Hailou

Hailou is the het ship between Nilou and Alhaitham from the Genshin Impact fandom.

Canon
Nilou and AlHaitham have been seen together in a few official art and have interacted in the Sumeru Archon Quest.

In the Sumeru Archon Quest Chapter III, Act V, they had a moment of exchanged conversation. Alhaitham was the one to ask Nilou to join their plan during the archon quest, by telling her that he had something important to let her in on. Nilou was seen to be enthusiastic and in awe that Alhaitham would ask to discuss something important with her. After the discussion, Nilou was see to be both impressed and surprised by Alhaitham's plan, and she was described to be, "shocked at first, but it isn't long before she's bubbling with excitement and anticipating". Furthermore, she also praised Alhaitham to be "the bravest and most passionate people of Sumeru, well, that... I've ever met!". Later on, when they carried out the plan, he also smiled at her as he also nod for her to go on with the plan, where she proceed to bring up courage to dance in public.

They were also seen next to each other in one of the Sumeru promotional videos on the Genshin Impact YouTube channel. In this video they were also seen giving Nahida gifts alongside other Sumeru characters.

Quotes
"Alhaitham: Welcome, Nilou, would like to join us?

Nilou: Huh? Join you? You mean. . . you also want to discuss something important. . . with me?

Alhaitham: Yes, something very important. Nilou, are there any breaks in your performance schedule in the upcoming days?

Nilou: Huh? Wait, you're seriously inviting me?"

- Sumeru Archon Quest Chapter 3, Act 5.

"I... I can't believe my ears! You are truly the bravest and most passionate people of Sumeru, well, that... I've ever met!"

- Nilou to Alhaitham in the Sumeru Archon Quest Chapter 3, Act 5

Fanon
Hailou is very much a rarepair, being overshadowed by more popular ships for Nilou and Alhaitham. The two have almost no fanfiction or fanart. There are currently over 10 works of the pair on AO3. There is a little bit of fan art on Twitter. On TikTok, the two however have a decent amount of videos. Some fans of the ship freaked out when they were seen in together in one of the Sumeru promo video on official Genshin YouTube channel. Many fans hope to see them interact more in a future event or story quest. Nilou and Alhaitham were both leaked together alongside other characters from Sumeru, which made many fans assume they were going to be playable together. However out of the two, Nilou is the only one to be playable from the leaks.

Amongst the fandom, a fair amount of Hailou shippers also like to entertain the idea that Nilou is a representation of the Goddess of Flower, and Alhaitam is the reincarnation of the King Deshret, who were known to be close historical figures in Sumeru lores. This often serves as prompt for Hailou fanfictions and fan arts, as well as a theory many shippers hold on to. Apart from that, some shippers simply like the dynamic of a smart and rational scholar and kind and gentle performer, in which the two occupations are known to be the complete opposite.

Currently, for Nilou, the ship rivals Cylou, Ayanilou, and the ship between Dehya and Nilou. For Alhaitham, this ship rivals Kavetham and Cytham. Though there has been some people who ship Nilou and Alhaitham with Cyno as a poly ship but like Hailou the poly ship is also a rarepair.

Fandom
FAN FICTION