Pandora's BoxWP (パンドラの箱, Pandora no Hako?), also known as Pandōrae: All-Gifts,[1] is a Noble Phantasm possessed by Pandora. It is a box granted to Pandora by the gods, but she was instructed to never open it. It contained calamity, evil and despair, although it is said that only ElpisWP (『希望』, Kibō?) would remain after it was emptied, and her opening it out of curiosity released all the world's evils across the land. Although she quickly shut the lid, humans came to know famine, disease, and strife as a result of it being opened. Elpis was left in the box, and although its true nature is unknown, it is interpreted as being something like "hope", "premonition", or "precognition". It is said that humans were saved from being wiped out upon it being closed. There is another theory that blessings came out of the box rather than despair.
It is being utilized by Darius Ainsworth as a Holy Grail, since being a wishing device created by deities from the Age of Gods makes it a better Holy Grail than the actual Grail, with the "Hope" contained within possibly being capable of granting any wish no matter how big.[2][3] While the legend of Pandora exists in the Ainsworth's world, the legend of her opening the box is absent. It is not mentioned in the books of Greek history, and even a well-traveled person like Shirou Emiya has never heard of it. It is suggested that the box was never opened in that world, allowing the Ainsworths to hide their goal from the people of that world.[2]
The gigantic Pandora's Box hovering over the Ainsworth mansion.
Technically a pithosWP, it first appears as a large black floating cube floating over the Ainsworth estate,[4] but it is later compressed to a small cube able to fit in Pandora's hands.[5] It is extremely durable, able to withstand Kuro's Noble Phantasm arrows without a scratch. The first thoughts of someone looking on is that it is "not meant for human hands",[4] and it is related to the reason Tanaka wishes to destroy the Ainsworths. Only the sword produced by Tanaka transforming her hand shows the ability to stop it. Pandora calls it an "arrow of fire", the world's truth that passes judgement on counterfeiters like them.[5]
Pandora's "Box" during the Age of Gods.
The box is a "Restoration Device" which would only opened when the human species is about to end as a final measure to avoid destruction and change the world. To prevent her from being broken and not fulfilling her role, Pandora's "death" is contained in the box and she can only die if the box is opened. In Miyu's world, due to the violence and numerous murder attempts on her by humans when they discovered she wasn't human, Pandora fell into despair waiting millennia for humanity to end, causing her spirit to break and with it her function as the Box's key broke.[6] Thus Pandora's Box was never opened and, as Pandora's purpose was to open it, she was left unable to die until she did. This left her to wander the World for the past six thousand years up into the modern era as the unpaid debt of the Age of Gods, until she met Darius.[7]
Julian is attempting to have the Box opened in order to allow her to die and be at peace, as his wish is for Pandora to smile and be happy, but he has failed thus far. Gilgamesh hints that he needs two Holy Grails, Miyu Edelfelt and Illyasviel von Einzbern, to accomplish the task. This is eventually explained by Julian to mean he needs one Holy Grail to open the box, allowing Pandora to die, and the second Grail to destroy it, preventing the mud from consuming the world.
The Box is revealed by Julian and Darius to contain all the World's potential, with the mud being failed possibilities.[8] Pandora explains to Illya that the Box is actually "Pandōrae: All-Gifts", an imitated mechanism created by her Father, a god, as a duplicate of the Starlog to ensure the planet's safety, with Pandora being the key to activating it.[1] However, since the box was never opened and history continued on, the number of possibilities continued to expand over the past 6,000 years until it became a whole new world independent from and unknown to Human History. The box is more akin to a barrier that contains a hole in reality connected to this world, isolating it and allow it to be carried around. With the box fully destroyed, the hole's coordinates become fixed on its present location. Darius plans to empty the Box of mud and let it consume his dying world, then replace the world with the one contained in the Box, whose potential far exceed his dying one.[9] By replacing Human History with the unknown one in the Box, he plans to restart all of Creation from the beginning and become a new version of 「The Creator」; the existence responsible for planting the original seeds of Human History.[10]
It is later revealed that Darius invented his own style of Flash Air over a thousand years ago. He created it in order to record and store dozens of years of his life, the concept of "Darius", within Pandora's Box, as it contains a place that is not bound by the same rules of the World and so the record of his soul won't suffer decay inside it. Because of this, every version after him is but a copy of the back-up stored in the Pithos, and every time he dies a record of him in his prime is used to make a near-perfect replica. This has the side-effect of making Darius unable to die unless the Pithos is opened, making him immortal. Tanaka explains that his style of Flash Air is, in actuality, an application of "Transfer Magecraft" that uses the entire imaginary world inside the Pithos as a back-up. Every times he dies he retrieves a back-up from the copy stored in the Pithos that is a perfect copy of him in his prime -- it is not a flawless process however, as though his soul escapes damage, his memories diminish with each resurrection.[11]
Mud[]
Corrupted Heroes
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Pandora's Box can endlessly spew out mud, the "Despair" of the box, Julian calling it the "Ainsworth's darkness" and "failed possibilities" that will spread out enough to turn the world into a prison.[12] Just like how the number of possibilities, the "Hope", has accumulated over the past 6000 years until a whole new world was created[9], so too have the number of failed possibilities, the "Despair", accumulated over the millennia.[3] If left unchecked, it will eventually cover the entire world, but both Julian and Darius express that such a thing is partly in line with their method of somehow saving the declining world. Erika has some control over the mud, sending out massive tendrils with skull faces.
One part of the process of creating the Class Cards robs the Heroic Spirits of their reason and pollutes their egos by passing through the Ainsworth's "box". Only the Gilgamesh Class Card was able to pass through with an undiluted ego. Being utilized by Darius Ainsworth, while some who are affected turn into Alters, such as Saber Alter, others are different. Some changes are quite mild, with Medusa and Medea suffering mere cosmetic changes, while Heracles' elbow spikes become much more exaggerated. In the most extreme cases, a massive physical change can occur, such as Cu Chulainn transforming into a werewolf-like shape, or Gilgamesh assuming the form of a deformed and blackened giant.[13]
Upon activation, the Box gains several magic circle-like patterns and starts to spew mud from one corner. The downpour covers Erika, who is unaffected by it, and begins to manifest countless corrupted Heroic Spirits. Julian says that they are all those who sought the Holy Grail and failed, beasts driven only by their desires to obtain the Grail. They will continuously emerge until they find it and fill the world with despair.[12]
The defining trait of those under the effect of Pandora's Box however is an all-consuming thirst for the Holy Grail as a means to fulfill their wish, making them perfect shock troops for Darius and his allies.[12] The Heroic Spirits, in both their individual strength and numbers, overwhelms all of Illya's group. They can attack in a great rush, utilize Noble Phantasms such as The Heavens are Born from the Earth, and display some coordination in the launching of a volley of arrows. No matter how many are defeated even with a weapon as powerful as Excalibur, or how much they are pushed back, more will keep manifesting until the mud is cut off at the source.
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