A long while ago I brought up the idea about Kusanali being the "lesser lord" and what that could mean. I suggested that maybe Kusanali while adored by her people isn't so respected as an Archon should be. Most of that came from the fact that Academia predates her so maybe the system put in place by the God of the Woods was being upheld by them which is keeping Sumeru stuck in the past.
Yeah this teaser of MiHoYo's just flat out said that that's definitely the case. The Greater Lord Rukkhadevata (I'll get to that in a second) is the name or maybe title of the old Dendro Archon and it was in fact he who set up the "Akasha" System that made knowledge into a currency. None of this has to do with Kusanali.
Fans of anime probably know what akasha means. There's only so many anime about gods and divine historical records of causality and etc etc. In terms of its origin Akasha is an Indian word but you guys know from my theories on Sumeru by now that most of this Indian stuff is only in the English localization. But for all intents and purposes the Indian definition works here because what the developer calls it in Chinese is literally the imaginary void system. Akasha means sky but you can translate it to mean the same thing here and in terms of a system storing knowledge like you would money it's the same idea as those anime where it's an "Akashic Record" recording all historical events for learning purposes.
Ok Rukkhadevata. I've seen some people in the video's comments talk about it but they didn't pick out that Rukkhadevata is the name of an actual Indian god and they didn't need to break down the name any further than that. Rukkhadevata is literally a tree goddess in Hinduism. And just like most Indian terms the English localization uses for Sumeru it is of Pali origin. The Hindi equivalent would be Vrikshadevata.
Not that important. What is important is that it directly relates to Kusanali's folklore origins. You might remember her story is as a grass spirit that helps a tree spirit when the king was set on cutting it down. After helping the tree spirit Kusanali ascended to become a Bodhisattva. This story comes from the Jataka and actually so does Rukkhadevata and she might even be the same tree spirit that Kusanali helped. And there's also a Buddhist interpretation of Rukkhadevata where she's the literal Bodhi Tree where Siddhartha Gautama attained nirvana. So it makes sense Kusanali would become a Bodhisattva after saving such an important tree. All of this also links back to Genshin's lore which has a decidedly large Buddhist influence.
So with that part confirmed I'm going to say the hikikomori personality is definitely a front and it's because Kusanali doesn't have as much liberties as the other Archons do in her region. We might see that Academia holds the true power but with the sages also sitting underutilized it could then mean Sumeru's going to be influenced by the Fatui specifically Dottore which might play out in what Liben told us.
And there's more but I'm trying to cut back on how many brains I explode per day. 
Until next time!
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
