Panis Rahl

Panis Rahl is a fictional character from the "The Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind.

Description

Panis Rahl was a ruthless ruler of D'Hara. Using power and treachery he turned his attention to seizing control of the Midlands. Panis Rahl threw the might of D'Hara against the Midlands and war raged for many years. As his legions were finally slowed and halted, Panis became more ruthless and brutal in his use of magic, using trickery, sickness, fevers, blindness, and the shadow people. His armies killed thousands and wiped out whole villages, towns, and cities. He used Mord'Sith to capture wizards and sorceresses and extract everything they knew about his enemies' plans. One of the notable commanders under his command was Anargo. At that time, the great wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander sided with the Midlands against Rahl and was able to hold Rahl's magic in check. Zedd cast a spell that held Panis Rahl in his palace in D'Hara, blunting his magic. Panis Rahl was enraged by Zedd and tried to kill him, but couldn't. Instead, he sent a quad after Zedd's wife, Erilyn, and eventually capturing Zedd's daughter. Rahl continued to send all kinds of vile people to kill Zedd, even Mord'Sith. Rahl's legions were driven back into D'Hara. An impassable boundary was put up by Zedd between the Midlands and D'Hara to keep the forces of D'Hara at bay.

Panis Rahl knew of the boxes of Orden and the Book of Counted Shadows but was not well enough studied to use them. Instead, he was grooming his son Darken Rahl to take and open the Boxes of Orden.

Death

Panis Rahl died from a blast of Zedd's wizard fire infused with the underworld when he was fifty-seven years old, just as the boundary was going up. His son, Darken Rahl, who was also injured in the blast, succeeded him on the throne of D'Hara.

The body of Panis Rahl was placed in an elaborate crypt in the People's Palace in D'Hara. Fifty-seven gold vases were set in the wall beneath fifty-seven torches, representing his age at death, 57. The floor was white, and so any petals that fell on it would be quickly cleaned away, due to the contrast in colours. This was maintained by a large staff, drawn from the surrounding populace, with their tongues cut out so they couldn't speak ill of the dead king. They didn't allow any torches to remain unlit for long, or petals to lie on the ground for an extended period of time, under the threat of execution. The crypt contained instructions to help Darken Rahl continue his work with the underworld.

Panis' coffin would later be found as the storage site of Darken Rahl's excess cache of sorcerer's sand - which, after catching a wave of power from an earlier attempt at opening the boxes of Orden, the heat radiated from which was responsible for causing the walls of the crypt to melt.

References

External links

* [http://www.terrygoodkind.com Official Terry Goodkind website]
* [http://www.terrygoodkind.net Unofficial Terry Goodkind website] (endorsed by Terry Goodkind)