There are many spirits in this world; some benevolent, some malevolent, some are ghosts, others poltergeists. We even deal with spirits from divine realms such as angels and demons. Just as there are guardian angels and archangels, there are also demons. In many cases it almost seems that there is one demon to stand in counter to each of the angels, or at least those angels that are important enough to be named.
One such demonic spirit is Orobas. Orobas is a powerful demon known as a Great Prince of Hell. He is said to have twenty legions of demons under his control – that’s a lot of demons! A single legion is 6000 soldiers which means he has 120,000 demonic soldiers that are under his command. “The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King” which was written by S.L. MacGregor Mathers in 1904 says that Orobas is the fifty-fifth of the seventy-two demons of Solomon. He was once an angel but had fallen. His official duties are to discover all things that have happened in the past, are happening in the present and to learn all things that will happen in the future as well as all there is to know about the divine and the creation of the world. Curiously he is known for his absolute honesty; it is said that any questions asked of him of anything he knows he will answer honestly.
Orobas prefers to work with conjurers, being ‘faithful’ to them. When summoned by a conjurer he will first appear as a bipedal horse but if requested will change into the shape of a man. In fact, he enjoys their company so much that he will prevent them from being bothered and tempted by other spirits.
Orobas has had a small cult following in popular culture, particularly in video games. In the Megami Tensei video game series he is a demon that can be player summoned. Another video game, Divinity 2: Ego Draconis shows him as a successful, god like ruler of the Orobas Fjords as well as using his name for a Cabal space ship, the ‘Orobas Vectura’ in Destiny 2. The game Shadow Hearts: Covenant has him as an optional boss fight at the end of the Neam Ruins side questing area; snap his photo there and the character Anastasia can learn the spell Euthanasia. In Dragon Quest V he is a recruit-able monster. He is also depicted as a skeletal demon that can invert gravity as a boss fight in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. There is also an appearance of Orobas in the extras of the horror film Lovely Molly – the extras suggest that he is the source of the main character’s demonic possession.
Little is known about the realm of Orobas, though he is believed to be a powerful Great Prince of Hell there is relatively little information available about him. There is certainly an element of ‘fun’ that the entertainment community has capitalized with a demon that appears as a horse but can also turn into a man.
