Lord Bartlow

Lord Mathia Bartlow of Hyland is the leader of the Ladylake City Council in the video game Tales of Zestiria and its anime adaptation Tales of Zestiria: The X, and a major behind the scenes antagonist.

In the anime:
Bartlow was first seen in the counsel chamber of Princess Alisha Diphda, following the enigmatic appearance of a thickening black cloud/fog over the nearby town of Gluriel. He advised Alisha that the city should begin conscripting soldiers from the participants of the Sacred Blade Festival (an event to find the man who can pull the Sacred Sword from the stone), much to Alisha’s disapproval.

Bartlow then put out word to assassins such as Lunarre and the group called the Scattered Bones that he was willing to pay handsomely for Alisha’s death, prompting the assassination attempts that take place throughout the first two episodes of the series. When two members (including Rose) of the Scattered Bones reported to Bartlow on Alisha’s activities, he called his princess a fool for refusing to defend against the amassing Rolance troops, claiming that her inaction and idealistic obsession with peace at any cost would result in innumerable civilian casualties. Bartlow also conveyed to them the urgency of their mission by falsely claiming that rumours exist of the princess secretly being allied to Rolance, convincing the assassins that Alisha had political gain by surrendering her people to the enemy.

The next day, Bartlow was seen watching the Sacred Blade Festival with immense displeasure, watching countless hopefuls fail to draw the sword from the stone. After none are chosen by the sword or by Lailah (the Lady of the Lake), Alisha elected to give a speech on the necessity of peace with Rolance and on the avoidance of war. This greatly angered the silent crowd, and their anger and their fear of invasion manifested in the form of Malevolence (a dark magic associated with Hellions, which was drawn out from the ruins under the city where it was concentrated). The Malevolence caused the sky around the church where the festival took place to turn black, and the flames that lit the inside to explosively put themselves out. It then formed into a giant, flying dragon-like monster (hellion), which attacked the crowd and the altar of the stone. The hellion was unable to attack the sword due to a magical barrier, but its flames still blocked the exit, trapping everyone inside the church. When Sorey (a boy who had spent his childhood living with seraphs (an invisible, powerful race of people much more like the sidhe from English folklore than their biblical namesake)) rushed to take the sacred sword in order to fight the beast, Bartlow’s assassin Rose sprung into action, and attacked Alisha with a fighting knife. Alisha was also skilled in combat, though her advisor Maltran still tried to join in to help the princess, only to be stopped by Bartlow, obsessed with watching Alisha die, whose excuse to Maltran was “The princess can protect herself, your priority must be to evacuate the spectators.” He issued the same order to the nearby knights in order to stop them from rescuing Alisha, but he was later smacked by the Hellion’s giant tail and thrown across the building.

While Alisha and Rose fought, Sorey drew the sword from the stone, was pronounced Shepherd by Lailah, and merged with Lailah, developing immense power, combat proficiency, and flight, allowing him to destroy the hellion with ease. Bartlow’s assassin was distracted from her fight with the princess by the sight of the hellion’s destruction, as was the entire crowd and Alisha, but once eyes returned to the princess, Rose slipped away and escaped. Bartlow sat in shock at Sorey’s power, declaring it impossible, though secretly desiring to have this power for himself.

The City Council, under Bartlow’s direction later unanimously voted that Bartlow should have custody and command over Sorey, but this decision was overruled by Alisha, much to his fury.