#archon of shadow

[havarija]

This one has been long in making but I have finally managed to complete it - ‘Bed of Nails' was a short story that has been stuck in my head since I first started working on 'SkyFall'. And was probably the reason why I started writing that monster of a story in the first place. This one happens after the events of the game, and therefore after the ending of Skyfall. A bit out of order and with spoilers galore, sure, but I wanted it done. And now it is. And words can't describe how happy I am :3 Who knows? Maybe I'll finally get motivated enough to continue writing the other one....

[antivancastle]

i really really wish we could have seen high society tevinter. i wish we could have had a shadow dragons quest at a fancy party like wicked hearts in inquisition, and maybe we could have had a bigger dorian cameo and more insight on the corruption of templars…

[invinciblerodent]

me studying history (reading everything in World of Thedas about the Tevinter Imperium) the night before the exam (two months before the release of Veilguard)

[dkniade]

Contrast and Unity in the White/Black Imagery of Genshin Impact Quest Titles

Dragonspine 1.2 & 2.3 Events, Fontaine Act I

Game: Genshin Impact

Developer: HoYoverse

Fan Localization: Dusk

An aside from when I tried to explain the meaning of Kreideprinz’s Chinese term—

In Chinese, 白垩 is used to refer to Albedo with varying meanings but in the English version the term is even less consistent: 

Concealed Talon item description 白垩层 (baie ceng) = “Cretaceous Layer” (of soil) localized as “Cretaceous”

Albedo’s Story Quest Chapter title 白垩之章 (baie zhi zhang) = “Cretaceous Chapter” localized as “Princeps Cretaceous Chapter”

Albedo’s second Ascension voiceline, 白垩 (baie) = “chalk”/“Cretaceous”, localized as “albedo”, the second stage of the alchemical magnum opus

(even though in the context of alchemy, the albedo (Latin: “whitening”) stage should be 白化 (baihua, whitening) in Chinese because the albedo stage does not refer to chalk/limestone)

Albedo’s title 白垩之子 (baie zhi zi) = possibly varies slightly depending on context that it appears in, localized as “Kreideprinz”

Xingqiu’s “About Albedo” voiceline, 白垩老师 (baie laoshi) = (teacher) “Mr. Cretaceous” (Latin) or “Mr. Chalk” (English) or “Mr. Kreide” (German) localized as “Mr. Kreideprinz”

Version 1.2’s name 白垩与黑龙 (baie yu heilong) = “The White Chalk and the Black Dragon” or “Cretaceous and the Black Dragon”

or one can localize it in German like how they did the 4.0 Chapter IV Act I “Prelude of Blancheur and Noirceur” (French: “Prelude of Whiteness and Blackness” or ”Prelude of Innocence and Darkness”)

though, officially, Version 1.2’s name 白垩与黑龙 is localized as “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon”

Speaking of black and white in titles, another aside—

Don’t you know that HoYoverse loves juxtaposing white/black or light/shadow in its quest titles

1.2 Dragonspine event

Chinese: 白垩与黑龙 (Baie yu Heilong) = “The White Chalk and the Black Dragon” 

Official English: “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon”

2.3 Dragonspine event

Chinese: 皑尘与雪影 (Aichen yu Xueying) = “White Dust and Snowy Shadows” 

Official English: “Shadows Amidst Snowstorms”

皑 from 白雪皑皑 (baixue aiai) usually refers the whiteness of snow specifically, so 皑尘 as “(snowy) white dust” is just their over-the-top way to say “snow”.

“Snowy Dust and Snowy Shadows” sounds too humorous though.

I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SAY THIS FOR A LONG TIME NOW: of course symbolism-wise it’s likely that “white dust” refers to Albedo, “snow” refers to the Cryo Whooperflower Albedo, and “shadow” refers to Primordial Albedo, with Durin encompassing all three as the shadow dragon that lies dead—like dust—in the snowy mountain.

HoYoverse being HoYoverse has found a way to say white and black without even using the hanzi for white (白) and black (黑) back in 2.3.

4.0 Fontaine Act I

Chinese: 白露与黑潮的序诗 (Bailu yu Heichao de Xushi) = Prelude of White Dew and Black Tides

Official English: “Prelude of Blancheur and Noirceur” 

with French terms translated: “Prelude of Whiteness and Blackness” or “Prelude of Innocence and Darkness”

Given the information in 4.0, I would assume that “white dew” refers to Furina and “black tides” refers to Neuvillette seeing how Furina’s always at the front of key visuals and Neuvillette’s always looming ominously over the background, but you can also think of it as innocence vs guilt, I suppose.

POETIC ALLUSION UPDATE: 白露 alludes to the Chinese poem “蒹葭”(Jianjia) = “Reed”

from the ancient collection of poems, 诗经 (Shijing)

The poem is basically the narrator talking about not being able to reach their lover, who’s on the other side of the water (lake?)

The act’s Chinese title is already over-the-top—since most people would look at it and think “ah white and black and something about water, got it”—so localization’s aim is to match the fancy feel and not the accuracy ‘cause honestly if you localize all that into French it’d be too long. This makes sense…

Though, the implication that French holds such a high prestige that its mere presence is enough to balance out some loss of meaning from the Chinese title is… strange, now that I think of it.

白露与黑潮的序诗 (Prelude of White Dew and Black Tides) in French would be “Prélude de la rosée blanche et des marées noires”… I think. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

This time HoYoverse found another way to say white and black while using the hanzi characters AND STILL BE EXTRA BECAUSE THEY ALLUDED TO A CHINESE POEM OF COURSE THEY DID. ARCHONS, man…

New drinking game: take a shot whenever black/white or dark/light is juxtaposed in a Genshin title/name of any language, take another shot if they don’t actually use the word/character for black/white in the target language, take another if they alluded to a Chinese poem or literature in the original LOL

[faerune]

miss livinia valerius 💚🐍

[calperna]

calpernia as the anti-herald. calpernia as the chosen of a would-be god who shakes off his control like an old coat the instant it is revealed to her. calpernia who takes with her the majority of the venatori when she abandons corypheus because they, like her, are once-slaves who see her as their leader and not the darkspawn she served. the network of spies she has throughout thedas. the weight of that. the drive of it. the way she returns to tevinter with her own sort of holy righteousness and fire in her eyes and is not afraid to burn it down to rebuild it.

[dragonsarecats]

going INSANE over the implications about kaeya with this new quest. he called dain a "pureblooded khaen'riahn" which we later learn means he suffers from the curse of immortality, of which kaeya definitely does not have because he grew up in Mondstadt. kaeya's pupils are different from the other "pureblooded khaenriahns" we've seen because there's is more of a hollow outline??? idk also the fact that we have NO idea what happened to caribert means that he could be kaeya's ancestor also?? because otherwise how is he an alberich??? anyways kaeya mains stay winning ig because they definitely are not stopping here like i lowkey feared lol

[genshinmp3]

Silhouette of Catastrophe from Pelagic Primaevality Lunan, HOYO-MiX

[silverdrein2]

Dancing in shadows.

[yuelun]

/takes a little breath amidst a quiet dash. Starter call!

Though I have threads/asks to get to, I'm curious if one of these would catch anyone's attention. I know sending in sentence starters isn't always up everyone's alley and it's a little harder when it comes to interacting with a character who's canonically dead in present day, like mine. Although (I need to write up the details for the first iteration of it) I do have her resurrected in a present timeline (see tags). If you're interested in me either coming to you, or fishing up something with a bit of a red line, give this a like and I'll see what I can do! Trust me when I say, if we're mutuals, I'm interested in writing with you. See this as a little cheat to grab my attention if you want it!

[vannypies]

INTJ AWARDS! Who's your favorite INTJ?!

[nihiltism]

I know I've infodumped this before but not as its own post so let's go. what I'd do if I was in charge of making a live a live anime. I am ignoring the fact that I desperately want it to be a musical because that's not going to happen so ask me about my Separate thoughts about what I'd do if I was in charge of making a The Day The Night Slept The Album-ening of live a live.

ok so my Basic Idea is I'd let the show have a 13 episode (maybe 14? does that happen?) first season. I assume each of the first 7 chapters would need about 2 episodes, but I can see some that end in one like wild west or Definitely present day. I could also see some taking longer though, like distant future and near future. it'd even itself out I think to average to 2 episodes each.

it'd be an anthology series basically. a bunch of non-connected stories, but tied together by one key point. a narrator. see I have a Framing Device idea here and it's that we know odio from the very beginning, but never see his face or know who he is. this is very inspired by princess tutu here but here the stories are actively being Read by somebody outside of it, and occasionally he takes the reins to bend the retelling a bit, likely in the chapter boss' favor. note that while the anime is actually Playing and showing the characters, if the narrator does decide to kick in the characters will likely not be doing what he says they are, and they Definitely cannot hear him. it's an unreliable narrator story, but to the point where it's pretty easy to tell that he's biased. in practice how this probably would go would be like in princess tutu, occasionally when a character reaches a point that justifies his own philosophy in some way he'll cut in and monologue about The Nature Of Man Bringing Only Tragedy or whatever the fuck. also maybe cutting in to give the chapter villains some sympathy for the devil, maybe at the end to close each story out as he turns the last page? I dunno I don't want to be Too obvious but like. odio does sound pretty damn evil by default so maybe it'd be obvious anyway.

anyway! that's season one. anthology of short stories. on the final episode I'd leave it hanging on him picking up one last book or something, but I'd let that be told in either a short season (again, do these happen?) or a movie ??? anyway that would start out with the middle ages chapter, which I don't think will have any narration? I'm iffy on this? it'd be cool to see his retrospective thoughts on his own story but also, that's a bit heavy-handed, I'm not sure. anyway the thing is that around the end, when oersted breaks into his soliloquy at the archons roost. there I think we'd get a sort of cut-in, as halfway through our narrator starts reading it out himself. shut book camera pan Blonde Man Jumpscare I think that's the best way to go about the "oh shit the villain is the protag of that story" reveal. also it'd be fun. anyway that'd be either the beginning chunk or the first two? episodes?

from here I'm not Exactly sure how to frame it because all of the endings are Very important, but also kind of. happen at the same time? I do not know how to do this. the easy way would just be to have it remain anthology-ish, and have say the boss rush version of the dominion of hate be one story while the rest is another, but I don't think that fits into the framing device well. mm?? I have no idea. I think we're good without the bad ending of the dominion of hate happening as long as the "if you kill this dude you'll end up just as fucked as him" message gets conveyed in some way or another but I don't think we can skip the whole other version of the DoH.

maybe we can play it less as Actually Happening and more a what if scenario?? more odio just. Fucking Talking Alone Again about what Could be if not for Man's Folly^tm. I think that'd get the point across, be a good intro for the rest of the dominion of hate and stay in universe but it would Not have the added bonus of "ok you kicked around a bunch of jrpg protagonists now what. did that make you feel any better" unless we tried to hammer that home in a different way. and oh boy do I not have a single idea what to do with the armageddon ending. maybe instead just have him mention how if he and the other odios were Still denied he'd have the page burnt entirely or something. maybe at the end. shrugs. there's not a ton I can do here.

eh. anyway the actual dominion of hate would likely be more based in the protagonists than anything, likely picking a main character (Probably Akira) and not having a Narrator as much as just being in the mc's head from time to time. though I Do like the idea of odio still being there Attempting to nudge the protags and them being actually able to hear him this time, it'd have to be used infrequently. or not at all. there is a certain merit to them not knowing anything about him until getting to the archons roost but Us knowing a lot. I dunno. anyway I think this adaptation would have a lot more interactions between the protagonists (desperately needed) and I think that'd take up most of the runtime there, we can incorporate the trials if we want to (trial of heart is necessary to be sure but the rest really aren't, so it can be a good dungeon for the whole team to go through and have some more plot-motivated character moments) but I think Getting The Band Together might already take a good amount of time if we don't rush past good chances for character building or interaction. I want it to feel like the mcs Do actually start to be a team that is the thing I have the Most problems with about the game, though in doing so that will mean we're gonna have to do away with the 4 character party thing unless we want to have them split up sometimes. that's details. the point is that it's going to be All the mcs together most of the time and hopefully it doesn't feel crowded.

anyway from there it kind of goes as expected, except with the aforementioned (we don't need to have the bad ending be its own thing but we do need to mention the consequences). maybe somebody of the team Does try to grant oersteds wish before being held back or something. for similarities reasons I say oboro but this can be wiggled. anyway I also think around the actual Ending ending you'd get more than just one monologue from the mcs, you'd probably get more of like. an actual Conversation I guess? the mcs building off of each other's points to oersted? I dunno I'm spitballing here I do think it would Start Off with akira's ending though and then somebody scruffs him and continues off from there. I dunno the important thing is that everybody should get a word in or perhaps a hug in in the case of pogo. I think that's it though? I probably won't return to the plot device to show like another book being closed or whatever that is purely A Plot Device so it'd be weird to have it come back after oersted was Thoroughly Dead. I will say though if the live a live anime has an ED it's gotta have sin of odio in the A that's the law.

[imperator-solitarius]

Tag List

General:

🐥 speaks – The Kabukimono speaks

👑 puppet verse – Puppet Verse Belial speaks

verse: memokeeper – H:SR Belial speaks

verse: craftsman leiyue – H:SR The Kabukimono speaks

🎛🌌verse: thundering shadow – ZZZ The Kabukimono/Belial speaks

🪲speaks – Sandābagu 'speaks'

Interactions:

🔺️👑 prince – Rubedo interactions

🐈‍⬛ adi – Adi interactions

🐤 onyx – Onyx interacts

🐦‍⬛karasu – Karasu interactions

🪻puppet – Ningyō Kizashi interactions

🪽hat guy – Wanderer interactions

⏳️balladeer – Scaramouche interactions

♟️archons – Archon interactions

⚡️mother – Ei interactions

Posts:

Nothing here yet!

Threads:

sprout and the eccentric – Kizashi fights Kabukimono

Other:

puppet in a vast universe – Genshin's the Kabukimono meets other game characters

⛰️forge – Tatarasuna threads (retired tag)

🔨 niwa – Niwa Hisahide mentions (retired tag)

🪺hatching – RP memes/silly posts

turnip god – April Fool's Day 2024 (archived)

mod speaks

[dkniade]

What does albedo's title actually means,"Kreideprinz" in German it translates to chalk prince,but i tried to translate the Chinese one and it said "son of the chalk" what is the difference,can you tell me??

Kreideprinz, Albedo’s Chinese Title, and Albedo and Rhinedottir’s Relationship 

(Albedo Character Stories, 1.2 The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Act IV, 2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms: Act I, 3.5 Windblume’s Breath: Act III)

-

Hello! Thank you for the question.

(This was actually one of the first Genshin things I tried to translate back in late 2021 but I couldn’t explain it very well so here’s an encore.)

Okay so Genshin Impact’s English localization does this thing sometimes where they’ll take the Chinese name of a noteworthy group, building, or other special item/concept, and localize it into the language(s) from the culture(s) the region is based on. (E.g. In the English version, Fischl’s speech is often localized with German terms but she’s just using lots of purple prose in Chinese.)

With that being said, Albedo’s title in Chinese is 白垩之子 (baie zhi zi). 白垩 means “chalk”, as in limestone (compare with 白垩纪 (baie ji, Cretaceous Period). I don’t know much German if at all, but to my knowledge, the “kreide” part of “Kreideprinz” also means “chalk”, and “prinz” means “prince”, meaning “Kreideprinz” is “Chalk Prince”.

子 however feels a bit ambiguous in this context… It could mean “son” (e.g. 儿子 / erzi), or “person” (e.g. 男子 / nanzi = man, 女子 / nüzi =  woman), and 子 doesn’t necessarily mean “prince” by itself, however 王子 / wangzi (lit. king’s child) does mean “prince”. (Compare to 公子 / gonzi = “young master”, aka childe. Yes, that Childe.) Also, 弟子 / dizi means “follower”, or “disciple”, be it in a Daoist context or a scholarly context. 

All in all, 白垩之子’s meaning depends on the context a lot, specifically in terms of how Rhinedottir and Albedo see their relationship. Perhaps HoYoverse is intentionally being ambiguous. 

In order to know the nature of Albedo and Rhinedottir’s relationship from both their perspectives, we need to examine Chinese terminologies used to describe their relationship. (And even then, it varies a bit over time…)

------

Character Story 3

In Albedo’s Character Story 3, Rhinedottir is described as both 师父 (shifu, master/mentor) and Albedo’s only 亲人 (qinren, family member). HoYoverse translates this second term to “kin” (one’s family and relations).

Original CN: “师父的地位显然最为特殊。对阿贝多来说，她是唯一的亲人”

My EN TL: “It’s obvious that his master’s position [in relation to him] is the most special. To Albedo, she’s his only family member.”

Official EN TL: “And yet his master is unquestionably the most special to him. For Albedo, she is his only kin.”

Here, from Albedo’s perspective, Rhinedottir is his master and only family member.

-----

Character Story 4

But we know from Albedo’s Story 4 that 白垩之子 is a title Rhinedottir gave him when he finished his studies under her, so it’d be helpful to know what the title 白垩之子 meant to Rhinedottir, and whether in that moment she saw him as her son (儿子, erzi), or apprentice (弟子, dizi), or creation…

Here, 出师 (chushi) is “to serve out one’s apprenticeship”, and Rhinedottir is again referred to as 师父 (shifu, master/mentor). The official English localization does not specify these two concepts.

Original CN: “此外，还有一件较为特殊的礼物：师父对阿贝多出师一事给予书面认可，并授予他「白垩之子」的称号。”

My EN TL: “Aside from this, there was another relatively special gift: his master left him a written acknowledgement that he’s served out his apprenticeship, and gave him the title of [Chinese equivalent of Kreideprinz].” 

Official EN TL: “If one were to push the definition a little, she had left him another gift — the title of Kreideprinz, and with it, a written acknowledgment that she had nothing further to teach him.” 

Here, Rhinedottir and Albedo are explicitly described as having a master/apprentice relationship. 

----

Character Story 5

And in Albedo’s Story 5, his nature as a homunculus is strongly implied. Rhinedottir is described as, again, 师父 (shifu, master/mentor), but also that she is 有别于父母 (youbie yu fumu, different from a parent) yet it’s also explicitly stated that “Albedo’s life comes from her”. 

Note that 父母 (fumu) is (technically) “father and mother”, but it can refer to both birth parents or adoptive parents because the nature is not specified. The English localization doesn’t go into detail here and Rhinedottir is simply stated as “not his birth mother”.

Original CN: “师父固然有别于父母，可毫无疑问，阿贝多的生命来自于她。”

My EN TL: “His master is of course different from a parent, but there’s no doubt that Albedo’s life comes from her.” 

Official EN TL: “She was not his birth mother, but there is no doubt that his life stems from her.”

Applied to Rhinedottir though, parent is used as a counterexample here in Chinese. Sounds like some sort of experiment with dubious morals (confirmed in 2.3). 

So how would a master who’s not a parent see a living creation such as Albedo…?

----

1.2 The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Afterword (Act V)

Albedo again refers to Rhinedottir as his 师父 (shifu, master/mentor) in his soliloquy at the end of 1.2 The Chalk Prince and the Dragon, when he talks about Durin.

Original CN: 莱茵多特…师父…这就是你曾经创造的巨龙「杜林」吗？

My EN TL: Rhinedottir… Master… So this is Durin, the great dragon that you created back then?”

Official EN TL: “Rhinedottir… Master… Is this your creation, the giant dragon Durin?”

And yet—

----

2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms: The Snowy Past (Act I)

We also get confirmation in 2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms that Albedo is a synthetic human (“artificial human” also works) created by Rhinedottir, who, according to him this time, is his mother and teacher.

(Though, Shadows Amidst Snowstorms happens in Mondstadt, meaning he’s known Klee and Alice for quite some time now, so perhaps Alice taught him the meaning of “mother”.)

Original CN: “我是一个人造人。将我创造出来的，正是我的母亲和老师——坎瑞亚学者，「黄金」莱茵多特。”

My EN TL: “I am a synthetic human. The one who created me is none other than my mother and teacher—the Khaenri’ahn researcher, “Gold” Rhinedottir.”

Official EN TL: “I am a synthetic human being... a human forged by human hand. The one who created me, my mother and teacher, her name is Rhinedottir — a researcher from Khaenri’ah, also known as "Gold."”

BUT WAIT, WE’RE NOT DONE YET. ‘CAUSE WE STILL NEED TO CONSIDER, OF COURSE—

---

3.5 Windblume’s Breath: Joy Above the Clouds (Act III)

…which changes everything, so much that I was quite frustrated when I first watched it, but let’s look at this again from a more rational perspective.

Rhinedottir says, in a casual tone as the animation shows flasks and test tubes—

Original CN: “我养了一个儿子呢。许多个孩子，最终只剩他一人。也算是当了母亲吧？” 

My EN TL: “I’m raising a son, you know. Of the many children I have, only he remained in the end. Guess that would still make me a mother?” 

Official EN TL: “I'm raising a son. Of all the children I had, he's the only one left. But I suppose that still makes me a mother?”

Okay, so in the 3.5 cutscene, Rhinedottir sees her relationship with Albedo as a mother/son relationship.

----

Interpretations?

So where does that leave us, with Albedo’s title 白垩之子？

…

Remember how I said 子 (zi) depends on the context?

Some interpretations:

Albedo Story 4, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedottir is the master; Albedo is the graduated apprentice — 白垩之子 could mean “Disciple of Chalk”

Albedo Story 3 and 5, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedottir is the master, family member, and not-really-parent figure; Albedo is the apprentice — 白垩之子 could mean “Son of Chalk”

1.2 Dragonspine Act IV, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedotir is the master — 白垩之子 could mean “Disciple of Chalk”

2.3 Dragonspine Act I, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedottir is the mother and teacher; Albedo is her creation and homunculus. — 白垩之子 could mean both “Son of Chalk” and “Prince of Chalk” (Kreideprinz)

(Prince in a metaphoric “fancy title” way, like how Childe is not actually a nobleman despite his title…)

3.5 Windblume Act III, Rhinedottir’s POV: Rhinedottir is the mother, Albedo is the son — 白垩之子 could mean “Son of Chalk”

----------

…Albedo can’t seem to define clearly his relationship with Rhinedottir, even though Rhinedottir seems to consider him her son, at least in the cutscene.

*like it’s a dramatic monologue*

What is “mother”? What is “ master”? “Son”? “Apprentice”? What is… 白垩之子?

The truth of this title, does “Kreideprinz” encompass all this…?

I don’t know.

Or in other words, maybe he’s whatever you want him to be, based on the context.

…Thank you for reading! ^^

[wonkyclownboy]

Someone’s definitely said this before but the Fontaine prophecy is kinda like Noah’s ark, if not directly inspired by it. Every Fontainian bearing ‘Original Sin’, flooding destined to wipe out all Fontainian, Wrio’s giant boat in preparation for the catastrophe, I forgot where I was going with this draft but it’s neat

[sinslythingz]

done only with encouragement from @codsfish