*NOTES AND CORRECTIONS*
- several people have pointed out that a rooster can be associated with fenghuangs which to me never had too much of a real association with Xiao, HOWEVER- somehow I missed one line in the developer insights that actually addresses the rooster directly by referencing someone called Mekhila. This is apparently one additional source of inspiration for him which would actually make him line up with the rest of the Chinese zodiac theory. It still does not apply to Pervases though, unless the takeaway here is that that slot could just be any bird which I admit is very possible at this point.

I am surprised no one noticed this before I did ahahaa...

What makes Xiao different from other yakshas? Well, firstly, he's still alive...

"there's a 90% chance I'm wrong, but I play gatcha games so that's a 10% odds and that sounds kinda spicy"
Is the best quot for genshin theorists

As someone who also struggles immensely to see their life being of any worth, I can barely put into words how much Xiao as a character means to me

i am shocked that the timeline actually makes sense in geo yaksha's case

“This is batshit if it actually works. There’s a 90% chance I might be wrong. But I play Gacha games! And 10% sounds pretty spicy.”

Ashikai gambling addiction confirmed.

Another point towards Xiao being from Sumeru is that People of Sumeru “Can't dream”. Xiao used to eat people's good dreams and left them with nightmares. Did the precious dendro archon then try to save these people by not letting them dream at all? Is that why sumerians can't dream?

On the topic of names, Xiao's "Alatus" has always reminded me of "Atlas," a titan who was forced to hold the weight of the sky. While most likely coincidental, it matches up with Xiao's sense of responsibility and loneliness; carrying a heavy burden

have you noticed that most adepti (specifically moon carver, cloud retainer and even yanfei) refer to xiao as the "conqueror of demons" ONLY instead of his name over and over again, could be because xiao's trauma is mostly associated with his name so they avoid using any name completely

"The majority of the English community seems to at least see him as an edgy emo-character, or a tsundere stereotype." Cries for 5000 years at the injustice. So many things lost in the English localization it makes me so upset. I feel for the VAs who get flack for it too, since I know a lot of it was what they were directed to do. Thank you for these theory videos, they're very interesting, and I appreciate the effort you take in researching all the mythology. There was another theoriest that I liked, but they seemed a bit to... western-focused, which means a LOT of the theories felt slightly off or incomplete. I also like that you have your own theories, but don't try to force the evidence to fit them. Your hard work is very appreciated ❤

Fischl's mirage island theaters featured a dragon eating tasty dreams as its main villain and ate only good dreams. Bad, empty, and shallow dreams were a no-go... seems a little too coincidental to me if Xiao's orders were to eat good dreams. But that's just me.

most of these mythology references were from Hinduism and Buddhism, so I wouldn't be shocked if Xiao has sumeru origins, since Hinduism and Buddhism both originated from India, which is one of the references for sumeru- a good theory, i approve!

What's really sad is that we won't be able to further interact with the Yakshas. I think that Bosacious would have been such a funny and joyous character, a little bit like Itto. Full of himself but in a good and fun way, always joking and playing tricks on people just to make them smile. You know, a "big brother".

as I can see it "Adepti" is just the local name for the deities that live in liyue are going by. ln inazuma there equivalent are the "Yokai" so for xiao being originally from sumeru is very passable.

Honestly, I do think that Menogias=Capitano theory has some decent legs to stand on.
First, I need to mention that not all harbingers seems to have connections to the cataclysm. We don’t know much, but Pantalone probably has nothing to do with cataclysm and is, overall, just a regular dude. As far as we know, Dottore doesn’t have anything to do with the cataclysm either.
Second, back to Dottore - hey, we have a mad scientist that creates copies of himself, who says that he can’t reanimate a corpse of a yaksha. AND, hear me out, he considered heretic, while Menogias references Son Wukon — which would be an interesting inversion of the Journey to the West story where Wukon was released by/to accompany A PRIEST.
WILD THEORIES LETS GO

I'm CRYING because I've been studying Xiao's chronology and lore for MONTHS and when someone on twitter showed me this channel I couldn't believe how similar (practically the same) our theories/reflections are!!

So more details for you to chew on!

-In one of The Chasm quests, the Sumeru guy told us that The Chasm show signs to have been a forest/have been under the sea long long time ago, and that only through unnatural forces it became the zone we know now. So, being The Chasm Liyue Territory (i suppose) modeled by Morax' hands, it makes sense that long ago part of Sumeru was part of the Dream God's territory. In fact, locating Bosacious quest in The Chasm emphasizes this yaksha-the chasm-sumeru related thing.

-Related to this is what Xiao says about Bosacious in The Chasm quest. "You were Morax's first yaksha". So, for me, it made sense that yakshas were adeptus that "became" yaskhas through training (like Pervases tried), and they all "adopted" a new name when becoming a yaksha for "their king". Alatus, Bosacious, Pervases... all Latin names related to their animal form. So maybe that's why I think they don't call Xiao, Xiao? Cause they all call each other by their military rank?

-About WHEN Xiao got his new name from Morax: I don't really know about the Dream God slaving Xiao with his true name. ALTHOUGH, Xiao's chronology has always given me headaches until I realized that MAYBE Morax didn't gave him the name Xiao when saving him from the evil lord but LATER! Freed Xiao joined the yaskshas, where they call him General Alatus. No one called him Xiao then.... because (in my theory) Morax gave him this name to protect him from Celestia, 500 years ago, after sealing Azhdaha. (Remember your theory about Menogias having been designed after a figure that fought the Heavens...?)

-The lost treasure and Azhdaha. There's this quest about a treasure about an Adeptus whose name was erased from the chest we retrieved from the ruins and it looks purposely scratched. Who would want to erase an adeptus' name from history? Well, we have lore about an Adeptus who was Ascended to Celestia (Guhua) and another about the three adeptus who helped Rex Lapis to contain Azhdaha. One of them is unknown, as their name was scratched. (1000 years ago). Taking Celestia as the bad guys, maybe they got their eye on Xiao, the perfect martyr, and Morax changed his name and all the records about him in order to prevent his Ascension? "Alatus" was never mentioned again, only Xiao. // Or maybe the Geo yaksha was lost here?

-Fischl dragon: having the dragon in her play sidequest saying that eating dreams was eating the people's ambitions, I thought that maybe Xiao was forced to eat "Visions"/elementary power... That would be a valuable soldier, if he can turn every enemy into a lost soul like it happened in Inazuma.

-Chronology: I also thought the Dream God was the Sea God that destroyed Liyue+provoked Ghizhong's death. Morax created the jade spear to kill him, saved Xiao from him and then gave Xiao the jade spear as a symbol of freedom (when Morax had to create another spear in order to take down Osial. Xiao was already under Morax' command when facing Osial for the first time, 2000 years ago). So, again, being The Chasm originally underwater, and "related" to the yaskhas, I thought The Chasm may had been this Sea/Dream God territory. But being so close to Sumeru, maybe this Sea God was indeed /from/ Sumeru.

SORRY FOR THE LONG TEXT I JUST LOVE DISCUSSING XIAO'S AND ZHONGLI'S LORE.

PS: it has always baffled me how all adeptus wore Liyue's colours but Xiao wore teal, white and lilac... colours of forests and flowers. (Not only referring to his anemo symbolism, the teal one)

That sponsor transition was so smooth, didn't even see it coming

I'd say even if xaio was correctly depicted in localization he would still be treated in that discretion because we like to place characters into the closest trope we are familiar with. I mean , ayaka is clearly independent, kind of isolated but is serious when she needs to be. But we have decided to make her extremely dependent on the traveler OR a psychopath

Shoutouts to Ashikai being the only youtuber I trust to talk about Xiao and his characterization. The video was delightful and I honestly can't wait to see what they do with Capitano. If he really does turn out to be Menogias, I can only imagine how Xiao is gonna react :(

"Honestly i can talk about Yakshas for hours."

I need that vid in my life Ashikai-sama!!!!