#rhine lore study

[gold-rhine]

why are ppl complaining that kinich's 8bit aesthetics "doesn't fit". like sumeru was literally cyberpunk. they had airpods and literal giant robot. irminsul is very bluntly presented as a database.

also have you met other dendros. dendro's most obvious theme is digital\virtual aesthetics. nahida has holograms and jumps on actual keyboard buttons. kaveh has ai robot in a suitcase and also does holograms. alhaitham has streamer headphones and does matrix coded green laser bullshit. we have actual yassified nyancat.

in fact, irminsul\database angle is the closest i can formulate the dendro theme. deconstruction and accumulation of data until reaching inspiration threshold and growing and evolving into something new, transcending previous understanding of the world. aranara theme of being a lil tree branch, growing through gaining new experiences\stories. wisdom is a growth through experiencing the world and drawing inspiration from it, processing it through your own understanding, creating something new entirely.

most dendros fit this scheme, even if they are not outright digital-coded. like baizhu fits. collecting information of as many illnesses as possible, not just collecting, but absorbing them personally, like an aranara with every disease, with ambition to transcend mortality.

but idk what yao yao is doing here. i didnt do emilie's quest yet, but even if she fits also, yao yao is still sticking out like a sore thumb. what does this baby nurse and her plush rabbit have to do with transcending of the known with accumulation of experiences \genuine question, if anyone has ideas let me know

[gold-rhine]

as i promised, updating my visions post with characters released after i made it. only hydro bc i have a fever, so don't have enough attention span to read new cryo backstories, but some other day!

Candace is a descendent of deshret, so everyone believes she has like powerr over desert and can control sandstorms and so on, and she doesn't, its a secret that passes down generations of guardians that they don't actually have any special powers, but candace has to keep this appearance so ppl of her village feel protected

Nilou is our first example of like healthy hydro, in that she plays a role, but her boundaries with that role are very clear bc its theather, she like always in goddess of flowers cosplay, but everyone know its not her.

Yelan is a spymaster who plays roles to bamboozle ppl and uncover the truth, not much to say bc obv she's in line like i expected

Furina is the second healthy hydro, also with clear role boundaries liker nilou. what i think is interesting is that she didn't have a vision while she was playing a hydro archon and i wonder why. is it bc focalors forced this on her and gave her no choice basically, bc vision has to be born from ambition? idk much to think about

Neuvilette doesn't technically has a vision, but he is hydro sovereign, and at the begining of times, it meant he is one with the element, any personality traits that can be associated with hydro have to track down to him. now, neuvi fits my concept very well, on all levels from being a dragon whose form literally mimics humans to playing a role. One thing i would like to note is that i've seen posts going like "oooh poor neuvi, he has to keep playing the role of a judge:(". when like no. he IS a judge. hydro is element of justice BECAUSE its sovereign is a judge. from his character stories: "It is worth mentioning that the role of Chief Justice is as much his true self as the Hydro Dragon is his essence. Only the role of "normal human" is one he must play." i mean i don't get why ppl try to invent angsty shit for him like rain making him sad or him suffering bering a judge, he had his entire planet conquered and ppl exterminated, how is that not enough of agnst

Visions: Cryo and Hydro

The question of why people receive a specific vision has been bothering me for some time, because for some elements the correlation is very obvious and consistent, like for cryo and hydro, and for others it seemingly doesn’t make any sense. But after mulling over it, I think I finally managed to make a system.

Edit: part two: Pyro      Part three: Geo     Part four: Anemo

My thesis is that vision users are not grouped into elements by their innate characteristics or attributes, but by their *Perception* of themselves and the world.   

For example, Cryo users see themselves as being isolated, and isolated on a profound level because of something they had no control over. They feel like they are stuck between two conflicting worlds, without being able to belong in either of them, and very often they feel burdened by a lifelong struggle that the outside world will not understand or even will be opposed to.

Kaeya, who was sent to Mondstadt as a child to be a spy for Khaenri'ah, and was rejected by his closest person when he tried to open up

Eula rejects the supremacist ideals of her family, but is simultaneously judged for her heritage by the people of Mondstadt, so she belongs to neither

Diona wages a self-proclaimed war against drinking while being a bartender in a nation known for it’s alcohol, while also carrying responsibility for her alcoholic middle aged catboy father (seriously, someone pls call child protection services for Diona)

Aloy is a literal outsider from another world

Ganyu has an entire storyquest dedicated to how lonely she feels, not belonging to either the mortal society or Adepti.

Shenhe has the same conflict as Ganyu, but like. More homicidal.

Qiqi is a literal zombie among the living who has no memories

Rosaria who was hardened by the life of a criminal, and now feels like she’s a black widow who needs to get her hands dirty to protect the naive innocents of Mondstadt, without ever actually connecting with them

Chongyun who is disconnected from the normal people because he dedicated his life to being an exorcist, while at the same time feeling like he doesn’t belong with the “real” exorcists, bc ghosts are afraid of his natural energy and not the traditional exorcist techniques.

Ayaka has an entire storyline about how she feels isolated from the people of Inazuma by the virtue of having to represent Yashiro commision, to the point where she thinks she can’t go to the festival that her own family organised

And finally, from what we know of Tsaritsa, who was kind and sweet before the cataclysm, and after that dedicated her life to the unseen crusade against Celestia, alone in her hidden war for what she believes to be a greater good, she represents the culmination of this idea

Now Hydro. Ummm, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but the power of water is its ability to take any shape. Hydro users are mimics, who feel pressured to shape themselves into a some specific role and present this illusion to the world. Btw, mark my words, Hydro archon is gonna be such a fake bitch.

Barbara feels obligated to pretend to always be happy and welcoming for her fans, while being like. Perpetually depressed and hiding from the most aggressive of them.

Childe’s entire storyquest is about him keeping up an image of a toy salesman for his little brother, at the more and more escalating costs to both his work and his health

Mona’s entire storyquest is about pretending to be self-sufficient and dignified astrologist, while being broke and confused on what to do

Xingqiu keeps up separate personas of a book nerd hellbent on gallantry and the industrious son of a wealthy mongrel, and he might let you know of his heritage if he already trusts you as a book nerd, but he’s terrified of his father finding out he’s an author of utena light novels, as shown at the Irodori festival

Kokomi’s storyline is about her being exhausted and feeling inadequate to be the high priestess, so she has a literal energy bar for how long she can keep up the appearances

Ayato is all about showing a presentable image of a commision head as a bait and striking from behind it

Yelan is not out yet, but all we know about her is that she’s a spy, which fits the theme of mimics to a t 

Now, speaking of the spies, a natural question may arise. Why is Kaeya, who was forced to be a spy from childhood, a literal Spy Kid, if you will, is not a Hydro? He shares so many character beats with Ayato, it’s interesting to consider why they have different visions.

Keep reading

[monards]

So!! have you ever thought about how Sucrose's greatest desire is to build a separate world for herself and how she found herself a conscious, near perfect, creation of the Great Sinner to teach her? How she is shown very specifically to study hilichurls, crystal marrow (physical corruption of a dead god's blood), the breath of someone who had a dead god locked inside them (last Windblume, when she got Collei to breathe into a tube) in her official art? have you thought about how the "Harmless Sweetie" seems to be following in the Great Sinner's works as a self help guideline? bc I'm thinking about it

OOUGHHH MY GOD I HAD TO WAIT TWO DAYS TO RESPOND TO THIS BECAUSE. THIS!!!!!!!!!! THIS POINT EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUUUARE SO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even BEFORE i was. knee deep in rhine lore. sucrose's personaility has always felt sooo off to me; and it wasn't in the typical 'hoyo messed up writing a woman again' way because its just SO clearly feels uncanny??? in the sort of 'you seem very sweet and act that way, but there is WAY more beneath that.' and now. oh my god.

oohmmygoooodd... the point about the hillichurls and crystal marrow AND COLLEI TOO?????/ IM GOINNG INSANE I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT THAT. This actually reminded me a lot about that one line she had about dvalin, and whether or not he dropped anything after our fight she could 'test' ; especially given that was while he was corrupted, hoyo is. REALLY. lathering on the idea of her interest in corruption or defilement in some form ^ plus, especially considering the rhine references; given her. extensive history of dragons and such. the idea of her wanting to study dvalin (who would be the only known dragon to her,) REALLY screams a million red flags like. hello.!!!! sucrose!!!!!!!!!! babes what are you doing!!!!!!!

With the albedo point you made especially,, it made me think about how it was always really interesting that, in one of her voicelines about him, she pointed out his thought process, rather than him just being a 'genius' like most of the other mond citizens, including himself, do. But now that your pointing out the fact he's the perfect creation of rhine -- it sort of clear he likely *inherited* that thought process from her (as we've seen with most the other hexenzirkel kids and their masters/moms,) which adds. A LOT. more meaning behind why she'd be so willingly to work with him despite the fact it's repeatedly establish he's not the easiest of people to work with (due to easy disinterest in a subject, and all of that)

Even more on the idea of her creating a 'wonderland' ,, (its probably just a very weird comparison my mind made BUT) you just made me think about the way the theme of 'dreams' and all of that is. SO. prevalent in all of rhine's creations especially; with both elynas & durin 'dreaming' (or better worded, hallucinating) what was really happening, and just all of her creations percieving things differently,, it connects SOSOOOO well to her wanting to create that wonderland... dear lord.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GRACEFULLLLILY HOW COULLD YOU DO THIS TO ME. YOU JUST UNLEASHED. SO MNAY THOUGHTSSSSS

[eternal-moss]

its fanservice when women, super important when its men is ur takeaway from the summer event

Help the way I got one singular like and one hate comment for that post 😭 it’s fanservice when it’s fanservice dude. I found Scara’s behaviour annoying and cliché (“hehe ur kinda cute” [please leave me alone]), as well as laying on Nilou’s lap.

(The rest of this isn’t really me responding to you but just rambling about Alice, Rhine & the Hexenzirkel because it’s midnight rn and witches yeaag)

I’m a massive Hexenzirkel fan! I’m just annoyed that still after so long we haven’t gotten a single bit of reference to what Alice looks like so I can’t draw fanart of her. Like seriously, are we going to have to wait until Snezhnaya to finally see her?? I’m happy for any kind of Alice content but I’m always sad it’s mainly crumbs.

She’s an incredible inventor, she literally made both the gramophone & telephone. I want her to be super super overpowered, her strength is already alluded to by her seeming to have comparable power to Venti (changing Mondstadt’s landscape) but I want it to be m o r e.

More about Alice bc I love her. I love writing her into fics (especially crossover ones because she CANONICALLY TRAVELS WORLDS. WHY IS THIS NEVER BROUGHT UP.) and just one-shotting the antagonists with the full force of the sun lol. I really want to learn more about the Genshin ‘elves’ too because they’re just thrown in there without much explanation. (Layla literally never mentions it, or Nahida…)

RHINE TIME!!! I love Rhinedottr & all her fucked up children (although I wish we knew more about her past). I love how her motivation genuinely seems to be joy in her creations, and it ‘just so happens’ that most of them turn out to be catastrophic in some way 😭. I hope she’s more cold and reserved, but secretly a bit insane like Alice. I also really like the two of them romantically paired together, shout out to the 7 other Rhinealice shippers out there.

I like daydreaming about them going to magic school together or some kind of study (a la Farcille. Thank you Farcille for existing to fulfill my Rhinealice fantasies), and how they’d respond to Khaenri’ah’s fallout? Are they still in contact? Does Alice know if Rhine is alive? When was Albedo given to her? HOW OLD IS ALICE BRO 😭😭

In terms of physical features, I see both of them as being greying & looking in their 50s (only partially to spite the fact that 90% of the Genshin cast appear in their early 20s or younger. Xianyun’s the closest thing we have to an older woman. Playable Madame Ping when⁉️)

The Hexenzirkel is genuinely one of my favourite parts of the Genshin lore and I really hope they do it well. I enjoyed their teaser so much, and I hope we get to see more of that, as well as Venti’s allyship with them, something that was referenced as far back as the first summer event where Venti leant (lol) Dvalin for Klee to travel, presumably because he and Alice are friendly with each other.

I’m obviously interested in the other members of the Hexenzirkel (and other witches!!!! Like Lisa and Rosalyne!!!!) but we really don’t know that much about them, aside information from Mona who I don’t have.

Alice & Rhine are basically my OCs at this point, and when their designs are inevitably very different from my imagined versions of them, I might as well make them OCs lol.

So no, my takeaway is not men=interesting women=boring. My favourite Genshin character is Kokomi and I’m extremely sad they’ve given her little to no allusion to her lore for the past 3 years 🥲

I think it’s a bit rude of you to come into my asks saying something like that on anon, but I won’t deny I found the first 3 parts of the event excruciatingly boring, as someone who is slightly interested in Sumeru, and barely interested in Fontaine. I’ve always loved Mondstadt and Liyue the most, so of course I was interested for Mondstadt lore. AND DRAGONS. I LOVE DRAGONS DUDE.PLEASE CAN SOMEONE LET KOKOMI HAVE HER DRAGON LORE I BEG.

[edgelessvoid]

I'm late to this but who cares here's my thoughts on them

further explanations on a lot of the points below the cut (it's really long read at your own risk)

For starters english isn't my first language so if I mix up my terms or words I do apologize.

Also, a lot of my analysis comes from the RL manga mainly, as well as Rhine focus events and op materials such as module lore, voice lines, op rec and op files, if you haven’t read it I get it it’s a lot but I’d highly recommend you at least read the manga to get a better grasp of the context, however I will add the source of any and all screencaps I put here so it’s easier to double check.

Also also I will be skipping points that are unnecessary to explain or that are headcanons that are based purely on vibes, this thing is already long enough.

Age difference: 500+ and 30-40

TLDR Muelsyse is probably centuries old but is very vague about everything concerning her life and past, switching identities every so often to avoid getting herself killed due to her position in the world; Saria is at least 38 by the time Lone Trail happens.

For the longest time that Mumu was talked about (esp. in Dorothy’s Vision) as being old, like centuries old, however in her files it’s stated that she’s in her 30s, here’s my reasoning as to why both make sense at the same time.

(Dorothy’s Vision – DV-4 After)

(Muelsyse’s Operator Files – Archive File 1)

There are many instances of Muelsyse being portrayed as “different” from the rest of the world, and yes it can be directly tied to her being an elf, but I also choose to interpret such “uniqueness” as her having grown such perspectives over exceedingly long times and scarring experiences, when the timeframe is big enough, one’s opinions can differ wildly from the norm.

(Lone Trail – CW-5 Before)

(Lone Trail – CW-ST-4)

And yet for this “uniqueness”, Muelsyse’s file still talks about her life like any other, growing up in an orphanage, graduating college and working. But would it be a wise idea to carry the same identity lifetime after lifetime, for someone who is so susceptible to originium, and being as active in more populated and social areas? No, even keeping herself on the downlow wasn’t enough when Ho’olheyak caught her and very nearly killed her by stuffing originium down her throat.

(Dorothy’s Vision – DV-ST-1)

It would make sense that Muelsyse has to be more cautious with her own identity, as she has chosen to live in a world full of originium and people with less than good intentions, so if asked about her past, she can tell it like it is, only keeping unsaid the fact that these events may have happened multiple lifetimes ago.

(Lone Trail – CW-5 Before)

(Lone Trail – CW-5 Before)

Now for Saria: As far as I have searched there’s no real indicator of Saria’s current age but even a simple assumption that she studied any 4-year major and immediately after went to found RL with Kristen and Muelsyse, she’d be at the very least 38 by the time Lone Trail happens in 1099, as the majority of college graduates are aged around 22 to 24 depending on the major, and Rhine Lab was founded in 1083 by Saria, Kristen and Mueslyse, chances are she’s older if she studied any more than 4 years which isn’t unreasonable.

(Rhine Lab Research Report #1 – Terra Historicus (CN)/Lone Trail (Global release)

Vibe:

Saria, an unmovable mountain that stands tall, a mortal with a grand vision that has risen so much it might as well touch the sky itself. Muelsyse, the flowing ocean upending fleets and crashing violently against rock, all to follow the whims of the moons above, stretching its waves as tall as it can, it could never match the might of the mountain it surrounds, yet it will probably outlive it. And looking far away from them is Kristen, the shimmering sky, so promising, and at the same time unreachable.

Repressed/Open:

Saria is just a repressed calcium brick, both from how she was raised to ignore her feelings and her absorbing those teachings and fueling them into productivity. Mumu is more open in comparison to Saria but she's still reserved about it in general.

No libido/Terminally horny:

Just because Muelsyse is reserved about her sexuality doesn't mean she's not constantly horny for Saria, what else can I tell you other than she's down bad. Saria is initially neutral about the whole deal but becomes progressively hornier for Muelsyse, even more so than her on occasion.

Aggressively romantic/Allergic to PDA:

Muelsyse is a very emotional, affectionate and caring person, but she also understands that Saria is very unaccustomed to PDAs, so she tones it back to a level where both feel comfortable. Saria however is not an emotional person; she’s often perplexed by displays of affection of any kind but does warm up to them with time.

Mentally ill/stable:

Neither is mentally ill, they're just grieving, Saria is a lot more self-destructive about it than Muelsyse though, emotionally stunted calcium brick and all.

KMSing over being in love/Blushing giggling twirling hair:

When they first got together, Muelsyse was a bit more outwardly excited. Both were torn on their feelings for each other as they are still grieving, but Muelsyse has also been yearning for Saria for longer so that dampens the blow (it doesn’t).

Doomed/Blessed by narrative:

Both are doomed by the narrative but. Come on. Mumu is that comfort character that gets put thru every trauma in the universe, I add some extra trauma because she is a long lived and as will probably outlive Saria if the originium doesn’t kill her first. Behold some highlights of Mumu experiencing the horrors in real time:

(Muelsyse’s Operator Files – Archive File 3)

(Expeditioner’s Joklumarkar – Expeditioner Interviews Kin 01)

(Dorothy’s Vision – DV-4 After)

Big/Little spoon:

Saria is usually the big spoon, but Muelsyse also gets to be the big spoon if Saria’s tail allows it.

Weapon/Wielder:

Not so much weapon/wielder dynamic to me so much as it would be combat capabilities, in arts Muelsyse destroys Saria, but in hand-to-hand Saria does break Mumu like a twig.

(Lone Trail – CW-10 Before)

(Dorothy’s Vision – DV-4 After)

The pajamas:

Saria wears old people pajamas, they're comfy and no one uses them to show off so why bother with something flashier. Mumu isn't flashy either but she still retains her sense of fashion even when picking pajamas.

No game/Insane game:

Mumu has mad game but she turns it down very often. Saria has insane game but she's too dense to see it.

Functional/Soggy loser:

Mumu has her shit together, Saria on the other hand, while being a very capable person, is still a certified failwoman; far too stubborn and strict for her own good.

What brings them together?

It's hard to talk about Saria and Muelsyse without talking about Kristen. Saria promised to protect Kristen and her vision.

(Records of Originium: Rhine Lab Manga, ch7 p38/72)

Muelsyse went out of her way to meet Saria and Kristen

(Muelsyse’s Operator Files – Archive File 3)

Muelsyse went on to start Rhine Lab with both of them. Even when talking between the two, Kristen came up in many conversations.

(Lone Trail – CW-10 Before)

And now, Kristen is forever out of reach to the both of them, so what now? Do these memories they had mean nothing without her now? To me, their answers would be no, Saria has fully admitted to being willing to do it all over again; And Muelsyse has expressed how deeply she cares for both Kristen and Saria. They are brought together even more because they’re the only ones who understand just how devastating that loss is to the other. They also play off of each other's energy incredibly well, Mumu’s lighthearted yet slightly distant humor and Saria's deadpan and matter of fact mannerisms elevates their dynamic a lot.

(Records of Originium: Rhine Lab Manga, ch-s1 p2/8)

What kept them apart?

Opposing approaches to the same issue, talking about both Kristen and RL as a whole, Muelsyse tries to improve the situation from the inside for her own personal goals e.g. finding a new world rid of originium; Saria doesn't necessarily try to improve the conditions of RL so much as tries to shield and fix the mistakes that it has made and from the outside, following her own methods to try to make Kristen understand how far she’s strayed from their vision of RL.

(Records of Originium: Rhine Lab Manga, ch8 p88/92)

(Lone Trail – CW-10 Before)

They collaborate on occasion but it’s clear after the Diabolic Crisis that they no longer see eye to eye in a lot of issues and now act very separately.

(Dorothy’s Vision – DV-ST-1)

The meet-cute*:

This one comes with a gigantic asterisk because I'm taking it from the events we explicitly see, it's fair if you think it could've happened far earlier, and it's one of my own hcs, but this is just the one event I feel makes the most sense in canon.

It’s far from the first time they met, but the first time they talk on a deeper level than a coworker relationship, In Lone Trail it’s somewhat alluded to Muelsyse still being slightly outcast from the core in the early days, and as Rhine Lab grew, they all settled into their roles as directors and start to lose touch with one another, only reconnecting a little during Ifrit’s case and after Control has halted their investigation into the Haydn1 lab “accident”, Saria from continues to look into things, with Muelsyse wanting to help out.

(Records of Originium: Rhine Lab Manga, ch6 p42/72)

Skipping forward to ch 8 where the manga switches perspectives back to them, Saria feels dejected because she believes there’s not much else she can do to help Silence and Ifrit, even if she is aware of how much pain Ifrit is in, and how Silence is involving herself in constantly more dangerous territory.

(Records of Originium: Rhine Lab Manga, ch8 p10/92)

Muelsyse can only empathize so much with Saria’s situation, acknowledging that she is mostly looking out for herself, having other options than RL. After that, Saria reminds her that no she doesn’t, so Muelsyse jokingly says she’s only looking to survive.

(Records of Originium: Rhine Lab Manga, ch8 p12/92)

Yes, I do believe she’s joking here, why would she threaten to kill Muelsyse when she has even less evidence against her than Parvis, when Saria hasn’t really commented on doing something similar to him when he is in fact doing something far less funny pretty openly by now.

The reductive tropes

If the last 9 pages worth of word vomit on my end do not convince you that this ship is in fact very appealing, here’s the list of reductive ship dynamics and tropes you can tack on:

Gruff/Dainty, immaculate aesthetic.

Mortal/Long Lived, you can squeeze a lot of angst out of this dynamic.

Also the shit Muelsyse says in Lone Trail, cmon.

(Lone Trail CW-10 Before)

(Lone Trail CW-ST-3)

Fell first/Fell harder:

Mumu fell first, how did she fall for such a loser fr (affectionate). Mumu also fell harder, feeling something after a long ass while of feeling dead inside for centuries? Hard to top that.

Who confessed first?

Mumu is the only one with enough emotional intelligence to carry them through the first years of their relationship, it does get better tho.

The touch segment:

Take it for what you will, it's just the vibes they give me, I added in hair bc I feel like Muelsyse would like it if Saria played with or cared for her hair, Saria is neutral about her own.

Conglaturations you made it to the end :D

[gold-rhine]

I don’t think celestia cursed them, i dont think celestia has the power even. i think they’ve fucked with Irminsul like king deshret and got fucked like he did

1.we have observations, from i think the sumeru labs where they kept ppl with Elezar that basically described elezar progressing into ppl becoming very hilichurl-like.

2.we know that elezar is from deshret getting forbidden knowledge from the abyss while trying to bring back the goddess of flowers, and we know from both deshret’s priest and Rukkhadevata herself that celestia had nothing to do with this. and this forbidden knowledge seems to be working like a virus or corrupted data, Rukkhadevata had to not only basically die, but also erase all the memory of herself from Irminsul tree. When Nahida did it, elezar and the withering were cured at the same time, making it obvious that this corruption introduced to Irminsul tree was the whole reason for both

now what we know of khaenriah:

1.they were actively, positively fascinated by the abyss as the means to escape the shackles of fate (clothar blames abyss sibling for that, btw)

2. Rhinedottir actively fucked with the abyss in her experiments, her main goal being creating a primordial human

3. khaenriah cherished their original bloodline above all others, to the point that it was prohibited to mix with others. so like while trying to create this perfect primordial human, it would make sense to them to base it on this bloodline or at least tie it to this project.

so it seems to me that while fucking with the abyss, they managed to corrupt the data in Irminsul, so that all tied to the OG bloodline DNA turned into this version of a cursed immortal, and everyone else got the extreme version of elezar

celestia most def was fucking with them too, they def had some role, but I 100% don’t believe this curse was like a conscious verdict from celestia. but tbh it’s too early to speculate on more details, we don’t have enough info. 

Everyone is all thinking and questioning the new lore and how does these curses work and how is kaeya a mortal instead and I'm here questioning Celestias intelligence, like why would you curse a group with immortality then have this curse be inherited by their children and children children?? Thats just making one problem bigger hello??

[m1d-45]

Okay wait a min! You know how like the abyss mages and the hilichurls are all like in the lore to be part of khanriah and in general they’re the ones to quickly recognize that the imposter is the creator and they protect us and stuff? So like does that people of Kahnriah has some special ability to recognize us? So wouldn’t that make kaeya, albedo, dainself to recognize us? (Sorry I’m absolutely struggling to spell kahenriah)

Also I had a thought how does our interactions with Dainslef go? Like typically in imposter aus he doesn’t seem to care much about the creator. But if he’s met with the actual creator would he protect them? But like personally I think he would hate them at first for what they did to Kahenriah but slowly comes to care and love them? Because he begins too see and realize this is truly the creator when they see how Teyvat bends to their will and stuff

(Also could I be 🦑 anon?)

YOU X2.

i know i’m guilty of this trope but in truth i never thought about it that much. i suppose i was operating under the assumption that it’s the same as the animals or the wind: they just Know. the people do too, but due to humanity having silly little things called critical thought, doubt, and generally more than one thought at a time, the acolytes don’t follow the slight buzz in their skin when they’re near you. if anything they assume it’s adrenaline.

but like. hilichurls clearly do have thought left—they have language and some sort of society, clearly… hm- you know how in the chasm quest it’s said they’re like eternally cursed or something-? let’s assume the creator lightens that pain, making their existence more bearable. this is something they know to be impossible except by the divine, and they don’t have loyalty to the false god, ergo you must be their god!

abyss mages are mages, so i’m gonna assume they’re a bit more tuned into their elements/the leylines/general auras or whatever. for this same reason i don’t think mona would join the hunt, but that’s for another day.

in addition! they’re affected by the abyss itself, which is just more “you lighten this impossibly heavy curse i have. hey god.” but like more reverent.

now. onto the more human khaenri’ahns.

dainslef is canonically afflicted by the Curse from before and i imagine he is more familiar with your visage/behavior/attitude/powers/whatever simply due to his age and all the time he must have spent studying holy books. also, though he is a Human Person—and hence suffers from the lifelong condition known as critical thought—he’s definitely more likely to follow his instincts. cokes with the territory of being the twilight sword, i suppose.

albedo is. hm. he’s not a child of khaenri’ah- it’s up for debate whether he’s khaenri’ahn at all, really. he was created by rhine, who was khaenri’ahn…. but he held no part in the calamity 500 years ago, and nor does khaenri’ahn blood run in his veins—he’s a child of alchemy, synthetic. he also isn’t canonically cursed. however, as an alchemist—and doubly so for a student of khemia—i’m certain he has a higher interest than average in the creator. whereas dainslef would know you’re you by your kindness, your speech, the way you talk and all your mannerisms, i think albedo would figure it out by how the world acts around you. the spike in leyline flow, the suddenly perfect weather, the way the wind always blows behind you, how the flowers and plants around you are the healthiest.

kaeya… is an interesting case. he’s khaenri’ahn by blood, yet isn’t cursed to my knowledge. i think, like albedo, he’s more likely to realize the difference in how the world treats you. he’s an observant and clever guy, i’m certain he can put two and two together. less on the technical side than albedo… but he’ll notice how the weather suddenly sours before one of the knights’ patrol, how their luck seems to be as bad as bennett’s when searching for you.

moving onto the second part of your ask,,,

because i want people to be happy i have somewhat… creatively interpreted what happened in khaenri’ah during the calamity. obviously every version of sagau is going to be different, but because i dearly adore both kaeya and albedo, here’s my version of events(copied and paraphrased off my post on the subject for ease of reading):

khaenri’ah was built entirely by people. they did worship you, but refused to allow you to meddle with their nation. you could have all of teyvat but you could not have their nation. they lived underground, away from your holy light, and in the dark of a cave with only the earth as their witness, they began to learn khemia. they began to learn how to create, how to mimic your power. theirs was more transmutation, less pure creation, but it was so close to it that rhinedottir let it get to her head.

that glosses over some details, but it’s enough for this discussion.

in my version of sagau, he would definitely protect the creator. he wouldn’t worship the one on the throne, nor would he engage in the hunt (because he knows both are lies), but if you happened to ran into him, you would be safe.

to reiterate: in my version, khaenri’ah collapsed under its own hubris. hence, dainslef would have no reason to dislike you. be awkward, yeah, he hasn’t had an intelligent conversation with another person since the traveller, and before that it was 500 years.

that being said, he could be a bit resentful, even if he didn’t blame you. after all, you didn’t stop rhine, you didn’t do anything to keep the calamity from occurring. yeah it’s because khaenri’ah staunchly refused to have you involved no he hasn’t put it together yet. give him time.

of course, though, this is all my opinion and carries no actual weight.

oh, and welcome!

[illuminatedchalk]

Modern AU Headcanons & Imagines : Science YouTuber/Professor Albedo

a/n: first post! let's gooo

warnings: none, maybe slight AlbeRose? but they are not together or anything, just rumored to be. Also slight spoilers of Albedo's lore.

genre: fluff, completely platonic, slight angst and implied character death? implied abandonment issue (Rhinedottir)

• I firmly believe that Albedo would be an educator. A teacher, professor, you name it.

• Widely regarded as a genius, perhaps recognized by the country. He has a lot of achievements in science under his belt at such a young age, graduated with stellar grades, has a Masters degree, basically, he lives and breathes science. And education. And learning. Ever the curious mind.

• His mother is a famed scientist, Rhinedottir. His childhood is where he learned all things alchemy, often watching his mother works with curiosity. Rhine then taught him everything she knows, but she was also strict with him, letting him know she wouldn't hesitate to leave if he wastes her time. Albedo however, was determined to learn.

• She unfortunately went missing one day when she goes out on a trip overseas, and she, before leaving, left him in the care of Alice, her colleague and friend. He then grew up in her care, and he became a renowned scientist, just like his mother.

• (In his quiet moments when his workload was a little heavier than usual, or when he hit a wall in his research, his mind sometimes wondered if Rhine actually left him... He prefers to think she wanted the best for him and everything else was just an accident, but in his more stressful moments, he can't help but feel a pang in his chest at the possibility.)

• He became very focused in his studies and interests, so even though he has social media (persuaded by his co-workers, acquaintances and family so they can reach out to him easier), he isn't online often unless to watch even more learning materials, or sharing said learning materials. Often people have to straight up give him a call if the matter is urgent or important, since DMs and messages are mostly forgotten with him. You can spam him and he will STILL respond a day later, maybe half a day if you are lucky (or if he prioritizes you *wink wink*). That's a minimum.

• (He does indulge in art content and sweet food videos on the internet sometimes. Art videos are for him to learn more about... well, art, since he does paint as a hobby, and sweet food videos gave him the boost he needed. Someone please bake him a cake... He is craving but waaay too busy to go to a bakery or café 🥲)

• He gives lectures from time to time, and does research on the other. His mind never rests, and time, to him, is something he should spend for learning.

• "Going out into the world investigating... Turning the unknown into the known... *sighs* I miss this feeling." Yes, I imagine he will be exactly like the way he is in canon.

• Now, his more 'free' time, however...

• If you have surfed through YouTube, then you must have seen the science education channels?

• Then there he is!!! Albedo in all his glory!!

• You'll probably come across his video on one of those random YouTube recommendations. Something about a solid that's lighter than air? Aero...gel? And you see a beautiful blondie with a pair of beautiful blue eyes holding up what looks like a cube of transparent air in the thumbnail. Now that's interesting. (Shout out to the YouTube channel Veritasium, my main inspiration for the content Albedo posts. Very interesting stuff he talks about there.)

• Albedo's channel covers a wide variety of topic, mostly regarding alchemy and all the cool phenomenon/objects that entails it, sometimes it's physics and the laws of nature, and sometimes he also dabbles towards more philosophical questions pertaining life, somehow relating it to science in the most introspective ways. His channel is... fascinating, to say the least. (The philosophical science part is a reference to Tom Scott and also Kurzgesagt. Again, fascinating stuff!)

• The surprising part of his channel is discovering how madly talented he is. So, his channel has an average upload period of one month, but sometimes he will also upload art videos in between them, perhaps it's to keep his schedule and to have a stable engagement, or perhaps it's just something he does when he is in the mood. He talks about art fundamentals, or sometimes just simply relax, sketching with little to no talking in it. His viewers just... vibes with him. Maybe also fall for him and his brilliance a little.

• His channel's tone is serious and calm for the most part. He shows his face in his videos and mostly has a neutral facial expressions with a monotonous, yet serene voice, so there aren't many moments where you can laugh. He doesn't crack jokes, often too immersed in his explanations and observing whatever he is covering to do so.

• It is fine, though. His charm may not lie in his comedic prowess, but it lies in his charisma. He could explain the most difficult subject like a walk in the park, pulling his viewers so they're able to see his unique perspectives, and sometimes he shows slight smug confidence while he shares his theories. He also occasionally drops some meaningful messages subtly, you'll miss it if you don't pay much attention. Just from the way he narrates his videos you can tell he is a great teacher.

• It is when Klee joins him when he is recording is where the mood shifts. Klee's cheerful presence helps brighten the mood, and Albedo visibly relaxes in front of his little sister. She is often seen asking him questions, climbing up a chair so she can see what Albedo is doing more clearly. Albedo often lifts her up anyways so she doesn't injure herself, and her appearance makes him smile a lot more, maybe even let out a chuckle or two while he holds Klee in his arms. His viewers will note about how his voice turns warmer when he talks to Klee, answering every single questions she asked.

• The first time Klee appeared in his video resulted in a funny misunderstanding amongst his audience. Everyone thought Klee is his daughter, that he married young and his assistant that is also often seen in his videos, Sucrose, is his wife.

• Timaeus is the one who moderates the comments section, and he had to watch Sucrose burns in embarrassment while stuttering endlessly when he reported the news to her. She is clearly at a lost because of the outrageous rumor, the poor girl.

• This rumor continued for quite awhile before Albedo finally introduced Klee as his little sister on the next video featuring her, and he also made everything clear that Sucrose is his assistant and pupil, along with Timaeus, and Sucrose can finally greet Albedo again without sounding like a robot. The comments thankfully understood. (Though Timaeus sometimes still found some comments that ships the two together. He didn't tell them, because poor Sucrose would probably start overheating again.)

• Now Klee has her own segment where Albedo teaches her basic alchemy! He also lets her experiment in his lab, safely of course. He taught her how to make gunpowder and fireworks.... safely... of course. Let's just hope she doesn't blow anything up, though she IS quite fascinated at the demonstration...

• gosh im a sucker for albedo-klee interaction they are just so cute

• All in all, his channel garnered millions of views on average! That's to be expected. After all, who would not love to watch educational content hosted by a beautiful guy with a voice akin to honey? You'll get an added bonus of fun family content with little Klee too! A full package <3

• People used to think Albedo is a cold, serious and unapproachable person, but after sticking around, you'll find the professor is actually quite the warm person, caring to his students and loving towards his family. Professor Albedo finds comfort in science, and he would like to share all the wonders he discovered with the world. Thankfully, the people around him also shares the same sentiment.

[maier-files]

New Post has been published on The Maier Files

New Post has been published on http://the.maier-files.com/brigid-so-much-about-her-remains-a-mystery/

Brigid, a history of a goddess full of mystery and magic

To fully grasp a Deity, you need to make an effort to understand the heritage andcharacteristics of the very first people to worship that Deity. Brigid originated in the pantheon of the Celtic people—the inhabitants of Ireland and the British Isles. Similar to Brigid, the history of these folks is mysterious and multifaceted. You can somewhat decipher what’s going on, but a large amount of the heritage is lost. Mysterious artifacts reveal a little bit in regards to what the ancient Celts were like, but prior to the arrival of Christianity, the Celts left no written records. We are left speculating at exactly what these items meant to the people who used them.

[vc_row][vc_column width=’3/4′]

Neighbors of the ancient Celts left the the majority of descriptive accounts, however this is a little troublesome. Many of the history written regarding the ancient Celts was recorded by foreigners or enemies who may well not have had a good comprehension of Celtic tradition or who most likely wrote slanted accounts. Occasionally, Deities and their myths are the best informants concerning the people who worshipped them, and in studying the Deity to understand the people, we discover even more regarding the Deity.

Some marveled at the Celtic society, in which it was claimed no beggars might be found, and adored their generous hospitality to welcoming guests. Various other accounts define the Celts as prudently protective over their lands and tribes, cautious about strangers, unabashedly prepared to shed blood to guard what was theirs. Their religious world was just as passionate, and it was out of this that Brigid’s iron-strong legacy came into this world.

Celtic Deities were literal representations of forces of nature which could be erratic and not always benevolent. Sea Gods might provide food and travelling, but may also flood coastal villages and consume sailors. Sun Gods might nourish crops, but also hide behind a rain bank for several months making the fields get rotten. Celtic Goddesses were typically not benign, loving mother-figures, but violent, voracious, highly sexual, even bloodthirsty.

The ancient Celtic/Germanic world was a massive civilization whose height of power occurred roughly 600 B.C.E. to 400 C.E. in Ireland and the British Isles, as well as what is now Portugal, northern Italy, Spain, France, Germany, southern Poland, and central Turkey. It was a melting-pot culture which originated from tribes that immigrated from extensive regions of the world, intermarrying with pre-Celtic indigenous peoples. The first European reference to Germani comes from the pen of Poseidonios (135 – 51 BCE) in whose writings the Germani are compared with the people of Gaul. Poseidonios notes that Germani are similar to the Gauls in nature, social institutions, appearance, customs and life style, only that the Germani are a bit wilder, taller and have fairer hair. Dionysios of Halikarnassos wrote that the land of the Celts is divided in its centre by the Rhine, the western part being called Gaul the eastern Germania. Diodorus Siculus informs us that the people on both sides of the Rhine are Galatians (Celts).

But who is Brigid? So much about her remains a mystery. How did a Goddess whose origins lay in the soils and waters of the Celtic world slowly but deftly take hold in so many places, both at the source and thousands of miles away? How did she begin and, perhaps more curiously, what has she become?

At the same time as the Celtic culture grew, it stayed far from homogenized. The various tribes kept their very own local practices, dialects, and traditions, yet there were still numerous similarities. Most practiced animism, a belief that all things contain a aware spirit. Another commonality was a term for a wonderful being: Brig or Brid. One medieval record listed 10 different Brighids, 12 Brígs, and 3 named both. This encouraged researchers, Goddess lovers, and folklorists to believe there once was a great Goddess called Brig (later, Brigid) and she ruled over all the Celtic world. In reality, Brig’s literal meaning of “the Exalted One” or “The Great Lady” was regularly applied to female entities including women in positions of power. Much like Tacitus identified the Albrunas.

The animist spirit was often female and so the title Brig was often applied to the spirits believed to inhabit sacred places such as wells and blacksmith shops. Practices of great renown such as the Bardic arts were also believed to contain feminine spirits, which influenced their cultivation. The Celts made few—if any—carved images of their Divine. If their Goddess could be seen in the earth they walked upon, was a carved image even necessary? Eventually, Brig would emerge in chiseled stone. Statues of Brig appeared under Roman influence in what is now Britain, where she was called Brigantia. Brigantia’s first images are quite similar to those of the Roman Goddess Minerva, a Patroness of wisdom, war, and urban living. Like Minerva images, Brigantia was depicted wearing a helmet and carrying a spear, but her trademark image was a jug of water, which Minerva was not seen carrying.

Celtic and/or Germanic spirituality attached the number 3 with all things divine and so Brigid the Goddess began to appear in lore and image in triplicate form. Modern images of Brigid frequently show her as maiden, mother, and crone, associating the 3 sisters with the phases of the moon: waxing, full, and waning, however this is not a proper association. Brigid has historically been regarded as a solar Deity and as 3 identical women of the same age, sometimes called the Three Brigid Sisters: Woman of Healing (Ban leighis), Woman of Smithwork (Ban goibnechtae), and Woman Poet (Ban fhile). In addition to being the living earth, Brigid was also viewed as the living personification of spring. In Scottish folklore, Brigid was imprisoned in the Ben Nevis mountain by the Calleach, the Winter Hag, each year when winter set in and then released in early spring. In other depictions, Brigid and the Calleach were the same Goddess with two faces …

  Sources:

http://amzn.to/2h12xcF

http://amzn.to/2h1jxzE

    http://amzn.to/2yHl8n6

  [/vc_column][vc_column width=’1/4′]

[/vc_column][/vc_row]

[gold-rhine]

Inazuma Rewrite part one

This is bullet points rewrite for Inazuma general plot structure, bc I think it had so much potential, but was horrifically scuffed in game. If I keep something from canon unchanged, I’ll just say so without retelling the entire thing to keep the length down, bc it’s gonna be A LOT already.

Some disclaimers: I’m not trying to fix every single problem, just what I see as major structural failures. I will reference my problems, but you can read my explanations on them more in depth in my “inazuma ranting” tag.

This is also not envisioned as free for all fanfic where I can write whatever I want, but aimed to be actually feasible to see in game, bc it’d be unfair and I want to show that Inazuma could be improved in the same constraints that hoyo writers had. So please don’t ask why I didn’t do wildly inconsistent thing that would be cool, but genshin would never actually do.

I’m aiming to retain all relevant lore and achieve basically same worldstate in the end, including character arcs, for the most part, because I presume them to be integral to the larger strategic plotline of the game. Which means I can’t drastically change characterization and major plot beats like the decrees, rebellion, Raiden has to be a sympathetic ally in the end, etc. I’m also trying to keep genshin’s general tone and modus operandi, bc like, target audience includes 13 yolds and I can’t just “make Inazuma good” by turning it into like, a gruesome and complex power struggle of political factions like Fallout New Vegas.

List of main issues I want to address: pacing in general, rebellion pacing especially, lack of impact and continuity of effects of vision loss on people, lack of setup for the stasis vs transience aka ei vs makoto conflict, character arcs: raiden, ayaka, kazuha, kokomi, yoimiya, kujou sara. And more! 

Initially I wanted to make a single post, but it’s already 3k and I’m only up to Raiden’s first duel and I plan to cover post-archon quest content too, like Raiden and Yoi story quests, so I decided to split it up instead of posting like 20k monstrosity. So remember, this is for now mostly a setup.

EDIT: Part 2

Raiden’s motivations\Reasons for vision hunt

Ok, so one of the biggest principal changes is that vision hunt and sakoku decree are active Raiden’s decisions, instead of Fatui’s plot that she’s just passively allowing to happen. Raiden closed the country, but she’s ok with Fatui starting a civil war and selling delusions, bc it doesn’t “affect eternity”, like??? I honestly think that the current plot of her people dying in a civil war meant nothing to her is much worse than her starting vision hunt decree out of misguided plan to ultimately do better for people.

I mean ok, we have to have closed borders to reference Japan’s history, sure, but like, the whole point of isolationist policies like this is to prevent the outsiders’ influence on the country. So she should not be ok with Fatui schemes at any point.  

I mean, if it was fallout new vegas AU, I’d keep it to show that dictator doesn’t not care about foreign powers exploiting it’s people as long as it profits the empire and helps to keep people subjugated, but like. Then raiden can’t be uwu waifu. So we gonna give her good intentions and integrity, but misunderstanding of humanity due to closing herself off instead.

Now to why would she close the country and institute sakoku decree. I want to tie this in with another plotline that is just. Kinda floating at sidelines at the moment, but I think could work nicely in tandem. The Scaramouche destroying Raiden Gokaden, the five schools of weapon smithing, which were canonically highly valued by Raiden.

I’m not gonna recount Scara’s entire plotline, but basically he went on a misguided crusade against Raiden Gokaden and managed to cause fall of 4 out of 5 weapon-smith schools.

Game says that he like, tampered with the schools and covertly led to their ruin, which like?? They never found anyone guilty, like the most prized weapon art smiths of your country fall apart and you’re like oh well, I guess Yashiro commission is just bad at it’s job?

There is a plot point in this story where Isshin weapon smiths, unable to replicate a faulty design that was Raiden’s commission tampered by Scara, were scared of Raiden’s wrath and decided to flee to Snezhnaya. I want to change it to be that there is an event, where ALL weapon schools receive same commission at the same time, and Scara tampers with it.

Just as in canon, scared smiths, but now from 4 schools, not one, are manipulated by Fatui to flee to Snezhnaya, But we add a new NPC, the most talented blade smith who had a vision. Fatui frame him as the ring leader, as if they were running not to save their lives because of the tampered design, impossible to fulfil, but that this was a betrayal because of his ambitions.

After this, Raiden has legitimate cause to feel like her eternity is threatened. She sees weapon art schools, one of the most prized country’s traditions being ruined in a moment because of what she thinks is ambitious hubris of one vision holder, who colluded with outsiders. So she closes Inazuma and declares a vision hunt, to prevent this from ever happening again.

But ironically, in truth it was the fault of not just Fatui, but specifically a puppet without a vision that she herself created and failed to supervise. This brings the main idea of the plotline from “Fatui evil, Raiden passive” to “Solipsist goddess who doesn’t understand humanity tries to protect her people by locking them in stasis and taking their ambitions, but the real case of tragedy was her negligence and lack of empathy all along, and this is what needs to be changed.”

Interlude and plot setup

We start with similar plotline. Traveler tries to go to Inazuma, learns that it’s closed, talks to Inazuman NPC to learn more. Here we’re introduced to the general idea that Inazuma was closed off due to one traitor blade smith with a vision who sold off Raiden Gokaden to Fatui.

We go to Beidou’s tournament, which goes basically the same, we meet Kazuha and watch a beautiful cutscene about his dead friend who challenged Raiden to a duel, and now Kazuha tries to find someone who can reignite his vision. I will actually add changes to Kazuha’s storyline, but it be will later.

then we arrive to Inazuma, go through the same bureaucracy loops with Thoma on Ritou, to show the barriers to outsiders and also to illustrate how Thoma is the best fixer when he manages to drop a fee from 1 mil to like 10 gold by promising to have a dinner with government official.

But we’re cutting the second part of Ritou, with the boring plot about like merchant from Mond scamming people with the local police and then Traveler delivering love letter or whatever. I mean, we can keep this as an optional side quest, if like hoyo thinks the lore about love letter is essential for the Ayato’s quest or smth, but not as an Archon quest.

Instead, we put a part of Yoimiya’s quest there. I think Yoi’s quest is relevant enough to stay in the Archon quest, unlike Ayaka’s, but it’s slapped into a place where it ruins pacing. So instead, we’re cutting it up in parts and inserting it into main storyline.

On Ritou, while doing bureaucracy bullshit, we meet Yoimiya, and play the part of her quest about her helping a guy with a vision to escape from his former best friend, who is now a guard hunting him. It helps to show the rift that vision hunt brings not only with the outsiders, but with inside of the country as well.

Ghost of Makoto\Transience setup

another key point that I think is integral to fixing Inazuma is planting seeds for Makoto’s reveal from the start. I really like the Stasis vs Transience conflict from raiden’s second story quest, where raiden believed in eternity as lack of change, a perfect state maintained until the rest of time, while her twin Makoto believed in eternity as never-ending change, where people’s dreams constantly evolve, nature of them chasing these dreams never changes.

but it feels like it came out of nowhere and raiden just speedruns character development in like an hour, so a lot of people ended up feeling like it was just about Raiden mourning her sister, instead of raiden coming to understand makoto’s belief system and through that unlocking makoto’s final connection and then being able to let go.

so we need to first of all, introduce makoto’s ideas of transience from the start, and also empathize the conflict of them with raiden’s stasis.

and it doesn’t mean we’ll spoil the reveal about the second raiden shogun! we don’t have to ever use makoto’s name, just her title as a raiden and sprinkle her ideas throughout the land. We know hoyo area designers can do that stuff really well (guizhong’s relics being scattered all over liyue, rukkhadevata’s shadow in the aranara quest).

like, it’s strange that Makoto primarily ruled and shaped country by herself while Ei was just a warrior, yet we do not have Makoto’s influence visible. We need to add ideas of transience into fundamentals of Inazuma,

“Transience is the dream of the nation of thunder. We find the greatest joys in mortal life in fleeting dreams, for is life itself not like the shadow of the thunder? Pursue your dreams into the clouds if you wish, and enjoy the unexpected silence of the dim lamp-lit nights.” - Guide to Transience talent book.

add these ideas all over the place, esp near sakura. And let’s draw player’s attention a couple of times specifically to the internal contradiction of these ideas of transience being integral to inazuma and raiden’s current hatred of change.

like, we need even 13 yolds and twitch streamers to remember this, so lets make paimon say like

“Huh, this shrine to raiden shogun says that eternity is the pursuit of fleeting dreams, but doesn’t raiden shogun fucking hates dreams?? I wonder, what made her change her mind about them to the total opposite!“

this and more subtle puzzles\locations with focus on transience for people who pay more attention will add the much needed setup for makoto’s reveal

Kamisato siblings

ok, first things first, Ayato being absent without any explanation while his little sister is plotting treason and his malewife Thoma is about to be executed on the streets is unacceptable.

like I know it’s marketing or whatever and he’s not being released but we need his model, hoyo. If we 200% CAN’T have his model, we need to come up with solid excuse why he’s not here. Like idk, he’s helping the war refugees or smth

And we need hints at his presence\influence throughout the story. Like oh, here’s group of refugees who were helped by Yashiro commissioner, they are relocating to new homes, I guess Ayato is really busy. Oh, here is Fatui’s camp where everyone is slaughtered and boba tea cups are littered around, I wonder what is up with that.

and also, Ayaka is organizing resistance behind his back, and we never meet him bc Ayaka actively tries to hide traveler from him.

bc like, Ayaka doesn’t have a development arc in archon quest. She’s just kind of there, being perfect. Like in her story quest that hoyo makes you do at gun point, you like, go on a date, learn that she’s lonely and has trouble connecting with people due to the pressure of having to project an image of perfection and societal distance, do an investigation to uncover her late mother’s fox fursona roleplay diary which she used to cope her with own societal pressure. Which like. Ok, sure, but but this wet socks quest is not an archon quest material. It should be just a normal story quest.

no, Ayaka’s real conflict is wanting to prove herself to her brother, bring real difference to the world. This is her ambition, she literally gained her vision while fighting Ayato in a training, she wanted to show him that she’s strong enough to handle responsibility, he named her Shirasagi Himegimi after she won that fight

but during a civil war, watching people suffer, her role as a cultural figurehead is not enough. She wants to help, but she’s afraid to act, because this will undermine Yashiro Commission and her brother worked so hard to build it back up after Raiden Gokaden fall. so she organizes resistance behind her brother’s back in secret, to help, but without compromising Kamisato name

this basically tracks with what happens in game, but we spell it out and expand on this later.

Getting Traveler to help

next, let’s throw out the weird edging introduction where traveler is not allowed to see Ayaka the first time. like??? bro, we’re friends with 2 archons and heads of their governments, you’re not that important. and it can’t be to protect her identity, bc like. You go to Kamisato estate! You’re told who she is! If you wanted to betray her, that would be enough already.

another awkward thing is that Traveler, who agrees to do every stupid quest they meet, suddenly refuses to help the resistance.

I think we should reframe their convo a little, like Traveler says hey I’d love to help, but my primary goal is to get info about my sibling from an Archon, so I don’t want to go against her.

To which Ayaka says oh, I totally get you, you see, I am myself a culture figurehead and a nominal princess and I can’t speak up against the decree, bc that will hurt Yashiro Commission. But I’m not asking you to fight Raiden Shogun in a duel or smth, I’m just asking you to help people with the resistance, which we do totally in secret. No one will know! Also, how are you going to see Raiden? She’s locked up and doesn’t appear in public. But my big brother is a head of the Commission, if anyone can get you an audience, it’s him. So help me help people and I will ask him to help you see Shogun!

she secretly believes that after traveler sees ppl suffering, they will change their mind and help willingly, same as in canon, but she’s more subtle about it

Rebellion connection

my other problem with vision hunt is that the 3 quests they force you to do about meeting people who lost their visions are like. not good. The concept is interesting, but they are just kinda boring and meandering. They lack dramatic impact. They could do better. So we’re not doing these 3 quests rn, but don’t worry about it, we will get to the effects of vision loss

Instead, ayaka sends us to help Yoimiya and we do the same quest we do in archon quest - help her to free someone from prison dungeon. It goes the same, we get to the dude being mistreated by cops, Kujou Sara steps up and lets us go

But then it’s like, we need to get this dude out of Inazuma city. Cops know he escaped! They will just come for him again! There is only one place that will take him and it’s the watatsumi rebels.

Common complaint about Inazuma is that other countries feel like found families and Inazuma doesn’t, bc characters from resistance and rebellion basically don’t interact, and it’s true. And like, we can get them together! Thoma knows Kazuha, Kazuha knows Gorou, Gorou in canon went to recoinsanse missions to Narukami island.

So, Gorou visits the tea house to pick up the Vision Dude, and the gang has the hotpot meet up. Everyone is there (except Kokomi bc ok hoyo, we’re saving up for dramatic battle reveal, and i think her reveal would fuck up banner schedule). Ayaka, Thoma, Yoimiya, Kazuha, Gorou. and Teppei! Who is here bc he was recruited by Gorou. He’s actually from Narukami island, not Watatsumi, and he had nothing to do with visions, but he’s an idealist, he believes in freedom, so he joined rebellion. fun times are had, Ayaka tries to play srs bsns lady host, but breaks into giggling at The Shenanigans, Gorou is overly polite but adorable and apologizes to Ayaka about The Shenanigans in which everyone but him participates, Yoi is a life of party and the Shenanigans and later has to be bodily stopped by Kazuha from organizing fireworks right here, right now, Thoma and Teppei both get sick from eating Ayaka’s nasty cakes that she threw into soup, bc Thoma is just into oral stuff and Teppei is so earnest and eager to prove himself and impress ppl, haha comic relief, look how sweet and funny this guy is and all characters get along so great with him

bc like, I think Teppei has a problem of a) not having enough screen time b)not having any interesting characterization moments to make him stand out 3)not having other playable and already likeable characters interact with him

so this scene can serve not only to bring that “unlikely bunch of people becoming friends and working together” connection to life, but also to endear Teppei to the players

Vision Loss Effects\ Yoimiya and Thoma

ok, next Ayaka asks Traveler to do that one quest about martial arts master losing their vision. I think it’s the one quest from 3 about vision loss with most drama, but the real reason is that it introduces Yae Miko and we need to do this before leaving for the rebellion. Like, in theory, it could be switched to another, better quest that lets us meet Yae Miko, but honestly, this is not one of Inazuma archon quest problems so I can’t be arsed. Feel free to imagine a cooler intro instead.

when we go back to tea house, we learn that Yoimya’s vision has been taken away. She has been recognized in that last prison raid and the guards came for her later, and she didn’t fight bc there were kids and her old father around.

She’s completely changed. Her innate optimism, her belief in people and their dreams has been drained from her like a sunshine from a dark cellar. But she’s still Yoimiya!! She came here to warn you bc she still cares even if she had her own joy taken from her. She tries to smile and reassure you that it’s ok, she’s fine, but her smile is visibly strained, she’s never had to fake it before so she doesn’t know how. She wears a vision, but it’s a fake one, because her pops said that maybe having it here would help and she agreed, tried to pretend for him that it does help, bu. It very obviously doesn’t.

Ayaka is horrified. She apologizes to Yoimiya, tries to think of ways to help her, but Yoi just laughs humorlessly. “It won’t ever touch you, princess.”

She’s immediately disgusted at herself and apologizes, tries to take it back, this isn’t her, she would never say this, and not to her friend! But also, it’s so hard to care now and she can’t remember why it’s so important to care at all.

Ayaka is shaken. Bc it’s true! She is a privileged noble, vision hunt will not come for her! She is playing at the resistance from the safety of anonymity, while people like Yoimiya actually risk themselves and pay the price!

And this is when the news that Thoma was arrested and about to be 100th vision taken at the feet of the statue comes. Tenryou commission truly strikes back.

Ayaka is in uproar. She’s ready to go herself and fight for Thoma, especially after Yoi’s words. She’s sick and tired of being a perfect princess, she can’t allow any more of her friends, her family come to harm because they don’t have her protection. Clearly Thoma being a theatrical execution is a blow specifically against Yashiro commission and Kamisato family in particular, and if Shogun has beef with her, well, she can settle it with HER instead of going after her friends!

Traveler stops her. This is what they want. If Ayaka openly moves against the Shogun, the entire Yashiro commission falls. Even if Ayaka is in the right! No, it’s the Traveler who will go to save Thoma

But traveler needs raiden’s good will for the info, they can’t confront raiden openly, it was the deal from the start!

But at this point traveler has seen too much, the divide in the country, the change and suffering of their own friends, and they can’t allow all of Yashiro commission take the fall.

This is when the Traveler decides to take a stand.

ACT 2

[gold-rhine]

3.5 spoilers @moonilit I’m making a new post bc that one is ten miles long, but I wanted to address one thing you said: “ also, I don't think their legacy is the abyss? their legacy was how they stepped in and were regents the abyss happened way later”

I’m 90% sure that creating Abyss order is what Alberichs see as “stepping up as regents”. They were never regents while Khaenriah still existed, bc like:

1. we know that Eclipse dynasty was ruling at the moment of the Cataclysm and Cataclysm destroyed khaenriah, so like?? when would Alberichs have time to be regents??? over whomst, their own bloodline?? bc like everyone else is hilichurls at this point

2. Clothar doesn’t say he’s from regent family, he says he’s just some noble. He doesn’t recognize Dain, who is a CAPTAIN OF A ROYAL GUARD, so like. I think regent family would know him. 

3.Clothar is doing fuck all when we meet him aside from trying to cure his son, and doesn’t mention anything about ruling shit

so I think Alberich rationalize creation of the Abyss Order as a noble thing they’re doing for khaenriah, as them “stepping up as regents”. otherwise I think we have to agree to disagree, there’s no point in arguing literal vibes of Kaeya’s dad letter haha

[gold-rhine]

i mean i feel like basically everything i said in prev reblog about navia works here too, except father issues obv. building an empire (she wants her brand to be known all over teyvat), repping your brand, heavy emphasis on the community.

i think its interesting to contrast her quest with lyney's bc on paper they have similar structure - they are both talented artists, revolutionizing their fields, and the quest starts with their reputation being threatened. but in lyney's quest its just an excuse to start investigation, we don't go into reputation problems basically at all, while for chiori it's THE center stage of conversation.

in lyney's quest we also spend a lot of time on the specific magical trick, on the mechanics of it and how hard it is and how lyney wants to be the best and doing this trick will prove it, etc, but in chiori's quest dresses are almost afterthought. she says directly that its not about how pretty the clothes are, its about what they represent and which ppl wear them. this is very poignant pyro's focus on the craft itself for the result vs geo's focus on the people and reputation

Visions: Geo

Another post in the series where I theorize on why people receive a specific vision, this time it’s Geo.

First part: Cryo and Hydro;    part two: Pyro        Part four: Anemo

Geo are the legacy-makers, they take the tradition that was passed to them and they build on it, often revolutionize it to leave their own mark, but keep fundamentals sacred. Geo archon is the god of contracts because every geo keeps a contract with the world of following the tenants of their tradition, and this includes a social contract too. This is why they are so concerned about reputation and why close ties to the community is a common theme - it’s not enough to just excel at Your Thing, as for a pyro, geo also need to grow it, involve other people, spread it and make sure the world knows Your Thing is fucking awesome. And this is also why geo leaders will serve and protect their communities as the first AND the last line of defense instead of using their subordinates as resources as the leaders normally would. Itto’s first thought is of “his boys” both when he opens treasure chests and when he falls in combat, he was actively distressed when they stepped up to let him escape the millelith, because he was supposed to be the one protecting them; Zhongli fought on the front lines of every war and personally went to every house to catch the aquatic pests, Ningguang sacrificed her beloved Jade Chamber, a symbol of her personal success, without hesitation and was ready to do so again. Geo are the cultivators, empire-builders, and said empire will always come first.   

So, Geo lineup looks consistent enough with this theory, until you get to…

(Fun fact: if you get trapped in a tight corner by enemies and you go into Itto’s burst, camera doesn’t have space to pan out, so it just zooms in on his abs, which is I think is correct and what he would’ve wanted)

Like wait, you might say, how are you going to tie Arataki Itto with cultivation of tradition and social contracts of all things? He’s actively breaking social norms, he gets in trouble with authorities all the time, he notoriously doesn’t do anything but hang out with his gang and have beetle fights with children, what empire is he building? It can’t even be a beetle fights empire, because he’s losing all the time!

Keep reading

[monards]

so desperate for Rhine lore. I fear I will have to study every little piece of lore to possibly find new Rhine facts.

[gold-rhine]

Masterlist by vibes,   Masterlist by characters

Inazuma Rewrite: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3

AO3 

All fics - tag rhine writes 

NSFW fics - rhine writes filth

SFW fics - rhine writes light

request rules  taglist

Character studies - rhine character study

Lore ramblings - rhine lore study

[gold-rhine]

ok lets unpack. i saw comments like that and was going to answer them, but its better to use this ask so ppl dont feel attacked:

1.saurians can talk to each other, you can talk to them if you indwell one, so they don't need to learn human speech. - makes no sense. they can't communicate with humans on crucial things, the whole reason we have to indwell to talk to them in several quests is that we can't communicate. ALSO. if you move to foreign country where you don't speak the language, even if you have diaspora speaking your own language, you're going to pick up at least basic words and sentences in a week, i know, it happened to me. saurians live their entire lives with humans in close contact. vishaps, even kid vishaps, start picking up human speech in days, we know from enka experiments.

like sorry this is just useless argument, my point is: vishaps are as smart as humans, and saurians are not. i said in op they are smarter than animals, but even when we talk to them in their own "language", they communicate in very basic words - "hungry", "tired", "let me out". and there is a quest where canopy tribe chief says they are simple creatures who can't understand complex concepts and just trust their humans, so they don't understand when they help humans do crimes that its bad. like i'm not arguing this point anymore, saurians are not as intelligent as vishaps.

now, to the mountain king. yes, he talks and he talks not in "simple speak", he can clearly understand complex moral concepts. ppl say oh its bc he's old, he's like 500. but that can't be it. again, it doesn't take normal vishaps 500 years to learn human language, they start speaking in weeks or days.

but his age is a crucial point by itself. he's such a celebrated icon bc saurians don't live that long normally. but you know who does? dragons. vishaps don't die unless killed. and what is the stated reason why mountain king is different from normal saurians? its that he's infected with the abyss.

now think about it. why would abyss make him live for 500 years longer than normal?? abyss usually makes creatures die much faster! we have natlan storyline about springs woman dying from abyss infection, we know that from many cases like fountain's rene experiments and so on. you know who it doesn't kill? dragons. dvalin and apep were filled with rage when corrupted by the abyss, but they were still immortal.

ok, so here is the thing: if night kingdom is a leyline that holds souls\minds\whatever it is that makes dragons sentient and immortal, and night kingdom is infected by the abyss (canon fact), then its possible that mountain king was not just infected by the abyss, during the turnfire incident when his human friend gave him his own ancient name energy, it gave mountain king connection to the night kingdom's leylines. (bc thats what ancient name is, its an anchor to leylines) this is why he has sentience and was infected by the abyss THROUGH the leylines, bc he doesn't have wyaobb protecting him from abyss like humans do. through connecting to leylines, he became full fledged vishap, but was also infected by the abyss.

and when at the end of kinich quest he returned that ancient name energy and "closed off a shell" protecting from abyss corruption progressing, he gave up his connection to ley lines. which is why he lost sentience! he became again mindless creature, a "body" used to train canopy warriors.

tldr; it looks like whatever makes vishaps not only sentient, but immortal, is stored in leylines. memories, elemental energy, personalities, etc. and it looks like saurians were severed from leylines, losing immortality and sentience. it protects them from abyss corruption, but it means the leyline "spirits" of them are trapped in the night kingdom and infected by the abyss. if saurian is given access to the leylines, they become a normal, sentient dragon, but unless night kingdom is cleared of the abyss, it will lead to corruption. i would guess this is where the archon quest will eventually go to.

another thing, if natlan had leyline tree and it was destroyed (or mostly destroyed), can this be reason saurians are less intelligent than vishaps? like they are smarter than animals, but dont seem fully sentient and they can't talk! we know all vishaps are as smart as humans and can learn human speech, given enough time they turn into sophisticated yappers, but every vishap can learn to talk given exposure to humans, not just powerful and old ones. in enkanomiya they did experiments on vishaps and found out that any vishap can learn human speech at least on a child's level and they will improve with time. we meet a hydro vishap shapeshifted into melusine on Erinnyes who doesn't even have a lot of human exposure and still can talk and cooperate with humans.

so how is that saurians live with humans their entire lives and still can't communicate more productively than "rawr!!" ???? how is that the natlan's dragon quest that no one could pass in 500 years is just simple actions like walk through a room and touch a thing?? it would not be hard for any vishap to do, you didn't need a close friendship bond to do quests together with Erinnyes' vishap, bc like. thats a person, you just communicate what you want from them and they do it, its not hard! what was done to pyro vishaps to turn them into saurians

[nakuweedwriter]

Is it cool if I use your rewrites in my genshin impact DND campaign?

Inazuma Rewrite part one

This is bullet points rewrite for Inazuma general plot structure, bc I think it had so much potential, but was horrifically scuffed in game. If I keep something from canon unchanged, I’ll just say so without retelling the entire thing to keep the length down, bc it’s gonna be A LOT already.

Some disclaimers: I’m not trying to fix every single problem, just what I see as major structural failures. I will reference my problems, but you can read my explanations on them more in depth in my “inazuma ranting” tag.

This is also not envisioned as free for all fanfic where I can write whatever I want, but aimed to be actually feasible to see in game, bc it’d be unfair and I want to show that Inazuma could be improved in the same constraints that hoyo writers had. So please don’t ask why I didn’t do wildly inconsistent thing that would be cool, but genshin would never actually do.

I’m aiming to retain all relevant lore and achieve basically same worldstate in the end, including character arcs, for the most part, because I presume them to be integral to the larger strategic plotline of the game. Which means I can’t drastically change characterization and major plot beats like the decrees, rebellion, Raiden has to be a sympathetic ally in the end, etc. I’m also trying to keep genshin’s general tone and modus operandi, bc like, target audience includes 13 yolds and I can’t just “make Inazuma good” by turning it into like, a gruesome and complex power struggle of political factions like Fallout New Vegas.

List of main issues I want to address: pacing in general, rebellion pacing especially, lack of impact and continuity of effects of vision loss on people, lack of setup for the stasis vs transience aka ei vs makoto conflict, character arcs: raiden, ayaka, kazuha, kokomi, yoimiya, kujou sara. And more! 

Initially I wanted to make a single post, but it’s already 3k and I’m only up to Raiden’s first duel and I plan to cover post-archon quest content too, like Raiden and Yoi story quests, so I decided to split it up instead of posting like 20k monstrosity. So remember, this is for now mostly a setup.

EDIT: Part 2

Raiden’s motivations\Reasons for vision hunt

Ok, so one of the biggest principal changes is that vision hunt and sakoku decree are active Raiden’s decisions, instead of Fatui’s plot that she’s just passively allowing to happen. Raiden closed the country, but she’s ok with Fatui starting a civil war and selling delusions, bc it doesn’t “affect eternity”, like??? I honestly think that the current plot of her people dying in a civil war meant nothing to her is much worse than her starting vision hunt decree out of misguided plan to ultimately do better for people.

I mean ok, we have to have closed borders to reference Japan’s history, sure, but like, the whole point of isolationist policies like this is to prevent the outsiders’ influence on the country. So she should not be ok with Fatui schemes at any point.  

I mean, if it was fallout new vegas AU, I’d keep it to show that dictator doesn’t not care about foreign powers exploiting it’s people as long as it profits the empire and helps to keep people subjugated, but like. Then raiden can’t be uwu waifu. So we gonna give her good intentions and integrity, but misunderstanding of humanity due to closing herself off instead.

Now to why would she close the country and institute sakoku decree. I want to tie this in with another plotline that is just. Kinda floating at sidelines at the moment, but I think could work nicely in tandem. The Scaramouche destroying Raiden Gokaden, the five schools of weapon smithing, which were canonically highly valued by Raiden.

I’m not gonna recount Scara’s entire plotline, but basically he went on a misguided crusade against Raiden Gokaden and managed to cause fall of 4 out of 5 weapon-smith schools.

Game says that he like, tampered with the schools and covertly led to their ruin, which like?? They never found anyone guilty, like the most prized weapon art smiths of your country fall apart and you’re like oh well, I guess Yashiro commission is just bad at it’s job?

There is a plot point in this story where Isshin weapon smiths, unable to replicate a faulty design that was Raiden’s commission tampered by Scara, were scared of Raiden’s wrath and decided to flee to Snezhnaya. I want to change it to be that there is an event, where ALL weapon schools receive same commission at the same time, and Scara tampers with it.

Just as in canon, scared smiths, but now from 4 schools, not one, are manipulated by Fatui to flee to Snezhnaya, But we add a new NPC, the most talented blade smith who had a vision. Fatui frame him as the ring leader, as if they were running not to save their lives because of the tampered design, impossible to fulfil, but that this was a betrayal because of his ambitions.

After this, Raiden has legitimate cause to feel like her eternity is threatened. She sees weapon art schools, one of the most prized country’s traditions being ruined in a moment because of what she thinks is ambitious hubris of one vision holder, who colluded with outsiders. So she closes Inazuma and declares a vision hunt, to prevent this from ever happening again.

But ironically, in truth it was the fault of not just Fatui, but specifically a puppet without a vision that she herself created and failed to supervise. This brings the main idea of the plotline from “Fatui evil, Raiden passive” to “Solipsist goddess who doesn’t understand humanity tries to protect her people by locking them in stasis and taking their ambitions, but the real case of tragedy was her negligence and lack of empathy all along, and this is what needs to be changed.”

Keep reading