Marrow symbol
Marrow is the final of the eight Orpheus Shades to be revealed. The abilities of Marrow revolve around the reshaping of ghostly gauze and the summoning of ghostly animals. As in all Shades, there are four tiers of Horrors a Marrow can use.
Marrows tend to be flexible personalities, always adapting to change. Someone good at blending in in unusual situations, warming quickly to cultures unfamiliar to them, or who constantly follows the newest fads or trends a few personalities that tend to work best with Marrow. Conformist, Follower, and Survivor are examples of three Natures that Marrows tend to come from.
The Shade of Marrow closely emulates the Arcanos of Moliate from Wraith: The Oblivion.
Horrors[]
First-Tier – Flesh-Flux: The Marrow can reshape their gauze cosmetically and appear as another person, can manifest Stains using Vitality instead of Spite, and can give themselves Stains they do not normally possess.
Second-Tier – Familiar: Using this ability, a Marrow can summon ghostly creatures to do their bidding.
Third-Tier – Legion-Born: With this ability, a Marrow can turn themselves into a ghostly swarm of small creatures that act of one mind.
Fourth-Tier – Nightmarish Gestalt: With this Horror, a Marrow can absorb organic matter into themselves and take advantage of the mass and abilities the creature, plant, or person possesses.
Crucible – Clay Jars: When two or more Marrows combine their powers, they can raise dead bodies as mindless zombies to do their bidding.
Manifestation Forms[]
Zero Vitality: Manifests as a small animal (no bigger than a rat).
One Vitality: Manifests as a larger animal or a swarm of smaller animals (as in Legion-Born).
Two Vitality: Fully human, with subtly shifting and rolling skin.
Side Notes[]
It is presumed that Marrows are banned from Phantasm Horrors, as this would complete the "cycle" of banned Horrors. This was never explicitly stated in Orpheus: End Game , so was merely supposition for a long time. It wasn't until the release of WTO: Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition , where this was confirmed, sort of: Wraith 20 frames Orpheus Shades in the framework of Wraith Arcanoi rather than Horrors. The Marrows' Prohibited Arcanos is listed as "Sandman," itself likely a typo: the Sandmen's signature Arcanos is Phantasm the Wraith equivalent to the Phantasm Horrors.[1]
Non-canon Marrow symbol
Marrow also shares its symbol with the Orphan-Grinders. It is not known if this is on purpose or due to a misprint. The Marrows have been given their own unique (non-canon) symbol, created by Amanda Holyoak, which has gained in popularity in the Orpheus fan community.
Significantly, the Marrow seems to suffer from design errors, without a logical progression from Shade Manifestation to First-tier Horror, and with their Benefits directly duplicating possible Crucible Merits from previous sourcebooks.
References[]
| Orpheus Shades |
| Banshee · Haunter · Marrow · Orphan-Grinder · Phantasm · Poltergeist · Skinrider · Wisp |