Of all the dumb little theories I have, this is one of my favorites: I think Diluc’s mother was from Snezhnaya, and Rosaria is his long-lost sister.
We don’t know anything about Diluc’s mother. She’s not around, we don’t know what happened to her, and nobody ever mentions her. This isn’t necessarily unusual, since there are plenty of Genshin characters who rarely (if ever) mention their parents. But it is a little strange considering how much we know about Diluc’s father, Crepus.
Jillian
Before we even get into it, let me acknowledge that as much as I like this theory I also think it’s very unlikely that they would suddenly tell us two characters are related by blood years after they’ve been released. That would obviously be a mess.
Crepus & the Fatui
Specifically, we know from the manga that Crepus had a prototype Delusion and was (basically) assassinated by the Fatui. 1 We know that Diluc has a special hatred for the Fatui, and that the Fatui declared him “persona non grata” 2 after he took a little trip there. His skin from the Hidden Strife event, which looks very similar to a Fatui uniform, is also described as a “ceremonial uniform” that Crepus had made for him.
Jillian
Ashikai has a really good video covering the theory that Crepus was the 10th Harbinger that I recommend. Whether he was a Harbinger or not, he clearly had some level of involvement with the Fatui.
It’s clear enough that Crepus has history with the Fatui. Maybe this is just an unlucky coincidence because of the Fatui’s presence in Mondstadt, but at the very least I think we can safely assume that Crepus may have at least visited Snezhnaya to sell wine at some point, like the Snezhnayan merchants who brought Fire-Water to Dawn Winery. 3
Rosaria
Let’s talk about Rosaria a little bit. She was born in a “remote mountain village,” and taken from her home after being born by a group of bandits who ended up raising her. Later, the Knights of Favonius wiped out the bandit crew and took her back to Mondstadt.
We don’t know exactly where this “remote mountain village” was, but if it’s somewhere North of Mondstadt, there’s a good chance it was at least near the border of Snezhnaya. Coupled with the fact that she has a Cryo vision and her design has Fatui vibes (however vague and subjective that may be), I’ve always assumed she’s from Snezhnaya.
Rosaria has a lot of similarities with Kaeya: the Cryo vision, the love for dandelion wine, the mysterious and aloof attitude, and the complicated feelings toward the city that has taken them both in from their homeland. She also has similarities with Diluc, most notably the way she prefers to act alone to secretly take care of Mondstadt’s enemies, just like the Dark Knight.
The thing that kicked this theory off for me in the first place was Rosaria’s theme, Shadow of Nemesis, because Nemesis is the Greek goddess of retribution.
My theory
Here’s what I think happened: Diluc’s father met a woman in Snezhnaya, either while working for the Fatui in some capacity or just doing regular business there. They had twins, and Crepus took one child back with him to Mondstadt while their mother kept the other with her in the “remote mountain village.”
Jillian
Why would Crepus only take one of their children back with him to Mondstadt and then never return? Why would they decide to raise their children separately? Great question! I never said this was a perfect theory.
Maybe their mother didn’t want to leave her village, and because Crepus obviously had to go back to Mondstadt, they decided the best solution was for each of them to raise one of the children. Maybe he did go back, but returned to see the aftermath of the bandit raid and assumed the other child was dead. Or maybe he never knew there was a second child to begin with — maybe they weren’t even twins.
Sometime after Crepus left to bring Diluc back to Mondstadt with him, bandits raided the village, killed their mother, and took Rosaria in to train her as one of their own. Because she was so young when it happened, she never would have known anything about her family. And Diluc would have no memories of his mother to miss when he was old enough for Crepus to tell him about her.
I don’t think Crepus would have told Diluc he had a sister if he thought she had been killed with their mother. He had plenty of secrets, and that’s a particularly painful one. Would he even have told Diluc about the circumstances of his mother’s death? Where she lived? What her name was?
Jillian
It’s tempting to think that the bandit raid that killed their mother was orchestrated by the Fatui, but it’s a little too weird. If they just wanted the mother dead, they wouldn’t have needed to have bandits raid the entire village, and I don’t think Rosaria would have survived to be raised by the bandits. And if it was part of a plot against Crepus, the timing is way off — his death was 18 years later.
If Diluc’s mother is alive, or if she died when Diluc was old enough to remember her, or if she was someone that anyone in Mondstadt knew, it would be very odd that we’ve never heard anything about her. But if she was never part of Diluc’s life to begin with, and he knew she never could be, then I think it makes more sense.
Diluc is the dawn, and Rosaria is a child of the moonlight. Diluc has the blazing red hair and eyes of someone who grew up under the sun, while Rosaria’s features are darker and more purple — as if to symbolize the cold shadow she was raised in, in comparison.
Their father’s name means twilight, and their nameless mother is no more than an imagined story to both of them. They don’t know it, but they’ve ended up in the same place, with a shared goal to protect Mondstadt from the shadows.
Extra-credit notes
Rosaria quotes
I went through Rosaria’s character stories and voice lines to pick out some of the most interesting bits that I think add a little extra flavor to this theory:
Don’t forget that wherever light may reach, there will also be shadow. 4
She always sets out after the sun has set, finishing her work in one fell swoop. Sometimes, if she makes it back by the crack of dawn, she gets to usher in the day ahead with a glass of breakfast wine.
The people of Mondstadt live in the golden sunlight, but Rosaria dwells under the silver moonlight. 5
This is what makes her so similar to Diluc as the Dark Knight, and I love that it’s punctuated with a mention of breakfast wine.
Rosaria’s youth was just like Mondstadt’s sunset — blood-red from horizon to horizon, and so fleeting that night had fallen before she’d had the chance to stop and take in the view.
…
She would rather hunt in the wild than settle into a life of dutiful service as a sister. As far as she was concerned, the golden sunlight was not so much cleansing as blinding.
For Rosaria had long since come to understand that she was a child of the moonlight, and it was inevitable that she would someday return to the embrace of darkness. 6
There are just so many mentions of the sun in Rosaria’s lore. They obviously want to draw attention to her dark, shadowy vibe, but the contrast is especially striking since Diluc is the one Mondstadt character that they consistently connect with the sun.
One of the elders of the gang pursued her and brought her back.
He was the very person who had taken her from the village of her birth, and the one who had taught her how to kill.
”Fleeing makes you a traitor, and traitors can only earn their freedom through victory in combat.”
…
Meanwhile, a question crept into Rosaria’s frozen heart:
Did he let me replace him on purpose? …Could a false father have harbored genuine affection for a child he stole so arbitrarily? 7
That last line gets me every time. It makes me think of Crepus taking Kaeya in, even though he obviously didn’t steal him.
Ahaha, you want to know about the secrets of Sister Rosaria? That… I cannot tell you. Though my impression of her is not bad — certainly better than a certain someone whose name I won’t bother to mention. 8
It’s just hilarious to me that Kaeya explicitly calls her “Sister Rosaria” and mentions Diluc in his voice line about her.
I take no interest in plant life and the sort, but the dandelion is an exception. How such a simple flower could turn into such a delectable wine is beyond me. A glass of dandelion wine after work is even better than sleeping in on Sunday. 9
Just demonstrating Rosaria’s love for dandelion wine. Genetic, surely.
Isn’t it obvious? There’s more than meets the eye to that rich tycoon. He’s confident, yet discreet… and even a little bit dangerous. 10
Rosaria’s voice line about Diluc — this doesn’t really reveal anything other than the fact that she’s keeping an eye on him, but that isn’t surprising.
Father? I’m not familiar with the word. You could say that I don’t have one — could also say I have many, too. What’s it to you? 11
Such an interesting voice line! Why does she have a voice line about her father specifically, and not her mother? Why does she have this voice line at all? Maybe because the identity of her birth father is important.
What’s weird about a Sister without reverence for the gods? There are hunters who don’t eat pork, and fisherman who don’t eat fish, aren’t there? Just because you do something doesn’t mean you love to do it. That’s how every job goes. 12
A Sister without reverence for the gods is just like a wine tycoon who hates drinking wine, isn’t it?
The Hexenzirkel theory
There is a popular theory that Diluc’s mother is part of the Hexenzirkel — more specifically, Nicole. This is also a compelling theory, because of the Hexenzirkel tea set at Dawn Winery, and the fact that Alice has taken a bit of an interest in him. In the Hidden Strife event, we read a letter that she sent him after Crepus’ death:
I’ve always had my eye on you, child.
…
In many of the stories I’ve been told, you are the model knight: proud, driven, a knight of noble character and lineage.
…
And since you helped my child out, I hope you won’t mind if I treat you as if you were my own.
…
Partings are most painful things, but they also encourage us to grow. A bird that has lost the roof over its head will fly further than others of its kind.
Go out and see the world. That’s the best course of action I can envision. Only by feeling, observing, and listening can your heart be healed.
Parents all wish that they can accompany their children forever, and the skies, seas, and stars bear witness to that oath.
Everything that was your father now finds new life with you. That which you will experience in this world may have been things that your father experienced once upon a time.
I think this theory is compelling, but there are a few things that don’t quite fit to me:
- Nicole is alive, out there in the world, and has even spoken to the Traveler to guide them on their journey somewhat recently. But it doesn’t seem like she’s had any contact with Diluc — if she had, I don’t think Alice would have written him a letter like this.
- Maybe there’s a reason she can’t contact Diluc, but then there would be no reason for the tea set at Dawn Winery.
- If she has been in touch with Diluc this whole time, it’s strange that we’ve heard absolutely nothing about it.
- Alice and Klee (and Klee’s nameless-but-mentioned father) are proof that Hexenzirkel witches can and do have families, but they are also very weird about it.
- In The Little Witch and the Undying Fire, there’s something about participation in a carnival having something to do with a witch’s marital status.
- In Joy Above the Clouds, Alice says, “When a member of the organization had to leave the group to spend the rest of her days with her beloved, the other mages would write down this prophecy and send it to her to invite her for a final get-together.”
Now that we’ve seen what Nicole looks like in Moonlit Ballad of the Night, I’m more inclined to think that Nicole might be Kaeya’s mother — she has the same star-shaped pupils as him. And since he also grew up at Dawn Winery, it would still make sense for her to use that tea set to keep an eye on the place from afar.
Or maybe she has nothing to do with either of them, and the tea set is just there because Alice brought it over to hang out with Diluc after Crepus died. (Although I really don’t think the tea set would be there if it didn’t mean anything.) Hopefully we’ll get more answers in Nod-Krai!
Footnotes
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Technically, he was killed because his Delusion backfired when he defeated Ursa the Drake, trying to protect Diluc. But in Chapter 7 of the manga, you can see a little glowing bug with the Fatui logo planted on the back of their wagon — which I assume is what led Ursa the Drake to them in the first place. ↩
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Mentioned by Jean in Hidden Tears. ↩
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This story comes from Vile, one of Kaeya’s informants. She says, “Besides for just political purposes, they say that merchants were also among the diplomatic mission that came to Mondstadt from Snezhnaya. They came bearing ‘Fire-Water,’ a kind of specialty alcohol from Snezhnaya, with aims of starting a partnership with Dawn Winery.” (I will admit this story kinda makes it seem like they don’t already sell dandelion wine in Snezhnaya.) ↩
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From her official introduction. ↩
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From her Character Story 2. ↩
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From her Character Story 4. ↩
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From her Vision story. ↩
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From Kaeya’s “About Rosaria” voice line. ↩
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From her “Interesting Things” voice line. ↩
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From her “About Diluc” voice line. ↩
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From her “About her Father” voice line. ↩
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From her “More about Rosaria: II” voice line. ↩