#collei. she also had a “neutral” element despite manifesting as black fire. whatever that means

[torgawl]

adding onto this and why diluc's delusion may be traced back to alchemy or the art of khemia and, consequently, khaenri'ah:

in scara's character story 4 , we learn that ei used knowledge of khaenri'ahn alchemy to create him and that it was through studying scara that dottore was able to form the basis for his segments.

this isn't the only time dottore has shown interest in khaneri'ah as arlecchino's voicelines about him and the previous knave, crucabena, show they worked together (crucabena let dottore make experimentations on the kids). because crucabena was interested in arlecchino's powers (balemoon fire), it's not impossible that dottore was involved in arlecchino's journey from a very ealy age.

furthermore, the description of arlecchino's weapon (crimson moon semblance) lets us know the object was used in a ritual to "bridge two worlds".

in perinheri, the main character (part of an orphanage known to take in children in hopes of finding one with a will capable of transcending the gods) goes through a process of rebirth through a chimney-like place, where he's asked if he's dead. a rebirth is a connection between two world - the living and the dead.

all this is very reminiscent to the ritual performed by the narzissenkreuz ordo in which rene made the decision to become "the first subject" of his radical experimentation and have his personality removed. prior to the secret ritual, he had extracted carter, facilitating his rebirth. rene eventually convinced lyris to join the ordo and extracted part of her essence to replicate her body. during the ritual, he used the holy blade of narzissenkreuz (another weapon) to extract his own consciousness and be reborn as the master, narzissenkreuz.

it's important to also refer that rene wanted to become a descender and part of his research was based on khaenri'ahn alchemy.

arlecchino's connection to rebirth (also through her fire erasing memories and loss of memories being equated to death, both in her character story and by the aranaras), is obviously another scenario on why dottore might be familiarised with the art of khemia and therefore could have recognised something specific upon seeing the delusion diluc was carrying with himself.

the delusion's powers also look a lot like a mixture of abyssal corruption and crimson agate - a crystal created from concentrated life force with an energy unique to dragonspine, provenient from durin's blood seeping into the ley lines - or scarlet quartz - a red gemstone produced from durin's decaying remains, known to generate heat and also increase explosive power, though it's highly toxic to normal humans -, which we know shares similar properties with the flesh and blood of elynas (which jakob wanted to use to create transcended "neohumans"), as well as the dark mud in the chasm.

to add to the bit about the alchemy table's symbols possibly representing celestial bodies, the symbols actually look a lot like the ones on the blessing of the welkin moon screen. plus, the alchemical symbol for the sun (⊙) can also be found at the center of the table. both celestial bodies represent the two most precious metals, gold (sun) and silver (moon). the original magnum opus, process of working with the prima materia to create the philosopher's stone, has four stages: nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubero. the process can be looked at as the transformation from night into day with both nigredo and albedo being associated with the moon, whereas citrinitas and rubedo are associated with the sun. hence, both celestial bodies being the perfect illustration for alchemy.

did you know the star of ishtar (eight-pointed star, commonly associated with the abyss and khaenri'ah) could be found with a crescent moon and a rayed solar disk in ishtar's temples? much like the symbol behind the welkin moon lady. the symbol can also represent the moon and venus (insert here the morning and evening star and lucifer symbolism) or the sun during an eclipse. i don't think i have to mention one of the obvious inspirations behind the name for istaroth, the goddess of time (and theorised moon sister).

and do you know what else looks like three moons in an orbit? albedo's eyes! albedo, our primordial human project guy, created by non-other than rhinedottir and durin and elynas' brother.

final thoughts: you cannot convince me this delusion doesn't have any ties with khaenri'ah, one way or another. i don't know what the ragnvindr family is up to but their incessant ties to alchemy, the sun and the moon, seelies and istaroth are very much suspicious. if this isn't confirmed some time into the future, i will riot.

ps. if you want to read my other post that falls more specifically on diluc's connection to khaenri'ah through istaroth, click here.

continuing my crepus posting, can we just talk about his delusion for a second? because even dottore thought it was unique. dottore was surprised for seeing someone wielding a delusion, sure, i assume it's not everyday you see that especially in that situation. that's normal, but saying specifically that it piqued his interest, calling it "perfect and utterly peerless", encouraging diluc to grow stronger and saying "i can see a bright future ahead of you"? a bit weird. so this got me thinking, what if this delusion is different than other delusions?

as we can see from the webtoon panel of crepus wielding it, there's two things about the delusion that we haven't seen associated to any others so far: chains and what seems like an alchemy circle. this delusion doesn't just hold elemental power, it can create something (or transform/manifest the power into something physical). we read somewhere someone referring to the delusion fire as "black flames" so probably the chains are embued in that power but the chains themselves don't look like fire. another curious detail about crepus' delusion is the way it interacts with ursa the drake, besides being the only thing able to drive the dragon away, it changed its eye colour from yellow to red! when the delusion finally backfired onto crepus, we can see that the air and diluc's hands after touching his father seem to fill with black dust. and maybe this is nothing, i mean, fire burns and what is burnt generally releases ashes but dust can also be tracked down to alchemy, more specifically the art of khemia (an advanced form of alchemy that sustained the underground kingdom of khaenri'ah). and do you know what's also different in crepus' delusion specifically? the symbol that appears on the orb.

unlike other delusions, it isn't the fatui symbol (or the elemental symbol, like the one visions have) but instead a big circle with a small circle inside it. that's literally the symbol that appears in alchemy tables!!! if you look at it attentively, it looks like a big circle was parted into three and they go around it like orbits. and is it a coincidence that three is a constant number appearing in genshin, including associated to three beings that are always drawn with similar symbols everywhere across the game, three moon sisters - a representation of the moon?

because there's other instances of circles within a circle drawn in the game. it reminds me of an eclipse like the one shown in abyssal moon spire (easily connected to the eclipse dynasty of khaenri'ah where the crimson moon was replaced by a black sun), the moon depicted in tsurumi island (that from what i understand got its hole after kapatcir descended) and the crimson moon that became an eye in perinheri (book about the crimson dynasty in khaenri'ah - the one that preceded the eclipse dynasty). khaenri'ah and alchemy possibly being tied to crepus' delusion doesn't sound so crazy anymore, right?

the insistence that crepus was a "mere businessman" by eroch and that being the reason they couldn't let the people know he saved everyone from ursa the drake (which led to diluc's resignation) also sounds like the perfect little detail to throw for some sort of plot-twist. yes, this is mostly my wishful thinking but also, what if crepus really wasn't just a business man? diluc got his "red dead of night" outfit from his father who had a ceremonial uniform tailored for diluc in advance and diluc modified it for battle. maybe that's where the resemblances with the fatui come from, as a way to go unnoticed or mix in during his time hunting the fatui. at least it's easy to discard it as something deeper that way. but i don't think it's such a crazy idea anymore to think of something crazier when we consider the ragnvindr's connections to the hexenzirkel (the teapots and diluc's jacket patterns being the same as the ones in the hexenzirkel cutscenes) and the fact kaeya was left purposefully at dawn's winery. again, maybe it could just be because the ragnvindr are a prestiged family but also, what if there's something else here? is it that impossible?