Oswen

Oswen is the legendary Twilight Blacksmith who creates the Seven Sins and later becomes one of Randalph Brigsiel's most trusted craftsmen, battlefield advisers, and commanders. Originally human, he survives the Hell Monarch's attempt to erase his identity inside a six-armed undead body. After Randalph restores his suppressed spirit, Oswen applies his recovered craft to dimensional devices, curse defenses, weapons, and the coalition's final preparations against Death Bringer.

Biography

The works that gods opposed

Before Oswen appears directly, the Demon World knows him through weapons that can change their wielders' fortunes. Auction descriptions identify him as the mythical maker of the Seven Sins, while demons compete fiercely whenever one of his works resurfaces. The descriptions initially claim that their evil drove him mad, leaving both his intentions and fate uncertain. This reputation draws Randalph to Wrath and Sloth long before he can question their maker. (Chapters 27–37 and 64–69)

Oswen later explains that the Hell Monarch brought him God's Metal and compelled him to create the set. He became absorbed in the work, but the completed objects exceeded his own understanding and appeared capable of unprecedented destruction. Oswen therefore scattered them into spatial cracks rather than deliver them. The choice prevents the Hell Monarch from immediately uniting the set, but it provokes a punishment that tears Oswen's spirit apart, places a controlling shade within him, and changes his human body into an undead one. (Chapters 137–138 and 235)

A commander without his own identity

Randalph finds Oswen serving as the Underground World's southern commander, apparently a high-class doom knight with no conscious recognition of his blacksmith past. The gloves on his hands and his answer that a king's virtue is “sloth” expose a connection to the Seven Sins, yet the commanding personality still treats itself as the real Oswen. He accepts Randalph's service, turns him into a public hero to strengthen southern morale, and rapidly acts on military intelligence until Makdalli's counterattack leaves Oswen mutilated and unconscious. (Chapters 134–137)

During their escape, Oswen alternates among the child, commander, blacksmith, and other fragmented personalities because injury weakens the curse suppressing them. A shade called Oduto admits that the Hell Monarch inserted it into Oswen and broke the original spirit. Randalph draws Oduto out, destroys it, and removes the cursed Pride gloves; he then repeatedly awakens Oswen until the authentic blacksmith identity stabilizes. Oswen retains tangled memories of the false commander but recognizes his own past and responds to the Hell Monarch's destruction with relief rather than loyalty. (Chapters 137–138)

Recovery and a chosen allegiance

Once restored, Oswen uses the commander's surviving memories to reveal two thousand hidden phantom cavalry and the fortresses where the south can regroup. He cautions Randalph that the Seven Sins were designed for destruction, but still helps him rally the scattered troops, defeat Makdalli, and reclaim the main fortress. Oswen then joins Maxium as a commander in the war that unifies the Underground World, follows Randalph to Earth, and makes clear that his service depends on Randalph opposing rather than imitating the Hell Monarch. (Chapters 138–142)

Earth turns that allegiance into continuing practical service. Oswen rebuilds his four missing arms in Gaparam's workshop, then works with the lich and dwarves to construct a device that forcefully opens a spatial crack. He lends Randalph both technical knowledge and judgment: he warns that unknown beings can emerge, demands rare components, and insists that the opening remain brief. The successful connection to Dubolong establishes Oswen not merely as a recovered relic-maker but as the alliance's specialist for projects no ordinary craftsman can complete. (Chapters 145 and 152)

Craftsman, messenger, and war adviser

Randalph increasingly gives Oswen work that combines craft with political trust. Oswen makes ceremonial invitations carrying Orihalcum powder, then travels with Chrisley to deliver them to rival grand dukes. He keeps his composure before Upa Bullenon, fights a powerful white knight at Ariel Diablo's dungeon, restrains Chrisley when Ariel requires a more cautious approach, and returns with a report that materially shapes Randalph's reading of the competing factions. (Chapters 199–207)

When Randalph leaves the grand-duke gathering to capture Gustarte, Oswen anticipates the need to hide his absence and uses a transformation book to disguise Yihi as her master. In the following melee he completes concealed preparations, advises Randalph on likely winners, and uses the commander experience retained from his false identity to read the battlefield. Randalph entrusts him with troops and with fighting an enemy demon, while narration identifies being saved from suppression and seeing the Hell Monarch opposed as the reasons for Oswen's sincere service. (Chapters 210–225)

Defenses against the Hell Monarch

Before entering the Demon World, Oswen gives Randalph Pharma's Necklace, a ten-use defense designed against the curses the Hell Monarch studied. When the resurrected enemy turns fallen troops into obedient puppets, Oswen proposes a broader answer: enlarge the Mirror of Truth so its effect can prevent the curse from spreading through the allied army. He requires a week and warns that the mirror must remain protected; eliminating the curse outright would take far longer even with several equally skilled craftsmen. (Chapters 235–236)

Oswen continues the Mirror while adapting his earlier crack device so Randalph can reach the Spirit World and attack Death Bringer's system. The passage must stay open, creating a risk that Randalph could become lost or destroyed in the nothingness, but Oswen completes it without demanding an explanation. In the latest scene that identifies him, he fights the Hell Monarch's army beside Gaparam's homunculi while the completed giant Mirror blocks the enemy curse. The corpus does not separately confirm Oswen's condition after that battle begins. (Chapters 238–240)

Appearance and personality

Oswen is originally a human blacksmith, but the Hell Monarch's interference leaves him in the body of a doom knight, an evolved death knight described as a high-class level-two creature. That body has six hands and bones protruding like wings. Four arms are lost during the Underground World fighting; Oswen later fashions replacements and again wields six swords. Other characters describe his undead appearance as terrible, while his need for Jellim in the Underground World and his inability to sweat confirm that the body does not function like living flesh. (Chapters 135–138, 152, 201, 221, and 225)

He is proud, confident, and receptive to praise, traits Randalph first exploits when approaching the southern commander. The restored blacksmith remains sly and playful, but refuses careless work: he becomes engrossed in difficult projects, insists on the best attainable result, and takes pride in every weapon he makes. His hatred of the Hell Monarch is personal, yet his retained human mind also appears in gentle speech, practical advice, and concern for others. These traits distinguish his chosen loyalty to Randalph from the obedience once forced onto his fragmented spirit. (Chapters 135, 138, 166, 206, 221, 225, and 235)

Abilities and powers

Oswen combines legendary blacksmithing with a durable doom-knight body, six-sword combat, retained command experience, and unusually broad knowledge of spatial cracks, curses, souls, and artifacts. His most important progression is not a numerical rank increase but the recovery of his original ego and craft: after the curse is removed, he rebuilds his body, creates stronger personal weapons, and repeatedly produces tools for threats extending from demon warfare to gods.

Twilight blacksmithing

The corpus does not explain how Oswen originally learned smithing, but repeatedly demonstrates the scope of his mastery. He forges the Seven Sins from God's Metal, makes six personal swords from divine iron, produces Orihalcum-laced invitations, and creates devices that imitate or redirect complex magical functions. Dwarves regard him with respect, and Randalph repeatedly assigns him work for which no substitute exists. Oswen can also collaborate with Gaparam and large teams of dwarves when a project crosses into alchemy, dimensional engineering, or mass construction. (Chapters 138, 145, 152, 164, 199, 201, and 206)

His craft is constrained by materials, time, information, and workload rather than presented as unlimited creation. The first crack device consumes immense resources, takes a month, and is single-use; a curse-deflecting harness requires Orihalcum and examination of the target curse; enlarging the Mirror requires a week and cannot remove the underlying curse on that schedule. His attempt to release Shilla remains unresolved by the later Earth campaign, showing that even his best designs can stall against an inadequately understood or exceptionally powerful curse. (Chapters 152, 166, 206, 225, and 236)

The Seven Sins and anti-god craft

Oswen creates the Seven Sins at the Hell Monarch's demand, but their final nature passes beyond his own expectations. He knows that assembling them gives their wearer the capacity for unprecedented destruction and therefore hides the pieces in cracks. He does not know every completed-set effect when Randalph questions him. The later set produces Power of Destruction, which can permanently destroy a god's power at the cost of sacrificing one piece, validating Oswen's danger assessment without showing that he intentionally designed that exact system mechanic. (Chapters 138, 239–240)

The individual works remain equipment rather than Oswen's innate abilities. Wrath is a sword, Sloth a cloak, and Pride a pair of gloves; each grants its wearer a distinct power, while collected pieces create further set effects. Oswen recognizes their construction and magic even after his memories have been fragmented, and he can use Wrath as the framework for a different machine. Pride's long attachment to his undead body also carries the curse that suppresses his original ego, demonstrating that his own masterwork can be turned into a control mechanism against him. (Chapters 27–37, 64–69, 135, 137–138, and 152)

Crack-opening devices

Oswen can build machines that force open spatial cracks. His first demonstrated design uses Wrath as a framework, Thousand Wings to store a massive charge, Paranormal's irregularity, a compass, other materials, and Gaparam's help. Oswen channels multiple forms of magic through the apparatus and must remain stationary to maintain the passage. The device lets Randalph communicate with Dubolong, but beings trapped in the crack begin emerging when it remains open, illustrating the danger Oswen warns about before construction. (Chapter 152)

He later adapts the already-developed design under wartime pressure to send Randalph into the Spirit World. This version is completed quickly because it reuses prior work rather than recreating the process from nothing. Its limit is navigational and strategic: the opening must be maintained, a traveler can become lost and be destroyed by entities in the nothingness, and Randalph must return because the allied army cannot defeat the Hell Monarch without him. Oswen's latest demonstrated mastery is therefore rapid, purpose-specific modification, not unrestricted control of dimensional travel. (Chapter 238)

Curse defenses and the Mirror of Truth

Oswen's history under the Hell Monarch gives him practical knowledge of the enemy's curses. Pharma's Necklace blocks up to ten listed curses before destruction, although Randalph's later intelligence and resistance make much of that protection precautionary. The Mirror of Truth operates on an army-wide problem: after enlargement, it prevents the curse that animates and controls the dead from spreading among allied troops. Neither work destroys the Hell Monarch's knowledge or innate power; both interrupt specific applications under defined conditions. (Chapters 235–236 and 240)

The Mirror is a defensive focal point, not a passive permanent cure. Oswen says that it must be protected and that breaking it will allow the contagion-like curse to spread again. The final army consequently assigns one hundred thousand soldiers to defend the giant mirror while enemies target it. This interaction shows both the scale of Oswen's completed craft and its counter: opponents do not need to exceed his smithing skill if they can physically destroy the device maintaining the protection. (Chapters 236 and 240)

Spirit, body, and six-sword combat

The Hell Monarch's curse fractures Oswen's spirit and lets false personalities dominate a doom-knight body. Severe injury creates temporary openings through which other egos surface; removing Oduto ends the controlling curse, but Oswen still requires repeated forced awakenings before his authentic identity stabilizes. His memories remain mixed afterward, and the commander personality's experience survives as usable knowledge. The undead body can continue after lost limbs, yet it depends on Jellim within the Underground World and requires crafted replacement arms to restore Oswen's full six-handed style. (Chapters 137–138 and 152)

With all six arms restored, Oswen fights using six self-forged swords named collectively as Hell. Overlapping them releases hellfire that envelops him and produces a lion-like manifestation; the skill arises after he forges the blades from divine iron. His body reacts quickly enough to evade a high-class white knight's near-instant rapier, and he can analyze an opponent's imbalance between speed and power. Ariel nevertheless interrupts and could have killed him in that exchange, establishing a ceiling below the strongest grand dukes despite his high-class combat ability. (Chapter 201)

Command and technical judgment

Oswen retains the southern commander's knowledge after recovering his own ego. He uses it to locate hidden cavalry and fortresses, interpret large battles, anticipate enemy deployments, and lead Randalph's creatures. His technical judgment is similarly practical: he identifies Gaparam's soul expertise when Yihi is fading, recognizes when observation is better than intervention, and tells Randalph when a requested cure is inefficient. These contributions depend on experience and collaboration rather than supernatural certainty, and the corpus shows him being surprised or unable to solve problems when the evidence, materials, or opponent exceed him. (Chapters 138–140, 172–173, 200–201, 206, 220–221, and 236)

Power progression

Relationships

• Randalph Brigsiel: Randalph destroys the shade suppressing Oswen, restores his blacksmith identity, and becomes the leader Oswen chooses to equip and advise because he opposes the Hell Monarch's path.
• Hell Monarch: Oswen's coercive patron and persecutor, who forces the Seven Sins project, fractures his spirit, and turns him into an undead commander; Oswen's later defenses are shaped by knowledge and hatred gained under him.
• Maxium: His fellow Underground World commander and partner in Randalph's retinue, with whom he trains armies, opens the Hell Monarch's treasury, and completes the return to Earth.
• Gaparam: A rival-minded but productive collaborator on Oswen's replacement body, crack machinery, curse projects, and other devices that combine smithing with alchemy.
• Chrisley: His fellow messenger to the grand dukes; Oswen shields her from political mistakes while also recognizing her observations and returning their joint intelligence to Randalph.
• Yihi: A dungeon ally for whom he provides technical and practical help, including the disguise used to conceal Randalph's absence and advice during her soul crisis.
• Shilla: The target of a long-running attempt to build an Orihalcum defense against the curse imprisoning her, a project the scoped corpus never confirms as complete.

Items

• Wrath: A Seven Sins sword forged by Oswen; he later borrows it from Randalph as the framework for a crack-opening device.
• Sloth: A Seven Sins cloak forged by Oswen and hidden in a crack after he rejects the completed set's destructive potential.
• Pride: A Seven Sins pair of gloves forged by Oswen and later used as part of the curse suppressing his true spirit.
• The Emperor's Sword: A Hell Monarch relic rather than Oswen's creation; Oswen recognizes it and helps Randalph use it to open the Underground World treasury.
• Mirror of Truth: Oswen enlarges this anti-curse mirror to protect the final Demon World army from the Hell Monarch's control of the dead.