⏳.Shades of Phanes.🌌

The Gathering of the Shadows of Fanet is a meeting of the powerful goddesses of Celestia, who govern the foundations of the universe (life, death, time and space).

What is known about the meeting
Purposes and Discussions: The Goddesses gather together to discuss global issues of order and the fate of the world, but some of them consider these meetings pointless.

Participants: The ruler of death Ronova, the goddess of time Astaroth, and Reindottir, who performs the duties of the deceased Shadow of Life Naberius, appear at the meetings.

Asmodeus' Absence: Asmodeus (the Guardian of Celestial Order) has stopped coming to these meetings, causing the other goddesses to suspect her of treason.

Naberius / Reindottir (Shadow of Life)
A unique case of "dual" appearance. The original Shadow of Life (Naberius) died, and its remnants and power were absorbed by the great alchemist Kaenri'ah—Raindottir (Gold). In the teaser, they coexist in a single body, reflected in the bisected design:

Naberius Personality (Right/Light Side): Embodies divine purity. The right eye glows bright gold, and the clothing on this side is woven from snow-white fabric with a gold border.

Reindottir's Personality (Left/Dark Side): Embodies the filth of the Sinner. Her left eye is a deep blue, and her clothing fades to the deep black of the abyss.

Hair: Long hair, the color of which smoothly flows from platinum blonde to dark, almost black strands on Rain's side. When they converse, Raindottir's dominant personality takes over, but silhouettes of both entities shimmer in her aura.

Naberius (Life Essence): Demonstrates divine humility and wisdom. She respects her "mate" and does not attempt to force her out of the body, serving as a quiet and wise advisor.

Raindottir (Gold): Exemplifies the true mad scientist of Khaenri'ah. She is obsessed with the act of creation, proud, and willful. At the same time, Rain respects the Naberius and voluntarily took on the role of Shadow of Life at the Council of the Goddesses. Their duet strikes a unique balance between the arrogance of the creator and the wisdom of life itself.

Ronova (Shadow of Death) The Mistress of Death, whose design looks the most strict, mysterious and majestic.

Hair and face: Long, straight hair, snow-white or silver. The face is partially hidden by a thin, translucent dark veil, secured with an elegant pin, symbolizing the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. The eyes are scarlet or ruby-red.

Clothing: She wears a gothic, formal dress in deep, dark shades (purple, indigo, and black) with high slits. The fabric is embroidered with patterns reminiscent of fading flowers or bones. Features: After the teaser, the character received a minor redesign: the developers adjusted the shape of her hairpin and veil, making the goddess appear more mature, stately, and haughty.

Arrogance of Power: Ronova is incredibly proud and looks down on the ambitions of mortals (and even some Archons). For example, she openly displays disdain for the Queen and Fatui, calling their powers and attempts at rebellion "pathetic."

Rule-following: Despite her power, Ronova is a strict pragmatist. She doesn't interfere in people's affairs without permission, but if she finds a loophole in the "divine rules," she acts decisively and harshly.

Astaroth / Kairos (Shadow of Time) Goddess of Time and Wind, whose image is shrouded in melancholy and tranquility.

Hair and Face: Luxurious long golden-blond hair styled in an intricate braided updo. Deep blue or light blue eyes.

Clothing: She wears an elegant, flowing dress in pastel blue and white. The design features motifs of clouds, feathers, and flowing ribbons, emphasizing her connection to the wind.

Features: Its design features numerous clocks and astronomical ornaments. Golden hourglass rings or delicate threads of fate may appear floating around it.

Caring for People: Unlike Fanet and the other sisters, who ignored the pleas of the inhabitants of Enkanomia trapped underground, Astaroth was the only one who did not abandon the people and extended a helping hand to them.

Calm and Acceptance: She exudes a deep melancholy and universal tranquility. Because she sees time as a whole (past, present, and future), she is impossible to surprise or anger. She regards Teyvat with a gentle, almost maternal sadness, knowing the outcome of all events in advance.

Asmodeus (Shadow of Space)
A goddess familiar to travelers since the very beginning of the world of Teyvat as the Unknown Deity.

Hair and Face: Long, flowing ash-white hair that reaches her knees, and expressive amber-yellow (golden) eyes with diamond-shaped pupils that emphasize her non-human nature.

Clothing: A white and maroon robe with gold trim. A stand-up collar covers the neck, and a tattered maroon cloak falls from the shoulders, reminiscent of space with sparkling stars.

Traits: On her right hand, she wears a dark glove that fades into a black and red pattern of cubic shapes. Her magic materializes in the form of floating crimson cubes. According to the story, she is the only Shadow to miss the goddesses' council.

Devotion to Order: She truly loves the Celestial Order and its creator more than herself, putting Celestia's laws above all else.

Cold-Blooded: She perceives mortals solely through the prism of rules. There is no compassion or malice within her—only absolute, cold execution of the will of the "Heavenly Principles."

Loner: The fact that she ignored the advice of the goddesses in order to pursue her own goals highlights her detachment even from her own sisters (Other Shadows).

Astaroth was the Goddess of Time and Wind, also known as "The Thousand Winds" and "Kairos." She was worshiped in Mondstadt alongside Barbatos, and in Enkanomia before the advent of the Sons of the Sun. Time and Wind are closely linked, with variations of a similar saying common in Mondstadt: "the seeds of history, carried by the wind and nurtured by time." Both are hinted at as being connected to erosion in the Ceremonial Memoirs. It is now forgotten that Astaroth was a deity of Mondstadt.

Venti, aka Barbatos, is most likely a part of Astaroth, as he was called "the thread among a thousand winds" while Astaroth herself is known as "the Thousand Winds." Their connection is already known, as they were both worshiped at the same time.

Astaroth likely participated in Raiden Makoto's plan to create the Sacred Sakura. This plan involved creating a stable time loop so that the Sacred Sakura could grow in Makoto's past, a place where "time moves forward and backward simultaneously."

Ronova is the Mistress of Death. She helped Natlan strengthen the rules and instructed the Night Lord in creating a Realm of love and retribution. However, these acts of her authority as Shadow did not please the Celestial Throne.

Naberius assisted the Primordial in creating "the birds of the air, the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the sea." After removing the first heart of the Primordial Sea, the Water Dragon, the Shadow of Life created Egeria, who later became the first Hydro Archon and the new heart of the Primordial Sea. Later, after the Cataclysm, she was absorbed and soon merged with Reindottir during the Paralogism arc.

The gods ultimately destroyed Kaenri'ah, but some archons became deeply disillusioned with Celestia. Raiden Ei severed her connection with him and gave the God Heart to Yae Miko. Meanwhile, the Queen, along with Pierrot, plotted to overthrow the Celestial Order.

After the Cataclysm, the Heavenly Order fell into a dormant state, in which it remains to this day, not reacting in any way to either the destruction of the Hydro Throne by Focalors or the piercing of the false sky by Mavuika.

The Heavenly Order was directly linked to Orobashi. Having failed in the war, Orobashi fled into the Dark Sea and accidentally fell into Enkanomia, still sealed by the Heavenly Order since the War of Vengeance. His failure to do so could be explained by the weakening of the ban. Orobashi agreed to become a local god, but this led to him becoming familiar with the book "Before the Sun and Moon," banned by the Heavenly Order. The Order forced Orobashi to sacrifice his life in exchange for the people of Enkanomia reaching the surface. Orobashi's scales became the soil for the descendants of Enkanomia's people—the Sangonomians. Orobashi himself was later executed by Muso no Hitotachi for leading the Sangonomians in a war against Ei and Makoto.

At some point, Egeria created "life." She transformed the Oceanids into humans by infusing their bloodstreams with the Primordial Water. In doing so, she angered the Celestial Order, which imposed a "prophecy" on humanity: that one day the Primordial Sea would rise, drowning and dissolving all of Fontaine's people, leaving the Hydro Archon completely alone.

The First Pyro Archon, Xbalanque, asks Deathmistress Ronova to restore order to Natlan and its Arteries of the Land. Ronova, realizing that his request violates the rules of the Celestial Order, agrees to take a calculated risk, making a pact with Xbalanque that he will one day give her his life in exchange. She then collaborates with the Lord of Night to create the Kingdom of Night.

Cataclysm
500 years ago, the Void erupted from Kaenri'ah and spread across Teyvat. The Celestial Order dispatched shades and archons to destroy the kingdom and combat the Void. Asmodeus razed Kaenri'ah to the ground, and Ronova cursed the pure-blooded Kaenri'ahites with "immortality." The impure-bloods gradually transformed into hilichurls.

As the Travelers attempt to escape Teyvat, Asmodeus stands in their way. After a fight, he strips them of their powers and scatters them across Teyvat. It's unclear whether this is an order from the Celestial Order or her own personal motive.

Story

Old World

In ancient times, the Celestial Order invaded Teyvat, which was then ruled by the Seven Lords, led by the Dragon King Nibelung. He then created four Shining Shadows and, after 40 days and nights, overthrew the dragons, absorbing the power of all seven elementals. He separated Teyvat from the rest of the world with a False Sky and began reforming it to make the planet suitable for humanity. Humans settled Teyvat 400 years after the Celestial Order's emergence and forged a covenant with them, beginning the "Year of the Ark's Discovery."

War of Retribution
An indeterminate number of years later, a traveler arrived in Teyvat from outer space, plotting with the First Angel against the Celestial Order. By this time, Nibelung had returned, bringing with him Forbidden Knowledge from the very depths of the Abyss, hoping to use it in his fight against the Celestial Order. Thus began the War of Retribution. The heavens fell to earth, and the ground opened up. Enkanomia sank beneath the waves. The people of Enkanomia cried out to the Celestial Order, but neither it nor its three shadows responded, and only Astaroth did not abandon them.

And yet, the Celestial Order defeated the Nibelung. For the First Angel's rebellion, the Angel race was banished from their flying kingdom (presumably Celestia) and punished with a curse. He then cast seven Celestial Thorns upon Teyvat, cleansing the land of the taint of the Abyss but also inflicting colossal damage on the Earth's Arteries and on humanity.

From Neuvillette's remark, we learn that Fanet (the original) is not as invincible as he seems. "Due to the wounds he received in the war of retaliation, the usurper lost some of his function and could no longer suppress the world order based solely on his own absolute power. To pacify the unruly and angry world, the tyrant, together with another alien (the third descendant), created the hearts of the gods."

War of the Archons
2,000 years ago, the Celestial Order revealed seven divine thrones, corresponding to each element. The gods began a brutal and merciless struggle among themselves for the right to bear the title of Archon.

The Celestial Order is a mysterious divine entity that governs all of Teyvat, while having arrived in Teyvat from outside.

Personality.

The Primordial One may have been Phanet. He had wings and a crown, was born from an egg, and was androgynous by nature. But to create a world, the eggshell must break. However, Phanet, the Primordial One, used the eggshell to separate the "universe" from the "microcosm of the world."

The identity of the Celestial Order is not precisely established. Nahida believes it is the very first Descender, and that the Shining Shadows also belong to it. Therefore, it is assumed that the Celestial Order is the Primordial (Phanet), or one of its descendants.

The Celestial Order created the "laws" of Teyvat, embodied in the Hearts of God—chess pieces possessed by each Archon, which allow them to directly communicate with Celestia. Archons are directly subordinate to the Celestial Order, representing its will in each region and abiding by its established laws and restrictions, such as the erosion effect, the distribution of the Eyes of God, the prohibition on the unauthorized creation of life forms, the inviolability of the Earth's Arteries, and so on.

The Celestial Order is capable of casting irreversible curses—such as the "curse of the wild," which it used against the half-blooded inhabitants of Kaenri'ah, transforming them into hilichurls. It also punished the Angels with a similar curse, stripping them of their physical forms and minds and turning them into fairies.

Appearance
According to Enkanomian legend, the Celestial Order was an androgynous being with wings and a crown.

The Shadows of Phanet are the four emanations of the "Primordial".

After arriving in Teyvat, the Primordial remade the world. He battled the Seven Lords and created "shining shadows" of himself. After a long and fierce battle, the Primordial made the world what it is today. This nameless shadow helped the Primordial create flora, fauna, and, finally, humans. This shadow also created Egeria, the new heart of the Primordial Sea; the first heart was lost, presumably at the death of the Hydro Dragon.

During the war between Fanet and the Second Descended, Enkanomia sank to the ocean floor, and only Astaroth could answer the people's prayers. The Primordial and the three other shadows remained silent.

The Shadows are more powerful than the Seven Archons, with Astaroth being called the "ultimate power" compared to Raiden Makoto's Electro Archon.

As the power of the original Seven Dragons fades, a new generation is born. However, because draconic essence is intertwined with the elements used as the basis for the Archons' deification, none of the living Overlords can access their full abilities or memories of the old world until the Archon's throne is destroyed, at which point their power will return. At the end of the "Masquerade of the Guilty" story arc, when Focalors' plan came to fruition, control over the element of Hydro was restored and transferred to the new Dragon Overlord, who is, by nature, Neuvillette.

Overlords can only be born from elementally pure dragons. Therefore, the next Hydro Overlord cannot possibly be born from Vishaps of the deep who have deviated from their "pure" Hydro forms into the "impure" variants of Cryo and Electro.

Confirmed Overlords

Dragon of Green: Apep (Dendro)
Water Dragon: Neuvillette (Hydro)
Nibelung.
Fire Dragon: Xiuhcoatl (Pyro)

The Seven Sovereigns are the seven elemental Dragons of their respective elements. The original seven ruled the old world and possessed the primordial power of these very elements, but they lost their status due to the arrival of the Primordial One to this world and the establishment of his own rules.

The stolen authority of the Overlords was used as the basis for the Archons, who are bound to the heavenly thrones. As a result, a living Overlord cannot use their full power until the Archon above them dies and surrenders their power.

Review
Like all vishaps and elemental dragons, the Seven Lords are beings from the World of Light, each using one of the primordial elements. The Seven were the most powerful of the Dragons and ruled the old world and its seven nations.

When the Primordial was mentioned alongside the Heavenly Throne in "In the Face of Disaster," Neuvillette claims the first usurper took the Elemental Powers from the Seven Sovereigns. Later, in "The Prelude of Blancheur and Noircer," Focalors claims the Heavenly Laws are guilty of stealing the Sovereigns' Powers. It turns out the Throne took some of that power for itself. It and its four shining shadows waged war against the Seven Dragons, and after a long struggle, the Primordial defeated them, and those who refused to submit to it fled into the depths of the ocean. Afterward, the world was remade to be habitable for humanity, and the Human World was created by destroying the raw, primordial elements.

Other regions:
Nod-Kray is an autonomous region located in the south of Snezhnaya.

Khaenri'ah was an ancient civilization that was destroyed 500 years ago with the fall of the Black Sun Dynasty during the events known as the Cataclysm. Little is known about this country, other than that it relied on its knowledge of technology and a mysterious form of alchemy called Khemia.

Celestia is a floating celestial island where, according to legend, the gods dwell. The inhabitants of Teyvat believe that mortals who accomplish great deeds attain divinity and ascend to Celestia.

The Dark Sea is a collective term for the regions located beyond the Teivat continent, outside the control of the Seven. It is believed that the gods who lost the Archon War fled to the Dark Sea.

Historical regions

The following regions existed prior to the rise of the seven Archons and disappeared at some point prior to the Archon War.

Old Mondstadt, also known as Mondstadt Decarabiana (Mondstadt territory)

Sal Vindagnir (Dragon's Spine Territory, Mondstadt)

Guili Assembly (Li Yue Territory)

Saltlands (Liyue Territory)

Unnamed Ancient Civilization in the Rift (Rift Territory, Liyue)

Unknown ancient civilization before the Thunderbird (Tsurumi Island, Inazuma area)

Thunderbird Civilization (Tsurumi Island, Inazuma)

Enkanomiya (area under Watatsumi Island, Inazuma)

The civilization of King Deshret (desert territory, Sumeru)

Remuria (Fontaine's territory)
Natlantis (territory of Natlan).

Teyvat is the world in which Genshin Impact takes place. The eponymous continent is divided into seven regions, each corresponding to one of the seven elements and ruled by one of the Seven Archons.

Teyvat is a world where the seven elements exist in harmony.
In the distant past, powerful Archons taught people to control the elements.
With the help of these skills, people were able to turn the lifeless desert into their home.
500 years ago, the collapse of an ancient civilization turned the world upside down...
And although it was a long time ago, the world still has not fully recovered from the catastrophe.

Regions: Mondstadt (Region of Freedom and Wind/Anemo).

Li Yue (Region of Contracts and Stone/Geo).

Inazuma (region of Eternity and Electricity/Electro).

Sumeru (region of Wisdom and Earth/Dendro).

Fontaine (region of Justice and Water/Hydro).

Natlan (region of War and Flame/Pyro).

Snowy (region of Love and Cold/Cryo).

Archons:
Anemo Archon: Barbatos (the first and only).

Geo Archon: Morax (the first and only).

Archons of Electro: Baal (first)
Beelzebub (second and current).

Archons of Dendro: Great Ruler Rukkhadevata (First)
Minor ruler of Kusanali (second and current).

Archons of Hydro: Egeria (first)
Focalors (second and last).
//Currently, the Hydro Archon is gone, and Fontaine is without him. Fontaine is controlled by the Hydro Dragon.//

Archons of Pyro: Shblanke (first)
Mavuika (current).

Archons of Cryo: The White Tsar (First)
Queen (current).