Raiden Shogun

The Raiden Shogun is a firm believer of what she believes to be eternity — a place in which everything is kept the same, regardless of what goes on. She is honorable in her conduct and is revered by the people of Inazuma.

The Raiden Shogun exists in two forms — Ei, her true identity, and the Shogun, a puppet created by Ei to oversee Inazuma in her stead while she meditates in the Plane of Euthymia. This puppet follows a set of directives programmed into her, which are extremely difficult to modify. The Shogun is cold and stern in personality, even callous at times; she is limited in emotional expression, has no likes and dislikes, and has no need for recreation. In none of her voice lines does she ever use contractions (eg. "it's", "can't"). The Shogun thinks of herself as Ei's assistant and carries out her creator's exact will, unable to act on her own volition. If her usual functions are disabled, the Shogun becomes ineffectual. Due to limited protocols as a result of Ei's initial indifference towards anything other than "eternity", the puppet is able to be manipulated by external influences. For example, the Kujou Clan and Fatui persuaded her into initiating and maintaining the Vision Hunt Decree.

While Ei has a more stern demeanor than the average person, she is notably more emotive and sociable than the Shogun. Unlike the Shogun, Ei has preferences, such as a love for sweets and passion of martial arts. Due to her dedication to eternity, Ei maintains a wary attitude on the idea of change. However, she demonstrates curiosity rather than disdain towards new affairs, such as the appearance of the Traveler and the customs of the modern world. Due to having lost many of her loved ones over the centuries, Ei is driven by a fear of further loss, wanting to preserve Inazuma. To this end, she previously sealed herself in the Plane of Euthymia to keep herself from the effects of erosion. She created the puppet Shogun to ensure immunity from the decay of her physical body. While in the Plane of Euthymia, Ei was indifferent to anything that did not affect her pursuit of eternity and had a low opinion of human ambition due to it resulting in loss and suffering and therefore, making it incompatible with eternity. While in the Plane of Euthymia, she was not unmoved by loneliness, as Ei is shown enjoying Yae Miko and the Traveler's company.

In spite of her flawed actions, Ei is devoted to Inazuma, simply longing to protect it and her people. After she is convinced that her actions were destructive, Ei shows remorse and is willing to change her perspective regarding eternity to become a better ruler. She also gained a newfound respect for the idea of human ambition and its achievements.

Raiden Ei and Raiden Makoto were identical twin gods who lived during the time of the Archon War. While Ei was a far more formidable warrior than the peaceful Makoto, Ei believed Makoto to be a better ruler for humanity. After Ei prevailing and slaying all her rivals, Ei willingly sacrificed her body so that Makoto could ascend to Celestia instead of her and become one of The Seven. After becoming the first Electro Archon, Makoto recreated Ei's body and made Ei her kagemusha (Japanese: 影武者 "shadow warrior"), or body double. As far as the world was aware, there were not two, but one. They complemented each other, and they ruled Inazuma jointly; therefore, there was no need for the public to know the truth. The name "Baal" and the title of Raiden Shogun were understood to refer to both of them.

All those who dwelled in the nation lived in peace as long as the Shogunate's borders were not threatened. At some point after creating Watatsumi Island, the god Orobashi attacked Yashiori Island with his followers due to having been sentenced to death by Celestia for reading the book Before Sun and Moon, which recorded history that they wanted hidden, as well as paying for Enkanomiya's transgressions. Ei rallied the Shogunate forces against the god and his followers. In the ensuing war, Sasayuri was killed and Ei killed Orobashi with the Musou no Hitotachi on the island with such force that it created the Musoujin Gorge. Neither Ei nor Makoto were aware of the true motive behind Orobashi's attack.

After the official end of the Archon War 2,000 years ago, Ei met Morax and Barbatos while accompanying Makoto to one of The Seven's occasional reunions in Liyue.

At some point, Kapatcir begins to wreak havoc on Seirai Island. Being a threat to its inhabitants, Ei pursued and killed her. As a result, the island was left in ruins, and the remnants of her power were suppressed by the protections of the Asase Shrine, where a coagulation of regret formed.

During the cataclysm, the threat of the Abyss prompted Ei to take up arms once more alongside Makoto, Mikoshi Chiyo, and Kitsune Saiguu. When Ei learned that Makoto had gone to Khaenri'ah alone, she pursued her sister, tasking Saiguu with defending Inazuma. By the time she had arrived, Makoto was already dying, much to Ei's horror, although the former archon was able to preserve some of her consciousness. After returning from Khaenri'ah, Ei assumed her sister's position in both the Shogunate and a member of The Seven. Chiyo was swallowed by a "beast of sin"; while she broke out, she was corrupted by its taint and drew her sword against Ei. In the ensuing fight, Ei sliced off Chiyo's horns and her sword-arm, but did not chase after the corrupted oni. She used the powers of the Sacred Sakura to eliminate all of the monsters plaguing Inazuma, bringing peace back once more, though Saiguu had died in the process. The incident left her deeply scarred from "erosion."

At some point after the cataclysm, through unknown means and with the help of Khaenri'ahn techniques, Ei created an experimental puppet as a proof of concept to see if she could "escape" erosion, who later called himself Kunikuzushi. She had wished to use him to store her Gnosis, but Kunikuzushi shed tears upon creation, causing Ei to believe him to be too gentle for the task. Taking apparent pity on him, she decided to seal his powers and leave him in a slumber in the Narukami Shrine. Later, he arose from that slumber and roamed the Inazuman countryside where he would eventually be discovered by the Fatui and took on the name Scaramouche.

About 400 years ago, she created a puppet version of herself, making sure that it followed her ideals. Satisfied with her work, she gave her Gnosis to Miko before removing her consciousness from her body into the Musou Isshin.

This way, her people wouldn't be in danger of transgressing the Heavenly Principles and be punished for it, like Khaenri'ah did, and she herself would survive as their permanent god by preserving her consciousness free of erosion and keeping an indestructible artificial body, so that her people wouldn't suffer the loss she herself experienced when Makoto died.

A year before the game's current events, the Shogun puppet was deceived by the Fatui and allowed the corrupt members of the Tri-Commission, headed by Kujou Takayuki, to enact both the Vision Hunt and Sakoku Decrees with Ei's tacit approval, shuttering her nation off from the rest of Teyvat. According to Zhongli, the mortal vessel of Morax, she had ordered the Inazuma Shogunate to collect all of the Visions in the country, where they were laid into the Statue of the Omnipresent God for reasons unknown. No one, including her people, has since been granted an Electro Vision.

Present Day Main articles: Raiden Shogun/Lore and Chapter II During the Rite of Descension, Morax faked his death to see if Liyue could survive without him. He guessed that Ei would learn of his "death" and retirement, which would cause her to accelerate her plans. Ei, for her part, believed that his story was not over yet.

When the Traveler arrived on Inazuma to speak with Ei, they were instead roped by the resistance to help abolish the Vision Hunt Decree, first encountering her in the Plane of Euthymia when they attempted to intervene after the Shogun apprehended Thoma to take his Vision. In this encounter, she defeated them, but the Traveler managed to escape thanks to Thoma's intervention. While aiding the Watatsumi Army, they are rescued by Miko from Scaramouche, who revealed that the Electro Archon is Ei, who they encountered in the plane; the one in the real world was actually her puppet. She believed that Ei had taken an interest in them and assisted them in reaching her again for a rematch, believing that if they managed to defeat her, she would rescind the Vision Hunt Decree. The Traveler met Ei again on the steps of Tenshukaku when the Shogun attempted to attack the Watatsumi Army, who had arrived to confront her. Drawing on the powers of the seized Visions with Miko's help, they were able to convince Ei to rescind the Vision Hunt Decree, returning all the seized Visions as long as their owners could be found.

After learning of the full extent of the damage dealt to the nation, Ei immediately ordered the arrest of both the Kanjou and Tenryou Commissioners for their deception and started making changes to the Shogun's protocols to fit her new notions of Eternity. However, she had made little progress in doing so as the Shogun was never intended to be changed and that it had begun to see her as an enemy of eternity following her change of mind resulting in it rebelling against her to maintain the eternity she originally sought.

Ei managed to prove that her newfound resolve wasn't a product of erosion to the Shogun in a duel. As part of a new agreement, Ei would no longer rule the nation on the basis of fear of the Heavenly Principles, honoring past sacrifices instead of trying to prevent further loss by overprotecting Inazuma from the dangers of its progress.

Though the Shogun becomes her kagemusha, Ei vows not to regard her as a mere tool of eternity, just like her sister did with herself, as she began to play a more active role in Inazuma's policies while the people of the nation began to know her as an individual instead of holding onto their unrealistic notion of a permanent and omnipresent god. The Sakoku Decree was also abolished, to the delight of many.

Appearance The Raiden Shogun is 5 foot 9 inches tall. She has pale skin, purple eyes with light blue pupils, and long, dark violet hair that becomes lighter at the ends, which glow when she uses her Elemental Skill or her Elemental Burst. She also has a beauty mark below her right eye.

The Raiden Shogun's long violet hair is braided. At the right side of her head is an ōgi-bira kanzashi (fan-shaped hairpiece) which appears to have belonged to Ei's twin sister, Makoto; it is adorned with two pale violet flowers that resemble balloon flowers.

Her outfit consists of a shear dark purple bodysuit under an extremely short lavender kimono. The sleeves of her bodysuit completely cover her arms and terminate at golden rings on her middle fingers, partly cover her palms and the tops of her hands. The back and sleeves of her kimono are decorated with tomoe, flower, and wave patterns in shades of purple and gold. Her kimono is fastened with a crimson obi tied into a bow at her back. She wears dark purple thigh-high stockings with small diamond openings at the top and high-heeled sandals; her right ankle is adorned with two of the same flowers in her hair and on her kimono. Her nails are painted purple. A small red ribbon sits at her neck over her bodysuit, which covers her neck and shoulders but leaves open a window for her chest and upper back. There are also three objects on her outfit with the Electro symbol: a black pauldron on her left shoulder, a tasseled ornament at the front of her obi, and a fan-like ornament on her obi's bow.