I started writing about the Nod-Krai cast names from the latest trailer, but there are so many other little details that I want to make a note of that didn’t fit there. I admit this is a little unstructured, so I’m sorry.
Description
She scatters dewdrops upon every bloom, And tints the twilight with a sheen of silver.
Thus do shadows howl across the gloomy woods, As flocks of deer and birds take fright and shiver.
She hums one nameless tune, While walking through those solitary halls.
So her homeland may not fall to desolation, So the tale may not be lost to oblivion.
The video description could be talking about Columbina, although I wouldn’t really say she’s “humming” so much as singing. It could still count.
Nicole
Throughout the video, Nicole is narrating a story about the three moons:
You wish to hear a story of the moon? That tale begins long, long ago…
In that era, there was no boundary between life and death. Willpower flowed freely among countless beings. The primordial being that once ruled this planet made three moons rise from the earth. It was not until the Funerary Year that the primordial voice once again cried out in the darkness.
Now, beyond the moonlight’s reach, an ancient shadow brandishes its hunting claws, taking aim at the stars.
Jillian
A review of the Funerary Year, from “Before Sun and Moon”:
The second throne of the heavens came, and war was rekindled, as it was in the world’s creation. That day, the heavens collapsed and the earth was rent asunder. Our ancestors and their ancestral land fell into this place during that conflict.
The era of darkness had begun.
The primordial being she mentions should be Nibelung, since we know from Finale of the Deep Galleries that the moons pre-dated Phanes: “Like drifting smoke had the lord of dragons vanished, and the Winged One’s throne now ruled the radiance of the three moons.”
While she speaks, there is a shot of three different-colored moons turning into three separate beings — one of them looks a lot like a Seelie, while the other two look like women with long, flowing hair and a single horn. 1
When we finally see Nicole, she’s approaching a place where it looks like some pillars are meeting together in the sky, almost like there’s a mirror between them. From Song of the Welkin Moon, we know this is Hiisi Island, where the Frostmoon Scions live.
She grows a glowing gold halo and matching wings, which look a lot like crystalfly wings.
Varka
Varka is sitting in front of the full moon while he polishes his claymore, Wolf’s Gravestone. Aino comes outside to tell him that Nefer is starting her story if he wants to come listen. Later, Nefer comes back out to talk to him:
Nefer: You didn’t come here for the story, did you?
Varka: Finished already, huh?
Nefer: No. It’s just…a greater storyteller than myself has come.
The video cuts to Nicole finishing her story, and then back to Varka, who says:
You’re right. I came here for the moon.
Weirdly, the subtitles for this part say “(Mondstadt)” after the word “moon.” We already know Mondstadt means moon city, but…who knows what this is about.
Durin
Inside another room, Durin is sitting with Jahoda and Ineffa. Jahoda wakes up from a nap and says something strange:
The moon’s a long way off. We might go hungry, but at least we have plenty of time.
Jillian
I like how the living room they’re sitting in has a cool mashup of interior design styles from other nations. It feels very fitting for Nod-Krai, which is a more independent area full of people from factions all over Teyvat, as well as Ineffa, who was made from parts taken from different parts of Teyvat.
It’s interesting that Varka and Durin both ended up at the Krumkake Workshop
Sandrone
When we see Sandrone, she’s hanging outsomewhere that looks a little bit like the inside of one of those huge Ruin Golems. She says, “The Frostmoon Scions, again? Hah! A laughably futile rebellion.”
Lauma
Lauma wades into a pool of water and prays to the Frost Moon:
O pale white Frostmoon. I, your loyal emissary and scion of Hyperborea, beseech you to cast down your gaze from the celestial dome above. May your gentle tears pierce the frigid night and grant us, the forsaken and forgotten, your guiding light.
After her prayer, she takes out a ceremonial dagger and makes an offering of her own silvery-white blood, using it to paint a crescent moon shape on her forehead.
Flins
Flins is standing in a graveyard with his lantern when the Wild Hunt comes after him. He says, “I’m afraid you have the wrong person. Now, begone!”
He takes a bit of his pale blue flame in his hand, and blows it at the Wild Hunt to disperse them. Then, we see a shot of a grave that says, “In sacred tribute to Chudomir the Aarnivalkea.”
In Finnish mythology, the Aarnivalkea are “spots where an eternal flame associated with will-o’-the-wisps burns” that mark the places where faerie treasure is buried. That sounds a lot like Seelies to me!
Columbina
Columbina is standing in a field of flowers under the full moon. The flowers are blue, but when she finishes her speech, they start turning red.
In the water, the future mirrors the past. The veil of lies is slipping. Time is short. The moon’s fall is nigh.
At first, I thought she was in the Sea of Flowers at the End, but these are clearly not the same flowers. They are very similar to the flowers that appear in Lauma’s design — they have the same crescent moon shape in the center — but Lauma’s flowers are white, not blue or red.
Columbina still hasn’t opened her eyes, which makes me wonder if she gave up her eyesight the same way Nicole gave up her voice. The Finale of the Deep Galleries artifact set also gave me lots of thoughts about Seelies covering their eyes.
Alice
We see Alice on a dock in Nod-Krai, looking at the faraway moon. Albedo and Wanderer both show up, too.
Alice: Here at last! And things look even messier than last time.
Albedo: Well, Ms. Alice — shall we begin?
Alice: There’s no rush! And I’d like to catch up with an old friend first. And you, young man?
Wanderer: Let’s part ways here. I have an old score of my own to settle.
Jillian
What do you mean “last time”? 🤨
Also, I assumed the old friend she wants to catch up with is Nicole, but it could really be anyone.
There are a couple possibilities here that I can’t decide between:
- Albedo, Wanderer, and Alice all brought Durin to Nod-Krai together for some specific purpose.
- Albedo and Wanderer brought Durin to Nod-Krai, and are meeting up with Alice, who arrived later and is planning to help Albedo with something that may or may not be related to Durin.
It seems like Alice, Albedo, and Wanderer have been traveling together and all just arrived in Nod-Krai. But Durin is already hanging out with the Clink-Clank Krumkake Workshop gang, which presumably means he’s in the same vicinity as Varka. And Varka was much closer to the moon than Alice is in this scene, so I do not think they’re all in the same place.
There’s also a shot of a crow (not a white one, but it still made me think of the Chapter Interlude video with the Four Shades) that flies away and turns into a paper crane to deliver Alice a letter that says “Aralos / Solnari / Cannon.”
Jillian
There’s a line in Long Night’s Oath about crows:
A black-feathered flock of crows moved between the realms of light and shadow, led by one who stood against the light.
That’s pretty close to the names we have for the Three Moon Sisters: Aria, Sonnet, and Cannon. We’ve also heard of Solnari before — Rerir, one of the Five Sinners, is also called “Rächer of Solnari.” Solnari is a tough word to pin down, but sol almost certainly means sun, and nari might come from any one of these words meaning fool, fire, or pomegranate or the Old Norse nár, meaning corpse.
As for Aralos, the best I can come up with is the Aral Sea, which comes from a word meaning island. There’s a type of dinosaur found there called “Aralosaurus.” I guess that’s pretty close to a corpse, too, so maybe these are the names that refer to the moon sisters now that they’ve died.
Closing thoughts
I didn’t mean for this to be so long, oops. I think the tl;dr is:
- Varka is doing something sus with the moon
- The Frostmoon Scions are rebelling against whatever Sandrone is doing
- Alice and Albedo are doing something together in Nod-Krai, probably related to Durin
- Wanderer is in Nod-Krai to settle the score with his old Harbinger buddies
- Nicole exists
- Columbina exists
Footnotes
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I saw a Reddit comment where someone brought up this old Inazuma mural, where the moon sisters are depicted as one-eyed beings with horns. One of them has two horns, while the other two have one horn each, just like the beings in this part of the teaser. ↩
