#enkanomiya. sal vindagnyr. tsurumi island.

[elegyofthemoon]

need to stop getting into things w dead kingdoms and having the ability to walk through their ruins its so good but also owie :(

[torgawl]

diluc mentioned in the lore of "wings of concealing snow", nice!!

you know, i wonder if the owls in this story are connected to the underground intelligence network that contacted diluc in snezhenaya. his character story definitely refers to the "observer" as a third-party entity, considering diluc's distaste for the fatui, the abyss order and the knights of favonious we can rule all those options out of the way. the way they don't go into detail about it or even go as far as saying its name, mentioning how secretive they are, i assume they're not a group we've met/are aware as of yet.

going back to "wings of concealing snow" though, the story is very clearly about sal vindagnyr. the description separates the population, if i can call it that, in two different groups: falcons and owls. owls are described almost as if they were councelors while falcons are described as ambitious, with the desire to rule the skies.

from the information we have of sal vindagnyr, we know there's 3 important figures with higher hierarchy: the princess (prophetess and highly connected to the frostbearing tree), the scribe and the priest-king (the princess' 'father').

the princess was able to foresee the future - for example, she foretold what would much later happen with durin - and painted the murals we can still see in dragonspine. she was specifically called a lovely maiden and described as having beauty and skill that was thought to be as eternal and pure as moonlight. it's also relevant to point out the frostbearing tree was very likely an irminsul tree. if we know anything about symbolism in genshin is that moonlight, knowledge and the ability to foresee the future are all key-words that directly point to seelies. and we can parallel this princess directly to someone like sibylla, mentioned in remuria as advisor of god-king remus, who appears as a golden bee and who protected the irminsul where an ancient civilization was located in the abyssal depths. the form of these remuria bees are very akin to what seelies look like and there's also heavy implications she was a seelie. it would make sense that someone overlooking the irminsul tree in ancient dragonspine was also a seelie, or at least related to one somehow.

as for the concept of priest-kings, they're not something exclusive to sal vindagnyr. we've seen the exact same depictions of crowned individuals guiding populations in tsurumi island and the concept was also talked about in the "guilded dreams" artifact set (the set focuses on king deshret and a sumeru desert civilization).

i think it's not that crazy to think ancient civilizations had similar social foundations. the way seelies cohabited with humans, also learned from the chasm lore, implies they guided humanity in some way as divine envoys (words used in "flower of paradise lost", artifact set about nabu malikata). or, more specifically, advised civilizations' gods/kings.

the wings' description also goes on to talk about "birds of the land of the wind" and say the owls gained dominion in the absence of light while fledgeling birds stayed in their nests. this happened after the nail was casted upon sal vindagnyr and the darkness drowned the land (likely the abyss, in reference to forbidden knowledge). if owls and falcons are adult birds in this story, maybe the fledgelings refer to the basis of what would later become the mondstadt civilization. the line "the nestlings would never know who it was who saved them" followed by "the dragon ... would also be forgotten" imply the saviour of the people was someone who ended up being forgotten. as far as i'm aware, there's only one being who was worshipped in mondstadt and ancient civilizations like the one in enkanomiya who ended up forgotten, istaroth. so, there's that!! i also thought it was interesting that the owls that "once shone brightly in the darkness" would also end up with the same fate, although there's no mention they ever disappeared, which brings me to the next point.

"a flash of red flames would reveal his silhouette for but a moment in the darkness of the night, before he disappeared in an instant" sounds a lot like what the owls were like to the people of mondstadt. diluc also only started his darknight hero endeavours after he returned from snezhenaya, after entering the secret organisation and rising quickly in its ranks. and guess who, in the manga, wears an owl mask? an owl is also diluc's constellation and these are diluc and kaeya's respective voicelines in the section "interesting things":

coincidence that kaeya associated the owl with dragonspine? moreso, some of diluc's voicelines are very intent on judgement/punishment: "time for — retribution!" or even "lay waste to the wicked!" which parallels fischl's "no rest for the wicked...". fischl has also said the retribution voiceline in "summertime odyssey". these are interesting parallels because fischl from "the legend of the shattered halberd" and "flowers for princess fischl" has a red eye - auge de der verurteilung or eye of judgment/condemnation - and her mission is to observe and weave the threads of fate. fischl not only parallels kaeya but also king irmin, though it's still interesting this theme is also connected to diluc. but how does this connect to dragonspine? this is the ending line in the description of "wings of concealing snow".

whatever that "greater trial" is, it also implies some sort of payback towards celestia and/or the abyss. as for who are the "we", if not the seelies who got basically wiped out from teyvat, i can only think of the owls.

at last, i want to leave here the messages found in the scribe's box found in dragonspine that clearly belonged to the scribe in sal vindagnyr:

the first message shows resentment towards the skies (it almost sounds like tsaritsa's desire to burn the old world described in the cryo gemstone). the second message refers dust and wind which are very suspicious words considering they can be connected to concepts like alchemy, khaenri'ah and either the anemo god or the god of time. it also shows intent in finding imunlaukr (the hero from another land that left sal vindagnyr to fight what i assume was the abyss during the conflict). the fourth message directly states this person was the last to survive and that it made no more sense to keep watch (of what? the fledglings like the owls?), probably meaning this person left dragonspine. and, in the last message it directly references khaenri'ah's establishment and early days. could this person have fled to somewhere outside of teyvat, away from the gods, like khaenri'ah? this really isn't that surprising when we have in account sal vindagnyr and khaenri'ah share the same written latin-based language.

i actually went a bit more in depth about sal vindagnyr and imunlaukr on this twitter thread, if anyone cares, but i'm going to include here part of it. the name imunlaukr means "sword", being a direct reference to the god ullr - step-son of thor and the son of lady sif. sif was famous for her beauty and unique golden hair, said to be inherited by her children. genshin's imunlaukr went on to pass his name on to a clan in mondstadt that was known for raising brave and gifted warriors that fought hard and died young. the clan adopted their progenitor's viewpoint that combat was merely for the entertainment of the gods and as such would fight anyone and anything for the sake of fighting, as well as enact war tales. do you know who else is a sword, happens to be blonde and has connections to khaenri'ah? dainsleif, which translates to dáinn's heirloom. dáinn (or dain) means 'dead' and he's a character in norse mythology. most of the tales relating to him depict him as a dwarf or king of elves. hehe, break time to introduce fun facts about nibelung. the term in legend has usually referred to either a group of humans or a group of dwarves but the name in genshin is likely derived from richard wagner's four-part opera der ring des nibelungen "the ring of the nibelung", in which the dwarf (or nibelung) alberich creates a ring capable of controlling the world, using gold he stole from the rhinemaidens (or rheintöchter "rhine-daughters"). the conflict that arises over the ownership of this ring eventually leads to the destruction of the gods and their home. continuing with dainsleif, in myhtology, the sword is involved in a so-called eternal battle between kings, initiated by one man falling in love with and running off with another's daughter. dainsleif was forged by the dwarves whose god/king was alberich, and the sword was cursed with insatiable bloodlust and would not be able to be sheathed until it had killed and any wound caused by the sword would never be able to heal. maybe the connection between imunlaukr and dainsleif is a stretch - timewise, it wouldn't really make sense as dain seems to be exclusively from the eclipse dynasty but khaenri'ah was somewhat recent in the scribe's notes - but i really don't think the connection between khaenri'ah and sal vindagnyr is.

furthermore, dainsleif is called "bough keeper", a bough being a branch of a tree - like the irminsul. if you notice his design, one of his arms has blue lines akin to those in irminsul trees. blue lines also appear in his and pierro's mask. the introduction to his character is written by a self-proclaimed prophet and mentions the desire to see the skies burning - like the message in the scribe's box - as well as desire for atonement of bygone mistakes and mentions of alchemy (gold being the end goal as it's related to reaching the magnum opus and the philosopher's stone - elixir of life and immortality). the symbol the angel figure in dragonspine's mural is handing to the humans resembles a circumpoint, that can represent gold. it's also something that appears associated with rhinedottir in one of the videos about the hexenzirkel (which makes sense as she's such a proeminent figure related to the art of khemia and khaenri'ah, very much associated with the cataclysm).

not sure what the conclusion of all of this is but i don't think it's impossible this underground intelligence network and the owls might be something connected, directly or indirectly, to the person from sal vindagnyr that might have fled dragonspine all those years ago or even khaenri'ah. could diluc and kaeya work more closely together than we think? considering the third-party observer that rescued diluc is said to be from the north when that supposedly happened in snezhenaya, does this mean this north they speak of is beyond the land of the tsaritsa?

note: i wanted to make some type of connection to the book "anecdota septentrionalis" or anecdotes of the north, as the book not only talks about snezhenaya but also tells a very fantastical and non-sensical story that includes other nations but i understood very much zero about it other than the fact that north from where the major plot takes place there's a tall wall in the middle of the sea stretching into the sky with countless densely packed human figures suspended "and though they had neither bodies nor muscles, their forms could clearly be seen". whatever that means, so i can't really make any inference to what it beyond snezhenaya.

note 2: forgot to mention but owls besides being birds associated with wisdom, in sumerian, akkadian, and babylonian culture, are also associated with lilith. she was theorized to be the first wife of adam and is cited as having been "banished" from the garden of eden. it's just a fun fact if we think of seelies, divine envoys who are symbols of wisdom and guidance, that got punished by the heavens after their ancestor married a traveler from afar.

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

What is Paimon? | Continuation

A continuation of my Paimon post which I turned into a Paimon video that was a bit more fleshed out.

Post:

[HERE]

Video:

So, as a continuation of this entire idea, I wanted to address Paimon's design.

New lore bits have made this theory all the more possible, as well as added details that could make her character make more sense.

After some digging, I managed to finally find where the Traveler fished Paimon out of the sea. It's Guyun Stone Forest, amidst that quadruple Ruin Guard death trap. Anyway, the only difference is the stone the Traveler was sitting on is gone if you go there now.

I had a feeling this was around the location because if it indeed was, that would make the surrounding landscape an interesting choice. And there is no way for me to believe MHY wouldn't do things deliberately considering all the sprinkles of lore they put in from the game's release(Thunderbird lore being in 1.0, anyone?).

This happens to be amidst some interesting ruins...

Allow me to remind everyone of the Ancient Ruins that seem to exist in every nation so far. The same found in Dragonspine, which means they're older than Khaenri'ah, but younger than the Ancient One-World Civilization Enkanomiya was a part of. We can find these ruins everywhere and I even went to the trouble of locating each individual example I could find personally, in a playlist on YouTube.

These locations include the Golden Apple Archepelago(the Harr Islands - that used to be part of Mondstadt before Venti chopped the mountain up and sent the remains flying into the ocean), beneath Tsurumi Island in Inazuma which was hit with a Divine Nail and has an Irminsul Branch growing nearby, Dragonspine(Sal Vindagnyr prior to Durin's 'death'), which was hit with a Divine Nail and has an Irminsul Branch growing nearby, all over Liyue, and even Sumeru where only one location with these ruins are considered Khaenri'ahn by Sumeru scholars, but none of the others are...

Now, being in Guyun Stone Forest, right beside the remains of this ancient civilization's remains, is a fascinating place for Paimon to be discovered. If the shade of the stone wasn't obvious enough, nor the shape of the pillars, I went to great lengths to prove that each video in that playlist contained parts of the same ruins in different nations, by having their one defining design there.

A triquetra.

On each archway is a triquetra. A 'triangular figure composed of three interlaced arcs, or (equivalently) three overlapping vesicae piscis lens shapes.'

A triquetra is often considered to represent Life, Death, and Rebirth in various cultures. OR the Mind, Body, and Spirit OR Earth, Sea, and Sky OR Past, Present, and Future etc... A lot of these beliefs overlap in many religions all around the world. But it's just so interesting that the mark on Paimon's stomach is the same kind of mark on all these ruins around the world.

However, an upside triquetra is supposed to be taken in the exact opposite of the original order. It can mean Rebellion against Traditional Beliefs to Christians. Transformation & Change to certain 'Pagan' beliefs. In Alchemy is represents the Union of Opposites. It could also be a Balance between the Physical and Spiritual.

The triquetra is found on things like: Mora, Domain Entrances, Welkin Moon, Genesis Crystals, Shop Bundles, the Locked Spiral Abyss Entrance, and the World Quest symbol.

This special triquetra on the remains of these ruins, is upside down like Paimon's. However, other places that contain this same architecture of the ancient civilization, are boss arenas. Many Hypostases and other World Bosses share the same surrounding pillars and artwork. Except they seem to have a Solomon's Knot at the center of each trial ground. And that shape is not only present at the top of domain entrances but is also found on some of those ancient civilization's archways. Specially, those found on Tsurumi Island and Dragonspine, which are places we know had people who lived there before the Divine Nails fell and destroyed the Ley Lines and the environment.

MHY loves their 3s, huh? And their 4s.

As of 4.2's lore, we have learned that the Narzissenkreuz Ordo hypothesized that the world lives through samsara cycles. This mirrors something Nahida said back in 3.0's Archon Quest Act 2. She suggested that the whole world could be a lie and that everything is just one massive Sabzeruz Festival we're all repeating without knowing(this happened when asking if the Traveler is sure Tomorrow will come, or if Today will be followed by Yesterday).

It has been suggested that there have been 3 samsaras. Hyperborea, Natlantean, and Rumeria. And that the player is experiencing the 4th Samsara of the World, Khraun-Arya. The player, the Traveler, is the 4th Descender, and it has been confirmed that the 3rd Descender is dead, and their remains have been separated into the Gnoses.

Hyperborea is described in the Weapon: Ballad of the Fjords

Natlantean might be described in the Weapon: Talking Stick

Reading these notes didn't feel like mere assumptions to me, because I remember a certain artifact set that's been in the game forever. One that only has Circlets and can never go above 4*.

Yes! The Prayers Set!

Prayers to Springtime: Tiara of Frost

They say that, The line of chief priests have always seen this same sight as their days draw to an end: A mountain of crowns in a secret place, beneath a withered tree— —each one hiding a lifetime of secrets kept. Each retiring chief priest offers up their crown of flawless white branches to this world. Every mighty and ancient city, and every austere place of sacrifice must one day return to profundity in the earth. All prosperity must someday end. But this does not mean that nothing is eternal. At the end of a cycle, the earth shall be renewed. Thus eternity is cyclical. The search for truth is a product of prosperity, and not the seed that plants it. They say that, Once upon a time, the people of the land could hear revelations from Celestia directly. The envoys of the gods walked among benighted humanity then. In those days, life was weak, and the earth was blanketed in unending ice.

Prayers for Illumination: Tiara of Flame

They say that, Once upon a time, the people of the land could hear revelations from the heavens directly. The envoys of the gods walked among benighted humanity then. The eternal ice had just begun to thaw, and the first fires were still new. It was a time of great prosperity, when all was left in the hands of such heavenly revelations. The envoys of heaven said that the world would soon enter a new and brighter age. This was predestined, that future immutable. But would a day come when such wonderful times might come to an end? To this question the envoys gave no answer. so, the people chose from among them a chief priest, And adorning his head with a crown of white branches, they sent him out into the deep places of the world, To antediluvian ruins and long-buried altars of sacrifice, to seek answers and enlightenment…

Prayers for Destiny: Tiara of Torrents

They say that, Once upon a time, the people of the land could hear revelations from the heavens directly. Then, the envoys of the gods would walk among benighted humanity, and the ancient flames were extinguished amidst the first falling rains. It was a prosperous time, a period of bountiful harvest. Then the earth was blessed and ruled by heaven, and the elemental flows were smooth and well-ordered. A hundred years of bounty were written in the stars, and none could change this divine law. But what of the time after, a hundred, a thousand years from now? Would they have famine where they had plenty, poverty where once were riches? Would their altars and palaces become one with the soil, with only that silver-white tree for company? The heavenly envoys, who ever spoke what they knew, were silent. So to understand this doom, The chief priest, head crowned with white branches, would delve into the deep places of the world…

Prayers for Wisdom: Tiara of Thunder

They say that, Once upon a time, the people of the land could hear revelations from the heavens directly. Then, the envoys of the gods would walk among benighted humanity, and the waters ran dry as thunder first pierced the skies. People enjoyed untold wisdom, and that wisdom was their boon. Their prosperity brought pride and ambition, and the mind to question. So they questioned the heavens' authority, and schemed to enter the garden of gods. And though they had promised to the people divine love, prosperity and wisdom, the envoys of heaven were angry. For to question eternity was forbidden, For earth to challenge sky, inexpiable. So the chief priest who wore the white-branched crown went forth to appease the divine envoys, And into the deep places he went, seeking the hidden wisdom of the silver tree in the ancient capitol…

It should be noted that these Circlets are only dropped by their respective elemental Hypostases and Regisvines, Abyss Bosses, Khaenri'ahn-made Bosses, Elemental Manifestations, and Vishap Bosses.

The Circlets are also made from the branches of Irminsul.

In order, these describe the 4 Samsara Cycles of the world. Khaenri'ah being the present one, full of humans who rose up against the gods and dared to think of themselves as better for managing just fine without the help of any gods.

3s and 4s play a big role in Genshin.

Domains bearing both triquetras as well as Solomon's Knots is insane to think about. Solomon's Knot can mean Immortality, Lovers, Faith, Beauty, and Eternity depending on the culture you choose to draw inspiration from.

Emphasis on the No. 4 is made in other places too.

On Tsurumi Island, the Traveler meets a ghost NPC named Ruu, who was a sacrifice in a ritual to try and appease what his village believed to be a bird god. In truth, the Thunderbird in question didn't care about the humans or their feelings, and only acted out when Ruu, the little boy she befriended, was sacrificed in her name because the chief and elders assumed her speaking to him meant she wanted him as an offering. The Thunderbird destroys the island and curses them to relive their day of destruction for all time until Ruu is able to fulfil a promise to sing to her.

Ruu enlists the Traveler's help, unaware of the truth behind why everything keeps going wrong no matter how many times he's sacrificed.

It takes the Traveler 4 tries to get it right. 3 attempts fail to help Ruu with his quest, and the 4th was finally the success. Ruu even said he believes in The Rule of Four. "...you need to do things thrice in order to get a result. For example, they say that 'good omens must occur three times for good fortune to truly descend'… Same for bad omens. They also say that 'you must forge past obstacles three times to succeed on the fourth'."

So, if this is the 4th Samsara, and the Traveler is the 4th Descender who supposedly has a Will to Change the World, then is it possible that Paimon could be a Tulpa fashioned from the knowledge left behind by the former Samsara?

That perhaps, Paimon is a remnant of a failed attempt at breaking the Samsara and was sent to the Traveler when they got desperate for help, to start them on the path to uncovering the 'truth of this world' and help them find the right answers and make the right decisions. That could be why she appeared out of nowhere in Guyun Ston Forest, right beside the remains of a civilization she shares symbolism with.

Anyway, this is still just a theory. I could be blowing smoke out of my ass, but it was fun to make this.

[kyogre-blue]

I started act 3 of Inazuma but was quickly reminded that this is where it all falls apart. The NPC side questing stuff in acts 1 and 2 was often tedious, but it at least served a purpose, but making you captain of a squad? Having you fight random ronin, "investigate" some monuments? It's purely padding, and the stuff with Teppei is already racing ahead with absolutely no sense of pacing...

So I peaced out to explore Enkanomiya instead. I had opened it a long while back, but only progressed a bit of the main world quest chain. Now, it's at 100%, the shade quests are all done, and the key sigils are all used. As a result, I've also finished the Sacred Sakura's Favor.

Despite having all the islands except Narukami also at 100%, I'm a good ways off from buying out the sigil shop tho. I did get the furnishing I really wanted and finished my interior build though, and that's the important part.

When I explored Enkanomiya on my main, I was rather meh about it. I did it as it came out, and it felt like yet another dark, dreary, uninhabited place with lots of annoying climbing and holes where you couldn't see anything, like a good half of Inazuma before it. (btw, they didn't do any layered maps here either. They literally just did Sumeru because everyone must have complained, and Fontaine because of the underwater. The other old regions? lol who cares about them, amirite)

On the second go around, while I didn't enjoy Enkanomiya as much as Dragonspine, I did like it a lot more. It does have some extremely cool and striking visuals, and the sinshades really are a good touch. They tell some pretty interesting stories. I just wish this was somehow connected to the actual living characters we have. I liked both the older shades from Byakuyakoku's brutal history before the Orobashi and the newer shades from Enkanomiya's last day, talking about how they're going up to the surface. It's interesting that this was a place that was left behind purposefully. Not in a disaster, or from the population slowly wasting away like Sal Vindagnyr, but to move out into the light.

(It's really very interesting to compare the sinshades in Enkanomiya vs the lingering ghosts on Tsurumi after the fog is lifted vs the ghosts in Liyue. I still wonder what happened in Liyue to create the conditions for all those ghosts. We don't see that in any other modern nation.)

I also did some remaining world quests on the surface, for "Masanori" and Inaba Kyuuzou. It really reminded me of how full of potential 2.0 had felt, when Inazuma threatened to be going somewhere. The quests are very simple and short, but they have some actually pretty good character writing. Both these samurai guys are given very distinctive characterizations, and they portray pretty vividly the brutality of the war. "Masanori" also drops some interesting hints about Inazuma's society... But all this is ultimately aggressively wiped away in later patches, and by Sumeru, you can see how the writers have very decisively started aiming much lower.

(Hot take, but Sumeru's writing isn't particularly better than Inazuma's. It's just that Sumeru is ALL on the level of Inazuma's conclusion, so there's no sense of dissonance, like Inazuma having an interesting buildup that completely falls apart in the last act. Sumeru is just all bland, dragged out, surface-level time wasting the whole way through.)

But now there's nothing left to stall on. I have to do act 3, and then Ei's two quests, since that's required to unlock Ayato, Itto, and Thoma content.... sigh.