NOTE: Folders in boldface denote playable characters.

Liyue Harbor

The main city of Liyue, founded by Rex Lapis and his people.

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Wanmin Restaurant

A popular diner in the Chihu Rock district of Liyue Harbor, operated by the Mao family.

Xiangling

Mao Xiangling

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Li Jiang (Chinese), Ari Ozawa (Japanese), Yoon Ah-yeong (Korean), Jackie Lastra (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xiangling.png

Exquisite Delicacy

"My master did a good job teaching me spear fighting, don't you think? If you want, I could teach you too. Although... I'd much rather teach you my cooking, if you're interested! I want my recipes to spread all around Teyvat!"

Rarity: 4★
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Polearm
Constellation: Trulla, the Ladle

A quirky culinary prodigy, head chef and waitress at Wanmin Restaurant, and a trained fighter under the tutelage of the elderly adeptus Madame Ping. When not at work, she can be seen traveling Teyvat with her pet red panda Guoba in search of culinary ideas and to meet fellow chefs.

Xiangling has little trouble cooking her foes alive, both through her Elemental Skill, Guoba Attack, where she summons her pet to breathe fire on them, and her Elemental Burst, Pyronado, where she summons an orbiting spear made of Pyro energy that scorches surrounding foes.^note

Advertised Extra: One could almost consider Xiangling the game's mascot for Liyue; she is the first character from the region the Traveler encounters (assuming one does not ignore her Story Quest) and appears in a large amount of official art. Despite this, outside of a passing mention in her nation's Archon Quest, she makes no appearance in Liyue's proper story whatsoever. It wouldn't be until the "Moonchase Festival" event that she finally got her time in the spotlight, an entire year after the game's release.
The All-Seeing A.I.: Like Fischl's Oz, Guoba can see and shoot Pyro Agents even when they go invisible.
Ambiguously Absent Parent: While her dad Chef Mao is always stationed in Wanmin Restaurant, her mom is never mentioned, nor is her absence acknowledged in-game.
Androcles' Lion: Xiangling befriended a hungry panda(?) by unknowingly feeding it with spicy cornbread. She was asleep at that time and was surprised that the panda ate her extra food and liked it. Ever since then, her new friend, who she named Guoba, has followed her everywhere. Her character story mentions that the panda seems drawn to her cooking. The "Moonchase Festival" reveals that Guoba is the severely depowered form of Marchosius, the God of the Stove.
Animal Motifs: Pandas. She has a red panda buddy, she wears a panda charm on her waist, and her hairstyle even creates the impression of panda ears when you look at her face-to-face.
Anime Chinese Girl: A slightly odd example in that this is a Chinese work, but a whole boatload of the subtropes apply. She is very cute, has obvious Chinese cultural motif, wears a qipao, uses her spear in a form specific to Chinese spear arts, and loves to cook specifically what we would call Chinese food in the real world.
Artificial Stupidity: Guoba will spew fire wherever she places him. While this is fine for combat (he can change his direction towards close enemies, even towards an invisible Fatui Agent), he can easily ruin puzzles by targeting anything in his general area (he cannot change his direction if you happen to put him wrong) and you cannot command him to stop. However, this is mitigated somewhat by the fact that he despawns after six seconds, and the cooldown to deploy him again is only twelve.
Badass Adorable: A short and petite girl with a soft voice and a huge love for cuisine, who also happens to be a capable polearm user and is friends with an ancient god in the form of a fire-breathing red panda.
Beware the Silly Ones: She's a very wacky individual, both when it comes to culinary pursuits and personality, but the fact she has a Pyro Vision means she is more than capable of searing multiple enemies like a stir fry in a pan.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: Xiangling has thick, comma-shaped eyebrows.
Brief Accent Imitation: She tries her best to imitate Zhongli during her voice-over about him, from the baritone to the calm, slow tone.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: When it comes to making dishes, Xiangling is rather... imaginative. Some of her ingredients include slimes and lizards, among other unconventional ones that tend to weird many people out in particular, Chongyun and Keqing being two of the known people, yet this exact unconventionally is what led her to becoming a renowned chef in both Mondstadt and Liyue, alongside obtaining a Pyro Vision because of her persistence and creativity.
"There's no such thing as "normal" ingredients to me! You can turn anything into a delicacy if you cook it in the right way."
Chef of Iron: While all playable characters in the game can both cook and fight, Xiangling is the only one who works as a chef. Her fighting skills also come in handy as she likes scouring various places in the wild in search for exotic ingredients, running across monsters along the way. In addition, her utility passive, Chef de Cuisine, gives her a 12% chance to cook Attack-boosting dishes twice.
Child Prodigy: Even if she is still presumably in her teens, Xiangling is already extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about cooking, and characters compare her skills to that of a veteran.
Cooking Duel: In her Story Quest, she has one with Brook. The Traveler must help her in multiple ways, from bringing her ingredients to cooking the side dishes.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: She loves experimenting with weird ingredients; the twist is that her culinary knowledge and even culinary intuition is so great that she can turn anything into the most delicious dish you have ever tasted. Her specialty, however, involves hot and spicy dishes. Her character story reveals that her love of experimenting began with the monopoly of ingredients' stock by the high-class restaurants in Liyue. Her enormous knowledge about cooking and ingredients is because she has experimented, even if she had to pay for it with bouts of diarrhea and bruised knees, among others.
Cloudcuckoolander: Befitting her status as an unconventional chef, Xiangling is one of the quirkiest individuals in Teyvat you could ever know! Even outside of her...unique ingredient choices, there are moments where she shows a wackier side, one instance involving her "Trulla" Story Chapter. Where she gets a little too eager to use a Cryo Regisvine as an ingredient, only to attack her, all while remarking it as an ingredient "attacking her". Additionally, her over-eagerness is noted as a point of caution by Xingqiu, citing that the more excited she is after gathering ingredients, the more dangerous it is to approach. Her eccentric demeanor has gotten so out of hand that Yaoyao had to step in, and, if it didn't work, bring in Madame Ping one time to keep her on check.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Her first constellation upgrade, Crispy Outside, Tender Inside, allows Guoba's fiery breath to impose a six-second-long 15% Pyro Resistance penalty on enemies struck.
A Day in the Limelight: Xiangling is the central character of the "Moonchase Festival" event, which deals with her entering a cooking competition and seeking out ideas for her entries.
Determinator: She refused to stop experimenting with unusual ingredients, no matter how many times she got food poisoning or injured while hunting for ingredients. Her sheer determination impressed the gods so much they granted her a Vision simply for refusing to give up.
Does Not Like Spam: Zig-zagged.
- Xiangling is one of the few characters to not have a disliked dish, according to voice-overs. As she puts it...
  (About Least Favorite Food) "I'll eat absolutely anything! There are no bad ingredients, only bad cooking!"
- However, the Spices From The West events show that she isn't a fan of Cold Cut Platter.
Domestic Appliance Disaster: According to her backstory, Xiangling destroys a lot of pots and pans by burning, cracking, or even exploding them due to her unconventional methods for creating new dishes.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of her name (香菱, pinyin "Xiānglíng") are read as "Shanrin" (via transliteration; katakana シャンリン) in Japanese and "Hyangreung" (hangul 향릉) in Korean.
Edible Theme Naming: Her name roughly translates to "fragrant-smelling water caltrop", an annual aquatic plant cultivated in China for its edible seeds, befitting a culinary prodigy like Xiangling.
Elemental Personalities: A passionate, quirky young chef, and quite fittingly wields a Pyro Vision.
Establishing Character Moment: Xiangling first appears on her World Quest, where she tries to hunt down boars, drooling as she sees three of them nearby. The questline itself mentions that she is a Chef of Iron who is very knowledgeable about food.
Extreme Omnivore: As a quirky chef, this shouldn't be surprising at all.
- Her Character Story and voice lines show that she will try to cook anything she thinks would taste good, from slimes, crystalflies, hilichurl clubs, and even the dragon from Mondstadt. She will also try to taste test every kind of food or ingredient she can get her hands on. This gives both Yaoyao and Madame Ping the shivers, being up to them to talk some sense into Xiangling.
  (About Favorite Food) "My favorite thing to eat is... whatever exotic ingredient I haven't tried yet! No, I'm not dodging the question, that's my honest answer!"
- One of her voice lines when being attacked is 'Help, my dinner is attacking me', which she will say in combat with any enemy, including humanoid enemies and automatons. This has resulted in memes about her being a cannibal.
- Everyone in Liyue and neighboring Mondstadt has heard of Xiangling and her culinary prowess. It has gotten to the point that when she arrives in Springvale, the head of the village hunters begs her to use local meat in her restaurant to promote it. This can also occasionally give other chefs a chip on their shoulder with her, as happens in her first Story Quest.
- The gods even favor her, who saw her cooking and her determination to create dishes out of every possible edible ingredient and gave her a Vision for it.
Family Business: Her father, Chef Mao, runs the Wanmin Restaurant, and he expects her to take over someday.
Fire-Breathing Diner: Her favorite dishes to cook include those who are hot and spicy, while her Skill has Guoba munch on a hot pepper to breathe fire.
Fire-Breathing Weapon: Xiangling's Skill has her send Guoba to attack surrounding enemies by munching on a hot pepper and breathing fire on them four times. Her first-ascension passive, Crossfire, increases the range of his fiery breath by 20%.
Foil: To Diona. Both are known for putting extremely...questionable ingredients into their concoctions, but somehow making them incredible. But while Xiangling loves when this happens to her food and has a passion for doing so, Diona absolutely hates when this happens to her because she's trying to derail an industry.
Friendly Rivalry: She and Brook, Springvale's resident chef, develop a professional admiration for each other.
- Also with Smiley Yanxiao of Wangshu Inn. Guoba even starts cheering for him when he freezes up during the Masterful Chefs competition.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Xiangling claims she can't hunt to save her life, and thus has to rely on the Traveler to get her fresh meat. In gameplay, she can, like everyone else, run up to a boar and smack it until it dies for meat.
Genki Girl: She's enthusiastic about cooking and searching new ingredients. In her side quest, the Traveler can barely keep up with her as she runs around the wild looking for special ingredients.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Wears a red panda doll on her belt.
God Was My Co-Pilot: The "Moonchase Festival" event reveals that Guoba is the degraded form of Marchosius, God of the Stove and formerly of the Soil.
If Only You Knew: Xiangling is aware of the rumors surrounding Ningguang, and advises the Traveler in her voice-over for the former to keep a low profile. Ningguang, however, is aware of Xiangling's skepticism towards her, and says in her voice-over for the young chef that she has invested her Mora before to finance Wanmin Restaurant.
Lighter and Softer: Compared to most of the characters, who have tragic backstories, extreme insecurities, and/or important duties that may come with excessive pressure, Xiangling leads a pretty peaceful life. Her Story Quest is just a simple gathering of ingredients for a cook-off with a friendly rival, which players could consider a breather compared to those of other characters. Even considering how she regularly interacts with Rex Lapis and keeps Marchosius/Guoba as a companion, she is completely oblivious to this, so it doesn't affect her life as much. Her silly personality and hilarious culinary antics also help.
Kleptomaniac Hero: She gets her ingredients and tools from the wild. Her third Character Story mentions how she stole hilichurl clubs and harvested flora from Dihua Marsh. This is also clearer in her Story Quest, wherein the Traveler helps her grab specific ingredients that both come across in the open world.
Like Father, Like Son: Her father is Chef Mao, owner, and earlier head chef of the Wanmin Restaurant. And just like her dad, Xiangling is massively into cooking.
Loot-Making Attack: Her fourth-ascension passive, Beware, It's Super Hot!, allows Guoba to leave a chili pepper on the ground once he leaves, which boosts the Attack stat of anyone who picks it up for ten seconds. Her sixth Constellation upgrade, Condensed Pyronado, adds a 15% boost to the party's Pyro Damage Bonus.
Magikarp Power: While Xiangling's kit already allows for easy Pyro application, Ascensions and Constellations skyrocket its utility—Guoba's fire breath is larger, enemies hit by his flames lose resistance to Pyro, and he leaves a chili that boosts the current character's Attack, while her Burst lasts longer and grants a Pyro Damage boost to the party for its duration. This turns her from a decent support unit into one of the game's most versatile supports.
Mirror Character: Like her friend Hu Tao, Xiangling is a Pyro vision holder trained in polearm combat who has one of Liyue's gods helping out with her Family Business.
Nice Girl: Xiangling is a sweet, friendly girl who in spite of her wackier qualities, makes friends with even her culinary rivals, and prioritizes the happiness of her customers.
Odd Friendship: With Beidou, who brings her exotic fish to cook, while she in turn taught Beidou her specialty dish. What makes their friendship truly odd is that Beidou once kidnapped Xiangling, looking for cheap eats after a long voyage, but eventually released her after being impressed with her cooking skills, going as far as to voluntarily help her obtain exotic ingredients ever since.
Orbiting Particle Shield: Her Burst summons a spinning spear made of Pyro energy that orbits the active character for ten seconds and burns surrounding enemies. Her fourth Constellation upgrade, Slowbake, extends its duration by 40% (i.e., fourteen seconds).
Pals with Jesus: Xiangling is the student of the elderly adeptus Madame Ping, and they remain close in the present, to say nothing about Guoba being the severely depowered form of Marchosius, the former God of the Stove, or Morax himself, as Zhongli, being one of her patrons.
Pointless Bandaid: She has a small X-shaped bandage on her knee.
Red Baron: After enjoying Xiangling's cooking for the first time, Beidou insists that her crew refer to Xiangling as Madame Xiangling.
Secret Ingredient: According to a Character Story, when Xiangling decided to become a chef, her father handed his cooking journal, which has this quote...
"There are many secrets to cooking; the most important of which is passion."
Simple, yet Awesome: Both of Xiangling's Elemental Talents allow for very easy Pyro application and damage, and her subsequent upgrades improve the party's damage-dealing potential. Adding in the Pyro Resonance that boosts the party's Attack by 15%, this makes Xiangling a consistently great Pyro support unit, able to fit on most kinds of teams that require reliable Pyro application for reactions.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Xiangling would love to integrate Jueyun Chilis and Slime Condensates on her dishes. Fittingly, both are used as Ascension Materials for her.
- Xiangling's specialty dishes are hot and spicy. Thus it would make sense that, despite claiming she doesn't dislike any specific food, her least favorite dish in Spices From The West is Cold Cut Platter.
Support Party Member: While more than capable of holding her own in a fight, Xiangling really shines as a support as both her Elemental Talents linger for a few seconds afterwards, with both her ascension passives and Constellation upgrades enhancing them further to provide various Status Buffs to her allies.
Supreme Chef: She really is an incredible chef (although non-Liyuans may find her dishes both a little spicy and a little... odd, at first, with official promotional pieces suggesting that even her compatriots occasionally find it "questionable"). This even reflects mechanically; in that she gets a broad bonus to any kind of cooking in addition to being able to produce unique variant dishes.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: A variant—her Burst is a spinning spear that's on fire.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Deepfry and Guoba Mad, add three levels to, respectively, her Burst and Skill.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Hu Tao. Xiangling seems to get annoyed at Hu Tao easily due to her constantly pulling pranks on her (one "Boo!" is all it takes to jumpscare Xiangling), but she appreciates Hu Tao's help as she often brings Xiangling ingredients to cook with.
Weapon Specialization: Xiangling's Card Art shows her wielding an ascended Iron Point (2★), while her Wish art depicts her with a White Tassel (3★). The latter specially offers some benefits for her, with its Ascension substat of Critical Rate (5.1–23.4%) and its "Sharp" passive that increases the damage potency of its wielder's Normal Attacks by 24–48%; in conjunction with her second Constellation upgrade, Oil Meets Fire, that inflicts a combo effect that deals high damage afterwards, she is able to quickly whittle down an enemy's HP before letting out her Elemental Talents, then switching out to a partner to finish the job.
Wingding Eyes: When first meeting her in her questline, Xiangling has stars in her eyes (and drools a bit) at sighting the plump piggies she is after (and which you nearly scared off).
You Are Already Dead: Her second Constellation upgrade, Oil Meets Fire, inflicts a stack of Implode to a target after a normal attack combo, which will explode after two seconds, dealing wide-ranging Pyro damage equivalent to 75% of her Attack stat. If enemies happen to be at low enough health, you can just stop attacking and watch them suddenly explode and die.

Chef Mao

Xiangling's father and proprietor and head chef of Wanmin Restaurant.

Good Parents: Chef Mao is nothing but supportive of Xiangling and she means nothing but the world to him at the same time.
Hands-Off Parenting: Allows his daughter, Xiangling to explore Teyvat to expand her cooking knowledge since he believes that her massive culinary talent will only be restricted if she stays in Liyue.
Supreme Chef: As expected for being Wanmin's head chef only surpassed by his daughter Xiangling.
The Rival: Is revealed to be this towards Xudong.

Yanshang Teahouse

A luxurious teahouse in the Chihu Rock district of Liyue Harbor, currently owned by Yelan, an enigmatic self-proclaimed spy for the Qixing.

Chuyi

Voiced by: Honoka Kosaka (Japanese), Kang Si-hyeon (Korean)

A hostess for the Yanshang Teahouse.

Jerkass: Initially, she is well known for being particularly rude and unpleasant, insulting the Traveler for asking a simple question and her "nicest" response to them, if they simply leave, is that she will praise their manners and not call the security on them. Her idle quotes even exemplifies this, simply saying a rather menacing "what are you staring at" for strolling.... until Yelan becomes the teahouse's new owner that is.
Took a Level in Kindness: Her personality goes a complete 180° once Yelan becomes the new owner (set after "Farewell, Archaic Lord" where Childe took down the teahouse's previous owner and is arrested by the Millelith). She is much more friendly and welcoming towards the Traveler, and her idle line changes to that of a far happier "Come one, come all".

Operative Trio

Shanghua, Wenyuan, and Wupei

Shanghua Voiced By: Gianni Matragrano (English)

Wenyuan Voiced By: Daniel J. Edwards (English)

A trio of operatives under Yelan's command.

The Cameo: Wenyuan Appears during the cutscene of "The Exquisite Night Chimes / 2023 Lantern Rite" Event albeit in a non-speaking role.
Ninja: They are essentially the Liyue counterpart to the Shuumatsuban of Inazuma, and like them, are tasked with gathering intel.
State Sec: Rare benevolent example. As noted above, they specialize in gathering intel, how they do so depends on each individual: Wenyuan relies on word of mouth from others, Shanghua is a business expert who gets info through trade, and Wupei is in charge of sea surveillance (who is ironically poorly suited for the operation due to him being a bad swimmer).
Uniformity Exception: The uniforms they wear is styled similarly to the Treasure Hoarder Potioneer's uniforms, but is given a Liyuan flavor.

Bubu Pharmacy

A famous pharmacy in the Yujing Terrace district of Liyue Harbor, whose medicines are sought near and far.

Baizhu

Baizhu (and Changsheng)

Introduced: May 2, 2023 (v3.6 "A Parade of Providence" [second half])
Voiced by: Qin Qiege (Chinese), Koji Yusa (Japanese), Lee Ho-san (Korean), Sean Durrie (English)
Changsheng voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Yui Shouji (Japanese), Jang Mi (Korean), Xanthe Huynh (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/baizhu.png

Beyond Mortality

"I tend to anyone who comes to Bubu Pharmacy seeking medical attention, regardless of their wealth or status. I treat everyone fairly, and I do my best to heal them. You are no exception, either."

Rarity: 5★
Element: Dendro
Weapon: Catalyst
Constellation: Lagenaria, the Calabash

Proprietor of Bubu Pharmacy, who is accompanied by a white snake named Changsheng resting on his shoulders. Despite his sometimes shady reputation for overcharging his patients, he is famed not only for his work ethic and the efficacy of his medical arts, even as he seems to keep many secrets behind his discipline. He briefly appears during the Archon Quest to supply the Traveler, Zhongli and Childe with a jar of incense at the request of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's consultant.

Baizhu applies his medical expertise through striking at his enemies' sensitive points and providing defense and healing in equal measure. His Elemental Skill, Universal Diagnosis, summons a Gossamer Sprite that weaves across and hits his enemies before returning, either after it struck thrice or if there are none, to heal the party, while his Elemental Burst, Holistic Revivification, bestows upon the active character the "Pulsing Clarity" state, which continually generates Seamless Shields that simultaneously heal the active character and fire Spiritveins on a foe whenever their duration expires or they are shattered.^note

Affectionate Nickname: Qiqi's nickname of "Dr. Bai" has caused other Liyuans to call him such as well.
Animal Eyes: His eyes have golden irises with thin, reptilian pupils reminiscent of a snake. Those were indeed Changseng's eyes before they exchanged their pupils with each other as proof of their contract. Before making it, Baizhu's eyes were magenta with round irises just like what Changsheng has now.
Animal Motif: Snakes. He carries a talking snake around on his shoulders, has snake-like eyes, and is a doctor who heals his patients using his own life force. He is also initially presented as an untrustworthy individual, despite being the contrary.
Barrier Warrior: His Burst bestows the Pulsing Clarity state on the active character, which continually generates a Seamless Shield, a Dendro-elemental shield which automatically heals the character and sends Spiritveins that damage an enemy whenever its time expires or it is broken (facilitated by its low duration and damage absorption). Baizhu's fourth Constellation upgrade, Ancient Art of Perception, allows the Burst to endow an 80-point Elemental Mastery boost to the party for fifteen seconds, while his sixth, Elimination of Malicious Qi, increases the damage potency of Spiritveins by 8% of his Max HP, as well as allow the "normal" and "splice" forms of Spirit Gossamers to generate a Seamless Shield.
Berserk Button: In his Character Demo, he loses his smile and seems to be genuinely angered when the Treasure Hoarder threatens him with death, stating that his mortality is him to decide as the previously serene music begins to also switch up. He then proceeds to take them out effortlessly by himself.
Blood from the Mouth: In his fifth Character Story, he vomits blood when his symptoms flare up, showing that he is much more ill than what he’s willing to tell others.
Cast from Lifespan: Baizhu's healing abilities and poor health have the same origin, as he uses an ancient art that burns through the user's lifespan to heal others. He theorizes that immortality may be the solution to this problem, as an infinite supply cannot be exhausted.
Claimed by the Supernatural: Baizhu has golden, serpentine eyes while Changsheng has wine-colored eyes with strangely human pupils. This is a sign of their contract, marking Baizhu as the latest host while Changsheng took on his original eye color.
Close-Range Combatant: Zigzagged; Baizhu is the second Catalyst wielder (after Heizou) whose normal attacks are locked at melee range. However, both his Elemental Talents can launch Dendro projectiles at faraway foes.
The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: He's a renowned pharmacist, but according to Herbalist Gui, Baizhu is suffering from an illness that his medicines are implied to be ineffective on. Qiqi even notes that she's in better physical condition than Baizhu despite being a corpse. That is because he is giving his own life force to his patients, as well as absorbing their infirmities.
Combat Medic: Taken to its Logical Extreme. Baizhu may be a frail doctor, but he is still capable of defending himself physically with his acupressure and Dendro vision. His playstyle reflects this, with his Skill sending snake-like spirits that strike at his enemies before healing him afterwards, and his Burst constantly erecting shields that simultaneously heal the active character and damage an opponent whenever their time expires or they are shattered.
Delicate and Sickly: Despite being a doctor, Baizhu suffers from an unknown ailment that makes him rather frail, and he often has to go back to his residence to rest after seeing patients. There are days his condition gets so bad that he can only stay bedridden as he’s tormented by the chills and following hot flashes, occasional breathing problems, intermittent yet intense full-body pains, and Blood from the Mouth. It's because he uses his contract with Changsheng to not only transfer a fraction of his life force onto his patients, but also absorb toxins and diseases from them to place some of the burden they should be suffering upon himself.
Dressed to Heal: His pale-colored cape has sleeves, reminiscent of a lab coat. And of course, Baizhu is a doctor.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of his name (simplified 白术, traditional 白朮, pinyin "Báizhú") are read as "Byakujutsu" (via go-on, or Wu Chinese-derived, reading; hiragana びゃくじゅつ) in Japanese and "Baekchul" (hangul 백출) in Korean.
Early-Bird Cameo: Baizhu has appeared in the story since the game's launch, but due to lack of implementation of Dendro at the time he only became playable in 3.6, two-and-a-half years later.
Elemental Hair Colors: His hair is as green as his Dendro Vision.
Elemental Personalities: Baizhu wields a Dendro Vision, and despite his suspicious side, he is a calm, serene doctor whose smile rarely falters and he genuinely cares about the people he treats.
Fairytale Motifs: Baizhu and Changsheng are loosely based on the main couple in the Chinese folk tale "Legend of the White Snake," with both sets of characters being a mortal herbalist who saved the life of a female snake immortal who can take human form, and end up living and operating a medicine shop together.
Feather Boa Constrictor: Baizhu routinely carries Changsheng around his neck.
Fighting Spirit: His Skill releases a Gossamer Sprite, a serpent-like being made of Dendro energy that weaves around enemies and damages them before returning to heal the active character after either enemies have been struck thrice or there are none nearby. Baizhu's first Constellation upgrade, Attentive Observation, adds a second charge to the Skill, while his second, Incisive Discernment, sics a "spliced" variant whenever the active character hits enemies, triggered at least every five seconds and whose damage and healing potencies are equivalent to, respectively, 250% of Baizhu's Attack stat and 20% of that of the "normal" variant.
Foil: To Hu Tao, a fellow entrepreneur named after an edible plant who inherited a business concerned with life and death and has a retired god among their staff, with whom he has ideology clashes with. In appearance, there is a Red/Green Contrast with their hair and Vision colors, as well as contrasting whitish and black clothing. Baizhu is also a grown man with snake eyes while Hu Tao resembles and acts like a teenaged girl with flower-shaped pupils.
Foul Medicine: There are numerous characters that mention his bitter-tasting medicine in their voice line about him. It should be noted that these numerous characters include Baizhu himself, as he also consumes this kind of medicine due to his condition and all he can really do is eat some candied fruit afterward to get rid of the bitter aftertaste.
Guile Hero: Though a genuinely kind and selfless doctor, Baizhu is quite cunning and resourceful. With his considerable business acumen, he has earned both wealth and information, along with the chance to research the secret arts of the adepti and strange diseases, through the way he manages Bubu Pharmacy. When he learned that the Ministry of Civil Affairs has taken an interest in him, he saw through their methods and used rumors to spread word that his quest was benign, allowing him to avoid further scrutiny.
Guyliner: Wears red eyeliner at the corners of his eyes.
Healing Serpent: Though Baizhu is human, he has a prominent snake motif and is a respected doctor. Gameplay-wise he is also able to heal the player's party members during combat.
Immortality Seeker: According to Hu Tao's story, Baizhu is seeking eternal life. His Character Stories confirm that he is, for the purpose of being Changsheng's final host to prevent her from dying, while also ensuring that no one else would share the fate of her previous hosts. In Dainsleif's words, Baizhu "yearns for eternal life as a means to endure limitless suffering". His declaration of intent to be the last person contracted with Changsheng is what got him his Vision.
Incurable Cough of Death: His sprinting voice line is just him coughing, and in his Story Quest he also coughs whenever his ill condition surfaces.
In-Series Nickname: Qiqi's poor memory resulted in her shortening his name to "Mr. Bai" during her attempts to remember it, and since she regularly called him so around other people, the nickname spread and stuck.
Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Downplayed. His cape has sleeves and is whitish in color, so while not a real lab coat, it is still reminiscent of one and serves as a sign of his profession.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: His hair is tied up in a bun and a half-braid, but still reaches past his hips.
Meaningful Name: He's named after a type of root used in Chinese herbal medicine.
- He also named his pharmacy Bubu (spelt as 不卜 in Chinese, literally translated as "no divination") to convey his desire for humans to be self-reliant and not need to rely on fickle divinations and favours from gods for survival.
Excerpt from Baizhu's "Bubu" character story: "A name and a message... Then let us send the message that no matter the fortunes of this shop, or the diseases afflicting our patients..." Baizhu picked up the prescription note and faced the rising sun framed through the door. "...Or our fates, we don't need to ask the gods or use divination any longer."
The Medic: Every Liyuan knows who to go to when they're feeling unwell. As of writing, Baizhu is also the only playable character to have a profession as a doctor^note.
Mirror Character: To Kaveh, who he debuted in the same banner as. Both are handsome Dendro Vision holders who are prone to self-sacrificing for the sake of others, much to their detriment. With Kaveh, it’s due to his Guilt Complex prompting him to try to help and uplift others at his own expense, which has left him in debt after his kindness was taken advantage of. With Baizhu, it's due to to his contract with Changseng giving him powerful Healing Hands that's comes from absorbing illnesses into himself.
Nice Guy: Even with his suspicious side, Baizhu is a genuinely kind person. His affability and politeness are sincere, his quest for immortality carries pure-hearted undertones, and true to a doctor, he ultimately cares for the people he treats to the point he shares his lifespan with them by absorbing their ailments.
Only the Pure of Heart: Changsheng notes that all of her previous hosts have been quite pure of heart, to their own detriment. Baizhu, despite his guile and desire to live, is no different.
Parental Abandonment: He lost his parents to a plague when he was a child.
Parental Substitute: He's the closest thing Qiqi has to a caretaker, with him posting notices asking people to watch out for her.
Perpetual Smiler: His gentle smile rarely falters. However, he has his personal reasons to keep it up...
Pet the Dog: While he took in Qiqi for his own gain, he is still quite kind to her, making sure she acquires anything she needs and ensuring she always has a pen and notebook to write things in. In the Archon Quest, he accepts Childe's negotiations for a deal that would provide Qiqi with a constant supply of coconut milk. During the 2.4 Lantern Rite event, when the two were picking herbs together, Baizhu also promises they will do what Qiqi wants after they're done, and the pair watch the firework shows together.
Post-Treatment Lollipop: A unique example. Baizhu says in his playable voice-overs he sometimes treats himself with candied fruit to subdue the bitter aftertaste of the medicine he takes.
Power at a Price: Baizhu is the latest in a long line of healers contracted to Changsheng, granted access to a mystical art at the cost of shortening their own lives. His extraordinary healing abilities come through both giving his patients a portion of his life force and also taking toxins and diseases in their bodies into his own, both of which weaken him in the process. His predecessors all died early after burning through their own lifespans.
Pressure Point: His normal attack pattern is reminiscent of acupuncture, and in his Character Demo he took down the Treasure Hoarders by using acupressure to render them unconscious.
Promoted to Playable: He was first introduced during Liyue Archon Quests in Chapter I. He wouldn't become playable until well after the release of Chapter III, specifically in version 3.6, about two years after his first non-playable appearance.
Rule of Symbolism: Baizhu's Constellation is named after and portrays a calabash gourd, an ancient symbol of health in Chinese culture, commonly used as a vessel for medicine and believed to absorb negative qi, just like how Baizhu absorbs his patients' infirmities onto himself.
The Scrooge: Played for Laughs during the Archon Quest, when after Tartaglia negotiates with Baizhu in the Traveler's and Zhongli's stead, Baizhu agrees to make a discount on the Everlasting Incense they needed... from three million Mora to "only" 2,990,000 Mora—a measly 0.3% discount.
Shared Life Energy: One of the secret arts he uses in his medical practice is transferring his life force to his patients.
Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Rumors are that Baizhu is insincere and overcharges his patients, and Qiqi's Character Stories claim that he took her in for his own personal gain. However, his own Character Stories sheds light on his business practices—the prices at Bubu Pharmacy are generally fair, with only some merchandises like Everlasting Incense being at a premium because Baizhu knows those who seek such products would be more concerned about the quality than the price, which he can assure with his reputation. He also doesn't always charge for his consultations and offers steep discounts upon already reduced prices to the people. As for Qiqi, while he does use her to study about Adepti arts and immortality, there isn't any sign that he mistreats her and he's in fact quite kind towards her.
Situational Sword: Baizhu's first-ascension passive, Five Fortunes Forever, confers upon him a bonus depending on the health of the active character—either 20% to his Healing Bonus if their HP is less than half, or 25% to his Dendro Damage Bonus otherwise. This helps boost both Gossamer Sprites and Seamless Shields, which linger on even after Baizhu has been switched out.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- A doctor's job is to help cure patients and keep them healthy by getting rid of what makes them unwell. As a playable character, part of Baizhu's playstyle is to heal the party, keeping them safe with shields (however frail they are), and helping get rid of enemies by setting up Elemental reactions.
- Bubu Pharmacy typically sells herbal medicine to patients; fittingly, Baizhu's utility passive, Herbal Nourishment, heals the active character whenever they pick up certain harvestable ingredients, equivalent to 2.5% of his Max HP.
- Despite being a doctor, Baizhu's condition is pretty frail, needing to consume medicine to alleviate his symptoms. His stats reflect such, with high HP but incredibly low Defense.
- Baizhu and Hu Tao have different beliefs when it comes to life and death, with the latter disliking the former's pursuit of immortality. The two also don't synergize with each other well in a team, as while on paper Baizhu could help Hu Tao trigger Burn reactions more easily, both of his Elemental Talents heal the party and keep them alive, which would contrast with Hu Tao's style incentiving players to keep her HP as dangerously low as possible in exchange for heightened damage-dealing.
- On the flip side, despite Baizhu's healing apparently coming at a cost to his own lifespan, in gameplay his abilities cause no harm to himself, unlike characters like Kuki Shinobu (who must pay a percentage of her HP to summon her healing grass ring) and Dehya (who takes on a percentage of damage taken to her allies).
Smart People Wear Glasses: He's famed across Liyue for his medical skills and also the first playable male character with glasses.
Snakes Are Sinister: Subverted. He has a snake motif and is initially rumored to be an insincere individual who overcharges his patients, but his Character Stories prove that, while cunning, he's as benevolent as he appears to be.
Squishy Wizard: Played with. While Baizhu has one of the largest Max HP pools in the game, he also has the lowest Defense as of this writing, making him unable to take hits well. His Attack is also fairly low. This encourages players to quickly switch in to apply Dendro, heal the party through his Talents, then switch out immediately.
Sssssnake Talk: Changsheng naturally does this with his "s" sounds.
Status Buff: His fourth-ascension passive, All Things Are of the Earth, adds the Year of Verdant Favor effect to the Seamless Shield, which provides a six-second long boost to Dendro-related reactions that scales for every 1,000 points of Max HP he has up to 50,000 (respectively, 2% for Burning, Bloom, Hyperbloom, and Burgeon, and 0.8% for Aggravate and Spread, with a maximum of 100% and 40%).
Stepford Smiler: His official introduction mentions that even though he suffers greatly from his poor health, his smile never falters while in front of people. When asked by Gui, Baizhu cites that it is to allow his patients to face their illnesses with confidence, as they won’t be troubled by their doctor’s own sickly appearance.
Official Introduction: Day after day, Baizhu heals his patients. His ever-present smile hides the numerous bitter medicines he takes and the pain he suffers alone.
Support Party Member: As a Combat Medic, this is a given. He can provide the party with both Dendro application for reactions, healing through both of his Talents, and shields that renew themselves during his Elemental Burst (though those are quite frail and thus it's not encouraged to rely on them).
Take a Third Option: His attempt at gaining immortality is to essentially Loophole Abuse Changsheng's contract by allowing her to remain contracted to him forever, so that both no one else will have to take on her contract and she will not have to die.
Touched by Vorlons: Baizhu's ability to manipulate Life Energy comes not from his Dendro Vision, but from his contract with Changsheng.
Turn the Other Cheek: Downplayed. Despite Hu Tao making no secret of how she despises his quest for immortality, he holds no ill will towards her. However, he does wish she would be more sensible with her business practices and is tired of having to head to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to do something about Hu Tao burying Qiqi.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—his third and fifth Constellation upgrades, All Aspects Stabilized' and The Hidden Ebb and Flow'', add three levels to, respectively, his Burst and Skill.
Weapon Specialization: Baizhu's introductory Wish banner ran concurrent with that for Jadefall's Splendor (5★), whose Ascension subtat is Max HP (10.8–49.6%), and whose "Primordial Jade Regalia" passive bestows the eponymous effect onto its wielder for three seconds, which can be activated even if the wielder is off-field, either after an Elemental Burst has been unleashed or a shield has been created (though not necessarily by the wielder), which restores 4.5–6.5 Energy after 2.5 seconds, as well as gain a 0.3–1.1% boost to their Elemental Damage Bonus for every 1,000 points of Max HP they have (to a maximum of 12–44%, meaning it will max out if its wielder has at least 40,000 Max HP). Apart from further enhancing Baizhu's healing potencies, which scale off of his Max HP, the Pulsating Clarity state's ability to continually replenish Seamless Shields allows him to charge up Burst faster, as well as gives him some offensive edge.

Tropes related to Changsheng

Bargain with Heaven: The deal she makes with her contractors zig-zags this trope. In accordance with this trope, Changsheng's intentions are fully benevolent, she only contracts with those she deems pure of heart, and is entirely honest and forthright with the price and outcomes of the deal. But it starts to veer into a Deal with the Devil in terms of the price paid, as the contractor must sacrifice their life force to heal others. Furthermore, it's an open question whether the results are worth the cost, as if they reduce the suffering of others only to increase their own suffering and those of their loved ones, did they really make a difference?
Bond Creatures: She formed contracts with human doctors in order to sustain her life in exchange for supernatural powers of healing. Baizhu is her latest one.
Can't Live Without You: A one-sided one. Changsheng has been surviving by sharing her life with her contractors and if left without a host, she will die.
Deal with the Devil: Although Changsheng's intentions are wholly benevolent, the contracts she makes veer into this territory. She gives her contractors the ability to sacrifice their own health and life force to heal others... but her contractors are always pure and self-sacrificing people who would frequently use such an ability even to their detriment, inevitably leading them to early deaths despite her best efforts to keep their qi balanced.
Defector from Decadence:During the Archon Wars, when the original god of Chenyu Vale went mad and attempted to flood the valley in an attempt to destroy Morax, the Herblord and Fujin turned on her in order to save the people. The Herblord fought the god to buy time for the Suanni Lingyuan to chase Chengyu Vale's people to safety and for Fujin to make the river impossible to flood. That terrible battle is responsible for Changsheng's weak condition in the present.
Dub Pronunciation Change: Her name is Chousei in Japanese and Jangsaeng in Korean.
Early-Bird Cameo: She is the Herblord mentioned in the Flavour Text of the Echoes of an Offering artifact set which was released in version 2.6, more than a year before the release of Baizhu's story quest in version 3.6 revealed this information.
Equivalent Exchange: The healing ability she confers upon her contractors works along this principle, as it allows them to sacrifice their own life force to heal others. Then it's deconstructed when Baizhu's master realizes that by sacrificing his own life force to reduce the suffering of others, he was also increasing his own suffering (and by extension, that of his loved ones watching him suffer and die), making him realize that he might not have made a real difference.
Familiar: Baizhu's healing expertise can be partially attributed to Changsheng enabling him to transfer his life force to his patients, as well as taken in toxins from their bodies to study and come up with antidotes for their ailments.
The Fog of Ages: Though Changsheng remembers her more divine origins, Baizhu's Character Story 5 states that her memory of her past as the Herblord is more spotty, and she cannot remember the details of the contract she made with Baizhu and his predecessors other than its name and that she learnt it long ago.
Healer God: As the Herblord, she was said to have the ability to "cure any illness known to mankind."
Healing Serpent: Changseng is a literal one as a supernatural being in the form of a white snake who had the means to cure most kinds of illnesses.
Heroic Sacrifice The reason she is barely clinging to life in the present is because she fought the previous god of Chengyu Vale while Fujin and Lingyuan saved the people from her god's mad plan to attack Morax. Her god tore the Herblord to pieces, but her sacrifice bought time for her friends to protect Chengyu Vale.
Intellectual Animal: Changsheng's intelligence is indistinguishable from any human.
Olympus Mons: Changsheng is an ancient, supernatural being that was widely known as a master of the healing arts. While she denies being an Adeptus, she was once comparable to them prior to expending much of her power. She lives on through a series of contracts, passed from one mortal doctor to another, with Baizhu serving as her current vessel.
Mirror Character: She and Oz are companions to Fischl and Baizhu respectively, but unlike Oz's educated speech, and his supportive responses to Fischl's theatrics, Changsheng is more sarcastic and direct but still cares about Baizhu's wellbeing despite all her nagging.
Meaningful Name: Changsheng means "longevity" in Chinese. Not only does it fit her long lifespan, but also fits how she enables others to live longer through her hosts.
Parasitic Immortality: She's lived as long as she has by parasitically living off of doctors who've made contracts with her. Every doctor she has contracted with has done so voluntarily to preserve Changsheng's life, seeing her life as the same as any other life they save through their work.
Pet the Dog: Changsheng is rude and snarky to those around her, but she does warn the Traveler and Paimon not to trust Childe. She also seems to genuinely care for Baizhu as well as her previous contractors, if the way she solemnly lamented their fate is any indication.
Really 700 Years Old: She has outlived all of Baizhu's predecessors, and before she was reduced to her current snake form during the Archon Wars, was the Herblord for an unspecified amount of time.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. Changsheng's eyes are magenta with red irises, but she is far from dangerous.
Shared Life Energy: Changsheng relies on her host's life energy in order to survive.
Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Changsheng can be quite snarky to those around her, including to Baizhu himself, despite being in his care.
Baizhu: *(huffing)* When on the road, one should take ample time to pause and appreciate the wondrous scenery along the way.
Changsheng: You're about to collapse, aren't you?
Sssssnake Talk: Changsheng talks in this manner in the English dub.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Her natural eyes (which Baizhu presently has as a result of their contract) are gold.
Talking Animal: Changsheng can talk and can be quite chatty.

Qiqi

Qiqi / Fortune Preserver

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Yanning (Chinese), Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Lee Seul (Korean), Christie Cate (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/qiqi.png

Icy Resurrection

"Hey, do you know what? Uh... neither do I. I... already forgot."

Rarity: 5★
Element: Cryo
Weapon: Sword
Constellation: Pristina Nola, the Ancient Bell

A little girl who died in an accident but was subsequently revived by the adepti with an immortal body. Spending years suspended in amber, she was unearthed, woken up, and taken to Bubu Pharmacy, where she now works as an apprentice who gathers herbs. However, her zombification is flawed, leaving Qiqi with a tendency to rely on someone's orders. Worse still, she has lost most of her capacity to retain memories, making her rely on a notebook to remember things. She receives the Traveler and Zhongli in Bubu Pharmacy during the Archon Quest, helping them in exchange for finding the Guizhong Ballista and a creature seemingly fabled for their milk.

Qiqi can easily go into the thick of battle with her high durability and a fighting style which seamlessly integrates offense and healing. Her Elemental Skill, Adeptus Art: Herald of Frost, sics the same-named ice spirit on surrounding enemies, after which it will orbit the active character to periodically heal them and damage surrounding foes, in addition to allowing Qiqi to heal the party whenever she attacks. Her Elemental Burst, Adeptus Art: Preserver of Fortune, summons a blizzard around her, marking surrounding enemies with Fortune-Preserving Talismans that allow the party to heal themselves whenever they attack marked enemies.^note

Ascended Meme: The memes of Qiqi's "Cocogoat" being Ganyu were not lost on miHoYo, given Qiqi's appearance in Ganyu's character demo despite no in-game sign of the two having a connection (apart from both being Cryo Vision holders).
Attractive Zombie: If it wasn't for the paper talismans on her body, she'd pass for a normal human girl .
Back from the Dead: Her sixth Constellation upgrade, Rite of Resurrection, allows her Burst to revive all fallen allies up to half of their HP (within at least fifteen-minute intervals).
Badass Adorable: Qiqi is a small, adorable zombie girl whose monotone, speech patterns and forgetfulness only add to her adorableness. She's also a sword-wielding Combat Medic (for bonus points, her healing scales off her Attack stat, encouraging players to build her to hit harder) who has adeptus powers sealed within her (which she lets out during her Elemental Burst) and is strong enough to carry Xiao on her back and then walk a considerable distance back to Bubu Pharmacy. With the right build, Qiqi can be one of the most dependable fighters in the game.
Beware the Silly Ones: She's an adorably scatterbrained zombie, but her name card shows she reserves a special kind of hatred towards Hu Tao.
(Namecard: Cold Storage) "What should be kept in the fridge? Dr. Baizhu's herbs, coconut milk... and Hu Tao."
Blessed with Suck: Her immortality is a blessing given by the adepti, but Qiqi cannot age past her childlike appearance, and it is very difficult for her to make new memories, causing her to forget everything that happens to her unless she writes things down in a notebook. And then she can forget about the notebook itself. According to the text about her specialty dish, she also has lost her sense of taste, and can only tell differences in consistency.
Boring, but Practical: Despite her simple playing style, Qiqi still has one of the most powerful Burst healing capacities. Fortune-Preserving Talismans restore so much HP that the active character is virtually immortal as long they hit marked enemies. She also has among the highest base Defense stats in the game, ensuring she won't go down easy. Her Cryo element is often desirable for resonance purposes. In addition, the introduction of the Ocean-Hued Clam artifact set allows her to convert all of her healing, including overflows, into a not-insignificant amount of off-field damage.
Broken Pedestal: Played for Laughs. Qiqi loves coconut milk, so much so that she believed it to be a special substance. In her head, since goat's milk comes from goats, and coconut milk is so much better than goat's milk, she comes to the logical conclusion that coconut milk must come from a special goat on the level of an adeptus, which she dubs the Cocogoat adeptibeast. She is so heartbroken to learn its significantly more mundane origins that you can hear it even through her monotone. Of course, it still does not change how much she loves it, as shortly after this she begs Baizhu into signing a deal that would guarantee her a constant supply.
Came Back Strong: She suffered fatal injuries when she got caught in a battle between the adepti and demons. The former felt so guilty about it that several of them relinquished some of their own power to restore her to life. However, since humans aren't meant to bear the undiluted power of the adepti, she...
Came Back Wrong: And upon waking, was unable to control her new powers, going berserk and causing all manner of destruction until Mountain Shaper managed to subdue and seal her in amber. Luckily, over the next several centuries, most of her powers drained away, so that once she was freed, she was left with "only" her near-immortality, poor memory and residual but considerable adeptal power that forms the basis of her healing powers.
Chill of Undeath: Qiqi is undead, and her element is Cryo.
Chinese Vampire: She's themed after a jiangshi, though she's significantly more "fresh"-looking than most examples of the trope. If not for the paper talisman on her forehead, one could easily mistake her for a living person.
Combat Medic: More so than probably any other healer in the game. Qiqi's healing scales off her Attack stat and can heal her allies whenever she attacks while her Skill is active. Consequently, players are encouraged to plunge her into the fray, healing her teammates off-field.
Creepy Monotone: Subverted. She speaks in a flat tone, being undead and all, but combined with her voice and constant forgetfulness, it ends up being "adorable" instead of "creepy".
Cryptic Background Reference: One of Qiqi's lines when triggering her Burst is "Sacred Name: Fortune Preserver". She's quite literally stating that when she was altered by the adepti, they gave her an adeptus name.
Cute Bruiser: Despite being one of the tiniest characters, she has among the highest Defense stats in the game, along with moderately high HP and Attack, and she fights with a sword (unlike Klee and Diona, who use bombs and a bow, respectively).
Death by Origin Story: Her accidental death during a battle between the adepti and some demons is what led her to Immortality, getting Super-Strength and her Cryo vision.
Dowsing Device: Her utility passive, Former Life Memories, displays the location of Liyue-exclusive flowers on the minimap.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of her name (七七; pinyin "Qīqī") are read as "Nana" (the kun'yomi, or native Japanese, reading of the sole character of her name; hiragana なな) in Japanese and "Chichi" (hangul 치치) in Korean.
Elemental Personalities: An Emotionless Girl who wields a Cryo Vision.
Emotionless Girl: Being resurrected as a zombie, it is justified that she rarely has emotions whenever she speaks.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Qiqi makes no bones as to how much she despises Hu Tao after the latter first tried to exorcise her, with Qiqi making it a point to commit Hu Tao's face to her already poor memory because of the latter's animosity towards her undeath.
(About Hu Tao) "Warm. Fake smile. Death. I despise Hu Tao."
Feel No Pain: Zig-zagged. One of her damaged lines has Qiqi say "I didn't feel that."; however, Qiqi still takes damage from attacks, and particularly strong ones can make her stagger.
Forgetful Jones: Her zombification has cost her any long-term memory she might keep. As a result, she writes down important things in a journal to remember them, but sometimes she forgets the journal as well...
Friendly Zombie: She still has the mentality of a child after her revival, she only follows her master's orders (and her own, when necessary) and is a docile person.
Funny Background Event: Doubles as a running gag. She's often seen running around in a few official trailers, sometimes with Hu Tao chasing her.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Being "blessed by the Adepti with a body that cannot die" does not actually prevent her from falling in combat, since this would become overpowered for obvious reasons; her powerful healing abilities do help her, and your party survive more often, though.
Glacier Waif: Aside from her being a Cryo Vision holder, her small stature belies the fact that she mechanically leans closer to a Stone Wall due to her high durability and healing-focused abilities.
Gradual Regeneration: By default, the Herald of Frost gradually restores the active character's HP, in addition to giving Qiqi a Life Drain ability (see below), not unlike Barbara's Melody Loop.
Happily Adopted: By Baizhu. While Qiqi notes that some of his behavior is insincere and he has ulterior motives, she is happy being cared for by Baizhu and he treats her well, giving her access to whatever she wants.
I'm Cold... So Cold...: One of her quotes when knocked out is this ad verbatim.
Informed Attribute: Her backstory and profile states that Qiqi's zombification gave her an immortal body. This does not apply in combat, for obvious reasons, although she does have surprisingly high Defense.
Ironic Name: Her Adeptus name is Fortune Preserver. In life, her death was all but fortunate, given she was an innocent victim of a battle between the Adepti and demons. And in undeath, her Power Incontinence means she had to be sealed until her powers drain, not to mention having to deal with Hu Tao attempting to bury her countless times.
Jerkass to One: Outside of Hu Tao, Qiqi is kind and friendly to everyone she meets. Even after Hu Tao wants to atone for her mistakes, Qiqi still does not reciprocate.
Lethal Chef: Implied. The description for her specialty dish reminds the player that although she may have spent a lot of time perfecting it, she still has no sense of taste, and that it will take courage to actually put chopsticks to the food. The fact that it's called "No Tomorrow" doesn't help.
Life Drain: The Herald of Frost is active allows Qiqi to heal her party in tandem with her normal and charged attacks, while Fortune-Preserving Talismans allow any active character to heal themselves by attacking marked enemies.
Loophole Abuse: As noted by Zhongli when you meet her, normally zombies cannot do anything without a command from their master. There is no rule against the zombie being its own master, giving orders to itself whenever it wants to do something. How she contrived this arrangement is not clear, but this allows her to (mostly) act like a normal person.
Marked to Die: Her Burst inflicts Fortune-Preserving Talismans on enemies struck, which allow the party to heal themselves by attacking marked enemies. Her fourth-ascension passive, A Glimpse into Arcanum, grants her normal and charged attacks a 50% chance to inflict the Talismans (within at least thirty-second intervals) for six seconds each, while her fourth Constellation upgrade, Divine Suppression, allows them to impose a 20% penalty to the marked enemy's Attack stat.
Meaningful Name: The sole syllable that forms Qiqi's name is homophonous with the term for life-force in Chinese philosophy, albeit using different Han characters and pronunciations (the life-force is written as 气 [simplified] or 氣 [traditional], and read as qì in pinyin, whereas the "qi" in Qiqi's name is written as 七, meaning "seven," and pronounced as qī). Jiangshi consumes qi from the living, reflected by Qiqi's ability to heal by stealing enemy HP.
Mysterious Past: Nothing is known about her mortal life, least of all by Qiqi herself. Her fourth Character Story gives some info, namely that she also gathered herbs in life (as shown in the name of her field passive), and that she fell and hurt her leg, taking shelter in a cave where she died after she got caught in a battle between the adepti and demons. Everything aside from that, however, remains a mystery.
Never-Forgotten Skill: Despite how otherwise terrible her memory is, the name of her normal attacks pattern, Ancient Sword Art, implies that the manner she fights with a sword is the same technique she used in her old life centuries ago.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Hu Tao's earlier attempts to bury her led to Qiqi memorizing places to hide from Hu Tao and harboring a grudge against her, to the extent of still wanting to stuff her into a fridge despite Hu Tao now pampering her to no end after finding out about Qiqi's story.
Older Than They Look: She's more than "hundreds of years" old (as said in her fifth character story) since that is the elapsed time after the Adepti sealed her in amber, and before humans she discovered her.
Orbiting Particle Shield: Her Skill summons a Herald of Frost that orbits the active character for fifteen seconds, periodically dealing Cryo damage to surrounding enemies and healing the active character, in addition to allowing Qiqi to heal the party in tandem with her normal and charged attacks based on a fraction of her Attack stat.
Out of Focus: As of v4.1, Qiqi has the least focus out of the game's 5★ units, and even compared to most of the game's 4★s, barely has a presence in the story. She's the only 5★ besides Keqing to not have her own Story Quest, only appearing for a short while in the Liyue Archon Quest where her only role is wasting the Traveler and Zhongli's time, and her roles in Liyue-focused events tend to be similarly minimal.
Paper Talisman: She wears one on her forehead, hence identifying her as a Chinese Vampire. Her Burst also marks surrounding enemies with Fortune-Preserving Talismans that allows anyone who attacks them to heal their own HP, as well as suffer a 20% Attack penalty if Qiqi has unlocked her fourth Constellation upgrade, Divine Suppression.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Unlike Klee and Diona, other diminutive characters who exclusively fight with projectiles, Qiqi uses a sword, and can clobber enemies much larger than herself with it.
Power Incontinence: After Qiqi was resurrected, she became berserk, unable to control the adepti energy raging through her. Mountain Shaper was crucial in sealing her in amber.
The Power of Love: Zombies instinctively follow any orders given to them by their master. This becomes a problem when she receives complex or difficult tasks, as she will not stop even if she fails endlessly. The method to cancel such orders involves hugging Qiqi from behind and telling her "I love you the most," or something like it. However, the gesture must be sincere, so Baizhu doing it reduces its effects.
Regenerating Mana: Her first Constellation upgrade, Ascetics of Frost, restores 2 Energy whenever the Herald of Frost hits an enemy marked with a Fortune-Preserving Talisman.
Seven Is Nana: In the Japanese localization, she is named "Nana," which fits the original Chinese name that literally means "seven-seven".
"Shaggy Dog" Story: To convince Qiqi to sell you incense (without the required prescription), you and Zhongli must repair an ancient siege weapon, fight off a bunch of treasure-hunting bad guys, and track down a mythical creature called a "Cocogoat." You never get anywhere on that last part and report back to her, only to learn that she thought coconut milk came from a "coco-goat." No such creature exists.
Situational Damage Attack: Qiqi's second Constellation upgrade, Frozen to the Bone, increass the damage potency of her normal and charged attacks by 15% against enemies affected by Cryo.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Qiqi makes it no secret that she despises Hu Tao, generally avoiding her when she can and wanting Hu Tao to leave her alone. Fittingly enough, similarly to Baizhu, the two have remarkably poor team synergy—while on paper both can generate damage-multiplier-boosting Melt reactions, Qiqi's kit revolves around healing and the party's survivability, while Hu Tao's encourages players to keep her health low through her Skill. This discourages players from having them in the same party, which is exactly what Qiqi wants.
- After being revived by the adepti she was unable to control their power within her, hence why she was sealed in amber. This lack of control is reflected in-game by her fourth-ascension passive, A Glimpse into Arcanum, where her normal attacks have a 50% chance to mark enemies with Fortune-Preserving Talismans, which comes from the adeptal energy she normally unleashes in her Burst.
- Her profession as a herb gatherer for the Bubu Pharmacy is reflected in-game with her field passive, which reveals the location of all Liyue-exclusive flowers on the minimap.
Snipe Hunt: She sends Zhongli and the Traveler on one by accident, as she had wrongfully attributed coconut milk to a fictional "adeptibeast" she called "the Cocogoat."
Qiqi: "What it looks like: don't know. Where to find it: don't know either. Where it came from: also don't know."
Status Buff: Qiqi's first-ascension passive, Life-Preserving Methods, allows the Herald of Frost to confer a 20% boost to the active character's Incoming Healing Bonus for eight seconds whenever they trigger any kind of elemental reaction.
Stronger Than They Look: Despite her short, small stature, she is actually strong enough to carry an unconscious Xiao on her back as revealed by the "Endless Suffering" trailer.
Terse Talker: She often speaks in short sentence fragments.
The Stoic: She seldomly expresses herself through words or emotions.
Third-Person Person: Instead of using pronouns, Qiqi refers to herself using her own name. Unlike Paimon, she does occasionally refer to herself in first-person.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: As a healer who more often than not overheals, Qiqi is one of the few healers who can get a lot of mileage out of the Ocean-Hued Clam artifact set, which turns her excess healing into significant damage. Furthermore, the introduction of the Corrosion status effect gives Qiqi's healing an edge over shielding characters as the latter group cannot protect against its damage-over-time effect, which can kill characters very quickly.
Trademark Favorite Food: She loves coconut milk. Her request to Zhongli and the Traveler was to find a "Cocogoat" and slay it, believing it to be the source of coconut milk.
Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Qiqi received her Vision in her dying moments, and her desire was to stop her death by "freezing time" and live again. These feelings translated into Qiqi being gifted a Cryo Vision. The adepti then revived her and imparted her with a part of their strength.
Undead Child: Qiqi died at an early age and still looks like a young child after her revival as a zombie.
Undeathly Pallor: She's a zombie with a "bone-white" pale complexion.
Underestimating Badassery: A group of Treasure Hoarders once threatened Qiqi when she was alone picking herbs. They did not realize that this little girl is a strong zombie who could "send a whole crew flying."
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Ascendant Praise and Crimson Lotus Bloom, add three levels to, respectively, her Burst and Skill.
Voodoo Zombie: She is a mixture of this and a Chinese Vampire, taking the undeath, name, and obedience to a master.
Willfully Weak: Being a zombie, Qiqi possesses supernatural speed and strength that she normally suppresses in her daily life, only unleashing her self-control when in combat.
Zombie Gait: Defied. Her character story mentions that zombies like her normally have difficulty moving around, but she makes a point of doing calisthenics to keep her body fit and mobile and one of her idle animations has her doing stretches.

Gui

Herbalist Gui

Voiced By: David Goldstein (English)

Herbalist Gui, one of the Pharmacists of Bubu Pharmacy, is a manager of the store when Qiqi and Baizhu were out collecting herbs.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: During Shenhe's visit to Liyue Harbor, She orders a half pound of Violetgrass, Qingxin, and Glaze Lilies, even though the last one isn't found in his In-Game Shop.
Shop Fodder: He sold a recipe formula of Lotus Seed and Bird Egg Soup & any kinds of herbs such as Qingxin, Horse-tail, and any plants that are found in Liyue.

Wangsheng Funeral Parlor

A distinguished funeral service founded centuries ago by people who discovered that purifying the air and cremation contained a terrible plague, and have since appointed themselves guardians of the balance between life and death.

Hu Tao

Hu Tao

Introduced: March 2, 2021 (v1.3 "All That Glitters" [second half])
Voiced by: Tao Dian (Chinese), Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Ha-ru (Korean), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)

Fragrance in Thaw

"Balance must be maintained, and yet destinies remain variable. Death has its own rules, and yet is still hard to predict. Remember — no matter where, no matter when, no matter what the reason — one should never poke fun at death. Only once you know and respect death can you truly understand the value of life."

Rarity: 5★
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Polearm
Constellation: Papilio Charontis, the Butterfly of Charon

Seventy-seventh and current director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, who took the position at the tender age of thirteen. Playful and carefree, she has a distinctly positive outlook on grim subjects such as death and supernatural occurrences, and cheerfully defies convention in her line of work. However, she can also be serious when it comes to her job, as she believes her work pays tribute to two realms at once, and that it is her solemn duty to ensure the peaceful passage of the dead into the afterlife.

Hu Tao plays fast and loose with her life-force in exchange for swiftly sending her foes to the afterlife. Her Elemental Skill, Guide to the Afterlife, sacrifices a sizable chunk of her current HP to enter a state of "Paramita Papillo" which raises her Attack stat and flinching resistance, imbues her attacks with a Pyro effect that cannot be overridden by reactions, and allows her to inflict Blood Blossoms with her charged attacks, which gradually damages those afflicted every four seconds. Her Elemental Burst, Spirit Soother, summons a fiery ghost which she smacks onto her enemies, simultaneously healing her whenever there are enemies struck, with both its damaging and healing potencies increased if she has less than half her HP at the time she unleashes it.^note

Acquainted with Emergency Services: If her dialogues with Lan and Chongzi are of any implication, Hu Tao's antics in promoting the funeral parlor has gotten her in trouble with the Millelith on a regular basis.
All a Part of the Job: While she claims to have seen everything with her line of work, Hu Tao loves her job as director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, if not a bit too much.
Ambiguously Absent Parent: Her parents aren’t mentioned aside from the fact that her grandfather was the 75th Director while she herself is the 77th, implying that one of her parents was the 76th, but Hu Tao took over the funeral parlour at the age of 13 right after her grandfather passed away. At any rate, they do not appear to have any presence in her current life.
Animal Motifs: Butterflies, which not only appears on her Constellation, but also plays on the fact that the first character of her name (胡) is also the second-round simplified form of the first character of 蝴蝶 (húdié, "butterfly"). Two of her abilities have a butterfly icon, and according to flavor text the first rule of her "Secret Spear" technique is that "the spear opens the path to the afterlife, and the butterflies bridge this world and the next."
Badass Adorable: Hu Tao is a cheerful, energetic girl, if every bit of a weirdo, and doesn't like confrontations much by her own word, but still showcases skill with her polearm to quickly send all but the toughest of enemies to the afterlife.
The Bard: Hu Tao is renowned for her poetry and spends her free time alone wandering the dark alleyways and mountainous paths around Liyue Harbor seeking inspiration. Her works even attracted the attention of Xingqiu, resulting in them becoming fast friends. In her voice lines, she mentions composing poetry is her favorite hobby and calls herself "Versemonger of the Darkest Alleys," to the point that she may become more known for her poetry than she is for her job at the parlor. That said, her poetry is far from traditional, and this is where she differs in comparison to Xingqiu. Her writing style is playful, chaotic, and quirky, just like her personality, as she composes poems the moment inspiration gets to her.
Black Comedy: Being a funeral director, she tends to joke about death, such as teasing people with Ambiguous Syntax that seem as her offering prospective customers the chance to be Buried Alive or offering buy-one-take-one coupons.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: To a degree. Hu Tao is extremely blasé about death, with her personal philosophy being that everyone who lives in Liyue is effectively a potential client. Much of the conflict in her Story Quest comes from the fact that other people don't share or understand this willingness to embrace the inevitability of death—which from her point of view is frugal rather than fatalistic. As such, she doesn't understand why others don't want to, say, reserve a coffin for themselves, or buy a coffin before doing something potentially life-threatening (typically just assuming her deals aren't good enough), and others see her as offensive or even dangerous.
Brilliant, but Lazy: She's witty and her giftedness is heavily implied in her character stories (and she's implied to be knowledgeable about the adepti and correctly suspects Zhongli is one of them). Although she is usually a laissez-faire kind of person, she gets extremely serious when it comes to funerals and meeting the clients' wishes.
(About Zhongli) "Zhongli looks young, but his personality is a bit dusty. Knows everything, but doesn't fret over anything. Hmm... Couldn't be that he's a...Hehe, forget it, whatever."
(About Xiao) "What would I know of the adepti? Ai-yai-yai, that kind of stuff is top-secret! Don't come asking me about it!"
Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: She's an undertaker who gives the dead their last rites to send them onto the afterlife, and is associated with flaming butterflies. Her Constellation's name also references Charon, ferryman of the underworld in Classical Mythology.
Cast from Hit Points: Her Skill consumes 30% of her current HP to increase her Attack stat based on a fraction of her Max HP, imbues her normal attacks with a Pyro effect that cannot be overridden with reactions, and adds a Pyro Damage Over Time buff to her charged attacks.
Character Catchphrase: She occasionally says "aiya" (from the Chinese exclamation 哎呀) in the English translation).
Child Prodigy: Hu Tao took over the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor at the tender age of thirteen. Characters note that she is especially bright since childhood. Her character stories state than when she was three years old, she would read volumes of classic texts while doing handstands.
A Child Shall Lead Them: While it's unknown what her exact age is, she is in the same age range as her friends Xingqiu, Chongyun, and Xiangling, all of whom appear to be teenagers, and is also the Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor who employs numerous grown adults as her subordinates.
Creepy Mortician: While energetic, cheerful, and youthful, most characters describe Hu Tao as if there is something wrong with her. Qiqi says she has a fake smile, Xingqiu implies that he is unaware of her true motives, and Xinyan describes her as "a bit bizarre." Her blasé approach to death really manages to unnerve most people.
Critical Hit Class: Hu Tao specializes in dealing critical hits, with Critical Damage percentage being her Ascension stat (to a maximum of 38.4% at her sixth), and she has the ability to raise her allies' Critical rate by 12% either through her first-ascension passive, Flutter By (for eight seconds after her Paramita Papillo state ends), or her fourth Constellation upgrade, Garden of Eternal Rest (for fifteen seconds whenever she defeats an enemy afflicted with Blood Blossoms).
Critical Status Buff: Whenever her HP falls below half, the damaging and healing potencies of her Burst increase; in addition, if she has unlocked her fourth-ascension passive, Sanguine Rouge, her Pyro Damage Bonus also increases by one-third.
Cute Bruiser: Hu Tao is rather short, using the "Medium Female" model, but despite her martial pacifism she is still more than capable of defending herself with a polearm.
Cute Little Fangs: Hu Tao's flaming spirits have little snaggletooths sticking out of one side of their mouths to make them look cuter.
Damage Over Time: While Paramita Papillo is active, Hu Tao's charged attacks can inflict Blood Blossoms onto enemies, which last eight seconds and deal Pyro damage every four (equivalent to two damage bursts). Her second Constellation upgrade, Ominous Rainfall, increases their damage equivalent to 10% of her max HP, as well as allows her Burst to inflict the Blossoms.
Dash Attack: While other Polearm users have this as their charged attack, Hu Tao has more incentive to use them than others since her charged attacks inflict Blood Blossoms on her enemies while Paramita Papillo is active. Her first Constellation upgrade, Crimson Bouquet, removes the stamina cost of her charged attacks while Paramita Papillo is active.
Dub Personality Change: Hu Tao is noticably sillier and more playful in the Japanese audio, sounding way more like a cartoon character while climbing (complete with exaggerated panting noises), harassing the ghost in her idle animation, and killin' things. One of her death rattles also leans into Qiqi's "fake smile" judgement: she lets out a creepy-deep promise to carry out a grudge when slain.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of her name (胡桃; pinyin "Hú Táo") are read as "Fūtao" (via transliteration; katakana フータオ) in Japanese and "Hodu" (hangul 호두) in Korean.
Due to the Dead: Of the utmost importance to her, which is fitting given she's the director of Wagsheng Funeral Parlor. Not only does Hu Tao become a lot more serious when it comes to funerals, she will also make sure that her clients' wishes are followed to the letter, however odd they might be, and will take care her workers won't suggest any particular form of funeral. Ever since she took over as director, Wangsheng's services have remained reliable. Although many people are still put off by Hu Tao's eccentricities, her diligence during funeral services has made some people's views towards funeral services more positive.
(Character Story 2) "At the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, the living give us Mora to see the dead on their way. We have a responsibility to both parties, so we gotta make sure both sides are happy. [...] The funeral tradition is like science. It cannot be performed based on impressions and personal habits. [...] Some clients want nothing more than a peaceful ceremony, some opt for a more lively style of event. There are also wealthier clients who would request a funeral arrangement of the most pompous kind. The services we provide have to be tailor-made according to the clients' needs."
Edible Theme Naming: Her name means "walnut" in Chinese.
Elemental Personalities: Her Pyro Vision aligns well with her being a little too sincere with her emotions (to the dismay of some) and quite the Genki Girl. It's also appropriate for her role as a spooky funeral director, as fire evokes both cremation and Hitodama, the former being a part of her job and the latter being seen in haunted places Hu Tao keeps tabs on.
Exotic Eye Designs: She has shining five-petal flowers in her eyes to play up her rambunctious, carefree personality.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Zig-zagged with Baizhu.
- Hu Tao is very displeased with Baizhu's pursuit of immortality, as she believes it is an act of defiance to the cycle of life and death. Her voice-over for him summarizes it in just four words:
  (About Baizhu) "Baizhu? Ugh, that guy..."
- Despite this, Baizhu's Character Stories and Story Quest shed a more positive light on the two's relationship. Hu Tao doesn't dislike Baizhu so much as the side of him that pursues immortality, and she is willing to set her differences aside to work with him.
Family Business: Hu Tao inherited the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor from her grandfather, and is overall the 77th generation to do so.
Fantastically Indifferent: According to one of her voicelines, Hu Tao doesn't seem to care much about her Vision, seeming to ponder for a moment before realizing what the term "Vision" was referring to before replying with "whatever". This was subverted in another dub, where she is just as curious on what actually a Vision is but ultimately decided to not think too much about it and considers it a matter for another day.
Fate Worse than Death: Played for Laughs. She considers being bored worse than dying.
Fear of Thunder: Implied; during a thunderstorm, she gets alarmed and offers to run away to take cover.
(When Thunder Strikes) "Lightning! Let's bolt!"
Foil:
- To Baizhu, a fellow entrepreneur named after an edible plant who inherited a business concerned with life and death and has a retired god among their staff, with whom she has ideology clashes with. In appearance, there is a Red/Green Contrast with their hair colours and Dendro and Pyro visions, as well as contrasting whitish and black clothing. Baizhu is also a grown man with Animal Eyes while Hu Tao resembles and acts like a teenaged girl with flower-shaped pupils.
- To Venti, fellow twin-tailed, youthful, cheery and playful renowned poet involved with sending the deceased off who wears short shorts and a flower-adorned hat and is closely associated with Zhongli. Venti is a god that only resembles a youth with his Medium Male model, while Hu Tao is an ordinary mortal girl that uses the Medium Female model. Venti's white and green clothes also contrasts with Hu Tao's red and black outfit.
Four Is Death: Blood Blossoms deal damage every four seconds.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Downplayed. "Nobody" would be pushing it too far, but a good majority of Liyuans don't seem to have an overall favorable opinion of Hu Tao due to her energetic and carefree nature, especially because of the way she talks about death, which most consider taboo. Some playable characters also have an unfavorable line referring to her^note. Even Xiao, who unironically enjoys Hu Tao's humor, gets a bit annoyed by her liveliness. That said, a few people don't have an issue with her and either are her genuine friend (Yun Jin), see her favorably (Yanfei), or at least tolerate her eccentricities (Shenhe and Xingqiu).
Friendly Ghost: Hu Tao's blazing spirits take on the form of small, smiling cartoon ghosts who help her out with her Elemental Burst and play around with her.
Friendly Rivalry: With Xingqiu.
The "Fun" in "Funeral": Hu Tao respects every clients' wishes on how to manage their loved one's funeral, no matter how odd their decision might be. However, she believes people should not consider death taboo and enjoys joking around death or related topics related to the Funeral Parlor. She sees death as a natural part of life which people should take more lightly.
The Gadfly: Other characters' lines for her paint her this way, being a carefree young girl who tends to either weird people out or irritate them and mostly enjoying to do whatever she thinks about to avoid getting bored. The player experiences this first hand as she makes them go through a labyrinth in a domain in her story quest.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Claims to dislike fighting in a voice-over, which fits in with her reverence of death. In actual combat, she is as playful and chipper as usual, even making jokes right before she casts her Burst (which usually ends in someone dying).
Genki Girl: Very genki, which contrasts with the image most Liyueans would have of the director of a funeral parlor.
Girlish Pigtails: Her hairstyle includes two long twintails.
Glass Cannon: Played with. She has the second largest HP pool in the game, but the HP-consuming nature of her Skill and the low-HP requirement to activate her passive talents mean the monstrous damage Hu Tao is capable of requires playing fast and loose with her HP. As such, it is easy for enemies to take her out if careless.
Grievous Harm with a Body: Or whatever a "body" qualifies as for a ghost. Her Burst has her grab one of her ghost buddies and smack nearby enemies with them, dealing Pyro damage to surrounding enemies and healing herself.
Hat of Authority: Her round hat was passed down from her grandfather, the seventy-fifth director. She changed it to fit her and even adorned it with a small flower.
Hidden Depths:
- For her energy and happy-go-lucky attitude, Hu Tao's approach to death is surprisingly mature. She sees destinies as variable, and death as a cycle of life that's hard to predict due to it having its own rules; thus, she is quite firm about never poking fun at death.
- Despite implications that she's a Lethal Chef, the "One for the Foodies, Two for the Show" quest as part of the "Moonlight Merriment" event has her display some knowledge of the aesthetic appeal of dishes and how nice something with contrasting ingredients can be.
Hostile Show Takeover: On April Fools' Day, she temporarily took over the official Genshin Twitter account.
If Only You Knew:
- Hu Tao doesn't understand why so many people perceive her as odd, and mentions that there is nothing scary about working at the funeral parlor.
- She thinks that people shouldn't fear death, as it is a natural part of life, and believes that Baizhu's quest for immortality is foolhardy. The second Traveler's Tale quest would prove her right, as Dainsleif reveals that immortality is a curse that erodes away body and soul until all that's left is nothing but a mindless husk.
Interface Spoiler: v1.3 includes her specialty dish in the list of dishes and her special name card in the name card list, despite MiHoYo not announcing her as playable until a month after that patch dropped.
Ironic Nursery Tune: Her most popular poem, "The Hilichurl Song," is based on a Chinese children's song. This is popular among young kids, but it has a creepy connotation to it; brother hilichurl gets sick, but even after his sister takes care of him, he still dies in the end.
Irony: You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who likes Hu Tao without some sort of reservation, but those who do interact with her all the same. Among those who do like her, Yanfei laments that Hu Tao doesn't see her a whole lot, implying it's a one-sided friendship. To add insult to injury, Yanfei's playing style has a particularly good synergy with Hu Tao's, making her a valuable partner that Hu Tao doesn't pay any mind to.^Explanation
King of Games: During the "Duel! The Summoners' Summit!" event, Hu Tao is crown champion of the Liyue leg of the international Genius Invokation TCG tournament.
Last Chance Hit Point: Hu Tao's sixth Constellation upgrade, Butterfly's Embrace, protects her from otherwise fatal hits with 1 HP if she has less than a quarter of her HP left (with at least one-minute intervals), as well as triples her Physical and Elemental Resistances, doubles her Critical Rate, and significantly boosts her flinching resistance for ten seconds.
Lethal Chef: Downplayed. It's less that Hu Tao lacks any cooking skill and more that she values other things over food safety, given her blasé attitude.
- Her utility passive gives her an 18% chance to receive an additional "suspicious"-grade dish (i.e., the result of completely missing the target in the cooking minigame and which have less potent effects than the "normal"-grade one and has a duller, grayed-out appearance) of the same type when she successfully cooks a "delicious"-grade one (i.e., the result of hitting a bonus spot in the same minigame and which have more potent effects and a shimmering appearance). Gameplay-wise, the upside is that she has a better chance (at 18% instead of 12%) to give a bonus dish than characters who give higher-quality extra dishes, and said passive works on all types of food instead of only certain categories. The passive is even named The More The Merrier.
- Her special dish, Ghostly March (Vegetarian Abalone), is described as being "full of top-quality, taste bud blasting—Actually, what on earth is this stuff, anyway?" The implication being that, while it has a strong flavor, it may not sit well...
Martial Pacifist: A variation. She doesn't seem to think highly of her Vision (dismissing it as "whatever"), and doesn't like fighting much either, instead considering it "a means to an end" as per one of her voice-overs.
(About Us: Battle) "Ah, fighting's a pain. For me, it's not an objective so much as a means to an end. Using the means to reach the end, to fight for that which I will not compromise on — it's in this way that you and I are the same."
Mirror Character: Like her friend Xiangling, Hu Tao is a Pyro vision holder trained in polearm combat who has one of Liyue's gods helping out with her Family Business.
Muscles Are Meaningless: She looks like a slender young lady, but she has the second highest base HP in the game. Her usual build also stacks more HP, which translates directly to huge damage potential for Guide to Afterlife, so a typical Hu Tao will be much tankier and hit much harder than she looks.
Nice Girl: Even in spite of her eccentricity and slow uptake on social matters, it's clear that Hu Tao has no ill will towards people and her heart is in the right place. She showcases a kind and friendly demeanor even towards those who are annoyed by her, and at high Friendship, in her playable voice-overs, she shows a less funny, more concerned side towards the Traveler.
No Social Skills: Played for Laughs, as it's not in the usual context and not as bad as Razor. Hu Tao enjoys the company of others; however, she very much does not know when to set a limit to her pranks and energy. She also has trouble in terms of appearing like a "normal person", as her interests are so eccentric that people will think she is weird. Her understanding of how others are feeling is also weak.
Not-So-Phony Psychic: Inverted. Hu Tao is a Vision holder and is knowledgeable in dealing with the dead, but she advocates using sleight-of-hand and phony ceremonies to keep the general populace ignorant to the true nature of death.
Odd Friendship: A one-sided one with Qiqi. Qiqi despises Hu Tao with all her heart due to the latter attempting to bury her alive. However, after realizing that Qiqi doesn't need to be put to rest, Hu Tao pampers her more often now, wanting to make friends with her and fixing the harm she has done. Qiqi, unfortunately, still does not reciprocate.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Her original attempts to bury Qiqi led to the latter memorizing places to hide from her and harboring a great deal of anger towards her, to the extent of still wanting to stuff her into a fridge despite Hu Tao now pampering her to no end after finding out about her story.
Perky Goth: Liyuean version. She wears dark clothes^*, is pale-skinned, and speaks about death and your eventual demise a lot in a very casual tone. But she is also cheerful, energetic, and a Bunny-Ears Lawyer.
The Prankster: One of the main reasons people get annoyed at her.
Punny Name: She invokes this in one of her lines^*The exact pun varies between languages. Her reaction after the pun implies the Traveler didn't really laugh.
(About Hu Tao: Name:) "Hu as in 'Who put me in this coffin?' and Tao as in 'I can't get out!' Heh... no? Not funny?"
Red Baron: She dubs herself "Versemonger of the Darkest Alleys."
Reduced Mana Cost: In a variant, her first Constellation upgrade, Crimson Bouquet, negates the stamina consumption of her charged attacks while the Paramita Papillo state is active.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: Hu Tao is pretty much aware that Zhongli is an Adeptus due to his behavior despite his appearance as an adult man. What she failed to realize is the fact that Zhongli isn't just a simple Adeptus, he's actually a retired Archon who never showed his real self for years, which leads Hu Tao to think that he was just a simple adeptus like Xiao, completely in the dark of his true identity.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Due to her strong sense of morals and her view on how life and death should work, she used to try kidnapping Qiqi to bury her and grant her a proper funeral. In her eyes, Qiqi was suffering and therefore, she needed to bury her. She did this multiple times, with Baizhu always stopping her. Hu Tao is resentful towards him as he wants to go against the natural cycle of life by achieving immortality, but has since been trying her best to placate Qiqi and befriend her after finding out the truth about her existence.
Self-Harm–Induced Superpower: She loses HP when she uses her Skill (and steadily in tiny increments if she's fighting on grass), and her attack increases greatly when her HP runs below half.
Signature Headgear: Her Harmony Hexagram Hat, which was inherited from her grandfather, the 75th director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. She has a Character Story dedicated to detailing how she had modified it to fit her measurements and tastes, and treasures it dearly to the point where she would never let it become dirty even if the rest of her did.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Hu Tao is Not Afraid to Die, seeing death as a natural cycle of life, and seeing Immortality Seekers as fools who try to defy nature. Her gameplay mechanic has her burn her own lifeforce to significantly boost her offense, and a well-played Hu Tao plays hard and fast with her own life, often staying at 50% or below health.
- She has three instances regarding synergies with playable characters and her Glass Cannon playstyle.
  - Together with Zhongli, the two playable staff of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor make a great team together, with the latter's shields greatly increasing Hu Tao's survivability without compromising her damage output, due to her reliance on her HP being as low as possible to deal more damage.
  - She and Baizhu have different beliefs when it comes to life and death, with the former disliking the latter's pursuit of immortality. The two also don't synergize with each other well, as while Baizhu's Dendro powers would help Hu Tao trigger Burning reactions, both his Elemental Talents heal the party and keep them alive, which would contrast with Hu Tao intending to deal high damage by being closer to death.
  - No matter how hard she tries to make up for it, Qiqi refuses to forget, much less forgive, the time she tried to have her exorcized. Fittingly enough, the two have remarkably poor team synergy—Qiqi's skillset revolves around healing and the party's survivability, while Hu Tao's playstyle generally encourages players to keep her health low through her Elemental Skill. This discourages players from having them in the same party, which is exactly what Qiqi wants.
Token Wholesome: One of the very few characters to have nil fanservice tropes to her character. Though her wardrobe leaves her legs bare, the game doesn't particularly place emphasis on them, which circles back to this trope.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Lingering Carmine and Floran Incense, add three levels to, respectively, her Skill and Burst.
Very Punchable Man: Qiqi refers to Hu Tao as someone with a "very punchable face" ad verbum due to her prankster and cheeky behavior, to say nothing of how she tried to bury her in the past.
Vitriolic Best Buds:
- With Xingqiu and Chongyun. It is heavily implied that they hang out regularly, especially since both Hu Tao and Xingqiu share an interest in poetry and they often ask Chongyun to act as referee for their poetry battles. In her character stories, they fill the street with laughs.
  - While in his voice-over Xingqiu acknowledges her eccentricity, he also tries to keep himself neutral, which shows his closeness to her.
  - Sadly, her friendship with Chongyun seems to be one-sided as a result of her insensitivity, as Chongyun's voice-line about her expresses he doesn't like her because her irreverence towards exorcists irritates him to the point his Yang energy nearly takes over.
- With Xiangling. The former seems to get annoyed at Hu Tao easily due to her constantly pulling pranks on her (one "Boo!" is all it takes to jumpscare Xiangling), but she appreciates Hu Tao's help as she often brings Xiangling ingredients to cook with.
- With Xiao. Her liveliness irritates him a bit, but he appreciates her humor. As seen in v3.4's Lantern Rite event, "The Exquisite Night Chimes", the Conqueror of Demons doesn't have much of a problem accepting Hu Tao's invitation for dinner with friends, even if it's rather awkward to him.
- With Zhongli, of sorts, too. Hu Tao's voice-over about Zhongli expresses admiration over his knowledge and relaxed approach to trouble. On the other hand, while Zhongli's voice-over about her states how he cannot deal with her, Zhongli himself still seems to appreciate her.
We All Die Someday:
- Hu Tao notes in her quest that none of the earlier Wangsheng directors have appeared as ghosts in Liyue or the boundary between life and death, having chosen to move on as soon as they died with no lingering regrets. And she expects she will be much the same when her time comes.
- She constantly refers to death as something you should not be afraid of or tamper with, as it is a natural part of life.
Weapon Specialization: In both her character trailer and Collected Miscellany videos, as well as in her Story Quest, Hu Tao is associated with the Staff of Homa (5★), which seems tailor-made for Hu Tao. Lore-wise, it is associated with the fires of purification, in addition to implying that this was the same staff used by the founding director of Wangsheng, who discovered that cremating the victims of a plague borne of the excess karma of the Yakshas contained it. Gameplay-wise, its Ascension substat of Critical Damage (14.4–66.2%) complements Hu Tao's natural growth in that stat, and its "Reckless Cinnabar" passive increases its wielder's Max HP by 20–40%, as well as their Attack stat based on 0.8–1.6% of their Max HP, with an additional 1–1.8% whenever they have less than half their HP, hence allowing her to be even deadlier and tougher at the same time.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Surprisingly Played for Laughs and completely straight. As a funeral director, Hu Tao believes it is important to grant the dead their rightful eternal peace. Thus, after meeting and making friends with the immortal zombie Qiqi, Hu Tao made multiple attempts to perform funeral rites for her. Only later did she find out that Qiqi was in fact quite happy remaining on Teyvat and would rather not die again. However, she does not approve of Baizhu's apparent quest to reach eternal life.
The Wonka: Despite seeming to spend her time messing around, when running a funeral, she is quite capable and can act properly dignified and solemn. In addition, despite seemingly messing around while talking to her new employee's old friends she was actually looking for traces of ghostly activity to see if they had also been haunted by Big G recently.
Young and in Charge: She's younger than her employee Zhongli. Thousands of years younger, in fact.

Zhongli (Unmarked Spoilers!)

Zhongli / Rex Lapis / Deus Auri / Morax, the God of Contracts

Introduced: December 1, 2020 (v1.1 "A New Star Approaches" [second half])
Voiced by: Peng Bo (Chinese), Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), Pyo Yeong-jae (Korean), Keith Silverstein (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zhongli.png

Vago Mundo

"The God of Contracts... have you heard of him? He has an impressive memory. He remembers the name of every person he comes across, and the date that every ship built in Liyue sets sail. After all, only in being able to do so can he memorize all of the contracts he holds. With that said, not every memory is a happy one..."

Rarity: 5★
Element: Geo
Weapon: Polearm
Constellation: Lapis Dei, the Divine Stone

The reserved, mysterious consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Despite some deleterious quirks, such as being an occasional scatterbrain and being particularly inept in monetary matters, none doubt his knowledge in all matters regarding the inner workings of Liyue, such as courtesy and customs, all of which hints that he might be far older and more knowledgeable than his appearance suggests. Eventually, the Traveler discovers that he is none other than Morax, the Geo Archon, one of the two surviving original Archons (the other being Barbatos/Venti) and the oldest of them all at roughly six thousand years old, who has chosen to retire of his own volition, but not before putting all of Liyue into a secret test of their resolve and readiness to move on from his prodigious shadow.

The unwavering Zhongli emphasizes defending himself and his allies and inhibiting his foes. His Elemental Skill, Dominus Lapidis, conjures a Stone Stele, a pillar-shaped Geo construct, of which only one can exist at a time, that periodically deals Geo damage on surrounding enemies and which can resonate with other Geo constructs to also allow them to deal gradual damage; in its held form, he additionally triggers a shockwave that damages surrounding enemies and drains energy off of their Geo constructs, as well as erects a Jade Shield around the active character which absorbs all kinds of damage and decreases Resistances of surrounding enemies. His Elemental Burst, Planet Befall, slams down a meteorite onto his enemies, additionally inflicting "Petrification" upon them, which renders them immobile for a short period of time.^note

To see more information about his role as Rex Lapis, click here.

Achilles' Heel: Being afflicted by the Corrosion effect, which ignores the damage absorption of shields and scales off of the victim's Max HP, ensures that Zhongli will take far more damage from it than his squishier allies.
Actually Pretty Funny: Zhongli is close to laughing his ass off after hearing the Qixing's official story about him "failing a divine trial" to sweep the matter of his apparent death under the rug. He is also prouder and more amused than troubled when the Qixing end up taking control of Liyue far quicker than he had expected.
Almighty Janitor: He's only a consultant at a funeral parlor, yet possesses encyclopedic knowledge of almost anything involving Liyue, from customs to history to the taste of food in its various regions. Even discounting his elemental powers, he has the skills and wisdom to be running Liyue if he wanted to. Which is why he enjoys his work at the funeral parlor, finding it much more relaxing than his job as Liyue's reigning deity.
Ambiguous Situation: Zhongli's silence is the driving force behind the mysteries that concern his involvement in two historical events:
- When pressed by the Traveler on information regarding the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm, he's unable to answer them, even though he clearly wants to, because he's under oath not to speak of it. While it's clear he knows, it isn't made explicit whether he participated in the attack himself, or if the gods of Celestia simply forced him into a contract of silence.
- His exact relationship with Guizhong, the late God of Dust and his former co-ruler of the Guili Assembly, is left up to interpretation. Soraya, an Akademiya scholar studying the ruins of the Assembly, theorizes them to be "close friends," but the description of the Memory of Dust weapon suggests that there might be more than just friendship involved, especially since Guizhong didn't actually form any formal contract with Rex Lapis and yet the two ruled together anyway. It's never elaborated upon either way.
What a silly notion. There was no formal contract between them. They were merely two people walking the same path for their own reasons... But he remembers the scene of their first meeting anyway when the Glaze Lilies were still in abundant bloom.
- In addition, his involvement in Guizhong's death is also left ambiguous. Again, Soraya mentions how unusual and bizarre her death was, as it happened not only in her home territory, but also because he was with her. The two prevailing theories are either they faced an opponent so strong it managed to kill Guizhong, or he was forced to kill her due to the effects of erosion. The 3.4 Lantern Rite event cutscene supports the former, with Cloud Retainer saying that Guizhong was overpowered by the enemy and fell in battle, while the latter is supported by the fact that the battle was described as having "black dust" and "thousand rocks" - the element of Guizhong and himself - and nothing else, and that he would not hesitate to kill friend turned enemies. Muddying the truth further is Zhongli in the final part of the 3.4 Lantern Rite event saying that "the same truth will sound different coming from different people" and that Soraya's conclusions are very close to the truth; with Cloud Retainer and Streetward Rambler only arriving on the scene after Guizhong is already dead, Zhongli might be the only person who knows the full truth behind Guizhong's death, but has yet to elaborate on his side of the story.
Anti-Armor: The held version of his Skill drains the Geo element from up to two nearby enemies, reducing the durability of such constructs as the armor of Geo Slimes, Stonehide Lawachurls, and Fatui Geochanter Bracer, the shields of Rock Shield Hilichurls, and the stone pedestals of Geo Samachurls and Geo Hypostases, as well as the summoned crocodiles of Eremite Stone Enchanters.
Attending Your Own Funeral: He prepared Rex Lapis's funerary rites, making the whole questline a sort of vanity project in hindsight.
Badass Armfold: During his Burst, Zhongli folds his arms while summoning a giant meteorite to smash into his enemies.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Zhongli looks classy in that three-piece and can even throw down with the best of them while wearing it.
Balance Buff: Zhongli is notably the first (and, as of 4.2, the only) character to have received direct buffs to his kit. In v1.3, the HP-based damage boosts provided by his fourth-ascension passive, Dominance of Earth, was expanded to include other attacks besides his Burst. In addition, the Jade Shield's resilience priority was changed from 250% against Geo damage only to 150% absorption against all physical and elemental damage. Finally, making a Jade Shield will simultaneously create a Stone Stele if he has not created the maximum available amount of it, solving his Skill's cooldown issue.
Baritone of Strength: All four dubs give him a suitably deep voice to match his combat prowess and sophisticated mannerisms.
Barrier Warrior: He has the best shield ability in the game, and can easily keep it up. In his promo video and story quests, multiple enemies try to break his shield, to no avail.
Berserk Button: Breaking contracts. He won't so much as raise his voice, but he will make sure to bring down "the Wrath of the Rock" on any unlucky soul who breaks a contract with him. No exceptions.
Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the second Archon Quest Interlude chapter, he saves Xiao from certain death when the Yaksha sacrificed the last of his power getting the Traveler, Paimon, Yelan, Yanfei, Itto, Shinobu, and Ushi out of the Chasm's Bed.
Blatant Lies: Zhongli has the tendency of overplaying the "normal commoner" when introducing himself to others, which baffles the Traveler, but fortunately people just think he is using a refined presentation.
- First time he did this was during a conversation with Yun Jin, saying that he is honored that “an ordinary man as himself” had the opportunity of having met the Traveler, with Paimon and the Traveler thinking “Did he just say that?”
- This is taken to the next level when he and Venti "meet for the first time" (right after he just met Xiao "for the first time" as well), as they not only pretend to be "just a funerary consultant" and a "common bard" respectively, but both start overdoing the compliments to each other. Xiao, Paimon and the Traveler are the only ones aware that they are lying through their teeth, while the others don't pick up on any of these details.
- He also categorically denies having been anywhere near the Chasm during the events of "Perilous Trails" when questioned, despite Xiao clearly sensing his presence and power and the player catching a glance of some very familiar coattails and suit pants.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Zhongli has traces of this when it comes to contracts. He is utterly uncompromising once the contract is set up, with no trace of his usual lenience in play when people attempt to worm their way out of it. Breaking a contract with him, unsurprisingly, is his biggest Berserk Button.
Boring, but Practical: Zhongli is generally quite straightforward to build, as he really only needs equipment that increases his HP (and decent HP-boosting artifacts and weapons are fairly common and easy to acquire). Building him purely on HP makes his Jade Shield (his main source of support value) incredibly sturdy, and because of his fourth-ascension passive, even boosts his damage, allowing players to further eschew offensive stats like ATK in favor of yet more HP.
Brought Down to Badass: Arguably the most powerful of the Seven Archons, Zhongli was known and feared for his almighty power in battle, being referred to as the "Warrior God." Handing over his Gnosis brings him down from being the Geo Archon to... "merely" being an adeptus, a long-lived race whose remaining members are all seasoned veterans of divine conflicts such as the Archon War and who wield strong elemental powers.
But Thou Must!: Like Lisa, you must accept his invitation to a dinner date (which is part of Liyue custom) to advance the story. However, the meeting quickly gets interrupted by Ningguang inviting the Traveler to meet with her.
Cannot Spit It Out: Zhongli would like to tell the Traveler what he knows about the Khaenri'ah incident, but Celestia has him under a contract preventing him from doing so.
The Charmer: Though he is not a flirt, at all, so calling him Prince Charming may be more accurate. His looks, charm, wit, and politeness have him attract those around him, and Liyue respects him. He so blinds those he draws in with his appeal that they end up being completely oblivious to the fact that he is terrible with money, even though Wangsheng Funeral Parlor ends up footing the bill of all his frivolous purchases. He also has fangirls, with the most obvious one being the narrating Ferrylady from his debut trailer who spends the entirety of her narration fawning over him.
The Chessmaster: The entirety of the Liyue Archon Quest is more or less his brainchild, having devised a trial for the adepti and the Qixing to see if they are ready to grow out of his protection. Had they not been ready, he would have returned and dealt with the matter himself and gone on as Rex Lapis. As they successfully defeated Osial themselves, he decided it meant they no longer needed him and felt content with handing over his Gnosis to the Tsaritsa and retiring.
Cloudcuckoolander: As much of a Nice Guy as he is eccentric and Money Dumb.
Cold Ham: He isn't loud or boisterous, but makes up for it with an imposing presence and a booming, stentorian and deep voice while nonchalantly chucking meteors at his enemies.
(Elemental Burst) "I will have order!"
Combat Medic: Zhongli's sixth Constellation upgrade, Chrysos, Dominator of Bounty, allows the Jade Shield to convert 40% of absorbed damage and heal the current character up to 8% of their Max HP.
The Comically Serious: He's remarkably stoic and strait-laced, but capable of some more absent-minded actions such as when he briefly waxes philosophical on the concept of money for a bit... before confirming that no, he didn't bring any to pay for the thing he specifically went out to get.
Connected All Along: He was a traveling companion of Alice, Klee's mother and author of the Teyvat Travel Guide series.
Contrasting Sequel Main Character: "Arc", to be precise, but he is one to Venti, largely because of their true nature as remaining members of the original Archons. He takes the guise of an adult man, while the latter that of a young boy. He diligently ruled Liyue for thousands of years, while the latter has not been doing that much ruling. He struggles adapting to a less luxurious lifestyle, where the latter is comfortable with his disguise as a simple bard. Where the latter lost his Gnosis—and thus his authority as Archon—due to his negligence, Zhongli deconstructs the other end of the spectrum by having grown tired after too long a tenure as ruler of Liyue, and thus willingly hands over his Gnosis once he saw that the Qixing and the adepti are ready to grow out of his shadow. Finally, they each have an old friend that the Traveler fights with their help, but while Venti is able to help free Dvalin from his suffering and remind his people of the heroic legacy of the Dragon of the East, Zhongli is unable to stop Azhdaha's erosion, and can do nothing except seal his old friend away, and because Azhdaha is still dangerous, he can't even eulogize his friend's prior heroism properly, ending his second Story Quest somberly regarding the stone tablet that only tells of the danger Azhdaha poses.
Cruel Mercy: In his first Story Quest, instead of killing Wanyan for breaking her contract like she expects him to, he instead tells her the truth about the fall of Havria, the long-dead Goddess of Salt and her people's former patron deity, leaving her deeply shaken.
Cultured Badass: He is a living encyclopedia of Liyue and has absolutely no trouble dishing out pain in combat.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: The Jade Shield will inflict a 20% penalty to Physical and Elemental Resistances of all nearby enemies.
Damage Over Time: His Skill generates Stone Steles that deal gradual damage in an area and resonate with other stationary Geo constructs (as of v4.2, the boulder from the Geo Traveler's Skill, Ningguang's Jade Screen, Albedo's Solar Isotoma, and the stone pedestals of Geo Samachurls and the Geo Hypostasis) to increase its area coverage. Zhongli's first Constellation upgrade, Rock, the Backbone of Earth, allows him to install two Stone Steles at a time.
Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Zhongli is so bad with money because he's used to being able to generate whatever Mora he needs with his powers. And though he does manage to avoid using his powers for instant funding, he still hasn't quite managed to adapt his spending habits to match.
Deal with the Devil: He has "the contract to end all contracts" with the Tsaritsa. Its completion hinges on the outcome of the trial he lays for his people. Should he step in on their behalf, the deal is off, and he goes on being the Geo Archon while keeping his Gnosis. Should they succeed without him however, he trades his Gnosis away for an unspecified bargaining chip that the Tsaritsa owns. As the terms of the contract prohibit divulging its details, he is not telling what it is the Tsaritsa offered that could compare to a Gnosis and merely encourages the Traveler to find out on their adventures.
Deflector Shields: The held form of his Skill lets Zhongli create a Jade Shield, damaging nearby enemies and bolstering the active character's Physical and Elemental Resistances, with a base 150% Shield Strength, while decreasing those of their enemies. With his first-ascension passive, Resonant Waves, its Shield Strength increases by 5% per damage taken (to a maximum of five times, equivalent to 175%), and his second Constellation upgrade, Stone, the Cradle of Jade, allows his Burst to generate and refresh Jade Shields.
Depower: Implied. While he'll forever remain a powerful Adeptus thanks to his millennia of experience, he might lose significant power as an Archon; not only he gave away his Gnosis, but he also staged Rex Lapis' death. While a selected few are aware of who he is and that he's still alive, the vast majority of Liyue believes him dead, and that ought to bring down his power. Since he wishes to settle into retirement, this could've been his plan all along.
Didn't Think This Through: Zhongli notes that setting aside private funds for his new life would have been a promising idea. It's a shame then that he only realizes this after he's already given up his Mora-making powers. Related to this, the Golden House, the only Mora mint on Teyvat, is operated with the the Geo Gnosis. Now that he no longer has it, it will not be able to run. He noticeably pauses when discussing it as if only just realizing that this could be a problem before sheepishly saying that the Qixing will just have to figure something out.
Drama-Preserving Handicap: In order to track down their sibling and understand why they're with they Abyss Order, the Traveler needs to uncover the secrets of Teyvat's history. The logical solution would ordinarily be to just ask someone as knowledgeable and ancient as Zhongli for details. Naturally, Zhongli proves unable to help, as he is contractually obligated not to speak about certain subjects such as the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm, as Celestia is very keen on keeping certain skeletons hidden in its closet.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of his name (simplified 钟离, traditional 鍾離, pinyin "Zhōnglí") are read as "Shōri" (via kan-on, or Han Chinese-derived, reading; hiragana しょうり) in Japanese and "Jongryeo" (hangul 종려) in Korean.
Dull Surprise: Played for Laughs. His sense of money is so poor, he reacts to an astronomically high price by merely commenting it is steep while the Traveler and Paimon panic about the impossibility of them buying something that expensive.
Earth/Wind Juxtaposition:
- Zhongli and Venti are the two oldest Archons, and represent Geo and Anemo respectively. Both seem to be at odds with each other, as Zhongli disapproves of Venti's drinking habits, whereas Venti thinks of Zhongli as a "blockhead."
- Zhongli and Xiao, the last Yaksha. Xiao lives his life in service to his Archon and Zhongli shows great concern for him (his person as well as his safety). Ironically, while their fighting styles match their respective element, character-wise it's almost the exact opposite: Zhongli appears far more accepting of change and has little trouble blending in with the people of modern Liyue (usually more associated with wind/air), while Xiao keeps his distance from most social interactions and has a harder time letting go of the past.
Elemental Personalities: The Geo Archon is a calm, stoic, patient, reliable person who rarely, if ever, lets his emotions explode, even during battle.
Exact Words: Downplayed. There are two times where he doesn't have much wiggle room to exploit in terms of disclosing details about certain subjects, all because of of his vow to never break contracts.
- He's not allowed to say what it is the Tsaritsa offered in exchange for the Geo Gnosis, but he takes a moment to make clear that despite there supposedly being nothing that can compare to a Gnosis in value, the two Archons had nonetheless made a relatively fair trade, leaving it to the Traveler to find out what that offer was.
- After admitting that he can't talk about Khaenri'ah and their sibling, he encourages the Traveler to follow in "that person's" footsteps and learn the truth of the world. His choice of words, while not disclosing any details about the nation's fall, confirms that he knows of the Traveler's sibling beyond what the Traveler has discussed, and that the truth they claim to have discovered at the end of their journey exists and will provide the context they seek.
Expert Consultant: Zhongli is officially this for the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, but his expertise is valued in many fields. In Xianyun's Story Quest, for instance, he's hired as a consultant to appraise some mechanical devices. Just don't ask him anything to do with money.
Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: He has a noticeable and uncharacteristic pause when he mentions that without his Gnosis, no more Mora can be created, suggesting the full scope of the consequences hadn't become clear to him until that moment.
Exotic Eye Designs: His eyes are bright orange with two glowing rings and glowing pupils, something not seen in other characters.
Faking the Dead: As Rex Lapis, he faked his own death to leave that identity behind and to test whether Liyue was ready to continue on without him as its Archon.
Fashionable Asymmetry: He wears one earring on his left ear.
Fatal Flaw: Lack of foresight regarding money. He keeps forgetting to bring Mora along on his and the Traveler's shopping spree, forcing the Fatui to cover for him every time. He also doesn't think to save some funds before retiring as Geo Archon, leaving him flat broke when the deed is done. Giving his Gnosis to the Tsaritsa also means the Golden House can no longer function until the Qixing find an alternative. He is quite sheepish when the Traveler points all this out to him.
Feeling Their Age: He dances around the subject a little, but it's clear that one of his primary reasons for resigning as the Geo Archon is that he's starting to feeling himself decline from his advanced age.
The Fettered: Zhongli strongly believes in order and integrity, hence his emphasis on honoring the terms of a contract. Betraying those ideals in his face is a surefire way to draw down "the Wrath of the Rock".
Foreshadowing:
- There's a lot of hints that Zhongli is Rex Lapis incognito, from his extensive knowledge of Liyue and Rex Lapis to his bright amber eyes, which various in-game literature describes as a distinguishing trait of all of the Geo Archon's avatars.
- In Zhongli's first Story Quest, he says he wants the Traveler to bear witness to Teyvat's history so that someone at least will remember what really happened, and in his second he reminds them how easily truth can be distorted, and warns them that no part of history except what they personally bear witness to can be fully trusted. Though at first he seems to be talking about things like history being Written by the Winners and how erosion of the memory of immortals can affect their accounts, there's more to it than that:
  - At the end of Ei's second Story Quest, she reveals that the Sacred Sakura sprang out of nowhere after Makoto's death, yet thanks to what is implied to be Istaroth's power, everyone else in Inazuma believes it has always been there.
  - At the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest, after Rukkhadevata's lingering consciousness is removed from Irminsul to permanently cleanse Sumeru of Forbidden Knowledge that had been causing Eleazar and the Withering, everything is changed such that she never existed; the life she once lived is instead explained as being that of Kusanali, who instead of perishing in the Cataclysm like Rukkhadevata did merely suffered amnesia, and various other effects she had on history are similarly attributed to other factors wherever appropriated. Venti, Zhongli, and Ei also subsequently unlock voice lines where they express familiarity with "Buer" even though Kusanali had been locked up for the past 500 years, implying not even Rukkhadevata's contemporary gods remember her.
  - At the end of the third Archon Quest Interlude, after witnessing Scaramouche permanently erase his existence in an ultimately vain attempt to undo the deaths of his friends from four hundred years ago, and then return as the Wanderer, the Traveler and Paimon hear the voice of a mysterious woman who tells them that fate in Teyvat cannot be easily changed, but that the should also trust their eyes.
- In Zhongli's second Story Quest, he tells the Traveler to follow "that person’s" footsteps to uncover the truth about the world. He specifically said "that person", not their sibling. The Sumeru Archon Quest would reveal that the Traveler's sibling is recorded in Irminsul, implying that he knows about the implications that the Traveler's sibling is from Teyvat.
Friendly Enemy: With Tartaglia. Though, it is not so much that they are enemies more on the side than that Zhongli is aware of how dangerous Tartaglia is or can be. One of his lines has him lightheartedly tell the Traveler to inform him if Tartaglia is giving them any trouble so that he can deal with it. His second line concerning him has him make light of the fact that Tartaglia likely kills those who oppose him in a manner that would suggest he's impressed by his abilities and looks forward to the news that will come the next time they meet up for drinks. He even invites the player along despite his earlier line.
The Gadfly: While he presents as a serious man, the Rex Incognito books depict Rex Lapis as a rather playful character who sets up trials for humans, redistributes the wealth of the cruel, and propagates a myth about jade tablets being used as ancient currency for his own amusement. He also made Tartaglia foot the bill for what ultimately turned out to be an overpriced sham funeral for himself.
Good Is Not Soft: As God of Contracts, Zhongli takes contracts very seriously, and won't hesitate to punish anyone who breaks a contract made with him, whether it's beating the crap out of them or revealing the Awful Truth about their patron goddess.
Guyliner: Wears red eyeliner on the sides of his eyes.
Heartbroken Badass: As great an Archon as he's been, Zhongli has known a lot of people whose fates he deeply regrets, and among them are people he's failed personally in spite of his great power, such as Guizhong, the Yakshas, and Azhdaha. He bears the pain well, but given his solemn reminiscence about having to continue marring Azhdaha's legacy, the scars run quite deep.
Humans Are Special: The reason he never took offense to Keqing's open disrespect is that at present he's of the same mind, and engineered the Osial crisis so his people could prove their abilities. He is immensely pleased when the Qixing and the adepti defeat him without his help and takes it as a sign that he can step back and retire with no danger to Liyue.
I Did What I Had to Do: In the present Zhongli is not entirely proud or happy about a number of the things he did as Geo Archon, expressing regrets about the way the Archon War turned out and having to seal away his old friend Azhdaha after age drove him senile and angry, but he went through with such morally questionable actions nonetheless to uphold his own oaths, whose necessity he will emphasize when appropriate.
I Gave My Word: As a traditional Liyuan, Zhongli believes in always honoring contracts. Though he does note that if the contract does not cover something, it is fair game. Unfortunately for the Traveler, a number of important details they'd like to know, such as the terms of the deal between him and the Tsaritsa and the history of their sibling and Khaenri'ah, are things he's explicitly agreed not to talk about, so the best he can do to help is to merely encourage them to seek the answers themselves.
Improbable Use of a Weapon: His basic attack animation includes him kicking his polearm at enemies, which causes it to spin in midair before grabbing it.
Interface Spoiler: Defied. Before completing the Liyue Archon Quest, his profile and story entry will list "Vision" while his Constellation appears as "???". His Story Quest also has the title "Historia Antiqua", not his constellation's name, unlike other characters. After completing the Archon Quest, his profile and story entry now lists "Gnosis" instead of "Vision" and his Constellation is revealed: Lapis Dei, "God of Stone".
I Resemble That Remark!: After being asked to use his "high-society knowledge powers" Zhongli is mildly put off by Paimon for making him appear like "some sort of bourgeoisie parasite whose sole utility lies in providing quaint pieces of trivia on demand"—just before providing them with the demanded piece of trivia. And never once showing up with the mora needed to pay his bills.
Irony: Zhongli is often described as a rigid traditionalist, but he's actually pretty accepting of the new, expressing his approval of Keqing's radical views. In comparison, other so-called traditionalists tend to end up in his crosshairs, as he's so particular about how long-established traditions are practiced that he often lectures people on the mistakes they had no way of knowing they made.
It Began with a Twist of Fate: All the events of the Liyue Archon Quest happened because Zhongli just happened to overhear a dockworker telling his employee that he's worked enough and should go rest, prompting him to completely rethink his position as Geo Archon.
Jerkass to One: To Venti. Zhongli often refers to him as a "drunkard" and a "disgrace to the arts". Especially notable as normally Zhongli is unfailingly cordial when talking to anyone no matter his personal feelings (even Hu Tao), staying dignified and collected throughout his Character Story even after someone has pressed his biggest Berserk Button. Given that they are the characters who know each other the longest and the only two remaining members of the original Seven, Venti has rubbed off on him longer than anyone else, enough for Venti to press all his buttons. Nonetheless, when the two reunite while it's somewhat awkward given the situation (both have to pretend they're strangers) it's shown that they're ultimately happy to be reunited.
King Incognito: The consultant of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is actually Morax, the Geo Archon and god of Liyue. His mortal disguise proves effective in faking his death so he can retire from his position with his people none the wiser. It's even alluded to in the name of his theme music and a fictional book series, Rex Incognito.
Leitmotif: He has one in his debut trailer, The Listener, named "Rex Incognito".
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Zhongli is attractive and wears his hair in a low ponytail down his back.
Man of Kryptonite: Zhongli turns the Geo Hypostasis into a complete joke thanks to the held form of his Skill, which absorbs energy from enemy Geo constructs, such as the Hypostasis's pillars, creates a shield to absorb its damage, and has a short cooldown. He can also destroy two of the three pillars it creates when it is trying to revive itself, leaving the last one at the mercy of either his Burst, any claymore wielder, Overload reactions, or any other character with blunt-type attacks.
Meaningful Name: Zhongli's name is homophonous with Zhongli Quan, one of the Eight Immortals in Taoism, who learned the ability to transmute regular stones into gold or silver to help people from poverty and famine, and eventually, his continual usage of his powers led to him achieving immortality. After all, Zhongli is Rex Morax himself.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Zig-zagged. Zhongli is hardly the only Barrier Warrior whose shield relies on his HP to become more durable, with even his reliance on it for his offensive power becoming less unique as time went on with the introduction of characters like Thoma and Layla. However, he does stand out among Geo characters because the resilience of his shields scales off of his Max HP, as with the exception of Ningguang, every other Geo thus far is instead reliant on Defense for most of their power as Support Party Members or DPSs, even fellow and first Barrier Warrior, Noelle. This is particularly ironic considering the fact that he's the Geo Archon himself.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: His Burst calls down a giant meteor on enemies. Any that gets caught will be petrified for a short time to allow the player to get some damage in before the effect wears off. With his fourth-ascension passive, Dominance of Earth, deals extra damage based on a third of his Max HP, and his fourth Constellation upgrade, Topaz, Unbreakable and Fearless, increases its damage radius by 20%, and the duration of petrification by two seconds.
Money Dumb: Zhongli has absolutely no concept of budgeting, would just "buy them all" when asked to choose, will never try to haggle when everyone else in Liyue would, and always forgets to bring his own wallet, needs others to cover for him. His character story outright states that "he cannot imagine himself being poor". Having the power to create money out of thin air can severely warp one's economic senses, especially for someone as long-lived as Zhongli, to the point that while he had meticulously planned for his own "retirement plan" that got the Adepti and the Qixing involved, he totally forgot about his Gnosis' role on creating mora and thus the backbone of the economy.
Mr. Exposition: Due to his great deal of knowledge he can provide the Traveler (and the player) with a great deal of information on Liyue's customs, worldview, and history.
Mr. Fanservice: Downplayed as his default outfit isn't as revealing as Kaeya and Itto. Nevertheless, there is no denying that Zhongli is one of the most attractive men in all of Teyvat, being Tall, Dark, and Handsome, and having a deep masculine voice across all four dubs. Additionally, as soon as he became playable, fans have noticed that his in-game model wears trousers that are rather tight, especially around the rear which when viewed from certain angles while he is climbing or gliding, is surprisingly well-defined compared to those of the other playable male characters. Furthermore, his Statue of the Seven has him depicted shirtless, a stark contrast to his fellow Archons who are depicted to be more conservatively dressed on their statues.
Mundane Utility: The held form of his Skill trivializes mining since it destroys all ore veins in the vicinity at once.
Musical Spoiler: His theme, Rex Incognito practically spells out that he's Rex Lapis, going incognito.
Nice Guy: While he is a bit eccentric with his view on money, he is otherwise a very reasonable man, paying contract workers fair wages, giving the Traveler a great deal of autonomy, and sharing his knowledge of Liyue with them. He is genuinely apologetic when roping the Traveler into an ill-conceived contract and finally repays them for all their work with dinner at a well-regarded restaurant. In the video Zhongli: An Additional Expense, he seeks out a family forced to pawn off a prized heirloom to not only return their prized hairpins but offer them more money to pay for said expenses.
Obstructive Code of Conduct: Zhongli takes every contract very seriously, doing his best to fulfill each one he takes on no matter the convenience or even his personal feelings on the matter. Usually he is able to brush these things off with various justifications, so the fact that he is noticeably pained and frustrated at not being able to tell the Traveler about Khaenri'ah and their sibling speaks volumes about just how much he values their friendship.
Occam's Razor: At the start of his first Story Quest, he joins a debate with a pair of archaeologists who are presenting very fanciful and mystical theories about Rex Lapis' actions, one claiming that the first mora coin holds some divine power, and the other claiming a sword and dagger made by him can grant the owners some manner of authority over Liyue. He, being Rex Lapis and knowing that they're both incorrect, attempts to suggest the simplest solutions, such as that Rex Lapis merely made the first mora coin as a currency, and then stating that's it likely not in some hidden temple or anything, just spent somewhere. His interpretation however is dismissed for "lacking evidence."
Odd Friendship: With Tartaglia. Promotional material treats them as a pair, and they are very friendly within the game itself despite their differing personalities. Tartaglia tends to keep Zhongli in check, especially in terms of Mora if he is not outright supplying him with it, while Zhongli is aware of but otherwise unbothered by the former's Blood Knight tendencies despite knowing that he kills those who oppose him. The original Chinese "Composed" voice line suggests that Zhongli is impressed by Tartaglia's battle capabilities, using the word "warrior" to describe him.
The Older Immortal: Rex Lapis is the oldest of the Seven, by a margin of more than a millennia. His age wears on him, both in the form of him having outlived many of his friends and contemporaires and dropping the occasional hint that even as long lived as adepti are, age is starting to catch up with him. His abdictating the position of Geo Archon is treated like a retirement after a long and fruitful career.
Olympus Mons: Zhongli's true identity is the Geo Archon, "Rex Lapis" Morax, and like Venti he is a 5★ unit that can join the Traveler's party.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever he carries out a contract, he claims he did it out of either a sense of necessity or honor, offering his perspective on the matter in an attempt to help justify or at least clarify his actions regardless of any misgivings. He does this even when discussing the matter of Azhdaha's sealing, which he is visibly regretful for having to do. So when the Traveler asks him about Khaenri'ah, he visibly hesitates for a split second before saying that he's under a contract not to say anything about it. That's all he offers, with no accompanying explanation. Because of this, the Traveler backs off from pressing the issue, as they understand that Zhongli will never break a contract.
Paper-Thin Disguise: If his depictions in cutscenes set in the past are to be taken at face value, Zhongli did remarkably little to alter his human form over the millennia. Additionally the suit he wears not only looks like a more modern version of his outfit over four thousand years ago, it also happens to be a design he collected from Menogias, which Xiao immediately recognizes. He gets away with this because the people of modern Liyue have only ever knowingly interacted with Rex Lapis in his Exuvia form, and he likely steered clear of the adepti while he instigated the events of the Liyue Archon Quest.
Perpetual Poverty: Ultimately subverted. While he has yet to have a scene where he has any mora on him, he is also Hu Tao's employee, so it can be assumed he actually does have a steady income. Him being used to create mora at will is what causes him to forget his wallet most of the time.
Person of Mass Destruction: As Rex Lapis, he leveled Guili Plains and created the Guyun Stone Forest when fighting hostile gods during the founding of Liyue.
Picky Eater: While he enjoys anything that she cooks, Xiangling notes how on one instance, Zhongli, after taking a single bite, suggested that she ought to serve salt and pepper tofu specifically using sea salt extracted from Guyun Stone Forest, saying it would bring a fresh sense of depth to the tofu. And Xiangling herself is one of the luckier ones; his character story mentions that he is rather "particular" about virtually everything, including taste in food, so cooks at other restaurants often get called up for long lectures about everything he found wrong with their "authentic" dishes.
Power Up Letdown: His Balance Buff pertaining to the charged form of his Skill is a double-edged sword. Sure, it now comes with a free Stone Stele that constantly deals wide-ranging Geo damage, but for melee DPS units relying on Elemental reactions, the constant Geo damage can consume the elemental effect placed on the enemy, preventing optimal reaction damage.
Promoted to Playable: For most of the Liyue Archon Quest, Zhongli is a mere NPC despite his prominent role therein. It wasn't until a month after the finale to said Quest was released that he was made playable.
Purple Prose: His manner of speech, most evident during his Story Quests, is peppered with flowery words, that it sounds very old-fashioned and dignified. A hint of him being much older than his apparent age.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm, collected, and (usually) logical Blue to Tartaglia’s combative, headstrong Red.
Reluctant Ruler: According to Liyue legend, Rex Lapis only founded and ruled Liyue to provide a safe place for his followers during the chaos of the Archon War. The Archon Quest supports this interpretation, with Zhongli happily giving up his position and duties ruling Liyue, but only after his people have proven they do not need his continued support.
Renaissance Man: Zhongli is a man of many, many talents. Cooking, tea culture, engineering, theology, history, perfumery, ritualist, gemology, appraisal, and so on. Except for budgeting.
Required Secondary Powers: Turns out that his bad spending habits are the result of relying his whole life on the ability to generate mora on a whim. His attempt to avoid using said powers forces him to confront the reality that he has not yet developed the required spending and saving habits.
Resource Reimbursement: His utility passive, Arcanum of Crystal, refunds 15% of ores used to forge polearms.
Riches to Rags: Goes from having literally infinite wealth by virtue of being able to create Mora at will to being almost penniless, since he didn't think to put aside some Mora for his own use for renouncing his title as Archon. Somewhat mitigated by the fact that, unlike Venti, he is actually employed by someone, so in theory he should still have a steady income regardless.
Riddle for the Ages: What exactly the Tsaritsa could give him that was so important that Zhongli was willing to trade away the Geo Gnosis for is not revealed. He merely insists it was in fact that important and encourages the Traveler to find out for themselves what it was since he is unable to reveal it.
Running Gag: The second act of the Liyue Archon Quest constantly shows his poor grasp at budgeting, such as negotiating to buy all an item's stocks when they only needed one. Near the end of the quest, the Traveler and Paimon are visibly scratching their heads or face-palming when they are about to expect what Zhongli is about to say again.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Played straight, then defied. Used to be able to invoke this when he was still the Geo Archon due to his ability to generate infinite amounts of Mora, then when he shed his godly form to take a mortal body, he still tends to buy/purchase things excessively even though he has to hold back his power to create money, so he had to have someone else foot the bills for him. It is the cause for his Running Gag of being Money Dumb.
Secret-Keeper:
- Zhongli takes the terms of all his contracts seriously, and will not share anything he's agreed to keep quiet, not even to a friend like the Traveler. This includes the terms of his deal with the Tsaritsa, and, to his chagrin, the history of Khaenri'ah and the Traveler's sibling. Though he doesn't talk about the subject directly, he encourages the Traveler to follow "that person's" journey and witness the truth of the world for themselves, which is disturbingly similar to what the Traveler's sibling asked of them and suggests that he too knows the whole truth. Why he encourages the Traveler to do the same over trying to dissuade them remains to be seen.
- Inversely, only a few people know that he is the Geo Archon: apart from the Traveler and Paimon, there are the Fatui, Madame Ping, Xiao, and the other remaining Adepti, with the implications that his fellow Archons such as Venti, Ei, and Nahida are also in the know if their lines about him are any indication. In addition, Guoba felt a sense of familiarity about him despite having lost his memories, and Hu Tao is kind of suspicious about him.
Serious Business: Contracts, befitting the god of them. He will never break a contract that he has made, even if he wants to, and if others happen to break the contracts with him, he will be sure to bring down the famous "Wrath of the Rock" upon them. However, he will abuse loopholes and the exact wording of a contract if necessary.
Sharp-Dressed Man: He wears a very slick tailored suit.
Significant Birth Date: December 31 is the final day of the Gregorian calendar, which thematically fits Morax's current guise as Zhongli portending the end of his tenure as Geo Archon.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Given his Odd Friendship with Tartaglia, it makes sense that Zhongli would get some talent ascension materials from the Harbinger whenever they engage in friendly duels (i.e., the weekly boss battles with the latter).
- As Hu Tao's employee, Zhongli is a bit annoyed by her demeanor, but the two playable staff of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor still make a great team together — Zhongli's shields greatly increase Hu Tao's survivability without compromising her damage output, due to her reliance on her HP being as low as possible to deal more damage.
- His utility passive, Arcanum of Crystal, refunds some of the ore used when forging polearms, no doubt a carryover from his time as a War God.
Snark-to-Snark Combat: In the epilogue to the 2023 Lantern Rite event, he engages in one with Venti. It's clear that they’re doing everything they can to keep their identities a secret from everyone else while simultaneously trading barbs with one another.
So Proud of You: Zhongli is immensely pleased to see the Qixing and the adepti handle the crisis, and takes it as a sign they are ready to grow out of his protection, meaning he can safely retire from his Archon duties. He also expresses surprised approval when the Qixing turned out to be a bit more ambitious than expected and managed to gain complete control of Liyue.
- In one of his voice lines, he talks about Ningguang with respect, having seen her perseverance despite the affairs she has to deal with ever since she was a child, and describes her as a "rare gem."
- He also shows his respect to Keqing because she is someone who, in his words, "speak up when they believe themselves to be right, and then go and do something decisive about it". He's content with leaving his job as Geo Archon because he knows there are people like her.
Spanner in the Works: Inverted during the 2024 Lantern Rite questline. The Traveler, Paimon, and Xianyun have a plan to help Gaming and his father Yip reconcile. Along the way, they happen to run into Zhongli, who proceeds to charm Yip with his extensive knowledge of tea and, when the topic turns to Yip's relationship with his son, gives advice that leaves Yip willing to try mending fences with Gaming. Xianyun's own arrival and attempt to carry out her plan only distracts Yip from the reconciliation she was trying to bait him into, and judging by how it goes likely wouldn't have worked anyway.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Zhongli can create spears made out of Geo energy that he utilizes in three of his normal attack sequences, and his charged attack has him raining down Geo spears in a straight line towards his enemies.
Stealth Mentor: For the Qixing. To evaluate their readiness, he arranges for the release of one of the old gods he defeated in the Archon War, as this is the level of power to overcome to survive without him. Seeing them able to work together with the Adepti to defeat the god once again reassures him that they will do fine without him, leaving him content with trading away his Gnosis to the Tsaritsa.
Stone Wall: In addition to having a high Max HP, Zhongli's Talents and Constellation upgrades encourage players to make him even tankier, especially given that both the damage potency of his Skill and the resilience of the Jade Shield generated by its held form scale off of his Max HP. In particular, his fourth-ascension passive, Dominance of Earth, encourages players to build him up to be even more tanky, as it provides a damage boost to all his attacks by a fraction of his Max HP—normal, charged, and plunging attacks by 1.39%, Skill by 1.9%, and Burst by a whopping 33%.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: He has amber eyes. In his promotional video, they shine gold before he goes into battle. According to the Rex Incognito books it's a distinguishing trait of Morax regardless of what form he appears in.
Support Party Member: While Zhongli can be a DPS if you build him as such, he's much more commonly used as a shielder due to having the tankiest shield in the game, and works especially well with DPS who impair their HP while attacking like Xiao or Hu Tao.
Supreme Chef: The description for his signature dish, Slow-Cooked Bamboo Shoot Soup, suggests he puts a great deal of care into anything he prepares and will use only the best ingredients available.
Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's a tall man with dark hair who attracts fans in-universe and out of it.
Taken for Granite: Besides dealing damage, his Burst inflicts enemies with Petrification, making them temporarily immobilized.
Take Our Word for It: He invokes this. He can't tell the Traveler what he traded the Geo Gnosis for, but reassures them that he wouldn't have entered into the contract if it wasn't worth the price.
That Man Is Dead: He doesn't go back to his identity as Rex Lapis, letting the general populace assume he died during a divine trial.
Tragic Keepsake:
- Guizhong's dumbbell, the Memory of Dust. It represents the relationship the two had despite not having a formal contract which she sealed her knowledge inside. Zhongli would often take it out during some of his idle animations, and his Burst has him dropping a large-scale version out of the sky onto his enemies.
- To a lesser extent, his business attire was woven by Menogias, one the Five Foremost Yaksha, and has since worn it in his honor.
Trauma Button: In his voiceovers, he says that he hates seafood and that "his memory is too good." One of his story entries shows how, long before he became the Geo Archon, a swarm of aquatic creatures menaced Liyue that were not only revoltingly slimy and smelly, but were also tiny, such that they were impossible to detect unless you already touched one. Not exactly a creature he could easily deal with by throwing giant rock spears. Still, he was the God of Contracts, and he had promised to deal with them, so he went personally from house to house with prisons of stone and removed each of the creatures one by one by hand, like glorified pest control. It is impressive that it took him this long to give up being a god after an experience like that. Prior to that, one of the Rex Incognito books also shows him (disguising as a worker under a fisherman) being disgusted when it comes to handling squids and other tentacled sea products.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—his third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Jade, Shimmering through Darkness and Lazuli, Herald of the Order, add three levels to, respectively, his Skill and Burst.
Utility Weapon:
- Like the Geo Traveler, players can climb and stand on Stone Steles to get to a higher level or launch plunging attacks.
- The held form of his Skill can also be used to quickly mine surrounding ores.
Vague Age: He has the appearance of a man in his mid-twenties and the voice of a middle-aged man, but is clearly much older, since Madame Ping recounts having met him in her youth. As Rex Lapis, he is outright stated to be the oldest of the current Archons at around six thousand years old.
Vitriolic Best Buds:
- With Hu Tao, of sorts. Though in Zhongli's voiceover about Hu Tao he states how he cannot deal with her; that said, Zhongli still seems to appreciate her, and Hu Tao's voiceover about Zhongli expresses admiration over his knowledge and relaxed approach to trouble.
- With Venti. While his voiceover about Venti displays mostly contempt towards the bard, Zhongli does seem to enjoy the bards company during Lantern Rite. Somewhat at least, as they do engage in Snark-to-Snark Combat and there is the implication that Zhongli tried his hardest to keep Venti out at first.
Walking Spoiler: Just like Venti, and for the same reason. Not to mention that Zhongli machinated the Osial crisis to assess his subjects as to whether or not they are ready to move on without him, so he can step down from his duties as their presiding Archon.
Weapon Specialization: Zhongli is strongly associated with the Vortex Vanquisher (5★), as evidenced in the fact that his Wish banner frequently runs concurrent to it, and is shown wielding it in his official artworks, Character Demo, Collected Miscellany video, and both his Story Quests to date. Its Ascension substat is Attack (10.8–49.6%), while its "Golden Majesty" passive increases its wielder's Shield Strength by 20–40%, as well as Attack stat by 4–8% for eight seconds whenever they hit enemies, which are triggered at least every 0.3 second, can stack up to five times, and has an additional 100% boost if they are also protected by a shield (hence a maximum of 120–140%), hence simultaneously making him deadlier and harder to knock out at once.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: While not outright stated, it's implied that part of the reason he's willing to give up his Geo Gnosis is due to his old age wearing him down. It does not help that his contemporaries are already long-gone, such as Guizhong, Azhdaha, the Yakshas, and five of the original Archons. One of his voice-overs (quoted at the top of the page) has him say that while he has a good memory, not every memory is a good one. Not even reminiscing about his old rivalry with Osial seems to stir up much more than melancholy and fatigue.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: He says this about the Vision.
(About the Vision) Visions... are also a type of contract. You should know that all power comes at a price. For every bit of power you gain, so too do you gain more responsibility.
Yellow Earth, Green Earth: His color scheme has plenty of yellow accents, and he wields Geo.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Inverted with Keqing, whose disapproval actually makes him quite happy. See Humans Are Special above.

Ferrylady

Voiced By: Qin Ziyi (秦紫翼) (Chinese)

The Undertaker in Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.

Alternate Character Reading: Bǎidù-rén (摆渡人) in Chinese Text, Watashi-mori (渡し守) in Japanese Text.
Dub Name Change: In the Spanish localization, she is named after a goddess of forgetfullness in Chinese Mythology, Meng Po.

Other Residents

Xingqiu

Xingqiu / "Zhenyu"

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Tang Yajing (Chinese), Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Kwak Kyu-mi (Korean), Cristina Valenzuela [credited as "Christina Vee"] (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xingqiu_5.png

Juvenile Gallant

^{Bamboo Rain}

"Xingqiu at your service, my liege! I humbly trust that even one such as I, a mere bookworm, may yet prove to be of some utility under your wise leadership. Nice, I don't often get a chance to speak with such formality. It felt pretty good!"

Rarity: 4★
Element: Hydro
Weapon: Sword
Constellation: Fabulae Textile, the Scroll of Fables

The second son of a leader of the Feiyun Commerce Guild, Xingqiu is a polite and studious youth with a penchant for getting into trouble, and then using his social position to get back out of trouble. An eager reader, novelist, and martial artist, he holds chivalric ideals in high esteem and longs to be the kind of hero he reads about.

Xingqiu emulates his literary heroes with a fighting style that prioritizes defensive support through summoning three Rain Swords, which orbit around the active character to increase their flinching resistance and are expended to reduce damage taken, through both his Elemental Talents: his Skill, Guhua Sword: Fatal Rainscreen, is a two-hit backflip slash, while his Burst, Guhua Sword: Raincutter, additionally initiates a state of "Rainbow Bladework," which constantly replenishes Rain Swords and summons other Swords to attack enemies in tandem with regular attacks.^note

Badass Bookworm:
- Xingqiu is quite the avid reader and scholar. He also practices martial arts and wields a sword.
- He is also an amateur novelist, whose work A Legend of Sword is a bestseller in Inazuma, contrary to its cooler reception back home.
Barrier Warrior: Both his Elemental Talents create three Rain Swords orbiting the active character, which usually last fifteen seconds and are sacrificed to reduce their damage intake, with an additional boost to resilience based on 20% of Xingqiu's Hydro Damage Bonus (to a maximum of 24%). In particular, his Skill is a two-hit backflip slash that additionally inflicts Wet on Xingqiu, while his Burst initiates the Rainbow Bladework state (see "Super Mode," below). His first Constellation upgrade, The Scent Remained, adds a fourth Rain Sword.
Beneath the Mask: His "learned young gentleman" persona hides the fact that he secretly likes to sneak alone to various places to practice martial arts moves, commit acts of mischief, looking for a "fight for justice," and other kinds of adventures. Only those close to him seem to realize his mischievous side. One of his lines has him expressing his relief that he can be himself around the Traveler when the other times he must put an act among the people who live around him. He also opens himself more towards Chongyun, which means the latter tends to get the brunt of Xingqiu's mischiefs.
Berserk Button: Xingqiu hates cynics who question the concept of heroism more than he does carrots.
Brilliant, but Lazy: At least in his Story Quest, even though he wants to help Chang the Ninth as a form of gratitude^note, he has the Traveler do most of the legwork as he occupies himself with reading his novels, and only comes to fight if he's threatened; that said, he can defend himself well, despite his looks.
Paimon: "For all your clever long words, the fact is you're just a lazybones who doesn't wanna work!"
The Charmer: He always manages to talk his way out of trouble. According to his character description, "parents in Liyue Harbor would speak adoringly of him, all secretly hoping that their own children would show as much promise as Xingqiu."
Child Prodigy: He's well-learned and prodigious, with not just school subjects but also martial arts. When his father once tried to have him admitted to the Guhua Clan's martial arts school, both he and the Clan's head were surprised at his prodigious knowledge beforehand, with the latter awestruck at his writing on his view of martial arts, as well as his theories about Visions being an extension of the martial artist's body and their weapons being an extension of their Vision.
Combat Medic: The combination of Rainbow Bladework and Xingqiu's first-ascension passive, Hydropathic, allows the active character to constantly heal themselves, as Rain Swords are also shattered when they hit enemies.
Crimefighting with Cash: Though he is mostly just interested in reading, he is more than willing to flex his family's financial muscle in the pursuit of justice... especially if he can turn things around to make a profit back in the process.
Cultured Warrior: He's a skilled and gentlemanly swordsman who would rather discuss books or browse through a nice bookstore than trade blows. Of course, he is always ready to fight should the situation call for it, and in more ways than one.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Xingqiu's second Constellation upgrade, Rainbow Upon the Azure Sky, imposes a four-second-long 15% Hydro Resistance penalty on foes hit with Rain Swords, as well as extends the duration of Rainbow Bladework from fifteen seconds to eighteen.
Does Not Like Spam: Carrots, to the point where he deliberately excludes them in his specialty dish. He says that when he was younger, his mother would mash carrots into... something that sickened him.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: In his character story, his older brother remarks to himself about Xingqiu's "books under the bed" and that the latter may be hitting puberty, after cleaning Xingqiu's room. The whole thing sounds like Xingqiu hiding a Porn Stash under his bed, but he himself finds his brother's reaction odd... for they are merely martial arts novels.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of his name (行秋, pinyin "Xíngqiū") are read as "Yukuaki" (via kun'yomi, or native Japanese, reading; hiragana ゆくあき) in Japanese and "Haengchu" (hangul 행추) in Korean.
Elemental Hair Colours: His hair is a dark blue, as befitting his Hydro vision.
Flying Weapon: While Rainbow Bladework is active, Rain Swords will fly towards enemies to deal Hydro damage in tandem with the active character's normal attacks. His sixth Constellation upgrade, Hence, Call Them My Own Verses, increases the power of every third Rain Sword launched onto enemies, as well as regenerates 3 Energy should the Sword connect.
The Gadfly: According to various lines about him, he likes leading Chongyun into situations where the latter's "pure-yang spirit" flares out and makes him act in unwanted ways, such as eating spicy food or attending Xinyan's concerts.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-Universe. Xingqiu once penned a martial arts novel called A Legend of Sword based on his own experiences. While it flopped in Liyue, it was a bestseller in Inazuma and Fontaine, to the point where writers from the former even tried to replicate its success. Albedo's story explains that while he is already a good artist, he was inspired by what he considers the narrative power of Inazuman art, so he collaborated with Xingqiu to illustrate his novel. Liyuan literary circles lambasted the novel as "a dictionary with divine illustrations," but it caught the eye of an Inazuman merchant, who brought it home with him, and the rest is history.
Heal It with Water: Xingqiu's first-ascension passive, Hydropathic, gives Rain Swords the ability to heal the active character whenever they are shattered or their time expires, equal to 6% of Xingqiu's Max HP per Sword.
I Just Want to Be Special: He has always dreamed of being like heroes from novels he reads. After he got his Vision, he can finally live out his dream, even if he must find the occasions for it.
The Illegible: His penmanship is so terrible that the Traveler mistook a message written by him for an ancient script or a cipher language. Once the Traveler delivers said message to the Feiyun Commerce Guild, Xu, one of its officers, recognizes it as genuine because it's so hard to read. His character story mentions that he once wrote a verse in martial arts that the Guhua Clan's head heavily praised, but forbade others from reading it... not so much for questionable content as much as its illegible handwriting.
- This also became a plot point in the "True Tales of the Violet Garden" event. After hearing festival-goers praising "Zhenyu's" signature and eagerly awaiting their signed copies of his latest novel, the Traveler and Paimon became suspicious of Xingqiu's recent activities. As it turned out, he arrived in Inazuma early to practice his penmanship because his editor suggested a book-signing event, not realizing how bad his handwriting is, prompting him to move the latest copies of Legend of Sword elsewhere to cause a delay until they could figure something out.
Jerkass to One:
- A weird subversion when it comes to Chongyun. The former admires his chivalry and martial art skills, but says his pranks can often come off as callous, to the point of one of his voicelines having him light-heartedly suggest that he and the Traveler make a "Victims of Xingqiu" club. Chongyun's profile also states that he lies to Chongyun about where to find evil spirits, something that the exorcist takes very seriously due to his condition^note. That said, both Xingqiu and Chongyun are best friends, as the former at least cheers Chongyun up, treats him to nice cold food, and helps him get back his swindled money if Xingqiu's lead ends with him coming back empty handed.
- Played straight, however, with Ningguang. In his voice-over for the Tianquan, he says his respect towards her is a begrudging one, out of not creating issues for his family, but he prefers to not voice his opinion of her, stating he doesn't like to speak ill of other people; he doesn't even have a second voice-over for her after the Osial incident changes the people's view about her. Ningguang herself is aware of this, and in her respective voice-over for Xingqiu she agrees to not bother him.
Last of His Kind: Xingqiu is one of the few remaining (and legitimate) disciples of the Guhua sword fighting style.
Meaningful Name: As far as stellar-themed names in Genshin Impact go, he fits like a boot. Xingqiu's name means "progression of autumn" (since the planet rotating on its axis as it revolves around the sun causes the seasons, his birthday is also in autumn, so it refers to his youth as well). In pinyin, his name is also a homonym for "planet".
Nice Guy: Played with; he can be unnecessarily playful to the point it can be grating, but at his core, Xingqiu is a selfless person and Humble Hero who truly cares for those he trusts in and doesn't like to judge people.
Odd Friendship: Despite being annoyed by Xingqiu's pranks and Xiangling's culinary antics, Chongyun often appears hanging out with them in official artwork. Xiangling comments that she often sees Chongyun dragged by Xingqiu to dine at her Wanmin Restaurant. The latter's Hangout Event tree even describes Xingqiu as a good friend who is knowledgeable in many things.
Orbiting Particle Shield: Rain Swords orbit around the active character, protecting them from damage.
Pen Name: "Zhenyu" is the name he uses for his literary works.
Princely Young Man: Xingqiu is born to a famed mercantile family, and his chivalrous, studious, and polite manners made him popular; Liyuan parents even secretly wish their children could be as good as him.
Purple Prose: Being a novel enthusiast, he likes speaking in a polite and flowery way.
Resource Reimbursement: His utility passive, Flash of Genius, has a 25% chance to refund materials used to craft talent books.
Shaping Your Attacks: His Rain Swords created by his Elemental Talents obviously take the form of swords made of Hydro energy.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Befitting an avid bookworm, his utility passive, Flash of Genius, gives him a chance to refund materials used in crafting talent books.
Spanner in the Works: During the second Lantern Rite event, the Treasure Hoarders attempt to a rob a Feiyun Commerce Guild caravan that happens to be guarded by Xingqiu and Chongyun. Cue domino effect that leaves their plan in shambles.
Status Buff: Xingqiu's fourth Constellation upgrade, Evilsoother, increases the damage of his Skill by 50% while Rainbow Bladework is active.
Storm of Blades: His Burst has Rain Swords launch at a downward angle in coordination with the active character's normal attacks, with one second intervals between Rain Sword attacks.
Super Mode: His Burst triggers the Rainbow Bladework effect for fifteen seconds, during which not only are Rain Swords continually replenished, but it also generates offense-oriented Swords that deal damage in tandem with the active character's normal attacks.
Support Party Member: Xingqiu's fighting style revolves around summoning Rain Swords to protect the active character, as well as deal damage while the Rainbow Bladework state is active. This makes him one of the best non-Catalyst units to reliably apply a Hydro effect on enemies, and with that, an incredibly straightforward way to trigger Vaporize, Freeze, Electro-Charged, and Bloom.
Think Nothing of It: He insists on repaying any kindness in turn and will not accept any gratitude or even credit of his own honorable deeds if possible, believing it is simply the natural state of things.
Underestimating Badassery: In his Story Quest, this happens twice to him, first by Changhu, Gentry Maocai's debt collector who was hounding Chang the Ninth, and then by Javert, the Fatuus hired by Maocai to continue the collection. Both times ended with Xingqiu handing them their asses on the business end of his sword.
Upgrade Artifact: A couple of variants:
- Xingqiu's fourth-ascension passive, Blades Amongst Raindrops, increases his Hydro Damage Bonus by 20%.
- His third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Weaver of Verses and Embrace of Rain, add three levels to, respectively, his Burst and Skill.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Hu Tao and Chongyun; the former two have a shared interest in poetry and often ask the latter to referee their poetry battles. While Xingqiu often plays pranks on Chongyun to the latter's dismay (to the point Chongyun jokingly suggests to open a fan club over his pranks' victims), the two are otherwise best friends. As well, while Xingqiu acknowledges Hu Tao's eccentricity, he tries to keep himself neutral, which shows his closeness to her.

Xinyan

Xinyan

Introduced: November 11, 2020 (v1.1: "A New Star Approaches" [first half])
Voiced by: Wang Yaxin (Chinese), Chiaki Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Chae-ha (Korean), Laura Stahl (English)

Blazing Riff

"Rock 'n' roll is a revolution! Transforming your identity and destiny, saying goodbye to concessions and cowardice... it does them all! And most importantly, it lets you do it with art rather than words! My rock 'n' roll has an unbreakable spirit, like a flame in a rainstorm that refuses to go out, or the magma that never stops boiling under the surface of the land!"

Rarity: 4★
Element: Pyro
Weapon: Claymore
Constellation: Fila Ignium, the Blazing Strings

A musician and Liyue's sole practitioner of rock 'n' roll, a genre commonly associated with Fontaine. She fights against prejudices with her energetic, fiery performances, though not helped by her performances often rousing her audience into chaos.

Xinyan handles unruly crowds of enemies with wide-ranging, hard-hitting beats. Her Elemental Skill, Sweeping Fervor, has her swing her blazing guitar, temporarily infusing her regular attacks with Pyro and generating a shield whose level of resilience increases depending on how many enemies she hits, ranging from "Ad Lib" by default, to "Lead-In" with two enemies, and to "Rave" with at least three, the latter which can also periodically deal Pyro damage on surrounding enemies. Her Elemental Burst, Riff Revolution, creates a fiery display of pyrotechnics around her that deals a heavy combination of Pyro and physical damage.^note

Ambiguously Bi: Played with; one of her profile lines has her hesitantly saying that she should be allowed to like "anyone I want."
Ambiguously Brown: She's dark-skinned, even though the majority of people in Liyue are not.
Anime Hair: Her hair is shaped like two big flower buds and has stripes of two distinct colors. These "buds" are also fastened with spiked belts.
Awesome, but Impractical: Xinyan is capable of doing a lot of Physical damage, granting such a damage buff to her teammates, and even reducing the enemy's resistance thereof. Unfortunately, her Pyro element doesn't mesh properly with typical Physical damage builds, which center around Electro and Cryo in order to trigger Superconduct, and her Pyro output can interfere with this due to triggering Overload or Melt. In particular, her Skill grants a 15% Physical Damage boost to whoever it shields, but it also emits periodical pulses of Pyro damage in Rave-grade, making it tricky to get her to work with other characters like Eula or Keqing without screwing up windows for Superconduct reactions.
Barrier Warrior: her Skill creates a Pyro-elemental shield for the active character that can last up to twelve seconds, as well as temporarily apply a Pyro effect onto Xinyan, with an increasing level of damage absorption depending on the number of enemies hit—Ad Lib by default, Lead-in with two enemies, and Rave with at least three, the latter of which has the additional ability to deal Pyro damage to surrounding enemies every two seconds (to a maximum of six bursts). Her first-ascension passive, "The Show Goes On, Even Without an Audience...", reduces the enemy quota for boosting the shield's level (hence reducing Lead-in's requirement to one, and Rave's to at least two), while that for her fourth, "...Now That's Rock 'N' Roll!", confers the shield a 15% boost to Physical Damage. In addition, her second Constellation upgrade, Impromptu Opening, allows her Burst to automatically generate a Rave-grade shield, in addition to granting the Burst a guaranteed critical hit.
Berserk Button: Downplayed. Rock 'n' roll originates from Fontaine, yet Xinyan insists that it's her own music style. One of her reactions is even recorded in the Chihu Rock Bulletin Board: "Please do not insult my craft! My unique sound belongs to me, not Fontaine!" That being said, she does admit in one of her voicelines that the music style originates in Fontaine; she probably meant that she's giving the style her own twist.
Beware the Nice Ones: While the Traveler and Paimon haven't seen her angry, the latter implies that she can be real scary when angered. As seen in the "Labyrinth Warriors" event where Paimon narrowly avoids telling her that Childe is one of the Harbingers, and the one who nearly destroyed Liyue via summoning Osial to avoid incurring her wrath towards him.
Big Eater: She is one of the Wanmin Restaurant's most loyal customers, and will happily eat almost anything that Xiangling whips up.
Critical Hit Class: Her first Constellation upgrade, Fatal Acceleration, increases her attacking speed by 12% for five seconds (with at least five-second intervals) whenever she lands a critical hit, while her second, Impromptu Opening, guarantees a critical hit for her Burst (in addition to automatically granting a Rave-grade shield).
Cultural Rebel: In a way. With her music, she stands against many kinds of social prejudices. She has been facing many of those prejudices since she was young, and she feels that many adults fail to realize their potential because they are tied down by prejudice, giving in to the fear and endless anxiety. She wishes that she can change the minds of her audiences through rock n' roll. She at first found difficulty on making the people of Liyue accept her music, but when she thought of leaving, she decided against it, thinking that it would go against her rock n' roll principles, and began experimenting with making her music shows more showy and "blazing". This is implied to lead to her getting her Vision.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Her fourth Constellation upgrade, Wildfire Rhythm, allows her Skill to inflict a 15% penalty to the Physical Resistance of enemies struck for twelve seconds.
Dark Is Not Evil: Her sharp eyes and attire consisting of plenty of sharp spikes make her come across as a fierce and heinous villain in the eyes of many people. While she can be loud, Xinyan is very sweet and friendly even to strangers.
Deadly Force Field: At its maximum (Rave) grade, the shields generated by her Skill (as well as by her Burst through her second Constellation upgrade) will gradually deal Pyro damage on any enemy that comes too close.
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of her name (辛焱, pinyin "Xīnyàn") are read as "Shin'en" (via on'yomi, or Chinese-derived, reading; hiragana しんえん) in Japanese and "Sinyeom" (hangul 신염) in Korean.
Elemental Hair Colors: The highlights in her hair are colored red and orange, and Fire Is Red.
Elemental Personalities: A Pyro Vision wielder who's Hot-Blooded, proudly representing the power and vivaciousness of rock 'n' roll. She lampshades this, comparing the genre to a flame in a rainstorm that won't extinguish, or boiling hot magma.
The Empath: Xinyan has the ability to connect with and judge a person's character through their responses to her music.
Extreme Omnivore: She apparently likes anything Xiangling cooks, even her experimental ones (which often involve... unusual ingredients).
Face of a Thug: Rare female example. In her voicelines, she complains that children start crying when she accidentally locks eyes with them (and considering Xinyan's eyes are more slanted than Mount Tianheng...). Her character story says that she feels bad about scaring others because of her looks, so she tries to practice smiling and good body language. Then one day, she tried saving a kid from being bullied by other kids, and she smiled at the boy as she patted his head... all while the poor kid is stone-faced and wetting himself from looking at her face.
Femininity Failure: In her character story, she's mentioned to be not good at "feminine arts" when she was younger. This, among other "prejudices" (such as looking far from cute or being taller than average girls) is what she's fighting against with her rock 'n' roll. And even then, she believes in not giving up just because she may not be talented at it.
Xinyan: "Back when I was little, the adults all said I had to be more girly, that I should learn and study all these things. Wasn't ever any good at it, though, and I'd often get roasted bad. Rock 'n' roll's a different story. No-one ever taught me, but I can do it just fine. And of course, the adults say "that's unladylike!" *sigh* Talk about prejudice."
Gameplay and Story Integration: Rock 'n' roll enthusiast Xinyan's abilities are geared towards large-scale attacks and critical hits. So, like any good musician, she is always looking for big crowds and her next big hit in battle and music.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite her apparent fear of frogs, that doesn't stop her from picking them up at the player's behest.
Great Balls of Fire!: Xinyan summons them for her Burst.
Hidden Depths:
- Her birthday message to the Traveler reveals that she's quite skilled with woodworking, telling how she carved a working guqin even though she intended it to be an ornament.
- She is also a surprisingly good cook, as evidenced by her utility passive, A Rad Recipe, which gives her a 12% chance to duplicate a "delicious"-grade Defense-boosting dish.
Hot-Blooded: Par for the course, being a passionate musician who plays rock 'n' roll, a genre full of energy.
Improbable Weapon User: Downplayed, as Xinyan is classified a claymore wielder. But for her Skill she strikes her enemies with a guitar. That's on fire. Her "guitar" (which appears on her Constellation), given the Chinese cultural aesthetic of Liyue, is likely meant to be a ruan, but it's square-shaped, and has a blade in it, and is used to play rock music.
Instrument of Murder: Her guitar has an axe-like blade on its bottom. Her character story mentions that she made the guitar by herself, and added many personal touches to it, including her Vision. It can also self-destruct if it falls to the wrong hands. It's lampshaded in the end:
"Sorry, what? What do you mean, "these modifications sound like they have nothing to do with music?" Sounds like you, too, need to attend one of her performances. You’ll understand then."
Irony: One of her talent ascension materials is a drop from Tartaglia in his weekly boss fight. Come the "Labyrinth Warriors" event, she strikes a friendship with Tartaglia, seemingly unaware of his affiliation with the Fatui, let alone his role in the Osial crisis.
Meaningful Name: Her name means "spicy flames," befitting her boisterous, hotheaded personality and possession of a Pyro Vision.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Prior to the introduction of Eula, her Burst was the only one that can deal both physical and elemental (i.e., Pyro) damage.
Mighty Glacier: Xinyan hits very hard, and is fairly sturdy with both her Elemental Skill and Constellation upgrades, but as a claymore user, she attacks quite slowly, and the Skill has a very long cooldown of twenty seconds.
Mundane Utility: In her Character Demo trailer, Xinyan climbs on top of a meteorite summoned by the Geo Traveler just to use it like a performance stage.
Musical Assassin: She riffs with her guitar to hit enemies with a blast of fire and form a shield around herself.
Odd Friendship: Xinyan is a very approachable person, who is quick to befriend just about anyone. Among her friends, however, one who stands out the most is Tartaglia, a Blood Knight who nearly destroyed her homeland; though to be fair, she isn't aware of that last part.
Out of Focus: Despite being added to the game early on back in v1.1, it wasn't until v2.1 when Xinyan started making appearances in Story Events.
The Power of Rock:
- She's a rock 'n' roll musician whose Elemental Burst calls forth a burst of pyrotechnics.
- She has a unique way of telling what a person's like; she plays her music and asks the listener how it made them feel. This is how she gets an idea of Shiki Taishou's motives when they meet him, deciding to trust him based on his answer.
Reduced Mana Cost: Xinyan's sixth constellation upgrade, Rockin' in a Flaming World, reduces the stamina cost of her charged attacks by 30%, in addition to increasing their Attack equivalent to half of her Defense stat.
Rotten Rock & Roll: Downplayed. Xinyan is infamous throughout Liyue for her destructive shows, to the point that the Millelith have been sent in on her on a regular basis. Despite this, she has a lot of fans, some of which are also Millelith, who would occasionally help her set set up concert venues. In the end, as they're unable to find evidence of any casualties in her concerts, they just decide to "keep an eye open and the other shut" on her. She also tends to weird out people when she's just walking around, due to how she prefers to stay dressed in her stage attire everywhere she goes. That said, she's so proud of her music that she believes it's why she gained a Vision.
Spin Attack: Similarly to other short Claymore users, her Charged Attack has her swing her claymore, spinning around in circles at high speed.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak:
- She mostly presents herself as far from feminine, but in her "Birthday" voice-over, she says she's making a Fontaine-style embroidery for you. Then she lampshades it:
  (Birthday) "...Why are you looking at me like that? Wh—What, it's not that weird that I can do embroidery!"
- Her character story also mentions that when she was younger, despite her lack of talent at "feminine arts", she resolved to not give up. When Yun Jin, one of her fans, came to her house, the former was surprised at how clean and beautifully ornamented Xinyan's house is, and she also saw Xinyan's cooking and sewing work.
  "Why, this was practically the room of some refined lady of reputable upbringing, with nary any spirit of rock 'n' roll to be found! Xinyan was quite worried that this fan of hers would find the difference between their impression of "rock 'n' roll" and this reality too jarring."
Tsurime Eyes: Arguably the most noticeable of the playable cast, they compliment her Face of a Thug and highlight her Hot-Blooded nature. She even describes that people compare them to knives!
Unexplained Accent: In the English dub, Laura Stahl gave Xinyan a thick Southern accent that no other character has. The "Summer Fantasia" event showed that her parents also spoke with this accent, so it might just be Stahl's interpretation of a regional Liyuan accent.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Double-Stop and Screamin' for an Encore, add three levels to, respectively, her Skill and Burst.
Useless Accessory: That little drum on her back, probably. It's unlikely that she can actually play on it, since playing guitar usually requires two hands. It does make soft drumming sounds as she moves, but that's about it.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's afraid of frogs. One of Xinyan's idle animations has her cowering in fear as a frog ribbits nearby. Yun Jin also brings it up during the 3.4 Lantern Rite questline.

Yanfei

Yanfei

A half-human, half-Xiezhi adeptus born after the Archon War, who works as a legal advisor in Liyue Harbor.

See her entry here.

Yun Jin

Yun Jin

Introduced: January 5, 2022 (v2.4 "Fleeting Colors in Flight" [first half])
Voiced by: He Wenxiao (Chinese, speaking), Yang Yang (Chinese, singing [all languages]), Kotori Koiwai (Japanese), Sa Mun-yeong (Korean), Judy Alice Lee (English)

Stage Lucida

"In this age of humanity, I would rather like to tell stories about ordinary people. Yes, how grand it would be to sing about the hopes and dreams of ordinary people for all to hear!"

Rarity: 4★
Element: Geo
Weapon: Polearm
Constellation: Opera Grandis, the Grand Opera

The young director of the Yun-Han Opera Troupe, current head of the Yun family, and a famous figure in Liyue Harbor's opera scene. She is widely considered one of Liyue's most talented artists, with her courtesy, etiquette, and fondness for telling stories through opera defining her influence through Liyue. While stoic, those who know Yun Jin personally also speak of her warmth.

Yun Jin specializes in counterattacking and enhancing the potency of normal attacks. Her Elemental Skill, Opening Flourish, is a slash attack that, in its charged form, allows her to take up a defensive stance before slashing away once either the Skill is released or the shield either expires or takes enough damage, with increased potency proportional to the shield's duration. Her Elemental Burst, Cliffbreaker's Banner, hits a wide radius of enemies, as well as summons a Flying Cloud Flag Formation which increases the potency of her allies' normal attacks and lasts until either its time expires or the enhanced attacks reach a given quota.^note

The Ace: Almost all Liyuans consider Yun Jin a bona fide prodigy in almost every way when it comes to opera, be it as a singer, dancer, actor, or playwright.
Badass Adorable: A young beauty who fights just as gracefully as she dances. The "adorable" part comes in when her true personality when prying eyes aren't watching becomes apparent.
Beneath the Mask: Yun Jin's professional demeanor is mostly a persona she cultivated to better fit her image as an opera prodigy. In private, she is far more laidback, but she recognizes that her more "normal" persona would be considered unbecoming of someone of her high social standing, and wishes that there were more people with whom she could just be herself. In the route of her Hangout Event tree where the Traveler takes her on a stroll at Chihu Rock, if they continue to sing her stage persona's praises after she's already shown her real personality, she can barely conceal her disappointment.
Big Eater: Implied. Her favorite food includes large and hearty dishes such as Tianshu Meat and Black-Back Perch Stew, but due to the physical demands of her profession, she rarely, if ever, gets the chance to eat them.
Boring, but Practical: Being more of a Support Party Member, Yun Jin lacks serious DPS potential. However, her Skill generates a lot of Elemental Particles, allowing her to spam her Burst to maintain the buffs to her normal attacks, and as detailed below she's far tankier than one would expect.
Celebrity Is Overrated: While Yun Jin loves the opera scene and can't imagine doing anything else with herself, she finds the trials and tribulations of fame utterly suffocating.
Closet Geek: She's a big fan of rock music, which is still an underground genre in Teyvat. However, she usually has to sneak out to watch Xinyan's performances, as the troupe elders don't approve of her fascination with such "unrefined" music.
Cloudcuckoolander: Fails to understand what her manager might find so alarming about her wandering off into the wilderness to get herself attacked by monsters, just to capture the feeling of being in mortal danger. It's all in the name of giving her audience the best performance possible, right?
Commonality Connection: With Hu Tao and Xinyan. She shares the former's affinity with the arts (i.e., Yun Jin with opera, Hu Tao with poems), while also being a big fan and buddy of the latter due to her (hidden) fascination for rock 'n' roll.
Counter-Attack: The charged form of her Skill has her assume a defensive stance, with damage absorption equivalent to Yun Jin's Max HP, increasing the potency of the subsequent slash, which can be triggered either manually by the player or the barrier breaks, to a maximum of two charge levels. Her first Constellation upgrade, Thespian Gallop, reduces its cooldown time by 18% (i.e., from 9 seconds to 7.38).
Dance Battler: Yun Jin learned how to use polearms for acting out fights on stage, so all her attacks have an extra level of flourish and style to them. Furthermore, if she is left idle after finishing an attack string, she will do a little flourish while percussion sounds play in the background.
Does Not Like Spam: Stir-Fried Shrimp, as it is the only thing she is allowed to eat that won't significantly impact her physique or voice.
Dramatic Irony: While accompanying the Traveler and Shenhe to Mount Tianheng, she outlines the plot of her latest play, The Divine Damsel of Devastation, unaware that its plot is a highly fictionalized version of Shenhe's Dark and Troubled Past. The latter, for her part, says she likes it (without revealing her identity) but comments that it was unlikely the little girl in the story was as fearless as it makes her out to be. Yun Jin admits that playwrights take creative liberties with their subject matter, but doesn't get Shenhe's implication (though to be fair, "your new traveling companion is actually the subject of your new play" isn't a thought many people would have).
Dub Pronunciation Change: The characters of her name (simplified 云堇, traditional 雲蓳, pinyin "Yún Jǐn") are read as "Unkin" (via kan-on, or Han Chinese-derived, reading; kanji 雲菫; hiragana うんきん) in Japanese and "Un'geun" (hangul 운근) in Korean.
Early-Bird Cameo: She makes an appearance in a cutscene long before she was actually revealed to be playable in-game.
Elegant Gothic Lolita: She dresses the part, wearing a large bonnet and a modest puffy knee-length dress and stockings.
Fear of Thunder. Possibly. In her "When Thunder Strikes" voice-over, she is a little shocked over thunder, claiming "it really startled [her]".
Glacier Waif: For someone with a lithe body frame, Yun Jin is surprisingly tough, and improving her viability requires making her even more durable.
Gratuitous Foreign Language: Some of her voice lines are always in Chinese regardless of current audio settings, even though everyone in Teyvat appears to speak the same language.
Guile Hero: In a branch of her Hangout Event involving a gossip rag coercing a newly-hired editor with a crooked contract into tricking her into giving them something to use to spread rumors about her, choosing to report to Yun Jin instead of confronting said editor has Yun Jin concoct a plan to both prevent him from getting on dirt on her and potentially put his tabloid out of business; after Yun Jin sent the new hire a letter explaining that there are several rights violations in her contract, she and the Traveler storm the editor's second interview attempt, to which Yun Jin "responds" by suggesting that he hurry back to hide evidence of his shady dealings, claiming how getting reported to the Millelith could put him under heavy scrutiny and have every license and work he published investigated. He caves in rushes back to his hideout, at which point Yun Jin's manager reveals she had the Millelith follow him anyways, thus making his efforts moot anyways.
Hidden Depths:
- She harbors a secret fondness for rock 'n' roll, contrary to her dignified and elegant appearance, being particularly fond of the genre's vigorous and energetic nature. Xinyan theorizes that this came about because Yun Jin sometimes finds the fine arts "suffocating" from time to time.
- She is also a decent cook, as evidenced by her utility passive, Light Nourishment, which gives her a 12% chance to duplicate "delicious"-grade adventure-type dishes.
Hollywood Beauty Standards: Yun Jin is shown to struggle with this, and it's not entirely up to her whether or not she wants to live up to it. She wears a lot more make-up than other female characters appear to, is on a strict diet, and has to conceal her fondness for rock 'n' roll from her seniors in the Yun-Han Opera Troupe since they consider it too uncouth an interest for a proper lady to have.
I Just Want to Have Friends: Opera is Yun Jin's passion, but she finds the fame that comes with her success and the stuffy persona she has to create for herself suffocating. One route of her Hangout Event is about her showing off her more relaxed side that the public rarely gets to see.
I Know Mortal Kombat: Somehow, Yun Jin's skill in acting out battles in her plays adequately trained her enough for actual combat.
"Just Frame" Bonus: Yun Jin's first-ascension passive, True to Oneself, allows the charged form of her Skill to instantly trigger its second-level attack should it be released at the exact moment she is attacked.
Method Acting:invoked Yun Jin is quite... devoted to her job. Her Hangout Event tree starts with the Traveler having to rescue her after she decides the best way to tune her sense of danger is to put herself right in the path of a Ruin Hunter.
Mirror Character: She is to Liyue what Barbara is to Mondstadt. Both are young entertainers who are extremely popular around their respective cities, and are generally friendly to both their fans and the Traveler. However, they have virtually opposite personalities, with Barbara being bubbly in public but far more soft-spoken in private, while Yun Jin puts up a professional front but is much more casual in private. Both have to deal with unpleasant figures attracted to their fame—Barbara has her zealous fanbase (especially Albert), while Yun Jin deals with dishonest reporters. Gameplay-wise, both are Support Party Members whose Elemental Talents do not scale off their Attack stats—specifically, Barbara's scale off her Max HP, fights at range, and focuses on healing the party, while Yun Jin's scale off of her Defense, fights up-close, and specializes in augmenting the party's normal attacks.
Moveset Clone: Downplayed. It's hard not to compare her to Beidou in terms of abilities, with both their Skills being element-infused slashes that, in their charged froms, can be used for a more powerful strike, and their Bursts serve to empower the active character's normal attacks. However, both kits have notable differences—while Beidou specifically needs to Counter-Attack to use her Skill at its most powerful, Yun Jin has no such restriction and can simply charge hers, with her ability to counter being the result of her first-ascension passive allowing the charge to immediately go to its maximum form if she takes damage while charging it; meanwhile Beidou's Burst unleashes thunderbolts that strike in tandem with the active character's attacks and that can spread between enemies, while Yun Jin's empowers the active character's normal attacks based on her Defense Stat, with no additional elemental damage apart from its initial activation.
Mundane Made Awesome: Characters usually have some reaction to sudden climate changes. Bring Yun Jin up to Dragonspine and she'll complain about the cold by singing Chinese opera.
"喂呀，冻煞我了。"^Translation"Oh no! This cold shall be mine end!"
Nice Girl: People who get to know her personally describe Yun Jin as incredibly sweet, which is especially prevalent in her playable voice-overs and in her Hangout Event. Even when dealing with other people professionally, she's still unfailingly polite and courteous.
Non-Elemental: Similarly to Eula focusing on physical damage, despite being a Geo Vision holder, Yun Jin's fighting style are based entirely around her Defense stat, with her Burst enhancing the normal attacks of the party (not unlike the 4-piece bonus of the Gladiator's Finale artifact set) based on a percentage thereof.
Noodle Incident: According to Hu Tao, Yun Jin once lost a bet to her and had to sing her own rendition of her Hilitune. She doesn't elaborate on what the bet was or how Yun Jin's version sounded.
Not So Above It All: She isn't nearly the stuffy professional she initially presents herself as. Her calm, graceful persona is mostly an act that she puts on to keep up appearances in the eyes of the press. Once the Traveler can get her in a more relaxed setting, she turns out to be a pretty normal girl who just happens to be a celebrity.
Odd Friendship: The classically trained Yun Jin is good friends with Xinyan, a rock 'n' roll practitioner. Needless to say, their friendship is frowned upon by the elders of the Yun-Han Opera Troupe, but that doesn't stop Yun Jin from being a regular attendee of Xinyan's gigs no matter how busy her schedule is, never mind Xinyan's penchant for accidental rabble-rousing.
Only Friend: At the time of this writing, Yun Jin is the only character to refer favorably to Hu Tao and be friends with her. Most other characters are either mixed about her (Xiangling and Xiao) or think favorably of her but don't interact much (Yanfei).
Pink Means Feminine: Pink is one of her outfit's primary colors, she wears lipstick and eyeliner, and is a Dance Battler during combat.
The Prima Donna: While she's a humble Nice Girl now, there was a time during the beginning of her opera career when she was more overbearing. Her "More About: III" line has her admit to such.
(More about Yun Jin: III) "At the start of my opera career, I have to say I did let the standing ovations from our audiences go to my head a little. It wasn't long before I developed a captious attitude... If I didn't like the script, or if the stage was too small, or if I thought there weren't enough people in the audience, I would refuse to perform. Looking back now, it was all terribly arrogant of me... my goodness. I shall never let myself become so vain again."
Singing Voice Dissonance: Due to the fact that her singing voice is from an actual Chinese opera singer, when performing she sounds markedly different.
Situational Damage Attack: The held form of her Skill increases in potency if it is held long enough or if the shield generated takes enough hits. Her first-ascension passive gives her a "Just Frame" Bonus effect (see above).
Status Buff: Her second Constellation upgrade, Myriad Mise-En-Scène, allows her Burst to boost the damage potency of the party's normal attacks by 15% for twelve seconds.
Stone Wall: Her Burst encourages heavy investment into her Defense stat, her Skill generates a shield for as long as it's held, both Elemental Talents deal wide-ranging Geo damage which can generate numerous crystal shields, and her fourth Constellation upgrade, Flower and a Fighter, adds a 20% boost to her Defense for twelve seconds whenever she triggers Crystallize reactions. All these make Yun Jin surprisingly durable for someone as waifish as her.
Support Party Member: Yun Jin specializes in boosting the potency of her allies' normal attacks with the Flying Cloud Formation summoned by her Burst, with a boost that scales off of her Defense stat. Her fourth-ascension passive, Breaking Conventions, further increases said boost by 2.5%, which can be raised to 5%, 7.5%, or 11.5% if there are, respectively, two, three, or four elements in the party, and her sixth Constellation upgrade, Decorous Harmony, adds a 12% boost to the party's attacking speed.
Tabloid Melodrama: Yun Jin once called off an interview when the journalist involved began asking uncomfortable questions, which the tabloids had a field day with, and since then all of her interviews have to be screened in advance. One route of her Hangout Event sees her encounter another such "journalist" who is lying about being from a larger publication to squeeze out juicy gossip about her relationship with the Traveler.
Token Wholesome: One of the few non-child female characters to not have a single fanservice trope to her name, with her wardrobe being perfectly conservative and showing little skin.
Tsundere: Played for Laughs. She's mostly on the "Sweet" side, but she does get a moment like this towards the end of one of her Hangout Event routes. After complaining to the Traveler about how people have high expectations for her because she's a wealthy actress and wishes she had more friends she could just act like a normal girl around, the player has the option to call her more relaxed personality cuter... which she immediately gets defensive about, saying she didn't give them permission to say such things.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Seafaring General and Famed Throughout the Land, add three levels to, respectively, her Burst and Skill..
Weapon Specialization: Her profile image and some gameplay footage suggests that Dragon's Bane (4★), which is, however, a very odd choice gameplay-wise, since as a Geo Vision holder she'll be unable to benefit from either its Ascension substat of Elemental Mastery (48–221 points) or its "Bane of Flame and Water" passive that increases damage against enemies affected by Hydro or Pyro by 20–36%, having no way to apply it herself.
Weight Woe: Yun Jin has to manage her diet very carefully to maintain her petite physique, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's happy to do so. In one voice line she becomes paranoid that she's gained a couple pounds, while in another she expresses a desire to violate her diet and stuff her face with meat dishes for a change. That said, she looks no pudgier than other characters with the "Medium Female" model.

Captain Wu

A sailor who delivers goods between Liyue and Monstadt, and can often be found deliberating on how to use his earnings.

Butt-Monkey: The poor guy has gone through his ship being sabotaged with a hole that nearly ruined his cargo, suffered a Treasure Hoarder ambush that saw him stripped naked and nearly killed by Diluc when he was mistaken for harassing the maids at Dawn Winery, and, in a branch of Kaeya's hangout, getting conned by a Snake Oil Salesman.
The Ditherer: A common voice-line you'll hear from him as you pass him by is "Should I save this money? Or invest it?"
Naked People Are Funny: During a trip to Monstadt with his pregnant wife to visit his in-laws, the both of them were ambushed by Treasure Hoarders, who decided to strip him naked and throw him into the water to coerce his wife into cooperating. He planned to pretend to drown so he could ambush them, only for Kaeya to show up, save his wife, and took her to Dawn Winery to recover from her injuries. Deciding to go after them, he couldn't find his clothes so went in the buff in desperation, only to end up scaring the maids and get nearly attacked by an enraged Diluc.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Kaeya's Hangout Event has us learn of two instances of him getting into trouble that required Kaeya to bail him out, one instance life-threatening and other rather embarrassing. Then, as you continue his branch, you learn that he was tricked into investing money into a fake cure for a common ailment suffered by sailors and lost a lot of Mora in the process. Fortunately, the story from there involves you and Kaeya, with the help of Wu's friends, getting his money back while getting the man who conned him thrown in jail.
Trauma Button: More "Embarrassment Button". While genuinely grateful to Kaeya for both of the times he's helped him in the past, one of said instances is a particularly embarrassing memory for him, causing him to act rather nervous around him.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With Aunt Zhang, though mostly on her end. She comes off as rather teasing of Wu and is laughing her ass off after hearing of the embarrassment he went through when Kaeya saved his wife from Treasure Hoarders. Upon learning that he got scammed by someone offering fake medicine however, she's absolutely livid and helps Kaeya get back at the scammer and get Wu's money bacl.

Iron-Tongue Tian

Voiced by: Xu Zongzhe (Chinese), David Lodge (English)

The resident storyteller of the Third-Round Knockout restaurant.

Advertised Extra: He narrates the story of Geo Archon in the character trailer of Zhongli, who is the most prominent audience and the main focus character as well.
Foil: He is to Tea Master Liu Su, his senior. While Tian's storytelling is a part of Liyue street culture, Liu Su's storytelling is his journey to become famous.
The Storyteller: He is a storyteller who narrates various stories in Liyue about Rex Lapis, Ningguang, and The Sealed Dragon That Hold Grudges To Geo Archon.

Liu Su

Tea Master Liu Su

Voiced by: Niko Gerentes (English)

The resident storyteller of Heyu Tea House.

The Storyteller: His profession and his tales involve the Guhua Clan and the Wrath of Haishan.

Maocai

Gentry Maocai

A powerful ore merchant in Liyue residing in Yujing Terrace. He employed Sturdy Wu to protect his residence and Changhu to be his attendant.

Arch-Enemy: He displays animosity towards the Guhua Clan to the point that he takes pleasure in listening to stories involving their downfall.
Arc Villain: Of Xingqiu's Story Quest.
The Cameo: Shows up in one ending picture for Chongyun's Hangout Event and appears a few times in Yun Jin's Hangout Event.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Even after he is taught a lesson at the end of Xingqiu's Story Quest, his dialogue with Changhu doesn't change to reflect it.
The Unfought: Justified. Maocai is not a fighter, and simply employ his goons (plus an Electro Cicin Mage lent by a Fatui Agent) to deal with both the Traveler and Xingqiu.

Ying'er

Voiced by: Carrie Keranen (English)

The flirtatious proprietor of the porcelain shop Scent of Spring, as well as a famed perfumer known in some circles as the "Elixir Artificer."

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For all of her eccentricities, she runs a highly successful porcelain shop and is also the go-to woman for people seeking perfume, feminine products, or tailoring.
Whatever business I'm in, I am first and foremost a woman of many talents.
Double Entendre: Invoked, as she seems to intentionally evoke innuendo with every line she spouts. Whenever she's involved in an actual quest, prepare for the Traveler, a nearby NPC, or both—to become flustered in short order.
Ying'er: Keep your wrist firm so your hand doesn't slip... Use your strong hand to stir it with a persistent rhythm... Keep going until the juices start to come out...
Entertainingly Wrong: The Traveler first seeks her out for assistance in creating three types of perfumes with the goal of using the most fitting one for the Rite of Parting. When all three are completed, Ying'er gives some advice, "One who tries to sail three boats simultaneously should be careful not to go overboard."
Mistaken for Prostitute: Due to her copious double entendres, the Traveler mistakes her for a prostitute and the Scent of Spring for a brothel before she uses an odd word that causes them to realize she's talking about vases.
Ship Tease: With Timaeus as of the 2023 Windblume Festival event. When Timaeus was unable to pick her up from Liyue for their meeting, she went all the way to Mondstadt to find him instead. Their conversation by the crafting table afterwards had her asking Timaeus to drop the honorifics when addressing her as well, which made him extremely happy.
The Tease: Her dialogue, especially when voiced, is always delivered in a sultry tone. Even her preferred address uses a chinese suffix ('er) meant for an elder to address a younger family member or between two adults with closer, more intimate relations.
Ying'er: Are you ready to please me?
Paimon: ...What did you say?
Ying'er: I meant make me proud. As my assistant. Obviously.

Characters / Genshin Impact: Liyue Harbor

Liyue Harbor

Wanmin Restaurant

Mao Xiangling

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Li Jiang (Chinese), Ari Ozawa (Japanese), Yoon Ah-yeong (Korean), Jackie Lastra (English)

Chef Mao

Yanshang Teahouse

Chuyi

Shanghua, Wenyuan, and Wupei

Bubu Pharmacy

Baizhu (and Changsheng)

Introduced: May 2, 2023 (v3.6 "A Parade of Providence" [second half])
Voiced by: Qin Qiege (Chinese), Koji Yusa (Japanese), Lee Ho-san (Korean), Sean Durrie (English)
Changsheng voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Yui Shouji (Japanese), Jang Mi (Korean), Xanthe Huynh (English)

Tropes related to Changsheng

Qiqi / Fortune Preserver

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Yanning (Chinese), Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Lee Seul (Korean), Christie Cate (English)

Herbalist Gui

Wangsheng Funeral Parlor

Hu Tao

Introduced: March 2, 2021 (v1.3 "All That Glitters" [second half])
Voiced by: Tao Dian (Chinese), Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Ha-ru (Korean), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)

Zhongli / Rex Lapis / Deus Auri / Morax, the God of Contracts

Introduced: December 1, 2020 (v1.1 "A New Star Approaches" [second half])
Voiced by: Peng Bo (Chinese), Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), Pyo Yeong-jae (Korean), Keith Silverstein (English)

Ferrylady

Other Residents

Xingqiu / "Zhenyu"

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Tang Yajing (Chinese), Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Kwak Kyu-mi (Korean), Cristina Valenzuela [credited as "Christina Vee"] (English)

Xinyan

Introduced: November 11, 2020 (v1.1: "A New Star Approaches" [first half])
Voiced by: Wang Yaxin (Chinese), Chiaki Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Chae-ha (Korean), Laura Stahl (English)

Yanfei

Yun Jin

Introduced: January 5, 2022 (v2.4 "Fleeting Colors in Flight" [first half])
Voiced by: He Wenxiao (Chinese, speaking), Yang Yang (Chinese, singing [all languages]), Kotori Koiwai (Japanese), Sa Mun-yeong (Korean), Judy Alice Lee (English)

Captain Wu

Iron-Tongue Tian

Tea Master Liu Su

Gentry Maocai

Ying'er

Alternative Title(s): Genshin Impact Zhongli

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Characters / Genshin Impact: Liyue Harbor

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Liyue Harbor

Wanmin Restaurant

Mao Xiangling

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])Voiced by: Li Jiang (Chinese), Ari Ozawa (Japanese), Yoon Ah-yeong (Korean), Jackie Lastra (English)

Chef Mao

Yanshang Teahouse

Chuyi

Shanghua, Wenyuan, and Wupei

Bubu Pharmacy

Baizhu (and Changsheng)

Introduced: May 2, 2023 (v3.6 "A Parade of Providence" [second half])Voiced by: Qin Qiege (Chinese), Koji Yusa (Japanese), Lee Ho-san (Korean), Sean Durrie (English)Changsheng voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Yui Shouji (Japanese), Jang Mi (Korean), Xanthe Huynh (English)

Tropes related to Changsheng

Qiqi / Fortune Preserver

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])Voiced by: Yanning (Chinese), Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Lee Seul (Korean), Christie Cate (English)

Herbalist Gui

Wangsheng Funeral Parlor

Hu Tao

Introduced: March 2, 2021 (v1.3 "All That Glitters" [second half])Voiced by: Tao Dian (Chinese), Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Ha-ru (Korean), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)

Zhongli / Rex Lapis / Deus Auri / Morax, the God of Contracts

Introduced: December 1, 2020 (v1.1 "A New Star Approaches" [second half])Voiced by: Peng Bo (Chinese), Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), Pyo Yeong-jae (Korean), Keith Silverstein (English)

Ferrylady

Other Residents

Xingqiu / "Zhenyu"

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])Voiced by: Tang Yajing (Chinese), Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Kwak Kyu-mi (Korean), Cristina Valenzuela [credited as "Christina Vee"] (English)

Xinyan

Introduced: November 11, 2020 (v1.1: "A New Star Approaches" [first half])Voiced by: Wang Yaxin (Chinese), Chiaki Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Chae-ha (Korean), Laura Stahl (English)

Yanfei

Yun Jin

Introduced: January 5, 2022 (v2.4 "Fleeting Colors in Flight" [first half])Voiced by: He Wenxiao (Chinese, speaking), Yang Yang (Chinese, singing [all languages]), Kotori Koiwai (Japanese), Sa Mun-yeong (Korean), Judy Alice Lee (English)

Captain Wu

Iron-Tongue Tian

Tea Master Liu Su

Gentry Maocai

Ying'er

Alternative Title(s): Genshin Impact Zhongli

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Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Li Jiang (Chinese), Ari Ozawa (Japanese), Yoon Ah-yeong (Korean), Jackie Lastra (English)

Introduced: May 2, 2023 (v3.6 "A Parade of Providence" [second half])
Voiced by: Qin Qiege (Chinese), Koji Yusa (Japanese), Lee Ho-san (Korean), Sean Durrie (English)
Changsheng voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Yui Shouji (Japanese), Jang Mi (Korean), Xanthe Huynh (English)

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Yanning (Chinese), Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Lee Seul (Korean), Christie Cate (English)

Introduced: March 2, 2021 (v1.3 "All That Glitters" [second half])
Voiced by: Tao Dian (Chinese), Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Ha-ru (Korean), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)

Introduced: December 1, 2020 (v1.1 "A New Star Approaches" [second half])
Voiced by: Peng Bo (Chinese), Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), Pyo Yeong-jae (Korean), Keith Silverstein (English)

Introduced: September 28, 2020 (v1.0 "Welcome To Teyvat" [game launch])
Voiced by: Tang Yajing (Chinese), Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Kwak Kyu-mi (Korean), Cristina Valenzuela [credited as "Christina Vee"] (English)

Introduced: November 11, 2020 (v1.1: "A New Star Approaches" [first half])
Voiced by: Wang Yaxin (Chinese), Chiaki Takahashi (Japanese), Kim Chae-ha (Korean), Laura Stahl (English)

Introduced: January 5, 2022 (v2.4 "Fleeting Colors in Flight" [first half])
Voiced by: He Wenxiao (Chinese, speaking), Yang Yang (Chinese, singing [all languages]), Kotori Koiwai (Japanese), Sa Mun-yeong (Korean), Judy Alice Lee (English)