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



SPOILER WARNING!!

If you have not completed Pages of Purana acts one and two, AND all four acts of the Aranara World Quest Series put this video on your watch later list.

There was an absolutely massive amount of lore dropped with Genshin Impact v3.0 and it took a while to sift through it all. This video isn’t going to serve as a recap for all of the stuff that takes place in the quests, but instead it will consolidate all of the key things we learned minus a few things that will be getting their own videos like the Ruin Golem.

**TIMESTAMPS**
0:00 Introduction
0:57 The Irminsul Tree
4:10 The Akasha System
9:48 Knowledge Capsules
14:40 Sumeru’s History (Timeline)
19:30 The Withering
20:46 The Aranara
24:58 Seelies and the Moon Sisters
28:41 Rapid-Fire Roundup (Small bits of lore)

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37 thoughts on “[3.0] Sumeru Lore Roundup – What we learned from the Archon and Aranara quests”

  1. *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

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  2. About Marana, the Aranara call it "memory of death". It was quite clearly obvious that the quest series was mostly inspired from the Hindu culture. And Marana means "death" in Hindi. So I have a theory that Marana's true intention is to kill.

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  3. Kusanali says she respects the free will of HER people (Sumeru citizens). Katheryne is a Shnezhnayan puppet and thus not one of HER people. Hence why Kusanali hijacks Katheryne.

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  4. Irminsul is very similar to the tree than lived in the navi planet in the avatar movie……… very2 similah both color and function. the ley lines too…… that basically modification from the forest tree root networks in real life..

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  5. 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.

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  6. after a month I'm finally watching this video, avoiding spoilers because i wanted to play the aranaras quests first but im so slow at them lol. anyway this was definitely a fun watch! 🙂
    + it's also very weird to me that the people of sumeru that wear the akasha are okay with the fact that it has access to all the information in their brains?? or maybe this fact is not common knowledge. i would definitely be skeptical of wearing one either way lol

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  7. Every single time you say „sentient“…there is a specific chaotic herrscher laughing in my head. But really! I love how they combine Honkai with Genshin…the bubble universe and dreams, the akasha „controlling“ these dreams and the second divine key „controlling“ the bubble universes, Su(meru) possessing the second divine key watching over the Imaginary Tree and Kusanali (the goddess of Sumeru) abfing able to reach every dream through the akasha, rukkedevatha being linked to the Irminsul Tree…it just blows my mind.

    Also: Mihoyo, please give us Mobius in Genshin!

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  8. Wait
    sun>sunlight>plant energy>grow
    Memories>energy>get enough grow.
    Sun=traveler (because he be to other worlds lots of memories and love long time and also god probably)

    Remember
    Traveler give energy to seed race people so sun. sunlight>energy help them grow
    Forget

    (My random thoughts)

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  9. I'm super pissed that as loooooooong as the Aranara quest was and the many useless things they animated they didn't have the time Or will to animate one of the most important things in Genshin lore…. A person getting a vision. I would've loved to see that happening and i know I'm not alone in this.

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  10. I love this video so much. Watching this has been so fascinating, especially when we got to the parts that are actually directly copied from scottish/irish/welsh(general celtic) mythology, and the take on them by someone who clearly doesn't know much about said mythology. It's one of the cooler things about genshin impact, they took mythology from all over the world and mixed them together to create teyvat. Hinduism, voodoo, Catholicism, celtic druidism and more. Paimon and the Seelie(and unseelie) are from Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and other celtic mythologies.

    For anyone wandering and this is important for paimon, Seelie is one of the 2 courts of celtic fairies, the other being unseelie
    Generally speaking, though vastly over simplifying, Seelie are either good fairies and are associated with the sun, Unseelie are usually either childish fairies or evil fairies, and are associated with the moon. Also, one of the unseelie kings summons demons every 13 years. (again, way over simplifying as not every seelie is good and not every unseelie is bad such as Gentle Annis and her 2 sisters being good unseelie)

    Everything about Paimon's character screams unseelie court. 1) Childish 2) Eats constantly and is constantly thinking about food 3) Is literally being called moon by forest spirits 4) the flipped triquetra (type of celtic knot) on her chest is literally the symbols of the unseelie court. 5) the stars and constellations on her scarf is an unseelie thing. 6) paimon, like the archons, is named after a demon king, one of the reasons the unseelie are usually seen as evil, though many are not, is because there are a few that can summon demons.

    As for other thing from celtic mythology, there is the Crann Bethadh (Tree of life) which gives life, longevity, controls reincarnation, and retains memories of all time, and is the endless cycle of death and rebirth. All the magical trees in celtic mythology who purified evil and protect man.

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  11. Spoilers for the end of the Sumeru archon quest!! Make sure you finish playing before you read this cus Big lore spoiler detail!!

    Ashikai, assuming you've finished playing the archon quest too (up to the very end where we ask the archon questions) what to you think of the descenders? And watching your video as it just sparked a thought in my head, do you think the third descender could've been the Traveller that married the Seelie? And then Aether and Paimon are a sort of reflection on that with their representation?

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  12. finally finished the aranara story quest. i skimmed through a lot of text in the middle of the quest because there was too much repetition and tedious dialogue. the end of the quest was beautiful and heartbreaking and even though it was a bit of a slog to get through at certain points, it's one of my favorite quests in the entire game and i love the aranara so much

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