Teyvat World Map - Round 2
Before Fontaine comes out I wanted to take another crack at predicting the complete map of Teyvat. Now of course the specifics aren't possible to get right. Whatever parts Mihoyo plans to include and where they'll draw the outer bounds is pretty arbitrary. I think the desert tells us as much with half of cliffsides accessible while the other halves are out of bounds, parts of the beaches that separate the desert from the sea are defined while parts can't even be properly seen.
So with that said this is my current idea for the full map.
Forgive me for the crudeness of it. I'm not very good at making topographical maps. It's just to give us a rough idea.
Methodology
Let me explain my process. If you guys don't care feel free to skip to the next part.
So to start I should point out that none of the currently visible low poly models really mean anything beyond just a place holder. And here's why.
This was my first attempt at the map. I made this before Sumeru released around the second Lantern Rite. Back then Shenhe's quest had just come out which restored the Jade Chamber. Using that for its uniquely high vantage point I looked out into the out of bounds. South of Liyue used to be nothing but water.
The area that would become the Chasm was barely defined before it's release but while you could see something there it was clear that nothing stretched beyond it.
Therefore I had reasoned that this meant Sumeru would only extend to the west of Liyue and not south at all. But as we all know that's not the case anymore. The conclusion is that miHoYo can change any part of the unreleased map as they see fit. Previously open water can suddenly sprout a whole nation.
Anyway another metric I used was real life sources in conjunction with in-universe information. You might have noticed I have Natlan as an island in my old map. This is because Natlan can be based on one of two related cultures. Either it's West African or South American because the only available character we have Iansan is a god in Yoruba culture. Yoruba originates in West Africa but thanks to the slave trade many practitioners were brought to South America where they are now called the Candomblé. Then in the Genshin manhua we had a very Native American aesthetic to the "Muratans" the English localization for the people of Natlan. Finally we were told that Sumeru would have sea access which looking at my predictions for its placement back then meant it had to be at the continental limits on the west side. Now that didn't necessarily mean Natlan had to be an island continent bordering it but that's where the Native American aesthetic and South American Candomblé inspiration came in. This is still a possibility so I have another version of my updated map to reflect that though for now I personally believe in the one displayed at the top. A West Africa interpretation would also allow Natlan to share a border with Fontaine and fit better with my other theory about these nations relating to the history of Christianity.
Since miHoYo can reshape the map as needed I also ended up relying more on relative sizes with respect to their real life counterparts than I had previously. In my old map as you can see each region is sized to be similar except Snezhnaya which is larger. Back then I only made it the largest single region because it'll serve as the final nation we visit and could have the longest exploration period. More on that later. But with Sumeru now being the largest region that reflects the size of its real world counterpart which at one point stretched from Egypt all the way to northwest India. (and including all of Pakistan)
Russia is also a massive country the current largest in the world. But I made sure to reflect that in my map more because it'll serve as the final region we visit out of the Seven Nations. The white parts therefore aren't just snow covered landscapes. I think for additional difficulty other hazards like blizzards and avalanches might also be added on top of the Sheer Cold mechanic. Similarly Natlan will have volcanic areas which will probably have Blazing Heat on top of higher damage effects similar to Balethunder.
I know. None of these things are fan favorites. But people had been asking for greater difficulty and these late game regions should be more harrowing to travel across so it is possible. Fingers crossed that I'm wrong about this lol.
Explanation
Ok so a few things that probably caught people's eye.
Why is Fontaine blue? The blue isn't meant to represent water though there will likely be plenty of water in the region. Apparently diving might become a new mechanic. Anyway the blue is actually a stylistic representation of the toxic air we're told Fontaine has. I decided to color it blue because it'd be thematic that the toxins are some overloading of elemental energy and in this case it'd be Hydro. (maybe it'll also lead to some kind of health draining environmental hazard mechanic like the Dark Mud) As a result many areas will be inaccessible without some kind of new item. To travel through these areas early into exploration we might be traveling through artificial tunnels like an underwater aquarium.
That black circle in the middle? Actually that's an overhead view of Midgar from Final Fantasy VII. I figured with the same steampunk theme, toxic atmosphere and some kind of unique energy system (like Mako) that I'd just use Midgar as a shorthand for Fontaine City. You can see on my old map that I always believed it'd be circular though. It just feels likely for a technologically dependent civilization. They'd mold the land to suit their needs rather than fit their city to the existing landscape. That being said it's also entirely possible the city could be underwater like the Gungan City from Star Wars and the waters of the nation are protecting it from the pollution outside.
Similarly this is why Natlan is red because it's going to have plenty of hot areas maybe with environmental hazards and then Natlan City will be located on the largest volcano depicted here by that big bright splotch of red coming off the Sumeru mountain range. (which you can see by using Sorush at the furthest northeastern point she can be deployed)
Now you might have noticed the word Celestia on the Natlan/Fontaine border. This is currently the location of Celestia. You can triangulate it accurately by going to the furthest west areas of Mondstadt, Liyue and Sumeru.
Personally I feel this is subject to change. I don't think Celestia would ever float straight above any of the nations. But that being said it could explain why Focalors "knows not to make an enemy of the divine" and why the Pyro Archon "has her reasons" for sharing the secret about war. So who knows? I'm still not sold on it but for now this is where Celestia is.
With Snezhnaya while it'll share a border with Fontaine I think we'll actually have to access it through Mondstadt. In my mind the story will start with Venti's Second Character Quest which you guys might have noticed is the only Archon who doesn't have his second one yet. Each of the other three released at the end of their Archon Quests with a rerun banner coming four patches later to give us a new Weekly Boss through their Second Character Quests. On top of that each Archon Quest Weekly Boss is a Fatui Harbinger while the second boss is someone personally related to the Archon. Well I think Venti's will be the last before Snezhnaya and since his Archon Quest Boss was the one that personally related to him it means he's missing his Fatui Harbinger boss. That could be Pierro which will then pave the way into Snezhnaya.
And then as you can see from the map I've listed Snezhnaya's capital of Zapolyarny Palace and placed it almost at the center of the nation very deep into it. If we access it from Mondstadt it'll be a long journey to reach it. My reason for doing that is that I think unlike all the regions we've had so far and will have until Snezhnaya, its Archon Quest will take place after all the exploration is done. So it'll be something like v6.5 that we even start the Archon Quest. That way events could be set up to build up the final confrontation against the Tsaritsa and any surviving members of the Harbingers. And by the end of the region's run we'll not only defeat them but also immediately start the Khaenri'ahn Act of the game. I even suggested when I made my first map that we might even get only Act I to start and then the later Acts in future patches just to further illustrate the difficulty we'll face bringing down the Fatui and stopping the Tsaritsa's plot. On top of that it could be the only region where the Weekly Bosses release in reverse order. The earliest around v6.1 will be some collection of the remaining Harbingers. Then four patches later at v6.5 we'll start the Archon Quest and get some monstrous creature related to the Tsaritsa maybe a dragon that defends Zapolyarny. Finally when we complete the Archon Quest the Weekly Boss will be the Tsaritsa herself.
Finally Khaenri'ah. (I mean I can almost guarantee there'll be a Celestia Act after that but for now it's Khaenri'ah.) With this new map there was another idea I wanted to convey that I'm not sure if I got across. In China there's this concept of the four guardians. They correspond to the five elements in Taoism with the fifth being the earth element represented by the Golden Dragon. Of course that's easily Geo, the Exuvia and therefore Morax. The guardians are responsible for protecting the land from malevolent supernatural forces like for example those from the underworld and we know Khaenri'ah is an underground nation with access points to the surface in pretty much every nation: Musk Reef in Mondstadt, Enkanomiya in Inazuma and so many Dahri locations in Sumeru. (But notice how its major presence in Liyue the Chasm is actually foreign. The Abyss crashed an iron meteorite into the Chasm where its forces exited to attack during the Cataclysm.) Maybe the Seven Nations themselves are located directly above the subterranean nation because they are a line of defense Celestia set up against it (more specifically the Void) and the Cataclysm was actually more of a worst case scenario to the Seven's usual function. There's more lore to that which I'll talk about some other time.
I'm not going to do a summary this time. I'm not really sure where I'd start. So if you didn't read any of the explanations just comment on what you think of the map itself and if you'd change anything along with why you would change it.
And if you did read all that (give yourself a cookie) and let me know what you think! Would you be happy with the hazards? Would you change or maybe even add to them? Do you think they'll move Celestia? Do you think that's how Snezhnaya will play out? Khaenri'ah?
Posted Apr 30, 2023, 11:54 PM UTC