I played this quest almost a year ago. I did it because of Azhdaha's release.
But that was before Inazuma and that's why I am loving this idea of uploading these playthroughs so much later. If we look at this quest now with how much we know about Inazuma then their thing between Watatsumi and Narukami stops being unique to them. Here in Liyue we have the people under Morax and also the Sal Terrae people who followed and are still loyal to Havria. And very similarly to how Watatsumans the loyalty towards Havria extends to almost disloyalty towards the ruling Archon.
And I think we could even extend that. At some point Istaroth ruled simultaneously with Barbatos after all. It could be there was some group in Mondstadt that were more loyal to the God of Time than the God of Wind.
And that adds another layer towards our look at the Archons and their methods for running their regions. Venti is the absentee Archon but we don't really know enough about Istaroth to know how she behaved in Mondstadt. What we do know is that she went out of her way to help the people of Enkanomiya when they were sunken below the sea and were at the mercy of the Vishaps. Maybe in more minor troubles of early Mondstadt Venti would be a no show but Istaroth would come to the people's aid until she ultimately left for Enkanomiya. Either way this shows a more hands-off approach to running their region while showing up when needed to solve crises. In Liyue Zhongli organized everybody to keep them safe under his umbrella of adepti including other Archons like Marchosius. At the same time they taught the people how to eventually take care of themselves. But he also respected the territories of other Archons like Havria and adopted her people after her death incorporating them into Liyue with everybody else. Similarly Makoto and Ei (or maybe Yae) respected the rule of Enkanomiya/Watatsumi and then adopted the Watatsumans after their defeat of Orobashi.
In terms of Inazuma though the relationship between the peoples wasn't ever really solidified so it wasn't too hard for Watatsumi to break off again especially after stuff like the Vision Hunt Decree. In Liyue we already know that Marchosius and his role as the Stove God was largely incorporated into the mythos of Rex Lapis so that could have fully integrated any people that were his followers. Meanwhile those loyal to Havria retained their identity just like the Watatsumans and even developed myths depicting Rex Lapis killing Havria even though it was their own ancestors. But even with that we also learn that these people run the salt industry in Liyue and work under the Qixing so they are still heavily integrated even with their own belief system intact. And this seems to be the case in Mondstadt too where records of Istaroth are largely gone and the myths were altered to almost imply that Venti was both the God of Wind and Time something I'd say is similar to Marchosius and Morax.
I think the "guiding humanity" thing in Zhongli's Story 5 is partly about that. So where Venti and Zhongli made it a point to unite their people as much as they could Ei only ruled over them and left it as is. This includes alienating the Blue Oni as she adopted the Crimson Oni and arranging for the bake-danuki to be sealed in stone. I'm going to guess this divide between different groups of people will play out throughout the next regions. I already have theories on Sumeru's and Fontaine's divides and I think Snezhnaya will essentially be about the Fatui "aristocracy" over the common citizens of the region.
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
