Emperor Mateus



The Emperor of Palamecia (パラメキア皇帝) is the main antagonist 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) in the game's Japan-exclusive novelization: Final Fantasy II Nightmare's Labyrinth by Kenji Terada.

Appearance and Personality
Mateus wears light, golden colored armor with purple robes underneath. His hair is blond and spiked, with an extra-long ponytail. Black and white stripes trace his ribs on his chestplate, and demonic looking faces embellish his waist and back. His gauntlets sport extended claws. Mateus wears purple makeup on his eyes and lips, and appears to wear a purple crown depicting a serpent. However, he has at times worn a much darker outfit, with a hairstyle that resembles a pair of demonic horns. Because of his soul being split apart upon his first death to dominate both sides of the afterlife, he carried on two appearances, which each represented the specific spiritual element that the form embodies: The first half, Hell Emperor, Emperor of Hell, or simply Dark Emperor, depicted him in an almost bestial light: a nightmarish form depicting a demonic skull-like face with razor-sharp teeth, as well as snakes on his head similar to Medusa. He is also covered with spines, at least some of which were also present near the torso. He is also constantly wearing a dark cape or cloak and has clawed hands. The other half, known as the Light Emperor, depicted him with an almost otherworldly appearance, yet somewhat resembling a human overall: having his eyes constantly closed. He also had six wings similar to a Seraph, and a golden gate on his back. He also at times appeared to be made of clouds. He also wore what appeared to be a light-colored robe.

Being the ruler of Palamecia, the Emperor is arrogant, but is also intelligent and manipulative. Despite his arrogance, the Emperor is often polite when referring to his enemies by name or calling them gentlemen, but at the same time he is quick to call them insects or worms. He also seems to be a misanthrope, harboring a hatred of humanity.

This is especially evident just before the final battle against the heroes in his Hell Emperor form, as well as being defeated as the Heaven Emperor, declaring humanity to have a flawed sense of justice and forsaken love, and being inherently violent. In addition, he views himself as the only one truly capable of ruling as Emperor, as evidenced by his first lines upon returning from Hell is telling Leon that the world can only have one Emperor, in reference to himself.

In Dissidia Final Fantasy the Emperor's personality from Final Fantasy II is expanded on. The Emperor is always calm and never seems to lose control of his emotions, because he believes his plan will succeed without fail. His intelligence is again demonstrated, as it is he who formulates the plan to kill Cosmos for good and end the war in Chaos's favor using the Crystals.

In the novel Muma no Meikyū. It's stated that Palamecia is cursed with demonic influences that corrupt its emperors. The demon, desiring to rule the world by human proxy, turns men into malicious masterminds by using everything at its disposal to pollute their thoughts with its malice. This is the only insight into Emperor Mateus' backstory and characterization given, though it's never been supported as canon in any version of the game or by other official sources.

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. Several kingdoms like Fynn, Kashuan and Deist resist, but they are all subdued by the Emperor's inhuman 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. In the novel Muma no Meikyū the demon that corrupts the minds of Palamecia emperors originates all the way from the beginning of the world when it became trapped within the indestructible "Stone of Iludia" and swore revenge by any means. After ascending to the throne, Mateus exiled his mother, Airu, to the deserts of Palamecia, and yet she still spends her life trying to find a way to save him, although she never manages to do this during the novel.

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 traveling to Kashuan on Cid's airship. The Emperor replaces the captive Hilda with 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 Castle Palamecia, the party confront the Dark Knight. Before they do battle, the Emperor suddenly appears in the hall, in a new demoniac 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 Ricard, Mateus summons Pandaemonium, to the mountains where Palamecia once stood, and resumes his world-domination campaign. The party travels through the Jade Passage and breaks into castle Pandaemonium and after defeating each and every one of the Emperor's hellish generals, Firion and his friends confront the Emperor head on. The Emperor is eventually defeated, and he fades away.

Soul of Rebirth
In the Dawn of Souls, 20th Anniversary and iOS 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, but 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, with the light side likewise vowing to have them know eternal suffering due to their refusal to forgive him. 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.

Abilities


Even before he crowns himself Emperor of Hell, Mateus is incredibly powerful, being able to create cyclones which are destructive enough to devastate entire towns and cast strong lightning-elemental spells. Upon his death, and eventual rebirth, he gains the ability to summon Pandaemonium to the surface of Earth. In the novelization of Final Fantasy II, Mateus is strong enough to defeat Satan in battle, and sold his soul to him for the power to summon demons from Hell to serve him.

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

Battle
The Emperor is fought three times in Final Fantasy II. He is first fought in human form in the Cyclone, where he fights in the company of two Royal Guards enemies and a Wood Golem. He uses buffing magic like Haste VIII and Blink VIII, with Thunder X as his only damaging spell.

The Emperor of Hell is the game's final boss, fought in the throne room of Pandaemonium. He uses Flare XVI and Starfall X as his offensive spells, and powerful physical attacks that heal him. He also uses high-level status magic like Curse XVI and Slow XVI. The Emperor of Hell is resistant to or absorbs all types of elemental damage.

The Emperor of Heaven is the final boss of Soul of Rebirth. His powers are more offensively based than his counterpart, using Flare XVI, Holy XVI, Blaze XVI, and Starfall XVI. His only status spell is Dispel XVI, which serves to weaken the party's resistance to his other spells.

Musical Themes
As of the Wonderswan Color remakes, the original boss theme of Final Fantasy II," Battle Scene 2" ("Sentō Shīn 2"), was used exclusively as the Final Boss Theme, while arrangements of the game's two battle themes were used for every other boss battle. Thus, "Battle Scene 2" grew to become associated with the Emperor alone as it only plays in the final battle(s) against him since the aforementioned version of the game.

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 Final Fantasy Original Soundtrack.

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.

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. 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. It is later revealed the Emperor orchestrated the plan with the intent for both Cosmos and Chaos to die. Having manipulated Jecht into fighting Tidus when the former was a Warrior of Cosmos in a previous cycle, he has obtained a Crystal from Jecht's fighting attuned to Chaos instead of Cosmos. The Emperor's ultimate goal is for both gods to perish and their warriors with them, leaving him to survive their destruction due to the power of his Crystal and rule over existence unopposed.

His alternate outfit is a pale purple, gray and white palette swap based on his appearance in an alternate Yoshitaka Amano artwork.

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. He is the one responsible for Tidus being summoned to fight Jecht, but Tidus's memories are stirred by Yuna. The Emperor attempts to kill her but Tidus protects her, leaving the Emperor to fight Yuna while Jecht tends to the wounded Tidus. During the battle Jecht transfers his light to Tidus, leaving himself an empty husk, and the Emperor enacts his plan to seize a Crystal by taking him to Chaos to be imbued with the power of discord. The Emperor later takes part in the final battles of the game, battling Yuna once again.

The Emperor's second alternate form is his Final Fantasy Origins appearance as seen in Final Fantasy II's opening cinematic, giving him a dark purple and black robe. As a bonus fourth outfit available for download from the PlayStation Network, the Emperor dresses in a gold and purple robe as the Emperor of Arubboth.

Etymology
Mateus is the Portuguese form of the name Matthew, which means "gift of god".

Trivia

 * The Light Emperor's portrait is based on Mateus's appearance from a promotional poster drawn by Yoshitaka Amano.
 * By poisoning the water supply of Deist's wyverns, the Emperor was the first villain in the series to wipe out an entire kingdom. This 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 was poisoned.
 * 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 identity of the Dark Knight may be relevant to this.
 * The Emperor is well known in Japan for his death-cry of "Uboaaa!" and the romanized version, "Uboar!". "Uboar" is even the name of his popular Japanese fanclub. His death-cry also is used when he loses in Dissidia, and Tidus questions him about his scream. In the English version, his death-cry 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.
 * 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 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.

Imperator Mateus Emperador Mateus Palamecia