#I know she defied Celestia for the people of Fontaine

[starcurtain]

Focalors, at the bottom of the sea: Is it really worth it, to risk everything to defy Celestia and return the hydro authority to a dragon sovereign?

The dragon sovereign:

Focalors, penning that letter ASAP: You know what? This one's for us.

[salemsrealm]

i have a theory. a genshin theory. a venti theory.

spoilers for entire game up to now.

In the finale of the most recent archon quest, focalors returns the power of the hydro throne to neuvilette. when he did his cool hydro thing to save the people of fontaine his little hair tails got longer and he looked a bit more hydro dragony

(screenshot from "The Death of a God | Genshin Impact" MaxLeveL on Youtube)

In the finale of the Mondstadt Archon quest, Dvalin gets a similar upgrade in appearance after saving the gang from falling to their deaths.

okay, so you know what i'm getting at here. so, let's establish some things.

neuvilette is the hydro dragon sovereign,

the dragons who are also known vishaps, were the previous civilization of tevat before the descenders and humans

in the 3.1 livestream Enjou (the abyss herald from enko) referred to dvalin as a vishap

dvalin has been around for about 2000 years, helping venti with mond

therefore, for this theory, it can be inferred that Dvalin is a potential new anemo dragon sovereign

but why do i think that venti was able to give Dvalin the power of the anemo throne back, like focalors did for neuvilette

the answer has to do with venti's trickster tendencies, forgery abilties, and his connection to the god of time.

so here's a quick rundown of the venti stuff:

he's a liar and trickster who tends to redirect most conversations hes in (watch any cut scene he's in)

he's known for forging things, from Morax's signature, to the Holy Lyre at the end of the mond archon quest

in Venti's trailer it is said he is "full of mystery, born from the branches of time, a history of glory and sorrow, a witness to the divine"; he also says is one of the thousand winds, the thousand winds is an epithet for the god of time; venti and the god of time were worshipped together at the thousand winds temple; venti used anemo powers to draw memories from the past during ludi harpastrum; and although he tends to be humble as a god, he does brag that there is not a song he doesn't know, past, present, or future; there is so much more

so, when focalors gives the hydro throne power back to neuvilette, it's in the shape of a watery orb. in the mond quest, as the gang is leaving old monstadt on the back of dvalin, venti sends an anemo power orb to dvalin, causing dvalin to light up all anemo and state "is this... the power of the anemo archon?" and questions it, venti responding that he is giving him proper freedom.

okay but it took focalors a lot of work to trick celestia and gather power to destroy the throne. focalors was not just trying to give back the power to neuvilette, that was just one of her goals. she was also trying to defy a judgement from celestia (known to turn people into hilichurls for accessing forbidden knowledge, and dropping nails onto misbehaving civilizations) That is why her plan is so convoluted. and successful.

why do i think venti could do something similar. because he lies about how powerful he is. when signora takes his gnosis, he could have just turned into wind and left. it's literally one of the first things we see him do. instead he just blows wind at her and talks in rhyme (like he does when he's performing). he says he's the weakest archon because of his non visibility and amount of worshippers, but out of the nations we've seen, he's got one of the most visible and active worship bases out of all the archons. he also tends to sleep during time of peace, ostensibly to stave off erosion, but it could also be a way to collect power over time.

we also know he doesn't like celestia, saying he wouldn't visit even if invited, and having that trauma flash in the manhua.

i think it is possible that the anemo throne is already destroyed, either in the past, or recently; or that it will be in the future, but venti was able the draw the power back into the past so that it could not be intercepted by a third party (tsarista, who wants to destroy celestia). we have seen time powers maintain an illusion from the present to the past (the great sakura tree was grown in the present, but also in the past thanks to istaroth and makoto). it is not far fetchted to think that ability could be used similarly on the throne.

venti, who cares for dvalin like family, returns the power of the anemo sovereign back to him, but uses time to keep up the illusion of the throne until such time that illusion is no longer needed. the throne is either already destroyed or will be destroyed, but the power is in dvalin. venti pretends to loose the gnosis to keep up the illusion to celestia that he is nominally loyal to them, but without the gnosis, he is now truly free

"Is this... the power of the anemo archon?"

Genshin Impact Venti Archon Quest Prologue Full Story Gameplay (Eng Dub) Bluemeat GG on youtube

[nya-vivi]

Thoughts on Focalors and Focalors only (okay maybe I lied, about Furina and Neuvillette too). Uhh spoilers for absolutely all Fontaine Archon quests because is 3 am and I don't want to search which one is each.

Not proofread.

Focalors being the archon of justice because it is only rightful to give back usurped power, even if that means losing one's own life.

Because if we look at the problem in a pragmatic way, which Focalors was (that was why she divided Divinity and Humanity) using usurped power for generations only creates resentment (Apep) and resentment will only create conflicts. And we all know how conflicts end. With innocent people perishing and the powerful not. And usurped power is not fully yours. And it has drawbacks.

And Focalors knew all of this. So she created L'Oratrice. She created L'Oratrice to be worshiped in her stead. Not because she didn't believe in Furina, the exact opposite, she believed that Furina would perfectly play her role: to watch humanity, learn about it and reach the apex of humanity's visualization of divinity.

And that made Furina famous. And with fame unfortunately comes dehumanization, but in the end it helps. Divinity = not being human. And so, she creates L'Oratrice to be the idol. And we know that Archon's powers come from worshipping (that's why like a lot of ppl think Venti is one of the most powerful archons, but I won't talk about that). Anyways. She creates the thing that would hold all of Fontaine's belief. And she will put Neuvillette just above of it.

It paints a clear picture: Neuvillette = L'Oratrice, ergo, Neuvillette = Justice, ergo, Neuvillette is to be the next head figure in case anything happened to the Hydro Archon.

Did you see what she did there? She is manipulating everyone and I think it is fantastic. Anyways.

So she knows the pieces are perfectly placed. She needs the time to collect all the belief and become powerful enough to destroy the throne. No more hydro archon. No more usurpers in power.

And she loves humans. She loves humanity, and loves Furina above all. Her idea of humanity and everything she had wanted to be.

So she decides rather quickly, truly. Because time is of the essence and her people, humanity, deserves to be allowed to live in peace and not destroyed because of her predecessor's actions, as noble as they were.

And she knows usurped power is not powerful enough to defy heavenly decrees. So she waits, she waits and waits. She makes Neuvillette like humanity (how could not he, if Fontaine's humanity before this was simply one of them?), she avoids as much conflicts as she can. She makes amends. She makes Neuvillette Iudex, the judge, the law. And she makes Neuvillette understand the concept of Justice (how could not he? He understands injustice very well. It is in his own skin, in his predecessor's. But now he has three perspectives. Now he can be called just without bias).

And she is terrified, but she decides to die. She decides to stop Celestia to protect her people. Because usurped power creates conflicts. But if the usurper is not there anymore, what conflicts can be made?

And she dies. She destoys her throne. And Neuvillette becomes the next figurehead. And Furina can finally stop faking and suffering (a necessary sacrifice, unfortunately). And everything continues without anyone being none-the-wiser. She is only remembered by the people she wanted to be remembered.

Celestia loses this one. Humanity wins this one.

Because that's how it was meant to be, too, since the very beginning.

No archonhood. No hydro usurped power.

The thing about the hydro archons, above all, is that they loved their people. One doomed their people without them knowing, because she wanted them to be happy. Another doomed herself to make sure the people she (both) loved to much would make it. Even if she had to sacrifice herself. Because that was the only rightful move to do.

Because, above all, she is the Archon of Justice who can even judge the Heavenly Principles.

And she declares them guilty.

[ac-liveblogs]

Im no lore nerd, but I think the idea is that Focalors needed to sit inside the oratrice for 500 yrs in order to convert people's faith in justice into power. Then she could use the oratrice to destroy the gnosis. Gnoses are powered by stolen dragon power, so when the gnosis was destroyed, it went back to Neuvillette and he saved Fontaine. The prophecy still needs to be fulfilled, so the hydro archon must weep on her throne,

but focalors can't both be inside the oratrice and outside (ruling fontaine) so Furina needed to play the part of Focalors and weep on her throne in order to fulfill the prophecy. I think.

But the Gnosis wasn't destroyed, because that was given to Arlecchino at the end of the quest...

It seems like what was taken from the Sovereign Dragons were their 'thrones' (metaphorical? Equivalent to 'authority'?), and the Gnoses were created from the third Descender, which helps to channel/control elements etc. So an Archon = Authority/Throne + Ability to Channel Elements/Gnosis, and I think what Focalors destroyed was... herself/the Archon with that 'Authority', and that was then returned to Neuvillette?

But the thing is, it was sold specifically as 'fooling Celestia', and I distinctly remember them trying to 'defy fate' (the Hydro Archon did weep on her throne, but the people weren't dissolved). So like, if the people dissolving was a specific punishment Celestia was inflicting on Fontaine, I'd get trying to 'fool' them, but it wasn't - it was just a prophecy they made about something the Narwhal was going to do. And the Narwhal is from the Abyss.

Neuvillette talked like what was happening to the people of Fontaine was a specific punishment at the end of ch4 (this punishment is too harsh etc), but we know now that's clearly not the case, it's just a side effect of the Narwhal's movements. So was the idea that they just thought Celestia was behind this, but were wrong, because it was the Narwhal....?

Or if the idea was to 'fool' them long enough for Focalors to transfer the dragon power back to Neuvillette, okay - but now she's just done that, Celestia is free to retaliate however they like because there's no fake Archon to fool them anymore. If they like. And if they don't, then why bother fooling them? They're supposedly 'asleep' right now, do they care?

Like, this all seems to be predicated on the fact that they're trying to pull a fast one on Celestia by averting the prophecy, but Celestia isn't the entity responsible for what's happening. So like. What are they doing.

Unless Celestia making a 'prophecy' isn't them forseeing what's going to happen, but dictating it. If the sky is fake and fortunes are written in the stars, can Celestia then decide what the future is going to be? And that's what they needed to avert? ???? Has that been suggested anywhere?! Because if that's what it is, they did not explain it! And also, why would Celestia want the whale to... potentially destroy Teyvat...

;-;