I have long wondered if I should share my Genshin Impact Luna V impressions since the update didn’t have another main story patch, but it had Varka. Let’s face it, alongside the Fatui Harbingers and Archons, Varka was one of those characters that almost everyone was looking forward to finally meeting at some point.
Varka and his expedition left Mondstadt before the game had officially begun, and before the Traveler had arrived in Mondstadt. The community had been getting more and more excited with the crumbs of the Favonius expedition pointing in the direction of Nod-Krai, before we finally caught up with the Grandmaster himself in Version Luna II, although his involvement had been limited.
The weight of years of expectations, head-canons and eagerness is not an easy one, and Genshin had been going all-out with the Varka marketing ever since the main story of Nod-Krai had been wrapped up (at the very least for now) in Version Luna IV.
Animated short, unique open world interactions and fighting style (double claymore & element infusion!), the big deal that is the expedition returning to Mondstadt, character story quest and flagship event largely dedicated to him is what awaited Varka on his release. But was it enough?
Let’s discuss!
Varka’s narrative importance can be roughly split into 3 sections: his position as the Knight of Boreas, him being the Knight of Mondstadt and its biggest hero in another timeline, and the expedition he led across Teyvat. The two latter points are largely interwoven as well, since it was him rejecting the position of hero that kickstarted the expedition in the first place.
Varka’s Story Quest: Lupus Majoris Chapter focuses on him being the current Knight of Boreas and his connection to wolves, god Andrius and the previous holders of this title, including the Bloodstained Knight Roland. Before he can triumphantly return home, Varka must deal with the unexpected outpour of the Abyss coming from Nod-Krai and attempting to corrupt the Wolf of the North. The remnants of the Wild Hunt are gathering under the new master: an Abyss-created replica of Roland, the Knight of Boreas from 500 years ago.
He took control of Andrius – a second half of Boreas that was left behind in Nod-Krai – as he slumbered by the bank of Amsvartnir and started searching for the wolf fragments. Worse yet, Varka couldn’t outright kill the new mastermind since killing a god would unleash a calamity of the scale that Nod-Krai is unprepared to deal with, especially just recovering from the deal with Rerir and Dottore.
This is where the Traveler comes in to help Varka in his latest outrageous plan to beat Abyss-Roland in his own game. He theorizes that it might be possible to split the Abyss and the noble wolf’s soul, and convince Andrius to peacefully merge with the ley lines – the answer that Boreas had found himself many years ago.
The Traveler’s unique abilities to purge the Abyss are a central part of the plan, although Varka admits that he would have pressed on even if the Traveler didn’t succeed, it just would have made his own part more dangerous.
More dangerous than being devoured by Abyss-tainted Andrius and traversing the wolf’s heart and experiencing the journeys and the longing of the Knights of Boreas before him and risking his soul in the process, that is.
Before making their way to Nod-Krai, the Traveler had a lengthy discussion with Venti and Boreas. Back then, it seemed to have barely any connection to what is supposed to be happening in Nod-Krai. Thoughts and emotions are like interwoven threads – they can create a net, they can separate love from hatred, and they can bind objects and events together. Poetry and letters were humanity’s earliest means of expressing their thoughts – and who better to know that truth than a bard?
The thoughts of others anchor the Grandmaster’s soul when he finds himself alone against ancient longing and hatred, reversing the assimilation – and allowing him to preserve his soul and escape with his life. The quest focuses on Varka’s connections – to Mondstadt, to Boreas, to other playable characters from Klee to Diluc – and their importance to the character himself.
It’s honestly an exemplary character quest in many ways, and it felt great to return to Mondstadt and its earlier stories. After all, Roland had been in the game (in a way) since 1.0 through the Bloodstained Knight and Maiden Beloved artifact sets, as well as crumbs about Signora and her lover – “Wolf Pup” Rostam, Roland’s teacher. So it had been quite a treat to see his story in a more straightforward way, same for Boreas.
If I were to nitpick, I’d only poke at the way the duality of Boreas/Andrius had been introduced, jumping around both in time and geographic space, from Snezhnaya to Nod-Krai to Mondstadt, from thousands of years ago, to the Cataclysm, to “now”.
The story of Andrius acquiring his godhood after being blessed by the first angel Koitar is told through the side-quest that takes place by the bank of Amsvartnir. The game either expects you to have already done this story and thus have the knowledge of Koitar and the Seelie Court, or to simply take the explanation of “well, that happened” at face value.
Certainly there could have been a better way to explain since by the time Amsvartnir and its side-quest “Echoes of a Forsaken Song” came out, Varka’s story quest had likely already been heavily in development. Even then, the full understanding requires digging through in-game books and artifacts/weapon descriptions to learn of Koitar and the Voyager, but that’s a whole different story.
I will admit that I am somewhat less thrilled by the flagship event that explores Varka’s other side, that of unfulfilled heroic destiny thrown away in order to pursue a happier future for everyone. Shortly before Varka’s release, HoYo shared the animated short titled “Another Prologue” – you can find it above.
Through it, viewers learn that defeating Dvalin was initially Varka’s fate. But fate is a fickle thing, upon learning about that future and that it also means that the Abyss swallows Nod-Krai, Varka abandoned the idea of becoming a hero, assembled the expedition and left Mondstadt to hunt the Abyss across the neighboring nations, including Natlan and Nod-Krai itself. Were you to simply play the game, without following YouTube or other outside resources, you’d never really learn about it and Varka’s quiet regrets or wonderings of what if.
Unknowingly, the Traveler took over that fate and completed it in a much better way than Varka ever could have. Not only did our protagonist manage to save Dvalin and prevent the dragon from succumbing to the Abyss, but also joined forces with Mavuika way down the line to prevent the Abyssal catastrophe from striking Natlan before venturing to Nod-Krai and aiding in taking down the Wild Hunt.
That makes Varka’s expedition seem and feel like it lacks value. Of course, it is entirely not true – but we never had to confront the darker version of Teyvat where the catastrophe happened, like Varka did in his vision from Barbeloth’s scryglass, and so it simply seems like things magically worked out with or without the Grandmaster.
Think about it as some filter or an uninterruptible power supply, both could seem excessive, especially if they made you go out of your way to acquire, until the need strikes. That’s how Varka’s expedition is, the worst did not come to pass because he was there, but we’d never know about different outcomes.
Secondly, the fact that this particular story, the one about something more personal than a title, is a limited-time event. Once it’s over, it’s gone for good for all future or returning players who have missed it, unless they’re willing to watch a replay of the event on YouTube somewhere.
Much like when a character is introduced during an event – Kirara, Yumemizuki Mizuki, Gaming, Yaoyao, and so on – it simply takes a part of character development out of the game forever. Chopped up storytelling strikes again! Any time you interact with Varka going onward, the game would consider that you have done the event and are aware of it.
But let’s get back to the story itself.
In order to bring the returning expedition members up to speed, Nicole and Alice have joined their magical forces and prowess to create a magic bubble that uses memories of participants to recreate the events in the form of an interactive experience.
That way, the Knights will be able to see what Mondstadt had been through for themselves and feel like they were a part of it. Of course, there were certain shenanigans involved with having to recreate bits and pieces with some good ol’ acting, fix some wild magic slip-ups, and also to leave out the parts of Venti being Barbatos and the Traveler cleansing Dvalin’s corrupted tears.
The latter led to a glitch in the magic bubble world’s logic where Dvalin was never cleansed – giving us a glimpse of what could-have-been were the Traveler never to arrive in Mondstadt. The great dragon had been sealed away by regretful Venti, but the power of the Abyss slowly corroded not only his mind, but also the seal, allowing the Abyssal dragon to break free and wreak havoc on Mondstadt to the point where the city had to be abandoned to monsters. And now the heroes have to put the dragon down for good.
But wait, isn’t this exactly what I mentioned above? Seeing the future where Varka didn’t abandon his fate? Yes and no. Instead of seeing the direct consequences of Varka never leaving Mondstadt, we see the consequences of the Traveler never arriving. Showing the importance of Varka’s expedition would have included showing similar events in Nod-Krai that would have been left without the Knights’ help during the Wild Hunt attacks.
Secondly, while there is an epic dragon fight and one of the best animated event cutscenes yet (watch and learn, Honkai: Star Rail), there are no real stakes. Nicole and Alice both state that the bubble can be destroyed – sure, their hard work would all be thrown away, but there is no danger to the real Mondstadt, just one little disappointed Klee were our characters to fail.
In the end, I believe that developers truly love Varka, but the odds are stacked against him when it comes to creating fitting events since he is the most “potential man” ever.
The ending of the event also addresses some lore bits actively discussed by the community, namely Signora taking Venti’s Gnosis by force and the upcoming voyage to Snezhnaya.
In the first case, Venti admits to basically giving up the Gnosis to avoid fighting the Harbinger in the middle of Mondstadt and potentially harming innocents and having almost the entire city become collateral damage. He has no particular attachment or care for Celestia’s little “gift” anyhow – and acquiring two separate Gnoses led Signora to become too confident and take directly on the Raiden Shogun. We all know how that turned out.
The community’s idea that Venti could potentially feel guilty over being unable to protect “Wolf Pup” Rostam, Rosalyne’s lover back before she was known as the Crimson Witch of Flames/Embers, and thus accepting her fury had been thoroughly dashed.
In the 2nd case, with her strongest Harbingers – the Captain, Dottore & Columbina – now out of the organization, the Tsaritsa no longer has the means to meddle in the other nations as she used to, which means the Traveler can venture to Snezhnaya without worrying what is happening outside once their affairs are done.
That also leads me to believe that Mavuika will simply lend the Traveler her Gnosis at some point to have a bargaining tool at their disposal. Unless we see the Tsaritsa personally come to wrestle it from the God of War’s hands, which is highly unlikely. I can’t say that I’m very excited at the prospect, admittedly.
Lastly, get Alice to jail before she comes up with any more of her magical ideas, thank you.
