In Genshin Impact’s fictional continent of Teyvat, there are seven nations, each following a different ideology or concept, and ruled by an archon. For most of these nations, The concepts are pretty straightforward and flexible. Mondstadt has freedom, Liyue has contracts, Sumeru has wisdom, Fontaine has Justice, Natlan has war(but for consistency’s sake we’ll call it strength), and Snezhnaya’s concept hasn’t been disclosed yet, but from context and actions of the Snezhnayan interactions sprinkled throughout the game, we can assume that they, too, have something similar to most of these nations. These nations live in harmony. While they live by and worship a god that follows a concept, these concepts are mostly adaptable. They progress with technology and slowly take over the outdated concepts. This is Teyvat. Teyvat isn’t perfect, but they are growing.
This is Inazuma. Inazuma’s concept is “Eternity.” In Japanese, the word Inazuma means “lightning.” you might also know it from the anime, “Inazuma Eleven”
Inazuma is different from all the other nations, because it doesn’t adapt. The concept of eternity is to never change. Growth and change are as much of a blessing as they are a curse. By choosing to grow and pursue the future, we are headed toward a future where we do not have choice.
The developers of Genshin chose to reject this concept. By the end of the major Inazuma archon quests, it is left in a state where the good guys win and the concept of eternity is not redefined but extinguished. The Goddess of eternity is convinced by the heroes that change is a good thing, whether small or large. The world has to move forward, whether you like it or not.
It is the first and perhaps last time the developers will squash a concept under their foot. The Geo archon of Liyue learns that it is a good time to take a step back and retire, but the concept of contracts remains strong as a foundation of human life. The people of Sumeru actively seek out wisdom and intelligence to the point where it hurts the people around them, but ultimately learn how to channel and mold it without forgetting their ideals. And the Anemo archon of Mondstadt learns that while true freedom is unattainable, people still should hold on to it. Fontaine and Natlan have not been released, but it’s easy to see how the concepts of strength and justice are righteous in their own way.
But Inazuma is the complete opposite. The nation of lightning is portrayed as shut off, tyrannical. Visions, the embodiment of someone’s ambition, are taken away. The Sakoku decree ensures that little to no outside advancements and trade can make it through. So why is this a concept? When Eternity is challenged and later pretty much destroyed, why was it an idea worthy of a nation in the first place?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BZs005Hbgs&t=17s
17776 is, according to Wikipedia, “ A serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative by Jon Bois.” It’s set in a future where humans have stopped aging and giving birth, while microbots have been developed to stop any physical harm from coming to you. There is no global warming, and the sun stopped dying. Humans are now immortal, for reasons beyond their and our understanding.
It sounds dystopian, an impossible future. What about the advancements? The discoveries? What about answering the meaning of life and existence? Why would we gain immortality and make no attempts to learn anything about how it happened?
17776 answers in the only sarcastic ways it knows how. Humans simply got bored. There’s only so much to advance toward. Maybe it’s easier to make an invention that can put the remote to your hand, but when you’re an immortal being who doesn’t age or get hurt, walking up to pick up the remote has more meaning to it.
Sometimes I wonder what Heaven is like. Would it be a dystopian world where everyone’s the same? Where nothing happens and we are mindless? Or is Heaven much more open, open to our emotional flaws, allowing us to have fun. When we are in heaven and we live forever, the question becomes how to keep ourselves from getting bored?
TIM: But I don’t think so. But I think about it. And I think, well, it can’t be. Because I’m like you. I kinda look at the big long life ahead of me that stretches out forever and disappears. And I get scared. And I think, “this can’t be heaven if I’m getting scared, right?”
TIM: And then I think, “Maybe this is Heaven, and Heaven is scary.”
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We’ve always reached for the stars. And when we reached the stars we aimed for galaxies and black holes. We’ve always tried making things easier, more convenient, and cooler. Maybe some people will always be like that. But maybe, in the future where most of our problems are fixed and we don’t have to worry about the sun exploding or aging, maybe then we can sit down, maybe play a game of football that covers the entirety of the United States of America.
This is Inazuma. Inazuma is a nation of personal trauma, of deaths that affected gods and their followers. It’s a nation filled with suffering, sorrow, and sadness, and that suffering made the God of Electro come down and enforce a single point of time for the rest of Eternity.
It’s not right, just like how it isn’t right to preserve our time today. There’s still so much to do, so many mouths unfed, rights squashed, and people killed.
Ambition is the thing that keeps us from falling into a completely dystopian world, where everyone’s the same, because it keeps us wanting. But with ambition, we also want a world where everything is the same.
In 17776, we mellowed out. Humanity gets bored of control and technology and advancements and instead we embrace the life of pain and happiness. Humanity in 17776 are creatures of play, and will be creatures of play until the end of time.
And that’s hope. Hope for a better world, that we won’t be destroyed by ambition, that we find that sweet spot where nothing changes and humanity remains mostly happy. Hopefully.
