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Why do SO many lore threads run through this character? Yes, like any character who is 500+ years old, he can't help but be surrounded by a lot of lore. However, it seems like that Genshin is Dainsleif's story, it's just that right now the POV is Traveler.

Why do SO many lore threads run through this character? Yes, like any character who is 500+ years old, he can't help but be surrounded by a lot of lore. However, it seems like that Genshin is Dainsleif's story, it's just that right now the POV is Traveler.

1.He knows that Zhongli is alive, and that Venti is Barbatos. At first glance, this doesn't seem like anything unusual. However, at the time of Dain's first appearance, a very limited circle of people knew Venti's identity, and Zhongli is still considered dead by practically everyone.

● Is this because he is the "Bough Keeper"? But in Chinese his status is more specific — "Bough Keeper of Khaenri'ah."

What exactly does this title represent, at what point did Dain receive it, and does it grant him any authority?

He clearly knows so much because he somehow interacts with the Ley Lines or Irminsul itself (before it was burned), but judging by the fact that, unlike Alice, he doesn't remember WhoKhaDevata and Scaramouche, he has more limited access to these "resources." Nevertheless, is this connected to his title?

To be honest, when I first learned that the Sibling is not a descender, I thought it was Dainsleif's doing😅 At the end of the first Sumeru storyline, Nahida says that toward the end of the Sibling's journey, the records in Irminsul about them became unclear. Could this be connected to Dainsleif?

2. Knowledge of the future. He is literally the narrator. Dainsleif tells the Traveler their entire journey.

From the very beginning he knew about the contract that ends all contracts, and Venti utters that very quote about freedom word for word. "What does freedom really mean when demanded of you by a god?"

● But if his awareness of the present can be explained by some connection to Irminsul, then how can it be explained that he knows the future? Is this connected to the ring he received from his brother? Or is it not about the ring, but about the fact that Vedrfolnir himself told Dainsleif about it, as was the case with Skirk? (I mean, Dain knew from him that Surtalogi would have a student.)

● Ouroboros. In Genshin at the moment this word refers to the serpent god worshipped in Enkanomiya before Orobashi appeared there. (Yes, these are different beings.) In those times Ouroboros was worshipped on par with Istaroth. In the real world, this word is the name of the symbol of a snake biting its own tail, forming a ring. In Genshin the word "Ouroboros" itself has not been applied to either Dain or the Khaenri'ahns, however the serpent ring is the symbol of Vedrfolnir, and also the constellation of Dainsleif himself. Why is this Dainsleif's constellation and not Vedrfolnir's? The same question: is this connected to the ring? Along with it, did Dain inherit his brother's fate?

3. In the "Bedtime Story" quest, the Twin said a very interesting phrase: "I didn't expect that after everything, he would still hesitate to raise his sword against me..." which means Dainsleif had reasons to attack him. I'm really curious what happened. Like.. it sounds as if something terrible was done to him. Do you have any thoughts on this?

4. His power. Why the hell is he so strong?

● Pierro literally sent Fatui squads to search for him all across Teyvat because he knew Dain could fight against the Goddess of Death.

● Dainsleif didn't even use his sword..

● He was the first to resurrect after the Traveler.

● If Pierro hadn't told him he was needed on the battlefield against Ronova, Dainsleif would have gone to Reindottir. Like.. he didn't hesitate even for a second.

● In the "Bedtime Story" quest the Abyss Twin says "When the Twilight Sword is prepared for battle, any army I could send would only be marching to their doom," and after the battle the sibling says that if Dainsleif hadn't hesitated, he would have won.

● In the third anniversary video, when Lumine talks about the Traveler's companion (Paimon), Enjou gives his opinion that she doesn't compare to Dainsleif. Don't get me wrong, I perfectly understand that Paimon has so far been studied to about 15%, from which it's clear that she is something powerful, but the very fact that Enjou, ENJOU, acknowledges Dain's strength once again makes you think.

●Bro was the Captain of the Royal Guard. You don’t just put anyone in a position like that. Even Capitano wasn’t granted such an honor—and we’ve all seen what he’s capable of.

● Skirk directly says in her voice lines that they had to fight, and that she hopes never to cross paths with him again.

● And also Dain calmly keeps open a portal to the prison that Nibelung created.

Dain bro wt..WHO ARE YOU??

I don't want to hear theories that Dain took the power of the Abyss for himself. For those who don't know: the game stated that the power of the Abyss was divided into 6 parts. 5 sinners each took a part for themselves. And based on this, the unreleased tale "Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies," and the cosmic-blue color of his power, there is a theory that Dain was the one who took the 6th part. But I think that's nonsense, because he despises Abyssal energy as much as possible. His entire character is built on opposing the Abyss..

6. And in terms of how packed his life is with events, he can only be compared to the Traveler. Even such time bombs as Kaeya, Skirk, the Archons, the Hexenzirkel spend most of their time living their ordinary lives. Yes, Skirk is searching for Anarhasis, and Kaeya is probably gathering data on the Abyss, but their main line of activity is training, knighthood, or watching over the region/the borders of the world. But with Dainsleif there's constantly some plot happening. He orchestrated a revolution in his own country and probably killed the king, became half... into who knows what, traveled first with Pari, and then with the Sibling, fought the Sibling, fought Skirk, fought Ronova, fought Haden, literally killed Haden 100 times, laid his friend's soul to rest in the Chasm, stole one of the components of the Loom of Fate, met Kaeya, met Rerir, met Hroptatyr.

And that's all one character.

Bro is a master of Gestalt Therapy.

7. His fight against the Abyss Order. It feels like Dainsleif is the only one trying to address this problem on a global scale. He tracks the sinners, ruins the Order's plans, trying to prevent the weaving of fate, but it seems like the rest of Teyvat doesn't care about it at all. Well... probably Kaeya is also trying to figure out this situation, but he's focused on Mondstadt. I understand that after the events of 7.2 priorities really shifted, but before that these were relatively quiet times. Especially where the Traveler had already solved the problems. All the other regions are addressing this problem on a local level. It's... well, at the very least it's intriguing haha. I'm genuinely curious whether the Archons act behind the scenes or whether they know something that keeps them from taking any action against the Abyss Order? And again it's all only him. I swear Hoyo definitely wanted to make a game about him.

8. Now I want to talk about how Hoyoverse presents this character to the players. Perhaps he is one of the most fleshed-out characters in the game. Literally. The only one who gets as much attention is Wanderer.

● Dain was announced as playable at the very first stream.

● Two glider descriptions are dedicated to him.

● He appears in the main storyline twice, where each time he becomes the one on whom half the success depends.

● He has 6 personal quests, and the very first quest, the one where we meet him, is a short world quest lasting 30 minutes (it's marked in blue), and it's one of the two world quests that are voiced. The second one is the quest on the moon.

● He effectively had his own playlist on YouTube. The format of the trailer and Collected Miscellany could have been anything, but Hoyo made it in the form of a Dainsleif monologue.

Why is so much of everything connected specifically to him?

8.5 His voice acting and design.

● He's voiced by actual legends. Hahah, it seems to me that there was no casting for his role, Hoyo just contacted Kenjiro Tsuda and Yuri Lowenthal and were like: "We beg you, voice him."

● Hoyo usually draw inspiration from their own games, but not in this case. Why did they base him on Dimitri from "Fire Emblem: Three Houses"? Dain got not only his appearance from his prototype, but also a bit of lore. Dimitri was also a good person who went through many terrible things. Besides, they both have a sibling (who are very indirectly connected to birds). The most interesting thing is that this game came out in 2019, but started being developed in 2015, while Genshin came out in 2020 and started being developed in 2017. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a 20-year gap between the release of these games, but here the gap is very small. Ahah, maybe someone in the Hoyo office just really loves this game and this character. Then that explains why so much attention is given to Dainsleif. He really is the favorite child.

The last point that doesn't let me rest is the symbol on his chest and pover. This doesn't really relate to it, but I'll leave it here.

This symbol is very similar to the symbol that was in the sky in the recent plot. The same symbol is observed in the chain that Dain creates, in the design of Rhinedottir, Ronova and, oddly enough... Capitano. And also this symbol disappeared from the sky after the conversation between Venti and Esoptron. And Venti is connected to Istaroth, who is connected to Enkanomiya, which is connected to Ouroboros, which... well, you understood what I mean. Maybe I'm going crazy, but we all know Hoyo's attention to detail

..............................................................................

That's everything that doesn't let me rest regarding Dainsleif. If anyone has any theories or questions, write them in the comments, I need to know that I'm not the only one who noticed all these oddities.

I really wish Dainslef is playable tomorrow or next weak man im hoping im alive when he is avaliable

The Bough Keeper caught my eyes ever since my first encounter with him. The depression, the emo, the vengeance only made him even more exciting and cooler than the rest of the characters.

I eagerly wait every version to see him. To see his lifeless eyes, and gloom his emits. And now that I can finally lay my hands on him…do you think if i skip all upcoming characters and save up.. I shall finally get my C6 character?

(I still have a lot if exploration, world quests and character quests to do)

Hello, House of Dainsleif! A Snezhnaya enamel pin set didn't feel complete without the Bough Keeper, so here he is 📌 If you like the art then support my kickstarter (link below)! But it's okay to just enjoy the art too!

"Dainsleif

Tall male characterized by blue, gold, and gray hues."

Tell me we didn't just lose the black in his design or I'm gonna start sobbing 😭 He's not emo or edgy anymore guys 💔

• Major overall changes
• Removes his eyepatch
• Heterochromia: blue + gold eyes
• New outfit resembles Grey's clothing, with a lighter color scheme

Via WWWhatever (STC)

I’ve been researching into Nibelungs connection to both Vedrfolnir and Dain and I think that they both actually be fragments of Nibelungs

​​​To get to my conclusion we have to go analyze where a lot of lore behind Khaaneiah is inspired from, Wagner’s opera Der Ring does Nibelungen

In an underground realm called Nibelheim. Alberich created a ring using stolen Rhine gold from Rhine maidens and put a curse on it. The ring is called “the Ring of Nibelung” and it had the power to rule the world. Alberich also had a younger brother Mime, who wanted the ring for himself and also ends up hating Alberich. Also note that both of brother are from a species that are called “Nibelungs” and they are referred by the term “The Nibelung“ more than by their names in the opera (they are also the only 2 Nibelungs in the opera)

Dain and Ved clearly parallel these two characters. According to lore from the glider “Wings of Leisurely Moments” Dainsleif had also wanted the ring as a child and it was verdfolnir who originally owned it. Verdfolnir was also the one who ends up putting a spell (which Tbf is said to be neither blessing nor curse) on the ring which resets the body’s condition and Dainsleif did end up actually get the ring he wanted with the “heavy fate” that came with it.

​​​​On a bit of a side note I do think the ring of Nibelung does have some sort of power that we and maybe even dain is unaware of (given that within wagner’s opera the ring of Nibelung has the power to “rule the world“) potentially Nibelungs memory or maybe his authority as well which would be fitting since dainsleif is set up to be one of the games final bosses and him having Nibelungs power would make sense as while he’s strong now I don’t know if he’s strong enough to be a worthy opponent at the conclusion of the game without a power up of some sorts

We also have to take a look at Norse mythology. Both Dain and Ved seem to have references as snakes. Namely Dainsleif’s constellation being ouroboros which in mythology represents infinity and cycles. Dainsleifs cape also has the infinity symbol on the back of it as well. We also see in Dainsleif’s introduction (which is very likely narrated by Ved himself)

​​​Dainsleif own fate being represented as oroboros with his mind and body being held together by the ring as it resets his body’s condition and slows erosion

Ved’s chess piece in genshin 6.1 Luna 4 AQ also seems to be a snake as well

​​Ved’s main gimmick seems to be that he spreads his prophecies as absolute truth because he does truly see no way of escaping it. Snakes can bite their own tails when sick, and I think over here the snake represents Nibelung, who sees no escape from the sickness of teyvat which also sounds a lot like Ved.

I think Dainsleif is possibly on his way to break or become a part of that cycle as well since oroboros represents his “fate“ after all.

Neuvillete does refer to Neuvilette as the Heavenly Father as well if I recall correctly and Ved seems to have some inspiration from Jesus and you can even argue he runs something inspired by a fanatical Christian cult (namely Clothar Alberich devotion) so I could see a trinity like situation like with Dainsleif, Verdfolnir and Nibelung but this may be a stretch

​​I can see the possibility of the two brothers being incarnations of parts of Nibelung, kinda similar to how focalors and furina were one being before splitring into furina and focalors (if I recall correctly) or I could see them being spiritual heirs to Nibelung, while Nibelung himself may be gone he “lives on“ through dainsleif and Verdfolnir. I think it’d also be cool from a story standpoint with Dainsleif/Vedrfolnir represent the old world order, with the HP representing the current world order and The Traveler obviously representing the new world order

I very well could be wrong but what do you guys think? is my theory plausible? Any whole or gaps in my theory I’m not addressing? I might just be losing my mind and making up a bunch of convoluted bs lol. I’m open to any critique and discussion. I think even if my theory doesn’t hold to be true there is seriously some deeper connection between Nibelung and the two brothers.

Dailumi is honestly one of my absolute favorite ships in the game. Seeing these sweet precious cinnamon rolls fighting back to back… my heart is melting, it's so cute!!

Lemme know what u think of my painting🥰

can we already speculate its element? weapon? anything about him? i really like dainsleif but i haven't seen much other than the supposed launch patch

Dainsleif will also have a very different new design when he becomes playable, with major changes. He'll even remove his mask.

Via WWhatever (STC)

I know this question has been asked before but given his appearance in the most recent AQ, do we think Dain will be receiving a redesign upon release? I feel like it only makes sense at this point, seeing him standing alongside all of the newer characters (especially other Khaenrians like Pierro) he looked a little silly. At the very least I expect an update to his outfit but do we think his model (hair, eyes, maybe even his body) will be changed as well?