Skirmish, also known by his alias "Balladeer"(Chinese: 散兵 Sǎnbīng," Skirmisher ") and whose real name is Kunikuzushi, is number 6 of the Eleven Heralds of the Fatui.
Scaramuccia first appears during the "Never Returning Stars" event.
Summary
- 1 Profile
- 1.1 Appearance
- 1.2 Personality
- 2 Current description
- 3 Curiosities
- 3.1 Etymology
Profile
Scaramuccia first appears as "???" during the mission "The crisis deepens" of the event "Stars that do not return", where it is presented like a "Wanderer of Inazuma". He ran into Fritz, a Dawn Vineyard worker whom the Traveler and Fischl were sent to search for, and got rid of the meteor that sent Fritz into a deep sleep. He is interested in the Traveler's title of "Honorary Knight," but does not elaborate before a Geo-Navy soldier arrives and leaves.
He later appears in the event mission "What the stars hide, the water will reveal" where he greets the Traveler, Fischl and Mona while the trio is discussing the meteorite crisis. Mona senses Scaramuccia's intention to kill the Traveler and teleports the group before he can interact with them further. He expresses his frustration at not being able to finish off the Traveler, calling for several subordinates to pursue them, but a meteor flies over his head when one of them informs him that he is the largest yet, so he rescinds those orders and sends them out. back to their original tasks.
Then when Mona, the Traveler, and Paimon went to Musk's Reef to destroy Leonard's star that caused all the meteor rampage, they come across an angry Scaramuccia insulting astrology by naming the existence of "a false sky." . After that, he retires.
Appearance
Scaramuccia is described as a man with a slim figure and an attractive face. He has a significantly youthful appearance, short in stature with dark navy hair covering his ears and dark blue lighted eyes with deep red eyeliner.
His outfit consists of short black pants and dark slippers, and a large hat with four hooks curved up 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 her hat. At the back of her hat hangs a translucent black veil separated in two, with brown swirls near the bottom. Their overall attire resembles traditional Japanese clothing.
Personality
According to rumors Viktor heard, Scaramuccia is the most hated of the Heralds. Some say he has an unpleasant personality, making it difficult to get along with him, while others say he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. Even his fellow Heralds don't like him.
As a Herald, Scaramuccia is naturally a cunning individual. With his brain and tremendous power to back him up, he is an unpredictable person. Scaramuccia is two-faced, first making his friendly debut with the Traveler, only to be revealed by Mona during her second appearance that her plan was to kill him.
Current Description
Life before the Fatui
Scaramuccia was originally created by Ei as a test of puppet body manufacturing technology. It wasn't meant to look like her, just to test whether it was possible to create a puppet body. As his creation was successful, he was considered the prototype of the puppet he now uses as the Shogun Raiden. She did not wish to kill him, so she sealed his power as a divine creation and then released him into the wild, where he roamed the Inazuma fields. Eventually he encountered the Fatui and joined their ranks, where they unlocked the innate power he had as the creation of an Archon. The Fatui also gave him some additional modifications and eventually he rose to the position of the Balladista, the Sixth of the Eleven Heralds of the Fatui.
Curiosities
- Various aspects of the design and history of Scaramuccia refer to the lyrics of the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by the British rock band Queen.
- The soundtrack that plays during Scaramuccia's first appearance at the event, Stars Not Returning, is called "Ominous Fandango", a reference to the lyrics: "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?"
- The lyrics mention "Beelzebub", an alternate form of Beelzebul, who is the creator of Scaramuccia. The speaker of the song addresses his "mom" several times, which may be a link-type interpretation between Beelzebul and Scaramuccia.
- The lyrics "thunderbolts and lightning" may be a vague reference to Inazuma or the Electro element in general.
- The lyrics "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?" shows the speaker of the song having doubts about the natural order of the world, similar to how Scaramuccia states, "The stars, the sky ... It's all a gigantic hoax. A lie", in the quest Where the ancient stars align . The song also makes reference to "Galileo", known to challenge beliefs about the astronomical model during his time.
- For players who missed the Non-Returning Stars event during Version 1.1, there is an alternate cutscene for your encounter with him at the Deception Factory in which the Traveler is introduced.
- He mistakenly only refers to himself as The Baladista, however later on, Paimon refers to him as Scaramuccia, even though he only introduced himself under his alias.
Etymology
- Scaramuccia is derived from a common character in the commedia dell'arte, a type of Italian theater. He is usually a character with a variety of different villainous traits, but is primarily unscrupulous and unreliable with a penchant for intrigue, leading to difficult situations.
- His real name, Kunikuzushi (Japanese: 国 崩), literally means "Destroyer of the country" in Japanese.
- The word commonly refers to a character of villainous origin in kabuki, a traditional form of Japanese popular drama. Kunikuzushi usually appears in works whose subject is O-Ie Soudou (noble family disputes) and conspires to usurp a country. Kunikuzushi is considered to be one of the most heinous, yet energetic and prominent characters in kabuki, and his importance often calls for the role of the boss or star of a kabuki company. These Kunikuzushi kabuki traits fit Scaramuccia's story and personality in the game.
