All the way back in v1.4 we got the biggest of all info dumps for this game. It's pretty much the foundation for all theories past, present and future because of what goes on.
For one thing it pointed out that Dainsleif is an unreliable narrator. Before this quest many players were taking his word for everything that would happen in the game especially since he narrates the Travail Trailer. In the trailer he criticizes and scrutinizes each region and their Archon. For example in Mondstadt he questioned "freedom" if that freedom was demanded of you by a god. Thanks to this quest though we see that he really doesn't like gods and has a deep bias in favor of humans performing the kinds of feats that should only be possible by gods. He really follows the beliefs of Khaenri'ah. Looking back on it you can even see that he defends many of its actions pre-fall like it should be normal. For example he talks about the Field Tillers saying very matter-of-fact that Khaenri'ah believed "the land should be fought for with steel and blood." He says that after the fall these Ruin Guards wandered around all of Teyvat without a controller. We know these things are dangerous; we played through a whole Character Quest trying to keep a dumb kid safe from them. Now if we don't romanticize it what does a bunch of Ruin Guards wandering out from their home region into all the other regions of the world sound like to you? Yeah Khaenri'ah's not right in the head.
It reminds me of Windblume and Kaeya using the "mi muhe ye" on Venti to mean I love you. Directly translated it actually means "I will triumph over you." That sent theorycrafters into a frenzy claiming that Kaeya was threatening Venti. But here's the thing. It does actually mean I love you but from a Khaenrian point of view. When you're from a nation who thinks its normal to "till the land" with "steel and blood" and who doesn't find it wrong that weapons are wandering uncontrolled all across other people's lands you might honestly think that "triumphing" over someone is love. You know it's like how Sparta worshipped an Aphrodite who was the Goddess of Love AND War.
Another thing that I personally took to heart though was seeing the Chinese version of Lumine's lines and seeing dramatic differences. On the lighter side she calls Aether big brother which is the only confirmation we have in game that Aether's the older twin. In the other versions she just calls Aether by name. (though in Japanese Paimon does refer to her as Aether's little sister since it's a different word than older sister in these languages) But on a more important note Lumine says she's fighting a war against destiny. Not even close. She literally says the "Heavenly Principles" which would have made more sense since the twins were after all attacked by the Sustainer of those Heavenly Principles. But anyway that 1 thing got me to look at all kinds of stuff in the original Chinese where the principles come up just so many times. For example Baal says her Eternity is closest not to "heaven" but to those principles and that's how I figured out the story so well. These days those principles come up much more often with her right? We recently found out that Makoto sacrificed herself so that Ei wouldn't fall for the principles and also keep Inazuma from them too.
Actually looking back at it so much later there's even some stuff I don't think anybody would have noticed back then. For example Dainsleif says the line "Time is just waiting for those seeds to sprout." I can't be sure if that is just coincidence but you have to appreciate how closely it resembles the events of the recent quest. In context Dainsleif is talking about how Aether was always going to find him in the tavern and start their relationship. What that is is the concept of predestination and in terms of Ei's quest the way time travel is portrayed fits with it. The Sacred Sakura was always planted in Inazuma because Ei would eventually plant it from the future in the past.
Also looking at it now we can really see Dainsleif unreliable. Sure in another update from this quest we see that Zhongli's ashamed of his role in Khaenri'ah. But with the recent quest we see that Rhinedottir was invading other regions at the same time. Inazuma was under siege by Abyss forces to the extent that Kitsune Saiguu was dissolved by its darkness and it took Makoto turning herself into the Sacred Sakura to give Ei a fighting chance against it. And that brings to mind that when all this was happening Mondstadt was getting attacked too. This was when Dvalin and Venti fought Durin and Dvalin was poisoned by it. So Khaenri'ah was hardly innocent.
Previously I thought that it was the threat she and her followers posed that forced the Archons to agree that they needed to raze Khaenri'ah. But now it looks more like Khaenri'ah was actively attacking all these regions so the Archons had to smite them just to protect their own people. Of course the reason why Zhongli would still not want to talk about it remains unchanged. My guess is there might have been a solution where the rest of Khaenri'ah didn't have to die/become Abyssal creatures but they picked the quicker solution Celestia came up with. We also see from Ei's quest that it wasn't exactly like all the gods descended and took Khaenri'ah out. Instead it feels more like a personal choice. Ei wasn't planning to go at all. Makoto ended up going somewhere in the middle and Ei gets there by the end just to look for her. It's not really the picture Dainsleif painted for us is it? [emoji]
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On the other hand the gameplay didn't age very well. Wow remember back then when the Abyss Herald was this scary thing that lead the Abyss? Now we've got Enjou who's this big bad True Damage dealing Lector and his personality is a wisecrack. He's treated as more annoying than scary.
Also thinking about that Mecha Osial thing they were planning to build. We now have Beisht who we destroyed for kicks. This thing if you really think about it is a Ruin Guard's eye - its weak point - stapled to a statue. Sure the pieces of Osial might be tough but its core is a normal piece of rock with an obvious weak spot. Unless they tweak it so maybe the pieces of Osial envelop the statue and eye and it's got like Durin's poison or something I don't see that boss being very hard. Not when we have to farm Azhdaha and now the Shogun every week. Of all the stuff to get powercrept the rumored potential super weapons. [emoji]It goes to show how far we've come with this game.
One day when we get this boss (because Dainsleif was a dumb dumb who took the eye he was trying to keep from them through the portal with them) what do you think will be the mechanic MiHoYo needs to come up with to make it even a little scary?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
