You know back in v1.5's livestream we learned that Zhongli and Yae are old friends. This started the ball rolling on figuring out that Yae was one of the first Seven.
But on top of that I feel like for some reason both of these old friends share philosophies and since I recently got selected as one of the winners of the Yae Miko Light Novel contest I'm going to take it as a sign that I have MiHoYo's blessing to talk further about this.
Now if you haven't read my little short story please feel free to click here. I tried to use the same voice that most of the actual books in the game use. It was my first try doing an actual story instead of these theories so if you have any pointers please leave a comment!
So to start we have your standard thing about loving humanity. The original Seven as Zhongli's Story 5 states all took on the task of guiding humanity. We can see from both Zhongli and Venti that they have a fondness for humans and want to nurture their growth and independence. Yae's many scenes also show this. (On top of that she also has a soft spot for youkai and I'll discuss that some other time.)
On top of that though both of them seem concerned with history specifically that it should be preserved in writing. Zhongli's long-term thinking believes that someone like the MC who will traverse multiple worlds might be able to preserve the history of Teyvat longer than anything else. As Zhongli states even if the history was carved into stone the stone might wear away and the history would be lost. Yae on the other hand just wants to make sure the history is written properly so she wants to cultivate writing skills.
A funny coincidence here is that both Yae and Zhongli's first quests are about the past and end with us realizing we came along so they could have us help them in their plan of keeping the history. Zhongli wanted us to see the stuff about Havria and then tells us that we might be able to keep the history longest. Yae shows us the old world of youkai and nurtures our writing ability. (by roping us into becoming writers she can leech off of 
)
And even in terms of Zhongli's own title. We've heard the word contract come up with Zhongli over and over again. But we never really hear about making deals with either Venti or Ei do we? On the other hand Yae does make deals. During the Archon Quest she makes one with Scara. And for the Gnosis at that just like Zhongli. It gets Scara to leave quietly and I have theorized there is more to it than that just like Zhongli with his "contract to end all contracts." She also deals with Sara promising proof for 3 days time.
This works in reverse too but maybe I'm just overthinking it. As you guys know not only did I say Yae's the original Archon but also that she'd be the God of the Moment or God of Impermanence might be the better word. Yae has a few lines about how things can't last forever which goes along with that but Zhongli also talks about how things don't last forever. I mean erosion became a term in this game because of Zhongli's second quest and his retirement during the Archon Quest demonstrated impermanence.
And now this last thing is just silly but still interesting. They both don't like seafood. Sure Yae's much more specific but they both complain about the same thing about it too. Smell. It's even more funny when you think about how they are both Asian and the stereotype is that all Asians love seafood. (in terms of Japan that's probably more or less true)
Side note: Btw if you guys don't know what Kiviak is it's a Greenland delicacy of stuffing a kind of bird into the skin of a seal and then fermenting it. Like a turducken. I don't really get the idea of stuffing animals inside of other animals but who knows? Maybe it tastes good.
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Ok and one last detail that isn't really the same topic but I don't think I want to make a whole new topic on it is Yae's Story 4. If you guys read it it feels like how Zhongli's past played out. Humans were weak and needed to be protected. Zhongli had his adepti and other Archons like Marchosius and Guizhong. It feels like Yae's original incarnation did the same with youkai in Inazuma. And something to know about that is that there's no difference between "illuminated beasts" and youkai/kami. Even Xiao who is a yaksha would be a literal youkai. Yashas like Inuyasha are youkai in Japan. I actually snuck in a mention about this in my short story.
So what happened? Liyue was still protected by its Archon and his adepti until the Archon Quest but youkai are almost extinct in Inazuma now. According to Ei the book Treasured Tales of the Chouken Shinkageuchi was spot on for the beginning of the story. And that reads "when Narukami came to her people" hinting that she and Makoto likely arrived in Inazuma from elsewhere similar to how the Yamato arrived in Japan. It's likely when the Shogunate was set up they also suppressed the youkai similar to what Japan did in real life.
Did you guys notice any of these similarities? What do you think might be the reason they have these similar ideas?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
