00:00:00
I've never formally counted, but I'm pretty sure that the whole
00:00:03
''Why is Dottore burning Irminsul'' ranks consistently
00:00:06
among my top five lore questions that I get asked.
00:00:08
And, for the longest time, my answer to this was... I dunno
00:00:12
'cause, really, honestly, truly, I had no idea
00:00:16
so I didn't really think too deeply about it.
00:00:18
But now that I've gone through this year's Lantern Rite
00:00:20
I'm sitting here, like, these two pictures are the same picture.
00:00:24
And sure, okay, maybe you think it's a bit of a stretch
00:00:27
to try and link the Homa ritual of Lantern Rite
00:00:29
to whatever blasphemous experiment Dottore has planned.
00:00:31
But I decided to investigate this whole thing
00:00:33
and, well, let's just say I ended up
with a corkboard full of pins and strings
00:00:38
that don't exactly pains the clearest of pictures
00:00:40
but the sheer amount of connections
00:00:42
and coincidences present sure to raise some eyebrows.
00:00:44
And now that we know our current destination is Nod-Krai
00:00:46
(which is also Dottore's current headquarters)
00:00:48
I can't help but feel like the events of Lantern Rite
00:00:51
might be some kind of loose foreshadowing.
00:00:55
So, today, we're gonna talk about how this year's Lantern Rite
00:00:58
potentially foreshadows
Dottore's plan to burn down Irminsul
00:01:00
how I arrived at this theory in the first place
00:01:03
and all the little suspicious connections in between.
00:01:05
Just as a heads up, this theory
will be a little all over the place.
00:01:08
We've got big tinfoil hat energy today; you have been warned.
00:01:11
And, as always, before we start
00:01:13
do note that you can find everything you need
00:01:14
including time stamps,
spoiler warnings, citations, attributions
00:01:17
and links to related content in the description box
00:01:19
while post-video notes and
corrections will be in the pinned comment.
00:01:23
Okay, so, uh, I have a match;
00:01:26
let's light this theory up.
00:01:28
Everything I'm about to present comes back to the Homa ritual
00:01:31
but to get there, we kind of need a little history lesson
00:01:33
because I'm pretty sure that this is the very first time
00:01:36
we've actually seen the Homa ritual
00:01:38
featured in a quest, like, explicitly
00:01:40
which feels really weird to me
00:01:42
because I've made, like, five videos on the subject of Homa
00:01:44
but anyway, it's history time.
00:01:47
So, over 3,000 years ago,
when the Archon War in Liyue was still going on
00:01:50
there was a tree god named
Tao Dou who was perched atop a mountain
00:01:53
and was also said to be a sort of guardian
00:01:55
or gatekeeper of the realm of the dead.
00:01:57
Long story short, they got dragged
into the fighting during the war
00:02:00
so the boundary or gateway
00:02:01
between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead
00:02:03
got real blurry for a while
00:02:05
and all the dead stuff started bleeding through
00:02:07
to the realm of the living in the form of fetor.
00:02:09
This situation was worsened by the fighting between gods
00:02:12
because when a god died, they would also produce more fetor.
00:02:15
And as Tao Dou weakened, they were
unable to maintain the border properly
00:02:18
so fetor quickly swept across the land
00:02:20
in the form of a deadly, incurable plague.
00:02:23
The people of Liyue suffered the effects of the fetor plague
00:02:25
until eight Adepts developed a method to cleanse the Tao Dou
00:02:29
and restore the border between life and death.
00:02:31
To do this, the Adepts pinpointed
eight critical Ley Lines nodes
00:02:34
and set up special altars for use in a Homa ritual.
00:02:37
The Homa ritual was essentially purification by fire
00:02:40
and it succeeded in burning away the fetor
00:02:42
which restored Tao Dou's ability to maintain the border.
00:02:44
But the ritual also caused Tao Dou to sink into the Ley Lines
00:02:47
which in turn moved the location of the border
00:02:50
from the mountaintops to a place deep underground
00:02:53
which is also where the Ley Lines are.
00:02:55
This border is now managed and maintained by Hu Tao's family
00:02:58
who inherited the knowledge
of the Homa ritual from the Adepts
00:03:00
hence her signature weapon, the Staff of Homa.
00:03:03
Now, the Homa ritual is based on a real ceremony
00:03:07
wherein the officiate offers gifts to the gods
00:03:09
by burning the gifts in a sacred flame
00:03:11
in exchange for the gods' blessings.
00:03:13
The effects of these blessings can vary but most of them
00:03:15
seem to revolve around cleansing negative energies
00:03:17
(which is also what we see in Genshin)
00:03:19
so that's kind of what we're gonna roll with.
00:03:21
Now, the reason you burn the offerings in Homa rituals
00:03:24
is because, in the Indic religions that perform Homa rituals
00:03:27
fire is seen as a gateway
between Earth and the spiritual realm.
00:03:30
So, burning the offerings is
kind of like sending them to the spirit realm
00:03:33
where they can reach the deities
whose power you want to invoke.
00:03:36
I don't wanna go much deeper down
the Homa hole than that right now
00:03:38
because I have, in fact, made
a whole deep dive video on the ritual
00:03:42
as it pertains to Genshin already
00:03:43
so you can just watch that if you want more context.
00:03:45
For today's purposes, it's really
only important that you remember
00:03:48
that the Homa ritual requires the burning of an offering
00:03:50
to receive the power of the gods
in order to cleanse negativity or filth.
00:03:54
And with that in mind, you might then wonder
00:03:56
why we burn the little effigies
of the Tao Dou during the Homa ritual
00:03:59
if we're supposed to be burning the offerings instead.
00:04:02
And that's because, in Genshin,
fire is seen as a purifying force.
00:04:07
I think Natlan is actually
the most explicit example of this that we have
00:04:10
with the fire-like Phlogiston
being able to cleanse Abyssal filth.
00:04:13
But if we want an example a bit closer to home
00:04:15
we can look to the plague that was caused by the fetor
00:04:18
because the sealing and purification of the Tao Dou
00:04:21
didn't actually cleanse the plague
caused by the fetor from the land.
00:04:24
It merely stemmed the flow of new fetor
00:04:27
from leeching out of the realm of the dead.
00:04:29
Lots of fetor remained in the land of the living
00:04:32
especially within the bodies of the recently deceased.
00:04:34
So, in order to cleanse the plague from the land
00:04:38
the people of Liyue began cremating their dead
00:04:40
which burned away any remaining fetor
00:04:42
thus preventing the spread of the plague.
00:04:44
So, the reason we burned effigies of the Tao Dou in the quest
00:04:48
is because we were trying to cleanse fetor from the tree
00:04:51
but we can't exactly set the tree itself on fire
00:04:53
so the next best thing is to have
the effigies act as the Tao Dou's proxies
00:04:58
and absorb the fetor in its place.
00:05:00
Then we can set fire to those effigies and burn the fetor away.
00:05:03
As a point of comparison, these effigies seem to function
00:05:05
on the same principles as Lan Yan's rattan dolls.
00:05:08
But more on that in a minute
00:05:09
because I suspect that many of you are currently wondering
00:05:12
what the heck all of this actually has to do with Dottore
00:05:15
'cause surely I'm not suggesting that the old quack
00:05:17
is gonna try and set fire to Irminsul
00:05:19
in order to burn away all the bad junk in it, right?
00:05:21
'Cause if he was to go through
00:05:23
and cleanse all the abyssal matter from Irminsul
00:05:25
that would make him a good guy
00:05:27
and that's a bit odd, right?
00:05:29
Yeah, it would be odd and also very much out of character.
00:05:32
So, I while do think it's possible
00:05:34
that he's actually performing a Homa ritual in this scene
00:05:36
—and we're going to explore this in depth as we go forward—
00:05:39
I am by no means trying to make him out to be a good guy here
00:05:42
because it's not as though he's gonna try
00:05:44
and cleanse evil or abyssal matter from Irminsul
00:05:46
for any morally sound or virtuous reason.
00:05:49
In fact, I think he's gonna do it just because he can.
00:05:53
You know, to prove a point.
00:05:55
'Cause what you gotta understand about Dottore
00:05:57
is that everything he does
is done in the pursuit of knowledge
00:06:00
of research; it's all a big experiment.
00:06:03
He loves to break through the boundaries of knowledge
00:06:05
and in that respect, no subject or methodology is taboo.
00:06:08
If something interests him, he's gonna pursue it.
00:06:11
And if we go down the list
of Dottore's specific research topics
00:06:14
we can see a lot of weird parallels
00:06:16
between said research and Hu Tao's Homa ritual.
00:06:20
Let's start by talking about the easiest parallel: fetor.
00:06:23
So, the energy that we call fetor
is inextricably linked to death.
00:06:27
It's the energy that leaks out of the realm of the dead
00:06:29
and it's likely the same energy that lingers behind
00:06:31
after a god dies and their forms are left to rot.
00:06:34
More on that in a second.
00:06:35
Now, in Liyue, this fetor energy caused a plague
00:06:38
whereby it literally siphoned away years
00:06:40
off of the infected target's life force.
00:06:42
In other words, it caused accelerated aging.
00:06:45
Now, the reason I keep suggesting that fetor
00:06:47
also comes from the bodies
of dead gods and their lingering resentment
00:06:49
—even though Lantern Rite never said that—
00:06:51
is because of Orobashi
00:06:53
who I realize died in Inazuma
00:06:55
and therefore seems completely irrelevant to all of this.
00:06:57
But, upon his death, Orobashi released a malignant force
00:07:00
called the Tatarigami
which also caused plague-like symptoms
00:07:03
and was sealed away, similar to Liyue's fetor.
00:07:06
But the more important thing to note here
00:07:08
is that the Crystal Marrow
that grows from Orobashi's remains
00:07:11
were used here in the creation of Delusions
00:07:13
during the Inazuma Archon Quest.
00:07:15
And using one of those Delusions
00:07:17
caused a backlash in the form of accelerated aging
00:07:21
which was quickly followed by death, same as the fetor.
00:07:24
And weirdly enough, it's actually not difficult to tie
00:07:28
Orobashi's Crystal Marrow and the Delusions to Dottore
00:07:31
because about 400 years prior to this
00:07:33
Dottore was working on an experiment in Tatarasuna
00:07:36
that utilized the Crystal Marrow as well;
00:07:38
not to create Delusions
00:07:39
but instead to refine the Jade Steel
00:07:41
that was made in the Mikage Furnace.
00:07:44
But the use of Crystal Marrow
in the furnace created a black gas
00:07:47
that caused everyone to get sick and die.
00:07:49
Now, there isn't any mention
of accelerated aging in this situation
00:07:52
but the whole thing is still pretty suspicious
00:07:54
and one of the primary reasons
00:07:55
why I think Dottore is the one who created Delusions:
00:07:58
he's got a history of working with the raw material.
00:08:01
There's also this popular theory going around
00:08:02
that the Phlogiston extraction lab in Natlan
00:08:05
is run by Dottore rather than Capitano
00:08:07
because, let's be real, running that lab
00:08:09
is rather out of character for the Captain
00:08:11
but very in character for the Doctor.
00:08:13
And if this theory ends up to be true
00:08:15
it would further the idea that Dottore made Delusions
00:08:17
because Elemental Energy was derived from Phlogiston
00:08:20
courtesy of the gods, aka the Heavenly Principles.
00:08:22
And Elemental Energy can be controlled by normal people
00:08:25
using god-given Visions
00:08:27
and Delusions were developed to be a Vision replacement
00:08:30
for those not chosen by Heaven.
00:08:32
And this is a pretty big point in favor
00:08:34
of Dottore being the one who developed Delusions
00:08:36
because Dottore's main research focuses on finding ways
00:08:39
to elevate the powers of humankind
to rival the powers of gods.
00:08:42
Creating a device like a Delusion
that could rival god-given Visions
00:08:45
is totally in line with his research
00:08:47
so he really is the best candidate
00:08:49
for the inventor of Delusion technology.
00:08:51
But ok, I admit this fetor, Delusion,
and accelerated aging connection
00:08:55
is a little bit generic and weak
00:08:56
and it doesn't really have to apply explicitly to Dottore;
00:09:00
it could just be a coincidence.
00:09:02
So, let's set this one aside for now
00:09:03
and move on to a more specific parallel:
00:09:06
like the parallel between Dottore and Lan Yan's rattan dolls.
00:09:10
That probably feels like
something that came out of left field
00:09:12
but stick with me because this parallel is kinda fun.
00:09:15
The purpose of Lan Yan's rattan dolls
00:09:17
in the context of the Homa ritual
00:09:18
and some other related applications
00:09:20
is to act as a proxy for
the person (or object) that it represents.
00:09:25
For example: one of Lan Yan's dolls acted as a proxy
00:09:28
for Xingqiu's great grandfather
00:09:29
and absorbed much of the fetor that plagued him
00:09:32
thus slowing down the spread of his sickness.
00:09:34
Another example can be found in the Tao Dou effigies.
00:09:37
Hu Tao can't burn down the Tao Dou tree to purify it
00:09:40
so we have to burn effigies of the tree instead.
00:09:43
The effigies serve as proxies.
00:09:45
And the final example are
these little rattan effigies of Hu Tao
00:09:48
that Lan Yan made to absorb some of the ritual's recoil
00:09:51
in the hopes that the effigies could "die" in Hu Tao's place.
00:09:54
Now, from what I can tell
00:09:56
Lan Yan's rattan dolls are based
00:09:57
on a wider tradition of crafting effigies
00:09:59
that's found throughout Southeast Asia.
00:10:01
They can be made out of a wide variety of materials
00:10:04
like cloth or straw or stone, or wood
00:10:07
or in Lan Yan's case, they're made out of rattan
00:10:10
so I'm mostly gonna be looking at examples of rattan effigies
00:10:13
like these hoon payon which are found in Thailand.
00:10:16
These little wicker dolls, or effigies
00:10:18
are woven into shapes of people, mythical beasts, or animals
00:10:21
and were meant to serve as spirit assistance.
00:10:23
You can kind of think of them
as invisible guardians, proxies, or servants
00:10:27
that inhabit these little effigies
00:10:29
and they're basically used
the same way that Lan Yan's dolls are.
00:10:31
They're supposed to protect their owner from spiritual harm
00:10:34
and they do seem to play an important role
00:10:36
in the culture of the Hmong or Miao people
00:10:38
which Lan Yan takes inspiration from.
00:10:40
I probably said that wrong. I'm sorry; I'm trying.
00:10:43
Now, the real question is
00:10:45
what do these little wicker dolls have to do with Dottore?
00:10:48
Well, Dottore has a lot of segments, or clones
00:10:51
which don't really seem to be much like Lan Yan's rattan dolls
00:10:54
on the surface, but they do have some weird commonalities.
00:10:57
For example, Lan Yan's dolls are made out of rattan
00:11:00
which is a vine-like species of palm tree
00:11:02
found throughout Southeast Asia
00:11:03
that's known in modern times for its widespread use
00:11:06
in wicker-woven furniture.
00:11:07
Now, note that I said vine-like,
because it's not technically a vine
00:11:11
it's a tree
00:11:12
which technically means that rattan dolls are wooden dolls.
00:11:16
And you know what else is a wooden doll?
00:11:18
Dottore's segments.
00:11:19
And we know this because the design of the segments
00:11:22
are based off of Wanderer,
and Wanderer is a mechanical puppet
00:11:25
that is made from the wood
of a silver tree, most likely Irminsul itself.
00:11:29
Ergo, Dottore's segments should follow the same principles.
00:11:33
And if Dottore's segments
00:11:34
follow the same principles as Wanderer's construction
00:11:37
that means they're also probably
mechanical the way Wanderer is.
00:11:40
Now, is this relevant? Yes!
00:11:42
Because rattan dolls and other similar effigies
00:11:45
are actually considered to be a type of golem.
00:11:48
And you know who made mechanical golems in Genshin?
00:11:50
Khaenri'ah did.
00:11:51
Those giant Ruin Guards in the desert
are straight up called golems
00:11:54
and Wanderer's mechanical body is actually
00:11:56
based off of Khaenri'ahn puppet technology.
00:11:59
Well, technically Remuria also had golems
00:12:01
but honestly that kinda just proves out my point
00:12:03
because Remurian golems were like brand new stone bodies
00:12:06
that the consciousnesses of Remurians
used as physical vessels.
00:12:09
So, it's not that far off from what's going on with Wanderer
00:12:12
which also means that he was originally a golem
00:12:15
which checks out, because I'm pretty sure Wanderer's design
00:12:18
is based off of a wooden kokeshi doll, or a Bunraku doll
00:12:22
since he was based off of Kabuki theater.
00:12:24
And Bunraku is basically Kabuki puppet theater
00:12:26
and they still have wooden skeletons and constructions
00:12:28
so it doesn't really matter. It's still a wooden doll.
00:12:31
So, if Lan Yan makes these little wooden spirit golems
00:12:34
to take the place of Hu Tao so she doesn't die
00:12:36
we have to consider the possibility
that Dottore's golem-like segments
00:12:39
may be able to perform a similar role.
00:12:42
That is not to say that they were
explicitly created for this role
00:12:45
but merely that they can also perform this role.
00:12:48
And, technically, we saw this sort of happen
00:12:50
when Dottore mixed a bunch of them
as part of his deal with Nahida.
00:12:54
They took the fall for him.
00:12:56
This case may actually apply to Wanderer
00:12:58
and his sister puppet in the Shogun as well
00:13:01
since Ei appears to have created both of them
00:13:03
with the intent for them to take her place.
00:13:06
And here's where it gets a little weird.
00:13:07
Sorry for the tangent; this is necessary.
00:13:09
Ei's original goal in making puppets like Wanderer
00:13:12
was to create a clone of herself so she could effectively die
00:13:15
leaving the puppet to take her place
00:13:16
and that's exactly what she did.
00:13:18
She made the Shogun puppet in her image
00:13:20
then placed her consciousness into a sword.
00:13:22
Wanderer was one
of the many prototypes for this exact process.
00:13:26
Ei releasing herself from her mortal body
00:13:28
and allowing herself to be replaced by a mechanical decoy
00:13:31
sounds quite a bit like the Daoist concept of Shijie
00:13:33
which roughly translates to "corpse release."
00:13:36
It's a daunting name, I know
00:13:38
but in practice, this is the art of ascending one's need
00:13:40
for their physical form, usually in pursuit of immortality.
00:13:43
The practice of Shijie is associated with Daoist Immortals
00:13:46
who began their journey as mortals.
00:13:48
They are also known as Adepts
00:13:50
just like the Eight Great Adepts
from the Lantern Rite quests.
00:13:54
The art of Shijie requires something to be offered
00:13:56
in the place of a corpse in order to achieve ascension
00:13:59
and discard the physical body.
00:14:00
In other words, one has to go through the motions of death
00:14:03
without actually dying
00:14:05
but they have to leave
something behind in the place of their corpse.
00:14:08
For example, an Adept may fake their own death
00:14:11
and place an effigy like a straw doll
00:14:12
or a sword inside the coffin where their body should be
00:14:15
before the coffin is buried.
00:14:17
It may be easier to think
of this process as a form of metamorphosis
00:14:21
and I mean that in terms of like a butterfly or a cicada.
00:14:24
When a cicada nymph casts off their exoskeleton
00:14:27
they leave behind their exuvia
00:14:29
and then they fly off into the sky with new found wings.
00:14:32
They ascend their previous body
00:14:35
and in the process, they leave something like a shell behind.
00:14:38
And yes, this is likely what Zhongli did
00:14:41
when he faked his death and left behind his exuvia
00:14:43
as a substitute for his own corpse.
00:14:45
Straw dolls and swords
are the most common substitutes used in Shijie
00:14:49
which matters here, because
Ei put her consciousness into a sword
00:14:53
and the web event variation of Lan Yan's rattan dolls
00:14:55
looked just like Daoist straw dolls
00:14:58
which, coincidentally, are only supposed to be made by Adepts.
00:15:02
Now, I do have to recognize that while they are similar
00:15:04
the straw dolls and the rattan dolls
00:15:07
do seem to have slightly different purposes.
00:15:09
Ei does illustrates this
perfectly because the Shogun puppet
00:15:12
functions as a rattan doll
00:15:14
a spiritual protector golem that acts in place of Ei
00:15:18
while the sword that Ei's consciousness went into
00:15:21
is more of her straw doll
00:15:23
the proxy or exuvia for her death.
00:15:25
Now, going through
the Shijie process mandates a complete name change
00:15:29
which is what we see with Wanderer as well.
00:15:31
This implies that Wanderer's original purpose
00:15:33
was that of a corpse substitute.
00:15:35
Now, whether he was made to take
the place of Ei or Makoto is debatable
00:15:38
but it is interesting because
Wanderer is considered to be dross;
00:15:43
in other words, discarded material, waste, detritus.
00:15:47
He's supposed to be the straw doll
00:15:49
the thing that gets cast aside or, like, the exuvia.
00:15:52
And in a roundabout way, that brings us back to Dottore
00:15:56
'cause, you see, one of the drawbacks of the Homa ritual
00:15:59
is that it removes the caster from the Ley Lines.
00:16:02
That's supposed to be the price
that's paid for performing the ritual.
00:16:05
But you know who else is removed from the Ley Lines currently?
00:16:09
Hilichurls.
00:16:10
And I know that doesn't
seem to have anything to do with Wanderer
00:16:13
the Shijie or Ei or Dottore, or even Hu Tao
00:16:17
until you realize that they have
everything to do with all of them.
00:16:21
Hilichurls were once
regular people who got cursed by Celestia.
00:16:24
Once stripped of their humanity
00:16:26
they are no longer accepted by the Ley Lines
00:16:28
and the Ley Lines are where the dead things go.
00:16:30
So, when Hilichurls feel that their end is approaching
00:16:33
they seek out a quiet dark place
00:16:35
and eventually they just melt away into goo.
00:16:39
And this goo is just waste material; it's dross or detritus.
00:16:44
In fact, you could argue that
the Hilichurls are the straw dolls
00:16:47
that are left behind
after the spirit has been extracted from the body.
00:16:50
They may in fact be
the perfect example of corpse release, or the Shijie.
00:16:55
And Dottore actually has an interest in this process.
00:16:59
Back when he was still known as Zandik
00:17:01
he once studied both Eleazar and Hilichurlification.
00:17:04
In fact, he was the one who figured out
00:17:06
that certain applications of Elemental Energy
00:17:08
could mitigate or potentially
eliminate the effects of Eleazar
00:17:11
which was caused by forbidden knowledge exposure
00:17:13
which is just Abyssal power.
00:17:15
And that kind of ties back to the whole theory
00:17:18
about the Phlogiston extraction lab in Natlan
00:17:20
likely belonging to the Doctor
00:17:21
because Phlogiston has the power to cleanse the Abyss.
00:17:25
And we can tie this back to Hu Tao as well
00:17:28
because as she neared death, her fingers began to turn black.
00:17:32
Now, apart from the blackened limbs of the average Hilichurl
00:17:35
this trait is one that's shared
only by Arlecchino and Caterpillar.
00:17:39
Now, Caterpillar was made from the detritus
00:17:41
that was left over from
Jakob's attempts of resurrecting Rene
00:17:45
and Cater’s true form is literally that of a Hilichurl.
00:17:49
So, he was once a dead guy, now a Hilichurl.
00:17:53
Arlecchino, on the other hand
00:17:54
has some kind of cursed fire running through her veins
00:17:57
which eats away at her life force
which results in the singed limbs
00:18:00
that will eventually kill her if it ever reaches her heart.
00:18:03
Now, I guess, technically,
this trait is also kind of shared by Signora
00:18:07
since her life force was also being burned away
00:18:08
by a kind of liquid fire in her veins
00:18:10
but that's not really important for right now.
00:18:12
But what is important is that Dottore
00:18:14
studied the cursed fire in Arlecchino's blood
00:18:17
and used it to develop
a method to burn away someone's memories
00:18:20
resulting in the death of their previous identities.
00:18:23
And once upon a time, Dottore tried to study
00:18:26
the Aranara’s powers over dreams
00:18:27
in order to heighten cognitive capabilities
00:18:30
and I can't help but wonder if his interest
00:18:32
in the unique properties of Arlecchino's blood
00:18:34
was related to that pursuit.
00:18:36
Also worth mentioning that Arlecchino is Khaenri'ahn.
00:18:39
And if we look to other
Khaenri'ahn like Dainsleif or Capitano
00:18:43
we'll notice that they have a sort of blackened rot
00:18:45
in a similar vein to Arlecchino's
00:18:47
as a result of the curse of the God of Death.
00:18:49
Now, we can actually see this rot on Dainsleif
00:18:52
and weirdly enough, his rot has fractures on it
00:18:55
that resemble the ones that we see on the infected Tao Dou.
00:18:59
Now, Tao Dou was originally both a tree and a god
00:19:02
and as I've mentioned already, they served as a gatekeeper
00:19:05
or the actual border between
the realms of the living and the dead.
00:19:08
And when you think about it,
that's also kind of what Irminsul is.
00:19:12
It's a tree that borders the realm of the living and the dead
00:19:15
because Teyvat is the land of the living
00:19:17
and the Ley Lines are the realm of the dead
00:19:19
which is a safe assumption anyway
00:19:21
based on the properties of Natlan's Night Kingdoms
00:19:23
which are made from Ley Lines.
00:19:24
And now we have to wonder
if Irminsul was ever a god at one point
00:19:29
and I don't mean like
Rukkhadevata, but a totally different god.
00:19:32
“Legend of the Shattered Halberd”
00:19:34
not only seems to take place in Khaenri'ah
00:19:36
but also implies that Irminsul was indeed a god at one point
00:19:40
but it's also a fictional book
and not the most reliable source.
00:19:43
However, we do have two other examples of trees
00:19:46
that were once similar beings to gods.
00:19:49
So, there's this tree in Liyue
which is technically Azhdaha's tail
00:19:53
and Azhdaha was likely a Dragon Sovereign
00:19:56
which is kind of funny to me
because the demon name of Tao Dou is Bune
00:20:00
who is described in the Lesser Key of Solomon
00:20:02
as a three-headed dragon.
00:20:04
You know who else shows up as a three-headed dragon?
00:20:07
Durin. At least he does in Simulanka
00:20:09
which is a funny coincidence
00:20:10
because his real dead body in Teyvat is in Dragonspine
00:20:14
and his blood was soaked up by the silver tree
00:20:17
which allowed it to gain sentience
00:20:18
and also sprout fiery butterflies on its branches
00:20:21
that really remind me of who Hu Tao’s fiery butterflies.
00:20:24
Now, Durin is supposed to have
00:20:26
a pretty strong relationship with Wanderer
00:20:28
who is a mechanical Khaenri'ahn puppet.
00:20:29
And this is rather odd because, in Natlan, we got to meet Ixlel
00:20:33
who seems to be an AI life-form
capable of taking on any physical form
00:20:37
and she's also a dragon.
00:20:39
So, she's a dragon that's been able to cast off her physical form
00:20:43
and just exist as a consciousness.
00:20:45
It's like she's already done her corpse release ritual
00:20:48
and merely requires a substitute vessel
00:20:50
within which to manifest whenever she wants to
00:20:53
which made me wonder if
the mechanical puppet technology in Khaenri'ah
00:20:56
was actually based on draconic technology.
00:20:59
And what makes this even stranger is that
00:21:01
we know that dragon technology in general
00:21:04
(which is also known as Secret Source technology)
00:21:06
comes from the moon which is worshiped in Nod-Krai
00:21:10
which is also Dottore’s base of operations currently
00:21:13
and the people there are said
to be able to use a mysterious power
00:21:16
that predates the elements.
00:21:18
And I'm pretty sure that this power
00:21:19
should be related to the Secret Source technology
00:21:21
because the Secret Source technology and the moons
00:21:24
are two of the things that
should predate the elemental system.
00:21:28
And do you know what symbol is associated
00:21:30
with the Secret Source Mechanisms the most?
00:21:32
The Homa symbol.
00:21:34
With all this information in hand
00:21:36
let me explain why I think Dottore
00:21:38
is actually trying to perform a Homa ritual on Irminsul.
00:21:42
There have been a few instances in the game
00:21:44
where we've heard the line, "In war, the winners burn bright
00:21:48
while the losers turn to ash"
00:21:50
or some variation thereof.
00:21:51
We hear it first from Apep in relation to the dragon's loss
00:21:54
against the Heavenly Principles
00:21:56
and we hear it again in Natlan
00:21:58
when speaking of the fight between humans and the Abyss.
00:22:01
And I've been wondering
00:22:03
if this too is a reference to the Homa ritual.
00:22:06
'Cause, remember, the purpose of Homa
00:22:09
in Genshin is to cleanse filth
00:22:11
or, rather, to burn away the unwanted
00:22:13
or the undesirable.
00:22:15
And I've been thinking that when it comes to war within Teyvat
00:22:18
the Homa ritual might be the thing that's performed
00:22:20
by the victors who have earned the right to choose
00:22:23
which aspects of the world they wish to discard and burn away
00:22:27
so they can create new things from the ashes.
00:22:30
And that idea makes me think about how Khaenri'ah
00:22:33
was burned to ashes by Celestia
00:22:35
and how in Travail, Dainsleif says
00:22:37
"Some say a few are chosen and the rest are dregs"
00:22:40
in reference to the people of his homeland.
00:22:43
Celestia must've decided that Khaenri'ah was just detritus
00:22:46
and set them off to burn in a Homa ritual
00:22:48
which is quite interesting because the book "Perinheri"
00:22:51
(which is related to Arlecchino)
00:22:53
implies that in order to enter Khaenri'ah
00:22:55
you have to pass through a chimney filled with ashes
00:22:58
and declare that you are dead.
00:23:00
So, even here, the idea of the "dregs" being related
00:23:03
to dead matter that needs to be burned away persists.
00:23:06
And everything that we know about the Tsaritsa and Pierro
00:23:09
points to a desire for war between the Fatui and Celestia
00:23:13
and the Fatui intend to win.
00:23:16
The Shivada Gemstone has lines from the Tsaritsa
00:23:18
where she asks someone to burn away
00:23:20
the old world for her.
00:23:22
And Pierro makes reference to the creation of a new world
00:23:24
in "Winter Night's Lazzo."
00:23:26
Considering the fact that Irminsul is the World Tree
00:23:28
and Dottore is the one burning it
00:23:30
then it's reasonable to assume that the Doctor would
00:23:32
be cleansing the world of all of Pierro and the Tsaritsa's
00:23:36
dislikes via a Homa ritual
00:23:38
with any potential backlash being distributed amongst
00:23:40
his segments, just like Hu Tao's rattan dolls.
00:23:44
Now, again, I am not saying that Dottore is suddenly gonna
00:23:46
become a good guy because he's cleansing the world
00:23:49
of all its filth or anything.
00:23:50
On the contrary, he calls this "an experiment in blasphemy"
00:23:54
which means he lacks reverence for the powers of the divine.
00:23:58
And by performing this ritual, he's basically mocking
00:24:01
the powers of gods rather than paying respect to them
00:24:04
in the way that Hu Tao does
00:24:05
because Dottore wants to elevate humans to the level of gods.
00:24:09
Executing the Homa ritual in this way
00:24:11
is like declaring victory in war
00:24:13
regardless of whether or not a war even occurred.
00:24:16
He's kind of T-posing for dominance here.
00:24:19
But the scary thing about this idea
00:24:21
is that if Dottore is the one that performs the Homa ritual
00:24:24
then he's also the one who decides what gets burned.
00:24:27
And I also think that in spite of all these
00:24:30
crazy connections that I've laid out today
00:24:32
this burning of the tree may never actually come to pass
00:24:36
at least not in full.
00:24:37
For all this talk of burning, we have to remember
00:24:39
that there is one very important character who will not
00:24:42
allow the burning of the world to continue
00:24:45
and that person is the Traveler.
00:24:47
In their profile card, it even says:
00:24:50
"But the world shall burn no more
00:24:52
because you shall ascend" to the seat of God.
00:24:56
So, what do you think?
00:24:57
Is this the Doctor's plan
00:24:59
or am I just seeing patterns where there are none?
00:25:01
I could actually be convinced either way
00:25:02
so let me know down below.
00:25:04
And regardless of which opinion you're partial to, I do hope
00:25:06
you at least enjoyed the last 25 minutes or so of this video
00:25:09
and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!
00:25:11
Thank you all so much for watching.
00:25:12
This is Ashikai, signing out.
