#also the aranara quest.

[monards]

i get so sad everytime i look at my sumeru exploration

[starcurtain]

Some Speculation on Kaveh’s Father

I actually started this post right after the Parade of Providence event last year, but never got around to finishing it. However, in light of Kaveh still not appearing on a banner, I decided to dust this one off and get it finished, so that I’d have at least a little Kaveh content in my life after being so cruelly denied by Hoyo.

So, without further ado, some stuff about Kaveh’s father I did not see discussed elsewhere but which I think is especially interesting.

1) Kaveh’s father likely first became depressed/disillusioned with humanity after witnessing (or possibly being the victim of) a murder attempt.

Without knowing the full situation and reading all the additional text from the Parade of Providence event, I feel like this might have been easily missed, but the entire “Kaveh’s dad became disillusioned and depressed and retreated to the desert to help people” seems--at first--like it came out of nowhere. He had a lovely family, was the pride of his darshan, and was eager and excited to win the crown to bring it home to his son. Yet theoretically, he did not win the crown (and, in fact, the crown was stolen before the last event and may not have been there during the Avidya Forest fight, so when, as the non-winner, would Kaveh’s father have come into contact with it to encounter Sachin through it in the first place?) Why would Kaveh’s father’s personality take such a massive turn all the sudden? What would drive an excited, happy person to suddenly withdraw from everything he loved and everyone who loved him, if he didn’t actually win the diadem to be influenced by it in the first place?

The event implies there was a trigger:

Huvishka’s friend (who is described as “honest and kind but vulnerable and sensitive”--obviously Kaveh’s father) went into the Avidya Forest with the other contestants, where no one was watching, and we’re not told what happened except that the Akademiya responded to whatever occurred by shutting down the entire competition and banning any sort of events in the future that cause contestants to become so desperate they would “fight to the death.” 

This is a pretty obvious implication that Kaveh’s father either witnessed two other contestants attempt to kill each other or was the victim of an attempted murder himself, which prevented him from winning the competition even though he was the favorite to win by a long-shot. This feat of betrayal, demonstrating the depths to which humanity would sink, likely shook the idealistic world views of a sensitive person such as Kaveh’s father. This brush with death and with humanity’s capacity for evil in the forest would have been the exact trigger needed to make Kaveh’s father particularly vulnerable to Sachin’s message of nihility and despair, leading to the downward spiral that sent Kaveh’s father into the desert.

- 

2) Sachin may have way more culpability for Kaveh’s father’s death than Kaveh realizes. 

For a while after the event, I was under the impression that Kaveh’s father must have met Sachin’s consciousness through the diadem and that’s where he got the idea to go into the desert. However, something was always a bit odd about the timeline, because...

Sachin was still alive when he gave the Akademiya his estate. This is why no one actually knew/believed he was fully dead, even to the present--because he willed the Akademiya the estate while he was alive and told them he was going to be personally watching over the contestants to award his estate to them if he deemed them worthy successors to himself. 

So did Kaveh’s father run into a fragment of Sachin’s consciousness... or did he run into Sachin himself? The game doesn’t really clarify:

The fact that Sachin’s recording recognized Kaveh’s appearance as familiar makes me think it is much more likely that the consciousness preserved in the diadem already had knowledge of Kaveh’s father at the time it was preserved. Aka, Sachin actually met Kaveh’s father in person. This also makes sense of why, even though the diadem was stolen away during the last event and Kaveh’s father did not win it, he would still know about Sachin and Sachin’s research. (However, as a counterpoint, I guess we could say that the Diadem!Sachin had enough sentience to maybe have its own memory, separate from the real Sachin? And reached out to Kaveh’s father mentally even though he didn’t win the diadem? Maybe?)

Still, there’s one really notable aspect of the timeline that I think is important: Right after the Interdarshan Competition twenty years ago, the one which Kaveh’s father competed in, we know that Sachin went back out to the desert. 

Who else went out to the desert exactly 20 years ago? Kaveh’s father, obviously.

This overlap in the timelines makes it seem very likely that Kaveh’s father, who failed to win the competition because of a murder attempt (and therefore never got the diadem), was nevertheless reached out to by the real Sachin, who saw in Kaveh’s father the kindred disillusioned idealist he was looking for to pass his research torch onto. From this connection, Kaveh’s father was driven to either directly accompany or at least pursue the still living Sachin into the desert. (This works even if we say it was only Sachin’s consciousness he was contacted by--in either case, he would have been driven go to out to the desert to meet the real, temporarily still living Sachin to join his quest to help the desert people.)

Only for Kaveh’s father to meet his end there while trying to aid a caravan that had fallen into trouble. What a tragic coincidence, a completely unpredictable twist of fate.

Or... was it?

How odd, in the same quest that Kaveh’s father’s connection to Sachin is discussed, that we’re given an account of a caravan that appears to have been deliberately sabotaged, where money was taken (from Sachin) and somehow sparked a betrayal, a “trial of human nature” that caused many people to die, with the takeaway being the exact belief Sachin wants to pass on and reinforce in others, that humans are horrific creatures who can only make the world a worse and worse place. 

We know that Sachin’s “research” specifically consisted of doing this exact thing, manipulating situations to test humans’ moral character, conducting trials/experiments on “human nature” to reinforce his belief that humans were fundamentally selfish beings.

(It’s no accident the merchant ledger we receive uses the exact same words as Sachin does, “trial of human nature” and “experiments on human nature.” We’re supposed to assume what happened to the caravan in the note was deliberate sabotage on Sachin’s part, to create a scenario where he could observe the cruelties of humanity.)

Why would the game go out of its way to give us an account of a caravan being deliberately sabotaged and used as an experiment if there was no connection at all between what happened with this caravan and what happened to Kaveh’s father, who was also killed helping a floundering caravan?

It’s just too much of a coincidence to accidental. I think the implications of the ledger Dori gave us and the similarities in the language on that ledger to Sachin’s ideas was supposed to lead the audience to wonder:

Could Kaveh’s father have died in one of Sachin’s final “human nature experiments”? 

Was the caravan Kaveh’s father tried to help one that Sachin deliberately sabotaged, expecting to observe humanity’s selfish, self-preserving nature?

I think there’s enough evidence in the story to suggest that we players are at least supposed to consider this a possibility. (There’s no reason to give us the ledger about the manipulated caravan otherwise.) And if you consider this a possibility, it would mean that Sachin didn’t just indirectly cause Kaveh’s father’s death--he would be the direct cause of Kaveh’s father’s death, an actual murder brought about by Sachin’s beliefs that humanity’s self-centered nature made everyone beyond saving.

This idea transforms Kaveh’s father’s sacrifice into the ultimate rejection of Sachin’s beliefs. This would mean that, even in a situation manipulated to bring out the worst in human beings on purpose, Kaveh’s father gave everything to protect the lives of others, for no gain at all of his own, doing everything he could just to desperately try to make the situation (the world) better.

SO yeah. I’m not saying we have hard evidence here, but I think the quest was trying to lead players to speculate very, very hard on the possibility that Kaveh’s father’s death was no accident.

-

3) Finally, a cuter piece of speculation to brighten things up after that despair bomb I just dropped: it’s highly likely that Kaveh’s father had more than one Aranara buddy!

During the Parade of Providence, we hear about an Aranara who learned to read from Kaveh’s father:

However, this is a bit confusing, because later in the event, we hear someone else say that Kaveh’s father taught an Aranara to write specifically when he was a child:

While of course it is possible that Kaveh’s father taught the first Aranara, Arakasyapa, to both read and write, I think there’s also another possible answer here about why Kaveh’s father would separately mention teaching an Aranara to write:

Because there is an entirely different Aranara in the story which was taught to write by a “good Nara” who was a child--Arashakun, from the quest “Courage is the Heart.”

In this sweet little world quest, the Traveler discovers a flower talisman that has been snatched by some hilichurls, and seeks to return it to its rightful owner, a timid and shy Aranara named Arashakun. 

We learn that Arashakun once had a kind-hearted “good Nara” companion who taught him to write (sound familiar?), and who, in order to encourage the poor Aranara, gave him a single flower dubbed “courage.” In describing this child companion, Arashakun specifically states that his companion was no strong warrior like the Traveler’s twin, but instead a gentle, comforting presence who never teased the Aranara.

All of these descriptions line up particularly well with Kaveh’s father, who the game repeatedly describes as vulnerable, kind-hearted, and giving to others.

To drive home the possible connections to Kaveh’s family even further, this quest takes place very, very near to the Palace of Alkazarzaray. 

Although we don’t have any guarantee, I think it is strongly implied that the “good Nara” mentioned by Arashakun is indeed Kaveh’s father, and the “courage of the heart” that he extended to Arashakun as a child is the very same courage, kindness, and generosity that drove him to reach out to the people of the desert, hoping to make a difference in their lives--even at the cost of his own.

The takeaway? Kaveh’s father was a truly good person who aided everyone he came across, from timid Aranara to people whose very lives were in danger. He never meant to leave his family, and especially not his son, but repeatedly fell afoul of the worst humanity had to offer and was driven into a situation in which all he could do was offer his very life to uphold the altruism that was central to his idealism--the same idealism and goodness that Kaveh carries as “courage” in his own heart.

[andersdotters]

While it does seem hypocritical that the Traveler is okay with Childe, but not with Lyney and Lynette, it's important to remember that this is not the first time they have dealt with House of the Hearth members. The Traveler has first hand experience with the crimes and cruelties the group has committed, but have not experienced the same with Childe. So it would only make sense why they're more on edge with the twins.

[ink-blot-thoughts]

OK but if Yoimiya can see Aranara cause she's pure at heart and understands how kids think and wants to preserve their dreams...

Does that mean there's a non zero chance Childe can see Aranara??!?! Cause I would fucking stan that.

[tklpilled]

so tired of people talking ab how much they hated the sumeru desert..it has some of the best (and creepiest) lore drops

[menstits]

leo help i got majorly back into genshin for like 3 months and i’ve been having a great time i speedrun both sumeru and fontaine but the natlan story quest is so goddamn boring i want to drop it again 💀 but i would miss kaeya and yanfei !! crossing my fingers so tight for the sabzeruz festival because oh my god it’s so dire rn. why are they doing this to me

Hi!! No literally sorry... Like it's extremely dire for real, I'm pushing through it exclusively because Natlan so far is very Abyss related and my interest in genshin is extremely Kaeya-centric so anything Abyss related might come up again later with Khaenri'ah and such but so far it's like... Everyone in the main cast so far is ugly and whitewashed and the lore is confusing and the saurians also piss me off. Like. I was talking about this to my boyfriend too the other day but i feel like by keeping everything about Natlan under wraps for 4 whole years and then delivering something like extremely sub par and disappointing they did like the opposite of building hype for it like... for every other region we had little details sprinkled in since very early on and npc dialogue to go off of so we knew just enough about them to form a mild interest in the region before it came out but everything about Natlan feels very out of nowhere... I honestly just hope they let me see Kaeya and his ugly brother again soon or Childe because truly all i care about at this point are the same 3 characters i've been obsessed with since day 1. The only thing i'm interested in for now other than the Abyss stuff is Capitano because . He's been on my mind since the harbinger reveal teaser video dropped but i'm worried they're gonna fumble it with him too. In any case unless they improve the skin tone situation i won't be pulling on any banner for the foreseeable future even if i am and have been f2p since day 1 cause i hope their banners flop.

[nicomoon69]

as somebody who didn’t give a fuck abt the genshin quests when I played 2021-2023 I gotta say the quests actually lowkey slap 😭 turns out the endless dialogue is interesting if you know what the fuck they’re going on abt and aren’t js doing them for primos

[dutybcrne]

LET'S GOOOOOOOO

[nacrelysis]

lines from nahida's story quest ii [sapientia oromasdis ii] that made me cry + will make you cry too (spoilers)

"our past has been saved, and our future ensured. it's enough for me just knowing that they will return home."

"not all eagles who have fallen to the ground can soar in the sky once again. but if no risks are taken, then the eagle will be grounded forever."

"don't be sad...this is not your home...we go home."

"lord of dendro...should also go home too."

"i learned a wonderful word. it's 'nur,' which means 'light.' it will be your name from now on."

"...nur..."

fun fact! the word "home" is used in sapientia orosmasdis ii a total of about seventy times. i'm gonna go cry now.

[tetsuskei]

me running around like a headless chicken trying to get as many primogems as i can for xiao rerun but also scared bc streets are saying itto and kazuha are supposed to rerun

[halovianed]

strokes my chin thoughtfully. there is some kind of diagram to be made between nahida yoimiya childe.

[protect-namine]

the latest narzissenkreuz ordo quest is so much... where do I even start...

I'm not even finished with it yet (plus, I think I need to do the book of esotoric revelations quest + collect the enigmatic pages + go through the looking glasses to fully uncover all the lore and finish caterpillar's backstory) but there's just so much. I think I'll just make a thread here of all the interesting lore bits that catch my eye for now

disclaimer that uh. my progress in the archon quest? yeah I'm still in act iv lmao so I have no idea what's going on there. it's not my priority to finish 'cause honestly I'm waaay more invested in caterpillar's whole thing atm. anyway.

I once said that maybe imagination is itself perhaps a legitimate power or substance in genshin. it might not be that far-fetched considering that experiential substances are an actual thing you can use in magic. perhaps I wasn't using the right terms but.. the idea was pretty close!

interestingly, caterpillar compares them to the elements. rene (in rene's investigation notes) does a similar thing where he compared the khvarena to the elements and I believe that's how he got the idea to do all of this anyway.

what is SUPER interesting to me though are these two things from the end of the search in the algae sea quest:

gold (the color) has a loaded meaning in genshin even if we can't really pinpoint yet what it signifies. it's also always associated with the twins. I think I remember someone (probably ashikai) theorize that it's when you combine all the elements together (like an "omni" element) — and that kinda makes sense if you think about how we're basically resonating with all seven elements by the end of the game, and then (presumably) regaining our original powers back afterwards.

but there are other attempts at creating gold. there's rhinedottir and albedo's alchemy, which is still incomplete since albedo is... well, in the albedo stage, and not citrinitas, except if you ascend him to the last ascension level (on that note: the writers really did flip the rubedo and citrinitas steps to make gold the last step huh).

then there's "reason" which is this quest's whole... thing. a golden sword! kinda makes me wonder, especially paired with the note on those who "descend" and how the traveler (tagged as the fourth descender) canonically has a "sword of descension" (PS4 sword item)...

is it that "reason" is equivalent (not necessarily the same) to the omni element? is the traveler's sword of descension like the holy blade of narzissenkreuz?

lastly, I wonder what the last divination technique mentioned here is. also, hey look, hydromancy! that's mona's thing!!

[ramblebrambleamble]

I think Yoimiya is the only person to ask how our search for our brother is going?

[evanescentsun]

the was another golden nara before him…. he doesn’t connect the dots until later, hearing more stories about the other golden nara from the aranara.

it must be her, he thinks.

it couldn’t be anyone else.

sister….

[moonzeroo]

whaat people are actually upset with the traveler for not trusting lyney and lynette after the trial D:

[menstits]

Im glad you also liked fontaine !! Ppl shit on it and its def not perfect, but it gave us some the best developed characters so far, and I also enjoy how all the girlies know eachother and hang out together (I loved clorinde's quest for this) ntm the lore of the melusines is also sooo good too

Hii sorry i forgot to answer sooner, ofc it's not perfect because ultimately this is still genshin but it really did feel like a significant improvement in terms of writing compared to previous regions and i feel like the overall themes of the region were a lot more like. coherent too. Also tbh yeah something that i missed in Inazuma which is what i regard as the worst written genshin region so far is the like... complete lack of chemistry and connection between the main playable cast and that's something they significantly improved with Sumeru and even moreso in Fontaine imo. Something i really liked about Fontaine's story is that it focused a lot more on the individual characters and their conflicts and the beef they all have with each other

I know Mondstadt and Liyue didn't have the most stellar writing or the most interesting storylines because they were the earliest regions but their charm point really was how entertaining the character dynamics and interactions were and like. the feeling that everyone in the playable cast is somehow connected to one another. In Mondstadt specifically I loved the fact that it really does feel like a small village the way everyone is somehow up in everyone else's business and i was not hoping to see that again in later regions because they're all supposed to be bigger nations with bigger cities and shit so ofc the small town vibe would be missing but they somehow still got it to work and make the cast feel connected in Fontaine despite it being a completely different setting. Also the story being actually interesting and coherent really caught me off guard because i expected it to be lowkey a filler region