Hi guys I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!
(This article was originally put up on reddit. It is long and there's much to cover so I've added a summary at the end.)
We already know a few things about Albedo. He's a homunculus created by Rhinedottir who is also known as Gold the person who started the Cataclysm 500 years ago by using monsters to attack across Teyvat. He was abandoned by her when she discovered the Heart of Naberius. This placed him in the care of Mondstadt's Knights of Favonius where he became a surrogate nephew of Rhinedottir's friend Alice and an older brother for her daughter Klee. Albedo was trained in alchemy by Rhinedottir but for the purposes of uncovering the secrets of Khaenri'ah's mysterious Khemia art. Since then he's become the Chief Alchemist of the knights overseeing fellow alchemists like his assistant Sucrose and the novice Timaeus. (who should probably just stick to being a philosopher back in his hometown of Locri)
However we actually know more and I think a few theories already have glanced at it but maybe we could delve even deeper.
One popular theory is derived from Albedo's own name. Albedo is the second step in the alchemical process to make the Philosopher's Stone a holy grail of alchemy that can change "base" metals like lead into precious metals like gold and silver. The other steps usually mentioned are Negredo and Rubedo which is the final step and why Philosopher's Stones in fiction are depicted red.
The idea is that Albedo is trying to figure out rubedo. This is intended to be used as a weapon against Celestia. On the other hand it may also be a misguided attempt at immortality or something of that nature.
Let's backtrack a second. The steps to make the stone are negredo, albedo, rubedo. What all this actually comes from is something called the Magnum Opus and wouldn't you know it when Rhinedottir abandoned Albedo in Mondstadt she left him a letter for Alice along with a book titled "Opus Magnum." Really localization team?
The story of Genshin is based on Gnosticism therefore what if we were to relate it to this aspect of alchemy?
Negredo is just fire. According to alchemy all physical matter in the world is impure. To make that Philosopher's Stone you need the Prima Materia the first material. So you'll need to take all this impure stuff and burn it away to leave only the pure pulp behind. That pulp is albedo. Albedo means white because the material is essentially spiritual light. _(also called Lucifer lol) _Now after you've gotten the prince of darkness out from under all that impure stuff you need to further refine it and that'll get you to rubedo.
So how does this relate to Gnosticism? Well Gnostics also believe that the physical world is impure. So to free our own selves from it we also need to find that spirituality and then refine it to reach gnosis. Humans are sometimes categorized between these steps for their potential to reach gnosis. At the bottom you have the purely physical hylics who are incapable of spiritual enlightenment. A step up from that are the normal humans or the psychics which doesn't actual mean psychic like we know it. It just means they have a mind so they are better than hylics. Finally you have the ones with real potential the pnematics. We'd probably define this word with relation to gas. Well one of the properties of gas compared to solids and liquids is that it is free flowing. It's not bound to a specific volume. In terms of Gnosticism that'd be like being free from your physical body.
Ultimately that's what I think Rhinedottir is really after but what exactly does that mean? Gnosis as it exists in Gnosticism isn't the same as in Genshin. So what is the Gnostic gnosis in Genshin? Genshin isn't actually just based on Gnosticism. It's easiest to see when we get to regions known for it but there's a palpable inclusion of Buddhism and Taoism mixed into the game too. Real Gnostic gnosis is the same as nirvana in Buddhism and was likely inspired by it._ (but also by other religions focused on a journey of spiritual discovery like Sumeru and its Zoroastrianism)_
Ok that's all well and good but what exactly does this mean? We actually already have hints about it. Others have brought this up as well but not in the way I'm thinking. So let's start with Buddhism. If we relate Buddhism to Gnosticism there's an object that represents the Buddhist nirvana that equates to gnosis: The Chintamani or 如意宝珠 which is a jewel said to hold the wisdom of the Buddha.
And doesn't this jewel iconography work out nicely to be where miHoYo got their idea for Genshin's Genesis Pearl? And now we can bring that right back to alchemy as the Philosopher's Stone. (Furthermore I think in this way it may also be the Loom of Fate we heard about all the way back in the We Will Be Reunited Interlude Quest.)
There are plenty of theories on that last one too, mostly suggesting that we'll be able to roll back Teyvat's timeline and fix what happened 500 years ago by using it. I think it'll be much grander than that but I also base that off of the same thing they do: Mona tells us that fate cannot be changed, it can only be but accepted. And from the one of the first events of the game, Unreconciled Stars we know that the stars Mona scries fates from aren't even real. They are part of Celestia's fake sky so exactly what can't be changed about it?
So at least to me it means all of it is the same thing in the end. But it still doesn't explain the point does it? Ok we know the specific purpose for both the Genesis Pearl and a good guess on what the Loom of Fate will do. The loom is based on the real world loom in Greek mythology that weaves the fates of mortals and we're told by Dainsleif that we will one day reweave fate. The Genesis Pearl is what a princess from somewhere called the "kingdom of light" was supposed to obtain but failed so Venti now passed this task to us. While genesis could give us an idea about its purpose I think the Chinese term makes it even clearer. In Chinese the pearl is called 创世的珍珠 or the Pearl of World Creation based on the story of genesis in the Bible. Similar to reweaving fate for all individuals on Teyvat the Genesis Pearl seems to be pointing to our recreating the world.
Side Note: I am so sorry I seem to keep circling around the point but I hope you guys will see how knowing this information is key to understanding the why of this theory.
Ok so Rhinedottir's purpose. We know that while Khaenri'ah was still standing they weren't the biggest fans of gods. And then Rhinedottir and her forces attack all the god-fearing lands of Teyvat. The destruction itself is what I believe was negredo burning away the "impurities" of these gods from Teyvat. And that was the first step towards gaining the Loom of Fate or Genesis Pearl. Rhinedottir wants to reshape Teyvat so the power of the gods that she's envious of can be hers. (She then propagated to her followers and the rest of Khaenri'ah that her goal is really about how the gods have power they don't deserve.)
We can see she hasn't achieved that yet and if my theory is correct she never will. I'm pretty sure the people who read up on their alchemy have been gritting their teeth at me because I've passed over a step: citrinitas. And now I can explain why.
We've known for some time that the actions of both the Tsaritsa and the Abyss are justified to an extent. We also know that they are both still wrong and that's why we oppose them in-game. And I think citrinitas can explain this very well.
Citrinitas is the step in between albedo and rubedo and it's sometimes ignored because of the abstract way this step (but also rubedo) is described. It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that nobody ever actually made a Philosopher's Stone. And that's what I think is going to happen in Genshin. Rhinedottir doesn't actually know how to get from Albedo to rubedo and her Genesis Pearl. And neither does Albedo. In fact he's correctly predicted that he'll end up getting it wrong and losing control.
So what I believe will happen is that Albedo will lose control once he's figured out how to get from his current albedo form into citrinitas. As it's described albedo is just the raw spiritual light. You need to further refine it to create the gnosis-like understanding of rubedo. Citrinitas is an intermediate step where you turn the "lesser feminine" light of albedo into "stronger masculine" light and therefore can better grasp what you'd need to get to rubedo.
And it'll be this vague concept that'll cause Albedo to jump the gun and transform into the monstrous "stronger masculine Lucifer" of citrinitas. And I think that'll be miHoYo's foray into the classic angelic boss in RPGs.
Now what does this mean for the game's story? This is to show how special the Traveler is. Rubedo, the gnosis, the Philosopher's Stone, Chintamani, the Genesis Pearl, the Loom of Fate, etc isn't something just anybody can accomplish. Rhinedottir and Albedo will find that out when Albedo loses control. The Tsaritsa will also find this out with her method that we'll eventually see too.
And that'll set it up for the Traveler to truly figure out the secret to getting that rubedo step and obtaining the Genesis Pearl and the Loom of Fate. And then the way we'll "reweave fate" and "recreate the world" will be totally different from what's been said so far.
In summary:
- Rhinedottir wants rubedo from the Magnum Opus because it can change the fate of Teyvat to one she prefers.
- It's next to impossible to get rubedo just like how nobody was able to do it in real life.
- So things will go wrong and we'll see that with Albedo. He already predicted he'd lose control and he appointed us to stop him when it happens.
- Ultimately the Traveler will be the one to get to rubedo which is the Genesis Pearl/Loom of Fate/gnosis in Gnosticism.
So what do you guys think? Sound legit? Or is this totally bonkers?