Now you’re probably watching this video
because you skipped through the Fontaine World Quests mhm or you did read everything and
are still confused about what exactly is going on especially with the whole Narzissenkreuz
plotline. I don’t blame you cause it was a lot to read even for your leify lore streamer
and there were several moments that had me questioning EVERYTHING. Is Arlecchino a hilichurl?
Is Alain Guillotin or Mary-Ann the Fatui Harbinger Sandrone? Do the Fontaine World Quests basically
confirm the theory that Teyvat is stuck in a time loop? Now none of these are confirmed
and these are just post-quest questions I have. If you’re wondering what’s the best
order to play the Fontaine World Quests here is the list which you can screenshot for later.
You don’t have to play in this order but I believe this order yields the best narrative
experience and makes the story easier to follow. Trust me it makes the details make the most
sense. I have a more in-depth guide video which you can check out here and it’ll help
you navigate the World Quests which were released in 4.0. The rest of the quests that are not
in that video were released in chronological order by Version so it’s a bit easier to
follow. In this video we’re going to cover the entire
Narzissenkreuz plotline and explain from start to finish how everything and everyone involved
with this mysterious organization are relevant to a majority of the Fontaine World Quests
and actually even the Archon Quests. Fun fact, some of the characters involved basically
leaked the entire plot of Fontaine all the way back in Version 3.6 and we had no idea. Without further adieu, and yes I’m going
to keep saying that while we’re in Fontaine, here is the entire Narzissenkreuz Questline
explained as well as possible answers to some of Genshin’s oldest theories. I’m your
leify lore streamer Minsleif and I read the Genshin Impact lore so that you don’t have
to. The Narzissenkreuz Institute was established
to raise orphans and children of criminals and about 500 years ago its Director was an
Oceanid named Lyris whose involvement in the orphanage was a tribute to the Hydro Archon
Egeria. She was more or less a mascot for the Institute and played with the children
while the true head of operations was Vice Director Basil. Basil Elton was the Admiral
of the Fontaine Armada and she herself grew up in the Narzissenkreuz Institute with her
friends Emanuel Guillotin, Karl Ingold, and Dwight Lasker. Remember these names for later. For the Fontaine World Quests the most important
names for you to remember are Mary-Ann, Alain, Rene, and Jakob all of whom grew up in the
Narzissenkreuz Institute. The four were close friends and often played together with Alain
often taking the role of a “heroic knight” while Rene often played “the dragon” The children seemed to have a relatively peaceful
childhood in the Institute until it disbanded after the Cataclysm. Director Lyris had fled
Fontaine along with the other Oceanids who refused to accept Focalors as the new Hydro
Archon and/or because they claimed the waters of Fontaine had become “toxic” Vice Director Basil set off to battle against
Elynas a creature of Abyssal origin. Her ship, the Sponsian, lunged into Elynas and this
fatal blow would potentially lead to both Elynas’ and Basil’s deaths. You can find
more about Basil’s final battle in the World Quest the Lone Phantom Sail. Under Basil’s
orders, Alain and Mary-Ann were entrusted to Emanuel Guillotin while Rene and Jakob
were entrusted to Karl Ingold. Alain, Rene, and Jakob would later join the Institute of
Natural Philosophy a research facility led by Director Dwight Lasker. At this time, Fontaine had an energy problem
and researchers scrambled to try to solve the issue. As a quick side note, we now know
the energy crisis was due to copious amounts of energy being stored into the Oratrice as
Focalors was preparing for her own execution. Now, Neuvillette has full command of Pneumousia.
He’s essentially taken on the entire energy system of Fontaine after the Archon Quests.
Man what a gigachad, gigadad. Oratrice Mechanique D’Analyse Cardinale. Alain Guillotin was a child prodigy who primarily
focused on mechanical research specifically Khaenri’ahn machines and technology from
the era of King Deshret. Karl Ingold would take Rene and Jakob to conduct research on
the Girdle of the Sands in Sumeru. Their purpose was to gather research from Khaenri’ahn
tech in Sumeru to try to solve Fontaine’s energy crisis. It’s here during the Khavrena
World Quest that you can find Rene’s Investigation Notes - his journal and collection of his
research during this particular expedition. And this item was actually here before Fontaine’s
release in Version 4.0 which is so cool how Genshin adds all these clues for us to find.
Actually Rene himself technically leaked the entire plot of Fontaine earlier on. In his
Investigation Notes he mentions how the Amrita Pool - which are the remains of Egeria - is
similar in composition to him and Jakob but NOT Karl Ingold their adoptive father. Ingold
is a German name meaning Karl could have been from Mondstadt although he was raised in the
Narzissenkreuz Institute / orphanage as a child. With the Amrita Pool, Rene was basically
scratching the surface of the fact that the people of Fontaine have Oceanid origins. He
was probably aware of this given what he does later on in the story. In hindsight given
what we know about Egeria and Oceanids now from the 4.2 Archon Quests, the pieces are
piecing the lore is lore-ing Anyways According to Rene’s Investigation Notes,
Rene and his adoptive father didn’t seem to the have the best relationship especially
after Rene expressed his interest in utilizing the power of the Abyss - something Karl Ingold
strongly objected. This interest in the Abyss stemmed from Rene’s desire to save his brother
Jakob who was born with a weak constitution and had fallen into a coma. Rene secretly
used the power of the Abyss to save his brother’s life. Jakob miraculously adapted well to the
Abyss’ power causing Rene to be interested in Elynas, the Abyssal creature who had supposedly
died in Fontaine during the Cataclysm. Rene and Jakob return to Fontaine to investigate
the remains of Elynas. Although Elynas was considered “dead” his consciousness remained
alive. Fearing loneliness, Elynas welcomed Rene and Jakob into his body but the two were
only interested in his blood. They believed that ingesting his Abyssal blood could grant
one powers. Jakob absorbs Elynas’s blood and gains the ability to transform into an
Iniquitous Baptist. Rene and Jakob eventually run into Emanuel
Guillotin and their childhood friends Mary-Ann and Alain the latter of which were conducting
their own research inside of Elynas. According to Ancient Log #1, Alain later recommends
Rene and Jakob to Director Dwight and the Ingold brothers become researchers at the
Institute of Natural Philosophy. They are assigned to assist with Alain’s
research project on pneuma and ousia so the team consists of Alain, Rene, Jakob, and a
man named Carter Scherbius. Although Alain tried to persuade his sister Mary-Ann to join
the Institute, she wasn’t very interested but still visited the friends at their research
facility. Carter Scherbius had also grown up in the Narzissenkreuz Institute but due
to being older than his research team it seems to imply that they probably didn’t grow
up together. Carter suffered from a terminal illness that
often left him unable to help Alain with his research. The group had originally assumed
that he might have had Eleazar and tried to send his DNA samples to Sumeru to diagnose
his illness but to no avail. Carter is able to witness Alain’s first successful controlled
Annihilation reaction which signals his invention of the Arkhe energy system but it’s after
this that Carter’s condition worsens. Jakob convinces Rene to try to save Carter
with the power of the Abyss. Rene agrees but the experiment on Carter is a disaster. Carter’s
body rapidly deteriorates and what allegedly remains of him is this Abyssal mound. Rene
notes that Carter’s voice can still be heard from this “body” and had attempted to
cut the vocal chords from the tissue to silence the voice. This experiment on Carter Scherbius causes
an irreparable rift between Alain and the Ingold brothers. Alain would go on to join
the Marechausse Phantom with his sister and invent the Suppression Specialist Mek and
Recon Log Mek in Carter’s memory. The latter of which would become his sister Mary-Ann’s
mechanical companion Prototype 4ACV07 “Seymour” Back in the Institute of Natural Philosophy,
Rene and Jakob would devolve into their Abyssal ideology and form the secret society the Narzissenkreuz
Ordo. Narzissenkreuz Institute is the orphanage they grew up in, Narzissenkreuz Ordo is the
secret society. Remember when Rene and Jakob researched Khaenri’ahn ruins in the Girdle
of the Sands? Rene became obsessed with Khaenri’ah’s world-formula - this formula was essentially
a doomsday calculator and was able to predict when global, potentially world-ending catastrophes
would occur. No matter how many calculations Rene ran with it, the answer was always the
same - Doomsday was coming. Now this next part compiles all the information
we get about Rene and Jakob from the Enigmatic Pages and Notes and Logs you can collect throughout
the overworld so here we go! Rene and Jakob found the Narzissenkreuz Ordo
with the goal of escaping the eventual destruction of the world. They seek to accomplish this
by using the power of the Abyss to transform into “Neohumans” The founding of this
Ordo seemed to have started around the time Rene was experimenting on a sick Carter with
Jakob using “tricks” to sway other people from the Institute of Natural Philosophy to
their side. Enigmatic Page IV seems to imply that Rene used the Book of Revealing to show
people his apocalyptic visions to persuade them to join the Ordo. This Book of Revealing
is the basis for the entire World Quest “Book of Esoteric Revelations” which you can unlock
by speaking to the Melusine Canotila The headquarters of the Narzissenkreuz Ordo
would be located at the Tower of Ipsissimus which was inspired by the legendary tower
from the Remurian legend. Their secret meeting room would be located at the top of the tower
and the chamber’s ceiling would contain the Doomsday Clock. Now the Ordo had interesting
ideologies. One of them includes the concept of Root Cycles and it’s the idea that people
continuously refine themselves through samsara cycles. The four known samsara cycles are
Hyperborea, Natlantean, Remuria, and the first half of the fourth samsara “Khraun-Arya”
which is the cycle we are presently experiencing. Root Cycles actually take inspiration from
the real life religious movement known as Theosophy and it’s categorized as Western
esotericism. The Root races are stages in human evolution in the esoteric cosmology
and could be the inspiration behind Rene’s obsession with the idea of Neohumans. A popular
theory interpretation of this information is that Teyvat may have been stuck in a time
loop with us experiencing its Fourth Loop. Four Loops, Four Descenders you know what
I mean? Rene also provides further criteria for Descenders: not only are Descenders not
native to Teyvat, they’re also "wills that can rival an entire world.” Rene was basically
trying to achieve the power of a Descender because he believed they had the power to
create or destroy a world - power great enough to save everyone from Doomsday. Rene discovered the “Seal of Chymical Marriage” This Seal is actually a reference to the Kabbalah
- a set of esoteric teachings explaining God’s process of Creation. For Genshin’s context,
each sphere seems to represent a primordial emanation all of which are used to create
a new world. “Kether” at the top could represent the Primordial One with the Four
Orthants representing the Four Shining Shades. This might be a reference to Genshin’s ancient
ancient history, and for now you just need to know that the Primordial One was the first
god of Teyvat and had 4 Shining Shades of itself, 4 gods that reported to him. Rene
plans to rebuild the Four Chymical Seals or the Four Orthants: the Orthant of Memory,
the Orthant of Wishes, the Orthant of Persona, and the Orthant of Souls. Each of these Orthants
contain pieces to forge the Holy Blade of Narzissenkreuz. The Orthants puzzles are what
you use to obtain these pieces to reforge the Holy Blade with Caterpillar in the World
Quest “Search in the Algae Sea” But why doesn’t he just acquire a Vision
then? Well that’s because Rene believed that “to receive a Vision is to sell oneself
to the "fate" of this world and to evermore lose the chance to walk the correct path.”
If this world was fated to be destroyed by Doomsday then a Vision would presumably prevent
you from fighting against this “fate” During his time in the Ordo, Jakob Ingold
- again Rene’s brother - had been researching the Primordial Sea and this research would
be used as the basis for Sinthe production in the Fontaine Archon Quests. Rene seems
to have also found the prophecy slates from the Archon Quests according to Enigmatic Page
VIII and this now draws his attention to Lyris. Remember Lyris the Oceanid Director of the
orphanage? Lyris had actually returned to Fontaine after some time and spent her days
in deep depression, longing for the olden days while circling the remains of the Narzissenkreuz
Institute. Rene and Jakob find her, and Lyris unfortunately becomes the focus of Rene’s
plans. As an Oceanid, Lyris is a being of pure water able to extract and merge people’s
wills. We saw this happen in the Fontaine Archon Quests with Vacher and his Oceanid
victims. With Lyris’ Oceanid essence, the power of the Tree of Emanation, Four Orthants,
and the Sword of Narzissenkreuz imbued with “the concentrated will of countless people”
Rene now has the ability to perform a ritual that can separate mind and body and potentially
“ascend” to a higher being. He performs his first ritual in an area of the Primordial
Sea that exists beneath the Tower of Ipsissimus. This ritual fails and Rene almost completely
dissolves until he is saved by Jakob, unfortunately only his Persona has remained in tact. Using
research from the Khaenri’ahn alchemist Rhinedottir, Jakob had the knowledge he needed
to try to bring Rene back in a new form. Due to Rene’s absence, some members of the Ordo
were becoming suspicious so Jakob conveniently dissolves them and is able to reform them
into unstable Hydro Eidolons. Jakob uses Rene’s Persona, material from the corrupted Carter,
and a pocket watch he’d gotten from Alain when they were friends - a token which represents
all the time Jakob and Rene had spent together aww - to create the new entity Master Narzissenkreuz.
The rest of Carter Scherbius’ remains were grafted onto hilichurls and used to create
Caterpillar whom you encounter in various Fontaine World Quests including the final
installment of the Narzissenkreuz Questline. The Narzissenkreuz Ordo draws more suspicion
from the Court of Fontaine, but the Master is unfortunately able to dissolve and absorb
all the Marechaussee agents sent to intervene gaining all their skills and knowledge. At
this point the Master was becoming a formidable foe. Jakob wishes to avoid fighting with the Guillotin
siblings to honor the friendship they all had. In a last attempt, the Master shows the
“Book of Revealing” and the visions of the impending apocalypse contained in it in
order to try to persuade Alain Guillotin to their side. Alain refuses the offer. The Master orders Jakob, Caterpillar, and
Lyris to Elynas’ remains as a ploy to attract the Marechaussee Hunters. The Masters true
plan was to release the reservoir of Primordial Sea at the base of the Tower of Ipsissimus
in order to dissolve and absorb the consciousness of all Fontainians to save them from the impending
Doomsday. The group in Elynas engage in a battle with Mary-Ann, Seymour, and Clockwork
Meka. Jakob causes a massive explosion which severely damages Seymour and kills Mary-Ann. In the blast, Lyris absorbs the consciousness
of Mary-Ann and later becomes the Oceanid “Mary-Ann” who we encounter in the Annapausis
World Quest. Annapausis is a dream world created by the Oceanid Mary-Ann. The Oceanid Ann was
created by Oceanid Mary-Ann in the process of creating her dream world. Ann was accidentally
created by Oceanid Mary-Ann via her dreams. Oceanid Mary-Ann hides herself in this fairytale
world and this fairytale is made for her to escape the traumas of the blast within Elynas
and the loss of the Narzissenkreuz orphanage. Meanwhile Alain and the Master fight in the
Tower of Ipsissimus and Alain is able to defeat it and trap Narzissenkreuz in the Primordial
Sea. Alain would be one of the few survivors of
this ordeal and he would later go onto establish the Fontaine Research Institute of Kinetic
Engineering. He’d retire in his old age and according to the Masterpiece’s Overture
the research he undertook in his final years was never published but there are signs in
his personal workshop that something was built… The Melusine were born from the wounds of
Elynas after the fatal blast that killed Mary-Ann. About 400 years later we encounter the painter
Mamere the Melusine in the Ancient Colors Questline. Mamere finds and takes care of
Seymour and the two form a close friendship. Unknowingly, Mamere had been using the blood
of Elynas for her paints and Jakob Ingold has returned to purchase her paintings as
this blood was a source of power to him in the past. Remember, he absorbed it to gain
his new Abyssal form. In the course of the Fontaine World Quests,
Jakob is later defeated in the Tower of Ipsissimus and Traveler defeats Narzissenkreuz in the
Primordial Sea and Ann seals it. Narzissenkreuz has one final request - to return to the time
before “the heroes set out on their journey” presumably to the time when the friends were
all children back at the orphanage. The group take Narzissenkreuz back to Annapausis
- fun fact you can actually stay in this place permanently now! There Ann, Cater, and Narzissenkreuz
get one final chat before Narzissenkreuz disappears unable to maintain his form. Seymour wishes
to return to Mamere and invites her on a journey exploring the world with Mary-Ann and Ann.
Caterpillar proceeds to go on a journey by himself. Thus ends the Narzissenkreuz Quest Line. "Narzissenkreuz"
is German for "Narcissus Cross" or "Daffodil Cross" It might be a reference to Christian
Rosenkreuz whose teachings included Hermeticism, Jewish mysticism, and Gnosticism all of which
are included in Rene’s or Narzissenkreuz’s radical ideology. The name “Narcissus”
comes from a figure in Greek Mythology who was so impossibly handsome that he fell in
love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Speaking of reflections in pools
of water, I love the tie-in with Alice in Wonderland themes given the name “Caterpillar”
and the Looking Glass mechanisms you can encounter throughout this quest line. Narcissus also
is the basis of the term “narcissist” which also alludes to the fact that in the
end Rene’s goals and ideologies were more self-centered. On top of the interesting comments
towards Paimon regarding her possible Celestial nature, at the end of the quest line you can
return to Mamere’s house to find a painting she left for you. Paimon is riding Seymour
similar to the way her Ars Goetia namesake rides a dromedary. As for the similarities between Arlecchino
and Caterpillar, does this mean that Arlecchino is somehow the consciousness of someone else
transplanted into a hilichurl homonculus? If this is the case a previous persona for
Arlecchino could have been Basil Elton, the Admiral of the Fontaine Armada and the Vice
Director of the Narzissenkreuz orphanage. Arlecchino after all does currently run the
Fatui orphanage the House of the Hearth. I’m still iffy on this thought however since the
only reason Jakob was able to keep Rene’s persona in tact was that he saved Rene before
he could be completely dissolved. This technology to transplant the consciousness into other
forms has apparently been around since the ancient times but in Fontaine at least, in
this time period Jakob seems to be the only individual to have been able to complete said
ritual. Perhaps there was still a way for Jakob to extract Basil’s persona from the
shipwreck given Traveler could hear Basil’s voice during the Lone Phantom Sail World Quest.
Zhongli’s Story Quest Act II insinuates that inanimate objects even rocks can hold
memory and in Fontaine we learn that water contains memories as well. If Jakob was able
to “revive” Carter Scherbius and Rene then it’s not so farfetched to think he’d
accomplish the same for other prominent figures in his childhood but this one’s a tough
one. I kind of like the idea of Arlecchino being someone we haven’t necessarily encountered
before. But this Quest Line did remind me about a
particular book. The Boar Princess whose alleged 8th Volume is available for Lanoire to purchase
in the Caterpillar Quest but not for us. The Boar Princess is about a Mondstadt Princess
who had rescued a Wolf Pup cursed by an evil sorcerer. Because of this curse the Wolf Pup’s
heart was pierced and frozen by an icicle and became cold and mean forever after. The
Wolf Pup, unwelcomed by his friends and the forest, headed North into the frozen tundra.
The Boar Princess seeks to find the Wolf Pup and gains help from a fox and a turtle and
a Seelie. A Seelie grants the Boar Princess power to make it through the snowstorm but
she will get hungrier and hungrier in exchange. When she finally reached the Wolf Pup deep
into the tundra in order to win the Wolf’s friendship the Boar Princess offers to turn
her friend the Turtle and the Fox into a meal that they can share. The fairy tale ends in
such a gruesome manner that Lily’s parents in Mondstadt donated the book to the Library.
The Wolf imagery tied to Arlecchino here is interesting since Wanderer actually describes
her as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” The evil sorcerer that curses the Wolf Pup
is also interesting since Caterpillar likens Jakob his creator to a Sorcerer as well although
it could also reference the Previous Arlecchino who was known to be a cruel woman. Not to
mention the Boar Princess and her Seelie blessings sound a lot like Columbina and her alleged
Seelie past. In the Commedia del’Arte Columbina was sometimes the love interest of Arlecchino
so it might seem that the Boar Princess is an allegorical tale of how they both found
themselves in Snezhnaya. Remember, in order to prevent things from getting tampered with
in the Irminsul, history sometimes has to be written as fairy tales to escape a database
wipe. But it could also very well mean that the Boar Princess is referencing something
even before Arlecchino and Columbina’s time something as old as the civilization in Dragonspine Or perhaps something from a previous time
loop of Teyvat. This quest line covers the idea of the Root Cycle and how Teyvat might
have been stuck in a time loop with us in the middle of the 4th loop. Hyperborea, symbolizing
the age when the world was frozen and the lost paradise. Natlantean, symbolizing the
triumph over the evil dragon. Remuria and Khraun-Arya, symbolizing the relationship
between humans and gods. A viewer named GuyWithAnAmazingHat has amazing insight into this concept of samsara
cycles and 4 Loops so I’ll do my best to summarize. Buddhism says that desire and attachment
leads to suffering - the more you want something the more attracted you are to what you desire
and this concept of attachment is crucial to Genshin’s main theme of dreams and desires. Chasing your dreams and desires can end in
tragedy: An example can be as small as Diona’s impossible dream of ending alcoholism even
though she was blessed by an Oceanid to forever make delicious drinks to Khaenri’ah’s
failure to achieve their dreams and their suffering in the Cataclysm. Suffering doesn’t
end in death, through Karma one’s suffering continues to exist and is “passed onto others”
- case and point Egeria’s sin and how it was passed onto Focalors. When you’re born you already experiencing
the remnants of suffering from a previous cycle. Desires of previous generations cause
suffering for later generations. Thanks so much GuyWithAnAmazingHat for your
amazing insight! So what can we do with this information then? What these root cycles Hyperborea, Natlantean,
Remuria, and “Khraun-Arya” are doing is they’re propagating the same Karma perhaps.
Hyperborea passed its Karma down to Natlantean and so forth and now “Khraun-Arya” shoulders
the karma from all these previous civilizations. Perhaps all these civilizations are suffering
the Karma of the Original Sinner. Remember the crystal from the Caribert Archon Quest.
And perhaps desire and attachment and the eagerness to satisfy them produce temptation.
The only thing that the Primordial One forbade humans from committing - “The one taboo
was to succumb to temptation” Speaking of insight, we might have gotten
some clues about Sandrone’s true identity. Sandrone might be a creation of Alain Guillotin
in honor of his sister Mary-Ann. Years after founding the Fontaine Research Institute,
he retired and isolated himself in his workshop where he built “something” Alain researched
Khaenri’ah technology specifically Ruin Graders which is referenced in Ancient Log
#4 and seen in the ruins of the Institute of Natural Philosophy. So here’s the theory,
Sandrone as her name suggests in the Commedia del Arte is a Marionette and the true Harbinger
is the modified Ruin Grader which houses the consciousness of Alain Guillotin. His friend
turned enemy Narzissenkreuz was obsessed with extracting one’s persona in order to ascend
to a higher being. In his grief and loss of his sister, Alain may have *aligned* himself
with the Fatui. But… I’m not entirely sure how much I believe
the theory of Alain being a Fatui Harbinger and Sandrone being a puppet replica of his
sister. In the World Quest Series Questioning Melusine and Answering Machine, we encounter
a mysterious Fatui Harbinger interested in machine intelligence specifically Curve a
lie-detecting machine. This mysterious Fatui Harbinger worked with Jenck, an editor from
the Steambird, but during their collaboration Curve ends up dying and Jenck is subsequently
punished. “How?” you may ask. Well his tongue was cut out and his mind was broken
by a certain sadistic Fatui Harbinger. This act seems too cruel for someone like Alain
Guillotin to commit, so personally I’m not too too committed to the theory, but I also
won’t knock out the possibilities. In true Genshin fashion, the Narzissenkreuz
quests left me with more questions than answers and I do hope we get a continuation of this
questline in the future. The person who almost saved the world spoke:
“The Holy Blade need not be a sword. It could even be a gold-haired outlander.” I mean come on, the implications of that might
need to be dissected in a future video! If you enjoyed this video please LEIF a like
and subscribe and I’ll see you in the next video. I’m your leify lore streamer Minsleif
and I read the Genshin Impact lore so that you don’t have to.
