#memory of dust

[selephi]

Memory of Dust

[astrugglingacademic]

WAIT. ZHONGLI SIGNED THAT CONTRACT WITH THE TSARITSA AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE AN EQUAL TRADE.

What if, for some reason, she could unlock Memory of Dust??? Hello??? And he would find that a fair trade!!!

[ceruleanvermillion]

Ahhh these are such good points, I loved reading through it all!! Im definitely in camp Guizhong might have been corrupted. The way nobody seemed to know or actually mention what killed her other than "a battle" is def a point of interest for me and Soraya (treasure lost treasure found). If he did kill her though, I wonder if the other adepti knew about it also? Seems inevitable that they would, but if the corruption is from, say, forbidden knowledge, I can see why it might have never been revealed at all, leading to assumptions that could have been taken as fact?

I absolutely see Guizhong as being older than Zhongli, this is super fascinating to me bc zhongli himself seems to be implied to have been around since the moon sister calamity era. We don't know his age, just that he descended 6K years ago. From what I know, it seems that the original CN character mihoyo used seems to imply some sort of "demotion"/going down from a higher position for whatever reasoning? I do actually wonder if that plays a part on why they became allies in the first place, being able to relate in that way. Memory of Dust's CN name is "Mortal World Lock", I wonder if it could technically imply that what's in there isn't necessarily a " Memory" in the traditional sense.

For the Irminsul wipe, I totally agree with the fact that it couldn't have happened since we know her name and others do talk about her, but I now wonder if instead it's the knowledge that is in MoD itself can possibly constitute one if not handled in a certain way, which is why she keeps it sealed and trusts him with it? This is likely irrelevant to the discussion, but Nahida mentioned something about how stories can used to bypass Irminsul, so I wonder if that's going to show up in Liyue lore one day.

As for MoD, I personally do think that it could be interpreted as Zhongli's own memory remembering the past- though it's mostly because iirc I don't think Traveler as characters are privy to weapon lore as players are? the use of "he" in place of "Rex Lapis" feels kind of personal and the things described don't seem publicly known to my knowledge. That being said, I can absolutely see how it appears like how the storytellers are speaking, kind of like the Azhdaha cutscene, and the stuff there isn't all chronologically ordered either. It's actually so crazy thinking about the amount of things players know that traveler might not have learned about yet at all until a particular quest

really enjoyed reading through that hehe I love guizhong lore^^

Circumstances of Guizhong's Death

90% sure something's up with Guizhong's death because weapon lore is basically from the devs and is therefore reliable and yet it contradicts Cloud Retainer's account and cutscene and why in the world would Cloud Retainer of all people lie??? But her retelling doesn't really line up and Zhongli WON'T SAY ANYTHING. Mihoyo is definitely doing this with intention, because they have an eye for details. Also the yakshas appearing in the cutscene makes the timeline... Super weird???

anyway here's a list

Cloud Retainer said this: "Guizhong was overpowered by the enemy, and fell in battle. When Streetward Rambler and I arrived at the scene at long last, all that remained among the ruins... was her lifeless body."

This has several implications: CR and Ping found her when she was already dead. Her body was what was left. There were surrounded by ruins. She also fell in battle. (we don't actually who found her *first*, since the cutscene depicted everyone being there. However the phrase used was "all that remained...lifeless body" implying CR and Ping found her like that.)

SPEAKING OF THE CUTSCENE. We see her being basically petrified/turned into a statue. Again, everyone was there, even the Yakshas, and Zhongli. There was this magic shape thing above her in the cutscene, we dont know what it is. But when it played, there was this glitch effect and we see this:

again, we don't know what it is or why the devs chose to add that funky glitch effect.

WHY THIS IS WEIRD AND IMPORTANT? This is a quote from what Memory of Dust weapon lore says: "He also remembers those words she spoke at the end — again, amid the Glaze Lilies."

This alone partly contradicts CR. Glaze Lilies. Not ruins. Okay, but there could've been some ruins from battle. So this is not complete evidence. However, something else caught my eye.

this being: Zhongli was with Guizhong in her final moments.

Another very important quote: "Her final smile was a lonely one, even as her form dissolved into the finest dust. "It seems that our journey together has come to an end. As for that stone dumbbell, forget about it, would you?""

And also this: ""If you can unlock it—" Many years passed, and he was never able to unlock that dumbbell, nor would he ever learn what might have followed that sentence."

Again, according to this, Zhongli was with Guizhong in her final moments. He heard her last words. He was there/already there before she died, she was not dead yet when he was with her.

(what might've implied in this description: That Zhongli and Guizhong were alone and no one else was there, because no other persons were mentioned. Again, this is while likely is also tentative, because there was no explicit mention. This way Zhongli might've found her first.)

What matters was that there was no way they found her at the state of *already dead*. Because according to MoD, "Her Form Dissolved into the finest dust." She's turning to dust even before dying. There shouldn't have been a body to find if she literally dissolved into dust. This is Direct Contradiction from CR's account and the cutscene, which depicted her body as stone/petrified. In Memory of Dust weapon lore, Guizhong's last words were cut-off, meaning even Zhongli didn't hear everything she was going to say. This was the moment of her death- the moment she likely had completely dissolved into dust was when she was still talking to Zhongli.

Let's review

According to CR: She fell in battle, they found her body, already dead, among the ruins.

According to MoD: When she died, Zhongli was with her. He heard her last words. She dissolved into dust.

Contradictions:

In MoD lore, her form dissolved into dust but cutscene + CR said they found her body and that she was turned to stone.

They found her body among ruins/scene of battle according to CR but in MoD she died among the Glaze Lilies.

Yaksha timeline weird

Arguable/tentative/still really vague stuff: According to CR she fell in battle because she was "overpowered by the enemy"- how did that happen if Zhongli was there according to MoD? He's still alive, after all. Also ngl they had a moment™️when she died because he had heard her last words- shouldn't he be fighting lmao??? Also shouldn't the glaze lilies be destroyed by battle?

TLDR There was no way CR and Ping would've found her body if we're going purely by what was explicitly mentioned in MoD. Vice Versa, there was no way MoD scenario would have worked out the way it allegedly did if we're going by CR's account.

also what in the world was that thing that was supposedly contained in the cutscene? The one in the third picture above.

Theories.

Obviously, this means that we should not take these accounts at face value. Either *something else happened that we still don't know* OR *Only one of these accounts was right*. So there's like a bunch of theories abt this. Anyway these are just some of them.

Maybe one could argue that Zhongli petrified her body after she died and dissolved, and that both accounts are technically right. But again, such a thing was *never* mentioned by either sources. is it even possible to do such a thing? Also why in the world would he feel the need to construct a whole fake scenario instead of just telling CR and Ping? Did something happen that made him think he has to?

Irminsul mind-wipe. This one is vague but Sumeru made it a possible option. However, why? why should they erase her? What did she do, what happened? They did put a glitch effect- so was that a creative choice or where they alluding to it? Also, again, what was that thing they were containing in the cutscene? also what's inside memory of dust and why did she ask zhongli to forget it?

In MoD we see Guizhong say two contradicting things. She told Zhongli to forget about MoD. but later it seemed like she was about to tell him the opposite. We don't know what she said because she unfortunately was dead.

Some people theorized that Zhongli might've killed Guizhong himself, because of the lines in Jade cutter weapon lore. Again, why? they were close up to her death, as mentioned by MoD. If that happened, why?

So, thoughts?

[mildarka]

Felt like making a reverted AU

[laurrelise]

okay i gotta be so honest one of the ONLY good parts about season 4 is when five is sketching in his little book and lila goes “dear diary, why do i always wear suits?”

that was fucking hilarious i will die on this hill

[franeridart]

op sketching backlog

[dilfslayer1080p]

hey if you're still up for suggestions i think it would be funny to put benry in one of those hydraulic presses and crush him. like in all those youtube videos

He's having a fantastic time

[tangledinink]

i’m going f*cking feral for the swanatello au

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swanatello

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[justalittleguest]

So about the last “Spilled Ink” chapter…

[witchkittymeow]

Season 1 you are so dear to me

oh York

[wordfather]

in my bed going hmmmmmm ahh thats an idea i should write that down. and then i fall asleep

[quietwingsinthesky]

every time i think im okay i remember that the echoes of clara across the doctor’s timeline didn’t know they were echoes. or. no, some of them did, i think, but the more clara gives of herself to save the doctor, the more she loses the sense of who she is. and that’s why some of the echoes just seem like clara, knowing why she’s there and what she’s there to do. and some of them, many of them, don’t. the ones eleven meets don’t. and how many of them didn’t know haunts me. how many of them died just out of sight of the doctor, for the doctor, alone, without knowing why.

[applepie-enthusiast]

Sanemi: I never lose my virginity because I never lose.

Giyuu: I can change that.

Sanemi: what

Giyuu: what

[dustykneed]

pov: you're having your comphet removed 🌈🤯😤 (doctor's orders) 🙏🏼💫🩻

this is why bones only gets to play dress-up as a treat 😔 if they'd put him in a little blue tunic in plato's stepchildren it would've been deadly

@very-bad-poetry-captain was watching the cloud minders and generously brought these skimpy little guard outfits to my attention. and then i blacked out for two hours and...

[ant1quarian]

because the kustard thoughts are wild:

consider Craftverse Dust, Horror, Classic and Killer having dated Fell before, and now he's been recruited into Nightmare's multi-planetary gang.

and has to deal with all of his exes.

[randomly--accessed--memories]

did some height comparison stuff because i was curious about vox and niffty's height difference and then got carried away