Kallen Kaslana was the most famous Valkyrie warrior who has ever lived. She became the captain of Schicksal's valkyries in 1469 when she was only 16 years old after passing the trials and was Otto's only friend.
Appearance[]
As a Kaslana, Kallen has the trademark long white, single braided hair and ribbon-tied with a black bow and cerulean eyes. During her years as a member of the Church, Kallen was typically dressed in white gold-embroidered priestess clothes, centered with a cross, white leggings, and a golden Kaslana sigil just under her neck. Later, as the Rogue Extraordinaire, Kallen dons a raven mask and an extravagant purple and blue attire and leggings, with a purple rose under her neck. When Kallen departs from her life in Europe, she exchanges her clothes for a black and white nun outfit, and a red ribbon around her neck.
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Kallen in her rogue costume
Personality[]
Due to her household, Kallen is a very devoted believer in justice and defending the innocent. After her own father's untimely death, she had fully committed to a life of endless fighting and risks for the sake of humanity. Despite these serious traits, Kallen is far from them, as she carries a breezy aura of kindness and almost childlike awe at the world. She also has a sweet tooth and a knack for flair and extravagance, as seen when she was immersed heavily with Shakespeare's dramatic plays and her taking the mantle of the Rogue Extraordinaire. Kallen does everything with an undying passion and determination, but also would often opt to see the good in people, no matter what.
History[]
Born into the Kaslana family to Francis Kaslana, Kallen was the youngest of six children.[7] In 1465, a twelve-year old Kallen meets a thirteen year old Otto, who's flying contraption she had witnessed, and the two became friends. A year later, however, her father perishes, defending her and Otto from honkai beasts when they were eavesdropping on his mission. Three years later, Kallen would have passed the trials and become captain of Schicksal's valkyries, where she will spend the next eight years of her life sealing more than 1000 honkai beasts[8], as well as wielding the Oath of Judah. However, in 1475 at the Battle of Kipchak Steppe, Schicksal forces were forced to stop their conquest eastward by The Celestial, who wounded and defeated Kallen. This was the waking point for Kallen as The Celestial asked her if she knew what she was really protecting.
Because of this, Kallen returned to Europe and over the course of the year, began to see the injustices inflicted on the people by the Church she swore under. In an effort to mitigate these harms, she took on the mantle of Rogue Extraordinaire, stealing from the clergy and giving to the poor. Unfortunately, she had only managed to scratch the tip of the iceberg that was Schicksal's secrets and soon uncovered the Black Box experiments that Otto played a hand in. Seeing her former best friend sit on the side, opposite of hers, solidified Kallen's resolve as she fled with the Black Box eastward in search of the Celestial.
After being greeted with only a burning mountaintop, Kallen goes even further east before getting ambushed by Schicksal forces and washing up in Yae Village. Yae Sakura had been nearby and noticed the blood-tainted streams which led her to discover the unconscious foreigner. Taking Kallen back, Sakura nursed her back to health and, after exchanging greetings, went off to exterminate some village threats. Kallen soon realized that the threat Sakura faced was a powerful honkai beast and arrived in time to rescue her. From there, Kallen swears to stand by Sakura's side, casting light into the lonely miko's life. The two then had a brief time of peace before it was revealed that the Black Box's crack had allowed the Herrscher of Corruption to infect Sakura's grievances against her village for taking her sister away. Inevitably, the corrupted Sakura fought with Kallen, forcing Kallen to seal her away.
Heartbroken and having lost many reasons to live, Kallen surrenders to Schicksal forces and is brought back to Europe for her trial, where she continues to defy the Church's orders for her to repent. This led the trial to sentence her to death in the gallows, which she embraced willingly. However, Otto would not let her succumb to such a fate and, after failing to convince her on taking a way out and a nudge from his sister, released honkai beasts on the spectating crowd during Kallen's execution. Amidst the chaos, Kallen refuses to abandon the innocents in danger and dives in despite her wounds, which lead to her death in a final stance as a shield for the people.
Elan Palatinus[]
Following the aftermath of the defeat in the East, the Elan Palatinus manga explains the events that lead to Kallen's departure from Europe. When Otto and Kallen returned to the cities in 1476, Kallen noticed the more hostile mood of the public towards the Church and began questioning the indulgences. Otto is able to divert her attention, however, by bringing her to a dessert shop called "Greenbucks Coffee." Afterwards, though, the two would encounter Viktor hassling a florist for payment on the indulgence that would repay her husband's "sins." As collateral, Viktor tries to take Sasha, the florist's daughter, away, but Kallen intervenes. Recognizing her attire, Viktor claims that the sales were only necessary because the crusaders like her, had failed them. When Otto appeared, though, Viktor backs off while Kallen tries to comfort the florist, who refuses it. Dejected, Kallen is angry at why the Church was willing to go against the book and for allowing Viktor to scuttle away. Otto brushes her thoughts for vengeance aside, by citing another phrase from the book that made it wrong, before leading Kallen to Shakespeare's play.
During the play, infuriated clergymen ordered for the actor's arrest, which causes Kallen to spring into action by taking up Shakespeare's dropped raven mask, much to the cheers of the audience. Despite being saved by Kallen, Shakespeare brushes the Kaslana aside, not wanting to be associated with a church sister but allowing Kallen to keep the raven mask. Kallen, though, is unfazed and promises to watch Shakespeare's next performance. That night, Kallen contemplates her next actions when Otto enters. As if hit by eureka, Kallen jumps from her seat and claims the best course of action was stealing from Viktor and returning it to the people, and enlists Otto's help. The Apocalypse abides but convinces her to leave a message to Viktor as it was something the "Rogue Extraordinaire" would do. The next day, Viktor had sealed the secret in his basement, and while Otto distracted the guards outside, Kallen slipped inside the priest's home.
When Kallen finds the storage of coins, Viktor springs the trap and recognizes her, due to her not hiding her hair color. In an effort to protect her identity, Kallen begins to spit lines of Shakespeare's poems, which confuses Viktor and his men. Soon the cloud obscured the moon and Kallen disengages all of Viktor's men before throwing a smoke bomb and hauling the gold out the window, much to the priest's surprise ("it took 10 men to carry all that money!"). That night, the town saw a small rain of coins landing by their feet and homes.
The following morning, Eleanor Schariac and Kallen are investigating Viktor's robbery, with Eleanor becoming extremely frustrated with Kallen subtly defending the recent acts of defiance. When Kallen insists being angry at forcing other people to pay for her failure wasn't heresy, Eleanor storms off, calling Kallen a fool and an idiot for failing the crusade in her mind. Meanwhile, Viktor is insisting he knows who stole from him, but Otto diverts the conversation back to the matter with the Black Box.
Some time later, Kallen discovers Otto holding a new purple serum and he claims that it was to combat the new potent form of the Black Plague, which she believes. That night, she dons the Rogue's mantle and robs from the rich again, but soon witnesses some hooded men kidnapping Sasha from the florist shop. Giving chase, Kallen ends up back at Viktor's house and spots a glow from the basement. After failing to pry the bars on the basement door apart, Viktor appears and Kallen apprehends him, forcing him to open the door for her. Inside, Kallen sees six crosses with unconscious girls surrounding Sasha, who was on a cross in the middle, with a strange Black Box. Furious, Kallen demands an explanation from Viktor while Otto is hiding around the corner, wondering how Kallen had found her way back here. Eventually, Viktor tries to persuade her that it was for the sake of curing the new potent Black Death before revealing the truth of obtaining the Black Box's powers and avenging their defeat in the East.
Right as he said this, Eleanor arrives with her own valkyries and exposes Kallen under the mask. Kallen tries to persuade her that forcing innocents in these trials was wrong but Eleanor refuses to listen to any other reasoning than her loyalty to the Church. Angry that Kallen was only evading, Eleanor demands a real fight which earns her a foot square in the stomach as she skids back. Kallen repeats not wanting to fight, and yet Eleanor continues by summoning Abyss Flower's spear. The vapors on the spear quickly weakens Kallen but before Eleanor could kill her, Otto intervenes and reveals his involvement much to Kallen's surprise.
Imprisoned, Kallen is visited by Otto, who tries to reason with her, the good of sacrifice. Being a Kaslana, bound by duties and inherent morals, Kallen refuses to treat innocents as a means to an end, swearing to protect them even at the cost of her life. When Otto erupts and condemns her self-sacrificing values by bringing up her dead father, Kallen slaps him and yells through tears that Francis' name should never be trampled like that, insisting that he would have burned the whole dungeon down to save everyone. In an attempt to make amends, Otto says he'll try to get Sasha and her released. Later, Kallen escorts Sasha back to her mother, but feels empty inside. For the first time, she began to understand why the Kaslanas had always walked along as "the boy [she] once knew had lied," when power revealed the true nature. Kallen then visits her father's grave, asking for guidance on what she should do next.
After consulting with the tomb and instilling the Kaslana's oath onto her mind, Kallen breaches the Church when they extract the core from the Black Box. As Eleanor condemns her heresy, Kallen recalls the Celestial's question, and could finally give an answer as she wields Judah to its full extent, easily suppressing Eleanor and her black spear. However, the Schariac then absorbs the core, which is revealed to the Previous Era's Herrscher of Corruption, transforming into a full Honkai Beast. Though shocked, Kallen recovers and while Eleanor boasts her new abilities, quickly binds her completely with Judah. Otto then appears and Kallen tells him that the box was never meant to save anyone, given Eleanor's state. While they were conversing, Eleanor tried a sneak attack behind Kallen but Otto reacted faster and killed her with a mimicry of Shamash.
With the core cracked, the Herrscher of Corruption breaks free and tries to possess Kallen, dragging into the depths of her consciousness. Though being suppressed, Kallen rejects the Herrscher's offer of more power and this sheer determination manifests a force of will that forces the Herrscher back into the box. Kallen then wakes up and brushes Otto's concerns aside, saying that there was a dire need in taking the Black Box as far away from Europe as possible, where it could hurt no one else. Thus, the two parted, will Kallen beginning her journey to the Far East and her eventual tragic fate.
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Notes[]
- ↑ Links to page for AE Invasion because the official manga site is incorrectly organized and all the chapters of St. Freya High are found under the AE Invasion page instead of the St. Freya High page, which only contains two chapters.
References[]
- ↑ Kolosten map, Chapter XXVI to Chapter XXVIII
- ↑ https://bbs.mihoyo.com/bh3/wiki/content/31/detail?bbs_presentation_style=no_header
- ↑ https://twitter.com/houkai3rd/status/899656323280678912
- ↑ St. Freya High
- ↑ The Gratitude Arc, Ep.10: Finale
- In the Far East where cherry trees bloom, was where Sakura met her one soul mate.
- Five centuries forward to a time of doom, Sakura blossomed in the fight against fate.
- ↑ Kallen was born in 1453 as cited by the "Ch.09" chapter located in the "AE Invasion" manga's first half on the EN website.
- ↑ Chapter 21 archive
- "The aftermath of Schicksal's failed eastward conquest hasn't dissipated, yet the youngest Kaslana incurred a scandal."
- ↑ See "Ch.09" in the "AE Invasion" manga's first half on the EN website.