Recognising the familiar silhouette of a crown on Anemo's gnosis made everyone agree that this gnosis may represent the king-queen piece, but the kabuto part on Electro's never gave me peace, as isn't it also a symbol of political power? So here's a little analysis of Gnoses' crowns irl (possible) inspos.
The Anemo crown might be inspired by Charles IV of the HRE's crown, but nevertheless, it's a common silhouette across Western Europe's mediaeval art.
Electro gnosis has a prominent maedate: this large piece on kabuto helmets. Those helmets were mainly worn by high military ranks, including shoguns.
As Sumeru is a big pot of Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist cultures, it's harder to pinpoint which culture inspired the mini crown, but personally I think its silhouette comes from a Kyanid or Pahlavi crown.
Pyro gnosis has a half-circle crown that is often in media falsely used to represent an Aztec crown. Crowns in Tenochtitlan were tiara-like —xiuhhuitzolli— and the half-circle shape —quetzalapanecayotl— was used for ceremonies and rituals. The same headpiece was also present in the Och-kan mural.
Now it's more obvious each comes from headwear significant to rulers of different cultures that inspired Genshin's countries, but that begs the question: what inspired the Geo gnosis?
Maybe I'm thinking too much, but this piece can't be the only one not inspired by a real thing in Chinese history. Maybe I'm not too wise in China's history anyway, so if anyone has any ideas or if it really is just a common crown form, please share.
We assume the other pieces were not kings because we limit ourselves with the traditional image of king pieces in chess. Genshin is not just copy pasting ideas. They reinvent stuff all the time. So why not also with the chess pieces.
That’s a very interesting theory and honestly I prefer the idea of them all being equal pieces. To add to your point on the electro gnosis, there is a giant kabuto helmet on the facade of Tenshukaku.
Nothing to do with the theory but for some reason this is the first time i had the realization that every high power of every culture has a funny hat for some reason. Maybe its cuz its almost midnight and I should be sleeping but i had this epiphany reading ur post lol
Maybe it’s to do with the idea of head/caput, like people in charge are considered the head of their group, so perhaps that’s why they wear something on their head
Since Pierro said that this game won't end at checkmate I presume that Fatui and Tsaritsa are about to break some fundamental 'rules' in this fight... be it several King pieces or something else.
Problem with the former theory is you need 32 pieces for full chess board. Excluding the black pieces, we need 16, excluding the pawns, we would need 8.
We know from hymns of the far north and Skirk comment on the Gnosis that the Third Descener was carved into 7 pieces. Confirming the Number of Gnosis being 7.
The numbers don't match, the gnosis can't fill a single side of a chess board.
Each gnosis being the "King" of their Nation's "chessboard" makes more sense.
Especially when you consider The King piece in Unresolved Chess Game is titled "Not The One Who Plays At "Chess Games"
Meaning, the "One who plays at Chess Games" is not the King but the player.
In other words, The Archons are Kings and Celestia is the Player, the one in Control.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the chess theory. But the popular theory was that the “King” piece wasn’t a gnosis but a representative of Celestia. So there would be 7 gnosis, represented by the Rooks, Bishops, Knights and a Queen. Celestia would be represented by the King. And the Traveler would be represented by a pawn.
I really loved this theory at the time but I do agree with your conclusion. Each Gnosis being a “King” seems much more likely.
Just hit me that Hydro is the only one that hasn’t been revealed yet assuming the piece on the Emperor tarot is the Cryo Gnosis. Wonder what it looks like. It’ll probably have a teardrop design
Well, on the one hand, in universe, it's Pierro playing and he has two Gnosis so he just used both of them in his game, and a esthetically the Geo one looks more like a rook than anything else. Out of universe, Hoyo used a specific moment of specific chess game for symbolism, and it would look cooler to have both the gnosis there, it might also be miss direction, cause after all this time there's still no piece that looks like a knight and the pieces that supposedly look like bishops are a but of a stretch imo
Electro gnosis have the similar pattern you can find on kabuto helmet, which is mostly worn by samurai and shogun. Inazuma is mainly inspired from edo Japan, ruled by Tokugawa shogunate. If the gnosis have pattern that resembles shogun who’s the ruler of the nation, then it would make more sense for this shogun-like chess piece to be the equivalent of the king.
Well, by this logic, you can say that every gnosis is just pawn with stylized headwear related to their cultural inspiration. Aside from Mavuika, Venti was only a wind spirit before he ascended to godhood.(which could debunk “pyro gnosis is pawn” theory revolve around Mavuika being a human)
So I don’t get the assumption of what chess pieces those gnosis represent, considering that the rest gnosis clearly have cultural motifs that look nothing like traditional chess.
Well, it made no sense for elements, which are all equal in theory, to be treated better or worse in regards to being a different kind of chess piece. And obviously King, Queen and Rook are all higher in hierarchy compared to the Knights and Bishops, not mentioning Pawns.
but that begs the question: what inspired the Geo gnosis?
To me, the geo gnosis looks a bit like some of the more simple style crowns that I associate with the European Middle Ages?
Here is a comparison of the geo gnosis, a historical Swedish middle ages crown, and two photos from a fictional TV show about King Arthur/Camelot that show the crown style I'm thinking of.
I don't know enough about crowns and historical fashion to track it down further than that, but that style crown is what I see. Obviously this would have NOTHING to do with Chinese history/culture though.
I was mainly connecting it to mianguan, but it has such a distinctive shape, and the Gnosis' crown looks like a simple hoop crown without overhead bands. Maybe it's a reference to an archeological culture or even a religious headpiece, I'm not sure.
I'm surprise at the notion, I assumed the main concensus was that every gnosis would be considered a king in the respective nation, but on a "chessboard" of Teyvat, they'd fall into more traditional pieces
King = Celestia
Queen = Anemo
Rook = Geo & Cryo
Bishop = Dendro & Electro
Knight = Pyro & Hydro
Following the slime theory, anemo slime stands out due to its common docility and ability to fly making it one of its kind
While the other slims are in common
Geo and Cryo slimes both have shields with spikes on the head
Dendro and Electro slimes both have bulbs on their heads
Pyro and Hydro slimes both have horns
From a chess piece perspective, the king is considered the most important that every other piece plays around.
The queen has its ability to move in any direction and is considered "the freest of the pieces". It also represents influence and strategy which are all components that resonates with Venti
The rook represents "the war chariot" following Zhongli's history as being a formidable God as well as Tsaritsa's promise to initiate war against the Heavenly Principles. Based off wiki "rook" actually derives from "rukh" which means chariot in Persian
The bishops relates to two definitions, one being the traditional biship that is infact related to wisdom and guiding throught strat while the other representation for bishop in chess derives from a war elephant and it represents a military vanguard, many cultures still relate the bishop to war rather than wisdom, Raiden being a shogun. Not to mention the natural tether between Raiden and Nahida. Nahida is the purest branch of Irminsul while Raiden's puppet was created using Irminsul's wood (Nahida and Wanderer are technically siblings)
I think pyro and hydro are some of the most obvious ones as it relates to the knight pieces. Pyro Archon being associated with war and the Hydro Archon being a God of Justice. The Knight piece is considered the most unpredictable and is consistent with Focalors destroying the hydro throne and Mavuika shattering the firmanent and bypassing Ronova's rule (ofc with the assistance of Capitano). This piece is also related to indirect power consister with Mavuikaa.
Pyro gnosis as knight is interesting now that it’s revealed cuz, it does look a lot like a pawn, but it also looks like a sword stuck in the ground, and I have seen a fan design somewhere that has the pyro/hydro gnoses as knight pieces in the shape of swords instead of horses, which does make sense since knights are associated with swords, but I have never seen the knight piece in chess be represented by a sword shape, so if Genshin really intended on the Pyro gnosis being a knight, why did they shape it like a sword? Is there some sort of precedent for knight pieces being swords? The only example I’ve seen before is that one specific fan design, which shouldn’t be enough to justify it
Each piece represents their nation’s ‘king’ piece, and each nation has their own ‘chess board’ or game. However, the king piece of each nation then become a different piece on the Celestial chess board/game.
So my thought is this:
If the game being played is on the Nation’s Board, that Gnosis is King
One the game being played is Khaenriah or Celestia, each gnosis becomes the common theory of each piece then is played and represents something different
Anemo = Queen
Geo (maybe hydro/pyro/cryo?) = Rook
Electro / Dendro = Bishop
Hydro/Cryo/Pyro? = Knight
We know that based on the Winter Lazzo video each nation seemed to be emulating a chess game, so who’s to say the gnoses can’t be reused in a different game representing a different piece?
No. Venti's is a queen for Starters, while Zhongli's was a Rook. The Electro and Dendro Gnosi are Bishops. The Cryo Gnosis, seen in the Emperor Card, is either a King or the other Rook. The Pyro is similar, could go either way.
I don't think we have any official sources of what Gnosis is what type of chess piece, so here are my assumtions
the Anemo Gnosis seems to be a Queen
the Geo Gnosis seems to be a Rook
Electro and Dendro Gnosis look like Bishops
Pyro Gnosis could be Knight
I cannot for the life of me remeber how the Hydro Gnosis looked though.
We can also see some of the Gnosis on the chessboard in the Winternights Lazzo Trailer, considering that the chessboard mimics the DeepBlue vs Kasparov game you could find out what positions the gnosis have and compare it to the real game.
theroy and spoiler time: I don't think that any Gnosis is a king piece....the Gnosis were created by the Heavenly Principles by putting the remains of the 3rd decender into them. I find it hard to believe the HP would create a king piece considering how paranoid they seem to be in regards to them controlling Teyvat.
All archons are equal. Tsaritsa might be a king because russian emperors have cross in their crowns. However the highest emperor in japan has kabuto helmets, will we treat it as not king in their respective nation? It’s appreciating other cultures highest position. I believe they are all kings.
I think I saw this idea mentioned before (possibly on a YouTube video?) and thought it seemed quite agreeable, each gnosis is a certain piece as well as representing a king piece
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u/Adriella01 3d ago
I like this theory. Makes more sense.
We assume the other pieces were not kings because we limit ourselves with the traditional image of king pieces in chess. Genshin is not just copy pasting ideas. They reinvent stuff all the time. So why not also with the chess pieces.