Hi guys I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!

(This theory was originally put up on reddit. It's long and there's much to cover so I've added a summary at the end.)

The popular theory regarding Guizhong is the one where the Primordial Jade Cutter was used by Morax to kill her after she went from friend to foe. Theories made about this to explain why Guizhong would betray Morax range widely but converge on the idea that something corrupted her and Morax was forced to kill her. Some turn to the Archaic Petra Artifact Set as proof. Its Mask of Solitude Basalt explains that Morax put on a cold expression to fulfill his contract and secure Liyue. This meant killing even friends turned foes and that's been used to suggest this friend would have been Guizhong. These theories suggest further support comes from Soraya who was suspicious about what could have dared to attack the Guili Assembly when two Archons protected it. Now all of this could have been a great theory but thanks to the new cutscene we know for a fact that something was in fact present and attacked both Guizhong and Morax resulting in Guizhong's death.

Now the cutscene doesn't necessarily need to override the existing theory. It is possible that something attacked the pair but during the battle it corrupted Guizhong who then turned on Morax and so then Morax was forced to kill her maybe even with the Jade Cutter. But that doesn't change the fact that something did attack them and did manage to kill Guizhong even while Morax was there to protect her. And that shouldn't be surprising. Guizhong wasn't exactly a strong Archon; this was already established in her lore. In her weapon the Memory of Dust she outright states that she's nowhere near as powerful as Morax so she will use her brains while Morax relied on brawn.

And as for Soraya supporting any of this well theories use this quote:

"...and there they fought upon the Guili Plains, where black dust choked the heavens and a thousand rocks splintered..."

The theories claim that "black dust" and "thousand rocks" are stand-ins for Guizhong the Lord of Dust and Morax the Lord of Geo. And then black signifies a corrupt Guizhong. But the problem is in the localization which I've pointed out a few times already. In Chinese Soraya actually says:

「…战于『归离原』，彼时黑尘漫天，千岩俱裂…」

It's not a dramatic departure but the slight wording changes make a big difference with respect to this theory. See in English we're told Guizhong and Morax were fighting together during this battle that resulted in the black dust and thousand rocks. But in Chinese it's more vague and just mentions that the battles that took place on the Guili Plains themselves resulted in black dust and thousand rocks. And anybody who's seen a wild fire or warzone can tell you how common black dust is.

So what do we know?

Thanks to Lantern Rite 2023 we know Guizhong's Ars Goetia name, Haagentus. Haagenti is a President of Hell just like Morax. I actually have a theory suggesting that the Ars Goetia identities of these Archons determine how close or opposed they are to the Heavenly Principles. For example Baal/Beelzebub is the highest ranking demon on the list and likewise Beelzebul claimed to have an ideal nearest unto the Heavenly Principles. Before we fixed her she divinely ruled Inazuma with an iron fist. Morax has currently retired leaving Liyue under the rule of humanity to set off their Human Age. Previously he nurtured them and helped guide them so that this day might come. Accordingly the demon Morax has the lowest rank of President. Haagenti ranks even lower than him and Guizhong was actually the one to convince Morax into believing in humanity having already decided on nurturing their growth with the belief that one day they could be her equal teaching her as much as she could teach them.

From the Primordial Jade Cutter we know that the weapon was forged by Morax for "a certain someone" likely being Guizhong. The lore states that it was "cut for love of peace and luxury" fitting with Guizhong's desires. Following her death Morax instead stained the gift in blood and poisoned it with the lingering grudges of its victims. And this could then go hand in hand with the Mask of Solitude Basalt that also spoke of slaughter and Morax's cold demeanor during the war.

Finally there's her death itself. On her deathbed Morax and Guizhong spoke one last time. But that delves into much more distant theory territory so it's time for another section break!

The Price of Seeking Wisdom

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?"

Previously she'd talked to him about that dumbbell:

"This is the mark of our pledge, and it is also my challenge to you. All my wisdom is hidden within this stone dumbbell. 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.

I had made a theory about what Guizhong hid in this dumbbell. The item itself is her weapon the Memory of Dust. And from my theory what if Morax was the "Seelie" that fell in love with the Second Who Came? And what if following the catastrophe that came of their love only Guizhong made sure to remember?

We've already seen that directly coming out with information Phanes doesn't want getting out will get you killed. We've seen that trying to seek out that information will get you punished. But we also know that "the creator has not yet come" which as Nahida tells us means Celestia is currently dormant. So by hiding this kind of information in a difficult to solve puzzle box it could have been her intent for Morax to be stuck with it for long enough that Celestia would become dormant and then he could safely uncover the secrets it was trying to hide.

But on her deathbed she told him to forget about it. It could be that originally her plan was for Morax to eventually regain his memories and combat Celestia. But over time she came to care for him herself and any attempts to fight against Celestia's power was more than likely suicide. As she was dying she did not want the same fate to befall Morax.

And that brings me to another possibility when it comes to how she died. As I said before just because we have a new cutscene it doesn't necessarily undermine the popular theory. It does however potentially alter the situation. We now know for a fact that Soraya was mostly right. Morax himself states that she's "already very close to the truth" meaning that that part of the existing theories has merit. (just maybe with a different interpretation) So if we now add my theory into the mix alongside the idea that Soraya is correct that nothing even at the power level of an Archon would want to attack two Archons together but that something did corrupt Haagentus leading to her death then I think we have an obvious candidate.

In my theory Guizhong had knowledge of what transpired with the Second Who Came and cleverly decided to record it in her Memory of Dust puzzle instead of telling Morax directly. This was in order to keep Celestia from finding out that this knowledge still existed. But what if Celestia did find out that she knew? Still per my theory all of this was taking place during the Archon War and the Guili Assembly was established at this time as well. Since that would be the period where Celestia was vigorously eradicating any information it deemed to be forbidden knowledge it wouldn't be surprising that Guizhong couldn't hide forever.

So one day let's say Celestia sends down an enforcer. Phanes was already at a power level to defeat all seven of the sovereigns so Celestia would have no qualms about attacking two Archons at once especially knowing that Guizhong wasn't exactly a fighter. The creatures available to it are also interesting. See in Sumeru we can actually be attacked by Rifthounds summoned by Withering Zones. The Withering is a punishment from Celestia for Deshret's forbidden knowledge but Rifthounds were previously creations of Rhinedottir and categorized with other Abyssal forces like Durin. Durin has blood that can corrupt as we saw with Dvalin in the Mondstadt Archon Quest. So since Celestia has been shown now to be able to use these creatures it shouldn't be a shock they could send one to attack the Guili Assembly and corrupt Guizhong.

At the power levels of Phanes this creature could easily challenge Morax while still landing a decisive blow to Guizhong and corrupt her. Then once she became as crazed as Dvalin and with the creature still on the attack Morax would have no choice but to slay them both. Then as the cutscene depicts we would have the creature defeated and then the yaksha would be able to bind it while Haagentus becomes dust. Since the other forces arrive later Morax can still have his heartbreaking scene with Haagentus. Then she can still tell him to forget about solving the puzzle in her final moments out of fear that Celestia might attack again. (Or the creature sent could have just killed Guizhong the old fashioned way and then Morax used the Jade Cutter he was gifting her to kill her murderer thereby staining it in blood.)

"But gods cannot be fully destroyed"

This is what Madame Ping tells us and we've seen it in action plenty of times to know she's telling the truth. In the direct sense she was referring to Marchosius the Stove God who ends up becoming Guoba after sacrificing all his divine power. In other words Marchosius still exists even if he isn't a god anymore.

Which means the same should hold true for Guizhong. So check this out:

In the tales of traveling merchants and porters, there was once a mysterious figure that would surface in the dead of night upon the plains: it was a maiden in a long indigo robe, striding along the shallows of the Bishui River, the moon wrapping her face with silver light as the night wind carried her words up to the shimmering, sleepless stars. According to guests at Wangshu Inn, only those who get lost amid the firefly-lights on summer nights might see her, and only those who can discern the scent of Glaze Lilies amid the dancing lights and Seelie floating in the dark could find her tracks. Some guessed that she might be a lost illuminated beast.

So we've got a maiden who just randomly appears and smells of Glaze Lilies, Seelies will guide people towards her and she's been assumed to be an illuminated beast which is synonymous with adepti. Adepti like Marchosius.

On top of that "the hunter encountered her brandishing a sword against several perilous shadows" and while Memory of Dust is her signature weapon if the Jade Cutter was made as a gift to her it means Guizhong can also wield a sword. And on top of that she left the scene "with naught left but a pile of bloodied dust."

The story is titled "Dust" and starts out explaining Guili Plains with an emphasis on the Glaze Lilies.

Now I've also seen a few really old topics bring this up but they were usually dismissed because Guizhong was supposed to be dead and we didn't have Madame Ping's statement yet and also that these tales and legends could have taken place during the Archon War when Guizhong was still alive. But actually if we read carefully we know these accounts took place after Liyue was established. In the story with the hunter we're told that after she vanished the only thing left alongside bloodied dust were the corpses of the Millelith. Thanks to this we know that the Millelith even in its earliest incarnation as the Millelith Brigade was only established after the founding of Liyue. Liyue was only founded after Guizhong's death because that was when the Guili Assembly was abandoned and Morax moved everybody down south of Mt. Tianheng to eventually establish Liyue.

But if this maiden is Guizhong what is she? I have two ideas based on the two possible ways she would have died.

In the Corrupted Guizhong pathway I'd say she's something like an onryou a vengeful spirit. While Guizhong herself doesn't seem to bear grudges the corruption might have effected her mind like Durin's did on Dvalin. So in death she might have become envious of the living and that's why she murdered the Millelith and surveyors.

But who's to say she killed those Millelith or that they were upstanding members of their group? So in the version I prefer which just has her killed she may have lingered as a protective spirit. Maybe the land surveyors had paid off these specific Millelith with a scheme that the Qixing hadn't noticed. To protect her people she foiled their plot. Or maybe it was something else that attacked the Millelith and she appeared to fight off their attackers as best she could in her diminished state. She turned the attackers into bloodied dust but there were still casualties.

Conclusion and Summary:

• Current theories on Guizhong have been at least partly disproven by the new Lantern Rite cutscene. Whatever might have happened to her we know something was present and it wasn't just corruption.
• The supposed proof from Soraya is undermined by recurring localization issues.
• While no Archon would attack the Guili Assembly maybe Celestia would.
• And maybe Celestia could have corrupted Guizhong. The Withering sometimes spawns Rifthounds.
• Guizhong's Archon Name seems to support my Ars Goetia Ranking Theory.
• Guizhong's Memory of Dust holds some kind of wisdom that she challenged Morax to unlock but then decided to suggest he forget about it on her deathbed. I have a theory this is a specific kind of forbidden knowledge.
• What if the wisdom was locked away to buy time because now Celestia is dormant and not actively chucking Divine Nails so it can be revealed without immediate consequences.
• Gods can't truly die. We've seen this from Guoba and Andrius already. So Guizhong still exists. Maybe she is a mysterious maiden around the Bishui River.
• If that really is her she may be a spirit like Andrius existing in a specific area in a diminished but still somewhat active form.

Records of the Gallant also states that the sightings have fallen into legend at this point suggesting that this version of Guizhong hasn't appeared in a while. In the corruption pathway that might just be because the yaksha purified her but what could it signify in the other version? What if it's like Halfdan? She appeared and helped protect Liyue while it was still getting on its feet but after all these years not only have the threats decreased the humans themselves are now in a position to protect themselves. Similar to Morax himself maybe Guizhong noticed she was no longer needed and finally allowed herself to rest. But again since gods can't really die might we get a quest or event about that one day similar to Moonchase and Guoba?

So what do you guys think?

Topic originally created on January 31st, 2023.