This is my attempt to string together everything we know about Natlan’s history (from books, artifact descriptions, etc.) to make sense of the timeline. It’s probably wrong, but I’m doing my best.
Jillian
Sept 21, 2024: I did get a bunch of stuff wrong! I did my best to go through all the Natlan notes I’ve made so far & correct them with what we know now. It’s possible I missed stuff, or still have some things wrong, but I’ll keep trying to update it when I can.
The beginning
If we go alllll the way back to the beginning — the Lunar Palace falls. I’m including this because of the Sage of Stolen Flame’s possible origins, with him wanting to go to the “Lunar continent.” (Records of Hanan Pacha)
Sometime way in the past, there was an “ancient race” in Natlan. No idea what this ancient race was or what happened to them. Maybe they’re the Monetoo, like how seelies are remnants of the ancient Seelie race.
Dragons vs. gods
At some point, there is a war between the dragons and the heavens that seems to really shake things up. Divine envoys have fallen to earth and been devoured by dragons (Blazing Sacrificial Heart), and potentially fallen into the night realm and lost their forms altogether (Night-Wind’s Mystic).
Dragons still exist on Teyvat, but a lot of the ones on the surface have fled to the “Outer Sea” of Natlan, while others seem to live in some kind of underground palace. Xiuhcoatl in particular (most likely the Pyro Sovereign) lives in the Volcano of Tollan. He seems to have fallen asleep after the war.
Humans in Teyvat have regressed to barbarianism, probably because of the loss of the envoys. They’re trying to survive in the shadow of the dragons.
(This war could the one between the Primordial One and the Seven Sovereigns, which took place after they created the four shades, shortly after arriving here. But it kinda sounds like it happened later, if divine envoys were falling & humans apparently already existed. That’s why I’m including it after the note about the Lunar Palace falling — maybe it was that same event.)
Dragon age
Moving on from that war — the dragons in Natlan are separated into different tribes, each with their own matriarch. Some of these dragons are stuck in a “dreamland” fog (Maawe and Monetoo) and enlist the help of humans living nearby. They give the humans their protection in exchange for “Holy Sovereigns” sent to the night realm to guide the dragons through their dreams (Flute of Ezpitzal).
One of these “Holy Sovereigns” takes a companion named Dinga with her into the night realm and tells him about the future she foresaw: he slays a dragon and becomes king. Dinga made it out of the night realm and became a “venerated hero,” but it’s not clear what exactly happened with him.
She also tells him something about the name Mictlan, which later came to be the name of an area in Natlan. She either predicted the event that gave this place its name, or her name is Mictlan and she wanted it to be named after her.
Saurians
I don’t know what the exact catalyst of the Saurians was, but at some point they started popping up. Tepetlisaurs and Qucusaurs came into existence somehow, followed by the first Koholasaur.
Monetoo also exist at this time, and are able to sing songs that can rescue someone from the dreamland. Not sure if they had any connection with graffiti yet, but they seem to be born from phlogiston.
Sometime in here, the Sage of Stolen Flame is sitting on a throne behind an obsidian gate (probably in the Night Kingdom).
Hanan Pacha
While Xiuhcoatl is asleep, one of his scions steals all his stuff and basically proclaims himself the acting Volcano Lord. He gets into a bunch of mischief for years, bothering all the tribes.
Jillian
This part doesn’t match up perfectly. Records of Hanan Pacha says Chaac & the Sage of Stolen Flame managed to kill him, but there are later stories of the tribes and Pyro Archon dealing with him (Surf’s Up, The Volcano Lord and the Shadow Pins, possibly Ring of Yaxche).
Most likely, he is never “killed,” but is at least subdued for a time and discouraged from coming back.
The Lord of the Night sends his best sage, and “the gods” send Chaac to work together to subdue this Volcano Lord. They take out one of his eyes with a blowdart, and then trick him into thinking they’re doctors who can fix his eye — instead, they replace his eyes & claws with grainfruit, and he “dies.”
The Sage takes the phlogiston that the Volcano Lord was guarding and, with Chaac’s help, convinces the humans to accept its power. He builds Hanan Pacha, a land that floats above the clouds. With the power of phlogiston, Chaac and the other humans ascend to Hanan Pacha and build a city there.
The Sage tells people not to eat food grown from the land, because the Lord of the Night has control over it. He says they can only drink water from the Source of Many Waters, so Hanan Pacha can continue floating higher and higher, away from the earth.
The Lord of the Night tricks Chaac and the others into drinking alcohol (thinking it’s water) made from the land. The Sage kicks everybody out of Hanan Pacha, and they take the phlogiston to the rest of Natlan and presumably start forming more human tribes. Chaac makes contact with the Night Kingdom, and the first Wayob are born — the humans accept their guidance.
(Sources for all of the above: Records of Hanan Pacha + Obsidian Codex)
Uenuku
Uenuku is the leader of the People of the Springs. He meets an Oceanid, who makes a deal with him — she wants the springs, in exchange for helping him in his pursuit of justice. (Footprint of the Rainbow)
Honestly, it’s kind of a vague story, so I’m not really sure what the outcome of it is.
The Tale of Qoyllor and Ukuku
Some time after the human tribes had been around for a while, Qoyllor fell from the sky and married Ukuku, and they had a son named Kuntur. Qoyllor was convinced Ukuku betrayed her by keeping her missing star fragments, so she painted graffiti all over Natlan so her father, the Sun, would see it and rescue her. When he did, he also blinded Ukuku & basically cursed him to a life of darkness as punishment.
I don’t know if this is supposed to be a real, actual story in the history of Natlan or what, but I’m including it! Its placement in this timeline is a pure guess, tho.
The first Pyro Archon
At some point, Xbalanque meets the future Sacred Lord, who is imprisoned (and probably in his dragon form). He shows him “great compassion,” which makes the Sacred Lord love him.
Presumably during the Archon War, Xbalanque defeats Xiuhcoatl and carves out his own heart as a sacrifice to become the first Pyro Archon (Blazing Sacrificial Heart).
Later, Xbalanque “ascends,” basically giving his authority back to the Sacred Flame for the next Pyro Archon.
At some point in here, Yupanqui is wandering around and meets a “half-human hero” who is traveling with a warrior (truthfully I don’t know who they are), and he decides to join them in…some quest, idk. (Earthshaker) He also meets the craftsman, who will come up again later.
The Sacred Lord
After the loss of Xbalanque, this guy proclaims himself the “Sacred Lord” and takes the authority from the tribes, because he doesn’t want anyone to fill the shoes of the god he loved. As the new ruler of Natlan, he takes on a human form, using a mask to cover the draconic features on his face.
He builds Cinder City, and employs a bunch of craftsmen to make stuff and excavate the Secret Source machines built by some ancient race. He outlaws communication with the Night Kingdom (including making human sacrifices), wanting to separate the human realm from the other realms, much like the Sage of Stolen Flame.
The craftsman mentioned in Unfinished Reverie has half his face burned by his golden flames, at some point. This same craftsman teams up with a group of heroes from the tribes, including a “crimson-eyed youth” that may or may not be Xbalanque. This group of heroes also includes Sakkuk (daughter of the mines), Yupanqui, the hero twins, and a mystic from the Night-Wind tribe.
The heroes go to Cinder City to dethrone the Sacred Lord, who kinda loses it and fully turns into a dragon, falling into a pit below the city as it burns. Xbalanque returns to where he came down from after the deed is done. Yupanqui, the craftsman, and the hero twins died in the fight. Not sure what happened to the mystic.
Sakkuk survived for years after, collecting everything she could find that was made by the craftsman. She took all this evidence of his name with her into the night realm to burn away his sacred name, as she promised him.
1000 years ago
The Flower-Feather clan is founded by Liongo, who was adopted by a dragon matriarch (Chain Breaker). Her clan accepts Tupac and the dragon mentioned in Ring of Yaxche as members (maybe).
Also around this time, Venti wakes up from a nap and meets Vennessa and her tribe in Monstadt. My guess is this was a liiiiittle bit after the founding of the Flower-Feather clan, because they seem like they might be some kind of offshoot of them, but they’ve come a long way & Vennessa doesn’t really have any memories of Natlan that we know of.
Venti calls the Pyro Archon “Murata,” so Xbalanque has already been succeeded at least once.
500 years ago
The age of Tenoch
At this point, the human tribes are all doing their thing. Tenoch seems to be part of the People of the Springs tribe (or is at least hanging out there for the time being, who knows) when Tupac, the descendent of Uenuku, returns to get the Ash-Graven Drinking Horn from him. They fight over it, and Tupac wins.
Tenoch becomes a wanderer, belonging to no tribes. It seems like they all kinda hate him for some reason, actually.
The cataclysm
The threat of the Abyss looms on the horizon, and the Night Kingdom is under attack. Warriors from every tribe are sent to the Night Kingdom to fight. Mavuika, the current Pyro Archon, goes to sleep for the next 500 years — putting some kind of plan in motion related to an “oath” she made. (Capitano also knows about this oath, implying that he was there at the time.)
All the tribal leaders are too busy fighting with each other to properly deal with the situation without the Pyro Archon, so Tenoch steps up and takes matters into his own hands. With his Talking Stick, he recruits heroes from each tribe to fight the Abyss with him.
One of these heroes is Burkina, the companion of Kongamato the Mountain Lord. Burkina died, leaving Kongamato with a duty to protect the “Turnfire” name and return it to the Sacred Flame. But Kongamato is corrupted by the Abyss, and gradually forgets who gave him that duty. (Fang of the Mountain King)
The description of this event in Obsidian Codex is really interesting — it kinda paints Tenoch as an emerging sun deity or something. This moment also kinda seems like a precursor to what becomes the Night Warden Wars in the Pilgrimage to the Sacred Flame.
While this is going on, the Volcano Lord’s arm is also being pinned down by nails by Traore and the Children of Echoes tribe — or, at least, that’s the story they tell. It could just be the Children of Echoes defending their land from the Abyss. (The Volcano Lord and the Shadow Pins).
During all this, some people from each tribe went to the ruins of Cinder City to look for a secret they heard about that they believe would help their people in this war. Liliwu, a mystic from the Night-Wind tribe, is the only one of her group who survived the trip — the rest were apparently eaten by the dragon living in the city’s remains. (Might be the Sacred Lord.)
The scholar from the Children of Echoes tribe did still manage to find the Secret Source Machines he was looking for, and was able to modify them for use in battle. I don’t know if he died with the rest of the group after that, or if he was just doing his own thing.
I also don’t know how they all got together — I guess maybe they all just showed up separately at Cinder City and were like, hey what are you doing here? They were together long enough that Liliwu learned about Taika’s wife & unborn child before he died, and she went to find them and deliver the news afterward.
Questions
- Ring of Yaxche — I don’t know if these hero twins are the ones in Unfinished Reverie or not. If they are, I don’t know if this dragon can also be the same one in Chain Breaker.
- Surf’s Up mentions a Pyro Archon named Cochanina who fought the Volcano Lord, but I’m not totally sure where this falls on the timeline. It must be sometime after the fall of the Sacred Lord, at least.
- I’m not sure why the Flower-Feather clan was founded so far after the others, or why there was still a dragon matriarch hanging around at that time. But it’s pretty clear that this happened 1000 years ago, and it’s also pretty clear that Venti mentioned “Murata” being the Pyro Archon around that time. And we know that Xbalanque was the first Pyro Archon. So I don’t think the placement of this on the timeline is incorrect, but it still feels weird to me.