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Kaeya’s always been one of the more fascinating characters in Genshin Impact. Right from the start, we know this is someone who is a little bit mysterious. He’s a Cavalry Captain in a country with no actual cavalry. He’s the brother of Dawn Winery owner and secret Batman Diluc. However, HoYoVerse always emphasized his secrets, and right from the start he’s been only one of two people met from the fallen country of Khaenri’ah. However, following the events of the “Caribert” Archon Quest, it seems he’s gradually being made more of a focal point in the overarching storyline.
Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for the Genshin Impact character Kaeya and story up through “Caribert” in the article below.
What we’ve always known about Kaeya is that he’s from Khaenri’ah, the country cursed and struck down by the seven Archon gods. This is evident from his eyes, as only people from there have that distinctive pupil.
He’s also an orphan. His father, whose first name we don’t know, purposely abandoned him on the outskirts of Mondstadt near Crepus Ragnvindr’s Dawn Winery. Crepus took him in and raised him alongside his son, Diluc.
We also know that, when Kaeya’s father left him, he told him, “This is your chance. You are our last hope.”
However, throughout these latest Archon quest interludes with Dainsleif, we’ve learned certain facts that don’t add up. To have the eyes that he does, Kaeya would need to be a pure-blooded Khaenri’ahns. However, after the events of the Cataclysm 500 years in the country, every person from the country was cursed by the gods.
As of “Caribert,” we’ve now seen the full extent of this curse. People who are half-blooded were turned into Hilichurls and Abyss Order creatures. They are immortal and gradually waste away. At which point they’ll head to The Chasm in Liyue. However, we know pure-blooded people, such as Dainsleif and Chlothar are subject to a different form of this curse. It renders them immortal, but also leads to a deterioration of their sense of self, sanity, and bodies. Most people we know or have heard of from this region, like the Fatui member Pierro, are these sorts of immortal figures.
Kaeya is not.
Kaeya has aged, as he was left by the Dawn Winery and has since aged into an adult. He also seems to be in quite good health. Certainly, he’s functional enough to run errands for the Knights of Favonius regularly and take part in his own endeavors. To compare, Dainseif often seems to need to “rest” after activities with the traveler. Also, Chlothar was suffering from the curse so greatly that he couldn’t perform crafting functions and was too weak to fight monsters attacking his farm.
This means Kaeya is not subject to the curse in Genshin Impact. That alone is suspicious enough. However, there are other things we need to consider. One is that we now know Kaeya’s original last name. It is Alberich, and he is a direct descendant of Abyss Order founder Chlothar. Kaeya seems somewhat surprised at the revelation, however he also has a “story” he tells about his abandonment at Dawn Winery that involves his father leaving to get some grape juice, rather than the actual final words.
Now, we know that Caribert, the now unaccounted for Loom of Fate, regained his sense of self during the course of the Archon Quest that bears his name. We also know he took off his mask. But we didn’t see him after that, and Chlothar dodged questions about him. Caribert is Chlothar’s illegitimate son with a woman from Mondstadt.
It is possible Chlothar had a pure-blooded child. Kaeya could be descended from this bloodline.
However, we also don’t know what the eyes of a half-blooded Khaenri’ahn looks like. (It’s not like we’ve ever seen one.) It is possible that they have one eye with that unique pupil, and another that resembles one from their other nation of birth. One possibility is that Kaeya isn’t a pure-blooded person, he’s descended from a survived Caribert, and he’s purposely hiding his other eye to avoid questions.
There’s also the fact that Kaeya does seem to potentially know things people aren’t aware of. He knew about Khaenri’ah being under Sumeru. Enough so that he tried to get there as a while. He was aware of Dainsleif’s presence watching him, then dropped that he knew of and was basically watching him too. He also never actually mentioned what potential connection he could have to the Abyss Order.
Given that Kaeya purposely appeared in a Genshin Impact Archon Quest that involved Chlothar and Caribert, not to mention Caribert’s mysteriously absent by the end of that story, it doesn’t seem too off-base to suggest that he’s directly tied to that branch of the family. He’s obviously not afflicted by the curse, but seems to have some understanding of Khaenri’ah. It’s unknown if HoYoVerse could attempt to pull some sort of “time travel” shenanigans that resulted in the healed Caribert recovering and becoming the Kaeya, with Chlothar taking him through some sort of portal and then returning to the past. It is equally plausible that Caribert recovered, went on to have a family of his own. The Mondstadt connection, what with Caribert’s mother being from there and Kaeya being left there, feels like it could be a hint.
With the pace of Genshin Impact updates, we might not get answers about Kaeya until Natlan or Snezhnaya appear in the game. However, it seems like he’s a character of far greater importance than people might not realize. It could be satisfying to see him turn out to be some central figure all along. Not to mention if it is somehow possible Kaeya is Caribert, it would be nice if, before he became the founder of the Abyss Order, Chlothar really did send Kaeya far away, into the future, to his mother’s homeland to give him “a happier life.”
Genshin Impact is available for the PS4, PS5, PC, and mobile devices, and Kaeya is a free unit given to all players who go through the Archon Quest Prologue.
