#khaenri'ah sympathising

[sleepless-rants]

Today im thinking about the dehumanization of khaenri'ah. The fact that they intentionally ERASED any kind of history record left by khaenriahns other than the ooh giant scary war machines that shoot lasers they must've CLEARLY had sinister intentions. no one sees the notes left behind by an ordinary citizen stuck at the gates of their country in the middle of the desert because if they moved any further, their starving mother wasnt going to make it. The way they intentionally REDUCED rhinedottir to the sins she committed. (which were sins in the first place by their standards) the way rhinedottir is a bad person but not in a super villain way, she's bad bacause human beings are just as much capable of unkindness and bitterness and evil as they are of being good. The way the khaenri'ahn higher ups very well may have had bad ideas and evil plans that could've altered the world but we can see this with any other nation's governing body (e.g grand sage azar making a literal god), thats a human issue, corrupt government force is A HUMAN ISSUE. We dont know what happened back there, maybe they really did have no choice but to wipe the entire nation out but god, the way they were human and the way no one remebers that when it was their whole ideology in the first place. the pride of humankind robbed of their humanity.

[genshin-scenarios]

Hey! Sorry if I missed it somewhere on your info post, but do you write for the harbingers? Also what are your thoughts about each of them so far? :3

!! I'm most familiar with Childe, Signora and Scaramouche (all of whom I'm willing to write for) - as for the others, it might depend on the prompt and how lore-heavy it is, since my confidence levels range depending on what info I know about them!

Will put the rest under the cut since it got long again 😅

Childe: the one and only... He's definitely a familiar face and fun chara to work with! Playful vs the serious moments where he's on the job, many things to think about

Scaramouche: well I've evidently uh... written for him in general (wanderer/kuni/AUs) more often than as a harbinger I think, but once again I like how there's so much to unpackage about him!! Lots of facets 🥲

Signora: she's my wife in law (a close friend of mine loves her to bits), so I'm quite fond of her! We don't speak about Inazuma, but I'd definitely be willing to write reqs for her if the prompt is detailed enough about her character to help me out 🙏

Sandrone: very pretty, I'm very much intrigued 👉👈 like what will her attacks look like?? I can imagine that working for her might be quite interesting if you survive it

Arlecchino: I see the appeal (she caught my eye too). Lacks loyalty to the Tsaritsa + is vaguely described as kinda insane = potential route with a lot of thrill

Damselette: I'm biased towards her because I like the theories of her being a seelie (is also very invested in seelie lore crumbs) -> she's been described as rlly dangerous and has a rlly nice voice (from the trailer), so she has to be one of my favourite harbingers 👉👈

Pantalone: please fund my expenses I mean uh, seeing as he works closely with dottore I'm curious about him! Not much of an opinion besides that he seems like an interesting chara! Especially when it comes to... how will he measure the value of a person vs monetary means? (More geared towards how he'd treat a s/o)

Dottore: I can see why people like him + he has a lot of lore to work with!! But as a Collei supporter I personally can't sympathise with his ambitions 🥲 /lh I'd still write for him if an idea tickles my brain

Capitano: !! He was mentioned to have met Varka right?? But they didn't end up fighting so I'm curious about him and his ideals (sense of justice)

Pulcinella: love the headcanons of him being familial and taking care of Childe's family! The fanarts I've seen were rlly wholesome, but as Scara once commented, I do wonder how much of it is just to remind Childe that his family is in their hands 🥲

Pierro: potential ties to Khaenri'ah!! Very interested to see more of him in the future, and @/f_ai_n's one AU where Kaeya was adopted into the Fatui... very strong found family vibes 10/10 recommend

[sleepless-rants]

I see a lot of people say that they dont like dainsleif because his manipulative to the traveler, and while obviously everyone's entitled to their opinion I personally think thats the whole point.

This man watched his homeland crumble to dust, watched his people either die or turn into monsters and was cursed to immortality and robbed off any chance of relief and has had to live with it all for five centuries while his body slowly caves in on itself and its gotten to the point where he's not even seeking redemption. What can he do other than manipulate and guilt trip the one key to closure he thinks they have left into helping him with his plans?

And on a side but not unrelated note this goes for literally every other khaenri'ahn as well in my opinion. How do you expect them to care about other people and have healthy communication skills/coping mechanisms ™  after all that shit even if it was their fault or they desreved it etc etc. Im not saying its exusable im saying its understandable. Forgivable even.

[sleepless-rants]

I imagine Khaenri’ah when it was still in its glory and the citizens every day life its kinda fucked me up ngl

NO NO NO VCE DONT MAKE ME THINK ABOUT KHAENRI'AH CITIZENS RIGHT NOW WHEN IM WAIST DEEP IN KHAENRI'AH LORE.

GOOODD i think about this on a daily basis. The little girl that was the daughter of a florist and must've picked inteyvats from the fields everyday for her mother to sell. The royal cooks who must've sang folk songs together in the kitchen while preparing feasts for the king and his guests. The little kids who would climb ruin guards and give them flowers every time they saw them patrolling the streets.

LIKE UGHHH I'm thinking about the young girls who would giggle together and call dibs on knights they'd see in the palace. Im thinking about all the bitter love stories of the nobles and imigrants who fell in love with eachother. How mortified chlothar must've been at first when he found out he's having a child. Thinking about how the shadowy husks in the chasm must've laughed together during training at some point. There was probably a "that one commandar" who acted cryptic and wore a fur coat over his uniform everyday and they probably made fun of him. All the half blood kids who got bright blue starry eyes from one parent and curly black hair from another. Thinking about how some households must've had a statue or picture of irmin.

IM THINKING ABOUT THEIR FESTIVALS. they must've had their own new year celebrations. Their own lantern rite and windblume festival. They must've put inteyvats in their hair and danced around a big fire. We know that they associated fire with rebirth. They must've loved fire. It must've been in so many of their festivals and rituals and they probably burned their dead too. The fact that they have something called a "proper knight's funeral". Thinkning about all the mothers who had to kiss their soldier sons goodbye one last time. All the illnesses alchemy couldn't save them from. All the princesses and court ladies who were probably promised to a random knight's son when they were born. The same ones who must've tried to sneak into the forbidden section of the royal library every now and then. Yknow, stuff humans usually have going on.

[sleepless-rants]

Thanks to perinheri we now know three diffrent knight factions that existed in khaenri'ah.

1- the black serpant knights aka the royal guards led by dainsleif. Since we have no record of a royal family whatsoever for now ig we just have to assume the entire fucking army was there to guard irmin and MAYBE abyss twin. Which sounds ridiculous so surely we MUST have a royal family? Does irmin have any children and have we met/ heard of them in game?

2- schwaneritter aka the swan knights. We have a grand total of four names from them out of which only two seem to be relevent: Anfortas (((alberich))) who was supposedly their leader and Hadura aka senitel of the golden hall who due to unknown reasons betrayed the other knights and fought anfortas, a battle in which anfortas lost his RIGHT EYE👀👀👀. (The other two are Hildric and ynghildr. Ynghildr I love you to death and back but you're just not important to the lore.) Now I said all that just to point out the fact that these guys where the ones who fought back the abyssal monsters attacking khaenri'ah AND part of sumeru. Which is intresting cuz what were the black serpant knights doing then? Did they dissapear along with irmin before anfortas became king regent? Or did they stay and join his forces? We know that dain was also in sumeru at this time so the latter seems more likely but idek.

3- our newest addition, the beastmaster knights!! They were briefly namedropped in perinheri and from the name alone Im guessing they handled the monsters and beasts that leaked into khaenri'ah?

These. And perinheri also made it sound like they were no longer around during the eclipse dynasty because they had ruin machines now. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? THE RUIN MACHINES WERE MADE AS A MEANS OF PROTECTION AFTER ALL!!! THEY WERENT PLANNING TO ATTACK THE OTHER NATIONS WITH THEM. or at least that wasnt their primary purpose. W for khaenri'ah sympathisers (me).