Where are the Heavenly Principles [Genshin Impact Lore Theory]

Genshin at release: cute anime game Genshin now: Cosmic horror

"Hm, Traveler, Neuvi and Capitano know about me, I BETTER KEEP MYSELF UP IN THIS CELESTIAL PLANE, OR I'M FINISHED"

Heavenly Principles on Burst cooldown

Heavenly principles reveal trailer is gonna top every trailer in genshin even the harbingers and zhongli’s trailer

I’m sticking to the idea of Paimon being a Guoba-fied version of Istaroth. We find her next to the shore near the nameless island of Istaroth. She has an upside-down triquetra symbol on her chest, which is only found on the temple of the thousand winds. (All the other ones are right side up iirc). She probably has some inkling of who she is but is afraid of what we’ll think if we find out. And 3.4 Paimon finishing Venti’s line about seeds of stories being brought by the wind and cultivated by time is a HARDCORE TELL. That was the most blatant hint so far. She has never read that line before. And it PREDATES VENTI. Because you can find an older version of the poem on the nameless island. Something like “Stories brought by the wind will turn into legends in due time.” And her having “rainbow strings that reach up above the sky” probably refers to her link to the primordial one. Since Istaroth is a shade of the primordial one.

"That throne in the sky is not reserved for you." - Dainsleif "The keeper is fading away; the creator has not yet come. But the world shall burn no more, for you shall ascend." - Character details "The world you once knew is but dust, and the wonders you knew but rubble. Though you should have your own world, and your own people — lamenting what is already lost..." - K.K The Heavenly Principles choosing the traveler as a successor could be one of their plan. Paimon's programmed but unknown task could be to take the traveler to Celestia cuz of all her celestial motives she shares with the statues of the seven and everything related to celestia (divine nails), and that one melusine's description of paimon of a balloon tied to the sky despite their warped vision of the world Since they weakened after the cataclysm, they had to cut ties with Teyvat for a while to fully recover (a star-beast literally breached the firmament and started consuming the primordial sea energy for example, why would they not intervene if this was a threat to the entirety of Teyvat?) they could look for someone to watch over the world. If an alien was able to subdue the original order but not completly...only another alien will be able to do the same or greater. Crack theory incoming : But since they know everyone's fate, maybe they know another catastrophe is about to happen and they have to choose someone powerful enough (another Descender) and fast by the time they recover, bcz they wont be able to intervene again after losing too much power 500 years ago. Maybe the sibling is trying to overthrow celestia because they dont want us (the traveler) to become a slave that has to look over a foreign world for the thousands of years to come, and especially when they told us we'll understand at the end of our journey the meaning of all this. Is the traveler even going back home with our sibling...or are we staying... It's even weirder because of the fact that it was Khaenriah that summoned the travelers...not Celestia..or they "helped" them a bit on purpose without anyone knowing

In the French version of traveler character detail, it roughly the same as the English one but the rather than saying ''the creator has not yet to come'' it goes like ''the one who can save her have yet to appear''. Her refering at the keeper

My personal belief is they've been so blown away by the audacity of everything going on they've just gone "aight fair enough" and are leaving them alone out of respect for the gambit

I think the Sustainer is on vacation. Jokes aside, most likely she's either fighting something else or she already spent all her power, and until Celestia gets more allogene juice she's out of commission.

Given they the principles are asleep as confirmed by nahida, and the gamble she pulled worked. The heavenly principles may be like venti and only awaken when something world shattering happens or someone is directly challenging celestia itself. The last time they awoke was the cataclysm but they appeared late, after significant damage would've already been done to the world. Not the greatest idea but an interesting one

Would be crazy to find out time is in a loop and the two travelers are like the first two. Destined to destroy the world until celestia has to step it to save it. I believe this is a bigger version of how the sumeru archon quest is. Destined to happen again and again until the descenders wise up to it also kinda fits your fourth theory

I think I'm starting to suspect that the "Heavenly Principles" is not a single being but an organization, with the Sustainer (Azmoday) having been it's member. As Neuvilette's allegory suggests, the organization may have been running even if the "principles" they were based on, The Primordial One, may have been long gone, perhaps going so far as to suspect that Azmoday was it's last functioning member. Whatever happened to her during the Cataclysm either killed her or made her unable to function further. If she had any underlings then they are now what's left, perhaps being completely unable to influence Teyvat's current events, thus appearing "silent".

The CN version heavily implies she's dead or dying, which supports Theory 1. It's in the Traveler's Lore 1, but the English version screwed it up. EN Version: "The keeper is fading away; the creator has not yet come. But the world shall burn no more, for you shall ascend." CN version, makes it abundantly clear that the "keeper" it's talking about is the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles: "The sustainer is passing away; the creator has not yet come. But the world shall burn no more, for you shall ascend to the seat of "the god."" If she is alive, she's probable not in the best physical condition. Or she's already gone. It's unclear... But rhe Archons seem to not be aware that she's on her deathbed.

They are likely in a state of hibernation to recover from injuries sustained during the war with the Second Who Came, and will only move if something on par or worse than the Cataclysm happens.

Are the Heavenly Principles even an entity ? Or just a vague concept ? And are they above/prior to the Primordial one ?

I love how its just like “PROPHECY, FATUI, INAZUMA DEGREES, but worse of all ZONGLI’S RETIREMENT

I could see Venti having awakened the traveler because he felt the changes coming

Hmm.... maybe the Hexenzirkle Witches were the ones keeping them quiet and distracted from everything going on in Teyvat. But nah, we know Alice is strong enough to just leave Teyvat as she wishes, but why would they care about the Heavenly Principles after all this time😂

Ever since the latest AQ i'm only thinking "How do the Heavenly principles just don't care about that" I can't imagine it being such a little problem that the authority of the hydro archon was given back to the hydro dragon, Focalors killed herself and that there are no more the seven but the six. Plus Neuvillette as a fully fledged dragon now gained even more power now and wants to "punish" the Usurper with this power. But i guess Genshins gonna be Genshin and nothing will actually happen even after Focalors deceived the heavenly principles and "shook the rules established by celestia" which would for me be a huge signal that shit is going to go down soon enough and not that we're happily living on our lives, recording movies and celebrate festivals. I don't know.. Heres hoping 4.6 will deliver on that.

To add to the 4th theory, it's important to note that the Traveler is quite literally cleansing the land too, in a way more peaceful manner that what the HP ever did. I've always found that quite interesting tbh; the Traveler goes around not only helping people and different species, but also cleansing the land from its corruption, dealing with “bad” groups, helping the Archons themselves and, in the last Archon Quest, even fighting off an Invader from beyond the firmament just as the Traveler themselves are. Just as you said, the Traveler's awakening seems way too perfect to be a coincidence, and the Traveler's journey seems like a test to see if they're up to the requirements to be the new Heavenly Principles; down to quite possibly having to confront their own sibling to avoid Teyvat's destruction and the god's deaths.