Hi guys I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!

This all started when I found a few theories about the Coral Butterflies following the release of Neuvillette and the end of I think Act IV of the Fontaine Archon Quest. Basically there's this idea that Phanes created these specific butterflies to kill the Seven Sovereigns and also all of the Archons besides the Seven during the Archon War. Other theories even suggest that the butterflies killed Phanes and were created by the Second Who Came. (These theories believe that Celestia is actually the Second Who Came and that it won against Phanes.)

Now here's the thing. Phanes likely did create these butterflies but no I don't think they were antagonistic. Yes the description makes it seem ominous but let's go back to both the Byakuyakoku Collection and also the Prayers Artifacts Series. As far as these read, I don't think Phanes had an antagonistic relationship with the dragons in the beginning. In fact if we go with Rene's Root Cycles then the conflict between them would have only taken place during the Natlantean or second cycle whereas Phanes would have recreated the world during the Hyperborea cycle. As I proposed in this theory the "dragons" or actually just the pure elemental beings that would have dominated Teyvat during this time welcomed the change. It altered the chaos that was the original world, as related to our own primordial Earth into the more structured world we're familiar with. This allowed the formerly instinctual elementals to develop and become civilized, the Seelie Kingdom. It was only the arrival of the Second Who Came that caused Phanes to become defensive of its station as ruler of Teyvat and therefore trigger the fallout of the dragons and the Archon War.

Actually this would have been the story we'd gleam all the way back when those butterflies first appeared. As Tsumi tells us:

Exactly what we knew from both the Byakuyakoku Collection and the Prayers Artifacts Series. But even more recently we also learned this from Lingyuan during the Chenyu Vale World Quest. In short, all Phanes did when it first arrived as a Descender was to change Teyvat from its native free flowing elemental energy state (which worked well enough for elemental beings but was very difficult for the development of humans) into a more structured state where the elemental energies became contained. (better suiting the humans but still allowing the elementals to live)

On top of this Phanes didn't come up with these butterflies from scratch. This is where the title of the topic will hopefully make more sense. If you look at the descriptions of any of the crystalflies they are creatures born of drifting particles of elemental energy. In other words they are the simplest form of pure elemental being, like the spirit of elemental beings. In folklore across the world butterflies serve as symbols of the soul.

But soul imagery might give us the wrong idea. How about a scientific approach? In the early days, primordial Earth was a boiling mass of elements. The elements regularly and erratically reacted with each other due to the high heat and abundance of free elements. Millions of years later we'd reach the late Paleoarchean era where the right conditions were met that caused carbon to structure itself with the surrounding water and other elements to create proteins and the first RNA. This is the current Theory of Abiogenesis. Where do these crystalflies fit into this analogy? You can think of them like energy. During the oldest era energy was abundant in the hot mass that was Earth. The elemental beings regularly devoured each other and absorbed more and more elemental energies, the most fit of whom would become the dragons. Then Phanes arrived and that's abiogenesis. The world changed from primordial soup into cellular life and the energy would become bound by "the ATP molecule." Where in the past Teyvat was chaotic, elements constantly reacting with each other, now life had a physical form and reactions were much more coordinated. In this interpretation those "right conditions" were those Coral Butterflies. Unlike their cousins Phanes used the butterflies to absorb free elemental energy but then stabilize it. With the reduced freely flowing energy, physical life like humans can "absorb elemental energy" through things like eating, consuming elementally enriched materials like how Watatsumi used the Sangacorallia these butterflies turn into to cultivate the land during the Goryou Matsuri. (and meanwhile the allogenes also have some level of ability to directly absorb elemental energy)

So why would these theories crop up suggesting that these butterflies were the tool through which Phanes murdered all the dragons and fleeing gods? Well we actually get that from Tsumi too.

And also from Lingyuan.

Somewhere following the fallout of the Natlantean cycle you had some of the dragons reject Phanes and spread the notion that it usurped the old order and Teyvat needed to be returned to its original state. Of course we know who was leading this group, Nibelung who was taking on power from the Abyss. In other words, the elementals who want to return the world back to its original elemental state are mistaken.

How else do we know this? Actually some of the theories even go into it and so did the caption for the butterflies themselves: Orobashi. These theories suggest that the butterflies were used by Phanes to kill the dragons and the Archons that fled from the Archon War. Well Orobashi fled from the Archon War and as the description states, it used the Sangacorallia to help the Enkanomiyans. It was under its tutelage that they even got the Gouryou Matsuri as they needed its Bloodbranch Coral to start it. Seeing how Orobashi's stint in Enkanomiya was a way for it to survive after fleeing the war it's not likely it would have deliberately released something that was meant to kill it in the war. Actually the only one to say that the Bloodbranch Coral was causing any harm to the elementals was again Tsumi who claimed it suppressed the vishaps. But knowing what the matsuri was meant for and interpreting it the way I'm doing now, it becomes clear what this "suppression" really was. They are elemental beings. The matsuri and release of the butterflies captures free elemental energy and infuses it into the soil, making it difficult for elemental beings to absorb naturally. "Suppression" is a by-product if anything. It wouldn't actually kill or even harm the vishaps but once you believe that not having the old system is already a bad thing it becomes "suppression."

Note: You can think of it like the soda taxes that've been passed by several countries to limit our consumption of sweetened softdrinks. If you know that excess sugar consumption is actually bad for you it's fine but if you interpret it as a limit on your freedoms then it becomes "suppression."

But I decided to look into it anyway to see if there was anything sinister about the Sangacorexes. One thing that a few of the theories had brought up is that they couldn't find where miHoYo got the word corex from. Well

as far as I can tell it'd be this. I'm fairly certain it's a coincidence but I found it hilarious that a search of corex popped up another one of Pfizer's scandals. I think it's well-known enough by now what Pfizer did with their Covid vaccine. (here's one example) Anyway apparently Corex can commonly cause short term memory loss, dehydration, tremors and spasms. Long term effects include major kidney damage and worsening diabetes. Treat your cough today!

But in reality I'm pretty sure it was just a poor attempt at localization which the team is known for doing. Sangacorex is the name of the butterfly form of the Sangacorallia. That word is a combination of a version of the Greek word for coral and a bastardized version of the Japanese word for coral. So technically sangacorallia just means coral coral. That's sinisterness on the level of DC Comics. (DC = Detective Comics) But we actually have a few of those in Genshin anyway because of how many languages it covers. For example the Palace of Alcazarzaray aka the Palace of the Palace of Light.

Let's summarize:

• The Sangacorex or Coral Butterflies were created by Phanes when it arrived on Teyvat and changed it to better suit its humanity.
• Several theories believe they harmed the pure elemental beings but I think they welcomed the change. The fallout only occurred later once the Second Who Came arrived.
• The reason some elemental beings like Tsumi and Lingyuan believe they need to bring back the old world is because of Nibelung and his followers but they were heavily influenced by the Abyss.
• Sangacorex is likely just creative localization to differentiate the butterfly form from the coral form which is called Sangacorallia.

Topic originally created on April 14th, 2024.