The Adepti are lauded as a powerful race of immortal beings capable of bending the elements to their will without the need for any external foci unlike humans, who can only do such things with the assistance of a Vision. But if Adepti don't need a Vision then why do all of the playable ones have them? Now, you can try to argue that these are just fake Visions that they wear in human form
so they can blend in with the common folk. But we know for a fact that Xiao's Vision, at least, is real. The same should be true of Xianyun because the only two exceptions
to the Starsplinter Vision test in the whole game are Zhongli and Venti who both confirm that their Visions are not real. For contrast, Xianyun's
Character Stories identify her Vision as real so I have no reason to doubt her. So, I ask you once again if they don't need them, why do these Adepti have Visions? Well, in this video, I aim to find out. We're gonna define what an Adeptus is, where they come from the true nature behind their abilities,
and how that relates to Visions. So, alright guys, you know the drill. Spoiler warning, citations, and links for further reading are available in the description box while updated information and corrections can be found in the pinned comment. Now, sit back, relax and get ready to be blindsided by a million little details that have been hiding
in plain sight since the start of the game that didn't really feel impactful until now but still point to an answer that's so obvious that I... I don't know whether to feel
impressed at all the foreshadowing or just really stupid for missing it all for so long. You can be the judge. Ok, so, the first thing I wanna do
is take this moniker of "Adeptus" and shove it directly into a woodchipper. Like, seriously, just forget this word even exists. But maybe wait until after this video is over because we kind of need
to establish a replacement term first. Now, practically speaking Adeptus is simply a title given
to the immortal followers of Rex Lapis. But we're not really concerned
so much with their political leanings as we are their, uh... species, I guess. And the species is not really
limited to the service of Rex Lapis or even the borders of Liyue. See, in the original Chinese text what we know of as Adepti,
as well as similar races like the Kitsune are referred to explicitly as the xian which is a type of immortal mythical being from Taoism best known in popular culture
for their role in xianxia novels which is kind of like Chinese high fantasy. Xian come in a variety of flavors,
categorized by rank and type. Basically, the only qualifier
for one to be a xian is to be immortal. So, a xian can be born a deity, AKA a celestial immortal or they can evolve
from an earthly life-form like humans, magical beasts or even plants that practice the art of cultivation or who obtain immortality through other means like slowly accruing chi over time or, you know, dying and taking on an undead state like a ghost or a zombie. 'Cause like, immortality is the only qualification. The methods don't exactly matter. But basically, the one thing that the xian have in common is that they possess some sort of immortality either inherently via their method of birth or through a process called cultivation. This actually explains why we have contradictory accounts of where the Adepti in Genshin come from. See, Xianyun's Character Stories say that they manifest directly from the elements themselves. But we also have some instances,
like in the case of Fujin and Yuandai where they don't manifest from the elements and instead start their lives as regular animals that later ascend into Adepti. The former is a natural-born xian the latter is a cultivated xian. Both possess immortality
and therefore can be categorized as xian. The difference is the method that they use to get there which in Genshin, at least,
should determine their power levels for lack of a better term. This is probably why Fujin thinks of herself as a lesser type of being than the followers of Rex Lapis since those Adepti, or xian, are likely those who manifested from the elements directly or who received their illumination from Rex Lapis himself. Illumination, in this case refers to the completion of the cultivation process. And uh... we'll talk about this more in the next section. Cultivation is the crux of the xianxia genre. At its most basic, cultivation
is a process of training and study with the ultimate goal of achieving immortality. But along the way, it's probably
gonna net you a ton of different powers like super strength or shape-shifting. Yuandai is a perfect example of an animal who did not complete her cultivation and therefore could not do even a simple thing like take a human shape on her own whereas Fujin is an example of someone who did complete their cultivation and got a whole mess of really cool powers along the way. And just so we're clear,
the only qualifier for the title of xian is the possession of immortality. It doesn't really matter how they got it. If you're not immortal, then you're not a xian no matter how powerful you are. Now, those who pursue immortality and the title of xian are known as cultivators because cultivation is
the only proper way to achieve immortality. But not just anyone can become a cultivator; one must possess an innate talent, or root in order to be able to go through the cultivation properly. And yes, we're gonna talk about this more later. I've mostly been using examples from Liyue but Genshin has actually extended the definition to include every magical being within the game that possesses some form of immortality which is pretty fitting, since immortality is the only qualifier for the title of xian. For example, Yae Miko refers
to herself expressly as a fox-xian which means that all Kitsune are xian as well. And most of the other beings classified as Youkai are also considered xian. This includes, but is not limited to,
the Tanuki, the Tengu, the Oni the Nekomata, and the Inugami. Outside of Inazuma and Liyue there are far less examples of beast-based xian but the Tighnarians of Sumeru and the Kätzlein of Mondstadt likely qualified for one point in time before they intermixed with humans
and thinned out their bloodline. This does mean that one can inherit a talent for cultivation from their parents, which explains
the likes of Ganyu, Yanfei, Itto and so on, since their bloodlines are xian mixed with human. Which is not to say that humans can't become a xian, too. In fact, it appears as though the talent for cultivation can be identified by whether or not you possess a Vision. Now, this might seem to run counter to what we know about how Visions are granted right now. As we understand it currently,
when someone's wishes reach the heavens an Archon bestows that person
with a fragment of their mastery. But when you think about it a little bit more this isn't really any different from
how Rex Lapis has been described as bestowing illumination upon his Adepti. But to understand why I say this we need to understand the mechanics of cultivation in Genshin just a little bit better. Okay, so typically in xianxia cultivation is the process of collecting and refining one's chi or energy. This can be done through
intense martial arts training, meditation near-death experiences,
the acquisition or pursuit of knowledge or new experiences, or even through the likes of alchemy like in the case of immortality pills. A related example of that last one
would be the human mimicry pills made from Xianyun's blood that were given to Yuandai. These pills granted her the ability
to take a human shape for a while by relying on Xianyun's power that was derived from her blood. Now, in Genshin, we don't really have chi but we do have elemental energy and the two share a lot of similarities. Elemental energy in Genshin
is primarily stored within the Ley Lines and Ley Lines are equated with
the Chinese concept of longmai or dimai which are basically
underground channels of chi in the earth also known as earth veins which is actually what Ley Lines are called in Chinese. They're also called dragon veins, which makes total sense because dragons are elemental beings by nature and the primordial species of Teyvat implying that the Ley Lines belonged to them, originally. Now, this makes elemental energy the perfect replacement for chi in Genshin when it comes to cultivation. And we know that every person in Genshin has a different level of elemental affinity which can probably be likened to that innate talent that cultivation requires. The thing is, among humans, Vision wielders have the highest level of elemental affinity which should indicate that they have the best talent required for cultivation. So, we've established that the process of cultivation is the refinement and collection
of chi or elemental energy, right? Well, over time, this chi is supposed to build up and it undergoes some sort of transmutation within the body that creates something known as a core, or a jindan. This process is called internal alchemy and has a similar goal to western alchemy in that the goal is to attain a sort of philosopher's stone as both the philosopher’s stone
and a core grant immortality. Interestingly, the Chinese character translated into core also means cinnabar which is relevant because the process for creating a philosopher’s stone
typically has four stages: nigredo, which is black albedo, which is white citrinitas, which is yellow and rubedo, which is red and also the final stage. And cinnabar is red, therefore representing the final stage. Genshin likes to swap around the last two stages of alchemy so citrinitas is last, and I always thought that this was because they just
wanted to put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the color gold,
thematically, within Genshin but I think that's only part of the reason. As it turns out, xianxia novels
tend to portray this cultivation core as a golden orb, or perhaps a golden pearl. This makes me wonder if they switched citrinitas and rubedo because they wanted to emphasize a sort of... pinnacle of spiritual alchemy. They receive their own personal philosopher's stone which is their immortality. This is also why the cores are also known as golden cores or golden elixirs, but here's the thing: in Genshin, this process
of cultivating and refining one's chi sounds a lot like the accumulation of elemental energy within the body which would
then crystallize into some kind of core which should be the thing we refer to as "illumination" like the illuminated beasts. Now, Xiao's Character Story claims that this illumination is considered a sort of third eye which is then also explicitly stated to be a Vision, like, literally. And in Chinese, Visions are considered the eye of god so making that a third eye makes sense, right? But it also says that Xiao doesn't know when he received his Vision, but... if the Vision is a sign of his illumination then maybe we should consider the possibility that he got it at the moment he awoke as a xian. But if you look back at older cutscenes, you might notice that back when he was hanging out with the other Yaksha he wasn't wearing a Vision, so here's where things get weird. Now, a while back I made a theory... well, two theories arguing that Visions
are the same type of item as a dragon's pearl. There's a link in the description
if you want to see that whole theory. But what I didn't realize when I made those theories is that the evolutionary line of dragons actually mirrors that of the xian. For example, some xian are born directly of the elements in their complete, ascended form. This same can actually be said of dragons. I mean, Dvalin's birth is described in exactly these terms. It says he manifested directly from the elements. And we can then postulate that this trait is something that might be shared amongst all of the dragons of the sovereign variety. Now, other xian start off as lowly beasts which then gain sentience and then accumulate elemental energy within their bodies over time through cultivation which results in their illumination which should manifest as a core, or perhaps a Vision. In fact, we can see that this is a real view that's held by the people of Teyvat. As a footnote, within "Breeze Amidst the Forest," volume one it says that creatures born of the elements either descend and become a slime (which do not have cores) or ascend and become a crystal fly (which do have cores). And crystal fly cores use the same character as a beast core. More on this in a second, but it supports the idea that both dragons and crystal flies are beings born of the elements with a core. And following that same logic Vishaps mostly start off as hatchlings but according to Juvenile Jade, these hatchlings are born with a small crystal within them which then gather elemental energy over time which forms a stronger core which eventually replaces their entire heart, and that's
when they can become a true dragon. And that is weirdly coincidental because when a xian dies in Genshin they leave behind a crystal heart. I also find this connection really funny because Ley Lines are also called dragon veins
and function as the roots of Irminsul and we fill crystal fly cores with resin which is basically magic tree blood. And it's also funny because these
are technically crystal butterflies who are known to drink blood —it's called mud-puddling— and Changsheng has butterflies
that keep her magic tree healthy in her little cave in Chenyu Vale. So I kinda smell a dragon tree going here but I'm gonna stop before I get too distracted. But there is a core difference between the xian cores and the dragon cores: dragon are always born with a core and sometimes it needs to be nourished over time and sometimes it comes out fully formed. But the xian are born either with a complete core or they start off with no core at all and have to create one from absolutely nothing. Now, luckily for us, there are two types of cores in xianxia: those of the cultivators and those of the beasts and they possess the exact, same differences, actually. xian have cultivator cores while beasts and demons have beast cores which match the dragon since both are born with a core and it gains power over time. Now, let me rewind a little bit and talk about why it actually matters that a dragon's core is likened to its heart. And it's because the heart is what pumps blood throughout the body and the core contains the most of the body's essence which is also called blood essence or lifeblood. Now, this matters because one can consume a core to accelerate cultivation
or absorb the power of the core's owner. —at one's own peril, of course. This is not the proper way to do cultivation and, uh, it leads to, uh, a lot of problematic things. 'Cause, you see, the blood of a xian can be refined into pills that produce similar effects to cultivation but if you don't have the talent for cultivation ya might not actually survive this process. And if you do have the talent, you, uh- you might experience some undesirable changes in your body. Xianyun's Story Quest actually is a pretty good example of someone who has an innate talent for cultivation who also ingested the blood of a xian and experienced some detrimental side effects. This is when Yuandai ingested the pills that Xianyun made from her own blood which gave Yuandai
the temporary ability to take a human shape by essentially borrowing Xianyun's powers. But if she abused them, like,
if she stayed in human shape for too long then she had to suffer the consequences which were basically losing
all of her natural cultivation progress and having to restart from zero. And, of course, also losing all of her memories in the process. But this took place over 50 years. It wasn't quick which stands in sharp contrast to the similar thing that happened with Jialiang in Baizhu's Story Quest. Jialiang likely had no innate talent for cultivation but he was being micro-dosed on the blood of the Chi (which was some kind of draconic being) and he was also undergoing
a bunch of different kind of side effects like delusions, and hallucinations and the loss of memory, and that kind of stuff. But it also came on kinda quick. Incidentally, the same issue
with cognition and hallucinations happens with Delusions, too which does make sense when you think about it because those Delusions are made with Crystal Marrow which should be crystallized blood since bone marrow is where the blood gets made. This also suggests that a god's resentment, or lack of life has no real bearing on the side effects
of these blood-related processes since Xianyun is neither dead nor resentful and her blood still gave the same type of side effects albeit a lot more mild and gradual. It's therefore logical to assume that the side effects are actually dictated by how much talent for cultivation (or perhaps elemental affinity) the recipient actually has. If they have none,
then the side effects will be swift and severe but if they have little then the side effects will be more delayed and milder. In fact, this idea is actually supported by Baizhu's prototype elixir of immortality. He basically created this medicine
based on the work that Jiangli did with the congealed god-blood-poison-medicine thing that she gave her husband as well as his studies on
an adeptal art that he was trying to imitate. And that adeptal art should be the same one that turned Qiqi into a zombie. See, Qiqi was granted her Vision in the last moment of her life and the Adepti who witnessed the event even considered this a legitimate form of illumination and proceeded to save her life using an adeptal art. Now, I would like to propose that this art involved ingesting the blood of the Adeptus because she went berserk afterwards,
but did manage to recover eventually coming to exist
in a suspended state between life and death that ruined her memory which is incidentally a symptom of blood ingestion. But the kicker here is that this makes her a zombie an immortal, so Qiqi is technically a xian because, again, the only
qualification for a xian is to be immortal. And we know that Baizhu's been studying Qiqi for ages just trying to figure out how her immortality works. And that is what he based his prototype elixir on. And we know this because Jialiang took the elixir and then became a zombie; same as Qiqi, but with far less side effects and also questionable effectiveness probably because there's little to no blood in it. In a way though, Baizhu's
immortality elixir is forcing cultivation on those with no talent, and that is interesting because, if you think about it, that's kind of what Delusions do and also what ingesting god blood does. It's forced cultivation. Incidentally, Baizhu's elixir utilizes Mist Grass which, by the way, we've never actually seen in-game. All we know about it is that
Cicin Mages use it to attract the Cicin and that the Genshin manga says that Delusions emit the smell of Mist Grass whenever they are used. Oddly coincidental. Now, in the xianxia genre, the ingestion of blood, or cores is something that's mostly practiced by devil cultivators. These are basically cultivators who try to cheat the system by ingesting the cores,
or essence (in this case, blood) of the xian. I actually think that's what the abysslings and Consecrated Beasts are supposed to be since we know that Consecrated Beasts ate the flesh and blood of
the dead gods and inherited their powers. And we have at least one abyssling, Jakob who underwent the process and lived. Abysslings like Jakob and Enjou
can even take convincing human forms just like a xian making it more likely that all abysslings either ingested or had some level of exposure to the blood of a god or a dragon. But this also implies that they had natural talent for cultivation to begin with. For contrast, there is a distinct possibility that the Guhua Clan (or at least Guhua himself) was also one of these
devil cultivators, because I'm pretty sure that the Ancient Swordsman’s Inscriptions are from him and they talk about him
slaying dragons and other mythical creatures and then drinking their blood. We're also pretty sure that he never got a Vision so I wonder if he lacked the talent for cultivation and turned to other methods. Rainslasher says that he “ascended in a purple haze and then became a star.” And I also say all of this because the Guhua trial thingy says some really weird stuff about heaven being unfaithful and he talks badly about the ones chosen by heaven or fate and it kinda just sounds
like he's dissing Vision wielders to me. It just weirdly fits the trope. Although I admittedly have very little proof beyond that. So, what exactly do we do with all of this information? Because if you remember, the original goal of this video was to figure out why
Adepti even have Visions if they don't need them. So here's my thoughts: I think that all Adepti, dragons,
and xian have Visions or some kind of core. Just, period. Full stop. I just don't think that all of them manifest on the outside. See, Visions are external foci and I think that if someone
reaches a high enough level of cultivation their Vision is just no longer necessary, and I think this only happens when
a cultivator reaches the level of xian or rather, they gain immortality. I also think that xian Visions can be retracted, so to speak. Like, kind of brought back inside of the body which mostly happens whenever
they take animal form if they have one. In the case of a beast-like xian like Fujin I think she has simply grown too weak and lacks the chi or elemental energy
to force her core to manifest on the outside and she also probably sees no need to do so anyway. But for human cultivators who have not yet attained immortality and become a xian (so, you know, Vision Wielders) the Visions are linked directly to their own essence their life force, and thus losing one messes with their mind. They have not yet achieved a level
at which they can be separated from it. In fact, this idea is supported by Ganyu's Vision story where it says that she could one day reach a level where she no longer needs the Vision; where her own powers would surpass the ones granted to her. So, yes, she's a bit of a unique case because she possesses the blood of a xian and therefore has some innate abilities but the way I see it, having xian blood just gives you a bit
of a head start on your cultivation journey. I think this kind of thing should be achievable by anybody. So that means that Visions are cores and those who have them are either xian or can become xian. But perhaps there's another step involved that has Vision wielders
use the cores to actually become xian and maybe that's what
the whole Ascension to Celestia process is for. It's a little difficult to say. But, yeah, that's it. That's why I think Xianyun and Xiao have Visions even though they do not need them. They're simply xian whose Visions
represent their illumination but whose natural abilities
have already surpassed the need to use one. So, what's funny about this theory is that it implies that Genshin has always been a xianxia story and somehow I just did not think that was a thing. It also means that we have
more of a hard magic system than I thought which is kinda neat, actually. And while the credits roll with the names of all my excellent channel members who support me and all of this, uh, whatever this is,
I have one more thought to share. There has been a lot of debate among the theorist community about who gets a Vision and why because some people like Albedo just think “Huh, I guess I'll need a Vision,” and then bam, they get one while other people like Kaeya have to go through a near-death experience to get one. And then some people who go through hell and back like Jeht don't get them at all. But I really think this
boils down to the whole cultivation thing because you can explain people like Jeht not getting one because she just lacks the innate talent so it doesn't really matter what her experiences are. You could also explain the variety and acquisition methods because cultivation can be performed in a variety of ways: meditation, the acquisition of new knowledge martial arts training, you get the idea. So long as you refine your chi, you're good. Sure, it's a little bit of an underwhelming conclusion but it kinda works in light of all of this. So, yeah, that's some fun food for thought. Anyway, I'm off to do more blood investigations because I have a doozy of a theory that I'm cooking and I cannot wait to share it. So, thank you so very much for watching and thank you to all my members for supporting this channel. Please take care of yourselves,
and I will see you in the next one. Bye-bye!
