ENTIRE Narzissenkreuz World Quest Lore RECAP and Theories | Genshin Impact 

as someone, who was trying to read and understand, but at some point just gave up i see this as an absolute win

Fun fact and likely not a coincidence: Karl Ingold's last name Ingold is the first part of the Bavarian city of Ingoldstadt. Ingoldstadt is the location where Dr. Frankenstein goes to study and creates his monster in Mary Shelley's famous novel Frankenstein.

For the sadistic personality explanation of Sandrone, The puppet has her own personality and Tartaglia says she always looks like she wants to murder him while Scara says that she has terrible personality so that could explain Sandrone(Mary-Ann puppet) being somewhat cruel while Alain(the creator) is not.

If Teyvat is in a time loop, it coincides with the statement Nahida made, stating that Celestia has been quiet for a while. So this could mean that they are either watching and waiting for something to happen during these cycles or that Celestia possibly lost its power/authority.

Its weird how Arlecchino just simply tracked down the ruins where prophecy slates were located and told us about it later...But the real plot twist comes when we look into the scene where Freminet brought the missing plate to Neuvillete when we were losing the trial(This piece of info allowed us to win trial against Furina)...He couldnt have brought it by himself since he didnt knew about the location... To sum up All this was Arlecchino's grand master plan to get the gnosis by using the intel she had...It was also actually funny when she just literally gave us a big hint that Furina is a fraud archon....

It never ceases to amaze me how complex and diverse the Genshin lore is. It's amazing to see how far we have come, as a community and in the game, since those first days in Mondstadt. We must be at least half way through the storyline, with over 72 playable characters and 5 archon quests completed to date... From Geo Slimes to Khaenri'ah, from Fontaine to Inazuma, Hoyoverse and Mihoyo have done a outstanding job with the quests, backstories, everything. It saddens me that, one day, our travels in Teyvat will end. I pray to the Archons that the fateful day will be far from now. I fucking love this game.

This is definetly going to be the best explanation for the Narzissenkreuz world guests, i was so confused when doing the quests.

Rene gigachad. Even tho his methods are questionable but he tried to save the world. He literally predicted prophecy and narwhal. Casually dropped vision and descender lore.. Doesn’t ask forgiveness what he did. Based rene.

Ngl the aranara quest was easier to follow than this due to the confusing terms, names, timelines and quest order but i had a vague idea and was still one of the best world quest in genshin.

Our sibling may have been dead since the 3rd samsara all along. What we saw in the "We Will Be Reunited" quest may have been just his/her data (copy) produced by the Irminsul. Remember during the Sumeru archon quests, specifically the Sabzeruz Samsara, the Akasha creates a copy of everyone in the dream so no one could notice that it is a dream so our sibling may have been just a data from Irminsul all along. Also I remember during some of Inazuma's quests where we and Ei investigated some leyline disorders that in order for the leylines to create an illusion/copy of someone, they must be dead and their data will then be stored in the leylines( roots of Irminsul) Nahida confirming that the Irminsul have information about our sibling despite the fact that she shouldn't have since we're not from this world pretty much gave it away. All this time we all have been looking for nothing 😢

We could all be watching the video to see how you pronounce "Narzissenkreuz" and "Fontaine". But seriously this was probably the best summary I've seen on the topic so far. Felt very smooth. Also combining the timeline with non-Narzissenk stuff helped. Really good work. On the interpretation of the Theosophy stuff although it's popular to take it all super seriously, it's important to note that René and Jakob may not have taken it seriously, because at base they organized a cult to fleece rich idiots of their money and put on a big act of being esoteric. So the line between what the really knew was true and what was a performance is hard to judge. They really did think they were saving the world and they really thought their research was vital, but because most people were idiots compared to them, and they needed funding, they couldn't just explain the truth, so they decided to embellish their purposes with a lot of theatrics. Hence while Furina was stuck pretending to be the Hydro Archon, even though she really was the Hydro Archon ("to deceive fate you must first deceive yourself") René was play acting the role of an esoteric Messiah who would save the world, even though he was in fact an esoteric messiah that was trying to save the world. In both cases they had to really ham it up and be over the top in their performances to fit with ordinary people's expectations.

With all the foreshadowing and hints given about the traveller being able to destroy or create the world now I'm thinking that at the end of the game will we be given a choice, to end the loop or start it all over again..... Now I'm scared and excited for the endgame haha.

I always thought Malazan was the most complex and deep fantasy world building. Apparently, that description belongs to the side quests of this phone game.

As much as I love these crazy world quests, I can’t help but feel that they make the first three nations seem very, very mundane. Fontainians were doing all this batshit stuff 400 years ago, meanwhile the most advanced thing we see in Mondstadt is a sealed door and Lisa tracking books. The existence of Seymour and Curve also make Tighnari’s story quest seem really silly in hindsight.

Ma'am, you're the MVP for reviewing this entire storyline. Even with some semblance of confusion now still, I feel I can follow along with this better---and it's a WILD story.

Ur one of the most rare Genshin players who can pronounce Narzissenkreuz

you're really good at piecing together and summarizing the quests! straight to the point and easy to follow, it's a talent tbh. i already knew some bits beforehand but watching this made it all clearer

I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FROM SOMEONEEE. That whole quest was so juicy and full of info and u broke it down so well.

I’ve been waiting so long for someone to put this all together thank you so much!

Worth the wait.. thanks minsleif.. the quests have so many text that I just decided w8 for any lore creator to compile and present them in video form..

Thank you so much ❤ This questline is so confusing and all over the place, you helped make sense of it!

I read all chat in-game and didn't understand a thing. Then I listened to the video and also got lost at some point. So I guess I should just be happy I got a few primos out of the quests. Yay? Great job compiling all that info. I can't imagine the effort it takes to read every single detail (and understand them) to summarize it like this. *hats off

Who ever the story boarder of the major world quest needs to be promoted like I'm so amaze how this kinda story came from an"anime gacha game" They went above and beyond for this quest especially so many more lore drop that leads to more question

Thank you so much! This was absolutely awesome. I ❤ the way you flagged how certain events relate to other quests. This really connects the plot and bigger picture. I really wish we have an option to replay the quests. I really want to do it in the order you suggested and get to enjoy the whole storytelling. Thanks again!

Best lore channel! Clear and succinct

been waiting for this for a long time !!! thank you

Thank you for the recap. These questions were an absolute nightmare to understand in a broader context.

Thank you so much! Just finished this world quest and wanted to see all info organized. You did an amazing job!!!

What i would do without you minsleif, thank you so much for taking one for the community and reading all these things and summarizing it to us T____T

YESSS ive been waiting for this thank u

These quests REALLY needed to be voiced because the lore is wild. Thanks so much for this.

Thanks for the summary, and kudos to your pronounciation of Narzissenkreuz, it's perfect ^^

You are an absolute Saint Ms. Minsleif - Thank you, like I really did try so hard to understand what this big world quest was all about, but I knew I only just scratched the surface of the plot.

Great video! Being highkey obsessed with the Narzissenkreuz Adventure Team and these quests, it was a great ride. I was wondering, will you be covering anything that was disclosed in the Pursuit world quests?

I read the quest and understand what happened for the most part, but I enjoy watching these types of videos and seeing what i might have missed, or hearing people's thoughts

FOR THE ORDO! LESGOOO (I love the Narzissenkreuz world quest and I was waiting for this)❤

Thank you ❤❤ Even when nicely condensed into a video like this, I still had to use all my braincells to follow the story. This world quest had me very confused even when I was trying to follow it in-game.

I got to say, I don't usually stick for videos that are +20 mins long, but that intro was killer!

Damn this is an incredible video. I had a fairly good grasp on the lore and story but I had to resort to the Genshin wiki for some details because over the course of the questline so stretched out I missed and or forgot some details. This however is fantastic and clears up some things I had. The last part of theory is also well thought out and very interesting to me. Well done

almost 200k subs, congrats in advance 🌚.

saying this helped a lot is an understatement.

Thanks for the overview of the questline, theres so much to digest over a long period of time and it's good to see it all condensed like this. I think we will be seeing sandrone in the storyline for fontaine around the 4.6 patch where arlechinno is rumoured to be playable, what that story might be I have no idea but I think ancient underwater ruins of remuria will show up (even though most of remuria was meant to have been sucked into the abyss when remus was dethroned)

Thanks a million for explaining this quest, it got too complicated for me and I didn't understand half of it and lost lots of interesting information you kindly explained in your video, so thank you !

excellent video as always

I tried to pay attention to this questline but I was really confused and I definitely needed a summary lol thank you :)

Thank you so much for this❤

10/10 video for having correct captions

Since I ignored most of the text but enjoy lore, this video had me saying “whaaaaaaaaat?!” every 10 seconds. Nice work

Awesome video mins! 🌸

YEAA PART 2 I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR LESGOOOO XD

I did all the quests, though out of the recommended order, so I was a little lost. Was hoping one of the Genshin lore channels I followed would put together a video like this. 😂 Thank you!

It was indeed a LOT of reading and I skimmed a lot of it so thank you for the guide

Minsleaf deserves a raise for whatever she does for a living. THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN for this catchup. Been playing Genshin just for the dailies now, and quite lost at Fontaine quests.

awesome video!

thanks for this. i read everything but was still extremely confused lol. this helped clear things up

Think of all that reading you saved me from! ALL HAIL!

i dont know why, i already have guts that arlechino is admiral basil elton, atleast since the fontaine armada questline. i dont have any evidence at that time, but now after finishing all narzisenkreuz quest, my early doubt has been cleared. good analysis as always minsleif !

i speed ran everything , even the archon quest , so this video is a huge help to keep up :D

This was a really thorough explainer! It was great getting the gaps filled in where I'd missed lore, even if I don't entirely agree with your conclusions. Specifically I think we're leaving a really interesting theory unexplored regarding Rene's opinion of visions. Rene's doomsday prediction was correct, and his solution of splitting the soul from the body is something we know would technically work, with the hydro archon having invoked this doomsday from Celestia by giving human bodies to oceanids, and the doomsday itself functioning to split the oceanid soul of Fontanians from their human bodies. Since Rene is ironically attempting to avoid Celestia's punishment by enacting a form of it himself, and he explicitly went out of his way to avoid being given a Vision and "tied to fate" yet still worked toward Celestia's intent, I think there's a case to be made for Visions being the exact opposite of what Rene thinks. It might well be that taking a Vision *frees* you from being tied to fate and allows us as the Traveler and our allies to change the course of events in Teyvat, and there's an interesting dovetail here with the theories around the gods on Celestia being quiet or absent, potentially losing control on the world. If a Vision allows you to defy fate rather than binding you to it, then it may imply that strong wills, strong ambitions, are stealing fragments of power from the gods to change the future, or might even be the thing the gods are observing through these samsara cycles, how the previous failures in past cycles are avoided or averted in the current cycle.

Thank you very much for the summary. I'm still going through Sumeru so this helps give me a summary understanding of the questline since I haven't gotten to this part of the game yet. One thing I'll say is your apprehension towards the theory of the lady being Mary-Ann (or someone meant to look like Mary-Ann) and the robot housing the conscious of Alain Guillotine is certainly warranted since if feels ooc for them to be the sadist Sandrone that we know of in game. But I want to provide one line of reasoning as to how this theory could still be possible even with this discrepancy in mind. One thing to keep in mind about the Harbingers is that then common through line between many of them is that the person that they are when they join the Fatui are radically different then who they were once upon a time. La Signora seemed to have become a nasty and selfish person after the death of her beloved, Tartaglia "seemingly" (by his family's perspectives) developed a love for fighting, violence, and bloodlust overnight after he fell into the Abyss, and Scaramouche/Wanderer developed contempt and a nasty personality after his three "betrayals". Dottore seems to be the only outlier as of now, but since much of his past is still relatively unknown, perhaps this through line can still exist in some form (though I have been theorizing that his ability to "segment" himself is what helps him develop various "masks" as is the through line for the Fatui as a whole). tl;dr This "wearing of multiple masks" throughout their life is the common denominator it seems for the Fatui and this discrepancy for Sandrone, if they are Mary-Ann/Alain, could very well be the case of the multiple masks that they themselves have wore throughout their lives, and there can be many cases of what these masks are. I say what makes this theory really up in the air is the fact that we really don't know why Sandrone joined the Fatui. Without at least some evidence of this, it's impossible to say how likely this theory of who Sandrone is can be. Though certainly interesting that Sandrone (the lady) looks awfully similar to Mary-Ann, so it seems very likely that there is some connection there at least.

HAPPY (belated) NEW YEAR, Min 🎊

Thank you for this! I got so lost with all the names and disjointed timeline.

I REALLY REALLY HOPE that the Theory about Sandrone/Marionette real identity is Alain were True... ITS SUCH A GREAT PLOT TWIST MAN... I think he use the Remurian Technology to transfer Human consciousness into Gollem, and use it to transfer his own consciousness into the Ruin Guards... And about Sandrone's "Merciless act" towards Jenck... its probably because he is not a Human Anymore for a Hundreds of years, and because of that he start to lose his sense of Humanity...

The one world quest i gave up trying to understand, so thank you for this lore combination ❤❤

THANK YOU. This has been one of my favourite world quest storylines to date, given how long the time period extends from and how khaenri'ah, king deshret, and pre-fontaine tech are involved, but something about this story really stuck with me. I think it was the prospect of experimenting on humans with the abyss and turning them into monsters felt somehow just as bad as realising Hilichurls are people. Rene had lofty goals but in the end he was misguided in his methods. I really hope that Dain's annual storyline expands on this - it feels natural that it will, because he and Jakob probably had dealings in the past 500 years, and now we met with Childe and Skirk in the primordial sea/abyss it makes going there soon quite likely.

I could very well imagine that the oceanid mary ann is the consciousness of lyris as well as the other ppl she had absorbed by then. because in the first encounter with "mary ann" she referred to traveller as a pince/princess from a faraway land and the real mary ann could have not known this. so that knowledge probably came from someone lyris had absorbed before. for the oceanid "ann" I think she was created by lyris (and or eltons consciousness inside her) because at the moment of mary anns death she deeply wished for mary ann to live a life without anything that happened after eltons dissapearance from the institute. during the quests ann remembered jakob and rene but not anything concerning the ordo or the abyssal experiments. the bronch qas probably given to her by lyris as well. I love genshin story so muchhhhh ❤

I've been following the story of this WQ but reading through it all is just confusing.. This whole summary is what I've been waiting for!

I like the thought Teyvat is in a time loop. Actually the BP spear weapon history speak about Ajax (Tartaglia) but it doesn't seems to be the same Tartaglia we know. It's also an fairytale so doesn't modified by Irminsul reset.

Me who DIDN’T do the world quests in order: I see this as an absolute win

Genshin lore runs so deep that I can't keep up, that's why I'm so grateful for your content 🙌

Nope I just love your videos watching you makes my braincells weeeeeeee!

As a Razor speaker, I would need a full animated series to make sense of this.

To support the theory that Alain is still alive and his consciousness is in the robot. In the notes, as well as in the quest, Rene says that he saw in Alain’s Meks an opportunity to repeat Rimuria’s idea of ​​transferring consciousness into golems, but better, he also turned to Alain with the idea of ​​​​transferring the consciousness of people into his Meks, because Alain was stated to be capable of this, but Alain back then refused. But, we keep in mind that he is capable of this, that he left the institute to engage in his secret research, and that in one secret laboratory you can find research records that in a dry manner talk about an experiment on transferring consciousness into the meka neural network, a successful one by the way. Also Nimfs set says that every member of Narcisein institute continued there journey by some way, and as for Alain it's said that "one would continue it's advanture by secrets of machinery and body of steel". As for Sandrone sadism, well Alain was never refered as a very empacetic or kind person, rather very selfcentered and poor on emotions, also as a kid Alain really liked the idea of Rene where he assumed that he will grew up as a clishe evil scientist from novels.

0:00 - 0:03 Honest to god, down to earth, genuine, immediate, truest, purest, realest thing one could ever say.

iam just finished the quest yesterday, time to watch this

I am so happy you posted this. In all honesty I am not here because I didn't understand the quest, but because I am curious of what happened to Alain. Since everyone else's story seems to have concluded (at least this chapter of the story). In all honesty I somehow agree with the theory of Arlechino possibly being the Vice Director. As for Alain being the Harbinger is another thing. Marionette/Sandrone has so many similarities to 2 particular characters that are both connected to science and machines and are bothe conveniently dead without a body. I am talking about Guizhong and Mary-Ann. Alain is the one with an interest in science but at the end of the day, Mary Ann was still his sister who died right in front of him. She was kind and was he. Meanwhile Guizhong is described as a pure, but intelligent person. She also showd interst in mechanics and science. But neither of them fit Sandrone's cruel and sadistic nature so at this point it is quite hard to truly determine who Sandrone is. For all we know she could be the fox lady from the Fox in a Dandelion Sea (jest) and I would believe you. Though as someone on reddit mentioned, it seems like her only connection would be Sneznaya and not Fontaine or Liyue. But I could be wrong, we still have a likely Interlude AQ coming and Furine/Neuvillette 2nd story quest coming as well as a likely Mondstat expension so there's still time.

All i get from this world quests that Rene is based. And probably Most big brain (same as dottore if not more).

You deserve a million likes just to pronounce "NARZISSENKREUZ"

My interpretation for Sandrone is that she was created by Alain in the image of Mary Ann, maybe even to behave like her, but she perhaps gained self awareness and that’s when she joined the Fatui and why she’s interested in machine intelligence. Perhaps it’s just the Westworld fan in me, but that makes more sense to me than the theory of the bigger robot being the actual Sandrone/Alain himself.

Thank you because I played a bit of this out of order so I was a tad confused at bits and pieces of the story 😅

Thank you sm for making this I tried keeping up with the story but I just forgot all that happened💀

But, but, the Djinn in Sumeru straight up tells you that Teyvat is stuck in a time loop.

You are awesome leafy

Both Tartaglia and the Wanderer address Sandrone with she/her pronouns so I would guess that the girl seen in the robot's hand is Sandrone herself. It is unlikely that this kind of information would be an unknown or unavailable especially to the rank 6 Fatui harbinger considering Sandrone is lower in ranking than him. Also, in the Teyvat Interlude Chapter: The Winter Night's Lazzo, the girl is depicted with no noticeable robotic features. I would argue that given the nature of Mary-Ann and Alain Guillotin in Mary-Ann's refusal to contribute to Rene's experiments and in the case of Alain outright denouncing them, should not have the nature possessed by Sandrone therefore it was most likely Mary-Ann being manipulated or affected over a certain source. This would also make sense from a writing standpoint as Sandrone is generally looked upon as the one of the least significant harbingers and this would be a fresh new idea for the harbingers of saving someone from manipulations rather than simply defeating them (Signora), working with them cautiously (Arlecchino & Childe) or helping them turn over a new leaf (Wanderer).

I think making such videos for every big world quest would be great. Or at least based on nations. Sure, it would take a lot of time for some like King Deshret, and most of the sumeru lore in general. But there are also short ones like Dragonspine that are probably complete, so there is no risk of doing it and then having to redo it or make a complementary video.

This is masterpiece

I'd rather hear you read it to me then read it myself so thank you and thank you for your beautiful voice

I have finished the Fontaine archon quest but haven't done a single world quest since King Deshret and the Eternal Paradise. I'm behind at least 8 World Quests. Ty for these lore folks. I just don't have the time.

i was waiting for this video, i read this whole quest, was pretty invested and still managed to understand nothing lmao. Thanks for the explanation, i finally understood more of this whole story. Although, i still dont get how this scary esoteric book work - If it is a vision of doomsday, why it appears differently to Carter? I remember there was a dog that warned us about not coming back here and Carter said something like "it looks like a dog to you?". And why is it connected to upside down fountain from the chasm? Maybe i just overthink it and its just simple explanation like - its abyss, thats how it works.

I tried so so so hard to understand this storyline and i was left feeling incredibly frustrated because it's SUCH an interesting story but i could only grasp the broadest strokes. I didn't think anything would confuse me more than the entirety of the Aranara storyline but... Here we are. So, thank you for the video!

Sigh, it sounded too complicated for an unvoiced quest chain, so I only vaguely understood it. Thank you for clarifying it.

Let's go, I nearly understood nothing, I'll watch it again later when I'm less tired

One thing I love from the Fontaine Archon quest and this world quest is that you see a lot of people are actively working trying to avoid the impending disaster that is to come, René, Arlecchinno, Wriothesley, Focalors, and even Neuvillette who is a dragon, also imo every character feels like they have meaning, like even Basil's death feels impactful

One thing that makes me feel that Sandrone is going to be absolutely crazy like Dottore is the fact that Katheryne has a "keyhole" like emblem behind her neck, meaning that she could be the one behind the production of it. Her fight is just going to be her using an army of Katherynes to fight us x_x

Thank you

This video got me thinking of when we enter inside that book where we chase Caterpillar. In that dark world within the book, time was distorted and time within Teyvat was moving much slower than the time in the book's world. Due to Caterpillar's unaging body, he could have spent centuries within the book while only a few days past in Teyvat. This brings into question about the war between the abyss vs. Celestial. At the end, when we caught up with Caterpillar, his memories were messed up and we also realize that if you stay there long enough, you can meet past versions of them. From what we know of Hillachurls, it's safe to assume they are cursed by the abyss and slowly lose all of their humanity over a long period of time. However, due to being partially Elias fused with Hillachurl elements, he was able to not be corrupted by the abyss so he eventually remembered us. I feel like the book realm is in the abyss and that time flows very differently similar to the chasm, where time was also affected. Perhaps Celestia is using time loops/samsara cycles to trap the abyss since they are endless in numbers and corrupts living beings to join them. It makes sense why Celestial would destroy any civilzation that openly try to use abyssal powers at a large scale. I think that the abyssal dogs are beings that can teleport to Teyvat and are summoned by the abyss, bypassing the time loop barrier. While Hillachurls is the abyss curse afflicted humans that are recruited forcefully. To note the Melusine that also joins us into the book realm being born from Elysias view the abyss dogs as friendly creatures, while we see them as monsters. This can be explained that Melusines have special perception or that the abyss does not view Melusines as enemies. I believe that the abyss forces are currently sealed away in time looping dimensions to stop the endless swarms of abyss monsters from destroying Teyvat. The archons are there to defeat any abyss threats on Teyvat, while Celestia maintains the time loops/samsara cycle to seal away the majority of the abyss monsters. Visions could be one such method to fight the abyss, along with the pillars they send there, but only a short term solution. The Irmisral device could potentially change the past by manipulating data as long as major events are not changed. This would also explain why Celestia goddess attacked the travelers thinking they could side with the abyss in this war and break the stalemate between the two forces. Celestial is using time as a weapon to stop the abyss and the travelers being otherworldly, are not bound to the same laws set by them and break this time cycle.

i never knew that painting existed if not for this video thanks mins

I don’t really think it’s a time loop per say but a Samsara (as was mentioned in the notes). Wouldn’t be the first time, a world would be stuck in a Samsara in a Hoyoverse games since Earth and seemingly Mars (Honkai Impact 3rd) is/was also stuck in one. I don’t think I need to explain the difference between a Samsara and a Time loop since this was already explained during the Sumeru Archon quest with the Sabzeruz Samsara.

Am I the only one who wasn’t confused, just wanted to hear Narzissenkreuz theories?😅 I just LOVE the characters, especially Jakob’s unhealthy obsession with Rene. Having said that, I think it’s pretty obvious that Jakob did not create Arlecchino. He only cared about Rene, and was pretty hostile even towards Carter and Seymour. Arlecchino certainly has the marks of being a similar creature to Cater, but she is a pretty young Fontaine kid who grew up in the House of the Hearth. For now, I can only suspect someone of the Fatui as her “creator”. We sure know Dottore has experience with soul transferring. But Fontaine is full of mad scientists, so who knows… Sandrone… Right now, I’m more excited about Sandrone than Arlecchino. She cut out a dude’s tongue for hurting a fellow mechanical creature and left a message, how could I not love her? I want to see a Mary-Ann only tea party in the real Annapausis! All three of them. Praying for Alain to be there in the big robot.🙏🙏🙏

There is so much Lore that is still coming out that I can't even imagine and there are still a lot of characters and Regions coming out my question is do you think Inazuma is going to have another Island or area that's going to be added in the future? And in which patch do you think the Doormat port will be added? my guess is something between 5.4 and 5.5