#brighella

So, real quick, the commedia dell’arte is a very early form of professional theatre, that involved specific stock character roles which are largely reflected by the Fatui harbingers via their titles/codenames. Notably, the story of these plays always revolves around two actors that are not reflected by the Harbingers, the Innamorati (lovers), whom the story follows. Our Harbingers are found within the other three classes of actors though. The Zanni, which are the lower class (the harbingers from this group are Pierro, Pulcinella, Scaramouche, Tartaglia, Arlecchino, and Columbina); the Vecchi, which are often wealth and/or older characters (Pantalone and Dottore); and the Il Capitano, who are self-styled captains and braggarts (Capitano himself, La Signora, and sometimes the Scaramouche character). 

So, there is one Harbinger who has not been identified within Genshin Impact and that is the individual who falls in the rank 10 slot. Notably, the only primary and important character(s) from the commedia dell’arte cast that are not represented within the Harbinger group are the Innamorati (The Lovers). These two characters are the lead roles of the commedia dell’arte, so I thought for this analysis, since there isn’t a known rank #10 character, I would consider who might fill the role of the Innamorati. But first, just as with the other analyses, I’ll discuss the stock characters themselves. 

So within the plot of the commedia dell’arte, everything revolved around the Innamorati and, notably, there were two actors for this, one for each lover. Importantly, the female lover (the innamorata) was one of the only actresses actually allowed within the cast as most roles were played by men, though Columbine was an incredibly notable secondary actress who often served as a helper for the Innamorata specifically. However, this was not always the case as there were times that the entire cast, including the female lover, was played by male actors.

The Innamorati characters were, uniquely, not masked within the play and their purpose was to be in love with each other and, often, with themselves. The primary plot of the play was other characters either assisting, or getting in the way of the Innamorati’s romance. Notably, these two characters were either played ridiculous and over the top about everything or completely played straight depending on the play in question. The troubles the Innamorati face ranged from financial interests of their parents or their own personal interests. Importantly, their relationship cannot progress without the help (and often hindrance) of others characters due to the Innamorati’s own stupidity, naivety to the mysteries of love, the emotions involved in falling in love, or the fact they simply cannot figure out that they are in love with each other. The servant characters often act as a sort of go between for the Innamorati, either because they cannot figure out how to communicate, are too shy, or their parents keep getting in the way. However, the play usually ends with the two Innamoarti reconciling any differences and winding up together. Though, sometimes, the Innamorata (female lover) in particular may end up married to one of the male Vecchi (i.e. Pantalone or Dottore) [Note: This is only when the Pantalone or Dottore character(s) were not the parent of the Innamorata and were younger than most variants of the character] or Zanni (i.e. Tartaglia or Arlecchino) characters. Furthermore, there are some occasions that the innamorata role is filled by a different, lower ranking female character (sometimes referred to as the Marinetta) though this was less common and only appeared in late iterations of the Commedia dell’Arte storylines. Similarly, there were times that the Arlecchino or Tartaglia character, or even younger variants of the Pantalone and/or Dottore characters might fill the role of the male lover (In this case there was no Innamorato. Just the Innamorata and their love interest who didn’t follow the Innamorato plot points).

Both of the Innamorati are highly educated and are typically of high social status, but very naive. They can sometimes be selfish and even conceited, however they are also fairly courteous in nature. Importantly, they are not just in love with each other, but also in love with the idea of love.

The Innamorati are usually the son and daughter of the Dottore and/or Pantalone characters, though sometimes only one of those was a parent character (Pantalone in particular usually goes with the Innamorata). Furthermore, the Innamorati were always wholly aware of the audience’s involvement in the story. In fact, they will sometimes even call on the audience for assistance. Additionally, there are a few commedia dell’arte plays where the male Innamorato was in fact of a lower social class for extra drama and interest to his character. This notably emerged as the audience appeared to be growing bored with Innamorato character not receiving the same character growth that was seen in the Innamorata as she evolved to have a bit more personality/attitude (This is possibly due to the subplots specific to the Innamorata’s character which will be discussed below)

There are some common names for each of the Innamorati characters (male and female), but due to the length of this list I will not be supplying that here. However, this list can be easily found on the Innamorati wikipedia page.

It is worth noting in regard to the character growth/evolution that is seen in the Innamorata (the female lover) may be due to that fact that she had some interesting sub-plots that grew more and more popular as the commedia dell’arte plays progressed. For instance, there were times when the Capitano and/or the Arlecchino characters would pursue the innamorata, thereby getting in the way of her romance with the Innamorato (the male lover) character. However, it is also worth noting that the Arlecchino character might also have been a servant to the Innamorato character that mirrored the way the Columbine character often served the Innamorata.

Rank #10 of the Harbingers may or may not fill a role related to the Innamorati. Indeed, the Rank #10 harbinger may actually be long dead or someone else entirely. Furthermore, the Innamorati roles may be filled by some other character(s) that are adjacent to the harbingers, be it other members of the Fatui, important characters in Snezhnaya, or even roles we’ve already been introduced to. For instance, it could be argued that the Tsaritsa could fill one of these roles, or the Traveler. Perhaps the Innamorati are also historical characters.

Another option outside of the Innamorati that I would like to note really quickly is the stock character known as ‘Brighella.’ The Brighella character is sometimes, or was at least once, considered a principal character much like the Innamorata, Pantalone, Dottore, Il Capitano. To explain further, generally speaking within a commedia dell’arte play,each of the four classes (Vecchi, Zanni, Innamorati, and Il Capitano) character will be represented by one to two characters. Early on, the Brighella character was a popular choice to represent a Zanni, or servant/store-owner, character. Notably, the Brighella character was your token cunning servant and can be best understood as the harlequin (Or Arlecchino’s) smarter, more vindictive brother. Now, early on in the span of commedia dell’arte, the Brighella character was a bit of a must have, but as things went one and the Arlecchino/Harlequin’s character became more popular it also developed aspects of the Brighella’s characterization (i.e. the cunning, vindictive, and sometimes generally lusty nature). As such, the Brighella character eventually went from being a must have to being eclipsed by the Arlecchino character. As such, due to the fact we have Alrecchino in Genshin impact as well as other Zanni characters, I’m not holding out a lot of hope for a Brighella character, though it is still a possibility for our mystery 10th Harbinger.

As a jump back into the Innamorati discussion, it’s worth mentioning here that there is a fan theory that Crepus, Diluc’s father, once filled with the rank of the tenth Harbinger and he could have also been the male Innamorati with Diluc’s mother being the female. It is possible, if that were to be the case, that Diluc’s father may have fled the Fatui to be with Diluc’s unnamed mother as a large number of the harbingers get their code names from commedia dell’arte characters that get in the way of the Innamorati’s love story and relationship, though not all of them.

However, with respect to the admittedly compelling Crepus theory, if I were to select just one of the Innamorati to fill the role of the tenth Harbinger, I would actually select the Innamorata (female lover) and the reason behind this is actually quite simple. It’s because as the commedia dell’arte plays progressed, it became somewhat common for the Innamorato (male lover) to be played or even replaced by an already pre-existing character. Indeed, in the case of a younger Dottore or Pantalone, it might be one of those characters. The Tartaglia character was another popular choice as well, and sometimes even Arlecchino got in on the act of filling the role of the Innamorato. 

The Innamorata, however, were less likely to be played by any other role, which is why I feel like if the 10th Harbinger was to be an Inamorati, it would be more likely to be the lady, rather than the man. Furthermore, the Innamorata role is noted to have received more growth through the years than that of the innamorato role, as the innamorata shifted from more tender and loving to a more flirtatious, strong-willed, or witty character, though her tender and loving characteristics were often kept, making for a more complex character that balanced her tenderness with her attitude.