apologems

[apologems]

Furina's character design fucks me up so much. Because when it's Furina the human she has short hair. When she's Furina the "God", she has both her short hair and the long hair in the back, symbolizing how Furina isn't really a "god" but more a human playing the part of a God. And then when she has just long hair Furina isn't Furina, she's Focalors.

Idk, just the fact that hoyo made it so you can tell them apart fucks me up on so many levels.

#frina #other talk

[apologems]

did they ever explain why it is rude to address the geo archon as Morax and call him Rex Lapis instead…

#liyue #aq: liyue #self tak

[apologems]

doing this pretty small world quest (wayyy later than i should) where you snap a picture for a researcher from fontaine in sumeru, and he said there is a direct route to fontaine. however, the route he took was from Lumidouce Habor to Cheney Vale, and he passed through Qingce Village on his way to the Stone Gate that separates Mondstadt from Liyue. He stopped at Dawn Winery then headed south to visit Liyue Habor. He took a ferry to Port Ormos from the Habor, traveled Northward along the river, and reached Sumeru.

Pretty round about way if you asked me… this npc knows xavier. they were course mates (?)

He said another path (that was ventured by brave warriors) was from Romaritime Habor, heading southward into the desert.

He said Natlan is on the “other side of the desert”.

#wq #sumeru #npc #npc: augustus lovelace #npc: xavier #wq: recollections of a fontainian

[apologems]

heizou is said to have elegant handwriting.

letters he wrote to the traveler.

first letter:

I asked some Ritou residents, but none of them have heard of that which you call “ninken” on the battlefield. The sheer lack of information quite surpassed my expectations. This is quite strange, even for information that has not yet spread widely. I will continue searching for clues.

the second letter:

I tried a different approach today, which unexpectedly yielded some relevant information. During the war, the International Trade Association had an organization registered with it that specialised in pet treatment and trade known as the “Puppy Union”. Its symbol just happens to be a dog wearing a bamboo hat. Not that this proves anything alone, but I found two other suspicious things: 1. After the war, the Puppy Union very quickly cancelled its registration. 2. The Puppy Union’s event funding went through at least six layers of transfers, quite suspicious… I will continue my investigating.

the third letter:

Well, well, wasn’t that quite the day? I tried to investigate the people who had dealings with this Puppy Union as much as I could, and I found two main, hidden sources of funding. One is the Foreign Trade Association. In fact, the Union could be considered a subsidiary of the former. You may not be aware of the particulars regarding said Union, but they are closely connected to Sangonomiya. The second source is more interesting still. You’d never guess, but it’s Komore Teahouse, and of course… the Yashiro Commission isn’t far behind the curtain. A fascinating turn of events, no? Sangonomiya and the Yashiro Commission… I wonder what your little secret is? I have my guesses, but I’ll need more evidence to prove it — details of deals regarding pets. We should have records of such things at the Police Station. I’ll get in touch with Yoriki Owada.

last message:

Oh dear, my apologises!

I’ve received word from the Commission. There’s a new case that requires my attention. / As for that canine case you were concerned about, I’ve already got the evidence.

But Yoriki Owada kept warning me not to reveal anything to unrelated persons, so… sorry, but my lips are sealed! / Oh, but there’s a but! It’s really unfortunate, but I accidentally misplaced something again. You know, the details concerning new admissions to that “Puppy Union.”

I believe it’s nearby, so could you help me look for it? / If you find it, please double-check to see if it’s indeed the evidence, and then find a time to return it to me! Thank you so much!

#patch: 4.6 #patch #eq #eq: iridescent arataki rockin’ for life tour de force of awesomeness #hizou #canon text #npc #npc: yoriki owada #genshin spoilers

[apologems]

event board messages

shikanoin heizou’s message

Itto, I’ve received your invitation letter. Everyone’s happy for you. We believe that you’ve got a good head for event planning. If you work a little harder, I’m sure you’ll stop having to report to us all the time. So please, take these Lavender Melons with compliments from the Police Station. Oh, yes. Madam Kujou Sara wishes us to pass this message along on her behalf: “The Tenryou Commission is watching you. Do not forget that.”

“TCG buddy ayato”’s message

i was delighted to hear that you were holding another festival, Itto. As such, I have commissioned a set of audio equipment as a congratulatory gift. Also, I have recently heard the children of Hanamizaka saying, “Ayato of the South, Itto of the North.” Could you enlighten me as to what that means?

thoma’s message

hey, itto, this is your second time organising this sort of musical event, right? haha, didn’t think you’d move the stage to Watasumni Island — opposite Sangonomiya Shrine, no less. Very cool! i asked our Clan Head, and it was agreed that we dispatch a team from Komore Teahouse to help liven up the atmosphere. They’ll provide tourists with free tea. What do you think? Pretty sweet, eh? Don’t worry about it, you’re welcome. I’m happy as long as you are!

yoimiya’s message

Ah, sorry, my bad! I actually received your letter a while ago, but choosing the fireworks proved kinda tricky, and I wasn’t familiar with the route, so there were some delays. That said, when U got here, I thought everything was going great! The atmosphere’s electric, the scenery’s beautiful… Ah, I’m going to have a good, long look around. I hope the fireworks will fit in well with your gang’s rock ‘n’ roll festival!

“ramen buddy”’s message

Well, well, Sir Arataki, I didn’t think you’d remember little old me, your ramen buddy. I’ve since spent many nights considering how I might express my thanks. See that standing sign over there? Yes, that’s right, it’s your beloved Ms. Hina. It was a last-minute decision, and I spent quite a hefty sum on this one. You wouldn’t disappoint me by not placing it in the most conspicuous of locations, such that Ms Hina might be put on full display to the people of Watasumi Island in all her glory, would you?

#canon text #patch #patch: 4.6 #eq: iridescent arataki rockin’ for life tour de force of awesomeness #eq #tto #yato #yimiya #ye miko #thma #hizou #dynamic #dynamic: yato & tto #dynamic: tto & ye miko #dynamic: tto & yimiya #dynamic: tto & thma #dynamic: hizou & tto #inazuma

[apologems]

from this event, we learned that the “animals” saved during war was actually people, as seen with names like “Chouji” and “Dvorak” himself. The former was 8 years old and the later 40 when saved. It seemed to be a joint effort by the Yashiro Commission and Watasumni Island. That’s so sweet…

At the same time, Thoma definitely knew something about it, with how he so cleverly threw people off with his talk, making people think Dvorak just made it up.

Lastly, I think Heizou was so funny in the last scene. “Oh no… I seemed to have lost something called [the very thing you’re looking for] and it should be somewhere nearby… Could you find it and make sure it’s the correct thing that is confidential so don’t let others see and return it to me?” Oh my gosh he’s so???? Heizou?!?! (endearing).

#character #character: hizou #hizou #thma #npc #npc: chouji #npc: dvorak #inazuma #self tak #eq: iridescent arataki rockin’ for life tour de force of awesomeness #eq #genshin spoilers

[apologems]

I swear, Dottore was written by a former STEM graduate. People don't normally write mad scientists this way.

Whenever I try to dig into deep lore, his research repeatedly turns out to be among the most useful data I have.

I know a good study when I see one. I've been on both sides of the academic hiring process, I've written grant proposals and I've reviewed them and I've seen better scientists than me discuss them, so please understand how much weight I put into this: these are very good studies.

(except for, you know, ethics)

His research topics seem random but he actually pokes at the most fundamental questions of Teyvat with each one.

His Eleazar studies dig at the relationship between forbidden knowledge and dead gods (surprise: these are different things. I might have lumped them together if not for his notes).

Cloning himself pokes at the difference between machine and man, and also it's the technology of Eclipse Dynasty, Teyvat's main historical enigma. Have you ever wondered whether all ruin guards were men once? Or why did they switch from alchemy to ruin machines so abruptly? Or why they were cursed.

(I have a suspicion it also pokes at the nature of time and stories, the way he talks about a need for an ideal observer, and also the way Khaenri'ahn history went)

Delusions answer the question of why does Teyvat need Archons for Visions to appear and for humans to be able to use elemental magic. We don't know the answer but Dottore does.

I'm eyeing his artificial god because I don't think that what we saw in Sumeru was the final project. He seemed so nonchalant when it failed.

This is theoretical science at its finest. As a cherry on top, every project also yields practically applicable results.

He's a dream of every grant commitee.

#dttore #other talk #character #character: dttore

[apologems]

The Languages of Teyvat (Part One)

My partner and I both play Genshin together, but in different languages-- so we'll often end up chatting about some of the differences between them and how things can be interpreted. This combined with my general enthusiasm about linguistics made me start thinking.

What's the deal with Teyvat's languages?

We encounter a lot of different scripts in-game-- every nation has their own, plus a few others. But there isn't much in the way of spoken language variety. All of the characters we meet, no matter where they're from, speak the same common language-- which is consistent for at least 500 years, considering that there's no difference in the way Chlothar speaks in the flashback quest. I would argue that the common language (which I'll just call Teyvat Common) has been maintained in its current form for longer than that, though-- at least since the Archon War, but probably still earlier. This is pretty unrealistic, but... well, that doesn't really matter here.

But the common language isn't the only spoken language. Actually referenced in-game as different spoken languages, you have the language of the Aranara, as well as Hilicurlian.

I also think, however, that the various nations also have their own spoken languages.

My main reason for thinking this is the different naming conventions. Every nation has their own naming conventions for characters that match with various real-world languages-- and these names (barring certain special circumstances) are not translated between game-languages.

It's not just the names of people, though-- place names also do this as well-- which imo implies that people and many places (but not all) are named in the nations' own languages, not a common language across Teyvat.

Now, I don't know if these languages are used in daily life, as all of the dialogue that we see in-game is written in the player's set language, but that could also just be for ease of reading-- however, I do think it's implied that the traveler learns Teyvat Common, and doesn't automatically understand other languages. Some of Teyvat's people might grow up multilingual, depending on their upbringing and where they come from, but I think for the most part, Teyvat Common is more widespread while the national languages are used more in art and naming.

The artistic use headcanon comes from the musical performances-- Furina's performance in her story quest (in French/Fontainian), and Yun Jin's opera performance (which is still in Chinese in the EN version of the game-- which implies that it is not performed in the common language in-universe, but instead in a separate 璃月语)

I really love the idea of fantasy where even though the characters are presented as speaking the reader/watcher/player's language, they are instead speaking their own world's common tongue-- such as Tolkien's westron. Naturally, I will apply this to Genshin as well.

To properly analyze what is Teyvat Common and what isn't, we need a rule to differentiate the two since unlike Tolkien's languages, Teyvat's languages are analogous to real-world languages that can be applied to the game. My current rule to determine what is not Teyvat Common is thus: if the name is fully translated between game languages (CN/JP doesn't count for this), it is in Common, but if it is only phonetic, then it is in the regional language.

For this, the following headcanons can be determined:

The nations are named in their regional languages

Characters are named in their regional languages*

The proper names of most places are in their regional language, while the type identifier is in Teyvat Common (e.g. Luhua Pool, "Luhua" is in 璃月语，but "Pool" is in TC, because it is written "Luhua Pool" in EN and 渌华池 in CN) but some places are named entirely in TC (e.g. Galesong Hill, which is fully translated between game languages, 风啸山坡 pronounced “Fēngxiào Shānpō” in CN）

Traditional style/high art music is typically in the regional languages, while modern music and poetry is often in TC.

Fatui Harbingers' codenames are in TC. Their character names (e.g. "Tartaglia" "Arlecchino") are in a regional language.

*a notable exception to the naming rule is Sucrose, whose name is in TC! In CN it is 砂糖 (pronounced Shātáng). Personally, this gives even more support to my headcanon that most names are from regional languages instead of Teyvat Common.

Sumeru's Sanskrit names are a bit of a special case, since Sanskrit to CN translation and transliteration has a very long history to it that I don't know enough about yet to properly analyze tbh, I will need more study for that. Inazuma's names just being pronounced the way the kanji would be pronounced as hanzi is just its own thing that happens in the real world too so I wouldn't put that as "the names are in TC". I don't know what's going on with Snezhnaya's linguistics, but I honestly will probably need more actual content to start figuring that out.

Anyway, there are probably ten thousand holes in this theory, and a lot that I'm missing right now, which is why this is just a Part One and I'll come back to it later, once I contemplate more about how scripts come into play, what exactly Teyvat Common is if we take a purely in-universe approach, etc.

In the end though it's really just a headcanon-- there's just as much of a chance that we're not supposed to read so far into it at all, and I'm just noticing it because of experiencing multiple game languages + general nerdery. Who knows?

#other talk

[apologems]

guys PLEASE you have to know that in chinese paimon completely cooked his ass 😭😭😭

in the first dialogue, itto says 他跟本大爷交情过命, literally "the two of us are lifelong friends"

过命 here is the "lifelong" part of it

then when paimon questions it she says 是过命还是要命？

要命 literally means "want (someone's) life", aka "want (someone) dead"

so basically paimon's telling him: “is it REALLY a lifelong friendship or does she still want you dead?”

😭😭😭😭😭

#other translate #pimon #tto #dynamic #dynamic: tto & pimon #eq: iridescent arataki rockin’ for life tour de force of awesomeness #eq #patch #patch: 4.6

[apologems]

zurvan: The divine bird Simurgh drank the Amrita and mixed her Khvarena with the water's essence, thus creating countless beings.

it was not explained what amrita is, but if it drank “the water’s essence”, i assume it is some form of primordial water?

apparently they’re the only form with sentience, and their power is from amrita. so they are essentially like fontaine citizens who are made of primordial sea water?

reading through the quest dialogue before i continue this quest (yes, i haven’t finished it), i noticed that primordial water was mentioned.

according to sorush, the divine bird simurgh drank primordial water left by their god (who?), and transformed herself into khvarena (reminder to me: a type of energy) of all kinds…

#self talk #wq #wq: sumeru #wq: khvarena of good and evil

[apologems]

i just… spoiled the whole world quest for myself after reading his wiki… orz

wait, are you saying the NPC nagarjuna (the vijnanapati) is around 500 years old? because he fought alongside the divine bird’s heir… to do the rite of chin at and put an end to the calamity?

unless you’re saying that the calamity was over a long stretch of time… confused…

#self talk #wq: khvarena of good and evil #wq: sumeru #wq #npc #npc: nasejuna

[apologems]

wait, are you saying the NPC nagarjuna (the vijnanapati) is around 500 years old? because he fought alongside the divine bird’s heir… to do the rite of chinvat and put an end to the calamity?

unless you’re saying that the calamity was over a long stretch of time… confused…

edit: wait i realised i misread the name of the npc. it’s nasejuna. nagarjuna is probably really old (and dead)

#wq #wq: khvarena of good and evil #wq: sumeru #sumeru desert #npc #self talk #npc: nasejuna

[apologems]

[ spoilers — not under the cut. please scroll by ]

oh! i really like the story between chenee and frejus during this event. i think it’s also cool how they explicitly stated frejus is around 30 (or exactly 30).

the fact that frejus saved chenee during that one mission, taking the bullet for her… and in turn she plays around with his drunk-lie about rejecting the research institute 3 times… yet the irony is that frejus thinks she’s genuine… i love it, haha. the situation is so funny to me. bookmarking this because i like them.

#eq #eq: rolling crossfire #npc #npc: chenee #npc: frejus #fontaine #patch #patch: 4.5 #self tak

[apologems]

reading through the quest dialogue before i continue this quest (yes, i haven’t finished it), i noticed that primordial water was mentioned.

according to sorush, the divine bird simurgh drank primordial water left by their god (who?), and transformed herself into khvarena (reminder to me: a type of energy) of all kinds…

#wq #wq: sumeru #wq: khvarena of good and evil

[apologems]

in MY opinion... i think that aside from being a diversion tactic (to make sure the fatui dont find out about the primordial sea), wrio threatening lyney could have also been him subtly checking on the dynamic between arlecchino and the house of the hearth orphans.

like wrio knows manipulative adults Pretty Well, and the fact that he knows the fatui sent orphaned "children" undercover instead of grown agents already tripped alarms in his head.

Wriothesley: Mr. Lyney, the cards are stacked against you right now. Miss Lynette is in my hands, and Mr. Freminet is still slowly being pickled out there in the brine. You know just as well as I that he cannot last out there forever. Wriothesley: You need do but one thing to guarantee their safety. I would like you to contact your superior, and ideally invite her over for a cup of tea with me. Lyney: You want to see "Father"? Ha, but why should she bother giving you an audience? Wriothesley: Well, if she cares for the well-being of her dearest children, she should have plenty of motivation to join me for a parents' evening. Wriothesley: I've heard that the bonds between the members of the House of the Hearth are like the bonds of family. I don't see why she would refuse.

(emphasis mine)

"call your parental figure or your siblings will be in danger" would be a relatively easy decision to make if your parental figure... yknow... cared about you. but lyney insists that arlecchino shouldn't be involved in this and breaks from the stress of possibly losing his siblings. which makes ME think like... how much value does arlecchino place in the orphans if lyney refuses to "trouble" her with possible imminent torture or DEATH.

Lyney: …Was this the extent of your master plan to get to "Father"? No matter how much pressure you may put on me, I won't allow you to use us to blackmail her. Lyney: I… I shouldn't ask "Father" to do anything because of us…

(emphasis mine)

like... lyney... if she really cared about you she would willingly help you... you know...

and yes later on arlecchino is like Well he shouldve called me :/ but its way easier to say that after the fact.

The Knave: [...] It's unfortunate that Lyney's so eager to prove himself that he can't learn to rely on others... including me.

i mean lyney came to rely on the traveler pretty easily..? i think deep down he doesn't trust arlecchino.

so wrio noticed that something wasn't right pretty quickly, and could have also set this up as a sort of test - both for him, and for lyney - in a way - to take a better look at the dynamic between arlecchino and the siblings.

basically i think that specific part of the archon quest shows us that the house of hearth isn't a Found Family Despite All Odds situation and definitely has something much darker (aside from, you know. the orphans basically being FATUI AGENTS). i keep saying this but i think the fact that the previous head of the orphanage was "even worse" means that traumatized children/teens/young adults can easily justify a different kind of abuse as "well at least it isn't (x) which is even worse!" and based on the siblings' profile stories, it seems arlecchino leans more towards emotional manipulation/neglect, which, again, if compared to the physical abuse from the previous head, can be pretty easy to justify in the eyes of already traumatized and vulnerable people.

#org #org: house of hearth #arlcchino #lyny #dynamic: arlcchino & lyny #character: arlcchino #other talk #wrothesley

[apologems]

Dish description for Anything Goes: (later called ‘Right At Home’ by Amber.

A simple dish filled with rich flavours straight from the wok, made from stir-fried Ham, Bird Eggs, Rice, and all manner of other ingredients.

They say that the myriad recipes for fried rice have resulted in it being considered the first choice for those who don’t know what to eat at the moment.

Of note is the fact that this simple dish is, in truth, quite the comprehensive test of a chef’s capabilities. Only skill and will, they say, will get you a dish that brings back memories of home.

#tag later #eq

[apologems]

the dish description for Trembling Strings and Rushing Reeds:

A stir-fried dish made from a variety of meats that has layers, even entire floors of flavour.

Simple ingredients, unique creativity, and an intricate cooking process make this an unparalleled delicacy fit for any gourmet seeking the very finest of flavours. They say in Liyue that “lutes have five strings and flutes have seven apertures,” and that this dish is correspondingly made with five meats and seven side dishes. That said, it is doubtful that any chef could make a dish as complicated as the story claims…

#tag later #eq