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The First Mistake
When Celestia started giving out Visions to humans through the Archons, there is no way that the Heavenly Principles could’ve known the impact of what they had done. After all, these were mortal beings whose life spans endured for no longer than the blink of the immortal eye – how could it possibly cause an issue to their Divine scheme?
And if, over time, their hubris spread to gifting Visions to those who were not human (to the Adepti, the puppets and homunculi, the Melusines, the-), to beings whose lives would go on for much longer, well, it certainly wouldn’t set the Divine back by any noticeable amount.
And of course, to keep the power structure intact, it was said that the Visions were the gifts of the Archons, with the knowledge that Visions were only granted according to Eternal Law kept carefully hidden to obscure the tight control that Celestia held over all its subjects.
What Celestia did not know, in all of its supposedly infinite wisdom, was the effect that being constantly exposed to such concentrated amounts of elemental power would have upon the Vision Holders. The species of Teyvat were young, untested, malleable – designed to accept whatever was given to them, whether it be stories or power or punishment. That ability to accept what came would prove to be the start of Celestia’s undoing.
The first thing the Heavenly Principles did when the Abyss and the Nations turned their joint eyes toward the skies was remove the Visions. After all, they knew all too well the kinds of people that were granted portions of Divine power – they were who wrote the Law. Even in their pride, they were not so blind as to ignore the threat that those with Vision posed. When such power was removed, Celestia sat back, gloating, for how could the humans hope to stand against them now? Their pathetic Delusions? A delusion is all it really is, a pale attempt at mirroring the Gods.
And so, it began its relentless onslaught, raining fire and hell down upon the face of Teyvat. Cities began to burn, people began to scream, and the Heavenly Principles began to grin in macabre satisfaction.
They did not know what they had done.
It was, at first, chaos.
A bloody, terrified, hopeless chaos as the humans and other species raced to rally themselves.
And Celestia celebrated.
And they missed the turning point.
Mondstadt was desperately trying to evacuate one of its smaller settlements ahead of the arrival of a Heavenly Horde. Its Knights and other (ex) Vision Holders were racing around, ensuring as many families left as possible, staying to the last possible second.
It happened as the Wrath was beginning to descend. The Calvary Captain whirled around in his tracks as he heard the incoming doom, his one exposed eye widening as he saw the owner of Dawn Winery still caught within the ruins of the town.
“NOOOO!” he yelled, and Celestia, in its celebration, did not hear his prayer.
The Captain ran, moving faster, faster, faster, as if he were almost flying with the wind behind his back, until he reached his brother just as the Hordes did. Without hesitation, he threw himself in front of his brother, knowing that he would never condemn him to such a fate, no matter their past estrangement.
Kaeya loved him too much for that.
He tucked himself around his brother and prayed with all his (godless, sinful, cursed-) heart that this would end.
And it happened.
And Celestia, in its celebration, did not see it.
Bursting forth around the two brothers, in a glorious display of love, a jagged shield of shards of ice erupted, spearing the Heavenly Hordes as they tried to inflict the punishment of the Heavenly Principles.
It was not over for the two yet. The older brother, his red hair darkened with blood, looked to the sky and paled at the incoming Wrath.
“Kaeya!” he screamed, and Celestia did not hear it.
And Diluc was ready to wage war for the sake of his brother.
Bursting from his outstretched hand, a phoenix constructed purely of hellfire swooped through the Hordes, stopping them in their tracks, incinerating those who got too close.
With the brief reprieve, the brothers looked at each other. A beat of connection, a nod of acknowledgment, and then they were off, wielding the elements as they never had before.
With swords and shields formed from the very essence of fire and ice, with the power of the elements and ideals they embodied flowing through their veins.
Together, in whirls of white and blue and red, the force back the Heavenly Hordes and postponed the Wrath of the Divine.
And in the end they stood there, no longer quite human in physical makeup (but rather, something more) but still perfectly, wonderfully human at heart.
And so, they spread the word.
If you once held a Vision, they say, you are still a Visionary! Being around that amount of power for so long, do you really think that it didn’t change you? That it could be so easily taken from you?
Celestia may have created us, they say, but they don’t know us.
Others begin to experiment with the idea, and soon others begin to have success.
The Acting Grandmaster sends the Hordes flying as she thinks of how desperately she wants to create a free world for her sister.
The Chief Alchemist thinks of how he was promised himself that he would understand humans and live, as a Crystallize reaction forms a shield around him.
The Outrider’s arrows catch fire as she snarls, imagining just how hard she has fought for herself and her position.
Soon, Mondstadt’s borders were filled with beautiful, glowing elemental energy as the Visionaries recognized the power that flowed through them, and Celestia began to notice.
What could the Heavenly Principles do, though? For the power of Visionaries came not from Celestia but from the universe itself, their Will and Resolve made manifest through their changed bodies. And so, rather than pull back, Celestia doubled down on the other nations.
What they did not expect was for the wind to carry the word to the Visionaries in other nations.
A Pirate’s claymore flashed with electricity as she fought for an eternity upon the clear waters of Liyue Harbor.
Ice formed a bridge beneath a young Lady’s feet as she raced between the islands of Inazuma to save those she loved.
Vines wrapped around a collapsing building in Sumeru City as an Architect realized the wisdom in fighting for himself, his worth, and his creations.
In the Court of Fontaine, healing water rushed to all the people as the fake-archon-full-human screamed for justice on behalf of herself and her people.
In the war-torn planes of Natlan, fire burst forth from a hand that realized that war is not synonymous with death.
Deep within the icy confines of Snezhnaya, whirling weapons of water flew around a Harbinger as he fought for justice for the boy he once was.
As the Visionaries found their Resolve, Celestia began to panic.
The Second Mistake
Barbatos had felt it building for a while. After all, it was what had finally woken him Cataclysmic Coma.
It began with the reign of Stormterror.
Faced with a horror that they didn’t know how to fight, the people’s hearts turned to their old god, begging for freedom from their suffering. An Archon derives strength from the prayers of its supplicants, and so Barbatos begins to feel his power creeping back into him. Though he does not control his people, his people’s worship of him grows and grows, allowing him a smidgeon of his previous power.
When his Gnosis gets taken, Venti shrugs and washes his hands of the matter. He no longer had the authority of the Wind, and so he would remain simply as Venti, the wind spirit given form.
He did not realize what being the figurehead of freedom throughout all of Teyvat would mean, though, for in this, Celestia had lied even to the Archons themselves. The Archons were told that their power came directly from the subjects of their respective nations. They did not know that their power was also derived from the subjects of their respective ideals, for how else could the Heavenly Principles have destroyed such a powerful nation as Khaenri’ah, save for channeling the power of the very wishes for freedom and justice and love from the supposedly godless people they were decimating? Celestia took the power of Khaenri’ah’s own people and turned back on them in the form of the Archons.
Though Barbatos no longer had the Authority inherent in the Gnosis, he was still considered the God of Freedom across all of Teyvat, and, as the Traveler made their way from nation to nation, his number of supplicants grew.
The first time that it happened, Venti dropped the apple he’d been eating. He’d been in the Windwail Highrise, sitting on a cliff opposite the Dawn Winery, at the very edge of Mondstadt, when he’d first heard it.
I wish to be free from my duties.
A warm, humid wind carries the prayer up through Sal Terrae, and, for a second, Venti almost thinks he recognizes the voice behind it. In a flash, though, the wish is gone, leaving behind nothing more than a swirl of energy in Venti’s core that he hasn’t felt since the Gnosis was taken. It’s a different feeling from what he’s had before, but it soon dissipates.
Venti shrugs and picks his apple back up.
It doesn’t happen again for a while, long enough for rumors of Morax’s death to flow into the other nations and for Barbatos to begin to grieve. He sits in the tree at Windrise, lamenting his status as the last original Archon, when the Wind carries a desire to him that is so strong it knocks him from the branches.
I WILL KEEP MY PEOPLE FREE FROM OSIAL.
The woman’s voice echoes round and round throughout his entire being, bearing the wishes of those close to her all the way to the God of Freedom. Barbatos falls fully to the ground, propping himself up in a half-prone position as he struggles to deal with the incoming power. The wind picks up around him, whipping his braids round and round as his eyes begin to glow with power.
And then, it stops.
With a breath of gratitude for their hard-won freedom, the wishes pull back gently. He hacks out of cough, pushing himself first to his knees. He pauses to attempt to brush the dust from his clothes and feathers, tremors still reverberating through his body.
His eyes widen. Feathers?
He cranes his head and sees that, for the first time since the Cataclysm, his wings have manifested. Tears come to his eyes as he struggles to his feet and feels the wind ruffle his feathers.
He… He hasn’t had enough power for them to manifest in centuries. With a few flaps, he rises several feet in the air, aided by unsteady wind currents, before he tires and collapses to the ground, tears of joy and pain streaming down his face.
It happens more frequently after that. He starts to hear the prayers of his people more, starts to feel their devotion to Barbatos grow quietly (he suspects that Jean and Diluc have more than a small hand in spreading the tales of Barbatos’ active involvement in their affairs). It’s not until Klee’s prayer for help (Please Mr. Barbatos, Klee doesn’t want to be in solitary confinement!) causes him to smile and miss the ground for a few steps that he realizes what is happening. With a sharp intake, Venti flies up and moves immediately to the tree at Windrise, gasping out breaths as he comprehends the circumstances.
This… this new power flowing through him… it’s authority. It’s not the authority of the Dragon Sovereigns filtered through Celestia and the remains of descenders. It’s the authority of belief, trust…
It’s Authority granted to him by humans.
Paralyzed by hope and fear, Barbatos swears that he will never tell anyone until the final days, for telling someone risks drawing the attention of the Heavenly Principles, and they cannot know of the power that is currently curling in Venti’s chest.
They cannot know of the power that may eventually save the people of Teyvat.
The trail of what Venti’s taken to calling free authority follows directly with the path of the Traveler through the nations of Teyvat.
The first time that Venti’s wings are strong enough to carry him from Windwail to Stormbearer Point, he’s fueled entirely by the dreams of the Watatsumi Army.
By the time that a coup led by outsiders overturns the Akademiya, the wishes of freedom flowing from that country and those caught in the thralls of the Akasha, Venti can manifest his wings at will for however long he wants.
The desire of the Fontainians to be free from a sin not their own causes enough Authority to flow through him that Venti avoids wine for days at a time, for what could provide a better high?
In war-ridden Natlan, in frozen Snezhnaya… the effects of the Traveler are no different. Wherever they go, the people wake up and desire freedom.
When the war with Celestia started, the Archons were, to an extent, paralyzed by the oaths that they had made to Celestia. Only the Dragon Sovereign of Water was truly free from their influence, and he could only ever be in one place at one time. Venti sat at the sidelines, desperately grabbing up every wish from freedom that came his way.
I wish I didn’t have chronic pain.
I wish I didn’t have to deal with him.
Would that there weren’t so many expectations of me.
And as the war intensified, so too did the wishes.
I don’t want to be afraid anymore!
I don’t want them to control me!
The final piece comes, of course, from his beloved Mondstadt. Unexpectedly, though, it comes from her Khaenri’ahns.
The Calvary Captain and the Chief Alchemist stand together in defense of a little Spark Knight in red, their ice and rock forming a protective, lethal barrier around them as they fight fiercely. With each strike of their blades, each explosion of their elements, their desires come closer and closer to uniting until, as one, Kaeya and Albedo’s souls scream out.
WE WILL BE FREE FROM YOUR DAMN DIVINE DESTINY.
Barbatos’ glowing eyes snap open, and, on his brilliant wings, he shoots into the sky, power flowing through him to spread over the nations. He adds his own wish to the mix.
We will be free from your machinations.
The Ultimate Mistake
Celestia did not know its domain as well as it should have. Barbatos and the other Archons were intensely aware of the beauty and ferity and cruelty of humans, but Celestia did not know.
Barbatos hung in the air, suspended between Celestia and Teyvat by his wings and the hopes of his people. He can feel it now – his people have freed him from Celestia’s grasp. What choice does he have now, what choice could he make now, but to save them as well? For freedom, when enjoyed individually, almost always tends to fear. Freedom is only comfortable when enjoyed in a group.
And so, Barbatos closes his eyes and spreads his arms wide. He lets his consciousness drift through the worship surrounding him, until he finds his targets.
In Liyue:
Morax. Zhongli. To be free from his millennia of duties.
In Inazuma:
Baal. Ei. To be free from the pains of a mortal world.
In Sumeru:
Buer. Nahida. To be physically free from the past and her captors.
In Fontaine, he finds two:
Focalors. Furina. To be free from the part she played.
Dragon Sovereign. Neuvillette. To be free from Celestia itself.
In Natlan:
Murata. To be free from slaughter.
In Snezhnaya:
The Tsaritsa. Her Majesty. To be free to find peace.
Connection to them established, Venti lets a gentle smile rise to his face. Freedom is to be shared, he thinks, and so he lets his Authority flow through the wishes old and new.
The Archons answer back as they feel the power flow through them, their newly buoyed hope strengthening their will to fight for freedom, creating a feedback loop that only fuels them all.
Venti laughs as he finds himself able to be brazen and brash and bold for the first time in millennia. Twirling in a circle, pointing a literal and metaphorical middle finger at Celestia, he lets his power flow through the Archons to the citizens of the respective nation.
In Mondstadt, Barbatos first guides the power to Kaeya and Albedo to free them from their fate, before it flows through to the other Visionaries who are no less devoted their country and its freedom. This power carries them up, up and up to Celestia, taking the battle to the Heavenly Principles themselves. Lest he leave the home front undefended, though, he lets his power flow through to other citizens whose wishes were no less heard than the Visionaries. To Anna, who wanted to be free from her illness and adventure, to Stanley to be free from the ghosts of his past, to all the others.
In Liyue, Morax smiles as Xiao’s karmic debt is finally paid in full with the Authority of Freedom itself before directing his attention to those who worked so hard to maintain his country’s freedom in his absence. And if parts get portioned out to others (like that tenacious Lan at the Adventurers Guild), well then, it simply fulfills the social contract between a God and his people.
In Inazuma, Baal chooses to let Yae Miko distribute the power, pushing it through her familiar and into the people that she has only just begun to know. Yae smirks as more than a few of the Resistance fighters suddenly startle at being blessed by the Wind.
In Sumeru, tears come to Buer’s eyes as she spreads the Authority of Freedom to those who fought so hard to free her. The tears actually fall when Dunyarzad gasps as the power flows through her. After all, she had so longed to be free from Eleazar.
In Fontaine, Furina and Neuvillette share a feral, snarling grin as they spread the power liberally to all their people who had for so long paid the price for a sin that wasn’t theirs.
In Natlan, Murata grimaces as she frees her people from Celestia’s slaughter. Slaughter is not the same as war.
And in Snezhnaya, the Tsaritsa smirks victoriously as she immediately grants further Authority to her Harbingers before moving to their families and acquaintances. Everyone should be free to love.
All across Teyvat, as her inhabitants realize what’s going on, the prayers for freedom turn into battle cries and the elements and the ideals and the Visionaries all merge into one swirling mass of Resolve.
Barbatos sobs and laughs as the unconquerable inhabitants of Teyvat all turn to Celestia and rain hell down upon it in one swirling mass of freedom.