#gaming-while-black — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Empire of Dragons @dragonshortstories.wordpress.com@dragonshortstories.wordpress.com · 2026-07-18 · 14:14 UTC

Natlan’s Dragons Make Me Uncomfortable but Not For the Reasons You Think

It Starts

When I was watching someone play the last parts of the Little Buddy quest, it felt too familiar. All throughout the quest I was praying it wasn’t going where I thought it was going, and it did. It felt a little bit like my lore but repurposed.

Technologically advanced dragons isn’t anything new, but it’s something that is rare. Sure, paranormal romance authors have tackled this, but none have gotten as expansive as mine (and now Genshin‘s).

I think Mihoyo might have searched me and found my works and the lore of my dragons that I’ve talked about in online spaces. Now, ‘why would they do that‘ and ‘they don’t know you,’ you ask? I’ve messaged them before.

Source: Genshin Wiki

Mihoyo has responded personally to my messages before. It’s not pre-written like it is now when someone messages them. They thanked me for my dragon scaramouche idea and said it was very interesting. The message I sent regarding that included me asking them to give Scaramouche a dragon pet or have part of his body ingredients come from the electro sovereign.

Being thanked for Scaramouche dragon suggestionsBeing thanked for character lore suggestionsA typical bot messageBeing thanked for so many Natlan suggestions

That wasn’t my first message to them that got a response. My very first message to them was a loooooong message about what African cultural references they can include in Sumeru and Natlan. I included many African references and they thanked me for “writing so much.” It’s not far fetched to think they googled my name and found my work.

Comparisons

Kukulkan, the architect behind plans to annihilate the dragon race (?)

Here’s a rough comparison of my dragons and theirs:

My dragons used to rule on earth and arrived in the pre Cambrian time, as detailed in one of the short stories. Mihoyo’s dragons have been on Teyvat since the beginning as well.
In EOD, it is implied through art that dragons created humans, because one of the first dragons to land on earth had a human form. I suspect Genshin lore will do this.
My dragons have their own AI, androids and cyborgs. No dragon-made cyborgs in Natlani dragons but they have their own little bots and AI. Ineffa somewhat counts because her core is one of Xiucoatl’s management AI.
A short lore piece of mine released in December 2, 2022. A flash story detailing the total annihilation of a planet, but careful enough not to create a void via chain reaction. There is a similar weapon in the ending of the Natlan dragon/Little Buddy quest.
dragons going to war with humans, but mine ‘win’ and an uneasy peace treaty is signed. The planet is taken over by them. In Genshin, dragons and humans fought in the Funerary War.
One of my dragons, Rin, is left behind at the end of the universe and lives into the next one. The same happens to Little Buddy in Natlan if you choose to phlogistoize Teyvat.
My dragons have made worlds similar to dyson spheres. Tollan itself seems to be a world within a contained area like a Dyson sphere.
My dragons have metaphysical connections to the knowledge within the universe (some of these lore tidbits are in the ebooks/short stories I made, as well as scattered across my old author twitter), and Tollan’s phlogiston pools seem to grant dragons metaphysical knowledge and memories.
Phlogiston seems to be like Substance in my world, where my dragon characters have it in their bodies to help them shapeshift and stay alive beyond death.

How Could They Do It?

I hear you over there saying, “Mihoyo is Chinese! They don’t have access to American bookstores!”

WRONG.

I stupidly put my books on a Chinese bookstore (or pirate site I think). Two of them: The Love of an Italian Dragon and il cyborg divina. They’re both unavailable as-is on current bookstores due to bad reviews they were getting (I was a teen when I wrote them), but they still exist on that bookstore.

These could show up in a Chinese search engine, and therefore open a rabbit hole that will bring them to my blog, where all of the Dragon’s War stories existed.

Also, I am pretty sure VPNs exist in China, and my books may be on more pirate sites that I don’t know about.

Lastly, my site is very much accessible in China. I still get views from there. Heck, the past three years, Hong Kong SAR China is ranked 4 for visitors regions to my site from the last three years. China itself ranks a little lower.

This is Not Their First Rodeo

Mihoyo has also taken before from little people. A small Korean artist had their OC used as a reference for Lion boy Ga’ming, and there’s Korean blogs about many things they took from/referenced. For example, it was a huge controversy that the Aranara plot line was lifted from the game Kena: Bridge of Souls.

Links

To preface, I don’t know if some of these can be pushed as references or not, a lot of these (like the Elden ring pony) are frame for frame animation yoinking.

Hoyo and JJK, and Dr. Stone: https://www.inven.co.kr/board/webzine/2097/2168800
Hoyo and Zelda but with more things people haven’t caught like Monster Hunter, Eula’s moveset being taken from another game, etc: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/etcs/board/300780/read/53681697
This is old but Hoyo and Nier Automata: https://www.dogdrip.net/283264592
Nier dashing animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y763xuJqNq8
Vergil’s DMC5 move set on various characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OP_rKc3dAs
Itto and Dante: https://arca.live/b/genshin/40383801
Aranara quest using similar storyline to the indie game Kena: https://arca.live/b/genshin/59876455
Ei literally using the same time stop attack as Vergil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7h1S5bX60
Scara’s move set: https://m.dcinside.com/board/aoegame/23612738
Elden Ring pony prance: https://x.com/shincry/status/1692666496613249216?s=46&t=udoc7y1aLMkQD8fC0yzjYA

They also traced Oumi Janta’s dance and her mannerisms, but they ultimately removed it. People claim what she did was a common dance move, but they traced her mannerisms like the way she moved her hands.

Also, they love heavily referencing obscure media, like the manga Edo Never Sleeps. You can find comparisons and analysis here: https://x.com/candlenara/status/1931440726770168051

These links were sent to me by an excellent Korean artist who quit Genshin after finding out these controversies.

A writer I knew who quit Genshin had also done so due to the extreme similarities to Final Fantasy 14 (the online one). Basically:

Fandaniel pretends to be an ally to the player (Scaramouche does the same in Unreconciled Stars)
Is part of a group of 11 baddies (Scaramouche is part of the 11 Fatui Harbingers)
Suffered bad trauma and thought ascending to godhood was a way to cope with it (Scaramouche tries to become a god after suffering much trauma caused by Il Dottore)
Tried to kill hi self and gets the main character to help him by going to ‘a representation of the Moon.’ (Scaramouche tries to ‘kill himself’ by going through Irminsul, but it doesn’t work the way he wants)

The latest moon map has also been compared to Mare Lamentorum. I’m not sure in what ways, since I do not play FF 14.

Conclusion

Source: https://www.hoyolab.com/article/33629460

Someone said the scifi elements is a retcon, because the twins were summoned to Teyvat. I remember this being part of the lore. Defenders will argue and claim “everyone is an unreliable narrator, just like real life.” You all forget, real life has historians for a reason.

A friend of mine said they are abandoning the fantasy concepts because all of the popular Gacha that are out right now (like Wuthering Waves) are Scifi-Fantasy or Scifi. I can see that happening. Mihoyo chasing a trend is nothing new, but it is a little upsetting because they used to be trendsetters, not followers. I actually love the scifi elements being added to Genshin. I just… hate when it involves dragons.

If they added a reference to my work, like maybe an NPC named after Ashuton Karrucci, I would possibly forgive this. Possibly.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots.

The thing that also upsets me is that the dragons and their tech are not even African inspired. We already have many tropes about the advanced South American civilization. Mihoyo could’ve kept it mixed with South American and African inspirations in the dragon tech. Africa barely gets a spotlight in these gacha games (or anime games in general because of their fascination with Europe). A society of African or Afro-mixed dragons in a big game like this would’ve helped encourage the youth of today to explore more about Africa.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots, but I also feel like I would’ve felt proud? Significant African representation was all I wanted in Natlan.

It feels so uncomfortable now to play Genshin. They don’t care about losing me. I am just one person whose lore helped them be inspired.

I just want them to say it. Or thank me by letting the world know, with an NPC.

(I also got invited to something but that’s all I can say)

Cover image from this YouTube thumbnail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DKpAgQpnc

Rate this:

#Anime #BlackMastodon #dragonBooks #DragonGames #Dragons #FantasyGames #GachaGames #gaming #GamingWhileBlack #GenshinImpact #Hoyoverse #Mihoyo #ScienceFiction #Writing

#anime #blackmastodon #dragonbooks #dragongames #dragons #fantasygames