[3.7] Piecing Together Ancient Teyvat - A Genshin Impact Timeline Theory

I've talked about Teyvat's ancient history a bunch of times but something still bothers me: Why did the moons fall, and WHEN? And if we can answer that question, can we use that information to figure out stuff like when Khaenri'ah was founded?

Well, here's my attempt at a more or less complete Ancient Teyvatian timeline!

*CREDITS*
A HUGE thanks to my editor TXR for doing an amazing job
on this video! Check out his twitter

**Timestamps**
No timestamps; watch the whole thing. It's short. Ish.

**More Information**
This section is a combination of citations and terms/topics that came up during the video alongside their wikipedia articles (or similar related sources) which should help get you started when doing your own research.

[iSpotJosh]

Glad to see our Genshin Archaeologist droppin’ another revelatory lore vid 😀 💯

[sheep]

I love how morally unclear the history of Teyvat is. For a long time we’ve assumed that Celestia is probably the ultimate enemy of the story, but if forbidden knowledge truly causes the world to decay then measures like culling the world of weaker gods begins to be less cut-and-dry morally.

[lwazinkasawe]

I'd love to witness the dropping of a celestial nail in game, like a statement from Celestia saying "fuck off and stay in your lane" in game

[GuyWithAnAmazingHat]

The Moon is the most important visual motif for Hoyoverse, the very first Mihoyo game was FlyMe2TheMoon featuring Kiana as the girl flying to the Moon. Every single game since then has featured Kiana, and in Genshin she is the Unknown Goddess who is said to be the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.

Kiana is Hoyoverse's "Mickey Mouse", their most important character and in Honkai 3rd is paralleled to the Chinese moon goddess Chang'E, exiling herself to the Moon to save humanity.

There's also tons of Moon related lore in Genshin, even Liyue and Mondstadt are named after the Moon as "Glassy Moon" and "Moon City", resin is in the shape of the moon etc.

During Yoimiya's 2nd story quest, when was talking about fireworks and meteors, she said "One represents the past, and the other the future. They both bloom in the sky but have completely different meanings behind them."

This scene is always set to night, when she says this, the camera points directly at Celestia first, then cuts to the Moon, as if telling us that Celestia represents the past and the Moon the future.

This is extremely interesting to me because the Moon is the "future", the point of Destiny in all Hoyoverse games, FlyMe2theMoon, Honkai Gakuen, Honkai 3rd, all had The End/Finality occur on the Moon, it is the future point of Destiny that all characters must over come.

Kiana the Herrscher of Finality is the Goddess of the Moon, and she is the Heavenly Principles in Genshin. I feel that the game is telling us that we met Heavenly Principles in the past at Celestia, and in the future we will meet her again on the Moon, or maybe she is now the Moon, if we're considering the Moon Sisters theories.


The Moon represents Finality/Destiny in Hoyoverse, it is the place you see in the distance every night, a point in space-time where you will reach for and overcome in the future, it is the end point of your dreams. And when Finality happens, a new Origin begins, reaching the Moon has also been the end of part 1 of the story for both Honkai Gakuen and Honkai 3rd, starting a completely new arc focusing on new themes and stories.

[Indian_gae_boii]

its also interesting to note that in the final floors of the abyss you can literally see a giant moon, and in the we will be reunited trailer when we witnessed khanreah destruction, we saw a giant red moon...even though khanreah is underground, so my theory is that one of the moon roams in the sky, one ended up in the abyss and one was underground in khanreah because like....where else can dead bodies the size of MOONS can even end up, if the moon sisters were as fat as the ones we see in teyvats skies, they simply couldnt have just crumbled and fallen without their remains being scattered evrywhere, hence i make this theory

[Ravenna.E.Blackbird]

*New insight* regarding the 3 Moons following the Merusea world quest chain in 4.0:
Verenata, a Melusine potioneer, developed a credible "True Sight" potion. After consuming this potion, another Melusine named Topyas said this in a dizzy haze:
"Wololo... *So many moons... One, two, three..."*
Along with other visions/memories induced by this potion which turned out to be true, we're inclined to believe that this little detail proves the existence of the 3 Moons!

[akaridragneel]

Well we can kinda confirm Sonnet and Aria's existence since Venti's skill is called skyward sonnet and ost that plays at night ( or specifically at mondstadt during the night) is called Dream Aria.

Also in the web toon ( first chapter) when venti asks what happened to mondstadt he seem to think of three dancing figures in one of the panels

[losergamer]

If forbidden knowledge was likened to a "rising tide of delusion" is it possible that forbidden knowledge is part of a Fatui Delusion?

[marfaleon]

Honestly it feels like timeline works in some sort of samsara, events repeat themselves, but not 100% identically. Situation with old Mondstadt really appears to be same as Inazuma arc with Raiden. Both were scared of outside world and wanted to protect own people, due to fear both Archons went for barrier for their respective nations - Decarabian used wind and Ei used thunder.
Both were considering their actions to be best methods, both had rebels rise against them to seek outside world (let's not forget people trying to flee from Inazuma) but in case of their situation Ei's one didn't fully repeat Mondstadt due to "unexpected factor" called Traveler.
Deshret's civilization in my mind became predecessor of Khaenri'ah fall, they don't share 100% similarity but it doesn't have to.
So far I think that learning more about past cities/nations would give us ways to make guesses about future of Natlan, Snezhnaya and Fontaine

[sylvarogre]

Thanks for another fun and informative video.
Some ideas:
With this timeline, it is also possible that Decarabian was trying to protect humanity from Forbidden Knowledge, but was so effective at eliminating it that nobody remembered why he did it. It could be that Decarabian destroyed Andrius physical form to cleanse him of Forbidden knowledge. (I can't remember how Andrius became a spirit or if it was explained. So that part could be way off.)

[sirbercouligaming]

Random thought .. we assumed the mention of the black dragon in the dragon spine was due to dvalin, but after the nahida story quest with apep, what if the princess was actually referring to Nibelung the dragon king. Apep described him as a black dragon. If that is the case, then we had mention of Nibelung without a name since 1.1/1.2. that's crazy.

[galaxydove]

I don't think the sinner and King Deshuret are the same person, i think the sinner has been here... for a long while. Remember, the dragons ruled the land then Celestia came and took it from them, then something else came to fight Celestia for the land. I think that was "the sinner". Whatever energy or entity he is.

[mariopanczel]

Here we go again
Ashikai's arch nemesis: Teayvat's moon(s)

[v.v]

I don’t remember if you’ve made this comparison before but it feels like the Seelies before were akin to angels in Christianity, envoys from heaven, but after the fall they became more like their namesake, Seelie fae or fairies, mysterious and unknowable spirits that inhabit the world unlike angels who reside above the world

[paburopasillas]

Before 5.1: jajajaj, this theory is crazy 😆😆😆
After 5.1: 💀💀💀

[ollymeetsworld]

Crack theory: since we don't know exactly what the gonses are but everyone assumes they hold some kind of power, what if they act like celestial nails to keep forbidden knowledge away? Also, assuming the Abyss Order has access to forbidden knowledge, it's interesting to notice everytime we met an abyss herald or lector it was outside of reach of archons - in secret domains, in Enkanomiya and in the old aranara village (which got corrupted in the cataclysm). Combine this with the fact that the Tsaritsa seems to be looking into the abyss (she kept sending Scaramouche there), what if the reason why she needs the gnoses is so she can bring into the world forbidden knowledge but the existence of the gnoses stops her from doing that?

[efrainlagunas]

I think Apep said something along the lines of "when he (dragon king) returned, he was different". I took it as more of a confirmation that the dragon sovereign are born and created by built up elemental energy, but I can see how it could also mean that after the king ventured to gain more power, he returned as if a different being in terms of personality. To me, the sovereigns being creatd by elemental energy brings to question of when did the gnosis and visions come to be? Was it perhaps, after the dragon king was reborn, hmmmm? Flatly, I'm theorizing that the gnosis and visions were made to prevent the dragons from coming back by having elemental energy being used, or stored into visions and gnosis. Maybe the Fatui's whole plan of collecting the gnosis is to release them and help create the age of dragons once again.

[klutzycake]

looking forward to this timeline!! i know its been a while since we've had any form of coherent one haha

[bluestrider]

My personal theory is that the Unified nation prior to the Second who came was also named Khaenri'ah. But that information was erased. But the human survivors remembered or rediscovered it, thus re-creating civilization underground based on the Unified Nation's technology and architecture. Then they honored them by naming new Khaenri'ah after their fallen forefathers. I also think that the Unifed Nation (ancient Khaenri'ah) along with the Seelies may have sympathized with the Second Who Came, who may have openly shared knowledge with them, which would also be considered forbidden. And thus, why both humanity and Seelie were in a sense punished.

This theory also leads me to believe, that the traveler from afar may have possibly been one of the Traveler siblings. The travelers arrived on Teyvat, one awakens getting to know the people of the Unified Nation, either the Second Who Came arrives or the Traveler is deemed a heretic for sharing forbidden knowledge and a war ensues. The Traveler escapes manages to awaken their sleeping sibling (Aether cannon), tells them the world/Khaenri'ah is on fire and flees, running into the Sustainer. Then Aether mistakenly believes that the Khaenri'ah of 500 years ago is the one they witnessed burning but its a misconception and was actually the Unified Nation also named Khaenri'ah 4500? years ago.

Khaenri'ah is rebuilt to the one we know of, and with their studies of their forebearers they learn of the Traveler who once visited ancient Khaenri'ah and discover a means of summoning/freeing the Abyssal sibling (Lumine). And of course, Lumine then goes on to witness another civilization being destroyed and is motivated to seek vengeance.

[KurtacusRex]

@5:15
I think about this specificially a lot. We hear all about zhongli but he was around for the moon sisters and pretty much every instance of forbidden dara.
Like he is older than enkanomiya.