Divine Maidens, the Holy Blood, and The Noble House of Schariac
The first of three profiles of the Noble Houses of Schicksal. This article has a voiceover!
Fairest Schariac,
Maid of Schicksal.
Purest of Heart,
Your beauty eternal.
Flora abyssal,
a Key of the past.
Take my blood,
and end your fast.
House Schariac - the most mysterious of the Three Noble Houses of Schicksal. With the iconography of the "Divine Maiden", the members of the Schariac lineage are believed to inherit the “Holy Blood,” a powerful gift that gives its wielders immense control over Honkai energy, as well as the ability to completely neutralize Honkai energy and infections using their blood. However, certain events in various manga and the game seem to contradict their possession of "natural" gifts and suggest that Schariac is a name given by Schicksal (and its ruling family, House Apocalypse) to powerful Valkyries, alongside the naturally occurring lineage. By examining notable members of the bloodline and collating information from Honkai Impact 3rd’s scattered material, I hope to shed some more light on the most enigmatic House of Schicksal.
Heavy Spoiler warning!
While many members of House Schariac do not feature dominantly in the events of Honkai Impact 3rd’s main story, I will be referencing material and characters as late as Chapters 33-34. If you want to enjoy the story to its fullest, I highly encourage you to play through the game and read through the manga first!
Notable Members
The earliest known Schariac that is presented to us as more than a name is Eleanor Schariac. In the events of Elan Palatinus - around 500 years before the main story of HI3rd - Eleanor is corrupted by the Great Plague wrought by the Honkai, but is cured by Otto Apocalypse, youngest son of the Overseer at the time. Otto "names" her a Schariac1 and she is the first known wielder of the Abyss Flower in the Current Era, where she is seen using it against Kallen Kaslana2 when the latter rebels against Schicksal and House Apocalypse. Given the heavy toll the Abyss Flower exerts on its wielders and her “unnatural” speed and strength according to Kallen, we can infer that she is significantly stronger than the average Valkyrie - most likely a result of Otto’s cure and being able to control Honkai energy. In her final confrontation with Kallen, Eleanor breaks open the seal on the ‘black box’, attempting to harness the powers of the Herrscher of Corruption and is twisted into a powerful Honkai beast. Kallen manages to trap and defeat the twisted Honkai beast, but ultimately it is Otto who deals the final blow, using a recreation of the Judgement of Shamash to destroy the Honkai beast’s core. However, Otto preserves her body for research, and her remains are used as the “template”3 for the new Honkai-energy-wielding Valkyries of the Current Era.
The most relevant (and perhaps most significant) member of House Schariac is Cecilia, Kiana's mother and Siegfried Kaslana’s wife. Cultivated to be a “Herrscher Killer” from birth by Otto, Cecilia meets and falls in love with Siegfried4 (whose Kaslana lineage, at the time, was hidden from her) in the events leading up to the Second Eruption. Initially, Otto tries to keep the couple apart, keeping Cecilia in seclusion within Schicksal, but Siegfried’s steadfast determination and Cecilia’s reduced combat performance force Otto to pivot5 to his backup plan: letting the couple be together and seeing if the combined bloodlines of Kaslana and Schariac can produce an even more powerful Valkyrie. Cecilia and Siegfried have a child named Kiana, but unfortunately following the Second Eruption wrought by Sirin, the Herrscher of the Void, Cecilia loses her life and Siegfried becomes estranged from their biological child, instead caring for and raising the clone ‘K423,’ made using Kiana Kaslana and Sirin’s genes.
While gifted from birth and considered Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie ever, in the Second Eruption manga it is mentioned by Otto that he still does need to modify Cecilia’s body in order for her to wield the “complete” Holy Blood, which she uses in the climactic ending of the manga to clear a path for Siegfried and neutralize the effects of Sirin's Herrscher core cascade. She is the first known wielder of the Schariac ability to completely negate Honkai energy, and Cecilia’s sacrifice ultimately births the “crystallization” of the Schariac stigmata - Hare.
A mysterious woman who claims to be the crystallization of the Schariac stigmata, and a “result” of Project Stigma6, Hare inherits much of the memories, dreams, and ideals of House Schariac but not their emotions, leading to her strange existence as a knowledgeable but naïve individual. After her birth in the aftermath of the Second Eruption, the existence later known as Hare meets Alexandra Zaychik, a pregnant woman who successfully receives the “gift of stigmata”, strengthening her body and saving her from the bitter environment. Hare develops a deep bond with Alexandra over the next few days, and is also given her name, Misteln. However, Alexandra, upon learning that this would mean the sacrifice of her unborn child, ultimately refuses to keep the stigmata, choosing her own death over the loss of her child’s future. Hare is pulled back into Stigmata space and never gets to meet Alexandra or her newborn child Bronya. Later, in Chapter 33, she confronts and tests Bronya about her ideals and convictions (though concealing their shared past), and Bronya ultimately rediscovers herself during Hare’s trial, metamorphosing her Herrscher core and ascending to become the Herrscher of Truth.
Misteln possesses powers far beyond what regular members of House Schariac are known to wield. While she represents no one individual but rather the entire house, she does not appear to exhibit control and mastery over Honkai energy, as the other legendary Schariacs, but she instead has the power to implant stigmata in others and understand the “stories” of the people and things she encounters. Upon her birth, she radiated a field of Honkai energy so powerful that those without stigmata would die quickly upon being in her presence, and even Gray Serpent’s bodies and the mechanical Titans of Anti-Entropy withered away quickly when she was near. I assume that at some point between the aftermath of Second Eruption and the events of Chapter 33, she had learned to control those powers, as she seems to cooperate and be in the company of others much more frequently. Another possibility is that those who happened to stumble into her were our main trio, all Herrschers, and other Stigma Awakened, so naturally had great resistance against her withering effect. In any case, while Misteln does resemble the Abyss Flower and carries the memories of the Schariacs as a crystallization of the Schariac stigmata, her powers are ultimately not particularly related to the Holy Blood and the regular human members of the House.
Bianka Ataegina, more commonly known as Durandal, is the biological daughter of Cecilia Schariac and Siegfried Kaslana. Named Kiana at birth, she displayed no exceptional powers during her childhood and while Otto was disappointed about this, Cecilia was relieved7 as it meant that her daughter would not be forced into service of Schicksal as a Valkyrie. Kiana was raised on a Schicksal base by Cecilia and Siegfried until the tragedy of the Second Eruption, where Cecilia sacrificed herself to neutralize the massive Honkai radiation in Siberia. After the Second Eruption, Siegfried raised Kiana alone, and during a plan to abduct one of Otto’s experimental clones, Kiana would take a deadly fall8, becoming estranged from her father who had escaped Schicksal pursuit with the clone.
After this incident, Kiana was retrieved by a Schicksal Valkyrie - Ragna Lodbrok - and would be nursed back to health by Otto back at Schicksal. Unbeknownst to her, Otto had also taken the liberty to tamper with her memories and give her a new beginning. After she awoke, she picked a new name, Bianka Ataegina, and was raised at an orphanage where she crossed paths again with Ragna (though Bianka did not remember their first encounter), who would lose her life in a raid in Siberia. After Ragna’s death, Bianka joins Schicksal as a young Valkyrie-trainee and embarks on her path towards becoming Schicksal’s strongest Valkyrie. By the age of 12, she had already risen to A-rank, and, in the events of the Durandal visual novel, embarked on an epic adventure in the Sea of Quanta. Through a long series of trials and tribulations best suited for a separate article, Bianka assumes responsibility for a lively bubble universe and takes on the name “Durandal” for herself, pledging to protect that world. She dedicates herself to her training and molds herself into the most powerful S-rank Valkyrie of Schicksal.
By the time we meet Durandal in the main story, she is already a legendary figure in the eyes of the main trio, and leads Schicksal’s most elite squadron - the Immortal Blades - along with her adjutant Rita Rossweise. Durandal appears all but invincible when confronting Raiden Mei and Kiana (K423) in Chapter 15, when she abducts Kiana to Schicksal’s North Africa base in an attempt to harness the powers of the Herrscher of the Void. Only under cover of a World Serpent attack was Kiana able to escape the watchful eye of Durandal, who seems to have softened her stance on Kiana’s character. World Serpent and Schicksal would later collaborate to neutralize the threat of the Herrscher of Ice, an incident that would see yet another unlikely alliance formed by Mei and Durandal. Together, they narrowly triumph over the combined Herrscher of Rimestar, and part ways, having both achieved their goals.
In Kolosten, Durandal becomes wary of Otto’s plans and after a short confrontation, he throws her into a strange stigmata space, a collection of memories of important members of House Kaslana. There, she learns about her birthright - the living legacy of not one, but two of the great Houses and an inheritor of their powers. Her Schariac blood gives her “perfect” Honkai adaptability, allowing her to be unaffected by intense Honkai energy, while her Kaslana genetics allow her to tap into the ancestral powers of the House. Her Palatinus Equinox battlesuit is the culmination of these two powers acting in harmony, and the Kaslana Will of Stigma describes her as the “goal” of Project Stigma, a human being completely immune to Honkai corruption, with the ability to control it for her own use. By the conclusion of Part 1 of Honkai Impact 3rd, Durandal is one of the strongest individuals in the known world, possessing powerful weapons - the Astral Harness and the Abyss Flower, a legendary heritage of two Noble Houses, and no small amount of her own training and skill.
While other Schariacs are known to exist in both the 1500s and the present day, it is unclear whether they are "granted" the name (as Eleanor was) or whether they belong to the natural line of Schariacs carrying the supposed 'Holy Blood'. These include figures such as Sabrina Schariac, Otto’s mother, and Ana Schariac, an A-rank Valkyrie of Schicksal who succumbed to the Honkai and became the Herrscher of Ice, later fusing with Owl to become the combined Herrscher of Rimestar. Otto mentions in Chapter 33 that the Schariac blood in his veins does not carry the ability to completely neutralize the Honkai and only provides a small boost to his Honkai energy resistance.
The most recent and most enlightening description of the innate abilities of the Schariac lineage is revealed to us in Chapter 33 Act 2 - Misteln Schariac’s flashback to her “birth” in the aftermath of the Second Eruption and her encounter with the Abyss Flower and Cecilia’s blood. Calling upon her stigmata-borne ability to understand the story of the lance and the blood, she witnesses a scene in which Otto tells Cecilia the power of her heritage and the method he uses to “unlock” her Holy Blood. The abilities of the Schariac lineage are described as inherently contradictory, allowing its wielders to both strengthen and manipulate the Honkai energy innate to them, as well as completely neutralize it. Otto details the process of creating the Holy Blood as basically ‘sorting’ through the genetic mutations in Cecilia’s body, making sure that the parts which allow her blood to neutralize Honkai energy are refined but limited to her blood itself, while allowing her body to manifest the other side - wielding the Honkai energy as her own. If both were allowed to exist unfettered Cecilia would most likely be no stronger than the average Valkyrie (which explains Otto’s own Schariac heritage conferring little to no extraordinary powers). Only through a process of meticulous refinement and sorting (over hundreds of years!) was Otto able to compartmentalize the contradictory Schariac mutations. As proof of his work, Cecilia is the first Schariac to display the “true” abilities that the House is believed to possess (in parallel with how Siegfried also awakens his House’s dormant powers) and both Kiana and Bianka exhibit exceptional Honkai resistance, with Kiana having the ability to resist multiple Herrscher cores, and Bianka possessing “perfect” Honkai adaptability, allowing her to fully harness the powers of the Kaslana stigmata without the downsides.
The Spear of Destiny is the serum that is used by Himeko during “Final Lesson” to force-eject (temporarily, at least) Sirin’s persona from Kiana (K423)’s body, and the only currently known way to “cure” Honkai infection. It is synthesized from the HSN-b46 solution created by a Schicksal researcher named Dr. Magi, and is closely related to the Holy Blood. In the main story, there are two notable mentions of how the serum was created and its relationship with Cecilia: Chapters 9 and 33. However, these seem to contradict each other - either a simple mistake in the many years between the writing of these two chapters or an intentional retcon. Let’s take a look.
The Chapter 9 version…
In Chapter 9, Himeko and Tesla are running amok in Schicksal’s laboratories searching for the so-called ‘Spear of Destiny’ at Fu Hua’s behest. HSN-b46 is one component of creating the legendary serum, first mentioned in the Moon Shadow manga. At the end of the manga, Dr. Magi gives the serum to Fu Hua, instructing her to give a dose to Kiana due to her proximity to the overloading Gem, and to give the rest to Himeko at Kiana’s request. This would remove her ability to wield Honkai energy as a Valkyrie but would extend her lifetime, essentially “retiring” her from service. By Chapter 9, Fu Hua has given the serum to Himeko, who passed it off to Tesla to recreate the ‘Spear of Destiny,’ the completed serum, from HSN-b46 and various other materials available in the laboratory. They uncover some of Otto’s notes on the creation of the serum, where we learn that HSN-b46 is the “last step” to complete the Holy Blood. He also details HSN-b46’s abilities to neutralize Honkai energy, which is consistent with the description of the serum given in Moon Shadow. Tesla successfully synthesizes the Spear of Destiny using Otto’s notes, and Himeko pays the ultimate price to inject it into Kiana, dispelling her from Sirin’s influence and end the Battle of Schicksal. Here, it is implied that the Holy Blood is the Spear of Destiny, and that without HSN-b46, Cecilia’s powers would not be complete.
…versus the Chapter 33 version
When Hare revisits Cecilia’s memories in Chapter 33, she witnesses a scene where Otto reveals that the “Spear of Destiny” is not one and the same with the Holy Blood, and that cloning the Holy Blood that Cecilia already possesses is just the “first step.” While he does detail the exceptional abilities of her blood as a weapon against the Honkai, he forbids her from using it, as he has not made adequate progress in the synthesis of the Spear of Destiny. This is also the moment where Otto connects the dots for us, that the Schariac stigmata is basically a mutation that causes the negation of Honkai energy. We seem to be somewhat at odds with the earlier rendition of this concept; in Chapter 9 Holy Blood seems to be the end goal, whereas in Chapter 33, it is an ingredient.
Nevertheless, the somewhat dramatically ironic result is that in the Final Lesson animated short, the completed Spear of Destiny is injected into Kiana (K423), essentially using her mother’s blood to temporarily clear her mind of Sirin’s influence, much like how Durandal’s ascension to Equinox was heavily aided by Cecilia’s blood flowing through her veins.
One recurring trait across the notable Schariacs is their use of Abyss Flower, the Divine Key created from the core of the Previous Era's Herrscher of Death. It comes in two parts: the Black Abyss - a spear with the ability to wither away those it touches, and the White Flower - a lance with the ability to heal, draining the user’s vitality in the process. Eleanor is the first Schariac known to wield the Divine Key9, first seen in Elan Palatinus wielding the Black Abyss against Kallen. Cecilia wields the combined Abyss Flower for most of her Valkyrie career, and after her death Otto takes it back for safekeeping. When Durandal reaches the age of 15, Otto gifts her the Divine Key, and she is the one who possesses it up until the latest chapter of the main story. Misteln Schariac’s visual design also bears a striking resemblance to the lance, though she never wields it herself. The Abyss Flower can be seen as a ‘reflection’ of the contradictory nature of House Schariac - while the Abyss controls destruction, the Flower controls creation, much like how the Schariac stigmata both enhances and negates Honkai energy.
The Abyss Flower’s toll on those that carry it can be seen in great detail in Second Eruption, when Shigure Kira retrieves the weapon10 after Sirin abducts Cecilia into the shared dream created by Fenghuang Down. It appears that even holding the weapon for a moment immediately begins affecting Kira with telltale Honkai infection lines. The other Divine Keys, even those as powerful as Judgement of Shamash, do not appear to instantly begin to infect their user, implying that Abyss Flower is perhaps one of the more dangerous Divine Keys to wield, and thus must only be used by those with extraordinarily high Honkai resistance. Of course, this basically boils down to MANTIS soldiers, whose bodies are surgically enhanced by Honkai genes, or the members of House Schariac, whose stigmata gives them the ability to negate Abyss Flower’s corrupting effects.
The three Great Houses of Schicksal feature heavily in the early Honkai Impact 3rd narratives, providing the background for some of the story’s most overarching themes. The sinister, unseen guiding hand of Otto Apocalypse, the Kaslana’s shared oath to humanity, and the guiding light of the ‘Divine Maiden’ all shape the story we know and love as Honkai Impact 3rd. While I did enjoy writing this content, I do hope you will go and read the various manga and visual novels adjacent to the main story of Honkai Impact 3rd. They are all beautiful works in their own right and I highly recommend you experience them firsthand as well. I hope this profile of House Schariac was interesting and enlightening, and look forward to articles on the other two Houses, as well as other interesting bits of Honkai franchise lore.
zuiKatsu is an avid fan of the Honkai franchise and has a few too many hobbies. If you’re interested in his keyboard building, FPS warrior-ing, amateur voice acting, and of course more about the Honkai franchise, you can find more over at https://zuikatsu.carrd.co/
the Second Eruption manga, chapter 17: Undying Dreams
Most of the content on Durandal is from the in-game main story, Chapter 28 Act 2
from the version 5.5 trailer, Equinox Gate
the Second Eruption manga, chapter 52: Final Gambit