rhineposting

[rhineposting]

so I ended up writing a one-shot about the sinners of khaenri'ah (rhinedottir and surtalogi in particular) and for the time being im proud of it so 👉👈

[rhineposting]

dainsleif lore leaks

I can't believe that they dropped not one but two tragic lore bombs for my mans.

not only did they blind his brother and threw the guy into jail for doing his job, apparently before becoming twilight sword dainsleif was a part time janitor.

[rhineposting]

my favourite magical girl* terrorists from my and my wife's passion project

*disclaimer, the magical girls are sometimes neither girls or magical and simply have magic radiation sickness

[rhineposting]

siblings who are polar opposites my beloved

[rhineposting]

Okay so bear with me, most of what I'm about to say is either literal crumbs or stuff I made up to fill the Sinner shaped hole in lore.

So, starting with canon crumbs.

In a way, the two of them haunt the narrative of the Fontaine archon quests - the prophecy was penned and carved into stone by Vedrfolnir and carried out by Surtalogi's disciples, which makes me wonder : did Vedrfolnir know of his once brother in arms' involvement? With what intent did he leave the stone tablets for humans of centuries in the future to discover? Was it out of spite, a show of sympathy that's not understandable to us yet, or merely display of his power?

Now, you could say the connection was entirely unintentional, that they just wanted two Sinners in the same place at the same time to name drop them, but here's the thing :

When Skirk uses other Sinners as point of reference to describe Surtalogi, she doesn't go off of what people of Teyvat would consider common knowledge. If she did, she wouldn't have mentioned Rhinedottir second. After all, Rhinedottir seems to be the only one widely known for her deeds out of them, to the point where she's not just called a Sinner but The Great Sinner.

which, wow. slay. good for her.

But nope. She mentioned Vedrfolnir first, and immediately after she says she only heard of them from Surtalogi. Therefore, this implies that she mentioned Vedrfolnir first because Surtalogi spoke of him the most and likely holds him in high regard. Or maybe he holds some grudge against him. We probably won't know for another 2,5 years.

Everything else after this is strictly headcanon territory that will likely be debunked.

I'll start with the actual canon fact we know: that Vedrfolnir and Surtalogi both were geniuses : with Vedrfolnir likely being an astrologist, while Surtalogi was likely both a great warrior and a sorcerer of sorts, having invented the ability to harness Abyssal power without lethal, lasting harm to the user (Foul Legacy).

So. As I mentioned in another post, I feel like looking into the future has caused Vedrfolnir to lose his mind long before the Cataclysm, since I don't believe clairvoyance is something you can just practice nilly-willy without consequences.

it's a bit different with mona and barbeloth as they use astromancy (iirc) which is a subcategory of astrology and not actual, full on clairvoyance.

As for Surtalogi, I like to think he and Childe are actually pretty similar in some fields of life : such as concealing the depth of their capabilities unless absolutely necessary, so I imagine that Surtalogi wasn't exactly fully honest about his intellectual prowess, instead presenting himself as a great warrior first and foremost. Partially because it's more convenient that way and partially because he has a more straightforward mindset.

With that in mind, I think that before the Cataclysm he greatly respected Vedrfolnir, seeing not a barely lucid madman but someone who sacrificed his own sanity in pursuit of enlightenment for his nation. In turn, I think that Vedrfolnir saw right through Surtalogi's carefully crafted façade and found him far more bearable to be around than, say, Rhinedottir - in a "You. You do think you're better than anyone else but instead of flaunting it, you focus on proving it. I like that." sorta way. Dishonest, multilayered people probably give him a headache.

Thus, there you have the dynamic : two geniuses, one unsuspected and one undervalued, between them an unspoken understanding and mutual respect in the middle of a social battlefield that would be the royal court.

*passes out*

we heard of faceless yuri (rhinealice) get ready for faceless yaoi (surtafolnir/vedrlogi) who wants to hear me out

[rhineposting]

we heard of faceless yuri (rhinealice) get ready for faceless yaoi (surtafolnir/vedrlogi) who wants to hear me out

[rhineposting]

i think dain and vedr had a kinda falin and laios relationship before the cataclysm : both of them were a little strange but dainsleif happened to be the more sociable one, so he tended to play mediator/translator between vedrfolnir and the rest of the world.

so when vedrfolnir would suddenly stop in his tracks for a solid minute, drop the drink he was carrying then proceed to try and either sip it off the floor or sweep it back into his cup, dainsleif would turn to whatever witnesses were present and go

"ah, don't mind him, last night he looked five years into the future. he's really out of it, but he's still really grateful for the commodities provided by the king, deep down. we should ask someone to clean it up and give him a refill don't you think 🙂���"

that works on just about everyone but the other sinners. they know he forgot irmin even exists and instead is looking for the Hat Man's hat in the puddle of juice, milk, mead and soap that just happens to resemble an existing drink. this visionary is fucked up bruh

[rhineposting]

anyone can be a girlboss but it takes a real woman to be a deadbeat dad

[rhineposting]

designed some of the sinners of khaenri'ah, can't wait for hoyo to either never show any of them or make them ugly

from left to right : surtalogi, vedrfolnir, rerir

bonus comic

[rhineposting]

life still looks like shit for me, so have a casual rhinedottir from a magma canvas additional thoughts under cut

In my mind, Rhinedottir does dress pretty casually when she's not in risk of being seen by unauthorized people (literally anyone except Alice), because appearances are a big part of the persona she dons while in public, especially when interacting with the rest of the court (that and I think she has some minor narcissism going on but that's a different can of worms to open later.)

[rhineposting]

COMMISSIONS OPEN

ALWAYS, ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE.

OPEN FOR BETTER QUALITY

REBLOGS ARE VERY APPRECIATED.

[rhineposting]

okay so while i'm trying to not think about how i haven't felt this afraid and miserable in years, I thought : hey, why not write down my headcanoned backstory for rhinedottir. So, here goes, more under cut

Starting off, I think her full government name is Rhine Rhinedottir, as named by her mother ; the choice behind that left an enigma. It could be that Rhine Senior was also a narcissist, or that she simply didn’t expect to have triplets so she ran out of names for them by the time it was Rhine’s Jr turn to be names, or she signed her birth certificate wrong. All of those are equally plausible. While I think Rhine Senior wasn’t exactly abusive, she wasn’t a good mother either, with all three sisters having a more or less strained relationship with her, with Rhine Jr being the most distant.

Going by the text implying that she is a pure-blooded Khaenri’ahn, I think her family was a former upper class one. They possessed wealth and were somewhat influential sometime before Rhinedottir’s mother was born, so by the time Rhinedottir herself was around they didn’t have much going for them besides a property or two as well as some connections.

Childhood wise, I think Rhinedottir was a bit of a menace, her social status and her mother’s parenting style (or possibly lack thereof) enabling her trouble seeking and causing behavior (perhaps for attention, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps both), which eventually lead to her being a social outcast : not exactly hated but not liked in the slightest either. I see her having a somewhat asocial and mildly rebellious attitude bordering on arrogance, which eventually lead to her developing interests she’d consider niche to avoid potentially sharing hobbies with people she considered annoying (which is a lot, when you’re a teenage girl typically used to your own company). Eventually, a few years down the line at around 14 or 15, she becomes an apprentice under a then known now forgotten by history Khemist.

From there, the rest is practically history - with each advancement and achievement she moves higher up in the Khemist community, and by the time she’s in her late 30s to mid 40s there’s nowhere higher for her to go except to be one of many court Khemists, responsible for supplying the royal family and associates. As luck would have it, she turns out to be more efficient than a dozen Khemists combined, and so she ends up being the only one left. Was it sabotage? Was it actually her being that talented? I imagine the answer would depend on who you ask.

(A certain fool would scream and shake you by the shoulders about how it was definitely sabotage)

That of course results with her becoming more entrenched within the court’s inner life - after all, when it comes to politics, everyone is in it for something and using others to get it is never really out of the question. In her pursuit of greatness Rhinedottir ended up walking into a shark tank, leaving her with two choices : learn how to swim or get your ankles chewed on - and given her determination to keep pursuing greatness, the choice was obvious.

By the time Dainsleif came around as a Captain, she had become irreplaceable to the court, fully enabling her to research whatever she pleased, so long as she kept providing the royal family and their associates with means to sustain them - so by the time she was in her 50s, she freely began experimenting with creating sentient life, a process unheard of. After all, she got this far and achieved so much, she might as well try and make the impossible possible.

Surely, nothing bad would come of th

…Whoops.

[rhineposting]

COMMISSIONS OPEN

ALWAYS, ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE.

OPEN FOR BETTER QUALITY

REBLOGS ARE VERY APPRECIATED.

[rhineposting]

Well.

I really, really wish I didn't have to do this again, but my life reached a boiling point. Yet again.

On account of my father practically losing his job and my sister no longer getting money from any of her welfare programs, my family officially has no income. I don't know what my life is going to look like in November and December, if we'll be able to pay rent or even buy anything to eat. Good chance I might be forced to drop out, half a year before graduating, but even then that won't be enough to cover living costs. That's even without mentioning my mother's deteriorating health, physical and mental.

So yeah, that kinda blows, to put it mildly.

I'd really appreciate any little bit of help at this point. Given my currency's terrible conversion rates, what might be the cost of a sandwich to you could be worth small groceries to me and my family.

COMMISSIONS OPEN

ALWAYS, ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE.

OPEN FOR BETTER QUALITY

REBLOGS ARE VERY APPRECIATED.

[rhineposting]

okay pause on phone people posting to do some Rhinedottir Posting ™

I think that while all of the Five Sinners are generally around the same level of unhingement and gray morality, Rhinedottir was just Like That even before taking a dunk in the Eldritch and Forbidden. I think it's kinda funny.

"That's Surtalogi, he basically invented lycanthropy and has a pet multidimensional narwhal that eats French people, that obelisk over there is Vedrfolnir, the single greatest visionary to kinda-live, capable of restoring sentience to the cursed, and the lady over there is Rhinedottir, a revolutionary alchemist and she, uh... Yeah these days she's mostly printing flying dismembered dogs. No idea why. She's not even taking care of them, or of any other thing she ever made for that matter. Yeah, she made a bunch of her clones and dumped most of them into a vat of acid. No idea why, something about them not being good enough. Oh yeah no, that was before our country was nuked. I don't know what's her deal and honestly at this point I'd keep it that way. Anyways, that guy over there is Rerir and he uhhhhhhh-"

[rhineposting]

the sacred yaoi hivemind tradition of [x character] blood image

[rhineposting]

hi guys how funny am i for this