#kaveh & faranak

[lvnesart]

Casts Kaveh's parents upon yee

[portalmonsterrr]

testing out Faranak's design for something I'm working on

the second doodle is based on this:

"As a child, he would observe her working on blueprints and try to imitate her, resulting in his first sloppy blueprint that he slipped into her work. After inadvertently giving the blueprint that the young Kaveh drew to her client, causing a misunderstanding for everyone involved, she taught Kaveh the basics of creating a blueprint and was patient with him rather than being angry at him for causing the misunderstanding in the first place."

[kujousaramybeloved]

sumeru i love u

[kaveh-a-day]

Day 184

[zezerozes]

Visiting Mother and her start-over family

[reason-with-the-underdog]

kaveh & parentification

its pretty easy to read parentification (children feeling responsible for supporting their parents’ wellbeing)

into kaveh's backstory

the “eldest daughter” allegations don’t come from nowhere!

:\ seems familiar, doesn't it?

[velkia]

Families 🌿🏛

[kavehsmommyissues]

Faranak, Clementine Caspar, and Mavuika's little sister might be the same person

WARNING: contains spoilers from the 5.0 Archon Quest!

There's lots of memes about Kaveh dressing up as Mavuika but now that the 5.0 Archon Quest is released, there might be some truth to that.

I haven't played the whole quest yet but my friend spoiled it for me.

The spoiler was that, Mavuika(who's human) has a little sister that became an architect.

This is not my own photo, I literally saw this screenshot in Google images and I just blotted out the name for privacy reasons for the person that originally posted it.

You know who else is an architect besides Kaveh? His mom. And Mavuika's lil sis is an architect so I believe that Mavuika is Kaveh's aunt.

But in my lil brain, there is more.

Mavuika's lil sis goes to the Akademiya to study architecture and then stays there, to avoid whatever is going on in Natlan(some ppl on the internet think people from Natlan get cursed if they leave(like possibly, Bennet)).

She takes on a new name, Faranak, and lives her life there. The Wiki also states that Faranak is estranged from her parents, which supports this theory of mine. Eventually, she lost her husband which changed her a lot.

Faranak doesn't really have a photo but we know Kaveh's dad is the blonde one as seen on this picture:

So that leaves room that Faranak probably has the same hair color as Mavuika's little sister. Also, in Kaveh's Hangout Quest, a teacher his mother had also said that Kaveh looks like his mother. Though Faranak's teacher states that Faranak has golden hair, I'm sure Mavuika's little sister's hair color can count as golden to some degree.

After losing her first husband, she goes to Fontaine to start anew and to get further away from Natlan. She possibly took a new name, this time, Clementine. She eventually fell in love and married Callas Caspar—Navia's dad.

In the Wiki, it also states that Navia got her dad's eyes and hair, making it possible that Clementine's hair might be the same color as Mavuika's little sister(unless if she dyed it or unless if hair dye exists in Teyvat).

Another thing that I noticed is that both Kaveh and Navia are unlucky, with Kaveh getting into lots of debt and with Navia being the only one surviving her family and some members of Spina di Rosula, like Melus and Silver. This "unluckiness" that they have is probably due to that theorized "unlucky" syndrome that people from Natlan get when they leave their nation.

This is all probably far fetched but Genshin doesn't make the mistake of making two characters look similar and not be related. We see this with characters like Chonghyun and Shenhe.

So, to sum it all up, Faranak, Clementine, and Mavuika's little sister are possibly the same person. Kaveh and Navia are possibly half siblings and Mavuika could be possibly their aunt.

Thanks for listening to my horrendously made Ted Talk.

This is how I feel lmfao.

[xarciel]

okay, I've been putting this off for far too long. every time I see someone speculating I start to type and then decide it's too much and back out. but let's do it. let's talk about kaveh and faranak

so, here's the thing right

kaveh was a compelling character from the get go. as soon as we met him in the library in Sumeru, I was down. I was keen. I was ready to know more about this dude

and then we got to know him - we got his backstory! and I went - hmm. and oof. because kid with dead dad raised by a grieving mother is certainly something more down to earth than a lot of the other fantastical backgrounds in genshin

and then we got his character story. and we got that one fucking line.

"She sacrificed a lot raising me as a single mother"

and I had to put the controller down and go for a walk

because here's the thing about characters with a dead parent and especially dead dad backstories. a dead parent is a plot device. it's a reason for adventure, or mystery, or intrigue. or being ridiculously unsupervised. it's 'you've inherited your father's birthright' grandiose moments. it's not REAL

and the more we've gotten to know about kaveh, the more I've become convinced that someone in the writing team lost a parent young - probably a father. because kaveh and his relationship with faranak seem too real to be a fluke

I've seen kaveh and faranak's relationship described in a number of ways - abandonment, estrangement, guilt-filled avoidance - but imo none of those really match what we are seeing. because here are the facts: - faranak lost her husband young, in a tragic accident - faranak still had a young child to take care of, who needed her - faranak never had time to process the grief of her husband's passing (we know this from kaveh's backstory where he describes the way that she changed after his father's death. the way that she would cry for years after when reminded of him) - faranak never abandoned her self-imposed duties as a mother ("No matter what happens, I'll do my best to raise my son on my own.")

faranak, despite facing an overwhelming emotional situation found herself thrust in single motherhood, and she committed to it. she gave kaveh the best parts of herself that she could. she was burnt out and emotionally fraught, but it was everything she had, and she brought that dedication to kaveh every day. the best mother that she could be

and kaveh grew up with that love. with faranak's steady, dedicated presence. a good mother. but what else did he pick up inadvertently? - if you care about something, you dedicate yourself to it. you keep pushing, no matter how much it costs you - there's no such thing as quitting - emotions are something that you can squash down, something you can put them to the side and maybe dedicate some small time to feel when everything else in the world is done - caring is something you do for others, it's not something other people do for you

and then young kaveh meets young al haitham and they start their doomed thesis, and we know how that story ends

but before that, we know that faranak moved to fontaine. and we know that she did this with kaveh's blessing.

faranak, dedicated emotionally burnt out mother with no chance to recover, finally had a chance to go somewhere new, do something different; finally see something for herself outside of the duties she'd carried all of these years. and she brought that joy back to kaveh. to her son, who could see the change in her after all this time.

and faranak said - I enjoyed fontaine - I was even offered a job while I was there - maybe I'll go one day - when you're all grown up, and you don't need me any more

and kaveh felt - guilt, at his father's death, all those years ago, like maybe this was all his fault really anyway - self-loathing, at having held his mother back, every year since, that she dedicated to raising him, at the expense of her own life -determination, to be the best son he could be, by giving faranak whatever she needed from him, regardless of how it impacted him - love, for his mother

and kaveh said - I'm old enough already mother, you should go now

and so faranak went to fontaine, and finally had a chance to process what had happened to her. she finally allowed herself to pursue her own happiness, to move on and continue living her life. after years of putting kaveh first, she no longer needed to carry the weight of their relationship. as an adult, kaveh can tell her what support he needs from her now - her tired heart can rest, knowing that her son knows she loves him, and that if he needs her he only needs to write

and kaveh has continued to love his mother in the best way he knows how. by not needing her. by letting her go, and letting her live her own life. by showing her whenever they meet, whenever they write, that he's doing fine - better than fine even, great! he's a successful architect with everything he needs in life.

he was worth her sacrifice, for all those years, and now she doesn't need to worry about him any more.

so kaveh and faranak - don't talk often - barely see each other - and when they do communicate the focus is squarely on positive topics, about how their lives are now

and could kaveh ask her about his father? about her work? about her journal? theoretically, yes. realistically - with the amount of grief that blanketed their home while he was growing up, to the point that he knows more of his parents' lives through external sources - no. there is simply too much. to try and open that pandora's box is too much to bear.

so kaveh and faranak don't talk about it. they don't talk much at all, really, but that doesn't mean that she's abandoned him, or that she doesn't love him

imperfect love is love all the same

[rouguang]

knowing kaveh's parents were friends with haitham's parents it must have been quite a blow when kaveh's father and haitham's parents all died not too far apart from each other. faranak's grief was multiplied by three

[fremiinetistic]

"Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me But I do, I think I do" That's just Freminet and Kaveh. YOUR (Kaveh) mother (Faranak) wouldn't approve of how my mother (Crucabena) raised me (Freminet)

[goggles-mcgee]

The Scribe Who Didn't Like Musicals

This idea has been sitting in my drafts for, idk how long now, so I just thought I'd share it.

Tighnari had been visited and called upon more times in this past week than any time he can remember. The people of Sumeru are experiencing a very weird...illness. It all started with a leyline as most weird things do. It happened to a party of Adventures' Guild members, some Akademiya students and professors, and some poor unfortunate people who got stupidly curious plus a sprinkle of those with bad timing. No one knew or, rather, no one admitted who activated the leyline but activated it was, and all those around it and all those in a 25 mile radius were splashed with what could only be described a blue non-sentient slime.

The slime itself held no elemental properties like they usually did, nor did it look like normal slime concentrate. But they did find out if it was touched with bared skin, it affected those who touched it as well. Luckily, Tighnari hadn't been affected, though they still didn't know what it would do. So far, the only recorded symptoms were high fevers and sniffles. Or at least that's what the called in doctors said.

But then...then things got weirder. It started being reported that those who were affected would spontaneously burst into song and dance, whether they wanted to or not. And many were reported to sound...angelic even if they had sang like a dying cat before the weird slime thing. Sometimes, their songs were accompanied by broadcasted illusions. Those seemed to be a rare addition to the affliction though.

At first, this wasn't something to panic about, but the things people sang about started to get....very personal and something they probably wouldn't have admitted to if they were in sound mind. When people saw others singing out secrets, many infected tried to hold in the singing, and that's when their symptoms got worse they got sicker and sicker the longer they held in their song. There was one reported death so far, but it was that death that pushed the rest of the unaffected of Sumero to call in help from other doctors, alchemists, hell, even some adepti.

Those who found the illness amusing in the beginning started to fear it. There was an incident where a high-ranking official in the Corps of Thirty started bringing people into his office and sang about how he wanted his wife to choke him while he....anyway it wasn't pretty and many came out a little more than traumatized if they happened not to get infected themselves. They still didn't know how it was spreading without the slime being present, but it was being worked on, as well as a cure.

That all would be fine if Kaveh hadn't been among those first infected. He was refusing and doing his best not to sing. It was affecting him hard, and he was so very sick that Tighnari was scared for his best friend, oh, and also for Alhaitham, who looked so worried for Kaveh that he might fall sick himself. But of course, Kaveh was oblivious to it.

Tighnari, Alhaitham, Cyno, Collei, and even Faranak, Kaveh's mother begged him to just sing. He still refused. He even stopped talking all together. Then something happened, Tighnari didn't know if it was Faranak's crying pleads or Tighnari's, but he suspects it was something else, someone else. He had seen Alhaitham visiting by himself, and it was after one of these visits that Kaveh started singing. And it was like once he started, he couldn't stop.

At first, it was little things, like about his frustration of the past, frustration with his mother for forgetting about him despite the fact he also sung about he he didn't blame he. He sang about how much he loved his friends, how much Alhaitham frustrated him.

They all did their best not to overreact, Alhaitham seemed like he was suffering the most from all this. Then Kaveh sang how he loved Alhaitham and was glad they were friends again or well friendlier. He sang about he wishes they were more but knows Alhaitham doesn't feel the same.

That day was a rough one....Kaveh completely shut down after that one and barricaded himself in his room and stopped talking. It took Alhaitham breaking in through Kaveh's window and him shouting at Kaveh that he loved him back. It took a while for Kaveh to believe him and more for him to sing again.

It was the final song he sang before a cure was found that hurt them all. His friends had always known about his self-esteem issues and his generosity that seemed to harm him as much as it could. From the lyrics, Tighnari called the song "Writing on the Wall" in his head and oh how it broke his heart, especially when his friend seemed to be one of those people who also displayed illusions to accompany his songs. The sight of all the red x's and the sight of his friend hammering at a doll of himself had him sobbing.

He was cured after that but had become withdrawn after, but they didn't let him isolate himself like he was prone to do. They took care of him until he was back at 100%. That's when they spoke of everything altogether. It wasn't easy, but they came out of it with stronger relationships, and now, instead of Alhaitham and Kaveh fighting all the time, they bantered or were sickingly sappy.

Even if they annoyed Tignari with how cute they were, he found he was far happier now knowing how his friends felt since it was a catalyst that helped all of them talk about their problems.

Even if Alhaitham became the biggest wife-guy in all Teyvat.

♤♡◇♧

I definitely want to flesh this out more when I'm not super busy, but if anyone wants to try their hand at it, they are welcome to! Just credit me for idea. I don't know why, but my brain was begging to use my love of The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals/Starkid with my love of Genshin characters.

[princess-starscourge]

You know I never got over Kaveh saying he didn’t have a right to interfere with/barge into his mom’s life (something along those lines) in his hangout event. That shit broke my heart. Like, that isn’t possible when you’re her fucking son 😭

[thehecklingmouse]

i headcannon that kaveh got his dads eyes and when his dad died faranak couldn't bear to look at his face for very long

[snowshinobi]

Kaveh left. Kaveh left Alhaitham, Kaveh forfeited the ownership rights to his half of their home, and he ran. Ran away from a friend who'd hurt him, ran towards brighter prospects.

Kaveh only talks about the woman his mother was; a renowned architect like himself, author of textbooks, leaver of families. She's back in Fontaine now. He's never mentioned going on or receiving visits.

So. My question is ... what hurt his mother so badly that she ran all the way home? Was it betrayal, as in Kaveh's case; a broken heart? Did losing her husband to the Sumeru desert make her unable to stand this place for one more second?

Alhaitham stayed. He stayed in the house where his friend hurt him. He opened the door for Kaveh when Kaveh had nowhere to go.

There is something here about the bravery of remaining. Of reclaiming scorched earth. Growing something soft and fragile and new. Like scar tissue.

[reason-with-the-underdog]

time travel au, younger kaveh travels to the future

i haven't seen a good "younger versions of a character suddenly show up" AU in a while

but remember the ones where kid kaveh appears where he's very clearly parentified & trying to be mature even tho he's a kid with loads of trauma... + also him trusting adult alhaitham more

(probably sensing the awkwardness from adult kaveh who doesnt know how to acknowledge the fact that his younger self is very clearly not okay

bc that would mean that he wasn't okay when he was younger, bc he didn't really get help back then, and maybe that wasn't okay actually?)

thinking about this more:

imagine adult kaveh running into kid kaveh crying at night because he's lonely/scared/worried about his mother, etc

& even tho younger kaveh says he's fine, adult kaveh sits down & tells him he doesn't have to cry alone, its ok to cry when life's hard

& its a nice bonding experience, esp bc their earlier interactions were a bit awkward (talking to your future/past self is weird, even without unspoken trauma/guilt hanging over you both)

but then adult kaveh later has to process all these big feelings about his childhood...

like, this goes beyond just confirming that he's not responsible for his dad's death. he's known for years that his childhood feelings of guilt were irrational-- it's just hard to shake the guilt nonetheless

and the same goes for the parentification.

seeing his younger self makes kaveh acknowledge that he never properly grieved for his dad... (he never gave himself the chance to)

bc as a child kaveh pushed down his own confusion, (guilt), & sadness so that he could try to cheer up his depressed mother, which is why kid kaveh would want to cry in secret instead of seeking out comfort from adult figures. not to mention the month(?) where his dad seemingly abandoned his family... (he went to aaru village but didn't send messages back, just an unsent letter to kaveh that was lost)

how was his dad's disappearance even explained to kaveh as a kid? what did faranak even think of this whole situation?

her loving wonderful husband who has been an amazing father suddenly gets closed off after losing a competition and then leaves without explanation...

faranak doesn't know when her husband will be back, so she can't make plans:

does she need to take time off work for childcare?

what does she tell kaveh, who's definitely missing his dad? (as faranak is the "famous" parent, i hc that kaveh's father was the go-to caretaker parent)

did any celebrations or holidays pass with her husband still gone?

the bills still need to be paid even if her husband is missing... (there's no prize money for him taking 2nd place anyways) so faranak's career is still important, even as all these questions need to be handled

she seems to lack support (her husband was the social one, not her)

imo this time period was already a crisis situation for kaveh's family...

faranak undoubtedly was burning the candles at both end (looking after kaveh as a solo parent, still needing to work on architecture commissions to keep an income, the worrying & lack of closure...)

the news of her husband's death in the desert was just the final push

faranak could hold it together, up until she couldn't.

she was already stressed, worried, tired, but now she will have no relief. there will be no homecoming for her husband. kaveh will be father-less

ofc she falls into depression! ofc she stops smiling! ofc she is not okay! who would be?

except the thing is, her son is old enough to notice that she's distraught, to notice that she's been working too hard, to understand what it means when told that his dad's never coming back

so kaveh decides, he has to help. his mom's been stressed out worrying about childcare and the bills and all these mundane adult things

and he can't help that much with the bills. he can't bring back his dad (put a pin in that).

but he CAN make sure he's not a burden

kaveh can help. he MUST help, actually-- his mother's been working so hard for so long, it's his turn to look after her

(he is like maybe 10 btw)

which is how he becomes so emotionally attuned to his mother's worries and problems that he neglects his own

he grows up. he goes to school. he does well in school. he makes sure that all his mother hears from him is good news. his mother moves away, finds new love, she's happy again. he's happy for her.

& everything's all good.... except for his lingering sense of guilt which is eventually resolved with the revelation that sacchin had been behind his dad's sudden change of heart

so yeah, all good now! except for how kaveh's still wary of sharing bad news with his friends...

& how kaveh still doesn't know what to write in his letters to his mother

(everything has to be shallow & casual so there's no reason for concern... which is not kaveh's writing style at all...

kaveh is not a "light & breezy" person, he cares very deeply about so much...)

and his mother clearly doesn't either, so their letters have dropped off entirely

which is fine! mostly, anyways

besides, if there's distance between them, it's probably kaveh's fault? what kind of son doesn't know how to talk to his mother? its not like she was abusive or mean

kaveh can't blame her for anything! faranak was dealt with incredibly bad cards after his dad left them

& she held on for as long as she could.

& kaveh's (physical) needs were met.

resenting her for being sad her husband died would be unreasonable! he can't be upset at her.

he's not upset at her.

...except seeing his younger self worry about his mother's health even though objectively there is not much his younger self can do makes kaveh feel a certain kind of way

...kaveh knows very well why his younger self's first reaction to being found crying is to stop & say he's fine, don't worry about him...

that was hard to learn to do as a kid. but somehow its just as hard as an adult to realise that his younger self should have had more support

remember that pin earlier about his father? yeah, turns out that kaveh's feelings about his father don't just end at "phew, i knew i wasn't really at fault for his death, but now i know for sure it wasn't"

bc before his father's premature death in a sandpit after rescuing others

his dad had abandoned his family. and kaveh literally experienced the exact same horror-terror nihilism doom-gloom overload that sacchin threw at his dad. he KNOWS it was bad.

but kaveh (at likely a similar age to his dad to boot) wouldnt have left everyone behind without a word

so that was... not good of his dad to do

esp with a kid at home

but he loves his dad!

his dad had been an amazing dad! his dad's last moments were even a charitable act saving other people!

all of his life, kaveh likely heard stories about his father's kindness & moral character

so how can kaveh hold his father's one moment of weakness against him?

...except he can literally see the direct consequences of his parents' lives falling apart in his younger self

in the way this child wipes away their tears while saying not to worry in the same breath

and it makes him feel a certain kind of way. maybe even a mood where crying is a necessary way to express all these feelings that he's been trying to avoid thinking too hard about for more than half of his life

but imagine if kid kaveh runs across adult kaveh crying in private

and of course adult kaveh immediately tries to pull himself together because he doesn't want to upset his younger self or put all of these heavy thoughts onto his younger self who's really too young to have to worry about all of this

...which is immediately pointed out as being hypocritical by his younger self. because kaveh may be a kid, but he's still very smart. and his older self had just told him that he doesn't have to cry alone.

and yeah. kaveh did say that didnt he?

except he really doesn't want to explain to his younger self why he's crying. the whole point here is that his younger self has been burdened with understanding too much of the problems of adults around him, and not enough of his own

wait... his mother's diary talked about how companionship was more important than understanding. maybe he doesn't need to explain. his younger self doesnt need to understand why he's upset. maybe its enough for them to sit together and feel bad--

because what happened to their family WAS bad. and its ok to personally be upset by it all

at least at the end of it, kaveh's no longer as distant and awkward around his younger self!

he's probably more aware that he's got more emotional processing to do after his younger self is safely back to his own timeline

...but at least he knows now that he won't have to be alone

(bc ofc alhaitham notices that multiple versions of kaveh have been crying in their home)

LIKE kaveh is absolutely nice to the kid version of himself

but young!kaveh is already used to being very aware of his effect on other people's emotions

& so he can tell that adult!kaveh isn't comfortable around him...

+ i think young!kaveh would take pride in how mature & responsible he is

so adult!kaveh would try to do things for him, kid kaveh'd push back bc he can do it dw!

and then kaveh is just spiraling quietly bc just bc his younger self could do something doesnt mean he has to, alone