Columbina's unfinished paradox will be "key" to our sibling's paradox (AQ spoilers/theory)
Genshin's story has just been getting better and better, and Luna IV is one of, if not, the best ones yet. Lots of plot points and mysteries were introduced through the entire Luna arc, and all of them were resolved naturally through the climax.
But there's still one problem that's remaining: Columbina's past. Let's trace her story for a bit:
Columbina was born in Nod-Krai mysteriously around 500 years ago. She stayed with the Scions for a bit, then the Fatuis. Then she left, met us, and the Luna AQ happens. She goes through the moon portal, goes back to the Moon Goddess's imprisonment by Nibelung, gains the trilune authority, and then turns her body into kuuvahki and spreads it across Nod-Krai. Many, many years later, some of this kuuvahki coalesces and Columbina is born into Nod-Krai, around 500 years before today.
This is a classic closed loop time paradox. Where did Columbina come from, actually?
This is not the first time we've seen this paradox; in fact, we've seen another example very recently in the Direidyth AQ "A Space and Time for You". We get a key to our spaceship, and at the end of the AQ we can make a choice: either give our key to Direidyth or keep it. If we give it, then the key becomes the key we originally got, making it a third key that only exists within this time loop. If we keep it, our sibling throws down their key, meaning there were three keys in existence when there should only have been two, but there is no closed loop (whether or now this is a paradox depends on how time travel is supposed to work under Teyvat's laws). Here's a [great diagram](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/1ljj23v/does_giving_or_keeping_the_key_to_direidyth/mzlejdl/) (not mine).
Columbina's paradox seems like a blend of both of these choices. She exists in a closed loop, but she was also reborn and has a story going forward. It's very likely that whatever explains Columbina's paradox can also explain the sibling's key paradox too. Recall that the name of the quest where Columbina explores the moon's reflection is called "Where Our Space and Time Intersect", sound familiar?
At the end of Luna IV, Columbina says this:
"Do you remember me telling you about my missing prologue back when we'd just met? I said that my story began on the moon. But while I was inside the moon's reflection, I realized that my prologue was really hidden in the future. I just had yet to discover it at that point. The story of the time before I was born was in fact the story of my distant future"
This could simply refer to the time loop we already know, but I think "my prologue was really hidden in the future" refers to something that we have yet to see that explains where Columbina *really* came from. We still have not seen Irminsul burn yet and we got a fakeout endcard for Act VIII, it seems clear that there's still something very important for the next AQ, unlike past chapters that ended on the X.3 patch. Whatever comes next may explain what happened to both Columbina and our sibling.
But there's still one problem that's remaining: Columbina's past. Let's trace her story for a bit:
Columbina was born in Nod-Krai mysteriously around 500 years ago. She stayed with the Scions for a bit, then the Fatuis. Then she left, met us, and the Luna AQ happens. She goes through the moon portal, goes back to the Moon Goddess's imprisonment by Nibelung, gains the trilune authority, and then turns her body into kuuvahki and spreads it across Nod-Krai. Many, many years later, some of this kuuvahki coalesces and Columbina is born into Nod-Krai, around 500 years before today.
This is a classic closed loop time paradox. Where did Columbina come from, actually?
This is not the first time we've seen this paradox; in fact, we've seen another example very recently in the Direidyth AQ "A Space and Time for You". We get a key to our spaceship, and at the end of the AQ we can make a choice: either give our key to Direidyth or keep it. If we give it, then the key becomes the key we originally got, making it a third key that only exists within this time loop. If we keep it, our sibling throws down their key, meaning there were three keys in existence when there should only have been two, but there is no closed loop (whether or now this is a paradox depends on how time travel is supposed to work under Teyvat's laws). Here's a [great diagram](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/1ljj23v/does_giving_or_keeping_the_key_to_direidyth/mzlejdl/) (not mine).
Columbina's paradox seems like a blend of both of these choices. She exists in a closed loop, but she was also reborn and has a story going forward. It's very likely that whatever explains Columbina's paradox can also explain the sibling's key paradox too. Recall that the name of the quest where Columbina explores the moon's reflection is called "Where Our Space and Time Intersect", sound familiar?
At the end of Luna IV, Columbina says this:
"Do you remember me telling you about my missing prologue back when we'd just met? I said that my story began on the moon. But while I was inside the moon's reflection, I realized that my prologue was really hidden in the future. I just had yet to discover it at that point. The story of the time before I was born was in fact the story of my distant future"
This could simply refer to the time loop we already know, but I think "my prologue was really hidden in the future" refers to something that we have yet to see that explains where Columbina *really* came from. We still have not seen Irminsul burn yet and we got a fakeout endcard for Act VIII, it seems clear that there's still something very important for the next AQ, unlike past chapters that ended on the X.3 patch. Whatever comes next may explain what happened to both Columbina and our sibling.
Commentaires
On the other hand, sonnet does say she has the same type of powers as Canon
Basically, the 4th failed moon that xiuhcotal tried to raise gave way to the paradox. The paradoxical columbina met her sisters and used canons moon to birth herself in the futurr
Nowhere can I find anything that says kuuvahki took part in Columbina's birth. I only see references to primordial water. Even if there are references, they could be unreliable sources (such as legends/folktales/embellishments)
The spacetime of the moon's reflection is... Exceedingly complicated. Especially the center. This particular paradoxical space can be handwaved off as time magic incomprehensible to those less than reality-altering gods such as its creator, Nibelung.
But genshin doesn't like doing that
Istaroth is responsible for the sibling's time loop you're talking about. There is no need for discussion of paradoxes when the shade of time is involved.
Edit: a closed time loop doesn't care about how many instances of an object exist at once as long as that object's history can be traced. It's even ok if it has no origin, that'd be Istaroth's doing. It should be obvious that Direidyth's key belonged to the future traveler/sibling and was sent back in time. Time loop. Easy. No paradox there.
Also its not a paradox until they stop writing about it. Eg. There's no more new information and therefore you cannot solve teh paradox the way its written.
Since you yourself believe there could be more information coming, its not considered a paradox until after the cutoff point.
Debating the semantics of "paradox" isn't important; the point is there is a question that still needs to be resolved here.
This model is lame imo (>!AoT style!<) and it has really strict rules.
The only option left is a model in which there's a fourth dimension (often called in fiction as "another narrative") in which a certain entity (e.g. Istaroth) freely changes the events. In this model the primordial cause in "cause and effect" would be that entity drawing the circle, instead of it just existing there.
Columbina was born in Nod Krai 500 years ago, which is around the time the Cataclysm was happening. We also know that the Traveler's space ship was in Nod Krai when their twin woke them up, which took place during the Cataclysm, so the ship would have been hidden away sometime around then as well.
In order to move the ship to the moon, the HP would have had to have opened a hole in the false sky to let the ship pass through - and in doing so, the Frostmoon would have been visible from Nod Krai for the first time since the War of Funerary Flame.
Since Columbina's Trilunar Authority was hidden on the Frostmoon at this time, my theory is that when the sky was opened to pass the ship through, Columbina's authority was able to make contact with her Khuvakhi for the first time since she 'died' and trigger her birth.