Scaramouche

Status: Alive (with a new identity)
Weapon: Catalyst
Element: Electro
Title:Kunikuzushi/Kabukimono/The Balladeer/The Wanderer/The Sixth Herald of the Fatui

Personal information:
Species:Puppet
Gender: Male
Birthday: January 3rd
Constellation:Eleven Heralds of the Fatui - Constellation No. 6
Home region:Inazuma
Affiliation:Fatui/Eleven Heralds of the Fatui
Family: Shogun Raiden (creator)

Scaramuccia, also known as Kunikuzushi (Japanese: 国崩 lit. "Destroyer of Countries") or by his alias "The Balladeer", was the Sixth of the Eleven Heralds of the Fatui and one of the antagonists of Genshin Impact.

Scaramuccia was created as a proof of concept to test Ei's plans for an indestructible puppet that could wield a Gnosis. With his creation accomplished, Ei decided to leave him in a slumber state, free of her control, as he had mourned over his creation. After awakening, Scaramuccia came to believe that she had deemed him a failure and abandoned him. After two further "betrayals", he became bitter towards both the gods and humanity, taking the name "Kunikuzushi" as he wandered Inazuma and joining the Fatui as their Sixth Herald, The Balladeer.

Scaramuccia first appeared during the Unreturning Stars event of Version 1.1. He makes his next appearance in Inazuma during Chapter II of the Archon Quests as a minor antagonist, where he helped the Fatui sow conflict between the Shogunate and the Watatsumi Troops. He becomes a main antagonist in Sumeru during Chapter III, where he appears as a boss battle in the form of the Clockwork God, the Prodigal, an artificial god. Following his defeat, he fell into a coma and was hidden by the Lesser Queen Kusanali.

After recovering and learning that Dottore was responsible for the Tatarasuna incident, Scaramuccia erases all information about his entire existence from the Irminsul, hoping to change the past and give those from the past a second chance at life. However, his efforts only resulted in Teyvat forgetting about him and his history, rather than directly changing any events in the past. As a result, Scaramuccia becomes the Wanderer, though his new life of wandering only made him yearn for purpose.

Scaramuccia first appears as "???" during the Unreturning Stars Event Mission, Impending Crisis, where he introduced himself as a "vagrant from Inazuma". While initially appearing friendly, he learns of the Traveler's identity as an Honorary Knight and attempts to wipe them out, but is stopped by Mona, who realized his intentions and helped the Traveler escape just in time.

It is later revealed that he traveled to Liyue to investigate some mysterious meteorites and entered a dream in which he realized that the stars and sky are a "lie" and that "The Jester" had intentionally sent him there without warning of what was to come. After leaving a promising threat against the Traveler, he took his leave to confront the Elder Herald.

She later headed to Inazuma to oversee the creation of Deceptions at a secret facility and confronted the Traveler, recognizing them from before. Rather than confront them head-on, she goaded them into succumbing to the wrath of the ancient gods, but the plan was partially foiled when Yae Miko entered the scene. She then bargained for their safety by offering them Ei's Gnosis, which he accepted and allowed her to leave with them.

Following the attainment of Gnosis and Signora's death, Scaramuccia cut off contact with the Fatui, leading them to believe he had become a renegade. Tartaglia went to Inazuma to track him down to no avail. When the Heralds gathered at Signora's funeral, Capitano asked Dottore about him, in which Dottore anticipated that Scaramuccia would make his move soon.

With Dottore's help, the sages of the Sumeru Akademiya worked to turn Scaramuccia into a new God of Wisdom under the name "Clockwork God, the Prodigal", comparable to the Elder Queen Rukkhadevata. He also gained a follower in the form of Haypasia, who had managed to see into his past during her connection with Irminsul. After learning that Dottore was after her, he showed his newfound power to the Traveler and sent a bolt of lightning through the Dhyai Garden, injuring Tignari as collateral damage in the process. In the end, the Traveler returned to Nahida, the vessel of the Junior Queen Kusanali, and managed to defeat him after a prolonged fight, during which Nahida took away the Electro Gnosis that powered his new form, much to his horror. In his attempt to beg Nahida not to take it away, he accidentally detached himself from the tubes connecting him to his mechanical suit, causing him to fall to the ground and fall into a coma. Nahida would later take him into her custody, hiding him in a secret location.

Scaramuccia would soon recover and, knowing that he had no allies to rely on as Dottore had left with the two Gnoses, made a deal with Nahida to seek out Irminsul on his behalf and also aid the Traveler despite being on bad terms with them. During the investigation, Nahida left the true events of the Tatarasuna incident for him to uncover. Scaramuccia was outraged to learn that his second "betrayal" had been planned by Dottore and decided to give his friends a second chance by erasing himself from Irminsul as the Kabukimono and his codename Fatui. This would retroactively cause his former seat to be unoccupied for hundreds of years, but otherwise leave the tragedies that had occurred unchanged as they continued to occur with different actors and causes.

The Traveler would eventually discover Scaramuccia's new incarnation as the Wanderer, who had somehow arrived in Sumeru despite not remembering anything of his real past. With Nahida's help, the Wanderer managed to regain his memory. With nowhere to go, he decided to continue wandering Teyvat, but promised to help them behind the scenes when needed, all the while wishing to exact revenge on Dottore.

Scaramuccia is described as having a slender figure and a beautiful face. He has been described as beautiful on numerous occasions within the text, with short stature and indigo hair covering his ears, as well as indigo eyes with bold red eyeliner. His outfit consists of black shorts and black sandals, and a large hat with four hooks curved upwards along the circumference, and what appears to be his mask in the center. Two ornamental accessories hang from red threads tied to the back of the hat, the top one being bells with plum blossom motifs and the bottom one some bachi plectrums. On the back of her hat hangs a translucent black veil separated in two, with a character, 惡 "evil", on it and brown ombré swirls near the bottom. Scaramouche wears a short-sleeved shirt with a crest reminiscent of the Electro symbol, as well as a purple checkered bag on his back. In general, their attire resembles traditional Japanese clothing.

According to rumors heard by Viktor, Scaramuccia is not well liked. Some say he has an unpleasant personality and is difficult to get along with, while others say he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. He even seems like he doesn't like his fellow Heralds. Presumably, like the other Heralds outside of Tartaglia, Scaramuccia tends to have an air of authority and arrogance, as he frequently insults others on a whim.

As a Herald, Scaramuccia is a cunning individual by nature. He has wit and power behind him, and he is an unpredictable person.

Pre-Fatui Life
Scaramuccia was originally created by Ei to test out puppet-making technology. He was not intended to resemble her, but rather to test whether it was possible to create a puppet body. As his creation was a success, he was considered the prototype for the puppet she now uses as Shogun Raiden. Though he was meant to serve as a vessel for Ei's Gnosis, he shed tears in his sleep after being created, causing her to consider him too fragile as a human and a tool.[1] She did not wish to kill him, so she sealed his power and let him sleep within the Shakkei Pavilion. However, due to an unknown error, he managed to awaken from his slumber.[2] Finding himself abandoned in that magnificent prison, she considered Ei's actions to be abandonment and betrayal, as he saw her not only as his creator, but also as his mother. She spent her early years in the Shakkei Pavilion.

For a time, Scaramuccia took up residence in Tatarasuna after Inspector Mikoshi Nagamasa's yoriki, Katsuragi, found him in the pavilion. To conceal Scaramuccia's origins, Katsuragi claimed to have found him wandering along the shore. Nagamasa's group referred to him as the Kabukimono (wandering eccentric), as he did not have a name at the time. Scaramuccia became close friends with Katsuragi, and after the forging of Daitatara Nagamasa, performed a sword dance with him.

Dottore, who had infiltrated Tatarasuna to lay the groundwork for the Fatui's future ventures in Inazuma, disguised himself as Escher and revolutionized the forging process at the Mikage Furnace to help forge weapons using Crystallized Marrow. However, the people did not know that the Marrow was the remains of Orobaxi and contained malevolent energy, which began to kill people over time. Scaramuccia went to the Shogun to request an audience, while Niwa Hisahide was killed by Dottore. Scaramuccia failed to gain the Shogun's help, and when he returned, Dottore told him that Niwa had fled and abandoned the village to its fate. Scaramuccia proceeded to enter the heart of the furnace with a mysterious box given to him by Dottore and purged the furnace of its filth, which he survived despite the burden being extreme. When Dottore told him to open the box, he found a withered human heart, which Dottore claimed was from a subordinate Niwa had killed. The idea that Niwa would give him the heart he so desired through an act of immense cruelty horrified Scaramuccia, and overcome with anger and grief, he threw the heart away and left Tatarasuna. He would come to regard Niwa's alleged actions as the second of his life's betrayals.

At one point, he befriended a sickly boy, the son of Tatarasuna artisans. The boy promised to live with him as a family, but later died, breaking his promise. Scaramuccia considered this the third and final betrayal of his life, and began to wander around Inazuma.

The puppet was eventually found by Pierotto, who persuaded him to join the Fatui and take his place at the banquet against the divine. Intrigued by the Jester's words, he joined their ranks and had his innate power as an Archon's creation unlocked in exchange for becoming the subject of Dottore's research and experiments. The following century, he would lead an expedition into the Abyss on the Tsarina's orders. After a series of injuries, repairs, and upgrades, Kunikuzushi would finish his expedition and return to Snezhnaya, in the process earning the position of The Balladeer, the Sixth of the Fatui's Eleven Heralds. From then on, his orders changed to being constantly on standby, assisting in the Fatui's underground activities around the world, including helping Pierotto with further expeditions into the Abyss. It is unclear whether this occurred before or during the Case of the Eccentric, which he organized and which the Fatui assisted in.

The Case of the Eccentric
At some point, the Futsu, Hyakume, and Senju arts of Inazuma's famed five bladesmithing practices, the Five Schools of Raiden, fell out of favor as a result of Scaramuccia's manipulations, done in an act of revenge against "the bladesmith". Scaramuccia also adopted the name "Kunikuzushi" during this time. Scaramuccia then turned his attention towards the Isshin Technique and sabotaged a diagram of a Goshintou blade, causing all of the Isshin craftsmen to create defective blades and flee as the deadline approached, taking refuge with the Fatui and exiling themselves in Snezhnaya.

-The known history of Tatarasuna from 400 years ago, including the Mystery of Tatarasuna, was altered to remove the presence of the kabukimono. Additional tragedies involving it that Dottore brought about due to both his interest in the kabukimono (Scaramuccia) and his mission by Pierotto to sabotage Tatarasuna still occurred, but through slightly different means. The Traveler personally witnesses many of these changes during Dance of Destruction and The Kabukimono's Final Act, immediately following Scaramuccia's attempt to eliminate himself.
-Removed text regarding an "eccentric globetrotter" from the old Notes.
In the Aqaba report, the suspicious figure changes from being the "puppet" to being a mechanic of Fontaine (Dottore as Escher).
Niwa Hisahide is now known to have died alongside another blacksmith, both of whom jumped into the furnace to purge Tatarasuna of its filth and stabilize the furnace. In the original version, Niwa intended to sacrifice himself to stabilize the furnace with Dottore's device, but was killed by Dottore and had his heart removed from his body to power the device. Niwa's fate remained a mystery to the populace, who believed he had fled with his family. Curiously, the Aqaba and Sawada documents still consider Niwa to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the revised history, despite Amenoma Tougo giving a clear story about Niwa's fate.
-The fall of most of Raiden's Five Schools, including the Case of the Eccentric, was heavily altered. The Traveler personally witnesses many of these changes during Dance of Destruction, immediately following Scaramuccia's attempt to eliminate himself.

-The fall of the Futsu, Hyakume, and Senju and the near-fall of the Isshin are now attributed to a series of indiscriminate murders committed by the head of the Hyakume clan, a descendant of the blacksmith who died with Niwa Hisahide in the revised history and heir to the blacksmith's son's resentment toward Inazuma. In the original history, all four schools suffered various seemingly natural misfortunes orchestrated by Scaramuccia.
-Kaedehara Yoshinori's Letter, a quest item from the Irodori Festival, has been changed to describe the encounter with the vengeful blacksmith Hyakume instead of the encounter with Scaramuccia.
-Although unconfirmed, it is possible that the Case of the Eccentric is no longer referred to as such, as "eccentric" was used to describe Scaramuccia but not the vengeful blacksmith of Hyakume.
-Kaedehara Yoshinori's Letter, a quest item from the Irodori Festival, has been changed to describe the encounter with the vengeful blacksmith Hyakume instead of the encounter with Scaramuccia.
Although unconfirmed, it is possible that the Case of the Eccentric is no longer referred to as such, as "eccentric" was used to describe Scaramuccia but not the vengeful blacksmith of Hyakume.
-The Wanderer still knew he was a puppet even before he regained his memory. Further details about his and others' perceptions, such as Ei's, of the Wanderer's existence as a puppet are unknown.

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