Who is the main character in Genshin Impact? Main character names and lore, explained

Genshin Impact has players roaming the massive open world of Teyvat, exploring all the different lands, cities, and biomes the game has to offer. Along the way, you will meet several characters, some playable and some not, each with their own story and background that ties into the game’s overarching plot in some way. You interact with these characters in the form of the Traveler, which is your playable character—but it’s not as straightforward as it seems.

In Genshin Impact, the Traveler is not just one person, but twins. At the start of the game, after the initial cutscene, you get to choose between either Aether, the brother, or Lumine, the sister. Once the intro cutscene is halfway through, you get the option to pick either one to begin the game. After you pick the sibling you want, the other one is sealed away by a malevolent god yet unknown to us at the time. It then becomes Aether’s mission to save Lumine, or vice versa if you chose Lumine.

Regardless of the sibling to choose to start with, both of them start off as five-star characters with a broadsword as their main weapon. They have no primary element to start with and it is adaptive, making for incredibly flexible gameplay. The element you want can be switched accordingly using the vision of the Statue of the Seven. While the game holds both characters in equal regard, some fans seem to think that one of the twins is the canon main character in the game.

Several fan theories over the years have conflicting reports regarding the validation of which twin is the canon playable character in the overarching plot of the game. While many fans truly believe that it is up to the player to choose, some hardcore fans have pointed out a detail that might have been overlooked by others.

In the initial cutscene of the game, when the time comes to choose your main character, the god holds her hands over each sibling. Aether is marked by her left hand while Lumine is marked by her right hand. If you choose Lumine, the cutscene shows the god sealing Aether using her left hand before withdrawing. But if you choose Aether, the cutscene shows the god sealing Lumine with her right hand, then cuts over to her holding the sealed sibling in her left hand, which made little sense.

Apparently, this little detail was proof enough for the hardcore Lumine supporters to believe that she is in fact, the canon playable character, simply because it would make no sense for the god to switch hands during the cutscene. Now whether you subscribe to this theory or not, it can either be seen as a mistake by the developers or an intentional detail thrown in for eagle-eyed fans to spot.

Whatever the case is, each character is as powerful as the other, and choosing either one will have no bearing on your gameplay whatsoever, so feel free to pick the character you prefer to play as.