Matthias Nonius

> *"I charge you to protect the Reverend Daughter of Drearburh, and to slay her enemies."
> "Such was my task when I lived; why now in my death would I need a reminder?"*
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**Matthias Nonius** *(Mah-TYE-as NOH-knee-us)* is legendary swordsman and cavalier of the Ninth House. His success and renown has earned him the title "The Greatest Swordsman of Ninth House."

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Matthias Nonius was born in Drearburh nearly one thousand years before Harrowhark Nonagesimus is born. Beginning as a simple swordsman, he did not become cavalier primary until late in life.

According to Ortus Nigenad's *The Noniad*, Matthias Nonius once joins an unnamed cavalier secondary of the Third House in battle against a legion of warriors. When she is injured, Nonius carries her over a desert to safety.

Matthias Nonius met the Lyctor Gideon the First in battle, though the histories relating to this encounter have been altered. The precise details of their conflict are unknown, but Nonius's statement that *"a rival and ally is fighting against [the Seventh Resurrection Beast,]*" as well as Gideon's compartmentalized cavalier, Pyrrha Dve's, comment of Matthias being a *"mad sweetheart"* may imply that it was Pyrrha's interference that allowed Matthias to escape with his life.

### **Harrow the Ninth**

#### An Amount of Time Before the Emperor's Murder

Summoned by the power of Abigail Pent's necromancy and Ortus Nigenad's passion for his work, The Noniad, Matthias Nonias appears in the Bubble Canaan House between Harrowhark Nonagesimus and the Sleeper, blocking the Sleeper's bullet with his dagger. Nonias introduces himself and asks why he has been summoned. Abigail charges him to protect Harrowhark and defeat her enemies. Nonias does so, moving his rapier with inhuman speed and wounding the Sleeper in the side.

Despite his confusion about speaking in meter, he disparages the Sleeper for her use of guns. She shoots at him, but he knocks the bullets aside with his rapier. The Sleeper tosses her gun aside and grabs a new one but, as the Bubble World begins to obey the rules of the Noniad, the gun will not fire. She pulls out a baton, and the fight becomes an epic poetic deal between two legendarily talented opponents.

> *"These were two people who had spent their lives doing nothing but fighting, now freed from the shackles of flesh and time, focusing their entire selves on the business of murdering each other."*
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Nonias fights calmly, staying still and easily parrying away her attacks before lashing out in a decisive attack. As the fight presses on, Nonias begins to tire. The Sleeper bludgeons his head with her baton, thrusts her knife into his belly, knees him, and cuts his sword arm. In accordance to the Noniad, Nonias questions the Sleeper on her motives. She is nearly sucked into the conversation, but remembers herself and refuses to give answers. She hits him with the butt of her knife and presses in so that he cannot use his rapier. The Sleeper disarms him and headbutts him into the coffin, but he gets up again. Bleeding, he grabs and breaks her arm before driving his dagger into her abdomen. She tries to choke him, but he pushes her into the wall. Protesilaus tosses Nonias his rapier, and Nonias drives it into her—killing her.

Nonias cleans the rapier to the best of his ability and returns it to Protesilaus, at which point Protesilaus begins praising his prowess. Nonias turns his attention to Harrowhark and blesses her proclaiming himself lucky to *"see such a Reverend Daughter and know that [his] House stands stalwart and dauntless, proud in the face of its foes."* Ortus interrupts, praising Abigail for her nigh-impossible necromancy. Ortus turns to Nonias and proclaims himself unworthy, but Nonias denies it saying that his art *"was the ultimate source of [their] victory."*

As Harrowhark turns to inspect the body, Nonias asks if her enemies have been defeated. Abigail judges Harrow's soul to be free of any invasive souls, and Nonias asks permission to leave and join Gideon the First in his battle with the Seventh Resurrection Beast. He explains that he has a debt to pay to Gideon and Pyrrha. Harrow protests, unwilling to see him come to more harm, but he insists. Ortus, Protesilaus, and Marta express the desire to join him. Outnumbered, Harrow thanks him and releases him from her service. Abigail sends the four of them into the River and into the path of the Beast. They failed to kill Number Seven, but managed to drive it off instead. Gideon died in the fighting, although his dead cavalier, Pyrrha, survived; the fate of Nonius' company of reinforcements is unknown.

## **Appearance and Personality**

Harrowhark describes Matthias Nonias as:

> *"The figure wore a cuirass of black laminate that had not been favoured by the Cohort for years and years. Fibre armour, matte and unpolished, shadowy, rather than shining obsidian, with small overlapping plates across its surface. [...] What she could see of the face was—quite ordinary. Dark Drearburh hair, cut fairly short but not sacramentally shorn. The skull paint was cursory in the extreme: a few lines painted along the bottom jaw and chin, the merest suggestion of teeth and mandible."*
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In personality, Matthias Nonias is a simple, humble, and dutiful man. In all regards an average Drearburh man, he has been driven solely by his devotion to swordsmanship and in service to his House. He is a gentleman—respectable in his dueling, quick to offer thanks to all who aided him, and well mannered in all his interactions.

## **Possessions**

* **The Black Rapier of Drearburh**: Nonias's rapier is made of black metal with a plain guard and hilt. The hilt is decorated with a carving of the Jawless Skull and rows of Ninth House prayer beads.
* **Dagger**: His offhand is a simple, black metal dagger of the type carried by chaplains or nuns.

## **Trivia**

* Matthias is named in reference Matthias Redwall from Brian Jacques' Redwall.

## **References**

1. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 49
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 49
3. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 29
4. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 40
5. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 52
6. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," A Little Explanation of Naming Systems