u/Strange-Pen1200

Just a random bit of theory crafting that popped into my head this morning...

So at the end of Act 4 Ronova has set off what may well be an attempt to reset Teyvat back to the state it was in before the HP terraformed it for humanity. Or at the very least something bad is going to happen to the planet if it's not stopped.

At first it just seemed a little like petty vengeance, Ronova helped humanity and was punished for breaking the rules of death, but then she breaks the rules again to help Celestia and is punished again. She's not happy. She lashes out in defiance as her last act.

BUT... I wonder if this messing with the 'space' of Teyvat in such a dramatic way is an attempt to get the 'Celestial monitoring system' to spot a violation of the rules of space and issue Asmoday with a directive to fix it.

This periodic checking that the rules are being obeyed is something Ronova knows a lot about. Gold states 'you've been studying our shackles for some time'. Anything that breaks the rules is going to be noticed if it's not corrected before the 'system integrity check' runs again. Gold herself was commanded by this monitoring system to clean up after Ronova, so it seems likely to me that any other rule breaking it detects might command a similar response.

So this could make Ronova's actions here into a 'we don't know where Asmoday is, so I'm going to make Celestia force them into the open' play.

It does seem to me that its going to need authority of Space level power to fix this mess...

Listening to the Snezhnaya OST that released earlier today and got to the part where we get Columbina singing the little theme she also sung at Signora's funeral.

The same motif turns up very briefly in the Odette cutscene at the end of chapter 2 of the archon quest, and then at the very end of the 7.1 trailer it crops up again as we cut from Ronova to Naberius/Gold...

Is it actually a motif for the God of Life? It sort of makes sense that you might have a song dedicated to Life that you sing at a funeral.

I doubt it means much, but it's an interesting idea that it might not actually be Signora's theme at all... given that a lot of people are taking this as potential proof of Signora coming back...

So at the end of the 7.0 Archon quest Mitya makes it clear that Ronova must have some limitation on what she's actually allowed to do, hence the curse of death not being quite so fatal as it first appears to be.

The fact Ronova also references the Gods Limits trailer (Death abides no reason) brings to mind firstly that Pierro straight up says that the Gods have limits, but Ronova also says in that trailer that its time for the Shades go get involved, but only to the extent the rules allow.

But it seems to me... only Ronova seems to actually care about following the rules. Or at least, she cares now.

This is where my head is at the moment with the extent to which the Shades seem to be sticking to the rules:

Ronova

Right now she seems to be very concerned with not breaking the rules she's been given. Part of why she has to get so involved in Act 2 is that it appears she's not actually allowed to just kill people outright, she's meant to be there for them after they die. So the possibility that someone might escape the theatre and therefore not resurrect cleanly is whats motivating her here.

But she did break the rules in Natlan by allowing Xbalanque to take part of her power to perform the Ode of Resurrection. We saw a scene where she says 'if anyone asks about this, I'll say you stole it from me', but the Lord of the Night told us that that is overstepping her authority as the Shade of Death.

Ronova, it seems, really doesn't want to be found out by the Heavenly Principles.

Asmoday

Asmoday has pretty much walked away from her role, we don't know the circumstances of it or where or what she even is now. Part of her authority appears to be preventing people getting in or out of Teyvat, but she's been pretty bad at that (Surtalogi got out, Skirk got in, and thats not including the Descenders).

Alice and the Hexenzirkel seem to be doing that part of the job now.

So I don't know if Asmoday is breaking the rules so much as having simply abandoned her post. Even her own servants in her temple have no idea why she left.

If the theory that she's working with the Abyss Twin to find someone to place the output of the Loom of Fate is right, that would likely be a pretty epic level breach of the rules though.

Naberius / Gold

This one is pretty complicated. It does seem like something bad happened to Naberius a while ago reducing her down to just her heart. There are so many instances of people creating life that didn't have the authority to do so (The Oceanids, the Fae...) that either she's not actually meant to prevent that, or she wasn't able to do so.

Gold of course is all about breaking the rules of life in Teyvat, it's been her driving motivation. Her merge with whatever was left of Naberius gives her lots more power over life, but it does seem like that comes with a new conscience that appears to be actively trying to stop her breaking the rules ("you know I cannot allow you to think that")

I do wonder if Gold's endgame is to be the 'new' shade of life if the Tsaritsa manages to get that top job. Maybe she's interviewing for the job in the teaser... heh.

Istaorth

Outwardly she seems pretty loyal, there isn't a lot of blatant time law breaking going on so she seems to be on top of all of that. But she's also directly implicated in the few time shenanigans we've seen so far, all of which ended up benefitting those who might be against the Heavenly Principles.

She enabled the loop that created the Sacred Sakura in Inazuma, and the abyss twin blames her for the starship key mess that resulted in them not being around to help during the cataclysm.

Recently we've also had it stated that she spent a lot of time chatting with the Moon sisters about the rules of time...

And then there's Venti...

I feel like she's the one most likely to be revealed as having worked against the Heavenly Principles for a long time in secret.

All of which does make me think each Shade might end up picking a 'side' in the conflict:

Ronova stays loyal to the Heavenly Principles.

Asmoday is with the Abyss Order.

Gold is with the Sinners and / or Hexenzirkel.

Istaroth sides with the Traveller.