Genshin Impact – Viridescent Venerer Lore
With Sumeru on the horizon for Genshin Impact, there’s a lot of speculation flying around. Mostly, those deal with who the Dendro Archon is and some theories on what chess piece represents which element. At any rate, one of those theories about the Dendro Archon relates to one particular artifact set, the Viridescent Venerer.
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Viridescent Venerer – Recommended Characters and Guide
Viridescent Venerer is a green-themed set, relating to both the Anemo (teal green) and Dendro (leaf green) elements. While its effects are purely Anemo, its lore talks about a hunter close to nature (Dendro).
Wearing two artifacts of this set will increase the character’s Anemo DMG Bonus by 15%. Equip two more artifacts to increase Swirl damage by 60%. It also decreases the targets’ Elemental RES to the absorbed element by 40% for 10 seconds.
This is very effective for EM builds to Anemo characters, such as Sucrose, Venti, Sayu, and Kazuha. Their Bursts can effectively make use of the damage boost to Swirl. The reaction scales off of Elemental Mastery, so this is a massive boost to their Swirl damage. Since their bursts also persist even after switching out, it’s easy to take advantage of the element RES reduction.
The artifact set is less efficient with Xiao and Jean. It can still work with Xiao with certain character combinations and an EM build. To take advantage of the Swirl damage increase, you’ll need to use something that can apply elemental statuses. Examples of that are Oz, Guoba, Kokomi’s jellyfish, and Barbara’s E. In addition, you’ll need to have his Burst active to make full use of it.
As for Jean, she’s a healer who excels in her role as her ATK stat increases. Also, players would rather use her E to throw enemies upward instead of for the Swirl effect. Her Dandelion Field can take advantage of the effects, but again, it’s better to have more EM to take advantage of it. It’ll make her DPS potential increase, at the cost of lower healing effectiveness. It’s up to you to decide how to build her.
Viridescent, the Hunter
Not much is known about Viridescent beyond her skills in hunting. An orphan raised in the woods by an unnamed master, she lived her life in harmony with nature. That translated into an ever so silent tread through grass or soil. They say that as she walks barefoot, the trees and grass speak of what birds see or roots hear. Her human scent is covered by her flower brooch leaving behind a faint scent of wildflowers. Her arrows never miss, and she comforts her prey, stroking them as they lay dying.
She lived a simple life of killing to survive and abiding by the natural order. That order had three tenets she had to follow:
- To be pure
- Never bear ill-will
- Never hunt for a reason other than survival
She believed that as long as she kept to this natural order, she’d one day arrive at an endless viridescent plain. And so for many years, she lived in this way. The diadem artifact’s description said that she couldn’t be crowned as queen of hunters, as the only one above her is nature itself.
The Blind Boy and the Cataclysm
One day, she tracked tainted blood through the forest. It led back to the tree she often napped under, where a monster from the Cataclysm threatened a blind boy. Viridescent killed the monster, breaking her rule to never hunt for anything outside of survival. She did so out of vengeance, blood, and suffering, as she decided to heed the boy’s request to hunt the monsters.
At this point, nature had gone quiet, as the God of the Woods (the former Dendro Archon) had perished in the disaster of Khaenri’ah. She used her compass to hunt down the monsters and stopped hunting birds and beasts.
Viridescent had known, ever since she loosed that arrow at the monster threatening the boy, she would never reach that endless plain. Her life now revolved around hunting her new prey, and so she left behind her bow, so it wouldn’t be tainted by the monsters’ blood.
Her hunt took her far and wide, away from the company of other humans. She had no fear of monsters or beasts, but she feared meeting other humans. All of her time alone made her forget how to speak, and so no one heard her speak a word.
Despite her fear, the humans did accept her for a time, but she left them afterward. When she gets lonely, she uses her vessel to listen to the captured voices. Like the Crimson Witch artifact set, Viridescent’s ultimate fate was left vague and open
Where is the Dendro Archon?
It might be a little odd to have this Anemo-based artifact set be related to the Dendro Archon, but according to the theories, it’s not far-fetched at all. Viridescent seems to come from Sumeru, with all her ties to nature and flowers. She also communed with what seems to be the God of Woods, the former Dendro Archon’s title.
The ruin that descended on Khaenri’ah was also a curse. This is confirmed by what the Bloodstained Knight discovered on his last expedition and Dainslief’s own curse. The line about the God of Woods perishing in the Catastrophe also puts him in Khaenri’ah at the time. It isn’t too obvious in the English translation, but the original Chinese says it more explicitly.
Now, history can get things wrong. Theorists say that the God of Woods actually survived the incident. More than that, their presence in Khaenri’ah is suspect. The most likely speculation to be correct is that they got cursed during the disaster. Afterward, they lost their power resulting in being thought of as dead.
Going back to the artifact set, Viridescent found a blind boy being threatened by a monster. The theories say that that boy is the powerless God of Woods. The English translation says outright that the boy died, but in other languages, his fate was left vague. Now that he’s cursed and blind, if he did survive the encounter with Viridescent, where is he now?
To answer that, let’s consider the Slime enemies in the game. Players have noticed that they bear some resemblance to the element’s Archon. Venti can float in the air with his E skill, much like how a large Anemo Slime can when they blast air at players. Zhongli can produce shields, which is a feature of large Geo Slimes. There are two variants of the large Electro Slimes, mirroring the twins Ei and Makoto or Ei and the Raiden Shogun.
So let’s look at the Dendro Slime. Its archive entry compares them to Whopperflowers that mimic flowers to trick prey. The description also says that people think it’s a slime parasitized by a special kind of plant. What’s more, in battle it can summon smaller Dendro Slimes for aid, and it starts out hiding underground.
That means the Dendro Archon is in hiding and has an illness of some sort, mirroring its default (out of combat) and the plant-parasitized state. There’s only one introduced character who fits this, and yes, they have a Dendro Vision. That’s Baizhu, the famed doctor in Liyue’s Bubu Pharmacy.
He’s trying to cure his grave sickness, such that Qiqi, an actual zombie, said that he’s in a worse state than she is. Herbalist Gu also says of him that ‘physicians can’t cure themselves’, meaning that Baizhu hasn’t had a breakthrough in his research. Lastly, Hu Tao says that after meeting Qiqi, he got even more motivated to research immortality. The real kicker is that he’s in the land of Geo, similar to Dendro Slimes waiting underground for their prey.
What does Viridescent have to do with anything, if Baizhu is the God of Woods? Well, the current God of Wisdom is associated with grass and flowers. Viridescent, who saved the blind boy (presumed to be the God of Woods), leaves a floral scent wherever she goes. Also, she technically pledged her service to the boy when she followed his request to hunt monsters.
Like how a large Dendro Slime can summon smaller ones in battle, the God of Woods asked her for help. Viridescent is the Lesser Lord Kusanali Guuji Yae mentioned. Plus, with the mention of being ‘uncrowned’ and ‘only nature is superior to her’, and the former Dendro Archon still alive, it all fits. Baizhu still has the Dendro Gnosis with him, leaving the Lesser Lord Kusanali ‘uncrowned’.
Of course, that is all speculation and hypothesis. However, considering that the Crimson Witch theories ended up correct, this is becoming very likely. After all, Viridescent’s ultimate fate was kept open and vague like the Crimson Witch’s. We did end up meeting the witch in the story, so we’ll also meet Viridescent soon.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy making snowmen in Genshin Impact!
