Tholindis

Tholindis is a quest-exclusive NPC who appears in the Archon Quest Song of the Welkin Moon: Act III - A Nation That Doesn't Exist. She was the would-be fiancée of Rerir.

Profile

Tholindis was part of a sub-branch of the Crimson Moon Dynasty. Her family was distantly related to the main lineage. She was a Moon Marrow researcher at the Universitas Magistrorum.^[5]

Appearance

Tholindis is a young woman with short blonde hair adorned with a golden hairpiece. She wears a white short dress with detached sleeves. A darker blue symmetrical layer with gold accents wraps over the dress, secured by a belt at her waist. Her outfit is completed with white ankle boots.

Despite being of the Crimson Moon Dynasty bloodline, Tholindis has ordinary purple eyes.

Story

Tholindis was a distant descendant of the Crimson Moon Dynasty, although her family had severed ties a long time ago and nobody else knew of her true identity except her teacher. She kept this fact a secret to avoid undue persecution. In Khaenri'ah, she was employed in the Universitas Magistrorum as a researcher in its Moon Marrow Lab, which was devoted to studying the power of the Crimson Moon's remains. She conducted experiments in hopes of discovering an alternate supply of energy for Khaenri'ah, but did not manage to make much headway with her research. Later on, King Irmin diverted most of the Universitas' resources to research the Abyss, resulting in Tholindis' whole team being restaffed and leaving her as the sole remaining member researching the Moon Marrow. She made an important discovery that the Marrow could be used as a spatial gateway to access another dimension where time flowed backwards (later revealed to be the "moon's reflection"), although she could not explore this property at the time due to funding cuts and technological constraints around keeping the portal open.

At some point, she met Rerir and began a relationship with him, which progressed to the point where he proposed to her - although she deferred her answer in order to give the matter some more thought. She eventually learned of Rerir's true identity after meeting Orlog, who told her of her fiancé's actions as an executioner of the Crimson Moon's descendants. Although incredulous at first, she investigated the matter and discovered the shocking truth for herself.^[6] In the end, she decided to continue their relationship, kept her knowledge a secret, and refused to try and harm Rerir in any way despite her fellows' apprehensions. However, she also did not turn her back on her fellow Crimson Moon descendants, offering clandestine support and helping them escape persecution.

Tholindis began to grow uncomfortable as King Irmin swiveled deeper into madness, especially when he began ordering the purge of all Crimson Moon's descendants. She blamed his growing insanity on the Traveler's sibling and hoped to use the "moon's reflection" to travel backwards in time to prevent the two from ever meeting each other. Sometime before the Cataclysm, she met with another descendant, Frithr, and entrusted her with a piece of the Crimson Moon to ensure that their bloodline would never fade away. Frithr would later on escape the city with her family, narrowly avoiding arrest due to Rerir's disillusionment at being ordered to kill his fiancée.

Tholindis was present in the Universitas Magistrorum on the day that Dainsleif led an assault on the palace in order to free Vedrfolnir. The subsequent release of Abyssal energies in Khaenri'ah would cause monsters to emerge in the Universitas as it was a nidus of Abyss research. Lacking the weapons to defend herself, Tholindis barricaded herself in a room and began to despair at her plight, until she decided to take her chances by opening a Moon Gate and personally jumping into the "moon's reflection". This act was witnessed by Rerir, who had been tipped off by Vedrfolnir and arrived just as she had opened the portal. However, he was unable to dissuade her from taking the plunge, which resulted in her physical body being torn to shreds by the raging energy currents, and caused a mentally devastated Rerir to go down the dark path of becoming a Sinner.^[7]

For the next 500 years, Tholindis' bodiless soul wandered around aimlessly in the moon's reflection looking for a way out, until coming to the conclusion that escape was impossible. She was eventually found by Columbina, through whom Tholindis learnt that about Rerir's feelings of true contrition and subsequent actions in his attempts to be reunited with her. These revelations moved her to tears, and for her part she regretted not doing more to help Rerir find peace. Out of gratitude to the moon goddess for sharing Rerir's story, Tholindis shared all she knew about the properties of the moon's reflection with Columbina to help accelerate her return to the past.^[8] Tholindis accepted the fact that she would never be able to meet Rerir, as they were stuck at different points in time, but she found comfort nonetheless in knowing that even if separated for eternity, they were at least in the same space together.

Quests and Events

Archon Quests

• Song of the Welkin Moon
  • Act III: A Nation That Doesn't Exist
    • Special Operation
    • Everlasting As the Moon
  • Act IV: An Elegy for Faded Moonlight
    • All Is Foretold
  • Act VIII: True Moon
    • The First Sliver of Moonlight

Gallery

Tholindis' soul during Archon Quest The First Sliver of Moonlight in Song of the Welkin Moon: Act VIII - True Moon

Version "Luna II" "An Elegy for Faded Moonlight" Trailer - Genshin Impact

Story Teaser- Reflection of the Moon - Genshin Impact

Trivia

Etymology

• The name Tholindis likely comes from tholin + dís.
  • Tholins are a wide variety of organic compounds formed by solar ultraviolet or cosmic ray irradiation of simple carbon-containing compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane, or ethane, often in combination with nitrogen or water. "Tholin" comes from tholós (Ancient Greek: θολός), meaning "hazy" or "muddy." Tholins do not form naturally on modern-day Earth, but they are found in great abundance on the surfaces of icy bodies in the outer Solar System, and as reddish aerosols in the atmospheres of outer Solar System planets and moons. In the presence of water, tholins could be raw materials for prebiotic chemistry (i.e., the non-living chemistry that forms the basic chemicals of which life is made). Their existence has implications for the origins of life on Earth and possibly on other planets.
  • In Norse mythology, a dís "lady" (plural dísir) is a female deity, ghost, or spirit associated with Fate who can be either benevolent or antagonistic toward mortals. The dísir play roles in Norse texts that resemble those of fylgjur, valkyries, and norns, so that some have suggested that dísir is a broad term including the other beings. Notably, the Norns are often represented as three goddesses who weave the threads of fate and tend to the world tree, a role very similar to the role of the Three Moons.

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References