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History
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This article contains plot and/or ending details for Pandora Hearts.
Read at your own risk.
History[]
The Barma Dukedom was initially a part of a noble system belonging to another country. However, a war eventually broke out in their homeland, and because the Barmas had been a part of the losing side, they were exiled from their homeland into the neighboring country, while the extended family members composing the Yura nobility were permitted to stay.
The Barmas immediately set to work, struggling to regain high standing among their fellow nobles. Specifically, the heir to the Barma Dukedom, Arthur Barma, was working to get closer to the Baskervilles because of their powerful position in society. Meanwhile, Miranda Barma had attended a formal event where she first laid eyes on Oswald. Miranda soon became overcome with obsession, wanting to decapitate Oswald and preserve his head long enough for Miranda to be able to look into his violet eyes while the life faded from them. Arthur soon became acquainted with another noble of a lower-ranking family status, Jack Vessalius, having admired his social-ability and good looks from a far for a long time before Jack finally formally introduced himself to Arthur. Over time, the two became friends, and Arthur eventually introduced Jack to his sister, Miranda. Although Arthur had no way of knowing, it was always Jack's intention to exploit his relationship with Arthur in order to get closer to Miranda. Miranda then worked with Jack, teaching him how to play the Morin Khuur and helping him prepare for an opportunity to reunite with a Baskerville whom he'd met eight years before.
Eventually, the head of the Baskerville family (the current Glen Baskerville), Levi, had proposed the idea of hosting an event on the Baskerville estate in Arthur's honor in order to celebrate the culture of the Barma family. It was at this point that Miranda reintroduced Jack to Arthur while disguised as a musician capable of playing the Barmas' native instrument, the Morin Khuur. Arthur thought nothing of this and brought Jack along with him to the event without knowing that the musician was Jack.
During the event, Jack played his Morin Khuur until he saw a Baskerville named Lacie, and at this moment Jack threw off his disguise and Morin Khuur in order to embrace Lacie, much to Arthur's dismay. Oswald, Lacie's elder brother and Levi's successor, knocked Jack unconscious because of what he had done, giving Levi the opportunity to toy with Arthur, questioning what the meaning of the confrontation of Lacie was. Arthur swore that he had no idea who the musician was, leading Levi to interrogate Jack while the event ended. In the end, neither the Barmas or the Vessaliuses were held responsible for the turn of events.
After some time, Arthur once again began attempting to get close with the Baskervilles through Jack, thus allowing Arthur to form a friendship with Oswald after Oswald had taken over Levi's position as Glen Baskerville. While Arthur did this, Miranda and Jack plotted together, Jack intending to plunge the world into the Abyss in order to reunite with Lacie (who had been cast into the Abyss four months after her and Jack's first reunion). Jack had learned from Levi prior to his death that by severing the "Chains" that encircle the world, the world would be swallowed by the power of the Abyss. Jack had already manipulated a young girl named Alice , who was part of the Baskerville Clan and had a connection to the Intention of the Abyss, into creating a Chain, the B-Rabbit, for him that had the power to sever the Chains that surround the world, however Jack needed to access one of the Doors to the Abyss in order to bring Oz to Earth.
Jack came to Miranda for help at this point, Miranda telling Jack that she knew the location of one of the Doors to the Abyss and that it was constantly guarded by the Baskervilles. Miranda supplied Jack with hope however, explaining that the Baskervilles all attended an Succession Ceremony for their next Glen, allowing the Nightrays to take over their posts. Lucky for Jack, Oswald's successor, Gilbert, was about to experience his first Succession Ceremony. Miranda toyed with Jack however, deciding not to tell him how to open the Door to the Abyss. Jack did not require this information however, as Levi had also explained to him that Children of Ill Omen were able to use their power to contact the Core of the Abyss, thereby forcing the Intention of the Abyss to wrench the Door open, and luckily Gilbert's brother was a Child of Ill Omen.
After Jack manipulated Vincent into believing that Oswald intended on killing Gilbert and taking over his body, Jack had Miranda approach Vincent. Miranda taught Vincent a spell that he could use in order to open the Doors to the Abyss, which would interrupt Oswald's attempt to transfer Raven to Gilbert and thereby prevent Oswald from being able to use Gilbert's body as his vessel. Miranda convinced Vincent that it would be a lonely fight however, and that if Vincent told anyone of what he had done, there would be no one around to protect Gilbert any longer (implying that Vincent would die). Miranda then sent Vincent on his way to the Door, changing into more formal attire for Gilbert's Succession Ceremony while Vincent opened the Door and Jack formed a Contract with Oz. Following Gilbert's failed Succession Ceremony, Miranda greeted Oswald before Oswald made his decision to have his subordinates execute everyone in the mansion in order to prevent them from becoming Chains when Sablier fell into the Abyss while Oswald had his Black Winged Chains mend the Chains that Jack had Oz sever to prevent global destruction. Miranda's overall fate is left unknown, and Arthur was not known to have been in attendance at the Succession Ceremony when the Tragedy of Sablier broke out.
Although it was unknown where Arthur was at the time of the tragedy, his sister Miranda's fate wasn't revealed till the end of the manga. Miranda found Jack after he injured Oswald and killed his subordinates. Informing Miranda that he was able to keep his side of the agreement (promising Miranda the head of Oswald in exchange for all the information he needed to make his plan come true), Miranda happily thanked Jack. The two of them didn't realize that Oswald was still conscious and overheard their conversation. This made Oswald realized that Miranda was Jack's co-conspirator and gave him the knowledge to allow this tragedy to occur. When Miranda was about to decapitate Oswald (revealing to him her desire of wanting him for so long), Oswald strike Miranda with his sword. Jack was shocked by this and immediately flee the scene. Now aware of the role Miranda had in Jack's plan to destroy the chains, Oswald left Miranda alive. When Sablier fell into the Abyss, Miranda's body was mutated into the chain: Demios the Executioner.
Post-Tragedy[]
Following the Tragedy of Sablier, Jack had invited the Barma Dukedom to join the Vessaliuses, the Nightrays and the Rainsworths in the Four Great Dukedoms, holding higher political power over all other nobility apart from the king. Arthur, having recently become Duke of the Barmas, accepted Jack's request and took the Door to the Abyss which was protected by the Black Winged Chain, Dodo to solidify this position.
Arthur had idolized Jack even more for being the 'hero of the Tragedy'. However, Arthur was concerned one day when Jack approached him and asked him to spread the rumor that Jack had been killed. When Arthur questioned Jack's motives, Jack revealed his appearance to Arthur and explained that his body was in a constant sequence of reverse-aging, preventing Jack from being able to show himself. Alongside this, Jack also told Arthur the truth of the Tragedy of Sablier, horrifying Arthur. Arthur was put in a tight situation, although he knew that he should have exposed Jack for the monster that he really was, he was also aware that by doing so he'd expose Miranda's role as Jack's accomplice, possibly destroying the higher status that the Barmas had only recently obtained.
To start, Arthur gathered a small group of mages to aid him in casting a spell. While Arthur and Jack convinced the mages that Jack had suffered a fatal chest wound and was offering his body up as a medium to be used to seal Oswald's soul, the truth was that Arthur and the mages would instead be using Oswald's dismembered body to create the Stone Seals. This satisfied both of Jack's requests by preventing Oswald's soul from taking part in the Rule of 100 Cycles (thereby being reborn in 100 years) as well as making it seem as though Jack had died so he didn't have to explain his younger body.
Arthur helped Jack by chronicling the events of the Tragedy of Sablier in his Memoirs in a way that would best suit Jack's needs, painting Jack as the hero, the Baskervilles as the instigators of the Tragedy and the Nightrays as the Baskervilles' dark allies. This caused Arthur much stress, and while Jack had been overseeing Arthur's process of writing, Arthur managed to compose a final chapter which revealed Jack's manipulation of himself, the Baskervilles and anyone else around him that had lead to the Tragedy of Sablier and the composition of noble ranking as it presently was. After finishing his memoirs, Arthur hid them in the library within the Barma estate of Reveil, knowing that one day they would be found by his descendants. Arthur soon became very ill with a high fever, dying shortly after and finally escaping Jack's hold on him.
Arthur's descendant, who was Duke Barma at the time and Rufus Barma's Grandfather, oversaw the Barmas place in the new political order around 50 years after the Tragedy. It was at this time that the noble families were in an uproar against one another because of the Four Great Dukedoms, leading to the extinction of the Sinclair Family. A knight of the Sinclairs' was so grief stricken with his failure to protect his master, that he forged an Illegal Contract with the Chain known as Albus the White Knight. Together, Kevin Legnard and Albus would go out at night and slaughter anyone who they found in order for Albus to gain more power and satisfy his hunger for human flesh. Rufus' Grandfather had tried to stop the two, but is implied to have died in the process, allowing Kevin to sacrifice 116 souls to Albus before being dragged into the Abyss.
Sometime after the death of Rufus' Grandfather, Rufus arranged a mutual understanding of sorts between himself and one of the heirs to the Rainsworth Dukedom, Sheryl Rainsworth. Rufus gave Sheryl a pair of earrings to symbolism a promise that they made to each other which stated that even if their Dukedoms' opinions differed, the two of them would work together to ensure the prevention of another event like the Tragedy of Sablier. From this moment on, Rufus and Sheryl developed a close relationship, with Rufus eventually taking to protecting Sheryl by posing as her valet (although this was also meant to be an excuse to get to spend more alone-time with Sheryl). Throughout the years, despite having tried numerous time, Rufus' attempts to show Sheryl his feelings for her ultimately went unheeded. After approximately 20 more years, Rufus forged a Legal Contract with Dodo, thus taking his place as Duke Barma.
Soon after the first attacks by the Head Hunter, Duchess Bernice Nightray began to go insane with grief over to loss of her younger brother and three eldest sons. This is when Isla Yura, a relative of the Barma Dukedom, swooped in and invited Bernice to join his Abyss Worshipping Cult, where they would plot to plunge the world into the Abyss to reunite the souls of the dead and the souls of the living in the Abyss. In reality, Yura had only done this so that he could approach the Four Great Dukedoms, choosing the Nightrays because of the tainted reputation brought on by Raymond Nightray's rumored treachery during the Tragedy of Sablier. Soon after, Yura struck up a deal with Duke Bernard Nightray, agreeing to fund Bernard's Chain experimentations at the House of Fianna.
Plot[]
Break's Past Arc[]
More recently, Rufus has become involved with Oz Vessalius, Gilbert Nightray, Xerxes Break and Alice not long after it was revealed to Pandora that Oz had indeed escaped the Abyss successfully. In their first meeting, Rufus invited Oz, Alice, Break and Gil to attend an opera with himself and Reim Lunettes, and while the matter of the summoning was withheld, it soon became apparent that Rufus was intent on uncovering whether Break truly was Kevin Legnard as he had guessed, and what exactly Break saw after he was dragged into the Abyss. After a brief confrontation in which Rufus revealed that Break was previously an Illegal Contractor, Rufus had Break explain in detail the events that followed his plunge into the Abyss, learning of how Break had met the Intention of the Abyss. After uncovering all the information he sought, including information relating to Alice's connection with the Intention because of their relation as twins, Rufus attempted to apprehend both Alice and Break with the Intention of using Alice to obtain the Intention and having Break sentenced to death for his actions as Kevin Legnard. Sheryl Rainsworth arrived on the scene however, punishing Rufus for having made an illusion of her in order to fool Oz and the others, thus allowing them to escape while Rufus was preoccupied.
Sablier Arc[]
Soon after, Oz, Alice, Break and Gil all traveled to Sablier in search of answers regarding the Tragedy of Sablier. While they did this, Rufus spent days searching through the Barma Library in the Reveil, eventually finding what he was searching for, Arthur Barma's Memoirs, leading Rufus to uncover the Rule of 100 Cycles as well as the heinous act that his ancestor had undertaken in order to bind Oswald's soul through the creation of the Sealing Stones using Jack's corpse as a medium.
The Feast Arc[]
Rufus, feeling an earthquake that tore through the remains of Sablier, worked fast to locate the second Sealing Stone, coming to the understanding that the earthquake was caused by the destruction of the first Sealing Stone. Soon, Oz, Alice, Gilbert and Sharon Rainsworth come looking for answers about the earthquake. Rufus sends the group to the village of Toll to meet up with one of his subordinates who was stationed there, Gruner, so that he could lead them to a mansion in Carillon where a descendant of one of the mages that bound Jack's soul resided.
Grüner lead the group into the mansion, finding a woman named Marie standing in their path towards the second Sealing Stone. After explaining that she had killed the two Pandora members that Rufus had sent before Oz, Alice, Gilbert and Sharon, Marie engages the group in a fight, wielding a hacksaw as her weapon of choice. During the battle, Sharon discovers that Equus won't come to her no matter how many times she called, and so Marie explained to the group that this was an effect of the Sealing Stone and that the only one capable of overpowering the Abyssal barrier that the Sealing Stone created was B-Rabbit and that B-Rabbit would be the only one who would not be slain by her blade. Grüner is hurt in the fight, taking Marie's hacksaw to his shoulder while defending Sharon, however Oz soon tapped into B-Rabbit's power, destroying Marie's hacksaw and almost decapitating Marie. The mage, Rytas, emerges finally and apologizes for Marie's rudeness, guiding the group to the Sealing Stone. Oz, Alice, Gilbert and Sharon decide to return to Toll in order to contact Rufus, while Grüner volunteers to remain with Rytas and Marie, acting as added protection for them and the Seal while the others left. However, shortly after the group left, The Head Hunter infiltrated the mansion, decapitating Rytas, Marie and Grüner before finally destroying the Sealing Stone.
Oz, Alice, Gilbert and Sharon return to the mansion after feeling the earthquake that resulted from the destruction of the second Sealing Stone, reporting back to Pandora about the latest attack from the Head Hunter. A meeting was held between the Four Great Dukes and Oz where they reviewed the clues towards the third Sealing Stone that Rytas had given to Oz. During this meeting, Rufus recognized a symbol drawn on one of the pieces of paper as the symbol of an Abyss Worshiping Cult fronted by Rufus' relative, Isla Yura.
Yura was summoned to Pandora because of his connection to the ordeal, meeting with his relative a few days after his arrival. Rufus orchestrated a set-up that would allow Oz, Gilbert, Alice and Break to sneak into his mansion and join the conversation with Yura. Rufus soon sent the fanatical Yura after Oz, whilst Rufus isolated Break by sending Alice off to 'protect' Oz from Yura. During this time, Rufus told Break about the experimentations being undertaken by the Nightrays at the House of Fianna as well as Humpty Dumpty. Although the Barmas and the Rainsworths also run similar operations, the Nightrays' use of Humpty Dumpty made their experimentations a special case.
Once they were finished, the two returned to speak with Oz, Gilbert, Alice and Yura, where Isla Yura invited Oz to visit his mansion following a ploy to trick Yura into beliving that Jack's soul dwelled within Oz. Oz had Rufus organize yet another meeting with Yura however, where he explained to Yura that he needed to go through a Coming of Age Ceremony before he can be presented in society, something which his father and the Baskervilles would not allow. Yura suggested then that they throw Oz's second Coming of Age Ceremony in his mansion, where Xai Vessalius and the Baskervilles had no influence (thus allowing the group to look for the Sealing Stone which Yura possessed). Rufus was unable to attend Oz's second Coming of Age Ceremony, likely because his part of his family had been exiled from the country 100 years before, and so Rufus sent Reim to represent him instead.
During the second Coming of Age Ceremony, Reim lead a group of Pandora members in a search for the third Sealing Stone whilst in Yura's mansion. However, Reim's group ran into trouble when they came face-to-face with a Baskerville named Lily and her Chain, Bandersnatch, who had also been searching for the Sealing Stone. Lily watched as Bandersnatch slaughtered all the Pandora members, before Lily decided to allow Reim to be spared because she had known that Reim was a Contractor, and so she wanted to see if Reim's Chain could help Bandersnatch get some exercise.
Unfortunately, Reim had been knocked unconscious by Bandersnatch, and so Lily had Bandersnatch carry Reim elsewhere in the mansion, where she waited until Reim woke. After Reim had awaken and explained that his Chain was useless in terms of physical stamina, Lily explained to Reim how she had been born as the weakest member of her family and was also always regarded as a bad omen because bad things always happened around her (prompting the villagers of Ebauche to tattoo the symbol of The Devil to Lily's face) and finally how Lily had been accepted into the Baskerville Clan after being exiled from her home. Reim intended to deliver this information to Rufus and Pandora members at the Coming of Age Ceremony, having attempted to use March Hare to distract Lily and Bandersnatch long enough for him to shoot Lily in the head.
Reim's attempt failed however, as he had been unaware that the Baskervilles are able to heal their wounds and are more similar to Chains that humans because of the saturated power of the Abyss in their bodies, and so Lily had Bandersnatch attack Reim. Lily and Bandersnatch continued to violently attack Reim up until Fang's interruption, however by this point Reim had already used March Hare's ability to fake his death, fooling Fang, Lily and Break when he arrived.
Elsewhere, Isla Yura had been investigating the corpses of Reim's colleagues when Lottie confronted him and his valets with Leon. Yura confirmed that the third Sealing Stone was in the mansion for Lottie, but ultimately refused to give it up for her, prompting Leon to knock Yura unconscious. When Yura again regained consciousness, numerous members of his Abyss Worshipping Cult had surrounded Break and Lottie, and so Yura initiated the start of "The Feast," managing to escape in during the battle.
Jack's Intention Arc[]
In the end, Rufus was successful at uncovering the truths – deciphering Arthur Barma’s Memoirs to learn the truth about the Tragedy. Upon discovering the latter, Rufus formulated a plot in order to earn the Baskerville’s trust all while protecting those he kept closest to his heart; beginning with subtle hints to Oz. From there, Rufus attacked Sheryl with the power of Dodo in order to steal back Dodo’s Key – under the guise of Owl’s Key – while leading the Baskervilles to the fourth Sealing Stone that had been hidden within Pandora Headquarters. During this time, Jack severed the Chains of the World a second time and the truth of the Tragedy of Sablier was revealed. In the chaos that followed, Rufus destroyed Dodo’s Key while suppressing the flow of power to Owl’s Key, making it appear as though he’d destroyed Owl’s Key instead. Thus, when Sheryl, Break and Sharon were taken into custody by the Baskervilles they could use their Chains to escape once Reim deciphered Rufus’ messages to him and found Owl’s Key; which he had sent to Lutwidge Academy.
Swan Song Arc[]
Not trusting Rufus, Oswald - who had taken control of Leo - brought Rufus to Sablier along with Vincent. When Rufus failed to summon Dodo in order to protect himself from falling debris, Oswald attacked him, having figured out Rufus’ deception. Rufus managed to make a hasty escape, diving off of a cliff within The Hole, from which he crawled to the edge of Sablier, arriving in time to save Sheryl from an attacking Chain. Following Oz’s success at preventing the world from dropping into the Abyss and the reestablishment of the harmony of the Abyss, Rufus and Sheryl were held responsible for the chaos that had resulted from Jack’s actions, and thus the Four Great Dukedoms were stripped of their political power. Three years later, Rufus died peacefully, thus ending the Barma lineage.