nothing, and then suddenly everything

The Crucible and the Verdict of the Soul

Defined literally, a crucible is a heat-resistant vessel in which metals or other substances can be melted, purified, and transformed. Alchemy requires a crucible; these are the containers in which alchemy occurs.

Figuratively, a crucible is an extreme or agonizing trial through which a person is transformed, an intensely difficult process that “refines” worldviews. It is a “trial by fire,” if you will.

In the video description for Crucible of Causality, we learn that Dottore is about to be judged by his own soul.

"Where countless broken souls converge, he shall hear the verdict of his own soul."

Both definitions of the crucible are important to what I think is going on with Dottore.

3 + 4 = 7 : The Oldest Spiritual Equation

Last patch, many folks pointed out Dottore’s connection to the numbers 3,4, and 7 (prompted, I believe, by YouTuber CatWithBlueHat)

A quick overview of the associations:

Dottore shows up in patches 3, 4, and 7 of the Nod-Krai update cycle

We encounter Dottore in Inazuma (3), Sumeru (4), and Nod-Krai (7)

Dottore is opposed by the Harbingers who currently occupy the 3rd, 4th, and 7th seats (Columbina, Arlecchino, Sandrone)

The three songs that play when he’s on screen are Threefold Falsehood, Four Unspeakables, and Prajnaparamitopadesa to Quell Seven Calamities

On their own, each of these could be pure coincidence, but the song names give credence to all the rest. Localization issues aside, Genshin has always been extremely precise with their references.

3 + 4 = 7 is an enormously significant equation in many traditions Genshin borrows from. In game, we can look at the 3 Moon Sisters, the 4 Shades, and the 7 Archons/elements as examples of how fundamental these numbers are to Teyvat.

But these numbers are also central to alchemy. In alchemical theory and practice, 3 refers to the tria prima (three primes or three principles). These are:

A combustible element: sulfur

A fluid element: mercury

A permanent element: salt

Renaissance alchemist Paracelsus believed that, by understanding the tria prima, one could cure all diseases. He illustrated his theories by burning a piece of wood, explaining fire stood in for the work of sulfur, smoke as mercury, and the ash left behind as salt. More importantly, he extended this to human identity with salt (ash) representing the body, mercury (smoke) representing the spirit, and sulfur (fire) representing the soul.

The 4, meanwhile, represents the Aristotelian four elements (fire, water, earth, air). Reconciling or overlapping the 3 and the 4 lead to diagrams like these, which sought to capture a coherent understanding of the world.

The universe, folks

Genshin makes explicit reference to these ideas in the Fontaine World Quests and again in Act VII of the Nod-Krai quest. In the Explications on the Chymical Marriage readable, we learn:

Three pertains to appearance, while four pertains to the intrinsic. Seven, obtained through their overlap, constitute the number of paths for vertical transcendence.

Worth mentioning: The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz is an actual book circa 1459 that’s divided into 7 journeys and deals with death, purification, trials, resurrection, and ascension.

I’ll put a pin in 347 for now, but I’ll come back to it in a bit.

The Seven Stages of Alchemical Transmutation

Transmutation is alchemy’s central goal with the most popular example being turning lead into gold. The Magnum Opus (Great Work) aimed to discover the Philosopher’s Stone, a substance capable of turning base metal into gold. They also believed it could be used to make the Elixir of Immortality.

In esoteric views of alchemy, however, the transmutation of materials into gold was a metaphor for spiritual transformation. The process of transmutation was instead meant to symbolize a transformation from an imperfect, limited, ignorant state of being to an evolved one that understands the hidden truth of this world.

Basically everything Moon Goddess Dottore the Heretic of the False moon talks about.

In Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, which takes these alchemical principles and uses them for psychotherapy, the aim is to achieve the actualization of the self. To do so, a person has to move beyond their own ego, which Jung refers to as the “organ” of consciousness.

Dottore is peak ego, the “I” as opposed to the “we” of the other Segments, the most rational, radical, selfish part of himself. Pantalone’s explicit reference to Dottore’s ego in their absolutely shameless flirting conversation in the Sanctuary of Surasthana feels quite pointed.

So what does the actual alchemical/enlightenment process look like? Over the years, alchemists proposed processes with varying numbers of steps, some with 12, some with 14, some with… you guessed it, 7. Given how central 7 is in Teyvat and the 6.6 AQ, that’s what I’m going with.

I’ve broken down each step into the Material (chemical) process and the Psychological (spiritual) process and then tried to detail what I think is going on.

1. Calcination

Material: Heating a material over flame until it turns to ash Psychological: The initial step of breaking down one’s ego, which involves severing one’s worldly attachments

Almost like, you know, saying a final goodbye to the only human being who has ever mattered to you.

2. Dissolution (or Sublimation)

Material: Dissolving these ashes into water Psychological: Submerging oneself into the unconscious with the goal of resurfacing the parts of the self that had been hidden or suppressed by the conscious mind

Falling into a molten pit full of the parts of himself that he quite literally killed three years ago.

3. Separation

Material: Isolating and filtering the products of dissolution Psychological: Determining which parts of this surfaced material should be separated and which should be re-integrated

This is the moment when Dottore “shall hear the verdict of his own soul.”

4. Conjunction

Material: Forming a new substance out of the separated elements that are being preserved Psychological: Merging the conscious and unconscious elements so that the true self can emerge from the union of dualities

Here is where Dottore merges with his fractured self and begins to unify the soul.

5. Fermentation (or Putrefaction)

Material: Inducing the chemical breakdown of the substance by introducing bacteria or other micro-organisms Psychological: Inducing suffering through challenge and testing to promote resilience and spiritual awakening

He’s straight up in a burning tree having to grapple with all the versions of himself. No one hates Dottore more than Dottore. This is definitely suffering.

But imagine this going on for 5 days

6. Distillation

Material: Further refining or purifying the solution by condensing it Psychological: Purifying the spirit by elevating one’s awareness into the collective self so that it is no longer controlled by the ego

Dottore, the ego, is no longer above the other Segments and the original. He no longer has the power to destroy them.

7. Coagulation

Material: Transformation to a solid state. This is the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Immortality Psychological: The union of matter and spirit to create an aligned whole that is capable of perceiving the world on all levels of consciousness. This is Nirvana.

This goes beyond the temporary enlightenment of borrowing the Moon Goddesses’ powers. This is the true transcendence of 7—the overlap of the appearance and the intrinsic.

There’s an argument to be made that Zandik already achieved alchemical enlightenment because his death perfected the Elixir of Immortality, which Pantalone has been consuming for the last three centuries. But that was only the material side. He has yet to undergo the psychological transmutation. Dottore couldn’t because, as a Segment, his worldview is fixed.

Ironically, Dottore believed he had attained enlightenment when he infiltrated Irminsul. Instead, just like the Heretic of the False Moon had to die to infiltrate Irminsul and be re-unified with the other half of that soul to become the Datattore, Dottore can only reach enlightenment after his (ego) death.

The description of his boss domain, Binding Field of Universal Nirvana

The Pyro Gnosis

Now back to 3-4-7. In addition to those numbers being all over Dottore and found in Chymical Marriage quest item, 347 also appears in Mavuika’s animated short as the last number she passes when she drives through time.

Initially, I read this as her “vertical ascension” to godhood. But, while she took up the position of Pyro Archon when she revived in the present, she was already an Archon before that.

What if, instead, the 347 in her trailer is still about Dottore. What if it’s there as a nod to the role the Pyro Gnosis plays in his project of transcending his own limitations.

Nahida and the Traveler use the Pyro Gnosis to burn Irminsul… the same Gnosis that powered the Sacred Flame capable of raising people from the dead. In fact, that was the last thing we saw the Pyro Gnosis do at the end of the Natlan arc.

In the denouement of 6.6, Nahida tells us that Irminsul burned for 7 days and 7 nights. I refuse to believe that this is a coincidence. The game itself tells us that 7 is the number of vertical transcendence, ascension, enlightenment, etc.

To me, this seven-day convergence in the Pyro-Gnosis-heated crucible sounds a lot like the psychological alchemical process above, a process of breaking down and confronting the constitutive elements of the self, discarding what does not serve, and then unifying what’s left into an enlightened whole that is no longer controlled by the ego. The Pyro Gnosis’s fire is meant to purify not destroy.

Redemption Via Analytical Psychology

The benefit of this transformation is that it effectively “cleanses” Zandik in the same way Scaramouche’s rebirth as Wanderer “cleanses” him for playability. It establishes a distance between the transmuted Zandik and the Dottore who murdered Niwa on screen.

We have also seen this process occur with Durin, who was brought back and redeemed using the Art of Khemia. In the Magnum Opus, Alchemy is described through four stages attributed to chemical color changes: Nigredo (black), Albedo (white), Citrinatas (yellow), and Rubedo (red-purple). Unsurprisingly, Durin’s story quest is titled Draco Rubedo.

So, Albedo and Rubedo are already accounted for with their playable counterparts. (I would also offer that Citrinatas could be Rhinedottir i.e. Gold who has quite literally merged with Naberius, but that’s a whole other essay).

Perhaps, then, Dottore will be our next alchemically enlightened character, this one corresponding to the burnt matter of the initial calcination/burning process. In Jung’s analytical psychology, the nigredo phase stands in for “the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within.”

So basically...

Where countless broken souls converge, he shall hear the verdict of his own soul.

(Incidentally, this could also explain why they made the odd aesthetic choice to represent Dattatore as a void shadow with a mouth).

I am desperately going to cling to this hope.

Already, I’ve seen a shift in how people are viewing Zandik/Dottore. Opinions toward him have become a lot more sympathetic, and I think this is a very canny, deliberate move on Hoyo’s part, paving the way for an eventual resurrection of a more balanced, enlightened whole.

The Intolerable Truth of the World

At the end of the 3.2 Archon Quest, after the Traveler and Nahida have seemingly purified Irminsul from the stain of Forbidden Knowledge, Dottore shows up for our annual Fatui-mandated Gnosis negotiation.

The first thing he does is knock the Traveler out while barely lifting a finger. This will be important to keep in mind. If Dottore didn’t intend to be defeated in Nod-Krai, he could have disarmed the Traveler at any point. He has the technology to do so.

With the Traveler unconscious and no witnesses around Dottore offers to tell Nahida about the false sky, the secret hidden by Irminsul concerning the “truth” of this world.

Despite knowing the dangers of Forbidden Knowledge—and despite knowing how dangerous Dottore is himself—Nahida agrees not only to hear him out but also to do so in exchange for her Gnosis.

The system that she is meant to protect—that she is quite literally a part of—has been hiding truth from her. Would this revelation not be enough to shake her convictions in the Heavenly Principles? Would Nahida, the God of Wisdom, be content to rule in a world that is lying to the people and binding their free will ? I don’t think so.

My out of pocket theory is that she and Dottore established the importance of divesting Teyvat of Irminsul’s control in the Sanctuary of Surasthana three years ago with the goal of liberating the world from pre-programmed destiny. This was the true agreement in exchange for the Gnoses, an agreement that would be paid in full with the final missing chess piece. Dottore’s note about it being time to say goodbye seems a little pointed in retrospect.

The Doctor: Once I finish telling you about this, it will be time for me to say goodbye. The Doctor: With negotiations, we've all gotten what we wanted. I'm very glad I got to meet you like this.

But the goodbye doesn’t come at the end of 3.2. It takes place in 6.6.

Instead, as their dialogue wraps up in the Sanctuary, the game’s narration tells us:

Several days seems like more than enough time for the two most brilliant minds in Teyvat to hatch a heretical plan to overthrow the false fates. That “everything falls silent” also seems a little suspect now that we know Dottore can use Irminsul to create a “bubble of silence” to shield Sumeru from Celestia’s eyes. They would have been able to script what comes next without any interference from the Shades.

The Theatre of Rebellion

So far, the game has shown us quite a few ways in which the Archons have performed surrendering or losing their Gnoses. Venti had his “forcibly” torn from him by Signora (we don’t actually believe it would have been that easy, do we?). Zhongli has his “contract to end all contracts.” Focalors has her 500 year play. Nahida is  reminded of the “disparity” between her combat abilities and Dottore’s.

All these reasons for forfeiting their Gnoses to the Harbingers don’t seem particularly compelling when we look at them through human intuition. But they might appear convincing enough to an Artificial Intelligence’s scans. Certainly convincing enough that the Shades won’t have to punish the Archons for collusion. In other words, the Archons have found loopholes in the computer program, which they exploit to assist the Tsaritsa without making it look like they’re participating in her rebellion.

If, as the game seems to be suggesting, (some of the) Archons sought to overthrow fate 500 years ago and were devastatingly punished for it, they understand that they need to be a little more strategic this time. And so they play a long game, often alluded to with talk of chess pieces.

There is no way Nahida can burn Irminsul of her own volition without the Shades turning Sumeru into Khaenri’ah 2.0. We’ve seen what happens when leaders go beyond their mandates. But what if there’s a compelling enough reason to convince the Shades that Nahida setting fire to Irminsul is the lesser of two evils. A villain so dangerous that destroying the primordial tree is the only option.

The Role of a Villain

One of the things I haven’t seen talked about much is the fact that almost everyone in Sumeru survived 6.6. Those that didn’t only died because they refused to follow the evacuation plan that Nahida had ready to go at a moment’s notice. Almost like she expected this!

Dottore is continually made out to be a violent monster who relishes murdering as many people as possible, but the moment he seems like greatest threat he… doesn’t actually hurt a hair on anyone’s head. Don’t get me wrong, my man has done some terrible shit (RIP Niwa), but he also seems to be judged rather harshly by the Traveler and their pals. Too harshly, in fact.

Isn’t it interesting that the Traveler is so quick to revile Dottore when they champion Wanderer’s rehabilitation? And isn’t it ironic that the Traveler won’t even hear Dottore out for a minute, yet they’re somehow chummy with Liloupar. Liloupar!!! You know, the one who cursed generations of her own descendants, puppeteered her children into incestuous relationships and murder plots, and ultimately destroyed Gurabad by harnessing the power of the Abyss. Yeah, that Liloupar.

I’ll take my chances with the blue haired guy, actually, thanks

Dottore is an arrogant little shit (affectionate) with questionable methods, but show me one time he eviscerated an entire civilization using an Abyssal plague. In fact, Dottore actually figures out how to cure a plague.

Which brings me to my most cancelable take: one of the things that bothered me about the 6.6 Archon Quest was the utter lack of nuance directed toward Dottore’s experimentation on and treatment of Collei. I fully recognize that a child who undergoes painful but life-saving medical intervention can see their doctors as evil because of the agonizing immediacy of the treatment itself. That trauma stays with you. But why do none of the adults around Collei acknowledge the fact that Dottore’s treatment saved her life? Be for real, there would be no Collei if Dottore’s god-science hadn’t cured Eleazar. We saw with Dunyarzad that the decline is quick. Collei wouldn’t have survived until the Traveler purified the tree if she was already in such rough shape as a child.

Which brings me back to a key aspect of Dottore’s character: he no longer minds being seen as a villain as long as it allows him to further his goal of liberating himself (and, by extension the world) from the fetters of fate.   

The Doctor: You know, I heard recently that a group of critics reviewed countless stories and drew an interesting conclusion: They found that it is more often than not the villains who strive tirelessly to push the boundaries of progress. The Doctor: In fact, long before this, someone voiced a similar idea in an Akademiya editorial. I felt a great affinity with this perspective. I have never been afraid to step up and play the role of the villain. The Doctor: But all sacrifices made during my experiments have been worthwhile, as you can now see. I can offer you something new, something unique, precisely because I am a villain. The Doctor: I say, better to be governed by a flawed humanity than a Gnosis. The true seeker of knowledge is the villain who undergoes countless tribulations in pursuit of their goal.

(Are you really a villain or are you just playing one? The lady doth protest too much, methinks)

Dottore has been called a madman ever since he was a child. We find out that he lost his compassion at 8 years old because the people around him were terrified of his ideas. This doesn’t condone what he’s done, but it certainly explains his outlook. We also know that, in many cases, Dottore’s ideas are correct even if his methods are not morally good. He’s frequently judged by people whose worldviews come from divine proclamations that have been shown to be unreliable or falsely planted by Phanes. In plain terms, Dottore is called a madman and a lunatic by flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers. Now what we’ve been to the moon and gazed upon Teyvat, we know those people are wrong. The Sages are out here banning books and constraining research through the cardinal sins because they fear the wrath of the Heavenly Principles, but this places knowledge and wisdom in fundamental tension. While Dottore’s experimental-free-for-all isn’t exactly an ideal solution, the game makes it clear that ignorance—while a blissful dream—isn’t the right answer either.

Dottore is disappointed in the Traveler in 6.3 because they have yet to realize that Teyvat is trapped in a simulation. It is the Sabzeruz Festival on a much, much grander scale. When Dottore implies as much, the Traveler refers to his question as “pure sophistry” that has “nothing to do with [his] actions” when in fact they very much do. Dottore had hoped that the Traveler, having already experience the dream cycle in miniature, would have picked up on it by now.

Anyway, because Dottore gave up on regurgitating existing research years ago, he’s perfectly content to embrace the mantle of madman. In fact, he’s fated to do so by the very system he’s attempting to overthrow. His name quite literally translates to Heretic. This was always going to be his role.

So Dottore doesn’t give two shits about the fact that Collei thinks he’s a monster; what matters is the fact that she’s alive to do so because he cured the uncurable (never mind the fact that people later refused the cure because they thought Eleazar was their “punishment from god,” which doubtless contributes to his absolute contempt for the “rules”). Similarly, he doesn’t care that the people of Nod-Krai think he’s a monster because his experiments in the moonlit nation allowed him to achieve two of his most lofty goals:

1. He created a god out of Columbina.

Her Character Trailer makes it clear through visual storytelling that Dottore is the one guiding her entire narrative arc.

2. He infiltrated Irminsul like a Virus

By having the “good guys” kill him and send him into Irminsul, he created an anchor for the other half of his soul (just as Luonnotar was the anchor for Columbina)

Let’s not forget that the entire Heretic of the False Moon boss battle is staged. It’s a performance.

That’s more like it; some results of value. Good, keep it up. I’m still collecting data.

He orchestrates his death as part of a long game of game of infiltrating Irminsul to put an end to the false fates. And if Dottore had all this planned out, I can only assume that he has his own resurrection planned as well, right down to the reunification of his soul in the crucible of Irminsul. In fact, I think his resurrection was foreshadowed in 3.X as well.

Rebirth and The Sabzeruz Festival

Since I was going down a 3.X rabbit hole, I figured I may as well go all the way and look at the rest of the quest, especially the Sabzeruz Festival. And boy is it ever interesting after 6.6.

The Sabzeruz Festival was a collective dream, which the Sages harvested via the Akasha Terminal to power Dottore’s false god project. In the initial loop, the Traveler and Dunyarzad walk the streets of the city, stopping at various stalls.

The first stall is Amal’s which offers food from the Haft-Mewa Feast which Dunyarzad tells us is when people “set their tables with seven different foods to symbolize the seven virtues of the Dendro Archon.”

The irl inspiration behind this feast is Half Seen (or Seven S’s), a core tradition in the celebration of Nowrus, the Persian New Year, which marks the vernal equinox. This tradition involves arranging seven objects on a table or mantle, each of which has a name beginning with the letter S, and that, together, symbolize life and renewal. In addition to these seven elements, celebrants also include a “book of wisdom” from which the eldest member of a family will recite a page for guidance on the upcoming year.

Which brings us to Kimiya, the next person we meet in the quest. Kimiya’s name derives from the Arabic word for chemistry, which is, in turn, connected to the Ancient Greek Kimia, meaning alchemy or elixir of life. Importantly, in a lot of Persian literature, Kimia refers less to the chemical or material side of alchemy than to its spiritual or psychological side, the transmutation of the self.

Kimiya has a bunch of interesting things to say that never really made much sense until Natlan and Nod-Krai:

Kimiya: ...The remnants appear to be in the form of the Moon. Paimon: Really? Paimon thought it looked like some kind of food. Kimiya: Hmm... The Moon signifies... Hmm... It's escaping me for now. Wait a moment... Paimon: Is he really looking it up in a book? Kimiya: Oh, right, it means illusions and lies. Kimiya: But if you trust your intuition and overcome your fears, the sun will surely rise. Kimiya: This is divine wisdom.

Moon remnants… illusions and lies… the sun rising… Sounds a little bit like Mavuika punching a hole into the sky to me. And, after Nod-Krai, all this talk about the moon followed by the loop of Number Four is pretty intriguing.

And then we go to Vihar’s stall where we meet Farris, the Knight of Flowers. In Iranian folklore, Hāji Firuz appears in the streets at the beginning of Nowruz after returning from the world of the dead, his red clothes symbolizing the resurrection of the sacrificed deity. These are common motifs in figures meant to symbolize the transition from winter (dead) to spring (resurrection).

Clearly, the Sabzeruz Festival is very much a celebration of Nahida’s liberation and her return to her power after Greater Lord Rukkhadevata’s sacrifice. But Genshin’s narratives often work on multiple levels, telling and retelling stories, foreshadowing overarching plots through mirrored themes in endless mise en abimes. Just look at how many times Simulanka has foreshadowed the plotline ever since the summer of 2024. This isn’t accidental; Teyvat runs on cycles, samsaras, repeating histories with minor variations on the theme.

And it's still going strong.

Beyond Nahida’s narrative, the Sabzeruz Festival can nod to Columbina’s resurrection from the world of the dead (the Moon’s Reflection) as moon number four. But it can also foreshadow Dottore’s return because Nahida and Dottore are set up as foils for one another.

Branches of a Whole

Dottore and Nahida share many parallels. They’re both 500(ish) year-old geniuses from Sumeru, they’ve both been victims of the Sages, they both adopt some questionable methods at times for the “greater good.” But most saliently to me, they’re both portrayed as branches of a whole.

Nahida is referred to as a branch of Irminsul, a segment of the original tree. After completing the Sumeru Archon Quest, we obtain the 5 Star Quest Item Silver Twig.

This twig is Nahida, a branch of Rukkhadevata now coming into her own being after Rukkhadevata returns to the people of Sumeru their ability to dream.

Greater Lord Rukkhadevata: From the earth Greater Lord Rukkhadevata: And from the rain Greater Lord Rukkhadevata: We perceive its wonders until we become a white bird Greater Lord Rukkhadevata: To perch atop a branch... Greater Lord Rukkhadevata: And finally snap off the most important leaf

Guess what we get when we defeat Dottore? A Twisted Withered Branch. Because Dottore is also a branch of a kind, a Segment of Zandik. The “most insane” branch, but a branch nonetheless.

In the God’s Limits trailer, we also get this striking visual image of a white raven with a black raven’s reflection.

If Rukkhadevata/Nahida is the white bird perched atop a branch, Dottore is her counterpart. He even wears the dark plumage on his shoulders and is constantly portrayed alongside motifs of black birds (his artifact being the Pale Flame feather is another good one).

Subtlety is not exactly his forte All of this also calls to mind the work MC Escher, which is full of tessellations of interlocking black and white birds. In these woodcuts, the white and black birds both emerge out of and give shape to one another. They are inextricable. And we know that Dottore has quite the connection with Escher.

Nahida’s resurrection in Irminsul wherein she meets the other part of herself foreshadows Dottore’s return after hearing the verdict of his own soul in that very same tree. They approach the parts of themselves from completely opposite sides, but these parallels are intentional, especially when we consider that 6.6 is a continuation of the Sumeru quest as much as the Nod-Krai quest. (The downside here is that Nahida forgets Rukkhadevata and it will suck if Zandik gets totally memory wiped, buuuut I’ll take it if it means he’s playable).

Another thing I thought was interesting: in Tlingit oral storytelling, the White Raven is a trickster and a key figure in tales of creation. At the beginning, the world is engulfed in darkness, the sun, moon, and stars hoarded in boxes by a wealthy noble. Boldly endeavouring to shine light upon the world, Raven transforms himself and infiltrates the noble’s house, playing the role of the man’s grandson for years until at last he shifts back to his true form, steals the light from their boxes, and escapes through the chimney. As he ascends, his plumage is darkened with soot. He becomes the Black Raven while bringing light to the world.

Dottore and Nahida are both tricksters of a kind. They both play long games with sleight of hand, and they both ultimately want to shed light on the truths of the world. While they might have different perspectives on wisdom and enlightenment, their overarching convictions aren’t actually all that far off from one another, despite what Nahida may say.

And so we might ask…

Who Really Won, In the End?

The ending of the 6.6 Archon Quest is weird. On the surface, it concludes the way most of the AQs do: good prevails over evil, team Traveler-and-the-power-of-friendship valiantly defeats the boss, and everyone celebrates with a grand feast. It appears to be yet another triumphant ending.

But… is it really?

Because, from where I’m standing, it still kind of looks like Dottore won.

The Harbingers’ stated goal under Pierro has been to “burn down the old world.” Dottore wants to liberate humanity from the limitations that have been imposed on them. Pantalone wants a world where humans can be on equal footing with the gods. The old world burned exactly as they wanted.

It just so happened that the “good guys” were the ones who struck the match.

Goodbye, We Will (Never?) Meet Again

I’ll acknowledge that Dottore’s conversation with Nahida at the very end of 6.6 seems to throw a wrench into my theory because he seems surprised that she set fire to the tree. But, again, he’s a stellar performer. Perhaps, now that the shield is down, he needs to reprise his role as villain one last time to really make it convincing for the Shades. “Ooh, you outsmarted me! I can’t see any other outcomes.” I don’t believe this guy for a second.

The fact that Nahida ends on “Goodbye” just feels so deliberate after Dottore promising her that it’s time to say goodbye after he tells her about the false sky.

And then that last little bit in the quest’s denouement where Nahida says:

The matter of Dottore can be seen as settled for now. We are sure to cross paths again in the future, and in that light, Snezhnaya would do well to uphold their responsibilities and keep a tight rein over their actions.

Maybe she’s talking about the other Harbingers but… that’s really not what this sentence says at all. On a grammatical level, she says we are certain to cross paths with Dottore again; there’s no pronoun ambiguity here. (This can certainly be a localization issue, but I will continue clinging to it until they go in and change it.)

I’ve also been a little confused about Pantalone’s comment to Dottore about not wanting “to admit defeat in the limited time [he has].” What limited time? Segments don’t age! For all intents and purposes, Dottore is effectively immortal. And, as Pantalone later says, there was no reason for the experiment to end.

Dottore knew he was going to die. In fact, I think he was counting on it as part of a plan already set into motion with Nahida in 3.2,. That plan also involves his return. He’s happy to play the role of the villain because there has to be a villain to work against the Shades programming. Had he not performed a convincing world-ending threat, Nahida would never have gotten away with burning the tree in pursuit of true wisdom.

But just as Nahida is a branch reborn in an effort to purify the tree of knowledge, Zandik will be reborn from the burning tree after brining light (true knowledge) to the world. Irminsul isn’t entirely gone. The roots are still there—surely enough for him to spring back.

Unshackled, from the fate of the heretic, when he rises again, he can choose his own path. Perhaps, then, this is what Pantalone meant when he said Dottore’s death his favorite part. They’re finally free.

The Hanged Man in the Lunar Arcana

I’m not the first person to point out the connections between Dottore and the Hanged Man Lunar Arcanum. Theories have circulated even before Nod-Krai, but 6.6 made the associations explicit, not only through its narrative themes but also its visual imagery.

As the Exalted Master of the Heretical Path, Dottore destroys the foundations on which he stands at the end of the boss fight. He—along with the Traveler, Wanderer, and Nahida—then tumble through the centre of Irminsul, which mirrors the shape of a broken, inverted tower, just as we see on the card.

We can also read the chains on the card as symbols for the constraints imposed upon him by the fact that he’s a Segment. As he says:

A soul living forever in the past inevitably holds different views than he did in his later years. The same thing that completes me also restricts me.

Barbeloth’s dialogue with Qiqi illustrates that the Hanged Man’s shackles have multiple metaphorical meanings:

Barbeloth: There are shackles that bind you, but you yourself have no desire to break free from them. Qiqi: Shackles... Do you mean... my orders? Barbeloth: At least on the surface, you wouldn't be wrong to understand things in such a way.

It’s worth noting that Qiqi, like Dottore, is a split soul. Zibai’s anecdote, The Adeptus Arts, Once More, tells us Qiqi has had her Three Deadly Selves severed, and only one remains in her body. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that characters who have severed their souls into multiple perspectives are associated with the Hanged Man.

The card’s description also fits Dottore’s pursuit of truth:

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 white tree is, of course, Irminsul. By infiltrating it, Dottore is able to comprehend what the Heavenly Principles have done to Teyvat. He sacrifices his physical body for unprecedented access to knowledge.

The Hanged Man in the Major Arcana

The card’s Major Arcana counterpart depicts a man suspended by his right foot from the World Tree or Tree of Wisdom, the roots of which descend into the underworld while the branches support the heavens. (In Genshin, Irminsul upholds the Heavenly Principles’ fate system.)

While this image sounds a little gruesome, the man’s serene expression demonstrates that he’s there because he wants to be. As such, hanging isn’t punishment or retribution; it’s surrender.

I see your halo and gravity-defying red tails.

In traditional portrayals, the Hanged Man is shown wearing red pants and a blue shirt. Perhaps it’s a stretch, but I wonder if Datattore’s design is meant to allude to this. The Hanged Man also wears a golden halo behind his head which represents enlightenment derived from his unique ability to view the world from a different perspective.

This ability is central to Dottore’s character and, arguably, the source of his power. As he explains in 3.2:

A long time ago, I made a major decision in hopes of preserving all my perspectives of how I observed the world. Observation is the first step of any experiment, but observing the current world doesn't satisfy me. It lacks an important dimension—that of time. … With my abilities, it's only a matter of time until I find better "perspectives."

The search for manifold and better perspectives is foundational to who Dottore is as a character. The game conveys this idea narratively and mechanically. Because the Hanged Man is upside-down on the card, it follows that he’s right-side-up when the card is reversed. Genshin plays with this inversion several times through the Nod-Krai story arc, not only by flipping Dottore but by rotating the camera itself.

The Hanged Man effectively represents those who see the world differently, and we know Dottore is one of a small few who sees the world for what it truly is. He hints at this truth when he presents the Traveler with the scenario of the World-As-Dream, but the Traveler dismisses it as “pure sophistry.”

Of course, I don’t believe we’re supposed to align with the Traveler here. As the game constantly reminds us, it’s the madmen and heretics who understand the truth.

I know Dottore has done some truly messed up shit and I’m not trying to say the ends justify the means, but these descriptions paint him as deeply sympathetic when we think about how intelligence (ahem, especially when one is neurodivergent) has historically been pathologized and scapegoated when it speaks truth to power.  

Reading the Card: Other Important Meanings

Beyond perspective, there are a number of other salient interpretations in Tarot readings. Upright, the Hanged Man is associated with wisdom, sacrifice, and difficult trials (also known as a crucible). Reversed, the card symbolizes selfishness, apathy, and stalling.

The Hanged Man contends that sacrifice is necessary for progress. In addition to the obvious sacrifice of his death, I read Dottore’s tendency to play the villain’s part as a personal sacrifice; he is willing to forgo being understood by others in exchange for understanding the world.

Reversed, the Hanged Man also symbolizes stalling as a tactic for suspending action, and Dottore is constantly stalling. In the Moonttore boss fight, he toys with the Traveler & Co., prolonging the fight so that the World Formula can finish calculating because he wants Columbina to become a god (even if no one else recognizes his plan). His 75% HP line is “Good, keep it up. I'm still collecting data.”

In 6.6, he asks Pantalone to stall the Sumeru crew. Pantalone replies with a ludicrously tongue-in-cheek “you’re really asking for the moon here” and proceeds to recount a story about stalling for time by confessing one’s sins before a sentencing.

While stalling can indicate fear or indecision, it can also symbolize wisdom and circumspection. Reversed, the Hanged Man is a catalyst for action upon reflection, a way of planning for transformation.

In summary, the Hanged Man symbolizes enlightenment through surrender with both the upright and reversed cards signifying the need for different perspectives.

Alchemy and the Arcana

Tarot and alchemy have a long, overlapping history, and there are many esoteric interpretations of the Major Arcana. In readings of the Hanged Man, we find two of our favourite Dottore-related numbers, 3 and 4, revealed in the triangle of the man’s arms and the cross of his legs.

Together these shapes form the symbol of sulfur, one of the Tria Prima or three primes. In alchemy, sulfur represents the combustible element (fire) and, by allegorical extension, the soul.

While we lose the shape of this silhouette in the Lunar Arcana, these themes are baked into the associations between the Hanged Man and transcendence, which Barbeloth voices in her reading for Qiqi.

But, in exchange for the 3 and 4 shaped out of the man’s limbs, the Lunar Arcana gives us something even more compelling. If we look closely at the Hanged Man’s shirt, we find a 7-pointed star, a symbol not entirely unlike the esoteric illustration of V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

In my first essay on Dottore and alchemy, I included an illustration of a famous alchemical diagram, a woodcut initially published circa 1613 in a foundational alchemical text titled Azoth by pseudonymous author Basilius Valentinus.

The diagram shows the alchemist surrounded by the 3 prime materials (sulfur/soul, mercury/spirit, salt/body) and the 7 steps of alchemy with the image of the 7-pointed star. In some illustrations, the most downward point is exaggerated as it is on the Hanged Man card.

Each step on the cycle has a word written on it, which gives us the alchemical acronym V.I.T.R.I.O.L.:

Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem

If we translate the Latin text literally, we get:

visit the interior of the earth and, by rectifying, you will find the hidden stone

But we can also arrive at a more nuanced understanding of its spiritual meaning with a few translation notes:

Interiora: in addition to meaning inside, this word can also be translated as viscera—the interior of a person, or their heart

Terrae: means Earth, but it was frequently used as a metaphor for man, an association derived from Hebrew where the word man, Adam, plays on Adamah, meaning earth

Rectificando: most obviously translates as rectify, but it can also mean purify. If we look at the etymological building blocks, we get rèctus (straight) and ficàre (to do), meaning “to make right.”

Invenies: is often translated as find, but the Latin can also mean to obtain, achieve, or arrive at

So, a more metaphorical meaning is:

visit the heart of one’s self and, by making right, you will achieve enlightenment

In the Crucible of Causality, we watch as Dottore is drawn into the flames by his other selves. The video description explains:

Where countless broken souls converge, he shall hear the verdict of his own soul.

V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is an enticement to surrender and look inwards. Dottore takes this call literally when he ventures into the centre of Irminsul, but he also follows it metaphorically when he confronts the judgement of his soul. At the intersection of the two, he can reach enlightenment.

Azoth and the Path back from Dottore to Zandik

I mentioned that V.I.T.R.I.O.L. first appeared in a text called Azoth. But what is azoth?

In alchemy, Azoth is the essential agent of transformation. It is the beginning and the end. It is raw matter and purified output. Paracelsus, our renaissance alchemist buddy who gave us the Tria Prima, believed Azoth was the universal medicine capable of curing all ills. In the Kabbalah (from which Genshin draws extensively), it’s the Ultimate Substance. Azoth is the Universal Solvent and the Elixir of life.

Azoth is alchemy itself.

The word has contested origins with one proposal saying it began as azoc from the Arabic al-zā'būq (meaning mercury). But esoteric interpretations hold that it is be made up of three pairs of letters from the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew alphabets:

A & Z in Latin

Alpha (Α α) & Omega (Ω ω) in Greek 

Aleph (א) and Tav in Hebrew (ת)

In all three cases, these letters correspond to the first and last of their respective alphabets where the first symbolizes the initial state of matter and the last corresponds to the completion of transmutation. It’s a tidy alchemical allusion for how, as the ultimate substance, azoth is the beginning and the end of all things.

As is often the case, Genshin is clever in their naming. Dust of Azoth is:

A device that can transmute elemental Ascension Materials.

And so the question of Azoth and names leads me to Omega.

The End Becomes the Beginning; As Above, So Below

Quick recap: alchemical transmutation and the Hanged Man contend that enlightenment requires surrender. In alchemy, transmutation begins with calcination—heating metal over flame. The corresponding metaphor in analytic psychology is that transcendence begins with ego death through the severing of attachment. Or, in Barbeloth’s words detachment from the everyday world. Through surrender, one emerges with a greater understanding of the self and the universe.

While playing through 3.X, I often wondered why the Segment we meet in Sumeru is the Omega build when Omega is the last letter of the alphabet. I would have assumed the Omega build would have been the oldest among the Segments. But, of course, I was being too literal.

35 is Omega because he is the end of Dottore. And, since the end is the beginning, his death will be the catalyst for Zandik’s return. Three years ago, the game told us this specific model would be the final step in Zandik’s transformation. My contention is that it won’t be the selfish Omega soul-fragment who returns but Zandik as the purified whole.

Another foundational alchemical principle is as above, so below, a phrase originating from the Emerald Tablet attributed to—wait for it—Hermes Trismegistus (hi Barbeloth). The idea here is that the universe and the human experience are foils for one another. Change one’s spiritual nature (below) and change the world (above). By extension, change the world (burn Irminsul), and change oneself (purify Zandik and restore him, now freed from the shackles of Fate).

Surrender, Rebirth, and the Cycles of Time

In the Witch’s Revelation quest, Barbeloth says to Qiqi:

As for your future, all you need to do is wait. Of course, it’s not like you lack for time.

Time is a running theme for Dottore. He’s frustrated by his inability to study the dimension of time. He and Pantalone need more time. He tells the Traveler he has all the time in the world in 6.3, but 6.6 is all about time running out. Is it really running out? Or has he found his answer in surrendering to it?

To achieve alchemical transcendence, one has to begin from a place of surrender. In the Major Arcana, the Hanged Man chooses surrender, conducting his energy downward into his illuminated mind. He does not climb the tree. He descends from it.

In the Lunar Arcana, the Hanged Man doesn’t hang at all. He falls.

Dottore falls with intention. With purpose. He shatters the foundation of Irminsul and surrenders to the fall while the Traveler, Wanderer, and Nahida hold onto each other to prevent their descent. Consider, Dottore is already in the flames by the time he reaches up for the Traveler('s power). He’s not there because the Traveler or Nahida put him there. He put himself there. After all, the hands that reach for him are his own.

Dottore’s deaths are deliberate. Moontorre dies so that he can infiltrate Irminsul. Datattore plunges into the heart of the world. Dottore admits to having a hand in Zandik’s death so he could perfect the Elixir for Pantalone. And, of course, he killed his fellow Segments. Sacrifice after sacrifice, surrender after surrender.

And now that he’s in the interior of the earth and can rectify with the other portions of his soul, he can obtain enlightenment and be reborn.

Bonus: Capitano as the Way Out (Maybe???)

One of the theories I’ve been tossing around is that Capitano will eventually pave Dottore’s way out of the Leylines.

Die and be transformed with Christ is the central journey of Christian faith where the crucifixion represents the ultimate form of spiritual transmutation. Sacrifice and resurrection are woven through the Christ story, and Capitano has been set up as this Jesus figure who shepherds souls and sacrifices himself for humanity.

Most clearly, we see this in his Fatui symbol of the three nails, which mystics viewed as a representation of the Holy Trinity and a symbol for the 3 alchemical principles (sulphur/soul, mercury/spirit, salt/body).

From the Anomalous Tree Marrow I, we know that early drug trials for the Elixir of Immortality significantly slowed the tissue aging process. According to the experiment log written when Pantalone is 38:

Tissue aging has been significantly slowed compared to the first experiment, with the most significant results seen in the preservation of organ vitality. Neural function remains normal, with no increase in anti-aging effects.

After Zandik’s death, Dottore perfected the formula, fully preserving Pantalone’s physical and mental conditions. In the log from when Pantalone is 72, Dottore writes:

Tissue aging has paused and cerebral neural imaging has stabilized while brain age has ceased to increase. Physical age of subject is estimated to be 45 years

My man has barely just crossed the threshold into middle age.

At the end of 6.6 Dottore reminds Pantalone that the Elixir’s supply is finite (which begs the question of whether Dottore is literally crafting the Elixir from his own body, but that’s a whole different rabbit hole). What it means, though, is that Pantalone already has a few more years at 45. If we take “a few” supremely literally, we’re talking 3 or 4 more. Though, given that this is a conversation between two men who have lived through centuries, a few might be relative.

Still, even if we are only talking 3 or 4 years, Pantalone should then still have the rest of his natural lifespan like every other human character in the game’s roster. The description of the Elixir specifically says it pauses aging, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to conclude that, when the stock runs out, aging will simply resume. As far as I can understand from the drug’s notes, it isn’t as if Pantalone will instantly experience 330+ years of delayed tissue aging like an ancient papyrus scroll newly exposed to oxygen that immediately crumbles to dust.

Pantalone is roughly Varka’s age. Zandik lived to 85. Teyvat’s lifespans don’t appear to be super short, so Pantalone should have another few decades ahead of him as any other human character would.

If anything, it isn’t the lack of Elixir that will kill Pantalone; it’s his self-destructive smoking habit, especially now that Dottore isn’t here to repeatedly replace his lungs. Yet this still doesn’t strike me as a death knell to his playability—not when we have several playable characters who partake in vices with equally detrimental long-term effects.

In other words, I don’t see Pantalone’s tendency to use cigarettes to cope with the anxieties of his position as being all that different from, say, Kaveh’s penchant to drown his depression at the bottom of a bottle. Lung failure and liver cirrhosis are the eventual outcomes of these respective vices, and we have a couple of heavy drinkers in the roster (hi again, Varka).

There are more esoteric examples of doomed humans as well. In Nod-Krai, we saw Arlecchino’s curse claim even more of her body when she called upon her power to save the party from the Abyss. Not to mention characters like Childe and Lohen who endanger themselves for the love of the game, testing their limits with such recklessness that, from the outside, they appear to have a death wish (and I say this without scorn; they’re some of my favourite characters).

Pantalone’s medical records in Anomalous Tree Marrow I actually show us a human who is startlingly robust. His health condition is repeatedly described as good. Of the 8 medical records that make up his entire dossier for over 400 years, 3 are linked to injuries he sustained at work (or whatever shady extracurriculars allowed him to ascend the ranks), and 1 was a procedure to fix a complication arising from 18’s treatment for one of said injuries. Another was a bloody nose that happened when he stumbled into his bed while not wearing his glasses.

Pantalone’s only true medical conditions are deteriorating vision (from working too much), acid reflux (from stressing out about work too much), and lung failure (from smoking too much to stop stressing out about work so much). We have reason to believe the first and last are recurring afflictions because of the notes in their respective entries:

In light of the subject's failure to adhere to the recommended occupational safety adjustments, any subsequent instances of similar restorative or graft procedures will no longer be added to the record. The chances of the patient actually quitting are low. As such, any subsequent complaints of a similar nature will no longer be added to the record.

But that’s still only three conditions in nearly four centuries. That’s one doctor’s visit every 125 years. I see my doctor that often annually, and that’s in a good year.