#rauthvang

Between the Snezhnaya ecology teaser and Ashikai's video on Reed Miller inheriting the third descender's "ancient name" I've been thinking a lot about the Tsaritsa lately. I'm largely out of date with the current lore so it took me a while to discern what I believe Anastasya meant by "A tomb and birch trees, the Tsar's final tokens of affection", most curiously whose tomb she was referring to.

I think it's her tomb she's referring to. Specifically, her past tomb. In the Hymns of the Far North Pakkaisakko (the Belyi Tsar) tasks Saarelainen with opening the gates of Pojhola for him and promises his daughter in return for his work. This story is based on the myth of the Sampo, when Louhi tasks Väinämöinen with forging for her the sampo mill, he conscripts Ilmarinen to do this instead as he does not have the skill. This scheme was a trick laid out by Louhi and she steals the sampo without exchanging the maiden she promised.

Now the name Pakkaisakko also appears in Finnish folklore, literally translated to "Father Frost" and his grand-daughter or daughter, is Snegurochka, a name that's come up in Genshin's Lore before. If they're staying true to Finnish mythology the daughter Pakkaisakko promises Saareleinen should be Snegurochka.

In both the Hymns of the Far North and in the Ballad of the Fjords polearm, Snegurochka is implied to be in the ruins of Hyperborea, or within Pohjola. In the weapon description Ajax finds her after sailing a ship into the belly of a great whale where he "discovered the country of gold and white stone in the depths of the frozen sea." and in Hymns of the Far North it states

"Upon the starry steed, you rode across the forsaken isle of Hiisi and the dark, mist-shrouded lands of Pohjola, There to court the daughter of Pakkaisukko, that peerless beauty, at her home."

Implying her home is within the gates of Pohjola. In Finnish mythology Pohjola is the land of the dead most associated with the far north and Hyperborea is a kingdom hidden within the far northern part of the known world. This tells me one of two things, either Snegurochka was already dead, and had been cast into the land of the dead along with Hyperborea after the War of Funerary Flame, or she had never been born.

Revisiting the myth of the Sampo for a second, after Louhi tricks Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen, Väinämöinen points out all the riches the Sampo is making for the land of Pohjola and suggests they steal it back. While this version of the myth more clearly aligns with the story of Reed Miller, Lovia and Rotwang, it leads me to believe that Genshin is also utilising the belief that the sampo is a world pillar, and that Hyperborea is the top of this pillar, which means Snegurochka is possibly the personification of the pole star, or pale star.

I believe Monomakh understood that there would be a great cost for opening the gates of Hyperborea, a cost he likely believed to be his life, and conscripted Saarelainen to do it for him. In turn promising him "his daughter" or the maiden within. Once this task was complete he focused his own efforts on his seige against Miscislav.

Now today's PV and the reveal of the Tsaritsa's son threw a spanner in my works for a brief moment. However, someone later pointed out that Anastasya's memory of her son takes place in a warm climate, something Snezhnaya hasn't experienced since Miscislav's era. In Greek mythology they believed Hyperboreans were blessed by Apollo and lived within a sunny, temperate and divinely blessed land, the Riphean Mountains shielding them from the frigid north wind, and in game Hyperborea seems to be cast in a pure golden light, almost akin to sunlight.

After conquering the rest of the Fae and becoming the cryo archon Monomakh crowned himself the Tsar of all of Snezhnaya and between then and the cataclysm returned to Hyperborea looking for answers. I believe this is when he went to retrieve Snegurochka from Hyperborea but could not leave with her because she was formally "dead", or she was confined to Hyperborea because of her nature as the spirit of the world pillar.

The trees in the courtyard in the Ballad of the Fjords are referred to as "silver trees", in real life there is a type of birch tree commonly found in northern and western parts of Europe known as the "silver birch" and Irminsul, the world tree is commonly attributed as being silver. In 6.6 we learned that Irminsul was not once as significant as it is today, and watched Nahida convince all three active shades of the necessity of it's destruction. Indicating that Irminsul's presence as the pillar of the world is a falsified notion and that the true world pillar falls to somewhere or something else.