[3.5] Losing my mind over the Primordial One - Genshin Impact Lore/Theory
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2023
- Something's never really sat quite right with me in regards to the Primordial One... "MAY" have been Phanes? Why is there room for doubt?!
Well, in this video let's dig a little deeper and maybe we can answer that infamous question - Who exactly IS the Primordial One? Is it Phanes? Or someone else?
*Related Videos*
Which Witch? A Deep Dive in the Hexenzirkel - • [3.5] A First Look at ...
Magenta - • [3.3] Time, Magenta an...
*Timestamps*
No timestamps. This is one long ramble.
*Sources/Citations/Further Reading*
Nyx - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyx
Nyx - www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Nyx....
Phanes - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phanes
Moirai - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moirai
Orphic Mythology - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphism...)
Orpheus - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus
Before Sun and Moon - genshin-impact.fandom.com/wik...
Flowers of Paradise Lost - genshin-impact.fandom.com/wik...
Staff of the Scarlet Sands - genshin-impact.fandom.com/wik...
Luminiferous Aether - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminif... - Hry
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“venti looks a lot like orpheus” HEY ACTUALLY THATS REALLY COOL CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT- oh the video’s over
HAHA LMAOO
I named wanderer, orpheus lol
Exactly my thoughts 😂
There's other colours beyond the light blue for Celestia, the purple for Abyss, Dainsleif's dark blue and gold. There's a red colour used for "inoperable" or "off" like the way teleport points are when you first meet them. There's a red colour for forbidden knowledge crystals. There's the red colour for Durin's blood. His corruption on Dvalin's back is purple and yet the Dvalin's tear is originally red before it's changed to light blue by the Traveler.
Also red cubes of Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.
I think Dvalin’s red corruption sting wound thing from Durin leans a lil bit more towards the purple-y red of abyssal corruption imo, which lines up with abyssal corruption in general, and also makes sense considering Gold (as Durin’s creator) also (accidentally) made the wolflord things
Also, non-infused elemental energy is white. Also, there's several different 'starry night sky' effects when teleporting that feature different coloured stars.
Purple is the color of corruption. Purple is Red+Blue. Assuming the trend is followed there, red would be the "pure" external force, while purple would be heavenly power corrupted by this red power.
did you sirsusly ferggot the susteiner WHOS CUBES ARE RED AND RED
I cannot stress this enough. It is IMPOSSIBLE to overstate.
NO ONE let Ashikai anywhere near Kingsom Hearts.
Ever.
She will go insane
😂😂
Very true
Ah yes, Kingdom Hearts and its ridiculous, convoluted lore
im not even playing that game but i know how the lore has implication on genshin, dont let her found this out lmaoo
Absolute FACTS! She’d probably lose her sanity and don’t even get me started on the FFV13 being brought back via kingdom hearts.
this actually makes a lotta sense considering anytime celestia's talked about symbolically, it's never depicted as sun and light, but as the moon. scaramouche in nahida's little fairy tale says he wants to 'engulf the moon and become the new moon', and since we now he wants to become a new god, he might've been trying to take over celestia. and thus, the fact that the primordial one might be nyx, it makes a lotta sense to have it depicted as the moon, rather than the sun, since the sun was only one of it's shades
If that is the case. Then his goal probably hasn't changed much when he became the Wanderer. He's just more focused on taking the Fatui down.
Scaramouche/Wanderer wants to liberate the world, because of what the current state of Teyvat has done to him personally. I can actually see him trying to bring back the seven sovereign dragons.
Not like Nahida said earlier in a quest she was the Moon or anything.
In most cases it is very clear when Celestia is depicted, as there is a floating island in the sky. ANd the mural in Dragonspine does depict Celestia as a floating island surrounded by a sun, while one of the tsurumi ones, shows Celestia in a dark circle with golden outline and some sort of ripples around. Either some sort of a spatial rift/black hole or a solar eclipse. Moon depictions usually do not feature the floating island, so I'd say those are just in relation to the moon(s). The "engulf the moon and become the new moon" was more likely referring to Scara becoming the new Sumeru archon and overshadowing Buer, since she is the moon in the context of Sumeru, as she is all about dreams and illusions.
I wonder when his discovery of the sky being fake will mean something lol
Can I ask a question to make sure of something? The book Before the Sun and Moon says that according to the scribe of Istaroth the Primordial one won against the Second Who Came.... can this be considered as confirmation? Like.. is the heavenly principles and the one in Celestia right now is The Primordial One? Is this 100% confirmed? And someone told me it's 100% him because Istaroth is in Celectia and she can't be following the enemy, bit I don't remember the story mentioning the location of Istaroth as of right now or what happened to her later.. only places we know she was in were Enkanomia and Mondstadt... I am kinda confused
Ashikai will never make me bored of that ONE book, ever.
Wow...As someone who has read a copious amount of Greek Mythology, I'm so glad were getting into Khaos and the primordial ones. After I learned from Ashikai's videos that GI lore is heavily based on Orphism, I finally found a new way of seeing Genshin's main story. This is amazing. I also can't wait when Hoyoverse starts introducing the idea of higher dimensions in GI and how they'll mix the QP with mythology, just like how Marvel and DC did.
Question: Are you at least mostly caught up with the story? Cause I have a few things to compare but I don't want to spoil too much. (pretty minor stuff, but just being cautious)
@@Naokarma I’m here for the comments under this because I wanna know tooooo
I mean... It's pretty directly inspired by gnosticism. Im pretty sure all orphism connections are accidental
I refuse to believe that you don't at least know about Honkai once you mentioned higher dimensions.
@@randomguyblank1616 Bro what? That concept has been used for countless franchises and mythologies.
There ain't nothing better to make my day than a new Ashikai lore video
Oh me too
Fr
I agree
Same!
Too true
Stupid idea that just popped into my head because I’m sleep deprived but what if it’s both? What if nix is the primordial one but somehow people got confused and just started believing that nix was another shade instead. Would explain the “may have been Phanes” part.
it would especially make sense if Nyx was the sort to just take care of things without much flair. why would people assume the introverted being is the original power when this extroverted being is running around showing off their own greatness?
@@kallistiravenhurst5232 cringe tf idiotic -_-
@@kallistiravenhurst5232 exactly. 😁
Like in real life, I respect more my Supervisor than our CEO that I'm just seeing on pictures.
I wonder if genshin is gonna tell one of those “it was for your own good” stories. Where the people of teyvat are forced to be ignorant because there was something wrong. I’m excited for more of your theories
Honestly it felt like that, they always tried to hide, erase , and alter the information and knowledge of the world
Makes sense in the light of HI3 - keep humans sealed and ignorant to stop the Honkai from devouring the universe in which Teyvat resides.
since knowledge corruption has a direct physical manifestation. it is possible that teyvat is not a true physical world, but a pseudo-data space like the Elysian Realm.
what MHY really likes is redemption/overcomming-inner-darkness arcs for the MC...it is quite possible the twins are 'sky people' and the traveler's journey is about them developing bonds and affection for those of the world so that they will protect it instead of helping their kin devour it.
@@idminister
>It is quite possible the twins are Sky People
>Aether's name in JP and CN versions (Sora/Kong) literally means "sky", and Aether in Greek mythology is the *primordial* deity (or, in Japanese, the "genshin") of light and clear blue skies
You might be onto something here
Honestly i love mihoyos subtle misdirection in storytelling. They deliver the events i expect, but the delivery is always an awesome suprise. (nahida vs scaramuche, like we all KNEW who would walk away from that fight, and i SHOULD have seen the HOW coming, but didnt. the foreshadowing for how that played out was timed just far enough away for me to remember it in retrospect but not expect it in that moment.
mother, sister. wife or child of Phanes. This is what I call Wincest.
Go to jail for 5k years.🥲
A Greek classic
LMFAO WHAT
So, I was reading Sun and Moon recently and I think I had an epiphany.
They only ever call the second who came "the second throne" they never actually call the first throne such, it's separate than the primordial one, and only is presumed to be the same.
So, Genshin's never been fantasy. It's Science-fantasy at best. They LOVE their science inspired magic in this game, as Ashikai said herself in a recent video.
Y'know, we've been taking the "First Throne" very specifically this whole time. "The throne" can of course mean the crown heir, as we've been taking it. But what if we take it more literal. The "First Throne" as in the first throne location literally "came" to Teyvat? So a location that can move, sounds an awful lot like a space ship, huh? Y'know another thing that would have a "crown(of light)", "wings" and "androgynous nature"? A ship's AI, taking the form of a holographic person.
What I'm saying is Celestia, Celestia could LITERALLY be the "First (ship) who came" or the second, who knows!
Not saying we should operate on that logic, just wanted to put that particular brand of corrupt knowledge in your heads.
I like that idea
Assuming this is connected to HI3, this is very possible
Honestly, the one detail that I think is the biggest red herring/twist on the source material is the egg. I think the nature of Teyvat is going to turn out to be highly unusual. The egg in mythos is supposed to be a higher order creation concept but I suspect that in Genshin, due to the preexisting nature of the Light and Void Realms, that the egg is a nested, lower order concept. It's really tough to say. The fact that traditional creation mythos are being referenced by a retelling that's occurring within the usurpation of an existing creation is 🤯
12:58 you mention that someone could use the expression “genesis pearl” to ‘poetically’ describe an egg, and i think it adds up very well because, as you mentioned, it was stated in the battle pass which is told by Venti/Barbatos who takes the form of a character that’s a very poetic bard.
While watching a certain thought struck me. As we know hoyo likes to tease future concepts by releasing characters beforehand (for example Yoi representing Makoto with their "love for the moment" and transience or kaveh being a representation of deshret/irmin if you follow that theory) So what if Layla's "other self", the being that lives inside and takes control of her body at night is somewhat representing the Nightmother. Although I'm not sure of it at all, because we don't have a Layla hangout atm, but it may come soon so it would be nice if my random thought would hold for anything later
You might me into something
Oh, did you not watch the livestream? We're getting a Layla hangout next patch.
Dont we get layla hangout in 3.6?
Yeah, that's why I said we don't have it at the moment
That would be so cool. My only problem with it is that Hoyo would probably give something like that to a 5* and not a 4* like Layla is.
All genshin theorists be like
"Venti is sus, we'll talk about him later"
AND THEN THEY DON'T
HE GETS MORE AND MORE SUS EACH NEW VERSION AND THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM
AAAAAAAAAAA
True
i think they're saving it for his (most awaited and also WHEN IS IT COMING NAHIDA IS GONNA GE T ONE BEFORE HIM) 2nd story quest just like all the released archons.
Let them cook 😂 when we finally got it it’ll be juicy
@@TheDhanaMCimagine they released venti 2nd story quests alongside khaenri'ah 😂😂
We don't talk about Bruno-no-no but make it Venti
love how yanfei is your avatar for these videos bc damn it really feels like sitting down with yanfei and listening to her ramble about very complicated things
very in character 😂
I agree with Ashikai but also have some weird/crazy theories: The 1st who came is the Primordial one. The 2nd who came is the Sustainer. Nahida calls the Sustainer the 1st Descender because she doesn't know about the Primordial one. Celestia is empty. The twins meet the Sustainer..somewhere that isn't Celestia. The twins are linked to Phanes (maybe shades or halves of him - since Phanes was Light and so are the twins) and that's why they've been sent to get the Genesis pearl (Phanes egg). I think the 3rd Descender is the 1st twin and the 4th is MC. Irmensul has been tampered with and that's why the 1st twin is not listed as a Descender. Remember that when Scara erased himself, there was still a number 6 seat in the Harbingers but no one held that rank. Same with the twin, they were the 3rd Descender but since the data was modified, it's like an empty "seat". It can also explain how the 1st twin was corrupted and made to believe they were not a Descender but the ruler of the Abyss, as shown in the Battle Pass. I think the snake is Nyx, the Primordial one who lost some of their powers. One more thing about the Primordial one and Phanes (the shade).. what if the Primordial one didn't intend to create 4 shades but just 3 and Phanes was an unexpected result when the "creation egg" hatched. OR what if Phanes is not the shade the Primordial one wanted to make, since Phanes is a Light creature, unlike the Moons and Nyx (the Primordial one)? What if the 2nd who came allied themselves with Phanes against Nyx? It can explain the dodgy "Phanes MAY have been the Primordial one" and that "the Primordial one was victorious against the 2nd who came". Maybe both the Primodial one and Phanes kinda lost (their power) and only the Sustainer was left to be the Keeper until the Creator (Phanes) would find a way to return. Maybe with the Genesis pearl which is supposedly what MC should be doing according the Battle Pass.
She doesn't call the sustainer the 1st descendar? Asmoday is the sustainer / keeper of the heavenly principles not the heavenly principles itself
Nahida said the heavenly principles is the 1st descendar not the keeper if we're being specific here asmoday might as well be a shade who protects primordial one in a way and the primordial one being is the heavenly principles itself
@@lucidifying yeah but there are some ppl who thinks that asmoday or the unknown god is the primordial one which is false but they still believe it
Genshin lore is as complicated as my maths textbook
Another small thing with Celestia being blue and therefore connected to the night mother - so many plants either glow or bloom in the night and don't in the day such as small lamp grass, nipolata lotuses and glaze lillies all of which are blue (i know the nipolata lotuses are yellow in the middle but there's a lot of blue too). it almost seems that Teyvat is meant to be most alive at night (kind of) or that flowers (and maybe the goddess of flowers) are celestial or related to the night in some way??
The keeper (Sustainer) is fading away; the creator (Primordial One) has not yet come. But the world shall burn no more (next cataclysm), for you (traveler) shall ascend.
This is what I think. I believe that the results between the fight of the two thrones were kept hidden for a reason, the primordial one is away and the sustainer is the second throne. She was theorized by Nahida to be the first descender, so that fits perfectly since she literally descended on the world "soon" after it was created, when its first civilization was thriving.
For some reason she is unwell (cataclysm?) and she's been silent for all of this time (she's fading away). Adding to this, her powers are really weird for a goddess from celestia, they're red and almost corrupted, like on her arm, and they don't really fit with the blue celestial nails, teleport waypoints and statue of the seven that Celestia created.
Notice how she calls herself the SUSTAINER of the heavenly principles, since she's not the one that created them and the world itself. She's the keeper.
Obviously we don't know why she invaded just to protect the world afterwards, but I'm not changing my mind until the game proves me wrong >:3
Oh you might be into something really, lets wait
But the job of a Sustainer or Keeper is to sustain or keep. The 2nd throne destroys. If the Keeper was bad and fading there'd be no problem. It's because the keeper is doing something good that their fading is a problem. When the Traveler ascends they fix the issue of the burning world implying that the burning is a problem that results from the weakness of the current Keeper.
Honestly I think heavenly principles is a new concept and similar to honkai it just literally an energy or concept that used by the higher being to control said world and abyss is similar but from different source (similar how Elysia used origin power to break everyone fate from being controlled by honkai). Maybe the second one who came and the primordial one have the same enemies ? Just have different views and tevyat is only used for the battleground
The Bough Keeper...
the Primordial One is an alien too though. They showed up in a world full of elemental dragons
what if the twins are the primordial one. like the sustainer was talking to the twins about the arrogation of mankind so maybe the primordial one didnt care what humans did but sustainer was like nope im kicking you out. the primordial one who may be androgenous could have split into a male and female twin
Ohhh I like this theory
Or the fact they just traveled between worlds without care for so long that the Sustainer forced them into a human like life in Teyvat. Hence having to regain powers, etc.; because we know for a fact they are not from this world so must be some celestial or heavenly source.
Plus they do travel worlds?
Or they might be of the same race/species as the Primordial One.
Poor Ashikai, lost her mind trying to interpret the lore.
as much as I love watching theory crafting vids I just...wonder how much thought the devs would probably have actually done in writing the story...
I'm leaning more towards The Night Mother being the Second who Came and something akin to the Goddess of the Abyss. The Second who Came arrived on Teyvat and fought The Primordial One to steal his throne. The Primodial One won the fight but he failed to kill her and she escaped to the same place that his other enemies(the vishaps) did in the past, The Dark Realm. So now she's puppeteering from the shadows to weaken Celestia's power and biding her time at the very bottom of the Abyss waiting for her opportunity to finally take the Throne of Heaven. And maybe the first battle also left The Primorial One injured and now one of his Shades(The Unknown God/Asmodai) is running Celestia in his place.
personally I think the Teyvat was "made" to keep it isolated/hidden from the abyss energy (which would be the night mother's domain), and that is the prime directive, and everytime celestia springs into action is when abyssal energy starts leaking into the world. and somehow the sibling was brainwashed into trying to open a door for that energy to come into teyvat.
Hi Ashikai,
Just a small addition. Regarding the primordial deity, it is said that the first to appear and who was born from chaos itself is Erebus, and Nyx appeared after.
Compared to Genshin, we can conclude that Erebus is the first primordial god, and the other four can also be compared to those of our mythology, who are: Nyx, Gaia, Eros and Tartarus.
I'm gonna make a super wild theory here that is a large stretch. It's just a random thought that came to me when I was watching this video.
What if the original primordial one is dead and before they died they made a reincarnation of themselves. But that reincarnation failed to make one complete being and it split them into two: the twins.
I don't have enough time rn to elaborate on why this popped into my head lol but I thought it was a wild idea and wanted to share.
Either that or the twins are the second who came maybe but both would be cool
I remember reading BSaM and at first thinking Phanes was the twins, that’s why the text sounded so hesitant about who the Primordial One was, cause it was never a singular individual.
Ashikai has blessed us with lore once again 🙌
I feel like Lumine and Aether were Phanes. They were just one androgynous being that separated into two, a male and a female
That's an interesting theory. Phanes is translated in Latin as Lucifer, and the most devoted demon to Lucifer is Paimon. There are many parallels between the demon Paimon and the in-game one, such as the abilty to fly, to reveal hidden treasures, to make weapons and people appear (how you can use the Paimon bargains shop to buy weapons or characters). He is also described as having knowledge regarding the Earth, its waters, and the winds, kind of like how in-game Paimon is "the best guide in Teivat".
holy shit thats good
That could also explain why one twin is a classified as a Decender and the other is not
Naahhh, im buying into this one
About the greek mythology part.
While Momos indeed was the son of Nyx, he wasn't actually the god of nightmares. He was the personification of satire and mockery.
Hypnos (twin brother of Thanatos - death) was the god of sleep and his sons were Morpheus (personification of dreams), Phantasos ("Fantasy") and Phobetor (or Icelos) who is actually considered to be the personification of nightmares.
The last point that was made about the blue, gold and purple-y black powers, it was mentioned that the gold power might represent day (aka belonging to Phanes) and blue might be night (belonging to night mother) but imo i think the blue belongs to the moon sisters and purple-y black is the night mother’s abyssal powers because Marana has the same purpley power. Moreover, since Istaroth roamed around Enka a lot, there is a lot of blue to match down there, and also the ghosty people (shades of Tokoyo) there are also blue. (From looking back at the cutscene, abyss twin’s power’s color looks more purpley abyssal color than Dain’s power) Also curiously, all the technology in Enka and even Deshret’s tech is predominantly blue, but also some hints of gold here n there. Interestingly , seelies are also blue (albeit a slightly different shade) This makes it even more confusing though honestly, because then who is it that’s operating from celestia?
I don't really play Genshin anymore, but I still love your theories and the lore of Genshin. They're so interesting and what you do is awesome!!
Fax like I only play genshin for lore and that's because of ashikai
Real
Same here. Stop playing due to not having time to play it really but the lore is always interesting to see
The game is a slog to play through due to the exploitative rng of literally everything in it. The lore is still awesome though.
Thank you, I was starting to think I was crazy, since I was the only one who actually kept pointing out that people should stop assuming that the Primordial One IS Phanes. Because Phanes came to the world of light before Teyvat existed, which means that Phanes CANNOT be called a Descender, you can't be an outsider to Teyvat if you are the one who created the whole place.
I've always been thinking of that exact same sentence. Phanes IS the creator of Teyvat, however they are not necessarily the Primordial One. We don't even know what the heck is a Primordial One at this point, so saying that Phanes is not a descender does not contradict Nahida's words.
Something has stuck into my head since the Aranara quest. The Aranara said that that big bubble thing we fought was only one of the Abyss's avatars. It may certainly mean it has a human form? Maybe Nix is the Abyss or is related to it?
If Lisa can, or is, a confirmed past successor or Andersdotter, I wonder if her obsession with the library, books, and returning books comes from her mentor. She may also know about hiding truths in stories to protect them from Irminsul changes. Which is more reason for her to protect books.
maybe a wild idea but i like it.
“…May have been Phanes” …I think this is literal.
As in; they were once Phanes but no longer is/calls them self that. They call themselves something new now. There's a lot of this in Genshin already so it's not even a stretch.
But this means Phanes could be the twins. And we’re seeing them through either a mirrored or distorted (personal) masc/femme lens as we adventure. I like this idea bc it means the Unknown God could be Nyx and their mother. The opening scene is a kids/parent dispute. 😅
Sustainer: You're grounded (literally).
The absolute goblin voice coming out of Ashikai at 12:14 was something I didn't know I needed.
Random interesting fact: Magenta is actually a "false" color. The color magenta doesn't exist, our brain creates it by combining Violet and Red to form a spectrum "circle", i.e. join the Violet side of the rainbow with the Red side to make it continuos, except this combination is not naturally possible. Violet and Red together would actually average out to green, not Magenta. In other words, the color of the Abyss is also the Illusive color or the Wrong color, a product of our brain fooling itself.
Thank you as always for the high quality content.
To be honest, the first thing I thought about when Before Sun and Moon talked about splitting the heaven and Earth was the Chinese mythology of Pangu lol. I wouldn't be surprised if Hoyoverse sprinkled some elements of it in Genshin.
I wonder is maybe Primodial one split themselves into 4 parts, 4 shades, sun God, 3 moon Gods, and that’s the reason the shades are unsure of the identity of the primordial one, but attribute it to Phanes, the most likely sun god?
Yeah maybe primordial one is every shade technically speaking like split into 4 parts although phanes has the most attributes of the primordial one
Although it's just a theory and might aswell be debunked in the description of some item description like a stick or something i don't expect much of hyv atp
Im a big fan of Hades and I found it funny the connection that Chaos (which is depicted in Hades as a god) grants you the cosmic egg as his keepsake
Y'all are too progressed in this story imma just wait until Paimon/Dainsleif explains the entirety of Teyvat's history in 7.8 or smt 💀
Hmm....in Honkai, Griseo painted a portrait of Sakura for Rin. It's called "The Weeping Priest" and shows a winged person wearing a horned mask and holding a broken/hatched egg. The background is swirly, "soupy" and it appears to be raining.
I can already tell this is one of those videos I need to rewatch to catch everything 🤔Thanks for the video and the hard work!
Thank you thank you thank you for bringing up Nyx! It's nice to know I'm not crazy and wasn't the only one thinking about that dang Night Mother part in the pygmy book!
just found this channel but i love your stuff! exactly what i was looking for in the way of crackhead lore analysis and theorizing
Shes great indeed
your video just made my day ♡
i absolutely LOVE you and your theories, voice, enthusiasm ❤
I love the idea of an unseen/invisible creator deity, your reading of Before Sun and Moon is why I tend to only write “The Primordial One” and not Phanes because the possibility that they’re not the same being is non-zero. The idea that Nyx is the night mother from The Pale Princess also lines up pretty nicely with Enjou’s rationale for finding Before Sun and Moon, that it contained evidence that Celestia wasn’t from this world.
I guess now I’m wondering if Nyx is the mother of Phanes, and Phanes is a shade, then does Nyx also preside over the Abyss? Is she the inspiration for “Fischl” from the book series? Have to think about it more, but thank you for the wonderful theory and food for thought!
Nyx is one of my favorite Greek gods, it's so interesting to see how she could fit and be used in genshin lore.
The way you decorated that teapot to match theory breaking and lore diving personality is chef's kiss. (Love that mona star in left corner)
you know the items we get after each archon quest? dvalin's poisoned thingy from mondstadt, the rock from liyue, signoras funeral mask from inazuma, and the silver twig from sumeru. i have a feeling we will get one of these items for every region, 7 (or possibly 8?) in total, and they will be the keys to the final archon quest.
Oh my goodness! Another lore video from Ashikai! Thank you!! I was getting super bored without lores 😅
Nice to see you filming in the new library, it's a lovely background!
SO GLAD there’s another lore video for this!!!
If you look at when the sustainer steps out of the portal, on the bottom right side, on her cape (just a little past 1:42). She has a Celtic knot just like Paimon does
So they’re from the same place for sure!
Wow that set piece yanfei is sitting at looks so good, wonder who made that.
Surely a master architect like kaveh! Right? RIGHT!?
One of the key aspects for me in Genshin is archons representing an element, but not exactly being the element. So while they might be the hydro archon, the element of hydro doesn't really care about the archon. I wonder if the shades are actually their "element", as in would time cease if the shade of time died.
Time is non-linear.
'The thing before the thing', is not a thing.
What if I told you, I think the egg is uncracked, creation happens at the end rather than before.
Time shenanigans beyond the trees are yet to happen in game.
I mean, sure, we could assume time shenanigans, but then we would have to concede that we can’t predict anything, since the writers could retcon anything they wanted. Doesn’t make for very compelling theorycrafting.
@Ashikai thank you for the video, and I do have some questions for future videos, or if your give some quick thoughts here. Others are ofc welcome to comment.
- Does the triquetra symbol represent the 3 realms of Teyvat (light - heaven, void - abyss, and the human realm - what we see)?
- Why are some truquetras upright and some upside down? Maybe the upright ones represent "original" creations by the primordial one, and the upside down triquetras "fake" creations by the second one who came?
- Since we find a lot of celestial symbolism on Paimon, and given how little we know of her, and the fact that she has an upside down triquetra on her clothes, can we asume that she is a "spy" sent by the new celestia, to fight the abyssal twin, who is again celestia? Plus:
- Did Dainsleif predict this in his prologue chapter? He said we must fight him in order to get the other twin back and rewrite history. Going by this, Celestia will once again beat abyss and the only hope to not punish the abyss, humanity and the abyssal twin is us, the light twin.
- There are 5 types of artifacts which you can equip: flower of life (creation), plume of death (war), sands od eon (time), goblet of eonothem (space) and the circlet of logos (ideas). What if the primordial one is the circlet of logos, and Istaroth is the sands of eaon, who are the other three?
- Is it possible that when the second one came and won against the primordial one, it also gained control over all or some of it's shades? That would explain why Istaroth, despite (presumeably) being a shade of the primordial one, still worked against the abyssal powers and Khaenriah, although those were trying to remove the current Celestia, who had beaten their creator.
- Who says that the shades of the primordial one stick together at this moment? They could have developed their own agendas and mission, just like other gods in Teyvat.
- Where is the primordial one? Is it sleeping? Locked away in Celestia? Fled to Khaenriah?
- Where are the dragon overlords? We know Kokomi is probably the descendant and the current hydro dragon, but where are the others? We know others are probably dragons, since we know that only the hydro one is human atm (probably. Is Apep maybe one of them, being the dendro one? Are they lovked away or maybe weakened? What if Azdaha was one of them, and Zhongli brought it back to a physical form?
- Gold in alchemy means creation? What if Gold (Rhinedottir) has something to do with the primordial one, or with one of it's shades (the flower of life)?
- Why doesn't celestia go after the hexenzirkel, given how powerful they are?
- When was the hexenzirkel established, why was it established, and who were it's original members?
- I've seen some pictures from the manga. When Vanessa, who helped to fight aritocracy in Mondstadt, asked Venti about Celestia, he got nervous and remembered 3 caped figures? Who were they and what function did they have? Who exactly is overseeing the archons?
- What is the "truth of this world" Gold speaks of in her note to Albedo? Is it the same as the "true nature of this world" of which the abyssal twin speaks?
- Maybe Gold wasn't trying to unleash the abyssal cataclysm, but was only a victim of some forbiden knowledge, like king Deshret? Maybe she was trying to create something nice (life), but ended up mixing up some corrupted thing from the abyss? She seems too neutral to be evil, especially because she created and parented Albedo... he would have noticed something strange about her, because he's very intelligent and observing.
- Why is Venti's statue in Mondstadt "gateway to celestia"? I thought celestia was closest to Fontaine. Then again, Vanessa did ascend to Celestia from the Mondstadt region.
- If Tsaritsa hates celestia (current heavens), and also dislikes the abyss (the void), does that make her a ruler that is aware of the primordial one, and loves the human realm? Does she know the truth of this world? And:
- That would make it logical why the adventurers guild is considered to be a snezhnayan organization. Maybe Gold fled to Sneznayagorod, befriended the Tsaritsa, and together they are now planning a revenge against celestia. The adventurers od the guild are now their "visions".
That's all, if I remember something else, I'll post in the comments under this one. And thank you everyone for the ideas!
Edit:
- The sustainer of heavenly principles uses powers that look like small cubes. Is it possible that it is the goblet of eonothem?
- Is it possible that the second one is using the primordial one hostage, and consequentially it's shades to do the dirty work, like wiping out those who know too much or trasspass, like the twins? Maybe the sustainer blocked them, because it was afraid they would return with some backup, as in a new "third one who came"?
- What is abyssal power? If we go by light realm and void realm being opposites, and the human realm being a mix and a phyisical world, then what if light means all elements, and void means no elements? One creates, the other consumes?
- Who created the leylines and Irminsul? If we know that it's roots stretch to the abyss, then do it's branches stretch to the light realm (heavens, afterlife = post physical, only elemental life)?
- How is the spiral abyss connected to the abyss?
- Do the Khaenriah ruins have a direct entrance to the abyss?
- To me it seems that every region has it's own witch in the Hexenzirkel: Alice from Mondstadt, Barbeloth from Liyue, Nicole from Fontaine (?), Ivanovna from Snezhnaya, Gold from Khaenriah,... the others I don't know. Seems they have immense power and knowledge over the regions.
- Where is Alice??? She always seems one step ahead of us. She is a close friend of Gold too... a very suspicious madam, I'm keeping my eyes on her.
Dang, this one video was actually the topic I was thinking about lately! Excellent job as always!l and thanks for your amazing analysis and nice theories!
Btw, I saw - delayed - your attempt to build a new set for Yanfei, and it looks wonderful in the video! I think you could just add a small couple of cubicles for Shinobu and Faruzan, you know, for when the future lore drops get as huge as in 3.0 🤣
Another thing: there was an Orpheus in Enkanomiya...
Love your lore! Your brain goes everywhere :)
That one book is the start of all things lore in genshin. Amazing content ashi!!!! 😊
I absolutely love how insane the titles of these videos get
The colors blue and gold for night and day are also consistent with the device in Enkanomiya
Your new stage looks great.
hey the teapot set looked pretty good in this! also this video broke my head.
Love your new setup for your Yanfei's office. 🥰
Ashikai i love you and your theories
yay!! another ashikai lore video
I know this video was put out BEFORE the Narzissenkreuz questline, but in that one special note it mentions four specific phrases in relation to Descenders.
"the way to become just such a will, one that can protect the world, sustain the world, destroy the world, and create the world"
We have, front and center, a being titled as the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.
If we think of one of the shades as also being responsible for helping the Primordial One with creating all life on Teyvat... that would make them the Creator of Heavenly Principles, no?
And then... if we lean a bit on the theory that Paimon is one of the lost moon sisters, or one of the shining shades, or both... in one of Aether's 2.0 voice lines, Paimon jokingly claims to be a god of protection. Or at least... we assumed she's joking.
If she is, and she wasn't joking, maybe she's the... Protector of Heavenly Principles. Or she formerly was, in a bit of a Guoba situation.
Which then leaves me to wonder who the "Destroyer" could be, and why one of the shades would even be named such. Unless we think of them as a "Destroyer" that is in the employ of the Heavenly Principles. Either way, this moon sister is likely dead... or else trapped in the Abyss, corrupted by forbidden knowledge.
Actually... that might explain why the Abyss seems focused on destroying Celestia.
More importantly, perhaps those 4 capabilities existing in one single being is a requirement for being powerful enough to rule Teyvat. The power to Sustain, Protect, Create, and Destroy.
6:05 I find it ironic how Ashikai suggests that Nxy is a good candidate for one of the four shades since,I named my genshin OC after the same Greek character 😅
Nyx *
the duality of gold and blue as an illustration of night and day is well represented in Enkanomiya !
thing regarding possibility of Nyx/Night Mother being the Primordial One: the default state of the sky is what we understand as night. Without the sun we see darkness and stars. If there are no stars there is only darkness and we still assume it to be a night sky
as such her being representative of the night could be more akin to actual Nyx [i think?] where it's less "specifically this and not the other one" and more "this is the default state without any additives"
another great vid yay!
12:49 Since its mentioned that The Primordial One used the shell of the egg they were born from to constuct the firmament which encapsulates Teyvat, could the Battle Pass cutscene be pointing to the origins of the Travellers before coming to teyvat. The travellers sibling (Lumine in the BP video) going on a journey to find the genesis pearl could be an allegory for her arriving from outside the firmament, from a kingdom in the heavens (the domain of the stars which Aether and Lumine originate). The Genesis Pearl is said to be in the Kingdom of Darkness, which could reference either teyvat being a lone world in the expanses of space, or that the Primordial One created Teyvat to be a Kingdom of Darkness after defeating the sovereigns of the light realm. The BP story also says "the memory of her noble origins faded", which could explain why the Abyss Sibling isnt classified as a descender.
This theory alos makes links to Phanes being depicted wearing a snake wrapped around an egg, which would be the "genesis pearl" in this case. In this theory the snake could represent The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles, as she is seen in the opening cutscene to be the one who guards the firmament of teyvat. It is also a cool visual consistency that in the BP Cutscene, when the Princess is deceived by the snake, the video zooms into the snakes eye, which glows with red in the shape of the 4 pointed star, the same shape and colour as the ones used by the Sustainer. The BP Video also says that a second heir had 'already' taken up the path where the first had stumbled, meaning that they couldve set off on their journeys at similar times, just like Aether and Lumine, making it still consistent.
Paimon has a crown, and a wing/cape thing going on...
I clicked this video so fast, Not sure what you drink and relax but you need some right now Ash after all this, awesome video again as always, love your tid bits
Idea of night being Primordial One instead of day suits perfect with the fact that Teyvats's gods are demon gods instead of regular gods. In both cases it's opposite than it should be.
That teapot build looks really good in the video 😊
With your theory about the night being the power that guard everything, that def checks out considering the false sky that was creates and houses the unchanging stars keeping everyrhing in equilibrium
Hey @Ashikai another great video...👌
Really enjoy your take on lore tidbits
BTW it would be interesting to hear from your opinion about the genshin characters' personality
Zajef did a "GENSHIN IMPACT POLITICAL COMPASS" video and I enjoy his math/numbers videos but he's not exactly into lore and backstories
i love youuuu ishikaiiiii your voice is so lovelyyy
Interesting line of reasoning. Looking forward to see how this plays out.
Yes. I needed this right now. Thanks
When you mentioned a comparison between Venti and Orpheus, I got really excited because I recently got into Hadestown 😆
the absolute rabid froth heard in your voice at 12:15 ish when you say "dreams, in my genshin impact?!" is much appreciated
This is the video I’ve been waiting for lol.
I like the your Teapot set.
I think the sustainer might be the shade that isn’t the moon sister and corresponds to the goblet which represents void whereas the crown is for the primordial one and the the other artifacts represent life death and birth/the three fates
15:31 this is so out of topic but since domain murals was mentioned I feel as though this is the only time i’ll get to mention it.
Why is there only one domain in the entirety of the game where the blue lines is replaced with orange lines in the fire element domain? I’ve been waiting to see other colours that aren’t blue in domains for two years and its still the only time where leylines are anything other than blue or gold. I believe it is a liyue domain for talent books.
Im reaching but I always thought it has something to do with Natlan because the Teyvat Travail Trailer for Teyvat said we’d be told a secret from the archon but only because of a certain reason. And I keep thinking theres just something so important about the cycle of life and death in natlan. Which we all know is heavily connected to constellation, leylines and just teyvats entire existence lol.
This place related to adepti/Rex Lapis
@@whitecat3448 Unless I’m missing something, i’m not sure how that relates to the leylines not being a normal colour. Sumeru and Inazuma have domains relating to their archons but the colour never changes.
The other crazy thing about the blue/gold thing to me is that the unknown god we encounter at the start of the game is distinctly yellow themed, unless you want to call it red and black. But the nails from celestia and the pillars they mimic from the title screen are all blue or white/blue with the same sort of gold accents as we see in the domains
I only just started the deep dive into Genshin Lore and theories, dear god, I've played this game since launch and have never thought this much about the story
New Ashikai video? My day has been made better.
Excellent analysis. I hope we get the video on Venti as Orpheus someday. I'm also surprised you didn't link Dainsleif and his snake ring constellation to the primordial one. Especially since I'm pretty sure DainsIeif on top of being another ring cycle reference is supposed to also be Jörmungandr, the snake who circles the world and who will trigger Ragnarok when he releases his tail. Side note: I kept expecting Hades (the game) depictions instead of historical ones for some reason lol. That game also borrows heavily from the Orphic tradition.
10:14 Ahh now I get it! The 4th shade is the +1 shade mention.
One think i want to point out and will keep putting up is that all the archons are parallels of the heavenly principles. Their personality and their character parallels with either of the figures in celestia. Genshin loves parallelism and I felt this was stronger ever since we were introduced to Ei
im going to sleep but you just uploaded
The new stage for Yanfei looks great. 👍🏼