Qilin || Human

In 1.4, after accepting a commission from Ganyu, the Traveler finally reunites with their sibling, albeit briefly. And their sibling tells them some VERY troubling things about Celestia and Khaenri’ah. In 1.5, after helping him deal with Azhdaha, the Traveler has a chance to ask Zhongli (aka Morax) about it, and... He is unable to answer the Traveler’s questions due to some unknown contract he is bound by, and expresses regret about it. (It makes me wonder how Venti is going to react when the Traveler tries to press him for answers...)

Since Morax is the God of Contracts, it only makes sense that he would honor one completely... But, he’s also The God of Contracts. If there’s any sort of loophole he can exploit to do what he actually wants to do (i.e. helping the Traveler), he’s going to find it. Consider that he willingly gave up his Gnosis to the Tsarista (compared to Barbatos who had his Gnosis forcefully stolen), who has made her intentions of raging against Celestia quite clear. What could she have offered in return to sway him..? Well... how about raging against Celestia?

I think Morax forged a contract with Celestia eons ago... one that prevents him from directly acting against Celestia in any way. But, if the Tsarista happened to acquire the source of his power and use that against Celestia, well... he’s not directly acting against it anymore, is he? Consider also that the entirety of 1.1 was effectively his plot. Childe thought he had played everyone, but it was really Zhongli who got everything he wanted out of the Osial crisis. 

Morax is no fool. He’s very intelligent and cunning, but he’s also very subtle. The conversation with Ganyu in 1.1..? I think that’s another way that he acted against Celestia indirectly. His contract might prevent him from telling the Traveler too much about the other Archons or Celestia itself, but there is nothing like that stopping Ganyu from talking about them. And I think Ganyu is at least somewhat aware of this, so I’m mildly hopeful that she’ll pop up again during the main story to feed the Traveler some more info at the behest of Morax...