Otto of the Silver Hand

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of violence, abuse, torture, imprisonment, and death.

Otto grows up in the monastery and is raised primarily by a monk named Brother John, who cares for him like he would his own child. Brother John has an intellectual disability due to a childhood injury, and he and Otto have a special bond that endures even as Otto gets older. Otto and Brother John spend most of their free time together, and one day, Brother John tells of his experience witnessing the appearance of the Angel Gabriel. 

Brother John says that Gabriel appeared to him in a tree and asked if the tree should be cut down. Brother John admitted that the tree was dying and should be cut, but then Gabriel brought it back to life. The angel explained that the tree must eventually be cut down in order to be replanted in paradise, and he then stated that nothing that lives ever truly dies. Upon hearing this, Otto hopes to someday have a vision of his own.

When Otto is 12 years old, he sits reading books that belong to Abbot Otto and staring at his favorite picture, an illustration of baby Jesus in the manger.