Troupe Mouthpiece
| NPC | Enemy | Trivia |
The Troupe Mouthpiece is an NPC in Arknights. He is one of the antagonists of Phantom & Crimson Solitaire.
Background
Originally known as Ahrendts, the Mouthpiece is a Leithanian noble who possessed gruesome Arts courtesy of his studies which allows him to enslave the minds and bodies of others, turning them into marionettes under his control. At one point Ahrendts came into contact with the Crimson Troupe and, to prove his worth before them, murdered a group of nobles attending a banquet held by him "for his own artistic desire", earning him infamy in Leithanien.[1][2] Even the malevolent Witch King cursed Ahrendts following his departure from the Witch King's court to join the Troupe, although to what extent the curse does to him remains unknown.
After joining the Troupe, Ahrendts adopted the "Troupe Mouthpiece" pseudonym to reflect his role as, in a way, the host or stage announcer of the Troupe's "shows" and made several Arts Creations including his "assistants" and a giant teddy bear named Big Sad Lock animated by the soul of an Ursine apprentice of the Troupe, although some within the Troupe sees it as a "crude" construct due to its nature. He also had some disagreement with the Playwright over the presentations of his shows.[3]
The Mouthpiece is the only survivor of the tragedy that results in the Troupe's destruction[4] and opens the battle between the brainwashed Phantom and Rhodes Island[5] who entered the castle to rescue him. R.I. managed to rescue Lucian, which prompts the Mouthpiece to carry out a backup plan by placing the Big Sad Lock on their way out in hopes that his magnum opus would take care of them. However, R.I. thwarted the Mouthpiece's plan by destroying the Lock as he observes Phantom behind a curtain with Miss Christine noticing his presence.[6]
Phantom himself eventually recognized the Mouthpiece and went his own way to confront him. By the time Phantom corners the Mouthpiece, he is hell-bent on killing the Feline and his comrades for ruining his plans[7] and mocked Phantom for not "understanding the Troupe", with Phantom vowing to put an end to the Troupe's charade and his "nightmares of the past" by putting him down once and for all.[4] The resulting fight ends with the Mouthpiece's death, however he was brought back to life alongside the other deceased Troupe members by an unseen force (possibly the Troupe Master himself) not long after, deciding to resume his role with the others. The Mouthpiece welcomed Shalem just as he catches up with Phantom, who is embracing his Blood Diamond persona before announcing that the "two souls who have gone astray" are now back into the Troupe's fold and that the show will soon begin.[8]
Later on, the Playwright chides the Mouthpiece for "abandoning his duty" and "picking up his puppet's strings" as an insult to his "grand drama", and dismissed him as being doomed to fail from the start "like the mundane villains in stories."[9] Whether the Mouthpiece is alive or not at this point remains unknown, however.
