Lesser Lord Kusanali

Lesser Lord Kusanali, also known by her name Buer and as Nahida, is the God of Wisdom and the current Dendro Archon presiding over Sumeru. 
The youngest of The Seven, she was created from the purest branch of Irminsul by the previous Dendro Archon, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, to be her successor.
After all memories of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata were erased from Teyvat, Lesser Lord Kusanali is believed by all, including herself, to have always been the original Dendro Archon.
==Profile==
===Introduction===
Despite her status as Sumeru's Archon, Lesser Lord Kusanali has little power over her nation's affairs. Due to her isolation inside the Sanctuary of Surasthana, no one in Sumeru other than the sages of Sumeru Akademiya has seen her since her birth 500 years ago. The sages rarely speak to Lesser Lord Kusanali, and rule over Sumeru in her place.
Although Lesser Lord Kusanali is isolated from the outside world, she is capable of limited contact with it. As the First Akasha Terminal, her consciousness is linked to the Akasha System, not only giving her access to the Akasha's stores of knowledge, but also allowing her to possess people by occupying their consciousnesses, although out of respect for her people's free will she only chooses to possess the bionic puppet Katheryne. She is also capable of appearing in the dreams of people across Sumeru.
Lesser Lord Kusanali frequently intervenes in the lives of people across Sumeru, having once saved Aaru Village from an earthquake by channeling her power through the mad scholars exiled there. However, since her influence is subtle, stories about her are relegated to rumors and urban legends; even the Akademiya's sages cannot confirm her activities in the outside world.
Because of her isolation, most people know little about Lesser Lord Kusanali, even inside her own nation. Sumeru Akademiya promotes the worship of the deceased Greater Lord Rukkhadevata over Lesser Lord Kusanali, causing most people to be apathetic towards her and worship Greater Lord Rukkhadevata instead. However, Lesser Lord Kusanali does have a few followers, especially among the Grand Bazaar in Sumeru City, who celebrate her birthday with the Sabzeruz Festival.YouTube: Version 3.0 "The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings" Trailer | Genshin Impact "Lesser Lord Kusanali" is also considered to be a term of endearment for the archon.
===Appearance===
Lesser Lord Kusanali appears as Nahida, a short, child-like girl with what resemble elven ears. The ends of her hair are tinted a different color in accordance with the other archons, with hers going from light gray to green — signifying Dendro.
Kusanali can also appear as different avatars; she can inflitrate the consciousness of those wearing Akasha Terminals, including non-human entities, such as bionic puppets.
In her depiction in Sumeru Statues of The Seven, she is shown to be wearing a similar cloak and draping clothing similar to the other known Archon statues. Her small frame is also shown sitting on a huge leaf, an attribute owing to her mantle as the Dendro Archon.
==Story==
===History===
During the cataclysm five hundred years ago, the previous Dendro Archon, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, perished after trying to completely remove the forbidden knowledge from Irminsul. Before her demise, she took the purest branch from Irminsul to be her successor, that being Lesser Lord Kusanali, who then ascended to the position of Archon.
The day of Lesser Lord Kusanali's birth is celebrated in Sumeru as the Sabzeruz Festival.Invitation of Windblume Event World Quest: Windblume Research Report
===Archon Quests===
Lesser Lord Kusanali is first mentioned in Chapter I by Zhongli and Ganyu as the God of Dendro, where the Traveler learns that she is the youngest of The Seven. After the events of Chapter II, Yae Miko suggests that the Traveler venture to Sumeru next and seek Lesser Lord Kusanali out.
Kusanali is not seen in the first Archon Quest Chapter related to her region, where the Traveler tries to look for her to no avail.
She first makes a proper appearance in the , where the Traveler discovers her as Nahida while stuck in a samsara created by the Akademiya sages and trying to break out of it. After they manage to dispel the samsara, Kusanali remains in the Akasha System to try and figure out what had caused the Sages to step out of line with their latest experiment.
While possessing the bionic puppet Katheryne, Kusanali reappears in the , where she plots to have the grand sage's assistant Setaria become a mole in the Akademiya. This plan ultimately fails, however, as Il Dottore ambushes Kusanali, alongside the Traveler and Paimon, with a group of citizens whose Akasha Terminals he hijacked to put them under his control. Kusanali subdues the citizens by taking over their Akasha Terminals, but this results in Il Dottore deducing that she is the God of Wisdom. Eventually, Kusanali reunites with the Traveler and Paimon at Pardis Dhyai, but after seeing Haypasia's vision of a "god's" memories, a group of Eremites corner them. The Katheryne puppet is impaled by an Eremite; nevertheless, Kusanali escapes by switching consciousnesses with the Traveler momentarily. In the end, Tighnari reveals that Kusanali told him that Il Dottore has found a way to trap her consciousness in the Sanctuary of Surasthana.
During the , the Traveler is imprisoned in a confinement room. From said room, the Traveler uses their modified Akasha terminal to connect with Kusanali's consciousness, and after much effort are able to overcome her fear and self-doubt to wake her up inside her vessel, Nahida. Afterwards, the Traveler goes to the Sanctuary of Surasthana in order to free her vessel. Once freed, she apologizes to the Traveler for causing them so much trouble, and decides to block the Sages' access to the Akasha system before vowing to make them pay for their crimes.
Later on, Kusanali is able to modify the Traveler's Akasha into an upgraded version which she claims will help them in their travels. She also manages to discover the location of the false god. Despite her lack of combat abilities as noted by the false god, she supports the Traveler by trapping the false god in a Samsara-like loop, allowing her and the Traveler to analyze the false god's abilities and attempt to find his weaknesses. After 168 loops, Kusanali asks for help from all the people of Sumeru and gives all of their combined knowledge, as well as the combat experience from the loops, to the Traveler through their enhanced Akasha Terminal, allowing them to defeat the false god.
After retrieving the Electro Gnosis from the false god, Kusanali uses the power of both the Electro and Dendro Gnoses at her disposal to send both her and the Traveler into Rukkhadevata's final memory. The Traveler explains to Kusanali about forbidden knowledge, which allows Kusanali to better understand the corruption of Irminsul and King Deshret. In the final memory, Kusanali and the Traveler meet Rukkhadevata, who explains that she too was a branch of the Irminsul tree — and just like her, Kusanali is the purest branch of herself that would eventually grow and become the Dendro Archon's next incarnation. Rukkhadevata also reveals that she has been corrupted to a level which cannot be fixed and that the only way to expunge her corruption from Irminsul would be by erasing all memories of herself from the tree. Kusanali reluctantly accepts that this is the only way to save Irminsul and regretfully erases Greater Lord Rukkhadevata from Teyvat's history, changing the chronology of the entire story retroactively.
When she and the Traveler return from the journey, Kusanali's memories are completely changed and rewritten to now fit a new chronology, in which she has been the Dendro Archon since the end of the Archon War, and that at some point during the cataclysm, she lost her memories before being imprisoned in the sanctuary by the Sages of Sumeru. As the Traveler is conflicted on whether to tell her the truth or not, Dottore incapacitates the Traveler and Paimon and approaches Kusanali to directly negotiate with her for the Electro Gnosis. He reminds her that he is far stronger then her, as her combat abilities are currently lacking. In return, she threatens to destroy the Electro Gnosis, suggesting that such an event could trigger the intervention of the Heavenly Principles. Dottore agrees that this is a possibility, and relents. However, realizing that it is better that the Electro Gnosis not remain in Sumeru, Kusanali agrees to give Dottore the Gnosis under the condition that he destroy all of his segments except for the one currently talking to her. After some back-and-forth he agrees and destroys his other segments — which Kusanali is able to verify — and she gives him the Gnosis in exchange. Dottore then makes an offer for Kusanali's Dendro Gnosis as well, offering to tell her the "truth" of this world and revealing to her that the sky is fake. In return for this information, Kusanali willingly hands Dottore her Dendro Gnosis.
Several days later, during a party set up by the Traveler and their companions, Kusanali takes control of the Traveler's body and uses it to personally thank all their companions who have helped her escape. The next day the Traveler meets with Kusanali in the Sanctuary, where upon learning of their intentions to go to Fontaine, she tells them about the Hydro Archon Focalors. She also reveals that while looking through the information within Irminsul, she discovered that the Traveler's Sibling was recorded in it, marking them as being from Teyvat, despite the Traveler's memories and knowledge indicating that this is not the case. She also learned of the Fatui's list of four "Descenders", a list of visitors from outside of Teyvat. The Traveler's sibling is not one of them, while the Traveler is the fourth Descender. She suspects the Heavenly Principles to be first Descender but does not know who the second and third one could be, and finishes by saying that she will help the Traveler in their journey when she has the time.
===Event Quests===
It is heavily implied that Lesser Lord Kusanali talked to Traveler and Paimon during Summertime Odyssey, first by intercepting the Dodoco Communication signal and then by speaking directly into the Traveler's mind.See the Trivia section for a list of indicators that Lesser Lord Kusanali was the unknown speaker. She says she is curious about the Traveler and that they may meet in the future.
==Character Mentions==
==Trivia==
* Wanderer's official introduction was the first time her alternate title , was used.
** The phrase , which is also used in the Chinese name of Nahida's constellation, 
* Prior to meeting with Lesser Lord Kusanali, she was described in the following ways:
** Dainsleif's line about her in the Teyvat Chapter Storyline Preview criticizes her for allowing a "push for folly" through her own inaction.
** Yae Miko similarly calls Sumeru's treatment of knowledge as a resource "truly inexplicable," before wondering whether this was developed by Lesser Lord Kusanali or the sages.
** Hosseini claims that some students in Sumeru Akademiya undergo a "prolonged period of scrutiny by the God of Wisdom" — a figure of speech for having to spend extra years at Sumeru Akademiya — when the Traveler questions Hosseini's extended status as an undergraduate.
===Etymology===
* The name Kusanali likely refers to the Kusanāḷi-Jātaka, one of the poems within the Jātaka, a series of 547 Buddhist poems detailing the previous births of Buddha. The Kusanāḷi-Jātaka specifically details the encounter with a tree sprite.
** "Kusanāḷi" itself is derived from the Pali words kusa ("," a sacred plant used in Hindu ceremonies) and nāḷi ("a hollow stalk or tube").
** In Chinese, "Lesser Lord Kusanali" is The word may be derived from the Jātaka verse . The word is also used to refer to the kusa-grass.
** In Korean, the name is . The word derived from the Sanskrit or Pali word devī ("goddess" or "queen").
** In Japanese, the name is , where may be of the same derivation as above, and may be derived from the Pali word khudda or cūla ("small", "inferior" or "low"). Kura may also be derived from the Persian word ("Lord" or "God").
* Kusanali's title Mahakusaladhamma consists of three words: , , and .
* In the demonology grimoire The Lesser Key of Solomon, "" is described as a Great President of Hell and the 10th demon, having fifty legions of demons under his command. He teaches natural and moral philosophy, logic, and the qualities and uses of all herbs and plants. He has been described as being in the shape of Sagittarius, which is as a centaur with a bow and arrows.
==Notes==
==Other Languages==
==Change History==
==References==
es:Reina Menor Kusanali
fr:Rani Kusanali
id:Lesser Lord Kusanali
ja:クラクサナリデビ
pl:Mniejsza Pani Kusanali
pt-br:Lorde Menor Kusanali
ru:Малая властительница Кусанали
th:ท่านหญิงน้อย Kusanali
vi:Tiểu Vương Kusanali