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

*NOTES & CORRECTIONS*

- This is a re-upload because, despite having two separate people review the video, a few really bad audio glitches snuck through and you guys don't deserve to have your ears assaulted with that noise.
- 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!

I'm kinda just been pondering about how old Teyvat is and how long the world's cycles are. Because of something the former Dendro Archon said to Nahida when she created her only five hundred years ago. If a cycle is less than six thousand years, then I'm not too certain Morax is from Teyvat. Those cycles are bound to a descender on one hand and a restart sort of on the other hand

This is a sketch of my thoughts, as it's not yet crystalized into something coherent.

When you went all crazy over the cross/diamond shape the video showed Guizhong and she also has that kinda squarey version on her sleeve Im 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

I don't think that Azhdaha was one of the original ruler of Teyvat, but more a sovereign dragon of the 2nd generation, like Neuvillette.
(even if Azhdaha is mush holder than Neuvillette, probably approximately 6000 years old.
and we have no proof that Neuvillette is the 2nd hydro dragon, and not the 3rd.)

Then truly what was the point of the Archon War? What was the point of having all these gods running around in the ancient days just to die for 7 seats? What really made Zhongli participate in the war if he is indeed that strong? Why wasn’t he offered the power like Deshret was, if a God-King?

I doubt Hoyo would take a deeper dive into the age of the gods but, it would be cool if they did a spin off back in those days to answer questions now. It be nuts, but how crazy would it be to fight in the Archon War as Zhongli or any other god?

Lumeria and Fontain. Hell yeh

about the quincunx... you can see a similar symbol in dainslief's design like the back of his cape or on his chest

Juanito Alimaña el rey lapis

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.

Yay, happy early Lantern Rite!

Damn, I wishe we get to meet deshret someday

Grandpa energy lol

The thing about "God Kings" that does not click for me is how both Nabu Malikata and Rukkhadevata are called alongside Deshret as the 3 God Kings of Sumeru? That was not really explored in the video which otherwise made a lot of sense!

All the talk of him relating to bulls and the theory of a successor would be funny if that was itto considering his horn and constellation being a bull, he also has a strong sense to lead and is considerably pure of heart one could say

IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO DESHRET DOESN'T IT

Aren't the Travelers also depicted by sun (Aether) and moon (Lumine)?

I really hate it that Zhongli is the ONLY one god I don't know nothing about what he is or how was he born.
Venti -> Wind Spirit;
Ei and Makoto -> Lightining Incarnated;
Nahida and Rukahdevata-> Branch of Irminsul/avatar of irminsul;
Egeria and Focalors -> Created by the primordial one/oceanid;
Zhongli -> ??????

To.mention an interesting tid bit regarding Zhongli nd names. There are two characters that use names that mean the same but are whole different languages one of which is deeply connected to primordial languages on teyvat

Neuvilette calls him Deus Auri, a latin name, and fefers to him as nothing else while he uses the region names for the other archons. Deus Auri means Golden god in latin, and the pnly other god to call him similar is Orobashi, who like Neuvilette knew something aboiy the truth of the world and he calls zhongli The golden god.

This also extends to banner quests, Zhongli has the only banner name not to be in his native tongue and is instead, guess what, latin.


Edit: I would also like to point out that in amny of the books and stories of Rex Lapis we see hints of him creating or using what seem to be other elements; eg, blessing liyue with warm wind and rain, creating treees to help seal Ahzdaha, etc.

There's a simpler explanation for why Zhongli is so special in the lore. He's Liyue's Archon, Liyue=China, China always needs to be special/better if Hoyo doesn't want to lose their social credit.

For now the only birthday cake that is square is from Liyue, other are round.

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!!!

I want more Venti lore, that Anemo archon is upto something, he becomes more fishy as the story progresses.

What type of drug you take !!!

I just wanna know what all the crystalized memories are all about HP and DEF… 😅

About the 3 moon sisters and 4 sun brothers..Wasn't there something simillar in the sun and moon book, back at Enkonomiya?

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

"golden" nara has a new meaning :3

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🤗

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

This is insane

I'm still convinced that the puzzle box he uses as a meteor is the void archives

Who are thous who share the memory?

I always say there's a moment in every Ashikai video where I stop what I'm doing and get full-body chills. In this video it happened about 5 times. 🤯

Well his title is literally "extremely knowledgeable in all things". Him being affected by irminsul diminishes such title

The funniest part is - this makes sense even more if you think about how in star rail, if the trailblazer is the same one as the ‘traveller’ in this world - as he has a stellaron inside him (which is the same as a star!)

Zhongli is secretly the primordial one

Ashikai: "here is a video about a beloved topic/character"
SIKE IT IS A BOUT DESHRET
(this is not a criticism I love your videos so much)

Did the heir trade his birthright for a bowl of soup? But maybe the heir doesn't care for said birthright. Especially if it was really good soup that he wanted.

Was it really just the Gnosis Zhong Li traded under contract to the Tsaritsa?

It’s especially interesting theory. About the idea of a traveler being a sentient star, similar to deshret and zhongli. Liloupar also noted that the traveler and deshret are very similar in physical looks. This might be giving the players a slight hint about how the traveler and the deshret being related to each other in some way.

just watched this before i found out zhongli was an archon

All i know is, Zhongli is Broke AF, Whenever and whereever he went/goes to

Only 2 mins in but video gets approval from me cause it's not another one of those insufferable "Zhongli is the Geo Dragon" theories when it's outright stated everywhere that he's not.

Inazuma doesn't have a god king but Enkanomiya has the lighthouse thing and the Sun Children

Idl if irs connected to genshin or not but the relic that zhongli is holding in the new collab is one of the relics from sanxindui civilization which is also considered to be extraterrestrial since none of ancient artifacts from china has this kind of structures.

There's literally in the description of azdaha story thats he is a part of a soverign

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