[v2.2] [OUTDATED] Speculative Thoughts on Sumeru and the Dendro Archon - A Genshin Impact Theory
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- [[NOTE: THIS VIDEO IS VERY OUTDATED but a lot of the information here is still applicable. if you want a more recent speculations video, you can find it here: • [2.8] Kusanali & Sumer... ]]
A preemptive deep (deep) dive into the potential inspirations, real world influences, and plot possibilities of Genshin Impact's next playable nation, Sumeru! Lots of speculating on the Dendro Archon's motives, personality, and abilities, as well as some potential tie ins with the overall plot of Genshin Impact!
*VIDEO LINKS*
Viridescent Venerer by Arlun Grim (I pronounced the name wrong, I'm sorry) - • The Tragic tale of the...
The Myth of the Immortal White Snake - • The Chinese myth of th...
Aloice's Reddit Thread on Xiao - / xiaos_bird_and_dance_s...
More about the Homa Statue - • [1.6] The Omnipresent ...
![[3.0] Khaenri'ah Did Nothing Wrong - A Genshin Impact Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dBKt6YJXSf8/mqdefault.jpg)
![[3.0] Khaenri'ah Did Nothing Wrong - A Genshin Impact Theory](/img/tr.png)
![[2.0] A (very) Speculative Analysis of Baal - A Genshin Impact Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ATOI_yaN450/mqdefault.jpg)
![[2.6] The Curse of Khaenri'ah - A Genshin Impact Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y3X5Xo5h5Ao/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey, not sure if you know this, but at the end of his cutscene during the Moonchase Festival, you can talk to Baizhu again and he suspiciously sounds like he was avout to reveal how long he lived but got shushed by Changsheng. More specifically, he talked about the beginning of the history of medicine, as if he was there to witness it...
Sounds possible. All we know is that the current archon is the youngest at 500 years old (give or take), or after the Cataclysm. The previous archon, the God of the Woods, could easily also be the God of Medicine. It being Baizhu wouldn’t surprised me. Maybe he really was mortally wounded but somehow survived (either someone from Celestia, a being higher than him, or just his unique constitution are all possible scenarios). I also think snakes have been associated with rebirth in many cultures, especially albino ones. Which is what Changsheng is.
@@olivierdubreuil-gagnon2201 it's possible that his wound did not kill him but stripped him of his divine powers for good, so maybe he is just living secretly as a human now
@@_aryyy But if so, then he became a human that lived for over 500 years. Assuming former Archons follow human biology and logic, of course, which is very likely false.
@@olivierdubreuil-gagnon2201 maybe human was a bad way to phrase it. if it was true i'd assume his body was more like a "vessel" similar to the shoguns or ventis
@@_aryyy Okay, in that case that makes a lot more sense.
Personally I think sumeru might have the best lore from all the hints they have been giving us and the fact that there aren't many too, the only problem is that I hope they don't mess the archon quest just like what they did for Inazuma
My money's on fontaine
As the video explained and with my understanding, Dendro region is inspired by Persian empire under the rule of Cyrus the Great when he conquered all those countries and stablished local governor for each state, so it would be amazing if they (GI devs) know what to do
wdym they messed with the archon quest in inazuma?
@@meanangeI It was boring and all crammed up. They literally gave the scaramouche plot twist at the end in a piece of bloody dialogue with yae (the end of archon quest conversation)
@@meanangeI It was rushed, AND according to the lore itself and the 2.1 official Art created by Mihoyo themselves, you can easily tell that Kokomi was an important character in the story, yet she had less screentime than Sara, Gorou, Yoimiya and Thoma
I hope Lisa will accompany us in the Sumeru archon quest n more of her backstory is revealed!!!!
Or perhaps, if she doesn't come directly, we find out some stuff about her past.
I mean, there has to be a juicy reason for her power, she is often described as being powerful and how she has potentially traded some of her lifespan for it.
Hell, even her constellation's "Tempus Fugit" translation means "time flies", which is another hint to something of that nature.
Sumeru will have some awesome connections to previous characters, I can feel it.
I didnt think lisa will accompany us lol 😂 because u know she is lazy 😂🧎♂️💖💖💖
Same!!!
if she does it might be when they kill
her
@@lip9785 I was very relieved when I found out her life being shortened wasn’t canon. There’s still bits n pieces that hind towards it but I hope it doesn’t happen
It's absurdly ironic that the land of plants and life in the form of dendro, is a desert
An oasis 😉
It’s supposedly half desert and half rainforest
@@xavier6887 oh, makes sense
@@xavier6887 which means some of it has to be savannah right?
More like very intentional
Honestly just the fact that dendro will be a new element and is related to a very, VERY, interesting region is a pretty exciting thing. I like these videos, gives us something to think about while waiting for the nation with its elemental alignment literally named tree.
oh and that point about the irmi-whatever tree it's called, funny you should mention that thing is also a tree, which is the literal translation of dendro
@@TH-camMarten what language is dendro?
@@naufalr.9521 Greek
@@TH-camMarten irminsul lol
I feel , If We dont get any info from sumeru about the unknown God , then we will probably only find out from dain or when we actually reach the end , So gonna be a long way , Either that or she will be shut up before we can find out , since the Aarchons seem to not be willing to rtalk ,
Sumeru = Wise
Dendro = Element of life
🤔🧐
Khaenri'ah = Too wise
Khemia = Creates life
Maybe sumeru has knowledge about khemia?
I wouldn't be all too surprised if the land of Sumeru was the same place where Khaen'riah once stood.
"Pride of humanity" and "Land not ruled by gods" implies otherwise when you factor in the death of the former dendro archon, but I trust there's more to that.
@@xdsmile5359 my take on this i based on the title of Act 3 for Sumeru , "The truth amongs the page of Purana" with Purana based on wikipedia translate literrally to word "ancient, old" i hope in this region we will gain more "Wisdom" on what TRULLY happen on the Cataclysm/Fall of Khaenriah.I hope Sumeru will be the turning point of the Traveler main story based only from that,because it will be a missing oppurtunity to not take the theme of "knowing the truth of the past" from Sumeru and only get in on the final region Snezhnaya
@@ryusawaariel6191 Yes I hope we to learn more about khaenria and why the gods of Celestia destroyed the nation.
@@byakumaruZ Woah. Wait, is there even an actual mention of a former dendro archon? I know there were seven original archons but we don't know their names or anything about them, except for Barbatos, Morax and Baal of course, but I think we only got to learn about them because a)Morax and Barbatos are still alive and b)Baal is still alive too, in a way, through her sister. But can we expect to know as much about the rest of the former archons?
There's a key factor about the current dendro archon: they were born 500 years ago, exactly at the same time as The Cataclysm (linked to the destruction of Khaenri'ah) took place, I don't think that's a coincidence. There apparently are so many connections between Khaenri'ah's Khemia and Sumeru's Wisdom and Dendro. Plus there are so many references hinting at the fact the current dendro archon may not be in full control of their government over Sumeru because of their youth and inexperience. What if the current dendro archon was placed by Celestia over the once Khaenri'ah to be reborn as Sumeru and this time, make sure to have control over them?
Going back to the seven archons thing, maybe they counted as seven because of Makoto (Baal) and Ei. They are referred to as Twin Gods, and Ei ruled alongside her sister too, from the shadows, but she did after all. And Makoto died during the cataclysm too, maybe not EXACTLY 500 years ago, but around the time that the current dendro archon was born, making them seven again. I think it's interesting how the in-game history is worded about the dendro archon "being born" 500 years ago instead of "taking the place of".
I know this is far-fetched and it only needs some information about a former dendro archon and the antiquity of Sumeru to be discarded, but I don't know if such thing is mentioned in-game (if anyone who reads this know please tell me ty).
Most ppl dont notice but there is more then 2 dendro enemies. Wooden hilichurl and wooden shield Mitachurl are also dendro. The Mita will even throw a dendro slime if you are too far from him.
Are those technically dendro enemies though? Hmmm... Kind of a gray zone... I'll add the note anyway.
@@Ashikai I'd say so. The stone shield mitachurls, I'd assume become stonehide lawachurls, so I'd assume that woodshield mitachurls would become maybe grasshide lawachurls in the future. Probably would have health steal through vines that capture you, like the bubbles...and you burn if there's a pyro enemy to ignite it...*shivers* scary...
@@InfiniteSkiegh that’s the geo element, bro. They prioritize in crystalizing themselves to form their shield.
@@Okipullup6103 "they prioritize in crystallizing themselves?" Huh? I don't understand what you're trying to communicate or what that has to do with what I said...I get that Stonehides "power up" creating a geo energy shield, but I'm saying Stoneshield Mitachurls (who use slimes to make their shields) likely become the Stonehide Lawachurls. So it would follow the same line of thought, that the Woodshield Mitachurls (who also use slimes to make their shields) would become something like Grasshide Mitachurls, when they come out.
@@InfiniteSkiegh I think that has something to do with the dendro element’s ability to form tough materials like weapons and shields. I don’t know...
I haven't watched this yet, because I save ashikai's videos for the perfect moment to watch because each one is like a special gift to the genshin community :D I hope you keep making more videos for the foreseeable future :D we love you ashi-kun. owo
POGGERS
HEYY
stream gang
POG
THAT'S CRAZY eggyW
**VIDEO NOTES**
- I know Mobius is a Honkai character. I'm mostly using her as a placeholder for Kusanali because I think they have a lot in common and could easily parallel each other. Theorists did something similar with Raiden Mei for the Electro Archon before Inazuma came out.
- I did not word this well but it's not confirmed that Baizhu studied in Sumeru. This was a very poorly worded assumption of mine. It was supposed to be more, "Where else would he have studied??" than "He definitely studied here." sort of thing. Sorry about that.
- I also need to clarify that when I say "particles" in the beginning of this video, I'm not really using the terms correctly as I'm talking a little less scientific and a little more theoretical. For example, water's smallest "particle" is technically a molecule, while fire's smallest "particle" is technically isn't really a particle but the kinetic energy released during combustion. I didn't have a good blanket term to describe how I was thinking of these things, so I used the term "particle" instead. It doesn't change anything about the theory because fundamentally everything here is either the size of a molecule or smaller, while dendro is still an amalgamation of multiple elemental... "particles" for lack of a better term. Electrcity and Fire are therefore types of raw energy (with cryo being the lack of energy?), while water, earth, and air are chemical compounds (well, earth could be a straight up element ig), while plants/dendro is still kind of the outlier by being made up of all the prior elements.
- Fungi aren't plants, I'm aware but I have two arguments to make in terms of them being included within dendro: the first is that dendro appears to be the element of *living* things, primarily plants, and that doesn't completely exclude animals. Second is that there are instances of fungal anomalies that are kind of suggested to be related to the dendro archon, such as the "fungal flood." genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Electro_Abyss_Mage
Why was there a re-upload?
Cyrus at home: head of Mond adventurer guild
@@Hailstormz copyright claim :'(
@@nomaloney Wait, can whoever did it do it again if nothing was changed in the vid? Did she change anything?
@@Hailstormz It was a music claim, she just took it out
Off topic, I will be so surprised if Mihoyo manage to hire Tara Strong to voice Lesser Lord Kusanali. Imagine Twilight Sparkle talking to you and being a total egg head while talking the traveler. That would be adorable.
HAHAHHAH OMGGGG PLS i want to see that happen
Yes. Just yes.
I would love that
You can't tease me like that dude
Ok, the ONE character that would make me listen to their English lines, cause you know that's going to be good.
Now that Inazuma is in the rear-view mirror, Dendro as a playable element is imminent. How imminent, though, I cannot say. What I CAN say however is that MHY can’t put it off much longer. After all, they decided to make Sumeru’s after story arc after Inazuma’s. Anyhow, I’d be willing to bet that the Chasm will end up serving as our prelude to Sumeru similarly to how the Golden Apple Archipelago (hereafter referred to as GAA) was prior, but unlike the GAA, the Chasm will be a permanent addition. I’d also be willing to bet that we’ll get two different types of characters prior to Version 3.0. Those being a playable Dendro character (a role that’ll most likely be filled by Baizhu) and a new character that will give us a glimpse into the goings-on in Sumeru similarly to Kazuha did for Inazuma.
About the dendro character, there's another one, YaoYao. That we see her in some promotional art (in reality I only see her in one) and being mention by other characters, like xiangling being her master. But she may be become a 4 star due to her design.
@@andresvera3763 Indeed, there is also Yaoyao. The only reason I didn’t mention her was due to her current lack of an on-screen appearance.
I didn't hear Cyno's name here........*knock *knock hello Cyno are you there?
He could be the Albedo of Chasm then Baizhu is the Ningguang of Sumeru....
@@fencerderio9814 i find Yao Yao to be far more likely, since Baizhu has a physical condition which makes it hard for him to just gather herbs so he sends qiqi, i don't think he'd take kindly to adventuring at all. We'd need to have a quest where we help him or smthn first. (Even with the starkeeper Paimon theory, it's unlikely it would be possible since traveler would be mimicking his abilities and by extent his condition.)
@@cookiemoon7441 So what you’re saying is that they would completely waste a unique character model that SCREAMS “playable” and just keep him as an NPC forever?
12:59
Cyno is literally Lisa's mentor's apprentice
.
He was the one who helped collie to seal away the Archon residue within her
So yeah
He is soo god damn important
..kinda interested and exited to meet him!
Also there's a reddit post on this for more connections.
1. Sumeru (सुमेरू) is the 5 Peaked Mountain in Hindu, Jain & Buddhist Cosmology.
2. The name of the official chapter is "Truth from the pages of Purana (पुराण)" which are collection of sacred books in Hinduism.
3. The elemental crystals are named after or related to Hindu Gods/Deities: Vayu (वायु:), Agni (अग्नि), Varuna (वरुण), Prithvi (पृथिवी), Shiva (शिवा), Vajra (वज्र), Naga (नागा).
4. The concept of Yaksha (यक्ष:) also comes from Hindu scriptures which considers them as guardian deities. One of the famous Yaksha being Kubera (aka God of Wealth) and still worshipped today in India by millions of people during the Navratri festival. Maybe we will get to see the Electro Yaksha return in that reigon, he too has 4 arms which are a common iconography in Indian art.
5. The god Kusanali (कुसानाली) mentioned in the dialogues and game lore also comes from the Buddhist scriptures of Kusanali Jataka tales. Also in Japanese dub of the game Yae Miko mentions Kusanali as Kusanali Devi. "Devi" is referred to the female deities in Hinduism to which the male counterpart will be "Deva". There are several categories of gods in Hinduism like Devas, Rudras, Yakshas, Adityas etc. There's often a mistranslation of devas as being "lesser gods" in western academia compared to the trinity of Brahma Vishnu Shiva, but in Hinduism it's more fluid and often get changed based on the devotees of the sect.
Hope it helps.
Perfect info
Underrated...
This is gold ✌️
The people developing the game and lore are too bigbrained NGL!
I really appreciate your hardwork tho but no one is gonna listen to us🙁
@@amai8720 wtf why should some one listen this, the TH-camr liked and 56 people found liked this whats ur point.
@@ok4405 they mean that a lot of people are in denial that a part of sumeru will be india too. I experienced a lot of racism for mentioning it online
there is also one thing that is bugging me lately. Do you know how every archon has something similar to slimes? (venti flying like anemo slime, zhongli having shield like geo slime and electro slime having two slimes representing makoto and ei) well dendro slimes hide and throw other small slimes at you. That could mean that the the older archon is hiding and giving ordes or something like that to the younger one. It sounds really interesting to me
wow this really makes sense now since the sages forced Kusanali to stay indoors and theoretically (hide). Also, she is the smaller version of Lord Rekhhadevata. Great analyzing!
@@grishmagurung3227 bonus: we could argue that the aranara are lesser gods [like the adepti for morax/rex lapis/zongli] serving under the larger god of dendro
If the current dendro archon is a vassel could it be that they took over once their superior died they took over? It aligns with the fact that they might only have power over grass and flowers instead of all plants.
I’d go with that or the idea that she as the current archon is a figurehead while the real archon seeks knowledge in an underground lair or library gaining all of their wisdom and hiding from the public.
@@wallyrosario654 I'm all for the double Identity Archon cuz it builds speculations and it drives the suspense aspect of the story but.........Baal already did this alter ego or double archon one facing the people and one doing the eternal shenanigan and I would really hope that Mihoyo would do something different about it..
@@alicev.3867 I think the double identity thing can work only if played out correctly. Like say for example if Baizhu is the dendro archon who’s retired to Liyue to try to cure his disease leaving Kusanali as the current archon that would be interesting. But I’m worried they’ll rush it or over complicate things with a second double archon plot line after what happened in 2.1
@@wallyrosario654 tru tru like Ei's storyline should've fleshed out well but it's compromised just for the sake of the storyline's pacing
even after finishing the whole Sumeru archon quest and still exploring the desert, this video is so entertaining!! Bringing this sense of nostalgia for the times when we didn't know what to expect from dendro
This was a much deeper rabbit hole than I expected you to take us down on...
I have no regrets going down this rabbit hole
everytime she uploads her theories just blew my mind...
Is Ashikai the true archon of knowledge? On a serious note these videos got me back into Genshin. They are so well researched and polished that they eclipse anything Mihoyo has put out pertaining to Genshin lore. I can't wait to see this channel become huge.
Limited knowledge in the scope of a game though. Short life span reduces possible knowledge.
Light is probably reserved for the 1019.02 update
Actually, recent leaks suggest that light will be coming out on update 1019.4, update 1019.02 will be childe 69th re-run
@@AB-jt4rs better start saving if I want Childe. any chance we are going to get an albedo rerun?
@@flowereater7132 The 64 re run is on version 1019.06 sadly
@@flowereater7132 im not sure but they say albedo's rerun is on 2871.6 so i don't know if you have enough time to save
@@zafrylaiman8695 and the xiao rerun is said to be coming in the 3275.9 update in 2341 cant wait to get him
My two cents for what waits us in Sumeru is: some divine being that "guides" the Archon, her, being a jester-esc kind of character, distracting people and being adorable, avoiding research or not teaching how to do it properly (which is why no scholar from Sumeru that we've seen so far has their shit together and is always changing thesis or stuck in one).
Also, maybe the previous archon died by Celestia's doing, because they got too close to the truth, and now the new archon is getting close too, the happy "lucky king" is a facade while they try to see a way out of Celestia's grasp (probably voluntarily giving their gnosis away, like Zhongli did, but in a "take this thing away from me" kinda way)
I was also wondering why Snakes/snakelike creatures are mostly the enemy of the Archons. Like Osial was obviously a Hydra which can be associated with the Naga or how Orobaxi was a snake God of Watatsumi that supposedly turned "evil" and attacked Inazuma. I don't know about Mondstadt since there's no implications of snakes but the Deep Waters under the Mondstadt City Lake is quite suspicious.
there's also the story of the genesis pearl. we see a snake corrupting the pearl. i think a lot of that has to do with biblical references, as teyvat is heavily based off gnosticism.
Wait, the deep waters under Mondstadt City?
Not only that but we also get Beidou fighting a snake monster and immediately getting a vision for that. Cutting the head just like Baal did with Orobashi. Makes me thing if the vision was a reward for doing literally heaven's work, and that maybe, if the strike was different, the vision rewarded would also be according.
Maybe mihoyos just on that snake=evil traun
@@halfwayATfinish yep! mondstat is built on an island inside a deep lake. that serves as its natural defense, with only one entrance in and out. mondstat is similar to a europeon castle city, while liyue is more like a tradestown, and inazuma has been built on a high ground with different levels of ground, providing natural defense
Theory:
What if Baizhu is the former dendro archon? What if he faked his death and moved to Liyue in order to lay low and study medicine? Could be why he’s so interested in immortality👀
and adopted qiqi and when she'a no use amymore he will kill him and qiqi actually remember her memory but baizhu remove them everytime so she can't call for help 👀
@@Dorimefasolatedo when did Qiqi suddenly became him lol
According to Viridescent venerer’s Lore the original Dendro archon died in the Cataclysm
God of the woods most definitely refers to the dendro archon since Ganyu said they’re also the youngest out of the 7 archons,
(btw..if there are ppl who in case don’t know, “cataclysm” refers to the time when Khaen’riah was destroyed 500 years ago)
I have been thinking about it for several patches already. His clothes have dendro symbols everywhere and even a snake scale (?) pattern to his coat. Only archons have such clothes so far. According to Qiqi, his state is worse than her, so basically he is deader than a dead. Snakes are also worshipped in some countries as being a sacred animal (also a symbol of wisdom). Nothing to say about very sus reference in Tears of Themis (another MHY game) about the legend of white snake as well as a character that reminds a bit of Baizhu. I have many points in store tbh, but I still believe Baizhu is ex-dendro archon.
@@Luchafurel what if the snake is his familiar? Like Yae is with the Raiden Shogun.
I'm glad that you brought up Yakshas and how they're not CHINESE based creatures or mythos. They're connected to Buddhism, yes, and that does extend into China, but they're not FROM China. They actually hail from Thailand, and I believe India as well. Thailand they're more of a guardian deity, and a group, but in India (again, I believe, I may be wrong on this particular region) they're more like a demon that consume their victims while they sleep. Through their dreams. Kinda like Succubai, but without the sex (kind've, lol).
So imagine my surprise when I heard that Xiao and his other brethren were Yakshas, and not... well... Shishi Dogs or another type of guardian deity in CHINESE Mythology.
So, as I said, I'm glad you brought up that for Xiao, because I've been having the same theory that Xiao also isn't originally from Liyue, but I couldn't think up where else he may be from. But with your theory... Sumeru sounds like a plausible, but interesting one. :)
Although I will say I'm a bit disappointed you made it out to seem like you dismissed him being a Yaksha, and him being a Gurudo. I believe if Mihoyo wanted to reference him as a different species altogether like that, they would have outright called Xiao and the others "The Gurudo." I like your theory that he may be a reference to that entity Gurudo, but not the dismissal of his original design. I do hope you're right though, in that we'll be seeing more Yakshas in Sumeru. They're interesting, if confusing creatures. :)
genshins mythology is so confusing they dont explain their creatures and not everyone know every culture ;o;
a little correction - Buddhism started from the god Gautam Buddha himself who was born in Nepal :) and many monks are from the himalayan regions of Nepal. It is a neighboring country of India. So, yes Budhhism has expanded to India and Tibet as well but theyre not the origin.
a little correction: the goddess anahit is actually an armenian deity; nonetheless, she’s related to the iranian goddess named anahita (“a” at the end). in ancient times, armenia and persia shared many religious and cultural ties and had many similarities, some of which were borrowed or inspired from each other; that’s why some might get confused. also, not that related, but the vishaps in the game are also inspired from dragons in armenian mythology.
Oh it wasn't my intention to reference that one. It's that there's anahit, anahid, anahiti and anahita so I just went with the most neutral name. It's not a correct as it should be...
@@Ashikai im not blaming you! i just thought since there are several interpretations of her, it might confuse many, but the anahit one is armenian, and it won't be surprising if some aspects from armenian mythology would be referenced in sumeru since armenia and iran have been in close contact for thousands of years and have many cultural, religious, and historical ties
yeah I’m armenian and noticed that too
@@fakehappymeal are you iranian?!
armenia and iran both were the same country in ancient persian empire...
And knowing that the dendro archon is repeatedly said to be the youngest archon, only 500 years old currently, means she doesn't only reigned after the cataclysm, but she was born and possibly appointed as the dendro archon at the same time. It mush be such a huge responsibility for her.
wouldn't that mean she has no knowledge about the cataclysm ? and probably supports celestiaa unlike baal and beelzebub
Hmm maybe she’s naive but wise at the same time? She is the god of wisdom, so hmm…
Or rather her way of wisdom is childish in a way? Then again we have venti that has a facade of a childish person but truly is not one.
@@abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyxz102 this is the god of wisdom, she may be younger but her wisdom shouldn’t be underestimated
It's also possible that she was born only
Roughly five hundred years ago
Maybe it's closer to 550
But nobody will bother to be THAT specific about it, just like how we don't refer to, say the year 1525, saying "it was 493 years ago" we'd say "it was about 500 years ago"
I hope it makes sense
I love the idea that Cyno is Kusanli's babysitter lmao-
Kinda weird to me since cyno is lisa's mentor's apprentice
Just throwing it out there, during the main quest in Liyue while the Traveler and Zhongli are going to Dadaupa Gorge to test the noctilucous jade, he mentions a type of wine from Sumeru that's literally called frigid SNAKE wine.
I think if there's a Genshin character paralleling Mobius, it's probably more likely to be Rhinedotter than the Dendro archon. There's some crazy parallels between the two, being morally questionable scientists at the end of their respective civilizations, researching extended life, and creating grotesque aberrations of science.
That said, I do like the deep dive on the Persian Empire's connections to Sumeru. Baizhu is incredibly sus, and the matching snake iconography is too clear to ignore. I'm really interested to see where they go with all of this
i'm always intrigued by the game's use of weapons with musical motifs which brings me back to the line "light travels faster than sound". What relationship could the twins have with "music". Are they suggesting a time travel plot and that the cataclysm, archon war, and succeeding events in Teyvat are represented as parts of a musical composition? Could it be that the twins have already seen it all since they are light which travels faster than sound and that they are in a time loop trying to fix the events?
If they are stuck in a Timeloop then the abyss sibling is the one who hold the Knowladge
I wrote you a whole paragraph about how Lisa studying in Sumeru reminded me about the book she gave us in her quest, BUT IT GOT DELETED LMAO
The book is called “The Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies”, which I think talks about Khaenri’ah, its people, Dainsleif and its cataclysm! I think it has a lot to bring to the table, so much to theorize about, I hope you’ll cover more Genshin books, because they have so much interesting stuff! ❤️
Something that I actually just noticed about Xiao’s design in terms of relations to Sumeru is that the purple mark in the middle of his forehead actually could be reflective of a bindi. Which is a mark that comes from (specifically in the Indian subcontinent) Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain culture.
You really dig deep lol. Learned a lot today. Never noticed the pattern between the birds and the snakes until now.
Ah yes. I remember now. The dragon and the phoenix in Chinese mythology.
GIRLLLLLLLLLL My mind exploded with this and I just wanna say, that I think that the reason Dendro hasn't appeared yet in-game is bc is important to the Sumeru Plot, like when you said that is kinda connected to the Abyss, perhaps it's some-what tainted, or something idk. Loved your video
I mean the title of act 3-Sumeru is "the truth among the page of purana", the word "purana" based on litteral translation of wikipedia mean "old,ancient".... That's already enough to confirm for me we will dive more into the lore of tevyat past in Sumeru ( i hope it will bring us the TRUTH of the cataclysm/Fall of Khaenriah),so yeah maybe Sumeru will be the turning point of genshin cause i hope so
8:35 except Ei states that archons do not give the visions out, that it is based on their ambition and a secret we dont know yet. So the dendro archon being inexperienced wouldn't have anything to do with the distribution of dendro visions being limited. heck, raiden was confused and surprised that electro visions haven't been given out recently.
this makes me wonder, what if granting visions has something to do with the will of the gnosis holder, like as long as someones ambition matched the gnosis bearer, and the bearer can feed the energy to make a vision, it'll be granted to them, and since (spoiler) yae had the gnosis, the amibition was less matching in ambition, thus less people got a vision (or she just didnt have the energy to feed it?). Might be a stretch, but thats my theory
i do think that archons are still responsible for how and why vision bearers get their element albeit unknowingly, like how the lack of new electro visions coincided with the vision hunt decree that took place
Maybe part of the wisdom Kusanali has is on how visions are given, so PROBABLY she could have control over visions distribution
@@shinyyordle9233 maybe kusanali can change her will so more (I guess less cause no dendro characters) will obtain a vision 🤔
@@alattice the lack of playable Dendro characters doesn't have anything to do with Dendro characters in general.
I think we'll get to see two Archons in Sumeru. Kusanali the Goddess of the Grass representing flora and the god who "died" 500 years ago, the God of Wisdom.
"The God of Wisdom's enemy is Wisdom itself"
Knowing how wisdom caused the fall of men, he is the first archon to give up his Gnosis, his ties to Celestia. I speculate he either gave the Gnosis to a lesser God, Kusanali, or if Celestia chose another one to ascend. This explains why there is a push for folly since wisdom is placed on the hands of flawed mortals without the guidance of their Archon and the current Archon has no understanding of the true Wisdom sought after by her predecessor so she makes no argument about it.
"And the oasis of knowledge is a mirage in the desert of ignorance"
I think this is literal. An oasis where the God of Wisdom resides, isolated from the rest of humanity. A place in the middle of an endless looping desert where anyone can get lost, only to find themselves back where they started.
I think the Abyss will be the main antagonist of this arc along with the corrupt Sages of the Academia with a dash of Fatui involvement here and there.
I also imagine each Dendro user having some form of living creature tied to their story which influenced them having a Dendro Vision. Baizhu with Changsheng and Traveler with Paimon.
On this point:
> Knowing how wisdom caused the fall of men, he is the first archon to give up his Gnosis, his ties to Celestia
Remember how Albedo and Rhinedottir found an artifact called the "Heart of Naberius"? I think this is a gnosis and in particular, the gnosis of the God of Woods himself (going by your theory). According to Wikipedia (lul), Naberius, "makes men cunning in all arts (and sciences, according to most authors), but especially in rhetoric, speaking with a hoarse voice. He also restores lost dignities and honors, although to Johann Weyer, he procures the loss of them." This fits the Archon of the Nation of Scholars quite well, no?
On that note, I want to point to another significant figure in Persian history that could perhaps serve as inspiration to any number of characters in Sumeru. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_I
Dude was THE Philosopher King of the Sassanid dynasty, which again fits quite well for an Archon of the Nation of Scholars lol
if the Abyss is the main villain of this arc...
FUCKING FINALLY, MY BROTHER HAS SOME ANSWERING TO DO
AETHER YOU BETTER FUCKING GIVE ME CONTEXT YOU JUST SAID "fuck dainsleif" AND JUST DIPPED
@@cocoabeanz6171 lmaoo I feel that XD I need dem answers Aether! >:)
not particularly important, but the empire shown at 11:45 doesnt seem to be the persion empire, but rather how alexander the great divided it after conquering it
Yeah! That's true. I should add a note about that actually.
As an archeology student I think that Sumeru City might be portraying Egypt under the rule of Rome, more specifically the City of Alexandria. Think the library and school of Alexandria, the last queen of Egypt and so on. But that's just my take 😅
I think Sumeru derived from Sumeria, old mesopotamia. not current Egypt but was located around current Iraq & Syria. In different time in Baghdad they also had House of Wisdom , where scholars learn and store their knowledge. You might know this already
but anyway knowing how most games mish mash a veeeery wide spectrum of culture as the "dessert" area. I'm guessing they'll add Egypt as base nspiration because it's more well known... and pakistan/India to put some sparkly aesthetic... Well basically the whole middle east/central asia and south asia
Especially as for now they already use a lot of hindu terms and Sanskrit names for things related to sumeru.
@@zenzenitha well so far genshin has been very good at keeping their inspirations for nations to a specific country/culture (Liyue is China, Monstadt is Germany and Inazuma is Japan). As you say i think it's more likely they'll pull the general aesthetic and possibly architecture to Egypt, but the points ab ancient Mesopotamia and general hindu cultures is very very cool and i would love to see that portrayed. The reason I said i think the City might be portraying Alexandria is because its arguably the most well known one, mostly for the infamous library. I just think it would be very fitting for the nation of scholars and wisdom. But hey, your points are very valid and makes me even more excited to see what this nation has in store!!
@@dallNoki monstadtd is not only german, jean is a very french name as far as I know and dandelion knight is supposed to also be dent de lion (french), plus it's literally impossible to be just one we already see cyno Anubis clothes and we already see words like Purana/Devi and we already see persian/arabic names like Hosseini and Anisa
@@zenzenitha thats what i think too
its agraria country
Little lucky grass king might be the most adorable title ive ever heard 😂
i know you stated that the video is outdated, but you got a lot of things right in it, i'm honestly fascinated. a great video, would be interesting to most of it come to live :D
The Mobius from hi3 precious era being the archon just reincarnating into different bodies theory aside it also has me thinking "The god of wisdom enemy is wisdom itself" has me thinking if Mobius really is the archon does that mean that the "wisdom" dainslief is reffering to is the knowledge of technology far more advanced and the knowledge of the honkai, we know that giving out knowledge of a more advanced than the era they are it can make the honkai spawn pre-maturely, so I'm thinking that if knowledge is currency it could also be a way for mobius to track the knowledge that people hold and what they are trading as so try and prevent and delay the inevitable eruption that will happen someday
Mobius for genshin impact
Please stop trying to connect honkai to genshin, if you even knew basic honkai info, you'd realize THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER
@@operafurry ? Eh :o Okay LoL... /nsrs
@@operafurry they literally confirmed Otto looking at dvalin and confirmed it is infact a bubble universe they are connected and you should just stop
@Opera Furry No gatekeeping plz. It's kinda silly to get this upset over a placeholder.
one little correction from someone who grew up in a hindu household; asura are not all purely and indiscriminately evil beings. asura is actually just a race of superhuman beings similar to, say, the oni race in japanese mythology. they do admittedly have more negative connotations, but that's because of a faction among the asura race known as "danavas" (quite literally means demons), who are usually at war with the devas. the other faction in the asura race are know as "adityas" and they're basically the good ones, and are on great terms with the devas as well. in fact, they're apparently led by varun dev (the sky and water deva, more or less lol). varun deva and some other devas are aditya themselves ! so i suppose deva is more like a title rather than a race, or maybe the lines blur somewhere. not so sure about that.
most beings like asura, yaksha, deva (i guess ?), bhuta, etc. can certainly be classified into two sections based on which ones are automatically attached to a negative image and which ones to a positive one (and fair enough too, it's usually mostly the case), but at the end of the day they're just different classes/races of beings in hindu mythology. for example, most of lord shiva's close followers are actually bhutas (basically ghosts and all sorts of "malevolent" spirits) ! in fact, a lot of the fancy bougie high class devas and kings and all considered shiva to be too barbaric at first lmaoo like look up the story of how he got married to goddess parvati (previously sati), but i digress. (also fun fact; shiva is the only one who's called "mahadeva" which basically means "great lord". he's also usually called "bhagwan shiva" aka God shiva and only him and lord vishnu (plus their incarnations and all) are usually called that, so yeah. he's a big deal. one of the biggest deals probably lmao).
anyway, there's just a lot of content in the mythology and very interesting stories at that, so its sure worth a research. that said, my knowledge mostly comes from my own first-hand exposure to my culture, local folklore and connotations, and my grandma's stories haha so feel free to correct me if any actual academic finds something wrong :]
wowz that was long..... i digressed so bad and info-dumped over a small thing, i'm sorry lmaoo
Don't apologize! Getting first hand accounts of this kind of this is incredibly helpful!! Thank you! :D
@@Ashikai glad you found it helpful (✿^‿^) !
Imagine all this theory and speculation just too see that sumeru is heavily based on middle east and only 1%from Hinduism 😂😂because as for now all npc name I've come across have Persian /arabic name
Only real theorists will know that this got reposted. (I actually saw this suuper late at night yesterday xD)
I really hope Kusanali isn't going to be the actual Archon, that would be 5 female Archons against 2 male TwT
This is just speculation, but considering they actively retconned the dendro archon from male to female, it makes me think that the dendro archon was another pretty boy like Venti, but they had to make the change due to the new laws in China banning feminine males. They are already on thin ice with Venti, and I can imagine that they were told to change it or be shut down.
ikrrr i would be okay with at least 3 against 4 but only having 2 against a whopping 5 is just sad ;w;
True..!! I also wish they would balance male/female characters.
Well the two are the oldest of the archons.
@@tennynya Baal is just as old
Interesting thing to note is that Lesser Lord Kusanali is also known as the Flower God/Flower Archon.
I hope dendro will do some pretty awesome stuff. Black Clover is one of my top favorite animes, two of my favorite anime character are Yami and William Vangeance. Two of my favorite type of magics as well. If Cyno or someone who has a vision that acts similar to world tree magic. I'll be so happy. I'm just waiting for Dendro traveler, hopefully he'll be a healer in that sort then that would be amazing. Electro is cool, Geo is great, which I run as a support when need to be. I'll probably run him as a support for Arataki Itto whenever he comes out. Anemo.....it can swirl stuff kinda.
never have I been this early
anyway i too have tlbeen trying to figure out how dendro would work it's rlly hard since theres so many types of plants so theres too many possibilities for different abilities for upcoming dendro characters aaaa
Some thoughts I have, dendro related to plants has to be different in the same way that hydro is different from water. We have established that it's dangerous to drink water from hydro slimes or to wear jewelry with geo energy. Following this train of logic, if ALL plants had dendro, they wouldn't be safe to eat (unless cooking is a reaction enough to make it safe, does all fire contain pyro?? is that why we have to cook salads??)?? And I don't know a ton about the chinese elemental system, but they do have wood based element (with fire, earth, metal, and water) so maybe looking into that might give some ideas of what to expect from dendro?
Unrelated to Chinese elemental system. Electro, anemo and cryo does not exist in Chinese elements.
I did leave the comment in the community post, but I wouldn't feel okay without posting it in the video anyways.
My brain is itching 😵
Excellent video. The part about the Young Archon having little influence on her elements sounds spot on, and all the tidbits and trivia on ancient mythology is fascinating to say the least.
Now excuse me, I need a neuron-scratcher.
I think it’s possible there may be two gods in Sumeru.
One, the Lesser Lord that Yae spoke of and then there is The Dendro Archon that Zhongli speaks of in one of Liyue Chapters.
So my theory is that, one, the Lesser Lord could be the one in Ruler Seat and the Dendro archon could be ruling from the shadows. It could also be the other way around 😅
But seriously! I would love to see The Lesser Lord look like Möbius or Klein and The Dendro Archon to look like Su
first few seconds into the video and the music gives me flashbacks
Same here, I miss the Golden Apple Archipelago :(
I had my suspicions of the Fatui having the biggest foot hole in Sumeru, but I didn’t think about the Abyss potentially playing a bigger role the as well. Though it should’ve been obvious to me lol given what we still don’t know the specifics of what happened in Khaenri’ah during its fall.
I think there’s a chance we might see Dainsleif again in Sumeru. With Hinduism leading the lore helm currently, I think there’s a pantheon of gods residing in Sumeru or at least worshippers? It’s unlikely but it would be neat. I also think some else knows of what happened during the Cataclysm as well as the death of the God of the Woods. They won’t say anything to the Traveler until a certain condition is met? Possibly? Lol again this highly unlikely to happen. I’m just throwing stuff out there. I’m super excited for Sumeru and how things will pan out!
Yeah LoL like every mess other nation faces isn't that always fatuis fault?😂. I won't be surprised that all the mess happening in sumeru also are the actions of the fatui.
@@harshittikka5705 LOL I also a feeling the Fatui might have bitten off more than they could chew when the story there rolls around
@@harshittikka5705 apparently, you're somewhat correct as it was mentioned in the manga that fatui is able to run wild, doing experiments in sumeru. The fact that some fatui are diplomats in sumeru proves that as well
0:35 - 1:00
*Science Class Flashbacks*
In all seriousness, thank you for the awesome class of Science and History even though these are Genshin Theories.
(the videos are just a ruse to convince you that everything you learn in school has a practical application elsewhere)
@@Ashikai :0
14:34 I don’t think Cyno’s name would have much to do with Sumeru as a whole but rather it gives insight to his own character. He might be hiding something about himself based on what was stated in the video
Coming back after sumeru is released feels weird
Ikr?
Everyone's asking When Dendro or Why Dendro but no one is asking How is Dendro
get the feeling sumeru is gonna be based on the abbasid caliphate, specifically the period of time where the caliph was a figurehead and controlled by the seljuk turks
i think its gonna be a mix between that, and very old iraq/egypt!
All tropic/exotic asian countries I think
My turkish heart rn 💜💜💜
Crazy how much you got right or at least close to right, taking how long this vid was released before Sumeru. Still, watching this knowing what we know now is kinda funny , given the wild and wrong guesses you also made hahahaha
Didn't Zhongli say there was an evil yaksha that joined the darkness 👀 sumeru is definitely going to be an interesting patch.
Yeah 5 yaksha,3 died,1 goes evil and the one and only sane yaksha xiao.
The evil yaksha is electro yaksha
seems like a weekly boss
@@mediocreperson3835 where can we find though.
@@mediocreperson3835 what if we find the evil yaksah in the chasm?
@@mediocreperson3835 xiao doesn't seem very sane tbh
I came back to this video because of all the sumeru stuff recently.. and.. oh my god. wooooah.. a lot of this just.. hit different now in a good way.
If you pay close attention to the Wooden Shield Mitachurls, some time after burning their shields they will pull a dendro slime out of the ground and convert it into a new wooden tower shield. I see it as another hint to the types fun things we get to do with the Dendro element. 🌳🌱
I don't know if anyone's already brought this up, but I'm pretty sure the reason we have Dendro as an element is due to it representing Wood, one of the Wuxing (Five Chinese elements).
Re-watching this in anticipation of 3.0, It's gonna be neat to revisit this after Sumeru releases.
I can imagine Dendro maybe being a buff element, like how Hydro is mostly focused on Healing and Geo is dedicated to defending/shields. Plus, Dendro/Grass requires all the other elements to survive, so in an ironic twist maybe Dendro buffs specific elements?
Idk how you got me more obsessed with Xiao’s lore but you freakin did!! I loved every tangent in this video!
Damn... im glad that my addiction to a weird mobile game actually resulted in learning a lot about ancient cultures and folklore... thanks i guess
Actually, Beizhou is more based on the Chinese folk tale of the White Snake. Where a traditional Chinese herbalist (aka old times version of a pharmacist) falls in love with a woman who is actually a white snake/deity.
Edit: I see you mentioned it. But still, I doubt he's got any deeper connection with Sumeru.
Sumeru's similarities to the Persian Empire brings me back to history class, glad to know that finally has a use xD
11:46
i wish i could show this to everyone saying sumeru is just a mishmash of cultures
I actually have a hypothesis on why the previous Dendro archon died. (Very speculative)
Now think about it, this archon had survived the archon war, although we have evidence of a god dying, the god of salt specifically, that was a weaker god. What if the previous Dendro Archon was found colluding with Khaenri'ah and was ultimately executed?
Now I know what some of you are thinking, but I have reason to support this. What if Khaenri'ah was actually power-hungry and when Celestia decided to destroy it, it was more of a merciful end? If the Dendro Archon was handling the power necessary to the power of Khemia, they obviously knew which nation had access to the power. My theory is that the people of Khaenri'ah were unintentionally turned into monsters of the abyss by Gold in her attempt to satisfy the bloodlust of her higher-ups (Potentially King and Queen as referenced by the battle pass) and sought knowledge from the Dendro Archon. After the cataclysm, the Dendro Archon was executed by Celestia due to their failure of guarding the power and leaking information to Gold which started the whole thing?
I think that within Sumeru and Fontaine's archon quests the abyss will be the main Villain
I mean Sumeru is the nation of wisdom and Fontaine is the nation of judgement, Fontaine is also the nation that is the furthest advanced in technology as of present times in genshin- both in which are ways to describe Khanrieah at it's prime (I do think that the Raiden puppet and Scaramouche are made using the same technology that Khanrieah used.)
There are the links between Sumeru to the Abyss in which you've already pointed out.
Now Fontaine, besides being the furthest in technology is also the nation of judgement- thus I think the abyss will play a huge role here.
I Imagine the fatui will plot againts us as in a court, saying the bad stuff that we did while the abyss will come and force the archons, including Fontaine's own archon to to be judged by the abyss on the archons' deeds during their whole lifespan. The abyss will probably ask then about the destruction of Khanrieah- that will be what breaks the archons calm as Celestia is watching them though they have to answer (I think it'll be a "you have to answer situation").
I trust that to be the case.
Just wow.. I really dig where we are going with these theories. Aaaah can't wait!!
After that we fight in natlan . Snehznaya joins and everything explodes. 🤣
@@arshtone7036
It'll probably be way harder for us to get into Senzhnaya though... considering it's the Tsarista's land
Pretty sure she'll send all 11 fatui harbingers (after they find a replacement for Signora) to stop us at the entrance, after all right after she gets Murata's gnosis (Pyro archon) the Tsarista will have all gnosis and I doubt she'll want us in.
@@Nataninko and how are you sure tsaritsa hates us? It wasn't us who killed her Harbinger. If she really is mad she should talk to ei as it was her puppet who killed her and anyway I don't really think she cares that much because as the Dainslief said she is the god with no love left for her people. Who knows when we enter snezhnaya Tsaritsa might try to use us by making her rebellion against the divine
@@harshittikka5705
Why do I think she'll stop us before Snezhnaya? Because she knows that we're somewhat of a threat to her plans
Signora is her favourite Harbinger out of the 11 and Signora was sick of seeing us everywhere she goes, so the Tsarista likely feels the same
Also she legit sent Scaramouche to kill us once back in Mond, we were only saved by Mona.
Is it true that the raiden puppet killed Signora? Yes but we were the ones to defeat her and technically cause her death, so considering that Tsarista sent Scara boy after us, as well as we're partly responsible to Signora's death.
Edit: btw don't forget that we challenged Signora to a duel before the throne, which is intended to result in one of us dead- she accepted and Ei/Raiden approved so... (I think a duel before the throne was present in japan but don't catch me by the word cause I'm not that familiar with Japan's history.)
Would be really cool imo if the imposter archon was a genius mad scientist type character like Mobius. So I hope ur theory is spot on.
Seeing my country in a chinese game is gonna be wierd
Fun fact : parvaneh and vahid (name of 2 inazuma npcs) are persian names and it is said that signora was in love with rostam (a legendary persian paladin) so seeing persian elements is to be expected because we already have so many of them
What if Albedo had a Dendro vision instead? Would he be literally broken lore-wise?
He can create fake life you know...His name is de midway process for the alchemical process of developing the philosopher stone (which creates life)...The processes are Nigredo (Dark, in the sense of rot/decaying), ALBEDO (Silver, in the sense of perfection and purity) and Rubedo (Red/Gold in the sense of transcendence and life itself)...If albedo had dendro element, he wouldn't be called albedo and he probably would be able to create life....remember from the lore an alchemist from Khaenrya who was called GOLD and created DARK DEMONS (nigredo) like the dead dragon from the mountain...yeah...were on to something.
i've been suspecting that sumeru has some sort of connection to the abyss for a while. the reason why? kaeya. he's confirmed to be at least half khaenri'ahn, but he doesn’t look like the other khaenri'ahns we've met, like albedo and dainsleif. kaeya's name also comes from sanskrit, a language with strong ties to india. it makes me curious as to who his mother is. it would make too much sense for her to be from sumeru. and that begs the question of why khaenri'ahn survivors are in sumeru in the first place. the whole region already seems littered with red flags. i'm just anticipating what mihoyo has in store.
Kaeya gave diluc a Persian designed vase too
Fun Fact: speaking homa and it's connection to Moon Goddess. Homa could be the Parsi version of Soma (because Parsi and Sanskrit have a S-H inversion, Sindu becomes Hindu for e.g)
Soma is the Vedic God associated with the moon as well as a elixir type of drink to boost your powers in Hinduism.
Also Naga are part of 14 realms in Hindu Cosmology. Do look it up.
Each region has a large snake beast that is fought against as mentioned in the vid.
Elixir may be resin?
I believe a whole another world is going to come after teyvat. Most probably below us with Elixir instead of resin?
The release of dendro is going to be crazy.
We are not prepared whatsoever. I hope my high hopes don't get destroyed like khaenriah
Lesser Lord Kusanali, the Chinese name for it is "小吉祥草王“. If you do a literal word for word translation:
"小” means small/tiny/young/little/senior depending on the context,
"吉祥‘means lucky,
"草“means grass,
"王” generally means king/lord.
So if you put them together that way, it would say "little lucky grass king". But that is not the correct way of translation.
To understand it, we will have to look at the name of "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata", which in Chinese is “大慈树王”.
“大“ means big/great/grand/older/senior depending on the context.
“慈” means benevolent and merciful.
“树“means tree,
”王“ generally means king/lord.
Literal translation would be “Big Benevolent Tree King”.
Now let’s talk about the linguistic habit and cultural context behind it. Rukkha is Kusa’s predecessor. So in a way Kusa would be Rukkha’s heir in term of the Archon position. To give them the prefix of 大 and 小， is like how one would address the father Senior and the son Junior in English. But at the same time the two Archons are not related. considering that Rukkhadevata has resided over sumeru way longer and has way more contributions to the nation than the young and inexperienced Archon Kusanali, “Greater” and “Lesser” would be more appreciate. To honour Rukkha’s position as an old and beloved Archon and Kusa’s position as the new and much much younger Archon. But by no means they should be translated as “big” and “little”. It would be utterly disrespectful.
As to “吉祥草“，simply translation to lucky grass is inacurate too. “吉祥草” in Chinese has another name “紫衣草“-purple clothed grass，which refers to Reineckea Carnea. The season it is considered lucky is because it has religious significance in Buddhism. So you could see why the English translation is using words from the Sanskrit instead of a plain word for word translation. Because Sumeru is loosely based on Ancient Egyptian, Persian and Indian culture., where Buddhism was still the dominant religion in the Ancient Indian sub-continent. one can not simply pick any kind of grass and call it a "little lucky grass". it has to be that specific specie.
“Rukkha” generally means trees, but it could also mean plants and flowers depends on regions.
“Devata” means god/goddess.
“Kusa” might refers to the “kusa-grass” or “Kushu-grass”. A holy grass in Buddhism.
“Nali” might refers to plant stalks.
In modern day, Kusa-grass and Reineckea Carnea might refer to two different species of grass, but the translation was done over 1600 years go, so what chinese people think is “吉祥草” nowadays might be different from back then. Or it might be because that Kusa-grass is not Native to China, but when Buddhism came to China, people found a local equivalent of the grass as the religious symbol, which often happenes in history. What remains is its religious significance.
For stories of Kusanali, please refer to the Jataka tales of Kusanali.
As for the inspiration behind the two Archons, and relationship between Rukkha and Kusa. My theory is that Rukkha is loosely based on the Ancient Indian Mahayana Buddhist philosoher, thinker, scholar-saint Nagarjuna. As for the whole story and importance of Nagarjuna, I won’t elaborate here, because everyone can google it. He is considered the second Guatama Buddha.
Nagarjuna’s name consist of:
"Naga"-dragon, refering to his act of preaching buddhism at the palace of the dragons and his close affiliation with the dragon race.
"Arjuna"-a type of tree, refering to him born under a Arjuna tree. Another version is that Arjuna is derived from the Sanskrit word of “Arj”, which means to accomplish from something.
It just so happens that the Chinese name of Nagarjuna is “龙树“.
“龙” means dragon
“树“ in Chinese can either mean “tree” or “accomplishment” in different context.
In some sects of Zen Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism, he was considered a deity, and is also referred to as:
“龙树医生” - doctor dragon tree,
“龙树妙医卫国禅师“-the brilliant doctor, protector of the realm zen master dragon tree.
In paintings, he is always depicted with 9 snakes on top of his head, referring to his close relationship with the dragon race. According to the mythology, the invincible Nagarjuna was killed by Prince Shktiman, in a political coup, using nonother than the ”吉祥草“-Kusa-grass.
I don't usually like to speculate about the plots of the game. My interests lean more towards the cultural reference side. So take what you will with the cultural references that I found.
From what I have found so far, it seems that IslandXD’s theory of Baizhu being Rukkhadevata has some basis to it. A doctor who can cure any mortals but can't find a cure for himself, who has a snake around his neck. And perhaps now we know the reason for Akademia's hostilities towards Kusanali. Kusanali appeared not as a result of Rukkhadevata's disappearance/death. But it's the other way around. These all remain speculations. Feel free to disagree. We will find out the truth later in the game.
I will quote the story of Nagarjuna’s death here:
In ancient India, there lived a young prince Shaktiman who desired to be King and was waiting for the day when he would take the throne when his father, the King, died. However for many many many years, the King showed no signs of ill health and looked as if he will live forever.
Shaktiman was extremely frustrated at his long wait and went to his mother to lament his unhappiness. It seemed as if he will never ever be King before he died. The Queen found it unbearable to see her son suffer and decided to tell him a secret.
“My son, Your father is a man with great merit and he is blessed with longevity because his life is linked to that of the great Pandit Nagarjuna who has attained the siddhi of immortality. For as long as Nagarjuna lives, so will your father. Resign to your fate that you will never be King”
Shaktiman was heartbroken at the news and collapsed onto the ground in grief. The Queen felt strongly for her son’s plight and made a suggestion.
“Nagarjuna is a great bodhisattva. He has great compassion and has made vows to fulfill the wishes of anyone who asks of him. If If you ask him for his head, he will give it to you.”
Desperate to be king, Shaktiman decided to try his luck. He went to see Nagarjuna and made his request.
Nagarjuna meditated over the request and in his meditation, saw that he had already benefit all the beings that he possibly could - there was no need for him to remain in the world any longer. Seeing that Shakiman was the last person who has karmic conditions with him to be tamed, Nagarjuna consented to give away his head. He closed his eyes and told Shaktiman that he can severe his head anytime.
The prince was overjoyed at Nagarjuna’s acceptance of his request. He immediately unsheathed his sword and took a swing at Nagarjuna’s head. However his sword could not severe Nagarjuna’s head.
He tried a few times but each time, the sword did not even manage to make a single cut on Nagarjuna’s neck. In anger, he raised his sword high and struck at Nagarjuna’s head with all his strength. The sword broke.
At this time. Nagarjuna opened his eyes and spoke
“Dear Prince, I had exhausted all karma of being harmed by weapons. Your sword cannot sever my head.”
Shaktiman was engraged and cried that Nagarjuna was a liar for agreeing to give up his head when he already knew that he could not be killed.
“Dear Prince, even though I have exhausted my karma to be harmed. There is still a karmic cause for me to give you my head.
In a previous life, I accidentally cut off the head of an insect when I was cutting kushu grass. This is the only karma that I had yet to purify.
Due to this casue, the only way for me to die is if you take a stake of kushu grass and sever my head.”
Shaktiman took up a stalk of kushu that Nagarjuna was sitting on and struck again. This time, Nagajurna’s head fell off effortlessly and milk flow poured forth.
his is the story of how Nagarjuna used his death as a lesson in the certainty of karma.
Thank you for the name analysis!
This video is a little over a year old now and I've had a lot of opinions change in the meantime.
There's only two things I want to add too your analysis though:
- Rukkahdevata was female and I'm not sure Hoyo would gender swap a reincarnation of her
- Baizhu is sus, but he lacks most of the traits that you will find in all other archons. The most notable would be the lack of colored hair tips, and the color of his eyes which do not match his element. All other are cons have eye colors that match their element and the dip died hair tips. I had intended one day to make a video disproving the theory that he might be the archon but I ran out of time and Sumeru is right around the corner so I won't bother at this point :P
@@Ashikai Hi Ashikai! Thanks for replying. I never thought you would see my comment as this video is over one year old.
About gender swapping, if I remember correctly, Archon can take on any forms they chose. Venti’s Archon form seems asexual, he have chosen the form of a bard to commemorate his friend. Zhongli might have taken on a female form in the past. So it’s not entirely impossible for Archon to gender swap as far as we know in the Genshin universe.
As to Baizhu, he’s certainly sus. Evidences both support and disprove his connection with rukkhadevata are valid. The details you mentioned, like hair colour, eye colour are certainly valid. At this point I can only make connections based on the background I can dig up. And they are not definitive proofs, just theories. So I don’t stand firmed by any speculations of Baizhu’s identity. He remains a mystery.
As I was doing the Dream Nursery world quest today, I read the quest item “An Ode to Soul-Light”, which is a poem about Nagarjuna. I wonder if the Nagarjuna here is how the lost religious group of the desert people refers to Rukkhadevata, as I suspected. Or is it referring to Al-Ahmar. I haven’t finished the quest yet. So it remains for me to find out.
Once again, thanks for the reply. It is nice to have discussions with people who shares the same interest about the lore.
even if this isn't what genshin is going for, the different lores are entertaining by themselves, and when u put them together like that is just awesome
Loved this! Big hopes dendro will arrive with the Chasm and Yaoyao soon
My theory with Dendro reactions:
Hydro + Dendro = Healing/Corrosion
Cryo + Dendro = Frostbite
Electro + Dendro = Paralyze
Geo + Dendro = Petrify
Anemo + Dendro = Chill?
Dendro should be able to break sheilds cuz tree roots can break rocks so dendro attack from enemies should be able to break geo constructs and geo sheilds.
@@ok4405 erosion
Oh gosh, this is gonna be so long but here's my two cents about the dendro archon.
The current dendro archon may be closely linked to the previous dendro archon. Not the same as Ei and Makoto, but more like a teacher and a student.
I also think that the current dendro archon already knows the "truth" and perhaps was secretly passed on to her by the previous dendro archon, who ultimately died 500 years ago (probably after finding out the "truth"). Whatever the "truth" is, it was enough for an archon to be on the hit-list by the involved party.
Now that Sumeru has recovered from the tragedy 500 years ago, more scholars started to find an interest about the "truth". Thus, they are in full research mode about it and are coming closer to it. Of course, like any other theories and hypothesis, there will always be a number of deniers who have counter arguments against these new theories and hypothesis by presenting their own evidence. You know, like what happened in real life: heliocentric vs geocentric theory, flat earth vs spherical earth, etc.
For me, I think the deniers are actually scholars of a higher ranking, compared to the ones who are in pursuit of the "truth," and are in the know with the dendro archon. They don't know too much, but faithful enough to carry out the will of their archon. Anyway, they will find any means to have a counter against those researchers' arguments despite the evidence being right in front of their eyes, which baffles everyone especially because the dendro archon herself doesn't argue with the deniers.
I know that my hypothesis may sound like something that the dendro archon wouldn't do because Sumeru's whole concept of the nation being in the pursuit of knowledge but hear me out. The dendro archon isn't the god of truth nor knowledge but the god of wisdom. Truth is absolute; knowledge is the truth resulted from the accumulation of facts and the separation of lies; wisdom is the use of both the truth and the lies for every situation based on good judgement. Knowing this, the dendro archon has no obligation to tell the truth, thus she can deny any theories and hypothesis as long as she sees it necessary.
"The god of wisdom's enemy is wisdom itself, and the oasis of knowledge is a mirage in the desert of ignorance. In the city of scholars, there is a push for folly, yet the god of wisdom makes no argument against it."
-from "Travails" trailer
When you stand in front of a forest, you'll never know what is beyond the trees in front of you, unless you look at the forest from a different perspective.
I actually was kind of creeped out while rewatching this video today.
I used it for backround entertainment while running Genshin's story again on my second account.
When you talked about snake iconography being a potential big part of Sumeru, I was once again shocked by the well crafted world building of this game.
Because just a few minutes prior, I took our good *old* friend Zhongli on a trip to the Land of Wind to check on the quality of some Jade samples once more.
And during our travels, as some of us remember, he praises the high quality of Dandelion Wine.
And he does so in direct comparison to Sumeru's "frigid *snake* wine".
I can't put into words how much this world has managed to catch me in it's claws of mystery and mythology, it's just amazing.
this game is gonna take so long to finish, while these are just theories this completely confirmed how big is genshing going to be and even more
Mushrooms aren’t plants they are fungi
Yup, I know. Check the pinned comment for deets.
"its unlikely that sumeru would be so large" yeah about that....
8:30 One thing to note, I feel, is how Venti directly stated early in the story how he is the weakest Archon due to his laziness, but still controls all of Anemo. Your idea makes sense, but it may be less to do with power, but rather control. An analogy is how baby snakes are more dangerous than adult ones because baby snakes don't know how to avoid using all their venom in a single bite, making them inject more than adults, so it's possible that there's something similar going on with the Dendro Archon, but with enough intelligence to know to only focus on smaller, quickly-spreading plants such as weeds (thus, grass, which is a type of weed), and flowers may be a newer addition than the grass, since there's big room for variation, while still having a theme for familiarity.
Each nation had a "twist" on the identity of the archon so I prefer not been so fast about making considering Kusanali has the archon that her blessing is named after a water goddess also feel wrong to me. But that may just be my wishful thinking, I really wanted a Su dendro Archon
baiZHU (SU)
ayaTO (otTO)
everyone is a gangsta until hydro starts healing dendro
There were a couple of dendro visions in that statue in Inazuma. I wonder if there were more or less than the other elements.
Personally I never questioned Dendro because to me it translates to "wood" element.
Wood being one of the Chinese elements (in western elemental lore we tend to not differentiate between earth/rock & wood/plants, but in the chinese system metal and wood are separate and very different).
With Mihoyo being a Chinese company the inclusion doesn't surprise me. On the other hand it is also cool that air and ice are included which wouldn't normally be included in the chinese system (air) or at all (ice).
Watched it again, and thanks again for recommending my video! I gotta say if they use Mobius for the Dendro Archon, they're really efficient in character designs.
But its more likely to be Su tho, mobius is a lightning valk
Rewatching this as Sumeru draws near. 😁
I thought irminsul was introduced in sumeru but people knew it before sumeru
There may be 2 "kings" over sumeru. As you said, it references that there may be a similar situation in sumeru like in liyue, how rex lapis faked his death. It's a solid backup for the "baizhu is the dendro archon" theory. As we already know, makoto and ei are (were) both archons and both have their respective duties. (technically, HAD their respective duties, rip makoto lol) Which makes it more believable that there could very well be 2 archons in sumeru, but not like you may think. One gnosis was given to share between makoto and ei. I'm thinking, kusanali may be the gnosis holder and the new archon in play, but perhaps baizhu may be the original archon, struck down and given an enhanced curse similar to the one dainsleif has. A curse of immortality, just like the persian god, anahita, just like what he is studying and trying to grasp a hold of. I'm guessing that baizhu just kinda hid in liyue after he was hurt by celestia during the cataclysm, probably because its not in sumeru where he can be recognized, but also close enough to sumeru so he can oversee if anything does go wrong. Just like the dendro slimes, they always hide underground and are barely noticed since they rarely attack, they just kinda hide. My theory is that Cyno is the "babysitter" for kusanali and the overseer for the dessert side of sumeru. It is said to have 2 sides, the dessert and the rainforest. In the trailer, cyno is clearly in sand since its seen blowing around. I believe that kusanali has control over the rainforest side since she is said to wear lots of greens and she is the controller of dendro itself, it only makes sense for a "plant" to be living within other plants. It's just a small quick thing thats been on my mind lately. Can't wait for new theories when 3.0+ comes out LOL
If the Yggdrasil tree (pardon if it's wrong spelling) hosts an Eagle at top, let me say, your parallels might be correct, as Garuda (from Hindu mythology) is also an Eagle.
There's also another food for thought. Both snakes and birds have lots of varieties, as they're abundant. In this case, the birds might be specifically birds of prey, like Eagles, Hawks, etc. (In Dawin's finches theory, the shape of the beak of a bird can describe it's diet. Carnivorous ones, like Eagles, have a sharp bent beak). As, white heron is also a bird, but I don't think Ayaka is connected to Sumeru at all.
I'll have to think more though.
Oh, also, (I beg everyone's Pardon if I'm wrong), but Naga and Garuda had different mother, but same father. So, yeah...
Wait. Different mother as in development teams and single father as in Mihoyo. Damn
Ashikai: I think i made the confusion worse ...
Me: Oh thanks. At least i understand one thing you said >_>
With all the info you’ve gathered, im feeling that the Sumeru quest line isnt going to be the most warm of quests. I thinking this will be another encounter with the sustainer as she mind come to annihilate the civilisation as whole. Because from looking at a the cultures you listed as a inspiration, quite a lot of them have fallen out of existence. What if that the archon is to greedy for knowledge that her people follow the lines of the abyss.
Dendro reactions idea update:
I’m thinking Dendro will deal Damage-Over-Time (DoT) that scales off *Elemental Mastery (EM)* and will boosts one specific stat attribute depending on element that Dendro reacts to. The one stat increase only applies as long as a Dendro-DoT reaction is active. Only characters involved in causing the elemental reaction will receive the stat boost.
*🌳Dendro + 🔥Pyro = Burning* (deals intense Pyro dmg over time); boosts ATK while Burning is active.
Other reaction ideas:
*🌳Dendro + 💧Hydro = Overdrain* (health-steal DoT; absorbed HP from enemy is transferred to you); boosts HP while Overdrain is active.
*🌳Dendro + 🔶Geo = Rooted* (Grows plant constructs at the foot of enemies and trap them in place similar to Mirror Maiden glass trap; receive DoT while inside traps; Geo constructs don’t easily shatter when Rooted is active); boosts DEF while Rooted is active.
*🌳Dendro + ⚡️Electro = Zapped* (DoT of 3 ticks that scale off of EM. The 1st hit does massive DMG like lightning striking a tree. 2nd & 3rd tick do smaller DMG. Can’t crit just like other Electro reactions); Boosts Energy Recharge while Zapped is active.
*🌳Dendro + ❄️Cryo = Wilting* (Cryo DoT version of Burning (albeit slower DoT ticks) + reduction of attack speed); boosts Crit Rate while Wilting is active.
*🌳Dendro + 🌪Anemo = Pollinate* (spreads spores that cause DoT in an AoE); boosts Elemental DMG while Pollinate is active.
*🌳🌳Dendro Resonance - Verdant Flora* (Extends duration of DoT reactions and boosts EM; Dendro DMG increased by 15% as long as a DoT Dendro reaction is active)
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Extra ideas:
A game based on elemental reactions should have all elements react to one another. A Geo + Anemo reaction is warranted in my opinion:
*🔶Geo + 🌪Anemo = Duststorm* (Next single attack will miss 100%; DEF shred by 5% for 6 seconds)
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*Crystallize* reaction is very underwhelming. It needs some offense. Improvement: the enemy on which Crystallize is triggered will receive elemental DMG (of the Crystallized element).
Imma save all my stuff for Cyno after I get Thoma and Hu Tao. He’s just so beautiful (design wise) and I can’t wait to see his play style
Edit: okay, okay, idea!
What if the previous Dendro archon, because they, at least to my knowledge, were the only archon to die during the cataclysm they let themselves be killed. Because they would be close to Khanreia’h (spelling! Ahh!), possibly giving them information and helping them gain knowledge they otherwise would have never gotten, they didn’t want to fight them, and when forced into battle against the nation the loved as their own, probably because of a mistake they made with giving them a certain piece of information they thought would mean nothing to celestia, they let themselves fall, not wanting to fight against a nation built upon knowledge.
Then their prized pupil, the current archon, set her sights on figuring out what happened to her mentor and teacher, and became engulfed in her studies, and denouncing any connection to the fallen empire of Khanreia’h, eventually, after many a year, rose to the title of archon herself as celestia chose her as the new dendro archon, being the newest archon to take up the role, but not necessarily the youngest.
6:14 you were on to something...
7:45 nailed it!
16:53 Mahesvara (one of Shiva's main forms) is Elysia's Honkai beast so the snek on her neck is maybe a shoutout to her closeness with Mobius.
26:32 Xiao is a direct reference to HUA's ((specifically the Shadow Knight battlesuit) backstory of being the sole survivor of their respective groups). The Phoenix point further sells it and drives it home.
28:35 - surprisingly on point once again, given Khaenr'iah's location!
28:45 - all the Deshret theories!
29:06 - the transaction between Nahida and Dottore! On point! As well as knowing more about Deshret as well.
29:40 - goes both ways. Shared a lot about the sibling, but had a lot of naivety points throughout the stories.
30:10 - the role of the Matra
30:33 once again, the gnosis transaction!
Mobius appearing in Sumeru was pretty on point even if you pointed at Nahida! Baizhu and Dottore are pretty much her spiritual children as Su and Kalpas hybrids respectively.
Sadly, not nearly enough sneks, not even nagas nor garudas, Apep and Changsheng are the closest things we have to that.
It's crazy how you still got so many things right considering how far Sumeru was when you made this video.
I love your content. I listen to your videos whenever I work sort of like podcast. I'm learning so much about the game that I would otherwise not even know while just playing the game. Thank you for your videos.