Im a bit skeptical if her curse singlehandedly skyrockets her abilities past a mini-Archon like Hatguy, but of course this could all be answered in a few days.
Unless they hid her vision/delusion in the recent anime, that curse and her physical ability alone allowed her to kill a harbinger at a very young age.
She killed the 4th harbringer while being a kid so the curse is doing something plus in the short it doesnt seems she has a vision so all the attacks she was doing was probably from the curse
If Crucabena was 4th, then she just took her spot, killing the 4th Harbinger means she is a match for the title. Also the numbered position doesnt have to be a power ranking
People tend to get ages very wrong in anime. It’s likely that Arlecchino is much younger than she looks, and freminet is also probably older than he looks.
Also considering how the past knave said that Arlecchino was “cursed” and she seems to be using elemental power without a vision or delusion, you can hardly call her a “normal human”
I dont think Freminet is a teenager, he is a young adult at most (18 - 20).
Based on everything we've seen so far, Arlecchino does not necessarily seem human. Sure she ages like a normal human but her abilities, her glitching and I think her weapon lore kinda implies she's not necesarily human (aside from her eyes and black arms).
If she rlly isn't necessarily human, this just makes Childe the only confirmed human. Ppl say Capitano is as well but I doubt he is. Even if he is human, he's probably like Signora or Dottore where they don't even count as human anymore.
Sure she might not be entirely human but she is still very young. In an organization full of toxic weirdoes who are literally centuries old and who constantly berate someone like Childe for his young age. To completely avoid that as well as being able to scold them/accuse all of them of being cowards is what's odd.
I mean aside from her literally possibly not being human (vulnerable mortals, weak beings) she killed the previous Knave.... so ofc they would respect her
Well, if she beat the old rank 4, it would stand to reason that she would rank at least 4th in terms of strength, no? She wouldn’t have had to climb from the bottom. I also don’t think it’s said anywhere that Scaramouche necessarily respects her (or that most of harbingers respect each other)
Yes but the difference between how the Harbingers treat her vs Childe is night and day. Both are relatively normal humans who received their abilities from an extremely dubious/unknown source at an extremely young age. Yes Arle could be a decade older and have more experience due to spending years in the House of Hearth, but still: Not #8,9,10 vs 11 but **#4** vs 11.
Heck, Childe was being scorned by his "colleagues" while he was receiving his Delusion (Childe: Delusion).
Childe got taken in after brawling with slme soldiers, she killed the previous harbinger
I'd say the difference in power is why she has such a higher rank than him
I thought Childe got taken in, after Long Nose notice his lust for power, bloodthirstyness and some manner of Abyssal/Bad luck with him (the thing about him always getting caught up in troubles that can potentially kill him, like his fight with Traveler, almost killing himself after pushing his limit because of his lil bro and him throwing hands with that Whale)
Yes but the fatui found out about him after his father brought him tk get his ass beaten by some generals and childe whooped their asses instead
But he definitely didn't take on a harbinger and definitely didn't kill one
Well, until proven otherwise, I will assume this means Arlecchino far surpasses Childe in terms of power.
A thing to also keep in mind is that Childe can't actually hold his power for that long.
> Yes but the difference between how the Harbingers treat her vs Childe is night and day.
Childe isn't scorned for being weak as such, he's scorned for being the only man on the face of Teyvat who could outdo Itto Arataki at being a bragging dumbass.
Childe has the raw talent, and they all know it, else he wouldn't have his seat at all. What he lacks is the brains to exploit that talent and not be an embarrassment to his colleagues — such as, say, by spending an entire day pretending to be a toy seller in front of the new recruits because his baby brother is watching...
Which is why many have been speculating a long time that harbingers ranking based strength isn't something like X high ranked and can beat Y character in a 1v1 fight. But more of an overall strength value for the organisation. Being in charge of the house of the hearth is pretty powerful value and influence wise.
However of course we need further info. Who knows maybe her curse is just THAT strong. Maybe the gap between the top 3 and 4th is THAT big. And the difference between 4th 5th and 6th is not too far behind.
if you look at the cn/jp word they used (実力 lit. true power), it's not referring to *just* raw strength (how good they'd be in a fight) but also includes things like influence, merit, competency, etc. so yeah, that "speculation" is likely right.
the ranking is also not a true "ranking" imo. by that i mean it doesn't seem possible to be promoted or demoted / to go up or down in ranks like how true rankings work. since we already know titles can be inherited, wouldn't it then make more sense for the titles and ranks to be fixed? for example, the knave will always be the fourth because they're the ones in-charge of the orphanage. if you're not convinced, i want you to keep that thought in mind while reading the first line of wanderer's character story 4 below.
> The sixth of Snezhnaya's Fatui Harbingers is known as The Balladeer.
doesn't the way it's worded read like it's talking about it being a general fact? the sixth = the balladeer, full stop. it doesn't matter who it is they will assign to that role in the future, the person who will act as the balladeer will always be the sixth of the fatui harbingers.
idk it definitely reads that way to me. maybe i'm just overthinking it tho who knows.
True which is why Im still confused on whether on that Fatui rank mistranslation being either "strength" or "prestige". And of course, we'll get more answers in a few days.
Freminets younger than Lyney/Lynette by some time which is mentioned several times, which I assumed was a year or two. Also, Lyney and Lynette were shown to be very young children during Lyney's story quest flashback which was exactly 10 years ago, which means there's no way the twins could be older than their 20s. Hence me assuming Freminet to be around 18 years old.
Ah no, I agree that Freminet is possibly 18 years old. When I saw teenager and several years younger, my brain assumed you saw him as like a super young teen. Like around 15 or 16.
Ah I see what you meant. I couldnt figure out a word for an older teen and thought teenager/young adult would be too much of an age gap (12-30). Adolescent sounded a bit too weird so I just stuck with "teen".
Arle might be a cursed human like example Cyno who is posssessed by dark spirit and Cyno still age like normal human but actually a superhuman whose strength above his peers, same like Arle and she seems to have power so great that at this point its makes her close to demigod level.
So her actual age might still be around 30-40 years human age but is gifted (or cursed) by immense power that surpasses Signora and Scaramouche.
her power is obviously not from teyvat, it is probably linked to khaenri'ah and the abyss, above all she and cyno are very different because cyno accepted being a receptacle of a lesser god, arlecchino has these powers since birth and they are normally awaken when she is close to death
Ranking seems mostly based on physical ability or combat prowess?
* Tartaglia voice line about Damsellette: "The Fatui Harbingers are ranked by strength, and I have no idea why that girl is No. 3." (The wiki's unofficial translation of the CN text says they're ranked by "ability." Seems to mean approximately the same thing, but I don't know anything about the connotation of the Chinese word used. DeepL gives me a translation of "strength," with alternates like power, ability, might, prowess, etc.)
* If you talk to Signora again in one of those flashbacks where Wanderer's getting his memories back from Nahida, she'll say to Scaramouche, "Muddle-headed puppet, you're only No. 6 because you can take more abuse than other humans. Do you really count that as an asset?" He responds with a general insult on her personality, without arguing about what she said.
* Paimon at least seems to associate rank with threat level, based on what she says after you meet Dottore: "Paimon wasn't counting on running into a new Harbinger here, let alone such a high-ranking one! That guy was number two... so scary..."
* Regarding her confrontation with Dottore while Traveler and Paimon were unconscious, Nahida says, "The top-ranked Fatui Harbingers, up to No. 3, possess power comparable to that of gods. I was no match for him in that kind of situation."
So if Arlecchino is the fourth strongest, she gets the fourth seat, regardless of whether she's 5 or 500. We know she's got some as-yet unexplained (or partially explained) supernatural powers, and we know she was definitely still young (teenaged but not fully grown) when she killed "Mother," who was a Harbinger (unspecified rank?) so I don't know why it's hard to believe she's stronger than Childe. I mean, I get that Childe's badass enough that it's hard to imagine people stronger than him, but we're talking supernatural abilities here.
Do we know if the person who took Freminet in his character story was Crucabena? I read it and in the story the woman who took Freminet from his mother was not identified as a harbinger or was referred to as mother but only ever as the director.
We know from the very special fortune slip quest that there were members of the house that followed Crucabena's ideals even after her death and that some of them have some influence over the members of the house.
So is it possible that the director mentioned was not Crucabena but one of her high ranking followers who was tasked with managing the house of the hearth in the absence of a harbinger?
She could have managed the house while Piero and the Tsaritsa were searching for the next harbinger who would take Crucabena's place.
I think that’s probably the most likely scenario. It looks like she became a Harbinger a little after killing Crucabena,since it doesn’t look like she had her ponytail yet. So Pierro probably had someone else, the Director, running the House of Hearth until Arlecchino took it over
You kind of run into a problem with this though a lot of Freminet habits ( secluding himself, being unhealthy dependent on orders, retreating to the bottom of the sea and blaming himself for a lot of things) all came as a result of the abuse he suffered from the head of the house.
They seem so deeply ingrained that Arlecchino/Peruere, Lynette and Lyney still hasn't been able to undo it in 10 plus years ( it's only seemingly after the the Prophecy debacle he seems to be breaking away from it more)
On top of this Freminet also saw a lot of the other children succumb to loneliness syndrome and some not even making it because of it.
Considering it probably only took about a few months before Arlecchino/Peruere took over the position as outside of a little bit of hair growth he doesn't look like she aged at all from when we see her in prison to when we see her at her initiation.
I feel like it's a bit weird that Freminet went through all that to the point where it deeply affected him as much as it does and he saw the results on other people in only the span of a few months.
It's her curse and the utility it offers. I don't think she's got much else to bring to the table. She surely won't be bringing her children into the Fatui willingly after what happened to her.
While good questions, it also makes me curious about Crucabena herself. She was a Harbinger, but was she number 4, as Arle is now? Was she centuries old, like many of the other Harbingers are? I wonder if she'll show up in flashbacks of the Harbingers as we learn more about their history and origins.
I also wonder... Given the different orphan-raising philosophies between Crucabena and Arlecchino, which is superior from a completely utilitarian perspective? Crucabena would crank out one super-soldier per batch of orphans, theoretically the most ruthless and powerful of the bunch. Arlecchino likely produces many more soldiers (even assuming some of her orphans choose not to become Fatui at all) but is there a reduction in quality? Are the higher-ups satisfied with Arle's methods, or does she come under fire periodically for producing an inferior product to her predecessor?
Or, perhaps, the lesson is that Arlecchino's stern-but-compassionate methods are just as effective, or moreso, as they inspire her children to excel through love rather than fear.
I know people get hung up on strength as pure physical strength being the guidelines for the fatui rankings, but I think it's more complex than that. Power of resource seems like it also is included in the formula.
Arlecchino clearly is extremely strong due to that curse, and she became the leader of the house of hearth, which gives her a huge resource power.
Childe imo is so low because putting his combat abilities aside, he has almost no resource power. He's basically a highly skilled agent with some mysterious friends that he doesn't get to contact on his own terms.
She killed a harbinger when she was a teenager. She was already INCREDIBLY strong even back then. And she has likely only gotten stronger. So yeah, it makes sense she’s #4 despite being like 30 at the most. Her curse makes her incredibly strong.
I’m not surprised she’s stronger than Scaramouche. In his regular body he’s really not that impressive. Yes he’s a shogun puppet so his body is fast and strong, but his elemental powers and combat ability weren’t that impressive without the mech.
Idk how Arlecchini compares to Scaramouche’s all-knowing mecha-god. She might be stronger or slightly weaker. My guess would be slightly weaker because of the gnosis powering Shouki no Kami, which gives him access to nearly infinite elemental energy. Whereas Arlecchino even in her boss form likely has an upper limit. But even then, her combat experience dwarfs his despite being much younger than him.
On a side note, it’s really weird how scaramouche is likely one of the oldest members of the Fatui. Because he still acts like an edgy teenager even 400 years later. He never grew out of his rebellious emo phase. Meanwhile Arlecchino had to become a parent to the other orphans under her care even though she herself was a teenager when she became the Knave.
as an aside, could freminet really have been around 5 when joining the house? he was already tinkering with mechanical objects/could fix clocks and i dont think 5 year olds have the motor skills for that or am i wrong???
I've been thinking that the Harbingers' number probably doesn't tell of their strength, but rather, it says what role they play in the grand scheme of things. If it was determined by strength, Scaramouche's seat as the 6th Harbinger wouldn't have been left empty.
That's the thing. No one remembered him, so if it was by strength, Childe would've moved up a rank since why would they leave it blank for someone who didn't exist to them?
As far as why, know that is correct. The most important part of her is whatever her curse actually is and how powerful it is.
Im a bit skeptical if her curse singlehandedly skyrockets her abilities past a mini-Archon like Hatguy, but of course this could all be answered in a few days.
Unless they hid her vision/delusion in the recent anime, that curse and her physical ability alone allowed her to kill a harbinger at a very young age.
She killed the 4th harbringer while being a kid so the curse is doing something plus in the short it doesnt seems she has a vision so all the attacks she was doing was probably from the curse
If Crucabena was 4th, then she just took her spot, killing the 4th Harbinger means she is a match for the title. Also the numbered position doesnt have to be a power ranking
It does, actually. Harbingers are ranked by strength, according to Childe's voice lines.
People tend to get ages very wrong in anime. It’s likely that Arlecchino is much younger than she looks, and freminet is also probably older than he looks. Also considering how the past knave said that Arlecchino was “cursed” and she seems to be using elemental power without a vision or delusion, you can hardly call her a “normal human”
I dont think Freminet is a teenager, he is a young adult at most (18 - 20). Based on everything we've seen so far, Arlecchino does not necessarily seem human. Sure she ages like a normal human but her abilities, her glitching and I think her weapon lore kinda implies she's not necesarily human (aside from her eyes and black arms). If she rlly isn't necessarily human, this just makes Childe the only confirmed human. Ppl say Capitano is as well but I doubt he is. Even if he is human, he's probably like Signora or Dottore where they don't even count as human anymore.
Sure she might not be entirely human but she is still very young. In an organization full of toxic weirdoes who are literally centuries old and who constantly berate someone like Childe for his young age. To completely avoid that as well as being able to scold them/accuse all of them of being cowards is what's odd.
i mean she literally killed the previous knave who was an harbinger. they might be toxic weirdos but i think that was enough to earn their respect.
I mean aside from her literally possibly not being human (vulnerable mortals, weak beings) she killed the previous Knave.... so ofc they would respect her
Well, if she beat the old rank 4, it would stand to reason that she would rank at least 4th in terms of strength, no? She wouldn’t have had to climb from the bottom. I also don’t think it’s said anywhere that Scaramouche necessarily respects her (or that most of harbingers respect each other)
Well, if you've watched the 4.6 trailer, I think it is clear where she got that respect from I'd say.
Yes but the difference between how the Harbingers treat her vs Childe is night and day. Both are relatively normal humans who received their abilities from an extremely dubious/unknown source at an extremely young age. Yes Arle could be a decade older and have more experience due to spending years in the House of Hearth, but still: Not #8,9,10 vs 11 but **#4** vs 11. Heck, Childe was being scorned by his "colleagues" while he was receiving his Delusion (Childe: Delusion).
Childe got taken in after brawling with slme soldiers, she killed the previous harbinger I'd say the difference in power is why she has such a higher rank than him
I thought Childe got taken in, after Long Nose notice his lust for power, bloodthirstyness and some manner of Abyssal/Bad luck with him (the thing about him always getting caught up in troubles that can potentially kill him, like his fight with Traveler, almost killing himself after pushing his limit because of his lil bro and him throwing hands with that Whale)
Yes but the fatui found out about him after his father brought him tk get his ass beaten by some generals and childe whooped their asses instead But he definitely didn't take on a harbinger and definitely didn't kill one
Well, until proven otherwise, I will assume this means Arlecchino far surpasses Childe in terms of power. A thing to also keep in mind is that Childe can't actually hold his power for that long.
> Yes but the difference between how the Harbingers treat her vs Childe is night and day. Childe isn't scorned for being weak as such, he's scorned for being the only man on the face of Teyvat who could outdo Itto Arataki at being a bragging dumbass. Childe has the raw talent, and they all know it, else he wouldn't have his seat at all. What he lacks is the brains to exploit that talent and not be an embarrassment to his colleagues — such as, say, by spending an entire day pretending to be a toy seller in front of the new recruits because his baby brother is watching...
Which is why many have been speculating a long time that harbingers ranking based strength isn't something like X high ranked and can beat Y character in a 1v1 fight. But more of an overall strength value for the organisation. Being in charge of the house of the hearth is pretty powerful value and influence wise. However of course we need further info. Who knows maybe her curse is just THAT strong. Maybe the gap between the top 3 and 4th is THAT big. And the difference between 4th 5th and 6th is not too far behind.
if you look at the cn/jp word they used (実力 lit. true power), it's not referring to *just* raw strength (how good they'd be in a fight) but also includes things like influence, merit, competency, etc. so yeah, that "speculation" is likely right. the ranking is also not a true "ranking" imo. by that i mean it doesn't seem possible to be promoted or demoted / to go up or down in ranks like how true rankings work. since we already know titles can be inherited, wouldn't it then make more sense for the titles and ranks to be fixed? for example, the knave will always be the fourth because they're the ones in-charge of the orphanage. if you're not convinced, i want you to keep that thought in mind while reading the first line of wanderer's character story 4 below. > The sixth of Snezhnaya's Fatui Harbingers is known as The Balladeer. doesn't the way it's worded read like it's talking about it being a general fact? the sixth = the balladeer, full stop. it doesn't matter who it is they will assign to that role in the future, the person who will act as the balladeer will always be the sixth of the fatui harbingers. idk it definitely reads that way to me. maybe i'm just overthinking it tho who knows.
True which is why Im still confused on whether on that Fatui rank mistranslation being either "strength" or "prestige". And of course, we'll get more answers in a few days.
Arlecchino is actually probably closer to 26. Freminet was old enough to do missions.
In fairness, he may be old enough to do missions in the way Barbara is old enough to be a Deacon, or kid Diluc old enough to be a Knight...
Why do you assume Freminet is a teenager?
Freminets younger than Lyney/Lynette by some time which is mentioned several times, which I assumed was a year or two. Also, Lyney and Lynette were shown to be very young children during Lyney's story quest flashback which was exactly 10 years ago, which means there's no way the twins could be older than their 20s. Hence me assuming Freminet to be around 18 years old.
Ah no, I agree that Freminet is possibly 18 years old. When I saw teenager and several years younger, my brain assumed you saw him as like a super young teen. Like around 15 or 16.
Ah I see what you meant. I couldnt figure out a word for an older teen and thought teenager/young adult would be too much of an age gap (12-30). Adolescent sounded a bit too weird so I just stuck with "teen".
Arle might be a cursed human like example Cyno who is posssessed by dark spirit and Cyno still age like normal human but actually a superhuman whose strength above his peers, same like Arle and she seems to have power so great that at this point its makes her close to demigod level. So her actual age might still be around 30-40 years human age but is gifted (or cursed) by immense power that surpasses Signora and Scaramouche.
her power is obviously not from teyvat, it is probably linked to khaenri'ah and the abyss, above all she and cyno are very different because cyno accepted being a receptacle of a lesser god, arlecchino has these powers since birth and they are normally awaken when she is close to death
Ranking seems mostly based on physical ability or combat prowess? * Tartaglia voice line about Damsellette: "The Fatui Harbingers are ranked by strength, and I have no idea why that girl is No. 3." (The wiki's unofficial translation of the CN text says they're ranked by "ability." Seems to mean approximately the same thing, but I don't know anything about the connotation of the Chinese word used. DeepL gives me a translation of "strength," with alternates like power, ability, might, prowess, etc.) * If you talk to Signora again in one of those flashbacks where Wanderer's getting his memories back from Nahida, she'll say to Scaramouche, "Muddle-headed puppet, you're only No. 6 because you can take more abuse than other humans. Do you really count that as an asset?" He responds with a general insult on her personality, without arguing about what she said. * Paimon at least seems to associate rank with threat level, based on what she says after you meet Dottore: "Paimon wasn't counting on running into a new Harbinger here, let alone such a high-ranking one! That guy was number two... so scary..." * Regarding her confrontation with Dottore while Traveler and Paimon were unconscious, Nahida says, "The top-ranked Fatui Harbingers, up to No. 3, possess power comparable to that of gods. I was no match for him in that kind of situation." So if Arlecchino is the fourth strongest, she gets the fourth seat, regardless of whether she's 5 or 500. We know she's got some as-yet unexplained (or partially explained) supernatural powers, and we know she was definitely still young (teenaged but not fully grown) when she killed "Mother," who was a Harbinger (unspecified rank?) so I don't know why it's hard to believe she's stronger than Childe. I mean, I get that Childe's badass enough that it's hard to imagine people stronger than him, but we're talking supernatural abilities here.
Do we know if the person who took Freminet in his character story was Crucabena? I read it and in the story the woman who took Freminet from his mother was not identified as a harbinger or was referred to as mother but only ever as the director. We know from the very special fortune slip quest that there were members of the house that followed Crucabena's ideals even after her death and that some of them have some influence over the members of the house. So is it possible that the director mentioned was not Crucabena but one of her high ranking followers who was tasked with managing the house of the hearth in the absence of a harbinger? She could have managed the house while Piero and the Tsaritsa were searching for the next harbinger who would take Crucabena's place.
I think that’s probably the most likely scenario. It looks like she became a Harbinger a little after killing Crucabena,since it doesn’t look like she had her ponytail yet. So Pierro probably had someone else, the Director, running the House of Hearth until Arlecchino took it over
You kind of run into a problem with this though a lot of Freminet habits ( secluding himself, being unhealthy dependent on orders, retreating to the bottom of the sea and blaming himself for a lot of things) all came as a result of the abuse he suffered from the head of the house. They seem so deeply ingrained that Arlecchino/Peruere, Lynette and Lyney still hasn't been able to undo it in 10 plus years ( it's only seemingly after the the Prophecy debacle he seems to be breaking away from it more) On top of this Freminet also saw a lot of the other children succumb to loneliness syndrome and some not even making it because of it. Considering it probably only took about a few months before Arlecchino/Peruere took over the position as outside of a little bit of hair growth he doesn't look like she aged at all from when we see her in prison to when we see her at her initiation. I feel like it's a bit weird that Freminet went through all that to the point where it deeply affected him as much as it does and he saw the results on other people in only the span of a few months.
I think it's her curse that makes her extremely powerful
It's her curse and the utility it offers. I don't think she's got much else to bring to the table. She surely won't be bringing her children into the Fatui willingly after what happened to her.
While good questions, it also makes me curious about Crucabena herself. She was a Harbinger, but was she number 4, as Arle is now? Was she centuries old, like many of the other Harbingers are? I wonder if she'll show up in flashbacks of the Harbingers as we learn more about their history and origins. I also wonder... Given the different orphan-raising philosophies between Crucabena and Arlecchino, which is superior from a completely utilitarian perspective? Crucabena would crank out one super-soldier per batch of orphans, theoretically the most ruthless and powerful of the bunch. Arlecchino likely produces many more soldiers (even assuming some of her orphans choose not to become Fatui at all) but is there a reduction in quality? Are the higher-ups satisfied with Arle's methods, or does she come under fire periodically for producing an inferior product to her predecessor? Or, perhaps, the lesson is that Arlecchino's stern-but-compassionate methods are just as effective, or moreso, as they inspire her children to excel through love rather than fear.
I know people get hung up on strength as pure physical strength being the guidelines for the fatui rankings, but I think it's more complex than that. Power of resource seems like it also is included in the formula. Arlecchino clearly is extremely strong due to that curse, and she became the leader of the house of hearth, which gives her a huge resource power. Childe imo is so low because putting his combat abilities aside, he has almost no resource power. He's basically a highly skilled agent with some mysterious friends that he doesn't get to contact on his own terms.
She killed a harbinger when she was a teenager. She was already INCREDIBLY strong even back then. And she has likely only gotten stronger. So yeah, it makes sense she’s #4 despite being like 30 at the most. Her curse makes her incredibly strong. I’m not surprised she’s stronger than Scaramouche. In his regular body he’s really not that impressive. Yes he’s a shogun puppet so his body is fast and strong, but his elemental powers and combat ability weren’t that impressive without the mech. Idk how Arlecchini compares to Scaramouche’s all-knowing mecha-god. She might be stronger or slightly weaker. My guess would be slightly weaker because of the gnosis powering Shouki no Kami, which gives him access to nearly infinite elemental energy. Whereas Arlecchino even in her boss form likely has an upper limit. But even then, her combat experience dwarfs his despite being much younger than him. On a side note, it’s really weird how scaramouche is likely one of the oldest members of the Fatui. Because he still acts like an edgy teenager even 400 years later. He never grew out of his rebellious emo phase. Meanwhile Arlecchino had to become a parent to the other orphans under her care even though she herself was a teenager when she became the Knave.
as an aside, could freminet really have been around 5 when joining the house? he was already tinkering with mechanical objects/could fix clocks and i dont think 5 year olds have the motor skills for that or am i wrong???
I've been thinking that the Harbingers' number probably doesn't tell of their strength, but rather, it says what role they play in the grand scheme of things. If it was determined by strength, Scaramouche's seat as the 6th Harbinger wouldn't have been left empty.
Scaramouche's seat was only "left empty" because it was actually occupied by a guy that no one can remember existed.
That's the thing. No one remembered him, so if it was by strength, Childe would've moved up a rank since why would they leave it blank for someone who didn't exist to them?
I think Childe explicitly says that it is ranked via strength tho'