#parallel universes

Part II: Where Nothing Makes Sense

Chapter 13: Confusion

Chapter 14: Anger

Chapter 15: The Healer

Chapter 16: The Pasts

Chapter 17: The Return

Chapter 18: The Plan

Chapter 19: The Signal

Chapter 20: History

Part III: Wherever You Are

Chapter 21: Gray

Chapter 22a: Showstopper

Chapter 22b: The B Team

Chapter 23: Dottie's

Chapter 24: The Dorms

Chapter 25: Expectations

Chapter 26a: Name and Titles

Chapter 26b: Kingship

Chapter 26c: Royal Wedding

Chapter 27: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

Chapter 28: Scotty Doesn't Know

Chapter 29: The Tent

Chapter 30: Running Together

Chapter 31: Neurology

Chapter 32: Entropy

Part IV: Where Only We Are

Chapter 33: A New Home

Chapter 34: Castle in the Sand

Chapter 35: Everyone Else

Chapter 36: After

Chapter 37: And Before

Chapter 38: Nowhere ✨

Part V: Where We Belong

Chapter 39: Between ✨

Chapter 40: For-getting Home ✨

Acknowledgements

I'm sure we're all somewhat familiar with the concept of parallel universes or otherwise known in pop culture as the Multiverse. Think of the Spiderverse and the usual superhero bullshit in Marvel and DC.

Especially since Hoyo is also in its own way building a Multiverse of its own. If you play Honkai Star Rail, it's concept that's more evident there as one of the characters Welt Yang is actually a multiversal traveler. He meets characters from his origin game Honkai Impact 3rd, but they aren't the same people.

In the context of the game, characters like Himeko, Silver Wolf, Bronya, and Seele are expys.

But in-universe, Welt acknowledges that these people are their own persons with their own unique lives and experiences.

"How do we apply this concept to Genshin?"

If you think of every user or player of Genshin as having their own universe or copy of the Genshin game in their devices, then that right there is their universe. To be specific, it is every player's own universe.

In co-op, Genshin in-game will frame co-op as visiting another player's "world".

Of course, this would refer specifically to the host of the world that co-op players are entering.

But what if we could really just think of it as you know... Visiting something like a parallel universe?

While the sequence of events that occur within the game is largely the same, every player has their own different interpretation of it. It may depend on the choices of dialogue a player makes, but perhaps the most significant decision the player could make would be the first one that the game gives to us.

Choosing whether to pick Lumine or Aether as the Traveler.

Now everyone has their own ways to interpret the Twins personalities, but the Twins are arguably rather different people even if they deliver much of the same lines. It's largely thanks to the delivery of the Voice Actors that they are able to create distinct personalities for both the Twins.

But anyway the player's own ideas and biases will color how they interpret the Traveler l, and as a consequence, how they interpret the story of Genshin.

Even if the player doesn't care about the Traveler much or if they like to self-insert as an OP Solo Leveling Sung Jin Woo ahhh character, I'd like to say that's still a valid way to interpret the Traveler.

There are other choices that can affect the way the story in Genshin is told as well. It depends on the quests you did or didn't play, secrets that you've found within the game, maybe NPC dialogues that you actually pay attention to. Most notably, your understanding of Genshin's story can be impacted by Limited Events.

Like for example: I didn't play the Dragonspine and Simulanka events that preceded the Paralogism quest. I had to research the events online ahshdsjkshsj (my Traveler has memory issues now I guess on top of being amnesiac)

With each player having different interpretations on the story of Genshin and the Traveler, then what about the Abyss Sibling?

If the Traveler you choose is unique to you the player, then it only makes sense that the Abyss Sibling is also unique to you.

Your Abyss Sibling isn't the same as someone else's Abyss Sibling, even if you chose the same Twin.

So anyway since to conclude this long post, what makes each player's universe/world different isn't the content of the game. Rather it's in the player themself and how they understand their experiences within the game of Genshin.