Important People

Artur “Meter” Matan

The youngest son of the Founder Family Matan’s emperor: Lucian Maelor Matan- and the only child of his in exile. Meter Matan, born Artur to Judith-Arnive Uter-Draig, is the founder of the Kingdom of Metrian and widely considered to be the founder of Metrianda as a whole. A short man, standing at exactly 5’ (which is *miniscule* in comparison to the gargantuan members of his species) and sporting the odd 3 tails instead of 1 that founders are typically born with, Meter was an outcast from the moment of his birth. Born to the Agunah of Lucian, Judith-Arnive Uter-Draig rather than the Matan Empress Perciva-Elaine Matan, Meter was already lacking the favor of his kingdom as well as his father’s- a situation that was not improved as he slowly lost the use of his legs throughout his adolescence. In Matan culture an individual is given 2-3 names; their DeadName, a named assigned to them at birth that will be written on their gravestone and used in practices involving their death and memory, their LivingName, a name given to a Matan by their patriarch after they make an achievement that could be considered a lifetime achievement, this name is used while the individual is living on official documentations, in ceremonies, and other cultural practices, and their TakenName, a name chosen by the individual that is used casually- often the TakenName and the LivingName are the same name. Meter’s Deadname is Artur, given to him by his mother, while his living and taken is Meter- a name given to him as a joke by his father after he had been forced to walk a meter in his teenage years without his mobility aides to “prove” himself to the throne. While Miko was able to find this information easily through the dead king’s journals in the Restricted section of the library, it doesn’t seem as if many others know of the king’s DeadName- hence why he is not referred to as Artur in his documentation. This seems to not be tied to a lack of desire on his part to follow this cultural practice, but more so from the suddenness of his death and the deaths of the people who would be knowledgeable about the practice and his name.

Meter was exiled from his home in his late teens-early adulthood when he approached his father during a round table meeting with an idea. The Matans are considered one of the most aggressive and war-like of the Founder Families, and Meter - despite looking exactly like his father - was fundamentally not like his family at all. Meter Matan was a pacifist, an academic, and an artist- he was widely considered weak by his family and his morals and values were judged heavily for being, again, “weak” as well as deeply permissive and idealistic. Meter, for as long as he had been in the public eye, advocated for peace amongst the Founder families and particularly between the founders and the indigenous Elseworlders of the worlds that the Founders were “supposed to protect” but instead invaded and conquered- an unpopular sentiment in the Matan Empire. Such sentiments did earn him notoriety and respect from smaller families- like the Lambertlys, a subsect of The Matans that had gone deeply disrespected by the empire that swallowed them- which is where he found the majority of his support. Meter continued to gather both support and hate as his progressive activism got louder and more aggressive while he aged- when he turned 18 he and his supporters broke into a laboratory that had been manufacturing super-soldiers for the Matan empire and released and led a mass of them to hide in a Voidship he’d been quietly building. When arrested and presented before his father and eldest brother Lazarus Matan for judgement Meter successfully appealed his case before them and was granted release, though he maintained a mark on his record. A year later, on his 19th birthday, he approached the court during a round table meeting and expressed his intent to leave the empire, establish his own kingdom using his principles rather than his fathers, and marry one of the soldiers he’d rescued: a woman by the name Ladella Matan. Meter quickly left, gathering up the remainder of his supporters as they rushed to his ship and promptly began running. Embarrassed and enraged- Lucian called upon his eldest son and crown prince (Lazarus), who he was about to abdicate his throne to, and ordered him to follow Meter, execute him, and bring his head home to him- which would earn the eldest his LivingName and allow him to take the throne of the empire. For years Meter was chased by Lazarus in The Gallant until they had traveled far into the Badlands of The Elseworlds- a swath of land Founders refused to lay any claim to for no listed reason Miko can find. Meter quietly slowed down and ghosted his brother’s ship on his own- and the two had a “shouting” match through morse-code lamps. Ultimately they agreed that this was all quite silly, and Meter was fine being in exile, and that Lazarus would much rather be a simple military captain than the head of an empire- really the only thing he cared about was earning his living name- which at this point he’d realized he didn’t actually need this far from the empire. Lazarus promised his brother he’d stay away, but close enough to ward off other Founders and invaders, should Meter want to settle down and start his kingdom- which Meter readily agreed to, and the two set off to find a pair of Elseworlds in the badlands close enough together that they could go through with this plan- which brought them to Cenian and Metrianda.

Meter Matan holds a lot of obvious importance in Metrianda, his name is mentioned with a lot of reverence, care, and import absolutely everywhere it’s relevant. He is reported to have been a kind and intelligent man who spent a grand deal of time trying to keep things balanced and fair as best he could amongst the preexisting factions in Escherin (early Metrianda) and the summoned peoples he was responsible for caring for. He was a fantastic diplomat, hosted wonderful parties, and had designed new voidships for the Elseworld- The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars.

Unfortunately, his exact history here gets a bit complicated- while general consensus unilaterally states that the above is correct, upon his arrival to Metrianda his history unravels. Conflicting reports absolutely everywhere on GIVE state that Meter had anywhere between 34 and 12 children- though only one document, the oldest of them, states he had 34 while the newest states he had 12. While Meter always makes the blueprints for the Voidships, sometimes he is around to build them and sometimes he is not. No matter what, though, he dies. Usually he is assassinated or executed, again by a variety of people depending on the source you read, but he is always killed- and after he is killed, Metrianda is never the same. The glass goes dark, and inevitably something strange and awful and warlike absorbs the world.

While these are not every single report of what children Matan fathered and when, these are 5 specific reports that Miko finds that report 5 specific families- other reports from the same time period corroborate each child’s birth so Miko can be pretty sure that all of them are accurate… somehow. Included in this graph are both the oldest and most recent mentions- 1 and 5 respectively. Strangely, Miko, you find that during your research the children are assigned a representative gem and a city as they are announced- but as you go through the data the gems and towers that correspond to the children go missing as the children do: for example, Rathien, the Idocrase tower, is no longer mentioned in modern documents after Valerian goes missing from the data- and Miracle is never mentioned again after that first round of data.