The real weapon is the Exaiphanes Blade

playing a game of 4D chess

In norse mythology, "Mistilteinn" is usually a weapon crafted from mistletoe used to kill invincible gods which makes sense given that Project Mistilteinn's purpose is to create a weapon that can compete with The Heavenly Principles. In the archon quests, we are led to believe that this weapon is still in the making, is the very anti-celestia technology that Ronova tried to stop from being completed. Then there is the weapon or power Peirro uses against her with great success- which instead was created with help from The Wise and the delusion experiments run on Arlechinno due to her connection to the Crimson Moon. That's all cool and everything, but there's still another weapon to consider that we have yet to understand the purpose of:

The Exaiphanes Blade*.* Before we even meet The Tsarista and agree to work with her and The Fatui, her statues have already been prepared to "gift us" something to use that not only comes with the power of cryo, but also this weapon. We have seen how The Tsarista plans in advance, and many of us reasonably assume that she had always had The Traveler as part of her goals, possibly explaining why she is friendly to us despite that given past events we should be enemies. I don't think it is much of a jump to think that she figured The Traveler would try to connect with her statues because she has been aware of our actions across Teyvat.

Why would she want to guarantee The Traveler's help? Well, the whole issue she has been trying to overcome is that she does not have the authority or power to really fight The Heavenly Principles. Even though she has 6 out of 7 gnoses and can pull of a feat like slowing down time without even The Shade of Life knowing, Gold still tells her even against Ronova this amount of strength would only give her "a snowball's chance in hell." In that battle, it is ultimately still Celesita that is really able to cripple Ronova by taking her authority for breaking the rules. Suffice to say, it is likely that things end up where still only someone with a title of Descender could have a chance against the HP.

Let's look at another few things about the sword:

• The blade is described as "A longsword that once shone with the light of the very stars. In the voyager's hand, it becomes a brand-new light that has nothing to do with any past era."
  • The Voyager's soul was once on Teyvat, inhabiting a human who could have wielded and left behind the sword purposely because they have the ability to see the future, and they have showed care in preventing Teyvat's destruction multiple times, so.
    • In a similar vein, the sinner The Visionary can also see the future, and what they told The Wise of it was why they summoned our sibling to Teyvat in the first place.
• In the descriptions given as you upgrade the sword, it is clear that this sword is rightfully meant for The Traveler. It tells their story. Again, hinting at The Voyager's foresight and watching of the universe having been at play.

Yes, I am suggesting that The Tsarista knows the weapon once belonged to/was created by The Voyager and all of that information and about her powers. How? Well...

• The Tsarista knew and talked with The Belyi Tsar before she took his archon seat, and he was there when The Voyager(aka Anacharsis/Seutervoinen) became partners with Koitar, which ended up being the demise of Hyperborea and the angels.

Um, so basically, what if he told The Tsarista everything or she just figured it out and found the sword? There are still two tiers upgrades to the blade we have yet to unlock in the future, and we have yet to ask The Tsarista about it in general in game, so perhaps these details will be explained. This is just my guess as to what will be revealed.

Ronova's "parting gift" was an attack on Phanes

death death death

Also in norse mythology,"Eitr" usually refers to a primordial poisonous fluid, venom, or corrupting substance. And In Sheznayan fashion, in one popular norse story, The Creation of Ymir, Eitr was created from melting frost.

You might think "well that just further proves she did shit to the nails where the abyss is going to attack everyone from those portal looking stars in the sky." and I would like to stop you there. Her last actions were that of revenge, but let's review exactly what relevant things Ronova said:

• First, before the battle against her, there are the things Traveler says to "stall her". They call her out about being anchored down and restricted by The Heavenly Principles, saying she has never known freedom and that she is just their object. And the whole bit about how Paimon is better then her, etc.
  • Ronova has nothing to say on these matters, unable to deny or argue. Even the Traveler wonders if they went too far rage baiting her.
  • But she does say "I will make you hate The Heavenly Principles more than ever."
    • This...would not benefit Phanes, but rather get them in more trouble- because again, The Traveler is a descender, and we know what happens when descenders get pissed at them.
• When her authority is then later taken by Celestia, Ronova says "this is pure foly...it makes no sense...they stripped it from me, just like that..."
• When we fight her after her authority is lost, the subtitle under her name is "Paralogism's Outcast"
  • This implies she is no longer part of the "paralogism"(hey, wasn't that the name of Mondstadt's last archon quest? heheheh), and has been kicked out of the shades, Celestia, etc.
    • A paralogism is defined as a fallacious argument. "Fallacious" then basically meaning delusional...
• In her final moments, at the Celesital nail, Ronova looks upwards to Celestia, and says "I need not despise you any longer."
• Then she pulls out "The Eitr", which she describes as once "hidden by Hyperborea in the depths of The Shadow Realm"
  • Note that the things in The Shadow Realm are unreachable to The Heavens, as that is how the Belyi Tsar escaped their punishment.
    • This connects back to the norse mythology term because there it is poison for primordial lifeforms, and we know that The Belyi Tsar was one such lifeform. They could have created it in case he went out of control, but also maybe to hurt Phanes because they are also considered primordial and they wanted to overthrow him too.
• Finally, looking back up again to the light of the heavens, Ronova's last words are "...This is my parting gift."

All that to say that I think Ronova's true revenge was betraying The Heavenly Principles.

Conclusion

To conclude and cap off my overarching theory here, I will put it this way:

The Project Mistiltein that has been revealed to us and known by the Fatui has lowkey been a cover story. The purpose of the technology The Fatui have been trying to develop was only to summon Ronova, and it and Project Stuzha kept getting pushed because The Tsarsita needed to bide time until the Traveler's arrival. And in case they never did, it would also serve still as a back up plan. The true and only reason The Tsarista wants all of the gnoses is for the seal and to trick Gold to make Ronova lose her authority, but she was able to do that with 6 out of 7.

The real Project Mistiltein is now almost complete. The traveler has the weapon, and Ronova has already "been made" to apply the "mistletoe" or poison. All that is left is for the Traveler to finish enhancing the sword, which will (in my speculation) be completed by it taking the Etir laced in the celestial nails in battle against whatever abyss junk comes from the portals/gates that have been placed in the skies. Meanwhile, the technology of the Fatui, including that of Mitya's project and Peirro's ultimate delusion creation, will just be valuable bonus assets in destroying the celestial nails for good in order to save everyone from this whole, uh, side effect of The Tsarista's master plan here.

Then she will want to find the pyro gnosis in the leylines somehow, and open that seal her husband left behind, where she must be hoping for an answer in how to get the traveler to Phanes so we can kill them in their sleep. Or maybe by then they will be waking up. For extra pressure I imagine it would be a race of time to get there before they fully awake. But, as the prepared woman I think she is, she will have all the gnoses as an extra bargaining chip in case they do wake up and we must face them head on.

So the ultimate lie in these recent patches I think has been that The Tsarsita aims to be the one to end Phanes, all to ensure The Traveler is manipulated to do it in her stead because she knows how hard it would be for her to compete with Phanes herself despite how much it seems she is trying to become more powerful for that purpose. And everything is going according to her plans so far. It's possible she even knew Paimon would be targeted by Ronova because Peirro told her about her, and so she used that to make sure The Traveler would want to also defeat Ronova with them.

All just theoretical. I'm done now I think. Feel free to voice your own thoughts.

Hello. I’ve been looking through the sub some, and I see a lot of things about coming off drugs, and how it can improve quality of life. I’ve been curious and dreaming of that for a while now for myself. But I don’t see anyone talking about withdraw or other side effects of doing so.

I’ve taken SSRI’s since I was 13-14, so it’s been over a decade. I honestly can’t remember the experience of the drugs over five years ago, but I know I wasn’t in a good place and often felt terrible as I played lab rat to different kinds. Anyway, I was a kid, if I had known what I do now, and had the right to choose, I would have thought really hard about putting myself on anything at all.

I feel stuck in this situation where I’m going to have to take these things at the same rate, even, for my entire life. And it’s a real pain in the ass because it’s expensive, and a “preexisting” condition, so insurances hate me. (Conditions being general anxiety and depression.) But if everyone was honest with me, my mother put me on meds in the first place because of her own bipolar narcissistic ass. Maybe I was depressed and anxious but it had more to do with home and school environments. Things were not good.

Since I’ve been an adult I’ve told my psych no every time she wants me to switch prescriptions or raise the dosage. I just followed along with what she said for the longest time but I started to really feel the side effects. So let me say I have tried to wean off my shit before. And it went terribly. The withdrawal was so bad I went back up to what I had been taking. And we weren’t doing massive decreases. It was like 5mg each time. So I built back up the same way and it took months to stabilize. So then she suggested I take a replacement drug basically in order to be able to try to go down on the others. That was a lot worse. So cycle repeat. For a year or so after I just took everything consistently and was okay. Then instead I increased my doses bc college and work was very stressful. It felt just like the withdrawal. So cycle repeat, back to what my body was apparently more used to. Even increase increments again of just 5mg or even half of that I could tell so I just am afraid.

So yeah. My psych didn’t seem to believe me ever about my complaints, but to be frank the way the symptoms I felt were very hard to describe. But whenever anything goes off about my meds(really try not to) I feel it all over again a bit, I can tell. Again very hard to describe, but if I had to have endured it at any higher of a level then a did, I would have been thinking about offing myself over it. I said as much, which was the only thing that made her just accept my wishes. If I felt like that all the time I wouldn’t be able to function, I barely did. I just laid around all day without an escape, unable to sleep, unable to even try to distract myself much. I’m suppose to be figuring out my life here and living it. I don’t have time to take 5 years off for the sake of getting off drugs I never wanted, and I don’t want to live years of agony like that while the world still turns without me. With how extreme reactions I have, I wouldn’t be surprised if I went into shock or something going cold turkey. So I’m not doing that.

For reference, the drugs I take now are as follows:

Effexor XR: 337.5mg

Seroquel: 300mg

Busbar: 20mg

I’ve done my own research, and I know the symptoms I had I didn’t make up, In particular with Effexor withdrawal. I think even the baseline of consistent taking affects my life and body a lot but it’s just my normal so I don’t know. I can’t compare before and after because again it’s all I’ve known for over a decade. I would also hate to be wrong and to flip my life upside down getting off drugs I actually need. There’s so much uncertainty and risk it’s really not that easy to just taper off as you guys make it seem. In order to start anything I think I need to switch out my pysch because she’s not upfront with me and I don’t even feel comfortable telling her all my issues with this shit. She’s the one I’ve had the whole time.

Has anyone else experienced a situation where they felt so stuck with their medication? What did you do?

I see the phrase or similar complained about a lot, but despite that I never see anyone defending it.

It’s not even a matter of if the other person is also Christian or not.

I’ve heard of people turning away from God because of the tragedy and unfairness they face despite having been really devoted beforehand…

I’m not sure if people who say the phrase, which many would sum up as being “shallow”, understand why it’s not always the best thing to say- so I guess I will explain it briefly in case. Basically just turn the saying around. For example, so it was God’s plan to plague an innocent child with cancer and have them suffer and their parents be forced to watch, and then to take them away from them after all the treatment. So they never get to reach their potential and grow up, and the parents have to deal with the loss their entire lives. What kind of plan is that? What was the point of the suffering, of hurting such an innocent soul? What was the point of them even living if they never got to live? Why should the parents be grateful for any of it? If the plan was to take the child into heaven, why not just take them before they are even born, to spare their family of all the grief?

How/why do you think saying something terrible was meant to happen is comforting in any way? And how can you not expect someone to lose faith in their beliefs if they have been living by the book yet still suffer for no apparent reason? How couldn’t they jump to a conclusion that God is either not real or is just a cruel being? Like what is the angle you are looking at things where such doesn’t even cross your mind?

Can you honestly tell me that if something awful happened to you or someone you love that the thought of the suffering being all according to God’s plan would make you feel better? And not like God’s plaything?

Let’s NOT pretend it hasn’t happened or that it doesn’t. Anyone in any position of power or status is capable of abusing it, regardless of what community or society they are involved in.

And let’s not pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about ministry leaders who touch minors. I’m talking about church owners who take the donation money for their own. I’m talking about priests who preach one thing and do the opposite in real life. I’m talking about organizations that have control of parts of the government. That kind of stuff.

How do you think the church should treat them? How do you think the law should treat them? How do you think God should judge them? The absolute lack religions have of admitting to and confronting the inner corruption within themselves is a major reason others do not join you.

Even those who are truly as close to saints as possible, they seem to never make major moves to put an end or hold anyone accountable. Instead, it is as if the people who use religion as a guise to do harm are effectively immune to any consequences and can get away with a lot. Why are such people even being allowed into high positions? Why do you protect them?

It should be considered blasphemy or at least dubious. So as people of Christianity, who take part in the community, do you really not see this happen or do you automatically forgive them every time because of their position and because you believe God will? Are you defensive of this issue or unaware? If your priest were to be caught committing a terrible crime today, how would you react, and what would you want done? Does this issue trouble you, and if it does, how does it not cause any conflict in your beliefs?

Conclusion/TL;DR at bottom

The Recent Boatman

In the Lunar Highlands, there is a subarea discoverable called The Golden Hall...

yeah I take pictures sometimes so what

Here, after you fight the monster so it doesn't bother you, there is something to read titled "The Chanson of The Boatman":

"I am Euthyphro, hailing from Arcadia, the eternal holy city.

O Mother of the silver shuttle, the ever-blessed goddess Prusmene,

By thy grace, I take up this meager quill to chronicle the night's final splendor.

I beseech thee: grant me once more the hallowed gift of inspiration; preserve thy devout believer,

Lest my soul descend beneath the silver tree, to be sullied by the dust.

O wise and radiant queen, bringer of the light!

I beseech thee: deliver thus thy devout believer,

That my mortal frame may find eternal rest within thy holy embrace.

O wondrous Prusmene — ancient mother of the night and daughter who brings the light, mistress of the Golden Hall!

Countless times hast thou guided my vessel, permitting me to usher unsullied souls unto the lunar palace above the clouds.

Thou grantest mortals slumber within thy pale embrace; thou grantest them dreams that are theirs, and theirs alone.

Yet this is to be the final night — the final rest.

For there sits the eternal throne in the heavens, the Primordial One,

O world-shaking lord! It forges the bones of the earth.

It bids all dreams return to the earth, and all dreamless things to return to the earth.

It seeks to shroud the dreams of man with its own dream,

That we, the mortals of this fleeting world,

Shall abide an age without beginning or end,

Passing through a life of tranquil, dreamless rest.

O wise and radiant queen, bringer of the light,

Deliver me from the hands of my dread master!

For thee, I have ushered the unsullied souls,

For thee, I have steered the silver shining ship

I beseech thee: deliver thus thy devout believer,

That my mortal frame may find eternal rest within thy holy embrace!"

And of course, after reading this, you are able to see his boat and ride it into the sky to view a memory of The Moon Sisters. (It doesn't ever come back, yay) You actually also ride the same boat in The Bubble Pool area to see a similar memory. (which also doesn't come back, yay)

VS The Boatman on Tsurumi Island:

The OG

I know, what a callback. Anyway-

• "The "Boatman" is a supernatural spirit, specifically a psychopomp, responsible for ferrying dead souls to the afterlife aboard his silver skiff "across a glittering river, into the land of dreams". He will appear once the fog and time loop curse at Tsurumi Island is resolved to bring the souls of the islanders towards what he describes as "the moon-mansion that golden burns."^([1]) However, he is stumped that some of the souls still have their lingering attachment and will not board his boat"
• "To the Traveler, the "Boatman" appears just like any other spirit on Tsurumi Island, a floating light blue translucent figure with a glowing white core. However, other souls on Tsurumi Island see him as a man dressed in a golden outfit and possessing a splendid silver boat. Una specifically describes him wearing golden fur clothes, long gold pants, with a crown of gold silk on his head.^([2])^(")

So...are the "boatmen" the... same person? How could that be?

Analysis of The Chanson:

"Lest my soul descend beneath the silver tree, to be sullied by the dust."

...I beseech thee: deliver thus thy devout believer,

That my mortal frame may find eternal rest within thy holy embrace."

• AKA, "Please take my soul, or else I will become part of The Irimnusl! I beg you, I have been an avid believer in you(Canon) so can't you please assure that my soul can rest with you instead?!"

"Countless times hast thou guided my vessel, permitting me to usher unsullied souls unto the lunar palace above the clouds.

Thou grantest mortals slumber within thy pale embrace; thou grantest them dreams that are theirs, and theirs alone."

• AKA, I have been under your guidance all my life, helping you be able to grant us mortals to eternal rest within your light, where their dreams belong to them alone."

"Yet this is to be the final night — the final rest.

For there sits the eternal throne in the heavens, the Primordial One,

O world-shaking lord! It forges the bones of the earth.

It bids all dreams return to the earth, and all dreamless things to return to the earth."

• AKA, "but this is the final night that your heaven is possible, because the Primordial One, who shakes our world, is changing it so our dreams/souls are forced to return back to life."

"It seeks to shroud the dreams of man with its own dream,

That we, the mortals of this fleeting world,

Shall abide an age without beginning or end,

Passing through a life of tranquil, dreamless rest."

• AKA "The HP wants to cover our dreams with their own, making it so we, mere mortals, will have to "live" over and over again forever, and therefore never really reach our dreams at all, stuck with deaths untrue."

"Deliver me from the hands of my dread master!"

• AKA "Save me, a human, from my dreadful creator!"

Basically, I think The Chanson of The Boatman is a man begging for his soul to be taken by the moon goddess rather then The Heavenly Principles/The Iriminsul before it is too late.

1. The Boatman thinks he deserves to be saved because of the devotion and belief he has shown all his life for The Moon Goddess Canon.
2. Then he feels this need to be saved because there is a risk of his soul being trapped by the Ley Lines otherwise. He views being swept into The HP's Iriminsul is a risk because he believes it will send his spirit through a never ending cycle where he does not truly get eternal rest or to heaven, but instead he will always have to struggle to follow his dreams. That is to say he does not want to have to give his soul to Phanes.

However, we know what happens to the moons, to Canon, and to his civilization, Arcadia, in the end. They fall. And then...there's Boatman spirit today, at Tsurumi Island, maybe proving that Canon was unable to save him- that he must have been taken by the leylines as he feared. Forever trapped, still chasing his dreams of guiding souls to the Golden Hall in hopes he can also go one day, even though it no longer exists.

As far as how his soul ended up in Inazuama when according to artifacts that Arcadia should have been located somewhere where present day Mondstadt is, I don't know. Perhaps he was born again and it happened to be in Inazuma, during the time of The Thunderbird Civilization, as that would more properly align him with the other spirits on the island. That depth is sort of besides my main point here, which is to answer this question:

Why did Phanes chose The Irminsul as "heaven" when the moons already were "heaven"?

And so I'd like to trace this back to that one line The Boatman wrote: "It seeks to shroud the dreams of man with its own dream."

But let's also consider:

1. Nibelung turned the moons into weapons to fight The HP, so they probably wouldn't exactly be so heavenly anymore.
   1. The HP supposedly only fought Nibelung because he probably started it and he was under the influence of a big mess of bad abyssal space shit.
2. The HP originally were on good terms with The Moon Goddesses before that, and they let the moons be.
   1. Good terms enough they seemed to have accepted Istaroth as their new master in Nibelung's absence and that they allowed the HP's humans to join their heavens in the first place. Because they liked humans, enough to even shape themselves like ones and go to their parties.
3. The HP also built Celesita, which also serves as a "heaven"
   1. Though it is possible that The Irminsul's branches reach up to it, so they are likely connected to each other, and thus function as one. Expect...not anymore because the ley lines go to Al-Alhmar now. Haha.
4. The Irminsul had always been there as a tree of life, of the light realm, dating way back to existing with the dragons before The HP came.

Sorry to sidetrack a bit, and I know it might be nitpicky, but I find it interesting that The Boatman refers to Phanes as "it", because it reminds me of how the "stellar blackbody" was described as a "data-based organism" by Maagees-Geti. Just uh, yeah, just a side thought. Or is it?

So one thing we need to find out here is when The HP started using The Iriminsul as a spirit realm of memories and data, because it was not doing that before they used it. It's possible they utilized it as such because the heavens(the moons) were destroyed, so they just needed a new place for people to go when they died. BUT let's remember that The Boatman was from Arcadia, a civilization that worshiped Celestia enough to build The Temple of Space and The Thousand Winds Temple, and the moons at the same time. Yet Boatman was freaking out about The Irminsul then? That must mean Phanes was already at least planning to use Iriminsul before the moons were destroyed...

Therefore, we are back to why do that?

Oh...but I already told you.

The Boatman was just a small example.

The Irminsul was meant to be The HP's "Project Moongazer"

Because you know who else has been suffering a fate of an endless cycle of chasing the same dream over and over again, death after death? The Moongazers.

And you know what else, besides the core of the Frost Moon is an extreme mass of data collected from people's memories in a effort to accomplish such a thing? The Irminsul. (or now the shit in the desert)

And do you understand how many of the dragon's ideas The Heavenly Principles has copied or taken for their own to build on?

As much as I've maybe harped on the recent Iriminsul replacement because Nahida had to burn down our big white tree because of Dottore, it makes a lot more sense that technology of King Deshret would be able to replace it at all if The Irminsul has actually always been for an AI.

Am I saying I think Phanes is made up of that "blackbody matter"? I can't help but think "abyss" with such a description, but if you look at Maagee and Ungi(after he chills out) they don't seem corrupted in that way despite having merged with that exact matter. So I'm saying it's possible or at least feasible. It is also noted that thus the blackbody matter thrives off of living beings, so I'm not going to say I think the HP are only AI either, they could also be made up of real life or at least the remains of real life.

Unfortunately, that's all I can theorize. I can't say why or what the HP's "dream" or goal is for doing such a thing with Irminsul, why it wanted to collect more data from Teyvat specially, but we know what the Moongazers mission was thanks to Eggie, it could be similar, could be totally different. I also realize that the HP being part AI means someone must have created that part of them, and we have no clue who or why that would be...

Oh, but I do have enough steam yet for another argument: if the HP are AI it could explain why they are asleep, and have been for so long. Somebody/thing has to turn them back on! Aha! Or, you know, the system is doing a reset or something. If it was damaged during The Cataclysm, that would make some sense. Maybe it's energy source was cut off or it got a virus. Lots of things can happen to a machine, look what happened to Pulonia...RIP.

Summary/Conclusion

• The Chanson of The Boatman is a soul pleading to be saved from The Heavenly Principle's Irminsul.
• The Boatman wants to be saved from dying to The Irminsul because they don't want to live the same fate over and over again.
• It is implied that Canon (who he pleads to) is unable to save him, as his spirit seems to match that of the The Boatman NPC's on Tsurumi Island.
• The Irminsul and Project Moongazer have a lot of similar major functions and purposes. The souls trapped within the data have their fates preordained because when they are reborn over and over again they are made to chase the same dreams they had in their original lives.
• The "black body matter" researched by Maagees-Geti, as it merged with her husband in his space travels and then later with herself, is described as a "data based organism"
• If The Irminsul was literally a data and memory center rather then metaphorically, then King Deshret's technology, Aaru, being able to replace it makes a lot more sense.

Therefore, my bare basic theory is: The real purpose of The Irminsul/Aaru is to supply data to an AI, The Heavenly Principles. (Not so much to serve as a "heaven.")

To what end, I still don't know. Perhaps the goal is to literally just control everyone's fate for the sake of preserving Teyvat from The Abyss or something. Or perhaps that is a side effect or a bonus of them trying to accomplish a different goal. What I do know is in real life there are loopholes to avoid AI tracking you, just as we have seen loopholes being found by character's in Teyvat for the sake of changing, getting around, controlling or even escaping their fates.

Thanks for reading if you bothered btw. That's all now, I swear.

I’ve heard a lot of people do this kind of thing when they drop fake friends. But recently my mom (who is def a narc) did it to me. I’ve never done it on purpose to anyone… but I mean, I have came to the same kind of conclusions: “this person doesn’t really care about me”, etc upon similar results.

To clarify I mean shit like giving someone the silent treatment and seeing if they come to you instead of other way around. You know, to see if the relationship is mutual. And it’s really obvious if you’re someone who usually talks a lot to the person you’re “testing” otherwise.

Well my narc mom did this to me recently but I knew what she was doing so I purposely didn’t really engage because…why. We’ll fight either way, so I opted to argue later in person. To be frank, I did check in with her once just to make sure things were okay in case, you know, I was wrong and there was a real reason she was silent. Also I needed an answer to an important question. But yeah. Immediate attitude.

Though now I’m conflicted. I started thinking if she pulled these kinds of stunts on everyone, and that’s why she can’t keep any friends…like where is the line between your friend being the asshole and you being the asshole? It is kinda shitty to “test” your relationships like that, but it’s quite a popular tactic that I usually find fair. Personally I usually just learn the hard way that I’m in one sided relationships, again, I try to hope for the best and don’t purposely put them in this hot seat only I know about, but if someone doesn’t ever reply to me or have the same energy, I do start thinking, “okay, so this isn’t really my friend” and then our friendship dies. Obviously there’s a range of severity there, but to just assume someone hates you without any solid evidence or based on theories your insecure ass makes up…that is narcissistic, is it not?

And what if the person on the other end also just sees or suspects they are getting the silent treatment or something, so THAT is why they don’t respond or engage, just like how I did with my mom?

I was curious to hear other people’s thoughts because I can’t really reach a conclusion…

Listen I know the plot already

Her Majesty’s son has been reincarnated/reborn somehow through the cyro dragon

im blue da be da de ba de boo

Appearances:

• look at them side by side
• look at them side by side closely
• Same smile(and arguably whole face), same starry shaped pupils(at times) and shared overall colors between her son and Mr. Popsicle.
• The Tsarista, her son and Chongyun all have light eyelashes
• Chongyun's normal eyes are like The Tsarista's and Neuvilette's combine
  • Dragon shaped pupils
  • Same two toned half and half of lighter and darker blue eyes
  • Same/simmilar tiny streaks on the bottom half of his iris as The Tsarista

Chongyun's pure Yang spirit:

• His problems with heat could be the ironic result of The Tsarista wishing for someone she could not freeze or hurt with her own touch
  • But cold does not harm him really and he has a much higher tolerance to it then average
• Ice and snow is also thought of as pure and innocent
• Chongyun having a cyro vision despite thinking he would have to get a pyro one
• His condition is unexplained and rare- the first in thousands of generations, yet it has hardly been looked into.

Chongyun’s constellation 

sus

• suggests he may have some measure of divine authority, greater than even the archons(which a dragon sovereign would be)

Chongyun’s dreams:

• In his 2025 birthday letter:

"As soon as I woke up, I hurriedly sketched what I had seen in said dream, but the details faded even as I drew. In the end, I captured nothing more than a few faint hints of a "long tail" and "finned back"..."

• saw a dragon in his dream unless he stole Childe's dream of the narwhale

From the Waterborne Poetry Event: 

spoiler: old man kisses lake

• (the event that explained why Diona always makes good drinks)
  • ("...Is it also possible that my pure-yang spirit is a gift from some being?")
    • (Could have been foreshadowing, open ended question was directly asked)
• Also Calliehoe(sorry I forget how it's spelled) says "this gift represents my promise and MY LOVE, I give it to you now." which love is The Tsarista's whole thing. The fact that this display of true love is what makes Chongyun wonder if his condition was also a gift---- super sus, comrades!

Zhongli’s contract with her was an agreement to keep Chongyun safe (and ignorant)

that why they the only ones on the chess board

• What else could they have made an agreement on, and how else would it be so fitting for the cyro and geo gnoses being the only ones still at play on the board?

The Neuvillete avoidance: 

• What if Zhongli doesn't seem to want a confrontation with Neuvillute not just because of what happened to the geo dragon authority, but because he ALSO knows what happened to the cyro dragon authority and evidence of BOTH are like right there?
  • And with said confrontation he could not defend himself or explain or reveal the truth because he made a contract with The Tsarista saying he literally can't.

Convenient Protection:

• If anyone ever wanted to hurt Chongyun they'd potentially have to deal with Shenhe, Xiao and by extension the rest of the adepti, Yelan, and all his friends who have their own connections. (And Hu Tao's connection, again, is the Zhong himself)
• Evil spirits flee from Chongyun so potentially he's safe from even the darkness of The Abyss, and therefore from corruption
• Perhaps he is purposely left in the dark about his condition for his own good, because how wouldn't an adepti know if they are thousand's of years old?

Qi

inspired

Qi, briefly:

Qi is the result of Yin and Yang as shown above, being joined and in harmony, creating what is known as vital or life energy, which Chongyun mentions he has. It is basically thought in Asian culture that this unity of light and darkness was essentially the "big bang" that created the universe. If you throw that in with Teyvat's sources of power, it still puts Qi at the very top. Meaning that all the elements and the world itself would not exist without Qi. It would be a power of the fabric of the universe.

Taoism, exorcism and Thermatolgy:

All of these Chongyun canonically practices, and in real life they all usually go hand in hand with matters of Yin, Yang and Qi, which implies that Qi must exist in the Genshin universe. It makes sense since knowing these arts and cultures would help Chongyun try to find balance with his Yang abundance even if he only wants to use it to exorcise demons.

The 3rd descender being Her Majesty's lover theory:

If the third descender is really The Tsarista's lost lover, then Chongyun as their son's possible descendant having the power of Qi or even just Yang, which originates from the very creation of the universe, could be explained. (Since the 3rd descneder came from outside of Teyvat and was enough to oppose Phanes)

Missing Yin:

This whole time despite having too much yang that needs to be balanced better, the idea of Chongyun finding a source of yin energy to help is never even thought of. But even if such balance is the ideal, as I mentioned earlier, them clashing could also create "problems."

If the scale of Qi power originates from the universe, such clashing of the polar opposites could possibly overpower The Heavenly Principles, which would be both in The Tsarista's and the cyro dragon's favor.

And so...

Chongyun's Yang Spirit is a byproduct of an unknown happenstance created by The Tsarista using essence or remains of Her Lover and The Cyro Dragon Sovergein all in an attempt to bring her son "back" in the future in a way she can't hurt him and neither can The Heavenly Principles. And then she signed a contract with Zhongli to take care of him while she prepares for battle and gets her shit together, or maybe she just wishes him to be free from her burdens all together and to live as he pleases...like Kaeya's father maybe did with him because both cyro visions, BOOM

Or maybe Chongyun is her last hope in defeating Phanes or whatever also just like Kaeya was told he was, fuk u

Anyway, so, this has been the tale of the crack I'm on, thanks for checking.

*sigh* I had to put a dumber title bc the first one had a spoiler