There's so much to talk about with this Archon Quest it's hard to remember them all. If only we had a Fantastic Compass that creates spatial rifts based on our memories lol
My theory on that was either that we'd get a little scientific and talk about time dilations and gravity pockets - yeah that didn't happen - or it was just the dream world idea. Everything we experienced (besides being physically there because magic) was happening based on our minds specifically our and the yaksha's memories.
Memory actually seems to be a major theme for Genshin isn't it? Zhongli and Yae both want us to remember our travels in Teyvat. Ei's memories were unaltered from the original timeline and noticed the Sacred Sakura timeline that Istaroth helped Makoto create. And we also remind her of her past through the power of the Ley Lines which also store everybody's memories.
Memories being a way to preserve life has been used in other fantasy stories too but taking it back into a sci-fi side actually the idea of memories holding some kind of power isn't new for MiHoYo either. Honkai actually uses memories as a cost for using the powers of the Honkai. Fenghuang Down has several abilities but to use any of them Fuhua has to burn away some of her memories.
Still it's inconsistent in that way. Fuhua uses Fenghuang Down a bunch of times and her memories do get wiped away each time but she seems to still remember them. I mean when she "died" and wanted to seal herself away with the Herrscher she remembered tons of stuff from her past that she was supposed to have forgotten. Also even without her memories she's cold and distant because of the pain she feels losing all her loved ones since she's immortal.
In Genshin this plays out too. Memories seem to disappear thanks to any number of things like erosion or karma but they don't actually go away do they? Azhdaha said he forgot everything and ended up resenting Morax but not only did Kunjun exist remembering all the important stuff but he was even able to remind his supposedly senile little girl form. Ei (but this could be a direct consequence of sticking herself into Euthymia) has really lopsided memories. She's supposed to be this Archon that existed since the Archon War days but she's really ignorant of things that just being alive all that time should have taught her. At the same time she can tell you exactly what happened in her past.
This could play off of the storage idea though. Fuhua herself has shown memory loss and no longer recognizing people she should know but maybe the Fenghuang Down itself isn't using her memories up it's storing them. She's even stored herself on it. And if Zhongli wants us to remember Teyvat could that be something like a backup plan in case the battle against Celestia doesn't go well?
We actually have this playing out right now in Honkai. Not too long ago the game introduced the Elysian Realm where all the dead characters from the previous world exist as data. Could the memories stored in the Ley Lines be used for that?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
