The Goddess of Flowers' undying legacy is another addition to Genshin Impact's tragic love stories

In Genshin Impact version 3.4, we found ourselves returning to the side of Jeht with the Dirge of Bilqis quest, aiding her in her mission to find the Eternal Oasis, a place thought only to be legend by the Eremites.

A place where all who have perished were said to find rest. A place made from love.

Love was a big theme all throughout the Sumeru Desert Quests. There was tainted love from King Deshret, there was vindictive love from Liloupar — it seemed like the history of Sumeru’s desert all had one similar theme: that being a love that sought to destroy.

But beyond all those stories of madness, violence, and retribution that we encountered throughout our time in the desert, there was one kind of love that sought to be gentle and warm, with the hope to last forever.

A testament to devotion to one that had passed away.

And it can be found in the Orchard of Pairidaeza.

A garden where regret finds its final resting place

The Dirge of Bilqis questline established that in his grief, King Deshret created an Eternal Oasis where Nabu Malikata (or the Goddess of Flowers) would be laid to rest.

He used the power of the Divine Nail of the sands, a Celestial Nail similar to the ones found in Dragonspine and the Chasm, to forever freeze it in time.

This paradise, located underneath Mt Damavand in the middle of the Desert of Hadramaveth, was guarded by Liloupar’s sister, Ferigees, who we end up killing to finally gain access to the entrance.

The oasis is in a state of perpetual stasis, to preserve Nabu Malikata’s favourite moment of the day.

The birds are stuck in mid-flight, the fish hang in the air above the still waters. Flower petals are frozen in the act of fluttering away in a breeze that could no longer be felt. The sky is painted with the colours of an eternal sunset.

Before we entered this mausoleum, it would have sat in silence for hundreds and hundreds of years.

But although its serenity was marred by our arrival, the peaceful sadness that we felt as we stayed with Jeht as she finally, mournfully, united her parents in the afterlife was something that felt so natural to this place.

Even Lliloupar’s despair at finding that the Goddess of Flowers did not rest in this orchard, at the realisation that she could no longer gaze upon her master’s face, felt like it was meant to exist in the quietness for all eternity.

It is, after all, a place that only yielded regret. Ferigees told us herself.

Liloupar would come to regret the destruction she had caused that killed her beloved daughter and the city she had raised. Jeht would regret not being able to spend more time with her father. King Deshret regretted the loss of his love.

Although we are yet to truly know how the Goddess of Flowers lost her life, we can find her reason hidden within the lore of the Weapon Ascension material “Oasis Garden’s Truth”.

“It is said that flowers blossom so that they may enjoy a spectacular death, and that death was precisely the wholehearted pursuit of the Lord of Flowers — for death adds bitterness to lost joy, and intensifies with time across endless memories.”

Which meant that with the regret of loss, bittersweet as it may be, the Goddess of Flowers’ Legacy would live forever.

This was her intention that King Deshret, foolish in his grief, could not comprehend.

The fallen Lord of the Flowers

We’ve speculated before that the Goddess of Flowers was from the Seelie race, who were doomed to lose their form and wisdom after falling in love.

With the release of the new Artifact Set, “Flower of Paradise Lost” during the previous Version 3.3, the flower piece “Ay-Khanoum’s Myriad” explicitly confirms this.

It mentions that in a memory that could only be recalled by the Jinni, The Lord of Flowers was cast away from the heavens, and her original magnificent form was left a savaged husk. Her kinsfolk were punished by losing their minds.

It is not explicitly stated why she was exiled from heaven, but if you can recall the story of the Moon Sisters and the Fall of the Seelie, it was said that long before, when the Moon Sisters ruled the night sky, the ancestor of the Seelie Race fell in love with an outlander.

This was perceived to be a crime by what we could assume to be The Heavenly Principles, and the lovers were punished and separated, while the Seelie Ancestor’s people were doomed to lose their beauty and mind if they were to fall in love with a human.

The Aranara Arama also mentions a Seelie surviving this punishment and fleeing to the desert, most likely because the survivor had not fallen in love with a human.

The Lord of the Flowers, this lone survivor of her people’s doom, was said to have roamed the desert for 72 nights after she was expelled from heaven, and her wounds created the streams. From these streams, the water lilies bloomed, and from the waterlilies, the Jinni were born.

The Jinni begged her to stay in the desert, and she relented.

As time passed, Nabu Malikata would meet Rukkhadevata and Al-Ahmar (King Deshret) during the Archon War, with the latter offering his throne to share. Together, the three would strike up a deep friendship as the three god-kings that would rule over the desert.

However, Nabu Malikata would grow closer to Al-Ahmar, admiring his tenacity and wit as he refused the gift given to him by the heavens (which was said to be a “Gnosis” and a position as the Archon of Sumeru).

Al-Ahmar wanted to find a path for his people by himself, and Nabu Malikata was drawn to his rebellious spirit.

But this rebellious spirit sought secrets and power that came from the darkness. Nabu Malikata warned Al-Ahmar not to seek the secrets of the stars and the abyss, to not seek out the Master of the Four Shades (or the Primordial One).

She told him of the Celestial Nails that had destroyed civilisations. But Al-Ahmar was ambitious.

With his stubborn ambitions, Nabu Malikata knew she wouldn’t be able to stop him, and thought that maybe his desires could transcend “the absurd shackles that govern this world” (aka the Heavenly Principles).

Nabu Malikata would resolve to aid him in seeking “Forbidden Knowledge” — the same knowledge that doomed the city they had created. She did so knowing that she was destined for death.

Upon performing a certain ritual and creating a bridge that would allow Al-Ahmar to reach higher knowledge, Nabu Malikata would perish. Just as she had planned.

Maybe it was to be forever preserved in memory as a picture of gentle beauty, as the one who brought to life the flowers, as the one who ruled over dreams.

Maybe it was to escape the sordid punishment of her race. Maybe it was indeed to upend the Heavenly Principles.

However, Nabu Malikata would fail to realise that her death would leave the Desert King forever in mourning. She had underestimated his love. Her legacy, whatever she thought it would be, would end up as only regret.

And so, the Eternal Oasis, frozen in perpetuity, would be all that was left of the Goddess of Flowers.

But even the Eternal Oasis would not last. With our arrival and the destruction of Ferigees by our hand, this mausoleum of devoted love is doomed to fade away with the passage of time.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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