Western Sumeru, the Desert, Aaru Village.
There was a magnificent sight here: the Wall of Samiel, built with Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's power.
Originally, the Wall of Samiel had been intended only to mark the boundary between Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's and King Deshret's territories, while also preventing windblown sand from encroaching on the Rainforest and causing desertification.
But later, King Deshret unexpectedly fell, and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata took his people in. As time passed, that enormous Wall of Samiel blocked more than wind and sand-it also shut out the people of the Desert.
Prejudice in people's hearts was a mountain, one far more threatening than Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's Wall of Samiel.
Aaru Village was the largest settlement in the Desert, but because of its remote location and sparse population, its residents had always led relatively peaceful, primitive lives.
Yet several strange incidents had occurred in this little village recently. One was that all the Village Guardians had vanished.
Aaru Village had long been a place where the Akademiya exiled the mentally unstable, so there were actually quite a few Village Guardians. Many had even lived in Aaru Village for decades, and nothing this terrible had ever happened before.
Aaru Village's chief reported the incident to the Corps of Thirty at nearby Caravan Ribat, requesting a search for their whereabouts. However, none of his requests received any response. The guards at Caravan Ribat were unwilling even to do something as necessary as sending people to search Aaru Village.
Another strange occurrence was that many important figures, normally never seen there, had arrived one after another in this remote little village.
There was Cyno, the Great General Mahamatra; Alhaitham, the Akademiya's scribe; Dehya, renowned among mercenaries as the Flame-Mane Lioness; the blond Traveler who had made a great name for herself across Teyvat;