What does Scaramouche mean in Genshin Impact? The story behind Scaramouche’s name

The new Genshin Impact update 3.3 brought a new five-star character to Teyvat and he has many names. Wanderer, Scaramouche, The Balladeer, Kunikuzushi, and many other names have been given to him by the community, and like many characters’ names in Genshin, they all have a deep meaning behind them. 

While Wanderer and Balladeer have clear meanings in the English language, his other names’ meanings might give players a deeper understanding of who he is. 

In Japanese, “Kuni Kuzushi” can be translated as “country destroyer” or “to destroy a country.” The term was used in historical plays called “Kabuki” which took place in the fifteenth century in Japan that depicted past events mixed with some local legends.

In the plates, the character takes the part of an evil conspirator whose objective is to destroy the Emperor and take over the Empire of Japan.

His other name, Scaramouche, might be familiar to players with a certain rock band in their playlists. But the origin of the name comes from another set of plays from Italy. The villainous character is one of the “masks” or figures of “La Commedia dell’Arte—” a theatrical genre born in the sixteenth century. This genre was made popular by one of its main characteristics: all dialogues were improvised on stage by actors with a certain “mask” or type of character—one of those was Scaramouche. Portrayed as a smart and sometimes stupid character, Scaramuccia can be translated to “little skirmish” and was often portrayed by little men always with villainous intentions in their minds. 

Both names derive from a stock character in an old genre of theater, and the Genshin character’s origin story gives a deeper meaning to both. 

The electro archon Raiden Ei wanted to create an indestructible Gnosis-bearing puppet and thus created Scaramouche.

But after he awoke from the slumbering stage she put him in, Scaramouche came to believe that Ei deemed him a failure and so abandoned him. After being betrayed by both humans and gods, Scaramouche wanted to destroy all things in Teyvat.

With the help of the Dendro Archon and the Traveler, he freed himself and transformed from a puppy in someone else’s play to the author of his own story.