Shadowrun: Who Is Harlequin?
Your first encounter with the mysterious Harlequin in Shadowrun is always likely to be a confusing one. He's an elf with a face painted to look like a jester of old times, and his manner is often lighthearted and cryptic, but he's also well-regarded as one of the most powerful beings in the Shadowrun setting.
RELATED: Shadowrun Trilogy: Best Easter Eggs
Looking like the lovechild of Kefka and the Joker, Harlequin sparks much debate whenever he shows up. From his controversial history in the tabletop game to his attention-grabbing appearances in the Shadowrun video games, there are a lot of questions to ask about Harlequin, some of them remaining unanswered to this day.
If you want to put it simply, Harlequin is an immortal elf whose origin lies in the Fourth World - two cycles of magic's resurgence before the one that started in 2012 and the setting for Shadowrun. Thanks to his immortality, Harlequin has accrued an impressive set of skills and is one of the world's strongest combatants, both on the battlefield and on the political stage.
Harlequin's name is actually Har'lea'quinn, but it's pronounced in the same way so people just call him Harlequin. Fittingly, his Shadowlands nickname is the Laughing Man.
In the early years of the Shadowrun tabletop RPG, Harlequin was used as something of a tool for the Game Master. He was an immortal, immovable plot device with all the plot armor that entails. The campaigns involving him would usually explore the deeper storylines that tie the different parts of the Shadowrun universe together.
The plot armor is so thick for Harlequin that he's very often not given stats. If he wants to do something, he simply does it - no dice necessary. Once he was given stats, however, they were on
Read more on thegamer.com
