| “ | Yes, I see. Corruption and envy and lust for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious probing curiosity. Pure, poisonous, toxic malice. You have never from your earliest days shown a shred of compassion or sympathy or kindness without calculating how it would reflect to your advantage. You have tortured and killed without regret or hesitation, you have betrayed and intrigued and glorified in your treachery. You are a cess-pit of moral filth | „ |
| ~ Metatron condemns Marisa Coulter |
| “ | I loved their flesh. And I understood it when the sons of Heaven fell in love with the daughters of Earth, and I pleaded their cause with the Authority. But his heart was fixed against them, and he made me prophesy their doom | „ |
| ~ Metatron's lust |
Metatron is the Regent of Heaven and the main antagonist of the His Dark Materials trilogy. He is stated to have been the Biblical character Enoch with the same alias, who is the line between Adam and Noah (son of Jared, son of Mahahaleh, son of Kenan, son of Enosh, son of Seth). He is the regent of the first angel and the false god, The Authority. He is the active advesary of Lord Asriel.
History
The Authority, who claims to be immortal but really isn't, displayed his declining health by seeking out a regent to take his place as God. Enoch was transfigured into an angel after his 65 year life on earth, and after the rebellion of the "fallen angels" he took the regency of the throne of the Authority, the Clouded Mountain, in order to implant the monotheistic religions across the multiverse and so affirming his power and rule. However, he became more powerful than his master. To keep his power, he betrayed and trapped the Authority in the crystal box to stay alive, but trapped and out of the way. He seeks to supplant God, destroy Lord Asriel and his army, and kill Lyra Belacqua. He shares the belief of many that she is the second Eve, who is destined to fall into temptation like the first.
Acting as head of the Magisterium (Church), an oppressive religious institution that symbolizes Christianity, Metatron holds the true power and cruelty responsible for the Magisterium's oppression and he leads the final battle against Lord Asriel and Xaphania and their rebels. In the end, he is killed by Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter, Lyra's parents, who sacrifice themselves to ensure Metatron never threatens Lyra again. Metatron, Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter all fall into the Abyss between the universes, which is opened by a bomb that the Magisterium uses in a failed attempt to try and kill Lyra.
Personality
Though he became an angel, he still has his impure human feelings, becoming greedy for God's rule. He grew bitter, oppressive, and malicious. As he thought that the Authority was God, he believed that anything that was not His way, was pagan, occult or was simply not good in the way it should be was considered unholy and profane. So through this belief, Metatron made Christianity a superior ascendancy, by turning the Magisterium into a theocratic and dogmatic governing power in Lyra's World (a universe parallel to ours), teaching them that tolerance and free inquiry are heresies and sins, inspiring them into a corrupt desire for purity, and motivate them into spreading Christianity as the ultimate authority, showing that arrogance and ignorance are his most prominent traits.
Like a human, Metatron is susceptible to lies, thus could easily be tricked, while all angels know the truth. This would make him vulnerable to Marisa Coulter's manipulation when she attempts to destroy him to save Lyra.
He is also very lustful, and it is revealed that as Enoch, he had many wives because he loved their flesh, even understanding why the Watchers were so satyrical towards human women. But out of all his choices on his lust objects, he submits dangerously to Marisa Coulter's beauty, which she manipulates as part of a plan to defeat him by promising him herself as a prize for his victory over Lord Asriel, but conspires with Asriel to destroy the villainous angel.
Despite these flaws and sins, Metatron is a being whose profound intellect has had thousands of years to deepen and strengthen itself, and whose knowledge extended over a million universes. But still he becomes blinded by his two obsessions: to destroy Lyra before the second Fall and to possess Marisa Coulter as his goddess. This would all be his downfall.
Appearance
Metatron is described as a being made of light, man-shaped, man-sized. He is exactly a man in early middle age, tall, powerful, and commanding. The force of his eyes and the ferocity of his gaze seem frightful to stare at. His voice can deliver judgment so great it would shake people profoundly. Like angels, he has mighty wings.