#we know of istaroth and the shade of life but there's two left

[torgawl]

crack theory: what if the abyss twin isn't a descender because they're an ascender?

[countessdankula]

Also to add, from Fontaine's AQ we learn that giving up the Gnosis does not affect the 'Archonhood' per se, as the throne in the heavens holding the stolen Sovereign Authority remains intact. Now, this has two major implications for both the Mondstadt and the Liyue AQs:

Zhongli has gone to great lengths to effectively curb and discontinue the people's worship of Rex Lapis, unlike the others. Considering he has also stopped producing Mora (it's an alchemical catalyst in the game, not just currency), his position as the Geo Archon is still solid as far as Celestia is concerned, and that is of note.

Too piggy back off what Nahida says about faith giving power to the gods, Venti remains the most powerful Archon by this measure as:

The shogun is worshipped in inazuma however, the vision hunt decree, the civil war, and the sakoku decree have caused troubles for the people. Considering that vast swathes of Inazuman land apart from Narukami island remain unoccupied (and Watatsumi worships another), I would argue that Ei is weak.

I have a mini theory that if wishes manifest as power and prayer is a wish to a god, and if we refer to Neuvillette's character stories, 'Hydro Dragon don't cry' is actually a prayer, and with Focalors doing what she has done, there is no archon left to pray for.

Another thing to note is Venti's constant and consistent connection to music, we already know that him and Zhongli are chill, the Lyre given to us by the Aranara seems to belong to a Mondstadt bard, assuming that upcoming Fontaine patches give us more information about Remuria (a civilisation that was notably built about music), I expect some random Venti cameo here too.

Doesn't he know all songs ever or sumn

And this is not even talking about the three moon goddesses being named after musical elements. Or istaroth.

I am on hopium wanting Istaroth crumbs from Fontaine expansions because we got to know about the Shade of Life and what happened to her, I need to know about Istaroth.

People always rank either Ei or Zhongli (or both) above Venti in power rankings. Like, who is the strongest archon? There are always two answers: Morax or Beelzebul. Never Barbatos.

I like to think otherwise.

This guy has cut mountains with his winds and thrown them so far away into the sea, made winter disappear and turned Mond into what it is today: from a barren rocky land that used to be filled with snow and raging blizzards into this green plain field with gentle winds where agriculture is so much easier then it ever was back then. I don't think people of Old Mond could have ever imagined for Mond to turn into what it is today.

But he still calls himself weak. And people took that to face value. And some still do despite it being proven otherwise by Nahida.

Venti said that an archon derives their power from ruling over their nation. But Nahida denies this later and says that archons gain their power through the faith of the people.

Clearly, Venti lied to us.

And if we go by what Nahida said,,,, Every freakin person in Mond has faith in the Anemo archon. They sing praises of him despite not having been in the presence of their god for 5 centuries. He has a statue and a Cathedral (who else has that?).

So, Venti is Strong.

Remember his gnosis is in the shape of a queen chess piece? Queen has the most freedom on the board. Venti's ideals are freedom. And his element is anemo. Anemo is the free-est element out there.

He might as well suck the air out of your lungs if he so wants to. He governs over it.

My point is, Venti is overpowered.

And let's not forget how that little wind wisp gained archon hood.

It was his desire to protect that helped him into becoming a god. When the nameless bard died, he felt the need to protect whats left. To protect what his friend died fighting for.

And its a pretty cliche concept out their about how a hero grows stronger, in any story. Its their need to protect. Right?

And Venti still wants to protect Mond- despite him saying otherwise. He shows up everytime Mond is in danger. Whether directly or indirectly, he always helps out.

So here is what I think. The reason why he calls himself weak.

Its because he is so strong, strong enough to scare Celestia. So Celestia has put him on some sort of leash. He can't use his powers in it's entirety. There is probably some sort of seal.

So Venti is weak.

Because he can't use all of his powers. Because he is chained to Celestia's whim.

Venti is weakest of the seven because he is the only one who has some sort of leash on him.

The god of freedom, chained.

Plus, it can definitely not be a coincidence that the defiled statue was of Barbatos, out of all the seven. Chained, hanging up-side down and corrupted.

And the fact that the abyss order was going to use Barbatos (chained) statue to create a machine to "topple the divine thrones of Celestia."

None of that can be a coincidence. Knowing hoyoverse, it definitely isn't.

So yeah. Venti is definitely not weak. He just can't use the full extent of his powers as of right now.

Venti is strong, but also weak. If he isn't chained- he is easily the strongest.

He can slice the mountains and throw them far into sea- if Zhongli throws a big peice of meteor on him, venti should be able to cut it in half too. if he has all his power on him that is.

I really hate it when people call him weak just because he said so himself. Especially when it's been proven that we shouldn't take his words to face value.

He is not like our sweet little Nahida, people.