Canon

Canon, also known as Huurrekuutar by the Frostmoon Scions and Prusmene in Arcadia,^[7] was the original Goddess of the Frost Moon.^[8] She was the second-born among the Moon Sisters, created by Nibelung to govern Teyvat and its laws once he left Teyvat.^[9] However, her and Aria's acceptance of the Heavenly Principles during Nibelung's absence culminated in the war of funerary flame, during which all three sisters perished.

Profile

During the war of funerary flame, Nibelung imprisoned the Moon Sisters within the moon's reflection for their disloyalty. He began converting the Three Moons into weapons to use against the Heavenly Principles, who retaliated by destroying the moons. While Frost Moon was left largely intact, allowing Canon to survive a bit longer than her sisters, the Heavenly Principles banished it beyond Teyvat's false sky. With the Frost Moon's connection to Teyvat severed, Canon's strength diminished until her existence faded away. The godless Frost Moon remained there for thousands of years until Columbina was born on Nod-Krai as its new Moon Goddess.^[6][10]

Before her death, Canon helped the survivors of Hyperborea find refuge on Hiisi Island. The survivors' descendants, known as the Frostmoon Scions, continue to worship the Frost Moon and its goddesses to this day.

Appearance

Much like her sisters, Canon was a beautiful and fairly tall maiden. She had blue hair with a bun tied that was covered mostly by a blue veil and light blue eyes. She wore a sailor-like cap with small golden horns. For her attire, she dressed herself in white and blue robes and golden sandals that laced themselves up to her calves. To show her status as the original Frost Moon, there is a crescent moon behind her colored in vivid sky-blue.

Like her other sisters, Canon was shown with gold jewelry.

Quests and Events

Archon Quests

• Song of the Welkin Moon
  • Act VIII: True Moon
    • The First Sliver of Moonlight

World Quests

• The Unmanned Vessel
  • The Unmanned Vessel (I)
  • The Unmanned Vessel (II)
  • The Unmanned Vessel (III)

Story

Old World

Canon was created by Dragon King Nibelung as the Goddess of the Frost Moon, the second of the Three Moons,^[5] to govern the world in his stead while he was travelling the cosmos beyond the skies.^[5][11] According to legend, the Frost Moon's radiance was the brightest of the trio and became the "cold, undying lantern" of night.^[5]

Canon, along with her sisters, was a sovereign of the night sky who dwelled in the Lunar Palace and rode through the heavens in a silver carriage. Sovereignty was held by one sister at a time, switching places three times a month.^{[Note 1]} The three sisters were all in love with the morning stars, and it is said that their love for the morning stars was "equal" to the affection between the sisters.^[12]

During Nibelung's absence, shadows "poured over the sky." Xiuhcoatl visited the moons in hopes of picking up Nibelung's trail, but only received silence from each of the sisters. It is unclear if they purposely didn't speak or couldn't.^[4]

When the Heavenly Principles first arrived on Teyvat, they were received as a guest by Canon and her sisters. She and Aria wished to see whether the new order being imposed by the Heavenly Principles would benefit Teyvat. However, after the Heavenly Principles overthrew the Seven Sovereigns, Teyvat and its Moons were put under their control,^[13] forcing the moon goddesses to enter a precarious peace agreement with them - something the dragons saw as a betrayal.^[4] Canon was particularly horrified by the atrocities committed by the Heavenly Principles against any life that would challenge their authority or rules, and personally intervened to try and save some of the victims of the civilizations destroyed by their Celestial Nails.

Funerary Year

When Nibelung eventually returned from the Abyss, he waged a devastating war of vengeance against the Heavenly Principles for dominion over Teyvat. This caused the sisters to fall into dispute over whether they should take sides in the conflict, or remain neutral to avoid further ruin.

Nibelung interpreted their actions as disloyalty, and subsequently imprisoned all three of them in the Moon's reflection while fashioning their moons into terrifying weapons of war. The Heavenly Principles responded by shattering the Eternal and Iridescent Moons, while flinging the Frost Moon beyond the False Sky. The destruction of two moons and the physical banishment of the third caused the Moon Goddesses to lose their rationale for existence in Teyvat, causing the world to reject their presence and gradually sap their strength until they disappeared entirely.^[14]

It is implied that this disaster took place thirty days after Canon and her sisters witnessed the union of Koitar and Anacharsis.^[15][16][17] It overturned the sisters' carriage and ransacked the palace of the stars.^[12]

Canon survived the desolation of her Moon but remained imprisoned inside the Moon's reflection in the aftermath, oblivious of the events that had transpired during the war. She learned the truth about her fate after she and her sisters were visited in the Moon's Reflection by a future aspect of Columbina Hyposelenia. The elder sisters persuaded Columbina to tell them of her time and the fate of their moons, learning that only Canon would survive outside their prison.^[18]

Canon was eventually freed from captivity after she decided along with her sisters to abdicate their lunar authorities to Columbina, who proceeded to use her powers as the Trilune Goddess to send their mortal shells back to Teyvat.^[18] Among the moon sisters, Canon was the only one with a chance at life outside her lunar prison, but she found no solace at the prospect of living in unbearable loneliness without her sisters by her side.

Canon managed to survive for some time on Teyvat owing to the fact that the Frost Moon remained distant but intact. After Hyperborea was destroyed by Celestial Nails, she chose to guide its surviving people, after which they begun to worship her as the Frostmoon Scions. Since her connection to the Frost Moon had been severely weakened by the False Sky, her strength kept dwindling until she eventually perished. At the end of her life, she gifted the Scions their antler crowns before dying.^[19]

Legacy

To cover up the fate of the Three Moons, the Heavenly Principles projected an illusion onto the night sky of Teyvat. The Frostmoon Scions confused this illusion for being the actual Frost Moon,^[9][10] when in reality its actual corpse lay beyond the False Sky.^[10] The Frostmoon Scions also passed down a prophecy which foretold that a new Moon Goddess would return to rule over the Frost Moon, which came partially true with the birth of Columbina in Nod-Krai about five hundred years ago.

Several centuries ago, Skirk witnessed the remains of the Frost Moon as she was passing through the False Sky of Teyvat. She noted that while it showed no signs of life, its will had not yet faded completely.^[20]

After the final confrontation with Dottore, the Frost Moon broke through the False Sky to once again light up the night skies of Teyvat, dispelling the illusion cast by the Heavenly Principles, and with Columbina reigning over it as the sole Trilune Goddess of Teyvat.^[21]

Character Mentions

Character Stories

Character	Stories
Columbina	Character Story 4 An Eye Mask Woven of Moonlight Tri-Lunar Convergence

Character Voice-Overs

Character	Voice-Overs
Columbina	About the "Tri-Lunar Convergence"  Media:VO_Columbina About the Tri-Lunar Convergence.ogg Media:VO ZH_Columbina About the Tri-Lunar Convergence.ogg Media:VO JA_Columbina About the Tri-Lunar Convergence.ogg Media:VO KO_Columbina About the Tri-Lunar Convergence.ogg The three goddesses bestowed their powers upon me, which converged into a force that is both dazzling and gentle. Through it, I can feel their attachment to this place, and I can sense the hopes and wishes they offered to this world in their final moments. I will inherit their moonlight and use it to illuminate the world beneath the moon — the place we all call "home".
Skirk	About The Will of the Moon  Media:VO_Skirk About The Will of the Moon.ogg Media:VO ZH_Skirk About The Will of the Moon.ogg Media:VO JA_Skirk About The Will of the Moon.ogg Media:VO KO_Skirk About The Will of the Moon.ogg I once saw the three moons of Teyvat when I was passing through the false sky. Two are utterly destroyed, their lifeless remains drifting aimlessly through space. The one that remains intact shows no signs of life either, but its will has not faded completely. Maybe there's a chance that one day, a glimmer of truth will emerge in the false sky — a truth belonging to this world alone.
Zibai	About the Three Moon Sisters  Media:VO_Zibai About the Three Moon Sisters.ogg Media:VO ZH_Zibai About the Three Moon Sisters.ogg Media:VO JA_Zibai About the Three Moon Sisters.ogg Media:VO KO_Zibai About the Three Moon Sisters.ogg The Three Moon Sisters? Well... I understand that they had a very close relationship. When one of them did not feel like being on duty, she would beg another to take her place, then make it up to her later with gifts of makeup and jewelry. However, so liberal were they with this ad-hoc shift-swapping business that it sometimes led to chaos. For instance, there once was a year when all three moons aligned, but this only happened because they all got the timing mixed up. And so, there came a day on which only one moon should have been on duty, but all three appeared in the sky at once. They hurried to line up in a row, two moons trying their best to hide behind the one who was supposed to be on duty... but alas, they still gave the poor people down below a most terrible fright. They burned incense for several days straight... After that incident, the sisters asked me to try to convey to the people of the world that the sight of three moons together in the sky was not an omen of impending disaster, nor a sign that regime change was nigh. Naturally, I put the question back to them, inquiring what such a phenomenon should represent to humanity. They hemmed and hawed for a while before finally saying: "It means... It means a festival is coming, and... everyone should eat Fullmoon Cakes, and... stuff..."

Gallery

Song of the Welkin Moon Teaser- Moonlit Ballad of the Night - Genshin Impact

Valentine's Day 2026 - Columbina
Official Genshin Impact X (Twitter)

Song of the Welkin Moon Personifications

Three Moon Goddesses

Trivia

• In the Song of the Welkin Moon Teaser: Moonlit Ballad of the Night, Alice inspects a piece of paper with the words "Aralos," "Solnari," and "Cannon" written on it. Due to the connection of Solnari with the Crimson Moon via Rerir, it is possible that Cannon is an alternate name or spelling of Canon.

Etymology

• A canon is a compositional form in which the melody is repeated by an imitation after a given duration.
  • Cannon is possibly derived from Kannon, the Japanese name of the bodhisattva and goddess Guanyin, also called Avalokiteśvara. She is considered the embodiment of compassion and mercy, with her name having the original Sanskrit meaning of "hearing the lamentations of the world." Notably, one of Guanyin's two foremost acolytes is Longnü, the daughter of the Dragon King.
• Huurre is the Finnish word for "frost" or "rime," while Kuutar is the Finnish goddess of the moon.
• Trivia is Latin for "crossroads" (literally "three ways") and an epithet for the goddesses Diana and Hecate in their roles as protectors of the crossroads.
• "Iynx" refers to an Oread nymph in Greek mythology who cast a love spell on the god Zeus, and was turned into a wryneck bird as punishment. The English word "jinx" is derived from this word. It also refers to an ancient Greek magic wheel or whirligig toy emblazoned with wrynecks, which was used to cast spells. This is perhaps the real-world basis of Moon Wheels in Genshin Impact.

Notes

Other Languages

Change History

References