warning!!! plot spoilers for genshin impact!!!
guys i think i figured out why the fatui have fighters of all elements besides dendro, and why when the game released there were 0 dendro characters
the dendro archon is dead.
now before you go “nah lol what about dr. baizhu” firstly we dont know how he acquired his vision. he could’ve inherited the vision from his ancestors or uses it to stay immortal (since we dont know what dendro can do).
and of course, i have some backing.
i’ll try to keep this brief.
1) the flower ball tradition
in the book called “customs of liyue: flower ball” they mention that the tradition may have started because of the salt goddess.
it states:
“Others say it dates back to before the Archon War, when the Salt God roamed free in Liyue. She once stood shoulder to shoulder with the many gods of Liyue, but her extraordinary gentle nature saw her quickly ousted in the hubris of the Archon War, before being ruthlessly murdered by one of her own followers.
"Her remains are likely to be found somewhere in the ruins of the area known as “Sal Terrae”. According to a legend that time has unfortunately stripped of all useful detail, she once handed out bunches of flowers to her people as a blessing to them. Or at least, if not a blessing, then a small gesture of comfort to stave off the bitterness of wartime existence. In any case, following her return to the elements, it is conceivable that her followers spread across Liyue, took this custom with them, and taught it to the locals. The people of Liyue being a competitive and fun-loving folk, they may then have adapted it and embellished upon it to suit their own preferences.”
the salt goddess could’ve handed out visions in the flower bunches she gave out before she died, and one of her followers could’ve been one of them. the follower murdered her to test out their powers, or thought that they could replace the dendro archon.
2) the salt goddess
so far we know that mondstadt (anemo nation) is based off of european countries and liyue (geo nation) is based off of china. there’s also the mention of inazuma, most likely based off of japan and will probably be the pyro or hydro nation. we also know that the cyro archon is the leader of the fatui. there is also fischl’s hometown (based off of germany) that will most likely be the electro nation.
so that leaves dendro.
due to dr. baizhu’s appearance we can infer that the dendro nation will most likely be inspired by southeast asia or the aztec regions. or, the dendro nation simply crumbled a long time ago (see the sal terrae section).
the reasoning?
why specify that she is a salt goddess?
well, by just searching up “salt god” on google will show an aztec god of salt, huixtocihuatl. she was a fertility goddess of salt and was said to be related to the rain gods.
hint hint, rain is related to hydro, and hydro will most likely have an elemental reaction to dendro. nudge nudge.
3) dr baizhu
dr baizhu himself is very good reason of why the dendro archon is dead. from mondstadt to liyue we have only seen one dendro user, while there are multiple of the other elements.
there is only one person out of all the vision users we’ve seen with a dendro vision, showing how rare it is for someone to have one. which most likely means that the archon has stopped giving them a long time ago (see sal terrae section).
there are some possible reasons. the archon has withdrawn from the human world, hasn’t seen anyone worth giving a vision, or is dead.
4) the sal terrae
a salt god will most definitely be buried in liyue. however what she was doing there was very strange
according to the book called “diary of roald the adventurer”, the salt goddess was sheltering humans from the archon war. she was very gentle and kind in an era where humans were expendable.
the sal terrae used to be a safe haven for humans until the first king of the people, who believed that gentleness was a weakness, killed the salt goddess. when she died, sal terrae crumbled like salt along with all the people in it.
it’s possible that the first king had a dendro vision, since those with visions are said to be blessed by the gods. this also implies that multiple residents of sal terrae and humans who refused to live there have dendro visions.
and since the sal terrae was in liyue and visions and gnosises are indestructible, dr baizhu could’ve been visiting the area for herbs and chanced apon a vision.
extra: mitachurls, samachurls and slimes
these three monsters seem to be able to use dendro with no problem. probably because they ARE elements.
a shield mitachurl will smash a dendro slime to recreate its shield, and will throw dendro slimes at you if you get too far away.
a samachurl using dendro can cause AoE damage to its enemies and healing to its allies. they can also create vines that will only go away once burnt.
and dendro slimes act like normal slimes except for being able to hide in the ground and travel through it. they also look very cute.
that’s all for today, feel free to reblog with more thoughts and theories!