The Withering from Genshin Impact became the topic of the UP Diliman Institute of Biology in their recent seminar

Their interests were piqued because of a certain feature in the Sumeru region, which is the latest region in the game, so real world biologists from the UP Diliman Institute of Biology held a seminar where they discussed the The Withering from Genshin Impact and compared it to the real world happenings.

UP Diliman is a well-known university in the Philippines and the UP Diliman Institute of Biology has already held online seminars on real-world counterparts of biological phenomena in fictional media before. An example of these are species diversity in Pokemon and genetics in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

For the uninitiated, this is what The Withering is:

The Withering is an exploration mechanic and climate effect in Sumeru. It poses a threat to all kinds of plants and animals in the rainforest and even the lives of the humans who pass through it. Only those who have Visions can resist its decaying corrosion.

In Withering Zones, the player will accumulate the Decay gauge. The Decay gauge is shared between characters for each player. The Decay gauge has a maximum of 10 units. A visual effect will occur on the Decay gauge when Decay reaches 8 units, warning players of its accumulation.

The Decay gauge has a minimum of 2 units in most Withering Zones. When hit by an attack from an enemy affected by The Withering or Fetid Boughs within the Withering Zone, the player will accumulate 1 unit of Decay. There is no other way for Decay to accumulate in most Withering Zones.

All characters in the party have their Resistances reduced by 4% and Max HP reduced by 9.5% for each unit of Decay accumulated. If the player maintains a maxed Decay gauge of 10 units for 10 seconds, then all characters will be killed.

After the Reddit user nura_kun shared a post about the seminar, which was held last November 17, 2022, on the Genshin Impact subreddit, the seminar became overbooked as anyone was allowed to register and join it.


Once the seminar occurred, the faculty of the UP Diliman Institute of Biology has also uploaded a recording of the seminar in their Facebook page so that those who could not attend can still watch and learn what was said during the event.

 

[Lemp194]

Sounds very worthwhile, I'm sure it was worth the time

 

[Havive]

This actually sounds unbelievable, but by googling it I found a lot of similar cases,
respect for that kind of activity.