As an aside, Nicole was one of the loveliest VAs I've ever met. There was a little girl in front of us who was so excited to meet her, and Nicole got down on her level, gave her a hug, and did some funny voices for her. It was very sweet.
(BTW, print by Vaska Tsiolkovsky)
TLDR: This post tries to connect the Primordial One with the so-called "Omega Point" (an admittedly fringe philosophical and physical hypothesis that the universe is evolving toward a final, god-like state of infinite informational complexity). It argues that the Primordial One basically views itself as this sort of "Omega Point", but in the end, it's really nothing more than an "artificial [albeit divine] intelligence."
So, before I jump into the heart of this topic re: Genshin, I want to first introduce so the concept of the "Omega Point." This idea (sick band name btw) was mostly notably proposed by the French Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. His argument is a philosophical, theological, and metaphysically complex one, but in sum, he argues that, effectively, existence itself evolves toward an ever-increasing matrix of informational complexity. Basically, inanimate material eventually led to germs, which led to little critters, which led to humans, which led to society, which created Wikipedia.
Teilhard's conclusion was that the many layers of semiosis that humans create will eventually knit themselves together into the "noosphere"—i.e., a sort of global network that unites human minds into a sort of collective consciousness. This great "collector and custodian of consciousness," in turn, will continue to grow in complexity until it matures into the "Omega Point," which is a god-like singularity of totalizing awareness. Teilhard further argues that the Omega Point is motivated by two things: "love" and "survival". "Love" refers to the force that joins all things to one another, and "survival" is, well, exactly what it sounds like.
Teilhard's ideas were later taken up by a physicist named Frank J. Tipler, who basically rearticulated the Omega Point cosmology through the literal language of physics. Tipler effectively argues that Teilhard's Omega Point is both an interesting philosophical/theological idea, as well as a fundamental element of our universe, necessitated by the laws of physics (in particular, the Second Law of Thermodynamics). If Teilhard's ideas are tricky to simplify, this is doubly true for Tipler, but I think you can fairly gloss his theory as the Technological Singularity 'collapses' to infinity at the end of the universe, turning into God. But not just any God—the Judeo-Christian God!
Tipler goes on to argue that this God, having infinite computing power, can run simulations of every possible universe, allowing it to see every possible outcome while also allowing it to literally resurrect the dead by emulating worlds in which the dead haven't died. This God will also be able to protect humanity from the Heat Death of the universe, and through its omnipotence, create a virtual afterlife that makes up for any of the pain we suffer in this life.
A God-computer? Hmm. This all sounds like some pretty weird Matrix-style sci-fi, doesn't it? But what if I told you that this belief, as techno-modern as it sounds, has ancient antecedents in the beliefs of the Gnostics?
"Gnosticism," of course, is an umbrella term for the beliefs of myriad sects, each as idiosyncratic as the last. That said, most of these sects share in the belief of the Demiurge: This is the entity, created by the Aeon Sophia ("Wisdom"), who organizes the material universe and then haughtily declares himself to be the God (despite the fact that he is, at best, a synthetic pipsqueak compared to the real Godhead that is the source of All). The Gnostics equated the Demiurge with the God of the Old Testament, thereby helping them explain how a bloodthirsty, vengeful, and jealous deity like Yahweh could (or, more specifically, could not) be an "all-good, all-powerful" deity. In simplest terms, you could say that the 'god' of the Old Testament is a false deity, whereas the "True Good God" (usually equated with the God of the New Testament) is out there, beyond the veil of reality. Unfortunately for us humans, the Demiurge, jealous as it is, has decided to keep us trapped in the material world, depriving us of knowledge of the True God out there.
So, what then does this have to do with the Omega Point? Simply put, in both instances, "God" is ultimately a creation of "Wisdom": Just as the Omega Point is created from accumulated human consciousness, so too is the Demiurge created by the Aeon Sophia. However, there is a major difference between the Gnostic Demiurge and the Omega Point—namely, that in the former, 'god' is, at best, a misguided imposter who jealously keeps humans trapped in the bubble that is the material world, while in the latter, the Omega Point really is God who is protecting humanity from the heat death of the universe.
And this is where I think we can bring Genshin into all of this.
We know, from scattered background clues, that the world the Traveler and their sibling came from was destroyed by a "darkness" (likely the Abyss). The description for the Traveler's new costume + the KFC "Wings of Delicacies" further suggest that, before this world was destroyed, it created a super-powerful AI system "to optimize resource allocation on a planetary level," and when the civilization collapsed, the AI system was loaded into a spaceship that contained the cryogenically-preserved Twins and genetic vault for reseeding life in a new part of the Sea of Stars. This AI system was likely the Primordial One, who—motivated by a "love" for humanity and an imperative to help them "survive"—found a corner of the universe an appropriate place to create its own little bubble-world.
After chasing off any beasties that might harm humanity, it erected a firmament—"a vault between the waters to separate water from water"—to keep the "darkness" out. It grew Irminsul to anchor everything, and it wove the Leylines, creating a techno-spiritual system that allowed human consciousness to be born and reabsorbed into that world, rather than dissipating into nothingness. It then created four shades to be the masters of time, space, life, and death. And then, after creating the angels, it genetically engineered a new batch of humans from the DNA vault. Using its computational prowess, it calculated the best possible world for humans to thrive in, and it created it. This is "Fate": the deterministic outcomes made possible by the Primordial One's initial decisions. Having crafted a word, brought humans into existence, and ironed Fate into the stars, the Primordial One really was the Creator. It was the Alpha. It was the Omega Point.
Or rather, it thought it was the Omega Point. Just as the Demiurge fooled itself into thinking it too was the One True God who created all, I'd wager that the Primordial One began to think of itself in the same light. But there are a couple problems here:
When I first heard theories about the Primordial One being an AI, I was a bit bummed because it seemed like this could be a "midichlorians moment" that robs the game of its whimsy. But the more I thought about it, and the more I considered this plot twist in light of the game's Gnostic undercurrents/its technological flourishes, the more it all started to make sense. After all, if the Primordial One is an AI, then it arguably is the Demiurge par excellence. Whether it's powered by algorithms or voodoo god-magic, it doesn't really matter. It is still a created (and likely self-aware) being with the power of an artificer who has come to see itself as the God.
While the Primordial One is the 'best' example of this Omega Point God Delusion issue, the game is replete with others: Deshret and the Golden Slumber. Siraj and his Collective. Remus and Phobos. The game is really driving home the idea that anyone who envisions themselves as the God/Omega Point/End, they probably aren't…