Spoilers for the 4.2 archon Quest and only this
Archon Quest. I can't believe it they really did it they saved Fontaine! Paimon's idea of digging tunnels
to drain Fontaine of all the water really worked! I'm obviously kidding. So Focalors came up with
an elaborate scheme to deceive the Heavenly Principles and give Neuvilette his Authority back,
and there's a lot about fate and the prophecy I want to talk about. As a disclaimer, in this video
I won't be talking about the 4.2 world quests or even some other major parts of the new Archon
Quest. YES there's important information everywhere and it surely all fits together, but there's a lot
of it and alas, I have but a single brain cell, so I'd rather break down smaller digestible pieces.
Let's start with some background. Long ago the original Dragon Sovereign of Hydro had dominion
over the Primordial Sea where all life came from. The Usurper, or the Heavenly Principles, arrived and
charged its Envoy with suppressing the Sovereign, and creating its own vision for life. It made a
new heart out of the primordial sea which would be Egeria, and down the line she would be gifted a
shard of authority. She would sense in her Oceanid familiars that they longed to be human, so using
Primordial Water, she gave them human form. They would be the people of Fontaine. The Primordial
Waters themselves break the bonds that give them shape, and this is why Fontainians can dissolve. But the
Heavenly Principles did not give her permission to create her own life, and this was her sin. This
Original Sin would be shouldered by all Fontanians. So the prophecy states that the waters will rise,
and dissolve all Fontainians, leaving the Hydra Archon alone weeping at her throne. Only then will this Original
Sin be washed away. The creature at the heart of this impending catastrophe is the All-Devouring
Narwhal: it hungers for the Primordial Waters and is the reason for the rising Primordial Sea level.
So Egeria went off and died in the Sumeru desert leaving Focalors, her Oceanid familiar who she also
gave human form, to clean up this huge mess. Focalors was stumped because as the Mage N, or Nicole, has
said many times: the fate of Teyvat is particularly difficult to change. But to us she mentions that
prophecies are the future seen from a god's perspective, and perhaps there's things outside the
god's gaze. I mean, she's basically suggesting there are loopholes. And as a side note, she also uses the
exact same wording that Dainsleif uses in "Travails" - HMM SUSPICIOUS. Confronted with this daunting task of
subverting the prophecy, Focalors split herself into divine and human parts. The divinity she placed
into the Oratrice with the gnosis, and the human form Furina was cursed to play the role of the archon
for centuries. No idea why, cursed with immortality, always role playing, forever acting, just to
deceive the Heavenly Principles. She had to make it look like the prophecy was playing out, for if the
facade were to be broken, Fontaine would be doomed, and make an enemy of the Divine. That's a lot of
pressure for one person! In the ORATRICE MECHANIQUE D'ANALYSE CARDINALE Focalors has been aggregating Indemnitium,
which is a form of energy harvested from people's belief in justice. This power would be used for the
execution of the Hydro Archon, or more technically, the destruction of the throne of the Hydro Archon herself? Anyway, by doing this ,she can relinquish all authority back to its rightful owner - the new
Dragon Sovereign of Hydro, Neuvillette. Now, they also make it clear that the Gnosis itself isn't the Authority.
More on Thrones and Gnoses in another video, though. So Neuvillette gains his Authority back and obtains his
full Dragon-hood - this gives him full control of the Primordial Waters, and now he's able to do a
few important things. Like he's able to separate the Primordial Waters from the All-Devouring
Narwhal and nerf it a bit so we can beat it. But more importantly... see, Neuvillette was invited to be the
Iudex with an underlying motive. By allowing him to live with humans, he may come to love humanity, so
when this inevitable day arrived, he could choose to save the people. So with his regained full
Authority, he is able to use his power to make Fontainians truly fully human, giving them real blood
as the original Sovereign might have. And with that, the prophecy played out, with Fontaine flooding, but
without people dissolving, since they've basically been baptized with Neuvillette's dragon juice. Gosh I wish
that were me. But anyway everyone saved! So we're left with a lot of outstanding questions about
the nature of fate, and what it is, and how exactly it works, especially with regards to constellations
and stars and the Heavenly Principles... and there's also the question about the whale. And sorry
to disappoint, I currently do not have a grand presentable plan (or schematic or theory) for how all this works together.
However, I really want to explore exactly how Focalors deceived the Heavenly Principles, because I do
think the way she did that can inform us about the nature of Fate. As a disclaimer, this next part
has a lot of my personal interpretation, so other perspectives might answer the same questions
just as well if not better. So keep that in mind. Paimon had asked Nicole if the prophecy, or as
she called it, the "history of the future," could be stopped. Nicole is like LMAO, you've already seen a
failed attempt changing history! She's referring to Scaramouche's erasure from history. Memories changed, written
records changed, but the people Scaramouche wanted to save still died or suffered. He could not change
fate. As Nicole said, fate is like a tree that can be swayed, but not displaced. A vase can fall
to the ground and it doesn't matter if done by a cat or a bird, the vase will always be broken. Scaramouche
was dealing with past history, but now we're also dealing with history - just one of the future. Now,
we see the apparent futility of present actions against fate when we cook up the most convoluted
plan to put Furina on trial to ascertain her secrets. But we learn the trial was all part of
the prophecy. We didn't change anything. We played right into it. And we literally also witnessed the
foretold flood with Furina weeping at her throne, all alone. So, keeping with this comparison here,
while Scaramouche made significant changes to written history, he could not save the people he wanted
to. Yet Focalors did the opposite: the prophecy, or the history of the future, played out exactly as
expected, but she SAVED everyone. A new voice line by Nahida provides insight into why this is the
case. She says says that wisdom is not about what you know, but knowing WHAT YOU CAN CHANGE. And Focalors
recognized this. Again, think about what Nicole said about the vase. Whether broken by a cat or bird, the
result is the same: a broken vase. But think of it this way: what if it IS consequential, in some
other way, that it was a cat or a bird? Let me apply this to the prophecy. The entire point is
that the Original Sin of all Fontainians will be washed away. It's the response to Egeria's sin. This
would have happened via the rising Primordial Sea, instigated by the whale. But by Focalors giving
Neuvillette his Authority back, Neuvillette was able to "forgive" Fontainians of sin, and turn them into true humans.
The Original Sin goes away in either case. So, to put it in Nicole-speak, "whether washed by a whale
or dragon, the result is still the washing of sin." So here the method matters. Now, just as a quick
clarification, it may be confusing to some as to why dissolving seems to be an important part of
the prophecy, but it's the one thing that doesn't happen. But consider the stone slates: they show the
truth, the confession, the trial, and the throne. But nothing really about dissolution? So my take has
been that it wasn't really a requirement of the prophecy. It wasn't that people MUST dissolve, it's
just that they CAN dissolve, and they certainly WOULD HAVE dissolved, given the certainty of the
other events. So anyway, I think this is all what Nicole was talking about, with prophecies being the
future from a god's perspective. Perhaps they only really see the major plot points they decide to
become true. Perhaps they can only see the broken base. So Focalors had accepted that certain things
must happen, and while Furina put on a show, Focalors could Implement a plan behind the scenes that
inserts some minor changes into the script of fate. Speaking of scripts of fate... we did get some
foreshadowing about this quite a few patches ago. Remember the intaglio you received during a certain
hangout? YES I'm making this about Kaeya! aka the man who coined "All the World's a Stage." At the end of one
path, he says that perhaps fate is like a script written by an inept god. He also says that actors
should feel free to improvise a little bit. In fact, prior to this conversation, he's acting in a play,
and he improvises. This improv does not ultimately affect the play's overall story, or the outcome, but
it did two things: it very subtly, but distinctly, changed the characterization of the main character,
Prince Qubad. And now, we also have the Intaglio, which we wouldn't have if he didn't improvise. Now,
this is a very allegorical, toned-down metaphor for knowing what you can change, but imagine if this
were a major Archon Quest, and that intaglio turned out to be the Khaenri'ah. Just an example, it may be a
stretch, but I digress. Now, there are a few other aspects of the prophecy I find very interesting,
but this next part has a lot more random speculation. When you talk to Mona about the
prophecy, she says that scrying the fate of the world cannot be done by an astrologist even as
talented as she is - it'd have to be by a "visionary." Paimon says, "wow! this Visionary who foretold this
prophecy must be super powerful!" Later, Skirk happens to mention the Visionary Vedrfolnir, and
Paimon does a double, take asking who that is. I don't think this is a coincidence, and I wonder if
Vedrfolnir is the person who foretold this prophecy. Honestly it's impossible to tell at this point, but
it would also make him super old, so I don't know. But would you be intrigued to hear that I talked
about Vedrfolnir in a video from nearly a year ago? Let me explain. In Norse mythology, Veðrfölnir is
a hawk that sits between the eyes of an eagle that sits a top Yggdresil. So it's a bird that
sits at top the world tree. There's also another bird, Vidopnir, who is described almost identically.
The interesting thing about Vidopnir is that it can only be slain by a sword called Lævateinn. In Genshin,
this sword is mentioned in a book called "Legend of the Shattered Halberd." I have talked about this book
and its author A LOT. Lævateinn (Genshin vers: Laevatain) is the most cursed of the swords that was forged from the fragments
of the titular shattered halberd. So I'm mentioning all of this because I've previously asserted that
Shattered Halberd is holding some secrets of the world, and also in the book, Laevatain is specifically
a cursed sword that previously burned the entire world to cinders, and in the book, it's suggested
it'll do it again. So thematically, this fits in this overarching theme of prophecies of the end
of the world, and also them repeating... which is made more interesting if this world-ending sword
has a connection to a Visionary who is handing out end-time prophecies. And speaking of prophecies of
catastrophe: do y'all remember like 3 years ago or so when they released Dainsleif's introduction card? It
reads as a history of things that have happened, or perhaps it's a prophecy - a history of the
future. If so, it describes events so grand that only a Visionary would be able to tell it. So maybe
Barbeloth or Nicole, for example, although personally I've more recently thought that it could be the
Sinner, given that Dain seems familiar with the Sinner. But now we have another name to consider.
And think of it this way - both Vedrfolnir and Dainsleif are names from Norse mythology, and they both
might have connections with Irminsul. But regardless of whatever Visionary, or even a higher power, that
wrote this, there's one line I want to mention. It's translated to:"the future must atone for bygone
mistakes." But in the original Chinese, it seems to say something closer to: "the future saves the past."
I'd like to propose an interpretation through the lens of what we witnessed in Fontaine, and also
the importance of prophecies and knowing fate. Consider Focalors: she was able to save Fontaine
in the end because she knew the prophecy. She knew of the endpoint, and the things that could
and couldn't be changed. She knew what the gods would see ,and what they wouldn't. So here, knowing
the history of the "future saves the past." And this, in my opinion, could be a way you might actually
subvert or change fate .... without help from higher powers, of course. Like I said, this was a relatively
focused video on a very specific topic, and there's plenty more I'd love to say about the future
saving the past, or suspicious things that Dain says. And obviously there's an aspect about
samsaras that I want to touch on eventually, but I need to process more. And I didn't even touch
on the whale or Skirk or Surtalogi or the world formula or Mr. Nine gnoses descenders authorities ...
but we have time. We'll get to it. Thanks for watching! Please like, comment, and subscribe. No
seriously, in the comment section, feel free to share your own theories! I love hearing different
perspectives and insights into what's going on. And make sure to check that your smoke detector
batteries are working. All right, that's all for now, BYEEE [music telling you to check your smoke detector batteries]
