Natlan Summer Event Foreshadowing Nod-Krai
Summer events foreshadowing upcoming archon quests has been a running theme since the first Golden Apple Archipelago, and Tenochzitoch is no exception. And I just realised how.
Short version: Bennett = Columbina.
The Natlan summer event revolves around taking a vacation to the island of Tenochzitoc, a resort that was once the infamous Mare Jivari, but has since been brought back into existence by Venti. The Adventurer's Guild has chosen Bennett to be their representative at the resort's opening. Bennett, of course, is well-known for his terrible misfortune. However, upon arriving in Natlan, his luck changes dramatically for the better. By the end of the quest, we will learn that Bennett is originally from Natlan, and his trademark bad luck is an effect of being a native Natlanian outside of the protection of the Wayob. In other words, the the rest of the world outside of Natlan rejects his presence. Partway through the quest, Bennett is sucked into a portion of the Mare Jivari and must find his way out. In the end, despite discovering his place of birth, he opts to return to Mondstadt, the place he considers his true home, though he is given blessing to return to Natlan by newfound friends whenever he wants to.
Meanwhile, the AQ has Columbina, a moon goddess without a moon, rejected by the world and slowly fading away, but given a reprieve after accepting a name (thereby tying her "fate" to the world), getting stuck in the "moon's reflection" and ultimately returning after the true moon is brought inside the firmament, now seeing Nod-Krai, the land where she found genuine friends, as a true home.
So: Bennett's bad luck, Columbina's waning power. The Mare Jivari, the Moon's Reflection. The parallels are paralleling.
Short version: Bennett = Columbina.
The Natlan summer event revolves around taking a vacation to the island of Tenochzitoc, a resort that was once the infamous Mare Jivari, but has since been brought back into existence by Venti. The Adventurer's Guild has chosen Bennett to be their representative at the resort's opening. Bennett, of course, is well-known for his terrible misfortune. However, upon arriving in Natlan, his luck changes dramatically for the better. By the end of the quest, we will learn that Bennett is originally from Natlan, and his trademark bad luck is an effect of being a native Natlanian outside of the protection of the Wayob. In other words, the the rest of the world outside of Natlan rejects his presence. Partway through the quest, Bennett is sucked into a portion of the Mare Jivari and must find his way out. In the end, despite discovering his place of birth, he opts to return to Mondstadt, the place he considers his true home, though he is given blessing to return to Natlan by newfound friends whenever he wants to.
Meanwhile, the AQ has Columbina, a moon goddess without a moon, rejected by the world and slowly fading away, but given a reprieve after accepting a name (thereby tying her "fate" to the world), getting stuck in the "moon's reflection" and ultimately returning after the true moon is brought inside the firmament, now seeing Nod-Krai, the land where she found genuine friends, as a true home.
So: Bennett's bad luck, Columbina's waning power. The Mare Jivari, the Moon's Reflection. The parallels are paralleling.
Commentaires
Regarding everything else, yes. The octopus statue in the middle of the square of the resort is also foreshadowing the world formula.
Additionally, bennett's original constellation is Rota Fortuna (wheel of fortune, one of the 22 arcanas). The moons were originally the ones that weaved the fate of teyvat and that is also what the wheel of fortune, aka the wheel of fate, represents. The moons are also wheels of fortune.
The moons also are the power that stands directly opposed to the abyss, which is why the abyss made it so bennett's constellation shattered when he was a baby and turned into wheel of misfortune, aka Rota **Calamitas** (like "the calamity").
His constellation now lies shattered in the sky, similar to what happened to the moons. Even having fallen to the abyss (the calamity) like Sonnet's.
They don't. You are thinking of the map that marked the entrance to the mare jivari that citlali showed us. The map is of Tenochtzitoc and marked the entrance to the mare jivari, and said entrance is where we go to in the enjou quest.
Bennett going back to Natlan replenishes his luck, then you have Columbina returning to Nod-Krai and gradually regaining her strength over the AQ.
Without both of those things fixed he will still have bad luck, but Bennett seems to have embraced his bad luck to preserve his positive outlook on life, at least for the moment. The quest had a bunch of foreshadowing for the continuation of his story whenever we get the actual Mare Jivari as an actual expansion.
in Natlan, >!well, just think of another important character currently stuck to a throne!<
That said, I think you've caught on to an essential part of Genshin: pretty much *every* story/world/event quest does this--though it might be more useful to think of it as allegory rather than foreshadowing. By repeating story frameworks and character tropes over and over, the game is telling us the story of the Heavenly Principles, the "Night Mother," Nibelung, Asmoday, Istaroth, Paimon, the Traveler/Sibling, and Teyvat itself.
We've known about this since at least 4.2, when Nahida tells us that the best way to sneak information through Irminsul's "forbidden knowledge" filter is to convey it through allegory--in particular, in the form of a fairy tale much like the one we're experiencing in Genshin. This is also why the game has so many stories about light novels that tell some-but-not-all of the truth, theater performances that convey what the actors can't bring themselves to say, cryptic poems and bard songs, detectives and thieves who use secret systems of code words, and storybooks or pocket worlds where trauma or grief can be processed and let go of. (And that's not even touching on the actual in-game books or the Hexinzirkel...)
I suspect that Columbina's story actually shows us a vital new piece of Istaroth's story and her role in Teyvat's creation. In particular, Columbina leaves a coded message for the other characters to find at a different point in time and spreads herself over Nod Krai via khuvaki, becoming one with the land. It is very possible Istaroth did something similar by *becoming* all the interwoven stories (much like a Night Wind tapestry!) that make up both the history of Teyvat and the Traveler's journey through it. And these stories, as Nahida and others tell us, contain the secret messages to help us "find the truth of this world." In other words, Istaroth herself is the
"seeds of stories, spread by the wind and cultivated by time." (I'm also *pretty* sure the relationship between Columbina and Luonnotar finally gives us the "why" behind the "Paimon is Istaroth" theory, but that's another thing.)
Just as a side note, I wonder if the difference between "foreshadowing" and "allegory" is one of perspective? If the Traveler had found Columbina's message when they first arrived at the Flagship, it would've seemed like foreshadowing to us, since we wouldn't have understood the context or the fact that, for Columbina, she was talking about things that had already happened. Similarly, if my theory is correct, then what seems like foreshadowing to us (since Genshin's plot hasn't explicitly revealed much info about the HP/Sustainer/etc) is allegory in the way that Istaroth is actually telling us about things that have already happened. But again, that's only the case if Genshin is a story *about its own story*, and not just a case of the writer's room being cute. Though, does the Time Trekker story--which they *just* reminded us about--make this more complicated? Uhhhh, well this is a tangent anyway lol
challenge: talk about Genshin lore without writing an essay (impossible)
This would be so cool if it turns out to be true! I've long been a fan of the "Paimon is the Shade of time" theory, but it felt like the Istaroth reveal pretty thoroughly disproved that. But there was still the odd number of connections between Paimon and time, and I didn't even realize it but the situation with Luonnotar and Columbina can perfectly explain the co-existence of Istaroth and Paimon.
It also might explain why Istaroth seemed so chill and almost detached in the Shades reveal trailer; if Istaroth either foresaw what was to come or simply anticipated it and planned ahead, it'd make sense that she would be less concerned about the present state of afairs with Asmoday being AWOL and Phanes being fast asleep, lol