and already digging at the Genshin Community lol. I'm not sure if that was intentional but if you guys have been following us Genshin theorists it's already been made popular to believe that Baizhu is hiding some nefarious secret or past behind his benevolent exterior as a healer. Something about how he's got this mysterious illness and that's why he's been keeping Qiqi around him. Until it was disproven by the Archon Quest some theories even claimed that Baizhu was the original Dendro Archon whose illness was a mortal injury he suffered during the Cataclysm which forced him into hiding and letting Kusanali replace him pretty much faking his death like Zhongli.
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!
Anyway I got a chuckle out of Zach questioning Sean about Baizhu's intentions. Always nice to hear his Moon Carver voice too.
That said it's still no indication that the theories surrounding the man aren't justified. He's still got that mysterious illness and he does still keep Qiqi around. In fact I'd say there's even a little more to fit into the nefarious column. From the livestream it seems like he's got that practically memable ideal about seeking immortality a la several Chinese Emperors. Hope he's not been chugging any mercury lol. On top of that from his Character Quest it's shown Hu Tao opposes his belief in immortality as an affront to the natural order which this game has shown. Immortality is a bad thing in Genshin. Just ask Dainsleif.
Ok anyway that's not all we already know about Baizhu. His Constellation was also shown which is Lagenaria. That probably means nothing to people on our side of the world. I mean you look it up and it's a kind of gourd.
But if you guys are familiar with Ancient China or have Chinese friends this specific kind of gourd was often hollowed out to be used as water bottles. And if you can put water in it you can put other liquids in like liquor. Or the many kinds of TCM herbal remedies that were typically taken as a tea. Perfectly suited to Baizhu.
And as usual looking at the English version's Latin-based names only tells half the story. In its original Chinese Baizhu's Constellation is 悬壶 xuan hu which specifically references this kind of gourd when it's used for medicine. I think the name comes from a Chinese folktale.
On top of that though there's the phrase 悬乎 which is a homophone of 悬壶. 悬乎 means teetering on the edge with the implication that the person is gambling with his life and the outcome of whatever he's doing can go either way. If that's miHoYo's implication with Baizhu I can only wonder what his illness is and what ramifications his philosophy on life and death will have going forward.
If we also consider the Gnostic basis of Genshin not to mention the Buddhism then Baizhu's blasphemous. Eternal life is frowned upon and again we can see in Genshin itself immortality is a curse by Celestia that prevents the hilichurls and pureblood Khaenri'ahns from returning to the natural cycle which will also stop them from being reborn. In Gnosticism seeking immortality would be purposely condemning yourself to the physical world of the Demiurge never to be able to ascend and return to the true god in the Ogdoad. In Buddhism being trapped out of the natural cycle of reincarnation means you will likely never reach nirvana. Hu Tao's family got it right. Baizhu's barking up the wrong tree. It did get a little more complicated from his Character Quest though. Changsheng's whole adepti thing and the life draining curse makes it seem more like Baizhu's trying to condemn himself in the service of curing others and at the same time if he should die, it only continues the cycle of pain and loss he himself was a part of when he lost his master to the same deal. And if Changsheng can't find a new host after Baizhu she'll die too.
Actually we know a little more about Changsheng now. I mean the theories about her have been guessing this exact thing so it's probably not a big shock. During the Chenyu Vale World Quest it's pretty much revealed that Changsheng is the diminished form of an adepti who was friends with Lingyuan the Suanni and Fujin the Carp Adepti. Basically Changsheng's current state is a result of expending too much of her elemental energy trying to fight the Archon that used to rule over the Chenyu Vale area. Fujin herself is also diminished though to a far less extent. I'll be bringing up more about this when I get to my discussion/theory on Chenyu Vale.
Topic originally created on April 1st, 2023.
