Fanfic / Descensus Averno

Descensus Averno is a Genshin Impact fanfic written by zuxiety. Basically a take where Lumine wakes up in a world that has been changed for the worst by her brother.

Another author, with the approval of the original one, has written a fic based off of the Sucrose Interrogation scene which is aptly named 'Interrogation'. Descensus Averno: Interrogation.

There is now a prequel to Descensus Averno, describing the events a year before Lumine's awakening. It is much darker than the main story and describes the chaos that spreads throughout Teyvat as Aether initiates his violent takeover. ''Hell Hath No Fury.

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Descensus Averno

• Abusive Parents:
  • Lumine and Aether's mother, Ester, has made it clear that she wished Lumine had never been born. She even went so far as to lock her daughter up.
  • Mavey's father falls under this as well for thinking of his son as weak and not being the ideal son he wanted.
• The Ace:
  • The strongest members of the Shogun's Insurgency, the Committee, fall under this.
  • Lumine and Aether are this amongst their own people.
• Action Girl:
  • Lumine shows this off in the first chapter by killing several Constillion Guards in the first chapter.
  • Kris proves why she was a former Committee member when she helps take back Watatsumi Island alongside Kokomi and Gorou.
  • All the Vision Users within the Committee and Insurgency itself.
• Anger Born of Worry: The reason that Lumine blows up on Mavey in chapter 8 after Xingqiu discovers that Mavey is a part of the Insurgency, forcing the man to allow Xingqiu into the group when they meet up again. Lumine is rightfully worried that Mavey allowing Xingqiu to participate will not only endanger Xingqiu, but his family and friends as well as drag other innocents into the conflict.
• At Least I Admit It: When Ariel accuses Ajax of turning Lumine against them, Ajax laughs mockingly in her face and throws in that she's right, but at least he admits that he is a horrible influence unlike the Committee who refuse to acknowlede that their treatment of Lumine eventually accumulated in her undermining their authority, spreading the seeds of doubt within the civilians and soldiers and then marching off with more than half their forces.
• The Atoner: Albedo feels that he is this because he tried to kill Lumine twice in a berserker rage. He is especially ashamed of the latter atempt.
• Bad Boss: Diluc claims that Aether is cruel to both his enemies AND allies. Later proven correctly when Aether says to punish the soldiers who failed to prevent Sucrose from escaping imprisonment.
  • Eula is far from being an ideal leader when she attempts to strip the Commander of the civilian armies, Kris, of her position during the Committee Meeting in regards to Albedo's fate as a result of her earlier feud with the Committee in the prior chapter due to her calling them out in how they were treating Sucrose.
• Badass in Distress: Lumine is this during her captivity by Apollo, Annabelle, and Malcolm.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The Chāoyuè Xīngchén aka Aether has pretty much successfully conquered all of Teyvat with a token resistance being the only thing standing in his way, and even then they are not much of a threat to him. By the time that Lumine wakes up, it was only a matter of when he would succeed.
• The Beautiful Elite: Most of the members of the Committee are this. Not only are they attractive, they are the strongest warriors of the group.
• Becareful What You Wish For: When Lumine is angry at Mavey for accidentally blowing their cover to Xinqiu when he was supposed to get information for the mock Rite of Ascension they plan on setting up, he tells her that he knows she is angry. When he says to get it off her chest with a bit of prodding, she tells him exactly how she feels and Mavey is reduced to tears. Lumine lampshades that he asked how she was feeling and then has the gall to start crying when her words are a lot harsher than he expected.
• Big Bad: The Chāoyuè Xīngchén who also happens to be Lumine's twin brother, Aether.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Scaramouche.
• Break the Haughty: Quite a number of examples.
  • When Lumine is first introduced to the Insurgency, many members and especially the Leader of the Insurgency, Eula Lawrence, are very condescending and distrusting towards Lumine and sarcastically asking why she decides to finally make an appearance after her twin brother has essentially dyed Teyvat in blood and ruined their lives as they knew it. In later chapters, however, Lumine decides that she is done catering to their fuck ups and usurps control of the meeting when they decide to reimprison Albedo and kick out Kris from the Insurgency, completely overriding Eula's (and by extension the rest of the Committee's) decisions.
    • Eula finds herself on the other end of Lumine's blade after Chongyun dies, being told that if she screws up again Lumine will slash her throat and end her herself.
  • Veer is subjected to this big time. After one too many snide comments aimed at Lumine, Lumine finally has enough and tells him off. And then when he tries to pick a fight with her, he gets slapped by his lover Mavey and told off by him ending with the latter storming off and leaving Veer in a daze. When he takes out his anger out on Sucrose and crosses the line by blaming her for what happened to Mondstadt, he gets assaulted by Kris with the result being that the two of them are punching each other on the ground before being separated by Venti. Finally he ends up bedridden in the infirmary.
• Brutal Honesty: Many characters in the story are this.
  • Lumine is not afraid to voice of her opinions even if she is surrounded by a lot of people hostile towards her over her brother's actions.
  • Veer is very passionate about his opinions and wears his emotions on his sleeves. He doesn't hide that he hates Aether AND Lumine because she is related to him. He and the Commander of the Civilian Forces often come to blows because their opinions come into conflict with each other's and neither are afraid to piss the other person off.
  • Albedo is candid in stating that the Insurgency is incompetent despite the fact that he is a part of the Insurgency.
  • Kris is utterly unafraid in telling the Committee and the rest of the Insurgency what she thinks about the group. She and Veer clash often as a result, as neither refuses to back down when it comes to their opinions. And during the recruitment event in Liyue, she tells Zhongli that being part of the Insurgency is overrated and that they are barely any better than Aether's tyranny.
  • Venti in Interrogation calls out the group on how if they couldn't save Mondstadt, there is no way they can free the rest of Teyvat from Aether's reign much to the distress of the rest of the group.
  • Kaeya is honest about how he thinks that the Insurgency is an embarrassing mess and how he has wanted to leave it many times in the past to Jean and Mavey. He also agrees with Jean that he is a part of the problem and while he essentially ignored it in the past, Kaeya is going to do something about it now.
• Cain and Abel: Lumine and The Chāoyuè Xīngchén.
• The Chosen One: Lumine and Aether were this back in their homeworld.
• The Coup: Lumine performs one in Chapter 48, recruiting most of the Insurgency's own troops from underneath them and having them follow her under her own banner.
• Crapsack World: Oh boy... where to start. The Teyvat in Descensus is pretty much a dystopian ever since Aether decided to perform a hostile takeover. Aether renames the era after himself and has overhauled the designs of most of the nations on the continent, with the exception of Liyue because Morax made a contract with him that ensured most of the city remained the same. And to hammer in the point that the era of the Archons was over, Aether executes the representative governments of Mondstadt and Liyue via beheading; the Knights of Favonius and the Qixing. According to Xiao and Ajax, Aether's hold over Teyvat is suffocating to the point that most people seem to be undergoing a Heroic BSoD.
• Crash-Into Hello: Basically what kicks off the start of the story; Paimon is fleeing from the Constillion Guards and collides into Lumine in her attempt to escape.
• Death of a Child: Klee.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight:
  • Chongyun. More so, that he literally died during the night of the Recruitment Ball in Xingqiu's arms, confessing that he loves him.
  • Venti dies the same night after taking a blow meant for Lumine and his body crumbles in her arms after she absorbs his powers.
• Darker and Edgier: Lumine wakes up in a world being oppressed by her brother instead of having to go on a journey to look for him like in canon. Now she has to fight against his forces to demand what the hell he is doing and is forced to team up with the native rebellion known as the Shogun's Insurgency who are heavily biased against her thanks to who her brother is.
• The Dreaded:
  • The Chāoyuè Xīngchén.
  • The three people from Lumine and Aether's world: Apollo, Annabelle, and Malcolm
• Drowning My Sorrows: What Venti does after the fall of Mondstadt and storming away from a Committee Meeting gone sideways.
  • Some of the former Mondstadt knights do this during the Liyue Ball when they reminisce about what they lost
• Energy Absorption: What Lumine and Aether can do to others.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Aether to Lumine. They are twins after all. Though this seems to change when he tries to absorb Lumine's half of her powers despite the fact that he was reluctant to at first/
  • Annabelle, one of the three City of Stars people sent to kidnap Lumine, throws herself at Dain and screams incoherently after Kris outsmarts Malcolm and incapacitates him.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Lumine is utterly horrified at the kind of person her brother has become and rips into him about it twice. Once in Mondstadt during the fall of the city. The second during the invasion of Liyue.
  • Beidou and Lumine are sickened by the fact that Aether executed Klee who happened to be a child. Beidou, who was scolding the group for drinking during an important event, joins them. Lumine resigns herself to the fact that Aether is not above killing even children, but she is shaken by the fact.
  • Eula is angry and everyone else is horrified that someone tortured the Liyue spy, Lingyun, and left him to stew in his vomit and waste afterwards.
  • In the face of the Insurgency's becoming more extreme in their methods and trying to neutralize Lumine because they find her as much of a threat as her brother, Eula has finally decided enough is enough and starts recruiting Kris and tries to summon Xiao in a gamble to stop Lumine without making things worse.
• Fallen Hero: Aether. In this story, Aether was the Traveler who had saved Dvalin and beat Osial until he performed a Face–Heel Turn and suddenly came Teyvat's worst enemy, being even worse than the Fatui.
• Fallen Princess:
  • Keqing, former Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing. Formerly The Ace, the daughter of an old and respected noble family as well as a well-respected government official who worked hard for the sake of the nation she loved, she was forced to flee alongside the other survivor of the Qixing, Ningguang, when Aether came for Liyue to avoid being executed. As of the present, she is now a high ranking Insurgency member who is a wanted fugitive trying to take back her home and who has lost a lot of respect among her own people.
  • Jean is a member of the Gunnhildr clan, descended from one of the original members of the Resistance that rebelled against Decarabian's tyranny. When Aether invaded Mondstadt and gathered the knights to execute and make an example out of them, Jean was one of the knights who made the hard decision to flee knowing that she and the others stood no chance of rescuing those who were captured.
• False Reassurance: Lumine reassures Mavey that she won't kill the Liyue spy in Chapter 31. What she doesn't tell him is that she won't leave him unharmed.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Before Chongyun dies, he tells Lumine that the person who killed him knew who she was. Several chapters later, Lumine is kidnapped by three people from the same world as her with one of them wielding knives and most likely being the one who had killed Chongyun.
• For Want Of A Nail: Paimon is the first being that Lumine truly interacts with just like the game. Though in much dire circumstances in this story.
• Get Out!: What Xiao tells Lumine, Mavey, and Jean when they enter Liyue's borders. According to the Yaksha, should Aether discover that his sister is in Liyue, he would slaughter every man, woman, and child should they fail to recognize and report her.
• Good Is Not Nice:
  • Lumine may have joined the Insurgency to side against her brother despite initial misgivings on their end thanks to her relation to The Chāoyuè Xīngchén, but that does not mean that Lumine is just going to sit there and let them order her around and tell her what to do. It all comes to a head in Chapter 30 when she is fed up with the Insurgency's constant failures that she threatens the leader, Eula, stating that she could easily kill the Cryo user if she wanted to and emphasizes the point by burying the tip of her sword into the woman's neck, causing it to bleed and leaving a permanent scar. She then hammers in the point when she goes to visit the spy, torturing him by removing his finger nails to get him to reveal all he knew.
  • While Veer is a member of the Insurgency, he is a complete and utter Jerkass. He is also well-aware of this fact, but honestly could care less about what everyone else thinks. He first appears in the chapter where Lumine is introduced to the Committee, the leaders of the Shogun's Insurgency, and stands out by making Lumine's time in the meeting as difficult as possible. In future appearances, he then proceeds to snark and make snide comments towards her. And then in chapter nineteen when Lumine finally gets sick of his shit and calls him out on his BS he proceeds to explode and accuse her of not giving a damn about Teyvat.
  • Kris is the Black Sheep of the Insurgency. She was once a member of the Committee and the Apex Division but was kicked out after being critical of the groups running of the Shogun's Insurgency one too many times. She is one of the more powerful members of the group and when Veer was yelling at Sucrose and accusing her during a three way interrogation she didn't hesitate to beat the ever loving crap out of Veer.
• Government in Exile: The surviving members of each nation's respective governments after Aether takes over and throws Teyvat into chaos. They managed to escape when Aether was rounding up the people in charge of each nation for the purpose of executing them.
  • Mondstadt: Jean, Eula, Kaeya, and Lisa.
  • Liyue: Ningguang, Keqing
  • Inazuma: Ayaka and her older brother Ayato
  • Sumeru: Veer, though he was never a government official. His family was, however, and with their help they planned on mapping out his career as a member of the Sumeru forces until eventually he was a high ranking member in the Nation of Wisdom's army.
• Heel–Face Turn: Commander Ajax formerly known as one of the now defunct Fatui Harbingers, Tartaglia, turns on Aether and sides with Lumine. Which is understandable as Aether was holding his family hostage to force Ajax to work for him .
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Lumine notes at the beginning of the story that everyone she's met so far seems to be dealing with this thanks to her brother's tyranny.
    Lumine: Everyone there has that look in their eyes… You know. The kind of hollowed, empty look that says I’m not really here, I’m there.
  • Venti suffers from this after Mondstadt is destroyed by Albedo.
  • Lumine goes through one during both the invasion of Liyue and in the aftermath. Even more so when Venti dies in her arms after protecting her and then afterwards she's forced to siphon his powers. In chapter 43, however, Lumine completely and utterly breaks after seeing that Aether was truly willing to Siphon her powers, her own twin brother who she still loves and is finished off when Lilian, the Cryo Archon, dies in her arms which mirrors Venti's death. She spends the journey back to Liyue completely and utterly out of it.
• Hero Killer:
  • Aether counts as this due to him either executing Amber, Klee, and Noelle or at least having them killed upon his orders.
  • Scaramouche was the one who dealt the fatal blow that killed Venti. It is reaffirmed when he also kills Lilian, the Cryo Archon and the God he used to work under when he was still one of the Fatui Harbingers.
  • Malcolm, one of the three City of the Stars people who descended to Teyvat to find Lumine and Aether, kills Chongyun in the middle of the ball.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Insurgency. While they are the biggest resistance against Aether's reign of terror, they are not popular with the people that they claim to be fighting for. One civilian angrily states to one of the members that for all their proclamation for fighting to free them, they don't even bother to listen to them. It call comes to a head in Chapter 48 when more than half the Insurgency's forces and a number of civilians abandon them to join Lumine, having completely lost faith in their ability to overthrow her brother and siding with Lumine who has proven to drive her brother off twice.
• Hope Bringer: Lumine is seen as this to the oppressed people of Teyvat who understand that she is the only person who can save their home from her brother. Xiao and Zhongli describe Lumine as this considering that she has already driven off her brother twice from Mondstadt and Liyue respectively.
• Hope Spot: People see Lumine's presence as this.
  • Jean's eyes light up when Lumine comes up with a very good idea to try and draw out the then traitorous Archon, Morax when the group is infiltrating Liyue, the only nation to still seem to have a degree of freedom compared to the other six.
  • Zhongli seems to feel a sense of hope for the first time in a long time when he eavesdropes on Lumine's group discussing their plans.
• Hypocrite:
  • Kris accuses the Shogun's Insurgency of being this. She tells Zhongli that for all the claims that the Insurgency makes about freeing Teyvat from Aether, they have shown themselves to be no different from him. This gets brought up again in Chapter 44 when Sucrose outright tells them that they are no different from Aether and Kris backs up her claim, saying that the Insurgency make claims and decisions without actually getting the input from the people who will be affected by their choices.
  • When Veer brings up Scaramouche's past as a Fatui Harbinger who committed many atrocities, Sucrose is quick to defend him by saying that Veer has no criticize him considering his own past before he joined the Insurgency.
• Idiot Ball: The leadership of the Shogun's Insurgency seems to be holding onto this the entire time. Deconstructed in that them constantly holding the Idiot Ball has severe consequences on their credibility and people's belief and trust in them.
  • When Mondstadt is attacked, Eula sends a group of people to Lumine's location and tells her to retreat, essentially putting all the hardwork that Lumine and the others did to infiltrate the city to waste.
  • When Sucrose escapes captivity and makes it to Liyue, she is subjected to a Kangaroo Court style interrogation, being interrogated by three people in front of an audience. This is a horrific idea considering that Sucrose was still recovering from her ordeal, one of the interrogators is Veer who is ill-suited for interrogation, instead straight up victim blaming someone who had been through a lot. And the entire thing ends up being a disaster because they also invited an individual who has been at odds with their methods and how they run things with the intent of humbling her who is utterly horrified and disgusted at what they are doing, picking a fight with Veer to get him to knock off his intimidation.
  • The meeting in Chapter 26. The Committee is trying to decide what to do with Albedo who has proven to be quite dangerous and has already escaped captivity once. They then decide to lock him up a second time when they have already failed once. In the same meeting, they decide to kick out Kris, the Commander of the Civilian Forces, due to her constantly going up against them. The entire Committee decides to remove two powerful allies from their ranks either due to being judged dangerous or being a thorn in their sides when that is the last thing they should be doing when they both need the numbers and their strength
  • The Insurgency hold a celebration in Liyue shortly after they retake the former City of Commerce from Aether's forces, with celebration and drinking afoot and many people using the opportunity to get drunk after an extremely traumatizing and stressful year. At the same time, half the forces of the Insurgency leave for Inazuma by ship, weakening the Insurgency even more when their guard is completely down. When Aether's spies in Liyue alert him to this, he realizes that the Liyuen celebration would be the perfect opportunity to invade while everyone is drunk both literally and metaphorically on driving back Aether's forces from Mondstadt and Liyue respectively.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Diluc says this when he is told that Lumine is the Chāoyuè Xīngchén's sister.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • While Eula's attempts to kick Kris out from the Insurgency is the result of the latter's criticism of how the group runs things and standing up to them when they are in the wrong can be considered petty, Kris DID assault one of the higher ranked members in the Committee to the point that they had to be brought to the infirmary.
  • Veer is an unpleasant individual, particularly to both Lumine and Kris. But he is not wrong when he calls out Lumine for not caring about Teyvat or its people. He isn't wrong either when he says that Kris comes off as pretty self-righteous, even if she may have a point about how the Insurgency is ran.
• Kangaroo Court:
  • Sucrose during her interrogation.
  • Albedo has to deal with the same thing when the rest of the Committee decides what to do with him, Kris being the only one standing up for him to the point that she is arguing with Eula.
• Kick the Dog: Veer does this to Sucrose during the interrogation. He is so cruel that not even the person he is in a relationship with, Mavey, feels sorry for him when Kris subjects him to an offscreen No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that sends him to the infirmary.
• Killed Off for Real: Quite a few characters so far and it doesn't seem like the deaths are going to stop any time soon.
  • Amber, Noelle, and Klee prior to the story. They were among the remaining knights who were unable to escape in time and were marched in front of the cathedral in Mondstadt and beheaded.
  • Chongyun was fatally wounded in Chapter 29 and he dies in Xingqiu's arms after making peace with Lumine and passing on a warning to her.
  • Venti takes an attack meant for Lumine and dies from the resulting stab wound but not before passing on his Anemo powers on to her.
  • Lilian, the Gardener that Lumine meets at Aether's palace, turns out to be the former Cryo Archon who Aether already drained of her powers. Just like Venti before her, she is killed by Scaramouche who is currently in a frenzy thanks to reliving his trauma of being back in Aether's palace.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • The three people from the City of Stars Apollo, Annabeth, and Malcolm, have shown that they could care less about the populace of Teyvat with Malcolm having already killed several Insurgency soldiers and Chongyun when he was caught spying on them.
  • Navya shows this when he suggests punishing the people responsible for vandalizing their original meeting room in Liyue, forcing them to hold their meetings in Ningguang's mansion, not recognizing that doing so would only drive a rift between them and the civilians and just make things worse. His lack of empathy shows up once again when he suggests dismantling Scaramouche, not seeing him as sentient due to the fact that he is an android.
• La Résistance: The Shogun Insurgency.
• Last of His Kind: Zhongli after Venti dies during the Liyue Invasion. He is now officially the only remaining Archon left from the Original Seven.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Played for Drama. No one is amused when the former Harbinger Ajax basically destroys their plans to sneak into the base where Lumine is being held captive by literally kicking the door open and announcing their presence loudly.
• Light Is Good: Lumine fights on the side opposing the Chāoyuè Xīngchén. As a bonus, her name means Light.
• Light Is Not Good: Aether as the Chāoyuè Xīngchén is this.
• Mirroring Factions: Aether's ironclad rule that is upheld by the Constillion Guard and the Shogun's Insurgency which is a Resistance group created to defy Aether and overthrow his tyranny.
  • Kris, the Commander of the Civilian Troops, claim that the insurgency is this to the Chāoyuè Xīngchén's tyranny.
  “They expect you to behave accordingly. They want you to parrot their beliefs. You have no say if you’re deemed not qualified, and they have no issues with using people to get what they desire.” Kristina’s voice sparked with anger. “They got what they wanted, alright. Mondstadt and Liyue’s is theirs. But at my soldiers’ expense.” She gave a sharp shake of her head, looking over at Kokomi and her crowd again, but with a certain sadness. “And soon, Liyue’s expense as well.”
  • Sucrose in Chapter 44 blatantly calls out the entire Committee and group in the middle of the emergency meeting they had been summoned to. She outright states that there is truly no difference between them and how Aether is running things.
  “I’m tired of not being heard! So it’s your turn to listen to me. All the depravity that Aether has going on, you’re all so quick to condemn, but then you turn around and do the exact same FUCKING thing to your own people! The people you promised to protect!”
  “You try to try to get information from me? You end up traumatizing me!" She sliced the air with her palm, her glasses knocked askew; nothing was coming in the way between them and her amber-eyed anger. “You want to help nations starve off Aether? You can’t even protect them! Lumine has offered her services, but rather than giving her the safety, space, and freedom she deserves, you oppress her as much as Aether oppressed us! And you call that justice?”
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The leaders of the Insurgency have no one but themselves to blame for Lumine and half their forces walking off on them. Had they treated Lumine with basic human decency rather than an extension of her brother, she would have never turned on them. On them losing their soldiers and a number of civilians to Lumine, had they actually listened to the complaints and protests of the people that they claimed to be protecting then they would have never turned their backs on them. And before that, both Sucrose and Kris, two people who suffered at the hands of the Committee have every right to hold a grudge against them.
• No. Just... No: Beidou says this when she sees that Ningguang has gone completely overboard in dressing Lumine in a Liyue themed formal dress for the recruitment ball that would make her a laughingstock.
• Off with His Head!: The Chāoyuè Xīngchén's go to method for punishment and dealing with his enemies. He utilized this when he initially took over Teyvat, executing the remaining Knights of Favonius and the Liyue Qixing that weren't able to get away in time. Amber, Noelle, and Klee are amongst those numbers.
  • Lumine nearly does this to Mavey during the disasterous meeting in Chapter 44, only being stopped because Jean tackled her.
• Not a Game: While all the characters are taking Aether's tyranny over Teyvat very seriously and all hold aminosity for one reason or another, Lumine mentally rakes the Committee over the coals for wasting resources and focusing on other matters rather than the real threat looming over their heads: her brother, the Chāoyuè Xīngchén.
• Not in This for Your Revolution:
  • Lumine makes it clear to the Shogun's Insurgency that she is only joining them to meet up with her twin brother, ask what the hell he is doing, and then drag him from Teyvat kicking and screaming. While overthrowing her brother is a goal, it isn't for the same reasons as the natives who want to take back their homes from a tyrant. Deconstructed in that this does not endear her to the leaders of the Insurgency and leaves them suspicious of her motives. Veer brings it up later on, accusing Lumine about not giving a damn about anything or anyone except Aether.
  • Kris accuses the Committee of being this in regards to the people of Teyvat. That they care more about their personal agendas and hang ups and biases over the people that they claim to protect.
  Kris: Oh, don’t give me that patronizing shit. You don’t give a fuck about the people.
  • But before that, Sucrose also shouts that she and likely the other civilians like those who originally vandalized the original meeting room feel like the Insugency does not listen to them at all.
  Sucrose: All the depravity that Aether has going on, you’re all so quick to condemn, but then you turn around and do the exact same FUCKING thing to your own people! The people you promised to protect!
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Paimon and Venti's reaction in Chapter 1 when they realize that Lumine is the twin sister that Aether was looking for prior to his ascent as the Chāoyuè Xīngchén.
  • When three people who originally came from Lumine and Aether's world show up to kidnap Lumine in Liyue in broad daylight. There is nothing anyone there can do thanks to the three being much stronger than anyone there.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Lumine feels that she is this when it comes to the Shogun's Insurgency as they prove time and time again to be incompetent when it comes to running a resistance against her brother because they focus more on appeasing the people rather than taking down the real threat, her brother.
  • Kaeya, Kris, Ajax, Albedo, and Sucrose can see the flaws of the Insurgency for what they are. None of them are afraid to call the group out on it either. In fac
  • Jules, a member of the Insurgency who has not spoken until chapter forty-four, is this during a meeting that descends into chaos when people start screaming and shouting accusations at each other. Ariel and Sucrose are engaged in a screaming match over Scaramouche, Albedo is accusing the Insurgency of not making the hard and necessary decisions that need to be made, Kris is yelling at Navya that he and the Insurgency could care less about the people they claim to protect and Veer is shouting at Kris that she's wrong about their desire to protect the people of Teyvat. Subverted in later chapters when Jules proposes that the group create their own Siphoner to utilize against Lumine because they can no longer control her, fully capitalizing on her trauma of Siphoning and dismissing Kaeya calling him out on his extreme actions saying that using Lumine's fears against her to control/kill her is fair game because she takes complete advantage of their fear of her brother and utilizes it against them.
  • Eula becomes this in the face of the other members of the Committee going along with Jules' plan. But rather than convincing them to change their mind of seeing Lumine as an enemy as she realizes nothing will convince them otherwise, Eula instead decides to Take a Third Option, with her first step being to recruit Kris for her plan and then the chapter ending with her stopping in front of an infirmary with injured Liyuens in the hopes of summoning the Vigilant Yaksha to help her stop Lumine before Jules and them make things worse.
• Original Character: There are quite a number of them. From characters with their own written parts, to minor characters with small roles.
  • Mavey, Veer, and Kris have so far had lines in the story and interacted with others.
  • The ones who have been mention but haven't made many appearances or interactions with others in earlier chapters are Ariel and Navya.
  • The three City of Stars people who are in Teyvat: Apollo, Annabelle, and Malcolm
  • Kendrick and his mother, Vivian, who represent the normal civilians caught up in the mess.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Surprisingly enough, Veer is this when he, Lumine, and Sucrose are in the infirmary with the latter being held back by a couple of healers as she tries to go to Albedo's side when he is taken away to a Committee Meeting to decide his fate. Being the constant target of his anger and hatred, Lumine is surprised that Veer tells them where Albedo and the rest of the Committee is.
  • Despite the fact that Albedo has nearly killed her twice, she still orders and gives him medication that can help balance out his mood swings so that he doesn't rampage like he did when [[he caused the fall of Mondstadt and would have attacked Liyue had Lumine not been there to distract him]].
• Power Parasite: Lumine and Aether are essentially this. Though in their home world, their ability to absorb the essence of other individuals is called siphoning. Those with this ability are called Siphoners.
• Public Execution: Aether orders that each governing power of the seven nations of Teyvat are publicly executed. The Knights of Favonius, five of the seven Liyue Qixing, most of the Tri-Commissions, as well as Veer's parents and older sister are all publicly executed at the beginning of Aether's takeover.
• Puppet King: Eula admits to Barbara that despite the fact that she is recognized as the leader of the Insurgency, she's well aware that her own Committee who claim to defer to her merely see her as a figure head.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: What Lumine's rescue group essentially consists of. Ajax, Scaramouche, Sucrose, Albedo, Dainsleif, Xiao, Kaeya, and Kris. A group that under any normal circumstances would never get together. Two former Fatui Harbingers, an alchemist apprentice who escaped Aether's grasp, a powerful alchemist with many secrets, a mysterious man with many more secrets, the last Yakasha of Liyue, a high ranked member of the Insurgency, and a disgraced Insurgency member who was demoted from the Committee to lead the General Forces. A very unique group indeed.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mavey is this when it comes to giving Lumine a chance despite the blatant bias most people hold against her for being Aether's sister.
  • Kaeya was this during Sucrose' interrogation.
  • Kris when it comes to the livelihood of her soldiers and for how she actually does not treat Lumine with scorn just because her brother is a tyrant.
  • Kaeya is this again in recent chapters when he confronts Mavey and Jean about the spy's torture. When he learns that the culprit was Lumine, he refuses to the tell the rest of the Committee on the grounds that they would make a complete mess of things based off of how they handled similar situations in the past.
• Sanity Slippage: Lumine suffers this during and in the aftermath of the Liyue Invasion after Chongyun and Venti's deaths and because she had to siphon Venti's essence.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Lumine prior to the start of the story.
• Sex for Solace:
  • Implied with Lumine and Ajax at the end of Chapter 30. Confirmed at the beginning of Chapter 31.
  • Lumine does this again at the end of Chapter 43 with Ajax again after the highly traumatizing events of the past few chapters.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Light-hearted or comedic characters are either dead or they die in the story to show off just how dark the world has become.
  • Amber, Noelle, and Klee, characters who err on the comedic side of the story are all executed a year prior to Lumine waking up.
  • Chongyun, a side playable character, dies after being fatally stabbed by an assailant who turns out to be someone from Lumine and Aether's world, Malcolm.
  • Venti, the God of Freedom who used to live under the guise of a broke bard with a penchant for drinking dies when he takes a blow meant for Lumine.
• Sins of Our Fathers: A lot of animosity that Lumine deals with is the result of people taking out their hatred of her brother out on her even though she has absolutely nothing to do with his tyranny. Veer is especially guilty of this because Lumine is both Aether's sister, the blood relation to the boy who slaughtered his family, and because she strongly resembles her brother.
• Smells of Death: Jean describes that this was what Mondstadt was like after the Knights were executed. The smell of blood and death could even be smelled all the way from Dragonspine.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Played for Drama. Because of her resemblance to the Chāoyuè Xīngchén, her twin brother Aether, Lumine deals with a lot of people taking out their anger and frustrations towards her brother out on her.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Pretty much Eula's reaction to Jules insisting on a Siphoner being made for the sole purpose of using it on Lumine.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Xiao forces Lumine to make a contract based on this. She will not spill blood if she desires entry into Liyue. She is unfortunately unable to keep the contract due to the invasion.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Lumine notes at the beginning of the story that everyone she has encountered seems to sport this.
  Lumine: Everyone there has that look in their eyes… You know. The kind of hollowed, empty look that says I’m not really here, I’m there.
• War Is Hell: When Sucrose screams at the Committee about how awful her treatment at their hands were after she escaped from captivity, one of the Committee members Ariel angrily retorts that they are essentially in the middle of the war and that mistakes and lives will be made in the process of trying to win against the Chāoyuè Xīngchén:, essentially dismissing Sucrose's experience. Albedo completely calls Ariel out on it.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Ajax to Lumine. He encourages her worst traits to come out and says that being like her brother isn't necessarily a bad thing. While him being a tyrant over Teyvat is bad, her brother's charisma and intelligence aren't bad and encourages her to become more like him. Lampshaded by Ariel who angrily accuses him of leading Lumine down a dark path.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Though it's not obvious at first, this is essentially what the Shogun's Insurgency is. Lumine, Kaeya, Albedo, Ajax and Kris are completely and utterly cynical when it comes to the competency of the Insurgency, Sucrose has absolutely no faith in the group after they traumatized by interrogation when she was in no shape and form, and the remaining members often quarrel with each other. They may have joined the resistance group in their shared goal of dethroning Aether, but even then they can't agree on how to deal with him and his army. Kris completely lampshades it.
  Kris: Does we even include the Committee? You’re supposed to be fucking leading the Insurgency, but every meeting I’ve attended is mindless squabbling before ultimately bowing to the strongest opinion. What kind of leadership is that?
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Lumine. Aether is so powerful that rather than choose to fight him, the longest lived god who is also well-versed in martial arts, Morax, made a contract with him to spare Liyue from his rule even though the Liyue Qixing were still executed. Lumine as Aether's twin and someone who was seen as an usurper of the true chosen one is the only one who stands a chance against him. [[spoiler: This is why she is kidnapped by the people from the City of Stars. Because the Council is suspicious of Aether and they know that he could do a lot of damage, their plan was to force Lumine to fight him since she has the same power as him.
  • Xiao as well as Albedo, Sucrose, Dain, Kris, and Kaeya (Scaramouche is coming along because Sucrose is) also believe this which is why they depart on a risky rescue mission to rescue Lumine. Because they know that without her, Teyvat is doomed.
• Wham Episode:
  • In Chapter 12, an explosion comes from the direction of Mondstadt. To make matters even worse, it turns out that they was a traitor in their midst, who turns out to be Chongyun.
  • Albedo is the one who is destroying Mondstadt in an attempt to draw Aether out after Sucrose was taken.
  • The Liyue invasion during the Ball meant to draw in recruits from Chapter 29 to 30. On top of the Insurgency being caught off guard with a number of their soldiers sailing to Inazuma to take back the nation, many of the members are far from being ready to fight due to indulging themselves in the festivities from alcohol to just not being prepared to engage in a fight.
    • In the same chapters, the deaths of Chongyun and Venti respectively.
  • The people from Lumine's world and who were originally shown in flashbacks, like Apollo, show up in Liyue. Before she can do anything, she is subdued and in all likelihood kidnapped.
  • In Chapter 48, Lumine managed to recruit former Insurgency soldiers as well as civilians from Liyue and Mondstadt from right under their noses leaving the Insurgency reeling from the shock of losing a good chunk of their forces.
• Wham Line:
  • The reveal in the first chapter that Aether, Lumine's missing twin brother, is the Chāoyuè Xīngchén:
  “I’m sorry,” the bard repeated, hesitating slightly before speaking the horrifying words that sent Lumine into a spiral.“Chāoyuè Xīngchén is Aether.”
  • The fact that the forefathers of Khaenri'ah are actually people from the City of the Stars.
  ''“They,” Aether repeated. “‘They’ as in the City of Stars. And whoever wrote this… they were running away from homeworld. Just like us. And from this Prophecy, it’s clear they were aware of the Prophecy that was issued. Hell, it might even be the reason they ran away from the City of Stars in the first place!”
  “I’m saying, Lumine,” Aether said, voice full of certainty, “that the original Khaenri'ahns were descendants of the City of Stars, prophesied as Saviors, and persecuted because of it. Just. Like. Us.”
• Would Hurt a Child: The Chāoyuè Xīngchén seems to have no issues with executing children as evident with Klee's sad fate.

Hell Hath No Fury

• Anyone Can Die:
  • Amber, Noelle, and Klee are playable characters in the original game and all three of them are seen being executed.
  • Andrius was killed prior to the invasion of Mondstadt, forcing Razor to join the Constillion Guard to protect the survivors of the pack.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents:
  • When Klee's head is sent flying from the force of the executioner swinging her blade, her blood drenches the crowd.
  • This is what happens to Veer and the rest of the crowd in the front row when his sister is decapitated.
• Corpse Land: What Mondstadt essentially becomes when the the decapitated heads and bodies of the executed knights are scattered around the city.
• Darker and Edgier: The prequel is much darker than the main story Descensus Averno, which is already dark in comparison to the canon game. It opens up with the execution of the Knights of Favonius, with the first three executions being the playable characters Amber, Noelle, and Klee.
• Dead Guy on Display: The decapitated heads and the headless bodies of the Knights of Favonius are scattered all around the city of Mondstadt after all the captured knights are executed. Venti speculates that the purpose for doing so is to trap the surviving members of Mondstadt within the city.
• Defiant to the End: Noelle refuses to die quietly and obediently. Mary kills her mid-sentence.
• Desecrating the Dead: Aether has specific instructions in regards to how to treat the dead bodies of the people who he orders killed.
  • After Amber was beheaded, her body was just tossed aside as they brought the next person to be executed onto the stage, Noelle. Afterwards,their bodies and heads are tossed outside onto the fields of Mondstadt with specific instructions not to touch the bodies unless they wanted to join the dead knights in the fields.
  • Veer watches his sister's decapitated body being kicked to the side after she is beheaded. He also observes that his families bodies were essentially left to bleed out, their blood pouring out of their necks like a gory waterfall as their skin turned gray.
• Dirty Coward: What the surviving Knights feel about themselves. They acknowledge that they essentially ran away, abandoning the rest of the knights to their fates.
• Driven to Suicide: Mary, the executioner of the Knights of Favonius, deeply traumatized by what she was forced to do to the people of her hometown takes her own life. Her body is found in the morning.
• Everyone Has Standards: During the execution of the Knights of Favonius, everyone is horrified but what is taking place. ESPECIALLY the executioner and the one chosen to hold down the knights to be killed. Even the other Constillion Guards can only watch in stunned horror, unable to look away not because they want to watch people die but because they feel they need to. At the end of the chapter, the executioner is Driven to Suicide out of guilt and Razor flees, never looking back.
• The Idealist: Eula is this as she vehemently disagrees with fleeing while the others are being killed one by one. She wants an ending where everyone gets out alive, despite the impossibility of that happening. Kaeya calls her out on it
• Kick the Dog: Venti notes to his horror that Mary the Executioner and the person holding down the Knights to be executed, Razor, are natives to Mondstadt. The irony of it is not lost on the God of Freedom and he strongly suspects that Aether did this on purpose.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: This is how Noelle dies, refusing to die as one of many tied to a senseless and horrific slaughter.
• Off with His Head!: This is essentially how anyone with connections to each Nation's respective governments are killed. Amber, Noelle, Klee, Veer's family.
• Public Execution: The first chapter opens up with the execution of the Knights of Favonius. The second chapter shows the execution of Veer's older sister with a brief mention of his parents as well.
• Red Shirt: Noelle knows this is what she and the rest of the Knights of Favonius will be in the anals of history when historians and future generations read about the executions. Faceless, no named individuals whose names will be completely forgotten, only being known as one of the unfortunate souls who were executed. She doesn't want any of it.
• Tearful Smile: Veer's older sister gives him one just before she is decapitated right in front of his eyes.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: The people in Mondstadt are all described as having glassy eyed gazes once all the captured Knights of Favonius have been executed.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Klee was a child when she was killed, and she was the third person to have been executed.
  • Noelle was still a young teen when the executioner decapitated her mid rant.
• You Monster!: Noelle calls Mary the Executioner and Razor this when she's hauled up to the stage. She asks why they, and by extension the rest of the Constillion Guard, are allowing the senseless murder of so many good people.