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 Genshin devs had been getting better at keeping their story consistent. The Last Survivor of Tenochtzitoc World Quest was a direct sequel to the v5.2 event Iktomi Spirit-seeking Scrolls which itself was connected to Kinich's Tribal Chronicle from v5.0. Their treatment of Enjou's character development is commendable and I for one look forward to the next time he appears.
However it's become somewhat of a tradition that the few times I can applaud the new devs, they simultaneously will do something that breaks with established lore. In this case, while they did admirably with Enjou's development they royally screwed up their own established lore for Natlan. To start with something very simple there was a prelude manhua for Genshin before it was ever released. This manhua brought up a specific term "Muratan" that led to fan theories about Murata Himeko from Honkai Impact somehow being the Pyro Archon of Genshin. Other theories suggested that Muratans would be the name of the Natlan race of people, all born from the Pyro Archon Murata. However this is a translation error. "Muratan" is this term 穆纳塔人 which is just a respectful way (that doesn't work in English) to say Natlanese. I've actually brought up why the new dev team might mess this up despite how it was early and foundational lore. Cliffnotes version: If you were around back in v1.4 ask yourself how a meteorite suddenly becomes a "hibernation chamber" and how two distinctly separate meteors become a singular spaceship. The answer is Project ARK from Honkai Impact 3rd, a long debunked fan theory about how the then two major games of the company were linked.
As a result of not realizing what the original devs meant when they named the "Muratans" the new devs generated brand new lore for something that doesn't exist. In fact Muratan isn't even Muratan in Chinese. It's Mu-na-ta because again Na-ta is Natlan in Chinese so failing a proper translation, a proper transliteration would be Munatan if anything. The Muratans now conflict with lore the new devs created since v5.0, namely the six tribes of Natlan. Since Natlan's release we've gotten tons of information about Natlan's founding as it relates to the history of the dragon civilization that long predates not only the Cataclysm but even the arrival of the Heavenly Principles. As far back as when Xiucoatl the Pyro Dragon Sovereign reigned over Natlan there were only budding leaders who would come to found the six tribes. I'd even had theories debunked about there being more tribes because of this lore. And now suddenly the "Muratans" are their own tribe that existed during the Cataclysm, Mavuika was in contact with their leader Tenoch and yet they eventually fell to ruin and nobody ever mentioned them again even in written works that mention everything else? What is this? Tenochtzitoc delenda est?
That's on top of there suddenly being a new landmass that's as big as Narukami Island hanging off the northwest coast of the region. Before Inazuma released I took a guess at what the whole map would look like. Back then my Natlan was also an island and this was challenged by players saying it was stated by the devs in the v2.0 livestream that Inazuma was the only island region that was detached from the mainland. Therefore Natlan must be part of the mainland as well and that debunked my theory. Then we got Fontaine which was an island region. And now a Narukami sized (note since the Inazuma Archon Quest that Inazuma has essentially become the two regions of Narukami and Watatsumi) island with its own indigenous tribe of unique fiery red-headed children of the Lady of Fire suddenly pops up outside the borders of mainland Natlan.
And there's one final issue with this brand new Muratan tribe of Anemo users. We saw Tenoch already. He's Meztli. We even know for a fact that his blue outfit can identify his tribe because this fact was used in the same event by Mualani to identify Bennett's parents as being from the Collective of Plenty and Masters of the Night-Wind. (ok wait there's one more little issue on top of this which is that Tenoch is brunette and again because of the manhua we know the "Muratans" all had a head of fiery red hair)
What a mess! Now let's fix it.
Hilariously this new lore would actually un-debunk my old theory about Natlan's tribes and work with the rewrite of Natlan that I concocted with reference to this theory and other theories I had about Natlan. With respect to the real history of Pre-Columbian America I suggested that the six modern day tribes could have been the six surviving and strongest tribes of the nation, having conquered and subsumed other tribes.
Now let's take a look at these specific characters below:
Tenoch is depicted by the new devs themselves as a member of the Meztli tribe. However also notice the red feathered hat which is a hallmark of the Flower-Feather Clan or Tlalocan. This event featured the characters of our Traveler, Paimon, Bennett and Venti accompanied by two very specific Natlanese characters. One was from Meztli and the other from Tlalocan. This would have made for the perfect opportunity to explain the origins of both Tenochtzitoc and Tlalocan with respect to the older Meztli tribe. Based on my rewrite for Natlan's setting, Meztli would have been an isolated tribe based solely on Polynesia. The Muratans were really just a group of Natlanese who were part of a slave trade between Natlan and the colonial powers of Remuria and Aristocratic Mondstadt. After both powers fell the Muratans were able to return to their homeland. However as the warring state that it was, Natlan offered little to these newcomers who'd nearly forgotten everything about their history anyway. (see Genshin manhua) As a result the only tribe that would suffer them was Meztli who had in their possession a worthless island off their coast that was barren and unused. (Tollan in my rewrite was not where the Collective of Plenty were located and instead its land bordered Sumeru.) The Muratans were allowed to "join" their tribe if they accepted these terms which they had no choice but to do so. This would explain Tenoch's Meztli attire.
Side Note 1: Of course the new devs have already ruined any possibility of this because we already have an origin story for Tlalocan and it has nothing to do with Meztli. This origin was even reinforced by the new Archon Quest Prologue.
Side Note 2: But the bare bones of it was still there. The Flower-Feather Clan is Anemo like the Muratans. Lianca traveled far and wide and then returned to fight for freedom. She defended the weak and resolved conflicts making her essentially the first peacekeeper which is now embodied by her successor "Vuka" Chasca. It's a shame they didn't figure this out and now we have this mess instead.
Now for the next schism that Enjou brought up. There could have been a benevolent Meztli chief who honestly attempted to unify the Muratans into his tribe. Maybe he was another Umoja. He would then be succeeded by a corrupt chief whose poor leadership led to exiling the Muratans. It wouldn't have been as dramatic as the version the devs had Enjou tell us. Instead given the already tense atmosphere in my Natlan, the barely tolerated Muratans might have run afoul of yet more suspicion and mistrust by this bad chief which led to more demands. As Enjou said, one group remained in Natlan and another would leave. However in my version the group that stayed acquiesced to the demands in order to remain where they'd already settled. The other group, disgruntled and furious decided to live elsewhere the Natlan way: by force. They would relocate near the site of the ancient city Ochkanatlan and become the Tlalocan by conquering whatever tribe or tribes were there at the time. This explains Tenoch's hat and would also fit with the lore that each tribe is named after one of the thirteen layers of Aztec heaven. Meztli and Tlaloc are actually names for the same layer thus they should have a shared origin if this lore was treated properly. (It wasn't. The Masters of the Night-Wind are called Mictlan. Mictlan isn't even a layer.)
Side Note: In my rewrite the Tlalocan would be based on the Incan Empire. The Inca were actually a relatively new civilization that was built upon the long abandoned sites of earlier civilizations like the Tiwanaku. Historically the Incans were a tribe that were forced out of their lands and into Tiwanaku land thus it would work for the Muratans to have been forced into exile and then relocated near Ochkanatlan and rather than subjugate any other tribes, they could have just settled in the area because the former tribes had collapsed on their own like the Tiwanaku.
500 years ago, Mavuika would become one of very very few Natlanese born into mixed heritage. Her father was from Huitztlan while he'd take a wife from the Muratan sect of Meztli. It was easier to do this even back in those times because the Muratans had been cursed by every other tribe and many desired only to belong. Mavuika's father was a much more open-minded person given his experiences as an adventurer and thrill-seeker and this led to Mavuika becoming outgoing, outspoken and also filled with a desire to belong in her nation. She'd fight hard to gain respect which ultimately led to her becoming the next victor to burn bright as the Pyro Archon but this was seen by all in Natlan as a Nemontemi, a bad omen where darkness would envelop the sun.
And that's when the Cataclysm began. As almost a sign from the stars that Mavuika was an ill-fated Archon, Khaenri'ah's forces attacked all of Teyvat and Natlan's skies were blackened by an encroachment of the Abyss. Mavuika then called upon Tenoch to become her pseudo-Archon in her plan to unify Natlan. Given the damage the Abyss had done, all of the surviving six tribes were in shambles and in desperate need of a solution. They would never trust each other so Tenoch who was Muratan was the best choice, someone universally despised by all of the tribes thus would never play favorites with any of them. Unlike my original take on this, Tenoch is now Muratan just like Mavuika so now there's a personal reason for her choosing him other than his exile.
The new devs took old fan theories to generate new stories to tell for Genshin. This conflicts with existing lore even including the new dev's own lore.
"Muratan" comes from a mistranslation of Mu-na-ta people where Na-ta actually just means Natlan so "Muratan" just means Natlanese and is not its own tribe of Natlanese.
As a result, the new devs creating "Muratan" history now conflicts with all of the previous Natlan lore that only mention six tribes from the ancient past and leading into the present day.
Since v2.0 Teyvat was meant to consist of a single continent with one solitary island offshoot region, Inazuma. Now Narukami Island is about the same size as Tenochtzitoc which is also an island with its own unique kingdom.
Tenoch is actually an exile of Meztli. His outfit as shown in the Archon Quest is blue Meztli which is a known identifier of a Natlanese's tribe.
The Fix:
The new devs may simply not have been writers to begin with. I feel like one of their major issues is not outlining their stories because if they did they should have been able to see all of these connections that I casually made in this topic. They are getting more experienced now but being able to outline would do wonders for them. Let's keep watching and see if they might figure that out one day. Fingers crossed Nod-Krai will already be that day and we can put this messy chapter of Genshin's development behind us.
Topic originally created on August 10th, 2025.
