Xiao and 5 more Genshin Impact characters with outrageously tragic backstories

Bennett is one of the most cheerful characters in the game. However, his bad luck has given him trouble in the past. He was rescued from a desolate wasteland as a baby and brought to the Adventurer’s Guild. It’s why he calls everyone there “Dad.” Thankfully, all of these Dads seem to genuinely care for the boy.

Unfortunately, he has no friends. They’re all scared of his bad luck and blame him for the misfortunes that happen after meeting with him. This is why Benny’s Adventure Team has only one member, though Bennett refuses to dissolve the team in hopes of their return.

Bennett also has weirdly accepted the possibility of death. To him, a "good death comes at the end of a life given to the pursuit of treasure and the secrets of the world.” And so he continues adventuring. Once, he was actually on the verge of death but survived thanks to the Vision that sealed his wound.

Well, maybe it’s more of an honorable mention since Bennett isn’t actually that sad despite his past.

"Well, since everyone's by my side, I guess I'm not that unlucky after all," reads one of his character stories.

Can you imagine Diluc smiling? He was the son of the famed wine tycoon, Crepus Ragnvindr, who dreamt of his son being a part of the illustrious Knights of Favonius. Crepus himself regretted not ever joining the Knights or obtaining a Vision. However, it was something Diluc was happy to do for his father to gain his approval. However, that changed after his father’s death.

During one fateful night, he and his father’s fleet was attacked by an unusually strong monster. Just when Diluc thought they would be overwhelmed, his father defeated them with a Delusion. This “evil power” mortally wounded him in return and he died in Diluc’s arms. Knights of Favonius higher-ups instructed Diluc to conceal the truth about what happened.

His father’s death left him disillusioned, eventually leading him to quit the Knights of Favonius. It impacted him enough to impact his present and uproot his ideals.

Rosaria values Mondstadt’s freedom, especially since she had none of her own as a child. She grew up in a mountain village that was taken over by bandits, where she learned to fight and thieve as a child. Her character story describes her youth like Mondstadt’s sunset, “blood-red from horizon to horizon.” The bandits also made her into a servant to carry out their tasks.

Eventually, she tried to flee the bandit village because of the constant labor with nothing to eat. She was always hungry and cold. One of the elders, the one who raised her, refused to let her leave and forced her into combat because "Fleeing makes you a traitor, and traitors can only earn their freedom through victory in combat,” he told her. No one thought she could kill him, but she did.

Rosaria was left wondering if he really ever cared for her. At least she finally got the freedom she craved after the Knights of Favonius freed her from the bandits.

Kaeya shares a past with Diluc as his adopted sibling, though his story is slightly more complicated. In Kaeya’s vision story, it reveals that his true father left him in Mondstadt to act as a spy for Khaenri'ah. He lived his childhood juggling the guilt from his lies until he spilled the truth to Diluc on the night of their father’s death.

Crepus Ragnvindr obtained a Delusion, leading to the moment where Diluc unexpectedly lost his father. Kaeya still hasn’t completely shed the guilt of whether he should’ve tried harder to be a real son to his adoptive father and been there for Diluc instead of agonizing over his loyalties. He didn’t know who to support: Khaenri'ah or Mondstadt? His present connection to his former country is unknown.

He ended up as a Knight of Favonius in the end. It doesn’t exactly lighten the past, though.

Xiao suffers from his war-filled past. He and the now-deceased other Yakshas answered Zhongli’s call for battle during the Archon War. However, fighting with the remains of fallen gods eventually accumulated enough “karma debt” to drive them mad. Xiao now bears the title of the last surviving Yaksha.

In his story quests, he mentions that he can’t stay around others long or doesn’t want to be with others in fear of his karma wreaking havoc on innocent bystanders. Also, all his friends from the past are now basically dead, except Zhongli. The Traveler is the first in a while to offer him some solace from a world that largely doesn’t see him. At least you do.

Qiqi has one of the most tragic pasts thanks to her early death. She died as a child caught in the crossfire during the Archon War. One of the adepti couldn’t bear to let her die, so they tried infusing her with adeptal energy and turned her into a zombie. She went into a frenzy with the newfound energy and later needed to be frozen in amber, where she was discovered years after.

Baizhu ended up adopting her as a test subject to work at Bubu Pharmacy. Zombies typically need orders to act. However, Qiqi can typically act on her own orders. As per her character story, you can “hug Qiqi from behind, tell her something like "I love you the most," and the orders will dissipate, just like that.” However, Baizhu does it with “no element of sincerity.” So Qiqi’s adoptive “parent” doesn’t even care about her.

Qiqi doesn’t seem to feel much grief. However, when you take into account her short-term memory, undying body, and friendlessness, you can’t help but imagine what it would be like if she could feel. Before she died, Qiqi’s last thoughts were about wanting to live. She wanted to go back to her family, which she was never able to do. "If only I could freeze time... How wonderful would that be?" she thought.

Well, I guess she can’t tell how wonderful it wasn’t, due to her poor memory.