[2.6] The Harbingers Are (Un)Dead - A Genshin Impact Theory 

Yeah they are dead. Dead inside 😔

Hillichurls simply don't disintegrate when they die, otherwise, Sucrose wouldn't be able to collect the bone sample of one of them. There are also locations in Inazuma that feature dead Hillichurls, they're killed by rogue samurai and the implied riff hounds. In the chasm quest, there are two instances where we can run into Fatui members that are starving and fatigued. They all explain the supply cut off from the Millelith, which literally confirms that they need substance to stay alive. In the events of the same quest, it is later HEAVILY implied that they are killed by or die from starvation. I imagine that most of the Fatui we see are simply genetically modified to handle their delusions or have something to lessen the effects. I mean they quite literally have a genius scientist with them, as well as the backing of a God, so it's not a surprise to think they can handle delusions. This applies to the Harbingers as well, just a fyi.

For me it's more like..."they were meant to die, but did not", kinda refusing their fate Scaramouche had to sleep forever - but he said "screw you, mom" and woke up Childe had to die when he fell to abyss, but did not Signora had to die, she burned her body to the state of liquid fire - yet she did not Even the very first harbinger had to die since he was from Khaenriah (well,he could be cursed too, but still...) Sooo, if Tsaritsa, let's say, goes against fate (devine principles) just like abyss order does, then yeah, having a team of fate breakers is a good idea, even if they are all messed up as people (P.S. Qiqi, do you wanna be a harbin-...)

Delusions are fueled by negative emotions, typically a grievance: 1. La Signora hated Venti for not saving her lover. 2. Kunikuzushi hated everyone who killed his first friend and Ei for discarding him. 3. Childe(edited for accuracy): motivated by an insatiable hunger for battle and desire to fight increasingly powerful opponents, even going as far as using Foul Legacy when pushed to his limits. 4. Diluc is fueled by the pain of losing his dad, then the Knights of Favonius covering it up, and the Fatui responsible still at large. Characters like Teppei and Diluc’s father were not motivated by negative energy, nor were they full of spite, nor did they give up their identities. They never *deluded themselves into believing they were someone they were not.*

"We will defy this world with a power from beyond!" - Dainsleif. "From beyond" could easily be idiom for "afterlife".

Oh I like this! I had already thought that the only thing keeping Signora alive was her delusion, as the Crimson Witch artifact set pretty well says she had nearly completely burned away her own body by the time she got her delusion, though I put her at the threshold between life and death, not already one step past it. It does make sense, thought, after all, what is not the ultimate delusion, but that you are alive when in fact you are dead?

Bosacius lost his memory due to (as far as IN-GAME characters can tell!) karma, which is a form of arcon residue. And two other yakshas literally fought and killed each other. Quite the coincidence not. Edit: also, yakshas, too, wear masks to use their powers (xiao does, but we also see geo and hydro do that when they fight each other). Moreover, pyro yakshas' mask CRACKS when she succums to madness!

I agree with everything but the whole "disintegrating vs poofing" thing because: 1)Animals pooofing seems to just be a stylistic choice , probably inspired by breath of the wild where animals poof when they die as well. 2)The treasure hoarders arent actually poofing, theyre blowing up smoke bombs to run away (or , I guess, teleport away). 3)Whopper flowers , nobushi and overworld bosses also disintegrate, meaning that its impossible to draw any parallels between only the fatui and the hilichurls since theyre not the only ones who's death looks like that. Taking all taht into account, I really think its just a way to justify the traveller's actions. Treasure hoarders are really just normal people who resort to theft, meaning that if the traveller actually killed them theyd be WAYYYY more morally dubious than they already are (which theyre already in a kinda grey area so thatd be pretty bad) , especially when we consider the amount of npcs who have admitted to having been treasure hoarders out of necessity at some point in their lives. The fatui, the nobushi, the kairagi and the monsters, however, arent just normal people (at least not in the traveller's eyes) meaning that killing them isnt 100% wrong. The fatui dont just steal ; they blackmail, kill, manipulate, decieve and terrorise people who, most of the time, havent done anything to warrant that , so it is somewhat justifiable that the traveller would kill them. Theyre not killing a normal person, but the equivalent of a member of the mafia, so someone who has committed themselves to working full time as a horrible person being horrible to others. I do think youre onto something though! Hu tao's definition of death and the patterns in people who use delusions and survive seem to fit into each other way too nicely for it to be a coincidence

Childe lost himself, he didn't mean to lose himself or fall into the abyss. And I think that is quite sad. This boy needs a hug

Just a thought, but if everyone is slightly resistant to Xiao’s negative karma because they have visions, what’s up with Paimon and how come she isn’t affected? Just food for thought 🤨

I just checked the description of the Shimenawa Reminiscence set, in the story of the head piece, it balantly said: “Losing one's memory is no different from losing one's life. It is like death amidst darkness eternal." Which I believe is exactly what this video is talking about, so …

Signora’s mourning mask I believe is meant to represent her mourning Rostam’s death. Mourning hats/etc. tend to be worn by widows who are mourning their dead husbands.

If we go with the "Teyvat is stuck in a time loop" theory, they really are already dead and constantly dying 😰

I think the entire "having to ditch your og identity" to make sure the delusion doesn't fire back on you has some merit If you are not a "normal" human aka someone with a vision, someone who fell into the abyss, someone who was built as a god replacement etc then the delusion will not cause ur death (eg diluc, childe, scaramouche) But if u never gave up ur identity like crepus and teppei, delusions could kill. Also the fatui generals who just are roaming around tevyat, i feel like their delusion also kinda works as a uniform to essentially make them unidentifiable + the lyudochka quest suggests that they are literally raised to give up their true identity some day

I think there's also heavy implications that the gambler set describes Yelan. At first I wasn't sure since it doesn't match her color scheme at all, but Yelan's character stories indicate she is a master of disguise and a massive cheater when she gambles at her teahouse/casino, which fits the gambler set. What solidified it for me is that Yelan uses distracting elements in her disguises to draw people's attention. In her character story, it says that pharmacists tend to focus more on the fact that the patient seems to enjoy the pain rather than think about who the person actually is. Both the feather and flower of the gambler set are noted to be gaudy, yet hide tools used to cheat, which would be perfect when Yelan is pretending to be a customer of the teahouse.

Mild spoilers: The way time and space worked under the chasm, while our party expressed some early stages of descent to madness, reminded me of Dain's situation. Because in a way, under there, you could not physically die since your body is on a stasis. But the mind keeps on going and the environment made illusions to make you mad. So in a way, death under there isn't the typical death we know but much like the same fate as Dain's and the hilichurls. Like somehow the mechanics of time and space under the chasm worked the same way as Dain's curse. Corruption by physical immortality, leading to madness, denying proper death which leads to one not being "absorbed" by the leylines. I guess what I'm saying is, that whole thing under the chasm is connected to Abyssal energy and mechanics. Or that we were literally in the abyss during the entire time, and that the abyss is actually a construct. Needless to say, I think the latest quest gave so much content for lore and worldbuilding. Not only in the explicit dialogue and plot, but as well as its context and subtext.

What if "Memory data" is literally Memory data? Like, digital data. Basing off of Honkai, what if Teyvat is not a real place, but a simulated reality still inside Project Ark and the reason some of the people lose their memories, like the Khaenrians is because the system deemed them to be unnecessary or a bug. If you want to look at a similar situation in the Nasuverse in Fate/Extra, there's a supercomputer called the Moon Cell which has registered all of humanity and runs simulations to keep everything working and humanity "alive" and it always reboots itself after a certain amount of time to get rid of bugs

It is interesting, but I feel like childe's whole story quest with Teucer invalidates some of the points for me due to the fact that so much of it is based on their shared history that both of them remember and identify with, unless I'm taking some of your points too literally. On a different note, all the fatui elites (aside from the electro cicin mage for some reason) all have white hair too, which also supports the theory that is warping and aging them somehow.

its an interesting theory and is supported by the dead character we have in the game (qiqi) not being able to maintain her memories for a very long time but this makes me wonder can yeelan use a delusion because it was mentioned she often takes on new personas for her job and she also has strong ties to the fatui (becoming the owner cause of childe and stealing coat meant for tsaritsa) and can qiqi use one without promlems cause she is dead

"Poor busty misguided signora you were dead the whole time" 💀 Long-awaited video and you made it well again. Also now you made me think how childe was able to pass times inside abyss, my boy already dead? Nooooo

Most of the Fatui Elites that we fight in the game have white hair as well; Implying that they are aging very fast from their delusions. The only exceptions to this are the Electro Cicin Mages who have green hair and the non Fatui elites (basic NPC models) who run clerical jobs in Northland Bank in Liyue and in the Goth Grand Hotel in Mondstat, possibly indicating that they do not have delusions themselves yet as they’re not full fledged Fatui warriors. Also, the playable characters dissolve into blue energy when their health drops to zero just like the Fatui warriors.

But... But my promise to meet Childe's family 😢😢

I think Signora having a recreated body actually makes a lot of sense. She became a being of pure flame, losing her body in the process. She only regained a "normal" body after joining the fatui. I think her mask might actually be a cast of her face infused with cryo energy that cooled her down to have a stable form

I'd like to make a comment and expand on something. I really like how you brought up "like how you wear masks in a play" because it reminds me of Greek Theater, something I learned in my theater classes. In Greek theater, actors wear elaborate masks to depict the theme and characters of a play. And multiple actors will play multiple characters as there was never more than 3 actors. Often, the actors would not speak and instead there was a chorus that would describe what would happen. There was also never violence depicted on stage, instead, it would happen off stage. For example, if a Greek hero went into battle, they would skip the battle and pick up right after. There were two types of plays: The first were Tragedies, which were based on the downfall of a hero and a moral the audience was supposed to leave with. Think of a story that might be used to scare children into behaving. The second are Satire plays, or comedy. These often poked fun at the gods, or the high society. They usually had very ugly masks to enhance the humor. Here are some random likeness I noticed: - The harbinger's dawning masks represent a fake identity, just as Ashikai said, then it is just like how Greek actors would wear masks to represent the identity and personality of the character they played. - The masks used in Satire plays I feel could be likened to perhaps the masks that the hilichurls wear. As they are often looked at as "silly" or "ugly" creatures. They also use different masks on different hilichurls depending on their element and role. Plus they dance... and they don't bleed, the just... they just fade away. - Going back to the rule of 'violence never being on stage', it reminds me of the harbingers and how most of them prefer political means to get their way, meanwhile Tartaglia is a black sheep of sorts as he craves violence (something the others don't seem too fond or approving of. And on stage, violence was always disproved). There is also the fact "Ajax" and "Teucer" both come from Greek mythology as well. - The chorus in Greek theater can be likened to the Laylines, as they chart and record everything there has ever been and everything there will be. - There was a famous festival dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine, where they would perform 5 plays over the coarse of 5 days (if I remember correctly) in honor of him. And I just find it interesting how much wine gets talked about in game. Especially by a few choice gods... I'll add anymore if I think of them!

You brought an particular point about how death works within the world of Genshin. Firstly, when a god is killed --- they aren't truly gone from the world. Their elemental energy move around the space. However, that DEPENDS on how said god accepts their end. Either through an explosion of energy or slay by someone (Havria), or how both Gouba and Andrius erased their existence, yet they still remains either as self that lack memories or a poltergeist stuck on an specific place. We have the Tatarigami of Inazuma and miasma of Liyue both created from the negative renmants of fallen gods. And the purple mud on the Chasm, that upon touching it, causes sickness, and hallucinations of memories from someone else. And there's the Hillichurls, former humans cursed by Celestia with inmortality. Not matter how many times they are slain, they don't truly die, but they are forced to be "alive" again a.k.a respawn. And since, they were humans, this caused mind corrosion to be more prominent on their mind --- thus quickly forgetting who they are.

The thought about the fact that Childe lost his identity in the Abyss reminds me of the first heir in the battlepass trailer, whose memories also got warped. Also in the battlepass trailer and in the Childe bossfight cutscene the identical cross-shaped eyeglow can be seen, so maybe there is a deeper connection

I feel like another notable artifact set using this method is Bloodstained Chivalry. The Bloodstained Knight’s previous identity was the White Knight, which was lost in a similar way to Rosalyne. He now dawns the mantle of the Bloodstained Knight, and I don’t believe it mentions him dying, but only joining the Abyss Order. If so, then there is a chance that he was corrupted by the Abyss, and a slimmer one that he is now locked out of the Ley Lines as well.

Love the theory! Expanding on the idea that true death is being absorbed by the ley lines, it's interesting to note that "evil" gods and demons cannot or perhaps are not allowed to be absorbed by the ley lines. Their memory data remains festering as filth, karma, miasma, calamity, and many other terms. I would consider a broader definition of death to be the dispersion of memory data from a vessel. (sort of honkai style). Now my theory is that a vessel cannot accommodate too much memory data. When a mortal attempts to use a delusion they must take in the memory data of a dead god. Dilucs father experienced a backfire and disintegrated, while Teppei started aging rapidly. I speculate that the fatui undergo a partial death. They disperse some fraction of their memory data to the leylines so that their vessel has enough room to accommodate the memory data of the dead god via the delusion. To use a delusion without first removing a part of yourself will lead to an immediate backfire. let's assume you've emptied some space in your vessel so you won't face immediate physical consequences of overflowing what now? Well, you have to deal with the mental effects of having karma constantly tainting you. We know proximity to karma warps the mind (Yaksha's are prime examples of this). And I understand there are sort of 3 ways to passively resist karma. 1. Just be built different. Be a god, Adeptus, or other immortal beings with a high karma tolerance. 2. Have a vision. Vision bearers are stated, especially in the 2.7 archon quest to have a much higher resistance to karma than normal people. 3. Have immense willpower. The funerary mask says that in order to give up what makes an "I" requires enormous obsession. I take that to mean that the fatui give up their less, extreme parts of themselves so that the remaining identity is that with sufficient willpower and drive to resist the mind-altering effects of their delusion. Fatui elites obviously don't fit the 3 qualifications of resisting karma as well as the harbingers do so that's why they seem a little more unhinged. They may have undergone some memory dispersion to protect them against the physical consequences of a delusion but they can't resist the mental effects as well. Now the rest of the harbingers have good reason to be able to withstand karma but that being said, only 2 of them, Signora and Childe are confirmed to possess delusions. I'd assume all of them do, but it also could just be a title in the fatui ranks, which doesn't necessitate having a delusion (plenty of fatui diplomats we interact with don't possess delusions). That being said: Childe has a vision and possesses the singular drive to fight strong foes. Although it is interesting that while the funerary mask says one must give up their past and their bonds, Childe still maintains fairly close relations with his siblings. It's probably another source of willpower for him tho. Also, an interesting point about Childe is that he only dons his mask once he activates his delusion. In phase 1 of his boss fight his mask is on his head but in phase 2 delusion unleashed it's on his face. So I definetly think there is a connection or even a necessity to use a mask while using a delusion. Signora definetly has willpower and a sadistic nature. While she doesn't possess a vision she is the crimson witch, and fire has a very interesting relationship with countering karma. The staff of Homa states "Only an unbound flame can purify this world." and the Rite of Homa is used to purify miasma, producing ashen butterflies which visually appear quite similar to Signora's crimson moths. Even if Scaramouche doesn't use a delusion he still may have undergone the memory data dispersion when he joined the fatui as part of them unlocking more of his potential. The rest of the harbingers we don't know enough about, unfortunately. As for Diluc, he's interesting. He uses a delusion but not while in possession of his vision. Not sure if it's the vision itself that resists karma or if some change occurs when one becomes an allogene that protects against it even when they aren't in physical possession of their vision. He also joined that secret anti-fatui - anti-abyss organization. Very reasonable to guess he learned the secrets of fatui delusion and memory dispersion through them and that's why he's able to do it. Like Childe, he's only seen using his delusion while wearing a mask. The partial memory dispersion theory would explain how despite being tainted by karma (as evidenced by her disintegrating, which you theorize is the fate of those unable to rejoin the leyline) at least some of signora's memory data was able to make it into the leylines to form artifacts. They released that part of their memory data before they became tainted by the karma of a delusion. As for Zhongli perhaps he has an artifact set because he actually is dying. He time and time again says that even he, one of, if not the oldest god currently in Teyvat is not immune to erosion. Ei was so concerned about erosion that she transferred her memory data into Makoto's sword as she believed it would be a stronger vessel than her current one. (Also IIRC there's some weirdness around Ei actually having died once before so that Makoto could technically win the archon war and then Makota fashioning a new body for her). Zhongli as such an old god might be having his memory data literally eroded since no vessel, not even that of a god can last eternally. So like the harbingers, a portion of his memory data has returned to the leylines via erosion rather than a deliberate data dump.

In the beggining when you were talking about dead people and ley lines really ties into how when we fight a domain for artifact sets we get the supposed "dead people" sets from "trees of life" (assuming the trees are just more leylines holding the memories of the artifact set weilders(?)). And if the trees are leylines then it makes sense that we can fight domains over and over again and the monsters or memories of monsters will always be there. The fact that most people end up with a mix of defensive substats like hp/def instead of cr/cd (ofc depending on scaling) feels like the people that the artifacts are based on were also not perfect and had different limits to how much defense and offense they had if you see what i mean. (Ik its all random but the fact that you can get any stat on any set could also have lore behind it)

One thing to note is that one of the Ajaxs in the Illiad was killed by a God. If we use that as inspiration for Ajax/Childe, him giving up his "life" for his service to his Archon is a pretty interesting spin on that

so this is telling me that: giving up a former identity=death of that idendity/personality=becomes a memory=memories can manifest as artifacts=artifacts are for the dead.

One thing i found particular about time in genshin impact, is doesn't flow evenly everywhere. What is suspect, is that when entering a domain, you are actually catapulted into the future, where these character are certified deceased and returned to the lay lines. When leaving the domain, you are returned to the moment (or close to it) that you entered the domain as if no time had really passed. This makes it difficult to asses if the harbingers are indeed alive, dead, or deceased.

I was waiting for your thoughts and theory on the new 2.7 quest . I will love to see your reactions And thanks for all the mind blowing theories😊

There is *definitely* a pattern and ever since you pointed it out in you last video I've been semi-obsesssed. Especially on the concept that the memories you made in the discarded identity must return to the leylines in order to become artifacts, etc. To an extent, it might mean that Donning a mask to accomplish certain actions means that your memories of doing those things won't enter the Leylines, which has some wild implications for Xiao and Diluc.

I've actually been discussing exactly this in another server and funny enough, we more or less covered all of these exact topics. I also love how you managed to take it futher by pointing out that the artifacts not only managed to capture the memory of when characters became harbingers but also when they cast aside another former sense of self to become someone new. Something interesting I've noticed is that the overlay is the "flower of life", but these clearly are "memories" with the larger percent belonging to those who have died or at the minium cast aside their former life. It actually reminded me of something. The Dandelion Sea. "But those aren't Dandelions". No, they aren't, but what if the Dandelion Sea isn't a physical place, but rather a construct of memories within the ley lines similar to the Sacred Sakura or perhaps even a domain? A brief analysis of the story definitely seems to do with memory and quite possibly a form of time-travel, along with what may very well be a Kitsune. I'm probably grasping at straws since there's still a lot of empty map, especially around Mondstat, but with the "Cecilia Garden" being a domain, and with limited time and story-quest domains being a thing, I cannot help but give it the label of food for thought.

So I was actually right about some things:- 1. Harbingers are an example of defying their destiny/fate by being alive even after their expiration date. 2. Rosalyne is "dead" therefore Signora could never become a character we would become sympathetic towards and she could also never be redeemed anymore that's why they killed her (the latter theory is that Rosalyne *not Signora* will have some kind of significance later on hopefully in Sumeru where we maybe use her research notes or smthin but this is more crackpot so ignore). But Delusions eh? We know that Visions somehow are able to utilize the Ley Line Energy (in the form of Elemental Energy which maybe be the residue left after the Ley Line Cycel but dont take it seriously I like to go crackpot quite often) so Delusions may also be doing some weird stuff with leylines too just in a bad way. I don't really know what else to say abt delusions tho. But anyway back to the "Harbinger defying their destiny aka fate" is ultimately our goal right? (or atleast our twin's and Tsaritsa's). To stop the cycle of ordained fate by the Heavenly Principles and the Harbingers are already defying it. Makes the theory about us co-operating with the Fatui in the future even more probable. But we may be the variable that actually does it in a safe way.

...This makes me _yet again_ wonder about _all_ the instances where we see *"corrupted memory data"* (Hilichurls) being killed by either *"chaos monsters"* (Rifthounds) or *"mortals"* (e.g. Kamei Munehisa), thus not disintegrating and leaving behind a corpse... in-game we know that the Traveler can purify such existences, and on at least Shenhe's character demo we see that *exorcism* does the same, making the masked "villains" turn into dust. Like, I just wonder - as I don't have any idea on _why_ it works like this, while disagreeing that it is just for the shock value of finding Hilichurl corpses here and there on very serious moments (...or Gourmet Supremos' daily quests). ... One thing that has been bothering me to no end this week are the parallels between *Genshin Impact* and certain other media (which seem to borrow elements from very, very ancient Asian culture that I am not familiar with, but that are present on way too many mangas and novels that I read) : *1.* The main *"One Piece"* connection is finally here as of patch 2.7, in the form of Fading Twilight's lore last lines: _"The only thing I truly fear is to be lost and forgotten."_ _"Should ill fate dictate that I am to be buried in some nameless place, do not forget me."_ Which, in a way, mirror a very famous idea from that series: _"When do you think a person dies? (...) It's when... they are forgotten."_ - Dr. Hiriluk (One Piece vol. 16 ch. 145 / episode 86) _"I am not gonna die, partner."_ - Gol D. Roger (One Piece vol. 52 ch. 506 / episode 400) The Pirate King _effectively_ didn't die, as he was _never_ forgotten; Artifacts serve the same purpose as history books and fairy tales in Genshin, keeping their tales alive as long as people remember... in a world where Venti can be considered the weakest Archon _just_ because his nation is the freest, with the most absent ruler - thus people don't _think_ much _of_ or _about_ him... their (gods and vision holders) *legends* (myths) seem to *gain strength* specifically from this existence beyond a physical body: Their *Story* (tales). *2.* ... "Story" is what composes the "bodies" of " transcendent" beings (e.g. Constellations) in the popular Korean novel *"Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint".* In that series, a person (their original "incarnation") can physically die while their *story* (the collection of their memories in the "scenario") still lives in the form of a Constellation - which can "sponsor" other mortals (again, "incarnations") by lending the power accumulated in their *stories* to said mortals in proportion to how much the personality and life of said mortals parallel the constellation's "narrative" (... and if this isn't pretty much how a *Vision* works in Genshin - by a mortal borrowind the power of a "Constellation" through a compatible *ambition* ...then I don't know anything anymore). (... Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint even has the *Dokkaebi* - demon creatures that constrict the freedom of "incarnations" - like Paimon on unreleased areas - for the sake of the narrative... while having multidimensional powers of _broadcasting_ - like Paimon kinda does by taking care of Twitter and waving at the player - and even having access to a gacha-like exclusive shop for items - again, features that Paimon controls in Genshin... ugh.)

Can we appreciate for a moment that a) Ashikai makes totally genious theories and b) Genshin's confirmed and possible lore is just insanely well thought out.

(This is only thoughts, please take it with a grain of salt. I just wanted to share it too) Finally, someone pointed out the somewhat similarities of Khaenria's and Abyss monsters to a Fatui. I have been also thinking this that there could a potential relation between the Snezhnaya and Khaenriah in some sense. with this in Mind, I wanted to share this What I found in Shred of Corporal Nikolay's Diary(Chasm Katarina's World Quest) this is what it said: "...Did our ancestors fight the calamity like this five hundred years ago? The Captain once said we knew not a hundredth of the grueling battles that our ancestors went through..." This is actually very interesting wording sdjhnfgjhfngkfhd

About the part where Diluc had to use a Delusion with a masks: La Signora's Delusion is actually ice, and she uses it to suppress her original fire form that she can't control. She uses a half mask in ice mode. Yet she uses a full mask with her regular/natural form(if anyone can call it natural). Isn't that kinda reverse? She might be an unique case but it could also be a counter-argument to death/masks/delusion theory. But of course this isn't the only reason to wear a mask. Maybe even if she doesn't have to hide her identity or face because of delusion powers, her powers burned her body so maybe she wears that mask to hide her burn scars, unrelated to all the theories in this video. But in her ice form, her ice delusion fixes her burn scars, but then she still has to wear a mask because of all this curse/death/delusion/masks stuff? (Also about the part about discarding identity, when she transforms we see her as Crimson Witch along with her actual name. But i guess that doesn't count because it is something game says to us as player, not Rosalyne introducing herself in-game, so all i can say is it is ironic lol)

You are phenomenal, Ashikai! When I watched this video I thought of a good analogy for this idea of Genshin death* you're proposing. What is Irminsul is treating a person's identity in Teyvat like a computer server is treating a user's "ID"? So the fatui masks might work as a device that will allow the harbringers to switch their into... an alternate account (or alter ID)? And that alter ID allows them to have access to some resources that can somehow buffer how the delusion is consuming the user's life force. I'm assuming the masks are issued by the Fatui, who also made the Delusions, so I think it's not totaly out of reach for them to incorporate something like a compatibile system into the masks. Well.. just a thought. I'm not saying that Teyvat is a simulation or something (that's another theory) but I just thought there are definitely some parallels in how Irminsul and a computer program works.

My favorite part about this theory is that it shows 4 different types of Delusion: 1. Harbingers so far have both Visions(ambition/dream) and Delusions(obsession/sacrifice). I interpret that to mean they still have a bit of their dead identity but they have already killed or are currently killing their former self for the sake of their dream which somewhat coincide with the Tsaritsa's. 2. Fatui officers, agents, and mages all just have Delusions if I'm not mistaken which would make sense of why they are so obsessed with the Tsaritsa and their nation as a whole. They have willingly become disposable pawns but not for themselves. 3. Teppei and the other soldiers did not have Visions but they still wanted to fight and reclaim peace to the point they would use anything. This obsession that was short-lived caused them to either overuse the power or they could not kill their current self because they didn't actually want constant sacrifice and war. 4. Diluc is a unique one because like the Harbingers he still has a Vision but his Delusion seems based on both revenge and justice or even knowledge and truth. Along with the fact he seemingly has no severe/long term drawbacks using it. He also doesn't change his element while using it which to me means that Diluc is still Diluc while using it meaning he did not sacrifice his previous memories but his allegiance and identity as Dawn Knight then creating an alter-ego devoted solely to justice which shows that Kaeya is right Diluc is a bit crazy.

well... as a member of the r/scaramouchemains, the title sure does sound comforting ever scince 2.1 did Signora the way it did

I think there's a palpable difference between surviving the end of your prescribed and storied 'Fate' (Rosalyne, Signora), not having a Fate because you shouldn't exist (Scara) and just being dead. I just feel harbingers have to escape having prescribed stories and Fates before they are free to try rebelling against it.

I personally find this theory kind of possible, but in many ways it also kills any chance of signora coming back in any form whatsoever which as a signora appreciator i feel kinda sad lol

Nice video, bringing light to the text/memories in artifacts!! But I have a small nitpick: in the video at 10:48 you said that Ei is still the kagemusha of the puppet, but iirc the puppet becomes the kagemusha of Ei, so the other way around.

Signora is dead *Casually dies again* 💀

back to genshin after 2 months and i just remembered your channel

An interesting theory. However, I have to ask. What about the Nobushi and Kairagi? Don't they also disintegrated after being defeated like the Fatui?

I really like this theory but Scaramouche is a different case. Scaramouche is the puppet of Ei so I don’t think he has an expiration date. Puppets never age so it isn’t far fetched to see him so far in the past. Unless we see him in a mask when we eventually battle him, whether he dies or not still remains a mystery.

I feel like the whole memory theory breaks because for that to stand true, they shouldn't be able to remember their past selves at all. But it is apparent with Scaramouche and Signora that they have a perfect recollection of their lives before becoming a Harbinger. Signora clearly had a vendetta against Venti because of his absence during the cataclysm and Scaramouche went on a killing spree because of his swordsmith friend/adoptive father(?). I like the theory more that they cheated death more than them actually being dead. As for the funerary mask, I feel like Signora probably put it on right after she became the Crimson Witch of Flame. Signaling the end of her previous life as Rosalyne. But in a symbolic sense.

“Stick around awhile and I might convince you” Because this is one of your videos, I was already convinced by the title

Thanks! Love you! 😘 a Tips： “Artifact set”在中文里叫做（in Chinese words）【圣遗物】。 【圣】 指“神圣的”（divine，holy，blest，consecrate…）； 【遗物】 字面意义上指（Literal meaning）“遗落的物品”（Left things），中文语境下特指（In Chinese context）“死后留下的东西”（belong to the dead）。 组合在一起就很有意思，既是特指，也引人遐想。（Trans：Those words combination is very interesting, means special reference, and also give us a big space to imagine.）

The wandering samurai enemies in Inazuma also dissolve when you beat them. Also, the Millelith dissolve into smoke when you fight them in the story quest. Your character also dissolves if they drown. Honestly dissolving is just the animation Genshin uses for death. Treasure hoarders just have the poof of smoke animation because they're fleeing instead of dying. Animals have the poof of smoke because Genshin copied a bunch of random details from Breath of the Wild. I do like the idea of artifacts representing discarded identities though.

What immediately came to me hearing your theory in more detail is that maybe the Fatui disappearing differently and the idea of them having "killed" their former selves is a Fatui pact that they make as a countermeasure against Celestia. Think about it like this; Celestia more than likely has access to the leylines and the memories of the world and could use that information to have knowledge of everything that has happened and is happening in Teyvat. So, considering that the Tzaritsa is directly opposing the heavens and wouldn't want her plans to be discovered by her enemies, it would make some sense if her more loyal followers were required to "kill" themselves (be it a curse or the effect of her delusions) so that their memories don't end up taken to the leylines for prying eyes to see. Something like how spies used to bite onto cyanide pills when they got discovered so that they couldn't be tortured or used. That except a much more ceremonial commitment and sacrifice that they make for the Tzaritsa so thar their essence/memories can't be accelerated like Teppei since they don't technically "exist" in Teyvat in the conventional sense. Not that this is supported by any evidence mind you, but it was just a thought that occurred to me.

This theory is definitely worth returning to since the arenara quest expands on the abyss and layline memories

Aged like milk

This is interesting food for thoughts and I'd like to add some points. 1) It is possible that the side effect of the Delusion is based on the God whom the residue is taken from. This could explain the differences. 2) We should take account of Qiqi in all of this, because it's like that her vision was the catalyst for her life to continue and this is an interesting counterpart to Teppei's Delusion. And it's also interesting that it is a Cryo Vision. 3) Dainsleaf Harbringer confirmed? (he has a mask ngh) 4) For the first point reason it could be that all the Fatui and Harbringer delusions (which is an insane number I would say) are produced off the same corpse and it may be Tsaritsa's herself. This is a wild guess anyway. I think there is so much still in this story to unfold, I just would like it much more if we weren't given only crumbs everytime :(

You dropped a lot on us with this one. I love it. I've had to repeat the video a few times to absorb all of this.

one recurring theme with the harbingers is experiencing a possibly fatal event in a location where ley lines are potentially unreachable. Childe fell into the abyss, Signora was in the cataclysm, which took place in Khaenri'ah, which was probably the abyss by the time that happened, and while there isn't anything like that for Scaramouche, we don't know enough about him to say he didn't experience something like that.

"he was a whole different person" I mean I feel he's actually still the problem for this theory because while it did sharpen his edges, the point we actually get from everything with Ajax is no actually he *didn't* fundamentally change. He was still the battle fanboy family oriented person as a child before the Abyss, the Abyss and the Fatui were just whetstones for him.

I don't know if they're already truly dead, but I'm definitely sure their former identities are at least symbolically dead.

The name of Arlecchino's Elemental Skill override "Masque of the Red Death", makes a lot of sense hearing this; And the little side effect of making "ghosts" of the people she's slain, it's kinda like she becomes their Ley Lines, being absorbed into her Baleful Bloodfire...

Hmm, not sure if this is a slightly different view, or just paraphrasing what you were saying. Apols if the latter. What if the delusions are feeding off the memories that the wielder would have made/lived if they hadn't used the delusion? People die because their potential for living out memories is exhausted early? If the leylines are maintaining a loop, the replay of that person's memories is cut short. That could explain how the Harbingers are able to use theirs without obvious cost. They have adopted a new identity, and it's the old identity (memory-line) that's being exhausted, while the alternate personality retains the full potential. The tendency to go a bit crazy may be due to the subliminal awareness of the original persona being devoured.

(theory) Kinda interesting thag maybe we would have a new game mechanic that is similiar with elysian realm but with the harbingers

Worth mentioning that the fatui generals are all based on commedia del arte, a form of play where basically all the actors don *masks*, the characters in commedia del arte are literally represented by the mask worn, not the actor, and every commedia del arte character has a mask that is the (relative) same across all commedia del arte shows

I think the idea of discarding one’s identity corresponds heavily with Tsaritsa’s last line in a cryo gem “Then, burn away the old world for me”. Like, before destroying the old world you have to destroy your old self first. And, well…I think all the Harbingers really had to go discard their former identities (I think you can add Pulcinella’s and Dottire’s cases here as well) before getting acknowledged by Tsaritsa…which reminds me…Other Fatui elites, if I’m not mistaken, are mostly orphans, who were taken by the Fatui and trained to become their recruits. Which is…also kinda being without a prominent identity that is later getting shaped into something new Also the fact that the Rex Lapis set actually has his mask-

The most interesting part of the entire delusion puzzle for me is Diluc discarding the delusion and taking up his vision again.

That's a tasty introduction you put up there Ashikai

Ever read a manga called Magi, Ashikai? It’s also based on gnosticism and their system of reincarnation is awfully similar to genshin, as well as their magic system and the delusions/vision system D: I think it could clear something about the abyss order and the fatui because they function in an awfully similar way. Genshin even sorta took inspiration from it’s 8 element system D:

i dont want scharamouche to die all the best lookinf characters are dying nooo

A few months ago I was reading about physicists theorizing a new state of matter: information.

I think the hilichurls just dissolve for the effect. There have been multiple occasions of us seeing dead hilichurl bodies lying on the ground. One example being in Xiao's demo where he's standing around bodies of many dead enemies. There's another area in the game, I think its in Enkanomiya but it might not be; where you see them dead and lying on the ground.

That theory was a bit vaguer than others! I liked that, it made me view it more as a ghost story! The concept seems solid enough to actually be true and I need to congratulate you on spotting a difference in how our opponents fall in battle! Good stuff!!

Okay but this theory puts a WHOLE NEW MEANING to the Abyss Travelers words of 'I've already been through this world once' and 'you'll see the true nature of this world'... oh boy.And I mean, when our characters die, we also disintegrate. And a lot of the lines tend to skim around the entire 'not yet' or some kind of regret where they feel the need to keep pushing onwards. Which while knowing that's a game mechanic, with this theory it really makes things pretty... interesting. Not to mention how Dainsleif already knows everything, so that possible theory of how things repeat/maybe the world is just a constant repetition of the same cycle could have some merit.

A bit late, but just wanna add the observation that only Scara's set records events as latest as a week-few weeks to months ago. The rest of the artifacts don't have a huge time skip, they describe events within say, 50-100 years. But for Scaramouche it jumps from the time he was created, to the time he awoke, the time he took his revenge, and again when he came in possession of the Gnosis which happens in the present. I'm thinking what happened his, set never existed in the first place, and then when he got his hands on the gnosis BAM the ley lines went into a frenzy and started spitting out memories. I think whatever caused his set to come into existence may include a ley line disorder perhaps specifically caused because of a non God like being using the gnosis. Or maybe he just suddenly has access to the ley lines now. I mean afterall gnosis means knowledge and we know for a fact that several civilizations consulted the irminsul tree for forbidden knowledge. Anyhow what I'm trying to say is the Husk set is the exception, plus it seems to be recording/throwing out memories in current time. Remember how the set mentions that his three acts/third act is ongoing? Every other set talks about events in a définitive manner and it makes sense because it already happened. Perhaps since a weird issue with time is involved... Erm... Is Istaroth having her eye on him?

It’s absolutely shocking and ridiculous how much detail MihoYo puts into genshin. Everything from the most obvious and dangerous enemies to the smallest life forms or objects have a role. They all have their own unique distinctions. It’s amazing.

LOVE YOUR VIDEOS AS ALWAYS! head empty. no thoughts. just praise!

About Signora having another body... That could be the case It's said in the Pale Flame and Crimson Witch of Flames artifact sets that she abandoned her whole body and turned into a living flame, and that later the Tsaritsa extinguished these flames with her ice and Signora was given a cryo delusion to supress these flames So it's kinda plausible that the Signora we saw was not her original body, but a reconstruction, because the original one had been consumed by the flames.

Although forgoing past identity might be its own theme (tyranny/cliché), the body disintegration must be intentional and relevant. Because the devs had to put thought into the decision of how to not show gruesome bodies. And they were comfortable making ridiculous stuff like animals go “poof”, so when they decided that the new fatui elites needs to disintegrate like the hilicurls, it must be connected. How characters die is always important as it’s connected to the whole afterlife setup. It must be intentional

I love how you used Ariel’s footsteps. I love GAA

The Harbinger are not only dead they are drop dead gorgeous

Moreover, Harbingers are called after italian Commedia dell'Arte characters. They and their masks indeed rapresent some kind of doppelganger since each mask has its unique history and its features.

It's pretty clear if we compare the cases of La Signora and Tartaglia the corrupting power of a Delusion might be relative to how much of their own self they've discarded, marking it as a more symbolic requirement. Tartaglia is largely the same Ajax that fell into the abyss. He has a Vision, and maintains strong ties to his biological family. Using the delusion hurts him significantly but it is somewhat counterbalanced by his vision (no direct evidence but plausible). La Signora meanwhile had already cast off her previous life when she became the Crimson Witch. It was only after she was about to burn herself out that the Fatui gave her a cryo delusion to bring her back from the brink. So her delusion actually maintained her, but she had no old life so she was not harmed but strengthened by it. Update: maybe another way to think about it is your ultimate alignment and success under the Fatui cause depends on how much you have to lose.

You and Kaeya have the one thing in common about finding this world (teyvat) truly fascinating

This is barely related but at this point, I just wanna know what Scaramouche is going to do. He's not loyal to the fatui, he joined them for fun and at this point he is basically doing what he wants. And idk if that doesn't seem a bit "life" threatening for him, but I'd be a bit worried. They leaked he was coming back as a weekly boss in 3.1, and if that is true who knows what could happen then. It is mildly possible that he becomes playable too, but idk. To be playable a character needs to have at least a collaborative attitude towards the main character at least for some time, even if the relationship doesn't end up ideal, as with Childe. With that in mind he doesn't seem the kind of person to collaborate regardless of the situation so :/

definitely cool to think about, but if we're using death animations as a form of evidence, y'know who else disintegrates the same way hilichurls and fatui agents do? our own playable characters 🤔

well can't really say that if you wear a make you discard your identity and your previous memories become "dead" because I think that just like in the 2.7 event shown us we fought the electro yaksha when he was in a mental break state and then in the end of his "memory" he came to realisation of his last moments which goes against the cutscene because in the cutscene he was already in that realisation so I'm not so sure what to say about that but ig that the ley line "copies" not only dead memories this also implies to ei's second story quest the last of the memories we see in that cave when ei couldn't fight, those solders might have fell to dispare or broke in they're final moments which is totally normal but they were in a pretty good state at the beginning of the calamity looking for the missing makoto, furthermore, there were three them and I don't think that three familiars can all die and be stored in the ley line at the same moment right? anyways this is a pretty interesting theory

About delusions. The people we've seen in detail using delusions without any trace of backfire were all vision users(Not necessarily having them at the same time but we could consider them to be allogenes anyway, in Signora's case I don't know if she has a pyro vision or she just can control the element) and we know that regular people will die if they use them. Also delusions are made from archon residue which can affect negatively most people. Which is the same effect that Xiao's karma has over non vision users. I guess this connection has been made before but I think that using a delusion without it killing you is something only allogenes can do because they're actually the ones able to use the powers of the gods (like visions), delusions are just a less refined version. Anyway Xiao also uses a mask whenever he activates his ult so that could be related too idk.

yayyy new video!! excellent content as usual!

It's weird because all harbingers seemingly have different sources of power other than delusions. Out of the ones we know for sure, Scaramouche and Tartaglia are the only ones with visions, but Scaramouche is also a puppet. So by default, he's technically not alive. And Tartaglia spent time trapped in the abyss, so maybe that lead to his "death" eventually. Signora is weird because her delusion is cryo, but her innate powers are pyro, but she doesn't have a vision. The Crimson Witch artifacts clearly refer to her, but it's never clear what actually happened, but she's obviously alive in the story we've played so far. Delusions lead into a personal theory of mine about the Tsaritsa and who she might be, if she's in fact making them. And to my knowledge, there's very few characters who are capable of creating such devices/powers: Rhinedottir and Alice being the most notable. Tsaritsa is female, as well as Rhinedottir and Alice. Rhinedottir could in fact still be alive and just living as the Tsaritsa, but considering Alice is never in Mondstadt, and the fact that the people who know Alice don't know what the Tsaritsa looks like, as well as the harbingers not knowing what Alice looks like...it's far fetched, but if the Tsaritsa is making these delusions, or at the very least fueling them with powers, as well as Alice being one of the few who could probably make delusions...who knows.

I read a fic sort of along this premise, about Diluc and his delusion! Basically Diluc sets out on a quest to find information on the suppliers of the Delusions, and in the process dons the false identity of "Lucius", the supposed illegitimate son of Crepus. In this fic over time, he completely forgets that he was actually Diluc, and completely buys into his fabricated identity as Lucius. Eventually, he recovers his identity as Diluc, and his delusion takes on a sentience, becoming Lucius and sometimes speaking to him. In this way, it's similar to your theory about being able to switch between physical masks and switching identities, only with the delusion as the holder of the identity instead. Was an interesting premise

If those who gave up the memory of themselves (I think memories in the Genshin Impact world are the equivalent of souls) or those who got it taken from them disintegrate when their "life" (what's left of it, at least) comes to an end, when we talk about Delusions, doesn't it mean that the power a Delusion uses is the memory/soul of the user? If this was right, maybe a mask is something that prevents the Delusion from taking it all. You know, "the eyes are the window of the soul". If we assume that a soul in Teyvat is the memory of a person, maybe a mask is used to prevent eye contact with the delusion so that it can't access the entirety of the user's memory of themselves. Even in Dainsleif's explanation about why Hilichurls use a mask, he said that they use it avoid looking at their face. It seems that sight may have a bigger role in all of this... In fantasy works, every time we see someone being deprived of their soul, they are usually represented as people getting wrinkly and old until they disappear. Maybe it's the same here. Hilichurls disintegrate because they don't have the memory of themselves/their soul, so, once the only thing that keeps them alive (the curse) is brought or comes to an end (when they are killed or finally die), their body, now an empty husk, disintegrates. On the other hand, when the Fatui are killed, it's the delusion that consumes the memory of themselves/their soul and they disintegrate. Basically, in my opinion, Delusions are a compact weaponized version of the ley lines or of the Domain Trees. People's memories/souls are usually absorbed back into the ley lines which power the world. A delusion may be doing the same. They absorb people's memories to grant power but when the person is not properly protected (a mask) or is no longer able to control the Delusion (when they die), the Delusion completely absorbs their memories, hence, like the Hilichurls, their body disappears. What do you think?

Potential Correction on delusions and the Fatui Harbingers: Childe has a white streak in his hair, implying that he's rapidly aging from his delusion use. In his case the Delusion is probably more stable than the Inazuma ones, and his Vision might be protecting him from some of the side effects, but I very much think that his Delusion is rapidly aging him.

All this talk about masks reminds me of this Webtoon comic called Purple Hyacinth. In it, the police force all wear masks whenever they're on duty, as a way to separate their two identities. When it's on, they are an officer of the law; Off, they are regular people. This is distinction is made for both the public and themselves. Like you were saying, maybe the price of a delusion is the death of a former self, or maybe just that self's clear separation. After all, all Harbingers take on new names upon their initiation, and when they must draw deeper from their delusions they reinforce their fabricated identities by putting their mask in place. The fake identities are almost acting like insulation then -- as we've seen from Diluc's father and Teppei, direct, earnest use of a delusion seems to eat away the user for some reason, however it seems putting a persona between the original person and the delusion is protective. I don't quite logistically understand why that would be, but I think you were on to something about the artifact sets and the ley lines connection's to dead people. If when using a delusion, all past and personal interests and identity are temporarily forgotten (and therefore dead, assuming that a forgotten memory is the memory's death), then the delusion wouldn't be feeding off the base person using the delusion - it would be feeding off a caricature. If memories and ideals are literally a form of power that can be stored, redistributed and used, then this fabricated persona (which as we've seen tends to be rather intense, cuckoo and single-minded) must be a kind of human will/negative emotion battery, I suppose. The stronger the resentment they can muster up over some part of their lives they've isolated, the more power they can weaponize without completely forgetting who they were. Even in casual settings, most harbingers so far seem to lean towards their given identities unless something from their past specifically drags them back. For Childe, this would probably be Teucer and their family, perhaps contributing to why Childe's use of his delusion in the ruin guard factory tired him out more than usual. For Scaramouche, this would probably be the ghosts following him from Inazuma (Katsuragi, his descendants/Kaedehara Yoshiori, whatever feeling he may have towards Ei that's not bitterness). This talk about delusion makes me wonder tho -- what's the cost of visions? I want to say it must be people's memories/dreams - not necessarily taking them, but perhaps siphoning them from the people so that it doesn't all just return to the ley lines? It'd be like a kind of power generator. If Celestia is essentially running a feudal system on Teyvat with the archons, they must benefit from vision distribution somehow - otherwise, it seems like a potential security problem. But I digress on that. Cool theory, nice food for thought and great video!

Visions require ambitions and therefore memories of those ambitions, perhaps delusions require something similar and when it’s not there they eat away at the memories they can find and injure the wielder.

You're the MatPat of Genshin and I love it :D

Though he dissolved in the comics, there's mention in Diluc's story that he didn't just fade away, and that Diluc himself wound up mercy killing him

Childe has a white streak in his hair that doesn't disappear even in the darkness, what implies , that he is somewhat effected by the delusion and in his story quest , when he's using his transformation he takes severe damage

for me, i don't think every harbinger will die. i think only the one mention in the pale flame set gonna died (signora, pantalone, scaramouch, dottore and pierro ) proof : signora died conter argument : if scaramouch dont die, i'm wrong