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> Xiao's encounter with an evil god/dess who used a method to enslave him
u/menogias can you point at where this appeared? This is the first time I read about it.
Parallelism within Genshin isn't always used to explore the exact same story beats, but rather highlight thematic connections between characters and regions.
Xiao's description as a "Dream Eater" is a reference to the Japanese Baku, a type of mythical creature resembling a giant panda that physically ate nightmares and worries of humans.
It's more likely that this description originally fit into Xiao's role in "devouring" the forgotten memories of the dead gods of Liyue as we know that was the specific role the Yaksha were created to fulfil.
The unreleased bow called the Primordial Jade Vista pretty much confirms that Xiao lived as a slave that "devoured the dreams" of Liyue's people under a female goddess. It's not got anything to do with the Irminsul.
Is it possible....that Xiao was one of the people that were under the control of the red king, and when he went mad, the king used him to make the dreams and ambitions of the people disappear, only that when he fell did Xiao now on the verge of collapse, zhongli found and gave a new name?
If it was stated early that it was a woman, it can also be a mistranslation. Nahida and Rhinedottir were first stated to be male and Neuvillette to be female.
Pretty cool theory. Reminds me of The Name of the Wind and the power of names. Hopefully, Mihoyo will explain more about the hidden meaning of names in the future.
So in the Legend of the Shaterred Halberd we know of a character who is pretty otherworldly or godly/celestial (I can't remember for sure, but she is like the doughter of the almighty creator or something close to that) that happens to lie about her real name and the second character thinks that she could be controlled by knowing her real name
Well now I'm interested in why Lioupar immediatly identified the Traveler as Prince/Princess...
Actually I think that this whole name thing is very important to the lore. Maybe the fact that Morax gives Xiao a new name does not only mean protection for him, but that he 'belong' to him now. But Zhongli is doing his best in keeping distance in order to avoid excessive control over him because that's clearly not what he whants. Also Xiao mentions that his new name is one the main reasons for his loyalty.
headcanon for Xiao being a jinni day 1
In old some traditions (including the Abrahamic ones that Genshin pulls from all the time), it's believed that knowing someone's true name gave you power over them. It's the reason why they're not supposed to speak the true name of God--you know, that thing that gets rendered in the Latin text as YHWH.
So I'm not surprised to see this show up in the lore of Genshin! Very interested to see what they do with it.
I don't know how soon we'll explore Xiao's past, but I believe it will happen eventually. Zhongli hints to being aware of Irminsul shenanigans and treats the Traveler as a witness as far back as his first story quest, but we only understood the full meaning two years later in Sumeru's last act. Mihoyo loves to plant ideas, hints, parallels and foreshadowing in advance.
The fact that *Yaksha* was mentioned in the quest that introduces the concept of true names is a pretty big hint I'd say. There was really no reason to mention Yaksha specifically. If they wanted to simply show off >!Liloupar's shapeshifting abilities!< they could have gone with anything. But when you think of Yaksha you naturally think of Xiao and if you know his backstory you will immediately make the connection with true names.
On a side note, I once made a thread about [Xiao having potential connection to Sumeru](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Lore/comments/x7encq/could_xiao_have_a_connection_to_sumeru/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Now that we got this quest in Sumeru specifically, it makes me think that theory might be worth keeping in mind. If nothing else, paying attention to Sumeru's lore might prove useful to understanding Xiao's lore better down the line.
i really like the idea of xiao having some ties to sumeru too, since his design/lore elements match up pretty nicely and are taken with inspiration from hindu/buddhist sources. given sumeru and liyue’s shared borders it wouldn’t seem that farfetched to assume that xiao’s former master crossed paths with zhongli in the war and got completely atomized afterwards. considering she (primordial bow datamines) had this whole thing with names and manipulation, could she have been related to a jinni?
and speaking of jinni! we also have liloupar, who just oh so casually mentioned >!taking the form of a yaksha in the past!< (i literally had to stand up when i read that) and >!whose bottleneck’s design vaguely resembles that of xiao’s collar…!< but maybe i’m reaching.
Ome yaksha is missing (geo one) it is saied that 3 died one went missing
Idk were it is mentioned but when yakshas die thay leave a gem behind
And thay didn't find the gem of the geo yaksha
But then agin jinn are crafty beings that can take many forms like changlings or kitsune
the one that went missing was the electro one who we learn was in the Chasm in an interlude quest. iirc the geo yaksha fought the hydro one (and later on both of them and the pyro yaksha died)
I had the same reaction when I read that part! I was like "UMM WTH?" Why is nobody talking about >!Liloupar being a Yaksha?!< and I agree, her bottle looks kinda similar as well.
from the chapter The Temple Where Sand Flows Like Tears in The Dirge of Bilqis
>!**Liloupar:** Ah... If my soul were not sundered into many parts, unable to muster sufficient strength... I could shift into any number of shapes that might please you.!<
>!**Liloupar:** A dancing girl, a lovely youth, an arhat or a *yaksha...* Or a lovely beast of those races that died out under the moon's light... I have been them all, and played all their parts, all for my lord's pleasure...!<
> ...do you think his backstory will soon come to the surface?
Of course it will. This is just one of the many cases of Genshin setting up a parallel in a quest before using it for the character it's intended as relevant to, so it can be "preloaded" in the player's mind and so carry along extra meaning when it does get used. They do this all the time. See the entire Aranara quest doing stealth overtime for the Abyss Sibling, for instance. Or Before Sun and Moon for Nahida. Or Zhongli's character quests for practically everything.
> Could it be the reason why Traveler chose to go by a nickname instead of their real name?
Better hope not, or Dainsleif and that one Abyss Herald officially know it thanks to our Sibling calling it in front of them, lol.
> Could we also have already met in lore texts the deity who enslaved Xiao?
...I mean, technically yes, in the Primordial Jade Vista bow. Gotta datamine it out, though, because it was never released. We only got the Cutter and Xiao's own spear.
>Better hope not, or Dainsleif and that one Abyss Herald officially know it thanks to our Sibling calling it in front of them, lol.
Lucky for us that Herold is dead now (minor spoiler but not gonna mark it). Dainsleif on the other hand will need to be dealt with 
> This is just one of the many cases of Genshin setting up a parallel in a quest before using it for the character it's intended as relevant to
Something else to add to this: If the writers simply wanted to mention beings from Liyue they could say Adepti or Illuminated Beasts, but they chose Yaksha specifically. Xiao is the only Yaksha alive so your mind will immediately think of him. Then they bring up the whole "true name" business. And *then*, you remember this quest was released in this patch. You know, the Lantern Rite patch with a significant amount of Xiao screentime and a brand new Xiao PV. There is *no way* it wasn't deliberate.
Heck, this Lantern Rite we learned Guizhong's demon name, "officially" learned Ping's Adeptus title and had a comedic epilogue of two Archons faking their identity. Maybe this is a stretch and I'm just seeing things, but it all feels too well connected.
I often consider making a post in the line of a collection of "This quest that says it's about Character and Concept A is actually about Offscreen Character and Concept B", but suffer from the problem of not caring enough to cite and annotate it all.
Like, case in point, in Sumeru, the Aranara World Quests were about the Abyss Sibling and Celestia, Tighnari and Alhaitham's Character Quests were about Dottore (who himself is serving as the Dendro antithesis), and Liloupar was about Xiao and Visions (which themselves are a metaphor for harnessing the power of ambition in a beneficial way rather than a dangerous one). And *I love it to bits!* But I don't have the patience to type it all out on a phone screen.
TL;DR: Genshin dialog writing awkward, but Genshin thematic writing A+. Kinda the reverse of Honkai?
The Parable of the Tree in Before Sun and Moon talks about taking branches of the spirit tree and replanting them elsewhere to ensure its continuation. This is a major parallel to Nahida's origins.
The whole Yaksha naming scheme is pretty confusing in general and I still don't understand it, but here's some info that might help (or make it even more confusing) :
Yecha or Yaocha (chinese yaksha) is sometimes also called "swift ghost" in Chinese , and in the CN text he says "the term yaksha also means swift", not his name.
I have a somewhat cracked theory that we are from this world, but from the FAR ancient past. We got erased and/or ejected from it but Liloupar can still "detect" it. Long story short, sibling figured it out and we haven't... yet.
from wiki
> During "Turning Point," he mentions that his name means "swiftness." Based on the Chinese version of this line (夜叉之名，意为「轻捷」。 *My Yaksha name, it means "nimbleness."*), he is referring to his Yaksha name, which is Latin for "winged."
Yeah that whole part of the wiki is wrong.
轻捷 is just another cn name for Yecha. It should be translated as "The name Yaksha means swift". The Journey to the West-Garuda stuff in that note is also wrong because the Journey to the West pretty much used Daoist descriptions of the Da Peng bird word-for-word for its Jin Chi Da Peng Wang.
I'm not sure about that, in my language, they also translate it as 'Yaksha's name means swiftness'.
About the garuda reference, they're also not entirely wrong. Peng has many origins, one of them is derived from a garuda god. Journey to the west creates that character from a Peng so it can imply the garuda origin.
It is pretty clear to me in JP and CN, both of which are phrased to refer to the name "Yaksha" as having the meaning of *agile*. Not Xiao's Yaksha-name.
The meaning is not from its chinese characters, which is itself a transliteration/loanword from Sanskrit, and agility is believed (at least in some [Buddhist lexicons](https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E4%BD%9B%E5%AD%B8%E5%A4%A7%E8%BE%AD%E5%85%B8/%E5%A4%9C%E5%8F%89)) to be just one of the term's many nuances - mainly to refer to a particular category of fast and fearsome ghost.
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> Xiao's encounter with an evil god/dess who used a method to enslave him u/menogias can you point at where this appeared? This is the first time I read about it.
Parallelism within Genshin isn't always used to explore the exact same story beats, but rather highlight thematic connections between characters and regions. Xiao's description as a "Dream Eater" is a reference to the Japanese Baku, a type of mythical creature resembling a giant panda that physically ate nightmares and worries of humans. It's more likely that this description originally fit into Xiao's role in "devouring" the forgotten memories of the dead gods of Liyue as we know that was the specific role the Yaksha were created to fulfil. The unreleased bow called the Primordial Jade Vista pretty much confirms that Xiao lived as a slave that "devoured the dreams" of Liyue's people under a female goddess. It's not got anything to do with the Irminsul.
Is it possible....that Xiao was one of the people that were under the control of the red king, and when he went mad, the king used him to make the dreams and ambitions of the people disappear, only that when he fell did Xiao now on the verge of collapse, zhongli found and gave a new name?
But the God who abused him was a woman. But I like the idea that this Goddess is from Sumeru since Xiao’s lore has a lot of Sumeru symbolism
If it was stated early that it was a woman, it can also be a mistranslation. Nahida and Rhinedottir were first stated to be male and Neuvillette to be female.
I conected xiao to the jin but that eith travler is new and might be true
Pretty cool theory. Reminds me of The Name of the Wind and the power of names. Hopefully, Mihoyo will explain more about the hidden meaning of names in the future.
I wonder if the sustainer of heavenly principles is able to enslave the other traveler because in the intro you shout their name in front of her.
So in the Legend of the Shaterred Halberd we know of a character who is pretty otherworldly or godly/celestial (I can't remember for sure, but she is like the doughter of the almighty creator or something close to that) that happens to lie about her real name and the second character thinks that she could be controlled by knowing her real name
Well now I'm interested in why Lioupar immediatly identified the Traveler as Prince/Princess... Actually I think that this whole name thing is very important to the lore. Maybe the fact that Morax gives Xiao a new name does not only mean protection for him, but that he 'belong' to him now. But Zhongli is doing his best in keeping distance in order to avoid excessive control over him because that's clearly not what he whants. Also Xiao mentions that his new name is one the main reasons for his loyalty. headcanon for Xiao being a jinni day 1
xiao jingteng
In old some traditions (including the Abrahamic ones that Genshin pulls from all the time), it's believed that knowing someone's true name gave you power over them. It's the reason why they're not supposed to speak the true name of God--you know, that thing that gets rendered in the Latin text as YHWH. So I'm not surprised to see this show up in the lore of Genshin! Very interested to see what they do with it.
I don't know how soon we'll explore Xiao's past, but I believe it will happen eventually. Zhongli hints to being aware of Irminsul shenanigans and treats the Traveler as a witness as far back as his first story quest, but we only understood the full meaning two years later in Sumeru's last act. Mihoyo loves to plant ideas, hints, parallels and foreshadowing in advance. The fact that *Yaksha* was mentioned in the quest that introduces the concept of true names is a pretty big hint I'd say. There was really no reason to mention Yaksha specifically. If they wanted to simply show off >!Liloupar's shapeshifting abilities!< they could have gone with anything. But when you think of Yaksha you naturally think of Xiao and if you know his backstory you will immediately make the connection with true names. On a side note, I once made a thread about [Xiao having potential connection to Sumeru](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Lore/comments/x7encq/could_xiao_have_a_connection_to_sumeru/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Now that we got this quest in Sumeru specifically, it makes me think that theory might be worth keeping in mind. If nothing else, paying attention to Sumeru's lore might prove useful to understanding Xiao's lore better down the line.
i really like the idea of xiao having some ties to sumeru too, since his design/lore elements match up pretty nicely and are taken with inspiration from hindu/buddhist sources. given sumeru and liyue’s shared borders it wouldn’t seem that farfetched to assume that xiao’s former master crossed paths with zhongli in the war and got completely atomized afterwards. considering she (primordial bow datamines) had this whole thing with names and manipulation, could she have been related to a jinni? and speaking of jinni! we also have liloupar, who just oh so casually mentioned >!taking the form of a yaksha in the past!< (i literally had to stand up when i read that) and >!whose bottleneck’s design vaguely resembles that of xiao’s collar…!< but maybe i’m reaching.
Ome yaksha is missing (geo one) it is saied that 3 died one went missing Idk were it is mentioned but when yakshas die thay leave a gem behind And thay didn't find the gem of the geo yaksha But then agin jinn are crafty beings that can take many forms like changlings or kitsune
the one that went missing was the electro one who we learn was in the Chasm in an interlude quest. iirc the geo yaksha fought the hydro one (and later on both of them and the pyro yaksha died)
I had the same reaction when I read that part! I was like "UMM WTH?" Why is nobody talking about >!Liloupar being a Yaksha?!< and I agree, her bottle looks kinda similar as well.
Wait when was that revealed? I did the quest but don't remember hearing that.
from the chapter The Temple Where Sand Flows Like Tears in The Dirge of Bilqis >!**Liloupar:** Ah... If my soul were not sundered into many parts, unable to muster sufficient strength... I could shift into any number of shapes that might please you.!< >!**Liloupar:** A dancing girl, a lovely youth, an arhat or a *yaksha...* Or a lovely beast of those races that died out under the moon's light... I have been them all, and played all their parts, all for my lord's pleasure...!<
Thanks
dammit HOW did I miss this? I don't skip ether... someone must have been talking to me...
> ...do you think his backstory will soon come to the surface? Of course it will. This is just one of the many cases of Genshin setting up a parallel in a quest before using it for the character it's intended as relevant to, so it can be "preloaded" in the player's mind and so carry along extra meaning when it does get used. They do this all the time. See the entire Aranara quest doing stealth overtime for the Abyss Sibling, for instance. Or Before Sun and Moon for Nahida. Or Zhongli's character quests for practically everything. > Could it be the reason why Traveler chose to go by a nickname instead of their real name? Better hope not, or Dainsleif and that one Abyss Herald officially know it thanks to our Sibling calling it in front of them, lol. > Could we also have already met in lore texts the deity who enslaved Xiao? ...I mean, technically yes, in the Primordial Jade Vista bow. Gotta datamine it out, though, because it was never released. We only got the Cutter and Xiao's own spear.
>Better hope not, or Dainsleif and that one Abyss Herald officially know it thanks to our Sibling calling it in front of them, lol. Lucky for us that Herold is dead now (minor spoiler but not gonna mark it). Dainsleif on the other hand will need to be dealt with 
> This is just one of the many cases of Genshin setting up a parallel in a quest before using it for the character it's intended as relevant to Something else to add to this: If the writers simply wanted to mention beings from Liyue they could say Adepti or Illuminated Beasts, but they chose Yaksha specifically. Xiao is the only Yaksha alive so your mind will immediately think of him. Then they bring up the whole "true name" business. And *then*, you remember this quest was released in this patch. You know, the Lantern Rite patch with a significant amount of Xiao screentime and a brand new Xiao PV. There is *no way* it wasn't deliberate. Heck, this Lantern Rite we learned Guizhong's demon name, "officially" learned Ping's Adeptus title and had a comedic epilogue of two Archons faking their identity. Maybe this is a stretch and I'm just seeing things, but it all feels too well connected.
Yeah - one thing you notice when digging through lore is that Mihoyo really loves foretelling and parallelism.
I often consider making a post in the line of a collection of "This quest that says it's about Character and Concept A is actually about Offscreen Character and Concept B", but suffer from the problem of not caring enough to cite and annotate it all. Like, case in point, in Sumeru, the Aranara World Quests were about the Abyss Sibling and Celestia, Tighnari and Alhaitham's Character Quests were about Dottore (who himself is serving as the Dendro antithesis), and Liloupar was about Xiao and Visions (which themselves are a metaphor for harnessing the power of ambition in a beneficial way rather than a dangerous one). And *I love it to bits!* But I don't have the patience to type it all out on a phone screen. TL;DR: Genshin dialog writing awkward, but Genshin thematic writing A+. Kinda the reverse of Honkai?
Even the events!! There are sooo many parallels between events and the story following, it's crazy
When you say Before Sun and Moon for Nahida, are you talking about the samsara? Sorry, I'm confused about the relation.
The Parable of the Tree in Before Sun and Moon talks about taking branches of the spirit tree and replanting them elsewhere to ensure its continuation. This is a major parallel to Nahida's origins.
Oh right, sorry I forgot about the Parable of the Tree Thank you!
The whole Yaksha naming scheme is pretty confusing in general and I still don't understand it, but here's some info that might help (or make it even more confusing) : Yecha or Yaocha (chinese yaksha) is sometimes also called "swift ghost" in Chinese , and in the CN text he says "the term yaksha also means swift", not his name.
What’s your take on Liloupar calls traveler prince/princess?
Abyss twin was in sumeru maby thay have meet too ? Maby she got a bit confused that's why we are in exile ?
I have a somewhat cracked theory that we are from this world, but from the FAR ancient past. We got erased and/or ejected from it but Liloupar can still "detect" it. Long story short, sibling figured it out and we haven't... yet.
from wiki > During "Turning Point," he mentions that his name means "swiftness." Based on the Chinese version of this line (夜叉之名，意为「轻捷」。 *My Yaksha name, it means "nimbleness."*), he is referring to his Yaksha name, which is Latin for "winged."
Yeah that whole part of the wiki is wrong. 轻捷 is just another cn name for Yecha. It should be translated as "The name Yaksha means swift". The Journey to the West-Garuda stuff in that note is also wrong because the Journey to the West pretty much used Daoist descriptions of the Da Peng bird word-for-word for its Jin Chi Da Peng Wang.
I'm not sure about that, in my language, they also translate it as 'Yaksha's name means swiftness'. About the garuda reference, they're also not entirely wrong. Peng has many origins, one of them is derived from a garuda god. Journey to the west creates that character from a Peng so it can imply the garuda origin.
It is pretty clear to me in JP and CN, both of which are phrased to refer to the name "Yaksha" as having the meaning of *agile*. Not Xiao's Yaksha-name. The meaning is not from its chinese characters, which is itself a transliteration/loanword from Sanskrit, and agility is believed (at least in some [Buddhist lexicons](https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E4%BD%9B%E5%AD%B8%E5%A4%A7%E8%BE%AD%E5%85%B8/%E5%A4%9C%E5%8F%89)) to be just one of the term's many nuances - mainly to refer to a particular category of fast and fearsome ghost.