Lusalim

Lusalim is a mentioned character in Genshin Impact.

Profile

Lusalim was a dragon researcher who worked on the Frost Moon during the time before and during the Heavenly Principles' arrival in Teyvat. He was a student of Researcher Ungien and his wife Professor Maagees-Geti.^[4][5] By taking over their research, he became one of the Moongazers, the chief architect of Project Lunar Veil and the executor of Project Moongazer.^[1]

He was also the creator and father of Nin-Kiggia, also known as Ninnin, an artificial data-based lifeform born from his research.^[2][6]

Story

Lusalim was born in the age after Ibni-Belum, which allowed him to reach the Frost Moon and become a researcher. He was later taken in as a student by Professors Ungien and Maagees, who had once been learned members of the Moongazers.^[4]

Many years after Ibni-Belum's death, the Eye of Ibni-Belum captured a second signal from deep space and its coordinates. Ungien piloted a spaceship named Moongazer toward those coordinates and eventually returned fused with an unknown creature later known as the "Stellar Blackbody," which carried a message from a distant civilization. After delivering its message, the creature/Ungien began to die.^[7]

Maagees began studying the creature in her greenhouse.^[8] As it started to deteriorate, she later used an experimental biotechnology to transform the creature into a living being formed from Archaeolune Energy and Blackbody Matter.^[9] This created Ungie, an artificial Kuuhenki of enormous size, though Ungien's consciousness was not preserved.^[7]

Project Moongazer

Maagees-Geti was inspired by the message the Stellar Blackbody delivered and started Project Moongazer. Her goal was to sent the message back into space to inspire other alien civilizations as she had been.^[5]

Lusalim and Maagees's research into artificial life and consciousness led him to propose a method of "engraving the full measure of a researcher's affections, desires, and ideals into data." Through an unknown process, these fragments could be manifested as a new data-based life-form that could then be reborn from the data again and again. That way, the message of the Stellar Blackbody could be broadcast across the ages. After Nu-ur-Gestug mentioned Lusalim's plan to Xiuhcoatl, the Dragon King offered practical suggestions, which Nu-ur-Gestug later forwarded to Lusalim.^[10]

Lusalim eventually succeeded in creating this life-form in the dragon-like being he called Nin-Kiggia^[10] and began raising her as his "daughter".^[6]

As the researchers prepared to transmit the Stellar Blackbody's message into space, Lusalim became concerned that the signal might invite disaster if received by a hostile force. To reduce this risk, he began developing Project Lunar Veil, a safeguard intended to create a veil that could obscure the moon.^[11]

The project used Maagees's research into Blackbody Matter, whose reflective properties could conceal objects and interact with Archaeolune Energy. During early testing, the researchers developed the Curtain-Form Blackbody Containment^[12] and later created a miniature Lunar Veil to shroud Ungien's Circle.^[7][13]

The project name "Lunar Veil" was suggested by Lusalim, though he later recorded that it actually came from Nin-Kiggia, who could barely speak at the time. He believed that her words suggested she already understood the purpose of the project.^[14]

Over time, Maagees's health began to deteriorate as she was using her own body to feed Ungie.^[15] Lusalim sought help from King Apep, but even her finest doctors were unable to help Maagees.^[6]

With little time remaining, Maagees expressed her final wish: to send the Stellar Blackbody's message into space through the Eye of Ibni-Belum. The transmission was carried out, but Lusalim remained uneasy about its risks. To protect the moon from whatever might answer the signal, he sought to complete the full-scale Lunar Veil immediately despite its far greater energy requirements, and turned to the Moon Goddesses for aid.^[13]

Soon after, the moon's Security Chief Kalag, took control of Ungien's Circle,^[16] forcing Lusalim to continue the research at his Lunar Veil Laboratory in the Moontide Sea.^[15] There, he built a massive Veil generator capable of concealing the entire moon and created the Ancient Moon's Fount.^[7]

Maagees had requested that in the event of her death, Lusalim should perform the same technique she used on Ungie. When Maagees fell into a coma,^[15] Lusalim did so in accordance with her wishes, gaining experience he considered vital to Project Moongazer and its work of creating life.^[5] Maagees became the "Mega Kuuuhenki" Maggie, without retaining her original consciousness.^[7]

Lusalim initially believed Maagees's desire to send the Stellar Blackbody's message back into space was grief turned into obsession. However, after inheriting the message, he came to understand what she had been trying to achieve and vowed to bring both Project Moongazer and Project Lunar Veil to fruition.^[5]

Going forth, he took what he did to create Nin-Kiggia to the next level and devised a plan to collate the ancient moon energy data of the Moongazers and gather it at the moon's core. He pleaded with the Moon Goddesses to borrow the primordial power of creation and they agreed. With this power, the data of the past Moongazers was insured to be reborn as data-based life-forms, allowing the Stellar Blackbody's message to be transmitted into the universe again and again.^[4][17]

Final Years and Legacy

Before the full-scale Lunar Veil could take shape, the Heavenly Principles arrived and the Lunar Veil Laboratory as well as the Veil generator were destroyed in an explosion. Lusalim survived and relocated to his laboratory on the Dark Side of the Moon.^[4][18] In his final records, he states that he had sinned against dragonkind by capitulating to the Heavenly Principles.^[4] He likely did so in order to protect the moon's facilities from further destruction.^[7]

Knowing that he would not live to see Project Moongazer completed, Lusalim entrusted its final step to Nin-Kiggia. In the same record, Lusalim expresses hope that, after his death, he might journey into the sea of stars and leave behind a tribute to his teachers. He wished to gather stars beneath the curtain of night and form a single line declaring that "the dragons were here."^[4]

Character Mentions

Character Voice-Overs

Character	Voice-Overs
Skirk	More About Skirk: IV  Media:VO_Skirk More About Skirk - 04.ogg Media:VO ZH_Skirk More About Skirk - 04.ogg Media:VO JA_Skirk More About Skirk - 04.ogg Media:VO KO_Skirk More About Skirk - 04.ogg Once in a while, I find myself gazing up at the stars. I know it's just a false sky, but I can sense that the creator had a romantic vision of the cosmos. Faced with the unfathomable vastness of time and space, humanity looks to history books to preserve a piece of themselves for the ages, and I think the creator of this sky shared the same desire. To capture a fleeting moment of the universe and make it last forever.

Trivia

Etymology

• Lu-ša-lim is the name of an Akkadian individual recorded on tablets at Nippur, with the meaning "Verily, he makes safe."

Other Languages

Change History

References