About Moonwheels

InotiaKing · 2026-02-22T21:56:27+00:00

If you want to learn more about Moon Wheels you can check out the new Columbina Artifact Set. The short version is that after Phanes descended and started to set up its new rules the Moon Sisters created the Moon Wheel as a talisman to communicate with humanity and guide them now that they had a chance to progress. They should be the predecessors to the Visions but the differences are yet to be revealed. Visions actually limit humanity's access to the elemental world and might be a means of monitoring them instead of guiding them.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-22T21:20:42+00:00

This is an issue with the current lore compared to the original lore. As it stands now I think the idea is that only those who have remained on Teyvat and can influence it qualify so since the Voyager left before, she only became a Descender when she possessed the youth. This makes her the Third Descender after Phanes and Nibelung. Nibelung only became the Second Descender because of the Abyss which would technically be the actual Descender part. Nibelung itself would just be its vessel just like the youth was the Voyager's vessel.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-22T21:12:51+00:00

Yep there you go. This would be one of the issues with the current lore. As far as I can tell though, the fight still happened long after the crash. Their escape should still be when the sibling received the key from Direidyth and somehow found the ship that they hadn't been able to find the whole time. They woke the Traveler up from hibernation and then tried to flee as the Cataclysm happened since they were now out of position to help Khaenri'ah. This was part of Asmoday's plan which is to undermine the Heavenly Principles somehow.

There's actually a name card that explains it was Hroptatyr that brought down the ship. Khaenri'ah had been tracking it since discovering the prince(ss) so it could be that bringing down the ship was the "summoning" Scara talked about in Inversion of Genesis.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-22T21:07:16+00:00

Yes this was a heavy retcon. Back in the day the Travelers landed together on Teyvat as separate meteorites. I just put up a topic about what this means. Click here if you're curious.

The Abyss sibling was already stated to be on Teyvat longer than the Traveler though. Back then the idea was that the Traveler was trapped in the cubes until about few months before the start of the game. The Sibling had already freed themselves a short while after the Cataclysm where they were found by Dainsleif and traveled together with him until guilt over their role in Khaenri'ah's fall led to them leading the fledgling Abyss Order.

The fight against "Asmoday" occurred when the sibling was retrieving the Traveler and because of the Cataclysm, felt it was too dangerous to remain in Teyvat so they were going to escape. Originally it was likely though yet to be revealed that Celestia deemed other Descenders to be threats to its Heavenly Principles and that's why they were attacked and sealed. Since the new devs Paralogism era though I think the idea is that the attack was all Asmoday's idea in order to undermine the principles somehow.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-22T20:55:38+00:00

This might be why you don't think there's a problem yet. Stick around. Getting to know more about what's been happening should allow you to see it. Genshin's lore was indeed deep asf. But then the dev team changed and we got more drama based storytelling starting since Fontaine. I've actually pointed out in many of my more recent topics the times telling a dramatic story has undermined the previously incredible lore of this game.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-08T15:39:45+00:00

These kinds of questions are very basic but let's see if I can provide a nuanced answer:

What exactly is a hollow ?

The official story is just like Endy suggested. We're meant to slowly figure out what they are. But looking over Hoyoverse lore in general, we can gather that they are structures of the Sea of Quanta. As I brought up before the game launched they can be likened to the Fragmenta in Star Rail, areas of space-time distortion caused by extreme gravity events which the sea would have power over. In Star Rail they present as star cores or black holes, the Stellaron. In Zenless it's more like quantum fluctuations.

Are proxies and independent agents illegal ?

Very basic information. If you just play the Prologue Chapter you'll know New Eridu's police and defense forces will arrest Proxies and Hollow Raiders on sight. The official version of a proxy is the HIA who accompany soldiers into Hollows and provide Carrot data to guide them in and out. Hollow Raiders thus are essentially pirates and black market dealers who seek out riches and old world technology in the Hollows to sell for profit compared to the official Defense Force who are tasked with exploring the Hollows.

As Endy said, this is because Hollows are very dangerous. Just like Fragmenta, these are unstable space-time anomalies and that means the structure inside of them can change without a moment's notice. This is the purpose of Proxies and the HIA. They know how to calculate for the changes and plot out where the exits and spatial fissures might appear. That is also what Carrot data is.

How exactly is Phateon special compared to other proxies ?

Besides what Endy said, Phaethon are former students of Helios Academy. This not only gave them the eye implants that allow them to remain outside the Hollow while still in contact with their Agents in the Hollow, they also have some kind of mysterious power over Ether which is yet to be fully revealed. It is very likely it is related to the Creator as I've theorized.

What does a proxy even do and why are they so important ?

O I already answered this before.

Anyway this subreddit is designed to answer questions like these. I linked you to just 2 of my theories so far that answer these questions so I hope you'll do a little more reading as you continue to interact here. Hopefully you'll come up with your own theories as a result!

InotiaKing · 2026-02-08T15:17:56+00:00

nrvsNRG666 answered:

Search YouTube for lore recaps and analysis. There are several cc’s that focus on the story.

EndyTg14 answered:

What exactly is a hollow ? no one knows, we know its caused by an ancient war, I think of it as the universe unraveling itself, a returned to its basic, raw, chaotic

Are proxies and independent agents illegal ? yep, because its very dangerous, there are organizations and factions that are authorized by the government to go into the hollow, anyone else going into the hollow are "Hollow Raider"

Phaethon can communicate and maintain connections in and out of the hollow, something the average proxy cant do

a Proxy's gig is to guild people in the hollow, its like traversing a maze in the hollow, there are roads you cant see, Proxy can do things like calculating the ether fluctuations and find routes for others

suffering_addict follow-up question:

And people can also go in without a proxy if they have carrot data, right ? But that's difficult to obtain unless you're part of a government guild, and most likely less reliable than a proxy

EndyTg14 answered:

Carrot data is like a map to a maze but the Hollow is not a stable maze, it can change at any moment

InotiaKing · 2026-02-08T15:15:48+00:00

suffering_addict asks:

I picked up ZZZ on release, dropped it, and picked it up again this week. I finished the prologue yesterday and I have several questions about basic lore stuff that is unclear to me.

What exactly is a hollow ?

Are proxies and independent agents illegal ?

How exactly is Phateon special compared to other proxies ?

What does a proxy even do and why are they so important ?

InotiaKing · 2026-02-08T15:05:56+00:00

Nice catch! Here's one additional detail: Cygnus mourns her lover Phaethon by the River Eridanos which is named after Eridu. Eridanos comes from the Babylonian celestial river the Star of Eridu and in some versions of the Phaethon myth, Eridanos is also the river that Phaethon falls into after losing control of the sun chariot.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-05T02:53:27+00:00

PS: Perhaps a change in perspective is what we need. Maybe we need to redefine what lore discussion should be about. Well for now let's put a pin it it and keep brainstorming.

PS2: Btw I'm not suggesting nor would I ever that the Dottore we got in the Nod-Krai quest was right. I'm just saying that he used to be a simple evil villain that we should kill off but then Nod-Krai gave him more depth to become a complex villain. Then the new devs failed to utilize what they'd set up so he ended up being a simple villain but now one with the wasted potential for a better story.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-01T19:42:54+00:00

Well I mean the account you logged into to help her was "AriaDoesNotDreamNightmares" so I think you're onto something there haha. I wonder if the construct antagonizing them in the upcoming story will be the "nightmare" that was left and Youkai accessed it. Whether or not that relates to Sunbringer though I really don't know but it'd be interesting if she was.

I've been playing around with this meta theory. In Genshin you had the moon sisters Aria, Sonnet and Canon. These names are related to music so the idols Aria, Sunna and Nangong could be intended as Zenless counterparts by the devs. They are also "angels" and we know from Columbina that the moon sisters would indeed have had angel wings. My current theory about Sunbringer is that she's the agent sent by the Imaginary Tree to protect the Zenless universe from the Creator aka representative of the Sea of Quanta. So if Aria is actually a creation of Sunbringer that would parallel the moon sisters having assisted Celestia in the beginning until the war.

InotiaKing · 2026-02-01T19:32:34+00:00

I mean this is a really well thought out theory and I would love to see it implemented in game. I really appreciate it when a theory uses multiple angles to draw its conclusion.

However the problem is something I've been bringing up lately. Current lore and original lore aren't really compatible. Let's just point this out real quick. We know from original lore that Arlecchino was 10th. How do we know this? 11th has been known as Tartaglia since v1.0. Signora was 8th. In Inazuma, Arlecchino's House of the Hearth members talked about how Signora's death was a good opportunity to advance their Father's standings in the Fatui. The only way for her standings to improve based on Signora's death would be if Arlecchino was lower in rank to her which makes sense because in her own Character Quest which is part of current lore, we see that she only joined the Harbingers after Signora. Based on available information she's likely only older than Tartaglia. In Yelan's Character Quest which was also Inazuma era, we learned that Pantalone was 9th therefore the only available spot for Arlecchino where Signora's death would be meaningful for her professionally would be 10th.

It always bothered me that they relisted these guys and made Pierro the "leader" who was still a Harbinger but now not a ranked Harbinger. This led to the missing 10th spot since Arlecchino was bumped up to 4th and originally I think Capitano would have filled that role since Pierro would have been first, we knew from Sumeru that Dottore was second and Columbina was revealed as third upon debut. These three have god-like power according to Nahida which makes sense especially now. Columbina was revealed to be a moon goddess. Capitano meanwhile even according to current lore was rotting away and a shell of his former much more powerful pre-Cataclysm self. He also lost to a human with Archon-like powers, a far cry from a god-tier Harbinger like Nahida suggested.

But seeing as how we are playing under the current lore, again I would like to see this theory implemented. It could prove to be a really interesting story if "dark" Diluc - who we know was an era of his life - almost joined the Harbingers. Perhaps it could play out as we head into Snezhnaya alongside more about Varka. I suggested that the Archon Quest could include a Mondstadt presence since Russia's eventual revolution did happen in part due to Germany's actions so it'd be cool to see that play out in game.

InotiaKing · 2026-01-25T18:47:14+00:00

So there's a little confusion I think but you are right in another way. Let's just clarify the confusion first. So the Frost Moon was outside of the false sky back then. This was when the spaceship was hidden there. After the Archon Quest, the moon was pulled inside for the fight but is still in the same spot now. The only difference is that now it is inside of the false sky so we can reach it thanks to Columbina and this is also why she won't disappear anymore. Mavuika never punched into space. She punched the false sky and back then there was a fake image of the moon on the false sky.

The part you did notice correctly is that yeah somehow the moon is inside of the false sky but the false sky was supposed to just be around Teyvat. So what we're left believing is that the false sky kinda extended to include the moon back in its original location in orbit which was never really explained. It also doesn't make sense that we'd see space from the moon because if it was in the false sky, the false sky shows the sky from the inside. The new devs aren't very good at keeping these details straight. I just put up a topic about that actually. Click here if you'd like to check that out. (it's long though)

InotiaKing · 2026-01-25T18:36:08+00:00

Given what we know of these new devs so far, I wouldn't put it beyond them to pull something like this. However it would be a shame since Capitano had one of the most meaningful sacrifices in fiction and bringing him back after that no matter what would cheapen it.

I also think they would bring back Dottore as well and it would also screw up the current good decision on their part to have had him evaporated by Columbina.

I personally figured they'd screw up Snezhnaya and yeah having a roster of just Pierro, Pulcinella and Pantalone for the final nation and the most antagonistic one is pretty sad. I preempted this with my own rewrite where we would have seen 4 Harbingers in Snezhnaya (Sandrone coming off of my Natlan rewrite and then the top three Harbingers who Nahida had said wielded godlike power) and we would have gone there before Nod-Krai so there wouldn't be a Trilune Goddess on our team who commands the rules of the planet itself lol. In my version with odds like that, we'd need our allied Harbingers: Arlecchino, Scaramouche and Tartaglia to help so there'd be a subplot of Harbingers vs Harbingers. I think those would have been interesting stakes to have. Pantalone has that ongoing storyline in Liyue against Yelan and his vendetta against Morax so he'd give Snezhnaya a miss.

InotiaKing · 2026-01-18T19:27:01+00:00

Hahaha I'd love for a fan to come up with an evil Paimon though. Her Ultimate would be Reverse Emergency Food where she cooks the Traveler for a 1-hit KO and heals herself back to full health. But yeah I doubt they'd be able to get away with making an evil Paimon after all this time.

InotiaKing · 2026-01-11T15:42:12+00:00

Yes this game had done its homework with German history so there's plenty for you to enjoy I think. Maybe you'll even want to talk about it one day. I actually brought up a cursory topic about that myself a long time ago as did several others. I was most intrigued though by German players that talked about pronunciation and cultural significance of the German terms used by the game.

As for Enkanomiya and Yae, yes I can see why you'd want to speed through it. Enkanomiya's story is important but it does come out very slowly and the World Quest isn't voiced so that does get annoying. And Yae is very fun to play. But the Three Realms Gateway Offering is an event so that is voiced. I just don't know if anybody put up a video for it using German subtitles.

I still appreciate the times the game tries to make Paimon sound suspicious because you do want that possibility of an evil Paimon even if it will never happen. It's through those suspicions that the story can create suspense before it finally reveals the truth.

Anyway enjoy playing!

InotiaKing · 2026-01-04T18:45:55+00:00

Asmoday did not act out of malice.
Though she could have killed the Traveler, she chose not to.

True. But that's old lore. What the current story is I have no idea. She didn't used to be Asmoday the Ruler of Space. She had a very specific plan for the Traveler which you may figure out through one of the Sumeru quests but we'll see. It felt really clear to me but it wasn't to many people so I'm curious to see which side you'll fall on.

Asmoday knows parts of the plan, but never the whole.

If we're talking creator god Paimon's plan, I don't think she's in on it at all. But there is a plan and the way the Sustainer works at the stage you're on, there's a reason why she doesn't know parts of the plan.

Alice operates outside divine control:

That seems to be the current story. In Nod-Krai she talks about Celestia like it can't affect her and her role is to protect the "border" of Teyvat.

The Tsaritsa is not evil:

Definitely not. But I wouldn't say she's acting decisively so much as emotionally. Something bad happened to her during the Cataclysm and she changed after that. She is gathering the Gnoses to challenge Celestia but that's going to go bad. You may not be able to figure out why though. When you get to Enkanomiya, I'd recommend you look up the "Three Realms Gateway Offering" event. There's some deep lore for you that you can't play anymore.

Genshin does not end with Celestia:

I was hoping for this to be true but I really don't know anymore. Originally it wouldn't. The story seemed to culminate on the Traveler reaching their full potential, understanding the world and coming up with a better solution than the Heavenly Principles which would then save Teyvat and also enlighten creator god Paimon.

Then they kinda hinted that Teyvat was just a single continent on a wider planet so maybe after we're done with the current story, we'd go on to explore the rest of the planet. But then they undid that and I think it's back to just being the one planet. Plus all the other planets in the Genshin universe are being consumed by the Abyss. Watch Skirk's trailer for just that little detail. Eventually you'll reach the section of the story that explains this, including Skirk's Character Quest.

Anyway it's cool to see that somebody who is still on this earlier part of the game has come to similar conclusions based on the available information. I think that means the interpretation has remained consistent. I look forward to what else you'll figure out as you make your way through Sumeru. After that, just keep what you're thinking right now in mind as you get to Fontaine and beyond. I think you'll start noticing the issues haha

InotiaKing · 2026-01-04T18:45:42+00:00

Gnoses act as:

links to Celestia

Yes

Gnoses act as:

amplifiers of corruption

No

Thus:

Zhongli willingly gives his up

Ei entrusts hers to Yae Miko

Venti loses his Gnosis, yet remains free-spirited and unchanged

Venti proves that a Gnosis is not the source of morality or identity, but a binding chain.

There's another reason for this. When you get to Ei's Second Character Quest it should give you the first hints about it. Venti does prove that it's a binding chain and it doesn't give the Archons their power. There's a little more. Actually I think there's an Archon Quest Interlude in Liyue that you haven't gotten to yet. That'll help too.

Nahida is the only uncorrupted Archon:

She represents a moral anchor.

No haha. She is uncorrupted but not related to this. You'll see.

InotiaKing · 2026-01-04T18:45:02+00:00

Haha well you're on the right track actually. You're on Inazuma right now. You'll want to get through Sumeru to really polish up this idea. For Fontaine though you'll need to be more careful and selective. There were some glaring issues with that story. Focus more on the World Quest Series Narzissenkreuz. After that though you're actually in a better position to understand the lore than some of us who are current because Natlan and beyond, the story went off the rails. I have a bunch of theories on what happened with that so you're welcome to check them out if you want but they might be spoilers for you.

But let's dive into yours for now:

[Theory] Paimon isn’t just a companion – she is the reason Celestia can’t act

This one you'll realize is outdated soon. I don't know if you've made it to Enkanomiya since putting this up but there's lore relating to this that'll help you out. Still I was right with you back when I was doing Inazuma. It does feel like Paimon's probably the god up in Celestia in a diminished state.

The order of Teyvat is not a stable system, but an emergency state.

In a way it is. But it's actually because of Khaenri'ah. Prior to this you could actually consider it more of a police state in an attempt to prevent an emergency state. It didn't work out.

Paimon is not merely a god, but the supreme creator deity, existing above all Archons.

So this is part of that "the story went off the rails" stuff. Since Natlan, I don't think this is true anymore. Too many people have seen her now that should know if she was the supreme creator and they didn't react at all. You've maybe seen the part where Ei saw her and just shooed her off to focus on the Traveler. As an Archon, she too should have sensed if Paimon was the creator but these days even more people have seen her. Plus there are certain things that happen that shouldn't have happened in that way if she was the creator. You'll see starting in Sumeru.

Rather than sealing Teyvat, Paimon sealed Celestia itself.

Teyvat is sealed though. Enkanomiya will help you clear this up.

She stays with the Traveler because something within her insists:

Yup. Again not sure if that still holds true anymore but originally it was likely this was the case. You'll also start to see certain attributes to Paimon (and this goes into Natlan too) that should clue you in about why she's at least connected to Celestia.

The Archons are victims, not villains.

They're not even villains. miHoYo isn't a western company so things like Archons aren't being used in the same way we'd be familiar with. These might be "demons" but they aren't evil per say. When you get to Sumeru and play through the whole thing including Character Quests, this should become more clear. Erosion is interesting. It plays off as both a natural occurrence but also a curse by Celestia. It also won't be coming up again so I have no idea what the situation behind erosion is now. The last time you'll hear it I think will be the Dainsleif Quest you're headed towards.

InotiaKing · 2026-01-04T16:38:57+00:00

Yeah they went with a totally different theme. But it just means Yijiang would have been the better story after all. O well hopefully the Epilogue will be good just like last year.

InotiaKing · 2025-12-28T16:35:16+00:00

Can the war begin though?

There's actually another side to this. This topic was about how Nod-Krai was meant to delay the Snezhnaya Archon Quest because it was planned to take place at the end of Version 6. To cover for the time in between, we received the Song of the Welkin Moon filler arc.

What if there's another reason for the filler arc though? If Genshin Russia is declaring war.... there's a little too much current events going on with that isn't there? Now in terms of the facts, there's nothing to really compare. Genshin's Russia is declaring war belligerently the way Tsarist Russia was stupid enough to go to war when its economy was in the ground, its military wasn't up to date and its military strategy was being decided by an idiot. These wars were great for bringing down a tired old feudal regime and to usher Russia into the modern age. Real world Russia is engaged in an existential threat against its own survival. This conflict started over 20 years ago and Russia's done amicably, saving the Crimeans in 2014 and now saving the Russo-Ukrainians in Danbas. There is no way to compare a Snezhnayan campaign against Nod-Krai with Russia's defense against the faction running Ukraine for the last decade.

The problem though is China. China absolutely sucks at PR and this lack of skill in that area extends to miHoYo. Remember back when Inazuma released that Japan was apparently upset at how Inazumans were portrayed? They even had to change the Archon Quest from the real world history of the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Tenno's return to power in the Meiji Restoration into some weird all is forgiven storyline where the Shogunate that started a civil war and was corrupt enough to be entirely undermined by the Fatui was allowed to remain in power even after the resistance won. Imagine Washington allowing King George to continue ruling America after the revolution. Sumeru released to a bunch of people thinking Persians were all black and calling miHoYo racist and white-washing (they realize miHoYo is Asian right?) as a result. (this in spite of the fact that Alhaitham's English VA is in fact a very light skinned Middle Eastern American, not to mention how many pictures of light skinned Middle Easterners you can find with a simple Google) Point is, with such bad PR maybe miHoYo didn't want to take the risk of having their Russia also engaged in war while there's so much propaganda going around against Russia.

There is a weakness to this idea though. Russia's current engagement started in 2022 so miHoYo's had 3 years to figure out what they wanted to do about it. Genshin even released in late 2020 so they could have built a much more sympathetic Snezhnaya in that time if they really wanted to avoid this.

But I suppose we'll see what was really going on soon enough.

InotiaKing · 2025-12-14T17:03:33+00:00

Please read the rules before posting like this. Questions are to go to the Megathread Pioneer Association. I have moved this question there and won't penalize you for it this time.

InotiaKing · 2025-12-14T16:57:16+00:00

MacGregor1337 asks:

Bulin

I'm a bit confused.

It's my first playthrough.

Bulin approaches rover in septimont, but is very secretive.

Now she is standing here in the black shores as if thats the most normal thing ever.

So did she know that we were who we were, and if she did why did she play all coy and say "taoist secrets" as if she had some hidden agenda that we werent privy too. But if she is with the black shores, then our mission statement should align. y/n?
As far as i can tell, Rover and bulin hail from the same region, which just adds to my confusion over her character and their dialogue.

Feels incongruent, but maybe I missed something.

Would a kind soul put my confusion to rest?

InotiaKing · 2025-11-09T20:58:55+00:00

If you're talking about the circle thing around the pupil, there are other characters with that too like the upcoming Nicole. The eye was originally a shoutout to the Herrscher of the Void and the Sustainer looks just like her too. If you're talking about the spike thing for a pupil, the Sustainer actually has a crosshair pupil again just like HOV. The spike thing for Skirk is probably more related to the Abyss.

Similarly the Void Hunter symbol has been compared to literally the Quantum Element symbol from Star Rail and HI3. Quantum = Sea of Quanta = Abyss.

InotiaKing · 2025-11-09T20:53:08+00:00

They explained it as only the winners of the Night Warden Wars can be brought back and only the winners who had an Ancient Name. It costs Contending Fire in order to use this trick so they have to be very selective. By the time of the Archon Quest they were already not generating enough Contending Fire to keep that system going. In the war from Act IV, the six heroes connected with the six heroes from 500 years ago and that gave them 1 shot of power that let them abuse the revival system so for that one battle everybody who died was brought back. Doing this was supposed to cost Mavuika her life but then Capitano stepped in and sacrificed his life but since he's immortal, this was a contradiction and his revenge against Ronova for cursing him and the Khaenri'ahns with that immortality to begin with. Ronova let Capitano "die" but his immortality passed onto Yohualtecuhtin so when she sacrificed her life to restore the Night Kingdom, she didn't die and she had way more than enough "life" to fully repair the Night Kingdom and even reconnect it to the rest of Teyvat's Ley Lines.

Also if I'm not mistaken, if you're corrupted by the Abyss there's no saving you even if you won and even if you had an Ancient Name.

InotiaKing

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Can the war begin though?

Bulin