— MUSE

Name : Irminsul
Alias : Dainsleif
Age: 160,000+ years
(Appears ~35 years)
Height : 200cm (6’7”)
Vision : None visible
Weapon: Any ; preference for claymore
Element:

Title :
God of Ley Lines and Memories
Bough Keeper
(God of Death; God of History; God of Knowledge; God of Life, Sarva), AaruOfferings:
Resin, stories, apples, sunsettias, forget-me-nots, cinnamon, tea, coffee, treasures, heirlooms, roses (and thorns), rich meats, raw bones, red wineAssociations:
Rain, the colors blue, purple, and silver, campfire stories, clear night skies, flourishing gardens, green thumbs, home and hearthIdle quotes :“Remember to mind yourself before you enter a fight. History repeats itself in circles both large and small.”
“Sharpened swords still come to a rest.”
“Be wary not to let the grass grow too long beneath your feet.”Idle animations :• Rolls his right shoulder, then his neck, then his left shoulder. There is a noticeable cloud of darkness that drifts up from each shoulder as he rolls it. Sighs, and the smoke dissipates.
• A thin ley line stem sprouts from the ground and he turns towards it, running his fingers along it as it curls up around his wrist. Indecipherable whispers can be heard and his head tilts as he listens to it. The stem then quickly dissolves away and he straightens up.

Irminsul is an ancient and near-primordial thing, a seed that had grown in the beginning days of the world. Maybe its purpose and power stemmed from the Primordials before it, soaked deep into its heartwood as life was breathed across the planet, the power overflowing and pooling at its roots.Eventually it became a spring of elemental energy, and new beings sought refuge and resided beneath its growing boughs. Its worth was seen and eventually flowers bloomed among the silver leaves. A gift of consciousness, of knowledge. Eyes opened, and the world changed.The seeds of those fruits were valued, planted, and lavender colored sprouts eventually poked from the dark soil.The great tree spread its roots everywhere it could reach as time went on, and the world changed around it. Catastrophes struck. Disease reigned. Fires raged. Some saplings fell for one reason or another, but more flourished beneath the hands of caretakers.Belief carries power. The belief that something would remember those passed, the belief that actions were seen and recognized by something out there among the countless growing gods, that the constant was watching. The hope that something cared enough to watch, to remember.That belief, that hope, soaked through the wood of the standing trees, linked together with their grand root network. A consciousness formed, settled into its role and quietly watched and learned from the memories of those that died upon its roots.Some trees fell to wars between disputing grand beings, and it learned from them too. Power quietly absorbed and redistributed out, affection and fairness learned.It watched as the First Descender came and changed the lands, watched as some parts of it were uprooted, swept aside. It watched as little things on two legs were made and then cast into a hole when another godly war began, watched as those little things faded from its sight, tucked well away into a blind spot. It reached into the dark there, listening, curious. Parts of those roots were discovered, plucked. It didn't necessarily care; perhaps this was proof these things could be curious too?It felt itself be changed from what it once was meant to be. But the change did not entirely oppose its original self, so what need was there to fight back? From a power of the Light Realm to a chronicler of all the world’s history - it wasn’t much difference.Time passed, and it watched as 'humans' and gods navigated the world together, watched entire species go extinct, be created, or rise from the depths of where it cannot see. It watched the nature of the world shift and change, listened to its name for the first time.Irminsul.It watched gods amass followers out of mankind, kept like little pets or food or entertainment. It watched parts of mankind seethe and split away, forming city and nation. It watched those efforts be destroyed time and time again with such little effort from the First Descender. It watched those humans hide and try again on a far island, atop a mountain, deep beneath the ground. It didn't know when poison began to seep into its roots, forbidden knowledge it eventually learned held too high a price for even gods.It watched two stars fall from the sky. It watched the gods it had raised fight and kill each other for a promise of ascension. Only seven seats. Friends found defeat and victory. Trees of Irminsul fell, until there was only one left. The first tree, and now the last. The world will never be the same.It watched a blond Traveler wander the world, and when the seven seats were filled, it watched another catastrophe come too close to itself. Poison in its roots. It fought back, intervening and sending forth a form to fight in, a human man molded after one that had already existed and died too early in his homeland just because he sent his friends after his brother and fought alone.Dainsleif. Its dearest Bough Keeper.It couldn't save that rebellious little nation, and instead struck out against the Vinster King and ended his life. No remorse. It had tried to speak reason to him before, and its voice fell on deaf ears. So shall it be; as above, so below.It kept the form of its fallen Bough Keeper through the centuries after, aiding itself in the places its roots could not reach.It watched the second star wake." A traveler, you say ... ? "

— MUN

My name is Mesquite. I am 29 years old, with 10+ years of RP experience.I am AR59 in Genshin Impact, and I play in the NA servers. I have audhd and my memory tends to be poor (which is hilariously ironic, considering my muse).

— RULES

► Muns and muses that are minors are fine, as long as y'all know your boundaries. I know mine.
► Suggestive themes might appear on the tl, but not in the form of pictures and only with muns I know are of age.
► Inc/st, r//e, and p/dophilia will never occur here, and will result in a hard block if attempted.
► I do not ship with Rhinedottir. I don’t mind writing with her, but that’s all.
► Do not expose my Dainsleif as a god or as Irminsul. Those muses that have figured his identity out or have been told may acknowledge his true identity at their own will, but if acknowledging it potentially puts Irminsul in danger, I will speak to you in DMs about it and find a way to retcon it.► Gods recognize gods, so others canonly marked as a god will be able to recognize Dainsleif as a god as well (but not necessarily what he’s a god of, or his name).- By default, Dainsleif muses are allowed to know my Dainsleif is Irminsul. How immediately they figure it out is up to the mun, but there should be an immediate familiar feeling.-The ladies of the Hexenzirkel, Nahida, Wanderer, Zhongli, Shades, Phanes, and the Soverign Dragons may all immediately know that they’re interacting with Irminsul.
- Vedrfolnir muses are allowed to know that this is not the Dainsleif he knew. Generally that should mean that he knows something happened to Dain, but whether he knows what exactly it is is up to the mun. Default knowledge that Dain is heavily connected to the ley lines is fine and fair.
• Dottore may know that he’s interacting with Irminsul only if I have discussed it with you beforehand. Otherwise, a sense that Dain is connected to the ley lines in some way is allowed.
- Legendary / ancient beings may also know he’s connected to the ley lines, though it should take a little longer for the connection to be made or they must be told by Dainsleif himself.
- Non legendary immortal beings and Abyss Siblings are allowed to know that Dainsleif is AT LEAST immortal.
- Otherwise, no one else knows he’s immortal / a god unless he told them, or it’s been discussed between muns.As of update 6.6! The consciousness of Irminsul is housed in Aaru and will now respond to both names. The above rules still apply.► Please don’t steal my headcanons. I put a lot of thought into Dainsleif, I don’t want to see a carbon copy of my version of him out there.

— HEADCANONS

• Dainsleif is not omniscient, as much as he acts like it sometimes. Events in domains and battle arenas seem to be instant information for him - since a ley line sprouts as soon as the battle is done, but otherwise he generally has to go out and collect ley lines himself for accurate information. It seems unnecessary for him to travel to gather major information; i.e. world changes, major events, etc.• Dainsleif was once intensely affected by the Withering but has since recovered since the events in Sumeru.• Dainsleif is a shapeshifter, but he tends not to do it very often; he can get quite attached to some forms sometimes.• Dainsleif has the title of king killer. He assassinated the king of Khaenri’ah and doesn’t seem to regret it in the slightest.more tba eventually, some hcs found under the stories tab of my pinned

— LEGENDS

The Tree Serpent

Text

RELATIONSHIPS

tba

NOD KRAI CHAPTER THOUGHTS

The notes of these chapters are incomplete and will remain that way until further notice, due to low energy. It will be obvious where I ran out of steam. These notes are a little rambly because I wrote them quickly while I was still thinking about what I was working through.If additions are made to this page, I will say so.As of 7-29-2026.

don’t know a whole lot about natlan. skipped the grand majority of it by asking my partner to play through it for me instead and only started properly playing when dain made his appearance. no opinions on the events there. it was nice to see dain again.entering nod-krai and immediately getting an intriguing morsel about the traveler - something that we attempt to repeatedly investigate in between the major events - was a good hook into the chapter. it didn’t feel like ‘oh yeah and also this plot exists’ like the interlude chapters sometimes are.( side note to bring to attention: it’s canonly stated at the very start that we’d been traveling with paimon for a few months before we even begin to open up to her about ourselves and where we came from. we never ‘woke up’ in mondstadt, and probably never fished out paimon from the sea there. mondstadt is where we finally looked up and decided to focus on what’s around us. )the character introductions for this chapter felt natural as well, and the gathered group felt like they had a proper place in the investigation with the wild hunt and, later on, rerir. the progression of relationships between the traveler and themselves didn’t feel rushed given the canon time frame.the build up of the threat that the wild hunt posed was well paced, and rerir’s reveal was as intense and dramatic as expected of the first impressions of a sinner of khaenri’ah. the use of our sibling’s form to trick us into retrieving the moon marrow was a very clever story direction, and one that had me repeatedly saying ‘what the fuck??’ throughout the entire section. dainsleif’s warnings about the sinners was well placed, and the following fights with rerir were satisfyingly difficult.( a small grumble about being repeatedly forced to run characters i don’t know how to play. i get it, i understand the intention and thought, but still a grumble. didn’t actually impact my experience beyond that brief confusion. )though the danger rerir posed was short in whole, but the effort it took the whole team to handle him was impressive and felt like the struggle it deserved to be. i appreciate the way the story split off to check in on teams throughout the nod-krai chapters, and the pacing and world building was also impressive and pleasant to follow.( i understand that nod-krai began to become essentially a movie around this point, instead of a game. i personally don’t mind that, and deeply enjoyed the HEFTY amount of dialogue throughout the chapters. though the situations we experience in nod-krai are almost all dangerous, it was a very nice way to keep tension and emotion in key moments of the arc rather than throughout the whole thing. these chapters had done a great job at showcasing for character and relationship development. )the final setups to rerir’s fight was a breath of fresh air to see so many characters be so competent. for the first time (maybe in a long time,) the traveler is mainly a camera. like of course we’re still necessary for the things that everyone else can’t do, but there’s so little the others can’t do. the traveler is what inspires everyone to persevere, and so they do.rerir’s final fight was admittedly, disappointingly, short. i know the whole thing was meant to stall him while everyone else worked on setting off kaveh’s device, and the fight was, again, appropriately difficult for my experience with the forced lineup. it was meant to be short strictly because it logically would not take the others long to trigger the rest of the plan and force rerir out so that he can be caught and banished. it was an emergency handled well.moving on, the plot for the moon prayer night was certainly slower. while our traveler did start to lean hard into the ‘savior best friend’ thing, i do understand that it was to drive home the idea that our disposition of teyvat and the people here has changed. i believe that though our part to play continues to seem small, this is where we see how our friendship and effort towards others across the nations has brought together the group we’ve been working with, and more. we are the connecting tie to the changes and interactions between everyone we have been working with in this nation, and finally we see it fruiting. people care about each other, and people care about us and continuously show concern towards the traveler and check in, and so we are reciprocating and finally expressing that this might not be so skin deep.( i am of firm belief that if dottore had approached us before this, he would have had a more successful persuasion. inazuma or natlan would have been a perfect choice; we express frustration about having to handle situations that we really weren’t a part of and got dragged into anyway. however, the persuasion that the traveler could be less of an honorable person would have failed regardless. )columbina ‘going missing’ was the tightening of threads between everyone. this opportunity allows us more time to look closer at the people we’ve been working with and at the traveler themself.( i’m very much enjoying the increased voiced lines for the traveler. i’m very much not enjoying all of bina’s sighs. she sighs so much. girl. )this was also a great opportunity for world and lore building, and the glimpses at people that we get while walking around with spector!columbina was a lot more fun than i expected, and seeing her being bored and meandering around in the background of conversations was especially endearing. not a whole lot to say otherwise about this part of the arc. meeting nichole and alice was very cute, and i thought hoyo’s way of explaining the map borders was very clever.columbina’s return was very sweet, and celebrating moon prayer night was delightful. the surprise that all the girls wore white dresses and were to be addressed as ‘moon goddess’ was a beautiful touch. i enjoyed our chances to talk with the team and eventually bring them all candy.( i chose the black cat ears to wear, to match bina’s hair. )and then we get to dottore’s presence and interference with the night.this sequence is incredibly intriguing to me for a few specific moments in the cinematic that plays. first of all is the use of the moon’s authority to manipulate time - an odd and unique power to give to a celestial body. this initial use of this ability seems localized — either to the world, or to a certain range due to dottore’s immediate acquisition of the ability (which is later mentioned to be unrefined). obviously we are exempt from the influence of this power, implying it is strictly something that irminsul itself considers something that can influence it.. which also makes sense, considering the moons and sun are the only way to tell the passage of time.the second moment is, unsurprisingly for me, the few seconds where dottore is forced to pause and nearly brought to his knees by a sudden burst of external power. “stubborn world, do not try to control me.” in the five years this game has been going, this is the first time that we see irminsul itself attempt to exert its will on something.( this is not to be mistaken with nahida’s will; even though she is the voice and avatar of irminsul, she is still her own person. it is the difference between the moon and the tides. the moon certainly controls the tides, but so do the tectonic plates, solar winds, and eroding ice and rock falling into the water. nahida reacts to the events of the world around her, while irminsul upholds the structuring code and rules of teyvat.notably though, this is the second time that irminsul has exerted some will onto dottore on screen. the first time was through nahida, about the destruction of the segments. logically, it could have viewed the multiple segments as anomalies, but due to its own ‘coding’ and apparent preference to remain simply observant to the world, it did not act until a golden opportunity presented itself. )i don’t have much to say about dottore’s “fight” in the lab; i stopped fighting shortly after arlecchino appeared because i realized that even with trial characters, the damage i was putting out seemed like i wasn’t supposed to win anyway, so eventually i just started just walking around and dodging attacks. while i understand that the whole point of this attempt at dottore was to respond at all to the actions he just took, that whole sequence didn’t seem very well thought out on our team’s part. the losses were not worth the fight, demonstrated clearly in the “loss” of the traveler.following columbina’s sequence, the space we explore is, as usual for hoyo, beautiful. not quite what i would imagine the shadow of the moon to be, but i guess it was supposed to be metaphorical anyway.following the trail of diminishing power backwards through time was an interesting sequence (even if i had to trudge through more of bina’s constant sighs). not much to say about the discovery of the odd events we’d noticed across the nod-krai chapters actually being her influence, so we’re moving past her anchoring part of her soul in the “present”.finding and conversing with rerir again was a pleasant surprise. though i had been spoiled that we get to see him again after his boss fight, i did not see the context nor any lines for this discussion, so i was quite pleased with the way the entire interaction went. i do hope we get to see rerir again someday. what he did was terrible, but he knows it and frequently expressed regret and remorse throughout almost every scene we had with him. if hoyo ever lets him out again, i hope he can atone.finding tholindis was also something i’d been spoiled on, but the conversation was also pleasant while it lasted. not a whole lot to comment on there other than her design in this place looked cool and her clarity on the situation she and rerir had put themselves into was refreshing. hindsight is 20/20, after all.meeting the moon sisters was a surprise, and though i had also been spoiled on their designs, i had no context to them or how we meet them. this particular section was short but pleasant. the sisters’ friendliness and willingness to part with their power was a surprise to me, and their goodbyes were bittersweet.( i kept pausing the dialogue to look at their ‘prison’. it looks exactly like the artifact domains, and where columbina ‘died’ is where the irminsul/reward tree always sits. still no idea what the halos in the domains are supposed to represent since there’s sometimes more than three. and at different heights. what’s up with that? no idea if it’s been explained yet. )moving on to the “present”, the entire sequence of dottore showing off his newfound control over reality had me constantly questioning what the point of it was. i kept landing back on multitasking: making a point to the traveler so that his offer has weight and value to it, as well as grasping at the finer tunings of these abilities. tossing us around from scene to scene was an unnecessary move on his end, but from the story standpoint, makes his proposal that the traveler could be less honorable make sense. it’s an insight into how we are still a toy, a tool, a thing to fiddle with. he doesn’t let the traveler orient, and then somehow finds the audacity to be offended when we finally act.( admittedly, us stabbing dottore was at an odd moment. i get it, we didn’t want to be taken to another location, but it was still odd timing between the tone of the dialogue and the switch to the cinematic. )in the meantime, the scenes checking in with our team was very pleasant in the way that we got to watch everyone continue to be competent and capable despite the growing urgency. their ability to gain answers in the midst of uncertainty, even by luck and chance, was very nice.( i was thrilled to see childe again. it was so sweet to see him so ready to help us. oh ajax my love. )the brief exploration of dottore’s domes was an interesting sequence, and our frequent return to albedo and durin was an interesting expansion on genshin’s alchemy rules.( i don’t remember where the sequence was anymore, this is more of an aside, but the time we spent helping a memory of a man trying to find his daughter in the middle of a disaster was a great setup for the metaphor of fate. we’ve seen this metaphor once before with wanderer himself: trying to change variables of a story does not change the end point.scaramouche’s wish was that the harbinger and kabukimono never existed, and so the variable was changed to where perhaps he left where he was discarded earlier or later than his known canon. he never became those names, but still eventually ended up in sumeru, still existing, still meeting us. the timeline of his life had been flexed and bowed, but the end point was and will still remain the same. even if he had wished to never be born in the first place, the idea to create him would still eventually pop into ei’s head, and he would exist at another point in time. matter cannot be created nor destroyed, and even rukkhadevata needed nahida to replace her or else the gap would be noticed and force an error and imbalance in the world. wanderer would always exist somewhere.the man in the memory could be interacted with and even sit down for a while for conversation and hear about the future, but all variables and flexes of the timeline and choices ended the same way.dottore’s insistence that fate can be changed is a deeply mortal thing to grasp for. he can add as many variables as he’d like, but everything will always come down to the same end point. if he had succeeded and remade the world, eventually he would meet the realization that everything he’s doing is winding down to stagnancy, as his perception of the current world is already doing. that is fate. there is no such thing as true perpetual motion. )moving forward, the sequence of rescuing the traveler from dottore, the evacuation of nod-krai, and the wind up to facing him again doesn’t have much of a comment from me. i’m … not certain what nichole’s blessing(?)/ golden ring in the center of nasha town was meant for, but i might have missed that line or forgot the meaning for it.our big fight with dottore was appropriately difficult and grand in the way that it took me a minute to realize i can even do damage to him. at the same time, once i realized i can damage him, dropping his health bar was easier than i thought. the biggest reasons that the fight went on so long was because he kept putting conditions on the fight, stealing my fffUCKING team members and slowly isolating us, and fixing his health.( he wanted us to submit to him so bad. )the cinematic involving sandrone and pulling down the moon was very cool, and the notion that dottore simply just closed the skybox and smiled smugly at us as if that would solve the problem was so funny. baby even if the skybox was a repelling force, you’re not gonna stop a whole ass moon from crashing through it. does make me wonder how massive the skybox is though if it can fit a whole moon inside it apparently without a problem.( did anyone else see this in the world?? is this mentioned outside of this questline? was this as strange of an occurrence as what happened in natlan or was this something only people in nod-krai could see? the sky got ripped open and a moon crashed through, i don’t know how that’s missable?? idk. it’s the fontaine sinking situation all over again. i’m also writing this whole thing just after the boss fight and we find our ship on the moon, so. )our final phase of dottore’s fight with columbina’s return (rebirth?) was still frustrating when he started healing himself and the arena became riddled with lasers. i noticed that his health wouldn’t go all the way up and he began to sound panicked halfway through, which i think was actually a really nice touch on his voice actor’s part.( the ‘friendship is power’ line at dottore’s defeat was corny. like YES of course the message is always ‘we are strong together’, but the delivery was corny. )dottore’s last line before his death being him cursing the world made me laugh. bitter bitch to the very end.the scenes after this point were … odd in some ways. some of the dialogue was strange, obviously meant to be foreshadowing (since i was spoiled that we see dottore AGAIN). the conversations with nichol