Let's un-Para this Logism!
What's up guys! It's your friendly Hoyoverse overthinker Inotia King. As always before we begin I just want to make sure new readers have checked out my older topics which my newer theories are built upon. So for the Genshin ones you can click here. And for the Honkai related ones you can click here.
Last time I brought up the missing links between the new Paralogism Archon Quest and the ongoing story arc teased during its own livestream. As a result I came up with three possible rewrite scenarios, two of which I already brought up. So now let's get that last rewrite.
Unlike the other rewrites though this one's actually going to dig a little further back:
So first, when Sumeru was the new kid on the block one thing I shied away from was believing that Scara would feature in the story. It was Sumeru. It should have a Sumeru-centered story throughout including fighting a Sumeru-related boss at the end like Dottore. However as we got through v3.0 I played with the idea that Dottore might slip our grasp by creating a more immediate threat which I based on the ending of Act I where the Eremites believed their King Deshret would return. I figured with Dottore's machinations he'd "resurrect" the dead Deshret as some kind of mechanical facsimile. Then v3.1 released and it became clear my "Deshret robot" would just end up being the Scara Gundam and so Sumeru ends with an Inazuman boss. This then continued into v3.3 where we would get Inversion of Genesis and abruptly end the then ongoing Scara story arc. Another reason I shied away from Scara's inclusion in Sumeru was that once we got that Archon Quest Interlude, it effectively made all the build-up for that story arc irrelevant. Irodori had been used to have Ayato set up a team to one day face off against Scara. At the same time, Yae and Venti were seen "chatting up a storm" according to Paimon. The scene played out in a way that obviously showed they were in the middle of "plotting something" and given that the story related to Scara who Yae had previously warned Ei about leaving as a loose end to run wild, it only made sense they were discussing him. Furthermore Kazuha's Character Quest was a prerequisite for Inversion of Genesis because the entire quest revolved around the impact Scara had had on his family's life, ultimately granting him the sword born from other consequences of Scara's actions which set up the perfect Chekhov's Gun for Kazuha to use in his confrontation against Scara. This storyline was further elaborated in v2.8's Summer Fantasia where Kazuha is allowed to come to terms with his past in order to progress into that new chapter. In light of all this lost potential I would commit to my first rewrite for Genshin.
Why am I bringing up all this about Scara in a topic about Albedo and Durin? Well in v4.8 we got the temporary summer region of Simulanka. My Scara rewrite can be summarized like this: The real Scara never went to Sumeru and instead would slowly become a growing threat. Meanwhile in Sumeru Dottore still needed a way to convince the sages to follow his plans and so he created a facsimile of Scara based on all the testing he'd done on him. After defeating this fake Scara, he'd reawaken as a blank slate, the Wanderer. Scara finally returns to Inazuma and commits to a very destructive Kunikuzushi plan and so the team set up by Ayato is sent to defeat him and they do. However with respect to the Sengoku era belief of Akunin Shouki - evil persons as the object of salvation - Wanderer is eventually convinced to assume the memories of Scara in order that Scara be given a second chance at life as Wanderer lives his while holding those memories. This is basically what the Mini-Durin storyline has been. Durin was a creature designed for malicious deeds and met with a terrible end. M took pity on him and created a storybook version hoping to give him a different outcome. We go into Simulanka and provide that alternate path thus creating Mini-Durin and now here in Paralogism, Mini-Durin takes on Durin's essence and will now live out a new life for them both. miHoYo even played this so on the nose by literally having Scara present as the hero of the Simulanka event, coming up with the solution to save Durin and then even taking Mini-Durin under his wing. (and then they gave him a single line mention in Paralogism as if to throw further insult to injury)
However there is a problem with shifting a storyline you were supposed to give to Scara to some other character. Every character has their own history. When they ended Scara's storyline so abruptly it undermined all of the events building up to it. What caused Kazuha's family's suffering? Why did the Kamisato siblings' parents die early? It all came to an unceremonious end in v3.3. So what has been negatively impacted by introducing Mini-Durin to the Durin storyline? In v2.3 we had the Shadows Amidst Snowstorms event and the final scene had Albedo jokingly pretend to be Primordial Albedo as if hinting that he was still alive. Then thanks to Paralogism the story became that he was unceremoniously killed off off-screen and then returned right back to Durin's stomach from where he'd previously escaped in the v2.3 event. It essentially negated the event's relevance beyond simple awareness of the existence of a doppelganger powered by Durin's blood. I believed that the v2.3 event was instead setting the stage for incremental integration of Durin into human society. In other words we already had a Mini-Durin and didn't need another one by regressing Durin's character development. On top of this Albedo is given both an achievement and line of dialogue that can easily be seen as completing his story arc which undermines that as well. At the end of his own Character Quest he has a line about potentially losing control and becoming a threat to Mondstadt. Him. Not a lookalike that was always malevolent. Therefore it made more sense that his research would reach a pitfall and we'd need to save him. The reformed Durin/Primordial Albedo would serve as a major player for a story like that. With intimate knowledge on what Albedo really is, who their "mother" is and what they were researching, Durin could provide us the crucial details we'd need to save Albedo. It would also further develop the Opus Magnum plot. In other words, Albedo's mission assigned to him by Rhinedottir would be to surpass her and reach Citrinitas from Albedo. Citrinitas is Albedo's research goal and was hinted back in the Alchemical Ascension event where Citrinitas Simulated is the highest rank for alchemy proficiency. However it isn't. He's wrong. As we can find in Fontaine, Rene had long figured out that the Khaenri'ahns belief was folly and that "yellow" was "simply bait. Red is the final goal." "Red is the foundational principle, the philosopher's stone" or Rubedo. Therefore Citrinitas should just be Albedo's fear of losing control and bringing harm to Mondstadt. This was a very early theory of mine as well.
Of course much of this is predicated on if Durin actually possesses any benevolent traits right? After all he was the evil dragon that poisoned Mondstadt and even Dvalin became one of his victims up until the conclusion of the Mondstadt Archon Quest. Well as it happens, back in v2.3 there were theories suggesting Primordial Albedo had taken on the form of Joel's father Joserf. This was a second plan after he had previously tried taking Joel to his father's remains which was foiled by Eula. In these theories it was suggested that Primordial Albedo didn't quite understand why his actions were being opposed and that this fueled his jealousy about how Albedo had been accepted by the humans. His intention was to help Joel who, as a child didn't hold any bias towards unusual beings like him. On my end, I agreed that he didn't mean any harm and simply didn't know any better which I believed Albedo noticed. He made this comment during the quest: "People do not like poisonous plants. Only a perfect rose can fetch a high price. If the inferior specimens wanted to conceal the fact of their worthlessness, they would have to take the gardener out of the picture using their poisonous thorns." This was Primordial Albedo's jealousy at play but it seems clear his ultimate desire was for acceptance into human society. Albedo goes on to lament about the meaning of life and his grief over supposedly killing him. However at the end of the event Albedo "pulls the prank" on the Traveler by hiding the telltale mark on his neck. He also cryptically tells Paimon about how things could be preserved indefinitely if you bury them on Dragonspine and that if Paimon wanted, he could help bury some sunsettias she wanted to preserve on the mountain before further suggesting that maybe those sunsettias would sprout into an orchard the next time she visited. Here's the direct quote: "Fruit buried on Dragonspine will stay fresh for much longer. However, it is also possible that the fruit will sprout and grow into fruit trees. Who knows, maybe the next time you visit, it will have grown into an orchard. You can water the trees, add fertilizer, and when they finally bear fruit, you will have some fresh Sunsettias." This then leads to Paimon bringing up becoming a gardener and the Traveler wondering why Albedo isn't taking the matter of his doppelganger more seriously. The quest even ends with Albedo saying this and finally ending with this. As this all predated Mini-Durin I and the Joserf theories believed it showed that Durin's potential for good. Of course the Joserf side of things was disproven in the same patch. If players missed Shadows Amidst Snowstorms then a World Quest would be provided to explain Joserf's return thus having nothing to do with Durin. I believed Albedo was hoping to nurture the already existing humanoid form Durin had adopted and help to integrate him into society. After all that's all Durin really wanted. Instead of becoming Joserf, my theory back then was that he had saved Joserf and then tried to guide Joel to him. When Eula interfered he moved to direct Reckless Pallad to him instead. Knowing Pallad's only defining characteristic in the game, it's highly improbable that he just happened to stumble upon Joserf so considering the original story related to Durin, it's much more likely he was led to Joserf in order to save him.
Ok wow so that was long. Now let's get to the rewrite.
If we pretend that Scara got his proper story arc, we no longer need Mini-Durin to make up for it and complicate Albedo's story. Therefore we can return to the Shadows Amidst Snowstorms plot and continue from there. Unlike what miHoYo ended up doing, I wouldn't leave Albedo's story in limbo from v2.3 all the way to v4.8 with just those minor details in the Narzissenkreuz World Quest and Alchemical Ascension event. Instead we'd get at least one more direct chapter in between where we'd discover that Primordial Albedo had survived. Albedo had made peace with him after realizing that (just like Elynas) Durin was just a child and had no intention of causing the destruction it had during the Cataclysm. He didn't know any better.
Ever since that day Albedo had been helping Durin acclimate to human life, treating him like a younger brother though chronologically Durin was the older sibling. (cue some cute banter about that between them) Getting acquainted with this new Durin will be the focal point of the event but there could always be some progress made in Albedo's research or perhaps a small mishap could foreshadow the impending conflict the research will cause. I think it would be best to leave this event lighthearted though, in order to really twist the knife later on. Therefore perhaps Klee played a part in causing the problem, of course unintentionally. If a lesson is to be learned, it may just be as simple as keeping a closer eye on alchemical experiments but not enough in any way that it would hinder Albedo's continued push for the Opus Magnum.
Now while Durin currently exists in the body of Primordial Albedo, just like with Elynas that doesn't mean his toxic body just ceased to exist. The body of Elynas still contains potent Abyssal Energy which created the Breacher Primus monsters, consecrated beasts and also helped mutate Jakob into an Abyssal creature. Just like Durin, despite being dead for so long it wasn't decaying at all and instead was hardening as if creating new armor to protect itself. Therefore with the amount of similarities shared between Durin and Elynas, when Capitano returns all those Khaenri'ahn souls back into the Ley Lines, the Abyssal power they wielded also returns with them. In Inazuma it revitalized Chiyo's Nightmare and caused problems during the Mikawa Flower Festival. (though it could also be that Yae deliberately held the festival in order to draw it out) If it could reinvigorate the severed horn to such a degree it stands to reason it would expedite the revival of both Elynas and Durin. In the case of Elynas, Elynas himself was holding his revival back but the influx of so much Abyssal Energy might overcome his will thus we'd be traveling to Fontaine to assist in dealing with that problem which then reminds the Traveler that Durin is also an Abyssal monster whose body refused to die. They head to Mondstadt to speak to Durin/Primordial Albedo and Albedo but arrive just in time to see an operation being carried out on Dragonspine. Durin's body had indeed stirred and had mutated several local creatures which had caused harm to adventurers. In the end a combined effort by the alchemy team and Durin exerting his own will on his body like Elynas had on his, the fell dragon's body finally becomes permanently dormant. This brings Durin's story full circle as he reclaims his heart but now has the maturity to contain its malevolent power. (it could also easily give him his new Paralogism body and also perhaps justify an Anemo Vision which based on my Element Character Traits Theory reflects that he is still shackled by his past and the responsibility to keep Mondstadt safe from all forms the Abyss may take)
Side Note: What about Simulanka in this version of events? Back in v4.8 I thought that Simulanka really felt detached from anything we were dealing with. All of the previous summer events provided hints about the upcoming region. The Veluriyam Mirage for example was a land maintained by an Oceanid with a "human" population of Hydro Eidolons taking on a human form. Simulanka did nothing for Natlan though so I thought that it would have even been better as a standalone game, some kind of Indy title from miHoYo. Besides setting up for Mini-Durin what other purpose did it really serve? As for what I'd replace Simulanka with for an alternate v4.8, leave a comment if you're interested and I'll look into making a topic for it.
However while this ends Durin's story arc, it still doesn't end Albedo's. Durin now can become a prominent player in that story arc, to do for Albedo what Albedo had done for him. And there's another major player to add to the team. Let's backtrack... again.
At the end of Paralogism Albedo brings up the Heart of Naberius. We were told a long time ago that it was the discovery of this artifact that caused Rhinedottir to leave Albedo in Mondstadt. Naberius is one piece of a much larger puzzle that I won't get into here or the topic will end up too long for reddit but the full details can be found here. The short of it is is that Fischl should also take part in Albedo's story arc.
There are still things to explain though or this section won't make any sense. Right now we've been told that the Ley Lines were created by Teyvat... or in other recent lore that the Ley Lines already existed but Celestia managed to change it into a girdle. This flies in the face of much older lore where Celestia is directly responsible for destroying Ley Lines. For example as it really relates to today's topic about Durin and Dragonspine, the Frostbearing Tree was a Ley Line Tree that Celestia dropped a Divine Nail on for the purpose of destroying it. Theories around this time were full of ideas on why it would do that and none of them considered a Celestia that would have created them only to destroy them. Again this new dev team has not stayed consistent with the lore. Something else? Naberius in the Ars Goetia was inspired from the Greek Cerebrus. Yes the guard dog of the underworld. Again you can check the original topic for the details but for now it's important to know that Fischl aka Amy is related to the God of the Underworld, not Hades but the older lore of Persephone. Therefore there is a solid connection between Naberius and Fischl. Naberius is also commonly depicted as a crow or raven. One guess as to what I'm trying to get at. Thanks to Paralogism Oz is now supposed to be one of the Shining Shades? Now you'd think this might be a deal breaker but it wouldn't be the first time a Shining Shade assisted an Archon, even a fallen one. Istaroth both created and assisted Venti before going to Enkanomiya and assisting Orobashi and most recently assisting Makoto in becoming the Sacred Sakura. It isn't impossible to believe Oz could be a Shining Shade that stuck by the former Archon Amy. However another hitch to this is that Rhinedottir consumed Oz's heart and is now herself the Shining Shade. Good grief. However I still don't think this is a deal breaker. Instead it might even build into a more interesting story so let's roll with it.
Before we get to the final chapter of Albedo's story arc we need to get through the rest of Fischl's. Once Oz's plan comes full circle the planet's Ley Lines should be fully reconnected, Fischl will be depowered permanently with a caveat, Oz will no longer be the shade either and she and Bennett will be additional teammates going forward into Albedo's finale. Now how do we make sense of all this given the current details? Teyvat's Ley Lines are now being stated as creations of Celestia but Kukulkan states it only reformed them into a girdle that protects against the Abyss. We can work with that because we know Teyvat isn't the planet. Teyvat is the false sky. In Hebrew Teyvat or Tevat means ark. Therefore we can suggest that the Ley Lines of Teyvat are meant to protect Celestia's false sky from the Abyss but anything else is removed from its protection. This is why it destroyed the Frostbearing Tree. It didn't want Sal Vindagnyr to survive so it removed it from its protection. The Ley Lines of the planet do exist but they fall outside of what Celestia cares about therefore it may be that Teyvat's Ley Lines are disconnected from the rest of the planet. We saw a small scale version of this in Natlan where Natlan's Ley Lines were separated from the rest of Teyvat's and that's why Natlanese could not set foot outside of the nation for fear of ceasing to exist upon death. Oz just like Istaroth and Paimon grew disillusioned with Phanes and rebelled to aid humanity. In this case it was to burn away the old Archon Fischl who is said to reconnect the Ley Lines thus undermining Celestia's rules just like Focalors had in Fontaine. (also a product of the Ruler of Life) Bennett who is Fischl's oldest friend becomes the anchor to help her cling to her humanity as the Archon part is burned away. (this very old theory I had really coincided with what happened with Furina doesn't it and it's also curious they both happen to be into the arts) Finally, the only real change to this is Rhinedottir's role. In my original sequence of events, she was using Oz's heart to blackmail him into assisting her plan. So why consume it? Well the last time we saw a Fischl-centric plot was well back in v2.8's Summer Fantasia. Oz played a part in a Persona-style "accept your shadow" sequence which really matured Fischl and allowed her to come to terms with who she is. This could have impacted Rhinedottir's scheme and so she's now desperate enough to take on the role of conduit herself, maybe even intending to absorb the "Night Mother" from Fischl and burn away Teyvat on her own. In the end though I think it's still Oz's intention to remove his power from play so Rhinedottir may become significantly weakened or even comatose after this, something that both aggrieves Albedo but also relieves him as her plight seems to be at an end. This will also push Albedo to achieve the Opus Magnum even more, now motivated to finish what his mother started since she will no longer be able.
Side Note: Also when I came up with that Fischl theory, we hadn't gotten to Summer Fantasia yet. I didn't even know Mona had befriended her since Unreconciled Stars. So this team of mine is greatly expanded. First we have Durin who is the main character. Fischl is a secondary main character. But thanks to the events Durin would be accompanied by Eula and Amber as well. Fischl would be accompanied by Mona, Xinyan and Kazuha and guess who happens to connect both parties? Bennett who was also there in Shadows Amidst Snowstorms.
This final chapter would start sometime in the middle of the Khaenri'ah Chapter with Albedo finally achieving the next step in the Opus Magnum, Citrinitas. In his mind this was the ultimate goal. However just as Rene had predicted, Citrinitas was bait and not true ascension. Therefore Albedo does lose control just like he feared he would and transforms into an angelic creature, the form Citrinitas takes compared to the pale homunculus of Albedo. The knights defend Mondstadt against him but they will lose as Albedo possesses power equivalent to the Archons. (We can think of it this way: Negredo is just waste. It's the black soot leftover from destruction. Albedo arises from it and Albedo likened himself to humanity. He himself became an allogene, a human with a Vision. If Rubedo is true ascension or gnosis then the step in between, Citrinitas would be likened to the gods who are also a step in between humanity and the true god of the Imaginary Tree.) The quest would have started before that though as Durin becomes increasingly concerned over Albedo's obsession. As he's still explaining the situation to us, Albedo will transform and so while the knights are fruitlessly fighting him, Durin will take us to Albedo's lab to figure out how to undo Citrinitas. Oz might lead Fischl to us during this time and that's when the plan formulates. Similar to how Bennett anchored Fischl, Durin will be that anchor for Albedo. There must be a core to sustain Citrinitas while Albedo is still settling into the new form just like the power of Naberius was used to sustain Amy. Therefore while Durin confronts Albedo directly, the team will need to breach his body and seek out the core. Eula and Amber along with Eula's company will provide Durin with cover support to give the plan as much time as possible. Mona will scry to help us locate the core (if it gets really dodgy she may even be our hotline to the Hexenzirkel though Venti should also be part of this story) and the strike team of Fischl, Bennett, Xinyan, Kazuha and the Traveler will go and destroy the core. It'll be revealed that while Fischl is fully depowered, she is still an Archon by nature so she has a greater capacity for absorbing elemental energy than a normal human. Together with the Traveler they bring down the "Gesamtkunstwerk" (which just like Opus Magnum - actually Magnum Opus - means a perfected work of art) and fulfilling Fischl's destiny.
The conclusion of this event will explain to us how dangerous Khemia really is, in particular because the Khaenri'ahns are wrong about it. Citrinitas is not the final goal. It was bait. (if our specific accounts had found Rene's note about it we may state it directly in the quest) This plays heavily into the Khaenri'ah Chapter as it's likely even Dainsleif employs Khemia. Now with that revealed, Albedo and all of our other characters that are able will be unified in looking for the real answer, Rubedo and that will be important for the endgame of Genshin.
Wow that was long. I only have one more thing to get through and that's that even my previous rewrites can have this ending.
For the first rewrite, it's more to do with getting Fischl set up than Albedo or Mini-Durin. I'd include a character development episode to acquaint the new Durin to the Traveler and also to us players. (he may become playable too)
The second rewrite is even easier since this current Natlan aftermath story arc would have given us that development for Mini-Durin so by the time of the timeline accurate Paralogism, we would already understand Mini-Durin who goes on to become the new Durin going into that final Albedo chapter. Again Fischl would still need to be set up.
What's most troubling for both of these though is the specific attitude Albedo has at the end of Paralogism. First he now firmly believes what he thought in his Character Story 5 which is that all Rhinedottir wanted for him was to live a normal human life. Second he seems to have already achieved his alchemical goal by creating the new Durin. Based around that there's not really any reason for him to end up committing to researching Citrinitas and then losing control thus his fear and foreshadowing from his Character Quest has been left dangling. Given how it's portrayed, it may even be in bad taste to have Albedo obsess and achieve Citrinitas as it would feel like a backpedal on the character growth we were shown in Paralogism. The only solution I can think of is if Rhinedottir's defeat during the Fischl arc triggers his renewed need to complete the Opus Magnum.
And that's a wrap! Let's see what we get from this full rewrite:
- Mini-Durin and Rhinedottir consuming the Heart of Naberius throws a wrench in several previously established potential storylines so this rewrite attempts to fix that.
- Some time after v2.3 we'd get an event to reveal that Albedo had spared Primordial Albedo. We'd get to know him and realize he honestly meant no harm.
- Over time Durin just becomes another friend of ours from Mondstadt.
- In v5.6 a Fontaine-Mondstadt crossover event takes place where both the bodies of Elynas and Durin are revitalized by the influx of Abyssal Energy caused by the conclusion of the Natlan Archon Quest.
- The event starts in Fontaine with Elynas but this reminds the Traveler of Durin's own undying Abyssal body so the story continues into Mondstadt.
- The operation leads to Durin reabsorbing his entire essence from his corpse so that it finally becomes dormant.
- The story moves on to Fischl where Rhinedottir had wanted to use her former Archon powers towards the Abyss Order's ends.
- Oz helps foil the plan but for his own ends which is to expend the Archon's power to reconnect the Ley Lines of Teyvat with the Ley Lines of the rest of the planet outside the false sky.
- Rhinedottir is incapacitated as a result and this pushes Albedo to push harder into his research.
- Sometime in the middle of the Khaenri'ah Chapter of the game Albedo will finish that research and unleash Citrinitas unwittingly believing that that's the ultimate goal. However Citrinitas is "bait" and unstable so Albedo loses control and transforms into an angelic form with power rivaling the gods.
- Thanks to the development they've had since, we've got a full team of friends more than willing to help.
- Eula's company along with Amber know about Durin and provide him with cover support while he tries to get through to Albedo.
- Fischl is supported by Mona as "the girl in the chair" and a team of Kazuha, Xinyan and the Traveler. They infiltrate the Citrinitas Albedo to destroy its core and Fischl fulfills her destiny of confronting the Gesamtkunstwerk an indirect synonym for Magnum Opus.
- This concludes Albedo's story and also informs us about the dangers of Khaenri'ah's Khemia which perhaps even Dainsleif still employs.
- Knowing Citrinitas was the wrong answer, all of these characters can now work towards Rubedo which gets the ball rolling into the final arc.
- Both previous rewrites can also adopt this ending scenario.
Posted Jun 8, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC