Melinoë

The Princess of the Underworld

Melinoë is the daughter of Hades and Persephone and the younger sister of Zagreus. Within the setting of Hades II, she is raised as a member of the Underworld's royal family, inheriting a divine connection to the realm that her father rules. Her identity is therefore tied to both sides of her family: the chthonic authority of Hades and the life-bearing, Olympian-associated heritage of Persephone.

Melinoë's family history is disrupted before the main events of Hades II begin. The Titan of Time, Chronos, overthrows the House of Hades and takes control of the Underworld. Melinoë survives the destruction and separation that follow, but she does not grow up within the restored House or alongside the family members whose absence shapes her early life. The precise details of her earliest years are revealed gradually through the game's repeat-run dialogue rather than presented as one uninterrupted account.

Separated from the House of Hades

Chronos's assault leaves Melinoë separated from the Underworld household to which she was born. By the time the main narrative begins, her father is imprisoned, the House of Hades has fallen, and the family structure associated with her royal identity has been broken apart. These circumstances form the immediate background to her role as the protagonist, but they are distinct from the later escape attempts and confrontations that make up the game's active story.

Her separation also means that Melinoë's connection to her family is initially shaped by memory, inherited knowledge, and the accounts of people who knew the House before its fall. Zagreus is part of that family history, although his own story and fate belong primarily to the events surrounding the original Hades. Melinoë's background is not simply that of a princess waiting to reclaim a throne; it is the history of a daughter whose home and family were taken from her before she could occupy her expected place within them.

Hecate's Protection and Instruction

After Melinoë is separated from her family, Hecate becomes the most important figure in her upbringing. The goddess of witchcraft protects her, trains her, and prepares her to confront the forces that have taken the Underworld. Their relationship is therefore rooted in both guardianship and instruction: Hecate is not merely an instructor whom Melinoë meets after becoming a combatant, but the mentor who helps shape her abilities and her understanding of the conflict.

Melinoë's training under Hecate gives her a foundation in witchcraft, ritual, weapons, and the practical disciplines needed to survive repeated journeys through hostile regions. It also places her within a tradition that differs from Zagreus's more direct relationship with the House's weapons and institutions. Her methods combine formal magical practice with the adaptability required of a witch operating in a changing battlefield, establishing the gameplay identity that later sections can examine without treating her training as a substitute for her family history.

The Crossroads Before the Escape Attempts

The Crossroads becomes Melinoë's home and the base from which she prepares to oppose Chronos. Unlike the House of Hades in the first game, the Crossroads is a developing refuge populated by allies, practitioners, and displaced figures connected to the resistance against the Titan. Melinoë's place there reflects her unusual position: she is an Underworld princess by birth, but her formative environment is a wartime sanctuary rather than the royal household she was meant to inherit.

Before the main cycle of escape attempts begins, Melinoë has already been given a purpose, a mentor, and a community organized around the struggle against Chronos. The Crossroads also provides the setting in which her long-term progression becomes possible. Rituals, relationships, incantations, and repeated conversations are part of the persistent structure of her life there, while individual Boons, resources, and combat conditions belong to separate runs. This distinction is important to her background because her preparation is cumulative even when each journey into the Underworld is temporary.

A Childhood Shaped by an Unfinished War

Melinoë reaches the beginning of Hades II already prepared for conflict, but the game does not portray that preparation as a complete or uncomplicated coming-of-age story. She has been trained for a specific purpose and understands that Chronos is responsible for the ruin of her family's home. At the same time, her knowledge of the past is expanded through encounters and revelations, so the emotional meaning of her origins continues to develop after the opening of the game.

This makes her background different from a conventional royal biography. Her title, parentage, and magical training establish where she comes from, but they do not provide her with a stable inheritance. The Underworld is both her birthplace and a territory controlled by an enemy; the House of Hades is her family home and a symbol of its destruction; and Hecate's instruction gives her the means to act without restoring the life that existed before Chronos's attack. The main narrative begins when that preparation becomes action, while the origins of her mission remain rooted in the loss that preceded it.

A Discipline Built for an Impossible Task

Melinoë is defined first by discipline. She approaches the war against Chronos as a responsibility that must be prepared for, not as a spontaneous act of heroism. Her repeated training with Hecate, willingness to return to dangerous regions after defeat, and careful use of the Crossroads show someone who accepts routine as part of survival. In a game built around repeated escape attempts, this persistence is more than a gameplay loop: Melinoë treats each failure as another opportunity to become capable of completing the task. She does not wait for ideal conditions or complete certainty before acting.

Her determination is closely tied to a personal objective. Melinoë is fighting to oppose Chronos and recover the members of her family whose lives have been disrupted by his rule. That goal gives her journey a more focused and deliberately mission-driven character than a simple search for freedom. She is not trying to escape the Underworld for her own sake. Her movement through the realms is an attempt to restore people, places, and relationships that have been taken from her. This makes duty the clearest foundation of her motivation, while her family gives that duty emotional weight.

Controlled Rather Than Unfeeling

Melinoë often presents herself with restraint. She is not as openly expressive as Zagreus, and her responses tend to be measured even when she is confronting danger, authority, or revelations about her family. That reserve can make her seem severe, but her behavior repeatedly shows that she is attentive to the people around her. She listens to the inhabitants of the Crossroads, responds to their concerns, and treats the community as something worth defending rather than merely as a staging ground for her next attempt. Her composure therefore reads less as indifference than as a method of keeping fear and urgency under control.

Her dry reactions to unusual situations also reveal a practical sense of humor. Melinoë can acknowledge the absurdity of the Underworld without allowing that absurdity to distract her from the task at hand. This balance matters because her surroundings are full of divine rivalries, ancient grudges, prophetic language, and supernatural threats. She does not respond to every strange event with wonder or panic. Instead, she tends to absorb it, assess what it means, and continue. The result is a protagonist whose personality is quiet but not passive: her decisions and persistence carry more weight than theatrical displays of confidence.

The Crossroads as a Moral Anchor

Melinoë's connection to the Crossroads helps define her values. The settlement is both her base of operations and a community whose survival is connected to her campaign. She trains there, receives guidance there, and returns there after each attempt, but she also contributes to its restoration through the broader progression systems surrounding the area. Her repeated return gives the location emotional importance. It is not only where she prepares for the next battle; it is one of the places she is trying to preserve.

This relationship with the Crossroads suggests that Melinoë understands victory in communal terms. Defeating an enemy matters because it protects people and creates the possibility of rebuilding. She does not treat every inhabitant as an instrument for her personal quest, even when their knowledge or services help her progress. Her concern is often expressed through practical cooperation rather than extended declarations of affection. She asks for help, accepts instruction, and takes part in efforts that improve the shared refuge. That behavior supports an interpretation of Melinoë as protective and community-minded, while still leaving room for the guardedness that shapes her interactions.

Family, Duty, and the Need for Answers

Melinoë's family is both the source of her purpose and a source of complication. Her campaign is motivated by the need to recover those lost to Chronos, yet the deeper she travels, the less her family can be understood as a simple cause for revenge. The Underworld's history, the actions of the gods, and the choices made before Melinoë's journey all shape what she is trying to repair. Her motivation therefore develops alongside her knowledge. She begins with an urgent objective, but the meaning of that objective becomes more difficult as she encounters the consequences of earlier decisions.

This creates a tension between obedience and judgment. Melinoë has been trained and advised by powerful figures, particularly Hecate, and she respects the knowledge of those who understand the conflict better than she does. At the same time, she is not merely carrying out instructions without reflection. Her repeated encounters expose her to competing accounts of the past and to people whose loyalties do not fit neatly into heroic or villainous categories. Her behavior suggests that she values guidance, but not at the cost of abandoning her own assessment. She can accept a lesson while continuing to question what the larger struggle demands of her.

Compassion Under Pressure

Melinoë's compassion is usually practical rather than sentimental. She recognizes suffering in the people she meets and responds by helping, listening, or continuing the larger effort that might improve their situation. This is especially significant in a setting where many characters are defined by old punishments, fractured loyalties, or obligations inherited from earlier generations. Melinoë does not have the luxury of solving every personal conflict before moving on, but she rarely treats those conflicts as irrelevant simply because they are not her immediate objective.

Her compassion also complicates her relationship with violence. Melinoë is an effective fighter and accepts that combat is necessary, yet the game does not present her as someone who seeks violence for its own sake. She fights because Chronos's rule has made confrontation unavoidable and because the people she cares about remain in danger. Her willingness to face enemies again and again reflects resolve, but her interactions away from combat show that resolve is not equivalent to cruelty. The contrast between her lethal role in an escape attempt and her attentive conduct at the Crossroads is central to her characterization.

Fear, Uncertainty, and Persistence

Melinoë's restraint should not be mistaken for the absence of fear. The scale of her opponent, the uncertainty surrounding her family, and the repeated possibility of failure all create reasons for doubt. The game communicates much of this pressure through the fact that progress is gradual: she gathers knowledge, improves her resources, and learns more about the forces opposing her over time. Her decision to continue despite incomplete information is therefore one of her clearest acts of courage.

What distinguishes her from a purely stoic hero is that persistence does not erase uncertainty. Melinoë cannot immediately restore her family or resolve every contradiction in the history of the Underworld. She must act while answers remain partial. Her motivation changes as she discovers more, but the central commitment to oppose Chronos remains stable. This combination of adaptability and purpose allows her to grow without abandoning the identity that brought her to the fight in the first place.

A Protagonist Still Defining Herself

Melinoë's character development is less about transforming from weakness into strength than about determining what kind of strength she wants to embody. She already begins as a trained combatant with a clear mission. The important questions concern how she will use that training, how much she will rely on inherited authority, and what she will do with the truth about her family and the Underworld. Her encounters gradually test whether duty can coexist with compassion, whether loyalty can survive difficult revelations, and whether restoration requires understanding rather than simple victory.

Taken together, Melinoë's actions present a protagonist who is focused, guarded, compassionate, and capable of revising her understanding of the conflict. She does not express every feeling openly, but her priorities are visible in what she repeatedly chooses to do: return to danger, protect the Crossroads, seek answers about her family, accept help without surrendering her judgment, and continue after failure. Her personality is consequently conveyed through sustained behavior rather than a single defining speech. The repeated structure of Hades II gives those choices room to accumulate, making persistence itself one of the clearest statements of who Melinoë is.

Core Combat Role

Melinoë can attack from close range, establish a Cast zone, spend Magick on Omega moves, and reposition with her Sprint. This gives her several ways to manage an encounter before enemies surround her. Her Cast is especially important because it creates a temporary area that can hold, slow, or otherwise control enemies depending on the upgrades applied to it. A Cast can therefore serve as both an offensive setup tool and a defensive boundary.

Her attacks reward players who distinguish between immediate actions and charged Omega versions. Holding an input consumes Magick to produce a more powerful or more specialized result. Omega moves generally require more commitment than their standard counterparts, so using them safely depends on enemy timing, available space, and whether the current build can restore or conserve Magick effectively.

Melinoë’s Sprint also changes how she approaches danger. Rather than relying exclusively on repeated instantaneous dashes, the player can use sustained movement to escape attack patterns, circle enemies, or reposition while maintaining pressure. This makes route planning through an encounter part of her offense: a good position can let a Cast control a group while Melinoë charges an Omega action or attacks from a safer angle.

Magick and Omega Actions

Magick is Melinoë’s defining resource. Standard attacks and other basic actions are available without spending it, while Omega actions consume Magick for increased impact or altered behavior. Managing the resource is therefore a central combat decision rather than a secondary statistic. Spending Magick freely can end an encounter quickly, but it may leave Melinoë without access to her strongest control or damage option when an elite enemy begins its most dangerous pattern.

Boons, weapon upgrades, and other run-specific rewards can change how quickly Melinoë gains, spends, or benefits from Magick. Some builds emphasize frequent Omega actions, while others use Magick selectively and rely more heavily on standard attacks or Specials. These are interaction patterns rather than fixed classes; the same weapon can support different approaches depending on the Boons and upgrades found during that run.

The system also gives the player a meaningful choice between speed and commitment. A standard move is usually easier to use while moving or reacting, whereas an Omega move asks the player to recognize a safe opening. Melinoë is strongest when the player treats charging as part of encounter control instead of attempting to use every Omega action on cooldown.

Nocturnal Arms and Weapon Options

Melinoë can use several Nocturnal Arms, each changing the distance, timing, and risk profile of her combat. The Witch’s Staff provides a comparatively adaptable foundation, with straightforward attacks and Specials that help new players learn the relationship between spacing, Cast placement, and Omega timing. Other Arms push more strongly toward particular patterns: the Sister Blades favor rapid close-range pressure, the Umbral Flames support attacks that can remain active while Melinoë repositions, the Moonstone Axe trades speed for heavier reach and impact, and the Argent Skull uses explosive ammunition and deliberate reload timing.

These weapons are not merely cosmetic loadout choices. They alter which openings are safe, how easily Melinoë can maintain distance, and whether a build benefits more from attack, Special, Cast, or Omega-focused Boons. Weapon Aspects provide additional variations within an Arm, allowing a familiar weapon to take on a different mechanical role. Because both weapon behavior and reward offerings can vary across a run, there is no single universally correct weapon configuration for Melinoë.

The Nocturnal Arms also support a progression loop outside individual encounters. Unlocking and improving them expands the range of strategies available on future Escape Attempts, but those permanent unlocks do not carry the damage or Boons of a completed run into the next one.

Boons, Arcana, and Run-Build Interaction

Olympian Boons modify Melinoë’s attacks, Specials, Casts, Sprints, and other combat properties. A Boon can change an action’s damage, add a status effect, create an area effect, or reward a particular rhythm of play. The most effective choices depend on the weapon and the rest of the current build rather than on Melinoë having a permanent elemental specialization.

Arcana cards provide persistent, player-selected run modifiers that shape the conditions under which Melinoë fights. They can improve survivability, resource management, or the value of particular actions, while the Grasp system limits how many and which combinations can be active at once. Arcana therefore function as a broad loadout layer rather than as a conventional skill tree. The player chooses a foundation before the run and then adapts it to the temporary tools found during the Escape Attempt.

Daedalus Hammer upgrades and other run rewards add another layer of variation. These upgrades can significantly change how an Arm’s attack or Special behaves, so a weapon’s role may develop after the run has already begun. Keepsakes and other permanent unlocks can also influence the opening direction of a build, but they do not remove the need to respond to the chambers, rewards, and enemies encountered during that attempt.

Progression Across Escape Attempts

Melinoë’s gameplay is built around the difference between knowledge gained by the player, permanent options unlocked by the House, and temporary power gathered during a run. An unsuccessful Escape Attempt can still reveal attack patterns, unlock or improve systems, advance conversations, and provide resources for future progression. The player becomes more capable not only because Melinoë receives new options, but also because repeated encounters make enemy behavior and reward choices easier to read.

The game does not present Melinoë as a character who changes into a conventional RPG class through a fixed skill tree. Instead, her long-term identity comes from the combination of available Nocturnal Arms, Aspects, Arcana, Keepsakes, and permanent House-related systems. Her short-term identity is determined by the current weapon, Boons, Hammer upgrade, and Magick economy of the run. Keeping these layers separate prevents a single successful build from being mistaken for Melinoë’s permanent combat profile.

Encounter and Boss Interaction

Against ordinary groups, Melinoë can use Cast placement and Sprint movement to divide enemies, then select targets for standard or Omega attacks. Against bosses and other major encounters, the same tools are used more deliberately: Casts help create safe space or restrict movement, while Omega actions are best committed during recognizable openings. Her effectiveness depends heavily on learning when an enemy is vulnerable, since charging a powerful action at the wrong time can expose her to interruption or area damage.

Different Nocturnal Arms emphasize different answers to the same encounter. Fast weapons can punish brief openings but may require closer positioning, while heavier or ranged options can give Melinoë more time to read attacks. Boons and Hammer upgrades can reinforce those differences, so boss performance is influenced by both the player’s execution and the build assembled during that Escape Attempt. Full encounter tactics belong in dedicated boss or encounter guides rather than in this character overview.

The Nocturnal Arms

Melinoë’s weapons belong to the persistent progression layer of Hades II, but their effects during a particular escape attempt are still shaped by that run’s temporary Boons, Daedalus Hammer upgrades, Arcana, and other choices. Unlocking or selecting an Arm is therefore not the same as carrying a fixed weapon build from one attempt to the next. The Arm supplies the combat foundation; temporary upgrades determine how that foundation performs in the current run. This distinction is important when describing her equipment, because a weapon’s base identity persists while its exact attack pattern, damage potential, and strategic role can change from attempt to attempt.

The Crossroads

The Crossroads is Melinoë’s primary home base and the central property associated with her in Hades II. Located beyond the Underworld’s usual routes, it functions as a refuge, training ground, and operational headquarters for her campaign against Chronos. Melinoë returns there between Escape Attempts to speak with Hecate and the other residents, receive instruction, advance relationships, use available services, and prepare for another journey. Unlike the temporary chambers and resources encountered during a single run, the Crossroads represents persistent progression: changes made there, new conversations, and many unlocks remain available across subsequent attempts.

The House of Hades

The House of Hades is a major location in Melinoë’s story, but it is not presented as her active home base during the events of Hades II. Chronos’s assault leaves the House under his control, making it the destination at the end of the Underworld route and the setting for important encounters connected to Melinoë’s family. Her connection to the House is therefore familial and narrative as well as territorial: it is the home of Hades and the place from which her original family history is inseparable. The Crossroads remains her headquarters, while the House serves as a contested location that she must reach during her campaign.

A Mission Shaped by Absence

Melinoë begins from a position defined by loss rather than ordinary adolescence. Her family and kingdom have been separated by Chronos’s assault, leaving her with a personal reason to enter the conflict as well as a wider duty to the Underworld. This gives her determination a sharper edge than simple heroism: she is pursuing restoration, answers, and the people taken from her. At the same time, the game presents her as someone raised for this crisis, not as an established ruler returning to power. Her development therefore concerns the tension between inherited responsibility and an identity she must still build for herself.

From Trained Witch to Self-Directed Hero

Hecate’s instruction gives Melinoë the discipline, magical foundation, and practical preparation needed to challenge Chronos. That training is important, but it does not make Melinoë a finished warrior. Her progress comes from learning how to apply formal knowledge under unpredictable conditions, combining witchcraft, weapon aspects, Arcana, Incantations, and temporary Boons in ways suited to each Escape Attempt. Repeated failure becomes part of that education. Rather than treating defeat as proof that she is unworthy, Melinoë gradually turns each attempt into information, becoming more flexible and more willing to trust her own judgment instead of relying solely on the methods taught to her.

The Meaning of Repeated Escape Attempts

Because Hades II is structured around repeated runs, Melinoë’s growth is not represented by a single uninterrupted journey. Her circumstances change between attempts, but so does her understanding of them. A failed run can reveal a new enemy pattern, expose a weakness in her preparation, or open a conversation that reframes the conflict. This makes persistence an active character trait rather than a background premise. Melinoë is not simply repeating the same action until she wins; she is developing a more complete picture of the war and learning to distinguish immediate tactical success from the longer-term work of recovering her family and resisting Chronos’s control.

Her Relationship with Hecate Changes Shape

Melinoë’s bond with Hecate develops beyond the relationship between a student and a demanding instructor. Hecate remains an authority figure and a source of hard-won knowledge, but repeated encounters allow Melinoë to demonstrate judgment, resilience, and independence. Their exchanges place pressure on the original training arrangement: Melinoë must eventually act as an agent with her own priorities, while Hecate must respond to the person she has helped prepare rather than only to the pupil she once guided. The change is measured less by a rejection of Hecate’s lessons than by Melinoë’s growing ability to carry those lessons forward without surrendering her own perspective.

From Isolation Toward a Wider Cause

Melinoë’s initial purpose is intensely personal, but the people she meets in the Crossroads and during her journeys broaden the emotional scope of her struggle. Allies, rivals, gods, shades, and other survivors each embody different responses to Chronos’s rule: duty, grief, opportunism, resistance, or exhaustion. Through these interactions, Melinoë becomes more than the person assigned to reach the enemy. She has to weigh how her choices affect a damaged community and how much trust can be placed in people whose goals do not perfectly match her own. Her development is therefore also social, moving from a solitary mission toward participation in a larger network of resistance.

Learning to Reconcile Duty and Personal Feeling

Melinoë’s resolve is one of her strengths, but the game does not treat determination as emotionally cost-free. The threat to her family gives her a powerful reason to continue, while the scale of the conflict repeatedly demands patience, cooperation, and attention to problems that cannot be solved through a single confrontation. Her maturation lies in holding these motives together. She does not need to abandon her anger or affection in order to become effective; she must learn how to prevent them from narrowing her judgment. The result is a protagonist whose emotional investment remains central even as her understanding of the conflict becomes wider and more strategic.

An Unfinished Identity

Melinoë’s development remains deliberately connected to uncertainty about what comes after the struggle. She is a princess, a witch, a fighter, and a member of a fractured family, but none of those descriptions fully determines the person she becomes. Her progress is not simply a transformation from weakness to strength. She starts with considerable preparation and unusual capability, then gradually gains confidence in choosing how those capabilities should serve her. By the later stages of her journey, her defining quality is not that she has escaped the influence of her teachers or her family, but that she can interpret those influences for herself. Her identity becomes something she actively claims rather than something inherited without question.

A Witch-Shaped Silhouette

Melinoë is presented as a young witch whose design combines the visual language of the Underworld with a more overtly magical identity than Zagreus’s athletic, warrior-like silhouette. Her long pale hair, dark clothing, hooded outer layers, and gold accents create a strong contrast between shadow and luminous ornament. The silhouette remains readable during fast combat, while the hood and layered garments reinforce her role as a nocturnal spellcaster rather than a conventional soldier. Moon-shaped details and cool green highlights further connect her appearance to witchcraft, the night, and the supernatural atmosphere of Hades II.

The Witch's Equipment Identity

Melinoë’s visual identity is closely tied to the tools she carries. The Witch's Staff gives her a distinct staff-bearing profile, while the Sister Blades and other Infernal Arms alter the shape and rhythm of her attacks without erasing the core character design. Her clothing and accessories continue to frame her as a practitioner of occult arts: practical enough for repeated journeys through dangerous regions, but marked by ceremonial details that suit her position as a member of the Underworld’s royal family. These elements distinguish her from Zagreus while preserving a shared visual connection between the two protagonists.

A Daughter of the Underworld in a Different Register

Melinoë’s design communicates both inheritance and separation. Like other central figures in the Hades series, she uses bold colors, clear facial features, and exaggerated costume shapes that remain legible in portraits, dialogue scenes, and top-down action. At the same time, the darker palette, lunar motifs, and witchcraft-focused accessories give her a more mysterious presentation than the first game's protagonist. The result is not a simple gender-swapped version of Zagreus: Melinoë is framed as a different kind of hero, defined by preparation, ritual, and spellcraft as much as by direct confrontation.

Fan Culture and Memes

Melinoë’s cultural footprint is closely tied to Hades II’s early-access identity. Players and fan artists commonly focus on her contrast with Zagreus: she is a witch-trained protagonist whose relationship with Hecate, use of incantations, and more deliberate combat style distinguish her from the first game’s prince of the Underworld. Discussion also frequently centers on her status as a younger member of the House of Hades family and on the tension between her disciplined presentation and the emotional stakes of confronting Chronos. These themes belong to the active fan conversation around the sequel, but they should not be inflated into a claim that Melinoë has an independently documented meme canon or a settled cultural legacy.

References, Cameos, and Collaborations

Melinoë is primarily associated with Hades II and does not have a well-established body of confirmed appearances in unrelated games, films, television, or other external media. No major crossover or cameo should be attributed to her without a specific official announcement. The same caution applies to merchandise: the character’s presence in promotional artwork, game-related products, or fan-made work should not automatically be described as an official collaboration. Her most important reference point remains the Supergiant Games universe itself, particularly the contrast between her role in Hades II and Zagreus’s role in Hades.

Design and Media References

Melinoë’s design draws its strongest identity from the game’s interpretation of Greek myth rather than from a single modern-media reference. Hades II presents her as a witch and nocturnal warrior, combining underworld imagery with ritual symbols, lunar associations, and weapons that support a more spell-focused visual and mechanical identity. The contrast with Zagreus is especially important: where his design emphasizes rebellion and fiery movement, Melinoë is framed through preparation, discipline, and occult practice. These observations describe the character’s presentation in the game; they do not establish an external historical influence unless Supergiant Games or the developers explicitly document one.

Current Legacy

Because Melinoë debuted with Hades II rather than an established long-running franchise history, her lasting influence is still developing. Her significance currently comes from representing the sequel’s new narrative viewpoint and from extending Supergiant’s reinterpretation of Greek mythology beyond Zagreus’s escape attempts. Any stronger claim about awards, broad cultural influence, iconic status, or references in later media would require dedicated, current documentation. For now, Melinoë is best described as a prominent new figure in the Hades setting whose external legacy remains open rather than complete.