Arthur Barma's Memoirs (アーサー＝バルマの
One hundred years after the Tragedy occurred, Arthur's descendent Rufus Barma finally discovers the memoirs after many years of searching. He works to decode their many ciphers and extract as much information as he can from them. Using what he learns from the memoirs, Rufus maneuvers Oz Vessalius and his friends towards their next course of actions.
This article contains plot and/or ending details for Pandora Hearts.
Read at your own risk.
Jack Vessalius lied about everything—it was he who caused the Tragedy of Sablier. Glen Baskerville and his followers were simply the scapegoat Jack used in order to deceive the world so that he may instigate it once again. Due to Jack's atrocities, he was banished from the Hundred Cycles, instead cursed to age circuitously, backwards from his age at "death" into an infant then back again indefinitely. Upon discovering this, Jack confessed his sins to Arthur. The man was horrified but couldn't speak the truth due to the power his family had gained from Jack's ministrations. Instead, Arthur secretly wrote the truth within his memoirs hidden behind double, triple ciphers. Thus these memoirs contain not only the truth of the Tragedy, but Arthur's desperate wish for repentance and for another soul to know as well.
Description[]
Coming soon!
History[]
Jack approached Arthur soon after the Tragedy of Sablier, asking him to spread the rumor that Jack had died because his body had been growing younger and so he couldn't show himself in public as Jack Vessalius anymore. Jack told Arhur what he called 'The Empty Man' which he claimed to be a fictional story, despite implying to Arthur that all that Jack had told him was the truth of the Tragedy of Sablier.
Arthur set to work chronicling the Tragedy of Sablier as Jack dictated to him, worrying that if he came clean about the crimes which Jack had committed that his sister, Miranda Barma, would be held responsible for the same crimes, and so the Barma Dukedom would fall to much scrutiny, something which Arthur couldn't allow after having just gained peaceful status following their exile from their homeland.
As well as writing of a false Tragedy of Sablier, Arthur also included false explanation of the Stone Seals, indicating instead that the mages had used Jack's own body, which he had willingly offered as it was allegedly dying from a chest wound of sorts, to seal away Oswald's soul (thereby taking it out of the 100 cycles rule) instead of Oswald's own. This would be how Arthur would spread the rumor of Jack's demise, as even the mages that Arthur had gathered believed that Jack's body was used for the ceremony.
In the final chapter of his memoirs, Arthur came clean about how Jack had been the true instigator of the Tragedy of Sablier, as well as how he had been rejected by the Abyss when Sablier fell into the Abyss, which is why he had been the only survivor of the Tragedy of Sablier. Arthur also included how Jack had stolen four of the five Doors to the Abyss and their respective Keys to the Doors from Oswald in order to obtain a rank of power over other nobilities and to form an organization meant to study the powers of the Abyss, which Jack named 'Pandora', meant to be lead by the newly instated Four Great Dukedoms.
Jack made an ally out of the Nightray Dukedom in order to keep an eye on his enemies, as the acting Duke, Raymond Nightray, had been close friends with Oswald before the Tragedy of Sablier. In order to put the Nightrays in a bad situation, Jack spread rumors that Raymond was a traitor and that he had helped rebels who were trying to overthrow Sablier's government in the turmoil escape from the city before it capsized. This tarnished the Nightray family name for generations to come. As well, Jack gave Raymond the Door to the Abyss which was guarded by Raven. In order to be able to access the Abyss, Raymond would have to form a contract with Raven, something that would be impossible because Raven had been tied to Gilbert during the Tragedy of Sablier and Gilbert was trapped in the Abyss at the time.
Jack had also included the Rainsworth Dukedom in the formation of the Four Great Dukedoms because of their royal lineage, but moreover because of their lack of connection to the Tragedy of Sablier, thereby stopping suspicions of a monopoly from on-lookers.
The final family of the Four Great Dukedoms was the Barma family, which Jack insisted on including because Miranda had been his ally and co-conspirator during the Tragedy of Sablier, and because Arthur had been his useful pawn even since Jack met him.
The final line of the memoirs was Arthur calling Jack a living ghost.
Plot[]
Sablier Arc[]
Whilst Oz Vessalius, Alice, Gilbert Nightray and Xerxes Break were in Sablier, Rufus Barma was frantically searching through the Barma family's library until he finally found Arthur Barma's Memoirs, reading the rule of 100 cycles as soon as he obtained it.
Rufus then sat down for tea with Sheryl Rainsworth in a gazeebo of on Rainsworth family, where Rufus explained to her the rule of 100 cycles. Rufus adds that such a thing may not necessarily be false when one takes into account how the Baskervilles were searching for Glen Baskerville's soul in a world where he is assumed to be deceased. Sheryl agrees, but questions how the Baskervilles would be able to recognize the soul of Glen Baskerville when they saw it. Rufus explains how such a thing wouldn't make much of a difference, as the Baskervilles are drawn towards their master's soul, however they cannot do so now. Rufus asks why Sheryl thinks that is, before explaining that the path of the Baskervilles is being obstructed because their master's soul is chained in sleep, never meant to reawaken again
Sheryl asks how Rufus knows about this, and so Rufus shows her Arthur Barma's Memoirs. Rufus exclaims that the text was heavily coded, but from what he has managed to decode thus far, he found it fascinating. Rufus quotes Arthur through his memoirs, saying that after Jack had killed Glen, Arthur put a curse on Glen's soul. This confuses Sheryl, and so Rufus explains that the method Arthur used to curse the soul was 'a masterpiece', having divided Jack's body into five sections after he'd willingly offered his body as a medium. Sheryl is horrified, but Rufus continues, saying that Glen's soul will never awaken as long as these Sealing Stones remained intact, and so the Baskerville whom they've thought were remaining dormant all these years, were really in search of their master's soul, and so they've already began moving, preparing to destroy the Sealing Stones which bind Glen's soul. Suddenly a large explosion is heard as an earthquake rumbles through Sablier and Reveil, and Rufus notes how one of the Sealing Stones was likely just broken.
The Feast Arc[]
When Oz, Alice, Gilbert and Sharon Rainsworth go to see Rufus to ask about the earthquake they'd felt in Sablier, Rufus is in the process of deceiphering Arthur's Memoirs. After some playful banter, Rufus explains the process that Arthur had used to forge the five Sealing Stones. Rufus shows the group Arthur's Memoirs and explains that the Barma family used to dabble in alchemy, and they had used such methods to create these Sealing Stones 100 years ago, which have been guarded by the original mages who aided Arthur and their descendants to this day according to Arthur's memoirs. However, Rufus informs the group that Pandora's contact with these mages has since ceased, and so the Four Great Dukes agreed at their meeting that it was Pandora's duty to find the Sealing Stones and protect them before the Baskervilles can manage to destroy them. After a brief disagreement between Rufus and Sharon, Rufus sends Oz, Alice, Gil and Sharon to Carrillon, guided by Gruner (one of Rufus' valets), to locate the next Sealing Stone.
During Oz's second Coming-of-Age Ceremony at Isla Yura's mansion, a ploy used to try and find the next Sealing Stone, Rufus stayed in Reveil to continue deciphering Arthur's Memoris. Rufus felt the effect of the third Sealing Stone's destruction as an earthquake rumbled through Reveil.
Jack's Intention Arc[]
Following the second Coming of Age Ceremony, with Vincent Nightray revealing himself as the Head Hunter following his assassination of Bernard Nightray, and Leo's identification as the carrier of Glen Baskerville's dormant soul, Rufus finally managed to deceipher the entirety of Arthur Barm's Memoirs. Rufus contacted the Baskervilles after this and requested that they recognize the Barma family as their allies because of what the final chapter of Arthur's Memoirs revealed about Jack and the truth about the Tragedy of Sablier. This lead to Rufus allying himself with the Baskervilles, letting them into Pandora and leading them to the next Sealing Stone following an attack Rufus made of Sheryl with Dodo in order to obtain her Key to the Abyss.
After the Sealing Stone is destroyed and Glen Baskerville's head falls out rather than Jack's, Rufus reveals to the Baskervilles, Gilbert, Break and the remaining Pandora members that Jack was the true instigator of th Tragedy of Sablier.
Rufus later reads from Arthur's Memoirs to Oswald (who has taken control of Leo's body) filling Oswald in on the details of what Jack did after the Tragedy of Sablier. The final Sealing Stone was then destroyed and Oswald gained back his full memories and full control of Leo's body.
Appearances[]
- Retrace XLI: Where am I?
- Retrace XLIII: Crown of Clown
- Retrace LIII: Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Wall
- Retrace LIX: Couldn't put Humpty together again
- Retrace LXVI: Jack
- Retrace LXXIII: A note
- Retrace LXXVIII: Decision
Quotes[]
- "The soul that loseth its corporeal vessel doth become light... and in tandem with the wings of angels... doth travel the world colored in gold. And when a hundred cycles have elapsed... the journey cometh to its end... and another journey doth begin anew." - The rule of one-hundred cycles
- "After Vessalius slew Glen Baskerville... I put a curse on his soul."
- "At first, I had no inkling of what he (Jack) was going to tell me. But... little by little... It was then that I realized for the first time... how truly frightening that man was."
Trivia[]
- Coming soon!