Balian Mataro

Balian Mataro is the Count of Emesh and lord of House Mataro, the ruling noble house of that world. He owns and operates the Borosevo Colosso and governs through a council including his Chancellor Liada Ogir and Lord Luthor. Among the largest palatines Hadrian has ever seen, he is massively built with a bull's neck, square jaw, thick woolly beard, and waxed black scalp, and is only 133 years old -- young for his apparent age, the product of a weaker palatine bloodline that drives his consuming ambition to elevate House Mataro through the arranged betrothal of his daughter Anaïs to Hadrian.

Mataro is a calculating political operator who orchestrated events around Hadrian from the moment of his arrival on Emesh, telegraphing House Marlowe on the first day, arranging a writ of disavowal, and engineering the betrothal to bring superior gene complexes and Imperial blood into the Mataro line. He uses Hadrian as a political shield against Chantry representative Ligeia Vas and chafes under Chantry oversight throughout Hadrian's time on the planet.

At the final council presiding over the Cielcin crisis, Mataro holds court from a high seat of native Emeshi corals, dismissing threats -- waving away concerns about Vorgossos as "just a thing in old stories." When questioning reveals that the marriage contract with Anaïs has not been finalized, he erupts in fury. Hadrian has calculated precisely on this moment, using the unresolved contract as leverage to bargain for his escape. Mataro is ultimately overruled by Smythe and the Chantry hierarchy, who conscript Hadrian into Legion service. Hadrian reflects that the Cielcin crisis may have taken the iron out of him entirely.