Emperor Mateus



The Emperor of Palamecia (パラメキア皇帝, Paramekia Kōtei) is the primary antagonist and final boss of Final Fantasy II. He is the ruler of Palamecia who aims to conquer the world through demonic forces. Though known simply as the Emperor in Final Fantasy II, he is named Mateus (マティウス, Matiusu) in the game's Japan-exclusive novelization: Final Fantasy II Nightmare's Labyrinth (ファイナルファンタジーII 夢魔の迷宮, Fainaru Fantajī Tsū Muma no Meikyū) by Kenji Terada.

Story
The plot of Final Fantasy II begins with the Emperor's campaign for world domination by using a massive army of creatures summoned from Hell. However, several kingdoms like Fynn, Kashuan and Deist resist, but they are all subdued by the Emperor's actions. In the case of the militarily-powerful homeland of the Dragoons, Deist, the Emperor ordered the poisoning of their Wyverns' water supplies, leaving the Dragoons powerless.

The novelization of the game develops on the origin of his powers, attributing it to Satan, lord of Pandaemonium. Mateus makes a pact with Satan so as to summon demonic forces into the mortal world.

However, the royalty of Kashuan, which survived the Palamecian Empire's attack, founded the Wild Rose Rebellion alongside the kingdom of Fynn. The game begins with the empire's attack on Fynn to destroy this resistance. After capturing Fynn, the Emperor begins the construction of the fearsome Dreadnought.

After Firion and the rest of the party gather the Sunfire and Princess Hilda is captured by the Dreadnought while travelling to Kashuan on Cid's airship, the Emperor replaces the captive Hilda for a Lamia Queen. After the Dreadnought is destroyed, the Imperial Lamia is taken to Altair, and later felled. After these events, the Emperor announces a tournament at the Palamecian Coliseum, and makes Hilda the prize. Firion and his comrades attempt to rescue her alongside Prince Gordon of Kashuan. At the Coliseum, the party meets the Emperor personally for the first time. After defeating a Behemoth pit against them, Firion and his friends attempt to kill the Emperor as they approach him to take the prize, however, it is revealed to be a trap, and the Emperor locks the party away. Meanwhile, the Emperor continues his assault on the land above.

After the Liberation of Fynn, the Wild Rose Rebellion acquires the Ultima Tome, but by that time the Emperor has summoned a giant Cyclone and crushed the towns of Paloom, Altair, Gatrea and Poft, and begins to approach Fynn. The party makes their way inside by summoning a Wyvern, and makes another assassination attempt on the Emperor. The Emperor is killed, but it is not over, as the Dark Knight Leon proclaims himself Emperor of Palamecia and takes over the Palamecian army.

After breaking into Palamecia's mountain-protected castle, the party confront the Dark Knight. Before they do battle, the Emperor suddenly appears in the hall, in a new demonical form. On his death, Mateus arrived on Hell and defeated Satan personally, making him the Emperor of Hell. Ricard summons the Wind Drake to get the party out of Palamecia while he confronts the revived Emperor, who slaughters him with ease.

While it is not known if the Emperor intentionally allowed for himself to be killed in order to arrive to Hell, given the fact he already had power over Hell-spawn, it is likely it was his true intention all along. After killing Richard, Mateus summons Pandaemonium, to the mountains where Palamecia once stood, and resumes his world-domination campaign. However, the party travels through the Jade Passage and breaks into castle Pandaemonium. After defeating each and every of the Emperor's hellish generals, Firion and his friends confront the Emperor head on. He is eventually defeated, and fades away.

In the Dawn of Souls and 20th Anniversary versions, something unforeseen happens when the Emperor is killed: His soul splits into two entities. While one goes to Hell and becomes the lord of Pandemonium, the other goes to Heaven and becomes the lord of Arubboth. With his new powers, he summons the fallen souls of Minwu, Josef, Scott, and Ricard to him as representatives of those who fell in the wake of the Empire's conquests. As they reach his throne room within the walls of Arubboth, the Emperor asks for their forgiveness and offers them eternal life. They are reluctant, and consider his offer. However, the souls of all the people they care about appear before them, and tell them to look past his charade.

With their help, they realize they are being tricked, that this Emperor is no different from the other, and attack the Emperor's light side while Firion's group battle his dark counterpart. As he dies in conjunction with his other half at the hands of their respective parties, the Emperor's light half tells them it is futile, that the bloody struggles of violence and war will continue as long as humans exist. Minwu comments at the very end that if anyone can change man's violent legacy, it would be Firion and his friends.

Emperor of Hell
The Dark Emperor is the original game's final boss. His face becomes demonic giving him fangs, yellow eyes, horns, and snake-like creatures on his head. His arms are covered by giant metal gauntlets. He is also shrouded by a dark-violet cloak. His powers in this form are mostly status effects, such as Blind, Slow, and various others. Every time he attacks the player physically, he heals himself for the amount of damage done to the party.

Emperor of Heaven
The Light Emperor is the final boss of Soul of Rebirth, where he is fought by the game's deceased characters. He appears angelic with six wings, a golden arch on his back, a golden gown, and has golden clouds at his feet. His powers are somewhat the same as his other form, but the Light Emperor's stats are higher than that of the Dark Emperor, and can still drain health with his physical attacks. However, he loses the ability to cause status effects, but he can use Holy and Blaze XVI.

Strength


Even before he crowns himself Emperor of Hell, Mateus is incredibly powerful, being able to create the cyclone and cast strong lightning-elemental spells. He is even strong enough to defeat Satan himself. This, along with the fact that he is able to cast Flare and Starfall in his base form in Dissidia, strongly supports the fact that it was indeed his plan to lose to Firion and his allies, and that his death was all an act to fool the rebels. Upon his death, and eventual rebirth, he gains the ability to summon Pandaemonium, an allusion to Milton's Paradise Lost, wherein it is the capital of Hell. The Light Emperor has more Holy themed abilities, and he possesses the ability to summon the dead, specifically, Firion's fallen allies. Both of the Emperor's forms have access to many high-level or even max-level spells, primarily Flare and Starfall and status spells like Blind and Silence. Their normal attacks also heal them.

In Dissidia Final Fantasy, the Emperor's list of powers expands. He gains the ability to produce magnetic energy mines from his staff and focus explosive magical energy on his staff, and can lightning-elemental create crests of that fire projectiles or ensnare enemies, alluding to his original incarnation's powers. He is also shown to have the power of telekinesis.

Battles
The Emperor is fought three times in Final Fantasy II. Once in Cyclone by Firion, Maria, Guy, and Ricard and again in Pandaemonium by Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon, whilst Minwu's party fights him once in Soul of Rebirth.

Music
The original final battle theme of The Emperor was called "Sentō Shīn 2" ("Battle Scene 2"). A rearrangement of the theme by The Black Mages titled "Battle Scene II" appears on their first studio album. Another arrangement appears on the Dissidia OST.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Chaos has summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate villains in an attempt to gain control on a number of Crystals, resulting in total control of the Final Fantasy worlds. The Emperor of Palamecia is one of these villains and he stands as the villain representing Final Fantasy II, opposing Firion.

As one of the higher-ranking villains, the Emperor is the mastermind of the game's overarching plot to destroy Cosmos and drown the world in darkness. He manipulates hero and villain alike towards this goal. However, it is later revealed the Emperor orchestrated the plan with the intent for both Cosmos and Chaos to die. The Emperor's ultimate goal is for both gods to perish and their warriors with them, leaving him to survive their destruction and rule over existence in their absence.

His alternate form is a pallete swap based on his appearance from the Final Fantasy Origins opening FMV.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
The Emperor reappears as a Warrior of Chaos in the prequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy alongside all the other characters from the original.

Ivalice Alliance
The Esper Mateus from Final Fantasy XII is named after, and based on, the Emperor, its appearance bearing similarities to the Emperor's armor. The Esper's back story is based on his command of hell. The Totema Mateus from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is also named after the Emperor, but that is where the similarities end. However there are certain elements which can be considered similarities when compared with The Emperor's improved desgins, for example if one looks at the sprite of the Totema, one can notice it has makeup, and The Emperor is featured with makeup, as well as both a long Rod/Staff. Both of these elements are added on The Emperor on later designs, and such if the Ivalice character is indeed The Emperor, is debatable.

Etymology
Mateus, is the Portuguese cognate of Matthew, and means "gift of god."

Trivia

 * The Light Emperor's portrait is based on Mateus' appearance from a promotional poster drawn by Yoshitaka Amano.
 * The Emperor was the first villain in the series to wipe out an entire kingdom by poisoning the water supply of their wyverns, an infamous act that would later be performed by Kefka Palazzo in Final Fantasy VI to an even grander scale where the water supply of people is poisoned.
 * It is told in the game that an Emperor of Palamecia once challenged the world to see who could reach his daughter on a high floor of his castle. Many men tried this challenge but they all failed until one man used a hot air balloon to reach her. The Emperor was furious and embarrassed by this and swore revenge, from which the Emperors' desire for conquest was born. Whether or not this was about a previous Emperor or the current one is unknown. This story can be read in the Mysidian library in Dawn of Souls. It is basically an adaptation of the traditional Rapunzel fairy tale.
 * Though the Emperor is arrogant and is not met until halfway into the game, it is interesting to note he addresses his enemies (particularly Firion) using their names, in a somewhat non-distant manner.
 * The Emperor is well known in Japan for his cheesy deathcry of "Uboaaa!" and the romanized version, "Uboar!". "Uboar" is even the name of his popular Japanese fanclub. His deathcry also is used when he loses in Dissidia, and Tidus questions him about his scream. In the English version, his deathcry was changed to "Ungaahhhh!", which has also caught on in Japan due to the English subtitle option of Final Fantasy II for the PSP. "Uboaa" is also used in the English prototype of Final Fantasy II, Dark Shadow Over Palakia.
 * His name, Mateus, is referenced in Dissidia, as the name of his best weapon, Mateus's Malice.
 * Recent remakes state the Emperor's soul was split into two greater entities. Interestingly, Dissidia shows the human Emperor and his hellish transformation as one being. According to his Museum bio, he was willing to do anything for power, even sell his soul (this is refering to when the Emperor sells his soul to Satan in FFII in order to have power over hell-spawn)
 * The Emperor is subtly referenced in the popular web comic 8-Bit Theater. Black Mage Evilwizardington is killed by Lich and sent to Hell. There, he overthrows the current rulers of Hell and takes over, absorbing the powers of Hell and returning to Earth. He kills Lich and announces his plan to conquer the world, but is stripped of his powers shortly after when Lich heals the overthrown demons and becomes the new king of Hell.
 * The Emperor bears a striking resemblance to the Goblin King Jareth (played by David Bowie) from the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth. As such, in Dissidia, his voice actor Christopher Corey Smith voices the character in a similar manner.
 * The novelization states that the Emperor killed Satan to become the new Lord of Hell. Satan's name and existence is not stated explicitly in the game. It is unknown, however, if the Light Emperor had to defeat God (or an equivalent) to take control of Heaven, as the novelization predates the creation of the Soul of Rebirth bonus storyline.

Imperator Mateus Emperador Mateus Palamecia