Pandora

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* Light Novel

**Pandora** (パンドラ) is the **Witch of Vainglory** who has a connection to the Witch Cult. Due to her seeming command over the Cult, she is arguably one of the main antagonists of Re:Zero.

Around one hundred years ago, Pandora attacked Elior Forest alongside the Sin Archbishop of Greed and the Kurohebi. Her goal was to use the young half-elf girl named Emilia to unlock a mysterious seal located in the depths of the forest, however, her plan failed when Emilia froze everyone in the village including herself. Around fourteen years ago, during the failed Hakugei Subjugation, Pandora appeared and played a part in the death of Theresia van Astrea.

## Appearance

Pandora had the outward appearance of a young woman with a small delicate body. Her long straight platinum hair was seemingly transparent and gave off a soft glow akin to the shine of the sun. The radiance of her hair created the affect of a glistening waterfall that travelled down her slender shoulders and rested slightly below her knee line. Her eyes, with slit pupils, were as deep blue as the sea and were framed by long eyelashes. Pandora's inhuman beauty was terrifying enough to make any person who set their eyes upon her incapable of stopping themselves from trembling. Her charming facial features were considered the ideal image of the word "beauty" accepted by human beings. If it were possible to kill through beauty alone, it would be Pandora's radiance that would be capable of doing so. A normal man would feel overwhelming happiness in the event that Pandora made even a casual glance towards him. She is beautiful enough to be said to make other tremble with her beauty and that even God would hesitate to touch her.

Pandora's clothing incredibly simplistic. The only thing the Witch wore was a single sheet of white fabric that covered her torso and traipsed over her like a poncho. The decoration the fabric had was a line of deep blue stiches at the top and a matching blue ribbon. Aside from her gown, the sole piece of material that could be found on the Witch was a blue ribbon tied into her hair that was similar to the one that decorated her dress. Her legs and feet were both completely bare.

She gives off an important aura and her voice has a magic like charm that seems to bind the bodies and souls of others. Just by being looked at or talked to, one can experience happiness enough to die for.

## Personality

At first glance, Pandora is dignified and graceful, with a generally calm demeanor. This calm exterior hides an extremely selfish and sociopathic personality, willing to do anything to achieve her goals. She had no problem with manipulating Petelgeuse into killing his beloved Fortuna and driving him into insanity, and even told Emilia that she would rip up Elior Forest to open the seal if she did not comply with her demands. Despite these traits, she never showed anger toward anyone, sending Regulus away when he turned on her and speaking calmly toward Emilia despite the latter repeatedly killing her.

She had an abject lack of guilt stemming from her actions, showing no form of remorse when she caused someone mental or physical pain or even when she killed innocent people and concocted catastrophes. The Witch only saw the people around her as pawns or pets, not actually viewing them as intelligent creatures worthy of being considered her equals in any way.

## History

At some point in her life, Pandora came into contact with and absorbed the Witch Factor of Vainglory. The Witch Factor within her eventually blossomed into the Authority of Vainglory. As the possessor of the Witch Factor of Vainglory, Pandora was counted among the Witches of Sin, a collection of the people who wielded the nine Witch Factors that each correlated to one of the sins. Due to her Witch Factor and her connection to the Witches, Pandora became known as the Witch of Vainglory.

Pandora was the only Witch of Sin confirmed to roam the world freely after the calamity caused by Satella, as the status of Hector remains unknown and Satella herself was eternally imprisoned for her crimes. Over the next four centuries, Pandora sowed various seeds of chaos across the world for reasons currently unknown. At some point, she became an associate of the Witch Cult. Although her exact position in the Cult remains unknown, the Sin Archbishops that lead the group treated Pandora with respect, indicating she held a position outranking theirs. Furthermore, her existence was a well kept secret among members of the Cult who neglected to talk about her.

Approximately 100 years ago, she instructed Regulus Corneas, the Sin Archbishop of Greed, to accompany her to the Elior Forest, with the intent of opening the seal, guarded by the elves living in the forest. They arrived to find Fortuna, the Guardian of the seal, and Petelgeuse Romanée-Conti, the leader of the moderate Witch Cult faction. Pandora explained to the pair her intentions of opening her seal. After their initial hostile interactions, Petelgeuse ordered Fortuna to escape and make sure Pandora doesn't get the chance to interact with Emilia and use her for her vile plans. After the pair successfully escaped, Petelgeuse then revealed a box containing the Witch Factor of Sloth, and despite being incompatible with the genes, took them in, gaining the Authority of Sloth. Pandora commended him for his efforts, giving him the title of the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, but the newly corrupted spirit rejected it, saying he accepted the power only to protect what he loved. Petelgeuse then dueled Regulus, however, Greed easily defeated Sloth, severing off his right arm and utterly destroying his legs, rendering him unable to even move. Just as Regulus was about to stomp Petelgeuse's head, ending the spirit's life forever, Fortuna came back to save him. As Regulus prepared to slaughter the pair, Pandora intervened, stating that she would not allow him to harm him as they held significant importance for her plans. Regulus, enraged, hurled dirt at her, which blew her into bits of gore, however, Pandora brought herself back to life and removed Regulus' presence from the forest which automatically reverted all the damage he had done, including disfiguring Petelgeuse.

Pandora then managed to escape from Fortuna and Petelgeuse, and made her way to the Seal where she met Emilia. Pandora revealed that she had been controlling the lesser spirits that Emilia followed, and told her how no one had to be hurt and that all she had to do was open the seal. To the Witch's disappointment, Emilia told her that she had made a promise to Fortuna not to open the seal, to which Pandora replied she would tear the forest apart and open the seal forcefully. Seconds before Pandora succeeded in convincing the child, a heavily injured Fortuna attacked Pandora, killing her time after time after time, but to no avail. As Fortuna yelled at her to stay away from Emilia, Petelgeuse joined the fight. The newly promoted spirit and the Guardian of the Seal then prepared to finish the Witch once and for all however, Pandora used her Authority to confuse Petelgeuse who accidentally used his Unseen Hands to rip a hole into Fortuna's chest, destroying her vital organs and sending her to death's door. With the illusion broken, Petelgeuse realized what he had done, and was subsequently driven completely mad due to the unbearable guilt. Pandora then asked Emilia to open the seal again. Pandora then revealed she had been controlling the lesser spirits that had played with Emilia and led her to the seal. Emilia, witnessing these events, unleashed her magic, and continuously killed Pandora in her rage, as Pandora came back repeatedly and attempted to calm her down. Emilia then lost control and froze the entire forest, thus ending Pandora's assault.

Fourteen years before Subaru's arrival, Pandora assaulted the soldiers in a conquest to kill the Hakugei. She then approached Theresia van Astrea, the former Sword Saint, who had recently lost her Divine Protection. It's heavily implied that Pandora then proceeded to finish her off.

## Abilities

**Authority of Vainglory** (虚飾の権能 *Kyoshoku no Ken'nō*): Pandora is able to use the Authority of Vainglory.

* Though Pandora's Authority remains largely unexplained, she can seemingly rewrite certain phenomena in her favour as many times as she wants, as long as the conditions are in her favour. Using this, she can negate her death, bury people into the ground instantly, erase a person's presence without leaving any trace of their actions behind and change people's memories. Although she can't control the Kurohebi with her power, she is able to direct it to wherever she wants.
	+ - Pandora removing Regulus' presence from Elior Forest.
		- Pandora burying Regulus into the ground by lightly pushing him down.1/2**Phenomenon Manipulation**: The main application of the Authority of Vainglory is the power to seemingly manipulate phenomena at will, although there are conditions in place for the ability to come into affect. One example of Pandora manipulating phenomena was when she removed Regulus from Elior Forest, which effectively made it so he never entered the forest in the first place, reverting all the damage done by him including him badly wounding Petelgeuse. The moment Pandora used her power, Regulus was no longer in the Forest. Instead, he found himself frolicking in his mansion with his wives. As Regulus had never technically attacked, the wounds on both Petelgeuse and Fortuna ceased to exist. Despite the newly-forged fact that Regulus had never attacked, Petelgeuse, Fortuna, and Pandora all retained memory of the lost event. When manipulating phenomena, Pandora would usually state what she wanted to happen similar to a narrator and whatever she said would come to pass.
		- **Memory Manipulation:** Using her Authority, Pandora could seemingly manipulate the memories of another person to a certain extent. By making contact with her victim's head, the Witch could erase memories of her choice and also implant fabricated ones. She demonstrated her power of memory manipulation when she made Emilia forget any knowledge of the Witch of Vainglory's existence. However, this aspect of the Authority wasn't all-encompassing, as Emilia in her later years would occasionally remember disjointed fragments of the memories she had lost.
		- **Self-Resurrection**:     In the event that Pandora was somehow killed, her demise would somehow be rewritten. Ultimately, this application of Vainglory's power that the Witch could evidently use posthumously ensured that Pandora would never be permanently felled by any known physical attack. Her power to self-resurrect was best demonstrated during her attack on Elior Forest. During the assault, she resurrected without a scratch on her after the Regulus used his Authority to turn her into bloody paste. Later, she suffered numerous brutal deaths at the hands of Fortuna and young Emilia, only to instantly return each time.
		- **Sense Manipulation**:     Pandora was capable of utilizing her ability to seemingly manipulate phenomena to alter her target's senses to potentially perceive things differently to how they were. In this way, Vainglory could manipulate her targets into believing she was somebody else. Similarly, she could also alter people's senses into believing that other people were her. During her attack on Elior Forest, Pandora was able to make Fortuna mistake her as Emilia by making Fortuna perceive Pandora as the young girl. The Witch was also able to trick Petelgeuse into mistaking Fortuna as herself and Emilia as Fortuna, therefore goading him into killing the former.

## Trivia

* Like the other Witches (with the exception of Satella), Pandora's namesake matches both an asteroid and a mythological being. 55 Pandora is the name of a fairly large asteroid located in the solar system's asteroid belt. The asteroid is relatively bright, a factor reflected in Pandora's god-like radiance. The mythological Pandora was the first human woman and the one who opened a jar that released all of humanity's evils into the world.
	+ Pandora in Greek means "all gifted" or "all giving." This is either a reference to how Pandora was given a blessing by each Greek God before being sent to Earth or a reference to how she gave all the evils to mankind. The former in particular would be a fairly appropriate name for a Witch associated with Vainglory.
* According to one of Petelgeuse's fingers, Pandora is a part of the Witch Cult. Both extremist and moderate factions of the cult which existed at the time never dared to mention her, with Regulus even treating her with respect.
* It is highly implied through Fortuna's wording that Pandora was responsible for the deaths of Emilia's parents.
* According to the author, Pandora's birthday is May 3.

## References

1. ↑ *“Her name is Pandora. She is a part of the Witch Cult, the world’s forbidden Witch.”* Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 14, Chapter 3, Section 3.
2. ↑ *“I’ll make it up to Brother by turning you into a pincushion!!”* Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 14, Chapter 3, Section 1.