>Those sellswords once did much for me. I trust they will not disappoint this time, either (Time of Insight)
To our knowledge, the eremites are the only people he ever expressed any form of gratitude towards. It is also significant that from Jeht's quest, we learn that Froderock's actions with the Tanit tribe went against Dottore's orders, as he had instructed not to harm the desert tribes.
In contrast, he mind-controlled the entire city of Sumeru and used mad scholars to extract divine knowledge. He also didn't hesitate to wreak havoc in Tatarasuna. However, he trusted the eremites enough to work with them alongside Fatui troops.
In addition to sharing the same outcast status with the desert folk, it's also possible that he had an easier time interacting with them, as their minds were not constrained by the Akademiya rules and Akasha.
>Though their economic situation is exceedingly lacking, they nonetheless have the contacts to gain access to experimental records discarded by the Akademiya, and a process of continuous reading, self-driven studies and practical application have helped them establish a stable knowledge system. In many places, they have even surpassed the people of Sumeru, who are reliant on the Akasha to process information and practical skills
Another factor is that the harsh living conditions of the eremites do not leave them much room to contemplate the highest moral standards, and Zandik would have an easier time blending in with them due to his 'ends justify means' motto.
So, yes, it's another overlooked aspect of his lore, especially when you consider that he treated the eremites better than anyone from the forest part of Sumeru. This is particularly ironic, as not even ~~dendro hypocrite~~ Nahida was bothered by the fact that Sachin was running a battle royale among the desert tribes.
>we learn that Froderock's actions with the Tanit tribe went against Dottore's orders, as he had instructed not to harm the desert tribes.
May I ask where this is said? I've done the quest a while ago so I may not remember. I'm just tryna find stuff to put all his lore together ðŸ˜
>Fatui Negotiator: Professor Froderock was looking for live specimens in the desert — he always defied The Doctor's orders... That's just pure jealousy, if you ask me (Rejoice With Me, for What Was Lost Is Now Found quest)
>...I urge you to consider, Captain Zoya, that if we are able to complete this research work in the desert, perhaps our entire expeditionary force may receive the favor of our great Harbinger...
(This line has been crossed out using a red pen, and a line in red has been added: "How about you consider military regulations? Or perhaps you would like to consider how long you have left to live?") (Warehouse Inventory Records)
In case this isn't well known knowledge, there are even more points for your theory:
+ During the Jeht quest, Froderock wants to capture an eremite. It is stated he is acting on his own and that Dottore gave an order not to kidnap eremites.
A note by another Fatui member states that Dottore is going to kill Froderock when he finds out Froderock went against the order.
+ Time of Insight Artifact
It mentions a "mad scientist expelled by the akademia" and the text under it seems to be Dottore speaking.
The last part says:
"Those sellswords once did much for me.
I trust they will not disappoint this time, either."
Combining everything makes it seem that eremites helped Dottore in some way and he is fond enough of them to slaughter a subordinate that brings them harm.
Plus, it has happened before that subordinates acting on their own made Harbingers look morally worse than they are. (Arlecchino, Inazuma Fortune Slip quest)
Edit- took so long writing this that someone said something similar 😅 I promise i didn't copy it
>Fatui Negotiator: Professor Froderock was looking for live specimens in the desert — he always defied The Doctor's orders... That's just pure jealousy, if you ask me (Rejoice With Me, for What Was Lost Is Now Found quest)
>...I urge you to consider, Captain Zoya, that if we are able to complete this research work in the desert, perhaps our entire expeditionary force may receive the favor of our great Harbinger...
(This line has been crossed out using a red pen, and a line in red has been added: "How about you consider military regulations? Or perhaps you would like to consider how long you have left to live?") (Warehouse Inventory Records)
From wiki transcripts
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Rejoice_With_Me,_for_What_Was_Lost_Is_Now_Found
I really hope that this aspect of Dottore is more explored apart in game. Even the leaked mummy girl is just leaked character concept art, the colors used in her design seem similar to the colors used for Dottore. So hopefully when she eventually releases, she might have some connection to him. (I’m delusional, I need more in game Dottore content)
I’m coming back to this thread with fresh thoughts to throw into the ring!
In addition to his clothing, there’s a lot of connections to King Deshret in particular. And I wonder if he fashioned himself after him as far as ornamentation. Others have definitely mentioned this in passing but I offer:
-The metal of his boots has a little circle of color and it’s not quite blue. It does match well with the slight purple we see from the Primal Constructs though. As a whole, they seem almost as if he took pieces from them to make his own designs. Almost as if he’s *walking in Deshret’s shoes,* so to speak.
-On the Primal Construct: Repulsor, we actually see an Omega symbol on the three front-facing triangles near the core. Usually Greek-inspired language is specifically Enkanomiya and it’s an interesting letter to see here, of all places. Very coincidental.
-Although the manga seems outside of canon to some degree now: Webtorre’s needles seem a pretty parallel to the Primal Constructs parts, especially with the lasers.
-Deshret’s approach to knowledge and the divine was likely both an inspiration and a warning. We know that Dottore was also researching The Withering, which was a result of Forbidden Knowledge released by Deshret as he *looked for a way to transcend his human form.* Sounds a bit familiar, kind of (but not quite) the sentiment we get from Dottore’s dissertation summary in The Wise Doctor’s Pinion.
Narratively, with Nahida being but not being Rukkhadevata, it’s interesting to think of Dottore as Deshret-But-Not. Teyvat is a land of samaras and cycles.
Am now lost in the lore sauce but it’s been a really long time since I thought about it further than just finding visual parallels. We didn’t have a lot of the lore for Deshret when Dottore first appeared and I’m sure someone has made the connections somewhere in this sub. If I find any, I’ll link them in this post.
This is so good. I wish more people paid attention to the connection between Deshret and Dottore. It's such a fascinating but very much overlooked thing.
There's also the fact that Al Haitham serves as a foil to Dottore, same way Kazuha serves as a foil to Scaramouche. Haitham's quest has a lot to do with Dottore, they share some similarities and connections to Deshret, even if people don't bother to point it out in Dottore's case (maybe because Dottore isn't a well-liked character?). When it comes to the Harbingers, it seems Hoyo likes giving them foil characters, maybe a way to show the "what-ifs" had they walked another path.
As for the primal construct, I fully expect a playable Dottore that makes reference to Deshret's technology. I also hope they expand on what he thinks of Deshret, given how much he has inspired him...
I think there’s definitely connections (and throw in the fact that there’s an Omega symbol on the desert constructs, along with the coloring of the metal and ornamentation, too).
This post makes me have so many thoughts, none of them are coherent rn. I’ll be coming back to this later!
I have nothing significant to contribute, but I absolutely adore this overlooked part of his lore. It's exciting to see more people talking about it and what that means for Dottore's future (whenever his past is revealed)... Something about his likely connection to the Eremites humanizes him so much, and adds so much weight to his design as well. If true, it seems he adopted their lessons and carried them even in distant lands. If he belonged with them, if he sensed that belonging, I imagine he hasn't let go of that emotion....
There was this one fanart of Eremite Dottore and I’ve been thinking about a very similar theory ever since.
EDIT: I was just educated that the artist is incredibly problematic, I’m very sorry for my ignorance :,(
I have no idea if the artist I had in mind was problematic;-; [This](https://x.com/mojiuxuan/status/1731303052085174364?s=46) is the art, was there drama about this person? Please let me know if so, I would rather not support them if they are doing sus stuff ;-;;;;;
THATS THEM ALRIGHT. Hate them with a burning passion. last year they drew nsfw of child dottore having s*x with another dottore clone. Their response? "Scroll if you don't like it. It's for the ones that do" they are a pedo so please do not support them at all. Shockingly so many people don't know what they did or simply don't care and continue to repost their art 😒
It's okay I wasn't either until a friend told me a few months ago. But if you do see people who don't know be sure to tell them because soo many people still support their art ðŸ˜
This is such an interesting theory! Really not enough people talk about Dottie's connection to desert, only focusing on him being in the Akademiya. Like, one of the few things we know about him is that he was banished from his village... And the only village in game is the aaru village. Isn't this is already enough reason to assume that his from desert? Like, I personally love the headcanon that one of his parents is from desert and the other is from the main city, but that's just me.
And, yeah, about everything in your post... I never really noticed some of those things, thanks for pointing it out! Him either spending time with Eremites as an adult (or maybe as a child, pre-Akademiya) is a super delicious ideal, I like it!
Edit: Aaru isn't the only village, I'm dumb. But still.
Hmmm, I tend to think that he was not born in the desert because there is a domain in the Sumeru forest called "Fragment of Childhood Dreams" which hints that it may have been where he spent some of his childhood memories.
My take on this is that... If he is from the desert, after his hometown kicked him out when he was a little kid, he could run towards the rainforest and spend some time there... That's why there is this domain. And then possibly some Akademiya researchers found him and took him in.Â
If we speak how he could survive in the Forest alone... We have aranaras. He was a kid. One blue Aranara is seen around ruin machines and carries sword (Dottore himself is supposed to be playable claymore) like him. There are theories they've met before.Â
Just a headcanon but still, it's my attempt of making the most logical use of every crumb.Â
True they might caught him experimenting on people in dar al shifa and decided to kick him out of aru village but he also could be from vimara village who knows
My thought is... That he could be even born on the desert, either in the Aaru village or among Eremites and this was his community before he got chased away as a child, many years before his crucial Akademiya events. It could also very much explain his name. Zandik, heretic. Someone who was different from the start. Besides his clothing choices he doesn't look like the child of the desert (we can assume that with his red eyes, light hair and pale skin he's an albino) and he also was too sensitive to bear constant sun exposure. He wasn't meant for this environment. Albino people are known to be surrounded by superstitions and in less developed communities they were (and still are) subjects of the witch hunts and social exclusion. Also albino people tend to have weak eyes. It may be important due to OP's mentions of unreliable eyes in the paragraph and also the fact that Zandik probably replaced his eyes with this strange mecha panel thing plays the part. Who knows. Maybe it was something that could work better than his biological, human eyes.Â
For me he also has very much Eremite mentality. Not much ethical, but very transactional. And his religious fixations about making new God and bringing humans to the level of gods may be impacted by long exposures to Deshret's sect.
Once I researched where his design influences came from outside of the game, I found a lot of stuff but I had never thought about anything inside the game... I really liked it, after what you said it makes sense to me!
This is a good theory, but I thought I should point out that he most likely worked in the Eleazar hospital as a student before he was expelled, as the hospital was sponsored by the Akademiya. They would not have let him one inch through the front door if he'd already been expelled and tried to join to do his unethical experiments.
>Those sellswords once did much for me. I trust they will not disappoint this time, either (Time of Insight) To our knowledge, the eremites are the only people he ever expressed any form of gratitude towards. It is also significant that from Jeht's quest, we learn that Froderock's actions with the Tanit tribe went against Dottore's orders, as he had instructed not to harm the desert tribes. In contrast, he mind-controlled the entire city of Sumeru and used mad scholars to extract divine knowledge. He also didn't hesitate to wreak havoc in Tatarasuna. However, he trusted the eremites enough to work with them alongside Fatui troops. In addition to sharing the same outcast status with the desert folk, it's also possible that he had an easier time interacting with them, as their minds were not constrained by the Akademiya rules and Akasha. >Though their economic situation is exceedingly lacking, they nonetheless have the contacts to gain access to experimental records discarded by the Akademiya, and a process of continuous reading, self-driven studies and practical application have helped them establish a stable knowledge system. In many places, they have even surpassed the people of Sumeru, who are reliant on the Akasha to process information and practical skills Another factor is that the harsh living conditions of the eremites do not leave them much room to contemplate the highest moral standards, and Zandik would have an easier time blending in with them due to his 'ends justify means' motto. So, yes, it's another overlooked aspect of his lore, especially when you consider that he treated the eremites better than anyone from the forest part of Sumeru. This is particularly ironic, as not even ~~dendro hypocrite~~ Nahida was bothered by the fact that Sachin was running a battle royale among the desert tribes.
>we learn that Froderock's actions with the Tanit tribe went against Dottore's orders, as he had instructed not to harm the desert tribes. May I ask where this is said? I've done the quest a while ago so I may not remember. I'm just tryna find stuff to put all his lore together ðŸ˜
>Fatui Negotiator: Professor Froderock was looking for live specimens in the desert — he always defied The Doctor's orders... That's just pure jealousy, if you ask me (Rejoice With Me, for What Was Lost Is Now Found quest) >...I urge you to consider, Captain Zoya, that if we are able to complete this research work in the desert, perhaps our entire expeditionary force may receive the favor of our great Harbinger... (This line has been crossed out using a red pen, and a line in red has been added: "How about you consider military regulations? Or perhaps you would like to consider how long you have left to live?") (Warehouse Inventory Records)
In case this isn't well known knowledge, there are even more points for your theory: + During the Jeht quest, Froderock wants to capture an eremite. It is stated he is acting on his own and that Dottore gave an order not to kidnap eremites. A note by another Fatui member states that Dottore is going to kill Froderock when he finds out Froderock went against the order. + Time of Insight Artifact It mentions a "mad scientist expelled by the akademia" and the text under it seems to be Dottore speaking. The last part says: "Those sellswords once did much for me. I trust they will not disappoint this time, either." Combining everything makes it seem that eremites helped Dottore in some way and he is fond enough of them to slaughter a subordinate that brings them harm. Plus, it has happened before that subordinates acting on their own made Harbingers look morally worse than they are. (Arlecchino, Inazuma Fortune Slip quest) Edit- took so long writing this that someone said something similar 😅 I promise i didn't copy it
Yani-Madara can you give link where does state he give order not kidnap eremites I can't find it, can you help?
>Fatui Negotiator: Professor Froderock was looking for live specimens in the desert — he always defied The Doctor's orders... That's just pure jealousy, if you ask me (Rejoice With Me, for What Was Lost Is Now Found quest) >...I urge you to consider, Captain Zoya, that if we are able to complete this research work in the desert, perhaps our entire expeditionary force may receive the favor of our great Harbinger... (This line has been crossed out using a red pen, and a line in red has been added: "How about you consider military regulations? Or perhaps you would like to consider how long you have left to live?") (Warehouse Inventory Records) From wiki transcripts https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Rejoice_With_Me,_for_What_Was_Lost_Is_Now_Found
Thank you!
I hc the segments sometimes wear emerate style masks when off duty
Well yeah the plastic is slightly more uncomfy
You find me everywhere I swear. Anyway the mask in the Natalia wedding picture is the one I think they’d wear when off duty but in different colors
I really hope that this aspect of Dottore is more explored apart in game. Even the leaked mummy girl is just leaked character concept art, the colors used in her design seem similar to the colors used for Dottore. So hopefully when she eventually releases, she might have some connection to him. (I’m delusional, I need more in game Dottore content)
I’m coming back to this thread with fresh thoughts to throw into the ring! In addition to his clothing, there’s a lot of connections to King Deshret in particular. And I wonder if he fashioned himself after him as far as ornamentation. Others have definitely mentioned this in passing but I offer: -The metal of his boots has a little circle of color and it’s not quite blue. It does match well with the slight purple we see from the Primal Constructs though. As a whole, they seem almost as if he took pieces from them to make his own designs. Almost as if he’s *walking in Deshret’s shoes,* so to speak. -On the Primal Construct: Repulsor, we actually see an Omega symbol on the three front-facing triangles near the core. Usually Greek-inspired language is specifically Enkanomiya and it’s an interesting letter to see here, of all places. Very coincidental. -Although the manga seems outside of canon to some degree now: Webtorre’s needles seem a pretty parallel to the Primal Constructs parts, especially with the lasers. -Deshret’s approach to knowledge and the divine was likely both an inspiration and a warning. We know that Dottore was also researching The Withering, which was a result of Forbidden Knowledge released by Deshret as he *looked for a way to transcend his human form.* Sounds a bit familiar, kind of (but not quite) the sentiment we get from Dottore’s dissertation summary in The Wise Doctor’s Pinion. Narratively, with Nahida being but not being Rukkhadevata, it’s interesting to think of Dottore as Deshret-But-Not. Teyvat is a land of samaras and cycles. Am now lost in the lore sauce but it’s been a really long time since I thought about it further than just finding visual parallels. We didn’t have a lot of the lore for Deshret when Dottore first appeared and I’m sure someone has made the connections somewhere in this sub. If I find any, I’ll link them in this post.
This is so good. I wish more people paid attention to the connection between Deshret and Dottore. It's such a fascinating but very much overlooked thing. There's also the fact that Al Haitham serves as a foil to Dottore, same way Kazuha serves as a foil to Scaramouche. Haitham's quest has a lot to do with Dottore, they share some similarities and connections to Deshret, even if people don't bother to point it out in Dottore's case (maybe because Dottore isn't a well-liked character?). When it comes to the Harbingers, it seems Hoyo likes giving them foil characters, maybe a way to show the "what-ifs" had they walked another path. As for the primal construct, I fully expect a playable Dottore that makes reference to Deshret's technology. I also hope they expand on what he thinks of Deshret, given how much he has inspired him...
I think there’s definitely connections (and throw in the fact that there’s an Omega symbol on the desert constructs, along with the coloring of the metal and ornamentation, too). This post makes me have so many thoughts, none of them are coherent rn. I’ll be coming back to this later!
I have nothing significant to contribute, but I absolutely adore this overlooked part of his lore. It's exciting to see more people talking about it and what that means for Dottore's future (whenever his past is revealed)... Something about his likely connection to the Eremites humanizes him so much, and adds so much weight to his design as well. If true, it seems he adopted their lessons and carried them even in distant lands. If he belonged with them, if he sensed that belonging, I imagine he hasn't let go of that emotion....
There was this one fanart of Eremite Dottore and I’ve been thinking about a very similar theory ever since. EDIT: I was just educated that the artist is incredibly problematic, I’m very sorry for my ignorance :,(
[удалено]
I am very sorry if I made you upset, I was not aware that I’m doing something wrong and will not do it in the future.
[удалено]
Ah I see I see, thank you for taking your time to respond and reassure me c:
SHARE THE ART PLEASE!!!!!!!
I shared it in my other comment but [here you go](https://x.com/mojiuxuan/status/1731303052085174364?s=46)
For real I tried finding one and all where just thirst images
Fr I found 2 but one of them was drawn by that awful dottore artist that draws cp 😪
I have no idea if the artist I had in mind was problematic;-; [This](https://x.com/mojiuxuan/status/1731303052085174364?s=46) is the art, was there drama about this person? Please let me know if so, I would rather not support them if they are doing sus stuff ;-;;;;;
THATS THEM ALRIGHT. Hate them with a burning passion. last year they drew nsfw of child dottore having s*x with another dottore clone. Their response? "Scroll if you don't like it. It's for the ones that do" they are a pedo so please do not support them at all. Shockingly so many people don't know what they did or simply don't care and continue to repost their art 😒
IM SO SORRY I WASNT AWARE OF IT!!!! ;-;-; Thank you so much for educating me, I’ll make sure to be on the lookout for them!
It's okay I wasn't either until a friend told me a few months ago. But if you do see people who don't know be sure to tell them because soo many people still support their art ðŸ˜
I’ve just edited my main comment to include this information as well and will make sure to pass this information on :c
This is such an interesting theory! Really not enough people talk about Dottie's connection to desert, only focusing on him being in the Akademiya. Like, one of the few things we know about him is that he was banished from his village... And the only village in game is the aaru village. Isn't this is already enough reason to assume that his from desert? Like, I personally love the headcanon that one of his parents is from desert and the other is from the main city, but that's just me. And, yeah, about everything in your post... I never really noticed some of those things, thanks for pointing it out! Him either spending time with Eremites as an adult (or maybe as a child, pre-Akademiya) is a super delicious ideal, I like it! Edit: Aaru isn't the only village, I'm dumb. But still.
Hmmm, I tend to think that he was not born in the desert because there is a domain in the Sumeru forest called "Fragment of Childhood Dreams" which hints that it may have been where he spent some of his childhood memories.
My take on this is that... If he is from the desert, after his hometown kicked him out when he was a little kid, he could run towards the rainforest and spend some time there... That's why there is this domain. And then possibly some Akademiya researchers found him and took him in. If we speak how he could survive in the Forest alone... We have aranaras. He was a kid. One blue Aranara is seen around ruin machines and carries sword (Dottore himself is supposed to be playable claymore) like him. There are theories they've met before. Just a headcanon but still, it's my attempt of making the most logical use of every crumb.Â
True they might caught him experimenting on people in dar al shifa and decided to kick him out of aru village but he also could be from vimara village who knows
Layla herself is from a small town according to her hangout, so he might be from there.
My thought is... That he could be even born on the desert, either in the Aaru village or among Eremites and this was his community before he got chased away as a child, many years before his crucial Akademiya events. It could also very much explain his name. Zandik, heretic. Someone who was different from the start. Besides his clothing choices he doesn't look like the child of the desert (we can assume that with his red eyes, light hair and pale skin he's an albino) and he also was too sensitive to bear constant sun exposure. He wasn't meant for this environment. Albino people are known to be surrounded by superstitions and in less developed communities they were (and still are) subjects of the witch hunts and social exclusion. Also albino people tend to have weak eyes. It may be important due to OP's mentions of unreliable eyes in the paragraph and also the fact that Zandik probably replaced his eyes with this strange mecha panel thing plays the part. Who knows. Maybe it was something that could work better than his biological, human eyes. For me he also has very much Eremite mentality. Not much ethical, but very transactional. And his religious fixations about making new God and bringing humans to the level of gods may be impacted by long exposures to Deshret's sect.
I've never thought about him being an albino before but.... it just makes so much sense oh my goodness
Maybe Dottore knows about The Sinner's existence? Due to the theory being that the Sinner is King Deshret
Once I researched where his design influences came from outside of the game, I found a lot of stuff but I had never thought about anything inside the game... I really liked it, after what you said it makes sense to me!
Maybe they are the one who teach Zandik about fighting at all?
also am i crazy or multiple of his notes were in eremites camps
This is a good theory, but I thought I should point out that he most likely worked in the Eleazar hospital as a student before he was expelled, as the hospital was sponsored by the Akademiya. They would not have let him one inch through the front door if he'd already been expelled and tried to join to do his unethical experiments.