happy birthday nicole. september 28th right. happy birthday
why am i wishing a fictional character a happy birthday? i'm in too deep.

-- NOTES --
## [1]

I use the term “memory” analogously to refer to “a past time”. It’s not a definitive assertion of an actual neurological or philosophical mechanism. 舊日 and 片影 plus the overarching context of the phrase can arguably be understood as “a fragmentary shadow of a long time ago”, suggesting some form of memory is involved, but eh. it’s whatever. Treat my language as illustrative and not necessarily actual for this particular term. It could be a precise definition, but there’s not enough evidence either for or against it. You can definitely use it heuristically.

## [2]

Energies are not constrained to the physical world, as in they don’t require the physical world to exist.

If we participate in God in His energies, according to the measure of our capacity, this does not mean that in His procession ad extra God does not manifest Himself fully. God is in no way diminished in His energies; He is wholly present in each ray of His divinity. There are in fact two main errors into which it is possible to fall in regard to the divine energies:

First, the energy is not a divine function which exists on account of creatures, despite the fact that it is through His energies, which penetrate everything that exists, that God creates and operates. Even if creatures did not exist, God would none the less manifest Himself beyond His essence; just as the rays of the sun would shine out from the solar disk whether or not there were any beings capable of receiving their light. Indeed, expressions, such as ‘manifest Himself’ and ‘beyond’ are really inappropriate, for the ‘beyond’ in question only begins to exist with the creation, and ‘manifestation’ is only conceivable when there is some realm foreign to Him who is manifested. In using such defective expressions, such inadequate images, we acknowledge the absolute, non-relative character of the natural and eternal expansive energy, proper to God.

But, secondly, the created world does not become infinite and coeternal with God because the natural processions, or divine energies, are so. The existence of the energies implies no necessity in the act of creation, which is freely effected by the divine energy but determined by a decision of the common will of the three Persons. Creation is an act of the will of God which makes a new subject outside the divine being, ex nihilo; to the sphere of God’s manifestation comes into being. As for the manifestation itself, it is eternal, for it is the glory of God. (Lossky 59)

## [3]

Okay. Tabor Light. The name comes from the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor! Very theologically important within Orthodox thought. I would recommend reading Matthew 17 for more Biblical context.

## [4]

Why the Essence-Energies distinction at all?

Because Aquinas had Absolute Divine Simplicity and we were like “noooo so like that compromises the entire concept of deification and what it actually means to participate in the divine life”. There’s some debate as to whether the distinction is real or notional but that’s a bit above my pay grade.

## [5]

My sources are unfortunately really annoying in English because they conflate essence, substance and nature a lot. I'm glossing over it because these are extremely technical and they don't matter that much for the SPECIFIC scope of my argument. You're welcome to yell at me about it in the comments though.

## [6]

I’m getting my theology of “hell” from primarily Thomas Hopko (synthesizing Isaac the Syrian) and Ioannis Polemis (synthesizing Gregory Palamas, Theophanes of Nicaea, Gregory of Nazianios, Simeon the New Theologian). I would also again recommend checking out Andrew Louth on the subject through his book Introduction to Eastern Orthodox Theology. From the literature I’ve been able to gather (and through discussions with professors and clergy throughout my research process), this seems to be the most mainstream understanding of the metaphysics of hell. I am intentionally avoiding aerial tollhouses because that is a massive can of worms. Tollhouses DNI.

## [7]

i had some thoughts here about creation ex nihilo vs emanationism but i forgot what they were. remind me to fill this section out when i finish writing it

## [8]

Participation in this context isn't just like "joining in", like you're joining a group of your friends playing at recess or something. Think of it like a job. I should maybe censor that knowing that half my viewerbase is unemployed, but Methexis is kind of like employment. You are now ontologically "employed" within divinity. You now do things within that divine reality, you are now a part and an employee of that reality. You're not just associated with the company but you are a part of it. Like Limbus Company. The Sinners are part of the company and not just associated with it, or something, I haven't played it either. That's really analogous, but for our purposes it's a good enough explanation.

## [9]

lowkey the visuals for this thing suck i think. i spent multiple weeks on research and writing but i was very pressed for time on visuals (and i’m terrible at visual design anyways).

Every day we're inching closer to the goat aqua actually playing genshin

now i understand why Ronova keeps her nails long

Sorry babe, but my favorite esoteric-bro in christ just uploaded a gemy.

Okaaaayyy.... We will watch your career with great interest.

Don't understand a thing about orthodox Christianity or religion in general but 10/10 video

Never thought that I would be able to add a genshin impact related video to my Eastern Orthodox videos library but surprise surprise I can now XD.

introducing cliffhangers now aren't we

This is a mythical refresh pull: I’m learning theology and genshin at the same time

babygirl in control

Lowkey yes thank you for another banger video so PLEASEE play the game because long story short, as of the recent story and off of Hopko's definition, Teyvat is gonna experience hell...

Looking forward to your video on Augustinian monarchism! God Bless!

yet again another peak vid to listen to while suffering in college by aquaseptembris :3!!

This is an amazing video🤩 And you definitely should incorporate videos like these into your university applications, considering how you already seem to be performing academic research and synthesizing complex topics at a university-level. Also, I really hope that you do show these videos to your Bishop☺️. I’m sure he would appreciate the way you are thinking deeply about the Eastern Christian Orthodox ideas you are being taught, and then how you are applying that knowledge and analysis to viewing and interpreting the non-religious stories you are reading, like Genshin Impact. I wish you all the best!!! ✨✨✨

Lowk I'm more umi brained so I kind of lean towards sumeru , Inazuma , fontaine stories .

Like genshin certainly has a choice for now .

They need to establish khaenriahan story .

Otherwise the story is leaning just towards arthurian legends archetypical .

Where the traveler is totally leaning on Tolstoy the prince level mechanics and the abyss sibling is leaning on machiavellian side .
These two collision makes no sense for the narrative to work .
No matter how much lore we get this is quite devastating to watch destroying your own narrative mechanics .
A quite common trope used by live service to maintain the narrative .

Not everything can be result in a battle shonen type  arena in the end .

Thank you so much for the video! I'm not super well-versed in Nicole-specific lore, or orthodoxy for that matter, but I would like to share some parallels I noticed to other media and interpretations I have come up with thanks to your tl;dr orthodoxy explanations.

3:14 this may also be a reference to prometheus. The angels--and every semi-deity created by Phanes, really--are created/born with what the game is refers to as a curse/curses. They can be thought closer to being hard-wired or "programmed" to feel a certain way. Angels specifically have a curse or built-in desire to guide humanity. This is why, even after devolving, they attempt to help people. If we apply this quote at 3:14 to the city she mentions at 22:54 and make the assumption that these two lines are connected, her eyes aren't pecked out for helping humanity, but her actions certainly have consequences. Being agnostic, I read the anecdote at 22:54 more literally--like an oppenheimer situation. You were given atoms to create, and you created destruction.

Another curse all gods and angels of Teyvat have (as revealed in the latest patch if I understood the dialogue correctly) is the curse to love humanity. So, angels have to love humanity unconditionally and help them. They are programmed to do so.

So, why did the angels fall? That's kind of murky.. The quick and dirty is that the first angel was visited by a space alien who possessed a Teyvat human's body. The alien revealed that their ruler Phanes isn't all-powerful or all-knowing. She fell in love with this human and lead a rebellion against the heavens for lying and cursing. Some other transgressions happened too? but the main idea is loving one human above the concept of humanity.

At least in large part due to this, Phanes cursed the angels with their devolution, but I believe you know about that part. To me, this parallels old testament Nephilim stuff (it is all but confirmed that angel-human hybrids do exist in genshin)

Anyway, Phanes has ultimate control. It is said to say their name directly is to summon wrath, so people say the heavenly principles (like writing g-d or yhwh). In nicole's identity as a writer, she admits that many of the stories she tells parallel real events that people don't remember--or, in many cases, can't remember. We have learned since at least the Sumeru arc that Phanes LOVES to delete people, memories, places, etc. Also thanks to the end of the Sumeru arc (the wanderer one) we learn that these memories have only been soft-deleted. They can be recalled through metaphor and stories passed on over time, and they canNOT be deleted again once someone remembers them. so.. ITS ABOUT TIME

What does this have to do with uncreated light? I apologise for any heresy from this point on, i only know the gist from this video and have done no further research.
I believe the english translation is a play on words, especially after looking at the transliteration at 10:12. I am interpreting the people involved in the sentence as something like "recreating a shadow from the old times of the abilities given to Nicole by the divine authority of Phanes". This definition seems like it refers to linear time, a time that did happen but is now over. Instead, let's talk about parallel universes. I think the un- in uncreated refers to a time that literally didn't happen, but she remembers it happening. Stories and metaphor, skirting around things she can and can't say, is kind of Nicole's forte. It is uncreated because it didn't happen, it hasn't happened--as far as anyone is aware. It is something Phanes is(was) capable of giving at some point in space-time-whatever. The uncreated light is, in fact, one of the many possibilities of things Phanes could do that (in this timeline/canon, after tampering) hasn't manifested. If we take out the memory tampering, does that make the uncreated light more analogous to Christian Orthodoxy?

Thanks again for the vid!

perfect to start the day with some light orthodox impact listening 🙏🏻

Your videos encouraged me to study about gnostic theology and more
Keep it up

Another banger of a video

I'm more into the Nordic or Lovecraftian (re: Colors out of Space WQ) side of Genshin, but that is an interesting eye-opener on the interpretations of Hell. Good video.
And as a Nicole player, Jai Shree Ram!

Another insightful video. On Nicole's birthday too, nice.
Nothing much really to add to the video itself since I feel like it tells itself pretty well, though I have to say that as a God figure goes, there are other figures ingame that corresponds to it better. Now there aren't much clear information in the matter, but I have to say that the description in Lunar Arcanum XV: The Devil is very interesting, especially the chinese version.
Speaking of chinese versions, the english translation is known to be very inaccurate and filled with mistakes so I would just use the chinese version at every opportunity and only use english when there is something that needs to be clarified (which might also be wrongly translated but oh well)
overall, looking forwards to the next one.