Zibai/Storyline

Zibai (Chinese: 兹白 Zībái) is a god and Angel who is famed in Liyue legends as the White Horse Adeptus.^{[Note 1]} During the era of the unified civilization, she served as Celestia's divine envoy to Lang-Gan and as a Moon Envoy of the Lunar Palace. She was killed following the destruction of Lang-Gan by the Heavenly Principles in the aftermath of the war of funerary flame 6,000 years ago, and her soul was split by Istaroth into her Three Deadly Selves: Ziju, Zizhi, and Zijiao.

Zijiao later assisted Rex Lapis in his campaigns during the Archon War, earning her fame in Liyue legends as the White Horse Adeptus and as the Gold-Eyed Celdon Mare of the Eight Adepts. During the Lantern Rite celebration following the return of the Frost Moon into the skies of Teyvat, the Traveler and Zhongli managed to reunite the three pieces of her split soul, reviving her back to her original form once more.

Profile

Personality

As an individual, Zibai was devoted to her duties in protecting her people and bringing news as an envoy. This devotion to protect her people was prominent enough to the point that she ignored Istaroth's advice and sacrificed her life in order to give her people enough time to escape.

Following her death, Zibai's personality was split into three distinct souls in the form of Ziju, Zizhi and Zijiao. Ziju has a lonely disposition and enjoys mathematics, Zizhi embodies her rage and regret, while Zijiao embodies her humanity.

Upon being reformed, Zibai's memories were a bit hazy since it had been thousands of years since she had been whole, but she is able to remember parts of her past and is somewhat aware of the memories that each fragment of her soul had. The color of her eyes determines which personality is most prominent. When Ziju is dominant, her eyes are blue, when Zizhi is dominant, they are red, and when Zijiao is in control, they are golden.

Zibai is also shown to be somewhat self-conscious of her age, as being called terms such as ‘granny’ and ‘auntie’ were enough to force out Zizhi.

Appearance

See also: Moonlit Courser

Zibai uses the tall female model. Her appearance is described as that of a white horse, and in her human form she is a slender woman with golden eyes, hip-long platinum hair marked by a single golden streak in her fringe, and white skin.^[8][9][10]

History

Past

Zibai was one of the Angels created by the Heavenly Principles for the purpose of guiding humanity as divine envoys of Celestia during the era of Teyvat's unified civilization.^[6][7] Zibai governed over Lang-Gan, whose inhabitants worshiped her as the God of Soil and Grain for her act of teaching them agriculture.^[6][11] One day, Istaroth delivered to her a Moon Wheel, symbolizing her new appointment as an Envoy of the Lunar Palace.^[7][12] From that point onwards, she would doubly serve as envoy for both Celestia and the Three Moon Goddesses, and took up residence in the Lunar Palace.^[7] To carry out her duties, she periodically rode the Lunar Chariot to travel between the Lunar Palace, Celestia, and Lang-Gan.^[7] During her time as a moon envoy, she encountered a man known as The Lord of Geo, Heaven's Star, who taught her the art of excising one's impure thoughts into Three Deadly Selves.^[13] Little did she know, this would become instrumental in prolonging her existence.

After the Eternal and Iridescent Moons were shattered during the war of funerary flame, Lang-Gan became tainted with Abyssal corruption as a consequence of the conflict. In response, the Heavenly Principles sent down Celestial Nails on numerous places across Teyvat, including Lang-Gan. Istaroth informed Zibai of the necessity of cleansing the Abyssal corruption, warning her not to intervene as she would be defying the will of the Heavenly Principles and die if she did. Zibai, unwilling to abandon her people, chose not to heed Istaroth's advice and decided to protect her people by temporaily blocking the Celestial Nail, knowing it would cost her her life. This gave the inhabitants of Lang-Gan time to evacuate the city, who then began traveling towards the east under Zibai's guidance.^[14] Some of these survivors were known to have settled in Chenyu Vale while others are suggested to have settled in the Guili Assembly. Zibai ultimately died from the impact of the Nail, but at that moment, perhaps as an attempt at self-preservation, split herself into Three Deadly Selves.

It was then that Istaroth intervened by freezing her in the moment just before her death.^[15][11] Istaroth gathered the shattered fragments of her soul and placed them within Zibai's Three Deadly Selves: Ziju, Zizhi and Zijiao. The Heavenly Soul, Taiguang, would be stored in Ziju and then imprisoned within the false moon's reflection as a means to preserve her soul; the Earth Soul, Shuangling, would be stored in Zizhi where she fell into a deep slumber within The Chasm where the obliterated Lang-Gan once stood; and the Human Soul, Youjing, in Zijiao, was sealed inside a painting of Zhanzhu the Moon Devourer.^[12][16]

Zijiao was eventually freed from the painting by Rex Lapis, after which she began to follow him in his campaign during the Archon War.^[12] She assisted him in subduing Chenyu Vale, and later Mt. Qingce.^[12] The latter may have been related to her battle against the God Tao Dou as one of the Eight Adepts, for which she became famed as the Gold-Eyed Celadon Mare.^[8][17] Later, when her power depleted, she retreated into the Qingce mountain range, continuing to wander in her form as a white horse.^[16][8]

During the era of Guili Assembly, Zijiao had a chance encounter with a girl of the Lu clan in a bamboo forest, whom she told about her history under the pretence of a made-up story.^[14] This encounter would become remembered and preserved within the recorded history of the Lu Clan.^[16]

After Rex Lapis's ascension as the Geo Archon, Zijiao met a young boy in the bamboo forest of Mt. Qingce, whom she told about the Three Moons that died during the war of funerary flame.^[10] She later had a similar meeting with another young man.^[9]

Present

During the Lantern Rite festival following the return of the Frost Moon, the Traveler and Paimon come upon Qiqi and Yaoyao, who were talking about the theme for the festival, which revolved around the White Horse Adeptus. Few knew the truth behind her, with Yaoyao stating that not even Madame Ping knew much about her. As they continued to talk about her, Lu Weng arrived and told them about a story in which she saved his ancestor from a great fall and prayed to her to correct his son's actions, as he doubted the story. The two young girls suggested that they speak to Zhongli about Zibai to see if he knew anything.^[16]

As they went to Third-Round Knockout, they instead found Hu Tao, Chongyun, Xingqiu and Xiangling there, who were talking about an incident in Wanmin Restaurant and showed a photo of a black hole on the moon. They also learned that an official investigation had been launched by the Liyue Qixing regarding the incident. Eventually, they found Zhongli at an exhibition, where he took interest in a broken jade token, which the Traveler interacted with realized had a crescent moon on it. Soon afterwards, they were transported to Ziju's celestial prison, where she approached them. Sensing a similar loneliness and the familiar touch of moonlight on them, Ziju guided them out of the space but remained behind, stating that her time was nearly up.^[16]

Zhongli took the Traveler to a secluded spot to talk about what they had just witnessed and explained that the token was a medium that allowed them to meet Zibai in the moon's shadow. Having heard of them bringing the Frost Moon back in Nod-Krai, he asked if they had thought about the false moon that it had replaced. This "other" moon was also acting as Zibai's prison, which was beginning to disintegrate now that the proper moon had returned, which occurred as a lunar eclipse and when people made wishes; otherwise, it would remain invisible to the naked eye. He also revealed that if the prison fully collapsed, Zibai would perish alongside it. Despite this, there was still a chance to save her, but he also revealed that Zibai had long since passed; the one they met in the prison was actually one of her Three Deadly Selves, split before she had died. Before this had happened, Istaroth had put her essence in these selves, and if they could reclaim all three before the prison collapsed, they could bring her back to the mortal realm. ^[16]

Since Ziju was imprisoned, Zhongli decided to look for Zijiao himself while tasking the Traveler to track down Zizhi. He also informed them that they had until the night of Lantern Rite to recover the essences or Zibai would die for good.^[16] The Traveler realized that Zizhi had possessed Lu Xiangxiang, who had caused a commotion. When the Traveler confronted Zizhi, she initially refused to listen to them and possessed Gaming, leading him out of the city. As he was chasing two Treasure Hoarders, Jiehu and Houzhang intercepted them and was surprised by Gaming's defiant attitude. They then realized someone had possessed him and demanded the entity to reveal themselves as the Traveler arrived, and she then possessed Mountain Shaper and sent him to Mt. Aocang to overgrow the place with mint. When the Traveler arrived with the other adepti, they revealed their wish to her. Surprised a mortal knew about the Four Shades, she decided to test them to see if they were worthy of learning the past. The Traveler completed her trial, and she, in turn, revealed that she felt regret about failing her people, having been unable to save all of them as she wanted. The Traveler reassured her that she had not failed them, as the descendants of Lang-Gan had spread all across Liyue, and they had her to thank for that. With her rage calmed, Zizhi requests that if there was another war against the Heavenly Principles someday, that her name be set on the war banners, then granted the Traveler her Earth Soul and dissipated.^[15]

Zhongli met with Zijiao at Mt. Qincge and sent a stone stele to Mt. Aocang to inform the Traveler to head there at once. He negotiated with Zijiao to have her visit Liyue Harbor for a day to see how humanity had grown over the years. He introduced the Traveler and Paimon to serve as her guides, and they went to the harbor. Unsure between Xinyue Kiosk and Liuli Pavilion, Zijiao asked about where the common man would most likely go to eat, so they eventually settled on Wanmin Restaurant. While waiting for their food, they were met by Lu Xiangxiang, who told Zijiao about some artifacts they found at the Chasm depicting the White Horse Adeptus. They then went to Third-Round Knockout for some stories, running into Yun Jin talking with Iron Tongue Tian about a poem copied from the Lang-Gan artifacts. She shared the interpretation with them and the poem's title, leaving both impressed. Finally, they arrived at the docks, where they met Ganyu and Yanfei. After taking a photo, Zijiao saw how humanity had changed and gave her Human Soul to the Traveler before dissipating.^[12]

With Lantern Rite commencing shortly after, the wishes of all the people fully disintergrated the shadowmoon and Zibai's souls merged, successfully restoring her to life. She wonders where she was as Zhongli welcomed her back, remembering her name after being jogged. Zibai suffered from amnesia as a result of her revival, since it had been a long time since her soul had been fully reunited, initially confusing the Traveler as [Gaming/Lu Xiangxiang]. The Traveler decided to take her around once more through the city.^[12]

On the morning after the following day, Zibai went to Wanmin Restaurant and nearly caused a ruckus. After calming down, she noticed the ropes binding Shenhe and suggested that she loosen a couple of them during her training sessions, sensing that her cultivation was more than sufficient. She adds that the user of external aids needed to become less dependent on them over time, instead relying on their own inner strength. Shenhe declined, fearing that she was not ready, but admitted that her master had said much the same thing and promised to talk to her about it again. They then made their way to Yilong Wharf to buy tea, but later had to go to Qiaoying Village after intimidating the merchant when she realized they could profit off him by buying a lot of his stock. There, they saw Xiangxiang, who had been assigned an old family punishment, to grow a tea tree seedling until the leaves were ready for market; she became horrified when Zibai explained that it would take two or three years. Zibai suggested she find her own path and convinced her to call out to the White Horse Adeptus for aid, then sneakily transplanted one of the orchard's mature tea trees in the seedling's spot during the night. They then made their way to Wuwang Hill, running into Zhongli and Hu Tao. On hearing that Hu Tao was there to pay respects to her ancestors, Zibai recognized her as an heir to the techniques of the Lone Butterfly of the Crimson Flame or the Wuwang Kid, impressing the young funeral director. She then suggested they take a rest at Wangshu Inn, and they met with Xiao. Zibai spoke a bit about Zhongli's past and prepared a dish from Lang-Gan for the group that had been lost to history. They then returned to Liyue Harbor the next day, running into Yaoyao, Qiqi and Lu Weng, the latter recognizing her as his newest long-term guest and giving her some Sunglo Tea leaves on the house.^[6]

Trivia

• Zibai is referenced in Yanfei: Oh, horns... in Anecdote Chronicles: Yanfei.
• Zibai is the first playable character who was deceased and later resurrected during the events of the game.
• The young girl she met in her Character Teaser "Zibai: As Drifting Wayside Dust" is the ancestor to Lu Weng who built the Baiju Guesthouse in Zibai's name.
  • His granddaughter Lu Xiangxiang consistently refers to the ancestor as her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.^[18]
• The three shades of Zibai; Ziju, Zizhi, and Zijiao, can be differentiated with their eye color which curiously also corresponds with the Three Moon Goddesses' hair color and respective halos.
  • While Zibai's eye color changes when one of the personalities takes over, her default eye color is gold.
• Zibai is known as the Daughter of Time in the legends of Chenyu Vale, suggesting a possible familial relation with Istaroth.^[9][17]
• Zibai is the only known Moon Wheel user to not be from Nod-Krai.
• Zibai shares her English voice actress, Laura Welsh, with Mini Durin.
• Zibai shares her Chinese voice actress, Mace, with Albedo and Fischl.
• Zibai is mentioned in the descriptions of the following 3 Furnishings:
  • Eight Adepts Mask: "Gold-Eyed Celadon Mare"
  • White Horse Galloping
  • Moon Envoy of Silver Radiance

Etymology

• In Chinese mythology, the zibai (Chinese: 兹白) is a mythical beast mentioned in the Yi Zhou Shu (Lost Book of Zhou). It is said to reside in the ancient kingdom of Yiqu in western China, is shaped like a horse but with jagged teeth, and feeds on tigers and leopards.
• Zibai's characterization as as a "white horse" and "Daughter of Time" may be a reference to the Chinese idiom 白驹过隙 lit. "white horse galloping past a narrow crevice". The idiom is used to describe the fleeting nature of time, which is said to be over "in the time it takes for a horse to gallop past a crevice."

Notes

Other Languages

References