Raiden Ei’s second story quest, Imperatrix Umbrosa Act 2 was an excellent depiction of her character development! I’m glad we finally have a quest that fleshes her out.
In this video we’ll have a very quick recap of the events, followed by some analysis on the new information received in said quest. Lots of talk about timeline alteration shenanigans, so bring your A-Brain!
**TIMESTAMPS**
0:00 Intro
1:10 Disclaimer
1:43 Quest Recap
6:35 The Parable of the Sacred Sakura
13:00 Understanding Leylines
18:30 The Tree of “Time”
31:15 Outro
**Related/Referenced Videos from this Channel**
Enkanomiya Timeline Meltdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQZhpQuzMVQ
The Sky is a Lie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQE9d8Df16I&t=259s
**Sources & Further Reading/Watching **
Before Sun and Moon
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Before_Sun_and_Moon
Istaroth
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Istaroth
Vera’s Melancholy
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Vera’s_Melancholy
Time and Wind (Island and Quest)
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Time_and_Wind
Venti
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Venti/Voice-Overs
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Venti%27s_Plan
Raiden Ei
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Radiant_Sakura
Yae Miko
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/A_Centuries-Long_Dream
Geo Specters
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Geo_Specter
How Data Deletion Works
https://www.howtogeek.com/125521/htg-explains-why-deleted-files-can-be-recovered-and-how-you-can-prevent-it/
Honkai Impact, “Thus Spoke Apocalypse”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjQy6OeS54
source
*NOTES*
– Interesting update for the scene where we travel through the chaos-space thingy: Upon closer frame-by-frame analysis, every shard here appears to be the Traveler's memories specifically. It DOES change the connotations a bit, but honestly? I think that makes the whole field of Cecelia's even WEIRDER. I don't remember seeing that in game ever…
Wasnt there this one scene where this guy could see the memories of stones or something?
I'm sure this was probably mentioned before but. "Only the future can save the past" has to be a hint of how we can help Khaenri'ah. No?
Hi, how are you 🙂
another amazing video. it was really interesting. when you started to talk about Venti, and that he met us before, i remembered something… in the manga, after Venesa turned into a bird, venti passed by us (traveler). the manga story suppose to be before the game time, so… he met us in the past, or… we will go to the past in future game
"The Universe… the sable essence of the starry void…
Earth… the accumulated memory of time and being…"
– Albedo, Character Demo
They have revealed a lot in this part. "Being" was represented as a Cecilia flower too…
Would “erosion” then be a shuffling of memories, causing a complete and utter change in the person? (Which wouldn’t normally happen) or is it just like, normal memory loss?
Part of me wonders if Celestia and the Heavenly Principles aren't as benevolent as we first thought. And the other Archons aside from Venti saw first hand what Celestia was really like during Khaenri'ah. I imagine Venti already knew because of close ties to Istaroth. And I also wonder if Teyvat is meant to server some greater and selfish purpose the Heavenly Principles have that would cause a negative impact on the people living in Teyvat.
I have a few points for this and even two possible points on why I think Makoto went to Khaneri'ah without Ei.
First we know that Celestia used to be really involved in human affairs. The whole interaction with Enkanomiya. Ruins on Tsurumi island (Which could be more ruins from Enkanomiya that resurfaced some how or could be ruins of another civilization that lived there before Inazuma was founded) And Sal Vindagnyr. Where these civilizations had envoys from Celestia and had regular contact with them. But it seems that no one has heard from celestia in a long time with Celestia seemingly becoming more of a legend. This makes me wonder if after the Cataclysm Istaroth has been doing something to control or even trap Celestia from interfering with Teyvat and the archons believing the archons will turn against Celestia.
Some recent events that make me think that Celestia either will not or cannot interfere with Teyvat right now:
-The Tsaritsa is gathering all the Gnosis which sounds like a pretty big deal and something I don't imagine the Heavenly Principles would be okay with unless it serves their greater goal
-There is no Geo Archon any more. The last time there was not an Archon was the death of the gods of the woods from the Cataclysm and they got replaced pretty quickly from what I understand. Presumably by Lesser Lord Kusanali. Admitedly Morax merely stepped down from being an Archon rather than dying but I still feel it is weird that one of the seven seats Celestia had the gods wage war for is now vacant and they are okay with that.
-Ei renounced Celestia before going into her Plane of Euthymia and we know from context that she done that quite close to the Cataclysm with Yae being given the Gnosis. This means for at least 400 years there has not been a proper electro Archon either. While also looking at what Celestia done to Orobaxi and Sal Vindagyr I do not believe they would take kindly to one of their Archons turning their back on them.
Next we have the Tsaritsa who through Tartaglia we know do be a gentle souls and she is supposedly the Archon of love. Through Dainsleif's dialogue he refers to her as an Archon with no love left for her people but I feel Dainsleif is an unreliable narrator in this regard owing to his obvious hatred of the gods he could see that the Tsaritsa has made the Fatui and is using them as a military force. But either way I feel Tartaglia is more reliable on knowing how the Tsaritsa really is. He also goes to say that she dreams of peace but it is also referenced that she wants to burn away the old world. And this is a goal she is looking to gather all the Gnoses for. And we know that the cataclysm 500 years ago is what likely caused her to go down this path. And then we have Zhongli agreeing to hand over his gnosis only if the Fatui help test Liyue to make sure Liyue can defend itself without his protection. I doubt Zhongli would agree to this if the Tsaritsa's plan would threaten Liyue. Likewise the Archons could easily hold peace in Teyvat now with the only godless civilization destroyed. So that brings up the question of what peace is the Tsaritsa after if not between the nations.
Also I want to address a common misconception I feel a lot of people have. That she sent Signoria specifically to attack Venti to steal the gnosis because she has something against him. But I don't think she told her to attack Venti. Signoria was bitter at Venti for not doing a good enough job protecting Mondstadt and the soilders who went to Khaenri'ah which is where her love perished and I feel she blamed him. I believe her orders were just to get the Gnosis and Signoria took this as a chance to get back on Venti blaming him for the death of her loved one in the cataclysm.
Then there is what happened to Orobaxi. They read the book before Sun and Moon which is Enjou is to be believed chronicles a time before Celestia. Which causes Celestia to order Orobaxi into the Archon War to die to Ei. In turn letting the Enkanomiya people to live on the surface and I feel that Celestia would have destroyed Enkanomiya and everyone living there if Orobaxi refused. But this also brought the Enkanomiya people under the influence of Celestia. Looking at before Sun and Moon I believe Celestia and the Heavenly Principles are the 2nd throne of heaven that came and brought war rending the world asunder.
And finally the recent story we got with Ei and Makoto. With Makoto specifically saying that now Inazuma and the Sacred Sakura tree can break free from the Heavenly Principles/Natural Order. I don't really have too much other than Istaroth helping Makato in saving Inazuma while Celestia seemed more interested in wiping out Khaenri'ah first rather than saving the people of Teyvat.
While typing that last message I had a thought. Venti stayed in Mondstadt to deal with Durin instead of going to Khaenri'ah. Just a further point of speculation to add to Celestia not being able to interfere with Teyvat. What if Venti and Mondstadt would have been punished for Venti not answering the call to go to Khaenri'ah but Venti knew Istaroth was about to make a move on Celestia and that protecting Mondstadt from Durin was more important.
As for why Makoto went to Khaenri'ah without Ei. I believe she either wanted to protect Ei's identity as very few knew they were twins and that she had a Kagemusha. Or that all the Archon's were ordered to go to Khaenri'ah to wipe it out and Makoto didn't want to force that on Ei. And a further hint that Khaenri'ah was outside of time or was put outside of time possibly by Istaroth under the orders of Celestia is Ei's line where she found Makoto had left going to find her and only arriving towards the end only able to catch Makoto's dying breaths. I don't believe a war between gods and a nation capable of killing gods would be over in mere hours it sounds like a conflict that would last days.
And some extra points of speculation about Istaroth and events that have happened. I feel Istaroth might have been the one to 'curse' Dainslief with his immortality not as a punishment but because he is important to Istaroth's plans. Likewise I think the siblings are important as well. The first sibling traveled the world 500 years ago and found the truth of it. Then after meeting the unknown god the traveler awakens 500 years later a few months before the game starts. We still don't have much context on where or how the traveler awoke. But I feel Istaroth may have saved the siblings either right as they were about to be captured or they were sealed away and rescued after (This is hard to speculate too much on though as we do not know how the traveler woke up after being sealed in the cubes) and now the traveler in their journey is important being told to seek out the truth of this world but also helping many important events happen along the way. Like the two biggest examples is helping defend Liyue and passing Morax's test and helping Ei become the Archon she needs to be for her people.
And last up is Istaroth seemingly being stripped from history. I feel that given Istaroth's dominion as a god that they have done this on purpose so they cannot be found by Mortals or the Abyss.
Hoping the timeline-thinkering allows us to retcon Inazuma Archon Quest letdown,specially the Sangonomiya arc.
wait this is not very related but if enkanomiya (+ khaenriah maybe) has no ley lines do you think its like, outside the world tree and has no predetermined fate and all that :0
When you think about it, that one big tree in Mondstat hs never been explained more than 'This is where Venessa ascended to celetsia'. And for some reason it can heal Venti too. Is it some form of Leyline tree???
listening to you I imagine like you being adult Paymon, sometimes you sound so much like her! it's funny. thanks for the video
Very insightful video. But this constant sassy – awkward ish humor really tired me half way through. Still, nice video tho.
A friend and I were talking about Ei's story quest, and among a few theories, we came up with this one:
Ei wasn't specifically alluding to Ishtaros by her mentioning of a "higher power" – we believe that Mihoyo themselves purposely dropped that bit of information to connect Makoto with Ishtaros. It may be possible that Makoto, like Orobashi, "had to die" because she became privy of the knowledge of the world's pre-history, which means that she may have had contact with Ishtaros, who was the one who may have imparted her the concept of time manipulation to create the Sacred Sakura seed, which then would help Ei save Inazuma from the darkness spilling from Khaenri'ah.
So if the ley lines in the domains are petrified (and presumably everywhere else, except for the Sacred Sakura tree/Tsurumi??), perhaps that makes them impossible to read. And if they're impossible to read, no one can learn the truth about Celestia. Hexenzirkel is researching the irminsul trees, so they might just learn about the truth of Celestia. Those were the first thoughts in my head after I watched this. Thanks for the great content!! It made my morning.
I also just had a huge hunch. If Ei changed the past by planting that seed in the future, do you think it's possible that the Traveler will be able to change the calamity by changing something in the future? This has a lot of potential angst. Imagine the Traveler preventing/reversing the calamity, causing the memories of those they know to change. Everyone could potentially forget the Traveler, but they would remember : D
dude a lot of things start to make sense rn, i cant actually place anything anywhere, i was just going with the flow and had some realizations during the video but i forgot them all. I love your videos even tho I don't understand some of them, they're always so fun to watch
always wondered why venti doesn’t have a second quest yet. at first i thought it was because all the second archon story quests give you a weekly and each region has only two, but we already had two in mondstadt so the second quest wasn’t needed for venti. however ive come to realise that mondstadt is the closest to celestia. i believe the story will circle back to mondstadt and we will get venti’s second quest around the end. feel like venti is a bigger part of the lore than most people make him out to be.
aww i love little yanfei 🙂
Sorry I’m late on watching this video but it’s been a busy week!
Now it’s time for my 35 blessed minutes where Ashikai explains to me Genshin lore, thanks for the hard work
I got some catching up do with these video's.
But I was busy with stuff.
But I am going to ask a question to anyone who can answer.
I got yae miko and have her crit rate at 80% and her crit damage to 168%.
My question is as follows is 80% Crit rate and 168% crit damage good?
My question is more concerned with crit damage though.