Lore - Orphiel Fairwind

Brilliant scientist or mad-man, history is unable to put a definitive label on Orphiel Fairwind.   The study of Magitech had was placed under royal ban, and yet it was this very magitech that saved Telara from ultimate destruction.  Before understanding the Fail Safe, it is important to know about the man who designed it.

Little is know about the reclusive leaders personal motives, however a few pieces of information can be gathered while in Terminus.


The Knowledge Collective has this to say about Orphiel Farwind:

Orphiel Farwind is credited as being the founder of the Defiants.  It was his considerable efforts into the study and avocation of magitech that lead Aedraxis to lift the ban on its study.  Later, when Aedraxis was revealed as a pawn of Regulos the destroyer, Orphiel lead members of the Defiant races to join with Prince Zareph at Port Scion. 

When Port Scion fell to the forces of Death, Prince Zareph was lost with it.  The Guardians blamed the Defiant machines for the loss of a haven and King, even though it was one of their own Ascended, Alsbeth, who was revealed as the hand of Regulos and invited his forces in.  Orphiel then lead the survivors among the Defiants to Meridian to settle there and continue their studies. 

Shortly before the fall of Meridian to the Guardians, Orphiel disappeared.  Though a great search went out for him, no trace was ever found, nor could foul play be proven.  Where he is, or why it is he might have given up on the organization he founded, remains a mystery.   

This short passage gives much more than a simple biography of the scientist.

Previous posts have mentioned Prince Zareph's reign but this is the first mention of Prince Aedraxis.  Information is limited, however the fact that Aedraxis was able to lift a ban on Orphiel's studies means he was in a political role with the status to do so.  This information, followed by the naming of Prince Zareph as a royal shortly after Aedraxis' betrayal lends support to the assumption that Aedraxis, too, was a royal prince.  The information about the beginning of the new prince's reign puts this event at twenty years before the discovery of the first Life Factory.

After the fall of Port Scion, when the Guardians blamed the Defiant machines for the fall of the city, despite evidence to the contrary, there is a formal split between the two factions.  Why though did the Guardians choose to believe the Defiants were to blame?  The only possible answer at this point is they were relying heavily on their longstanding mistrust of magitech.  It is possible that many saw Aedraxis' lift of the magitech ban as the point of origin for the trouble Telara had faced with the rifts - leading them to jump to the conclusion that Defiant magitech was to blame for that event and is still unstable or being misused.  It has its basis in the same hatred that would extend to the sacking of Meridian.

A curiosity in the time line of events comes into focus here.  As previously discussed, the discovery of the Life Factory was made in the twentieth year of Prince Zareph's reign.   There are three possible solutions to this riddle of a statement:

The first option, people of Telara continued to record their years in reference to the Prince's reign even after his death - which is possible given his popularity.  If this is the case the Life Factory could have been discovered at any time after the formal division of Defiant and Guardian.  This option seems unlikely however, given that societies which name their years after significant events usually do so to differentiate eras in history.  If they continued naming years after Zareph's reign there is the possibility for confusion later in history.

The second, the discovery of the original Life Factory happened during Zareph's lifetime - before the destruction of Port Scion.  The Knowledge Collective states "Orphiel then lead the survivors among the Defiants to Meridian to settle there and continue their studies." however this could simply be referring to the magitech studies that were conducted within the walls of Port Scion.  It seems implausible for Guardians to be accepting of Defiant studies into ascension while they shared the city, giving a strike against this option.

The third, and most plausible option, Port Scion fell, the Defiants left for Meridian, and the Life Factory was discovered all within the same year, the twentieth year of Prince Zareph's reign. 

Orphiel is also credited with contributing to the early Eth endeavors to create a technological way to create ascended.  To quote the Knowledge Collective: "It was not until Orphiel found their technology and completed their projects that they actually saw machine resurrection.  Those resurrections were insufficient, however.  Of Orphiel's original Defiants, only Asha Catari ever possessed true power.  She is said to have stolen some of the power from Regulos himself when she encountered him in the beyond, and this explains her unreplicated power.  All others were disappointingly mundane and not the equivalent of the Guardians." 

The most curious fact about Orphiel Fairwind is his disappearance sometime before the sacking of Meridian.   The Defiants who survived until the destruction of Telara had no further information about his whereabouts, and his body was never discovered.   The truth about his absence was lost when the time line was restarted; the Orphiel of a Telara with Defiant Ascended would have a very different motivation than one of a dying Telara.  He may, in future, be able to tell the curious Ascended what he may have done, but it is impossible to know for certain what actually happened.