The Magistrate

The Magistrate (also the Marquess) is the ruler of the unnamed nation of the second game and its main antagonist. He is often associated with butterfly imagery. His real name is unknown.

Philosophy and Goals
In a general sense, the Magistrate is a hedonist. Compared to others of this universe, his lifestyle is somewhat luxurious: he tends an ornamented garden and frequently purchases slaves. The outside of his estate is adorned with a mounted head.

His major goal is to stave off the impending growth of the Rift and to maintain the status quo in material production and obedience of his underlings. Genie says the Magistrate is intrinsically afraid of his lands being overwhelmed by the void and of the methodology of the previous magistrate, whose identity is not known.

Although he himself is male, the Magistrate holds misandristic views, as he does not see the practical productive value of men in futuristic society. He believes men are best castrated to circumvent their aggressive tendencies and women best decapitated to avoid their sentimental ones. When he refers to the use of women, it is usually in some sexual sense.The Magistrate tends to view anyone beneath him as animals to be used for labor, often making references to cattle, or as sycophants to his authority. Those who fail are viewed as incompetent and eradicated. However, if he views someone as his rival or equal, he will attempt to fairly negotiate with them. When he's accosted by Gingiva and Genie in the prison, he attempts to appease them by allowing them a position of power.

Physiology
The Magistrate communicates via hologram projectors across the land which appear to transfer not only his voice, but his palpable body from a remote location. Due to the pervasive amount of these projector bases and his number of henchmen, the Magistrate is omniscient to a degree.

The physical body sent to the projectors can be killed, but, as he later reveals, it is just an ersatz body used to appear before the press and to protect against just such ambushes.

History
Both the Magistrate and another man once loved the same woman. They attempted to settle the dispute by holding a contest of magic; the superior spellcaster, with his hexes of infatuation, would win the heart of the girl. Unfortunately, as they unleashed their equally powerful spells simultaneously, they tore her heart in two, causing her to die in agony and her soul to leave her. This was the Magistrate's first exposure to the potential of extracting essences, and this sort of opposing-force process may be how his machine, the Kirlian Eye, functions. The Magistrate later rose to power while the other man vanished.

Quotes

 * "The gross form of a person consists of billions of living cells... this illusory body of mine consists of about the same number of lies."
 * "Bottom of the night to you."
 * "The lands are thirsty and bleak these days. Still, new generations are born. Like a dying tree yielding its last fruit to toxc [sic] soil. Why its [sic] oh so depressing. There is nothing left to do but sequeeze [sic] the last drop of water from the flask."
 * "I've a little eye in every eye, and a little ear in every ear. And I saw you, and I heard you as soon as you emerged out of the unlawful lands."

Trivia

 * The Magistrate is referred to in the game's assets as "Magician."