#but yes this was not made to diss anyone for spreading misinfo

[avemstella]

Pantalone's Constellation Misinfo and Likely Influence

Hello and welcome to Avem rambles where I'm about to take you guys down an insane rabbit hole I discovered at 1 am and stayed up until almost 4 trying to figure out what was going on and losing my mind. And the topic in question is the mystery that is the Constellation that is probably our anti-capitalist king Pantalone's, as shown above.

(However just as a disclaimer, this is not confirmed as of the writing of this in 3.3. Just putting that out there because harbinger con speculation has been going on from day one and anyone who ever claims they are 100% certain a con is for a certain harb, they are from my experience often proven wrong. only confirmed ones are Scara/childe/Sigs. Also just in general this is a theory post and I could be wrong about some stuff, so please let me know if you have evidence that contradicts my points etc. I would love to hear it, this post will go into (spoilers) unquestioned mis-info so I would be hypocritical otherwise)

But yes, if you've been around any Harbinger constellation speculation you have probably heard the claim that this Constellation we are discussing is a symbol for Heresy, and there was a lot of postulating about how it could be Dottore's based on his real name likely being Zandik which means heretic and just in general his whole deal. However as seen above its probably Pantalone's considering he's wearing it, which raises some questions but its not inconceivable for him to be associated with heresy. But ultimately it doesn't matter whose it is, because that's not actually what this post's about, so get ready.

So, if you've seen anyone talking about this symbol meaning heresy, you've probably seen one of the above pictures, or some similar variation. Or maybe when you googled "heresy symbol" you saw these symbols in the results. That's what I did, and immediately alarm bells went off in my head.

Because, all these pictures have one thing in common, all their sources have one thing in common. They all link to stock image sites. ALL OF THEM. There were more examples, but every picture on google images of this symbol or a variation all linked to a stock image site, to these generic corporate simplified icons. And none of those sites had their source, they were often bundled with other generic religious symbols, some normal and others equally weird.

So I took a different angle, I looked up "heresy religion" and other derivatives to find some actual historical/religious sources. Maybe its just because we live in a corporate hell and these ones got sent to the front of the line. But I looked, and looked, and looked. No actual scholarly source has this symbol anywhere. Because the thing is, despite what these stock images say, Heresy is not an official region (or even a cult). Because by definition, heresy is just a derivative of a religion, an action that goes against religious doctrine. And even me looking into 'heretical' religions by other names gave me no results. None of their symbols are similar beyond maybe a cross motif which means nothing.

(side note If anyone can actually find a proper source that uses this symbol, I will love to see it. prove me wrong though I'll be honest as what I'm about to get into, I don't think u can)

So at this point I was pulling out my hair because what the fuck. Where did this symbol even come from!? Why is this symbol associated with heresy? It was a terrible hour of the night but I didn't care, I had to figure it out.

Which is when I saw something that clicked something into place and lit up a path to the future. That suddenly made me remember something else that had kept popping up in my searches but I just dismissed because obviously it has nothing to do with my search for heresy.

Warhammer 40,000

I found it!

Holy shit. Its not a cross its a SWORD

So yes, lets backtrack slightly. So in my journey to find the heresy, Warhammer 40k kept popping up. Both in the images and in the normal search linking to the wiki etc. But beyond a cursory glance to confirm I didn't see the symbol, I dismissed it because obviously it has nothing to do with this. It was just popping up because Heresy was a term used in the game, but the symbol for its was this:

Which was not what I was looking for (also should mention I know basically nothing about warhammer, but from my googling this is also a symbol of a civil war not a religion). But then of course I saw the other symbol above, and went wait fuck and proceeded to do a deep dive.

Won't pretend I have actually learned anything about Warhammer, but thats fine this isn't really about Warhammer either, its about the internet.

Because you see the Warhammer community like any good community, has its memes. And what is one such meme from Warhammer: The Heresy meme

When I googled "warhammer 40k heresy" the first sujestion was to add "meme" to it, and from what I've researched its a super popular old meme. And while not immedietly connected to the above symbol, it does show up. For example, in the "Heresy symbol" google search from earlier, there's this one:

And hey look, there's a cross symbol with the wings. Also fun fact, in a lot of the "heresy symbol" designs theres an orb shape between the wings. Well look at this:

Oh look at that, isn't that similar.

So yes, long story short I'm fairly certain the so-called "heresy symbol" is not in fact some ancient symbol, but in fact a reference to Warhammer that went through an extreme game of internet telephone resulting in stock media sites copying the symbol from each other and it bit by bit transforming it into something unrecognizable and then into obscurity (these things have no downloads on these sites). Only for one day a genshin theorist to accidentally google something super specific and find them and take it at face value and now I see people claiming its a heresy symbol all the time. I'm torn between laughing and crying. The power of misinformation.

So, what is this constellation supposed to be then, if it isn't a heresy symbol (we are assuming hoyo did proper research and didn't use a symbol for heresy that isn't actually a thing). Well fun fact, part of the reason I did research on this thing was that I already had a theory about it and was really confused why everyone was calling it a heresy symbol. And was like, I guess I'll look into it to see why everyone was saying that and well u know the rest.

But yes, this constellation. I'm fairly certain its actually supposed to be referencing a Globus cruciger. Aka one of these things:

Hey, isn't that shape familar. It also much like the original constellation, the cross ends at the orb.

So what is this thing and how does it relate to Pantalone (we are assuming its his constellation, he's wearing it)

According to the wiki (which is properly sourced) its:

"known as 'the orb and cross', is an orb surmounted by a cross. It has been a Christian symbol of authority since the Middle Ages, used on coins, in iconography, and with a sceptre as royal regalia.

The cross represents Christ's dominion over the orb of the world, literally held in the hand of an earthly ruler. In the iconography of Western art, when Christ himself holds the globe, he is called Salvator Mundi (Latin for 'Saviour of the World')."

Huh, a symbol of royalty, power, and riches, how apt. Also fun fact here's one of the Russian ones because these are our fake Russian's after all.

And if you weren't convinced by that, I have something else to tell you.

Also a quote from the wiki:

"The globus cruciger was used as the alchemical symbol (♁) for antimony. It was also used as an alchemical symbol for Lupus metallorum “the grey wolf” supposedly used to purify alloyed metals into pure gold."

An Alchemical symbol associated with the purification of GOLD. Genshin loves their alchemy and even disregarding that, this constellation is probably Pantalone's aka the Harbinger's money man.

Who has this quote from the Pale Flame set, "Money is the lifeblood of the world, and the pathways along which it flows are the world's arteries. Then, the center of the world is a heart made of gold."

Pantalone a man who desires to control the world through controlling money.

"We shall, by whatever means necessary, become the heart that pumps money around the world." "And, when the moment comes, that heart shall cease beating by our will alone."

The Globus cruciger is literally symbolic of a ruler holding the world in their hands. A symbol of gold and power, it suits Pantalone perfectly.

#genshin impact #pantalone #fatui harbingers #avem rambling #genshin theory #so yeah this is the result of me going insane but ultimately really fun #I've thought this con would be pants forever (like long before his design) #and after all this research I'm even more certain I got it right for the right reasons #but yes this was not made to diss anyone for spreading misinfo #it happens to the best of us (including myself) #but do be careful! #but ultimately the fact that this ended up in warhammer stuff endlessly kills me #I laugh every time I think about it #and now I lose it ever time I see someone claiming for the symbol to be a heresy symbol #but yes 100% if someone has an actual source of this symbol having to do with heresy #or tbh used elsewhere with some other meaning then the 2 I discussed #I would love to see it! #prove me wrong!