THE FAKE SIBLING : Was the Abyss Sibling Created In Khaenriah? [Genshin Impact Lore and Theory] 

I miss making theories that are just so wild and then testing their validity. i mean, it ain't the perfect theory, but boy is it a fun one. =============================== GET 10% OFF OF YOUR GAMERSUPPS ORDER! with the Code ASTER: gamersupps.gg/Aster

Abyss Sibling has become so attuned to Teyvat that Irminsul began to register them as a resident of Teyvat is what I think tbh

This would be the most heartbreaking betrayal for the Traveller. Their whole journey and existence was a lie. I don't want this theory to be true because it would feel like an insult to make us care for a sibling that's never been real. The theory has the same vibe as when I was a little kid and would end every story I wrote with "and it was all a dream". I like to think the twin is a very real sibling who after being separated by the Unknown God experienced something so impactful that it changed their life's purpose, so instead of finding their twin so they can both leave they ended up staying in Teyvat to lead the Abyss. The real question is what exactly was so impactful that it caused the Abyss twin to not reach out to their own family? They didn't just change their life's purpose but also became evil, they corrupted and hurt Dvalin and are also responsible for deaths of countless people.

I think she is recorded by Irmensul because she died at some point in her journey. Since she died, her data was recorded by the leylines. As for the current Lumine, she is likely an abyss construct implanted with her memories like how Kazari was.

Wait, how about both? The traveller did have a sister/brother and they travelled together in the past. But then, they didn't anymore because of you know death. And then the current abyss sibling is an hommonculus copy. Since there seems to be a lot of clone/other version in teyvat(kusanali, dottore,...) Now that would be a gut punch of a reveal.

The sibling being fake really fits in with the "The stars, the sky... it's all a gigantic hoax. A lie."

Have you thought of the possibility of some parts of the conversation with Nahida breaks the 4th wall? The controlling powers are the player’s power. The ultimate Fate? Think about it. We are the ones who go through the door from Celestia to Teyvat and control the traveler’s fate.

Mihoyo always repeatedly stated that both twins are canon. Maybe both of them travel at the same time, as the main character, but in a different timeline!?! And both abyss sibling are copies too in the respective timeline.

Right now all theories are worth exploring because when more information gets dropped eventually some will start getting eliminated so no matter how outlandish they are its still fun creating them. With that said, if Lumine is now a part of Tehvat then we know she is and has most likely had her memories altered just like everyone else. So it might be questionable what Lumine actually remembers herself. If so then perhaps Lumine having her fate tied to Tehvat perhaps she is unable to leave because she doesn't remember how or even that there was a before. It could be that she has some memories but she's recovering them like someone with amnesia. Perhaps that's why she's trapped serving the Abyss.

My theory is that Albedo was the one that was created to learn more about the Traveler. Albedo looks a lot like the physical features of Aether and Lumine.

I think the abyss sibling is a clone of the real twin. Since this is not the first time hoyoverse did this type of story writing. Considering in their other game Honkai impact. Creating another life form to replace the previews one is quite normal. So I believe the real sibling is having a situation like nahida where she is imprisoned. While the clone was given the memories of the real one.

Hear me out. I personally agree with this theory but my spin on it is that the real sibling died in the cataclysm. Gold then secured their memories and implanted it into a vessel which is now the abyss sibling. I push this further because it fills out a few things on my checklist. 1) being that the sibling woke up before us and journeyed Teyvat before the cataclysm went full on. (reason being the aranara mentioning of our sibling) 2) it fills in the detail about them no longer being considered a descender despite us being the 4th since the 3rd is now dead and the 2nd and 1st descenders are the primordial one and the second who came

There's a theory that Kabbalah lines up with the domain mural.. on it, there are two important paths. One path starts from heaven and ends on the foundation of the world, the other starts at the foundation and goes up to heaven. They are called the Path of Descension, and the Path of Redemption/Return. The Path of Return is also called "The Serpent," and it's depicted as a huge black evil looking snake (battlepass much) climbing up towards heaven. Anyway... if one twin started in Khaenri'ah (kingdom in the foundation of the world) and their goal is taking down heaven, and the other took the opposite path of "descension" it sounds interesting right

I also have been thinking similarly. I don't know how, but I think Aether's memory has been altered. Even his POV at the beginning of the game when the unknown God snatches his sister I think can't be trusted. We know for a fact that the traveler's memories has been affected because of Venti. Venti is literal proof that the Traveler's memories have been altered because Venti has met the traveler before but the traveler does not remember. Why? My theory is, just like when Rukkha was erased, Irminsul made adjustments to the "truth" of the world to accommodate her erasure. I think perhaps Irminsul might have done something similar to the travel by using Lumine. It automatically adjusted the traveler's "truth" to adjust for her being written in as the sibling and that's why we get a POV like the one we did of Lumine being snatched by the unknown God at the beginning of the game. Also, If the Abyss sibling was a clone (or a branch, like Venti or Nahida) it also makes sense why Dainslief as her companion has the title "Bough keeper" aka BRANCH keeper - because he was put in charge of by Khaenri-ah to oversee the cloned branch of the traveler! of course I know there is still plenty of holes in this theory but I can't help but think this is somewhere close?

I've had my own, slightly simpler theory. Since Heavenly Principles are an outsider most likely but *are from Teyvat*, the Sustainer was able to bind Lumine to Teyvat and manipulated her fate to have her in check. She already has done something with Khaen'riah which made her a target and because Aether woke up just as the disaster happened, he was always a complete unknown.

My crack theory based off of this one is that the playable Traveller has two siblings. The real one they travelled through worlds with, and a fake sibling that technically belongs to Teyvat. If the Abyss Twin is under the same circumstances as the Traveller and she isn’t recorded in Irminsul, then there is the possibility that the whereabouts of the Traveller’s actual sibling is still unknown.

It could be that both siblings aren't actually siblings but the same person from almost identical worlds but the non-player one was taken from the tyvat we end up in the game when they where young. Since we know genshin is tied to honkai they very well could be from very similar bubble universes which they might call "stars". Gaining that info that our traveler isn't even the first outsider really makes me go back to the idea that the gods really are the counter parts to herrschers from honkai and elemental energy is honkai energy. I know most genshin onlys don't want it to be tied but I feel like that connection will be made at some point only framed in the perspective of our genshin characters with their own terms. We already know that the genshin universe has been seen by a character in honkai and that some characters in genshin are direct counterparts from their honkai versions or have hints of honkai counterparts. With honkai coming to the first big end of the story I hope we get some relation from that and if not then I very much feel like in Snezhnaya we will get connections. If anything I feel like we will get a Bronya counterpart or a Ana Schariac counterpart.

off topic but what if khannriah got their art of alchemy/powers from a descender? since in the teyvat story trailer Dain says "we will defy this world with a power from beyond". Im not sure if this has been covered at all but it might be something to look into edit: The main reason i think this could be the case is there are still 2 missing descenders(if the fatui are right about how many there are) so one couldve taught khannriah about things from their original world and maybe couldve taught dain about his powers and likely pierro aswell. and since irminsul was corrupted by forbidden knowledge(and this being knowledge not from this world) that couldve been the reason celestia/sustainer decided to destroy khannriah.

Personally I don't think the situation surrounding the Abyss twin is THAT complicated. I personally believe that since the Abyss sibling has been around for FAR longer than the Traveler it would make sense that they would be recorded into the memory of the world since they've spent so much time in it that they can be considered a part of it by this point while the Traveler themselves have only been awake for about several months probably? So it makes more sense why the Traveler wouldn't be recorded like the other twin. As for what Nahida said about the situation, I personally think she may have simply made a mistake or misunderstood something along the way regarding the other sibling. Sure she's the God of Wisdom and all but if her conversation with the Doctor proved anything it's that Nahida doesn't know everything not even about the tree that remembers everything that happens in Teyvat. I know that there is an at least 85-90% chance of me being wrong, and I know that these things were brought up for a reason. However even after saying that I still believe that at least Nahida must have had some sort of misunderstanding about what she learned, especially since even she didn't sound entirely confident in what she said (if I'm remembering correctly that is).

Great theory. I have been thinking about the Abyss twins a lot. I have a different idea. For some reason my intuition wants me to believe that they are the same person and got split up into "siblings" when they were sealed by the Sustainer. That would explain the Abyss sibling to be of Teyvat - they were created there. But otherwise... it's just a feeling. I can't really put my finger on it.

Around the memory alterations part. We can also say that Lumine and aether are real outlanders, and that the abyss sibling we see now is just a copy of that genuine sibling ( for more story impact, let's say the genuine sibling died or sealed and the sibling we are chasing after is a mere copy with the same memories ). That way there won't be a need to alter aether's memories

I think that the abyss sibling is not their true sibling. It is mentioned that they woke up before MC, so the AS could be a copy of the real sibling who is locked away somewhere. Khaenri’ah did create a copy, but it was an identical one of the sibling that woke up first. We know that the AS has powers, but not that they have the same ones as MC. We have not seen AS use multiple, or any, elements. So, I think we are chasing after the wrong sibling. It would also give us a reason to unite with the Tsaritsa if celestia still has our true sibling locked up.

with how abyss plan keep failing despite having the other traveler as their friend who are awake longer than the other sibling makes me think that they are just double agent to make sure abyss always fail, maybe even he sabotage them from inside to protect the other sibling

I'm thinking its just a trick to distract Nahida and Traveler. One of Nahidas lines was something like "imminent disaster coming to teyvat" (for what Fatui is gathering gnosises, i assume). It seemed not so hard to delete "data" from Irminsul, even though Nahida isnt a very experienced user. So *Person X* could go to the tree, press "run as administrator" button, insert some folders of Abyss Twin, very first in .txt format, but latest archived, and Nahida doesn't have a licensed WinRAR yet (since she is fresh from the jail). You know, evil genius, to mess with Archon of Wisdom, otherwise she won't be busy cracking the code and might mess up their plan, whatever it is. On the other hand, it might be a anti-Abyss-Order operation going on. Kind *Person X* insert data, but they know that only Nahida can crack the code and she will tell the Traveler. As soon as some "archived folders" is hacked, what Traveler will do? Rush to the Twin, kick some abyss mages, blow up their lairs, may be turn upsidedown-corrupted-statues straight and cleanse them. So for whatever Abyss Twin is working on will be delayed... Untill DOOMs Day, for what Fatui is gathering gnosises. XD

This one is the first thing came to my mind while doing the quest, happy for someone who also thought about this

The lore sounds to becoming closer and closer to kingdom hearts chain of memories with all the memory changes and clones

Imagine our sister's sudden appearance on the Irminsul records was because Heavenly Principle did something about it, revoking her status as a "descender"

What if the abyss sibling was dying but rescued by khaenriah sages by transferring their consciousness to a created vessel?

don't forget K.K.'s words in the traveler reveal flavor text card.

I wonder if Dainsleif has some kind of relation to a Descender Note: What if the cause of the heavenly principles actions is Lumine being a copy? It would fit her line about arrogation, as in "you dared copy a being out this world, you stepped out of line"

If the abyss sibling was actually dead all along it will be such a tragic end.

honestly i would’ve just said that lumine or the other sibling did land with the main sibling in teyvat because of what the sustainer of heavenly principals said about them both being outlanders and that the other sibling is either injured or trapped then the khanerian people had copied the other sibling and made them the prince/princess of the abyss that’s just what i think about this theory

I got a feeling that Lumine made a clone of herself with the purpose to observe Teyvat after the fall of her kingdom. While “Lumine” is exploring Teyvat and examining their resources and society, the real Lumine is still out there to revive her homeland and topple Celestia.

My hypothesis on how the abyss sibling is native to Teyvat is that what we've seen of the abyss sibling in Khaenri'ah is something they may have witnessed and are trying to prevent from happening again and again nearly endlessly which in turn makes them native to any subsequent time cycles and this may be our first time cycle and a possible means to an end through our actions opposing the fake Teyvat and corrupt Celestia.

Aww, how cute. Thinking that Mihoyo would reveal plot twist in a piece of Marketing just like that. 🥺

The main issue is when in the cataclysm the twin of the abyss appeared, the unknown god called the two Outlandrs so it is possible that the twin only appeared after the traveler was captured.We also have information about the primordial that maybe not even nahida or the fatuis have access to and how the order of the abyss was looking maybe even they don't know with this information the probability from the first decender to be the celestials principles becomes low furthermore the twin still seems to have affection for his brother/sister so he remembers something that the traveler doesn't remember the case and that both the wanderer and the abyss twin don't seem to have all of their memories now comes the question why they only seem to remember specific things

IVE BEEN THINKING THIS AND WAS SURPRISED NO ONE ELSE WAS COVERING IT! I have to get ready for work but I think that Khanri’ah had a gnosis and used to as fuel/a catalyst for creating The twin. Operating on that thought we can guess Khanri’ah was subsequently destroyed and the “arrogation” mentioned by the sustainer was the destruction of the gnosis/the twins birth.

Another reason why the sibling isnt made in khaennria is because the irminscil would have known about their creation. The tree records EVERYTHING that happens in teyvat and since our sibling has records if they were created then nahida surely would have told us the truth because while the tree was somewhat corrupted before the cataclysm possibly effecting records I doubt it would cover up such a thing considering nahida would have mentioned this problem to us most likely when she was trying to gather information about them.

For me , this could happen , the abyss sibling could have been made to turn against celestia and there sibling was made to re think about their past , since you pick the main traveler , only they talk about it , because that's your traveler , that's canon in the game , the unknown god may think their travellers because of the white color in their outfit and just say lumine is one that's why she took her away and didn't take aether because he was not disobeying the rules of their world but just visiting it , that's why somw gods don't know her or are made to think she's real because they were first experimented on before aether , nahida knows who lumine is because she is pretty young and unaffected is her creation was made after khea's fall

Interesting! Lets talk. What I took away from the Nahida archon quest was that the sibling was not recorded until the cataclysm, which means that is when the sustainer of heavenly principles and the opening cut scene took place. We were separated at that time but our sibling did not fall into a 500+year sleep like we did. They were stuck on Teyvat unable to leave and wandering the nations. Which is when their actions got recorded in Irminsul. Most importantly and often overlooked is what the developers throw in our faces ever month, the battle pass story. A lot of people just wish to write it off but the recent talks with Nahida add more credence to it. In that story 3 key things are pointed out, 1) our sibling has been fooled by the abyss and failed their mission to find what we were sent here for. 2) another was also sent to fulfill said mission (which is our story) so there is still hope of finding what we were sent here for. 3) There is something we are looking for (the reason for coming to this world in the first place), but where is it? Khaenri'ah? The Abyss? In some other part of Teyvat? So my take is that it makes sense that information on our sibling is stored in Irminsul because they walked the world so long ago it has had plenty of time to be processed and recorded. Note that before the cataclysm there was no information on them because they were not trapped here yet. The sustainer of heavenly principles has not been heard from since our battle with her and if you re-watch the opening cut scene you will notice that she was surprised by our attack and it is possible we are actually responsible for her absence over these many years, since the heavenly principles have been silent. This leaves us with the fake sky information that the Harbingers know about and now Nahida, as well as why the Fatui have us listed as an entity not of this world but not our sibling. To the latter I say that the Fatui's reach into the Abyss is very limited and that is where our sibling resides. For them to get enough info on our sibling they would need to gain more eyes and ears into the Abyss without falling pray to it's charms. As for Childe and his stent into the Abyss, he was there for only days but it seemed like many months when he trained. So his exposure to the powers of the Abyss are nothing compared to our sibling who has been there hundreds of years vs his few days. Anyway, I need to cut back on the coffee so I don't type so much, good video!

Another amazing Aster theory. Now to watch it.

The title gave me goosebumps

After we have discussion with Nahida, I think I got backstabbed and I didnt want to admit it! My theories is like this, Irminsul suddenly write siblings down because Celestia was search for him, since siblings first appearance's in Khaenriah and nothing affect him/her. And then siblings had made a contract for abyss, so her/his track record became fuzzy again. Even Celestia or Irminsul cant write it down either.. Every archon, who still need gnosis would know about this information, except Ei and Nahida, she didnt own her gnosis for a long time cause of sages. Thats why siblings says to us, that traveler have to wait for him/her, cause she/he cant go home from teyvat cause Celestia chain him/her with irminsul and make his/her Teyvat ppl

I think Sussty trying something different with both sibling making one attached to the world and making another free from the world to see which one succeed

Here’s my Random theory with no basis: by becoming the prince/princess of the abyss, the abyss twin is registered as a subject of teyvat. Sort of like how in certain parts of the world, if a princess of X country were to be married to a prince of Y country, then she would have to adopt the prince’s last name upon marriage and royal ascension

Maybe Lumine was killed during the cataclysm. So the Abyss Order recreated her, her memories, and her abilities while giving her some Abyssal magic and that's maybe the reason why Irminsul said she's from Teyvat.

The way it draws parallels with susbedo its reaaaally uncomfortably possible

I do not know if this is something anyone got in the first cutscene with the SHP(Sustainer of Heavenly Principles) Maybe they were lazy or they just forgot to change it. Look in which hand the SHP has the sibling trapped "while" the Traveler tries to attack her. Left side. If you play Lumine she traps your brother with her left side. If you play Aether she traps your sister with her right side. But as I said both times the sibling is trapped in the cube she holds him/her on the "left" side. After that she switches the cube to the right in "both" cases while she tries to get you as the traveler with the left. Meaning: 1. It was just an error/mistake on their part 2. They were lazy(I doubt that) 3. Lumine should be the main character lorewise which makes Aether as the "Prince of Darkness" respectivly 4. Coincidence :D Just some observation

What if the abyss sibling is a sim just like the flamechasers in the elysian realm,she could be in celestia as a prisioneer and with their powers and the memories of these they interacted with ,modified the irminsul making it to start recording them as they appeared out of nowhere,bcs if we think about it the irminsul is like a realm/domain of memories

Maybe the fact that they got sealed differently impacted their influence on teyvat

same with my theory, the story reminds me of anime tsubasa chronicles where syaoran travelled to different worlds to find sakura memories and there was an arc where he finally found sakura but it was her clone created by his enemies, and that the original one was sealed. So i think that the original lumine is still a sleep and the abyss or the heavenly principles created a clone witch have the memories of lumine to travel the seven nations of teyvat. That's why the irmansul have record of her and the fatui not classified her as one of the descender because she was created in this world.

I like this theory only if their Abyss sibling has died and they were able to make a copy of themselves - to hopefully safeguard their sibling when they woke up. I like this branch of the theory better if only because the "deception" becomes something made from love, and a wish to see their legacy through as travellers.

I don't think Aether would give up on Lumine even if he knew that she isn't his sister. That wouldn't change his love for her

I think it would be slightly cool if the abyss sibling is a clone of the actual abyss sibling and the original died during the cataclysm which could have been caused by Kanriah waking one of the siblings up. It gives the traveler another reason to be opposed to Celestia. The original could be a descender and the clone would have been logged into irminsul

Any theory regarding the existence of the other sibling is thrown out the window when you remember you can be either lumine or aether and it actually makes a difference in some interactions, the siblings are not interchangeable so they would have existed prior to teyvat, the likely theory is the "sibling was inserted into the fate of teyvat" one

I think that Nahida was simply mistaken. She said it herself, someone tampered with the leylines record about the sibling.

Ok, there are already a lot of teyvat is a cycle theories, and during the sabzeruz samsara, azar and setaria werent dreaming, but they had « puppets » to play their role in the samsara while they were outside of it collecting the dreams of everyone. Maybe the abyss sibling is a creation of Lumine herself ? She could have discovered the properties of Irminsul, and created a puppet of herself by writing information in it to lead Aether on the right path. Maybe she escaped the cycle before he did and left a puppet to help him, or maybe teyvat is even some sort of a dual samsara where only one of the twins is present at a time, searching for the other in vain bc they will only « appear » at the beginning of the next cycle, and the puppet was created to bypass this.

My theory is about the existence of two realities in teyvat and the twins were separate in diferent realities before the fight with unknown god and both are travelers, this is why you choose the traveler

I believe there’s some answers in a poem called Paradise Lost. It’s worth a read.

When I first saw the title, I thought this theory was that Khanri’ah made a copy of the travelers twin, not that the twin is a copy of the traveler. It seems impossible given what we know that Khanri’ah completely invented the twin and rewrote the travelers memory, because it doesn’t fit thematically at all. Though still unlikely, I think it would make more sense if the travelers sibling was trapped by the Khanri’ans and duplicated as their own alien weapon. This would explain the Abyss Siblings strange loyalty to Khanri’ah/the Abyss Order and even why Dain said we must “rescue her” in the travail trailer. I still buy more into the theory that the Abyss Sibling was somehow written into Irminsul and bonded to the world after their arrival in Khanri’ah, but it’s fun to imagine other possibilities.

I believe that Lumine just became the part of Teyvat. When Raiden dies she can say "Detached from the world", do we have any proof that one can't be attacked to it? Like, if she was just an outlander, then why would she want to revive Khaenri'ah so much? Unless they created a copy of her, which home is Khaenri'ah and as she is a clone created in Teyvat, she is part of Irminsul.

Maybe Aether had a sister and they really came into the world together. but the real Lumine was sealed and Selestia (or someone else) made a duplicate of her? I don't know...

When i first found out that they Travelers may not be related, i was thining maybe the abyss twin was sent to khanriah and died there or was captured. Then someone created a puppet or clone of them and stored their consciouss in there but in the process of doing so they were exposed to forbidden knowledge, a truth of another world (the one the traveler is orginally from) and because of this Celestia needed to wipe them out before they could spread the truth destroy Teyvet.

at the surface level, I really like this theory. it intrigues me as to why the traveller would need to be monitored - perhaps they come from a dangerous bloodline or clan? but like you said, this theory has its holes and would take the personal aspect away, making the story kinda mid. what would make it redeeming for me would be if they somehow captured lumine and replaced her with a fake, turning it into a mission to save the original lumine… but there’s holes in that too still interesting though :)

What if other sibling recorded in irminsul is a elaborate plan to find a loop hole in teyvat/heavenly principle rule by dainsleif, and our abyss sibling agree with this plan thus allowing abyss sibling recorded in irminsul

i don't think the sibling is a clone although storywise, the gnostic chorus story makes more and more sense. -1st heir was tasked to find the genesis pearl -1st heir was "deceived". memory faded and now believes she's the queen of the kingdom of darkness -2nd heir "has already taken the path were the first had stumbled" at the moment, we cannot trust the traveler's memories since details or the sequence of events are not clear. however, if he was one of the 2 stars that descended into teyvat, it is possible that the other star was not lumine since she was already here long ago.

I'm glad that you thought of this theory, aha, just 14 hours ago was watching your vid on Celestia tried to save them theory and I was talking about the exact same points that you made here that she is not really Aether's sibling and his memory was tampered henceforth why Aether only remembered ltr and if it were the case, it matched everything nicely and cuz of Khaenri'ah obsession with creating more, they seeked more and the creation of Lumine ended up costing them destruction and curse due to learning how to create life and not only that, that life bears power and knowledge of forbidden knowledge, since it basically a copy of Aether

i'll one up your theory, what if the abyss sibling isn't the one that got "inserted" but OUR sibling was the one to be "removed"?

Yo but what if they were BOTH created by Gold? There are so many references to you and your sibling being “gold-colored,” and citrinitas (gold/eternal life) is the final form of alchemy. Albedo is one of the steps to get to the final form, and when he runs tests on you, the camera pans on his test tube to show that you’re made of the same stuff as him! It also makes perfect sense as to why you and your sibling are able to live forever and have amazing abilities. You’re essentially Gold’s magnum opus. It also explains why the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles says “The arrogation of mankind ends now.” Arrogation means “to appropriate oneself without right,” so that could mean she’s telling you both that you’ve become humans against the laws of the heavenly principles. You’re not humans so you’re “outlanders,” but you were made in Khaenriah, so that’s also your “homeland.”

What if instead of the Abyss sibling being a 'false sibling', the one that's running around (and traveled) is a puppet much like the Raiden Shogun (or a homunculi type being), and our sibling is still in stasis/asleep, with their mind in the puppet trying to find a way to break free without the curse of Khaen'riah affecting them? This would explain why the Irminsul has memory of her after the cataclysm but not before, and if it's a puppet, maybe the powers she's gaining/looking for are what's fuzzing her history in the Irminsul. This would fit nicely with Daisleif wanting to 'save' her.

Apart from the 4th point I actually had the exact same theory about Lumine and thought about making that my own potential first proper yt video, but you already made this theory video with good explanations and well made editing, so I think I should just scrap the idea hahah

What I don't understand is ....what if there's an even more simpler theory. The sibling that gets cubed by the sustainer, we can see the sustainer looking at it in a momentary curious manner as if they're surprised or learning something new. It is possible that at the same time of cubing, they got added to the irminsul and the traveler memories integrated by the sustainer, as if the dendro archon has access to the irminsul, then why not sustainer or Celestia or something. It is possible that the at the same time the siblings got sent back and forth in time successively as teyvat runs in a loop, and the sibling now is actually their sibling but the one who got cubed and remembers the shit that happened to them

The big issue with this theory's premise, is that it would imply a canon Traveler, either Lumine or Aether has to be THE Traveler. If one of them was fake all along, what about those players who chose the other one? Despite Lumine being in much less of the marketing, Hoyoverse has made it clear that there is no canon Traveler, either choice is correct. Though, I do like the idea of the Abyss Sibling specifically being a fake. I keep spouting this theory that both of the Twins are in a world where the other one is the Abyss leader for a reason.

This would explain why the Abyss sibling isn't shown being able to use the 7 elements, unlike our sibling!

Another point against this theory is Gold, Rhinedotir was able to copy the traveler somewhat in Albedo ONLY AFTER THE CATACLYSM but Albedo is still not a perfect 1 to 1 copy of the traveler. Another thing is if Lumine was created by Khenriah it would've HAD to to be before the Cataclysm which completely denies any reason for Rhinedotir to bother creating an imperfect copy like Albedo in the first place Also the Sustainer calls both of them OUTLANDERS which means Lumine wasn't part of the world yet but the Irminsul was still recording her (since it knew she landed before the Cataclysm) so it's possible that there's something else at play other then Aether having false memories or Lumine being Originally from this world

Okay, but what if the reason for Nahida’s explanation is simply a case of history being rewritten? We this can happen now. The sibling being a simulacrum just falls apart fast. Something happened and there is still too much missing story wise to come up with a conclusion. I do think the abyss has corrupted the other twin and messed with them somehow.

The abyss twin being a native in teyvat may be due to the corruption of the abyss since we have little information on the abyss. Maybe the abyss is so strong that it even took king deshret and rukkhadevata a literal gods to sacrifice their life to remove the forbidden knowledge. Maybe there is someone so strong that they can change the fate and identity of an individual that they can even fool irminsul. When nahida told us that the abyss twins journey was near its conclusion that was when the information becomes fuzzy, maybe the twin was close to knowing the truth of teyvat but was corrupted and manipulated by the abyss by giving a false hope that they can restore khaenriah to its former glory since that was the reason why the abyss twin was in a journey across teyvat in the first place, we just have to wait for dain to give us another piece of information on our sibling and the truth.

What I feel would fit more is that both of them were siblings, but 500 years ago something happened to the sibling. Maybe the sibling died and a copy was made and at the moment the sibling suddenly appeared to Irminsul. Feels more fitting than them never having been siblings at all...

I think the story is quite simpler than that. Straightforward even. The sibling didn't forget, and wasn't replaced either. She was sent to fetch forbidden knowledge from the abyss for her father. She discovered the truth of this world, possibly in Khaenriah, and decided to do something about it. (thus "forgot her origins" line) Unlike Gold or Tzaritza, our sibling decided that the Abyss was the side to align with, and use the forbidden knowledge for whatever purpose she wishes (instead of handing it over). She can't tell us about it (as is the trope in many, many fantasy) simply because it would blow our mind, or push us away, thus she tells us to learn it for ourselves, and when we do, she hopes we'll align with her, finish the thing, and travel onwards from there.

I love that someone had the same tinfoil hat theory that i had

I believed Lumine passed away, before her passing she created her other self with Teyvat law. Lumine wake up before the rise of Khaenriah and she's the one helps Khaenriah with all those jump of technologies. And maybe those corrupted knowledge is from other world (Lumine). That's why Irminsul is corrupted by it. Lumine is trying to wake her brother up so they can travel across the world together or, Teyvat is the world they want to migrate to. Because she is getting old and doesn't has much time left she created her other self with the combine of 2 world technologies and law which created the cataclysm. And the Current lumine is trying to undone to damage which is done by the original Lumine.

Their twin probably isn't from Teyvat. They were involved with the Aranara and Rukkadevata. It may have just been that Irminsul had to rewrite them as natives in order to create a history that worked when it scrubbed Rukkadevata from it. I'd guess because it couldn't give Nahida Rukkadevata's memories of the twin if it were purging all memories of Rukkadevata.

Personally I don't think she's a clone of Aether but I don't think she's really his sibling. I think she manipulated irminsul to change her fate and delete her true idenity, making herself a decender which why she just suddenly appeared. irminsul wasn't able to alter history because she tied herself to aether so it just made her appear after her true idenity was erased as it was the best it could do. As to who she was, I think she was someone who became family to aether as she may have found him when he first arrived there. As for altering his memory, maybe she was able to do something where she could put ideas into people's heads or she had gold help her.

This would definately be a huge plot twist, and by far one of the most unique theories I’ve seen.

I have also wondered if the abyss twin is a copy of the original twin. What you have mentioned makes a lot of sense and why wouldn’t the traveler at the time (500 years ago) wake up their sibling to walk through Teyvat with them. Another thing is, why would the twins be counted as one entity coming into Teyvat?! When the twins came into Teyvat at the same time how did the abyssal twin land in Khaenria?!

I mean a few things right off the bat being that Lumine never existed in Irminsul until after the Cataclysm so the timelines of Lumine being "created" and Lumine being inserted into Teyvat aren't connected in any way, since we first appeared in Teyvat in the middle of the Cataclysm and tried to run away from it.

There's a lot more issues with the theory. The idea of Aether and Lumine trying to leave the world doesn't make sense if Lumine is a homunculus. The traveler's memory can be tampered with using the akasha but Nahida specializes in dreams and memories. If the traveler's memory was tampered with they'd have to do it in a way where Nahida wouldn't have caught it while unlocking the traveler's memories. It also doesn't fit well with the whole aranyaka questline where Lumine supposedly went through and then told them that Aether would be around later. I suppose you could handle these by rewriting Irmunsul but then that also messes with reality which makes things weird. If it was only a memory rewrite, that should be in Irmunsul as a memory rewrite for Nahida to find.

Here me out what if the abyss sibling we see is a clone of the real sibling and during the cataclysm the sibling was caught and is being held prison by pierre so that pierre could control the abyss order from the shadows through the clone sibling so he can further his goal in raising khanrea and only in certain situations we can see our sibling helping us out such as in the dream word in nahidas story quest and the chasm story quest

Genshin is just a timeloop. There is a chapter after Snezhnaya called Khaenri’ah. We can assume that maybe these are Dainsleif Archon quests but honestly the Traveller could just go back in time, lose their memories and become the abyss sibling making the abyss sibling now the new Traveller in the samsara.

Crazy theory idea hit me. So I was watching a documentary series about the possibility of ancient human civilizations during the ice age and several factors popped out at me. The sea level was 400 feet lower thus not just the climate but even the coastlines and available landmass were incredibly different then they are today. And of course the concept of a civilizing hero teaching hunter gatherers secrets about construction, agriculture and the stars. As in survivors from the old civilization going abroad to administer to the remaining survivors of the human race. So it hit me. 1) Khanriah = ancient civilization (among others) 2) Archon War and the Cataclysm = Ice Age and Flood (I realize a war is not like an ice age but actually doing battle over land and limited resources is similar) 3) Civilizing Hero = Archons? OR Great Sages like Hyperion (Here I'm thinking Zhongli been around for 5 millennia guiding his people as example) 4) Academia refusing to investigate the real history rather then refute a shorter human timeline = Celestia banishing or declaring certain knowledge forbidden. 5)Liyue -> Inazuma -> Enkanomiya -> Sumeru = China -> Japan -> Sundaland -> Egypt There may be more examples but given the similarities and the knowledge we have that the Abyss Sibling journeyed Tehvat with Dainleif 500+ years ago I gotta ask why aren't we allowed to ask the Archons what the state of the world was like then or is that also forbidden knowledge?

I think lumine's fate is tempered with by someone or something and given that she's so involved in teyvat including the abyss may cause irminsul to record her and brand her as from teyvat

I think the theory of the Current Abyss Sibling being a Clone of the real Trapped Sibling has a bit more merit, specially because now you can have an entity that created the clone be like "Oh, yeah, this person shouldn't be in the records of Irminsul because the original is not from this world. But I don't have the power to remove this Clone's data from Irminsul, at most what I can do is have Irminsul stop updating it". The biggest problem is why, both from their perspective and from a meta perspective, what does this entity have to gain from cloning someone who tried to leave when shit hit the fan? And what does the game's narrative gain from having the Traveler follow a fake Sibling's instruction of journeying through the entirety of Teyvat and learning "The truth of this world"?

i absolutely love this theory as 'farfetched' as it might be, the whole lumine waking up to khanriah's destruction and becomes obsessed with the need to recover her homeland is SO good

I enjoy your theory videos. you research a good amont of arguments that make logical sense. Also you present your theories in a convincing manner.

Lady. This is exactly what I thought.

All I can think is either Gold brainwashed Lumine and register her into the Irminsul or the lumine we kept seeing is actually a puppet and the real lumine is trapped somewhere in the abyss.

I mean, we know that the Dendro gnosis/Akasha can screw with the Traveler's memories, at least in the short term, from the Samsara festival and the Scaramouche samsara.

i like to vote on the first theory . One , the "current" heavenly principles calls them both outlander , and since she is a descender she is also unaffected by the irmunsul . Two , irmunsul can erase and recreate data , making it so someone powerful from the abyss did something to recreate data for the abyss sibling similarly to what nahida did but to remove it (prolly the abyss king/queen since we knw the abyss sibling is the prince/princess) . Three , nahida said there r 4 descenders and the traveler is the 4th and she says the 1st one is the heavenly principles and she needs to gather more info on the 2nd and 3rd . Now that is interesting , we know Phanes was the first descender and then there WERE invaders and its said phanes won (yet their worshippers civilization was destroyed?) . What if they invaders (the current heavenly principles) won took over Celestia and changed the history in the irmunsul . That would prove why nahida didnt find any info on the 2nd and 3rd descenders (2nd being the invader who made ppl believe they are phanes or their shades and 3rd is the abyss sibling who's records were lost) . Basically if irmunsul is like a huge database for teyvat its possible for its erased data to still have the blank nameless files and these nameless or encrypted files are the other two descenders . Like for example all of Rukadevatas info is gone but tiny info in domains and certain places still remains .

altering traveler memory is one of the most hardest feet to achieve in the world of teyvat if the khanrian peoples can do that there's no way they are going to be defeated by heavenly principals there is some fatd changing gods in teyvat hidden in the shadows waiting for a moment to fight the heavenly principal so take the chance and sealed the fate of the sibling to teyvat

They could still be twins but the mom moved worlds the same day so one was born in tevat