Shenhe/Lore

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Even though she was born in the human world, she ended up being an adepti disciple. She grew up in the mountains far away from Liyue Harbor, her soul bound with red ropes, training both her body and mind. Despite having the elegant temperament of an adeptus, she seems to be shrouded in mystery.

—Description from the Official Website

Personality

Originally part of an exorcist clan, Shenhe originally had a happy life as a child until her father attempted to sacrifice her to a malevolent god in order to bring back his wife. While Shenhe managed to defeat the remnants of the god herself, the incident scarred her for life, believing herself to be a "cursed" child and began growing a homicidal tendency. Despite the adepti's attempts to contain it, they have only done so by binding her soul with Red Ropes, which has also caused her to become mostly indifferent.

Due to this homicidal tendency, Shenhe often contemplates the most violent means to eliminate others and is almost always easy to anger, obliterating her surroundings whenever her emotions get the best of her. She throws hostile looks at Xingqiu, believing him to be threatening others. Despite these tendencies, Shenhe ultimately wishes to fit in human society and places immense trust in the Traveler.

As a result of living with the adepti, many of her fellow people worship her as one of them, something which deeply troubles her despite stating that she is just an adepti's disciple. She enjoys sampling small quantities of foods in a manner similar to Albedo, while she dislikes eating medicinal herbs due to having to constantly do so while living with the adepti.

Appearance

Shenhe is a relatively tall woman with a fair complexion. While a human, due to spending time in the mountains with Cloud Retainer and isolating herself from others, many of her fellow people also consider her to be adeptus-like due to her different build. She has long silvery-white gradient hair that fades to black at the tips. As a child, Shenhe's hair was completely black, but due to the comb she received from Cloud Retainer when she first became her disciple, her hair changed its color. Her hair is parted off-center with evenly cut locks that flow just past chin-length framing her face, one side covering her right eye, the rest styled in a low, loose, thick braid fastened at the top with a red cord tied in a bow, her Cryo Vision mounted on it, and at the bottom with a small gold band topped with a pale blue diamond rimmed with gold. Her eyes have white pupils and are multicolored, ranging from shades of light pink to pale blue to yellow, taking on an iridescent quality that bears resemblance to opals, with faded red makeup painted at the corners. It is unknown if her eyes were formerly a different color prior to devoting herself to the path of the adepti.

Her outfit consists of a black backless bodysuit that fades into turquoise at the legs, translucent sections bordered with elaborate patterns at her midriff, her right thigh, her wrists, and the sides of her torso, with open windows at her shoulders and hips. Her bodysuit extends to her hands, covering her middle fingers, a gold stud on each of the knuckles, as well as to her feet, only exposing her toes, a gold diamond-shaped accessory found above her heels and on top of her feet. Between her shoulder openings and forearms, her sleeves are white and puffed widely, embroidered with patterns that swirl gray at the top to black at the bottom, with two black feathers curling outwards attached at the sides with a gold accessory. Overlain above her puffed sleeves are longer, intricately cut fabric layers of white patterned with gray, pale cyan fading into white, and navy blue. Gold accents can be found running along the sides of her calves and thighs, studded at her wrists, bordering the openings on her bodysuit, and plated around her shoulder windows. At the back of her bodysuit is an article bearing resemblance to coattails, consisting of white fabric patterned with gray, with the hem and lining navy blue, with a long white tassel on top fading into gray then dark blue, attached with a gold accessory.

Above her bodysuit, she wears a cropped white-and-gray sleeveless qipao top that fades to black at the collar, with gold edging, accents, and pankous. She has two long red cords attached to the shoulders of her qipao top, both weaving below her arms and crossing at her back, attaching to the gold accents at her hips. The crossed area at her back is secured with a four-petaled gold accessory with a pale cyan center, and the cord at her right bears a red ornament at her collarbone area topped with a cloverleaf knot with a gold stud at the center. More of these red knots can be found at the top of her midriff and on both hips, below each opening. The rest of her outfit is adorned with red tassels, found at the front corners of her qipao and the front corners of her hip openings. She wears pale cyan toeless socks under her bodysuit, held forward with a gold ring around each of her middle toes. Her shoes consist of high wedge heels with white platforms, black welts, and gold insoles and counters studded with pale cyan.

Her accessories consist of a detailed white-and-black curved headpiece, an intricately carved gold ornament studded with a pale cyan jewel sitting at the center, with two thin red ribbons curling upwards out of it worn on the right side of her head, and a red cloverleaf knot with a tassel dangling from it as an earring on her right ear. Her fingernails and toenails are painted pale cyan.

Official Introduction

The mortal realm briefly gracing, like a wisp of smoke vanishing

One has traversed many realms and taken a great many pupils. Among them, Shenhe breaks the closest resemblance to oneself. Were she not a mortal, one would like to have her stay by my side.

—Cloud Retainer

Shenhe comes from a branch family of a clan of exorcists. Due to certain reasons, Cloud Retainer took her in as a disciple.

To Shenhe, Cloud Retainer is a knowledgeable and chatty master.

To Cloud Retainer, Shenhe stands out as special from amongst the mortals she has instructed.

Living with adepti as a human is by no means an easy task, but Shenhe has a unique constitution, an immensely strong will, and a great talent for adepti arts, all of which have won her the acknowledgment of the adepti. However, the long years of cultivation, coupled with the habit of eating divine herbs and drinking the dew of the mountains, have made her more and more distant from earthly life, and she has even been regarded as a mysterious white-haired adeptus.

The occasional sharpness in her personality and the red ropes adorning her body add to her "mystery". If her past were to be written as a story, there would be multiple versions for sure.

Be it an immortal or a white-haired witch, how will people view this mysterious lady? Her secrets and feelings are as difficult to capture as the drifting clouds in the mountains.

Character Details

Shenhe was originally from a branch family of exorcists, but due to a series of coincidences, she became the disciple of an adeptus.

She is a student solely of Cloud Retainer in name, but her impressive constitution and intelligence quickly won several other adepti over.

She would go on to learn from them all, eventually becoming a master of adeptal arts in her own right as a mortal.

She very much looks the part as well in her unique temperament and manner of carrying herself — indeed, it would be no understatement to name her a true adeptus upon meeting her for the first time.

However, it is precisely due to the long years of tutelage that she has lacked company save for the adepti and odd passing illuminated beast.

This isolation has caused her to grow distant and indifferent.

Story 1

(Friendship Lv. 2)

---

Sometimes, a few rumors will escape from Liyue's small community of pilgrims to make the rounds in the city's back streets.

These tales often depict someone being in a hopeless situation in some desperate place, when suddenly—

A wandering white-haired adeptus comes to their rescue in the nick of time...

Most such stories are a collection of lovely, intoxicating clichés, little different from the oft-told street-tales of fated marriages and the like.

But if one were to ask that white-haired adeptus to tell the story, it would take a vastly different shape:

"Some annoying creatures worm their way into the mountains from time to time. I simply get rid of them to prevent them from disturbing my master's meditations."

"If some people did wind up getting caught in the crossfire and injured... Well, it was their decision to come here. There isn't much I can do about that."

Story 2

(Friendship Lv. 3)

---

Shenhe is in all likelihood the least accustomed to mortal life amongst those who take on an adeptal appearance.

Having been sequestered in the mountains since a young age, she lacks experience and common sense, which makes it difficult for her to relate to people normally.

To ordinary people, there are many solutions to any given problem. But to Shenhe, any solution that is not the simplest and most direct one may as well not exist.

For example, she almost never considers "negotiation" as a solution to being at cross-purposes with others, mostly resorting to "threats" instead. After all, it is simple and efficacious. A good solution, no?

She has also spent much time ruminating on problems that are truly esoteric.

For example: Why do we need to pay for food?

Is there any difference between intimidating civilians and intimidating bandits?

She even truly believes that her master, Cloud Retainer, is a most brilliant and eloquent conversationalist.

In a certain sense, she can be considered very pure.

Much like a child, she relies on her chaotic yet straightforward intuition and logic to get her through life.

Mountain Shaper once had this to say about her:

"Little Shenhe is not only stronger than most — she also possesses a unique character."

"She knows not the world, understands not common sense, distinguishes few cuisines, and acknowledges no hierarchies."

"It may not be such an easy thing for Cloud Retainer to tutor her."

Story 3

(Friendship Lv. 4
Complete The Crane Returns on the Wind)

---

Liyue has no lack of folktales about meetings with the adepti, and many of these concern relative nobodies whom an adeptus took under their wing, thus elevating them greatly.

However, the circumstances under which Shenhe's fate became tied to the adeptal abodes was no such glorious thing. If anything, it was an experience characterized by anguish.

When she was five, her mother passed away, and her father, having loved his wife dearly, found that agony hard to bear.

Over time, this agony turned into resentment, and this resentment birthed obsession, by which he was driven wandering throughout the land like a man gone mad.

He left for close to a year, never stopping, never able to sleep soundly, ever searching for some technique that might bring his wife back.

At last, when the year was almost out, he returned in joyous frenzy.

Her father had brought with him a secret art known as "Fate Transference"—

By making a ritual sacrifice to the seelie summoned by this art, a living person's body could be exchanged for a dead one's life.

At that time, Shenhe was yet utterly unaware of the disaster that would befall. She was only an ordinary child, overjoyed at her long-absent father's return.

He claimed that he had a surprise awaiting her in a cave in the mountains behind and that he would take her there immediately. She was ecstatic...

But the scene that followed would be burned into her mind forever.

Her father summoned that hideous, horrifying black "seelie" into that cave, its blood-red eyes craving her delectable life-force.

Stupefied, Shenhe knew not from whence it had come, nor what it wanted from this place.

Crises often paralyze people. One thought only, however, crept into the young Shenhe's mind.

This creature wanted to eat her, but she did not want to die. She wanted to live!

Gripping her mother's keepsake, an exorcism dagger, she faced that dark "seelie," trembling yet resolute...

Several days later, an adeptus following the trail of great evil would investigate the cave, only to find the little girl collapsed inside — spent, famished, parched, her life hanging by a thread.

Taking pity on the lass' ruinous fate, and seeing that she possessed great talent, having repelled some terrifying force on her own, the adeptus would bring her back, heal her, and instruct her in the adeptal path.

If not for that, Shenhe would not be as she is today.

Story 4

(Friendship Lv. 5
Complete The Crane Returns on the Wind)

---

Even the most diffident heart, cooled from living and training in the mountains for over a decade, might sometimes experience strange surges.

So it was with Shenhe. On impulse, she came down from the mountains one night to return to what was once her home.

She did not know how she felt about her home or her family. She was merely driven by some nebulous desire:

To live in the house that was once hers, and to see what became of her father, lost in his obsession.

She learned from neighbors that he had passed away several years prior only when she got there.

Her childhood home had also been demolished by pawnbrokers — and thus had all the traces of her memory dissipated.

She did not care about the attention she was attracting, and did not answer a single one of the questions asked by those in the vicinity.

She simply stood there, listening to the howls that swept through the depths of her heart.

Was it hatred? Mania? Relief?

They were all there, and yet none tarried for even an instant. It was as if her heart were an old well without ripples.

No, like a barren well with no water upon which there might be ripples.

She stood there for a long time, before departing again before the astonished eyes of all.

Each step was slow indeed, but she never once turned back.

Story 5

(Friendship Lv. 6
Complete The Crane Returns on the Wind)

---

Liyue has its own fortune-telling, destiny-reading methods, similar to astrology.

Of these, there are two fates that people seek to avoid at all costs.

One is that of the "solitary star," which dictates that one will be separated from friends and family, living alone all one's days.

The other is "disastrous evil," which means that one will face many hardships and perils.

When the adepti rescued Shenhe, Moon Carver did once read her fortune.

The signs showed that she was marked by both the "solitary star" and "disastrous evil," and that she was also plagued by intense homicidal urges — she was thus a person of supremely ominous destiny, doomed to harm both herself and others.

To ensure that she could grow up safely and not harm any innocents, the adepti bound her soul using red ropes.

This binding had the effect of restraining both her evil fate and her violent tendencies, but also shackled many emotions that should have originally belonged to a human.

From then on, she became more and more disaffected by trivial matters, and even things most might consider important were but dust to her.

She became ever less human, and ever more like a lovely yet cold statue.

But surprisingly, she felt something stir within her when she encountered that Traveler from a distant land:

Long-dormant emotions, now strangers to her, came loose all at once from the depths of fate's tableau.

Perhaps it really was as Moon Carver once said: that heaven might dictate fates, but destiny's tale is written by mortals. The tale of Shenhe and the mortal world had not yet ended...

White Jade Comb

(Friendship Lv. 4
Complete The Crane Returns on the Wind)

---

Once upon a time, Shenhe had a full head of black hair.

When she was first brought to Mt. Hulao, she would not say a word. The only thing she proved willing to do was to climb the mountain and watch the sea of clouds.

It was well, however, that she would sleep when tired, drink the dew of the mountains when thirsty, and would chew on a few stalks of Qingxin when hungry.

Cloud Retainer took this all in, but did not disturb the girl, instead making this comb of white jade from a sacred stone and giving it to her.

The adeptus said that if she ever wished to sever her ties with the mortal world and enter adeptal tutelage, she should brush her hair thrice with this comb, and it would be counted as a rite of apprenticeship.

Shenhe did exactly as the adeptus said without any hesitation. And something strange happened then — for as the jade comb brushed through Shenhe's hair once, a layer of her black locks turned a frosty silver from root to tip.

On the second brush, but half her hair remained dark.

When the process was complete, only a flowing curtain of snow remained.

...

Today, Shenhe still keeps this comb on her person as a symbol of her connection to the adepti.

Through her years of training, she has long since come to understand the meaning behind those three brush strokes:

The first to uproot useless anxiety, the second to forsake joy and sorrow, and the third to walk this path into old age without regret.

Vision

Few people know how the young girl in the cave, intended as a sacrifice by her own father, had been able to stand against the monster for days and nights on end by herself.

Though Shenhe was born into an exorcist family, her maddened father had not taught her a single thing about exorcism.

And like many at that innocent age, she was also wholly unused to facing life's perils alone.

But in that aphotic cave, bereft of parental protection — indeed, betrayed by kin — Shenhe underwent a metamorphosis.

Just as Moon Carver's readings had shown, the sleeping calamitous fates, violent urges, and unyielding spirit within her burst their bonds all at once.

Those things served as an unseen shield and invisible blade, arming the girl's frail form.

They gave her strength, gave her claws and fangs, allowing her to attack that wretched creature before her, to swear to tear it to shreds — to prove that she, and not it, was the cruelest evil that stalked the darkness.

Their life-and-death battle across the next few days was one without end. Hunter and hunted switched places many times, the conflict locked in stalemate...

As the shadow of death loomed large, the gods looked upon the extraordinary girl with favor.

With the bright, crystalline object falling into Shenhe's hands, the balance tipped irrevocably in her favor and the victor was decided.

The vivid icy light pierced through the dark like skyglow, showing the path to the future.

In the past, it had guided Shenhe from her miserable fate. In the future, it would also lead her back to the mortal realm.

Namecard

Shenhe: Comb
	Obtain: Reward for reaching Friendship Level 10 with Shenhe Description: The early onset of white hair is often correlated to one's sorrows. Since "comb" and "scatter" are similarly read in Liyue's language, they believe that combing one's hair is the same as scattering one's misfortunes.

Quests and Events

Archon Quests

• Interlude Chapter
  • Act I: The Crane Returns on the Wind
    • All parts

Character Interactions

The following characters mention Shenhe in their character stories or voice lines.

Character	Stories	Voices
Chongyun	✘	✔
Ganyu	✘	✔
Hu Tao	✘	✔
Ningguang	✘	✔
Xiao	✘	✔
Xingqiu	✘	✔

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Trivia

• The English version refers to Shenhe's murderous tendencies as homicidal, however in the Chinese translation, it refers more broadly to a murderous intent towards one's self as well as others. This is clarified in her Story 5.
• Shenhe's hair changing from black to white taken to mean "combing away worries" is ironic, in the sense that usually the early onset of white hair means that one is full of worries. This irony is also highlighted in her namecard's description.
• Chongyun refers to Shenhe as his "aunt". Based on their voicelines, they are blood-related and hail from the same clan, although the English translation does not indicate which side of the family they are related by.
  • In the Chinese translation, Chongyun calls Shenhe xiǎoyí (小姨) which specifically refers to "aunt" as the youngest sister/female cousin of the speaker's mother. This would mean that Shenhe is Chongyun's maternal aunt. Shenhe was not mentioned to have any siblings, meaning that she is likely one of the cousins of Chongyun's mother.

Etymology

• Shēnhè (申鹤) means "immortal crane", using an old meaning of the word 申. In the past, the word shēn (申) meant "immortal" in the sense of Taoist xian, also known as Chinese immortals, whom the adepti are modeled after. However, the word shén (神) has now replaced it to describe "divinity" (lit: "god"), while 申 no longer has a standalone meaning. The use of 申 rather than 神 in her name could be a play on her being close to (or mistaken as one of) the adepti, but not being an adeptus herself.
• Shenhe's constellation in Chinese "Scattering of Worries" (愁疏座 ) contains the play of the words "comb" and "scatter" found in her namecard's description.