Genshin Impact reveals 10 new Nod-Krai characters all at once, including some who players have waited 5 years for like Alice and Varka

Genshin Impact update 5.8 was only just revealed ahead of its impending release, but the game's devs and players are already eyeing up the 6.X Nod-Krai arc – doubly so now that HoYoverse has gone and revealed 10 characters all at once.

A 5-minute video, the Song of the Welkin Moon Teaser: Moonlit Ballad of the Night, was released last night. The next arc of the Genshin Impact story is anchored in the new explorable region of Nod-Krai, but there are already lore crumbs indicating our adventures will take us to other, probably stranger realms as well.

Mild lore spoilers for Genshin Impact ahead.

A total of 11 characters have been revealed for the 6.X patches so far, and 10 of them are fresh, with the arguable exception of Ainoh, who was very briefly seen in the 5.8 update trailer in connection to upcoming 5-star character Ineffa. Additionally, the Fatui Harbinger Columbina was seen years ago and has appeared in recent teasers, but the rest of the lineup is filled with new faces.

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Two standouts are Alice and Varka. Alice is Klee's mother and the leader of the Hexenzirkel circle of witches, while Varka is one of the highest-ranking and strongest warriors in Mondstadt. Klee was the second 5-star released in Genshin Impact 1.0, and Varka was mentioned as early as the backstory for 1.0 character Razor. Both have been teased in various snippets and backstories for around five years now, with Alice alone appearing in some intermittent quests through voice-only interactions, so it's a pretty big deal for Genshin to finally, suddenly put a face to them.

Durin, the new human form of a dream dragon encountered in a previous quest, also raises an eyebrow. Sandrone, another Fatui Harbinger, was seen in a years-old teaser, but this is by far her clearest connection to the 6.X story.

The blue-antlered woman Lauma was the face of the recent Nod-Krai-specific teaser, and she's joined by a few regional characters who have never been seen or mentioned in any capacity. The dark-eyed Nefer screams Dendro, Flins is about as Electro-themed as you can get, Jahoda could almost pass for a Zenless Zone Zero character, and Nicole Reeyn is another one of the Hexenzirkel witches.

A few of these characters are pictured with elemental Visions – Lauma with Dendro, Alice with Pyro, Flins with Electro, Durin with Pyro, Nefer with Dendro – which typically indicates that they will be playable, but it's currently unclear who among these 11 figures will be released as collectible 4- or 5-star characters.

We can reasonably assume that some of them won't be playable, though most should be, and there are undoubtedly still 6.X characters we haven't seen yet too. Based on previous releases, I would speculate that between Columbina and Sandrone, at least one of them won't be playable since Genshin is pretty picky with its Harbingers.

The Genshin Impact community is on fire after HoYoverse dropped a nuclear lore trailer on a random Wednesday midnight: "Do you think she will be playable?"