Looks like we'll finally see in v2.5 how much our Guuji has changed.
I don't have to go over it again right? I've made my case a few times already.
They don't respond to e-mails or really make any kind of contact with players no matter what so it's really hard to tell if they even read any of it. But if they did there are a few possible outcomes I came up for them.
First of all it never seemed like they actually wanted to change her or their original story so that's why the current standings of Inazuma only make sense if you pretend like the Archon Quest ended the original way. And to get away with that their strategy is they pretty much don't talk about the specifics and kinda reword things to fit with the new outcome. Like Childe the Fatui Harbinger somehow arriving in Inazuma and conducting his own mission totally undisturbed. Or how Inazuma soldiers aren't allowed onto part of their own territory because Watatsumi has its own soldiers already stationed there. If they go with that nothing really has to change about Yae and they can just play off her mortal role as a fox envoy. They could change her constellation's name from Tonitrus Dei to literally anything and use the word Vision instead of Gnosis. They've done it before with Zhongli. Now the big issue would be Character Quest because that's where we're supposed to get to know more about these characters. We saw how intimate it can get with Zhongli's all about his old life as Archon. BUT because it was all about him being an Archon we still don't really know much about Zhongli the human man who works at the funeral parlor do we? So this actually presents MiHoYo with an opportunity. They could set Yae's quest to only get into her role as a fox envoy and we already have some backstory to it through Kitsune Saiguu.
This bumps it to a second route they can take. Sure they could rework her whole character into the diminished role but they can also purposely mislead and that would be really fun to explore. Essentially nothing changes from what I said before. Except anytime MiHoYo wants they could hint that Yae's misleading us. Which also already has precedence. She acts differently in front of us and officials like Sara compared to how she is in front of regular people. She also shows that she schemes behind the scenes even going so far as to use us to enter Ei's Euthymia to convince her to give up eternity. Now the reworked story has Ei stubbornly refusing to give it up but we can still see how manipulative Yae can be. So just like Zhongli her "Vision" is a Gnosis in disguise. And in the meantime her character will play out as a fox envoy but with little things that suggest otherwise if you pay attention. Maybe they even keep the Constellation looking like an Archon constellation. (but they totally don't have to. You can see that Ei who wasn't born an Archon still has an Archon Constellation but no other mortal character has this format not even the Traveler. This suggests that Constellations can change into the Archon format upon ascension.)
Finally if MiHoYo's like "dude we're the most popular and most lucrative game right now. We don't have to play nice nice with you" they could easily release the original Electro Archon. What is Japan going to do? Deprive millions of their people from playing the game they invested their money and time into for a year? That'll go over well. [emoji]Then the Character Quest obviously deals with the "wait you're the original Archon?" stuff and how much the public will end up knowing or even how much Ei will end up knowing is totally up to MiHoYo. (I have a theory Ei's not 100% there. [emoji]) In this case I think they'd still start off with Vision and then just like Zhongli once you've done her quest it'll change back to Gnosis. This version will have Yae reveal a few more details (or all of them) to make the Archon Quest make more sense.
Which path will MiHoYo choose? Well I am a little concerned at how long they delayed her release. She was teased all the way back almost a year ago with the v1.5 preview and she was likely to come out by v2.2 at the latest instead of it being a double rerun with Childe getting a rererun. And the fact that Zhongli and Ganyu both of the characters she's acquainted with are running for Lantern Rite instead makes me think it'll be the first one. MiHoYo probably really doesn't want any trouble so Yae got a full makeover into a fox envoy. The plotholes will stay unmentioned/glossed over and they'll have to make her role exactly like how we saw in some of the stories where she's younger than Kitsune Saiguu. How she would know Zhongli so well even better than Ei? Will never be mentioned again. Sat at the Archon meetings and drank Venti's wine with them? Never mentioned again. How she knows Ganyu when her fox envoy stuff doesn't say she's ever left Inazuma? Nope.
Anyway which direction where you hoping they'd go with her character?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
Commentaries on Genshin Impact and MiHoYo
Part II!
Hey guys so a little update that might get on MiHoYo's nerves but this one's kinda buried so hopefully they don't notice.
There are already rumors (but I'm pretty sure its really leaks since obviously the beta testers are on v2.5 right now) Anyway it turns out MiHoYo is probably doing Option 3: saying a big ol' screw you to Japan's officials because my game is played by millions of your citizens and they'll probably hate you more than me if you take the game away.
Anyway a few pieces of Japanese lore first and then we'll get to fitting Yae into them. So we already know Inari right? She's one of the most popular Japanese Shinto goddesses in the modern day going from goddess of rice cultivation to economics. (pretty much she's changed with Japan's economic focus ie agriculture to business) Inari shares the same first word in her name with Inazuma and that word ina means rice. Inazuma actually means rice wife and was used by Japan to mean lightning because lightning enriches the soil for rice cultivation. Inari has an army of differently powered kitsune that do her bidding but she herself is sometimes represented as the head kitsune. In modern times each time you want another shrine to Inari you split her soul into an effigy of a white kitsune.
Another story in Japanese folklore is about the highest gods of Shinto belief. First the Sun goddess Amaterasu. She has a brother named Susano-O who famously killed the 8 headed snake Yamato-no-orochi. Orobashi shares the Japanese aspect of itself with Orochi. (his Ars Goetia name then comes from Orobas) Anyway Susano-O might have slain this evil snake thing but he's also very violent and Amaterasu is ashamed of him. So one day when he comes to visit her she doesn't want to see him and locks herself in her room. Problem is she's the SUN. With her hiding in her room the world goes dark. (But likely this story is how Japan explained eclipses) Anyway the other gods discuss how they can get her back out of her room. They do a bunch of things but nothing works so they end up throwing a feast and gathering everybody hoping the commotion will at least peak Amaterasu's curiosity enough to open the door. Sadly it fails. That's when Ame no Uzume the goddess of the dawn (real subtle there) gets drunk, tips over a table and starts dancing the Kagura dance. The silly act causes all the gods to laugh and that finally gets Amaterasu's attention. She peeks out and as she gets a closer look at the silliness another god is able to shut the door behind her and refuses to move forcing her to stay out of her room.
Now if a goddess refusing to leave her room until someone does something crazy to force her back out reminds you of anything yes I think it's MiHoYo saying "duh Yae's an Archon too who else would know this much stuff and why would we have you talk to her not Ei at the end of the quest!" Just like Ame no Uzume Yae creates a commotion namely the Traveler that peaks Ei's interest enough to crack open the door. We head in and eventually force her back out. Ei here represents Amaterasu because with her in her Euthymia the people were suffering against the darkness aka the Fatui. (also you know corruption of the Tenryou/Kanjou Commissions and that big old storm keeping everybody stuck in or out of the region)
According to the rumors Yae will have a Burst that gives her multiple Electro fox tails so there's your Inari reference not to mention the whole she's head of the shrine which is designed to look just like an Inari shrine. Inari being the goddess of rice cultivation matches very well as the original leader of the region of Inazuma with the element of Electro aiding in rice cultivation. Her 5* weapon is the Suzu a Shinto bell staff thing that Ame no Uzume used in her Kagura dance and the special ability of that weapon is literally called the Kagura dance. Going back to her Burst its name is "Hidden Art: Tenko Truth Revelation" right on the nose there MiHoYo. (btw Tenko are the highest form of kitsune. Sometimes they are depicted as right under Inari but other times Inari is a tenko)
She also has a passive called Royal Shroud of Divine Partition. To me that just describes what she did. While originally I thought she would be upset by her overthrow later on I thought it was more like a forceful succession. She graciously stepped aside for the twins to take her place only worried that their ideal of Eternity wasn't the best way of thinking. I have another theory that Ei's mind suffered while in her Euthymia so her memories aren't what they used to be. She may honestly think her sister was the original Archon and forgot all the misery of forcefully removing their mentor Yae. With Yae's mortal identity Ei probably only thought of her in her diminished role as head of her shrine. But instead of correcting any of that Yae realized it didn't help Ei to have to remember that stuff so she hid it like a Divine Partition shrouding her "royalty" as Archon.
Her other Passive is called "Stinging Congratulations." My guess is this both represents the past when she was just overthrown. She does show that she was bitter for a while (Act 1) so likely she congratulated the twins but with words that had a double meaning. This also could have bit her back as she settled into her retired mentor role. Maybe she said something that implied they'd die and then Makoto did die in the end. So her compassion for Ei could even be out of guilt and that's even more reason why she is hiding the truth from her.
Actually now that I think about it even her skill might link her to her tenko and therefore her Inari inspiration. I think the translation is "Lethal Sakura" but the first two words are sesshou you know like Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. But these words have another folklore related meaning. The Sesshouseki was the petrified body of an evil tenko called Tamamo no Mae (any FGO players out there?) and it killed anything that wandered too close to it. Eventually a Buddhist monk sets Tamamo no Mae's spirit to rest and then shatters the sesshouseki but each piece still causes death and misery around it. According to the rumors the skill creates sesshou sakuras that do more Electro damage the more of them that are in play.
I have to say I have nothing but respect for MiHoYo sticking to their guns with this character and I hope that means the rest of the Archon Quests will proceed as planned.
Part III!
Again MiHoYo might get mad at me for this but there's more leaked info now not even trying to pass it off as a rumor anymore. But here's the thing the new info makes me think MiHoYo will elect to go for Option 2 and they have a very good story to go along with it that I respect. (if that's what they are going for)
Anyway in the last part I talked about the original Japanese for Yae's Skill which is the Sesshou Sakura. Sesshou is a term in Japanese that's found very popularly in folklore specifically the sesshouseki or the killing stone which is the petrified body of an evil kitsune called Tamamo no Mae.
So originally I just thought this was an offhand kitsune reference because Tamamo no Mae is also a high ranked kitsune. But with more info I think it's its own reference. The sesshouseki was born from the corpse of Tamamo no Mae after she was slain by the Tenno's guards. There were 2 but I think that's just a happy coincidence. But you guys know my theory right? Overthrown. What if it wasn't just a defeat like I thought? What if Makoto and Ei actually killed Yae?
Yae's Burst uses 1 very interesting term: Kitsunetsuki. This is the "possession of humans by a kitsune." Are you getting it? What if Yae was murdered by Makoto and Ei and in her anger she possessed a person named Yae Miko and might have originally wanted to try taking revenge on the twins. But that changed (at least I think it would because I don't like the idea Miko isn't honestly Ei's friend) when Makoto died and we bring back that "Stinging Congratulations" passive of hers where she regrets her resentment of them. Just like Tamamo no Mae she gives up her hang ups over how her life turned out and was able to leave the sesshouseki and be reincarnated.
This builds on what her Constellation has turned out to be: Divina vulpes. Notice something do we? Like how our ARCHON has the Constellation Imperatrix Umbrosa 1. umbrosa relating to her human name Ei and 2. imperatrix meaning empress not god. Now divina isn't Tonitrus Dei which would have made sense for an Archon. After all Venti and Zhongli have Carmen Dei and Lapis Dei right? Here's where that reincarnation/kitsune possession thing comes in. The Dei Constellations are set up to mean "god of" an element. Carmen means wind and lapis means stone. Tonitrus would have meant thunder but Yae hasn't been the Archon for who knows how long. And if the kitsunetsuki thing happened Yae Miko isn't actually the Archon herself. She's just possessed by her. So Divina vulpes actually makes more sense. It means Fox God. Not god of foxes but a god who is a fox literally what happened. The dead Archon possessed a kitsune fox envoy named Yae Miko.
So that's Option 2 in a nutshell. Yes Yae Miko knows way too much to not be the Archon. But she isn't because her Archon self is dead and is now just inhabiting the body of an actual fox envoy. This is why we do talk to her and not Ei at the end because she's still technically the original Archon with all the answers but we never really have to talk about her Archon life because she unlike Zhongli is actually Yae Miko.
Option 2 was the one I really liked but I never thought MiHoYo would come up with something this good. What we have is an honestly mortal Yae Miko but with the "soul" of the dead Electro Archon. And that actually works out really well for the lore because we were told by Madame Ping that gods never die. Andrius turned himself into a ghost, Marchosius sacrificed his power and became a mascot and Orobashi became (actually he's kind of a sesshouseki too isn't he?) the Tatarigami. (btw tatarigami means Curse God) I'm going to go and say that in this case Yae's something like a mortal reincarnation of the dead Electro Archon who eventually recovered her memory of being an Archon something like Marchosius. (Which also means Guoba could get an arc later in the game!) I prefer to think that Yae's not just some poor soul who is being controlled by the dead god because it's that dead god we talk to and I like her personality lol
Anyway I think I have her guaranteed so I'll definitely be digging into it once I have her.
