The Cosmic Horror of the Abyss in Genshin Impact (Version 3.0): Lovecraftian Influences 

I would LOVE the idea of a sanity meter, especially considering the themes of the current sumeru Archon quest. Traveler just went through a endless loop and even I was panicking when taking off the Akasha's did nothing. I think it would very much suit the vibe going into the desert too if they add some mirages. Overall this a great video and thank you for simplifying those aspects of the books for us!

A sanity system sounds REALLY cool, and I think it would play in well with how the traveller seems to have increasingly frequent headaches or hallucinations/visions when interacting with godly power or corruption. He seemed fine in Mondstaht and Liyue, but in Inazuma, he got a vision of the people's wishes when touching the statue, fainted due to tatarigami, and had this headache when leaving Tenshukaku due to the pressure exerted on them by the Raiden Shogun. Then now, they've already passed out within the first few steps into Sumeru due to the incense. I wonder if the Traveler is a being who purifies and corrects things wherever they go, but are hitting a threshold for how much corruption they can withstand as the story progresses. Like how a filtration system gets increasingly less effective the more impurities it filters. Maybe thats how the previous twin was corrupted by the Abyss?

the game is becoming more and more dark. kinda like it, im itching with so many questions. great video RoozVelt

I always thought this game has a ridicilously good lore but a lackluster or barely passable story. I think if they somehow make the whole Scarlet King and the pyramid thing a Lovecraftian story, that would be so cool. I was doing a quest and came upon the parchment during the quest. As usual I just kept going for the primos, but when I got the chest it gave an achievement called ''Call of the Nameless City'' it literally gave me goosebumps. I immediately checked the parchment and the text was so ominously reminiscent of Lovecraft I was sure it was a necronomicon reference. I guess a really small amount of people caught onto the same thing. This games level of detail when it comes to lore will never cease to amaze me. Always a treat to see it. Keep on this content. 3.1 will likely have a quest or something about cosmic horror I'm sure of it.

2:30 - Now you mention this, there's another case of madness mentioned. And that is Torachiyo, the red oni and ally of Raiden Ei. She was swallowed by a beast of sin, and while managed to kill it from within, her once beautiful face was contorted with madness and rage, shortly turning her sword against the Raiden Shogun. It's possible they could totally different beasts. However, if the Abyss Void had existed since the beginning of Teyvat. Perhaps this is why Celestia is creating these cicles of life, death and anew as way to counter it?

A couple things to add: 1 - The Dev is also mentioned in the manga by Barnabas (he calls it the Deev, and claims it’s the being responsible for giving Collei Eleazar) 2 - Possibly to add to your theory about the curse stemming from King Irmin, one of the things that is known about him is that he only had one eye, so the Khanri’ahns we’ve seen either wearing wearing a mask on their right side, or having the eye covered completely could be symbolic of that (yeah I know Kaeya got injured by Diluc, but didn’t he also wear the eyepatch before that?) the other two being Dainsleif and Pierro, it’ll be interesting to see if Rhinedottir wears a mask/covers her right eye when she comes out/shows up 3 - Less commentary on the video specifically, but I hope Childe goes more into detail about his time in the abyss, and the monsters he saw down there when he was training with Skirk, I wonder what monstrosities are down there aside from the Rifthounds, and I also wonder what “natural” abyssal creatures look like (the only ones we’ve seen ingame have either been created by Gold, or made through a curse put on mortal men)

Considering the event in Enkanomiya revealed to us that the Abyss has a corroding affect on the minds of all creatures... I think this may be something they were planning to explore further from an early point. And considering that the Abyss Order has, as mentioned in key lore tabs like that of the Abyss Herald, references that all that don't follow the Abyss to be akin to heretics (keeping in mind they despise the Gods)... and that Irmin was a King in Khaenri'ah who seemed to push for a vast preparation for total war against Teyvat's nations and made fullblown researches commited to the abyss... I believe it's fair to say that Khaenri'ah may be an indicator to what happens to a nation when they are allowed to pursue such things. Also... this leaves a bothersome implication... where the Abyss seemingly was starting to gain root, we found in key locations the "Needle" that Celestia dropped, which we know from the questline in the Chasm to be powerful enough to counter the Abyss powers. This implies that all nations that suffered from a "Needle" attack, may have had early or late exposure into the Abyss's powers. All this is too early to reach as a conclusion but if this is true... then that means Celestia is acting like a "prune" of sorts to Abyssal corruption. Which would mean... this war between The Fatui, Celestia and the Abyss Order (or future war) is one born of misconceptions and perspectives... the Abyss Order may see what happen as unjust as many suffer an irrevocable curse, the Fatui see Celestia as Harsh for what it does to civilizations if they divert, and Celestia may be trying to Triage a rather deadly mind corroding power so it doesn't spread. All three are comiting horrid acts... but all three may apparentely have an understandable reason for it.

The description of cosmic horror matches up pretty well to what the main character describes outside of Sumeru City during the Subseru Festival.

This might be a stretch, but if you dig further into Mihoyo’s, err, hoyoverse, there is a character who is OUTRIGHT Cthulhu. Not from Honkai Impact, but from GGZ. An alien god, nicknamed ‘Herrscher of the Ocean’, and the Abyss’ description fits her. She can induce madness, and essentially *violates* minds. I’m not a GGZ player, however, so I’m not quite familiar with the character, besides her villains wiki entry. Oh, and be careful when researching her, her villains wiki is DARK. Since the game of Genshin Impact takes inspiration or some characters and parallels from its previous games (with Ei and Venti suspiciously looking like Mei and Wendy respectively) then it’s possible that the Abyss could be a representation of her in this game.

The first time I really noticed a heavy Cosmic Horror influence in Genshin was during the Chasm and ever since then I've been wanting them to do more. I'm so glad that the further we get into the story the more we actually see this Cosmic Horror theme and even some outright references to Lovecraftian literature. Fontaine's lore surrounding the Narzissenkreuz Institute and Rene and Jakob is straight up a Lovecraftian tale as well especially with the story structure.

so glad i found this channel. i didn't realize the abyss so so old! i thought it was just the abyss order but knowing it's much older the lovecraftian connections make so much sense

This was a great video. And with how ominous all the lore tidbits are making King Deshret out to be--at least after he lost his own sanity--I'm honestly expecting goosebump-inducing lore drops next patch. It's also interesting that King Deshret's other name, the Scarlet King, immediately reminds me of the SCP entity with the same name. I only took a cursory look at his entry on the Villains wiki, but some elements of his story ('story' being the different canons that outline his origins) parallel King Deshret's. Who knows whether Hoyoverse intended to reference SCP lore at all. Either way we'll find out, lol. I can't wait for 3.1

Genshin's cosmic horror just keeps getting better and better jesus christ version 3.5's archon quest is insane and i don't know how to deal with the feeling of dread lmao

So fun to watch this after all those Elynas World Quests! Even the song that plays when we are summoned to Elynas domain is called "The Shadow Out of Time" (amazing song btw). I can't wait to see what the next chapter of the Traveler Quest is going to show us

looking for the scuff in this video, cannot find it this is such a good and concise analysis!! i don't know anything about lovecraft but you've given a beautiful introduction and comparison without losing this braindead member of your audience along the way xD thank you for tying everything together in such and organized way

Cursed city of brass. Fitting, as there is a Magic The Gathering card called City of Brass that deals 1 damage to you whenever it becomes tapped.

roozevelt: Give us terror beyond human comprehension! Qiqi: 👀 Great content! It's interesting to see how many different concepts Genshin references in the lore. I'd love to see how the lovecraftian references develop.

The Rift hounds remind me of the Hounds of Tindalos.

So many allusions! Thank you for taking the time to point them out!

I hope we get a Lovecraftian/Bloodborne fishing hamlet area in Fontaine. Would also love to see a cult in the game that worships the abyss that's not a part of the Abyss Order.

Great video!! I made several of these connections myself. One of the biggest draws of genshin for me is how it seems to draw inspiration of cosmic horror and the dark fantasy elements of Fromsoftware games. I have been asking for a sanity/madness status effect in the game for some time now! I'd love a more universal version of the marana corruption mechani we face while cleansing withering zones, something like sheer cold or balethunder!

Maybe in the future update, we will encounter unknown gods, old ones, or even a lovecraftian monsters. Cosmic Horror has became one of my favorite sub-genre in fictional story. Since I played Bloodborne.

Thank you for putting all this information together! I love this games lore but have no time to read an analyze it all.

The parchment changes? Oh damn, I didn't realise that. I remember I got the parchment from somewhere around the ruin golem. Then today, when I was fishing, I got the parchment again, but I didn't pay attention. I thought it was glitch 💀 now it make sense

I LIVE for the cosmic horror crumbs in genshin. Ever since we saw Columbina in the Harbinger trailer Ive been secretly hoping she would be a Lovecraftian character. Something akin to one of the Mensis or Byrgenwerth scholars from Bloodborne. It'd make sense for a Fatui harbinger to harbour knowledge like that to me. Perhaps her eye covering functions in a similar way to how they do in Bloodborne... "As you once did for the Scarlet King... grant us eyes..."

Loving the dark horror part og genshin lore. Cant wait SCP 001 Scarlet King mindfck us as we enter the Ruins of the Pharaohs in 3.1 or King Deshret Origins.😎😎😎😎

Well, i'm glad to tell that, in the hoyoverse, the universe where all of hoyoverse's games exist, there is two realms ever striving to devour the other, the imaginary tree, and the sea of quanta, both names coming from honkai, where we've been able to learn quite a few things, for example, in honkai a character falls into the sea of quanta, a place that seems to reflect in some way, the world our character is used to, being able to manifest harmless little things like figures or smartphones on many times the size of the original thing, to past enemies reproduced as shadows, to memories and even glimpses of lives that could have been theirs, and the most interesting thing being, bubble universes, which if i'm remmebering correctly, are rememberance of worlds on the way to nothingness But what excites me the most is the probability of a certain character who travels through this dark sea making it's way into genshin, he goes by "the captain", and he is the only character i remember so far to have mentioned a great old one, and another him, asks to be called ferryman, which males me extra curious for why the change and all that

Wow... What a wonderful video. Keep this up!

I love this video Please make more masterpiece like this

Some info about 'Dev'. Dev means god in hindi and Devantaka literally means god end

Just found your channel. Love your stuff.

a really good video

I mean, if they drag Reindauter back from the dead it wouldn’t be hard to substantiate a solid horror subplot.

Yo all im gonna say is, if it turns out the abyss is gonna become some hp lovecraft thing. Lets hope the traveller finds a certain bell to summon a certain hunter

¿Would you consider making a video about the seven sovereings? i think all the implications signaling their return are pretty interesting.

8:40 wait a portal? A strong wind pulling one in? Isn't that Aloy's story of how she ended up in Teyvat?

So khaenri'ah fights the abyss ?

Love your voice.

I hope they don't make the abyss totally evil or whatever....cuz that would not be original... The void of warcraft is just that

i guess you could say its made in abyss

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