Hold onto your hats, people; we just got a huge Genshin Impact lore drop that lays out future characters coming into the story and perhaps confirms some long-assumed theories. Or maybe not, it's up to you.
There's a whole lot going on, so we'll try to break it down into bite-sized pieces. We officially meet three of the Four Shades, with a small introduction of each. There's Ronova, the Ruler of Death, then Naberius, the Ruler of Life, and Istaroth, the Ruler of Time. It appears that Naberius merged with the Hexenzirkel's Rhinedottir at some point, and now Rhinedottir uses the power to make her creations, including Genshin Impact's Albedo.
Asmoday, the fourth and final Shade to get a mention, has no involvement. The characters in the trailer ask where she has gone. You have seen her before, though - she's the tall lady at the start of the game that blasts your twin into oblivion, sending your chosen twin down to Teyvat.
In the trailer, we see Ronova, the Ruler of Death, "put this space out of its misery," seemingly destroying a cursed world. The three remaining Shades then have a meeting to discuss what to do, commenting that none of them have missed a meeting since the Heavenly Principles transformed them into Shades.
The Shades comment that perhaps she simply "switched sides" and that maybe she "loves her new master more than her own self." Potentially, this hints that it is, in fact, Paimon, but I, for one, think it might be someone involved with the Fatui. Especially since Genshin Impact's Pierro, the director of the Fatui, is somehow watching the Shades. There's a lot more going on in the trailer, so I highly recommend watching it a couple of times.
As for whether these cool gals will become playable, I personally don't think so, given that two of them share the same voice as Genshin Impact's Venti in English. Istaroth actually shares Venti's VA across all four voiced languages. Rhinedottir and Naberius both have Ivy Dupler as their voice actress, too. That said, the same VA also portrays Xingqiu and Bennett, so it could be possible.
Also, while we're here, Istaroth looks like Genshin Impact's Layla. There, I said it. Sure, the gold, blue, and white color palette is a favorite of Hoyo games, but the celestial halo and outfit accents are very similar, and they have identical eyes, even down to the vertical pupil. In the trailer, we see Istaroth sit in almost the same position as Layla does in her drip marketing. Coincidence? I think not!
Has this got you itching to jump back into Teyvat? If so, grab the new Genshin Impact codes and check out our Genshin Impact tier list to see who to pull.