The son of Jezal dan Luthar, Crown Prince of the Union, and a man who has inherited his father's charm and none of his ambition - which in Orso's case means a cheerful, self-deprecating dissolution rather than Jezal's vain striving. Orso knows he is not cut out for what is being asked of him and is the only person in his vicinity honest about it. His arc across the Age of Madness trilogy involves the discovery that decency, in a world moving toward revolution, is not enough and may not be the point. He is one of Abercrombie's most sympathetic creations and one of his most brutally treated.