— 🌸 𝐓𝐄𝐘𝐕𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒
summary: general headcanons about the world of teyvat and, by extension, the gods that rule it.
warnings: spoilers for sumeru’s, fontaine’s and natlan’s archon quest.
inspired by @oliveden ‘s archon headcanons.
masterlist
visions are strongest in the realm dominated by its element — geo visions will be stronger in liyue, dendro in sumeru, etc. the amount the vision’s power increases is dependent on how in tune the vision wielder is with their element.
mondstadt is the youngest of the seven nations. snezhnaya used to border liyue, and a harsh mountain pass divided the two nations. it was only after the massacre that was the archon war that the new cryo archon ceded the mountainous south in favor of retreating farther up north. with his newfound power, barbatos clumsily hand carved the jagged cliffs and sharp valleys that’s now known as mondstadt for the snezhnayans left abandoned by their former god. dragonspine stands as a reminder of what their home used to be before barbatos graciously gave them freedom.
all of sumeru used to be harsh desert. it’s no secret that rukkhadevata created the lush, fruitful jungles that most sumerans call home out of a barren wasteland, and it is because of the new dendro archon — nahida — that the jungle continues to flourish. flowers bloom in the wake of her footfalls and new forests sprout with a wave of her hand, its health inherently tied with her livelihood. should the dendro archon die and not reincarnate, appoint a successor, or relinquish their domain to irminsul, the vibrant and forested east of sumeru will wither and rot, the western sands reclaiming its old territory as nature returns to equilibrium.
the tsaritsa’s anguish hardened into bitterness, and bitterness into apathy. in turn, the pleasant and fertile rolling hills and gentle peaks of snezhnaya hardened and froze over, soft grass and fields of wildflowers being replaced with permafrost and tundra. much of modern snezhnaya is considered inhospitable and now lies above the arctic circle. only those with cryo visions are able to withstand its subzero temperatures and biting winds for extended periods of time, and one can find small pockets of life dotted throughout the glaciers and ice sheets — communities comprised entirely of cryo vision wielders and their kin.
i imagine snezhnaya’s music to sound similar to tennen composed by hania rani (listen to it here).
the archons are bound by their gnosis to their domain and thus physically unable to leave the borders of their nation. the capital city of each region in teyvat is rife with embassies and carefully selected diplomats to carry out international relations and their god’s wills.
natlanians are unable to leave their homelands for extended periods. phlogiston, being in the air and earth of natlan, has become a vital source of life alongside food and water. anyone born and raised in the nation of fire and war will quickly become dependent on the substance to live, and should a natlan native find themselves elsewhere in teyvat for too long, they will experience increasingly worsening fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of appetite, dehydration, dizziness, and hallucinations, which can lead to organ failure among other conditions. to avoid this fate, those who wish to travel must plan in advance and pack phlogiston inhalers, but the devices are only a temporary solution and cannot sustain someone for longer than a week or two at a time.
the pyro archon rises and lowers the sun and the geo archon the moon each and every day. akin to the circadian rhythm, they possess an internal clock that tells them when to perform this duty. during periods of war where even the pyro archon can’t afford to leave the battlefield, citizens of teyvat have recorded the phenomena of night or day lasting weeks at a time all while the moon completes its usual cycle. the longest period the daylight cycle remained unbalanced was during the archon war where it seemed as if even the sun and moon were fighting for dominion over the sky.
the anemo archon controls the winds and air itself and the hydro archon controls condensation and precipitation across teyvat. after the hydro archon’s death, this responsibility fell to neuvillette, who at first maintained a very rigid schedule and didn’t think twice about it before he read a bewildered meteorologist’s column in the steambird that remarked how it always rained for exactly five hours on tuesdays and fridays. he still struggles with creating the same level of spontaneity and diversity in weather that foçalors seemed to effortlessly have, but he’s noticed that the ability seems tied to his emotional state… it’s always overcast after a particularly troubling court case.
thunder and lightning storms occur when the electro archon wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
rex lapis bleeds liquid gold, and there’s whispers of a band of hunters solely dedicated to profiting off this myth.
every nation has its own distinct language, but after the fall of khaenri’ah, its language was adopted as the lingua franca in order to keep part of it tangible and alive.
the pyro archon once targeted celestia with pillars of rock in the geo archon’s fashion, but missed. the displaced earth trail behind celestia’s orbit, almost mockingly, but a very keen eye observing from the right location and time of day will notice that behind celestia, it almost looks like a piece of the sky is missing.
being made out of a branch of irminsul, as nahida grows and ages, she will slowly become more lithe and earthen as white branches sprout from her scalp and limbs and moss climbs her legs. all dendro archons who share this origin have the same fate: they will one day root to the earth like any tree, and their final resting places can be found in long-forgotten lands of sumeru. it’s rumored that eating the fruit that grows from them will grant the consumer forbidden knowledge. if you place your hand on the bark, you can feel a faint pulsing, almost like a heartbeat.
