#[ guizhong / visage. ] and because they are afraid; they try so hard to become more intelligent. this i understand.

[iniziare]

Tag drop: Guizhong (Genshin Impact), the love of my life and all of Liyue's.

#tag drop #i have been entirely lost to the aether called genshin impact. goodbye folks. #[ guizhong. ] wisdom is like water. it nourishes all those who receive it and in it; is a reflection of the truth. #[ guizhong / threads. ] after the goddess of dust was taken by the wind; the last glaze lily in guili plains withered away to dust in turn. #[ guizhong / inquiries. ] that her mechanical accomplishments were judged superior was one suspects; in large part to her sheer eloquence. #[ guizhong / visage. ] and because they are afraid; they try so hard to become more intelligent. this i understand. #[ guizhong / relevance. ] although she did not live to see the splendid sights of today; she was as much a hero as any other. #[ guizhong / meta. ] she was a visionary; tragically passed before her time. it gives cause for contemplation on what might have been. #[ guizhong / et cetera. ] we think of human life as a lantern that's lit one minute; extinguished the next. but are we adepti so different? #[ guizhong / humanity. ] they are so small; they know not when they will lose their lives to disaster or strife. and so they are afraid. #[ guizhong / guili plains. ] it takes every blade of grass and every flower to make a homeland. #[ guizhong / liyue. ] perhaps she will look at the liyue of today and steal a smile when she sees the prosperous land that it has become. #[ guizhong / sanctuary. ] “whether anyone tends to it these days; i do not know. -- alright then. that is where i shall go tomorrow.” #[ guizhong / mechanisms. ] in one's heart; i knew that she was indeed the superior talent in the mechanical arts. #[ guizhong / cleansing bell. ] though no substitute for human composers; they were yet capable of producing simple but fine melodies. #[ guizhong / glaze lily. ] to the gentle sound of their laughter and poetry; sparkling; glaze-like blue flowers began to burst into bloom. #[ guizhong / dyn: morax. ] what a silly notion: there was no formal contract between them. #[ guizhong / dyn: guili. ] she left one riddle: they say the wisdom of dust can soften a heart of stone. even if it takes a thousand years. #[ guizhong / dyn: streetward rambler. ] as for the story between her and streetward rambler; that begins with a certain bell... #[ guizhong / dyn: cloud retainer. ] we each had our ideals; and neither one of us would yield to the other. #[ guizhong / dyn: adepti. ] until the moon set and the sun rose; and only then would the banquet finally come to an end. #[ guizhong / v: pre-rule. ] a god whose dominion was over dust. and whose reach shrouded the skies for thousands of miles around. #[ guizhong / v: guili assembly. ] it's great to have it back but i want to go back to the world. and start with guili plains. #[ guizhong / v: archon war. ] they fought upon the guili plans; where black dust choked the heavens and a thousand rocks splintered.

[songzhong]

“It is said that during the years when gods contended against one another, Rex Lapis' aspect was that of boundless slaughter.

In those god-eat-god battles, one could never have ascribed gentleness to him.

He knew right from wrong, and never missed his mark: in those days of tumult, he would show no mercy, even to friends-turned-foes. Rex Lapis' stone-cold expression never once changed throughout that storied age.

They say that only when the dust settled did he lay down that unmovable visage.

But it had been necessary, for he had donned it to fulfill a contract.”

                                      From the  Mask of Solitude Basalt in the Archaic Petra artifact set.

Zhongli doesn’t understand human emotions. It is seen through the fact that he is so dense and out of touch with everything around him. From a reddit post : Venti calls Zhongli a “brutish blundering buffoon” and “old block-head” in his voicelines. But in Chinese, he specifically insults Zhongli with 不懂人心的死脑筋 = “A dead brain who cannot understand human feelings”.

"Those little people are as small and fragile as dust." "Because they are so small, they know not when they will lose their lives to disaster or strife, and so they are afraid." "Because they are afraid, they try so hard to become more intelligent. This I understand." "So I thought that since there is such a gulf between us in strength, I should use technique and wisdom instead." "With your brawn and my brains, this city would surely become a great one." Her final smile was a lonely one, even as her form dissolved into the finest dust.                                       From the Memory of Dust Liyue weapon

Those are the words Guizhong told him as she died, giving Zhongli the Memory of Dust which is the puzzle hovering around him when in idle pose and his Elemental Burst meteor. It is a puzzle she bestowed upon him and which contains all of her wisdom.

"This is the mark of our pledge, and it is also my challenge to you." "All my wisdom is hidden within this stone dumbbell." "If you can unlock it—" Many years passed, and he was never able to unlock that dumbbell, nor would he ever learn what might have followed that sentence. Over the years, the wild Glaze Lilies, too, dwindled till at last they were no more.                                      From the Memory of Dust Liyue weapon

My take on it is that through the years of godly war, Zhongli didn’t know anything but warfare, brutally fighting back one god after the other, until he met Guizhong, who showed him what was human emotions, how precious it was. And, even then, it must have taken Zhongli an incredibly long time for Zhongli to know how to remotely deal with those alongside other people. Thus his very surgical way of describing things, as scholarly theory is all he can base himself on to properly ascertain what is going on around him, and surely the way Guizhong explained him alien emotional concepts to him.

Zhongli never had the time to properly live what exactly Guizhong fought for because of the War, he could only, during occasional times, be a momentary witness in moments such as Rex Incognito, even messing around with people directly to test them, his way of exploring and challenging the mortals he wishes to know more about. Thus his cold reputation, as Zhongli has never been able to explore the emotions in him until NOW after millennia of being too busy for thinking about his personal, mental growth.

Ways Zhongli is out of touch is with, yes, his very specific way of speaking like an encyclopedia, describing things in what he believes to be an objective way because he doesn’t know how to show any sort of complex feelings through body language. He could say that something brings him incredible nostalgia, sadness and joy with a straight face, and it would then be taken as odd, or a joke, a lie, simply because he doesn’t know that making X and Y expression or gestures would make his thought come across more easily.

It unfortunately makes people around him tend to consciously or not not care about how he feels because Zhongli doesn’t SHOW any feeling. Zhongli is obviously saddened by Azdaha’s fate during his second story quest, however, even when the Traveler expresses how sad it is, he describes the situation very dryly, saying that things are how they are. However, he stays in front of the seal inscription for a long time, wishing to be alone. Zhongli doesn’t know that the sorrow he may feels is remotely important, or that it would be actually useful for him to express it to a friend. Emotions are so irrational, his rational thought process is more likely thinking “I feel sad but it doesn’t matter because this is the way things are.” This is also why the Traveler is one of Zhongli’s most important friend, because their approach is very human, and they do inquire if Zhongli has been well, and express emotions such as joy and sadness for him. The Traveler’s expression of empathy echoes strongly with Zhongli, the same way Guizhong did.

Now that he believes that humanity can separate themselves from the God, Zhongli can finally explore his feelings... which ends up with him looking like such an odd individual, asking questions to things that most people inherently know but perhaps cannot put easily into words (such as what is a friend, what is a lover...), even when Zhongli shows great knowledge into the theory of these concepts through his own investigations, he has yet to fully live them personally.

Guizhong’s influence, his affection for her and her ideals echo everyday in Zhongli. It shows through the objects he use for the Rite of Parting, his preferences for things such as feminine, mature perfume (which could also, tragically, be his favorite because it unconsciously reminds him of Guizhong’s scent) and his name.

The Guili Plains are named after the two Gods who first shepherded humans in Liyue. It is not Morax or Rex Lapis who did so, but Zhongli, given that the  “Gui” 归 part is Guizhong, and “Li” 离 would be his. Zhongli took this name today because it is his very first birth name, the one who wasn’t given to him by godly followers, but the name he bore as a man, a person. The one who loved and fought and, ultimately, discarded the name for thousand of years so he could protect what she and he stood for.

A wild guess of mine is that the key to solving the Memory of Dust might be to deeply understand human emotions, which is what Zhongli currently lacks to open it. Now that the war is over, he can actually start to try to solve it again. Another wild guess of mine is that the Memory of Dust doesn’t contain anything groundbreaking, it could hold a single wild glaze lily like there once was in the plains, only the treasure is not what was inside, but what was needed to open it. Incredible wisdom, a noble heart, and the emotions to love all of mankind.

#.songzhong ( headcanon ) #this is so messy like always I just wanted to SAY things but it doens't amount to any sort of conclusion RIP me