Genshin Impact Alcyon Act 1 - Celaeno's design is amazing! Augury Bird!

I know I'm late, but recently I've been diligent in trying to catch up on all the side stories in the gacha games that I've been playing. This time I went through Linnea's side story in Genshin Impact, and originally, I was just going to make a few passing comments in the notes section of this site. The issue is, as the story developed, it became more and more interesting, and I was unable not to talk about it properly in a blog post.

Linnea is a cheerful character from the Nod-Krai region, and considering I was avoiding any kind of spoilers, she just looked like a slightly weird girl, but nothing special. Once I started going through the story, things were quite different, though, as it was revealed that she's one of the last Augury Birds in Nod-Krai.

Her race is able to predict the future, which, as we know, is predetermined in Teyvat due to the influence of the Heavenly Principles. The main limitation is that, unlike Mona and the witches, they can only predict their own future and have no way to actually change it.

Imagine living your life knowing your own future, but unable to do anything to help either yourself or anyone else...really sad.

While it was justified it still must've been terrifying for the parents to realize their child was replaced by someone unknown. I know how the legends go, but...

This creates a sort of depression in the minds of the Augury Birds because they can only go through the predetermined paths without being able to stray at all or experience anything novel. The parents of Linnea decided to try and delay this fate in their daughter by sending her away and replacing her with a child that was supposed to die very soon. She became a "changeling" from mythology.

Her sister, Celaeno, instead remained with the others, living a life with the visions. The story shows how, during one of those weird competitions that happen in Genshin Impact, she appears in front of Linnea, and the two rekindle their sisterly bond and share their positions on the whole being-able-to-see-the-future thing.

It's the usual split between Linnea with "the journey is what is important" and Celaeno with "if it's predetermined, what's the point of living it?". I'm honestly not sure I would be able to be like Linnea here, because being able to see all your future from start to finish with that level of detail would kind of kill any excitement in life.

Honestly the future seen by Linnea was quite depressing as, in the end, everything went to disaster. Thankfully by that time I'm sure traveler will have the fake sky destroyed so...

Not sure why, but the smug face of Celaeno here is damn hot. Again, just look at her smile! The more adult pose and all that...

So far, destiny has continued to be preordained, but I wonder how long that'll last because I feel it's inevitable for the false sky to come down at some point during the story. Even Lumine had memories during the side story about all the other people who tried to defy fate in the past. Will the Augury Birds be free at that point?

Celaeno's arc was quick, as expected from a side story, but it still felt good enough to make me care for her character, and Linnea's cheerful personality breaking through the wall of ice that she was putting up was nice. Hopefully, we see her again in a future side quest, like they often do with minor NPCs in Genshin.

Linnea looks even cuter in the CG art compared to the ingame model, she has that 'young and hopeful' look that contrast the more mature Celaeno.

An happy ending for the newly formed family Linnea and Celaeno. Not sure the last character if it'll be important for the future, but...

Genshin Impact has been raising its budget for the production elements of the game in Nod-Krai, and Celaeno is one example of that. We usually never had full-blown, separate, highly detailed models for NPCs in the side stories, and it's honestly a great change.

I'm excited now to try out the other side stories from Nod-Krai that I haven't read yet, hoping they keep the same level of quality that I've seen here. Snezhnaya can't come soon enough, only one week to go before the glorious seventh nation arrives. What will await us there?