#zeitlind

You look just like her…

so uh, how about that new world quest huh? like i went into it expecting asmoday lore (which we definitely got) but i was not at all expecting the exploration of suicidal ideation from zeitlind and her sister. like the quest starts off like, "oh wow this old man thought there was a ghost at the sanitarium let's go investigate" and then zeitlind shows up and tells us that she came to see her sister's grave and that she "planned to say goodbye." like that caught me completely off guard when i was playing. each place we go to when looking for zeitlind's items from her suitcase, everyone we meet basically is trying to show zeitlind their own passions and their own reasons for living (ignoring the fact that everyone in the temple is technically immortal). honestly the entire quest feels more like it's zeitlind and raumhilda's story and it just so happens that the setting is the temple of a missing deity (this is not a complaint btw, i absolutely loved this quest).

zeitlind and raumhilda's choice to both sacrifice their memories very much feels like an allegory for suicide. one of the themes throughout all of hoyo's games is that the self = memory. your memories make you who you are, so a removal of your memories is the death of the self. for example in arlecchino's story quest she says explicitly says that is her opinion too, so her removing the memories of former house of the hearth members is no different than killing them. something i really liked about the quest was that zeitlind's problems aren't just solved by her time with the traveler. like that feels like a common trope, where someone who's depressed or even suicidal goes on some kind of adventure and that when they're done they're magically okay now. that very clearly doesn't happen with either zeitlind or her sister.

towards the end of the quest zeitlind talks about how saving yourself means you can also save the world.

this reminded me of what sandrone said about rene and alain, how their wish to save the world originally came from their wish to save themselves. it also makes me think that in a weird way, the opportunity to lose all of their memories was the perfect option for zeitlind and raumhilda because they both share similar ideas about having another life so to speak. you can see it with both of their epitaphs, "one lifetime isn't enough" for raumhilda and "to be continued" for zeitlind. like zeitlind's line "i'm not giving that chance to you" feels like she's both talking about the chance to save the world and the chance to "get rid of her melancholy."

In summary, this is a post about newest Genshin WQs, and the theme it shared with Narzissenkreuz WQs

Disclaimer: this is sorely based on my own playing experience in-game quest without consider outside material. Just one personal view that cannot escape biasness, that all.

First, we need to agree on a single ground about Raumhilda-Zeitlind is a pair of siblings that directly foreshadowing the story between two shining Shades: Asmoday and Istaroth.

Raum = space

Zeit = time

In the quest "Long day in the mountains", Traveller and Lind invited to Temple of Space by Nihilita without much explanation through cube teleport. The temple itself is a museum of Teyvat civilization, so we can said Space of Asmoday is a microcosm of Teyvat.

Sound familiar?

Asmoday also did exactly that 500 years ago. She appears before the Twin, trapped them. Then for some reason, a Twin who is chosen got tossed to Teyvat and travel together with Paimon.

This is the first pipeline.

Asmoday ≈ Nihilita ≈ Raumhilda.

So based on both Nihilita and Hilda, we could extrapolate overall what happened to Asmoday.

Asmoday is the one who opens eyes and sees nothingless, and falls from grace. Opposite with Istaroth and Melanta, who right now still remain in Heaven.

The second pipeline would be:

Istaroth ≈ Melanta ≈ Zeitlind

Speaking of Istaroth, she is associated with melancholy quite directly as well. Through the image her shed tear in the Wheel of Fortune lunar card.

This is where Narzissenkreuz parallel kicks in. I think it's a bit hard for me to explain smoothly so stick with me a bit.

In this questline, Istoria and us, accompany Lind, at the same time, player can read between lines that Lind is suffering greatly of "melancholy", or, depression.

The quest explores a lot in this topic,

It goes as far as Hilda, the extrovert older sister, also suffered from this very melancholic after losing her fiancé. Zeitlind is very certain on the fact Hilda would not make it if she not "reborn" in the Temple. And is not hard to tell from the beginning of the quest and until the very end before giving up all her memory, Zeitlind still not change her mind on her...well...

Now, combine both Hilda and Nihilita story together: the older sibling who sees a certain truth, decides to fall from grace, then travels the world and leaves bits of clue behind.

Who among Narzissenkreuz kids fit this? Right, René de Petrichor.

(Not exactly in that order per se. But the events are similar enough to work.)

This is identical to the words Sandrone describe René: who sink into the abyss. She also describe Rene research is "absolute Nihil".

Oh and Caterpillar straight telling Narzissenkreuz is mentally ill too.

Fit just right with Hilda's depression.

Return to Zeitlind, and Istaroth, the quest itself can be experience as Zeitlind journey of tracing after her sister across Temple of Space.

This, also a parallel to Traveller traveling Teyvat after Abyss sibling tell them to see the truth of the world too.

At the end of the quest, Zeitlind ultimately make the same choice as her sister: forsake all her memory.

As well as answer the philosophy question in the similar manner that Istoria said he thought he talking with Hilda: save the world is save yourself.

(and this is the point of no return for me in this Asmoday-Rene, Istaroth-Alain rabbit hole)

I can't help but put Alain in the end of this Istaroth/Zeitlind/Melanta pipeline because:

As Sandrone mentioned, he too, was overwhelmed by depression.

He too, tracing back what Rene and Narzissenkreuz left behind, and create Pulonia. The mek to calculate "the unknown".

Both of Nzkz and Long day in Mountain shared this save the world theme. And Lind even quotes this:

This is a line written by Karasawa Eichi, one of Narzissenkreuz Ordo member. Not only that, Narzissenkreuz himself quotes this tenet before Traveller and Ann wake up Mary-Ann the Oceanid.

A small coincidence that Hilda/Rene are both extrovert(well, Rene is sort of natural born cult leader, so not-so introvert at least) and Lind/Alain are introvert.

Nihilita open eyes before falling, also can be read as because they possessed a new view-vision of the world.

Now, I might as well call back to Fell Dragon Monocle: Narzissenkreuz said Alain did not see his vision yet, so that is why Alain wishes to stop him.

Opposite with them, Melanta and Istaroth remain in Heaven.

In Alain's case, he is the last one remaining human. Someone remains to witness this story until the very end.

Well, Istaroth, as Ruler of Time, who is the sum of all things that happens and all the never be, sheds a tear at the end of time?(This line is originally Ved but hey, Istaroth crying in Lunar Card too)