Even though it is a relatively new game where most of the content has not even been revealed yet, Genshin Impact has managed to amass quite a large following, with players from all over the world enjoying MiHoYo's action RPG and the lush, open world they have brought to life. It should come as no surprise since the game is available for free on the majority of available devices (except the Xbox consoles).
Between the official MiHoYo forums and various subreddits, the game has a huge fanbase that constantly makes memes and speculates about the future of Teyvat, the undiscovered regions, the fates of various characters, and the directions in which Genshin Impact's developers may take the game to. While some of these fan theories are completely wild and unrealistic, some of them may actually turn out to be true in the near future.
Updated on December 30, 2021, by Scott Vengel: Genshin Impact is a game that constantly changes and moves, often in unpredictable ways. Recently, the game is looking to return to Liyue, where players will once again participate in the Lantern Rite festival. Yet, also in update 2.4, players will also unlock the Inazuma region of Enkanomiya. Likewise, as Genshin Impact has been undergoing a lot of changes, lore also grows and expands. Because the theory community of Genshin Impact is always moving along with the game's fast pace, this article will be updated to replace proven theories, as well as add new fan theories since Inazuma's introduction.
14 Paimon Is The Unknown God (Or Their Servant/Apprentice)
The Unknown God is the reason behind Genshin Impact's protagonist (the Traveler) peculiar circumstances. Trapped in Teyvat and separated from their siblings, the Traveler surely has more than one reason to hate the Unknown God with a fiery passion. The entire main storyline of Genshin revolves around fixing the wrongdoings of this mysterious being.
One of the first characters players come across at the very beginning of the game is Paimon, a little, fairy-like creature. The Traveler fished her out of a lake, saving her life. In exchange, she stuck around and became the protagonist's faithful companion for the remainder of their adventure.
Noting that "Paimon" is actually one of the nine kings of Hell in 17th-century demonology literature, some players have made the leap to claim that the name actually hints at Paimon's true identity as the Unknown God, responsible for all of the Traveler's despair. She also looks eerily similar to the Unknown God in terms of appearance!
13 The Fatui Have Good Intentions
There is a lot of unknown factors when it comes to Genshin Impact's antagonists: the Abyss Order and the Fatui. Among these, both have their moments that seem to suggest that they are more misunderstood than the story lets on, especially in regards to the true intentions of the Fatui.
The most popular of these types of fan theories suggest that the Tsaritsa is trying to fix Teyvat by fighting some evil force that the Traveler has not yet faced. Whether this is Celestia or the Unknown God, one fact remains true — if this theory is correct, then the Tsaritsa needs Gnoses to gain the power she needs to fight for good.
There are a lot of explanations for why the Tsaritsa began her rebellion against the divine. The most common of these says that the Tsaritsa's motive has a relationship to the Cataclysm, an event that occurred 500 years before the beginning of Genshin Impact. Reportedly, it was after this event that the Tsaritsa face a change in her personality, going from a sweet caring goddess to a cold and unforgiving one.
12 Celestia Is Actually Evil
Throughout the lore of Genshin Impact, Celestia is perhaps the most unknown place in the game's lore. Generally, Celestia is the source of an Archon's authority, as well as where the noblest of people go (like Mondstadt's Vennessa.)
However, despite its apparent good part in the story of Teyvat, many fans speculate that Celestia is not all that it's chalked up to be. There's a lot of evidence that supports the idea that Celestia may be the hidden source of evil in Genshin Impact rather than the Abyss Order or the Fatui.
For starters, many (if not most) of the Archons on Teyvat seem to have a strained relationship with Celestia: Venti purposely avoids the topic in the manga, the Raiden Shogun has cut ties with the land, and the Tsaritsa's whole agenda is causing a "rebellion against the divine." In addition, Celestia is often seen in the eyes of in-game scholars as having a role in most influential historical events, like the Archon War, which only makes their reputation all the more sketchy.
11 Scaramouche Knows The Truth
Of the Fatui Harbingers known in Genshin Impact, Scaramouche has both one of the longest histories and the most mysterious lore. Not only is he the only Harbinger so far to be directly related to an Archon, but many fans also believe that the 6th Fatui Harbinger has more knowledge about the world than would be apparent at first glance.
This theory is originally sourced with the conclusion of the Unreconciled Stars event, in which Scaramouche stated that the "stars and sky are a lie." Making this brazen statement after seeing a vision of unknown content, the true meaning of this statement is currently up to interpretation.
Despite this, there is one thing that this end makes clear — Scaramouche knows something that the Traveler does not. And this, coupled with the Fatui Harbinger's mysterious rogue behavior after taking the Raiden Shogun's Gnosis, has led a lot of Genshin Impact theorists to hypothesize that Scaramouche will be crucial to the Traveler understanding the truth of the world of Teyvat.
10 Kaeya Is An Antagonist
Players get to play as Kaeya in the early stages of Genshin Impact, and to some fans, he is one of the most revered playable characters in all of Teyvat. Others find him a little annoying and too weak to use later on. Regardless of your opinion of Kaeya, he is an interesting character, with a mysterious backstory.
Kaeya was sent to Mondstadt as a spy, by a neighboring underground region of Khaenri'ah. He is also a bit of a sadist in the cutscenes, which was enough for many fans to claim that he will soon be revealed as one of the antagonists in the game.
9 Albedo Will "Lose Control"
As the Chief Alchemist and leader of the Knights of Favonius' Investigation Team, Albedo is well-situated in the world of Genshin Impact. In one of the missions, he speaks to himself (and the Traveler) about the possibility of him "losing control" one day, asking the protagonist to stop him when the time comes.
Understandably, fans took this cutscene and ran with it as the foreshadowing of a future plotline in which Albedo does lose control and go off the rails as one of the featured antagonists. It's a convincing theory, and it wouldn't be surprising to see a similar development in one of the upcoming updates.
8 There Is An 8th Element
The world of Teyvat's most core principle is the fact that seven elements govern the laws of the land. However, for as long as the Abyss Order has been a part of Genshin Impact's lore, many fans have speculated that the world has far more than the seven basic elements.
Perhaps the most influential of these potential "eighth elements" is sourced in the characters of Dainsleif and their Traveler's sibling who heads the Abyss Order. Due to the mysterious properties of these powers, no player has been able to successfully pinpoint which element they are sourced in; as such, it has led to many players theorizing that the mysterious element is tied to Khaenri'ah, perhaps even being the reason the Cataclysm occurred.
In addition to this unknown element, some players even speculate that the element may be related to the powers of Collei in the Genshin Impact manga, which also appear to exist outside of the game's 7 elements. Yet, this has not been confirmed at the current moment.
7 The Lost Sibling Is The Final Boss
This one is actually quite possible, and not far-fetched at all. Many players have been trying to make sense of the ultimate arc of the main story, arriving at the conclusion that after spending so much time apart, influenced by different people and events, the two lost siblings would eventually end up fighting each other.
In the cutscene at the end of the second act of the Prologue, the sibling is seen with a calm and calculating expression when facing an Abyss Mage. There were no other hints suggesting that they may have turned evil, but that was enough for players to start spinning up wild theories. Besides, lost siblings battling each other is a well-known trope in gaming (ex. Kassandra and Alexios from Assassin's Creed Odyssey), so they might be onto something.
6 Players Will Be Able To Discover The Abyss
The Abyss is not to be confused with the Spiral Abyss, which players visit every now and then to challenge themselves in combat and win rewards. The Abyss is a place that, much like the Khaenri'ah, is located outside of the conventional frames of time and space. According to the in-game lore, it's connected to the oceans, although the nature of that connection is unclear. It is also home to the Abyss Mages.
Why then would the players be able to visit and explore the Abyss? Well, the story points towards the Traveler's sibling being the leader of the Abyss Order, an organization seeking revenge for the fate of Khaenri'ah. Since the main story of Genshin Impact is driven by the Traveler's quest to reunite with their sibling, it would make sense for them to make their way down to the Abyss at some point.
5 Alice Might Be In Another Dimension
Alice is Klee's mother, and she is nowhere to be found in Teyvat. There are multiple hints dropped by various characters regarding her personality and activities in the game's world. Aside from mothering Klee, she was also involved in the culture of Teyvat, having written the Teyvat Travel Guide.
According to Klee, Alice left her three years prior to her meeting the Traveler, and went off "somewhere far and dangerous". This led to fans coming up with a theory that she might currently be located in another dimension, and is yet to play a key part in Genshin Impact's main story. As of the current version of Genshin Impact, Alice's voice has only been heard once during a limited-time event, in a recorded message she left for Klee during the Midsummer Island Adventure event.
4 Players Might Meet Alice Some Day
This one kind of goes along with the previous theory about Alice being in another dimension while the events of Genshin Impact are taking place, as well as the one claiming that players will visit the Abyss one day. Since Alice is part of Hexenzirkel, an association of mages that explores the Irminsul, a tree that has its roots in the Abyss, then the Abyss might be the answer to the puzzle of her whereabouts.
Since the Traveler might have to go down to the Abyss in order to find their sibling, Alice may prove to be a key character that helps them get there.
3 Possible Five-Star Electro Tartaglia
This isn't a theory as much as it is an assumption about MiHoYo's future plans for Genshin Impact. Since it's unreasonable to expect the devs to keep adding characters to the game, alterations of existing characters might be the way to go.
Additionally, the second form of Tartaglia (as a boss, not a playable character), uses Electro powers, giving more fuel to the idea that MiHoYo might release him as the first "alternate" version of a character.
2 Honkai Impact And Genshin Impact Are In The Same Universe
This theory has sprung up from the various fan theories regarding the Unknown God's identity and purpose. Many players have brought to attention the fact that she looks eerily similar to a character from Honkai -- Kiana Kaslana.
The similarity is uncanny. This led fans to search out other similarities between the games, which gave way to the theory. However, it should be taken with a grain of salt -- it is much more likely that the similarities are because MiHoYo shared assets between the two games, rather than because they built a multiverse.
1 The Hidden Meaning Of Genshin Impact's Travail Trailer
No Genshin Impact trailer has left quite the impression for theorists as the game's chapter preview trailer, Travail. It's not hard to see why: Dainsleif's cryptic messages about each chapter are ripe with hidden messages that fans can use to make predictions about the story. However, there is some amount of the community that believes that Travail has hidden messages much deeper than fans would believe.
At first glance, the trailer seems to be a simple explanation of each chapter, but the wording (especially the second sentence of each chapter) has led many fans to conclude that it has a meaning for the story overall: "freedom demanded by a god", "the contract to end all contracts", etc. could all refer to some future driving force in the game's story. The Travail trailer also constantly makes reference to the truth of the world, and specifically the Traveler finding it, leading many fans to conclude that these mysterious lines are related to finding this truth.
One line, "Show me that you are worthier than I to rescue her. Then the threads of all fate will be yours to reweave." seems to leave a lot of questions about where Genshin Impact is headed. The de facto concluding line of the trailer, it makes apparent that the Traveler will fight Dainsleif (the person saying the line) to achieve some godly status that reworks fate itself. However, it also is very open to interpretation: Who is her? What does reweaving fate mean? And most importantly, is it actually Dainsleif saying this line?
Genshin Impact is available on mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5.