Mondstadt
Decarabian, the death of the original Anemo Sovereign and Dvalin as his reincarnation
In this post, I will discuss the original Anemo Sovereign, and why Dvalin is his reincarnation. At present, we know very little about him, and there is no direct confirmation in the game. Therefore, any analysis must rely primarily on interpretation, especially of the Chinese text, which is the game’s original language and is often mistranslated.
The original Anemo Sovereign
Decarabian defeated and killed the original Anemo Sovereign.
The basis for this claim can be found in the description of the goblet "Hero’s Epic’s Unspoken Tale", part of the artifact set “The Day the Wind Rises".
Let alone the God King himself, whose might could sever frost and snow, cleave mountains asunder with winds of wrath, and fell drakes with a single arrow.
In this text, the God King is unquestionably Decarabian. Several feats are attributed to him, culminating in the phrase “fell drakes with a single arrow.” However, this translation doesn't accurately convey the weight of the original text.
違论 那位足以隔断寒天的霜雪, 以烈风吹碎山峦、射落巨龙的神王。
We will focus on the second half:
射落巨龙的神王
Term breakdown:
射 (shè): to shoot, to fire a projectile. Naturally associated with bows and arrows, though it can imply projectile attacks in general.
落 (luò): to make fall, to bring down, to fell.
巨龙 (jùlóng): literally Great Dragon/The Dragon/Giant Dragon (via DeepL).
巨龙 is singular. There are no plural markers or quantifiers. The text is not referring to “dragons” as a category, but to one specific dragon. For the sake of my theory, I will take "Great Dragon".
A precise translation would be:
Not to mention that God-King who could block the frost and snow of the frozen heavens, pulverize mountains with raging winds, and bring down the Great Dragon with a single shot.
Who is the “Great Dragon”?
Within the context of ancient Mondstadt, which entity could possibly be referred to as "Great Dragon" (巨龙)?
The only figure that fits the title of Great Dragon in Mondstadt is none other than the original Anemo Sovereign.
Accordingly, my interpretation is that this text describes (subtly) a confrontation between Decarabian and the original Anemo Sovereign more than 2600 years ago, in which the latter was defeated, and killed.
Edit: Story of the Golden Frostbound Oath:
And led them onward, to the high tower where once the wicked dragon had been cast down, to stand before its lord and seek shelter.
The wicked dragon was slain atop a "lord's tower", this could be interpreted as the fall of the original Anemo Sovereign at the hands of Decarabian in his tower in Old Mondstadt.
Dvalin as the reincarnation of the Anemo Sovereign
Before analyzing Dvalin, it is necessary to clarify what a Sovereign is.
The Sovereigns are the seven purest and strongest elemental dragons of each element. They belong to the same species as vishaps (= dragons), are the original kings of Teyvat, and naturally don't get along with the Archons.
When a Sovereign disappears, a new Sovereign, a reincarnation of the previous one, is born to take its place.
Dvalin is a Sovereign Dragon
Dvalin is an elemental Dragon. Although, in theory, all vishaps and dragons are elemental beings, the use of the term “elemental dragon” is extremely restricted and reserved exclusively for Sovereigns.
Traveler: Could that Hydro Dragon be the elemental dragon of Fontaine? Another one of the elemental dragons of Teyvat…
Traveler: “That Hydro Dragon King refers to Fontaine’s elemental dragon, right? Something like Dvalin?”
In this way, the Traveler directly compares Dvalin to the Hydro Sovereign, treating him as his equivalent. In other words, the Traveler is explicitly referring to Dvalin as the Anemo Dragon King and as Mondstadt's elemental dragon, the latter is completely true.
A supplement to the "Breeze Amidst the Forest" ballad selection with excerpts from various sources. It tells the story of the Dragon of Mondstadt.
Dvalin is also compared to Apep, the Dendro Sovereign.
Paimon: W–Wait a minute, Paimon’s confused! Do you mean the Dendro Dragon as in an elemental dragon? Like Dvalin?
This comparison would be completely unnecessary if Dvalin were a common dragon. Clearly, Dvalin is not an ordinary dragon, he is the Anemo elemental dragon.
Lisa: Judging by the level of its Anemo power, it's definitely not an ordinary creature.
In addition to the comparisons already mentioned, there is another one that is even more revealing. In the text that narrates the first encounter between Dvalin and Barbatos, the following is stated:
One day, the dragon heard music pouring out from the Holy Lyre der Himmel. This was the name of the lyre belonging to the Anemo Archon. Enchanted by the poetry, the Wind Dragon landed beside the best singer under the skies.
People panicked, for the mighty elemental dragons and the great archons that reigned over the earth had never seen eye to eye.
In this fragment, the term “elemental dragons” appears once again, used not to refer to common dragons, but to the Seven Sovereigns, who historically have never gotten along with the Archons, due to the fact that they wield the elemental Authorities that originally belonged to the Sovereigns.
What is truly important here is that people panic upon seeing Dvalin descend alongside Barbatos. The text doesn't treat this event as the meeting between an ordinary dragon and a god, but as the dangerous proximity between a Sovereign Dragon and an Archon.
In other words, by exchanging terms, the narrative explicitly classifies Dvalin within the same group as the “mighty elemental dragons,” that is, the Seven Sovereigns.
Dvalin shares specific titles with other Sovereigns, the most notable being "Wind Dragon" which in Chinese is 风龙.
As Mondstadt’s last line of defense, the Wind Dragon battled the wicked dragon to the death in raging storms.
This title is identical in structure to those of other Sovereigns (also in Chinese):
Following this nomenclature, the precise translation of Dvalin’s title 风龙 would be "Anemo Dragon", rather than simply “Wind Dragon.”
Dvalin is also given the title of King, being called “Erstwhile King of the Skies” (往日的天空之王). Throughout the game, like the term elemental dragon, “King” (王) is never used for common elemental dragons, it's a distinction shared exclusively by the Sovereigns.
Many believe that Dvalin is not the Anemo Sovereign because he doesn't appear as large or as powerful as the other dragons. However, this argument completely ignores the fact that a dragon's size depends on its power, and that a dragon's power are directly tied to its age: the older a dragon becomes, the more powerful it grows, and the more powerful it is, the larger it will be.
Jean: Its change in size and power really is suspicious.
Paimon: W–Wait a minute, Paimon's confused! Do you mean the Dendro Dragon as in an elemental dragon? Like Dvalin?
Nahida: Yes. They're both dragons but Apep, the Dendro Dragon, has been around for longer and has accumulated dense elemental power...
Dvalin is the reincarnated Anemo Sovereign because, as mentioned earlier, my theory is that Decarabian defeated the original Sovereign. Additionally, Dvalin was born during the Archon War, after Barbatos’ ascension.
The story to be told hails from ancient times, when the gods walked among us in their prime. The dragon graced by Anemo was born in the high heavens in that era of wonders.
In conclusion, while I may be mistaken in asserting that Decarabian defeated the original Anemo Sovereign, it's entirely certain that Dvalin is the current Anemo Sovereign.
The community’s refusal to aknowledge Dvalin and Azdaha as their respective elemental sovereigns after all the fontaine and natlan dragon lore drop and knowing dragons reincarnate and each have different relationships with the people living in their land and it’s replacement archon is wild.
The translation doesnt really help in that case, either. Recent genshin lore is making it painful obvious that a lot of the story in this game had been planned and foreshadowed in the original language as far back as 1.0 with specific terms that would have a bigger impact being used as early as Mondstadt archon quests, but the english translation wasnt aware said terms would have such a specific usage that would impact things later on.
The elemental dragons is one such example, but a lot of Zibai’s foreshadowing seem to fall into the same category. lol
It also would be super confusing if another Anemo dragon exists and it is the actual Anemo Sovereign because we would have to take back Dvalin's titles.
Dvalin being the Anemo Sovereign makes sense. He's the only anemo dragon in the game and the same can be said for Azhdaha. Sometimes, the obvious answer is the correct one and that's fine.
What I do find interesting about Dvalin is that unlike the other known elemental dragons, he doesn't have a name based on real world dragon/serpent but instead a Norse dwarf. Though there's Neuvillette, who goes by his surname but is still strongly connected to leviathan.
I really hope they bring the Electro Dragon into the story soon and give it an interesting connection to Ei and Inazuma's history. No doubt the Cryo Dragon will come up during the Snezhnaya arc especially if the rumours of it being really long are true.
I'm saving this. We have so little on Decarabian these crumbs are honestly quite good. Good write up. It would also sort fill some gaps regarding the lack of vishaps in Monstadt. If Decarabian really killed the original Anemo Sovereign, I imagine he went scorched earth on the anemo vishaps as well, completely annihilating the entire subspecies. I'd take it a step further and conjecture that in those early days, because of Monstadts relatively closer proximity to the HPs territory, the vishaps were more thoroughly hunted vs other regions where they were either sealed beneath the surface or went into hiding. This however has no basis afaik and is purely my headcanon.
The fact that it is said that with his death "an ancient throne of divinity crumbled " implies this man has been farting around for a long ass time as well
Also, back during Decarabian's time, Mondstadt was a completely different environment, with freezing blizzards all over the region.
It could be the case that those very blizzards were enough to mitigate the threat of Vishaps in the region, or maybe Decarabian himself was in control of those blizzards somehow to put the Vishaps away
This land was once a realm of sub-zero blizzards and ice storms filled with razor-sharp ice shards, all at the command of Boreas. In its final moments, it finally realized the chilling north wind could only extinguish life, not nurture it; therefore, Boreas let its powers freely flow into the land to protect it and its inhabitants.
Mondstadt's blizzards is described as a result of the war between Decarabian and Andrius though, but both of them are referred as "Kings of Ice and Frost" so Decarabian could probably also control blizzards
It is quite interesting though if OP's theory is the case: Decarabian defeating the Anemo Sovereign while also being unable to defeat Andrius (they were described as being locked in a stalemate during the Archon War.) Andrius according to leaks got his powers from Koitar, the first Angel of Hyperborea
What if decarabians functions were low key ruined after fighting anemo sovereign and by the time he got to Andrius who was further buffed by that angel, could only stalemate. I wonder if that parallels the overarching battles between phanes nibelung and then 3rd descender and first angel. Perhaps first angel is like amos
So what you're saying is, Neuvillette is Dvalin's junior by ~2100 years, and in about two thousand years, we can expect Neuv to be a big boy (if he wants to)?
But I agree. Before when we didn't have much in the way of the dragons, Dvalin and Azhdaha were an abnormally.
But I'm now convinced that they are their sovereigns.
And that Venti gave Dvalin back his authority right before he had his gnosis 'stolen'.
Yes, that is how Focalors did it. By destroying the throne entirely.
We know that Venti is on a step above the rest of the archons already because he has time power from Istaroth.
However, Focalors plan was also very much involved with grooming Nuve so that he loves humans, so that he could grant them true humanity. I bet she could had done that to herself at any time to restore his authority, but if he wasn't 'human' enough, then the flood prophecy would come to pass as predicted.
I'm willing to say that depending on power level, the archons can either off themselves to sever the link to the throne and gnosis, or they can do it directly.
I think Venti did it directly. He treated the anemo gnosis as a bauble, as did Nuve treat the hydro gnosis. Their respective dragons do not need the gnosis, so they gave it away mostly freely.
Also we have to take into account that Focalors was not a natural “god” she was once just an Oceanid that ascended. She told us that their main goal was to become human. Her sacrifice achieved that.
Focalors didn’t kill herself, she destroyed her “divinity”. In order to let her “humanity” (Furina), live on.
Furina IS Focalors, the Human aspect of Focalors, how the original Oceanid Focalors always wanted to live as.
Venti might not have this issue, and thus use a different method to transfer his divine authority.
So what you're saying is, Neuvillette is Dvalin's junior by ~2100 years, and in about two thousand years, we can expect Neuv to be a big boy (if he wants to)?
Neuvillette is at least 1000 years old, and probably 2000. Now that Neuvillette has regained his Authority, he should be able to transform into a dragon. I suppose he preferred to remain in his human form.
And Venti did not return his Aauthority, to do so, Venti has to die and destroy the divine throne, but he is still the Anemo Archon.
Venti still has authority over anemo. Like when Venti gave Dvalin his blessings, not only did Dvalin say "Is this the power of the Anemo Archon" which would've been odd considering that the authority first belonged to the Sovereigns. But, Venti was still able to do everything he did before??
Are we forgetting that the ability for all things to fly is because of Barbatos' blessings? Or the fact that he was able to surround Mondstadt in wind currents? Or the fact that he literally sealed most of his power as to not turn Mondstadt upside down? So it would've been possible Dvalin reclaimed his authority from that one interaction
The authority over the elements are connected to the respective elements thrones with a gnosis being a acting as a "link" between archon and divine authority. It makes sense that a throne will have had to been destoryed for authority to be transferred back to a sovereign.
Venti never used the power of the gnosis on Dvalin, he used his own power
Tldr; Divine Throne > Gnosis > Visions
Neuvillette regained his authority and memories after Focalors destroyed the Hydro Throne and he gave away the Hydro Gnosis to Arlecchino
Maybe he shared it. So he can still access it and all. It'd not like there isn't enough to go around, he has a whole ass church fueling him and Dvalin having a little power boost won't change much.
Egeria left the Primordial Sea about 2,000 years ago.
This is not in reference to her being exiled to the Primordial Sea, not only would that be a weird way to word it, Osse goes onto talk about how it’s no wonder because she died 500 years ago, implying it’s in reference to her death. Further supported by Neuvi’s character stories:
He still remembers the foreign usurper appointing their own "God of Life" to order the living. He still remembers how the usurper had made "her" to suppress the original vital force of this planet. And of course, he also knows how "she" came to commit the original sin...
Monsieur Os: After all, no new Hydro Dragon could be born so long as the Mistress of Many Waters hibernated in the deep sea.
In other words, no Hydro Dragon will be born while Egeria is in the Primordial Sea --> She leaves the Primordial Sea 2000 years ago --> A new Hydro Dragon has the opportunity to be born.
“Hibernated in the deep sea” is not the same thing as “exiled to the primordial sea”, nor is there a basis to equate the two. We know from further context, that it’s just referring to her existence and her position as the Heart of the Primordial Sea, how else could another one be born when she’s suppressing the Hydro Dragon? This isn’t a retort.
Dude, deep sea = primordial sea, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Egeria wasn't in the deep sea/primordial sea her whole life, she left it and lived on the surface of Fontaine 2000 years ago.
Again, really cool. But residing in the primordial sea is not necessarily the same thing as being exiled to the primordial sea where she was sealed by the Heavens for her sin. You’re ignoring broader context and aren’t even touching any of my points.
Monsieur Os: After all, no new Hydro Dragon could be born as long as the Mistress of Many Waters hibernated in the deep sea.
No Hydro Dragon will be born while Egeria is in the "deep sea." In what other "deep sea" do you think Egeria "hibernates" if not in the Primordial Sea, where she was imprisoned, exiled or sealed? "Hibernating" doesn't mean Egeria is sleeping; it's an exaggeration of her being there.
And I'm not ignoring any of your points, because as I said before, the prophecy is clear, it has nothing to do with her death because the prophecy doesn't say that the Hydro Dragon won't be born while Egeria lives + About 2000 years ago, Orobashi was worried about the birth of the Hydro Dragon, precisely because Egeria had left the Primordial Sea also about 2000 years ago + Furina says that Neuvillette is at least 1000 years old.
um... no. Furina explicitly stated that he is several thousands years old. And Egeria left the Primordial Sea at that exact time - when Remus got his ass cracked.
Furina said that she THINKS if she recalls correctly he must be that old. Entirely unreliable. And Egeria was suppressing Neuvi’s reincarnation, so unless she dies, he cannot be born.
do you really think that Egeria would invite newly-born dragon to Fontaine as a judge like hello? okay... he still needs time to grow up i guess. and don't make my Furina girlie stupid and unreliable. she was there for 500 years with Neuvi ofc she would know his age lol.
That was not Egeria, that was Focalors. And yes? Because Focalors’ plan was to make his entire life experience with humans, so he would get close to them and could not possibly judge them wrong.
Furina IS stupid and unreliable. She has no idea what she’s talking about and is younger than 500 years old. She lacks intelligence and knowledge as much as Focalors.
GIRL🤣🤣🤣 BYEEEEE you sound hella rude. the thing about Furina is your own subjective thing so no. The point of my comment was why would she invite him so young? he was literally a baby at that time😭
about Egeria
idk what you talking about but the OP clearly stated to you that her being the heart is not a problem. her being the heart IN PS is. while she was in the PS no dragon could be born. that was her function in the PS after all. but when Remus agenda got messy HP just let Egeria be the archon and let her outta prison in PS. no heart in the PS - dragon can be born.🤪🤪
the thing about Furina is your own subjective thing so no.
Burden of proof is on you, as you’re making the claim. Hitchen’s razor.
The point of my comment was why would she invite him so young? he was literally a baby at that time😭
Correct, and that is exactly Focalors’ point. If he’s introduced to humans as early as possible, then, when he, as a human form reincarnation, will get accustomed to the society so he’s never gonna judge the humans wrong.
about Egeria idk what you talking about but the OP clearly stated to you that her being the heart is not a problem. her being the heart IN PS is. while she was in the PS no dragon could be born. that was her function in the PS after all. but when Remus agenda got messy HP just let Egeria be the archon and let her outta prison in PS. no heart in the PS - dragon can be born.🤪🤪
Already debunked the OP. The character stories explicitly state that the PO made her suppress the hydro dragon, therefore it cannot be reincarnated. Nothing relates to her being sealed in the primordial sea 2000 years ago for her residing in the PSea, as Osse words it as if it’s voluntary. The only reason she was in the PSea was because she was exiled there, not because that was her function. She wasn’t sealed in the PSea beforehand and was even in land.
Keep in mind that Chinese text/titles aren't immune to mistakes. They referred decarabian as "Anemo Archon (风神)" once and never bothered to fix it. I remember this caused confusion back then because it contradicts other statements that says Venti is the first anemo archon.
Even the Azhdaha title you mentioned there actually doesn't translate to Geo but rather Earth. As far as i know these two aren't synonymous because Geo original translation is strictly 岩. and 地 is not one of seven elements
It doesn't translate to anemo archon at all, it translates to wind god or god of wind. Which is what he is, he is a god of wind in nature, the transliteration isn't wrong or inaccurate at all, it's just not as clear. In EN they called him the god of storms to make it clearer.
Archons aren't a thing in the CN localisations, they are just the demon gods and or lords of the elements, but the demon god aspect is not even exclusive to them and it isn't in EN either.
"element-god" is exactly how they set up the term for "Archon", and it has always been consistent except that one instance where they refer Decarabian as "Wind god/Anemo Archon"
As a result every other localization translates this to "Anemo Archon" as well
To further confirm this, "魔神(Demon god)" is a term they made to refer non-archon gods, to not confuse it with 神(god/archon)
(example: Zhongli's old title before becoming an archon was 岩之魔神(geo demon god), and when he ascended, it became 岩神(geo god/geo archon)
As for decarabian's other titles like you mentioned, they're not taken from that 风神/Wind god, but 风之君王(king of the wind) and 龙卷之魔神(storm demon god) which are correctly translated and consistent with my previous explanation
That's fair but I'm still gonna have to disagree with the idea that it's a mistake here. Yes, mostly these titles are used for a specific group of beings but it's not always the case. You are interpreting it to be the case that similar terms will carry access different beings, but there isn't anywhere in the story or by the writers that says it must be the case that a specific set of terms will only be used to define a certain type of being.
We see this in for example how both Nahida and Apep in in her second character SQ are referred to as dendro lords.
Or for example how dragons of various ranks or not even dragons at all are referred to as dragon lords/kings. You see a similar thing occur in EN version as well.
Yes at first it might seem confusing but it's not necessarily a mistake, it's just a term, and the reality often becomes more or less clearer as you go through the lore and gather further context for it.
I mean I say all of this, it's not something I consider a problem because for me context matters more than just "terminology" alone and I am mostly satisfied with the context thats provided for characters in the story. However I believe the writing team did acknowledge for Nod Krai that the lore was not the most clear to follow and that they wanted to make it easier to follow or something of that nature so yeah.
Why would they set up different terms just to switch them around based on context?
Say there are 10 instances where these terms are used:
9 are consistent and refer to the same group or beings;
then you can’t help but assume the one that isn’t consistent (where it is suddenly used to refer to another group or being) is an outlier or a mistake. This would undeniably cause confusion:
And for this case especially (lore theories), can these terms/titles really be used as a reliable piece of argument? Since we don't know the writer's intention and thoughts when they're writing those lores
Also, i can't find the bit where they refer Apep as lord of dendro?
Regarding Geo, yes, it was my bad, I didn't realize that, but even if we remove the title of Azhdaha, it's still consistent compared to the other sovereigns, anyway, Earth is still related to Geo.
You're right in this, but I don't think this changes the implication of Dvalin as the anemo sovereign since usually a term referring to an element and dragon king aren't associated with other dragons besides soverigns
No, Neuvillette is definitely older than that. Furina says he's about 1,000 years old, while the prophecy stated that the Hydro Sovereign wouldn't be born while Egeria was in the Primordial Sea, and Egeria left the Primordial Sea 2,000 years ago to become an archon, allowing the birth of a Hydro Dragon. So Neuvillette must have been born between 2,000 and 1,000 years ago. Furthermore, Orobashi was concerned about the birth of the Hydro Sovereign 2,000 years ago, perhaps because he knew of the prophecy that the Hydro Dragon would be born when Egeria left the Primordial Sea.
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u/timothdrake Knights of Favonius Dec 28 '25
The community’s refusal to aknowledge Dvalin and Azdaha as their respective elemental sovereigns after all the fontaine and natlan dragon lore drop and knowing dragons reincarnate and each have different relationships with the people living in their land and it’s replacement archon is wild.
The translation doesnt really help in that case, either. Recent genshin lore is making it painful obvious that a lot of the story in this game had been planned and foreshadowed in the original language as far back as 1.0 with specific terms that would have a bigger impact being used as early as Mondstadt archon quests, but the english translation wasnt aware said terms would have such a specific usage that would impact things later on.
The elemental dragons is one such example, but a lot of Zibai’s foreshadowing seem to fall into the same category. lol