sprout

[Snezhnaya church fanmade OST]

"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam." (I will find a way or make one.)

As the Fatui gather in a Snezhnayan temple to mourn the ones lost and reflect on their sacrifices, a question looms over them: is it worth it?

"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam."

'Passio Stultorum' translates as both "The Suffering of Fools" and "The Passion of Fools". How fitting a description for the treacherous path that each member of the organization has decided to walk down, unyielding in their resolve. For their benevolent archon - the Tsaritsa - and for her noble cause!

" The night when the Cavalry Captain bid farewell to his brother, the Lone Sojourner, who shall finally rest from the burdens thrust upon him by fate. "

This piece was inspired by this lovely artwork by Fain that I saw way back when:

I immediately sat and binge-wrote this tune, which I have since polished up a bit and posted! I hope you enjoy. (any and all feedback is appreciated, as usual)

more on my twitter (@glazelilybloom) demo version on my soundcloud (@i-get-misty)

Under the cut you can find the scene how I was roughly imagining it, for greater immersion:

i was just trying to record this beautiful night theme when this tonal shift happened (around 01:05) oh my god

on another note, the latter part has a very "dune" (2021) vibe, the percussion in particular, and even harmonically

for comparison:

gom jabbar (from 01:09)

paul's dream (the percussion around 02:07, and again that motif around 04:47)

the utter shock and suddenness of the theme also reminds me of the opening of dune:

had this crack idea for a theme for alice - yes, ,she may be this omniscient, omnipotent, uber-strong witch, but she's also the author of the teyvat travel guide which, if you recall, includes paragraphs such as:

so i thought, that's too boring for her - how about some funky stuff instead? i just imagine a little trailer/demo of her just walking and then hilichurls being exploded left and right, then there she is, swiftly handling like a ruin hunter or drake or golem even teehee, then she has to sneak around some place, e.g. an underground lab or sth, but then she sees klee and they go fish blasting together, the end /j

anyways, this is a very rough draft i came up with - it would obvs not end there, but i wanted to share this as a progress update while i'm working on the rest

twitter: @glazelilybloom

"for most people,

the ticking clock serves as a reminder

of how fleeting life is;

yet,

for the bough keeper,

it is more akin to the sound of shackles

chiming with his every step."

"Time (Dainlseif's Elegy)" is an orchestral piece inspired by the mysterious Dainsleif from the game Genshin Impact.

I do not own the clips shown in the video, my only IP is the music and the graphics.

All feedback is appreciated! I hope you enjoy it!

there's also an audio-only version:

a short recap/analysis of 'the pale princess and the six pygmies'

i've been re-reading the in-game books and i'd like to remind you of / introduce you to the wonderful anomaly that is 'the pale princess and the six pygmies'!

BACKGROUND

it's the book that an abyss mage is trying to steal during lisa's quest (which is not optional!), claiming it held an important secret relevant to the abyss order; at first, everyone was kinda confused by it: why are they looking for a/that specific fairytale? yes, it could be real, but what's so special about it? WELL, after this most recent (3.3) archon quest we know why - fairytales can survive irminsul memory erasure!! so the story in this book is highly likely to be one of those parables like the one nahida tells

THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK

the first (and only available) volume provides a character description: the Night Mother (with no heart and no mouth, sin incarnate) who rules over the Land of Night and the Pale Princess who rules over the Moonlight Forest (where pale, blonde, blue-eyed people lived)

the previews for the other volumes introduce the other characters:

the Light Prince and the Six Pygmies. the former teams up with the Pale Princess to "*save* the Moonlight Forest". the pair then meets the six pygmies. however, the subsequent volumes insinuate that the pygmies are the antagonists/traitors - vol 5 describes the pygmies' plot as "sinister", and vol 6 describes their plot as "nefarious". this is a far cry from snow white and the 7 dwarves which the title seems to parallel (the dwarves weren't generally evil)

nevertheless, the "meeting" between the princess, prince and pygmies (vol. 4) seems to indicate an attempt at a truce. the last volume (vol 7) is just said to include the Night Mother's prophecy (which is most likely the main part relevant to the abyss order)

ANALYSES

NOW, there are so SO many analyses (and i'll cover some), but before I do I would like to point something out:

the fact that so many stories from vastly different periods could somehow fit this one story outline is VERY interesting, especially given the new context provided by the samsara quest, and the idea that "in this world, everything runs in a loop"

could this be the tale of the overall loop of teyvat?

anyways, i'll cover the following analyses in more or less detail:

the recent past

the current-ish events

the distant past

note on abbreviations: NM - the Night Mother, PP - the Pale Princess, LP - the Light Prince, 6P - the Six Pygmies, MF -the Moonlight Forest

NM - celestia*, PP - gold, 6P - archons, LP - ?albedo/dain/7th pygmy, MF - khaenriah

the Night Mother could be symbolizing Celestia. the best piece of evidence for this would be the quote "her punishments were always unexpected", which could be alluding to the celestial nails (at the same time, after a few of them you'd think they'd be more expected lol just don't make progress and try to know more than you should, and you should be good, ok? /j)

also! it has not been said that the night mother doesn't have eyes (unlike a mouth and a heart), which is interesting because visions have been described as "the heavens' eyes" by nahida

it is then possible that the moonlight forest could be Khaenri'ah. some evidence:

not ruled by the night mother (Khaenri'ah was said to be a goddless nation ruled by the people)

there was a "constant lack of sunlight" (Khaenri'ah was underground)

additionally, the following quote:

"The only thing she could not bear was the occasional ray of moonlight that made it through the clouds. The light that penetrated the walls of darkness always irritated her."

that light could represent human achievement / progress / arrogation, which we have repeatedly seen irks Celestia (most prominently in the case of Orobashi and Khaenri'ah)

this would make the Pale Princess someone like rhinedottir/gold, a.k.a. albedo's creator, as a master of the Art of Khemia and Alchemy (which has been shown to possess the ability to create life)

the Light Prince would then be someone who would be willing to help save Khaenriah, like dain or pierro or albedo (aether could also fit the description, especially after the most recent archon quest, but this wouldn't work for lumine so i'll discard it for the time being); alternatively it could be another Khaenrian (the king) or the 7th pygmy, but that means it would have to be either Venti or Zhongli (the only two male archons)

2. (the current-ish events) NM - ?; PP - 7th pygmy (tsaritsa?); LP - a khaenrian (pierro?); 6P - archons; MF - a nation (snezhnaya?)

the trouble here is the NM, bc Celestia does rule over the tsaritsa, so MF would be a part of the land of night, and i currently don't have an alternative

3. for the distant past it could be telling the story of the second who came and the seelie demise, and the seelies definitely match the description of the "light" inhabitants as well, so the LP could be the "master of the heavens" and the 6P would be the second who came (for some more "fall of the seelies" lore, please refer to this artifact set)

note that the analyses also heavily depend on how you answer the following questions:

are the Six Pygmies under the Night Mother's or the Pale Princess' juristiction, or are they independent entities? if so, which land are they native to?

is the light prince an inhabitant of the moonlight forest?

so, yeah, much to think about! (i also wanted to include a cross-referential analysis of the Night Mother/Pale Princess and Nottfriga/Madgalene from Hex & Hound, but dw we'll leave that for another day lol)

and that's a wrap!! that was a lot, and if you made it all the way here kudos to you, thanks for reading - here's a flower!

do let me know of any mistakes i made or any alternative analyses you enjoy!

and here's an edit of it:

timestamps:

faruzan's theme, heizou's trailer: 00:00 - 00:25

heiozu's theme, faruzan's trailer: 00:27 - 00:52

and here's some more details:

when i first heard faruzan's theme, i thought it sounded familiar and then i figured it reminded me a lot of heizou's. the rhythm pattern in the middle is the same - it occurs during heizou's cinematic E and the cycling through faruzan's many facial expressions in the middle of their respective trailers.

specifically, it's a syncopated rhythm with a descending melody which can be roughly transcribed as such

i was also very interested in the instruments used in each theme: heizou's uses this very expressive (almost sassy?) violin even though faruzan is a (very expressive, sassy) bow character! granted, bows have mainly been linked to harps in the game (venti, the stringless bow), but violins are played with bows so i guess that's what made me make that connection

anyways!! faruzan's theme is actually very fitting for her, from a musical standpoint:

the theme has an electronic sound to it - this could be related to her role and backstory - she's a mechanical researcher. also, her title is "eclectic machinist", which refers to someone operating machines

the primary instrument is this saxophone-esque synth hybrid - this represents other parts of her personality: namely, her age, and character. it sounds very funky and expressive, which is closely related to her feistiness and spunk as a character, and the choice of sax(-esque) sound could convey her "age", as the saxophone's prime was about 50-100 years ago (our time) - think roaring '20s or the big band era vs. today's hits. (side note: what i'm referring to heavily reminds me of the technique lin manuel miranda used in hamilton - while everyone was rapping '90s style, jefferson's songs were in the style of the '50s, to signify his backwards ideals, and how he'd been separated)

basically her theme fits her really well because it's a blend of old and electronic, which are two of her main traits according to the trailers and drip marketing, which is pretty cool :)

"

for most people,

the ticking clock serves as a reminder of how fleeting life is;

yet,

for the bough keeper,

it is more akin to the sound of shackles

chiming with his every step

"