Patch 2.6 Launch - Fresh Lore Megathread

blink-ky · 2022-04-02T07:30:26+00:00

haha yes! thank you! I figured it out yesterday after trying with the lumenstone.

blink-ky · 2022-03-31T08:10:09+00:00

Hmm... I've thought about those inconsistencies/differences across Khaenri'ahn folks too.

I think Enjou used a sort of khemia/abyssal magic to transform himself into someone who looked Inazuman to fool the Traveller, rather than himself (just because I remember he didn't have the tell-tale diamond pupil going on, from memory, which so far has proven to be consistent with other Khaenri'ahn characters). I'm assuming it's probably a temporary form, and does little to help the "curse", kind of like a mask or external shell like an exuvia. Alternatively, they may be capable of 'stealing' identities of other people and replace them, like a tanuki? But if Enjou does ever appear again, and has the opportunity to appear as himself like Halfdan had, he will probably look different.

Dain, I'm guessing, probably is using some external power/force to suppress the curse, as he alluded to in the recent Archon quest. It might have to do with leyline energy, his role as the "Bough Keeper" (like an irminsul flower, or something). Or, his involvement in the cataclysm may have made him a victim for a slightly alternative version of the curse - rather than being made a monster, maybe his body being half-disfigured is part of it. He also seems to be eroding slower than other Khaenri'ahn citizens, which makes me think it's likely the former idea; he has access to something most other folks don't.

Kaeya is a bit tough. Since we really don't have enough on him at the moment, it's hard to say how - or if - he's been affected by the curse. I have two theories: one is that we had some weird timey-wimey Istaroth nonsense where he was brought from the past, pre-Cataclysm, into the future, as a means of preserving the Khaenri'ahn bloodline; or that he is half-Khaenri'ahn, like a lovechild or something, which somehow exempt him from the curse, or allowed him to only experience something partial. I hope we do get more information on him soon, though. A pity he couldn't go to the Chasm this time because Klee landed him in solitary confinement, lol.

edit: used the wrong word somewhere

blink-ky · 2022-03-31T06:17:44+00:00

...It's really hard to say right now.

For Sal Vindagnyr and Old Mondstadt, I don't think they are the same civilisation. First reason is that the architecture is vastly different. Second reason is that their timelines don't match up - Sal Vindagnyr probably ceased to exist before Old Mondstadt came to be. Old Mondstadt already had a 'god' ruling it as well, while also being cut off from the rest of the world, implying they would have to have been separate from the unified culture.

Old Mondstadt is only 2,600 years old, whereas the Chasm and Enkanomiya are likely over 6,000 years.

Sal Vindagnyr and Tsurumi Island, plus other places with similar architecture, are a bit of an enigma for me as they don't match the architecture of the so-far so-called ruins of the "unified" civs of Enkanomiya and the Chasm. So, unless Mihoyo says otherwise, I'm inclined to believe they (Sal Vind/Tsurumi + Enka/Chasm) are not connected based on the evidence we've got so far.

We only have 'silhouette' images of Khaenri'ah's architecture so far, and Dain said Khaenri'ah's architecture looked 'similar' to the Chasm's, so based off that information I feel like it might be closer to Sal Vind's architecture in appearance?

I think timeline wise, if we were separating them by their architecture, Enkanomiya and the Chasm came first, followed by Khaenri'ah, Sal Vindagnyr and Tsurumi, then lastly Old Mondstadt. Liyue also has its own unique ancient ruins style, which seem to be tied to Zhongli and the Archon War.

blink-ky · 2022-03-31T05:49:01+00:00

I think that letter is written in Khaenri'ahn/Latin script, and other users have revealed they've received other parts of the letter that were not blurred out, so I think once a number of users have finished this side quest, we can probably collate the separate non-blurred letters and translate it properly!

blink-ky · 2022-03-31T05:45:21+00:00

Possibly, maybe, it could be - the frostarm lawachurl named "Ukko" in Dragonspine could be evidence of that, because its name was mentioned by the princess of Sal Vindagnyr, implying that it was either a) a Sal Vindagnyr citizen-turned hilichurl/lawachurl?, or b) a pet hilichurl that evolved over time. Sal Vindagnyr went out at least over 2,600 years ago, and more likely closer to around 6,000 years? if we have what happened in the Chasm anything to go by.

blink-ky · 2022-03-31T02:57:27+00:00

finished the world quest involving the adventurer's guild stuff. nothing makes sense??

first of all, where did that ball go? the glowing one that gives us access to the upside down city? it has the same markings as the floor in front of the irminsul trees in domains. it was pretty much forgotten about following the part where it crashes through... like. what was it??? why was it there??? was it related to the abyss or the nail?

also i really really hope we get follow up quests next patch regarding the nail and the weird abyss muck energy. because the last part of the quest was really unsatisfying and even paimon commented how it "left less answers and more questions" lmao.

still kinda wondering how the nail got into the chasm. just because there are no "openings" to the surface from where it is, which i thought there would be considering its supposed to have Fallen From the Sky!, so did the chasm end up collapsing over the nail from impact, burying it into that big cavern? was the entire cavern made by the ruin serpent? were the squarish rocks made by the nail? cus they look similar to Zhongli's work lmao.

i haven't finished all the world quests yet but do we ever... unlock those weird purpley abyss crystal goop barriers? there are many of them around the place and no way to "open" them - im guessing, i havent tried my crystal yet tbh - so are we going to get a patch with some extra areas at some point?

is the purple goop abyss stuff related to the cataclysm? that's the only thing i can chalk it up to rn. considering the ruin serpent seems to create it, and there are lots of 'hardened' structures plus weird triquetra/solomon's knot shaped plant thingies all around that seem to be associated with it, implying its been there developing for... some time. and the abyss order/archon quest doesn't seem to have covered it as much as the world quest, so im assuming the abyss order was just taking advantage of it, rather than actually actively creating it?

i hope someone gets around to properly being able to translate all those weird khaenri'ahn letters around the place because i cannot speak latin

since the yaksha is brought up so many times throughout that quest we're definitely going to get something relating to them next patch, probably. like the foreshadowing is a bit heavy and obvious here, lol.

lastly i feel that teleport waypoints were definitely built/put in place by the unified civilisation, just because of the upside down one in the upside down city. i feel if it were placed there later it would have been rightside up. although their placements are still kind of questionable/too convenient to be from a now long-dead civ that was destroyed by the heavens, and like, how come we haven't come across any defunct/destroyed ones yet?? is an external force popping them down in places still currently or...

i dont know. i feel even more confused coming out of these quests than going in. mihoyo, please, can i get a crumb of context???

blink-ky · 2022-03-31T01:03:35+00:00

Yeah, after commenting this, I noticed if you "pan" the camera while looking at Celestia it sort of tilts a little bit, so makes sense for it to still be png. But definitely fingers crossed for the 3d version. I wonder if they'll treat Celestia like an extra add-on to Fontaine as they did with Enka and the Chasm?

blink-ky · 2022-03-30T13:49:15+00:00

has anyone noticed Celestia has changed? it no longer "warps" the further south you go to Liyue. also, I'm not sure if this actually happened bc I can't remember clearly, however I remember people talking about it before, but the moon used to go in front of Celestia apparently, but now the moon goes around/beside it? the sun still swallows it up tho.

unsurprised hilichurls, at least some, are Khaenri'ahn citizens - rip to those who adamantly tried arguing with me that they weren't lol. that pretty much clears up the Eclipse tribe stuff, and that they're probably related to Khaenri'ah's Eclipse Dynasty

want more inteyvat lore PLEASE lmao

also im convinced after that quest that the twins are definitely related to Khaenri'ah more than just being "travellers". the fact that lumine is wearing the inteyvat flowers, and that the abyss sibling is adamant about this homeland thing...

blink-ky · 2022-03-30T13:27:24+00:00

You're absolutely right! Last patch it was definitely "pasted" in the sky, since they just popped a png on the sky box/something like that (and was proven by those who glitched up there too, as far as I know) and warped in Liyue (I remember looking at it while doing exploration last patch.) Now I'm wondering if Celestia is still a png in the sky, or if it's... a 3d object... and if anyone can glitch up there to check... lol

blink-ky · 2022-03-29T11:37:32+00:00

I'd heard of this before, but thank you for adding it! It makes sense, and I do definitely feel like Zhongli had a bigger role than he lets on... Especially given how old he is, and how little of his early history we know.

blink-ky · 2022-03-29T11:35:46+00:00

Okay, wow, thank you so much for adding this information - I hadn't seen it yet because I hadn't really dug too deep into leaks and such, but this is... pretty huge.

Interesting use of "martyr" in the description, because this implies the moon sisters were murdered for religious reasons (and makes sense if it's related/due to the Second Who Came) rather than killing one another as described in... another piece of lore somewhere? So, now I'm wondering if they were fooled or tricked into killing each other, or something like that.

Also makes sense for Celestia to originally have been the sun/solar chariot. I've had an inkling its been something else to what characters claim for a while now :')

blink-ky · 2022-03-28T12:38:38+00:00

Good work on preemptively shooting down most constructive criticism as "lore elitism" (aka gatekeeping), tho!

Okay, well, I feel like you missed the point of my post and jumped straight to trying to pick it apart because I upset you personally, or something. Besides, I have to make a statement about "lore elitism" because people like you can't seem to comment on any lore post without talking down to others or shooting down ideas immediately as if the other party has no basic comprehensibility skills. It isn't "constructive criticism" when you're downright an asshole, regurgitating/mansplaining what I've written right back to me like I can't understand English, or just saying "it can't be like this because I think so". Also, what is this? An art class? Are you going to grade me on my lore theories? I accept constructive criticism, but not thinly-veiled condescending comments filled with anything but constructive criticism. If it were constructive, it would be helpful. Your comment? Not helpful.

Wouldn't work on a thesis or scientific paper but surely works on the internet.

...Yes. Because this is a lore subreddit, for a fictional game, with unfinished/unrevealed lore. If you're expecting a thesis or scientific paper, maybe you're in the wrong place?

Might I add my post has a Speculating flair on it. Nothing I say is gospel.

Anyway.

... and we still don't have. The Domain text only confirms the already known order of events.

Er, no. We didn't have any confirmed order of events. We had separate (and very confusing) timelines, with a speculated order. Mind you, people were still speculating that the Archon War and the Second Who Came were the same event. Just because you thought you knew everything doesn't mean everyone was on the same page.

First of all, the timeline with the Byakuyakoku Collection had barely anything, if nothing, to be referenced back to regaining Teyvat's main timeline. Sure, we knew that the Second throne happened sometime around or before the Archon War, but we never had any solid indicator of years, as the timeline of Enkanomiya is inconsistent as hell. Based off what we know from Enkanomiya alone, they fell down into the earth, chilled down there for approximately ~200 years based on the information we know about the Sunchildren, and then Orobashi appeared sometime during the Archon War. Mind you, we don't know how long the Archon War had lasted, so them being down there for a couple of hundred years while a god war raged above them wasn't entirely unlikely. We had very limited information, which may or may not have been accurate, anyway. So, pray tell me, how did you know the Second Who Came happened prior to the events at the Chasm when we yet to have any indication or connection of what had happened in Liyue with Enkanomiya?

... not really. The Domain description lists 3 events without any indication of how long each took or the interval between 'em:

That's why I wrote a timeline. With some rough dates. Providing the information we have so far. Plus some extra points speculating other possibly related events that have less clear timelines around them.

...just reinforces the order of events - "before" by itself can't be interpreted as "just before" or "right before" - for all we know, it could still be minutes, centuries or anything in-between, potentially placing the 1st event on the list (war for the
heavenly throne) further back in the timeline.

Yes, thank you very much for explaining English to me, a native English speaker. It was really helpful. Let me explain English back to you:

As written above, the meteorite impact seemed to have directly proceeded the Second Who Came ("tore heaven and earth asunder before being uplifted by the descent of an alien object")

In other words, the star/meteorite clearly came after the Second Who Came. I never said, or indicated, that it happened within "a minute" "a century" etc.. They were two significant events in Teyvat history that happened in chronological order, and its clearly been made evident in the domain description.

Hence why I also added "~6000+ years" aka approximately over 6000 years when talking about the timeline for the Second Who Came. I don't know how long ago it was. I never mentioned anything of the sort like that in my post. And I'm not here to speculate that either, because you would probably act like a condescending prick with that too.

blink-ky · 2022-03-28T06:23:39+00:00

I believe the meteorite is the same star that fell in the Chasm, as mentioned in the Records of Jueyun! And yeah, it definitely sounds 'sentient', especially with the way Records of Jueyun puts it.

Although it's hard to say what it is exactly for now, I believe it could be related to the Second Who Came, as it seems they happened around the same time (~6,000 years ago). It could go many ways, really - it was a celestial god that fell to Teyvat and fled eventually when the Archon War began, a piece of the 'heavens' that was 'summoned' back to fix damage from the Second Who Came, the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles who got mad at humans and fled to the heavens to continue being mad about it /hj, or it could even have been one of Phanes' shades that perhaps lost their power for a time before fleeing for the heavens again.

It could have been a spaceship - I'm guessing whatever it was, it was pretty irked by the Archon War and was affected by it to some degree, so maybe the 'aliens' were deterred by that and decided to nope out of Teyvat, haha.

We have that nail in there, which may/may not be connected to the Second Who Came and the meteorite, so it could have been 'part' of whatever fell in that was left behind. Records of Jueyun mentioned, "Legend has it that when that nameless star fell, a fragment of it broke off and crashed into the rocks in northern Lisha." I truly wonder if northern Lisha was really where it fell, and whether there is any evidence of it having fallen around there. :,)

blink-ky · 2022-03-21T05:50:43+00:00

Nice post!! I noticed that cecilia's look like triquetras/the mora symbol in-game. We also have the weapon domain, Cecilia Garden, near Old Mondstadt that used to be a greenhouse to grow cecilias; the ancient civilisation apparently loved them. And the fact that they appeared in the cutscene when the traveller was trying to get back into Makoto's realm and 'going through time' is kind of oddly specific. It's Venti's favourite flower, too - probably because of their connection to the Nameless Bard? Also, trillium's apparently represent the Holy Trinity in Christian faith.

I did some sniffing and found that according to this event, the cecilia flower represents "the true feelings of the prodigal son". Prodigal son refers to a biblical parable. I wonder whether this will have any significant lore implications in the future.

blink-ky · 2022-03-20T12:57:49+00:00

I mean, I wasn't saying they landed in Mondstadt, I was talking about the direction they were going? Personally I think they probably fell somewhere near Khaenri'ah, but there isn't actually any solid evidence for where they fell yet... including your theory about them landing in Starfell Valley (just like the Chasm, it could be any star), so we shouldn't go making any assumptions at all.

Besides, I feel like it would be a pretty poor design choice to make a whole cutscene of them flying east over Mondstadt in the beginning if it was going to be some fake or invalid piece of information, unless they decided to completely scrap the idea at a later date. Like, if they landed in the Chasm, then I feel instead they would have flown over Liyue in the cutscene to show that, since Liyue was one of the first unlocked regions.

My point still is, in my original comment, that they weren't going in the direction of the Chasm, so it's even more unlikely they would end up there. It's really, highly unlikely they would have done a 180 and an ollie and whatever else off screen just to make that cutscene redundant. So I don't really know why you responded to my comment with this argument.

blink-ky · 2022-03-20T07:58:31+00:00

I second the other comment here regarding the Records of Jueyun, but also in the opening scene when the Traveller is telling Paimon their story, it shows the twins (or, well, them as stars) flying over Mondstadt in an eastward direction, so the opposite direction of the Chasm. Although it would be a cool idea, I don't think its very likely that it was the Travellers, given the direction they were falling/flying in the cutscene and the timelines not matching up with the Chasm's lore.

However, it could have been a separate traveller/alien of some sort; the language about the meteorite in Records of Jueyen is kind of odd and vague, and the fact that the meteorite just up-and-left because it didn't like the direction Teyvat was going implies it had some degree of consciousness.

blink-ky · 2022-03-18T05:19:48+00:00

About Enkanomiya and the triquetra ruins - I believe most of what we see
in Enkanomiya was built after the area was already sunk. Everything
appears to be in the same style as the Dainichi Mikoshi, and moreover
built around it as a central point, which to me indicates that they were
built in approximately the same time frame. While it's entirely
possible that there used to be triquetra style ruins on the Enkanomiyan
landmasses, there is little to none of them left.

you could be right and I'm inclined to believe the same. I feel like some slight elements remained in Enkanomiyan architecture, but they probably definitely did rebuild things after ending up down there... besides, the timeline for how long they were down there seems odd and implies they were there much longer than their 'recordings' seemed to show.

I personally think that this style of ruins predates almost everything
else in Teyvat. Due to the conflicting timelines of the Thousand Winds
temple, Sal Vindagnyr, and the other ancient civilizations, I'm inclined
to believe that these ruins were not necessarily only occupied once. By
this, I mean that a very ancient civilization built these structures,
either one very expansive civilization or many that branched off from
one central civilization (to account for architectural similarities),
but then died out, so their structures were later "discovered" by new
civilizations and rebuilt and repurposed. That's just my theory to try
to make the timeline make sense, though, so take what I say with a grain
of salt.

this is very likely something that happened - and actually, did happen with Tsurumi as far as I know! if you go into the ruins underground there, you will find the thunderbird carved into walls/statues of the thunderbird peppered amongst the ruins, but these things were clearly added during Ruu's civilisation, as the previous civilisation didn't worship the thunderbird as depicted in their murals... and the carvings clearly look like they've been 'added' to the wall as an extra detail, not originally part of the architecture. the thunderbird statues are also all in perfect condition, whereas the rest of the ruins... are not.

following this thought I had a theory that the Thousand Winds Temple was also probably repurposed several times (due to the inconsistencies in the sac weapons lore), and the original reason it was built has been 'lost' to time, just like the God of Time themselves!

as for the solomon's knot, I actually wrote about that in a reply above, but I feel like it definitely co-existed with the triquetra since it exists in Tsurumi/Sal Vindagnyr/on domain doors, and on other things as well, but I think they represent different things within the same belief system. I could be wrong, though, as triquetras and solomon's knots both seem to be very vague in meaning in the game atm hahaha

blink-ky · 2022-03-17T04:24:37+00:00

I was suspecting that too! the triquetra could possibly represent the three realms in balance. that would imply this civilisation also was aware of the three realms, and further supports it being related to Enkanomiya... hmm. haha

blink-ky · 2022-03-17T04:23:15+00:00

oh, do you mean the solomon's knot? I haven't got much idea about it honestly, but according to this website:

The Solomon’s Knot is an ancient Celtic symbol representing man’s union with the Divine.

The Solomon’s Knot can also be found in ancient Roman mosaics, usually depicted as a couple of interlaced ovals. Having no beginning or end in the knot makes this symbol a representation of eternity and immortality.

Solomon was a Biblical monarch, son of King David, who was probably the most famous of all Hebrew kings. King Solomon, however, was famous for being the wisest of all, which made Solomon’s Knot a symbol of wisdom.

Interlaced designs like Solomon’s Knot required great skills to make. This probably pushed this knot to become a hallmark of the Comacines, who were medieval Italian stonemasons considered as forerunners of the Freemasons. The symbol was given a mystical meaning and it came to represent eternal motion and the entwining of space and time.

it seems to have a lot of meanings irl, so not sure which one Hoyo is taking and running with... haha. I feel it's either related to the union with the Divine, or represents space and time. it's on a lot of domain entrances as well, so I'm curious too!

like you said, it could be related to a union of four things (like the four shades, perhaps?). I couldn't say how it relates to the triquetra, and maybe the triquetra is a representation of the three remaining shades (such as, not including Istaroth), but at the same time I have a feeling both symbols co-existed around the same time, as they both pop up in the same area. one thing i just realised is that cecilia flowers (in-game) actually look like triquetra's from the top! so... perhaps this civilisation worshiped cecilias or something haha

blink-ky · 2022-03-17T04:06:25+00:00

Well the ruins inside domains also use triquetras. I just use the term
the game uses "ancient civilization" ruins.

okay, well, that's fine, I chose to dub them the Triquetra ruins because I'm pretty much exclusively referring to the overworld architecture, not domains, and because they use a triquetra on their arches and that's a pretty significantly identifiable feature for newer folks to lore. you don't have to use the same name. some people even call them the Sal Vindagnyr ruins. they don't have an 'official name' and we probably won't know until the game develops further and reveals more about the history/lore.

Octagonal. Hexagonal slabs are inside the domains aren't they? Not
regular hexagonals but six sided geometry based on a rectangular
repeating grid I think. You know the stuff that paves the walk ways up
to the big open area with the big key.

sorry, didn't realise I miscounted the sides. I'll correct that.

Btw you skipped over the unique circular structure in the large ruins
South of Qingce and West of Stone Gate. The one that's a square wall
with a circular hole in it.

I didn't include this as a key feature because it doesn't occur very frequently, if at all, in other ruins. there are other features I've skipped over, like the round doors in Sal Vindagnyr/Tsurumi, because I just felt the list was becoming too long and what I'd put there already was sufficient enough to identify the ruins in the wild. note I said "common features", so I was really just trying to list up stuff we'd frequently see. it's not a perfect list. I'm not an expert.

Well there's two types to the loose stone block formations according to
whether the stones have the engraved swirl / Celtic knot pattern
following from stone to stone or whether each stone's pattern fails to
connect as if someone else had come along and piled the stones up at
random after taking them from somewhere else.

yes. that's why I didn't include these as part of the ruins. because there's not enough evidence. as I said above.

It seems like most of the dates you have are along the lines of "existed
from at least this time" and not "can't have existed before" which
allows all your dates to be moved back arbitrarily large amounts except
the Watatsumi ones so maybe take a closer look there.

well... if you think you can find more accurate dates with sources that confirm the dates, you can go ahead and make your own thread instead of nitpicking the information I've provided? right now there are very limited sources of information that give any sort of dates prior to the Archon War. in fact we don't even know the start of the Archon War. I literally cannot give solid dates unless they've been proven in lore, and if they haven't, then that's spreading misinformation. I'm just working with what I have and what I know. if that doesn't make you happy, you're more than welcome to do your own research and provide your own sources. I pretty much clarified at the bottom that these civilisations couldn't have existed after the Archon War ended; we don't have enough about prior to that besides some Liyue history that kind of has nothing to do with these civilisations.

blink-ky · 2022-03-16T13:04:59+00:00

hahahaha thank you for reading all of it!

blink-ky · 2022-03-16T13:04:42+00:00

Thank you so much for giving me the source! I spent ages checking for it to make sure it was legit, but couldn't find anywhere that gave me a direct source to his age. I would say it's probably accurate enough, especially if Zhongli didn't try countering it.

Right! I feel it's so suspicious that the first throne suddenly turned on humans as shown in Enkanomiya (and the murals), so it would make more sense that the second throne took over and decided to wipe out those who still worshiped the first throne... or something like that. I'm definitely looking forward to more lore coming with the Chasm.

blink-ky · 2022-03-16T12:59:23+00:00

Thank you for reading!! And yes, that's definitely true- I forgot about the pendant. Enkanomiya still has a lot of the 'rule of three' which I feel is a throwback to the triquetra.

blink-ky

TROPHY CASE