#mavuika with fire + fighting types >>>>

[baeshijima]

ever since the 5.2 trailer this is all ive been able to think about

once again, the genshin pokemon au thoughts are running wild

excuse the mega long rant in tags bc i geeked out perhaps a lil too much abt pkmn au but ourghghg.... we do not talk abt how i spent at least an hour writing all this out....

[ajxrn-archive]

Obviously I know (some) of your thoughts on Childe, but what do you think of the other harbingers?

YIPEE I love the harbingers ‼️ I’ll rant under the cut.. I had a huge obsession with the harbingers a few months back and I still do (in fact my brainrot is coming back so this is a perfect time for you to ask this)

Starting off with Pierro. I find him so interesting as a character because when I was diving into the lore of the harbingers I originally thought that he was number one?? Apparently he’s the director because capitano is no. 1.. I think that’s interesting. So what mainly intrigues me about him is the fact that he’s khaenri’ahn. The Tsaritsa has got to be different from the other Archons because of the fact she literally has a Khaenri’ahn man help run her military. I wonder what their relationship is with each other. Is it anything like dainslumi? I can picture it being that way but more cold, you know? The fact he’s based off the commedia dell’arte stock character Pierro (the fool/jester) is really interesting to me too.. they all have their connections to the characters in one way or another so I wonder what exactly his is.

Now onto Capitano. So far I think he is SO fucking cool he might be one of my favorite harbingers atp. Design wise it’s definitely a favorite but also the fact that he has so many similarities to Kaeya? If hyv were to make him related in some way to kaeya that would be so funny to me.. a lot of people do the pierro is kaeya’s dad thing but honesty I think Capitano would be a cooler connection lowkey? Also generally the ragbros situation would be 10x worse if kaeya was related to the fatui in some way, no matter which one it is. Anyways back on capitano, I’m mostly interested to see how his motives lay out and what his relationship with Mavuika is. The fight seen with him and her was so neat like the way they laid it out was so.. idk. I have a thing for fire/ice character relationships (not in a romantic way.) also what interests me even more about him is that The Captain in the commedia dell’arte is described as a ‘braggart’ type of person, so I’m wondering if he would use his ability to “convince people who knew nothing about him beforehand” to try and manipulate people in Natlan to revolt against Mavuika for the current issues and whatnot.

like I wonder how this'll play into his character in game/story wise. I hope he'll be playable sniff sniff.. Anyways, now onto this fucker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dottore is one of my favorite harbingers. I am an avid Dottore enjoyer. He’s cunning and genuinely awful and there’s no redeeming his ass he’s going straight to hell 🙏 and that’s what makes him such a GOOD character. He genuinely has zero redeeming qualities about him. He literally uses people and children for his experiments without second thought. He has clones of himself. He possibly killed his girlfriend in his school days. (If the zandik lore is right.) He was literally expelled from the Akademiya because of how awful he was.

I cannot fathom how amazing of a character he is. I think in games we need to have more characters who are just genuinely fucking evil and we don’t just “hate” them for it. I honestly dislike how people hate him JUST because he did bad shit, like have a better reason than that tbh? "He hurt collei/He's the reason crepus died/he gave scara so much trauma" I LOVE ALL THREE OF THOSE GUYS AND DOTTORE</3 Don't hate one character only to love the next. anyways dottore supremacy..

Anywho, onto Columbina. Honestly she intrigues me so much. She's so powerful that not even childe wants to fight her, what is up with that??? I think its also interesting how in the commedia dell'arte her title is technically Little Dove but it’s Damselette in the game. we like,, do not know much about her at all to be honest?? The harbingers voice lines about her interest me so much, especially arle's. It's very. vague??

Arlecchino: "She is a very special Harbinger. Pose her a question, and the answer you receive will be entirely unpredictable, if she sees fit to give a proper answer at all. Regardless, any answer you do receive is sure to be an interesting one."

Childe: "The Fatui Harbingers are ranked by strength, and I have no idea why that girl is No. 3. I'd test my skills with every Harbinger who ranks above me if I had the chance, but when it comes to her... something just doesn't feel right. Anyway, you should be careful around her."

Scara/Wanderer: "Let me ask: what should you do if you were to encounter a "damsel" who is oblivious and innocent at any given time, and unconcerned and unfeeling in any given situation? If it were me, I could at least challenge her to a fight. But if it were you... with your conscience, I would stay away from her."

Judging by voice lines alone, columbina is very, very powerful. she seems to beat around the bush with questions (arles voiceline) and is very mysterious even with the other harbingers. (childe saying something doesn't feel right) I've seen theories that she belongs to the seele race which is honestly pretty cool, but I think i'd need to see her in game or hear more about her first. I'd assume that Arlecchino has a rather close/interesting relationship with columbina. Not purely because of the fact they do in the commedia dell'arte, but because she was the only one out of the three to not tell the traveler to be careful around/stay away from columbina.

Arlecchino herself is a really well written character to me and I notice that a lot of the fandom don't understand her entirely (myself included.) Something i notice the most is how people tend to dumb her down to the Father of the house of the hearth, either portraying her as a wonderful parent (incorrect) or as an awful one (also incorrect.) She's definitely a highly flawed person who does put her children in danger, although she absolutely cares about the children of the hearth. I wouldn't say she's a child abuser/groomer/any other stupid shit the fandom says about her. Her wiki quite literally says that she's flawed but not as awful as Crucabena:

Her (possibly?) being khaenri'ahn is also so interesting because WHY does the tsaritsa keep having connections with khaenri'ah in her military of all things. I have so many questions.

We do not know much about pulcinella at all but I do find it SO intruiging/interesting (can someone give me another word for this HELP) that he's close to childe. he visits childes family for him, iirc, which is suspicious when you read the commedia dell'arte lore.

I do think he's doing this for self gain to be honest. He's a manipulative person, so he could be manipulating childe into relaxing around him to the point of letting pulcinella get near his family, which could end really badly to be honest.

Next up is scaramouche. I feel like the scara stans themselves don't even understand his character that much, because they're too busy yelling at people about raiden/dottore instead of focusing on his character itself. I think he's a LOT more than mommy issues short boy and actually his character is really deep. His name in the commedia dell'arte is also Little Skirmisher (instead of balladeer, though I'm not too sure what that means) and what's most interesting to me about his commedia dell'arte connection is how (IIRC, this could be wrong but i found this out last time i was talking about the harbingers and the commedia dell'arte) scaramouche's "mask" was later removed, which him being removed from irminsul could be a nod to that.

What's also a neat nod to the commedia is how scara "influences the audience to do his bidding." I think in game they referenced this by him influencing/controlling that one woman in sumeru (i forget her name) to be his first follower and do as he says.

Okay so truthfully i don't have many thoughts on sandrone but something that makes me curious about her backstory is the fact that in the commedia she is known as "Peasant.” what else is neat with this is that she looks like that one girl from Fontaine (Mary-Ann) I don’t really know/remember the the lore of her but hm.

What’s even weirder abt the similarities is that Marionette (her title) means Little Mary IIRC? I don’t think she IS Mary Ann since she’s dead but she could have connections to her. Anyway I don’t have many thoughts on her ngl.. </3 genshin give us sandrone lore PLEASEEEE

Next up is my fucking WIFE ‼️‼️ (la signora)

everyone who hates her sucks lowkey she’s such an overlooked character like her lore is so fucking?? sad?? Everyone reduces her to “haha ashes” and it annoys me tbh. Her boss fight was a pain in the fucking ass though ROSALYNE WHY.. it took me 20+ tries

I genuinely love her backstory it makes me so sad honestly. Through her grief and rage she became feared and hated. Idk I wish people would talk about her a little more?? Because she’s so interesting?? She has ties to ancient mondstadt isn’t that sick.

something that interests me the most about her character is how they made her somewhat different from La Signora in commedia dell’arte? She’s continually described as a woman who often cheats on her husband in the commedia, but when you read genshin Signora’s backstory it’s interesting to see how it’s mostly focused around how her loss of her lover threw her into a grief induced rage (basically, it’s centered around her grief and love)

as for her similarities, these two images explain it well:

Honestly I wish we had got to explore her character more than the information we have now. Genshin is so evil for killing her off tbh.

Pantalone I know like NOTHING about. I think he’s a really neat character. A lot of people dumb him down to “evil baizhu” but I do think he has a lot of potential to be a really good character

Basically he’s a capitalist ‼️ kidding but for him, he seems so far to be REALLY similar to Pantalone in the Commedia. I dont have too many thoughts on him either because we don’t know much about him yet </3 pantalone lore when….

and you already know most of my thoughts on Childe so I will save the rant for another day because that would get me fired up (I am losing words this rant sucked the life out of me HELP)

oh wait another thing that is neat about the harbingers entirely is how the trailer for them was called a Winter Night’s Lazzo (I think) but that’s another reference to the commedia dell’arte :)

[genshinnrambles]

Archon Quest Chapter V Notes - Act I and Act II

“The victors will burn bright, while the losers must turn to ash.”

Just wanted to do some review before the finale and organize all of the ideas presented so far in each act. Each act’s themes, introduced concepts, main plot, and sub plots as I saw them are summarized, with some denoted speculations. This post contains all AQ content from version 5.0, or Act I and Act II. I’ll post notes for 5.1 and 5.2’s acts in a couple of days.

Spoilers: Well, it’s in the title. You’ve been warned!

Act I: Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn

“Flowers” are frequently used as a metaphor for lives in Genshin (“Flower of Life” artifacts, “The Song Burning in the Embers,” the gardener metaphor from Shadows Amidst Snowstorms)

"Our forebearers carved 'miracles' into obsidian rock, yet future bearers looked upon them and saw 'strength.'" The miracles of the past become the motivations of the present. The limitations of the past become the breakthroughs of today... “

Themes: “No one fights alone”*, legacy, memory, and forgetting*, the meaning of strength, mutualism and partnership between humans and “nature,” the cruelty of war and the Abyss

(My favorite motif of “no one fights alone” is the generosity characters exhibit with food and drinks. C: )

*These themes are overarching to all of Chapter V, but are more prominent in some acts and less in others. 

Concepts Introduced:

Ancient Names: A name gifted by the Wayob of an individual tribe to a tribe member. Not everyone gets to be an Ancient Name bearer, and they are essential to the Pilgrimage. Ancient Names are also not unique to each individual, but rather “legacies” that are passed down through generations of Natlanese. Each Ancient Name bearer also holds a feather-shaped obsidian stone, with their Ancient Name (sans vowels) written on it in the Abyss script. It preserves their accomplishments as memories. Ancient Names perish with their bearer if they fall in the Night Warden Wars.

A “flower of life” and her “plume of death.”

The clear analogue to this concept is Vision bearers, who enjoy a certain amount of privilege respective to “ordinary people” in society, though having a Vision can be seen as a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask:

Paimon: ...Then, you're saying this stone doesn't have any actual power? Like, it's not gonna make Paimon super strong or smart? Pacal: None at all, and that is precisely how it exercises its unique value. Kachina: Think of it this way... If you become a hero because the heavens granted you strength, are your triumphs earned or given?

Uthabiti (Resilience): Kachina’s Ancient Name.

Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame: A tournament to determine the strongest warriors of the present to fight in the Night Warden Wars. Participation is restricted to Natlanese and consists of two stages, a team stage and an individual stage. In other words, Natlan values both team and individual strength, seeing both as essential to victory.

Night Warden Wars: A battle between the strongest Ancient Name bearers of the Pilgrimage and the advancing Abyss, which Natlan is constantly at war with due to the special circumstance of their Ley Lines.

Saurian companions: Each tribe has a special relationship with a specific Saurian type, and humans live alongside Saurians in Natlan. Saurians are also partners in combat for some Natlanese.

Wayob: The “will” of each tribe that dwells in the Night Kingdom, symbolized by the obsidian totem. 

Pyro Archon: In Natlan, humans ascend to this role due to the rules Xbalanque wrote for the nation. Mavuika was also the Archon during the Cataclysm.

Kachina: I do know this, though — even after becoming the Pyro Archon, the person in the position still grows old and requires rest.

Phlogiston: Primordial elemental energy (formally stated in Act IV). 

The Sacred Flame: Provides Natlan with protection from the Abyss, fueled by Contending Fire collected from battles during the Pilgrimage. Outlander participation in the Pilgrimage does not generate Contending Fire, hence their being barred from the tournament.

If Ancient Name bearers are analogous to Vision bearers, then are Outlanders in the context of the Pilgrimage analogous to people from outside of Teyvat? If so, could the analog to the Pilgrimage tell us something about the nature of Teyvat? Personally, I think the underlying mechanism of the Vision system and the boon it provides to Celestia lies in this story.

The Ode of Resurrection: A song with the power to resurrect fallen Ancient Name bearers in the Night Warden Wars, provided there is at least one survivor to return from the Night Kingdom. The Pyro Archon steps into the Sacred Flame to retrieve them.

The Night Kingdom: The liminal space between body and mind, life and death. Comparable to the space below the Celestial Nail in “Perilous Trail.” In other words, it’s not quite the Abyss, but rather the “boundary” between the Abyss and Teyvat. In other words, it’s the Ley Lines of Natlan.

Abyssal corrosion/wounds: Technically corrosion is a pretty old concept by now, but in this context we learn about it as a potential cost in Natlan’s war against the Abyss. Corrosion stays in the body and restricts an individual’s ability to participate in things they used to do with ease, let alone participate in the Pilgrimage again.

Here, Abyssal corrosion is a metaphor for injury in the line of battle, which can leave both physical and emotional scars. 

Abyssal Pylon: A gate between the Night Kingdom and Teyvat that allows Abyssal creatures to pass into Teyvat.

Main Plot:

This act establishes several key concepts and largely serves as a worldbuilding and set up act. We learn about the shared traditions and customs between the six tribes, which center on the Wayob, Ancient Names, the Night Kingdom, and the meaning behind the “nation of war.” 

The Pilgrimage of the Return of the Sacred Flame is being held in the Stadium of the Sacred Flame to collect Contending Fire and send another wave of warriors to the frontlines against the Abyss. Kachina of the Children of Echoes learns to value her will and achieves her dream of winning the tournament; her reward is to fight alongside the strongest warriors in the Night Warden Wars. While she’s away, the Traveler goes with Mualani to the People of the Springs and meets Atea, who sustained an injury from the Abyss in a past Night Warden War. Mualani, the Traveler, Marokau and Hikueru plan a party for Atea at the old hot springs she frequented before her injury and work together to renovate it, but the Abyss attacks the People of the Springs overnight. After finding Atea injured at the old hot springs, the Traveler remembers way back in Mondstadt when they purified Dvalin’s tears and tries that super cool power out again on Atea’s festering injury. Atea reveals to the Traveler and Mualani that her fate is sealed, and she only has a few days left; she leaves them with a “relic” to give to Mavuika, which “embodies fond memories and [her] strength of will.”

“Life is a journey in which there’s no turning back, so forge ahead and don’t hold back.”

Sub Plots:

Kachina’s struggle to assert her will (strength), which culminates in her defeating Mualani in the tournament

Kachina: "The key to winning is in the strength of the team captain," that's what everyone says. But, uh... the difference in strength between bearers can practically be night and day. Kachina: Mualani, I... I really want to win this time. I want to win this Pilgrimage and become a true warrior!

Phlogiston and the unique position Natlan occupies in relation to the rest of Teyvat.

The price of the endless war against the Abyss. Though it’s the greatest honor in Natlan to participate in the Night Warden Wars and emerge victorious in the Pilgrimage, the cost is cases like Atea’s or the erasure of an entire legacy if an Ancient Name bearer falls. The ultimate cost, then, is the erasure of all of Natlan if they ever fail in the war.

The weight of legacy and the importance of memory is central to Mavuika’s character. The ultimate cost of the war is unacceptable to her.

Act II: Black Stone Under A White Stone

Here, “Black Stone” refers to the Obsidian in the Night Kingdom.

Themes: Sacrifice, regret, “the shape of time” (another name for legacy), ideals vs. the real, fate

Concepts Introduced:

Abyssal cunning: another concept that isn’t quite new if you’re familiar with “Perilous Trail,” but since that’s optional content it counts. The Abyss can take on a form specific to each land’s memories to bring about destruction - this matches the Traveler’s past encounters with the Abyss, such as the Withering of Sumeru, the miasma of Chenyu Vale, the poisoned waters of Erinnyes, and the tumor beneath the Sacred Sakura.

Malipo (Turnfire): Kinich’s Ancient Name, once held by Burkina (Cataclysm era) and Yupanqui (Xbalanque era).

The Sea of Souls: The “unity” in the Ley Lines of all memories and emotions held by each individual on the land. Where individuality goes to die.

Spiritspeaker Stone: An artifact Citlali created to commune with the Wayob.

Wayna: As you probably know, your intended destination is completely different from the real world. The Night Kingdom is like a river flowing with "concepts," and the Ancient Name you seek is like a tiny fish swimming downstream. In that sense, the Stone is like a fishing boat drifting down the river.

“Concepts” (lol): fundamental ideas underlying a physical thing. The Night Kingdom is a realm of “concepts,” which is why it’s typically only visited through one’s consciousness. This is also why all descriptions of the Night Kingdom rely so heavily on analogy. These “ideas” need physical vessels to ground them in the real world.

Mualani: Wait, are you saying you're going to use a real net to "catch" Kachina's Ancient Name? How does that work when one's tangible and one's not? Vichama: By creating something tangible in our world — like a net — we can create a connection to a corresponding "concept" in the Night Kingdom. Basically, I'm going to use the "concept of a net" to catch something equally intangible — an Ancient Name.

Talismans/relics: Items that hold the memories and will of each of their owners, a symbol of the “legacy” theme. 

Mavuika: Most people perceive time as a linear concept, almost like a straight line that can only move forward. We cannot change the past or predict the future. But, there's also a different theory, one that I believe to be closer to the truth. Namely, that the "past," "present," and "future" all exist at once. [...] Mavuika: Let's say your journey ended right now. Thinking back on your experience in each nation, which one would you say was the most important? Traveler: I'd have to say all of them. Mavuika: Exactly. Even at the end of your journey, the things you experienced along the way don't cease to exist. They become part of who you are. Take out a portion of that journey, and you would likely make very different decisions, and eventually arrive at a very different destination. The future is the same way. It exists even though it has yet to come to pass. We just lack the means to perceive it. Of course, there are those with the power to foresee the future. They simply call it by a different name — "fate." You're quite familiar with that concept, I would imagine…

See also, all of the personal item stories in each playable character’s story page.

Umoja (Unity): Mualani’s Ancient Name, previously held by Tupac (Cataclysm Era).

Main Plot:

This act raises the Chapter’s stakes, creates suspense regarding the two unawakened heroes, and sets up future conflict between Mavuika and Capitano. It also establishes Mavuika’s greatest personal strengths (patience, empathy, humility, and long-term thinking) and hints at her fatal flaws (enormous sense of responsibility, tendency for self-sacrifice).

The Traveler and Mualani learn Kachina fell in battle, so they head to the stadium to partake in the Rite of Resurrection. However, something goes wrong and Kachina’s Ancient Name is lost in the Night Kingdom. Mavuika gathers an investigation team in the Speaker’s Chamber and lays out the stakes of the failed Rite of Resurrection, specifically the doubt it sowed in people’s hearts of the Pilgrimmage’s value. 

“[The Abyss’s] goal isn’t to break the rules that make the Ode of Resurrection work. It’s to destroy the people’s faith in them.”

In the presence of two of her awakened heroes, Mavuika discloses her plan to sacrifice her power to fuel the Sacred Flame a little longer. But before she can do that, Capitano shows up with a cryptic message about her plan and fights her for the Gnosis. After he flees, she sacrifices her remaining power to the flame. After she does this, a similar visual effect is produced as was seen in the Ignition teaser:

(I expect to see this effect again in Act V and learn its meaning, for now I can only speculate its related to one’s sense of self)

The Traveler, Mualani, and Chasca use the Spiritspeaker Stone, a net, and obsidian to salvage Kachina’s Ancient Name from the Night Kingdom with Vichama’s help. Vichama had hoped to salvage his own fallen friend’s Ancient Name as well, but the Spiritspeaker Stone is overwhelmed by the Abyss and Chasca destroys it. They return to Mavuika with Kachina’s Ancient Name to pinpoint her location in the Night Kingdom. When they conjure her image, she reveals that the reason the Rite of Resurrection failed is because the Wayob is being affected by the Abyss. They head to the Night Kingdom in their physical forms and discover ruins of the ancient dragon civilization on the way. 

Side note, this looks eerily similar to the “wheel” in Bottle Land, which um. Yeah. Loom of Fate, anyone?

(Also, there’s a leitmotif here from the room with the Celestial Nail in the Chasm)

They find a rift entrance and make their way through the hostile Sea of Souls under the protection of Vichama’s lost friend, Mallko. After finding Kachina, she leads them to the corroded Wayob’s totem to purify it. A pyro Abyss Lector intercepts them and talks a bunch of shit undermines the ideals they value to sow doubt and distract them from the totem, but Mualani concedes that while the ideals themselves may be meaningless, the actions that uphold them aren’t. Mualani awakens to her Ancient Name’s will and inherits Tupac’s memories.

The Abyss’s cunning is why it feels uncanny.

After purifying the Wayob, the rift out of the Night Kingdom closes and Mavuika’s consciousness saves them at the cost of every relic she kept in the Speaker’s Chamber. She discloses the truth that Natlan’s destruction is imminent, and that the events of the present were set in motion 500 years in the past. The price of their victory then was their faith in the customs used to fight back the Abyss. The first part of Mavuika’s plan, then, was to reunite the tribes and rebuild the Wayob’s strength, after which a “hero” would be selected from each tribe. Mavuika’s plan as it currently stands does not guarantee that each hero will awaken their Name - that is left up to fate.

Mavuika pays her own visit to a realm of consciousness and revisits several conversations with past figures, seemingly ruminating on the weight of her plan. “Voices of the Past” speak to her in a non-corporeal form, implying that these are past Pyro Archons.

(Acts shocked that this is exactly what she did to herself).

It concludes with a cliffhanger where Capitano speaks to someone who is out of frame, ostensibly his co-conspirator from the Masters of the Night Wind. Capitano believes this person will be useful for his own plan to counter Natlan's crisis.

Sub Plots:

Mualani’s survivor’s guilt, which is juxtaposed with Vichama’s survivor’s guilt. In Vichama’s case, his guilt was a symptom of his obsession with Mallko’s death and the delusion that he could ever bring him back, which is why the plan to rescue Kachina appealed to him so much.

Vichama: If I could do it all over again, I would have followed Mallko to the frontlines no matter what. Even with an injured leg, there were still things I could have done. That way... even if the outcome stayed the same, I still would have fought alongside him to the end. There are critical junctures in life, and if you don't seize the chance to act, there's no going back.

This brings to mind something Acheron said in Honkai: Star Rail:

“But you said, ‘Sleep is the rehearsal of death,’ so why does life slumber? Because we are not ready for the final rest. So you can definitely understand why we want to be prepared. Even if the ending has been predetermined, that's fine. There are countless things that humans cannot change. But before the end, there are many things that humans can do while on their journey. And because of this, the ‘end’ will thus reveal a completely different meaning.”

What Vichama is getting at is that fate had no bearing on his will, it didn’t matter if it couldn’t be changed because the journey to that end would still be different, and for him, more meaningful. This revelation empowers Mualani to move forward.

Mavuika’s connection to the Sacred Flame and Natlan’s memories.

Capitano's relationship to Natlan and personal motivations for seeking the Pyro Gnosis.

Chasca and Chuychu’s apparent difficulty communicating with each other and ability to understand one another. “Apparent” being the key word.

Also, Chasca’s survivor’s guilt.

Kachina's struggle to assert her own will to life, not as something that must match the legacy of her Ancient Name, but as a continuation of its story that belongs only to her.