A human sorcerer, isekai’d to Edyrea from Ternia, who resents his new powers and is looking for a way back to his old life (e00 01:08). He is a junior scribe for the Magisterium, which he says he thinks is trying to kill him, perhaps to test whether he is a weapon (e01 00:07, e02 00:59, e02 01:00); after losing his left arm closing a portal in a fissure below Wriem (e01 01:35), he has named himself temporary supervisor of the three other isekai’d arrivals (e02 00:48). When an explosion in Wriem disintegrated his orb and his wand, he told the others he is like them, made of the same stuff, and that “they” will now realize what he is and kill him for it (e03 01:04, e03 01:05, e03 01:05, e03 01:06). He says he died on Ternia before he was pulled here, and, outvoted by the others, is now heading to Holst with them to look for a cure for the Hollowing Plague (e04 00:52, e04 00:53, e04 01:13). Before they leave Wriem, he has mailed the Magisterium a report saying he is pursuing further threads, and made a dinner wager with Lauren, a rival adventurer who looks like his ex-wife (e05 00:24, e05 00:38, e05 00:59).
Details
Appearance and personality
Orrin is meek, small, and unimposing — five foot nine, about 135 pounds soaking wet; the GM’s note is that on first look, most people would think they could beat him up (e00 01:07). He wears off-purple sorcerer’s robes, an oversized wizard’s hat pulled low, a neck cowl over his mouth, and gloves wrapped up his forearms, all to keep the arcane tattoos that come up around his neck covered, intentionally (e01 00:09). Under his clothes, runes, sigils, and pieces of arcane writing cover his lean body (e02 00:59, e02 01:00). He has had no left arm since e01 – When the Moon Hits the Sky (e01 01:35); Rue calls him “Stumpy” (e02 00:57). He says he is an average-sized man where he comes from (e04 00:55).
He’s furious about the sorcerer powers he never wanted, complains constantly, and is actively looking for a way to get rid of them and return to his old life — which he calls looking for “a cure” (e00 01:08). He would burn down the world to protect a chance at that cure if he found one and it were threatened (e00 01:10). He misses small, specific comforts from home, including a particular pen (a Pilot G2) he can’t get here (e00 01:10). He writes everything down: he keeps a dossier, a daily journal of everything he has done and everywhere he has been, which also holds his will (e02 00:50, e02 00:52). He gets seasick on boats (e04 01:00). About seven years ago, on Ternia, he got a terrible case of salmonella; since then he checked an app every day for food recalls before shopping, and argued with checkout clerks about recalled items still on the shelves (e04 00:03, e04 00:04, e04 00:04).
Background
In his past life on Ternia, Orrin was a risk actuary a couple of years from a promotion, who thrived on monotony and order — socks and underwear labeled by day of the week, the same meals, the same cafe, a favorite grocery store (e00 01:08, e04 00:53). He read and watched a lot of light novels, manga, and anime, many of which ended in tragedy, and thought their protagonists were idiots for choosing to be heroes (e00 01:24, e04 00:55). He was married to a famous woman he calls the most beautiful he had ever seen; he says she tried to change him and her famous friends said he wasn’t good enough for her, and the divorce was mutual. He still owes her alimony, which he offered to pay (e04 01:21, e04 01:21, e04 01:22, e04 01:22). In Wriem he met Lauren, who looks exactly like her; he doesn’t know whether it is her (e05 00:34, e05 00:59).
He says he died on Ternia: everyone was choking, and running through the streets about to go unconscious, he was hit by a bus (e04 00:53, e04 00:53). When he was brought here, the Pale was everywhere and everyone around him was choking and dying; a giant eye floating in the sky looked at him as he lay dying, pierced his soul, and he felt himself pulled somewhere else (e04 00:51, e04 00:51, e04 00:52). None of the others had seen it, as he had hoped they might, to help him find a way home (e04 00:52, e04 00:52). It took him two years to learn the language here (e04 01:26).
At the Magisterium
At the Magisterium he is a junior scribe who goes by Orrin Vale and usually just copies scrolls (e01 00:07, e01 00:17); he has held his current position only a few weeks, but has spent about six years there, in a basement transcribing things (e01 01:47, e04 01:06, e04 01:07). His only friend there is a co-scribe named Josiah (e01 01:48). He tells the Nightforge guild he has never been in a fissure; the GM says it is his second time in a place like this (e01 00:10, e01 00:16).
He believes the Magisterium is trying to kill him: he calls himself a very low-level scribe it would not typically send on such a mission, a task he should not have been able to accomplish, and says it may be testing whether he is a weapon, because he may have acquired something he wasn’t supposed to have (e01 00:08, e02 00:58, e02 01:00, e02 01:00, e04 01:07, e04 01:07). He tells Rue and Vargus it believes Wisp is a super powerful weapon (e03 00:03). After the explosion that destroyed his orb, he tells the others, “I am like you! And they are going to kill me for it!” — the orb had made him immune to divination magic, hiding that he was made of the same stuff they are (e03 01:05, e03 01:06). He keeps drafting reports so the Magisterium won’t send someone looking for him, careful that it finds nothing inappropriate or lacking in them, and signs them Orrin Vale in the language of Ternia (e01 00:31, e04 01:05, e04 01:25); in e05 – The Mask of Humanity Falls From Capital he mailed one through the Postmaster‘s temple, citing his recent promotion and giving no date or place of return (e05 00:23, e05 00:24). He knows Wriem, and is reading a Wriem encyclopedia that hasn’t yet reached local flora (e03 00:45, e03 01:22).
Abilities and gear
In Edyrea, Orrin has unexpectedly gained sorcerer powers (e00 01:08), and avoids using them when he can (e01 00:26). When he does, he pulls the cowl down and his tattoos lift off his skin; he can send them onto a lock, where they turn into corrosive acid, and they return to his body afterward (e01 00:26). With his innate sorcery active, words, runes, and sigils of arcane energy dance around him and his eyes glow (e01 01:14). When he casts message, a little arcane tattoo appears behind the recipient’s ear (e02 00:36).
Since losing his arm, when he refers to it and says the word out loud, a small blue rune of arcane energy comes out of his mouth, his stump aches, and some of his runes light up (e02 00:19, e02 00:20, e02 00:20). He senses a phrase he needs to say but can’t remember; the GM says meditating on it and practicing might bring it back (e02 00:21, e02 00:21). He says he can sometimes control it and sometimes can’t (e02 00:40). In e04 – A Spot to Rest our Pot, the word “arm” forms into a magical rune as he speaks it, and he spits it out past the others (e04 00:54, e04 00:55).
He carried the anti-essence detection wand the Magisterium issued him (e01 00:08); it does not glow toward him (e01 02:01). In e03 – Kaiju City Battle: First Responders the arcanery explosion disintegrated both the wand and his orb, his arcane focus; without a focus he can no longer cast message (e03 01:04, e03 01:16). He also casts dancing lights, and can split the lights or shape them into a rough humanoid figure (e03 00:20, e03 00:34, e03 00:47). He took a large, ornate, plant-bound book from Matilda‘s shop and five books or scrolls from a wizard’s tower, and collected 18 gold pieces’ worth of essence dust (e03 00:59, e03 01:32, e03 01:43); when he confessed the scrolls to their owner, Arleana, she let him keep them (e04 00:44, e04 00:44). He bought a new orb from her, offered at 15 gold, paying 20 (e04 00:46, e04 00:46, e04 00:46). In e05 – The Mask of Humanity Falls From Capital he traded five scrolls, unchecked, to Anise for information; she treated them as very valuable (e05 01:04, e05 01:12). He has catalogued many kinds of sending stones (e05 00:13).
With his innate sorcery active, his tattoo runes and sigils float around him like a gyroscope (e05 01:39). He can pluck one from the air, whisper “melt” into it, and throw it to coat a weapon in acid (e05 01:40, e05 01:42); the runes can knit into a transparent mesh veil around him that blocks a crossbow bolt (e05 01:43); and they can charge by drawing in the ambient weave, letting him cast a second spell (e05 01:49, e05 01:50).
Flaws and Covenants
Flaws are drawbacks the GM gives when a character does something they maybe shouldn’t have, or something goes badly; covenants are deals a character makes with the GM for a result, costing more the stronger they are (e01 01:29).
- Flaw — for going down in the first combat (announced e01 01:24): the GM notes that he will give a flaw to everyone who went down in the first combat; Orrin was one of them (e01 01:23, e01 01:24). What the flaw is isn’t stated on-air.
- Covenant — his left arm (received e01 01:35): the GM points out a one-in-20 chance that Orrin dies on his roll and offers one hit point back at the cost of his left arm; Orrin accepts, and the portal closes with the arm inside it (e01 01:34, e01 01:35). The GM later says Orrin made a covenant (e01 02:06).
- Flaw — reliant on his notes (received e02 00:52): the opposite of Vargus‘s flaw, given at the same moment: Orrin has disadvantage on remembering things he has not written down (e02 00:53, e02 00:53), and advantage on remembering what he has (e02 00:53).
- Flaw — Spell Burn (given e03 01:03, removed e03 01:04): the arcanery explosion gave everyone caught in it a flaw called Spell Burn, which the GM didn’t explain; he then removed it from Orrin, whose orb and wand were disintegrated instead (e03 01:03, e03 01:04, e03 01:04).
- Flaw — unlucky 13s (received e00 02:23): given in session zero after he rolled a lot of 13s for his stats: rolls of 13 are treated as a botch, but every third 13 is treated as a critical success (e00 02:23, e00 02:23, e05 01:05).
- Covenant — salmonella (received e04 00:05): Orrin has the beginnings of a plan to form a USDA-adjacent organization in Edyrea. He can’t get salmonella anymore, but if the organization isn’t formed within seven years, he will have permanent salmonella (e04 00:05, e04 00:05, e04 00:05, e04 00:05).
Story so far
The Fissure Below Wriem (e01–e04)
Sent by the Magisterium to support the Nightforge guild at a fissure below Wriem, Orrin released Wisp from the crate he had been given, and let a portal take his left arm to close it (e01 00:26, e01 01:35); his wand glowed for his new companions but not for him (e01 02:01). He took responsibility for the three newcomers in front of the guild, warned them the Magisterium would kill them as deviants, and admitted to Rue that he thinks his employers want him dead (e02 00:17, e02 00:48, e02 00:59). In the moon goblin attack on Wriem, the arcanery explosion disintegrated his orb and wand, and he told the others he is made of the same stuff they are (e03 01:04, e03 01:06); he recognized the Hollowing Plague in a bitten child (e03 01:18). At Willy’s Wards he fooled the Queen’s Guard, bought a new orb from Arleana, and told the others how he died on Ternia and saw a floating eye (e04 00:28, e04 00:46, e04 00:52). Outvoted, he set out with them for Holst at Mikhail Asimi‘s request (e04 01:13, e04 01:19). See e01 – When the Moon Hits the Sky, e02 – We're Not From Here, e03 – Kaiju City Battle: First Responders, e04 – A Spot to Rest our Pot.
The Road to Holst (e05–)
e05. Orrin mailed his report to the Magisterium through the Postmaster’s temple, and, at the West market, wagered a dinner with Lauren, who looks like his ex-wife, over who would recover Kendrick‘s relics first (e05 00:22, e05 00:38). He traded his five scrolls to Anise for Kendrick’s whereabouts, signing a binding Vormondian slip, posed as a Magisterium fire-warden to talk past Kendrick’s guards, and melted Kendrick’s sword with an acid rune in the fight (e05 01:06, e05 01:27, e05 01:40). See e05 – The Mask of Humanity Falls From Capital.
Relationships
- Ternia — Orrin’s home world.
- Wisp, Vargus, Rue — fellow isekai’d party members.
- The Magisterium — Orrin is a junior scribe there.
- Anti-Essence Detection Wand — the wand the Magisterium issued him.
- The Nightforge Guild — the guild Orrin was assigned to support; he reads Gilbert as someone who would sell him out (e02 01:07).
- Arleana — sold him an orb, and let him keep the scrolls he took from her (e04 00:44, e04 00:46).
- Lauren — looks like his ex-wife; they have a dinner wager (e05 00:38).
Episode history
- e00 (01:07) — introduced; established as a reluctant sorcerer from Ternia seeking a way home.
- e01 (00:05) — shown as a Magisterium junior scribe sent to a fissure; loses his left arm closing a portal.
- e02 (00:17) — takes responsibility for the other three; the rune from his arm; flaw for relying on notes; nicknamed Stumpy; says his employers may be testing whether he’s a weapon.
- e03 (01:04) — loses his orb and wand in an explosion; says he’s made of the same stuff as the others.
- e04 (00:52) — says he died on Ternia and saw a floating eye; salmonella covenant; buys a new orb from Arleana; heads for Holst.
- e05 (00:23) — mails his report via the Postmaster; meets Lauren, who looks like his ex-wife; unlucky-13s flaw comes into play.