#pls don't come for me for my limited knowledge of mythology

[wanderer-moonchild]

OK, BUT KAEYA’S LORE????? 

I'd just lowered my expectations for the Hidden Strife quest and hyv gives us more crumbs. I’m one happy girl. Time to theorize! There are maaaany implications about where the story can leads us with this new info.

Spoilers ahead!

Let’s talk about Kaeya first bc he’s my best boy. My understanding is that Kaeya's right eye can somehow identify him as Khaenri'ah. He was already playing pirate before his eye was injured, which is very ironic not only because of his lie, but also because of Khaenri'ah's whole one-eye symbolism. 

So... Does he have a very specific type of heterochromia that only occurs in a select group of Khaenri'ahns or a seal in his eye or what? He wore an eye patch long before his eye was injured, and it’s implied that he showed Diluc his eye as proof of his identity, SO? 

There’s also the discovery that the Alberich Clan are regent royals rather than actual royals. Kaeya doesn’t really have royal blood, but his clan is the one in charge at the moment. 

I've speculated before that Kaeya's family, or whoever survived the cataclysm, is conducting experiments to either break the curse or strengthen themselves to overthrow the gods. We don't know if that's the case, but I find it interesting that the letter Kaeya kept says, “although he could not restore Khaenri’ah to life”, meaning they've already tried that?

I also thought that maybe they were overconfident in their abilities and knowledge, which I think is possible since the rest of the letter says, “We of the Alberich Clan should lead lives as those who blaze like fire rather than those who wallow in the embers.” It seems that the Alberich clan acts on their own, but still have Khaenri’ah’s best interests in mind.

Another minor detail that can meaning nothing: in the letter, it says ‘when the strength of the one-eyed king Irmin failed’. This can be just how they talk, but in the context of the letter it looks as if the Alberich clan considered themselves more capable of ruling a nation than the king and seized the opportunity to take command after the fall of the Eclipse dynasty.

I wonder how much Kaeya knows about the curse, the Abyss Order, and everything else concerning his people.  

I've a feeling that he was trained as a spy as a child (and probably a warrior too since he has a different type of swordsmanship) and probably was born just for the purpose of... Destroying the gods? Avenging his people? Exposing the true of the world? We still don't know exactly what the Alberich clan wants.

The king of Khaenri’ah

We also have a name for the one-eyed king: Irmin, which is VERY interesting, because you know... Irminsul trees?

They're sacred trees that act as pillars between heaven and earth, and in Genshin also store memories of the world and give blessings to people (like the eternal grinding we do in this game because we're all crazy).

I did a little research and in Old Norse Irmin is called Jǫrmunr, which is also known as Yggr, one of Odin's names. There are many connections, so this is a very brief explanation.

I'm far from an expert on Germanic/Nordic mythology, but from what I've read, Odin travels to the roots of Yggdrasil and trades his eye in Mimir's well for knowledge. He gains a divine wisdom and a recognized perception of the world, even though he lacks an eye. This also gives him some powers...

Can the king Irmin in Genshin have done something similar? He gained a terrifying amount of knowledge and Celestia felt threatened by it? He has close relations to the Imirnsul trees and Celestia didn’t approve of that since they wanted to create a world suitable for them?

It is implied that the gods had several reasons to destroy Khaenri'ah - their advanced technology, their alleged thirst for knowledge, the experiments of Gold, their claim of being a godless nation...  

Jean calls the king of Khaenri'ah "heroic," so maybe he wasn't so bad, and the people around him, like the sages and alchemists and probably unknown forces, were the ones in the wrong. 

The Alberich Clan

Alberich is a dwarf who's the "ruler of supernatural beings", which makes more sense to me now. Kaeya's clan is the ruler of the present day Khaenri'ah, a nation now made up of supernatural beings.

If Genshin is going by the multiple epic tales featuring Alberich, I think the Alberich clan has magical artifacts or some other kind of power than we’ve known so far. They tried to restore Khaenri’ah and failed, so they might have started to search for power somewhere else.

They might have created them with Gold’s help? In Der Ring des Nibelungen, Alberich steals gold from the Rhinemaidens in the river Rhein and forges a magical ring. I don’t know if Genshin is going to follow this, but I find the connections very interesting. We’ve Rhinedottir and Alberich in the game, so maybe?

Also, Kaeya talks about a sword his grandfather had that gives its wielder unlimited power. This could be something like the Tyrfing, a powerful magic sword in Norse mythology, or could this be an allegory for Dainsleif?

I say this because Dainslief is the sword of Hogni, the Old Norse name of Hagen, who's depicted as the son of Alberich. He’s half-human and half-something (sometimes elft, sometimes dwarf?), and there are some theories that Kaeya isn't fully Khaenri'ahn, because he has a different appearance. 

Maybe Kaeya and Dain will team up eventually? I would love to see that.

A bit more about the eyepatch

When Pierro appeared with a mask covering his right eye, I thought it might be a custom of Khaenri’ah to show that they belong to a select group associated with royalty. Dain doesn't cover his eye and because he was only a knight, but still connected to royalty bc he was a royal guard, he wore a different outfit.

But Kaeya's right eye, as we know, seems to be important, so maybe it wasn't just a custom. Maybe there's indeed a connection between Pierro and Kaeya and maybe the Alberich clan was looking for the same source of power as the king of Irmin and in return their right eye was corrupted.

This may also be a side effect of the curse, as Dain seems to have been corrupted on his right side. Since Khaenri’ah worshipped the one-eyed king, was their right eye (or the entire right side) corrupted first or in some other way? It would be a very specific condition for the curse, but Celestia is known to be a bit sadistic, so...

[binch-i-might-be]

raystie WHAT happened to lucifer i know next to nothing about this pls infodump

Aryan Aryan Aryan you have NO idea what you just unleashed-

ANYWAY,,, disclaimer :)

I researched all of what I'm about to say like. five years ago when my biblical hyperfixation was at its strongest. and I do think most of it wasn't mentioned in the actual version of the bible we have today, but rather some of the canons that didn't make it in, and also jewish mythology? some is most likely just my own interpretation, so there's that! don't cancel me pls

okay, first of all: Lucifer and satan were too different entities in the bible, I think. Lucifer was some kind of king? but somehow the name got associated with the fallen angel that became satan, so we're going with that! sidenote: it's latin and means "lightbringer", and Lucifer is also refered to as the morningstar sometimes. I also read somewhere that Lucifer the angel was a cherubim but had twelve wings, twice the amount of wings cherubims usually have!

I'm clumsily telling you all this exposition because I'm trying to get the point across that Lucifer was somewhat of a daddy's boy. he was God's favourite, and sky daddy gave him special treatment :)

angels, of course, are perfect. they have their differences from each other and their individual functions, but they're supposed to be perfect beings. (also. this is me being supremely atheist and also a fan of conspiracies, but every time angels come up in the bible is as messengers. they have no real autonomy. they function as drones basically)

and then, God made some weird, imperfect, hairless apes?? with free will?? as a little science experiment?

that's like your dad getting an ant farm and paying more attention to those fucking insects than he does to you.

so, Lucifer wasn't too thrilled, of course. he'd been the favourite up to that point. a perfect son. the morningstar, the lightbringer.

what makes humans special, anyway? they can make mistakes? they have free will just to make mistakes??

anyway. this part actually was in the bible: satan was the snake that tempted Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, also known as the forbidden fruit that damned mankind.

the only instruction God had given to the two (2) humans was "don't touch the tree. the tree is off limits", and Lucifer went ahead and tempted Eve into taking a big chomp of that forbidden snacc.

(you know. like a huffy older sibling talking their younger sibling into doing something they aren't supposed to so that their parent will get angry with them)

and what did sky daddy do?

like a good creator, he threw ALL OF THEM OUT!

the humans were banished from Eden, left to their own devices, plagued by hunger and sickness, and Lucifer was cast from heaven, down into hell. forbidden from ever coming back, cast aside by his father for a mistake the allmighty EASILY could have fixed.

so, to summarise: Lucifer acted out in a way that was too human for the deity who created him to be perfect, so said deity just threw the whole angel out, and the humans with him.

I want to once again reiterate that a lot of this information was not in the actual bible but from the mythology surrounding it, and a lot of it is my own interpretation :)