Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's mysterious consultant. Handsome, elegant, and surpassingly learned.
Though no one knows where Zhongli is from, he is a master of courtesy and rules. From his seat at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, he performs all manner of rituals.
Zhongli is a calm, reserved, and polite man, who holds an air of nostalgia. He knows much about Liyue's history and culture in part due to his time as the Geo Archon; like Venti, he has many experiences and memories, as he was a god well before The Seven even existed and one of the oldest still living in Teyvat. He holds philosophical ideas towards money and has great respect for Liyue's traditions, including those that have been forgotten or warped over time. Zhongli tends to be humble, being worried he comes off as a "bourgeois parasite."
Zhongli tends to forget about Mora in transactions, agreeing to spend large sums of it without having any Mora on hand and even taking "discounts" as granted despite being an obvious scam. He often ends up relying on his acquaintances for financial support, such as the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor or Childe. Although he works for Hu Tao, he does not like her childish behavior.
It is later revealed that Zhongli's "carelessness" stems from being the creator of Mora. With the Gnosis allowing him to create limitless Mora, he never had to worry about running low on his personal finances. Unfortunately, when he chose to live among mortals, he lacked the foresight to find an alternative for them to continue minting Mora in his absence, along with creating a retirement fund for himself. As a result, he shamelessly spends the Mora of others.
Being the reminiscent person he is, Zhongli enjoys Osmanthus wine as it was the drink he and his former Archon friends used to have when they met up in Liyue. He dislikes seafood as it reminds him of the promise he made to his people in the past when he fought a particularly annoying type of sea creature, although he does not mind eating them if they have been ground to a pulp.
Zhongli currently appears as a tall man with fair skin and a stern expression. His eyes are bright and sharp, amber in color with glowing yellow pupils set in the shape of diamonds. He wears red eyeliner on the lower lids of his eyes. When using Geo, his eyes become luminescent. His dark brown hair is styled in a windswept fashion with a longer fringe that hangs from the right side of his face. It fades to amber brown at the tips and is pulled back in a long ponytail that falls beyond his waist. When he is using his Geo abilities, his amber highlights glow. This appearance is also used in The Statues of The Seven's depiction of Rex Lapis around Liyue.
His attire is elegant and form-fitting, consisting of a beige dress shirt, a brown and amber waistcoat, slim black trousers, black dress boots, and black gloves with twin silver archer rings on the thumbs. His neckpiece is a white tie pinned at the throat by an amber gemstone. His left ear is adorned with a jeweled tassel earring. Over everything, he wears a long dark brown tailcoat with dragon scale patterns, gold and silver accents, golden tassels, and Rex Lapis' diamond symbol on the back. Zhongli's clothes are decorated with diamond symbols found on his sleeves, belt, trousers, waistcoat buttons, and tailcoat buttons. Similarly to Venti, because he was an Archon with an innate Gnosis, the "Vision" embedded on his chain at the small of his back is nothing more than a fake.
Previously, he appeared as a brown and amber Chinese dragon/qilin with gold accents known as the Exuvia. His outfit, Hermit of Mortal Life, is described to be his leisurewear of choice as the consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
