VACALO

1. What the heck is Ordem Paranormal?

Before we talk about Arthur, we need to talk about his source material. Ordem Paranormal is a brazilian live ttrpg that began in feburary 2020 as a two-shot about 3 rookie agents from a secret order that fights the paranormal and 1 civilian with connections to their first assigned case that is dragged along for the trauma ride. It was created and GMed by Cellbit, a huge brazilian streamer; If the name's familiar, it's because he was in QSMP (1) and atracted a modest foreign following from his time as a participant.

In the Ordem universe, the world is divided between Reality, our real life with minor differences, and the Other Side, a untangible and incompreensible dimention of paranormal entities and absolute, mental shattering horror. They're divided by the membrane, or the veil, and without interfereance, live mostly balanced. However, the Fear felt by humans weakens it, making the divide between the racional and irracional more blurry, and allowing the forementioned entities to cross the border by taking the form of the fear that summoned it.

To keep humanity safe from the monsters created by the Other Side, Ordo Realitas, sometimes just called The Order, a organization of investigators, scholars, hackers, soldiers and anyone under the bus was created, with the goal to keep the membrane as undamaged as possible, hide the paranormal from the general public, and dismantle cultist groups that use it to gain power. Also to kill giant monster creatures.

It's a story about how there's no other path than foward. It's a story about finding love of any kind — platonic, familial, romantic — in the most fucked up situations, about the little moments of fun and happiness in between the tragedies, how the connections you make are what keeps you alive. People talk about the cinematics or dramatic deaths, but the silly little gags and funny interactions are remembered just the same. It's about grief, human messiness, choices, trauma and it's effects, and mostly, about hope and why it does matter. And not so coincidently, hope is the nexus of arthur's entire character.

2. THE MYTH THE LEGEND THE VULTURE

While Ordem doesn't have a main character like more conventional storytelling, if I had to pick one, it would be Arthur Cervero. Why?

Arthur represents and condenses all that ordem is in a full rounded and fleshed out character. From an unassuming and almost accidental begining to a veteran powerhouse who despite everything, still has the same charm and heart. I could be describing any of the two, because Arthur grew up parallel to the story, always enbodying the care and love in the center of the cold and harsh narrative.

Let's start properly. Arthur Cervero was born june 22th 1992, to Brúlio Cervero, leader of a motorcycle gang, and Amanda Cervero, a nurse, in Carpazinha, a small town in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. He lived a happy normal life, until that is his mother and little brother died in a car accident. Still, life goes on, and eventualy, after some arguments with his father, he moves to another state to persue music. He comes back, makes up with his father, and starts a band with some members of their gang. Ivete, the local bar owner and asskicking lady is his mother figure. Then, in more or less one week, everything goes to shit.

A team of Order agents are sent to Carpazinha to investigate the sudden disapearance of another order team that was looking into missing person cases with suspected paranormal envolvment. A giant death spiders kidnapps one of the party members and attacks Ivete's bar where Arthur's band was throwing a show, and due to his kind-hearted nature, he decides to help them. After that, the party explains what's happening and arthur and the gang decides to give the team support once again, since a rival gang of theirs is envolved. Then the whole gang dies, Arthur is forced to watch his father sacrifice himself for him and gets a scar of three slashes across his face. Since he learned of the horror that infests the world by having his whole family taken from him in one evening, he decides to join the order party for good, since they are, along with Ivete, the only thing he has now. Their team is named Equipe E, for "Esperança" (Hope in ptbr). He loses an arm, gets face-to-face with a relic (the most powerful manifestation of a given Other Side entity), watches one of his friends get stuck in an forced aging ritual, and loses another to the same ritual.

He and Ivete, having nothing left for them, move to São Paulo to join the main Ordo base. Seven months later, Elizabeth, the survivor of the aging ritual, goes missing. Him, the remaining members of Equipe E, another team called Equipe Brasa and an ex-cultist that the order imprisioned search for her. This season, Desconjuração, is the longest main story one, so to sumarize, everything goes to shit again. Of the nine original player characters, only Arthur and Dante, the ex-cultist, survive. Joui, one of the original Equipe E members, makes a pact with a paranormal hivemind cult led by another relic to give up his consciouness in exchange of his team's safety, and Kaiser, also of Equipe E, stays behind so the survivors can scape the main, newly awakend villan. Arthur has lost everything once again. And yet, guess what? He perseveres.

One year later, he's a veteran. Still whimsical, kind and good humoured, but more quiet. Serious, experienced, so so tired. Him, Dante, that is now his boyfriend best friend and confident, and a new team go to Italy to stop the main villan. Surprise, Joui's there! Due to the Other Side entities having a power struggle, he's free of the cult (not complety until he gets his memories of the past year back, but you get it) just to die, this time for good, as Arthur watches, powerless to stop. They capture the main villan, but can't kill him, so the team has to go back to Carpazinha to finish the story once and for all. And, before the current order leader goes missing, he hands down his title to Arthur, making him the new Ordo Realitas leader.

Also the Literal Apocalypse, the One From The Bible just stared. Yay, fun!

Do you get why we ordem fans want Arthur to win? He is in the same category as characters like Sonic or Superman or Suise Deltarune, an enbodiment of hope. The last survivor of Equipe E, the true unadultered perseverance that cannot ever be killed. Arthur has dies many times; All the way back, when his mom and brother died. When his father and his gang were taken. When he lost his arm and couldn't play guitar anymore. That day on Santo Berço, when Liz was forever changed and Thiago was left behind. When Injustice ripped Liz from them a second time. When his team died one by one. When Joui said goodbye and put on that mask. When Kaiser looked him in the eyes for the last time. When Joui went limp against the rock colisium floor, face disfigured. Arthur Cervero died every single time, and was reborn, not like a phoenix, triumphal and graceful, but like a vulture, of necessity and pain. He will keep going, to honour the ones who have not gotten this far and to protect the ones still here. What other option does he have? Leave Ivete and Dante alone, when they need him as much as he needs them? He wants to rest, but he can't until it is over. His hope is not a cheerful one, but a solemn declaration of resistence, of refusal to give in, matured and tested, again and again, everyday, against the abysmal, most earthshaking grief only a human can feel. He will continue to love, to love every agent he comes across, to protect his friends, to try to lead the order to a better future, because he refuses to give up who he is, even if changed, to the cold hands of indifference and hatred. DO YOU GET IT??????

3. More things about him

"But Hamal!" Maybe some of you are thinking, "I don't give a fuck about narrative parallels or well writen characters, i want a hot guy with personality!!!"

Very well. Look at this man.

This art is the most recent one we have in the current timeline. To be clear. I'm aroace. But holy shit.

There's more on the ordem wiki, but here's a compilation.

When he lost his arm, he learned to play guitar with one hand only. He's a comic book nerd. He's a metalhead. He's got fangs. He's canonically pansexual. He stars crying "for no reason" sometimes. His guitar case is his sniper case. He has leitmotifs within the ordem soundtrack. He was meant to be a special participation only for two or three episodes but ended up being one of the player characters with most screentime. He never intends to get a prosthetic. He has two earings, one red one purple, for his best friends he lost. He likes to cuddle with his friends and have drinking games. He is one of the gentlest characters i've ever seen in a piece of midia. He's also a badass and a responsible leader. He can deal absurd amounts of damage in a single round with sufficient preparation. How can you NOT love him????

Kudos to Guaxi, Arthur's player, for creating such a great great character.

4. Closing Thoughts