Story Log Portrait
Story Log Portrait (Dead Rabbits Boss, Unmasked)
Story Log Portrait (Dead Rabbits Boss)
Story Log Portrait (Past)
Death Sprite (Isabella's Body Destroyed)
Canto VI Ending Cutscene (Injured)
Erlking Heathcliff
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Not to be confused with Wild Hunt Heathcliff.
| “ | ” | |
–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 the commander of The Wild Hunt, acting as a major antagonist in Canto VI: The Heartbreaking.
The original Dead Rabbits Boss, known as Matthew (LCB Mirror World) or Matt (Erlking Mirror World), is a posthumous character who never makes an actual appearance.
Appearance
Dead Rabbits Boss
As 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 carries 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.
Erlking Heathcliff
As Erlking Heathcliff, 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, the Mad Coney. 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 would, eventually, learn of his world's Catherine's demise from Nelly, and tormented by grief, blame himself for the death. At a point, he came into contact with the Mirror through Hermann 's meddling, and come to believe that in every Mirror World, every Heathcliff would lead to Catherine's unhappiness, and eventual death. He began a rampage through Mirror Worlds, killing as many Heathcliffs as he can. He would also extend his original revenge to alternate versions of Hindley, Linton, and Josephine, forming his Wild Hunt.
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 hear the reading of Catherine's will.
Upon arriving to the manor, Matthew would go searching for water and get lost within the building. As this is happening, Hindley orders his Syndicate to attack the Sinners, with the Dead Rabbits Boss only finding his way back just following the scuffle. Defusing the situation, he would reconnect with Heathcliff as Matthew with no hostility whatsoever, treating the man as the long friend that Heathcliff knew him to be, and telling him about what he missed since running away- as well as lightly scolding him for leaving. The reconnection of the two is cut short as the Öufi Association members present urge the reading of the will. Following the first strike of lightning happening during the reading, the power would be cut and everybody in the room would be dispersed around the building, with the Dead Rabbits and Wuthering Heights Butlers battling one another. The Sinners would be soon informed that the Dead Rabbits Syndicate was 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 is 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 would remove his mask, revealing himself as an Identity of Heathcliff. Heathcliff defeated his alternate self with a particularly violent use of Bodysack, killing the Identity and leaving behind the corpse of Isabella Edgar, Linton's sister, who had been used for his summoning.
Despite his first defeat, Erlking Heathcliff was not eradicated due to his being an Identity, and thus could be summoned again through re-application of Mirror technology upon another individual. Thus, he makes a quick comeback when Linton attached himself to the machine in Wuthering Heights' basement, transforming into a pure "dough" upon which Erlking Heathcliff's Identity was summoned with higher quality than previously (as evident from his attire and ability to summon the Wild Hunt).
Once summoned, Erlking Heathcliff quickly dispatches Josephine, then makes his way towards the rooftop of the manor with Catherine's coffin, leaving the endless trains of Hindleys, Lintons, and Peccatula to stop the Sinners in the underground laboratory. After the Sinners extricated themselves from the endless mire of The Wild Hunt with the help of Vergilius, they make their way to the rooftop, learning on the way that it was Nelly who initially invited Erlking Heathcliff to this world, so that she may herself be freed from Heathcliff and Catherine's all-destroying struggle for mutual happiness.
After defeating Nelly, the Sinners arrive 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. After defeating both him and Every Catherine in the final showdown of the Canto, and as Catherine burned out a Golden Bough to erase herself from every Mirror World, Erlking Heathcliff's original cause of existence ceased to exist, and he faded from existence as well. In his last moments, he and Dante witnessed a Mirror World in which Heathcliff and Catherine had been able to reunite even after their deaths; Erlking Heathcliff then departed while realizing his convictions had blinded himself to the possibility of a different ending to their story.
Gallery
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.
Wiki Navigation
| ||
|
