#dain & interactions

[baeshijima]

u know what would be a cool genshin fic idea? isekai/transmigrated reader, but instead of appearing within the general timeline, you come into the genshin world 500 years prior to the start of the storyline in khaenri'ah.

honestly it could be either a little before the cataclysm, giving enough time to delve into some relationship building + explore some world building with characters like dainsleif, traveller's sibling (which would probably be lumine bc i actually do like her as abyss sibling & aether as traveller), and npcs like halfdan (still crying over him to this day ;w;) and possibly the khaenri'ahn royal guards (assuming you either join them or have a good enough relationship with them), OR it could be you appear during the crisis, completely and utterly lost as to why you were brought amidst the chaos and bloodshed as you watch everything you barely knew about this nation crumble before your very eyes.

either route will still result in reader's existential crises and constant "why am i here? just to suffer?" monologues because really, who would be fine after going through that after coming from /our/ world? and not to mention you've had to endure the next 500 years wandering with no real set path because you don't know this world— this era of teyvat or of genshin. you're merely stuck, unable to die, and forced to live a life of uncertainty with no clear direction for you to go to.

despite it all, you've at least been able to see dain during this course. while your meetings pass far too quickly for your lonesome, and his solemn demeanour is something you're yet to be accustomed to after having been with him before the fall of khaenri'ah (assuming it's the route where you appear before the cataclysm), you're glad to see a familiar face every now and then. after the messy departure with the lumine who left for the abyss order, you've come to appreciate his quiet presence more and more each time.

and then you decide it might be time to settle. you soon realise it's difficult to do so when your lifespan has become far more than that of a human's — of a mortal's — and so you find yourself becoming used to staying in one place for a few years before setting off for the next. rinse and repeat. over and over. it's come to a point where you've witnessed the nations undergo various changes each time you visit. you know change is inevitable, and yet your heart stings each time you witness it; a testament to how the world is ever-changing, yet you're stuck in place as a bystander.

one thing you're grateful for, however, are the bonds you've established amid your back-and-forth over the centuries. from archons like zhongli and venti to long-life beings such as neuvillette and the adepti to regular mortals who have showed you kindness as if one of their own... you've grown to cherish those memories, often reminiscing them when the nights get too long and surroundings too quiet. it was difficult at first, and still is, but you've become used to the inevitable change and the passing of those you once knew.

and after 500 years, you find yourself face-to-face with one you haven't seen since before you appeared in this world; the protagonist of this world, and the one you eventually join in hopes of finally finding a means to an end, aether.

little side notes/extras:

from /our/ world, you would probably know the storyline from up to around current (5.0) or maybe a little after the fontaine aq conclusion. it gives a lot to work with, but you definitely won't remember a lot of the lore after so long other than some main events, especially since most of your knowledge is pretty irrelevant for the next 500 years,,,

i think it would be cool if you had an inteyvat on your person as a little homage of khaenri'ah, which may or may not invoke some opinions from certain characters (*cough* aether immediately being reminded of lumine and having an existential crisis *cough*)

post-cataclysm you would go through a, uhm, long phase of helplessness, wondering why you were even brought to this world so far back if you couldn't even make any contributions. it does eventually morph into a resolution to do what you can to help those you come across if it's within your capabilities, but the nightmares and helplessness come back every now and then as a reminder for what you can't do :D yippee :D

honestly i'm on the fence whether you would have a vision or some other type of abilities (think on the similar lines of aether/lumine's and dain's), but i think having some type of purification mechanic would be a must in your arsenal !! would definitely lead to some moments between you and characters like dain or zhongli who suffer from the erosion as you give them a slight reprieve from what rages within and corrodes them

a little self indulgent, but i'd like to think your first /proper/ meeting with zhongli happens during a lantern rite festival, wherein you're admiring the lanterns in the sky after making a wish of your own and he comes up from behind with "they're beautiful, wouldn't you say so?" and !!

also as for love interests, as much as i would love for human/mortal characters, a part of me feels like this story would be better suited for the immortal/long-life characters as love interests?? idk i feel like considering that 500 years is, well, a long time, the bonds you would have with them compared to characters like, say, alhaitham or diluc would be way too different ?? though i would definitely still add them as love interest bc i am a sucker for so many of the human characters ;w; it would also add to the angst and hurt/comfort ahahha...

anyway thank you for reading this massive brain dump of a fic bc i absolutely would put this as a long term project, and if u made it this far then i would like to say that dain solos—

[markantonys]

andor's colors are red and white, in eotw the opposing factions in caemlyn are red (pro-morgase/white tower) and white (anti-morgase/tower), in tsr gawyn chooses red (elaida/tower) and galad chooses white (whitecloaks/anti-tower)..............gawyn and galad really are complementary characters who parallel and foil each other

[likethewillowfic]

hey

please feel free to leave comments on my posts. i know most old school tumblr users don’t really like it, but EYE do. i love brain rotting with friends. especially about dain aetos and sloane mairi

k bye love you

<3 willow

[aromanticasterisms]

also. vedrfolnir the visionary + dainsleif's introduction being given by a "self-proclaimed prophet" + vedrfolnir being "imprisoned and blinded in both eyes for giving an oracle" before the cataclysm... was that ominous prophecy the last thing dain's brother said to him before everything happened

[wvsteria]

@mcrcki: can we talk about it? - violet and dain

"oh, now you want to talk about it, vi?" dain didn't want to be angry with her, but he couldn't help it. he felt a sense of betrayal that she couldn't be honest with him. that he had to find out this way. "now that it's on your terms, we can actually have a conversation? i don't even know why."

[eyelashesandentropy]

first thoughts: dain sucks

[mcrcki]

@wvsteria said : our muses are going on a casual horseback ride through the center of town for dain/violet

she had to bury everything down right now, focus on just gathering all of their allies back together, and for some fucking reason, that always lead her right back to dain.. though, she should probably tell him the truth, to let him know that this whole situation wasn't working... but a horseback ride in the middle of town was not the place to do it. she had realized she was so lost in her mind, she didn't hear what he asked. "i'm sorry, i didn't hear you over the ride-- what did you ask?"

[fortheharbingers]

hi new moot :))

so whos ur favorite harbinger???!!

HI NEW MOOT !!! :>

oooh thats a question too easy and too tricky for me ehhehe

you see scaramouche means soooo much to me, one of my absolute favorites in the game but: if we are going with the canon lore and taking his erasure off irmunsul into consideration- hence the position of 6th harbinger being empty then the cake goes to childe!

another favorite of mine personality and lore wise<3 all roads lead back to certain events and characters- ajax being at the center of several of them

but honestly i love them all. especially il dottore<3 also capitano and arlecchino (depending on what we might get about them lore-wise, the love might grow. sadly they suffer the misfortune of being officially introduced during my heavy burnout and done-with-hoyo era)

wby who are your faves !!!

[etherline]

alright I know I’m not super active here but since it’s the only place I can rant about my viddy games I’m back

I found the 4.7 archon quest to be….disappointing.

I enjoyed it, obviously. I loved the resolution to Caribert’s story, I’m excited to see where the plot line of the five Khaenri’ahn sinners goes, especially now that we know Veidrfolnir is Dain’s BROTHER, which I did not see coming at all, but….

well, my complaints are a little hard to pin down. first, the setup of the vimara villagers having false memories, and Dain’s own memories being messed with, was promising. I knew they Dainsleif and the abyss stinking were going to fight, and I was hoping we’d get a return to the format of the chasm archon quest way back in 2022– teaming up with dain for an extended fight against the Abyss order with some lore drops.

but we didn’t actually get to see the fight, or even Dainsleif afterwards, despite Paimon saying that he was injured. And the abyss order won! Thanks to Caribert, the abyss order now has the loom of fate completed, which is the very thing we didn’t want.

and I know caribert did it so that he could have a “life”. He recognizes that it was selfish and even a little cruel to insert himself into the lives of the Vimara villagers, but we can’t blame him. He was robbed of his right to life at eight years old. Obviously he can’t be blamed for trying to live.

but in doing so, he brought the Loom of Fate into fruition. I feel like the quest didn’t focus on that enough—the Loom of Fate is finished and now the Abyss order has the power to accomplish its goals. Dain tells us that “irreparable damage has not yet been done” and we can still reconcile with the abyss sibling, but they are still one of our enemies. They want to challenge the heavenly principles head on and it’s been made pretty clear that the Abyss order doesn’t care if the rest of Teyvat is harmed on the way to its revenge.

I feel like this quest was basically just exposition to the player. The traveler themself hardly learned anything. The segment when they met the abyss sibling and spoke to them is erased from both their memories, so it felt like…nothing really. It just didn’t seem like a lot of substance, and it seemed to paint the abyss sibling and the look of fate like it was no longer a threat.

I dunno if any of that made sense but I still feel disappointed. This quest was kind of a nothingburger in my opinion, I can’t help but feel like the setup was great but what we got was just too little.

[narwhalandchill]

also finished the 4.7 AQ and like . well firstly rip to all the sinner theories where it was like could it be nibelung or someone else and all like that was a bit tragic but thats the nature of theories i suppose. i do think it makes sense that the bigger players arent just all going to be figures we Already know of but yea.

overall i think it was like. quite good but also kinda suffers from the way these quests just Have to be an annual thing especially with how short it was? i saw a comment being like this feels like it shouldve been the epilogue to caribert and i kinda agree . also as much as it is appreciated that we Do get some direct answers to big lore questions in the quest was kind of a exposition dump in that sense . fade to black w the abyss sib and dain duel was certainly a Choice 💀

caribert truly is a sweetheart man i didnt expect him to pop up but i feel so bad for him now. except for the loomzoning atossa thing i get that he had no choice on the matter but that was rough for ur girl 😭😭

iiiiiii dunno how to feel about the whole we forget all about the reunion anyway when traveler Remembering as a descender has been established as such a core thing like it kinda feels like a copout im ngl . guess we are just now . aware of information as players that the traveler is not privy to . considering im already more than a little wary towards the general concept of like. memory erasure slash irminsul stuff when it comes to genshins writing im definitely feeling conflicted w this . also applies to the loom of fate editing reality thing . like okay on some level yes it is cool to include such prevalent elements of like. uncertainty and unreliable narration but in worst case those concepts are also v easy for a careless writing team to just. run off w and end up w a convoluted mess so i rly rly hope that wont end up the case

anyway. so the sinners are the big deal this time around i suppose and like. not that i wasnt necessarily expecting surtalogi to indeed be khaenriahn but the confirmation is certainly here now. no particular feelings on this from me im afraid bc like. Highly unpopular lore thing from me but both khaenriah n hexenzirkel (the latter more so than former) are kinda these. big lore topics and entities that i logically Do know and acknowledge as the massive deals they are to the story. but they just arent sth i have so far gotten that invested in altho khaenriah i have somewhat warmed up to . hexenzirkel still feels too much like an unnecessary presence to me lmao i might be missing out on stuff but if the abyss order arguably has a lack of story presence issue then the witches have it like 5 times worse 💀 But point being surtalogi being part of this whole crew of transcendent beings from khaenriah that became sinners is like . okay then isiskskskdk its not that big a deal for me

i think the most meaningful implications from that (in terms of My personal lore fixations at least *cough*) just have to do w like . sth id already been thinking about even before we got the confirmation of the visionary as the sinner that clothar found (which was a big theory anyway that i did personally find very compelling and well its canon now). and that is just the way that like . when skirk compared surtalogi as one in pursuit of "perfection" and brought up the visionary and rhinedottir as two ppl akin to him. that and the narzissenkreuz note about primordial human essentially being the synonym for descenders . & how rhines magnum opus was the primordial human PROJECT aka in light of this note. Very likely to be an attempt at Creating a descender . and how the sinners and abyss orders loom of fate is obviously just another pathway into accessing some sorta will or way to rival the world and defy the heavenly principles . became this thing where i was like 90% convinced and now 100% convinced that if the "perfection" both gold and the visionary pursue is indeed a descenders will in one form or another . then surtalogis aims Must involve the same fucking thing

which naturally gets us back to the insane ajax theory territory bc . if what connects those 3 (and post 4.7 more like. All the transcendent sinners from khaenriah) is getting to that world rivaling will. Then it sure fucking makes Everything surtalogi is doing and planning w both the narwhal and ajax Very Interesting . like it sure is curious that These would be the things surtalogi is occupying himself with if its indeed a descender he seeks . so like . Yeah we dont need to get into 3rd descender stuff but one thing i sure do think is becoming less and less like crackpot speculation and more and more and explicitly foreshadowed future direction for childes arc is that. one way or another. he is going to be involved with the subject of becoming a descender . bc like. if gold tried creating one w alchemy. and if the visionary is Literally creating a loom of fate to serve as the machine capable of weaving a worlds worth of leylines and destiny aka just a descender equivalent machine . then it sure wouldnt make sense for surtalogi to be putting all this heavy effort and resources (as skirk commented on) towards acquiring and possibly subduing an interstellar voyager like the narwhal and getting his student to look for and train the weird kid with a possibly innate connection w it. Without that serving a role in His brand of descender equivalency that hes seeking as a sinner. So yeah childe long term relevance stocks are definitely up w this one guys Trust

but yea thats on surtalogi for me . Point being its not rly a New suspicion for me (like ever since primordial human project started sounding like DIY descender lab project i was thinking this) but i think its been absolutely further affirmed by directly linking surtalogi to the sinners of khaenriah that more likely than not seem like theyre All going to be ppl who used the abyss to seek the power of a descender in a variety of ways???? so thats very neat . wonder who the other 2 will turn out to be then .

another thing to do w the sinners is also like. the way that if we do count dainsleif among them just as one that Didnt jusr abandon the ppl during the cataclysm . there is obviously that doomed number of Six there . so like pygmy theories have been going wild already in the few days it took me to catch up w the AQ but im just kinda . i Still think pale princess is most likely to be about an irminsuled event and be about sth far further back into the timeline than khaenriah and the cataclysm . theres things like rhe night mother specifically talking abt Thousands of years passing before the new hero (= 4th descender aka us most likely) appears to challenge her and also just the general way i still think pale princess aligns too much w the story of the seelie ancestor and her lover Not to be a story about that time period . so as much as the 5+1 sinners of khaenriah being the pygmies is like. Yes the numbers would finally add up clearly with no mental backflips needed unlike w the archons . but like all things considered im still a bit unconvinced. we shall see . that book is a menace anyway so its always gonna be a hot topic lmao like what is Up with it 💀

[tragcdysewn]

closed starter for dain aetos!! ( @wvsteria )

the boy he remembered dain aetos being and the grown man who stood before him were hard to mesh together in his mind, but after seeing all three of his children aged years seemingly overnight, he had to assume the same had happened to his daughter's friend. "dain, it's good to see you."

[reginrokkr]

Wowies, I hath survived this week's (2) deadly exams... barely. I still loathe that today's had to be done today and not on Monday because of some classmates who ended up ditching, but oh well. Putting that behind, I have good news and it's that for the next two weeks, everything will be far more relaxed! That means that I'll be able to engage into more activities here and be more productive IC wise. I thank you for your patience ♥︎

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

I know we’re suppose to hate Dain, but damn is this kid the most annoying character in the book. He annoys me every time he steps on to the page. It’s very hard to get through he and Violets interactions. He’s insufferable. She didn’t even try to make him appealing💀

He has the SAME conversation with Violet in each portion. Come on we don’t have to drive the point home that he’s not The GUY. He can still be a nuanced character here.

[forgottenelegies]

@wvsteria - Susan Pevensie for Dain Aetos !

SUSAN HAD OFTEN been told that she was logical to a fault; that she could do with filling her head with a bit more than the barriers others believed to be there. Of course, she disagreed at times with those perceptions people liked to give, and yet, as she sat thinking on her work, there were times she felt she needed to be...less herself. There was a divine lack of inspiration sometimes persisting in her. 'Lieutenant General,' she emphasised, looking across to Dain with a pleading look written across her. 'I sometimes feel it must be easier wrangling those in the air force than that of a classroom full of children - especially this time of year. I'll offer a free coffee if you tell me your tricks.'

[twilightichor]

If by any chance you like the characters I write (this goes for both Jinhsi and Dain in this context) and the way I have to approach things IC (I'd assume as much if we're mutuals, to be honest dfjhgj), I highly encourage you peeps to build our own thing. It doesn't matter if they're muses from different fandoms or the same. Do you want to write an idea but it's hard to make it happen for reasons? Let's talk it out and we'll find a way to make it work, it doesn't matter if we have to bend the laws of the canon in which our muses move.

[wvsteria]

dain aetos & xaden riorson @tragcdysewn

it was completely inappropriate what he was doing. and violet had asked him, demanded he not do anything. but dain couldn't just sit back after hearing what had happened between them. "hey, riorson." he at least chose a time when they'd be the only two in the building. especially considering he was acting out of line as xaden's subordinate. "we need to have a talk right now."