With Lantern Rite coming up as well as a collaboration with the Sanxingdui Museum, I thought now would be a good time to revisit one of the oldest characters in Teyvat: Zhongli! Who is he? WHAT is he!? Is he a dragon? A shade of the Primordial One?? I think it’s time to investigate!
(Reuploaded to fix some egregious audio glitches that somehow made it through the review process.)
Cristal Marie (https://twitter.com/cristalmarie) provided a lot of information and observations referenced in this theory. Big thanks to her!
**TIMESTAMPS**
00:00 Introduction
01:22 Morax
11:00 Quincunx
16:14 Solar Chariot
**RELATED VIDEOS**
Descenders, Visions and Gnoses: https://youtu.be/7eSm5azgxU4
The Sustainer’s Cube: https://youtu.be/tpK7bURSKGk
Omnipresent God: https://youtu.be/ihmPmyhZlLM
**MORE INFORMATION**
Azhdaha: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Azhdaha
Neuvillette: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Neuvillette
Juvenile Jade: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Juvenile_Jade
Rex Lapis: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Rex_Lapis
Zhongli: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Zhongli
Deshret: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/King_Deshret
Zhongli Story Quest: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Amidst_Chaos,_the_Rock_Is_Unmoved
Liyue Shrine of the Depths Key: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Liyue_Shrine_of_Depths_Key
Heart’s Desire (Crystal Heart): https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Heart%27s_Desire
Developer Insights (Crystal Heart): https://genshin.hoyoverse.com/en/news/detail/103849
Solar Chariot: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Solar_Chariot
Song of Stillness: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Song_of_Stillness
Ballad of the Fjords: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Ballad_of_the_Fjords
Jiu: https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Jiu
Emperor of China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_China
Leviathan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan
Behemoth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behemoth
Behemot: https://thebiblenet.blogspot.com/2016/07/bohu-behemah-behemot.html
Morax: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morax_(demon)
Apis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apis_(deity)
Apis: https://www.worldhistory.org/Apis/
Solomon’s Knot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon%27s_knot
Quincunx: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincunx
Amon & Decarabia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demons_in_the_Ars_Goetia
Gold: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
Archosaur: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archosaur
Stellated Octahedron (merkhaba): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellated_octahedron
Rub el Hizb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub_el_Hizb
source
*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!
The upcoming Lantern rite gonna be lit.
As one comment said, Zhongli and Azdaha are a different class of dragons. Really interesting.
im pretty sure zong is the primordial one tbh
Maybe you’re cooking?
For a moment I thought you where going to say that king deshret is Zhongli
Ironically enough, Crocs and brids are more closely related to each other than lizards.
16:20
Ashikai: shows something in Mona's domain
Diluc: funny struts uwu
Sorry it's so funny T_T diluc y so cute I'm listening seriously and you charmed me lmao
There's a theatrical part to the storytelling that I feel gets a little waysided about how the storytellers are constructing the flow of the story, and it's about the masks of divine sovereignty. It's a shell game, essentially.
"Behold, the Mother of Dragons! She who is separate from her… "sisters", the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Queen of the Andals, and the Rhoynar of the First Men." These… "sisters"… protect the identity of their… "Mother", who once also went by another name: Daenerys Targaryen.
So in Genshin, we see Monstadt and Liyue are like twin kingdoms– Venti and Zhongli are the last two surviving original archons, and one is the God-King-Emperor of the departing, celebrating in ceremonial funeral of the death of his seelie counterpart, and the other is the Bard of Arrivals, he who set the birds to fly and tells the tale of the Pearl of Genesis (Hymn of the Pearl– worth looking up); the Seelie who fell the Stormterror God-King and laid the aristocracy low.
In Inazuma, we know of a dragon who represents cycles… slain by the Raiden Shogun, who was… "succeeded"… by her…"shadow"… Enkanomiya sustains their sovereignty through the living gods of the Sunchildren; Tsurumi Island is willing to make this sacrifice repeated sacrifice over and over again, which conjures as an elemental manifestation of regret. One of the most regrettable things is another genesis inversed– a Wanderer made to be a sacrifice for the machinations of a sovereign and her nation… "Doctored" by the many faces of her regret in order to set the moon ablaze… just as she herself had been set ablaze as a solarfied Moon Goddess in her youth. Such is the heavy burden of one who hides within the Euthymia of her nation polluted with corruption and secreted away within the literary Crux of a cosmic storm, in a land across the sea…
Nahida's the Moon, and she's playing with the Traveler's understanding of this reality, and she's 168 steps ahead.
My favorite of the shell game sovereigns is the one in Fontaine. Who is the real sovereign of Fontaine? Well, Furina, Focalors, and Neuvilette might have you thinking it's a shell game of pieces played between the three…. but It's important to ask who owns the Ship of Consciousness of a God-King in Fontaine? Wouldn't it be something if the way to trick the heavenly principles was to cast total doubt over the whole affair, making you leave with the wrong idea of who the sovereign is? Certainly might be a question to ask of the Duke… "Lord Incognito".
I really liked this theory, thank you for your hard work!
I have a few questions tho. As you said, if Zhongli is supposed to inherit the throne to heaven, what does that make him be other than a sun god/god king? I may be bad at interpreting the theory or maybe you didn't mention it. And was he supposed to have it before the dragon sovereigns were defeated? Because we can definetely say he was alive back then. Did the descenders take away his 'throne'? I hope my question is understandable. It's mainly a question about the timeline and the meaning of his identity.
One really suspicious similarity is that Hu Tao and Furina both require whopperflower nectars for ascension items. Feels too much of a coincidence.
But also I'm wondering if the real reason Zhongli didn't keep any mora for himself is because he knows it's literal blood money. "the Northland Bank's true currency is blood and tears" ""Red" is the foundational principle, the philosopher's stone" Which I guess is why it can be used for alchemy.
All i know is zhongli will be punished for his all crimes!
it's also interesting that in the moonchase cutscene, zhongli is seen to hover around the sun while the adepti descend
Ashikai, you keep talking about Zhongli being siminar to Azdaha, and it makes me think that his "death" in the story is not the first time he tried to cover his tracks. He was a dragon sovereign at first, and he carved out Azdaha to make others think that Azdaha was the true dragon sovereign, while he himself pretended to be just a strong adeptus.
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
OK so I just woke up and I have to say deshret had the Goddess of flowers and went crazy then we also know that on mondstadt we had the goddess of time with a crazy god king then we have fontain's king and egeria but with zhongli we had Guizhong who was like have don't open my can of worm please and he was like alright and now we have the only God king that didn't go crazy coincidence maybe but it makes sense
moo-rax?
Ziz = Signora xDD
or could possibley be Pyro Archon, considering it could represent wrath.
and i'm also getting phoenix vibes considering the resurrection theme going into Natlan.
Ok so this only hit me after a day (and while on 3 hours of sleep): what if aether is a sun brother like zhongli and lumine is a moon sister?
while i understand and respect your birds and alligators comparison, the problem with it is that these cladograms w/i biology are ever-changing and therefore sometimes do lead to birds being placed not as "alligators" but as "reptiles" and that… kind of defeats the purpose of it imo? like if they evolved from the same source and diverged, then wouldnt the thing they diverged from be the "true dragon" and not either of the divergent evolutions? or are you saying that the "birds" (adepti) are descendants of the "reptile ancestor" (true dragons) which are, in this case, the dragons like azhdaha or vishaps. and doesnt that mean that zhongli is Still a dragon just not a True dragon, just a descendant of dragons according to the scientific metaphor you have proposed since many scientists are willing and even vying for birds to be called reptiles?
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).
if you look at his meteor you can see the knot too
Zhongli know that he stuck in a loop
Venti knows it too they both meet each other like friends and that story quest were they pretend they didn't know eachother is goofy af
He retired because he still remembers everything since he is a descender also he can't leave the tevyat if he try to leave it sustainer of heavenly principles will stop him just like how traveler is trapped in this time loop of tevyat
13:12 When you said that Inazuma has no "god king" I immediately thought about Orobashi because his name also references to a demon name in the Ars Goetia. He was also a kind of leader for the Enkanomiya people and brought them up to Watatsumi Island. I think he should be titled as a god king as well.
We need to know more about Zhongli and Venti 😭 so much mystery
Ashikai making a video that doesn’t involve Deshret? Impossible.
You would haven been such a good conspiracy theorist. Thank god you are a Genshin theorist 😀
also 16:26 the merkhaba (which I'm assuming is from ancient Hebrew because I don't recognize the word) is also called the star of David a VERY important king (we still see hims impact to this day)
Zhongli – Earth
Remus – Water
Decarabian – Wind
Deshret – Fire
Ether – ?
Deshert, once againt mentioned😂😂😂
I keep hearing the narzissenkreuz quest be mentioned and I did it but the thing is I kind of brain dead clicked through it after the first 2 hours of the quest so does anyone have a summary of it?
A "weird" theory you say. This is going to be a good one.
"I still don't believe that Zhongli is a dragon because he doesn't really have similarities compare to Retuo and the vishaps."
Well… That much is obvious in terms of comparison. But this is also under the assumption that there isn't any other kinds of "dragons" throughout the universe of Genshin. The dragons, the celestial "heavens", and the light realm is still shrouded in enigma in some form, so it's impossible to say for sure that there is no other kinds of "dragons" in the universe. First, we have to take into account anomalies like Dvalin who's a dragon, but like, doesn't seem to be a Sovereign/vishap considering the time of his birth? So the closest connection is that he's an "evolved" dragon from that lineage perhaps? There's also in more recent times theories about Celestia and the "heavenly principles" being in some form dragons as well if the implications that them having the same powers as the Dragon Sovereigns in creating "true life" can be taken at face value, in reference to the fact that Egeria couldn't command the Primordial Waters in full to create human life, but can only create mimics.
Buuuuut… I'm rambling. The main point is that while I can see that Zhongli's dragon form can be just that, without knowing much of the truth regarding Teyvat and the universe of Genshin, I can't be as confident as you that Zhongli isn't a "dragon". Especially since I'm wondering if the term "dragons" isn't just for the Dragon Sovereigns, The Dragon King, and vishaps, but referring to beings that comes from the celestial "heavens". And I don't mean Celestia, at least, not just Celestia, but what's generally beyond the firmament. So in other words, I wondering if "dragons" are not just referring to just species, including those that have evolved from the ancient dragons on "Teyvat", but a general term that can refer to celestial beings/stars/deities in the "heavens" (basically space since that seems like that's what the writers are leading us to believe). It's a bit hard for me to fully conceptualize and piece together everything though since I need to know more about the origins of the dragons within "Teyvat".
Regarding you theory for this video though… So funny enough, I had the tin foil hat theory that he was one of the 4 shades that I mentioned in one of your videos (not sure if you read it so I'm mentioning it here), but after a bit I went back to not being so sure about the theory again. However, I was still of the mind that he may be a "star" but that he was like one of the "fallen stars" in a similar vein to the twins and King Deshret (if I remember correctly from theory videos since I still need to go through Sumeru lore). And basically your video here is a more detail version of my own theories on this, so it's funny that we're basically on the same wavelength here (just that I never really thought that he could straight up be one of the God Kings till your video).
This is also why I'm more keen on just referring him as a dragon (but as a general term and not related to the vishaps just to make myself clear), since like you theorize, I suspect that Zhongli, the Sovereigns and The Dragon King have the same ,or at least similar origins in terms of being "stars" (and is also what I mean by when I said in a previous paragraph that dragons may also refer to celestial beings). In a sense, I'm using "dragon" in a way that people would use "animal" in language, as a general denominator to describe living creatures, or in this case celestial beings. But that is base on my own theories on the dragons origins being stars and what not, so it's really up in the air if this lining of thinking can even hold up (basically, I feel this will start to hold up if the theories about Celestia and the "heavenly principles" being "dragons" turns out to be true).
But overall, I did really enjoy this video. A good update on theories regarding Zhongli with more recent knowledge on the world of Teyvat. I say the one theory that I "disagree" one, and it's less disagreeing and i's more I need more information before I can conceptualize how it can fit into the narrative of Genshin, and that's the theory of the adepti being evolved dragons. With really no solid conception on what they really mean when they say Zhongli is the "Prime of the Adepti", it's hard for me to even start conceptualizing the origins of the Adepti. But certainly not an impossibility.
EDIT: P.S. Also, if your theory about Zhongli being an "archivist" turns out to be true in some form, then that just adds one more aspect about him that's similar to Dan Heng which I like. lmao
Oh no… my brain… it's broken 😂
The biggest sus Zhongli moment for me was still when you couldn't even suggest Morax as a name for Wanderer bcs its 'invalid'
"Land of the dead": so you're saying that whenever you cross the Chinvat… 👀
Just a heads up @ashikai the symbol you show at 12:10 looks a lot like the Sefirot. 😊
Well this would confirm the “link” that all archons were “created” ou somehow molded from a different lifeform, like:
Venti – spirit wind personified
Zhongli – adeptus
Nahida – a tree (irminsul spirit I guess lol)
Egeria – Oceanid
only Makoto and Ei don’t match with the others so far
what i got from this
zhongli fell to teyvat in a chariot and is a decender