Chapter Text
Like twin stars that fall from the sky, digging into the ragged land below in a fury of light and fire… An unfamiliar land, filled with unsolved mysteries and strange wonders… One star shall flee, the other shall fight…
…
This sounds like bullshit. Lumine sighs, crumpling up her paper. Apparently, poetry was not one of the natural talents that she possessed. This creative writing class she had joined was proving to be more difficult than expected–And this was only her first day.
You see, Lumine had just been transferred from her past school, Solaris Private School, on account of her remarkable elemental ability control. It was decided that Lumine should be transferred on complete scholarship on account of her talent in order to receive the highest possible education.
Yet, this average, mundane class… Poetry. Why did it have to be poetry? Any other creative writing would have been fine… But poetry, really? Lumine sighed, daydreaming about the future of when this unit would be over. Other students looked over at her in curiosity of the elusive new girl dressed in a uniforming belonging to another school. Teyvat Academia doesn’t have an excessively strict dress code; just dress in such a way that you appear as a student. So, Lumine opted to just wear her old uniform, but she was getting some weird stares for it.
After a bit more excessively slow sighing and dragging her pen across the paper, the class finally ended, and she handed the instructor her incredible half-assed poem. On her way out, she tossed her previous crumpled up beginning to the trash, not looking back even once to notice that she had missed.
“Hey, Lumine? Luuumine?” An annoying girl whined, hugging Lumine from behind.
The girl was quite short, standing on her toes wearing sharp heeled boots. She had fluffy shoulder length hair. She wore a white collared shirt with a pale blue plaid bow and matching skirt. On top of that, she sported a slightly oversized white sweater with rose-gold details, matching the color and material of the heels of her white boots. She wore one thigh high white sock, the other sock just below the knee. And finally, she had a black 4 pointed star hair clip.
This girl was Chronos , or, at least, that was her surname. Lumine never actually caught her given name… Regardless, Chronos had been showing her around the Academia and explaining how things worked, so the two quickly became companions.
“Ah– Uh, yes, Chronos..?” Lumine stuttered slightly, surprised.
“Hey! Don’t call me Chronos, it’s not like I’m your teacher!” She put her hands on her hips, pouting. “Paimon, got it? P-a-i-m-o-n!” Chronos— Paimon pointed at her in an accusing manner.
“Right, Paimon . What’s up?” What a weird name.
Paimon grabbed Lumine’s wrist with both of her hands in an excited manner. “Well, you know, you made it to lunch break, so…”
“Oh, you want to have lunch together? Sure thing.” Lumine smiled, but Paimon pouted even more.
“ No –We need to make friends , Lumine! And then we need to eat lots and lots!” Paimon chanted. As if on cue, another girl jogged over to them. Normalize running in the halls, I guess.
“..H..Hey!... Woah, let me… catch my breath…” The girl exhaled. “Okay, I’m good now! I noticed you, uh, dropped something in creative writing class!” She chuckled, scratched the back of her head.
As if an anvil had been dropped on Lumine’s head, she became unresponsive. Please don’t tell me she read that lame poem. Please, god, if you’re there–
“Uh, I read it… Sorry, but it was really cool!” She said, her eyes lighting up. And Lumine could’ve just died on the spot and still felt relieved to escape such an embarrassing situation. “Oh, what’s your name, by the way?”
“That’s Lumine!” Paimon exclaimed. “Lumine, you wrote something? Ooh, what did you write?!” Paimon chanted along.
“Uh-”
“Lumine’s a really cool name! You come from out of the area?” The girl asked, pushing her long brown hair out of her face. She had an adorable red bow on her head too.
“Yeah, I just transferred from a different region… And uh, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name..?” Lumine said.
“I’m Amber, at your service! Ehe, how’s my introduction?” Amber introduced herself, to which Paimon gave two big thumbs up. Before Lumine could even muster a response, Amber began talking again, “You know, since you guys are new, why don’t you come have lunch with my group? They’d be super happy to meet you, I just know it!”
“Of course we will! Right, Lumine?” Paimon exclaimed. Great.
And so Lumine was whisked away with two girls she had only met that day, though somehow Paimon already felt like an old friend.
At a table just in the shade in a courtyard of the Academia between two buildings, 2 girls and a boy sat together. Amber waved, excited.
“Hey, guys! I brought these two to have lunch with us today!” Amber called, to which the three students turned to look at her. Each one of them slowly turned to look at Lumine and Paimon, eyes showing interest.
“Hi, I’m Lumine.” Lumine waved slightly, going to sit down at the table beside Amber. Paimon followed suit, squeezing in next to Lumine.
“Jean, nice to meet you.” A mature looking girl with blonde hair in a ponytail wearing a collared shirt and black slacks introduced herself, simultaneously tying a black ribbon into her hair.
“I’m Kaeya. It’s my pleasure to meet you, Lumine.” Kaeya had dark blue hair with some highlights and tawny brown skin, with bright blue eyes matching his hair. His tone was smooth, almost flirty, which made Lumine chuckle.
“Oh, pleasure’s all mine. ” Lumine replied, with a sarcastically flirty voice. Kaeya laughed in response.
“And I’m Lisa. I must say, you’re quite cute, aren’t you? Ahaha, it’s good to have eye candy around.” Lisa smiled sweetly. She seemed to be speaking partially genuinely, but partially jokingly as well. Lumine laughed slightly and blushed.
“And you already know me!” Amber grinned, “Oh and, Lumine… Who’s this?” Amber looked at Paimon.
“She’s an emergency snack.” Lumine replied, getting a firm smack on the back from Paimon.
“Paimon is not a snack!” Paimon thundered. “I am Paimon, and I’m Lumine’s newest friend! I’ve been around the academia for a while, but I don’t really engage.” Paimon explained, shrugging slightly.
“Hey, Paimon… How old are you?” Jean asked suddenly, turning to Paimon.
“The age of the elusive Paimon is undisclosed ! Case closed, thank you.” Paimon replied. Somehow, it was impossible to guess her age, despite her childish mannerisms. But, in a world where magic was real, Paimon's existence was far from the most shocking thing around.
“Paimon’s kinda like a little sidekick for Lumine.” Amber giggled.
“Hey! I’m no sidekick!” Paimon screeched, making Amber laugh more.
“Don’t you guys think so? Paimon would be like… A little floating companion for Lumine, the amazing new outlander.” Amber explained. Jean pressed her hand to her forehead, clearly embarrassed.
“Amber, don’t–”
“Wait! I’ve got it! Lumine crashed into the world as a star, and she’s an amazing outlander who will fight through the unsolved mysteries of the world!” Amber exclaimed, making Lumine’s face go bright red.
“Hey! I never said you could say anything about what I wrote, and it wasn’t even related to me anyway-”
“Oh? Lumine wrote this idea?” Lisa said, sparking with interest.
“It was just something dumb for poetry class, not a big deal like Amber’s making it-”
“It’s perfect, just what this story needed. A protagonist.” Lisa clapped, while Kaeya laughed and Jean became even more humiliated.
“A… What?” Lumine blinked slowly.
Lisa pulled out some leather bound journals, incredibly fancy, with some equally good quality fountain pens and some graphite pencils. Upon opening them, there were paragraphs upon paragraphs of story and concepts written in numerous different handwritings, all tilted with the head of “ Yuanshen. ”
“This is the eccentric hobby our little group has. We’ve created a fictional world all with people based off of our classmates around us, including ourselves. We thought about how it could be made into a story, but we were missing an acting protagonist.” Lisa explained, with a small giggle. An odd hobby, Lumine thought, but… Kind of cool.
“Can I read it?” Lumine asked.
“Of course, dear! Come here, I’ll explain what it all means…”
In the land of Teyvat stands a city called Mondstadt, a city represented by the wind and the freedom it may bring. Germanic European inspired buildings within the city walls, a dynamic outdoor land full of hills, flowers, lakes and waterfalls all the like. In Teyvat, Mondstadt is a nation watched over by a god, which is called an Archon. The god of the winds is a free spirit, not wanting to interfere with the freedom of the citizens, and therefore not dictating them closely. In the city, there’s shops, an inn, a tavern, a church and a headquarters for the city’s knights; The Knights of Favonius.
Of the knights, there is the Acting Grand Master Jean, The librarian Lisa, the Outrider Amber, and the Cavalry captain Kaeya.
Hundreds of years ago, two twin stars come descending upon the skies of teyvat, to be seen world wide. Of the two stars are twins; A boy and a girl. Centuries later, and in the present, the girl awakens; her name Lumine, and embarks on a journey to find her lost brother. She first meets the outrider, Amber, who connects her with the knights.
This is the story of Yuanshen.
“Hey, where’d we get the name Yuanshen anyway..?” Lumine asked, looking puzzled.
“Well, I have a close friend who speaks Chinese, and she suggested the title. She said it basically means “Origin” and “god”, but that it could work to be like the origin of a god. We thought it’d be cool to have the story about someone ascending to godhood.” Jean explained, suddenly no longer embarrassed. Clearly, Jean enjoyed these types of decisions in the story writing.
“That’s cool, but… The story’s in a place kinda inspired by germanic europe, right? So, shouldn’t the title represent a more German or European pronunciation?” Lumine questioned, tilting her head.
“I think a typical English pronunciation would be more suited given we might add more regions.” Kaeya added.
“Hm… Well how about Genshin? It’s kind of inspired by a more Japanese pronunciation, but with a tone that makes it more English. That way, the word is entirely made up and it makes it more unique.” Jean proposed.
“Genshin! That has a good ring, I agree!” Paimon exclaimed.
“All in favor of calling Yuanshen Genshin from now on?” Kaeya asked.
The table erupted in a resounding ‘Yes.’
This is the story of Genshin .