If you’ve booted up the Genshin Impact reddit recently, one of the the first thing you’d likely see is a stunning replica of the Engulfing Lightning Polearm – the trusty weapon of the fan favourite Raiden Shogun. This hand-built piece was created by Russian user Selerinity, who is trying to maintain a business on Reddit by creating such replicas.
Alongside their work as a craftsman, Selerinity has been a fan of the free-to-play action RPG for about a year and a half. At 58 AR, they try to log into to the game every day. They had been creating and selling weapons like the Engulfing Lightning via online marketplaces like Etsy, before the platform became unavailable to Russian users on April 4. This is as a result of the reprehensible Russian invasion of Ukraine and following sanctions, which has left many present in the country with work reliant on international websites and online storefronts with newfound business struggles.
As such, their typical work order used to be roughly 2-3 orders a month prior to the war in Ukraine. When asked about their current situation when it comes to work orders, Selerinity told me via DMs “if i’m lucky then one per month.” They’ve turned to the Genshin Impact Reddit as a source of work as a last resort: “the fact is that I am from Russia and because of recent events my usual avenues for finding work are no longer available. This is all that I can do and would like to do in my life, but many paths are now closed. I have to look for clients here.”
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