#but i have wondered this ever since seeing Rukkhadevata and Nahida

[banjomelodies]

This might sound ridiculously stupid, but.

Why does nobody in Liyue acknowledge how a replacement archon never showed up after theirs supposedly died. The original Hydro Archon was replaced, same with Electro, and if you haven't done the Sumeru questline, the same goes for Dendro. So why are none of them wondering why a new geo archon has yet to surface?? The Archons, seem to always be present, whether if they're an original Archon, or one just created to replace one who fell (excluding Ei), so you'd, assume the people of Liyue would be expecting one, and then go, "Huh.. Why haven't we.. found one yet?"

I don't know if I missed lore somewhere or if the people of Liyue just kinda accepted that they're a godless nation now, but??

Are they not expecting it because new Archons take a while to pop up?? Or??

[venticuliao]

delusion users

from ei's second story quest

ei: in [makoto's] eyes, the most precious things in this world were dreams --the yearning for a better future held by all living beings. traveler:dreams… or in other words, "ambitions"? ei: the are similar, but not identical. in her view a dream is more imaginary, more abstract than an ambition. an ambition is a yearning for something material, or a concrete outcome. it is finite in nature and will be replaced by a new ambition in due course. makoto was more concerned with the force that drives humans to constantly generate new ambitions in the first place. it is something innate, rooted in instinct. makoto wasnt concerned with outcomes.

so dreams are a yearning for progress, ambitions are constantly generated to realize those dreams, and visions are the physical manifestation of strong ambition "recognized by the gods".

i wonder where that leaves delusion users?

teppei is the only character we have witnessed in his journey using a delusion. he was concerned with short-term outcomes: displaying bravery, saving and protecting his comrades, gaining military recognition, etc. but there wasn't a goal behind that, he was already helping the troops at the sidelines before scaramouche distributed delusions, it just wasn't the kind of role he wanted to play. it was more about the process.

that seems to be a shared trait among at least three harbingers out of the four we know, and i can't count signora in just because we didn't get access to her inner world. but childe, scaramouche and dottore are characters that don't concern themselves with an end goal, at least not in a way that we're familiar with.

scaramouche wanted to become a god for his own reasons, he didn't care what that end product involved fusing his memories with lord rukkhadevata's, or that the sages just wanted a puppet to hold the power they worshipped. he never said what he wanted to do as a god beyond having followers, never cared about the future of sumeru as a nation or its people.

in this mix, the three parties (the sages, dottore and scaramouche) were all using each other and letting themselves be used, and they all thought they were the ones taking more advantage of the situation. in dottore's case, it was more or less the truth. he didn't have a purpose for this plan other than observing it as an experiment.

nahida: since you were here in the akademiya, why wait until now to show up? you could very well have stopped us and helped that "fake god". dottore: simple, let me ask you this: would any staff member ever help the subject in the middle of an experiment? it was my experiment, so why should i interfere with the results? nahida: the akademiya saw the plan to create a god as their ultimate goal, yet you only saw it as an ordinary experiment…

(though he does say he indeed has convictions of his own, they just don't fit known standards.)

childe, on the other hand, is a human who sees himself as a weapon. in the labyrinth event, he admits he only strives for combat so he can sharpen himself as a weapon. shiki taishou asks him what is his purpose by doing this, and childe answers that there is none other than the process itself.

childe: discarded or not, what's so bad about being a weapon? all those who stalk the battlefield yearn for meaning and value[...] it is not victory that i seek, but improvement. i want to become sharp as a blade, to the point where others fear me. shiki taishou: if that's true... then these battles you strive for... where do they end? childe: only those that wish for an end will find one. for me, it's nothing more than a mirage. i was born to fight, and as long as i draw breath, there will be no end to my purpose.

childe's next words haunt me a little:

let go of your confusion. sorrow and hesitation are the enemy of an implacable weapon.

childe has most likely rid himself of these (confusion, sorrow and hesitation) in his quest for power. he's someone who has completely devoted himself to this purpose and no longer questions it, if he ever did. even if he still has human connections that bind him, this is the purpose that he's chosen for himself, when his childhood dream was originally to be a hero.

in scaramouche's case, what he truly wanted was a heart, being a god is a means he found to achieve this goal but as we already know there are other ways. he is also someone who rejects the parts of him that are human.

it feels like delusion users are characters defined by obsession related to their dreams --the yearning of living beings for a better future, the desire for individual and collective progress-- and are stuck in smaller goals they drive meaning from instead of what they originally intended.

sort of driven by ambition rather than driven by dreams.