Genshin Impact does not hesitate to bring up amazing story-driven quests and complex characters to the table. Saying that one of the many mysterious characters the story has introduced that we have yet to get the full picture from is Scaramouche, one of the Fatui Harbingers and current antagonist in the Sumeru Archon Questline. Let us look at all the features discussed in the Genshin Impact Scaramouche Lore Discussion and all the benefits these may have for players in the future.
With the upcoming last act of the Sumeru Archon quest on the way in the 3.2 Update and some speculative leaks of Scaramouche’s banner arrival following the patch after that, it’s time to analyze and discuss the eccentric wanderer’s lore and dive deep into his back-story with a predicted timeline of what we know so far into the game’s canon storyline. Players must be advised that the following discussion has a mixture of confirmed canon lore and some interpretation of what happened, so in the end, some of the speculations may be proved to be false after.
Introducing Scaramouche in Genshin Impact
Scaramouche, also known as The Balladeer, is the Sixth of the Eleventh Fatui Harbingers serving The Tsaritsa. He was first introduced into the game as an antagonist in the ‘Unreconciled Stars’ Event, an exclusive event released back in Version 1.1.
Bits of his lore and story have been scattered around when Inazuma got released, till he shows up again, this time in the canon storyline of the Inazuma Archon quest. Currently, he comes back into the main story again at Sumeru with some ulterior goals in his hands.
Analyzing the Lore of Scaramouche in Genshin Impact
The Puppet: Origin
The story sets in after the fateful Cataclysm and the fall of Khaenri’ah that occurred 500 years ago. Ei, the current Electro Archon, just lost her twin sister Makoto during the tragedy. After many heartbreaking happenings that befell Ei, she wanted to avoid Erosion and subside in her Plane of Euthymia. So she started to experiment and build puppets to hold her Gnosis and rule over Inazuma. After some attempts she finally built a puppet, a prototype to test for the sole purpose of storing her Gnosis.
The prototype was successful overall, but it was said that it had shed tears upon coming into creation. Seeing that, EI deemed the puppet as too fragile and incapable of being a vessel.
“He was originally born to be a vessel for a “heart. But he shed tears in his dreams. His creator observed thus: He was too fragile, whether it be as a human or as a tool”– Husk of Opulent Dreams.
Yae Miko suggested to Ei to dispose of the puppet, but Ei refuses to do so. She felt pity for him and wished to set him free and not assert control over him. Thus, she ended up sealing the puppet’s divine powers and putting him to eternal slumber in the Slumbering Court Domain located at Seirai Island. In the end, Ei gave her Gnosis to Yae Miko for safekeeping.
The Wanderer: Awakening and the story of Katsuragi
After some time, the puppet awakens from his slumber for reasons unknown although it has been speculated, according to the Pale Flame’s artifact description, that he may have awakened due to an error. Lost and confused, the puppet sets his eyes on a gold ornament lying next to him that has been left by Ei. The ornament is the feather from the Husk of Opulent Dreams Artifact set.
‘’A feather-shaped token that was brought forth from a secluded hall. The compassion of its creator led to it being left within that mansion along with a certain slumbering form.’’ – Husk of Opulent Dreams
According to the Pale Flame set, the puppet starts wandering after waking up from his slumber. After aimless traveling, he stumbles upon Nazuchi Beach where he meets a man named Katsuragi who is said to be a kind and young deputy. He recognizes the ornament given to him by the Almighty Shogun and tells the Wanderer not to reveal his identity to anyone. The two somehow befriended each other and so Katsuragi ends up bringing the Wanderer with him back to Tatarasuna.
Back in Tatarasuna, the Wanderer becomes acquainted with the people there (most of which are Bladesmiths). They all decided to call him ‘Nameless Eccentric’ as the Wanderer has no name. The nameless eccentric quickly adapt to human lives and stays there for the time being.
Nameless Eccentric: The tragedies of Tatarasuna
During the nameless eccentric’s stay, one of the people there named Nagamasa Mikoshi (also referred to as “The Inspector”) tries to forge a Claymore. Nagamasa is Katsuragi’s superior and is said to be his ‘yoriki’. Nagamasa is also known to be the adopted son of Chiyo Mikoshi, who was the friend Ei was forced to kill after being tainted by the ‘darkness’. Because Nagamasa’s mother was known to have betrayed Inazuma’s Archon, he became obsessed with restoring glory to the Mikoshi name.
His goal became successful as one-day Nagamasa was finally able to succeed in forging the Claymore. Everyone celebrates this amazing achievement. The Nameless Eccentric performs a sword dance with Katsuragi as a form of celebration. This sword dance becomes a memorable moment for everyone there.
“…I also remain unwilling to forget the joy of creating the Daitatara Nagamasa with him, and that joy of watching that nameless eccentric perform that sword dance with Katsuragi…“– Rather Aged Notes #6.
After the celebration, a major tragedy happens in Tatarasuna (This is speculated to be related to the Tatarigami that was causing the illnesses on the island). The nameless eccentric goes missing during this and so the people in Tatarasuna began searching for him. In truth, the nameless eccentric was on his way to Inazuma City and heads towards the Grand Narukami Shine to ask for help.
It was stated that he may have asked Yae Miko for aid with the problem that was occurring back in Tatarasuna as it was described as an ‘intelligent, love shrine maiden’ but it is not confirmed. The shrine maiden promised him the help that would be sent immediately. Unfortunately, no help came to my aid.
Back at Tatarasuna, Katsuragi ends up breaking a law during the entire incident. It is said by another Bladesmith that despite the misconduct, he believes Katsuragi did this out of the goodness of his heart. Nagamasa, who felt enraged by Katsuragi’s malpractice, accuses him of betrayal and kills him out of anger. Nagamasa uses the Claymore that he forged for the murder, earning its new name as the Katsuragikiri Nagamasa (Nagamasa slashing Katsuragi).
“When his yoriki Katsuragi was connected with but a single trace of misconduct, he had him executed without mercy. Ever since then, the name of the sword and his title were changed forever“, says Katsuragikiri Nagamasa Claymore.
The nameless eccentric returns and witnesses the aftermath of everything that happened. It is implied that Nagamasa also draws his blade against the eccentric. It is unspecified though what happened to them after that.
‘’The upright Inspector said: ‘This gold ornament may be a proof of identity granted by the Almighty Shogun,’ ‘But you are neither man nor mechanism,’ And so I can only deal with you in this fashion. Do not hold this against me!’’’, says Husk of Opulent Dreams.
Kunikuzushi: Exalting Revenge on the Raiden Gokaden
After the incident, the Wanderer leaves Tatarasuna. He abandons the gold ornament that Ei lent to him and may have possibly spent some of his time in the Shakkei Pavilion Domain after the entire incident. He then vows to take revenge on all the bladesmiths for what they had done. So he starts his journey of revenge on the bladesmiths by sabotaging the Raiden Gokaden. The Raiden Gokaden are the five main swordsmith families of Inazuma: Amenoma, Futsu, Isshin, Hyakume, and Senju. So far, he had managed to cause the downfall of all arts except Amenoma and Isshin.
The Isshin Art belonged to the Kaedehara Clan. They were assigned to recreate a sword from a diagram provided by the Raiden Shogun herself. But they kept failing because the nameless eccentric kept sabotaging their blueprints without them knowing. The Isshin bladesmiths start fleeing Inazuma out of fear of being punished by the Shogun for not being able to recreate the sword.
Kaedehara Yoshinori, however, realizes that the sword diagram may have possibly been tampered with and that their clan was being framed. He, the Kamisato Clan commissioner, and some samurais then try to stop the bladesmiths from fleeing so they can find out if his theory was true. But they encounter the nameless eccentric, who was waiting to ambush them. The nameless eccentric defeats all of them instantly.
But just as he was about to kill Kaedehara Yoshinori, he notices that the man looks familiar. He asks Kaedehara Yoshinori if he was related to ‘Niwa.’ Yoshinori says that he was, for his real name was actually Niwa Yoshinori before being adopted into the Kaedehara Clan. It is speculated that the ‘Niwa’ the eccentric was referring to is Niwa Nagamitsu, a historical figure in Inazuma and one of the best bladesmiths of Isshin Art. Nagamitsu was part of the “Isshin Sansaku” with Kaedehara Kagemitsu and Akame Mitsunaga.
The nameless eccentric decides to spare his life. He says to Kaedehara (Niwa) Yoshinori, “Tell her this. My name is Kunikuzushi,” and leaves. This is the name he now chose for himself which means ‘country destroyer’. It is assumed that the ‘her’ he refers to is Ei.
Scaramouche: Fatui Harbinger
Afterwards, Kunikuzushi stopped exacting revenge upon the Raiden Gokaden. He quickly got quite bored with his revenge-driven goal and lost interest. He starts wandering off till he runs into the Fatuis. According to the Surpassing Cup in the Pale Flame Artifact Set, he finds the group of masked people interesting enough and decides to join them. It was implied that Kunikuzushi was whisked away to the Fatui by someone of a ‘high position’. This could most likely be a Harbinger of who recruited him.
After joining the Fatui, Dottore II (one of the Fatui Harbingers) experimented on Kunikuzushi and successfully unlocked the sealed divine powers that were locked away within him. Coupled with some modifications, the Wanderer’s power has risen and is now on par with a Fatui Harbinger. He adopted the name Scaramouche, now the Sixth of the Eleventh Fatui Harbingers, The Balladeer.
Following the canon events, we get to see Scaramouche for the first time in the Unreconciled Stars Event. Apparently, he was sent to Mondstadt by The Jester (Pierro) to investigate the meterites that were putting people to sleep. He finally meets the Traveler and some other characters, showing his true personality. At this point, we can deduce Scaramouche as someone who is devoid of emotions, authoritative, and cold.
If players have not played the exclusive Event then the Traveler officially meets Scaramouche during the Inazuma Archon Quest. He is sent by the Fatui to Inazuma to oversee the operations of the Delusion factory. The Traveler, weakened by the Delusion gas, goes unconscious. Yae Miko then shows up and offers Scaramouche the Gnosis, the Gnosis of the Electro Archon, in exchange for the Traveler’s life. Scaramouche accepts the offer and takes the Gnosis. At the end of the story, it is revealed that he fled from Inazuma after obtaining the Gnosis, betraying the Fatui and their orders.
From the exclusive Irodori Festival Event (Version 2.6) it was implied by Ayato that after the Sakoku Degree was uplifted, Scaramouche tried to infiltrate the Tenryou Commission warehouse in order to obtain the letter left by Kaedehara Yoshinori. His intention was to destroy the remaining evidence that publicized his past actions when he roamed Inazuma before joining the Fatuis.
Scaramouche Achieving Godhood (Current Archon Quest Storyline)
Scaramouche heads for Sumeru and collaborates with Dottore II to make him a God using the stolen Gnosis. As for the current Sumeru Archon Quest ACT IV, Scaramouche’s whole purpose, the reason why he exists, has been achieved by the Gnosis.
We have yet to figure out where his story is headed but it seems that he will be a focal point in the upcoming Archon Quest ACT V and will play an antagonist. If he ends up being playable, that would indicate a huge character development and redemption arc for Scaramouche, which is something to look forward to!
That’s all for today’s guide about Genshin Impact Scaramouche Lore Discussion! Let us know your opinions in the comment section below!
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