Genshin Impact, the gacha-based RPG from HoYoverse, has been expanding steadily since its 2020 launch. Players can now explore four of the seven nations in the world of Tevyat, with the fifth nation Fontaine coming to Genshin Impact next.
While players haven't yet had a chance to visit Fontaine for themselves, there have been a lot of hints about the new region in conversations, item descriptions, and lore. Piecing together these scattered accounts, it's easy to see that Fontaine could be quite different to anything Genshin Impact players have seen so far.
The Art, Culture, and Beauty of Fontaine
One of the first things that players learn about Fontaine is that it prides itself in its dedication to beauty, art, and elegance. Francis, the Fontaine merchant who can be found in Liyue Harbor, may be a big fan of Liyue's cooking, but openly claims that no other country can match Fontaine for its sense of style.
The people of Fontaine favor elaborate clothing inspired by French fashion and the decadence of the court at Versailles, and the few leaked images of playable Fontaine characters reveal a radically different style to the late-medieval German clothing of Mondstadt, or the Imperial Chinese or Feudal Japanese garments found in Liyue and Inazuma respectively. Francis argues that while other countries may find Fontaine fashion showy and impractical, it's only commonplace to its people. Top hats, corsets, and long coats reveal a style that also draws inspiration from the Victorian era, hinting that Fontaine may be far more technologically advanced that any region in Genshin Impact.
The Technology of Fontaine
Fontaine's next defining feature, and the one most likely to give it a completely different feel to Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, and Sumeru, is its advanced technology. Based on the lore hints that are currently in the game, Fontaine is undergoing an Industrial Revolution driven by steampunk-esque mechanical technology. Several of the most advanced devices that players can discover or hear about in their travels were built by Fontaine engineers, including the Mikage Furnace, the robotic toys of Bertrand the toymaker, and the Evermotion Mechanical Painting system. Players can speak to Bertrand in Liyue to discover that Fontaine even has a nation-wide energy system, similar to a modern electrical grid, though there are no details on how it works so far.
It's clear that Fontaine's technological prowess will not only give it a very different feel to Genshin Impact's existing regions, but also feature heavily in the main storyline. The opposing concepts of progress and preservation have already been explored in the Inazuma storyline, and players can expect to find Fontaine a region much more focused on the future than the past.
The Justice of Fontaine
Each of the nations of Tevyat is protected by an Archon, a god representing one of the game's seven elements who acts according to their divine ideal. The Archon of Fontaine is Focalors, who represents the Hydro element and holds the ideal of Justice. Although little else is known about Focalors, it's clear that Justice is incredibly important to Fontaine's society, and that the country has an incredibly complicated legal system. Focalors' Court is a literal court-room, where the Hydro Archon and her Tribunals pass down judgment on both commonplace lawbreakers and the enemies of Fontaine. According to Dainsleif, the Archon of Justice considers it her right, privilege, and duty to judge the other gods, holding them accountable for their crimes.
This nation of courts and judgments is going to be a very different place for players to navigate, and will probably share a closer kinship with the contract-governed Liyue than the freedom-loving Mondstadt. It seems inevitable that Genshin Impact's Fontaine storyline will involve its justice system, and rumors spread by the traveling merchant Liben reveal that the people of the nation are currently divided and oppressed, waiting for a grand judgment that is soon to come.
Genshin Impact is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5. A Switch version is currently in development with no confirmed release date.
