When I approach Yelan (or anyone else I've written), I don't just look directly at her character, but I also look at her surroundings. Both the ones that she knows by some semblance of necessity, but also those that she chooses. Like here, I talked about the Chasm, and what being 'okay' with existing down there needs to mean for a character, because it's not normal. Someone's surroundings, room, or home say a lot bout who they are and what their mindset, or specifically, their perspective is of the world. And sometimes, I think it says more about people than even the characters realize.

This brings me to the topic of the city of Fontaine. Now, I personally think it's rather obvious that a lot of the nation takes from historical France, and so when looking at it, I think it really adds to remember its monarchy, the view that the 'common folk' had of it, and its inevitable demise to non-existence today in terms of importance as a result. So my first question is, who constructed or decided on its layout? Was it Furina, Neuvillette, Egeria? Whoever it was, there's a lot that can be said about their view of the world and their placement in it when you look at locations of buildings. Look at where Palais Mermonia, its governing body, is located within the city; it sits at a rather astounding elevation in comparison to, well, everything and everyone else in the city. This frequently represents the concept of 'distance' between groups in one way or another, and seeing the consistency in other nations, this is something that is rather intriguing to me, especially keeping Fontaine's characters in mind (and considering this is the nation of 'justice'). Mondstadt has everything almost entirely uniform, with arguably the church on the highest level (but it isn't greatly elevated in comparison to all else), but it's joined with the plaza and statue which are a common gathering site for all people in the city. Liyue had the gods and adepti visibly living among the humans back in the days of the Guili Assembly for reasons of 'integration' (my apologies to numerous from our dear Guizhong!) The fact that numerous adepti now live far outside of the harbor is a different matter entirely, and the one who seems to function within a semblance of separation of sorts is Ningguang with the Jade Chamber (but I'm not one to speak on behalf of her character as I don't bear the knowledge). Inazuma also has the Tenshukaku at a higher elevation in comparison to the rest of Inazuma City. Sumeru is interesting, but ultimately Nahida was kept at the very peak of the city, far out of reach of humanity— but that's exactly the common denominator that has my interest, the distance between the 'governing body' and humanity for one reason or another.

But Fontaine really takes separation to a different level in my opinion (and again, think of this when you think of the person having designed the whole city), not only because of the above which I'll elaborate more on in a moment, but also its separation from the outside world. Now, this is interesting to think about if you keep in mind that it was perhaps done in eventual protection of the city's inhabitants in terms of the prophecy (which means that this would have been constructed anywhere during or after Egeria's reign), but then why is only Palais Mermonia far above the water's reach? If the walls surrounding the city were ever breached during said prophecy, all its inhabitants are pretty much immediately caught in the flood and would drown, which tells me nothing positive of the city's 'architect' or whoever signed off on the designs. But if not done for the prophecy, then why? Stand in the middle of the Court of Fontaine and really look around you, the only sights you really have of the outside world are the sky, and it's obstructed by a fair bit of the waterways and gardens that hang overhead, which you can only properly enjoy when you take the ages long elevator to the upper level where the palace is located (which, credit due, seems freely accessible to everyone in present-time). But if you don't venture up, how much of the outside world do you get to see? It feels very secluded, very much under lock and key. On some level (and this is one of the many reasons why I think that the Meropide is so excessively important in Fontaine and it's likely why we spent so much time there; it's all to show the ever, ever important contrast and nuance between this 'autonomous nation within Fontaine' and, well, 'Fontaine'), it almost feels like a prison, regardless of how pretty it may look or come across (and despite not 'lacking rights'). And considering how people in the Meropide speak of not always wanting to return back to the 'overworld' following their sentence, I think that there's definitely quite a bit of truth in that. But again, stand there and look around for yourself.

Now to return to the original topic, but keeping the last one in mind as well, look at one other thing that I'm unsure how many have really kept an eye on: the massive effect Palais Mermonia's level has on the rest of the area (inside and outside of its walls). Have you ever walked through the city of Fontaine at any given time of day or night, north to south, east to west, clockwise or counter-clockwise circling through it; have you ever seen how it overshadows an immense part of the streets below it either entirely on its own (which to me signifies a very domineering presence), or together with those outer walls that surround the city? I know how I've spoken thoroughly with people before about how much I enjoy Fontaine and how dark it is in its storytelling, but despite how gorgeous this region with its water- and landscapes are; its city bears quite a heavy weight to me. I don't know who designed it, or ordered it to be constructed in this way, but nothing about the city itself truly, rationally, shows a healthy perspective versus its citizens.

Me: /continues on to ramble in tags because I'm me and I'm a nuisance with always more to say than I know how to coherently put into these posts.

those posts about your ocs made me really interested so would you like to tell me a thing or two about some of them? :>

HIII LEN ꉂ(ˊᗜˋ*)♡ Sorry for the late reply, I have been kidnapped and subjected to academical torture but here I am again!!

Lolol I have a bunch of ocs!! Mostly of them are fandom ocs (so if there's a fandom you are interested in, do tell! I might have something, I love talking about ocs) and a few non-fandom ocs, I wasn't sure which one do you want to know about so I'm just going to ramble a bit (๑'ᴗ')ゞ

I think I will begin with my main two Genshin ocs and a secret third I'm currently working on 🤭, Lore (travelersona), Vivi (self-insert) and Qinxi (Liyue oc I'm working on, provisional name), because they may be the closest to my heart due to the heavy editing I have done to them!!

More under the cut to not clog the dash!!

The premise is like this: she is an adventurer who is searching for her lost sister, and found Aether (since I choose him at the beginning because pretty boys) and ended up forming a tag-team, since they knew both of them wouldn't distract themselves from their individual goal.

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So the first one of them is Lore/Lorena! She is an oc I created based on how I used my traveler and what I did with them. She is under very heavy editing, which she needed, because I have a need of being correct about the lore labdmsdl.

She loves climbing and uses a claymore. Her vision was going to be anemo, but that may be put under revision. She also loves gliding and jumping off a cliff only to open the glider last second hehe <33 she's kinda an adrenaline junkie.

In the end, the lore I thought for her was that she and her sister were children who ended up living in Khaenri'ah and was saved by Gold from a disease (under the exchange of letting her doing experiments on her) so she ended up having a artificial heart (this is a classic for me ♡) and living far more than an average person. For the fall of Khaenri'ah I had thought of having her sleep (as in, making it seem like the operation was close to that event) so her sister (alongside Lumine, because I stan Abyss Lumine so much, they are girlfriends) saved her somehow. Now the details have to be carefully thought more. But that is the general premise I wanted her to have.

But because of the recent lore, I'm afraid I will have to put her on hold, since they touched quite a lot about Khaenri'ah.

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And now, my darling, mi joya de la corona, the character I have most thought of and the one I probably love the most.

Vivi is a self-insert that was born due to the question: okay, but realistically, what would I do if I ended up in Teyvat? The answer was to try to work in the Knights of Favonius' Library. And it just, snowballed from there.

Mind you, this story is also completely self-indulgent and I'm proud about it. But I also wanted angst, so I had to balance both. And since I know myself and I know I would not get involved in the plot whatsoever if I knew where I was, I decided to give her a 'reincarnated villainess'-que type of beginning but making it spicy.

(She's a geo catalyst)

She's the adopted daughter of a mechanic from Fontaine and she learned a lot from him, but decided her call in life was learning ancient languages (she didn't know where she was getting into truly 💔) and got into the Akademiya. And here is where the plot thickens!

She was roped into trying to connect with the Irminsul (since a lot of people can't at first time, she was like 'why not, once and last') aand ended up connecting with the Irminsul. With that, she got her memories from her previous life (this will be expanded about if I ever get to write a fic lol) and was like 'shit'. In the end it was too late for her to withdraw from the Akademiya because she already knew canon characters (aka Kaveh and Alhaitham) and the students' debt was going to be incommensurable. So she graduated and took a job as archivist in the Akademiya.

And as soon as she could, she asked for a transfer and booked it off to Mondstadt.

She's obsessively afraid of Celestia and about knowing things (since I am a lore player) and about being persecuted by them, so she didn't want to get a vision nor have anything to do with any canon event if she could help it. So she gets a vision and let me tell you she's excited (not). She legit threw it out of her window when she saw it.

And now rightfully afraid since Celestia is aware of her, she lives her life as if she didn't know anything in Springvale.

Okay this is messy but I have a lot of lore about her, so I might expand on a different post if only for archive purposes.

For now, I am brainstorming about Sumeru's archon quest, because she will not be spared of it and her relationship with Nahida and Wanderer. It's getting pretty interesting to say the least, but still a work in process.

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The last one of my ocs is Qinxi (沁汐 to seep; night tides; still working on the name and having to fact-check ;-;). She still doesn't have an assigned vision or weapon, but I'm inclined towards hydro.

She was going to be a pharmacologist or a collector of medicinal plants and work with Baizhu, but the idea quickly evolved into her being a make up maker. Like, the very expensive type of make up.

She's not quite developed yet, but I have a bit of her backstory: she wanted to be an artist but her family wanted her to follow their steps (they are all make up makers). It wasn't like she didn't want to be a make up maker but wanted a bit more of life. Now she fulfills both of her dreams, making make up and hand-painting the boxes.

Both of then are so finely done that Ningguang has a full-time contract with her so she gets priority in her orders (and who's going to complain??).

She definitely deserves to have more brainstorming but a lad does as she can ಥ‿ಥ

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That's it, at least. All of them still need a lot of developing process and tie down details, but they are all my darlings who I love. If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them (timely this time I promise 🥲) either in comments or asks! I hope this wasn't too boring ajdbkabska I try to make things interesting and I know some people don't like to know the whole process of creating an OC, so I tried to keep things simple, short and sweet.