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 is long and there's much to cover so I've added a summary at the end.)

This one's going to sound a little weird. Just fair warning.

Question: Is the Traveler dreaming?

This theory isn't like most of my others. There are references and we do have information but it's never really led anywhere like everything else. It's just scattered yet recurring mentions about dreams. The earliest one is really obvious. It's Dainsleif during Travail flat out saying that in Khaenri'ah there are those who dream of dreaming. Actually in hindsight it's anywhere where the "gods' gaze does not fall" which includes much more now. Back in those days it just felt like a throwaway line about people hoping to overcome the limitations placed on them by Celestia. It's been a callback for many people who've theorized based on Gnosticism because of the story about the Demiurge and Monad. I myself am one of these theorists.

The next mention came really soon with v1.1's Unreconciled Stars though the "dreams" in this event are simple to explain. Leonard's Constellation fell from the fake sky due to Fatui meddling which then proved the fake sky was there. Anybody that came in contact with the meteorites fell into a deep sleep of reliving Leonard's fate. I brought up what that meant previously.

Now correct me if I'm wrong in the comments but the next time chronologically that we get a vague reference about dreaming like Travail wouldn't be until the Chasm released. You guys might not have even paid attention to it because it was something of an ARG. There's a Hidden Achievement you can get by hunting down all of the named Shadowy Husks and collecting their Orbs of Blue Depths. The item description itself already alludes to dreams: "it is almost as if you are looking into a long-borne dream shrouded by a deep fog." Of course Shadowy Husks are just Khaenri'ahns so it just feels like a continuation of what Dainsleif said. But completing this achievement gives you just a single line in Latin so going community-wide we ended up compiling together a whole poem. This poem is a real-world Latin poem called Carmen 58b written by Catullus. Now back in the day I focused on one of the two changes miHoYo made to this poem. Caenrium was an obvious shoutout to Khaenri'ah since the word probably means "mud" or "filth" which really fit since this was also when we were introduced to the Dark Mud. The other change that I had mentioned but didn't have an explanation for was Morpheus. In the original poem there's the line: "non Rhesus niveae citaeque bigae" which translates to "not if I were the swift snow-white pair of Rhesus." Rhesus is King Rhesus a character in the Iliad. But miHoYo swapped out Rhesus for Morpheus the Greek God of Dreams. Why?

After the Chasm the concept of dreams having power and shaping reality became a major feature of the Sumeru story though this seemed to have been more a commentary on rejecting reality as per the Gnostic path. The most obvious storyline for this was Nahida's First Character Quest. But throughout Sumeru we got hints about dreams that weren't really related to this idea. Why was Deshret's Jupiter Brain device called the Golden Slumber for instance.

So that leads us to Fontaine and once again the Narzissenkreuz World Quest Series. (because if it wasn't chock full of lore already lol) Anyway just like before we had an actual story and then some weird side stuff.

I know people have already made other theories about this line but we can combine this line about Aether "being equal to a world" with something else you find during this quest.

This is Alice in Wonderland. Why? (Actually some of the theories have already accounted for this one too in their way. Let's try it my way for this topic.) The real story we've all read (or watched) as kids has been likened to a drug trip at least by the time I was growing up with it but originally and as miHoYo explains, Alice was dreaming. "When the clock chimes, all shall end." That's a note likely linking back to the doomsday clock in the tower and Narzissenkreuz believed that Teyvat was in its final cycle meaning it was be the true end of the world. The dream would end.

Caterpillar: When the bell tolls, the world ends, the adventure is over, or you simply awaken from the dream. Who knows?

Ok still with me? There's one last thing:

Where did that come from Paimon? Actually more importantly our only dialogue option here is "Wait, so that really was foreshadowing!?" Of course this could just be as simple as "there was a in-joke in the previous quest" as some people had pointed out in other topics about this or "we're going to wake Rene from his dream, the big dummy." But why did Paimon use the term "waking world" instead of you know "the real world" or something like that?

One of the places you'll find the term the Waking World is in HP Lovecraft's works alongside names like Azathoth. Some of you guys have played miHoYo's older games and Azathoth is a character. In the source material Azathoth is supposedly the god that's dreaming all of reality. If it should ever wake up we're all dead and then it'll recreate the universe in its next dream.

Now let's relate that back to Genshin. As we know Genshin has been based primarily on Gnosticism. And because of that miHoYo had the excuse to expand into all the things Gnosticism was influenced by like Buddhism which itself was derived from Hindu practitioners. And wouldn't you know it we have Karanodakasayi Vishnu who sleeps in the Causal Ocean and dreams our reality and when I say reality I mean that just like with the Hoyoverse, Vishnu's dreaming the whole multiverse.

Ok so that was the set up. Let's make sense of it as a theory. There isn't a Vishnu in Genshin but we do have something that "dreamt up" the multiverse, the Imaginary Tree. Now I've explained what miHoYo means when they say "imaginary" but most of us will be more familiar with the literary definition. Imaginary stands for something make-believe. It's from our imagination. Like a dream.

So going back to the question back at the beginning, is the Traveler dreaming? What if that's what Descenders really are? The Imaginary Tree creates all of these universes but to keep the dreams going it needs to maintain them and so it sends its emissaries. No not just Aether, Lumine and Phanes but also Yog-Sothoth and the original Lovecraftian dreamer Azathoth and even the Lord of Myriad Realms who introduced the concept of death as a lesser god Thanatos into the Honkai Gakuen universe in order to get things moving.

Side Note: Along with a god version of Siegfried which means nothing for this theory but it might for another one. And Inari too for good measure.

Taking this all into account it might make even more sense why Nicole explains to the Traveler to only trust what they see with their own eyes. We can think of it like this. The characters in one of your dreams aren't real so nothing that they tell you about in your dream is necessarily real but whatever you are shown through your dream is part of your subconscious and is there to explain something to you whether or not you understand it in the context of the dream.

And that's just us. We're normies. I actually thought up this theory on one sleepless night and got up early to jot it down so I wouldn't forget. But scale this up to the Descender level and they probably need to keep track of what they've experienced to preserve the dream. For example, right now the Traveler's memory is the only place where Rukkhadevata exists.

And you know we can take it in another direction. My theory of the Descenders has them wielding the element of Light. Lumine's name means light while Aether's can be translated as the air. We can relate that to the Gnostic concept of the pneumatics the level of humanity that's spiritual and no longer attached to their physical bodies and therefore closest to attaining gnosis. I think we all know by this point that Aether's the true main character despite the game allowing you to freely pick between the two. Lumine represents the level all the Descenders are while Aether is meant to ascend and by extension help Teyvat's humans to ascend.

And we can go another way too. There are theories suggesting that Teyvat is a Bubble Universe adrift in the Sea of Quanta right? As with most of these universes it's at a last gasp before oblivion. But in the lore these universes can be preserved through an Ether Anchor. (also called a pearl or miracle stone)

Finally there's also a quantum mechanics interpretation for this theory. Yeah. We've done in-game. We went into Hoyoverse lore. We went religious. Now let's go scientific!

The fundamental concept in quantum mechanics and relativity is the observer. When we talk about time dilation it relates to perceptions of time between different observers, one standing still and the other accelerating. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle limits our ability to measure the precise location of a particle at any given time which while not directly related can be used to explain quantum superposition through the example of the double-slit experiment. Taking this back to MWI, each time anything happens there's a multitude of results and all of those results must exist in their own universe. So if it relates to you the result you observe is the universe you exist in but that means there's now other yous that saw the other results and each one of these yous is also a valid observer. What's real and what's imaginary is relative based on which observer you ask. Conversely there's the waveform collapse. Any time something happens all possible pathways are taken but once you observe the results these pathways merge into a single common sense event.

Because of this reliance on an observer we have the proposition of quantum mechanics explained through simulation theory. I mean after all if you dream that you're a butterfly and then wake up did you really awaken or is the butterfly just dreaming that it's you? While I'm loathe to do this Marvel recently explored this idea in Doctor Strange 2. The movie explains that every dream we have is really just us experiencing our lives in other universes.

In Genshin that observer will be Aether by the end of the game. What he witnesses is the reality of the dream.

You know if this theory ends up true it'll be by far the best dream theory in fiction. Most people hate dream theory because it normally takes the form of a cheap cop out. All the craziness you saw didn't actually happen. Everything is back to normal. That way the story can get as wild as it wants without any consequences. This is why people love the Justice League Unlimited episode _For the man who has everything. _Instead of cheap theatrics the dream episode becomes a gut punch instead. This is the life you've always wanted and it's not real. You could stay and enjoy yourself but everything else you've ever cared about will die back in the real world.

But if this theory's version of dream theory is right we're not just waking up from a bad dream or forcing ourselves awake from a good dream. We need to maintain the dream forever because all of the people we've come to care about depend on it.

Side Note: Also in case there's still that crowd that believe miHoYo copied Genshin off of the Zelda universe there's always Link's Awakening which was a dream theory game.

Also we can take it in a meta direction. What's miHoYo's slogan?

If the dream theory is right think about how this remember your journey stuff has been presented. Zhongli has us remember because it'll last longer than him etching it into stone. Yae wants us to write it down like so many of us have here on reddit because it would be a terrible shame if the story was lost to time. So miHoYo made Genshin Impact with the hope that all us otaku will "save their world."

How does that change my overall theory?

Not by much. Just a narrative shift. As my theory goes we'll eventually have a final encounter with Phanes where we'll defeat it and show it the error of its ways. In terms of Descenders within the context of this theory that means they are emissaries of the ultimate dreamer the Imaginary Tree. They are sent to maintain the dreams so they aren't lost to the dreamless sleep that is the Sea of Quanta. But in the case of Genshin Phanes set up a static dream, boring and yet still prone to nightmares. So Aether is meant to figure out a better solution. I proposed if miHoYo wanted we could have multiple endings for the story.

The Bad End is obvious. We lose. Phanes continues the dream within the closed bubble of its Firmament so the tree needs to try again with a future Fifth Descender.

The Normal Ending is where Aether replaces Phanes but just by "sitting upon the divine throne." With him acting as the new principles it means he can't leave so Lumine will have to go on without him. There won't be a Firmament anymore so the people of Teyvat will be free to expand on the dream to a certain extent but Aether is now the "anchor" keeping the dream alive.

So that leaves the Best Ending. Rather than Aether taking on the role of maintaining Teyvat he is able to inspire humanity itself and the collective wills of all of Teyvat ascend and become able to maintain the dream themselves. Those who dream of dreaming.

Teyvat then becomes self-sustaining and no longer needs the tree's intervention. Aether and Lumine are finally free to traverse the stars once more.

The cliff-notes:

• Dainsleif said "those who dream of dreaming" about the Khaenri'ahns.
• Down in the Chasm we find the poem Carmen 58b but miHoYo changed a line from Rhesus a character in the Iliad to Morpheus the God of Dreams.
• Deshret named his Akasha System predecessor the "Golden Slumber" and many parts of the World Quest Series allude to dreams.
• Narzissenkreuz also makes many references to dreaming.
• In the quest he states Aether is one equal to a world.
• He also makes note of Alice in Wonderland with reference to how the clock signifies the end of the dream when it chimes. Your alarm sounds and you wake up. But his clock was the doomsday clock which sounded the end of the world.
• Paimon called the world when you're awake the "waking world." This may be a reference to HP Lovecraft which miHoYo happens to have referenced in earlier games too.
• Azathoth is a Lovecraftian Eldritch Creature who dreams the universe into existence. When it wakes the universe ends. This is also a part of Hindu religion. Vishnu is said to dream the world into being from the Causal Ocean.
• The Hoyoverse also has something that created the multiverse from a "causal ocean" (the Sea of Quanta) and that's the Imaginary Tree.
• In Gakuen there's a reality above all of the universes called the Godhead where Eldritch beings like Azathoth live. These beings shape the universes like the Lord of Myriad Realms who created Gakuen's concept of death.
• Aether could relate to the pneumatics a Gnostic concept about the highest tier of humanity who are closest to achieving gnosis. He could also relate to the Ether Anchors that preserve Bubble Universes which people have theorized Teyvat to be.
• Quantum mechanics can also be interpreted through simulation theory which in itself relates to dreams. Relative observations create multiple interpretations of reality for example, time dilation.
• If this theory is true it could be the best use of dream theory in storytelling.
• Or it could be a love letter to fans by the miHoYo devs. We are all "Aether" and they hope we will preserve their game universes. After all Tech Otakus Save the World.
• As it relates to my overall theory of Genshin, all that really changes is that gnosis becomes the power to maintain the universe dream, a 创世的珍珠 World Creation Pearl you might call it. If Aether can advance humanity to becoming their own observers then they can maintain the dream themselves and create a self-sustaining universe.

Topic originally created on March 10th, 2024.