#with the N.atlan characters

[reginrokkr]

𝐗𝐋𝐈𝐕. Given that Dain addressed this topic in a direct way himself, this is as good of a moment as to revisit and expand on an old headcanon, which is his ability to sleep [or lack of thereof]. Firstly, I will start by saying that in his own transcendence, he's reached to a point where human physiologic necessities don't apply to him since the moment he was cursed by the Heavenly Principles through Ronova and corrupted. However, that isn't to say that he doesn't continue practises like sleeping, if only to keep stubborn to his humanity and also because sleeping should be of help for him to rest and for his mental health... technically.

◜Frankly, I don't believe dream therapy works for everyone. Sometimes, a brief moment of bliss only magnifies the melancholy that follows in its wake. I don't mean to dismiss the strength that people gain from life's fleeting moments of beauty: under normal circumstances, this is the way things ought to be. But my circumstances are far from normal. The things I have seen and that fill my dreams have no place in a normal life. A peaceful night's sleep is now but a vestige of days long gone— a time I can only look back on with longing.◞

— Yumemizuki Mizuki miscellany.

As he himself says, normal circumstances don't apply to him. His words allude to the notion that sleeping peacefully no longer happens and that both his own experiences in combination to the nightmares that plague his mind make sleeping an object of longing. For that reason, it's safe to say that for the past 500 years, he was unable to rest properly through his sleep and that he's better off without sleeping unless he reaches to a point of exhaustion that leaves him with no other choice. Following next, I'll expand on the multifactorial reasons why he's unable to sleep properly, these being: chronic physical pain, nightmares and involuntary visions (from the past and the future).

✦ Chronic physical pain.

It is described explicitly that the Abyss [Marana] precipitates everything to death through various means, one of which being consuming every living being's life force until there is nothing more to claim and they pass away. The same is true in various degrees for the curse of immortality —which degenerates an individual both physically but also mentally—, letting the affected individual experience their own rotting without ever experiencing death because of the curse that impedes them to pass; and the corruption Dain has been experiencing for 500 years —apparently stagnant but not any less corrosive to the mind and body, the latter already half-turned into a monster—. In addition, there is a factor that charactertizes the Abyss which is the magnification of one's senses, leading to disorientation and loss of perception of the reality due to how strongly the negative feelings are expanded.

Moreover, Dain's case has another layer of complexity that adds to the physical pain he endures, which is the existence of two energies coexisting within him: Aether and Void [Abyss]. These have their separate effects on their own, the latter being obviously toxic to everything. However, there is the additional layer that makes the two of them be mutually virulent: one being lethal to the other and being the most vulnerable to the other all the same. Be it because of his connection to Irminsul —which is clearly opposing in force with the Abyss due to its purifying and curative aspects—, the power from beyond he's achieved —which seems to negate the Abyss—, a combination of both or even something else, Dain counts with an energy within him that is in direct contradiction with the Abyss. Its will to attack it causes an inner strife to his immune system that is beyond painful, as well as its weakness to it causes further damage than that.

✧ Nightmares.

Like it was previously mentioned, the Abyss doesn't only affect one's physical health but the mental one as well. It takes every negative emotion, trauma, fears, etc. and magnifies them limitlessly. Furthermore, the Abyss in itself is an entity that is terrifying and it's in constant evolution of learning how to attack in order to subjugate everything under its might. Dain himself, who had a family that in his eyes had betrayed him (Vedrfolnir) and who once had a homeland that he's lost given that he was powerless to do anything to stop its own destruction as well as the divine intervention that followed as a result of part of its citizens' transgressions (his brother's included) has a deep-rooted trauma followed by feelings such as survivor's guilt or self-deprecation followed by a psychogenic amnesia [ x, x ] as a result of these. It is also of great importance to mention that he feels the curse slowly replacing his very being.

✦ Involuntary visions —past and future—.

Albeit a most coveted one, the weight of knowledge is one that not everyone can bear nor hope to stay sane in full. Due to his connection to Irminsul, Dain has access to events that had already happened in Teyvat and to foresee what is bound to happen in the future, given that Irminsul itself is the Tree of Time. This knowledge he gains continuously challenges and destroys the grounds of what he believed the world to be. Some truths can be pills hard to swallow, many of them shocking by themselves until they're properly processed and understood. What's more, Dain has a perspective of the world like none other, enough to understand that in order to defy it a power from beyond is needed and have the strength to push himself to search it from outside the fabricated sky. It's no exaggeration to say that Dain has reached a level of enlightenment that very few have at the present, and that comes with a heavy weight.

It's important to note that despite the fact that these factors determine Dain's lack of sleep until he finds himself in circumstances under which he has no other choice but do so, he has a fortitude of mind that has nothing to envy the others'. He's been living with this for over 500 years and despite the negatives he has to live with, to this day he still managed to keep his humanity and sanity to the point of not succumbing to what would've been a kinder outcome for himself. Whether this is fed by his will of revenge to his brother and the other Sinners, his sense of justice for the world against the gods or something else, it's of little importance.

Lastly, just like the balance of the odds in which he won't sleep or sleeping is a manner of suffering to him is inclined towards the negative more than the positive, there are instances in which he can experience the best outcome he can hope of sleeping: neutrality. He doesn't need it to be particularly blissful, as that would only make him drown in the magnified melancholy thereafter, but at least devoid of nightmares. In the moments when he's on his own and he knows he needs to rest somewhere, he will go to places where Irminsul's emanations are present —Sacred Sakura, Kala Kapatcir's tree, Weeping Willow are a few examples— or Irminsul directly, as he knows that the purifying traits will give him some manner of respite that he can't find elsewhere (other places like the inverted fountain from the Nameless City in the depths of the Chasm count too).

A rarer chance for him to get a good sleep is in the company of someone who he deeply trusts and cherishes, regardless if it's platonic or romantic. Initially it'll be hard, as this doesn't erase the fact that he won't struggle with the physical pain and the rupture of reality with what he feels due to the Abyss nefarious effects over him, but with time he can grow to a point of getting used to it, of forcing himself to convince his shattered mind that being touched by that person doesn't hurt like the Abyss within him wants him to believe. That in combination with the knowledge that for once he can hide himself from the world and the gods, from himself and his self-imposed duty despite his painful awareness that he's subjecting himself to things he doesn't want for himself becomes a moment equally as precious as basking under the holy Irminsul's glow as he slumbers.

[crownshattered]

|| I think I'm gonna wait until we know a bit more about Natlan, but I'm REALLY tempted to have Anne's mom be from there...maybe her mom was one of Murata's people so even she didn't really know her ties...

[daybreakrising]

i completely crashed out last night and did absolutely nothing-

anyway hi n.atlan characters i'm sure one of you will find your way onto this blog sooner or later

[starburstgalexies]

Look this is not apologism or anything, just pointing out that hyverse and gnshn has always been shitty, alright? I wanted more "dark skinned" characters in N.atlan too, even if gnshn's dark skin is practically white chocolate mocha. I absolutely want their archon to have this dark skin, because even this color difference would be significant in that it's not white in universe.

But.

The game has been out for four years. S.umeru has been out for two years. S.umeru, which mixes India, Persia, Türkiye, Arab peninsula, Mediterranean Africa, and these are just the ones I can think of at the top off my head. These cultures are too distinct to have been mixed in the pot like that one quote from a racist white old woman in b99 ("he was arab, latino, or mexican, either way, very muslim"), and they STILL have an awful few amount of dark skinned characters. No, just like latinos, most of the lands I counted have more light skinned people than westerners think, but it still sucked to have dark skin in such a minor amount, including their archon, just like N.atlan.

Did you expect anything different from N.atlan? Did you think they would actually introduce a new skin color five years later?

Hyverse and gnshn has always been shitty in this regard. This Chinese company has always been racist the way Chinese companies tend to be. (No, just because Asians are a minority in America, it doesn't mean they don't have their own hardcore internal racism in China or Japan or South Korea. You can see it from how dark skin is represented in their media, if represented at all.) How did you expect anything else. Yes, this is shitty. But it always has been. The game is approaching its end, four years past and three years left in its story, and NOW it occurred to you to try to change things? Everything you criticize has been here for years.

I did not see this backlash for S.umeru even though it was the exact same thing, but I guess people were too distracted with A.lhaitham's sharpie boobs. It can't be that Americans care less about EMEA, surely. (And if they only melted EMEA in a pot for S.umeru it would still make some thematic sense but then randomly India??? Goddammit S.umeru is a fucking mess.)

[reginrokkr]

For some reason I woke up salty as the main story arc of Natlan is coming to an end, so I'll be spilling some salt:

Despite all my love for the lore, even I can't deny that Natlan has been a major letdown when compared to the other nations we've been into so far— even Inazuma, controversial as it was for several reasons that I won't refute because they're all valid. In my opinion, Natlan made an identity out of its struggle against the Abyss when this should've been a thing for every nation because... you know, the Abyss is consuming the entire world. And I blame all of this gatekeeping of relevant lore points and terrible storytelling, when there are multiple ways HYV could've handled this in a way that doesn't disrupt the pace they chose for the story in terms of revealing key points.

If we remove the Abyss factor from Natlan, we're left with nothing. Not even with the famous Land of Dragons that Neuvillette told us at the end of the Fontaine arc and how someone like him wouldn't be welcome. In that regard, all we have is the saurians and a story arc that is at best optional that is related to Ochkanatlan and not even to the Pyro Sovereign in full. And sadly, not even the nation's characters are all that appealing to me except for Capitano who wasn't given a chance to elaborate on what he wanted to do exactly, considering that he was keeping in mind the souls to begin with. In essence, everything was reduced to some hopeful thinking that things will go alright through other means that aren't even guaranteed to work out and an Archon whose sense of justice is almost childish a la "just hope" with no reasons of weight to actually make people hope only to... not have any serious repercussions, as I'm anticipating it'll happen just by seeing that she'll be playable.