Barlowe

Barlowe is the founder of the Order of Ecclesia, one of the many groups dedicated to keeping Dracula at bay in the absence of the Belmont clan. Within Ecclesia lies the remains of Dracula, a nearly indestructible relic that if destroyed, will prevent Dracula's resurrection. Barlowe's research has resulted in Dominus, a weapon powerful enough to perform such a task, and Shanoa is tasked with its use. However, right before Shanoa prepares to do so, Albus, another of Barlowe's disciples, steals Dominus and flees. Barlowe then orders Shanoa to locate Dominus and bring Albus back, if possible.

Official background: Barlowe formed Ecclesia to study glyphs as a way of fighting Dracula. His research culminated in Dominus, a glyph of ultimate power. Barlowe prays that its power is enough to save the world from darkness.

Order of Ecclesia
In actuality, the Order of Ecclesia exists for the sole purpose of the resurrection of Lord Dracula, and the relic in Ecclesia is actually a seal to confine him. It is Barlowe's true intention to have Shanoa sacrifice her life with Dominus to resurrect the dark lord. In the bad ending, after Shanoa finds Dominus, she uses it on the seal and dies, releasing Dracula. However, the results of this action are not shown and it is initially unbeknownst to the player that Dracula was actually resurrected and not destroyed (though Barlowe's true nature is briefly shown as Shanoa dies, giving the player a slight hint about what's really going on).

However, should you meet the requirements for the good ending (rescuing all the villagers), Albus will warn Shanoa not to use Dominus, and she refuses Barlowe's will. Barlowe then reveals his true intentions: to kill Shanoa and use her sacrifice to free Dracula from the seal. He tries to defeat Shanoa and fails; however, he succeeds in awakening Dracula, sacrificing his life to do so.

The Fight
If you are trying to get the good ending, you will need to fight Barlowe in Ecclesia as the game's 9th boss. He fought similar like Shaft as you fought him before. He will fly around the room and try to hit you with spells. He will also use the Globus Glyph attack. You can get this glyph off of the Demon Lord enemy, but it is much easier to steal it from Barlowe. One of his attacks consists of surrounding himself in an electric barrier and trying to run into you. His next 2 attacks work in tandem with each other. The first is freezing a section of the floor. If you touch it, you will freeze, which triggers his second attack. He will charge a large ball of electricity above you and shoot a bolt of lightning from it. It is unavoidable because you are frozen from the previous attack. He also has another attack where he will fire off fireballs that track your location.

When his health is low, he will cry out "Die, Shanoa!" and teleport around the room to try and punch you 5 times. On an interesting note, he says something with each punch.


 * Punch 1- "HOW DARE YOU..."
 * Punch 2- "...EVEN FORGETTING..."
 * Punch 3- "...WHO RAISED YOU..."
 * Punch 4- "...YOU..."
 * Punch 5- "...STUPID DISCIPLE!"

This indicates that Barlowe is considering his betrayal to Shanoa as Shanoa betraying him, which also indicates that Barlowe was truly a madman.

Personality
Although Barlowe at first seems to be calm, helpful, and even somewhat fatherly towards Shanoa, his true intentions and personality were revealed after Shanoa denied his orders to use Dominus to "destroy" Dracula's vessel. In actuality, Barlowe is insane and quick to anger, believing Shanoa to be a traitor and praising Dracula as a God, to the extent that he would give his life to see Dracula reborn (which ends up being his demise). Although Shanoa seems to have believed that he was just "another victim of Dominus", it is shown that Barlowe had intentions to revive Dracula from the beginning.

Abilities

 * Magic Mastery - Much like the members of the Belnades clan, Barlowe controls Fire, Ice, and Thunder, and uses them via his magic tomes. Barlowe can also fly.
 * Superhuman Strength - Barlowe displays inhuman strength, being able to punch Shanoa and send her flying. This is likely an effect of his magic mastery, which allows him to temporarily strenghten his punches by fueling them with magic.
 * Glyph Use - Although Barlowe himself believed Shanoa to be the only one able to use glyphs, after discovering Albus' ability to absorb glyphs, Barlowe displayed the ability to use glyphs as well, particularly Globus. He also believed himself to have the power to master Dominus.

Fan Speculation
There is a fan speculation between Barlowe and Shaft from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. In SotN, Dracula will mention that he was given flesh again by the will of humans, since Shaft was the one that resurrected him. Barlowe will mention that mankind needs a savior such as Dracula because there is darkness in everyone's hearts. It is also speculated that Barlowe is a descendant of Shaft, since they both offer up their souls to oversee Dracula be resurrected. This can be proven further as he is a dark-based enemy and thus weak to holy. Another possibility is that Barlowe has a connection to the Belnades Clan, due to him using fire, ice and lightning attacks, much like Sypha Belnades and her descendant Yoko Belnades. This is backed up by the fact that he and Sypha both use books to cast their magic attacks. However, unlike Sypha, he speaks in what can only be assumed to be Latin when casting spells. He will say "Tonitrus" for the Electric Ramming attack, "Ustio" for the Homing Fireball attack, and "Glacius" for the Floor Freezing attack, as Sypha never says words whenever she uses attacks.

Trivia

 * His name is likely a reference to Kurt Barlowe, the vampire from Stephen King's book, Salem's Lot.
 * When he punches, he punches like as said Undefeated of the East' Master Asia from the anime series Mobile Fighter G Gundam.