Witcher Wiki
Oribasius Giafranco Paolo Reuven
People Gardener
Ori Reuven, disguised as a Bootblack
Details
Alias(es)
Ori Reuven
Bootblack
Profession
personal assistant to Sigismund Dijkstra
author
Gender
Male
Race
Human
Culture
Northern Realms
Nationality
Flag Redania
Affiliation
Redanian Secret Service
Location
Temple Quarter
Physical Description
Eye color
Brown
Hair color
Grey
Appearance(s)

Oribasius Giafranco Paolo Reuven, the personal assistant of Sigismund Dijkstra, the head of the Redanian secret service. He is described as constantly sniffing and coughing with lamentable personal hygiene. His secretarial skills, however, were beyond reproach. He wrote the manuscript Shadow People, or the story of His Majesty's Secret Service which was subsequently lost and remains unaccounted for.

There were, including the poet, four present — apart from Dijkstra, two other people took part in the conversation. One of these was, as usual, Ori Reuven, the aged and eternally sniffing secretary to the chief of the Redanian spies.
— pg(s). 197, Blood of Elves (UK edition)


Spoiler warning: Significant plot details follow.

Later, after the Nilfgaard Wars, Ori was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for six years in various prisons. He died from sickness in a temple hospice, less than a year after being let out of jail, probably succumbing to old age, his body wrecked by asthma, anaemia and glaucoma.

In The Witcher computer game[]

In the computer game, you can meet a bootblack in the alley outside Detective Raymond's place in the Temple Quarter. He is a good source of general information but you quickly notice that he seems rather well-informed for a bootblack. When you challenge him on this, he clams up and will not speak to you again until you have left the area completely and come back.

If you have previously engaged in a drinking contest with Thaler, you have a seemingly useless book, Shadow People, or the story of His Majesty's Secret Service. If you speak to the bootblack a second time, you will notice that you now have the option to give him a gift. Give him the book.

At this point, he says "You know who I am... ahem, I thought that scroll had disappeared for good.", which confirms that he is in fact Ori Reuven. After a bit more conversation, he gives you the Prophet Lebioda's signet ring, which will help Geralt get past Grandma at Shani's place.

Inconsistency with the books[]

Since Ori Reuven is said to spend six years in different prisons after the Nilfgaard War and the game events take place five years after the novel's ending, Ori should technically still be a prisoner and even if he was released he should be more of a human ruin, nowhere near the more or less healthy condition in which Geralt encounters him. (To be fair, his is the same model used for most beggars...)

Significant plot details end here.