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

**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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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)

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

About the thought of Paimon being a seelie, I’m so happy it was finally brought up and addressed more in the story because I’ve thought it for awhile but have had no substantial reason. Although, I don’t think that Paimon is simply a child seelie who somehow escaped the destruction of their race. While there is a chance of her being just about anything, due to her design and overall suspicious dialogue from time to time, I think it’s entirely possible to be connected to the hierarchy of Celestia and the three moon sisters. Since their name is Paimon, when looking at the Ars Goetia description, it’s one of the most important demons out of the 72. It’s the most loyal to Lucifer(in which I think the traveler is Lucifer, but that’s a different story) and each betrayed Heaven. Furthermore, Paimon has so many powers and these powers so far have been seen in game. It even says that Paimon creates visions and has something to do with bestowing names. The creating visions part is just suspicious considering how its other powers connect to in-game Paimon and the bestowing names reminds me of Paimon giving “ugly nicknames”. Although, for some reason I think this is more than just calling Venti a tone deaf bard and I think it relates to the Demon Gods themselves since I don’t think they were born/came into being with the demon names. But that’s just a theory. Besides that Paimon can make “all kinds of things appear” including people and armor. It just reminds me A LOT of Khemia and if it were to be true in-game, it could explain how the Khanrian’s learned it. In angelical life, Paimon was also supposedly an angel known as a Dominian that would command lower angels, but its also been described to be a Cherub which is a direct servant of God. In game this could mean Paimon once was in charge of lower ranking Seelie or was a direct helper of the Primordial One. Of course this is only if it’s a direct comparison. As for the connection to the moon sister bit, it’s not grounded on and evidence just interpretation, but Paimon just looks off in her design. With the Aranara calling her similar to the moon, it really makes me think that at least the three moon sisters were powerful or divine Seelie. It would also explain their names being connected to song and how the seelie are connected to song, which feels important. Also Paimon has eyes like the night sky, an upside down triquatra(I can’t spell) and a cape with three moons on it. Her controlling time in game and have a crown that looks slightly like a clock when looking at the indents/looks similar to Statue of Seven base/looks similar to the crown above Genshin(original god) in the logo. It’s all too suspicious to make me think she isnt connected to the Moon Sisters and the Primordial One. She also refers to herself in the third person almost ALL of the time, almost as though she knows what Paimon would do, but not herself. Like she doesn’t know herself. She also knows a suspicious amount of modern Teyvat to have just been drifting in a sea for over a millennia as when the seelie were taken out, nothing that currently exists did. It’s all too weird for me to think she’s just a Seelie child. It seems to me like she is a broken off piece/remnant of someone VERY important to the story.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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?).

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.

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

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

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

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!

the way I screamed when you started talking about bubbles 🤩 I’ve been on a crazy lore binder after starting my Honkai lore channel and this is making me crazy 😍

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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

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.

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

You are the cornerstone of the theory crafting community

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!!!

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.

I'm thinking maybe Rukkhadevata used the same memory magic that the Aranara are capable of in a last ditch effort to avoid the complete destruction of Sumeru. Maybe Kusanali is actually just a weakened and memory-less form of Rukkhadevata and the Sages didn't think they were the same entity when they discovered her because she was so weak and had no memories. I remember when you reach the first statue of the seven, Paimon asks if we think it's the greater lord or the lesser lord. Maybe both answers are correct in a way.

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!

What actually came to my mind first when doing the archon quest is "okay I get how the traveler can sense kusanali presence and all, but how is paimon doing so" then you just spoke about it in the video .

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.....

ASHKAI USING KUKI IN BROLL INSTEAD OF YANFIE - I’ve been waiting for you to start using kuki in your videos Lolol

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!

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

I do wonder, with how much Kusanali connects to dreams, much like Aranara, what are the chances she's the answer to healing Irminsul - by becoming one, far in the future and the world has to forget the previous archon and embrace her so she has the power to do so.

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

Continued thanks for these great roundups!

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

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

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

Let's go! I followed most of the quest info but I love having your recap to refresh everything I may have overlooked

I have been WAITING for this video!

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 🙏🏾

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."

NEW VID YAY gonna watch this once im done with all quests

Estaba esperando por ésto. Excelente video 👌

I wish Ashikai was the vc for yanfei, her voice just fits so well with the character

It’s possible that Nahida saving Dunyarzad was intentional- it communicates her personality and also displays her power as an archon in action.

I was dying for a lore video from you 🙇‍♀️

thank you for the hard work behind these videos, I enjoyed it a lot.

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.

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 👌😔

Yay! I was waiting for this! Sometimes, even going through the quests myself it's hard to keep up

So glad to find lore videos

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

Ash, I don't know if you completed the side quest "The Price" yet, but in that quest, we get a semi-confirmation by a Fatui agent that Paimon is indeed a "Strange Seelie" to quote it from the quest itself. You should take a look :)

I love how you explain things so much thank you for all the content! It's all amazing!

Yassss i was waiting for this!

Id recommend listening to "the court of the crimson king" by King Crimson because it gives us potential lore drops for the scarlet king like Bohemian rhapsody did with Scara (this one also mentions puppets)

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 😭💀.

I LOVE YOUR CONTENT SO MUCH PLEASE DON'T STOP

Articulated very well. Thank you!