It looks like Scaramouche is finally taking center stage in Genshin Impact

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Archon Quest Chapter II: Omnipresence Over Mortals, Tatara Tales quest, the Labyrinth Warriors event quest: Away with Obsessions and Falsehood, and the Legend of the 5 Kasen event questline. Inazuma lore that can be found through exploration and in artifact sets will also be discussed. Read at your own risk!

The Legend of the Five Kasen quest in Genshin Impact's Irodori Festival event concluded with a bombshell reveal.

At first, the The Legend of the Five Kasen quest seemed like a simple cat and mouse chase between the main cast of characters about Xingqiu’s missing books, and a mysterious figure seemingly leaving hints about it.

But it was made clear that there was something more to the story after Kaedehara Kazuha’s arrival to Inazuma, with his own slip of paper hinting about a certain event in the past that led to the downfall of his clan. This led us to the truth of why it happened in the first place.

The final entry into the questline then dropped a major revelation: that the fifth devious member of the Kasen represented none other than the sixth Fatui Harbinger, Scaramouche the Balladeer.

This would indicate that we are now closer than ever to Scaramouche finally taking center stage in the game's story.

Let’s go back a few generations and dive into Scaramouche's past and how his fate has been entangled with the Legend of the Five Kasen, the Raiden Gokaden, and the Kaedehara clan.

The Puppet that shed tears

In Raiden Ei’s pursuit of an eternity with no erosion, she begun creating “vessels” that could hold her gnosis, or “heart". This led to the birth of the puppet that was neither man nor machine, who at the time of his birth, had no name.

In the Husk of Opulent Dreams artifact lore, under the sands Song of Life, it was asserted that:

It was then implied that the puppet was left to sleep at a secluded hall that was Shakkei Pavillion, the only domain in Tatarasuna.

It can be assumed that the “ancient ascetic warrior” mentioned was Raiden Ei. The puppet would then, for reasons unknown, be awoken from his slumber and begin his wanderings. He would now be known as the Nameless Eccentric.

The domain description is as follows:

The Raiden Gokaden and the Nameless Eccentric

Inspired by the Raiden Shogun, who pioneered the forging techniques of the Inazuman sword and spear, the art of weaponsmithing was once a flourishing pursuit in the nation.

The creation of the Raiden Gokaden (Five Traditions of Raiden) is the testament to this.

Consisting of five schools of the weaponsmithing scene, the Raiden Gokaden included the Amenoma Art, the Ishhin Art, the Futsu School, as well as the Hyakume and Senju arts. The only school to survive to modern Inazuma is the Amenoma art, with their smithy located in Inazuma City.

But what is the relevance of the Raiden Gokaden to the Wandering Eccentric living in Shakkei Pavillion?

Tatarasuna was the epicenter of weaponsmithing for the Shogunate.

In the Rather aged notes that you will find while exploring the area, you will discover the story of a certain 'Upright Inspector' called Nagamasa, who is the adopted son of Mikoshi Chiyo.

This is the same Chiyo who was once an ally and close friend of Raiden Ei before she was tainted by the abyss and drew her blade against the Shogun.

Throughout the seven Rather aged notes, we learned that Inspector Nagamasa was obsessed with returning honor to the Mikoshi clan after his adoptive mother’s betrayal.

He also developed an interest in weaponsmithing to please the Shogunate, having brought along his yoriki (assistant) Katsuragi, and other members of his group, Armory Officer Miyazaki, Nozomu, and Kinjiro.

The 'Kind, Young Deputy' Katsuragi then found the Nameless Eccentric along Nazuchi beach.

It is implied that because of the tokens left behind by the Shogun (i.e the Husk of Opulent Dreams Artifacts), Katsuragi would acknowledge that the Nameless Eccentric was closely tied to Raiden Ei.

Mentioned in the Plume of Luxury lore, this is what the yoriki said to the eccentric:

The Nameless Eccentric soon became acquainted with Katsuragi. The Rather aged notes emphasized this with the mention of the sword dance they performed after the group finished the forging of the Daitatara Nagamasa. However due to “unknown events”, Inspector Nagamasa began to pursue the Nameless Eccentric but was unable to find him.

Katsuragi was slain by Nagamasa with the greatsword, enraged at his “misconduct", which was most likely related to their pursuit of the eccentric.

After these events, the great sword was then known as the Katsuragikiri Nagamasa (Katsuragi-slashing Nagamasa), which is now a forgeable 4-star weapon in-game.

In the Husk of Opulent Dreams artifact lore, it was then revealed that the aforementioned events would later drive the eccentric and Inspector Nagamasa to conflict. The Inspector’s reasoning can only be speculated by what was mentioned under Plume of Luxury:

It is important to note that in Rather aged notes #1, it was mentioned that Nagamasa used Jade Steel to craft weapons for the Shogunate.

Jade steel is smelted using Crystal Marrow, which held cursed Tatarigami power coming from the bones of the slain god Orobashi (you know, the giant snake skeleton you occasionally do Inazuma dailies on). The Daitatara Nagamasa was one such weapon, holding Tatarigami that could taint a human’s mind.

We can theorize that the obsession of Nagamasa to regain his honor and to assert his beliefs was intensified by Tatarigami, leading him to slay Katsuragi and his group to end up scattered or dead.

Further on in the Husk of Opulent Dreams lore, under the Plume of Luxury, we can read this tidbit of lore that can be quite self-explanatory:

The Tatarigami had a disastrous effect not only on Nagamasa and his group, but to the whole of Tatarasuna and its inhabitants as well. It can be speculated that someone depended on the eccentric to help them as he was closely related to the Raiden Shogun.

The intelligent, lovely shrine maiden that the eccentric likely approached for help was the Guuji Yae Miko. But considering how in modern times the Tatarigami still persists, it is safe to assume that the help promised never arrived.

The artifact set also explores the destruction of the Raiden Gokaden at the hands of the eccentric after his spat with Nagamasa, and the possible failure of the Shogun to help the people from the Tatarigami.

Under the goblet Calabash of Awakening, it is mentioned that the Nameless Eccentric destroyed the Futsu, Hyakume, Senju, and Isshin arts as an "act of revenge".

We can then theorize that the Nameless Eccentric, after the tragedy of the Katsuragikiri Nagamasa and Tatarigami, sought revenge against “the bladesmith".

This could refer to Raiden Ei, as she created the weaponsmithing arts that brought about the use of Crystal Marrow that tainted his first friends. It would make sense because the Raiden Gokaden was essentially Raiden Ei’s legacy to Inazuma.

The Nameless Eccentric is nameless no more

This brings us to how exactly the Isshin art and the Raiden Gokaden was destroyed, as explored in the Legend of the Five Kasen quest.

The Ishhin art was tied directly with the Kaedehara clan, as one of the three master swordsmiths of the art was Kaedehara Kagemitsu, ancestor to Kaedehara Kazuha.

The art however, ceased to exist with the death of Kazuha’s great-grandfather Yoshinori, who abandoned the weaponsmithing practice after dishonoring his clan with the failure of replicating a weapon from the Raiden Shogun.

During the Legend of the Five Kasen quest: The Palace, Dyed in Black, the traveler and the gang discover the great-grandfather Kaedehara Yoshinori’s letter after learning that the clan was duped into failing to forge a weapon for the Raiden Shogun.

In a bid to catch the fleeing swordsmiths afraid to incur the wrath of the Shogun, Kaedehara Yoshinori, along with the Kamisato clan head at the time, attempted to pursue them.

However, waiting for them at the beach were not the swordsmiths, but a lone, eccentric figure who single-handedly intercepted and defeated them.

It was then revealed that the eccentric tampered with the forging diagram with the goal to destroy the Raiden Gokaden.

He spares Yoshinori’s life upon noticing his familiar visage, asking if he was related to “Niwa”, which he confirms as he was adopted into the Kaedehara family. Niwa likely refers to Niwa Nagamitsu, a bladesmith of the Raiden Gokaden's Isshin Art.

Before he turned to leave, the eccentric stopped and told Yoshinori this:

“Tell her this. My name is Kunikuzushi.”

Kunikuzushi means “to destroy a country” and refers to a larger-than-life villain in Japanese Kabuki theatre capable of taking over an entire realm.

The name is befitting to the eccentric, whose thirst for revenge gave him the ambition to destroy the Raiden Shogun’s legacy.

After these events, Kaedehara Yoshinori and the Kamisato clan head, who died shortly thereafter, swore to keep this incident a secret.

The failure to produce the goushinto for the Shogun and to catch the swordsmiths that fled led to the decline and disgrace of both Isshin art and Kaedehara clan, as well as the Kamisato clan’s brief fall from favor.

Kunikuzushi was successful. Although he did not wipe out the Raiden Gokaden in its entirety (as he had “lost all interest”), the only art to survive was that of the Amenoma. The Gokaden was no more.

The Balladeer takes center stage

Not much is known of how Kunikuzushi became Scaramouche the Balladeer, or what happened to him before his first appearance during version 1.0.

The Pale Flame artifact Surpassing Cup hints that Kunikuzushi, after years of drifting, was found by the Fatui and enticed to join because "they are fun to be around."

After joining the Fatui, we can assume that Kunikuzushi quickly rose through their ranks by virtue of being an Archon's creation.

He would then join the ranks of the Fatui Harbingers as their sixth member and take on the identity we all know him as: Scaramouche the Balladeer.

We can now follow the established timeline of the game.

After his first appearance and introduction in the Unreconciled Stars event, Scaramouche reappears during the Inazuma Archon Quest: Omnipresence over Mortals.

At the height of the Inazuman Civil War between the Shogunate and Watatsumi Island, he is revealed as the one supplying the delusions made from the same Crystal Marrow that tainted the minds of his once friends.

The Traveler makes this discovery and is easily defeated by Scaramouche. But before being able to strike the decisive blow, Yae Miko appears and negotiates with the Balladeer for the Traveler’s life.

This led to Yae Miko giving Scaramouche what he sought most in existence: a “heart” — the gnosis that he was supposed to shelter.

During the Labyrinth Warriors quest, it is confirmed by Childe that Kunikuzushi/Scaramouche went rogue after receiving the gnosis. The eleventh Fatui Harbinger is now on the hunt for his seemingly traitorous comrade.

The last sighting of Scaramouche was mentioned at the end of The Legend of the Five Kasen quest, where Kamisato Ayato discovers him snooping around the Tenryou Commission warehouse that housed the Kaedehara clan’s heirlooms.

The Balladeer was most likely looking for the letter that Kaedehara Yoshinori wrote that exposed his responsibility for the downfall of the Raiden Gokaden, though he would later leave Inazuma after failing to find the letter.

So what’s in store for Kunikuzushi/Scaramouche's future?

The Husk of Opulent Dreams offers probable hints as to what might happen. Under the Bloom Times lore, it is mentioned that:

And under Song of Life:

Could Scaramouche have realized more of what’s at stake and what’s the truth after claiming that the stars and the sky were fake?

Could the gnosis, which is said to be a mere prop for lies and deception, have finally given the Balladeer the realization for his "true purpose"?

Will he Scaramouche be a new weekly boss or a new unlikely ally and playable character?

There’s much to anticipate in the coming updates for Genshin Impact, but let’s just hope that the fan-favorite Balladeer has a longer shelf life than the late Crimson Witch Signora.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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