Chinese Orchid

Chinese Orchid
Type	Flower
Effects	Unleashes English Sweating sickness
Source	Warehouse 8; sent from China
Danger	Apocalyptic
First Appearance	We All Fall Down

Origin

TBA

Effects

When the flower is plucked from the orchid, it disintegrates into a black ash-like substance embodying the English Sweating Sickness disease. This disease "ash" rapidly spreads across the planet and infects nearly, if not every, living person almost immediately. This disease progresses over the subsequent 24 hours, at the end of which it will finally become fatal.

Symptoms of English Sweating sickness are chills, rapid pulse, intense thirst, heart pain, and ultimately death.

History

The Orchid's origins, and whether or not more of its kind exist, are unknown.

In the 15th century, Europe, with its desire for Eastern goods, tried to force China to trade with them. China fought back and its emperor sent an artifact as a warning, a strange blue orchid that released a disease that would come to be known as English Sweating Sickness.

The epidemic was incurable and victims often died within 24 hours. Several thousand people were taken by October of 1485, the year the disease was released, and the disease ultimately claimed approximately half the total populations of wherever it spread.

Warehouse 8 agents collected the Orchid in 1551 and, through uncertain means, reconstituted it, causing the disease to suddenly vanish. Due to its extremely lethal nature, it was encased in an impenetrable glass container for the world's protection.

When the Regents decided to move the Warehouse to Turkey in 1517, the Orchid was left deep underground in the former site of Warehouse 8, to be kept in the care of then-agent supervisor, Franz Steinbruck. Generations of Steinbrucks have since been trained to protect the Orchid at all cost. In 1939, when World War II started, the Steinbrucks were afraid the Nazis would discover the Orchid, so they hid it within a brick wall of a local water mill. The orchid was inactive until 2012, when the Steinbrucks were tricked by Arthur Nielsen (under the effects of Ferdinand Magellan's Astrolabe) into revealing its location. Artie subsequently unleashed its power across the world with the aid of Francis Borgia's Dagger, separating the "good" container from the "bad" Orchid.

The effects of the Orchid were later reversed within the same day through the use of the Count of Saint Germain's Ring, containing the power of the Philosopher's Stone. The ring can restore dead or dying plants to full health; as soon as the ring was used on the stem of the orchid, the sweating sickness left the bodies of the afflicted and reconstituted itself into the orchid.

People Involved

Users

• One of China's 15th century emperors
• Arthur Nielsen

Affected People

• TBA

Real World Connection

According to the Warehouse database, the Orchid was used in 15th century by the Chinese Emperor as a warning to the Europeans, who tried to force China to trade with them. It released a disease called the English Sweating sickness, which was considered incurable and killed several thousand people by October 1485.

Trivia

• A catalog card for the orchid contains the first paragraph of Chapter 13 from Lytton Strachey's Spectatorial Essays.
• It is unknown how the orchid was reconstituted after its use prior to Warehouse 13's use of the Count of Saint Germain's Ring.
  • As these methods were seemingly unavailable by 2012, it is implied they used are no longer available or were hidden at some point after their use.
• The series claims the Chinese Orchid was collected by agents of Warehouse 8 in 1551, when English Sweating Sickness disappeared in real history. However, Warehouse 8 ended in 1517, and it was instead Warehouse 9 that reigned by 1551.

Gallery

Appearances

• We All Fall Down
• The Living and the Dead