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dkniade · 6 months

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What does albedo's title actually means,"Kreideprinz" in German it translates to chalk prince,but i tried to translate the Chinese one and it said "son of the chalk" what is the difference,can you tell me??

Kreideprinz, Albedo’s Chinese Title, and Albedo and Rhinedottir’s Relationship

(Albedo Character Stories, 1.2 The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Act IV, 2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms: Act I, 3.5 Windblume’s Breath: Act III)

Hello! Thank you for the question.

(This was actually one of the first Genshin things I tried to translate back in late 2021 but I couldn’t explain it very well so here’s an encore.)

Okay so Genshin Impact’s English localization does this thing sometimes where they’ll take the Chinese name of a noteworthy group, building, or other special item/concept, and localize it into the language(s) from the culture(s) the region is based on. (E.g. In the English version, Fischl’s speech is often localized with German terms but she’s just using lots of purple prose in Chinese.)

With that being said, Albedo’s title in Chinese is 白垩之子 (baie zhi zi). 白垩 means “chalk”, as in limestone (compare with 白垩纪 (baie ji, Cretaceous Period). I don’t know much German if at all, but to my knowledge, the “kreide” part of “Kreideprinz” also means “chalk”, and “prinz” means “prince”, meaning “Kreideprinz” is “Chalk Prince”.

子 however feels a bit ambiguous in this context… It could mean “son” (e.g. 儿子 / erzi), or “person” (e.g. 男子 / nanzi = man, 女子 / nüzi = woman), and 子 doesn’t necessarily mean “prince” by itself, however 王子 / wangzi (lit. king’s child) does mean “prince”. (Compare to 公子 / gonzi = “young master”, aka childe. Yes, that Childe.) Also, 弟子 / dizi means “follower”, or “disciple”, be it in a Daoist context or a scholarly context.

All in all, 白垩之子’s meaning depends on the context a lot, specifically in terms of how Rhinedottir and Albedo see their relationship. Perhaps HoYoverse is intentionally being ambiguous.

In order to know the nature of Albedo and Rhinedottir’s relationship from both their perspectives, we need to examine Chinese terminologies used to describe their relationship. (And even then, it varies a bit over time…)

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Character Story 3

In Albedo’s Character Story 3, Rhinedottir is described as both 师父 (shifu, master/mentor) and Albedo’s only 亲人 (qinren, family member). HoYoverse translates this second term to “kin” (one’s family and relations).

Original CN: “师父的地位显然最为特殊。对阿贝多来说，她是唯一的亲人”

My EN TL: “It’s obvious that his master’s position [in relation to him] is the most special. To Albedo, she’s his only family member.”

Official EN TL: “And yet his master is unquestionably the most special to him. For Albedo, she is his only kin.”

Here, from Albedo’s perspective, Rhinedottir is his master and only family member.

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Character Story 4

But we know from Albedo’s Story 4 that 白垩之子 is a title Rhinedottir gave him when he finished his studies under her, so it’d be helpful to know what the title 白垩之子 meant to Rhinedottir, and whether in that moment she saw him as her son (儿子, erzi), or apprentice (弟子, dizi), or creation…

Here, 出师 (chushi) is “to serve out one’s apprenticeship”, and Rhinedottir is again referred to as 师父 (shifu, master/mentor). The official English localization does not specify these two concepts.

Original CN: “此外，还有一件较为特殊的礼物：师父对阿贝多出师一事给予书面认可，并授予他「白垩之子」的称号。”

My EN TL: “Aside from this, there was another relatively special gift: his master left him a written acknowledgement that he’s served out his apprenticeship, and gave him the title of [Chinese equivalent of Kreideprinz].”

Official EN TL: “If one were to push the definition a little, she had left him another gift — the title of Kreideprinz, and with it, a written acknowledgment that she had nothing further to teach him.”

Here, Rhinedottir and Albedo are explicitly described as having a master/apprentice relationship.

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Character Story 5

And in Albedo’s Story 5, his nature as a homunculus is strongly implied. Rhinedottir is described as, again, 师父 (shifu, master/mentor), but also that she is 有别于父母 (youbie yu fumu, different from a parent) yet it’s also explicitly stated that “Albedo’s life comes from her”.

Note that 父母 (fumu) is (technically) “father and mother”, but it can refer to both birth parents or adoptive parents because the nature is not specified. The English localization doesn’t go into detail here and Rhinedottir is simply stated as “not his birth mother”.

Original CN: “师父固然有别于父母，可毫无疑问，阿贝多的生命来自于她。”

My EN TL: “His master is of course different from a parent, but there’s no doubt that Albedo’s life comes from her.”

Official EN TL: “She was not his birth mother, but there is no doubt that his life stems from her.”

Applied to Rhinedottir though, parent is used as a counterexample here in Chinese. Sounds like some sort of experiment with dubious morals (confirmed in 2.3).

So how would a master who’s not a parent see a living creation such as Albedo…?

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1.2 The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Afterword (Act V)

Albedo again refers to Rhinedottir as his 师父 (shifu, master/mentor) in his soliloquy at the end of 1.2 The Chalk Prince and the Dragon, when he talks about Durin.

Original CN: 莱茵多特…师父…这就是你曾经创造的巨龙「杜林」吗？

My EN TL: Rhinedottir… Master… So this is Durin, the great dragon that you created back then?”

Official EN TL: “Rhinedottir… Master… Is this your creation, the giant dragon Durin?”

And yet—

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2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms: The Snowy Past (Act I)

We also get confirmation in 2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms that Albedo is a synthetic human (“artificial human” also works) created by Rhinedottir, who, according to him this time, is his mother and teacher.

(Though, Shadows Amidst Snowstorms happens in Mondstadt, meaning he’s known Klee and Alice for quite some time now, so perhaps Alice taught him the meaning of “mother”.)

Original CN: “我是一个人造人。将我创造出来的，正是我的母亲和老师——坎瑞亚学者，「黄金」莱茵多特。”

My EN TL: “I am a synthetic human. The one who created me is none other than my mother and teacher—the Khaenri’ahn researcher, “Gold” Rhinedottir.”

Official EN TL: “I am a synthetic human being... a human forged by human hand. The one who created me, my mother and teacher, her name is Rhinedottir — a researcher from Khaenri’ah, also known as "Gold."”

BUT WAIT, WE’RE NOT DONE YET. ‘CAUSE WE STILL NEED TO CONSIDER, OF COURSE—

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3.5 Windblume’s Breath: Joy Above the Clouds (Act III)

…which changes everything, so much that I was quite frustrated when I first watched it, but let’s look at this again from a more rational perspective.

Rhinedottir says, in a casual tone as the animation shows flasks and test tubes—

Original CN: “我养了一个儿子呢。许多个孩子，最终只剩他一人。也算是当了母亲吧？”

My EN TL: “I’m raising a son, you know. Of the many children I have, only he remained in the end. Guess that would still make me a mother?”

Official EN TL: “I'm raising a son. Of all the children I had, he's the only one left. But I suppose that still makes me a mother?”

Okay, so in the 3.5 cutscene, Rhinedottir sees her relationship with Albedo as a mother/son relationship.

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Interpretations?

So where does that leave us, with Albedo’s title 白垩之子？

…

Remember how I said 子 (zi) depends on the context?

Some interpretations:

Albedo Story 4, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedottir is the master; Albedo is the graduated apprentice — 白垩之子 could mean “Disciple of Chalk”

Albedo Story 3 and 5, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedottir is the master, family member, and not-really-parent figure; Albedo is the apprentice — 白垩之子 could mean “Son of Chalk”

1.2 Dragonspine Act IV, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedotir is the master — 白垩之子 could mean “Disciple of Chalk”

2.3 Dragonspine Act I, Albedo’s POV: Rhinedottir is the mother and teacher; Albedo is her creation and homunculus. — 白垩之子 could mean both “Son of Chalk” and “Prince of Chalk” (Kreideprinz)

(Prince in a metaphoric “fancy title” way, like how Childe is not actually a nobleman despite his title…)

3.5 Windblume Act III, Rhinedottir’s POV: Rhinedottir is the mother, Albedo is the son — 白垩之子 could mean “Son of Chalk”

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…Albedo can’t seem to define clearly his relationship with Rhinedottir, even though Rhinedottir seems to consider him her son, at least in the cutscene.

*like it’s a dramatic monologue*

What is “mother”? What is “ master”? “Son”? “Apprentice”? What is… 白垩之子?

The truth of this title, does “Kreideprinz” encompass all this…?

I don’t know.

Or in other words, maybe he’s whatever you want him to be, based on the context.

…Thank you for reading! ^^

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aetheternity · 1 year

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"Venti stans are low key annoying complaining about Venti not being the main focus of the Windblume festival."

First off we do not care. Second off ok???? Literally every character stan complains about their fave not getting enough screen time hop off.

It isn't even about screen time for me. It's about the fact that Venti hasn't truly felt like Venti in several updates. The last time he truly felt like himself was during Weinlesefest but even then he still didn't feel like the Venti we met all the way back during the first archon quest. And I don't wanna hear "hE hAd cHaRaCtEr dEvLoPmEnT." Cause no that isn't what happened, he regressed as a character. He's becoming fanon Venti in game. He gets used for alcohol jokes and Paimon calls him lazy then he dips. 🙄

"He was just in the Lantern Rite.." Shut Up. Shut Up. Shut all the fucking way up! He was terrible in LR and honestly if you cut Venti out of LR you basically have the same event. He did literally nothing of substance and he shouldn't have been there at all.

The first Windblume festival centered around Venti and showed us more of Venti being Mondstadt's archon. The second Windblume festival has barely anything to do with him. Excuse us if we're fucking disappointed, we have every right to be. Like I said literally every character's stans complain about them not getting enough screen time. Yeah sure if every Mondstadt event centered Venti it'd get old but the biggest problem is they decided to center a MONDSTADT EVENT around fucking SUMERU CHARACTERS. Fucking Collei gets more screen time than any Mondstadt character. Which wouldn't be a problem but this is a main Mondstadt event. Even though Venti was in LR 3 he wasn't a main focus he was a background character to the rest of the cast. Which is what Collei should've been cut out Tighnari and Cyno.

Mondstadt has so many underutilized characters and their screen time got spliced for the Sumeru fuckers who already have too much screen time. The entire last five updates have had Cyno in almost everything and Tighnari as well and while Collei has less screen time than them she has yet to be under used. If this was about Collei meeting up with Amber again they could've had that in a different event. If this was about Collei facing her anxiety it could've happened in a different event. They should've just had Sucrose helping Mondstadters cause guess what? You think this is going to be the last time a nation's event gets characters bombarding in? Hell no Fontaine is coming soon we're one hundred percent going to get nation festivals with random characters that have nothing to do with anything probably until the end of the game.

We'll see how happy ya'll are when your fave gets less screen time for some randos that have nothing to do with the nation you care about.

#venti #windblume breath #windblume festival 3.5 #tw vent #idc if this sounds entitled #like what're you going to do about that #like we literally just got Mika introduced and he has less screen time than the sumeru cast so far #we have fucking Noelle and oh shocker I didn't see my baby Diona anywhere looks like they forgot about her again!#this is a main Mondstadt event you can't slap the title Windblume festival on it then have it mostly center randos from other nations #even if Venti wasn't the focus Collei should've had less screen time #She has plenty of time to get over her damn anxiety in another event this shouldn't have been so about her #genshin impact #come at me fuckers #i said what i said #i said what needed to be said #And I'm not taking it back #And yes I am saying all of this while having enjoyed Cyno's appearance but I am still disappointed and I have the right to that

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