rift mob:Orphiel Farwind  

Orphiel Farwind, Freemarch, Meridian

Orphiel Farwind is the founder and leader of the Defiant. From his workshop in Meridian, he oversees the Defiant's work on sourcestone technology. He is credited with creating or at least activating many Eth machines.

Orphiel before the Defiant

When Asha, Alsbeth, Corwin and Zareph were young, Orphiel was brought to court as their tutor.

Years later he became the court technomancer to King Aedraxis, but at some point during the Mathosian civil war Orphiel and his followers joined the rebels led by the middle brother, Zareph Mathos.

In the battles of that war, and in the destruction that occurred when the Eye of Regulos was closed and Aedraxis was shattered, Orphiel's forces were decimated thoroughly. He retreated with his remaining followers, mostly members of the Eth and Bahmi, to Port Scion where he joined Zareph Mathos in defending Telara.

After the fall of Port Scion, he refused to abide by the Guardian's ban on technology, instead forming The Defiant to protect Telara. Along with Asha Catari, he vowed that ingenuity and perseverance, not faith in deities, would deliver Telara from the threat of the planes.

Orphiel and the Defiant

Orphiel brought his love of technology and inventions with him to Meridian and the Defiant. Orphiel uses Sourcestone to create many weapons, such as guns and bombs, but also larger devices. Orphiel seems capable of melding magic and technology to create fantastic inventions, ranging from teleportation devices to time travel instruments.

Orphiel and Asha Catari established the Defiant to protect Telara. However, without the aid of Ascended, the Defiant were unable to defend themselves from the Guardians very effectively. In the original timeline of Telara, Orphiel disappeared shortly after creating his Failsafe Device. Though no one knows how or why he disappeared originally, the return of Ascended Defiant to the present seems to have postponed if not altogether prevented his disappearance.

Trivia

• Orphiel once saved Cyril's life during the fall of Port Scion with a sourcestone bomb. He used the bomb to destroy planar creatures that had besieged Cyril.

Point of View

Remember that what you see or hear of Orphiel in the introductory quests is from two different timelines. The Defiants hear of his actions in a world lost to the blind arrogance of the "faithful", and the Guardians see him in a world that was rapidly going to hell, but neither of those are the shard we see him in today. They are not the same person. Each affects and is affected by the decisions he made in response to the events in that timeline.

Remember, in our own world Leonardo da Vinci designed and built many siege machines and weapons for his wealthy patrons to fund his art and science. Was he evil if they were used for evil? Is a gun evil, or is it the man that uses it to murder?

Player Conversations

As a Guardian, you meet him three times in Mathosia:

In the woods of Bloodmurk Grove, furtively removing a device on a table. He warns you to stay away from the device, it is not ready to be tested. When he has left you find a letter on the table from Aedraxis to Orphiel, congratulating him on the design of his latest invention, Ethect, telling him to bring it to him at his camp, and warning him not to leave this letter just lying around for someone to find.

On the path of Vigilant Rise, Orphiel says "Get away from this place! I will steal the power of the Vigil if it's the last thing I do!"

At Ascendant Hall, when you have destroyed Ethect, Orphiel screams "What have you done? Ethect would have allowed me to siphon the Vigil's power! You will regret this!", then after the fight, as he runs away, he says "I... I can't die like this! One day I shall replicate Ascension and destroy you all!"

From the Guardian perspective in the Mathosian timeline, it is very hard to see Orphiel as anything but a sick, evil man.

As a Defiant, you meet and speak with him in the top room of Orphiel's Spire in Meridian, well after your return from the doomed future of Terminus. All you know of him in that failed timeline is that he founded the Defiant, built the Failsafe Device and vanished at some point, leaving Sylver Valis to complete the Time Portal to send you back.

Orphiel Farwind: They say you came from the future? Let me take a look at you. Amazing. I knew we could do it. I founded the Defiant because I never stopped believing such wonders were possible with technology, and now I am vindicated. Let the Guardians wait for miracles... we will make our own!

Player: What are you doing?

Orphiel Farwind: With this telescope, I can make rudimentary charts of the planes. It lets me peer beyond the Ward!

Player: You weren't with the Defiants in the future.

Orphiel Farwind: I wonder where it was that I went to? I guess we will never know, will we? The time has been changed, and nothing that happens from here on out will be the same. I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon.

Related Pages

• Orphiel Farwind in the The Great Telaran Library

RIFT Wikibase™ Lore