The short answer: title, person and puppet
Raiden Shogun is the public title associated with Inazuma's ruler and the name commonly used for the playable character. Ei is the individual consciousness of the current Electro Archon. Beelzebul is Ei's divine name.
The complication is the Shogun puppet, an artificial body and governing program created by Ei. In many scenes the body visible to the public is controlled by that puppet, while Ei remains within the Plane of Euthymia.
Search pages can use Raiden Shogun as the primary global label, but story descriptions should state whether a scene centers on Ei, the puppet or their later interaction.
Makoto and Ei before the cataclysm
Ei and Makoto were twin gods. Makoto, whose divine name was Baal, became the first Electro Archon recognized by the wider world. Ei, Beelzebul, served as her martial counterpart and operated largely outside public knowledge.
Their arrangement allowed one public ruler to embody both governance and military strength. This is why later historical accounts can blur the twins and why players sometimes apply Baal to Ei.
During the cataclysm Makoto died in Khaenri'ah. Ei inherited the office and the grief that would shape her pursuit of eternity.
Why Ei created the Shogun puppet
Ei feared erosion and believed personal change could threaten Inazuma. She created an artificial body capable of following a fixed interpretation of eternity, then placed her consciousness inside the Plane of Euthymia.
The puppet was designed to resist modification, including intervention from Ei herself. That rigidity appears useful while the goal remains fixed, but becomes dangerous when circumstances change.
Scaramouche was an earlier puppet prototype rather than the final Shogun. His separate history should not be merged into the ruler's identity.
The Plane of Euthymia and Musou Isshin
The Plane of Euthymia is Ei's inner realm, a space of meditation and isolation. The Traveler reaches her there during confrontations that expose the difference between the public puppet and the consciousness behind it.
Musou Isshin is the sword associated with Makoto and later wielded by Ei. The famous sword-drawing imagery is a major visual cue, but story metadata should distinguish a symbolic portrait from a specific duel.
Ei's isolation protects her from some forms of erosion while cutting her off from the people whose changing lives her policies affect.
The Vision Hunt Decree and changing eternity
The Shogun puppet enforces the Vision Hunt Decree as part of a program meant to preserve eternity. Fatui manipulation and institutional ambition worsen the harm, but Ei must still confront her responsibility for approving a system she did not adequately examine.
The Traveler and Yae Miko force that confrontation by bringing the ambitions of Inazuma's people into the Plane of Euthymia. Ei begins to recognize that a nation can preserve identity through change rather than by stopping it.
Her later conflict with the puppet is therefore essential. She must prove that her revised understanding is not temporary before the program will accept a new course.
Where the name Baal causes confusion
Baal was Makoto's divine name, while Beelzebul belongs to Ei. Because the twins ruled through one public identity and Ei's existence was not widely known, people inside and outside Inazuma could speak of a continuous Raiden Shogun without recognizing the succession.
Early player dialogue also encouraged Baal as a convenient name before the twin history was fully explained. The term remains common in searches even when the user means Ei.
An encyclopedia should preserve Baal as an alias route but explain the correction instead of deleting the search behavior. Redirecting the reader to Makoto and Ei's relationship is more useful than simply calling the query wrong.
Raiden Shogun in gameplay and visual archives
The playable presentation intentionally combines Ei's identity with the Shogun body and title. Voice lines, story context and character quests provide the distinction that a single menu label cannot carry.
Stable visual cues include long violet hair in a braid, a beauty mark below one eye, layered Inazuman clothing, red-violet cords, Electro emblems and Musou Isshin. Puppet and Ei often cannot be separated from appearance alone because they use the same body.
For images, the correct practice is to label only what the scene supports. Plane of Euthymia, confrontation with the puppet, Makoto memory and public Shogun rule are stronger context tags than a speculative facial-expression judgment.
How to label Raiden images and articles
Use Raiden Shogun for broad navigation because it matches global search behavior. Use Ei when discussing the personal consciousness, memories, friendship with Yae Miko or changed philosophy. Use Beelzebul as a searchable divine-name alias.
Use Shogun puppet when the distinction is explicit, especially for automated rule, resistance to change or the long internal duel. Baal belongs primarily to Makoto, although characters historically conflated the twins.
This layered labeling prevents a common encyclopedia failure: pretending that every line spoken through the same face comes from the same identity and mental state.
What visual detail from Genshin Impact should this guide explain next?