Genshin Impact: What We Know About the Archons

From the beginning of our journey through Teyvat, we discover that each of the nations is commanded by an Archon of an element that is closely related to their city. In addition to being revered as deities, archons are extremely powerful creatures, with feats that range from creating mountains, cutting through the earth or punching the heavens.

To date, we have only faced one archon and we haven’t won, we only stayed alive long enough for her to realize that her actions weren’t correct and not kill us. Even the least combative of archons can be a fantastic opponent if they decide to fight seriously. Lucky for us, so far, most of them have been friendly to us.

However, many players are not aware of the intricate history that surrounds these great beings in the world and how each represents their own ideal and that of their people. From the electrifying borders of Inazuma to the rocky paths of Liyue, many facts go unnoticed by fans of miHoYo's main franchise and, therefore, we’ll talk a little about each of them here and, if you have questions, just leave a comment.

Name in Goetia: Barbatos

Nation: Mondstadt

Element: Anemo

Weapon: Bow

Ideal: Freedom

The “Bard out of tune”, responsible for one of Genshin's oldest memes (“ehe te nandayo”), Venti was the first Archon introduced to Genshin Impact players and, for a long time, was one of the most important in the game, mandatory in all accounts and even made Hoyoverse change the way we collect our domain rewards.

As one of the two original archons, Venti is over 2600 years old and is the most carefree of them all. He spends his days at the Angel's Share tavern, drinking wine and playing his lute for the regulars, then converts the tips into more wine, the wine into more music, more music, more tips and more wine and so on.

However, with his cheerful personality comes a lonely soul who still cannot free himself from the loss of his friend Bard during Decabarian's reign. Before, Venti was just a nameless wind spirit who helped the rebels free the people of Mondstadt from the tyrant, and so after this incident Venti became the Anemo Archon of Mondstadt.

Venti esteems freedom and preaches this to his people, but this makes him the weakest archon, as the power of the archons is directly linked to how much he is worshiped by his people.

Name in Goetia: Morax

Nation: Liyue

Element: Geo

Weapon: Spear

Ideal: Fidelity

Zhongli is a complex character because, like other Archons, he’s also not exactly human although he acts extremely so, and loves living among the people of Liyue. He was responsible for creating Mora, the currency of Teyvat, and soon became a major influence on economic growth for other nations as well.

Employed by the Wengsheng Funeral Home as a consultant, he’s very wise and offers his services to anyone who needs information about the countless ruins that exist in Liyue in search of treasures or information about the region's past. He loves listening to stories and drinking tea in the company of loved ones, like director Hu Tao and the Traveler.

Additionally, as one of the original archons, it can be argued that he is one of the most powerful, as he can not only call down a meteorite, but also change the Earth beneath it. He is an adeptus who takes the form of a dragon and is absurdly powerful, but it hasn’t yet been specified how powerful he is in his true form. A demonstration of his exceptional power was when he mentioned how he created the Guyun Stone Forest with his spears.

Name in Goetia: Beelzebul

Nation: Inazuma

Element: Electro

Weapon: Spear

Ideal: Eternity

The encounter with Raiden Shogun, also known as Ei, wasn’t as welcoming as the previous ones when Genshin Impact players finally arrived in Inazuma. Ei rules her nation with an iron fist and was the creator of the Vision Hunt Decree, which confiscated the vision of all inhabitants of Inazuma and anyone who had one.

Her grudge spanned over 500 years after she lost her twin sister, Makoto (Baal), in the War of the Archons and was also the reason why Ei became the Electro Archon, even though not as one of the Original Seven.

However, after the end of the Inazuma chapter, players see how much she loves her people, and her drive to preserve the beauty that Makoto created that led her to vigorously defend eternity and make her nation a place where everything is kept the same, no matter what.

The Electro Archon is made up of two beings in one: Ei, the current Archon, and the Shogun, a puppet created by Ei to act as ruler in her place. These two beings are completely different in personality, as Shogun is more ruthless, while Ei is portrayed as a more emotional and even naive person.

Since Ei cared about nothing other than “achieving eternity,” the Shogun ruled Inazuma while she meditated on the Plane of Euthymia. She does, however, occasionally make an appearance, as she is quite sociable and enjoys hearing about the modern customs of other nations.

Name in Goetia: Buer

Nation: Sumeru

Element: Dendro

Weapon: Catalyst

Ideal: Knowledge

Before the birth of Nahida, the Lesser Lord Kusanali, Sumeru was ruled by the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. Rukkhadevata was the one who created the rainforests and the city of Sumeru and established the Akasha system after cleansing any forbidden knowledge. Rukkhadevata was once co-ruler of the Great Red Desert with King Deshret and Nabu Malikata, the goddess of flowers. We talk about them in our article about Sabzeruz Festival .

Rukkhadevata was essentially the personification of Irminsul, and once the Cataclysm began, she was never sent to the battlefield and was tasked with protecting Irminsul, as the forbidden knowledge that Khaenri'ah turned into an abyssal power and corrupted Irminsul. She had no choice but to sacrifice herself and create her descendant from the “purest branch of Irminsul”, which ended up generating Nahida.

Unhappy with the possibility that Rukkhadevata might have disappeared, the sages refused to recognize the new archon and locked her up in a palace. Once imprisoned in the Sanctuary of Surasthana by the Sages of Sumeru, Nahida, or Lesser Lord Kusanali, could only communicate with her devotees through dreams, and with the help of the Traveler, she was freed and took her place as archon.

Name in Goetia: Focalors

Nation: Fontaine

Element: Hydro

Weapon: Sword

Ideal: Justice

Fontaine's chapter was filled with a lot of information about the original prophecy of Archon Hydro, Egeria and Fontaine. According to an Oceanid legend, after the Dragon Sovereign Hydro was removed from his position as the "Heart of the Primal Sea", Celestia supposedly created Egeria as the new Heart of the Primal Sea.

It’s from their tears that the Oceanids were supposedly created. After some time, the Oceanids also wished to live on land, and so Egeria humbly granted their request, taking water from the Primordial Sea and transforming the Oceanids into people. However, Celestia was not satisfied with this and sentenced the archon to the death sentence and Fontaine, and all humans created by Elegia, would be drowned in the Primordial Waters.

Knowing that one day this sentence would be carried out, the next archon, Focalors, took refuge somewhere where she couldn’t be found, but separated a part of herself and her power, giving that “part” the task of discovering how to prevent Celestia's fury from befalling the citizens of Fontaine as she watched over the nation in the role of Archon.

This “part” of Focalors was Furina, who acted as the Archon for 500 years, seeking a way to stop the prophecy and save the nation of Fontaine from being destroyed by the primordial waters. At the end of the mission the Archon of Fontaine was saved from the prophecy, Focalors was executed and the Hydro Sovereign Dragon, Neuvillette, regained his authority as the “Heart of the Primordial Sea” and Furina finally fulfilled her role.

Goetia's name: Haborym

Nation: Natlan

Element: Pyro

Weapon: Claymore

Ideal: War

Natlan's Pyro Archon, Mavuika, is completely different from her peers, as she is the seventh archon to rule Natlan. The Pyro Archons of Natlan are not Gods, but mortals who have received divinity thanks to their enormous powers. Before her, the first Archon, Xbalanque, was the first mortal to ascend to godhood after he defeated the supposed Pyro Dragon Sovereign, Xiuhcoatl.

He established the systems that the people of Natal use today such as the Pilgrimage and the Ode to Resurrection. After him came an unnamed archon, Ndenge, Cochanina, Xumucul and then Murata and finally Mavuika.

She’s an Archon who lived for 500 years, establishing a plan for War against the Abyss, which corrupted Natlan's Leylines, involving bringing together the seven heroes who bore the ancient names of the legendary heroes who fought for the nation over the years. She managed to bring together the heroes of the new era (Mualani, Kinich, Xilonen, Ororon, Chasca and Iansan) and, together with the Traveler, they finally defeated the Abyss. She also gained the help and friendship of the Fatui Capitano, who revealed himself to be a survivor of the Khaenri'ah massacre.

Mavuika is also currently the only archon to “physically punch” a hole through Tevyat's false sky and reveal the hidden secrets of the broken moons that Celestia has been hiding all this time. She actively disapproves of Celestia's actions and will do whatever it takes to help the Traveler while also protecting her people from further destruction.

Goetia's name: Not informed

Nation: Snezhnaya

Element: Cryo

Weapon: Unknown

Ideal: Unknown

The nation of Snezhnaya is as cold as its archon, but few can truly understand what goes on there. According to Tartaglia, the Tsaritsa - the Cryo Archon - is actually a gentle soul who longs for peace and harmony, but due to the circumstances surrounding her, she’s had to harden herself for the protection of her nation. She is the only archon who has openly advocated a revolution against Celestia and plans to do so by collecting all the gnosis of the other Archons.

Her followers, of course, consist of the Fatui Messengers, who have been given complete independence to act as they please, asking only that some of their actions also aid in their rebellion against Celestia. This happens when Capitano helped Natlan survive the Abyss and, at his request, did not take Mavuika's Gnosis.

We don't know anything about her appearance or weapon used, only that she’s the leader of the Fatui and will probably be our enemy, as we are on a mission that disrupts her plans to obtain the gnosis (although, so far, we have failed miserably in preventing her from getting them all).

If you’re part of a Genshin Impact group on social media, it’s very likely that you have seen memes and comic strips that show the archons interacting with each other, chatting casually, doing activities together or showing off their “pets” or “children” (like the artist's comic strips Pun_rii and her mini Xiao). But, the reality is that they have little or zero contact with each other.

Archons rarely leave their nations, and considering that only two of them are archons from the time of the Archon War, it’s very likely that they don’t even know each other; in the 2023 Lantern Ritual event, Zhongli and Venti met and interacted, trying to disguise that they knew each other's identities, but other than that, it’s very unlikely that they met Ei (maybe they met Makoto, but not Ei) or Furina. And the archons Nahida and Mavuika are practically “newborns” compared to Zhongli.

So let's hope that there’s an event in the future where they all appear together, as it will be really fun to see how they interact and if they will be friends.