| “ | And then I noticed, as if for the first time, a place of refuge. It called to me, offering its thick stone ramparts, its towers and bastions. A mighty fortress, within which I could rest and recover my strength. Foolishly I entered, seeking only a quick respite before continuing again my predation among the Boxers. That's when I perceived it true for the first time, just before its lid slammed shut on me. This was no grand castle. It was just a box. A tiny and simple stone box. | „ |
| ~ Mister Dark, Fables #86 — "Boxing Days" |
Containment boxes[1] were immensely strong magic stone boxes used by the Boxing League to contain any magical entities that were deemed a threat to the Empire. They first appear in Fables #77 — "Life in a Headless Empire — Chapter One of The Dark Ages."
History
The Boxing League
Early during the Empire's rise, an elite unit of warlocks specializing in capturing and containing the most dangerous of magical threats, known as the Boxing League, was formed.[1] Their purpose was to lock up any magical creatures that didn't directly serve the Empire, so that nothing could threaten the Emperor's monopoly on power. Over the centuries they managed to box up numerous beasts, gods, monsters and grumpkins. The boxes were safely hidden away in deep, inaccessible places, or behind stout walls.[3]
The Boxing League took the idea of magic containment boxes from the magic box artifacts used by the Great Powers.[6] These stone boxes used containment phasma and compelling lures to draw the victim in, making them walk into the by themselves.[1] However, they were never able to capture the same person twice.[7]
Although the boxes were invented before his time,[6] Dunster Happ served three centuries in the Black Monastery as a research sorcerer, developing better containment boxes.[1]
Herne and his son were both trapped and sealed away in a magical box by the Boxing League:[1][4] According to Happ, he spent seven years in the Hesse boxing the last of them.[1] While the elder Herne spends captivity in spirit form, needing no legroom, his son has no such luck and must endure it in a physical body.[4]
Mister Dark inside his box.
Happ also boxed the Janky Man in Harvest Town at one point.[1]
Happ and his Boxers were able to imprison Baba Yaga in one of these boxes, after separating her from her magic cabin, which provided shielding from the box's lure. However, they ended up releasing her fifty years later, when she struck a deal with the Empire to serve them.[1]
The Boxing League continuously fought Mister Dark until they successfully contained him within a stone box, which drained his power and transmitted it to be used by the Adversary.[1]
Fall of the Empire
After the Empire is defeated, looters come across Mister Dark's box in Tiabrut, inside a treasure fortress filled with gold[5] to help keep him contained.[7] The looters, thinking that there is treasure to be found in the box, break it open,[5] only to release Mister Dark, who proceeds to drain them of life as his powers begin to reawaken.[8] Frau Totenkinder later enters the fortress and examines Mister Dark's former prison. She concludes that there must be many such boxes scattered throughout the fallen Empire, and wonders if they ever made one to contain her.[9]
Totenkinder manages to trap Mister Dark in a gold statue.[10] Meanwhile, Beast has been helping Dunster Happ create a new box to imprison him in, but it is still a good two or three weeks away from being ready.[2] Unfortunately, Mister Dark breaks free from the gold[10] before they get the chance to use it.[2]
Later, several other boxes, too deftly hidden to be found, mysteriously spring open all on the same day. Black Shuck, Grindylow, Habetrot, Ragana and Slogutis, along with a host of others, are all freed from the box, only to be absorbed into Rose Red's body.[3]
Herne the younger is released from his box.
Herne and his son are released by Blossom Wolf, who comes across a set of abandoned boxes while exploring the Black Forest of the Hesse.[11] She believes that the boxes are treasure chests, and tries to open one of them, to no avail. Suddenly, she hears a mysterious voice, encouraging her to break the lock open.[12]
After some nudging from the voice, Blossom transforms into a large gorilla and forcefully opens the box where the voice is coming from. With a resounding boom, the elder Herne emerges from the box in spirit form. The owner of the voice crawls out and introduces himself as Herne's son, and tells her that she has set his father free, and that he is sure that his father will thank her when he recalls his courtesies. He says that he is at her service, until his and his father's debt has been paid.[4]
Peter Pan later tasks Tinker Bell with moving anything that is still boxed from the Hesse, and dumping them in the mundane world, to get them out of his way.[13] The boxes are found by Cinderella and her agents.[14]
Appearances
Fables
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