I figure that if my theorycrafting method was right about Inazuma and Baal then maybe I could go for broke and make some predictions for the next region even though it’s probably still about a year out.
“Having personally witnessed raving-mad scholars in the forests of Sumeru and powerful sages sitting underutilized advisory councils, Lisa realized what uninhibited erudition can really do to a person.”
I think most people have seen this already. This is the beginning of Lisa’s Story 5. Much like Zhongli’s Story 5 did wonders for my theory on Baal I have a feeling Lisa’s is a road map for Sumeru.
Before I can go further though I need to show another quote.
"The God of Wisdom's enemy is wisdom itself, and the oasis of knowledge is a mirage in the desert of ignorance. In the city of scholars there is a push for folly, yet the God of Wisdom makes no argument against it."
We’ll get to the Archon in a second. What’s important here is “scholars push for folly” because that matches Lisa’s opinion. What I think is that Sumerans are going to be - how should I put this - the biggest nerds ever.
And I don’t mean smart nerds like socially awkward scientists.
I mean the Big Bang Theory brand of nerds who yell at each other about things like comic books.
From the quotes I got that the scholars are a little silly. Sumeru might be a manic region of researchers all chomping at the bit to find the answer to something. Anything. Everything! I feel like the ultimate facepalm is coming.
If we look at the NPCs we’ve met so far that seems to be the case:
-Hosseini
We met this guy during the Energy Amplifier Event. This guy has been trying to graduate Academia for decades. He’s already old and gray but still trying to graduate.
-Alrani
This girl….. She’s been through several shenanigans so far and most recently we met her in Inazuma where she almost got herself hitotachi’d because she forgot that the region was really unfriendly. She’s saved by
-Vahid
A merchant living in Inazuma. When he talks to her he says “Did you come all the way here from Sumeru to Inazuma for this... so-called "sociological study"?” The fact that he says “so-called” makes Sumeru’s research real sus.
And of course we know Lisa. Lisa’s background says that she was a prodigy. In only 2 years she graduated from Academia - see Hosseini - and she still has some feats in Mondstadt that got her the prestige she has in the city. But there’s a trait she now has in Mondstadt that directly resulted from her d****lusionment and why she left Sumeru. She’s very lazy and she’s not too interested in striving for anything anymore. The only thing left from her prodigy days is her proficiency in magic which is also why she’s the librarian.
There’s another side to Sumeru too. Reading the Genshin Manhua we meet Collei who was sick as a child and her parents gave her up to the researchers who would hand her over to the Fatui. The Fatui then experiment on her probably in some alternative Delusion research or maybe even as part of Delusion research.
In other words we already know the Fatui presence and role in the region. It may even be the quests in Acts I & II. But how would that work?
That’s the other part of Dainsleif’s quote: “The God of Wisdom's enemy is wisdom itself, and the oasis of knowledge is a mirage in the desert of ignorance. In the city of scholars there is a push for folly, yet the God of Wisdom makes no argument against it.”
The God of Wisdom makes no argument against the push for folly. I think Cyno and the other higher ranked scholars will be powerless against the Fatui because they can't motivate their Archon to do anything about it.
“powerful sages sitting underutilized advisory councils”
Why would the Dendro Archon allow any of this? Why is Wisdom his enemy?
The Chapter’s title is "Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana" or 虚空劫灰往世书 (The Purana of the Kalpa of Disintegration) in Chinese.
Purana is the name of any kind of Hindu lore so that leaves the English title with very little to offer. But in the original Chinese there’s a little more to see. 劫 stands for kalpa while 虚空 references the specific 4th kalpa which is Buddhist cosmology for the end of the previous world and start of the new world. It could be that the Dendro Archon is looking for a reason for Khaenri'ah's and Sal Vindagnyr's destruction by Celestia.
As the youngest Archon who took on the job after the previous Archon dies during the destruction of Khaenri’ah he’s very well aware of Celestia and he wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to Sumeru. But unlike Raiden who sided with Celestia because she shared its fear of impermanence the Dendro Archon wants a better solution. He’s also clever being the God of Wisdom and all so he knows he can’t just get his people to specifically research into Celestia and ways of overthrowing it. So instead he just tells his people to research stuff. Playing the odds there’s a non-zero chance that somebody will end up figuring it out and if it is at random Celestia might not notice until it’s too late. As a God the Archon has time on his side. This is also why he doesn’t stop the Fatui’s human experiments either and why he won’t support Sumeru’s leaders.
Now if we think back to my old Visions theory this actually lends itself well to what I pieced together from the very little info we have. Dendro enemies attack with traps or by hiding in the ground where you can’t hit them and then popping out. Baizhu the only known Dendro character has 1 scene - where he swindles Childe out of Mora by making a deal with him. In other words the Archon is crafty. He’s deliberately letting his people go crazy with their research and not preventing any of them from going too far because he’s gambling that somebody will find him the answer he wants. Wisdom is his enemy because if it attracts the attention of Celestia then Sumeru is doomed.
And this goes right back to Lisa. Remember how she left Sumeru and became the lazy librarian of Mondstadt?
“Before demanding too many miracles from the gods, first consider if you are willing to pay the price they ask.”
This is another quote from her. Ominous isn’t it? I think that as a prodigy she almost got the answer the Archon wanted and it scared her so she stopped. The above quote is something she’s only said 3 times meaning even that information alone is dangerous enough in her mind. Part of this quote’s meaning I think has to do with when and how she got her Vision. In another part of her story is says she realized she needed a Vision to continue her research and boom it was in her hands. She’s Electro so one of the twins gave her that Vision. On demand. And we know what Ei eventually did to Vision wielders.
I also think that whatever she did find we won’t get to it until much later probably during or even after Snezhnaya. Spooky right? So I wouldn’t blame the God of Wisdom for taking so many steps trying to get this answer.
Finally what are we in for in the region? Well it’s likely the new enemies will rely on magic and traps instead of brute force attacks. There will also likely be an increase in puzzles. The landscape is based off of a wide variety. The social structure is Middle Eastern from old empires like Persia and maybe even as old as Babylonia or Assyria. But there’s also going to be references to Ancient Egypt and also Ancient India. These will play out in the landscape extremes of deserts and rainforests.
And to end off I think that Lisa will be part of the initial steps into the region. I think just like with Inazuma we’ll have a prologue quest where we head back to Mondstadt and Lisa talks to us about Sumeru just like Kazuha did about Inazuma. From what she says we’ll have an idea of what we’re getting into before heading off.
Ok so what do you think? Do any of my ideas sound likely?
