#seelie

varcole

“its mouth uttered no human speech, but it gazed upon me as upon heavenly light, and longed for my song as a thirsty servant longed for spring rain.”

“it spoke to me and called me Mother.”

(reddit spoiler marked hopefully) https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/s/DoOMcOmRHw

YES i did! And it is quite true as i was watching the live stream live and wow!

So apparently, the kaenriahn civilians are descendants of the Tsaritsa. Its a big schock because nothing had ever really tipped us off towards this conclusion.

On the contrary, we were led to think that the Kaenriah civilisation was born out of Koitar and Seutervoinen's love : the first angel and the Voyager.

After all, the two of them had vowed to create a place where gods and humans could co-exist. To facilitate this, the Angel passed on forbidden knowledge about the secrets of creation (which would've explained Kaenriah's very reoccurring theme of forbidden knowledge).

But that was a transgression the Heavenly principles did not take well and the Angels were cursed to lose their form and intelligence if they ever gave the love that was meant for all to one person.

The Voyager didn't come to teyvat in their original body, instead possessing the body of a youth, who had star-like pupils, which implies they’re connected to Khaenri'ah:

"Until the first angel met an unnamed youth beneath the silver tree in the far north, And in those star-like pupils, saw a reflection of herself she had never yet known."

Its not the first time a god like entity possesses the body of a young human, as we have seen with Xbalanque in Mavuika’s story quest, effevtively changing his pupils to suns, which is the symbol of the Pyro Archon. So for a traveller from beyond the sky, star like eyes would be quite a fitting image.

Its also possible Koitar herself had the star-shaped pupils to begin with given the youngest of her six sisters, our beloved Nicole, has such eyes.

So basically, since it was always said Kaenriah was founded by one bloodline, i always thought it would be the descendants of Koitar and Seutervoinen, which would transmit the star-shaped eye gene.

And thus, it seems wierd to me that they would instead be descendants of the Tsaritsa given she does not have star shaped pupils. Or at least her eyes dont resemble the kaenriahn eyes we've had so far.

And the star shaped pupil isnt the only pattern angels and kaenriahns seem to share.

But.

That made me think of something else.

Because obviously, they wouldn't lie about this, especially not during a live stream, so there has to be an explanation.

Over the years, I've read left and right that there are a few parallels between Koitar and Anastasya, and some on reddit have even theorized one might be a reincarnation of the other. But they are mainly brought together by their obvious shared goal : the desire to bring down the heavenly principles because they lost their lovers to said usurper. And they got their memories partially erased because of it.

But instead of a reincarnation, I'd be more enclined to believe Anastasya might've 'devoured' Koitar, the same way Rhinedottir devoured Naberius's heart and merged with her essence or an even better exemple ; Capitano merging with Yohualtecuhtin who is also an angel.

This bring us back to "Legend of the shattered Halberd", a novel written by Mr Nine which turned out to be Nicole (i swear this book haunts the genshin lore).

- The novel's plot happens to include a possession of the protagonist's body, someone who was "once the daughter of the Celestial Emperor but has long forgotten her name" taking the body of a woman named Weiyang.

Funny enough, Koitar has a similar title being "first daughter of the creator god" in Hymns of the Far North.

- Another parallel would be that Weiyang/daughter of the Celestial Emperor is searching for the fragments of the halberd, the same way the Tsaritsa is searching for the Gnoses which are fragments of her lover.

- And of course, the same way I've already mentionned Koitar and Anastasya wanting to bring down their heavenly principles; Weiyang's goal is to kill the heavenly empror.

Koiter had survived the destruction of Hyperborea, and even if her memories had been wiped by the Heavenly Principles, a chance encounter with Boreas helped her remember her past and her lover, Seutervoinen. She later dissapeared.

So basically, i believe it is possible the tsaritsa may have merged with Koitar. It would make a lot more sense that she'd have the guts to challenge Celestia if she had the guidance of an Angel, especially Koitar.

Then it would make sense to say that the kaenriahn people are descendants of the Tsaritsa if the two had merged. Remember Hoyo is very fond of playing with words and scenes especially during trailers and live streams, the same way they used the voiceline "Neuvillette was stabbed??" In the 5.6 livestream to create tension....all for Neuvillette to not have been stabbed for real.

BUT.

Everything i just yapped could also be false given her son has the Kaenriahn eyes.

So in the end what does that leave us with?

1) The star shaped pupil is a common trait for people from beyond the sky (Seutervoinen and Saarelainen) and her son could've gotten those pupils from Saarelainen.

Counter argument : characters like the traveller, Skirk and Aloy who are outlanders dont possess that phenotype. So unless we have official confirmation that Saarelainen had star like eyes the same way we do for Seutervoinen, we cannot assume for it to be the case. But it remains a valid theory.

2) Anastasya and Koitar had already merged by then, and her son's eyes were thus a product of Koitar's ancestory, the same way Rhinedottir's eyes changed when she merged with Naberius (the shades all have golden eyes while kaenriahns typically had blue ones, so their current form has a mix of them + the XY chromosomes over her pupils).

3) This one is a lot more shaky since it relies on information we do not have, but perhaps Anastasya is an angel as well, possibly the daughter of Koitar (so she'd carry the gene anyways).

It was never confirmed that she was fae. And it doesnt just stop at that:

During the Cataclysm 500 years ago, she succeeded the Belyi Tsar as Cryo Archon following his demise during the Cataclysm, and was crowned Tsaritsa of all Snezhnaya.

Due to yet-unknown reasons, a lot of the Snowland Fae nobility, followers of the Belyi Tsar who himself was a fae, refused to recognize the Tsaritsa as their new ruler: some did not seek an audience with her, while others, such as the Dalegrad clan, broke ties with Snezhnograd altogether.

That seems kind of exsessive dont you think?

She's had beef with the fae on other occasions as well ; mostly because The Tsaritsa directed the fatui to abolish the feudal Fae aristocracy.

She sent emissaries to all fae princes who had not come to seek an audience with her, and demanded they relinquish their princely titles. Many died before responding, while the remainder acceded.

She then replaced the Fae aristocracy with the Snezhnograd Veche as an administrative organ, headed by a human, I. Ivanovna N.

Since the tsaritsa is obviously not human, it seems wierd to me that if she were a fae, she'd go against her own kind in the favor of elevating humanity or guiding humanity which was always more an angel thing to do.

Since a good portion of the people were obviously against Anastasya ascending to power, its likely the Belyi Tsar himself chose her to inherit his crown or rather his gnosis because they shared the same goal.

Indeed, he was also searching for a way to overturn the heavenly order and create an eternal paradise, an "Elysium." Very similar to the paradise Koitar and Seutervoinen wanted to create for both humanity and gods.

So basically, maybe Anastasya is trying to mold Snezhnaya into that paradise Koitar wanted for humans and gods, while pursuing the universal goal that seems to be overthrowing the H.P.

This relies of course on the fact her race is still unkown, the fact both she and nicole sport the star symbol (Nicole's eyes, the mark on her forehead, the same way Anastasya has visible stars on her hair, furr, and robes), and the strange aversion the fae had to her taking control of their nation.

Also this may be me looking too much into this, but the patter we've noticed on the seelies, Nicole's dress and Kaeya's ultimate kinda match the design of her staff? Though the staff is half out of the picture so i guess i wont know for sure until we get it in game or in a spoiler.

I'm NOT a big fan of this one because i kinda feel like I'm writing a fanfiction ngl😭 I prefer my theories to have a minimum of actual backing and evidence, not just plot holes i can fill with whatever speculations, but for the sake of academic integrity, i still added this one.

So yeah overall this was a BIG lore bomb to drop on us on a random friday with absolutely no warnings lmao. This is getting me so excited for Snezhnaya, and I hope I wasnt completly off the mark with this.

Thanks for reading (and asking 😚) and until next time !