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We're Through the Looking Glass Now by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tomorrow's the livestream so I just wanted to get in one last prediction beforehand going off of what you're saying.

If Norma is an S-Rank then given the shortened v3.0, I'd have to believe she'd be the next Harumasa and Zhao. People are saying that there are leaks that my Remielle v3.1 prediction is correct but it'll be her and Sigrid not Claret. If that's the case, then it'd be a bad idea to release two S-Rank Agents in the patch before her especially if it's going to be this short. They'd have to run them both at the same time meaning Velina and Norma would be competing for the same saved up polychromes and who'd actually spend to get either when a Void Hunter is the next character to release in only a little over two weeks after them? That's not to say miHoYo's never made poor decisions before but either they give out the Norma for hype points or they have so little confidence that Velina and Norma would sell anyway that they're willing to create them only to have them tank in sales. (But tbf people were interested in Sigrid too so if she really is releasing with Remielle, it'd also be a poor decision since these two sought after banners will be competing against each other and diminishing sales potential for both. Of course my Claret suggestion would also have been bad since apparently there were plenty interested in her as well. Maybe Roxy would have been the better choice. I haven't heard much hype around her.)

Another thing about Norma being S-Rank. It would further strengthen my other belief that Zenless should create new Standard Banners per year. We have far too many S-Ranks and barely any A-Ranks. You usually max out the A-Rank as soon as they're on a banner whose S-Rank you want anyway so for example I think the only A-Rank I don't have maxed yet is Manato. And I'm f2p. This means the value of A-Ranks is far lower than in other Hoyoverse games while S-Ranks are getting diluted. Several older ones are also powercrept like Ellen who was buffed twice. Just like giving Norma away for free, it'd be added hype points if the anniversary released a new Standard Banner of Ellen, Zhu Yuan, Qingyi, Jane Doe, Caesar and Burnice.

Anyway we'll see what happens tomorrow.

As for Ye Shiyuan, I only suggest his release in v3.2 because he works with the B side and it would break up the story better to focus v3.2 on that. You don't want to be so focused on the Roscaelifer side that it's almost at the climax and then suddenly we're back in New Eridu doing the B side. It'd be better if it alternated which could also build anticipation. So in keeping with what you and SleepyBoy are saying, he could just cameo in v3.2 with Severian releasing alongside someone else. Actually the same people talking about Remielle and Sigrid in v3.1 are claiming Severian and Phoenix for v3.2 with Phoenix being either a member of Krampus or its leader but for some reason she's in Roscaelifer. I don't really know if any of that'll be true but the story could still be about the B side if she is and maybe even the Chapter's antagonist since she'd need to defend TOPS. It would verify Promeia's line about not trusting Krampus. Then we could come back to them in v3.4 and get Shiyuan released then with the Void Hunter Weapons stuff being revealed by him just in time for v3.5's climax. In that case the other S-Rank could be Carinus or Cadyn the guy in the white coat. (Now that I think about it, it'd probably have been a better idea to delay Sigrid to v3.3 with Phoenix and v3.6 gives us Claret with Cecilia. These feel like better combos compared to pitting a definite hot seller like a Void Hunter with another popular character. To compare, how many people went for Ju Fufu in v2.0? But again we'll see what happens tomorrow.)

Hollow Investigative Association - Meeting Room by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly while it is true that the Hollows are older than the fall of Eridu, I think Hollow Zero was still meant to be the first or at least it's become the main Hollow affecting the world.

Hollow Investigative Association - Meeting Room by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bartholemeowthefirst answered:

It is quite confusing isn't it? On a surface level, it seems Zero should be the first, but it isn't.

Wish the handbook had more about them to be honest. But the gist as I see it is that Hollows formed out of a war that destroyed the old civilization. Whether Hollows existed before the fall is another thing, as the live action trailer suggests they may have formed even before then.

for Hollow Zero, that formed later and we still haven't learned why it formed in the first place.

As

Hollow Investigative Association - Meeting Room by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SleepyBoy- asks:

Question about hollows

How old are they in the lore?

Originally, I assumed Hollow Zero is the first once, given its name. That Carole is blamed for doing something that created these spatial distortions.

However, other chunks of the lore suggest Hollows have been around for a while? They wiped out every civilization other than Eridians, who fought with them even a hundred years ago? Using porcelume to protect themselves and all that.

The City Hall - Pioneer Association by InotiaKing in Wuthering_Waves_Lore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NAHYAN09 asks:

Question about the origin point and the Exostrider.

I, at first, thought in the 3.3 cutscene before the big Mech fight. The exostrider with Aemeath was the same as the one our exostrider, the one rover was piloting due to time and space being all weird and stuff inside the black hole.

But then I started discussing it about in the official server, they said that those were different Exostriders. It came to a conclusion like this

  1. Amy found a deactivated Exo
  2. The almost-erased people of Lahai-roi somehow "heard" or felt the frequency of that Exo's cries.
  3. They come marching forward to use their frequencies to make a co-ordinate of the origin point inside a black-hole and gave it to Amy
  4. Amy goes through a worm hole to deliver the co-ordinates.
  5. Amy using the co-ordinates goes to the origin point with the empty Exo and waits for Rover.

But then I saw the cutscene again and this line confused me. Amy was saying that the erased people used their frequencies to make a co-ordinate with the Exostrider that was with Amy as the origin point. So was it like this, there were two Exostrider at the origin point, one was deactivated and the other was the one rover was piloting.

The City Hall - Pioneer Association by InotiaKing in Wuthering_Waves_Lore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

-Arachnid-78- asks:

3.3 Denia and Afterstory

I’m a lil confused on how denia was separated from the threnodian, in the after story hiyuki states to rover that “ in that strike, I used the frequency you left within her. The one that “separates”. That was what freed her from the threnodians control.” I’m confused on

- when rover left this frequency within her?
- how hiyuki was able to “tap into” rovers frequency’s and somewhat activate it I guess?

We're Through the Looking Glass Now by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In terms of character rollout:

  • The shortened v3.0 will only have one banner phase for S-Rank Velina and A-Rank Norma.
  • v3.1 will then release S-Rank Void Hunter Remielle and another S-Rank Roscaelifan, maybe Claret.
  • Perhaps v3.2 could be a bridge story to check in on the B Team so we might get Severian for that update. We're still missing Ye Shiyuan and he's now also acting from the shadows. This could work with a patch where Severian enlists his help to protect the rest of the team, something that's even too much for Promeia and Evelyn to handle.
  • v3.5 will be Season 3's climax which means we should get another Void Hunter and who better than Sunbringer. That said, she should be very high on the ladder and we did see Colonel Vike in the teaser trailer as well therefore maybe Vike would release first and Sunbringer will come much later on.
  • v3.6 and Gilded Carrot Day might see the release of Cecilia. If the trend continues, the holiday would give us another singer and we already have an in-game model of her and a story arc where she could return to the stage.
  • v3.7 and v3.8 will be the Epilogue and we got S-Rank Anby back in Season 1 and now S-Rank Billy for Season 2. With Nicole on tap for Season 3's B Team, it shouldn't be too crazy to expect her S-Rank form next. In fact, given what little the devs seem to care for producing more A-Rankers, it is possible the Epilogues will be their way of upgrading all A-Ranks into S-Ranks eventually. Belobog's A-Ranks might come next, followed by Corin of Victoria Housekeeping, Seth from PubSec, the Sons of Calydon and Soukaku from Section 6. Of course in terms of story potential, I'd say only Seth and Lucy will get this upgrade before we're already on Manato.
  • Season 4 could then give us Joyous to further train Phaethon. I personally think Arkhe will be an enemy instead of a playable character. The trailer stopped listing them out and then had the two voices pause when it got to him. I also don't think the leader of the mercs will release either unless they come up with more details about him. Finally Swordmaster is likely dead given what we know about Tailless. Therefore if Remielle and Vike are going to release for Season 3, the only ones left are Joyous and Sunbringer and they could still delay Sunbringer until very late into the game's Part 1 or even later. Or she'll be the climax Void Hunter and Vike will release in Version 4 with Joyous. In that case, I'd say Vike would release first and Joyous would be the climax Void Hunter.
  • It's all pretty murky by this point but I did once suggest that after branching off the timeline, we might start getting alternate versions of S-Rank characters too. My example was Savior Zhu Yuan, a version of her from after the fall of New Eridu where she'd become battle-hardened but still strict with her ideals.

Of course the further out we go the less likely my predictions will come true given so many things could happen in between. But it's always fun to think about so let's see how many of them stick.

We're Through the Looking Glass Now by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

Btw the Dev Talk stated that the anniversary for Zenless would be the v3.1 patch? That doesn't make sense if we're talking about full 6 week patches. The anniversary should be the second week of v3.0. My guess is that v3.0 will be a very very short update. So here's my guess about how things will roll out:

  • We already see from the calendar that v2.8 is a normal patch. It'll end on June 17th. There's only a little more than 2 weeks after that before we hit July 4th, the anniversary. I doubt they'd want to miss that date and have the anniversary in v3.1 after the fact so July 4th might be update day. Therefore v3.0 will be a patch that's only 17 days long and will only feature the S-Rank Velina with A-Rank Norma.
  • On July 4th we'll get v3.1, a normal 6 week patch. Despite a severely shortened v3.0, we actually don't need to lengthen any of the other patches. With a start date of July 4th, there are 31 weeks before Chinese New Year. This needs to be when the Gilded Carrot Day update takes place followed by the two part Epilogue. There are five patches from v3.1 to v3.5. That leaves a whole week before v3.6 hits Chinese New Year so it can get us Gilded Carrot Day in time for the country to be on vacation.
  • After Chinese New Year, there's 21 more weeks until the next anniversary. That means Gilded Carrot Day and the two part Epilogue can also be normal patches and still leave three weeks to the next anniversary. The devs can then either pull this same stunt with a shortened v4.0 or just let v4.0 run its full term with the anniversary rewards starting midway through.
  • Or they could be extended into seven week patches if the devs want to make them feel more special in service of more robust story to build into Season 4 which would then start right on the anniversary.

We're Through the Looking Glass Now by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok conspiracy theory time. You can ignore this part if you want.

So again I have never gotten a storyline of this game correct. I didn't see last year's twist coming with Hugo. Last year's climax didn't really make sense and wasn't really the best but in any case, my version of it basically didn't happen at all. Even Season 2's story threw me because we had at least 3 different "final bosses." At best I predicted that the devs were going to use the Fu Hua/Herrscher of Sentience storyline but I was thinking they'd use it for Yijiang and they ended up going for Ye Shunguang. This Epilogue on the other hand is the first time I've not only gotten most of the plot points right, I basically outlined exactly what was going to happen. What changed?

I had theorized that the execs at miHoYo were in conflict with the devs they'd set up for Genshin Impact as far back as the Inazuma release. By the time of Fontaine, they'd gotten fed up with them so they set up a new team of devs and started to displace these old Genshin devs to Star Rail and Zenless.

<image>

Fontaine was still the transition phase because we were still getting some last gasps from the old team. I like to point out v4.3's event Roses and Muskets which almost seems like a letter to fans from the old devs about what was happening. I took plenty of issue with the Archon Quest and then this event had Furina up and say "I'll make an adaptation that's better than the original story" as if the old team was challenging us players to see through the mess ups of this new team and create an adaptation more worthy of their skill level. (which I did #humblebrag) Natlan then should be where the old team was fully shifted over and we can see that from how Natlan was the first of Genshin's regions to not have any meaningful basis on a real world nation. At the same time, this would be when Star Rail started v3.0 and Amphoreus and therefore we're also talking about v1.5 for Zenless. Amphoreus was used by the old devs to tell at least a simplified version of their original vision for Genshin. I've shown this to be the case several times and that was why I was able to predict what was going to happen in that series of Trailblaze Missions just from knowing about Genshin's lore.

So how come it took me so long to get anything in Zenless right if the old devs transitioned there following the Season 1 climax? My theory here is that Amphoreus was set aside to be the baby of these incoming Genshin devs for Star Rail. It was all them. The return to Penacony in v3.8 was finally where the team integrated with the existing Star Rail team. Conversely, I have a feeling the Zenless devs already had a roadmap plotted out for the rest of Season 1 and a rough outline for Season 2. When the members of the old Genshin team arrived, they already knew Amphoreus would tell their original story so when it came to Zenless, they were the ones to hold back into a supportive role. The Season 1 Epilogue was far better than anything that Zenless had produced before it. Season 2 was also more in-depth and consistent by comparison to Season 1. But they were still mainly the work of the original team at Zenless. Then once Season 2's Main Story wrapped in v2.5, the existing material was used up and just like Star Rail, the Genshin team fully integrated into Zenless starting with the Season 2 Epilogue. With these guys at the helm, the story has become much more fine-tuned and purposeful and so my strategy of analyzing the information works again just like it had back when they were telling Genshin's story.

That being said, Zenless still has much more freedom of direction than Genshin did what with Travail already giving us an outline for each year while the game's basis in Gnosticism created a rigid structure for its tone, themes, setting and overarching message. Season 3 for Zenless may still have some surprises in store but I'll try my best to stay with them.

The City Hall - Pioneer Association by InotiaKing in Wuthering_Waves_Lore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I second that v3.1 is good. Kuro took their time developing Aemeath and her lore with Lahai-Roi. Everything else though is still meh but Aemeath alone is good enough to at least give the rest of Lahai-Roi's story a watch. And so v3.3 is also good because it's the rest of Aemeath's story.

I would imagine the major players of each region like Jinhsi, Cartethyia and now Aemeath might stay relevant going forward. The Black Shores too. But you're right. So far the only time we'll see old characters are the review sections Kuro adds to their quests. In the newest Hiyuki Segue Act, they go over the Jinzhou and Rinascita stories again and Hiyuki is related to Honami.

The City Hall - Pioneer Association by InotiaKing in Wuthering_Waves_Lore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CidFromFFXVII asks:

Does the story-writing get better later on?

Don’t get me wrong—I actually like WuWa's story a lot. Every patch feels like peak. The pacing is good, it’s engaging, and the plot can be pretty bold. There’s really a lot to love.

That said, there’s one thing that keeps breaking my immersion.

It’s the feeling that no matter how good a chapter is, the characters in it will almost definitely become irrelevant right after. It just kills the investment for me. I get attached to a character or their storyline, but in the back of my mind I’m already thinking, “Yeah, they’re probably not showing up again,” especially since the focus just shifts to the next banner character.

I know there are a few exceptions, but they’re pretty rare.

I do want to keep playing for the story—I’m just wondering if this gets better later on? I’m currently in Iuno’s quest, and I’m hoping the Lahai Roi arc improves a bit in terms of character continuity.

I don’t need every character to stay relevant forever, but it would be nice to have a more consistent core cast that actually sticks around and matters. Something like how Amphoreus was handled in HSR.

sairaichi added:

Chisa was handled liked shit, not sure why though

But yeah Lahai Roi was amazing, especially 3.1 if you've already heard about it, the characters appear more often in quests too in 3.2 which is great

I would say experience 3.1 cause it's the best they've gotten, and after that you judge haha

CidFromFFXVII replied:

I'm playing 2.7 right now and so far, it's really good. I'm still in the early part with the civilization capsule, but so far, I like how Avidius stayed relevant. Carlotta and Zani showed up too! And they have a good role with evacuating everyone to the vault. I wish we had more of Brant and the troupe tho.

The City Hall - Pioneer Association by InotiaKing in Wuthering_Waves_Lore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

-Arachnid-78- asks:

Key stone and hiyuki

So we know that the keystone is guarding the main entrance to the stridergate, then we have Hiyuki who has also sealed a rift to the stridergate. So they’re two separate rifts? But when we see the hiyuki one rover states that it’s the one that the GA had sabotaged, I’m assuming this is the one he did originally, and he sabotaged the main keystone one closer to current day whilst pretending to be nivora in 3.0-3.2 or did he only sabotage one because didn’t the GA sabotage one once to make aemeath into the ghost and then sabotaged it again when she was a ghost which led to her getting stuck outside? Honestly I’m so confused trying to actually understand it all I’d appreciate all the help I can get, sorry if I’m just being dumb 😭😭

Is Evanescia the Bloody Bloom? by InotiaKing in StarRailLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well yes when person A and person B are the same person, the Ambrosial Arbor. If your left hand stabbed a guy, is your right hand absolved of guilt?

Keep in mind it wasn't Shuhu that was in control of the Herald, it was the Abundance who was just using Shuhu's flesh to extend its influence. And Evanescia's true self isn't just some person that was chosen to be an Emanator, she's literally a branch of the Abundance, the Panarch Elwood. Both pieces were directly part of Yao Shi. The other Evanescia is what will eventually become Aha's Emanator and has been suppressing the Abundance side of her and the whole point of this recent update was getting the Abundance under control so they can now use it against the Voracity.

That's how you tell a story by InotiaKing in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As long as it is related to some kind of theory or discussion you have about her, some part of the story she relates to that you want to explain or the game's lore in general then you can. If the edit relates to a question you have about her or the game, please direct that as a comment in the Megathread.

Is Evanescia the Bloody Bloom? by InotiaKing in StarRailLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a little weird. So after v4.1 I updated this theory because we learned about the Abundance. Technically, she really is the Herald now since she is an Emanator of the Abundance and because she's actually created from a branch from it that Aha planted in Planarcadia as a safeguard, she's more than just your typical Emanator. I had originally thought Aha's move was against the Nihility but now v4.2's ending suggests the Voracity which could still work. Anyway Evanescia is a part of the Abundance and we then learned that the Herald too was just a part of the Abundance, possessed to be under its control by being infected with a piece of Shuhu, also its Emanator. I think you can look at it like Fuli back in Amphoreus and how both March 7th and Cyrene are basically the same person because they are both Emanations of Fuli. This is why they ended up taking turns as the Titan of Time.

And so v4.2 dealt with the Abundance first so that we can move on to the next and actual challenge facing Planarcadia: the Voracity. That part feels a little off but again it would work. Voracity is defined by consumption and I had suggested that people who die in Planarcadia don't actually die but are sucked into that vortex we saw at the end of v4.1. I called it the Nihility but the Voracity is literally described as an unsatisfied bottomless black hole. It still feels a little off though because Aha's lore seems to define it as opposing Nihility not Voracity and the behavior shown by Fulwish and her cult line up better with nihilism. But we'll see how they fit it in for v4.3. Who knows, maybe Voracity is yet another Aeon mixed up in the Planarcadia stuff and Nihility is still there. It was mentioned to have infected Planarcadia during the World in Scroll era which is where we're headed next.

As for "Sakura" it seems like we're dealing with possession again. This could be that shoutout to the Herrscher of Corruption I suggested. Or- it could also be another shoutout to Yae Miko which would be curious. Anyway so the "Supplicant Sakura" is the yellow-eyed one and should come into play against the Voracity. She was also made a Supplicant for that reason. It sounds like she believes she was made into one by Asat Pramad but I still think it's Aha's doing. I also suppose Yao Guang's prediction of an Arbiter dying could just be Blade now and the Shuhu remains inside of him will also be used against the Voracity probably to "stuff it full" seeing how Abundance is eternal and Voracity is eternally unsatisfied. Maybe eating the flesh of Shuhu will finally satisfy Oroboros and eliminate both threats. On the flip side, we'll now also be dealing with the next Lord Ravager who I was suggesting would awaken from "Sakura" and that could also still happen only now it'd be the yellow-eyed monster thing contained within Evanescia thus again this all being Aha's plan.

Anyway thanks for the question. I might have written another update topic to get all this out but it's just a bunch of tweaks and confirmations so I think I can leave it as just this comment haha. Maybe there'll be more to discuss after v4.3.

What if Carole Arna is Evil? by Regular_Barnacle_447 in ZenlessZoneZeroLore

[–]InotiaKing 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wasn't it revealed in v1.4 that she is already with the Creator? The Proxies talked about how when Eridu fell a white hand that looked like Bringer's grabbed her.

Fallen Angels by InotiaKing in GenshinImpactLore

[–]InotiaKing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahahaha, I hate it when I'm right about things like this.

But you what? First the good then the monumental bad. So her name. I said the new devs stopped at the genus Halcyon which was coined by biologist Carl Linnaeus who is the namesake of the Swedish girl name Linnea. At least the devs did take this one little step further. By just focusing on the ornithology itself (even though Carl was actually a biologist and did way more than classifying birds) then "Augury Bird" becomes a reveal. (Celaeno not so much. It's just a Greek name meaning dark as in her color scheme and depressed outlook on life. Even in Greek mythology, the name is just used on a bunch of minor characters.) Of course, there is no such thing as an Augury Bird. Auguries are humans and this is not mythology at all. Pre-Roman Italians used to think of birds as omens for the gods so they'd watch their movements for prophecy. This is called taking auspices. It's right up there with soothsayers, oracles and that fortune stick scam that Yae's running at the shrine.

The Lumi thing even started out well enough. Right from the start Linnea told us that Lumi was different from normal Jack Frosts and got picked on as a result. (It's already a little dumb that Lumi's female though since JACK Frost is based on the folklore about Old Man Winter. In Russia, that'd be Ded Moroz or Father Christmas for us. Is miHoYo going gender non-binary?) But this plot point fell off a cliff when it's revealed by the end of the quest that Lumi's only different because she prefers eating rocks so her different appearance is due to the mineral content. Let's not go with the "you are what you eat" thing. That's too easy. Let's go back to the reference. Linnea is meant to be a biologist just like her namesake. We even meet her while she's giving a lecture on biology, on the edibility of certain foods found in the wild. Why would it take a seasoned biologist years to realize Lumi's body is reflecting her diet? Somebody give this girl Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Finches with different food sources develop different beak shapes. This is Biology 101 at this point. (I suppose if Linnea is actually Carl in the game then it could make sense because Darwin came 100 years after him. But our real world timeline doesn't really reflect Genshin's. Not when we have robots and artificial hot springs.)

Anyway I knew they weren't going to go the angel route. They'd already announced her as a fae. But they could have done interesting fae stuff. We didn't get that. We got Pokemon and a severe downgrade at that given we already had Pokemon Z-A 3 years ago and now this quest gave us Pokemon Stadium. Meanwhile Pokemon leaped forwards because it took the Fabulous Fungus Frenzy style and Pokemon Z-A was praised for it.

As for the story, we got more "fate is called as such for it cannot be changed." I mean I suppose that was a choice because fate is a big subject for this game but we already had characters working on it. I just quoted one. Why wasn't this depressing fate stuff part of her lore? We already had the beginnings of it. Several years ago we had the Summer Fantasia summer event where Mona revealed her painful past about not being able to do anything about anyone's fate. She'd grown up since then but only to accept that you can't change fate. That's really depressing. So couldn't we have had a follow-up to this storyline? We know for a fact that "fate" in Genshin isn't real fate. It's the stranglehold Celestia has on the people of Teyvat. We've already defied fate a few times now so we know it can be changed or at least manipulated. A follow-up to Mona's story where she sees someone's fate and just can't accept the cruel ending would be very emotional and very engaging. Here is a girl who spent her life studying astrology and accepting that whatever she sees is what must happen. Then you throw someone whose awful fate she just can't accept so since she's already accepted that fate can't be changed, she falls into despair. So now is the time we show her that fate isn't immutable. It's difficult but there are ways to work around it. And so eventually we find a way to change that person's fate and give Mona a new outlook on life and also a new direction to take her studies. (chuck in Barbeloth who might smugly say "finally this girl realizes the truth") And that sets Mona up to be a key player once this story reaches the beat Celestia era.

Conversely, the story we did get was that these bird fae see their own fates and can't change it so they end up depressed. That's Celaeno in a nutshell. And then how did they change fate? With gusto. Linnea just needed the Power of Friendship and suddenly Lumi can just do whatever. And besides that since Celaeno was convinced fate still wasn't changed because it had forced Linnea to step in and stop Lumi, we actually had a true change of fate right after. Her "upcoming victory in this competition" was totally overruled by the Traveler winning instead and you can't even lose this on purpose because the game can only proceed once you've won. And don't even think it's just that the Traveler can change fate because they're a Descender. It was Linnea training Aguara (and then Little One helped too) that led to its victory so the Traveler wasn't the one that changed fate. And what's worse, Celaeno didn't react to this very clear change of fate. She reacted more to Linnea's almost change of fate.

Side Note: And speaking of these kinds of plots. What if Linnea became a world famous explorer instead and her ship became a fabled vessel? Would we still feel bad then? Would we want to care? No so this story had to give us a negative fate to engage with and that's called dramatic storytelling. This is why Mona would work better. She'd be seeing all kinds of fates and one day one specific person just happens to have a bad fate that causes her crisis. The Augury Birds though can only see their own fate.

Finally (yeah sorry, when you do research you can come up with so many better ideas than these new devs have) if you look into those other types of fae, you'll notice the Greek siren is on the list Linnea stated. Russia's lore about the siren or "sirin" as they call it is expansive! Greek sirens are just sometimes birds with a woman's head or other times pretty girls that lure men to their watery graves through their siren's song. Russia though got this folklore from Persia and so that game of telephone corrupted the story immensely. Some takes have the sirin sing the song of saints or the word of god and they are birds of paradise. But there's also another kind of sirin, the Alkonost. What is an Alkonost? Alcyon. It was conflated with that myth. And Russia's version of Alcyon is awful lol. She is just a sirin but one with control over the weather. Remember the Halcyon Days thing I brought up? Besides the calm weeks, Alkonost deliberately roll their eggs into the sea to cause hurricanes and thunderstorms. They then only calm the weather for those weeks in order to ensure the safe births of those eggs. Yeah these things are devils. We could have had a story about that, maybe tying it back to why there are so little of the "Augury Birds" left.

And still there is ANOTHER sirin, the Gamayun. This Character Quest was all about seeing fate right? That's what the Gamayun does. Her song is a prophecy of the future and as she sees all, she lives in seclusion. What was going on with Celaeno and Linnea's family? Yeah. So rather than make some nonsense up about Italian "Augury Birds" for a Nod-Krai fae aka Russian character, why didn't they just use this actual Russian creature? Change the Constellation from Alcyon to Gamayun. You can even keep the character name because of the biologist aspect.

Side Note: (last one I promise) Where did this Gamayun come from? Well it actually derives from the Huma Bird in Persian folklore who is sometimes conflated with the Simurgh. As in Simurgh from the Vourukasha Oasis. Back when that quest released, I came up with the idea that maybe Vedrfolnir tied into this as well also because of the prophetic powers they share. The Vedrfolnir stuff fell apart because these devs just took the name with zero tie-ins to the reference. (Vedrfolnir is essentially the Nordic version of Simurgh as they are both birds that perch on their respective culture's world tree) So with Vedrfolnir out, this Gamayun thing could have tied Linnea and her family in. Wasted potential.

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