Hello everyone, this is my first time actually writing a novel. So before jumping straight into an original work, I decided to start with a fanfic to gain some experience.
I chose Genshin because… well, why not?
I'll be giving a short overview of Genshin lore along with the changes I've made, mainly for readers who haven't played Genshin Impact and would otherwise be completely lost.
I'll update this section whenever I start adding canon elements or tweaking things that aren't part of official Genshin lore.
Ark out.
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[ Genshin Impact Lore. ]
✥ Teyvat, Before the Descent:
◆ Teyvat was an untamed realm where elemental forces existed in their purest forms.
◆ The world was ruled by the Seven Dragon Sovereigns, ancient beings who embodied the elements themselves. They were not gods in the modern sense, but natural authorities, living extensions of the world's laws.
◆ There was no Celestia, no humanity, and no imposed order. The elements flowed freely, unbound by hierarchy or restraint.
✥ Teyvat, After the Descent:
◆ Born from a cosmic egg of immeasurable power, an androgynous being known as the Primordial One (Phanes), descended upon Teyvat from beyond the world.
◆ Phanes defeated the Dragon Sovereigns and seized their elemental authorities, reshaping the foundation of Teyvat itself.
◆ From this new order, humans and countless other lifeforms were created. Civilization began to take shape under a unified structure imposed from above.
◆ To govern this new world, Celestia and the Heavenly Principles were established by Phanes, enforcing law, order, and hierarchy across Teyvat.
Phanes also created the Four Shades from his own androgynous body:
◆ Naberius – Ruler of Life
◆ Ronova – Ruler of Death
◆ Asmoday – Ruler of Space
◆ Istaroth – Ruler of Time
All four Shades manifested as female beings. From this, it is widely assumed that Phanes' true form ultimately assumed a male counterpart.
✥ The Second Who Came:
◆ At a later time, another being descended upon Teyvat. This entity became known as the 'Second Who Came', also called theUsurper.
◆ The Second Descender waged war against Phanes. The conflict shattered the absolute, uniform civilization that had once ruled Teyvat.
◆ When the war ended, the fates of both Phanes and the Usurper became unknown. What remained was a fractured world, its former unity broken, setting the stage for the rise of gods, nations, and inevitable conflict.
✥ The Third Descender:
◆ The war between the First and Second Descenders devastated Teyvat, pushing the world to the brink of collapse.
◆ When the Third Descender arrived, they possessed an immense reserve of world-class energy.
◆ Recognizing this, the First and Second Descenders reached a grim conclusion. If the Third Descender were sacrificed and repurposed as a stabilizing core, Teyvat could be saved and their rule preserved.
◆ The Third Descender was not merely slain. They were harvested.
◆ Their body was divided into seven fragments, each fused with the stolen elemental authorities of the Dragon Sovereigns. From this fusion, the 'Gnoses' were created.
◆ These Gnoses allowed the Archons to draw upon the world's energy.
This is the recorded history of Teyvat, as it is currently understood. Some details remain ambiguous, particularly whether the First and Second Descenders cooperated in the death of the Third Descender.
What is firmly established is this: the Third Descender is dead, and the Gnoses were created from their remains.
This truth forms the foundation of the current world order and the system by which the Archons rule.
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[ Original Creations by yours truly, Me. ]
In this novel, an additional truth exists beyond recorded history.
Phanes did not create only four Shades. He created five.
The first Shade he ever created was Xai'reth.
However, Xai'reth's authority was fundamentally flawed. Where Phanes sought Order, Xai'reth embodied its opposite. His power eroded structure, unraveled systems, and rejected hierarchy itself.
Deemed a defect, Xai'reth was erased from all records and imprisoned by Phanes in a cosmic prison. His existence was never meant to be known.
During the war between Phanes and the 'Second Who Came', that prison was destroyed. Xai'reth escaped.
From that moment onward, he began moving against the Heavenly Principles.
After countless years of searching for a way to strike back, Xai'reth reached a grim conclusion. As a creation of Phanes, he could never truly kill his creator.
Instead, he chose a different path.
He would weaken Phanes.
✥ The Hidden Crime:
Shortly before the Cataclysm, Naberius, the Shade who governed Life, descended upon Teyvat.
Xai'reth intercepted her.
He killed Naberius and concealed her heart. Though he could not destroy it, since both of them were parts of Phanes, he ensured she could never be restored.
Her heart was sealed within ancient ruins deep beneath Teyvat, beyond Celestia's reach.
This act marked the first silent fracture within the Heavenly Principles.
✥ The Beginning of the Story:
Before the Cataclysm, the Fourth Descenders arrived in Teyvat. The twins, Aether and Lumine.
One twin awakened earlier and traveled through Khaenri'ah. When the gods descended and began destroying the nation, that twin awakened the other, and together they attempted to flee Teyvat.
They were stopped by Asmoday.
This moment marks the beginning of the game's opening scene and the true starting point of this story.
* * *
Asmoday captured both twins and, somehow, also used her authority over Space to seize Arky from Earth.
(Dude just wanted to start a new account in Genshin and pull Kazuha from the gacha, but instead got yeeted across the universe straight into Teyvat.)
Why she did this remains unknown.
Before she could carry out whatever she had planned for the three Descenders(Aether, Lumine and Arky), she was intercepted by Xai'reth.
The clash left Asmoday severely weakened and trapped in a state of fractured memory.
Knowing that only a true Descender could kill the Shades and the Heavenly Principles(Phanes), Xai'reth passed his Authority of Entropy to Arky.
Lumine's sealed spatial cube, already cracking from the clash between Asmoday and Xai'reth, finally shattered and vanished into Teyvat.
Released far earlier than Xai'reth had intended, Lumine went on to become the leader of the Abyss Order.
Somewhere along the way, she lost her Descender status and became recorded within Irminsul, fully recognized as part of Teyvat itself.
Five hundred years later, the chosen twin, Aether in this story, awakened. At the same moment, Arky awakened as well.
✥ Current Status of the Five Shades:
◆ Asmoday, Ruler of Space: Currently weakened and locked in a static state. Her memories constantly fade in and out, leaving her as Paimon, Aether's so-called emergency food.
◆ Istaroth, Ruler of Time: Doing surprisingly well. That cockroach is ridiculously durable.
◆ Ronova, Ruler of Death: Same as Istaroth.
◆ Naberius / Rhinedottir, Ruler of Life: The heart hidden by Xai'reth was eventually discovered by Rhinedottir(Albedo's master and one of the Khaenri'ahn Sinners).
During Arky's prolonged mental trial of death, Rhinedottir merged with Naberius, inheriting her authority.
◆ Arkys, Ruler of Entropy: Currently far too weak to be called a Shade, though he still possesses the authority.
His soul was tortured for five hundred years, leaving him calm, detached, and speaking like Zhongli on a good day.
Unfortunately, his body never caught up and can still be folded with embarrassing ease.
✥ The Five Descenders:
◆ Phanes – The Primordial One.
◆ The Second Who Came – The Usurper.
◆ The Third Descender – [ Deceased. ]
◆ Aether – Traveler.
◆ Arkys – Ruler of Entropy.