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!
Nod-Krai was already a weird step for miHoYo to take. We were supposed to be doing Snezhnaya the last nation this year. But it only got worse from there. First question: Who's Tholindis? Back then Rerir screamed it and right away there were already plenty of ideas being thrown around. Some said it was his wife, others Columbina, maybe even Lumine. These "theories" didn't really go any further than Tholindis is a Germanic girl's name. Even back then I had debunked these ideas, though there was merit too which I'll bring up. The worst one was Rerir's wife. Yes, Rerir from the Volsung Saga had a wife and it would turn out Tholindis was Rerir's lover though their relationship was hardly one that would have led to marriage even if that was what they were intending. In lore, there is nothing that says she'd be important in any way to Genshin's Rerir such that he'd scream her name out like that and the story we got was more drama than substance. The emphasis of the original story was on the son and I'd even theorized that this would be the case in Genshin.
Columbina was the next runner up here. Back then we thought she was some creation of the Frost Moon and Rerir being the moon hunter might scream her name. However neither of them knew each other. Columbina was aware of what he became because of her time as a Harbinger but that's as far as her knowledge about him went. miHoYo even made sure to have her emphasize that she didn't know anything else about him and that perhaps even the Fatui knew more than she did and were surprised by how little she knew.
The one that had potential was Lumine. The princess was a prominent figure in Khaenri'ah such that everybody knew her. Not only that but we'd learn in v5.7 that she was the one who first absorbed a tremendous amount of Abyssal Energy and then imbued the Sinners with it which was how they became the Five Sinners. The problem was that every other time we've had a mention of the twins, miHoYo's been very careful about gender. If you chose to play as Lumine, almost every mention about the sibling switches to male. The ones that are left are likely oversights like when Aether players heard from Kaeya about the prince of the Abyss Order back in Mondstadt. (the subtitles still read princess though) In this case, Tholindis should be Tholinde for all Lumine players. It is not.
Moving onto what I feel are better candidates that I didn't see anybody else bring up: The first and less interesting is Solnari. Who is Solnari? Well as it would turn out, some crazy Genshin fans found out that during the Nod-Krai preview trailer, Alice was actually holding a paper with different names for each of the moon sisters. We already know the names Aria, Sonnet and Canon right? Well
apparently Aria is just short for Aralos, Canon is.... well just Cannon with two ns for some reason but the most intriguing one is Sonnet whose name is also Solnari. Racher of Solnari means Rerir is avenging her. Sadly this didn't play out as "Racher of Solnari" turned out to just be an English localization and the Solnari written on Alice's paper never came up in the end.
In my theory about Rerir, I had suggested that he's actually descended from the Crimson Moon Dynasty. He wanted revenge for its fall to the Black Sun Dynasty. In fact, it was his plan to summon Lumine and his plan to then have Lumine absorb that Abyssal Energy with which to then channel into the Five Sinners. Therefore Tholindis could have been a Khaenri'ahn name for Sonnet, the Crimson Moon/Iridescent Moon.
To be fair, originally it seemed the Eternal Moon was the one that became the Abyssal Crimson Moon. From the Web Event it stated that the Eternal Moon fell while the Iridescent Moon shattered. And it also stated and showed that when the Iridescent Moon shattered that the "crimson shadow sank into the abyssal sea." This made it sound like the Eternal Moon fell and became the Crimson Moon "the crimson shadow" of the Abyss.
My personal theory for Tholindis went one step further than this though. Yes Rerir followed Solnari and was intent on being her avenger. However the lore about Rerir focuses on his son. The Volsung Saga actually continues on all the way to his great grandson Siegfried and I had him pegged for the Vinster King. For Genshin I suggested that maybe we'd skip a few steps and Rerir would just be the father of some kind of Siegfried character, a great deceiver like the Vinster King. Therefore Tholindis might just be Rerir's son. Why isn't it Tholinde then? While miHoYo's been careful about gender for the twins, they play it pretty fast and loose with other characters. If any of you remember the Five Yaksha you might remember the Geo and Hydro Yakshas and that they were named Menogias and Bonanus respectively. Menogias the Geo Yaksha is definitely male but -ias names are feminine. This was such a discrepancy that before it was confirmed, I'd actually thought Menogias and Bonanus were flipped. Therefore if miHoYo is fine naming one male character with a female name there's no reason to believe they couldn't do so again, just not with the Traveler or their sibling.
But the new devs haven't kept a story straight since they got started. I've been able to use proper research and analysis to figure out what the old devs were doing but these new guys come up with things right out of left field including what they ended up doing here. As such I had even come up with other more random ideas that would have still been better than what we ended up getting.
While Rerir's wife isn't that important in the Volsung Saga, the new devs could still use this. What if for some reason Sonnet married Rerir and so she is both Solnari the Iridescent Moon but also Rerir's wife Tholindis? It then becomes both of their plan to install their son into power in Khaenri'ah only to have it foiled by the Cataclysm.
One step further? Let's say Rerir and Sonnet got married but Tholindis is the name of their child and that child is Columbina the new Moon Goddess. Why didn't either of the two recognize each other? Well Rerir fell into the moon's reflection shortly after the Cataclysm which is when Columbina was born. It could be one of those stories where the parents were separated from their child at birth. Therefore Rerir's goal is to find Tholindis and then seek vengeance for his wife.
A step even further than that? (and what I had thought the new devs might be crazy enough to do) Why did Columbina bring up Arlecchino at the end of Act II? Doesn't that feel like it came out of left field already? Dottore we knew was in Nod-Krai since Mavuika told us at the end of the Natlan Archon Quest. Sandrone is the Harbinger we deal with the whole time. But how is Arlecchino connected? We don't even see her children anywhere around like we did in Inazuma and Sumeru. What if Columbina knows or at least senses that Arlecchino is Rerir and Sonnet's child, Tholindis? If my theory is right and Rerir is descended from the Crimson Moon Dynasty then it would explain Arlecchino's origins.
Now who is Nicole Reeyn? Actually who is Nicole Reeyn now? She's just one of the angels now but back when the original devs ran this game, the identity of Nicole Reeyn was pretty obvious. I'd already theorized about it. But that was then. Ever since, the new dev team has done a fantastic job of messing all the lore up.
But before the new devs came up with this angel nonsense I had another idea while we were still guessing at the Nod-Krai story. Look at her eyes in that image above. Notice something?
"It could be that this is an early set up for a playable Sustainer in the form of 'Nicole Reeyn.' This version may even take her HOF or HOE look once the Sustainer is defeated." ~Past I.King
Players of Honkai Impact will identify this immediately. These eyes played a major part in continuing Kiana's story. In the cutscene Meteoric Salvation, she goes and uses her HOV powers to be a force for good for the first time. Previously her HOV form was possessed by the true HOV, Sirin. Sirin's eyes were yellow just like the Sustainer's.
Now look at Nicole's color scheme. The white outfit with a black trim and purple/blue highlights? That's the Ultimate Herrscher Trio's colors right there. And finally if you watch the Nod-Krai teaser for Luna II, those wings of light that pop out of her? The Iridescent Inscription designs on her hat? That's a much older callback. That's this:
The way it was animated was very likely a shoutout to Evangelion which the Hoyo crew adores.
I have a feeling her design was created by the original devs. She was always meant to be the consciousness inside of the Sustainer shell. With respect to my old theory, her blue HOV eyes show she is the freed consciousness of the Sustainer who is brainwashed by Phanes hence the Sirin possessed yellow eyes. Her colors that represent the Herrscher of Finality form for Kiana show Nicole having come full circle whereas Herrscher of the Void was Kiana's shackle and a painful reminder of who sacrificed herself to give her this freedom. Finally those wings are from Gakuen's Herrscher of the End (Finality and End are the same in Chinese; English just wanted to differentiate the villainous HOE from the enlightened HOF Kiana.) You can even look at her blonde hair. Players of Honkai Impact will know what reference this is making. The game's "Kiana" isn't really Kiana. She's actually a clone of the real Kiana and her name or rather designation is K-423. The "real" Kiana was actually experimented on and ended up with a head of blonde hair. Then in terms of Genshin, her being the Sustainer back when the Sustainer was the brainwashed Second Who Came explains her immunity to Irminsul's changes just like any Descender. Without the connection to Genshin's HOV aka the Sustainer though, Nicole's design no longer makes sense.
... except for maybe a new inclusion by the new devs. Look at the floral designs on her. They aren't HOF. Those are triquetra. Back in the day we had no idea what this triquetra really was. There was a popular theory going around for a while that they might be related to the moons but then nothing. Some like Ashikai even suggested that we were seeing an incomplete picture and that there was a fourth piece that's missing from the design, the design we see on the gateways of Domains with four loops. This should be the New Moon which has also likely been repurposed but we'll get to that.
I've had a theory that the new devs don't know what they want to do with the story so they sometimes check out popular fan theories for ideas. But they also don't check the dates to see when those theories were popular. Asmoday becoming - well first being given the name Asmoday which was originally just a placeholder coding name - one of the shining shades instead of the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles was one such move. The Protoss Phoenix spaceship instead of meteorites might also be another such move, a shoutout to the old Project ARK theories that had been debunked for over a year by the time these guys came up with this change in v5.7. (the Genshin wiki didn't even know what to make of this so if you look up the spaceship you'll find that they only used sources from v5.7 onwards and don't mention meteorites at all)
So now the triquetra might just be about the moon sisters as based on that old theory. The broken loop might represent the Abyssal Moon who would make for a good Weekly Boss once it's revealed she faked her death by sinking into the abyssal sea and having an image of herself shatter in her place. During the Cataclysm she brought her husband(?) into the moon's reflection with her. Rerir's mission now that he's back on the surface and partly restored is to seek out their daughter and put the Crimson Moon Dynasty back into power in a resurrected Khaenri'ah. (Could the Traveler's sibling actually make an appearance?)
Side Note: Yes I know my official stance is that Tholindis is Sonnet. Or even better, that Rerir's anguished cries suggest Tholindis is his "Volsung." But that would make sense. When you're theorizing about the stories the new devs might come up with, you need drama more than sense and a daughter between the moon goddess and a sinner who we've already met before is much more spicy. Ask yourself why Columbina brought her up alongside Dottore and Sandrone when there's been nary a hint about her since Nod-Krai was announced.
Now how does Nicole fit into this? What if the filler arc about the moons is about creating successors to the moon sisters just like how Fontaine reestablished a Dragon Sovereign? We already know Columbina is the successor to the Frost Moon albeit with a twist. Nicole might be another moon sister. Finally the Iridescent Moon might not have actually died as she's the Abyssal/Crimson Moon so we may need to deal with her before establishing the new moon sister off of that which might also have a twist.
If this is the case then there's only one moon that Nicole could be, the Eternal Moon. What do we know about the Eternal Moon? The Moon Marrow that the Traveler currently possesses is Aria's core. It rejected Columbina because she represents another moon so this core will only work with the successor to the Eternal Moon. We also know it has another power, the ability to see into the true past buried underneath the Heavenly Principles. And what did Nicole do for us this whole time? Guide us to see the true past.
With this new story direction, it should mean that there won't just be one "New Moon" but rather three of them for each of the existing moons. But there is an actual new moon phase which these three moons can't cover. This therefore allows the Traveler to still represent the New Moon in their group thus completing the four phases of the moon. The Traveler will be the Welkin Moon, the first new moon that Teyvat has ever seen while Aria/Nicole is the Full Moon and Columbina will pair with the new representative of the Iridescent Moon to represent the similar phases of Waxing and Waning.
With all of that in mind, I had concocted a theory on what would happen in Nod-Krai. I think even though this is already me working through their less than stellar writing style, it was still better than what they ended up doing.
But first, as a lore theorist I can't in good conscience not mention how broken this would be but the new devs don't seem all that concerned about plot holes. The reason why Arlecchino shouldn't be Tholindis is that she's not that old. We've seen her childhood which led to her growing up and taking over the House of the Hearth by killing the previous Knave. Freminet was around for this which makes Arlecchino at best in her late twenties or early thirties. Rerir would have disappeared from Teyvat about 500 years ago. However even the idea that Arlecchino is descended from the Crimson Moon Dynasty of Khaenri'ah is insane and yet this seems to be where the new devs are going with it. The Crimson Moon Dynasty fell even before the Black Sun Dynasty eventually fell to the Cataclysm. It is possible that Rerir is descended from this dynasty but not a chance in hell for a twenty year old of modern day Teyvat to be. Imagine someone claiming to be a direct descendent of Mycenaen Greece today.
Now that that's all set up, what exactly is this twist? I suggested that even though the Frostmoon Scions call Columbina the New Moon that it'll still turn out that the New Moon is the Traveler. This is a phase of the moon more than a successor title and another name for it would be the Welkin Moon. I then suggested that Nicole would be the Full Moon phase and therefore also be the successor to the largest of the moons, the Eternal Moon. After that though, we have two phases that are essentially the same only going in opposite directions. They are the Waxing and Waning phases. I've theorized about this idea before. If Aria is already being replaced by Nicole and the New Moon will be the Traveler, this means Columbina and Arlecchino have to take over as the Waxing and Waning Moons.
The twist part comes from their lore. Let's backtrack a little to the old lore on Columbina. Childe and Scara once warned us against talking to her because they sensed something off about her and Scara specifically suggested that we'd be manipulated by her damsel act due to our conscience.
This is not in any way the Columbina we've got. She really is an innocent girl who speaks as if unconcerned but we know she isn't. The further you get with the Selenic Chronicles the more this becomes apparent so that's when we get to the new dev lore from Arlecchino's voiceline about her. Rather than advise us to avoid her, she instead tells us to do exactly what we've been doing which is to ask her questions and wait for her interesting answers.
Now that we have this duality of lore, let's remember that Columbina was born during the Cataclysm. The moons would have long fallen by then, all three dying during the war between Descenders before the Heavenly Principles were established. If Columbina was just the successor to the Frost Moon, why did it take this long to happen and why at that specific point in Teyvat's history? Neuvillette was prophesied to resurrect in human form and even then that happened 400 years ago. The Cataclysm must play a role in Columbina's sudden birth. In fact, my old theory about the Sustainer would come into play as well as she was mortally injured during the Cataclysm and that's when I suggested that Nicole would have had the opportunity to break free form her shackle. (again this is no longer the case) Anything related to the Cataclysm tends to mean the Abyss and we just happen to have lore about an Abyssal Moon, the Crimson Moon who is also Sonnet the Iridescent Moon. I brought up how Columbina hinted that Sonnet never actually died. Instead she fled into her reflection and faked her death. As the Abyssal Moon, she likely played a part in the Cataclysm as well. If we can reconcile both the old and new lore for Columbina, what if she's not actually the successor to the Frost Moon? What if she was created out of the Frost Moon's Marrow by her sister the Abyssal Moon, using her otherworldly power?
If Columbina is the Abyssal proxy of the Frost Moon, what would that make Arlecchino who I'm suggesting is Tholindis the daughter of Rerir and Sonnet? It technically makes her another Abyssal proxy for a moon. Waxing and Waning? Maybe maybe not. But both Columbina and Arlecchino may just be two parts of the same plot. Columbina is simply meant to replace Sonnet's sister Canon and be a more complacent sister. This is why Rerir was after the Moon Marrow since ideally they'd like to give Aria a complacent Abyssal proxy as well. Then since Sonnet doesn't need a replacement, she might intend for Arlecchino to become the New Moon and thus some form of successor to the Heavenly Principles who would also be under her thumb, as her daughter.
And it's this plot that will come back to bite Sonnet. She will become Nod-Krai's Weekly Boss. Because of how the Cataclysm played out, Columbina was born but had no one guiding her. Rerir was sent into Sonnet's reflection. Therefore while it was intended for her to be part of this new order, Columbina doesn't show any signs of complying. Similarly, Arlecchino grew up as an orphan and developed some very strong beliefs. Given she has her own children to care for, she's not likely to give into the desires of her parents. I'd even say that for the added drama points not to mention a mic drop moment for her, she may even tell Sonnet and Rerir straight to their faces that they won't be the first parent she killed. Once Sonnet and Rerir have been defeated, we'll have Nicole take on the Moon Marrow and assume her full power as the new Eternal Moon while the Traveler is revealed to be the titular Welkin Moon of the chapter. Then there'll be a dramatic pause as the former Third and the Fourth Harbinger figure out that Arlecchino is meant to become the new Iridescent Moon and she'll do so on her own terms.
Alternatively, if we add another twist then we can actually use the Tholindis is Columbina possibility from my previous topic. Rather than Columbina having been an Abyssal proxy for Canon, perhaps she is the daughter meant to rise as the Welkin Moon and both Nicole and Arlecchino are Sonnet's reborn sisters. Not much changes with this version except that Sonnet means to use Arlecchino as the Frost Moon proxy instead which will then result in Columbina succeeding her mother as the new Iridescent Moon. Arlecchino and Columbina will still remain representatives of the Waxing and Waning Moons and the twist is just that Columbina was never related to the Frost Moon thus adding a layer to her line about not being deceived by false moons.
Side Note: There's one other thing that connecting these two does to stay consistent with the lore. In the real world, Arlecchino and Columbina are related characters in the commedia dell'arte. Yes this is why I used that image to header this topic. This was previously already established but between the original Columbina inspired Genshin character, Signora. When Signora died it was only Arlecchino that showed any sympathy. When Arlecchino released we had a story showing that Signora was one of the first Harbingers she met as a child and she sympathized with her again through her voice-over. We hadn't gotten anything like this between Arlecchino and Columbina and even Columbina's description of their previous interactions doesn't demonstrate anything like the relationship Arlecchino had with Signora. However a connection as the Waxing and Waning phases of the moon would make up for this in a big way.
Now if I'm suggesting that two Harbingers near the top of the pecking order are going to ascend as new moon goddesses, what else is probably going to happen given where we are?
Sandrone is likely out of the loop on this. She's already shown insubordination towards the Palestar Edict since she was literally in front of her target and only threatened to arrest her because she was throwing a tantrum. However the other Harbinger in Nod-Krai is not going to be so easy to deal with. Dottore is now the highest ranking Harbinger since Capitano passed. In a twist of a twist, it could be that the Palestar Edict will be a success and Columbina will once again be their Third Harbinger. This should still be fine as Arlecchino is an ally and will look after her however we're probably still powerless against Dottore. Even if they could defeat him in a straight fight, when would he ever allow a straight fight? He has at his disposal bottled up versions of Arlecchino's memory wipe fire and I'll bet his tests on Columbina's kuuvahki are also part of his arsenal.
This conclusion sets the stage for Snezhnaya where hopefully the plan is still to portray the Russian Revolution and therefore the schism between the Harbingers will play a major role in the story. Nod-Krai itself could end with Fatui consolidation of power just like the Romanovs did to Finland but then it will gain independence during the revolution and the end of Tsarist Snezhnaya. I'd say the Snezhnayan "Soviets" won't do like their real life counterparts and try forcing control on it but we'll see. If my Poetry Theory holds true, Snezhnaya should end up like Inazuma where Watatsumi remains independent to this day.
It's still upsetting that none of this ended up playing out. The story we did end up with was so awful and it took so long to get through as well. However these new devs may be trying to turn over a new leaf with Snezhnaya which is now delayed by a year. Fingers crossed for them.
Topic originally created on September 28th, 2025.