Wanderer ✦ Eons Adrift

OOC Information
Name/handle: sky
Discord contact: skycompass
Other contact: Tenkomi
Pronouns: She/her
Permissions link: Here!
Do you have a reserve for this character?: Yeppers

IC Information
Canon: Genshin Impact
Character: Wanderer
Canon point: After all Sumeru patches, including the Inversion of Genesis Interlude Chapter and all limited-time events up to Patch 4.0.
Canon intensity: Genshin gets dark in lore and NPC sidequests, but it's not a horror game. On the surface it's generally action/adventure, with a few intense moments in the story. Nothing truly violent gets shown on screen (maybe except that one time Albedo stabbed his double)
World information: Genshin is a Fantasy RPG aimed at the teen-adult demographic! Nothing explicitly graphic or dark is really shown on screen, but there are a lot of dark undertones in side quests and on occasion, the main story quest. However, the tone of the game is generally upbeat with graphics that reflect that.
Character biofacts: 450+ years old, male, divine puppet. Physically, he looks like a young man in his late teens/early twenties (Not like a fucking kid, Childe)
About the character: Wiki Link for History

Upon first encounter, one would immediately observe the following things about the Wanderer: first, he's beautiful. A pretty face, a slender figure, a well-coordinated blue-white outfit blending Sumeran and Inazuman design, there isn't anything about his appearance that doesn't draw the eye. Second, much to the dismay of those who appreciate the first—he's rude and unpleasant to speak to, for the moment he opens his mouth, what comes out are belittling comments and a general disdain for the person he's addressing. The third point, then, is not a surprise: he's a loner, almost never seen in another person's company, and, if one is adept at reading body language, always seems closed off to the world. With these three points in mind, it's easy to conclude that this is a man who ought to be left alone and only respectfully observed from a distance.

Funny then, that instead of having the menacing reputation this first impression would have you assume he's earned, it turns out he's actually quite popular with the citizens of Sumeru, the place he has chosen to be his abode for the foreseeable future. And the reason for that lies in what his surly, withdrawn attitude hides behind it.

Though the Wanderer may seem like an unfriendly, inconsiderate person, the truth is just the opposite. Created as a proof of concept for the Electro Archon's puppet body double, and meant to be destroyed immediately, the first sign of his individuality and sapience came in the form of tears. And upon seeing those tears, the Electro Archon realized he had a mind of his own, and that he would be too soft to bear the duty of a god. She could not bear to end him, and decided to leave him in an abandoned mansion, alone, but free to choose his own fate, unburdened by her influence and her responsibilities.

Thus set the stage for the tragedy that was the life of a nameless puppet who was never meant to exist.

The Electro Archon was not wrong in her judgment. Though she viewed her actions as setting the puppet free, the puppet did not feel the same. Rather, he believed that he'd been abandoned by her. After all, wasn't she his mother? Shouldn't she care for him, her child? Such sentimental thinking would not have suited a god's body double, or even a god's assistant. He would be hurt all too easily by the decisions gods make in the name of their divine ideal or their nation.

And this is the truth of the Wanderer's character. At his core, he is a soft, sensitive individual who craves love, having never received it from the person he considered his mother. Because of his sensitivity, he loves quickly and deeply, and hurts just as much when betrayed. If he'd been raised in a loving environment and given time to mature into a well-rounded adult, he would be as pleasant as the personality he displayed when he lost the memories of his troubled life, and even sweeter than that. But alas, his tale is a tragedy, and the strongest influences on his character are what the Wanderer himself labels the "three betrayals" that changed his perception of the world.

The first is the betrayal of his mother. She abandoned him, deprived him of her love, and didn't even provide him the guidance he would have needed to navigate the world safely. He must have been useless to her. All she wanted was power, wasn't it? Thus arose his hatred for the gods, and his twisted desire to be useful to others. After all, one's worth could only be in how useful they are to someone else, right? So long as he could be useful, he would not complain about his treatment, and would do whatever is asked of him. This obedience persists through the vast changes in his almost five centuries of his life that it is even apparent to the Traveler and Paimon, who are used to his unpleasant, uncooperative personality.

The second is the betrayal of a friend. Abandoned by his mother, he had no way to discern right from wrong, normal from abnormal, and no way to even leave the mansion he'd been left in, having never been taught to walk. It was by luck that he was found and taken in by a kindhearted man named Katsuragi, and brought to Tatarasuna, where he would be raised by the swordsmiths and taught everything he needed to know to function like a proper human being. From eating, to clothing himself, and even sword smithing, he learned it all and experienced the happy life of a normal human, marred only by his wish to have a proper human heart, to truly become one of the humans he loved so dearly. It is here that he learns to be kind and considerate, and it is here that he learns how painful bonds can be.

Unbeknownst to him, his existence as a puppet made by the Electro Archon drew the attention of a very dangerous individual: Il Dottore, a Harbinger of the Fatui. Having decided that the puppet would make for a spectacular research subject, Dottore set out destroy the puppet's happy life and manipulate him into becoming a Fatui member centuries down the line. He disguised himself as a Fontainain mechanic, introduced a new, more efficient method of smelting jade steel using the cursed remains of a fallen god, and watched as the situation in Tatarasuna slowly spiraled into chaos, ending in an uncontrollable furnace that put the entire establishment in danger.

It was then that he introduced his manufactured solution: someone would have to enter the furnace with the purification device he devised to calm the furnace down. And the purification device required a human heart to function. So Dottore slew one of the humans the puppet had grown close to—Niwa Hisahide—placed his heart into the device, and sent the puppet into the furnace with it. It was near unbearable for the puppet, but thanks to the device, he managed to survive and calm down the furnace.

This is where the betrayal happened: when the puppet inquired as to what was in the device, the mechanic revealed that his friend killed an innocent servant and placed their heart into the device before running away to escape punishment for this entire incident. The puppet had always wanted a heart, but one obtained through murder was a terrible, cursed thing. That such cruelty was what saved his life... and it was someone he trusted and loved so dearly that enacted it... he felt betrayed by Niwa, and left Tatarasuna in disgust. Humans could be so cruel and disgusting. Thus the seed for his hatred of humanity was planted.

But he wasn't done with humans just yet. Though he disliked them, he ended up meeting a sickly young boy soon after leaving Tatarasuna. Kind as he was, he could not bear to leave the boy alone. So he decided to care for the boy, and grew attached to him. Eventually, he viewed the sickly boy, parentless and without name, just like him, as a friend, and as family.

Here is where he experienced the third and final betrayal. In one night, quiet and unsuspecting, the boy passed away while he was out scavenging for food and furniture. In one night, he was left alone again. In one night, he learned of the fragility of humanity. In one night, his life crumbled around him as he despaired over the futility of life. Love, friendship, family—if he could have none of those, then what was the point in living?

It would have been better if he never existed in the first place.

He set fire to the wooden house they lived in, and hoped that he would burn alongside it. But as a creation of the Electro Archon—as a proof of concept for an unchanging, eternal puppet that would rule in the Electro Archon's stead, he could never die to such mundane hazards. He lived, and despised that fact.

He would never be able to live amongst humanity, so traitorous that they are, so fleeting that they are. He was an immortal puppet without a heart, and they, ephemeral creatures that would only hurt him. Never again would he trust another, and never again would he wish to be a human. He discarded his name, and grew bitter and angry at the world.

His misanthropic view of the world would be further encouraged by the Fatui, the organization that he ends up joining a century later. There, he witnesses the scheming of the powerful, selfish and greedy Harbingers, is subjected to experimentation by Dottore, and is sent on long expeditions into the cold, violent Abyss, a place humans could not survive in. He would concoct a centuries long plan to destroy all the swordsmithing clans of Inazuma in revenge for Niwa's betrayal, a demonstration of how deeply he hurts and his capacity to hold long grudges. He would burn with a desire to become god, to reclaim the purpose he should have been given, and defy the fate he'd been handed, and nearly succeed, even at the cost of his own ego, his own sense of self. In world that has denied him love, family, friendship, and even death, he felt that he had no other choice but to carve out his own place at all costs.

All of this, because he was too soft and sensitive to bear the world's cruelty, and was never shielded from it by the woman who should have cared for him like a mother.

All of this, because of a lie he believed for hundreds of years. For it wasn't Niwa who carved out the heart of an innocent person and gifted it to the naive puppet, no. It was Dottore. It was a fabrication, a deception, that formed the lynchpin of his hatred for humanity. It is this one incident that coloured his perception of humanity, because it is this one truth that causes everything to fall apart once more. He had never been betrayed by the people he loved. It was not Niwa who gifted him a cursed heart. No, it was Niwa's heart that saved him in the end. Though not willingly given, it was a heart that was not filled with malice or hatred, no. It was a heart filled with love.

...what has he done?

The swordsmithing clans he destroyed, the research he's given Dottore, that bastard—the people he's hurt, the people who died because of him—it'd all been for nothing. Even his hatred, his pain, his desire for godhood, everything—it'd meant nothing at all. But this realization came as he was searching through Irminsul, the World Tree. The record of Teyvat's history. ...the one place that might be able to change everything. He had a chance, just one chance, to realize something he's believed in for so long now. And if it worked, then maybe, just maybe, he could undo all the damage he's done. So, he made a wish to Irminsul.

I wished I never existed in the first place.

And Irminsul responded—but not in the way he wanted it to. Consider this: a hole has been torn into a tapestry. Which is easier: to undo the tapestry until it's pristine and remake what has been undone, or to repair the hole with the loose threads of the tapestry and a little extra thread to hold it altogether? The puppet had wanted the former. Irminsul decided the latter. So what happened in reality was that all the deaths he tried to erase still occurred. Only the cause changed, for he no longer existed in Teyvat's history. In the end, he saved no one.

However, his removal from history did not mean he no longer existed in the present. That was simply not possible, not even for the Rukkhadevata, the original Dendro Archon, who had concocted Nahida, the second Dendro Archon, to erase her completely from Irminsul. What hope did a mere puppet who attained godhood for only a moment have in erasing himself completely? So he was remade into a nameless wanderer, completely detached from his past. Just a puppet without a purpose. Never known by the Fatui, never taken in by the people of Tatarasuna.

As a pristine, blank sheet of paper, his core traits become evident. Kind and considerate, and lost without a purpose to define his life. He helps a merchant with his work for no payment, because the merchant extended a hand out to help him in a storm. He is perceptive, if not a little absentminded from his lack of attachment to the world. And because of the void within himself, he decides to accept the memories of his past life, and assume the burden of his sins once more. To make it his purpose to atone for what he's done.

As the Wanderer, now working alongside the Dendro Archon, the same unfriendly behaviour he exhibited as the Balladeer now had a different reason behind it. Whereas before, he'd held a genuine hatred for humanity and reveled in people's pain and suffering, his surly attitude is now a defense for the soft heart he never lost. Even as the Balladeer, he had been kind to children and the elderly, and now, his kindness extended to all of humanity, whom he had decided to give another chance (for the betrayal was never a betrayal, and humanity had not deserved the rage he brandished in his pain.)

His kindness is evident in his actions, and to his displeasure, easily picked up on by others. Due to the sins he bears, he no longer has the heart to be truly vicious to those who don't deserve it and those he doesn't bear a grudge against (the Fatui, and especially Dottore, will never be forgiven.) Even his words can be interpreted as concern if you look past how offensive it sounds. He obeys Nahida readily, even if it means being saddled with a very stupid name and enrolled into the Akademiya. He tries to encourage Layla in the Interdarshan Championship, when she doubted her ability to accomplish the tasks. He showed up with water for Tighnari when the man was suffering from heat stroke. He allows himself to be dragged around by the students of the Akademiya, despite his obvious displeasure and preference for solitude. That people actually want to celebrate his birthday is more than enough proof that he's formed bonds with humanity once more, no matter how much he denies his desire for them, or denies that he cares for people.

It's not to say that he's lost the anger and rage he once held. No—the abandoned puppet, the naive Kabukimono, the raging Kunikuzushi, the scheming Balladeer—they are all him, and will always be, now and forever. Even the nameless, aimless wanderer who could not form a connection to the world is him. All of the sins they committed are his, and all of the consequences that will arise are also his to bear.

He is the puppet with no heart, who loves too deeply and hurts too easily. The Dendro Archon's assistant, who received the name Hat Guy with exasperation, but bears it all the same. The puppet whose past is his future, whose purpose is to bear his sins. The Traveler's ally, seeking an opportunity to pay them back for the favour they've done him. The puppet who was denied love, friendship and family, and in turn denied the world his love. A scholar of Vahumana—with students chasing after him, and scholars praising his essays, and a god who looks out for him, even if he tries to deny her aid.

He is the Wanderer, a kind-hearted person who hides his soft heart behind a barricade of rudeness and solitary behaviour and seeks to atone for the sins of his past.

Abilities: As a divine puppet, he has supernatural stamina and endurance, as well as a resistance to eldritch corruption, and an immunity to poison or anything that would affect an organic being. As a Vision holder, he has command of the wind, which manifests as wind blades for attacks and the ability to fly as he pleases. Otherwise, he's fairly unremarkable on account of nerfing himself by accident. Good job buddy!
Noteworthy items: His Anemo Vision and his catalyst Tulaytullah's Remembrance. He also carries a tiny little doll of himself hidden in a pocket. Does his very impressive hat count? |D
Mixed gender room ok?: Yep!
Player content notes/squicks: Nawp.
Voice samples: TDM Top Level!

code @ efryndiel