Not much is known about Oberlin's life in the real world other than that he was a successful burglar. He began playing Nova Terra in order to break away from his past, only to eventually fall into his old patterns after his situation became dire. Oberlin tried several classes—-a magic caster, an agility-based fighter, and a chef—-but found himself ill-suited for all of them. He used his last Destiny point to become a Locksmith, a role already very familiar to him. He quickly advanced to Master Locksmith, and he scraped out a living in the capital by hiring out his services to other players, such as by unlocking chests and dungeons.

One day, a client came to Oberlin needing a box unlocked. Unfortunately for Oberlin, the box was cursed. He ended up having to pledge himself to the Ordo Serpentes, unaware of its true nature, in order to remove the curse. This pledge included the secretive order taking a portion of Oberlin's soul. While the tasks that the Ordo Serpentes gave to Oberlin started out relatively benign, they began to order him to retrieve military secrets as well as other sensitive information of the Human Empire. He was unwilling to take part in such tasks and tried to escape the order, but they used his soul to torment him with terrible nightmares. It was only with the help of Thorn (Xavier Lee) that he was ultimately able to retrieve his soul and free himself from the Ordo Serpentes.