Contractors (
There exist three main types of Contract: Illegal; Legal; and though they are never given their own proper name, the Baskerville Clan have access to a special kind of Contract distinct from the previous categories. And, on very rare occasion, it is possible for a single person to harbor multiple Contracts at once.
This article contains plot and/or ending details for Pandora Hearts.
Read at your own risk.
Illegal Contractors
Illegal Contractors (
However, this all comes at a great cost. All Illegal Contractors will form an Incuse (
Despite the incredible risk and cost of an Illegal Contract, they are frequent and common. This is due to how Illegal Contracts are commonly formed: Chains will approach humans in desperate and hopeless situations, and offer them the opportunity to change the past. The Contractor will feed other humans to their Chain in order to build up power, advancing the hand of the Incuse until they are dragged into the Abyss. Most Illegal Contractors are either killed, die from being dragged into the Abyss, or go mad far before that point—but there exists at least one account in which the past has successfully been changed by an Illegal Contractor. The former life and name of the man now known as Xerxes Break—Kevin Legnard.
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Legal Contractors
Legal Contractors (
However, Legal Contracts are inherently very limited. While the Carcere protects the Legal Contractor from the consequences of an Illegal Contract, it serves as a natural disconnect between the Contractor and the Chain. As a result Legal Contractors cannot exercise as much of their Chain's power and tend to be weaker. In addition, Legal Contracts are maintained through the Doors to the Abyss possessed by the Four Great Dukedoms. Possessing a Key to the Door grants complete control over the Contracts facilitated through the corresponding Door, able to nullify, suppress, or restore Contracts at will.
Despite the measures taken to limit the risk to Legal Contractors, there still exists a great cost for those who undertake one. The power of the Abyss is potent and powerful no matter where or how it is applied and the same applies with Legal Contracts. Due to the burden on their bodies, occasionally a Legal Contractor will stop physically aging and remain at a state of seemingly eternal youth. In addition, it is heavily implied that Legal Contractors have a shortened life expectancy due to the Abyss's influence on their bodies.
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Baskervilles
Though Legal Contractors and Illegal Contractors make up the vast majority of the Contractors seen throughout the story, the terms "Legal" and "Illegal" are false and purposefully misleading. These terms were created alongside the creation of the government organization Pandora and the Four Great Dukedoms which command over it; thus they all have the same foundation of deception and treachery. The "Legal" Contracts concepted by Pandora goes against the very nature of the Abyss and the order it was designed with, being contrived imitations of what Contracts are meant to be.
Before the harmony of the Abyss was disrupted, Contracts with Chains were privileged only to the Baskervilles, the Messengers of the Abyss who existed to maintain the order of the Abyss. Outsiders who attempted to Contract a Chain would have to bear an Incuse with a hand that ticked down until their untimely demise, their condemnation for transgressing on the Abyss. Baskervilles with Contracts bear Incuses with no hands and will not be dragged into the Abyss for their properly formed Contracts. As such, Contracts created between Baskervilles and Chains are the only truly "legitimate" Contracts, and Pandora's Legal Contracts can be considered blasphemous for encroaching on the Abyss in such a way with no punishment.
Thus, the Contracts sustained by the Baskervilles are inherently unique from any other. They are entirely unlike Legal and Illegal Contractors, who consider Chains to be either weapons for battle or sources of power. Chains are considered by Baskervilles to be equals and comrades-in-arms, the Contracts between them essentially a lifelong vow to fight side-by-side. Together they are partners who serve to maintain the order of the Abyss, the Chains serving the will of the Abyss itself, and the Baskervilles serving the will of their master Glen.
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Multiple Contracts
For the majority of cases, most people will only ever possess one Contract in their lives and no more regardless of the exact type of Contract undergone. Due to the inherent risks, consequences, and limitations present in each type of Contract, it is simply physically impossible for most human beings to endure multiple Contracts upon their bodies. However, this does not mean this phenomenon is completely impossible.
The first person seen to have harbored multiple Contracts is Xerxes Break. In his previous life as Kevin Legnard, former knight of the massacred Sinclair Family, he was Illegally Contracted to Albus the White Knight, a Chain with which he slaughtered over one hundred people and was thus cast into the Abyss for. Upon being cast into the Abyss, Kevin's Incuse completed its full revolution and his Contract with Albus expired, ending his initial Illegal Contract. Against all odds he managed to escape, whereupon he adopted the name Xerxes Break and formed his current Legal Contract with Mad Hatter. While the circumstances for why Break was able to survive such a harrowing chain of events one right after another, it is implied that his extraordinarily high endurance was due to his being a Child of Ill Omen. And despite having survived, Break in his current state struggles with his Contract to Mad Hatter as well, as any extending of his Chain's power puts incredible strain on his body to the point of knocking him unconscious. Thus exemplifies the great cost of enduring multiple Contracts.
The next case of multiple Contracts upon one person similarly involved another Child of Ill Omen—Vincent Nightray. As Vincent was not only Ill Omened but also properly a member of the Baskervilles, he had considerably more endurance and resistance against the potent powers of the Abyss. As a member of Pandora, Vincent possessed a Legal Contract with Dormouse, though multiple times this Chain has been stated to be lacking in power and thus not as much of a strain on its Contractor. But as a fully fledged Baskerville, Vincent has formed a legitimate Contract in the manner of a Baskerville with Demios the Executioner, whose powers are far more potent and violent. And throughout the stretch of time where Vincent possessed both Contracts at once, he never displays any great pain or similar cost as a result. Upon revealing his hidden Contract, Vincent proclaimed himself to be a Double Contractor (
Finally, perhaps most significantly, the most amount of simultaneously Contracts ever sustained can be seen in Glen Baskerville. As designed by Jury since the very creation of the Abyss and the entire universe they know, Glen Baskerville is designated to possess the most power out of any other being within their world. The most prime way in which this power manifests is his right to Contract with the Black Winged Chains—five simultaneously Contracts with the most powerful Chains in existence. Due to the near excessive amount of power this would grant a single person, each Contract is performed and completed in years-long intervals that are dubbed the Succession Ceremonies. The cost of such grand power is in fact that power itself and the way it seeps into the bodies of each incarnation of Glen. The amount is so large and concentrated that it is inevitable and expected for the body of each previous Glen to eventually transform into a Chain, usually possessing extraordinary abilities. These Chains invariably are drawn to the current incarnation of Glen to try and protect him, showing a subservience so strong it surpasses death and body alike.
Gallery
Trivia
- An incuse is an impression that is hammered or stamped onto a coin.
- "Carcere" is literally translated as "prison," "jail," or "imprisonment" from Italian.