Orlin Pratchard was born and raised in a simple village on the outskirts of Oren as an only-child by a pair of simple farmers. However, farm life was far too dull for Orlin; the rote repetition of various manual labors required each day induced mind-numbing boredom. He was always extremely inquisitive growing up, nearly to a fault as the annoyed people around him would say, with his primary joy being derived from any books he managed to get his hands on over the years.
However, for all his booksmarts he was never the strongest, the fastest, or the most coordinated youth. Orlin never excelled in physical competitions or games. When he and the other kids of his village would play at wooden swords, some proclaiming their inevitable destinies as knights among the Order of the Red Eagle, Orlin would generally be out-matched and consistently take a sound beating by his peers. This only drove him further towards the acquisition of knowledge as something he could be proud of and call his own.
There was one individual whom Orlin particularly disliked, Travis Mormont. Travis, possessed of decent strength and agility, was often seen as a leader among the other young men as he won the majority of competitive games and sports that took place. In Orlin's experience Travis often accomplished this through unsavory, and sometimes downright illegitimate means. More than anything else, Orlin and Travis competed for the interest of a local beauty named Sarah Clarenger. While Travis' appeal was obvious to all the local women as he and Orlin neared the end of their teenage years, Travis only had eyes for Sarah. There were always rumors the two were fated to marry, and Sarah certainly never seemed to mind the gossip, however Orlin found himself spending more and more time talking with Sarah during town events or after daily lessons. He would passionately ramble about world events, kingdom politics, newly-invented marvels, and anything else he had read recently while Sarah listened in fascination. Over the course of a year, shortly after Orlin's 20th birthday, it became clear to anyone with eyes that Orlin and Sarah had virtually become an item. Travis grew increasingly frustrated with how inexorably the one woman he wanted most continued to get drawn towards someone with a second-rate physicality such as Orlin, and began scheming a way to resolve the situation.
That same year during a typical town festival, Orlin witnessed something neither had seen before: a wild display of fire evocation in the form of fireworks by a traveling wizard. Orlin was transfixed. The show he witnessed was arguably the most awe-inspiring event of his relatively short and uneventful life. Obviously he had seen magic mentioned multiple times in texts over the years, but it was either vaguely referenced in the context of much more tangible issues such as war, politics, and trade or more menacingly as the illegal practice of dark magic. After his show, the wizard was accosted by Orlin who had a near-infinite number of questions. Unfortunately the traveler had no patience for yet another stereotypical youth who asked too much and, he assumed, read too little. With a dismissive answer mumbling about "the city library" and being "colder than Olog's spit" he shut himself in his wagon. By morning, he had moved on. Orlin nearly tore his hair out in frustration as none of the texts he had access to at home or in the local church contained near enough satisfactory answers about magic: what was it? how was it created, from a resource or pure will? what were its limitations? aside from fire and the manipulation of other elements he had seen referenced, what else was possible with magic?
While Orlin was desperately questioning the local clergyman who Orlin hoped could provide more answers, Travis overheard bits and pieces of the conversation and hatched a plan.
Sarah woke Orlin up the next day in a frantic state by banging on his family's door. Once they were alone, she explained anxiously that Travis had gone to the clergymen claiming to have witnessed Orlin doing simple rituals in the woods associated with dark magic! He had brought a couple dead animals into town and claimed they were found near "an ominous, fey totem beset with candles and the blood of innocent creatures". Orlin was mortified. While the claim was clearly unsubstantiated, everyone knew the severity of the crime of practicing dark magic. Such charges were investigated mercilessly by terrifying inquisitions sent by the royal magistrate, and the timing of Orlin's recent fascination and endless questions concerning magic couldn't be worse. In a panic, Orlin formed a desperate plan: leave town to not only avoid incriminating questions about his newfound obsession and perhaps learn more of it in the big city with access to more resources. While he hadn't intended on leaving home quite so soon, Orlin steeled himself for a life on his own and set out for Oren after brief farewells to his worried parents and Sarah.
