Joining Ayaka and Hu Tao as the third entry in my growing list of Genshin Impact mods, Raiden Shogun lends her divine might to stop the Masters of Evil!
BIOGRAPHYBarred from the rest of Teyvat by endless, treacherous seas, there exists the island nation named Inazuma, also called the land of Electro. Throughout history, it would make itself known all over the world for its people's swordsmanship and blacksmithing, a prosperity whose achievement is owed entirely to the guidance of two age-old sisters: Raiden Makoto and Raiden Ei.
Long ago, they survived a terrible war waged between all-powerful creatures wielding the seven elements, bent on the conquest of the limited land Teyvat had to offer. Together, they stood atop a mountain of corpses as champions alongside six others. At the end of this conflict, the heavens named the victors Archons. Surrendering the official title to her sister Makoto, Ei continued to serve as her lethal right hand, fighting wars under her command with unmatched skill.
Unbeknowst to their followers, the role of the Electro Archon, leader of Inazuma, would be fulfilled by not one, but two individuals with identical appearances - one responsible for governmental affairs, the other for national defense. Taking on the latter task, Raiden Ei spent every free breathing moment training and finessing her combat ability, free from the troubles of learning about and communing with the human race, until she eventually reached a point of innovating and spearheading her country's martial arts. Undefeated on the battlefield for all her long years, she scored victory after crushing victory in the name of Inazuma against those who threatened it.
But for all her strength and dedication, even she could not resist the desolation of war. Gradually, her close confidants would disappear one by one, whether as victims of war or as traitors consumed by insanity, her loneliness growing each time. Even one whose life is spent in a training dojo needs the social sustenance of friendship.
Eventually, Ei was forced to endure the greatest of losses. 500 years ago, Makoto's life was taken as a casualty of the destruction of another once prosperous civilization, caused by the very heavens that once titled them champions of Teyvat. Her shock became unbearable heartbreak, which then transitioned into a maddened state of mind. Vowing to never again allow anything to be lost in Inazuma, she took on the mantle of the sole Electro Archon and not only closed the borders of her nation, but also enacted a terrible decree which would rob her people of their Visions, symbols of their dangerous ambition recognized by the gods - the Vision Hunt Decree. In the process, her land would become known as the nation of Eternity, true to Raiden Ei's newfound mission in life.
Her first step towards the completion of this goal was to find a way to render herself deathless. To that end, she found a way to create puppets that are almost indistinguishable from the original lifeforms they mimicked, save for far greater durability and longevity. Following prototype after failed prototype, Ei's success culminated with a puppet made in her own image, whose will largely resembled her own - the Raiden Shogun.
Seeing the Shogun as a fit replacement, she abandoned her mortal body and transferred her own consciousness into the Musou no Hitotachi, a replica sword that once belonged to her sister, now repurposed into a container for a pocket dimension where time does not flow, as well as an unstoppable weapon to be wielded by her puppet.
Over time, the enactment of the Vision Hunt Decree would make its negative effects on the population of Inazuma painfully evident. The people lived in fear, permanently hounded and monitored by the authorities for the purpose of its enforcement. To make matters worse, those who fervently opposed Ei's new rule formed a resistance seeking to force the decree's disappearance by any means necessary, causing a civil war which has led to numerous deaths.
While Raiden Ei's consciousness lingered in the pocket dimension inside of the Musou no Hitotachi, safe from the passage of time and its erosion, the Shogun puppet led the country in her stead, following a strict set of orders in an emotionless, robotic manner. Perceiving these plights as irrelevant to the pursuit of Eternity, she turned a blind eye to them, which further exacerbated their effects of unrest on Inazuma.
One day, a fateful encounter with a traveler from a faraway land induced a change of heart, following a battle which resulted in Ei's defeat. Having witnessed the power of her people's ambitions and their resistance to her actions of taking them away during the confrontation, she arrived at the conclusion that her interpretation of Eternity was wrong, eventually abolishing the Vision Hunt Decree and once again opening the borders of her nation.
Moving into the future with the intention of defending Inazuma's people, as well as getting better acquainted with humanity, Ei resumes her duty diligently and selflessly to this very day.Mod showcase + gameplay video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfSf_LoRBQk&ab_channel=corvetterulesWARNING: This mod clashes with Erik Lehnsherr's Darkseid mod, as well as the Beast mods made by Cohollow and BliZZ. Before installing, make sure these mods are not in your roster, and backup ui/models/mannequin/19001.igb, as well as textures/loading/19001, 19002 and 19003.igb. Neglecting or failing to do so will result in issues.
NOTE: Because of the ambitious nature of this particular project, I decided to feature two versions of the Raiden Shogun mod: one which was trimmed down in order to better comply with game limits, and the original complete version. The specific limitation issues to watch out for are effects not appearing in-game. The latter is far more likely to have this result than the former, and the solution is to play with less characters on your team or to play with characters that have less .xmlb effects files in their respective folders. My testing reveals that the trimmed down version should be relatively friendly in regards to 4-man teams. If you don't particularly care about this compromise, feel free to play with the original, heavier version, I don't think it's likely for it to cause game crashes or anything of the sort.
The data/powerstyles folder has a "trimmed" and "heavy" folder. For the original version, use the powerstyle file in the "heavy" folder. For the trimmed version that's more game limit friendly, use the one in the "trimmed" folder.
There is also a categorization of the sort for her effects. If you want to play with her trimmed version, take ONLY the effects from effects/char/raiden_shogun/trimmed. Otherwise, take them from effects/.../heavy. If you wish to switch from the heavy effects to the trimmed effects, the safest procedure that I recommend is deleting the effects your Raiden has in the game files, then simply copy pasting the effects from the trimmed folder in.
Download link:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/cu8htz1zsba72w0/Raiden_Shogun_V1.0.5.rar/fileCredits and known issues can be found in the README.txt file.
If you've been in the Discord server for a while, you probably know that I've been teasing two upcoming masterpiece mods for a while. This would be one of them. Though in the end, I can't say for sure that this is one of my best works, I can definitely say I've never worked quite this hard on a mod before. I am very proud of what I was ultimately able to accomplish.
Before making Raiden's gameplay and mod showcase video, I would like to make an update to my Kamisato Ayaka mod, as well as her own, LONG overdue gameplay + mod showcase video.
Thank you for downloading this mod, and I hope you enjoy it. Corvette, taking off.
