The Nod-Krai crisis was averted and the Mondstadt expedition finally returned home, giving the Traveler and Paimon a chance to slow down and relax, explore the Dornman Port and trot Aguara out for a local pet championship.
But these quiet moments usually don’t last, and this is exactly what came to pass in Genshin Impact – Version Luna VII: Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana. Players have been waiting for this exact title ever since Sumeru, unexpectedly, didn’t feature it – the first and only nation since the release of the Teyvat Travails trailer to differ from the expected flow of things.
Between that and all the hints at Dottore burning Irminsul, Travelers far and wide have been waiting for this time to come – and now it’s here. This chapter serves both as the epilogue to the overall events of Sumeru and the Genshin Impact manga, as well as wraps up Collei’s character arc that had started so long ago.
The developers have seemingly forgotten nothing: the God Remains, King Deshret and Nabu Malikata, Irminsul and the Ley Lines, the Seven Pillars, Aranara & Pari, Pyro Gnosis, Liloupar and the Jinn, and so much more comes into play once more. Of course, the entirety of the Sumeru cast returns for one final adventure, with Nicole and Nefer playing an important role as well and Mavuika showing up briefly. Even Jeht made her appearance and gained a voice in the process! Playable when?
Truth Amongst the Pages of Purana features some of the best character and world writing Genshin has ever done. But it is also brought down by Genshin’s typical main weakness: being overly verbose, sticking with telling over showing, paying too much attention to the minutiae while more important matters loom but remain unaddressed, and completely losing on the momentum.
Let’s discuss!
The first sign of things going wrong comes from Collei, who has received a dream, a warning and an advice to share her worries with the Dendro Archon and the Traveler. Thankfully, neither Nahida nor the protagonist dismiss it as a simple fantasy, and instead treat it seriously.
By the time the Traveler makes their way to Sumeru’s Sanctuary of Surasthana, Nahida and the Sages manage to find some answers: Collei’s dream points to Irminsul experiencing a new crisis with someone deliberately attacking the tree from within, and if it is not averted, then the dream might as well come true – or worse.
However, before any more leads are found, the Dendro Archon falls into a coma due to her close connection to the white tree. What is supposed to be a section wrought with tension and peril as Sumeru City is being evacuated and the Dendro Archon is taken away from her home fails to present the situation competently and, in fact, only serves to further muddy the waters.
The first half of the patch is long, drawn-out and meandering, unable to convey the sense of danger and doom that the narrative is implying with all its might. It is mostly focused on talking, with various characters going over the same few statements repeatedly: Irminsul is in peril, and we need the Dendro Archon to fix it. But while Irminsul is in peril, Nahida is in danger, and we need to fix it in order to help her. Which we can’t do without the Archon’s help, and so on, and so on.
A breakthrough is hinted at when the Traveler manages to get help from the Dendro Dragon, Apep, while Kaveh, Alhaitham and the rest of the Akademiya’s brightest minds try to reactivate Aaru – the remaining legacy of Al’Ahmar – to connect to Irminsul in the place of the inactive Akasha system.
In this section, this quiet before the storm, the developers really wanted to include every single character, even those only arriving in side-quests like Jeht, the Pari and the Aranara, and nods to various events – the book from Inazuma with various names highlighted, Cyrus and Zaha Hari with their prized tomatoes, and much more. In the end, the tone of the world being potentially in peril had been shot in the foot, especially after the arrival of Ibis King Thoth, Goat King Heryshaf and Crocodile King Sobek.
The trio is positively starved for attention and conversation and – naturally – keeps chatting the surrounding people up, mostly Kaveh and Alhaitham as they are the closest to the Ministers due to being involved with the Aaru.
Additionally, if you thought the potential tool to save the day being a part of the legacy of the desert means actual desert characters like Dehya, Candace, Sethos, Cyno, Jeht or Nefer would play a role, you would be quite mistaken. Despite the Archon Quest going out of its way to include them, they never really receive more than a brief nod – outside of Nefer’s singular old connection to Thoth that serves as the key to release the three Pillars.
It takes hours of talking, bickering, joking, arguing and wondering out loud before things finally start picking up pace with Nahida’s return. She admits to not being completely healed – she simply can’t be until the tree is fixed due to their unique connection.
Finally, characters receive not only answers but also plans on what to do next. Nahida notes that after all the conflicts and upheavals that Teyvat went through in the last few years, she made sure to monitor all the pathways that intruders could use to transfer themselves into Irminsul. But she didn’t count on the intruder utilizing the most direct route, and the one that couldn’t be protected against: death.
Nahida reveals that our mysterious adversary entered Ley Lines after death and eventually entered Irminsul from within. And, coincidentally, there is a recent villain that had been defeated and killed in Nod-Krai.
After Irminsul got invaded, Nahida’s own authority got quickly restricted, and the intruder’s newfound connection to the tree was used to spy on the people of Sumeru – or beyond. In order to avoid this scrutiny ruining their plans, our heroes activate Aaru and use it to shield themselves from the intruder’s attention.
As the Traveler is a Descendant that is not recorded by Irminsul, they naturally take the central place by asking Mavuika for her Pyro Gnosis, the first primal flame to later literally burn away the corruption… with Irminsul itself.
The latter half of the quest does the heavy lifting: Three out of the four Shades make their appearance… somewhat. Now you just have to wonder where they were during the events of Fontaine (the destruction of one of the Seven Thrones) and Nod-Krai (a Moon Goddess acquiring her Trilunar Authority), but the destruction of Irminsul certainly draws their attention.
Both Pantalone and Dottore are superb, and any time one or both of them are taking the screentime has been the best the quest had to offer. While Zandik is a morally reprehensible individual with an impressive list of crimes to his name, including human experiments and abduction, I cannot help but hope he finds a way to return yet. Genshin will be much more boring without his arrogant villain speeches.
In the end, the quest reaches its apex… and abruptly ends. The day is saved, the bad guy is defeated, and the world faces no real consequences, at the very least immediate ones, such as people beyond Dottore remembering the Wanderer as Scaramouche or recalling Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
The ending of the quest pretty much finds us in the same position as the quest started in: Dottore and Liloupar are gone, an artificial system processes the remembrance of the world, Scaramouche never existed. Even Nahida avoided negative effects due to Nicole’s extraordinary angel talents that moved her connection with Irminsul onto the newly restructured Aaru.
The only real difference in the before and the after is the fate of the Pyro Gnosis which has disappeared in the fire that engulfed Irminsul. Admittedly, I’m not a fan as this kind of ending feels like the Genshin story for older regions is stagnating, hard. Even when the events feature previous regions, like Mondstadt, Inazuma or now Sumeru, things simply wrap up neatly without any long-lasting consequences or effects.
So you’d have a few hours long story – wrought with dangers and peril, filled with emotional storytelling, attentive care for characters and details, little hints and acknowledgements of previous events and world quests, but all it leads to is simply nothing. There is no real character or world development, and the events could have been shortened to the part after you set out from the Mausoleum and face Dottore with no real change besides much less talking.
I hope that Genshin writers look at the more recent experience of Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai: Star Rail stories: something that seemingly came from Amphoreus is the developers’ realization that bigger does not always mean better when it comes to the narrative. This story has gotten too large and lost the plot, quite literally, in trying to add “just one more little detail! just one more character interaction!” to the mix.
Here’s also something highly subjective to wrap this up: seeing the way the developers treat Sumeru and Nod-Krai puts it in stark contrast with some of the earlier regions, especially Inazuma.
- Mondstadt just welcomed back Varka and expanded to include Dornman’s Port and the Temple of Space.
- Liyue gets an extra story every year with the Lantern Rite.
- Sumeru received the long-awaited epilogue that finally, finally burned that tree – I’d been waiting since Teldrassil!
- Fontaine received several expansions, although we’re yet to learn the intricate details of what it means for a Dragon Sovereign to lead the nation and occupy that exalted seat himself.
- Natlan only just opened its borders, yet we already encounter its citizens everywhere, curious and boisterous and loud.
- Nod-Krai had the longest, most involved story of any region yet, and Luna VII expanded to Sumeru in preparation for Snezhnaya.
- And Inazuma, uhh… Had Mikawa Flower Festival last year, I guess? It’s not available in-game anymore, but you better believe it was worth it, being Inazuma’s only real story that is not Itto-centered in forever!
Just for interest’s sake, here are the numbers: Inazuma has a prologue and three acts, no interludes. Sumeru has seven acts (after the latest quests) and an interlude. Nod-Krai has a prelude and eight acts.
We still have no idea what’s going on with the Electro Dragon, is it even alive? Is it sealed beneath the Sacred Sakura? What’s the deal that Raiden Makoto had with Istaroth, did Ei truly die and were brought back by her sister? Where are the rest of the Youkai, they must have their own settlements, no? No answers.
I hope that Snezhnaya will come with a chance to explore some of Inazuma’s stories that had felt abruptly abandoned since 2.x.
One thing is certain: after the general success of Nod-Krai, Snezhnaya has some pretty big boots to fill, especially if the developers seek to somewhat redeem the lacklustre reputation the Fatui and the Tsaritsa had been getting lately. Still, I can only applaud Genshin’s ongoing efforts in presentation: both visually, with the animations and camerawork, and narratively with the introduction of the new Guiding Notes feature.
General opinion about the quest agrees with you, Nefer
