“The Future Saves the Past”: The Space Opera of Vera’s Melancholy (Genshin Impact Lore & Theory)
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2024
- I've been very sick the past few weeks, so I've been in a fever dream the past few weeks, which may be appropriate for the making of this summary and analysis of Vera's Melancholy.
Vera's Melancholy is a bizarre book series - a Space Opera - in Genshin Impact. The first half is dedicated to summarizing the story and adventures of Vera, Ike, and Sachi. The second half looks at some of the things mentioned in the book, including Delphi, serpents, Ouroboros, and the Abyss - and what connection it may have to do with Dainsleif and the "self-proclaimed prophet."
There are a lot of things I didn't have time to touch on, or have just been too ill to think about -- including the mysterious identity of the seemingly otherworldly (Descender??) author -- but leave your own thoughts in the comments :)
and I'm sorry-not-sorry that I can't ever stop talking about Interstellar....
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00:00 Introduction
01:18 Vera's Melancholy
15:11 Analysis
15:57 Delphi
17:31 "The Future Saves the Past"
22:36 Cosmic Horror
25:54 "Youth"
26:41 Closing Thoughts
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✨ Shattered Halberds, Celestial Nails, & the Divine King of Khaenri'ah: • Shattered Halberds, Ce...
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MUSIC
"I Got a Stick Arr Bryan Teoh", "Jellyfish in Space", "Ether Vox", & "Robobozo" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
ART
Background images for Vera's Melancholy are taken from Outlaw Star.
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#genshinimpact #genshinlore #genshin #原神 
Игры
Genshin is the only game where a space love square drama novel series may or may not be an alegory depicting the past of this world in order to escape censorship and that is precisely why I love this game lmao
Actually, I’m really interested in the hands with mouths eating eyes. That’s *definitely* supposed to represent *something*, but I’m not sure what.
Not only that, but the fact the right eye is supposed to represent ‘love’, while the left represents ‘submission’ (or something like that, I’m too lazy to go back and check) also interests me.
Reminds me of how literally ever living Khaenri’ahn character has something going on with their right eye, *AND* that King Irmin also only used one of his eyes (I believe he only used his right eye and he didn’t use his left but I don’t really remember.)
Not only that, but has anyone else noticed that like, every character with an eyepatch who is not related to Khaenri’ah always has an eyepatch over their left eye? (Other than whatever’s going on with King Irmin)
I think this even goes for the enemy characters too- such as, that one eremite character who swings dem blade thingies.
I wonder if this is supposed to be symbolic of anything. Of course, I know that most of the characters who have those eyepatches probably don’t actually have a missing eye, but still. Seems a bit too intentional imo.
Also, the small detail of Ike saying that he wanted to make star shaped jewellery for each of those women who fell in love with him… it’s interesting, because stars in Genshin are heavily related to the Khaenri’ahn trait of having a star shaped pupil. I could probably make tons of more links from that, but I won’t, because this comment is already getting too long and there’s just oNe more thing I wanted to mention…
Super unrelated, but if you look straight up at the sky during nighttime in anywhere in Teyvat, other than Sumeru’s desert, you’ll see a symmetrical pattern of the stars. At first, I thought this was just cuz of the devs being lazy and just duplicating the same star pattern for the sky over and over, but…
If you look at Sumeru’s desert nighttime sky, the stars aren’t in a pattern at all. They’re like an actual nighttime sky, and the stars even twinkle.
I wonder why Hoyoverse decided to do that, because I honestly don’t see a reason why. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it was unintentional, maybe they’re going to change the night sky in Teyvat to match the desert one soon (since the desert one looks so much better and cooler) but, who knows?
Maybe it has something to do with “tHe sKy iS fAke” in Teyvat thingy.
(oh also, last minute addition to this, but since we can’t really trust those historical record things anymore, I wonder if the thingy about King Irmin that Kaeya wrote in the Hidden Strife event thingy was even trustable, since it did seem like a historical record.)
Man, I really went on a tangent there.
Anyways, if you got to this point and read all of my brain dump… you’re crazy. But thank you, and have a nice day.
Related to enemy eyes: the Fatui all have one or both eyes covered
I was actually going to have a focus on eyes (it's one reason why I started off the video with the eyeball thing!) but I figured I might save it for later. There's just SO much going on with eyes in general, especially with Khaenri'ah, and I'm also not sure what. For example: so Fischl wears an eyepatch, and calls her left eye the "Auge der Verurteilung" which means "Eye of Condemnation." I wonder if Fischl is such a bookworm that she was also somewhat inspired by this book (since the left eye represents submission), BUT it would be interesting if that's actually also a thing in Flowers for Princess Fischl (who she bases her character on). Super interesting because the author of Vera's Melancholy doesn't seem to be Mr. Nine, who wrote Flowers and Legend of the Shattered Halberd... and as you might know from my last video, I'm totally of the belief that Mr. Nine is from Khaenri'ah, or Khaenri'ah influences his work (including Flowers). And also, Irmin is only referred to as one-eyed, buuuut if the Deathly Statuettes represent him, I've always wondered if his glowing right eye is supposed to indicate a hidden or missing left eye, or something powerful or special about the right. Anyway, what this all means, I'm also unsure right now.
and as for the sky -- no idea! I guess it could just be a newer cloudless skybox, maybe it's also to show that Deshret's region wasn't reeeally operating under Celestia? idk!
In terms of the future being able to save the past, I think its important that the Ei dueled the Raiden Shogun puppet for 500 years in the plane of consciousness, the same amount of time in the past the Sacred Sakura was planted.
It is also suspicious that the introduction of Volumn 10 mentioned "Greek Mythology". And the book is so available in Monstadt and Liyue that really confuses me: wouldnt the reader be curious about all the unknown concepts? More importantly, the author of this book should be someone like a decender or who had acess to another world as Teyvat did not had "Greece".
Very good point!
These little details can be the most annoying, cause either it's some massive hidden plot point pivotal to the story that the in universe writer has knowledge of another world/times... OR it's the irl story writer making the simple mistake of using common descriptors, like if an NPC describes their world as "Earth" even though in lore the game doesn't take place on that particular planet or isn't a planet at all like Genshin or Xenoblade.
I just read Vera's Melancholy today and I felt like I was reading someone's acid trip. Shit's wild
Holy cow, Vera's _Mel-on-choly_ (lil Megamind ref lol) surely is wild. It's really cool now that the ingame books are more relevant than ever, that you and other theorists have been reading them in videos unabridged, or summarized and theorized on like you do! This whole motif of "future saves the past", I truly believe something like that will happen again - or it was something that the Abyss Sibling tried to do before but failed, hence their contempt demeanor and the "you will understand, sibling, when you go through this journey like I did".
I LOVE that you made a little parallel between Ei's 2nd quest and Interestellar! Ei's second quest is my personal favorite because of the themes of sisterhood lost, psychological growth and specially "timey-wimey-mumbo-jumbo as a huge metaphor for love acts" that it has, and Interestellar is one of my faves too exactly because of that
Oooh, I looove that idea that the Abyss Sibling failed because 'the past can't save the future'. and I'm glad you enjoyed the parallel, I was worried I spent too much time on that!
Confession: I've never watched Doctor Who, but when I read that, it makes sense. They do love their references to other popular franchises. I can't believe I missed an opportunity to also make that parallel, haha!! And as always glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching!
Perhaps “youth” can also be replaced by “Divinity”? Or even “Truth”
I’ve never realized how much Vera’s Melancholy just reads like Doctor Who until now, lol. This was amazing video! I love all the drawings and it was just very well done and highly entertaining. c: Thank you so much.
Thank you for this I had trouble deciphering Vera's Melancholy the first time, even watch/listens some audiobooks for it but I still don't get the entire story but this video summarize it well! the silly characters of Ike, Vera, etc. are amazing and was easy to follow!
This and a few other books are pretty difficult reads just because the writing can often be dense but also the "book volumes" are just excerpts, so there's a lot of content actually missing. But glad this helps!!
Genshin: days of future past
So left eye submission right eye love ? Kaeya and pierro cover there right eye while irmin has the left eye taken
This remind me a lot of the Abyss Sibling's plan of Loom of Fate, with the ability to reweave all threads of destiny. This make you think if the Abyss Sibling would try to do same thing Ei did with the Sakura --- by add an specific moment within the flow of time. The Abyss Sibling is from the future, and by using their knowledge from their current timeline, they will try to prevent either the destruction of Khaenri'ah or cure the Hilichurl curse.
This sounds like HSR plotline
She actually did it!
And wow, what a book. Perhaps we will indeed be told more in the next patches.
Great video as always!
Delphi in Roman mythology where most hero’s got their fates told, the name Vera is also Roman. 1:30
Interesting that the princess eats the right eye for Love and Pietro, Dansleif and Kaeya are missing/covering their right eye (or right part of their face). But Irmin lost the left one...... 🤔🤔🤔
The Valkyries are probably reference of Norse mythology Valkyries instead off honkai but if I remember there are only 13 Valkyries in Norse while there are theory in Norse about Frigga Odin wife is the leader of Valkyries so it totally counts 14 Valkyries now
new mic, new katie. best lore account on youtube and all of america and the world.
Maybe a new pc ?
honestly the real life references (greek mythology literally being explicitly referenced) reminds me of how alice actually implies to have been to earth, very few characters break that wall, in fact I don't think even the traveler has done so themselves so explicitly. Vera's melancholy really gotta be some of my favorite books in genshin because of how chaotic yet mysterious it is, and it's also interesting how some of the most crypid books were given to us in Mondstadt (Vera's melancholy, Pale princess, boar princess, heck wasn't even heart's desire from mondstadt? and don't get me started on Fischl).
Also, Ike's words also remind me of Mona, she's an astrologyst therefore very familiar with fate, and not only her but also nahida says that no one can change their fate, all you can do (in mona's view) is accept it and (in my own words) "grab fate by the balls" and live life to the fullest, and yet, we HAVE seen fate changing, the sacred sakura the main example, and Dainsleif himself says the traveler WILL be able to reweave fate though ONLY at the end of their journey. Ei was only capable of planting the sacred sakura after coming to terms and understanding Makoto's view of eternity (or transience), she literally fought her own old world views in the shape of the shogun. Now the traveler, by the end of their journey not only will they have their power back, they will also likelly understand more about teyvat and the meaning of the journey itself and why their sibling sided with the abyss.
Taking the lessons we have learned in this game, maybe Knowledge (in certain aspects) is LITERAL power, therefore in the future, where you have, supposedly, achieved the knowledge of your own fate, the meaning of it and whatnot, that would allow you to literally reweave said fate, it's like cooking, first you follow the recipe, then you practive and master that single recipe, and then, and only then, you should be able to successfully change it to your own desires, because now you understand how it works, and can now even create new recipes yourself.
Taking that into consideration, knowing that "gnosis" literally mean knowledge, it becomes even more suspiscious what Tsarisa is trying to do... Only the future can change the past, but you neeed a certain kind of power to change your own fate...
I did in fact wait till I had my heating blanket and cup of tea before sitting down for this video. I don’t know how to feel about Katie predicting my actions like that, but it bodes well for her various other predictions.
This story feels like a roundabout way to sneakily link The Honkai/Star Rail universe to Genshin (even more than it already is linked on the honkai side of things)
There are just too many similarities at this point, Imrisul/The imaginary tree, The honkai/The Abyss, The Sustainer being a Herscherr of the void clone, Project arc/Griseo/Enkanomya.
We already got explicit info with Otto seeing Stormterror an adjecent branch of the imaginary tree in the main story of honkai so its only a matter of time untill genshin delves into this.
it will probably be part of the Post-celestia story, after we learn the truth of teyvat, defeat the abyss and reunite with our sibling, restore the primordial one, defeat the usurper and regain the travelers powers we will most likely venture out of the "egg" of Teyvat (sun and moon describes it like this) and into other worlds that are linked to Teyvat
Ahhh so happy you made video about Vera’s Melancholy, I really enjoyed it!
I loved the connection with interstellar (it’s such a good movie I agree).
I sent this video to my friend and they pointed out that there’s a mention of “seizing the past” in Lay of Al-Ahmar;
“"Your Majesty, son of the sky, subjugator of gods, and greatest of all sages,"
The Ibis King, the scribe of all scribes, advised,
"The divine punishment of a thousand years past brought the downfall of wisdom and history. For a better future, Your Majesty, you should take control of the past. The present oases hold the wisdom of the 'present', but if we are to seize the 'past', we must act swiftly."”
I think this is super weird. Did Deshret end up seizing the past? Perhaps his plan never failed.
We also know that the Goddess of Flowers saw her fate- her future- and knew that it will open some doorway. Makes me think that maybe what we read about what happened in the desert isn’t really what happened, or that we are missing a big chunk of info.
Can’t wait for new video! Feel better❤
Thank you SO much!!!
why it feels like honkai star rail lore hmmmmm
Love these lore videos, hope to see more soon!
This was incredibly well done. Thank you! I really appreciate the summary and the speculation and theory crafting.
i love to hear your thoughts on genshin lore, i hope you keep making vids :) plus this is a very well done overview of the books, also love the drawings lol
Ooh, nice! An analysis of one of my favorite books in the entirety of genshin.
Okay so this HAS to be based (at least jn some part) by The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The title itself has to be a nod. But there's literally a girl who complains that her life is too boring and suddenly aliens, time travelers, and espers appear in her life??? And she gets up to acid trippy, time traveling, space shenanigans?????
Love this. I need to read it in game.
YES THE VERA'S MELANCHOLY ANALYSIS!!!!
I’ve always suspected Alice got isekaid into teyvat like Vera did
Poor Sachin be taking non-stop Ls 😂 like Princess im sure Vera appreciate your supportive friendship but please be merciful to my poor boy Sachin 😅
I might be on enough copium to kill a horse but I think vera is a metaphor for dottore who's a metaphor for buer who's a metaphor for irminsul who's a metaphor for the heavenly principles who's a metaphor for the primordial one who is a metaphor for brahman.
Reading that back I think I might need some copium narcan. But I will explain anyways.
So it starts with an almost clinical yet childish analysis of the world in a similar style to that of zandiks writings, with it being closer to a poorly written research diary than a book. And then it veers into the essence of what makes a world and what is needed to maintain one, which is commonly associated with the role of buer. And in order to fabricate a world you need something to keep it in check, which in a material sense is irminsul, but buer maintains irminsul and the heavenly principles maintain buer, so, in classic institutional fashion, you have to examine who maintains (or maintained) the heavenly principles, and I think that was the primordial one. And so now, you may be wondering where the fuck Hinduism comes in, and my answer is that I think the primordial one isn't a person and is instead the universe itself and that's why when it acts it shakes the foundation of the world itself.
Wait no the imaginary tree is the primordial one
get well soon roozevelt
You are so underrated
I think she added the memory of the tree to the irmensoul
This book is an acid trip documentation
🤔 the childhood and youth stuff feels like a metaphor for allogenes ascending to Celestia idk
I can help you figure out Vera’s melancholy
Sachi = Dainsleif
explain
This video is really well made but I wish dad didn't left.
Not to related to anything said in the video but I might die if I can’t talk about this, okay okay so aether is the cannon traveler and is constantly referred to as the sun or “lucky like gold” in a daily quest in sumeru city I’m pretty sure,witch is in contrast with his name “aether” witch means abyss, this would make sense if the cannon was lumine because her names means illuminate, but it’s not and I don’t personally believe that it was changed in development, the repetition of the sun and the traveler is odd tho, my personal theory was like aether was the light at the end of the abyss and lumine is blinded by the light or that chance that she could revive khan,
Anyway Lol ty for reading
Princess x vera my OTP
Sachi x Ike forever
@@ahagotcha nah thay are homis
Ion get how Jean is able to read this book
iirc correctly it's never described as rare to come across, and it does seem like it's a favorite in mondstadt! on the message boards people will write about it
@@roozeveltfox oh no its not about the rarity of the book, rather its story is kinda weird to follow
@@F0XHunter oh oops! yeah you're right, and i have NO idea either haha
Since delfi is enka coud the world were wishes come true be the time befor the 2 who came
The thing is there are only 13 flame chaser in HI3 it choud refer to so who is the 14th ? Po ?
Ike is so weird lmao, anyways this video is so well made !
Something tells me this book is just more and more relevent 😊
My theory/thoughts
What if the futer saves the past somone goes though irminsoul and with there memory in the past to do x
in spanish the dainsleif character card literally says the future save the past.
i think the spanish translation is more "accurate" with the chinese.
sorry for my english xd.
Sachi x Ike is ship in the game by some npc
oh my goodness I had completely forgotten this. On the Cat's Tail message board someone is writing about a fallout with their friend because they wanted different characters to end up together, and they wanted to reconcile. Someone simply replied "Saatchi [sic] + Ike forever!" LOOOOL
@@roozeveltfoxwish instead of cut and pieces we get a full volume to read this novel.
Lol this reads like fanfiction
"Promo sm" 😎
The virus coud be honkai
Do you still think the past didn't change considering the overwhelming evidence favouring it?
Degenerate? Sign me up where it at tho