I'm not afraid of getting close to them. I do not love them. I don't.

Cara's main weapon of choice is her Agiel, of which she has two. Agiels are magical weapons that are only powerful when the Rahl lineage is in tact. The Agiels draw their power from his bloodline, so as long as there is a Rahl body moving around alive, the Agiels will work. They are short baton-like clubs, covered in dark red leather, and usually worn in a dual-slide holster upon her left hip. They are easy for her to withdraw, and have a gold chain that can be used to let them hang from her wrist if she chooses to hold them that way. Usually, the chain just hangs.

These magical striking weapons are capable of administering a great deal of pain, and are mainly used for training purposes. Training can relate to either breaking in a submissive or creating another Mord-Sith from an innocent child.

All Mord-Sith are well-skilled in using their Agiels and they can determine the amount of pain that the Agiel administers to their target. They can deliver anything from just a simple sting of pain during a striking blow, all the way up to pain that could render the heartbeat to halt if applied for too long. They are used for a form of torture, applied to skin in varied levels of pain and used as a threat once the subject realizes how much more pain they might have to endure.

The Agiel always delivers pain, which means that it does hurt Cara to hold it, however she has been trained to tolerate this pain, so she never displays feeling pain when she touches her own Agiels. There have been others within the Legend of the Seeker TV show canon that have been able to hold the Agiel. Richard Rahl, after being tortured by Denna was able to not only take hold of an Agiel, but use it on Kahlan. Later, during Cara's trial, he took Cara's Agiel in order to explain how they work. He winced, but it was hardly noticeable that he was feeling any actual pain.

When an Agiel is used to administer pain, it is concentrated at the site of contact. The skin darkens with the magic of the Agiel sinking beneath the skin and running through the person's bloodstream, darkening those veins as well. There is a sound that comes from the Agiel. It sounds like a wind-tunnelish scream that grows from a soft sound to a near-cry when pressed to skin.

Here is a scene from the TV show where Cara uses her Agiel on Kahlan. She's using it to close a wound, so you can see that it is capable of being used against someone and not being completely debilitating. Cara Uses Her Agiel You can also get a good feel for the sound that the Agiel makes when it's used.

Agiels are capable of killing someone, however it takes prolonged direct exposure to pull this off. Cara would have to overpower the person as well, maintaining that she could continually use the pain of the Agiel to that level of torture. Tactically, this isn't always the best choice. In canon, she's often found fighting against at least half a dozen soldiers and if she were to overpower one of them simply to use her Agiel to kill them, she'd be opening herself up to counter-attack by the other soldiers. In general, Cara uses her Agiels for direct striking blows and for short bursts of agonizing pain, hoping to gain an upper hand as a result of their state of distress.

That being said, because these are capable of administering a great deal of pain, more than is commonly associated with these sort of striking weapons, I will never allow Cara to draw her Agiels in battle without getting permission from whoever she might be using them against. Even if I get permission to have her use them, you will still be completely in control of exactly how much pain she administers while she uses them. This can vary, from the slight sting of pain - when she is using them to just strike and defend, all the way to crippling-drop-you-to-your-knees agonizing pain, which is when she holds the Agiel contact for a long period of time.

These are instruments of torture and I do recognize this as something that needs permission before occurring in game. However, Cara will not hesitate to strike someone with her hands if they attack her. She is well-skilled in hand-to-hand combat and is fully capable of defending herself. She is at her core a loyalist who will protect whomever she believes to be worthy of her protection. In general she serves Richard Rahl, but within the context of the game - once you are considered something akin to her friend, she will likely defend you as well.

If you have any questions about her Agiels, want to know anything specific, or just want to give me permission to use them on a specific character - please, feel free to let me know via a comment here, a PM, or an IM at onlysayinghello.