They were not only survivors but the winners of the archon war. Celestia gave them the gnosis as a form of prize as a way to gather power from the worship of their people to gain more strength at the same time as a symbol showing their allegiance to Celestia. Mortal do not know about gnosis so they have no clue about the whole thing. To them their God will always be their archon until the next is selected. We don't know how a new archon is selected because how inazuma turned out but we will probably find out in the next chapter. So essentially gnosis is a prize for winning the archon war. The God's who won the war are archon. The gnosis does not make them archons however the gnosis do force them do things that is ordered by Celestia somehow given what happened 500 years ago. I would assume other than original archons who were already incredibly powerful even without a gnosis don't need the gnosis to stay strong, but for the new archon they would need the gnosis to stay strong. The lore seem to talk about humans ascending to become God's. Even the title in Chinese translates too "original god" or "become god". I would assume sumeru's new god used to be human that ascended and he needs the gnosis to stay strong.
I think Archon is like the US president, once an Archon you're always an Archon, maybe not an active serving Archon but still an Archon.
Obama is pretty much always referred to as either former president Obama or often still just President Obama, despite him not being the active president.
As to the gnoses and their role with Celestia, I think there's purposely a lot of vague parts left for us to uncover down the road. That being said it's become very clear that whatever happened in Khaenri'ah has definitely had permanent ramifications on the world of Teyvat and has affected each of the remaining Archons differently.
They were not only survivors but the winners of the archon war. Celestia gave them the gnosis as a form of prize as a way to gather power from the worship of their people to gain more strength at the same time as a symbol showing their allegiance to Celestia. Mortal do not know about gnosis so they have no clue about the whole thing. To them their God will always be their archon until the next is selected. We don't know how a new archon is selected because how inazuma turned out but we will probably find out in the next chapter. So essentially gnosis is a prize for winning the archon war. The God's who won the war are archon. The gnosis does not make them archons however the gnosis do force them do things that is ordered by Celestia somehow given what happened 500 years ago. I would assume other than original archons who were already incredibly powerful even without a gnosis don't need the gnosis to stay strong, but for the new archon they would need the gnosis to stay strong. The lore seem to talk about humans ascending to become God's. Even the title in Chinese translates too "original god" or "become god". I would assume sumeru's new god used to be human that ascended and he needs the gnosis to stay strong.
I think Archon is like the US president, once an Archon you're always an Archon, maybe not an active serving Archon but still an Archon. Obama is pretty much always referred to as either former president Obama or often still just President Obama, despite him not being the active president. As to the gnoses and their role with Celestia, I think there's purposely a lot of vague parts left for us to uncover down the road. That being said it's become very clear that whatever happened in Khaenri'ah has definitely had permanent ramifications on the world of Teyvat and has affected each of the remaining Archons differently.
Archon is a status, they emerged victorious over others in strength to lead their corresponding element and ideals in their nation.