[1.5] What are Domains? - A Genshin Impact Theory

Upsetti spaghetti because after I finished this I found like, 5 other things I want to add in so I guess that's getting rolled into another video...

[PawClow]

Don't know why but I always get an uneasy feeling whenever the Abyss lore comes up, like the secret of Teyvat is being unveiled and Celestia will silence us :P

[sillychotu]

7 Archons in Teyvat and now we know of 5 “sinners” in the abyss. You hit the nail on the head!

[michaelatbarnett]

That bit about the 7 archons and the 5 archons of the abyss is REALLY fascinating. Very good catch and very good video and lore delve, Ashikai!

[spoopydraws]

This is one of the best and most grounded theories I have heard in a while wow, very eye opening and I cant wait to see more to this game

[stormauror]

I JUST FINISHED THE CURRENT DAINSLIEF QUEST 4.7 AND I REMEMBERED ASHIKAI'S BIT WITH THE 7 ARCHONS and the 5 ARCHONS OF THE ABYSS AND NOW WE HAVE THE FIVE SINNERS 😧😧😧😧😧😧 GIRL YOU WERE TRULY COOKING OH MY GOD!!! Thes five sinners took the forbidden knowledge and ran with it. I just got chills man.

[aaravia]

We do know that durin is a creation for sure, but there is another character in the game suspected to be created artificially. This character is Albedo. After hours and hours of digging, I've realised that these two may not be the only creations we've come across during this game.

I started reading the stories under Albedo, and he seems to think that he does not have biological parents, rather he was somehow created by his master, Gold. He also has a talent called 'homuncular nature' which would suggest he indeed is not a real human, rather he was made by Gold.

Now after this I looked up the meaning of his name. His name happens to be a stage of an alchemical process called Magnum Opus.
The definition of Magnum Opus is:
the process of working with the prima materia (also called dark matter) to create the philosopher's stone(elixir of life).

It's steps are:
nigredo (blackness)
albedo (whiteness)
citrinitas (yellowness)
rubedo (redness, purpleness) - this is the final product

I was thinking since there is a personification of the second step of Magnum Opus (Albedo or whiteness), would it be weird to assume that the other steps could have a human embodiment too?
And if yes, who would these people be?

Here are the questions I asked myself:

1. If Albedo's name means whiteness which is basically what the second step of the Magnum Opus is, which names in the game could represent the other two, darkness, and yellowness?

2. The art of alchemy or Khemia seems to be from Khaenri'ah. Almost Almost every time Khaenr'iah is mentioned, we hear about alchemy, also the alchemy tables seem to have Khaenr'iahn writing on them. Khemia (which is the art of creation, which is what Khaenr'iahs alchemy seemed to be focused on) is also what brought destruction to this ancient civilization, so can we assume that alchemy is an art from Khaenr'iah?

3. I looked a little bit into the language of Khaenr'iah. Khaenr'iahn writing can be found in places like domains, alchemy tables or the abyss which we know have a connection to Khaenr'iah. I searched for the Khaenr'iahn alphabet on the internet and in this process I learned that the alphabet is not the only thing we have translated into the english alphabet, but we also know that the phrases we get from these writings are all latin. So was the language of Khaenr'iah latin, or at least a romance language?

4. And the fourth question I asked myself. If my last speculation is true, which people in Teyvat seem to have latin names? Albedo, the person we know for sure has connections to Khaenr'iah and is related to the Magnum Opus (he is literally one of the steps), then maybe these other homunculuses created by Gold for the Philosopher's Stone have latin names too. I looked up all the names we know if in the game and there are only three people with latin names in the game.

These names are:
1. Aether
2. Albedo
3. Lumine

Now this is where it gets even more interesting. The names seem to align with the steps of Magnum Opus. We have already figured out that the second step is Albedo, his name meaning whiteness. The first step is, blackness and to create the philosopher's stone for our first step we need to find black/dark matter or on its other name, first matter, and if you look up prima materia which is latin for first matter you get this definition:

 It is the primitive formless base of all matter similar to chaos, the quintessence or aether.

So that leaves us with the third step and the name Lumine. Citrinitas means yellowness. Lumine's name light, luminescent or a ray of sunshine.

So could it be that these 3 are actually all the creations of Gold? Could it be that the twins, just like Albedo, are not real people but rather artificial life created by this scientist we know as Gold?

Some more weird things I found that could more or less support this theory:

- If you look at the stories of the traveler, and you look at the character details, it says something about a creator

"The keeper is fading away; the creator has not yet come.

But the world shall burn no more, for you shall ascend."

- All Khaenr'iahn people we know of seem to have the Khaenr'iahn star symbol on their clothes, and most of them even on their eyes (Dainsleif and Kaeya). Now we don't know this for sure, since we havent met too many Khaenr'iahn people yet, but the only people who seems to bear the mark on on their clothes but not in their eyes are the twins and albedo. Could it be that the mark in the eye is a genetic thing that is seen in people born of Khaenr'iahn blood? And since these 3 people are not of real blood, they don't bear the star on their eyes?

3. Albedo knows that he doesn't have blood-related parents, or at least he doesn't remember them. Isn't it interesting that there is nothing in the game said about the parents of the travelers?

4. This is my weakest point, so probably shouldn't really even be taken into account, but I'll say it anyway. Since these people are probably homunculuses, maybe they don't actually age like real people. They're not real people at all. However, I don't think that Lumine and Aether know that they're actually created by Gold at the beginning of their journey. It is not mentioned by them at all that they were, and if this really were the case, that they didn't know, we could make sense of something Lumine said during our last story quest. When we offered her to come with us now, she told us that there is no need for that, since there is time to wait and there always have been. I think Lumine could've figured it out that she's not a real human being.


On a side note, I'd also like to add that I didn't fully understand this part, but rubedo says something about 2 people and their reunion. Maybe these two people are the twins. Aether's goal is for them to reunite and the last quest was called something like We Will be Reunited.

[redo]

HOLY you were right about heralds dropping ley line branches

[niffleraku]

My theory with the domains since most of them have Kaerin'ahn writings and thematically match dain was that these really were just remnants of Kaerin'ah. I figured Kaerin'ah might've grown/spread really wide underground so that's why gateways to the domains could be seen everywhere in Teyvat, but this theory sounds more solid than mine lol

[bianca-kuym]

ive been getting into genshin lore and im so happy i found your channel, absolutely so cool to see the depth that the devs and everyone apart of the creation of genshin impact has put into the entire story. the story part of genshin is truly a fundamental and fascinating piece of work. i cant wait to see the end of the travelers story.

[krislegionau]

I know nothing about Genshin so the first sentence hooked me and now I have to know more.

[youzeeeee]

the game is getting darker and darker... i'm in awe

[Martintomas]

6:56 You nailed it! They drop branches too O.o Your videos are great! Thank You!

[NaijaiDangthanomWork]

This really is interesting! The tiara sets that you've pointed out, I went and read its lore & got some speculation...
What if this whole thing is a cycle?

First, let's summarize the set:
All of the tiaras goes like this...
"Once upon a time, the people of the land could hear revelations from heavens (aka Celestia) directly."
The "envoys of the gods" walked among humanity, and something happens.
This something (depends on each tiara) causes humanity to send a priest, wearing the "white-branched crown, " into "the deep places" (Abyss/domain/Ley Lines)

The Tiaras probably arrange like this:
Springtime > Illumination > Destiny > Wisdom > Springtime

Starting with...

Prayers of Springtime:
"All prosperity must someday end. But this does not mean that nothing is eternal.
At the end of a cycle, the earth shall be renewed."
"In those days, life was weak, and the earth was blanketed in unending ice".

Prayers of Illumination:
"The eternal ice had just begun to thaw, and the first fires were still new."
"It was a time of great prosperity, when all was left in the hands of such heavenly revelations...
But would a day come when such wonderful times might come to an end?"
"To this question the envoys gave no answer."

Prayers of Destiny:
"...the ancient flames were extinguished amidst the first falling rains."
"It was a prosperous time, a period of bountiful harvest... But what of the time after, a hundred, a thousand years from now?"
"The heavenly envoys, who ever spoke what they knew, were silent."

Prayers of Wisdom
"...the waters ran dry as thunder first pierced the skies."
"Their prosperity brought pride and ambition... so they questioned the heavens' authority, and schemed to enter the garden of gods."
"...the envoys of heaven were angry."

Then Prayers of Springtime (again):
"All prosperity must someday end. But this does not mean that nothing is eternal.
At the end of a cycle, the earth shall be renewed."



**Summary**

The earth at the beginning (of a cycle) was barren and covered in ice, kinda like Dragonspine.

Then, something happened, a divine "illumination" perhaps? and the ice melted. Humanity lived with Archons (or something along that line) guiding them, who work (passion-like fire?) to create civilization.

After a while, their work paid off with plenty of crops. Civilization is booming. Some questions whether it will last forever, with the Archons (probably went through numerous cycles before & knows the impending doom) keep this cycle thing a secret.

Because of the civilizations' prosperity, they grew ambitious, and questioned Celestia's authority, perhaps even tried to use the Ley line powers to gain equal or more power as them. This angered the ancient Archons, who punished them, probably wiping them out, resetting the world into a barren iceland once more.

The cycle continues, with chief priests going into the deeps each "era"... and probably dying & giving memory to the Ley Lines, which imbues into the tiaras we see in game.


**Further Speculation about the Priests => Archons**
I've noticed that the each priest in each tiara has a "vibe" to them. I feel that they represent the Archon/element in someway.

It's important to note that ALL tiaras "possesses remarkable resistance, " which is like determination, something that ALL vision-holders have.

For Prayers of Springtime, it's the ONLY one with the priest story first, then the once-upon-a-time thing.
This is like with Tsaritsa, the Cryo Archon. Usually, we meet the regions first, then the Archons, but we feel her presence by her Fatui, even though we didn't go to Cryo region yet.

This priest is also the only one who seems to know what's going on, that there's a need of an end to begin anew, like the Tsaritsa trying to end the current Archon system by taking the gnosis.

The Cryo element (and their vision holders) is probably the one imbued with keeping secrets, sacrifices, and ice.

For Prayers of Illumination, probably the Fire Archon.
The priests is humanity's first hope, trying to seek "answers and enlightenment."

Maybe the Pyro element (and their vision holders) is probably the ones with hope?
Or the Fire Archon trying to seek something? I don't know much here.

For Prayers of Destiny, it talks a lot about destiny.
That things are "written in the stars, and none could change this divine law." Interesting that this is the only mention of stars (Mona & her astrology *cough *cough*)...
The priest seeks "to understand this doom (of when their prosperity might end)", might hint that Hydro vision-holders seek knowledge? But there's Albedo (with Geo), so there's probably more to this...

For Prayers of Wisdom, its priest is the only one who "appease the divine envoys".
This might hint that the Electro Archon sides with Celestia.
There's also this line: "For to question eternity was forbidden." Seems similar to Electro Archon being obsessed with eternity...

What do ya'll think?
I don't know if someone made this already or not. This is just my take on a four paragraph worth of wiki description XD.

[reyfel]

WOW!! This was one of the best theories out there. I loved your theory and I was wondering about domains too. I would also like to add that once you reach floor 8 of the spiral abyss, you start seeing some symbols on the walls which look a lot like the symbols in a puzzle in dragonspine. Also, in the part where the 7 archons rule the heaven and the other 5 rule the abyss, what if there were 5 regions in the abyss and we only know 2 of them as of now which are Khaenri'ah and the kingdom in dragonspine.

[aceslycer]

It's so refreshing to hear the difference between your old videos and now. You sound so calm here.

[HearfourDataSS]

Would you look at that. abyss heralds and lectors did actually end up dropping leyline branches

[Saint_]

This is soooo underrated, best theories i've ever watched. Particularly the theory of the Abyssal Archons, that is very interesting. That is probably why in the Teyvat chapter's trailer video, Khaenriah isn't mentioned as the 8th nation but instead "??th"-chapter, because the Abyssal Archons may be introduced there (multiple acts, each act for each Abyssal Archons).

[aloevera]

“& they gift us with memories of a time long past”, makes so much sense... the artefacts do describe past events and all

[calladricosplays]

It's so interesting revisiting this after so much time! And I love how relaxing the video is. Like Kaeya telling us a story while giving us a tour

[seansmith]

During the idol animation why can the traveller produce the same stars as paimon