Who is Sandrone, The Marionette? [Genshin Impact Character Lore and Theory, V3.4] 

The "Katheryne is a robot" theory was only a "theory" until the Inazuma launch. We all knew her "rebooting" idle voiceline and the keyhole in her neck. Additionally the amount of hints we got at the start of Inazuma made it pretty clear that she is no human. Sumeru just spelled it out.

I'm really hoping we meet Sandrone in Fontaine, the points you made in this video made so much sense for her appearance there and it would be a shame if she wasn't there. If she did try to augment her body like you suggested, it may also explain why Scaramouche looks down on her more. It would remind him of Dottore, who he now hates, and she would be throwing away her humanity to become a puppet, the opposite of what Scara wanted to do. Now I'm hoping they interact at some point.

The fact that Wanderer doesn't comment on Sandrone being a puppet like him leads me to believe that she is not or she is the robot behind, an autonomous being and not really a puppet.

I’m personally of the belief that Sandrone is a cyborg, and originates from Fontaine. Fontaine is mechanically advanced, which aligns with Sandrone’s mechanical themes with the huge robot she is sitting on, and Fontaine is based on France, which when I look at Sandrone, and all the Katherynes, seems pretty significant, considering the “french maid dress” vibes that both their outfits have.

00:00 Am I the only one who didn't hear the intro this time?(Also early for an Aster video must be my lucky day)

I've seen a lot of people saying that we are probably going to fight her on fontaine but I think the most probable thing its that we fight a lot of special and modified ruin machines while she just escapes from us

Only slightly on topic, but when you mentioned the Adventure's Guild being used to observe the Traveler, I couldn't help but think about all our Dain encounters. Literally every time we've met him, we had to start the quest by talking to Katheryne. She was the one who introduced us to him, after making an off comment about travel companions, we gets hints about our twin and him having had traveled together in that quest. She was the one who got a fortune slip mentioning a reunion at the start of the Chasm quest, where Dain and Halfdan reunited... Both of these are suspicious, and that first one is also pretty odd. Charles indicated that Dain went to Angel's Share pretty often, yet Katheryne only just them bothered to tell us about him? Especially when she supposedly thought he was our sibling? Maybe I'm being paranoid, but it feels like whoever is behind Katheryne, Fatui or not, are toying with us, and trying to get us and Dain to work together for whatever reason.

Ever since I first encountered a Ruin Guard in Genshin, I fell in love with these funky robot dudes. As a result, I’ve found that I just like Ruin enemies (as well as fighting them) in general. So when the Fatui were showed off, Sandrone obviously caught my attention with such a dapper Ruin boi.

For Fontaine I'm completely on the idea that Sandrone will appear from an aesthetic standpoint alone. My 2nd guess would be Arlecchino because of all the previous quests about the House of Hearth becoming more common as patches go.

Adding to the crack theories here. What if Sandrone uses Katheryne to spy on the traveller? That’s how the Fatui has so much intel on them and always seems to know where we’re going next (hence why we meet a new harbinger in every nation.) Not only does the traveller check in with Katheryne almost daily for commissions, but a lot of the Archon quests start with talking to her and it seems the traveller and Paimon trust her a lot… Just a fun thought I’ve had for a while.

I'm still not sure if Sandrone is the girl or the robot. Because if Sandrone can make humanoid robots like Katherine then the girl could be a robot/puppet too. Maybe even modeled after Guizhong?

Hold up, I just realized we will pass the half-year mark from sumeru in about two weeks. I am not even ready to start thinking about Fontaine yet…

There is a saying that a doll or puppet maker uses themselves as a model for their creation I think Sandrone created Katheryne (which she modeled after herself) and her real name might even be Katheryne (or its variants) If she's bionic, she might also even be the first Katheryne And so I believe that the Adventurers' Guild is one of her puppets (yes, including her purposefully writing Fatui as enemies in the adventurer's handbook)

2:00 could also be because he treats ruin machines like toys for Teucer

I was actually thinking a lot about the "Bob the Robot" theory. It reminds me of Sasori from Naruto Shippuden who turned out to be hiding inside his puppet. Also when I think of the idea of puppet/marionette theatre the puppeteer is usually hidden behind the scenes controlling the puppet which is front and center. Knowing they all dislike each other and have animosity with each other, it would make sense to stay hidden as a defense than be out in the open.

At 5:40 like you said, we know that Zhongli wanted to pass on Liyue and that the Fatui helped in that endeavor. But that wasn't what Zhongli was paid for the gnosis. Like Zhongli told the Traveler and Paimon in regards to what could be worth a gnosis, "realistically speaking, there is no such thing". Then he told us to uncover what the Tsaritsa's bargaining chip was in our own travels. So there is definitely something that the Tsaritsa can give, which in Zhongli's mind is worth as much as a gnosis.

I have a very fun thought about her since she has repeating themes with other harbingers, is apparently hostile to them, and her aesthetic is Fontaine-ish. Fontaine is a place of intrigue, court, and confirmed spies, and the Hydro Archon is "seeking to judge all other gods". So... what if she is a spy for the hydro archon that infiltrated the Harbingers and is trying to secure a spot to provide intel to Fontaine?

What if, Sandrone herself, is creation, made by Guizhong? And so, Sandrone hates humans, for not saving her creator.

The 11 Fatui parallels the 13 Flamechasers in Honkai, both are groups of extreme individuals who rebel against god with any means possible, beyond all morals and ethics. Sandrone and Dottore are the most similar to Mobius and Vill-V, Sandrone focusing on robots and Dottore focusing on "genetic engineering", both fields of science that Mobius and Vill-V work on. Visually Sandrone looks similar to Mobius, the only characters who sit on top of a robot in the exact same pose, and if we assume Katherine to be created by Sandrone, both have created a group of similar looking humanoid robots that appear all over the world, Mobius's being her Grey Serpents. Dottore created segments of himself to experience the world in different ways, similar to how Vill-V's ability to create multiple personalities on demand by "being a conman" and deceiving herself into becoming any identity of any profession at the highest level, Vill-V is able to manipulate her own brain into becoming the greatest genius in all fields imaginable. Mobius and Vill-V have pushed beyond the limits of what can normally be considered humane. Mobius's extreme fear of death has made her experiment on everyone and everything including herself to discover countless methods of immortality, she has since abandoned her human body and is existing in forms that might not even be physical. Vill-V's complete randomness casts aside all boundaries to test everything possible, modify and create weapons and upgrading herself and others to become weapons that can go against gods, she was the person who invented weapons made out of Herrscher cores, literally turning the corpses of gods into weapons. I can't wait to see how they are going to make us cry for Sandrone and even Dottore, I cried for 5 hours straight in the final chapter of the Flamechasers.

“Least amount of dialogue in the trailer” Columbina would like to have a word (or not)

Tbf there is a 'thing' that Zhongi get from giving gnosis as a form of contract with Tsaritsa and that is still unknown. And if it has anything to do with Sandrone being Guizhong it doesn't mean anything to the fact that Zhongli still find his time is over as an archon and giving Liyue to his people, it probably just personal matter like want to save an old friend or something like that

I suppose, Sandrone's headdress is based on a kokoshik (кокошник) (or a venets (венец), which is more correct term, since her hear are not covered). After all, it has firm structure and has ornaments on it. So she can be from Snezhnaya, not from Fontaine

Sandrone is definitely my most favourite Fatui Harbinger, I can't wait for her to be playable someday

I have a theory for the Snezhnaya Archon Quest, what if in a certain part of the Archon Quest, Paimon will suggest us to do a commission to get their heads off of being hunted down by the Fatui. But in the commission, the Fatui suddenly appears its the Adventurer's Guild who made them fall into this trap

one of the main things I like about the guizhong is sandrone theories would be that she could be the liyue representation of the harbingers (outside of pantalone and baizhu who I think would look very different ingame), because right now we dont have a harbinger who hails from liyue. I just think it would be neat that a adeptus would join the harbingers.

Really hoping she is playable, shes by far the harbinger im most excited for

I enjoy the reincarnation theory, like they both like mechanisms, both seems like researchers. Now I just wonder if Zhongli's contract with Tsaritsa has anything to do with Guizhong.

I honestly think she’s one of the most Interesting, I love weird characters who are only really interested in one thing

To all the intakers of the Sandrone Guizhong copium, I have one message: Hoyo is honestly sorta used to reusing chara designs or at least chara design bits, just look at Honkai and Star Rail and the fact that they have a total of 5 DIFFERENT BRONYAS ACROSS BOTH GAMES. and yes ik the connections and how this is different from genshin but there’s a saying; “old habits die hard”.

Guizhong seems to have abyss styling under her ropes, has anyone noticed that? Maybe she had abyssal connections to help her create better things

The thing about the Marionette makes ruin guards theory, is (1) why wouldn't they have made the ruin guard factory be run by her instead of Dottore? (2) why don't we see the Fatui using ruin guards or robots of any kind? If she has no personal power and no products that are used what good is she? But Wanderer says she produces a lot of garbage. I'd have to guess maybe he means the cybernetic enhancements of so many of the specialist Fatui soldiers we fight.

I kind of think the Sandrone we see might not be the real Sandrone. I like to think that maybe Sandrone is actually the big robot and the lady is another puppet that serves as a kind of mouthpiece. But I think the more likely situation would be that the Sandrone we see is a puppet, like a Katheryne robot, and the real Sandrone is somewhere behind the scenes.

I think Sandrone and Arlechino should be in Fontaine since Sandrone is a puppet master puppets are famous in France and Arlechino because Fontaine is the land of justice and Arlechino is a liar and a backstabber see where I'm going here and maybe pantalone because idk just have a feeling

I'm not sure what the truth will be but so far I like the idea that like Wanderer; Sandrone could be a puppet created by Guizhong. There could be some interesting parallels there and also I can imagine her at the time of Guizhong's death being still very young and innocent? and not understanding why her creator never returned to her after that day.

As much as I love the theory of the big robot being the actual mastermind, considering Hoyoverse history of making petit girls controlling big robots and marketing point of view, the chances of it being truth are really low u.u

Could it be possible Guizhong made a puppet in her own image similarly to what Ei did?

I imagine she's something like Sasori from the Akatsuki. She turned herself into a puppet to prolong her life and continue her research

Yeah,the reason for her grudge against Tartaglia makes sense

I have a theory that Sandrone is who made Kathryne and each Kathryne holds a part of Sandrones memory that a AI was built off as well Kathy kinda holds some similarities with Sandy and also with appearance to

She’s my favourite Harbinger. I hope we see her soon.

How am I here so early? Is it because I think I kind of flirted with my teacher without realising and now I am embarrassed? Yes. TMI that you did not need.

Zhongli did say that the adepti saw Guizhong thru a rose colored lens, which makes me think that Guizhong was much more sinister than how she presented

zhongli did actually get something else out of his deal with the fatui, he says this explicitly. there's more to that contract than we know. honestly, this could be a theory video on its own. here's some lines from the archon quest copy and pasted so you can get what I mean. when asked what could be worth a gnosis: Zhongli: "As for the bargaining chip that the Tsaritsa used to balance the scales... Uncover that answer for yourself in your future journeys." when you talk to him again: Paimon: "So, Zhongli, what sort of contract did you sign with the Cryo Archon? Paimon's so curious!" Zhongli: "...One of the clauses of our contract was not to divulge any of its contents." and finally, there's this line: Zhongli: "I do not give it for free. I give it as agreed upon in the contract... for it is a matter solely between the Tsaritsa and I." so, there definitely is something more that zhongli got out of the contract, and he's not allowed to say what is is. that's not to say this necessarily makes the guizhong theory likely. it's possible that the tsaritsa offered zhongli guizhong in the form of sandrone, but it's also possible that it's something else entirely.

finally some sandrone talk, thank you aster

Really excited to see your video on capitano

The lack of intro scared me cuz I had high volume

Awesome vid as always

The plot twist is Sandrone is actually the Ruin Guard and the Girl is the doll who speak for him, and that Ruin Guard is an advance model from khaenri'ah a sentient one who survived the war and just the Jester know about it, well the Jester and Dotore because he is 200IQ, we will probably meet them on Fountain and the game will bamboozle us all the way making us think the girl is the real Sandrone, we will probably have several interactions with them and the doll will act like is in control 100% of the time and the Ruin Guard is just like a bodyguard even probably "shit talking" or "mistreating" the ruin guard who is the real Sandrone, on the boss fight we will fight them both focusing on the doll first beating her on phase 1 but then the fight will not end and entering the phase 2 it will be reveal than the Ruin Guard was the real master all this time went we beat him the doll will get "Free" an a Playable character we can roll for to join our party.

Man I just hope the theory Katheryne is actually Sandrone (Atleast one of the copies of Katheryne) is gonna be true because how the hell is she everywhere like that has to have some kind meaning unless if she's just a doll

Dumbest thing I though up, what if Sandrone is just a fan of Guizhong's life work and modelled her appearance after her's. 🤣 Sandrone is just a Guizhong fanatic.

I think Arlechino will be in Fontaine too, she has an orphanage in her region and for some reason it reminds me of les miserables which takes place in France. Also, it kind of fits the theme of sinners against the elite which seems to be the theme of Fontaine. I bet they also have characters based on the three musketeers!

I dont think the Guizhong theory works for some reasons, like how only the top 3 fatui harbingers are as strong as gods. Even if people tried making the argument that Guizhong was a weak god, she was still a god regardless and had immense power, just like the Havria situation in Zhongli's first story quest. Even if Guizhong did become weakened after her death, her godly impact still remains in Liyue as the dust clouds over the Nine Pillars of Peace. Her dying in the heart of Liyue in the presence of many adepti also guarentees that if someone stumbled into or disturbed any area she was sealed in that the adepti would know immediately.

Do you think we’ll get an artifact set that pertains to Sandrone? Side note: your artifacts lore video was fire, and would I’d love to see more!

Sandrone is adorable, I would be happy to see more of her. Thank you for the video~

after you talked about the art of khemia at the end etc i was kinda surprise that "sandrone is gold" wasnt one of the theories

It's 11:57 pm and Im watching Aster videos. Wonderful, thank you.

Gonna put my cracked theory here, similar to ones you mentioned in the video but a lil different What if she was just a puppet/robot at the start, but somehow gained consciousness and now she' s trying to become a human or human-like (similar to how Albedo is, a homonculous)? It would be cool to think a researcher, or someone important wanted to make a robot a human/human-like (similar to the sumeru researchers in Tighnari story quest), but Sandrone rebeled because she wants to be more than just an experiment and from puppet she became the puppeteer of her creator? I can also see her join the Fatui, knowing Pierro being from Khaenri' ah, he would definitely tell her becoming like a human is possible, and that if she joins the fatui she would reach that point Maybe from her we can also see how Gold was able to create homonculi in the first place, which would be good to know for the future when we encounter her

Sandrone, the marionette Me a FNAF fan: ...the wha-

Pov: u opened the video expecting the classic intro music and didn't hear it. "My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined"

I think it would be really funny if the robot was sandrone

The only Guizhong is Sandrone theory is that Guizhong died and Sandrone used her body as a vessel Basically wearing her literal skin which would be extremely dark And so Sandrone has her power but its very diminished

I theorized that Sandrone is a Ruin Guard made or enhanced by Guizhong, who is known to dable with ruin tech. The puppet looks like Guizhong because Sandrone has a emotional attachment to her creator. The puppet is Sandrones way of trying to fix Guizhong, she would basically share same sort of trauma about not understanding death that Karkata did.

Some have claimed that we would encounter the two Harbingers, Arlecchino and Sandrone in Fontaine. And in Natlan, Capitano and Columbina. The rest like Pierro and Pulcinella (comes along with Dottore (?) ) would stay in Snezhnaya. I've just found this in Reddit and Twitter. I'm not quite sure if it is confirmed but it would be cool if it did happen.

The way your intro music was non-existent confused me for a whole minute

i love her sm

The sound effect at the beginning 😿

What if Sandrone is a creation of Guizhong?

It's here!!

Can’t wait for many comments which will mentioning Guizhong lol

Sandrone is trying to create sentient life using kaenrieah technology, but isn’t scaramouche himself also made utilising that same technology? Like, it’s quite obvious looking at the way wanderer’s kit mimics ruin guards and drakes. He shoots missiles as he flies, he has the same two circle propellers like the flying drakes, and takes in elements to buff himself like the aeonblight drake. His charged attack is like a ruin guard spinning, and normal attack is like a ruin hunter when it swipes at you, his arm movement is also similar to a ruin guard going smack one side, smack the other, then trying to clap. Kinda like wanderer throwing two wind blades at the same time in an X. Cripple him in flight and he drops quiet easily. His burst is also like when the machines drops a bunch of circular bombs on the ground. Maybe even he doesn’t realise this, and no other character is aware of his blueprint inspiration other than ei herself. She may have been inspired after rushing to kaenrieah to go after makoto and fighting the same machines, maybe even happening upon labs and buildings filled with the blueprints to create the ruin robots.

Wait i jst had a crazy thought. Its unrelated to the video but its so fun. What if celestia is a council of decenders who have all gathered from different worlds to form an alliance and to recruit other powerful beings for their goals.

The whole thing with Katheryne might be an agreement between the Fatui and Adventurers Guild where the guild gets to operate without any direct oversight so long as the have Katheryne model robots provided by the Fatui running the commissions side of things. This would be good for both since the Fatui would have agents inside the Guild and the human members would have less paperwork to do along with the fact that Katherynes don't tire at all.

It’s possible that the woman we’ve seen is just a construct like Kathrine. They could really be anyone still. Think Sasori changing appearances completely in Naruto.

Ever since I first saw her I theorized that Sandrone is actually the ruin machine, and the humanoid part is the puppet.

Aster, do you think there will be some sort of time travel plot at some point? I feel like they will want to sell us lore characters at some point like guizhong, venessa or even Signora. The only evidence I have is that pretty much every well designed character becomes playable eventually. We do, however focus quite alot on the distant past in the story often.

MY FAVVV

"what if sandrone is the robot instead of the person" is way more reasonable then "sandrone is guizhong"

I herd there is a theory that Colombia is somehow tide to the seales in some way,with the statues that they go in , looking like her

Early! Amazing video as always! :)) (Ps: I'm very excited for the Fatui Harbingers lore and other info to come out soon!)

Sandrone as a Hoyoverse's Donna Beneviento?

I can’t wait for you to theorize about Columbina 💙

The Adventurer's Guild being an independent group from the Fatui is also plausible. Although their base HQ is in Snezhnaya, in the guodebook, adventurers classify them as enemies. Most of the information snd commisions gathered by the intelligence dept of the Adventurer's Guild are also against the Fatui. But thene again, it could also be a ploy. The guild is there to monitor not on the Traveller but any potential risk that may grow from each region.

I think your overlooking the obvious sandrone could be a doll made by guizhong. Making copies of oneself is a running theme of genshin. Venti copys someones looks Albedo has a copy Zhongli made a copy to fack his death Raiden ei has made multiple copys Makoto and ei could as twins are copies Nahida is basically a copy of rukadavata Doctor has his copys Gouba is in the same boat as nahida Oz looks alot like thunder bird Fishel faced herself in summer The one npc dude who copied his dead friend The list goes on and i havent even brought up honkai also running the tons of copys thing. It would be out of character of hoyo not to make her a copy

will be cosplaying the Ruin Guard of Sandrone while the Harbinger will be a plushie~

I have seen other theories of the guizhong theory Where instead of her being guizhong After she died the fatui searched around and found her last projects which could have been a robot or puppet that looked like her since She always enjoyed new technology.

I completely subscribe to the Sandrone is actually the one holding the girl. When I first saw her introduced my mind went immediately to a ventriloquist doll because of how she was sitting. It just really stuck with me and I will view it as true until stated otherwise.

i feel like with the guizhong theory, if that were the case, she would’ve been the harbinger we met in liyue because of how each harbinger we’ve met so far, have had a strong connection to the nations we’ve met them in. signora and mondstadt (through her like husband or something) scaramouche and inazuma (electro archon puppet) and dottore and sumeru (he was an outcast from the akadymiya) where as childe and liyue don’t really have any connections. so i feel like if they were to have a strong connection with liyue we would have met her there. and maybe this will be the case and we’ll have some big sandrone liyue event quest but i doubt it personally, i think it’s coincidental that they look so similar.

I do hope that she is playable tho since I wanna spend my primos for her.

Your pronounce is just immaculate🛐🛐

I have long suspected that Sandrone is a construct. I suspect the female avatar is the puppet and that the "machine" carrying here is actually the Harbinger. This is reinforced in my mind because of the way the "machine" carries her: it is similar to how ventriloquists carry their puppet. My supposition is that the maiden is a very complex avatar made to distract us from the real harbinger. This would explain the emotionless gaze, momotone speech patterns and noted (by both Tartaglia and Scaramouche) lack of personality traits. I would even argue that the maiden was the next step from their work on Katheryne (possibly with defenses against being "hacked" by a certain Dendro archon). Again as you said this is just a theory and based mostly on limited information.

Oh nice, i like sandrone.

I'm calling it right now, she's either going to be the greatest Ally to The greatest Ally to The traveler amongst the harbingers. Or there greatest, she's definitely Katherines creator, and who do we see as The traveler on a new daily basis? Sandrona has been aware of us from the very beging, from our first adventure to present time. The Katherine's have been, feeding her information on us from the beginning even before we knew their secret, and are most recent adventure involving the steam bird in Fontaine is a heavy implication that she doesn't want to make an enemy of us. She's either interested in us as an asset, or a creepy Yandere stalker and has pictures of us line across the room. Feel kind of sorry for that poor bastard whose tongue she cut out to make amends to us.

Like some others here, I’m reminded of the Naruto series, where there were several puppeteer characters. Childe and Scaramouche assume the girl is Sandrone and has a pet robot. It could be that Snezhnaya B.o.B is Sandrone and the girl is a decoy. Or they’re not there at all, controlling both by remote.

It doesn't have much to do with this video in particular, but I would like to point out how the symbol of the Adventurers guild (usually found on the back of the Adventurer's guild's uniform) and the symbol on the outfits of the Khaenri'ahn npc characters Halfdan and Chlothar (aka Eide) look rather similar. Both are eighth-pronged stars with a circle in the middle.

About the bob the robot theory idk since both childe and scara mentioned her as "she" and we know shes also a researcher. I'd say its more possible if theres a whole different person behind those 2

AWWW YESS MY FAV FEMALE HARBİNGER

I really love Sandrone, she is my favorite harbinger. One of my theories, which is similar to yours is that she is unable to move without her ruin guard servant. I think maybe she can't walk? And then I just made a fake story in my head where she couldn't walk like other kids and so she studied to create inorganic beings that help her with things. Imao it got out of hand but I'm pretty sure Sandrone building Katheryne theories are probably true. Just like how authors put themselves in a book, Sandrone put her signature look on Katheryne when creating her. Hopefully she appears in Fontaine. And becomes PLAYABLE.

Tbh, the way she said 'utterly rissble' in the english VA makes her sound OLD! It's actually like a grandma said that. I think it's a hint that she is actually old, and altered her body to preserve her appearance.

The Sandrone we see is a puppet as she as I suspect she has a sad story and upon her death she was placed in a puppet and I also suspect that every Katheryn carries a segment of her memories and each of them have evolved its own consciousness built off these segmented memories and the the Ruin guard contains what is left of the segmented memories of her lover and she put him in there after he Died due to one of her Experiments ......but that is juts my Guess on her lore

Imagine Sandrone is actually a Bisque Doll that was created using the remains of Guizhong which in turn kinda sealed her soul within the doll but all her memories erased/sealed and what Zhongli said that he just wants to step down from being an arhon was BS and the actual deal was about Guizhong lol This scenario might as well trigger having Ping and Cloud retainer prime forms to finally be playable or at least be used on hahaha idk just some wild speculations and copium.... Mommy Cloud retainer......