We FINALLY got an animation for the Moonlit
Bamboo Forest! I’m freaking out because THIS book series has some of the earliest mentions
of ONE of Genshin’s MOST enigmatic figures ever… the Three Moon Sisters. Let me explain. People think Paimon
is a Moon Sister. Some might think the Unknown god is a Moon Sister.
Others might think Paimon, Traveler, and Lumine are all the Three Moon Sisters.
But who are they really? This video will go over the identities of the Moon Sisters as
well as explore the tale of the Moonlit Bamboo Forest. Get ready because the second half of
this video is going to be a CRAZY RIDE. I’m your leify lore streamer Minsleif and I read the
Genshin Impact lore so that you don’t have to. The Moonlit Bamboo Forest is a series of 4
volumes and contains the story of a small-town boy from Qingce Village looking to leave behind
his sleepy hometown. He’s warned by the village elders about having his soul stolen away by
foxes and white horse Adepti. In the animation, the boy encounters a fox wedding. He’s eagerly
invited into the procession but finds himself getting swept away presumably about to get
his soul stolen by the foxes. He’s saved by a white haired woman with golden eyes surrounded
by Seelies. In the story, this woman leads him out of the bamboo forest and tells him about the tale
of the Three Moon Sisters. The two depart at the edge of the forest, and the boy hears a whinnying
cry that then grew distant. He turned and looked, and there was nothing behind him, but a single
strand of hair that had come to rest on his shoulder. In the Chinese version of Genshin, this
strand of hair is more accurately referred to as horse hair. This means he may have run into the
aforementioned White Horse Adeptus… or did he? The fox wedding and snatching of souls could
be inspired by Kitsune no yomeiri. It’s the Japanese superstition that foxes play tricks on
humans and use atmospheric ghost lights to lure humans to a fox wedding. It’s depicted in the
movie Dreams (1990) by Akira Kurosawa in which a boy accidentally interrupts a fox wedding.
A fox sends a ritual sacrifice knife to the boy’s mother to let her know of her son’s fate
and she rushes to the forest to rescue her son. I’m honestly really impressed by this
animation which was produced by Passion Pictures. The music was done by Cécile
Corbel and I’m freaking out because she’s the composer for Ghibli’s Arrietty which
is one of my favorite Ghibli OSTs TT o TT It’s a beautiful tale and it’s now
beautifully animated and it’s one of my favorite stories for a reason,
but let me summarize the story of the Three Moon Sisters for you as
well as their possible identities. The Three Moon Sisters go
by the names Aria, Sonnet, and Canon - all technical musical terms.
Let me get you even more excited for them. Remember the song that plays during Genshin’s
login screen? Well the tune of this opening song is officially called Dream Aria and I’m
pretty sure this naming is not a coincidence. The Three Moon Sisters were ancient goddesses that
preceded the reign of Morax. So think ANCIENT, ANCIENT Teyvat history, they’re more than
Zhongli-old. They were said to have ruled over the Seelie race from their Lunar Palace.
The sisters were tasked with riding a silver carriage throughout the heavens and each sister
alternated riding the carriage three times a month. If the reign of the carriage was not
promptly passed from one sister to the next, a terrible disaster would occur that very day. The beginning of the end occurs when
the Moon Sisters witness the marriage of a Seelie with an Outlander. In short,
an Outlander is a being that comes from outside of Teyvat. So… you can probably
imagine how taboo this act probably was. This event caused an Ancient Calamity in
which the Seelie and Outlander - the two lovers - were separated for eternity and
had their memories wiped. The heartbroken Seelie withered away, eventually turning
into the wispy Seelie form we know today. This same Ancient Calamity overturned
the sisters' carriage and destroyed the palace of the stars. According to
Volume 3 of the Moonlit Bamboo Forest, the moon sisters turned on each other
and killed each other. Ultimately, at least one sisters died, and her corpse
became the moon in Teyvat's night sky. So who exactly is the lady who helped
the boy out of the Moonlit Bamboo Forest? The names of the Three Moon
Sisters again are Aria, Sonnet, and Canon. All three are musical terms. A canon
is a contrapuntal or counterpoint compositional technique that employs a melody with one
or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration. I’m going to tug
on my 17 years of piano experience here, but from what I remember this technique was
very popular in the Baroque period of music. Just think of it like melodies mimicking
or following each other. Here’s an example: Sonnet comes from the Italian word Sonetto
which means “little song”. The term is also used to describe a 14 line poem that
follows a strict rhyme scheme and structure. Aria, and this one might be the saddest one,
is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral
accompaniment. It’s a solo ; - ; Remember how during the Ancient Calamity,
the Three Moon Sisters killed each other with one of their bodies turning into the moon
in Teyvat’s sky? So is it Aria, Sonnet, or Canon? Buckle up. This theory is compounded by another
theory from Lore Archon Wei. In a video, he introduced the possible
identities of three unknown gods in Genshin Impact all based
off Achievements in Enkanomiya. The names featured in these
achievements are Kairos, Hesperus, and Phosphoros. We actually know
the identity of one of them: Kairos. And it comes from another story from Teyvat’s
ancient, ancient history. So lemme explain. The FIRST god of Teyvat was known as
the Primordial One. The Primordial One had 4 gods who worked under him. They
were known as the Four Shining Shades. Together they defeated Neuvillette’s
family - the Seven Dragon Sovereigns. They essentially colonized Teyvat because
the original species of Teyvat were the dragons and vishaps ruled by the Seven Dragon
Sovereigns. Kairos is the alternate name of one of these Four Shining Shades
- Istaroth, the Goddess of Time. So if Kairos = Istaroth and she’s
one of the Four Shining Shades, then according to Wei it should follow
that Hesperus and Phosphoros are also Shining Shades, so we at least know
the identity of 3/4 of these Shades. I’m going to expand on his initial theory: These 3 goddesses mentioned in the Enkanomiya
Achievements might also be the Three Moon Sisters. We know that two of the Moon Sisters were killed as a result of them turning on each
other during an Ancient Calamity… According to the Amethyst Crown artifact
we might know what that Calamity was… In the Enkanomiya records we learn about
two wars that the Primordial One and his Four Shining Shades fought in: the War Against
the Seven Dragon Sovereigns and the War Against the Second Who Came. The War Against the Second
Who Came caused Enkanomiya to sink underground. In the lore of the Amethyst Crown artifact, the
Sumeru Goddess of Flowers reveals that her race - the Seelies - were exiled due to a Calamity and
this lines up with the Seelies being cursed into their wispy forms in the Moonlit Bamboo Forest.
After Neuvillette’s family was defeated, Nibelung, the Dragon King, waged war in retaliation against
the Primordial One after he brought forbidden knowledge into Teyvat. This is the War Against
the Second Who Came with this title of “The Second Who Came” possibly referring to Nibelung, I’m
guessing cause he left and came back to Teyvat. So the calamity that sunk Enkanomiya and the calamity that doomed the Seelie
race are the same Ancient Calamity. Notice the words next to these names in the
Enkanomiya Achievements: Phosphoros’ Guidance, Hesperus’ Boon, Kairos’ Constancy. Phosphoros’
Guidance is achieved when you follow Seelies to their Seelie courts. My guess is
Phosphoros could be the Moon Sister Canon, since remember canon is a piece in which the
melodies follow a leading or guiding melody. I’m about to explode your minds even more are
you ready? Phosphoros/Canon could even be the Welkin Moon since Welkin means “the vault
of the sky, the firmament”. And the term firmament is often used to describe Teyvat’s
sky. This “flat Teyvat” belief is apparently common since there’s a “round-earther”
NPC in Sumeru that gets made fun of. This means the moon we see
could be the body of Canon, and possibly even the body of
one of the Four Shining Shades. Onto the next name, Hesperus, and this
one makes me depressed. Notice this word “boon”. Boon is a favor and favor
could also be synonym of Blessing… now where do we see this word. Blessing
of the Abyssal Moon. The moon we see in the Abyss could be the body of Hesperus or
the Moon Sister Sonnet. In Greek mythology, Hesperus is known as the Evening Star with night
also being commonly associated with the Abyss. So this means, the being that the boy met in the Moonlit
Bamboo Forest could’ve been Aria, the last Moon Sister and possibly the missing
Goddess of Time. Kairos’ Constancy, and a time constant is term often
used in physics and engineering. If Aria and Istaroth/Kairos
are the same being however, the Honeyed Final Feast Artifact
paints an even darker picture… Later, time sundered the contract between day
and night, destroying the ancient oath. The gentle moonlight sank into the quicksand. The
sun shrouded all things in its fearsome gaze. IF they are the same being thisseems
to imply that the Moon sister Aria aka Istaroth aka Kairos could’ve
been the one to kill her other Moon Sisters… and that’s why she’s
all alone… why she’s BEEN all alone… We know for a fact the Goddess of Time was
alive even up to the recent Cataclysm because she helped out Makoto during Raiden’s Story
Quest Act 2. But wait she took the form of a Horse in the end of the story so doesn’t
that mean she’s a Horse Adeptus and not the Goddess of Time? Does horse imagery even
make sense for Genshin’s Goddess of Time???? So hear me out, the horse imagery works since… What were the Three Moon
Sisters known to have done? They were navigating a silver
carriage throughout the heavens, a literal horse-drawn carriage. It could also
be said that Apollo the Olympian Sun God who had Four Horses or even Helios the Greek God of
Sun who had his Chariot pulled by Four Horses also could all be used in correlation with the
Primordial One and his Four Shining Shades. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse anyone? BUT again. This is a theory. I’m sorry I keep
doing this to you where I hype you up with huge theories only to be like WAIT but there
ARE things to refute the evidence! But that’s the fun in theorycrafting, it’s not true until
it is. There’s still inconsistencies with this train of thought. The Moon Sisters could
also be completely separate entities from the Primordial One and the Four Shining
Shades and I can explore that in another video since I feel like it’s a huge topic
that deserves it’s own dedicated upload. If you enjoyed this 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.
