After over 3 months in the making, I finally decided to post this article. I originally wanted to post this back in January during version 5.3, but work has taken most of my time, so this was eventually postponed all the way to 5.5, and just a day before the 5.6 livestream arrives. I will update this once we get further information, be it from the stream, the preload, or the upcoming 5.7 leaks.

Genshin is a game I’ve been playing for over a year now, not because I fell for the marketing and paid promotion by content creators, but because this is the type of game you can play when you have a lot going on IRL. Ever since I have a job, I just barely have time to play anything that either requires extensive playthroughs or lengthy multiplayer sessions, so the games I used to play like Overwatch or Apex simply don’t cut it anymore.

One of the things that really bug me with this game however is the fact that they killed one of the more prominent characters in the game without making them playable. I’m talking about Signora, the 8th of the Harbingers and the first one you meet in the game.

She’s been dead for over 3 years, and people criticized how pointless her death was and how it’s only done for the shock value to sell Raiden, which was already very hyped, at the expense of Signora mains. We didn’t even have a deep dive into her personality aside from background artifact lore and mentions from other Harbingers. With the release of version 5.3, some people are disappointed when they figure out that they STILL haven’t brought her back. They teased Natlan’s archon quest chapter in the “Travail” teaser as “Incandescent Ode of Resurrection”, with pyro being the main element in this region, and many were expecting that they would bring her back in there, due to the potential connection between the liquid fire described in her lore and the pyro element or phlogiston in Natlan.

But alas, that never happened, and even worse is that we’ve got another Harbinger dying in this region: Capitano. Well, he didn’t really “die” per se, but he was basically put into a coma after transferring his consciousness to the Lord of the Night to stop Mavuika from sacrificing herself, and to release the souls he had carried during the last 500 years. Those who have been waiting for him to become playable are immediately let down by this, as he’s likely to be out of commission for a while before he returns as a playable character.

The thing about him though, is that at least he still has a body to return to, so the chances of him coming back is still quite high. Signora on the other hand was completely vaporized, which means that people are doubting her return, and that makes me really upset due to how unfair this is.

I decided to write this entire article on why Signora is very likely to be resurrected, against all odds, because it seems that the majority of the Genshin community have pretty much lost all hopes in her return, which is a bad thing because players should keep the conversation going to let Hoyo know that there’s still people out there who wanted her back and playable. Never settle for less. Signora mains don’t need to reach the point of acceptance; it’s Hoyo that needs to do so.

Table of contents

A little background on why I want Signora to be playable

When I first played the game, My first impression of Signora was that she’s just your average villainy-type character, and she was simply meant to introduce you to one of the game’s antagonistic factions. I didn’t think about her much back then. When she reappeared in Liyue, this thought still didn’t change. I’d expect to meet her again considering how it seemed that they’re in pursuit of the gnoses, but we were also introduced to Childe, another member of the Harbingers.

It wasn’t until Inazuma and its final act that I started to pay more attention to her. When Raiden killed her, I was initially confused as to why it happened so abruptly. One moment she was a smug antagonist. The next, she’s on her knees, hysterically begging to be spared, and was then killed, all without a sense of buildup or resolution.

What I did afterwards changed my life entirely.

I started looking through Reddit posts if anyone has a similar opinion about this because holy fuck, that ending was very unsatisfying and confusing, and it turns out that yes, it’s not just me who thought this is bad. Everyone who has played through this unanimously considered this to be the lowest point of Genshin’s storytelling, and everything about it just felt rushed.

And then things took a turn for the worse. Upon reading through so many posts, I was exposed to the dark side of the Genshin community: the harassment towards Signora mains. At first, I thought the memes were mildly amusing. “Haha, Signora’s banner was revealed, and it turned out to be a pile of ash”, “her banner is a coffin”, or “maybe she shouldn’t have been so smug in that quest”.

But then I dug deeper and found out that they actually harassed an entire subreddit over the Winter Night’s Lazzo video to the point where the subreddit went private for a while, and I was like “What the fuck? That’s actually fucked up. Why are these people so petty?”, and that’s how I fell into this rabbit hole of defending Signora mains and hoping that she gets playable so the intense toxicity and hatred towards them could stop, because frankly, they too wanted to enjoy the game and play as the character they wanted, and I think it’s Hoyo’s responsibility to address this, especially when their storytelling decisions have led to a marginalized group of fans being mocked or harassed long-term like this.

I was a lurker at first, because I find it disturbing that Signora mains are being actively harassed almost every day, even in their own subreddit, which just shows how petty some of these people can be. But I decided to finally speak up by posting this, because looking through posts over the last few months regarding her, there’s a clear trend that the expectations for her return is at an all-time low, even on subreddits like r/FatuiHQ where there’s a strong bias towards people wanting all Harbingers to be playable.

Disclaimer

While I strive to check for factual accuracy whenever possible, the content in this post is an opinion piece that is mostly speculations and educated guesses, with evidences backing them. Do not harass any specific character mains or members of the community over this resurrection debacle. I do not tolerate those who make fun of anyone who just wanted to enjoy the game and play as the characters they want, and this includes some Signora fans who harass other communities. Keep it civil, because even a single bad apple ruins the bunch.

Important countdowns and count-ups

Here’s a selection of milestone countdowns and count-ups for Signora, just to let you know how much time has passed, and how much time is left to expect for any news regarding her potential return in the near future.

Days since Signora's death:

Days since A Winter Night's Lazzo was released:

Days since Signora's last appearance (in official media):

Time until 18 June 2025 (version 5.7) - the earliest we'll probably hear about Signora's leaks:

Time until 30 July 2025 (version 5.8) - Signora's possible launch:

Keep reading to find out how I came up with these dates.

Before we take a deep dive into why she may be resurrected in Natlan, I highly recommend reading this document by u/terrible-punmaster69 on the r/SignoraMains subreddit. It gives a good insight of some of the arguments I’ll be bringing up in here, while my post is meant to reinforce them, especially now that we’ve gotten more relevant information regarding Natlan and future content.

This was written before the 5.0 livestream came out, and now that we’ve gotten more information in-game, we can finally piece together new arguments on why she may eventually be playable in Natlan

General reasons why Signora will be resurrected

Let’s start with the marketing and business standpoint first, because I think this is the most important rationale for releasing new characters. After all, Hoyo is a company, and the sole purpose of a company is to make as much money as possible. Then we will proceed with the more speculative theories.

The Harbingers are some of the most notable characters in the game due to their status as one of the major antagonists, along with their strong presence in the lore and within the fandom, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they are incredibly popular, second only to the archons which are even more prominent. Just look at the hype surrounding Dottore, Scaramouche, Arlecchino, and Capitano, when they’re involved in the archon quests. People always have high expectations that they become playable in the same region the AQ is taking place in, and when they don’t, they keep coming up with theories and speculations as to when they should expect them to return and/or become playable.

Because of this, the Harbingers tend to be an outlier in terms of pull count and banner revenue, usually outperforming most of the other characters Hoyo has released in the same region and only trailing behind the archons. This makes them extremely profitable, and Hoyo is very likely incentivized to prioritize the launches of these characters alongside the archons. Additionally, the Harbingers serve as a counterpart to the archons in terms of gameplay, with them offering powerful DPS kits as opposed to the archons’ support-oriented kits, and for some people, that itself is a selling point as main DPS characters usually have more screen time in the Abyss or Theater than with sub-DPS and supports.


Top 10 most pulled characters in versions 4.0 - 4.8, including reruns



Top 10 most pulled characters in versions 3.0 - 3.8, including reruns



Top 20 most pulled characters in versions 3.0 - 4.8, including reruns



Overall banner revenue in versions 1.0 - 1.6 (CN iOS). Note that this uses data from genshinlab instead of paimon.moe as the latter is unable to track pull data earlier than Hu Tao's initial run in 1.3, and even then, the pull count is unusually low

While Hoyo has never publicly disclosed the game’s banner revenue or number of pulls, third party data from sites like paimon.moe or genshinlab.com mostly backs this up, with Wanderer and Arlecchino being some of the most pulled characters at launch. There is a discrepancy with Tartaglia in that he’s the only Harbinger that didn’t outperform most other characters at launch, but this is likely caused by the fact that the meta was still not very well-established in 1.x, which led to people pulling on characters that wouldn’t be as meta today, such as Klee or Venti. In addition, the banner revenues for version 1.0 is likely an outlier due to the fact that this took place during the game’s initial release, and the first few weeks of a game’s launch is usually its most profitable time period.

Do note that the data may not be representative, especially with paimon.moe, as these are just from the people who were willing to submit their pull history in there. However, as a general approximation of how popular a character is, I think this is still a reasonable metric to use due to the sheer sample size alone.

This brings us to the next point, which is…

Hoyo is likely to capitalize on completing this set of characters to lure the Harbinger collectors into spending more money

Hoyo has every reason to complete this set of characters because it makes them a lot of money. Gacha games thrive on collection incentives, and there is no denying the psychological draw of “completing a group”. By emphasizing the phrase “Eleven Fatui Harbingers” instead of simply referring to them as “The Fatui Harbingers”, the developers have established a clear, finite group that players can latch onto. This wasn’t accidental; it’s a carefully crafted setup to stoke desire among completionist players and Harbinger enthusiasts alike. As more of the Harbingers become playable, the pressure increases for fans to collect all of them, especially those who have already invested in characters like Wanderer, Childe, or Arlecchino.

In this context, Signora’s return is not just possible; it’s highly probable. She’s already established in the lore, had a boss fight with a unique dual-elemental mechanic, and possesses a fanbase that has only grown more vocal and determined over time. Ignoring her entirely would leave a glaring gap in what many fans now see as an inevitable lineup of all eleven Harbingers becoming playable. If Hoyo wants to keep capitalizing on the immense popularity of this group, and encourage players to spend their pulls in pursuit of the full Harbinger collection, then bringing back Signora isn’t just giving their mains a good service. It’s smart business.

Reusing an existing character like Signora is more cost-effective than designing an entirely new character

From a business standpoint, it’s better for a company to strive for efficiency and take advantage of existing resources rather than trying to put the effort to make something new whenever possible. Sure, you could argue that Hoyo could just design a new character and sell them, and people would gobble it up anyway. However, one thing that this argument overlooks is the cost of designing a new character. Hiring a design team is expensive, and companies would rather save money than wasting them on something that may not yield them above-average returns.

Because Signora is a Harbinger who already has an existing model and story to boot, the return on investment is likely to be better compared to releasing new characters or even new Harbingers as it would take far less effort to reuse her model for a playable one, design a kit based on her abilities during her appearance in Mondstadt and Inazuma, and flesh out her character story, in contrast to making everything from scratch.

And before you argue that people who want Signora have been collecting free primos for years, so Signora won’t bring much money just like Baizhu, here’s a counterargument: how many of them are actually saving for her? Realistically, most people wouldn’t bother doing so because her playability is still uncertain, and with character banners often being incredibly tempting, they’d rather pull for characters now and deal with Signora later than having to miss out on potentially powerful characters and constellations, myself included.

This is especially the case now with the Abyss floor 12 having buffs that constantly shill specific elements and/or attack types (e.g. Hydro skill DMG) along with an increasingly aggressive HP inflation, which could make players feel left behind if they don’t get the latest characters or constellations for their existing characters.

Most people simply do not have the impulse control to hold off of pulling other characters while they wait for her resurrection, let alone saving up for C6. Anyone who assumes that most players who want Signora have a strong impulse control have no idea that psychological tactics and FOMO are very effective to get people to spend their pulls.

Harbingers are predominantly male, in a game with a predominantly female playable cast

Hoyo has a history of releasing female characters more frequently than male ones. They clearly know their target demographic and figured out that female characters usually sell better than male ones unless if a male character has a kit that is meta-defining (e.g. Alhaitham, Neuvillette) or is an Archon or Harbinger (e.g. Zhongli, Wanderer). With HI3, the playable cast is almost exclusively female, aside from Adam (which was very poorly received and only playable in specific areas), which further corroborates this.

Harbingers are an outlier in that the female characters are in the minority. To me, it would be incredibly stupid if Hoyo decided to squander this opportunity by not releasing any of the female Harbingers as a playable character (including Signora), given how they are very likely to perform well in banner revenue with the target demographic the game is mainly aimed towards. The fact that they killed Signora despite the female Harbingers being few and far between should’ve been enough to raise some eyebrows among the marketing department, and it should be their top priority to bring her back as a playable character.


The gender distribution of groups of characters in Genshin. Notice how the Harbingers are the only group of characters that have more male characters than female ones.

Her nonstandard model is no longer an issue

An argument against Signora’s resurrection is how she has a nonstandard model which is taller than the normal tall female model, reaching a height that matches the tall male model instead. However, Mavuika uses a nonstandard tall female model that doesn’t line up with the rest of tall female characters, and Capitano also uses a nonstandard model that’s taller than the usual tall male model, and yet he’s labeled as “Avatar_Sword” anyway, which implies future playability. Additionally, Varesa notably uses a nonstandard medium female model in which she appears to be pudgier than all medium female characters that have been released so far, and she was released in 5.5.

This means that any argument which claims that her model would be too difficult to use for a playable rig simply because she’s too big or her model would clip is invalid, as Hoyo has clearly shown that they are now willing to step out of the comfort zone and make playable characters with nonstandard models. And besides, the community has gone out of their way to make playable Signora mods while preventing clipping issues. If these modders can do it with absolutely zero budget, then I’m sure that Hoyo, a giant corporation, can too.

The playability of a character does not necessarily require any foreshadowing beforehand

This is something that some people don’t seem to be aware of. People keep arguing that she will not be playable because we’ve yet to see any concrete hints of her resurrection, which is a valid but flawed argument. Even if there’s hardly any hints of her resurrection, Hoyo can still release her anyway because at the end of the day, they can choose whichever path they want to market a character. Not to mention that they’re better at closely guarding information for major characters now than ever before, after they suffered from a massive Fontaine leak a few years ago, so it’s definitely possible that information pertaining to highly anticipated characters are more closely guarded than others.

A recent example of this is how Hoyo took many people by surprise when they teased us Skirk’s silhouette in the 5.3 livestream, when most people at the time were anticipating her to become playable in Snezhnaya or Khaenriah. She was never hinted to be playable this early, even in the final act of the AQ. By this logic of “foreshadowing is required”, then there’s no way she would’ve become playable in Natlan like this, but Hoyo proved this wrong with them teasing her upcoming playability anyway.

The lack of a playable model does not necessarily imply non-playability

A common argument raised against Signora’s potential return as a playable character revolves around the absence of a designated “avatar” model in the game files. In Genshin, playable characters typically have a specific model classification, commonly referred to as “avatar” models, distinct from the ones used for NPCs or boss enemies. Signora only has entries for NPC and “monster” models, similar to how she appears in her boss fight in Inazuma. This is often cited as supposed “proof” that she was never intended to be playable, unlike characters like Wanderer or Baizhu, who had their avatar models present long before their official release.

However, this line of reasoning overlooks an important and often underestimated reality: business strategies and creative plans in live service games are constantly evolving. Even if the original development trajectory didn’t include making Signora playable, that doesn’t mean those plans are set in stone. In fact, Hoyo has already demonstrated their willingness to pivot in response to player demand or changing internal goals, such as how they reverted Neuvillette’s rotation speed nerf in 4.8 just a few hours after it took effect, while giving all players 1600 primos as a compensation, or how they released Nod-Krai before Snezhnaya when it was never originally teased in the Travail trailer. As the overwhelming popularity of the Harbingers continues to grow, it’s entirely plausible that Hoyo has re-evaluated Signora’s status and recognized the massive revenue opportunity in reviving her as a playable character.

Moreover, the absence of an avatar model in current public builds doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Hoyo has always been extremely cautious when it comes to spoiling major narrative reveals or character introductions, especially for characters that would have a significant story impact. Including a fully functional playable model for Signora in the game files would be a massive spoiler, potentially ruining what could be one of the most shocking and emotional moments in the game’s future. To avoid leaks, it’s entirely within reason that they would keep such data under strict internal wraps until the reveal is ready (see: Wanderer’s launch, Skirk’s teaser in 5.3).

There is already precedent for this kind of character transition. Xianyun/Cloud Retainer is a prime example. Initially, she existed solely as a non-playable crane NPC with no playable human model in sight. Yet, in 4.4, she made the leap to a full-fledged playable character with a newly designed human form, something no one could have anticipated from just looking at the early files. This transformation proves that Hoyo has the resources and creative flexibility to develop new models and reimagine existing characters as needed.

With this in mind, dismissing Signora’s potential solely based on current file classifications is shortsighted. If anything, her absence from the game data may be intentional, a sign that something big is being kept under wraps for future narrative and marketing impact.

Dual-element characters are definitely possible

Another argument against Signora’s resurrection is that she has two different elements: cryo and pyro. This makes her kit difficult as she would either only be allowed to use her cryo form (either via delusion or a newly-acquired Vision), or have her use only her pyro (Crimson Witch) form, which lorewise would eventually cause her to burn herself out. However, as of 5.1, there is finally a character who is able to use multiple elements, which is Chasca. Since Hoyo is willing to explore the possibilities of multi-element kits, the argument that she can’t be playable because of that is also no longer valid.

Her unmasked face has never been revealed

The Harbingers often have masks or other items that obscure parts of their face. Once they become playable, they’re always shown unmasked, allowing the player to see their whole face.

When Signora died, we never get to see her full face, and when she was shown in an Arlecchino animatic, her bangs cover the side of her face that was originally covered by her mask. Why the insistence in not revealing her face? Well, the only possibility is that they wanted to reveal her full face later on, likely when she gets resurrected, because remember that we got her mask as some kind of trophy for completing Inazuma AQ, and her resurrection would certainly reveal the rest of her face.

Xiao Luohao’s alleged statement of a “surprising reunion with a Harbinger”

I stumbled upon a Reddit post a while ago that allegedly describes a speech by Xiao Luohao, the game’s editor-in-chief, at Fudan University, back when 4.5 or 4.6 was the latest version of the game. Unfortunately, the original post itself (hosted on NGA and in Chinese) no longer exists and leads to a 404 page, but the OP was able to take a screenshot of the post before it vanished. I had a native Chinese speaker translate it for me in case the OP’s translation wasn’t accurate enough, and it reads (emphasis mine):

I’ll add more to their answers, and provide some news I know.

The resources of Genshin Impact are more than enough to make Genshin Impact 2. Yes, you read that right, there will be Genshin Impact 2. Now the lore of Fontaine is only a third of the entire Genshin Impact lore. Xiaoluohao has admitted, in a roundabout way, that Genshin Impact has had changes of personnel, also, the team finishes the story’s outline in a year or two beforehand.

There are very few lore spoilers. He said that the tree-burning plot of A Winter Night’s Lazzo will come up later. Both Dottore and Tsaritsa will have unexpected actions later on, and that you will be very surprised to be reunited with a Harbinger. Have a guess, however you like! I won’t say it anyway.

Xiaoluohao isn’t any new employee. He’s been in Mihoyo for quite a few years, and is considered to be just below the old guys like Dawei. He also admitted that he’s partial to characters with medium and short female models.

I heard the final piece of info from somewhere else. The banner revenue for version 4.4 was quite a blow to them, they really thought a lot of people would be pulling for Xianyun. However, the internal statistics shows that she isn’t as popular as expected (the data from Feixiaoqiu and paimon.moe are still insufficient).

Oh, I have to elaborate, regarding the section about lore spoilers. I paraphrased Xiaoluohao.

Taking the context of when this speech took place, we can narrow down the possibilities of who this Harbinger is.

Some of you might speculate that this could be the 10th Harbinger we’ve yet to know instead, under the assumption that Pierro doesn’t count as a Harbinger similar to Diamond not counting as one of the Ten Stonehearts in HSR, but this is not the case. Arlecchino’s voice line about Pierro officially confirms that he counts as a Harbinger, which further strengthens the theory that Xiao Luohao really is referring to Signora in that statement.

As the original Harbinger, much about him remains a mystery. Upon our first meeting, he recognized my background with ease, yet to this day, I know little about him.

The addition of Nod-Krai as a mid-life region might be their way of releasing the rest of the Harbingers without lumping them all in Snezhnaya or Khaenriah

As I’ve said previously, Harbingers are massively popular, and it would be a wasted opportunity if Hoyo does not take advantage of this. I suspect that the reason why they added Nod-Krai midway through the game when it was never teased anywhere in the Travail teaser is because they only realized how profitable the Harbingers are after the successful launches of Wanderer and Arlecchino, and they might have regretted their decision to not make more of them playable sooner.

This speculation might hold some grounds especially considering how there’s still 8 more unreleased Harbingers and yet we’re closer to approaching the end of story. While they could launch 1 Harbinger in Natlan, then 4 in Snezhnaya, and 3 in Khaenriah, this would result in too many Harbingers being released at a time leaving people overwhelmed on which Harbinger to choose. In contrast, by releasing Nod-Krai before Snezhnaya, they could for example release 1 Harbinger in Natlan, 2 in Nod-Krai, 3 in Snezhnaya, and 2 in Khaenriah, which is more manageable and would prevent potential buyers from getting overwhelmed with too many choices at once.

This also helps with the “wow” factor of the Harbingers. If they were to release 4 in Snezhnaya and 3 in Khaenriah, people would quickly get tired of the constant release cycle of Harbingers, and Hoyo might earn less money from each banner as players are less likely to be interested in pulling all of them and they’ll save up for the major characters instead. The initial launch of a banner is what matters the most as this is when players are most likely to pull for a character, compared to reruns where the number of people pulling will have significantly dropped, so it’s crucial that player interest remains high throughout each banner release.

As an aside, a potentially effective strategy to do this would be to release Signora in Natlan, Dottore in Nod-Krai (because he was mentioned by Mavuika in the epilogue), Columbina in Snezhnaya (a widely anticipated Harbinger), and Capitano and Pierro in Khaenriah (which fits the former’s constellation of “three nails”, in which he gets resurrected after 3 regions, plus the fact they both hail from Khaenriah). This ensures that the sought-after Harbingers are distributed evenly across regions while also not introducing any new Harbingers in Natlan long after the main AQ had ended. This also aligns with the order of popularity in the unofficial Harbingers poll asking which Harbinger the players would like to be playable next, with Dottore being the 3rd, Columbina being the 2nd, and Capitano being the most popular choice, allowing them to save the best for last.

Why Signora may be resurrected in Natlan

Here comes the juicy part, the one you’re probably looking for. I’ve made some observations and found some interesting things that may hint towards her revival in Natlan.

The undisclosed 17th playable character and the existence of version 5.8

Since version 2.x, Hoyo has consistently released 17 playable characters in the game. This is corroborated by a Hoyo employee who mentioned this in a GDC presentation, where he claimed that they “add about 17 characters per year”. However, if you keep track of the number of playable characters in 5.x, including the upcoming ones they teased in the 5.3 livestream silhouette teaser, you’ll notice that 5.x currently only has 16 characters in total. For Hoyo to suddenly not release a 17th character in 5.x is very suspicious, especially when they were willing to tease the upcoming characters.

In the next six months, the Traveler will get to know them one by one, and intertwine with their fates...#GenshinImpact pic.twitter.com/VHwdHbiTHQ

— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) December 20, 2024

Hoyo has confirmed in the above tweet that all the upcoming characters will be released no later than June, which will coincide with 5.7’s release on 18 June, as it was posted in December while explicitly mentioning “in the next 6 months”, which narrows the time frame for their releases. Because Escoffier and Ifa will be released in 5.6, this suggests that the last two unreleased characters, Skirk and Dahlia, will be available in 5.7. Additionally, an official post on Hoyolab confirms that 5.x will span all the way through 5.8, which further corroborates this missing 17th character theory.

Q: How can I access the event quickly?

A: From Version 5.0 to 5.8, you can quickly access the event page by clicking the “Raise Saurians and Get Primogems” icon in the toolbar~

Here’s a table showing all the characters that have been released or teased since 2.x:

  2.x 3.x 4.x 5.x
1 Ayaka Tighnari Lyney Kachina
2 Yoimiya Collei Lynette Mualani
3 Sayu Dori Freminet Kinich
4 Raiden Cyno Neuvillette Xilonen
5 Sara Nilou Wriothesley Chasca
6 Kokomi Candace Furina Ororon
7 Thoma Nahida Charlotte Mavuika
8 Aloy Layla Navia Citlali
9 Itto Wanderer Chevreuse Lan Yan
10 Gorou Faruzan Xianyun Mizuki
11 Shenhe Alhaitham Gaming Varesa
12 Yun Jin Yaoyao Chiori Iansan
13 Miko Dehya Arlecchino Escoffier
14 Ayato Mika Clorinde Ifa
15 Yelan Baizhu Sigewinne Skirk
16 Shinobu Kaveh Sethos Dahlia
17 Heizou Kirara Emilie (N/A)

To me, this suggests that Hoyo is trying to hide the 17th character from the silhouette teaser. Given how they’ve excluded them from there, it’s probably someone we’ve previously encountered in-game who already has a character model. It’s unlikely that this is a character whose model is yet to be seen in-game such as Durin, Xbalanque, or Xiuhcoatl as it wouldn’t make sense to hide them if the players don’t even know what they really look like (Xbalanque possessed Mausau’s body for a day, which was only an NPC model).

On the other hand, if this is a character we’ve already met before, such as Signora or Capitano, then this theory is definitely plausible as their tall model and distinct features would’ve been way too obvious that it would spoil future storylines. You could argue that Skirk being teased in there is also a spoiler as her silhouette is immediately obvious when you compare it to a picture of her. However, the main difference is that Skirk is a living character, while both Signora and Capitano are deceased characters, so it would ruin the impact of their surprise resurrection if they were to tease them.

There’s always the possibility that the unannounced character is someone with no involvement in the story, or perhaps they might not even release a 17th character in Natlan, but given how the resurrection plot has yet to take place, which I’ll explain below, I can’t help but feel that they’re trying to hide this character due to them being a walking spoiler.

They have been teasing us about resurrection several times, but the resurrection has yet to happen, the gnosis is still in Mavuika’s possession, and Mare Jivari hasn’t been released yet

Here’s the biggest part of my theory. Hoyo has teased us several times about a resurrection plot in Natlan. Obviously, the AQ title itself, “Incandescent Ode of Resurrection” strongly suggests this, but there are several other instances where they imply a resurrection will take place.

In the 5.0 livestream, one of the hosts said that “could it be that a deceased character in Genshin Impact will come back to life?”. Then come 5.3 and the so-called “Incandescent Ode of Resurrection” of act 5 did not involve anyone getting resurrected. When they tried to use the “Ode of Resurrection” in Act 2 to bring back Kachina, it failed, and she didn’t come back to life, which necessitated a dangerous rescue mission as a last resort.

Instead, we ended up with another Harbinger “dying”. Given how this was mentioned directly in the preview livestream, which is one that is viewed by a large number of people, it’s unlikely that they said this on stream only for them to scrap this plot, as this would only raise questions. Instead, it’s likely that this is a plot that hasn’t happened yet, and there’s the possibility that this could be part of a future interlude chapter similar to the Inversion of Genesis (the Wanderer’s Irminsul arc).

Corroborating this, the Agnidus Agate Gemstone’s description, which describes the general outline of the AQ, is as follows:

“A pilgrimage for a wish; a battle to earn a name…
Burnt to cinders for a dream.
If the intention yet remains, achieved ▉▉’s truth he has.”

The first line has come true: The Pilgrimage for the Night Warden Wars did take place in act 1, while “a battle to earn a name” refers to how the MC received the ancient name “Tumaini” in act 5, along with how the Natlanese characters earn their ancient names. However, the other lines have yet to happen as of 5.5, and we still don’t know what the blacked out part is meant to be. This suggests that there’s more to come, and that defeating the Abyss wasn’t the end of Natlan’s arc.

Additionally, the Pyro gnosis has yet to be stolen, as Capitano abandoned this objective after failing to beat Mavuika in a fight. Mavuika explicitly stated this in a post-quest dialogue after completing act 5. Given how important the gnoses are for the Tsaritsa, it’s very likely that another Harbinger will tie up this loose end and steal the gnosis in the future, something which Mavuika has anticipated. This once again suggests that the Natlan’s main plot isn’t over yet.

The Captain’s subordinates sent us a letter he left behind. After our duel at the Stadium, he asked the Tsaritsa to remove him from the responsibility of obtaining the Gnosis, and his request was granted.

The Captain respected the outcome of that match and refused to violate his principles. But, since this is the final Gnosis, I doubt the Tsaritsa will let the situation stand.

Perhaps a replacement Harbinger will be sent here soon. I’ll make sure to be prepared.

How Signora may be resurrected

One of the possibilities that Hoyo will do to further the plot is to introduce a new Harbinger we’ve yet to see in-game and have them steal the gnosis. However, I doubt they’ll do this as we’ve gone past the end of the main AQ storyline and introducing a new Harbinger this late would create an awkward pacing. I think the more plausible scenario is that they’ll have an existing Harbinger steal it as they don’t require any introduction and we’re already familiar with them, and therefore, prevent the potential issue of having to extend an interlude chapter for too long.

My theory is that Signora will be resurrected in the Mare Jivari interlude chapter, and she will be the one who gets the gnosis. When the Collective of Plenty was released in 5.5, you still can’t complete the Pyro Statue or the Tablet of Toma, which strongly implies that Mare Jivari will be released sometime in late 5.x to finish this. Additionally, leaks regarding 5.6’s new AQ have surfaced in which it will be the act 4 of the Mondstadt prelude, presumably continuing from the prologue, which ended on act 3. Considering how Mondstadt and Natlan are separate from each other, it’s unlikely that the prelude will contain plot elements related to how Mavuika’s gnosis will be stolen. Instead, I’m expecting an interlude chapter in Mare Jivari in either 5.7 or 5.8, sometime after either the Mondstadt prelude or Dainsleif’s act in Natlan.

Additionally, it’s possible that Signora will become playable in 5.8, which will be on 30 July, with the resurrection possibly taking place earlier in 5.7. This is because character drip marketing is always released a patch prior to their release and it would be a massive spoiler to release that before she even gets resurrected, so they might have to figure out a way to postpone the drip marketing before they finally release the revival arc. Releasing her in 5.8 also addresses a potential issue of the characters showing up in the silhouette teaser being released later than 5.7, as we still have 2 more characters who were teased but not yet announced.

To piece things together, let’s start with the Simulanka event in 4.8. This event explicitly mentioned that the fates of Teyvat and Simulanka are interconnected, and the community has found some parallels between this event’s and Natlan’s plot like this one (Wayback link, original post was deleted), and in the event, we learned that Durin will come back to life, which left players speculating about who exactly will be resurrected in Natlan.

One might assume that it would be Durin that would be resurrected instead. However, I’m not sure how exactly he’ll return because it’s not like they could just get rid of his skeleton in Dragonspine without requiring a complete terrain overhaul, which is unlikely because some collectables such as Crimson Agates are found on the skeleton, which would make it difficult to rework the terrain without making them inaccessible. Also, how would Durin’s resurrection be relevant to the Harbingers stealing the gnosis, and why would they execute a plot element from Mondstadt in Natlan?

Recent 5.6 leaks (archive) suggest that the Mondstadt prelude will only feature Mini Durin and Alice, but not Durin and Wanderer. There’s also the upcoming 5.6 weekly boss, which had a placeholder title of “Eighth of the Fatui Harbingers”, and is now named “Game before the Gate”. The chessboard itself seems to belong to Alice or the Hexenzirkel as there is a cover art featuring Alice’s hat and a chessboard in a red-white checkerboard pattern. The chessboard in A Winter Night’s Lazzo might or might not have been a foreshadowing to this event. However, until Hoyo reveals additional details on the 5.6 livestream or leakers take a closer look at the preload, the connections between them are still uncertain.

Information from HomDGCat suggests that dealing Cryo damage grants the progress to stop the ult, while Pyro undoes the progress. This may be related to Signora in that Cryo suppresses her flames, while Pyro would cause her to burn out. The boss also has Pyro RES for both pieces in first phase and the king piece in second phase, and Hydro/Electro RES for the queen piece in second phase. Nonetheless, this could be explained away by the fact that they’re currently shilling Cryo (Escoffier, Skirk) while discouraging the use of Pyro (Arlecchino, Mavuika), Hydro (Neuvillette, Furina), and Electro (Raiden, Fischl) to encourage freeze comps.

This ironically requires Hydro, an element that the boss is resistant to, although this could be their way of shilling Escoffier with her 55% Cryo/Hydro RES shred and Citlali with her 20% Hydro/Pyro RES shred, allowing the players to continue using Neuvillette/Furina while also being able to stop the ult from killing them.

Details regarding this is still scarce, so we’ll still have to wait until either the livestream or the preload before I can speculate on what this really means for Signora.


The chessboard and Signora's moth in A Winter Night's Lazzo

This leaves room for speculation, and I feel like this may be something that Hoyo wants you to read between the lines in order to be able to reach a conclusion, because I don’t think the resurrected character would be that obvious, and it’s a good writing strategy to subvert the audience’s expectations and do something that people have anticipated the least.

Here’s a few scenarios on how they may execute this:

Scenario 1: Wanderer represents Capitano while Mini Durin represents Signora

This was my original theory before 5.6 leaks came out, and it has a major flaw that I’ll get to later.

Capitano seems to be analogous to Wanderer because the former is a Harbinger who helped save Natlan and prevented Mavuika from dying, while Scara helped to take care of Mini Durin. But what about Mini Durin himself?

In Simulanka, Durin is portrayed as a character who was misunderstood by the Simulankan residents/toys. He just wanted to be friends but everyone avoided him because he looked frightening and turned everything he came into contact with into toy blocks, which destroyed them in the process. At the end of the day, he was defeated by the MC, and then he was brought back as Mini Durin after being blessed by the main characters (Wanderer, Navia, MC, Kirara, and Nilou).

Does this sound familiar to you? That’s because it sounds a lot like Signora. Her backstory is that she’s the Crimson Witch of Flames. She never had the intention of killing innocent people and only wanted to purge the Abyss out of existence, but everyone avoided her because she’s a literal burning witch who destroyed everything in her path. In Inazuma, she was defeated by the player in Tenshukaku, resulting in her death, and if the whole Durin arc refers to Signora instead of Durin himself, then this could mean that we will be the one who resurrects her, with Capitano (analogous to Wanderer) possibly intervening given how he transferred his life force to the Lord of the Night, which might give him powers we haven’t known yet.

Scenario 2: Wanderer represents Signora while Mini Durin represents himself and/or Durin

Because Wanderer is an ex-Harbinger, and Signora was removed from the ranks of the Harbingers after she was executed, it’s possible that Wanderer is analogous to Signora instead, as the latter would also be an ex-Harbinger if she gets resurrected, unless if her Harbinger status is reinstated. Similarly, both Wanderer and Signora have a tragic past which led them to join the ranks of the Harbingers, and both have a sense of betrayal (Wanderer feeling betrayed by humanity, Signora feeling betrayed by Barbatos), so the two do have some parallels here.

There is the possibility that Scara will only be taking care of Mini Durin, while Signora deals with the real Durin, though at the same time, Simulanka’s quest says otherwise. This is the major flaw with these two theories.

Albedo: You saved the Durin of this world. I don’t see that as a mere coincidence.

Albedo: If there is any meaning to be read into the actions of the three Goddesses beyond fairytale whimsy alone, I can only boldly speculate that…

Albedo: …The fate of this reflected world may have a reciprocal effect upon our own world.

Albedo: If Durin of Dragonspine will soon come back to life, we will need Mini Durin’s help… as well as yours, given that your fates are now intertwined.

(Wanderer): Well, that’s a nuisance.

Albedo: To be sure. It certainly won’t be easy.

Things might not be very straightforward however, as the parallels between the two are only loosely connected. Looking at the aforementioned Teyvat/Simulanka parallels Reddit post, the similarities are superficial. For example, the three Narration Footnotes characters are Albizzi, Boborano, and Capet, while the three scholars are Aberewaa, Bosomtwe, and Cuxtal. But aside from the fact that both involved piecing together events from three different people with the same initials, the Narration Footnotes quest itself did not foreshadow Capitano’s events of finding out about the Secret Source, so perhaps this dialogue about Scara’s part in Teyvat may not be as simple as “Wanderer saving Mini Durin = Wanderer saving the real Durin”.

Scenario 3: Durin’s resurrection and Signora’s resurrection are two separate plots

This is the most likely possibility, given what we know so far about the Mondstadt prelude, and how the first two scenarios have the same flaw in that Albedo has canonically said that “[Scara’s] fates are now intertwined”. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, it would be weird to do a Mondstadt-related plot in Natlan as the two have little connections with each other, and resurrecting Durin does not address the issue of how the Harbingers will steal the Pyro gnosis.

In this scenario, Mondstadt prelude continues the trajectory of the Act 3 of the Mondstadt prologue, with its own storyline separate from Natlan’s. On the other hand, Natlan’s storyline after Act 5 is followed by Act 6, which is Dainsleif’s act, and then the Mare Jivari interlude chapter.

Now, releasing 3 consecutive acts like this over the span of 2-3 versions after the main Natlan AQ has concluded might seem a little awkward, but they’ve done this before back in 2.x. Interlude Act 1 (Jade Chamber) was released in 2.4, followed by Dainsleif act in 2.6, and Interlude Act 2 (The Chasm) in 2.7. Similarly, they could release the Mondstadt prelude in 5.6, followed by Dainsleif act in 5.7, and Mare Jivari interlude in either 5.7 or 5.8.

This way, they could resolve the parallels between Simulanka’s and Teyvat’s Durin while not interfering with Natlan’s resurrection and the Harbingers’ gnosis heist.

If the new weekly boss really is tied to Signora’s arc, based on its placeholder title and the key elements used for its mechanics (Cryo and Pyro), and the Hexenzirkel is involved in both Durin’s and Signora’s narratives in the Mondstadt prelude, then there is a possibility that both Durin’s and Signora’s resurrection are part of the same arc. Maybe Signora will proceed to travel from Mondstadt all the way to Natlan to take the gnosis, who knows. This is something that needs to wait before we get further information from the livestream or preload.

Other evidences

These theories have a potential ground for foreshadowing to work. Durin’s skeleton is in Dragonspine, and in the same region, there’s also the Frostbearing Tree which suspiciously has vague potential references to Signora’s themes, with things such as “Crimson Wish”, “Frostbearer”, and the way even the tree itself has some crimson butterflies/moths once you’ve maxed it out. In fact, Durin’s connection to the Frostbearing Tree is implied in Crimson Agate’s description:

When the nail that froze Dragonspine descended, the trunk and canopy of this tree shattered into many fragments that were then frozen. A long time later, a black dragon fell into the valley and its blood seeped into the ley lines. And a long time after that, someone has broken the icy shackles, and the ancient tree that has absorbed that “crimson” has now sprouted anew…

Even more convincing is that the Lavawalker wore a circlet made out of crimson agate to withstand the heat of Mare Jivari:

An ancient circlet that once belonged to the Lavawalker — a sage who wandered in the Mare Jivari.
Upon close examination, one can almost see his figure standing strong amidst the fiery flames.

The wandering sage of the Mare Jivari known as the Lavawalker crafted this circlet from crimson agate to resist the intense heat of the flames.
The circlet was built with wisdom and tenacity. It sparked fear and jealousy among peers and seniors alike.

This is important, because like I’ve mentioned earlier, players have speculated that the resurrection plot might take place in Mare Jivari, as part of an interlude chapter. It has been described as the “Sea of Ashes” or “Sea of Flames”, and according to the Lavawalker set’s plume lore, a phoenix dwells within it, and phoenixes symbolize rebirth. The location itself has been teased as recently as 5.1 in the Iktomi Spiritseeking Scrolls event, but the region itself has yet to be released. The connection between the Lavawalker, Mare Jivari, the Frostbearing Tree with its suspicious references to Signora’s motifs, and Durin, could be the missing piece we need to tie everything back to Signora.

She has good negotiation skills, as implied by how she was able to take Zhongli’s gnosis without having to fight him. Mavuika is a powerful fighter, being able to beat Capitano and injure him to the point of abandoning his objective to steal the gnosis, and we’re talking about the top Harbinger here, the one who Nahida claimed has godlike strength. A direct confrontation with her will pretty much result in a failure, so the only way for the Fatui to have any hopes of stealing her gnosis would be either through stealth or negotiation.

The change in the domain name for her artifact set and its potential connection to this year’s Lantern Rite story

Even more interestingly, the Lavawalker set is in the same domain as the Crimson Witch of Flames set. Y’know, the set that is literally about Signora. And in 4.8, this domain’s challenges underwent a name change, from “Frost” to “Roaring Fire”, and is the only domain to be renamed in that version. While some might see this as a mere coincidence, something interesting took place in this year’s Lantern Rite that may hint at this as a sign that they’re doing something with Signora’s arc.

I found this post on the r/Genshin_Lore subreddit explaining the potential connection between the Hidden Palace of Zhou Formula (the Lavawalker/CWoF domain), the Lantern Rite backstory, and Signora herself. I’ll just quote what they’ve said in full:

One of the things that was noteworthy in this Lantern Rite was how they integrated domains that have been present since 1.0 in our maps to a integral part of the story. Feels, for the first time in quite some time, that the domains and their story are not there by chance.

Now, on the Sanctification of Tao Dou, and how the Seven-and-Eight Gate Array was used, with the sacrifice of the Lone Butterfly of Crimson Flame. While it is obvious that Hu Tao is directly associated with a butterfly motif due to how butterflies are normally understood as a personification of the soul, another character has been associated with this motif too: Signora.

The sealing of Tao Dou remains happened in the Hidden Palace of Zhou Formula, as stated when talking with Baizhu in the first part of the Lantern Rite. It seems logical to understand that the Lone Butterfly gave up her life there. The Hidden Palace of Zhou Formula is the artifact domain for the Crimson Witch of Flames set. I feel like this is too much of a connection to just be coincidental.

Rosalyne experimented with herself to become the Crimson Witch of Flames, and in this sense, whatever she made, was too much for her body to bear, as she started to suffer immense pain from the burning inside. That was the reason the Tsaritsa gave her a Cryo Delusion in the first place.

I might be mixing things, but, not only the Wuwang adept, but also the Lone Butterfly had a tight connection with the border of life and death. In this sense, Rosalyne might have used the Lone Butterfly’s remains or lingering power somehow in order to become the Crimson Witch of Flames. Since those were the powers of an immortal being, far more exceptional than an ordinary Akademiya student, this would be responsible for the great pain she endured during her life as the Crimson Witch, and how her life got so prolonged. Given the Lone Butterfly’s connection with life and death, it might have been not only a plan of revenge for losing her lover, but also for trying to get him back somehow, a desperate attempt at blurring the lines of life and death so she could either be reunited with him beyond, or bring him back to the realm of the living.

Anyways, this is obviously just a theory of mine. But I seriously think that it cannot be a simple coincidence that the Crimson Witch of Flames, whose name and aspect seems to connect with that of the Lone Butterfly, has her set in the same domain where said Butterfly sealed Tao Dou during the last Seven-and-Eight Gate Array. Hoyo never leave this things out there by chance.

The fact that they not only renamed the domain’s challenges to “Roaring Fire” (which makes it relevant to Signora’s CWoF form, and the only domain that was renamed in 4.8), but also made a potential connection between the backstory mentioned on Lantern Rite and the domain, is incredibly suspicious, as if they’re hinting that this might be relevant further down the line. Additionally, Signora’s moths in her boss fight is referred to as “Crimson Lotus Moth”, the Lone Butterfly was the only one of the Eight Adepts to sacrifice herself during the purification spell according to Yun Jin, and Signora was the 8th Harbinger, so there might even be an implied connection there.

Paimon: We were actually learning about the Eight Adepts earlier, but we never found out who the Three Beasts of Tao Dou were.

Yun Jin: Oh really? Well for starters, the Three Beasts of Tao Dou are also known as the Three Immortals of Tao Dou.

Yun Jin: They were the Lone Butterfly of the Crimson Flame, the Jade-Plumed Silverwing, and the Gold-Eyed Celadon Mare. Three auspicious beasts, all with the power to take on human form.

Paimon: Oh! So they really weren’t human, huh… Um, the Lone Butterfly sounds pretty self-explanatory, but what about the silverwing and celadon mare? What kind of creatures were they?

Yun Jin: Silverwing was a swallow, and the Celadon Mare was a white horse. Legend holds that after purifying Tao Dou, Silverwing and Wind Reader went wandering together, but the white horse retreated into seclusion.

Yun Jin: Have you ever read Moonlit Bamboo Forest? That story mentions a white horse that roamed the Qingce mountain range. A lot of people think she was the Gold-Eyed Celadon Mare.

Paimon: Oh, cool! So… what about the butterfly? What did they get up to?

Yun Jin: The Lone Butterfly gave her life during the purification spell… She was the only one of the eight to sacrifice herself in this way.

The event’s epilogue further suggests that there may be connections between Liyue, Natlan, and possibly other regions, so this is definitely something to look out for in the future.

Beidou: Hey, the crisis is resolved. Why the long face, Tianquan?

Ningguang: Thanks to Director Hu and (Traveler), disaster was averted. But we still do not know what caused the crisis in the first place.

Ningguang: I know you are well-informed, Captain. So I trust you are aware that recently, the nation of Natlan has recently endured some major events relating to the Ley Lines and to issues of life and death.

Ningguang: It makes me wonder whether these events might somehow be connected on a deeper level.

Beidou: If they are, then this’ll be bigger than just Liyue and Natlan. I’ll send word to my business partners, and keep an eye out for any similar incidents in the other nations.

Nod-Krai could pave the way to bring back Signora’s relevance in the story

One argument that’s frequently thrown around against Signora’s resurrection is that she’s no longer relevant to the story, having been dead for more than 3 years already. This is understandable, but I believe resurrecting her in Natlan would give Hoyo plenty of time to reintroduce her in the story so it wouldn’t feel out of place, especially given how a recent Nod-Krai teaser strongly suggests the presence of other Harbingers such as Dottore and Sandrone.

Indeed, the fact that the Tsaritsa is ordering the Harbingers to assemble in Nod-Krai raises some questions. It’s possible that they either will have managed to steal all the gnoses by the time we get there, or are planning on how to steal the pyro gnosis if it hasn’t been stolen. If it’s the former, then they might be trying to figure out what to do with all the gnoses next.

If Signora turned out to be the one who stole it, then perhaps this might involve her being reinstated as the 8th Harbinger, or alternatively, they’re trying to figure out how to bring back Capitano now that she set a precedent that their members can be resurrected. Alternatively this could also involve her success story of how she managed to steal 4 out of the 7 gnoses. Remember that post-Irminsul, Signora appears to be the only one present in Inazuma, and thus, everyone remembered her as the one who took the electro gnosis, rather than Scara. Perhaps we might even see some flashbacks on how the event panned out in this alternate history, which was never shown previously.

Resurrecting Capitano too early would undermine his very own sacrifice

The whole point of his sacrifice is so that he can finally rest after being denied that for over 500 years due to the curse of immortality, so bringing him back in 5.8 would completely downplay his sacrifice in the AQ, and not to mention that it sounds a little disrespectful towards him. He wanted to rest for a while, and we gave him that, but now we want him back so soon? Unlike Signora, his arc is pretty much complete for now, even if a little unsatisfactory, as he got exactly what he wanted.

Now I’m not saying that Capitano should remain dead; I believe that all 11 Harbingers should be made playable because they’ve always explicitly marketed them as the Eleven Fatui Harbingers, so many people expect that all of them will become playable at some point, similar to how the archons are often referred to as The Seven, and they have consistently been playable. You might argue that Focalors is dead and that disqualifies this argument, but her model is literally just Furina in a different skin, and she’s voiced by the same VA in all languages, so in a way, they did make Focalors playable.

I honestly feel like they should save the best for last and release him in Khaenriah instead given how he could play a bigger role by manipulating the ley lines after transferring his soul to the Lord of the Night. Also, he hails from Khaenriah, and his constellation appears to be the three nails, and it’s very likely they could come up with a more impactful resurrection by doing it when we get there instead, while fulfilling his symbolism of being revived after three regions.

Both Skirk and Capitano are likely to be cryo sword characters, and releasing both in 5.x would cannibalize the former’s sales

Leaks regarding Skirk have surfaced as early as 5.5, and recently, Dim (a known reliable leaker), corroborated on how she’s a cryo main DPS relying on freeze reactions and Cryo/Hydro units.

Most people wouldn’t want to pull two characters with the exact same element, weapon, and role, as they’d rather spend their pulls on the cons of the more desirable character instead. That is unless if you’re a fan of both and want to get both despite being potentially worse value overall than just pulling for cons.

Take for example Mavuika’s banner. Most people who have gotten Arlecchino back in 4.6 skipped her because there’s no point in getting yet another pyro main DPS, given how overly saturated that element is with DPS. And pulling for Arle’s cons gives those players a much better value as her C1 offers a massive damage buff while her C2 provides comfort by adding some RES to the player while also instantly maxing out the bond of life without having to wait 5 seconds, which matters a lot in the Abyss where every second counts to get 36 stars. Others decided to pull on Citlali’s banner as she’s a valuable support for Pyro and Hydro teams, which resulted in Mavuika banner receiving far fewer pulls than Furina and Nahida at launch.

Given how Capitano is seemingly more popular than Skirk, and the fact that Skirk’s kit has been confirmed by a reliable leaker to be mostly restricted to Cryo/Hydro teams similar to Nilou or Chevreuse, I can see a situation where people would skip Skirk entirely in favor of waiting for Capitano’s release. Conversely, releasing Signora would be less of an issue, even if she’s Cryo, because she’s a catalyst character, and if her TCG kit translates into her playable kit, she might be able to transform into CWoF, perhaps via elemental burst, making her more of a hybrid forward/reverse melt DPS. This encourages players to get both Skirk and Signora due to them having different use cases while maximizing the FOMO potential in the marketing side of things.

Releasing the lower-ranking Harbingers like her makes more sense than releasing the cream of the crop like Capitano early

To me, it would be rather awkward for them to go from releasing the 11th Harbinger, to the 6th, to the 4th, and then to the 1st Harbinger, before we even get to Nod-Krai, let alone Snezhnaya. I don’t think it’s time for him to become playable just yet, considering how Hoyo is very likely to indirectly nerf him (or other characters) when they feel like it’s time for them to hype up their new characters, and we’re still far away from Snezhnaya and Khaenriah.

If Capitano, the highest ranking Harbinger, gets powercrept by literally the Harbingers below him, it would sound really stupid when this gets brought up several years later when the story is approaching its end, and I don’t think Hoyo should do that considering how this will be very noticeable in the Abyss where HP inflation is a real thing that keeps happening.

We’ve seen them desperately trying to nerf Neuvillette because he’s too OP. Who’s to say that’s not going to happen to Capitano when we get to Snezhnaya or Khaenriah, arguably the time when he deserves his spotlight for being the top Harbinger?

I get that many people want him because he’s the 1st Harbinger, which makes him look badass, and that he’s been teased as early as 3.x in Varka’s letter, and then again by Neuvillette in Fontaine AQ epilogue. I personally would like to get him too, considering how collectable the Harbingers are just like the Archons, but consider the potential consequences in the future if they actually brought him back in Natlan. Do you really want him to get powercrept once we get to the new regions if he turns out to be too powerful?

Also, Capitano mains have some form of reassurance that he will eventually be playable, as evidenced by his model being designated as “Avatar_Sword”, him getting an official sticker, and the way Hoyo releases merch for him, something that Signora mains don’t have the luxury of.

“Waifu Impact” is in full force

Ever since 5.1, Hoyo has been releasing quests that are highly fanservicey in nature. Citlali’s Tribal Chronicles involve flirty conversations, and earlier on in 5.1’s Iktomi Spiritseeking Scrolls event, she bites her lip if you use Aether as your MC, while Mizuki’s SQ is outright a fanservice with a “private therapy session” sequence, and then presenting the MC alongside her on a cherry blossom tree at the end of the SQ, with flirty lines such as “The moon sure is beautiful tonight”.

Given how there’s only 3 more female Harbingers they’ve yet to release, it would be more likely that they commit to this given their current trends. Some people object to this, and I’m personally not a fan of watering down every female character’s personality to fanservicey waifus, and would rather see her being presented in a similar fashion to Arlecchino, but sadly this might be one of the very few ways they might bring her back, knowing how companies like to double-down on strategies that they think have worked well in the past.

Natlan might very well be a giant red herring to distract Signora mains

I found this Reddit post speculating about how Signora might have survived the Musou and that they have been throwing some red herrings for a while. While I disagree with the “Signora’s death denial” part, I agree with their argument that they’ve likely been throwing red herrings left and right, and Natlan might have been specifically designed as a giant red herring to distract us from guessing who the resurrected character will be.

Think about it: this region has been hyped for a while due to its “Incandescent Ode of Resurrection” title. Many players who have been wanting for Signora to come back have speculated since 2.1 that she may get resurrected in Natlan because of that, especially considering how both of them have fire motifs. The last thing the writers wanted is if the majority of their audience can correctly guess who will get resurrected way in advance like this. It’s possible that they wanted to bring back Signora after seeing the overwhelmingly negative reception with the Inazuma archon quest, but they need to come up with a way to make it less obvious. Enter the world of red herrings.

Consider:

What if it turns out they’ve been delaying the resurrection to hide the character who will eventually be resurrected (which, in my opinion, is her) and that they’ve been throwing red herrings left and right to shake off potential leads?

And this works very well. Most Signora fans get demoralized very quickly the moment they notice that no one was brought back from the dead, and even other communities like r/FatuiHQ followed suit. This way, when they finally drop the charade and reveal that they’ve resurrected a major character all along, people will be caught off-guard and there will be a sudden surge in hype and popularity of the game.

Why we may NOT want Signora to be resurrected in Natlan (yet): The SAG-AFTRA strike VA’s “collective work refusal”

Signora is voiced by a VA who chose to remain anonymous. However, after doing a little research, I was able to figure out who she is, and her portfolio page contains some voice clips of her performance as Signora. I won’t disclose who she is out of respect, given how toxic the community can be towards Signora fans sometimes.

What I can tell you, however, is that she’s a union VA, as one of the videos on her site mentions her as a member of SAG-AFTRA. This is a problem, as the EN VAs have chosen to voluntarily refuse to work on the game’s VOs for over 8 months, and there has been an ongoing drama regarding the EN VAs stemming from a harassment of Kinich’s new VA, Jacob Takanashi, which led to the VAs being exposed for committing a “collective work refusal”. That is, it’s not an official SAG-AFTRA strike, but rather, something that’s suspiciously similar to a wildcat strike, which was supposed to be illegal in the US.

This means that her VA may or may not be able to voice Signora if the strike is still ongoing while her resurrection plot takes place, because some of these VAs are leveraging the strike and the AI protections as a smokescreen for their real intentions: to force Hoyo into signing the interim agreement so that they flip union and are forced to bow down to SAG-AFTRA, potentially resulting in many non-union VAs getting recast, as union projects are prohibited from hiring non-union talents, and Taft-Hartleys only work for up to 90 days in a lifetime.

Even worse, there’s a chance that she might be recast if she refuses to work when they’re about to release Signora’s resurrection arc. And this is definitely possible, as Hoyo has recasted several playable characters recently, including Kinich’s previous VA, John Patneaude. Not to mention that the last time she voiced her was back in 4.3 with the release of Signora in the GITCG, which was over a year ago, and her last in-game appearance was in 2.3, which was over three years ago, so they would consider her recast to be a low-risk approach, especially when her role is currently uncredited.

Voice works are usually done months in advance, around 1-2 patches prior to release. The last time such a strike occurred, it took over 11 months before SAG-AFTRA could reach an agreement, so there’s a chance of a worst-case scenario where the resurrection takes place in 5.7, but she’s either unvoiced or been recast if the VA chose not to work during the strike.

This would be a huge blow to Signora fans who have been waiting for this, as it would ruin an otherwise massive plot. We can only hope that either the official strike ends and an agreement is reached before they have to record her lines so we can experience Signora’s resurrection in its full glory, or she’s willing to voice Signora despite the strike, as the work refusal against Hoyo was never official to begin with.

My theory on why Natlan’s AQ feels so unfinished

This is something that I’ve been wondering for a while, because I feel like anything past Act 4 felt rushed and awkward, such as how Act 5 is literally called “Incandescent Ode of Resurrection”, with the developers teasing about how “a deceased character will come back to life”, and yet no major character was resurrected, and instead we ended up with Capitano dying, or how Xilonen said that forging an ancient name for the MC would cost her life, but it was never elaborated on after Act 4, and we never saw her falling ill or dying at any point in the AQ.

Assuming that Signora is the character who will be resurrected in the Mare Jivari interlude chapter, then here’s some possible reasons:

I suspect that Hoyo might have changed the plot for Act 5 in the middle of development to accommodate for Signora’s resurrection, perhaps after 4.6’s Arlecchino banner had concluded, upon realizing the fact that Harbingers are more popular than they thought.

This could explain why they ended up releasing an interlude in 5.2. It’s likely done to buy them some more time to finish Act 5 because they only had around 7.5 months to rewrite the plot (and mind you, writing an entire storyline like this normally takes years and plenty of revisions), but overall, Act 5 still felt awkward nonetheless due to the loose ends of the resurrection and the fact that Xilonen’s condition was never brought up again.

As for why this might have happened? If the resurrection plot originally involved Mavuika dying, then maybe they scrapped it because it would be far too predictable as we all know that every single archon would be playable at the end of the day, so the outcome wouldn’t have been very impactful. And besides, archons usually sell very well regardless of how the story is executed (see: Inazuma’s dumpster fire of an AQ vs. Raiden’s banner revenue)

If it originally involved Xilonen dying due to her attempt to forge an ancient name for the MC, perhaps as a way to introduce tension of one of the heroes of Natlan dying before they could execute Mavuika’s plans, then they might have realized that resurrecting an already playable character wouldn’t be as impactful as resurrecting a dead but non-playable character like Signora. This is hinted by a dialogue in Act 4, which oddly was never brought up again in the interlude and Act 5 even as the forging process is completed:

Citlali: So, it’s true. Forging an Ancient Name consumes the life of the craftsman…
[…]
Xilonen: If giving up my life means that all the people of Natlan can have a future, then the sacrifice is practically negligible.

And if it originally involved Xbalanque being resurrected, then it could be because it’s a safer bet for them to bring back Signora than to make Xbalanque playable, as the former has a proven track record of being reliably profitable due to the popularity of the Harbingers (see graphs above), while the latter’s profitability is pretty much unknown considering how he was only ever mentioned in Neuvillette’s character introduction. Workplace politics might have come into play here, and perhaps the higher-ups might have thought that they should just play it safe and take advantage of this opportunity to revive her, knowing how Harbinger banners print a ton of money for them. Also, someone at Hoyo likely had the comprehension to put 2 and 2 together and figure out that Inazuma’s AQ was a dumpster fire, and that bringing her back would at least undo one of the biggest blunders they’ve committed in there.

Resurrecting more than one major character in Natlan would feel too cheesy, and players might complain about how it cheapens out the concept of death, so they might have changed the plot of act 5 at the last minute to make it so that only Signora gets brought back, instead of resurrecting Xilonen and/or Mavuika alongside her. Given how there’s a decent number of people who have speculated about Signora’s resurrection in Natlan, they might be trying to capitalize on that and scrapped whatever resurrection plot they might have originally planned prior to that.

Bonus: Numerology

Just for fun, let’s delve into the numerology conspiracy theory, because people love finding patterns with the Harbingers through this.

Conclusion: Signora may become playable in 5.8

Given how there’s still the mysterious 17th character, the existence of version 5.8, and the resurrection plot hasn’t happened yet, that leads me to this conclusion: Signora may be resurrected in either 5.7 or 5.8, in the Mare Jivari interlude chapter, and become playable in 5.8.

This is because Hoyo is likely to release both Skirk and Dahlia in 5.7 due to them promising that all the teased characters from the 5.3 stream will be released no later than June, but they may still have to release the interlude chapter and resurrect her in 5.7 in order to prevent her drip marketing from spoiling the plot, as drip marketing is usually released a few weeks before the character release.

As for how she will get resurrected? I’m not sure. Hoyo is known for overly complicating things, but my theory is that it may involve her remnants merging back into the CWoF. Remember that her artifact description mentions that she “sacrificed her mortal body to become the embodiment of liquid fire herself”, which means that she’s an elemental being rather than a normal human, and was the reason why she was able to live for 500 years. This means that Hoyo can pull some esoteric narratives that only those who are into her lore would immediately get, or something similar.

We will see whether my predictions are correct when 5.7 and 5.8 betas come out. It would be incredibly exciting if this turns out to be correct and I was able to predict that the missing 17th character was no coincidence. However, if this turns out to be false, then I’m willing to lose some of my dignity, because at the end of the day, these are just educated guesses, and even the so-called “leakers” get things wrong all the time because many of them aren’t really leaking things, but rather just making some educated guesses like I do (take the Madame Ping in 5.3 “leaks” for example, or the early Natlan “leaks”).

I might be hyped up over nothing… or I might have done a 200 IQ move and predicted this would happen all along, like some kind of 4D Pierro’s or Hexenzirkel’s chess.

I hope this post has brought back your faith and optimism in Signora’s return and playability. Keep the conversation going, because who knows if Hoyo listens to its customers and decides to undo their mistakes and set things right. When the time comes, everyone deserves to have their C6 Signora on their account, even those who actively oppose her return and her fans.