Interlude 2 - Raging wind, while your visage fades away
This was a veritable disaster, Rosalyne thought. Her ploy had failed, she had thought the Knights would bring them back into the city to answer for their crimes, but instead, they responded with wholesale slaughter.
All Fatui forces in the lands of the Wind God had been wiped out by those damnable knights.
Their situation in the city itself wasn't much better. In fact, there wasn't a situation at all. Decades of progress and careful cultivation of spies and informants had been ripped apart root and stem in a single day. The Knights had gone through the city with a fine-tooth comb, there wasn't a single person left in Mondstadt with ties to Snezhnaya who wasn't rotting in a prison cell or buried in a mass grave.
There was already a name for it, the Night of Knives and Day of Hanging.
The Tsaritsa must be expecting her to have already obtained the Anemo Gnosis, yet she was empty-handed, and with only 800 dead Fatui to show for her progress.
Furthermore, there was no chance of taking the Gnosis by force now. Barbatos' Belief and Authority were at an all-time high, she hated to admit it, but even she stood no chance against a fully powered god.
The Wind God's Gnosis will have to wait, she has to move onwards, to Liyue. Thankfully, the Geo Archon has already made a contract with the Tsaritsa, so her task there should be much easier.
In all honesty, while the Traveller was quite the interesting fellow, it wasn't him that caught Venti's eye. It wasn't the first time Venti encountered a starborne Traveller, and he had a feeling it wouldn't quite be the last.
What truly drew his attention to the Traveller was the malevolent god residing in his mindscape.
See, it is considered rude, to say the least, for a god to traipse into the territories of another without knocking. So when he felt another god enter Mondstadt, well, let's say he was fully prepared to go to war.
She called herself Paimon, but Venti had no doubt that that was not her real name. In fact, he had his own suspicions as to who she truly was, especially after she lent the Traveller her powers. There were only so very few Void Gods after all.
Now he was stuck with a dilemma. Mondstadt is a land open to all, Venti himself is no stranger to strangers, but Liyue… Liyue is a land with an ingrained people, with a deep hatred for rival gods. He doubts that Morax would take the intrusion of a malevolent god better than he.
So should he warn Morax of the Traveller's approach?
No, Venti decided. Whatever the evil god's intention is, it is clear she wants to stay anonymous. And besides, the only thing she did while in Mondstadt is aid her host, so he doubts she would start killing people on a whim. Hopefully.
But that raises another question. What are her intentions?
No matter, Venti resolved. He was long-lived, and master of all the winds in the world besides. He'll just have to keep one of his many eyes on the Traveller and the God, and he'll have his answers soon enough.
He had more pressing matters to deal with now. A wind spirit had something to tell him.
Venti bid farewell to the passing zephyr.
The Fair Lady was leaving Mondstadt, it had told him, and was now well on her way to Liyue.
It was a shame, Venti would've liked to talk to her. See, contrary to Rosalyne's belief, he had not forgotten who she was, nor had he forgotten how he had 'wronged' her.
It was a shame what had happened to Arundolyn's ill-fated expedition, and her lover's death. But how was that his fault?
In fact, he even sought to avenge them. He was one of the most vocal supporters of war with Khaenri'ah in the Council of Seven, only surpassed by the War Goddess herself.
He even brought the largest army to the siege, he mobilised his entire Authority of wind spirits. It was his forces that devastated the Khaenri'ahn countryside, it was his forces that smashed the capital's walls, it was his forces that butchered their people in the streets.
What did the Cryo Archon do, for Rosalyne to switch to her side? Did she promise revenge and power? He already avenged Rosalyne's lover when he murdered Rostam's killers as he crushed Khaenri'ah, the Tsaritsa didn't even participate, only sending 'volunteers'.
Volunteers! Hah, if those soldiers weren't already death row convicts Venti would eat his right foot.
As for power? Venti laughed, he was old, older than most can imagine. Among the current Archons, only Morax was older than him. What did the Tsaritsa know of power? She had inherited her throne from the old Cryo Archon, she doesn't know anything of blood, of war, of what truly made a god a god.
Even Morax, he was too old, as ancient as the earth itself. He was too set in his ways, too firm in his belief that gods couldn't be killed, truly killed, so he sealed all his enemies in stone.
But Barbatos begged to differ, he was a god born from the corpse of another. He knew that gods could die.
Back when the Archon Wars raged, the region that is now Mondstadt was a frozen, mountainous, warring land. Thousands of Wind Gods had sought the seat of Anemo Archon.
There are still hundreds of Rock Gods, they are slumbering, locked beneath the earth by Morax's stone spears.
But there was only one Wind God. It was him, Barbatos, the sole ruler of all the winds in the world. He sees all, he hears all, he knows all. As long as the winds blow there, his Authority exists there.
People remember the Guyun Stone Forest, they call it the Graveyard of Gods for all the gods Morax sealed underneath it.
People forget that the island Mondstadt was built upon was made of the corpses of every Wind God that once sought his title. People forget that Mondstadt's walls were forged from the bones of the very gods they had slain. People forget that Cider Lake was named so because of the golden blood in the water.
But to kill a god, you must replace them with another one. So he did. All of his loyal wind spirits that followed him out of Decarabian's city and fought for him throughout the Archon Wars.
Each and every single one of them was god in their own right, with their own Belief, Authority, and Godhead.
If there was a truth that people all across Teyvat knew of, it was that gods ruled over men. But Barbatos was a god that ruled over gods.
He leapt from his place and scattered into the winds. He had a Cryo Archon to talk to.
Notes on Act 1:
Not only does the story take place in an Alternate Timeline, but an Alternate Reality as well. A reality where stuff makes sense. This is a list of changes I've made to the base game to try to "fix" some of the stuff that don't make sense. Please note that "fix" is used lightly, as everything here is based off my own opinion on how things should have been in the game and is only for the sake of this story.
1) Nation of Mondstadt
In the game, Mondstadt is a city-state, this has not changed. However since in this story the world of Teyvat is much larger, some things need to be twisted a bit. So, the "Nation" of Mondstadt is actually a loose confederation of numerous city-states who all have the same state religion. This system is based off the city-states of Greece in Antiquity. These city-states include Mondstadt, Springvale, Dawnton (Dawn Winery) and Windrise.
2) City of Mondstadt
In the game, Mondstadt has no functioning government that we know off. Here, Mondstadt's government is based off the Catholic Military Orders of the Middle Ages. In the City, all power is concentrated into two bodies, the Knights and the Church. They are in a constant tug of war, both keeping the other in check. I had hoped to convey this in Scene 7/8, when the Church actively took a stance against the Knights. What I'm getting at, is that if both sides joined forces as in Interlude 1, they could rule Mondstadt with an iron fist. And they did.
3) Jean Gunnhildr
In the game, Jean is portrayed in the game as a well-meaning, good hearted, utterly incompetent and naive child. She personally looked for a lost cat! Can you imagine calling your Head of State because your cat was lost? Here Jean is given the character of an actual noble heir. She has been groomed from a young age for leadership, and is adept in Mondstadt politics. While she dislikes trickery, she is perfectly capable of dishonourable actions. She is always going to put the welfare of Mondstadt over everything else.
Case 1: In Scene 8, she announced that Dvalin will decide Aether's fate. She was perfectly willing to let Aether die if the dragon did judge him guilty. The only reason she didn't execute him immediately is because as an educated noble, she still tries to be as honourable as possible, noblesse oblige and all that.
Case 2: In Interlude 1, Jean is the mastermind behind the systematic purge in Mondstadt that rid them of Fatui spies and traitors. She purposefully played up fears about the Old Aristocracy returning due to traitors and forced the people into a state of paranoia. This is based of the Red Scare and McCarthyism during the Cold War. This way, she has complete justification to root out the Fatui and even kill locals without consequence. When she executed all the traitors and spies, she was seen as a national hero.
4) Church of Favonius
Nothing much. In the game, we know Rosaria acts as a "cleaner" in the back alleys of the city. I just expanded on that a bit. Here, Rosaria formed the Church Executors. Their motto is essentially "I cherish Freedom with all my heart. I don't care how many men, women, and children I have to kill to get it."
5) Barbatos
In the game, gods are portrayed as incredibly powerful beings. However, for some reason they are very human and very relatable. Here, gods are going to act as gods. They are insanely prideful creatures, used to centuries of subservience from mortals. Barbatos is no different, he takes great pride in his power, and greater pride in his people.
6) Conclusion
All in all, I had written Mondstadt to be as close to what Dainsleif described it as in Travail as possible.
"What does Freedom really mean, when demanded of you by a god?"
The Church, the Knights, Barbatos, all of them rule with an iron fist under a velvet glove.