u/AudieMurphy135

>Haha, well that definitely does not stop her from being able to Dump a whole lot of lore-related stories into our heads... > >Like the one where Nibelung tries to assassinate Phanes

Alice's choice of the world "assassinate" has been living rent-free in my head, but yesterday I connected it to something I was recently looking into. A few weeks ago I was investigating the possibility of Remus being an allegory for HP. Remus teamed up with Scylla to defeat Phobos, but Scylla was captured and sealed before Remus activated the self-destruct, which destroyed Remuria with a flood.

With this, combined with Alice's comment, I can't help but wonder if Phanes could have been the Heavenly Principles' "Phobos"? Their "harp", so to speak? As a thought experiment, if we look at the events of Remuria as close to a 1:1 allegory as possible, then we can interpret the following possibilities:

• HP created Phanes to act in their place while they had their nappy time.

• After a while, Phanes went a little batshit, HP woke up from the suffering of their people, and then conspired with Nibelung to destroy Phanes.

• HP activated the self-destruct, but Phanes sealed Nibelung away "beneath the tall tower" (There may be a related theory here involving Irminsul being Nibelung's tail), and so Nibelung couldn't control the release of (presumably) Abyssal energy, which led to Teyvat being flooded by the Abyss, and is why Nibelung was blamed as the source of the corruption.

Phanes created a fake history after usurping the Heavenly Principles, which is why knowledge of that era is banned, e.g. Before Sun and Moon. It's also why they've been described as "androgynous" and "capricious", as they're literally two different entities, with one created to act in the other's place.

And while Remus was killed when he activated the self-destruct, I suspect that wasn't the case with the Heavenly Principles. Perhaps Paimon is what's left of them, similar to Marchosius/Guoba, or perhaps Paimon is HP's "Luonnotar", or something to that effect. Hmmmmm...

[6.6 Artifact Leaks] >!Also, the "barbarians" teaming up with the Vishaps in Remuria lines up with the new artifact lore where dragons and Hyperboreans fought together against HP.!<

---

I also wonder if the Remuria questline could be foreshadowing for the future. Perhaps we will free Nibelung with the assistance of Koitar/Tsaritsa, then team up with Nibelung to defeat Phanes? Or something along those lines...

So far I'm thinking the parallels might be:

• Remus = HP

• Scylla = Nibelung

• Phobos = Phanes

• Cassiodor/Osse = Koitar/Tsaritsa (involves the theory of Koitar possessing the Tsaritsa)

• Boethius = Alynas, the Second Angel

• Initium Iani ("Entrance of Janus") = Irminsul

  • This is where Scylla is sealed.

• Passage of Ianus ("Passage of Janus") = Passage to Celestia (I do wonder if the rainbow bridge in that one mural in Veluriyam Mirage is an allegory for this, see below image)

• Domus Aureus = Celestia

https://i.postimg.cc/CwNDgYtP/Rainbow-Bridge-Capturing-Light-and-Shadow-GI.png

Hmmmmm...

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Wings_of_the_Silent_Moon

> To kill the enemy, the Snow-King would need to find a fissure buried deep in the earth's darkest strata. Within that crack lay a tree that grew downward. Upon the tree's tower-like branches perched a raven. Within the raven's belly lay a snow-white hare. In the hare's eyes was a door. And if he opened that door, a world as black as spilled ink would pour forth, swallowing both heaven and earth. In that world, everything was still. There was no light, and no sound. The Snow-King would have to cross that silent realm alone and, at its lightless heart, find an egg.

Contains spoilers from the 6.6 livestream, and the Snezhnaya Behind the Scenes livestream.

---

So the other day, someone I know half-jokingly mentioned that Irminsul could be Nibelung's tail, based on a discussion about Azhdaha, where it was brought up how the Dragon-Queller tree is his tail. Anyways, the tip and inside of this tree is made of jade, and the roots of the tree are connected to the ley lines. One of the Azhdaha's drops is the Bloodjade Branch.

https://i.postimg.cc/7qySCSw-m/Dragon-Queller.webp

https://i.postimg.cc/WpZYhcmP/Item-Bloodjade-Branch.webp

(Side note: We also see this same shade of jade in the "jade plate" that comprises the blade in: Fractured Halo, Ineffa's signature weapon - https://i.postimg.cc/FFSC7Xb4/Weapon-Fractured-Halo.webp )

During the behind the scenes video for Snezhnaya, they mentioned that:

>When we think of Cryo, we can frame it around the idea of "preservation". If it preserves energy, it can function like a kind of battery. If it stores memories, it becomes a medium for storing and reproducing information.

This immediately reminded me of Irminsul, as Irminsul acts as a repository for Teyvat's history and memories. It preserves them. I also recalled that the Cryo ascension gem is the Shivada Jade Gemstone. And then it hit me:

Cryo's power over "ice" isn't actually ice, but rather "jade."

Irminsul is also associated with Dendro. And we know from Imaginarium Theatre that Cryo + Dendro = Rimegrass.

In today's livestream, we also see Nahida collapsed on the floor, on a pattern that resembles the Cryo symbol. All of the petals and protrusions are in sets of six:

https://i.postimg.cc/nFqdmpNh/cryo-nahida.png

Since Cryo is "preservation" and Dendro is "wisdom", then Irminsul being associated with both elements makes sense, since it preserves knowledge.

And what does Rimegrass react with? Electro. And in today's livestream, we see exactly this in action, an icy tree with electricity flowing through it:

https://i.postimg.cc/66wMLFNq/rimegrass-electro.png

It's also visible in distance in this shot: https://i.postimg.cc/RSw-Pt42t/snezhnaya-2.png

And its colors look extremely similar to Irminsul's heart: https://i.postimg.cc/wqNLFtpd/Inside-Irminsul.webp

We can also see this icy blue color in the Irminsul Sprout item: https://i.postimg.cc/Z5VW2B9B/irminsul-sprout.png

Way back during the Sumeru preview, it was stated that there are "three key words in the design of the Dendro element that is "catalysis," "wisdom," and "life."".

Due to Dendro primarily reacting with electro and hydro, this means that Dendro = Wisdom ("information/knowledge"), Hydro = Life, and Electro = Catalysis ("change").

Rimegrass is "Wisdom" and "Preservation" reacting with "Catalysis". Or in other words, Electro catalyzes preserved knowledge to bring forth change. And during the livestream, they also mentioned that:

>Cryo will be able to destroy, shatter, and even reshape the battlefield terrain > >... > >When we think of Cryo, we can frame it around the idea of "preservation". If it preserves energy, it can function like a kind of battery. If it stores memories, it becomes a medium for storing and reproducing information. Of course, our designers' imagination probably goes far beyond what I've just described. For instance, what if Cryo were to seal away some kind of ancient, forbidden power or concept, and hide it from the world? And then the Traveler finds a way to tap into those sealed forces to gain an advantage? Wait, I think I've said a bit too much.

And a quick, final side note/speculation that may be related: In Dragonspine, there are deposits of Ancient Rime that can only be destroyed by Scarlet Quartz. Pyro has no effect on them, so perhaps these are manifestations of Cryo's jade?

---

Edit: Also, I wonder if there's some relation to the fact that the only two dragon sovereigns who haven't been revealed yet are the Electro and Cryo ones (or at the very least, don't have a likely candidate). Interestingly, the "Coral Defenders"/"Bathysmal Vishap Herd" are Cryo and Electro vishaps, and they have a combined special attack... foreshadowing, perhaps?

https://i.postimg.cc/kqWK7vBM/Enemy-Bathysmal-Vishap-Herd.webp

---

Edit 2:

To add another little cherry on top, something I just realized:

The respective elements of each Shade's authority is generally thought to be:

• Life - Hydro

• Death - Pyro

• Time - Anemo

• Space - Geo

Which means that the three remaining elements are Cryo, Dendro, and Electro. Just like with this theory. And so I can't help but wonder if perhaps those three elements are associated with the authority of "Reason"? Because where I said...

>Rimegrass is "Wisdom" and "Preservation" reacting with "Catalysis". Or in other words, Electro catalyzes preserved knowledge to bring forth change.

...could also be interpreted as "preserving and applying knowledge". Which sounds pretty reason-y to me!

I've had a hunch for a while now that there may be deeper connection to these characters names. Earlier today, I was re-reading it for the millionth time, and decided to look at their names in CN. I saw that Sachi's name in CN can be pronounced as either "sachi" or "saji", and upon seeing the latter, my brain automatically thought of "Sagittarius".

Along this train of thought, I started investigating constellations and found that all of the characters in this book seem to be named after a constellation, with Vera, Sachi, and Ike being named after constellations that border Delphinus. All of the characters' names seem to have a syllable or two truncated from the beginning or end of the constellation they seem to be named after. I'm using this for the CN text: https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary

https://i.postimg.cc/tqwLgmWz/vera-constellations.png

• Delphi = 德尔斐 - dé ěr ​fěi - Delphinus / Delphini (Dolphin)

  • Delphi is Vera's hometown.

• Vera = 薇拉 - wēi la - Aquila / Aquilae (Eagle)

  • "ui" in pinyin is pronounced like "way", which is why "wei" is used for the "ui" in Aquila.

• Sachi = 萨奇 - sà jī - Sagitta / Sagittae (Arrow)

  • 奇 can also be pronounced qí (chi), hence "Sachi"

• Ike = 艾克 - yì kè (ee-kuh) - Equuleus / Equulei (Little Horse)

  • 艾 can also be pronounced ài ("eye"), hence "Ike"

Regarding the other characters:

---

• Tal = 塔尔 tǎ ěr - Taurus / Tauri (Bull)

  • Possibly related: Tal is described as a blue slime, and slimes in Genshin have horns.

---

Lebannin - This one's a bit tricky, and I'm not 100% certain on it.

列班宁 - liè​ bān ning

Nothing stood out constellation-wise, so I looked at the JP text to see if that would help.

リバンニ - Ribanni (Rivanni)

Alright, now we have something to work with, as Eridanus / Eridani fits that pretty well, although not as perfectly as the others:

• Lebannin = 列班宁 - liè​ bān ning - Eridani (River)

---

Princess Andro-Basilisks is more straightforward, since Andro = Andromeda. While the Andromeda Empire is from the Andromeda Galaxy, Andromeda is also a constellation.

---

###Speculation corner:

Basilisk is interesting, because it originates from the Greek work "βασιλίσκος" (basiliskos), which can mean "little prince". I recall seeing several people speculating that Kleiner may have been the author of Vera's Melancholy, based on the new volumes in the Temple of Space, and I've also seen several people mention him in regards to a story called "The Little Prince": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince

I do wonder if there could be a possible connection here?

βασιλίσκος can also refer to the star Regulus, along with certain types of birds:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B2%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%AF%CF%83%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%82

Finally, there is a constellation called "Vela", which could also fit "Vera", but it does not have a missing syllable like the others, so I get the feeling this might not be it.

As for potential deeper meanings to the characters possibly being named after these specific constellations, I'm not sure. It's something I would have to look into deeper. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!