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 was meant to be a short topic but the only way for it to make any sense is if you guys have been clicking these links I'm providing. Here's one more. Now that that's cleared up we got something that may be interesting in the Wriothesley Character Quest.

(This theory ended up long because it compiles several old topics so I've added a summary at the end.)

You'd think for a Character Quest the only lore to be had is about the character it's focused on right? So did I.

So when we got a black crystal that caused Paimon to get the same Crystal Marrow visual effect as the Traveler that got a little curious.

Of course it was explained later by Wriothesley right? It was just "emotion" laced water or what Dougier called Aqua Doloris (literally sad water in Latin) that forced anybody that came into contact with it to feel pain. But we also got a really good glimpse at how it does that which was no longer mentioned by this point in the story but was repeated back at the start:

It forces your worst memories back on you. Now we've seen Paimon sad before right? Maybe those were the memories she saw. Except if this water is able to cripple people with their pain to the extent we saw in the quest then I'm not sure Paimon has any such memories from our journeys. Correct me if I'm wrong in the comments but as far as I can tell the worst of her memories are any time the Traveler is harmed like for example when Scara poisoned them with the Crystal Marrow. I think the most lasting memory would be during Act II of the Sumeru Archon Quest when the Traveler moves beyond the border of the samsara world and vanishes. Paimon later tells us that she waited for hours and the Traveler just never came back. This caused her clear anxiety which didn't stop even after the quest was over because in Caribert Paimon talks about what'll happen after their journey ends, claiming she wanted to stay with them forever. (some of us 90s kids might have channeled a little Pikachu's Goodbye during that cutscene) The thing is the Traveler's fine. So there shouldn't really be any lasting effects to the degree that we saw.

But it wasn't.

Now if my theory is right what if that's what Paimon saw? I'm not saying she actually remembers any of it. Maybe the most she'd remember is that she ended up drowning in the water and being saved by the Traveler. But the kinds of memories that water brings up in the Traveler make me think it would have the same affect on Paimon. For the Traveler we know how deeply those specific memories affect them. In Perilous Trail there was a room that brought up the greatest fear of each person that entered it and when the Traveler did, it showed the Abyss and their departing sibling. There's also the dream world Domain we had back in Sumeru's Act I where they were haunted by the Abyss Herald that their sibling had rescued. Maybe memories of her punishment, her part in Sumeru's fate, Fontaine's, even her part in the establishment of the principles may have been what Paimon saw and regardless of how much she actually remembers of those memories they filled her with so much dread she wanted nothing to do with the entire box the stone was kept in.

There's a little more to bring up with Paimon but I'm not sure if people would be intrigued or outraged if miHoYo did this lol. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I think it's already been accepted that the choices in this game don't matter. I mean especially when you have "choices" like this

where the two options are pretty much lines in sequence and don't have branching reactions. In my videos when I come across stuff like this I just think about what would sound natural and select both options in that sequence. Especially if the response addresses both like here with Mona.

But look more carefully at the first example I provided. While it also seems arbitrary Paimon does have different reactions depending on which one you choose.

Now based on my prediction for the climax of this game it actually wouldn't be a stretch for Genshin to have a hidden "friendship gauge." Most Asian RPGs don't have this but western ones do. It's one of the ways RPGs use to distinguish between multiple endings. In other words choices that matter. So what if each time we decide to poke fun at Paimon it reduces the possibility of keeping her safe by the end? And in addition it might even determine if our own journey is a successful one or yet another Descender that falls short like our sibling.

Now there's an obvious problem with this right? If our choices actually matter but we don't know that until this game finally ends, that could be a fantastic way to piss off your players lol. But I think it would also be a really cool social experiment. The thing is when we have RPGs where the choices matter we know before even playing that there are multiple endings. So chances are the players are going to go into it hoping to get the ending they want. Making the game present itself as having choices that don't matter will more likely produce a population that chose based on what they feel is natural for them. (or totally skip over the dialogue and arbitrarily choose because they think Paimon's annoying) And hopefully that might open up some fun conversations based on what endings players get naturally. I mean you either did choose the options that feel natural to you or you were one of the ones that skipped over the story but either way you'd end up with the ending your decisions led you to. (some people do fast forward through their real lives)

On top of that it wouldn't be the worst business decision either. I mean besides the possibility of pissing off the whole playerbase lol. The thing is one day this game will end. And unlike Honkai so far, it feels like Genshin's got an established plot with a single mission. And in RPGs like that the New Game+ is how you get players to keep playing. Another purpose this would serve is to just better understand the story. Over on youtube, because this game has a consistent update cycle that's coupled with a flagship event story, I ended up delaying my videos of the Archon Quests for a long time and uploaded them in between the events. But because of that I turned it into a revisit series and you really see the old quests in a deeper way when you have new information to go off of.

And of course there's also this.

Maybe we'll get Achievements based on our choices like here over in Star Rail.

Based on this and my theory for the endgame, miHoYo might be setting us up for a tearjerker moment with Paimon. So under that context getting a message like this from Paimon

not to mention the several more recent quests and events where Paimon lays it on thick about staying with the Traveler forever. You guys remember at the start of this game how it was firmly established that the Traveler was only sticking around Teyvat for as long as it took to get their sibling back and regain the power to leave? What are you trying to do to us Paimon?

Side Note: And for the guys going "well Paimon can just leave with us" keep in mind we've seen that she's a part of Teyvat. Irminsul affects her. Unlike the Descenders she may not be able to leave.

So in summary:

• Wriothesley's Character Quest may have hinted at the true story behind Paimon.
• Based on the specific memories the Traveler and Wriothesley revisited when touching the Aqua Doloris it could be that Paimon experienced the same degree of painful memories but as far as we've been shown she shouldn't have such memories.
• She may not even realize what she was seeing despite experiencing the same emotional distress.
• miHoYo may be secretly making our choices matter in game and providing us different endings based on how we respond to Paimon.
• They could be doing this to allow players to reach an organic ending to understand more about themselves. If they end up disappointed they might be motivated to replaying the game in NG+. If they were happy with the ending they achieved maybe they'd be motivated to replaying just to see how things could have gone differently. This gives Genshin higher replay value for a more finite storyline.
• Paimon's 2023 Birthday Message might even hint at what those endings will be.

Ok with that said I've got a two-part question for you guys. First do you think miHoYo might have actually secretly made our choices matter (please give your reasons whether you'd be happy or angry about it) and second how would you run a NG+ of this game?

Topic originally created on May 26th, 2023.