Yelan

Biodata

Background / History

Yelan descends from the family of Boyang and Rongzhao, disciples of the Sea of Clouds, Sea of Moonlight Adeptus. According to Yucheng, the adeptus entrusted them with the Fantastic Compass, which Boyang used during the battle at the Chasm to seal himself, the Nameless Yaksha, Millelith soldiers, and monsters underground. For five hundred years, successive generations of Yelan’s family have searched for Boyang and the compass. Yelan continues that search through visits to the Chasm’s underground mines 31.

Before meeting Yucheng, Yelan had clashed with the Fatui Harbinger Pantalone. She lost one of her Mysterious Wristlet bracelets during the operation but obtained an exotic magical beast’s hide intended as an offering to the Tsaritsa. She subsequently had it fashioned into the cape she wears 33.

Appearance

• Hair and complexion: Short hair and fair skin 1.
• Build: A curvaceous figure with long legs; her movements and posture often appear languid 1 29.
• Clothing: Tight, form-fitting clothes chosen to allow freedom of movement 50.
• Cape: A white ramie and flowing silk shawl made using the magical beast hide acquired during her clash with Pantalone 33.
• Accessories: A Mysterious Wristlet on her right wrist and a Hydro Vision attached to her thigh band 30.

Personality

Yelan’s relaxed manner conceals a suspicious, exacting intelligence officer. She grows bored with routine reports but remains alert to threats beneath Liyue’s apparent prosperity. Curiosity and the pursuit of hidden truths are ingrained habits, and she distrusts information surrendered too readily during interrogation. She believes captured operatives should resist long enough to give their allies time to escape 1 29 31.

Her teasing language and smiles can accompany threats rather than friendliness. Nevertheless, she is pragmatic when overpowered: after failing to escape Yucheng’s grip, she conserves her strength instead of continuing a futile struggle 29 30.

Yelan takes professional independence seriously and initially regards Yucheng’s photographic blackmail as a threat to her usefulness as an operative. The experience leaves her sleepless, furious, and unusually vulnerable in private with Ningguang. Once she discovers that the photographs are far less damaging than she feared, she reassesses the situation and agrees to end the dispute 31 34 50.

Abilities & Skills

Intelligence Gathering and Interrogation

Yelan combines an intelligence network with close observation of a suspect’s answers and reactions 1 29.

• Directs Chu Yi’s investigations and orders surveillance of Northland Bank 1.
• Establishes where Qiqi found Yucheng, allowing her to challenge his claim of having escaped Inazuma by sea 29.
• Notices minute changes in Yucheng’s expression when her questioning exposes a gap in his account 29.
• Understands the need for conclusive evidence before acting against Fatui operations conducted under legal commercial arrangements 30.

Stealth and Speed

Yelan can silently follow a target over difficult terrain and close the distance before the target can respond 29.

• Traverses Mt. Tianheng’s narrow, steep paths without making a sound 29.
• Ambushes Yucheng with a burst of speed, binding him before he understands what has happened 29.
• Her speed exceeds her demonstrated physical strength; once pinned down, she cannot overpower Yucheng 30.

Lifeline Thread

Yelan uses exceptionally tough, sharp threads to immobilize and control a target 29.

• Wraps Yucheng’s body and pulls him to the ground with the command “Reel in!” 29.
• The threads cut into his skin when he struggles; Yelan states that remaining still prevents further injury 29.
• The restraint does not prevent his escape through ninjutsu, leaving her exposed to a counterattack 30.

Physical Limitations

• Yucheng identifies a hereditary weakness in Yelan’s constitution, and the narration confirms that her strength is lacking despite her exceptional speed 30.
• She is susceptible to Yucheng’s Sharingan Genjutsu, which renders her unconscious during their confrontation 30.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Aqua Simulacra — Her bow; confiscated during her captivity and returned when she accepts Yucheng’s terms 31.
• Hydro Vision — Worn on her thigh band; Yucheng removes it immediately after pinning her down 30.
• Mysterious Wristlet — Worn on her right wrist. Another bracelet was lost during her earlier operation involving Pantalone 30 33.
• Lifeline Thread — Her binding implement, temporarily confiscated with her other possessions 29 31.
• Magical-beast cape — Made from material originally intended as a gift to the Tsaritsa 33.

Relationships

• Ningguang — Direct superior and trusted confidante. Yelan has her own room in the Jade Chamber and turns to Ningguang for support after her capture. Ningguang subsequently mediates her dispute with Yucheng 1 34 39.
• Uchiha Yucheng — Investigative target who becomes her captor and blackmailer. Their hostility later eases into a conditional truce, with his promised information about Boyang still outstanding 29 30 31 50.
• Chu Yi — Subordinate attendant who supplies reports and carries out her investigative orders 1.
• Boyang and Rongzhao — Ancestors whose connection to the Fantastic Compass forms part of her family’s unresolved history 31.
• Pantalone — Previous adversary associated with the loss of one wristlet and her acquisition of the material used for her cape 33.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Investigating Yucheng

• At Yanshang Teahouse, Yelan receives reports of an apparently amnesiac boy whose extraordinary agility raises suspicions that he may be an Inazuman agent. She asks Chu Yi to determine where Qiqi found him 1.
• Ningguang later orders her to investigate Jueyun Karst after Ganyu unexpectedly demands overdue wages and regular working hours 8.
• Sent to invite Yucheng to the Jade Chamber, Yelan instead ambushes and interrogates him on Mt. Tianheng. She exposes the inconsistency between his supposed escape from Inazuma and his discovery far inland in Chaiqiao Valley 29 31.

Capture and Coerced Agreement

• Yucheng challenges the legality of her interrogation. Yelan acknowledges that her investigation has found no actual violation of Liyue’s laws, but maintains that his unknown origins may threaten national security 30.
• He escapes her threads, restrains and disarms her, then uses Sharingan Genjutsu to knock her unconscious before taking her to his adeptal abode 30.
• Yucheng offers her freedom and the return of her possessions in exchange for leaving him alone. He uses photographs taken during her unconsciousness as leverage 31.
• He also warns that Childe will seek Rex Lapis’s Gnosis and provoke a crisis in Liyue. His promise to reveal information about Boyang and the Fantastic Compass after the Fatui matter is resolved helps secure her agreement 31.

Reporting to Ningguang

• Yelan escorts Yucheng’s shadow clone to the Jade Chamber and remains present while Ningguang questions him about his connections with Liyue’s adepti 32 33.
• Afterward, she privately tells Ningguang about her defeat and the photographs. Ningguang advises against immediate retaliation and orders her to verify the intelligence concerning Childe 34.
• Ningguang later offers to purchase Yucheng’s Kamera to settle the dispute. He names the Jade Chamber as his price; the eventual transfer of the palace also settles the arrangement concerning Yelan’s photographs 39 47 49.

Recovering the Photographs

• After the Liyue crisis, Yelan personally retrieves the Kamera and checks its negatives, questioning whether Yucheng has kept copies 50.
• She discovers that every photograph shows her fully clothed and unconscious in an embarrassing pose, rather than the explicit material she had feared 50.
• Yelan considers the images ineffective as leverage, particularly because Liyue’s newspapers operate under Qixing control. Her hostility softens, and she agrees neither to pursue the incident nor allow it to be mentioned again 50.
• She then asks Yucheng to fulfill his remaining promise and explain what he knows about her ancestor 50.

Trivia

• Xiangling describes a customer who eats whole raw Jueyun Chilies without concern. Yucheng suspects that customer is Yelan 14.