Istaroth

Istaroth, also known as Tokoyo Ookami and Kairos,^[1] is a god with control over time and wind,^[1] and is likely one of the four shining shades of the Primordial One.^{[Note 1]} She is known by a plethora of titles, including the God of Moments,^[1] the Ruler of Time^[1] (alternatively "god of time"),^[2], "the thousand winds of time" (or simply "the thousand winds"),^[3] and the "undying wind".^[3][4]

She has been worshipped in Mondstadt and Enkanomiya both before and concurrently with the rise of The Seven.^[1][5] However, the worship of Istaroth or even the knowledge of her existence has been all but forgotten in Teyvat,^[2] though her legacy has been subtly preserved through phrases related to "the winds of time."^[6][7] The Enkanomiyans continued to worship her after their island sunk beneath the surface world, seeing her as the only one who had not forsaken them.^[1] Later, this worship faded following Orobashi's appearance, and disappeared completely after the move to Watatsumi Island.

Profile[]

Introduction[]

Seeds of stories, brought by the wind and cultivated by time. Stories brought on the wind will bloom into legends in due time.

—Carvings on the sundials^[5][7]

We knew the only one who had not forsaken us as the "Ruler of Time." She was the moment. She was every moment. She was the measure of a thousand winds and the sun and the moon. She was every second of joy, every moment of rage, every instant of longing, every minute of obsession. She was every flash of delirium.

—A scribe of Istaroth, as written in Before Sun and Moon

Story[]

History[]

After the arrival of the first throne of the heavens, the Primordial One appeared and fought against the Seven Sovereigns of the old world. To that end, it created four shining shades of itself, one of which was likely Istaroth. 40 years after the Primordial One's appearance, the Seven Sovereigns were vanquished and the seven nations submitted to its authority. Istaroth may have contributed to the new world the Primordial One made.

Following the arrival of the Second Who Came and the catastrophe that followed, Istaroth presumably participated in the war on the Primordial One's side against the Second Who Came. In the midst of the massive destruction, the land of Enkanomiya sank below the waters and was cut off from Teyvat.^[1]

In Mondstadt[]

Istaroth's direct role in Mondstadt's history is currently unknown, but in the early days of Barbatos' Mondstadt, she was worshipped alongside the Anemo Archon himself.

Barbatos amassed power during the Archon War as a result of the Gunnhildr Clan's worship of him, and he later participated in the rebellion against Decarabian.^[8] Before he gained power, he was a "single thread of the thousand winds that roared through the northern lands," an elemental spirit without any divine power.^[9] Istaroth herself is known as the "thousand winds,"^[1] but no direct relation between the two has explicitly been made.

After the fall of Decarabian's Mondstadt, Barbatos ascended to godhood and became the Anemo Archon. During the formation of the new Mondstadt, at least three of its prominent clans — the Gunnhildr Clan, the Imunlaukr Clan, and the Lawrence Clan — all worshipped both the Anemo Archon and the God of Time. The worship of both gods was primarily conducted on a tall clifftop facing the eastern sea,^[2] likely at the Thousand Winds Temple which shares its name with one of Istaroth's epithets.

Somewhat ironically, Istaroth was forgotten over time and people came to believe that Barbatos was the sole deity of worship in Mondstadt.^[7] Two notable incidents may have contributed to loss of information pertaining to Istaroth: During the Mondstadt Aristocracy's corrupt period, the Lawrence Clan suppressed knowledge about Mondstadt's history and destroyed historical records and relics to hide their own degeneracy.^[10] After the fall of the aristocracy, the Mondstadt Library — once the largest library in northern Teyvat — was reduced to a sixth of its former size following the Great Fire of Fall Equinox.^[11]

In Inazuma[]

Ei believes that Istaroth may have assisted Makoto, with or without her knowledge, in manipulating time to plant the Sacred Sakura, as both her and Yae Miko were unconvinced that Makoto would be able to do so herself.^[12]

In Enkanomiya[]

After Enkanomiya fell into the depths, their pleas and prayers went unanswered by the Primordial One and its other three shades. Only Istaroth continued to answer them, and there were "scribes of Tokoyo Ookami" who dedicated themselves to recording history and the passage of time in the lightless land.^[1] Out of reverence for her, her worshippers refused to say her name directly and usually opted to call her Kairos, her traditional name, or its Narukami-style rendering, Tokoyo Ookami.^[4] In the event that they used her true, secret name, they wrote it backwards.

Istaroth's power of "undying wind" was recognized as one of the major elements in Enkanomiya, along with the Bathysmal Vishaps' "water."^[3]

Enkanomiyans practiced the Sentou Ceremony, which was capable of dispelling the abyssal Void Realm's darkness by gathering light in the Bokuso Box,^[13] and the Light Realm Sigils used to upgrade it are said to bear a mark symbolizing Tokoyo Ookami's recognition. Both the box and the ceremony only work in Enkanomiya and were not brought to Watatsumi Island, although both are rediscovered and utilized during the Three Realms Gateway Offering event.

Legacy[]

In Mondstadt, Istaroth's legacy has been preserved primarily through the phrase "winds of time." The carvings on the sundials at the Thousand Winds Temple and the Nameless Island leave messages associated with both her and Barbatos which respectively read:

"Seeds of stories, brought by the wind and cultivated by time."
Stories brought on the wind will bloom into legends in due time."

During the quest Time and Wind, a faint voice is heard saying "An ancient tale comes whisked in the wind... In time, it will grow and sprout once again..." while fighting an Eye of the Storm by the Sundial near the Thousand Winds Temple.

The Sumeru scholar Sayid, while visiting the Mondstadt Library during nighttime, recites a truncated version of the phrases inscribed on the sundials: "Seeds brought on the wind will sprout in due time..."^[6]

In Old Mondstadt fairytales surrounding Sal Vindagnyr and the area of Dragonspine, the "Wind of Time" had abandoned the mountain and left the winds to freeze it over in its moment of destruction.^[14] Roald does not specify whether "Old Mondstadt" refers to Decarabian's Mondstadt or the Mondstadt Aristocracy, making it difficult to determine the origin of these fairytales.

One of the incidents that reinforced Ei's belief in the inextricable link between progress and loss is referred to in the format of "the winds of time": The winds of parting came whistling in from the outer edge of time. This phrase comes after references to incidents in Khaenri'ah and Liyue, indicating that the phrase relates to Mondstadt.^[15]

Hilichurls may also have a connection to Istaroth and the Primordial One. Jacob Musk believes that hilichurls worship elemental power itself, giving the example that hilichurls worship the power of Anemo rather than the Anemo Archon,^[16] and there is a notable cloister of hilichurls dancing around the Sundial by the Thousand Winds Temple that the Traveler may be commissioned to exterminate.^[17] According to people from Enkanomiya, Istaroth is the personification of undying wind, and her name is sometimes rendered as the "thousand winds of time."^[3] Furthermore, the Musk Family's research has indicated that the Hilichurlian word "Unu," which means "one," is also a holy word which they use to refer to gods.^[18] Altogether, this points towards a connection between hilichurls, the Primordial One and its shining shades, and the unified human civilization that once existed (which Enkanomiya was originally part of).

During The Final Chapter World Quest, The Aranara, Aranaga gifts the Traveler a flower which they describe as being unable to be destroyed by the "Ad Oblivione", a title they later clarify to be "the wind that flows forever, the thousand winds that return to one."^[19] This is very likely to be referring to Istaroth, as her titles include "The Thousand Winds", the "Undying Wind", and similar.^[3]

Trivia[]

Etymology[]

• Istaroth is derived from Astaroth, the name of one of the three demons in the "evil trinity" alongside Beelzebub and Lucifer. In the Ars Goetia, which most other gods in Genshin Impact derive their names from, Astaroth is the 29th demon with the rank of Duke.
  • The name Astaroth is derived from the goddess Astarte, a goddess worshipped in the Ancient Near East who had associations with war, hunting, and healing, among other spheres.
    • Astarte is also the equivalent of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. This likely signifies the name "Istaroth", as it could be a combination of "Ishtar" + "Astaroth."
• Kairos (Greek: καιρός) is an Ancient Greek word meaning "right time" or "opportune moment." It is one of two words Ancient Greeks used for time, the other being chronos; kairos represents the qualitative, permanent nature of time as opposed to the quantitative and sequential nature represented by chronos.
  • The author of Before Sun and Moon explains the meaning of Kairos as "the ruler of the unchanging world" (Japanese: 不変の世界の統領と執政), in which 不変の世界 Fuhen no Sekai means "unchanging world."
• Tokoyo Ookami (Japanese: 常世大神) means "great god of the unchanging world," where 常世 Tokoyo means "unchanging world." Tokoyo is also given as the ruby text for "ever-night" during The Subterranean Trials of Drake and Serpent.

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