House Mathers

The emblem of House Mathers as worn by Emilia, bearing the hawk.

House Mathers (メイザース家, Meizāsu-ke) is a noble house in the Kingdom of Lugunica, currently headed by patriarch Roswaal L. Mathers, who is also currently participating in the Royal Selection by sponsoring Emilia as a candidate to become the 42nd King of Lugunica. The family holds the court rank of Margrave.

Information

House Mathers is a longstanding noble house within Lugunica. It has had a history of producing mages for at least four centuries. Per tradition, the head of the family changes their name to Roswaal, and they also currently serve the role of the margrave of the west. The Mathers Domain is comprised of a vast amount of territory in Lugunica's western and northern regions, including the Industrial City of Costuul, the Great Elior Forest, Arlam Village, and the Sanctuary, among other locations. The main mansion is located near Costuul, and an auxiliary mansion used to be near the village of Arlam until it was burned to the ground in the climax of Arc 4's events.

History

• Note: The characters within the story rarely describe historical events within helpful context, so the unit BA, “Before Arrival”, and AA, “After Arrival”, will be used to place moments in time with the best available knowledge. Both are in reference to Natsuki Subaru’s arrival in the new world. Also note that the units are not official.

Roughly Between 416 and 400 BA

• Altair Mathers was born into the Mathers family to unnamed parents. He was naturally gifted in magic and underwent Magic Release Periods due to his latent magical power. This caused his family to view him as a burden for many years, until one day, he was visited by Echidna, who solved his issues and educated him about his predicament. From then on, he would become smitten with the Witch of Greed for centuries to come.
• Over the course of a few years, Altair managed to usurp House Mathers from his parents and siblings by expelling them from the house and estranging himself from them. He had full control over House Mathers at the age of sixteen and, following the family tradition of the house's head, changed his name to Roswaal A. Mathers.

Roughly 400 Years BA

• At just sixteen years old, Roswaal, while learning from Echidna at the Sanctuary, confronts the Warlock of Melancholy, Hector, who attacks the area in his pursuit of the Witch of Greed. Roswaal attempts to hold the Warlock back, just barely managing to hold on long enough for Ryuzu Meyer to become the core of the Sanctuary's barrier. This came at the cost of his gate being crushed and his body suffering severe damage that made day-to-day life arduous for him, even requiring the usage of a cane to walk. He receives a copy of Echidna's Book of Wisdom.
• Echidna's life was lost during the Great Calamity. Henceforward, Roswaal dedicated his very existence to return his teacher's life to her.

After 400 BA

• A man named Clind formed a contract with Roswaal to protect his property. The price of the contract was to defeat an unnamed enemy that the two of them shared. After the enemy's defeat, Clind faithfully abided by his contract with Roswaal, even after his soul was transcribed onto his descendants' bodies.
• House Miload, a branch family of House Mathers, was formed at an unknown point in time.
• Following the death of Roswaal A. Mathers, each successive Roswaal began to introduce themselves to Beatrice upon taking the mantle of head of the Mathers family.
• Roswaal begins to pursue Sphinx, an incomplete receptacle who could not manage to fully inherit the Witch of Greed's soul with Soul Transcription, acquiring a defective personality as a result.

Around 385 BA

• On the verge of his thirties, Roswaal A. Mathers perishes. House Mathers is inherited by his son, Roswaal B. Mathers.

Roughly 265 BA

• Roswaal D. Mathers permits a 150-year-old Toska to visit Beatrice in the Forbidden Library in an attempt to convince her to leave it. Toska's attempt ultimately ended in failure.

46 BA to 41 BA

• Roswaal J. Mathers, the then-head of House Mathers, made her entry into the Demi-Human War as part of her three-and-a-half-century long pursuit of Sphinx. Accompanied by her bodyguard, Carol Remendis, they investigated Castour Field with members of the Zellgef Squadron, encountering Sphinx and her undead corpse soldiers there. Sphinx escaped, her existence was reported to the King, and she was granted the title of "Witch", much to Roswaal's displeasure.
• A series of small skirmishes with Sphinx's magic circles served as the buildup to the Battle of Aihiya Swamp, which had Sphinx unleash her deadliest magic circle yet. However, Roswaal J. Mathers was completely incapable of utilizing magic into practice, placing her in the perfect position to slay Sphinx with martial arts. She was again unsuccessful, as Sphinx made another escape.
• With Carol and Grimm Fauzen, Roswaal had one final clash with Sphinx at Lugunica Castle in the wake of the Royal Army's disastrous loss at Aihiya Swamp. Carol removed Sphinx's left arm, and an undead Libre Fermi removed her right arm not long after. As was customary for Sphinx, she fled to the area underneath the Royal Castle, only to supposedly be reduced to ash by Leip Barielle. Roswaal found Leip and received a ring kept on Sphinx's person from him, finally satisfied that she had finally finished her centuries-long pursuit. Unbeknownst to Roswaal, however, Leip kept Sphinx alive to utilize her for his ambition of making Lugunica his.
• When the Demi-Human War threatened to reach the Trias Domain, Roswaal notified Wilhelm Trias, telling him to make sure he would not regret whatever decision he made.

Roughly 39 BA to 38 BA

• In the wake of the Demi-Human War, the Kingdom of Lugunica began reevaluating the importance of magic. Roswaal founded the Magic Research Institute as a research facility for magic.
• At Roswaal's tavern, she, Clind, and Wilhelm were attacked by shinobi. The three of them made quick work of the assassins.
• Roswaal had a dialogue with Cragrell Dawson about the Demi-Human War and its results. He bestowed her with the glintstone Libre had given to him before dying. She and several others used it to enter Sphinx's Testing Grounds in Shamrock Valley, where they discovered a magic circle on the wall with unknown effects in addition to evidence that Stride Vollachia had visited it before them.
• Roswaal examined Carol when she was cursed with an asphyxiation curse by one of Stride's curse tools. She continued to examine Carol every so often and realized that the curse made its target respond with less emotion as time progressed, endangering their emotions completely.
• When Stride enacted his grand plan in Picoutatte, calling forth Valgren and commencing the Subjugation of the Blight Dragon, Roswaal added herself to the subjugation force that was to be dispatched to put an end to his terror. She recognized that the effect of the magic circle taken from Sphinx's Testing Grounds, which had been confirmed to nullify the covenant with Volcanica, had the side effect of nullifying Divine Protections.
• Roswaal was stabbed by Shasuke and died before Carol.
• Following the Subjugation of the Blight Dragon, the right to inherit House Mathers was given to Roswaal J. Mathers's son Karl Mathers, who was not old enough to become the family's head. He attended his mother's funeral with Clind.

38 BA to 15 BA

• Karl Mathers changed his name to Roswaal K. Mathers and became the head of House Mathers.
• The Mathers family became benefactors to Costuul with Roswaal's development of magicreation tools. As a result, the Mathers family's main mansion was moved to the vicinity of Costuul.

15 BA

• Roswaal K. Mathers suddenly dies. House Mathers is inherited by his son, Roswaal L. Mathers. A ceremony was held by Randohal Lugunica at the Royal Capital to commemorate the succession.
• A string of events occur following the ceremony, culminating with Roswaal striking a deal with two groups in the Royal Capital, The Brotherhood and the Golden Wing Faction, to move their members to Costuul. He also befriends Russell Fellow and Marcos Gildark.
• Roswaal meets Serena Dracroy and assists in the defeat in her attackers. He later helps her in defeating her father and taking over his territory.

10 BA to 9 BA

• Frederica began working as a maid for Roswaal.
• Ram and Rem's village was attacked by the Witch Cult. With the exception of the sisters, the Oni were all massacred. Roswaal took the sisters in, and they began to serve him as maids, learning from Clind and Frederica.
• Some time after the attack on the Oni Village, the surviving Witch Cultists from the village attack proceeded to make assassination attempts on Ram and Rem, culminating in a battle at House Miload that killed Dudley Miload and gravely injured his wife, Grace Miload.
  • On the same day, following the elimination of the Witch Cultists, Grace Miload died shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Annerose Miload.
• Ram discovers that Roswaal had been aware of the Witch Cult's attacks and decided not to save those who were caught up in them. She continued to serve him despite knowing this.

4 BA

• By this point in time, Roswaal had received the color titles of Red, Yellow, and Green.

10 to 9 months BA

• Around a month before the Lugunican royal family perishes from their illness, Roswaal arrives at Elior Forest to meet Emilia, but he gets in a skirmish with Puck for a half day. Afterwards, Roswaal requests Emilia to join him and offers her a method of potentially unfreezing the citizens of the forest from the ice.
• Emilia was initially brought to the Miload Manor and mistaken for a new maid by Annerose, becoming acquainted with Roswaal's relative, as well as Frederica and Clind, in the process. Roswaal arrived two days later, clearing up the misconception that had briefly led Emilia to become a maid, and the two of them travelled to his residence.

Before 0 AA

• With Roswaal as her sponsor, Emilia was recognized as a candidate for the Royal Selection.
• The majority of Roswaal's servants were released from his service, including Frederica.

0 AA

• Roswaal hired the Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert, to plunder Emilia's insignia while she and Ram visited the Royal Capital. She was assisted and saved by the newly-summoned Natsuki Subaru.
• After Subaru is brought back to Roswaal Manor, he requested to begin working as a butler for Roswaal and was accepted into House Mathers.
• A witchbeast incident, in which several children of the Mathers Domain were kidnapped by witchbeasts, was resolved through the combined work of Ram, Rem, and Subaru. This came at the expense of Subaru receiving copious Wolgarm curses from Wolgarm, prompting Rem to attempt to slay the Wolgarm who bit him. In the end, the Wolgarm were eradicated by Roswaal, who had just returned from a trip to the Sanctuary.

Roughly 2 months AA

• Roswaal visited the Royal Selection Ceremony with Emilia and manipulated events in advance, knowing that Subaru would find a way to enter the ceremony and be accepted in by bearing the Mathers' hawk crest, to display Puck to the Council of Wise Men. A short time later, Subaru had an outburst at the ceremony, leading to him being separated from Emilia. Before Emilia and Roswaal left the Royal Capital, the latter informed Rem of a deal to negotiate the sale of magic crystal mining rights within Elior Forest to the Crusch Camp. Subaru learned this information from Rem and used it to successfully negotiate with Crusch.
• At the auxiliary mansion, the demand that Emilia and Crusch confer together is purportedly given to Ram by Roswaal.
• Subaru and Rem participate in the Subjugation of the White Whale. Once the White Whale is felled, Subaru proceeds to the Mathers Domain. Rem returns to the Royal Capital with Crusch due to the injuries she faced.
• When Arlam Village is under attack by Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti and the cultists following him, half of the citizens are evacuated to the Royal Capital, and the other half are evacuated to the Sanctuary, as per Ram's proposal.
• Subaru defeats Petelgeuse once and for all and makes up with Emilia. However, around the same time, Rem and Crusch encounter Regulus Corneas and Lye Batenkaitos. The Sin Archbishop of Gluttony steals both of their memories and plunder's Rem's name, erasing her from the world.
• Subaru returns to the Royal Capital with Emilia, discovering that nobody besides him remembers Rem. Although the situation with the Crusch Camp is rocky with Ferris' proposal to call off their alliance, it is ultimately sustained in the face of Crusch's memory loss. Taking Rem with them, Subaru and Emilia return to Roswaal Manor in the Mathers Domain.
• Petra Leyte is hired into the mansion as a maid near this time, and Frederica, too, returns as a maid. Subaru, Emilia, and the merchant Otto Suwen briefly meet the two before travelling to the Sanctuary together.
• The ensuing incident at the Sanctuary had Subaru meet the spirit of Echidna within the Witch's Tomb and discover Roswaal's true intention to force him to choose between saving the mansion or the Sanctuary and his knowledge of Subaru's time-rewinding Authority. Deciding to work against Roswaal after losing his qualification to continue speaking to Echidna, he trusted Otto and Ram with defeating Garfiel Tinzel and encouraged Emilia to retain hope and determination. He defeated Garfiel with Patrasche's aid.
• Conversing with Roswaal again with Otto and Garfiel at his side, Subaru resolved himself to counter Roswaal's plan by leaving Emilia to conquer the Trials and Ram to confront her master. He took Otto and Garfiel to the mansion, where the two of them and Frederica contributed to defeating Meili Portroute's witchbeasts and Elsa Granhiert. Ram and Puck engaged with Roswaal, reaching its finale when the copy of the Book of Wisdom he received from Echidna 400 years ago was scorched by flame. Emilia conquered the Trials of the Sanctuary, and prepared to engage the Great Rabbit by her lonesome when Subaru and Beatrice arrived together as backup.
• With Roswaal's plan overturned, he received an oath curse mark as proof he could not go against his word anymore. As promised by Roswaal before, with the achievements of the Subjugation of the White Whale and the Subjugation of Sloth behind him, Subaru was appointed as Emilia's knight.

Roughly 1 year and 2 months AA

• During the time Subaru, Emilia, Beatrice, Otto, and Garfiel are at Priestella, Roswaal, Frederica, Clind, Annerose, and Petra visit the Western Margrave Domain Meeting.
• Three of the five who went to Priestella returned with Anastasia Hoshin and Julius Juukulius of the Anastasia Camp alongside them. They took Ram, Meili, and the sleeping Rem with them for their journey to the Pleiades Watchtower.

Roughly 1 year and 6 months AA

• The Pleiades Watchtower Expedition ends with Subaru and Rem's disappearance from the tower. The members of the Emilia Camp send a letter to Roswaal, who, upon receiving it, travels to the Miload Manor to request Clind transport everyone divided between the tower and Priestella to the Mathers Domain with his Authority. They make a plan to covertly travel into the southern Vollachia Empire, where the missing duo was sent to, and do so by entering Picoutatte and receiving a contact with the assistance of Diadora Regundra, who made up with Otto.
• In the meantime, Clind took Annerose and Meili to the Royal Capital, where they had a discussion about pardoning the former assassin. Felt and Reinhard van Astrea of the Felt Camp joined the discussion midway, which prompted them to offer to take Meili to the Pleiades Watchtower with them.
• Along the way, they encounter the molepeople of the Everlasting Darkness who are worried about Emilia's involvement in the Royal Selection leading to further consequences for demi-humans and plan to offer their lives as scapegoats who slaughtered the one that bears the same appearance as the Witch, not realizing that their target was among the group they captured. Petra makes an oath with the molepeople's representative, Musica, to allow them a chance to properly discuss their predicament with Emilia, taking on the same kind of curse mark Roswaal did as proof she would follow her promise through.
• Roswaal and Ram split up from the others who entered Vollachia to visit an old acquaintance of the former. The others were caught up in a conflict within the town of Mozotto involving a batperson who sought a "blood bride" and dealt with him. They heard news of "Natsumi Schwartz" from Guaral and travelled down there in hopes of locating Subaru and Rem.

Roughly 1 year and 7 months AA

• Roswaal visited Serena with Ram. Once rumors of a black-haired crown prince spread to the Dracroy mansion, Ram took Serena hostage. After a prolonged discussion, Serena joined the rebel faction, and Roswaal and Ram were at her side.

Roughly 1 year and 8 months AA

• Roswaal and the servants of House Mathers in Vollachia involve themselves with the rebel army in the Battle for the Imperial Capital, and once the battle is stopped by the attack of the undead raised by Sphinx, they work to end the Great Disaster, having finally reunited with Subaru and Rem.
• After the victory against the Great Disaster, Roswaal takes Frederica and Schult to the Barielle Domain to quell the unrest that would be caused by their lord’s death; Ram and Rem returned to Roswaal Manor; Emilia and Otto traveled to the Royal Capital to report on Priscilla’s death and the events in Vollachia; and Subaru, Garfiel, Petra, and Meili go the Pleiades Watchtower with Al, where he begins his plan to remove Subaru from the world.

Members

• Altair Mathers
• Clind (butler)
• Julia Mathers
• Karl Mathers
• Roswaal L. Mathers
• Frederica Baumann (maid)
• Limrear (maid)
• Ram (maid)
• Rem (maid)
• Natsuki Subaru (butler) (formerly)
• Petra Leyte (maid)

Trivia

• Roswaal has a habit of sewing his family crest, the hawk, into things that he possesses. For example, he has embroidered the crest of the hawk into Subaru and Emilia's clothes.
• In addition to being seen on the clothing of characters affiliated with the Emilia Camp, the hawk seems to appear on Fortuna and Archi Elior's clothes.
• The birth name of Roswaal's original incarnation was Altair Mathers. Altair is the name of the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila and the twelfth brightest star in the night sky. The name Altair is Arabic in origin and has the same meaning as the name of the constellation Aquila in Latin; that is, they both mean simply "eagle". The association between the Mathers family and the hawk may be a potential reference to Altair's name.