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!

A long while ago I brought up a Voice-Over from Neuvillette that had played it fast and loose again with Fontaine's lore. I provided a way to fix it too but that involved undoing parts of a story miHoYo had already released. That's messy. I might have thought of a slightly better idea.

I pointed this out in my Fontaine predictions review too but only as a criticism of another inconsistency. I think miHoYo can actually use both of these inconsistencies as fixes for each other. We'll have to see if they're clever enough.

That inconsistency is the witness.

You see guys, the Traveler never got to witness Focalors sacrificing herself to destroy the Hydro Archon's throne. As stated by Zhongli and then Yae and then fully explained by Nicole the only things that are guaranteed to be true in Teyvat are the Traveler's personal experiences. That means even if we as players saw something it only really has to be fact if the Traveler was there for it.

Side Note: It's funny. I've had this conversation with my fans and it's been pretty prevalent in the community that Aether isn't a popular MC. Silent protagonists aren't typically the most memorable and in Genshin's case most people don't even use the Traveler in game so it ends up jarring when they suddenly pop in during cutscenes. If this theory today comes true it actually reinforces that the Traveler has to be in every single event and quest and so on or else whatever we saw doesn't actually have to remain canon.

With v4.5's livestream we found out that Neuvillette will be rerunning in a few days which puts him out of contention for a Second Character Quest against Furina. Unless it's another red herring miHoYo's trying to throw at us the only time we get Character Quests are when the character is getting their rerun. This is likely why up until v4.5 the leakers had been suggesting that Neuvillette and Furina would simultaneously rerun in v4.6. Given how the Archon Quest ended we couldn't be sure if tradition would dictate that the "Archon" gets their Second Character Quest and releases the second regional Weekly Boss or if the situation would change and the new leader of Fontaine would get the quest instead.

But with Furina likely getting her new quest as usual it could play out like I said before with the links being reestablished. In this way it would be revealed that Furina is being summoned to Sumeru for some reason. She may not even know why but the quest will provide those answers eventually with the Amrita stirring. The final part of Fontaine should also be releasing and so far all the chatter is pointing at that missing piece of the map between Fontaine and Sumeru which lines up perfectly with a story bringing Furina back there.

On the other hand going off of the Witness angle whatever Focalors had told Neuvillette doesn't have to be the whole story or even the true story. In this way Furina's new quest could delve instead into that, whatever's really going on with Fontaine's history. There's also been chatter that that new Sumeru/Fontaine area will be the site of old Remuria and if Furina's quest will be taking us there then it's possible Focalors was playing an even longer game. Much of Remuria's history is still told only through legend. For example, we knew for a long time that the Hydro Dragon was the one that gave Remus the idea for the Ichor but Neuvillette didn't seem to have any memory about that.

Now in either situation it should still lead to the connection between Egeria and Focalors. The difference is that we won't have to reestablish any links between Furina and all of this lore and instead we can establish new ones based around the idea that nothing the Traveler doesn't personally experience is true. Actually if miHoYo's trying to be really clever with this then something else could be afoot. The fact is we don't actually see what the Traveler saw. We saw Focalors die by magical guillotine and Furina's hat drop simultaneously but what actually happened? Only the Traveler knows so far and they were only told Neuvillette's side because they said they didn't see that part and wanted him to explain. In other words we as players saw the part of the story that doesn't have to be true. The true story is what the Traveler saw and we'll only get that from Furina's Second Character Quest.

Now there's another angle to be played on top of this. A long time ago when Fontaine was still months from release I brought up how it had a very obvious tie-in to Khaenri'ah, namely Normandy. I'd suggested that the "Farakhkert" of Fontaine would probably be a reference to Normandy. This year Dainsleif is late to the party. Last year v3.5 was Caribert. Back in year one, We Will Be Reunited was v1.4. These quests tend to follow the Lantern Rite patch setting the game's story off into a new direction for the new year. So could Dainsleif be late because this new area is also related to his story?

If so then there's a few ways miHoYo could work this. You could have Furina's First Character Quest be a prerequisite for the new Dainsleif Quest. Finishing that quest then unlocks Furina's Second Character Quest. Or Dainsleif's Quest could run alongside Furina's Second Character Quest in the same area, maybe unlocked by a World Quest just like Requiem of Echoing Depths and the latter half of Nahida's Second Character Quest were. Or Dainsleif won't get his own quest this time and instead he'll be part of Furina's Second Character Quest, adding importance to it and Fontaine's more prominent connection to Khaenri'ah.

This quest could delve deeper into the reason why Rukkhadevata and Egeria teamed up during the Cataclysm and what the Apaosha was intended to lead to. Furina might have been a contingency into that plan and that's the reason behind the "witness" thing, a hidden truth only the Traveler is meant to remember.

Side Note 1: Of course we also had Dainsleif show up late in v2.6 which was a patch after Ei's Second Character Quest since the patches were a little cluttered with both Enkanomiya releasing during Lantern Rite and then Liyue's first expansion of the Chasm. This year we got its second expansion so that history could be repeating itself. And if that's the case, it falls in line with my poetry theory which could then tie Dainsleif's story with Chenyu Vale instead and you guys know my theory about that.

Side Note 2: There's also another link between Fontaine and Inazuma with respect to my poetry theory and that's that the "Archon's" Character Quests feature the non-Archon while the non-Archon remains solo. In Inazuma both of Ei's Character Quests prominently feature Yae and of course Yae is the one we speak to at the end of the Archon Quest. (We wouldn't get to speak to Ei until the end of her Second Character Quest and even then Yae was present for it.) In Fontaine so far, Furina's Character Quest featured Neuvillette and he's the one we speak with at the end of the Archon Quest, though there's a much more understandable reason for it. On the flip side both Yae and Neuvillette's Character Quests do not feature their respective Archons. (actually now that I think about it they both also dealt with non-human entities that were in their care, youkai for Yae and Melusines for Neuvillette) Anyway the point is that if I'm right about Furina's upcoming quest featuring at least in part the truth behind Neuvillette's involvement with Remus and his Ichor plot, then that could be the reason for his involvement in the quest.

How might it happen? I don't think we'll have any more hints about it until it all plays out so we can't know for sure. But with all the shoutouts in Sumeru and that Neuvillette himself seems to understand about the Traveler's Witness role, I think this theory is a safe bet.

So to summarize it:

• The "witness" plotline is a way to explain human Furina's unique attributes and her upcoming role in her Second Character Quest, an important milestone for each of the previous Archons in the story.
• Facts during playthrough only need to remain facts if the Traveler was there to witness it themselves. Otherwise even if we the player saw it playing out it could still be reinterpreted.
• Focalors explanation to Neuvillette about her plan falls into this category and could be rewritten using Furina's Character Quest.
• If miHoYo was actually playing 4D chess here then the fact is that while the Traveler saw "Furina's side only" we as players actually didn't.
• Furina's new quest could even tie into Dainsleif's tardy annual quest with a basis on Normandy, Fontaine's connection to Khaenri'ah.

Topic originally created on March 31st, 2024.