Erlking Heathcliff

Overview

Enemy (Dead Rabbits Boss)

Enemy (Erkling Heathcliff)

"Wait!"

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Erkling Heathcliff
Title	T Corp. Gang / Distant World
Other Names
Nicknames	Matt, Matthew, Heathcliff?
General Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Syndicate Boss / Unknown
Affiliations	Dead Rabbits The Wild Hunt
Relations	Heathcliff (Mirror Self) Hindley (Employer) Nelly (Mother)
First Appearance	Canto VI: The Heartbreaking
Status	Deceased
Voice Actor	Hong Seung-hyo

Erkling 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 (Erkling Mirror World), is a posthumous character who never makes an actual appearance.

Appearance

Dead Rabbits Boss

As Dead Rabbits Boss, Erkling 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 brown scarf and a button-down shirt with three buckles across the chest. He wears dark pants tucked into thick black boots with a buckle aesthetic shared with his gloves. Most notable to his appearance, he wears a stitched piece of cloth that has two holes for his eyes and flaps resembling rabbit ears. In his right hand, he carries a timepiece common of most T Corp. residents, and carries a large, bloodied bat in his left hand, covered in plating that is held in place by barbed wire.

When unmasked, he is revealed to be a disheveled Mirror World version of Heathcliff. He is scarred akin to the Sinner's regular version, yet has 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.

Erkling Heathcliff

As Erkling Heathcliff, Erkling Heathcliff has a similar style of attire to his "Dead Rabbits Boss" iteration. However, there are a few major differences.

Instead of oversized clothing with signs of rather severe damage, he now wears a more 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. He is also sometimes seen riding a headless black horse.

In battle, Erkling Heathcliff is seen riding a dark, headless horse and wielding a greatsword with black hilt and a blade that has an appearance reminiscent of a shattered mirror. The sword is covered in blood-red thorns, some of which Erkling Heathcliff uses as a strap to carry the sword on his back. He is also seen using Catherine's coffin as a weapon, after he picked it up directly after his being summoned in Wuthering Heights's basement.

Personality

When first introduced as the "Dead Rabbits Boss", Erkling 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. He carries a deep bond for his friends and subordinates, deeply trusting them to the point where he wishes no physical harm come to them- something Heathcliff mentions Matthew said when drunk before.

In reality, Erkling Heathcliff was putting on an act and mimicking the behaviour 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 distraught over his loss most of the time, and violent when focused upon LCB Heathcliff.

Background

Many years in the past, Heathcliff arrived to the Dead Rabbits headquarters, looking to join the group following his departure from Wuthering Heights. As inferred by the Uptie 3 cutscene of Dead Rabbits Boss Meursault, Matt would order Heathcliff to kill a rival Syndicate's underling as a right of proving, something he expected to scare off the man, as well as something the Dead Rabbits did not typically do. Despite this, Heathcliff returned with an underling's corpse, so Matthew accepted him into the group. Through this, Heathcliff? became close to Matt and developed a bond close enough that enabled Heathcliff? to mimic his future boss' mannerisms in the future in order to fool his mirror self.

He would, eventually, learn of his world's Catherine's demise through an alternate Nelly. Heathcliff? would begin to blame himself for the death and, through an alternate Hermann (or other N Corp. official)'s meddling, see that the same is true for every other Heathcliff in every other Mirror World. He would then go on 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.

Story

Canto VI: The Heartbreaking

Part I

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.

Part II

While travelling down the basement, the Sinners discover a set-up of mirror pods built by former members of The Ring using a modified coffin with Catherine inside. Hindley and the Boss would soon arrive, beginning combat as Hindley is spurred to fight the Sinners. Upon his loss, "Matt" would ominously warn Hindley to "beware the obsidian grass"- spurring the other to distort. Once Hindley is defeated by the Sinners, the Boss confronts the opponents himself, despite his dismay of the low amount of support he has currently. Following a short fight, he would remove his mask, revealing himself as an Identity of Heathcliff, one driven to madness through the death of Catherine and now choosing to hunt alternate Heathcliffs. Heathcliff would bring the battle against his alternate self short with a particularly violent use of Bodysack, killing Heathcliff?, leaving behind the corpse of Isabella Edgar, Linton's sister, who was wearing the Identity.

Part III

Despite his first defeat, Erkling Heathcliff was not eradicated due to his being an Identity, and thus can be summoned again through re-application of Mirror technology upon another individual. Thus, he makes a quick comeback when Linton, following Catherine's wish, attached himself to the machine in Wuthering Heights' basement, transforming into a pure "dough" upon which Erkling Heathcliff's Identity was summoned with higher quality than previously (as evident from his attire and ability to summon the Wild Hunt).

Once summoned, Erkling Heathcliff quickly dispatches Josephine, who was just come onto the scene, then makes his way towards the rooftop of the manor after grabbing 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 Erkling 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 Erkling 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, Erkling Heathcliff's original cause of existence ceased to exist, and he faded from existence as well. In his last moments, he muttered to Cathering, "Cathury, I'm truly sorry for being the wuthering heights in our heartbreaking. But now, my LCB self has limbus friends to move forward." as he explodes into a messy mush of flesh.

Trivia

• As the Dead Rabbits Boss and Heathcliff?, all of Erkling 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.
• The title of Erkling, or Erlkönig, comes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1782 poem of the same name, which takes its inspiration from Danish folklore. In-universe, the term refers to a Mirror World Identity that goes on a rampage throughout a series of Mirror Worlds.
  • The original poem tells of an anxious young boy being carried on horseback by his father through the night. As the poem proceeds, the boy begins to see and hear the Erlkönig, who promises him lavish gifts and treatment to lure him to join himself. 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.
    • This imagery may be part of the reason that Erkling Heathcliff is sometimes seen riding a black, headless horse, another image that can be traced to medieval European folklore.

• Erkling Heathcliff may have been partially inspired by Herne the Hunter, as both share the motif of being associated with Erkling, and Leading the Wild Hunt before.

• The two figures Erkling Heathcliff sees before fading can be interpreted in two main ways. The first is that the couple are the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine, united in death just as they are at the end of Wuthering Heights. The second is that they are Hareton Earnshaw, who is the son of Hindley Earnshaw and his wife Francis, and Catherine Linton, who is the daughter of Edgar Linton and Catherine Earnshaw, and the two fill a similar role as they do in the novel, where they act as parallels for Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw respectively, and can find happiness unlike the generation that came before them.

• Erkling 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.

Gallery

• Assets
• Cutscene Art

Story Log Portrait

Story Log Portrait (Dead Rabbits Boss)

Story Log Portrait (Dead Rabbits Boss, Unmasked)

Story Log Portrait (Past)

Erkling Heathcliff, with Catherine's coffin

Erkling Heathcliff, riding his horse