[4.3] What's the deal with Zhongli? - A Genshin Impact Theory 

**NOTES & CORRECTIONS** - Several people have pointed out that Rukkhadevata and Nabu Malikata also are referred to with the title of "God King." This is true, however, it's worth pointing out that King Deshret was said to have "shared his throne" with these two, allowing all three to possess the title - that's why they were called the three eternal companion gods. The line from Flowers of Paradise Lost (Amathyst Crown) is: "In an age where kings vied against one another for power, King Deshret allowed his throne to be shared with two others." This does not delegitimize their titles, strength or rank, it's just worth pointing out that this was a power SHARED, and the higher authority was relegated to Deshret. As an aside, the term "god-king" may not be the best term to use to refer to the grouping of Deshret, Zhongli, Decarabian and Remus, but it's what I've got. - In this vid, I said that Zhongli is the oldest character we know. That's not 100% true, obviously Dragons, Sustainer etc are much older, but he's the oldest person we know that has a number associated with their age (even if it's not his exact age). This makes him the baseline for a lot of timeline related stuff. - I also said that gold is created during a kilanova (2 neutron stars colliding). This is a relatively new (2017) discovery and scientists debate whether or not gold is ONLY formed during a kilanova or if it can be formed during other stellar events as well. Thanks to Astrofizzix for pointing this out!

Me: There's no way she can fit an obligatory Deshret tangent in a Zhongli video Ashikai: Hold my Osmanthus wine.

Also, one more strange thing to add. Zhongli's demo is titled: Zhongli the listener. Neuvillette's is the: Watcher in the deep.

I hope that at some point we will have the opportunity to see what Zhongli was like during his time as Morax, since from what everyone says he was much more stubborn and violent than he is today.

Imagine if zhongli is so old that instead of his birthday falling on new years hapazardly his birthday designates the new year.

I love how Ashikai is slowly falling deeper and deeper into this hoyo-pun hell and "everything is a star" idea.

Chinese dragon, also known as the loong, long or lung has a special class system. Zhongli and Azhdaha are different type of long. Zhongli more like a Tianlong or Huanglong. Azhdaha more like a Fuzanglong or Chilong. Tianlong (天龍; 'heavenly dragon'), celestial dragon that guards heavenly palaces and pulls divine chariots; Shenlong (神龍; 'god dragon'), thunder god that controls the weather, appearance of a human head, dragon's body, and drum-like stomach. Fuzanglong (伏藏龍; 'hidden treasure dragon'), underworld guardian of precious metals and jewels, associated with volcanoes. Dilong (地龍; 'earth dragon'), controller of rivers and seas.

It's also worth noting how Neuvillette addresses all of the Archons thus far. While he'd address Venti, Ei, and Nahida as other canonical titles (God of Breeze and Hope was something Venti described his presence as a wind spirit in his quest, Narukami is another title for the Electro Archon, Lord of Verdure was a title used to describe the Dendro Archon alongside the God of Flowers and the Scarlet King) in his voiceline. But with Zhongli, he addresses him in a Latin name, Deus Auri, which is a title that does not appear in other places or texts in-game thus far.

At this point I think Ashikai’s tinfoil hat needs an upgrade to a goldfoil hat. She’s definitely the god of crackpot theories that eventually prove to be true.

It would be good if they expanded on Decarabian's character, always was interested with old Mondstadt's lore

Guys, have you noticed something, if you look at Zhongli's statue of the seven, and at the back of the throne he is sitting, you can see some symbols that look very similar to the symbols we find in King Dehsret's pyramid. I couldn't believe it when I first saw that.

5:15 i call natlan dragon is a phoenix and is the ziz. Phoenix are known for their immortality from constant resurrection from their ashes. With natlans archon quest being called "incandescent ode to resurrection" a phoenix as the dragon sovereign would be brilliant.

After watching so much of Ashikai’s videos, one thing I CONSTANTLY think about is how I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope someone at Hoyo is responsible for remembering all these lore crumbs. Like….PLEASE don’t forget about these crumbs and dangling threads.

Also let’s remember because of Hu Taos story quest we know that the only known gateway to the spirit realm is in Liyue

Imagine being a character that has been there since 1.0 and still being the most mysterious character in-game.

With the "God Kings" coming from Liyue, Mondstadt, Sumeru and Fontaine, we are speaking about the nations closest to Celestia. A moonsister being displayed in Inazuma and two nations and moonsisters remaining on what's practically an outer orbit of Celestia and the theory about the moonsisters guarding Teyvat's borders... yeah, should I get myself a tin foiled hat?

It's interesting that you mention the Jade Emperor and "sun brothers," because there's actually an interesting Chinese myth about that. The Jade Emperor had 10 sons and one day, they decided to become actual suns and started scorching the earth. The Emperor then had a skilled archer among the immortal gods of Heaven (this is actually the start of a myth about him and his wife) stop his sons, but not in the way he really wanted. He just wanted the archer to make his sons stop being suns and the archer, Hou Yi, aims his arrows at all but one sun, leaving only one of the Jade Emperor's sons to live as the one sun in the sky. Maybe there aren't ten in total in Genshin, but this makes your theory pretty plausible. As for Hou Yi, that story could possibly fit in with (since you mentioned the seele) the seele that married an outlander and the punishment they were given. As punishment for killing 9/10 of the Jade Emperor's sons, Hou Yi and his wife, Chang'E (who was also an immortal goddess) were stripped of their godhood and sent down to earth as mortals. They struggle with mortal life and Chang'E's mood in particular is bummed about the life she lost. So this sends Hou Yi on a quest into the mountains to find an elixir of immortality. There are two different endings, but they both play out similarly. In both endings, Hou Yi finds the elixir, but the effects are different. In one ending, the elixir can either make two people half-immortal or one person full immortal. Chang'E, upon hearing this on his return, drinks the whole thing herself in her own selfishness and since she can't return to heaven, she's banished to the moon. In the more popular ending, the elixir can only be used on one person and the couple both decide to hide the elixir and deal with the usage of it at a later date. During this time, they get used to their human lives only for an apprentice of Hou Yi to learn that they have the elixir. While Hou Yi is out hunting, the apprentice attacks Chang'E and demands that she give him the elixir. With the choice to rather give it to him and make him immortal or take it before he could, she drinks it in an act of self-sacrifice and becomes a full goddess again. She then chooses to go to the moon to be at the perfect distance between her husband and heaven. I've been told that the more popular version is what the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is celebrated for and is the reason why mooncakes exist because, supposedly, that was the offering her husband would leave out for her after she ascended to the moon. That story would mean, though, that the seele that married the mortal would have to be one of the moon sisters, possibly the one we see in the sky now.

What if Zhongli also has a fake constellation and that's why both he and Neuvillette have a story named differently to their constellations

I still think its strange zhongli says he has “dwelt” on this earth, and he “descended” onto it. Makes me think hes older than 6,000

I do hope Mihoyo remembers that they've left these dangling plot threads in old regions someday. Even if we are going back to Liyue for Chenyu Vale it doesn't seem like it's going to be enormously relevant to anything... And then I would have to imagine it's onward to Petrichor for maybe some Erinnyes/Remus stuff and pre-Natlan. Go back to an old region for something other than a festival! Please!

That whole bit at the end is sticking with me..."to pass it along to someone else.." With Zhongli seeing how special the Traveler is and how they have basically been conquering all the elements, seemingly in preparation to overthrow Celestia, it seems like it's us (The Traveler) that is supposed to inherit the throne of heaven..but not just that, also the earth (Teyvat) as well. But, I think we are meant to kinda bridge the gap and heal the divide between the heavens and the earth instead of becoming what the Primordial one was..which was a conqueror. There are some possible Christian parallels here too with The Traveler being almost Christ-like...it's got a lot of interesting implications and I'm kinda here to see all the ways that they can incorporate history and different cultures into this.

My crack theory: Since we reliably called Neuve out as a dragon based on his eyes, I'll go on a limb and point out that ZLs eyes are most similar to Unknown god than anything else in all of teyvat. His design especially as Morax/Rex Lapis has much in common with UG like the cube he's depicted with on his SoS, the homogenized darkened arms and gold veins (UG has a similar thing going on her arms but with cubic patterns). Design aside, he is evidently so OP to the point where he's remained the OG archon since the dawn of archons, undefeated and seemingly unaffected by all the catastrophes Teyvat has seen including the cataclysm. Even Guizhong succumbed to it and yet strangely it was only ZL who could see to her end. I think the reason he's so elusive about his true persona and nature is likely because he perhaps was either a mole planted on Teyvat by Celestia, who later defected in support of the anti-Celestia order. Or, he perhaps, like the Goddess of Flowers etc, was banished from Celestia for harbouring more-power-to-the-people sentiments. IMHO, I think this is why out of all the archons, the Tsaritsa established some special ties/contract with him and him only (not Venti, not Baal, not Rukkhadevata/Egreria/Focalors/Murata etc) because of his special links to Celestia - which would ultimately work in favor within her grand scheme. This would support his overall blasé attitude when it came to giving up the gnosis because it unlikely added any value to him in terms of power/mastery-wise let alone in securing his seat on the heavenly throne. And ZL probably can't risk Celestia finding out (in the same way Focalors had to "deceive" Celestia with the Fontaine Prophecy). So he chose to remain a low profile even with Traveller. Also, this man's memories are immune to the erosion of time and likely Irminsul rewriting because, like the descenders, he is simply not of this world. But I don't think he's a descender in that sense, since as Nahida said, not all who aren't from this world become "descenders". However it then makes sense why he didn't give us any info about our sibling, because if he did, he would actually blow his own cover. Instead he did give us a crumb that we are "witnesses...the ones who cross celestial atlas though countless worlds...". This is something no other archon was able to discern. You might argue Nahida gave us a lot of insight, but keep in mind, she was only capable of this based on info she dug out from Irminsul records at our behest- she herself would've had no inkling otherwise. And yet ZL who technically has no ties to Irminsul, could. How come?? Sussy baka I tell ya. Also he only demonstrates his powers in the capacity of magnanimous Geo-mastery, but we never got any explanation of how Xiao got saved from his Chasm charity-suicide lol. The situation was so precarious it made no sense that geo could be wielded in any way/shape/form to create a solution, but ZL clearly intervened in a fate-altering way - which again, is unheard of from an Archon perspective of their powers. Now to make things more suspect, Neuve seems to hold a certain vitriol towards ZL out of all the other archons seemingly for a crime (overthrowing dragons) that they're all guilty of...BUT WHY ZL SPECIFICALLY??? It wouldn't make sense to single him out unless, perhaps, he has special ties to Celestia. Which makes me wonder, if Neuve is upset from the perspective of ZL not defending Teyvat/dragons enough in the beginning of time as he should and perhaps only came to realize only later (which in turn then, cost him banishment of sorts) Tldr: ZL is Celestia's rebellious nepo baby.

don't forget he's got scales on his splash art. It's really a small detail. but it's there, on the insides of his clothes, just take a closer look.

Ashikai brings up Deshret- Me: Ah shit, here we go again.

This one was a long time coming, Zhongli is such an anomaly and honestly one of the more intriguing characters in the story right now, Hoyo basically told us through Ei that his story he far from over

Another thing that fits the record keeping part of the theory and how Geo is an exact account of history while Irminsul is memory history is Zhongli's 5th character story When you complete the Sumeru archon quest, people's memories of Rukhadevata dissappear completely and Buer is considered to be Sumeru's first archon. Once you finish the quest anything relating to her such as item descriptions and books is changed. From what I remember, there are only two exceptions, the chair in the eternal oasis and Zhongli's 5th character story You may think "oh, Hoyo just forgot to change it" but they didn't because Zhongli's 5th character story does change after you complete the Sumeru archon quest. It changed from "and only 2 remain of the first 7" to "and only 2 of the first 7 remain in positions of leadership". Originally I thought that this just referenced how the Akedemia was the ruling power of Sumeru while Nahida was locked away but, since this was changed after the archon quest, Nahida should now be back in power. She may be leaving a lot of things to the akademia but that shouldn't matter because the character story is also talking about Venti who leaves everything to his people TL;DR: Zhongli may remember Rukhadevata

Zhongli could be an actual celestial being at the very least, I find it wierd that Zhongli's Banner title "Vago Mundo" and Neuvillette called him "Deus Auri", are both in Latin. The other archons have their banner titles in english, and Neuvillette called them in either english or their nation inspiration language, like calling Ei "Narukami" which is japanese and is an established name ingame. Latin is mainly on locations that has connections to Celestia, like the Enkanomiya, Sal Vidagnr (That drawing in Dragon's Spine) If not then WTF NEUVI HE HAS LIKE DOZENS OF TITLED JUST PICK ONE!!!

🙏🙏🙏Please, HYV. I'm on my knees BEGGING for a Zhongli skin. 2024 is the year of the Dragon and you've already shown Zhongli with the same outfit twice already. Don't you think it's the perfect time to give Zhongli his skin?!

The Sustainer and Celestia lore in Genshin is the type of lore I’ve been most interested in since I started playing. I never even noticed the witches knot on the Sustainer’s back but it makes a lot of sense in relation to the Solomons knot symbolism how you described it

I think Zhongli and Deshret had very awkward encounter. The new BP bow says “The red lord, they say, once contended against the bright sun, and ultimately fell to the earth like a meteorite.” A meteorite. Fell into the Chasm. Or some “temperamental star” or “solar chariot”. So that’s what it was… I wonder how that conversation went.

Not sure if this has anything to do with anything... but there's also Zhongli’s deleted voiceline about Celestia. In it, there was a longing for how he missed it and how it had been a long time since he's been. Again, it could mean nothing, but you never know. Especially since it was deleted

To complement your theory, the squarish symbol on his back can also be found in many places, but what's intriguing is that it can be seen in both smithing/craft smelting tables and in Alchemy tables after you finish working on them as well. We know that Morax taught the people of Liyue how to craft smelt the ores, and we know from Mist Veiled Lead Elixir that '' Jueyun Karst is the realm of the mighty and illuminated Adepti. But other than the ability to control the elements of the world, Jueyun Karst is also home to three other untold secrets: Alchemy, Sigils, and Sub-Space Creation.'' Alchemy was an art that was brought to the Adepti by Morax, or the Golden God as his most recent name/Orobashi suggests him to be. That does fall into character since creating gold is the epitome of Alchemy as pointed by Rheindottir to Albedo (chalk pursues Gold), and curiously enough it's the gold in the form of Mora is the catalyst we use today in Alchemy. Matter of fact it's in Albedo's lore that we find the most connections between gold, the sun and Alchemy. I find it rather intriguing that we have only two kinds of Leyline outcorps one from which we can farm Mora, the Blossoms of Wealth, I wonder how would this insert into this lore, especially since we know the role of the Leylines as a ''network of elemental energy and memories of everything that has lived in this world, both on the surface and down in the Abyss.'' Secondly, it's funny that you mentioned it, no long ago I was roaming around Liyue and came across one of the ancient ruins, this time it can be directly linked to Rex Lapis, it's the Taishan Mansion Puzzle where we read : ''Here stood Taishan Mansion, established by royal decree. ...But the Geo Lord wished for his residence to remain among the people of Liyue, hence, all trace of the path to that divine place was lost in the mortal realm." One final thing is, if you look closely enough to the meteor Zhongli launches it's actually what you described as a Merkhaba in 3D, just made with squares instead of triangles (AutoCAD ruined my brain circuits and I couldn't unsee it haha) and it does look like a container rather than an actual meteor if you look closely to it in the event webpage. Aslo adding to design elements, it always boggles me how nobody ever told me they noticed how the broche on his chest merely blends in with the rest of his outfit, it's rather a strange element, the closest thing to resemble it is the symbol in the traveler's constellation (at least Lumine's in my perspective). Anyhow thank you Ashikai for the quality content, I think there will be much more to discuss with the upcoming map extension in 4.4 and the dialogs of our mother Adeptus Cloud Retainer. ❤

I hope you explore more on this God-king concepts for Deshret, Remus and Decarabian when all of old Fontaine and Remuria's lore are done in the future. I like the idea since those kings are completely beings from archons, sovereign dragons and shades. Kinda like another concept of authority in Teyvat.

There's also another theory of Zhongli, as the prime adeptus granting the adepti their elemental power through their "third eye", thus them not requiring a vision to operate. We also have Xianyun not featuring a vision in her official art. This implies that our Geo Daddy also has even more than what meets the eye compared to what's discussed today.

It's always a good day when another of Ashikai's 'unhinged-theories-that-make-a-scary-amount-of-sense' videos drops.

Does anyone remember azdaha's dialogue where he says, he is older that the mountains and the oceans that decides. The "oceans that decides" could be a foreshadowing for neuvillette, because he is a judge, and a hydro dragon. Another things is that, azdaha has a desire to see the world, and morax heard his wish so he granted him "vision" to see. Which is similar to how the "visions" are given to people in teyvat.

I feel like Irminsul is about perception and earth is about reality. Irminsul cannot alter what has happened, only the way it is perceived. Also, I am absurdly happy that you pointed out the link between Neuvillette and Zhongli. From the second we met him, the similarities were driving me insane. I couldn't find the exact link because I personally didn't think that Zhongli was a Dragon Sovereign. BUT the fact that the Traveler has nearly identical abilities to both Zhongli and Neuvillette was making me very tinfoil hat. So thank you so much for pointing out a connection that made sense.

Like you stated before his title is ”岩王帝君” which roughly translates to Rock King Emperor. He was definitely a god king at least in our opinions. Also funny pun to his title Rock king YanWang “岩王” can also be ”阎王”which means King of the Underworld/hell.

To add more crack to the crackness, but come to think of it, Zhongli may have a lot more similarities to the Traveller than we initially thought. 1) Like his whole sun symbolism going on, along with Guizhong sometimes associated with the moon; (glaze lilies, like the Nikotpala lotus bloom during moontime) kinda reminds me of Aether's star(?) shaped sword handle at their encounter with the Sustainer and Lumine's like the moon. 2) Guizhong's clothes and hairstyle uncannily almost identical to Lumine. Then Aether's earring like Zhongli's..... and his archon war outfit having similar color palette and rhomboid patterns with his clothes. Like they're trying to imply that in a way, the Traveller, is a parallel or "double" to Zhongli. 3) "Star" Like the archon quest title "A New Star Approaches", signifying that there was/is an existance of an "Old Star". As far as we knew, it was already made clear that Azhdaha, one of the oldest beings in Liyue is a Geo vishap from the 'Olde World' so it can't be him. That leaves Zhongli being at least 6000 years old. It was stated in the game that the dragon we saw was merely a 'vessel', implying that it was just one of Morax's many forms. And if I remember correctly from an old web event(?) said that "Rex Lapis has a true form" as if nobody really knows his actual identity/shape and origin. Both Rex Lapis and the God of Dust are "descended" to Teyvat. With Guizhong dwelled upon the land first. Like Lumine, if you play as Aether as the MC. Despite that, what's made clear is that it is said that the first mora is minted from his "golden" form (from "Don't play with money vc"). And many infos scattered in Teyvat regions at place to place either mentioning Morax as the golden god/Deus Auri or the gold being his literal flesh and blood. Then one Albedo's vc stated that "without human manipulation, you would need 8 suns to naturally create gold". And what is a sun? A very large star. 4) "Story line(?)" I'm not sure whether this is just a small coincidence or not, so take this with a grain of salt. But don't you ever think that the archon quests kinda reflects parts of Zhongli's known history? I got this idea from one of the vc saying that we, the Traveller had to explore more of Teyvat to know the truth. MONDSTAT (Freedom): Rex Lapis giving freedom to Xiao. Allying with other gods; Goddes of Dust, God of Stove (Marchosius. Giving refuge to Gold of Salt's followers and ordering Yakshas to rescue people on The Chasm. INAZUMA (Eternity): doing everything what is takes to prevent the Erosion from harming the closest ones. Assuming that his Erosion instead of making him able to forget memories, but "People abandon and surrender the things they love to pursue the right path. Perhaps this the the erosion imposed on my by the Heavenly Principles". And him retiring as the Geo archon is one of those ways Sumeru (Wisdom): states that the memories of entities that are not connected to irminsul cannot be altered. If Zhongli knew that the history can be changed, why keep bragging on having a "far too prefect" memory? Fontaine (Justice): Furina being an actor, being the 'false' Hydro archon for 500 years to fool the Heavenly Principles by preventing the prophecy from happening. Kinda reminds me on how Zhongli is interpreted differently on different identities; Morax (on the archon war outfit): a stone-faced dominant warrior and leader Rex Lapis (from previous Lantern Rite cutscene showing his costume made by Menogias): a fair and trustable strategist Zhong Li (in modern-style set also made by Menogias): a reliable "mortal" Wangsheng consultant. And on his second SQ, Zhongli explicitly saying that he CANNOT tell the "truth" of his further past life, because he was bounded to a contract with a "third" party. Which is weird because the recent contract he signed is titled "The Contract to End All Contracts". With a GNOSIS as a trade component, which he himself said that there is absolutely nothing in the world that could equal the gnosis as something to be sacrificed. So could it also be related to that?

With the cutscene of a petrified Guizhong, I don't think its her being sealed but rather whatever thing she was fighting. The close up on her shows the Adeptus behind her casting the "sealing spell" on something above her, and the zoom out you can still kinda see part of her petrified form peaking out from around zhongli, well below the sealing cube thing.

They've done a very solid job of making zhongli feel like a comforting figure (in my perspective, ofc lol) so whatever we get confimed about his DEFINITELY question worthy lore/past - I just hope hes still a "good guy" (as far as genshins grey morals go lol) in the end. I think he will be, anything else would be such a painful twist lol

I've noticed that the people of Liyue may have been receiving Visions earlier than other regions and this may be significant to Zhongli. In Zhongli's final ascension line, he references Visions and marvels at how the people of Liyue were aware of the strain on the body of using elemental energy "when they stood by me". (Note: his surprise at Visions granting elemental powers itself seems to be a mistranslation, but that's not the focus here) Notice that he mentions people "standing by him" with Visions. This most likely refers to the Archon War, as Liyue has seen peace after the Archon War and Zhongli retreated from the people, only appearing once a year to give guidances. The Lithic Blade and Lithic Spear stories mention that all soldiers of the Millelith during the Archon War were significantly stronger than the average Millelith soldier in current Liyue. This matches with the known lore that Visions enhance the user physically on top of granting control over an element. So the people of Liyue were getting Visions from at least during the Archon War. _Before Zhongli got the Geo Gnosis._ Which shouldn't be possible because granting Visions is made possible by receiving a Gnosis and becoming an Archon, as explicitly mentioned in Neuvillette's Vision story. This, combined with the uniquely rhombic shape of the Liyue Visions, and the fact that the Vision granted by Neuvillette also has a unique design, I think there's something more to be revealed about Zhongli and the Liyue Visions.

Zhongli is ancient…living 6k yrs is no joke so im not suprised if he knows Deshret, Ishtaroth, Decarabian, Remus and similarly other dead ancient ones like Goddess of Flowers even personally…no doubt he knows a lot more than he lets on…

There was a piece of "Leaked Lore" or "Fake Lore" that I heard floating around back during 1.x. That lore said Zhongli was, unlike Venti and other 7, from the Celestia like he was the native Celestial being that was sent to Teyvat, but it was confirmed that it was not the case and it was a fake leak. It is interesting to see that this kind of theory comes around again.

I need more info on Decarabian and Remus now, since Deshret and Zhongli had a best friendship in a seelie, and I need to know who Dec and Remus's best friends were too.

the idea that since there is 3 moon sisters, there could be 4 sun brothers absolutely floors me, it seems so obvious i'm shocked it took so long to realise this

9:20 “Oh man what a nice Ashikai video, all about Zhongli, no mention of Desh- OH NOT YOU AGAIN”

For 3 years I thought Zhongli's name was based on Chongli aka Zhurong. (Zh from Zhurong and ongli from Chongli) But, his story being based on one of the Wufang Shangdi (Five Gods). - Heidi, Black Deity, Water. (North) - Chidi, Red Deity, Fire. (South) - Baidi, White Deity, Metal. (West) - Qingdi, Green Deity, Wood (East) - Huangdi, Yellow Deity, Earth. (Middle) I thought Zhongli's story will be based on Huangdi. Because of the Chariot Theories. Huangdi is known: - For being the Yellow Deity and Yellow Emperor. - As a human, progenitor, and a culture hero. - As the Master of the Chariot Shaft and Yellow Deity of the Chariot Shaft. - He is also associated with the Big Dipper, or Great Chariot (Běidǒu). Going with the idea that Zhongli might be a bull. We can even mix Greek Mythology with Chongli and Huangdi. For example, - Helios son who drove the Sun Chariot too close or too far from Earth causing harm was struck down by Zeus. This led the Sun Chariot and the Radiant One to crash into the Eridanus River. Instead of Helios son we'll change the Charioteer to Dionysus. You might be thinking why? Here's why: - Dionysus (Phanes) drove a chariot drawn by three beasts a Panther, a Bull, and a Griffin. - Funnily enough in one of the stories Zeus ate Phanes. Why did Zeus eat him? To absorb his divine substance and become the only Master of the Universe. - Phanes who is known as, the Shining One, the Father of the Night, also called Eros (Love), Metis (Thought), Erikepaios (Power) and Protogonos (First-Born). - After Zeus ate Phanes. Phanes is also considered Dionysus' first manifestation. Dionysus = Phanes and Phanes = Dionysus. Now, with the Bull Theory Zhongli might've been one of the three, or the only one who pulled the Sun Chariot.

Can I just say how extremely grateful I am to have a content creator like you give such a digestible way to understand the lore of this game. Most of this would've went over my head but you've given so much food for thought in these theories that it just makes me appreciate how in depth this game really is on all fronts. SO, THANK YOU AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

You don't have to look too deep for Gold connections with Zhongli because sure he's the one who created Mora the world's currency but his newest known title "Deus Aura" literally means God of Gold

The biggest sus Zhongli moment for me was still when you couldn't even suggest Morax as a name for Wanderer bcs its 'invalid'

If he is brothers with decarabian, it would be wild that he is besties with the entity who rebelled against his brother😂

I know you can re-read the quest dialog in-game but I'm gonna keep putting "let us replay story and character quests" in the suggestion box til they stop asking me for suggestions. The newer information tends to greatly re-contextualize older information that at this point I can barely remember. Glad I found this channel to help out with that!

So I looked up the cultural context of the epithet "帝君" (Dijun). It says: "帝君，中国民间信仰对神中位尊者的敬称，如：文昌帝君、东华帝君关圣帝君等。帝君是一个尊称，也是一个古代权利地位的象征，帝君位于玉帝之下，古代帝君有多位，不同的帝君掌管不同的职能。" Which to my understanding means that according to Chinese folk mythology, is an honorific title given to certain deities. Also, it is an ancient symbol of AUTHORITY (emphasis mine). Dijuns are many and occupy the rung just below the Jade Emperor. Different Dijuns have different domains of influence. My guess is that Zhongli holds the title of Dijun because he possesses the Geo authority.

going crazy every time we have newer theories about zhongli ; _ ; thank you for the good work ashikai,, o)-( i love the direction you're going with this!!!

I'm just sussy on something. I was rewatching the various animated cutscenes and i stumbled on the Yaksha one when Zhongli himself says "Morax summoned the yakshas" and we are showed 1 yaksha for each element. Yeah he didn't created them (supposedly it's not really expanded upon) but it's sussy that, even if the lore says that there were more we never see them or these "more" never get mentioned again, neither Xiao mention them, besides the members of his group and since Xiao is supposedly the last one where the others go? I mean they can't all of them being obliterated or succumbed to the karma if general illuminated beast still exist (unless they are literally like soldiers and succumbed while fighting for the various unnamed gods in the archon war). Xiao also doesn't remember how he got his vision and it's not present in the other yaksha video where we actually see the 5 yaksha official designs, the vision is not in his arm yet.. the thing is that when we see them fight it's visible that they can use their elemental powers so we can presume Xiao can use his anemo powers at least in an extent even without a vision and the other yakshas seems to never got one so why does he have one in the first place? We know that the developer said that Xiao vision is in fact fake. Returning to Zhongli, I believe he haves some kind of holding on the elements.. the fact that even Azdhaha have various from for each element besides Dendro, same with he rest of the geo lizards, even Hutao boss for the ascension material is the same, doesn't the game says that he created them? Sussy. I believe, somehow, he haves a deeper connection with the elements that we might think or at least maybe he's connected to the descendants somehow, since he shares a lot of little hints here and there with Aether and Lumine. He's also the only archon which is not connected to any supernatural being with his same element (Ei and Miko, Furina and Neuvilette, Nahida and Dendro sovern/Aranara, Venti and dvalin), Azdhaha should not count since he can use multiple at the same time imo.. if Azdhaha is supposedly the Geo sovereign, why Neuvilette can't do the same Zhongli haves many, many similarities to various characters that are beyond human and archons. Plus.. the only none human beings that are pure geo.. is the Golden Wolford (which resembles Ōmukade imo) and the cube guy (which spawns the question of why they are all cubes made of a possible type of rock and crystals instead of being materially different) Let's not talk on how his supposed element, geo, is effective only on geo itself and how geo "absorbs" the other elements (cryalize) instead of "reacting" to each others. Might me putting a thin foiled hat and going crazy but something definitely ain't right with Zhongli lmao. The fact that he shut down the traveler immediately, even if he's subtitles with him being against celestia, makes it even more sussy.. at least the other archons tried to say something.

We need to know more about Zhongli and Venti 😭 so much mystery

I hope that in the future we will have a video like this for Venti, since he is even more mysterious than Zhongli: - Connections with the God of Time. - Only other original Archon still alive. - Only Archon who has not yet received a part two of his story quest. - Only Archon who is public called by his Demon God name (Barbatos) without any other title.

I think the question of "What is a God King?" should be looked at. They are obviously powerful beings(Gods of the Human Realm) and from what I can tell were from the "Divine Envoy Era." Both Remus and Deshret were born after the "Second Who Came" based on their lore. However Zhongli, or rather Morax is believed to be older, being still young for the events of "The Second Who Came".

So basically the god-kings are three moon sisters and four sun brothers, and we got mondstadt - decarabian, liyue - zhongli, inazuma - canon, sumeru - decarabian, fontaine - remus and then natlan and sneznhaya are gonna have aria and sonnet 🤔 my brain is here exploding and trying to process anything other than that and just wow /pos

You guys actually COOKED with this, I stg we need an archon quest where we just sit venti and zhongli down in a room and ask them questions for an hour

Sanxingdui museum should sponsor you for an advertisement and an intro to ancient ancient Chinese culture

"You wouldn't call a bird, an alligator..would you?" Oh ho ho, how naive of you to think that.

thank you for this in-depth analysis of my fave, i love your theories!

Now I'm waiting for the archon skin, the pre archon war skin, and the God King skin

When I think I'm going crazy - I just remember that Ashikai exists. Great job, as always!

this game never stop to amazed me how attentive they are with detail and real world history. thank you for compiling all of this.

Funfact about Zhongli and the bovine references- While it's hard to say how lore-relevant the ascension gemstone names are given they have different names for both English and Chinese, the Geo Gemstone is named after Prithvi, Hindu/Vedic deity of the earth, who has a very notable myth where she turns into a cow. Notably, the team chose Prithvi over her husband, the god-king who brought money into the world. (Though, again, this could be completely random, the names are different depending on language.) Now, this normally wouldn't be that noteworthy, but combined with the other bovine references, I can't help but be a little suspicious.

It would also be interesting since if only one sun brother remains it would explain only 1 sun is in the sky. Also the shades of the Primordial 1 can be described as shadows and sun's cast shadows, 4 sun's 4 shadows. It would imply that the sun brother created the shades however wich is wierd, but the primordial 1 was said to create a bunch of laws maybe one of those laws was order, and by the time the moon sister and sunbrother were around there was no order. Or the one of the laws perhaps of shadows or time, required 4 sun's to be made, it would also explain that a popular theory is that 3 of the shades are the moon sisters 2 of them died so that would tie back to Remus and decarabian and 1is weak from the cataclysm witch most likely represents deshret, and one of the shades is speculated to be istaroth and istaroth could relate to zhongli. Just my head canons

Zhongli being reference to the Jade emperor is just… so obvious to Chinese people.

bro I love these lore videos so much, I listen to it so much and it’s just amazing keep up the great work!!!!

I'm not sure if anyone's pointed this out already, but in the cutscene where Zhongli discovers Azhdaha, there's a cube (square) smack dab on top of him, which would support the idea that he was previously sealed away.

So I learned this recently but Zhongli's name is actually a poetic way of saying farewell. The literal translation could be the clock thing but no one really uses it that way. I don't know how relevant this is though lol.

wait, something makes sense so if sun brothers represents mondstadt/ liyue/ sumeru / fontaine and 3 moon sisters and one of them has a statue in inazuma !!!!!!! means the other 2 should be in natlan and snezhnaya??? interesting.

Thanks for the great birthday present, Ashikai! Great video as always!

Now seeing that Zhongli's asteroid/fidget toy looks a lot like Solomon's knot.

Something small I noticed is that how the five fold symbol represents the nations where the four god kings we're talking about resided in. The symbol represents earth water fire and wind, which may be a direct refrence to the Liyue, Fontaine, Natlan, and Mondstadt. Like Zhongli was the king of Liyue (Geo/Earth), Remus was the king of Remuria or ancient Fontaine (Hydro/Water), and Decabrian was the king of ancient Mondstadt (Anemo/Wind). The only problem with this is that Deshret doesn't really have any relations to fire (unless we say desert which is hot and fire is hot-), but desheret might be the Ether in the middle, due to all his relations to light and sun. But if it DOES follow this pattern, then we should see the last brother or king in Natlan (Pyro/Fire). However this really messes up the idea of 7 siblings (4 sun brothers, 3 moon sisters), which really makes me mad because everything in teyvat is in a cycle of 7.

I would LOVE to see a video of you going more into Kaeya and his background. Besides him being a spy, I think he's going to be a key character involving the Abyss. Even his voice lines make him sound so sus...

That would explain that we always feel like Zhongli has been there since the dawn of time, like he has been there LONG before the Archon War since he did beat his competitors fiercly almost looking effortlessly considering his power over the Geo Element. I think that's a very interesting theory!

Ooooh chill, what an intriguing theory! Thank you for this treat, Ashikai! ❤

i think Guizhong is not the one being sealed in the cutscene but instead the beast/god that killed her by turning her into stone

Idk why but I felt the need to point out. Ashikai mentions Guizhong might come from the chasm. I see at 14:05 that her sleeves glow with the same starry pattern as paimon’s cape and Dain’s and Skirk’s outfit. Hmmm

My braaaaaain! It hurts so much! Love your videos, thank you for your hard work ❤

Ngl, I had hoped you would upload this on new years eve, right on Zhonglis birthday

btw with regards to the the geo's statue of 7 holding a cube instead of a sphere, its possible that orbs on the statues of the 7 (the hydro archon's orb that glows is in the center of the sword's rain guard) is a representation of the "Globus cruciger" a monarch's regalia that represents Authority. And since Liyue's culture is based on Chinese culture then it makes sense that the orb/globe is a cube, since in Ancient Chinese cosmology the world is represented as a square(the flat earth) and the heavens are depicted as a circle that encompasses the world (also I can't help but suspect that its another reference to firmament).

Hearing “Neuvilette was killed” really rubs me the wrong way.. probably because I like him so much 😂

Its absolutely stunning how deep Genshin lore is. Thank you so much for your hard work on this and every other genshin lore videos 🔥

Hello Ashikai! In your analyses so far, I have found that some parts of Neuvillette's character stories (Vision one) have been ignored by you. In particular, something that may give us a very good hint at what the "gods" of Tevyat are: "...and all fragments of the primordial were driven to devour each other." is how the Archon War is described. While people might say it describes the infighting of the Moon sisters, I think it refers to Archon War because it says "the Primordial" and not "the Usurper" which is what Neuvillette always uses for Phanes. Primordial to Neuvillette refers more to the "Primordial Sea" or the Primordial Garden/Verdure within Apep

We need a dps zhongli alternative just call him morax

I have something of note to support this theory more. Remember in Sumeru Act 2 when Nahida referred herself to be the "moon"? On surface prior to Act 5, it's obviously pointing to Rhukkadevata, but if the events still play the same without her, then the "sun" would be Deshret

Thank you so much for this! I don’t even care how much of this will turn out to be true, I just love this grandpa’s lore! And the way he’s portrayed in game. He’s been my favorite character since I started playing in the beginning of 2021❤ Definitely rewatching this video!

Lore theory videos like this always blow me away because I trot through the game and just find things pretty. Like, "repeating motifs? lovely!" but I never put two and two and two together and actually think about _why_ the game creators could be using similar imagery. It is so fun to learn all these new possibilities about things i have seen a thousand times over but never thought to question myself!

I know we talk abt zhongli but how strong azhdaha is,in his story quest zhongli even said he will have hard time even at his full strength

I just discovered this channel and I won't be able to sleep thanks to this great theory. There is also something I would like to say about the fact that Zhongli is Celestia's heir because he is the eldest of the brothers, he may not necessarily be the heir because he is the eldest of the brothers, remember that the eldest son will not always inherit, He may have achieved his status as heir by being the most suitable for the position, having greater support from the other celestials, having the favor of the "King" or by being the only survivor of all the brothers, so who can It has not always been the heir, the change may have been before, during or after the Archon War. Let's remember that in the demo of the character he tells us that he does not want to be the one in charge, telling us that he is a person who does not like to be the one in charge, but that he is willing to be the one in charge. if that's what it takes. Of course, this tells us about being the archon of Liyue, but it can also be taken in the case of the throne of Celestia. This will give us two possibilities: The first is that he would always be an heir, whether by age, support, favor or aptitude; but he is reluctant to that position, but that he is willing to fulfill the duty that was imposed on him. The second is that he is reluctant because he was never raised to be the heir, that duty was imposed on him since the previous heir is no longer capable of fulfilling his duty, and he is the only one capable and has no choice but to comply with your new duties.

FEEDBACK: - great explanation with full details luv it! - thank you for the real life reference of the scientific backup, that's new knowledge for me!❤ - please make more jokes and puns and some memes included that makes it more entertaining to watch and follow the explanation 😭✨ THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING, I LOVE IT ALOT🤗

20:02 this remindes me of those cubes that appeared in the explosion of the jade chamber when it was dropped on osial

Oh my god another Ashikai video! Truly a Christmas Miracle! We all know what squares and circles mean on chopsticks in Chinese culture u wu Square = Earth Circle = Heaven The chopsticks themselves are always 7.6 inches. 7 and 6 being special numbers of sorts. I don't really remember the rest but the bottom part is always circular while the square part is at the top always facing you. u wu

This was not what I intended to find when I opened RU-vid today, but you hooked me and I feel like I learned a lot even if the theory is not true. Thank you and Cristal Marie for all the research and sharing it with everyone!

Genshin is based on Gnosticism, and if I'm not mistaken, the world was created 6000 years ago, and Zhongli says he has been in teyvat for more than 6000 years, so either he was the same age as teyvat or or is older Zhongli also has connections with gold, its constellation in Chinese refers to something coming from the sky or something similar, there are books that say that a carriage fell and it has connections with Morax(Not if it's in the game or it's a file that the community found, but there is this link) his legendary mission doesn't have the name of his constellation, he uses squares, we don't know anything about his life before to know Guizhong, Retainer of the clouds, Ping, etc. When he says "suffer the wrath of the rock" he always says "Rock" with a capital R, as if it were a name and not a real rock, even though he will suffer erosion he still keeps his mind and memories intact without any distortion or forgetfulness, he says that the traveler will be important to keep the historical events, as if he knew that that he would not be affected by irminsul, Neuvillette called him "God Auri" (God of gold), he apparently in his speeches seems to remember Rukkhadevata, there is a bow that was not released Azdaha"Dreams of Dragonfell" which is part of Liyue's weapon kit in which it talks about the dragon king wanting to visit the moon palace Furthermore, Azdaha CLAIMS that Zhongli will stay alive until the end and that he will be the last, he is absolutely sure that he will not die, and basically all the gods we have encountered so far can die, some are immortal so that they cannot be killed, others just age, but they can die to stronger beings, others live until erosion consumes them, but this does not seem to have an effect Zhongli, isn't it strange? Almost all the characters who suffered from erosion and went crazy are younger than Zhongli, following the logic of his age he should already be crazy, but that doesn't happen apparently Honestly Zhongli is probably the most mysterious character in Genshin so far Sorry if English isn't very good, it's not my language and I used the translator

if Decarabian and Zhongli are brothers it would also make sense that Zhongli has kind of a love-hate relationship with Venti... Venti led a rebellion against Decarabian, his brother, but also became an archon so he has to respect Venti to a degree as such. And even if Venti's rebellion was justified, it would still hurt having to work with the person that ended your brother's life...