Yao Guang/Story

Profile

Yao Guang is a composed and observant individual. As a diviner, she tends to analyze circumstances by considering their possible outcomes rather than reacting impulsively to events. Her ability to perceive the future has also made her comfortable dealing with uncertainty, although she remains curious about phenomena that fall outside her ability to predict. Such behavior has earned Yao Guang the title of the "Slaughtering General."^[1]

Appearance

Yao Guang is a woman with silvery-white hair with blue and teal undertones, tied into a long side ponytail on the back right side with ends reminiscent of peacock feathers. She has purple and blue eyes with light yellow accents and cyan pupils, as well as blue nail polish decorating her fingers and toes.

She wears an asymmetrical slitted dress, the upper part a sleeveless white bodice while the long skirt fades from turquoise to a deep blue. Much of the dress is embellished with silver jewelry and peacock feather motifs, and over her left shoulder is a dark purple, fur-like piece. She also wears a significant amount of silver jewelry, silver open-toe high heels, a tasseled earing on her right ear, and a large peacock ornament in her hair holding together her ponytail.

History

Origins

Yao Guang is a Xianzhou native from the Xianzhou Yuque, which is renowned for its divination practices. Jingtian, the former head of the Divination Commission of the Yuque, took her and Fu Xuan on as his students.^[2]

Sometime prior to the events of the Battle of Fanghu, Yao Guang passed the Rainbow Ordainment ceremony and underwent a final trial to become an Arbiter-General, in which she was forced to evade a series of deadly arrows within a "realm of pure consciousness." After successfully dodging the first seven arrows, she became unable to evade the eighth. However, recalling a lesson from her youth, she chose to face the attack without fear. The eighth arrow struck beside her without causing harm, while the ninth never fell, marking the completion of her trial.^[3] She inherited the Spiritus Kālacakra Skyplume which represents the foresight of The Hunt.^[4]

Battle of Fanghu

When the Abundance Axis and Ketu Mirage launched an unexpected assault on the Xianzhou Fanghu, the ship was placed in imminent danger.^[5][6] Having divined the future using the Matrix of Prescience Ultima, Fu Xuan presented a plan before the Arbiter-Generals of the Xianzhou Alliance: to use the Cloudpeer Telescope to send a signal to Lan, the Aeon of the Hunt, at THEIR last known location in hopes of turning the tide of the battle. Having divined his own death years earlier due to one of his students, Jingtian boarded a Navis Astriger, being the only individual with the authority to use the Cloudpeer Telescope. He was accompanied by Yueyu, the former Arbiter-General of the Yaoqing, and the Verdant Knights under her command.^[6][7]

Before departing, Jingtian entrusted the Deca-Light Reflection Barrier to Yao Guang, reassuring her that a "diviner needs no farewell."^[6] Dissatisfied with their fates, Yao Guang used the Deca-Light Reflection Barrier to divine their future repeatedly, attempting to find a way to alter their fate. Although she initially glimpsed a possibility for victory, this hope was quickly shattered when Yao Guang saw Lan's shadow in her divination. Yao Guang attempted to use Kālacakra Skyplume to alter the fates of those who had boarded the Fanghu. However, the karma resulting from her actions caused her to develop a new and unusual condition known as Temporal Dislocation. As a result, she became entangled with the barrier at a single point, leaving her to drift endlessly through time and space. This condition meant that there was always a possibility of Yao Guang suddenly disappearing at any moment.^[8] As she had foreseen, Lan's arrow struck the delves of the Fanghu, killing Yueyu, Jingtian, and the Verdant Knights alongside the Abundance Axis. Devastated by their deaths, which she believed herself responsible for, Yao Guang also realized that the Xianzhou Alliance had successfully directed the actions of an Aeon. Recognizing that ordinary humans were not merely ants in the eyes of Aeons, she resolved to use Aeons themselves as a means of divining a proper future for the cosmos.^[7][9]

Xianzhou Luofu

After the Stellaron crisis was averted on the Xianzhou Luofu, it was Yao Guang who requested and facilitated the interrogation of Luocha and Jingliu.^[10] This interrogation revealed their Godslayer Protocol plan to kill Yaoshi.^[11] Before the interrogation took place, Fu Xuan attempted to warn Yao Guang about the dangers of meddling with an outsider and an individual capable of stirring the Fallow Earth aboard the Yuque. Dismissing her warnings and claiming full responsibility for his actions, Yao Guang reminisced about the Battle of Fanghu while declaring to Fu Xuan that the Phantasmoon Games were about to begin on Planarcadia. She planned to participate in the Phantasmoon Games and use the promised reward, one minute of Aeonhood granted by Aha, the Aeon of Elation, to push the cosmos toward a prosperous future.^[9]

Planarcadia

Prior to arriving at Planarcadia, Jing Yuan was originally meant to travel there. However, following Yao Guang's divination, she instead requested permission from Marshal Hua to go in his place,^[9] hoping that she could alter her divination and prevent the death of an Arbiter-General. Arriving on Planarcadia as a delegate of the Xianzhou Alliance under the pretense of apprehending a wanted criminal, Yao Guang instructed Tingyun to intervene in the meeting between the Synwish Syndicate and the Stellaron Hunters to prevent Blade from becoming a Supplicant of the Phantasmoon Games.^[12]

After Tingyun successfully obtained the mask from the Synwish Syndicate with the help of Dan Heng and Sunday, Yao Guang took the mask and forced it onto Sunday, turning him into a Supplicant of the Phantasmoon Games.^[12] When the two later attempted to locate Blade, Yao Guang explained the reason for forcing Sunday to wear the mask. Had she worn it herself, the mask would have amplified her Spiritus' abilities, turning her into the Nous of Planarcadia. In that state, she would endlessly calculate the futures of everyone on Planarcadia, thereby cementing the doomed future she had foreseen. After the Trailblazer defeats Sparxie at Graphia Academy, she attempts to escape by using her mask to blend into the crowd. However, Yao Guang uses her Spiritus to locate her and informs the Trailblazer of her whereabouts, allowing them to defeat and restrain Sparxie. While Yao Guang is using her Spiritus, the Trailblazer catches a glimpse of the Woe sign above her head. Yao Guang asks the Trailblazer not to reveal the sign's identity and, in exchange, agrees not to disclose their past as a Stellaron Hunter.^[7]

While Fulwish was leading her strategic attack against Ashveil and the Astral Express crew, Yao Guang continued investigating Planarcadia until she came across the Phantasmoon Courtyard. There, she encountered Evanescia, whose future she was unable to divine. She also noted that the tree at the center of the courtyard was an Ambrosial Arbor, with Evanescia being a manifestation of the tree itself. Although Yao Guang was initially curious as to why Aha would allow Yaoshi to root such a tree on Planarcadia, she ultimately dismissed the question, reasoning that Aha's carefree nature was likely the reason.^[13]

As Yao Guang deliberated with Evanescia, Sunday informed the duo that Fulwish had invited all Supplicants to join her for a debate at Fulwish TV in Seafeld City. Through Sunday, the duo also learned about the Happiness Surgery, information that Ashveil had uncovered during his investigation into the Research Society of Happy Smiles. After arriving in Seafeld City, Evanescia suggested exercising her authority as the arbitrator of the Phantasmoon Games to determine whether Fulwish had violated the rules of the Phantasmoon Games. After retrieving Evanescia's Spiritbranch of True Law, which manifested as a ruler-like blade, she used it to determine whether Fulwish was guilty. To her surprise, she discovered that the Supplicant wearing the Octomorph Mask was not a single individual, but rather everyone who had undergone the Happiness Surgery. Blade then arrived alongside Ashveil and Dan Heng and explained to the group that the Happiness Surgery involved implanting the cells of Shuhu, an Emanator of Abundance. As a result, everyone who had undergone the surgery was considered a Supplicant.^[14]

After the group arrived at Seafeld City Tower for the debate, everyone in Seafeld City began transforming into Joy Ascendants. Yao Guang and Evanescia held off the Joy Ascendants throughout the city while Ashveil, Dan Heng, Sunday, Blade, and the Trailblazer reached the top of the TV tower to confront Fulwish.^[1] After Fulwish was successfully defeated, Yao Guang told Blade that the salvation he sought lay at the end of the world, within the World of Canvas. There, a sealed husk of Oroboros, the Aeon of Voracity, lay dormant.^[15][16] Due to Asat Pramad's involvement, Yao Guang entered the torn scroll of Planarcadia and, with the assistance of Dan Heng and Welt, cast talismans of Kālacakra Skyplume throughout Planarcadia as a precaution against Asat Pramad causing further trouble. The talismans also served to contain Oroboros's husk while Evanescia remained dormant after exhausting much of her strength.^[17]

As Asat Pramad began his assault across Planarcadia, Yao Guang was caught up in the attack alongside Welt and Dan Heng. The trio managed to survive the encounter, with Welt using his abilities to teleport Yao Guang away from the husk, while Yao Guang subsequently used the plumes of Kālacakra Skyplume to rescue Welt and Dan Heng from falling into the husk's maw. However, they were unable to prevent Asat Pramad from stirring the husk. Soon after, Asat Pramad used his abilities to envision an unstable future in which Planarcadia was destroyed. To give Planarcadia a chance to fight back, Yao Guang proposed activating the talisman formation she had placed throughout Planarcadia using Kālacakra Skyplume and collapsing all of Asat Pramad's possible futures into one through the effect of observation. In return, she asked the Trailblazer to continue observing her regardless of the fate to which she was anchored. She explained that doing so would allow her to activate the formation without disappearing due to Temporal Dislocation. When the Trailblazer inquired whether there was a way to reverse the condition, Yao Guang explained that the Nexus Sapientiae from the Yuque's Artisanship Commission could restrain her. However, its effectiveness was unreliable, as it would sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. The duo soon arrived at the top of the destroyed Seafeld TV Tower to confront Asat Pramad. He initially mocked Yao Guang, remarking instead that he had wanted to meet Jing Yuan. Yao Guang rebutted him by peering into his future and activating her Spiritus and the talisman formation, causing the possibilities surrounding Asat Pramad's clones to collapse into a single outcome.^[8] However, Asat Pramad responded by reducing the possibility of Yao Guang's existence to nearly zero, causing her to become lost within the maze of possibilities.^[18]

Trivia

• Yao Guang is the first playable Elation character.
• Yao Guang has the following aliases:
  • The Seer Strategist (Chinese: 戎韬将军 Róngtāo Jiāngjūn, "Seer Strategist General")
  • Madam Yao^[19] (Chinese: 爻老板 Yáo Lǎobǎn, "Boss Yao")^[20]
  • The Crosstalk General^[21]
  • No. 1 "The Xianzhou's Chosen Seer"^[19] (Chinese: 「仙舟天选预言家」第一名 Xiānzhōu Tiān Xuǎn Yùyánjiā Dì Yī Míng, "'Xianzhou Heaven-Chosen Seer' First Place")^[20]
  • No. 1 "That General's Got a Wild Streak"^[19] (Chinese: 「这个将军有点野」第一名 Zhège Jiāngjūn Yǒudiǎn Yě Dì Yī Míng, "'This General Is a Little Wild' First Place")^[20]
  • @GreatFortune_at_the_table (Furbobocom)
• Yao Guang's dialogue in Trailblaze Continuance A Fugue From Beyond is interjected with bagua trigrams.
• Yao Guang is regarded as the Goddess of Fortune in the eyes of the Xianzhou people.^[2]
  • A New Year fumo plushie of Yao Guang is released canonically in the cosmos, which plays the Chinese song 好运来 Hǎoyùnlái, "Good Luck Comes". This song was first performed live in the 2004 CMG New Year's Gala, and has become a popular Chinese New Year song.^[22]
    • Yao Guang's full cover of this song was released on February 15, 2026, two days before the 2026 Chinese New Year.^[23]
• Yao Guang is the organizer behind the scenes and the repeated champion of the "Yuque Cup" card tournament.^[2]

HoYoverse Shared VAs

• Yao Guang shares the same English voice actor, Ari Thrash, with Vesna in Genshin Impact.
• Yao Guang shares the same Chinese voice actor, Qin Ziyi (秦紫翼), with:
  • Natasha and Shatana
  • Lieserl Albert Einstein in Honkai Impact 3rd
  • Yssring Leavtruth in Houkai Gakuen 2
  • Shenhe, Xianyun, and Ferrylady in Genshin Impact
  • Trigger in Zenless Zone Zero
• Yao Guang shares the same Japanese voice actor, Hanazawa Kana (花澤 香菜), with Bronya Zaychik in Houkai Gakuen 2.
• Yao Guang shares the same Korean voice actor, Lee Seul (이슬), with:
  • Aria and Qiqi in Genshin Impact
  • Sunna in Zenless Zone Zero

Etymology

• 爻 Yáo originally means "cross." In the Chinese bagua (Chinese: 八卦) system, 爻 refers to the horizontal lines, with broken and unbroken lines representing Yin and Yang respectively. 光 Guāng means "light."

References

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