LAST RITE LORE: HER SAD BACKSTORY EXPLAINED
Table of Contents
Last Rite eats more than anyone on Dijiang, and she’s still starving. The canteen staff have to remind her that it’s a buffet. She eats midnight snacks and keeps losing weight. When she’s scared, her stomach rumbles so loudly that she edges toward the nearest dustbin to hide.
The fandom treats it as a food gag. Her profile files don’t. She’s a Nachzehrer, a Sarkaz whose kind feeds on the dead. She grew up tending her town’s cemetery, and she refuses to feed. Then there’s the boy who bullied her, the summer he died, and the crooked wooden knight she carved for a wish nobody told her about.
This is her story, told in order, quoting the in-game English text.
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Short version first: the Last Rite backstory in under two minutes, from our YouTube channel. The full story with every source follows below. More backstories are on the Endfield lore hub.
TL;DR - Key Points
- Her ID name is Adelheid. She’s a Sarkaz, a Nachzehrer, and a brand ambassador for the floating city of Seš’qa.
- Her kind feeds on the dead. Nachzehrers once kept wars going by absorbing the power of their fallen comrades.
- She refuses. Feeding would disturb the dead, so she forbids it, and the hunger never leaves her.
- She grew up in a cemetery. Her foster parents, a Caprinae couple, were undertakers, and she said every prayer there every day.
- The children mocked her. “Biggie” Tom led it and wanted her out of their secret base.
- Then Tom died, in a summer of floods and a battle with bandits that left five families grieving.
- She knew his last wish. She placed a crooked wooden knight on his grave, and every year since she promises: “Tom is right here.”
- She hears every one of them. At each burial she can feel what the departed truly longed for, and she remembers every wish.
Who Is Last Rite?
Last Rite is a 6-star Cryo Greatsword Striker in Arknights: Endfield. Her ID name is Adelheid, she’s a Sarkaz, her birthday is November 12, and her medical report lists her as Oripathy positive. Her exam reads Physiological Strength: Excellent, Combat Skill: Standard, Tactical Acumen: Normal. Her Originium Arts rating is redacted.
On paper she’s a “special brand ambassador for Seš’qa,” working under the Specialist Tech Division on the recommendation of “Bridge Builder” Fleming, a senior business consultant at Witching Hour. HR’s note on her is closer to a care label. Approach her in a relaxed and friendly way. Accept her silence and avoidance. Bring snacks or candies, which “will actively build her trust in you.” And:
“Please, AVOID getting too close to her when she panics as this is extremely hazardous. If she sees you getting wounded due to the resulting accident, her panic attack will only escalate.” Martin Marvin Malen, Assistant, HR Division
The panic is literal. Endfield stocks Specialized Emergency Ice Melter Sprays, because “Last Rite gives off freeze gases when she panics.”
Why She’s Always Hungry
She explains what she is in her own voice lines, and she sounds uneasy about it:
“According to our scholars, many Nachzehrers fought upon the battlefields of Terra… and they sustained war itself by absorbing the power of fallen comrades… I don’t think we need to do that anymore, right?”
The hunger is part of her. The peddler who brought her to Seš’qa told her “her constant sense of hunger was a racial trait.” Knowing that, the file adds, “did not solve the problem.” She could feed. She won’t:
“People keep joking about me letting myself go ‘hungry’, and I kinda know why. But using my innate Nachzehrer abilities would disturb the dead. The chances are slim, but I forbid it…”
So she runs on food alone, and it isn’t enough. “I get hungry easily,” she says. “I’ve been eating midnight snacks for a while now, but somehow I’ve still lost weight.” The frost she carries leaks out when she can’t hold it in. Her Seš’qa instructors told her a proper Nachzehrer masters frost with witchcraft, and that she “wasn’t being proper” because her “frigidity kept seeping out.”
When Fleming brings her to Endfield, he gives the reason plainly. She’s “a Nachzehrer in a cemetery with an extreme ‘shame of consuming’… She has consistently refused to touch the deaths of others. Her constant hunger is only a natural consequence.”
A Cemetery Childhood
Adelheid was raised far from other Sarkaz, by a Caprinae couple who adopted her. They tended the town cemetery, and so did she.
“My parents taught me many prayer rituals, and I used to perform every last one of them at the cemetery back home on a daily basis.”
The town wasn’t much. Her dad told her the wells that made it livable were dug years ago, which is why other families moved in and caravans started coming through. One caravaneer told her to try her luck at Seš’qa. When she gives you a gift, it’s a little flower frozen in frigid air, “often seen in the town cemetery where Last Rite came from.”
She knew almost nothing about her own people. When she finally reached Seš’qa, “she suddenly realized that she knew nothing about the Sarkaz, despite being one herself.”
Biggie Tom
The children of the Den of the Brave didn’t like her. Her profile file is blunt about why:
“No one really knew the girl who lived so far away. She was shy, introverted, dressed in boring clothing, slow to react, and never caught the ball during conversations.”
The kids called her “Omnomnom” and “Little Miss Confused.” The worst of them was “Biggie” Tom, who “started by badmouthing her at every turn. He wanted her out of the children’s secret base.”
He let her stay for two reasons. The grown-ups respected the Caprinae couple who adopted her. And “even though she was teary eyed and sniveling, she never forgot about stuffing herself with apple peelings and turnip leaves.”
The Summer of the Flood
“Everything changed in that atrocious summer. The rains poured in June, the entire place was flooded, and the bandits were finally evicted after a grueling battle. The ordeal left scars upon five families who lost their loved ones.”
The children followed the funeral procession out to the suburbs, not really knowing what they were following. On the hill they found the crybaby they had mocked. She wasn’t crying. She and her family were cleaning out the resting places, washing the headstones and offering elegies to the dead.
Then the coffin went into the ground.
“It was not until the coffin was laid to rest when the children finally realized that Tom would no longer return to Den of the Brave.”
The file says what came next was panic and denial, not fear. The children “could not accept the machinations of fate, and failed to figure out a way to make up for the missing position.”
The Crooked Knight
Adelheid stepped forward and set something down at Tom’s grave: a little wooden statuette, “very roughly carved, crooked, imbalanced, and unpolished.”
“He always wanted a figurine of a Competition Knight,” the girl said. “That would be Tom’s final wish.”
The grown-ups broke down again, grieving “a life so innocent and young.” The children tried not to laugh, because the statuette looked nothing like a Competition Knight. Then they couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. They pulled out their Knight Cards and started arguing about how to make it look more like a knight.
It’s the most human moment in her file. The boy who wanted her gone left a wish only she knew, and the children who mocked her found their way through the funeral by fixing her carving.
“Tom Is Right Here”
Adelheid couldn’t follow their conversation, and the carving went to a more skillful child. But every year, the children handed the new, better knight back to her, “for she was tasked with leading their own procession into the cemetery and perform the annual ceremony.”
“Tom is right here,” the girl promised every year.
“No one knew how Adelheid was so certain about this, or how she learned of Tom’s wishes. Nobody seemed to care about how she performed her work.”
She never really came out of her shell. She stayed bad at expressing herself, and she still edged toward a dustbin whenever her stomach rumbled. But the file ends on the children who grew up with her: “whenever new kids arrive in town and start talking about the strange girl humming songs in the bushes, someone would tap them on the shoulder and give them quite a story.”
Every Wish She Hears
Her voice lines answer the question the children never asked.
“I remember everyone buried in the cemetery my family tended… the elderly, the unfortunate babe, the mercenary from another town, the stranger with rock disease… Each of them had a final wish. During the rites, those who came to say goodbye would speak those wishes aloud. And beneath their words … I could feel what the departed truly longed for. They weren’t asking anyone to fulfill their wishes. They just wanted to be heard. Remembering their wishes was the only thing I could do. As my Mom said, a wish that lingers behind is proof they once lived.”
This is why the hunger hurts to read. The one thing that could feed her is the dead, and she treats the dead as people who deserve to be heard. Fleming says the same thing in his own words: “She has not been ‘fed’ because she respects every crew mate, messenger, and soldier who died in the frontiers. She could not bring herself to do it.”
The Voice From the North
There’s one more voice in her life, and her lines leave it unexplained.
“It began when I was still a very little girl. I would occasionally hear a voice talking to me. She sounded tired and exhausted, and probably slept most of the time. None of her children rested in our cemetery. I believe they were further north… And whenever I would go hungry, she would hold me close and comfort me. But in recent years, she slept longer and longer, and sounded even weaker than before. I really hope there’s something I can do to help…”
The only comfort the file gives the starving little girl is a tired voice that held her when she went hungry. And that voice is fading.
Another operator’s file may have felt it too. Typhoeus, who spent months studying the manuscripts of a Snowpriestess who believed the dead Feranmut Sami was only asleep, brushed past a young girl in a Dijiang corridor and felt “a presence that had accompanied her people through swamps and forests, through winters and into springs, from birth all the way to death.” She later learned the girl’s codename was Last Rite, tore out the ending of the Sami legend she had just finished, and wrote that codename on a fresh page instead. The game never says the two are the same presence. We cover what Typhoeus felt in Typhoeus: Amma and the Voice of Sami.
Seš’qa
She left home on a peddler’s invitation after she flipped a truck the Aggeloi had knocked over back onto its wheels. She’d only come looking for a broom to chase beasts away from home. Seš’qa, the Stop, the floating capital of witchcraft, was a carnival: a furnace in the plaza, crowds chewing food with unpronounceable names, and giant figures looming in the distance.
Her stomach rumbled. She thought about slipping away and hiding until people stopped staring. If anyone asked what was wrong, she knew the true answer would sound wrong out loud: “I’m sorry. I just don’t feel like being a Nachzehrer.”
A boy stopped and asked, “What’s happening to you?” He told her where the free bread was and that there were plenty of jobs, and said it had taken him two whole weeks too. His short, sharp tail reminded her of her foster parents. After ten minutes of shock and awe, she noticed a pile of roasted stockbeast fillets glistening with grease. “It was salty, so salty that it sent her heart racing wildly.”
Witching Hour hired her, put her in a prototype combat outfit and gave her a codename. She hates it:
“Since I’m a Nachzehrer and worked as an undertaker back home, they wanted a name that ‘highlighted the product features’… But I’m not the product, it’s this outfit! And the last rites are somber ceremonies meant for the departed! Why would they use it in such a laughable manner…?”
What Fleming Told M3
The longest file on her is a negotiation between Fleming and M3 aboard Dijiang. It starts as banter about catering fees, and it ends as the saddest thing anyone says about her.
M3 watches Adelheid sitting uncomfortably outside the office and says only, “I think she’s hungry. How could you let such a lovely girl starve?” Fleming answers the Sarkaz way: “No amount of roasted steak fillets could fill an empty soul.”
Then the truth comes out. Fleming quotes an assessment: “Though she did not consume the dead to strengthen herself, Death remains willing to assist her.” M3 describes a vast land perishing in her shadow and millennia of winters answering her call, “yet she remains hungry.” Fleming’s reply is the line the whole file turns on:
“But that also means the child is destined to take on burdens that shouldn’t be hers.”
He isn’t sending her to Endfield for business. When M3 asks how Endfield should treat her, he says: “Let her do what she wants, like a normal child. Let her live, get into trouble, grow up, and earn her keep. It would be wonderful if she gets to make a few friends and discover what she wants out of life…”
The file closes on a warning. Before Talos-II pushes humanity to the brink, “before Death completely fashions her bloodied throne, and before the next Sovereign of the Nachzehrers is forced to manifest upon this planet … she simply remains as a shy little Sarkaz girl.”
A restricted log on her profile says the same thing from the other side. When “this Nachzehrer attempts, bashfully, the manipulation of death, everyone at the scene witnessed a shadowy figure behind the curtain. It felt cold, ancient, grand, and … serene.”
On Dijiang Today
On Dijiang she mostly gets what Fleming asked for. The bulletins about her are affectionate:
- She “helped clean out the mountain of chores that slowly built itself up over time.”
- She volunteers at the rehab center for stress relief, and staff are told “do not tell any of our patients that Last Rite is an undertaker.”
- Logistics asks someone to tell her she can stop delivering handwritten letters of apology for the training machines she broke, and stop avoiding their staff.
- She’d rather take care of the sick or harvest grain than swing weapons, and she’s been sleeping less to take courses in first aid and crop disease prevention.
She still hides in corners. Her employment contract comes with the line “Please, you can come a little closer, Miss Last Rite. There’s no need to hide at the corner.”
In Her Own Words
- “Mom … Dad … I … I finally did it…”
- “Hngh… C-could I lean on you for a sec…? I just need to grab some hardtack… I-I’m okay… Just a little … hungry…”
- “I realized that I can be a lot more helpful to everyone if I stay.”
- “There’s something I must share with you, Endmin… Seš’qa grossly overpackaged me! They just named me ‘Princess of the Battle Court’ without asking! I never wanted to lie to you…”
Last Rite’s Story in Order
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Early childhood | Adopted by a Caprinae couple who tend a cemetery; she says every prayer there daily | Voice lines, File 2 |
| Early childhood | A tired voice from the north begins to comfort her when she’s hungry | Voice lines |
| Growing up | The Den of the Brave children mock her; “Biggie” Tom wants her out | File 2, voice lines |
| One June | Flood and a battle with bandits; five families lose someone, including Tom | File 2 |
| Tom’s funeral | She places the crooked wooden knight and names his final wish | File 2 |
| Every year after | She leads the children’s procession to his grave: “Tom is right here” | File 2 |
| Leaving home | She rights a truck toppled by the Aggeloi; a peddler takes her to Seš’qa | File 3 |
| Seš’qa | Witching Hour hires her and names her Last Rite | File 3, voice lines |
| Endfield | Fleming recommends her; the M3 negotiation aboard Dijiang | File 4, HR Summary |
The files give no calendar dates, so this table keeps to the order the text gives.
Sources and Method
Every quote in this post comes from Last Rite’s in-game English text: her profile records (Basic Info, HR Summary and Files 2 to 4), her voice lines, her gift and item descriptions, the Endfield bulletins about her, and a Typhoeus story that ends on her codename. We’ve lightly punctuated a few quotes where the original used a dash. Two points are our reading, and the game doesn’t state them outright: that the tired voice from the north may be the presence Typhoeus felt, and that her gift for hearing final wishes is the same power the restricted log describes.
For her kit, materials and damage numbers, see Last Rite’s operator page. Her faction also shows up in the running joke of the Clue 7 curse. For two more operators whose soft surface hides a hard story, read Estella’s backstory and Purrchena’s backstory. Zhuang Fangyi’s backstory is another story of a girl who grew up among the dead, then carried their hopes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Last Rite in Arknights Endfield?
Last Rite, ID name Adelheid, is a Sarkaz operator and a special brand ambassador for Seš’qa, working under Endfield’s Specialist Tech Division on the recommendation of Fleming, a senior business consultant at Witching Hour. She’s a Nachzehrer who worked as an undertaker in her hometown, and in combat she’s a 6-star Cryo Greatsword Striker.
Why is Last Rite always hungry?
She’s a Nachzehrer, a Sarkaz whose kind can absorb the power of the dead, and the constant hunger is a racial trait. She refuses to feed because using her innate abilities would disturb the dead, so she stays hungry. Fleming describes her as a Nachzehrer in a cemetery with an extreme “shame of consuming” who has consistently refused to touch the deaths of others.
What is a Nachzehrer?
A kind of Sarkaz. In her own words, many Nachzehrers once fought on the battlefields of Terra and sustained war itself by absorbing the power of fallen comrades. Seš’qa instructors told her a proper Nachzehrer uses witchcraft to master frost. There are very few Nachzehrers on Talos-II.
Who is Tom in Last Rite’s story?
“Biggie” Tom was the boy who led the teasing of Adelheid at the Den of the Brave and wanted her out of the children’s secret base. He died in the summer of the flood and the bandit battle. At his funeral Adelheid placed a crooked wooden Competition Knight on his grave, saying it was his final wish, and she has led the children’s ceremony at his grave every year since.
What does “Tom is right here” mean?
It’s the promise Adelheid makes every year at Tom’s grave, when the children hand her their newest, better-carved knight statuette. Nobody knows how she was so certain, or how she knew his wish. In her voice lines she says she can feel what the departed truly longed for at every burial.
Why is her codename Last Rite?
Witching Hour gave it to her because she’s a Nachzehrer and worked as an undertaker, and they wanted a name that “highlighted the product features.” She hates it. She points out that last rites are somber ceremonies for the departed, and asks the Endministrator to write another letter of protest.
Is Last Rite related to Death?
The game hints at it without saying. A restricted log says that when she manipulates death, witnesses see a cold, ancient, grand and serene shadow behind her. Fleming quotes an assessment that though she never consumed the dead to strengthen herself, Death remains willing to assist her, and warns that she is destined to take on burdens that shouldn’t be hers.
Related Reading
- Arknights Endfield Lore and Backstories: every operator backstory Short next to its write-up, plus all world and faction lore
- Estella Lore: Her Sad Backstory Explained: the “lazy” Z7 scout who was a Landbreaker captive
- Purrchena Lore: Her Sad Backstory Explained: the mascot whose real name is Rosalind
- Clue 7 Curse: Last Rite & Seš’qa Surplus: why her faction floods your clue inbox
- Typhoeus: Amma and the Voice of Sami: the hunter who rewrote her legend’s ending after passing Last Rite in a corridor
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