#guili assembly

[castaneart]

yes

[ceruleanvermillion]

Circumstances of Guizhong's Death

90% sure something's up with Guizhong's death because weapon lore is basically from the devs and is therefore reliable and yet it contradicts Cloud Retainer's account and cutscene and why in the world would Cloud Retainer of all people lie??? But her retelling doesn't really line up and Zhongli WON'T SAY ANYTHING. Mihoyo is definitely doing this with intention, because they have an eye for details. Also the yakshas appearing in the cutscene makes the timeline... Super weird???

anyway here's a list

Cloud Retainer said this: "Guizhong was overpowered by the enemy, and fell in battle. When Streetward Rambler and I arrived at the scene at long last, all that remained among the ruins... was her lifeless body."

This has several implications: CR and Ping found her when she was already dead. Her body was what was left. There were surrounded by ruins. She also fell in battle. (we don't actually who found her *first*, since the cutscene depicted everyone being there. However the phrase used was "all that remained...lifeless body" implying CR and Ping found her like that.)

SPEAKING OF THE CUTSCENE. We see her being basically petrified/turned into a statue. Again, everyone was there, even the Yakshas, and Zhongli. There was this magic shape thing above her in the cutscene, we dont know what it is. But when it played, there was this glitch effect and we see this:

again, we don't know what it is or why the devs chose to add that funky glitch effect.

WHY THIS IS WEIRD AND IMPORTANT? This is a quote from what Memory of Dust weapon lore says: "He also remembers those words she spoke at the end — again, amid the Glaze Lilies."

This alone partly contradicts CR. Glaze Lilies. Not ruins. Okay, but there could've been some ruins from battle. So this is not complete evidence. However, something else caught my eye.

this being: Zhongli was with Guizhong in her final moments.

Another very important quote: "Her final smile was a lonely one, even as her form dissolved into the finest dust. "It seems that our journey together has come to an end. As for that stone dumbbell, forget about it, would you?""

And also this: ""If you can unlock it—" Many years passed, and he was never able to unlock that dumbbell, nor would he ever learn what might have followed that sentence."

Again, according to this, Zhongli was with Guizhong in her final moments. He heard her last words. He was there/already there before she died, she was not dead yet when he was with her.

(what might've implied in this description: That Zhongli and Guizhong were alone and no one else was there, because no other persons were mentioned. Again, this is while likely is also tentative, because there was no explicit mention. This way Zhongli might've found her first.)

What matters was that there was no way they found her at the state of *already dead*. Because according to MoD, "Her Form Dissolved into the finest dust." She's turning to dust even before dying. There shouldn't have been a body to find if she literally dissolved into dust. This is Direct Contradiction from CR's account and the cutscene, which depicted her body as stone/petrified. In Memory of Dust weapon lore, Guizhong's last words were cut-off, meaning even Zhongli didn't hear everything she was going to say. This was the moment of her death- the moment she likely had completely dissolved into dust was when she was still talking to Zhongli.

Let's review

According to CR: She fell in battle, they found her body, already dead, among the ruins.

According to MoD: When she died, Zhongli was with her. He heard her last words. She dissolved into dust.

Contradictions:

In MoD lore, her form dissolved into dust but cutscene + CR said they found her body and that she was turned to stone.

They found her body among ruins/scene of battle according to CR but in MoD she died among the Glaze Lilies.

Yaksha timeline weird

Arguable/tentative/still really vague stuff: According to CR she fell in battle because she was "overpowered by the enemy"- how did that happen if Zhongli was there according to MoD? He's still alive, after all. Also ngl they had a moment™️when she died because he had heard her last words- shouldn't he be fighting lmao??? Also shouldn't the glaze lilies be destroyed by battle?

TLDR There was no way CR and Ping would've found her body if we're going purely by what was explicitly mentioned in MoD. Vice Versa, there was no way MoD scenario would have worked out the way it allegedly did if we're going by CR's account.

also what in the world was that thing that was supposedly contained in the cutscene? The one in the third picture above.

Theories.

Obviously, this means that we should not take these accounts at face value. Either *something else happened that we still don't know* OR *Only one of these accounts was right*. So there's like a bunch of theories abt this. Anyway these are just some of them.

Maybe one could argue that Zhongli petrified her body after she died and dissolved, and that both accounts are technically right. But again, such a thing was *never* mentioned by either sources. is it even possible to do such a thing? Also why in the world would he feel the need to construct a whole fake scenario instead of just telling CR and Ping? Did something happen that made him think he has to?

Irminsul mind-wipe. This one is vague but Sumeru made it a possible option. However, why? why should they erase her? What did she do, what happened? They did put a glitch effect- so was that a creative choice or where they alluding to it? Also, again, what was that thing they were containing in the cutscene? also what's inside memory of dust and why did she ask zhongli to forget it?

In MoD we see Guizhong say two contradicting things. She told Zhongli to forget about MoD. but later it seemed like she was about to tell him the opposite. We don't know what she said because she unfortunately was dead.

Some people theorized that Zhongli might've killed Guizhong himself, because of the lines in Jade cutter weapon lore. Again, why? they were close up to her death, as mentioned by MoD. If that happened, why?

So, thoughts?

[pandamito]

accurate liyue lore

[castaincognito]

I can picture it so very clearly, the lovely chaos of banquets held at Guili Assembly, the fussy yet charming adepti bantering about minor things again, Cloud Retainer complains in ridiculously exaggerated way (that is absolutely genuine) about Rex Lapis' aesthetic tastes (she ostentatiously brought her own set of cups this time) to young Ganyu's embarrassment. Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper secretly make bets who will appear next time with new invention or relic to proudly show off and who will become competitive about it first.

And I know they might have not been present at those banquets, but let me have it - Yakshas in the background are having childish fight over Marchosius' newest dish (who will get the largest portion?), except for Xiao, who's sitting a bit further away from everyone, but Streetward Rambler joins him nearby, playing music that travels through air and soothes hearts of everyone present.

And somewhere amidst it all, like another melody, pacing around and joining the conversations is Guizhong, thinking to herself in the brief moments she's looking over everyone gathered, filled with hope and pride over this new home - I love them all so much.

[eternal-moss]

I need you all to watch this video it’s so cute

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Cyanide Ask- but like how did Guizhong approach Morax? Like. One it’s pretty brave to approach a dragon but also like, how did she convince him? Make an alliance? Create a whole civilization with both their names?

i know the game sort of implies she just walked up to him like it was a business proposition? which like- i think would definitely work, i mean he's the god of contracts, if she proposes a good enough deal he'd take it.

but in cyanide i like to think that she met him by accident? like- maybe she just happened upon this dragon by sheer coincidence, and since guizhong is ultra curious by nature she just approached him. i doubt there were any other dragons in liyue, so it was likely she had an idea of who he was, but more along the lines of- like- "oh- is that a dragon? could that be the one in charge of tianqiu valley? (since there's no other dragons)" and like she would've heard that he's a perfectly rational and chill individiual n so decided to approach. and from then on they sort of happened upon each other a good handful of times afterwards, guizhong decided he was her friend now, and eventually thought hey wouldn't it be cool if we combined our forces n made a big and secure civilization?

like she came up with the deal/contract/business proposal relatively quickly into their growing friendship, but not like- on first meeting. and they only started growing closer once the deal was settled and they had to oversee their people in tandem.

[iniziare]

While finally writing a thing, I suddenly remembered that I never shared (I don't think) when I HC Guizhong's birthday to be: the first day of each year, January 1st. Why? Well, I was thinking of the Guili Assembly, and how it seems really rather likely that it was created from the names that she and Morax, at the time, went by (not Zhongli, or... well, maybe that was exactly what he went by actually, come to think of it; why wouldn't he?) Which, to me, is further confirmed by the translation of the area's name's from the Chinese source directly. We have the 'Plains of Returning and Departing' (歸離原), which correlate with the meanings of a symbol in each of their names, the 'Gui' (歸) from Guizhong which means 'to return', and 'li' (離) from Zhongli, which means 'to depart'.

Now, regardless of the perceived nature of these two to others, I think saying that they're intertwined in stone (history) and memory either way, to hardly be far from a stretch at all. Now, keeping the above two translations in mind, and remembering that they put Zhongli's birthday in our western calendar on December 31st, I think January 1st would be a beautiful decision for Guizhong's. He represents the end of a fruitfal year, and she represents the start, or chance, of a new. I love the symbolism more than I can put into words.

[apopcornkernel]

ENCHANTED

part 1 of wild crane, lonely clouds

Shenhe/Yun Jin, 2.3k, complete

What held her gaze was as simple as this: Yun Jin, still staring straight at her. Yun Jin, only breaking eye contact when the dance required it, or when her fan obscured her face. Yun Jin, dancing as if only for her. As if the gods among them were but dust, and the adepti, wind.

Historical AU. Shenhe, mortal disciple of Cloud Retainer, is a general in the divine court of the Guili Assembly. Yun Jin, an entertainer of the Yun-Han Troupe, enters her household with an ulterior motive.

a collab with @kc-art-stuff <3 don't forget to check out her tumblr for the art!!!!!!

[mlady-magnolia]

Just some Genshin OC Outfits I’ve been thinking about

[yuelun]

A semblance of a ghost's caress was the only other sign of life aside herself amidst these ruins of a home, their home, that had long since been lost, perished, and abandoned. And it had been the second time that she'd succumbed to it, this— chill that claimed her spine as it did. Was it the echo of the life that once built the paths and buildings that once surrounded her where she stood, that caused the ache that resonated so vehemently within her chest? Memories of a sigh at a day's end, and memories of a smile at the next's beginning. Memories, they were memories, and so little more than that now.

The leaves beneath her feet, bare still as they were so long ago, crunched as she kneeled amidst them as if she were no less than a kindred spirit. And when the tips of her fingers brushed them aside, and touched the soil beneath— perhaps only the most attentive of mortal gazes, or an eye much too divine, could perceive the flecks that seemed to hover and sink into her skin one by one, as if in an instinct ever innate, dust and ash beckoned to return to where, and to who, they always belonged. The sigh it had drawn from her was bare, and unlikely mortal in its sound when it escaped the lips that were so far from any such human concepts, as it existed within a smile, one much too bittersweet.

@maquiscursed (Xiao) // Starter call 🤍

[qilyns-a]

@yanwangye said ... if the moon smiled,  she would resemble you. / open.

his gaze is gentle but distant as he speaks, looking to the moon as it peeks through the black dust – cover over qiongji. her gaze remains on him, half – startled at the sound of his voice after so long sitting in mutual silence. the moon shines down on the low, muddy waters where the jagged rocks of the formerly paved streets of the guili assembly poke through to pierce the surface, little mountains rising out of the knee – high depths. the lord of rock cuts a figure worthy of godhood even when brow – beaten, sitting next to her on one of the last formations of architecture still standing, but there seems to be less of him now, like if he raised his hand to point at the moon, she might be able to see through it. cold, clear light bleeding through the outlines of his person.

ganyu supposes some part of him went away with guizhong. scattered to the wind, the fine dust of their beings intermingled, or washed out by the unnatural tidal wave that carried most of their hopes for the future with it. so long they've fought this war, only to be left with so little. she knows she mustn't despair while there are still people pledged to live and fight for their archon, but for one night only she permits herself to feel hopeless.

whatever morax is feeling must be far worse. years lived in each other's proximity could not bridge such grief. she reveres him as a god, deeply, and as an equally devoted guardian for as long as memory serves, but she would not claim to understand him as a person. it's not her place to try.

" thank you. " ganyu rubs her eyes, and tries to smile like how she thinks he would want her to, for such a compliment. mostly she feels embarrassed that he still feels like he has to look out for her before himself. it's what guizhong would want him to do, probably, but she's not here, and she won't be here no matter how many times they return to this memory, this conversation. " i – i really ... miss her too ... " the thought alone threatens to split her heart in half, but she won't burden him with that responsibility anymore. if this night marks the end of her seldom carefree, but no less fondly remembered, days of adolescence, then so be it.

" but the moon is smiling at me tonight, like you said. " from behind the clouds or among the stars, day – moon or startlingly bright. it feels meaningful, if only for the fact that it apparently reminded him of her. " i won't keep you – i'll be okay on my own. " more or less. there's almost no one else left here now, save for those haplessly sifting through the rubble of their homes. not so different from the two of them, it occurs to her as she rises up, unsteady on her feet from sitting down too long.

" good night. " a shallow, jagged sigh. and – " i'm sorry. "

[qilyns]

@mingji said ... take your coat, don't get cold .

temperate evenings turn to frigid nights across the plains. the cold doesn't reach past their doorstep though – the warmth emanates from within, all things aglow. when guizhong stops her on the way out, ganyu only smiles. the lord of dust is far more vigilant than her station would imply, all – seeing and all – considerate in a way that's markedly different from the other adepti within the assembly.

even their common dwellings in the clouded and solitary peaks of juyeun karst could not compare to the familiar hum of life moving in all directions around them, all throughout the city. just as cloud retainer had pointed out, the human side of her always longs for more.

" oh, good idea. " she all but chirps in response, idling along the stone – laden hallways, tracing fingertips along the subtle grooves in the walls. she's grateful to have been invited in the first place, to dine and listen along with her seniors .. even when the conversations become noticeably heated, the ruckus does more to still her heart than cause genuine upset. the halls are quieter now, in the smaller hours – details of their exploits and friendly competition fondly committed to memory until next time. ganyu sighs at the thought.

" well ... i don't actually know that i – uh, brought one. " sheepish in a way that would cause cloud retainer to roll her eyes at her, but she really can't help it. guizhong seems so effortless in comparison, even in the dim half – light, draped in the fineries befitting a true lord. a stark contrast to the young half – qilin, looking around as if she's expecting something, anything, to appear out of thin air and smooth over this mishap. " or maybe cloud retainer took mine earlier. don't tell her i said that though, please. "

[ceruleanvermillion]

Obsessed w/ Guili's sun and moon dynamic where guizhong is the sunshine personality and Zhongli is the moon personality but Zhongli is glowing golden like the sun and Guizhong is the moon and the starry night.

[pandamito]

guizhong, god of (star)dust

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Would that mean Ajax has an unusually vested interest in the other nations after everything in Liyue is sorted? Like- keeping an eye on the Gunnhilder clan, or the Ragvindr’s? Would he have a vested interest in seeing the Dawn Winery form and thrive? Would he keep an eye out for news from Inazuma about the Kamisatos, Kaedehara clan, and how the Yokai are doing? There’s a lot of funky things Ajax could be tracking and or meddling with and I love that for him

oh absolutely. ajax would find a way to build himself a little news chain just to keep up on Blorbo Release Dates and accidentally install the greatest intelligence gathering network in teyvat

and like- nobody would realize at first since it'd happen so slowly, but by one point some couple of centuries down the line guizhong would be like- sorry, how do you know this? and ajax would just cassually drop that ah yes [instert someone's name here] told him and guizhong and morax would sit there like. who- who's that and ajax would drop the whole oh y'know i made some friends, i got some people to pass me some info back, usual stuff and guizhong would stare bc ajax is just casually revealing he has created a both open-secret yet completely unknown network of entirely random individuals who just- pass gossip along, and it all eventually goes back to ajax. most of that network is made up of volchiy travelers who pick up info on the coasts and directly report back to him.

[iniziare]

Tag drop: Guizhong (don't mind me re-dropping this with the fixed ones, shh)