the-twilight-sword

[the-twilight-sword]

last attempt to bring this to light: the tl;dr of the khaenri'ah/kaeya/angel(seelie) connections

kaeya owns a book called adventures of angelos; in greek angelos means angel

kaeya (and venti's) favorite haunt is angel's share; the logo for angel's share is two angels drinking from a wine glass

kaeya and dainsleif like death after noon, an alcoholic drink whose main ingredient is absinthe. absinthe is created from wormwood (apsinthos), also the name of a fallen angel or star

the abyss mages chant in enochian which is the language of the angels. they chant in this language to regenerate their shields or control hilichurls. when kaeya spots the abyss mage back in the temple of the wolf, it speaks to him in enochian. kaeya claims he's "blessed with certain linguistic powers" when asked how he obtained information about the abyss twin

there is a tale of a seelie survivor (speculated to be columbina) singing in a strange unfamiliar language to the listener

arama says the seelie used to be as fast as a storm; kaeya has a stamina decreasing passive called hidden strength

when we first meet kaeya it's notably in front of the anemo god statue, which has wings, in front of the cathedral. kaeya is also seen in front of this statue in official art, his character teaser and in his hangout in the venti route

kaeya mentions he likes listening to hymns

the traveler notes the sinner is reminiscent of the upside-down defiled statue of the anemo archon, which also has wings

nabu malikata is a seelie survivor, her last name malikata can also mean angels in arabic (malayikata); seelie are heavenly envoys/angels. venti is seen playing with a seelie in an official video

seelie will seek humans for favors and lead them to treasure. even though it was a ruse, in his story quest, kaeya sought the traveler for help and guided them to treasure.

the jinn are born from waterlilies nourished by nabu malikata's blood. kaeya gifts the traveler a ~mysterious~ lamp said to have housed a powerful jinni.

the symbol for the spantamad darshan is a peacock which is based on the mythical peacock angel. this peacock existed in-game and was sacred. kaeya's constellation is a peacock. (it's possible the peacock was the divine bird simurgh -> fashioned from khvarena -> born from nabu malikata's body)

venti writes a poem to kaeya that could imply kaeya came from the dark sea. the ruins in the dark sea contain palaces of the seelie

both nabu malikata and columbina don't understand or possess human emotion. columbina is unbothered in every situation not unlike kaeya's cavalier attitude towards serious matters <- see crepus's death scene

in the official art for genshin concert 2021, venti and kaeya are shown holding a harp and a trumpet, both instruments associated with angels

#can’t wait for you to be vindicated by the storyline eventually revealing this openly

[the-twilight-sword]

The Snow Queen, the Tsaritsa, and Kaeya

I’m biased here- the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen is one of my favourite fairytales of all time, and I’m named after a character. So I see it everything. But I think Genshin Impact draws on it as a source of inspiration for at least two key characters- Kaeya, and the Tsaritsa.

If you know about the Snow Queen, you likely first came to know of it from Disney’s Frozen, and the two are extremely different stories. The Snow Queen is divided into 7 chapters- the first is about the Devil, who has created a mirror that reflects only the bad aspects of a thing, obscuring its beauty. The Devil’s servants tour this mirror about the world, distorting everything, and then they carry it up to heaven to mock God. But they drop it, and the mirror shatters, and its pieces scatter across the world, lodging themselves in windows, spectacles, or their eyes and hearts, making them cold and bitter. Notably, in art this mirror is often depicted as being the moon.

The rest of the story follows Kay (also spelled Kai or Kaj, pronounced like the first syllable of Kaeya) and Gerda, childhood friends who grow up as siblings. One day, Kay’s eye and heart become cold from sliver of the mirrors, and the Snow Queen takes kidnaps him, kissing him to make him immune to frostbite and to make him forget those he loves. The story mainly follows Gerda’s quest to find Kay when everyone believes he’d drowned himself.

In the Snow Queen palace is her throne, on a frozen lake called the Mirror of Reason. Kay is alone, working to solve an impossible puzzle of ice. When Gerda arrives, the power of love & friendship comes in clutch, though, and melts the ice in Kay’s eye and heart, and the puzzle is solved- the riddle’s answer is “eternity”.

So, how am I connecting this to Genshin Impact? I confess, the evidence is tenuous.

Kaeya’s name is very similar to Kay’s, which has many spelling but matches the pronunciation. Then there’s his eye, the eye he covered since before his fight with Diluc, which could be because of the sliver of icy mirror in it. And then there’s the stripes in his hair- the Snow Queen kissed Kay once on the forehead, and again in an unknown location. The stripes could be from these kisses.

Then there’s the Tsaritsa. It’s unclear, but metaphorically the Snow Queen and the Devil are united. The Queen seems to control the mirror’s icy shards to some extent. And, like in Genshin, it seems her mission is to mock heaven. She seems to be associated with mirrors through the Mirror Maidens who, it is emphasised, seem to be her priestesses.

The description of the Mirror Maiden in the archive is as follows:

A Fatui mage who can command a Hydro Mirror in battle. Her posture is highly dignified, as if she is one who worships a god.

The Hydro Mirror she manipulates lures those enchanted by her to willingly fall for her illusion. Nothing seems to escape her ears. No one knows what those covered eyes have seen, what kind of obsession might be reflected in them...

Notably, when Kay is kidnapped, he is sort of hypnotised by the Snow Queen. The only thing he finds beautiful is the mathematical perfection of ice and snow, and she uses this to her advantage.

#genshin impact #genshin impact theory #kaeya alberich #genshin impact kaeya

[the-twilight-sword]

kaeya's character draws inspiration from several fictional figures: most prominently hagen/hogni, the baby from midsummer night's dream, and possibly kai from the snow queen.

today, i want to talk about the play midsummer night's dream by shakespeare. tl;dr: prince kaeya theory isn't dead, it's his mother who was royalty

the story includes the plot of oberon, the fairy king, and his wife the fairy queen titania fighting over an unnamed INDIAN baby. there's other Shenanigans going on but we don't care about them. oberon is thought to be a variant spelling derived from alberich. remember alberich means elf king.

In the legendary history of the Merovingian dynasty Oberon is a magician, the brother of Merowech (Mérovée). In the medieval German epic the Nibelungenlied he is the dwarf who guards the underground treasure of the Nibelungen and is overcome by Siegfried and forced to yield the “cloak of darkness” (the Tarn-kappe).

this seems to check out as the merovingian dynasty includes figures such as clothar and caribert. so assume oberon = alberich = kaeya's ancestor or father.

now, this baby was the child of titania's human attendent and an indian king. the woman died leaving titania to take care of the child for her sake. in other words, this baby was an INDIAN PRINCE raised by a bunch of fairies: a changeling.

i think the baby being indian could be why they decided to make kaeya into a brown king. (wow i can't believe shakespeare is the reason why kaeya has melanin everyone say thank you shakespeare.)

LOTS of questions does this raise; but since this game likes to switch things around (remus founded remuria instead of romulus for example) it's really hard to predict what direction they decided to go in. we know at least the alberichs aren't of royal blood, so it could've been his mother who was a queen. because notice that the prince kaeya baiting has NOT stopped even after they told us the alberichs weren't royalty. just look at his hangout where he literally plays a prince and the fischl and kaeya cake.

why would they drop hints about kaeya being a prince from his voicelines to OTHER people's voicelines to his constellation to his splashart to the play to the inspiration behind his character only to backtrack on it? even hagen, kaeya's other equivalent, was the son of a queen.

the question remains then, what exactly was his mother the queen of?

#this info about the merovingian dynasty is very relevant! #anyway this post reminded me about my snow queen theory #I’m going to make a post about that

[the-twilight-sword]

Kaeya: We worried that he'd be in danger, so we also leaped off the dragon and glided onto this island. But, as you can see, this is but a deserted land. Based on previous experience, I decided that it would be best to wait for contact.

this is why we have to comb through every single piece of this man's blink-and-you-miss-it dialogue 😮‍💨

[the-twilight-sword]

you know, I’ve never seen Razor’s story mentioned in connection with the founding of Rome, especially when I’m sure “lupical” is just a translational butchering of “lupercal”

#genshin impact #genshin impact razor #genshin razor

[the-twilight-sword]

in an old offical cn blogpost celebrating kaeya's birthday, kaeya took the traveler to the nameless island.

看到对面的小岛了吗？有没有兴趣过去郊游一趟？ See that island in the distance? Are you interested in joining me for an outing?

…why would you celebrate your birthday on a mysterious hidden island with the god of time's broken moondial, portal like structure and a distorted creepy atmosphere if you weren't connected to it

according to teyvat travel guide, kaeya immediately shut down alice's attempts to blow up starsnatch cliff which overlooks this island. he even asked her to stay away from it.

Ravaged Carving: "Stories brought on the wind will bloom into legends in due time."

that's so funny because kaeya came to mondstadt during a STORM (in the (death) afternoon), and he has several references to the wind. icy featherflight, frostwind swordsman, sailwind shadow, glacial whirlwind, decrease in stamina passive etc. and if you click on the story summary in his hangout you get this fun message:

The wind has brought an old friend of yours here.

further fucking more, the SAME platform can be found in the dragonspine mural room that depicts the huge angel/seelie

who brought kaeya to mondstadt? someone related to fate, time and seelie? istaroth? nabu malikata? mom!? well, right now i think our number one suspect is this wind propeller over here 👇🏽👇🏽

nicole reeyn, famed prophetess, dawn winery teacup and schrodinger's seelie

#not to mention Kaeya’s ties with the treasure hoarders #whose symbol looks just like Musk Reef #(and btw musk is likely a mistranslation of mask. #Ella musk who studies hilichurls is meant to be Ella Mask)

[the-twilight-sword]

Kaeya's Character Story: A List Between the pages of "The Adventures of Angelos," you find a list of names written on a sheet of official Knights of Favonius letterhead paper.

Perinheri That day, the orphanage welcomed a new member. She was a beautiful young lady from a foreign land who claimed to be a noble princess. She called herself Angelica, meaning "one who is as a divine emissary." Fair Angelica declared that she would only marry the mightiest knight in all [of Khaenri'ah].

what if we all started paying attention to kaeya for once

[the-twilight-sword]

it's still not clear why skirk is called that, but I'm putting my theory out there that it's like norwegian/swedish/danish "skurk" meaning villain/baddie

these languages would make sense for their tie to surtr, her master

#genshi impact #genshin impact skirk

[the-twilight-sword]

i see some confusion on tumblr as well, so let's clear up the issue of Gaming's name

嘉明 gaa1 ming4

sample via twitter user @/lilysqingxin

pronounced like gah-ming

expert mode: gah (high nasal) ming (downward)

NO it's not the english word “gaming”

this is Cantonese, not Mandarin (which would be pronounced Jiaming)

it's romanized as Gaming and not Ga Ming because that’s how Genshin romanizes given names

most of the chinese speakers i’ve personally seen, both cantonese and non-cantonese, are leaning towards hyphenation: Ga-ming

but yeah, that’s it!! welcome gaming we’re so happy to have you 🥹

[the-twilight-sword]

thinking about how in the caribert quest kaeya NEVER straight up says "oh i actually didnt know I was the descendant of the abyss order's founder"

sure you could argue that "well that answers some questions" is more or less the same thing, but kaeya's monotone reaction towards this allegedly 'new' information has been a topic of discourse in the community and whether he was lying or not. And i just think its rather intresting considering how this is something kaeya's known for. Not exactly lying but telling the truth in a way that misleads you, which is most clearly shown in his own story quest.

and also, when paimon asks him "you're not involved with the abyss order are you?" This is his response:

"I would be just as delighted to hunt down the abyss order tomorrow as i have always been"

WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY THAT

cuz depending on how delighted he usually is to hunt down the abyss order that answer can imply two entirely diffrent things.

I may be reaching too far but something DID NOT FEEL RIGHT ABOUT THAT INTERACTION AND I CANT PUT MY FINGER ON IT.

[the-twilight-sword]

just an idle thought, but it's possible pierrot is the cryo dragon. it's confirmed he's not a seat. and he's got the pointy ears that neuvillette has

#genshin impact #neuvillette #pierrot #and as a former royal mage of khaenri'ah #we know why he'd have a motive to side against the gods #and what the source of his power is

[the-twilight-sword]

A lot of Genshin Impact's lore takes inspiration from the Kabbalah and Judaism as a whole. This video does some explaining on what a descender, one who practices Merkava, is in Jewish mysticism. Something I find interesting is the tale of the four descenders, one version of which you can read here. Its parallels to Genshin (which might I remind you means "ascended") are interesting in that it, too, has four descenders, and has some parallels to Before Sun and Moon.

The Talmud warns that among four men who engaged in Merkava, one died, one went mad, one apostatized, and only Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph had a true visionary experience. Those who practiced Merkava were sometimes called Explorers of the Supernatural World (Yorde Merkava) -Britannica

Note: Please treat the religions from which Genshin takes its inspiration with utmost respect. Genshin Impact is fantasy, but this isn't.

#genshin impact #genshin impact lore

[the-twilight-sword]

Pneuma (πνεῦμα) and Ousia (οὐσία) in their original religious meanings, for all my theorisers

The Steambird Special Edition III: Pneuma, Ousia, and Their Mutual Annihilation

Hi, Travelers~

There is a new kind of energy in Fontaine that can power the clockwork meka. Let's find out more together!

[Two of the GIFs demonstrating the Pneuma and Ousia mechanic were too large to post to Tumblr. Check the original article here to see them.]

#pneuma? as in the breath of life? I can see why they’d want to move away from that #that’s the soul. the spirit #and ousia is substance #divine essence #where are they getting these

[the-twilight-sword]

I think Signora, the Crimson Witch of Flames, was once in the Hexenzirkel, but left after they made peace with the Anemo Archon Venti

As you can see from the cutscene, it is only after making peace with the Anemo Archon that the table is shown with 7 chairs- despite the fact that in the beginning, there is shown to be 8 witches in the Hexenzirkel.

#la signora #genshin impact #hexenzirkel

[the-twilight-sword]

Sumerian Mythological Inspirations of Enkanomiya

The name "Enkanomiya" may have a double meaning. In Japanese, it of course means "palace below the depths". But I think it may have also been inspired by the Sumerian god Enki.

Why Sumerian gods? Well, Istaroth is an alternate form of Astaroth (as in the Ars Goetia) which itself is derived from Astarte, the Greek form of Astarte/Inanna. That is a Eastern Semitic Sumerian goddess. Enki has a Greek form too, called "Aos".

Enki was the god of water, crafts, knowledge, and creation; specifically of human knowledge. From Wikipedia

The main temple to Enki was called E-abzu, meaning "abzu temple" (also E-en-gur-a, meaning "house of the subterranean waters") .... the Enki temple had at its entrance a pool of fresh water, and excavation has found numerous carp bones, suggesting collective feasts. Carp are shown in the twin water flows running into the later God Enki, suggesting continuity of these features over a very long period. These features were found at all subsequent Sumerian temples, suggesting that this temple established the pattern for all subsequent Sumerian temples

The abzu or apsu is the freshwater sea or groundwater located within the earth. This location, which Enki makes his home, is frequently referenced as being quite deep underground.

Enki and later Ea were apparently depicted, sometimes, as a man covered with the skin of a fish, and this representation, as likewise the name of his temple E-apsu, "house of the watery deep", points decidedly to his original character as a god of the waters.... (he) acquires his permanent place in the pantheon. To him was assigned the control of the watery element, and in this capacity he becomes the shar apsi; i.e. king of the Apsu or "the abyss". The Apsu was figured as the abyss of water beneath the earth, and since the gathering place of the dead, known as Aralu, was situated near the confines of the Apsu, he was also designated as En -Ki; i.e. "lord of that which is below",

This all seems to apply rather perfectly to Enkanomiya.

#genshin impact #enkanomiya

[the-twilight-sword]

Alice, Klee's mother, seems to be a reference to various mythological figures. Some have suggested that she is a reference to the Greek goddess Eris, goddess of strife, who threw the singular golden apple of discord into the feast of the gods.

However, I think that this isn't the case- I think she is an analogue to Iðun, a Norse goddess whose name is thought to mean "ever-young". She is known for her golden apples, and for providing the gods with their immortality. She is able to bestow eternal youth. According to Hrafnagaldr Óðins, she is descended from elves

This is relevant to Genshin Impact because of her own eternal youth, being called "The Unaging Mage" and she and Klee are of a race "blessed with longevity". She also named the Haar Islands gifted to Klee the "Golden Apple Archipelago". And of course, both she and Klee have elflike ears.

#genshin impact #genshin impact alice #genshin impact klee #gi alice #gi klee

[the-twilight-sword]

nah sorry but HOW is dainsleif/kaeya STILL so slept on, even after they finally interacted? to the uninitiated, dainsleif is named after the sword of the legendary king hogni, also known as hagen, the son of alberich, a character from wagner's ring cycle, who kaeya is based on. in other words, dainsleif is literally named after kaeya's sword. whatever that means for their future relationship, and whether this is metaphorical or literal is unclear for now but hello that's crazy why are you as a man another man's sword

adding to that, in the previous patch we learned that dainsleif was carrying a ring with him, which is a reference to THEE ring of nibelung, which hagen (yes that guy again) was instructed to steal back by his father. and did you know that in order to use the ring the wearer must forsake love? i think you should know

not to mention the foreshadowing of a tumultuous and potentially tragic relationship based on their constellations. kaeya's a peacock and dain's ouroboros (snek). in hindu culture peacocks are often depicted killing snakes so you could say it's not looking good for mr dainsleif.

so basically you have two ways their relationship can go: either dainsleif is going to become loyal to kaeya, (which I can see happening because kaeya is the only khaenriahn we know of who isn't cursed or evil, and dainsleif would want to keep it that way. dain was also the royal guard of khaenri'ah and kaeya's ancestor is anfortas who briefly took over as regent when the king went awol, so there might be some kind of debt he wants to repay by protecting his descendent.) or kaeya is going to kill him <-obviously the story isn't THAT dark and they'd never permanently kill off a playable character lmao so if he does die i think it would be because he's freed from the curse, which according to zurvan is the reason why he's alive, implying that he died once. ouroboros does symbolize eternity so maybe kaeya is actually the key to breaking the curse of immortality, but what happens if you remove the only thing keeping him alive?

oh, and fun fact, the quest in which they meet is named 'destined encounter'. connect this to mona's prophecy of kaeya's fate catching up to him and you literally have him meeting his destiny. we're also told dainsleif loves alcohol and even mixes his own drinks, it's like they deliberately created him as the man of kaeya's dreams

with all this in mind, it's really strange to not see more people excited about the potential of their relationship, because they are in a unique position of being two characters with no pre-established relationship becoming closer throughout the story, where both of their fates remain a mystery, as opposed to so many of the other characters who remain stagnant and whose stories are already told.

#I don’t really care about the relationship as is. but all the lore stuff checks out and it has the potential to be very interesting