This article was originally put up on reddit.
Hi guys I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!
(This theory is long and there's much to cover so I've added a summary at the end.)
Now you might be thinking "dude we know exactly what an Archon is. Have you even been playing this game bruh?" But do we really know the whole story?
Archon as a term doesn't actually exist in the Chinese version of this game. We're all aware miHoYo is a Chinese company so they made this game in Chinese. In its original version every god is called a 魔神 mo'shen or demonic god. That's because that's how China translated the Ars Goetia. Archon is just a term used during localization for the same purpose and that's where you get "translation errors" like Decarabian being the Anemo Archon. It's not an error. Decarabian being a god that controls the wind element is an Anemo Archon. (miHoYo approved multiple languages calling Decarabian the Anemo Archon including Turkish and Vietnamese which came later on. If it was a translation error then you'd think those newer language packs would have been made with those corrections in place and not continued to use the supposedly erroneous terminology.) If you still disagree I suggest that you ask yourself if Guizhong was an Archon? If your answer is no she's just a god then let me show you her title Lord of Dust in its original Chinese 尘王魔神. Notice the two words at the end? It actually means Dust King Demon God or Dust King Archon in the context of Genshin.
The reason I needed to make sure we were all on the same page with this is because now I'm going to go a step further. The Seven is what people had believed were the only Archons. In Chinese this group is called the 七神 Seven Gods again showing that god and Archon are the same thing. Before the time of Archon though we're given legends about a previous era with another bunch of nations ruled over by a group called the Seven Sovereigns. Based on the theme I've established so far I think you guys might know where I'm going with this. In Chinese the Seven Sovereigns are just 七王 or Seven Kings. It seems much more alien to consider them the same thing in English because of misconception about Archons. (it's actually funny when you realize the word Archon means ruler like a sovereign.) In Chinese you can see it's just a different rank. King vs God. But again these sovereigns weren't just kings in the lore they were dragons which if you guys didn't know are basically divine too when it comes to East Asian mythology.
Now I'm not just going to make this claim and leave it at "Archon means ruler so they are sovereigns." Instead I've got specifics I'd like to show you guys. I've already brought this guy up so let me start with him. Decarabian is known as the King of Gales and this is actually the title 烈风之王. (again we know Decarabian was an Archon because all gods in this game are Archons and Decarabian specifically was even "translated wrong" as the Anemo Archon) Now look back at that Chinese title. That last word there is the same word used in the Chinese name for Seven Sovereigns. Starting from that let's go for another Archon-Sovereign link. 尘王魔神 is Guizhong's title as I showed above. Not only do the last two words mean Archon but the word right before it is again the word for sovereign. Guizhong is therefore a direct link to both. And finally there's Rex Lapis himself 岩王帝君. The last two words in this title not only mean god but is an honorific for a god something like the exalted one. So you could say a direct translation of Rex Lapis would be the Exalted God King of Geo.
So at this point I've made the claim that Archons are gods are Archons. Then I stated that the Seven are special Archons that have a Gnosis but are also sovereigns specifically the Seven Sovereigns. But here I will actually attack that claim. See while the Seven Sovereigns are a group related to the Seven as we know them at present the members of the Seven Sovereigns aren't necessarily the members of the Seven. (and I don't just mean because some of the original Seven are dead) The difference here is the sovereign part. While Rex Lapis and Decarabian are likely Sovereign Archons Barbatos is not. And Decarabian was never a member of the Seven. So what happened? Decarabian became a tyrant and sealed his people inside of a gale storm. Barbatos then started an uprising leading to Decarabian's death and then moved his people to New Mondstadt. Barbatos himself is said to be a single thread of the thousand winds sometimes used to describe Istaroth. Barbatos has the Constellation 歌仙 in Chinese or Song Sage. This isn't present in the English version where he's just Song God Carmen Dei opposite Rex Lapis who's English Constellation is Lapis Dei or Stone God.
So what happened here really? In our Achievements menu we have a section called Elemental Specialist. If we complete that whole section we get a name card that claimed that Teyvat should have many more than seven elements. Then if we look at the Byakuyakoku Collection we're introduced to the idea of elemental purity. A researcher trying to graft Orobashi's coral to a vishap claimed that it was because vishaps were pure and of the Light Realm that they weren't compatible with Orobashi who was of the Human Realm. I think that's a red herring. If you read between the lines of this collection it becomes clear it's the vishaps that are impure. It's stated that after Enkanomiya fell the vishaps needed to evolve to survive and they evolved by absorbing more elements. We can therefore gather that elemental purity means only having access to a single element compared to say the Geovishaps who are Geo by default but then absorb another element in battle. And who are purely bound to a single element? The Seven. It is likely the story of Phanes descending and defeating the Seven Sovereigns was actually more like handpicking which ones would become the Seven. If an Archon was winning and about to claim a seat but wasn't someone Phanes preferred they'd be replaced. Additionally if they didn't adhere to what Phanes wanted out of them they'd be replaced. So going back to Decarabian this was possibly Istaroth the shade of Phanes creating a new breed of Archon the "Forged Archon" to replace the Sovereign Archon that wasn't following orders.
In my topic about Yae Miko I claimed she was an Archon too the original Inazuman member of the Seven before Makoto. What's important for us in this topic is to know that only divine or dragon associated characters have a divine Constellation in English. Venti, Zhongli, Yae Miko, Nahida and Neuvillette have Constellations alluding to divine beings. Again Venti and Zhongli's are Carmen and Lapis Dei respectively. Yae's is Divina Vulpes. Nahida's Sapientia Oromasdis evokes the Zoroastrian god Ormazd or Ahura Mazda and Neuvillette's is the Leviathan Judicator where Leviathan is a Biblical Messianic Beast. On the other hand in Chinese only Venti and Yae have a 仙 Constellation. Venti again is 歌仙 while Yae's is 仙狐 for Fox Sage. (I'll get to Ei later.) From this we can suggest that the original Seven was made up of the chosen seven Archons that met Celestia's criteria for the seven element system it designed for Teyvat. But the Seven Sovereigns were likely the true "winners" of the Archon War though that didn't mean all the losing Archons had disappeared by this point. We know that Andrius antagonized Decarabian and Morax didn't rule Liyue on his own at first.
Now here's another curveball. Ganyu also has a 仙 Constellation in Chinese so what's that about? 仙麟 means Sage Qilin. Now this might have appeared as just a reference to her Qilin bloodline because Qilin are Illuminated Beasts or basically also adepti but not all adepti have this type of Constellation. Yanfei and Xiao both don't but both are of adepti blood. What I think this could be implying is that Ganyu herself could potentially be elevated like Yae and Venti to Archon status. But we know that hasn't happened yet. Why? Well because of the trend in their English Constellations. Ganyu's English Constellation just translates to Chinese Unicorn aka Qilin. This would be like Yae only having Vulpes as her Constellation. Mona had previously said a Constellation is a person's fate. They can't avoid it. So in this case if a character has a 仙 Constellation (albeit they would likely also need to meet the other criteria to become a pure Archon like Celestia wants) they might become elevated.
I should also point out and though since it can get confusing but the 仙 in the Constellation does not mean they have to be an adepti too. Yae was a youkai and Venti was just a wind spirit. As of Xianyun's release we now know for sure adepti is just a moniker. Xianyun is an elemental being while yaksha like Xiao are not but both are still adepti. And this rule also doesn't apply to humans either. That's because Ei's Constellation is purely mortal yet she became an Archon. I think for allogenes their ascension works differently since they'd have to obtain the Gnosis from one of the Seven and replace them. I'm not sure if it requires the true Archon's death to pass on ownership but in Ei's case with Yae she did and then ascended both her and her sister. I'm also not sure of their composition. Ei was definitely stronger than Yae but Erosion seems to have affected her at a much more rapid rate compared to normal Archons. Euthymia could have played a role in that though so again I can't be sure. We'll have to wait on more details in the future.
So that all brings up something else. Let's remember that Venti and Yae have 仙 in their Chinese Constellations. I claim this means they are "Forged Archons" not the same thing as a "Sovereign Archon." I'm not sure if this means Celestia also created or uplifted Yae into Archon status but she is not the same as Morax and Decarabian at least. (Actually there might be a reason for this while still leaving Yae a Sovereign Archon but more on this some other day.) That being said what happened to all of the other Archons? Well the Archon War states that the defeated were either killed, sealed or fled to the Dark Sea. But there's more lore to the Dark Sea isn't there? It isn't a literal sea. It used to be a kingdom. It was the Kingdom of the Seelie. And guess what Seelie is in Chinese. 仙灵 See that 仙 word again? The next word there means spirit exactly what the Seelie look like. We learned what the fate of the Seelies was too; they withered away after a great calamity that saw the deaths of the moon sisters, fall of the sun chariot and parting of a traveler and their Seelie love. In the Byakuyakoku Collection this is claimed to have happened when the Second Who Came arrived just like how it's been suggested that the Archon War happened around this time.
But why would those little useless wisps make me think they were ever Archons? Archons are insanely powerful. They carve out mountains, flood the land to turn the highest peaks into low lying islands and conjure up storms that can surround whole regions on a whim. But see those are living Archons. What about the dead ones? Like say Andrius who couldn't protect himself from the Abyss Herald because he only has power in the Proving Grounds and even then it's limited. He no longer has a physical form having allowed it to wither away so he wouldn't get in the way of the new world order under the Seven. Havria was killed and now she's just a pile of salt. And Guoba is cute.
Side Note: Btw Andrius? 北风之王 or King of the North Wind.
And just to have all my bases covered we know Seelies have been referred to as gods. Shenhe once defeated a monster when she was young. Check out her Story 3. It's described as a Black Seelie. Then in the quest it's described by Cloud Retainer as an evil god just like how the defeated Archons are sometimes described as evil gods.
Finally what are Ei and Makoto then? In English Ei's Constellation is Imperatrix Umbrosa. Umbrosa means shadow which alludes to her human name Ei meaning shadow in Japanese. Makoto means truth in Japanese so it's likely this word would be veritas making her Constellation Imperatrix Veritas. The more important word here is Imperatrix. It means empress in Latin. Notice how an empress isn't exactly a god. They are mortal. Isn't it interesting that the current Electro Archon and her twin would have mortal Constellations while their simple familiar Yae Miko has the divine one? This I believe sets up Ei and Makoto to be our first example of an ascended allogene something Venti tells us about at the end of the Prologue. And if that wasn't convincing on its own let's go Chinese again. 天下人 which means the people under heaven is Ei's Constellation. The people. The human people. This is also a title used during Shogunate era Japan and wouldn't you know it but Shogunate Japan was under the rule of the Shogun aka military general because the true ruler was the Tenno or the divinely-related Heavenly Emperor.
Ok so after all of that what can we conclude?
- Archon is a name just in the English version. It relates to Gnosticism where they are demons. In Genshin those demons are from the Ars Goetia which in Chinese is the term 魔神. 魔神 is used for all gods in Genshin therefore Archon is the same thing as god.
- The Seven refers to a specific group of Archons who won the Archon War and have a Gnosis. The fact that they are members of the Seven is the only thing differentiating them from other gods.
- But the Seven may have been a final version of the Seven Sovereigns who were Sovereign Archons/elemental dragons that fit what Phanes wanted out of them namely purity of elements. However some sovereigns didn't adhere to what it wanted so it had them replaced with Sage Archons.
- Sovereign Archons are also Seelies. They share an origin in the Dark Sea, the task of guiding humanity, becoming spirits in death because Archons can't actually die and both their fates seem to be tied to the Second Who Came. Seelies are also sometimes described as gods.
- Human allogenes who take hold of a Gnosis can ascend to godhood but this ascension works differently than the Sage Archons created divinely by Phanes and so isn't reflected in their Constellations.
So what about the Second Who Came? Do I have any idea about that? Yes. And that's for next time.
Topic originally created on September 26th, 2022. (based on even older theories extending all the way back to the _We Will Be Reunited_** Archon Quest and acts as a compilation of those theories though my official first topic on this subject came on** 1/30/2022)