Genshin Durin - Tumblr Posts
Oh look, What I have so far for my Cataclysm and pre-canon Mondstadt plot points for my ATWIAWL AU!
CATACLYSM
After defeating Durin, Celestia summons Barbatos to assassinate the Khaenri’an heir, to which Barbatos very reluctantly cooperates with, that is until they get there and discover a baby Kaeya.
Seeing his smile, Barbatos cannot bring themself to kill the baby and attempts to smuggle him away from the Cataclysm, but they are discovered by Morax and the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.
Before all of this, Dainsleif was exiled (for reasons I haven’t really decided yet) from Khaenri’ah but came back during the Cataclysm hoping to save the people, but bumps into Barbatos. Dainsleif is tense at first until Barbatos hands Kaeya over to him and tells him that he must run before the Sustainer arrives.
The Sustainer then proceeds to arrive and Barbatos buys the two time as Dainsleif and Kaeya flee into the Abyss. However, Barbatos quickly loses the fight.
An offence like this would normally lead to the offender’s execution, however, the Sustainer is unable to kill Barbatos without severe consequences (all relating to Istaroth), but leaving them to their own devices is just as equally dangerous, so instead, the Heavenly Principles seal them away.
She still tells all the other archons that they killed Barbatos to dissuade them from also rebelling.
Before they’re able to seal them away, however, Barbatos transfers their powers over to the Thousand Winds, blessing them with power rivalling that of Liyue’s adepti so that after the deed is done and the Sustainer sets out to attack Mondstadt, the Wind Wisps are able to fight her off, sending her into a deep slumber after the Cataclysm weakened her.
PRE-CANON MONDSTADT
After they were blessed by Barbatos, the Wind Wisps essentially became divine protectors of Mondstadt, similar to the Four Winds and Liyue’s adepti. They’re also able to have human forms, identifiable by their white hair and anemo-coloured tips and eyes. They mostly stay in Mondstadt but are also known to live in other nations alongside people they decide to stick to.
Before they were sealed away, Barbatos was able to remove their soul and put it into the form of a Wind Wisp not too dissimilar from the rest of the Thousand Winds. Since their identity as Venti was compromised, Barbatos decided to craft a new identity under the name of Nye and use it to secretly remain in Teyvat.
The fact that Barbatos disguised as Nye is still around is a secret only the Thousand Winds are privy to, because if Celestia were to ever hear of Nye’s true identity, they could potentially awaken prematurely, and that is the last thing anyone wants.
Because they’re around, Venti is able to heal Dvalin of Durin’s poison, but because I’m also a sucker for the gay dragons, close to the present events of the game, Durin gets reincarnated into the most reckless being in all of Teyvat. Initially, Dvalin lets him be out of a sense of guilt from killing his past self, but then Durin (whose name might not be Durin anymore) gets himself in a sticky situation and Dvalin has to appear in his human form in order to get him out of that situation. Afterwards, Dvalin decides to stick around with Durin to ensure that he doesn’t get himself almost killed again.
In his human form, Dvalin has a fake anemo vision and I can imagine him either being a bow user or a catalyst user.
I like to think that Durin would have a cryo vision. I can imagine his weapon either being a claymore or a physical catalyst like Heizou or Wriothesley.
During the Ursa the Drake crisis, the presence of the wisps are able to save Crepus’ life. I haven’t decided yet if present-day Diluc still has the same personality he had before his father died in canon, or if he’s still grumpy. Another fic that inspired me was “A Bard’s Ambition” by OG_CaleHenituse where even though Venti saved Crepus’ life, it wasn’t without people thinking he had died when he went missing which still results in Diluc’s fallout with the knights.