The Four Shades are four gods who serve directly as envoys or emissaries under the Heavenly Principles.[1] They were created by the Heavenly Principles after it descended to Teyvat and battled against the Seven Sovereigns.[2]

Naberius

Main article: Naberius

Naberius is the Ruler of Life. She was given the duty to create life and was responsible for helping the Heavenly Principles create animals, plants, and humans.[2] She is described as the envoy of Celestia.[7] Following the deposition of the Primordial Sea's first heart, the Hydro Dragon, she created Egeria to function as the Primordial Sea's new heart.[7] Later on after the Cataclysm, her heart was devoured by Rhinedottir and fused with her.[6]

Ronova

Main article: Ronova

Ronova is the Ruler of Death.[4] She helped Natlan establish its rules and gave guidance to the Lord of the Night, in creating the Night Kingdom out of an expression of love and act of reparation. However, these actions were considered to be overstepping her authority as a Shade and displeased the Heavenly Principles.[4]

Additionally, she was the one who cursed all Khaenri'ans with immortality.[5]

Istaroth

Main article: Istaroth

Istaroth is the Ruler of Time,[2] also known by myriad names, including the "thousand winds" and "Kairos." She was worshiped in Mondstadt alongside Barbatos,[8] and in Enkanomiya[2] before the state religion of the Sunchildren was imposed. Time and Wind are known to be deeply connected, with variations of a similar saying arising in Mondstadt, "seeds of stories, brought by the wind and cultivated by time." Both are hinted to be connected to erosion in the description of Sacrificial Fragments. In the present day, Istaroth has been forgotten to have ever been a deity of Mondstadt.

When Enkanomiya fell into the depths of the ocean, Istaroth responded to the people's pleas for help. However, the Heavenly Principles and the other three Shades were unable to hear them.[2]

Istaroth was likely involved in Raiden Makoto's plan to create the Sacred Sakura, which involved creating a stable time loop that planted the Sacred Sakura in the past while inside Makoto's realm of consciousness, a place where "time was moving forward and backward at the same time."[3]

Asmoday

Main article: Asmoday

Asmoday is the Ruler of Space.[5] She had introduced herself as the "sustainer of heavenly principles" to the Traveler and their sibling and was responsible for separating the two from each other.

Her location is currently unknown. Istaroth speculates that she may have "switched sides" and abandoned her post as a Shade of the Heavenly Principles, while Ronova believes that she would not have done so unless she "loves her new master more than her own self."

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