Last updated: 2026-03-28. After having to deal with things at work that has been piling up during the last few weeks, I finally added my thoughts on everything that happened in 6.3 and 6.4. Sorry for the wait.

Please see the commit history to see what changed. This will be updated over time as new information surfaces.

Okay, so 6.0 is out, and I admit I was wrong about Signora being playable in 5.8. However, there have been some MASSIVE developments lately, and all of them suggests that she will be playable soon. In fact, I’m glad I didn’t post this earlier in 5.8 as I was planning to do that as some kind of “postmortem analysis” of the lack of her return in that version, but pushing this back ended up giving me more arguments in favor of her resurrection.

If you haven’t seen the last two posts yet, then you should check part 1 and part 2, as they both give some context for this one. This post simply expands on part 1 as it was becoming too long, and some of the arguments in there are no longer valid.

Table of contents

Why I’m still certain that Signora will be playable

She finally received a bunch of official merchandise after 4 years

This is probably the biggest argument for her imminent playability. Recently, Hoyo released a Harbinger chibi figure blind box in China, which includes her as part of the collectable set, so this means that this is her first official merch that’s released a whopping 4 years after she was executed in Inazuma, and what’s interesting is the details for this specific merch. Here’s the product info, along with machine translations from Google Translate and ChatGPT:


All the possible chibi figures from the blind box



Original product description



Google translated product description


The Google translated image is still somewhat nonsensical, so here’s one from ChatGPT:

盒蛋规则 (Blind Box Rules):

隐藏 (Hidden Figures / Secret Rares):

抽取概率 (Draw Rates):

This is HUGE because not only is Signora included in this blind box unlike Crucabena (which implies the latter won’t be playable), she’s being marketed as the rarest figure. Normally, merch blind boxes make the “hidden” characters fan-favorites or hype characters, to ensure the rarest item generates the most demand. It’s easy to guess why Scaramouche is one of the hidden figures, because he’s wildly popular in CN, and his fans are willing to donate insane amounts of money to spread the word out of passion, like this. However, Signora’s is less obvious, as she doesn’t get discussed as frequently anymore, so the only explanation would be that putting her as the big hidden figure is a deliberate choice Hoyo made.

If they really wanted her to “stay irrelevant”, they would’ve just left her out. Instead, they’ve made her the ultimate chase figure. This artificially drives up secondary market prices and creates demand for her. Also, this feels like a signal from Hoyo that they still remember her, and that she’s likely to be relevant again soon.


Aww, look how adorable she is

If Hoyo just wanted “generic hype”, they would’ve made Capitano, Dottore, or Columbina the rarest ones, since they’re top-ranking and “mysterious”, and that would’ve been the obvious move. Alternatively, they could’ve chosen Sandrone and Columbina as the “small hidden” and “big hidden” figures respectively, which are the playable Harbingers in 6.x, perhaps as an effort to promote them outside the game. But instead they chose Scaramouche and Signora, which are ranked far lower, and in the latter’s case, wasn’t even involved in Nod-Krai’s quests.

From a business standpoint, making them the rarest achieves two things. They could use this as some sort of market testing, as their rarity creates artificial scarcity, driving up demand. If resale prices spike and collectors obsess over them, Hoyo can measure how much “pulling power” these characters still have. Also, this allows them to generate free publicity and spark up conversations about her once again. Signora mains who’ve been silent for years now suddenly have a reason to reenter the conversation: “Why make her the rarest if she’s irrelevant?” That’s exactly the kind of buzz a company wants.

I’ve seen some comments that “she won’t be playable because she and Scara are the rare figures and neither of them really became playable (Scara became Wanderer and switched to a different model)”, or “Hoyo hates Signora because they made her the rarest one”. Well, that’s not how marketing psychology works, and this shows a clear lack of understanding of how big businesses usually operate. Scarcity = value. They made her rare because she’s valuable, not because Hoyo hates her and wants people to forget her. This is especially considering how this merch will be available in CN, the market people have argued to carry the most weight for Hoyo’s decision-making. If Signora wasn’t popular among CN players, she wouldn’t be anywhere in this merch lineup, let alone as the rarest.

For four years she was treated almost like a taboo character, with no official artwork, no merch, and barely any narrative presence except her death. If Hoyo truly wanted her to stay discarded, the path of least resistance would’ve been to just keep ignoring her. But instead, they chose to do the exact opposite by giving her a merch debut after 4 years, and not just any merch, but in a premium slot (the rarest figure).

This, to me, looks like an attempt at corporate course correction. Companies don’t openly admit “we screwed up”, but they signal it through moves like this. For years detractors used the “no merch = she’s irrelevant” argument, and now that shield is gone. The CN market getting this first is no accident either; if CN fans have indeed been consistently pushing for her, this is Hoyo’s way of showing: “We’re listening. We’re giving her value again”. If anything, this makes her future playability more plausible than ever. They don’t throw marketing weight at someone they’ve written off. They only do this when they see untapped demand worth capitalizing on.

And not only that, she also received other official merchandise in the form of cards and standees, further solidifying her relevance, especially when compared to Crucabena who isn’t featured in any of them. This just shows that unlike Crucabena, which only served as a backstory element for Arlecchino whose rank wasn’t even elaborated on, Signora is a notable character as she’s part of that “set of 11 characters”.

As an aside, I decided to purchase the acrylic stand from an AliExpress listing that lets you choose which character you want, and it does look great in person. Might be worth checking it out.


Her mask looks elegant

She was mentioned by her real name many times in a row throughout 6.x

This is the second-biggest argument in favor of her return, and supports the pity-baiting theory I’ve mentioned in part 1.

Version 6.0

In one of the Selenic Chronicles, which is fully voiced, Columbina says this towards the end:

Traveler: Looks like you’re in a good mood today… / You spoke quite a bit about your past…

The Damselette: Yes. Even though I’ve “run away from home,” I do have some fond memories of it all the same.

The Damselette: Arlecchino and Sandrone treated me quite well, along with…

The Damselette: …

Traveler: (That expression… I wonder who she’s thinking about…)

The Damselette: Give me your hand.

Traveler: …Huh? / …Why?

The Damselette: Rosalyne taught me… It’s important to always express gratitude to others.

The Damselette: So, thank you for listening to me.

Traveler: Don’t mention it…

This is important, because unlike the other two Harbingers she mentioned (Arlecchino and Sandrone), she mentioned Signora by her real name, Rosalyne. You see, the Harbingers are usually introduced and referred to by their codenames, because that’s what reinforces their role as the Harbingers, not as vulnerable human beings. Using her true name like this is a deliberate way to reframe her in a more positive way, as it strips away the intimidating Harbinger persona and instead humanizes her as the woman behind the mask. Also, notice how she still seems to be shaken by her death, as evidenced by her pausing and telling the MC to give her their hand before mentioning Rosalyne. That’s a clear sign of pity-baiting, and it’s essentially Hoyo nudging the audience to empathize with her on a personal level, not just as a villain archetype.

After the huge blunder they did with Signora, Hoyo seems to have developed a formula on how to turn “morally grey” characters into sympathetic, playable ones:

  1. Antagonistic introduction. Each of these characters is first positioned as a threat or obstacle to the Traveler or their allies. At first, the player is meant to view them with suspicion or fear.
    • Wanderer: Manipulative, arrogant, and dangerous.
    • Arlecchino: Cold and ruthless, intimidating towards Furina.
    • Skirk: Tied to the abyss and enigmatic.
  2. Tragic backstory reveal. We then dive into why they became this way, and the player begins to empathize. Each story is devastating:
    • Wanderer: “Betrayed” by everyone he tried to love, manipulated by the Fatui.
    • Arlecchino: Raised under cruel conditions, forced to suppress her emotions due to her cursed bloodline.
    • Skirk: Survivor of a genocide, haunted by trauma, and forced to bury her past.
  3. Re-contextualization. Now that we know the pain, the cold exterior is reframed as a defense mechanism. They’re not necessarily “evil”, just morally grey, and they only appear to be villains because it’s their coping mechanism after everything they’ve been through. Their flaws are humanized, and Hoyo builds them up not as antagonists, but as people.
  4. Path to playability. They finally go through a redemption path and be on good terms with the Traveler. Then the banner hits. This creates emotional investment, which translates directly into sales.

Columbina explicitly ties Rosalyne to a positive value: “It’s important to always express gratitude to others”. That is not something you write about a villain you intend to keep buried, and it’s exactly what “Step 3” of the pity-bait formula looks like: re-contextualizing negative traits by highlighting a sympathetic core. This also means that Arlecchino’s voice line wasn’t a fluke, but rather foreshadowing, and now we’ve got another Harbinger reinforcing the same narrative shift. You don’t just pity-bait her like this and then double down on it years after the fact unless if you’re setting up a payoff.

Version 6.1

In 6.1, Hoyo once again name-dropped Signora by her real name, this time directly in the AQ.

The Damselette: Have you held any tea parties lately?

Marionette: Tea parties? Uh, yeah, obviously. You don’t seriously think we’d pack it all in just because you aren’t here?

Marionette: If anything, they’ve been more eventful than ever. Just me, Arlecchino, and a bunch of insolent, insensitive “guests” who won’t stop asking where you’ve gone. Oh, they’ve been a real joy.

The Damselette: I bet you served them the worst tea you have. Just like you used to do to me when I upset you.

Marionette: Hmph… Who cares about how good the tea is when there’s no one around to drink it? I keep losing people…

Marionette: First Rosalyne, now you… I’m running out of people who can make me laugh. Honestly, what could be more ridiculous than a multi-centenarian goddess who’s only ever had the plain herbal tea she received as offerings? Heh…

The Damselette: You’d always brew a different type of tea for me each time. Was it really just to see how I’d react?

Marionette: I, uh— Well, duh! Why else? Watching you squirm was practically my only form of entertainment.

(Traveler): (Or was she genuinely trying to introduce Columbina to new flavors? Maybe all that coldness is just an act… and they actually get along?)

Marionette: Oh, yeah… and Capitano sometimes used to bring Tartaglia around too, but I guess we won’t be seeing him again.

[…]

Marionette: Hmph… I figured you’d leave eventually. You didn’t have as much of a reason to stay as I do.

Marionette: The Tsaritsa gave you shelter and protection, but that was it — nothing more, nothing less. Meanwhile, the Fatui demanded everything from you in return, until it was more than you could bear.

Marionette: I get why you left. And frankly, I have no interest in dragging you back just because the higher-ups told me to.

Marionette: But if you keep hanging around with this riffraff, the next time we cross paths, we might be enemies for real.

(The Traveler and Paimon smile knowingly)

(Traveler): (She says that, but she’s the one who just caved in and agreed to help Columbina…)

Notice how Sandrone views both Columbina and Signora positively, as she was just acting cold and pretending to make fun of them as a coping mechanism. In this context, they’re the people who could make her happy and help with her loneliness. She still treats Columbina as her friend even after leaving the Fatui, so it looks like she genuinely cares about her and presumably Signora too.

Version 6.2

In 6.2, Columbina once again name-dropped Signora by her real name, also in the AQ, which is impossible to miss unlike her Selenic Chronicle quest. This is further indication that Hoyo really wants the players to pay attention to this. When you consider that all of these dialogues could’ve easily excluded this conversation, but they decided to put it anyway while doing it continuously, then there’s a good chance that this is an attempt at foreshadowing.

Columbina: Of all my days with the Fatui… The times I spent with you, Arlecchino, and Rosalyne… They were my favorite.

Columbina: I will not forget them, just as I shall not forget this moment.

Marionette: …

Columbina: We’ll always be friends, no matter where we are, right?

Marionette: Who’d want to be your…

Columbina: I’ll miss you, Sandrone.

Marionette: …

Columbina: …Goodbye, Sandrone.

Marionette: I’ll… miss you too… Columbina…

Also, notice how in all instances, they mentioned Rosalyne, not Signora, but refer to other Harbingers by their commedia dell’arte names (Columbina mentioned Arle and Sandrone, while Sandrone mentioned Childe and Capitano). This could be something the developers did to nudge the players into figuring out who “Rosalyne” is, so they’d realize that she’s Signora and get them to read her tragic backstory, likely in an attempt to get the players to understand her past instead of just treating her as “this lady who got turned to ash”.

On the contrary, the 6.1 event also featured Dottore, and he’s viewed more negatively in there. The Traveler and Paimon mentioned him as sounding cold, and he appeared to completely neglect his companion. It’s evident that he’s currently still on “Stage 1”, as he hasn’t been shown to have any tragic backstory, let alone a re-contextualization and redemption path.

Layla: I was just thinking, and this might sound rude, but the way this person speaks is just so…

(Dialogue option): Cold?

Layla: You noticed too!

Layla: I mean, it’s good that he helped treat his companion’s wound, but it didn’t seem like it was out of kindness. More like, he was looking out for his own self-interest… or thought he could get something out of it.

Layla: I don’t know… Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

(Dialogue options): No, you’re right… / He didn’t even mention this companion on the previous page.

Paimon: Yeah…

Paimon: If you’re both in this dangerous situation together, wouldn’t you mention them at least once?

and

Thoth: I still remember the look in his eyes… Nothing stood out, per se, and still… I could sense contempt and disdain radiating from his gaze.

Thoth: I could not give an exact reason, but on instinct, I just knew… It would not end well to get close to a man like that.

Thoth: So, I tricked him.

Thoth: Stick close to your companion, I said. “Only the descendants of Tulaytullah can come and go as they please. Leave him behind, and there is no escape for you.”

Layla: So, does that mean his companion wasn’t a descendant of Tulaytullah?

Thoth: Oh no, that part was true. The lie was in the other half. Anyone can enter or exit this place — there are no restrictions.

Thoth: I saw that his companion was exhausted, and was concerned Zandik might leave him behind.. Or worse, that some other “accident” might befall him… So I made up an excuse to prevent Zandik from going a step too far.

Thoth: Oh, and speaking of, Zandik’s companion had the same blue hair and pointed ears as you.

Layla: !

Paimon: Wait, does that mean… Layla’s also a descendant of Tulaytullah?

Thoth: Indeed.

There’s also the fact that he’s missing from the character introduction cards and version splash arts (at least up until 6.3 where he was finally prominently featured in there), despite being shown in the Nod-Krai teaser, unlike Columbina and Sandrone who were prominently featured in them, even going as far as to put them in 6.1 and 6.2 splash arts. It turns out, Columbina became playable, while Dottore didn’t (although the ending of Act 8 suggests that he may still have an active segment somewhere). Sandrone died, but we all know she’ll be playable in 6.x due to her having a playable character ID.

An alternate interpretation of why these Harbingers refer to her as Rosalyne is that it’s probably similar to why they referred to Dottore as “Zandik” in the 6.1 event. In this state, the Traveler isn’t aware that “Rosalyne” is Signora just yet, and that they will probably be surprised once this is revealed to them, the same way that the ending of AQ Act 6 revealed that “Zandik” is Dottore and that the characters were mildly surprised of this revelation.

(Wanderer): Mmm. Mind you, the only reason I came here is because there’s someone I want to look into.

Paimon: Who’s that?

(Wanderer): The Doctor, also known as Dottore. Second of the Fatui Harbingers.

(Traveler): (Just as I thought…)

Lauma: From the tone of your voice… it sounds like there is bad blood between you.

(Wanderer): …I was reviewing our archives and noticed that a lot of information about him was missing. Left a bad taste in my mouth. That’s all there is to it.

(Wanderer): Dottore… or Zandik as he was then known, once studied at the Akademiya. But he got kicked out before he could graduate.

(Traveler): (Zandik? I’ve heard that name before… Back in the ruins, when the Ibis King mentioned that student — that was The Doctor?)

Varka: Hahahaha! So the harbingers’ number two man is a college dropout? How embarrassing for them.

Paimon: Last we heard, he was planning something… We actually heard that a few times before even coming to Nod-Krai. But we haven’t seen a trace of him since we got here.

(Wanderer): He only appears when something interests him. For all we know, he might have left already.

(Wanderer): But the fact that he did something here at all is worth noting… It’ll fill a couple extra lines in his file.

Version 6.3

Now this is HUGE. It finally confirmed my theory that Signora’s placement between Pantalone and Childe wasn’t a fluke, as it happened again with Columbina’s lines about her:

The fact that this happened the second time in row means that this was a deliberate decision. Why would they put her line

Also notice how it says “About Rosalyne” instead of “About The Fair Lady”. She’s literally the only Harbinger who was mentioned by her real name in the VOs section, while others either use their codenames (The Doctor, Childe) or their commedia dell’arte names (Arlecchino and Sandrone, the other female harbingers). This is further evidence that nothing is as it seems, and they might be giving us subtle hints that she’s returning in the near future. While the line itself doesn’t explicitly hint towards her future revival, the fact that there are subtle oddities like these that outside observers would overlook, strongly implies that they want us to read between the lines instead of taking things at face value.

Not only that, she was mentioned multiple times throughout the AQ and in this item called Marionette’s Notebook, and they really are insistent on referring to her as Rosalyne instead of Signora.

■ / ■ - Overcast

Arlecchino and Columbina came over for tea and picked Rosalyne up on the way.
It was a good day.
I should keep some cookies on hand for next time.

■ / ■ - Snowy

Rosalyne is dead.

IDK why but this is kinda hilarious. Gives me Crab Rave vibes.


My reaction to this

Jokes aside, there were several additional mentions directly in the AQ itself, which means that it’s impossible to miss unless if you actively try to avoid playing the AQ. This is an unusual number of Rosalyne mentions in a single patch (we would’ve been lucky to even have a SINGLE mention of her back then) and it seems that they REALLY want everyone to pay attention to her. My guess is that this is meant to get everyone on board and hype her up for a potential revival arc, along with clearing up any misinformation about her, such as the myth of her being a one-dimensional villain whose death was deserved.


SO MANY ROSALYNE MENTIONS

The fact that she was mentioned by her real name so many times in such a short period of time, when they had all but forgotten her after the Inazuma AQ, is incredibly suspicious. If Signora was truly meant to stay dead, they wouldn’t reopen wounds with lines like these because it would just frustrate players. The fact that they’re deliberately putting this back in players’ minds during the Nod-Krai arc (where many Harbingers converge), and just a region before we get to Snezhnaya, suggests that they’re setting the stage for her return. Pity-baiting is the prelude to playability, and every other “morally grey” character who got this treatment eventually became a hugely popular banner.

Version 6.4

Here’s where things get interesting, because it confirmed that the Traveler isn’t aware of the “Rosalyne = Signora” connection. In this version’s flagship event, “Homeward, He Who Caught the Wind”, Venti, Varka, and the Traveler made some negative remarks about Signora:

Venti: The Tsaritsa’s plans have continued to advance. Now, only the Pyro Gnosis remains free from her grasp.

Varka: But if even The Captain couldn’t take Mavuika’s Gnosis by force, I guess we don’t need to be concerned about its safety for now. So that’s good news, at least.

Venti: Heh, you wouldn’t be taking a dig at someone else’s ability to hold onto their Gnosis, now would you, Grand Master?

Varka: Haha, of course not. I’m not one to rub salt in old wounds.

Venti: Heh, her Harbingers do often tend to take a rather extreme approach. Just look at Childe or Signora.

Venti: But we would be mistaken to ignore the fact that Signora did not win the Geo Gnosis using force.

Varka: Right, you told me about the contract Morax signed with her before his death… You’re saying she didn’t need to resort to violence in Mondstadt either?

Venti: That’s right. If she was able to provide a reason convincing enough to persuade Morax, she could have persuaded me no problem.

Venti: I suppose she just… didn’t think there was a reason to negotiate. I had just woken up, so I must not have seemed like much of a threat.

Venti: Honestly, the Gnosis was of no use to me. I didn’t care who it belonged to, or what means were used to take it…

Venti: I just knew if I fought her in that moment, the Cathedral… Perhaps even the entire city might have become collateral damage.

Varka: True. I wouldn’t put it past Signora to take civilians as hostages, either.

Icon Dialogue Talk White So that’s the full story…

Venti: In the end, though, it was those same methods that led to her end. After all, her third target — the Raiden Shogun — wasn’t a big negotiator back then.

Venti: Perhaps Signora’s success in Mondstadt and Liyue convinced her that she was a match for the Archon of any nation.

(Traveler): I had to stop her.

Venti: You did the right thing. It pained me to see Inazuma as it was back then. I’m glad things have changed since.

Venti: Of course, now the elite force of Harbingers has quite a few missing from its ranks, so I suspect the Tsaritsa no longer has the means to meddle in other nations like she used to.

Venti: Who knows? Perhaps a chance to formally meet her in Snezhnaya might come sooner than we think.

Varka: Some of our knights remain stationed in Nod-Krai. If you need help, just say the word, and we’ll be there.

(Traveler): Thank you both…

(Traveler): White I’m getting closer to the truth. I can feel it.

Venti: Heh, the look in your eyes… It’s changed a lot since you first set off from Mondstadt.

Venti: But, my advice remains unchanged. Never forget that the journey itself has meaning, (‍Traveler‍).

Venti: The birds of Teyvat, the songs and the cities, the Tsaritsa, her Fatui and the monsters… they are all part of that journey.

Venti: Perhaps earth-shaking truths and indescribable trials await you at the end… Just remember, there is more to life than that.

(Traveler): I will. Thank you.

Venti: Alright, that’s more than enough acting like a real Archon for one night…

Venti: And still, not a sip of drink for dear old Venti at a time like this…? You’re no fun, Varka!

At first glance, this sounded like a massive mood whiplash after everything they’ve built up so far about Rosalyne being this warm and caring woman behind the mask, and that they might be backpedaling on that framing. However, I doubt Hoyo would be stupid enough to throw away all the pity-baiting effort they’ve made so far, and given how Hoyo likes to bring up things that could only be inferred by reading between the lines, this brings us to the next point, which is…

They’re separating Rosalyne’s identity from Signora

With the release of 6.4’s flagship event, some Signora mains were concerned about the inconsistent portrayal of her personality, as Venti, Varka, and the Traveler viewed her in a negative light, all while the latter failed to make the connection that Rosalyne is Signora.

Here’s my take on this: the Rosalyne/Signora split is intentional narrative design.

The positive “Rosalyne” mentions vs. negative “Signora” mentions isn’t a contradiction or mood whiplash. I think they’re deliberately constructing two separate identities in the player’s mind. Rosalyne is the woman: warm, gift-giving, tells others to express gratitude, brings tea sets, and has friends who miss her. Signora is the role: the arrogant Harbinger who strong-armed Archons and paid for it. Venti’s dialogue is him talking about Signora the Harbinger, a figure he personally experienced as a threat. He never knew Rosalyne. Similarly, Varka is making assumptions based on incomplete secondhand information, told by someone who’s clearly biased against her. because he didn’t even get to encounter her before she was executed. Couple that with the fact that he’s seen how Harbingers can sometimes be hostile, as was the case with Dottore, it’s reasonable that Varka believes it, even if it doesn’t tell the true story.

This isn’t backpedaling on the positive framing, and it’s actually a really sophisticated setup if you think about it. When she eventually returns, the narrative already has the groundwork for a character who has shed the “Signora” identity, because Rosalyne and Signora are being treated as almost different people by the writing.

Similarly, the Traveler not connecting Rosalyne being the same person as Signora is also deliberate. This one seems immersion-breaking on the surface, but I think it’s a controlled information gap. The Traveler has heard “Signora” constantly but “Rosalyne” is only being mentioned now by the Harbingers, through voice lines between Harbingers, and Sandrone’s notebook. Remember that the “Crimson Witch of Embers - Rosalyne-Kruzchka Lohefalter” introduction card during the 2nd phase of her boss fight is non-diegetic and only seen by the player, not the Traveler, unlike the ones presented by the Hexenzirkel members.

There’s a reasonable in-universe case that the Traveler simply hasn’t made the connection yet, and that the moment of recognition is being saved. If the writers wanted to close that loop naturally, they’d have Venti say something like “you know, Rosalyne was her other name, and she became the Crimson Witch…” but they’re conspicuously not doing that. When the connection is finally made (and it will happen, because the writers are too deliberate about this for it not to), the Traveler is going to have to completely reassess someone they indirectly killed. That’s a really powerful story beat, and it only works if the gap has been maintained long enough.

I guess the reason they’re doing it with her specifically, and not other Harbingers, is because she’s the only one where the gap between the title and the real name carries emotional weight. Nobody needs to distinguish “Arlecchino” from “Peruere” because Arlecchino hasn’t died, hasn’t been rehabbed, and there’s no dramatic payoff waiting in that distinction. Similarly, “Zandik” and “Dottore” are both portrayed as an insufferable genius in which Hoyo has yet to start a reframing campaign for him to make him redeemable, so they didn’t have to keep the Traveler unaware of “Zandik = Dottore” for far too long, with them immediately making the connection in the 6.2 AQ, just a patch after the flagship event in 6.1 that mentioned his real name. With Rosalyne, the two names represent two completely different things: one is someone the Traveler resented and helped kill, the other is someone the Traveler has been hearing about warmly for several patches and has zero negative association with.

Also, the fact that in Columbina’s character story, her early days with Arlecchino and Sandrone are described, but Rosalyne is conspicuously absent despite clearly being close to that trio, is telling. Sandrone’s notebook shows the four of them regularly having tea together. That’s an established relationship. Leaving her out of Columbina’s written story feels less like an oversight and more like they’re reserving her role in that dynamic for something that needs to be shown, not told in a character story that’s already been released, perhaps to minimize inconsistencies when they finally decide to make her playable. They’re probably treading lightly on the Rosalyne portrayal because they might be aware that the community is actively scrutinizing every little detail, and any inconsistency might lead to a less satisfying delivery of her story.

Overall, I think they’re running a slow rehabilitation campaign that spans across multiple versions with a specific structure:

First, establish Rosalyne as a beloved person through the people who knew her: Sandrone’s raw grief (“Rosalyne is dead.” as a single line after pages of mundane diary entries is genuinely devastating), Columbina’s voiceline attributing gift-giving wisdom and expression of gratitude to her, Arlecchino’s pity-baiting lines about her being lonely. Make the player feel the loss before the return.

Second, keep “Signora” as the villain in the mouths of characters who only knew her that way: Venti, Varka, and the Traveler. This prevents the rehabilitation from feeling like a retcon, because those characters’ perspectives are valid within their experience.

Third, the Traveler not connecting the two names is the dramatic payoff that’s currently being withheld. The moment that connection is made on-screen will likely be the emotional centerpiece of her return arc.

With this recent development, we now need to consider the possibility that playable Signora may actually be Rosalyne. I’ve always had a feeling that this might be the case, but previously there was no evidence that could strengthen this case, and thus I simply never mentioned it here. The picture that’s currently emerging is that they’re constructing a situation where “Signora” dies narratively so “Rosalyne” can return.

This is definitely a plausible theory, as one of the reasons why they might do this is to avoid naming conflicts in GITCG. La Signora is already an existing card in there, and having Signora’s playable form under the same name would cause some confusion, so the only to avoid this would be to refer to the alternate playable card as Rosalyne instead.

The one thing this framework doesn’t fully explain yet is when and how the “Rosalyne = Signora” connection gets made. There’s a few possibilities though. The Traveler could encounter something in Snezhnaya, like her coffin or a Harbinger who slips up and uses both names, that forces the realization. Or Rosalyne herself makes it, if she returns (say, in Mare Jivari) and the Traveler has to confront who she actually was. The most dramatically satisfying version would be Rosalyne being the one to bridge it, essentially forcing the Traveler to reconcile the two images themselves rather than being told by a third party.

Arlecchino’s and Columbina’s lines about her dropped the quest unlock requirements

I’ve noticed a very subtle thing about Signora’s lines in newer characters. In Childe’s and Wanderer’s lines about her, they require you to complete the quest “Omnipresence Over Mortals” (Chapter 2 Act 3, exactly when she was executed) before you can unlock the lines. However, for some reason, this requirement is absent with Arlecchino’s and Columbina’s lines about her. While some might chalk this up to the quests being old enough by this point that spoiling the ending probably has little consequences, this gets disproven by the fact that there are other characters that were released within the 4.x - 6.x time frame that still has this quest completion unlock requirement with older quests.

Xianyun was released in 4.4, two versions before Arlecchino’s, and her lines about Shenhe and Ningguang require you to complete “The Crane Returns on the Wind” and “A New Star Approaches” (Chapter 1 Act 1 and Interlude Act 1) respectively, while Mizuki, released in version 5.4, has lines about Miko and herself that require the completion of “Stillness, the Sublimation of Shadow”, which is Chapter 2 Act 2, the act before Signora was executed. This demonstrates that Hoyo doesn’t have a blanket policy of dropping quest unlock requirements once content ages past a certain threshold. The Mizuki example is particularly important because Chapter 2 Act 2 is literally the act immediately before Omnipresence Over Mortals, the quest where Signora dies. If quest age were the determining factor, Mizuki’s lines about Miko should’ve had their requirements dropped by the same logic, but they weren’t. The unlock requirement for content adjacent to Signora’s death is still being applied to a character released in version 5.4, while Arlecchino and Columbina’s lines about Signora specifically have had that requirement removed.

There are two possible explanations, and they’re not mutually exclusive. The first is that the quest completion requirement exists to prevent spoiling the narrative event (in this case, Signora’s death). If that death were to be superseded by a resurrection that becomes the bigger narrative event, then the death itself is no longer the spoiler worth protecting. Removing the requirement quietly signals that the death is no longer the definitive endpoint of her story.

The second explanation is slightly more mundane but still suggestive: Arlecchino and Columbina’s lines about Signora are part of the recontextualization campaign, and someone made the deliberate decision to make them as accessible as possible (no quest gate, available to any player regardless of story progress) because they want players to encounter this content. The positive Rosalyne framing in these VOs is doing narrative work, and putting it behind a quest completion wall reduces the number of players who see it. This is similar to how the recent lines that mention her positively are part of the AQ, which are impossible to miss, instead of being buried under artifact and weapon lore like what they’ve done with her backstory in the past.

Both explanations point in the same direction. The death is being treated as less final than it was, and the content that humanizes her is being made conveniently accessible. On a brighter note, 6.4 also brought us Varka’s SQ, which prominently features a character that’s deeply connected to Rosalyne’s lover: Rostam.

Varka’s story quest reopens the chapter on Signora’s backstory through adjacent lore

Version 6.4 also brought us Lupus Majoris Chapter, the story quest for Varka. It turns out this is actually a deep dive into the Bloodstained Chivalry artifact set masquerading as a SQ. This was previously teased in a hidden exploration objective in Nod-Krai, which unlocks “The Lone Wolf’s Memory” achievement where the Bloodstained Knight is mentioned.

Neither Rosalyne nor Signora were mentioned in this quest. However, because it prominently mentions Rostam, which is Signora’s lover, this is still rather suspicious. It seems that Hoyo is now willing to reopen this chapter by constantly bringing up things adjacent to her. The quest even mentions his death during the Cataclysm, which is exactly the reason why Rosalyne transformed into the Crimson Witch, and the consequence it had on his student, Roland.

Rostam isn’t just name-dropped here. He has voice lines, which finally revealed what his voice sounded like. He manifests as a presence with agency: his longing shields Varka, he speaks, and he asks to be taken to Roland. The specific line “Lonely warrior… take me… to see him…” is devastating in context. Rostam died 500 years ago, and he’s still reaching toward his disciple.

This quest also seems to have parallels between Roland and Rosalyne, and I don’t think this is just a coincidence. Look at what this quest is actually about at its thematic core: a person from Mondstadt who lost someone dear to them during the Cataclysm, was consumed by grief and a sense of injustice, and was transformed into something destructive by that loss, to the point where they abandoned who they were and threw themselves into a path of destruction.

That’s exactly Rosalyne’s story told through a different character. Roland lost Rostam, was transformed by grief, left everything behind, and became something defined by that loss. Rosalyne lost Rostam, was transformed by grief, left Mondstadt behind, and became the Crimson Witch and eventually Signora.

The parallel is so precise it can’t be accidental. The writers are using Roland’s arc to restate and emotionally prime the audience for Rosalyne’s arc, in a quest that prominently features Rostam, released in the same version as the Venti dialogue that mentions Signora.

The framing around Roland is particularly significant for how it repositions grief-driven transformation. Rosaria’s line, “It’s hard to say whether the loss of an important figure in his life is what drove him to the point of obsession, or whether he was already too far gone to save”, applies directly to Rosalyne. And crucially, the quest’s resolution isn’t condemnation. Varka doesn’t judge Roland. He delivers Rostam’s letter. He says “Rostam and Arundolyn never forgot you.” The emotional register is one of compassion for someone consumed by loss, not contempt for someone who chose evil.

That compassionate framing of grief-driven transformation, applied to a character directly parallel to Rosalyne, in a quest that features Rostam prominently, in the same major version where Rosalyne is being mentioned more than ever… I think this is the writers establishing the emotional and moral framework through which the audience should understand her.

I’d also like to point out a neat detail with the unsent letter in the quest. Arundolyn tried to deliver Rostam’s letter to Roland but never found him. The letter sat at the Knights of Favonius headquarters for 500 years, unsent. Varka finally delivers it, not to Roland himself, but to a shadow of Roland, in the hope that the real Roland will somehow receive it.

There’s something here that resonates with the broader Rosalyne situation. For 500 years, Rostam’s feelings for Roland went undelivered. For four years, the audience’s understanding of Rosalyne went unaddressed by Hoyo. The act of finally delivering what was always meant to be delivered (Varka with the letter, Hoyo with the rehabilitation) carries a similar emotional logic. It’s never too late to send what was always meant to be sent.

Then there’s the “crimson” parallel. Roland went from the White Knight to the Bloodstained Knight, his armor stained crimson by endless battle following Rostam’s death. Rosalyne went from a Mondstadt girl to the Crimson Witch of Flames following Rostam’s death. Both turned crimson in their grief. Both were defined by what they became after losing him. The color is not accidental.

Another interesting thing about this quest is that Roland seemingly has an opposing parallel to Rosalyne.

In that quest, Roland said:
“Even if I am stained black with blood, my conscience will remain as white as snow.”

Meanwhile, in the Stainless Bloom artifact from the Pale Flame set, Rosalyne said:
“For even if I dress in pure white from head to toe, the ashes of the dead that have long left their stain on every inch of my being can never be cleansed.”

Both characters are using the same “white” imagery against staining (blood, ash) to express the same fundamental idea: that external corruption and internal identity can be separated. But they arrive at opposite conclusions from that premise, and that opposition is the key to understanding what makes them structural mirrors rather than simple parallels.

Roland’s statement is a declaration of moral self-preservation through external corruption. He’s saying: I will do terrible things, serve the Abyss, become something monstrous, but my conscience, my inner self, remains untouched. The corruption is on the outside. He’s still white within.

Rosalyne’s statement is the exact inverse. She dressed in pure white, she joined the Tsaritsa’s cause, she became an instrument of something she believed was righteous, but the stain is on the inside, permanent, internal. The ashes of the dead are part of her being regardless of what she wears. The corruption is on the inside. She cannot be white within no matter what she presents externally.

Roland believes internal purity survives external corruption. Rosalyne believes internal corruption survives external purity. They’re the same tragedy expressed through opposite directions of the same metaphor.

This reveals something about Rosalyne’s self-awareness. When she joined the Fatui, she wasn’t under any illusion that she was cleansing herself. She explicitly acknowledged that the ashes of the dead (Rostam, everyone lost in the Cataclysm) were a permanent stain she couldn’t remove. She didn’t join the Tsaritsa’s cause because she thought it would save her. She joined because she shared the goal, and because she had already accepted that she was beyond saving.

That’s not the psychology of an arrogant villain, and instead, it’s the psychology of someone who has fully internalized their own tragedy and chosen to act anyway. The arrogance we see in her Harbinger persona is downstream of this. If you’ve already accepted you can never be clean, you stop worrying about how you appear and start performing instead.

On the flip side, Roland’s story serves as the road not taken. The structural opposition between Roland and Rosalyne suggests the writers are using Roland to show what happens when the same grief-logic inverts. Both lost someone to the Cataclysm. Both were transformed. But Roland maintained the illusion of internal purity while serving darkness, while Rosalyne abandoned the illusion of external purity while acknowledging internal damage.

In a perverse way, Rosalyne’s self-awareness is more honest than Roland’s self-deception. Roland tells himself his conscience is white while serving the Abyss. Rosalyne never pretended the ashes could be cleaned. She just chose a direction and committed.

The quest’s resolution, Varka reaching Roland through compassion rather than condemnation, delivering Rostam’s letter, implies that the answer to this kind of grief-transformation isn’t judgment but recognition. Being seen. Being told that those who loved you never forgot you.

Which is, notably, exactly what the 6.x rehabilitation is doing for Rosalyne through the female Harbingers. Sandrone, Arlecchino, Columbina are collectively saying: we saw you, we remember you, we never forgot the person under the Crimson Witch. The emotional logic of Roland’s resolution is being applied to Rosalyne’s situation in real time, across multiple patches.

As for the fact that neither Rosalyne nor Signora are mentioned despite the quest’s obvious relevance, I think this is intentional restraint rather than oversight. Mentioning her here would have been too on-the-nose. It would have collapsed the parallel into an explicit statement rather than letting it resonate as an allusion. The writers are probably trusting the audience to make the connection, which is a mark of confidence in how much groundwork has already been laid.

It’s also possible that the explicit connection between Rostam and Rosalyne is being saved for her own SQ, if and when she becomes playable. The Crimson Witch artifact lore, Rostam’s now-established character, the Roland parallel… all of this is material that a Story Quest could draw on directly. Keeping the connection implicit here preserves the impact of making it explicit later.

We only got a glimpse of Mare Jivari in 5.8

The 5.8 special program VOD revealed that the majority of Mare Jivari is not yet accessible, suggesting a future major plot unraveling. Why else would they keep us from exploring most of the region if they’re not planning anything big with it?

This sounds like they’re planning to release a character that’s tied to the region, but they’re not ready to reveal it just yet, probably because we’ll only get some more context once we get to Nod-Krai. Also, doing a staggered release like this is a good business opportunity for them to build up hype for the grand reveal of a notable character. Some speculate it could be the Lavawalker, which is almost certainly Enjou as he gives the flower from that artifact set to the MC, but there’s nothing stopping them from connecting it to Signora and doing something like confirming that the liquid fire is indeed liquid phlogiston.

Hoyo would have absolutely no reason to gate the rest of Mare Jivari behind future content if they don’t plan on using it to market something. And because we all know that they sell characters, not stories or games, it stands to reason that an upcoming character is underway, and they will be revealed once the full Mare Jivari is released. To me, the only possibility would be Signora as Enjou himself has stated at the end of the WQ that it’s unlikely for him to cross paths with the MC ever again. Couple that with speculations about the descriptions of “crimson dawn” and “sea of flame” in her description in the archive, and you get a pretty strong candidate for which character might show up with the expansion.

The Pyro gnosis still hasn’t been stolen yet

This ties to the previous point and is something that some detractors hilariously overlook when they argue Signora can’t return: who’s gonna steal the gnosis after Capitano failed to do exactly that? As of 6.0, the gnosis is still in Mavuika’s hands, and the fact that they’re currently setting the gnosis heist lore aside means that they’ll have to explore it later and maybe surprise the audience.

The entirety of the Harbingers were all focused on dealing with Columbina’s problems, and now they have to deal with Dottore after he literally attacked her, so none of them seem to be interested in retrieving the final gnosis as of now. Having her return in Mare Jivari and steal the gnosis while everyone else is distracted would be a good way to reestablish her relevance and reinstate her position as the 8th Harbinger, which could satisfy the part of the community who wants her back as a Harbinger and with her original design.

We currently don’t know how they’re gonna do this, given how Nod-Krai is already filled with so many major plot points, but given how the developers themselves said that Nod-Krai was meant to tie up the story’s loose ends, one possible theory is that this will be similar to HSR’s Amphoreus where they push the main storyline throughout tne entirety of 6.x versions, and one of them may involve us returning to Natlan where the gnosis heist can finally take place.

Hoyofair features “fanarts” from various artists and they’ve been doing this annually since 2021. One interesting thing about 2025’s Hoyofair is that, unlike the previous years, Signora (or her moth) were prominently featured in this one. This is curious, because prior to this, she was only featured once, and that was in 2023 in a very brief section, but in this one, she literally appeared on multiple scenes.

Now, you might think that because these are “unofficial”, they don’t really mean much other than the fact that it’s meant to showcase the various Harbingers. However, I have a suspicion that this is actually a semi-official showcase instead, like some kind of controlled marketing. These are not random community submissions, because they’re actually commissioned (see below), and thus, they’re brand-safe. And there’s evidence that points to this.

Hoyo has made an official statement with their first Hoyofair in 2021, and the accompanying comment event, that says

For this HoYoFair event, we have invited talented creators and prepared many interesting programs~

This comment event also has the following rule:

Comments of the following nature will be regarded as invalid: […] comments that contain any form of advertising, and those which seek to spread malicious rumors or discredit the game and its characters.

Judging by these, it’s very likely that these artworks must align with their marketing and/or in-game narrative. This implies that Hoyo directly sponsors, supervises, or preapproves the content. The creators probably have to work under guidelines, which means they have restrictions on how they can portray the characters. Notice how, in all instances, Signora’s right eye is always obscured by something (her mask, a butterfly). This, in my opinion, is a good example of how Hoyo controls these “fanarts” to prevent misrepresentation of what her full face might look like, because we haven’t gotten to that point in the story just yet.


One of the scenes that feature Signora. I love how she freaks out like that when Bina cheerfully splashed some water on her

Then there’s also this official statement from Hoyofair Spring 2023, which confirms that they’re indeed commissioned (sponsored):

HoYoFair presents a collation of fan works derived from HoYoverse IPs. You can find a rich variety of fan art here as well as creators and players from all over the world who engage in multilingual creations and interactions. Here, everyone can express their love for games.

All content in the program is produced by creators sponsored by HoYoFair, which are derivative works of Genshin Impact, and is not related to the content of Genshin Impact itself.

Notice how they put a disclaimer saying that it’s “not related to the game’s content”. I think this is just a legal shield to protect their asses, not a creative truth. It gives them a plausible deniability in case fans overanalyze something that’s actually intentional foreshadowing. And this is why I think these fanarts are the perfect cover for teasing things like Signora’s return without directly hinting at it as they could easily say something like that to neither confirm nor deny hints for future content.

If fans start speculating that her return is coming, Hoyo can just shrug it off with something like “Oh, that’s just community creativity. This isn’t canon”. But internally, it lets them test audience response (if fans react positively, they know the timing is right for a revival arc), and rebuild emotional connections around her without having to confirm anything officially. This is basically marketing disguised as community engagement. After all, why would multiple different artists feature a character that was deemed “irrelevant”, when they could’ve absolutely featured someone else instead? Given what we know, a plausible explanation for this is that Hoyo has control over which characters are featured, and that just implies they’re probably planning to do something with her in-game.

There are two unknown IDs that don’t belong to anyone in 6.x

HomDGCat, a reliable Genshin leaker with a good track record, has published a playable character ID list for Nod-Krai, and we can make some educated guesses as to how they could possibly release Signora in 6.x.

Hoyo has always consistently released 17 characters for each major version, so we can make an assumption that there will be 17 characters released in 6.x. The UGC characters likely won’t count towards this as while they are usable in free roam, they can’t be used in endgame modes, which is the whole point of pulling for characters. This means that there are two potential unknown IDs 134 and 135 following Sandrone.

Additionally, they’ve posted another silhouette teaser for the upcoming playable characters in 6.x. Two of the silhouettes have been identified to be Varka and Nicole, and ther is a missing silhouette right next to the fifth one, only reflecting a shadow underneath.

The story of Teyvat continues. #GenshinImpact

Even though they don't appear in the picture, Our fates could still become intertwined in the future. pic.twitter.com/WdClVrWAIO

— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) January 2, 2026

We currently still don’t know who these two IDs belong to, but it’s possible that any of these could be Signora, perhaps with the release of Mare Jivari expansion. After all, out of the 11 Harbingers, only 5 are playable or will be playable as of now, and they’d probably want to release the lower-ranking Harbingers as soon as possible before the higher-ranking ones like Pierro, Capitano, Dottore and Columbina start to cannibalize on their sales too much as players who are indifferent to the Harbingers may be psychologically more likely to focus on the highest-ranking characters than lower ones as they give the impression of being the “best”.

There has been a leak regarding the potential existence of version 6.9 (which I explained here). This could mean that IDs 134 and 135 could actually be 5-star characters released in 6.8 and 6.9 respectively, instead of having one of them be a 4-star character, and thus, a slightly higher chance of her banner in Nod-Krai. She’s more likely to be in 7.x, but we still cannot discount the possibility of a 6.x playability because of this, as having an unexpected x.9 patch is suspicious, to say the least.

Signora being irrelevant to the story means nothing

This ties to my previous point about Mare Jivari. Some argue that Signora’s return would be pointless as she’s no longer relevant to the story, which makes her playability very unlikely. Well, guess what? Bennett has been pretty much irrelevant in the main story for a while, and yet he got an entire lore dump in 5.8 anyway, with Hoyo exploring his Natlan background and his constellation showing up in the fake Mare Jivari.

Then there’s also the fact that Skirk literally just came outta nowhere in Liyue on 5.7, after not hearing back from her since she last showed up in 4.2’s AQ, and without any story relevance in Natlan. They even made a whole-ass backstory about how she was the sole survivor of her planet and gave us a sob story of someone who was forced to shut out her emotions after all she’s been through. All of this without any prior build-ups in 5.x or even later versions of 4.x.

What’s stopping them from doing the same thing with Signora and reveal the fact that her liquid fire turns out to be liquid phlogiston, or simply her busting that coffin open in Snezhnaya once we get there?

While we didn’t get any new playable Harbingers in 5.x, we’re still able to look at the pull count for Arlecchino (the only Harbinger who was rerun in 5.x outside chronicled banner), and compare it against other banners.

When including debut banners, it might seem as if her pull count wasn’t really all that great, only sitting at the 9th place, and trailing behind Furina’s rerun. However, do note that those two banners were the only rerun banners that made it to the top 10, so that’s still quite an impressive feat.

However, if we filter this to only include reruns, then Arlecchino sits at an impressively high 2nd place, leaving the rest of the top 10 behind except for Neuvillette, and was far more frequently pulled than even Mavuika’s rerun. This is surprising, considering how Archon reruns are typically highly anticipated, as evidenced by how many people are still pulling for Furina on her 2nd rerun, and it shows that Mavuika might have flopped after her debut.

This is another evidence that the Harbingers are highly desirable among the community, and by leaving Signora unplayable, they’re likely to miss out on potentially massive banner revenues, both in the short-term (her debut), and long-term (her subsequent reruns).


Top 10 most pulled characters in versions 5.0 - 5.8, including reruns



Top 10 most pulled characters in versions 5.0 - 5.8, reruns only

Columbina’s and Sandrone’s release might be intended to test the waters before releasing Signora

With Columbina and Sandrone being finally confirmed to be playable by reputable leakers, this means that they’ve released all the female Harbingers except Signora. If we assume that Mare Jivari or Signora isn’t in Nod-Krai, I can’t help but think that this could be a litmus test to gauge the potential success of Signora’s banner. While they probably have internal projections, nothing speaks louder than the final revenue numbers from their banners, and they might use those to figure out things like what people want or don’t want in a Harbinger kit or which story elements would make the most impact for the audience and entice them to pull the banner.

Also, by making it seem like they’re releasing all the female Harbingers but Signora, they’re creating a powerful effect where her absence sticks out like a sore thumb, which keeps her relevant in community discussions and builds anticipation for a potential future reveal. And Hoyo seems to know this, given how they seem to make the female Harbingers friendly towards each other, and they even made this tweet that makes the absence of Signora feel all the more powerful. They’re basically teasing us, the audience, by implying “Look how much more complete this would’ve been if she had been here”.

She received her first ever official artwork, and it proves there’s a real demand for her playability

With Columbina’s release being right around the corner, Hoyo has released a promo content called “Columbina’s Anecdotes - Her Memories”. Interestingly, unlike the Christmas commissioned fanart, this features Signora, and was made by Hoyo’s own artists in-house, making it her first ever official appearance in image-based artwork (aside from Arle’s teaser, which is a video). Remember that she wasn’t even featured in 2.1’s splash art, so it pretty much took them over 5 years to feature her outside the game.


Aww, she brought the tea

Places like Reddit, Twitter, and even Hoyolab were flooded with comments about her appearance, and this shows that their marketing strategy of emphasizing on Signora’s absence is working. The sudden presence of Signora after a long absence sparked up discussions once more. Even better, the CN community wants her back in the comments section of the same official post on Weibo, which further confirms that the demand for a playable Signora exists in their home country.


An example of some comments from the official Hoyolab post



Another example of some comments from the official Hoyolab post



An example of some comments from the official Weibo



Another example of some comments from the official Weibo



Another example of some comments from the official Weibo

Hell, even the entire comments section about this on the official subreddit was filled with Signora comments, which is a rare sight given how these would normally result in mass downvotes instead. This is even more proof that people DO actually want her, and when Hoyo starts giving them some tangible content like this, discussions about her become more open-minded.

Character design, kits, and playability are not set in stone

One of the arguments that are frequently thrown by Signora detractors is that Hoyo is unlikely to change their mind when it comes to kits and playability. However, I’d like to once again emphasize that business plans are usually not set in stone, and if they feel like they could make some changes to improve their product or profits, they would absolutely do that. There’s evidence that proves this:

The “surprising reunion with a Harbinger”

I’ve mentioned in the previous post that Xiao Luohao, the game’s editor-in-chief, allegedly made a statement that there will be a surprising reunion with a Harbinger. Given what we know so far:

The whole thing just feels like a teasing and marketing hype cycle to me. After all, if you wanted to do a “surprising reunion”, you gotta prep the audience by building up hype before you reveal the big surprise. This ensures that the audience is well-informed that something major is about to happen, but at the same time, they can’t stretch this for too long or else they’ll get burnt out from all the blueballing. Releasing merch drops, character mentions, and artworks that evoke the feeling of her absence is the perfect way to do this in a controlled manner.

Her resurrection arc might have already been in development

We’ve finally received an official confirmation on how long it takes to finish a major game content, such as AQs, in Genshin Fes 2025. I’ve speculated in my previous post that it could take up to 22 months to complete an AQ plot, given how that’s how long it took between Signora’s first appearance in the game files (CB1.2 in November 2019) and her death in September 2021. Turns out, I was virtually right on the money.

According to this interview, shorter versions take around 6 months, while longer ones can take 17-20 months to finish. They move back and forth with the concept design and revision pipeline, which means that things are subject to change.

There’s actual in-game evidence of this too. “The Little Witch and the Undying Fire”, which is a book about Simulanka Durin, was first seen in 4.7 beta (during 4.6). That was from April 2024. Durin himself became a playable character in 6.2, which was in December 2025. That’s almost a 20-month gap between the foreshadowing of his playability and him becoming playable. We use the betas as our reference for starting dates, since we can assume that was when they first began the development of the content, not when the final version is out.

If we assume that the first instance of Signora’s pity-baiting under her real name and the merch drops in 6.0 beta are a foreshadowing for her return, then we can expect her being playable, depending on whether or not version 6.9 exists, as early as 7.1/7.2 in December 2026 (almost 17 months later), and as late as 7.3/7.4 in March 2027 (20 months later, just like Durin’s release). Do keep in mind that these are just estimates, as we could only make educated guesses on when the development started based on in-game and marketing hints, so her actual banner may come out earlier or later than these.

Zibai and Sandrone’s resurrections are proofs of concept for Signora’s resurrection

With the release of Zibai in 6.3 and the accompanying permanent event quest that brings her back after she had died thousands of years ago, along with Sandrone’s supposed death in spite of her having a playable ID, Hoyo has now demonstrated, within a single version, that resurrection is a narrative tool they’re actively willing to use and a commercial tool they’re willing to market around. Sandrone’s situation is particularly significant because they’re not even hiding it. A missing silhouette with a visible ground reflection in an official teaser is about as explicit as you can get without a direct announcement. They want people to know she’s coming back. That’s a deliberate marketing choice.

This completely neutralizes the “Hoyo never resurrects dead characters” argument at its foundation. It was always a weak argument by extrapolation from other games, but now it’s not even extrapolation… it’s just factually wrong within Genshin itself.

The “turned to ash” counterargument dying alongside it is also significant. Zibai materializing from the Three Deadly Selves (basically collected souls) is a much more complicated resurrection than anything Signora would require, where Hoyo could easily pivot to Mare Jivari + liquid fire or her busting that coffin open in Snezhnaya, compared to Zibai which involves some convoluted Istaroth lore we hadn’t even heard of previously. If that’s acceptable to the writers, physical destruction of a body is clearly not a hard barrier. The game has now established that the manner of death doesn’t necessarily determine the possibility of return. Remember that her liquid fire lore was never elaborated on, and thus, it’s an easy entry point for them to bring her back, while not contradicting any existing lore.

The possible existence of version 6.9 (nice)

Recently, there has been a discovery on the textmap that mentions “6.9”, which might hint of a potential existence of said version. This comes up as a surprise, because releasing version 6.9 would mean that Genshin’s anniversary would land on that version instead of 7.0. However, given how they’re now using the gimmicky marketing version number (“Luna I/II/III/…”), perhaps this could mean that the marketing version number will reset in 6.9 instead of 7.0.

It could be a prelude to Snezhnaya of some sort that would justify a new marketing version number, or alternatively, it might have been added to finally release the full Mare Jivari and its accompanying quest. If true, this would solidify the theory that Signora’s resurrection arc could be released several patches before she actually becomes playable, in order to prevent her banner from becoming a walking spoiler. The fact that they added an extra version when most people were not expecting that to happen could only mean one thing: something big is about to happen, and with it, they’re probably trying to tease a hyped character, which I suspect is Rosalyne, given everything we’ve known so far.

Funnily enough, the placeholder text translates to “Plants vs. Zombies Level 5”. You see, I’ve been in the PvZ community for over a decade now, so seeing this in the textmap is just kinda hilarious. FYI, level 5 is the “roof” stage. It’s currently unknown what this means, or whether this even means anything. I don’t think we’re literally gonna be doing a battle on the roof of a house. However, the 6.9 reference is just way too obvious to ignore.

I’m starting to wonder if the only reason why this whole marketing version number exists is that they’ve planned this way in advance, and they’re doing this to make it feel less jarring to not have the game’s anniversary in the new region, especially since top-up bonuses always reset during that time (which so far had always been in the latest region), all while revealing the full Mare Jivari before we finally get to Snezhnaya. After all, it would also line up with how the whole Rosalyne mentions only started during 6.0 beta, when 5.8 was current, and exactly the same version where a small potion of Mare Jivari was revealed.

Hoyo now only mentions the marketing version number in their publications, while the real version number is only used internally and in the main menu, so players may not even notice at first that we’re still in 6.x by the time we’re in 6.9, because for the average player (most of which don’t even bother checking out leaks), the version is officially being marketed as, say, “Terra I”, marking the end of “Luna” versions, the last of which being “Luna IX” (6.8).

Varka’s model is “too tall”, and yet he’s playable anyway

One of the arguments frequently thrown around when detractors argue why Signora wouldn’t be playable is that she’s “too tall” compared to the regular tall lady models, to the point where she’s approaching the height of standard tall male characters. This had always been a pretty weak excuse, considering how Hoyo could’ve simply added a new nonstandard model type for her, just like what they’ve been doing since Natlan. However, despite there being custom models for tall female characters, there hadn’t been a single model whose height is so tall like her (which is within the same ballpark as tall male characters) that it necessitates a change in camera angle. Even Lauma still retains the same camera position despite being the new tallest playable lady character, because she’s still shorter than Signora when compared side-by-side.

That changed with the release of 6.4, as we finally have a playable character whose model is so tall that the camera literally has to shift to account for his height, which shows they could absolutely accommodate characters that are “too tall”.


Too tall?

They just proved that nonstandard camera angle isn't an issue

Also, they could absolutely make more than one custom models. Both Skirk and Varesa have them, but they’re unique in different ways. Skirk is noticeably taller, while Varesa is curvier.

Character height has been growing rapidly since 5.x, as these pictures show (click to expand):


Lisa (1.0 character) for comparison

Lauma (current tallest playable lady) for comparison

The connection between moths and angels’ feathers

A datamined 6.5 local specialty item has the Etherwing Moth, which looks suspiciously similar to the pyro moths that Signora has. What’s even more interesting is that it connects these moths to angels’ feathers.

A peculiar lifeform, shimmering with sacred golden light, that drifts like a moth through the equally mysterious interstice.

Legend has it that Etherwing Moths were born from the feathers of angels who fell to the mortal world after rebelling against the lord of the heavens. However, this does not explain their presence here in the domain of eternal stasis.

Perhaps, in the eyes of a certain deity, they are worth preserving, so that they may continue to bear witness to the punishment of certain sinners.

What significance this means for Signora is unknown. However, we could speculate that she might have borrowed an angel’s powers and it came at a great cost, much like how Mavuika borrowed Ronova’s powers (a Shade, another powerful entity) which resulted in her having to die once the abyss has been dealt with, until Capitano saved her at the last minute and proceeded to sit on the throne in her stead. This could be one of the ways Hoyo could explain how she acquired the liquid fire, which, to this day, remains unknown.

The similarities between the symbol in her boss fight and the Eroded Sunfire

Some people have noticed that the symbol that shows up when you try to one-shot Signora in the first phase looks fairly similar to the weapon held by the Lord of Eroded Primal Fire, and by extension, the Eroded Sunfire item. This symbol is unique to this boss fight, and it’s currently unknown if this is related to anything. It also looks different from the Harbinger logo. However, its shape does bear some similarities to the aforementioned Eroded Sunfire, albeit not completely (the circle in the middle is missing).


Left: the symbol on the ground if you try to one-shot Signora in her boss fight. Right: Eroded Sunfire icon

“Ruzicka” being mentioned in a 3.6 event

This is an older theory that’s worth mentioning simply because most people have forgotten about it. In “A Parade of Providence”, specifically, during the quest “Sachin’s Article”, an NPC named Huvishka said:

Many people say that the Spantamad Darshan produces many talented people, such as Cyrus, Ruzicka, Lisa, Cyno…

Cyrus refers to an NPC in Sumeru which is a retired Akademiya professor. Lisa and Cyno are obviously the playable characters, but who is Ruzicka? She doesn’t appear to correspond to any NPCs in the game, and was only mentioned in this event dialogue and never again. This is suspicious, because Růžička means “little rose” in Czech. And guess what Rosalyne means? That’s right, “beautiful rose”. Ruzicka also sounds a bit like an abbreviated form of Rosalyne-Kruzchka. Then there’s also the fact that Signora studied at the Akademiya prior to her Crimson Witch transformation, so this may or may not be a subtle hint of Signora under a different name.

If this really refers to Signora, then they can’t just name-drop Rosalyne because that would’ve been way too obvious, so they settled with Ruzicka as a nod to her, in order to minimize suspicion and get people to shrug it off and not to think too hard about it.

Analogies to help people understand the reality of business strategies

Everything after this whole point is just an extra, and you can stop here if you don’t wanna hear me rambling about why Signora’s resurrection makes sense from a business perspective, and the caveats with the analysis I’ve presented. However, I’d like to put this here because I feel like the detractors who argue against Signora’s return don’t get how marketing actually works. I’m not expecting them to change or anything, but it’s evident that they only rely on the low-hanging fruits like “she’s turned into ashes” or “her death was deserved because she kicked Venti” rather than looking at how businesses work and the workplace politics surrounding them. Companies spend millions or even billions of dollars on marketing to ensure their product sells, and Hoyo is no exception. If they deem a past strategy to be a failure or unsustainable, they will pivot and change course to one that’s more likely to be successful. Expecting Hoyo to stay true to their original plans is unrealistic from a financial perspective, and their marketing department is unlikely to keep this decision forever when there’s an overwhelming amount of data that suggests this is a bad business move.

The BMW M1 analogy

I saw a video about the BMW M1 and how it was a commercial failure despite being widely praised by critics, and I think this is a great analogy for the biggest flaw with the detractors’ argument of “Signora should stay dead and people should move on”.

At 12:57, the host said “the M1 was, despite its good looks, its supercar provenance, its spectacular performance, good build quality, and universal praise, a failure”, and that “people don’t actually want to drive a race car on the road. What the people want is cars with a hint of Motorsport, and all it takes is some extra power here, a spoiler over there, and a couple M-badges… and then people open their wallets and pay through the nose for nothing more than a glorified sport package”. “BMW isn’t in business to make cars. BMW is in business to make money”.

Think of it like this: the M1 was a masterpiece of engineering. It was a true “race car for the road”. From a purist, engineering-first perspective, it was a perfect product, and the car equivalent of a tragic, narratively consistent story where dead characters stay dead; a piece of art created for the purists.

But in the end, “people don’t actually want to drive a race car on the road”. They wanted the fantasy of racing packaged in a comfortable car that’s practical and viable as a daily driver. As a result, the M1 was a commercial disaster. BMW struggled to sell them, eventually having to offer massive discounts, and they only sold a fraction of their initial goal. However, the idea of the M1, the “glorified sport package”, went on to become the foundation of their wildly successful M-Division, a multi-billion-dollar business that sells everyday cars with performance tweaks, aggressive styling, and M-badges. Suddenly, people lined up to buy them. The “spirit” of the M1 became the foundation of a highly profitable business.

This is pretty much analogous to the Signora situation. A writing team, operating like the engineers at BMW, might create what they see as a perfect, “narratively consistent world where dead characters stay dead”. They might even get praised by Signora detractors for their commitment to these tragic stakes. This is their “BMW M1”, a well-crafted (in the detractors’ and writers’ eyes) but ultimately niche product.

However, just like car buyers didn’t want a literal race car, most Genshin players don’t want permanently dead, unplayable villains. They want the fantasy of a powerful Harbinger in their party: badass and lore-rich but redeemable. They’re opening their wallets and paying through the nose for the experience of these characters, not for the abstract purity of a story where they die and don’t have their banners released.

If Hoyo continues to defend their controversial “plot device” for no other reason than a commitment to a 4-year-old narrative decision (which isn’t even explicitly stated or legally binding to begin with), they risk repeating BMW’s mistake. They’re offering a product (a tragic, finished story) to a market that is loudly and clearly demanding a different one (a playable, redeemed character). By releasing filler or side characters instead of established, lore-significant ones, they’re choosing to make less desirable products while their major characters gather dust.

A company composed solely of writers, like a company of engineers, risks creating a product that is technically sound but commercially unviable. The success of a live-service game, just like the success of a car company, depends on finding the perfect balance between the vision of the writers/engineers and the desires of the consumers. Just like BMW, Hoyo isn’t in business to make narratively consistent stories where dead characters stay dead. Hoyo is in business to make money by selling characters.

The enthusiast trap

There’s a video by TechAltar that explains the “enthusiast trap”. It argues that it’s nearly impossible for a tech company built for enthusiasts to remain successful in the long run. This occurs when a company focuses too narrowly on its early, highly opinionated users (the people who demand purity, difficulty, or uncompromising ideals) and then struggles to pivot to the broader, more profitable mainstream audience. In Genshin’s context, replace “enthusiasts” with a small but loud subset of lore purists and “mainstream” with the wider fanbase that favors the character collection aspect of gacha games.

The general idea is this:

  1. The lure: Smaller companies tend to cater to “enthusiasts” because they actively seek out cool new products and promote them in an act of evangelism. This sounds great at first, because word-of-mouth marketing doesn’t cost the company anything, and the community organically promotes the product for free.
  2. The trap: In reality, this is actually unsustainable, because enthusiasts are a small, niche market, with strict standards where they want NO compromises, and expect the company to stay committed to this. This makes it impossible for companies to scale, and cutting corners isn’t an option either, as the enthusiast community actively scrutinizes the company, so any perceived compromise can lead to rejection.
  3. The pivot: Eventually, in order to survive, companies are faced with difficult choices. They have to choose between staying with the enthusiast audience (which might bankrupt them or at least slow their growth), pivoting to the mainstream, “betraying” the enthusiasts in the process (but more likely to succeed), or trying to please both but more likely to fail as they get involved in a lose-lose situation.

Pebble, Cyanogen, OnePlus, Oppo, and now Nothing have been dealing with this.

Pebble and Cyanogen are examples of trying to take the third option and ended up failing. Both companies tried to cater to their original audience while also branching out. Pebble tried fashion and fitness, and Cyanogen split into commercial and enthusiast platforms (Cyanogen OS and CyanogenMod respectively). In both cases, they failed to attract the new audience while alienating their core community, resulting in a “lose-lose situation”.

OnePlus pivoted hard to a non-tech “lifestyle” audience with the OnePlus X after their OnePlus 2 flopped, which apparently sold terribly. They returned to their roots with the OnePlus 3 but are simultaneously spending millions on traditional ads with models, trying to appeal to a non-techy audience. A follow-up video by MKBHD in 2021 showed that they have successfully pivoted to the mainstream, with their flagship phones now costing just as much as any other company’s offerings, and their lineup evolving from a single phone every year to releasing refreshes and more affordable models with reduced specs (the Nord) to expand their reach while staying profitable by increasing their profit margins.

Oppo is another example of a successful pivot. It was once an enthusiast brand but made a “complete 180° turn”. They focused on mid-range phones with locked bootloaders and a heavy emphasis on selfies. The enthusiasts left, but Oppo became “incredibly successful” and one of the world’s largest smartphone vendors.

Nothing is a latest example of an attempt at pivoting. They initially bragged about how their phones had “no bloatware”, only for them to add bloatware and lock screen ads on their non-flagship phones starting from the 3a. This, unsurprisingly, resulted in the enthusiast community complaining about them, pointing out the hypocrisy like the “no bloatware” tweet in response to someone tweeting “[they] missed to add Instagram” only to do that exact same thing in their official announcement, and making hashtags like #RollItBack. Nothing itself admitted that it’s operating on razor-thin margins, and that this is necessary to ensure their business model is sustainable.

Hoyo is in the same situation with Signora. Based on my analysis, it seems that the reason why they killed Signora is that they’re simply following the HI3 playbook back when Hoyo was a smaller company that catered towards niche gacha gamers who are lore purists (the “enthusiasts”), and they’re likely just trying to do the same thing as Wendy where she died early on and didn’t become playable. When they killed Signora, they were still writing under this HI3 “enthusiast-first” assumption, that tragedy equals depth and that people would respect the moral “lesson” of her fall.

However, Genshin was their first smash-hit title, and presumably, they didn’t know that the mainstream now dominates their playerbase as a result of it. The game’s explosive popularity brought with them a different group of audience which had a completely different cultural and emotional baseline from the HI3 crowd. They favor collecting major characters and reject the notion that these characters can die and become unplayable.

They didn’t realize that this strategy is fundamentally incompatible with this new breed of audience that are playing the game, because back then, they were still trying to appeal to these purists, which runs counter to what the mainstream wants (playable Harbingers). In other words, Hoyo applied a niche storytelling formula to a mass-market gacha economy.

This is pretty much the same unsustainable business model. The “let her stay dead” crowd represents a vocal but tiny portion of the community. Catering to them means sacrificing potential banner revenue and engagement from millions who grew attached to her lore or simply wish to collect the Harbingers they like, not to mention that a single story payoff (Signora’s death) gives diminishing returns after the event passes, much like early enthusiast hardware that can’t scale.

They doubled down on her death (Winter Night’s Lazzo, MC’s brag lines in a Sumeru daily, lack of splash art, etc.), likely as an attempt to assert narrative authority, the same way enthusiast brands often double down on “integrity” when criticized for ignoring the wider market.

This is where they realized too late that they weren’t the same kind of company anymore. Hoyo was no longer an “enthusiast brand”. It was a multimillion dollar company competing with other major studios.

After finally realizing this, they now have three options, none of which is easy:

  1. Stick with the purists and keep her dead (potentially missing out on easy revenue and engagement).
  2. Pivot to mainstream, resurrect her, and make her playable (pissing off these purists, but the most sustainable option for banner revenue, engagement and community goodwill).
  3. Try to please both by somehow keeping her dead but playable after 4 years (doesn’t make much sense lorewise, pisses off both sides due to neither of them truly getting what they wanted).

Option 2 is the Oppo move: betray the old guard, but win over the majority.

Hoyo, like any multimillion dollar game company, ultimately optimizes for engagement-driven monetization rather than narrative purity. Reviving her allows them to reactivate dormant spenders, like players who quit after Inazuma because their favorite character was discarded. This also generates free marketing, as content creators will flood the social media over this (imagine the clickbait titles, like “THEY’VE DONE THE IMPOSSIBLE - SIGNORA IS BACK!?”, “THE COPERS WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG!”). She can then be involved in future events or AQs, which maintains engagement. Last but not least, this fixes a legacy PR issue, as reviving her can be framed as “listening to fans”, repairing the perception of tone-deaf writing decisions.

Compare that to keeping her dead, a choice with zero monetization upside, no hype, and no sustained engagement. From a product lifecycle standpoint, resurrecting Signora is the renewal phase that prevents the game from declining in popularity.

The compact phone analogy

This is something I’ve personally seen as a phone enthusiast, and is related to the previous point about the enthusiast trap. For years, people have wanted compact flagships because proponents argue that bigger phones are more difficult to use and require a ton of finger gymnastics, and that most compact phones on the market are either low-end or midrange phones, with mediocre or even poor hardware and software support. But every single time a company tries to do that, they’re hit with the realization that the market is too niche to justify their existence.

Major companies like Apple (with their iPhone mini), Asus (Zenfone 8/9/10), Samsung (Galaxy S3 - S5 mini, Galaxy Alpha, and later, Galaxy S10e), and Sony (Xperia Compact series) listened to this feedback and invested heavily in creating these niche products. They gave the vocal minority exactly what they asked for.

But then the sales data came in, and the truth was undeniable. While a small group loved them, the vast majority of consumers, when it came time to actually spend their money, chose the bigger phones. They prioritized larger screens for media consumption and the bigger batteries that came with a larger chassis, and they just didn’t think the improved ergonomics of smaller phones was a good enough reason to choose smaller phones over the bigger ones.

Because these things sell so poorly, every single one of these companies came to the same conclusion: the “small phone” market, despite being loud, was too niche to justify the investment. They all pivoted back to the more profitable big phones.

Now, how is this similar to the Signora detractors? Well, those who want her to stay dead (analogous to the “small phones”) argue that people should move on and just pull for any of the new characters, including filler or less significant characters such as Navia, Mualani or Flins, instead of clinging on to hopes for her return. These are characters with less narrative weight or those who appear in the story for a shorter time. While they may have their own dedicated fanbases (just like the small phone enthusiasts), their overall market performance can be less predictable and often lower than the major, established characters. They are, in a business sense, a higher-risk, lower-reward product.

By comparison, there’s the Archons and Harbingers, which are analogous to the “big phones”, and they’re the lore powerhouses. They are the characters at the very center of the game’s multi-year narrative and generate a ton of hype whenever they’re announced to be playable or even simply showing up in the AQ. Not only that, they have deep lore significance and a proven track record of generating massive banner revenue. Basically, they’re the safe, reliable, blockbuster products.

Just as Apple, Asus, Samsung and Sony’s marketing and finance teams looked at the sales data and concluded that continuing to invest in a niche product was illogical, Hoyo’s teams are probably gonna look at their data and realize that the massive success of Wanderer and Arlecchino gave them irrefutable proof of what the broader market wants: playable Harbingers.

The marketing and product management teams can just go to the writing team and say, “We understand the narrative choice you made with Signora. However, the market data is conclusive. Our audience overwhelmingly prefers and spends more money on the major (‘big phone’) characters; the lore-heavy, narratively significant Harbingers. Continuing to release less popular filler / side (‘small phone’) characters while ignoring a proven major character like Signora is not a viable long-term strategy”.

And this is how a business decision overrides a creative one. The reluctance of a writer to revisit a past plot point is gonna be less powerful than the company’s need to create products that the majority of its customers actually want to buy. This, once again, proves that in the end, the market always decides.

In fact, this could actually be the reason why they’ve been introducing five major characters who are likely to be playable in Nod-Krai: Columbina, Sandrone, Nicole, Varka and Durin. They probably realized that releasing too many filler or side characters like Varesa or Lauma isn’t going to be sustainable as their sales tend to be mediocre or poor even when compared to reruns of Archons or Harbingers, and the story is so far along that Hoyo doesn’t have room for another filler every patch without players feeling cheated. People have been sitting on years of unanswered teasers (Varka, Harbingers, Hexenzirkel), and if they didn’t start cashing in those promises now, they’d risk alienating players who’ve been waiting since the game’s launch.

Cautious confidence: Some caveats with every resurrection theory

I gotta admit, even with all the evidence we have so far, I can still be wrong, and there’s always the chance that we might simply be overanalyzing. I recently watched these videos by Veritasium on why most experts aren’t actually “experts” and the dangers of overconfidence, and these actually give a very good insight on why predicting Signora’s resurrection is so difficult.

The first video explains the 4 things that makes experts have real expertise: pattern recognition, high-validity environment, timely feedback, and not being too comfortable.

In the case of Signora’s resurrection analysis, the pattern recognition exists: Harbinger banners usually perform well, and quests and lore crumbs often hint toward which character will appear in the future. However, the environment is a mix between high- and low-validity. People do gravitate towards collectible groups of characters like Archons and Harbingers, which is backed by data, and this is a high-validity environment, but a low-validity environment also exists in that lore crumbs don’t necessarily guarantee playability.

A good example of this is how Neuvillette was mentioned by Nahida in the epilogue of the Sumeru AQ Act 5, and he did become playable by 4.1, but on the contrary, Capitano and Dottore were mentioned by Neuvillette and Mavuika respectively, but neither of them became playable yet, with Capitano “dying” and Dottore becoming a weekly boss with no playable ID. Hoyo is actively breaking patterns to prevent players from accurately guessing what they’re trying to do next.

Additionally, Signora’s situation itself is a low-validity environment: it is a one-off. So far, there has never been a playable character who died in-game and was then resurrected. Qiqi doesn’t count as she had already been playable since launch. Similarly, Capitano has yet to be resurrected, so making predictions of how they will perform this by extrapolating from his resurrection arc is also impossible. And even if he did get resurrected before Signora, it’s still not an exact 1:1 situation, as Capitano has an intact body to return to, and we’re using the term “death” loosely here, since pure-blood Khaenriahns cannot die due to the curse. On the contrary, Signora was completely vaporized, and it would require a more elaborate arc to bring her back. This is similar to how presidential elections have a slightly different environment each time, and that predicting who wins the election is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Another factor is that the feedback is delayed. It’s not immediately apparent which character will become playable. At best, we only get hints through the promo arts of the upcoming region, and we usually only get confirmation for the upcoming version from leakers (silhouette teaser by Hoyo themselves has only been done once until 6.2), so we can only predict with what we found so far that may support her revival.

Every single “when Signora will be playable” prediction always ended up being wrong, and we have a disastrous track record of incorrectly predicting that since 2.1. That’s not necessarily the person’s fault, but rather, the nature of the system itself. Point 4 of the video (“don’t be too comfortable”) is irrelevant here, as we already failed at point 3 and partially point 2.

The second video explains the dangers of overconfidence and the factors that influence it, while also elaborating on portions of the first video.

Most people tend to be overconfident, and those who claim to have very high confidence is only correct about half the time. One of the factors at play is the complexity and unpredictability of a situation, an issue of feedback. In a controlled environment, where the rules are clear and the results are consistent, there is clear feedback. In a noisy environment where consistency or timeliness are nonexistent, however, this feedback becomes unreliable.

In the case of Signora’s revival theories, there’s a ton of inconsistencies on what we thought as “patterns.” The order of characters on the Harbinger wheel doesn’t necessarily imply which one of them would come up next (Capitano appeared before Columbina). Character mentions at the end of AQs don’t necessarily mean playability. Symbolism is unreliable (does Signora’s moth symbolism represent “moth to a flame” or rebirth?). Harbingers aren’t guaranteed to be playable in the same region they’re introduced in, unlike archons. So on and so forth.

There are things we can do to mitigate these. One of them is to not make statements that sound too confident, being aware of our confidence calibration (e.g. instead of “she will return in 6.x”, make it “there’s a 60% chance she’ll return in 6.x”). Also, listen to those who disagree with you and try to figure out their best arguments against yours. Fill in the blind spots in your decision-making process with those. “True wisdom lies not in being certain, but in knowing the limits of your own certainty”.

The unusual Rosalyne name-drops might still not be indicative of her return. One of the arguments I’ve seen is that this doesn’t guarantee that she might necessarily be resurrected, and that perhaps this was merely meant to evoke the player’s feelings that she had a softer side, but they still have no intentions of bringing her back if they feel like they could move on from the execution incident back in 2.1, especially when there’s still other banners that could sell just as well. And that’s valid. There’s a chance that because they learned the lesson, they don’t need to fix the mistake. They can just ensure they never do it again with future characters. And maybe the name-drops are just there because they want us to feel the tragedy of her death more deeply, essentially “twisting the knife” rather than healing the wound.

However, my confidence lies in the fact that there are real financial incentives to bring her back. To me, it simply would be too weird for Hoyo to tease her, but then not bring her back simply because “it’s just a coincidence, this is the only time when we get to interact with the Harbingers more frequently”.

Vote with your wallet

I’ve seen the drama revolving around Harbingers on r/FatuiHQ, which is honestly quite stupid and should’ve never happened to begin with, and those who were involved in this are no different than Signora’s haters. All I can say is this: if you want your Harbingers to become playable, then vote with your wallet and pull Columbina, Sandrone and all future playable Harbingers. Remember, all Harbingers are grouped into the same category, so the success of one of the banners can encourage them to rethink their strategies when it comes to releasing others, and perhaps even launch them sooner.

I’m personally willing to get Columbina and Sandrone’s constellations/signature weapons if it turns out Signora isn’t in Nod-Krai. I believe in this principle and I think if those two Harbingers become really successful, then they might prioritize Signora’s return because like I’ve said, the fact that they’ve released all female Harbingers except Signora implies that they’re testing the waters to estimate how successful her banner will be, and if they both turn out to be a huge hit, then they might even expedite her release as a playable character.

Conclusion: They’re (probably) setting the stage for her playability

With all the new evidence that has surfaced so far, Signora’s release is no longer a matter of if, but when. My prediction? I’m 60% confident that she will be playable as early as 6.x, maybe with the release of Mare Jivari, and 80% confident that she will be in at least 7.x with Snezhnaya, maybe with her literally busting that coffin open and making a huge reveal. I’m saying 60% in 6.x mainly because Nod-Krai’s arc is already packed with a ton of major story beats and characters, so I feel like it’s more likely she’ll be in 7.x instead to prevent her return from being overshadowed by literally everything else in 6.x. The fact that they’re making her the most sought-after item in the Harbinger blind box, along with further evidence of pity-baiting, means that they’re slowly bringing her back into relevance and trying to get people to talk about her more often, in order to build up hype and anticipation for her launch.

Given how she’s not in the silhouette teaser, both outcomes are definitely possible, although I’m still leaning more towards 7.x banner given how Sandrone is looking to be the hype character as she was missing from the silhouettes and only her reflection is visible, and we know this because she has a playable ID, so what else could that reflection be other than her?

Still though, the fact that the number of Signora mentions under her real name is increasing dramatically, along with her being prominently featured in official media, merch, and Hoyofair’s semi-official fanarts, is way too suspicious to ignore. They’ve never done something like this prior to 6.x, and the tone was also shifting dramatically from portraying her as an “evil, irredeemable villain” to a “lost soul who was tragically misunderstood”. I think she’s very likely return, but this time under Rosalyne, instead of Signora, given their insistence on using her real name, and that everything we’ve seen so far is a slow build-up towards her return.

It’s honestly quite amazing to finally start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and I really hope her eventual resurrection would be insanely peak, finally silencing all the detractors for good, and maybe even get some of them to apologize for harassing us Signora mains. All I have to say is, after over 4 years of wait since her death, she’s coming, folks. This is very possibly the build-up to the moment we’ve all been waiting for.