Overview

Outline

Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was the original Dendro Archon of Sumeru and the predecessor to the current Dendro Archon, Lesser Lord Kusanali. Like her successor, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata held the title of God of Wisdom.

Greater Lord Rukkhadevata passed away during the cataclysm five hundred years ago. Before her death, she created her next incarnation, Lesser Lord Kusanali, who then ascended as the current Dendro Archon and God of Wisdom. In order to truly cure Irminsul, Rukkhadevata sacrificed herself by removing all memories of her existence from Teyvat. The only known person to still remember her is the Traveler. The reason for this is unknown, but it is implied that it is because there is no data of the Traveler in Irminsul.

Prior to all memory of Rukkhadevata being removed from Teyvat, the Aranara had called her Queen Aranyani and referred to themselves as her children.

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Story

Ancient History

Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was once friends with the Goddess of Flowers and King Deshret (Scarlet King), and each had their own views on "wisdom." Greater Lord Rukkhadevata presumably worked alongside her two friends in governing Ay-Khanoum, the "City of the Moon Maiden." However, as a result of a certain incident, the Goddess of Flowers perished, and Ay-Khanoum was destroyed when the "first pillar" descended and turned the region into a desert.

King Deshret, who had been in love with the Goddess of Flowers, became obsessed with the past. This eventually caused the Deshret and Rukkhadevata to split ways, and Rukkhadevata decided to pursue her own ideas of wisdom by creating a verdant paradise in the forest.

Creation of the Forest

After her falling out with Deshret, Rukkhadevata created the Varuna Contraption in a section of the desert and used "hedges and streams" to protect a certain secret related to "sun and rain."

With the help of her followers, who would go on to establish the Amurta Darshan of Sumeru Akademiya, Rukkhadevata developed a flourishing rainforest. Sumeru City was built on the Divine Tree, a particularly massive tree located in Sumeru's forest region, and the sages of Sumeru Akademiya assisted Rukkhadevata in managing the nation's affairs.

Rukkhadevata also created the Aranara, small plantlike creatures with the ability to control dreams.

At the border between the forest and the desert, the Wall of Samiel was erected to prevent the forest from undergoing desertification. The Lord of Forests, a lineage of "tigers" which began with Viaghara, protected the forest with the help of humans who would learn the secrets of the forest, such as Viridescent.

Suppression of Forbidden Knowledge

Thousands of years ago, while Rukkhadevata was cultivating the forest, Deshret's pursuit of his ideal world led him to inadvertently release forbidden knowledge into his kingdom. People heard crazed whispers in their heads and the disease known as Eleazar — the manifestation of The Withering on human bodies — began to spread. This led to the fall of Deshret's civilization and its people were divided into numerous short-lived city-states, including Gurabad, Tulaytullah, and Saleh.

After learning of the plight of Deshret's people, Rukkhadevata came to their aid on account of her old friendship with Deshret. She gathered the people, instructing them to build temples and creating Aaru Village as the last bastion of Deshret's civilization. She also expended a great deal of her power to suppress forbidden knowledge and regressed into a childlike form. Even this, however, was not enough — in the end, Deshret sacrificed himself to finally put an end to it.

The Cataclysm

Five hundred years before the start of the main story, a bitter struggle between Khaenri'ah and those who lived under Celestia's control, including the denizens of the surface of Teyvat's Seven Nations and the Archons who ruled over them, as well as an attack by Abyssal monsters, wreaked havoc on Teyvat. The Withering spread uncontrollably throughout both the forest and the desert, causing decay and destruction so terrible that it was called "The Black Tide."

To put an end to the devastation, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata embarked on a final journey with some of her followers. She ultimately descended to the heart of the land, which the Abyssal creatures had made their dwelling and turned it into "a cavern of the damned where neither sun, moon, nor fire shine." Rukkhadevata never returned from her journey, while the final Lord of Forests perished in defense of the forest. As a result of Rukkhadevata's disappearance, the "grass and trees never spoke again" to Viridescent.

It is later confirmed that she was not actually summoned to participate the war against Khanenri'ah; instead, she had a mission to protect Irminsul. The pollution of forbidden knowledge occured alongside the disaster, and it had already invaded Irminsul and caused great distress to Rukkhadevata. She created the Akasha System to "borrow" her citizens' dreams and wisdom, and used her own strength the second time to clear the forbidden knowledge, like how she did it with King Deshret thousands of years ago. However, she realized that the forbidden knowledge caused corruption to her mind as well, as she was the avatar of the world tree. She realized that her existence must be eliminated, because her existence was still present in Irminsul even after death. Before her demise, Rukkhadevata prepared for her next incarnation by cultivating the purest branch of Irminsul, and left a trail of clues, "Let the world completely forget me."

It is unlikely that Rukkhadevata personally met the Traveler's sibling. The Traveler's sibling befriended the Aranara during their journey after the cataclysm and repaired the Varuna Contraption, which saved the rainforest from destruction. The Aranara have known them ever since as "Nara Varuna."

Legacy

Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was remembered as a goddess who had protected Sumeru "since time immemorial" by dealing with disasters and creating the rainforest so that the people of Sumeru could live in peace. Some of her most devoted followers who were researchers founded Sumeru Akademiya and assisted her in ruling Sumeru. The Akasha System, which was powered by Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's Gnosis, was considered her legacy. It has since been reformed by Sumeru Akademiya into its current form. While Lesser Lord Kusanali had her reservations about the Akademiya's current use of the Akasha, she believed it was Rukkhadevata's wish to see it taken to its maximum potential and thus did not interfere with its affairs until the sages enacted their Samsara plan during the Sabzeruz Festival.

The Akademiya greatly idolized Rukkhadevata — or at least, the wisdom that they believed she personified. After Rukkhadevata's disappearance, the sages searched for her. They found Lesser Lord Kusanali, who bore a great physical resemblance to their former Archon, and brought her back to Sumeru City. Initially, the people rejoiced at her discovery and changed the Sabzeruz Festival's date to commemorate Kusanali's birthday. However, after some examination, the sages found that Kusanali was barely any different from an ordinary human child; she had no great wisdom nor the strength of a god. Disappointed in their new god, the sages locked her up in the Sanctuary of Surasthana and greatly reduced their focus on the new god in favor of espousing Rukkhadevata's legacy.

Over time, and with the help of the Akademiya's misinformation campaign, the people of Sumeru have forgotten the true history between Rukkhadevata and Deshret. Some believe that a battle between the two was what created Sumeru's desert, and fanatic followers of Deshret view Rukkhadevata as a traitor who betrayed him and took the place of Archon. This perversion of the truth has allowed the sages to maintain tight control over information in Sumeru by pitting the people of the forest against the Eremites, making it easy for the sages to manipulate both groups from behind the scenes.

The duty of protecting the "secret of sun and rain" has since fallen to the Aranara, who use dreams and illusions to create a labyrinth with a similar effect to Rukkhadevata's original hedges and streams.

In present day, after the Traveler and co. frees Kusanali and then defeats the faux god Shouki no Kami, Nahida now has two Gnoses and can finally understand the final memory of Rukkhadevata. After the painful realization, Nahida is forced to eliminate Rukkhadevata from Irminsul to completely remove the forbidden knowledge. As a result, the consequence of the forbidden knowledge (crazed whispers, The Withering, and Eleazar) disappeared, but Rukkhadevata herself is forgotten, as if she never existed in the world. While she still existed, no one can remember her, and all references to her are rewritten. The only individual that still remembers Greater Lord Rukkhadevata is one of the Descenders, the Traveler.