An inverted world...

Hi there and wish you a lovely day everyone!

Today we will start a 22-chapter group of theories that will try to explain everything we can about Genshin's story/universe.

INTRODUCTION

These posts exist as an ¨expansion¨ of previous posts:

• [THE TRUTH BEHIND GENSHIN [CHAPTER 1/2]: The role of the villain + THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE]
• [THE TRUTH BEHIND GENSHIN [CHAPTER 2/2]: The reunion of the Twins. Hroptatyr's true identity + the main villain. THE NATURE OF OUR TRAVEL AND THE ORIGINAL SIN]

In these, I try to explain the true nature of the Abyss, the ¨role¨ of both Traveler and Sibling, the importance of destruction, and the ¨looping¨ nature of Genshin's universe, as well as predicting the upcoming story arcs.

• THE PROBLEM: with those posts however, was that they were too long for them to be an easy read, and too short for them to explain everything.
• SUMMARY: Take the previous posts as a ¨summary/TL;DR ***(a really long one)***¨ of this whole ¨Unified Theory of Everything¨. Though these theories will expand beyond the ideas there mentioned, reading them will help us understand the direction of each individual post here made.

The purpose of this ¨Unified Theory of Everything¨ is both to fragment the ideas of those theories so the readers aren't overwhelmed by the different amount of topics clashing there nor the lenght of the post by making shorter posts and explaining each topic with more complexity, ¨adding¨ more detail/proof to the original theory.

• EXPANSION*: For example, in the original theories, Dainsleif's role or the Pitch-Dark Void are mentioned as ¨interesting notes¨/extra info, while they will have their own individual post here.*

But the most important function of this 22-chapter group of posts, will be opening the gates for readers to share their opinions on each individual idea, so together we can try to form an ¨Unified Theory of Everything¨.

So if you have any statement that can help support/disprove these theories, I'd like to encourage you to share it, I'll make sure to respond to it and together try to find a the truth.

INDEX

Over time this list may extend/change.

There are topics of Genshin that aren't discussed in these theories, like the Voyager/ Seutervoinen's role or Hexenzirkel origins, so they may be added as chapters beyond the 22nd one.

• IMPORTANT*: this will be the only post that presents the index.*

Each individual post will be linked to this first post, and after each of them is ready, they will be linked here*:*

NOTE: Chapters with topics resumed inside the previous posts: Yes / No

• CHAPTER 1: The two faces of the Abyss: destruction and nothingness. Yes
• CHAPTER 2: The death of the universe. Yes
• CHAPTER 3: The ¨microcosm¨ and the ¨universe¨. The story inside the story. Yes
• CHAPTER 4: The role of destruction. Yes
• CHAPTER 5: The Hanged Man XII and The Devil XV: ¨The arrogation of mankind¨. Yes
• CHAPTER 6: The cycles of the ¨microcosm¨/Teyvat. Yes
• CHAPTER 7: ¨The god that creates, the abyss that destroys¨. The cycles of the ¨universe¨. Yes
• CHAPTER 8: Asmoday's new master/The power to destroy. Yes
• CHAPTER 9: Hroptatyr's true identity. The serpent of sin and the genesis pearl. Yes
• CHAPTER 10: ¨The Fate of the Abyss¨ + The ravens of Hroptatyr. Yes
• CHAPTER 11: ¨The Will of the Abyss¨. The Wise and Hroptatyr/The villain and the mask. Yes
• CHAPTER 12: Humanity and divinity + The original sin. Yes
• CHAPTER 13: The plan of the Sibling, the ¨Age of Enlightenment¨. Yes
• CHAPTER 14: ¨The end of time¨. Vedrfolnir's message: The ¨death¨ of the mask. Yes
• CHAPTER 15: The heart of the Creator: ¨Paimon is not emergency food!¨ No
• CHAPTER 16: Judgmement XX, Masquerade of the Guilty: ¨The execution of the Creator¨ + The Primordial God Yes
• CHAPTER 17: The ¨Pitch-dark Void¨ and the ¨Sea of Flowes at the End¨: the Elysium beyond reason. Yes
• CHAPTER 18: The gold of the Rhinemaidens and Nibelung's ring: the renunciation of the heart/love. No
• CHAPTER 19: Dainsleif: ¨Seeker of truth¨ Yes
• CHAPTER 20: The seven-fold steps of the ¨microcosm¨/the blueprint of the ¨universe¨. No
• CHAPTER 21: Shades and sinners + The sustainer of the ¨Heavenly Principles¨. No
• CHAPTER 22: The World XXI. The reunion of twins. A new illusory world is displayed. Yes
• To be added/edited

Each chapter presents an individual idea, and each one is built upon the knowledge of the last.

Together, these 22-chapter group posts act as a net of information, like a story. It is highly recommended to read them in order, as usually, they will only make sense when read linearly.

CHAPTER 1: THE TWO FACES OF THE ABYSS

Before jumping into a direct analysis of the story of Genshin, we have to understand how its universe works.

What is the Abyss?

To understand this, we will use two lunar arcanum cards: The Hanged Man XII and The Devil XV. (In later chapters we will analyze them fully, but for now we only want a specific conclusion)

THE HANGED MAN XII

The Hanged Man XII

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.

• THE HANGED MAN: hangs himself upside down from the ¨white tree¨ to see the truth that the demonic heavens had hidden away.
• VERY IMPORTANT: This idea is deeply associated with Odin, god who in norse mythology would hang himself upside down from the Yggdrasil tree (Irminsul for Genshin) so he would understand the mysteries of the cosmos.

NOTE: Hroptatyr's name is one of the names of Odin meaning ¨Wise God¨. His relevance in these theories will be explored in posterior chapters.

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 LIE IS THE INVERTED TRUTH: The knowledge that mortals try to understand is flawed, not because it is false, but because it is the inverted truth. The Hanged Man understands this and decides to put himself upside-down.

This card talks about an ideology, of those who are able to understand how the universe works.

Because to see the truth in an upside-down world, one must be inverted.

THE DEVIL XV

The Devil XV

This card is already written under the perspective of the Hanged Man:

Was there ever a true age of darkness?
Where ignorance and shadow were mistaken for divine,
And the "Devil" was hailed as creator.

• THE DEVIL: the one who wrote this card, the Hanged Man, considers the creator god the Devil, and divine to be ignorance. If for mortals the creator god is the Heavenly Principles, for the Hanged Man, they are the ¨Devil¨ that hides the truth of the universe.

The "Devil" is merely a mask,
Through which the power of darkness is revealed.
[...]
That infinite, boundless, perpetual ¨Age of Enlightenment¨

Only after the mask/Devil is destroyed we can find the truth, to an infinite and boundless ¨Age of Enlightenment¨.

• VERY IMPORTANT: here, the Hanged Man considers the creator god and the Abyss opposites. One creates, the other destroys.

The god who creates and maintains,
The abyss that consumes and destroys.

• THE CONCLUSION WE NEED: And if the Hanged Man is the one who understands the nature of the universe, then it is logic to think that only they understand the true nature of the abyss.
  • THE ABYSS IS DESTRUCTION: the opposite of creation/reason.

DESTRUCTION AND CREATION

• VERY IMPORTANT: Now, we wil use a very useful and recurrent analogy during the 22 chapters. We will use such analogy plenty of times, so if you are interested in the next chapters, be sure to understand it.

¨Colours out of Space¨

There are two forces of nature in constant clash inside the universe of Genshin:

• Reason (blue): The power create, will be the ¨the writting pen¨.
• Abyss (red): The power destroy, will be ¨the eraser¨.

Thanks to the previous analysis of the lunar arcanum cards, we have established the two as opposing forces.

Then what is the purple orb?

In the quest, ¨Colours out of Space¨, we follow the red and blue orbs, who at last clash and create a purple orb that takes us into a ¨different dimension¨.

That different dimension is what we have normally called ¨The Abyss¨ throughout the years, an external dimension to creation without rules where reality begins to blur.

• THE PURPLE ORB IS NOT THE ABYSS: That dimension IS NOT the abyss. Or better said, not exactly the Abyss.

Reason needs a canvas to create. A book for a story to be written in.

• The craft of the writting pen is the written story.
  • Therefore it is implicit to reason that a blank book ever existed.
• The craft of the eraser is the blank book.
  • Therefore it is implicit to the abyss that there is a story to erase.
• KEY POINT: When the eraser meets/¨fuses¨ with the written story, it unveils the blank book by destroying what was written. The blank book is the purple orb.

IMPORTANT NOTE*: We will refer to this ¨blank book¨ as ¨purple abyss¨, and refer to the ¨eraser¨ as the ¨red/pure abyss or the Abyss¨.*

• THE PURPLE ABYSS: is not destruction nor creation but the ¨true¨ world. The fusion of pure red abyss and reason is the blank book, the boundless and undefined world.
  • Everything that could've been but never was. The unlimited world of never-chosen posibilities: the blank book.
• VERY IMPORTANT: Abyss needs to destroy reason to reveal purple abyss, and reason needs purple abyss to create.

Reason ¨writes¨ using the blank book/purple abyss; pure red abyss ¨erases¨ creation and creates the blank book

The red (pure) abyss is destruction.

The purple (mixture) abyss is nothingness.

Then how does nothingness exist?

• THE MIMETIC NATURE OF THE PURPLE ABYSS: purple abyss, the blank book, lacks the power to create. It represents everything that could've existed but it didn't. An infinite and boundless reality... but it lacks the power to create.
  • For the purple abyss to exist and be perceived inside our reality, it needs to imitate reason/creation.

For ¨nothingness¨ to be ¨something¨ imitation is recquired.

¨The colour of his hair was brown, and the colour of her hair was black¨ - Is a written story

Let's ¨erase¨ it partially, using the red and pure abyss upon it.

¨The colour of his hair was >!brown!<, and the colour of her hair was black¨

By ¨erasing¨/¨destroying¨ the colour of his hair, that information has turned into a blank space. That is what the purple abyss represents.

¨The colour of his hair was >!brown !<(black), and the colour of her hair was black¨

For that blank space to ¨exist¨, it imitates the written story/creation of reason. However, for it to be defined such story must exist.

• THE PITCH-DARK VOID: If the Abyss/destruction was to hypothetically destroy the story completely, everything would turn into a blank space, the universe would become the blank book, and if the written story doesn't exist anymore, the purple abyss wouldn't be able to ¨imitate¨ because it wouldn't exist anything to imitate
  • All would turn into nothingness, the pitch-dark void.

!¨The colour of his hair was brown (black), and the colour of her hair was black¨!<

The ¨pitch-dark void¨.

However, these blank spaces, when they just represent a partial erasure of reality, are just perceived as purple abyss, as ¨undefined variables¨.

• VARIABLES: Genshin calls these blank spaces undefined ¨variables¨ inside an equation. We will talk more about these variables when talking about cycles of the universe/Teyvat and the Fate of the Abyss in Chapters 6,7 and 10.

Variables, blank spaces, are all that could be but never was, all that is not defined

The purple abyss, as it doesn't exist, ¨yearns¨ to be created, and acts as a force that ¨envies¨creation. As it lacks the power to create, it imitates.

• PURPLE ABYSS CREATURES: The purple abyss desires to exist. Its monsters desire to exist, not to destroy. They attack creation out of ¨envy¨/instinct to replace, but not because it is within their nature to destroy.

When purple abyss monsters are left alone, they don't seek to destroy, but to replace

THE PURE ABYSS, DESTRUCTION

Not the dimension without rules, but the destructive force against such rules. The red abyss, the true and pure abyss, represents destruction, the ¨eraser¨.

Let's back up the idea that the red abyss is pure and the purple abyss is a mixture:

¨Abyssal energies are all that lie beyond Teyvat's border¨

-Alice

• COLOURS ¨OUT OF SPACE¨: The pure red abyss exists outside the frontiers. ¨The Abyss¨, doesn't come from beneath Teyvat, but from outer space.

Inside Teyvat, the abyss manifests as purple as it has already fused with (blue) reason.

Outside Teyvat, as it couldn't yet fuse with reason, it stays in its primitive form, red: destruction.

The pure red abyss lies in outer space

• RHINEDOTTIR'S CREATURES: were made using Khemia, not reason, so as they were ¨never blue¨, they ¨turned red, not purple¨ and went corrupted due to the raw power of the abyss: destruction.

In fact, it is only thanks to her monsters that we can see the red abyss inside Teyvat.

• ALIEN BLOOD MUTATIONS: her creatures are considered to have mutated and to carry alien blood, for they were vessels of red abyss that hadn't fused with reason, and such force should only exist in outer space.
  • The red abyss is an ¨alien power¨, from beyond this world. (And the reason why the fake sky exists, for us not to see it)

Chunk of Aerosiderite

• THE ¨FUEL¨: The first descender never purified the purple abyss beneath Teyvat, they only ¨sealed¨ Gosoythoth and the other monsters beneath the earth, because this purple abyss serves as ¨fuel¨ for reason to create.
  • Like the writting pen needs the blank book to write in.

Rhinedottir's creations were never made using reason but Khemia, a different form of alchemy that directly operates from the purple abyss.

As they didn't carry the power of reason, instead of purple abyss creatures, they turned into calamities with only one purpose: ¨destroy everything¨.

• RED ABYSS CREATURES: unlike the purple abyss monsters who are peaceful if left alone and just try to exist as an act of ¨envy¨/replacement against creation, the red abyss monsters directly try to destroy everything they can.

Calamities of destruction, pure red abyss creatures

Her creatures inherited a part of the pure red abyss powers:

• RIFTHOUNDS: said to be capable of ¨eroding the world's limits¨ (the ingame corrosion effect): power of destruction.
• DURIN: what the new Durin did while trying to help the hyperborean in the Luna III quest, was, using his power over destruction inherited from the old Durin, destroying possible scenarios for him. The death of the hyperborean was already written down, so as Durin didn't have the power to write a new fate for him, his death was unmovable.
  • NOTE: someone with the raw power of destruction (red abyss) and creation (reason) can rewrite the story. We will talk about this idea in posterior chapters.

Durin only introduced ¨variables¨ using destruction: pure abyss

• IMPORTANT CLUE FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS: Hroptatyr's chess piece's gem being red is not a coincidence.

END OF CHAPTER 1

The point of this chapter is to understand the forces that rule Genshin's universe.

• Reason, the ¨writting¨ pen of creation
  • Reason creates the universe, the ¨written story¨
• Abyss, the ¨eraser¨ of destruction
  • Abyss creates nothingness, the ¨blank book¨

Reason creates, abyss destroys, then purple abyss appears, reason purifies/creates from the purple abyss, the cycle repeats.

The purple abyss is not the ¨true¨ abyss.

The ¨true¨ Abyss is a force described as ¨hateful¨, that carries its nature to destroy everything.

Destruction and nothingness

This idea is VITAL to understand for the upcoming chapters.

Now then, here is the 2nd post for those who want to keep on reading (to be linked soon):

• [UNIFIED THEORY OF EVERYTHING [CHAPTER 2]: The death of the universe]

Ad astra abyssosque!