#that asmoday's design is just the alchemy colors!!

[protect-namine]

hmmm don't really want to reformat the thread here for archiving, with pictures and all, but I'll write a bullet point version of my thoughts/theories so far.

some "givens" that I'm basing things off of:

khaenri'ah's solution against the elements when they wanted to fight celestia was to use experiential substances (memory, wish, soul, persona, reason) in alchemy. the narzissenkreuz ordo used this knowledge to create the holy blade of narzissenkreuz via magic.

khaenri'ah flipped the citrinitas and rubedo stages of alchemy and it looks like they were really fixated on "gold" but "red" should still be the final stage of the magnum opus that leads to the philosopher's stone

teyvat is going through its own samsara cycles (I actually somehow missed the note about this one during my playthrough but it's not really surprising tbh)

the quest "in the wake of narcissus" explains the whole narzissenkreuz ordo deal and there's a lot things going on with dreams, waking up from a dream of your own making, and affecting reality with "belief" and having a powerful "will"

okay, so now my thoughts. speculation time!

"fiction" is used in genshin not just as a way to preserve the truth in case irminisul rewrites history again (think of it like encrypted data), but perhaps it serves other functions as well. one would be that fiction affects humanity, thereby generating or refining more "experiential substances" (e.g. memory, will, etc.) which we already confirmed to be active ingredients kharenri'ah used in their alchemy and the narzissenkreuz ordo used in their magic. the second function goes a step further: what if fiction (stories, songs) are themselves spells or blueprints for affecting reality? "imbue meaning into the world" is treated as actual magic, so...

a powerful "will" can rival a world, can create and destroy worlds and remake them. we already know the traveler is a person who possesses such a will.

the holy blade of narzissenkreuz can cut and unite wills from water. I do believe that the traveler's "sword of descension" is like their own holy blade, but on the scale of stars. seriously, read the description of that sword again

actually, jakob specifically says that the holy blade can "accommodate both the primordial, and that of order" and if we're going to categorize substances, I think the elements are the primordial and the "experiential substances" (memory, will, soul, persona, reason) are order. "order" is khaenri'ah's solution against the primordial elements

khaenri'ah's alchemy (khemia) is incomplete or incorrect because they flipped the alchemy stages of rubedo and citrinitas. albedo said that rubedo is the "refining of feeling" and citrinitas is when the true value of the object being transmuted has been brought to light, thereby imbuing it with "meaning" (from his ascension voice lines). all of this points to the refinement of the experiential substances but what if... there's something missing here? is that really the end product of alchemy? actually, I wonder if this is the assignment rhinedottir wanted to leave albedo with...

rene in rene's investigation notes likens the khvarena to khaenri'ah's [redacted text] which I now think is "gold" (speculation). kinda makes sense if you think of order and the primordial as opposing forces. khvarena came from the goddess of flowers who was a seelie, while "gold" is created from uhhh. alchemy? khemia? but rene notes that though they oppose each other, they have similar properties (the ability to assimilate materials and energies it comes into contact with)

teyvat is going through samsara cycles, accumulating these experiential substances and reusing them as they remake teyvat each time loop. for example, we know that memory is baked into everything, literally everything in teyvat. or, perhaps, recreating a world / resetting a samsara cycle / resetting a time loop requires both order and the primordial? after all, you're recreating a whole world. you need the experiential and the physical.

the traveler is going around the seven nations, resonating with each element. they are also accumulating so many experiences and we are constantly told by zhongli and venti that the journey matters more than the destination, to bear witness to everything and make memories. to challenge a "world" (like the sword of descension says), to "heal the hurts of the world" (from the concert glider), what if this is what the traveler needs? mastery over both the primordial elements and the experiential substances of order?

and what if, the combination of this, is the actual magnum opus of khemia. the product of rubedo... man those cubes that we saw in the genshin prologue look kinda red, don't they?

edit: okay for the last one, I'll add pictures

edit again: so I also just realized. we're on the 4th samsara cycle of teyvat. there are 4 alchemy stages to create the magnum opus. the twins are often being associated with the color "gold" (gold haired, golden butterfly, golden nara, etc). do you see what I'm getting at here

gah. I haven't done the book of esoteric revelations yet or finished the AQs. man... my head is already spinning but there's sooooo much more lore I'm not updated on...............