Benefactor Orlene

Benefactor Orlean was a member of and a respected scholar within the Benevolent Parish. He was a powerful magic user who was particularly interested in magical energy signatures, and was described by the Hand of Guidance as being "married to his work."

History
According to the Hand of Guidance, Benefactor Orlean was a member of the shoreside community during the events of the Prologue twenty-five years ago; he had been "hailed down from the High Hermitage." He has been a member of the Parish for "a while," though he lives and works primarily on his ship. He was occasionally called in to help Devo learn magic when Devo was still with the cloister; he also taught Devo Celestial.

He went missing a week before the events of the Infinite Clam.

The Infinite Clam
Benefactor Orlean is first mentioned when the Coriolis crew accepts a job from the Benevolent Parish to find and either rescue Orlean or recover his remains, as he had gone missing while researching ethereal energy signatures emanating from a giant bivalve in the Phytal Flats.

The Coriolis crew finds him and his ship amongst a small community of Ethereal pirates trapped inside of the clam; Orlean has magically manipulated its members into making him their "Super Captain."

After Devo threatens Orlean's life, Orlean charms Amber and Zoox into defending him. Orlean claims that he knows how to deactivate the magic sustaining the clam and trapping them inside of it, but the method of doing so is very dangerous; all of the "Ethereals" that he's sent to complete the job so far have died. Orlean offers to double the Coriolis crew's payment if they complete the job, which they eventually accept.

After they do so, Orlean gives the crew one of his rings and instructs them to tell Guidance that he's not ready to return yet. He begins to leave, but before he does so Devo promises to kill him if he ever sees him again.

The Menagerie
Adelaide tells the crew that, although he has been seen around Founder's Wake, Benefactor Orlean has not yet returned to the Parish; as such, he is in poor standing with the church for shirking his duties.

Benefactor's Folly
After the Beholder informed the Coriolis crew that Benefactor Orlean had purchased Heretic Knob' s journal from Ol' Joshy, he became one of the main suspects in the murder of the Hand of Guidance. The Coriolis crew and Ballaster Kodeira began tracking him using a device from the Beholder.

They track him into the Ethersea to a dome made of bleached coral bodies. It is revealed that he built the dome and sealed himself inside after reneging on a promise he made to show the bleached Brinarr how to build a portal to another world; instead, after gaining their trust, he took command of an army of their people and forced them to protect him while he worked on his own project.

The Coriolis crew eventually find him inside his ship, working on a device that would allow him to send a message back in time to his past self; he tells Devo that he plans to correct a mistake that sent his life spiraling off-course. When Devo and the others attempt to intervene, he collapses the coral staircase they're standing on, sending them crashing to the ground below, and when they survive the fall, creates a coral dragon to attack them.

Although he gets the device working, Orlean is not strong enough to use it. When Devo finds him, he is lying on the ground, despondent. He explains that when he was younger, he followed the call of a mysterious voice to Founder's Wake, but that in doing so, he left behind a very happy life with a partner and two young children, and has regretted his choice ever since.

Devo speaks through the portal created by Orlean's device, revealing that the voice Orlean once heard was actually Devo's. Devo bids Orlean and the other people on the surface to take refuge in the Ethersea, but changes the original message and also encourages Orlean to bring his family, thus rewriting and splitting the timeline.

In Timeline A (the original timeline) Orlean dies. Devo carries his body out of the dome and brings it back to Founder's Wake.

Benefactor Orlean has not yet made an appearance in Timeline B, but it is implied that he did in fact bring his family with him into the Ethersea. As a result, he does not join the Cloister, which means he does not tutor Devo as a child; Devo is therefore not as negatively affected by the Church, so he graduates and becomes a Hand instead of working with Amber and Zoox. Amber and Zoox die at sea on their first mission as freelancers. The events of the Infinite Clam, Cambria's Call, and the Menagerie do not occur, and as a result the Benevolent Parish grows in power.

Physical Appearance
Benefactor Orlean has not been given a physical description, but he is an older man, potentially anywhere between the ages of 40-60.

Trivia

 * The spelling of his name has not been confirmed by the McElroys; another common spelling is "Orlene."
 * While of dubious canonicity, he may be a giraffe man, as mentioned in Episode 46.