledgeable(you know what happen when you combine human and knowledge, they would rebel or become target for of Celestia) and the fact she knows too much make the Celestia vary of her. And like you said, maybe he/she gained unwanted knowledge like Zhiqiong when she covered in the mud. So I think Dendro archon pretending to be innocent while hiding his/her wisdom like the words under Teyvat preview trailer, Sumeru: Sub floreis lumen sagacitatis -> The light of wisdom under the flowers. Under the flowers implied that he/she hiding her/his wisdom under a facade.
Thats a bit of a strech... because the other theory I heard somewhere seems more plausible. The one where someone explained how sumeru academia gives approval to wrong thesis because the god of wisdom thinks that if the people can uncover the truth, they will face some consequences.
Another thing that supports the "no leylines at dragonspine"-theory is that the lack of entropy, or in other words (elemental) energy, is what causes something to be cold.
Isnt going against entropy violating laws of physics. It won't make sense that lack of external force would reduce the entropy and something (skyfrost nail) has to be used to increase the entropy. If your theory is correct, there should be something actively powering the cooling phenomena, not the lack of something. Maybe its the dark mud, that would mean that the abyss relm don't follow the normal flow of universe.
@@brahmaduttamahapatra4222 nothing has to power entropy it just happens naturally like how ashikai described that there are no dark mud pools in dragonspine because it's perfectly dispersed in dragonspine now
A year in this game and the more lore i look up and watch keeps me playing this game. I don't know if it's just me but every time i look up at celestia i get a weird feeling that something is off with it. Love watching your videos
I feel the same. I feel like it gets closer. It depends on where you stand in Teyvat though. When I started playing, I thought Celestia was a cloud. Looking at it from the city in Mondstadt. Now it is obvious that it is a floating island, I can see more detail than I could when I first saw it.
Same. Especially now that I’m in Fontaine. I looked up at it once when I was at Romaritime Harbor and it looked a lot closer then I remember it being, as in I could make out the underside of it.
The thing that Dvalin has in his back looks like a mud tumor, may be that the abiss is using the mud? The symbol on the wall painting with the crowned humans looks like an atom, that symbol may represent some kind of energy? Like if the god is giving them the fire knowledge. The nail looks like a torch, maybe it's some kind on nuclear reactor.
Surprised you never talked about the suspicious talking mushroom... next vid perhaps? Personally, I think the dark mud is the accumulation of all the... 'dead' Hilichurls that go to the Chasm to pass away. When you go back to the final resting place of the Hilichurls we meet during the quest, the next time we go back all that remains is dark mud. And with our experience with the sacred sakura and filth... I interpreted this as the Hilichurls never 'died' they just simply gave up sustaining their physical forms that needed food and water to continue to function. When they gave up, they let themselves erode. Their memories is still given a physical form by the curse, which becomes the dark mud that cannot be absorbed by the ley lines. Zhiqiong got sick from exposure from the dark mud, but she also seemed possessed in some moments. Speaking as if she was reliving someone else's memories which is one of the reasons why I think the dark mud is the memory goop from Hilichurls and maybe other creatures as well. The lumenstone adjuvant doesn't completely 'purify' the dark mud, it just kind of vaporizes it and like water it just comes back the next day. And you know I'm still not sure about the Celestial nails. The delivery method of dropping them from the sky is pretty inefficient.
This makes me wonder: if they nails are meant to contain and purify this mud, are they perhaps giant pieces of solidified resin? Either taken from the 'main' tree or individual irminsul trees simply carved into such a shape?
I'd say the nail on Dragonspine hit the top of the mountain in an unexpected way (or maybe the machines from Khaenri'ah managed to create some sort of partial protection) which resulted in the breaking of the nail and the unfortunate consequences of that. No fragment of this nail ever went really below ground level of Teyvat. The nail that created the Chasm, on the other hand, went down all the way and pierced the border that separates Teyvat from "the other side" - the Abyss. So the dark mud is just Abyss Ooze slowly seeping out. The nail was not sent to stop the mud, it is the cause of it. The Lumenstone crystals are a sort of immune system reaction of the nail, a way of keeping the dark mud "infection" in check. As for a leyline tree in the Chasm ... notice how the 'upside down' city is sort of held by large roots? Roots of which plant? The actual world tree, maybe? Certainly not the roots of that little tree we find in the north-east corner. Another interesting observation: if you go to the Chasm nail after the cleansing, there are little glowy things floating upwards from it. But they are basically only two types: cubes (yes, them cubes again), and some constellation-like point and line structures which look suspiciously similar to the ones we get when opening the Paimon menu. I'm getting very suspicious of that floating emergency food....
"Archways" around Nail in Chasm look awfully like Asmoday/Susty cubes but petrified. Same with Chasm on the surface resembling petrified vortex, sort-of matching notion of "Chasm used to be sea in the past, based on these seaborne fossils".
I’m very late in this thread, good observation indeed those little constellation patterns that float around the nail are the exact same as Paimon’s and also... those that the Traveler creates in his hand in his idle animation. When I pointed that out on reddit I only got replies from disinterested people who said idiotic things like “Mona too creates constellations in her hand” it’s obviously not the same... where am I getting: I think those nails come from the heavens that were created by the primordial one (am I correct?) and that we also see in the title menu before entering the game. The Second who came took over the world so they can surely access those heavens (now, is it the same thing as Celestia? i’m not sure). So my point is, it is not the Sustainer of heavenly principles and possibly other gods that currently live up there that created this power. So we can’t really use that to link Paimon to Asmoday. Instead, Paimon and the traveler would be both linked to the primordial god & their civilisation. This is how they got this power (that the Traveler has yet to awaken again). If you noticed, Paimon gives us the instruction to hit the nail to finish the cleansing in the Chasm. She definitely still remembers about these nails, and the Traveler might’ve just lost all their memories about it. Does that make sense?
19:22 , in the mural if you you turn it upsidown you can see a snake and lines going from its mouth towards the circle/orb thingy, just like the battle pass cutscene, also said snake is oozing purple goo that can be related to the corruptions, dont know if this helps with something, but at least a little food for thought
I'd take a wild guess that Celestia's nails are there to suppress remaining memories and knowledge of prior civilizations as well as other remaining powers and effects. Nail suppresses dark mud, Abyss order suppresses the nail to let the mud overflow and memory of Khaenriah to spread and return. Also, the eyes on the domain mural? Roughly similar to the "eyes" on twins' wings in the opening cutscene. Teleports being very ancient and everywhere and used only by the Traveler? A brick in the wall for the theory of twins being somehow connected with the primordial civilisation. The ability to cleanse Dvalin's tears? Maybe close to cleansing the roots.
Sounds awesome but the mud being hazardous implies that it must be some sort of negative energy and I cannot see why memories would poison, which makes the "dark mud is what's left from the hillichurls/curse" more plausible. Though the fact that according to Scara's lore the gnosis was full of lies, deception and curses hints at the possibility of the nails and gnosis both being some sort of cleansing devices that "accumulate toxic waste(aka all the bad stuff and emotions)."
@@Perepeteia Since the curse is basically a tormented lack of death a person might naturally aggregate a lot of bad emotions and memories, I think. Memories of pain and destruction surely can poison sometimes. That said, it is only a small theory, we'll have to wait and see.
@@Anastasia_Clouds memories of pain absolutely could be a part of it yes, but imo not the memories of what their life was like before the cataclysm (which would presumably be happy stuff I'd assume since they love their homeland so much) Still I think it must be negative emotions of all living beings, not just Khaenri'ah civilization bc it would make more sense since they are not the only ones with emotions and if we have vital, invigorating magical power running through the Leylines there must be the opposite power to counter it True, we'll have to wait for more clues to speak with some degree of certainty on this matter
Maybe this theory can explain the statue of seven. Basically, I'm comparing the nail to the statues(they even look similar) The statues are systematically laid out across the map to "cover" the whole map. Consider the "abyssal power" as the radiation and the power of the statue as lead. So,to cover the radiation of abyss, the statue acts as a lead covering over a certain aoe. Also, just like the frostbearing tree we have to collect geoculus to level up the statue. Another thing about leveling up the statue is maybe the collectibles (geoculus,anemoculus) is a sort of antivirus which is triggered by the growing abyssal power or radiation. So like when the radiation increases, the statue releases geoculus to level it up as if to increase the lead covering on the radioactive substance
that could explain why they seem to protect the area they are in from the leyline anormaly appening, they keep us safe from the cold in dragonspine and the mist of tsurumi island doesn't reach the area protected by the statue! (?)
Did we ever mention that the rock formations that surround the chasm nail look exactly like petrified versions of the red cube things that surrounded khaenri’ah during the cataclysm as well as susti’s cube power?
Any thoughts on Xamaran being the first sentient ley line purifier and able to interact with adjuvant's (and thus, nail's) power? One loading screen tip suggests the nail may have made him sentient which is pretty wild.
Well technically the frost bearing tree once revenge on humans and has in theory spoken words but not to us so I don't know if we can count it as the first purifying entity but regardless xamaran gets their own video.
there is a comment sugesting that the mud comes from dead hilichurl, what do mushrooms do? they decompose dead being. Oooh this has become my favorite video, and the comments are sublime!
So an interesting thing about the dark mud is that if you return to the areas in the upside down city after the world quest where the hilichurls were the only thing left of them are their masks and puddles of the dark mud. I think that while the hilichurls can’t ‘die’ due to the curse their minds do eventually erode away. When that happens their physical bodies lose form and become the dark substance. This could also apply to any other cursed person/creature that faces erosion and even some of the gods killed in the archon war as many of them still have remnants left behind. It could also explain why people get visions when exposed to the dark mud since it could be the memories of the beings who succumbed to the curse?
Yup. I'm going to be making another video on this topic a little bit later as I thought it would be too much to include that next theory in this video.
If you compare the laylines and the dark substances in genshin with Yggdrasil (World tree) in norse mythology it gets kinda interesting. Yggdrasil had three roots, one was located with æsene (gods), one was located with rimtussene (jotner, the first creatures that existed and the opposite of the gods. They were trolls, giants etc, i.e monsters). The third root was located in Nivlheim (the deepest part of the death realm Hel and existed before the world was created). Under the root in Nivlheim, a natural spring called Hvergelme exists. There is a lot of serpents living in Hvergelme. One of them is Nidhogg. Nidhogg and the other serpents are chewing on the root of Yggdrasil. Nidhogg threatens the existence of Yggdrasil. (The other animals that lives in Yggdrasil is also destroying the tree. But Nidhogg is the one that is depicted the most as the one who is destroying Yggdrasil in a lot of the sources that I have found in norwegian.) The rivers that exist in norse mythology is called Elivåger. Before the world was created, several Elivåger was flowing from Hvergelme. The water is poisonous. Under the root that is located with æsene, a spring called Urdarbrønnen(The Urdar well) is located. It got it's name from Urd one of the three Nornene. Nornene are the three sisters that decides peoples and the gods destinies. They pour water from the well over Yggdrasils roots everyday. They do this so that the roots won't dry up. The water is very sacred, everything that is dipped in to the well becomes white. Mimesbrønnen(Mimes well) is located near the roots in rimtussenes world. It is named after Mime, a wise jotne. Wisdom and knowledge was hidden in this well. There is a lot of animals living in Yggdrasil. The goat Heidrun is eating the leaves. The four deer Dålin, Dvalin, Dunøyr and Duratro is eating the buds. There is an eagle called Vidofnir living in the top of the tree. There is also a squirrel called Ratatosk that runs up and down Yggdrasil between Vidofnir and Nidhogg. Ratatosk is spreading gossip and trying to get Nidhogg and Vidofnir to hate each other. I thought this was interesting since there is an evil squirrel in the book The Boar Princess in genshin also. There is a lot more but I tried to keep it short. In norse mythology, æsene is often an interpretation of order and jotnene is an interpretation of chaos (it is not about good and evil. Jotnene is not evil). When the balance between order and chaos collapses(Ragnarok), a new world is created. A world without chaos. Many of the gods that died in Ragnarok comes back. Two humans also survive, Liv(female)and Livtrase(male). Liv means life and Livtrase means the one who fights for life. Maybe that is what is happening in Teyvat. Celestial has always been trying to counterweight the chaos(dark substances?) but they have lost control.
So much more to think about! My take on the Mud is that it is the leftover "essence" of Khaenri'ah citizens that have eroded into (almost) nothingness, since after the quest with Dain if you go to where the Hilichurls were sitting you see nothing but black muddy puddles. So, since we know they are denied returning to the Leylines, I was thinking it is the remnants of the people, which might explain why people who get exposed to it suddenly gain memories that aren't their own.
I love the idea, but that means that the Nail and the Curse have seperate origins; since the curse creates dark mud, and the Nail probably a desperate attempt at containing it.
It's always good to take a break whenever you're feeling burnt out of anything. You can still enjoy content for a game that you're not playing even if you take a week or two or a month or even several months off.
your theories sometimes sound too good for Hoyoverse but at the same time it makes absolutely perfect sense too (I myself predicted once that humans aren't native to Teyvat and a month later Before Sun And Moon confirmed it)
My take on your theory about the material domains would be that those are echoes of time made manifest. During the second story with Raiden Shogun, we meet the ghosts of Inazuma inhabitants from the time of the cataclysm. Raiden explains that these are faint echoes of memories that seep out from the damaged roots at the surface. The same happens in the gateways to the domains. Upon entering, we walk into a distorted mix of countless memories manifesting at the same time, which results in the chaotic expanses outside the arena, flowing out from the massive leyline roots located there. The arenas were built as places of worship, but also to hold purification ceremonies. The impurities are then manifested as memories of battle, resulting in the appearance of monsters (whose appearance is likely influenced by the travelers memories of battles). After passing the trial and eradicating the impurities, the ritual enters its conclusion as you're granted passage to approach the leyline tree and use resin to mend its wounds. In exchange, it rewards you with trinkets containing particularly strong memories, taking the shape of artifacts, books of great guidance, and objects of profound meaning. Logically, the artifacts should be one of a kind, since they're specific belongings of individuals of history. But because they're echoes of memories past, the leylines can materialize them and even grant them strength, but the instability of leylines causes the artifacts to have inconsistent effects, which explains the random stats.
The more Hoyoverse reveals and adds with each new update, the more I fall in love with the world of Teyvat. And your theories are always a treat! And, if I may, I have also done some speculating ever since the release of the Chasm. It is stated that 500 years ago there was a conflict between Teyvat and Khaenri’ah and many people have tried to figure out what started it or more accurately, who shot first? But many of those discussions forget to account for two key players: the twins. I believe, unless proven otherwise, that the Abyss twin started the whole conflict. Why do I think that? Well, let me explain. This line of thinking came to be when I was foing through the new Dain quest in the Chasm and wondered ‘Why does a world-traveling supernatural being care what happens in Teyvat?’ Why does the Abyss twin care so much about restoring Khaenri’ah and going against Celestia? Well, we know they traveled with Dain but only one of them finished the journey and I think it is pretty obvious it was our twin. But what did they discover at their journey’s end that made them want to fight Celestia? Honestly, I’m not sure as it could be many things. But whatever they discovered, it motivated them to take up arms against Celestia and they used Khaenri’ah for their fight. Because that kingdom has lasted many centuries with their developed technology and khemia so why did Celestia decide to attack them 500 years ago? Why then at that moment? Because of the twin. They roped Khaenri’ah into their fight, they encouraged to seize forbidden knowledge and in the end, it was Khaenri’ah that payed the price for that war. Many people believe it was the alchemist Gold that was the catalyst for this conflict but then I start to wonder: why would an alchemist of khemia be interested in forbidden knowledge and Celestia if she were already creating remarkable things by herself? Again, it was the Abyss twin. Maybe they shared what they had discovered and that made people of Khaenri’ah curious themselves. With the aid of the twin, they went into war with Teyvat but ended up losing. So basically, the Abyss twin woke up in a new kingdom, dragged their Captain of the Royal Guard to be their traveling buddy for a tour of this new world, discovered something that made them want to fight Celestia and ended up losing with Khaenri’ah as collateral damage. The reason I brought this whole thing up is because the faulty ley line system could be one of the motivations that the twin needed to fight Celestia. After all, Celestia and its gods are supposed to protect and watch over Teyvat but instead they appoint 7 Archons to rule of the nations and only offer band-aid solutions to serious problems. Heck, this whole problem could be traced back to the days of the Primordial one and it has just been an endless cycle of falling civilisations and temporary fixes to every single calamity for a millennia. The twin discovered the truth of it all and decided that enough was enough. After all, they know what it’s like to one’s home to total destruction. The Abyss twin could be doing this to just help Teyvat before it is too late or they want to replace Celestia as the ruler of Teyvat and rebuild their own home, who can say. But when looking at the unfolding story and all the key players, each with their own motivations and goals, I believe the Abyss twin is the one that started it all. After all, once you choose which twin becomes the Traveler, the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles captures your twin while you just get sent to Teyvat, basically free to do as you wish. Why not capture both of you? Because one is innocent while the other started a war they never had a chance of winning… Anyway, this theory/reading of the characters has been burning on my mind for a while and I needed to let it out somewhere. This video just gave me more of a reason to believe in this idea since it sheds light on possible motivations and gives me many ideas on where the story might end up. Whoever decided to read this whole thing, I congratulate and thank you for listening to my ramblings. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day!
@g.sahkai8338 I think that our twin that has been captured by Celestia may become part of them. It will be very funny plot twist if we will must fight with Celestia twin fist and with Abyss twin later (or in another order) and both of them have reasonable motivation..
You just gave me an idea of what the content of the fountain is: liquidized (and concentrated) fragments of the Celestia's Nails, and if they have the same function as the trees... that would explain why the purifier to some extent worked with Halfdan, carrying his ghost and memories to the leylines. That would also answer something that was bothering me to no end: we see the roots everywhere in the Chasm, where was the tree? After aligning the surface map with the Chasm, assuming it is still fixed in North and didn't rotate in a weird way: -The so-called "Sumeru Room" is right under the building that is in Qingxu Pool and sure, while there is no huge tree and just random small ones here and there, there are huge roots around that area. But the question would still be, where is the tree those roots belong to? -And while we don't have access to what is on top of the "Inverted Fountain" yet, we should see a giant tree in the distance, as is not too far from the Chasm perimeter. We can't. Again, it would need to be the same size as the _Sakura Tree_ in Inazuma, the _Symbol of Mondstadt's Hero_ in Windrise, or how the damaged bark shows the original tree was in size in _Kapatcir's Nest_ in Seirai Island, and the _Frostbearing Tree_ in Dragonspine. But thanks to you, now I think that the tree mostly turned into black goo, and whatever was left Xamaran parasitized it. The reason I say this, besides the obvious brilliant light blue color surrounding it and that there was a quest to purify it, is that in the _Hydro puzzle Pool_ (I can't think of a better name for the location) there is the biggest tree branch I could see in the Chasm. What is interesting, too, is that the roots in that area have huge mushrooms (that works in videogame design as platforms to jump around) growing in the remaining roots. I know, it should have been obvious, but I couldn't believe something so powerful, capable to purify, hold memories and mess with time and space, could lose against a freaking mushroom. If it was already dead, it would be like a normal tree. But then wouldn't be special either to create Xamaran. So I resisted the thought of it. But now, I can't think of anything else: the black goo left it so weak, the mushroom won. Then the leap in thought is obvious: the point of poisoning the Celestia's Nail with black goo to begin with is to obtain its power, like that mushroom managed to do with the Ley Line Tree. Edit: Makes me question if the inverted City were the first in achieving success in it, because of the fountain.
That was interesting and made a lot of sense too. And i hope we see Zhiqiong again... alive. She gets alot of hate because of her recklessness which is understandable but i really liked her. Also could be coincidence but those strings with cubes attached flying around the cleansed Pillar look very similar to those that come out of Paimon when we go into the Menu/when Paimon appears.
Do you think that the "Three Moons" Could be the floating islands... Like just like Celestia Kaenriah and Enkanomiya used to float above teyvat.... The two moon sisters fall like literally means the fall of Kaenriah and Enkanomiya?.. Don't mind me I'm just shooting blindly.. Whatever that comes to my pea sized brain 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@epicazeroth Khaenriah is underground. As, for the Original Enkanomiya, I do recall hearing it being called flying, yet I dont rlly have a source on that, so I assume it's just surface level.
One of the knights in the Chasm (Hyglacg) has this to say: "..Even the ominous thing that came down from the heavens shall be ours to use..." If he's talking about the nail (and what else would it be) that definitely supports your theory.
So far the nails are located at Dragon Spine, Chasm and Tsurumi Island. The nails are capable of disrupting the leylines resulting for a leyline disorder - sheer cold, black mud and the fog. Also important to know that when the nail is present, leyline blossom will not spawn on the area.
Dain and Makoto also throw pretty heavy wrenches in trying to figure out the chronology of the world. When the gods do things, it applies at a higher level than the people of the world, like Makoto helping Ei plant the seed of a tree that had always existed, or a curse cutting people out of the natural order of the world. Time, perspective, and causality start to get really hinky at those levels.
That was awesome. I really think you're spot on or close to it. Prob not that many people in the world understand this game's lore better than you. Thanks for all the time you put into it!
Hey Ashikai! Great video! U put so much thought and effort into this like you do with the others, and it’s honestly so admirable! Since you love theories so much I also wanted to share one of mine with you! I couldn’t sleep last night and just randomly came up with it. Basically though, it’s that I think the god of time/moments, Istaroth/Kairos, is the one that’s actually responsible for visions! Considering her connections to the ley lines and the memories & elemental energy that flow through them, I don’t think it’s so far fetched. Lol, I use to think the statue of the omnipresent god was a depiction of The Raiden Shogun, but due to recent updates we learned that the statue is most likely actually depicting Kairos. Another interesting thing I noticed is that the statue is also said to be that of the “thousand armed and thousand eyed god”. At first, the name sounded very weird to me, but I eventually figured the arm part was in reference to her connections to the ley lines; cause branches kinda equal arms. As for the eyes part, this stumped me a bit for a second till I remembered how visions were once placed on her statue. That’s when it it hit me! “What if Kairos is responsible for visions?!?“ It’d certainly explain why they chose to build a statue of her, and put the confiscated visions on her statue!
I came up with a crack theory that the moment someone receives their vision is what would be a turning point of their life that makes them rebel against Celestia, and Celestia is somehow controlling Istaroth and has her replace that point with their ambition being condensed into a vision. Since merely removing a vision from someone seems to have adverse effects, what would happen if it was destroyed?
One cool consequence of "radiation" being an element of the world-building is that it strengthens the light symbolism, as light is a type of radiation. (In fact, all radiation is just different wavelengths of light.) Light symbolism shows up everywhere from the stars to the protagonists to the colors of the elements (being the 7 colors of the rainbow and all), so looking beyond just common artistic elements and focusing on the scientific elements of light for the game's symbolism is really cool. Also, as a quick aside; if Celestia is destroying civilizations in an attempt to purify the planet, it doesn't necessarily make them "morally grey" like a lot of people are implying. Rather it changes their thematic implications from tyranny to ecofascism, as needlessly destroying life in an attempt to help the planet is a core feature of ecofascist praxis.
also if it similar to normal “light” we may have some element outside of visible range like UV or IF, even X-ray or gamma, microwave based element could be very cool
Could there have been 2 drops on Khaenriah? Like 1 the nail and then that didn't fully destroyed it so the Sustainer stepped in? Like why did the Sustainer personally came and destroyed it where a nail could've also done the job?, they've used the nail twice (maybe even 3 times with Tsurumi island included) so why was it different that time? Like I get her going againts our twin but why was the whole nation destroyed by her and not by a nail? Other than that let's see what this theory got in store for us!
My guess is time will tell. The 2.5 archon quest put forward a question I’ve had for awhile. Did the sustainer cause the citizens of Khaenriah to become monsters or did they curse themselves? If the latter is true then maybe the sustainer got involved to stop them from destroying the rest of the world? The corruption of Orobashi seems oddly similar in a way. The dark miasma that corrupts people. Maybe it was the result of peering too far into the Abyss? I just have to wonder if the curse itself was from Celestia or if Celestia was trying to contain it.
@@wtpiv6041 my exact thoughts i believe celestia is acting more as a custodial role than a ruling tyrant even if they took over from the primordial one it reminds me of colonizations new people arrive in new land take over mess up nature then have to fix it as best they know how they killed the 7 original dragon sovereigns then had to replace them with the archons they flipped the world which caused the abyss to leak out and corrupt things so they dropped the sky nails to stop it all in all the new bosses messed things up and have been trying to fix thier mistakes obviously there is more to it but i started feeling like celestia is more grey than black or white
@@wtpiv6041 I'm wondering if the curse was a side effect of a nail being dropped on them during the cataclysm by Celestia attempting to stop it. Perhaps the "curse" that affects Khaenri'ah's citizens is actually "fallout" from this explosion that happened from the nail since in real life when you get too close to radioactive substances it does change your body's structure. So perhaps while Celestia was attempting to save the nation from the mud by doing that, they actually harmed them in the process of doing so. This would would be interesting to see if this was the case.
I'm glad someone else saw the fragment's symbol in the domains. It actually appears in them twice, though. The second place is under your feet when you give resin, in the short cutscene everyone skips.
A thought occurs. We can destroy artifacts for Mora. Mora comes from chests and leylines. After the death of characters or opening of chests, they disperse back into the leylines. The Geo archon's gnosis can mint Mora by drawing from the leylines. Mora is used to unlock the potential of characters, artifacts, weapons, and talents. We're essentially redirecting leyline flows to unlock the potential of all these descript items. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that even without any more minted Mora, we're able to draw recycled power from items that was previously imbued with Mora.
So we know that leyline... stuff consists of energy and memories. What if the dark mud is the leyline stuff that has lots of negative memories/emotions in it, whereas lumenstone would likely be positive leyline matter. It could be a bit like how crude oil is distilled into several types of oil products.
Venti calls the weird lumps on Durin's back Blood Clots which never made much sense as to me they looked like seals. Now, with the Chasm's archon quest though, it's not seals it's the symbol of Khaenriah. So what if those seals represented the abyss using the corruption of Durin Dvalin injested to mess with Dvalin's head? OG Durin was a sweetheart before he went and attacked Mondstadt, and Dvalin does a 180 in attitude the moment those clots break. Infected by Dark Mud? It fits.
I still think the nails are either weapons or parts of the old heavens cast down. The same blue crystal in the nails is what resonates on watasumi island to open the door to Enk which I think is also part of the capsized heavens. It is also the same crystal the corruption devices in the chasm uses. The crystal is some sort of energy siphon weapon or the nature of the old heavens was using them to provide or draw power from Teyvat.
Still amazed at both the level of research that goes into these videos and the fact that it all comes together the further we get into Genshin. One thing I'd like to add is the possibility that the domain murals don't depict a nail being thrown specifically at the Chasm, but maybe at another location in Teyvat we don't have access to yet. That could possibly ease the placement of the domain construction in a timeline, though I don't have a proper one right now. As for "who built the domains?", my personal guess is that the veeeery ancient civilizations had a kind of organization specifically tasked to protect the world tree. One way or the other, they isolated the different smaller trees we see in the domains, but just kept an eye on them. And later, Khaenriah, being the super advanced nation that it was, found records of these "protectors" and: - Decided to build more functional protections for them, the current domains (they have the same kind of architecture as Khaenriah ig) - Rebirthed the organization to protect them, and that would tie into Dainsleif's title "Keeper of the bough" The reason for which they would have decided to reinforce the soon-to-be domains could be because some Dark Mud was seeping out of their roots, and they needed better shielding; both for the sake of the World Tree and for the sake of the inhabitants of Teyvat. There are surely lots of holes in this theory but hey, gotta start somewhere. Really got to thank you for these videos too, they might just make me write a lot of theories like this one, this lore is just that fascinating. (also, where smol Yanfei? :x)
idk why but this feels like its the right one, this is the real story, like u figured it out. like all of it makes sense and all my theories and current knowlege of genshin lore makes sense in this context
I feel like you mentioned this a while ago, but those symbols at 12:09 look suspiciously like diagrams of atoms. This is the one thing that makes me think the whole nuclear radiation theory might be more than just metaphorical. The weird thing about the nails is that even though Celestia apparently used them as a weapon against civilizations they didn't like, the quests we've done involve repairing them; retrieving missing parts, or smashing weird Abyss devices connected to them. And yet, afterward, nothing changes... Dragonspine is still cold and cursed, and the Chasm is still full of evil mud. Did they have some other purpose? Power sources from the gods, set to self-destruct if the humans step out of line? We might learn more about them soon, since Yelan was shown activating the chasm's nail to stab the ruin serpent; she must have some knowledge of how they work, at least. The mud must have something to do with the dark/abyssal realm, and probably isn't on Dragonspine just because, well, it's a mountain, and the Chasm is the deepest place we have access to by a large margin. Dain told us the ruins down there probably aren't Khaenriah, but something even older; the husk knights must have been drawn there the same way as the hilichurls. Whoever originally dug down there may have tunneled too deep, allowing part of the dark realm to ooze into the human realm; the strange fountain could have been their attempt to suppress this effect, but it wasn't strong enough, and a nail was dropped down there to seal it off (destroying the city in the process). Perhaps the "curse" Khaenrians have is an affinity/influence of the dark realm that makes them drawn towards it. We also don't know why the whole underground city is upside-down... false sky?
I have a crack theory that we don't get dark mud or marana in Deshret's ruins because he used a Celestial nail and that's why a lot of the tech glows blue even though his abilities are gold.
The symbol that the winged figured gives on the mural almost looks like a biohazard symbol lol Also on the mural you mentioned the circle with the square in the middle represents teyvat. I’n Chinese art, squares represent earth so it’s kind of spot on imo
Biohazard and Radiation symbols are both three sided like the Triskellion from the domains and the Triquetra that are... freaking everywhere! Hmmm... radioactive or biohazard Paimon... 🤣
by the way, the little eye thingies on the domain mural next to what you theorised to be the sustainer of heavenly principles can actually also be found on the sustainer of heavenly principles’ cubes. If you look at either the khaenriah destruction trailer thingy or at the beginning cutscene you can clearly see it
didnt the talking mushroom say/imply that the dark mud was a relatively new occurrence? maybe i'm misremembering, but i thought it said that it had lived in peace for a long time and now it was weakening trying to suppress the dark mud. Time is relative of course, but it seemed like the mud would be way more recent than the nail.
Yes. But remember what the miners uncovered wasn't the nail it was the nail's fragment. It was only after the fragment was uncovered that the mud began to spread. That was only a short time ago so that would still line up with Xamaran. But also we don't know how long that mushroom has been down there so it's very possible that that mushroom is not older than 6,000 years in which case it would have never seen the mud.
Yeah going through the chasm, I kept thinking back on your theory about how elemental energy could be radioactive adjacent due to how similar it was to Dragonspine. We were cleansing using the Lumenspar in the chasm, a purifying stone, but in contrast life is blossoming, the Leylines are present down there, as opposed to Dragonspine where nature absolutely cannot sustain but our form of "cleansing" is to give a sort of elementally charged Agate to revive a dead tree. I think you were onto something with the nails being filters for waste given off by Leyline Trees (makes double sense when you consider other great trees like the Great Sakura and the Perch on Tsurumi having disaster due to no real filter) but I wonder if the difference in the nature of decay between the Chasm and Dragonspine isn't purely time or climate but is the difference between energy being processed or not. For example, the mud and decay in the chasm might be due to elemental energy being extracted into sustainable "life"- the mud is unstable because it was separated from its other elements, a sort of nuclear waste . As opposed to the permafrost in Dragonspine, which may be unstable purely because it is never processed, there is no Leyline tree to allow the elemental energy to "extract" so instead of being deprived of "life", it is smothered in unstable, unclean elemental energy, we aren't decaying in the ice like we are in the sludge - it is a hyperactive reaction of elemental energy. The reason why its frost is because of the climate (being on a mountain) creating a boosted elemental presence of cryo. That is to say, Durin's death on Vindagnyr was a catalyst to finally revive the Frostbearing and seek out Durin's heat? Poisoned blood? I lose the thread here tbh I could go on about how raw elemental could sorta explain imposter Albedo reviving but I'm really just hypothesizing and I am afraid of stretching out something that could be plain wrong, I'm mostly just curious about the similarities between the Chasm and Dragonspine with the alternative to the mud decay specifically being Permafrost.
@@izuru51 Yes, it was forbidden knowledge. When Apep got infected with forbidden knowledge the creatures that live inside her were also infected, some time before the cataclysm 500 years ago a good portion of the creatures left Apep. The infected creatures met a few different fates but one of the strongest eventually travelled to the chasm, where they managed to transform the forbidden knowledge into a different form which is the dark mud. I can't remember their reason for doing it but I do remember that it was intentional, I think it was an attempt to suppress the forbidden knowledge.
Wait ...one more thing... Now that we're talking about Chasm (this might or might not be related to the video so warning beforehand) I ..was wondering.. Why is the nail in the underground chasm and not the upper chasm? Like.. the underground chasm is well... 'Under-the-ground' and as we know according to the map, there's a whole big concrete land where Zhongli vs Azhdaha happened just above it... So the nail, should fall on the mainland like in dragonspine... Why the undergrounds? Literally, how did the nail even get there?? And why isn't zhongli or any NPC in liyue ever talked about it or no murals depicting its origin like for the one we found in Dragonspine tomb thingy with murals inside... I launched genshin impact just to see if there's any possible way for the said nail to fall at the place where it stands today in the chasm... But all I see is a black roof... Meaning there isn't any way the nail fell from the sky (or might've been blocked after it fell by some land, intending to hide the nail?) *Drinks water Umm.. my theory would be that... As we know, the underground chasm's map is really... Confusing... If the location of the underground mines is under the liyue mainland chasm then the one that stretches downwards would be under the Blackcliff forge and/or under the unknown part in Sumeru. By the map, the area where the 'Nail' in the underground chasm is located is not even named (which is VERY odd).. idk if to include that area under 'the glowing narrows' or not but maybe a future update will clarify it. So... I can't deny this thought that the nail... Actually had fallen in Blackcliff forge or this unknown part of Sumeru and got covered up by a land OR the nail was brought to this location by something... Or someone~ My brain is crying rn, if u have read till here, lmk what you think about this TuT Edit:: Ooh also, the area where the nail is located in the underground chasm, the Stone structures branching out kinda looks like the cube power of the unknown god we saw in that one scene of Khaenri'ah's destruction... Just sayin 😂 Edit2: The nail in chasm is different... It has constellations surrounding it wtffffffjskjskjsk-MY MIND HAS EVAPORATED!!!
There is Khedive, a sumeru scholar in the chasm exploration team, who says that the mushrooms we see in the chasm are from sumeru. I think this nail is under some territory of sumeru which was turned upside down or forced to sink underground and became a part of the chasm.
Yeah they're still a lot of mysteries surrounding it but if I'd have to guess I'd say that the nail made its way down to that particular spot by drilling. If you think about it it doesn't really do an advent any good to just rest on the surface it has to go to the Target location where the infected area is.
@@imakiri. when you collect all the fossil photos and show it to him he also mentions that they are extremely old but all of them seemed to fossilize at around the same time rather than staggered over the eras- indicating that there was some divine intervention in the burial of the Chasm.
Dark Mud = corrupted nanobots Crystals = anti-virus/file fixer Nails = nuclear option --) delete and re-format all data on impact Teyvat = windows 10 Vision users = windows defender --- standing in dark mud, or installing virus can still cause damage Humans = your hentai/porn files
Isn't this mud a memories of a long gone united civilization and maybe khaenri'ah which was dumped into the chasm\underground from the main ley line tree after being destructed by the sustainer? "Why do you tarry in this place, Traveler? ...There is only death here, only memorials to injustice... " - Rethel
Moreover, if this mud indeed contains the memory of khaenri'ah and was dumped from the main ley line tree, that may further explain the notion of the hilichurls to go to the chasm and "unite" with this mud. If we're stating that, in the end, all things should return back to ley lines, and assuming that hilichurls(khaenri'ah) were exiled from the main one, the only place to go is this mud, which can be a ley line "substance", like the one that had leaked from the sakura tree in 2.5 Ei story quest. There is an item that have called "the orb of blue depths", despite having violet color. Maybe this orb is a portable bottle for the ley line substance, which is supposed to be blue(like the one from the sakura tree) hence the name, but it turned violet due to time and hazard environmental conditions of the chasm. And..... "Restoring the natural cycle of life and death" can mean restoring a connection to the main ley line tree, so hilichurls won't need to go to the chasm(mud) to finally die there. Just hypothesizing...
I just want to say that I’ve really been loving your videos ever since I discovered them recently. You personality really makes them entertaining and your analysis really amazes me. Thanks so much!
Thank you for being one of the few people to actually break down the domain wall murals! I've been super curious about this & attempted to myself to no avail. I understood some parts, but not how to piece them together bc of the parts I didn't understand (AND you actually had an idea for what the 3 little horns below the triquetra are which I've been noticing on Paimon for the longest time & no one had an idea, everyone always just focuses on the triquetra).
Ok, so about the dainichi mikoshi: It’s stated that istaroth, one of the shining shades, gave Aberaku the knowledge of how to construct the dainichi mikoshi. Perhaps the dainichi mikoshi works similarly to the celestial nail, because we don’t see any “corruption” in Byakuyakoku. It’s only when the dainichi mikoshi is disrupted that some regions of Byakuyakoku become toxic, and apply the traveler with the corrosion status. So, I think your theory is still valid, because in order to drive off the corruption it needs to be connected with the ley lines (knowledge that istaroth could pass down). Still, this raises some questions because there are no miasmic tumors/mud puddles in Byakuyakoku, which, according to your theory, is a byproduct of all the purifying. Maybe this will get addressed in a future quest, or maybe the dainichi mikoshi is a completely different source of energy (which would be game changing, since the only energy source we know are the ley lines). This whole thing is so interesting, and i can’t wait until more content is added to support this :>
YOOO. Your theory has strung together all the pieces of lore so sensibly and consistently that I think you might have hit the nail on the head. This is so cool! I never thought to draw comparisons between nuclear reactors and ley lines, but it makes so much sense now! Radiation also lines up with the other aspects of lore regarding the black mud. The domain mural really just drove the theory home! This is such a phenomenal theory and video!
What i love about your lore videos is that not only are they informative and take my own imagination into theorising things other than what ive written as "this must be it" in my brain; but they also make me think more clearly about the motivation of individual parties. After all i am not the MC, i am not the tsaritsa, im just a casual observer of the world as it unfolds. And that is why i appreciate seeing celestias side of why they do what they do without writing them off as villains. The depth of reasoning why someone does something. Thank you again for another brilliant video! Nuclear fallout lets gooooo 👀
I think the mud and the dark energy represents the regrets and impurity of the dead souls. I think that is why the abyss is trying to use this dark energy by case is rivaling celestia and the world tree Powers. The dead outnumber the living. Is just a thought.
Aw man, if they’re going to keep adding new content that calls back to things I did well over a year ago and can’t remember anymore (aka literally anything on dragonspine), I’m going to continue to be tempted to make a secondary account just to replay all the story content and I just do not have the time!!
I linked in the description box a channel known as the genshin quest archive where they are officially archiving all of the cutscenes from every quest in the game so you can rewatch them or relisten to them at your leisure without actually having to play through things.
I don't know if you know this but while exploring The Chasm you can walk by white branch and Paimon says that it looks like Frostbearing Tree from Dragonspine. It's in top right corner of the map in this mountain lookin like place with grass around
This is such an excellent theory! One idea I had about Sal Vindagnyr: while it's possible the gods would give the blessing of the ley lines to the civilisation (though why is another question), what if the Nail was dropped precisely in response to such powerful and blessed ley lines? After all, even if it is beneficial to the populace, it is still a 'ley line disorder' that caused the mountain to be hospitable in contrast to the blizzards and snowstorms outside. Perhaps Celestia dropped the Nail to suppress this 'ley line disorder' and return the world to a state of normalcy, even if that normalcy is blizzards that could kill Sal Vindagnyr. Splitting the nail is possibly a deliberate decision to nuke the 'corrupted' ley lines that are not functioning as intended, or rescinding their blessing to Sal Vindagnyr under the pretense of cleansing a ley line disorder.
20:25 If you've ever seen the ending of GGZ (miHoyo's earlier game) God Kiana displays a similar symbol in that ending in relation to the mural. However, the symbol in the mural has 3 (let's say) petals, while the one in GGZ has 4 petals.
About the domains. Just like in one of you videos about the traveler using memories or constellation. I think the ones we fight in the domain are also memories. And the level and sequence the monsters appearing per world level are the number of times it's been attacked and beings that attack it.
Okay so Just me or does the upside down city ruins and enkanomiya ruins have similar architecture?? Like that's what solidified that both of these were part of the og civilization back when the Primodial One was the ruler and the reason there's so much distance btw the places (chasm and watatsumi) is bcs like due to the war the land like split and drifted apart???
Yep part of the same civilization so at the very least they should have been around at the same time. Which puts Enkanomiya at at least 6,000 years old if not much older.
Cleansing the nail of the purple mist and mud in the chasm got me thinking about why the sky-frost nail was put back together on dragonspine. The leyline issues were not fixed until the sky-frost put back together. The tree that used to manage the leylines on dragon Spine is dead so the Sky-frost nail acts as a band-aid to keep the elemental energies in the area under control and cleanse the evil void mud/gas. The big tree at wind rise might do a similar job as the Sacred Sakura, along with the Archon Statues and teleport-er network, keeping elemental energies in balance so human can live. Also if Sustainer is the one throwing nails at uppity civilizations that touch the evil void ooze it explains why she didn't kill the twins. Possibly she threw them down to Tayvat to fix imbalances and cleanse the place of evil. They are walking mini purification machines, as traveler cleansed Durin's tear and was overwhelmed by the dark miasma when talking to scara in inazuma.
I believe the Dragonspine Mural actually depicts different gods for a few reasons I noticed- The Mural in DragonSpine located in the ruins of the ancient/lost civilization's city, shows several golden crowned kings standing with their people worshipping & giving offerings to a winged God with a moon behind his head & the symbol of an atom in his palm, whereas on the other side of the Dragonspine Mt. depicted in the art, there is a 3rd king who appears, much less humble as he does not join his people in their journey or labor & is instead shown ordering them like human servants up the mountain to bring offerings to the God/Gods of Celestia, located directly over the mountain at the time (& notably with the sun behind them, a stark contrast to the other god with a moon behind his head). The strange thing is (bc Phanes is often represented by light, it's strange he has a moon behind his head, not that a moon cannot reflect light), but he fits the description otherwise- winged god of creation, who just so happens to be holding the symbol of an atom in his palm (a reference to creation). (Also, the reason I decided to call the symbol depicted in the winged God's hand an atom vs. the gnostic octagram of creation is because the symbol depicted in the mural is identical to the atom symbol, having 6 rounded points rather than the 8 pointier tips of the Gnostic version, but they both share the same meaning).
You are amazing. You bridged the gaps I had in my theories so far. Moreover, I believe the travellers were planted back in time for a specific reason by celestia, to change the future and also not cause chaos and bifurcation of timelines in doing so..
It sounds like this aspect is inspire a lot by the Nausicaa manga (of which the film is an adaption of only the beginning). The God Warrior were created by humans to judge and restrain humanity, to stop humans before they make the Earth wholly unlivable. The God Warriors are likened to nuclear weapons in terms of power and give off the effects of radiations.
This all reminds me of when we were gathering that weird rock with yanfei for madam ping to create our teapot. She needed a rare rock that lets put out whole lot of energy, and causes damage to regular people when exposed to it for too long. Sounds suspiciously like uranium, during the whole quest, it definitely sounded like we were building a mini radiator powered by uranium to make a small domain for our use.
I have been waiting for someone to breakdown that wall mural! *Here comes the rambling* So, it's interesting that that mural (in the domain that gives the pale flame) is mirrored, teyvat as the center. Snowballing off your world structure theory, it makes a kind of sense - underground and above ground mirroring each other. Tree roots normally grow as large as the canopy. But also, the symbol you connected to sus-tia is surrounded by 6eyes. IF that's a rep for the 7 archons, meaning that the one in the middle is somehow above the other 6, it could mean that Venti = Sus-tia. I know it's weird, but hear me out. 1.The gnosis are baised on chest pieces, and we know that the anemo gnosis = the queen piece. 2.The barbatos statue in the central plasa has "gateway to celestia" written around the base, AND it has a 6 pointed 'flower' shape under it, aka the shape gifted to mankind in dragonspine murals. That shape isnt really found anywhere else in mondstadt architecture. 3.He can shape shift. 4.Venti says "we meet again" in his character introduction, which could be a slip up if he is sus-tia, where he first met us.(not too sure about this) 5.We know that he helped venessa acend, which would make sense for a SUSTAINER OF HEAVENLY PRINCIPLES to manage the comings and goings of acention. 7. The symbol looks like someone with wings to me, and venti's got em. If he's not sus-tia, he's probably at least a co-sustainer or above the other archons. Could also explain why the cyro archon hates him if he was a co-destroyer, or party to the destroyer of Khaneriah. Just one more thing, sorry, a theory on visions and the nail: i know that visions given connect ppl to constellations/celestia. I suspect that as visions gain more power/energy that power stored in celestia not in the visions themselves. (Making visions a plug to access power) The allogenes thus collect power for celestia to manage the world. Power collects in the stars/irmensol fruit and that crystaline substance is used to make things like the sky nail. It would be a logical reason why the 'gods' bother to give out visions. Give empty batteries to hardworkers/ambitious peeps and have a higher yield and shorter charge time. Seriously, sorry for the ramble, but several things covered here made loose brain threads connect. Thanks for the vid!
To kind of put a cherry on top of this video. Remember how you imply that Statues of the Seven were put to contain the nuclear disaster? Well... I believe they have the same core as Celestial Nails, not to mention the same design. Also didn't Fatui try to fuck with Sacred Sakura in Inazuma? I distinctly remember having to heal all the small trees around to be able to go through that land without being electrocuted. Does it mean that Fatui wanted to force Celestia to show people who live today the power of the Nail? That it can cleanse the place, but at the cost of the people living there? (Still pretty fucked up of Celestia if we assume they wanted to cherish people and then just went "This place is gonna get destroyed if we do nothing, so murdering hundreds of people we supposedly care about is nothing in a big scheme of things". Eh. I always hated the whole "for the greater good we will sacrifice people" bullshit and here it comes now to depict Celestia. I still bet it went somehow like this: Kaenri'ah: We want to have the same technology as you and hopefully modify it so we could use it in more effective way than launching it from the sky at every place hit by the bad juju, because that is so inconvenient and very not optimal way to deal with the corruption of the land. Celestia: NO! YOU ARE JUST PETTY HUMANS AND THIS IS NOT FOR YOU, ONLY WE CAN JUDGE HOW TO USE IT! (You can feel I am pretty anti-religion to the point I would always assume in humans favor than gods). BTW Oh and let's not forget that trailer kind of implies that the thing in Dvalin's neck which was causing him harm was somehow related to Durin, as if he gave that corruption to Dwalin and now Dwalin had to carry that burden also until obviously we come along to fix the shit. We can even say that it periodically comes back and that's why we have to fight Dwalin all the time to keep him healthy and happy, away from corruption. Also, both Liyue and Inazuma have all this lore pieces about cleansing the bad juju. Liyue has Yaksha, Inazuma has Sacred Sakura, but Mondstadt doesn't seem to have any cleansing thing, despite the fact I am sure there was a guest in Monstadt with Hillichurls covered in black fog. Dragonspine is like seriously the only place that comes to mind and also there is no Sakura Tree in Mondstadt if we don't count Frost Bearing tree, and even if we count then that means Mondstadt doesn't have functioning Leyline Tree, but they do have this HUGE OAK. *squints suspiciously at it* I wondered when you will bring that quote from that tiara. It was actually a quote that gave me a lot to think about when it comes to Celestia possibly being aware that every blessing they grant will inevitably end in disaster and refusing to speak on the matter to the people they give it to. Shouldn't the "crown of white branches" serve as a protection from the corruption as well? I kinda would see it that way, because why give it otherwise? Priests do not wear crowns, that's weird. Why give them a crown? Also this quote for quite some time made me think of Paimon due to... a CROWN. BTW do you plan to talk about the weird coincidence between the Towers in Enkanomiya which had signs of that old language put in a certain way to create a certain effect and the possibility that those very same signs can be responsible for effects of each Domain? Like a setting? I didn't look into it very hard but I bet that we could maybe possibly guess what combination of letters causes what thanks to the domains. Another BTW, do you think that the whole idea of Visions came to be, because Celestia wanted to have agents on the ground immune to corruption to investigate the corruption, even if they couldn't predict whose ambition will align with their goals? Or are we going with more "Visions were always part of this world" kinda thing and assume that they are just natural occurrence which so happens to have shielding effects as a response to corruption? It's funny that I was not that far off when I said that Chams was an effect of "laser from the sky". It was a nail, but it works. Also if that circle in the middle of the extended mural is Teyvat then the weird things on both sides kind of remind me of the magnetic poles which for example on Earth keep something which scientist call "magnetic shield" around the Earth, protecting us from the bad radiation from space.
Ashikai the new dark mud event has confirmed the connection between it and the ley lines! Please check it out the pursina's spike seems to expand on our knowledge about the dark mud and ley line waste!!!
So, the Chasm was created by a falling star, could this be the nail? But something also rose up, back into the sky after a while and the nail is still there. Also, why did the nail make such a big hole in the Chasm but only chipped the top of Dragonspine slightly? And if the nail was to stop the black mud, isn't it strange that the nail can get infected by it? (or was the Abyss order involved in that? I don't remember). So many questions!
I think you're confusing the meteor that formed the chasm with the one that was in Duyun. As far as I know there's nothing really linking those two. We don't really know what dragon spine looked like prior to the nails existence, and remember that that nail split into three pieces so likely it's impact was lessened. I don't think it's weird that the nail can be infected by it because there were devices that were specifically being used to infect the nail that we had to cleanse. The mud wasn't doing it by itself. Well it's not explicitly stated I think it's generally implied that the abyss order was repurposing a lot of those devices to corrupt the nail. We're probably still missing a few key pieces of the puzzle but this is how I currently understand things.
This is an interesting question, actually. Makes me think if the traveler is "cleansing" these portals to be brought back to the leylines. The traveler apparently has the ability to cleanse things with abyssal influence. Just another thing to think about is brought up by another YTuber MurderOfBirds that there's no Leyline blossoms it places where we can deduce that the nails have fallen onto (Dragonspine, Tsurumi and now Chasm)
It's not that there aren't any it's that the ones that were there are broken. For example if ley lines are like blood vessels, they don't stop existing just because they got cut open and are bleeding out.
Excellent vid as always, Ashekai! This whole situation with the dark mud and dropping "caps" on the world higgledy-piggledy to keep it under control screams to me of a less-skilled and knowledgeable boss scrambling to keep together the creation of a more skilled individual whose power they usurped. So damn good going. The idea that the skyfrost nail may have broken up on the way in and missed its target is particularly chilling for some reason. Would that have been Celestia's first attempt as far as we know? Or is it impossible to tell at this point which came first?
I think the sky Frost nail is more or less confirmed to have fallen around 2,600 years ago which would make it at least 3,000 years later than the chasm nail. The idea is that the sky Frost nail fell while the archon war was still ongoing because there are references to a place that sounds a lot like the Green version of dragon spine in the history of old monstadt.
![[2.6] The Curse of Khaenri'ah - A Genshin Impact Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y3X5Xo5h5Ao/mqdefault.jpg)
![[2.6] The Curse of Khaenri'ah - A Genshin Impact Theory](/img/tr.png)
![[2.4] Enkanomiya Recap Part Two: Teyvat's Pre-history - A Genshin Impact Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22TOpl_y3PA/mqdefault.jpg)
![[2.5] Morax, the Prince of Liyue - A Genshin Impact Rant-Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-ZMxO5W0w-A/mqdefault.jpg)
![[3.7] Piecing Together Ancient Teyvat - A Genshin Impact Timeline Theory](/img/n.gif)
If it really does end up being that we're cleansing the leyline with resin then maybe that's why we get so many bad artifacts. It's the best the tree can do since it's infected 😭
i guess we just gotta resin refresh more to cleanse it more then 🚶♂
Or it intentionally gives bad artifacts to make you keep coming back, hoping for something better
@@Mentleif no way you don't say!?
😂😂 must be why we keep getting flat def and def%
So in the endgame all drops will be good once everything is purified 😉
*Celestia, every time they throw a gigantic pillar towards Teyvat and destroying entire nations;* Hell yeah, NAIL it.
Dude....
😂😂
Istg if hyv is indeed meme-ing🤣
Bruh
Bruh
I feel that we will absolutely see another nail in the Mare Jivari. It’s too suspicious to not have one down there.
Mare jivari is a domain not a dlc location
@@アヤたん With how it's stated, it's not a domain, it's an ashy plain that's baren of any life or wind
@@アヤたん it’s a place
yeah explore more Mare Jivari, i want to see my man Stanley
@@Susumiyahh yeah no shit
This actually highlights something I've been thinking about lately how it feels like a lot of people just assume that Celestia is/was this whole big totalitarian evil that cursed Khaenri'ah but I can't help but feel like it's much more nuanced and not that black and white. When Roneth calls it the "nail of retribution" I feel like that implies some crime or wrongdoing has been committed and the nail is Celestia's response and with the nail in the chasm, it's placement being buried so deeply into the chasm seems less like a haphazardly drop but more like a surgical implant in order to deal primarily with the mud and not the people. I feel like Celestia in the past was much more directly involved with mortal life but after the cataclysm deemed their involvement to bring too many negatives than positives and chose to remove themselves and become more distant as we know them now.
So now I'm actually starting to wonder if the story of the archons of the nations are going to reflect the motivations behind Celestia of the past with Venti philosophizing the implications of freedom (when to intervene, how much is too much, etc), Zhongli wanting to give his people independence, and Ei struggling to govern her people in a balanced and healthy way. Then (based off of the "Travail" trailer) the dendro archon could reflect mortals trying to seek too much knowledge than might be good for them and struggling to discern when or if to intervene, the hydro archon could reflect the moral implication of law, order, and justice and passing judgement, the pyro archon could reflect the implications and intricacies of war and the aftermath and the role of the "victors" and "losers", and then the Tsaritsa could reflect the almost reluctance of resorting to violent methods but deeming it necessary for the greater good and the whole "if not us, then who?" mentality. I'm really interested in what we see in Sumeru because being the nation of wisdom I feel will actually impart some pretty significant info in general considering where we are currently in the main story.
I wonder why is it that so many people miss the obvious: Khaenri'ah was on its way to become a militaristic empire that wanted to control all of Teyvat. Snezhnaya is dangerously close as it is. We shall see.
Could anything possibly justify dooming _everyone_ though? Civilians, children, elderly? Sure, something probably needed to be done, but whatever it is the leadership was building towards the entire population can't possibly all be guilty. If not evil (which is a very subjective thing to begin with), it certainly is still tyranny.
Most of the archons certainly do not seem the most enthusiastic about that outcome. Just that nobody save for the Tsaritsa is resolved to take the risk to challenge it.
I have a feeling Celestia nuked whatever civilisation Khaenria was a part of, in response to something infectious but it didn't necessarily work out in their favour.
celestia is absolutely evil. you know about enkanomiya people who rose to watatsumi island right? watatsumi and the people were punished by celestia with starving and epidemic just because oroboshi accidentally read the before sun and moon book. oroboshi choose to be killed by shogun so that watatsumi island were protected under raiden shogun(a god that is under celestia). if oroboshi didn't do that, watatsumi is gonna be another khaenriah and dragonspine
@@natchu96 not _everyone_ in khaenriah si dead though
just wanted to submit my interpretation of "The God of Wisdom's Enemy is Wisdom Itself".
I take the Chasm as a prelude to Sumeru, so by interpreting the roots of a tree digging into soil as a metaphor for digging up knowledge, it may mean that the pursuit of knowledge will corrupt the Dendro Archon (and others), by exposing them to impure leyline energy, giving delusions of 'Truth' and whatnot.
If this is true, then uh oh...
Antagonist archon part 2: electro boogaloo
Or it could be something similar case to Orobashi. He knows too much so he need to go. Since Dendro archon is god of wisdom he/she may knows more than other archon but pretending to be oblivious in order to protect his/her people but this cause the scholars to see Dendro archon as a god that lack wisdom thus no good enough to lead them. So Wisdom become Dendro archon enemy in two way, her/his people became too knowledgeable(you know what happen when you combine human and knowledge, they would rebel or become target for of Celestia) and the fact she knows too much make the Celestia vary of her. And like you said, maybe he/she gained unwanted knowledge like Zhiqiong when she covered in the mud. So I think Dendro archon pretending to be innocent while hiding his/her wisdom like the words under Teyvat preview trailer, Sumeru: Sub floreis lumen sagacitatis -> The light of wisdom under the flowers. Under the flowers implied that he/she hiding her/his wisdom under a facade.
Thats a bit of a strech... because the other theory I heard somewhere seems more plausible. The one where someone explained how sumeru academia gives approval to wrong thesis because the god of wisdom thinks that if the people can uncover the truth, they will face some consequences.
@@shiroxkuro934 that cute girl cant be a snake 😣
Another thing that supports the "no leylines at dragonspine"-theory is that the lack of entropy, or in other words (elemental) energy, is what causes something to be cold.
Ah! True! Plus the nails are actually warm... Interesting...
More like there is entropy not lack of entropy the nails maybe something like an anti entropy device since being on top of it stops you from freezing
Isnt going against entropy violating laws of physics. It won't make sense that lack of external force would reduce the entropy and something (skyfrost nail) has to be used to increase the entropy.
If your theory is correct, there should be something actively powering the cooling phenomena, not the lack of something.
Maybe its the dark mud, that would mean that the abyss relm don't follow the normal flow of universe.
@@brahmaduttamahapatra4222 nothing has to power entropy it just happens naturally like how ashikai described that there are no dark mud pools in dragonspine because it's perfectly dispersed in dragonspine now
I thought heat had to do with Enthalpy, not entropy
A year in this game and the more lore i look up and watch keeps me playing this game. I don't know if it's just me but every time i look up at celestia i get a weird feeling that something is off with it. Love watching your videos
I feel the same. I feel like it gets closer. It depends on where you stand in Teyvat though. When I started playing, I thought Celestia was a cloud. Looking at it from the city in Mondstadt. Now it is obvious that it is a floating island, I can see more detail than I could when I first saw it.
Same. Especially now that I’m in Fontaine. I looked up at it once when I was at Romaritime Harbor and it looked a lot closer then I remember it being, as in I could make out the underside of it.
The thing that Dvalin has in his back looks like a mud tumor, may be that the abiss is using the mud?
The symbol on the wall painting with the crowned humans looks like an atom, that symbol may represent some kind of energy? Like if the god is giving them the fire knowledge. The nail looks like a torch, maybe it's some kind on nuclear reactor.
moderator rod and controller rod for nuclear fuel :) in a reactor
Surprised you never talked about the suspicious talking mushroom... next vid perhaps?
Personally, I think the dark mud is the accumulation of all the... 'dead' Hilichurls that go to the Chasm to pass away.
When you go back to the final resting place of the Hilichurls we meet during the quest, the next time we go back all that remains is dark mud. And with our experience with the sacred sakura and filth... I interpreted this as the Hilichurls never 'died' they just simply gave up sustaining their physical forms that needed food and water to continue to function.
When they gave up, they let themselves erode. Their memories is still given a physical form by the curse, which becomes the dark mud that cannot be absorbed by the ley lines.
Zhiqiong got sick from exposure from the dark mud, but she also seemed possessed in some moments. Speaking as if she was reliving someone else's memories which is one of the reasons why I think the dark mud is the memory goop from Hilichurls and maybe other creatures as well.
The lumenstone adjuvant doesn't completely 'purify' the dark mud, it just kind of vaporizes it and like water it just comes back the next day.
And you know I'm still not sure about the Celestial nails. The delivery method of dropping them from the sky is pretty inefficient.
It's a pretty fascinating theory bro
U know I rlly like this theory
Your theory really convinced me, I’ve always thought that the dark mud are from ruin serpent coz it produces mud when it digs down lol
Xamaran deserves its own thing.
@@noinam24 hmm i wonder how does the dark mud relate to the ruin serpent then, and why is it producing them?
This makes me wonder: if they nails are meant to contain and purify this mud, are they perhaps giant pieces of solidified resin? Either taken from the 'main' tree or individual irminsul trees simply carved into such a shape?
I'd say the nail on Dragonspine hit the top of the mountain in an unexpected way (or maybe the machines from Khaenri'ah managed to create some sort of partial protection) which resulted in the breaking of the nail and the unfortunate consequences of that. No fragment of this nail ever went really below ground level of Teyvat.
The nail that created the Chasm, on the other hand, went down all the way and pierced the border that separates Teyvat from "the other side" - the Abyss. So the dark mud is just Abyss Ooze slowly seeping out. The nail was not sent to stop the mud, it is the cause of it. The Lumenstone crystals are a sort of immune system reaction of the nail, a way of keeping the dark mud "infection" in check.
As for a leyline tree in the Chasm ... notice how the 'upside down' city is sort of held by large roots? Roots of which plant? The actual world tree, maybe? Certainly not the roots of that little tree we find in the north-east corner.
Another interesting observation: if you go to the Chasm nail after the cleansing, there are little glowy things floating upwards from it. But they are basically only two types: cubes (yes, them cubes again), and some constellation-like point and line structures which look suspiciously similar to the ones we get when opening the Paimon menu. I'm getting very suspicious of that floating emergency food....
"Archways" around Nail in Chasm look awfully like Asmoday/Susty cubes but petrified. Same with Chasm on the surface resembling petrified vortex, sort-of matching notion of "Chasm used to be sea in the past, based on these seaborne fossils".
I’m very late in this thread, good observation indeed those little constellation patterns that float around the nail are the exact same as Paimon’s and also... those that the Traveler creates in his hand in his idle animation. When I pointed that out on reddit I only got replies from disinterested people who said idiotic things like “Mona too creates constellations in her hand” it’s obviously not the same... where am I getting: I think those nails come from the heavens that were created by the primordial one (am I correct?) and that we also see in the title menu before entering the game. The Second who came took over the world so they can surely access those heavens (now, is it the same thing as Celestia? i’m not sure). So my point is, it is not the Sustainer of heavenly principles and possibly other gods that currently live up there that created this power. So we can’t really use that to link Paimon to Asmoday. Instead, Paimon and the traveler would be both linked to the primordial god & their civilisation. This is how they got this power (that the Traveler has yet to awaken again). If you noticed, Paimon gives us the instruction to hit the nail to finish the cleansing in the Chasm. She definitely still remembers about these nails, and the Traveler might’ve just lost all their memories about it. Does that make sense?
19:22 , in the mural if you you turn it upsidown you can see a snake and lines going from its mouth towards the circle/orb thingy, just like the battle pass cutscene, also said snake is oozing purple goo that can be related to the corruptions, dont know if this helps with something, but at least a little food for thought
I'd take a wild guess that Celestia's nails are there to suppress remaining memories and knowledge of prior civilizations as well as other remaining powers and effects. Nail suppresses dark mud, Abyss order suppresses the nail to let the mud overflow and memory of Khaenriah to spread and return.
Also, the eyes on the domain mural? Roughly similar to the "eyes" on twins' wings in the opening cutscene. Teleports being very ancient and everywhere and used only by the Traveler? A brick in the wall for the theory of twins being somehow connected with the primordial civilisation. The ability to cleanse Dvalin's tears? Maybe close to cleansing the roots.
Sounds awesome but the mud being hazardous implies that it must be some sort of negative energy and I cannot see why memories would poison, which makes the "dark mud is what's left from the hillichurls/curse" more plausible. Though the fact that according to Scara's lore the gnosis was full of lies, deception and curses hints at the possibility of the nails and gnosis both being some sort of cleansing devices that "accumulate toxic waste(aka all the bad stuff and emotions)."
@@Perepeteia Since the curse is basically a tormented lack of death a person might naturally aggregate a lot of bad emotions and memories, I think. Memories of pain and destruction surely can poison sometimes. That said, it is only a small theory, we'll have to wait and see.
@@Anastasia_Clouds memories of pain absolutely could be a part of it yes, but imo not the memories of what their life was like before the cataclysm (which would presumably be happy stuff I'd assume since they love their homeland so much)
Still I think it must be negative emotions of all living beings, not just Khaenri'ah civilization bc it would make more sense since they are not the only ones with emotions and if we have vital, invigorating magical power running through the Leylines there must be the opposite power to counter it
True, we'll have to wait for more clues to speak with some degree of certainty on this matter
Maybe this theory can explain the statue of seven. Basically, I'm comparing the nail to the statues(they even look similar)
The statues are systematically laid out across the map to "cover" the whole map. Consider the "abyssal power" as the radiation and the power of the statue as lead. So,to cover the radiation of abyss, the statue acts as a lead covering over a certain aoe. Also, just like the frostbearing tree we have to collect geoculus to level up the statue.
Another thing about leveling up the statue is maybe the collectibles (geoculus,anemoculus) is a sort of antivirus which is triggered by the growing abyssal power or radiation. So like when the radiation increases, the statue releases geoculus to level it up as if to increase the lead covering on the radioactive substance
that could explain why they seem to protect the area they are in from the leyline anormaly appening, they keep us safe from the cold in dragonspine and the mist of tsurumi island doesn't reach the area protected by the statue! (?)
@@rositaleonfuentes5211 yeaa
@@rositaleonfuentes5211 bit dragonspine has a statue 😐
I- dont get what you're trying to say...
Ahhhh cannot WAIT for this one. Have always been curious about their purpose given that we now have two in the game
Did we ever mention that the rock formations that surround the chasm nail look exactly like petrified versions of the red cube things that surrounded khaenri’ah during the cataclysm as well as susti’s cube power?
I saw that. I think this is all pretty suspicious too.
I noticed that the first thing in the Nail room and went suspicious
It's a cool comparison, but I think it's due to the Ruin Serpent digging
Any thoughts on Xamaran being the first sentient ley line purifier and able to interact with adjuvant's (and thus, nail's) power? One loading screen tip suggests the nail may have made him sentient which is pretty wild.
Well technically the frost bearing tree once revenge on humans and has in theory spoken words but not to us so I don't know if we can count it as the first purifying entity but regardless xamaran gets their own video.
there is a comment sugesting that the mud comes from dead hilichurl, what do mushrooms do? they decompose dead being.
Oooh this has become my favorite video, and the comments are sublime!
So an interesting thing about the dark mud is that if you return to the areas in the upside down city after the world quest where the hilichurls were the only thing left of them are their masks and puddles of the dark mud. I think that while the hilichurls can’t ‘die’ due to the curse their minds do eventually erode away. When that happens their physical bodies lose form and become the dark substance. This could also apply to any other cursed person/creature that faces erosion and even some of the gods killed in the archon war as many of them still have remnants left behind. It could also explain why people get visions when exposed to the dark mud since it could be the memories of the beings who succumbed to the curse?
Yup. I'm going to be making another video on this topic a little bit later as I thought it would be too much to include that next theory in this video.
the Celestial gods are basically just closing their eyes and tossing darts at a dartboard hoping it'll fix teyvat at this point
If you compare the laylines and the dark substances in genshin with Yggdrasil (World tree) in norse mythology it gets kinda interesting. Yggdrasil had three roots, one was located with æsene (gods), one was located with rimtussene (jotner, the first creatures that existed and the opposite of the gods. They were trolls, giants etc, i.e monsters). The third root was located in Nivlheim (the deepest part of the death realm Hel and existed before the world was created).
Under the root in Nivlheim, a natural spring called Hvergelme exists. There is a lot of serpents living in Hvergelme. One of them is Nidhogg. Nidhogg and the other serpents are chewing on the root of Yggdrasil. Nidhogg threatens the existence of Yggdrasil. (The other animals that lives in Yggdrasil is also destroying the tree. But Nidhogg is the one that is depicted the most as the one who is destroying Yggdrasil in a lot of the sources that I have found in norwegian.)
The rivers that exist in norse mythology is called Elivåger. Before the world was created, several Elivåger was flowing from Hvergelme. The water is poisonous.
Under the root that is located with æsene, a spring called Urdarbrønnen(The Urdar well) is located. It got it's name from Urd one of the three Nornene. Nornene are the three sisters that decides peoples and the gods destinies. They pour water from the well over Yggdrasils roots everyday. They do this so that the roots won't dry up. The water is very sacred, everything that is dipped in to the well becomes white.
Mimesbrønnen(Mimes well) is located near the roots in rimtussenes world. It is named after Mime, a wise jotne. Wisdom and knowledge was hidden in this well.
There is a lot of animals living in Yggdrasil. The goat Heidrun is eating the leaves. The four deer Dålin, Dvalin, Dunøyr and Duratro is eating the buds. There is an eagle called Vidofnir living in the top of the tree. There is also a squirrel called Ratatosk that runs up and down Yggdrasil between Vidofnir and Nidhogg. Ratatosk is spreading gossip and trying to get Nidhogg and Vidofnir to hate each other. I thought this was interesting since there is an evil squirrel in the book The Boar Princess in genshin also.
There is a lot more but I tried to keep it short. In norse mythology, æsene is often an interpretation of order and jotnene is an interpretation of chaos (it is not about good and evil. Jotnene is not evil). When the balance between order and chaos collapses(Ragnarok), a new world is created. A world without chaos. Many of the gods that died in Ragnarok comes back. Two humans also survive, Liv(female)and Livtrase(male). Liv means life and Livtrase means the one who fights for life.
Maybe that is what is happening in Teyvat. Celestial has always been trying to counterweight the chaos(dark substances?) but they have lost control.
So much more to think about!
My take on the Mud is that it is the leftover "essence" of Khaenri'ah citizens that have eroded into (almost) nothingness, since after the quest with Dain if you go to where the Hilichurls were sitting you see nothing but black muddy puddles. So, since we know they are denied returning to the Leylines, I was thinking it is the remnants of the people, which might explain why people who get exposed to it suddenly gain memories that aren't their own.
I love the idea, but that means that the Nail and the Curse have seperate origins; since the curse creates dark mud, and the Nail probably a desperate attempt at containing it.
The new artifact set's description says that the nails were meant to mend the land, proving this theory.
I am burnt out from genshin. These type of videos are the only things that keeps me going.
Not being snide or anything, but why even continue to play? There are plenty of other games out there.
If you're burnt out take a break, last weekend I took a break play some other games. Back better than ever
It's always good to take a break whenever you're feeling burnt out of anything. You can still enjoy content for a game that you're not playing even if you take a week or two or a month or even several months off.
your theories sometimes sound too good for Hoyoverse but at the same time it makes absolutely perfect sense too (I myself predicted once that humans aren't native to Teyvat and a month later Before Sun And Moon confirmed it)
My take on your theory about the material domains would be that those are echoes of time made manifest. During the second story with Raiden Shogun, we meet the ghosts of Inazuma inhabitants from the time of the cataclysm. Raiden explains that these are faint echoes of memories that seep out from the damaged roots at the surface.
The same happens in the gateways to the domains. Upon entering, we walk into a distorted mix of countless memories manifesting at the same time, which results in the chaotic expanses outside the arena, flowing out from the massive leyline roots located there. The arenas were built as places of worship, but also to hold purification ceremonies. The impurities are then manifested as memories of battle, resulting in the appearance of monsters (whose appearance is likely influenced by the travelers memories of battles).
After passing the trial and eradicating the impurities, the ritual enters its conclusion as you're granted passage to approach the leyline tree and use resin to mend its wounds. In exchange, it rewards you with trinkets containing particularly strong memories, taking the shape of artifacts, books of great guidance, and objects of profound meaning. Logically, the artifacts should be one of a kind, since they're specific belongings of individuals of history. But because they're echoes of memories past, the leylines can materialize them and even grant them strength, but the instability of leylines causes the artifacts to have inconsistent effects, which explains the random stats.
The more Hoyoverse reveals and adds with each new update, the more I fall in love with the world of Teyvat. And your theories are always a treat! And, if I may, I have also done some speculating ever since the release of the Chasm.
It is stated that 500 years ago there was a conflict between Teyvat and Khaenri’ah and many people have tried to figure out what started it or more accurately, who shot first? But many of those discussions forget to account for two key players: the twins. I believe, unless proven otherwise, that the Abyss twin started the whole conflict. Why do I think that? Well, let me explain.
This line of thinking came to be when I was foing through the new Dain quest in the Chasm and wondered ‘Why does a world-traveling supernatural being care what happens in Teyvat?’ Why does the Abyss twin care so much about restoring Khaenri’ah and going against Celestia? Well, we know they traveled with Dain but only one of them finished the journey and I think it is pretty obvious it was our twin. But what did they discover at their journey’s end that made them want to fight Celestia? Honestly, I’m not sure as it could be many things. But whatever they discovered, it motivated them to take up arms against Celestia and they used Khaenri’ah for their fight. Because that kingdom has lasted many centuries with their developed technology and khemia so why did Celestia decide to attack them 500 years ago? Why then at that moment? Because of the twin. They roped Khaenri’ah into their fight, they encouraged to seize forbidden knowledge and in the end, it was Khaenri’ah that payed the price for that war.
Many people believe it was the alchemist Gold that was the catalyst for this conflict but then I start to wonder: why would an alchemist of khemia be interested in forbidden knowledge and Celestia if she were already creating remarkable things by herself? Again, it was the Abyss twin. Maybe they shared what they had discovered and that made people of Khaenri’ah curious themselves. With the aid of the twin, they went into war with Teyvat but ended up losing. So basically, the Abyss twin woke up in a new kingdom, dragged their Captain of the Royal Guard to be their traveling buddy for a tour of this new world, discovered something that made them want to fight Celestia and ended up losing with Khaenri’ah as collateral damage.
The reason I brought this whole thing up is because the faulty ley line system could be one of the motivations that the twin needed to fight Celestia. After all, Celestia and its gods are supposed to protect and watch over Teyvat but instead they appoint 7 Archons to rule of the nations and only offer band-aid solutions to serious problems. Heck, this whole problem could be traced back to the days of the Primordial one and it has just been an endless cycle of falling civilisations and temporary fixes to every single calamity for a millennia. The twin discovered the truth of it all and decided that enough was enough. After all, they know what it’s like to one’s home to total destruction.
The Abyss twin could be doing this to just help Teyvat before it is too late or they want to replace Celestia as the ruler of Teyvat and rebuild their own home, who can say. But when looking at the unfolding story and all the key players, each with their own motivations and goals, I believe the Abyss twin is the one that started it all. After all, once you choose which twin becomes the Traveler, the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles captures your twin while you just get sent to Teyvat, basically free to do as you wish. Why not capture both of you? Because one is innocent while the other started a war they never had a chance of winning…
Anyway, this theory/reading of the characters has been burning on my mind for a while and I needed to let it out somewhere. This video just gave me more of a reason to believe in this idea since it sheds light on possible motivations and gives me many ideas on where the story might end up. Whoever decided to read this whole thing, I congratulate and thank you for listening to my ramblings.
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day!
@g.sahkai8338 I think that our twin that has been captured by Celestia may become part of them. It will be very funny plot twist if we will must fight with Celestia twin fist and with Abyss twin later (or in another order) and both of them have reasonable motivation..
You just gave me an idea of what the content of the fountain is: liquidized (and concentrated) fragments of the Celestia's Nails, and if they have the same function as the trees... that would explain why the purifier to some extent worked with Halfdan, carrying his ghost and memories to the leylines.
That would also answer something that was bothering me to no end: we see the roots everywhere in the Chasm, where was the tree?
After aligning the surface map with the Chasm, assuming it is still fixed in North and didn't rotate in a weird way:
-The so-called "Sumeru Room" is right under the building that is in Qingxu Pool and sure, while there is no huge tree and just random small ones here and there, there are huge roots around that area. But the question would still be, where is the tree those roots belong to?
-And while we don't have access to what is on top of the "Inverted Fountain" yet, we should see a giant tree in the distance, as is not too far from the Chasm perimeter. We can't.
Again, it would need to be the same size as the _Sakura Tree_ in Inazuma, the _Symbol of Mondstadt's Hero_ in Windrise, or how the damaged bark shows the original tree was in size in _Kapatcir's Nest_ in Seirai Island, and the _Frostbearing Tree_ in Dragonspine.
But thanks to you, now I think that the tree mostly turned into black goo, and whatever was left Xamaran parasitized it.
The reason I say this, besides the obvious brilliant light blue color surrounding it and that there was a quest to purify it, is that in the _Hydro puzzle Pool_ (I can't think of a better name for the location) there is the biggest tree branch I could see in the Chasm.
What is interesting, too, is that the roots in that area have huge mushrooms (that works in videogame design as platforms to jump around) growing in the remaining roots.
I know, it should have been obvious, but I couldn't believe something so powerful, capable to purify, hold memories and mess with time and space, could lose against a freaking mushroom.
If it was already dead, it would be like a normal tree. But then wouldn't be special either to create Xamaran.
So I resisted the thought of it.
But now, I can't think of anything else: the black goo left it so weak, the mushroom won.
Then the leap in thought is obvious: the point of poisoning the Celestia's Nail with black goo to begin with is to obtain its power, like that mushroom managed to do with the Ley Line Tree.
Edit: Makes me question if the inverted City were the first in achieving success in it, because of the fountain.
I’ve actually been waiting for this video in particular for so long
That was interesting and made a lot of sense too. And i hope we see Zhiqiong again... alive. She gets alot of hate because of her recklessness which is understandable but i really liked her. Also could be coincidence but those strings with cubes attached flying around the cleansed Pillar look very similar to those that come out of Paimon when we go into the Menu/when Paimon appears.
A little side note. Zhiqiang marked the crystal piece thing with the triskelion symbol when you get her map after finding her letter
Do you think that the "Three Moons" Could be the floating islands... Like just like Celestia Kaenriah and Enkanomiya used to float above teyvat.... The two moon sisters fall like literally means the fall of Kaenriah and Enkanomiya?..
Don't mind me I'm just shooting blindly.. Whatever that comes to my pea sized brain 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Huh? I thought Khaenri'ah and Enkanomiya were just surface level.
@@epicazeroth Khaenriah is underground. As, for the Original Enkanomiya, I do recall hearing it being called flying, yet I dont rlly have a source on that, so I assume it's just surface level.
Well that's an interesting thought.
My mind is blown and I have no thoughts, just feelings of amazement.
One of the knights in the Chasm (Hyglacg) has this to say: "..Even the ominous thing that came down from the heavens shall be ours to use..." If he's talking about the nail (and what else would it be) that definitely supports your theory.
So far the nails are located at Dragon Spine, Chasm and Tsurumi Island. The nails are capable of disrupting the leylines resulting for a leyline disorder - sheer cold, black mud and the fog. Also important to know that when the nail is present, leyline blossom will not spawn on the area.
Dain and Makoto also throw pretty heavy wrenches in trying to figure out the chronology of the world. When the gods do things, it applies at a higher level than the people of the world, like Makoto helping Ei plant the seed of a tree that had always existed, or a curse cutting people out of the natural order of the world. Time, perspective, and causality start to get really hinky at those levels.
That was awesome. I really think you're spot on or close to it. Prob not that many people in the world understand this game's lore better than you. Thanks for all the time you put into it!
Hey Ashikai! Great video! U put so much thought and effort into this like you do with the others, and it’s honestly so admirable!
Since you love theories so much I also wanted to share one of mine with you! I couldn’t sleep last night and just randomly came up with it. Basically though, it’s that I think the god of time/moments, Istaroth/Kairos, is the one that’s actually responsible for visions! Considering her connections to the ley lines and the memories & elemental energy that flow through them, I don’t think it’s so far fetched. Lol, I use to think the statue of the omnipresent god was a depiction of The Raiden Shogun, but due to recent updates we learned that the statue is most likely actually depicting Kairos. Another interesting thing I noticed is that the statue is also said to be that of the “thousand armed and thousand eyed god”. At first, the name sounded very weird to me, but I eventually figured the arm part was in reference to her connections to the ley lines; cause branches kinda equal arms. As for the eyes part, this stumped me a bit for a second till I remembered how visions were once placed on her statue. That’s when it it hit me! “What if Kairos is responsible for visions?!?“ It’d certainly explain why they chose to build a statue of her, and put the confiscated visions on her statue!
I like this theory very much actually 😀
@@notraidenshogun8324 ah, thank you! This makes me very happy!
"...branches kinda equal arms..." We do call them 'limbs'... so I think you're onto something. 👍🏼
I came up with a crack theory that the moment someone receives their vision is what would be a turning point of their life that makes them rebel against Celestia, and Celestia is somehow controlling Istaroth and has her replace that point with their ambition being condensed into a vision. Since merely removing a vision from someone seems to have adverse effects, what would happen if it was destroyed?
One cool consequence of "radiation" being an element of the world-building is that it strengthens the light symbolism, as light is a type of radiation. (In fact, all radiation is just different wavelengths of light.) Light symbolism shows up everywhere from the stars to the protagonists to the colors of the elements (being the 7 colors of the rainbow and all), so looking beyond just common artistic elements and focusing on the scientific elements of light for the game's symbolism is really cool.
Also, as a quick aside; if Celestia is destroying civilizations in an attempt to purify the planet, it doesn't necessarily make them "morally grey" like a lot of people are implying. Rather it changes their thematic implications from tyranny to ecofascism, as needlessly destroying life in an attempt to help the planet is a core feature of ecofascist praxis.
also if it similar to normal “light” we may have some element outside of visible range like UV or IF, even X-ray or gamma, microwave based element could be very cool
Could there have been 2 drops on Khaenriah? Like 1 the nail and then that didn't fully destroyed it so the Sustainer stepped in?
Like why did the Sustainer personally came and destroyed it where a nail could've also done the job?, they've used the nail twice (maybe even 3 times with Tsurumi island included) so why was it different that time?
Like I get her going againts our twin but why was the whole nation destroyed by her and not by a nail?
Other than that let's see what this theory got in store for us!
My guess is time will tell. The 2.5 archon quest put forward a question I’ve had for awhile. Did the sustainer cause the citizens of Khaenriah to become monsters or did they curse themselves? If the latter is true then maybe the sustainer got involved to stop them from destroying the rest of the world? The corruption of Orobashi seems oddly similar in a way. The dark miasma that corrupts people. Maybe it was the result of peering too far into the Abyss? I just have to wonder if the curse itself was from Celestia or if Celestia was trying to contain it.
@@wtpiv6041 my exact thoughts
i believe celestia is acting more as a custodial role than a ruling tyrant
even if they took over from the primordial one
it reminds me of colonizations new people arrive in new land take over mess up nature then have to fix it as best they know how
they killed the 7 original dragon sovereigns
then had to replace them with the archons
they flipped the world which caused the abyss to leak out and corrupt things so they dropped the sky nails to stop it
all in all the new bosses messed things up and have been trying to fix thier mistakes
obviously there is more to it but i started feeling like celestia is more grey than black or white
@@wtpiv6041 I'm wondering if the curse was a side effect of a nail being dropped on them during the cataclysm by Celestia attempting to stop it. Perhaps the "curse" that affects Khaenri'ah's citizens is actually "fallout" from this explosion that happened from the nail since in real life when you get too close to radioactive substances it does change your body's structure.
So perhaps while Celestia was attempting to save the nation from the mud by doing that, they actually harmed them in the process of doing so. This would would be interesting to see if this was the case.
I'm glad someone else saw the fragment's symbol in the domains. It actually appears in them twice, though. The second place is under your feet when you give resin, in the short cutscene everyone skips.
A thought occurs. We can destroy artifacts for Mora.
Mora comes from chests and leylines. After the death of characters or opening of chests, they disperse back into the leylines. The Geo archon's gnosis can mint Mora by drawing from the leylines.
Mora is used to unlock the potential of characters, artifacts, weapons, and talents. We're essentially redirecting leyline flows to unlock the potential of all these descript items.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that even without any more minted Mora, we're able to draw recycled power from items that was previously imbued with Mora.
So we know that leyline... stuff consists of energy and memories. What if the dark mud is the leyline stuff that has lots of negative memories/emotions in it, whereas lumenstone would likely be positive leyline matter. It could be a bit like how crude oil is distilled into several types of oil products.
Venti calls the weird lumps on Durin's back Blood Clots which never made much sense as to me they looked like seals. Now, with the Chasm's archon quest though, it's not seals it's the symbol of Khaenriah. So what if those seals represented the abyss using the corruption of Durin Dvalin injested to mess with Dvalin's head? OG Durin was a sweetheart before he went and attacked Mondstadt, and Dvalin does a 180 in attitude the moment those clots break. Infected by Dark Mud? It fits.
Dark mud? More like darl blood amirite? lol
But yeah I actually forgot those were called blood clots. Interesting interesting...
Another awesome video! Thanks, Ashikai!!!
I had a lot of fun in the chasm, it is my favorite area yet with Enka as a really close second.
Omg yess!!! I'm so excited. I binged pretty much all of the theory vids the last two days and I can't get enough. 🥺🥺 I miss your voice
Just want to say: the world is not interesting without you! Thanks for so many brilliant and amazing theories!
I still think the nails are either weapons or parts of the old heavens cast down. The same blue crystal in the nails is what resonates on watasumi island to open the door to Enk which I think is also part of the capsized heavens. It is also the same crystal the corruption devices in the chasm uses. The crystal is some sort of energy siphon weapon or the nature of the old heavens was using them to provide or draw power from Teyvat.
Its so weird seeing past and future theories lining up like that
Still amazed at both the level of research that goes into these videos and the fact that it all comes together the further we get into Genshin.
One thing I'd like to add is the possibility that the domain murals don't depict a nail being thrown specifically at the Chasm, but maybe at another location in Teyvat we don't have access to yet. That could possibly ease the placement of the domain construction in a timeline, though I don't have a proper one right now.
As for "who built the domains?", my personal guess is that the veeeery ancient civilizations had a kind of organization specifically tasked to protect the world tree. One way or the other, they isolated the different smaller trees we see in the domains, but just kept an eye on them. And later, Khaenriah, being the super advanced nation that it was, found records of these "protectors" and:
- Decided to build more functional protections for them, the current domains (they have the same kind of architecture as Khaenriah ig)
- Rebirthed the organization to protect them, and that would tie into Dainsleif's title "Keeper of the bough"
The reason for which they would have decided to reinforce the soon-to-be domains could be because some Dark Mud was seeping out of their roots, and they needed better shielding; both for the sake of the World Tree and for the sake of the inhabitants of Teyvat. There are surely lots of holes in this theory but hey, gotta start somewhere.
Really got to thank you for these videos too, they might just make me write a lot of theories like this one, this lore is just that fascinating.
(also, where smol Yanfei? :x)
(on holiday)
All domain doors have Sal Vindagnyr style decorations in them, and most of them have Sal Vindagnyr type ruins near them.
idk why but this feels like its the right one, this is the real story, like u figured it out. like all of it makes sense and all my theories and current knowlege of genshin lore makes sense in this context
Premier gang! And also can't wait what theory you come up with
This is gonna be fun! Looking forward to your thoughts on the mud and how they relate to Ley Lines…
Always happy to watch a video of yours to brighten up a long day ^^
This is canon, I dub it canon
Anything you say about genshin is like gospel to me, this will be in the back of my mind as I play
wow, this is so good, might be your best theroy yet! Keep up the excellent work, I love these vids!
I feel like you mentioned this a while ago, but those symbols at 12:09 look suspiciously like diagrams of atoms. This is the one thing that makes me think the whole nuclear radiation theory might be more than just metaphorical.
The weird thing about the nails is that even though Celestia apparently used them as a weapon against civilizations they didn't like, the quests we've done involve repairing them; retrieving missing parts, or smashing weird Abyss devices connected to them. And yet, afterward, nothing changes... Dragonspine is still cold and cursed, and the Chasm is still full of evil mud. Did they have some other purpose? Power sources from the gods, set to self-destruct if the humans step out of line? We might learn more about them soon, since Yelan was shown activating the chasm's nail to stab the ruin serpent; she must have some knowledge of how they work, at least.
The mud must have something to do with the dark/abyssal realm, and probably isn't on Dragonspine just because, well, it's a mountain, and the Chasm is the deepest place we have access to by a large margin. Dain told us the ruins down there probably aren't Khaenriah, but something even older; the husk knights must have been drawn there the same way as the hilichurls. Whoever originally dug down there may have tunneled too deep, allowing part of the dark realm to ooze into the human realm; the strange fountain could have been their attempt to suppress this effect, but it wasn't strong enough, and a nail was dropped down there to seal it off (destroying the city in the process). Perhaps the "curse" Khaenrians have is an affinity/influence of the dark realm that makes them drawn towards it.
We also don't know why the whole underground city is upside-down... false sky?
I have a crack theory that we don't get dark mud or marana in Deshret's ruins because he used a Celestial nail and that's why a lot of the tech glows blue even though his abilities are gold.
The symbol that the winged figured gives on the mural almost looks like a biohazard symbol lol Also on the mural you mentioned the circle with the square in the middle represents teyvat. I’n Chinese art, squares represent earth so it’s kind of spot on imo
Biohazard and Radiation symbols are both three sided like the Triskellion from the domains and the Triquetra that are... freaking everywhere! Hmmm... radioactive or biohazard Paimon... 🤣
I haven't been so surprised and yet convinced of a theory in a long time
by the way, the little eye thingies on the domain mural next to what you theorised to be the sustainer of heavenly principles can actually also be found on the sustainer of heavenly principles’ cubes. If you look at either the khaenriah destruction trailer thingy or at the beginning cutscene you can clearly see it
Yup! I have a whole theory on it if you're interested. :)
didnt the talking mushroom say/imply that the dark mud was a relatively new occurrence? maybe i'm misremembering, but i thought it said that it had lived in peace for a long time and now it was weakening trying to suppress the dark mud. Time is relative of course, but it seemed like the mud would be way more recent than the nail.
Yes. But remember what the miners uncovered wasn't the nail it was the nail's fragment. It was only after the fragment was uncovered that the mud began to spread. That was only a short time ago so that would still line up with Xamaran. But also we don't know how long that mushroom has been down there so it's very possible that that mushroom is not older than 6,000 years in which case it would have never seen the mud.
The domains even have stones set in pillars which look a loooot like lumenspar from the chasm
So Im newish and now hooked as I've had these conversations in my head. As such I'm pretty hype to see what this vid does XD
Yeah going through the chasm, I kept thinking back on your theory about how elemental energy could be radioactive adjacent due to how similar it was to Dragonspine. We were cleansing using the Lumenspar in the chasm, a purifying stone, but in contrast life is blossoming, the Leylines are present down there, as opposed to Dragonspine where nature absolutely cannot sustain but our form of "cleansing" is to give a sort of elementally charged Agate to revive a dead tree.
I think you were onto something with the nails being filters for waste given off by Leyline Trees (makes double sense when you consider other great trees like the Great Sakura and the Perch on Tsurumi having disaster due to no real filter) but I wonder if the difference in the nature of decay between the Chasm and Dragonspine isn't purely time or climate but is the difference between energy being processed or not.
For example, the mud and decay in the chasm might be due to elemental energy being extracted into sustainable "life"- the mud is unstable because it was separated from its other elements, a sort of nuclear waste . As opposed to the permafrost in Dragonspine, which may be unstable purely because it is never processed, there is no Leyline tree to allow the elemental energy to "extract" so instead of being deprived of "life", it is smothered in unstable, unclean elemental energy, we aren't decaying in the ice like we are in the sludge - it is a hyperactive reaction of elemental energy.
The reason why its frost is because of the climate (being on a mountain) creating a boosted elemental presence of cryo. That is to say, Durin's death on Vindagnyr was a catalyst to finally revive the Frostbearing and seek out Durin's heat? Poisoned blood? I lose the thread here tbh
I could go on about how raw elemental could sorta explain imposter Albedo reviving but I'm really just hypothesizing and I am afraid of stretching out something that could be plain wrong, I'm mostly just curious about the similarities between the Chasm and Dragonspine with the alternative to the mud decay specifically being Permafrost.
I don't know if this video was released before or after Nahida's second story quest but thanks to that quest we actually know what the dark mud is.
its was released before nahidas quest,but could you tell me what it was i dont remember much from sumeru was it forbiden knowlege?
@@izuru51 Yes, it was forbidden knowledge.
When Apep got infected with forbidden knowledge the creatures that live inside her were also infected, some time before the cataclysm 500 years ago a good portion of the creatures left Apep. The infected creatures met a few different fates but one of the strongest eventually travelled to the chasm, where they managed to transform the forbidden knowledge into a different form which is the dark mud. I can't remember their reason for doing it but I do remember that it was intentional, I
think it was an attempt to suppress the forbidden knowledge.
Wait ...one more thing... Now that we're talking about Chasm (this might or might not be related to the video so warning beforehand)
I ..was wondering..
Why is the nail in the underground chasm and not the upper chasm? Like.. the underground chasm is well... 'Under-the-ground' and as we know according to the map, there's a whole big concrete land where Zhongli vs Azhdaha happened just above it...
So the nail, should fall on the mainland like in dragonspine... Why the undergrounds?
Literally, how did the nail even get there?? And why isn't zhongli or any NPC in liyue ever talked about it or no murals depicting its origin like for the one we found in Dragonspine tomb thingy with murals inside...
I launched genshin impact just to see if there's any possible way for the said nail to fall at the place where it stands today in the chasm... But all I see is a black roof... Meaning there isn't any way the nail fell from the sky (or might've been blocked after it fell by some land, intending to hide the nail?)
*Drinks water
Umm.. my theory would be that...
As we know, the underground chasm's map is really...
Confusing...
If the location of the underground mines is under the liyue mainland chasm then the one that stretches downwards would be under the Blackcliff forge and/or under the unknown part in Sumeru. By the map, the area where the 'Nail' in the underground chasm is located is not even named (which is VERY odd).. idk if to include that area under 'the glowing narrows' or not but maybe a future update will clarify it.
So... I can't deny this thought that the nail... Actually had fallen in Blackcliff forge or this unknown part of Sumeru and got covered up by a land OR the nail was brought to this location by something... Or someone~
My brain is crying rn, if u have read till here, lmk what you think about this TuT
Edit::
Ooh also, the area where the nail is located in the underground chasm, the Stone structures branching out kinda looks like the cube power of the unknown god we saw in that one scene of Khaenri'ah's destruction... Just sayin 😂
Edit2: The nail in chasm is different... It has constellations surrounding it wtffffffjskjskjsk-MY MIND HAS EVAPORATED!!!
There is Khedive, a sumeru scholar in the chasm exploration team, who says that the mushrooms we see in the chasm are from sumeru. I think this nail is under some territory of sumeru which was turned upside down or forced to sink underground and became a part of the chasm.
Yeah they're still a lot of mysteries surrounding it but if I'd have to guess I'd say that the nail made its way down to that particular spot by drilling. If you think about it it doesn't really do an advent any good to just rest on the surface it has to go to the Target location where the infected area is.
@@imakiri. when you collect all the fossil photos and show it to him he also mentions that they are extremely old but all of them seemed to fossilize at around the same time rather than staggered over the eras- indicating that there was some divine intervention in the burial of the Chasm.
Dark Mud = corrupted nanobots
Crystals = anti-virus/file fixer
Nails = nuclear option --) delete and re-format all data on impact
Teyvat = windows 10
Vision users = windows defender --- standing in dark mud, or installing virus can still cause damage
Humans = your hentai/porn files
NGL I din see the last one coming😭 please tf I'm rollin on the floor 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 also thank goodness there wasn't a-
*Hotel = Trivago*
Lame joke innit-
@@notraidenshogun8324 Have you booked your room at the historic Wangshu Inn?
Isn't this mud a memories of a long gone united civilization and maybe khaenri'ah which was dumped into the chasm\underground from the main ley line tree after being destructed by the sustainer?
"Why do you tarry in this place, Traveler? ...There is only death here, only memorials to injustice... " - Rethel
Moreover, if this mud indeed contains the memory of khaenri'ah and was dumped from the main ley line tree, that may further explain the notion of the hilichurls to go to the chasm and "unite" with this mud. If we're stating that, in the end, all things should return back to ley lines, and assuming that hilichurls(khaenri'ah) were exiled from the main one, the only place to go is this mud, which can be a ley line "substance", like the one that had leaked from the sakura tree in 2.5 Ei story quest.
There is an item that have called "the orb of blue depths", despite having violet color. Maybe this orb is a portable bottle for the ley line substance, which is supposed to be blue(like the one from the sakura tree) hence the name, but it turned violet due to time and hazard environmental conditions of the chasm.
And.....
"Restoring the natural cycle of life and death" can mean restoring a connection to the main ley line tree, so hilichurls won't need to go to the chasm(mud) to finally die there.
Just hypothesizing...
to quote a certain someone, this CHANGES Everything
I just want to say that I’ve really been loving your videos ever since I discovered them recently. You personality really makes them entertaining and your analysis really amazes me. Thanks so much!
Thank you for being one of the few people to actually break down the domain wall murals! I've been super curious about this & attempted to myself to no avail. I understood some parts, but not how to piece them together bc of the parts I didn't understand (AND you actually had an idea for what the 3 little horns below the triquetra are which I've been noticing on Paimon for the longest time & no one had an idea, everyone always just focuses on the triquetra).
Ok, so about the dainichi mikoshi:
It’s stated that istaroth, one of the shining shades, gave Aberaku the knowledge of how to construct the dainichi mikoshi. Perhaps the dainichi mikoshi works similarly to the celestial nail, because we don’t see any “corruption” in Byakuyakoku. It’s only when the dainichi mikoshi is disrupted that some regions of Byakuyakoku become toxic, and apply the traveler with the corrosion status. So, I think your theory is still valid, because in order to drive off the corruption it needs to be connected with the ley lines (knowledge that istaroth could pass down). Still, this raises some questions because there are no miasmic tumors/mud puddles in Byakuyakoku, which, according to your theory, is a byproduct of all the purifying. Maybe this will get addressed in a future quest, or maybe the dainichi mikoshi is a completely different source of energy (which would be game changing, since the only energy source we know are the ley lines). This whole thing is so interesting, and i can’t wait until more content is added to support this :>
YOOO. Your theory has strung together all the pieces of lore so sensibly and consistently that I think you might have hit the nail on the head. This is so cool! I never thought to draw comparisons between nuclear reactors and ley lines, but it makes so much sense now! Radiation also lines up with the other aspects of lore regarding the black mud. The domain mural really just drove the theory home! This is such a phenomenal theory and video!
"nail on the head"
i do like me a good pun (and thank you~)
I can really see the quality of your videos improving. Keep up the good work and don’t get burned out!
What i love about your lore videos is that not only are they informative and take my own imagination into theorising things other than what ive written as "this must be it" in my brain; but they also make me think more clearly about the motivation of individual parties. After all i am not the MC, i am not the tsaritsa, im just a casual observer of the world as it unfolds. And that is why i appreciate seeing celestias side of why they do what they do without writing them off as villains. The depth of reasoning why someone does something. Thank you again for another brilliant video! Nuclear fallout lets gooooo 👀
I think the mud and the dark energy represents the regrets and impurity of the dead souls. I think that is why the abyss is trying to use this dark energy by case is rivaling celestia and the world tree Powers.
The dead outnumber the living. Is just a thought.
i have literally been binging your videos for the past few days!! keep up the good work!
You finally fixed the low audio volume problem.
I am delighted!
Yeah there's been a pretty steep learning haha! Glad it's sounding better!!
Aw man, if they’re going to keep adding new content that calls back to things I did well over a year ago and can’t remember anymore (aka literally anything on dragonspine), I’m going to continue to be tempted to make a secondary account just to replay all the story content and I just do not have the time!!
I linked in the description box a channel known as the genshin quest archive where they are officially archiving all of the cutscenes from every quest in the game so you can rewatch them or relisten to them at your leisure without actually having to play through things.
@@Ashikai This deserves a mention on the intro
@@Ashikai oh fantastic!
I don't know if you know this but while exploring The Chasm you can walk by white branch and Paimon says that it looks like Frostbearing Tree from Dragonspine. It's in top right corner of the map in this mountain lookin like place with grass around
This is such an excellent theory! One idea I had about Sal Vindagnyr: while it's possible the gods would give the blessing of the ley lines to the civilisation (though why is another question), what if the Nail was dropped precisely in response to such powerful and blessed ley lines? After all, even if it is beneficial to the populace, it is still a 'ley line disorder' that caused the mountain to be hospitable in contrast to the blizzards and snowstorms outside. Perhaps Celestia dropped the Nail to suppress this 'ley line disorder' and return the world to a state of normalcy, even if that normalcy is blizzards that could kill Sal Vindagnyr. Splitting the nail is possibly a deliberate decision to nuke the 'corrupted' ley lines that are not functioning as intended, or rescinding their blessing to Sal Vindagnyr under the pretense of cleansing a ley line disorder.
20:25 If you've ever seen the ending of GGZ (miHoyo's earlier game) God Kiana displays a similar symbol in that ending in relation to the mural. However, the symbol in the mural has 3 (let's say) petals, while the one in GGZ has 4 petals.
About the domains. Just like in one of you videos about the traveler using memories or constellation.
I think the ones we fight in the domain are also memories. And the level and sequence the monsters appearing per world level are the number of times it's been attacked and beings that attack it.
Okay so
Just me or does the upside down city ruins and enkanomiya ruins have similar architecture?? Like that's what solidified that both of these were part of the og civilization back when the Primodial One was the ruler and the reason there's so much distance btw the places (chasm and watatsumi) is bcs like due to the war the land like split and drifted apart???
If under the Primordial one humanity was one connected civilization, then it may have just covered that much territory.
Yep part of the same civilization so at the very least they should have been around at the same time. Which puts Enkanomiya at at least 6,000 years old if not much older.
Cleansing the nail of the purple mist and mud in the chasm got me thinking about why the sky-frost nail was put back together on dragonspine. The leyline issues were not fixed until the sky-frost put back together. The tree that used to manage the leylines on dragon Spine is dead so the Sky-frost nail acts as a band-aid to keep the elemental energies in the area under control and cleanse the evil void mud/gas. The big tree at wind rise might do a similar job as the Sacred Sakura, along with the Archon Statues and teleport-er network, keeping elemental energies in balance so human can live.
Also if Sustainer is the one throwing nails at uppity civilizations that touch the evil void ooze it explains why she didn't kill the twins. Possibly she threw them down to Tayvat to fix imbalances and cleanse the place of evil. They are walking mini purification machines, as traveler cleansed Durin's tear and was overwhelmed by the dark miasma when talking to scara in inazuma.
I believe the Dragonspine Mural actually depicts different gods for a few reasons I noticed-
The Mural in DragonSpine located in the ruins of the ancient/lost civilization's city, shows several golden crowned kings standing with their people worshipping & giving offerings to a winged God with a moon behind his head & the symbol of an atom in his palm, whereas on the other side of the Dragonspine Mt. depicted in the art, there is a 3rd king who appears, much less humble as he does not join his people in their journey or labor & is instead shown ordering them like human servants up the mountain to bring offerings to the God/Gods of Celestia, located directly over the mountain at the time (& notably with the sun behind them, a stark contrast to the other god with a moon behind his head).
The strange thing is (bc Phanes is often represented by light, it's strange he has a moon behind his head, not that a moon cannot reflect light), but he fits the description otherwise- winged god of creation, who just so happens to be holding the symbol of an atom in his palm (a reference to creation). (Also, the reason I decided to call the symbol depicted in the winged God's hand an atom vs. the gnostic octagram of creation is because the symbol depicted in the mural is identical to the atom symbol, having 6 rounded points rather than the 8 pointier tips of the Gnostic version, but they both share the same meaning).
You are amazing. You bridged the gaps I had in my theories so far. Moreover, I believe the travellers were planted back in time for a specific reason by celestia, to change the future and also not cause chaos and bifurcation of timelines in doing so..
Ooooo I like this. Especially when you talk to the other nights in the chasm, they seem to support your theory as well imo
It sounds like this aspect is inspire a lot by the Nausicaa manga (of which the film is an adaption of only the beginning). The God Warrior were created by humans to judge and restrain humanity, to stop humans before they make the Earth wholly unlivable. The God Warriors are likened to nuclear weapons in terms of power and give off the effects of radiations.
I truly enjoy these videos and the comments. Everyone puts so much into it all. Genshin Impact Lore/Theory fandom is the best.
This all reminds me of when we were gathering that weird rock with yanfei for madam ping to create our teapot. She needed a rare rock that lets put out whole lot of energy, and causes damage to regular people when exposed to it for too long. Sounds suspiciously like uranium, during the whole quest, it definitely sounded like we were building a mini radiator powered by uranium to make a small domain for our use.
You might like the video i have called "what are visions?" It's all about radiation. :D
I think she really hit the NAIL on the head with this one 😂
I have been waiting for someone to breakdown that wall mural! *Here comes the rambling* So, it's interesting that that mural (in the domain that gives the pale flame) is mirrored, teyvat as the center. Snowballing off your world structure theory, it makes a kind of sense - underground and above ground mirroring each other. Tree roots normally grow as large as the canopy. But also, the symbol you connected to sus-tia is surrounded by 6eyes. IF that's a rep for the 7 archons, meaning that the one in the middle is somehow above the other 6, it could mean that Venti = Sus-tia. I know it's weird, but hear me out.
1.The gnosis are baised on chest pieces, and we know that the anemo gnosis = the queen piece. 2.The barbatos statue in the central plasa has "gateway to celestia" written around the base, AND it has a 6 pointed 'flower' shape under it, aka the shape gifted to mankind in dragonspine murals. That shape isnt really found anywhere else in mondstadt architecture. 3.He can shape shift. 4.Venti says "we meet again" in his character introduction, which could be a slip up if he is sus-tia, where he first met us.(not too sure about this) 5.We know that he helped venessa acend, which would make sense for a SUSTAINER OF HEAVENLY PRINCIPLES to manage the comings and goings of acention. 7. The symbol looks like someone with wings to me, and venti's got em.
If he's not sus-tia, he's probably at least a co-sustainer or above the other archons. Could also explain why the cyro archon hates him if he was a co-destroyer, or party to the destroyer of Khaneriah.
Just one more thing, sorry, a theory on visions and the nail: i know that visions given connect ppl to constellations/celestia. I suspect that as visions gain more power/energy that power stored in celestia not in the visions themselves. (Making visions a plug to access power) The allogenes thus collect power for celestia to manage the world. Power collects in the stars/irmensol fruit and that crystaline substance is used to make things like the sky nail. It would be a logical reason why the 'gods' bother to give out visions. Give empty batteries to hardworkers/ambitious peeps and have a higher yield and shorter charge time.
Seriously, sorry for the ramble, but several things covered here made loose brain threads connect. Thanks for the vid!
To kind of put a cherry on top of this video. Remember how you imply that Statues of the Seven were put to contain the nuclear disaster? Well... I believe they have the same core as Celestial Nails, not to mention the same design.
Also didn't Fatui try to fuck with Sacred Sakura in Inazuma? I distinctly remember having to heal all the small trees around to be able to go through that land without being electrocuted. Does it mean that Fatui wanted to force Celestia to show people who live today the power of the Nail? That it can cleanse the place, but at the cost of the people living there? (Still pretty fucked up of Celestia if we assume they wanted to cherish people and then just went "This place is gonna get destroyed if we do nothing, so murdering hundreds of people we supposedly care about is nothing in a big scheme of things". Eh. I always hated the whole "for the greater good we will sacrifice people" bullshit and here it comes now to depict Celestia.
I still bet it went somehow like this:
Kaenri'ah: We want to have the same technology as you and hopefully modify it so we could use it in more effective way than launching it from the sky at every place hit by the bad juju, because that is so inconvenient and very not optimal way to deal with the corruption of the land.
Celestia: NO! YOU ARE JUST PETTY HUMANS AND THIS IS NOT FOR YOU, ONLY WE CAN JUDGE HOW TO USE IT!
(You can feel I am pretty anti-religion to the point I would always assume in humans favor than gods).
BTW Oh and let's not forget that trailer kind of implies that the thing in Dvalin's neck which was causing him harm was somehow related to Durin, as if he gave that corruption to Dwalin and now Dwalin had to carry that burden also until obviously we come along to fix the shit. We can even say that it periodically comes back and that's why we have to fight Dwalin all the time to keep him healthy and happy, away from corruption.
Also, both Liyue and Inazuma have all this lore pieces about cleansing the bad juju. Liyue has Yaksha, Inazuma has Sacred Sakura, but Mondstadt doesn't seem to have any cleansing thing, despite the fact I am sure there was a guest in Monstadt with Hillichurls covered in black fog. Dragonspine is like seriously the only place that comes to mind and also there is no Sakura Tree in Mondstadt if we don't count Frost Bearing tree, and even if we count then that means Mondstadt doesn't have functioning Leyline Tree, but they do have this HUGE OAK. *squints suspiciously at it*
I wondered when you will bring that quote from that tiara. It was actually a quote that gave me a lot to think about when it comes to Celestia possibly being aware that every blessing they grant will inevitably end in disaster and refusing to speak on the matter to the people they give it to. Shouldn't the "crown of white branches" serve as a protection from the corruption as well? I kinda would see it that way, because why give it otherwise? Priests do not wear crowns, that's weird. Why give them a crown? Also this quote for quite some time made me think of Paimon due to... a CROWN.
BTW do you plan to talk about the weird coincidence between the Towers in Enkanomiya which had signs of that old language put in a certain way to create a certain effect and the possibility that those very same signs can be responsible for effects of each Domain? Like a setting? I didn't look into it very hard but I bet that we could maybe possibly guess what combination of letters causes what thanks to the domains.
Another BTW, do you think that the whole idea of Visions came to be, because Celestia wanted to have agents on the ground immune to corruption to investigate the corruption, even if they couldn't predict whose ambition will align with their goals? Or are we going with more "Visions were always part of this world" kinda thing and assume that they are just natural occurrence which so happens to have shielding effects as a response to corruption?
It's funny that I was not that far off when I said that Chams was an effect of "laser from the sky". It was a nail, but it works.
Also if that circle in the middle of the extended mural is Teyvat then the weird things on both sides kind of remind me of the magnetic poles which for example on Earth keep something which scientist call "magnetic shield" around the Earth, protecting us from the bad radiation from space.
Ashikai the new dark mud event has confirmed the connection between it and the ley lines! Please check it out the pursina's spike seems to expand on our knowledge about the dark mud and ley line waste!!!
yeah there certainly seems to be a confirmed connection between the two, it was great getting some answers to questions in this.
So, the Chasm was created by a falling star, could this be the nail? But something also rose up, back into the sky after a while and the nail is still there. Also, why did the nail make such a big hole in the Chasm but only chipped the top of Dragonspine slightly? And if the nail was to stop the black mud, isn't it strange that the nail can get infected by it? (or was the Abyss order involved in that? I don't remember). So many questions!
I think you're confusing the meteor that formed the chasm with the one that was in Duyun. As far as I know there's nothing really linking those two.
We don't really know what dragon spine looked like prior to the nails existence, and remember that that nail split into three pieces so likely it's impact was lessened.
I don't think it's weird that the nail can be infected by it because there were devices that were specifically being used to infect the nail that we had to cleanse. The mud wasn't doing it by itself. Well it's not explicitly stated I think it's generally implied that the abyss order was repurposing a lot of those devices to corrupt the nail.
We're probably still missing a few key pieces of the puzzle but this is how I currently understand things.
If there are no leylines in Dragonspine how are the teleport points still working? Don't those need leylines to work?
This is an interesting question, actually. Makes me think if the traveler is "cleansing" these portals to be brought back to the leylines. The traveler apparently has the ability to cleanse things with abyssal influence. Just another thing to think about is brought up by another YTuber MurderOfBirds that there's no Leyline blossoms it places where we can deduce that the nails have fallen onto (Dragonspine, Tsurumi and now Chasm)
It's not that there aren't any it's that the ones that were there are broken. For example if ley lines are like blood vessels, they don't stop existing just because they got cut open and are bleeding out.
Excellent vid as always, Ashekai! This whole situation with the dark mud and dropping "caps" on the world higgledy-piggledy to keep it under control screams to me of a less-skilled and knowledgeable boss scrambling to keep together the creation of a more skilled individual whose power they usurped. So damn good going.
The idea that the skyfrost nail may have broken up on the way in and missed its target is particularly chilling for some reason. Would that have been Celestia's first attempt as far as we know? Or is it impossible to tell at this point which came first?
I think the sky Frost nail is more or less confirmed to have fallen around 2,600 years ago which would make it at least 3,000 years later than the chasm nail. The idea is that the sky Frost nail fell while the archon war was still ongoing because there are references to a place that sounds a lot like the Green version of dragon spine in the history of old monstadt.
"...particularly chilling..." pun intended? I hope so! 👍🏼🤣
Your commentary as always is fantastic indeed, you understand the Genshin lore like very few others do. Thanks for your hard work.