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!
I already brought this up before but I think with all these new characters being listed out I might be able to point out the difference between the old and new dev teams with respect to their use of real world references. Let's get started!
Let's get the really obvious ones out of the way first. This guy is a perfect example of how the new devs work. His name is all over the place. Kyryll is one Baltic spelling variant of Kyrios or lord in Greek. His patronymic comes from the name Chudomir which means wonder of the world in Russian. Flins is a made-up name that was used by a German author to mean a Slavic death deity that has no sources in Slavic folklore to the extent that historians don't even believe there was such a deity lol. So a dude with a Greek/Russian/German name that I guess could mean the Lord of Death and World's Marvel? Is he Ronova's son with some Snezhnayan guy named Chudomir lol
I'm going to guess the new devs just figured Flins = Death God in Slavic folklore. Good enough. Make an edgy character out of the guy. We see him in what I'm guessing is the Abyss, fending off some Abyssal claw things. He is a Lightkeeper so him fighting the Wild Hunt does make sense. These claw things started out as part of Lauma's ritual though so is there something there? I don't know. I can't make heads or tails of this guy other than edgelord. (But at least that does work with his supposed element. Electro's Character Trait is about having a larger than life background like say Cyno being the inheritor of the power of Hermanubis or Razor being raised by wolves)
Aino is 100% Baltic so it's better than that mess above. However Aino is a character of Finnish folklore who didn't want to get married so she drowned herself and turned into a water nymph or nakki. They essentially play out the role of sirens in local mythology and Aino for her part goes on to haunt her fiance in the form of a fish. What are the new devs going to do with this? You guys got any ideas because I for sure don't. If she was from Fontaine that might make some sense. I doubt the little girl they created is going to have some kind of backstory where she was betrothed and then tried to kill herself lol. At best I could see her being of mixed Fontaine and Snezhnaya blood, the daughter of two engineers which then lends itself to her being good at robotics. All in all I think all the devs are using here is her name of Aino which is Finnish for the "one and only."
Side Note 1: Looking this stuff up made me step on what I think is a political landmine. The Baltic states used to include Finland. Now it doesn't. But Finland and Estonia are very related Baltic states where the population of Finland is 98% Baltic peoples either called Finns or are descended from Estonians. Estonia is still a Baltic state. What happened there?
Side Note 2: Well maybe we could actually use this. Using the old dev team mindset we can build off of my mixed Fontainian Snezhnayan heritage idea. Maybe Aino's mother was a domineering Snezhnayan. Maybe she was in the Fatui. Meanwhile Aino's father was a free spirit from Fontaine. Aino therefore identified more with her Fontainian side and we might see that from her interactions with NPCs who might annoy her by associating her with being a Snezhnayan. In terms of character development, as Aino starts to interact with characters like Jahoda or Durin she might slowly accept her Snezhnayan side. Jahoda could be fun to be around and together their projects in the craftshop supercede her disdain for her overbearing mother. Durin's past is awful so interacting with him might show Aino that her past grievances aren't as important as who she is now. Since she's likely to be our free 4* for the region it wouldn't surprise me if she got the Collei/Kachina treatment so this idea fits.
In keeping with Aino meaning one and only, her creation Ineffa is currently being theorized to be a cutoff of ineffable. If that's the case it's again a meaningless name.
However if we move into the old dev mindset things can get interesting. According to Chinese players the Hong Kong and Taiwan transliteration of her name would actually make "Ineffa" a way to hide the real spelling of her name Yennefer (葉奈法) which is a Baltic rendition of the English name Jennifer which itself is a modernization for Welsh Guinevere. Yes that Guinevere. This surprisingly would not be unprecedented. Over in Star Rail we have another Guinevere character whose name in game is spelled Guinaifen but whose lore does actually call out the reference directly.
Now if this was the old dev team and Ineffa is a Guinevere reference then her Constellation actually works in an interesting way. The story of Guinevere is all about starcrossed romance with Lancelot. She also has a tendency to get Princess Peach'd and all of this works towards the mythology of the vanilla plant or Vanilla Planifolia. In Aztec folklore there was a princess whose parents thought of her as so pure that no mortal man would be good enough for her so they pretty much turned her into a vestal virgin for Tonacacihuatl the creator goddess. However one day her Lancelot, played by Zkatan-Oxga saw her, fell madly in love and abducted her. Seeing his handsome mug she also instantly falls for him. As you do. They get found out, killed and from their blood sprouts the world's first vanilla plant which was a sign from Tonacacihuatl that killing these two lovebirds was a bad thing. Thenceforth this miraculous plant was called xanat the nectar of the gods. This mirrors Guinevere and Lancelot's taboo love for each other which ends in their exile, Guinevere's near death, Arthur's death and the decline of Camelot. Sadly there's no vanilla-lining for that cloud.
How would this be used? Well where are we finding Ineffa? Natlan right? So already we have a connection to the vanilla folklore. She's even found by Xilonen who is named after an Aztec goddess and wife of also an Aztec creator god. Given what we saw in the livestream trailer it could be that while Ineffa was originally developed as just a robot companion by Aino, Sandrone might have noticed her and saw her potential towards the Fatui's plans. This would already set up an introduction to the conflict in Nod-Krai. We see strange wings sprout from Ineffa's back in one scene. If we take all this lore together then well Guinevere herself was a reference to Eriu who is one of three ruling goddesses in Irish folklore. Three ruling goddesses easily relates to the moon sisters and one of the central themes of Nod-Krai will be one of the moons. It could be that Ineffa was stolen or confiscated by Sandrone to be repurposed into an artificial moon goddess which is also not an unprecedented plotline. In Honkai Impact Dr. MEI of the Previous Era created the AI Prometheus to replace the Cocoon of Finality and guide the current era towards finally stopping the world's destruction. Sandrone might be using Ineffa (and two - maybe one- as yet unknown characters) for the same purpose under the Fatui's plans against the Heavenly Principles. (the Genshin version of the Cocoon of Finality)
As for the starcrossed lovers side of things, we could always suggest Aino plays a role in that. However there's also Ineffa's teaser trailer which showed that Aino tried everything to get Ineffa started and only when she found a Secret Source core did Ineffa finally activate. Well that could easily mean there was lingering dragon programming in that core. Could it have recorded the memories of some starcrossed dragon lovers? Human lovers during the dragon era? If that's the case perhaps that's why the Secret Source automatons are gathering all of a sudden. They are there to hunt down the princess and her lover. The story wouldn't have gotten started until Ineffa got lost in Natlan.
Side Note: Actually until the new devs messed it up, Tonacacihuatl would have been the perfect reference to the Imaginary Tree since she's one of two gods residing in the realm of duality or Omeyocan. The moon sisters who ran the planet would have served under it thus Ineffa acting as an artificial moon sister becomes the princess serving the the creator goddess. The new devs gave that name to the Collective of Plenty for some reason.
The wiki is just saying that Jahoda means berry. However it can also be a Russian form of Judah. So if it just means berry that's the new dev team for you. Cute girl. Cute name. The end.
If we're talking old dev team then Judah is a Hebrew name meaning to give thanks and his role is the founder of the Judah tribe of the Israelites, ancestor to King David (and patriarch to his lineage) and namesake of the Jewish people themselves. As we all know Gnosticism is a big part of Genshin and Gnosticism is an ancient form of early Christianity which means it's derived from Judaism and it actually follows certain aspects of Judaism that modern Christianity doesn't like critically analyzing the religious texts. In Gnosticism's case that's for the sake of attaining gnosis. Therefore while we don't really know much of anything about Jahoda, we do know she meets with Durin and that she works at the craftshop with Aino. This could build into a backstory of her wanting to learn more about Teyvat or that her lineage is heavily tied to its history.
Nefer is of course not Baltic at all. It's Egyptian. There is no connection I could find between Egyptian lore/history/culture/etc with the Baltics. Why is Nefer there? I have no idea. She's apparently a popular storyteller for Nod-Krai so she's already embedded into their society which makes it weirder. At best I can just say that Nod-Krai was being developed as a borderlands for Snezhnaya so she might just be a traveling Sumeran similar to the Fontainians we had on Rito in Inazuma except of course they reflected the Dutch that really were in Japan and operating on an artificial island during the Shogunate era.
Anyway if this was the old dev team and somehow Nefer was still part of Nod-Krai I'd say she's a conflation of what Egyptologists thought her name meant with what they think it means now. In the past they believed the hieroglyph to mean lute because it does look like a lute. Now they think it actually means perfection and the hieroglyph actually represents the windpipe and heart. Both the lute and a windpipe symbol would make Nefer work as a storyteller because it'd essentially make her a bard who tell stories through song. (like Venti and Ciaccona) Then when it comes to the perfection part they could have that be part of her personality as a researcher from Sumeru, someone trying to uncover the real history of Teyvat with an obsession far greater than the scholars we've seen so far hence why she's traveled so far from the desert. Historical references to the word nefer would include mostly royalty like Queen Nefertiti, Queen Nefertari and Pharoah Neferhotep I. Of these I think the most likely to be used would be Nefertiti who'd be related to someone we've already gotten an indirect reference for in Sumeru, Akhenaten. Amun is one of the names of King Deshret. Amun is one of Ra's names. So is Aten. Akhenaten tried removing the power from the Amun priesthood by forcing worship of Aten the setting sun and sun disk form of Ra. Nefertiti is his wife and tried to carry on this Aten worship as Pharoah Neferneferuaten (break it up into nefer-neferu-Aten or the perfect perfection God Aten) which finally failed when their son Tutankhaten (tut-ankhu-Aten or living image of Aten) to Tutankhamun (yes that Tutankhamun from the museum which is the exact same name just swap out the -aten at the end for -amun, because he) restored the priesthood and worship of Amun. If Nefer is related in any way to that we could see her as a rebel of the Eremites, someone who ended up wanting to learn the truth of Teyvat because she disagreed with her people's fanatical belief in Deshret. Maybe she found the information that it was Deshret who screwed up Sumeru and unleashed the Withering and Eleazar. This would also explain her becoming an Academia scholar. She wanted nothing to do with the Eremite ways and that actually would put her at odds with Setaria, someone who became an Academia scholar to benefit the people of the sands.
Of course this would mean her story should have much more to do with Sumeru, especially the desert than Nod-Krai. In that case her speaking role in the teaser and role as a local storyteller wouldn't really fit which makes me believe none of what I just brought up will actually be part of her character. If it was though then I'd say we'd meet her in the Archon Quest as a minor character who is just there to explain the overarching lore of Nod-Krai before we get her late into the Snezhnaya run as something of an Emilie character where she'd be found in Snezhnaya but the quest would deal with her past in the Sumeru desert.
This girl threw me for a loop when she was revealed. The thing is we already had a Columbina reference in this game. Signora is a commedia dell'arte character that's a mix of Columbina and Capitano. This isn't unprecedented as Scaramouche is also a mix of Capitano and Zanni. But I suppose it makes sense we'd get a separate Columbina since we got a separate Capitano. Still I don't think that was always the case. Capitano was already mentioned in Mondstadt but Columbina wouldn't be revealed until after Signora's death where they actually made a reference between Signora's Columbina basis with another character commonly associated with her stories, Arlecchino. At the meeting it was only Arlecchino that felt bad for her while nobody else seemed to care except maybe Pierro since the teaser focused on him. Both Pierro and Arlecchino are infatuated with Columbina, the former being her husband while the latter is her lover. Later on when Arlecchino was released, she sympathized with Signora. She doesn't have anything like this with the actual Columbina though.
Anyway the only notable characteristic of Columbina in the commedia is that she's the "girl" character. Later on they'd flesh her out to be the gossip, the flirt and not a faithful lover. We can see these traits with the added arrogance of Capitano in Signora as she's very outspoken and insulting. Just remember how she spoke to Venti and Ei. Columbina is also sometimes portrayed as a prostitute and it just takes one look at Signora's outfit to see how that characteristic works lol. Again none of this seems to fit with Columbina which makes me feel like she was an early inclusion by the new devs who'd end up controlling the story by Fontaine. Just like Arlecchino and Capitano, Columbina seems to just have the name for the sake of the theme of all the Harbingers having commedia names.
The new devs are also calling her the "Moon Maiden" and there are theories now that she's a secret eighth Archon and representative of the "moon element" whatever that is. There are also theories saying she's an angel. What any of that would have to do with Columbina is anyone's guess. (But Moon Maiden could suggest the new devs want her to replace the Frost Moon so we might tie it back to what I was saying about Ineffa earlier.) If they were going to ignore all the characteristics of the archetype then they could have given her a more original name. Let's go with Isabella. Isabella is actually named after a specific actress who performed as an Innamorati but gave such a good performance that they gave her the "Isabella" version of the character. She's beautiful, intelligent, flirty and graceful which are characteristics that Columbina has exhibited and would easily fit the "moon maiden" Moon Archon theories. Think about Yae or Nahida who likewise are intelligent, graceful and in Yae's case also flirty. Also unlike Columbina who again could be portrayed as a prostitute, Isabella is an innocent lover character, a maiden.
Side Note: But of course for us, Isabella is just a normal name so that might have been a reason why they didn't go for that character. You won't find any exotic Tinas in the Hoyoverse haha. Well Columbina is also characterized by being weird and giving strange answers to questions. Given her status now as a moon maiden this may be prophetic gibberish she's saying that sounds weird or dettached only because the people she's saying it to don't understand her. This could be represented by the archetype Caratterista a newer role that pretty much breaks the fourth wall by directly interacting with the audience. He (or more importantly she) would do this to both allow the other actors to get ready and to also get feedback from the audience to help with future performances. (prophetic kinda!) She'd also speak in a dialect or in a weird way to be funny. All of this works with Columbina's personality but also since this whole Song of the Welkin Moon stuff is just the first part of Snezhnaya, this could be seen as something like a sideshow while the "actors" get ready for the Snezhnaya Archon Quest.
Sider Note: Yes in this case I'm actually saying the new devs used the wrong reference rather than that the reference is superficial. Their character already has a good characterization to fit a reference but that reference isn't the one they chose lol
Finally we have the first character to be shown from Nod-Krai. This is probably the most direct of direct names. Lauma is literally a fairy in Baltic folklore. They can shapeshift into animals like the stag that Lauma transforms into.
Simultaneously though if we go with the folklore about these fairies then it could easily be used to define Lauma's background. In Lithuania these fairies are considered to be the oldest spirits in nature and can appear in the form of any animal. Eventually the folklore began to describe them as women with goat horns. They are the servants of the Baltic Goddess of Faith, Laimathe. One particular Lauma - sometimes Laimathe herself - is enamored with the Moon God Menuo. In some versions she's punished for it because she's meant to be the wife of another god. Laimathe is also a protector of women and children and cautious of men. She is responsible for weaving fate but has no authority over it so she weeps as she weaves the fates of children who might die during childhood or from other premature causes. Finally because European history is what it is, these pagan beliefs have been through the wringer. As anti-pagan groups attacked the region over the years the Lauma were sometimes corrupted by the narrative into becoming witches and hags that seduced men like succubi, killed women to steal their children and even ate those children.
All of this could be used if these new devs wanted. Lauma is of course shown to bear the characteristics of the folkloric Lauma, a woman with the horns of a stag (instead of a goat) shown to be practicing some form of shamanism. She is a member of the Frostmoon Scions and even directly names Hyperborea showing her ties to the ancient world and the moon. Finally we're shown that the Fatui who are under orders by the Tsaritsa that rules Snezhnaya oppose the scions. It wouldn't be surprising if the Fatui spread misinformation about her and the scions just like how enemies of the Baltic states vilified the Lauma mythology. Going back to the moon stuff, we were told during the Web Event in March that the moon sisters used to run the planet. If we're talking about the natural order then that should relate to the Imaginary Tree and the creation of the Genshin universe itself. (this is undermined by the statement that there was an earlier Primordial One that created the moon sisters so thanks for that new devs) This would then relate to Laimathe being the Goddess of Fate. It could be that Lauma can see the fates of people beyond the Constellations under the Heavenly Principles or that she knows about them and is trying to find a way to seek out humanity's true fate beyond the false sky. Finally instead of misandry, maybe Lauma is opposed to the aggressive approach by the Fatui and the Snezhnayan Monarchy which is heavily tech based compared to the gentle touch of mother nature which fits with her shamanism.
Side Note: There was another part of Lauma folklore that actually would have worked with an assumption of mine. Based on her color scheme, that her ritual related to water and that Columbina brings up astrology like Mona had with reference to water being a reflection of fate, I thought Lauma was going to be Hydro. This would have reflected the Lauma's ability to call forth rain which was a conflation of lore between it and the Russian Rusalki water spirits. I suppose Dendro works too because of the nature element but I think Hydro would have worked better. Lauma are said to gather around the water under a full moon during the rainy season because that's when their powers would be strongest.
Wait I hear you ask. Is that it? There were a few more characters though. Well the point of this topic was to show the surface level references that are probably going to be used and then the potential for deeper references for some of these characters that the old dev team likely would have utilized instead. The remaining characters though are old dev team characters so we don't even have to guess. They do have deeper meaning behind their references. Let's run down that list:
Sandrone is a character archetype from the commedia dell'arte. I've brought up theories based around her real world reference already. And yes I'm aware that Columbina was also part of this but Columbina was an odd choice as I previously talked about. Similarly though, Sandrone would only start to get some development in Fontaine under the new devs and so the Sandrone connection wasn't used with any rhyme or reason either. Her being a puppeteer though did, which was part of my old theories. It's just like how Capitano was mentioned very early on, was then shown to be shrouded behind a mask that hid his whole face and therefore the reality behind his identity, but he wouldn't be developed until Natlan. In Natlan he is almost the exact opposite of what the commedia version is and that threw off all my theories about him except that he'd appear in Natlan lol
Durin has been talked to death already. He's one of the dwarves or dragons that live on the roots or trunk of Yggdrasil along with Dainn and Dvalin. Actually with respect to more recent new dev lore, both Durin and Dvalin are mentioned in the Hervarar Saga where they forge the Tyrfing sword that - say hi to Pierro for me - is a godkiller sword. I'll be bringing up the Hervarar Saga again but I wonder if Dvalin and Durin's confrontation back during the Cataclysm was done on purpose then. I mean it was caused by the same person who Pierro is old associates and I had had this old theory about our good jester. Alice is a Hebrew name that means joy. Our Alice is definitely joyful but her craziness likely comes from typical references to the Alice from Alice in Wonderland and the chaos that happens in that world. The antics Alice pulls as recorded by her Teyvat Travel Guides can be related to the situations Alice finds herself in Wonderland. Simulanka is pretty much Wonderland and then the new Mondstadt Weekly Boss is a reference to Through the Looking Glass when Alice enters a chessboard world and meets the chess piece characters including the Red King and Queen. She needs to capture the Red Queen in order to defeat the Red King just like how the boss fight has the Red Queen come to the Red King's rescue and then you can finally end Phase 1 after taking out the Red Queen to gain access to the Red King again. Nicole I've brought up before. Her name especially the Chinese version is a reference to the Greek Goddess of Victory Nike and Reeyn comes from Nicole Reine Lepaute where Reine is a French word meaning queen. This seemed to have pointed her in the direction of being the heir of the light kingdom from the Gnostic Chorus but that's since been changed by the new devs. I have an updated theory on what they might be doing with her instead though my track record with figuring out their thought process has been less than stellar. Varka just like Rostam and Cyrus is interestingly a Persian reference for supposedly German characters. There might be an argument to be made for the "Aryan race" but in any case Varka comes from the Persian epic Varka and Golshah which is an early shoutout to the connection between Gnosticism (in the form of Manichaeism) with Persia and China. I would actually bring up this connection much later on (I had no idea about the Varka reference yet) while we were getting into Sumeru. I have no idea if the new devs will do anything with the actual story which is essentially a love story. There was a French version of the story that might be referenced by the Mondstadt character Floris. However the other side of that story is just the epic quest Varka has to go on to rescue Golshah. This seems to be reflected by Varka having been on his expedition since the start of the game and now that we're finally getting towards the end of the first part, he's getting his debut. He also said he's doing this for the moon which is supposedly Mondstadt according to the subtitles but we also have Columbina in Nod-Krai who is the moon maiden. It could be that she's pivotal to something that'll help Mondstadt or that something related to her was part of Mondstadt's history. If this idea comes from the new devs though then I'm going to say that had the old devs remained in charge the connection between Mondstadt, Liyue, Ay-Khanoum and any other cities named after the moon might have come into play instead.
Anyway this has been a look at how real world references had been used in Genshin's lore and that the new dev team probably won't be using any of the potential from theirs. But fingers crossed I'm wrong and they actually give us a good story.
Topic originally created on July 27th, 2025.
