Huiyi.

so prior to this trailer, nicole was represented using this teapot in this cutscene. and, when you hear her speak in the fontaine archon quest, she is represented by the matching teacup. as many people know, this same teapot is found in dawn winery, and the pattern is also found on diluc's clothing.

seeing as this was the only imagery for nicole that we had, i (and many others) theorized that she may be diluc's mother. with her released design, though, some people may be thinking "did her genes even try at all?" and the answer?

of course not!

ragnvindr genes are strong as hell!!!

as proof, here's some images of all known (biological) ragnvindrs, spanning back 2600+ YEARS !!!!! they all have the same long, luscious red hair, no matter what !!

so, no matter who diluc's mom was, he would've looked like crepus regardless because those ragnvindr genes will ALWAYS be the dominant ones and will ALWAYS be representative of the child's phenotype.

ok. so that's the diluc evidence, but we already knew all that. she's probably his mom. ok. but what about kaeya?

well, the most obvious thing is definitely the eyes. most khaenri'ahns (dainsleif, caribert, direidyth, etc.) all have pretty large pupils. kaeya's have always been different, being much smaller. i've always assumed it was because he was half-khaenri'ahn. but so is caribert, and his are still large. so that ruled that out.

nicole's pupils are smaller, though, like his. if nicole and kaeya were related, then his smaller pupils would make much more sense.

the most glaring difference is the shape. it's not exact. khaenri'ahn pupils have more rounded vertices, as the stars are made up of curved lines. nicole's have angular vertices.

while not exactly the same as khaenri'ahn eyes, they're DEFINITELY similar. because of this difference, i have seen theories about her origin.

multiple people say that she is a seelie / angel, and i agree. nicole has a "halo" on her hat, and it glows whenever her translucent wings appear. in addition, in the nod krai preview, there is a large seelie with colors similar to nicole's, and it is examining the tea set that represents nicole.

in addition to this, i have seen theories that khaenri'ahns are descendants of seelies. i don't know much about seelies as a race, so I'll have to do more research later. from what i understand, seelies were created by the heavenly principles, but were then cursed by them. this could be why khaenri'ah and celestia had such intense beef. that's a different topic, though.

if you find the pupil evidence flimsy, i get it. they're technically different shapes (although arlecchino also has abnormally shaped khaenri'ahn pupils). so here's this instead.

nicole and kaeya wear extremely similar earrings. they're almost exactly the same. even in his sailwind shadow outfit, kaeya wears similar earrings. a blue diamond shaped gem with a gold casing and a sharp point at the bottom.

i always believed that the earring was a gift from his father, much like the eye patch. and yes, he always wore the eye patch, even before his fight with diluc. in chapter 7 of the webtoon, you can see kaeya prior to the fight. he's already wearing the eyepatch (and the earring).

this could also be considered flimsy evidence, since it's just similar shapes again. so it's time for me to become Insane.

i also believe it would make sense for nicole to have a connection to the alberich clan in general. kaeya's father would be that connection. this is where my wonderful etymology obsession comes in ! yay !

the surname alberich is derived from the germanic mythological character alberich, who is a dwarven king. alberich itself means king of elves / fairies. in french, he is named oberon, who is the king of the fairies in a midsummer night's dream (shakespeare).

side note, in nibelungenlied, alberich is assigned with protecting nibelung's treasure. in genshin, nibelung is the king of the seven sovereign dragons. just an interesting fact. back on topic now.

functionally, seelies are like will-o'-the-wisps, which are generally considered to be fairies or spirits. and, in other languages, seelie translates to, you guessed it, fairy spirits. so, seelies are like fairies, and alberich is king of the fairies. in addition, seelies lead you to treasure in game, and, as i mentioned before, alberich was tasked as nibelung's treasurer in myths.

nicole, being one of the only seelies left with any sense of self, could have been drawn to the alberich clan. not in a way that makes her do anything that she doesn't want, more like a crow with a shiny object. she could have been drawn to kaeya's father.

so with all of this, there's a possibility that kaeya is related to nicole as well. kaeya's father is mentioned in the game, but never his mother. and he has to have a mother. so, with all this, i believe that nicole is kaeya's mother, as well.

so. nicole is diluc's mom. nicole is also kaeya's mom. kaeya and diluc are biological brothers. they just don't know it because their mom is too busy doing whatever the heck the hexenzirkel witches get up to.

now we just wait for nod krai !!!