Orphen
Name: Orphen (オーフェン)
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Height: 171 cm
Weight: 61 kg
Race: Black Magic Sorcerer
Blood Type: O
Constellation: Aquarius
Hometown: Suburbs of Raindust
School: Tower of Fang
Master: Childman Powderfield
Apprentice: Majic Lin
Also Known As: Krylancelo (Real Name)
Specialties: Handy Man
Hobbies: Piano
First Featured: Stray Journey: "Beast, Answer My Call"
Acquisitions:
- Ancient Ring (... ate it)
- Sword of Baldanders (on and off)
- Tower of Fang Pendant
Orphen, the hero of the franchise, is a sarcastic, if not downtrodden black-magic sorcerer. Formerly a student of the Tower of Fang, he left the Tower when his childhood friend and foster sister, Azalie, turned herself into a giant beast. His goal was to save her before the Tower put an end to the creature to hide the stain on their reputation, but his journey takes him into much more frightening territory than expected. Also known as "The Successor of Razor Edge", "Successor of Steel", "Black Sorcerer", and "Krylancelo".
Features
Prominent Features:
- Sorcerous Stabber Orphen (Anime)
- Stray Journey (Books)
- Majutsushi Orphen: Stray Journey (Manga)
- Orphen (Manga)
All Features:
As Orphen is the main character of the series, he features in more or less all media in the franchise. Books, manga, games, anime, and so on. This is usually as the most prominent roll, though later series would go on to focus a bit more on his children.
Personality
Orphen's personality is brash, often taking a snarky tone and dismissing that which he finds annoying. In spite of this, he's a genuinely good person, and even if he finds someone to be insufferable, he'll go out of his way to protect people caught up in the dangers that follow him. However, he goes through life guarding his inner emotions, and many of his thoughts go unspoken. He anguishes over everything he lost, and the betrayals he faced throughout his lifetime, and struggles to fully trust others due to the experience that all of those incidents instilled in him.
History
Orphanage:
As far as Orphen can remember, his first home was an orphanage where he, Azalie, and Leticia all lived together. However, when he was 6 years old, the three of them were taken to the Tower of Fang by Whurl Karlen.
The Tower of Fang:
Orphen joined the Tower as a child, and was placed in the Whurl Class to be trained in the art of assassination. He was trained there until 10 years old, when he was placed in the upcoming Childman Class. He trained under his new master for 5 years, until Azalie was transformed into a monstrous beast during a magical experiment. The Tower refused to help Azalie, claiming she'd died in the experiment, and even held a false funeral for her. Orphen, disgusted, left to Tower to save his former companion. In doing so, he abandoned his name of Krylancelo to become "Orphen." Rumors quickly spread about why he'd left, ranging from falling out with Childman to being shunned by the Elders, or even being sent to assassinate Pluto of the 13 Apostles.
The Thirteen Apostles:
At age 15, Orphen was presented with the chance to join the Thirteen Apostles, the most elite of sorcerers. He would've been the youngest in the history of the ranks of the court. However, as Childman's successor, this created a conflict. The Tower had recruited Childman as a balancer against Pluto, an incredibly powerful sorcerer born and raised by the court. To have Childman's successor go to the Apostles, only to pass on, in their ranks, the skills they had recruited to counter them, would be incredibly problematic to the Tower's elders. They sent Hydrant as a messenger to bring the then-Krylancelo back to the Tower to fulfill his purpose. However, the conflict turned bloody, and when Orphen almost killed the Tower's messenger, his hearing with the Apostles was cancelled.
Alenhatam:
After leaving the Tower of Fang, Alenhatam is the first place that Orphen found somewhere to stay. As a sorcerer in a rather anti-sorcerer town, there wasn't much he could do to earn money, and thus often went hungry. He eventually landed a shady job doing small chores around a medical clinic. Soon after, he found a young sorcerer being chased by citizens of the city, badly beaten and potentially dying. He blasted his pursuers, and took him back to the clinic.
During his stay, he learned that the sorcerer's name was Steph, and that he'd been lynched for stealing a wallet.
Totokanta:
Orphen eventually ended up in Totokanta, living there for two years until the beast surfaced again. He decided to assist the Everlastings, whose house had been attacked, in hopes of reuniting with Azalie. However, the creature seemed to not hear his words. He ultimately joined Childman's hunt for the beast on false pretenses, intending to warn her, only to lead them right to her. In spite of his best efforts, Childman killed the beast, only for him to learn from the beast's mouth itself that Azalie had stolen Childman's body through the use of white magic. It was he who had died as the beast. Devastated by this realization, Orphen confronted Azalie. This devolved into a fight, but when he won, he offered to use the Sword of Baldanders to return Azalie to whatever form she preferred. Be that to live out life as Childman Powderfield, or to return to her former self. Either way, he never wanted to see her again. Afterwards, he left Totokanta to chase down Vulcan, both for his debts and for the Sword of Baldanders, which he'd stolen.
Return To The Tower:
After being arrested for Leki shenanigans, Orphen was shocked when he was confronted by a young assassin from the Tower, who even went so far as to kill the ranger detaining them. This instantly turned into a battle. One that would've ended in the death of the group had Leticia not interfered to save their lives. Near the end of the fight, it was revealed that the boy was Krylancelo: Orphen at 15 years old. Orphen himself was taken under Leticia's custody, and returned to Taphrem. Evidently, this young boy had been killing Elders under Orphen's name.
Determined to get to the bottom of this strange matter, Orphen sent out scouts, only for Cleao to follow them and get captured. Having no choice but to follow, Orphen found himself in his former training ground. There he confronted Krylancelo, who insisted on fighting to protect Azalie from being hurt by Orphen again. The battle was bloody, and by the end of it, Krylancelo was dead. Orphen realized that he'd been a Killing Doll all along, transformed by Azalie using the Sword of Baldanders. She revealed herself, confessing to having been behind the murders of the Elders. She asked Orphen to join her in retracing their Master's steps on an important mission, but he declined her once more.
Fight For The World Book:
After Leticia's mansion was invaded by a Stabber in the night, Orphen came to realize that there was something else going on in the Tower. He tried his best to avoid getting involved, even going so far as to confront Whurl Karlen directly, and emphatically claim his lack of interest in the situation. This didn't stop the attacks, and within a short time, both Cleao had been harmed with superficial wounds, and Leticia had lost two of her fingers, leaving her hospitalized.
Azalie once more returned to Orphen, imploring him to kill Whurl Karlen, in spite of his reluctance to take any life. Orphen decided to at least infiltrate the Tower. Along the way he brought down Hydrant, and confrontd the Whurl Class. With so many students present, he was certain he'd lose, but Forte and Azalie's surprising appearance saved his life. He took this opportunity to fight (and defeat) Whurl Karlen, but hesitated to finish him off. So, Azalie decided to erase their memories of her using white magic, so that he wouldn't have to.
Sentencing:
Following the conflict, the Tower of Fang deemed Orphen to be one of the instigators of the private conflict against the Whurl Classroom, and as they have a strict policy against violence between Tower members (of which he was still considered at the time), he was charged with treason against the alliance. This charge, comparable to a death sentence, was softened thanks to Forte's intervention. However, Orphen was still stripped of his title as a student of the Tower of Fang. His pendant was taken, and he was banished from the Tower. He ultimately handed the World Book over to Vulcan, figuring it'd be safer with someone who would obviously lose it.
Kamisunda Theater:
After stumbling upon the Kamisunda Theater in the process of saving some 'bandits', he learned of the true play of The Demon King, and the state of affairs that Kiesalhima found itself in. The Goddess of Fate, who wanted to destroy the dragons and their descendants with all manner of beasts, and Swedenboli, who wanted to destroy all other gods, both with the goal of returning stability to the world. He also met Mädchen, the bandit's leader at the theater. She revealed herself to be a Teacher of Death who'd heard about him from Salua, and after having her life saved by Cleao, agreed to escort them to Kimrak.
Skills
Successor of Razor Edge
As Childman's student, Orphen inherited all of Childman's combat skills and assassination techniques. His talent was recognized all across the continent, even to the point that he was going to be the youngest court sorcerer in history. However, when he left the Tower, he stopped maintaining this skill for many years, so considers himself to be far weaker at 20 than he was at 15. Even so, he retains and exercises much of the knowledge on instinct. Hand-to-hand combat is one of his most commonly used means of self-defense, including through the use of weapons, such as a dagger with the sheath sewn into the interior of his jacket.
Mental Defenses
Orphen is trained to shut down his thoughts in the event that he's up against telepathic abilities or mental attacks, such as white magic. However, he says that this type of concentration usually won't last more than 10 seconds. This particular skill was standard for the Tower of Fang, but Orphen was trained excessively in it by Childman, in secret lessons that took place in Childman's basement, as he was expected to someday counter Azalie.
Trained Sense of Smell
It's noted on several occasions that Orphen has a keen sense of smell, able to pick up on the scent of blood from at least two rooms away.
Assorted Facts
Abilities and Training
• It took Orphen roughly three years and four months to learn how to start casting sorcery, compared to the normal 5.
• Orphen always starts in the center of enemy territory when searching for something, to learn his escape routes.
• He's able to drop several meters without injury.
• He joked to be hard on Majic because students of perfect masters develop complexes later in life.
• When he was seven years old he lost his 2 front teeth to being hit with a cloth-wrapped stick during training.
History
• On the night that Azalie used the Sword of Baldanders, Orphen had been invited to be her research assistant.
• When he was a child, he wrestled a stray dog and had to get 7 stitches.
• Both of his parents were sorcerers.
• Orphen first wore the black robe of the Tower in Imperial Redlight 42, at roughly age 15.
Other
• Orphen kept a handkerchief given to him by Azalie as a prized possession, until Cleao used it to mend his shirt.
• Although Orphen had several friends at the Tower, he often regards them as more allies than true friends.
• Once made Majic carry a human head sized stone, saying a pattern on it looked like a dead cat he used to have.
• Orphen once mused about the idea of returning to the Tower to get a large mansion and status of his own.