First appearance: S4E10 — Rivals — Nonamatt v Decima · watch it on YouTube
Nonamatt is a gaunt, trembling wizard who walked into the Deathmatch apologizing and walked out having killed their own twin. They came to fight Decima over an idea: that no one, not even a grieving sibling, should hold the power of the God of Fate. The match turned out to be one of the most heartbreaking the arena has seen. It ended with the Grandmaster putting a spear to the Shadow King’s throat to save Nonamatt’s life.
Story
Arrival in the Dread Fortress
Nonamatt was pulled into The Dread Fortress on a night the Shadow King had declared Taco Tuesday, even though it was a Sunday. They stepped through the Grandmaster’s portal clutching a golden staff to stop their hands shaking. Their first words were “Not much of a fighter… Are we in the right place?” Decima arrived behind them, all shoulders and swagger, and told Nonamatt they could still leave. Nonamatt refused: “this is a battle of ideals, and while I might not be physically strong, I think my ideals are. I’ll stand until I fall.” Both twins asked for vegan tacos, a request that sent the mortified Grandmaster shoveling the beef ones out the window. Nonamatt lost their appetite on learning the beef was Derek, whom the Grandmaster said they had waited to “pass peacefully first” (“That’s why he’s so gamey,” the Shadow King added). On the way out they quietly picked up a heavy silver serving tray, a family heirloom the Grandmaster told them to please destroy.
The ball bearings and the ghost of Morta
The fight took place in a glowing lavender-and-teal forest lit only by the trunks, the roots and the watching Acolytes. Decima opened with a cruel trick. They summoned an echo shaped like the twins’ dead older brother, Morta, who reached out for Nonamatt’s hand. Nonamatt took it and felt real warmth for a moment, until Decima’s magic flowed through the touch and withered their arm. A pulse of telekinetic force burst from Nonamatt and scattered the apparition. “My brother would never, never hurt me,” they said. Then they scattered a bag of ball bearings in Decima’s path, backed away, and admitted “I’m not much of a fighter, but I think I’m an okay tactician.” The Grandmaster praised retreat as a great strategy, and the Shadow King said “I just think you’re a coward.”
The tactic worked better than anyone expected. Decima slipped on the bearings and fell beside The Box of Chaos. Nonamatt animated ten of the bearings and battered their twin from every direction, apologizing the whole time (“sorry, sorry, Decima”). When Morta’s echo returned with a ghostly axe and swept their legs, Nonamatt’s nerves gave way to anger at their sibling for “desecrating the dead.” They fed one bearing to the Box and got back a translucent violet breastplate, which melted into their robe. The Grandmaster dubbed the bearings “Nonamatt and the Minimats,” then finally confiscated the rest with a magnet, to the Shadow King’s dismay: “Enough with the balls. Hit it with the shaft. Staff.” Nonamatt switched to a whip pulled out of their own forehead, which lashed Decima with memories of Morta as he truly was.
Two timelines
Things escalated after a short break. Decima threw a taco at the Shadow King, and it was heading too low, so Nonamatt rewound time to give them a second, better throw. Then, with the Acolytes’ favor, Decima leapt into the Box of Chaos and consumed it, absorbing the legion of Acolyte souls inside and emerging wreathed in shadow with burning yellow eyes. Nonamatt answered with a move the Grandmaster said had never been seen before. They called in another version of themself, the Nonamatt from a timeline where they had taken the Box’s power, shadow-cloaked and yellow-eyed, to fight at their side. “This truly becoming a 2v2 fight,” the Grandmaster declared, delighted.
Nonamatt animated the silver tray and the dormant Box itself to attack their twin. The echo was linked to Nonamatt through time, and that link cost them. When Decima’s axe sliced the echo’s wrists, the wound appeared on Nonamatt’s own hand and healed instantly into an old scar, “as if this was a wound given to me many, many years ago.” Nonamatt conjured a giant spectral hand that bore the same scar and clenched and sweated just as nervously as its owner. They also smothered the Grandmaster’s exploding hot potato in glowing gold hands. That last move infuriated her (“That’s not how my hot potato goes”), and she pelted them with potatoes.
The final test
In the last round the twins’ argument came to a head. Decima insisted that destiny belonged in their hands, and Nonamatt said it belonged to everyone. The spectral hand caught Decima mid-leap, and a second whip of happy memories of Morta began stripping the stolen souls from them. Cornered, Decima threw their axe at Nonamatt’s feet and dared them to “Be brave for once.” Nonamatt answered with the speech of the night: “Decima, you know me. I’m scared out of my mind. But it does not mean I will run.” The echo of Morta appeared behind them and laid a warm hand on their shoulder, a warning not to flee. Nonamatt placed their own hand over it, said “I’m sorry, Decima,” and struck with a lance of psychic force carried by their twin’s name. The spectral hand finished it with a gentle wrap and a single blow.
Decima died smiling: “Don’t be sorry. Morta would be proud.” Nonamatt knelt, rested their sibling’s head in their lap, and sang a childhood song Morta used to sing to them. The Shadow King then wrapped the victor in a giant tortilla to feed to a giant named Kyle. The weeping Grandmaster dropped from her throne and held her spear to his throat. “I beg of you… give me just this one,” she said, and the Shadow King relented. She opened the smallest of portals, and Nonamatt lifted Decima’s body with the spectral hand and carried them home for a proper burial.
Personality and Abilities
Nonamatt is just as tall as Decima but “on the cusp of lanky and slender,” slightly darker-skinned and more gaunt. They have the same horns and bull ears, and their eyes shift between blue and green with the light. They swim in a noble-looking robe of blues, reds and golds and carry a golden staff whose horned head mirrors the filigree on Decima’s axe. By the end of the match the robe had absorbed the Box’s violet-gleaming breastplate, and their hand bore a fresh wound that had healed into a scar that looked many years old. They also kept the sapphire wrapping paper and lavender ribbon from the Grandmaster’s gift, unwrapped meticulously so the paper could be reused.
They are anxious, polite to a fault and constantly apologizing, even to the opponent they are pummeling. They are also idealistic and stubborn about it. Decima put it best: they had “always believed in the good of everything,” but had always been afraid to act on it. Nonamatt fights like a strategist rather than a brawler. They lean on preparation and props: ball bearings, animated furniture, rewound time, a whip drawn from their own mind, a giant spectral hand and a lance of psychic force. Their signature move was planting a small detail early, like the silver tray, and paying it off much later.
Relationships
- Decima: Nonamatt’s twin, loved but ideologically opposed; Nonamatt killed them in the arena and carried them home for burial.
- Morta: the twins’ late older brother, whose memory drove the whole fight and whose echo stood with Nonamatt at the end.
- Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer: moved to tears by the fight, she begged the Shadow King for Nonamatt’s life and opened their escape portal.
- The Shadow King: mocked Nonamatt as a coward and tried to feed them to Kyle, then spared them because “I can’t say no to you” to the Grandmaster.
- Fil: the God of Fate the twins blame for Morta’s death; Nonamatt believes no one should hold that power.
Memorable Quotes
- “this is a battle of ideals, and while I might not be physically strong, I think my ideals are. I’ll stand until I fall.” (S4E10)
- “I’m not much of a fighter, but I think I’m an okay tactician.” (S4E10)
- “I’m sacrificing the fate of one to save the fates of many, Decima. You are choosing to take the fate of one to control the fate of many.” (S4E10)
- “Decima, you know me. I’m scared out of my mind. But it does not mean I will run.” (S4E10)
- “I’m sorry, Decima.” (S4E10)
- “tell the people you love that you love them because you don’t know when you won’t have the chance to do that ever again.” (S4E10, Dried Blood)