Genshin Impact developer Mihoyo seems unsure of what to do with the seventh and most forgotten element in the game: Dendro. The other six elements — Anemo, Geo, Electro, Hydro, Pyro, and Cryo — have a ton of representation, from playable c✃haracters 🐻to enemies to overworld hazards. But, for some reason unbeknownst to the majority of us players, Dendro has yet to receive a single playable character.
Currently, all of the elements attached to potential party members iꦆnteract with several others to trigger different elemental reactions. Pyro + Cryo = Melt, Electro + Hydro = Electro-charged, et cetera. However, Dendro, the element associated with plants, grass, wood, and general nature things, only reacts with Pyro to create the Burning reaction. How do you make a nature element react with, say, elecᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtricity? Fans are speculating that Mihoyo has no idea.
As for in-universe reasoning, we've been given nothing. The world of Teyvat has yet to see any lore-based explanation as to why Dendro has been left out. Recently, Mihoyo missed a perfect opportunity to explain why it has dragged its feet on implementing Dendro in-game. By making the Raiden Shogun/Beelzebul/Baal (her name is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:complicated) the Dendro Archon insteꦜad, Mihoyo could 𝔍have easily explained the lack of Dendro characters, enemies, and Visions in the game.
Let's start with a brief summary of the Electro Archon's story and the goings-on in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Inazuma region. If you've already played through this part of the game or know all of this, feel free to skip to the next section. If not, beware of spoilers.
Inazuma, the region under the purview of the Electro Archon, is itself Electro-themed, as each region is associated with one of the seven Archons. The current Electro Archon is Raiden Ei, wℱho took up the mantle after her sister, the original Electro Archon, Baal/Raiden Makoto, was killed during the Cataclysm about 500 years ago.
The people of Inazuma don't know that there were two sisters and are under the belief that there has been only one person serving as the Archon this whole time — Baal. In reality, Baal was the original, who was then replaced by her sister, Beelzebul, also known as Raiden Ei or just Ei. Ei has been in a meditative plane for quite some time and created a puppet of herself, the Raiden Shogun, to act as the de facto Archon.
Each of the seven Archons is associated with some ideal, and Ei's is "eternity." She has retreated to this meditative state so that nothing around her will change. She expects a sense of permanence, unchanging and not progressing. Unfortunately, the Fatui (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the game's main antagonists) discovered the Raiden Shogun puppet and used their influence to convince her to enact the Vision Hunt De𝐆cree. Since the puppet can only really act on the orders given by Ei — chief among them to uphold eternity at any cost — the Fatui were able to convince her that other people receiving Visions — the items that grant elemental powers to the people of Teyvat — poses a threat to this eternal permanence.
As a result, the main plot point of the Inazuma storyline is the Vision Hunt Decree, where peoples' Visions are rounded up and placed on a huge statue in the main city. In addition to this, no new Electro Visions have been granted in around a year, and the Inazuma region has been closed to anyone who plans to enter or leave.
The Archons of Teyvat are each associated with an ideal, and the first two we've seen — Barbatos and Rex Lapis — seem to rule over an element that fits their ideal. Barbatos is the Anemo Archon, representing wind. His ideal is "freedom," and he himself is aloof and a bit of a free spirit. This matches the freedom of wind perfectly. Rex Lapis, the Geo Archon, rules over rocks, minerals, and other things like that. He is the God of Contracts, which is perfect because he is unmoving like rock.
When thinking of the seven elements of Teyvat — Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, Hydro, Pyro, and Cryo — which would you associate with the idea of permanency, eternity, or stasis? I personally would think of Electro last in that context. Electrici☂ty, lightning, thunder — these are all fast, temporary cracks of power that are gone as soon as they arrive.
Other elements, on the other hand, I can as💫sociate with permanency and eternity much more easily. Cryo, for example, represents the freezing power of ice, and how unmoving something can be if "frozen in time," like Ei wants Inazuma to be. Just think of th⛦e White Witch in Narnia. She freezes the land, destroying the bountiful greenery of nature and keeping the land frozen in an eternal winter.
Geo, the element associated with rocks and earth, is another example of something unmoving, although this is already assigned to Zhongli as the God Contracts, so that's out.
Nature, too, is eternal — the circle of life. If Dendro were to be the domain of Ei, eternity fits the element perfectly. From the death of one living thing comes the life of another. As plants die, they become food for other organisms; as those organisms die off, they become fertilizer and nutrients for plants — it's an endless circle, it's eternal. Ei's desire to keep Inazuma around for eternity would make much more sense if she ruled over plants and nature. In that case, she'd want this endless circle to go on forever, as opposed to the current story of her domain over electricity, which flashes into existence and is then gone, never seen again.
It would make perfect sense that there are hardly any Dendro users outside of Inazuma. As part of the Vision Hunt Decree, the Raiden Shogun has locked down the region, and nobody is allowed in or out. Visions are being seized and no new Electro Visions have been given out in quite some time. Had the Electro Archon been Dendro, it could have made sense that there are no Dendro characters or enemies available because they a) don't have any way of getting out of Inazuma or b) don't exist because there are no Dendro Visions being handed out, and those that were have been seized.
As mentioned, there are zero playable characters with a Dendro Vision so far. The other elements all have several, with Pyro having the most at nine (Cryo also has nine 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:if you count Aloy) and Geo having the fewest, at four. However, only one character is seen to have a Dendro Vision — Baizhu, the owner of Bubu Pharmacy in Liyue. Another character, Yaoyao, who is not present in the game just yet, has been revealed as (maybe) a future Dendro character. It's only speculation whether or not she'll be playable, but she does seem to have a Dendro vision.
What's interesting is that both of these characters call Liyue home. This region is the second that players can visit, and is also the closest nation we know of to Inazuma. In fact, as part of the player's journey to break through the lockdown of Inazuma and access the region, they take off from Liyue with the help of Beidou, who also hails from Liyue. It seems that Liyue is kind of the South Korea to Inazuma's North Korea — an open land that's geographically and somewhat socially-tied to its locked down neighbour.
In my perfect Ei-is-the-Dendro-Archon world, it could totally make sense that the only Dendr🐓o characters ⛎we know of are both in Liyue — they escaped Inazuma with their Dendro Visions and fled as refugees to the nearest region that could take them: Liyue.
While it was once thought that Archons would simply give Visions to those they deemed worthy, that's been complicated a bit with some recent dialogue from Ei herself — turns out it isn't entirely the Archons' decision.
Regardless, the Archons do play an important role in determining who gets a Vision — that's why the Raiden Shogun is able to stop granting Electro Visions, and she's done for about a year by the time the player arrives in Inazuma.
The Vision Hunt Decree isn't just targeting Electro Visions, though, it's going after any of them, regardless of element. There's no reason why that's incongruent with Ei being the Electro Archon, but I'd argue that, if she were the Dendro Archon instead, there could be an opportunity for great storytelling that was sadly missed.
A Vision gives a mere mortal extreme power over the elements, so they theoretically pose a threat to the balance of nature. Under my idea that Ei's domain is Dendro, wouldn't it be even more logical that she has an issue with random people running around wielding fire, ice, earth-moving powers, the ability to harness water, and more? She wants an eternal, unchanging Inazuma, so those that harness the power of the natural elements would be an obvious problem in that regard. Ipso facto, go ahead and round up their Visions so they don't threaten your circle-of-life eternity anymore.
There are a few smaller reasons why it would make sense for Ei to be the Dendro Archon aside from the larger ones I've already explained. One of these is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sangonomiya Kokomi and her resistance movement against the Vision Hunt Decree and the current status quo in Inazuma. The Fatui convinced the Raiden Shogun's lackeys to implement the Decree, and then started giving Delusions (counterfeit Visions) to the resistance movement. This was all in the goal of causing instability in Inazuma and selling their Delusions.
However, Kokomi, the leader of the resistance, has a real Vision. It's a Hydro Vision, which is perfect given her association with Watatsumi Island. This island is bathed in waterfalls, mist, and giant clamshells — she would be a perfect antithesis to Ei's Dendro Archon status.
Kokomi, the Hydro-wielding resistance leader, would represent fluidity and the progress of a rushing river, or waves crashing up against the cliff face that refuses to budge. She'd slowly erode away the unmoving, unwavering brick wall that is Ei. And, since she's the Dendro Archon, there could also be some symbolism with water nourishing plant life and how the two have to live in harmony for the plants to thrive. Kokomi's Hydro is the nourishment for the Dendro plants of Ei, and Kokomi's rebellion against the Decree benefits both of them to create a more bountiful Inazuma.
I'll leave you with two small details that could also align better with Ei as a Dendro Archon:
- A very important symbol of the Electro Archon's reign168澳洲幸运5开奖网: is the Thunder Sakura. You know — a tree.
- It's known that the current Dendro Archon replaced the original, who died in the Cataclysm. Who else died in the Cataclysm? The original Electro Archon. These could have been the same person.
Altogether, Mihoyo could have used any of this as an in-universe, lore-friendly explanation for why they are no playable Dendro characters, and why there's a sheer lack of Dendro throughout the game so far. Unfortunately, it's basically overzealous fanfiction at this point. Sumeru, the region ruled over by the actual Dendro Archon, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ౠiꦐs the next on the docket to be released. This Archon's ideal is "wisdom," and so far we don't know what the storyline will be.
I will say, though, that wisdom means intelligence, which is in the brain, which consists of electrical currents carrying thoughts from place to place, so perhaps the Electro Archon should be the ruler of Sumeru. Okay, I'll stop now.