900 Years is a Long Time to Wait

Prologue: The Legend of the Sleeping Gods

"Nearly two millennia ago, the Geo Archon ruled over the land of Liyue. Rex Lapis, or Morax, watched over the people of the Harbor for centuries, keeping his distance yet assuring his people that he was there every year during the Rite of Descension. Several years later, worry and fear spread along Liyue Harbor, for during the Rite their Lord had fallen from the skies, seemingly dead. This, however, was all part of Rex Lapis's plan to test the people, seeing if they were strong enough to stand without his help. After the release of Osial by the Eleventh Fatui Harbinger, who also happened to be the Archon's lover, he willingly surrendered his Gnosis to the Eighth Harbinger. Just before she left for Snezhnaya with it, the Gnosis was absorbed and changed to hold the power of Rex Lapis's daughter and successor. Her real name was unknown, only that she became the Archon before the Gnosis was passed to the Eighth Harbinger, fulfilling the contract between the Tsaritsa, who was the Cryo Archon, and Rex Lapis. The Traveler who assisted in saving the Harbor never drew attention to themselves, preferring to stay in the shadows.

Betrayed, the 11th Harbinger closed himself off, staying behind sealed doors of the house he shared with the former Archon. Their daughter tried to reconcile her parents, attempting to heal the rift by reminding them of their family, her siblings, and their wedding fifteen years prior during the Lantern Rite Festival. After months, it worked, the pair reuniting under the light of a full moon. Unfortunately, Celestia had other plans, tearing the Snezhnayan from the Liyuan soon after during a battle with a Ruin Guard. His life rapidly ebbing, the Harbinger called his children and his love to his side. "Swear to Celestia, please... That you will find me in the next life and every life after that." The family could not speak, only accepting the contract through a nod. Smiling, the Harbinger caressed his lover's cheek one last time before his ocean-blue eyes closed in eternal sleep. He was buried soon after, dressed in the clothes he wore as a Harbinger, placed upon Mount Tianheng with Glaze Lilies growing around the grave. It was often said that the lilies growing around the grave helped contribute to the state of the Geo Archon, as they reminded him of not one love lost, but two. Lady Guizhong of Dust was the creator of these flowers, and she died surrounded by them. When the Harbinger was buried, Glaze Lilies sprang up around him, a cruel reminder that the two, god and warrior, were gone.

Numb with grief, Rex Lapis's life lost its purpose. His children watched in increasing worry as their father slowly wasted away, his eyes dulling and his movements stiff. The girl, his successor, decided that she would not sit idly by and watch in horror as her father slowly broke down. She took him and her siblings to the Guyun Stone Forest. Turning her three youngest siblings into minor gods to ensure their immortality, she guided the rest of her family into the monolith of stone she had caused to rise, creating a large, high-ceilinged room with four beds of stone in it. Understanding instantly what she wanted, the two oldest siblings, their father, and their younger sister laid themselves on the beds. Hugging them one last time before she sealed them, she flicked her hands, causing glowing amber to cover the stone beds as her family closed their eyes, falling into a geostasis sleep. The girl led her remaining siblings out of the chamber, sealing the entrance with more stone. Pressing her hand to the closed door and making sure that it would open only for her or her mother, she gave one last smile before relinquishing them to the care of the earth."

"There is another tale, one of the God of Anemo and patron of Mondstadt, Barbatos. He, too, fell for a human like his Liyuan counterpart, except that this particular human was reminiscent of a knight he had once loved. The knight, however, had memories of before his death, knowing of the existence and change of the wind sprite into the god his city worshipped. They loved and lived together, eventually raising three children together. Yet Celestia too, as in the case of Rex Lapis, tore them from each other, the knight dying in the Archon's arms as he had done years ago. They buried him upon Starsnatch Cliff, marking his grave with Lamp Grass and Cecelias. Angry in his sorrow, Barbatos refused to bless his people, living in solitude and only allowing his children in.

His eldest daughter, a young bard and now-owner of the tavern her father ran before he died, took it upon herself to pull him out of the spiral he was falling down into. She visited Liyue, learning of the sealed Archon from her best friend, the new Archon, Rex Lapis's daughter. Upon her return to Mondstadt, she, too, turned her siblings into minor gods, ensuring their immortality. Then, she hurried to the place where their winery stood, finding a location near a waterfall that was picturesque and quiet. Temporarily taking the Anemo Gnosis to give herself the duties of an Archon, she created a swirling vortex of winds. The Archon was well known for falling into deep sleep, so his daughter hoped that the sleep she was about to place upon him would keep him safe and calm for the years to come.

One night, when he had fallen asleep, the girl took his body into her arms and flew to the waterfall, increasing the vortex's size until it was a full tornado. This one, however, was not harmful and simply rippled the water lightly. The winds calmed as she flew over to them, gently bringing more winds to form a bed with winds swirling inside it. Laying him on the bed, she passed her hand over his face, gently forcing him asleep with the scent of Valerian, and placed Cecelias and Sweet Flowers around him, prompting sweet dreams with the smell of his favorite flowers. Then the girl flew out of the vortex, leaving her sleeping parent on the wind bed. Pressing her hands together, she tuned the winds to only dispel when her father spoke her mother's name, allowing them to open for future attempts. She left after ensuring that he was stable, flying back to the winery to care for her siblings."

"So, the Archons slept, sealed inside their respective elements for centuries, waiting for the day when their lovers would once again call out their names and grace their lives with their presence."