This is going to be my theory about how the Archon Quest and Inazuma storyline happened originally. For what I think is the current story after the changes click here.
Last summer we finally got news that Inazuma was coming soon. Tons of theorycrafters jumped on every piece of information we could get. But most of these theories ended up off the mark from what we would eventually play.
Why was that? Well by the end of the Archon Quest it was pretty obvious that the story was changed. So if we looked back at the original story many of the theories would have gotten close.
Since then MiHoYo had been hard at work trying to make the pieces fit together again and to their credit I think we've finally come full circle with Ei's new Character Quest and Yae's long-anticipated release.
So one thing that many people got was that Ei would be a problem and it would be the first time we'd come into direct conflict with the Archon instead of them being our guide. However some theorycrafters believed this was because Baal wasn't actually Ei but Yae instead and the reason was because Ei just didn't act like the Archons we knew.
That's where my theory kicked in and I believed that not only for Ei but for all the remaining Archons we would play a role in setting them straight. With the changes to the Archon Quest that ended up getting delayed. Yes we convinced Ei to stop believing in the Heavenly Principles but the changes meant she was still running Inazuma.
So in the original v1.6 we got that Archon Quest Prologue but instead of it being in Guyun the original was likely set on the Golden Apple Archipelago which was inspired by the Ryukyu Islands of Japan's Kyushu region. If you look at a map the islands are very far off the mainland or Honshu. It is likely the thunderstorm barrier that the Shogun erected could be weaker out at these islands and that's how we'd be able to set up a base and launch from it with Beidou and the Alcor into what should have been Watatsumi also inspired by the Kyushu region.
Side note: Remember how the islands were also hard to get to because of the fog?
From there the storm would actually have been difficult to pass as all information we'd gotten by that point said so. So even with a starting point that close to Watatsumi the Alcor would have ended up driven off course and taken heavy damage. This then leads Beidou to contact Thoma on Ritou and the quest plays out similarly to what we got. Meanwhile the Alcor needed to be repaired and what did we get but an event where we were helping to repair it for a free Beidou.
Act I I think the only changes might be to the dialogue. Based on Ei's first Character Quest I don't think Narukami was badly affected besides the allogenes. This is to let the people still react positively once we got Ei to meet them and better understand the changing human society of Inazuma. For Act II I think it would also play out similarly because that was when things were going downhill. If anything there might information about why it's so special that they'd collected 100 Visions. In my theory the statue only needed 100 Visions for each of its hundred eyes. It's name is the Thousand Armed Hundred Eyed God. Btw that wouldn't make sense if they weren't trying to connect the 100 Visions with the 100 eyes because the statue's name is based off of a real goddess the Thousand Armed Thousand Eyed Guanyin.
Anyway I suggested that Act III Omnipresence Over Mortals had a few pieces cut out of it to accommodate the changes. First the traitor that allowed the Tenryou forces easy access into the resistance base. It is likely finding that traitor in the early part of Act III would have led us to the Fatui instead of Teppei and the Delusions. That way Kokomi's partnership with the Fatui can continue without suspicion. After Yae rescues us from Scara she'd likely have taken us to Seirai the site of her defeat and that's where we'd not only do that "anti-Raiden" training of hers but also learn about what happened in the past. (The revised version changed her defeat to Mt. Yougou and we learned nothing about the past.) This is why Raiden's mats come from that world boss. Yae's originally should have come from it too because it's more likely she was set to release with Raiden Shogun not Kokomi who should have released in v2.2 instead of 2 reruns. With that knowledge in mind we'd head back to the resistance and help them push further into Narukami before going back to Yae. The successes of the resistance explains how we were able to easily steal the information to expose the Tenryou deal with the Fatui. Sara confronts them and then the story plays out as usual. Somewhere during the push into Tenshukaku we'd also destroy the statue that would have made Ei omnipresent. (I said it would be total destruction originally but looking at the statue now it looks like all of the Visions were on its wings/arms so we'd probably just break those off.)
The Fatui plot was just as Scara said which was to split this powerful Archon into many weaker instances of herself and then defeat her for the Gnosis. (I'm still not clear on how they were planning on taking it in the revised version since the Shogun was at max power even by the time she kills Signora.) In the end the Fatui would be removed from Narukami but still have their deal going with Kokomi explaining the abnormally large amount of Fatui present on Watatsumi and how they'd still be able to infiltrate Narukami. Seriously Childe should have been roasted by the storm and definitely murdered upon docking on Narukami if Ei was still in charge.
After defeating Ei she would come to the realization that her pursuit of Eternity and its relation to the Heavenly Principles was wrong. She'd abdicate and place herself under arrest but Narukami's people who weren't as badly affected by her Vision Hunt Decree were willing to forgive her. That's where we start her Character Quest not in front of the statue but with Yae to ask about Ei. Yae coerces us to see her personally with the use of her Pass Permit and we convince Ei to see modern day Inazuma showing her that change is a good thing and what Yae was trying to teach her was the right way. She starts to see that and we end the quest with her going to solve the Tenryou cr**** as a way to atone for failing her people.
The quest ends with Ei deciding that she needs to learn more about the world which is why we leave her on that hill rather than taking her back to Tenshukaku. This is a part of my theory that she'd leave her position to explore and understand Yae's Transience. I don't think Makoto was planned originally.
Side note: So what about being Makoto's shadow then? Well I think she was going to say she was Yae's shadow and the meaning was different. She wanted to step out from being Yae's shadow because she believed Eternity was better than Yae's Transience and then when she beat her at Seirai that only proved it. (It also showed how immature she was because the she would have used the Musou no Hitotachi to defeat Yae. Hitotachi means single sword strike you know like it happens in a moment. Yes irony is wasted on her. 
)
From this quest we reach the new quest where we again encounter her outside of Tenshukaku since she's still traveling. Most of it would still play out normally especially the part about the Shogun acting up. We did learn that she made her very hard to reprogram since changes are enemies of eternity. I believed that Ei would have to fight her just like we see in the quest but to destroy her not just reprogram her. The Shogun was an unchanging being built from Ei's conviction in Eternity. Since she realized that that belief was wrong she needed to remove that last thing from her past to move on.
Side note: I say Makoto was part of the changes but the Shogun wasn't because Scaramouche was released all the way back in v1.1 so that part of the story was always going to play out.
Why the Makoto hate I.King? Well there were no hints at her existence or of twin Archons until Act III when it was revealed. I think Makoto was MiHoYo's early attempt at fitting a concept of Transience into another character since they thought they couldn't use Yae anymore. This is why the twins are called Baal and Beelzebul which are actually names referring to the same demon. But it's also because of this naming scheme that we can see MiHoYo still wanted to imply Yae's original role. In anime twins are usually treated as the same person or a single soul forced into two bodies. Here the twins are both the demon Baal. On top of that Ei doesn't share the naming scheme of Archons in either English or the original Chinese. On the other hand Yae does.
Ok and 1 last thing. Ei's interpretation of eternity is literally an unchanging existence for all time. Funny enough Enkanomiya's inspiration would have been a good picture to paint for her. Enkanomiya's other name is Tokoyokoku which is the Okinawan underworld. It is depicted as a place that never changes because nothing moves. It's a land of death. Keep in mind Ei wanted eternity because she feared death. Really want MiHoYo to get her to Enkanomiya and have her freak out for a while lol 
Anyway what do you think about all this? Do you like this original version or are you happy with what MiHoYo ended up coming up with?
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
