How Arab and Persian Culture shaped Sumeru : Genshin Impact Lore / Cultural Video Essay



#genshinimpact #hoyoverse #genshin #sumeru #wanderer #genshinimpactlore #faruzan #nilou #alhaitham #dehya

0:00 Intro
1:04 Arabic Wisdom
2:57 Eremites and Bedouin Arabs
5:53 Arab Design
6:34 Arab Foods

7:41 Nilou’s Persian Design and Dance
8:44 Sabzeruz and Nowruz
9:42 Other Persian Characters
10:15 Persian Aesthetics and Architecture
10:45 Persian Food
11:25 Outro

Come join the Sumeru Akademiya Discord !
https://discord.com/invite/sumeru

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45 thoughts on “How Arab and Persian Culture shaped Sumeru : Genshin Impact Lore / Cultural Video Essay”

  1. Thank you so much for this video! As an Iranian, I’m really happy that the Persian-inspired part of Sumeru’s lore is finally being talked about. Everything was very accurate and well-researched. Amazing job!

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  2. as an amazigh, it'd be important to let you know that Tighnari is fully based on Amazigh culture!!

    He is a fennec fox which is an animal known for living in amazigh countries (Algeria's national animal too)

    He is wearing a Berber belt, a cultural amazigh clothing.

    Tighnari means Fox in Tamazight!

    He has the color palette of the Maghrebs flags!

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  3. did you know that dehya is actually based on a real life indigenous warrior called dihya? she was a fierce warrior who prevented the islamic conquests of her land. there is a really good article done on her life in wikiislam, a website run by exmuslims

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  4. Cant wait for your project! Sumeru having soo large inspiration seems like u need 3 parts hahaha. Btw I wonder if u gonna add more part 2 as well for past region. For example, manchuria and mongolia inspiration for liyue, scandavian for mondstard and ainu culture for inazuma

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  5. Thank you! As an Arab, I was so excited for Sumeru and they did good! I already knew that it wouldn't be only Arabs but they did a good amount. Sumeru is my favourite region now 🙂 btw, not all arabs are tan

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  6. I feel like the Eremites may in part have been shaped by the Elamites, who were an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq. A further conection is the fact that Elam was also located north of the Strait of Hormuz and the Kingdom of Ormus.

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  7. i'm so happy that your video was recommended to me! thank you for so nicely (and pretty accurately) showing the cultural inspirations of Sumeru!!
    although i just gotta add, the Aaru mixed rice dish that you showed in 6:38 is actually koshary, an Egyptian dish (the national dish of Egypt lol) not Maqlouba. there's clearly macaroni, hummus, and a red sauce which are all commonly found in koshary. and it makes a bit of sense since the desert part of Sumeru is based on ancient Egypt 😛

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  8. i'd like to point out that "dar al shifa" means "house of healing".

    also tighnari like alhaitham is an actual arabian scientist (الطغنري) who was a doctor as well as a Botanist (which matches with his in game character)

    also layla's scroll title in her idle animations is a VERY famous book in arabic philosophy called (الحركات السماوية وجوامع النجوم) which translates to (the heavenly movements and the sum of the stars).

    additionally alot of the npc names are arabic names.

    the sumeru music also uses alot of famous arabic musical instruments (oud, tabla, etc..)

    oh also aru mixed rice is an egyptian dish called (shokari)

    very tiny spoilers for alhaitham gameplay proceed at your own risk.

    as you said alhaitham is inspired by the real alhaitham who (also as you said) is the optics father and in alhaitham gameplay he has a mirror mechanics which reflects that.

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  9. Sumeru is so vast with all different kinds of culture in it! When it comes to lore, there is also inspiration from south asian culture as there are a lot of features of buddhism and hinduism ! and “kusanali” is of indian (sanskrit) origin and is derived from the pali words “kusa” (grass) and “nali” (a hollow stalk or tube) and theres also some indian food such as butter chicken. Many of the aranara names are also of sanskrit origin. When it comes to the Desert, it seems to be mainly inspired by Egypt and cyno is a literal anubis 🙂 they did an amazing job with sumeru

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  10. Why don’t you talk about how fucked up the representation for Bedouin and swana culture in general was I think you should watch (reel bad arabs) documentary to know how fucked up genshin was I’m Bedouin and I left the game from how offensive it was

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  11. This is such a nice video !! as an Arab I am happy with what genshin did to represent our culture and your video explore it so well ! most of the time Arabs are shown as bad peopleterrorist which is really sad and not true I am so happy with your video and how you represented us 🙂

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  12. amazing~ sumeru has become my favourite region, and learning more about the cultures behind it really makes me feel more connected. hoyo really did their research to make it such a special region. subscribed for your future vids!

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  13. Eremites seem to be combination of bedouins and amazigh ppl (not berber, amazigh) overall nice deep dive video.
    Also I can’t get past how you snuck in the isreali flag when talking about levantine bedouins lmao💀, should have really put the Palestinian flag since they’re the indigenous ppl to the land, this the bedouins there would be Palestinian ones

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