The Four Shades were created by and from the Primordial One, and they seem to have had a lot of influence over almost every corner of Teyvat, but we don’t really hear much about them.
| Name | Domain | Artifact | Weapon | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naberius | Life | Flower of Life | Sword | Fused with Rhinedottir after she ate Naberius’ heart. |
| Ronova | Death | Plume of Death | Polarm | Alive, last seen when Capitano did his whole thing in Ochkanatlan. |
| Istaroth | Kairo | Time | Sands of Eon | Catalyst | Presumably alive since she’s seen in the teaser below, mentioned / alluded to in many books. |
| Asmoday | Sustainer of Heavenly Principles | Space | Goblet of Eonothem | Bow | Missing |
| Primordial One | Heavenly Principles | Reason | Circlet of Logos | Claymore | Unknown |
Chapter Interlude Teaser
This video shows us three of the Shades (Rhinedottir, Ronova, and Istaroth) and confirms that the fourth (Asmoday) is “missing.” Obviously, the leading theory is that Paimon is Asmoday. Other than that, my thoughts about this teaser are still a little scattered so I don’t have much extra to contribute yet!
A few things I’ll note, I guess:
- The first thing we see is what I assume is a white crow — which is kind of the Russian version of a black sheep
- There is also a biopic about Rudolf Nureyev called The White Crow
- You could argue that this bird is a dove, since that pairs nicely with seeing Columbina at the end, but it just doesn’t look very dove-shaped to me
- The woman with purple eyes at the beginning is Andersdottir — or, at least, Rhinedottir’s recreation of her as an experiment
- Venti and Istaroth share a voice actor, and Venti clearly takes some design inspiration from her, which makes sense since he kinda came from her
- This does make me wonder if the bard Venti took the image of was even a real person at all or if it was just Istaroth meddling
- The statues in Mondstadt and Inazuma share some design elements with all three of the Shades in this video (Istaroth’s braided hair, Naberius’ veil, Ronova’s wings)
- No clue what Arlecchino’s deal is but she obviously has Shade of Death symbols alllllll over her design
- They mentioned that the Heavenly Principles are asleep — this is at least the second time we’ve been told this, and this video makes it a lot clearer that they mean the Primordial One is asleep, not the Sustainer / Asmoday
There are probably lots of good theories about this teaser all over the place, but this dropped while I was traveling so I’m still kind of catching up and wrapping my head around it.
Alice
In Skirk’s voice lines, she calls Alice the “Sustainer of the World’s Borders,” which previously made me think Alice might have taken up the mantle of one of the Shades like Rhinedottir did — but Alice is clearly not in the teaser, so I’m not sure where that leaves me.
As the Sustainer of the World’s Borders, she tolerates my presence, but she did make me promise not to interfere too much with this world’s affairs. That was fine by me, but I had to know the reason why. She said, many ecologists find it emotionally overwhelming when they observe the animal kingdom and see the predators hunting and the prey fleeing — but they’ll never interfere in the process. Instead, they allow the laws of nature to take precedence over their own emotions. In her own words, “some call this being a callous observer, but I think it’s merciful at the same time.”
Maybe being a Sustainer is a separate responsibility from being a Shade, and Asmoday just happens to be both. Maybe one of the Shades is supposed to be the Sustainer of the World’s Borders but has given that responsibility to Alice while maintaining their other duties. No idea!