A Working History of the Immernachtreich | Genshin Impact

This article was originally put up on reddit.

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 theory's really long so I've added a summary at the end.)

So about a year ago when the Moonchase event was happening we learned something about Archons. (I mean ok we probably should have guessed because of Andrius but Moonchase stated it outright.) Madame Ping tells us that gods aka Archons can't actually die. This ended up being about Guoba who used to be the Archon Marchosius so that got me to thinking who else might be alive in this diminished state? Guizhong as Ningguang? Remember when that used to be a theory?

So taking that into consideration I sought out humans that might have once been Archons. Now how do we figure that out? Well we know some trends with Archons right? Barbatos, Morax, Beelzebul/Baal, Orobas, Ose and Marchosius. Every last Archon has a name found in the Ars Goetia. Guessing by the title of this theory who do you think also fits this trend? That's right. Amy the President of Hell commander of 36 legions.

Now you might be thinking this is stupid. Amy is just a name and a chunibyou does not an Archon make. But wait. There's more. (so much more)

Side Note: Chunibyou might not an Archon make but we recently got Furina who is the human side of an actual Archon. Coincidence?

I'm actually going to jump ship a little and we're going to the recent event in the Golden Apple Archipelago. We had a huge quest chain all about Fischl where we learn plenty of things about her that could be tied to her time as Archon.

Let's start with this. This is everything we get out of the Narrator during Fischl's Domain. Notice how we open with when Amy might have done her Archon thing and set up her region. "During the Time of Chaos" and "roughly six hundred years" before something called the "Era of the Saints." Era of the Saints? Current era, where the "saints" would be the Seven. 600 years before that pretty much means 600 years before they came into power, that would be the end of the Archon War so that's 2000 years ago and 600 years before that is 2600 years ago which would be around the time Venti was usurping Decarabian and setting up New Mondstadt. And that already answers what the "Time of Chaos" would be. Archon War. Now that's just where I've plotted it out but there might be more to it because other information seems to suggest this region had to be set up before Venti. More on that later.

"The Prinzessin harbored much sympathy for all living things." Zhongli Story 5. The old Archons in the Seven had the duty of guiding humanity. Zhongli protected his people for 3700 years before retiring just recently. This same duty was not upheld by the newbie Archons like Ei. So now we have a link tying Amy to the old Archons.

That paragraph also talks about resettling her people which we know both Venti and Zhongli had to do and we also know that these people would have started out as the unified human civilization which was displaced when Celestia went crazy and split them up. (sinking Enkanomiya in the process for example) It also might establish Amy's Archon title. You know how Venti's the God of Freedom and Zhongli's the God of Contracts? Amy's into poetry and theater. Maybe she was the God of Arts.

Skip a few paragraphs and we get to the end. "She picked up mere stones to carve out mountains and oceans, before bestowing upon her people castles and towns." Venti reshaped the Mondstadt basin, drowned Pilos Peak, shaved off the tops of some mountains and chucked them into the sea making the archipelago. Zhongli- well Guyun Stone Forest and the Jueyun Karst look like that because he "hurled his spears" at other Archons. They're still buried under those places. And Watatsumi exists because Orobashi shed some coral off himself.

Is there more? You betcha! Soteria is Fischl's other other name right? Google it. Soteria is the God of Deliverance but she's also an epithet of Persephone the Goddess of the Underworld. Now this next part is going to get long-winded but try to stay with me. Where does Fischl say she comes from? Immernachtreich right? That's German for the Realm of the Evernight. Where else have we seen the word Evernight? Enkanomiya. Another name for Enkanomiya in game is Tokoyokoku but you can actually read this as Tokoyo no Kuni. Google that. It's Okinawa's version of the underworld. (Japan's is Yomi or Naraku.) I'll get to Tokoyo no Kuni itself in the future but for now just know Enkanomiya is just a place not an actual underworld. Instead the underworld reference here works well for Immernachtreich since Fischl is related to Persephone.

On top of that this lets us know that Oz is the Archon Naberius. Naberius is an Ars Goetia demon and if you look into it he's actually based on Cerberus you know Hades pet dog Spot. Persephone is his wife. But here's something you might not know. Hades is newer lore. Persephone existed since Mycanean Greek times. She was by herself the Goddess of the Underworld so it makes sense that Oz is her loyal servant aka doggo. (His name Ozvaldo also means God's power.)

Now Naberius is actually in Genshin. Rhinedottir and Albedo find his heart and right after that Rhinedottir ditches Albedo in Mondstadt. Curious right? So if Oz is Naberius and his heart isn't with him well this means Oz is also in a diminished state but now this important part of him is with Rhinedottir. We know who she is. She's Gold the crazed alchemist who attacked Teyvat doing things like sending Durin at Mondstadt, Rifthounds and other monsters at Inazuma and an army in "an iron meteorite" at Liyue's Chasm while Morax's forces were dealing with their main force in Guyun. This caused Khaenri'ah to be destroyed by Celestia and that caused the Abyss Order to be born.

The Abyss Order. Remember back in Lisa's Quest they were looking for a fairytale book for some reason? We still only have 1 chapter of this book and it talks about something interesting, the Night Mother who hails from a Land of Night. Sound familiar? But of course the rest of that story doesn't make sense if we wanted to apply it to Fischl right? Well neither would the Abyss wanting to find someone like the Fischl we're seeing here in the recent event. But we know something happened. Somewhere down the line Fischl stopped caring about the things happening in the world.

I'm thinking this "Night Mother" thing is mostly fairytale but what it's describing is Amy at the end of her reign as ruler of the "Immernachtreich" region. Keep in mind how Fischl describes her home. It's gone. This event "brought it back." We know the real region is also gone because there is no Archon Amy anymore in the modern day. And again keep in mind that Immernachtreich is an underworld but the one described in the event is definitely no underworld.

What I think the Abyss believes is the other side of the Fischl story. Let's head over to the books for the Legend of the Shattered Halberd and Flowers for Princess Fischl!

This topic's already dragging pretty long and it's only about to get longer so I'll skip over the details of these books and go straight to the points they bring up. First Fischl as "the Prinzessin der Verurteilung" is set to absorb the pain and suffering of all people of the world and then burn away the old world to bring forth the new one. Another thing she's set to do which is only revealed in the last volume of Halberd is that she's actually the "divine halberd" that will reconnect the Ley Lines. It's also important that this is only mentioned in the last volume but that's a topic for another day.

This story should tell us why the Abyss might be interested right? Their plan as we learn from our sibling is to destroy this world and remake it. If Fischl is meant to do this she's key to their plans. And that's also how Oz fits in which is why Rhinedottir ditched Albedo as soon as she found his heart. I think she might want to use the heart to blackmail Oz to aid the Abyss. She might have already done this.

If you read Fischl's backstory she got her Vision when she was having a crisis of identity. Oz showed up at the same time as her Vision. Now here's the thing. If she's an Archon she doesn't need a Vision. And if she doesn't actually have a Vision then Oz isn't actually a result of her Vision. I think Oz might have helped the fallen Archon Amy become the human Amy and had been watching over her the whole time. Then Rhinedottir happened so he decided to "activate" Amy by giving her a "Vision" and becoming her "familiar." His actual goal here with respect to being a pawn of Rhinedottir is to nurture Amy's Fischl identity so that she'll be willing to become the Night Mother/Prinzessin that will remake the world one day according to the stories.

Another parallel here? Ars Goetia Amy was banished but it is said he will (yes this Amy's a dude) will eventually rise up again and claim the 7th throne of Heaven. If our Fischl is also set to "claim" a throne for example Celestia's throne I think the Abyss would call that a bonus. In the stories also in that last volume I specified before she's set to pierce her "father" the "God King" with the divine halberd. Also when it comes to absorbing the sins of all people Fischl's Constellation 2 is literally "Devourer of All Sins."

But now here's the thing. Oz has shown that he's devoted to Fischl. Even if Rhinedottir had his heart I don't think he'd betray Fischl like that. Instead I think he's playing her and the Abyss. That second thing that Fischl's said to do; she will be the divine halberd that reconnects the Ley Lines. We've seen that Celestia broke the Ley Lines of Teyvat over time. It killed the Irminsul of Sal Vindagnyr and most recently we found out that Khaenri'ah's king was Irmin aka Odin likely also meaning that he became an Irminsul aka Yggdrasil and that Celestia would necessarily have to destroy him to destroy Khaenri'ah.

According to Leon Oz created a prophecy. Now how prophetic it was is still anyone's guess but ultimately I think Oz is working on it. He needs to remind Amy of who she is because otherwise if Rhinedottir and the Abyss get their hands on her and force her Archon self back into being as the "Night Mother" she might actually do tremendous damage to Teyvat. Would she stand a chance against Celestia namely Phanes? Doubtful. Otherwise she wouldn't have stood idly by as "the shadow engulfed" her region. Similar to Decarabian she probably saw the writing on the wall and decided to take her fall gracefully.

Now there's that other side to the books and that's what I think Oz might be working towards. Remember that Fischl is meant to pierce her "father" and reconnect the Ley Lines. Piercing the "God King" that is Celestia is probably not meant to be taken literally. My guess is it would still sock it to Phanes though if Amy was able to reconnect the Ley Line trees like the one in Sal Vindagnyr. Imagine what might happen if that tree connected with Makoto in Inazuma and Rukkhadevata in Sumeru? Teyvat might become fortified against Celestia.

Of course to do that remember Fischl needs to use herself as the Divine Halberd. That could mean permanent depowerment. And that's probably the other side to Oz's plan. In the scenario I have in mind what'll happen is that the Abyss will force Amy to become her Archon self again. They might find something like her heart just like Naberius or they might just use his heart to power Amy. Awakening like that could be seriously disorienting and Amy would lose all control. This starts Rhinedottir's plan. That's when we'll step in probably to fight Amy so we can weaken her Archon power just enough for Oz's plan to take effect.

I need to take us back a little. There's another place Fischl's related to: Sommernachtgarten. Translated that's Summer Night Garden and it's related to the Midsummer Courtyard. Isn't it interesting how that Domain specifically is where the Ascension Domain is? Why did miHoYo pick that one? Also the Ley Line Disorder of the normal Domain is Pyro good, Cryo bad. Now I'm not sure about the Cryo part yet but Pyro being a recommended element does work. One of Amy's oldest friends is Bennett.

Time to add in some drama. So as the legend goes to remake the world Fischl will first take on the sins, the pain and suffering of all people and also swallow their dreams. Makes sense why Midsummer Courtyard fits then right? Ascension Domain. All the progress of all people gets recorded here. If we took the game mechanic literally every person needs to come here and take on this trial to move on in their journey. How many dreams and how much pain must this place have seen over the years? Fischl will absorb all of them. Then she'll burn away her own heart. Of course a heart could also be a love interest right? That's sappy enough for Hollywood it could work for miHoYo. So maybe Bennett gets burned. Last time we saw this it was an older mentor character also with a fire affinity who sacrificed herself to save someone else who lost control due to a super powerful entity inside of her. So this is totally up miHoYo's wheelhouse.

Ok ok but Genshin's much happier than that and we just so happen to have a heart to burn already. The Heart of Naberius. I think that'll be Oz's endgame. So the plan is for the Abyss to find some way of reawakening the Archon side of Amy. This forces her to confront herself. Then to fulfill the "prophecy" of saving the world he intends for Amy to exhaust her Archon power and rediminish herself permanently and the Archon power will act as the "divine halberd" to reconnect the Ley Lines and protect Teyvat from Celestia's future attacks. We've seen what Archon power can do. Marchosius used up his to safeguard Liyue and Makoto became Inazuma's Irminsul Tree the Sacred Sakura which saved it from Khaenri'ah. So after she uses her Archon power up she needs to separate herself from those powers so she can sever that fate and live out her human life. To do that Oz's heart that the Abyss uses to power her will need to be destroyed. Bennett will get that done. Unfortunately that will also permanently diminish Oz and in the end what we're left with is the same old Fischl and Oz that we've always had so the character doesn't need to change at all.

Bennett might be officially shipped with Fischl after that just like we've gotten hints of Ningguang and Beidou. Oz will forever remain with her now as an actual part of her "Vision." For added drama if miHoYo wanted they could have Oz silenced which would make sense for a summoned creature powered by a Vision. Kokomi's jellyfish for example. But that might be too dark for Genshin so I think Oz will be fine. If anything he'll pretend like his consciousness is gone only to juke us in the end. The Abyss loses again but probably won't learn their lesson. If our sibling is part of this operation and I don't see why they wouldn't be we'll have another tearful parting with them but you guys know it'll be fine. (you guys did see my first topic right?) And finally with the Ley Lines protecting the world we'd move a step closer towards defeating Celestia.

Wait did you think that was it? You guys are new to my theories. Poor you. Anyway moving on!

So I was saying the timeline of the "Immernachtreich" is weird. We know a few details already about Venti's Mondstadt so if we added Amy to this it'd be a really crowded place. Remember that in the early days of Venti's era Mondstadt was also run under Istaroth the God of Time. There's zero mentions of any other gods but since there is still traces of Istaroth around Mondstadt I think it means Amy's region had to have predated this maybe existing only around the time of Decarabian's Mondstadt.

There's a little precedence for this too. Let's say first that the era of the saints was just when the unified human civilization first engaged with Celestia. That would be after the Ark's Opening a long long time ago. Back then the world was also messed up and Celestia tamed it for the humans so that could also work as a "time of chaos." Anyway if the "Immernachtreich" is that old I'd say from a historical inspiration basis Decarabian's Mondstadt would be the founding of the Holy Roman Empire while Venti's would be later periods of it leading up to the German Confederation during Napoleon's time. This fits with Fontaine being the empire's neighbor of West Francia which would eventually become France today. And if that's true then Fischl's Immernachtreich is a defined place: Prussia.

But I'm just pulling that out of thin air aren't I? Nope. Let's go back to the event. Fischl says a bunch of stuff that doesn't really make sense but if you pay attention to her Fischlspeak she lays out some gems. Sanssouci.

It's a real place. It does in fact have a garden because a grapevine garden was a deliberate feature of it. Sanssouci is actually the name of a mansion designed by Prussian King Frederick II.

Of course Prussia could still work with Venti's Mondstadt. I mean we know the dude's pretty weak. Who's to say he didn't have help doing all that landscaping in the beginning? Now if Diluc's mansion with its vineyard is any kind of sign then maybe Immernachtreich was located around that area. It is the closest area to Decarabian's Mondstadt so it would make sense. Or it might be around Starsnatch Cliff or Stormbearer Point if real world geography played a role in miHoYo's map design which I mean it did for Inazuma, Sumeru and possibly Fontaine so far.

Yeah we're still not done yet. Knowing it's Prussia and having some kind of layout of Teyvat during that time period we can figure out something else that happened. The whole focus of Fischl's Domain was on this Tasraque thing that attacked and how Fischl would eventually defeat it. In discussion the characters just said this was a metaphor for Amy being upset nobody was supporting her chuni thing. But there's a real Tasraque in the world.

This guy! It's called a Tarasque. Tasraque. Tarasque. Subtle miHoYo. Anyway it might interest you guys to know this monster is French. And it's also a water dragon. Let's think hard. What kind of water "dragon" do we know of that came from a region based on France like Fontaine? How about this guy?

Any old players reading this? You guys remember that Endora event? We learned that the original Hydro Archon sent out a bunch of Oceanids all over Teyvat because she wanted to connect every region together using the Oceanid network. We also learned (because we keep farming her) that not every region thought it was a good thing to have these Oceanids from a foreign nation occupy their lands. Paimon even called sus on Endora because she said the Oceanids were spies. It doesn't take too much effort to believe that Amy might be one of those Archons that didn't appreciate an Oceanid popping up in her land. So she called it a Tasraque and defeated it. Then because she loves a good play her subjects made it into an epic story of her triumph.

Speaking of enemies in Flowers for Princess Fischl there's another one called Gesamtkunstwerk. Yeah try saying that if you're not German lol. You might be surprised to know it's also an English word technically. Anyway Fischl's supposed to fight this thing and it's meant to be a really really powerful enemy. Who is this? I'll get more into it another day but for now just know Gesamtkunstwerk means "total work of art" and that could relate to other terms we use to mean "total works of art." Can you think of one? Stay tuned.

Ok ok ok I've kept you for long enough. Let's end it by talking about how exactly Oz planned to get Fischl to separate from her Archon self. Any of you guys fans of Persona?

_I am a shadow. The true inner self. _

See while her Domain told us the whole story that's not what we were playing right? We were playing the quest of everybody learning more about Fischl's home life and her personal struggles namely her chuni thing that nobody in her life was supporting. And how did that end? Oz nurtured Fischl to accept her creativity so she doubled down on being Fischl but knowing that that's just a story and she's actually Amy. It taught her that she was actually very good at telling a story (except for that Drama Phantasmagoria quest god that was annoying!) so she should embrace that. In Persona a young adult has a crisis of identity and buries a part of themselves they feel ashamed of. In this case Fischl felt ashamed that her life was essentially a sham since she's really Amy and not some princess. If she chose to continue deluding herself she might have been beaten by her Shadow the Immernacht Fischl and (well in Persona 4 you die) maybe she'd end up becoming Hylic. Since she won though (she gets a Persona!) she is now able to accept the side of herself that's make believe because it's make believe.

Once this whole Archon Amy thing happens though it'll be a different chapter of this identity crisis. She's always wanted to be the Prinzessin. Now she'll learn that that's actually becoming a monstrous fallen Archon. Had she always deluded herself into believing she was Fischl then she'd end up succumbing to the raging Archon's consciousness and that'd be it for her. Since she was able to accept that she's a gifted human storyteller that version of who she is is now a thing and she can latch onto that and become truly human once Bennett destroys the heart.

Congrats to anybody who made it all the way through and got to the end. I hope you enjoyed the read and I'd love to know what you guys think about all this! Here's a summary for those that didn't: (sorry it's not going to be a short summary either lol)

• Madame Ping told us that gods can't actually die.
• Archons have Ars Goetia names. Amy is actually one of those names. She may be a depowered Archon just like Andrius and Guoba.
• Based on the Summertime Odyssey event, a timeline placement for the Immernachtreich might be 2600 years ago about the same time Venti was taking over Mondstadt.
• Amy follows trends set by the other Archons by wanting to protect her people, resettling them into another location and also being able to reshape the landscape to her liking as it would assist in her region's development.
• She may also have a focus like Venti as the God of Freedom and Zhongli as the God of Contracts. With her love of poetry and theater she could easily be the God of Arts.
• Oz may also be an Archon, Naberius. While based on Cerberus and therefore related to Hades the husband of Persephone aka Soteria, Persephone predates Hades and therefore it stands to reason Cerberus could just as easily be the pet of Persephone. Oz's full name Ozvaldo means "God's Power" btw.
• The Abyss Order might even be searching for Fischl. As the Prinzessin of Immernachtreich aka the female leader of the land of evernight Amy might just be the Night Mother who rules the Land of Night from the story "The Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies" which they Abyss was trying to steal in Lisa's Character Quest.
• The Night Mother's description could be Amy towards the end of her reign of the Immernachtreich.
• "Fischl" actually comes from a series of books. In them she's supposed to absorb all of humanity and restart the world. That's exactly what the Abyss is working on. On top of that they want to restore the cursed Khaenri'ahns back into the cycle and that way when the world is destroyed everything will be reset and returned to normal. Fischl is supposed to be a divine halberd that can reconnect the Ley Lines again exactly what the Abyss are looking for.
• Rhinedottir has the Heart of Naberius. If that's Oz she may be using Oz to get to Fischl and that's why Oz appeared to Fischl on the night she got her Vision, being a major crutch towards her continued acts as the chunibyou Fischl. This could be Oz attempting to nurture Amy's true Archon personality.
• In reality Oz might be playing Rhinedottir but he does want to reawaken Amy possibly just for her role in reconnecting the Ley Lines which might fortify humanity against Celestia the metaphorical "God King" and her "father." (see Deshret)
• Ars Goetia Amy was banished but is said to eventually rise up again and claim a throne of Heaven. We know all about thrones now and we know Neuvillette has reclaimed his.
• Actually having descended upon her people very late (2600 years ago) and being fated to pierce her father "the God King" with her divine halberd on top of claiming a heavenly throne she's sounding very similar to Egeria. Even her Constellation 2 "Devourer of All Sins" would be a parallel to Egeria's sacrifice for "original sin."
• Oz's true plan may involve reawakening but also differentiating "Fischl" Amy and "Archon" Amy. In the stories Amy will need to sacrifice her heart to reconnect the Ley Lines which could mean death. Instead of dying Oz might be trying to use Amy's Archon power instead just like Makoto becoming the Sacred Sakura. That way unlike Makoto Amy can survive and still create a new Ley Line tree to reconnect with the other Ley Line trees.
• To remind her of her human life Oz will use Bennett, Fischl's first friend. And in the end nothing will change in gameplay. The Fischl and Oz of the outcome will just be a human girl with Electro powers and her "familiar" a diminished Archon like Guoba.
• Immernachtreich could be based on Prussia like Mondstadt is based on Germany (the Cologne Cathedral that the Church of Favonius is based on could set it as the German Confederation) and Old Mondstadt could be the Holy Roman Empire.
• Sanssouci is supposedly a place in the Immernachtreich and in real life it's a Prussian mansion.
• The "Tasraque" dragon that Amy supposedly defeated might be based on the French Tarasque also a "dragon" but not the kind of dragon we're used to and related to water. You know like maybe it's an Oceanid instead one of the "spies" of that communications network Egeria was trying to establish?
• Finally during the events of Summertime Odyssey we are led through a story that separates between the fictional Fischl and the real life Amy. This may be part of Oz's plans to allow Amy to accept her human self so that when she needs to sacrifice the Archon "Fischl" self she will have this anchor on top of a physical one in Bennett.

Topic originally created on August 23rd, 2022. (based on even older theories extending all the way back to 10/02/2021 and acts as a compilation of those theories)