- "What?! What nonsense are you spouting! Don't you know who you're talking to?! I am the First Prince of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Barbro Andrean Ield Ryle Vaiself!"
- - Prince Barbro to Lupusregina Beta.
Barbro Andrean Ield Ryle Vaiself (バルブロ・アンドレアン・イエルド・ライル・ヴァイセルフ) was the Crown Prince of the Re-Estize Kingdom and the eldest son of King Ramposa III. He and his half-brother competed for the throne, which would lead him to participate in the Annual War where he met his end.
Appearance
Barbro had a rather large physical build, befitting a member of the royal family. He was also described to be of respectable stature.
Personality
Because of his spoiled upbringing, Barbro had grown into a haughty and domineering man. He believed that as the crown prince and future king, the people of the kingdom should throw themselves into his service as part of his divine right. He expected everyone to obediently follow his every command, regardless of its feasibility or costs. In fact, he considered any failures to comply with his command as an insult toward himself.
Even worse, since Barbro was completely self-centered, he would disregard virtually anything that did not impact him, including the well-being of his men. During his short expedition to Carne Village, he unreasonably demanded his army to complete missions and march back to E-Rantel within one day, despite the risk of exhausting the soldiers to the point of collapse.
In addition to his bossy personality, Barbro was incredibly hot-tempered and vindictive. He quickly became irritated or flew into a rage whenever a situation did not proceed in the way he wanted it to and his response could be very out of proportion. When the people of Carne Village failed to open the gate fast enough, Babro promptly declared the villagers as traitors and commanded his army to exterminate every one of them, then burn the village down until no trace of its existence remained.
Barbro had a strong desire for power and loved to order people around. In his ideal future of the Re-Estize Kingdom, he saw himself seated on the throne with the massed nobles bowing respectfully to him and his vassals scurrying to carry out his orders. Unsurprisingly, the crown prince was willing to do anything, including patricide, just to sit upon the throne. He held no loyalty to anyone except himself and even planned on purging the nobles who supported him once he had become king.
Background
Barbro was born as the first son to King Ramposa III, making him as the Crown Prince of the Re-Estize Kingdom and first in-line to the throne. Growing up, Barbro was rather spoiled, with people constantly showering him with attention simply due to him being the Crown Prince.
Barbro's position as heir was threatened, however, by his younger brother, Second Prince Zanac, and Marquis Pespea, who were both aiming for the throne as well. Thus, in order to maintain his birthright, Barbro formed an alliance with Marquis Boullope from the Nobility Faction, who was looking to turn him into a puppet ruler for him to manipulate. According to his younger sister, Third Princess Renner, and her intelligence network, he also had some ties with the criminal organization Eight Fingers.
Chronology
The Magic Caster of Destroy Arc
- Main article: The Magic Caster of Destroy Arc
In aftermath of the demonic disturbance, Barbro's position was weakened because he chose to remain in the castle rather than confront the demons, which made him look like a coward. Seeing the annual war with the Baharuth Empire as an opportunity, Barbro petitioned with his father, King Ramposa III, to be allowed to fight on the frontlines, hoping to restore his reputation. His father, however, was unwilling to risk his beloved son’s life. He instead gave Barbro a supposedly safe mission to gather information about Ainz Ooal Gown from people of Carne Village.[1]
During the march to Carne Village, Barbro had been cursing his father nonstop. In his opinion, he was given a useless errand instead of chance to earn glory. In fact, he started believing that his father already decided to pass the throne to Zanac and intentionally gave him an insignificant errand to prevent him from garnering any accomplishments. Determined to secure his status as the heir to the throne, Barbro ordered his troops to swiftly conclude their mission in Carne Village and return to E-Rantel within one day so that he could join the battle. His knights objected to his decision, citing how negatively it would affect his army, but to no avail, as the crown prince refused to change his mind.
Once he reached Carne Village, Barbro sent a message to the villagers that Ainz Ooal Gown had been deemed a sworn enemy of the Kingdom, angering them and causing them to rebel against Barbro. Seeing this as an act of treachery, Barbro ordered his army to raze the village to the ground. However, Barbro's army was eventually repelled when Enri's newly summoned Goblin Army came to the defense of the village. Barbro and his remaining troops retreated to the plains, only to later be ambushed by Lupusregina Beta. After the battle maid summoned her own Goblin Army that effortlessly slaughtered the rest of Barbro's forces, the crown prince desperately attempted to bargain for his life, telling Lupusregina that he would be useful to her master as a political prisoner, but his pleas went ignored as Lupusregina gleefully tortured him to death.[2]
The Ruler of Conspiracy Arc
- Main article: The Ruler of Conspiracy Arc
It was mentioned that the location of Barbro was still unknown to the royal family and the Kingdom. Given the long time that had passed since the war, his chances of survival were considered extremely small and thus his younger brother Zanac took his place as the new Crown Prince.[3]
The Witch of the Falling Kingdom Arc
- Main article: The Witch of the Falling Kingdom Arc
Barbro was still considered to be missing. Ever since his disappearance, King Ramposa III, oblivious to his eldest son's malicious intentions towards him, fell into a deep state of mourning and sadness for him. Since his disappearance, the King was stated to have developed a stronger appreciation for his remaining family and began insisting on having more family meals with his surviving children. He tried to dine together with them as much as possible in order to spend more time as a family, though it was difficult due to their crisis with the Sorcerer Kingdom.[4]
NOTICE: The following section and subsequent subsections are considered NON-CANON to the Overlord Light Novels. |
Mass for the Dead Arc
- Main article: Mass for the Dead Arc
It was revealed that after the appearances of the Cracks throughout the New World, the Crown Prince has been busy protecting the capital with the help of Margrave Urovana.[5] While the rest of the royal family administered the Kingdom and coordinating with the Tripartite Alliance, the Crown Prince was forced to remain "guarding" the capital under the order of the king. Due to his siblings playing a bigger role for the Kingdom, Crown Prince Barbro had been growing envious believing they were trying to steal his place as heir. His brother Zanac kept several incidents involving some of the Six Great Nobles from Barbro's ears to prevent his brother from acting rashly and possibly making the the royals relationship with the nobles worse.[6]
After E-Rantel was saved from the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth by the protagonist and announced that the rights of the city would be relinquished to the Sorcerer Kingdom, Barbro became furious believing that his father was making a grave error. In his mind giving up territory equated to being the loser. The Crown Prince then began plotting to prevent the city from falling into foreign hands.[7]
Barbro feeling ungrateful for "protecting the capital" and believing that his father and siblings were manipulated into seceding the territory of E-Rantel to a foreign power aimed to retake the city. While his father and siblings were away from the capital, with the support of Count Lytton, the crown prince raised an army to march from the capital to E-Rantel in order reclaim it for the Re-Estize Kingdom. The prince was willing to do anything necessary to complete his objection, seeing himself as the only one fit to lead his nation and vowed to even kill his own father and siblings to do so. When Barbro and his forces arrived just outside of E-Rantel, Ramposa III who was guarding the city on behalf of the protagonist while he was away on a diplomatic mission to the Dwarf Kingdom rode out to meet his son in hopes of reasoning with him. Despite his father's pleas to stand his army down, the prince refused to change his course. Just as the prince saw that trying to make his father see his way of things was useless, there was a commotion and blood was spilled between them.[8]
Just as Barbro was about to order his forces to attack, the crown prince had vanished at the spot. Only a pool of blood stood at his location. His disappearance was soon followed by his grieving father and later many soldiers in the armies outside E-Rantel by an invisible foe starting a tragedy that would encompass the entire city.[9]
Some months after the attack, Barbro's role as crown prince was posthumously assumed by his younger brother Prince Zanac. And while Zanac could have declared himself king, he did not due to not wanting to be criticized by the nobles for being a unfilial son as the prince had yet to conduct funeral ceremonies for his brother or father whose corpses were still missing.
Barbro's corpse was later revealed to have been transported to the "other side". Sadly his body was found by Gazef Stronoff but it was too badly damaged to allow for a revival thus was left behind as the Warrior Captain collected the bodies of the king and Brain Unglaus.[10]
Abilities and Powers
Barbro had remarkable skills in martial arts and commanded the Kingdom's Army. However, his sheltered life and lack of actual military experience meant that his martial skills were nowhere as vaunted as he believed. In terms of close combat, he was notably weaker than Climb.
Relationships
Ramposa III
Ramposa III was Barbro's father and the King of the Re-Estize Kingdom. Despite Ramposa III's genuine love for his eldest son, Barbro hated and despised the old man. Barbro did not show his distaste for his father publicly, but secretly harbored ill intentions. These feelings were mostly due to his father's adamant refusal to abdicate his throne, delaying the succession longer than necessary and denying Barbro his birthright, which he feared would soon be passed to his half-brother, Zanac.
Zanac Valleon Igana Ryle Vaiself
Zanac was Barbro's younger brother and the two competed for the throne. Because of this, Barbro despised him and planned on having him assassinated once he became king. However, despite his animosity, he was at least able to admit to himself that Zanac was likely smarter than him.
Renner Theiere Chardelon Ryle Vaiself
Renner was Barbro's younger sister. The prince viewed her as little more than a decoration and was willing to sell her off to a noble to further his political agenda. However, he did not seem to be aware of her true personality.
Marquis Boullope
Marquis Boullope was Barbro's ally in his quest to gain the throne. Their alliance was strengthened by the fact that he was betrothed to his daughter. However, Barbro merely seemed to be using the Marquis to become king and planned to purge him, along with the rest of the nobility, once he ascended to the throne.
Hilma Cygnaeus
According to Renner, Barbro had connections to Eight Fingers' Drug division, led by Hilma. He was possibly also an assistant to her parties.
Nabe
Barbro first caught sight of Nabe following the demonic disturbance and instantly became attracted to her due to her looks. However, he couldn't make a move on her as she was the companion of an admantite adventurer his father favored. He intended to use his royal authority to force her into a relationship with him.
Lupusregina Beta
Lupusregina Beta was the person who killed Barbro. After she revealed that she had been ordered by Ainz to kill him, he begged for his life and pointed out that he would make a great political hostage. However, she didn't care and proceeded to torture him for half an hour before putting him out of his misery.
Ainz Ooal Gown
Barbro initially had no interest in Ainz. However, he later thought of using him by taking the inhabitants of Carne Village to the battlefield to have them convince him to surrender. Later, when Lupusregina ambushed him, he planned on trading a quarter of the Kingdom's territory to Ainz for his freedom and believed he could forge an alliance with him. However, when Lupusregina informed him that Ainz had deemed him to be unnecessary and ordered his death, he was in disbelief.
Trivia
- In the Web Novel, Crown Prince Barbro doesn't exist.
- On Maruyama's Governing Ranking, Barbro was over Shasuryu and below Olasird'arc. It was stated by the author that the deceased prince only had the knowledge needed to be king, no other quality.[11]
Quotes
- (To his Father): "Yes! Allow me to present the false emperor's head to you, Father!"
- (About his Father): "Does my father hate me? Or has old age caused his mind to become hazy? To give away the throne to the younger brother when it is clearly the eldest son’s right to inherit. This will only antagonize the nobles."
- (To himself about Carne Village): "Could the villagers from Carne Village be used as negociation tools against Ainz Ooal Gown?"
- (To a knight about Carne Village): "Why? Why are those peasants in Carne Village not opening the gate? The land is directly ruled by the royal family! They’re supposed to obey me! I told them to open the gate, didn’t I?!"
- (To a knight about Carne Village): "Traitors! Traitors, all of them! I declare that everyone in Carne Village is a traitor!"
- (To a knight about Carne Village): "What nonsense is this?! Allowing them to live after disobeying a royal command is a sin!"
- (To a knight about Carne Village): "Threaten them with flame arrows. The time for playing childish games like standing outside the wall and shouting is over. Now we show them how adults do things!!"
- (To himself concerning the villagers' fate): "Damn. I should have brought an interrogator along. First, we pretend to spare the lives of anyone who cooperates...then we kill them later. As for the kids..."
- (To Lupusregina): "What the hell are you saying! Don’t you realize my value! I am the First Prince! How dare you even think about killing me! You normally take nobles hostage and ransom them! Or do you want territory! It’s better to keep me alive to use for more advantageous position in negotiation than to kill me!"
References
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 2: Preparations for the Battle
- ↑ Overlord Volume 09 Chapter 3: Another Battle
- ↑ Overlord Volume 10 Chapter 2: Re-Estize Kingdom
- ↑ Overlord Volume 14 Chapter 3: The Last King
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Chapter 10: Crumbling Overture
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Special Event: Bride Who Hasn't Fallen In Love For A Long Time
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Chapter 12: Leader of Mankind
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Chapter 14: Mountain Range Lord
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Chapter 15: Crackling World
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Chapter 16: Name of God
- ↑ Overlord Volume 12 Author Thoughts