NOTE: Folders in boldface denote playable characters.

Sumeru

Sumeru is the nation of Nature and Wisdom, nominally under the patronage of the Dendro Archon, Lesser Lord Kusanali. Located in west-central Teyvat, encompassing the lush Dharma Forest and the barren Great Red Sand, Sumeru owes its existence to Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, the previous Dendro Archon who founded Sumeru City and saved the jungle from desertification in ancient times.

Above the streets of Sumeru City stands the Akademiya, Teyvat's center of knowledge and Sumeru's center of authority. Kusanali has remained publicly absent after Rukkhadevata's passing, and the Sages of the Akademiya have continuously ruled Sumeru in her place since. With the gifts of Gods in their hands, the Sages pursued the riches of infinite Wisdom, unguided and unopposed.

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General Tropes

Cannot Dream: The people of Sumeru cannot dream, unlike the people from all other nations. This is explained by the Akademiya as a unique sign of the Sumeru people's rationality, and few in Sumeru question this strange quirk. As it turns out, the people of Sumeru can dream, but their dreams are being stolen by the Akademiya via the Akasha to be used as processing power.
Company Cross References: Sumeru is named after a recurring location name used throughout many of Hoyoverse's other game as well as referencing the "Seed of Sumeru" from Honkai Impact 3rd.
Crapsaccharine World: Between the harsh environments of both the forest and the deserts them being significantly worse than usual due to The Withering, and the cities ran by the The Sages with an iron fist, the visually beautiful nation of Sumeru has various issues that make it a hellhole only slightly better than Inazuma.
Duality Motif: A consistent theme throughout Sumeru. The Wall of Samiel splits the the land of Dendro between the plentiful and thriving Dharma rainforest and the barren, sparely populated Great Red Sand, and the divide is reflected in the racial and religious tensions between the ruling fair-skinned, knowledge-hoarding rainforest scholars and the oppressed, generally darker-skinned desert folk who are deliberately kept ignorant. Even the scarves worn by the free-roaming Eremite Private Military Contractors have a Red/Green Contrast with the Akademiya-employed Corps of Thirty.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Culturally, Sumeru resembles a space-compressed version of The Achaemenid Empire, demonstrating elements of Indian, Persian, Arabic, Ancient Egyptian, and even bits of Greek culture as one moves westward. Unlike the Persian-dominated Achaemenid Empire, however, Sumeru's central institutional, civilian, and religious cultures are primarily Indian, with secondary Persian elements sprinkled in. This cultural intermingling is best demonstrated by the Dendro Archon herself, whose mortal name "Nahida" is of Persian origin, but whose divine title "Kusanali" is Indian.
Fox Folk: Historically, there existed a race of fox-like beings named the Valuka Shuna who were subjects of King Deshret and possessed fennec fox ears. Presently, Tighnari and his father are the only known characters that are their descendants.
Genie in a Bottle: The Jinn, who exist in the setting and appear occasionally in Sumeru's lore, are said to live in bottles, objects, and weapons. Among the Jinni encountered by the players are Dori's unnamed Jinni and Liloupar, the Jinni queen of the ancient city of Gurabad.
Hates Reading: In Sumeru City and its surrounding areas, overreliance on the Akasha System, which provided users with the information they needed right away by beaming it into their brains, led to citizens devaluing physical books to the point where even obtaining them became difficult.
Irony: Ancient Sumeru was founded peacefully and jointly ruled by three gods. Where most of Teyvat's gods turned their swords on one another for the right to become their lands' Archon, Sumeru's god-kings never did. Even after Deshret and Rukkhadevata had a falling out after Nabu Malikata's death, they merely went their separate ways instead of pursuing active war with each other and eventually joined hands one final time to contain an outbreak of Forbidden Knowledge unleashed by Deshret. It's bitterly ironic then that modern Sumeru is so heavily fraught with ethnic and religious tension, its former gods' friendship buried underneath centuries if not millennia of racial strife between the peoples of the Dharma Forest and the Great Red Sand.
Ingesting Knowledge: Knowledge Capsules enable users to gain instant knowledge by establishing a magic link into their brains.
Layered Metropolis: Sumeru City is built upon a single gigantic tree, with the residence of Kusanali at its highest point and the Grand Bazaar built in the caverns beneath the tree's roots.
Life/Death Juxtaposition: Dharma Forest is where Sumeru's bustling city centres are located, while in the Great Red Sand small neglected pockets of civilisation struggle daily to fend for themselves among the remnants of the Cataclysm and the graveyard of long-ruined kingdoms and two gods^note. This contrast is reflected in the quests taking place in each region - in Dharma Forest the Traveler help the Aranara heal Rana and restore the forest by defeating Marana's avatar, the literal memory of death while in the Great Red Sand, many Eremites die left and right and the Traveler even becomes an accomplice to Jeht's genocide of the Tanit.
Marriage of Convenience: During the event "Windblume's Breath", Tighnari explains that Sumeru residents build social relationships and families to pursue further studies since academic resources are equivalent to social capital. Specifically, Alhaitham and Kaveh's Character Stories reveal that they were born into these classic scholarly families, although Kaveh's parents were hinted to have had a genuinely loving relationship.
Meaningful Name: Sumeru is named after a sacred mountain in Hindu/Jain/Buddhist cosmology, and is also one letter more than name of the ancient civilisation of Sumer that was located in modern day Iraq. The Eremites from the Great Red Sand may also have been both named after the people of Sumer's neighbour Elam that was located in modern day Iran, as well as the ancient Greek word meaning "of the desert".
Mystical Plague: Eleazar was a chronic disease endemic to Sumeru which causes the skin to gradually harden into dark scales, numbness, fatigue, peripheral paresthesia^note, and complete paralysis and potentially coma at later stages until they pass. Collei and Dunyarzard were two such patients who were born with it. When the Traveler steps foot in Sumeru in Chapter III Act I, though treatment exists to alleviate the symptoms and slow down the disease's progression, it had no known cure and patients were not expected to live long. The disease was caused by the pollution of the world tree Irminsul with Forbidden Knowledge, which Greater Lord Rhukkadevata was unable to cleanse completely due to her own dying consciousness being inadvertently infected and remaining in Irminsul. Once she is Ret-Gone from Irminsul, all the afflicted miraculously recover.
Nature Spirit: The Aranara were born from the seeds of pomegranates, and the Pari were created from the powers of the Goddess of Flowers.
Our Genies Are Different: The Jinn were the creations of the Goddess of Flowers. Historically, they have helped King Deshret build and maintain mortal kingdoms such as Gurabad and were able to take on human form, even having relationships with actual humans. That being said, there don't appear to be many that still exist in Sumeru in the present, as not only do they not appear frequently in the story, but only three are actually encountered, namely Dori's Jinni, Liloupar and Ferigees. The description of Xiphos Moonlight also mentions the presence of a Jinn within it, though it has fallen silent and cannot be interacted with.
Proud Scholar Race: The people of Dharma Forest are led by Teyvat's most prestigious learning institute, the Akademiya, and their culture highly values the gathering of knowledge and learning to the point where the lack of academic research or achievements can be a major cause of concern.
Proud Warrior Race: Conversely, the people of the Great Red Sand, in particular the Eremites, pride themselves as peerless warriors and mercenaries hardened through their harsh environment.
Red/Green Contrast: Dharma Forest naturally has a green colour motif, with the Akademiya using it in their uniforms and logo, while Sumeru's desert is called the Great Red Sand.
Scientist vs. Soldier: A major conflict within Sumeru involves the Akademiya, and the radical Eremites, who continue to worship long-deceased deities. The former revere Rukkhadevata, the previous Dendro Archon and God of Wisdom who disappeared during the Khaenri'ah Cataclysm, while the latter prophesy the return of Deshret, god-king of an ancient desert civilization, who they believe was usurped by the other deity as God of Wisdom.
Scienceville: Naturally, as the Nation of Wisdom and the home of a Proud Scholar Race, Sumeru is this. Sumeru City is especially known as the City of Wisdom due to the Akademiya's location there.
Shifting Sand Land: The Great Red Sand is a vast desert that occupies roughly two-thirds of Sumeru's total area and home to ancient Egyptian-style pyramids, Red Vultures, Scary Scorpions, flying serpents and their consecrated versions, scarabs, Wenuts, hostile nomadic Eremites and Jinn.
Underground City: Kaeya once went on a "Rediscovering Roots" Trip to Sumeru as a child in the hopes of finding Khaenri'ah. While he didn't manage to get there, there is a sealed gate with Khaenri'ah's distinctive eight-pointed star in Hangeh Afrasiyab, located in Gavireh Lajavard in the Girdle of Sands.
We ARE Struggling Together: Sumeru is home to a multitude of cultures and races, and there's constant friction and tension between most of them. Despite the fact that most of Sumeru's numerous crises tend to threaten all of the land, if not Teyvat at large, one would be hard-pressed to get them to work together for anything given how badly they get along. Among humans alone there is a great rift between the people of Dharma Forest and the Great Red Sand, and even within each side there are groups like, respectively, the Akademiya and the radical Eremites who will happily resort to means fair and foul alike to get ahead, even against people within their side of the Wall of Samiel. Then there are the more fantastical races such as the Aranara, the Jinn, and the Pari, whose attitude towards humanity can range anywhere from suspicion at best to contempt at worst. Suffice to say, each culture and/or race view themselves as paragons of sanity in a crowd of morons. Relations can get so bad that the Traveler being a complete outsider is sometimes considered a point in their favor, enough that several NPCs would rather work with them than have anything to do with a local from a different race or faction.
Wrong Side of the Tracks: Westward of the Wall of Samiel, the people of the Great Red Sand have significantly harder lives than those from Dharma Forest. Not only is the environment harsher with sandstorms, bigger hostile wildlife such as Wenuts, and the general lack of water, the discrimination of the Akademiya against desert-dwellers prior to Azar's defeat mean that they constantly experience higher levels of poverty, illness, ignorance and violence. The situation is so bad that a researcher who went there became so demoralised with what he had seen that he became a Straw Nihilist and killed himself to escape from his depression.
Sachin: Twenty-eight years ago, I came to the desert and lived there for eight full years. What do you think I saw there? Alas, endless strife and slaughter... Conflict over water sources, robbing of merchant caravans, exploitation of the people... relentlessly, day after day. Beyond the Wall of Samiel lay a completely different world from the one I knew.

Dharma Forest

Gandharva Ville

A village at the heart of Avidya Forest east of Sumeru City, a favorite meditation spot for trainee scholars of the Akademiya, guarded by the Avidya Forest Rangers led by Tighnari, himself a star alumnus.

Collei

Collei

Introduced: August 24, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [first half])
Voiced by: Qin Wenjing (Chinese), Ryoko Maekawa (Japanese), Bang Si-Woo (Korean), Christina Assaf-Costello (English)

Sprout of Rebirth

^{Click here to see her appearance in the prequel webcomic}

"I used to think that I'd never make a single friend in my whole life, but things changed when I went to Mondstadt... Then after that, I met Master in Sumeru. Now I've met you, too. All in all, I think I've been really lucky."

Rarity: 4★
Element: Dendro
Weapon: Bow
Constellation: Leptailurus Cervarius, the Serval

An Avidya Forest Ranger with a checkered past. Three years before the start of the Traveler's adventures, Collei was a sickly young girl who her mother entrusted to the Fatui to help treat her illness, only to be experimented upon and imbued with essences of deceased gods against her will, eventually escaping and nearly going on a rampage in Mondstadt before being saved by Amber and eventually returned to Sumeru. Nowadays, she is living happily under the care of Tighnari, even as she continues to deal with her past trauma and her resurgent illness. Collei is one of the Traveler's first contacts in Sumeru, with her and Tighnari receiving them in Gandharva Ville as they heal following a weird incident before parting to Sumeru City.

Collei applies her archery and survival skills learned from Tighnari and Amber to apply Dendro effects on multiple enemies at once. Her Elemental Skill, Floral Brush, fires a Floral Ring that eventually returns to Collei, while her Elemental Burst, Trump-Card Kitty, has her sic Cullein-Anbar, a cat-shaped doll, to jump around and continuously deal Dendro damage to enemies within a Cullein-Anbar Zone.^note

A Day in the Limelight: While she received a fair amount of attention in the v3.X patches overall, "Windblume's Breath" and "Secret Summer Paradise" are two events that provided a deeper look into her character.
Animal Motifs: Cats, though downplayed compared to Diona and Keqing. Her Burst has her summon a cat-shaped doll to attack enemies, and her Constellation is named and patterned after the serval, a species of wild cat native to Subsaharan Africa which are usually sold or gifted in Ancient Egypt. The prequel webcomic also features a small throwaway gag portraying her with cat features to complement her more prickly attitude at the time.
The Apprentice: To Tighnari, whom she refers to as master.
Area of Effect: Cullein-Anbar attacks enemies within a large radius. Given the highly reactive nature of Dendro, this makes it easy to trigger different elemental reactions. Collei's fourth-ascension passive, The Languid Wood, adds one second (to a maximum of three) whenever her allies trigger Burning, Quicken, Aggravate, Spread, Bloom, Hyperbloom, or Burgeon reactions.
Bad Liar: Kaeya instantly deduces Collei is behind the black fire attack, and her inability to come up with a convincing lie does not help.
Badass Adorable: Collei is a Delicate and Sickly, yet lovely young lady who has one hell of a Dark and Troubled Past, but is learning to move on from it. She's also gifted with some mean archery skills.
Bandage Mummy: When first introduced in the prequel webcomic, she has bandages covering her from her face down to her knees. In fact, her torso is covered in so many wrappings that she doesn't even bother wearing a shirt under her cloak.
Battle Boomerang:
- One of her idle animations has her pull out a boomerang and sweeping it clean with her hands, and her third and final (fourth) normal attack combo has her throw boomerangs in place of an arrow.
- Her Skill has Collei send out a Floral Ring, a boomerang made of flower-shaped Dendro energy that damages foes it comes across. Her first-ascension passive, Floral Sidewinder, grants a Sprout effect on the active character if they trigger Burning, Quicken, Aggravate, Spread, Bloom, Hyperbloom, or Burgeon reactions, which deals Dendro damage (equivalent to 40% of Collei's Attack stat) to surrounding enemies in three one-second waves; her second Constellation upgrade, Through Hill and Copes, removes the condition to trigger Sprout, instead reassigning it to that for extending its duration by another three seconds; and her sixth, Forest of Falling Arrows, generates a miniature Cullein-Anbar that deals extra Dendro-elemental damage worth 200% of Collei's Attack stat should it hit enemies.
Birds of a Feather: Collei becomes good friends with Sucrose, who is the only one who can help her with her social anxiety, as they're both Shrinking Violets.
Bizarre Taste in Food: Downplayed, as the food she actively likes is normal, but her character story mentions how others are appalled at how she'll eat pretty much anything in a crisis, thanks to her difficult past as a vagrant. Even her least favorite food, mushrooms, has less to do with taste as much as fear of an earful from Tighnari.
Book Dumb: Collei's grades are rather poor, and Tighnari is exasperated that she is still on a third-grade reading level for someone apparently in her early teens. However, in the "Wondrous Times" route of Kaveh's Hangout, Tighnari reveals that Collei is making steady academic progress and invites his friends to a gathering to talk about her future. They also discuss the possibility of her eventually enrolling in the Akademiya, which is notoriously difficult to get into.
Break the Cutie: Young Collei has been through utter hell, having been told all her life she's an awful mistake, experimented on and left to wander alone for years. Eventually, when the guilt of being responsible for the black fire attack becomes too much to bear and she's overcome by the creatures inside her, Collei outright invites Kaeya to kill her.
Broken Pedestal: She's a huge fan of Tanger's stories about the Aranara, but is more than a little disappointed hearing his outlandish, clueless theories after they meet in person.
Brother–Sister Team: Despite the fact that they are not biologically related, Tighnari regards her as a younger sister; they work together as Forest Rangers as well as master and apprentice, and the two are rarely seen apart. In fact, even when they're apart, she'll frequently bring up Tighnari.
Brutal Honesty: Appears to be picking up this trait from Tighnari if her criticism of Idyia in "Secret Summer Paradise" is any indication. Even Eula is taken aback and scolds her for it.
The Bus Came Back: While initially only appearing in the prequel webcomic and making a cameo on the Cat's Tail bar message board in Mondstadt, Collei makes a return and official debut as the first readily-available playable character from Sumeru.
Crutch Character: Aside from the Traveler, Collei is the only other Dendro unit available on demand since she is given out for free after completing Abyss Floor 4-3. So until players gather more viable Dendro units, she and the Dendro Traveler are all they have to work with.
- She's also one of the best characters for exploring Sumeru, to the point of being that nation's counterpart to Amber.
Cute Clumsy Girl: Collei fumbles when handling heavy objects, dropping things every so often. The Traveler later learns that this is due to her Eleazar. Collei also stumbles slightly during her Elemental Talent animations, although this is more likely explained as a result of her inexperience in combat rather than her disease. In either case, though, it comes off as adorable and adds to Collei's wholesomeness as a character.
The Cutie: Her desire to try and live her best life despite her dark past and debilitating sickness just makes her one of the most huggable members of the playable cast — if only she were willing to welcome a hug, that is.
Dark and Troubled Past: She was very sick as a child and declared a deev, later sent by her mother to the Fatui in the hopes of finding her a cure; instead, they experimented on her. Her time with the Fatui gave her immense power, but she was still considered an outcast now with voices in her head and traveled alone for years, constantly sick and convinced she never should have been born.
Death Seeker: Amber was very disturbed to witness Collei, a literal child, inviting Kaeya to kill her.
Deconstruction: Like Fischl, Collei enjoys reading light novels. Unlike Fischl, she was genuinely cursed with evil powers. The experience of not being able to control them gave her lingering mental scars even after the curse went into remission, and so the kind of protagonist that Fischl loves is a grim reminder of her past. As a consequence, she doesn't react positively to reading about one of them or hearing Fischl's self-proclaimed title.
Delicate and Sickly: She suffers from Eleazar, a disease endemic to Sumeru which causes the skin to gradually harden into dark scales, causing numbness, fatigue, peripheral paresthesia^note, and, at later stages, complete paralysis. As a result, she is clumsier than most due to the lack of coordination induced by the disease, and is the reason why Tighnari doesn't want her to carry or hold anything. Her condition stabilized during her time with the Fatui, but after leaving them and joining the Avidya Forest Rangers, she seems to have relapsed, and it seems to be linked to the increase in Withering Zones. There is no conventional cure for this, although treatments exist to curb the disease's progress. Thankfully, when Rukkhadevata's lingering memory is permanently erased from Irminsul, the Eleazar fades completely, and Collei is fully healed.
Demonic Possession: As a result of the experiments done to her, Collei hears voices in her head which take control of her when she uses her black flames, often forcing her to kill.
Disappeared Dad: Her father is never mentioned again after Collei cries out for him to save her in the prequel manga.
Discard and Draw: At the end of the manga, she left for Sumeru to cure her curse. As a playable character three years later, she has a Dendro Vision.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Collei suffering from Eleazar provides a particularly chilling example, with many of the symptoms, most notably the muscle spasms and eventual paralysis, resembling Parkinson's disease.
Dramatically Missing the Point: When Paimon is on the receiving end of being teased by the Traveler and Collei, she attempts some Friendly Tickle Torture on Collei as a form of "Paimonial wrath". Collei freaks out and shouts at Paimon not to touch her, unaware Paimon just wanted some playful payback and not to actually hurt her. Though when you look at the poor girl's backstory regarding the Fatui experimenting on her... yeah.
Dreaming of Things to Come: The end of the "A Winter's Night Lazzo" trailer has Collei dreaming of a potential future where she saw Dottore watching a giant tree and its surroundings being burnt to ashes.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In the prequel comics, her eyes are often drawn with no highlights whatsoever, reflecting her pessimistic outlook stemming from her Dark and Troubled Past. No longer the case come the present day, where her eyes have their shine restored, signifying her improved wellbeing.
Earn Your Happy Ending: After all of the awful crap she's been through ever since the webcomic, the conclusion of Sumeru's Archon Quest finally gives Collei a clean and proper break by curing her Eleazar for good.
Elemental Hair Colors: Has green hair, befitting her Dendro powers.
Escaped from the Lab: As her fourth Character Story and the prequel manga show, after being experimented upon by the Fatui since she was very young, she managed to flee with a few of her fellow victims (though they all died) and briefly wandered in the forests to survive until she arrived in Mondstadt, then rescued from her situation by the the Knights of Favonius and Cyno, finally taken in by Tighnari.
Everyone's Baby Sister: Not only is she regarded as a younger sister by Cyno and Tighnari, but Faruzan also shows concern for her and ensures Tighnari isn't overworking her, and in the "Leisurely Gathering" ending of Kaveh's Hangout Event tree, he, Cyno, Tighnari, and Alhaitham gather to earnestly discuss Collei's future after she furthers her studies.
The Exile: Due to being born sickly, she spent most of her life prior to the events of the webcomic as a deev, cast out from society and wandering from place to place only to be attacked and chased off by locals. Even Mondstadt, the most welcoming country in all of Teyvat, initially refused to let her in from fear of causing an outbreak.
Family of Choice: She views Tighnari, Cyno, and Amber as family, which is reciprocated by the two men addressing themselves as her elder brothers, and the latter keeing in touch with her long after her return to Sumeru.
Foil: To Cyno. Both were brought into to a governmental organization be experimented on at a young age, but while Collei had to go through one horrendous experiment after another by the Fatui, Cyno was spared from that by the Akademiya because of his surrogate father, Cyrus. Additionally, Collei was instilled with the dormant remains of the gods as a result of the experiments, while Cyno had already been a vessel of Hermanubis way before the Akademiya found him. Either way, these shared qualities have brought much difficulty into their lives, and Cyno actively makes an effort to spare Collei the same treatment from the Akademiya, leaving her under the care of Tighnari, by that point having dissociated himself from the Akademiya, though he still regularly checks in on her.
Forest Ranger: Joined the Avidya Forest Rangers sometime after she returned to Sumeru, and routinely accompanies her mentor Tighnari on patrols.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Collei's disease is depicted in the Sumeru Archon Quest as physically debilitating for Collei, inducing brief muscle spasms and periodic paralysis which cause her to be clumsier than most, and the resurgence of Withering Zones have made her condition worsen. As a playable character, however, she is no less physically capable than any other character who shares the Medium Female model. Subverted by the end of the Archon Quest, where she is finally cured from Eleazar.
Guilty Pleasures: Light novels, particularly edgy ones like Onibudou. They get on her nerves and she describes them as cringy, but she does enjoy them enough to keep reading.
Hates Being Touched: She freaks out when a frustrated Paimon tries to tickle her and one of her lines when taking damage on-field is "Don't touch me!". This stems from her past with the Fatui experimenting on her.
Heal the Cutie: Despite her brutal Dark and Troubled Past, she gets better after meeting Amber in Mondstadt, and she then starts a new life as a Forest Ranger in Sumeru. Downplayed in that there are signs that she's not completely over her trauma, such as the fact that she Hates Being Touched. The 2023 Windblume event has a sub-plot of her trying to overcome her insecurities and being comforted by Sucrose when she reveals her trauma.
Hero-Worshipper: Collei seems to take inspiration from Amber, what with her becoming an archer, wearing her Vision in the same place as her, and also siccing a doll on one of her Elemental Talents, not to mention the doll's name is Cuilein-Anbar and she have the same utility passive as Amber.
Hypocrite: In the event "A Parade of Providence", she criticizes Kaveh for finding reasons to bring up Alhaitham in conversations, despite the fact that she frequently mentions Tighnari, even when he isn't present.
In-Universe Catharsis: The reason why Collei has a hard time putting books like Onibudou down. This is spelled out in Faruzan's Hangout Event tree, where she reads an anonymous fanmail from Collei to the author, Junkichi, though Faruzan doesn't realize that the writer was speaking literally about their dark past.
Mental Health Recovery Arc: In the manga she goes from being a sullen survivor of horrific experiments who holds no faith in the world to the point of inviting Kaeya to kill her to becoming inspired by Amber's warmth and striving to live and gain the strength needed to protect others. In the game, Collei's Character Development is through learning to accept and love herself for who she is.
Messy Hair: Like Ganyu, Collei's hair is very messy and unkempt, although Collei's is likely due to spending her time in the humid rainforests of Sumeru.
Mirror Character:
- To Amber, in terms of in-game exploration mechanics. As a Dendro archer, she's very useful if you're trying to solve puzzles in the forests of Sumeru.
- To the Wanderer. Both had the misfortune of catching Dottore's interest and becoming his test subjects, with their experiences with the Fatui filling them with rage and mistrust against people for their perceived betrayal. Both wound up in a foreign nation, where they caused a major crisis and were ultimately taken under the wing of a caring local, eventually giving them the chance to start over and obtain a Vision.
- To Sucrose, another shy green-haired girl studying under a snarky genius who is also a prominent official in their respective organizations. When they meet during the 2023 Windblume event, Sucrose even tells Collei that she feels that they're "very similar people." Their master-student pairs also has one person who is Little Bit Beastly, though they differ in that Collei's master is the one with fox ears while Sucrose is the student with animal ears.
- Collei and Eula are both women who are/were not well liked by anyone due to conditions beyond their control (a contagious disease and biological connections to a tyrannical clan), whose Only Friend is Amber, in addition to having an element weak to Pyro (Dendro and Cryo).
- To Freminet:
  - They are the youngest of their Found Family trio consisting of an eldest adoptive brother who wears a Signature Headgear and a Deadpan Snarker sibling with animal ears who have similar Animal Motifs, with at least one of their brothers being an archer. Cyno and Tighnari's canine constellations contrasts with Lyney and Lynette's feline ones, and the archer within the pair of trios is Collei's younger elder brother vs Freminet's eldest sibling.
  - Both are teenage victims of childhood abuse caused by Fatui Harbingers whose biological parents were tricked into leaving them in the care of the Fatui for the promise of a better life, becoming a socially anxious Shrinking Violet with Heroic Self-Deprecation as a result. They've also developed similar coping mechanisms of reading fiction, going to a private corner in environment they live in to vent, as well as carrying a toy they made themselves for emotional and combat support. The tragic difference is that Collei managed to escape her situation and has recovered for the most part, while Freminet never left and remains a pawn of the Fatui, resulting in him having difficulty opening up to even his closest kin.
Missing Mom: In the manga, after her mother hands her over to the Fatui for a cure, it is implied that she tried to visit her multiple times until the Fatui in charge grew tired of her persistence and ordered her to be taken away to be killed.
Modesty Shorts: Collei wears brown shorts under her minidress.
Mood Whiplash: In the middle of the Traveler and Collei teasing Paimon for her overwrought worries about the former's health after they passed out earlier, Collei suddenly shrieks and distances herself after Paimon tries to tickle her.
Moveset Clone: Downplayed, but her attack animation is similar to Amber's, while having an identical passive ability. Her doll attack is her Burst, however, whereas Amber's is used in her Skill.
Never Be Hurt Again: Though she doesn't begrudge the other party involved, suffering betrayal had her vow never to reach out to anyone again, until she met Amber, and then the rest is history.
Never Learned to Read: Because of her upbringing, first as a Fatui test subject then as a drifter, Collei never learned how to read or write. Tighnari was rather exasperated that his curriculum for training her involved elementary-level reading. While she's since become fairly literate, she still struggles with larger and complicated words.
Occidental Otaku: Collei sometimes reads light novels due to their relatively simple language making them easier for her to digest. It's not always a pleasant experience, though, as Collei is a bit too much like the stereotypical cursed loner for her to be entirely comfortable reading about them.
Punny Name: The doll she uses in her Burst is called Cuilein-Anbar... which sounds like a mispronunciation of "Collei and Amber".
Purple Is Powerful: Her eyes are purple, and during the prequel webcomic she was a Person of Mass Destruction bearing black-and-purple flames.
Reduced Mana Cost: Played with. Her utility passive, Gliding Champion of Sumeru, shaves 20% off of the party's Stamina consumption while gliding.
The Scapegoat: The Fatui allowed Collei to break free so they can manipulate her into killing some Snezhnayan diplomats in Mondstadt so they can swoop in and save the city from her, in order to discredit the Knights of Favonius and gain leverage.
Sexy Backless Outfit: To an almost Stripperiffic degree. Somewhat justified, however, as Collei lives and works in the sweat-inducing humidity of Dharma Forest. Nevertheless, Collei shows more skin than her introverted personality would suggest and the undergarment she's wearing under her hooded poncho is the only thing preventing her outfit from exposing Sideboob as well.
She Is All Grown Up: In the time since the prequel comics, Collei's grown into quite the beautiful young lady, with her wardrobe and abilities taking inspiration from her old friend Amber.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Collei looks up to Amber and credits her for saving her from her Fatui-induced rampage. This is evidenced in both girls sharing the same specialization in bows, youthful body build, and identical utility passives, as well as the ability to summon dolls (albeit in Collei's case, they are summoned through her Burst instead of her Skill, as well as a straightforward attack instead of a Draw Aggro effect).
Sole Survivor: As detailed in her fourth Character Story, the reason why she initially resolved to never rely on anyone before arriving in Mondstadt was because all of her fellow test subjects that she escaped with eventually became lost or died, with the last one leaving Collei hanging off a cliff to fend for herself, though she ended up being mauled by the wild animal that was chasing them.
Somber Backstory Revelation: In the 2023 Windblume Festival, Collei, who often puts up a brave and cheerful front, becomes comfortable enough with Sucrose to divulge about her Dark and Troubled Past, from her childhood to her recovery from Eleazar.
Soul Jar: The Fatui injected her with a god's remains which transferred the power and consciousness of the god in question into her, giving her abilities involving black fire and putting her at risk of Demonic Possession. Cyno later helps seal it away for good, and the true identity of the god the remains came from is left a mystery.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Because Faruzan's Hangout Event tree is a continuation of Tighnari's Story Quest, both Collei and Tighnari have significant screen time in three of its five routes, even appearing onscreen in segments without Faruzan in them. As well, Collei cameos in two ending images.
Starter Mon: An unusual retroactive case because Collei was never initially available at launch, nor do you get her immediately from Mondstadt's Archon Quest like the rest of your starter characters since she's only relevant to Sumeru three chapters later. But she more-or-less serves the role of being your starter Dendro character, since you get her for free from completing the 4th floor of Spiral Abyss and fulfills the same niche of making sure the player has at least one free character per element at minimum. She is also the first playable Dendro character with a Genius Invokation TCG Character Card.
Status Buff:
- Collei's first Constellation upgrade, Deepwood Patrol, increases her Energy Recharge stat by 20% while she is off the field.
- Her fourth, Gift of the Woods, increases her allies' Elemental Mastery stat by 60 points for twelve seconds whenever she triggers her Burst.
The Smurfette Principle: Averted, but still worth mentioning; Despite her close relationship with both Tighnari and Cyno, and her familiarity with both Kaveh and Alhaitham, the latter to a much lesser extent, as well as the fact that she occasionally shows up in media featuring all four of these characters together, she is not treated as a member of their "group" and thusly avoids falling into this trope.
Supreme Chef: Unlike Amber, whose specialty dish is a steak burnt on one side and raw on the other, Collei had a much easier time learning how to cook, with her signature dish being a beautiful and tasty version of the regular pita pocket. After she is cured of Eleazar, Collei regains so much of her energy that she has taken cooking as a new hobby. Paimon and the Traveler get excited at trying her food for breakfast.
Tested on Humans: Was an unwilling test subject in the experiments conducted by the Fatui.
Throwing Off the Disability: Due to Kusanali's Divine Intervention, Collei becomes cured of Eleazar at the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest.
Trauma Button: Collei is adverse to being touched, and when she picked up a copy of Onibudou, it ended up triggering her as the protagonist closely resembles her during her Dark and Troubled Past. She believed that the novel would keep her up that night, and it did—for the wrong reasons.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the prequel webcomic she's obviously much younger than Amber, yet she is shown to be deeply cynical and actively invites Kaeya to kill her once she manages to suppress her powers. Given her past as an exile and test subject, this is somewhat understandable.
True Companions: The 2023 Windblume event reveals that the familial relationship she, Cyno, and Tighnari developed is unique in Sumeruan society because it was not born from the pursuit of academics turned into a social relationship. The group had never worked together academically, allowing for a pure connection that lets them view each other as equals that are unaffected by academic considerations.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Scent of Summer and All Embers, add three levels to, respectively, her Skill and Burst.

Tighnari

Tighnari

Introduced: August 24, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [first half])
Voiced by: Mo Ran (Chinese), Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Jung Ui-taek (Korean), Elliot Gindi (English, original), Zachary Gordon (English, v3.6 onwards)

Verdant Strider

"Sometimes I really do envy those simpletons who go around touching and eating anything and everything. In their minds, it must feel like miracles happen every day."

Rarity: 5★
Element: Dendro
Weapon: Bow
Constellation: Vulpes Zerda, the Fennec Fox

Leader of the Avidya Forest Rangers and Collei's mentor. Despite being a renowned botanist and star alumnus of of the Amurta Darshan, the biology faculty of the Sumeru Akademiya, he declined to continue working for them and instead chose to live a humbler life in Avidya Forest. Hard-headed and temperamental as he may sometimes be, he is nevertheless one of the Traveler's first friends in Sumeru, with him and Collei receiving them in Gandharva Ville as they heal following a weird incident before parting to Sumeru City.

Tighnari dabbles in crowd control, with his shots able to be further charged up into Wreath Arrows that disperse into four Clusterbloom Arrows that home in on nearby opponents. His Elemental Skill, Vijnana-Phala Mine, tosses a psychedelic smoke bomb that deals wide-ranging Dendro damage and leaves behind a Vijnana-Khanda field that disorients his foes into either attacking each other or wandering aimlessly, in addition to bestowing him the "Vijnana Suffusion" effect that sharply cuts the charging time of his next three Wreath Arrows. His Elemental Burst, Fashioner's Tanglevine Shaft, fires six Dendro-enchanted arrows that home in on enemies and then rebound for another wave of damage.^note

Achilles' Heel: While fortunately not common in gameplay, fighting in areas with very low ceilings severely diminishes the usefulness of Fashioner's Tanglevine Shaft and the Clusterbloom Arrows, as the arrows will fly up and break against the ceiling before they have a chance to hit any enemies.
Adopting the Abused: It's not a formal adoption, but being under Tighnari's care has enabled Collei to grow in the safe and nurturing environment that she needed after a harsh childhood as an escaped Fatui test subject, and she has stayed for so long that he and Cyno see her as their younger sister.
Age Is Relative: Tighnari looks considerably younger than Abbatouy, who was his junior back in his Akademiya days.
Ambiguously Related: Flavor Text of the Xiphos' Moonlight sword mentions a people known as the "Tighnarians" who were from an ancient city in the desert. Given that Tighnari's fifth Character Story states that his ancestors inherited their animal features from living alongside the Valuka Shuna fennec fox race who were subjects of King Deshret, it is highly likely he is a descendant of these Tighnarians.
Anger Born of Worry: His cameo at the end of Cyno's Story Quest has him berating the General Mahamatra for his recklessness after the latter singlehandedly apprehended 300 criminals in the span of four days.
Animal Motifs: The fennec fox, as indicated by his animal features and his Constellation's name and appearance.
Area of Effect: His Skill creates a Vijnana-Khanda Field that disorients enemies within its radius into either attacking each other or wandering around aimlessly, as well as endows Tighnari the Vijnana Suffusion effect, which shaves 2.4 seconds off the charging time of his first three aimed shots.
Badass Bookworm: He is a Forest Ranger and is renowned for his academic knowledge. Akademiya representatives have been trying to get him to join their ranks, and one researcher notes that Tighnari can make three publications in a year.
Berserk Button: Downplayed. It's frequently suggested that a surefire way to get on his nerves is repeatedly eating poisonous mushrooms. His Establishing Character Moment has him audibly complaining about someone doing this despite prior experience, and his greeting voice-line has him give the Traveler a book about distinguishing between edible and poisonous mushrooms, suggesting it's to save himself future headaches. Even one of his quotes when joining the party alludes to this, with him asking if anyone ate a poisonous mushroom in a clearly annoyed tone.
Best Friend: He is to Cyno, who in turn grants him the honor of seeing him debut the limited-edition holographic Genius Invokation TCG card he bought from Kaveh after the recent Interdarshan Championship.
Big Brother Mentor: Not only is he in charge of teaching Collei how to read and how to carry out her duties as a forest ranger, he is also her primary caregiver as she struggles through her chronic illness.
Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: He is the Tsukkomi to Cyno’s Boke, since Cyno tells his jokes completely serious and waiting for someone to laugh, and Tighnari responds by telling him his jokes are lame.
Boring, but Practical: As the game's first Dendro DPS character, Tighnari is fittingly the most straightforward compared to his successors—Alhaitham requires a good sense of timing of when to use his Talents to consistently deal high damage with his normal attacks, while Kaveh is reliant on rapidly creating Dendro Cores to prematurely detonate for damage and survivability thanks to his first-ascension passive. Meanwhile, Tighnari's style is a simple matter of using his Skill, pelting his target with Charged shots, and using his Burst when it charges and cooldowns, rinse and repeat.
Charged Attack: If Tighnari's aimed shots are charged for a longer time, these arrows can subsequently create Wreath Arrows that, upon impact, generate four Clusterbloom Arrows that deal extra damage.
Combat Medic: As a forest ranger, Tighnari is required to be capable in self-defense from wildlife and the Withering, which he demonstrates with his skill with the bow, and his Amurta education has also equipped him with enough medical expertise to treat the maladies of visitors to the forest (having dealt with enough cases of accidental poisoning from mushrooms to complain about it), other rangers on his team (especially the chronically ill Collei whom he acts as primary caregiver), and the residents around Gandharva Ville that his story quest implies regularly visit him for treatment.
Connected All Along: While he and Cyno are established to be friends early on in the Sumeru Archon Quest, its last third further emphasizes it with the revelation that Cyno began his investigation of the Akademiya at Tighnari's request after he began having suspicions about the letters ostensibly sent by Naphis, his former mentor and Sage of the Amurta Darshan, fearing that his strong principles may have caused him to run afoul of his peers. They planned around it, even taking into account that Cyno might have to leave the Akademiya at some point and that Tighnari would be pestered even more by the scholars involved with the Sages' secret project. This took place before the Traveler's arrival at Sumeru, and thus sheds light on Tighnari's defiance towards the Sages, as well as how Cyno came to discover the true nature of Azar's plan. It is for this very reason that Tighnari helps Dehya and the Traveler when they seek him for information, despite them not revealing the full details save for working with Cyno—Tighnari felt that he was responsible for Cyno getting caught up in this mess in the first place, and just as he'd promised, he would offer support as much as he could.
Cool Big Bro: While not biologically related to her, he views Collei as a younger sister and often looks after her wellbeing.
Cooldown Manipulation: A variant. In addition to creating a disorienting area-of-effect, his Skill bestows the Vijnana Suffusion which shaves 2.4 seconds off of the charging time of his next three Wreath Arrows. His sixth Constellation upgrade, Karma Adjudged From the Leaden Fruit, shaves 0.9 second off all Wreath Arrows, in addition to allowing it to produce a fifth, non-elemental Clusterbloom Arrow which deals damage worth 150% of Tighnari's Attack stat.
Deadpan Snarker: He is sassy and brutally honest with his feelings and never shy to express them, making him this by default, enough to give Yae Miko a run for her money.
- As his introductory post on HoYoLab reveals, he has some choice words for people who land themselves in trouble in the rainforest through their own foolish antics:
  "What a pity, I majored in botany, and helping people grow a brain is not my area of expertise."
- Many of his voice-overs perfectly illustrate this as well.
  (About Us: Friends) "'Are we officially friends?' What, so this sort of thing needs official documentation now? Okay then... Well, hand over your 'friendship certificate.' I assume it'll need my signature."
Developer's Foresight: Completing his Story Quest first before starting the fifth and final act of the Sumeru Archon Quest will have Tighnari sit on top of Karkata's cubic form (rather than on the floor) as he is recovering from a lightning strike that he got hit with earlier (courtesy of Scaramouche).
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: As Tighnari is very close to Collei, when Dottore, who had previously experimented on Collei, arrives at Pardis Dyhai to take Haypasia with him on his return to Sneznayha, he treats him much the same way he would any other arrogant scholar, brusquely pointing out that he needed permission for a transfer and refusing to allow him to take Haypasia. All this in spite of the massive gap in power between them. Notably, the Doctor is too dispassionate to really care. It's Scaramouche who hits him with a Bolt of Divine Retribution.
Dowsing Device: His utility passive, Encyclopedic Knowledge, displays the location of Sumeru-exclusive resources on the minimap.
Dr. Jerk: Downplayed, but Tighnari has little patience for anyone traveling Dharma Forest who requires aid more than once, seeing them as hopeless idiots undeserving of his attention, and is positively snide in rebuffing Akademiyan scholars trying to recruit him to the Sages' secret project.
Dub Pronunciation Change: In English and Korean, the "Tigh" part of his name is pronounced as "tie" while in Chinese and Japanese it is pronounced as "tee". The real life pronunciation is closer to "tugh".
Elemental Eye Colors: Downplayed, as the bottom half of his irises are green as befitting his Dendro powers, but the top half is orange.
Elemental Hair Colors: Downplayed too, as his main hair color is almost black, but the sides of his bob and the middle part of his bangs are neon green, befitting his Dendro powers. He also has dark green fur on his tail.
Elemental Personalities: Played with. Tighnari's blunt and easily Enraged by Idiocy, but is also genuinely benevolent and caring for those in need, and both a dediacted scholar and a Forest Ranger, making a personal task of his to ensure taking care of people, plants and wildlife. This is reflected in his Dendro Vision.
Enraged by Idiocy: To the inexperienced, Tighnari is a relatively patient and helpful man who is attentive in his care for their needs. To the willfully ignorant who somehow manage to never learn anything, he is rude and flippant, treating them like a waste of time. It's both telling and worrying that the members of Akademiya the Traveler sees him meeting with receive the latter attitude.
Foil:
- To Cyno. Both are Collei's big-brother figures, are leaders of their respective groups, have canine Animal Motifs along with large animal ears, grew up in a family of scholars and have desert ancestry but currently belong to the rainforest. However, Tighnari grew up with both of his parents, who are descended from the Valuka Shuna who migrated to the forest long ago, while Cyno was adopted by Cyrus. In terms of appearance, Tighnari's fair skin, almost black hair, partially green eyes and green clothing that only leaves his left forearm and a small section of his legs exposed contrasts with Cyno's tanned skin, white hair, red eyes, and Stripperiffic outfit with purple elements. Furthermore, Tighnari's animal ears are real while Cyno's animal ears are a part of his Signature Headgear.
- He and Alhaitham are both snarky Dendro vision holders named after historical Arab scientists who prominently war dark green, have similarly green-and-red/orange two-toned eyes, and are at one point in time the Best Friend of a light-haired, red-eyed Akademiya senior. However, Alhaitham has a strained relationship with Kaveh while Tighnari and Cyno are close friends apart from his lack of tolerance for the latter's bad jokes. Furthermore, within the two pairs, Alhaitham is the junior with a simple green-and-black color scheme who works as a civil servant in contrast to Kaveh's colorful clothing and job as an independent architect, while Tighnari is the junior with a more colorful outfit who works independently of the Akademiya in contrast to Cyno's predominantly purple-and-black outfit and is the leader of the Akademiya's disciplinary force.
Forest Ranger: His occupation and in which capacity he trains Collei.
Four-Star Badass: Defied. When the Forest Rangers began calling him a general, mirroring Cyno's position of General Mahamatra, Tighnari soundly rejected the position, not wanting to be attached to a title above the rest.
Fox Folk: Is currently the only Sumeruan character seen in-game that has connections to the Valuka Shuna race.
Gadgeteer Genius: Tighnari's brief tenure as a student of the Spantamad Darshan taught him how to utilize various gadgets that aid him in his duty as a forest ranger such as grenades that cause confusion, traps, and a device to help in decontamination. He also has enough mechanical knowledge to repair Karkata back to its operational state.
Homing Projectile: Tighnari specializes in firing Dendro-empowered arrows that track his enemies, as shown with the Clusterbloom Arrows that are unleashed whenever his Wreath Arrows, generated by charging up his normal shots for even longer, connect, as well as his Burst.
Hypocritical Heartwarming: At the start of Tighnari's Story Quest, a child he's treating reveals that he broke a friend's toy and didn't tell her in fear of ruining their friendship under the assumption that he's on his deathbed. When Tighnari assures the child that he's not dying and he asks that he keep the secret, Tighnari lightly chides him for it and encourages him to just tell her the truth, even as it is clear to the Traveler that he, too, is being rather secretive to them. As it turns out, his reassurance was a bit of a white lie to keep him calm while he prepares the proper medicine.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Tighnari can be very blunt towards people, those who are close to him know he's also warm-hearted.
- Tighnari doesn't like it when people waste his time. People who, for example, repeatedly do stupid things when they ought to know better, tell him things he doesn't want or need to hear, or badgering him when he says "no" to get anywhere from the cold shoulder to a tongue-lashing. For the truly needy however, he's kind and patient, much gentler in his manner of speech and giving them all the time they need. His bedside manner is impeccable, and he encourages Collei while doing his best to make sure she doesn't strain herself. This is his important work, and any time away from it is time well-wasted.
- In his playable voice-overs, Tighnari rarely shows his unpleasant side — when he does, it's never directed at the Traveler, instead being patient and friendly towards them (if light-hearted with his snark), and he even invites them to tuck their hands in his tail when it's snowing.
- According to Alhaitham's voice line for Tighnari, the latter rescued Kaveh from a withering zone after an unforeseen accident (according to Kaveh's fourth Character Story) and didn't hold a grudge against him for placing himself in that situation, instead inviting him out for a meal afterward. Alhaitham deems Tighnari a good person because of this (even explicitly referring to him as a Nice Guy), contrary to the common judgment people tend to have about him. Scanning Tighnari with Nahida's "All Schemes to Know" skill during the "A Parade of Providence" event reveals he wonders when Kaveh will be able to pay off his debts, and wishes him the best of luck.
- He is very direct when he tells Cyno that his attempts at telling jokes are lame and cringe worthy, despite knowing that Cyno is trying his best to be more approachable to others, but their friendship is very strong despite their differences.
Little Bit Beastly: Has a pair of fennec fox ears and a tail.
Mirror Character:
- To Gorou. Both of them are archers with animal features such as fluffy ears and a tail, and other characters say they want to touch them, but while Gorou is very shy about it (and is very reluctant to let anyone touch them), Tighnari is more open about it, even offering the Traveler to tuck their hands into his tail to warm themselves in Dragonspine and asking if they want to touch his ears in his Serenitea Pot lines.
- Albedo and Tighnari are both snarky geniuses who hold leadership positions in their respective organizations and mentors to introverted green-haired girls. Unsurprisingly, they get along well when they meet in the 2023 Windblume event. However, while both master-student pairs have someone who is a Little Bit Beastly, it is the master that has fox ears in Tighnari's and Collei's relationship while the one with animal ears between Albedo and Sucrose is the student.
Moveset Clone: Downplayed. Tighnari is the third character after Ganyu and Yoimiya to possess a unique Charged Attack, and both his and Ganyu's Skills revolve around distracting enemies, with the key difference being that Tighnari's have a longer charging time (unless he is in the Vijnana Suffusion state and/or he has fully unlocked his Constellation) and creates Homing Projectiles, whereas Ganyu's is an explosion of icicles; his Skill creates an area-of-effect that confounds enemies, whereas Ganyu's launches a lotus to draw enemies away; and his Burst is a barrage of Homing Projectiles, whereas Ganyu's triggers bursts of wide-ranging damage.
Mushroom Samba: Tighnari falls victim to a mushroom's hallucinogens in his character trailer and imagines himself fighting hordes of mushroom beasts. Gameplay-wise, his Skill has him throw a narcotic bomb that causes his enemies to hallucinate and either attack each other or wander aimlessly.
Mundane Utility: Discussed by him about his Dendro Vision. When he was a child, he prayed to the gods that, if he were to have a Vision, it had to be Dendro; not because of research or anything... but because it would let him make a vine ladder to reach high-hanging fruit from trees.
Nature Hero: Despite his snark towards those Too Dumb to Live and being rather antisocial, Tighnari generally values all life, be it other people or animals living in Avidya Forest. This trait comes up in his Story Quest, with him explaining to the Traveler his reservations over mechanical lifeform research due to the animal cruelty his former peers in the Akademiya often stooped to; at the end, he goes against the Akademiya's laws to not only spare Karkata, a creation of his late underclassman Abbatouy, but also has it work as a research assistant based on even the slightest chance of it being a fully sentient being.
No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Tighnari derives his name from Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Malik al-Murri al-Tighnari al-Gharnati, a twelfth-century agronomist and botanist from al-Andalus (modern-day Andalusia, Spain), and the video game character is an alumnus of the Amurta Darshan, the biology faculty of the Akademiya, with a Dendro Vision.
Non-Standard Character Design: His distinct design sets him apart from the rest of the Sumeru cast. This is due to the fact that he was created by the well-known character designer Pako rather than by in-house HoYoverse artists.
Non-Uniform Uniform: His Story Quest reveals group photos he took with fellow Akademiya students, depicting him wearing the exact same outfit he's wearing now rather than the school uniform.
The Nose Knows: When Tighnari opens a treasure chest, he has a chance of saying he smells something good in them.
Odd Friendship: With Kaveh, who he befriended some time before the Sumeru Archon Quest, though it's implied that they met during the Palace of Alcazarzaray's construction. Tighnari is a renowned botanist from the Amurta Darshan and leader of the Avidya Forest Rangers with a mostly subdued and sarcastic personality, while Kaveh is a renowned architect from the Kshahrewar Darshan and a passionate aesthete. Despite their differences in academic pursuits and careers, he and Kaveh are shown to be close friends in their interactions, and is even one of the few people privy to Kaveh's dire financial state and has been helping him however he can.
Pop Culture Osmosis: Trying to search for the historical figure Tighnari is based on will likely bring results on the playable character instead.
Professor Guinea Pig: Despite his frequent complaints about people eating poisonous mushrooms despite his warnings, his gameplay trailer sees him ingest a hallucinogenic mushroom for research purposes to ensure which mushrooms are safe or not safe to eat.
Pretty Boy: Tighnari keeps his hair neck-length, wears androgynous clothing, and in the Japanese dub is even voiced by a woman.
Secret-Keeper: He's one of the few characters that are aware of Kaveh's bankruptcy and as well as the fact that he lives with Alhaitham.
Status Buff:
- His first-ascension passive, Keen Sight, increases his Elemental Mastery stat by 50 points for four seconds whenever he fires a Wreath Arrow, while that for his fourth, Scholarly Blade, increases the damage potency of his charged attacks and his Burst by 0.06% for every point of Elemental Mastery he has (to a maximum to 60%, equivalent to at least 1,000 points).
- His second Constellation upgrade, Origins Known From the Stem, boosts his Dendro Damage bonus by 20% while there is at least one enemy inside the Vijnana-Khanda Field, and will linger on for six seconds after either the Field dissipates or there no more enemies inside.
- His fourth Constellation upgrade, Withering Glimpsed in the Leaves, adds 60 Elemental Mastery points to the party for eight seconds whenever he uses his Burst, with an additional 60 points whenever it also triggers Burning, Bloom, Quicken, or Spread reactions.
Status Effects: Tighnari is the first character to afflict enemies with confusion (through his Skill), causing them to attack one another in its area-of-effect or stumble around aimlessly.
Super-Hearing: Because of his large fox ears, his hearing is unmatched. He claims he hears everything, including Cyno trying to secretly visit Collei to check up on her.
Strong Family Resemblance: In Kaveh's Hangout Event, Kaveh discovers a sketch of his father among his peers that was drawn by his mother, with a man resembling Tighnari among them. This man is strongly implied to be Tighnari's father, and he resembles him almost exactly except for being noticeably taller, having longer hair, and lacking Tighnari's signature neon green highlights.
The Mentor: Along with being her caretaker, he's Collei's master and she's almost always with him, leaning on his for guidance.
Token Wholesome: He's the most modestly dressed out of the playable male Sumeru characters, with only his left forearm and a small portion of his legs between his pants and his boots exposed.
True Companions: The 2023 Windblume event reveals that the familial relationship Cyno, Tighnari, and Collei developed, which Cyno describes as being akin to siblings, is unique in Sumeru society because it was not born from the pursuit of academics turned into a social relationship. The group had never worked together academically, allowing for a pure connection that lets them view each other as equals that are unaffected by academic considerations.
Upgrade Artifact: A couple variants:
- Tighnari's first Constellation upgrade, Beginnings Determined at the Roots, increases the Critical Rate of his charged attacks by 15%.
- His third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Fortunes Read Amongst the Branches and Comprehension Amidst the Flowers, add three levels to, respectively, his Burst and Skill.
Vague Age: While his age is never explicitly stated, there is some strong evidence indicating a range, such as the fact that he is stated to be younger than Kaveh, who is heavily implied to be in his mid-to-late twenties, and Cyno.
- Tignari is old enough to mentor and co-parent Collei, a teen girl, but he is still considered her older brother rather than a proper parental figure despite fulfilling that role for her, further suggesting he's on the younger side.
- Unlike Kaveh and Alhaitham, who have been Akademiya alumni for several years by the time they're encountered in the story, it's heavily hinted through text and dialogue that Tighnari graduated from the Akademiya fairly recently ^note, and photos of him from his Akademiya days show him looking the same as he does now, down to wearing the same outfit. This all seems to point to Tighnari being in his early twenties at most.
Weapon Specialization: Tighnari was introduced in tandem with the Wish banner for the Hunter's Path (5★). Its Ascension substat is Critical Rate (9.6–44.1%), while its "At the End of the Beast-Paths" passive increases its wielder's Elemental Damage Bonuses by 12–24%, in addition to bestowing the "Tireless Hunt" effect whenever they hit enemies with charged, attacks, which increase the damage of charged shots by 160–320% of their Elemental Mastery stat, and can last either for ten seconds or until twelve charged shots have been fired. As Tighnari can fire four Clusterbloom Arrows at once, this means he is able to reap benefits from its boosts thrice, as well as incentivizes players to shore up his Elemental Mastery stat to further enhance the passive.
With Great Power Comes Great Perks: The actual reason why he wanted a Dendro Vision since he was a child wasn't because of research, but because it would allow him to make a vine ladder to reach high-hanging fruit from trees. You can't blame the guy given Sumeru is an enormous rainforest.

Ilyas' Family

Alyasa, Ashera, and Izebel

Ilyas, is a scholar from the Akademiya encountered in Alhaitham's Story Quest while suffering from amnesia, and his family lives in Gandharva Ville. Tropes regarding Ilyas can be found here.

Parents as People: Ilyas's parents care greatly for him, as his sister Izebal reassures, but they were worried about the ramifications of Ilyas's whistleblowing before he even did it and advised against it by telling him to "not be a hero", and in the present seem to be trying to pressure him to drop out of the Akademiya to escape the bullying and threats he and the rest of the family are receiving. This unfortunately contributed to Ilyas's insecurities and his decision to become part of Siraj's Hive Mind.

The Aranara

A race of diminutive, plant-like fairies scattered throughout Dharma Forest. With a few exceptions, they largely live apart from humans and in a dreamscape version of Vanarana, on the northern section of the Forest.

General Tropes

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_04_08_at_104143_pm_6.png

Araja

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_04_08_at_95139_pm.png

Arabalika

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_04_08_at_100039_pm.png

Ararycan

Amazing Technicolour Population: The Aranara, being nature spirits, come in a variety of green, brown, light orange or yellow. Ararycan also stands out as being the only Aranara that is unusually bright blue.
Ambiguous Gender: Although they do use gender-specific pronouns, in their notes in the Aranyaka the Traveler openly questions if they have a concept of gender. At one point they run into a group of Aranara "brothers" with a "sister," but it turns out that they picked up the concept of siblings from the "Nara Varuna," the Traveler's sibling.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Arabalika manages to be this in spite of being a Lilliputian Plant Person. Most Aranara's Ararakalari don't have any combat applications, but Arabalika's allows it to take down a Ruin Guard in one attack. Unlike most Aranara, who are shy in speak and riddles, Arabalika is abrasive and direct, and the Traveler needs to prove that they're a daft hand in a fight as well in order to garner enough respect to work with it.
Badass Adorable: Arama, one of the Aranara, helps the Traveler defeat Marana's Avatar and even protects them. There's also Arabalika, who is capable of destroying Ruin Guards.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The Aranara don't quite get humans, and their ways can seem odd at times. Yet it's the Aranara who have the knowledge and skill to maintain life on Dharma Forest for the last 500 years, though they fall a bit short on manpower until they ask the Traveler for assistance. The Withering being as bad as it is in the present is because the Aranara's defenses are close to being overwhelmed; what is seen on Sumeru (on both sides of the Wall of Samiel) is what managed to break through their containment. What they've still managed to keep trapped is far worse.
Captured Super-Entity: The Fatui, on Dottore's orders, have been attempting to capture them for some time, even resorting to kidnapping local children as bait. The Aranara's powers have allowed them to not only elude capture, but also set the children free without detection.
Cherubic Choir: During the Festival Utsava, the Traveler performs a duet on their lyre with the gathered Aranara singing the Song of the Great Dream, a melody that reflects their pure and wonderous nature. They also sang in Nahida's character demo.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: They don't quite get what cooking is about, and you get to experience it during the quest to help them train in cooking. Among their culinary offerings are Zaytun Peaches poached in the "taste of happiness" (sugar) that makes the Traveler gasp for water, "extra-fresh" fruits that taste virtually the same as normal fruits, and soup that smells great but tastes like the special water they use as the base, which is to say, tasteless. The Traveler then tries to cook them Nara food in return, but they don't quite like it, in the end agreeing to disagree on the concept of cooking.
- It's possible that their tastebuds are just that much more sensitive than those of Naras, meaning that to them a very slightly spiced dish by human standards is overpowering.
Cowardly Lion: Arashakun believes that it is a coward without a flower talisman that was gifted to it, but it received it after defeating a monster that was bigger and stronger than itself. In its mind it didn't have courage at that time because it was trembling, and can't "recall" its courage without the keepsake it received afterwards. The Traveler recovers the talisman, at which point Arashakun's attitude changes completely. The player receives an Achievement for completing the Quest Arashakun is a part of, "As The Lion Searched For Courage", which makes this a clear Shout-Out to the Trope Namer.
Expy: They're based on the Koroks in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, being adorable nature spirits that can be found scattered across the land that you can complete miniquests for.
Dream Weaver: The Aranara possess the ability to enter and manipulate the dreams and memories of all living beings much like the Dendro Archon. They first demonstrate this ability on the Traveler to distract them while they make a clean getaway after being caught helping Haypasia red-handed. Even their home is hidden in a dreamscape.
Dumbass No More: Downplayed since they're not dumb, just have a very different worldview compared to humans, and speak in a very different way. But as you continue down the questline, Arama, who would have accompanied the Traveler all the while, absorbs enough memory and knowledge that he drops off the usual "Aranara-speak" and explains the history behind Old Vanarana in normal human terms.
Familiar: Of Rukkhadevata, being created by her and referring to themselves as her children. They also seem to become one for Kusanali, as they knew of her existence and made an appearance in her character demo playing with her, which makes sense when you consider that she's trapped in the Sanctuary of Surasthana and can only explore the world in her dreams, where the majority of the Aranara reside.
Heli-Critter: They have leaflike growths on their heads that they can use to float in this style as their walk speed is very, very slow.
Hidden Depths: With the exception of Arashakun, every Aranara refers to hilichurls as "Hilinara". "Nara" is their term for humans, meaning that the Aranara knew the hilichurls were once human.
Hidden Disdain Reveal: Downplayed, as it's not in the Aranara's nature to hold a grudge, but at present they have a hard time trusting humans even though they still enjoy playing with children, and have hidden the real Varanara in a dream to help conceal their existence. This is because of a manmade disaster which destroyed their old home and scarred Sumeru so badly that it created what they call Marana, the memory of death that plagues Sumeru in the form of the Withering and Eleazar. Having been driven nearly to extinction by the consequences of human actions, they've been keeping to themselves in order to stay safe. Played more straight with King Deshret, however, as it is revealed later on that the forbidden knowledge he brought to his people unwittlingly created the Withering and Eleazar, needing the intervention of Rukkhadevata to save his people and contain this incursion to Teyvat.
Hidden Elf Village: The Aranara live in Vanarana, in the northern reaches of Dharma Forest. While anyone can walk into Vanarana, they won't see any Aranara there, because the real Vanarana where the Aranara actually live is located in a Dream Land that only appears to humans if the Aranara determine them to be trustworthy and show them how to get in.
Innocent Plant Children: The Aranara are a race of plant people that are all childlike and innocent in their outlook. The Traveler's sibling even writes that they aren't capable of understanding hatred.
Interspecies Friendship: Aranara are happy to be friends with Sumeru's children and the few human adults they trust.
Invisible to Adults: Only a few youths and adults like the Traveler, Paimon, Rana, Haypasia, the Wanderer and Yoimiya are able to see them. The children, who can initially see them, gradually lose the ability to do so as they grow up. It is hinted that individuals with a strong attunement to Dendro can make out their existence, as the Traveler gained the capability of seeing Aranara themselves after resonating with Sumeru's Statue of the Seven. Tighnari also explains that he hears them in the depths of the forest, although they disappear when he goes closer to them.
Irony:
- Most of the Akademiya scoffs at the idea that the Aranara actually exist. One can only imagine what would happen if they ever learned that the Aranara are actually the direct creations of Akademiya's beloved Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. Or that they have been the ones doing much of Dharma Forest's maintenance for the past 500 years. This became even more ironic when certain Quests and notes reveal that people like Il Dottore and Khayyam believe that they are real, the former to the point of assigning some Fatui to capture one for him to study.
- The Akademiya's knowledge and understanding of the Withering is far behind that of the Aranara, and the reason it is so bad in the present is partly because the Aranara's defenses have hit their limit and can't contain it any longer without outside intervention. Had the Akademiya simply had a way to work together with the Aranara, they'd have a lot more time to cure Irminsul of its sickness before the symptoms became this unmanageable.
Kid-Appeal Character: Given their looks and mannerisms, it's no wonder that children love them.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Aranara are able to use their memories to gain certain powers at the cost of forgetting said memories.
Lost Colony: If the ruins found there are of any indication, some Aranara used to live in Chenyu Vale at some point.
Meaningful Name: The name "Aranara" is possibly derived from the Sanskrit words áraṇya (अरण्य, "forest") and nára (नर, "person").
Nature Spirit: A race of one.
Perpetual Expression: Their faces is stuck with a smiley-like ":]" face that underlines their innocent personality and slightly alien nature.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite what their diminutive sizes, cute looks, and innocent nature might suggest, the Aranara are not completely defenceless. As Arama and Arabalika demonstrate, when tapping into their full Ararakalari power from their memories, they can be capable of downing Ruin Guards with one blow.
Power at a Price: The Aranara derive their Ararakalari power from their memories. Each use of their power will cause them to forget stuff as a result, and should they use up all of their power, they'll end up with complete amnesia and unable to remember their past lives.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Aranara are cat-sized Waddling Heads with silly accessories and Black Bead Eyes. The end result resembles a toy more than any real world creature.
Shout-Out: One of the Aranara is named Aranakin...and he even says the following line:
Aranakin: I don't like sand, it's coarse, rough, and irritating. And it gets everywhere.
The Sleepless: Aranara generally do not need to sleep. They are capable of hibernating, transforming into seeds when they do so, but they only go into hibernation in times of great danger.
The Voiceless: Though fully capable of speech, none of them have any voiced idle-lines. This continues during their Story Quest debut ("Star-Pickers' Passage"), where they (as demonstrated by Aranaras named Arapurva and Arashani) remain voiceless in an otherwise fully voiced storyline.

Arama

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The prominent Aranara who serves as the main deutragonist of the "Aranyaka" World Quest series.

Badass Adorable: Arama, like others of his kind, is a Ridiculously Cute Critter with an innocent nature as well as childlike way of speech. He is able to protect the Traveler against Marana's Avatar and is a crucial player in helping them defeat it.
Hero of Another Story: Arama is the protagonist among the Aranara and one of the deuteragonists in the Traveler's, as well as the Nara Varuna's (Traveler's sibling), journey.
Heroic Sacrifice: Arama becomes the new Ashvattha tree at the end of the third act of Aranyaka, giving up his awareness and individuality to produce the Bija fruit for the Traveler to save Rana.
Scarf of Asskicking: He is unique among the Aranara for being the only one to wear a red scarf, and he is also crucial in helping the Traveler face Marana's Avatar.
Video Game Caring Potential: After you finished the Aranyaka world quest, you can play a song to the new Ashvattha tree everyday. It doesn't net you an achievement or anything, but it's a nice gesture that Arama will certainly appreciate.

Arakayapsa

An Aranara that Kaveh's father met as a child and was taught how to read and write in human script by him. It is mentioned in the event "A Parade of Providence".

Ambiguous Situation: The letter it left behind after hiding the Diadem of Knowledge implies that it was aware that the Diadem would have a negative impact on Kaveh's father, though how it knew this is unclear.
Interspecies Friendship: Befriended Kaveh's father when he was a child, and was taught how to read and write human script by him.
Undying Loyalty: Remembered Kaveh's father after he had grown up and had his own child, and tried to save him by hiding the Diadem of Knowledge from him. Unfortunately, it's attempt to save his life was futile, as he came into contact with a fragment of Sachin's consciousness and was brainwashed by it anyway.
What Happened to the Mouse?: It is said to have vanished after hiding the Diadem of Knowledge in a hollowed out tree and leaving a note behind, with there being no clear indication of what happened to it after that. It's possible that it's long dead, given that it's not mentioned in any of the previous Aranara quests and Kaveh makes no mention of having encountered an Aranara.

Arana

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Rana's Aranara friend, though Rana has already forgotten about it in the beginning of the Aranyaka quest.

Friendship Trinket: Arana wears a blue ribbon on the side of its hat, just like the one Rana wears in her hair, showing just how long their friendship has lasted even though the latter didn't remember after growing up.
Interspecies Friendship: Arana befriended Rana back in her childhood. Their relationship is rekindled when Rana regains her memories and sets off with him to create new ones.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Arana sacrifices his memories to produce the Bijia needed to heal Rana, and is unable to recognise the Traveler and Paimon immediately afterwards, nor recall anything about his past friendship with Rana upon reuniting with her.

Docile Fungi

Not all fungi are hostile monsters. Some are actually friendly and willing to communicate with humans.

General

The Bus Came Back: The human owned fungi make a comeback during the Fungi Mechanicus event as the focus.
Monster Allies: When a fungi has formed a bond with somebody, they officially become their ally and are willing to fight by their side.
More than Mind Control: At first, it is assumed the wisdom orb grants control over the fungi. However, further study from Layla, the Traveler, and Miko helps them discover that the wisdom orb actually makes them easier to communicate with, as they turn their orbs off to find the fungi continue to be docile. Nahida's second story quest reveals that fungi are much like humans in that they have to learn to trust others.
Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Turns out the reason most Fungi are hostile in the first place is because they are afraid of humans attacking them first. Some fungi are willing to give humans a chance though.
"Not So Different" Remark: Once it is revealed how fungi react in fear of humans, Paimon points out that makes them much like humans.
Reunion Vow: After the fungi are all handed over to be looked after by Hanniyah, Layla, the Traveler, and Paimon promise that they will meet again someday. Paimon even assure Blitzara that Miko will return too.
Signature Mon: They are considered their owner's "Ace Fungi" and are the ones most associated with them.
Undying Loyalty: Fungi that have formed a bond with a human are shown to be very close to where they will listen to them no matter what, even being able to break free from mind control of somebody else when their owner is in proximity of them.

Bongo-Head

The Traveler's star Fungus.

Can't Drop the Hero: You're required to use Bongo-Head for all of the tournament matches.
Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Subverted. While every other fungus captured by the Traveler is given a choice of three different names, Paimon only allows the choice of Bongo-Head for this one. To be precise, your three choices of names are all Bongo-Head.
Immune to Mind Control: Downplayed. Bongo-Head is the only one of the four fungi to be unaffected by the backdoor function. However it gets established shortly after that it is due to its loyalty to the Traveler who is there from the beginning. When the trainers of the other fungi arrive, they break free and become immune as well.
Making a Splash: It's a Hydro Fungus who can apply Wet to enemies.
Support Party Member: Its special ability allows it to heal the team while applying Wet to all enemies in it's range.

Pyro-1

Pyro-1/Kindlejoy

Hanniyah's main Fungus for the tournament.

Meaningful Rename: By the end of the event story, Haniyyah renames Pyro-1 to Kindlejoy to reflect how much happiness it brings her.
Undying Loyalty: While all the tamed fungi display loyalty to their owners, Pyro-1 is notable as it remains loyal to Hanniyah even when she boasts about killing all fungi in front of it. Pyro-1's willingness to stay by her side is one of the things to help Haniyyah have a Heel Realization.
You Are Number 6: Haniyyah gave Pyro-1 its name to reflect how she sees it as nothing more than a tool. Once she does a Heel–Face Turn, she renames it Kindlejoy.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Haniyyah makes it clear that she would have Pyro-1 killed with all the other fungi when she achieves her goal. Her bond with Pyro-1 makes it clear she becomes hesitant about this though. By the end, she realizes she can't go through with it.

Twirly-Whirly

Layla's Fungus.

Blow You Away: As a Floating Anemo Fungus, it possess an Anemo element.
Unusual Pets for Unusual People: And the reason Layla wanted to get to the semi-finals so that she can have an assistant who can help her out, due to her condition.
Cutscene Power to the Max: A minor one, but whenever it circles around Layla it walks much, much faster than an energized Fungus of the same type.

Blitzara

An electro fungus tamed by Yae Miko.

Out of Focus: Among the four major fungi in the "Fabulous Fungus Frenzy" event, Blitzara gets the least amount of focus.
Shock and Awe: Being a Whirling Electro Fungus and all. Fittingly, its owner possess an Electro Vision as well.

Elemental Lifeforms (Unmarked Spoilers for Nahida's 2nd Story Quest)

Hydro Fungus Being voiced by: Yu Tou (Chinese), Sara Matsumoto (Japanese), (Korean), Rachel Robinson (English)

Anemo Fungus Being voiced by: Nuo Ya (Chinese), Hiroshi Watanabe (Japanese), (Korean), Misty Lee (English)

Elemental beings that have taken on the appearance of fungi and have grown to mingle with them. Two of them, one resembling a Floating Hydro Fungus and the other a Floating Anemo Fungus, become the focus of Act II of Nahida's story quest.

Cataclysm Backstory: The reason why the elemental lifeforms adapted to look like fungi was to survive the apocalypse (i.e. forbidden knowledge) that corrupted their homeland.
Heroic Sacrifice: The remaining Elemental Lifeforms give their own lives to heal Apep so that Nahida doesn't have to.
Merger of Souls: The Hydro fungus being absorbs the elemental power of all the departed elemental life forms they encounter, and they're able to feel their emotions and memories. After gaining enough elemental power, their appearance also evolves to that of a Grounded Hydroshroom.
The McCoy: The Anemo fungus is the most insistent on saving the elemental lifeforms the group comes across, even when it risks the destabilizing of the Fire Seed.
Name Amnesia: The Hydro fungus being is unable to recall their child's name, which upsets them. It is revealed to be "Nur" afterwards, and their child eventually learns of it and tries to pronounce it.
Non-Human Non-Binary: They don't seem to have any gender nor do they refer to any of their fellow kinds with gendered pronouns.
No Name Given: Neither the Hydro fungus nor the Anemo fungus are given names. Especially odd since the Hydro fungus gave a name to one of its "family members," but doesn't seem to use one themselves.
Spot the Imposter: Of sorts. Elemental Lifeforms are not actually fungi despite living among them and using elemental sight can allow the Traveler to find them hiding among the fungi due to their aura being different.
Terse Talker: The Anemo fungus being speaks in short phrases and frequently pauses between words as not only it is not good with human language, it is also implied to be a young child.

Historical Figures

Viaghara

The "Lord of the Forest" born after Greater Lord Rukkhadevata creation of Dharma Forest.

Animal Motifs: Tigers.
Meaningful Name: Viaghara /Vyaghara (Sanskrit: व्याघ्र) in Sanskrit has several meanings, including a "strong and noble person", a pre-eminent person ("tiger among men"), and the name of a king.

Viridescent

The Queen of Hunters who fought the forces of The Abyss during The Cataclysm.

And Then John Was a Zombie: She fought the monsters from the Abyss during the Cataclysm. After undergoing erosion, she eventually became an Abyssal monster herself, forgetting her original purpose to avenge the boy whom she failed to save. Later, The Bloodstained Knight put an end to her.
Posthumous Character: She was killed by the Bloodstained Knight before the main story takes place.
Red Baron: She was called the "Queen of Hunters."
Revenge: Went on a quest to avenge the blind boy who had been slain by monsters, becoming a feared monster hunter in the process.
Wild Child: She was raised away from human society and couldn't speak human language, being much more attuned to listening to nature up until Greater Lord Rukkhadevata died and nature was silenced with her.

Sumeru City

The Akademiya

See their individual page here.

Zubayr Theater

Nilou

Nilou

Introduced: October 14, 2022 (v3.1 "King Deshret and the Three Magi" [second half])
Voiced by: Zisu Jiuyue (Chinese), Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Chae Rim (Korean), Dani Chambers (English)

Dance of Lotuslight

"Sometimes, you can convey more with dance than words. If you don't know what to say, then just dance."

Rarity: 5★
Element: Hydro
Weapon: Sword
Constellation: Lotos Somno, the Sleeping Lotus

Star dancer of the Zubayr Theater and a devotee of the Lesser Lord Kusanali, who defies the Akademiya's disdain for the arts with her talent and passion. The Traveler's shared worry of Lesser Lord Kusanali makes the two quick friends, and Nilou eventually participates in a plan where she, alongside the Traveler and many other people around Sumeru, help free the deity she's devoted to and overthrow the Akademiya Sages.

Nilou translates her theater-honed skills into the ability to dance around the opposition in a variety of ways. Her Elemental Skill, Dance of Haftkarsvar, is a spinning slash that puts her in the "Pirouette" state, wherein her next three normal attacks or successive uses of the Skill are upgraded into, respectively, Sword Dance and Whirling Steps, which bestow her attacks with a Hydro effect that cannot be overridden with reactions, as well as unique finishers which bestow special effects depending on the type of her third attack: if the former, Luminous Illusion, an upward slash that bestows the "Lunar Prayer" effect that allows her to continue using the enhanced attack, with every third hit being the upward slash; if the latter, Water Wheel, a spinning slash that creates a Tranquility Aura which constantly drenches foes around the active character. Her Elemental Burst, Dance of Abzendegi: Distant Dreams, Listening Spring, summons a Hydro-elemental lotus to explode on surrounding enemies, inflicting them with Lingering Aeons that deal damage after a few seconds.^note

Achilles' Heel:
- Because of her team limitations, enemies utilizing Cryo-elemental shields prove to be on the more difficult side for her due to Hydro attacks not doing anything to Cryo shields/armor, and the latter element lacks a reaction to the Dendro element.
- This becomes much more problematic if Barbara is the healer in this team due to the latter's healing also applying wet on the current on-field character, causing said character to be frozen more easily.
All of the Other Reindeer: The Akademiya leadership looks down on her for trying to celebrate Sabzeruz Festival in honor of Kusanali's birthday, as doing so would be tantamount to admitting that her predecessor Rukkhadevata is dead. The conclusion of the Sumeru Archon Quest reverses this, with Nilou becoming highly beloved as a superstar around Sumeru, including among scholars of the Akademiya.
And Now for Someone Completely Different: Nilou is the first unit players get to control from a different perspective from the Traveler during the final act of the Sumeru Archon Quest, while the Traveler became a Trojan Prisoner of the Sages per Alhaitham's plan so they can rescue Nahida.
Area of Effect: The Tranquility Aura inflicts Wet on enemies around the active character.
Badass Adorable: Nilou is a sweet, lovely young lady who always tries to see the best in people. She is also gifted with some mean swordsmanship.
Blue Is Calm: She is a Nice Girl through and through, in addition to being a character that is generally calm, while her wardrobe mainly consists of the color blue.
Character Select Forcing: Nilou operates at full efficiency if the team she's on consists solely of Dendro and Hydro characters in order to trigger the Golden Chalice's Bounty, making her an incredible ally in those teams, but not as powerful outside of them.
City Mouse: She was born in Sumeru City and has never left it, meaning that she is out of her wits in the wild.
Cloudcuckoolander: Has shades of this. One of her Serenitea Pot lines is asking the Traveler if she can poke them in the forehead, saying she's heard that doing so will ensure pleasant dreams. In a livestream, Dani Chambers, Nilou's English voice actress, claims that the casting director told her Nilou is "a bit of an airhead."
The Coup: Willingly agrees to join the rest of the Sumeru cast in overthrowing the Sages by dancing in front of the Akademiya despite the risk of arrest, causing Azar to attempt to enforce his ban on public art performances. As Alhaitham had switched out the Knowledge Capsule containing the ordinance beforehand and replaced it with a misleading order, Nilou's dance succeeds in drawing out the guards from the Akademiya, which leaves the Grand Sage vulnerable for the next phase of the plan.
Crippling Overspecialization: The Golden Chalice's Bounty only works if she is in a party that consists of only Dendro and Hydro Vision holders. She also needs to be paired with healers (such as Barbara, Kokomi, and Pneuma-form Furina, who also happen to be Hydro units) to compensate for the friendly-fire damage caused by Bountiful Core explosions.
Critical Hit Class: Nilou's sixth Constellation upgrade, Frostbreaker's Melody, increases her Critical Rate and Critical Damage by, respectively, 0.6% and 1.2% for every 1,000 points of Max HP she has (to a maximum of 30% and 60%, equivalent to at least 50,000 HP).
Cultural Rebel: Sumeru's culture is centered around wisdom and reason, so Nilou choosing to pursue the arts over science as a dancer makes her this, as the Akademiya considers them frivolous.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Nilou's second Constellation upgrade, The Starry Skies Their Flowers Rain, allows allies enhanced with the Golden Chalice's Bounty to inflict a 35% penalty to enemies' Hydro or Dendro Resistance for ten seconds—the former through their Hydro-elemental attacks, the latter whenever they trigger Bloom reactions.
Dance Battler: Nilou combines her skills as a dancer with swordplay.
The Ditz: Downplayed; she's not dumb per se, seeing as she can hold her own on an argument about the arts, but Nilou is noted to be be quite airheaded. Collei, in her voice-over for Nilou, says that she can be absent-minded and worries she may need constant vigilance to avoid getting lost in Avidya Forest, and at the end of Nilou's character demo, one of the troupe members ask about the ribbon for tomorrow's performance... which she forgot while rehearsing in the Great Red Sand.
Elemental Eye Colors: Nilou's eyes are a vivid blue, helping designate her as a Hydro Vision holder.
Elemental Hair Colors: Inverted. Her bright red hair contrasts against her blue and white clothes, blue eyes as well as her Hydro vision.
Elemental Personalities: Nilou is a calm, down-to-earth, kind girl who loves to dance with grace, making her Hydro Vision all the more fitting. Played with a bit, however, in that she can also be a bit too easily distracted.
Flower Motifs: The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), a water flower with centuries of historical, cultural, and spiritual significance in South Asia (a partial inspiration for Sumeru), often depicted as the national flower of India and the throne of the gods in South Asian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as on the flag of the Sassanid Empire. They are a significant part of her design, from having a Persian name meaning "lotus," to the lotus tattoo on her back, lotus imagery on her clothes, having numerous skills with the word "lotus" in them, and the shape of her Constellation and Burst.
Friendly Fireproof: A rare subversion. Bountiful Cores will damage both enemies and allies, though only dealing 5% damage to allies. If your Nilou is overpowered and your allies aren't, though... The only exception is if Kaveh is in a Nilou team, as he has a passive talent that allows him to heal from all types of Bloom damage.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Nilou, as a playable unit, demonstrates that she is a Silk Hiding Steel type of character, demonstrating proficiency with sword dancing in combat. However, given her carefree upbringing, her innocent and non-combative personality, and the fact that she's never left Sumeru City to adventure, it's difficult to imagine when she would have received such formal training, nor is it ever addressed in the story.
Girlish Pigtails: Noted for having an innocent personality and has long twin tails hidden beneath her horned veil.
Girl Next Door: Is explicitly described as such by the developers in the 3.1 special program for the people of the Grand Bazaar, being a sweet, down-to-earth girl who is eager to help and cheer people up.
Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: A temporary example with Alhaitham as the commentators of the Interdarshan Championship. Nilou was cheerful and tried to give good commentary, occasionally looking to Alhaitham for additional input, while Alhaitham only commented on what he believed was necessary, resulting in dry commentary on his end when he was asked questions on anything else. He would also leave the site after every round without telling anyone where he was going.
Glowing Eyes: When she uses her elemental burst, her eyes will flash for a split second before unleashing a torrent of water all around her.
Hidden Depths:
- Despite her initial reluctance and fear, her Story Quest shows that Nilou is decent at debates, holding her own against Inayah's scholar father despite having no academic background whatsoever.
- She is also implied to be a good cook, judging from her utility passive, White Jade Lotus, which gives her a 12% chance to earn twice the dish whenever she cooks "delicious"-grade Adventure-related dishes.
Homeschooled Kids: She grew up in a family that used the Akasha to acquire knowledge for their daily lives, rather than attending the Akademiya like the majority of the Sumeru City cast.
Horned Humanoid: Subverted; she appears to have a large pair of dragon-like horns protruding from her head, but in a conversation with Dunyarzad, she explains that they are part of her headpiece as she is dressed as Nabu Malikata, who had horns for her performance for the Dance of Sabzeruz.
Idle Animation: Along with her two standard idles, Nilou will do a small dance after some of her attacks if the player doesn't resume action immediately after.
Lightning Bruiser: Nilou's attacks scale entirely off of her Max HP, incentivizing players to make her more tanky, further bolstered by her Ascension stat being Max HP percentage (which can reach 28.8% at her sixth). A well-developed Nilou in her ideal team composition is a devastatingly powerful DPS character, blowing up everything in her way with highly potent Bountiful Cores and boasting a massive HP pool to ensure she isn't going down easy.
Limited Wardrobe: A unique case among the Sumeru playable cast because she is introduced in the costume she is only supposed to wear during specific performances and is never seen in anything else due to playable characters only being assigned one outfit until or unless they receive a skin. As a result, the players have no idea what Nilou wears when she isn't performing. Interestingly, most non-game media depicts her in this costume, and even official art depicting her in alternate clothes are still based on her design inspired by Nabu Malikata.
Lotus-Eater Machine: She's the unwitting host of the Sabzeruz samsara shared between the people of Sumeru City. She finally becomes aware of this when she realizes there are purple padisarahs adorning the Grand Bazaar's stage, when they're supposed to have gone extinct millennia ago, these ones having merely been generated by her wish to see genuine padisarahs decorate the stage. After dedicating one last dance to Kusanali, the dream fades and the people are freed.
Meaningful Name: "Nilou" is derived from the Persian feminine name "Niloufar",(نیلوفر), which translates to "blue lotus" or "water lily," the former of which is a motif that is incorporated into her character and animations.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Uniquely, Nilou's Skill is a Magic Dance which has different effects depending on her third attack.
Mirror Character:
- To Barbara, as they're both Hydro Vision holders and devout worshippers of their respective nations' Archons, and they're also artists, with Barbara being an idol and Nilou a dancer.
- To Yoimiya. Both girls are down-to-earth nice girls with attractive designs that are associated with an artform loosely associated with their respective elements (Water/Dancing and Fire/Fireworks) and are willing to help people.
- She also has some similarities in common with Kaveh:
  - Both are art-aligned characters, albeit in vastly different fields, as Nilou is a dancer and Kaveh an architect.
  - Both their kits revolve around Bloom reactions, with Nilou's passive generating stronger and faster-to-detonate Bountiful Cores, while Kaveh manually detonates Dendro Cores in addition to being a Dendro driver.
  - Both have Persian-inspired elements to their characters.
  - Both faced rejection and struggled for recognition in Sumeruan society due to it deprecation of the arts. Although they both eventually came to be respected in their respective fields, it happened at different points in their lives, with Kaveh gaining recognition in his backstory at a high price, while Nilou rose to fame by the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest.
  - Both have kind-hearted personalities and a desire to help others, although they differ in that Nilou is simply a mild-mannered Nice Girl, while Kaveh is a far more impassioned empath whose excessive altruism comes from a place of pain and guilt.
Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed; while rather tame compared to most examples, Nilou's default outfit is still inspired by belly dancers, complete with bared midriff, and her Modesty Shorts and a sort of Showgirl Skirt instead of the usual harem pants serves to put her legs on full display. It also bares her back, with the only coverage there being a ring holding the sides of her top together and a red henna tattoo between her shoulder blades.
Necessary Drawback: As shown in Character Select Forcing and Crippling Overspecialization, Nilou only truly shines in parties with only Dendro and Hydro teammates. However, her Bountiful Cores have a shockingly large damage potency and radius, making her one of the best characters for crowd control; combined with Anemo, which usually corrals enemies in, and Cryo, whose reaction with Hydro would cause enemies to freeze in place, this would have resulted in unbelievably broken shenanigans.
Nice Girl: Nilou is a very sweet girl, being one of the few people in Sumeru who treats Paimon nicely and finds her adorable, and she is well-loved by the Grand Bazaar community. She is so nice, she unwittingly managed to make Paimon actually carry some luggage by offering to carry some extra when she sees that Paimon is reluctant to do so.
Not the Intended Use: While far from optimal, some players use her in a Vaporize team (two Pyro units to one Hydro or vice versa, and usually an Anemo support) to take advantage of her damage values and wide-ranging damage.
Older Than They Look: Although she looks like a teenager, Nilou is old enough to drink as revealed in her character teaser.
Save Your Deity: She is recruited by Alhaitham on Dehya's recommendation to join their group's efforts to free Kusanali from her imprisonment, and her dance in front of the Akademiya is the trigger that the group needed to lure the guards out of the Akademiya so that they can get into the Grand Sage's office to turn off the energy bubble imprisoning her.
Sexy Backless Outfit: Her top shows enough skin to reveal the lotus tattoo on her back.
Signature Headgear: She continues to wear her decorative gold and black horns even when she is not wearing her performance outfit in official media.
Silk Hiding Steel: Don't let her graceful and delicate appearance fool you; Nilou is a deadly swordswoman as much as she is a proficient dancer, and when optimally built, is one hell of a Lightning Bruiser. Her Story Quest also shows that she's willing to debate with Inayah's father, a scholar from the Akademiya, despite everyone else thinking that debating with an Akademiya scholar as a common folk is a lost cause, and actually winning.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Nilou is a devotee of Kusanali and wishes to show her support through her performances. Gameplay-wise, she is a Dance Battler who works best on Dendro teams to create Bloom reactions and Dendro Cores.
- The hints that Nilou is unfit for any other team composition can be foreshadowed by her occasional bouts of self-doubt not exactly being good at getting out of her comfort zone (as seen in her story quest where being asked to debate causes her to panic and object).
- One of her level cap ascension materials are padisarah flowers, which played a prominent role in the second act of the Sumeru Archon Quest, which also featured Nilou. In its climax, the Traveler identifies Nilou as the unwitting host of the Sages' Sabzeruz Festival samsara that had locked Sumeru City in a "Groundhog Day" Loop for the Sages to extract the people's dream of it as part of their plan to turn Scaramouche into their new God of Wisdom, and so tries to make her realize she is in a dream so she can end it before the mental strain creates casualties. Among the things that helped Nilou realize so was the presence of rich purple padisarahs, which are supposed to have gone extinct centuries ago following the death of Nabu Malikata, the Goddess of Flowers, with the paler flowers found in the wild being Rukkhadevata's admittedly inferior attempts at replicating them in her honor.
Snark-to-Snark Combat: In her story quest, when debating Inayah's father Sharif who was trying to force the Zubayr theatre to shut down permanently:
Sharif: You can only reach that conclusion from a place of ignorance.
Nilou: In that case, before passing judgement, you should first become a better dancer than me.
Stance System: Her Skill bestows upon Nilou the Pirouette effect, where, for the next ten seconds her first three normal attacks and successive uses of the Skill are upgraded to infuse them with a Hydro effect that cannot be overridden. More importantly, however, the kind of her third attack determines the aftereffect: if the former, she triggers an upward slash and enters the Lunar Prayer state, which allows her to continue using the upgraded normal attack for eight seconds, with every third hit turning to said upward slash; if the latter, she performs a spinning slash and gains the Tranquility Aura effect, which drenches surrounding enemies for twelve seconds. Her first Constellation upgrade, Dance of the Waning Moon, increases the damage potency of her upward slash by 65% and extends the duration of the Tranquility Aura to eighteen seconds.
Status Buff:
- Nilou's first-ascension passive, Court of Dancing Petals, bestows upon her party the Golden Chalice's Bounty whenever her third and final Pirouette-enhanced attack connects and if her allies are strictly composed of Hydro and Dendro Vision holders. For the next thirty seconds, their Elemental Mastery stats increase by 100 points for ten seconds whenever they take Dendro-elemental damage, and the Dendro Cores they produce are turned to Bountiful Cores, which detonates faster and have increased damage and range (as compensation for an inability to trigger either Hyperbloom or Burgeon). Her fourth-ascension passive, Dreamy Dance of Aeons, increases the potency of Bountiful Cores by 9% for every 1,000 points of her Max HP if it is over 30,000 (until the base damage reaches at least 400%).
- Her fourth Constellation upgrade, Fricative Pulse, increases the damage potency of her Burst by 50% within eight seconds after her third Pirouette-enhanced attack hits enemies, as well as restores 15 Energy.
Stealth Pun: The Hydro unit that only works with other Hydros and Dendro units due to her passive which buffs a certain reaction involving both of these elements, with one of them being the archon she worships. She's watering the plants.
Stuff Blowing Up: Whenever the Golden Chalice's Bounty is active, triggering Bloom reactions creates Bountiful Cores in place of the usual Dendro Cores, which explode instantly in a greater radius and deal more damage to compensate for being unable to trigger Hyperbloom or Burgeon.
Super Gullible: Nilou's story quest reveals that she regularly falls for a bazaar merchant's tall tales and ends up buying more wares than she really needs, causing him to become guilty for deceiving her.
Sword Beam: Luminous Illusion is an upward slash that sends a beam of Hydro energy on enemies in front of Nilou. This can be triggered if her third and final attack under the Pirouette state is her enhanced normal attack, as well as on every third normal attack if she is under the Lunar Prayer effect.
Tareme Eyes: Her round eyes pronounce her femininity and kindness.
True Blue Femininity: Prominently wears a blue dance outfit.
Undying Loyalty:
- To the Zubayr Troupe and the Great Bazaar, as they developed a camaraderie throughout the years and are willing to stick up for one another against the Akademiya in times of crisis.
- To Lesser Lord Kusanali, to whom Nilou is extremely devout to. She does everything she can to express her worship towards the current Dendro Archon, from illegally hosting the Sabzeruz festival to dedicating her many dances to Kusanali. Nilou is even willing to take on the Akademiya and Scaramouche for her Archon's sake at great risk for her safety.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Beguiling Shadowstep and Twirling Light, add three levels to, respectively, her Burst and Skill.
Water Is Womanly: Nilou is a graceful dancer blessed with a Hydro Vision.
Weapon Specialization: Nilou's Wish banner runs concurrent with that for the Key of Khaj-Nisut (5★), whose Ascension subtat is Max HP (14.4–66.2%), and whose "Sunken Song of the Sands" passive increases its wielder's Max HP by 20–40% and bestows stacks of "Grand Hymn" within twenty seconds after its wielder's Elemental Skill hits enemies, which boosts their Elemental Mastery by 0.12–0.24% of their Max HP per stack, as well as that of the entire party by 0.2–0.4% for twenty seconds once three stacks have been gathered. This helps improve the potency of Nilou's Elemental Talents, whose damage typically scale off of her Max HP.

Inayah

Voiced By: Minh Ton (English)

A nervous stage hand who works to provide scenery for the theater in defiance of her father Sharif, a scholar of the Akademiya.

Antagonistic Offspring: Her father Sharif is shown to be a petty Fun-Hating Villain who works at the Akademiya, and she even says that he has always been horrible.
Beware the Quiet Ones: She doesn't speak up often and is too nervous to talk to most people. However, when Sharif threatens to shut down the theater and instill further punishment on those working for it, she shows no hesitance to chew her father out.
Shrinking Violet: She is shown to be easily nervous around others, and she shows to not have too much confidence in herself when asked to perform.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: When she was younger, she badly wanted the approval of her father, who is a respected scholar of the Akademiya, but her talents ended up being more creative than scholastic. The incident which led to her severing ties was when she studied and worked as hard as she could, placing third on an exam...but instead of being proud that she'd done so well, Sharif castigated her for failing, at which point she lost all hope of ever pleasing him.

Zubayr

Sheikh Zubayr

The head of the Zubayr theater.

The Ace: He is a Level 10 opponent in the Genius Invokation TCG mini-game.
Compassionate Critic: He's quite harsh on his juggler Kourosh, even outright telling the Traveler that he has mediocre talent. However, Mr. Zubayr admires Kourosh's persistence and continues instructing him as long as the latter is okay with the criticism.
Named After Somebody Famous: His name is a pun on William Shakespeare.

General

Nahida (Unmarked Spoilers)

Nahida

A mysterious, white-haired child with wisdom beyond her years, who the Traveler meets in Sumeru. She guides them through a crisis involving the Akademiya harvesting dreams, and is later rescued in the flesh from the Grand Sages after being kept in captivity.

See her page here.

Dunyarzad

Dunyarzad Homayani

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_08_13_at_104137_pm.png

Voiced by: Zhang Anqi (Chinese), Haruna Mikawa (Japanese), Sara Secora (English)

Scion of a wealthy family who hired Dehya as her bodyguard, and one of the few fervent followers of the Lesser Lord Kusanali who the Traveler meets while searching for a way to meet with the Dendro Archon. She is the sponsor of the Sabzeruz festival during the first one-third of the Sumeru Archon Quests.

Delicate and Sickly: Like Collei, she has suffered from Eleazar since childhood, and her disease has progressed to the point where she bandages her hands to cover the scales that have formed on them, and she cannot move for short periods without panting. By the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest, she is miraculously fully cured.
Disney Death: After many days in the dream, Dunyarzad seems to have succumbed to her illness when her body is no longer in the usual spot. Fortunately, Nahida/Kusanali managed to find her fading consciousness and keep it from fading away until the dream is over. Once the dream has finally ended, the Traveler and Paimon go to see that she is okay.
For Want Of A Nail: Because she invited the Traveler and Paimon to celebrate the Sabzeruz Festival, they are in Sumeru City on the night the Sages began harvesting people's dreams, which not only exposes their further villainy and show their true colors, but also lets the Traveler meet her beloved god. The Sages being banished, Kusanali's rescue, and Scaramouche's defeat all happened because she wanted to repay her god's kindness, and happened to pass by the right people at the right time.
Genki Girl: She is very perky when it comes to festivities related to Kusanali, and people from Sumeru love her enthusiastic personality. It tips off the Traveler and Paimon that something is wrong when she is less energetic during subsequent loops of the Sabzeruz samsara.
Interclass Friendship: In Sumeru where desert dwellers are often treated as second class citizens by those from the rainforest, Dunyazard and her father are one of the few exceptions who have positive relationships with them. She remains on extremely good terms with Dehya after the end of the latter's tenure of employment as her bodyguard, and Dehya even mentions how she went to Aaru Village to celebrate Dehya's birthday with Candace and Setaria in her 2023 birthday letter. Dunyarzard is also good friends with Nilou, who is from an ordinary family.
Lonely Rich Kid: She was one of these in her youth due to being bedridden and isolated because of her illness. Kusanali's kindness is what encouraged Dunyazard to spend her remaining days not alone but to the fullest.
Mauve Shirt: Is introduced as a Delicate and Sickly young woman at the terminal stage of her illness and a remaining life expectancy of less than a year. Then seemingly dies as a result of the Sages' continued dream harvesting being too much for her weak health, only to not only be saved when the Traveler successfully ends the samsara, but survives long enough to be cured, and appears occasionally, such as in Alhaitham's Character Teaser as well as Dehya's story quest, after the events of Chapter III. As a bonus, her dress is partially purple as well.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the day of the Sabzeruz Festival seemingly repeated, the Traveler and Paimon notice that she is less energetic than the first. They later find out that the real Dunyarzad's Eleazar was worsening, Nahida has been taking care of her the entire time, and the one they have been talking to is a puppet filling her spot in the loop, which is unable to recreate her emotions.
Sir Cameos-a-Lot: Compared to other NPCs, Dunyarzard has appeared frequently in promotional material even after her role in Chapter III concluded, mostly in Dehya◊-focused material◊ as well as having significant screen time in Dehya's story quest, but also shows up in Alhaitham's Character Teaser.
Small Role, Big Impact: Dunyarzad is just a sickly young woman who wishes to repay her Archon for being nice to her during a particularly bad flareup of Eleazar during her childhood. However, inviting the Traveler to the Sabzeruz Festival not only leads them to meet Nilou, Dehya, and eventually Alhaitham, but also accidentally keeps them in Sumeru City when the Sages begin implementing their Dream Harvesting Project. This leads to them meeting the Lesser Lord herself, beginning a chain of events that results in the rescue of her god, the overthrow of the Sages, and the restoration of Irminsul.
Throwing Off the Disability: Due to Kusanali's Divine Intervention, Dunyarzad becomes cured of Eleazar at the end of Chapter III Act V.
Undying Loyalty: Dunyarzad is one of the very few individuals who worships Lesser Lord Kusanali, having earned her devotion since the Archon kept her company and educated her while she spent most of her life in bed. Nahida even describes Dunyarzad as her most loyal follower, which makes her apparent death all the more heartbreaking for her.
Uniformity Exception: Wears an outfit similar to the ones worn by NPCs such as Arya and Enteka, but in a unique indigo color, and her dress underneath it sport modifications such as crystals on her turtleneck gold accents.
Your Days Are Numbered: Her Eleazar has reached terminal stage, so Dunyarzad surmizes that she has less than a year to live, lamenting that she may not have another chance to see Nilou dance in next year's Sabzeruz Festival after the Sages intervened. She finally gets her wish to see Nilou's dance when Nahida saves her fading consciousness at the last moment just as the Traveler and Paimon break the samsara, and by the end of the Sumeru Archon Quest, she is fully cured of Eleazar and can look forward to much more years to come.

Emira

The deceased sweetheart of the Ksharewar scholar Moesis/Beynuni, the antagonist of Nahida's first story quest.

The Lost Lenore: Emira had succumbed to Eleazar, prompting Beynuni to gather other people who also lost loved ones to build his dreamscape and develop her dream self so that he could spend more time with her.
Posthumous Character: She was already dead before the events of the game.
Virtual Ghost: Beynuni used the Akasha and the yearning of unwitting test subjects to recreate her in the dreamscape he built. He was successful until he lost control of the system, causing the recreated Emira to turn into a monster before his very eyes.

Ilman

One of the participants of "A Moment of Dreams" in Nahida's story quest. He is reminiscing about his deceased wife, Maynar. He is father of Haydar.

The Lost Lenore: Maynar died in unknown circumstances leaving behind a depressed Ilman, who still reminisces about her have to raise his daughter.
The Mourning After: He feels that it's difficult to let go of his dream about together with Maynar, especially when he unintentionally went into a familiarly higher place in Nahida's story quest that The Traveler ends up saving him.

Vimara Village

Alphonso (Unmarked Spoilers!)

Alphonso, né Trofin Snezhevich

A man from Fontaine who came to reside in Vimara Village. In truth, he is a Fatuus sent by Il Dottore to investigate and capture an Aranara for him to study.

Becoming the Mask: Played With. He does genuinely grow to care for Rana and the children of the village—thanking both the Traveler and Rana for saving the children—is clearly conflicted on his orders, and even wished he had been born in Vimara Village instead of being an orphan taken in by the House of the Hearth. However, in the end Trofin couldn't find himself to betray his first family, and carried out his orders despite his reservations.
"Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: If the Traveler decides to kill him, he'd say this before their battle.
"I'm the evil amidst good, the poison amidst the herbs, the wolf in sheep's clothing, the mercury in a golden chalice... My name is Snezhevich. Do your worst!"
Last Stand: If the Traveler chose to kill him for his actions, Trofin decides that he won't go down without a fight, even if he knew that he had no chance of actually beating the Traveler.
Spotting the Thread: The main giveaway for the Traveler that he isn't who he appears to be is that he uses their name before they told him that what it was.
Tyke Bomb: He's a Snezhevich, meaning he's an orphan taken in by the House of the Hearth to be raised by Arlecchino as a member of the Fatui. This was enough that despite coming to genuinely like Vimara village, he followed his orders faithfully.
Uncertain Doom: If the Traveler opts to spare him, his tattered letter (automatically claimed had they immediately killed him) will be found near the Lost Nursery's Statue of the Seven, next to some Rifthounds, suggesting that they attacked him, though it is unknown if he was either killed or managed to escape but wounded (though their corrosive abilities make his survival very slim).
Would Hurt a Child: While he clearly doesn't like it and even expressed relief when they were saved, Trofin still kidnapped children. This is enough that the Traveler could potentially end his life because they found his actions to be unforgivable.

Rana

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_04_08_at_102752_pm.png

An Avidya Forest Ranger who the Traveler comes across during their journeys through Dharma Forest.

Badass in Distress: Rana starts to degrade due to the effects of the Withering, having fought to save a child who is trapped in the Epicenter. She is being preserved by one of the forest folk and requires the Traveler's help to cure her.
Badass Normal: She can hold her own against the monsters, wildlife, and Fatui in Sumeru despite not wielding a Vision.
But Now I Must Go: After she confirms that the children of Vimara Village are safe and sound, she leaves to see the world and make new memories with Arana.
Empowered Badass Normal: Receives a Dendro Vision at the end of the Aranyaka quest line, allowing her to travel with Arana without worry.
Friend to All Children: The children of Vimara Village love Rana, and she keeps a close eye on them to ensure they don't get into too much trouble.
Friendship Trinket: Rana wears a blue ribbon in her hair, just like the one Arana wears on its hat, showing just how long their friendship has lasted even though she didn't remember after growing up.
Growing Up Sucks: She used to be able to see the Aranara and was quite close to them, but lost the ability to do so after growing up like most adults in Sumeru. After she is cured of the effects of the Withering, she can see them again.
Guest-Star Party Member: Holds the distinction of being the first NPC who will fight alongside the Traveler at multiple points in her side quest.
Inter Species Friendship: She was good friends with Arana as a child until she forgot about him. After regaining her memories, she rekindles their relationship and sets off to make new memories with him.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Rana forgot her childhood friendship with Arana when she grew up, but was able to recall the things that he taught her like "witnessing the blooming of Nilotpata Loutuses will bring good luck" before she was healed with the Bijia.
Lord British Postulate: She is invincible when she is with you during quests, however, like most NPC's, she goes down instantly if you slowly and painstakingly push her into deep water.
Moveset Clone: Her movesets are recycled from Eremite Axe vanguard (2-hit Axe Swing) & Treasure Hoarders:Boss (Axe Jump Slam).
Senseless Sacrifice: She is nearly killed because she decides to help the Traveler out with a patch of Withering even though by this point she has seen the Traveler clear multiple outbreaks of Withering before that point. Somewhat justified in that a kid from her village was trapped in the middle of the Withering outbreak and she had no reason to think that he was being protected from it at the time.
Stone Wall: As an NPC ally, she has a huge HP, but deals very little damage and attacks slowly and infrequently.

Port Ormos

Avin

A little girl in a wheelchair that Yoimiya encountered during her trip to Sumeru in Act II of her Story Quest.

Delicate and Sickly: Her illness robbed her of the use of her legs, which led her to require a wheelchair for mobility.
Girlish Pigtails: Wears her hair in two shoulder-length braids as befitting a young child.
Interspecies Friendship: Her desire to see her Aranara friend Arashani again is what motivates her to run off to the outskirts of the city by herself to find him.
Mental Health Recovery Arc: Helping Avin regain hope and the strength to face her illness is a major part of Yoimiya's Story Quest Act II.
Tears of Joy: Cries after reuniting with her Aranara friend Arashani.
Throwing Off the Disability: While inside the dream created by the Aranara, Avin gets up from her wheelchair and is shocked at finding herself able to walk. This inspires her to undergo physical therapy in the real world.
Troubled Child: Being confined to her wheelchair after leading a physically active lifestyle and receiving uncertain prognoses from numerous doctors on whether she'd ever recover gave her growing despair. She ran off by herself when she realised her condition made her start to forget her love for running as well as her Aranara friend, and she fell off her wheelchair at the outskirts of the city and was unable to move until the Traveler, Paimon and Yoimiya found her.

Fayez & Mamdouh

Fayez and Mamdouh

The Owners of the toy store Acara Crafts.

Artistic License: In-Universe. They are the ones that started the event involving the Aranara, but because they've never seen an actual being before, they flunked on their first try.
Terrible Artist: Justified. Because they have never seen an Aranara before and simply based it on the books they've seen, the "Prototype" Aranara they've carved ended up having a negative reception on the children. At the end of the event, they wanted to gift both the Traveler and Paimon with a "Prototype" as thanks but the latter rejected it on account of its unappealing appearance.

Elchingen (Unmarked spoilers!)

Elchingen

A rich businessman from Fontaine, he is one of the hosts of Nilotpala Cup Beast Tamers along with Kautilya, as well as his primary sponsor. In truth, he is actually a Fatuus and one of Dottore's subordinates.

Corrupt Corporate Executive: It's eventually revealed after his arrest by the Matra that approximately 60% of his funds came from illegal sources, most likely the Fatui themselves, while the remainder was built on business deals he had in Sumeru.
Evil All Along: He's actually a Fatui remnant in Sumeru who wanted to use the Fungi to build an army and taking revenge on the Traveler to earn Dottore's respect.
Foreshadowing: If you use Nahida's Elemental Skill to read his mind during his rare on-screen interactable appearance, he mentions about hoping to please his master with this tournament. His "master" is none other than Il Dottore himself, and he wanted to raise an army of Shroom-kin to gain the 2nd Harbinger's respect.
Killed Offscreen: Yurochka, a Fatui agent, is sent to "silence" him after he escaped custody from the Corps of Thirty, when the superiors caught wind of his activities without their knowledge.
The Dog Was the Mastermind: Paimon and the Traveler are led to believe that he is merely an Unwitting Pawn or even The Dragon to Kautilya's schemes, when in fact he's actually the primary driving force behind the plot.
We Will Meet Again: Upon his arrest, he warns the Traveler that this is not the last they will see him. Unfortunately, a Fatui Agent was sent to ensure this will be ''indeed'' his last.

Kayvan

A fisherman in Port Ormos who often catches valuable or lost items instead of fish.

Blessed with Suck: Most people would give to be able to fish out the things Kayvan has hooked. However, Kayvan hates it because he is unable to catch a single fish no matter what kind of bait he uses or where he fishes.

Loumelat

Loumelat bint Atif Abu Rashid

Voiced by: Skyler Davenport (English)

A fisherwoman in Northern part of Port Ormos.

Improbable Weapon User: Downplayed since she doesn't use it but she owns the "End of the Line" F2P bow, which is a swordfish whose body is elastic enough to become one.
The Gift: Although born in the Great Red Sand where there are hardly any fish in the oases, she is exceptionally skilled at fishing. She finally managed to let her talent shine upon her arrival at Port Ormos. Using Nahida's All Schemes to Know reveals she's good at catching fish with her hands, but finds the use of a fishing rod much more fun.
Weird Trade Union: Like her fellow fishermen from other regions, she is from the Fishing Association who only accepts caught fishes as currency.

Other

Dori

Dori Sangemah Bay

Introduced: September 9, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [second half])
Voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Tomoko Kaneda (Japanese), Lee Myeong-ho (Korean), Anjali Kunapaneni (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dori.png

Treasure of Dream Garden

"My Mora is mine, and your Mora is mine too!"

Rarity: 4★
Element: Electro
Weapon: Claymore
Constellation: Magicae Lucerna, the Magic Lamp

A traveling merchant famed for her high-quality wares, in particular Knowledge Capsules, the sale of which are nominally banned by the Akademiya but for the fact that they hold less influence outside Sumeru City. Shady and morally gray as she may be, Dori ends up being a confidant for the Traveler, providing them with some information in their stay in Sumeru during the Archon Quest.

Dori relies on the Jinni friends she made to wield heavy weaponry on her behalf and provide support. Her Elemental Skill, Spirit-Warding Lamp: Troubleshooter Cannon, uses the titular lamp to fire Troubleshooter Shots at opponents, which create a pair of After-Sales Service Rounds that home in on foes, while her Elemental Burst, Alcazarzaray's Exactitude, plants a phantasmal copy of her Jinni Lamp which sends a line of Electro energy to the active character, periodically restoring their HP and Energy, as well as zapping foes caught in between.^note

All for Nothing: She plans a convoluted plan in "A Parade of Providence" to earn the Diadem of Knowledge (see Batman Gambit). It fails because Kaveh destroys the diadem. She even exclaims the trope verbatim during her breakdown.
Anonymous Benefactor: The Flavor Text of the "Hued Vase: Amber" furnishing item describes an incident where Dori, despising her competitors for making glazed pottery only exclusively available to the rich, distributed Canned Knowledge containing secret new methods of processing clay to the potters she had contracted, and eventually changed the market so that glazed pottery became much more affordable to ordinary people while earning a huge return in investment. Her competitors still remain unaware of her involvement in the entire matter, and even Dori doesn't think much about it.
Bait the Dog: In a branch of Kaveh's Hangout Event, he and the Traveler visit her in hopes of getting introduced to some fellow merchants to secure funding for a library for children in Aaru Village to study in. While she, being herself, is quick to try charging them a fee for introducing them, Kaveh snapping at her to consider doing something out of the goodness of her heart for once actually has her acquiesces to the request, much to his surprise. However, she only did it because she realized that none of them would willingly fund the project, nor Kaveh's suggestion of an entire district that would allow for more commerce, in part because she bought out the land around Aaru that would be the best spot for it, so she could offer herself as a sponsor and trick Kaveh into foregoing charging a commission fee, meaning no loss but plenty of gain for herself once the library is built. Really, the only good thing she does here is offer to pay for dinner, which Kaveh takes full advantage of and recoups his commissions fees by buying expensive wines and dishes until it's fully covered.
Batman Gambit: In "A Parade of Providence", Dori spends much of the event attempting to charge the Traveler a high price for secret information about the event and its prize, the Diadem of Knowledge. But oddly, each time she either "accidentally" gives away more than she appears to or coyly gives away a hint for free. This turns out to be part of an elaborate moneymaking scheme, where she intended to slowly trickle information to The Traveler about the Diadem being possessed by the compelling will of a nihilistic scholar, so that they'll discover the truth just in time, resulting in the Akademia being hurriedly forced to sell it off to her —presumably remembering all the "help" she gave— at a low price that she could then immensely mark up. It fails for two reasons: the first is that with only a couple exceptions, the Traveler ends up well ahead of her, with most of her hints coming too late. The second is that once the heroes do discover the true nature of the Diadem, Kaveh ends up shattering it — and with it, her plans of using it to get rich.
Bedlah Babe: Her outfit appears to be influenced by a bedlah. She wears a cropped top with Giant Poofy Sleeves, ribbons around her waist, heels, along with harem pants and a lot of jewelry. This in spite of being a merchant and not a dancer.
Beneath the Mask: When the Traveler asks Dori the motivation behind her obsession to earn Mora in the teapot at friendship level 4, she very briefly (in fact, it's the only time she does so in game) shows her more vulnerable side and alludes to the pain she felt over losing her sister due to a lack of Mora, before hastily clearing her throat and putting back her front.
Berserk Button: Given she's the head of the Palace of Alcazarzaray, not acknowledging her position as the "Lord Sangemah Bay" can irritate Dori to the point she won't want to make business. Paimon inadvertingly presses it when she says she expected someone scarier given Dori's title.
Big Fancy House: Dori owns the Palace of Alcazarzaray, a massive estate populated by servants or merchants seeking an audience with her.
Beware the Silly Ones: With what minimal involvement Dori has in the story repeatedly emphasising on her greed and not much else, most may write her off as an annoying one-dimensional character. However, Dori's influence should not be underestimated, and her behaviour put under scrutiny:
- The Kshahrewar Darshan is reliant on her sponsorship to fund their operations, scholars have competed for her stingy remuneration offers due to the unparalleled opportunities that they can capitalise on for their own interests, she single-handedly changed the local glazed pottery market a without so much of an afterthought, owns land in the desert ripe for development and she's even one of the few people that The Archmage Person of Mass Destruction Alice keeps in contact with. At the same time, most people only know her by her "brand name" as Lord Sangemah Bay. Additionally, the Mahamata Bulletin Board recounts an incident where the Forest Watchers found that everyone who went into the Palace of Alcarzarzaray came out crying, having been cheated out of all their money and only left with their underwear, but refused to explain what happened, which doesn't quite line up with Dori's usual modus operandi of convincing potential customers to make unnecessary purchases, nor of her "victims'" tendency to complain about her pushy marketing.
- Dori also acts contradictorily in person - she is loud and bombastic when conducting business but anything regarding her personal life is treated with extreme secrecy to the point where she tells an unfinished tale possibly about how she entrapped the Jinni that serves her and also how she met Alice and demands an exorbitant fee to continue when the Traveler questions its authenticity.
- She is the only living being in present day who is actively in close contact with a Jinni yet acts like it doesn't exist except in combat and her idle animations, suggesting that she's keeping it a trade secret.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She appears as a very successful merchant who shares her goods, treasures and more. But those who know her better, like Kaveh, are aware of how greedy and antipathetic she can be.
Color-Coded Elements: She's an Electro Vision user and her color palette primarily consists of purple.
Connected All Along: Alice narrates Dori's Collected Miscellany trailer, as Alice sponsored Dori before she became rich and pawns off her inventions to her. Alice notes that she's one of the few she's met in her travels that she keeps in touch with.
Con Woman: For such an intrepid merchant, this isn't surprising. Dori tries in many of her voice-overs to goad the Traveler and Paimon to buy her goods, offering them absurd stuff at unlikely prices and using jargon reminiscent of an infomercial. At high levels of Friendship, however, she will admit to trying to con the two and even reveal her tricks.
Cool Shades: Wears a pair of diamond-shaped, shaded glasses to add to her image as a capable merchant.
Cooldown Manipulation: Dori's first-ascension passive, An Eye for Gold, shaves one second off the cooldown time of her Skill (with at least three-second intervals) whenever a character connected to the Jinni triggers Electro-charged, Superconduct, Overload, Quicken, Aggravate, Hyperbloom, Electro Swirl, or Electro Crystallize reactions.
Critical Status Buff: Dori's fourth Constellation upgrade, Discretionary Supplement, increases the Incoming Healing Bonus and/or Energy Recharge stats of the character connected to the Jinni by, respectively, 50% and 30%, whenever their HP and/or Energy are below half.
Dark and Troubled Past: Back in her younger years, Dori had a sickly twin sister who required very expensive medication. Dori was unable to raise the funds in time to save her life, which led to her developing her obsession with acquiring Mora so that she will never be unable to buy anything she needs. It was this very ambition that led her to gain an Electro Vision.
Early-Bird Cameo: She was first mentioned in the description of Aloy's Collected Miscellany trailer as Alice supplies her with goods for her enterprise.
Elemental Personalities: Dori possesses an Electro Vision, and she is bombastic, annoying, unpredictable, temperamental and full of energy if the matter involves sales.
Everyone Has Standards:
- In Cyno's Story Quest, Dori notes that she was only willing to engage in the illegal trade of Knowledge Capsules because, despite the risks, it is safe if used responsibly.
- Despite her greed, the quality of all of Dori's goods is legitimate. This obviously shows some pragmatism on her side, but it also shows Dori takes some care her clients are satisfied.
- If there's anything Dori doesn't stand for, it's when the market caters solely to the rich. Considering her backstory, it makes sense.
- Dori loves Mora more than anything else, but she will only do business with people whom she deems to have good taste. That means she blacklisted most Akademiya members, including Alhaitham, but not the Kshahrewar, who are among the few Akademiya-aligned people who appreciate the arts and aesthetics.
- As stated in her fifth Character Story, "I, Dori, never default on payment." She will even willingly spend more Mora and pay in advance to ensure that the other party will receive payment as soon as possible, as in Alice's case.
Exotic Eye Designs: She has white crosses in lieu of normal pupils, likely to represent the glitter of money that she so enjoys.
Expecting Someone Taller: "Scarier", rather, but Paimon sure did, given Dori's Red Baron of "Lord Sangemah Bay". Saying this immediately presses Dori's Berserk Button.
Fairytale Motifs: Dori is very clearly inspired by the original Aladdin, as she is also a somewhat ruthless Anti-Hero with a Rags to Riches background that relies on trickery to get what she wants, associates with a djinn that lives on an oil lamp (hence her Constellation), and is the owner of a very grand palace. However, the story reverses the role of her and the Jinni, as she's the one who has the power to grant the wishes of the Jinni in her lamp, while it serves as her champion in return.
Famed In-Story: Zig-zagged. Several characters in the main cast know Dori and have either done business with her in the past or plan to do so in the future; however, Dori is an elusive figure among the general populace, and more people know of her, or rather, the fact that she is a filthy rich merchant who commissioned the Palace of Alcazarzaray, than they actually do her. Some of her employees have never even met her in person.
Fiction 500: She's insanely wealthy and owns several trade caravans, effectively controlling a trade empire.
Flanderization: Averted. Dori is introduced as not being particularly well-rounded in the first place, as the main things to know about her are that she's a greedy merchant with a plethora of business offerings, so much so that nearly every main Sumeru character has dealt with her at least once, and that she's obsessed with Mora. While she was given a backstory that explains her Mora obsession, its significance is reduced due to her Motive Decay, which caused her to raise Mora for the sake of raising Mora rather than for a specific purpose as she initially had. Furthermore, while she is capable of caring about things other than Mora, she is only interested in people and things that can make her Mora. Tellingly, the vast majority of her voice lines are her attempting to sell the Traveler things, often at a ridiculously high price, as well as expressing her love for Mora or demanding Mora from them in exchange for information about herself. However, her great avarice stems from a greater fear of losing anything precious to her again, and appears to be her coping mechanism for the death of her sister.
Floating Limbs: Dori's Jinni has hands with no visible arms (though the coin that Dori hands over has one doing an armfold).
Foil: Dori and Kaveh are both loud and highly expressive 4★ claymore users from Sumeru whose grief over the loss of family led them to contrasting wrapped mindsets and experiences:
- Dori's bombastic behaviour is a facade that she only briefly puts down in a Teapot conversation with the Traveler at high enough friendship level, while Kaveh maintains a professional calm demeanour most of the time, only having more memorable outbursts in private company or when pushed to his limit.
- Both gained Visions due to their dogged pursuit of their dreams, but Kaveh gained his Dendro vision after and bankrupting himself to achieve his ideals, while Dori gained her Electro vision and became a successful merchant, but could never save her sister.
- As a result of their grief, Kaveh became detrimentally altruistic partially to assuage his guilt, while Dori became self-serving and greedy to a fault to fend off her fear of losing something valuable to her again.
- Both are famous and well-connected personalities but Kaveh has many friends who are concerned about his well-being, while the closest thing that Dori has to a friend is Alice as her business partner and some of her own employees don't even know what she looks like.
Freudian Excuse: Dori's Dark and Troubled Past is painted in a pretty sympathetic light, so it's hard not to feel sorry for Dori failing to raise enough money to buy medicine to cure her sickly twin sister.
Friend in the Black Market: Played with. Dori is the closest thing to a black-market saleswoman in Sumeru, selling goods that are considered illegal by the Akademiya (such as Canned Knowledge), and she's willing to help out the Traveler on their search for Kusanali by happily providing her goods. That said, she still has to put her customers through a lot of verifications to make sure they don't align with the Akademiya, and she'll straight-up blacklist anyone with even the faintest hint of association with them, such as Alhaitham. At the same time, she has already provided Cyno, the head of the Akademiya's law enforcement, "the full range of Genius Invocation TCG merch" for him, and wasn't afraid of approaching him with the bill for some desert survival kits in Cyno's Story Quest.
Greed: The core of her character, which is both played straight and for laughs. Her voice-overs not only showcase that she thinks of everyone and anything as a way to earn money (something Tighnari and Layla's voice-overs also drive home), she is also willing to constantly con the Traveler and Paimon for the most absurd things like buying her goods, showing them her Vision, asking for tuition fees after revealing that Alice sponsors her, and collecting a hefty one million Mora for telling them the story about how she found the magic lamp she stores her Jinni on.
Happiness in Slavery: The Jinni in Dori's lamp was once a separate entity that she had conned into submission, trapped in her lamp, and turned into her ally in combat for whenever she calls upon it. Dori's profile stories, however, reveal that the Jinni grew to appreciate this arrangement, as she treats it quite well, even compensating it for its service to her.
Healthcare Motivation: Dori's ambition to make Mora stemmed from her desire to save her sickly sister, who required scarce and extremely expensive herbs for her treatment. However, it is implied that she was not able to raise the required funds in time to do so, and thus suffered from Motive Decay as a result.
Homing Projectile: Whenever the Troubleshooter Shot connects, it dissipates into a pair of After-Sales Service Rounds that home in on opponents. Dori's first Constellation upgrade, Additional Investment, adds a third Round.
Honest John's Dealership: Zig-zagged. Dori's wares are incredibly expensive, but their quality is genuine. However, her greed can get the better of her and she'll attempt to swindle her customers for more Mora, often with less-than-desirable products.
Hot-Blooded: When the matter involves deals and money, she becomes this.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Kaveh is one of Sumeru's Tall Male characters while Dori shares the same Short Female model as Nahida. As Kaveh's client, she supported his efforts to build his dreams into reality, then became his creditor who occasionally tricks money from him while he snarks at her for her greed and underhanded practices.
Hypocritical Humor: She claims on her voice-over for Alhaitham she can't stand people from the Akademiya like him, and calls them "pig-headed" and "dishonest." Of course, she comically fails to realize she's a merchant whose goods may be legitimate, but neither some of the means to get them nor their prices are "honest."
Idiot Hair: Has a prominent one on the right side of her head which is very similar to Klee's.
Improbable Weapon User: Dori uses a magic lamp as a gun for her Skill.
Intrepid Merchant: Part merchant dealing in rare and forgotten treasures and contraband (such as Canned Knowledge), and part explorer who wanders Sumeru fighting all manner of enemies to discover new treasures.
Irony: She is a wealthy and well-connected merchant who can grant any wish so long as the customer is able to afford her exorbitant prices, but she will never be able to make her own wish of saving her sickly sister come true.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed on the "Heart of Gold". In a varied playable cast that includes characters that can be quite unpleasant but at least have varied positive/redeeming qualities to them^note, Dori stands out by being far more self-serving than the rest, showing a lack of consideration for others in favor of raising more Mora to a degree that even Ningguang would tell her to dial it back. However, Dori shows a far less unpleasant side to people that she is interested in — usually if it means they'll bring her Mora, but othertimes just out of her own volition, such as the Traveler and Paimon in her voice-overs. She especially holds a soft spot for her Sumpter Beasts, and also cares for the Jinni trapped within her lamp. Aside from this, she has also been shown to Pet the Dog in some of her Stories and by word from other characters, showing that the impoverished little girl that lost her big sister to illness may still in there somewhere, just hidden under all that golden-tinted rot.
Kick the Dog:
- One notable instance where Dori's Greed is in full display is told by Layla's voice-over about her. In an attempt to sleep better, Layla paid Dori for a box of Sleep Gummies worth 200,000 Mora—all her scholarship money and even part of her savings to be precise, as she couldn't afford them otherwise. As a result, Layla had to live off of cheap vegetables and unable to buy textbooks for the last year. Dori, on the other hand, was described to look euphoric as Layla set the bill, and keeps mailing the poor girl expensive product ads.
- Kaveh's Character Story reveals that she used his Guilt Complex to convince him to take on the remaining debt from the Palace's construction, and his Hangout Event demonstrates that she is fine with tricking him in order to save on Mora. As well, in the event "A Parade of Providence", she even says she'll increase the interest rate on the Mora he owes her to being much higher after discovering that he destroyed the Diadem of Knowledge, simply because she wanted it for herself.
- Collei's "About Dori" voice-over reveals that Dori tried to con her into overpaying for fruit juice, but Tighnari was there to prevent Collei from making a bad monetary decision.
Knowledge Broker: She trades in both information and Canned Knowledge, and charges a lot for it. But everyone knows her wares are of legitimately high quality.
Know When to Fold 'Em: By the time of Cyno's Story Quest, she has already abandoned the Knowledge Capsule trade, as it had become increasingly risky.
Laser-Guided Karma:
- If you talk to Cyno again right after clearing his Story Quest, he reveals that she tried to foot him the bill for a pair of desert survival kits the Traveler and Paimon never actually bought from her. Cyno responded by arresting her.
- In the "A Parade of Providence" event, she knits a Batman Gambit to make herself with the Diadem of Knowledge... which fails because Kaveh destroys it, and with it, her chances to become even richer.
Mirror Character:
- To Ningguang. Both are insanely rich women who own extravagant properties to showcase their wealth, have similarly Dark and Troubled Pasts where they went from Rags to Riches, worship Rex Lapis, and are rarely bothered by public opinion on them, but the two are set apart by several other key traits.
  - The means of their acquisition of wares is noticeably different: Dori does not shy away from contraband, while Ningguang, shady as she can be at times, always deals in legitimate means (except when dealing with Beidou and her antics) so long as it benefits her and Liyue.
  - Dori's obsession with Mora started with raising enough to purchase expensive medicine for her sick twin sister, who sadly passed away before Dori could finish; this evolved into working equally hard to never have to pay for stuff and never suffer again, but eventually devolved into earning Mora just for the sake of it and worshipping it to the point of obsession. By contrast, Ningguang started as a young merchant selling her fishermen parents' catch, and who nowadays keeps investing Mora to make a profit, but while obsessed with wealth, when push comes to shove she will put the wellbeing of Liyue ahead, to the point of sacrificing her most prized posession, the Jade Chamber, to defeat Osial.
  - Dori's main trait is her Greed; she does care for her Sumpter Beasts, though she also turned an amusement park she made for them into a tourist attraction to recoup the costs, and is willing to keep the architect that made her Palace of Alcarzarzaray on an unending debt with her. In a reverse, Ningguang has helped other businesses around Liyue by investing on them, such as Wanmin Restaurant or the Yun-Han Opera Troupe — since neither explicitly brings a profit to her and she's glad to pass down such to future generations, it shows Ningguang isn't greedy.
  - Dori worships Rex Lapis because he is the God of Wealth, fitting for her attempts to raise lots of Mora, but stops doing so following his apparent death. Ningguang, on the other hand, manages Liyue alongside the Qixing to show they can move on without him but without forgetting his influence.
  - Dori likes to show off some childish extravagance, and fancies a game of chance as shown with her trade of Knowledge Capsules, whereas Ningguang keeps an elegant appearance, and deals with all matters with poise and calculated steps.
  - Finally, their elements show a contrast: Dori's Electro Vision shows off her volatile yet bombastic style, while Ningguang's Geo Vision symbolizes her strong and immovable will.
- To Alhaitham. They are both significant figures in Kaveh's life who are extremely reclusive despite holding high status and wealth, and have caused the architect no shortage of trouble and annoyance due to their self-interested personalities, but also helped him in contrasting ways. Dori helped Kaveh achieve his ideals by granting him the full creative freedom with the design and construction of the Palace of Alcazarzaray that he couldn't find in previous projects, and while Alhaitham helped him with the practical realities of living by sheltering him after he became homeless. Though Alhaitham doesn't condone Dori's behavior, he expresses appreciation at her attitude towards life.
Money Fetish: Exaggerated for laughs — to call her "worse than Ningguang" in this regard would be an understatement! Dori absolutely loves money, and a quick way to get close to her is to pay a lot for her high-quality goods. She used to pray to Rex Lapis, rather than her own nation's god, that she would acquire more Mora that day. One of her idle animations, as well as the idle ending to her normal attack, has her hand out a coin to her Jinni. To say nothing of her favorite dish: Mora Meat. She also claims in her "Least Favorite Dishes" line she would eat food she doesn't like if someone paid her. One of her Character Stories even recounts that she started to suffer from insomnia and, after many remedies failed, the sound of not sand, but Mora falling from a custom-made hourglass did the trick. And let's not get started on how she lampshades this in her Hobbies line...
(About Dori's Hobbies) "Hobbies? Sure, I've got tons of hobbies. First there's earning Mora, then there's counting Mora... Oh, and then I like to look at Mora. Ah, Mora — nothing in the world makes me happier!"
Moral Pragmatist: A Character Story recounts how, when Dori was faced with countless orders hindered by bottlenecks that wouldn't have given her the full reward for delivery, she worked with the Kshahrewar Darshan to open new trade routes in dangerous areas from scratch, in order to eliminate such bottlenecks. Obviously, this was in order to earn the full Mora (and she apparently did!), but this also helped boost the Sangemah Bay's reputation.
Motive Decay: According to her backstory, she first tried to raise Mora to purchase expensive medicine to save her sister's life. Somewhere along the line, she started raising Mora just for the sake of raising Mora.
Mysterious Employer: Some of her staff have never met her in person.
The Napoleon: The head of the Palace of Alcazarzaray, with a surprisingly stingy side of hers and the height to match.
Nay-Theist: Dori used to worship Rex Lapis solely because he is the God of Wealth. After his departure, she worships no one but herself; despite Lesser Lord Kusanali being the patron deity of Sumeru, Dori claims she'll worship her if she's willing to pay Dori.
Near-Death Experience: One of Dori's Fallen voice lines is "Not...again...", implying that she was severely incapacitated to this point before.
No Name Given: Dori's companion Jinni is unnamed, even in her Character Stories. It is only ever referred to as "Jinni".
Noodle Incident: The Mahamata Bulletin Board recounts an incident where the Forest Watchers found that everyone who went into the Palace of Alcarzarzaray came out crying, having been cheated out of all their money and only left with their underwear, but refused to explain what happened.
No Sympathy: Dori doesn't feel bad for others putting themselves in bad situations out of desperation, pressure, or guilt, as seen with Layla's voice-over about her and Kaveh's Character Stories.
Not in This for Your Revolution: During the Interdarshan Championship, she reveals that the only reason she helped the Traveler and Paimon discover that Sachin is a bad person was to get her hands on the Diadem of Knowledge. Paimon even notes that she was being unusually generous during these interactions, with this explaining why. Too bad her Batman Gambit spectacularly fails to bring her results... causing her to threaten to increase the interest on Kaveh's debt after finding out he destroyed the Diadem.
Older Than They Look: She shares the same body animations with the smaller girls like Klee and Diona, but Dori is very much just a petite adult woman.
Only in It for the Money:
- Dori usually tries to strike business deals with people if they're able to hand her coin- um, Mora. However, she isn't interested if the deal would yield less than 100% profit.
- Ditto for Kusanali; Dori will worship her... as long as the Dendro Archon pays her, of course.
Our Genies Are Different: Dori is accompanied by a purple Jinni, who swings her claymore in her place. It differs from other Jinni introduced in the setting, however, in that it has a distinctly non-humanoid form, whereas other known Jinni are said to have been humanoid at some point, even having relationships with actual humans. It also appears to be incapable of speaking, further distinguishing it from the other Jinn players introduced so far.
Pet the Dog: Beneath her incomputable greed, there are some moments where Dori will show a benign side.
- Dori may try to con the Traveler and Paimon with her expensive wares at low Friendship levels, but at high Friendship, she tells them the truth and no longer tries to do so. She also seems to be fond of them, even if for self-serving means, and calls them her "young apprentice".
- Dori's fourth Character Story states that because her love for Mora is so strong, she is particularly interested in anyone or anything who can bring her Mora. She loves her Sumpter Beasts that transport her cargo so much, she built an amusement park for them to enjoy in their spare time, and feeds them high-quality food to keep them healthy. Dori also appears to take good care of the Jinni trapped within her lamp, as it chose to stay with her even after realizing that it had been tricked.
  Perhaps the Jinni in Dori's lamp knows this better than everyone else. The spirit was tricked into entering Dori's lamp, but it has never left since. Dori will summon it into combat, but she will also grant its wishes afterwards. Sometimes the Jinni even thinks that the fairy tale might actually have gotten things reversed — For the one who dwells in the lamp is a powerful fighter, while the one holding the lamp is the one who grants wishes.
- She may keep Kaveh in debt with her trickery, but according to the Puspa Café Message Board, she did help Kaveh pay for his drinks when Alhaitham refused to once.
- Angry that the market for glazed pottery was heavily skewed so that only the rich could afford it, she used Knowledge Capsules to teach some select potters new processing methods for clay that resulted in the market being much more favorable to lower-income customers. While she still made out with a massive profit from it, the story of how she lost her older sister suggests that products too expensive for normal people to afford is a sore subject for Dori.
- At the end of the "Wealthy Merchant" route of Kaveh's Hangout Event, she offers to treat Kaveh and the Traveler to dinner as a celebratory reward for their "successful" deal. It was the most selfless thing she'd done the entire route, though it came only after she tricked Kaveh into signing a contract that required him to forfeit his commission fees for the project he'd signed onto while still being forced to accept full responsibility for it. She also doesn't object when Kaveh declares that he intends to recoup his commission fees by purchasing a slew of expensive dishes and wines, with the Hangout Memory showing her smiling happily as Kaveh and the Traveler high five each other.
- Though she still manipulated Kaveh into giving up his commission fees on it, she does agree to fund Kaveh's project to build several education facilities in Aaru Village, and on her own land she had just recently purchased — a venture that she had admitted earlier that she wouldn't net much profit from.
- While she is most likely only dealing with them for her own benefit, the Kshahrewar appear grateful for her essentially keeping their Darshan afloat by privately funding them, as the Akademiya has failed to do so since their decline in prestige.
- Dori treasures her relationship with Alice greatly because of her promise to the adventurer that she'd be the latter's greatest business partner. Her fifth Character Story elaborates that no matter where Alice might be, Dori will pay extra and in advance to ensure that Alice will receive the payment for selling her invention to Dori at the closest safe location and at the earliest possible convenience even if Alice tells her to keep the Mora for the time being, because she "must make sure that (Alice) has Mora at hand whenever she needs it." Given how Dori has suffered due to a lack of Mora in her time of need, it's Dori's way of looking out for Alice.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Subverted. Similarly to Sayu, she's very petite and uses a claymore as her weapon, but she doesn't actually wield the weapon itself — it's her Jinni who does that. She does wield her Claymore in her plunging attacks though.
Powers Do the Fighting: Although Dori is a Vision user and should, in theory, be about as strong as every other Vision bearer if properly trained to use her power, she instead pays a Jinni she keeps in her lamp to fight for her. The Jinni appears to work alongside or be powered by her Vision powers in combat, which adds another layer to this.
Rags to Riches: She was born to poverty before becoming a successful merchant. Her obsession with money is partially born out of the fact that in the past, she was too poor to buy the medicine needed to save her sister.
Razor Floss: The connection between the active character and the Jinni summoned by Alcazarzaray's Exactitude can deal Electro damage to enemies caught in between in 0.4-second intervals.
Red Baron: Overlapping a bit with The Magnificent, Dori's title is the Lord Sangemah Bay.
Regenerating Mana: Besides the Energy charging afforded by being connected to the Jinni, Dori's fourth-ascension passive, Compound Interest, restores 5 Energy per 100% of her Energy Recharge stat (to a maximum of 15) whenever her Skill's shots connect.
Resource Reimbursement: Her utility passive, Unexpected Order, gives her a 25% chance to refund materials used to craft Character or Weapon Ascension materials.
The Rich Want to Be Richer: Well, if you were a merchant that made their life selling wares, this would be a given.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Dori's Jinni is an adorable purple blob with a constant "^____^" expression on its face.
Satellite Character: Other than the fact that Dori fooled the Jinni into entering her lamp and that it stays with her because of her power to grant its requests in exchange for combat assistance, little is known about Dori's Jinni companion. Even its name is hidden from the player, if it has one at all.
The Scrooge: Dori is not interested if a business proposal would yield her less than 100% profit. She'll take it all, thank you very much.
She Is the King: While not royalty, she's formally known as "Lord Sangemah Bay" by the people in the Palace of Alcazarzaray.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Dori mentions in her voicelines that she used to pray to Rex Lapis instead of Kusanali until the "death" of the former. She uses materials from Azhdaha, an old friend of the Geo Archon, to level up her talents.
- Befitting her money-saving smarts, her utility passive gives her a chance to refund some materials consumed for crafting Character or Weapon Ascension materials. Who knew she could be genuinely charitable in a way?
The Speechless: If Dori's Jinni has the ability to speak, it is never seen or heard speaking, even in Dori's idle animation where she is shown directly interacting with it.
Spell Blade: Dori's sixth Constellation upgrade, Sprinkling Weight, infuses her normal attacks with Electro for three seconds after using her Skill, each of which can now restore the party's HP equivalent to 4% of her Max HP per hit (with at least 0.1-second intervals).
This Cannot Be!: She was not amused when the Traveler lets her know Kaveh broke the Diadem of Knowledge in the "Parade of Prominence" event.
Dori: WHAAAAAT!? [...] (sigh) ...my diadem... my beautiful diadem... Ah, this was supposed to be the perfect plan! I feed you the information, you discover the issue with the diadem, and then I just wait until the Akademiya sells it off at a low price... and now it was All for Nothing}}! Grr, curse that Kaveh! The interest rate on the Mora he owes me is about to get much higher!
Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed. While Dori is not a villain, she stands out for her grey morality, as her greed has harmed (or at least threatened to harm) many other members of the playable cast over money (including innocents, or even those with a tight budget such as Collei and Layla). Compare this to the vast majority of the playable roster, who are either morally upstanding, The Gadfly, or (at worst) reformed or Punch Clock Villains.
Treacherous Questgiver: Subverted in the "A Parade of Providence" event. As part of her plan, she feigned impulsivity by giving out the Traveler a few hints for free to allow her convoluted Batman Gambit to get the Diadem of Knowledge play out. Problem is, the Traveler is already ahead of Dori at many points, and her plan ends up failing anyways beceuse the Diadem is destroyed.
The Turret Master: Her Burst summons a Jinni which projects a line of Electro energy to the active character(s), gradually restoring their HP and Energy, in addition to damaging enemies caught in between the line and constantly casting an Electro effect on the character(s). In addition, her second Constellation upgrade, Special Franchise, generates a Jinni Toop from the character's position whenever they are healed, which deals damage based on half of her Attack stat.
Upgrade Artifact: A variant—her third and fifth Constellation upgrades, Wonders Never Cease and Value for Mora, add three levels to, respectively, her Burst and Skill.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: There are three things that are curious about Dori:
- Jinn are so rare in modern Sumeru that only three are encountered in the present, and Dori is the only mortal that has a Jinni always present by her side. However, she has never shown its existence or even the magic lamp she houses it in to others in the story, nor does she speak of it in any of her voice lines. Players only know of her relationship with her Jinni due to her gameplay and her character story.
- Before the Akasha System was shut down, Dori is introduced as the only playable character operating within Sumeru's urban centres not wearing her Akasha Terminal, in spite of the fact that others who operate in the same legal gray areas as she does, such as the Ayn Al-Ahmar, do wear theirs. This has yet to be touched upon in-game.
- In a nation where academic resources are equivalent to social capital, Dori managed to rise from poverty to become one of, if not the most, wealthy people in Sumeru by dint of her business acumen and connections to suppliers unrelated to the Akademiya such as Alice, without presumably ever having attended the Akademiya herself. Instead, the Kshahrewar Darshan relies on her for funding. Kaveh's Character Story 4 points out that she stands out among businesspeople for seeming to "care little for what researchers thought".
Verbal Tic: In Japanese, she tends to say "desu wa" at the end of her sentences.
Villain of Another Story: She's the secondary antagonist for the "A Parade of Providence" event, scripting a plan to make herself with the Diadem of Knowledge and attain a huge profit from it. Though the plan blows up in her face and she ends up failing thanks to Kaveh breaking it.
You Get What You Pay For: Dori is always 100% honest about what her products do and how much they cost, which has helped her steer clear of legal trouble most of the time since at the end of the day it's her customers' choice whether or not to buy from her.

Sethos

Sethos

Introduced: (v.4.7)
Voiced By: Li Lanling (Chinese), Shoya Chiba (Japanese), Kim Dong-hyun (Korean), Zeno Robinson (English)

Wisdom's Measure

Rarity:
Element: Electro
Weapon: Bow(?)^note
Constellation: Basileos Delta, The Delta King

A young man who seeks the wisdom of Hermanubis.

Foil: So far he has a lot of contrasting elements to Cyno, who is established to be a rival in his introductory trailer. Both have an Electro vision, tanned skin, and hail from the desert of Sumeru. Cyno has fewer clothes and is predominantly black and purple, while Sethos clothes cover him more and his color palette is mainly whites and yellows. Cyno has white hair and red eyes, while Sethos has dark brown hair with cream tips and bright green eyes. Cyno uses a polearm as his main weapon and his fighting style has a lot of direct contact with the enemy, while Sethos is seen to be a bow wielder in his drip marketing.
Good Samaritan: He's well known for helping those who get lost in the desert find their way back to their companions or to their destination.
Mythical Motifs: If his name containing "Seth" is anything to go off of, he might have one of Set, Egyptian gods of deserts, storms, and violence.
The Navigator: Sethos' drip marketing story states that he's known for his gift for navigation, which he honed through a combination of his desert upbringing and spending his time exploring both it and the rainforests. He'll often help travelers who get separated from their companions in the desert find their way using these skills.
Odd Name Out: Like Eula, he has a Greek constellation name instead of Latin.
Shock and Awe: He has an Electro vision.
The Social Expert: Sethos' drip marketing notes him as enthusiastic and talkative, with him owing a lot of his knowledge to interactions with scholars he's guided.
Street Smart: Like Dehya, Sethos is noted to be surprisingly sharp and intelligent despite being a desert dweller with no formal education, owing to him traveling often and interactions with scholars he's guided in the desert. His unique perspective on the Akademiya and its knowledge system impressed one scholar so much that he suggested that Sethos apply as a student.
Taught by Experience: Sethos makes a hobby of traversing both the desert and rainforests on foot, learning his navigation skills as a consequence.

The Wanderer

The Wanderer

An amnesiac, young man who the Traveler meets in the third Interlude. With the Traveler and Nahida's help, the young man regains his past memories and now helps the two from the shadows.

See his page here.

Jiwani

The disinherited son of Sachin. He was introduced in the 3.6 event "A Parade of Providence."

Disinherited Child: Sachin passed over giving him his inheritance upon his death, instead opting to give it all over to the genius he deemed worthy of continuing his research. Offended and feeling entitled to his wealth because he's Sachin's own child, Jiwani master-minded a plan to have Sachin kidnapped so he could receive his inheritance by force, although his plan was swiftly, and violently, interrupted by the Wanderer and later Alhaitham.
Hates Their Parent: Grew to resent Sachin after being emotionally and actually abandoned by him 20 years ago. In "To Claim the Crown", he tells the Traveler and Paimon to tell Sachin that he’ll always be garbage in his eyes for him.
Jerkass: While his situation with his father is unfortunate, the writing makes it difficult to feel completely sorry for him as a result of his entitled and unlikeable attitude.
Locked Out of the Loop: As was most of the cast during the Interdarshan Championship, he was completely unaware that Sachin is long dead and assumed he was somewhere monitoring the competition. It's unknown if Jiwani found out what happened to Sachin by the end of the event, as he was arrested during this time.
Mr. Exposition: Along with likely existing as a Shadow Archetype to Kaveh, he also gives the players a bit more information about Sachin before he disappears from the plot.
Parental Abandonment: He was abandoned by his father Sachin who went to conduct research in the desert, although Jiwani perceived it as him running off to live a carefree life without caring for his well-being.
Shadow Archetype: While it's not outright stated, he's likely intended to be one to Kaveh due to the similarities in their situations; both are young men who were left by their fathers 20 years ago after they experienced a sudden change in personality; however, instead of blaming himself for his father's disappearance and eventual death like Kaveh, Jiwani's feelings festered into resentment and entitlement, going as far as to try and have his father kidnapped to claim his inheritance by force. Jiwani also had a more distant relationship with his father, as opposed to Kaveh's close and affectionate relationship with his own, emphasizing the contrast in their lives and how they came to vastly different conclusions.

Varsha

A young girl originally from Gandharva Ville living alone in a subterranean area of Vanarana, later relocating to the Viparyas Garden after the events of the "Giving Flowers" World Quest.

Abusive Parents: She mentions about getting beaten back when she was living in Gandharva Ville, which was why she chose to run away. Her line about "If bread could break in half and grow back again, no one would ever go hungry..." implies that she was also left to starve more than once.
Adult Hater: Chooses to live on her own without the help of adults after escaping being kidnapped by one with help from the Aranara.
Innocence Lost: Implied to be the reason why she can't see the Aranara despite every child being able to do so. She does however wish to see them in spite of this, believing that tending to the Viparays Garden will eventually cause them to appear.
Mysterious Past: She doesn't share much about her past, other than mentioning that she used to be abused back in her old home in Gandharva Ville before choosing to run away.
The Runaway: She ran away from her abusive household in Gandharva Ville, and has no intention of ever returning.
Social Services Does Not Exist: She was a victim of child abuse, yet apparently nobody stepped in to do anything about it nor has anyone been looking for her after she ran away. Since she has no intention of returning home, the Traveler and Paimon take her to Vanarana's gardens believing it be a better place for her to live than an underground cavern and that the Aranara can look after her even if she can't see them.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: She loses a bit of her cynicism once the Traveler and Paimon bring her to Vanarana and tell her all about the Aranara, inspiring her to become a caretaker of the place in hopes that the Aranara may one day appear for her.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She acts very mature for a kid her age, with a very cynical outlook on life to boot. She eventually gets better.

The Great Red Sand

See their individual page here.

Outside Sumeru

Nazafarin

A Sumeruan culinary researcher who visited Liyue Harbor and Mondstadt City to help her friend Parvaneh create the finest seasoning to make people happy.

Meaningful Name: Nazafarin (Persian: نازآفرین) means "producing delight" in Persian, deriving from naz (ناز, "delight") and afarin (آفرین, "creating").
Strange-Syntax Speaker: In sharp contrast to the rest of Sumeru locals, she has an odd manner of speech which she inherited from a Fontainean friend of hers.

Veluriyam Mirage

Hydro Eidolons

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_139_3.png

Round blob-like Hydro lifeforms who inhabit the Veluriyam Mirage in the "Secret Summer Paradise" event. They're friendly beings who welcome and entertain visitors with their shapeshifting abilities.

Blob Monster: Less so on the "monster" part since Hydro Eidolons are benevolent creatures, but they are amorphous lifeforms made of water who can change their forms at will. They can also take on human forms, as demonstrated by many of the Hydro Eidolons the Traveler and company interacting with actually being replicas of their original human counterparts who had left the Mirage long ago.
Escort Mission:
- In general, some treasure chests in the Veluriyam Mirage are locked inside bubble barriers, requiring you to find nearby Hydro Eidolons and escort them back to the chests so they can dispel the barriers for you. Some may even require more than one Hydro Eidolon to find.
- The interactive play "Petrifying Gaze" plays with this. Throughout the play, you're tasked with escorting the Lone Hydro Eidolon to a haunted castle. Whenever it walks into the wraith's line of sight, it turns into stone (which is actually just it transforming into a rock as part of the play's script), requiring you to push boxes into the wraith's sight to block their gaze and return the Lone Hydro Eidolon to normal.
Living Battery: They power both the Choo-Choo cart attraction and Streaming Projectors in the Veluriyam Mirage.
Shapeshifting: Their main ability is being able to shapeshift into anything. You'll frequently run into Hydro Eidolons disguised as inanimate objects, with the only visible trait telling them apart being the bubbles they give off.
The Unintelligible: Hydro Eidolons appear to not speak vocally and instead communicate to visitors by gestures, sign language and emotes. They're still able to speak to other Hydro Eidolons as hinted by Paimon and Klee, but whatever language they speak isn't audible to anyone outside of their species. The only outliers are the ones disguised as humans and the ones who run "Daiya's Three-Day Reverie" plays, but this is only made possible because the former are acting out the original visitor's memories and the latter had their language figured out by Zosimos long ago, and he made pre-recordings of their thoughts to be played on speakers to address visitor's questions about the plays.

Idyia

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_08_13_at_104936_pm.png

Voiced by: Mika Okamoto (Japanese), Erin Yvette (English)

The caretaker of Veluriyam Mirage and a friend of Alice. She is introduced in the v3.8 event "Secret Summer Paradise", where she invites Klee to the Mirage for the summer by Alice's request.

Affectionate Nickname: Klee calls her "Aunty Desert" due to first finding out that her domain was located in the desert.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Idyia took on a human form out of fear that her true Oceanid form would scare people away (turns out Rhodeia was underselling how much "the power of water is its ability to take any shape"). Once the party assures her that they would always consider her their friend, she goes back into her true form.
The Aloner: As a result of her wish to be alone and away from everyone else, she was transported by the bottle to the middle of the Sumeru desert to live in isolation within the Veluriyam Mirage Domain. She does, however, end up making friends with the people who come to her domain.
Ambiguously Human: She, like many of the NPCs encountered in the Mirage, appears human enough, but her blue hair and eyes give her an odd appearance, and using elemental sight on her also reveals that she is affected by Hydro. At the end of the event, it is revealed that she is not human at all, but rather an Oceanid who has assumed human form.
Beware the Silly Ones: Comedically self deprecating nervous wreck but during the Narzissenkreuz questline, Caterpillar explains that only the most powerful Oceanids, such as Rhodeia, can create human mimics. Idyia has 11 in the Veluriyam Mirage along with countless sentient Eidolons. After listening to Caterpillar, Paimon whispers her surprise to the Traveler, surmising that Idyia must be incredibly powerful. On top of that there's the fact that she can maintain a human form seemingly indefinitely while Callirhoe could only do it on and off for a few days.
Brutal Honesty: While a Nice Girl who won't deny a lot of the criticisms others give her and will even throw some at herself, she's shown to be a very harsh critic of Zosimos' plays, with her even stating that her favourite of the play the Traveler helps with was "it had a good ending". Ironically, this makes Zosimos arguably the one of the Veluriyam Mirage's residents who displays the most respect towards her, as he finds all her feedback valuable.
Commonality Connection: Feels a connection to Kaveh, whom she sees as having a sensitive soul similar to her own.
Color-Coded Elements: All of it, ranging from her hair and eye color, and her clothing. Justified as she is an Oceanid.
Conditional Powers: According to the play that tells her backstory, she was given the Veluriyam Mirage by Alice, and she can use the Streaming Projector to grant the wishes of its visitors thanks to the magic Alice infused into it. She can, however, only grant people's wishes within the confines of the bottle using the domains projector, and they are thusly unable to take their wishes with them when they decide to go home. As well, the domain is, in part, powered by the gifts left behind by the people she's granted the wishes of.
Creating Life: A variant. She has the ability to create Hydro Eidolon replicas of people who have visited the Mirage, and these replicas are nearly carbon copies of their original selves, with identical appearances, personalities, and memories. The bright blue hair and unnaturally glowing blue eyes are the only things that set them apart from the originals.
Everybody Knew Already: At the end of the Secret Summer Paradise quest line, after the group has assembled the parts to repair the domain's core, Idyia starts trying to get everyone to leave and come back in a little while, assuring them the core will surely start back up on its own after a bit. Cue everyone (except Paimon) telling her that it's okay for her to transform to use her powers and that they don't mind, with the entire group having figured out that she was an Oceanid a long time ago.
The Empath: The name Idyia shows up in Fontaine's legends and fairy tales as a figure with a great ability to understand human minds. As Callirhoe shows, this isn't the usual case with Oceanids. Furthermore, Oceanids can only mimic humans that died in their arms or they know incredibly well. Idyia can know someone well enough to craft a Eidolon copy in a few months tops.
The Exile: Like the other other Oceanids, she went into exile from Fontaine after the death of the previous Hydro Archon. Zosimos' play about her indicates that she was also seperated from the other Oceanids which is odd as Oceanids are intrinsically communal.
Hidden Depths: Contrary to all her self-deprecation, she's certainly a dab hand with a stitch. Also, there's that whole Oceanid thing.
Hikikomori: While she's perfect willing to host company in her home and said home is a greater expanse than one would normally place an agoraphobe in, she wished to be alone from the world and makes a number of hints that she doesn't feel comfortable leaving the Veluriyam Mirage.
Interface Spoiler:
- Using Elemental Sight around Idyia reveals that she is infused with the Hydro element... while on dry land on a sunny day. Foreshadowing her true nature as an Oceanid.
- In the event-exclusive World Quest "Capturing Light and Shadow", reading one of Guy Verhaecht's diary entries outright reveals that Idyia is an Oceanid well before her official reveal, since the quest is located inside a remote cave in the Overgrown Valley (the first area of the Veluriyam Mirage you unlock).
Lazy Alias: At first blush, one would guess that the Daiya in Daiya's Three-Day Reverie is Idyia with this trope in play. And you'd be right, at one point during the Reverie the recordings even slip up and almost say Idyia before catching themselves.
Living Legend: According to Guy Verhaecht's diary entries, the name Idyia shows up in legends and fairy tales. He concludes, and considering the long lives of Oceanids, that this is that Idyia.
Magitek: The Mirage's Streaming Projector devices, which can create "preprints" of any object inserted into it based on the creators' imaginations by utilizing the light reflected into the magic bottle. At the end of the event, Idyia reveals that the Streaming Projectors can even create entire landmasses, as the domain itself is a massive preprint created by the Mirage's spinning core, the largest Streaming Projector of all.
Nervous Wreck: Prone to self-depreciation and nervous jitters when talking to other people.
Nice Girl: Prone to nervous jitters and self-depreciation but otherwise a kind and well-meaning person that tries to accommodate all those who find themselves in Veluriyam Mirage.
Nonstandard Character Design: Her design borrows elements from various Genshin NPC styles, but changes aspects of it such as the color palette, and style of clothing. As well, she's dressed similarly to a Fontanian NPC despite residing in Sumeru, further setting her apart from the other NPCs in the region.
Occult Blue Eyes: Her eyes are an extremely vibrant blue as compared to other characters. It's most likely due to her nature as an Oceanid.
Our Genies Are Different: Idyia functions similarly to a Jinni in that she's a magical being that lives in a bottle and can grant wishes to those who come into contact with it, though only within the confines of the lamp. That being said, she is not a Jinni in the traditional sense, but rather a Fontanian Oceanid who migrated to Sumeru after her self-exile and was given the magical bottle she now resides in by Alice, whom she befriended. Her ability to grant the wishes of those she meets is also derived from the magical Streaming Projector, which reflects the light of the magical bottle, rather than from her own power.
Pocket Dimension: Veluriyam Mirage, the domain she rules over, is literally a city in a bottle, which visitors may enter by her invitation or by touching the bottle when they find it in the desert. It's also larger on the inside than one might think, with the full map being nearly the size of Sumeru's rainforest.
Power Echoes: In her true Oceanid form, her voice echoes, which is normally suppressed when in her human form.
Prone to Tears: While she's never shown crying onscreen, every time the characters run into an NPC that Idyia knows, they all express surprise that she's out and about not "curled up in a fetal position somewhere crying to herself."
Really 700 Years Old: She mentions to the Traveler and co, in a fit of nervousness, that she'll see them again in a hundred years. As a non-human, an Oceanid in this case, she has a far longer lifespan than ordinary humans.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: She derives her name from Idyia, an Oceanid from Classical Mythology that was the youngest of her kin.
Somber Backstory Revelation: The play Zosimos wrote tells her backstory, from her exile from Fontaine after Focalors took over to how she ended up somehow seperated from the other Oceanids and in Sumeru's rainforest, how she met Alice, and how she ended up with the Veluriyam Mirage domain after Alice gifted it to her.

Residents of Veluriyam Mirage

The Mirage's various human inhabitants who coexist with the Hydro Eidolons and manage various sectors of the Mirage.

General Tropes

Ambiguously Human: Mirage residents are characterized by their bright blue hair and unnaturally glowing blue eyes, which give them an otherworldly appearance when compared to other NPCs. Scanning them with Elemental Sight also reveals that they are affected by Hydro. This is explained at the end of the event, as they are not human at all, but rather Hydro Eidolon replicas of the Mirage's original visitors, who asked Idyia to leave them behind to take care of their dreams in their places while they return to their real world responsibilities.
Clone Angst: Downplayed Trope. Some of the Hydro Eidolon replicas, like Mandora, recognize that they are not the original versions of the people who visited the Mirage, but have inherited their memories and personalities while their human counterparts return to their normal lives. Replica Mandora wonders dejectedly if the original still thinks of her, and if the thought of her would strengthen the original's resolve to continue on her chosen path while she lives a peaceful life in the Mirage in her place.
Color-Coded Elements: Along with the blob-like Eidolons, the Mirage is populated by Hydro replicas of previous visitors, who possess blue hair and glowing blue eyes.
Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: A variant. While the characters seen in Veluriyam Mirage are merely Hydro Eidolon replicas of the original visitors of the Mirage, Idyia still regards them as her friends all the same.
Goal in Life: Every Mirage resident had a dream that they couldn't realize in their real lives due to a variety of circumstances and decided to live out in the Mirage with the assistance of Idyia. The residents of the Mirage, however, are simply Hydro Eidolon replicas of the original visitors, who have been left behind to "take care" of the originals' dream in their place while they return to their real responsibilities. It's unclear whether the original visitors will be able to achieve their goals in real life, although Idyia hopes they will someday.
Near-Death Experience: Every visitor the Traveler and Paimon meet mentions a near-fatal experience in the desert before finding refuge in the Mirage. This isn't actually the case for them, however, as revealed in the events ending, because they're just replicas of the original visitors who nearly died before before being saved by Idyia. The replicas are simply recounting the visitors' memories.
Occult Blue Eyes: The Hydro replicas of former visitors of the Mirage have glowing blue eyes.

Ferdinand

One of the three brothers who operates the Choo-Choo Cart zone in the Veluriyam Mirage. He is an event exclusive NPC introduced in the v3.8 event "Secret Summer Paradise".

Goal in Life: Like his brothers, his goal is to build a railway across Teyvat to make traveling easier. Idyia granted this wish within the bottle by allowing them to build and manage the Choo-Choo cart region of the Mirage.
Interface Spoiler: Like many of the other visitors of the Mirage, using Elemental Sight on him reveals that he is affected by Hydro, with that along with his appearance foreshadowing that he isn't quite as human as he looks.

Haddo

One of the three brothers the Traveler encounters in the Veluriyam Mirage. He is an event exclusive NPC introduced in the v3.8 event "Secret Summer Paradise".

Delicate and Sickly: Said to have poor health and a lack of energy, which causes his Ferdinand and Jeroney to worry and argue about him. It takes Klee's intervention for them to realize that their lack of communication is scaring Haddo into pushing himself harder than he should in the hopes of putting an end to their arguments, rather than assuring him that he isn't a burden and can rely on them.
Goal in Life: Like his brothers, his goal is to build a railway across Teyvat to make traveling easier. Idyia granted this wish within the bottle by allowing them to build and manage the Choo-Choo cart region of the Mirage.
Interface Spoiler: Like many of the other visitors of the Mirage, using Elemental Sight on him reveals that he is affected by Hydro, with that along with his appearance foreshadowing that he isn't quite as human as he looks.
Near-Death Experience: His passing out in the desert while traveling with his brothers was the catalyst for their encounter with the Mirage. Or, that was the case with the original Haddo, who was helped by Idyia along with his brothers.

Jeroney

One of the three brothers the Traveler encounters in the Veluriyam Mirage. He is an event exclusive NPC introduced in the v3.8 event "Secret Summer Paradise".

Goal in Life: Like his brothers, his goal is to build a railway across Teyvat to make traveling easier. Idyia granted this wish within the bottle by allowing them to build and manage the Choo-Choo cart region of the Mirage.
Hypocrite: Frequently criticizes and dismisses Ferdinand's ideas while refusing to acknowledge Ferdinand's contributions and making none of his own. This becomes the source of one of their numerous arguments.
Interface Spoiler: Like many of the other visitors of the Mirage, using Elemental Sight on him reveals that he is affected by Hydro, with that along with his appearance foreshadowing that he isn't quite as human as he looks.
The Smart Guy: Agreed to be the one who comes up with the ideas for how the Choo-Choo Cart area of the domain would work, while Ferdinand would be the muscles of the operation and Haddo would draw up the blueprints and build the tracks.

Maymunah

An Akademiya scholar from the Spantamad Darshan. She is an event exclusive NPC introduced in the v3.8 event "Secret Summer Paradise".

Daddy's Girl: She admires her father and wanted to be like him when she grew up, assisting others in the Grand Bazaar.
Goal in Life: She wants to manage the festivals in the Grand Bazaar, but was pressured into becoming a scholar at the Akademiya by her parents.
Interface Spoiler: Using Elemental Sight around Maymunah reveals that she is infused with the Hydro element... while on dry land on a sunny day, foreshadowing her true nature as a Hydro Eidolon replica of the original Maymunah, created by Idyia the Oceanid.
Near-Death Experience: Similarly to Ferdinand and her brothers, she ended up in Veluriyam Mirage after getting lost in the desert. Or the original Maymunah did, anyway.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Teases Idyia in her introduction, but backs off when Idyia begins to get genuinely upset. It's clear from their later interactions that they're on good terms despite her attitude.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Played with. Growing up, she wanted to work in the Grand Bazaar like her father, but her parents encouraged her to become a scholar when she realized it wasn't as simple as she had been led to believe. Even after becoming a researcher, she wasn't entirely happy with the path she'd chosen because her true passion was still running fairs, which led her to going to the desert and ending up in Veluriyam Mirage.
You Didn't Ask: Claims this is the reason that she didn't tell the Traveler and co that she had the component they needed to fix the Mirage, although she admits that it's because she forgot she had it right after.

Zosimos

A script writer and stage director that the Traveler encounters in the Veluriyam Mirage. He is an event exclusive NPC introduced in the v3.8 event "Secret Summer Paradise".

Goal in Life: He wanted to be a director since he was a child, but because he isn't very good at it, he ended up becoming a prop and set designer in adulthood. Idyia assisted him in realizing his dream by allowing him to manage the Mirage's stage play area.
Interface Spoiler: Like many of the other visitors of the Mirage, using Elemental Sight on him reveals that he is affected by Hydro, with that along with his appearance foreshadowing that he isn't quite as human as he looks.
Nice Guy: The only major NPC in the event to offer to hand over the component before requesting assistance from the Traveler and co to fix the section of the domain he manages, as Maymunah forgot to mention her possession of the component, claiming it was because they didn't ask, and Ferdinand and his brothers didn't realize they had what the Traveler and Idyia needed until after they were helped. He appears to be offended when the group openly speculates on what kind of help he would request in exchange for handing over the component.
Not the Intended Use: In-Universe example. Rather than using the Streaming Project to create objects from preprints, he uses the preprints themselves as sets for his plays by crafting props and placing them within them. He claims that his improper use of the preprints is why Idyia takes issue with his plays, but that she says she won't stop him.
Vitriolic Best Buds: He argues with Idyia about his scriptwriting and ideas for stageplays, but he respects her because he knows she has his best interests at heart.
Writer's Block: He was experiencing writer's block prior to the group's encounter with him, but his muse was restored immediately after seeing the roles they could fill in his play. Idyia openly wonders how he was able to become inspired so quickly after struggling for so long to finish the script. To be fair, the play ends very abruptly and haphazardly making it clear that Zosimos whipped up an ending quickly without any polish.

Characters / Genshin Impact: Sumeru

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Sumeru

Dharma Forest

Gandharva Ville

Collei

Introduced: August 24, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [first half])Voiced by: Qin Wenjing (Chinese), Ryoko Maekawa (Japanese), Bang Si-Woo (Korean), Christina Assaf-Costello (English)

Tighnari

Introduced: August 24, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [first half])Voiced by: Mo Ran (Chinese), Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Jung Ui-taek (Korean), Elliot Gindi (English, original), Zachary Gordon (English, v3.6 onwards)

Alyasa, Ashera, and Izebel

The Aranara

Arama

Arakayapsa

Arana

Docile Fungi

Bongo-Head

Pyro-1/Kindlejoy

Twirly-Whirly

Blitzara

Historical Figures

Viaghara

Viridescent

Sumeru City

The Akademiya

Zubayr Theater

Nilou

Introduced: October 14, 2022 (v3.1 "King Deshret and the Three Magi" [second half])Voiced by: Zisu Jiuyue (Chinese), Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Chae Rim (Korean), Dani Chambers (English)

Inayah

Sheikh Zubayr

General

Nahida

Dunyarzad Homayani

Emira

Ilman

Vimara Village

Alphonso, né Trofin Snezhevich

Rana

Port Ormos

Avin

Fayez and Mamdouh

Elchingen

Kayvan

Loumelat bint Atif Abu Rashid

Other

Dori Sangemah Bay

Introduced: September 9, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [second half])Voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Tomoko Kaneda (Japanese), Lee Myeong-ho (Korean), Anjali Kunapaneni (English)

Sethos

Introduced: (v.4.7)Voiced By: Li Lanling (Chinese), Shoya Chiba (Japanese), Kim Dong-hyun (Korean), Zeno Robinson (English)

The Wanderer

Varsha

The Great Red Sand

Outside Sumeru

Nazafarin

Veluriyam Mirage

Hydro Eidolons

Idyia

General Tropes

Ferdinand

Haddo

Jeroney

Maymunah

Zosimos

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Introduced: August 24, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [first half])
Voiced by: Qin Wenjing (Chinese), Ryoko Maekawa (Japanese), Bang Si-Woo (Korean), Christina Assaf-Costello (English)

Introduced: August 24, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [first half])
Voiced by: Mo Ran (Chinese), Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese), Jung Ui-taek (Korean), Elliot Gindi (English, original), Zachary Gordon (English, v3.6 onwards)

Introduced: October 14, 2022 (v3.1 "King Deshret and the Three Magi" [second half])
Voiced by: Zisu Jiuyue (Chinese), Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Chae Rim (Korean), Dani Chambers (English)

Introduced: September 9, 2022 (v3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" [second half])
Voiced by: Wang Xiaotong (Chinese), Tomoko Kaneda (Japanese), Lee Myeong-ho (Korean), Anjali Kunapaneni (English)

Introduced: (v.4.7)
Voiced By: Li Lanling (Chinese), Shoya Chiba (Japanese), Kim Dong-hyun (Korean), Zeno Robinson (English)