If you’ve been playing genshin for a while now, you may start to recognize the darker undertone of some of the characters’ names in the game. For example, the upcoming Electro Archon, “Baal” is a pretty well known name for most religions. In many Middle Eastern religions, Baal is considered a fertility deity and in Egypt, Baal was the god of the sky, clouds, tempests, thunder and war. Both countries recognize Baal as a powerful deity.
However, for many Christian beliefs, according to the book, “The Lesser Key of Solomon”, Baal/Bael is actually a demon, “described as a hoarsely-voiced king with the power to make men invisible and ruling over sixty-six legions of demons.” But, our Electro Archon isn’t the only one named after a demon in this novel, look back at our Anemo and Geo Archons, “Barbatos” and “Morax”, both also referencing this book as well.
Yet why would genshin purposely name their Archons after demons? Or maybe we’re just looking too deeply into this since Baal does also represent some positive attributes in MIddle Eastern cultures. But having now three archons following into this theory, you know how the saying goes, “one’s an incident, two’s a coincidence, and three’s a pattern”.
Background
First, let’s discuss the demonology of “The Lesser Key of Solomon” and what it is all about and its origins.
According to Wikipedia, it states,
“The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis[1] or simply Lemegeton, is an anonymous grimoire on demonology. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials a couple of centuries older.[2][3] It is divided into five books—the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria.”
That being said, in Johann Weyer’s Ars Goetia (a.k.a “The Book of Demons”) there are a total of 72 demons. Each of these demons are also ranked specifically according to to their summoning points on a compass (to conjure them), with “four emperors are tied to the cardinal points (Carnesiel in the east, Amenadiel in the west, Demoriel in the north and Caspiel in the south), and sixteen dukes are tied to cardinal points, inter-cardinal points, and additional directions between those. There are an additional eleven ‘wandering princes’, totalling thirty-one spirit leaders who each rule several to a few dozen spirits.”
Now I’m not sure if the ranking has anything to do with “power” or just simply ranked based on their “conjuring location”, so for now I won’t consider the number to mean much.
Let’s start off with our very first introduced character in the game, Venti, himself. So, as we progress through the game we find that “Venti” is actually just his persona name with his actual local alis and archon name being “Lord Barbatos”. This holds a lot of significance, as the name Barbatos is one of the 72 listed demons.
Of these known official archon names, here’s what we know,
God of Freedom (Anemo)
Barbatos = Earl/ Duke of Hell, depicted with a trumpet of sorts in the Infernal dictionary. Similar to how Venti is known for his Lyre, perhaps? “He can speak to animals, can tell the future, conciliates friends and rulers, and can lead men to treasure hidden by the enchantment of magicians.” Just like Venti and Dvalin and their close connection.
God of Contracts (Geo)
Morax = Earl/president of Hell, aman with the head of a bull. “He teaches astronomy and all other liberal sciences, and gives good and wise familiars that know the virtues of all herbs and precious stones.” I feel like this title does seem to fit Zhongli as an educator and wise with all things nature and stone as the Geo Archon.
God of Eternity (Electro)
Baal = King of Hell in the Lesser Key of Solomon, and deity worshipped by Caanites in the Bible. Sometimes personified to be fertility, weather, rain, wind, lightning, seasons, war, sailors, science, love. Almost fitting perfectly for the story of Inazuma from uncontrollable weather to war and even love.
Now for Baal, he is ranked at number one known as “King Baal”, and if you’ve seen the theories on the gnosis being chess pieces, then you might find Baal’s predicted chess piece to be very fitting for her role.
*Not to mention that Paimon, herself, is also named after a demon. Known as “King Paimon” or the King of Hell, subservient to Lucifer. But what does this say for the rest of the future archons that are to come to genshin?
God of Wisdom (Dendro)
Back in the Windblume Research Report in Act IV, an npc named Sayid (a scholar from Sumeru) mentioned something about their Sabseruz festival which celebrates the “Lesser Lord Kusanali”. Now, Vahid, another npc but this time from Inazuma, also mentions this holiday claiming it to be “the provider of the Anahitian Blessing”.
So, in previous theories, we already know that each name that is used in Genshin almost always has some reference to the original culture it was based off of. For instance, in this case, the word, “Sabzeruz” (Persian: سبزه روز) is derived from the Persian words sabze (سبزه “grass, greens”) and ruz (روز “day”), together meaning “Day of Grass,” an appropriate name for the Dendro region of Sumeru.
While in Chinese and Korean, the festival is called “the Flower Archon/God’s birthday (Chinese: 花神诞日; Korean: 화신(花神) 탄생일). With Japanese, calling it “the Flower Archon/God festival” (Japanese: 花神祭り).
And the name for the Lesser Lord, “Kusanali” is derived from the Pali words kusa (“kusa-grass,” a sacred plant) and nāḷi (“a hollow stalk or tube”). Moreover, in Chinese, “Lesser Lord Kusanali” is 小吉祥草王 Xiǎo Jíxiángcǎo Wáng, meaning “Little Lucky-Grass King”.
All of these clues point to the possibility of this “Lesser Lord Kusanali” to be our Dendro Archon himself.
However, “Kusanali” might just be his local alias, as Rex Lapis and the Raiden Shogun is, not their actual “archon name”. So, if genshin truly is deciding on making all of the archon names demonic names from the Lesser Book of Solomon, here are some ideas of what that name could be: (credits to @Ironoverload456 on reddit)
- Amdusias (Amduscias, Amdukias, Ambduscias) “Makes trees bend at will”
- Gusion (Gusion, Gusoyn) “Tells all past present and future things”
- Bathin (Bathym, Mathim, Marthim) “Knows virtues of precious stones and herbs, and astral projection”
- Beleth (Bilet, Byleth) “Mathematics, deception”
- Astaroth (Ashtaroth, Astarot, Asteroth) “Maths, studies and science. And hidden treasure.”
- Vine (Viné, Vinea) “Tells past, present and future, can bring down walls from sticks, branches and leather”
- Vassago (Usagoo) “Spirit of good nature, discover all things hidden and lost”
- Stolas (Stolos, Stoppas, Solas) “Plants”
God of Justice (Hydro)
Now, there isn’t much said about the Hydro Archon, other than the fact that she is a female archon.
As for her archon name, some ideas I came up with were:
- Crocell (Crokel, Pucel) “Teaches stuff and creates illusions of bodies of water, gliberal sciences”
- Foras (Forrasis) “Thieves cannot escape the hand of justice…The Crystal is mine. Never shall I lose my grip!”
- Orias (Oriax, Ornias) “Great Marquis of Hell, Hell’s Electorate Astronomer”
- Ose “Mysterious Operative Leopard of Truth, magic, insanity, law, nightmare, madness”
- Vapula (Naphula) “Soldier of the Virtues, philosophy, mechanics, and sciences”
God of War (Pyro)
So, in the Genshin manga, we know that some of the humans who possess Pyro visions with bright red hair are considered “Children of Murata” like Venessa and Diluc. Leaving many fans to believe that “Murata” is our Pyro Archons persona name. But she’s also mentioned as the “Lady of War” which might be her local alias in Natlan.
As for her archon name, some ideas I came up with were:
- Aim (Haborym, Aym) “Fire, deception”
- Belial (Matanbuchus) “Fire of Hell, rebellion, deception”
- Berith “War, murder, alchemy, metals, truth, blasphemy”
- Eligos (Abigor, Wartak) “Winged Rider, Warrior Demon, War Conflict, Warfare, Wrath, Shockwaves”
- Flauros (Haures, Harvre) “He can also destroy all the conjurer’s enemies by burning them up”
God of Love? (Cryo)
Our final archon, boss, and mission that awaits us in Chapter 7 lies in the Cryo Empire of Snezhnaya, otherwise known as “The Tsaritsa”.
As for her archon name, some ideas I came up with were:
- Dantalion “Keeper of the Forbidden Library of Bibliotheca, arts, science, love, deception”
- Zepar “related to love, lust, and sodomy. He has no love for humans”
Theory #1
So what does this all mean? Maybe all of the archons are actually “bad guys”? If this is truly the case, then Mihoyo might want to play into the Christian belief of the “Seven Deadly Sins” as there are a total of seven archons.
Binsfeld’s classification of demons
- Lucifer: pride.
- Mammon: greed.
- Asmodeus: lust.
- Leviathan: envy.
- Beelzebub: gluttony.
- Satan: wrath.
- Belphegor: sloth
In our Liyue Chapter, we’ve already met the oceanic beast, Leviathan, the biblical sea monster. But I doubt that genshin will be creating more sinister demonic monsters as we progress into the game. However, we can already sense some of these “sins” in our archons right now.
Venti as “gluttony” being a drunk bard who constantly seeks to drink, Zhongli as “sloth” due to the lack of mora and refusing to make any more? Raiden Shogun as “greed” wanting to keep Inazuma isolated and eternity and visions power for herself.
That leaves the remaining four sins, Pride (Hydro), Lust (Cryo), Envy (Dendro), Wrath (Pyro) for our remaining four archons. If this is truly the direction this game is going in, then our ideas of Teyvat might be entirely different than they were when first playing the game. Especially considering the “Gnosis-Chess Theory” in which Celestia (or the eight possible element archon) might be controlling these archons (chess pieces) in some bigger plan of this universe. Something much more sinister than we thought, in describing the conflict of the ultimate sin of humans with visions and them seeking to be gods themselves. Thi would create an imbalance in the world, and might explain what really happened back in Khaeri’ah.
Theory #2
Most of this negative connotation with “demons” being an “evil” spirit is mainly based on Christian beliefs. As for many east Asian countries, demons are not actually “good” or “bad” but just spiritual beings in a different realm than humans. As the Chinese word, 魔神 Móshén, “Demon God” 神 Shén, simply means “God, Deity”.
This theory would simply mean that the Genshin devs thought that Christian beliefs and concepts were cool and just decided to use their names with no other reason or hidden meaning for doing so.
Thank you so much for reading! Comment down below what are your thoughts on this theory.