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!
I'm sure we're all familiar with that old Chess Theory right? The Gnoses were supposed to be modeled after chess pieces so the Archons would be represented by each specialized piece? In some versions this played out to match the loading screen elements so Ei's Electro Gnosis was supposed to be the King Gnosis. In another version the Electro and Hydro Gnoses were supposed to be Bishops. And I had one where the Electro and Pyro were Knights, the Dendro and Hydro were Bishops and the chapters played out in order from left to right after Mondstadt. (Liyue Rook, Inazuma Knight, Sumeru Bishop, Fontaine Bishop, Natlan Knight, Snezhnaya Rook)
All of that fell apart when the Electro Gnosis was revealed to be another Queen. (some people still consider it to be a Bishop though) And then this was further confounded when Mavuika revealed her Gnosis. Also a Queen.
That actually played into my updated theory which was that only the original Seven had those themed Chess pieces. Since the rest were replacements, they'd have promoted pieces and what is the only logical move there? Pawn promotes to Queen hence the Queen Gnoses which includes Venti who was appointed by Istaroth to replace Decarabian.
However a while ago I came across this other idea. It has also fallen apart since Natlan concluded but I think the barebones of it still warrants consideration. The theory goes that we've only seen the Gnoses at play in Snezhnaya once, during A Winter Night's Lazzo. And as if feeding into the then ongoing Chess Theory, miHoYo placed the two Gnoses on a chess board that was in the middle of a specific game. This "game" that was being played by Pierro was actually Game 1 of the real-life match between Kasperov vs Deep Blue in 1996. Yes it's another one of miHoYo's many real-life references. Anyway the theory proposes that Deep Blue represents Celestia while Kasperov represents humanity struggling against it. (which is a great time for me to plug my fairly recent Simulation Theory so go check that one out lol) The only move that's made in the animation is when a knight takes a pawn or move 35. When the pawn is knocked over Signora's butterfly lands on it which the theory further suggests - though I think we can all agree with this - that the move depicts the Shogun killing Signora. Therefore the theory claims that Game 1 reflects the Archon Quests from Mondstadt through Inazuma.
However where I think the theory goes wrong is that it then proposes that the next 5 games represent the remaining quests from Sumeru to Khaenri'ah. As I said the theory has already fallen through. As of the conclusion of the Natlan Archon Quest each prediction made through it didn't end up playing out. So here's where I think we can fix that. If the first game depicts Mondstadt through Inazuma then it means one game reflects the events of three regions. Wouldn't that mean Game 2 should likewise reflect Sumeru, Fontaine and Natlan rather than just Sumeru?
If we go back to Game 2 and match the moves to reflect all three regions rather than just Sumeru I think it still works. (You can head here to see a play by play of each game.) The original theory skipped to the end where both sides were left with active Bishops which it claimed to be Nahida and Scaramouche. But I propose that'll be the end of Natlan so let's start this game over. Game 2 had Kasparov going on the offensive after a surpising defeat in Game 1. In Sumeru not only are we actively seeking out Nahida but so are the Fatui operatives there, Dottore and Scara. They also enlisted Arlecchino's services to run a background campaign to seek out Nahida's familiars, the Aranara. For the first time there were three active Harbingers in a single nation. That's fairly aggressive if you ask me.
But before we get to that, the theory brought up Signora's death but that wasn't the final move of Game 1. There were two more moves where Kasperov moved the King to take the Knight, the Knight then hopped out of the way, the King pursued and then Kasperov concedes after the white Rook takes his pawn and puts him into check. This pursuit of the Knight that represents Ei could be Scara's deal with Yae to get the Electro Gnosis or it could indicate the Fatui's failure to collect the Gnosis from him. The "Knight" took flight. (Relating the same piece to multiple related characters will come up again in my interpretation.)
The very first move by Kasperov in Game 2 was to move his white Knight. Scara had gone to Sumeru. (while some strategies open with a knight it is usually ill-advised as the knight would be blocking your pawn line which then prevents development of your back line) Following that was a pawn shuffle which might represent the sages falling for Dottore's scheme. By move 5 Kasperov Castles and in Sumeru Dottore got in deep with the sages and they secretly planned to create a god deep underneath Surasthana. After that Kasperov went hard with his Knights possibly showing Scara's aggressive approach throughout the Archon Quest under Dottore's manipulations (safely hiding in his Castle) However with the worsening of conditions in Sumeru, Nahida was finally forced out into the open. In this case Nahida is also working against Celestia (if her words near the end of Act V didn't give it away) so she's also one of Kasperov's pieces, the white Queen. By move 14 though both of Kasperovs Knights had been taken, one by a black Bishop. While Nahida is the white Queen in this scenario, Scara's antagonist was also the Archon Buer. If we can represent the Shogun as a Knight then I'm bringing back my old theory that set the Dendro Gnosis as a Bishop and say this black Bishop represents Nahida in her capacity as Scara's opponent and therefore the move represents her defeating him. So by move 14 we're now in v3.3 and Inversion of Genesis. (also move 15 is the white Queen taking that very black Bishop so let's say this is when Nahida deletes Rukkhadevata thereby taking the place of "herself")
Now if I'm saying we should take Game 2 to represent not only Sumeru but Sumeru, Fontaine and Natlan this is the change-over. Following Scara's shift into the Wanderer the white Queen piece stops being Nahida as we move onto the Fontaine quest. Now it's Focalors. From this point on all the way to move 70 we see very very aggressive Queen and Bishop attacks against black. This can represent all of Focalors schemes against Celestia while the white Bishop represents Nahida's conversion of Wanderer from grumpy ex-Harbinger to agent of the Dendro Archon. By v3.6 we get the Parade of Providence event where Wanderer is secretly assisting Nahida and Alhaitham to uncover the plot underlying the Interdarshan Championship. He also assists the competitors like getting Tighnari some water when he collapses in the desert.
And then move 71. Kasperov deliberately sacrifices his Queen which mirrors Focalors deliberately sacrificing herself to save Fontaine from the prophecy and thus delivering a hefty blow to Celestia's dominance. Right after the sacrifice, Kasperov uses his Bishop to take the black Queen. We can see this as Wanderer playing a pivotal role in reforming Mini-Durin. And yes that means we're now in Natlan with just a single move to go. While Natlan stands as the longest Archon Quest by Act count to date - 5 acts plus an interlude - they were some of the shortest Archon Quest acts we've gotten in a long time. To compare, Acts I and II of Natlan from v5.0 took a total of 5 hours to do. Meanwhile Fontaine's was over 6 hours and Sumeru nearly took 7. Each of their Act Vs also took about 5 hours while Natlan's only 3.5. And what really happened in Natlan with regards to Celestia? We fought the Abyss. The only 2 moves that related to Celestia at all were Capitano pulling an Uno Reverse on Ronova and Mavuika punching so hard it broke the Simulation. (again keep in mind the basis of this theory is that Celestia is represented by Deep Blue the AI) These actions in the quest can be represented by the only remaining move that Deep Blue makes. It moves its King next to the Bishop and after Kasperov moves that Bishop it concedes. Humanity got real up close and personal with the false sky and humanity won a decisive victory against Ronova the shade of the Primordial One of Celestia.
And with that we're onto Game 3. Now we can actually separate this one back out into a single nation to a game. Snezhnaya is the last of the Seven Nations so it should be pretty important and justifies it getting a game to itself. But there's more. We saw that the Fatui were using the chess game to map out their current standings against Celestia. Well it makes sense that now that we'll be going to Snezhnaya they'd be scrutinizing the next game in the finest detail from start to finish. Ok so Game 3. If miHoYo is doing this then Game 3 is perfect for a finale in fiction. With Deep Blue starting us off again, it goes back to basics. The opening 6 moves are all the same as in Game 1 so this may be interpreted as the approach from works in fiction to bring the story full circle. We'll be seeing something similar to the start of our journey back in Mondstadt. Actually as per my and many theories, we'll head into Snezhnaya through Mondstadt, likely getting Dornman Port to connect into Nod-Krai.
Back in v1.0 we didn't just have Mondstadt available to us though. We had Liyue right away and these places had NPCs from both Inazuma and Sumeru the next upcoming regions. Nod-Krai as we've been told is a melting pot of all the people of Teyvat, a trading hub for the nation just like Liyue is the center of trade for Teyvat. There will also be factions in Nod-Krai just like the different Darshans in Sumeru and the tribes of Natlan. But then we hit move 7 and Deep Blue makes the first divergent move off of Game 1. It Castles instead of moving up a pawn. It's being more defensive. Or so we're led to believe until the next series of moves sees a very aggressive white side leading all the way to its capture of the black queen, the death of the Tsaritsa. I've been predicting that based on how the Harbingers have described her, her relationship with her nation and the attitudes of those Harbingers, that she's very isolated and her plan will eventually lead her to ruin. We've already been warned by Skirk that holding onto Gnoses won't lead to anything good. This is why Neuvillette willingly parted with the Hydro Gnosis. It could be that throughout Snezhnaya's run, we'll see aggressive actions by the Fatui including their Project Stuzha. The Fatui will think they're on the offensive and the story may even play out that way at first. However then we'll conclude the Archon Quest and it'll be revealed that Celestia was unaffected. Humanity is still far from strong enough to match the gods.
However all is not lost. The next move was Kasperov using his Rook to take the White Queen. This may mean that whatever deal she had struck with Zhongli back in the Liyue Archon Quest was meant for this moment, when her gambit of using the Gnoses failed. Zhongli would have to step in and protect Snezhnaya. Simultaneously, we know Zhongli is also working against Celestia on his own. He set up Liyue to become an independent human nation since the beginning. Now what specifically he'll do to "take the white Queen" I think is too early to tell. I have my theories but whether or not this will be that move remains to be seen.
After the queens are off the board the rest of the game plays out frantically. Each of Deep Blue's moves is countered by Kasperov until finally they have the same exact pieces and the game ends in a draw. We're left with one Rook a piece and a bunch of pawns. If Kasperov's Rook represents Zhongli, who is the white Rook? Well if we dust off my original Chess Theory again, the other Rook Gnosis was meant to be the Cryo Gnosis which again wouldn't be the case since the Tsaritsa is also a replacement Archon and therefore would have a Queen Gnosis. But just like how the Knight from Game 1 could be the Shogun and the Bishop from Game 2 Nahida, maybe the black Rook represents the "Tsaritsa" in the capacity of the one who claimed the Gnoses she gathered. We also learn from Skirk that the Gnoses were made from the body of the Third Descender. My theory about this is that this is the Traveler's sibling and the Tsaritsa would be killed by her so she could reclaim her real power. That would lead us into Khaenri'ah so let's say the event(s) leading into Khaenri'ah's release will feature our chase of the Third Descender before she can consolidate her power. This ends in failure hence the draw. The Tsaritsa's plan failed but allowed us to cripple Celestia. However it also restored power to our sibling thereby creating a new Descender level enemy to deal with in the next game.
After that we have 3 more games so how do we plan out for them? It might be appealing to continue using the one game per region system but there's two problems with this: The first is that we don't have that many regions left. After Khaenri'ah it's likely the endgame so that's 2. The second is Game 4 itself. Much like the latter moves of Game 3, this whole game plays out as an even piece swap between both players leading into another draw. In fact from what I saw it was probably the most boring out of the games. Each time anybody captured anything it was just to piece trade: Pawn takes Pawn, Knight takes that Pawn, Knight takes that Knight, Bishop takes the Knight and so on. I think if miHoYo were to use this game as reference, this will be something like a bridge. I had theorized that Khaenri'ah having the chapter number of ?? meant we would be there for a while. In fact I believed that miHoYo could milk that subterranean nation for all it was worth and possibly keep us there for another 7 years, releasing the nation in chunks the size of all of the other surface nations. As such it makes sense to use up a whole game to play a zero sum game in-game. Just like we saw Kasperov and Deep Blue trading off pieces, so too will we be fruitlessly fighting in Khaenri'ah against the Traveler's sibling. Now from a lore perspective we might be able to interpret this as these chess game predictions being conducted not for the sake of Snezhnaya but for Khaenri'ah. After all the one who was playing was Pierro. Based on older lore, it was established that the rank of each Harbinger corresponded with when they were enlisted. Capitano is the first so we may be able to suggest that the Fatui itself was an organization founded by Khaenri'ahn refugees. The Tsaritsa might have given them shelter but their true loyalties never lay with her. That would also work out for "a god with no love left for her people, nor do they have any left for her."
That takes us to the ending of Game 4 where both sides have their Queens and a few Pawns while Kasperov is left with a single Bishop and Deep Blue a single Rook. How could that be interpreted? Well Game 3 ended with the sibling being represented by the Rook so maybe she still is now. So who's this black Queen? A long time ago I pondered why Lumine was the Princess of the Abyss Order because if she's the Princess it stands to reason there's a Queen or King. We learned about a year ago that there were five Sinners in Khaenri'ah and one of them was Rhinedottir. I had previously believed she was the Queen only we learned that even the Sinners answered to a greater Abyssal power, the Vinster King. It could be this is the true leader of the Abyss Order so the black Queen might be him. (keep in mind that the King pieces represent the players so the black King would still be Celestia) Then who is the white Bishop? There's really no telling but previously I said the Bishop could represent Nahida having nurtured the Wanderer into his new role. That might play out here. If the Vinster King of the Abyss Order is the black Queen then his equal and opposite would be the Traveler. Right now the strongest ally we have would be the Wanderer, someone whose fate was actually changed. (but it could also be Dainsleif since he'd be a prominent figure by this point) So we'll end the initial stages of Khaenri'ah in a draw while setting the stage for dramatic change.
Onto Game 5, the climax of the Khaenri'ah Chapter and then its conclusion. In this game Kasperov matches Deep Blue move for move until he gets greedy and takes a Pawn. This cascades into another series of piece trading but it seems to favor Deep Blue. At move 24, Kasperov offers a draw but Deep Blue actually declines. Maybe it thought it was actually winning? This might be our Traveler trying to make peace with his sibling only for her to be too far gone. Perhaps Dainsleif would have pushed for it as well. But in fiction, we need a more satisfying conclusion. Onto the downfall of the sibling and the destruction of the Abyss. By move 27 Deep Blue moves its Queen back and forth aimlessly. We can definitely see this as the beginning of the end for our sibling's side. Perhaps she should have taken the offer. At move 34 the very first promotion of the entire match happens. I brought up this idea of Ascension earlier. The Archons have Queen Gnoses because none of them are the original members. They were all uplifted into Archonhood hence being Promoted Pawns. Well I've had several theories about this. Genshin takes heavily from Gnosticism and the ultimate goal of Gnosticism is gnosis. Not a Gnosis but gnosis or enlightenment. If Kasperov's Queen is our Traveler then we can already see they are the basis for this enlightenment and therefore any Pawns aka playable characters that become enlightened would therefore become like the Traveler, a Queen in this case. At this stage we've started to get through to the other characters of the game and they are beginning to ascend. Aaaand then for some drama, Deep Blue's pawn takes Kasperov's original Queen. Gasp! The Traveler has fallen? And then not long after the promoted Queen also falls. Let's call this the darkest hour of the Khaenri'ah Chapter. While our allies managed to take out the Vinster King, the sibling was able to defeat them and is now the only power player left. However they struggle to figure out their next move. The white Rook goes back and forth aimlessly. That is until the black Rook sacrifices itself to allow the black Bishop to finally take down the white Rook. We only know of one Rook on Team Humanity at this point: Zhongli. It could be that he might sacrifice himself to then allow the Bishop - Wanderer/Dainsleif - to capitalize and subdue the sibling. Or it could represent something else but the outcome is still the same. The Traveler's sibling falls. Then Celestia itself goes on the move though it's fruitless at this point which ends the game in Kasperov's victory leading into the final game.
Game 6 is basically a victory lap. I don't know what happened back then but Game 6 showed us a very conservative Deep Blue. Kasperov pretty much bullies the AI the whole game, practically pushing the black side off the board.
At this point in Genshin, the Traveler would have:
- resonated with all 7 elements
- they just defeated their sibling and likely learned a great deal about what they went through which would then give insight into Celestia's mindset and motivations
- assembled all of their allies by this point and as we saw with their first successful Ascension of a playable character, these allies are at their peak
It only makes sense then that our side stands superior to Celestia's. And of course that's where my curveball theory would come into play but we don't need to worry about that for this topic.
I will say that since the only real backing for this Chess Theory is that miHoYo used the Kasperov vs Deep Blue match in a single cutscene that featured the Gnoses that it doesn't really have a leg to stand on. However unlike the original idea that only went off this detail, I tried fitting these games with my previous theories that all had other backing. So perhaps there is something to this. And it was interesting to see another link to the Celestia Simulation Theory with this reference to Deep Blue by miHoYo.
But what do you guys think? What might your interpretation of the games be?
Topic originally created on February 23rd, 2025.