Matin Catorce

Matin Catorce (マタン・カトルセ, Matan Katoruse) is a character from Chapter 3 and one of the main protagonists of The Epic of Zektbach. She is the Empress of the Holy Kingdom of Noigllado, as well as the older twin sister of the "legitimate" heir, Nox Catorce. She is the "Positive" one of the twins, since she is right-handed and wields Trisagion, the Sword of Hope. Because of this ability she was crowned ruler of the Kingdom in her brother's place.

Although she became the Empress of Noigllado, she was still too young to be of any authority, so very few ministers and knights swore their oaths of allegiance to her. One notable exception is her unwaveringly loyal knight and protector Falo Credere Etincelle.

In actuality, Agiona chose her as the heir to achieve complete control over the Kingdom, and consequently, they are its true rulers. Matin herself does not hold any kind of real power : she serves as a puppet and facade to the agency.

Nox and her being twins, they are genetically identical and both carry Lien Clewing's perfect genes. Because of this, both of them can be considered the same without Ristaccia's power of conscience.

Appearance[]

Matin possesses platinum-colored hair that she almost always lets loose and adorns with blue flowers, along with deep, wide, teal eyes, depicted as being red In the Ristaccia Music CD cover. Her face is noted to be particularly fine and delicate.

She wears a long, light blue dress which, around her chest, is reinforced with a dark blue armor piece housing a Ristaccia fragment. She also has a pendant on her right ear. She is often portrayed carrying Trisagion.

Personality[]

Matin is notable for her extreme kindness. Despite not knowing her brother, Nox, very well, she loves and worries about him very much. She wants all people on Earth to be happy and love each other, something she thinks possible if they follow the cult of Trisagion, which the Holy Kingdom pretends to rule by. This kindness and her absence of contact with crude realities make her incredibly naive and easy to manipulate. Because of this, she cannot even believe enemies of the Trisagion cult - rebels, either oppressed minorities or justice-hungry warriors - are evil, as the very idea of someone being evil cannot possibly cross her mind.

However, despite the soft feelings that define her, Matin is capable of incredible strength and abnegation if she fights for what she considers just. This is how she is able to painfully set aside her strong longing for her brother's redemption and fight him directly.

Story[]

Spoiler
This article contains important revelations.

Matin and Nox, although born in the Royal Family of Noigllado, are descendants of Lien, and are thus two initially identical halves of a transcendental being. Because meme, however, would never allow such a being to live, L'erisia set their fates to transform them into polar opposites, so as to prevent their fusion.

In truth, Nox was the actual heir to the throne, but since the Trisagion cult is the base of the Holy Kingdom, the positive twin, who could wield the blade, was chosen as Empress, against Noigllado's tradition. She grew up in the Royal Palace of Novarista. Her fabulous and wealthy life, instead of turning her selfish like it would reasonably have, filled her heart with love and kindness, to the point where she did not even know how to hate someone - unable as she was to understand the very concept of hatred.

When she was taught by Falo that she had a brother who had been abandoned a few years earlier, and that he was still alive, she instantly began to pray for his life and well-being. She commanded the knight to find him, and surely enough, he learned about a camp in the mangrove from an information seller, suspecing Nox could be there.

When Falo arrived at the camp, he was met with a horde of poor, hostile rebels. Among them, he soon found a boy who looked exactly like his empress, and who immediately planned on killing him as an agent of the enemy. Falo was only saved by the arrival of his mentor, Adhuc, whom he learned to be Nox's adoptive father, Falo was astounded to learn that the Empress's brother was aiming to overthrow the Holy Kingdom, and was the head of the rebels. Fortunately, Adhuc convinced Nox to let him go.

Falo reported to Matin, in words that are not known. It is, however, assumed that he left out the capital mention of the dreading hatred that emanated from Nox, and simply told her he was alive. She immediately set out to find and see him.

In order to do this, she disguised herself as a commoner and called herself "Lucis"(Which means "Light"), and got the chance to directly approach Nox and talk to him. Though she could - somehow - feel his hatred from her Ristaccia necklace, she still loved Nox and wanted to save him from his resent.

However, Matin's sense of justice and mental strength was to work against her plans. Her heart was adamant enough that she could do anything if it was for her country and her people, even that meant to sacrifice herself or to kill her loved one. But when she learned her brother was becoming a true threat to "her" kingdom, not knowing the motives of his action, and not being able to understand that Noigllado was corrupt enough for Nox's cause to be right, she was faced a terrible dilemma : even her strong self went through horrid pain when she understood she was to kill her twin.

In the end, to uphold her justice, she "decided" to start a "Holy" War against the rebels, in accordance with Agiona's plans ; she led the troops up front. Though she did try to talk with Nox and explain that they shared the same ideals, his realization that Lucis was a lie enraged him even further, and the two had to battle. They came clashing with him in a death match, wielding both Trisagion and her Ristaccia armor.

However, on Zalieri's orders, Carla intervened to assassinate Nox, and Falo flew in to protect him, knowing that Matin would have never wanted him to die even then. Matin collapsed before Falo's corpse, about to drive the power of Trisagion's shard wild like other cursed sword owners once had. Zalieri, in that occasion, attempted to take hold of Trisagion.

At that moment however, she and Nox finally reunited in mind, though not in body, thanks to A'milia's influence in lifting Ristaccia's curse. Matin reclaimed Trisagion and Zalieri was driven away in an unclear fashion. It is unknown if he was killed or arrested.

After Zalieri's defeat and Agiona's downfall, Matin and Nox returned to the Noigllado palace together, still two beings, but with any conflict behind them ; soon however, they would depart on a journey Nox had been inspired to start by the Sealer, onwards to their reunification.

Through this journey, they at some point became a meme-free transcendental being. United in this form, they accompanied the A'Milia and Shamshir to put an end to L'erisia's domination.

Appears in[]

Zektbach Guidebook (p.48-49)
Blind Justice ~Torn souls, Hurt Faiths~ (PV)
Blind Justice(Drama CD) Cover + Voice, dubbed by Kaori Nazuka^[2].
Ristaccia PV

Trivia[]

Her first name, "Matin", means "Morning" in French. "Catorce", her last name, is the Spanish word for "Fourteen". "Matin" serves to reference her kind and bright personality, while "Fourteen" is the twins' age as the Epic takes place.
Matin also appears as a crossover character in the Pop'n Music series.
The Matin flower is the Rose. It means miracle and attaining the impossible.^[3]