The original and final villain. Full Hroptatyr plan: the true writer of Genshin Impact. [CHAPER 1]
Have you ever wondered... who is behind everything?
Hello everyone! First of all wish everyone an amazing day! If you are willing to, today we will be entering in detail into theories about the last two sinners Vedrfolnir and Hroptatyr (specially about this one), their actions up to date and goals aswell as potential information about their characters, so then we can theorize about their future plans.
If you've ever thought that Hroptatyr was mysterious/dangerous, well... this post explains why!
Also at the end, we will try to make a conclusion about the whole point and message behind the whole story of Genshin Impact.
Before reading, I have to warn the reader that this post will be INSANELY long to the point of getting divided in 3 different posts like chapters (when the 3 are posted, they will be linked here):
CHAPTER 1: VEDRFOLNIR, HROPTATYR, AND KEY CONCEPTS
CHAPTER 2: THE PLAN UP TO PRESENT DAY
CHAPTER 3: THE FUTURE AND MESSAGE BEHIND GENSHIN IMPACT
But wait, before trying to drag the reader with me through all this information, let's make a little resume of the points theorized, chapter by chapter, so the reader can check any point they desire without having to read the 3 posts. But I warn you. These posts act like a book. Each page exists simultaneously but they are better read in linear order. This resume is meant to give the ¨power of time¨ over the story to the reader, to check every page they desire:
CHAPTER 1:
- Analysis into Vedrfolnir's and Hroptatyr's characters; goals and traits.
- Explaining key concepts for the rest of the posts: ¨blasphemy agaisnt reason¨, ¨Will of the Abyss¨, ¨Entropy and abyss¨, ¨Rhinedottir's creations corruption¨, ¨The cyclic nature of Teyvat¨
CHAPTER 2:
- The past: corrupting Nibelung; Kaenriah and the cataclysm; corrupting Asmoday
- The present: Hroptatyr and the Fatui; Dottore's relation with Hroptatyr; Dottore's experiment; Vedrfolnir, the Abyss Order and the The Loom of Fate
CHAPTER 3:
- The creation of a god beyond reason; The dream of New Kaenriah; The absorbtion of the sinners; The abyss sibling as a prisoner; The coronation of Hroptatyr and the erasure of creation.
- The message behind Genshin Impact, conclusion.
All of this seems very far-fetched, but I'll explain how all of this can be true to some extent. Some of the points are almost already confirmed, some others are a bit more... radical, so let us start then!
FINAL DISCLAIMER: some theories are backed up both from evidence from previous and posterior chapters, so these three posts as a whole work like a net of information. Throughout them, I try to mention the other chapters whenever it is needed and explain briefly and without much detail the ideas in the current chapter so the reader isn't forced to explore the other ones, though is highly recommended. After the posting of the 3, I'll link them all.
CHAPTER 1: VEDRFOLNIR, HROPTATYR AND KEY CONCEPTS
We will start all these theories with the most basic point that we will take as sure to establish the rest of the ideas. The goals of the sinners. Let's first analyze their traits, and try to find their goals:
VEDRFOLNIR, ¨THE VISIONARY¨
¨Vedrfolnir, The Visionary: Sinner of time¨
A man who could see the future, represented with a snake that eats itself, curling around a golden star that pierces it. We have officially seen him twice, as a chess piece in Rerir's memories, and as voice inside a hanging crystal in the Caribert quest. In fact, hes the first sinner we've had direct information about. The ¨blasphemy agaisnt time¨, and Dainsleif's older brother.
Back in Kaenriah we know he held a prestige position, as The Visionary, the prophet of the kingdom and the left hand of Irmin. He represents the fear of the unknown. Kaenriah was an experiment both for the ingame story and for us to realize what obsession and fear does to humans when they're left to grow by themselves. The king blinding Vedrfolnir after hearing the truth is direct proof of this.
Now directly analyzing Vedrfolnir, he always acts worried, as if he was thinking of anything else, yet he never strikes to be a bad guy, at least back in Kaenriah. He shows some level of empathy to Rerir, even though he considers the executor a horrible person. Vedrfolnir reveals he had already been hearing a voice inside his head, the call of the abyss, then that means he had a great conflict inside of him that the abyss would ¨solve¨.
And what other conflict that being worried for the future could someone who can see it have? Vedrfolnir used to be a kind person, maybe too kind, he was aware that people are tied by fate and by the rules of heaven leading them ultimately to destruction and restriction. He believed he was the only one aware of this. Afterall, if we think of the story, the Irminsul, as a book, then Vedrfolnir would see the final page of everyone way before fate reaches them.
To enforce this idea, let's remember what he says when we meet him as a crystal.
¨Oh, dear creature, why do you bow down? For fear of the unknown? Or for a power that you covet?
Oh, dear creature, why do you bow down? For I am no god... I am but a sinner¨
You are like a flower born in sin yet pure, spotless... I know your fate well
You need no longer hold back your resentment, nor accept the countless lies.
Go forth, become a trascendent one, rise beyond the fate bestowed upon you...
And I shall shed a tear, at the end of time... as I gaze back upon your life¨
This interaction explains his character perfectly.
From his love towards others beings as an empathetic deity (also shown while indirectly saving fontaine with his prophecy) to his goals.
Now speaking of such love, we can introduce the mythological character of Vedrfolnir, a hawk that lies beetween the eyes of an unnamed eagle (sometimes refered to as Hræsvelgr) at the top of Yggdrasil. The eagle represents order, and as the ¨demonic heavens¨ in Genshin are told to hang from the top of the silver tree, its easy to assume that the Heavenly Principles are such eagle. Then Vedrfolnir is the closest creature to the Heavenly Principles.
But this doesn't make sense right? Vedrfolnir as he himself says, mentions the ¨countless lies¨ and emphatizes that hes a sinner and not a god who would make creatures bow down before him. He'd rather have them trascend their fates.
Then the similarity is not in ideals, but in mentality.
Both the HP and Vedrfolnir are paternal figures, one sets rules because it believes humans would destroy themselves without them, the other thinks these rules destroy humans and believes they should live without them. Both want to preserve, both are saviours/sustainers of humanity, and both act out of fear.
Now I wanna introduce the concept of the ¨hanged man¨ using The Hanged Man XII Lunar Arcanum:
The opulent light sinks into the dark depths beneath the earth,
Seeking to redeem the radiance that is fated to be extinguished.
Yet "redemption" is a word filled with arrogance,
There is an implicit meaning hidden within,
That mortals have done some clear wrong that must be corrected.
The path where "strength" is sacrificed for "human wisdom",
Is that of the "Hanged Man" who seeks to glimpse the mysteries of the demonic heavens hanging from the white tree.
Though the intelligence that mortals grasp is flawed,
It cannot be said to be false.
Quite the opposite, for reflected in his inverted eyes,
Is a pure truth illuminated beneath infinite brilliance.
The ¨hanged man¨, as the homonym lunar arcanum card says, is the figure of the one who walks a path of self sacrifice in order to create a world were reason doesn't rule. He is the one who understands the rules and the nature of the craft of reason, and decides it must be put upside down (this does not imply reversing the rules, but finding perfection in a world without any divine limit).
Now if we go by this definition, the first characters that could come to our mind could be Dottore, Hroptatyr (explained later) or Rauthvangi, but, as I said in the previous paragraph, Vedrfolnir understands fate perfectly, in fact, he understands it too well, and decides that he must put it upside down, destroy this rule and the ¨opression¨ of reason.
Vedrfolnir is a ¨hanged man¨. This is also symbolized in his crystal hanging upside down the first time we see him. What he tells to us in this ocassion, while it can be thought as a speech he tells to any being which he considers himself the saviour of, is specifically what future Vedrfolnir told to his past self in Kaenriah.
- Why do you bow down? For fear of the unknown, for a power that you covet?: Why do you bow down before fate, because you are afraid, or do you wish to have the power to change it.
- A flower born in sin yet pure, spotless: Humans as born sinners yet beautiful, then the problem is he who deems us sinners.
- Become a trascendent one, rise beyond the fate bestowed upon you: this doesn't refer to the Traveler since they are already external to fate, he wants to trascend too: ¨the trascendent ones¨ are the five great sinners of Kaenriah.
And most importantly, he says ¨the end of time¨ meaning he pictures an event that will represent the cease of time's existance, far in the future: the end of the story.
Vedrfolnir wants to destroy reason, out of kindness and fear.
HROPTATYR, ¨THE WISE¨
¨Hroptatyr, The Wise: sinner of reason¨
The president of the Universitas Magistrorum and Chief Royal Mage of Kaenriah, represented by a laughing mask who wears a golden crown. We have only seen him once, in Rerir's memories. Hes the sinner we know the least about, and the last that was presented to us. The ¨blasphemy against reason¨.
In Kaenriah he was the second most important figure of the kingdom, only after the king himself, who believed of Hroptatyr to be his most loyal servant as the mage always was by his side and encouraged him to explore the power of the abyss.
¨..by far the most favoured among the Four Pillars of Kaenriah¨ - Rhinedottir
We know nothing about his backstory directly, however, we can figure out his role in the story by observation of other clues rather than his past alone. Let's analyze what we can about his story in Kaenriah.
Rhinedottir says he's slimmy and dislikes him.
Hroptatyr couldv've had even more power than the king, considering his madness, while he stayed ¨in the shadows¨ not being framed as the direct responsible of Kaenriah's decissions . In fact, when Dain's group talk about Irmin blinding Vedrfolnir, Hroptatyr explicitly talks about ¨what the king wants¨ making him the only one to blame, and when he talks about appeasing the king, he points to the ¨interests of the Universitas Magistrorum¨.
Afterall, his name is one of Odin's names, and we know that Odin was a god who would rather stay observing than directly interfering. The deceitful nature of Hroptatyr is vastly explored in Rerir's backstory, for example, with him presenting himself as just ¨a humble servant of the king¨ and another subtle detail:
When Dainsleif presents his plan of irrupting in the palace by force, Hroptatyr not only is the first but the only one of the group that directly speaks up to state how dangerous it can be. He is the only one who seems ¨unsure¨.
¨That's too far dangerous! And don't forget, Dainsleif, you're captain of the royal guard... You swore an oath to the throne.¨ - Hroptatyr
That doubt in Hroptatyr is the perfect way to disguise his real interest. He knew that Dainsleif, as his brother was being held captive, would start his rebellion anyways, so to make sure nobody would suspect of him, he makes everyone know that he thinks it's a bad idea, when in reality, he's the most interested of the group.
Another important detail is hidden behind his sword, ¨Starkuthr¨, who refers to the giant hero Starkaðr, who in norse mythology was cursed by his power to become a monster and commit atrocities. The only mythological stories from the sinner's weapons that mention regicide are from ¨Starkuthr¨ and ¨Barnstokkr¨ (Rerir's weapon), and since Rerir didn't have such ambitions and in the story of Starkaðr regicide it's not mentioned once but three times, we can assume by implication that Hroptatyr was the one who killed Irmin.
Knowing that the king was beyond obsessed with the abyss at that point, it would be logical to assume he was the only one with access to the abyss sibling's reserve of abyss (if Hroptatyr or Vedrfolnir would have that access, they would've already taken it before that night), which leads us to think that during Surtalogi's and Dainsleif's intervention at the gates of the royal palace, the king would've tried to use such power to defend himself.
And the king, after Vedrfolnir being blinded, would only trust one person amidst the riot: Hroptatyr, the one who was always by his side. The Chief Royal Mage betrayed and killed Irmin, to later divide the power of the abyss beewteen the later known as sinners. This idea will be further explored in chapters 2 and 3.
Now what are Hroptatyr's motivations if he was willing to do all of this.
He is the ¨blasphemy agaisnt reason¨, the easiest of the 5 blasphemies to define.
For this we first we have to know what reason is so we will use an analogy. Reason is the power to define and decide, to set limits upon the infinite. Reason, for this analogy, will be the power to write a story, ¨the power of words¨. A power meant to express a dream in reality. Then the antagonic power to this is not a different story/different writting, but the power to erase. The end of dreams. The ¨blasphemy against reason¨ is destroying the rules that reason sets.
Now if we remember Hroptatyr is one of Odin's names (meaning Wise God), then we can associate him to the norse god, a god who sacrificed his eye and hanged himself upside down from the Yggdrasil (Irminsul) to seek for the truth of the universe. Fits perfectly with the description of The Hanged Man XII. Hroptatyr is not just another ¨hanged man¨, but the archetype of this ideology. It is safe to assume then that:
Hroptatyr wants to destroy reason, out of ambition and curiosity.
As it was observed as a conclusion for both characters, both have the same objective, to end and erase the rules made by reason. It's almost sure they knew eachother. Both heard the whispers of the abyss. Vedrfolnir knew what would happen the night of the cataclysm. We don't know exactly about their relationship in the times of Kaenriah. The proof that they are working together rather lies in logical deduction and subtle hints in posterior story/lore.
Before jumping into the plan let's finish chapter 1 with some VITAL key concepts.
KEY EXPLANATIONS
First of all, let's define some ideas we left hanging earlier. We understand now what the ¨blasphemy against reason¨ means, however, we are yet do determine what does it mean for Hroptatyr to hold such title. We will use the The Devil XV lunar arcanum for this:
Was there ever a true age of darkness?
Where ignorance and shadow were mistaken for divine,
And the "Devil" was hailed as creator.
Where violence and suffering ran rampant,
A "Dark Age" of savagery that burned through civilization.
The "Devil" is merely a mask,
Through which the power of darkness is revealed.
The god who creates and maintains,
The abyss that consumes and destroys.
That infinite, boundless, perpetual "Age of Enlightenment."
First and most important thing that comes clear is that the text here was written under the perspective of a ¨hanged man¨: ¨where ignorance and shadow were mistaken for divine¨, the one divine ruler and creator is framed as the ¨Devil¨ and as a mask to hide the truth of the world, truth (¨the power of darkness¨) which will lead to a boundless and infinite world (destruction of reason).
For whoever writting this card, the god of reason (Heavenly Principles) was the devil: reason is darkness, and its destruction, enlightment.
It is also implied that for those who consider the Heavenly Principles the creator god, the ¨hanged man¨, and now talking directly about Hroptatyr, is symbolically the devil.
Another crucial implication is both this god and abyss being opposing forces: one creates, the other destroys.
But the abyss is just a force of nature, it has no conscience. Like the wind that erodes the rock. However, it is shown throughout the story as making deliberate and coordinated actions, and personified in some ocassions (in fact in The Devil XV abyss even shows a laughing face of its own).
Then there must be something or someone behind it. A conscience that carries the nature of abyss to destroy reason, and turns such nature into a plan, a desire, to burn the world and put it upside down, to break the limits/rules made by the throne in the demonic heavens. That is what ¨the blasphemy against reason¨ means. This theory says then, that Hroptatyr is something we can call as the ¨Will of the Abyss¨, a conscient being that plots against reason as a ¨personified abyss¨, the living vessel for a natural force: to consume and destroy.
Abyss is represented as a laughing face in a purple-ish mist that extends its claws upon living beings (specially in that picture, upon Rhinedottir's creations: Durin and the rifthounds) which can be seen as the actions of this ¨Will of the Abyss¨.
This would also explain why Rhinedottir hates Hroptatyr so much, because if he is such ¨Will of the Abyss¨, then he's the one behind her creatures turning evil and corrupted, and, as apathic as she can seem to be, she has shown to actually care in her way about them while talking to the new Durin and to Albedo, realizing she may not be fit to be their mother.
Durin's story quest talks specially about him overcoming his tragic and fatal fate, but different to others who try to trascend their fates, Durin's fate was not designed by reason, but by abyss. His name carried the fate of the evil dragon Durin, born and corrupted by the abyss.
This somehow can explain that there is also a notion of fate, of a story, created by the abyss. And as the HP is the writter of reason, Hroptatyr could be the writter of the abyss to some extent.
ENTROPY OR ABYSS?
And before jumping into the next section, someone could ask, isn't Gosoythoth already portrayed to be an entity behind the abyss? Well yes and no.
There are two different forms of abyss, one represented with purple colours, and one represented with red colours. We've normally seen the first one, the purple abyss, when talking about abyssal creatures, abyssal corruption or layers of abyss beneath Teyvat.
Outside Teyvat it lies the red abyss. Alice confirms us this. The universe is dying, the abyss is slowly consuming it, the red abyss at least. Any form of abyssal usage accelerates this process. The army that destroyed Skirk's world was a preventive and desperate measure to avoid her race to adapt to abyss and use it. We also see this red abyss in the remains of Elynas and Durin or in Bakunawa's offspring. So what is the difference beetween the two?
Manifestations of the ¨red abyss¨
Let's go back to the quest ¨Colours out of Space¨. Two orbs, one red and one blue, clash with eachother in harmony, creating a great purple orb that turns into a getaway for us to enter a chaotic purple dimension.
The blue orb represents reason, the red orb represents entropy. Creation and destruction. The purple orb is what we usually call the abyss, a dimension, a reality without rules.
HOWEVER, in The Devil XV, the abyss is portrayed not as this dimension without rules, but as the destructive force, and knowing that this card was written under the perspective of a ¨hanged man¨, then it's logical to assume they have the best understatement of what the abyss really is. The abyss is the red orb.
The red abyss is the pure abyss, entropy, chaos, not a dimension without rules, but the destructive force agaisnt such rules. The purple orb is not exactly abyss, but what appears when fusing abyss and reason: ¨truth¨. We will call this purple abyss ¨truth¨ now. But how can we support this theory?
- Alice confirms us that what lies beyond the frontiers is the abyss, but it is the red abyss, entropy, because it has not reached Teyvat (creation of reason) to fuse with it, to destroy it. Abyss inside Teyvat takes the form of ¨truth¨, of purple colours, because it has already fused with reason. That is also why Kaenriahns were so obsessed with this purple abyss, because it was the ¨truth¨ the divine heavens hid from Teyvat: the boundless world.
- The descenders have the power to purify this purple abyss, and yet the first descender never tried to purify the abyss beneath Teyvat: because the power of reason, of logos, is sustained by this ¨truth¨. The purple abyss is needed as fuel to create.
- Rhinedottir's creatures present red abyss, and that's because they were created using the Art of Khemia, not the power of reason: the abyss that corrupted them couldn't fuse with reason, therefore it stays in it's primal form, red. The fate of Durin was written by the abyss.
- The blood of the rifthounds is said to be capable of ¨eroding the world's limits¨. Their blood contains pure red abyss, the power of destruction.
- The ¨blasphemy against reason¨ is the destruction of the rules made by the heavens, therefore the colour used for Hroptatyr's gem in his chess piece is red, exactly as the pure red abyss is represented.
- What Durin does while trying to help during the hyperborean calamities of the past in the Luna III AQ, is using abyssal power to erase possible outcomes. The fate was sealed anyways, because he didn't have the power to write a new story for the past. What he did was ¨introducing plotholes¨ to the story by ¨destroying¨ the notion of how the hyperborean would meet his death, yet his death was already decided.
Red is abyss, blue is reason, purple is ¨truth¨.
Abyss is destruction. Inside Teyvat, ¨truth¨ is called abyss because we are inside the creation of reason, so every abyssal manifestation is perceived as purple (it's the fusion of abyss and reason).
The pure and true abyss is red and lies beyond Teyvat, as just a natural force.
Now to finish this section, let's explain this inside an analogy. Remember the comparison reason=writting pen, abyss=eraser?
It is implicit in this analogy that reason has a canvas to write in, a book that exists for a story to be written in. Now many people have said that the abyss is somewhat like ink that reason uses to create. However, the problem with that is that if abyss was to consume creation, then what would be left would be a book covered with ink. Yes it wouldn't be defined and it would have no rules, but it would be as ¨deceitful¨ to the true nature of the world as a book with a story would be.
The purple abyss, the ¨truth¨, is not ink but the blank book.
The book is the true nature of the world. Reason needs a canvas, the blank book, to create.
The opulent light sinks into the dark depths beneath the earth,
Seeking to redeem the radiance that is fated to be extinguished.
¨The Hanged Man XII¨
The book is what the pen needs to write a story down. The HP sealed the purple abyss with Gosoythoth to have a ¨canvas¨ for its creation. But the book is implicit to the nature of reason and not abyss. The craft of the eraser is nothingness, and nothingness can exist without a blank book.
When eraser (red) and words (blue) ¨fuse¨, we get the blank book (purple), the true world. The blank book is the most primal state of the universe, an unrestricted reality where rules and limits dissapear, exactly how the purple abyss is described to be.
The book is the boundless world and the truth.
The Heavenly Principles is the writer of the story, the other descenders, specially the Travelers, are readers.
A reader has the capacity to become a ¨new writer¨ by reimagining the story the writter has created.
Nibelung was the original writter, who left the Irminsul uncompleted scared of not being able to finish his craft (the threat of the abyss) and in search for inspiration. The HP became the writer while Nibelung was away, they imagined the rest of the story and characters, so Nibelung turned into a reader of a new author, which supports the theory of Nibelung being the 2nd descender, the second reader. The power of logos, reason, is the power to imagine a dream into reality. The abyss is the eraser and the ¨truth¨ (the purple abyss) is a blank space.
Then what does a reader cleansing abyss mean?
What descenders do when purifying abyss is imagining what happens when something isn't defined in the story. Example:
- If Im describing a character but don't state the colour of their hair, then the reader (descender) must imagine a colour to their liking. The undefined colour is the purple abyss, truth, a reality that can be whatever the reader desires. Descenders cleanse this abyss by imagining what could fill these blank spaces. That is the power of logos. The red abyss, destruction, creates this blank spaces by erasing what was already written down, then someone who controls this abyss (red) and has the power of logos (blue), can erase and rewrite, reimagine reality.
Now we can translate the goals of both Hroptatyr and Vedrfolnir:
Vedrfolnir wants to reach the state of the blank book so everyone can trascend their fates and everyone to be the writer of their own stories. Hroptatyr wants to release the truth of the blank book upon the world, the unlimited knowledge that lies beyond the lies of reason.
Only destruction can allow this. Only by becoming a new writer of the story they can achieve this. This will be explored in chapter 3.
THE CYCLIC NATURE OF TEYVAT
Following this line, in some way, the abyss and the descenders are the ultimate experimentators, a perfect analogy for human growth.
The abyss introduces new ¨variables¨ and observes.
These variables are already mentioned ingame. That is how they call the blank spaces in the story, a variable, because defining these variables changes the outcome of the world's formula.
These variables are the reason behind the cyclic nature of Teyvat. The formula is always the same, with new variables, the outcome is different.
A new variable is introduced upon the partial erasure of reality, by ¨undefining¨ reality.
Each variable generates changes for every cycle so then descenders, the readers, rewrite a new story. The abyss erases reality and creates new variables and therefore new cycles. The characters revive through the leylines unless they get tainted by the abyss (they are erased/forgotten/discarded for the story).
The story repeats itself with the same characters and same plot, but different interpretations (Ex: the rebellion of the cryo archon against the heavens).
This is the cyclic nature of Teyvat. The abyss creates each cycle and observes, so that way, each cycle is an experiment both for the observers (abyss and descenders) and for the characters, to grow further.
This enforces the theory of Hroptatyr being the ¨Will of the Abyss¨ as the one who watches each cycle as experiments to gather knowledge. He is as much of a witness of the world as we, descenders, are.
FOR CHAPTER 2
This is the end of the chapter 1.
The initial chapter serves as way of establishing the bases of the whole theory about Hroptatyr's and Vedrfolnir's plan. We will explore the past and present in the 2nd chapter, and the future in the 3rd.
If you have read until here. Thank you for your patience!
Here it will be soon linked the 2nd chapter for anyone who desires to continue reading and now enter in depth into the theory:
CHAPTER 2: THE PLAN UP TO PRESENT DAY
Since anything that studies these 2 characters is still very difuse, any objection/enforcement of these theories is highly appreciated. Have a good day and see you in the 2nd chapter!
Posted Feb 12, 2026, 11:48 AM UTC