"The Professor"

Rotwang — originally named Rauthvangi,^[1] and referred to by numerous aliases including mad monk, the undying serpent, and "The Professor" — was a member of the Belyi Tsar's court after his exile from Khaenri'ah. His obsession with the Abyss and destroying the false sky led him to unleash the Abyss' powers across Nod-Krai during the time of the Cataclysm 500 years ago.

Profile

Rauthvangi was known for his calm demeanor, magnetic charisma, and deeply introspective nature. He often spoke in cryptic riddles or philosophical aphorisms, masking the depth of his fanaticism. Beneath the composed exterior burned an unshakable obsession with the Abyss, which he called the "Pitch-black Elysium," one so intense he was willing to sacrifice anything, even the world itself, in pursuit of it.

Quests and Events

World Quests

• Nightingale's Song
  • Final Chapter: A Star Out of Time
    • The Last Night, the First Light

Story

Rauthvangi lived in Khaenri'ah during the Eclipse Dynasty under the Vinster King Irmin. He was a novice monk working in the Universitas Magistrorum when he caught sight of the Abyss in a mirror and became consumed by desire for it, calling it the "pitch-black Elysium."^[2] He was tried by the court for delving into forbidden knowledge and sentenced to expulsion from the Universitas Magistrotrum and exile. He never once defended himself, as his heart was fully preoccupied by the Abyss he saw. Though he had the blood of outlanders, Rauthvangi didn't succumb to the curse of the wilderness like his fellow exiles once they went aboveground. Thus, Rauthvangi believed that he was chosen to open a path to the Abyss beyond the skies.^[3]

For many years, Rauthvangi wandered the nations as a scholar. Despite searching the oldest records, he could not find anything about the pitch-black Elysium. Finally, he reached Nod-Krai, which was still a barren and undeveloped borderland at that time. He found the path to reach that Elysium and became determined to open its gates no matter what.^[4]

In Snezhnaya

Rauthvangi joined the court of the Belyi Tsar in Snezhnaya under the name Rotwang. He became the Tsar's favorite due to his mastery of alchemy and astrology. The nobles privately called him the "mad monk," and there were many legends and stories about him, such as one story claiming he survived being poisoned by a jealous rival and another claiming he summoned the soul of Grand Duke Filipov's deceased wife even though that noble publicly denounced his research.^[5] Despite people's misgivings about him, Rotwang's glib tongue and ability to read people allowed him to easily talk his way into the good graces of those he deemed useful to him.

He exchanged letters with the Archpriestess of the Frostmoon Scions at the time, Lovia. They discussed the Sampo Mill, a legendary Hyperborean relic whose location had been lost over time. Rotwang took a keen interest in it and claimed to share Lovia's desire to rouse it and create an "Elysium" for the people of Nod-Krai. According to the Scions' records, only the "sacred heir" — a Scion of the highest bloodline purity, born through several generations of selective breeding — could use the Sampo Mill. However, the woman destined to finally bear this heir had eloped with a young Snezhnayan officer, so Lovia asked Rotwang to help return her to Hiisi Island. His spy successfully captured her, but after the young officer was killed, the woman killed herself as well. Rotwang informed Lovia of this turn of events,^[6] after which she turned to Alia and Aila, twin sisters of a lesser branch family to the woman's, as spares.^[7]

Unbeknownst to Lovia, the woman already had a child with her lover, a boy named Avrelian. He was adopted by an ordinary officer, through whom he was able to attend the Snezhnayan Royal Military Academy.^[8] It is implied that Rotwang had a hand in Avrelian's adoption, to better use him later on — after Avrelian graduated from the Academy and joined the military, Rotwang and Grand Duke Alvis successfully conspired to make Avrelian lose his rank and turn on the path of becoming a thief.^[9]

Cataclysm

Rotwang knew that the Tsar was plotting a revolt that the "sublunary order could never tolerate" and encouraged him to look to the stars beyond the skies. Rotwang was then sent to Nod-Krai as the Tsar's envoy on a secret mission to seek a power that would turn the world upside down — however, Rotwang was seeking this power for his own ends. In Nod-Krai, he found Avrelian, who had since adopted the name "Reed Miller" and established the Treasure Hoarders. Rotwang successfully persuaded Avrelian that he was the "prophesied Ruler of Elysium" and that the two of them were destined to create an "Elysium" for the people.^[10] Avrelian was convinced to go along with Rotwang's plan, which involved stealing the Sampo Mill.^[11] Avrelian was later convinced by his noble friend Solovei, who was in turn convinced by other nobles,^[12] possible Rotwang among them, to turn himself in to the authorities in Snezhnograd so that he could explain himself before the Belyi Tsar.^[8]

Alia, who joined Avrelian after he visited Hiisi Island^[13] to steal the Sampo Mill, voiced her misgivings about the idea but was rebuffed by Avrelian.^[14] Instead, he was publicly executed without ever having met the Belyi Tsar, with Alia and Solovei both bearing witness. Afterwards, Alia donned a silver mask and took up the name "Reed Miller," vowing to create an Elysium in Avrelian's stead.

With the Sampo Mill in his possession, Rotwang set about his plan to ascend to the heavens, break open the false sky, and create a path for the Abyss to take over the world. He created the Pillar of Embla and planned to use the Sampo Mill to siphon the land's energy to fuel his ascent into "Elysium." By the time Alia and Solovei realized his ambitions and moved to stop him, he was close to achieving his goal. In one final gamble, Alia threw herself into the Sampo Mill, using her Scion bloodline to "ignite" it, successfully thwarting his plan and killing him for the first time. Alia was trapped in the "seam between time and space" as a result, while Aedon, Solovei's pet nightingale whom Alia had taken in, was carried through time and given the ability to manipulate kuuvahki, reemerging 500 years later as Illuga's messenger bird.^[15]

Rotwang reemerged soon after his first death, only to be sealed away by Solovei and Aila — who had assassinated Lovia and become the Frostmoon Scions' new leader, now known as the Moonchanter — at Kipumaki Cliff. However, even this seal was not to hold; Aila prophesied that "Twice shall that undying serpent rise again, but thrice shall he be struck down... And at last shall he be laid to rest by the heroes of the sublunary sphere."^[15] To that end, Aila gifted Solovei and his newly founded Lightkeepers another Hyperborean relic, the Arrow of Terpikeraunas,^[16] for the day when Rotwang would inevitably rise again. The Arrow — a massive, crossbow-like mechanism — was built into Piramida's Great Mead Hall and built tall enough to reach the top of the Pillar of Embla.^[9]

At some point during the cataclysm, Rotwang's followers Morozov and Raimo each acted to further Rotwang's interests. Morozov, apparently convinced that Rotwang would destroy Teyvat entirely, created an "apocalypse" bunker and created the illusion to its inhabitants that the outside world had been completely overrun; however, he was not concerned for their lives, conducting deadly experiments involving Abyssal monsters to "test" the plant specimens which evolved to use kuuvahki. The appearance of Brahe — the third "Reed Miller," taking up the mantle after Alia's sacrifice — proved to Morozov's subordinate Grazina that Morozov had lied to them all along, and that the outside world was still habitable. After Brahe took away the bunker's surviving children, she betrayed and killed Morozov; however, his Abyssal contamination meant he would one day revive as a mindless monster, so she chose to seal the bunker, with herself still inside, to prevent others from falling victim to him.^[17]

Raimo's exact deeds are unknown, but he transformed into an Abyss monster and was sealed at Dreadshade Mire by Solovei and Aila, who erected three Sealing Pillars in the area with vague accounts of his three sins: Turning family members against each other, sowing discord through lies and slander, and "pushing others into the tower of no return and depriving them of their destiny" (likely meaning murder, or some other form of causing people's deaths). He came to be known as the "Serpent of All Evils," the name ascribed to him in the Sealing Pillars.^[18]

Present Day

Rotwang's and his followers' powers surged twice in recent history, each causing a massive wave of Wild Hunt monsters which resulted in large casualties: Once ten years ago, which led to the death of Lightkeeper Starshyna Sigurd and the deaths of Illuga's parents, and once three years ago, which wiped out the entire Nightmare Orioles squad save for Illuga, Ivar, and Bjorn (with the latter surviving due to being on sick leave during the event).^[19]

During the events of World Quest Series Nightingale's Song, Rotwang began to stir once more, prompting Starshyna Nikita to send Illuga to retrieve the Silver Lampwick in order to power the Arrow of Terpikeraunas. They were able to retrieve both it and the Spiralblade; during this time, Rotwang managed to corrupt the Pillar of Embla, spawning a Calamity Egg and sending Abyssal forces — including Morozov and Raimo's revived, corrupted forms — to Piramida to stop them from firing the Arrow of Terpikeraunas. The forces were destroyed in the ensuing battle and both Illuga and the Traveler activated the cannon, obliterating the Calamity Egg, ending his threat to the land for good. In his final moments, Rotwang appears before Alia in the seam between time and space. His mind thoroughly gone by this point, he fails to realize the situation and mistakes Alia for Avrelian, asking "him" to use the Sampo Mill's power for his sake; Alia instead lambasts him for manipulating Avrelian before they die for good with the Calamity Egg's destruction.^[9]

Trivia

• This character seems to be inspired by the real-life figure of Grigori Rasputin, the infamous Orthodox Christian mystic who exerted a legendary level of influence on the court of Tsar Nicholas and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, the last tsars of Russia. The alleged (but likely fictionalized) account of Rasputin's assassination — which involved surviving multiple poisoning attempts and multiple supposedly fatal bullet wounds — is paralleled by Rotwang's surviving, or reviving from, multiple attempts on his life.
• Flins has met Rotwang at the Belyi Tsar's court.^[20]

Etymology

• Both Rauthvangi and Rotwang mean "red-cheeked/rosy-cheeked" in Old Norse (rauðr "red" + vangi "(upper) cheek") and German (rot "red" + Wange "(literary) cheek") respectively.
  • Rotwang is also a fictional character in Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction film Metropolis, although he bears little to no similarity to Genshin's Rotwang aside from both being mad scientist-type characters.

Other Languages

Change History

References