[3.4] The Lore of Lantern Rite - Genshin Impact Speculation

*NOTES & CORRECTIONS* - Many of you pointed out that Cloud Retainer actually built a trebuchet and not a loom. It still looks way more like a loom to me, but the trebuchet WOULD make way more sense. Still looks like a loom... - A lot of people keep asking why I didn't mention Ningguang in this video. The argument seems to be that she is full of phoenix and star references and while that is somewhat true, I removed her from the script because I thought she confused the main points in the video more than she assisted. For example, the tattoo on her leg isn't a phoenix (like many assume), but it seems to be a red squiggly. If this is some kind of phoenix symbol, I'd love a source for it because I can't see it personally. She does however have a phoenix on her namecard and her jade screen, but I don't think it actually has anything to do with HER so much as it does her STATUS. Looking at Ningguang's constellations and kit, you'll see she's full of Star references, but rather than say she's referring to starDUST, it's better to say it's a reference to the Qixing since the Chinese name for the office is "Seven Stars of Liyue." By the same token, the phoenix appears to be a symbol of nobility, therefore status - something she covets. Apart from these two small things (and I guess the fact she can use Memory of Dust?) she doesn't have much thematically in common with Guizhong so I decided to leave her out in the interest of time and focus. There's also the whole "Ningguang is a reincarnation of Guizhong" theory which was and still is EXTREMELY popular, and I didn't want to address that can of worms at all. - The comments made about Hu Tao and Venti's involvement in the quest are just my opinion about how they FELT to me, not necessarily a reflection on the importance of the role they played in the quest.

I did feel the same with Venti feeling like an afterthought, but he wasn’t really. The whole plot was set in motion by him. It’s a reminder that he’s always there in the background. Also, that awkward comedy at the end was gold. Poor Xiao trying to pretend that the two most important archons for him are just guys he just met.

Holy crap the theory that the rite of parting was actually for Guizhong and not Rex Lapis sounds so solid and it blows my mind 🤯

Guizhong's dress being similar to Lumine's could lend credence to the "Twins are Ancient Teyvatians" theory. Because the Traveler's clothing is supposed to be strange and foreign. So maybe it's less like someone walking around in a spacesuit, and more like someone walking around in a toga; it's so far out of fashion that it's bizarre to see it in the modern day. Guizhong was interested in Ancient Khanreiah, so maybe she picked up on more than just their technology.

I get the feeling that sandrone has multiple puppet bodies resembling dead gods/people from the past that she uses. It's a common anime troupe of an antagonist who can shape shift into someone beloved to throw off the protagonist emotionally. (Envy from FMA, Sasori from Naruto etc.) It's right up genshin's alley to use that concept later.

Madam Ping is a Koi. Her adeptus title is Streetward Babbler (Koi often in trafficked areas, and always moving their mouths to look like they are talking), Koi are part of the carp family, come in a variety of colors, and Madam Ping is usually located near the Assembly Hall and it's many decorative ponds filled with fish and flowers, and surrounded by both silk flowers and glaze liliies

Zhongli and Guizhong being similar to Lumine and Aether just makes me believe in the theory that one of the twins will die even more. Like, Nahida-Rhukkadevata, Ei-Shogun,.... One of the two ceased to exist in all the cases. (I'm on crack theory without actual braincells).

The eerie part is that we also ended up fixing the Guizhong Ballista during the Rite of Parting even though it wasn't Zhongli who led us there.

The more I think about Guizhong and the dumbbell and the circumstances of her death, the more I get the impression that she may share the same fate as Orabashi. It's not too hard of a stretch to think that she, one of the most intelligent beings in Teyvat, stumbled across some sort of Celestial secret and made an enemy of them. Plus the implications of Zhongli being made to end her in the same vein as Ei putting down Orabashi are just heartbreaking.

although i agree that venti and hutao would have their own highlighted quests, I saw the little dinner hutao threw up to her friends kinda like a parallel to how guizhong threw dinner to her friends the whole time and she was the soul of the party, kinda like hutao was on the event, and it makes more cute how zhongli likes hutao maybe because she resemble his old friend 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Cuijue Slope being a memorial to Guizhong is very interesting— "Cuijue" literally means "jadeite ring", with the "jue" type of ring specifically referencing a pennanular ring (ring with a notch) from China that carries various important symbolic meanings: 1, of decision-making, resolution, and perhaps by extension a promise or contract; 2, of separation and leaving because of the notch symbolising incompleteness; 3, of educated, gentlemanlike wisdom. These all sound suspiciously related to Guizhong. In particular "separation and leaving", given that her name literally means "return to the end" or "leaving".

Finally something about Cuijue Slope that placed freaked me out and it saddened me that nobody talks about it

about the stone dumbbell: i wonder if it's a case like nabu malikata and king deshret, where guizhong knew forbidden knowledge and by opening the dumbbell, zhongli would acquire it as well. maybe she had counter measures for the divine retribution that would come, and thus told zhongli to forget about it upon her death so that he doesn't unintentionally cause liyue to be nuked? or perhaps she was expecting zhongli to take so long to open it that the heavenly principles wouldn't care lmao (this is all a bit of a reach btw, I'm just drawing parallels since it's curious the stories are so similar) that does lead me to wonder if her death during the archon war was planned much like orobaxi's or nabu malikata's. i do find it sus that most of the gods that likely had knowledge or ties to the ancient civilization seem to have died during or before the archon war.

In honkai, the herrscher of earth transforms into the herrscher of stars. Kind of fun connection to zhongli and guizhong if your stardust theory is correct

I just assumed that the Yakshas successfully contained the Guizhong fallout. Crazy to think that the Cuijue Slope might be it. And to think we were concerned that we were like unleashing some terrible disaster by unlocking the tomb (which reminds me, doesn't it also contain Khaenrian machines?) The Lantern Rite this year finally clarified how much the adepti knew about Morax's identity as Zhongli! It's funny that they knew Morax has a human form and even what it looks like and the clothes that only he can wear but Zhongli hid himself well enough.

About Seelies being angels. I don't know how much of a stretch this would be, but the Hypostasis cubes have angelic names, right? And there's also that one theory that Susty keeps literal souls encased in her cubes. So...what if the Hypostases are just Seelies trapped in cubes, for a reason we don't know yet? And of the souls trapped in Susty's cubes. They might not be human souls, but the souls of the Seelie Court. This is assuming that the Sustainer's not actually malicious, but just doing her job to "save" the Seelie from total annihilation.

Honestly this actually puts more depht to the liyue archon quest, specially on the reactions of the adepti to us delivering the news. They knew it but because we were mere strangers then, there was no reason for them to be open to us about it. It's a fascinating thought honestly

To add on to the cast of characters with a starry cape, Tartaglia in his foul legacy transformation also have a starry cape

One thing I find really interesting is that every archon seems to have a counterpart. Venti and Istaroth, Zhongli and Guizhong, Raiden and Makoto, Nahida and GLR (or Scaramouche, now).

Your theory about the Cuijue Slope makes so much sense. I always wondered why the sky became so dark there. And the music is so ominous, somber and oppressive, it makes sense for a place where a god died. The 9 pillars are probably there to prevent the pollution from her death to spread and the area becoming corrupted like the Tatarasuna.