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Ever since its release,Genshin Impacthas constantly surprised the player base with the intricate detailing of the lore and how it changes the world of Teyvat. After going through a bunch of world events and defeating enemies on the same level as Archons, you’ll finally arrive inSumeru, the fourth region of Teyvat.
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The Dendro Archon rules this land, and you will also get introduced to a tree known asIrminsulhere. As the entire storyline revolves around your first interaction with the tree, you’ll learn its true power and how it can even mess with the past by removing anyone’s existence from this world.
This article contains spoilers from Chapter III (Sumeru Arc) and Interlude Chapter: Act III
What Is Irminsul?
A few minutes after reaching Sumeru, you’ll have your first encounter with the Irminsul as youenter a different realm after following Haypasia into a mysterious cave. In this realm, you’ll walk up to a giant pink tree and hear a voice.The only words you’ll understand at this point are"World… Forget Me…".
This will start your journey to learn the secrets of Sumeru, and this tree that you interacted with is known asIrminsul. As mentioned by Tighnari, Irminsul is essentiallythe world tree that stores and manages all the Ley Line power. While traveling through Teyvat, Travelers get to know that Ley Line contains all the memory of the world.
After someone passes away in Teyvat,their memories are submerged with the Ley Lines, which means that no one ever truly goes away from the world. All these memories stay in the Ley Lines and Irminsul controls them.
Essentially, you can see this tree asthe command center of Teyvat. Apart from managing the entire nation of Sumeru,the Dendro Archon also has the responsibility of making sure that Irminsul stays safe. As mentioned in Zhongli’s voice-overs, no one would be a better choice for this since wisdom is Dendro Archon’s forte.
While progressing in Sumeru’s arc, you’ll learn that the Irminsul is heavily affected byThe Withering, which is slowly corroding the tree. In order to protect it,the Traveler andNahidaenter the last memory of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata to meet up with her. At this point, Rukkhadevata will request that Nahida deletes her from Irminsul.
What Changed After Rukkhadevata’s Removal From Irminsul
It was heartbreaking to watch Nahida do something extremely hard for her. As the two Archons hugged for the last time,a cutscene confirmed that Rukkhadevata has indeed been removed from the memory of Teyvat completely. After such an important figure went away from everyone’s memory, a bunch of changes were seen around the world.
These changes were very small, and you might not have even noticed them. Although,knowing the amount of attention paid to the detail in the game will astound you.
NPC Voice Line Changes
The most noticeable change after finishing the fifth act of chapter three isthe voice lines of the NPCs in quests or around the world. Before finishing this act, some NPCs would mention the name of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. In fact,it was common to hear that everyone is sad about losing the Greater Lord since they don’t trust Nahida.
Although, if you talk to these NPCs after finishing the required quest, their dialogue will either change completely, orGreater Lord Rukkhadevata’s name will be replaced with “The Dendro Archon” or “The Lord Of Dendro”. This can also be seen in the giant Aranara World Quests in Sumeru Rainforest.
At the beginning of this quest, it was revealed that these little creatures were close to Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and called her Queen Aranyani. Although,after the change in Irminsul,the Greater Lord’s name is replaced in all of their dialogues. They only mention their relation to The Lord of Dendro.
So, if someone did the Aranara World Quest after Rukkhadevata’s removal,they would think thatthe Aranara are talking about Nahida. Since Irminsul has the power of changing everyone’s memory, not a single person in Teyvat will remember who she is.
Voice Over Changes
Whenever you acquire a new character in Genshin Impact,you can access their voice-overs by going to Character Information > Profile > Voice-Overs. This place contains the character’s feelings about many different things, and Rukkhadevata’s removal saw a change in a bunch of them.
Firstly,you won’t find any character in the game with an “About Rukkhadevata” in their voice-overs. While every Archon has something to say about Buer (Nahida), none of it will mention the Greater Lord. It’sas if Nahida was the only Dendro Archon that the people of Teyvat remember.
Secondly, Nahida has a special voice-over about The Seven. As shown above,she mentions that Archons used to sit together, but she doesn’t remember anything about it since she’s a “special case.“If Rukkhadevata was still in this world, she would have mentioned that she wasn’t around at the time.
Finally, the Traveler also had a voice-over called"About Beliefs"where they talked to Paimon about how the people of Sumeru trusted Rukkhadevata. After finishing the quest, this section will be removed from the voice-overs altogether.
Only Traveler Remembers
Even though Greater Lord Rukkhadevata’s mention is removed from the Traveler’s voice-overs, it doesn’t mean that they forgot about her.In fact,they’ll be the only person who remembers Rukkhadevata out of everyone we know. After talking to Nahida a little more, it’s obvious that the reason for this might be that the Traveler is a “Descender”.
The Descenders are the beings who don’t belong to Teyvat but came here from the sky. At the moment,the only two Descenders revealed are the Traveler and the Heavenly Principles(the person that took the Traveler’s twin away at the beginning of the game). Descenders don’t have any record in Irminsul, and the tree cannot affect their memories.
Surprisingly,the Irminsul contained the twin’s information, but it didn’t have anything on the Traveler. After Nahida went through the process of removing Rukkhadevata, the Traveler had a mental battle since they couldn’t decide if they should tell Nahida. Once again, the Traveler is the odd one out.
Rukkhashava Mushrooms Description
Another important change after Rukkhadevata’s removal was seen in the description of the Rukkhashava Mushrooms. Here’s how the description of this Sumeru specialty changed with the quest:
In the later paragraph, the mushroom’s description still mentions Rukkhadevata,but it’s said that Rukkhadevata was the name of a tree that covered the entire Sumeru.
During the Archon Quest, Rukkhadevata told us thatno one can truly delete themselves from Irminsul, and that’s why she’s leaving Nahida behind. Nahida is like a branch from the Rukkhadevata tree, and she took over everything that belonged to her. Although, the true meaning behind not being able to delete yourself was revealed when Scaramouche tried to do the same.
What Changed After Scaramouche’s Removal From Irminsul
Irminsul was visited once again in the Interlude Chapter followed by Sumeru’s storyline where players were able to witnessScaramouche’s awaited conclusion. From the beginning of this quest, the Traveler will work with Scaramouche to enter Irminsul and find out more about their twin. Little was revealed about the twin, but Scaramouche ended up taking a huge step.
Just like Rukkhadevata, he also decided to wipe himself from Irminsul’s date, but the results weren’t as he expected. Once again,a lot was changed with the world around you, and the Traveler remained the only one to remember Scaramouche, at least for a while.
Ei Forgot About Him
During Inazuma’s story, it was made clear thatScaramouche was one of Ei’s puppets that were rendered useless, but she didn’t want to get rid of him. Although, even the Electro Archon forgot about her creation after Scaramouche successfully removed himself, causing her voice lines about him to vanish.
Specifically,these lines were named “About Kunikuzushi” before their removal. While Ei doesn’t remember him, Wanderer still has a clear memory of his history, and his character will still have a line for her. Because of what happened during the Interlude Chapter, Wanderer (formerly Scaramouche, The Balladeer, Kunikuzushi, and Kabukimono) was able to retain all of his memories.
Not just Ei,the voice-overs about Scaramouche were removed from everyone’s memory including Tartaglia. After the Interlude Chapter, he will have something to say about every Harbinger except the sixth one.
The Past Didn’t Change
Even after taking such a big step,Scaramouche’s true goal didn’t come to fruition. Through this quest, another important detail was revealed by Irminsul.Even if someone removes all their memory from the world tree, the events of the past will not change. Everything that happened in Tatarasuna with Niwa and the other members didn’t change.
As Amenoma Tougo narrated, Niwa and the swordsman dived into the furnace to stop the catastrophe, and the events at Raiden Gokuden still took place.The gap made by The Balladeer’s absence was filled with different characters.
Moreover, Scaramouche didn’t successfully delete himself since the Traveler met him as Wanderer later.This stays true to Rukkhadevata’s statement that no one can completely remove themselves from the tree.
Empty Seat Of The Sixth Harbinger
The Balladeer was supposed to be the sixth in the line ofEleven Fatui Harbingers. Although,Dottore didn’t want him back after he lost the battle against the Traveler, even though he had a Gnosis. This part of the story was also rendered useless when Scaramouche removed himself from Irminsul.
If you go to Mondstadt and talk to Mikhail and Lyudmila,they’ll mention thatthe seat for the sixth harbinger has been vacant for a long time, confirming that Scaramouche did indeed remove himself from the tree successfully. This creates another confusion as to how the harbingers explain the empty slot.
Nahida Was Truly The God Of Wisdom
When Rukkhadevata was removed from Irminsul, it was made clear thatNahida is also a part of the tree, and the changes in it affect her memory as well. So, when Scaramouche deleted himself, she did forget his existence at first, and the Traveler had to remind her what happened.
Although, upon being reminded, Nahida realized that she had used sort of a glitch tosave everything she knew about Scaramouche as a different story, which matched with the Traveler’s account. This also allowed her to give Wanderer all his memories back, but she used great precaution while doing so.
In the end, Wanderer managed to retrieve all his memories. This means thathe remembers everyone around him and everything that happened, but the world doesn’t remember his existence. After this tricky situation and Nahida’s expertise, Wanderer finally gets his closure and his faith in humanity gets restored a little.
Conclusion
After going through such an intricate and confusing story about Irminsul, here’s everything that we know about the world tree that holds the memories of Teyvat:
