Genshin Impact 4.2 Archon Quest explained: Focalors, Descenders, and more

Everything we learned in the latest story arc

Players have been enjoying Genshin Impact 4.2’s Archon Quest, which finished up the story arc in Fontaine that originally started in version 4.0. If you have not played through the story yet, we’d urge you to do so before reading this article, as it will be ripe with spoilers, and with how good the narrative is in this one it’d be a shame to miss out on the surprises.

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SPOILER WARNING!

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Contents

1. Genshin Impact: Egeria, Focalors, and the prophecy explained
2. Genshin Impact: Descenders and Gnoses explained
3. Genshin Impact: Skirk, Surtalogi, and the Hexenzirkel
4. Genshin Impact: Looking ahead towards Natlan

Aside from continuing and concluding the fantastic Fontaine story arc, the finale dropped some huge lore bombs that’ll be relevant going forward as well – there is a lot of information to process, so we’ve compiled everything we learned from the Genshin Impact 4.2 Archon Quest regarding Furina and Focalors, the Descenders, the Gnoses, and other topics the quest touched upon. 

Let’s dive in – hopefully without dissolving into a puddle of water.

Furina's performance has been more masterful than anyone could have expected / HoYoverse

Genshin Impact: Egeria, Focalors, and the prophecy explained

Remember all the way back before Fontaine came out and the region’s upcoming characters were revealed in the animated Overture Teaser trailer? At the very beginning of the video, the voice of Egeria, supplied by Courtney Steele, could be heard – as it turns out Egeria was the Hydro Archon before Focalors took the position.

Her subjects, the Oceanids, apparently wished to live on land, which Egeria eventually achieved by creating “humans” – the people of Fontaine – from Primordial Sea Water. This is the reason why people born in Fontaine get dissolved and transformed back into Oceanids when touching this substance.

This is also why there was a dooming prophecy about Fontaine in the first place, as Egeria did all this without seeking permission from Celestia and the Heavenly Principles, who used the prophecy as a punishment for the Hydro Archon’s sin. It seems like Celestia has such power that any sentence or punishment it decrees automatically leads to destiny itself bending over backwards to make this punishment become reality – like how the Heavenly Principles used Raiden Shogun to execute Orobachi without her ever knowing that such a death sentence had existed.

Anyway, after Focalors took the reins from Egeria, who died for reasons unrelated to this whole business, she came up with a plan to deceive both her own people and Celestia in a desperate attempt to stop the prophecy from happening. She split her being into the divine spirit that was embedded into the Oratrice, which she used to collect energy over the centuries, and the physical body, which ended up being Furina. Furina had to play her tragic role for hundreds of years, cursed to live as long as was required to keep up the charade.

Focalors’ spirit finally sacrificed itself during the story to destroy the position of Hydro Archon that Celestia had created hundreds of years ago, returning the Hydro sovereignty to Neuvillette, who’s the reborn Hydro Dragon Sovereign. With Focalors dead, Neuvillette had the authority to “forgive” the people of Fontaine, making them into actual humans that can no longer be dissolved.

Focalors is gone and Furina is now a regular human being – her Hydro Vision, it’s implied, was granted by Neuvillette, who now possesses the authority to do so.

This also means that there are no longer seven Archons in Teyvat, only six. Celestia is implied to be sleeping, but one wonders if the loss of one of the seven thrones may not be enough to rouse it from its slumber at last.

Neuvillette has fully awoken as the Hydro Dragon Sovereign / HoYoverse

Genshin Impact: Descenders and Gnoses explained

Speaking of Celestia, we learned more about the Descenders in this quest as well. Nahida had previously revealed to the Traveler that they were the Fourth Descender to come to Teyvat from a different world. This time, we learned that the Gnoses the Archons possess are remnants left behind by the deceased Third Descender, whoever they may have been. This was revealed by Skirk, who also told Neuvillette that the Gnoses are objects of misfortune. That’s one of the reasons why he gave away the Hydro Gnosis to Arlecchino. Without the throne of the Hydro Archon, the Gnosis is essentially just a power-boosting device.

The First Descender was likely Phanes, who defeated the Dragon Sovereigns, but Nahida suspects that it was the Heavenly Principles. The Second Descender is theorized to have waged war against Celestia, eventually being defeated and possibly being thrown into the Abyss – at least lore in Enkanomiya points in that direction, but keep in mind that this is all just theory.

With Neuvillette being back in control of the Hydro element, he’s sworn revenge on Celestia and the Archons when the time is right. Is he going to join the Tsaritsa’s little rebellion in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type scenario despite hating her as the Cryo Archon?

Arlecchino has received the Hydro Gnosis from Neuvillette to deliver it to the Tsaritsa / HoYoverse

Genshin Impact: Skirk, Surtalogi, and the Hexenzirkel

Now these guys came from nowhere. Well, not exactly – we’ve heard Skirk’s name from Childe, her apprentice, before, but seeing her enormous power level and hearing that the story arc’s big boss, the All-Devouring Narwhal, is merely her own master’s pet is something else entirely.

We have no idea about who Skirk and Surtalogi are, what their motivations might be, and where their loyalties lie. We just know that they are incredibly powerful with Surtalogi being named on a level with Verdrfolnir – a new name that was dropped – and Rhinedottir – a Hexenzirkel member and the creator of Albedo.

Speaking of the Nexenzirkel, it made an appearance in this quest as well with Mona showing up and Barbeloth, Nicole, and Rhinedottir being mentioned. We also learned that Mona was born in Mondstadt’s Dornman Port, one of the regions we may see added to the game ahead of Natlan.

Skirk showed up out of nowhere are severely upset the established power scale / HoYoverse

Genshin Impact: Looking ahead towards Natlan

Incidentally, Natlan is the Traveler’s next destination and where we’ll head in version 5.0 next year. We’ve already known that it’s being ruled by the Pyro Archon, who is the God of War, but Neuvillette dropped some other interesting tidbits about it.

Apparently, Natlan is largely a desert nation, where war has recently broken out and is raging on. Aside from humans, a race of evolved dragons that has learned how to co-exist with humanity is living in the country. He also mentioned that Capitano, one of the Fatui Harbingers, is currently in that nation, confirming information we’ve received from the Knights of Favonius’ grandmaster.

That should cover all the lore reveals dropped during this latest Archon Quest – it’s a lot to digest.

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