Buckle up, BC now, I will be talking about the previous Dendro Archon! Reader x Morax! Zhongli. Again, this is based off my own personal head canons and was also inspired after completing his story quest today. So, the previous Dendro Archon perished during the fall of Khaenriah, but my personal head canon is that they were killed because they sympathised / was working together with the Khaenrians.
Maybe Zhongli knows that Celestia is displeased with the situation. Maybe he tries to warn them. Maybe the Reader won't listen. Much too kind, much too selfless, even with their own life at risk, Zhongli thinks. Zhongli says that if they insist on continuing, he won't be able to protect them any more. There's an argument, and the Reader leaves, without looking back. They don't tell him how they've been considering giving up their Gnosis, so that they can live in Liyue with Zhongli, not as an Archon, but as his lover.
The next time the Reader sees Zhongli, it is amidst the ruins of Khaenriah, after they've managed to whisk a wailing Kaeya away and into the arms of one of the guards, with instructions to flee, and to never come back. The country is lost. All traces of gentleness are gone from Zhongli's expression, and he looks for the first time, like the God of War.
But before they can so much as call out his name, he's driven his polearm through their chest. It's a quick, merciful death, and the Reader can only stare mutely at Zhongli as the life leaves their eyes. Worse still, there's only acceptance in their eyes. They know that he's chosen to honour his contract with Celestia, and try as they might, they can't hate him for that. Zhongli spends the rest of the battle holding the Reader's dead body, uncaring of the carnage and war raging on around him. (He later finds out that the forests of Sumeru have all withered away upon the Reader's death, and nothing will ever be the same again.)
Which brings me to the present - if the previous Dendro Archon was often in Khaenriah, Dain might know of them. Maybe he tells the Traveller that Morax was the one who slayed the previous Dendro Archon, and maybe the Traveller asks him about it. Zhongli doesn't say anything, but the dark, tragic expression crossing his face is answer enough.
NO THOUGHTS HEAD EMPTY JUST PAIN OH MY GODDD 😭
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