Erlking Heathcliff

Overview

Enemy (Dead Rabbits Boss)

Enemy (Erlking Heathcliff)

Sprites

Not to be confused with Wild Hunt Heathcliff.

“	What a sorry ending to this tale, is it not?	”
–Erlking Heathcliff, Canto VI: The Heartbreaking

Erlking Heathcliff, also known as Dead Rabbits Boss and Heathcliff?, is the leader of the impostor Dead Rabbits Syndicate and an Identity of Heathcliff, acting as a major antagonist in Canto VI: The Heartbreaking.

Appearance

In his disguise as the Dead Rabbits Boss, Erlking Heathcliff is a wide-shouldered man wearing drab clothes with rustic brown colors and visible damage to them. On his shoulders, he wears heavy metal plating. Beneath his overcoat, he wears a dark waistcoast with three buckles across the chest, dark pants tucked into thick black boots, black gloves and a brown scarf. His face is covered by a grey mask with visible stitching, and two flaps resembling rabbit ears. In his right hand, he carries a brass timepiece common of most T Corp. residents, and wields a large, bloodied bat in his left hand, covered in plating and barbed wire.

When unmasked, he is revealed to be a disheveled Identity of Heathcliff. He appears to be older, and is scarred akin to the Sinner's regular version, with a particularly prominent scar on the bridge of his nose, created during his breakdown upon learning of Catherine's demise. His hair is long and tangled, and he has stubble along his chin.

After his perfected summoning, Erlking Heathcliff wears a tailored brown knee-length overcoat decorated with three belts on the right hem and a heath pattern on the left hem, a short cape on his right shoulder, leather gauntlets, and black riding boots.

In battle, Erlking Heathcliff rises a dark, headless horse, and wields a greatsword with black hilt and a blade reminiscent of a shattered mirror. The sword is covered in blood-red thorns, which allow Erlking Heathcliff to carry the sword on his back. He also uses Catherine's coffin as a weapon, after he picked it up directly after his summoning in the Wuthering Heights basement.

Personality

When first introduced as the "Dead Rabbits Boss", Erlking Heathcliff is shown to be a cheery individual despite his appearance, as highlighted by the way he first reacts upon seeing Heathcliff when the latter returns to Wuthering Heights.

In reality, Erlking Heathcliff was putting on an act and mimicking the behavior of the original Dead Rabbits Boss in order to impersonate him. When revealing himself, he is hateful towards LCB's Heathcliff, blaming himself- and all other Identities of himself for the suffering Catherine must face. He is shown to be a calculating individual, having conspirated with Nelly to take his revenge over the people of Wuthering Heights and the Edgar Family, a task he has undertaken many times over in numerous Mirror Worlds.

While his final goal is the destruction of each variation of himself, he still carries a deep hatred for the members of the two households, complicit in the pain and humiliation endured in his past, and appears to look forward to their deaths in each Mirror World.

Story

Prior to Limbus Company

Much like the Heathcliff of the main story, many years in the past, Erlking Heathcliff fled Wuthering Heights, and joined the Dead Rabbits Syndicate. In his world, their leader went by the name Matt. Erlking Heathcliff would spend a considerable amount of time with the Syndicate, to the point he would be able to near-perfectly copy Matt's mannerisms.

He eventually learned of his world's Catherine's demise from Nelly, and, tormented by grief, blamed himself for the death. At a point, he came into contact with the Mirror through Hermann's meddling, and came to believe that in every Mirror World, every Heathcliff would lead to Catherine's unhappiness and eventual death. He began a rampage through the Mirror Worlds, killing as many Heathcliffs as he could. He would also extend his original revenge to alternate versions of Hindley, Linton, and Josephine, forming his Wild Hunt.

Eventually, he was summoned to the world of the main story, where he began collaborating with Nelly and the New League of Nine Littérateurs to enact his revenge. After the Dead Rabbits Syndicate was wiped out, Heathcliff took the identity of its boss Matthew, and, with the help of the Ring, he reformed the Syndicate by summoning Identities over the bodies of T Corp. citizens. With Nelly's help, Heathcliff was put in contact with the Hindley of this world, with Heathcliff goading him into gambling his fortune away, eventually losing the manor of Wuthering Heights in a game of poker. Nelly would also introduce him to Isabella Edgar, whom Heathcliff would charm and manipulate, eventually leading to her being used as dough for one of his summonings, being the body he would control up to the events of Canto VI.

Canto VI: The Heartbreaking

At some point before the return to Wuthering Heights, Hindley chose to hire the Dead Rabbits Syndicate as a form of protection when returning to the manor for the reading of Catherine's will.

Upon the Sinners' arrival to the manor, Erlking Heathcliff, in his role as Matt, reconnected with Heathcliff, treating the man as the long friend that Heathcliff knew him to be, and telling him about what he missed since running away.

Following the first strike of lightning happening during the reading, the power was cut and everybody in the room was dispersed around the building. During their exploration of the manor, the Sinners learned that the Dead Rabbits Syndicate had been destroyed in the past, giving the first sign that the Dead Rabbits Boss was not who he claimed to be.

While travelling down the basement, the Sinners discovered a set-up of mirror pods built by former members of The Ring using a modified coffin with Catherine inside. Hindley and the Boss arrived, beginning combat as Hindley was spurred to fight the Sinners. Upon his loss, "Matt" ominously warned Hindley to "beware the obsidian grass", revealing to Hindley he'd been the one to bankrupt him, and spurring the other to distort.

Once Hindley was defeated by the Sinners, the Boss confronted the opponents himself. Following a short fight, he removed his mask, revealing himself as an Identity of Heathcliff. Erlking Heathcliff revealed to Heathcliff that the reason he was in this world was to kill the person who'd killed Catherine, and that that person was Heathcliff himself. He recounted of his past, of having learned that in all Mirror Worlds, Heathcliff was always to blame for Catherine's death, and that his mission was to take revenge on every single one of them. After a second fight, Heathcliff defeated his alternate self with a particularly violent use of Bodysack, killing the Identity and leaving behind the corpse of Isabella Edgar, who had been used for his summoning.

Despite this initial defeat, Erlking Heathcliff returned, after Linton transformed himself into a pure dough, upon which Erlking Heathcliff's Identity was summoned once more, with higher quality than previously (as evident from his attire and ability to summon the Wild Hunt).

Once summoned, before Heathcliff was able to stop him, Erlking Heathcliff took Catherine's coffin, remarking to his alternate self that he would never be able to save her, and he marched on to the rooftop, leaving the Wild Hunt and the Peccatula to stop the Sinners. After the Sinners extricated themselves from the endless mire of the Wild Hunt with the help of Vergilius, they followed Erlking Heathcliff. After defeating him once more, Nelly stepped forward to protect him, as Erlking Heathcliff escaped to the rooftop. After defeating Nelly, the Sinners arrived at the rooftop, where Erlking Heathcliff was preparing to take the second Golden Bough, installed as a lightning rod, and kill Heathcliff before moving on to the next Mirror World. The Bough was instead taken by Heathcliff, who stabbed himself with it in an attempt to drain it of its power, while rebuking the Erlking's claims about their prewritten fate. The Sinners then engaged in battle with Erlking Heathcliff once more, although the combat was interrupted by the summoning of Every Catherine, who stepped forward to defend him. While unable to see her directly, Erlking Heathcliff would feel her presence and call for her; only after Dante made use of the Golden Bough to erase Catherine from every Mirror World, the two would reach out for each other, embracing for one final time.

As the worlds changed before their eyes, he and Dante witnessed a Mirror World in which Heathcliff and Catherine had been able to reunite even after their deaths. Afterwards, as Erlking Heathcliff's cause of existence ceased to exist, he faded from existence as well, and departed while realizing his convictions had blinded himself to the possibility of a different ending to their story.

Gallery

AssetsCutscene Art

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  Story Log Portrait
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  Story Log Portrait (Dead Rabbits Boss, Unmasked)
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  Story Log Portrait (Dead Rabbits Boss)
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  Story Log Portrait (Past)
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  Battle Background
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  6-34 Post-battle Cutscene
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  Dead Sprite (Isabella's Body)

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Trivia

• Erlking Heathcliff is based on the protagonist of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, resembling Heathcliff as seen in the second half of the novel.
  • Erlking Heathcliff's breakdown at the news of Catherine's death directly references the same scene in the novel, where Heathcliff similarly beats his head against a tree until he draws blood, as Nelly watches on.
  • Erlking Heathcliff's use of Catherine's coffin references a scene in the novel in which Heathcliff reveals to have disturbed Catherine's grave, and having tampered with her coffin so that at the moment of his own death, the side could be removed, allowing their remains to rest together.
  • Similarly to the Heathcliff of the novel, Erlking Heathcliff is revealed to have bankrupted Hindley in a game of cards, forcing him to sell the property of Wuthering Heights.
• The title of Erlking, or Erlkönig, originates from the Erlking of European folklore. The Erlking, (Danish, elverkonge, "Elf-king"), or king of the fairies, is a malevolent elf who dwells in the woods, luring children to the land of death. Scandinavian folklore instead presents a female spirit, the elven king's daughter, who lures mortals to satisfy her desires and wish for revenge.
  • The figure of the Erlking was greatly popularized by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1782 poem of the same name. In the poem, an anxious young boy, being carried on horseback by his father through the night, begins to see and hear the Erlkönig, who promises him lavish gifts and treatment to lure the boy to join him. As the boy refuses to respond, the Erlkönig decides to use force, which prompt the boy to cry out and the boy's father to speed to his home. Upon arriving, the father finds that the boy has perished.
• Erlking Heathcliff and Every Catherine both appear influenced by mythological figures from Irish folklore. Erlking Heathcliff is connected with the figure of the Dullahan, a headless rider on a black horse, who carries his own severed head. The Dullahan is said to lead or drive the death coach, a harbinger of impeding death and ruin, which is often followed or summoned by the keening of a Banshee.
• As the Dead Rabbits Boss and Heathcliff?, all of Erlking Heathcliff's Skills (with the exception of his Guard) mirror the Skills of LCB Sinner Heathcliff. They have the same names and the Skill icons are essentially mirror images of each other.
• Erlking Heathcliff is currently the most fought character in the main story of Limbus Company, being featured in four different Main Story encounters as a Boss Enemy.