Genshin Impact: The Third Descender

This article is part of a directory: Genshin Impact: Complete Fontaine & Chenyu Vale Guide - Version 4.7, New Characters, Event Guides, and Everything You Need to Know

Table of contents

Highlights

The recent Archon Quest in Genshin Impact reveals that the third descender's corpse makes up the Gnoses, changing how players view these objects.
The third descender's power was so great that they were split into 7 elemental power cores, which became the source of the Archons' strength.
The lack of information on the third descender leads to speculation about their identity and their potential ties to other elements in Teyvat.

This article contains massive spoilers for the latest Genshin Impact Archon Quest, Masquerade of the Guilty.

Descenders have been a mysterious topic in Genshin Impact ever since they were first mentioned. These beings from other worlds have come down to Teyvat for reasons unknown, but have made quite a name for themselves. The first descender was the Primordial One, the second descender was the "Second Who Came", and the Traveler was the fourth descender. Fontaine's recent Archon Quest, however, has revealed that the third descender's corpse is what makes up the Gnoses.

This information has wildly changed how players should view the Gnoses. This brings up many concerns and questions about the other descenders as well as the Traveler. Genshin Impact's Neuvillette asked it directly, wondering if the Traveler's living body possesses similar properties to the Gnoses. With what little lore is already known about the prior descenders, the third has become the most interesting after the quest.

Explaining Genshin Impact's Third Descender Lore After the Latest Patch

The first descender was strong enough to overtake the Sovereign Dragons. The second was strong enough to challenge the first. And the third perished and became what gave the Archons their strength in the form of the Gnoses. To be powerful enough to have been split into 7 elemental power cores, the very things that make Archons all-powerful and in charge, is quite scary. Genshin Impact's Archon War had the gods fighting over these celestial seats that would grant them Gnoses after all--they fought for the corpse of the third descender.

Speculation on the Third Descender's Implications

Not much else is confirmed about the third descender; they have no name, no confirmed events they partook in, or anything of that sort. However, using what little is known, there's plenty of room for them to be tied into popular theories. One of Genshin Impact's most popular theories is that there are more than 7 elements in Teyvat due to the namecard "Colors of the Rainbow." Its description implies that the people of Teyvat got too lazy to count the other elements. If the third descender could be split into 7 Gnoses, fans are left to speculate if they have ties to any Abyssal elements, since it was Skirk who directly called the Gnoses their corpse.

Going off of that, the namecard has 5 blank spaces for a potential 5 other elements in Genshin Impact's world, Teyvat. Light and Void could fill two of those spots, as these are two commonly speculated elements that are both tied to the Light realm and the Void realm mentioned in-game. The three missing elements may be tied to the three descenders prior to the Traveler and their sibling, since the Traveler would represent light and the abyss sibling would represent void.

The lack of information on the third descender has the community in a spiral trying to figure out who they could've been and why they aren't the Traveler's sibling. After all, in the Sumeru Archon Quest, Genshin Impact's Nahida revealed that according to Irminsul, their sibling was part of Teyvat. This shouldn't be the case since the Traveler is not native to Teyvat, and as far as fans know, the sibling shouldn't be either; not if they were both traveling among the stars together.

The elusive third descender will have to remain a point of speculation until more is revealed about their life. The fact that they've passed on has fans wondering if the Fatui's plan to collect the Gnoses is because the Tsaritsa plans to resurrect them. However, if the Traveler is similar in constitution to the third descender, this brings about the question of whether the Tsaritsa plans on the Traveler's arrival to be the final push in that plan as an "8th Gnosis."