Hi guys! I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!
The new Archon Quest is not too shabby. I definitely enjoyed the all out attack on Mondstadt section of the quest. The Durin story arc was also ongoing since almost a year back with Simulanka in v4.8.
However. (It would be great if there wasn't always a "however" in these more recent stories.)
Paralogism was revealed to us as the next milestone in the major story arc that started when Capitano sacrificed himself to return the souls of all the Khaenri'ahns and Natlanese inside of him back into the Ley Lines. However there was a reason for those Khaenri'ahn souls to have been cursed away from the Ley Lines. The next events ever since have all been related to seeing the consequences unfold in all the seven nations. I had come up with theories on how that would work including how it would play out in Mondstadt. However as we know from playing Paralogism, despite having been teased in the livestream, this quest had nothing to do with that story arc. At least, there was no direct mention. Why is that?
I think there's a timeline discrepancy here. It's been shown a few times now that there is a new dev team running Genshin. miHoYo even said as much during the v5.3 livestream. And this dev team has not been able to keep their facts straight. One major issue I've pointed out before is that the Natlan Archon Quest established that the Traveler now is connected to the Ley Lines. The forging of the Tumaini Ancient Name is what allows the Traveler to be recorded by the Night Kingdom such that the Ode of Resurrection can revive them as a failsafe. This connection to Natlan's Ley Lines is also what finally allowed them to resonate with Pyro. And then Capitano reconnected Natlan's Ley Lines to the rest of Teyvat's Ley Lines which is why there were consequences for Khaenri'ahns returning into them. (also this is what allows Natlanese to finally leave Natlan since, before the Ley Lines were connected any Natlanese that died outside of Natlan would never be able to return to the Ley Lines and would cease to exist) So now that we know the Traveler has to be connected and recorded by Teyvat's Ley Lines, how did Lantern Rite work? They were unable to be connected to the array which worked through the Ley Lines and then they used the previous fact about not being connected to the Ley Lines in order to bypass obfuscation. In fact, this was used as the major turning point of that event. We're left with a plot hole: Either Tumaini didn't actually work and for some reason Citlali didn't notice when she did her checks or it did work but somehow Lan Yan was still unable to connect the Traveler to the array and the rules about being recorded by the Ley Lines just don't affect Descenders thus making the obfuscation plot point irrelevant.
Where this relates here is that I believe Paralogism was originally a story set further in the future of this game. How can we test this? Well the most obvious is this:
I had to do a few double takes on it but at least to me the Aether on the right seems to be wielding a different element than the one on the left. It's far less green which would be Anemo. So what other element might match this light blue color?
And if we think about that, it actually makes more sense for this boss fight. Canonically we take it on as Albedo and the Traveler. If we assume the Anemo Traveler then we're using a team of Anemo and Geo against a boss that has a Freeze mechanic. Fail to freeze it and you get one shot. This team of Albedo and Anemo Traveler would lose, every time. If we expand to include the lore about the Traveler then right now the Traveler has six out of seven elements so while Albedo is still useless (his role in the fight is to do basic damage against the boss) then Hydro Traveler would help with the Freeze mechanic but they'd still lose. You need Cryo Traveler in this fight so they can Freeze with a combination of their Hydro and newly attained final Cryo element. From a storyline perspective, it further explains why Albedo wanted the Traveler's presence in the operation. He knew he'd fail the trial without him. And we can confirm that Freeze is canon to the storyline as well since a prompt even appears to suggest we change our team to one with Hydro and Cryo characters. Consider Azhdaha who gains two elements in his Weekly Boss form but in the story remains Geo. The use of Freeze to defeat the boss is not only part of its gameplay but also its lore and you can't do that unless the Traveler wields the power of Cryo as depicted in the cutscene.
Another point is tradition. We've already been to six out of the seven nations. In every single one we have an Archon Quest Boss followed by a Character Quest boss. I had theorized though that we would eventually get third bosses for every region with lore that further delves into the ultimate story of the game, namely getting closer to achieving gnosis and overcoming the Heavenly Principles. Paralogism is that third boss with that deeper dive into confronting Celestia and its rules. It is not a second Natlan Weekly Boss which we are still missing. One theory I've played with about Natlan is that the devs really didn't know what they wanted to do with that region. For example - while this group hasn't ever really stopped talking about it - the racism/whitewashing thing came up again with Natlan. But unlike before with say Sumeru, there really is no justification for what Natlan looks like. And in terms of the story it undermines much of the previously established lore and doesn't even stay consistent with its own lore as I brought up earlier. As such it may be that this new dev team just didn't know how to give Natlan its second boss so it pulled out an already made third boss for Mondstadt that should have released later on.
Ok third and final point because I think it's already convincing enough, we have the point I actually brought up at the start of this topic: there was no mention of the consequences of the Natlan Archon Quest. We had Emily Cass even hint about it in the livestream. She pondered if it was a bad omen, that what had previously happened in Liyue, Inazuma and Natlan was related to the events taking place in Paralogism. So what could that mean? Well if Paralogism wasn't actually meant to take place now then of course it wouldn't have to do with the Natlan Archon Quest. That would have already been dealt with at the conclusion of the story arc before we even reach Snezhnaya and get that Cryo resonance.
If we can agree that the devs messed up this story arc then what can be done? Well as I've had to do before with this dev team, let's try a rewrite. In this case I think we can actually do three rewrites, incrementally increasing the amount of changes. For the first rewrite, I want to see if we could do a better job of working in Paralogism into the Natlan Archon Quest consequences story arc. In the second rewrite I'm placing Paralogism back where it belongs and so how would we fill in the gap for the current story arc and how can we relate it back to the events of Paralogism. Finally I have actually had a longstanding theory about Albedo's personal storyline which Paralogism harms (and I'll get to the reason why this dev team would have wanted to do that) so the third rewrite is a full rewrite, restoring as much of the previously established lore as I can.
The very obvious first step to reinserting Paralogism back into the ongoing story arc is just to bring it up in the first place right? Somebody at some point might have wanted to say something about an increase in Abyssal activity within the Ley Lines. Something about Durin stirring more as of late and they didn't know why. Anything that didn't sound like business as usual since the Durin situation we got was directly connected to Simulanka alone. Albedo told us in that event that Durin was going to revive. It had nothing to do with the Archon Quest.
So next how can we bridge this story with the effects previously seen in Liyue as the fetor, Inazuma as the revitalized Nightmare and Antu's extended stay as a disembodied soul outside of the Night Kingdom? Well I made this prediction about how the remaining regions would be affected. For Mondstadt I actually did peg that Durin and Mini-Durin (and Wanderer) would be involved. The increased Abyssal Energy in the Ley Lines would revitalize Durin just like it had with Chiyo's Nightmare and since we already knew it was reviving anyway, this expedited the process.
On top of that Paralogism made a point to bring up that some of the Mondstadters were behaving oddly. This was meant to hint at Durin taking control of them. (though from that part of the story only Miles was actually being controlled and Beatrice and Donna were both just scared by what they had seen) In terms of my prediction, in lieu of Durin's revival the Festering Desire effects previously seen in v1.2's The Chalk Prince and the Dragon also increased. This became the basis for suggesting that Mondstadt would encounter the German folkloric monster the Nachzehrer, something that remotely drains the life force of a deceased's loved ones. In Paralogism's case this is demonstrated by the melancholy and lethargy seen during that early part of the quest but in terms of mind control I have yet to find another German monster that acts like a doppelganger and tries incriminating its victims. And if you're thinking "isn't Doppelganger already German?" you'd be right but a Doppelganger in German folklore is a spirtual twin, a ghostly apparition that looks like a person and just by seeing this double means that that person is on the verge of death. They brought that up in Inazuma. That doesn't line up with the story. As such I am just going to go with the Nachzehrer. Albedo suggested that they also needed to continuously use their victim's bodies to maintain their likeness which could work with the Nachzehrer using the keepsakes of its dead host to create remote access to its victims to drain their life forces.
And that's really all there is to it. As long as the quest upheld what was teased in the livestream, that's the quickest and easiest fix. Explain that Durin was already reviving but thanks to Capitano it is reviving faster. This would also explain Albedo's plan.
The thing is while that section of the quest was amazing to play, it really doesn't look good for a calculated individual like Albedo to allow an invasion of Mondstadt City. The city itself is designed after medieval German castles, specifically a wasserburg. Castles are fortifications that prevent invasion and it is the worst thing to allow enemy forces to breach the castle. Given what we knew about the situation, Albedo could have fortified the route leading into Dragonspine and kept Durin's forces at bay out there. With no human settlements in the area, they'd actually be free to use their best weaponry to attack the enemy forces. Blockading Dragonspine would also isolate "Hertha" from its forces and thus make capture much easier. On top of that there was no real need to figure out which Mondstadters were controlled because as Albedo would point out, the only solution lay in killing Durin and resurrecting him as a homunculus. Therefore with the monsters kept at bay in Dragonspine and "Hertha" and her mind-controlled forces cornered within the city, Albedo could commune with the Hexenzirkel and get his plan underway without causing so much collateral damage. In fact, since they knew "Hertha" was the imposter they didn't need to wait until Durin killed its victims. This operation had supposedly been going on for over half a year and "Hertha" replacing Hertha was one of the first steps therefore the death of Hanselmann was one of the last and could have been prevented.
Now if we go with this rewrite then Albedo's plans are thrown into disarray because Durin's reviving too soon. Therefore there's an attack on Mondstadt and an attempt at incriminating Albedo and the plan becomes more last minute thus costing some lives and being unable to prevent an attack on the city.
Second rewrite: If we return Paralogism back to where it belongs in the timeline what do we do about the Mondstadt story? Actually this was puzzling for me when we watched the livestream. My prediction had planned out the next chapters of the story arc as follows: Following Inazuma we'd return to Natlan to deal with its consequences and then we'd end in Sumeru for v5.7 and the next Dainsleif Quest which would feature Skirk. In between there was only one more patch, v5.6 but there were still three nations to cover. Then in v5.5 we did in fact return to Natlan and right now Skirk is the only character teased in the v5.3 livestream that is still to appear. Therefore the stage was set for v5.6 and its release of the Fontainian Escoffier also teased in that livestream to be a patch dealing with Fontaine, Mondstadt and perhaps even mention Snezhnaya. What did we get? The patch was about Fontaine. And Mondstadt. Separately. Let's fix that.
Instead of a story about Durin becoming human, let's put that aside for later. However Capitano's actions exasperated the situation on Dragonspine because the influx of Abyssal Energy will still expedite Durin's revival. In Fontaine it will also be reviving the body of Elynas thus v5.6 is still a patch where Fontaine and Mondstadt take center stage only now they are together. This works even better both in a meta sense and a lore sense. In terms of real world inspiration, France and Germany were once a single kingdom, the Kingdom of the Franks. This connects Fontaine and Mondstadt so then in terms of lore, these two regions just happened to be the ones Rhinedottir attacked with draconic monsters created through the Abyss. Both Durin and Elynas are noted for their poisoned blood and most recently their childlike personalities. Both of these regions also happen to have one Weekly Boss featured through their respective Archon Quests that doesn't relate to the Fatui and another boss that is unlocked through an unrelated character's Character Quest. Mondstadt's Andrius is unlocked through Razor's quest while Fontaine's is unlocked through Arlecchino's. Neither region's Archon has had their Second Character Quest whereas in other regions it is the Archon's Second Character Quest that unlocks a Weekly Boss more personally related to the Archon: Azhdaha to Zhongli in Liyue, the Shogun to Ei in Inazuma and Apep to Nahida in Sumeru.
Using this premise we wouldn't have an Archon Quest. Instead just like Lantern Rite, Mikawa Flower Festival and Bloomflower Trials this Fontaine and Mondstadt based story would be v5.6's major event. And notice the perfect theme that was set up. In this specific Lantern Rite when Hu Tao is taken to the border, her footsteps bloom into higanbana or the flower of death. Then you have the literally named Mikawa Flower Festival and Bloomflower Trials. What was the holiday going on in Mondstadt this time? Windblume, centered around the special legendary flower that commemorates the rebellion against Decarabian. Finally since this story arc doesn't end in Mondstadt we'd end this flower theme in Sumeru and there are so many ways to do that. (my personal suggestion would be to bring up lore related to Nabu, the Goddess of Flowers, descendent of the angels, assistant to Deshret in their attempt to breach the false sky which became the first instance of Abyssal Corruption plaguing humanity through the Ley Lines, etc)
This story would start in Fontaine where the Fontaine Research Institute is alarmed by unusual activity occurring in the Beryl Region. The Tainted Hydro Phantasms have been mutating further and now exhibit attributes we'd recognize as the Void Wards of the Tenebrous Mimiflora along with blighting any ground they cover with the same Attrition stacking Burnt Ground as Gosoythoth. As we look into it, the Melusines will explain that something seems to be happening to the body of Elynas and that's when we realize this is another case of the fetor and Nightmare we'd previously experienced. We go to speak with Elynas himself who confirms our suspicions. Something has happened to the Ley Lines that is revitalizing his body and causing it to stir. As a side-effect of this, the already tainted Hydro Eidolons have begun exhibiting powerful Abyssal abilities because of the high concentration of pollutants within their watery forms. With his help alongside our friends in Fontaine we overcome the revival and Elynas takes control of its body to have it sleep once more while reabsorbing as much of the Abyssal contaminants it had leaked. With the Traveler present, this becomes easier to do as the Traveler can also purify the Abyss.
However that wouldn't be the end. If Elynas could be revived by the polluted Ley Lines then so could the other Abyssal dragon monster Rhinedottir had created. We head out with some of our friends for Mondstadt while Wriothesley is put in charge of the clean up in Fontaine and maintaining order. (Neuvillette was unable to help at all because he is the only leader in Fontaine now, their only source of Pneumousia and we know even Dragon Sovereigns can be corrupted by the Abyss so he needs to stay away from Elynas.)
Once we arrive Albedo and the knights explain the situation to us. As Albedo had predicted, Durin was reviving and as a side-effect of that, the monsters on Dragonspine had mutated just like the phantasms in Fontaine. In this case several adventurers had gone missing and those closest to them were suffering negative health effects. Given that even some of the knights mistrust him, Albedo is put on trial for at least one of the missing people as fragments of a body were discovered to have been eroded by some unknown chemical substance which was also found in Albedo's lab. (Albedo was looking into putrefaction as it relates to Durin.) In this case the paralogisms are born from simple fear and the already existing mistrust of Albedo and his alchemical research that set him up as the perfect scapegoat. We need to navigate both the trial to calm Mondstadt down while helping the knights deal with the reviving Durin. Let's say Navia and her Spina came with us to help Mondstadt so she will be stationed at the foot of Dragonspine while the knights and a squad of adventurers go looking for the Nachzehrer which could be as simple as specific mutated hilichurls (give them the red swirl) that had possession of the missing people's belongings. They're feeding off the memories shared between the victim and their loved ones. Because memories are stored by the Ley Lines the additional Abyssal influence now in those Ley Lines has allowed the corrosion caused by the feeding to travel through the memories and impact the living.
We'd have to navigate a series of paralogisms intent on convicting Albedo for his creepy alchemy research while also employing paralogisms of our own to prevent the discovery that Albedo himself (including his name) is a product of alchemy. Then as the Honorary Knight with unique abilities to sense and purify the Abyss - a quality known since the Archon Quest - we can redirect everybody's attention to Dragonspine just in time for the remains of Durin to begin moving. When we return to the mountain we are met with Mini-Durin and Wanderer. Mini had sensed a change in Mondstadt and Wanderer was sent with him by Nahida because she predicted a major calamity was about to follow, foreshadowing v5.7. A coordinated attack between the Spina, Favonius, Adventurer's Guild and a team of Mini-Durin, Wanderer, Albedo and the Traveler then brings Durin down. The other forces are there to batter the physical body while the team is there to purify Durin. Mini can absorb its rage to pacify it with help from Wanderer to get close. On the other hand the Traveler can purify as much of the Abyssal Energy leaking out of Durin that Albedo can't contain.
In the end while Durin's revival is stopped, just like Elynas, there is still plenty of Abyssal Energy now coursing through its remains. Albedo's ultimate plan will be to merge Mini-Durin with Durin but now there's a hitch. Throughout the battle, Mini had been absorbing Durin's rage and now both resents and fears it. It's one thing to have been an unwitting "evil dragon" in Simulanka accidentally breaking things; it's quite another to be a vicious evil creature purposely sent to destroy a nation. And that'll go on to develop Mini-Durin's character until the Paralogism Archon Quest where he comes to terms with it and agrees to merge with Durin to become a brand new being in order to save Mondstadt.
Side Note: I know I could have left Paralogism in its entirety for the future release but the livestream brought up the trial for murder as well and with a connection to Fontaine the trial feels timely. In fact even Paimon brings it up during the quest itself. I played with the idea of Navia assisting in the trial but then I remembered Fontaine and she wasn't all that helpful for any of them lol. I also played with the idea of bringing Furina along but it didn't sit right with me to drag her into another trial after what she went through in the Archon Quest. Her connection to trials only stemmed from her 500 year long role playing the Hydro Archon anyway and she seems more affiliated with acting so I decided against it.
Unlike the other rewrites though this one's actually going to dig a little further back:
So first, when Sumeru was the new kid on the block one thing I shied away from was believing that Scara would feature in the story. It was Sumeru. It should have a Sumeru-centered story throughout including fighting a Sumeru-related boss at the end like Dottore. However as we got through v3.0 I played with the idea that Dottore might slip our grasp by creating a more immediate threat which I based on the ending of Act I where the Eremites believed their King Deshret would return. I figured with Dottore's machinations he'd "resurrect" the dead Deshret as some kind of mechanical facsimile. Then v3.1 released and it became clear my "Deshret robot" would just end up being the Scara Gundam and so Sumeru ends with an Inazuman boss. This then continued into v3.3 where we would get Inversion of Genesis and abruptly end the then ongoing Scara story arc. Another reason I shied away from Scara's inclusion in Sumeru was that once we got that Archon Quest Interlude, it effectively made all the build-up for that story arc irrelevant. Irodori had been used to have Ayato set up a team to one day face off against Scara. At the same time, Yae and Venti were seen "chatting up a storm" according to Paimon. The scene played out in a way that obviously showed they were in the middle of "plotting something" and given that the story related to Scara who Yae had previously warned Ei about leaving as a loose end to run wild, it only made sense they were discussing him. Furthermore Kazuha's Character Quest was a prerequisite for Inversion of Genesis because the entire quest revolved around the impact Scara had had on his family's life, ultimately granting him the sword born from other consequences of Scara's actions which set up the perfect Chekhov's Gun for Kazuha to use in his confrontation against Scara. This storyline was further elaborated in v2.8's Summer Fantasia where Kazuha is allowed to come to terms with his past in order to progress into that new chapter. In light of all this lost potential I would commit to my first rewrite for Genshin.
Why am I bringing up all this about Scara in a topic about Albedo and Durin? Well in v4.8 we got the temporary summer region of Simulanka. My Scara rewrite can be summarized like this: The real Scara never went to Sumeru and instead would slowly become a growing threat. Meanwhile in Sumeru Dottore still needed a way to convince the sages to follow his plans and so he created a facsimile of Scara based on all the testing he'd done on him. After defeating this fake Scara, he'd reawaken as a blank slate, the Wanderer. Scara finally returns to Inazuma and commits to a very destructive Kunikuzushi plan and so the team set up by Ayato is sent to defeat him and they do. However with respect to the Sengoku era belief of Akunin Shouki - evil persons as the object of salvation - Wanderer is eventually convinced to assume the memories of Scara in order that Scara be given a second chance at life as Wanderer lives his while holding those memories. This is basically what the Mini-Durin storyline has been. Durin was a creature designed for malicious deeds and met with a terrible end. M took pity on him and created a storybook version hoping to give him a different outcome. We go into Simulanka and provide that alternate path thus creating Mini-Durin and now here in Paralogism, Mini-Durin takes on Durin's essence and will now live out a new life for them both. miHoYo even played this so on the nose by literally having Scara present as the hero of the Simulanka event, coming up with the solution to save Durin and then even taking Mini-Durin under his wing. (and then they gave him a single line mention in Paralogism as if to throw further insult to injury)
However there is a problem with shifting a storyline you were supposed to give to Scara to some other character. Every character has their own history. When they ended Scara's storyline so abruptly it undermined all of the events building up to it. What caused Kazuha's family's suffering? Why did the Kamisato siblings' parents die early? It all came to an unceremonious end in v3.3. So what has been negatively impacted by introducing Mini-Durin to the Durin storyline? In v2.3 we had the Shadows Amidst Snowstorms event and the final scene had Albedo jokingly pretend to be Primordial Albedo as if hinting that he was still alive. Then thanks to Paralogism the story became that he was unceremoniously killed off off-screen and then returned right back to Durin's stomach from where he'd previously escaped in the v2.3 event. It essentially negated the event's relevance beyond simple awareness of the existence of a doppelganger powered by Durin's blood. I believed that the v2.3 event was instead setting the stage for incremental integration of Durin into human society. In other words we already had a Mini-Durin and didn't need another one by regressing Durin's character development. On top of this Albedo is given both an achievement and line of dialogue that can easily be seen as completing his story arc which undermines that as well. At the end of his own Character Quest he has a line about potentially losing control and becoming a threat to Mondstadt. Him. Not a lookalike that was always malevolent. Therefore it made more sense that his research would reach a pitfall and we'd need to save him. The reformed Durin/Primordial Albedo would serve as a major player for a story like that. With intimate knowledge on what Albedo really is, who their "mother" is and what they were researching, Durin could provide us the crucial details we'd need to save Albedo. It would also further develop the Opus Magnum plot. In other words, Albedo's mission assigned to him by Rhinedottir would be to surpass her and reach Citrinitas from Albedo. Citrinitas is Albedo's research goal and was hinted back in the Alchemical Ascension event where Citrinitas Simulated is the highest rank for alchemy proficiency. However it isn't. He's wrong. As we can find in Fontaine, Rene had long figured out that the Khaenri'ahns belief was folly and that "yellow" was "simply bait. Red is the final goal." "Red is the foundational principle, the philosopher's stone" or Rubedo. Therefore Citrinitas should just be Albedo's fear of losing control and bringing harm to Mondstadt. This was a very early theory of mine as well.
Of course much of this is predicated on if Durin actually possesses any benevolent traits right? After all he was the evil dragon that poisoned Mondstadt and even Dvalin became one of his victims up until the conclusion of the Mondstadt Archon Quest. Well as it happens, back in v2.3 there were theories suggesting Primordial Albedo had taken on the form of Joel's father Joserf. This was a second plan after he had previously tried taking Joel to his father's remains which was foiled by Eula. In these theories it was suggested that Primordial Albedo didn't quite understand why his actions were being opposed and that this fueled his jealousy about how Albedo had been accepted by the humans. His intention was to help Joel who, as a child didn't hold any bias towards unusual beings like him. On my end, I agreed that he didn't mean any harm and simply didn't know any better which I believed Albedo noticed. He made this comment during the quest: "People do not like poisonous plants. Only a perfect rose can fetch a high price. If the inferior specimens wanted to conceal the fact of their worthlessness, they would have to take the gardener out of the picture using their poisonous thorns." This was Primordial Albedo's jealousy at play but it seems clear his ultimate desire was for acceptance into human society. Albedo goes on to lament about the meaning of life and his grief over supposedly killing him. However at the end of the event Albedo "pulls the prank" on the Traveler by hiding the telltale mark on his neck. He also cryptically tells Paimon about how things could be preserved indefinitely if you bury them on Dragonspine and that if Paimon wanted, he could help bury some sunsettias she wanted to preserve on the mountain before further suggesting that maybe those sunsettias would sprout into an orchard the next time she visited. Here's the direct quote: "Fruit buried on Dragonspine will stay fresh for much longer. However, it is also possible that the fruit will sprout and grow into fruit trees. Who knows, maybe the next time you visit, it will have grown into an orchard. You can water the trees, add fertilizer, and when they finally bear fruit, you will have some fresh Sunsettias." This then leads to Paimon bringing up becoming a gardener and the Traveler wondering why Albedo isn't taking the matter of his doppelganger more seriously. The quest even ends with Albedo saying this and finally ending with this. As this all predated Mini-Durin I and the Joserf theories believed it showed that Durin's potential for good. Of course the Joserf side of things was disproven in the same patch. If players missed Shadows Amidst Snowstorms then a World Quest would be provided to explain Joserf's return thus having nothing to do with Durin. I believed Albedo was hoping to nurture the already existing humanoid form Durin had adopted and help to integrate him into society. After all that's all Durin really wanted. Instead of becoming Joserf, my theory back then was that he had saved Joserf and then tried to guide Joel to him. When Eula interfered he moved to direct Reckless Pallad to him instead. Knowing Pallad's only defining characteristic in the game, it's highly improbable that he just happened to stumble upon Joserf so considering the original story related to Durin, it's much more likely he was led to Joserf in order to save him.
Ok wow so that was long. Now let's get to the rewrite.
If we pretend that Scara got his proper story arc, we no longer need Mini-Durin to make up for it and complicate Albedo's story. Therefore we can return to the Shadows Amidst Snowstorms plot and continue from there. Unlike what miHoYo ended up doing, I wouldn't leave Albedo's story in limbo from v2.3 all the way to v4.8 with just those minor details in the Narzissenkreuz World Quest and Alchemical Ascension event. Instead we'd get at least one more direct chapter in between where we'd discover that Primordial Albedo had survived. Albedo had made peace with him after realizing that (just like Elynas) Durin was just a child and had no intention of causing the destruction it had during the Cataclysm. He didn't know any better.
Ever since that day Albedo had been helping Durin acclimate to human life, treating him like a younger brother though chronologically Durin was the older sibling. (cue some cute banter about that between them) Getting acquainted with this new Durin will be the focal point of the event but there could always be some progress made in Albedo's research or perhaps a small mishap could foreshadow the impending conflict the research will cause. I think it would be best to leave this event lighthearted though, in order to really twist the knife later on. Therefore perhaps Klee played a part in causing the problem, of course unintentionally. If a lesson is to be learned, it may just be as simple as keeping a closer eye on alchemical experiments but not enough in any way that it would hinder Albedo's continued push for the Opus Magnum.
Now while Durin currently exists in the body of Primordial Albedo, just like with Elynas that doesn't mean his toxic body just ceased to exist. The body of Elynas still contains potent Abyssal Energy which created the Breacher Primus monsters, consecrated beasts and also helped mutate Jakob into an Abyssal creature. Just like Durin, despite being dead for so long it wasn't decaying at all and instead was hardening as if creating new armor to protect itself. Therefore with the amount of similarities shared between Durin and Elynas, when Capitano returns all those Khaenri'ahn souls back into the Ley Lines, the Abyssal power they wielded also returns with them. In Inazuma it revitalized Chiyo's Nightmare and caused problems during the Mikawa Flower Festival. (though it could also be that Yae deliberately held the festival in order to draw it out) If it could reinvigorate the severed horn to such a degree it stands to reason it would expedite the revival of both Elynas and Durin. In the case of Elynas, Elynas himself was holding his revival back but the influx of so much Abyssal Energy might overcome his will thus we'd be traveling to Fontaine to assist in dealing with that problem which then reminds the Traveler that Durin is also an Abyssal monster whose body refused to die. They head to Mondstadt to speak to Durin/Primordial Albedo and Albedo but arrive just in time to see an operation being carried out on Dragonspine. Durin's body had indeed stirred and had mutated several local creatures which had caused harm to adventurers. In the end a combined effort by the alchemy team and Durin exerting his own will on his body like Elynas had on his, the fell dragon's body finally becomes permanently dormant. This brings Durin's story full circle as he reclaims his heart but now has the maturity to contain its malevolent power. (it could also easily give him his new Paralogism body and also perhaps justify an Anemo Vision which based on my Element Character Traits Theory reflects that he is still shackled by his past and the responsibility to keep Mondstadt safe from all forms the Abyss may take)
Side Note: What about Simulanka in this version of events? Back in v4.8 I thought that Simulanka really felt detached from anything we were dealing with. All of the previous summer events provided hints about the upcoming region. The Veluriyam Mirage for example was a land maintained by an Oceanid with a "human" population of Hydro Eidolons taking on a human form. Simulanka did nothing for Natlan though so I thought that it would have even been better as a standalone game, some kind of Indy title from miHoYo. Besides setting up for Mini-Durin what other purpose did it really serve? As for what I'd replace Simulanka with for an alternate v4.8, leave a comment if you're interested and I'll look into making a topic for it.
However while this ends Durin's story arc, it still doesn't end Albedo's. Durin now can become a prominent player in that story arc, to do for Albedo what Albedo had done for him. And there's another major player to add to the team. Let's backtrack... again.
At the end of Paralogism Albedo brings up the Heart of Naberius. We were told a long time ago that it was the discovery of this artifact that caused Rhinedottir to leave Albedo in Mondstadt. Naberius is one piece of a much larger puzzle that I won't get into here or the topic will end up too long for reddit but the full details can be found here. The short of it is is that Fischl should also take part in Albedo's story arc.
There are still things to explain though or this section won't make any sense. Right now we've been told that the Ley Lines were created by Teyvat... or in other recent lore that the Ley Lines already existed but Celestia managed to change it into a girdle. This flies in the face of much older lore where Celestia is directly responsible for destroying Ley Lines. For example as it really relates to today's topic about Durin and Dragonspine, the Frostbearing Tree was a Ley Line Tree that Celestia dropped a Divine Nail on for the purpose of destroying it. Theories around this time were full of ideas on why it would do that and none of them considered a Celestia that would have created them only to destroy them. Again this new dev team has not stayed consistent with the lore. Something else? Naberius in the Ars Goetia was inspired from the Greek Cerebrus. Yes the guard dog of the underworld. Again you can check the original topic for the details but for now it's important to know that Fischl aka Amy is related to the God of the Underworld, not Hades but the older lore of Persephone. Therefore there is a solid connection between Naberius and Fischl. Naberius is also commonly depicted as a crow or raven. One guess as to what I'm trying to get at. Thanks to Paralogism Oz is now supposed to be one of the Shining Shades? Now you'd think this might be a deal breaker but it wouldn't be the first time a Shining Shade assisted an Archon, even a fallen one. Istaroth both created and assisted Venti before going to Enkanomiya and assisting Orobashi and most recently assisting Makoto in becoming the Sacred Sakura. It isn't impossible to believe Oz could be a Shining Shade that stuck by the former Archon Amy. However another hitch to this is that Rhinedottir consumed Oz's heart and is now herself the Shining Shade. Good grief. However I still don't think this is a deal breaker. Instead it might even build into a more interesting story so let's roll with it.
Before we get to the final chapter of Albedo's story arc we need to get through the rest of Fischl's. Once Oz's plan comes full circle the planet's Ley Lines should be fully reconnected, Fischl will be depowered permanently with a caveat, Oz will no longer be the shade either and she and Bennett will be additional teammates going forward into Albedo's finale. Now how do we make sense of all this given the current details? Teyvat's Ley Lines are now being stated as creations of Celestia but Kukulkan states it only reformed them into a girdle that protects against the Abyss. We can work with that because we know Teyvat isn't the planet. Teyvat is the false sky. In Hebrew Teyvat or Tevat means ark. Therefore we can suggest that the Ley Lines of Teyvat are meant to protect Celestia's false sky from the Abyss but anything else is removed from its protection. This is why it destroyed the Frostbearing Tree. It didn't want Sal Vindagnyr to survive so it removed it from its protection. The Ley Lines of the planet do exist but they fall outside of what Celestia cares about therefore it may be that Teyvat's Ley Lines are disconnected from the rest of the planet. We saw a small scale version of this in Natlan where Natlan's Ley Lines were separated from the rest of Teyvat's and that's why Natlanese could not set foot outside of the nation for fear of ceasing to exist upon death. Oz just like Istaroth and Paimon grew disillusioned with Phanes and rebelled to aid humanity. In this case it was to burn away the old Archon Fischl who is said to reconnect the Ley Lines thus undermining Celestia's rules just like Focalors had in Fontaine. (also a product of the Ruler of Life) Bennett who is Fischl's oldest friend becomes the anchor to help her cling to her humanity as the Archon part is burned away. (this very old theory I had really coincided with what happened with Furina doesn't it and it's also curious they both happen to be into the arts) Finally, the only real change to this is Rhinedottir's role. In my original sequence of events, she was using Oz's heart to blackmail him into assisting her plan. So why consume it? Well the last time we saw a Fischl-centric plot was well back in v2.8's Summer Fantasia. Oz played a part in a Persona-style "accept your shadow" sequence which really matured Fischl and allowed her to come to terms with who she is. This could have impacted Rhinedottir's scheme and so she's now desperate enough to take on the role of conduit herself, maybe even intending to absorb the "Night Mother" from Fischl and burn away Teyvat on her own. In the end though I think it's still Oz's intention to remove his power from play so Rhinedottir may become significantly weakened or even comatose after this, something that both aggrieves Albedo but also relieves him as her plight seems to be at an end. This will also push Albedo to achieve the Opus Magnum even more, now motivated to finish what his mother started since she will no longer be able.
Side Note: Also when I came up with that Fischl theory, we hadn't gotten to Summer Fantasia yet. I didn't even know Mona had befriended her since Unreconciled Stars. So this team of mine is greatly expanded. First we have Durin who is the main character. Fischl is a secondary main character. But thanks to the events Durin would be accompanied by Eula and Amber as well. Fischl would be accompanied by Mona, Xinyan and Kazuha and guess who happens to connect both parties? Bennett who was also there in Shadows Amidst Snowstorms.
This final chapter would start sometime in the middle of the Khaenri'ah Chapter with Albedo finally achieving the next step in the Opus Magnum, Citrinitas. In his mind this was the ultimate goal. However just as Rene had predicted, Citrinitas was bait and not true ascension. Therefore Albedo does lose control just like he feared he would and transforms into an angelic creature, the form Citrinitas takes compared to the pale homunculus of Albedo. The knights defend Mondstadt against him but they will lose as Albedo possesses power equivalent to the Archons. (We can think of it this way: Negredo is just waste. It's the black soot leftover from destruction. Albedo arises from it and Albedo likened himself to humanity. He himself became an allogene, a human with a Vision. If Rubedo is true ascension or gnosis then the step in between, Citrinitas would be likened to the gods who are also a step in between humanity and the true god of the Imaginary Tree.) The quest would have started before that though as Durin becomes increasingly concerned over Albedo's obsession. As he's still explaining the situation to us, Albedo will transform and so while the knights are fruitlessly fighting him, Durin will take us to Albedo's lab to figure out how to undo Citrinitas. Oz might lead Fischl to us during this time and that's when the plan formulates. Similar to how Bennett anchored Fischl, Durin will be that anchor for Albedo. There must be a core to sustain Citrinitas while Albedo is still settling into the new form just like the power of Naberius was used to sustain Amy. Therefore while Durin confronts Albedo directly, the team will need to breach his body and seek out the core. Eula and Amber along with Eula's company will provide Durin with cover support to give the plan as much time as possible. Mona will scry to help us locate the core (if it gets really dodgy she may even be our hotline to the Hexenzirkel though Venti should also be part of this story) and the strike team of Fischl, Bennett, Xinyan, Kazuha and the Traveler will go and destroy the core. It'll be revealed that while Fischl is fully depowered, she is still an Archon by nature so she has a greater capacity for absorbing elemental energy than a normal human. Together with the Traveler they bring down the "Gesamtkunstwerk" (which just like Opus Magnum - actually Magnum Opus - means a perfected work of art) and fulfilling Fischl's destiny.
The conclusion of this event will explain to us how dangerous Khemia really is, in particular because the Khaenri'ahns are wrong about it. Citrinitas is not the final goal. It was bait. (if our specific accounts had found Rene's note about it we may state it directly in the quest) This plays heavily into the Khaenri'ah Chapter as it's likely even Dainsleif employs Khemia. Now with that revealed, Albedo and all of our other characters that are able will be unified in looking for the real answer, Rubedo and that will be important for the endgame of Genshin.
Wow that was long. I only have one more thing to get through and that's that even my previous rewrites can have this ending.
For the first rewrite, it's more to do with getting Fischl set up than Albedo or Mini-Durin. I'd include a character development episode to acquaint the new Durin to the Traveler and also to us players. (he may become playable too)
The second rewrite is even easier since this current Natlan aftermath story arc would have given us that development for Mini-Durin so by the time of the timeline accurate Paralogism, we would already understand Mini-Durin who goes on to become the new Durin going into that final Albedo chapter. Again Fischl would still need to be set up.
What's most troubling for both of these though is the specific attitude Albedo has at the end of Paralogism. First he now firmly believes what he thought in his Character Story 5 which is that all Rhinedottir wanted for him was to live a normal human life. Second he seems to have already achieved his alchemical goal by creating the new Durin. Based around that there's not really any reason for him to end up committing to researching Citrinitas and then losing control thus his fear and foreshadowing from his Character Quest has been left dangling. Given how it's portrayed, it may even be in bad taste to have Albedo obsess and achieve Citrinitas as it would feel like a backpedal on the character growth we were shown in Paralogism. The only solution I can think of is if Rhinedottir's defeat during the Fischl arc triggers his renewed need to complete the Opus Magnum.
Topic originally created on May 25th, 2025.
