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meridian_roseTitle: The Boxes of Orden
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1466
Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
angst_bingo prompt 'inanimate objects'
Beta: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pristineungift who acted as my much needed beta reader, fact checker, and expert on all thing Jennsen related
Summary: Throughout history the Boxes of Orden have proven to be a source of strife and destruction to all who come in contact with them.
Warnings: Mentions of canon violence and character death.
WHAT THE BOXES OF ORDEN ARE
Appearing in Legend of the Seeker, the boxes of Orden are three boxes that, when combined, form one very powerful magical device. Whoever unites the boxes gains immense power. Things are apparently different in the books the show is based on, in regards to how to activate and use the boxes, but either way the boxes are significant.
In the show, the person who has the power of Orden can use it to control or compel the people around them. Much like the hypnotic powers of supernatural creatures in fiction, vampires in particular, the person who assembles all three boxes can bend people to their will. It's unspecified how far the range of the power is, but certainly anyone in the immediate area is directly affected.
Anyone under the influence of Orden cannot help but obey the person controlling it. Like Kahlan's power of Confession, Orden strips away a person's free will. However while the Confessed falls in love with their Confessor, so that their only thought is to obey her, those under the thrall of Orden are aware that they are being controlled. This awareness varies from person to person.
UNITING THE BOXES
The three boxes have long been kept separate. Throughout the show, it is revealed that many people went to a lot of trouble to keep boxes apart and out of the wrong hands. The most extreme example is the people of the lost city of Calabra, who let their civilization be crushed to dust before giving up the box in their possession. Throughout history, and in the present, the Boxes of Orden prove to be a source of strife and destruction to all who come in contact with them – both in terms of the struggle surrounding the possession of the boxes and the Power of Orden itself.
The First and Second Boxes
Darken Rahl already possesses one at the start of the series. He gains a second one from the ruins of Calabra during the events of Identity, the episode in which Richard learns about the Boxes of Orden and the need to prevent Rahl from acquiring all three.
Two of the boxes on their pedestal in Darken's palace
The Third Box
The episode Puppeteer deals directly with the quest to gain the third box, which is held in the treasury of Tamarang by Queen Milena.
Zedd disguises himself as a puppeteer, an entertainer for Princess Violet’s birthday party, and gets to the box first. He swaps the real box for an empty wooden spice box which he spells to look like the magical artefact. Darken, however, arrives before Zedd can escape to take possession of the box as per an agreement he has with Milena – which he intends to renege on once he has the Power of Orden.
Darken suffers through the festivities and Zedd distracts him with a puppet show in which Lord Rahl overcomes the Seeker, while Violet's servant girl, Rachel, smuggles the real box out to Richard. After the show, Darken demands Milena show him the box, and is instantly aware that it is a fake.
Darken is not impressed by the fake box of Orden
Enraged, and now knowing the puppeteer is really First Wizard Zorander, Darken cuts off his head – except 'Zedd' is actually a giant puppet and the real Zedd has escaped. Darken kills Queen Milena and vows to send Violet to the mines. And so the Boxes of Orden claim two more victims – Queen Milena, who died because she had one and someone else wanted it, and Violet, caught up in a conflict she didn’t fully understand.
Following his escape from Tamarang, Zedd hides the third Box of Orden in a series of concentric magical traps, designed to kill all who attempt to retrieve it – another example of Orden induced destruction, as Darken Rahl’s men hurl themselves at the barrier only to be cooked by Wizard’s Fire. In Bloodline, Darken sends Denna, a Mord’Sith, to fetch a young girl named Jennsen. Jennsen is revealed to be Darken and Richard's sister, and further she is pristinely ungifted. No magic works on her, nor can she use magic. Denna uses Jennsen to evade Zedd’s magical traps and retrieve the third box.
Through a series of events in the episode, Denna finds herself in a position to bargain for all three Boxes of Orden. She has Tarralyn Zorander’s life – Richard and Jennsen’s mother – in her hands. Striking a deal with Richard and Jennsen, Denna agrees to preserve Tarralyn’s life only if Jennsen takes advantage of her pristinely ungifted nature to steal into the People’s Palace and retrieve Darken Rahl’s Boxes of Orden for Denna. Denna would then claim the Power of Orden for herself, yet another example of betrayal and violence surrounding the possession of the boxes.
Jennsen steals the boxes from the palace
Jennsen uses a secret tunnel known to Denna to get into the castle and easily walks through the magical barriers to steal Darken Rahl’s two boxes from their pedestal. She then takes the boxes back to the clearing where everyone waits – and where Zedd and Richard then double cross Denna, and Richard puts all three boxes together. However, as the Book of Shadows warns, the Power of Orden is a ‘voracious wolf’ and it overwhelms him, making him bloodthirsty and unforgiving (see endnote). When Denna is compelled to tell him the truth, that Tarralyn cannot be saved, Richard orders Kahlan to kill Denna slowly.
Seeing her brother the hero turn into a vicious tyrant, Jennsen, the only one unaffected by Orden because of her pristinely ungifted nature, separates the boxes once more. Denna is sent away in disgrace, and the consequences of her betrayal of Darken Rahl will haunt her ever afterwards. Richard mourns the mother he met only briefly. He gives Jennsen two of the boxes for safe keeping. And so the path of blood the boxes paint across the three territories grows a little wider.
In Fever Darken's soldiers seek out Jennsen and she throws the boxes into a lake before being captured. Richard later retrieves the boxes, intending to use them as per the events of Reckoning.
USING THE BOXES
The boxes need only to be placed in their correct positions next to each other to work – one lies lengthwise and the other two lie sideways next to it. The ornamentation on the boxes forms a circle when the boxes are correctly placed, glowing when all three are locked together. The eyes of the person who assembled the boxes also glow when the boxes are united, and whenever they directly use Orden to compel someone.
Both the boxes and the eyes of the person using the power light up with a magical glow
The Power of Orden is disrupted by simply splitting the boxes apart again, something easy to do if they are in reach – provided of course, that the wielder of Orden has not used the power to forbid anyone from separating the boxes. Jennsen disrupts the magic in Bloodline because Richard cannot compel her not to due to her pristinely ungifted nature.
The Wielder of the Power
Orden not only allows control over others, but it also corrupts the person wielding it. In Bloodline Richard's rage and cruelty is a result of Orden (see endnote). To temper the power, Richard has Kahlan confess him at the moment he puts the boxes together, a solution he discovered in The Book of Counted Shadows. Kahlan is naturally resistant to this course of action, but eventually agrees.
In the alternate universe shown in Unbroken brought about by Zedd casting the Spell of Undoing, the combination of Orden and Confession is shown to have been successful – but things soon begin to unravel. The Sisters of the Dark, in service to the Keeper – who is not pleased with this new reality – kidnap and kill Jennsen in a ritual that makes them immune to the power of Orden just as she was.
Then, as easily as Jennsen once took the boxes from Darken, the Sisters enter Richard's palace and separate the Boxes of Orden, freeing everyone who was under control — including the Mord’Sith and Darken Rahl, who turn on their enslavers.
When the boxes are separated, Darken, who has been docilely serving Richard under the influence of Orden, tells him that he was aware of his free will being taken from him, that he remembers everything. He lashes out in a rage but when Zedd casts the spell of Undoing again, the world reverts to normal.
DESTROYING THE BOXES
The only way for the boxes to be destroyed is by the Sword of Truth. Darken would rather destroy the boxes than have them fall into Richard's hands. At the close of Reckoning, Darken seizes the sword, plunging it into the boxes to destroy them. However the resulting explosion kills him and – unknown to Richard at the time – tears open the Veil between the worlds.
CONCLUSION
In short, the boxes are the source of significant angst, often bringing death and corruption in their wake.
ENDNOTE
Orden is thought to corrupt the wielder and we see Richard appear to fall victim to its influence in Bloodline. However there is some debate about this among the Darkling section of fandom, as many have pointed out that Darken Rahl doesn’t act much differently when he briefly possesses the power during Unbroken. However that is a topic for another meta, it being impossible to cover the different theories in the span of a footnote.
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1466
Prompt:
angst_bingo prompt 'inanimate objects'Beta: Thanks to
pristineungift who acted as my much needed beta reader, fact checker, and expert on all thing Jennsen relatedSummary: Throughout history the Boxes of Orden have proven to be a source of strife and destruction to all who come in contact with them.
Warnings: Mentions of canon violence and character death.
WHAT THE BOXES OF ORDEN ARE
Appearing in Legend of the Seeker, the boxes of Orden are three boxes that, when combined, form one very powerful magical device. Whoever unites the boxes gains immense power. Things are apparently different in the books the show is based on, in regards to how to activate and use the boxes, but either way the boxes are significant.
In the show, the person who has the power of Orden can use it to control or compel the people around them. Much like the hypnotic powers of supernatural creatures in fiction, vampires in particular, the person who assembles all three boxes can bend people to their will. It's unspecified how far the range of the power is, but certainly anyone in the immediate area is directly affected.
Anyone under the influence of Orden cannot help but obey the person controlling it. Like Kahlan's power of Confession, Orden strips away a person's free will. However while the Confessed falls in love with their Confessor, so that their only thought is to obey her, those under the thrall of Orden are aware that they are being controlled. This awareness varies from person to person.
UNITING THE BOXES
The three boxes have long been kept separate. Throughout the show, it is revealed that many people went to a lot of trouble to keep boxes apart and out of the wrong hands. The most extreme example is the people of the lost city of Calabra, who let their civilization be crushed to dust before giving up the box in their possession. Throughout history, and in the present, the Boxes of Orden prove to be a source of strife and destruction to all who come in contact with them – both in terms of the struggle surrounding the possession of the boxes and the Power of Orden itself.
The First and Second Boxes
Darken Rahl already possesses one at the start of the series. He gains a second one from the ruins of Calabra during the events of Identity, the episode in which Richard learns about the Boxes of Orden and the need to prevent Rahl from acquiring all three.
Two of the boxes on their pedestal in Darken's palace
The Third Box
The episode Puppeteer deals directly with the quest to gain the third box, which is held in the treasury of Tamarang by Queen Milena.
Zedd disguises himself as a puppeteer, an entertainer for Princess Violet’s birthday party, and gets to the box first. He swaps the real box for an empty wooden spice box which he spells to look like the magical artefact. Darken, however, arrives before Zedd can escape to take possession of the box as per an agreement he has with Milena – which he intends to renege on once he has the Power of Orden.
Darken suffers through the festivities and Zedd distracts him with a puppet show in which Lord Rahl overcomes the Seeker, while Violet's servant girl, Rachel, smuggles the real box out to Richard. After the show, Darken demands Milena show him the box, and is instantly aware that it is a fake.
Darken is not impressed by the fake box of Orden
Enraged, and now knowing the puppeteer is really First Wizard Zorander, Darken cuts off his head – except 'Zedd' is actually a giant puppet and the real Zedd has escaped. Darken kills Queen Milena and vows to send Violet to the mines. And so the Boxes of Orden claim two more victims – Queen Milena, who died because she had one and someone else wanted it, and Violet, caught up in a conflict she didn’t fully understand.
Following his escape from Tamarang, Zedd hides the third Box of Orden in a series of concentric magical traps, designed to kill all who attempt to retrieve it – another example of Orden induced destruction, as Darken Rahl’s men hurl themselves at the barrier only to be cooked by Wizard’s Fire. In Bloodline, Darken sends Denna, a Mord’Sith, to fetch a young girl named Jennsen. Jennsen is revealed to be Darken and Richard's sister, and further she is pristinely ungifted. No magic works on her, nor can she use magic. Denna uses Jennsen to evade Zedd’s magical traps and retrieve the third box.
Through a series of events in the episode, Denna finds herself in a position to bargain for all three Boxes of Orden. She has Tarralyn Zorander’s life – Richard and Jennsen’s mother – in her hands. Striking a deal with Richard and Jennsen, Denna agrees to preserve Tarralyn’s life only if Jennsen takes advantage of her pristinely ungifted nature to steal into the People’s Palace and retrieve Darken Rahl’s Boxes of Orden for Denna. Denna would then claim the Power of Orden for herself, yet another example of betrayal and violence surrounding the possession of the boxes.
Jennsen steals the boxes from the palace
Jennsen uses a secret tunnel known to Denna to get into the castle and easily walks through the magical barriers to steal Darken Rahl’s two boxes from their pedestal. She then takes the boxes back to the clearing where everyone waits – and where Zedd and Richard then double cross Denna, and Richard puts all three boxes together. However, as the Book of Shadows warns, the Power of Orden is a ‘voracious wolf’ and it overwhelms him, making him bloodthirsty and unforgiving (see endnote). When Denna is compelled to tell him the truth, that Tarralyn cannot be saved, Richard orders Kahlan to kill Denna slowly.
Seeing her brother the hero turn into a vicious tyrant, Jennsen, the only one unaffected by Orden because of her pristinely ungifted nature, separates the boxes once more. Denna is sent away in disgrace, and the consequences of her betrayal of Darken Rahl will haunt her ever afterwards. Richard mourns the mother he met only briefly. He gives Jennsen two of the boxes for safe keeping. And so the path of blood the boxes paint across the three territories grows a little wider.
In Fever Darken's soldiers seek out Jennsen and she throws the boxes into a lake before being captured. Richard later retrieves the boxes, intending to use them as per the events of Reckoning.
USING THE BOXES
The boxes need only to be placed in their correct positions next to each other to work – one lies lengthwise and the other two lie sideways next to it. The ornamentation on the boxes forms a circle when the boxes are correctly placed, glowing when all three are locked together. The eyes of the person who assembled the boxes also glow when the boxes are united, and whenever they directly use Orden to compel someone.
Both the boxes and the eyes of the person using the power light up with a magical glow
The Power of Orden is disrupted by simply splitting the boxes apart again, something easy to do if they are in reach – provided of course, that the wielder of Orden has not used the power to forbid anyone from separating the boxes. Jennsen disrupts the magic in Bloodline because Richard cannot compel her not to due to her pristinely ungifted nature.
The Wielder of the Power
Orden not only allows control over others, but it also corrupts the person wielding it. In Bloodline Richard's rage and cruelty is a result of Orden (see endnote). To temper the power, Richard has Kahlan confess him at the moment he puts the boxes together, a solution he discovered in The Book of Counted Shadows. Kahlan is naturally resistant to this course of action, but eventually agrees.
In the alternate universe shown in Unbroken brought about by Zedd casting the Spell of Undoing, the combination of Orden and Confession is shown to have been successful – but things soon begin to unravel. The Sisters of the Dark, in service to the Keeper – who is not pleased with this new reality – kidnap and kill Jennsen in a ritual that makes them immune to the power of Orden just as she was.
Then, as easily as Jennsen once took the boxes from Darken, the Sisters enter Richard's palace and separate the Boxes of Orden, freeing everyone who was under control — including the Mord’Sith and Darken Rahl, who turn on their enslavers.
When the boxes are separated, Darken, who has been docilely serving Richard under the influence of Orden, tells him that he was aware of his free will being taken from him, that he remembers everything. He lashes out in a rage but when Zedd casts the spell of Undoing again, the world reverts to normal.
DESTROYING THE BOXES
The only way for the boxes to be destroyed is by the Sword of Truth. Darken would rather destroy the boxes than have them fall into Richard's hands. At the close of Reckoning, Darken seizes the sword, plunging it into the boxes to destroy them. However the resulting explosion kills him and – unknown to Richard at the time – tears open the Veil between the worlds.
CONCLUSION
In short, the boxes are the source of significant angst, often bringing death and corruption in their wake.
ENDNOTE
Orden is thought to corrupt the wielder and we see Richard appear to fall victim to its influence in Bloodline. However there is some debate about this among the Darkling section of fandom, as many have pointed out that Darken Rahl doesn’t act much differently when he briefly possesses the power during Unbroken. However that is a topic for another meta, it being impossible to cover the different theories in the span of a footnote.
