Pigment

Pigment, also known as black heroin or black H, is a designer drug featured prominently in the storyline of Orpheus. It is cheap and easy to obtain, and in the Orpheus universe has become the drug of choice of many addicts.

Effects of pigment on the body include mild hallucinations, ecstasy, sexual arousal and, most unusually, the ability to see, hear, and talk to ghosts. It can be smoked, injected, swallowed (in the form of pills or of vials of liquid), or administered in a tattoo patch, in which case it becomes known as piggyback. Pigment can also be used to assist in projection; this is mostly done by amateurs without access to other, safer projecting drugs. It is highly addictive in any form.

The ghosts of former pigment addicts are known as hues. Hues tend to be weaker than regular ghosts, and still carry cravings for the drug in death.

Origins of Pigment
Created by a Spectre possessing the body of Orpheus Group botanist Dr. Amours Katlilian, pigment is made by infusing the Kakos stromithicarum plant with Spectral ichor at the moment of germination. The sap from the resulting plants, which grow in more twisted and deformed manner compared to healthy specimens, can be refined into the drug pigment.

The Spectre eventually left Dr. Katlilian and took over Dr. Lionel Squib, one of the founders of the rivial projecting firm Terrel and Squib in order to introduce the drug to that company as well.

Both Orpheus Group and Terrel and Squib have since refined the drug to remove many of its more negative properties and use them to aid their resident projectors, especially skimmers. However, Terrel and Squib did not rid their “cleaner” version of its highly addictive properties; therefore, many of their agents work for their next hit as well as a legitimate salary.

Pigment is primarily grown in the countries of Turkey, Myanmar, Columbia, and Mexico.

Orpheus events linked to pigment
Pigment plays a major role in the plots of three books in the Orpheus series: Crusade of Ashes, Shades of Gray, and Shadow Games.

In Crusade of Ashes, players may encounter several street gangs that deal heavily in pigment. One is the Blasphemers, which seems to be one of the main distributors of the drug; another smaller gang, Six Deuce Gangsters, also plays into the Blasphemers' part of the story.

In Shades of Gray, an unknown person or persons has a batch of pigment tainted with strychnine, a highly poisonous substance. Users of the tainted pigment vials die very painful deaths following their consumption of the drug; one rave in the warehouse district has casualties of over 200 teens and young adults. The pigment pins the souls of the newly dead to their bodies and keeps them from transcending. Spectres then harvest the souls and destroy them all at the same time to build the first major Spectral hive in the storyline.

Also important are the number of cults that have sprung up in the past few weeks that use pigment in a number of capacities; some use it as a “safer” substitute for heroin, others use in parties and orgies, and many use it in ceremonies to see “angels of God.” These include organizations such as the Church of the Angelic Host, the Temple of the Mother of Vision, First Step, and the Aphrodite Society.

In Shadow Games, the cults from Shades of Gray have been shown to tie into one pigment cult, the Missionary Works of the Holy Ghost, and the leadership of all of the cults have been linked back to the Flatliners. Most of the Flatliners are working with Grandmother to distribute pigment to the masses as part of a larger, more devistating plan.