The Black Tome

Orin

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10 min read

First appearance: S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter (Fate of the Arbiter Part 1) · watch it on YouTube

Orin was the commander of The Eastern Outpost, a big, chatty werebear who would much rather be a bear than a one-eyed goliath. For years he guarded The Box of Chaos for the Grandmaster and was devoted to The Arbiter, the man who had saved him as a boy. When that same man was revealed as a traitor, Orin trusted what he had seen in the heroes’ souls and stood with them. He did not survive the choice, but his memory runs through everything that follows: his son’s rebellion, the heroes’ grief and Flynry’s final moments.

Story

Fate of the Arbiter, Part 1

In S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter (Fate of the Arbiter Part 1), the Grandmaster sent Flynry, Toddleheim and Locket across the lava fields to meet Orin at his outpost. He greeted them with “I’m Orin, the commander of this installation,” and then, because he rarely got visitors, retold the entire Deathmatch they had just survived. His army would march at first light on an old dwarven castle built into a cliff, attacking the front so the three could slip in through a lightly guarded back gate and “snatch the Arbiter back.” The table did not survive the phrase “enter from the rear,” and when Flynry asked whether there were nice ladies by the back door, Orin replied, “I’m sure if you dig around enough, you’ll find it.” Orin was cheerfully honest about his talents: he was “good at smashing things,” not planning.

He also shared the story of his life. Werebears had ransacked his village when he was a boy, infecting him and slaughtering and eating his family and many of his friends. On “an auspiciously cool morning here in The Void” (“the weather was different in those days, you know, global warming”), the Arbiter leapt from his mount and swore to avenge them, “because… I can’t stand to see your heart break.” Orin knew then that he would follow him anywhere. It was around this time that he chose to stay a werebear, and the Arbiter later appointed him to the outpost on the Grandmaster’s behalf.

Orin was a generous if scattered host. He warned the party about a cheating goblin (“His name is Kenny. He’s kind of a piece of shit, but he’s good with a dagger”), noted that his soldiers were “mostly from southern New Jersey,” and sent the sweltering Locket down to a cellar so cluttered with potatoes, turnips, salted meat, cots, junk and a hidden stash of brandy that his housekeeping spoke for itself. He gave each hero an opalescent pearl that glowed green in the light and held powerful healing magic (“Now, don’t lose those”), and he offered them a turn at the Box of Chaos. When Locket grumbled at the potion of storm giant strength it gave her, Orin was indignant: “It’s a magic box. He just gave you a magic item, what do you mean?” He saw them off without wishing them luck, “because I know that you’re not going to need it.”

He kept his word and arrived at the climax, crashing through a metal door with “Am I too late?” The heroes told him the truth: the Arbiter meant to kill the Grandmaster. Orin refused to believe it (“That can’t be. I’ve known him my entire life”) and offered to slay the “traitors” on the Arbiter’s word. The Arbiter smoothly called the heroes plotters. But Orin had already made up his mind: “No, I’ve talked to these folks. I’ve seen what’s in their souls… You won’t get past me.” He charged, claws flailing. The Arbiter murmured, “And I kind of liked you, Orin,” and unmade him. It was not a gentle fading. Orin’s legs burst into ash, holes tore through his body, and he crumbled like an ancient statue, crying out one last time before his dust was swept into the Arbiter’s swirling chaos. Flynry tried to touch him with a protective dragon-scale scroll as he ran past and was a heartbeat too slow. Only a faint outline of ash marked where Orin fell, and his remains could not be recovered.

The legacy of a fallen friend

In S2E6 — FoTA - Sands of the Arena (Fate of the Arbiter, Part 2), the Arbiter blamed the heroes for his death: “You even made me kill Orin. And I liked Orin.” Locket shot back that it had been his choice. Orin’s forces had not forgotten either. Hooded figures in the crowd dropped into the arena to rescue the heroes, along with a werebear in black plate carrying swords of solid Void-gloom. This was his son, Lyrus, who had heard every word and swore the Arbiter’s head would someday be his. Afterwards Lyrus asked whether his father had died well. The heroes told him he died a hero, fighting for what was right. Lyrus answered bitterly that he had died “fighting for a traitor. For a man that he considered like a father to him.”

In the Coriander Society crossover, Fate of the Faithful Part 2, The Seer remembered Orin as “a great man,” and Lyrus explained that guarding the Box of Chaos had been his father’s great honor: “He kept it safe for many years until his death.” After he died, many of his people left the forces of both the Arbiter and the Grandmaster to work in the shadows. In Fate of the Faithful Part 4, a haunted forest turned that grief into a weapon. Lyrus saw his father’s bones forming the whole place, his body impaled on dead trees, nailed to the door and his head on a spike, all the ways a death he had never witnessed might have looked. He growled, “Get out of my head.”

When the heroes finally reached the Grandmaster in S2E17 — The Hall of Fates, she called him “a valued friend” and asked, “What happened to Orin? He’s an old friend.” The Arbiter brushed it off: “Orin doesn’t exist anymore. He’s no more real than the dust at your feet. He got in the way… But it’s just business.”

Taking Flynry home

In S2E20 — Battle for the Crown Round 3, Flynry recognised protective runes from a temple he had seen “back with Orin” at the Eastern Outpost. As Thornabub called down a storm of flaming meteors to end him, Flynry returned to his human form and pictured his pen, his paper and his friends. Then Orin reached down from the heavens, giant bear that he was, and held his shoulders: “it’s okay… you’re gonna come home now. Your journey is done.” Flynry closed his eyes and smiled. “Home. I think I like that.”

Into the Mirror

Orin’s hands were the first thing Flynry felt in Into the Mirror, Session 1, bracing him as his knees buckled. In the dream life that followed, Flynry had a grown son he had named after his fallen comrade, a young Orin who had become an accomplished politician in Prexmarin. Toddleheim and Locket, meanwhile, counted Orin among the friends they had lost along the way. The Arbiter later led them into the Hall of Fates, jabbing “I thought you might be nostalgic for it,” knowing it was the place they had lost Orin, and cackled as, like Orin, their bodies grayed and chipped away.

In Into the Mirror 15–16, Old Friends - Sky, Flynry asked the Arbiter outright whether his lost faculties were what “obliterated Orin.” For once the Arbiter had no smooth answer: “Let me level with you, I don’t really know.” The power he had been siphoning from the Box of Chaos, he admitted, had been intoxicating, and it had whispered to him.

Personality and Abilities

Orin was a werebear who favored his huge, furry bear form and openly disliked his one-eyed goliath shape. He went shirtless, explaining in the sweltering heat “you can see why I’m not wearing a shirt,” a defense that made no sense coming from a bear. He was a talker, sarcastic and warm, prone to long stories and odd tangents about the Arbiter’s skincare routine. He called himself a smasher rather than a strategist, and his cellar proved he was no housekeeper either. Those who knew him described him as strict, and said he never saw the Arbiter’s betrayal coming.

In a fight he simply charged, claws first. He commanded an army of goblins, elves, orcs and others, handed out the Eastern Outpost’s healing pearls, and was trusted with the Box of Chaos itself. His final act showed what mattered most to him: he trusted what he saw in people’s souls over the word of the man he had followed all his life.

Relationships

  • The Arbiter: Saved him as a boy and was “like a father” to him. Orin followed him for life, then defied him and was killed by him.
  • Lyrus: His son, who swore vengeance on the Arbiter and led Orin’s former forces against him.
  • Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer: Orin served her as commander of the Eastern Outpost, and she remembered him as an old friend.
  • Flynry: A brief but deep bond. Orin’s spirit came to take Flynry home, and Flynry named his dream son after him.
  • Toddleheim and Locket: He hosted and armed them, then died defending them. Toddleheim later told Lyrus he had tried to save him.
  • Kenny: A cheating goblin at his outpost whom Orin warned the party about.
  • The Seer: Remembered Orin as “a great man.”

Memorable Quotes

  • “The Arbiter saved my life once, as a boy… he doesn’t look that old but he’s ancient. Very, very good diet, I guess… maybe a nice skin and hair routine.” (S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter)
  • “His name is Kenny. He’s kind of a piece of shit, but he’s good with a dagger.” (S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter)
  • “It’s a magic box. He just gave you a magic item, what do you mean?” (S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter)
  • “No, I’ve talked to these folks. I’ve seen what’s in their souls… You won’t get past me.” (S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter)
  • “It’s okay… you’re gonna come home now. Your journey is done.” (S2E20, Battle for the Crown Round 3)

Appearances

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