Furina

To understand the ontological transformation of Roland within Genshin Impact, one must trace how a mortal human knight of Mondstadt crossed the threshold into the Abyssal realm without losing his foundational code of chivalry. Born five centuries ago into a noble family of Mondstadt, Roland possessed no superhuman bloodline; his peerless swordsmanship was forged through relentless martial training under Rostam, the creator of Favonius Bladework. However, as Roland cut down hundreds of Abyssal beasts during the Cataclysm, the concentrated miasma and dried blood fused with his steel plate and iron mask until they became inseparable from his body.

When Roland descended into the ruins of Khaenri'ah at the end of his pilgrimage, he survived inside the subterranean void where ordinary mortals would have perished—sustained by his fanatical obsession with justice and his subsequent pact with the ancient kingdom's remnants. In historical literary parallels, Roland echoes the paladin Roland of Frankish legend and Orlando Furioso: a peerless knight whose devotion to honor and grief push him across the brink of madness.

Five hundred years prior to the Traveler's arrival in Mondstadt, young Roland joined the Knights of Favonius during the era of Grand Master Arundolyn and his right-hand commander, Rostam ('The Wolf Pup'). Recognizing the youth's extraordinary talent with the longsword and his burning thirst for justice, Rostam took Roland under his wing, teaching him both the deadly efficiency of Favonius swordplay and the solemn weight of a knight's duty: 'Precision, justice, and protection of the weak.'

Whenever monsters attacked the villages surrounding Mondstadt, the young knight was the first to charge into the fray. On one early occasion, he rescued a young maiden from ruin and rejected her offer of monetary reward, accepting only a single pure white flower pinned to his breastplate. Yet as the raids intensified into the full horror of the Cataclysm, Roland fought without rest from dawn to dusk. Blood and soot caked his white cloak and dried upon the maiden's white flower until both turned black; when he next saved a family from monsters, the terrified villagers mistook the blood-drenched warrior for a fiend and fled from him—leaving behind only a battered iron mask that he donned so no one would ever have to look upon his bloodied face again.

Following the death of his master Rostam during the expedition against Durin and the Abyss, a grief-stricken Roland followed the trail of monsters all the way to the fallen underground capital of Khaenri'ah. There, amidst the burning rubble, the Bloodstained Knight realized that the 'monsters' he had been butchering were the cursed citizens of an unjustly destroyed nation. Swearing by the name of his idol, the Viridescent Venerer, that 'if Abyss be thy name, I pledge to you my loyalty,' he turned his sword against Celestia.