[3.0] Sumeru Lore Roundup - What we learned from the Archon and Aranara quests

[@Ashikai]

**NOTES** (I had to cut out a small glitch, so the video is re-processing itself) - Ranakel on Discord pointed out that Paimon doesn't just teach the Traveler language, but she also helps train our fighting skills. If you check the skill/talent descriptions for the Traveler, at the bottom there's always "You and Paimon studied the-" or "You and Paimon observed-" etc. So Paimon DOES play a critical role in teaching the traveler, even if it's through her own learning which is cool. - I've heard a lot of people suggest that Tighnari's name means Fox but I have been unable to locate a source I could cite thus far so I did not include it in the video. If you have a source and are willing to share it, please let me know! - Here's a very basic Aranara Vocab sheet for those of you who would like one (thanks to Netzi2 for the original compilation): Nara = human Valuka = Sand/desert Vana = Forest Sarva = Source (i think) which may refer to the Irminsul tree since all life returns there Marana = death Ashvatta = Sacred tree meant to help seal Marana Vasara = Special tree like the Ashvatta but less powerful Mahavanaranapna = The Aranara Universe Iron Chunks = Ruin Robots Ruin Golem = The giant Ruin Robot Vanagni = Whopperflowers Apshvaana = Spincocrocodiles Queen Aranyani = Rukkahdevata Ararakalari = Aranara memory magic Bija = a fruit that contains dreams and memories

[@DainMon]

but Paimon said she is a god in her voice line so god of seelies or what? that would be funny

[@shanedoesyoutube8001]

Marana means death??? I thought it means the withering

[@shanedoesyoutube8001]

@@DainMon maybe like your username suggests, goddess of time, may or may not be istaroth but nerfed Or that Kiana looking sustainer of heavenly principles

[@anikiko1175]

@@shanedoesyoutube8001 Aranara calls Withering as Marana while the word Marana is literally means death in most of Indian and Asian Languages

[@eisflamme2438]

@Ashikai The little Pause between the words "World... ...forget me." Makes me think its actually "World, don't forget me."

[@Nyhilist_]

"Okay Imma do the Aranyaka quest real quick" [almost a week later] "Damn these lil radishes got LORE"

[@wahyuwirawan727]

At first, i thought it was usual mini commission. But it gave another load of chain quest. Like, my 5 min quest turn into few days non stop chain quest. And they mentioned other sibling too.

[@Lilia·Liuu]

I thought it was a short, free primos story quest at first, ya know the saving NPC commisions from Mondstadt But then the "Aranyaka" like a start of an archon quest appear. I was like oh god what is this, NPC archon quest? and the quest keeps multiplying the further I go

[@BadassHatdog]

@@Lilia·Liuu it even has a pop up start text screen, the first world quest in Genshin to have one

[@emileeweir7773]

I don't think Nara Varana is the Abyss sibling. My Traveler is Lumine, and Nara Varana is always referred to as "she" rather than "he". If Nara Varana were the Abyss sibling (Aether in my case), miHoYo would have adapted the dialogue to reflect when Aether is the Abyss sibling, just as they have done for other quests. That detail would not have been overlooked for the entire quest.

[@khaliquet1]

@@emileeweir7773 the Aranara never once referred to Lumine Traveler as "she" either. Nor did they call Paimon "Nara", instead calling her White Floaty. Nara Varuna is most certainly our Sibling because after Arama planted itself to become the new Vashatta tree, Arana said that while Marana is defeated, they'll (Marana) come back, and by then hopefully it'll be another Golden Nara that that'll help them again.

[@pegasBaO23]

headcanon for this video, Yanfei was so overwhelmed with the amount of lore, she called up Kuki for assistance

[@batrieniel]

then when it gets wayyy to much,they call out big mommy yelan

[@devilsadvocate22289]

I love how this headcanon is basically a reunion of the Chasm gang, lol.

[@yel6921]

After that much thinking they want to entertain themselves so they called a goofball which is itto

[@rachelwu943]

when they need somebody to remind them to eat and rest they call paimon and traveler

[@doplop]

when a criminal breaks in and interrupts their brainstorming they call xiao like the police

[@geboaebo]

I think the whole "dying is just a loss of memory" thing is referring to the life cycle of Teyvat. When you die, you get converted into memory data and then are repurposed into new stuff, so in a way, you never actually die. The only way you could possibly die is if your memories were completely erased, meaning that you'd have nothing to pass on. That's also why turning the Kaenria'ahns into hilichurls and force their memories to get eroded away is such a huge deal

[@naboume466]

I think you are very close to something, because in the 2nd traveler Archon Quest, the twin says something about returning the people of khaenri'ah to the natural cycle of life and death, most likely because people reincarnates after they die thanks to the Irminsul.

[@draganapetrovic3178]

It kinda parallels to Imaginary tree and Sea of Quantum from Honkai.

[@jqrandomuploadsandblips9158]

Here after Rukkhadevata->:a=i€a

[@wilhammartins9898]

You saying like that sounds sad like hell. And I agree with that

[@mango7711]

This concept of infinite rebirth is what hinduism an buddhism describes as: samsara. An everlasting cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth…with the goal being to escape the loop. This train of thoughts is awesome! Thanks, pal

[@kazukimisaki2312]

Nahida's story in a nutshell: Ei : Morax, I can explain Zhongli : U got every person on your nation to worship you, even after you torture them? My worshippers didn't even try to look for me after I fake my death! Venti : lol the only people that worship me are the church and they basically kinda nuts Nahida: people talk to you guys?

[@vaishnavi6384]

To be more precise, almost all of mondstadt's worship venti.

[@abdomohamed4962]

Ei is like "worship me or die" , so ahh yeah , not much options

[@thebakalord]

Nahida: so you guys weren’t locked up like some lab experiment? To be kept like some lab rat to see their intelligence? Even though my former self literally had to sacrifice most of our power and knowledge, I was still treated like a thing due to the idiocy of the Sages!? Venti, Zhongli, Ei: damn girl…

[@Indivinity]

@@abdomohamed4962 how so?

[@DemonicsInc]

OH NO ITS SAD

[@CalmJasper]

love how apparently our sibling told the Aranara that we (their sibling (or rather "another golden nara")) would one day appear in Sumeru, meaning our sibling both knew we wouldn't be together when that day came and that they have an idea of how our journey will go. along with bits we hear throughout the Aranara lines it lends a LOT of points to many speculations you've discussed before

[@Vika-kz9sq]

Could that mean that we slept this long because of our sibling?🗿

[@nenake1245]

That could be a hint in the timeline. If they knew we would meet them (because they prompted us to keep travelling in we will be reunited) then the abyss twin should have met the aranaras before the unknown god separated the twins. Which again is kinda strange how the abyss twin, who supposedly is with the abyss at that point, would use his time to help the aranara from the marana (which is the abyss too?). The only reason that comes to mind is that the abyss twin doesn't care about the archons and only wants to bring down celestia while keeping the world safe (aka slowing the irminsul degradation) or he does exactly that to buy more time to get the revenge against celestia (thinking about how he speaked of the true nature of this world in we will be reunited). This also led me to think about what turned the Khanria citizens in abyss monsters. The curse whatever is supposed to be celestia's punishment. But still the actions of certain abyss monsters (aka abyss mages trying to burn whatever is regrowing in the old Varanara after we dealt with the corruption) confuse me about the abyss twin real intentions (but also not all of the abyss is part of the order so :') )

[@7sunox]

@@nenake1245 actually the twin traveled with Dain all over Teyvat, so ig that at some point after or before the Kahenriah GG WP move from Celestia

[@shozinks]

Ei's second story quest might have started a trend in which we may see the old archons. Natlan's chapter: Incandescent Ode of resurrection could show the former pyro archon. Maybe same with fontaine and Snezhnaya.

[@xWBNJLprks]

IIRC, chapter 6 in the Aranyaka book contains a page from the sibling's diary where they are already all sad and determined, writing that, hopefully, one day they will see our Traveler again and maybe they will still be able to reconcile somehow. And they also beat themselves about talking too much about the Traveler to the Aranara :(

[@judewatts6942]

The idea of Nahida looking like the Goddess of Flowers makes so much sense with the relation of Paimon being a Seelie. Cause if GoF was a seelie herself that befriended the Scarlet King and Rukkhadevata, she would then have to look like Paimon and other seelies with white hair. Thats why the only two characters who are called "The Moon" are both Paimon and Kusanali.

[@moss_soft]

omg i almost forgot that kusanali called herself a moon (metaphorically)

[@LeaksHater]

@@stupidmineral spiral abyss and moon sisters arent really connected at the moment. Through speculations it might be possible to link them, but nothing canon atm.

[@RGA301092]

We have a general idea of what Goddess of Flowers looks like. Nilou's outfit is just her cosplaying as Goddess of Flowers, so we know GoF has horns at the very least.

[@ej4346]

I too think Paimon is a seelie. She's also obsessed with finding treasures, kinda like how seelie actually do guide us towards treasures. Also, I think the moon sisters are the 3 other shades, along with Istaroth as the 4 shades of Phanes. They predate the archons as they're the first who came.

[@beyond5405]

Paimon is the primordial one

[@dallenjohnston129]

More likely the Scarlet King is the Fourth shade and Istaroth is one of the Moon Sisters.

[@beyond5405]

@@dallenjohnston129 That would be Crazy 😳

[@orishahar]

@@dallenjohnston129 imagine if paimon, istaroth and the unknown god are the three moon sisters

[@tharakir1328]

@@orishahar unknown god is a shade of the second one. She cant be one of the moon sister

[@marjanferdousi7707]

I was waiting for this video 😄 Fun fact: Marana (মরণ) in Bengali literally translates to death, and Nara (নর) translates to human. I could identify most of the aranara terminologies as they have strong linkage to Bangla which is my first language.

[@ReiAnikaAyanami]

technically they actually have strong linkage to সংস্কৃত which is bangla's parent language, but i understand what you mean. also, hi fellow bengali!

[@ksdfg]

Sumeru as a whole is chock full of Sanskrit and Arabic terms, it's actually been fun going around and finding new stuff

[@notme6344]

Really cool to see this! Please post more translations! I can barely understand English and it's my first language, so id love to get more interpretations and meanings from other languages!

[@marjanferdousi7707]

@@notme6344 will do!!

[@amitgorai4314]

Hi fellow bengali

[@AzaratheDragon]

I feel like no one ever points out, some of the locations we go to that are underground, are absolutely MASSIVE. Enkonomiya for example, and the last section of the Aranara questline also takes us to a very large open underground locations. The Irminsul being underground means jack all, when we have multiple underground locations that are mind bogglingly huge. Being underground means nothing in terms of space or sky, with how huge these locations are.

[@cosmicechoes6123]

... oh no... kaenri'ah is underground And now that you say that, if/when we ever reach kaenri'ah, just imagine the scale that it would have to be! To get a better scope, remember that the huge ruin golem lodged in the mountain is pretty darn big. There was another one in the desert shown in the trailers and sneak peeks, so clearly the nation had enough room to make multiple of them...

[@AnnaNoneya]

@@cosmicechoes6123 I believe Kaenriah is laid out in the mapping of the game’s progression, so we will visit it. It’s gonna be at least another year or so though, because it comes around the end of the game.

[@dallenjohnston129]

Wait, could this all tie into Dainslief’s line that “there are those are content to live and not to dream.” Those Content to live are those who have accepted their fates, which therefore means that to dream is to try and change your fate. Which ties into Loom of Fate, and also the fact that Dreams are said by Kusanali to be bundles of Wisdom, and Khanriah was cursed for forbidden Wisdom, and they “Dreamed of Dreaming.” Also interesting connection, Rana received her Vision after she was able to see Arama again, so in other words she started dreaming and denied her fate, so does that make Visions embodiments of dreams and therefore people’s ability to change their fate?

[@bugmancer]

I've been trying to figure out by what condition do people gain dendro visions and this is why my best guess so far is that they're given to those that dream. Literally or figurately lol

[@thejungleadventures9599]

Ei also mentioned it

[@bloody4558]

PRetty much, remember when Qiqi changed her fate of dying just as she was about to pass on? Or how Sara was also saved by gaining a vision changing her fate? Klee may have also been in a similar predicamente when her "old lab" exploded, Bennett was also near death, bleeding all over when he gained his Vision. Fischl stood defiant and refused to give up her books, and fantasy, Xingqiu was going to just become another merchant, but he wanted to be a hero like the ones in the books he loves to read, Noelle risked her health and well-being just to stay true to herself and help others, in her ambition to be a Knight, Kazuha's friend wanted to block an unstoppable attack and his vision gave Kazuha precisely that.

[@EduardoWeidmanBarijan]

and also that Khanriah chapter is named "The Dream Yet to be Dreamed"

[@dallenjohnston129]

Oh yes! I love this list! Plus, Kazuha changed his Fate when his family collapsed and he became a Wanderer instead of becoming an important figure in the station he was born in, and conversely Ayato changed the fate of his family when he got his vision by becoming its pillar when it was set to collapse. And then Ayaka but born as an important figure, but wishes she was able to be childish sometimes and have friends instead of being just a cold dignified figure. Shenhe was also about to die when she received her vision and she went from being an innocent child to a dark and destructive force capable of single-handedly fighting a demon. This also makes me think about how a Gnosis is … “supposedly” what grants someone a vision, but if a vision is the embodiment of someone changing the fate dictated to them by the gods, it seems like it would more realistically serve the opposite purpose, to limit those who can change their fate. And then there are also delusions. Are those also symbolic of people deluding themselves into thinking they can change their fates, when in reality they are just destroying themselves? It makes me think of Scaramouche’s line about Delusions and how people were always going to die, but Delusions would allow them to burn away brightly instead of just succumbing to their fates, but it didn’t actually change it, but rather just gave the delusion that they could do something.

[@kurolie9012]

I love it that we got more info about our sibling through the aranara than all the archons so far combined.

[@xxtiagopvpxx7276]

There is also a NPC close to nahida's "home" that talks about teyvat physical shape, saying that it being a sphere (a planet) it would explain a lot of things (like the sun and moon behavior) but also saying that de math dont add up to this Its pretty much a confirmation that teyvat is NOT a normal planet, but we still dont know if it is a "plane earth" thing or that old theory of it being actually a planet, but inside the surface, in a way that going deeper means actually the oposite. It is my favorite theory considering how much mihoyo likes using the concept of the sky, the abyss, inverted things and false things.

[@UberWraith]

Considering the fact that the whole world of Teyvat is borrowing a LOT from the Hebraic religion (Teyvat meaning literally 'Ark' like in Noah's Ark) I wouldn't be surprised if the inhabited world is indeed INSIDE the planet (it would explain the whole 'false sky' and would also explain if we reach the deeper layers of the Abyss... we see the SKY, a MOON and the STARS ), as it would refer to another aspect of the Hebraic religion: the Sheol, which was basically 'The Kingdom of the Dead' and was... underground. This, of course, would open new implications (basically, the 'living' are in fact the 'dead' and vice versa)...

[@MildlySweetCappuccino]

@@UberWraith the hebraic religion? you can just say judaism? less confusing

[@asdf_asdf948]

Teyvat is probably like the Geofront in Evangelion. Kinda interesting that the Geofront in Eva is also known as "the black moon" which was a capsule containing Lilith and crashed into the Earth in the first impact. I know HYV is deep into anime and it's likely they drew some inspiration from that

[@Lilia·Liuu]

So - Digging straight down is the same as going up - Teyvat is a ball -> Brainfked Or wait, could it means that Teyvat is the top half of the ball? so Khaenri'ah was digging through the entire planet and reached the other side? so whats in the other side?

[@UberWraith]

@@Lilia·Liuu we meant that Teyvat is a sphere, but what we see (the inhabitated world) is actually INSIDE the sphere itself, with the sky being actually a 'painted ceiling' so to speak. In this case, digging down would actually reach the outer layer of the sphere itself (= 'going up' - if you are near the core of a spherical planet, every direction you dig will lead you to the surface) and the eventual civilization that lives there (we infer that it is the Abyss Order).

[@luminessupremacy]

I've had this theory about the traveller and their sibling for a long time and I think this is the right moment to share it. First of all, the traveller is probably based on Lucifer. You know, the guy who fought god, who in response took his wings and let him fall to the world (seemd reasonable, right?). The name Lucifer means "that who brings the light". That's why the brigthest thing in the sky (after the sun and moon), Venus, was known by that name before the church forced its renaming (for obvious reasons). Do you know what other name is attributed to Venus? Yes, the "morning star", cause it can only be seen in the morning. Ok, actually it can also be seen in the evening, in wich case is called the "evening star". But here's the interesting part, before a dude in ancuent Greece discovered both star were the same body they were tought to be different stars completely and were considered TWINS. Also, Venus is a planet, and the word "planet" means "wanderer" or "traveller" if you want. Going back to the "that who brings the light" thing, well, the original powers of the traveller seem kinda light based if you ask me. And there's also the fact that the traveller can use the seven elements naturally. If we think of the elements as the colors of the rainbow (something that happens in the description of the elemental specialist card description) then we're basically calling them the components of LIGHT. Also, do you know what thing can produce all the color of the visible spectrum (the rainbow)? Yes, a STAR. Yes, I know I was talking about planets two paragraphs before, but I think it is valid because before the invention of the telescope there was almost no difference between the concept of a planet and a star. That's why they called Venus the morning star depite it being a planet. So, my theory is that the traveller and their siblings are a kinda reincarnation (since that's a thing in Teyvat) or encarnation of the same person. Being that person the morning star. Do I have things to support it? Well, yeah - Kazuha said that the traveller and Paimon had the "smell of the stars" - If the twins are a literal star that means their lifespan is about some billions of years, that gives an explaination to why the abyss sibling looks the same after 500 years besides being cursed. And could make the phrase "WE (talking to the traveller) have always had enough time" - The first cake for traveller that they give to you in your first birthday in the game says "Here's to you, the brightest star in the night sky...". The brightest star in the sky, at least in the real world as I said is Venus, the morning star. - If the traveller and the abyss sibling are one soul that divided in two different persons, that would explain that "strange connection" between them that Dain mentioned in The Chasm. - In ancient Greece the stars were tought to be made of a special elemet different from the classic four (fire, wind, water and earth). That element was called "aether". - "Lumine" is a clear reference to light, and I don't think that if you've read to this point I've to explain why light and names related to light are important. - If a lot of important characters are based to some point on demons, it would make sense for the MC to be based in Lucifer, don't you think. Ok, maybe is not the most solid theory ever and I haven't really made any profound investigation. This is just an idea to wich I came with just my previous knowledge (I'm a Physics and Astronomy student) and SOME INFORMATION HERE COULD BE WRONG, or I could have missed an important fact that instantly refutes everything. Anyway, a bit of info about stars and planets is always welcome, right? Oh, here's another fact: Remember that I said that in acient times there was ALMOST no difference between stars and planets? Well the only difference back then is that planets DEVIATED from the path they would took if they were like the other stars (bc they're really close and the movements of the Earth and the solar system makes them do funny shapes that others stars don't). Well, if my theory is correct and you remember what Mona said in the GAA about stars that deviate from their path... Well, maybe things doesn't look so good for the traveller on the future... Sorry if my English is bad, I'm still struggling with writing and speaking :c... Anyway, thanks if you read until the end, byee

[@nicoleannefabian]

this is the most interesting theory I've ever read so far

[@ajergely6230]

Interesting, but : Lucifer and Vesper are the latin names for Eosphoros(Phosphoros in game) and Hesperos, two names that are present in game, in Enkanomiya’s achievements alongside Kairos who everyones knows better as Istaroth. Which possibly means that Lucifer&Vesper were gods known by the people of Enkanomiya long before the twins arrived in teyvat. Also, assuming one single character wouldnt be given more than one greek god name, Aether couldnt be Phosphoros/Lucifer since Aether is already the name of the greek god of the sky and celestial light, which also fits the in game character. On top of that Lucifer and Vesper were twin brother, while Aether has a twin sister named Hemera, goddess of earthly light. These roles are fitting for the twins since Lumine/Hemera would be closer to the people of teyvat (hence why she turned against celestia) while Aether would be closer to the divine with his habit of befriending the archons. Last point, in greek mythology the gods who made the day-night cycle were Nyx who each evening placed the veil of night over earth, and her daughter Hemera who removed it each morning ; Lucifer & Vesper were just messengers who announced when day or night were coming.

[@white_tulip2189]

I read it all..nice theory! Very interesting and well-written.

[@NoOne-rl8cy]

This is not theory. This is common sense.

[@MrKadirbey]

This is a pretty good theory I'd say.

[@Nabexico]

Regarding Tighnari's name pronunciation, actually his VA (Elliot Gindi) also aware that the correct way to pronounce it is "Tih-gh-nah-ree" but the director wants him to pronouce it as "Tie-nah-ree", the reasons simply because its easier for english speaker to copy it. He said it on Aether's VA youtube livestream

[@TheNoobler]

Legitimately everyone should watch that video because I'm really tired of the irony of people saying "ugh, don't say it like that, they're saying it wrong in English", so English speakers are trying not to get attacked and trying to pronounce things the "right" way and then ending up saying "sorry for my pronunciation/ I can't make the proper sound for the name/ I'll just call them by a nickname" WHEN THAT WAS THE POINT OF THE LOCALISED PRONUNCIATION. It is not disrespectful to pronounce something different, where are people getting that from? Also why only attack the English localisation when EVERY language has localisation???!!! Why in the world do people hate English/ English speakers so much???!!! Not to even mention everyone constantly shitting on English voice actors, calling them horrible when they're great (like all of the languages, of course). I don't get it because when non-English speakers mess up their English, everyone praises them saying they did their best... but when an English speaker messes up speaking in another language, they will be made fun of or told they're pronunciation is "cringe"...?! (These are things I've seen a lot, maybe you haven't though.) Which is also ironic because English is the EASIEST language to learn, while other languages can be extremely difficult.

[@TheNoobler]

(Sorry this was long, I split it into two comments cause it was really overwhelming. Just needed to vent somewhere lol.) Lastly, you can name a character WHATEVER you want, you can pronounce it HOWEVER you like, and that is the CANON pronunciation. People calling it "wrong", are wrong. You may use inspiration from other places without copy-pasting, the only real issue I see is taking from the places and just skipping over the skin colour of the place... when your game is already *completely white.* And honestly don't even try to tell me the Asian characters aren't white, I mean come on, they didn't even try to represent their own skin colour. Why does white have to be seen as the most beautiful when it's not? That kills me. Even besides the racist aspect that may or may not be present, seeing all the same skin is getting so boring (I still love the characters, I'm just sayin' though) and it's unappealing to look at the roster because despite the amazing characterisation in each design... the skin is still making everyone feel very same-y. I love this game and how many places they're giving attention to, but I really wished they'd change up the skin colour (it's really easy to do...). We have so many characters and yet so far, only 4 have different skin colours... and only two are dark-ish (just remembered they added Cyno and Candace, so I'm glad for that). The other two are just variants of white (which they should also do more at least, cause even seeing the same white is really underwhelming.

[@kssglz]

@@TheNoobler I'm a year late but that annoys me as well. People will shame English speakers for saying non-English words in the English way but will stay silent about other language speakers doing the same thing. An example being that no one batts an eye when in Japanese they pronounce things respectively in Japanese. Like the name Neuvillette when they add that e sound at the end. (this is not to shame them for their pronunciation or anyone btw this is just an example)

[@TheNoobler]

@@kssglz I'm glad someone gets it. You may be late but it's still happening and I still feel pain and the need to go on a rant every time it does happen lol. (I don't rant every time, that's why I exploded with thoughts here.)

[@Hebiiiii1]

This is such perfect timing cuz I literally just finished the Aranyaka quest. And now I want Rana as a playable character 😭 😊

[@azebo25]

Rana karegi rara! ( For None hindi speaker This mean Rana will fight I use this as it rhyme)

[@dallenjohnston129]

Her skill would be sending out Arana who applies Dendro to enemies and possibly also buffs and her burst is the Ararakari Bubble which shields and heals! Either that or the other way around.

[@Letheblivi]

I mean at the end of the quest, she did say something about meeting us again at some point, so it’s possible that she could be playable

[@EpsilonOrbital]

Leaked sumeru character?

[@shanedoesyoutube8001]

Chances are we won't be seeing Rana again until like... A year or two later

[@TheAssemblyline09033]

I actually thought Dunyarzad ending up living was more interesting than if she had died. Killing an almost nameless npc with no unique model that was introduced a few moments ago is already something they did with tepei, and that wasn't interesting at all. The fact Dunyarzad is not killed off for feels made this honestly more interesting and surprising. To me at least.

[@louisaniathemagnificent8246]

It didn’t work with Tepei because he wasn’t an important character. He isn’t related to any important character, we didn’t learn anything personal about him except that he wanted to become stronger so he used stuff made by the Fatui, which doesn’t mean anything. Tepei wasn’t a character but rather a device used by the story to expose the Fatui's involvement, unlike Dunyarzad who did have a strong reason to want the festival, as well as being involved with Kusanali herself and both showed care for each other, and the same goes for her relationship with Dehya. I agree that her dying wouldn’t really help the story, but they did put emphasis on her medical condition worsening, so if they weren’t planning on killing her, there was no point in making her disease worse, which is arguably worse than killing her because it implies you can’t take death or dire situations seriously because they will be solved anyways.

[@Internextion]

@@louisaniathemagnificent8246 100% this^^

[@ultragamer4465]

Dunyarzad is unique tho. I haven't seen any other npc with her model

[@kinrateia]

@@louisaniathemagnificent8246 of course there is a point? There are so many people who live with chronic conditions that ARE lethal and make their life hard. Isn't it important to tell them that they are valuable? That a god would put effort to save them, that their life is not unneded and is not only a plot device?

[@Ilwenray85]

She is terminal though, her death or survival at the end of the quest is irrelevant because of it. Unless we get rid of eleazar in the next archon quest (and that would be annoying for a lot of reasons) she will die painfully, with more regrets or less regrets. In a way, dying in her sleep was the best she could hope for, and I was conflicted when she survived, the worst is yet to come.

[@aninterestinusername]

Also if Nahida is based on the goddess of flowers, and the goddess of flowers is a seelie, that would explain why her appearance and clothing are more similar to Paimon than to the other people of Sumeru. I remember some people were upset that Nahida’s outfit seemed more Greco-Roman than middle eastern.

[@fumikio3835]

What disturbing is that Snezhnaya successfully created a bionic puppet with a self consciousness while Sumeru the place of knowledge barely can. On Tighnari's story quest the inventor made the robot to somehow think for itself but it's not confirmed, it's just a command input. But Katheryne as a whole is close to a human.

[@khanhnnguyen4678]

I guess it's more like a clone of the original Katherine, much like Dottore. Creat a biological human with enough conciousness is hard, even Albedo's creator, which from Khaenrinha, can only creat one sucessful version.

[@EpsilonOrbital]

Just a thought about paimon being a sealie, if this is the case perhaps her name (being a reference to the traitor/betrayer in that one religious thing I'm forgetting) carries more weight. As in rather than her betraying us, she had already betrayed someone else. Also I love the bit at the end about the pronunciations of characters' names, probably for the best considering current dramas.

[@lunareclipse4116]

This isn’t the first paimon could be a seelie theory I have seen, if a totally different person also came up with it a long time ago, is there more possibility that it is true?

[@salceds]

No because the character pronounciation thing is so real but the Voice Actor for Tighnari pissed me off so bad, can't believe it

[@smolshark9488]

@@salceds can’t believe what?

[@AstraLuna-o9i]

@@smolshark9488 that he told people harassing him online about how he mispronounced Tignari’s name, that he pronounced it the way Mihoyo instructed him to. Apparently because he didn’t apologize to the people harassing him and clarified that Mihoyo told him how to pronounce the name, it made people big angry.

[@aoihitori]

@@AstraLuna-o9i well it doesn't still justify that pronounciation since Hoyo are CN and I had CN irl friends that might be good in English but had difficulty of pronounciation and Tighnari is a foreign name.

[@unsalty6696]

Idk if you'll see this Ashikai, but can I just say that you are really, really good at summarising things? No matter if your theories turn out to be true or false, everything you put out is cohesive and backed by relevant, albeit not overwhelming information. A lot of people could learn a thing or two from your presentation skills

[@lubo4350]

I agree, she is really good at summarizing stuff, but I would like for her to stick more to the lore and kinda summarize and explain it to us, the people who play genshin for just spiral abyss and minmaxing comps. My "problem" with her videos is that she just theorizes too much, half the video usually is just theories that never happen. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying someone has to create a channel that explains genshin lore but does only that, no theories, no speculative things that never happened, no nothing. Just explaining the different lore that's in game, being it books, artifacts, character stories or archon quests, but no additional theory. And yes I could probably go and waste 3 months of my life doing the research on in game lore on my own, but I would like someone to actually make concise videos about different lore subjects for people like me who only care about min-maxing. And since I haven't found that channel, I'm content with watching ash, at least she puts hard work in making her videos. Don't take this as an insult @ashikai , I think you are cool, just not what I was searching for I guess.

[@dallenjohnston129]

I also love her summarizing, and I also love her theorizing! She makes very logical/nonsensical guesses are both at the same time and I love them so much! And many of her theories actually end up being correct or close to the truth. Being able to compile so many ideas into a coherent idea that is in line with the motifs of the story and seems plausible deserves huge applause! Plus it’s just fun to look at ideas that are totally crazy but that if they were true would absolutely be amazing and fit into the story so perfectly, such as Capitano being Menogias (I want that to be true so badly!!!!!!)

[@DAVFEARON]

@@lubo4350 you want min max? Zajeff777

[@DAVFEARON]

@@lubo4350 zajeff has the best abyss vidoes. Best calculations. Best comps. He is easily one of the best theory crafters on KZbin.

[@lubo4350]

@@DAVFEARON I was talking about lore videos not minmaxing videos, I already know zajeff lmao, he doesn't care about lore. I'm looking for a lore youtuber who explains the lore, not a minmaxing KZbinr. You misunderstood my previous comment.

[@bor445]

Personal theory: The sages werent trying to harvest the people in the archon quest. I mean they did do it,but it wasnt their goal. I think they were trying to extract leyline energy (memories) from Sumeru itself. Memories of Rhukadevata in an attempt to perhaps resurrect her. After all if they have all her memory data they basically have something akin to her. The people of sumeru city just got cought up in it all.

[@ndeyedraws]

Interesting...

[@Best-SiLenZ]

This can explaining that the sage said "go celebrated the birth of that god" (in my language, there is no 'that' as a specified) When we talk about this to Nahida, She might suspecting 'the birth of previous god' too.

[@nicholasvogel9783]

The aranara do say they are using the dreams as feul.

[@admiralrng6506]

literally 1984

[@johna1525]

It would make sense since it's also similar to *spoiler for Honkai* In the latest Honkai storyline about the elysian realm, the herrscher of thunder (+ the flame chasers) recreate Elysia utilizing the culmination and combinations of their memories of her. Thus, it would make some sense that, by gathering info, sifting through it for any traces of memories + thoughts regarding the previous Dendro archon, and then combining and connecting them to recreate her. OR, similar to how the capsules of sumeru can grant you info + the akasha where were shown how it can both grant and take info, it could be a situation where, instead of trying to recreate a god or gnosis, they instead usurp kusanli's mind. The sages could be attempting to gather information of rukkhadevata, consolidate it, and then use the akasha (connected to the dendro archon whose currently pretty weak since the sages have been usurping her belief) to impose the prev archon's personality onto kusanli thereby replacing her.

[@ohpake2887]

One thing I would like to point out is Paimon could be the child of the Seelie and Human all those years ago. This is based off of nothing I know of due to the fact that I play the game for the characters, I get my lore here.

[@orishahar]

oooh I like that idea a lot

[@DemanaJaire]

Oh, and that would explain why the curse didn't affect her, because she's not a true blood seelie, I guess.

[@itsdjinane9096]

really inetersting thought!

[@Ironsuaba]

28:05 Paimon is also instrumental in Traveler's learning of how to use the elements - the descriptions of Traveler's abilities point to that.

[@romdom9406]

I think i saw a lore video somewhere theorizes that the traveller channels the archon statue’s elemental energy through paimon when changing elements.

[@سمية-غ4ب]

@@romdom9406 What's even scarier is that Albedo literally deduced that same theory and stated it during his story quest

[@bethanymcgonigle]

And also don't the aranara detect Kusanalis elemental energy on the traveller so does this confirm that the traveller is channelling the archons elemental powers in general

[@rz3264]

@@romdom9406 yeah, i remember when kazuha ask us why the traveler use elemental skill the way we do, the answer is paimon teach us how and paimon just responding with "ahh i just blabber whatever on my mind"

[@jappu]

I finally realized, that Greater Lord Rukkhadevata saynig: ,,World...forget me...'' could mean that Sumeru and the world has to forget about her to heal the Irminsul Tree. Even though this might not be true it's just a thought that came to my head. Edit: it became true lol

[@alinakio3183]

I was thinking the same! Maybe the virus or whatever is infecting the Irminsul Tree just attached itself to the very memory of the archon. Therefore to remove it u have to forget that piece of information.... which is kinda impossible right now and is kinda big brain from the bad guy.

[@wakawakawakawaka8804]

.... how do you feel now that theory is confirmed

[@jappu]

@@wakawakawakawaka8804 well.... i have completely forgotten about this comment so i guess the removal of rukkhadevata from irminsul must have also worked on me as well XD. but honestly didn't expect the theory to become reality

[@AstraLuna-o9i]

Its interesting that you can to the conclusion that Paimon is a seelie. Arama told us that seelies start regressing the more they care for a human, and if you look at how Paimon acted at the beginning of the game vs now, she’s definitely regressed from a knowledgeable guide to more simple child. I used to think that it was just lazy writing on the devs part, but maybe it’s because the more she cares for the traveler the more she mentally regresses from the curse. Also maybe the Scarlet King fell in love with the Seelie who was the goddess of flowers, and that lead to her death, causing him to go nuts with grief afterwards as he would probably feel responsible.

[@theresivy]

wait, which part of the quest did Arama say Seelies start regressing? And in what way exactly, outside of what Paimon’s shown to be doing right now.

[@pdp1933]

When I was playing it I suspected that when she said ‘world forget me’ knowledge of her stored in the Akasha is polluting the lay line somehow. And again when we were having misdirects I thought it’d be a theme of the area this time around. So I hypothesise the solution traveler will first arrive to is to remove the ‘influence’ of Rukkhadevata from Sumeru but then realise the actual solution is to remove her presence in the ley lines as some sort of rotten branch or concentrated energy whatnot. And then since Fontaine is likely to be the next place due to the repeated mentions of it- I think we’ll go there and see a place without sheer cold, corruption, fog or withering and realise that the presence of archons is creating a temporary storage of the nuclear waste you reference before, and that presence eventually spills over. I’m still convinced that celestia is behind maintaining exactly 7 archons at a time and I know it’s a leap out there but if it lines up then it would explain so much. Like how (like with the pockets of time) the old dendro archon technically exists and is creating a concentrated power in another pocket that’s leaking over to the ‘present’: or that there happened to be a potential manipulation to create a new one at that precise time: or that the most concentrated spills happen where two godly powers reside: or that there’s a link to ley lines and this just happens to be in the place with the youngest god: or that everything is happening at the same time that traveler appears and again back when their sibling was there. AND HOLY HECC I did not expect the seelie in the desert I am EXCITED and I’m predicting that the deserts lack of elemental energy creates the perfect scenario for something LIKE THE HUGE PYRAMID I mean come on there’s technology in Fontaine, somewhat in schneznia and in the desert pyramid and they just happen to be in places that reject the overbearing control of primordial deities? Tell me I’m mad.

[@messyhair42]

The quests were really interesting, the only moment in which I audibly exclaimed was when Katherine was revealed as a Snezhnaya puppet, I knew it but did not expect that to make it into the game this soon

[@samuelhuff3427]

I mean we’re already half way through the main storyline, so it makes sense for this information to be revealed, also we’re like 3 chapters away till we reach Snezhnaya.

[@Catalyst_08]

@@samuelhuff3427 you make 3 years sound like a short amount of time lol

[@samuelhuff3427]

@@Catalyst_08 cause with how fast time has been going for the last few years, yeah these 3 years are gonna go pretty fast

[@presmadagascar]

I don't know if I'm on board for Paimon being a Seelie. However, assuming the Lord of Flowers was a Seelie and that Kusanali is made to look like her, that would imply that Alice and Klee's "elf-eared" race are actually the Seelies.

[@lavq7000]

In the scenario that 'long pointy ears' are a defining feature of seelies, then it is possible that what the other comment said about Paimon being a child of a seelee and a human would make sense (as Paimon has human ears'). I don't Buy into this theory yet but it is something to keep in mind moving foward.

[@kokopium1530]

@@lavq7000 paimon being the child of the seelie and human who fell in love

[@noelkreiss2398]

2:57 Nahida literally explain because you have been blessed by the power of Dendro, you just like Nahida can directly connect your mind to the tree. Unlike the rest of Sumeru needs to meditate or use the knowledge capsule

[@azebo25]

This might not help but "elzear" is similar to sarph dosha in Hindu astrology, Both make person weak and associated with skin problem And is caused By Rahu and Ketu which were snake ( Half and sort)

[@EduardoWeidmanBarijan]

I wonder. What if Baizhu has Eleazar? And what if Qiqi died from it?

[@kinggecko503]

@@EduardoWeidmanBarijan qiqi died during the archon war due to yakshas fighting

[@سمية-غ4ب]

If she taught the Traveller how to speak the language of Teyvat then what the hell was the traveller speaking before that and how were they able to communicate with Paimon?

[@arnowisp6244]

Gibberish?

[@asiersantamaria1930]

Great video! About the hole Paimon thing: It is said in all of the Travelers elemental skill and burst descriptions that they were developed after discussing how each element works with Paimon, and if I remember correctly the Traveler credits Paimon with having taught them how to use the elements when Kazuha asks, so she is teaching a lot of things to the Traveler, thing she knows on an instinctive level, so the seali thing makes a lot of sense. On a completely diferent note, there are a couple of NPCs at Caravan Rivat that speak about how in the desert there is an abandoned medical facility that the Akademia sealed off, that is rumored to have a cure to Elazar, and given Dottores connection to the Akademia and how he promised Colleis mother to cure her Elazar, this may have been where mister heretic worked back during his college days, so he may have quite the connection with the disease.

[@IckusVickus]

If the "traveler's kit is a downgraded version of the archons" thing keeps up, is Paimon teaching us how to use the elements similar to the archons a coincidence or sus?

[@moss_soft]

@@IckusVickus i think sus 100%

[@sarllie8271]

The theory of Nahida being made in the image of the flower goddess (a seelie) makes so much stylistic sense now that im thinking of it. it explains her seemingly incomprehensible attire (relative to the cohesive theme of sumeru as a whole) and made me realize how similar she looks to paimon and everything!

[@animeshupadhyay5448]

Paimon being a seelie makes so much sense now. She literally calls herself the best "guide" in teywat. Which I always thought was just a brag but now I am pretty sure she subconsciously knows she is a seelie and a guide and that her memories have been messed up by some sort of trauma in the past. Another one of my theory is that she could be a detached avatar of the 1 moon sister which remains or one of the moon sister which is presumed dead and later found by traveller coincidently.

[@christianjulian9644]

You know what, with all these troubles with the ley lines, I'm starting to feel like we are all being played like "chess pieces" by something more than we expect. I believe that there is an enemy in Genshin that we have not seen yet, be it the harbinger of erosion, or the catalyst of the conflicts between Ka'nriah and Celestia; there is a missing piece of the puzzle that may be in the hands of a certain enemy. Who knows that in the end, the abyss, ka'nriah, the fatui, the archons, and the nations along with the traveler are all playing in the grand scheme of an eternal being, waiting, plotting, and soon. . . wreck havoc when the time is right.

[@christianjulian9644]

what if the conflicts of people is what causes these Leylines to get sick? I don't know what I'm saying

[@emiljano5246]

@@christianjulian9644 idk what to say ut i totally understand u i think same wayyyyyyyyyyyyy

[@Ali-cya]

13:15 Ashikai, you also missed the colour of the knowledge capsule Kusanali gives us, which is Golden-Yellow. (The one where she restores our memory for the first time)

[@Beginner_Seven]

It basically like traffic light

[@Ashikai]

Yeah but that one's not real.

[@Ali-cya]

@@Ashikai Wait, it's not real ? Why ?

[@NamSilhan]

29:05 Yoimiya once said "When I first received my Vision, I used it as a flint to light fireworks and boil water, before returning home, chucking it into a STOREROOM, and forgetting all about it. [...] My father who found it [...] told me that it was a precious item that I should keep safe. Haha, at least it didn't get taken back by our dear Archon", in her [About the Vision] voice. --- I wonder if that means it's not sticky, & Vision "needs" people instead (can't be vice-versa, & some just feel that they need it even if objectively not at all). To think that people can't choose to abandon/break their Visions (Keqing, ect) but can abandon/withdraw Delusions (Collei?), it reminds me of Dain's question about do peoples with Vision are more valuable to the god..... thingy.. too. But then, back to Yoimiya, even for a while, she did abandon her Vision and it doesn't chase after her with legs or something 😂 Sooooo strange.

[@ScarfmonsterWR]

I think the current lore, as established in Inazuma, is that if somebody abandons the vision themselves, there's no side effects. But if the vision is forcibly taken from them, they will most likely suffer from mental issues ranging from loss of memory to apathy and depression.

[@NamSilhan]

@@ScarfmonsterWR Oooh finally I got an answer for why Yoimiya is fine till now, thank you 😲 That's also why Vision oweners in Inazuma still suffer when the one who took their Vision was not technically Raiden herself but NPC soldiers! I see, I see. That being said, did this mental issues also experienced by Itto?? Does being Oni reduce the effect..?

[@moss_soft]

@@ScarfmonsterWR aranaras are also experiencing memory loss after they lost (used) some of their powers so can visions be considered condensed energy/memory from irminsul ? so many questions

[@ScarfmonsterWR]

@@moss_soft Especially considering that we don't know who or what actually grants visions. Ei basically confirmed Archons have no influence over who gets one, yet something still prevented people from getting electro visions for a long time. Like, are visions a natural prenomenon? If there appeared a god of some new element, would visions of that element automatically start appearing too? Is that the reason Celestia reduced the number of gods to only 7? Also, does Celestia have any influence over visions in the first place? Is gnosis a way to control that process? There are still so many unanswered questions.

[@dallenjohnston129]

By the way, does the Scarlet King give anyone else Shade of the Primordial one Vibes? Since he’s obviously based off of Ra, the Sun God, Gold is definitely his color, as well as Scarlet, and he was said to have given his people seven rays/pillars which ummmmm… sound EXTREMELY like the Seven elements, or something that channeled them, since the elements are often paralled to light and it’s different wavelengths hence being called “rays.” But yeah, most hugely the Sun God part, especially since Istaroth, the only confirmed shade, is also symbolized by the Sun.

[@Aerith-77x]

Hey, I'm quite new to the whole genshin lore stuff but am enthusiastically trying to get further into it. I've heard a few people reference these shades of primordial ones, moon sisters or phanes. Do you mind pointing me to a video or text I could watch or read to learn more about this lore? Thanks

[@bloody4558]

Nope, Scarlet King may have some relation to Ra yes. But the elements are most definitely related to the Dragon-lords who used to rule Teyvat before Phanes showed up. And eventually Celestia. I think the Scarlet King is only partially related to him and might have some more elements pertaining to either an Arabian or Persian god. Probably Arabian because he came from the desert region, while things related to the Forest region tend to be either related to Indian(for the forest itself and it's denizens), or Persian(for anything related to humans that live there)

[@camille9675]

@@Aerith-77x you can read about phanes and everything related to him in-game in the book 'before sun and moon', which you can get in enkanomiya. As for videos, ashikai, klementime, catwithbluehat and bitshark have some very great analysis and theory videos about this topic!

[@Ashikai]

He definitely does to me but I can't quite figure out what I think the specifics are.

[@romdom9406]

Paimon being something confirmed as a seelie makes me so so excited to know more about what they are gona write next about her! And the whole seelies cant fall in love with humans doesn’t just mean love as in romantic and stuff. It could also be love of a friend or family and stuff… so paimon definitely loves the traveller… and then what.. Is she gona wither away or is the traveller gona break the curse.. Also, can paimon/seelies even grow up? Do we get to see paimon grow up in the span of the game? Are we gona see past seelies like paimon in the future?

[@tharakir1328]

I think paimon might be a greater seelie, like maybe their boss or sum else. She seems way more important than a mere seelie, maybe she created them. Paimon is the face of the game, she must be really important

[@juice8903]

I will say, Nahida never claimed Dunyarzad to be dead. She only ever claims that her consciousness has disappeared (from the shared dream I presume). I do think her actual death would've been more impactful, but her reappearance doesn't quite totally come out of the woodwork as Nahida does tease that she's going outside the city to try and find a wisp of hope or whatever she called it.

[@1Kitsune1]

Her death would have enforced Nahida's belief that she was a useless archon though, and that would hardly serve for her growth that seems to be projecting through the narrative.

[@arnowisp6244]

@@1Kitsune1 True. It's a good boost to Nahida. Knowing she at least saved Dunyarzad.

[@ScribeOfHeaven]

@@1Kitsune1 also it was good for us too.. I mean we went through hell of repeating the same day again and again and wrecking our brains only to see that one we tried so hard to save is dead? Nah! I would have question what’s the point of all this! I’m just glad she is alive.. FOR NOW!

[@1Kitsune1]

@@ScribeOfHeaven Agree

[@InanisNihil]

nahida simply was WRONG.. we are CONCIOUS when we are dreaming.. literally.. its a concious expierence.. the issue is wether or not we remember the dreams.. concious comes in different flavors and states.. simple put.. Dun just fell OUT OF CONCIOUS.. thus LEFT THE DREAM... aka no concious expirence.. butt was still having different state of conciousness.. like say just visual or auditory etc stuff.. aka not like a typical "dream" thats like a movie/film.. this lower state of conciousness dreaming is what nahida picked up on when she left the town.. and what she did.. or what it sounds like is she simply stablized as much as she could Dun's fading state of concious and then from the OUTSIDE brough duns concious back to the level of dreaming and placed it into the dream trick to see the dance.. the issue tbh here.. is peoples understanding of "dreams" and "concious" so i completely agree with u that dun actually didn die at all.. she just fell "unconcious" or rather.. the state of it reduced and thus didnt meet the requirements of the akasha to concsider it "dreaming" so she got free.. which explain why Dun was still alive and still "Dreaming" enough to be detected by kusanalli.. lol and why she came back into the dream to see the dance.. hence why SHE looked different then everyone else.. she was a PROJECTION from outside into that dream..

[@CadisEtramaDiRaizelHexion]

I can’t explain to you how much your videos help me! I loove the lore in this game but im often exhausted from work and can’t really understand what’s going on 😪 your videos are sooo amazing, they explain so much! I love them ❤️ thank you!!!

[@jervinkhoo]

love the analysis, regarding traveler as sun, and paimon is the moon, the first thing that comes to me is the book: Before Sun and Moon, literally just mean before the travels of the Traveler and his/her companion. regarding the pronunciation of names, if we really going to argue about what is right and wrong, then we have to go back and start arguing why everyone have been pronouncing Liyue names wrong to begin with, starting with Liyue and Ganyu, and people have to start learning tonal pronunciation, or even why German names are pronounced wrongly too.

[@GeneSysFNLT]

Not sure how correct I am in thinking this, but... The fact that Irminsul fruit look like rocks, even though they somehow come from a "tree." I think they aren't rocks at all, but giant chunks of resin. That being the case, then the thing to leak out of a memory tree would be memory resin. Which makes sense to me, since the Irminsul Fruit from Unreconciled Stars made people dream of someone else's memories. That makes me wonder if the crystal in the Knowledge Capsules is actually Irminsul tree resin. Also, I think the Irminsul Fruit/Knowledge Capsules are a part of the same, if not *THE* same, system as Masterless Stardust/Masterless Starglitter, and the Resin system. What I learned recently from learning to play the fiddle is that if you pass a gritty surface over rosin, you get resin dust. And that reminded me of the dust and glitter left behind every time you Wish. So, maybe the use of resin is being applied in multiple ways in this game?

[@serenitymercer]

I also thought about the resin dust thing! AND Genshin has a lot of mention/use of music.

[@cassandrawasright1481]

A few things I noticed that you didn't mention: The Scarlet King created a hive mind of his people similar to what the Sages seem to have been trying to do with the Akasha System. His goal with this, according to the Gilded Dreams set, was for his people to become some kind of super-god, but it clearly didn't work out well for anyone involved. There's another potential candidate for the living Seelie that sticks out in the lore books: Liloufar, "foremother" of the Jinn. We only strictly know of her association with the Scarlet King and the Goddess of Flowers, but it wouldn't be a surprise if she was a friend of Rukkhadevata's as well. If Kusanali can use the Akasha to possess people, is that a function of the Akasha that she can just kinda access because she's kinda the "core" of it? If so, does that mean that the Sages can also use it to puppet people around like they're sleepwalking? I would not be completely surprised if the Akasha System had some connection to the False Sky; the word "akasha" is the root of many Indian languages' word for the sky, after all.

[@Ashikai]

Yeah I didn't really want to confuse the issue too much with Scarlet King history because the quests were already overwhelming for most anyway. I'm going to reserve all of that stuff for a whole other video.

[@cassandrawasright1481]

@@Ashikai That makes sense. Looking forward to the Scarlet King video!

[@Vael221]

One thing I thought of while watching this; I wonder if the reason for the dream harvesting is to utilize the same kind of magic as the Aranara use. Instead of consuming a whole lot of one person's memories to use the magic, it is instead consuming a little bit of memory from a whole lot of people. Perhaps then the reason the Sages would go so far as to mass harvest dreams is to bank a large reserve of memory that can be consumed to cast some powerful magic (resurrect Rukkhadevata?).

[@emiljano5246]

yeah that tooo

[@jonnevitu4979]

1:58 my pc had a color problem that made me not notice that the fog on the map was red, thats the same red that we had on the ley line from the Diluc skin event that showed things from the past, a pretty neat detail mihoyo, that explains why it was "just a ley line animation but red", it actually had a deeper meaning.

[@nhaan4178]

I'm really impressed with how Hoyoverse depicts the relationship between the traveller/mc and Paimon. We all know how much Paimon cares about MC (she stayed with us even if the Raiden Shogun was about to strike, she tried to catch us when the Jade Chamber was destroyed for the first time). But this time was different. Paimon was full on sobbing and grabbing onto the MC's clothes.

[@Lightark233]

Oh, the speed of the new video release is surprising! The length is also sufficient! I realize that as the number of followers grows, it may be hard to read and interact with each comment... But more viewers is a good thing, which means more opportunities for high quality cultural content to spread in the community! And it can also provide some support for your creative work. Blessing!

[@Ashikai]

Thank you! The comment section actually means a lot to me regardless of whether the comments are positive or negative so while it's harder for me to get through them all as quickly as I used to I still do make an effort to read them all and I will continue to do so for as long as it's feasibly possible. :D Thank you!!

[@celaninari8806]

There's been so much interesting stuff this patch, but I think the revelations regarding the sibling in the Aranara quest is particularly interesting because it's changed my understanding of the timeline for the sibling. I had long believed that the order of events was that the sibling woke up, traveled the world with Dainsleif, and upon returning to Khaenri'ah, got wrapped up in the cataclysm ultimately resulting in an attempt to flee with the traveler. Now we have hard evidence that the traveler spent some time fighting the cataclysm outside of Khaenri'ah. I'm wondering if perhaps the cataclysm happened mid travel, and they responded by helping the Aranari. That would explain why it seems like Lumine is returning to Khaenri'ah to find it destroyed in the the We will be Reunited trailer. This suggests to me that the sibling was not involved in whatever set off the cataclysm. That also begs the question, if the traveler what fighting against the abyss during the cataclysm, what about the destruction of Khaenri'ah caused them to start working with it? Also, it's probably reasonable to assume that the abyss the organization and the abyss the phenomenon are related, but definitely not the same thing, so I'm assuming that the destruction of Khaenri'ah prompted the traveler and the survivors of the cataclysm to make active use of the abyss and they just named their organization after it.

[@StyxDipped]

I’m so glad you made this because I did the majority of the Aranara quests at 4am and I think by the end I was just. Glazed over eyes.

[@Al-bs5lj]

Paimon being a seelie makes so much sense to me! The traveler is super smart and catches up quickly and already had existing knowledge so of course piamon hasn’t taught them much but if you really think about it she’s taught traveler more then people would think. Also why would she refer to herself as a travel guide? And how does she know so much but yet so little? There’s probably some sorta base knowledge seelies have and it’s probably updated by the lay lines or celestia so these existing seelies have some sort of way to fulfill their purpose and seelies just sit there till we approach and then it leads us places so I’d imagine before we approach they’re in some sort of slumber and that would explain why paimon was just chilling in the water and since traveler pulled her out she’s now leading them somewhere and she may not even know where that is herself. It’s just instinct and she probably thinks she knows where she’s taking them but she doesn’t actually know. I also think celestia didn’t plan for that to happen at least not the unknown god, if there is 3 of them I’d imagine at least one of them is trying to help travel in very very subtle ways and I think it may be the god of time, mainly because they helped the electro gods with the seed and giving them something that massive doesn’t seem like something the gods of celestia would ever do if they are all like the unknown god. But I could be wrong I’m not as perceptive as most when it comes to genshin story or theories that’s why I watch so many theory videos lol.

[@stefanodg6155]

2 years I know this game. This video is actually the best one I've seen in 2 years about Genshin Impact. Very well done! For some connection you made I think you are a genius my friend! :)

[@vengefulmonkgaming411]

So, I had a few thoughts, but the first one I wanted to bring up is this: When we initially meet Dainsleif, he says something about the Dendro Archon being the enemy of wisdom itself, which could imply that he was in Sumeru at the same time "Nara Varuna" (abyss twin) was. This would mean that Dainsleif, who is named after a cursed weapon from Norse myth (?), PROBABLY parted ways with the Abyss Twin not long before the Varuna contraption was initially repaired, which may imply that Dainsleif encountered a different side of Sumeru that we haven't yet seen, a side that may have shaped his criticisms of Kusanali. That out of the way, onto the other, more plot central, matter. I had apparently missed when playing that Rukkhadevata had returned to Irminsul to "heal the land", so when I heard you mention it, alarm bells went off in my head, and you followed up with EXACTLY what was going through my own mind. Marana had always existed in the desert, but didn't seem to exist in the forest or jungle until after the cataclysm. It may actually be that the desert never held the same spark of life, so Marana's "presence" in the desert could just be due to it's distance from Rukkhadevata's "oasis". However, if Rukkhadevata's consciousness still exists in Irminsul, and it's only been since that moment that Marana started invading the forest... Is it not possible that the Abyss may have "killed" Rukkhadevata inside Irminsul... which would pollute and stain the tree with a "memory of death", and be WHY Rukkhadevata wants to be forgotten... because it's the memory of her that is killing the land? Also... the things with the Eremites... obviously they're being manipulated, and they're occasionally seen with Fatui, but I think the Fatui are manipulating two sides... by which I mean that I'm pretty sure 2 Harbingers are currently active in Sumeru. Oddly enough, two are also mentioned during the quests: LA Dottore, via the history of Collei, and I'm pretty sure Pulcinella was mentioned by Alphonso when you confront him.... And a third is referenced when Kusanali calls Katheryne a "puppet from Snezhnaya", which I'm pretty sure confirms your theory about Katheryne's link to Sandrone. Soooo... yeah.... Another great video, I'm really looking forward to the next one!

[@serenitymercer]

Damn.

[@vengefulmonkgaming411]

@@serenitymercer I'm sorry. I think too much about everything.

[@emiljano5246]

@@vengefulmonkgaming411 u think to much and i loved it

[@ReiAnikaAyanami]

i really like the theory about rukkhadevata having been killed in the irminsul and her death causing the marana! i hope it becomes canon.

[@corbeaunoir8319]

I haven't played archon quests in a while and I'm excited that I have played and can finally watch your videos again

[@zahisunohr]

Your point of Kusanali resembling the goddess of Flowers also fits really well with your idea that the game references Kallen/Theresa and Otto with the gods in Sumeru since the Scarlet King seemed to like her and even became mad after her passing

[@shanedoesyoutube8001]

HOW MANY OTTOS DO WE HAVE HERE?!?!?! There's one in mondstadt, at the door of the church of Favonius, there's Ayato, same Liyue Inazuma actors, I heard dainsleif likely has Otto behavior, and the Fatui, Russian Ottos NOW THE SCARLET KING SHOWS SIGNS OF OTTO BEHAVIOR???

[@zahisunohr]

@@shanedoesyoutube8001 I didn’t know that, guess there can never be enough Ottos in mihoyo‘s eyes :D

[@shanedoesyoutube8001]

@@zahisunohr I only thought there's one Otto expy in the form of Ayato

[@littlelamp8744]

I saw this on my feed and got extremely excited. Thank you for your lore videos!

[@komi4449]

Now i have Some questions.. Near the end of the aranaras’s quest, theres one araNara (Aramuhukunda) who said that now, he was able to return to the « Sarva » and meet Nara Varuna (our sibling). Whats the sarva and why would our sibling be there ? And another aranara (araja) said that when he and the other siblin split up, nara varuna said that another golden nara will come after him/her and will bring even better memories to the aranaras. So the other sibling knew that we were coming after them, how and why did the sibling have this knowledge about future ? And finally, during the fight against the marana’s avatar, Arama told us that when the marana will return in the future (because it will) another golden nara will come after us to heal it again, so they dont need to worry. So is it a déduction he made, because it happened two times already, or is it a knowledge he possess ? That maybe our sibling or someone else told him… So many questions

[@sherio8823]

As Kusanali said, Everything in this world runs in a loop. So probably the abyss twin already experienced running around teyvat multiple times already (?)

[@bethanymcgonigle]

It also explains how venti knows the traveller before their first meeting ingame

[@klaudiajastrzebska4805]

The aranara assume our twin is long gone, they think the sibling is just not alive in a sense we are (since apparently nobody really dies per se), I think they said a couple of Times that human have less time than aranara. As for that place maybe its some kind of heaven? Maybe its Irminisuls Space that 'dead' people go to?

[@drpaimon2369]

I feel like It's still possible for her to be one of the moon sisters. Doesn't have to be, but I think it's still possible. Especially with her having a shop that resets after 30 days, just like the the welkin moon resets every 30 days and the abyssal MOON spire. Oh and of course the triquetra, oh and the fact she wears a crown. It might just be that the moon sisters are also some type of special seelie

[@anyaaa2801]

I haven't finished the Aranara quest so this theory might be funky but I feel like it's pretty obvious that Nahida is just Rukkhadevata but just reborn and going through the cycle of life one again: ☆ As she was dying, she was thinking or she wished to honor the goddess of flowers so her body went into the ground and birthed baby Nahida (with the goddess of flowers' powers) and her old memories/consciousness went into the irmisul tree while the new Rukkhadevata is born not remembering anything. The only evidence I have to support this theory so far is Nahida being the first Akasha terminal. That's all I have :( Also it would make a sweet revenge story to see that the kid deity the sages are mistreating is the omnipotent God they worshipped ages ago.

[@anyaaa2801]

Comment #2: Actually, I just remembered something. In Ritou, there was an npc who told us that Nahida does a ritual every year to fertilize the land and he called her the goddess of flowers....so that's another actual evidence of my theory.

[@emiljano5246]

@@anyaaa2801 i am liking ur theory i was thinking of her reborn but the rest is on point like u saiddd

[@lpcurio]

Visions attached to the outfit are like how swords float behind you

[@smiles4nyles281]

Another great video! I was looking forward to this and one of my cats decided to troll me for the first three minutes but I finally was able to watch and finish in peace! Another thing about the Goddess of Flowers and Nahida possibly being based on her is that in the original Chinese, the Sabzeruz Festival is called 花神诞日 the Flower God's Birthday and was, at least until recently, referred to as the God of Flowers so that in addition to everything you mentioned in her rapid fire section makes sense. There's so much mystery surrounding the God of Flowers' death, if you read the lore of the Oasis Garden ascension mats it straight up heavily implies that she planned her own death. I'm really looking forward to the continuation of the Archon Quests in 3.1 and 3.2 and learning more about these 3 gods. Also Paimon being a Seelie is a theory I've never heard before and with everything you mentioned, yeah it honestly makes sense! I hope that ends up being straight up confirmed. Thanks for the video!

[@icypeanutpolo]

It’s so cool going back and watching these so long after the fact. The theories were SO CLOSE to what actually ended up happening, it’s a big part of why I love Ashikai’s videos.

[@Tzen03]

A couple of things about Sumeru that interested me, the Scarlet King makes me think of the evil deity of the same name from the SCP universe, also known as (one of the entities classified as) SCP-001. The other thing, Eleazar makes me think of the incurable disease called Oripathy from the game Arknights, it also affects the body in a similar way resulting in eventual death, if not constantly treated. The parallels intrigued me!

[@anikiko1175]

This is an amazing recap of everything happened but also not wanting spoilers. The perfect balance of no full on spoilers or speculations while bits we most likely have missed. I and most people would love to see this as series for every update or when major quests. Would help most of us when remembering what happened like few updates ago but not wanting to get full on spoilered while checking wiki

[@SirEpicTM]

I love that the setting for this video was setting entirely within the Akademiya, really loving the extra details!

[@ahmedwael2462]

so happy i found your channel, i've been searing for a long time for a genshin lore explanation channel and for some reason your channel never crossed my search, really nice lore sum up by the way thanks and definitely sub!

[@claudeherac]

Yay new Yanfei set! She's gonna be in the Sumeru Library for a good while!!

[@A_random_funeral_consultant]

I remember in the Shenhe story domain there were two seelie courts by a table with 2 chairs (maybe representing how long ago they were much different) Also the traveler has a line about how they feel a sad aura when they approach seelie treasure or something

[@swampmonster1019]

Thank you for this! My brain had a hard time keeping up with the Aranara quests, as a lot of stuff just started blending together. I reached a point where I just said "Nope, I'll wait for Ashikai to make sense of it."

[@josefcerny4620]

27:56 also from the Travelers elemental skill and burst descriptions, it seems she helps the traveler master the elements, which always seemed kinda weird to me

[@imperiumVII]

Kinda crazy how Irminsul functions just like the Lifestream from Final Fantasy VII. Both are essentially the life blood of these worlds, and both store the memories of people

[@threethymes]

Fantastic video. Thank you for all your hard work in making Genshin lore more understandable.

[@jbridges19]

Yay I was hoping u we’re gonna drop a lore video. Keep it up u help me immerse myself into the game to explore the story and not just big pp damage. Thank you 🙏🏾

[@Ellaliluleloka]

Tysm for listing what quests you'll be addressing 🙏 Sumeru is sooooo stacked and I wanna take my time with it (plus working on a thesis). Can't wait to watch this video once I finish the quests.

[@ChazNatlo]

It's unclear in game exactly how many times the dream looped. By recollection we the player were privy to about ten or so, but there are anywhere above fourty that we didn't see. So there could have been sixty loops, there could have been one hundred or so. (technically you can leave and come back and the game treats it as another loop with an absconding traveler, so if you really want you can pump that number up above a thousand, but that's unlikely to be canon.)

[@ChazNatlo]

One hundred and Sixty Eight times, apparently.

[@grassina3]

Ugh yessss I’ve been checking for this video every day since the update. Edit: okay so this could be bc I’ve been rereading the Silmarillion, but the seelie are sounding sorta like the Tolkienian elves.

[@PacWest6]

Hey Ashikai, were you able to complete the Vimara Village arc at the end of the Aranara story quest? We got some pretty interesting info on Arlecchino as well as Dottore's potential goals later on in this Archon quest. If you haven't already you really should check it out.

[@Boevital]

Aah ashi your videos are so entertaining to me!! Like I literally don’t care if things come out to be right it’s so FUN to me to see people theorize!! the one about the seelie and the moon tho?? LOVED it. I really really wanna hear about all things regarding the seelies and moons, the one thing I’m all intrigued about (besides the sneaky hydro archon)

[@christie.mardania]

This is amazing Ashikai, as always, really appreciate every single research you've done on these topics. Enjoy Sumeru to the fullest ♡

[@Jadeline]

This is amazing, thank you so much for the explanation! I really appreciate your effort and I enjoy watching it (still watching rn btw lol) 🥰

[@Animely0]

I'm 2 minutes into this video, and I've been trying so hard to understand the Irminsul tree and the ley lines and you somehow managed to perfectly summarize and explain this concept in 50 seconds 😭 I get it now, 😅, the heart/circulation system analogy was the key I was missing to grasp this, Nahida herself would be proud 👌😔

[@JMBE21]

5:27 Made me feel "Yes, I'm gonna keep watching this woman's videos."

[@jax1670]

This makes the Harbinger trailer all the more interesting. Dottore's prime segment is busy with an Experiment with Blasphemy. Blasphemy is defined as an act of Irreverence or contempt towards a god or anything sacred I think he's the one attempting to compile the memories to create an Artificial Gnosis, Because Nahida herself is a Living Gnosis and capturing her would be impossible since she only appears when she feels like it

[@krasusable]

Hey there Ashikai! Thanks for the video!

[@oryylo]

Regarding the Akasha and data restriction, there are multiple NPCs that mention the Grand Conservator, one of the being Nizam who is located just at the top of the stairs when you come into Sumeru City. He mentiones that the Grand Conservator,who is the director of House Daena in the Akademiya, gives access to some important texts and primary sources. We'll probably gain more lore knowledge if he/she gives us more access to the Akasha's database.

[@liwendiamond9223]

I really enjoyed this version of the game, and part of that enjoyment came from confirming so many of Ashikai's theories and guesswork. Like for real, every other lore drop I was like "ASHIKAI CALLED IT! SHE WAS RIGHT!" Also beating the snot out of Marana's Avatar after spending the equivalent of a whole normal game's length questing around Sumeru with those cute seed people was incredible. The Archon quest, especially the second part, was straight fire. Man I think 3.0 was my favorite update yet, and I absolutely loved Inazuma. How does Hoyoverse keep knocking it out of the park with this content? Sure it doesn't last forever, but it's SO GOOD when you're in the thick of it. And I still got lots of lose ends to wrap up. They hid a ton of stuff in that massive forest. I was especially impressed with the sheer number and complexity of cave systems. There are so many it's hard to keep track of it all. Had to it the various dream dimensions, the puzzles locked behind Aranara songs and subtle environmental clues... We have sure come a long way since the relatively plain and straightforward adventures in good old Mondstadt. But come to think of it, even that was full of cool lore and places to explore, just different style is all. And finally, yeah, the Akasha is fucking creepy and basically Big Corpa Tech's wet dream. DO NOT allow them to put a chip in your brain. It's already bad enough as it is.

[@jajathenewking6131]

25:05 that makes a lot of sense for paimon, because she has no confirmed race. 28:04 plus here I don't think she flipped out on him for calling her a seelie since she usually hates being called anything else besides paimon. But I'm not to sure yet since I haven't completed this quest, though the evidence is there.

[@DrGerbill]

I LOVE HOW YOU JUST TOTALLY NERD OUT AND SORT ALL THIS LORE OUT FOR US ITS SO GOOD

[@arykyellowicecream54]

Ok, this is exactly what I needed. I pretty much rushed through the Arayanka or whatever that quest is called bc of an upcoming exam. It's my fault for rushing through it and not reading the dialogues but oh well. Hopefully this video will help me understand what that god damm long of a quest is all about lol The quest itself is really fucking good, I'm just a lil impatient 😭💀.

[@forscythejones8525]

Just finished the Aranyaka quest. The thing that really popped to me is the LCD SCREEN IN THE RUIN GOLEM!!! HAHAHA I always see Teyvat as a pre-industrial fantasy place. And so pieces of futuristic tech like the Akasha terminal and Kamera stick out to me like a sore thumb. Let it be known that the long-lost city of Khaneriah had LCD screens. While the rest of Teyvat seems to be in pre-industrial period. That is so wild to me.

[@nox6687]

Something I found interesting: Kusanali mentions somewhere in part 3 (I think) that she can trust you because you were "blessed by the element of Dendro". What does that mean? Are the elements themselves sentient? Is the reason why the archons don't know about you taking their power is because you're skipping them all together and going straight for the source? Also I remember her phrasing it like she was referring to the Traveler and Paimon, which only raises more questions. Also, in the Tale of the Portent blueprint, it says "'In truth the moon did not always look like a pearl...'" which raises a lot of questions on it's own.

[@rz3264]

In hillchurl investigation journal i think, the small professor(i forgot her name) explained that the hillchurl worship the element itself and not the archon plus hillchurl can control element without a vision.

[@ChaosFlute]

Eyyy, finally finished the Aranara questline today and got the treat of watching the rest of this video. Good stuff! I definitely agree that Paimon is a seelie... which raises the disturbing question of just what kind of love it takes to trigger the curse, because Paimon definitely loves the Traveler. Must protect Paimon!

[@kokolio4453]

HOLY SHIT i always wondered why aranara likened paimon to the moon WHILE Kusanali also explicitly called herself a moon...they are both supposedly the same race or same type of being..SEELIES...THIS. IS SO.MIND.BLOWING!! Also Does that mean the elves of teyvat like klee and alice and kusanali are the closest beings or remnants of seelies if not evolved seelies?? and kusanali being the first akasha system strengthens my theory that she was once a familiar of rukhadevatta or at least was supposed to but she died when kusanali was conceived.

[@rickwemd6618]

it’s actually so funny to rewatch after completing archon quest and main world quest in 3.1

[@tak9273]

One thing I noticed about the knowledge capsule is that there’s a golden color one in the main quest. Nahida use it to restore the traveler and paimon’s memory after every day they get reset by the akasha.

[@MiamoryHJ]

I finally finished the aranyaka quests and omg! I didn’t even realize that aranyani was rukhadevata! Thank you for the video! Everything now makes so much sense! You are a great Nara! ❤

[@ajiimei5614]

I remember playing through the quests and discussing the lore with a friend and we really couldn't grasp what Sarva was eventho we knew it was connected to the Irminsul and the Ley lines and I suggested maybe we should just think of it as like the Lifestream in Final Fantasy 7. Interestingly, it just made sense for us and everything the aranara was saying about Sarva was easier to follow after that. Lol. (it's not accurate comparison but it kinda worked. )

[@mitsuko0xidized]

YAY!! I have been waiting for this video! Thank you so much for all the research you do, for making the videos, and, most humbly, thank you for making the information you have gathered digestible for me, the single celled organism who likes pretty anime style characters and is a willing slave to the gacha system. This was so fascinating and I can't wait to see what else you have in store for us next! See you in the next one!

[@Syiepherze]

I think Paimon being a surviving Seelie is possible, but then the Goddess of Flowers is said to have horns (according to Nilou, who is cosplaying her lol), just like how the regular, Warming and Mini Seelie variants have horns. While Electro Seelie don't have horns, probably due to them being concentrated balls of electricity? Makes you wonder if all Seelies are supposed to be horned creatures or only some (with Paimon being the hornless variant, unless she's hiding them?) Also, the regular and Warming Seelies have dark (at the front), flowy capes/scarves...like Paimon.....