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NEED TO CATCH UP ON BLUE LOCK

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The Genshin outfit of the day is:

Diluc from the Genshin Cafe in Seoul!

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Alright! I played the new We Will Be Reunited and the Skirk quest last night, and I'm ready to share my feelings on both. (didn't like em)

On Skirk, to get it out of the way - I mashed through most of it. I say 'most', because there were a fair amount of playable segments. Bad ones. Setting aside the macro plot about one of Surtalogi's students stealing part of your soul (lol), Skirk takes you aside to teach you how to be a better swordsmen.

This resulted in dialogue you getting told you need a 'style/school' of swordplay (which... are we not a uber talented vaguely centuries old universe hopping badass? Did we need to get told that? 5 years into our journey?), and in gameplay resulted in a lot of a) hitting stationary objects b) smacking slimes and c) dodging lasers.

RIVETING ACTION-PACKED GAMEPLAY.

This did all culminate in a dungeon (lots of laser dodging) and a boss (the narwhal again, but you use what you learnt! ...by hitting stationary objects and dodging lasers).

This is all pretty frustrating, because aside from the actual gameplay they put a lot of effort into developing resources for Skirk's quest. One explorable zone is basically a wide open field, but they also made a genuinely gorgeous area for the last parts of the journey through Skirk's trauma dungeon. Feels like a waste of resources that were better allocated elsewhere.

Also - trauma dungeon! I got sick of Aventurine's over in HSR, but clearly the positive reception to his sadboy angst overkill was received positively because they've migrated over here now. I think Aventurine's was better, which is saying something, because his was bad. Skirk's felt even more repetitive, somehow. Aside from that, I think delivering information about characters like this is extremely lazy.

As an extra note, I think all the lore she comes packaged with - opening Genshin to the wider universe - is not something Genshin has the capacity to address in any meaningful capacity, and is better reserved for HSR. The good end of all that nonsense is Surtalogi getting confined to Star Rail.

Speaking of the wider universe, WWBR reveals that the twins arrived in Teyvat in a spaceship. This is dropped on us at the start of the quest in such a way that the game seems to expect us to already know this. Paimon isn't surprised to hear about it, and neither is Dainsleif. That is despite this being entirely new information - I know the twins arrived in Teyvat on a spaceship in the closed beta, but that got cut from the main release.

Feels like a very sloppy retcon. Anyway.

I would like to spend a moment being bitter about the Abyss Order sort of waging war on Natlan, but that not being something worth dealing with in the Archon Quest. Really, the way the Order is handled makes them seem like absolute chump change, which is not a great vibe for one of your big villain factions.

Though I am getting ready for a 'we peacefully want a new area to build new Khaenri'ah, pretty please Heavenly Principles' payoff to all this given the way this quest shook out, and sibling getting hijacked by the Vinster King or something. I am surprised they're looking for somewhere new to do it, instead of just rewriting the existing leylines though? Is that how that works? The other countries were involved too though...?

Um, there were two twists this time. One is the nature of Direidyth's existence and her role in the story, which I called pretty early but the quest sure dragged out a long time... the second is the closed time loop that resulted in Sibling leaving Khaenri'ah to burn in the Cataclysm, for which they blame themselves.

I'm less critical of the former than the latter. I was pretty frustrated by the way the game pushed Direidyth's crush on you (the hand-holding plot point was particularly transparent), though I am amused that they seem to have given her a player character head over the standard NPC one to make her cuter.... it's a bit uncanny when she still has the NPC clothing style, which is 'layers painted on' though.

Dainsleif's hilarious underreaction to everything regarding the New Khaenri'ah reveals was pretty funny. Yeah, he killed the immortal enemy a bunch of times when learning about it... which is apparently something he was inclined to do anyway. Man, this game is really bad at dramatic timing and tension.

The latter is just... kinda tedious honestly, especially paired with the traveler demanding to know why their sibling would even WANT to save Khaenri'ah in the first place like... um, why did you want to save Natlan? Or Fontaine? Or help out in Sumeru? Obviously, they felt bad and had far more reason to help out those places than the traveller did???

BUT, the sibling's backstory is getting... really convoluted. I guess they wanted a reason for them not saving Khaenri'ah but... losing the battle is perfectly fine? They could have just failed? Instead of this overwrought 'oh but I had to choose but if I HAD been there I probably could have-' BS like. You Can Just Lose. I get they're meant to be OP and all but. Man.

It was better than the Skirk quest in that I feel my time wasn't wasted as badly, but... we didn't even get a new dungeon :( Given we ended up in Cinder City, I was just bitter this wasn't properly integrated into the AQ.

Anyway, the new Paimon VA is a good replacement? Sounds similar to the old one, but less ear-piercing. Hearing a partially voiced track is really uncanny though, so I didn't tune in for long.

I liked the Abyss Order's name joke.

Traveller didn't even peg Direidyth as being from Khaenri'ah... I like to think they see so many weird eyes these days they just forgot that particular pupil shape meant anything.

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Genshin RPG AU part 1 - Prologue

YES this is put back up. However - it's 90% completely different from the previous entry. Sorry for that. I'm a lot happier with it this time, since I cut a lot of the baggage from the original framing of the prologue and the way that seeps into Mondstadt.

"Why should I care about Aether, I don't know him?" being my primary issue. So I decided to completely change it. We're in Dragonspine now, babyyyy

Lumine and Aether are not visitors from another world, nor are they under the impression that they are. This changes the framing around their characters substantially.

This prologue is set in Dragonspine, sometime during the Cataclysm. The war hasn't yet reached Mondstadt, though that will change soon. Right now, Dragonspine is still called by its original name, Vindagynr Mountain. It's still a winter mountain, but a pretty peaceful one. The changes in climate will come post-Cataclysm, when Durin's ghost settles there.

Lumine wakes from a nightmare she can’t remember. She’s alone in an inn in Imunlaukr, a small village in the Vindagynr mountain region north of Mondstadt. She and Aether have been staying there for a bit, searching for the ruins of a lost kingdom Sal Vindagynr allegedly concealed somewhere on the mountain.

The catch: this kingdom’s history is so obscure, even the locals don’t think it ever existed. Aether is absolutely determined to find it though even Lumine is getting frustrated by their lack of progress, and kind of agrees with the locals.

The twins are both on pretty good terms with a lot of the people that live there; Lumine in particular is close with a local girl of a similar age. When Aether argues about the kingdom’s existence with some very unimpressed kids, they’re chatting about the trip up. This girl made the twins’ scarves because she’s worried about how badly Aether has been coping with the cold. (he is a big whiner, immensely jealous of lumine's pyro abilities.)

Another day, another expedition up the mountain – this time to the very top. On the way up, the twins would encounter a woman who also claims to be staying in the village, and is waiting for her estranged son to come and visit her.

She asks what a good birthday present would be for a child she hasn’t seen since infancy – Lumine thinks the answer is a ‘something sentimental’, though Aether thinks memorable experiences are a good start.

When the woman asks what on earth the twins are doing in the mountains Aether explains they’re adventurers fascinated by lost civilisations, and no-one's found this one yet.

Leaving the strange woman to her examination of Imunlaukr’s famous silver tree on the mountain, the two continue their hike to the peak. The way up is pretty empty save for wildlife, but they closer they get to the top the more whopperflowers they encounter.

To be expected – there’s nothing at the top but an aggressive Cryo Regisvine. Boss battle...

While recovering from the battle, Aether starts searching the area for signs of Sal Vindagynr’s existence. Lumine is VERY frustrated at this point, saying that if the kingdom did exist they would’ve found a sign of it by now. This turns into an argument, which gets interrupted by a large dark shadow flying overhead.

Looking up, they see a black dragon (Durin) above them – and realise it’s heading down the mountain towards Imunlaukr.

The two quickly race back downhill to the village, running into some more whopperflowers that are this time coated in a thick miasma. They’ve gone berserk and are harder to kill than the ones they fought previously.

By the time they arrive in the village, it’s in flames. Durin is grounded and furious. This is a real boss battle; the twins try to fight him off without much success, though they do manage to injure one of his eyes. Outraged, Durin attacks the twins so viciously that the ground beneath them gives way, and the two plummet into the mountain.

It’s revealed that the inside of the mountain is a large hollow cavern – this is where the ruins of Sal Vindagynr were this whole time. There’s no time to investigate though; the twins head back up the stone pathways back up to the village.

By they time they get back up, Durin is long gone and the fire has mostly subsided. Being a winter mountain, there thankfully wasn’t much for the fire to feed on.

There are a handful of survivors, but one of them is afflicted by the same Abyssal Corruption that affected the Whopperflowers – it’s Lumine’s friend, the villager that made their scarves. She’s lying on the ground, everyone else too afraid to approach her. Lumine sits by her side and holds her hand as she dies; though she’s speaking nonsense, there is gratitude in her eyes.

The strange woman from the trip up the mountain seems fine, and says she’ll be taking the survivors back to Mondstadt City once they’ve recovered. Aether seems glad that someone will be taking care of the villagers, Aether returns to the interior of the mountain.

Lumine is shocked that Aether wants to continue his treasure hunt, but he’s barely engaging with her and is obsessively climbing the mountain. Lumine thinks he looks like ‘a man possessed’ and follows him up, lighting the way with her Pyro magic as the only source of light is the hole Durin blasted in the side of the mountain earlier.

Despite his original claim of wanting to find the civilisation in general, Aether seems fairly disinterested in the remains of Sal Vindagynr. He seems to be looking for something specific.

Eventually, the two reach the highest point in the interior of the mountain. There, they find a door built into the interior wall of the cavern, pointing up.

Theoretically, this door should just lead back outside to the mountain. Once the twins solve the puzzle to get it open, that’s very obviously not the case. It opens up onto one of the islands in Celestia, high up in the sky.

The two don’t get very far in exploring this new area. They’re quickly ambushed by The Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles – Asmoday, and are separated. The twins are sealed in separate cubes, Lumine’s flung back down to Teyvat...

Setting Notes:

The woman the twins run into is Rhinedottir. At this point, she’s gone rogue from Khaenri’ah and is expecting Durin to come looking for her in Mondstadt. Lumine would encounter her again much later in the main game’s campaign, as a bonus boss. Durin is very childish – I think he lost his temper when Rhinedottir refused to ‘come back home’ with him with devastating consequences. He definitely didn't realise what he was doing. He'll end up running into Dvalin later, and the rest is history.

‘Imunlaukr’ is a name I swiped from Dragonspine lore. He’s the only named character connected to Sal Vindagynr I think might actually get a village named after him. The village is partway up the mountain.

The mountain being hollow and that being where Sal Vindagynr was is just extrapolating on Starglow Cavern. I imagine it being a lot bigger, with ruins.

The doorway always led to Celestia. Back when Phanes was in charge, I think he was on decent terms with the remnants of humanity. Nox cut off this connection pretty quickly, and Sal Vindagynr fell into ruin once the Skynail was dropped anyway.

The Twins:

Aether is outgoing and charismatic. Lumine is quieter in general. Aether can get along with anyone and cares very broadly for everyone, but isn’t super close to anyone. Lumine isn’t super social, but her friendships are very deep.

Lumine’s memory is pretty trash in general, due to the way she was created. By the time she wakes up in Mondstadt after she and Aether are separated the only thing she can remember is the day she woke up in Imunlaukr/the events of the prologue, with all additional context stripped away. Which means the only answer she has for ‘why she was looking for Sal Vindagynr’ is the lie Aether told the villagers – that they’re adventurers interested in lost civilisations, but he was being really weird about it by the time they got in there.

Lumine uses Pyro magic; Aether uses neutral elemental. When it gets colder, Aether is loudly very jealous of his sister. Loudly enough that Lumine's friend took pity and made them their signature scarves.

Passive abilities related to Celestia; both have an increased immunity to Abyssal Corruption, and can heal it to an extent. However, it is extremely taxing to do so. Deep-set and long-lasting corruption is very difficult to excise.

Both twins have wings, but neither have access to them at the present due to their injuries in the Archon War. This is why Aether has been trying to hunt down Sal Vindagynr – he knows that the old civilisation used to have a doorway that led to the heavens. They need to take the long way, basically.

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Okay I did not have robo-maid on my nod krai bingo

tapping my foot on the ground waiting for nod krai to give me some characters i can work with

i'm certainly going to twist them out of shape but i'd prefer that to using OCs.

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How long should I make rewrite posts? Long and detailed, or just a bare bones overview?

Obviously the former is what's slowing me down but... is the latter too lacking in personality...?

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Yeah, so I'll just be converting Nod Krai into 'Snezhnaya' for sure. We have a mountain of factions, so that works out fine anyway.

Though I assume Nod Krai will still be useful as the starting town for the region.

tapping my foot on the ground waiting for nod krai to give me some characters i can work with

i'm certainly going to twist them out of shape but i'd prefer that to using OCs.

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Have you seen kyogre's videogame list? Which one would you rec? 👀

Fire Emblem Three Hopes. So she can suffer as I have suffered. Playing Claude's route. (jk)

I have already made my half-hearted pitch for the Bravely series, to detox from the absolute hell that is HSR's team-building nightmare.

A lot of those games are really different from each other :v Like, I'd rec Engage for the gameplay, but not the story. And I like TWEWY a lot, but I don't know how well the gameplay will have been translated from DS to IOS and then to Switch? Like, NEO:TWEWY definitely had that issue, combat not being sheer chaos really dulled the experience for me.

I'm not good at reccing things tbh. I overthink stuff.

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Incoming art trade delivery for @fanfan-p1!!!

Get ur Yaya outa here

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As glad as I am Venti has a friend in Dahlia, his absence does create some plotholes (though admittedly more for legacy players that have experienced Mondstadt events prior to now than newer players).

He's a busybody that likes helping people, but we never saw him before Paralogism... he's a well-respected Deacon and the 'voice of Barbatos' in the Church of Favonius and has been since before we met Venti, but we still had to try to steal the Holy Lyre...

There was even a part in his story when he was asked if he wanted to leave Mondstadt for awhile and I started thinking "oh, this is why we haven't seen him til now, that's why he didn't help in the Stormterror thing" but no! He turned them down to stay, to keep helping Mondstadt!

They had a get out of plothole free card and didn't play it!

It's always a bit awkward when a brand new character shows up and everyone already knows them, but it's never broken my suspension of disbelief like Dahlia has.

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the uh. lore revelations. skirk comes packaged with.

bad call imo. really, really bad call.

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at the end of our journey 🌟✨🌠

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commission for multificionado

re-draw official art but with Lumine as main character

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Yeah I literally can't bring myself to burn artifacts for the stupid purple bottle bc it stresses me out so much...

Given you get one bottle per patch from the generator, the idea that you can spend up to 5 patches generating bottles (or real money!) to make your ideal artifact and still get stiffed on the substat RNG is nuts to me.

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Childe in "An End, and a Beginning"

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I still can't believe that to this day genshin refuses to do anything people want it to do.

I can't get over how shit the artifact generator is. HSR had a superior one for... years? Before we got cursed with that thing???

To be fair, HSR has 6 artifacts and 0 ability to swap out one for a random spare, so it's less a QOL feature and a 'this game would be an unplayable nightmare hellscape' without it, but still!

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I will admit that this is really cool and a lot more old school than I expected for Pain of all characters. https://youtu.be/ZeDhF-_G8Ng?si=IQUjupJHIuftVkme

It is old but I just found out about it.

Oh, that is cool! I saw the Obito and Konan versions of these. This game looks STUPID well animated, though I guess CGI ads =/= gameplay.

Forget Boruto, forget the TMNT crossover, where's the Naruto ronin-au elseworld.... NARUTO SAMURAI, if you will.