Lore:Barbas

Barbas
Barbas in his canine form
Race	Daedra	Gender	Male
Resided in		Fields of Regret
Appears in		Daggerfall, Redguard, Morrowind, Oblivion, Lord of Souls, Skyrim, ESO, Legends

Barbas is the Hound of Clavicus Vile. He is a shapeshifting Daedra, although he most commonly takes on the form of a dog or Skaafin. Barbas acts as a repository for around half of Vile's power, though behaves as his loyal servant rather than equal, often pining for his approval to little avail. According to Vile, he likes being a dog—as well as many other things—on sunny days. "When he's like this, I think he's somewhere else. It's all quite significant, of course... But who knows what it means." Although Vile is always depicted along with Barbas, the Prince has at times grown tired of and abandoned him. While Barbas seems to be subservient to Clavicus Vile, he also often warns people against Vile's plots, suggesting he has some discretion and free will. He sometimes takes the form of a musically talented scamp merchant named Creeper.

Barbas' origins are unknown, though ancient idols and cave paintings dating back to the Merethic Era depict Clavicus Vile standing with a large hound by his side. It is sometimes believed that Barbas is merely a greater Daedric servant to Vile, though others suggest that Vile and Barbas are in a sense the same person, split into two beings, as Clavicus Vile's very social nature would make it impossible for him to not have a companion.

History

Before the Interregnum

In 2E 582, a novice Altmer mage named Pircalmo was hired by the Bosmer inhabitants of Willowgrove to clear the nearby forest. However, Pircalmo's ability with magic was limited by his constant mistakes. Before attempting to cast his spell, the mage wished for it to "work well". Unbeknownst to him, his wish was granted by Vile, who had an ancient and forgotten altar inside a nearby cavern. Pircalmo's spell "worked" in that it summoned a horde of dangerous atronachs to burn down the forest. Having seemingly failed the contract, Pircalmo's wife was duly taken by the local Bosmer to be killed and eaten. Fortunately, the Vestige discovered the altar, which Barbas had been inexplicably bound to due to the mage's wish. The Vestige then smashed the altar, freeing Barbas and dispelling the atronachs before Pircalmo's wife could be harmed. That same year, Barbas appeared as Creeper when an Orc merchant named Zagrugh summoned a scamp to act as his assistant. Zagrugh ran a general store beneath the city of Mournhold, in a Dunmeri ancestral crypt which had been taken over by outlaws. He had hoped that a summoned Daedra would be more loyal than his previous assistants, who had all stolen from him. Mysteriously, Zagrugh was later found dead, and Creeper stepped in to manage the store.

The Triad

Barbas levitating with the power absorbed from Sunna'rah

Around 2E 582, Barbas and his master carried out an elaborate plot to gain access to the Clockwork City on behalf of the Triad. While the Triad began their attempts to locate it, Barbas enacted his own plan in an attempt to please his master. Barbas began tampering with the construction of Vivec City. He was noticed by Archcanon Tarvus of the Tribunal Temple, who saw evidence of sabotage and had planned to tell Vivec of the potential canine culprit he spotted. According to Barbas himself, he found that Tarvus had passed in his sleep, and at that point decided to impersonate him.

Concurrently, the Nycotic Cult was somehow able to acquire the artifact known as Sunna'rah, a staff that was created by the Tribunal God Sotha Sil as a tool for him to experiment with his own powers. Conoon Chodala, the Ashkhan of the Urshilaku Tribe, discovered through a benefactor about the staff and wished for it to be acquired, with the Ashlander later offering a proposal to the Red Exiles who were sent by him in order to retrieve the staff from the cult, but not before the cultists first prepared a ritual that was able to allow the object to channel unfathomable power, with the plan calling for the exiles to let the cultists start the ritual but not allow it to be finished.

After Chodala was killed by the Vestige and the staff was returned, Barbas still posing as Archcanon Tarvus, used it to steal Vivec's divine energy and discover the Clockwork City's location. He succeeded, and Barbas entered the City to arrange Clavicus Vile's arrival, but was stopped by the Vestige and the mage Barilzar, who pursued him into the City. The Vestige found themselves transported to the shrine of Clavicus Vile, where the Prince threatened to imprison them. However they channeled the power of Vivec contained within Sunna'rah against the Prince through his statue, allowing them to escape. Thus Vivec's stolen energy returned seconds before Baar Dau crashed into Vivec City. Had this plot not been foiled this would have caused great devastation to Vvardenfell. Barbas nevertheless succeeded in locating the Clockwork City for his master Clavicus Vile.

After Nocturnal's betrayal of the Triad and seizure of the Crystal Tower, Barbas subsequently helped the Vestige to enter the Tower through Vile's own realm, the Fields of Regret, and put a halt to her takeover of reality.

Barbas was documented within the Infinite Archive in Apocrypha. There, copies of various entities were subsequently created as maligraphies, creatures composed of vivified ink manifested by stories from books, and served as mindless extensions of the Daedric Lord Tho'at Replicanum. A maligraphy copy of Barbas was formed, which was destroyed by an adventurer or two who were aided by augmentations directly from Hermaeus Mora.

After the Interregnum

Clavicus Vile and Barbas in the Fields of Regret

When Cyrus visited Vile's realm in 2E 864, Barbas showed a fondness for the Redguard and morphed his face to imitate Cyrus'.

Third Era

Circa 3E 427, Barbas took on the form of Creeper to live and trade with a group of Orcs in Caldera, Morrowind. In 3E 433, Vile tasked the Hero of Kvatch with recovering the Umbra Sword. Barbas foresaw the ruin that the sword would bring to Vile's realm of Oblivion, and left Vile's side to manifest as a dog statuette. Through the statuette, Barbas communicated with the Hero in an attempt to dissuade the Hero from bringing Vile the sword, although this attempt proved futile.

Umbriel Crisis

Umbra later stole much of Vile's power and created Umbriel, leaving the Prince's realm crippled.

In 4E 48, Sul and Prince Attrebus Mede found themselves in the Fields of Regret. Within the disintegrating realm, they met Barbas, who lead them to his master, Clavicus Vile. The pair attempted to bargain with the Prince for his aid in reaching Umbriel, offering up the husk of the Umbra Sword, now empty of the spirit within, in exchange. Vile initially refused, claiming that he'd remained as powerful as ever by spreading himself less thin, that Umbra was nothing but an aspect of his with delusions of being its own person, that he had other followers that could retrieve Umbra, and that he'd only offer aid in exchange for one of their souls. However, just as the negotiation appeared to be failing, Barbas interceded, giving Prince Attrebus the chance to respond to Vile. Attrebus pointed out that Umbriel was making its way to the Imperial City in order to reach the White-Gold Tower, the power of which could be used to make Umbra truly independent from Vile. Forced to concede, Vile agreed to help. He could not transport the two to Umbriel directly, as Vuhon had made it so the island was invisible to him, but he could take them to the Imperial City, where the island was headed. Before transporting them to their destination, Vile warned that they'd come to regret their deal by the end.

In the end, though brief, Barbas' mediation of the negotiation would prove crucial in the resolution of the crisis. Eventually, the pair reached Umbriel, and managed to separate Vuhon and Umbra, imprisoning the spirit within the blade once more. It was than that Vile manifested, by possessing Attrebus himself per the terms of their deal. The Prince stabbed Sul with the Umbra Sword, but the Dunmer managed to grab the blade and fell back into the Ingenium as Vile's laughter echoed in his ears. Sul, the Umbra Sword, and the Ingenium than dissolved into a wave of black smoke, which reformed itself into a giant avatar of Clavicus Vile. The still living Vuhon informed the now freed Attrebus that Vile likely intended to drain the souls of everyone remaining on Umbriel before letting it drop onto the Imperial City itself. The only hope was to have the Umbriel-Hist banish Vile and Umbriel with the aid of Mere-Glim, who could help due to now being part of the island. Vuhon still retained the power he originally had, something which Vile could not take, and so he distracted the Prince long enough for the Hist and Mere-Glim to complete the banishment. Thus Vile was able to regain the power he lost due to the crisis, seemingly reclaiming the spirit of Umbra and absorbing the thousands of souls within Umbriel's Ingenium in the process, but failing to carry out his plan to unleash more chaos in Tamriel.

Temporary separation from Clavicus Vile

By 4E 201, Vile had forsaken Barbas out of annoyance. Barbas, in the form of a dog, was left wandering the Pine Forest of Skyrim. This limited the Prince's power, making it so that he could only manifest in Tamriel close to one of his shrines. Residents of Falkreath took notice of the stray mutt, and when the Last Dragonborn approached him, Barbas revealed his identity and asked the Dragonborn to help him reconcile with Clavicus. The two journeyed to the Prince's shrine in Haemar's Shame. After killing off the vampire worshippers, Vile had the Dragonborn retrieve the Rueful Axe, an artifact of the Prince. Vile then presented the Dragonborn with a choice: keep the axe and kill Barbas in his mortal form, banishing him for a few centuries and allowing Vile to use his full power, or continue with the original deal, forcing the Prince to take both the axe and Barbas back. It is unknown which option the Dragonborn chose but, either way, Clavicus Vile was reunited with the portion of his power embodied by Barbas.

Gallery

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  As seen in Daggerfall

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  As seen in Redguard

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  Barbas imitating Cyrus (Redguard)

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  As Creeper in Morrowind

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  As seen in Oblivion

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  As seen in Oblivion Remastered

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  As seen in Skyrim

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  As seen in Skyrim

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  As seen in ESO

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  As Creeper in ESO

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  Barbas imitating Archcanon Tarvus (ESO)

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  As seen in ESO in Skaafin

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  Barbas playing fetch (Legends)

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  As seen in the Summerset announcement trailer

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  A Statuette of Barbas (ESO)

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  Concept Art (Daggerfall)

Notes

• The Monochrome Paintbrush is a cursed artifact held within the Psijic Order's Vault of Moawita. The tale of its creation due to the seeming fulfillment of an artist's ill-fated wish by Clavicus Vile, is recounted in The Monochrome Paintbrush, an event during which Barbas is also suggested to have been present.
• Clavicus Vile was depicted with a hound in both Daggerfall and Redguard, and Creeper appeared in Morrowind, but it was not until Oblivion that the name Barbas came into use.
• The Mad God Sheogorath dislikes Barbas, and may have plans to kill him with hemlock.

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the Redguard, Oblivion, Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online, and Legends articles.
• For game-specific information on Creeper, see the Morrowind and Elder Scrolls Online articles.
• For specific information from Lord of Souls, see the Books article.