Genshin Dvalin - Tumblr Posts
I like to believe that this was how Dvalin’s first meeting with Zhongli went
Greetings! Could I request Venti hanging out with baby Dvalin? Thank you.
Sorry if I misunderstood the assignment lmao I took this partially as “what if Venti was around for Dvalin’s egg baby days” and ran with it
Genshin took over my life and I'm now going to make my hyperfixation of it everyone's problem
Some time ago, I really, REALLY got into Genshin Impact and it has, without a doubt, taken over my life.
Recently, I read two pretty cool fics on Ao3; "Wards of the Wind" by Kiri_Kaitou_Clover and "Just a Boy" by Karmitara, which... both had me cooking.
I have a funky Genshin AU / Story Idea I want to info dump about! I call it "A Thousand Winds in a Windless Land"!
The general gist of it is that during the Cataclysm, Barbatos is sent to kill the Khanri'ahn heir, baby Kaeya, however, Barbatos is unable to bring himself to kill him and hands him over to Dainsleif who escapes into the Abyss while Barbatos distracts the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.
Of course, they (because I stan gender-neutral Venti) lose. Normally, such actions would result in execution, however, the Sustainer is unable to kill Barbatos without consequences that probably involve Istaroth, so instead, she seals Barbatos away, but still tells all the Archons that she killed them to prevent any more rebellious behaviour.
Before they get sealed away, however, Barbatos transfers their powers over to their siblings; the Thousand Winds, putting them on the same power level as the adepti of Liyue, and then Barbatos transfers their soul into a vessel in the form of a wisp similar to the rest of the wisps so that they can keep helping out in Teyvat in secret. After sealing Barbatos away, the Sustainer goes to destroy Mondstadt as part of Barbatos' punishment, but because of the Thousand Winds' power up, they are able to defeat the sustainer and send her and Celestia into a slumber after she'd been weakened by the Cataclysm.
Afterwards, the Wind Wisps essentially became divine protectors of Mondstadt, similar to the Four Winds and Liyue’s adepti. They’re also able to have human forms, identifiable by their white hair and anemo-coloured tips and eyes. They mostly stay in Mondstadt but are also known to live in other nations alongside people they decide to stick to.
I imagine that the inclusion of the wisps and the presence of Barbatos (who calls themself Nye since their identity as Venti has been compromised) changes a lot of things that I'll probably cover in another post lol. But I like to imagine that some of the wisps decided to stick around with anemo users and residents of Mondstadt, as well as people who are just generally fighting for freedom as well as the archons. I also like to imagine that a wisp decides to stick around with Dainsleif, and as for the Traveller? The wisp who follows him around is literally just Nye/Venti lol
I don't really know what the Mondstadt quest will be since I plan for Dvalin to be cured :PP
I am also a sucker for Venti & Tsaritsa shenanigans and like to headcanon that they have a sibling relationship, so I imagine that around half of the animosity she feels towards the other archons is probably Barbatos related. She's mad at Morax because he was the one in charge of making sure that Barbatos would kill Kaeya, she was originally not as disappointed towards Beelzebub and was even a little sympathetic towards her until she decided to take the coward's way out and hide away in her Plane of Euthymia and leave an emotionless puppet to rule her people, but the Tsaritsa probably has nothing really against Buer and Focalors since there was genuinely nothing they could have done since neither of them become archons until after the Cataclysm. I'm not sure what Murata's role should be in all of this yet, but I do know that the Tsaritsa probably also really blames herself for not being able to prevent Barbatos' fate. My brother even suggested that maybe she was the one who was originally supposed to kill Kaeya, but because she refused, the duty was pushed onto Barbatos.
I'll probably info-dump more about this AU later lol
Oh look, What I have so far for my Cataclysm and pre-canon Mondstadt plot points for my ATWIAWL AU!
CATACLYSM
After defeating Durin, Celestia summons Barbatos to assassinate the Khaenri’an heir, to which Barbatos very reluctantly cooperates with, that is until they get there and discover a baby Kaeya.
Seeing his smile, Barbatos cannot bring themself to kill the baby and attempts to smuggle him away from the Cataclysm, but they are discovered by Morax and the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.
Before all of this, Dainsleif was exiled (for reasons I haven’t really decided yet) from Khaenri’ah but came back during the Cataclysm hoping to save the people, but bumps into Barbatos. Dainsleif is tense at first until Barbatos hands Kaeya over to him and tells him that he must run before the Sustainer arrives.
The Sustainer then proceeds to arrive and Barbatos buys the two time as Dainsleif and Kaeya flee into the Abyss. However, Barbatos quickly loses the fight.
An offence like this would normally lead to the offender’s execution, however, the Sustainer is unable to kill Barbatos without severe consequences (all relating to Istaroth), but leaving them to their own devices is just as equally dangerous, so instead, the Heavenly Principles seal them away.
She still tells all the other archons that they killed Barbatos to dissuade them from also rebelling.
Before they’re able to seal them away, however, Barbatos transfers their powers over to the Thousand Winds, blessing them with power rivalling that of Liyue’s adepti so that after the deed is done and the Sustainer sets out to attack Mondstadt, the Wind Wisps are able to fight her off, sending her into a deep slumber after the Cataclysm weakened her.
PRE-CANON MONDSTADT
After they were blessed by Barbatos, the Wind Wisps essentially became divine protectors of Mondstadt, similar to the Four Winds and Liyue’s adepti. They’re also able to have human forms, identifiable by their white hair and anemo-coloured tips and eyes. They mostly stay in Mondstadt but are also known to live in other nations alongside people they decide to stick to.
Before they were sealed away, Barbatos was able to remove their soul and put it into the form of a Wind Wisp not too dissimilar from the rest of the Thousand Winds. Since their identity as Venti was compromised, Barbatos decided to craft a new identity under the name of Nye and use it to secretly remain in Teyvat.
The fact that Barbatos disguised as Nye is still around is a secret only the Thousand Winds are privy to, because if Celestia were to ever hear of Nye’s true identity, they could potentially awaken prematurely, and that is the last thing anyone wants.
Because they’re around, Venti is able to heal Dvalin of Durin’s poison, but because I’m also a sucker for the gay dragons, close to the present events of the game, Durin gets reincarnated into the most reckless being in all of Teyvat. Initially, Dvalin lets him be out of a sense of guilt from killing his past self, but then Durin (whose name might not be Durin anymore) gets himself in a sticky situation and Dvalin has to appear in his human form in order to get him out of that situation. Afterwards, Dvalin decides to stick around with Durin to ensure that he doesn’t get himself almost killed again.
In his human form, Dvalin has a fake anemo vision and I can imagine him either being a bow user or a catalyst user.
I like to think that Durin would have a cryo vision. I can imagine his weapon either being a claymore or a physical catalyst like Heizou or Wriothesley.
During the Ursa the Drake crisis, the presence of the wisps are able to save Crepus’ life. I haven’t decided yet if present-day Diluc still has the same personality he had before his father died in canon, or if he’s still grumpy. Another fic that inspired me was “A Bard’s Ambition” by OG_CaleHenituse where even though Venti saved Crepus’ life, it wasn’t without people thinking he had died when he went missing which still results in Diluc’s fallout with the knights.