The Frost Giant, Eitr and "unfinished" Descender.
At this point, all of you should've finished the quest about the chained Frost Giant in Snezhnaya.
In the quest, we learned that it is about a Snegovik who fell in love with a human. They were supposed to marry but the Snegovik was drafted to a war. They didn't see each other for a long time, and no one knows what REALLY happened to them.
We freed the Frost Giant with the help of the "spirit" of his lover and assisted him until we reached the light house where he's supposed to meet his lover, but there was no woman to meet. Instead, a "frozen" shadow appeared that takes the form of the woman. The traveler said that the frozen shadow was a manifestation of the Snegovik's wishes to meet his lover again.
So, what actually happened to them?
From the very beginning, the spirit of the Snegovik's lover who assisted us in releasing the chains that bind the Snegovik could've been the lingering "will" of the woman. We witnessed how the woman tried her best to meet her lover, and a compassionate Snegurochka actually assisted her.
Lady Pavlina banned the woman to meet the Snegovik. And we also learn, that the Snegovik's name is Donskoy, who was said to be "slumbering".
But we all know that before she could even meet him, she was stopped by the other Snegurochka and branded a sword against her. It was only in the quest that we were able to "interfere" and stop them, but in the past, she wasn't able to get through them.
The real reason to this slumber is simple. Lady Pavlina had used Eitr to "modify" Donskoy.
Snegoviks doesn't have the ability to turn into a giant. That is beyond the capabilities of their race. But the usage of "Eitr" could make it possible.
Now, what is the Eitr?
It was first mentioned in the artifact "Disenchantment in Deep Shadow":
>Countless days and nights of toil passed, as the Snow-King's company was driven through an unending succession of forbidden acts and descents into the ruins of ancient civilizations,
all to trace the faint outline of a dream once shaped by a primordial golden realm, and bring forth a vast embryo long hidden in shadow.
This particular part is also in the "Notes by a Certain Noble Individual" which we all know is the Tsar.
>...Foray four hundred and forty-six: The records found alongside the Embryonic-Ichoric-Telluric-Rudiment, or "Eitr" for short, have provided a sufficiently clear picture of the matter, which is noted as follows...
The Eye of Graeae also gave us a brief description of the Eitr:
But how was the Eitr created?
In the "Notes by a Certain Individual", the Tsar finds out that Anarchasis (Voyager) was looking for the Primal Light:
>...The Saint had come to Hyperborea in search of that light from the very genesis of the world, a fragment left behind at its inception. It is a light that is undissipated hope itself, a light that holds the potential to illuminate the entire cosmos. From what I have seen of it projected in that house of ministry, it is also the very same light that brought about my birth...
In the artifact "Disenchantment of Deep Shadow", it stated the following:
>There was a time when primordial venom and primal light clashed in a corner unseen by the heavens' gaze.
>If a love, a fervor, and an ambition just greater than the world itself were to take shape — they had to be born and kindled in a place unseen by any eye.
>It was a design that could not endure the slightest deviation in its course, and an experiment that stood but a hair's breadth from world-spanning madness.
>It was almost as if someone had stayed the hand of fate itself, forcing coin toss after coin toss until the desired outcome was reached.
>Or perhaps, only through upheaval at the periphery can certain possibilities pass through layer upon layer of constraint, and be captured and brought into being by a plan most absurd.
This tells us that Anarchasis was able to find the Primal Light (possibly with the help of the Angels), and it does tell us how HARD it is to create the Eitr. This passage tells us that the Eitr CANNOT be made in Teyvat.
Teyvat runs on a "single, linear fate" which is governed by Heimarmene.
The creation of Eitr is led by Anarchasis (Voyager), and she possibly created the Shadow Realm because she needs a place unseen by the Heavenly Principles. A place where fate isn't bound. A place where infinite possibilities still exists.
>...Might this stem from the fact that the Shadow Realm teems with possibilities yet unobserved? Should we follow this hypothesis, the relationship between the Shadow Realm and the Abyss may be one that is fundamentally antithetical and mutually repellent, explaining why the realm has remained untainted to this day...
So the Eitr was made, but how does it work?
>The Eitr has changed everything. It is as if we have obtained the final form of the Prime Chimeric Nexus.
>It is like a living bio-furnace that can devour any living embryo without limitations.
>And its products are nothing like the previous Chimeric Beasts, which had to undergo nurturing cycles to await their growth and harmonization before reaching a completed stage.
>Instead, the Eitr swallows, then fully absorbs the embryos, and directly reconstructs their biological traits. And even with that, the number of circulatory systems remains but one.
>This must have been the foundation stone for developing a sort of perfect life form.
In simpler terms, it's a bio furnace that absorbs two or more things then spits one thing out without any complications. It's a hundred steps ahead of Koschei's bio-alchemy where he needs an artificial chimeric nexus just to combine two lifeforms into one.
In one of the flashbacks, Pavlina describes the Eitr:
>Pavlina: It is the remnant of some forbidden experiments conducted during the age of Hyperborea... It possesses unimaginable power, and its composition is complex...
>Pavlina: Within it is not only some peculiar... flesh, but also the power of the Light Realm that has been modified to specialize in acts of creation, as well as...
>Pavlina: In short, it possesses unimaginable power. It comes into contact with life, and alters it...
>Pavlina: Then, these life-forms will gradually shift toward a certain tendency, ultimately converging into a single pattern.
Basically, Pavlina used the Eitr on Donskoy, which altered his biology and turned him into the Frost Giant. In the Snegovik's lore, there's a legend about him:
>A Snegovik born of love amid the snow and ice.
Male Snegovik are natural-born knights, and most are born able to freely forge weapons from ice and snow.
>Legend tells that during the Belyi Tsar's campaign against the dark tide, a Snegovik serving as his guard unleashed a power that didn't belong to his kind, transforming into a towering giant.
>Though his final fate remains unknown, one who violated such a taboo surely could not have met with a happy end.
Donskoy's story is also told in a book called "Glimpses of Mysterious Inazuma", and the title of the chapter is "The Mysterious Maiden of Genbou". It's more of a retelling of a story through the use of allegory and the ending is purely fictional because again, no one knows what happened to them in the end.
You might be wondering where the "Unfinished Descender" will come up right?
Here are the clues.
- "If a love, a fervor, and an ambition just greater than the world itself were to take shape — they had to be born and kindled in a place unseen by any eye."
- "This must have been the foundation stone for developing a sort of perfect life form."
The way the Eitr was described, and how it is made by using Primal Light and "Primal Venom", my theory is that Anarchasis actually wants to create a Descender that could go against the Heavenly Principles. Specifically, a body and "spirit/will" of a Descender.
Anarchasis created the Shadow Realm for that very purpose.
But why just a "body and spirit" of a Descender? Why not the whole thing?
In Teyvat, we learn that there are three things a human has. Body, soul and spirit/will. In real life, this is called the Tria Prima or Three Primes in Paracelsian Alchemy.
In real life, there's the Salt (Body), Sulfur (Soul) and Mercury (Spirit).
However, Teyvat has its own version with just a slight difference. We learn this throughout the quest with Nastya.
>Nastya: "Cast off the soul of the past, and it shall no longer be bound by the hidden veins of the earth." Then, the thing that replaces the soul of the past is... the um... s—sulfur of the soul?
>Nastya: "Cast off the will of the past, and it shall no longer be watched by the gaze above." And the thing that replaces the will is the silver of the spirit.
>Nastya: The last thing you have to cast off is... "Cast off the body of the past, and it shall no longer be worn away by the toil and turmoil of the mortal world." So at this point, we have to offer up the material that will replace the body. So uh... The salt is... the new body that grows from the old one. Yes, that's it!
These are also the same things that are mentioned in one of the flashbacks in Hvergelmir.
So, in Teyvat, there's Salt (Body), Sulfur (Soul) and Spirit/Will (Silver).
Also a good thing to note. We learn from Ronova that in order to kill a Descender, the body or soul needs to be completely destroyed.
Whatever happens to the "will", I am not sure. But I guess it would be uncovered when we learn more.
Going back, this could be the reason why Anarchasis created the Shadow Realm and Eitr.
The Shadow Realm would the birthplace of the spirit/will and body of a Descender using the Primal Light and Primal Venom. But where's the soul?
She would place her own.
Remember that Anarchasis is just a soul (consciousness) projected inside the body of a star-eyed youth. And her will is not enough to become a Descender. Her existence only pushed the disaster that's supposed to hit Hyperborea by 30 years and that's it.
Anarchasis's plan is to turn herself into a Descender inside the Shadow Realm. However, they didn't have much time. Anarchasis said the following in the "Celestial Gift" artifact:
>"But we have bought too little time... not enough for a miracle to take root in this age."
Thousands of years later, the Eitr will be discovered by the Tsar inside the Shadow Realm. The Eitr will be studied and researched by the Hvermelgir. Soon, by request of Koschei, the Tsar agreed to use his own body for the Eitr, which resulted in the "egg", or Goggles, or the Proto-Man (Prototype Primordial Human), with the help of Aksinya, Pavlina, Koschei and Alvis.
>Pavlina: But Koshchei... He cannot make this request of you himself, for he bears guilt. Yet he believes that if the experiment is to proceed further...
>Pavlina: Perhaps it's necessary for us to obtain... your body.
>Tsar: ...Then take it.
>Tsar: My blood, my flesh. If it is to fulfill the great work our ancestors left unfinished, if it is to carry this world one step further, if, in the end, it will all have been worth it...
>Tsar: Then take them, as much as you need!
Just like Anarchasis's plan, Hvergelmir's plans were pretty much the same, just with minor differences.
The Tsar gives up his flesh (obviously not all of it) which will be processed in the Eitr, which then resulted into the egg, and a few other creations of Koschei. The egg will contain the body, soul and will of a powerful being. The original plan is to supplant the soul and will of the Tsar into the egg, creating the new Primordial Human. That's why the Eye of Graeae was created in order to store the soul (consciousness) and will of the proto-man who was named Goggles by Paimon to make space for the Tsar's soul.
But we all know how it ended.
The Tsar who is potentially weakened after giving up his flesh perished while fighting the abyss. The egg stopped Aksinya's plans by colluding with Koschei, Pavlina and Alvis.
Goggles was split into three. The body fragment went to Koschei for his pursuit of eternity in life. Pavlina took the soul fragment in order to use for a ritual that will end the Snegovik's biological need for a lover to complete their soul. Alvis took the will fragment to acquire more power.
Everything about the "Unfinished Descender" is just a theory. I hope you enjoy reading this!