#it's also in King Deshret's mechanical thingies

[reginrokkr]

→ Study 𝐗𝐕𝐈: Colors of the rainbow —elements—. White light, Ether and Void.

Today while I was speed-running Lisa's event to get her outfit, I was reminded of an old thought of mine that I never elaborated upon. We know that the Elemental Sight can perceive the world in a different way so long as what it's being seen is touched by the elements, but thus far we only know of 7 of them which coincide with the current Heptatheon of Archons. However, there have been bits and pieces that let on the premise that there are more than 7 existing elements, and I'll start first with a namecard's description which I think it's pretty neat for this:

It's curious to see something that was released so early on in the story already alluded to this, but in truth we see this happening in more places. Do you know the portal to the Spiral Abyss? The portals of some events that lead to domains like Lisa's? The portals of the Theatrical Mechanicus? All of them share something in common: they can be perceived via the Elemental Sight, but while they're blue in color, they don't match with any of the 7 elements.

Before I continue with what I want to say, I want to direct your attention briefly at something that Tsumi, the Dragon / Vishap-person of the event the Three Realm Gateway that took place in Enkanomiya said:

It's known that before Phanes' arrival, there used to be 7 Sovereign Dragons one of each element, although Vishaps are described as creatures that break down raw, primitive elemental energy into milder elemental energy. This can call for some consideration that the elements we're used to are more than what they know of, or even that in breaking down this raw primitive elemental energy, new variations of elements could occur.

Now I want to mention two words that are used in the Bathysmal Vishap Experimental Records: Ether and Void.

Four of the elements here are the four primal elements that the universe is made from in Greek philosophy (which is the language after which Enkanomiya takes from as the original language, arguably used in other civilizations that existed at the same time as Enkanomiya in the big continent that used to be on the surface before the Second Who Came's arrival), but there is a fifth element which is (A)Ether, Void being most likely a new addition into the Genshin universe which refers directly to the Abyss.

At this point of the story we don't know yet what element is exactly this Ether (as in having a thorough confirmation), but we've seen Void or the Abyssal element being used in this same event and also by the Abyss Sibling and other places too.

For this I'm going to say I rely on hypothesis theory (as I don't have the means to check this myself because those missions were done a long time ago), but it's said directly by the Aranara that Marana and the "vanguards of the Abyss" which at the time were the Abyssal Wolves, Gold's creations, are one and the same. We know that Marana —and by extension, the Withering— is showed in red, as Marana's avatar mixes purple and red colors, which always made me wonder: what if the purple of the Abyss we currently know of, in truth, it's a mix of a red and blue energy? We know that the Abyss by itself looks like a galaxy area and in the Spiral Abyss there are traces of blue energy in the sky. If this same blue energy was what existed before the Second Who Arrived's arrival and this red energy belongs to them (as it was stated that it was them who brought all this chaos), then the namecard description about there being more colors than 7 as there could be more elements than 7 seems to stand true.

In regards of Ether as an element, my lead is to think that perhaps the blue that doesn't seem to equate to Hydro which we can observe in several portals I mentioned earlier could be an element directly related to Irminsul. By definition in the Greek philosophy, celestial spheres (made of aether) hold stars and planets. Stars are a common thematic that stems from the core of Irminsul, be it the very core itself or the space that it's in. Maybe other elements could be attributes to the sets of blues we see that are similar and follow a same pattern, maybe it's one. As a curiosity, Aether is also attributed as that which fills the void and it's thanks to it that light propagates and white light is made of 7 colors: the same colors that represent the elements we know of. Sounds familiar? It's through Ley Lines that all the elements are distributed to every corner of the world in order to sustain it. This is a hypothesis, of course, but there are various leads that make me consider that this unknown Ether element is the one that represents Irminsul.

Before wrapping this up, I want to make a special mention to a curiosity that happens in We Will Be Reunited, when Traveler wants to find the eye of the first Field Tiller at the top of Old Mondstadt's tower to no avail, to which Dain says "This requires another method. Using Elemental Sight on a Field Tiller is of no use because it is not powered by the elements" while at the same time, it's thanks to the "element" Dain uses that he's able to use something akin to psychokinesis to take it out of the Field Tiller. Just some food for thought.

Lastly, under cut I'll add some screens of my own gameplay for reference: