XiaoVen

Xiaoven is the slash ship between Xiao and Venti from the Genshin Impact fandom.

Canon
In Xiao's character Story (unconfirmed), it talks about a time he was fighting dusk till dawn, and just barely emerged victorious. Exhausted, he began to feel the hatred that tainted his body; it flooded his senses, and he fell to the ground. There's no telling what would have happened if not for the sound of that flute, it protected and calmed him, bringing him back to his senses. It's not stated who played this music, but based on the story teaser and other hints, it is highly likely it was Venti.

From the story teaser, "Yakshas: The Guardian Adepti", it is shown that three of the original Yakshas had died and the fourth succumbed to darkness and disappeared without a trace. It is safe to assume that if not for the Dihua flute, which can be seen played by Venti, Xiao too would've gone down the same path as the other four Yakshas. In a way, Venti saved Xiao. From Xiao's voiceline, he seems to remember, or at least know, that it was Venti who he heard on that day.

Their personalities somewhat contrast as Xiao is seen to take his duties very seriously while Venti is rather frivolous and likes to drink frequently. Xiao is described as polite, reserved, and he prefers to be alone, appreciating the peace and quiet; Venti, on the other hand, has a very playful personality and enjoys playing songs across Mondstadt. It is also noted that Venti doesn't hesitate to insult or tease those who are supposedly powerful, and this possibly includes Xiao. While their ages are unconfirmed, they are both over 2,000 years old canonly, but take the form of young adults.

They both have Anemo visions and share a similar color scheme.

In Xiao's voice line, he was about to comment on Venti's tunes before reconsidering and doesn't. It is unclear as to how Xiao feels about them.

Quotes
"Venti? So that's the name he goes by. His tunes are... Ugh, forget it." - Xiao's voiceline about Venti

Fanon
The two do not have any interactions in the main story as of present, so the fandom relies on lore, trailers, etc.

XiaoVen started off as a couple of fanarts until the trailer released and fans were stirred at the sight of Xiao overlooking a sea whist Venti played his flute. Since then, the ship has seen immense growth with over 165 fanfics on ao3, over 463 posts on instagram, and 340 tweets on Twitter in the past hour. XiaoVen has gained large popularity since Xiao is often seen as off-putting and dislikes human affairs though seems to be interested (in a sense) in Venti, or perhaps his flute playing.

In fanfiction and fanart, it is mostly showcasing Xiao being protected or comforted by Venti.

While most ships so far have been characters from the same region, Xingyun, JeanLisa, etc. XiaoVen is the only ship currently to have one character from Liyue and the other from Mondstadt. However, because Xiao is faithful to Morax and Liyue itself, he probably doesn't venture outside of its grounds and assumably hasn't seen Venti since then.

Fandom
FANFICTION

Trivia

 * It isn't the most popular ship, but it grew in popularity very quickly.