Catherine

Overview

Story

Sprites

“	Because all fear stems from the ignorance of its origin.	”
–Catherine, Canto VI: The Heartbreaking

Catherine Earnshaw (Hangul: 캐서린 언쇼, Kae-seo-rin Eon-syo), also known as Cathy (캐시, Kae-si), was the only daughter of the Earnshaw family and the owner of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff's closest companion since childhood, she is the person behind his wish for revenge and relentless pursuit of self-improvement. She is a major character in Canto VI: The Heartbreaking.

Appearance

Catherine is portrayed as a woman of short stature with an average build and a fair complexion. She has wavy dark blonde hair that reaches her upper back, and chocolate brown eyes that often gaze sideways. Catherine is described as the "most beautiful person in the world" by Heathcliff, and her presence captivates the Edgar Family at first sight.

Her typical attire consists of a floor-length layered ballgown dress. The bottom layer is frilled and white, while the top layer is warm brown with gold trim and floral embroidery. The dress features a high collar adorned with a brown cravat connected to it, embellished with a shiny gold pendant. Catherine also wears a gold, rounded necklace that depicts the head of a spanner, possibly an award for her career as an inventor. Catherine is typically shown wearing dark gloves.

When seen during her childhood, Catherine had a similar hairstyle, adorned with white flowers. She wore a long, frilled white embroidered dress tied with a ribbon around the waist. Additionally, she donned a thin, yellow ribbon on the collar, adorned with a green pearl.

Personality

As a child, Catherine was quite adventurous and outgoing, often being the one to suggest breaking the rules and sneaking out of Nelly's supervision while playing with Heathcliff. Catherine had a love of riddles, with which she enjoyed testing Heathcliff, and she had a passion for inventing things from a young age, dreaming of becoming a grand inventor one day. After the death of her father, with Hindley becoming head of the household, Catherine began to resent her brother, who endeavored to ruin her friendship with Heathcliff, and started to treasure her connection with Linton and his sister Isabella, enjoying their open affection towards her.

While Nelly described her as someone who loved being at the center of everyone's attention, Catherine grew up quite sheltered, often feeling trapped in Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff remembers her commenting on the sad fate of the birds whose feathers would be used for their pillows; Nelly similarly likens her to a naive, caged bird. Wuthering Heights often scared Catherine, as ever since she was a child, she was terrified of the dark of the manor and the ghost of her mother she saw wandering the halls. Despite this, her temperament remained lively: Heathcliff often notes her to be impatient and fiery, and describes her as a calamity.

In time, Catherine developed a colder, pragmatic way of thinking. Despite her feelings for Heathcliff, she believed that by marrying while still under her brother's control they would not have the means to live. She instead began considering marrying Linton Edgar for the advantages the union would bring, such as the financial means to help Heathcliff and live comfortably. After his departure and her interactions with the Mirror Worlds, despite having realized that Linton carried no true love for her, she still asked for his hand in order to carry on with her alternate self's plan to give up her life, demonstrating her willfulness in realizing her goals.

Catherine also carried a sensitive, emotional side to her, as shown by the rapid decline of her health after Heathcliff's departure, as she worried of what his fate might be without anyone to help him, and felt deeply hurt over his perceived indifference towards her. Catherine speaks of having felt all of Heathcliff's pain during their time together, and she was heartbroken and wrecked by guilt upon hearing her alternate self's claim that she had always been the cause of his misery.

Catherine kept this side of her closely guarded, often hiding behind riddles and only admitting to the truth in her diary. During Canto VI, Catherine witnesses the events at Wuthering Heights from within her coffin, no longer able to communicate outside of her diary and the strikes of lightning that represent her grief. When Heathcliff falls into Distortion, Catherine reaches for him, recounting her happiness in the days spent together. Later on, upon seeing Heathcliff's breakdown following Nelly's betrayal, Catherine shows him an old memory in which she'd gifted him a ring, as a way of reminding him of her love for him, after which Heathcliff begins to understand that their feelings had always been the same.

Catherine explicitly admits to Dante to having always been dishonest with her feelings for the people she cared for, never being brave enough to admit to them, and growing angry at those who misunderstood her; Canto VI's associated song furthers this theme by pointing at forwardness and sincerity as qualities of Heathcliff Catherine treasured, lacking them herself. Her struggle with being truthful continues all the way to the end, but eventually, inspired by Heathcliff's courage in admitting his love for her, finally manages to do the same, and she departs peacefully, as both of them feel their hearts have been reunited.

Mirror Worlds

• World within the Mirror
  • Through the Mirror, Catherine meets an Identity who dubs herself Every Catherine, the entity who pushes her into giving up her life and forming a contract with Hermann. Every Catherine appears as a monochromatic and ghostly version of herself, with the tips of her hair fading off like embers. Every Catherine's name comes from her belief that every Catherine must share the same fate, only bringing unhappiness to the person they love.

Catherine and Heathcliff share a large number of Mirror Worlds, and matching Identities. Some of these were shown to be:

• In a world that resembles a modern school setting, Catherine appears slightly younger, as a schoolgirl. She wears a school uniform with short sleeves, a collared white blouse, and a blue ribbon. Her hair is in a half-up style, with the rest being in a crown braid, and she has an ahoge on the top of her head. She is suggested to die while pushing Heathcliff away from a vehicle's trajectory. This Identity appears in the universe where Heathcliff is a schoolboy.
• In a world where both have monstrous forms reminiscent of E.G.O corrosion, Catherine appears as a pale figure marked by red lines up, with shadowy hands extending from her body, covering her eyes, her back, and extending up her hands, which appear as sharp black claws. This Identity appears in the universe where Heathcliff has undergone a similar transformation.
• In the world of K Corp. as shown in Canto IV, Catherine appears to be a researcher. She wears a black turtleneck, an open white collared labcoat with two pens in the side pocket, and buttoned sleeves. Her hair is in a high ponytail in this iteration, reaching mid-back. She is suggested to die from being hit by a decay ampule. This Identity appears in the universe with Sunshower Heathcliff.
• In a world where both appear in formal clothing, Catherine is shown in a late Victorian-era sage green evening dress, standing in the middle of a bright red room. Her collared dress is paired with a pistachio-green cravat adorned with a gold pendant. Catherine accessorizes with a green tea party hat featuring a moss green ribbon and multiple feathers. The rest of her hair is styled into a low bun ending at her ears. She is suggested to die from being beheaded. This Identity appears in the universe where Heathcliff wears a black suit.
• In a world that resembles a medieval war-torn setting, Catherine is a noblewoman. She wears a white escoffion over a coif and guimpe, and brown veil that conceals all of her hair. The dress is adorned with gold trim and features gold spots on the edges. This Identity appears in the universe where Heathcliff is a knight.
• In the world of U Corp. as shown in Canto V, Catherine appears to be a U Corp. worker. She wears work clothes resembling a sailor's outfit, with a thick purple jacket featuring numerous pockets on the sleeves, paired with a desaturated lavender collared shirt. She wears a purple metal headband equipped with a plug-in wire attachment to her shirt. Her hair is notably shoulder-length instead of reaching her back. This Identity appears in the universe with Pequod Harpooner Heathcliff.
• In the Wuthering Heights of a certain world, Catherine appears to wear a long dark trenchcoat which obscures her entirely. Her hair is cut slightly shorter, only reaching to her shoulders. This Identity appears in the universe where Heathcliff and Catherine are both dead, with their images standing before their graves and looking over Wuthering Heights.

Gallery

AssetsCutscene ArtOther

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  Story Log Portrait
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  Story Log Portrait (Past)

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  Deaths in corroded and formal dress Mirror Worlds (Wild Hunt Acquisition still)
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  Death in high school Mirror World (Wild Hunt Acquisition still)
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  A deceased Catherine lying in a coffin (Wild Hunt Acquisition still)
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  Deaths in K Corp. and medieval Mirror Worlds (Wild Hunt Acquisition still)

Trivia

• Catherine is based on both Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Linton from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Her character and relationship with Heathcliff mixes elements of both characters from the novel and their respective relationships with Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw.
  • The use of Catherine's diary as a narrative device is directly inspired by the novel. In Wuthering Heights, a tenant spends a night at Wuthering Heights in the late Catherine's room, where he finds and reads her diary. During the night, he is visited by her wailing ghost, a meeting which pushes him to ask the housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell him of the two manors' history and his landlord Heathcliff's past.
  • Catherine's interactions with the mirror she speaks to Every Catherine through is inspired by a section of the novel in which Catherine Earnshaw falls into delirium while pregnant with Edgar Linton's child. She stays in varying states of delirium until her death and during one of her most intense episodes she fails to recognize her own reflection in a mirror, concerning Nelly who has to cover the mirror to prevent Catherine from growing more distressed. This interaction happens just two months before Catherine's death, similar to how Catherine in Limbus Company begins to make plans to end her life shortly after meeting Every Catherine.
  • Catherine's convalescence and "rebirth" (and therefore her completely succumbing to the Mirror's influence) starting at beginning of Spring references her literary counterparts' fate: Catherine Earnshaw dies on the day of the Spring equinox, in giving birth to her daughter, Catherine Linton.
  • The final world Dante peers into, in which two figures stand in front of Catherine and Heathcliff's graves, explicitly references the last chapter of the novel, where Nelly Dean reveals that the shepherds of the moors have seen the ghosts of the two looking out of the windows of Wuthering Heights, or crossing the moors together.
• Catherine shares a connection to the Wandering Mind Abnormality, with one of her Mirror World forms resembling it, and with the Mirror Dungeon fusion gift associated with Canto VI and Catherine, the Handheld Mirror, using an E.G.O Gift obtained from the Wandering Mind, Mirror Tactile Synaesthesia, as a component. The Wandering Mind is described as an empty, humanlike statue, within which a mind ends up wandering into; Catherine's fate after being sealed in her coffin, with her consciousness being removed and replaced by another's, seems to reflect this concept.

The Pequod Harpooneer Heathcliff's defeat wail voice line getting censored.

• • The association of Mirror Tactile Synaesthesia, based on a condition in which an individual experiences sensation in the same part of the body as another person, references Catherine and Heathcliff's connection and similarities, with their affirmations of having felt each other's miseries and their hearts having always been the same.
  • The event choice story that leads to obtaining the Mirror Tactile Synaesthesia E.G.O Gift, in which the chosen Sinner avoids countless of the Abnormality's encroaching arms to reach for a single hand, also appears to be reflected in the events of Canto VI, at the end of which Catherine comes to realize she should not have meddled with the endless possibilities of the Mirror Worlds, as the person she loves the most is the Heathcliff of her world, and Heathcliff decides to focus his efforts in saving the Catherine of his world.

N Corp. Kleinhammer Heathcliff's's Uptie story getting censored.

• The title of the fourth Season, "Clear all Cathy," pays homage to a meme within the Korean community. It stems from the similarity in pronunciation between "Clear All Cache" and "Clear All Cathy" in Hangul, as both words are spelled identically. Despite its meme origins, the reference to "Clear All Cache" becomes a crucial plot point in the finale of Canto VI.
• Following Canto VI, with Catherine's erasure from the universe, any mention of her from Heathcliff's Mirror World selves is censored with "⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜" and when her name is spoken aloud, it is replaced by static. As the Heathcliff of this world is shown to be able to say her name openly, this likely means this static effect only affects the LCB-PDA Dante uses to communicate with the Identities.
• After the events of Canto VI, the only characters that appear to remember Catherine are Heathcliff, Dante, Demian, and Carmen through her narration during Identity Stories. The reasons behind Demian and Carmen's awareness of her remain unknown, although it appears to imply that the two exist outside the confines of the Mirror Worlds.