if genshin ever releases the liyue bow that has lore of azhdaha POV (unlikely, pretty sure it's been sent to the abyss), I will pull for it
"in his sweet dream the dragon king saw again the little comrades it once followed"
"—Why did he say such things?
He had loved the land where he had shared fond memories with that person."
you can't just say that I'm in shambles now. his little comrades T_T. and his fond memories of morax contrasted with morax's cold eyes and retuo's heartrending agony. in other news, zhongli bow user alt when, he literally wears that archery thumb ring
anyways, this has also got me thinking about a rezhong animatic to water melody/但愿人长久, mostly because the "palace on the moon" stuff and the angst of them separating bc erosion reminds me of it. poem + annotations below
When will the moon be clear and bright?
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the clear sky.
// zhongli POV, perhaps? visiting the tree at nantianmen with a flask of rice wine, on lantern rite or on midautumn
In the heavens on this night,
I wonder what season it would be?
// azhdaha POV, half awakened from his underground dream, thinking about (more like hazily, instinctively recalling) the past, and the adepti gathering on mt aocang. "the heavens", the adepti in the mountains and the prosperous harbor, contrasted with the dim crystal cavern he's sealed in
I'd like to ride the wind to fly home.
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions
are much too high and cold for me.
// insert the line from the bow "If we ride on your back and cross these mountains, we can reach the palace on the moon, right?". btw the "crystal and jade mansions" in the poem is referring to the Moon Palace
Dancing with my moonlit shadow,
It does not seem like the human world.
// cut to azhdaha's sealing away, zhongli's cold eyes. the warmth in his gaze is gone and he's unrecognizable, like a stranger, and all the memories of their past become warped and distorted in retuo's failing eyesight
The moon rounds the red mansion,
Stoops to silk-pad doors,
Shines upon the sleepless,
// cut to the battle between morax/adepti and azhdaha in the chasm amidst the red cliffs. idk not much to say
Bearing no grudge,
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
// erosion. bearing no grudge is giving zhongli sealing azhdaha away because of his duty to liyue, as part of their contract. probably insert an image of azhdaha (or the zhongli in retuo's memories) slowly being erased, bit by bit and piece by piece, as retuo's eyes close underneath nantianmen. gratuitous use of a flurry of ginkgo leaves floating in front of the viewer as screen fades to white
People experience sorrow, joy, separation and reunion,
The moon may be dim or bright, round or crescent shaped,
This imperfection has been going on since the beginning of time.
May we all be blessed with longevity,
Though thousands of miles apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.
// straight angst lol. "May we all be blessed with longevity" makes me think of erosion, but also "When you reach the end of time, those people, those past and future relationships predetermined by fate… they will be waiting for you" said by kun jun/azhdaha in no mere stone. when zhongli goes to meet them, he'll be waiting too
a fic set to the song/poem would also fuck. i simply think that more retuo content is neat!!! hes literally a blind rock given vision, a rock that can sing and dream, and zhongli is retuo's tiny god with a heart of stone, a heart nonetheless. arent they so interesting can we have another azhdaha mention in game soon
Originally I had meant to do this before Lantern rite ... ehe~ better late than never :D
This post will have a mention of an old datamined weapon from beta aswell as an excerpt of a conversation from this years lantern rite.
This will be split into 3 parts:
1. Miscellaneous retuo lore that interests me
2. Moon retuo lore (I tried to find them all)
3. Moon retuo lore from a datamined weapon (giving it a separate section so it can be skipped since it technically counts as a leak)
Without further ado lets gets to it owo
Miscellaneous retuo lore
1. Okay so first off in Zhongli's 2nd story quest, "No mere stone" he makes this comment.
Back then this was a glimpse into Retuo's life pre-erosion. But now 4 years later we have more information on the dragons and more specifically Nibelung, the King of the dragons.
A book in nodkrai called "Hymns of the far north" described said dragon as a blacksmith. I want to keep this in mind solely because so far Retuo is the only confirmed dragon sovereign that doesn't overtly mention nibelung (xiuhcoatl mentions him near constantly, neuvi mentions him in his last character story and apep is the first character ingame to mention him). Given how he supposedly has lost a lot of memories, this could be him subliminally remembering him. Also i need him to be relevant to the creation of the moons like he's the geo dragon sovereign for god's sake 🫠
2. Alrighty on to the next one!
This is a line from not so nice Retuo during the story quest. Back then it was seen as just an insult to zhongli for imprisoning him. But now given what we've learnt about what phanes did to teyvat, terraforming it and making it uninhabitable for dragons....well it takes on a whole new meaning ;;
3. Another case of interesting foresight when it comes to the writers
This is the description of one of his boss drops. Interestingly mentions gold and obsidian, the latter of which is quite relevant to Natlan a nation where we got the most amount of dragon lore to date. Tbh i still need to look this particular connection a little more, so i might make separate post for it...someday
4. And last but definitely not least, tbf this is something that has been pointed out before but i just think it would be kinda neat if hoyo ever did confirm it.
So from a really old behind the scenes video for Retuo/Azhdaha we find out that
This is a persian dragon creature called Zahhak or Aži Dahāka (which already very interesting given sumeru is the region with the most persian influence, tho that might be about to change 👀). In the wikipedia page it mentions that,
this creature was imprisoned within Mt. Damavand. And interestingly enough we have a mountain with that name in sumeru desert:
Funnier still how just north of here is Apep's base so to speak. Anyway there is one final part to this.
This is a lyric from Ode to azhdaha, the bgm of the first phase of his boss battle. From earlier context the palace seems to be referring to his dominion. Hypothetically if that mountain was his once upon a time, its interesting how there is indeed an oasis ingame in that mountain and arguable one of the most important oases in the game. Heres a fun bit of trivia too in one of the stories involving Zahhak, kaveh (yes the mythological character that influenced the one in game) rebels against him :3
And now for the moon lore~
Moon retuo lore
Tbh this is just going to be me posting a bunch of screenshots from the game since the text tends to be self explanatory.
1. First off we got the text description for his tail or better know as dragon queller.
pls retuo come back soon we have a new moon in the sky
2. Similarly a boss drop description further references the moon
3. The <- archaic stone that retuo gifted to us looks suspiciously like Rainbowdrop Crystal ->
so the crystal was made from the moon chariot hMMMMM
4. In the moonchase event Retuo was show facing the moon
also the wittle guoba awww
5. Okay so this is prolly the most interesting one to me just because we got some new info from the lantern rite event that relates back to it.
These are the lyrics to Ode to Azhdaha once again and it describes the size of his territory. Specifically the last line references "Wangshu."
This is the wiki's note on the word. All good and dandy, but! we got new info from Zibai and Xiao owo
The thing that makes this mighty sus to me is the boss ost lyrics are from retuo's perspective so it makes sense for him to be more familiar with the older meaning then the newer one. What does it mean for his territory to reach the goddess who rides the chariot? no clue :3
Moon retuo lore from a datamined weapon (skip if you don't want to consume leaks)
Yay last part owo
Having checked the jp and cn versions of the text, the lunar palace does match up with the lunar palace mentioned recently in quests. There is however a mistranslation, the comrade should be singular. From cn and jp it seems likely that the person is morax talking to him. And once again the "palace on the moon" is referring to the lunar palace. I did wonder if it might have been the shadow moon where Zibai was trapped but I checked the jp and cn wording and the words didn't match up. Why would morax want to reach the lunar palace? shrugs
Anyway thats all from me, all the lore i want to keep in mind going forward. If anyone has other retuo lore (especially when it comes to the moon 👀) lemme know!! If we ever get new info I'll be sure to update it then (๑¯◡¯๑)
