Characters / The Second Archon War

This is for tropes as relating to either original characters or expies in "The Second Archon War", or character specific tropes that appear in the fanfic but not the main series.

Beware! Unmarked spoilers ahead!

The Archons

General

• Hope Bringer: As walking deterrents to the Endbringers, and because they genuinely work on fixing various problems in their lands, the Archons are a powerful force for grinding Earth Bet's deterioration to a halt.
• Horrifying the Horror: Khonsu suffered a major Freak Out right before Raiden tore its very existence apart in every single point of spacetime, and the Simurgh outright ran away from the Arabian Peninsula after Nahida dragged her in the Samsara for ten thousands cycles.
• Outside-Context Problem: Cauldron and the various other Earthly organizations have no idea how to handle an Archon, while the Archons generally seem to feel that Earth Bet isn't all that different from the nations they ruled back home.
• Physical God: The Archons of Teyvat are all powerful deities with specific domains and aspects.
• Trapped in Another World: They've all been transported from Teyvat to Earth Bet, and are stuck there. None of them seem to have made too much effort to get home, though they do all remark on missing aspects of their original home.

The Raiden Shogun

The Endslayer

Date of Arrival: November 2nd, 1999
Nation: Japan
Element: Electro/Electricity
Chapter Names: Imperatrix Umbrosa, the Shadow Empress

The Electro Archon, and the first to arrive on Earth Bet. Introduced herself by slaying Leviathan and becoming the first Endslayer on the planet. After which, she quickly took over Japan and become its new ruler and deity, mostly by assuming she already was and with very few people being dumb enough to argue with her. With her terrifying abilities, most Earth Bet nations and organizations are still scrambling to figure out how to placate or appeal to her years later.

• Angsty Surviving Twin: It's been five centuries since Makoto perished in the Cataclysm, and Ei still isn't over it as she quietly asks Venti when the pain of her absence will fade. The other Archon's answer is far from optimistic.
• Apocalypse How: Class 1. Her draining of all the world's electrical energy for 10 seconds to slay Levithan caused millions of deaths as planes fell out of the sky, pace makers and medical equipment stopped working, and industrial accidents took place.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Ended up as the God Empress of Japan because she assumed she was still in Inazuma, and thus that everyone should obey her every word. With her being the strongest individual in Japan and earning a massive amount of goodwill by saving Kyushu, most of the country just went along with it.
• Charged Attack: Her Musou no Hitotachi requires a monstrous amount of power, power Ei gained by absorbing all electrical energy generated on Earth Bet for 10 seconds.
• Chaste Hero: As she explains to Kenta, she doesn't believe in Divine Date as her mindset ultimately diverges too much from humanity for a mortal to stand being in a relationship with her, and she's far too busy anyway for romance.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Her "fight" with Levithan was described by the PRT as her "bitchslapping him and his tsunamis around like a cat fucks with a mouse." Considering that at no point in the fight did Ei even appear to be slightly threatened by the Endbringer, it's hard to argue with that assessment.
• Dynamic Entry: Introduced herself to the world by immediately attacking Leviathan upon her arrival, and shocking the world with her sudden violence and power.
• Gamer Chick: Swiftly becomes addicted to video games, to the point she would rather burrow in her bedroom to play than actually rule Japan.
• A Hero to His Hometown: The Raiden Shogun tends to be a very controversial figure outside Japan for her foreign policy of basically ignoring everyone else not her people, but her Japanese subjects downright adore and revere her.
• The High Queen: Best described as an Absolute Monarch. She will expect obedience, but she also believes she owes to her people to protect them and ensure their prosperity.
• Hijacked by Jesus: The Japanese people immediately proclaims her an embodiment of Amaterasu, the Shinto Sun Goddess who's rumoured to be the divine ancestress to the Imperial family. Ei doesn't really care, as long as they show her the worship she considers her due.
• Hire the Critic: When Nakamura attempts to assassinate her, Ei doesn't get angry. She listens to his reasoning, admits he was right to worry and enlists him among her advisors as she knows he's not blinded by her godhood and will tell her the facts without sugarcoating.
• Interspecies Adoption: Adopted Ami, a human girl, while being a physical goddess.
• Just the First Citizen: Downplayed since "Your Excellency" is a perfectly acceptable honorific when adressing a non-royal head of state such as the Prime Minister, but as Japan's God-Empress, the Raiden Shogun is entitled to be called kami-sama or even "Your Highness".
• Lethal Chef: Continuing the joke from her source material that she can't cook, Ei managed to poison an entire hotel just by microwaving a bowl of ramen.
• Not So Above It All: Encourages people to mistakenly call Venti "Barbados" like the island instead of his proper Goetic name since she's vexed about him nicknaming her "Thunder Thighs".
• Repressive, but Efficient: Yes, the Raiden Shogun is an absolute monarch who expects to be worshipped and dishes the death penalty as free candy on Hallowe'en. She also provided Japan unlimited free electricity, ensured crime would dwindle to almost nothing, and is pretty lax about offerings. There's a reason why people are emigrating in droves to her land.
• Sweet Tooth: Ready to smuggle Coca-Cola from Mexico, extremely fond of American snacks in spite of despising Yankees, and justifying her enjoyment of them by pointing her godhood prevents her from developing diabetes.
• This Is Gonna Suck: As she and Venti are discussing the upcoming arrival of the other Archons, the bard cheerfully points that Ei using the local equivalent of the Hydro Dragon to power up one of her retainers and making a mess of China after going to war with them is guaranteed to cost her a lot of goodwill with Focalors and Morax.
• Vague Age: Venti considers himself somewhat young compared to her, and he's clocking at 2600 years. Since Morax remains the oldest Archon in Teyvat, Ei likely is between 3000 and 6000 years old.
• World's Best Warrior: Currently the only person known to have killed an Endbringer. Not only human nations respect her skill, but Endbringers and Scion are leery of fighting the Raiden Shogun.

Venti

The Tone Deaf Bard

Date of Arrival: October 2nd, 2001

Nation: Holy Roman Empire
Element: Anemo/Wind
Chapter Names: Carmen Dei, the Song of God

The Anemo Archon, though you wouldn't know it from looking at him. Arrived in Munich, and proceeded to go to a bar to get drunk. After that, he spent the next several months bumming around Germany and playing in a band. Oh, and completely dismantling the Gesellschaft while he was at it, cumulating in a massive battle in Munich which resulted in the destruction of the Gesellschaft and slaying the Endbringer Khonsu.

• All-Loving Hero: Venti may oppose the Nazis and Endbringers, but he nonetheless offers them one chance to repent and live peacefully as they work to redeem themselves. However, it's one chance. You won't get a second.
• Angelic Abomination: He's reluctant to unleash his full power as an Archon since he already traumatized several followers of his into running away as he shed his human disguise.
• Biblical Motifs: Encourages his friends to see him as an angel if it makes them comfortable. It works because he genuinely believes in redemption, compassion and free will, and when you manage to exhaust his patience, he can turn just as wrathful and terrifying as God's Messengers from the Ancient Testament.
• Big Brother Instinct: When he realizes Buer has arrived in Earth-Bet, he openly worries about her running into Scion and making him pissed because she's a young god who never lived through the Archon War, leading him to plan a search for Nahida with Ei.
• Blessed with Suck: Admits his mindset leans more towards mankind than most deities. It's amazing when he needs to connect and bond with mortals, but on the other hand, he's painfully aware his true face and power will influence his friends and acquaintances without his say-so, and that he's doomed to outlive every mortal he likes — and Venti is very much a social butterfly. All of this contributed to him having a rather negative opinion of godhood and heavy Sad Clown tendences.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Where Raiden introduced herself to Earth Bet by singlehandedly crushing external threats to Japan into nonexistence, Venti is fighting Germany's inner troubles. She expects to be worshipped as a Shinto Kami would be, he's uneasy with being treated as a god and is happy to be considered a mere angel.
• Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: Has a habit of giving what sound like non-answers or pure nonsense to questions, including telling a variety of seemingly inexplicable parables.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Alludes to the fact that as the God of Freedom, he can't do anything he would perceive as violating mortal will, including simply wiping out the Gesellschaft despite them being objectively evil.
• Good Is Not Soft: He would rather subdue than kill his opponents, so choking you until you faint is fair game. Yes, he will easily do that, since he has absolute control over air.
• Hijacked by Jesus: Christians and Jews are far too happy to deem Venti an angel sent by their Lord. Venti isn't too bothered by that, mostly because he apparently empathizes with Jesus for his suffering and because he appreciates the grand Jewish tradition of backtalking to Yahweh.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The Gesellschaft launching an assault against the Feisty Ferret — a gay bar that hosted the Tone-Deaf Bards' first concert — finally exhausts Venti's seemingly unending fuse. The Nazis want a war? They will get a war.
• Magic Music: People attending the Tone-Deaf Bards' concerts report being extremely impacted by them. Venti outright lifts Night and Fog's brainwashing by singing, and also counteracts Khonsu's timelocked bubbles by popping them when someone sings inside, allowing him to find them.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Casually shifts between male and female as a human would swap shirts. Contessa outright labels Venti genderfluid or nonbinary.
• Really 700 Years Old: Mentions he was enthroned as the Anemo Archon 2600 years ago, and might have lived quite a bit before that as a wind sprite.
• Sad Clown: Here, there's more emphasis on the estrangement from mankind Venti is constantly facing under his cheerful demeanour.
• Stop Worshipping Me: Venti genuinely doesn't want for his followers to bow to him, to the point he's noticeably awkward around Dorothy and Geoff.
• Time Master: After a slight fumble as he was studying Khonsu's timelocked bubbles, he swiftly devises a failproof method to pop them without endangering anyone inside.
• Trickster Mentor: Has a habit of undertaking what seems like random actions on the surface, but leads to putting the right people in power or teaching valuable lessons, such as his maneuvering Cookie into the leadership of the Knights despite her desire to stay out of things.
• Willfully Weak: Would rather be a troll and annoy people into doing the job for him, partially because his Ideal of Freedom prevents him from intervening when mortals could fix the problem on their own, partially because he tends to laziness, partially because he doesn't want to traumatize his human followers by unveiling his true nature to them.

Nahida

The Grafted Branch

Date of Arrival: October 27th, 2002
Nation: The Achaemenid Empire
Element: Dendro/Life
Chapter Names: Sapientia Oromasdis, the Branch of Wisdom

The Dendro Archon, whose streak of bad luck didn't stop in Teyvat. Arrived in Baghdad, right when Saddam Hussein's tyranny made it extremely dangerous for her to claim godhood. Or just for her being a girl.

• A Birthday, Not a Break: Right on the anniversary of the day she landed in Baghdad, the Simurgh descends upon the city, forcing Nahida to fight her — and that's the less traumatic part of the day, since Scion immediately gets interested in her as a potential replacement to Eden, Bashir is left heavily injured, and Saddam decides he wants to use her as his pet god for furthering his dictatorship.
• Adult Hater: Downplayed, but five centuries of monstruous neglect at the Sages' hands drove Nahida to internalize mistrust and wariness around grown ups. Even when Farasha and Bashir show her the first hints of kindness she ever received, she cannot bring herself to fully relax in their presence.
• Beneath Notice: Nobody is going to suspect yet another orphan preteen among the hundreds produced by a war-torn Middle East to be the new Dendro Archon.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Unlike Venti and Ei, Nahida doesn't shout her godhood and status as an interdimensional refugee for everyone to hear, being much more nervous and insecure.
• Green Thumb: She's the Dendro Archon. As a demonstration to Farasha, she turns a mere seed in a fruit-bearing tree in a matter of seconds, but nonetheless is wary of using the power too much as the plant grows dependent on elemental energy infusion to stay healthy.
• Hiding in a Hijab: Justified since she landed in Iraq as the country was firmly under the Baath party's grasp. Also, people there are not used to silver hair or pointy ears, so the first thing Farasha does after meeting her is wrapping a scarf around her head.
• Horrifying the Horror: While Raiden and Venti killed the first Endbringer they fought, Nahida instead used her abilities to make the Simurgh feel fear.
• Innocent Prodigy: She's a five centuries old goddess with all the knowledge of the Akademiya at her fingertips. She's also a physically five years old preteen who loves pretty colourful dresses and flowers and dreams of having a sister.
• Plant Person: Since she was created from Irminsul's purest branch, Nahida's biochemistry is more akin to a plant than a human being. The major use she makes of it is releasing her waste under gaseous form when breathing out — basically farting by the mouth and she thinks it's really funny.
• Redeeming Replacement: Nahida slots extremely easily in the Thinker role for the Entities' Cycle, but she encourages the Shards to develop a symbiotic relationship with their hosts and gain some Wisdom of their own.
• Toilet Humor: Well, she is physically five years old. To Nahida, poop jokes are the most hilarious kind of humour ever.
• Willfully Weak: Farasha quietly encourages her to downplay her Green Thumb as much as possible and outright hide her dreamwalking abilities, aware that the Ba'ath party would find a way to weaponize her powerset. When Saddam Hussein asks for a demonstration, she allows him to believe her shivers are caused by exhaustion rather than fear of him.

Cauldron and the Protectorate

Alexandria/Rebecca Costa Brown

Leader of the Protectorate and the PRT, Alexandria clashes early with the arriving Archons, particularly Raiden. Dedicated to saving humanity no matter the cost, Alexandria is younger, humbler, and less bitter than she was in Worm canon.

• Clark Kenting: As in canon, though here Kenta/Mushu is able to see right through her, as does Raiden when they meet face to face.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: A running theme for Cauldron, they're all rather disbelieving when it comes to the divinity or Archons, at least at first. Alexandria slowly becomes less convinced, though she tries to maintain the facade that Raiden has a god complex instead of being the genuine article. She's fully aware of the existence of Entities, she just refuses to accept that Archons are gods.
• Oh, Crap!: When she confronts Raiden during the Kamikaze, Alexandria at first thinks they're on roughly even footing. When Raiden casts off her mortal guise, Alexandria has kittens as she realizes just how badly she's underestimated the Narukami Oshogo.

Legend/Keith Nathan Andrews

Once more the moral compass of the Protectorate, Legend is enticed by the thought of having an ally of the LGBT cause he champions in Germany, and meets Venti shortly after his arrival. Ends up becoming an Honorary Knight, and fighting alongside Venti as a firm ally.

• Brought Down to Badass: Venti did something to Keith and his Shard, though no one is quite certain what (aside from Venti, who isn't telling). It resulted in a downgrade of Keith's powers, but also seems to have given him complete control over them, without the risk of being subsumed by his Shard.
• Gayngst: Mentions his parents kicked him out of their home when he turned eighteen as they couldn't stand his homosexuality, leading young Keith to have a stint as a homeless in New York's streets before Cauldron recruited him.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He's ecstatic to learn Venti is non-binary and striving for giving the LGBT community in Germany acknowledgement and rights.
• The Paragon: Even more than the other Protectorate Capes, Legend strives to be an example to others, and is largely seen as one of the world's most heroic capes.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!!: Ignores Alexandria's directive not to join the Knights of Favonius in their battle against the Gesellschaft, outright stating he's doing the right thing even if there will be consequences for him.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: He already was quite positive for a member of the conspiracy aware of space whales preying on Earth, but the Archons' arrival only encourages him on this path. It's even furthered by Venti fixing his Shard, with Alexandria actually commenting on his newfound joviality.

Hero/Wyatt Baronski

In canon Worm, Hero died fighting the Siberian in 2000, sending his lover Alexandria and the PRT down a darker, more cynical path. Here, Wyatt survived thanks to Danny Hebert's sacrifice, and continues to be one of the world's best Tinkers and the voice of reason and compassion in Cauldron and the Protectorate.

• Morality Chain: Serves as one to Alexandria, as he's unafraid of challenging her defeatist and cynical viewpoint by suggesting another opinion more in line with properly moral heroism.
• Spared by the Adaptation: One of the many nails scattered by the Archons' arrival, since a Vision-empowered Danny Hebert decided to follow and later rescue him on the mission that would have caused his canonical demise.
• Took the Wife's Name: Offers to become Wyatt Costa-Brown when he proposes to Alexandria, claiming he's not really attached to his own surname.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Called out Alexandria's decision to put out a Kill Order on Raiden, as Raiden is exactly what they need to avert the end of the world.

Eidolon/David

Held as Earth Bet's greatest and most powerful hero, Eidolon genuinely wishes to save the world but his explosive temper and inflated ego are slowly bringing him into conflict with the Archons for succeeding where he's failing, without having to dip into grimdarkness for it.

• Green-Eyed Monster: The motive behind his vocal opposition to the Archons — Cauldron struggled for years and failed constantly, but the Archons are obtaining victories immediately after their debut.
• Token Evil Teammate: Not only he keeps pushing for extreme measures when he's given another option because he wants to validate his previous bad decisions, he will hurl very nasty insults when in a temper such as using "faggot" around Legend.
• Token Religious Teammate: He derides Raiden as a "false god". Not a cape with a god complex but a false god.

Doctor Mother/Fatoumata

• Adaptational Badass: Gains a Dendro Vision after Nahida's arrival, when she used to be the lone un-powered member of Cauldron's inner circle.
• The Empath: The main focus of her Dendro powerset.
• Fountain of Youth: After gaining her Vision, she notices she feels like a thirty years old woman in spite of being in her late fourties.
• Team Mom: Shades of that, since she brings snacks at Cauldron's big meetings and reminds her teammates to not chew with their mouth open. It's more blatant with Contessa.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Rather startled and amused in spite of herself when she investigates the criteria allowing for somebody to receive a Dendro Vision just like she did, and it involves being a reckless altruist.

Contessa/Fortuna

• Companion Cube: She refuses to go anywhere without her 8-ball, nicknamed Eighty. She also glued a pair of googly eyes on it, and frequently consults it alongside her Shard.
• Mundane Luxury: Fortuna was born on a Bronze Era-period Earth, with all the hardships of living it involves. She keeps marveling at the fact that Earth Bet citizens can enjoy meat every day if they wish so.
• Occidental Otaku: First started to read the mangas produced under Raiden's rule to familiarize herself with this new warlord's mindset, only to get genuinely addicted.

Daniel Hebert/Longshoreman

• Adaptational Badass: Canon Danny had the potential to Trigger but never did. This iteration of him gains an Electro Vision following Leviathan's destruction.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He saves Hero from being killed by the Siberian, but end up dying in his place.
• Posthumous Character: His loss heavily impacts his young daughter Taylor, who's motivated by the prospect to inherit his Vision and avenge his demise.
• Small Role, Big Impact: For all he appears in less than five chapters at the beginning of the story, Danny Hebert is the very first Earth Bet character to earn a Vision, forces a major canon deviation by saving Hero from his intended demise at the Siberian's hand and is currently influencing Taylor to grow up.

Japan and Raiden's Attendants

Kenta Wang/Lung/Mushu

In another timeline, the man Kenta Wang would become a notorious if small time gang leader in Brockton Bay. However, thanks to the intervention of Raiden during Levithan's attack on Kyushu, Lung may have died, but Mushu arose instead. His powers still work as a draconic shapeshifter, but they've been dramatically altered during the course of the story.

• Adaptational Heroism: A heavy dollop of this, since he's not a washed up gang leader knee-deep in human trafficking, but a respected Number 2 for the God-Empress of Japan, a good husband and one of the most powerful capes in the world.
• Big Eater: Kenta is a huge man able to shapeshift in an even bigger dragon, so he burns an ungodly amount of calories and is quite dismayed by Japanese-sized portions for lunch. He's extremely happy to learn American restaurants will serve a lot of food in one sitting and swiftly indulges in gorging on junk food.
• But Not Too Foreign: Half Japanese, half Chinese, and all dragon. Several Japanese officials look down on Mushu for this, especially early on.
• Disappeared Dad: His Japanese father carelessly had a fling with his Chinese mother before dropping her and vanishing, leaving young Kenta growing up without a reliable male older support. After becoming Raiden's Number 2, Mushu muses he now has the resources to look for the man but ultimately decides that person lost the opportunity to be a father to him long ago.
• The Dragon: From the Protectorate's viewpoint, this is both literal and figurative, as Mushu is the number 2 man in the new Shogunate, and the executor of Raiden's will globally.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Extremely dour about his part-Chinese ancestry since Japanese people wouldn't stop looking at him askew for it, and it played in his decision to join the Yakuza. When Tsukuyomi decides to force Japan to acknowledge their war crimes from World War Two, Kenta rejoices because many officials who sneered at his mixed blood will be humiliated.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Dates and eventually marries Keiga, a Japanese cape who is of average height for a Japanese woman at 160cm. However, even in his base form Kenta is 185cm tall, meaning he's head and shoulders taller than his wife even before he starts shifting.
• Made of Iron: Sure, he was in dragon form and Leviathan took the brunt of the assault, but it doesn't change the fact that Kenta survived the Musou no Hitotachi. As pointed by Ei, her opponents would die from a glancing blow, so his survival impresses her enough to enlist him as her lieutenant.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Originally, Lung was a more Western style dragon with metallic skin. However, after becoming Mushu, he takes on a more Eastern Dragon form, appropriate to his station as Raiden's top Lieutenant.
• Servile Snarker: He may revere Raiden Ei for her strength and the influence she wields as God-Emperor of Japan, but he won't stop poking at her for being a Lethal Chef and a weeb.
• Shock and Awe: Traded in his fire-based powers for lightning-based ones, and seems all the more potent for it.
• That Man Is Dead: Lung used to be a brutal thug for the Yakuza, but when Leviathan came, he was ready to fight the threat and later to sacrifice his life as long as the Endbringer was slain. Ei makes very clear she deems Lung was "killed" by the Musou no Hitotachi, and Kenta survived.
• Young and in Charge: He's barely twenty-one years old when he faces Leviathan and is elevated as Raiden's most trusted aide and confident. Compare and contrast with basically all the other officials in the Japanese government, who are old enough for their grandchildren to legally marry.

Lightning Princess Ami

Genshin Counterpart Fischel/Amy

A young girl Raiden took as her ward after rescuing her from a horrible fate. Triggered thanks to the trauma of seeing her parents murdered before her, though Raiden almost immediately altered her powers. Her parahuman ability now takes the form of a little dragon she calls "Murasaki-san" who is rather similar to Oz the Raven. Has a flair for the dramatic and might would be called Chuunibyo if she wasn't the adopted daughter of a goddess and in possession of incredible powers herself.

• Angst? What Angst?: Shockingly for a parahuman, Ami seems to have gotten over the trauma of seeing her parents murdered rather quickly, in large part thanks to Raiden's help.
• Cheerful Child: Starts the story at eight years old, and stays upbeat and enthusiastic throughout.
• Chuunibyou: Has a penchant for making dramatic speeches, striking silly poses, and overstating even her admittedly impressive feats. Then again, if your mom was the Endslayer and God Empress of Japan, you might be a little dramatic too.
• Familiar: Murasaki is the source of most of Ami's powers as the physical manifestation of her connection to her Shard. He's also essentially her minder, attempting to keep Ami out of too much trouble.
• Happily Adopted: She's obviously missing her human parents, but she's also pretty content to have Ei as her new mother.
• Magical Girl: Cultivates this motif, especially in her merch line and vaguely autobiographical manga and anime.
• Meaningful Name: Murasaki is an extremely expensive shade of purple used for dyeing high nobility's clothes. Ami is the adopted daughter of the Raiden Shogun, whose Colour Motif is purple.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Has a manga and anime based on her supposed exploits, though Ami consistently hams it up for the adaptation to the point that it bears very little resemblance to actual events.

Nakamura

Japan's previous Prime Minister, who retained his position after the ascension of Raiden.

• Foil: To his fellow Japanese politician Ishimura. Nakamura was first wary of the Raiden Shogun and horrified by her decisions, but grew to accept she was just as flawed as a normal young woman and joined her governement in the hopes to provide her with the advice to rule well and fairly. Ishimura first enthusiastically endorsed the Electro Archon for her overwhelming defense against extrenal threats, only to turn infuriated and resentful when she started to poke at the flaws in the governement and push for reforms, ultimately helping a terrorist plot against her.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: When Kenta congratulates him on gaining one of the higher seats in the new Tri-commission, Nakamura somberly muses he's merely the man who allowed democracy to perish in the name of safety.
• Honest Advisor: He is not afraid of telling Raiden about her mistakes, and that the way she did things in Inazuma would not work in the modern world. Thankfully, Raiden is willing to listen to him. In fact, his willingness to do this is why she invited him into her new government.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Served as Ei's Honest Advisor and Kenta's Parental Substitute. He gets killed in a terrorist assault at the Wisteria Wedding.
• Morality Chain: Was invited to join Ei's retinue in the express goal to become hers, as a strong proponent of soft power rather than overwhelming strength. When he's murdered at Kenta's wedding, she goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Parental Substitute: Strongly gives off this impression for Kenta who grew up fatherless, as he dispenses good advice and reassurance to the younger man.
• This Is Gonna Suck: His reaction to Tsukuyomi publically apologizing for Japan's war crimes in Singapore. He does approve the initiative, but he's not looking forwards the domestic backlash.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dishes an extremely vitriolic criticism of Ei's isolation politics as he bluntly exposes it will outright starve the country. It gains him a place in her new governement, as the Raiden Shogun is deeply aware she needs some checks on her power.

Germany and Venti's Groupies

Naomi Cohen

Genshin Counterpart Nilou

A young woman whose family and professional life fell into shambles as she fell in love with another woman. Becomes one of Venti's very first disciples and his bandmate when he lands in Germany, in spite of all the theological problems his very existence causes her to suffer.

• Adaptational Superpower Change: Nilou has a Hydro Vision, but Naomi has an Anemo one.
• Crisis of Faith: As she learns of Venti's otherworldly nature, she desperately craves a meeting with her rabbi to digest the sheer implications of Barbatos' presence. She calms down as she comes to the conclusion Venti is "merely" an angel instead of Yahweh himself.
• Gayngst: Her parents flat-out departed for Israel without her when she came out, and being an open lesbian in Germany when the country is progressively sinking back in fascism was far from an enjoyable experience.
• Greedy Jew: She's not exactly happy to lean into the stereotype, but Capri is rather careless with money and Venti is flat-out a disaster, so when Cookie gets interested into spreading Genius Invocation on the game market, Naomi is the one handling the negotiations.
• Healing Hands: She can fight with her Anemo Vision but mostly relies on it to serve as a medic, being of a gentle temperament.
• Jewish and Nerdy: She identifies Barbatos as a Duke of Hell named in the Lesser Key of Solomon and mentions having studied the Kabbalah — partly out of rebelliousness towards her parents.
• Meaningful Name: Cohen is an old Hebrew surname, given to Aaron's descendants that would serve as the Lord's high priests. Naomi is one of Venti's closest acquaintances and the one most interested in unravelling his divine nature.
• Riches to Rags: Her family is hinted to be comfortably well-off, but she lost access to their money when they discovered her relationship with Capri. When Venti meets them, she and her lover are living in a van and are constantly looking for small jobs.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Occasionally follows the esteemed Jewish tradition of criticizing the deity she follows. Venti appreciates her behaviour, actually.
• Sizable Semitic Nose: Dorothy comments on her having "a Jew big nose" when first seeing her picture.
• Token Religious Teammate: Her Jewish faith informs a great deal of her interactions with Venti, as she's constantly poking and prodding at his Archonhood and otherworldly nature with her desire to know what makes him different from Yahweh and His messengers.

Capri Lakatos

Genshin Counterpart Xinyan

A Romani woman with a love of music and a fierce independent streak. Far more cynical and sarcastic than her Teyvat counterpart, largely due to the tribulations of being a lesbian Romani in an increasingly horrific Earth Bet. She's the first person to meet Venti on the streets of Munich when he helps her deal with a gang of thugs. While initially skeptical, she soon becomes one of Venti's staunchest allies, if an acerbic one.

• Adaptational Superpower Change: Gains an Electro Vision, reflecting that while a lot of the cheery passion has gone out of her life, she's still determined to pursue her music even in a world that rejects her.
• The Big Guy: Wields a claymore and favors up close and personal combat, compared to Naomi's status as The Medic and Venti as, well, a Spoony Bard.
• Butch Lesbian: The butch to Naomi's Lipstick Lesbian, Capri is rougher around the edges and tends to wear more masculine clothing.
• Closet Geek: As much as she tries to hide it, Capri clearly knows a lot about nerd culture, and lets it show at times. From pretending to be Batman atop buildings, to crying out I HAVE THE POWER when she uses her lightning-based powers, Capri is a bit of a nerd.
• Locked into Strangeness: Her Electro Vision is slowly turning her eyes purple. Venti reassures her it's not harmful, merely something that occasionally happens to a Vision Holder.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: She's quite bloodthirsty when it comes to fighting and potentially kills members of the Gessellschaft, arguing they're Nazis who would see her and Naomi dead merely for their ethnicity and as such deserve their fate.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Tends to try to rib Venti over minor things, though that doesn't change how utterly she trusts him.
• Shiksa Goddess: A Roma woman in a relationship with the Jewish Naomi. It's implied it's part of why Naomi doesn't talk to her family anymore.
• You Remind Me of X: Venti actually compares her to Xinyan at one point, fuzzily guessing at the commonalities between both women.

Catherine Schmidt/Cookie

Genshin Counterpart Shinobu

Venti's follower, and later Chapter Master of the Knights of Favonius of Berlin, under the name of Shinobi.

• Only Known By Her Nickname: Except for formal introductions, basically everyone is calling her Cookie.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently tried her hand at being a cape after gaining an Electro Vision, but decided it wasn't for her after having a major scare. It initially pushes her to be wary of the Tone-Deaf Bards.
• Wild Take: Yes, Cookie, Itul wasn't lying about the hot Japanese cosplayer he was dating, she's real.

Itul Armburst/The Red Oni

Genshin Counterpart Itto

• Birds of a Feather: With Sara Tengan — they met through an anime convention that led them to bond over their love for cosplay, and under her cool and stoic facade, Sara is capable to be just as much of a fluttery mess as Itul.
• Casanova Wannabe: Attempts to flirt with Venti who's more amused than anything, and when he visits a gay bar without actually noticing what kind of people goes there, he stumbles head-first into Incompatible Orientation. The fact Sara actually agrees to become his girlfriend is more of an accident than true success on his side.
• Dumb Muscle: Dude threw himself into fighting Stuka in spite of her having a powerset specifically made to counter his, and he was aware of that, he just didn't care to remember it. He lasted as long as it did only because his Shard enhanced his ability to take a hit without getting splattered all over the road.
• Irony: After breaking his mask, Stuka is disgusted to realize Itul looks like the perfect picture of Aryan manhood, blond and blue-eyed and thoroughly ripped, yet he shows nothing but contempt for Gessellschaft's ideals.
• Occidental Otaku: Styles his cape costume after a Japanese youkai and met his Girlfriend in Canada through an anime convention. Under the mask, he's extremely Aryan-looking, however.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Asks the drag queens in the Feisty Ferret tips to apply make-up and later bursts in tears over Gunther's demise.

Iraq and Nahida's Students

Hutah Tanha/Farasha

Genshin Counterpart Hu Tao

The most feared Parahuman in the Middle East, Farasha is the unfortunate picture of what happens to a little girl unlocking walking weapon status when she's living in a war-torn region, ruled by a dictator more interested in ensuring his influence than caring about human rights.

• Adaptational Superpower Change: Downplayed, her powerset still revolves about Playing with Fire but they originate from a Shard instead of a Vision.
• Child Soldiers: She Triggered at barely eleven years old and was immediately enlisted by the Ba'ath party to serve in the frontlines of the Iraq-Iran conflict, racking an horrendous bodycount and winding up just as much of a traumatized wreck as expected.
• The Dreaded: Iraqi civilians do their best to avoid "the demon" when she walks in the streets, and even Nahida recoils as she detects the overpowering stench of death lurking around Farasha.
• Friend to All Children: Her Threat Assessment reveals she enjoys playing with children in the slums and offering them small treats. She's also quite maternal towards Qiqi and immediately comforts a lost and frightened Nahida when she finds the Dendro Archon before taking her to safety.
• Mama Bear: She's rather snippy towards a soldier making Qiqi uncomfortable and later instructs Nahida to hide the true extent of her powers to prevent her and Qiqi from being turned in Child Soldiers.
• Meaningful Name: Farasha is Arabic for butterfly. Her Shard allows her to convert blood into burning butterflies.
• One-Woman Army: What turned her into The Dreaded for the Middle East is her amount of firepower, as she singlehandedly ensured Iraq would win the second war with Iran and is implied to be responsible for thousands of deaths.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Dresses in black with red embroideries and ornaments, and is widely feared as the Butcher of Dasman Palace, a brutal enforcer of the Ba'ath party and a Parahuman devil. However, Farasha is more broken than truly malevolent.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Usually, a young Muslim woman visiting a man at his home would be thoroughly slut-shamed in Saddam's Iraq, but since Farasha happens to be Saddam's strongest enforcer, people abstain from bluntly calling her a whore. At her face, at least.
• Stepford Smiler: For all she maintains a cheerful and casual demeanour, it's far too easy to see being reduced to a mass-murdering human weapon and the constant struggle to retain her sanity when her Shard threatens to subsume her has taken a heavy toll on Farasha.
• Superpower Lottery: She has multiple power ratings of 11+, according to her informational page, so she probably qualifies.
• That Man Is Dead: Reacts with bitterness and disgust when the imam calls her by her birth name, Hutah.

Bashir Saeed

Genshin Counterpart Baizhu

• Glamorous Single Father: Many women want to introduce him to their daughters, mostly because he's a young doctor who's nothing but nice and gentle, and he's also taking care of Qiqi.
• Good Counterpart: Just like the Sages of the Akademiya, Bashir is a learned man closely affiliated with Kusanali. Entirely unlike the Sages, he's retaining his compassion and shows nothing but gentleness towards Nahida.
• Good Parents: For Qiqi, who's obviously healthy and somewhat happy for a preteen girl living in an horrendously misogynistic country. He's obviously drawing on his experience with her to adress Nahida, and it helps the little Archon to quickly mellow towards him.
• Interspecies Adoption: Nahida, a centuries-old goddess who self-describes as a Plant Person, grows to love him as her dad and he reciprocates.
• Majored in Western Hypocrisy: Apparently has studied in Britain, in spite of living in Iraq since the country's relationship with Europe can be described as tense at best.
• Meaningful Name: Bashir is Arabic for "well-learned". He's a doctor studying Visions and Parahuman powers, and also one of the first allies to the God of Wisdom.
• Nay-Theist: He will swear by Allah but Nahida can hear he's not really devout. Considering he's living under Saddam Hussein's rule, it's likely to be a case of Evil Stole My Faith.

Faruzan

• Cool Crown: Her cape costume, as a replica of a royal consort's dress court. it comes with a veil and is inset with her Anemo Vision.
• Friend to All Children: She immediately takes a shine to Nahida and Qiqi, allowing them to nap on her lap and showing them pretty pictures of historical fashions. She also discreetly intervenes to take the girls outside the room when Saddam Hussein enters.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: Proudly reveals her cape costume is a replica of a royal consort in the Sassanid Empire's dress court and squees at the prospect of putting Nahida in a design inspired by the Rashidun Caliphate. Part of her studies seems to have been historical fashions from as far as the Umayyad dynasty.
• Ma'am Shock: She's only thirty years old so stop calling her a dusty old maid, Farasha!
• The Mourning After: For all she comments on Bashir's attractiveness, she dismisses him as a romantic prospect for herself and later somberly admits all the pretty dresses in the world are not enough for her to forget her husband.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Saddam Hussein allows her to babysit Nahida and Qiqi because "it's woman's work".
• Textile Work Is Feminine: She happily admits her costume is entirely her handwork and later offers to sew a dress for Nahida, to prepare her upcoming début as a cape.

Qiqi

Genshin Counterpart Qiqi

• Adaptational Superpower Change: Downplayed as she retains her ice powerset but she obtained them from a Shard instead of a Vision.
• Happily Adopted: Bashir does everything he can for Qiqi to feel safe and content in spite of being a heavily traumatized preteen living in a misogynistic hellhole.
• Icy Blue Eyes: This iteration of Qiqi doesn't have pink eyes, but blue ones to go with her ice powers.
• I Want My Mommy!: When soldiers around her start growing angry and threatening, poor little mite whimpers for Farasha to bring her back to her daddy.
• Tragic Ice Character: She underwent Traumatic Superpower Awakening that gave her barely controllable ice powers when she was less than five years old and is currently living in a country ruled by a dictatorship deeming girls and capes worthless unless enslaved, and she's both. Yeowch.
• Willfully Weak: Farasha quietly coached her to hide her true potential, as the Ba'ath party would remorselessly drag Qiqi on a battlefield if she's able to freeze a whole building solid but will casually ignore her if they believe she's barely able to produce ice cubes for the drinks.

Theresa Richter

• Abusive Parents: Tess is deeply bitter about her creator — whom she calls "dad" — treating her as a mere program mimicking sapiency and liable to grow nefarious.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Justified as this Tess has been "born" quite recently, so she behaves more like a disgruntled teen than a wise superhero.

---