Il Dottore, also known as The Doctor and Zandik,[Note 1] is the Second of the Eleven Fatui Harbingers.[6]
He first appears in the manga, set some time before the game's story, as a diplomat to Mondstadt. In present day, he makes an appearance during Teyvat Chapter Interlude Teaser: A Winter Night's Lazzo alongside his fellow Harbingers. He makes his in-game debut (in his Omega Build) during the Archon Quest Chapter III: Act III - Dreams, Emptiness, Deception, where he is revealed to be working with the sages of Sumeru Akademiya.
Profile[]
Dottore's unfettered research towards creating a god, or elevating humans to the level of gods, left him ostracized from mainstream society but paved the way for him to become one of the most powerful members of the Eleven Fatui Harbingers,[7] with strength comparable to the gods'.[8] No subject is off-limits to him, and he has researched Khaenri'ah's Automatons; researched ways to weaponize forbidden knowledge (via The Withering and Eleazar); and sought to utilize the power of dreams to elevate humanity's cognitive abilities, all for his goal of putting humans at the same level as gods. This ambition is likely the reason why Pantalone, who seeks to "overthrow the natural imbalance between gods and humans," works closely with Dottore.[9]
Pursuing his research interests surpasses any of Dottore's moral scruples, which makes him an effective researcher but also often comes at the detriment of others. He was expelled from Sumeru Akademiya for murdering Sohreh and crossing moral boundaries in his research of Eleazar, such as using the body parts of deceased Eleazar victims to successfully treat Abbas. Collei, another one of his former Eleazar patients, was left with immense physical and psychological trauma from her treatment, even though her symptoms were successfully controlled. Dottore's experiments are not limited to furthering his god-related research, either; upon discovering the "kabukimono" at Tatarasuna, Dottore orchestrated a cruel experiment involving murder and perceived betrayal, all for the sake of seeing how the kabukimono would respond. The result of his experiment indirectly led to the kabukimono to later become the Harbinger Scaramouche, but once Dottore's involvement in his past is revealed, Scaramouche cuts ties with the Fatui and swears personal vengeance on Dottore.
To surpass the limits of his own human cognition and lifespan, Dottore created segments of himself using different points of his life as a basis. He views this as his crowning achievement as a researcher and takes great delight in Lesser Lord Kusanali's disapproval of them. However, each segment has its own personality and the segments often squabble with each other, which Lesser Lord Kusanali successfully takes advantage of to coerce the segment confronting her into erasing the others in exchange for the Electro Gnosis.[10]
Appearance[]
Il Dottore posing as Escher
So far, Dottore's segments shown in the manga and in-game are of an adult man with red eyes, wavy blue hair, and pale skin. Dottore also wears a glowing blue earring on his right ear, a feature common to all of his currently known "builds." During his time at Sumeru Akademiya, Sohreh described him as "young" and "handsome."[11]
In the manga, Dottore sports short and curly hair, and wears a long white coat over a pinstripe vest and white dress shirt, with a pink bow tie under the collar. He is seen wearing a black and white mask which covers his entire face, save for his eyes and a circular area around the right side of his mouth. The Fatui symbol can be seen at the top left corner of this mask.
Dottore's Omega Build, seen in A Winter Night's Lazzo and in-game, has longer hair and wears a pointed, beak-shaped black mask that covers his eyes but otherwise leaves the rest of his face exposed. He wears a long white coat over a blue dress shirt and cravat, with a raven-like accessory draped around his shoulders. Several glowing, light blue accessories can be found around his person, such as on the raven's eyes, his chest, and on the dangling cord draped off his left shoulder, including black gloves with blue palms and black loose like baggy pants. Based on his memories recorded in Irminsul, the Omega Build is derived from Dottore's appearance and personality 400 years ago, during which he perpetrated the Tatarasuna Mystery incident.[12][Note 2]
Dottore is also able to take on completely different appearances, posing as a mechanic from Fontaine named Escher during The Night-Bird Falls at the Curtain's Call. During this quest, he wears Fontaine clothing and a belt with a knife in a scabbard attached on it located behind his back.
Quests and Events[]
Archon Quests
Story[]
History[]
Pre-Fatui Life[]
Since his youth, Dottore, then known as Zandik, had an obsession with creating "enhanced humans" that could surpass even the gods. It is unknown if this ambition was what got him chased out of his hometown and accused of being a "monster" and a "madman" after he was admitted into Sumeru Akademiya. His Darshan is not mentioned, apart from explicitly excluding him from Amurta. Most of his actions during that time are recorded in the Zandik's Legacy series of interactables, which relates heavily to Ardravi Valley's lore.
Zandik once took part of an expedition to the ancient desert city of Gurabad, where he encountered machines and technology he believed to be made by civilization not under the rule of The Seven. However, the "Gurabad samples," as he called them, were fragmented and incomplete, leaving him few leads to continue researching.[13][14]
He then took part in an Ardravi Valley expedition as a trainee Dastur, where he discovered many pieces that were missing from the Gurabad samples. He believed that he would be able to repair the machine's automatic system with these parts. During this time, he also discovered the records left behind by the Schwanenritter (which the Traveler can themselves uncover as well), and tied them back to the legends about the Ruins of Dahri.[14]
While exploring the jungle, Zandik was partnered with a Dastur named Sohreh. Although she initially found him "rigid" and bemoaned that his research style clashed too much with Amurta's for them to have anything to talk about, they eventually made conversation about local plants and animals. Sohreh describes it as "a great time," and her note ends with a remark about how they would go on a picnic together later that night.[11]
What happened next is unclear. The next record involving them is the Ragged Attendance Record, which states that Zandik had "acted without authorization for the third time." The record goes on to list a gravely injured Sohreh, who was ostensibly attacked by Rishboland Tigers.[15] Soon after, the team was attacked by a killing machine which Zandik disabled with his quick thinking. However, his desire to bring it back to the Akademiya for disassembly and reverse-engineering was rebuked by his peers and teachers. As punishment, Sage Sharnama delisted him from the author list of the paper that the expedition had been writing. During this time, Sohreh died and was buried.[16]
At some point, Sohreh's remains were exhumed and dissected to verify her cause of death. Despite the lacerations and hemorrhaging, the actual fatal injury was a fractured hyoid bone — which suggested she had died from strangulation, not from lacerations or blood loss like the rest of the Investigation Team was led to believe. The coroner could not reach a conclusion as to her actual cause of death.[17]
At an unknown point in time, Zandik was also involved in some sort of medical research related to Eleazar in Apam Woods, recorded in some Ragged Records. The lab's child subjects all disappeared mysteriously, which Zandik believed was the result of interference by the Aranara, a ley line/elemental creature with the power to control dreams. This led him to conclude that by capturing and controlling the Aranara, human intelligence could be "elevated [...] to a whole new level," and humanity could "transcend the earthly boundaries."[18] He also participated in Eleazar research in Dar al-Shifa, in which he successfully managed to cure an Eleazar patient named Abbas by using "materials" procured from the remains of other deceased patients.[19] Abbas, however, was deeply scarred by his treatment and eventually dug his way out of the hospital out of sheer desperation.[20]
Investigators at the Akademiya grew suspicious of Zandik. The results of Sohreh's autopsy suggested she had been murdered at his hands, and certain records went missing.[21] He was eventually expelled from the Akademiya,[22] something he considered a loss despite the rejection he faced from his peers and teachers, as he needed "an environment conducive to research."[7]
Fatui Involvement[]
After his expulsion, Zandik was approached by Pierro, who invited him to become part of the Fatui with the promise of resources for his research. He agreed, and was given the title of Il Dottore, or The Doctor — which he found humorously ironic.[7]
Under Dottore's guidance, the Fatui performed research related to Eleazar, a disease only found in Sumeru. Collei was given to them for treatment and underwent painful and traumatic experiments with gods' remains, which was effective in suppressing Eleazar's effects but left her traumatized and afflicted with other symptoms.[23][24] Those symptoms went away after Cyno sealed away the gods' remains.[25]
Dottore also infiltrated Tatarasuna under Pierro's orders to sabotage the Mikage Furnace as part of their plans for Inazuma in the future. Using the alias Escher, he supplied the furnace with materials that soon caused it to go critical. Niwa Hisahide, Armory Officer of the Mikage Furnace, was forced to head inside to fix it, but before he could do so, Dottore killed him and removed his heart, putting it into a box that the kabukimono later known as Scaramouche would take to cleanse the Furnace. When the puppet opened the box, he found a withered heart inside; Dottore lied that the heart was from an innocent servant whom Niwa had killed before fleeing. Niwa's apparent betrayal of the puppet and the people of Tatarasuna left the puppet enraged and disgusted. Dottore and Pierro both showed interest in the puppet, believing he would be of use to the Fatui.[12]
At some point after Diluc's departure from Mondstadt and before the events of the manga's main story, Dottore single-handedly defeated Ursa the Drake and made Mondstadt indebted to the Fatui.[26] Dottore began recruiting vulnerable targets in Mondstadt, luring them to the Fatui only to use them as test subject for his and his subordinates' human experiments. He also began setting up an unknown project in Mondstadt, which he intended to check up on while attending Ludi Harpastum. It is unclear whether Dottore had a hand in the events surrounding Diluc's 18th birthday, such as giving Crepus a Delusion, luring Ursa the Drake to attack Crepus and Diluc's caravan, or being involved with the Knights of Favonius traitor Eroch.
When Scaramouche joined the Fatui, Dottore modified him to unlock his power, and he even gained abilities beyond what Ei had originally given him.[27] After several decades of studying the methods used to create Scaramouche,[28] Dottore decided to create segments of himself at different ages in order to gain the perspectives from his various stages of life. These segments are created with rare materials and are time-consuming to produce, making them highly valuable to him.[10]
Dottore would maintain a good relationship with the Fatui Harbinger Crucabena, who occasionally sent him grievously injured orphans to experiment on. After she was killed by Peruere, Dottore found the new Knave less cordial, due to her disdain on his experiments regarding children. She shut down all but one of his proposals regarding a "secret experiment," though he only proposed a direction for the research at most.[29]
Manga[]
Dottore first appears in Haeresys, a Fatui underground arena where Krupp is putting his test subjects into fights against an unknown enemy. After his 139th subject dies, Dottore calls his work "pathetic as usual" and threatens to turn Krupp into one of his test subjects instead. Krupp, desperate to avoid that fate, turns his attention to Mondstadt's invitation to attend Ludi Harpastum.[26]
The two arrived at Diluc's Manor, where Diluc and other prestigious members of Mondstadt high society have gathered. Dottore leaves most of the talk to Krupp, only speaking to express his disdain for the people of Mondstadt. He stalks off after Diluc delays the negotiations, but returns to silence Krupp when the "Darknight Hero" (a disguised Diluc) is about to interrogate him. Bemused by the boy's abilities, Dottore leaves, telling him to get stronger.[26]
No longer interested in Mondstadt, he drops the negotiations, orders his diplomats to withdraw, and returns to Haeresys first.[24] He does, however, reclaim Krupp's corpse to transform him into a Ruin Hunter-like monster. After learning of the Black Fire incident instigated by Collei, which left two of his diplomats dead, he expresses complete apathy towards the matter and leaves it to his subordinate Barnabas.[30]
He reappears in Chapter 16, where he expresses annoyance that the guards were incompetent enough to let the captured "Darknight Hero" escape, while Barnabas was severely wounded in the aftermath of his attack on Collei and Amber.
In-Game[]
At some point before Mighty Cyclops' Adventure!, the Fatui built a Ruin Guard manufacturing facility as part of their research into the Abyss. Tartaglia believes that this facility belonged to Dottore, and the whimsical researcher abandoned the autonomous facility after growing bored with it without shutting it down. This resulted in the manufactured Ruin Guards spreading into the surrounding area, attracting the attention of the Millelith. Towards the end of the Chapter, Tartaglia took his younger brother Teucer there, claiming it was the "Liyue Institute for Toy Research." Over the course of exploring the factory, Tartaglia and the Traveler end up wrecking the facility to keep Teucer safe.[31]
One of Dottore's Segments appears at La Signora's funeral, where Il Capitano presses him on the whereabouts of Scaramouche and the Inazuman Gnosis. Dottore's roundabout answer reveals he is waiting on Scaramouche to make a move first. Meanwhile, the Segment in the prime of Dottore's life is busy conducting an experiment in "blasphemy," which takes the form of burning a massive tree at an unknown location.[32]
Learning of the Akademiya's desire to restore their fallen god, Dottore headed to the Akademiya and offered to make them a replacement, which they agreed to. The extent of his assistance to the sages is unknown.
Dottore was also interested in the Aranara, a race of strange mushroom creatures as he was interested in the connection between them, dreams, and The Withering that occurred in Sumeru; Trofin Snezhevich believes that he was interested in weaponizing dreams and the Withering for unknown purposes. Aware that only children could see the Aranara, he had the Fatui kidnap children to lure them; however, their powers allowed them to escape the trap and rescue the children at the same time.[33] The Farrokhzadan were a group of Eremites hired to help carry Dottore's tasks in Sumeru, although they also failed due to the Traveler's intervention.
At some point in time, the Desert Investigation Expedition Team led by Froderock Fronkonsteen, Dottore's subordinate, was dispatched to the Desert of Hadramaveth with a mission to investigate the current situation with the desert tribes.[34] They attempted to have dealings with the Tanit tribe, only to be manipulated by its matriarch, Babel.
Dottore makes his first appearance before the Traveler when they, Paimon, and Nahida (in Katheryne's body) attempt to get information on the sages' plans from Setaria. Having foreseen Setaria's wavering loyalties, Dottore and the sages put her in confinement and Dottore set up an ambush. Modifying the Akasha terminals to deposit information into people's minds, Dottore made them think of the Traveler as a great hero, which caused them to swarm the three. To save her people and buy her companions time to escape, Nahida plays her trump card: using her own powers to forcibly control the Akasha terminals and undo the changes which Dottore had affected. However, by doing so, she revealed her true nature to the Harbinger.[6]
Although Nahida initially manages to escape from Dottore, she realizes that his skill in modifying the Akasha meant it was only a matter of time before he would trap her consciousness. Meanwhile, Dottore predicted that the Traveler would attempt to rendezvous with Tighnari, who had turned down the sages' offer to join their project, and sent elite Eremite mercenaries after them. Although the Traveler and Nahida reunite at Pardis Dhyai and discover the sages' true objective — creating a new god in Scaramouche — Dottore succeeds in trapping Nahida's consciousness and his Eremite mercenaries destroy the Katheryne puppet.[35]
Dottore later visited Tighnari in order to acquire Haypasia claiming that he would be able to help her, but Tighnari refused, having suspected malevolent intent behind his claim. Having been recalled to the Tsaritsa, he later had a few subordinates stay behind to take her by force, diverting the Traveler and Dehya to Port Ormos. Despite the ruse, his subordinates were defeated and forced to retreat after Scaramouche began pelting the area with thunderbolts with Ei's Gnosis when the Traveler informed him that he was trying to take Haypasia.[36]
After the Traveler and Nahida defeated Scaramouche, a segment of Dottore confronts Nahida, using a special sound wave to put the Traveler and Paimon to sleep. He then negotiates with her, acquiring Ei's Electro Gnosis in return for destroying the other segments, with some being uncaring while others swore revenge. He also negotiated for her own Dendro Gnosis, after giving her information that the stars and skies were a "lie" before returning to the Tsaritsa in Snezhnaya.
Character Mentions[]
Character Stories
| Character | Stories |
|---|---|
| As Dottore: As Escher: |
Character Voice-Overs
| Character | Voice-Overs |
|---|---|
| |
| |
| |
|
Trivia[]
- The Chinese version of the manga misspelled "Dottore" as "Dotorre,"[37] a mistake that was carried over into earlier chapters of the English translation. The English version rectified this mistake in later chapters.
- In The Night-Bird Falls at the Curtain's Call, it was revealed that he has the ability to completely change his appearance.[12]
Etymology[]
- Like the other Harbingers, Dottore's alias is derived from a stock character in commedia dell'arte. "Il Dottore" (The Doctor) is usually extremely rich and bombastic, loving the sound of his own voice. In commedia dell'arte, he typically tries to interfere with the Innamorati "The Lovers." He is also linked to Pantalone as they are both vecchi (aged old men in Commedia tradition that typically scheme to keep the Innamorati away from each other).
- Zandik (𐭦𐭭𐭣𐭩𐭪 Zandīk) is a Zoroastrian term which refers to a heretic, or any person who did not follow Zoroastrian orthodoxy.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Artwork[]
.png "Character Il Dottore (Manga).png (266 KB)")
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 While Zandik has not been explicitly stated to be Il Dottore's original name, attempting to input "Zandik" during the Wanderer's renaming process in Inversion of Genesis will trigger the Wanderer's reaction to names related to the other Fatui Harbingers, and the only Harbinger who Zandik can be is Il Dottore.
- ↑ Dottore did not develop his Segments until several decades after Scaramouche joined the Fatui, which was sometime after their mutual involvement in events at Tatarasuna, making it likely that the Omega Build's appearance was Dottore's natural appearance at the time.
Other Languages[]
Dottore
| Language | Official Name |
|---|---|
| English | Dottore |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 多托雷 Duōtuōléi |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 多托雷 Duōtuōléi |
| Japanese | ドットーレ Dottoore |
| Korean | 도토레 Dotore |
| Spanish | Dottore |
| French | Dottore |
| Russian | Дотторе Dottore |
| Thai | Il Dottore |
| Vietnamese | Il Dottore |
| German | Il Dottore |
| Indonesian | Il Dottore |
| Portuguese | Il Dottore |
| Turkish | Il Dottore |
| Italian | Dottore |
The Doctor
| Language | Official Name | Literal Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| English | The Doctor | — |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 博士 Bóshì | Doctor[• 1] |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 博士 Bóshì | |
| Japanese | 博士 Hakase[4] | Doctor[• 1] |
| Korean | 박사박사 Baksa | Doctor[• 1] |
| Spanish | El Doctor | The Doctor |
| French | Le Docteur | The Doctor |
| Russian | Доктор Doktor | The Doctor[• 1] |
| Thai | The Doctor | — |
| Vietnamese | The Doctor | — |
| German | Doktor | Doctor |
| Indonesian | The Doctor | — |
| Portuguese | Doutor | Doctor |
| Turkish | Doktor | Doctor |
| Italian | Il Luminare | The Luminary |
Zandik
| Language | Official Name |
|---|---|
| English | Zandik |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 赞迪克 Zàndíkè |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 贊迪克 Zàndíkè |
| Japanese | ザンディク Zandiku |
| Korean | 잔디크 Jandikeu |
| Spanish | Zandik |
| French | Zandik |
| Russian | Зандик Zandik |
| Thai | Zandik |
| Vietnamese | Zandik |
| German | Zandik |
| Indonesian | Zandik |
| Portuguese | Zandik |
| Turkish | Zandik |
| Italian | Zandik |
Change History[]
- The Doctor was released as a quest-exclusive NPC.
- The Doctor was mentioned as "Dottore" in Defender of Childhood Dreams in Tartaglia's Story Quest, Monoceros Caeli Chapter: Act I - Mighty Cyclops' Adventure!.
References[]
- ↑ YouTube: Teyvat Chapter Interlude Teaser: A Winter Night's Lazzo (Video Description)
- ↑ Twitter: EN VA Self Announcement
- ↑ Bilibili: 《原神·提瓦特篇》幕间PV-「冬夜愚戏」 (Video Description)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Twitter: JP VA Announcement
- ↑ YouTube: 원신 티바트편 막간 PV - 「한겨울 밤의 광대극」 (Video Description)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Archon Quest, Chapter III, Act III - Dreams, Emptiness, Deception, Part 1: Like a Triumphant Hero
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Artifact Set: Pale Flame
- ↑ Archon Quest, Chapter III, Act V - Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises, Part 5: A Toast to Victory
- ↑ Wanderer's Voice-Over: About Regrator
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Archon Quest, Chapter III, Act V - Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises, Part 4: Where the Boat of Consciousness Lies
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Interactable: Sohreh's Note
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Archon Quest, Interlude Chapter, Act III - Inversion of Genesis, Part 1: The Night-Bird Falls at the Curtain's Call
- ↑ Interactable: Zandik's Legacy, Ancient Work Log
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Interactable: Zandik's Legacy, Akademiya Investigation Team's Interim Report
- ↑ Interactable: Ragged Attendance Records
- ↑ Interactable: Sumeru Investigation Team's Note
- ↑ Interactable: Dissection Records
- ↑ Interactable: Ragged Records
- ↑ Sumeru Hidden Exploration Objective, Unordered: Eleazar Hospital Notes
- ↑ Sumeru Hidden Exploration Objective, Unordered: Abbas' Escape
- ↑ Point of Interest, Akademiya Public Message Board: Zandik
- ↑ Artifact, Deepwood Memories: A Time of Insight
- ↑ Archon Quest, Chapter III, Act I - Through Mists of Smoke and Forests Dark, Part 3: Chronic Illness
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Manga, Chapter 2: Flame Born (Part 1)
- ↑ Manga, Chapter 13: Dual Recurrence
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Manga, Chapter 1: Bad Wine (Part 1)
- ↑ Archon Quest, Chapter II, Act III - Omnipresence Over Mortals, Part 9: Wishes
- ↑ Wanderer's Character Story: Character Story 4
- ↑ Story Quest, Arlecchino, Ignis Purgatorius Chapter: Act I - When the Hearth-Flame Goes Out, Part 3: Birds in a Cage
- ↑ Manga, Chapter 9: Ludi Harpastum (Part 1)
- ↑ Story Quest, Tartaglia, Monoceros Caeli Chapter: Act I - Mighty Cyclops' Adventure!, Part 3: Defender of Childhood Dreams
- ↑ YouTube: Teyvat Chapter Interlude Teaser: A Winter Night's Lazzo
- ↑ Sumeru Hidden Exploration Objective, Quest-Like: The Bad Guy in Vimara Village
- ↑ World Quest: Rejoice With Me, for What Was Lost Is Now Found
- ↑ Archon Quest, Chapter III, Act III - Dreams, Emptiness, Deception, Part 2: The Gaze From a Certain God
- ↑ Archon Quest, Chapter III, Act V - Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises, Part 2: As by a God's Side
- ↑ Chinese Manga, Chapter 1: 添酒
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