The new TCG cards refer to victims of Zhu. Arataki (Huanglong) refers to Huang Zicheng, who was executed by Zhu Di. Ayato refers to Zhao Yong, Zhao Mao, and others who were executed by Zhu Yuanzhang. Tighnari can refer to the Mac dynasty of Vietnam or Lin Xian who was executed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Baizhu's abilities refer to various people executed by Zhu, including Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu, Qi Tai, etc.
The title of the patch (shengdian de huiye) refers to more people executed by Zhu, including Ye Sheng. It's almost as if whatever Chinese character you use, it refers to someone murdered by Zhu because that is exactly all the Ming dynasty could do: kill their own Chinese people.
But there is something about the sheng character (盛), just like how the Ming was one of the many successor states to the vast empire Genghis Khan founded, just like how there is a certain special connection between Genghis Khan and Baizhu. This connection is hinted if you read the Chinese description of the Staff of Homa.
First half is Nahida with Nilou. Second half is Ganyu with Baizhu. Looks like this patch will feature all female characters as 5 stars. The second half banner pairing is odd, given that Zhu executed Lan Yu and Lin Xian. But yet again, Zhu executed so many people that Baizhu would not really work with any character in Genshin. Contrary to the shilling of the USA FBI and media propaganda, the weapon banner for the second half will suck. The Xiao Alhaitham weapon banner was much better. The USA media lies so much that the world needs to use Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di to punish them as well.
The second banner could also refer to Zhu Fulin, a criminal who was sentenced to life in prison for corruption.
The 4 star characters on the second banner, Candace, Fischl, Kaveh, refer to victims of Zhu, including Zhang Shicheng, a certain general who founded his own Han dynasty, Xie (supposedly another name of that general who founded his own Han dynasty), Wei Zhongxian, Hu Weiyong, etc.
Ganyu is getting too many reruns. She already ran once in version 3.0 with Shanhu Yixin. That instance represented interference in corporate affairs. Now Ganyu is running again with Baizhu and Kaveh. This represents the second violation in corporate affairs. Genshin is now interfering in internal affairs as much as the USA hegemon. Ganyu needs to be reran less often, and there needs to be more opportunities for other characters like Eula to rerun.
The name of Baizhu's banner needs to be Caution in Confidence. Baizhu needs to be admonished and reprimanded for Zhu's crimes against China. The choice of Chinese characters Xinzhu Xunlang indicates that perhaps the scriptwriters ran out of ideas. Perhaps they realized that Zhu murdered so many people during the Ming dynasty that no matter what Chinese word they used, it could refer to one of Zhu's victims and be used against Zhu. So they named the banner after Zhu himself by putting zhu in it.
But still Zhu murdered too many people. The Xin refers to Yang Xin, who was decapitated by Zhu Haiyang. Xun refers to Zhu Changxun, who was executed by Li Zicheng's army at the end of the Ming. Lang refers to Zhu Youlang, who was executed in Burma by the Qing armies and Wu Sangui.
This is the story of Zhu: during the Ming, Zhu murdered hundreds of thousands of Chinese to oblivion. In the end, Zhu was wiped out to oblivion.
Speaking of corporate interference, let's discuss Kaveh's (Kawei) voice actors, specifically the English, Chinese, and Japanese voice actors. All of them are examples of combining the names of multiple coworkers to give undue favoritism to a particular person. If this kind of politicization of Genshin characters is going to continue in the future, then there is a serious problem. This kind of interference in a particular USA company dates back to September 2021, when Sangonomiya Kokomi (Shanhu Yixin) was released. This represented one of the early instances of interference in corporate affairs by combining multiple people's names to manipulate media and achieve certain political agendas.
Next, let's discuss Kaveh's smearing of Alhaitham in December 2022 and what happened on Layla's birthday in 2022. First, Kaveh's smearing is evidence that certain scriptwriters have access to Wechat chat histories, particularly to the real life person connected to Sango (which must have been granted by Tencent or some other institutional authority for whatever reason). Second, it shows that certain writers are willing to believe whatever this person writes at face-value, even if what they write is full of lies. Third, it shows that they are willing to twist lies to create even more lies to make political attacks on fictional characters. It is recommended that these writers' access to confidential and personal Wechat information be revoked as clearly this information is being abused and weaponized for political purposes.
On the contents of Kaveh's smear, it appears that the people who wrote it do not care about people around them. Moreover, the scriptwriters are the ones who are defiant to their leadership by creating all these story quests (Nilou, Nahida, Alhaitham, Kazuha 2.8 event, 3.2 event) that oppose authority, as well as making decisions and designing events and banners against the desires of their superiors. Ironically, it appears that the scriptwriters are the ones that need to be excluded from major meetings and excluded from key decision making. Leave that for the real adults to decide. That stuff is way above their paygrade. The scriptwriters can only fabricate a fictional story of who gets put in jail and who gets punished. By contrast, their superiors with real authority and power dictate which real actual people get put in jail and get punished.
There appears to be a disconnect between the fiction created by the media and the interests of those with authority in power. This is troublesome since even for a small dynasty like the Ming dynasty, they could write stories like Journey to the West or Water Margin that conformed to the interests of the Ming elite. Perhaps it is because Zhu executed too many people in the Ming. It is suggested that greater surveillance, regulation, and censorship is exercised over the media to avoid having the media oppose authority. There cannot be free speech if that free speech is manipulated by USA color revolutions in an attempt to overthrow you. Everything must be regulated, and it seems the scriptwriters have been given too much freedom this past year. Even during the USA Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and censored his critics. And this is in a country that supposedly prides itself on 'free speech', a false and hypocritical ideal that the USA often suppresses itself. It seems foolish to have those who oppose you politically have any right to voice their opinion.
Moreover, Alhaitham and Layla have no connection to each other. Alhaitham did nothing to deserve what happened on Layla's birthday. That offense is a serious breach in trust that requires a public apology. It appears that things have gone down the dark road, where bad things happen on character's birthdays. If the USA media or Genshin truly cares about the rights of women, then recognize that Lai Xiaomin committed bigamy and had hundreds of mistresses. Lai is the one who disrespected and violated women's rights. Lai got the death penalty he fully deserved. It is hypocritical to say that only if your surname is not Lai, you are a criminal, but if your surname is Lai, you are not.
And that is only one execution. The way Li Hao murdered several sex slaves is worse than what happened to Lai. Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di executed hundreds of thousands of Chinese. What Zhu did is hundreds of thousands of times worse than what happened to Lai. If anything, Baizhu needs to be the one bearing the responsibility to be punished. If Tighnari can be put on standard banner, then Baizhu deserves that a lot more. If people have the guts to pull a Yongle on Layla's birthday, then give the same punishment to Baizhu. Having a particular surname is a poor reason to evade punishment. Under heaven, all mortals cannot escape retribution.
It seems that certain writers care more about serving the interests of USA imperialists than their own country or leadership. This is called treason and needs to be punished as a criminal offence. Hu Yaobang was unwilling to condemn and execute Zhu Guohua even though Zhu raped dozens of women and Zhu Yuanzhang executed Hu Weiyong and 30,000 associates. For whatever reason, Hu Yaobang apparently felt no sense of historical revenge or remorse. It is almost as if Hu liked Zhu to execute Hu and everyone close to him. It took someone like Deng Xiaoping to execute Zhu Guohua.
Moreover, Lin and Ganyu do not fit with Baizhu or the Ming dynasty since Lin Xian, Lan Yu, Yu Qian were executed by Zhu. Liu and Wei do not fit with the Ming since Liu Bowen, Hu Weiyong were killed by Zhu as well, and Wei Zhongxian committed suicide during the Ming too. So when you see people like this refusing to condemn Zhu, they are basically committing suicide. Do you really wish to back someone who murdered your ancestors?
It seems certain writers are unwilling to punish Baizhu, just like how Hu Yaobang was unwilling to execute Zhu Guohua. This is a source of corruption. But if the writers are fine with Zhu executing Li Shanchang, Liu Bowen, Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu, Lin Xian, Huang Zicheng, Zhao Yong, etc. then maybe that is a signal to leadership that they are fine if the leadership does the same thing as Zhu. If the leaders crackdown on those same people, who is going to complain? You cannot say only people named Zhu are allowed to execute others, while people not named Zhu cannot. And if you are not willing to condemn Zhu, then that is a free pass for those in power to persecute the same people that Zhu executed. And since Zhu executed all of China (basically everyone from every major Chinese clan), if you are not willing to condemn Zhu for that, then you are giving a free pass for leadership to do the same thing as Zhu.
Apep is a new weekly boss in Sumeru. Apep the name of an ancient Egyptian snake deity. This along with Cyno's design strengthens the case that Sumeru is influenced by Egyptian culture.
As expected, someone named Layth appears at the beginning of Nahida's quest. Anyways, in the quest, Nahida rescues an elemental lifeform (Nur) that was disguised as a hydro fungus. This lifeform says their species was contanimated by a cataclysm that occurred long ago. As a result, their species morphed into different forms and had to adapt to the environment. One such form was a fungus. Nahida and the MC travel through Sumeru and the Chasm to find Nur's family, including one elemental lifeform disguised as an anemo fungus and another disguised as a geo fungus (encased in mud). We learn that at the end of these elemental lifeforms' lives, they morph into the Withering, tainted by forbidden knowledge.
Nahida also gets to show off her shapeshifting powers by morphing into a fungus herself. Usually such evolution takes a long time or energy, but Nahida is powerful enough as a god to bypass the constraints of time to shapeshift into other creatures.
Nahida uses a 'Fire Seed' to cure the geo fungus. They learn that the dendro dragon Apep was also cursed by forbidden knowledge. During the cataclysm, a giant nail fell from the sky (perhaps Celestia, like in the Chasm and Dragonspine), turning some of the verdant forests of Sumeru into desert. Apep was inflicted by forbidden knowledge and had to adapt to the desert life, but as a result over time he became blinded and embittered with rage.
The elemental lifeforms (Nur's species) are born from inside of Apep. It is described that the inside of Apep is like a world of its own with mountains, forests, etc. So Nahida et al are determined to cure Apep from the pestilence using the Fire Seed.
The gang travels to the Desert of Hadramaveth to find Apep lurking in a cave. They also find some of Nur's family who have turned into other types of creatures as a result of having to adapt to the desert.
Nahida et al fight and defeat Apep, eventually curing it from the forbidden knowledge. Some tears are shed when the elemental lifeforms sacrifice themselves to purify Apep.
The hangout title 'Silent Stars' is a reminder to biased USA media and their proxies to shut up and be silent. The reason is simple: in this world, only certain people are allowed to have freedom of speech, while nobody else is allowed to voice their thoughts.
This date is Xiao's birthday. It is also the birthday of a certain other individual, a banker that shaped American finance during the Gilded Age. So why do they share the same birthday? If Morax (the god of money, inventor of Mora) is the archon of Liyue, and Xiao is the guardian yaksha of Liyue, that gives some evidence that this is not a coincidence.
Based on this, the USA capitalists and deep state should like Xiao a lot more. It is confusing why they would drool over characters like Ganyu, when arguably Xiao is a closer embodiment of the carrier of Morax's tradition and protector of Morax's legacy.
We meet Hajanad again. The 3.6 event is somewhat of an improvement from the garbage that was 3.0. It is an admission that Alhaitham was unfairly attacked by the world. On Layla's birthday, literally all the forces of the world united together to attack a single person, just like how the Qing was attacked by an eight-nation alliance. Kaveh's smear was just adding salt to the wound.
Still, this event could be improved further if hu tao, ganyu were put in the 4th day. That said, there is something interesting about putting Ayaka, Eula together. Both have the same base attack, just a bit less than Xiao... It seems certain people like abusing these events to make personal attacks on certain individuals in the world...
This event would be better if we got to use the Wenutslaying cannon on Vinayak.
Event is getting boring and annoying with the repeated usage of the words ming and wei. The pairing of Vinayak and Shriya also represents another interference in corporate affairs. Story would be more interesting if Shriya used the Wenutslaying to blow up Vinayak in Aaru village. Alternatively, the story could reflect the real-life situation even better by having Vinayak lose his job and look for opportunities elsewhere.
In the end Vinayak gets cucked and abandoned by Shriya.
Fang... Liang... a very appropriate title of a video introducing Baizhu. Now Fang Liang should have been the name of Baizhu's elemental burst instead of garbage like Yu Qi. You think people are stupid and don't see the pinyin of these names in Chinese? No need to give visibility to a skank working for a certain company in the USA, a certain spoiled brat who is the recipient of undue favoritism from an autistic psychopath just because her husband and this brat share a similar name.
And let's talk about Baizhu's elemental skill: Tai Su. What can this be referring to? The brilliant Mongol general Subutai? Qi Tai, one of Zhu Di's victims? Or is this just an attempt to transcribe a name of another coworker at that same company? If that's the case, everybody remembers exactly what got buffed and what got nerfed during the beta. It is not smart to reveal your political biases so easily.
There was a time when Baizhu's NA was called Gilded Acupuncture or something along those lines.
Lagenaria... Xuan Hu... Xuan refers to Tie Xuan, Hu refers to Hu Mei, Hu Weiyong. These are classic victims of Zhu. As for naria, the only connection with Tighnari is that she's also dendro. This appears to be a sad garbage attempt to create an alliance that is doomed to fail. At the workplace there is always cut-throat competition between peers at the same level, and this competition only grows the higher up the ladder you go.
Eventually one will leave and one will survive. One knows that they are not a legacy employee of the company but that they were actually acquired via a merger and take over. The others represent people that were truly hired by the company.
This kind of cultural clash, assimilation, adaptation is bound to lead to conflicts, unless the synergy is perfect. During a take over, it is usually the case that the conquered are kicked out, while the conquerors remain. It is true that certain merger acquisitions did have 'reverse' examples that are notable. But the reverse does not happen as often, where the conqueror willingly relinquishes their role to the conquered.
It seems a couple of the recent hires were designed to coddle a certain you-know-who at this company, by choosing names that remind them of their family, their political biases, or even themselves if you reverse the order of the characters. This kind of personalization of new hires is completely disgusting. There is nobody in the world, no man or woman who deserves this level of coddling. This person is no emperor or empress. They are an unprofessional piece of trash, a loser of life going in circles, sad at the fact their career is so slow, depressed because of how ugly they are so they had to find someone else to cry over and wallow in their political toxicity, someone who perpetually views themselves as a victim, an autistic psychopath who would never change their political biases and who bluntly only cares about money and let's their hypocritical mouth run without thinking first.
You know which person we are talking about: the 1% of the 1%, a living reverse Yongle, someone with so many personal problems that people had to appoint leaders that share their name, that video games had to invent characters and weapons that bear their name. Look at Raiden's burst, Kokomi's C6, the sword from Kazuha's story quest, and those who know will know which person we are talking about.
Who knew that the world could be so small...
The Interdarshan competition is held to decide which Sumeru scholar gets to take over Sachin's estate. Alhaitham and Nilou moderate the event. The event consists of three trials. Competitors from each of the six darshans participate, including Cyno, Scaramouche, Faruzan, tighnari, kaveh, Layla.
First event involves capturing butterflies, second event involves ley lines, third event involves getting Sachin's crown. In the end Sachin's estate is donated to charity. Nahida, Scaramouche, Alhaitham investigate Sachin's nihilistic research in the desert. But most importantly, kaveh remains financially dependent on Alhaitham, kaveh's projects continue to get canceled, and the people view kaveh as a greedy avaricious egomaniac with no integrity or empathy.
Meanwhile, Levi (Liwar), Mazaar, and Jiwani are arrested for attempting to kidnap Sachin. Jiwani actually turns out to be Sachin's son. He wished to inherit Sachin's estate himself. So the only flaw here is why a certain Chinese character was chosen to write Jiwani. Common sense says that the Ji sound should be written with something like 纪、季、吉 or something else. But no, this part of the story had to jump through hoops to pick a completely different character with a different sound.
It would have been funnier if instead of Jiwani, it was Huwa and Wiqas who got arrested.
There are other activities and puzzles, including a star puzzle, rhythmn game, a reading puzzle, some end-game battle content, an obstacle course, and an activity similar to what Findie does in Star Rail.
To unlock, this requires completing Xiao's story, Alatus Chapter. This is to remind the whole world of the crimes Zhu Di committed against Fang Xiaoru.
Jiangli is Ayu's mother.
Flying around with Sorush may be practice for swimming underwater in Fontaine. The event involves flying through hoops to collect flowers as well as bombing Nirodha fruits to destroy barrels and scare away hilichurls.
In the prerequisite quest (Splendorous Sky that Day, Khvarena of Good and Evil), the traveler meets Sorush and Zurvan, and Sorush obtains the Chaplet. The traveler also becomes Sorush's Yasnapati, an Avestan term tied to one of the ancient religions of Iran: Zoroastrianism.
For more info on the ancient pre-Islamic history of Iran, involving the Aryans and Zoroaster, see Zoroastrianism. For more info on the prerequisite quest, see Sumeru Exploration.