I know what you’re thinking. The BIGGEST CURSE in Genshin is the fact that
GOOD ASS LORE is hidden in artifact sets, miscellaneous interactables, and NPC
dialogue that we can never retrigger again. Okay maybe that’s not it, but as a lore
content creator it might be part of it. I know you probably feel that
Version 4.5 is a dry patch, but I need to tell you how INSANE the lore
drops were. My BRAIN literally opened up, and I think I just found the truth
behind one of Genshin’s biggest secrets: the Curse of Death. With the release of Version 4.5, you
can now purchase Volumes 1 and 2 of Perinheri in the Fontaine bookstore,
and it’s a brand new book series that contains a lot of shocking information about
Khaenri’ah. It also reveals the TRUTH behind Teyvat’s worldwide curse and apparently
Zhongli is involved. But to be honest, when is Zhongli ever not involved? Because of
the new details of this Hilichurl epidemic we’re familiar with… I was able to discover an even
scarier curse that’s happening at the same time… Today’s video will be a deep dive into Perinheri,
the Khaenri’ahn secrets that were revealed in it, and its MASSIVE significance to Genshin’s
overall lore including the Hilichurl curse that horribly plagues Teyvat even today.
Then we’ll discuss Genshin’s DEADLIEST Curse… I’m your leify lore streamer Minsleif and I read
the Genshin Impact lore so that you don’t have to. Since we’ll be discussing new information which
I’m sure is going to have even more incredible literary payoff in Genshin’s future Archon
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Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring today’s video! Let’s go over the new information we learned
about Khaenri’ah from Perinheri. Keep in mind Perinheri might not be 100% accurate. I know
I hyped you up for it and you should STILL be hyped I just thought for lore and theory crafting
purposes I should disclose that. The author of the first edition of Perinheri claims to have
based this tale on a legendary story known throughout Khaenri’ah and CONVENIENTLY there are
none left who can verify this. Perinheri is the collaborative effort from various authors and
contributors over several generations and some of these names might be familiar to you! This
means, it’s very likely for things to have been misinterpreted, misremembered, or even re-written
for the purpose of entertainment over time. Until things get confirmed or de-confirmed by
our alive Khaenri’ahns then we still have some reason to believe that Perinheri is reliable. And
that’s because of the Irminsul Tree. If you’ve gotten to the Sumeru Archon Quests, this should be
familiar to you but as a recap the Irminsul Tree is essentially a database of all the memories
and events that have ever happened in Teyvat. The Irminsul CAN be tampered with and Teyvat’s
memories and events can be altered drastically. To prevent that, Teyvatians have recorded historical
events in the form of allegories or fairytales. I think Perinheri might be an example of Teyvatians
preserving history in the form of fairytales, and if that’s the case I don’t want to rule
out the possibility that a decent amount of it was passed on carefully from author
to author across several generations. There’s also several things in canon lore that
corroborate the evidence we do find in Perinheri, and again it’s the clearest explanation for one
of Genshin’s BIGGEST problems: its fatal curse. Before we get to the CRAZY lore bits,
let’s start with the new information we learn about Khaenri’ah. Khaenri’ah
had at least 2 dynasties. Previously, we only knew of one - the Eclipse Dynasty.
But now we have information on the era that preceded the one we’re more familiar with and
that’s the Crimson Moon Dynasty. The Crimson Moon Dynasty ruled over Khaenri’ah during the
Archon War. The Archon War ended 2000 years ago, and we’re actually not sure when it began.
All we know is that 600 years before the war ended 2000 years ago, Barbatos would be
the declared the Anemo Champion and Archon. According to archaeological records
discovered by the Narzissenkreuz Ordo, alchemy and the Beastmaster Knights enjoyed
the peak of their influence during this time. The "Darksprites" mentioned in Perinheri's
legend refer to the first version of black wolf warbeasts created via alchemy. The
Riftwolves. From this information and the note references at the end of Perinheri,
the Art of Khemia was developed and explored during the Crimson Moon Dynasty. Khemia is a
form of alchemy that focuses on the creation of life. Only those who have reached the peak
of learning and alchemical skill could create synthetic life. The only one known to achieve
this is Rhinedottir “Gold” Albedo’s master and creator. Another piece of evidence towards this
is the mention of the Universitas Magistrorum, a scholarly organization whose area of expertise
seemed to be alchemy. It was previously mentioned in a Fontaine log by Jakob Ingold, a Fontaine
researcher who researched Khaenri’ahn alchemy. Rhinedottir was allegedly the
creator of the Riftwolves, so it means she was probably around the time of
this Dynasty and the Eclipse Dynasty because we know she was largely blamed for the
Cataclysm. The Eclipse Dynasty came AFTER the Crimson Moon Dynasty and we
don’t actually know how much time each dynasty reigned. What we can get out of
this is Rhinedottir is pretty old (lol). There is a hint at the beginning of the
text: “This is a story from very ancient times indeed. In those days, a crimson moon
shone down upon the subterranean realm, and not the dark sun of latter days.” Which could
mean that Perinheri was written during or after the Eclipse Dynasty and LONGGGG after the Crimson
Moon Dynasty. So yea, Albedo’s mommy is OLD. These are just assumptions we
can make about Rhinedottir, **BUT** there is a name in this
text that SHOULD be familiar to you. Alberich. A member of the Alberich clan was listed as
a commander of half of the knights during the Crimson Moon Dynasty. This Alberich
clan member were considered one of the strongest warriors in Khaenri’ah at that
time. So Kaeya’s family clan existed as long ago as the Crimson Moon Dynasty, into
the next dynasty, and obviously up to today. Speaking of the next dynasty
- the Eclipse Dynasty. At some point, the Eclipse Dynasty
replaced the Crimson Moon Dynasty, likely during the Archon War. This Dynasty was
infamously involved in the Cataclysm and should contain a handful of your faves. According to
the reference notes at the bottom of Perinheri, while the Crimson Moon Dynasty focused on
alchemy the Eclipse Dynasty focused on mechanical engineering. This means the Ruin machines you see
were likely produced during the Eclipse Dynasty. But why did they need all these war machines? Perinheri states that “Due to
the Kingdom’s unique position, things from outside this world were always
leaking into it. The Kingdom's weapons would wipe out the calamities slipping in.”
Khaenri’ah is an underground civilization, and we learn this from Albedo’s Character Story
and Kaeya’s line from the Caribert Archon Quest. BUT if Khaenri’ah is UNDERGROUND, how are things
from “outside this world” always leaking into it? Perinheri states that Khaenri’ahns were informed
of sea people who believed that the gods came from the oceans. Each time these sea people discovered
a shipwrecked person, they would treat them with the utmost honor, for they believed that the
gods would take the form of the shipwrecked to investigate the mortal realm. According to an
author’s note, no oceans in the traditional sense existed in Khaenri’ah (since it was underground).
Only people who were allowed to leave Khaenri’ah for official duties and returned could relay what
they saw in the world of Teyvat. The majestic silhouettes of the mountains blur under the sun's
searing glare, and the rippling reflections of the moonlight falling upon the sea's surface
like a scattering of pearls. The authors clarify that the ocean and sea were often used as
a metaphor for the “space projected by the stars.” So basically, Khaenri’ah needed these war machines to fight against calamities that tried
to leak into their world from space. BUT there’s an even more important
question you should be asking: if Khaenri’ah is an underground
nation, HOW DOES IT HAVE A SKY? The explanation is the famous “Fake
Sky” Theory. A thought originally propagated by Scaramouche during the
Unreconciled Stars event where he says: “The stars, the sky... It's
all a gigantic hoax. A lie.” And this was information he
himself learned from Pierro, a Khaenri’ahn man who we now know
works under the Tsaritsa for the Fatui. I’ll try to briefly summarize the “Fake Sky”
theory for you. Teyvat might look like a firmament, since it’s referenced in several places
in the game. A flat earth with a dome over it. The Amethyst Crown mentions “Invaders descending
from beyond the firmament bringing destruction, overturning rivers, spreading plagues…” The Chaos
Oculus says that “In the ancient past, these ruins were once part of a civilization mighty enough
to almost touch the dome of the firmament” In Biblical cosmology, the firmament is the
vast solid dome created by God during the Genesis creation narrative to divide the
primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. This
means the sky of Teyvat is actually a dome, and the sky we see is just a projection
of perhaps what Celestia WANTS us to see. This theory is often paired with a sister theory: Either the Real Sky is in Khaenri’ah or it’s
in the Abyss. It’s even more mysterious in Chinese. The Abyss is also known as the Void
Realm according to lore in Enkanomiya. The Chinese name for the Void Realm includes
the character for “empty space” or “sky” This is a visual representation of what I think
is the easiest way to show this theory in action. We segued a little bit, so to recap. This
is a Perinheri video. The ocean mentioned in Perinheri is a metaphor for what might be
the “real sky” in Khaenri’ah. And calamities from space were leaking into Khaenri’ah,
thus Khaenri’ah had to make war machines to combat the space invaders. I felt that
explaining the Fake Sky theory was the best way for this piece of text in Perinheri
to make “sense” with the “laws of Teyvat” So, Khaenri’ah had 2 Dynasties that
we know of so far: The Crimson Moon Dynasty and the Eclipse Dynasty and
both are references to, obviously, eclipses. The word “eclipse” comes from the Greek
word meaning “abandonment” and in Ancient Greece, an eclipse was considered an omen of the
gods’ anger and abandonment of the earth. The “Crimson Moon” is likely a reference to a
lunar eclipse. Lunar Eclipses occur during a full moon. When the Earth is positioned
precisely between the Moon and Sun, the Earth casts a shadow on the Moon causing the
Moon to appear red in color - hence Crimson Moon. The Chinese version of Genshin accurately has
the “Eclipse” Dynasty listed as the “Black Sun” Dynasty. This is a reference to a Solar Eclipse
which occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth causing the Sun to be obstructed from
the Earth’s point of view - Hence “Black Sun”. According to NASA, a solar eclipse
looks like an eye with the central “pupil” created by the bright
sun covered by a dark moon…. “but Perinheri did indeed see an illusion. The
crimson moon, hanging high in the pitch-dark night sky, suddenly turned around, revealing
itself to be a titanic, horrified eye.” This might be a reference to the Herrscher of
Corruption from Honkai Impact which appears as a crimson eye. Although I do play Honkai
Star Rail and make videos on it, I’m not too familiar with Honkai Impact lore unfortunately
but feel free to tackle this observation! Now that we’ve covered some of
the historical lore of Khaenri’ah, what exactly is Perinheri even about? Even
though I’m your leify lore streamer Minsleif and I read the Genshin Impact lore so that
you don’t have to, I still HIGHLY encourage you to read books and texts in Genshin
ESPECIALLY this one if you have the time. But if not, I’ll summarize it for
you since I’d love to anyways. During the Crimson Moon Dynasty, Khaenri’ah
became aware of the existence of Descenders around the time of the Archon War (at least
2000 years ago). In anticipation of the arrival of these Descenders, Khaenri’ah built
an orphanage to take care of them. Later on, the orphans of the Kingdom and those who
wandered in from the outside were accepted as well. This might also include people who
came from Teyvat and stayed in Khaenri’ah. Perinheri seems to be a child who was told by “the
adults” to crawl through a tight chimney-corridor. At the end of the chimney-corridor they’d
ask him “Are you dead?” The adults refused to accept any of his answers or pleas to leave
the corridor until he answered “Yes! I’m dead!” The “adults” asked him if he saw it
- the illusion of the moon actually being a horrified crimson eye. When
Perinheri confirmed he had seen the illusion, the adults opened the door and
embraced the soot-covered child saying: "You have traversed the fire of two worlds
within the hearth, and here you are reborn.” Perinheri would later stay and presumably
grow up in Khaenri’ah and become a leading figure amongst the kingdom’s knights.
Perinheri’s best friend was Hleobrant, a fellow knight, and their friendship
would morph into an unfortunate rivalry… In Volume 2, we learn that the
orphanage welcomed a newcomer: a beautiful woman named Angelica who claimed to
be a noble princess. During the Archon War, her nation fell to a god named Deus Auri. She refused
to submit to Deus Auri’s new rule and so she fled to Khaenri’ah. Recognize the name Deus Auri? You
should cause it’s SUPER familiar trust me. If not, it’s actually revealed in Neuvillette’s voiceline
to be Rex Lapis. Our beloved Geo harabeoji. Angelica declared that she would marry
the strongest warrior in Khaenri’ah, and Perinheri’s best friend Hleobrant was
smitten with her. So smitten, in fact, that he was driven to madness to the point where
he’d cause trouble and randomly fight with the other knights. Perinheri was incredibly SUS of
Angelica and her bad influence on Hleobrant, so he devised a plan. Perinheri
was going to kill Angelica. This would cause Angelica and Hleobrant to flee
Khaenri’ah, with Perinheri in pursuit. But once the three crossed Khaenri’ah’s borders, Hleobrant
turned into a monster as the result of a curse. Hleobrant was the “the descendant of those
who forsook their god and came to Khaenri’ah.” Here are the BIGGEST takeaways from this story. Volume 1 reveals that Khaenri’ah was searching
for Descenders. What are Descenders exactly? In the opening cutscene of Genshin, the Unknown
God refers to BOTH Traveler and their Sibling as “Outlanders.” Outlanders are beings who
have come from outside of Teyvat. Aliens. Perinheri defines Descenders as beings who can
transcend the gods. This definition is further expanded upon in the Narzissenkreuz Questline
by Fontainian researcher Rene de Petrichor. Descenders are Outlanders but with extra
steps. Rene concludes that Descenders are beings that have "wills that can rival an entire
world.” They have the power to create, protect, sustain, and destroy worlds. He makes a clear
distinction between Outlanders and Descenders in that not all Outlanders are Descenders.
So Outlanders AND Descenders are both beings that come from OUTSIDE of Teyvat, they’re both
alien, but the difference is Descenders have “wills that can rival Teyvat” and transcend
the gods but regular Outlanders don’t. This is further supported by Nahida’s statement about
Traveler and their Sibling. Traveler is the Fourth Descender to be identified, but their Sibling is
NOT a Descender, just a regular normie Outlander. And Genshin added something REALLY sneaky
in regards to our Traveler and Sibling… Perinheri’s pronoun changes in Traditional
Chinese depending on which Twin you choose to be your starting character. If you
choose Lumine you get the female pronoun for Perinheri and if you choose Aether
you get the male pronoun for Perinheri. I ACTUALLY WENT TO CONFIRM THIS MYSELF.
On my main account Aether is my Traveler, and for my EU server account
Lumine is my Traveler… The only problem is my EU account
hasn’t been touched in almost 2 years, and I haven’t even finished the
Mondstadt Archon Quest on it to unlock the Sumeru Desert Waypoint that takes
you to Fontaine. So I did what I had to do. I traveled from Mondstadt to Chenyu Vale,
then from Chenyu Vale to Fontaine in order to get to the Fontaine Book Store that
sells Perinheri Volumes 1 and 2 to see the text change in Traditional Chinese in
order to CONFIRM that this was in fact true. All in the name of lore. Does this mean I did all this to confirm that
Perinheri . . . is actually Traveler? I know what you’re thinking. This just
makes things EVEN MORE confusing, and that’s true but it’s also very… INTERESTING. Because we learn several things about Perinheri
in the story. Perinheri is an Outlander since they successfully “traversed the fire of two worlds”
BUT Perinheri doesn’t seem to be a Descender, since Angelica states that Perinheri does
not “have the nobility to shoulder a world.” And we JUST established in the Sumeru Archon
Quest that Traveler IS A Descender so how can Traveler be Perinheri? Perhaps not having the
“the nobility to shoulder a world” just means Traveler isn’t at their full potential
yet. Perhaps they WILL unlock the will to rival all of Teyvat LATER. Just note that
Perinheri’s pronoun change is only in the Traditional Chinese version of Genshin and not
in any other language as far as I’m concerned. But we know for a fact Traveler’s
Sibling ended up in Khaenri’ah. If this is confusing it’s okay, I’m
sure details and speculations will be clarified with that sweet juicy next
Dainsleif Archon Quest. BUT do you wanna know something that was made WAYYYY
clearer with the release of Perinheri? The Hilichurl Curse of Genshin Impact. and I know I know we’re gonna cover
the super deadly curse in a sec. But Minsleif, we already know that when you kill
hilichurls you’re essentially killing people so what do you mean? The information in Perinheri
helps us out A LOT with the Genshin timeline, especially since it’s a common belief that
hilichurls had come from Khaenri’ah exclusively. I don’t care how many fanfics you’ve read, but
if Perinheri is reliable then this is the first time we have the clearest picture of how the
curse works and for how long it’s been around. In the story, Angelica explains that Hleobrant
is “the descendant of those who forsook their god and came to the Kingdom. This
is why the Kingdom's obstinately pure-blooded aristocracy persists. This
is the price of betraying your own god.” During the Archon War, there were people
who refused to submit to the newly instated Archons. This resulted in Celestia putting
a curse on humanity. The people who refused to live in Teyvat under the jurisdiction of
Celestia’s appointed Archons fled to Khaenri’ah, the “nation without a god.” If those people went
to Khaenri’ah and tried to come back to Teyvat, they would turn into hilichurls - them
and their descendants. The pure-blooded Khaenri’ahn curse operates differently
than this Celestial curse on Teyvatians since pure-blooded Khaenri’ahns don’t turn into
hilichurls, but we’ll cover that in a future video. This means that the Celestial curse
has been happening for thousands of years! The Archive states that Hilichurls have
existed for over a thousand years. BUT their numbers experienced a dramatic increase
500 years ago. This paints a super dark and very sad picture. In the Caribert Archon
Quest, we know that Khaenri’ah was also home to immigrant Teyvatians. Perinheri confirms
that those none pure-blooded Khaenri’ahns have already been cursed for refusing to submit
to the gods… them AND their descendants… So that increase in hilichurls 500 years
ago? Well when the Cataclysm happened, and people started fleeing from Khaenri’ah INTO
Teyvat for safety… they turned into monsters. Dang, just imagine you and
your loved ones turning into monsters and all you’re trying to do is run away. And yes while that’s poetic and
sad, you know what’s even sadder? The possibility that Khaenri’ahns
can’t ever return home… Here’s my theory: This would be the DEADLIEST Curse in Genshin
if it ends up being true. Khaenri’ahns can’t even return to their destroyed homeland
if they wanted to, cause they’ll die. In the Chasm Archon Quest, Dainsleif tells us
about Khaenri’ah’s national flower: the Inteyvat. If you take this flower out of Khaenri’ah,
the flower hardens. Only when you return it back to Khaenri’ah, will the petals grow
soft once more and finally turn to dust… At the end Caribert Archon Quest,
Dainsleif and Traveler unearth two bodies: male and female corpses, the latter being
Caribert’s mother. This male corpse was buried way after the other body and it
was holding a silk scarf. A silk scarf Clothar was holding onto when Caribert
went missing. Dainsleif is shocked at the possibility that this body could be Clothar
Alberich’s meaning Clothar figured out how to break the curse of immortality that
was placed on pure-blooded Khaenri’ahns. And I know how. He went back home to Khaenri’ah, and died there -
allegorically similar to an Inteyvat. After all, Khaenri’ah is very close to Sumeru. The Abyss
Order has been trying to revive the nation of Khaenri’ah, but they can’t because they’ll die
if they step foot in the land. This is probably why the Loom of Fate is so important - they
need it to break this fatal curse. But then how did Clothar’s body get buried? It could’ve
been a reborn Caribert. Clothar did say that Caribert is now the Loom of Fate, free of
the curse and can write his fate anew. If he has a new body he definitely could’ve
brought his father’s body back to Sumeru to bury it next to his mother’s. Since only
the two of them would know the burial site. But Khaenri’ah had envoys and diplomats that
could leave the country and come back! This is true because it was mentioned in the Enkanomiya
World Quest and backed up in Perinheri. I’m guessing this Fatal Khaenri’ahn Curse was
placed during the Cataclysm 500 years ago, or hear me out. This is crazy I know, but the
Khaenri’ahn envoys might have been Outlanders. Descender rejects cause I mean Khaenri’ah
was literally farming for Descenders and Outlanders. But the Curse being placed 500
years ago probably makes the most sense. Dainsleif mentioned wanting to return “home” at
the end of his journey… but bro he can’t ; - ; It’s that reoccurring theme of being unable
to return home. Teyvatians can’t return to Teyvat if they’’ve abandoned their gods,
they’ll turn into Hilichurls. Khaenri’ahns can’t return home because they’ll die
if they step foot on Khaenri’ahn soil. And Traveler and their Sibling can’t return home… Perinheri was actually inspired by the Italian
poem Orlando Innamorato. It’s referenced in the text as “Hleobrant Innamorato”. The story is
about a paladin named Orlando who is trying to win the love of a beautiful princess from China
named Angelica. The poem is actually incomplete since Italy was invaded by French troops headed
by King Charles VII at the time of Boiardo’s writing. Orlando Furio, the sequel, was written
by Ludovico Ariosto and in it Orlando goes on a rampage finding out that Angelica had fallen in
love and eloped with a man named Medoro. FUN FACT: Angelica and Medoro are actually IN FONTAINE.
They’re local legends who can be found in Salacia Plains. The sequel Orlando Furioso
was written by Ludovico Ariosto. The fact that this love poem and its sequel were written
by different authors is reflected in Perinheri’s description - it was a Khaenri’ahn tale that took
several generations and several authors to write. Speaking of Angelica, if she’s supposed to
be a princess from Liyue, then why is her name “Angelica”? The authors make a note of this
stating: Note that the ancient people of Liyue did not use such names. Now that I consider it,
her name may have been "Lady Miaoyin" (Lady of Wondrous Sound) or "Tianwang Nu" (Servant of
Tianwang). The name Tianwang was mentioned in Genshin’s Developer Insight #4 in regards to
Xiao’s design inspiration. It describes the well-known Daoist Huaguang Tianwang, a guardian
deity. And his name means “Heavenly King of Radiant Light”. Angelica being “one who is as a
divine emissary”, the Servant of a Heavenly King, and later referring to herself as “freedom,
that which has broken free of fate” does sound suspicious. Now what I’m about to say
next requires prior knowledge about Teyvat’s EARLIEST history regarding the Primordial era.
But my guess is that she could have been a woman from a part of the Primordial Civilization
that was ruled by Phanes and the 4 Shining Shades and settled into what is now Liyue.
The Primordial Civilization was massive and her nation may have worshipped Primordial gods
before the Celestial Archons came to take over. The name Perinheri is interesting as
well cause when you google it the only thing that comes up are links to Genshin.
According to the FEW sources I could find, Perin in Latin means “Beautiful Angel”
with “heri” meaning “yesterday”. Although Perinheri might very crudely
mean Yesterday’s Beautiful Angel, it could be TODAY’S hint towards
Natlan… see what I did there ;) There’s a line that stood out to me
in the story. "You have traversed the fire of two worlds within the
hearth, and here you are reborn.” … or Resurrected. Either we’re resurrecting the possibly
dead Pyro Archon, La Signora, or… perhaps…. Something else… If you enjoyed today’s video please LEIF a like
and subscribe and I’ll see you on the next video! I’m your leify lore streamer Minsleif and I read
the Genshin Impact lore so that you don’t have to.
