.... if only dramatic storytelling didn't get in the way.
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 current Durin storyline has it that the real Durin was just a monster but the Hexenzirkel Mage Anya Andersdotter felt sorry for it after reading a poem rendition of its history cast in a sympathetic light. To that end she wrote a fictional version of Durin and enlisted the help of the Hexenzirkel to help make this Durin's story into the real Durin's story. Kinda.
Of course the first issue is that the real Durin already did have a story arc that was sympathetic on its own. The second Albedo related event we ever got in this game already had us on this story arc. As Albedo would explain, while Durin's body was poisonous to the world because it was composed of the Abyss (thank you Rhinedottir) his mind was just a kid since he was newly born. This would come back into play through the Fontaine World Quests that were still part of the old dev's territory so we got more clues about what Durin was really like thanks to Elynas. Just like his brother, Elynas was a poisonous Abyssal dragon created by Rhinedottir (thanks again for that) who never meant to harm anyone. However unlike Durin, he eventually figured this out and allowed himself to stay dead. But Elynas being a kid still ended up making the mistake of letting Rene and Jakob take some of his body for their experiments which ended horribly. So going back to the Albedo event, we are hinted that Durin in the form of Primordial Albedo managed to find Joserf and then tried to bring his son Joel to him only to be interrupted by Eula. He then guided Reckless Pallad to Joserf making it seem like Pallad just happened to stumble upon him. Albedo would then figure this out and then hint at Durin's mindset to us - that he meant no harm except towards Albedo who he resented for being able to integrate into humanity in a way he never could. This led to the conclusion of the event where it looks like Albedo killed Primordial Albedo but a joke he pulls hints that he reconciled with his older brother instead and began working to help him become accepted by humanity by having them swap places from time to time. Had the old devs remained with Genshin it is my belief that they would have continued this story arc and even intertwined it with Albedo's own arc that would play a major role in explaining the situation with Khaenri'ah. We would actually get the broad strokes of this idea from the new devs but since it's them, this meant Paralogism and I have strong feelings about that quest.
With this all established, let's bring up the new issues the new devs have created for themselves. With his release, Durin had a one-off story arc. His Character Quest was to replace the fate of the original Durin with Anya's story but because the original Durin's fate was given to it by the Heavenly Principles, Teyvat was rejecting him. Right there, we already have a problem. For starters, Columbina is also in this current era of Genshin. She too is being rejected by Teyvat. Why are these two rejections totally different though? In Columbina's case, the rejection by Teyvat was causing her to wither away and fade from existence. However nobody was forgetting her. In fact, her salvation depended on her friends remembering her so well that they established her name as Columbina which provided a temporary anchor to Teyvat where she'd previously removed the anchor herself by rejecting her role as Kuutar and as Third Harbinger Columbina. For Durin, his body wasn't being erased at all. Instead it was just his mind and everybody around him was slowly forgetting him for some reason. Once his mind no longer had enough strength to control his body, the body would revive as the now human form of the original Durin. (who the new devs portrayed as just evil) To further pick at this, we already know the Traveler is also not accepted by Teyvat. As a Descender they can't be erased but there also doesn't seem to be any memory problems for them to deal with. They are the most famous person in this world, becoming a renowned hero of all Seven Nations. Therefore the Columbina situation can still make sense. Her power comes from the true Frost Moon so cut off from it, she is vulnerable to Irminsul's records which wouldn't include her. Durin however shouldn't be losing his contact with Mondstadt though. If anything, he should just be even more affected by Irminsul's rejection than a moon goddess and have less time to maintain himself as a result. (It also bears pondering would the principles really provide a fate to an Abyssal creature? The original Durin should be a being outside of Teyvat meaning also not part of Irminsul's record. If anything, it would just be an incursion of the Abyss that was being recorded thus eliminating the entire point of Durin's Character Quest, replacing Abyssal Durin's fate with storybook Durin's.)
Side Note: Also this is a flaw going as far back as Fontaine's Archon Quest. If Durin was being rejected and therefore people were losing their memories of him, why did it only start because of the Character Quest? Given that Albedo created him in Paralogism almost a year ago, that's when he should have started to have trouble. That would have been the moment when his fate started to replace the original Durin's. In other words, he should not have been healthy enough to help in Nod-Krai. OR we should have met him first in his Character Quest to help him from being overridden and by the time of Nod-Krai, we would have already met him and he'd be perfectly fine to help with Rerir. These arbitrary time tables remove the stakes from the story. Fontaine's flood prophecy turned out to just be a space whale sucking up the Primordial Sea and it even waited for us to get through Furina's trial before making its entrance to progress the plot. Now here's Durin's fate that only becomes an issue if you start his Character Quest. If you only do the Witch's Homework and Nod-Krai Archon Quest, he'll be perfectly fine and even get a buff!
And there's a bunch of other issues with the Character Quest.
It is far too foolish for a person like Scara to believe that his interactions with Irminsul would have any bearing on Durin. Scara did try to erase himself but that was years ago and he's been fine this whole time. Albedo is the one who created Durin's new body so how Scara would come to the conclusion that people forgetting Durin would have anything to do with him is ridiculous and very out of character. Also consider that he's working closely with Nahida as we saw first hand in the Interdarshan Championship. If he had any concerns about his potential involvement with Durin's erasure, he could just ask the God of Wisdom who tends to Irminsul that he works under.
His statement then that the two Durins have "mirror image" fates also makes no sense. What mirror? Original Durin's "fate" was to be an evil dragon that tried to destroy Mondstadt and then Venti had Dvalin kill it. Anya's Durin is just about a kid who grew up loved and could lead his own life away from that tragic fate. And even this different fate was only the result of Anya's story coming true thanks to the events of Simulanka. At the start of that summer event, Anya's Durin was also a dragon that destroyed the town albeit with the one small caveat of doing so because he was too big and clumsy rather than being evil. (well his body was still evil and tainting things) What this means is that both Durins actually have the same fate only Anya's Durin got an Extended Director's Cut to his. Now if Anya's purpose was to have Durin save Mondstadt from the Abyss, that might have been a mirror: One dragon meant to destroy while another protects. That's not what Anya set out to do when writing up her Durin though.
Finally, it was already strange that a librarian would refuse to catalog a volume five of a book when it clearly exists. Scara didn't just pull it out of thin air. But then after vehemently rejecting the fifth volume, why would she magically accept a volume six? On top of that, why would her memory of there only being four volumes and not five not also change her memory that the reserved sixth volume was a reserved fifth volume? The only way to justify this is because if that last part happened, we would have bypassed the whole cutscene with her just accepting the fifth volume in the space reserved for that fifth volume. Dramatic storytelling is dramatic. (it's worse when you realize they could have still had that story by just having her say the fifth volume Scara had was only reserved and she had no idea the author had actually written it which should alert him to the change without needing the long-winded argument scene between them)
With that all said, the devs actually did give Durin a potentially interesting story arc that also relates to his battle against fate.
At the end of Act V, we play through a scenario where we try to change the fate of one of the Hyperborean phantoms. Somehow the Frost Moon being closer to Teyvat than usual means a spacetime bridge is created to the distant past. (Is that why Link was able to use the Song of Time to time travel in Majora's Mask lol. Moon gravity affects the flow of time! Science!) Conventional means of trying to interact with these phantoms are ineffective so Albedo and Scara come up with the genius plan to use the Abyss.
Let's backtrack to where this all began. (if you read my Amphoreus in Reverse topic you can skip this part) Honkai Impact 3rd established the origin of the Hoyoverse. In the beginning there was the Sea of Quanta, the name for the primordial chaos of thermodynamic equilibrium. The Imaginary Tree spontaneously sprouted from this sea through quantum tunneling and began consuming it to create universes. These pockets of dense matter conflict with equilibrium so the sea means to destroy them and bring them back into a state of balance. This is Heat Death. To that end it infects each universe with a version of itself while the tree sends out its agents to protect against it. In Genshin the tree's agents are the Descenders, primarily Phanes the First Descender. The Heavenly Principles and the fate it contrains Teyvat to are systems of the Imaginary Tree. The Abyss then is part of the Sea of Quanta, part of the forbidden knowledge Phanes intends to keep out of Teyvat under those same principles. Therefore, using the Abyss to combat fate under the Heavenly Principles is helping the Sea of Quanta to destroy the universe Teyvat exists in. Another name for this would be suicide. Last time I brought up how this was a foolish plot device for the new devs to use just to mimic what Lygus did to Star Rail's Amphoreus. But since it's canon now, let's see what it can do for the story.
By the end of Durin's Character Quest, his existence is secured but that's just the starting point for his potential story arc. As Albedo states, the Abyss that was part of the original Durin is still within the body he constructed for Anya's Durin. And it was Albedo again who states:
This story arc actually affects a few characters which makes it even more interesting. Right now Scara and Albedo are like surrogate parents or guardians to Durin. It was under their guidance that he became who he is today. Scara back in Simulanka encouraged him to face the world. Albedo gave him a mission and a way to join humanity. And now here they are in Nod-Krai telling him to use his Abyssal powers. For the moment, this has been successful. He started out by helping Columbina throw Rerir back through the Moon Gate which should have shattered the guy into a million pieces again. The next thing he did was to nudge Razmaspes just enough to affect his fate with variables which allowed for a spacetime anomaly when Razmaspes was able to see and even talk to them, sharing knowledge that neither side should have been able to discover otherwise. I have a theory about Act VII (or Act VIII now) where Durin's power will be needed to prevent the Traveler and Arlecchino from being shattered into pieces when they go to save Columbina beyond the Moon Gate.
But when Scara suggested it, he explained a prior instance of it that isn't actually correct. He said that during the Sumeru Archon Quest, the Abyss had infected Irminsul and this resulted in the Withering and Eleazar until Nahida stopped it. The way he said it is crucial because there is an important detail he cannot know at present. To remove this Abyssal taint from Irminsul, all traces of it have to be erased from existence. And because of that, he doesn't know that the solution cost Rukkhadevata her existence including people's memories of her. During the last Lantern Rite, it was shown that Descenders can actually survive this because they were never recorded nor affected by Irminsul anyway so erasing any kind of Abyss affecting them does not harm them. However Durin is not immune and this has been shown thanks to his Character Quest. Therefore all of this utilization of the Abyss by Durin may one day blow up in his face and he risks going the way of Rukkhadevata as a result. (And the issue I presented before about Scara having access to Nahida wouldn't help in this situation because Nahida wouldn't know about Rukkhadevata's erasure either. Though, she may still know something of the costs of using the Abyss since she'd remember what happened to Deshret and Apep.)
The stakes for this story arc are simple. Scara and Albedo are both suggesting to Durin to use his Abyssal power to change his fate and undermine the Heavenly Principles. If he indulges in this too much, he runs the risk of sharing in Rukkhadevata's tragic fate which then means failing to change the fate of the evil dragon thus undermining the hopes of everyone who had a hand in creating him. But worse than that, if Scara and Albedo are the ones encouraging this of him and he meets such an unfortunate end, what does that mean for them? Scara sees his redemption in Durin. Albedo defined the completion of Rhinedottir's assignment for him in Durin. (Durin's Constellation is even Draco Rubedo as in the final step of the Magnum Opus in alchemy) This could be soul shattering for both of them. And on top of that while Alice seems very aloof about things, we did see some emotion out of her when she said goodbye to the remaining echoes of Anya. This likely means Durin's fate is important to her as well so given she hasn't reprimanded any of them for using the Abyss, if Durin should fall to it it should also impact her too. Actually I wonder if Skirk would then also be involved as she was the first to suggest the Abyss is just another form of power and nothing to be apprehensive about. If she was involved in this story arc, how might she react knowing that someone simply using the Abyss was on the verge of needing to be erased by Irminsul? Even if she wasn't involved, her very next appearance should see the Traveler informing her of the price for wielding the Abyss.
And so once again it would fall upon the Traveler's shoulders to resolve this. They may make use of the same loophole Zhongli reminded them about which allowed them to save Hu Tao. They could transfer the Abyss from Durin into themselves, have themselves erased from Irminsul (or use the Seven and Eight Gates Array) but survive thanks to being a Descender. In the aftermath, the lesson would be learned to never make light of the Abyss again.
However that still wouldn't be the end of it, would it? Durin might be out of danger but who put him there? Scara and Albedo may still bear psychological scars from the ordeal and have to rethink their previous actions and beliefs. If they take it too far, it would open up story arcs for them where the Traveler would have to shake them from their ruts. How far could that go though? Would we be able to see that Albedo story arc I had theorized? After all, making Durin and calling that "rubedo" is an insult to the Magnum Opus. Rubedo is to alchemy what gnosis is to Gnosticism. They are nowhere near gnosis yet so perhaps Albedo would rethink this and continue his work. Forcing it will never lead to anything good but his guilt over Durin might make him go for it which could lead him into the pitfall of Citrinitas that Rene had warned about; he suggested even Khaenri'ah thought Citrinitas was the true goal thus Albedo's arc would give us more details about Khaenri'ah. On the other side there's Scara whose story arc was cut short because of Inversion of Genesis. However if his advice nearly costs Durin his new life, Scara may feel his redemption was far from complete and therefore reignite that story arc as well. Perhaps he'd fall back on old ways and self-destruct thus needing Ayato's anti-Scara team to come stop him and encourage him to seek a proper path. And on the flip side, Durin may realize that he can't just rely on Scara and Albedo to guide him. They are learning as they go just like he is. It may even be a growing experience for him where he learns to stand on his own.
Side Note 1: One good thing to come out of Durin's Character Quest though is the reintroduction of the "Witness" plotline. First introduced in Zhongli's First Character Quest, the Geo Archon stated that even if he carved Teyvat's history as he remembered it into bedrock, the bedrock would eventually erode. Therefore he enlisted the Traveler to be Teyvat's witness and remember as much of it as possible. That way they'd be a living record of Teyvat. Yae would further this idea in her Character Quest which is elaborated on in one of her voicelines. Rather than Zhongli's idea of having them simply remember Teyvat, she'd like for them to also record it as a Light Novel. Anything written down by a Descender likely wouldn't suffer from erosion either. (I just realized after writing it that this too played out in Amphoreus with Cyrene's As I've Written. Those old devs are really good.) This plotline became extremely important at the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest because the Traveler is the only one that remembers Rukkhadevata. Finally we would get a voiceline from Neuvillette about it during the Fontaine era. The "Witness" is central to the role of the Traveler since they are meant to achieve gnosis first before uplifting the rest of Teyvat.
Side Note 2: But there's actually an issue with that too when it comes to this story specifically. Geez the new devs just can't catch a break. This other issue is just as old as the time table one discussed earlier. It's agency. When Act V of the Fontaine Archon Quest released, Furina's entire character was removed of agency on purpose. She was nothing but the pawn in the Hydro Archon's game to fool the prophecy (that didn't really exist anyway) in order to prevent the Heavenly Principles from punishing Fontaine in a different way which we knew wouldn't happen since the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest and it was reinforced by the Traveler's sibling in Bedtime Story. Likewise, the original story arc for Durin would have provided him agency since it was his choice to save Joserf and then his choice to make peace with his younger brother and join humanity. Simulanka and Paralogism on the other hand, not so much. Right now this story is about Rhinedottir having created a monster and then Anya feeling sorry for the monster but then instead of actually trying to reform or redeem that monster, she wrote fanfiction and wanted her fanfic to overwrite reality. And they even brought the Traveler in to make sure the plan went off without a hitch because Durin, Scara and even Albedo would keep making mistakes including one where they would never be able to take it back. Therefore even by the end of the Character Quest, Durin doesn't get agency either. His creation is the product of two witches with help from other witches and nurtured by a robot, then a physical body manufactured for him by a homunculus and finally a fate provided to him by a Descender. He beats out Furina for the simple fact that he chose to tread the unwritten path after everything was put into place for him. Furina didn't even get that chance and ended her Archon Quest traumatized and exhausted.
Not that the new devs instill much confidence with their storytelling but Durin may yet have a good story arc ahead of him:
Topic originally created on January 4th, 2026.
