u/Fortheseoccasions

Even Dottore finds this question interesting.

Perhaps Tsaritsa and Zhongli are the oldest archons as we see only their gnoses(chess pieces) left on the board. Not only that Zhongli hasn't told us his secret contract to end all contracts in exchange for gnoses with Tsaritsa

This also puts Tsaritsa in the same timeline as Saarelainen, the third descender from whose body gnoses were made. Otherwise Tsaritsa and Saarelainen being lovers doesn't make sense as we see Ronova cutting the picture of kid's father (presumed Saarelainen)