Stag Barrow

**Stag Barrow Elkton**is a main character in *War.*

In terms of the series narrative, Barrow is the second Stag of Cervidium to reign during the War, son of Stag Ellis and Doe Deirdre. Until his ascension, he was the Fawn of Cervidium.

## Appearances

### *War*

Barrow Elkton debuted in "Where the Anomaly Lay" during the summer of 715. A sixteen-year-old boy and Fawn of Cervidium (heir to the throne), he was his father's protege and constant companion. Through diary entries of his mother, Deirdre Elkton, it became clear that the Stag and Fawn were isolating her from them. Ellis and Barrow were conducting gruesome experiments in a hidden cavern beneath Antlerstag, operating on prisoners of war and their own citizens. Deirdre discovered these horrors and was caught by Barrow. She subsequently disappeared under the guise of illness. Over the next few years, Deirdre was imprisoned and converted into a BioFreak.

In 720 in "Requiem Aeternum," Deirdre Elkton escaped her confinement at Talonclaw Castle, using her supernatural powers to control fire to melt the cell doors holding her and other BioFreaks captive. The nine escapees laid waste to Cervidian communities on a path toward the capital. Barrow warned Stag Ellis of their approach, unaware that Deirdre and her cohorts had already breached the palace. Deirdre murdered Ellis for his treachery, and sought out Barrow to convince him to abdicate in her favor. Barrow refused in a final confrontation in the same room where he had caught her snooping five years prior. Barrow asserted his desire to become Stag and rule better than his father. He promptly shot his mother. He released an edict proclaiming his ascension and warned Cartonia of BioFreaks, which he explained as being the product not of experimentation but of interspecies sex.

Barrow feared that the burgeoning Cervidian empire would crumble due to resistances akin to those rising like weeds in areas occupied and annexed by Vulpus. In order to curtail this and to elevate Cervidium to a place of glory, Barrow immediately annexed the contested prize of Leprolia and reorganized his kingdom into the Union of Cervidian Centralized States (UCCS). The announcement angered the Vixen Queen, who was unaware of his intentions. The two later traded land masses to resolve their dispute.

Stag Barrow led the UCCS to victory over Bovo in April 725. He overthrew the monarchy and had Clarence II and Queen Stratacella executed. Bovo was immediately absorbed into the Union.

Despite Barrow's love for the Union he had created, it was short-lived, as rebellions continued to swell in volume over the year. In "The Good Must Associate," after a resistance group called Freelexa bombed and killed over 1,000 deer in Felexa, Barrow dissolved the Union and reverted the territory to the Kingdom of Cervidium. In the same episode, Barrow was outraged by the Vixen Queen's edict declaring the foxes the superior species on the continent. He vowed with Chequer Vincent to declare war on the Vixen Queen once the current war was won.

The War ended on 726, and Barrow acquired half of Canis. He had a further three wives, of which no union resulted in children. Facing a succession crisis, Barrow was overthrown by his fourth and final wife ("Epilogue").

## Character

### Namesake

Barrow's name was chosen from Thomas Barrow, a character in *Downton Abbey*. His surname matches that of his family. The title of Fawn is named for the word for a baby deer.