[4.5] Eat Gods, Get Good - A Genshin Impact Theory 

Stop torturing yourself and get Opera GX: operagx.gg/Ashikai5 **NOTES AND CORRECTIONS** - I misspoke when I said that the portion of alcohol lost during -distillation- is the angel's share. It's during the aging process. That's my bad! - I've gotten a few comments about the order of Baptism, Confirmation and Communion I used. Truthfully, I found more than a dozen different variations in this process between denominations of the Church some of which differ from the order I put in the video (eg: instead of Baptism, Confirmation, Communion, the order would be Baptism, Communion, Confirmation), but I'm not completely sure the order matters much given that there IS such variance. For the theory, it only matters that the Traveler is not ready/has not come of age to participate in Communion.

Ashikai 🤝🏽 King Deshret _will find each other in every theory_

There is also the whole "wine = Abyss" thing going, so "Traveler isn't old enough to drink" can also be read as "Traveler is not yet ready to face the Abyss"

Jokes are the deepest lore after all

I can’t believe my whole catholic elementary school upbringing was a Genshin reference!!!!!

If Paimon sacrifices her memories for us at the end and then we'll be the ones that need to guide her I'm gonna lose it all :')

Ashikai went insane investigating a sentient mushroom

Venti also talks about how wine is a way of preserving memories in that Razor event..

Chicken mushroom skewers, kaeya, emergency food, kaeya's chicken mushroom skewers, oh this is going to be juicy

Gonna be so naked honest, listening to this when rings came up I paused and (stage) shouted "JUST LIKE THE RING CYCLE" and then unpaused and ashikai said exactly what i was thinking. it all comes back to the ring cycle. it's always the ring cycle.

Ah yes. It is not an Ashikai video without mentioning King Deshret. Truly one of the Dehsret moments of all.

fun thing about alcohol and traveler is that while they either always deny it/ are denied it there is one person they have gotten drunk with. Venti. In Zhongli's about venti it's said that venti got them drunk. Plus every time we see Venti in an event traveler offers to drink together and Venti always agrees.

wait wait so the fontaine people being made from primordial seawater, that means that when Neuvilette made them "real" people this is another example of changing (sea)water into blood??? That's such a fun detail

This feels like Ashikai might have been eating some mushrooms while writing this script 😅

Egeria herself might be born from Neuvi’s remains. The windglider lore says that the Shade of Life created Egeria purely from Teyvat native ingredients.

i dont think this means that piamon is literally emergency food but this has convinced me that she holds the travelers powers without either of them knowing

BTW do not eat amanita muscharia, you will ascend and see god and you will eventually actually see god.

At the end of genshin. Consume Paimon? -Yes -YES -Y E S

"Ya know, at this point, I'm pretty sure I've lost my mind." Great intro, I'm here for it lol

As an Iranian fellow here, good job for all persian lore🔥. We still use word "peyman" or پیمان but now it doesn't mean a covenant with god. We now use it as an oath, promise or contract(maybe the meaning of that changed through history). But still confirms your point about having some kind of contract. I also have something about the word "homa" in peraian(هما) and I'll update here later because I want to check my resourses to share confirmed information. You did a really good job about the persian lore aspect🫶🏻

Lessons learnt: (1) To get power/longevity, take Nahida out on a rainy day. Should mushrooms grow on her head, eat them. (2) Kazuha is an incarnate maple tree, which is why he needs sea ganoderma. (3) Paimon's purpose and fate has always been in front of us from the first day we started playing Genshin Impact. 🥪 (4) Ashikai is part of the story writing dev team - I mean she has to be! 🥸😏 (3) Eat mushrooms. They're good for you. Obviously. 🍄

I still believe that Paimon is the seelie from the story of an outlander and a seelie getting married in the lunar palace. And that Dainslef is the outlander. Fitting, then, that Dainslef showed up in Tunigi Hollow... clutching a ring...

Two things: I don't know if we should put too much merit in how Xamaran et al describe Paimon. I always interpreted it like how a small child might call a horse a dog when seeing it for the first time: they don't know what a horse is, so they apply the closest description they know. Also, all of the different cultures' pursuits of knowledge just makes me realize that the goal was never knowledge for knowledge's sake, but for immortality's sake

it does feel like there is foreshadowing happening regarding paimon like during caribert quest where she asks the traveller if we ever grow tired of traveling with her and after the fortress of meropide part of the fontaine archon quest where she tells that we have been traveling to many places and meeting new friends together. she even got giddy when traveler said they are best adventurer duo. for me it really feels like something is going to happen to paimon in the next archon quests because of these buildup with the traveler. she might sacrifice herself in some way (fuse/absorb/block attack/stop herself from mind control) to help the traveler in the future.

Youd better explore the digestion process after eating Paimon

Great vid. Every time i saw a joke in relation to the Traveler's age, i always rolled my eyes because he clearly isn't a child. However, with the context you provided, it makes sense if the traveler hasn't fully matured yet to activate their ascension to Godhood. The potentiality that Aether may have to devour Paimon like the Narwhal to become an even greater being is wild. Another possibility is that Paimon is the sacrificial key needed to unlock the doorway to celestia in mondstat that lies underneath Venti's statue.

My mind just exploded with all these lore bombs!! Ughhhh the feeling of you want the game to be in the end phase already so you can confirm these theories but at the same time you don't want the game to end because its your fave game.. damnnn

Ashikai punching a mushroom gave me life

You know what, after the random lore drops in the latest book, I am not even surprised that food is related to lore. Now I shall have flashbacks to the Caribert video and alcohol

Recently also saw theories about the marriage of sun and moon around Perinheri stuff, and I see this and... alchemical marriage... red king with sun symbols, white queen with moon... AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, but Deshret and Nabu came up there too. And the Traveler was mentioned as a possible sun and paimon and. Yep. It's official, the emergency food is wedding communion, it's all coming together now. ...Also you're adorable when you ramble like a conspiracy theorist XD

You went to the woods to look out for mushrooms, so that you can then use that recording as footage on your investigation video for an online game? That's awesome!

In the Narssizenkreuz quest line, Paimon says a lot about eating Chicken Mushroom Skewers too, and Caterpillar even mentions about it being some kind a foreshadowing. There's even a lot of mushrooms on the chambers following the ideals for the Blade. I really thought they would bind mushrooms in some form at the end, but they never brought it to light again. At least not that I recall. But there's that haha

every ashikai video gives me knowledge of random real-world fun facts that i can throw at people… like all my “fun facts” come from genshin lore somehow lolol

Ashikai's kitchen must be completely on fire after all this cooking.

Maybe to share some clarification on the earlier points, coming from a catholic. The word eucharistic comes from the greek word _eucharista_ meaning thanksgiving. In catholicism and orthodoxy, we believe that bread and wine are *transubstantiated* into flesh and blood (look up eucharistic miracles for some extra fun). This process would not require any living sacrifice and all and to provide sacramental graces to followers, of which sacraments are defined as outward signs of inward graces. So by genshin standards, the foods that you talk about are directly derived from the world and creatures of teyvat, which i find it much more metal 😊 Love your lore content either way and keep up the great work!

As someone who has studied ecology, I really appreciate your dedication to research mushrooms for this video (and also the mushroom petting 😊)

12:02 In French version, its called "Champignon sacramental" so literally sacramental mushroom too

Reminds me of how Paimon mentioning chicken mushroom skewers was noted to be "foreshadowing" in one of the Narzissenkreuz quests.

That's a very unexpected video, I was expecting to see something like a summary of the quests of the previous update ngl But no matter what's the topic of the video, I'm excited and I'm waiting.

This really makes you rethink Nahida's raining line about mushrooms growing out of your head...

This is so crazy when you think about the context that gnosis and vision are the heart and eyes of god. And the fact that gnosis are literally the REMAINS of the third descender…

What if emergency food is literally the ultimate option available for the traveller at some point in the future, like the ultimate piece to match a superior power

Xamaran my beloved

Ashikai be cooking with this theory... Cooking Paimon, that is.

in this context i think it fun to point out the sacramental bread is also implied in zhongli's topaz gemstone. "the currencies that flow through this land are my flesh and blood. (...) betray it, and you taint my blood" idk if its relevant to this theory but hey, its fun! if you mentioned this in video i apologize i have a funcioning braincell

chicken of the woods (a yellow mushroom found on fallen trees, be careful it's got a poison twin) can be used in recipes to replace chicken, because they have a similar texture and flavor. Since you asked about mushroom recipes. Tangentially related to the video: Consuming the glowing star mushrooms from the chasm caused that one miner, grandpa something, to lose a bit of sanity, while it kept him alive, and they also provide us with refreshed light in our luminstone when we pick them, at which point they become edible safely. the ones from the surface in sumeru are used in the mushroom dish that tighnari's special food comes from, and is safe to eat. The mushrooms don't glow in sumeru, but they do in the chasm, which to me indicates that they're collecting the loose leyline energy in the chasm, which becomes something of a gift to the glowing stone we use to see and clear out the muck. It's possible that the star mushrooms are meant to transport the loose leyline energy to Irminsul's roots, but because the chasm isn't quite fully connected to sumeru (aside from that one spot in the chasm where you can climb the branches and come out under gadharva ville) the leyline energy collected by the mushrooms can't go back to Irminsul. Or it could be that whatever's causing the black muck has prevented the collected energy from going back. Either way instead of going back to Irminsul, it's granted to our elevated flashlight and allows us to do clean up. Just. something that occurred to me while i was watching

I don't like mushrooms

When Ashikai has epiphany I have intense shivers AND I LOVE IT!

I dunno guys... this version of Cooking Mama is a bit scary.

She might be a catalyst for the traveler's fusion with the sibling then, to complete their ascension/enlighten/growth etc. A union of opposites and all.

32:10 something I want to point out about this part is that tho Persian speakers just call paimon “ paimun”. But a lot the word “ paymon” can mean a deal too. Maybe paimon has some sort of deal with someone? And also the connection to zhongli being the god of contacts? Because “payman” can mean contract too ( though it’s not that much of a common word used to refer to a contract, it can also mean a vow too in some contexts)

HELLOOOO! I was raised Catholic and I just wanted to say a few things. First off, even though wine is alcohol, children as young as 7 can receive it on their first communion. Secondly (this is just a small correction) Communion is generally received before Confirmation, with First Communion (USUALLY) being received as a child, and Confirmation being received as a teenager. This varies depending on where you live, but I think usually it remains in that order. Thanks for another great theory!

Perhaps it is the primordial sea that nourishes Irminsul ,it is what keeps irminsul alive (giving it life energy).By this logic primordial sea has enough life nurturing capabilities to keep Irminsul alive,so using it to replace blood is very much possible. You know what I wouldn't be surprised if Dottore used primordial sea water as bood for his several selves' body, as for memories and personality of his different ages he would need to copy it and transfer it to those bodies somehow ,I don't know how though. Anyway a very good theory as always.

Every great lore theory must include an obligatory Deshret reference at some point. Overall, great video! The way you tie things together always amazes me!

You know it's gonna be great when Ashikai open with saying she's losing her mind

My brain is still processing the lore parts of the video, but a good mushroom recipe is simply roasting pearl oyster mushrooms with a bit of olive oil salt and pepper. They're so addicting. Also slicing up and roasting portabella mushrooms with green and yellow zucchini. Also very addicting lol

Went into this video with no idea at all how deep it would go. Towards the beginning I was thinking, “Is this all going to connect to the Leylines and memories/loss of memories, and “death” and absorption as it has been presented in game?” and then bam! Can’t wait to watch again!

every time i watch an ashikai video i feel like i can understand the quest or the plot of genshin better… but with this one it felt like finally connecting all the loose ends and cracking the case wide open!! like when you accidentally watch a series out of order and then when you rewatch it in the right order everything starts making sense and suddenly EVERYTHING CONNECTS PERFECTLY and there’s foreshadowing EVERYWHERE! great one ashikai! i believe you have truly outdone yourself. sometimes i imagine hoyo writers watching your videos in horror that you’ve figured everything out 😭

You cooked so hard that I want to eat mushrooms now ..... pizza time it is.

Recently been watching Homu Lab's lore videos and saw Elysia as a representation of Jesus in HI3. If Paimon is the sacrificial lamb of Genshin, maybe she's the Genshin version of Elysia? Elysia was a Herrscher who rebelled against the Honkai and what gave subsequent Herrschers a shot in using Honkai power for humanity, while Paimon has symbolism from Celestia and chooses to help the traveler instead

off topic but your sudden interest in eucharist only for it to suddenly pop up is especially funny to me considering i've ALSO been thinking about the eucharist a bit lately only for it to suddenly pop up in this video, also i've had a lot of similar situations in my life recently like thinking about something and it suddenly showing up. weird, anyways slay video

It was unexpected to find out in the description of the legend (the king's version) the plot of the Soviet cartoon "The Magic Ring" (1979) I also immediately remembered how often Paimon mentions mushroom skewers, and this is even annoying nonsense while thinks in the Narcis's quest....

It’s crazy how much research you do to make these connections you could seriously right research papers in academia instead of this. But these videos are always so fun and are always a positive!!👍🏻

the level of conspiracy board energy in this one is *potent*

im so obsessed with these paimon theories

So much great stuff! One thing i noticed, i am surprised that of all the ring correlations you made to Paimon, you did not mention that her crown/halo is a literal ring. I found that pretty interesting indeed! I totally believe at the end of the story, the traveller will be bestowed something from Paimon, somehow. Whether it be power, status, or to become a new creation/being. Just as one is bestowed a ring in either royal lineage rituals or in marriage.

at the end all i can think is "its the freakin' Fae!". always love your lore videos! I'm not gonna lie with all the heavy emphasis on sacrifice especially hear lately paired with Paimons increased sussy attitude about her disappearing/being parted from the traveler it feels like shes being setup AS a sacrifice, so this video was perfect timing for me haha

LET HER COOK LET HER COOK!

Paimon said she's not even kid, she's an adult ..yah she reveal soon her true identity

finally. spore lore.

I can't wait for a video of yours about the Perinheri books

Perhaps the twins are also supposed to represent the Red king and white queen and we must fuse with Paimon and our twin to fully ascend. Since they are supposed to represent the morning and evening star (which is the same star) it would make sense fore their true celestial form to fuse the two. I wouldn't put it past genshin to use the same imagery to represent different things as they done so frequently in the past

Omg this was amazing! Speaking of food and fish, apparently the traveler calls paimon the god of fish in their voice lines? Have you watched "this is my name for nows" Angel egg theory? He also speaks of King Deshret and the purpose of the Golden Slumber. it is quite an amazing theory if you have some time to spare.

I can't believe I just listened to a 44 minute video primariky on mushrooms and alcohol, and I'm not quite sure why, but I enjoyed it lol. good video btw.

Yaaaassssss!!!!!!! I was literally thinking about when you would post again this morning.....btw did you know about the new book from this patch? I am sure you do but still i am wandering what you could cook with that🙃

26:05 that line about the Oceanid blessing a person is basically what happened to Diona, was that always the plan? When was this weapon released in relation to when we learned Diona was blessed by the Springvale Oceanid?

FINALLY WERE TALKING ABT XAMARAN

This video is the epitome of the "Let's go. In and out. 20 minute adventure" meme.

You can tell that the lore video is good when it also explains about how mushroom works, gives you insight of the ancient cultures and religions and just educates you in a way, besides the actual lore and theory part!

Favorite youtuber

This kind of craziness is why i love watching this channel 😂

BTW: Amrita = nectar of immortality in Hindu texts and Pari literally translates to fairies in Hindi so all that you're saying would easily make sense cuz much of what they have named in Sumeru also comes from the Hindi language! Hope that helps!

Neuvilette treating teyvats waters like wine and wine tasting makes even more sense now lol

So we need to "consume" Paimon in order to ascend to Celestia

I've watched or heard all your videos but at the same time actually heard less than 10 mins total, its just so nice to have you playing in the background

Ouuu super excited!!! And i agree food is definitely lore of some kind, especially with the potion sales event! Also been catching up with some of the other videos I missed, it definitely helped me alot! Thank you for all these videos!

i wont even lie ever since the first time the traveler said that paimon is emergency food, i never found it funny but rather odd, like where did that even come from, or why would u call a living being emergency food randomly and WHY hasnt it been explained at ALL, unless like said in the video, THERE IS a reason as to why the traveler identifies her as one, and isnt it weird that paimon gets ANGRY when we call her emergency food instead of being weirded out, like who would ever call a living being an emergency food? why would she get angry? unless she knows why we call her that, but shes angry that we would look at her as that instead of actually looking at her as a friend, i feel like this might be the sole reason why she asks us so many times if we ever get bored of her presence and such, because she wants us to look at her as a legitimate friend, instead of just looking at her as an objective, which could tie back to what she saw when the touched the black stone thingy, and her being afraid of being alone, maybe shes happy that shes finally is with someone that appreciates her instead of just looking at her as a legitimate power source use up.

The next video is about butterflies and faeries, right :D YAAAY Anthropology, science, mushrooms AND pagan fae Ashikai these videos are getting really specific with all of the things i LOVE I literally had a mushroom phase and faeries are my favourite monsters Keep up the good work. IM SO EXCITED

Yup. The "SHAVA" in rukkhashava means "corpse"

the fact you went foraging for mushrooms and talked about the anthropology of mushrooms (especially the psychedelic kind) made me so happy (shrooms are my special interest)

I love your videos, I always learn so much new and I love how you connect the dots even in so...random places at times. I enjoy your theories a lot, but somehow this one blew me away?? Idk just connecting tiny things that really connect together...like even if they aren't THAT important as actual lore-lore, I think they still hold a lot of meaning and you always help to explain such connections and I really dig that! Thank you for all your effort as always!

Ashikai videos make the day better💙

You had me at "consecrated beasts devoured fallen gods" because .......you're right????? i have bever processed that? Technically i knew about the abysslings and the beasts......but it just never clicked?????

Flash forward to the traveler wearing paimons crown as in gaining the wish granting ring coming of age communion whatever

Ashikai!! The wait for your videos is ALWAYS worth it! Can't wait for more juicy lore in 4.6 Dain quest (probably)

0:01 sums up this entire video quite nicely

Dang Ashikai really COOKED here!! What a heavy meal to digest. All the jokes had so much deeper meaning in it Also the chuckle I got whenever you say "fungee" and a lil fungi pops up. Hee hee!

So good that I gotta watch it again. Thank you, Ashikai!

Your videos drive me crazy with interesting thoughts about this game that I never thought would hook me as much as it does with its lore. Also I love your dog and I WANT him

I love u videos sm!! Not only am I learning genshin lore, I’m learning a bunch of irl stories and facts lol 😂