Oren Hellbender

"**This curse is mine to bear alone, don't you understand that?**"
—Oren Hellbender
**Oren Hellbender** is a fan character designed by MagnumDong6969. Oren Hellbender resides in the *RWBY* universe.

Oren Hellbender is a member of Team CROC in the *RWBY* Universe, he is an attendant at Beacon Academy in the Kingdom of Vale.

## Biography

Born into a house of nobles on the island his people quite literally call Home, Oren's biological mother was attacked by a Grimm, a creature against all of humanity and all that humanity built, while he was still in the womb. This resulted in him being born with a special ability he would later discover in his childhood, as well as his mother dying in childbirth.

Oren, an only child with a single father, named Semaj, was raised with a struggle in the first year of his life, with some other women caring for him while his father was away for battle or other matters that required his leadership. Eventually, when Oren turned two, his father remarried to a woman named Enna, and Oren was able to appropriately imprint on a motherly figure. He was raised as an only child, and the incident of his birth was covered up in order to keep him from being shunned or shamed by other nobles and his tribe's society.

During his toddler years, Oren's personal account is one that is nightmarish and filled with violence, and he does not remember it much. In reality, Oren was affected by the circumstances of his birth, resulting in uncontrollable fits of rage as well as minor manifestations of Grimm abilities. Although encouraged by his advisers to end the child's suffering and behavior, Semaj, using his authority, covered up each incident and sought to research other cases of what was known as "Grimm's eyes", a condition arising from Grimm interaction during time in the womb. Thanks to this research, Oren's father was able to suppress these fits in the form of making them much less severe, before , later convincing the young Faunus boy that they were epileptic fits rather than Grimm-related ones.

When he was at a younger age, he was encouraged and guided into his homeland's military. As a result, Oren learned how to fight the Creatures of Grimm at an early age, compared to the rest of the world. He would be taught in higher education than the rest of his peers, taught to fight by an instructor, how to survive long battles and campaigns, and survive in the wild. In these years, he was also taught the differences between right and wrong from his father, the concepts of fairness to those from poorer families, and tutored by another nobleman on how to use and fire weapons. Through much of his training in combat, Oren had a lot of difficulty keeping his tail safe from serious injury, and he feared its amputation.

Almost five years after his home-grown training, Oren was enrolled into Bonfire Academy at fifteen years old. Bonfire was a primary combat school on the mainland for those who aspired to be Hunters, regarded as heroes that protect against Grimm and other more human threats to society. Here, Oren was taught how to socialize with others, as most of his private tutoring was done alone. As sociable as he was with adults, he had much difficulty with socializing with others his age, and seemed awkward to many others. In addition, Oren also hid how rich his family was compared to At Bonfire, Oren was able to craft armor as well as a weapon for himself, which he later refined at home with assistance from his family as well as his family's wealth.

As a personal rite of passage and a bout of arrogance, Oren set out into his island's dangerous wilderness in order to prove himself against a Grimm. During this time, he struggled to find water for two days, and food for five. On his sixth day, he nearly died from his first encounter with a Grimm, where his fits resurfaced once again. During this attack, Oren's eyes became red, his sclera turned black, and the veins around his eyes turned dark enough to appear black. In this fit, Oren was able to overcome the Grimm and retain the memory of it afterwards. Fearing this altercation, he returned to his home and angrily demanded what happened with him. His father begrudgingly told Oren of his origins, and the two refused to speak for many months before eventually talking to one another again and working out their differences together. While this took a long time, Oren eventually grew to both understand his power, and why his father hid it from him all of the years he'd been alive. However, Oren also found out that Enna, Semaj's current wife, was not his actual mother. This enraged him and caused another fit that nearly killed both of his parents, until he was restrained by his Tribe's military as well as his House's private militia. As a result, he was placed in confinement until the lack of strong negative emotions caused the incidental fit to reverse the changes made to him. During this time, Semaj, wheelchair-bound visited him once he was fit enough to speak. Both individuals, on either side of iron bars, decided that there would be no more secrets between them.

While this Grimm's power seemed uncontrollable, Oren sought to understand it as well as possibly use it. At one point, Oren consulted his father about utilizing this power to his advantage instead of having people being afraid of him. His father refused the idea until Oren was able to prove he could control *any* aspect of his power. As a result, Oren voluntarily put himself in confinement until he could manage to control it, utilizing one enemy of his tribe as a way to focus the Grimm's power through the prisoner's anger. Said prisoners and criminals were chosen and taken based on the severity of their crime, as well as reputation in their prison in order to better hide their whereabouts. One thing Oren did not account for was that eventually those prisoners would eventually form bonds and friendships with the prisoner in question. As a result, Oren became friends with three of these prisoners over the time it took to control himself, before finally being able to accomplish his task to pick up an apple from one table and place it on another. The basic control took more than a month to establish.

Once his self-training was complete, his father approved Oren to begin using his Grimm powers as long as he could control himself in doing more complex tasks. Each time he learned to control himself, Oren grew stronger, keeping himself imprisoned within the grounds of his family's manor. Eventually, he learned to control and subjugate his "inner Grimm" by feeding it with his own anger, as well as his opponent's own frustrations with fighting him. Control of this inner side to not manifest when unneeded took 15 weeks. As a result of his training, Oren was able to manipulate his Grimm powers to his advantage, rather than completely hindering him, or so he thought. When he completed his self-training, he enrolled in Beacon Academy in order to properly learn how to control more of his power, such as his aura and semblance.

At age 17, Oren finally transferred to Beacon Academy, and met his team after initiation. This initiation consisted of finding "relics" in the forest outside of the town, also named Beacon. There, Oren was instructed that the first person he made eye contact with inside of the forest would be his Hunting partner for the rest of his life. In Oren's case, it was Rowana Bristledhide whom he had made contact with, and the two recovered their relic, a rook, which was the relic he was required to retrieve. Him and Rowana were among the first in his class to recover the artifact. After Crzeck Armoredflesh and Crozenck Shieldback. Here, the four would eventually be put into a team, with their acronym designated as CROC, both named after the Faunus namesake of Crzeck, and that the team was entirely reptilian Faunus. This team would later grow to be extremely close with the exception of Oren, who attempted to keep each member of his team at arm's length to hide his identity and Grimm powers.

When Oren turned 19, he and Team CROC met and acquainted with an underclassmen huntsman team RWBY, fellow students at Beacon Academy, there, they interacted shortly before parting ways shortly before the events of Volume 2, although they were present for the breakthrough of Grimm from abandoned subway tunnels leading to Mountain Glenn. In the months that followed, he and his team were mostly busy and away from the Academy on elective missions that improved their skill and combat rating. During the two semesters that the team was acquainted and annoyed with the actions of Team RWBY, they mostly were away on such missions to combat Grimm incursions and protect civilians from bandits on escorting missions. However, a major crime boss named Roman Torchwick used a derelict subway track and train loaded with explosives to penetrate Vale's defenses from below by destroying a subterranean access point underneath the capital city. During this time, Oren and his team were present during the incident and managed to contain the small outbreak of Grimm. Believing the fight to be over, the team returned for the time being in order to participate in the upcoming Vytal festival, a biannual tournament where participating teams of hunters and huntresses would battle for a monetary prize, as well as keep the peace between the four kingdoms. Oren and his team normally had no trouble fighting ordinary Human and Faunus opponents, but challenged themselves to the task of fighting individuals who utilized auras and semblances in their combat capabilities. During the tournament, the team had trouble fighting in such drastically different biomes created by the Arena, and as such they only made it past four teams before being beaten completely. As such, when another crime lord named Cinder Fall, and the notorious terrorist group known as the White Fang attacked Vale with superior strategies to Roman Torchwick's, Oren and his team were on the sidelines and able to readily respond to the invasion.

During the attack, the White Fang and Cinder Fall used dropships in order to transfer their troops as well as Grimm, who mysteriously and mostly avoided the attention of the Grimm. This way, the Grimm were able to avoid passage into the city without interference from its shield system that normally prevented them from entering. In addition, Cinder and White Fang technicians hacked into military hardware from the Kingdom of Atlas' automated fighting personnel, programming them to stop fighting Grimm and White Fang, and instead target civilians and Hunters from each Kingdom. To go even further, Cinder's technology also had gained access to one single control ship that blockaded the Vytal stadium and managed to take down three other ships in the ambush.

Oren and his team were able to call their combat lockers, which would launch themselves from a designated area to their location with their weapons and armor inside them. From here, they took off to directly underneath the crashing ships to mitigate damage from the Grimm that gathered underneath them. Here, Oren encountered Neo Politan, a seemingly young mute that was an accomplice of Roman Torchwick's before his imprisonment. Due to her grief of being reunited with Roman on the captured ship only to be separated by one of her careless mistakes, she was especially intent on killing anyone that challenged her. The sadistic mute challenged the first person that came across her, which happened to be Oren himself. Oren assured his team that he would be able to take on a smaller opponent, and told them to go and help anyone that needed it.

For a while, Oren was faced with extremely difficult odds in challenging Neo, as Grimm would frequently attack the two during their battle. Although Oren was stronger, Neo was faster than he was, and managed to find chinks in his armor to exploit with her thinner and lighter weapon. Lamenting how he did not have a lighter weapon to wield, he instead resorted to use a bent piece of rebar that happened to not have any concrete on it, which was much lighter and less unwieldy to use against her weapon. As he was gaining ground with the rebar, she began resorting to using trickery in the form of her semblance of illusions. Due to this, Oren was unable to overcome Neo unless something else was done. He tried to tap into the frustrations of the girl, in order to feed his Grimm powers and use them to his advantage. As a result, Oren was able to cause a stalemate between the two. The Grimm's powers relied on Oren's instincts, allowing him more strength at his disposal as well as being better able to tell where the girl really was despite her illusions, but he could still be injured or killed if he made the wrong prediction. Neo knew that her frustrations only seemed to make Oren stronger, and if he was able to tell where she really was, she could be seriously injured or killed. She ultimately had decided to withdrawal from the fight, leaving their conflict unfinished despite Oren's warning that it would only result in them running into each other again if they didn't finish their fight.

When Neo retreated, Oren came across a signal that was causing his Grimm powers to act up more than he thought possible. In the middle of the battle for Vale, Oren heard whispers in his head demanding to know why he hadn't joined the voice. In his mental instability, Oren began walking towards the harbor, sword in hand, trying to figure out what the voice wanted and why. The voice introduced herself as Salem, and promptly left Oren as he found himself conscious of his actions again, and inches from walking off a pier into open water. As he gazed into the water again, he noticed a gigantic black mass with red eyes swimming away from the shore. Not wanting to reveal what he was to his team, he abandoned them during the fighting to his homeland.

During the events between Volume 3 and Volume 4, in a span of three months, Oren was set on unlocking his aura as well as his semblance, in order to not fully rely on his Grimm powers or to draw attention from Salem, believing that the large creature in the water was her, he did not want her to threaten his homeland. He had tried everything he could, from putting himself in dangerous and pressing situations in the wilderness to meditating under sensory deprivation. Nothing had seemed to work until he was once again contacted by Salem, this time from a communicating Grimm known as a "Seer", a small but formidable jellyfish Grimm capable of sending messages from the Grimm queen over long distances to accomplices that weren't Grimm. Here, Salem's appearance both startled and captivated Oren, and she was bemused that he had not told anyone about her, despite hearing her voice as well as her name. Oren didn't respond to her chastising, which only amused Salem more. She then asked him to come with the seer so they could meet in person, and he would then be taught of his semblance, as well as his purpose, with more flying Grimm to show that she would take him by force if necessary, and destroy his home. Faced with no foreseeable alternatives, Oren begrudgingly mounted a Griffon, allowing himself to be taken to Salem's stronghold in an unknown location. Despite being a prisoner, Salem allowed him to keep his sword and armor with him.

When Oren arrived in Salem's palace, he was greeted by Salem as well as her four lieutenants: Tyrian Callows, Cinder Fall, Hazel Rainart, and Arthur Watts. He begun with an outburst of rage that people such as this could abandon humanity, resulting in Tyrian and Watts' ridicule. With tensions brewing between the four individuals and Oren, Salem silenced her four and commanded them to leave, with larger, older Grimm entering the room as her guards instead. She directed Oren to take a seat, to which he did at her left side. He then assumed that she was more brains than strength, noticing that she was never alone, and sought to kill her with his bare hands. When Oren jumped to kill her, she grabbed him in a way that "made him feel like cardboard" and dislocated both of his shoulders. Unable to move his arms, and in too much pain, Oren was placed back into his chair. Sighing, she called Watts to come and repair his shoulders. Despite being tripped by his tail, Watts pushed each shoulder back into their sockets on Salem's orders, but was no stranger to making the process painful for the young Faunus.

Once the two were alone again, Salem asked him what he believed his purpose was. Oren stated that he did not exactly know, but stated that his most clear one was to be a Hunter, and to exterminate Grimm. Despite (possibly) being a Grimm herself, Salem stated that it was a good answer, as she had received more selfish or idealistic answers from others, and that they were always absolute. She then stated that she was proud of him, before stating that she would allow him to control his Grimm powers more freely thanks to him coming, and if he stayed loyal for another month, then she would allow him his semblance as well. When Oren asked what loyalty was by her definition, she simply smiled, stating that one way was to not get killed in the random attacks that he would have to deal with, as well as that he would know soon enough.

During his time at Salem's palace, he was frequently attacked by Grimm and forced to rely on desperate measures almost every time he was attacked, until the inner workings of his semblance had clicked instead. This release warranted a blast of his Aura incinerating every single Grimm currently attacking Oren. This warranted a personal congratulations from Salem as she suddenly appeared from the shadows, as she coyly addressed that his ability to feed off of the anger of others had always been a part of him, and that it was made apparent in his semblance. This led Oren to question whether or not he had always used people's anger intentionally in a sinister way, or whether because he knew he had a desire for more power, and also questioned if he had intentionally annoyed his allies to gain such power. Salem, seeming to read his thoughts, caressed Oren's cheek and told him that if he still doubted himself by the time he was made useful she would kill him. Oren was shocked at the statement, but not surprised, and only nodded as she seemed to flash a flirtatious smile.

During his marooning in the palace by the Queen of Grimm, Oren increasingly noticed tensions between him and an insane Scorpion Faunus named Tyrian Callows, one of Salem's lieutenants. The other Faunus frequently challenged Oren or tried to sting him with his tail, resulting in Oren fighting both the Faunus and the random attacks of Grimm at the same time. When Oren asked Tyrian why he was attacking him, Tyrian responded by saying he was getting too close to Salem, and that he should be the one that was by her side. Oren laughed at the Faunus, stating he had no idea what Tyrian was talking about, prompting another fit of rage and jealousy from the older Faunus. Oren countered Tyrian easily thanks to his passive semblance, and swatted him to the side, seriously injuring the man. When Oren attempted to interrogate Tyrian on what he meant, a Seer stopped him, before guiding him away from the fight. Oren then tried to resist the Seer, in order to consult Salem on what exactly she had plans for him. The Seer then took Oren to see Salem, who congratulated Oren on defeating Tyrian.

Oren still had questions, demanding that Salem would tell him exactly why she called him here, if it wasn't to control his powers. Salem thought for a moment as he demanded answers, amused he was making such requests but also inclined to tell the truth. Salem stated that his true purpose of being here was to corrupt him to her side, but she saw no point in doing that until she revealed one of two secrets. One, was that the reason she attacked Vale was to acquire four powerful relics in each kingdom. Another was that Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon before its fall, was actually capable of magic, as well as reincarnating himself in other bodies, and had multiple times failed in stopping her. Oren asked her if she thought he would be the one destined for hosting Ozpin's soul, and she denied it, stating that his purpose was entirely unrelated to Ozpin. She then questioned him, asking whether he could still be allied with humanity knowing that Ozpin had failed it multiple times. Oren responded with an angry yes, after deep thought, stating that Ozpin's failures would only heighten his success the more often he experienced them. Despite him staying so resilient, Salem appealed to Oren's interests, answering him on what his purpose was.

Salem told Oren that he would be used as a King Grimm, stating that since she was the Queen, she needed another powerful and sentient Grimm in order to produce more dangerous spawn than what were currently generating. She inquired him about how much he knew about Humanity's history. Hearing silence, she continued, stating that as much of humanity she liked to destroy, she also enjoyed learning of its tales. She stated that one of Humanity's stories was of two monsters named Typhon and Echidna, long since forgotten over history. She went on to say that since the Two Brothers created the world, humanity, and the Grimm alike, that Typhon and Echidna were the most powerful and ancient monsters to date. She stated that Typhon used to be her consort, and was killed by the two brothers. However, she stated that Typhon had the genius to preserve himself by infusing his blood with a mortal body, and so hid a fraction of his conscious in an ancient tribe who used to worship the Grimm in order to appease them. She stated that Oren's tribe, was that ancient tribe, and that Typhon's blood and life force passed from generation to generation, becoming stronger with each one, and that finally his form started manifesting in Oren. She then showed what seemed more and more like affection to Oren, and said that Oren was her Typhon, and that they had been apart for far too long.

Oren was mixed about this news, but knew something about it was true. Sensing his doubt, Salem reassured him that it was true, that each Grimm she had sent after him was always carefully planned, that she had been watching him from birth. Each one of his opponents until then was the strongest possible opponents she could pin against him, and that each Grimm he killed added to Typhon's strength, which was now his. She informed him that he needed only to make the choice to accept his power. When she didn't hear an answer, she reassured that Oren would still be "himself", and that Typhon was more of a body, or a title, much like the concept of Maidens, another subject that Oren learned of previously. When Oren chose not to become Typhon, the Queen Grimm became angry with the man, prompting him to flee from her palace during the day.

When Oren felt he was next alone, he fled the castle of Grimm in order to get away from Salem, trying for weeks to get away from the Queen of Evil, only to find out that he would get lost and end up back at her castle, where she would forcefully embrace him for another night of abuse, or end up being captured at the same result. Eventually, Oren utilized his Grimm powers in order to hide his presence completely, thinking like a beast and therefore escaping detection by Salem until he was far out of her influence, or so he thought. He managed to flee back to his home, and then masked his presence once again by channeling his aura rather than his Grimm powers, and prepared his homeland for an attack by revealing what was coming to his family, and therefore, the rest of the noble houses.

Throughout the next month, Oren and his homeland had finished building armor and weapons for their armies, reawakening their militant abilities and ingenuity in order to construct massive weapons and superweapons like the days of old, and an army size of five thousand. Among these were the Adjudicator, a ship whose size rivaled the largest of Atlas cruisers. This ship was brought from beneath the sea and into the sky to assist against the invasion when it came. The attack never occurred due to the unexpected presence of the ship and its still operational, but older, weaponry, and so the Homeland's military began reconstructing and restoring both its weapons and armor, as well as onboard technology. However, during a critical point in its construction, the invasion force came. It originally started with an attack of every Grimm on the island against his people, resulting in many casualties due to being caught unawares. It took time for the soldiers to suit into their armor, and even more time to prepare their weapons, resulting in more casualties. There were at least ten thousand Grimm in the invasion force, as well as Tyrian Callows, who Salem had deluded into thinking he would become Typhon if he killed Oren.

While the only shore viable for landing was invaded by large fish Grimm named Leviathans, heavy cannons were being set up and deployed against the invasion, resulting in the incineration of many Grimm, until the Leviathans walked out of the water and attacked the cannons, sacrificing most of themselves in the attack by dying to either the cannons' fire or the explosions afterwards. The Grimm then marched up the cliffs of that shore, wiping out the survivors or individuals who had set up machine gun nests. This initial encounter was devastating to the invasion force, leaving less than eight thousand Grimm on the shore to attack it. While Salem could always make new Grimm, they needed to be focused in other regions, and could not reinforce or carry out new attacks against Oren or his people after this one. However, the Grimm had managed to kill more than three fifths of the defending army.

The invasion force had managed to scale the cliffs, attacking the first of many important areas. One of which was an abandoned castle and town, long ago overrun by Grimm but recently cleared out due to the initial attack. Semaj, the acting general, had stationed a smaller force of soldiers in the castle, where they built and used what fortifications that they could, including six field guns that fired explosive shells, and some machine gun nests. Meanwhile, the main army with Oren in it would hide in the hills behind the older castle, intending to reinforce the castle when they felt it was necessary. When the invasion force came into view, the field guns let loose a barrage of fire, both intending to calculate the effective ranges as well as the proper Grimm phenotypes to target. These field guns proved to be very effective against the Grimm lines, but since there were few of them, it did almost nothing to the numbers of the Grimm army, other than take out heavily armored or difficult Grimm. As the army drew closer, the field guns became too hot to use properly, and so they had to wait for cooldowns in order to fire their shells, or risk exploding inside the field guns' chamber. When the field guns were cooled down again, Goliath Grimm, resembling elephants, stormed into the range of the field guns before charging at the castle's weakpoints. While there were many machine gun nests mopping up smaller or injured Grimm, they did nothing against the Goliaths due to their thick armor. When it seemed like the castle would be bowled over and overrun at any minute, the main army charged from the hills.

Before the battle, old machinery known as "stallions" were horse-like robots that could be ridden into battle without the dangers of an actual horse. Due to his tail, Oren was unable to ride one, and so chose to follow the cavalry charge on foot. The unexpected rallying of the main force temporarily distracted the Goliaths, resulting in a third of them being wiped out by the field guns blowing their heads off when they turned their armored heads away. The cavalry then charged, decimating any Grimm that were in the first few lines. When the Grimm regrouped, they managed to inflict many heavy casualties on the cavalry as they retreated to gain charging momentum again. Each charge wiped out hundreds, if not a thousand Grimm, until the infantry arrived, leaving three thousand Grimm for a remaining force of nearly 1,500 men, Oren among them. The machine gun nests ceased firing due to the Grimm slowly overrunning the castle, but cavalry continued its persistence in charging, seeking to keep the Grimm from surrounding or flanking the infantry. The Grimm charged the easier targets, while the infantry formed a phalanx of shields, rifles, and spears. The initial contact was devastating for both sides, as multiple Grimm died but also managed to claw their way over shields. Oren moved his way to the front lines, despite insistence from Semaj to not engage the Grimm lest he be killed or captured. Oren stated that it was his curse to be drawn into fighting, and that he would be fine. While the phalanx somewhat held, it was slowly breaking, and Oren needed to use the men's frustration against the Grimm to his advantage, as it only made the creatures stronger.

Oren had finally made it to the front of the line only to get cold feet, as he had seen hundreds of men and women lying dead, and Grimm dying and evaporating as well, covering the ground in a dense, black fog. Oren surveyed the carnage before building up his rage, men dying around him. Oren's semblance activated again, discharging feelings of anger that turned almost every Grimm present on him, before the young Faunus charged. While his semblance was intensely strong, Oren was outnumbered, and despite cleaving through hundreds of different Grimm, the Faunus was slowing down. When Oren felt like it was over for him, three familiar team members broke through the lines of Grimm with their own semblances. Oren recognized each of these people as his teammates, and was amazed at the fact that they had come. Crzeck approached Oren, smacking him in the helmet with the butt of his mace for abandoning them, but stated that he had his suspicions about Oren's powers, and would have supported him anyway due to the news they had heard about him. When Oren refused to get up again, he was forcefully lifted by Crozenck, stating that even if Oren was a Grimm on the inside, it did not mean that he was allowed to abandon the people that cared about him. As the team regrouped, Rowana stated that they would catch up later with each other, but they should fight now. During the fight, Crozenck sought to heal Oren instead of having him fight, and allowed the young man to fight when he felt he had recovered.

With the four Hunters in front, the soldiers behind were rallied, pushing forth until the rest of the Grimm's invasion force were wiped out. With Grimm bodies still evaporating from sheer firepower and semblances mixed in, Tyrian stepped out from them and challenged Oren. Oren, feeling that he couldn't win against Tyrian through sheer armor and brute force, shed most of his armor and borrowed a small sword. The two Faunus dueled, both using their tails and their weapons against each other, with the remnants of the defending army and team CROC allowing the two to fight with single combat. Tyrian attempted to sting Oren multiple times, but each time was met with the left gauntlet that Oren had kept on his person, and countered with slashes and stabs against the smaller man's arms and limbs. Each opponent was evenly matched, until Salem forcefully summoned Tyrian by having a Nevermore snatch him from the battle. The Nevermore also attempted to grab Oren, but the two were too far apart and protected by gunfire.

Cleaning up after the battle was a difficult task, where Oren had to say goodbye to many friends and commoners that sacrificed themselves to protect something that he was directly responsible for. The arduous task was met with little hostility, and the remnants of the army worked in relative silence as they gathered bodies and recovered weapons. During this time, the Adjudicator-class ship completed its reconstruction cycle, resulting in the sigh of relief that the silence had been pregnant with. With the superweapon ship up and running, Home no longer needed to fear invading forces for a long time. As the bodies were all recovered and properly dressed, each body was carried aboard the ship and onto its topmost exterior deck, where they were all covered and blessed by the morticians that dressed them. There, Semaj gave the opening ceremony with Oren present that Christened the ship as the *Adjudicator*. There, the bodies were all set aflame as the first scorch marks on the ship that could not be erased from its otherwise shining armor.

## Appearance

Oren is a tall, somewhat forbidding figure who's race is a Faunus, a minority species in the Kingdoms of Remnant that possesses one single trait of an animal. In Oren's case, he possesses the tail of a Komodo dragon, with rough and chain-mail-like scales. The tail is as long as Oren is tall. Oren's skin color is that of a Caucasian male, with thick black hair and brown-yellow eyes. In addition, Oren's mouth is slightly wider than most, giving him his lizard-like appearance. Unfortunately due to the weight of his tail, Oren has to lean somewhat forward in order to keep his tail from pulling him over. Due to the constant leaning, Oren's stature actually looks as if he is standing straight up.

As a result of his "curse" the iris near the pupil is red, and glows in the dark, but just barely. When Oren activates his powers of Grimm, the glowing intensifies and the red takes over. In addition, his sclera turn black, as well as the veins around his eyes as well as the visible veins down his arm, around his chest, back, and legs. When the mutation occurred, Oren's skin ruptured and bat-like wings began forming, and his fingernails elongated into claws, his tongue increased in length and became forked. In addition, more bone formed on the surface of Oren's skin. If that was not enough, he also grows significantly in size.

Oren's armor is very heavy-looking, but it is not cumbersome. It appears primarily olive green, with black accents that function for camouflage. Mainly, Oren's armor resides on his chest and upper body, with his legs lightly armored as to increase his mobility dramatically. Oren wears steel-toed combat boots and armored gauntlets. In addition to his armor, Oren also possesses a helmet. The Helmet is high-tech, in the sense that it has a slight affinity to water, smoke, and outside toxins, and can polarize in suddenly bright conditions (such as with flashbangs). In addition, the helmet is intimidating, as it does not show any aspect of his face, unless his eyes begin glowing when he activates his powers. The helmet itself has no way of showing emotion. It is form-fitting on his face, but large enough to provide give if a crushing blow to the helmet if it is struck, allowing the armor to absorb shock and keep him safe. Oren's armor also falls away upon taking too much damage, keeping the shards or pieces of that armor from injuring him as well as providing himself more mobility. In order to provide himself with an initial supply of ammunition, Oren wraps his forearms with 5.56 x 44 millimeter ammunition for his light machine gun.

Oren's weapons are equally intimidating, as it is the combination of a light machine gun and a bastard sword. Like all weapons in the *RWBY* universe, Oren's weapon consists of dramatic but quick transformations from one different mode. When it comes to Oren, the light machine gun's stabilizing secondary handle (for hip-firing) functions also as the extended handle and pommel of his sword. When this handle is removed and applied to the pistol-grip of the gun, the transformation of the weapon to a sword incites the stock and trigger-guard to form the cross-guard handle, while the rest of the weapon converts to a sword by extremely complicated folding of dense layers into a sword-shape. As a result of such folding, no area of the sword is safe to handle without being injured, even if such injuries are mild. The sword form is approximately 6 feet long, while the firearm form is only 4 feet long.

## Personality

Oren is known for being ambivert, in which he is known both for being introverted and extroverted. Oren knows how to open up to people he can trust, but is in general distrust of strangers. Oren is also known for black humor, in which he will usually make jokes that are controversial or in poor taste. Oren is also known for his blunt honesty, and lack of a filter when it comes to speaking his mind.

Oren's personality in battle is ruthless, he is known for effectively neutralizing his enemies and not showing restraint for when it comes to combating them. Oren is the only person on his team that has blood coating his hands and weapons. However Anti-heroic this may seem, Oren actually cares about the opposition's life, and will stop when the enemy is beaten or incapacitated, he only kills when the enemy is truly trying to kill him, and when he does, he makes it as quick as possible. He has no room for brutality or mutilation, unless said brutality is required to send a message and avoid more casualties than there should be. When Oren is assigned a target, he is very meticulous and has no qualms about eliminating said target without mercy or give him a chance to fight him. Oren's actions are easily questionable at first, but once someone looks into it, they realize he believes it is for the greater good.

However, when Oren mutated, the Grimm inside of him warps his personality to the polar opposite of having honor. The Grimm inside is brutal, and ruthless, and a sadist that enjoys dismembering and crippling its enemies, as well as killing anything as painfully as possible. This personality has only been seen once, and when it attempted to convince the rest of Team CROC that this was Oren's true personality, it was ignored and beaten quickly.

Oren is also evidently capable of withholding information as well as deception, as he was able to remain inside of Cinder's strike team and with Salem's faction convincingly enough. Oren suspected, however, that Salem knew his true intentions all along. This was changed when he realized he was capable of fooling her into believing he was on her side.

## Abilities

* **Weapons Master**: Oren utilizes his weapon-set, the *Willbreaker* to effectively eliminate any who oppose him on the battlefield. The weapon utilizes hundreds of rounds of 5.56 x 44 millimeter ammunition. He also utilizes a hatchet as his secondary, close-quarters-melee weapon, or as a tomahawk if he has no ammunition, or if his weapon is transforming.
	+ **Marksman:** Oren is a remarkable shot, and is capable of hitting targets as far away as 1,000 yards.
	+ **Swordsman:** Oren is capable of showing that he is a master swordsman, during the Vytal tournament, Oren had bested a total of twelve opponents, in one case facing two at a time and emerging victorious. During the invasion, Oren mowed down sword-utilizing White Fang members by the bushel, demonstrating his raw power as well as performance ability.
	+ **Machine-gunner:** Oren utilizes a light machine gun as an effective ranged and anti-personnel unit.
	+ **Ax-thrower:** Oren utilizes a small ax as his secondary weapon, and can throw it or use it as a temporary weapon.
* **Semblance:** Oren's semblance is regeneration, which allows him to regenerate grievous injuries and even severed limbs, damaged internal organs (including some portions of his brain), and broken bones extremely quickly. However, Oren cannot regenerate these items without a significant amount of fat and other nutrients built up in his tail, and so he often gorges on food after he has received these injuries. In addition to that weakness, Oren cannot regenerate from his head, although it could theoretically be reattached at the spinal chord, he is not eager to find out. He also requires an exit wound when it comes to injuries by firearms in order to regenerate, and cannot regenerate his blood fast enough to prevent him from bleeding out. The semblance is very useful when it comes to surgeries on the battlefield, as he does not require much care to how other organs or body parts are affected when it comes to the removal of bullets or arrows. After his Grimm powers were taken from him, Oren's regeneration increased in ability, allowing him to regenerate within an instant, instead of taking a week to regenerate his limbs.
* **Tail:** Oren's tail is extremely thick and muscular, and Oren is capable of using it as an effective weapon, giving him an advantage when attacked from behind. The tail is capable of inflicting a lot of damage on an individual who is unarmored or caught by surprise. It is capable of knocking multiple targets over, and even breaking a grown man's neck should he swing it hard enough.
* **Power of the Grimm's eyes:** Oren's Grimm's eyes ability nullify his perception to pain, increase his strength and speed, and improve his agility, essentially confining his aura to his physical strengths and abilities. As a result of consciously using this power, his skin grows pale and his eyes turn completely red and pupil-less, and black veins form around his eyes to match his blackened sclera.

## Relationships

### Family

* **Oren's Mother:** The woman that carried Oren and whose attack while pregnant cursed Oren with the eyes of the Grimm.
* **Semaj Hellbender:** Oren's father who helped him control the Grimm inside of him.
* **Enna Hellbender:** Oren's step-mother.### Allies

* **Team CROC:** Oren's team and trusted friends who have helped him with his powers and how to control them.
* **Humanity:** Oren's loyalties also lie with humanity.

### Enemies

* **Salem:** The sinister leader of all of the Grimm as well as one of Oren's instructors.
* **Creatures of Grimm:** The beasts that hunger for the destruction of mankind and all that it has built. Oren not only hates them because he swore to, but because he is able to know them at a personal level.
* **The Grimm Within:** Oren's personal Grimm that grants him his powers. The Grimm has hostility to anything that would try to destroy it; however, the Grimm is aware that anything that tries to destroy the host will also destroy it. The Grimm Within is aware of Oren's allies and is able to speak.

## Trivia

* Oren, Semaj, and Enna are all the names of ruling Monarchs spelled backwards. Nero, James, and Anne, respectively. This is a coincidental naming style of Oren's people.
* Hellbender is a reference to the type of salamander, however, it is meant to correspond to the "Dragon" aspect of Komodo Dragon, the reason being is that Christians of Medieval periods viewed dragons as spawns of Hell and thus spewed "Hellfire."
* Oren's appearance when he has mutated actually does take the appearance of a Dragon.
* Oren has stated one of his favorite hobbies is swimming.