(back to rsof au)

first written up 6 january 2024.

on the implications of fate

so, as a hopeless romantic, i absolutely adore the idea of soulmates, of there being someone out there who under­stands you on a personal level as easily as you understand them. However. As An Asexual™, i'm not really a fan of the amatonormativity present in most soulmate aus.

like, you have to admit it's kind of a horror story to be told that no matter what you do or how you feel, there is someone out there who knows you on a practically intimate level, even if you don't know them yet. like, what happened to autonomy? to free will??? what happens if they want you in a way that you don't wish to be wanted?

the question of fate vs. free will has plagued mankind for fucking ages, i'm pretty sure. there are like whole books out there discussing the problem of evil n trying to reconcile it w/the christian idea of "god's plan for us" and shit. the way that this au would like to tackle this problem is to look to that quote from the good place that's like, "if soulmates are real, then they are made, not found."

but how do you do that in a setting where fate is not only real, but connecting people to one another through magic strings? how do humans, oblivious to and dependent on the whims and machinations of the gods, make themselves a soulmate?

classically speaking, the legendary red string of fate connects destined lovers to one another, and each person only has one other person Destined for them. however, the strings of fate between people in choices by my fate are not necessarily romantic. instead, when two people are connected by the strings of fate, it is inevitable that they will be meaningful to each other in some way— the key here being that it is up to the people in question to determine that meaning for themselves through the choices they make.

however, due to the nature of humanity to romanticize things, Most of the cultures in teyvat assume people connected by fate strings to be romantic. it is against this deeply-ingrained assumption that our four main leads find protest and thus choose to struggle against their (perceived) fates.

the strings of fate between people in this au are also multitudinous, rather than 1:1. this is another artistic choice made deliberately against amatonormativity, as throughout our lives, there will obviously be a great many people who shape our character and become incredibly meaningful to us through our connections to them. not every relationship has the same weight to a person, though, and so the various strings of fate between people will vary in thickness depending on how closely intertwined their fates are or how profoundly their relationship will affect their lives.

the average person cannot see their own string in this au, so, like, childe's oblivious to that for like… the entire span we have currently plotted out lol. they know only about the red string of fate through legends passed through time.

immortals or similarly powerful beings can sometimes see their own strongest connection, provided it has a profound enough effect on the world— exceptions to this rule include the Traveler (for although she is immortal and almost godly in some way, she's still an Outlander) and paimon (bc if she ever had the ability, then the gods took it away bc she'd simply be too much!!! she is SO BAD with secrets).

archons, being on a higher level of power than regular immortals, can see everyone's connections, including their own, albeit only the strongest one at any given point in time. the god of fate (whom we don't really have a solid idea of) is the only one who can see every single connection between every creature in teyvat.

now, the way that all characters have agency n control over their fate is that the choices they make will affect how strongly they are tied to one another: that is, they can make choices that will thin their fated connection to someone. (they can make choices that will thicken their fated connections to others as well, but when you're trying to fight against fate altogether, it's usually the getting-rid-of part that feels more important lol.) lumine, however, has access to a Secret Second Method of altering fate, being an outlander and all…

on the integration of the gacha system

so as you may have noticed if you read the hypothetical tags attached to this fic on the overview page, we integrated the gacha system into the plot of this fic! from what i've noticed, this isn't a terribly unusual trope in fics that involve the Traveler in some way, though the ones i've read will usually make reference to primogems, lampshade the gambling aspect of gacha at the same time, or otherwise reference game mechanics in a way that makes it clear that this is a bit strange in-universe.

we will be making no such mocking references because more often than not, breaking the fourth wall like that detracts from the gravity of a work, and WE. are Very Serious Writers. ™.

anyway, so the method we serious writers have come up with to Seriously integrate the gacha system into the story is that, like… you know how there are certain offering systems in the game (such as the sacred sakura or the dragonspine tree) that will reward you with gacha rolls at certain levels? WELL, as i'm sure we all know, gacha rolls are called fates in-game. let's look at their lore real fast!

intertwined fate (rainbow roll):
a fateful stone that connects dreams. its glimmers can entwine fates and connect dreams, just as how its glimmers links stars into the shapes of a heart’s desires.

acquaint fate (blue roll):
a seed that lights up the night. no matter the distance apart, guided by the stone’s glimmer, the fated will meet under the stars.

so, like, because this au tries to cover the majority of canon events, but by nature of being a live release game, genshin has a lot of wiggle room for time between events n quest ordering n stuff, we as fanfiction planners obviously want to utilize that downtime to inject our own self-indulgent nonsenses into the story. and since one of the fun parts of co-op mode in genshin is exploration, why not let lumine reap the rewards of exploration as well?

why not give lumine the free gacha rolls from the exploration offering systems?

now, bc the gacha would be kind of super op to have all the time, we decided to limit her to just free rolls from offering systems, so, like, no AR rewards rolls. when first discussing this fic in 2021, we even limited her to just the rolls from the dragonspine tree, citing the fact that the sacred sakura gave out so many rolls as Too Much. to balance out the scant few rolls you get from these systems with genshin's brutal pity, lumine would always win her 50/50s, and she would always get a 4* character or above (though so far, she usually gets 5*s lol).

recently, we decided to let lumine receive rolls from all the available offering systems that had them, but to nerf their role in the plot again, she only gets one blue roll and one rainbow roll from each system.

ANYWAY so the way the gacha rolls usually work for the plot is that they're, like, strange and sparkly rocks to lumine & co. when they first find or receive them. when she makes a wish on one, a shooting star streaks across the sky, and a thin, glittering path appears on the ground— think of the yellow sparkles that appear in-game when you're navigating somewhere for a quest. following this path, lumine is led to a particular person— the person she, in a sense, "rolled" :D

and like, what wishing on these rocks does, from a more cosmic perspective, is that it alters the fates of the person wishing, although they can't control the identity of the other person affected or how their fates are subsequently altered.

this allows lumine to meet people who might not otherwise have come up on her journey throughout teyvat, or to defy her circumstances when it looks like the whole world is plotting against her. which. considering the fact that celestia is probably pissed as hell by the fact that her n aether's landing in teyvat is one HELL of an unforeseen circumstance, may very well be the case!