Beyond Which Lies the Wind

1: Preface

In every corner of Teyvat, there lies fragments of an untold story. Perhaps they are left forgotten on a war-torn plain like a glaze lily that had seen too much bloodshed to bloom again in this lifetime. Mayhaps they are carved into the tattered leather volumes of ancient history books – a hero with a name and a ballad that flows on the wind to follow their exploits and adventures. In every corner of the world, there is something to be treasured and something to be found.

A thousand years of history and more precede you, and a thousand paths lie in your wake. Perhaps, if you are bold enough to decide on your own fate, this is the place for you...a quiet, untold story in an unassuming corner of Teyvat. For the fragments of your own tale come together piece by piece; a brilliant constellation of your own blazing in the night sky that guides you along. A well-worn path. A road not taken. Wherever you go, whatever life throws at you...the stars in the sky will always have a place for you.

Shall you choose where to begin? Or will you let the stars above Teyvat make that decision for you?

i. PROLOGUE 1: Fire And Brimstone

Opportunities to make an honest living of your own choosing in Mondstadt were few and far in between, despite its reputation as the city of dreams and freedom. Living costs were steep and job prospects were slim, and regular commissions from the Adventurer's Guild only paid so much to ordinary folk that did not wield the power of a Vision. That was why you'd stolen one back in your thieving days, long before Wagner had taken you in and set you back on the right path again. You might not have been blessed by the Archons, you thought bitterly then, but that didn't mean you couldn't take charge of your own fate even with your stained hands. Mondstadt was the nation of freedom. Surely Lord Barbatos would understand. If he didn't, then it didn't matter anyways. Your life was your own, and no god had the right to forge that path for you.

ii. PROLOGUE 2: Leaves and Saltwater

For generations, your ancestors called the outskirts of Bishui Plains home, tilling the fertile soils and building the foundations for the village that would grow and prosper for the next hundreds of years under the guidance of the gods. Then and now, gods walked freely among mortals, their presence woven into the history of the descendants that continued to tend dutifully to these lands. Life on the plains were deeply rooted in tradition, and such was the way you'd spent your childhood.

A god had never shown themself to you in the way the legends speak of, but surely they stood among your people and watched over the bountiful harvests from afar. You'd grown up on your family's farm all your life, cultivating the crops year after year ever since you'd manifested a Dendro Vision at the tender age of eleven. It was the Archons' generous gift to the descendants of old friends, and with it, you would give back to the land and to the people you loved.

iii. PROLOGUE 3: Where the Wind Follows

You barely remembered the family you had back in Inazuma, the parents that had "rejected you to keep you safe", as Draff put it. The hunting village of Springvale was all you'd really known, so even though you didn't look local, everyone else treated you without a doubt as if you were family. Not everyone was of pure Mondstadt (or even human) blood through their entire family trees in such a quaint little town anyways. You never doubted that you belonged, even if you did wonder sometimes how things would've been if circumstances had been different.

Under the care of your parents' old friend, Draff, you grew up with his daughter Diona and the hunters of Springvale, learning how to use Allan's old bow to shoot fresh game before you'd learned how to talk, or so they said. You didn't have to be born a hunter to be a natural, and you didn't have to be born in Mondstadt to learn to live among the wind. That was what you'd learned as you spent your days alongside the free-spirited hunters on the outskirts of the peaceful nation of freedom.

iv. PROLOGUE 4: The Eye of the Storm

To owe a debt to the agents of the Tsaritsa was to essentially owe your life many times over, but the foolish choices you'd made when you were young and stupid didn't give you a lot of options to work with. When you first arrived at Liyue Harbour, you'd consulted at least five separate business owners who had all sworn to you on their commodities that the Fatui-operated banks had the best interest rates for loans. They'd failed to mention that they had the worst terms and conditions for if you'd failed to pay on time – the fine print wedged discreetly in the thirty or so pages of a contract to which you'd unknowingly signed away your life.

If they had ownership of the latter half of your life, that was fine and dandy but you were in your prime! You'd quit the Milileth, sick of being a human shield and spear just because of your Vision and the fact that you'd allegedly been trained in martial arts by the adepti themselves – far from the truth, as a matter of fact – so you wanted to retire and start up a quiet life in the port town. But those dreams went up in smoke when the loan term came to an end before you could pay it off, and you found yourself knocking out all the debt collector emissaries in a panic when they tried to seize you.

There was no way you could live quietly now, they were going to murder you.