Orpheus: The Taste of Ashes - Glossary

(The terms and definitions below are mostly taken from the Lexicon on page 18 of the Orpheus main book.)

Beach

Vacation or down-time between missions; usually a week or longer.

Big Bad, The (projector slang)

A powerful ghost or projected entity commanded commanding several others or controlling a group of humans in some way.

Black Heroin

Pigment (see entry below).

Blips

Ghosts with slightly more vitality, generally interpreted as near-functional by agents. Also called "reactives" by Orpheus.

Breaker (projector slang)

A poltergeist (see entry below).

Coffins (projector slang)

Another term for cradles (see entry below).

Control Freak (projector slang)

A skinrider (see entry below).

Coppertop (projector slang)

A skimmer. So named because of the fact that Orpheus often asks them to provide Vitality to sleepers when not on active missions.

Cradles

Sleeper cryo-suspension tubes. Also called "coffins".

Crucible

A circle of ghosts and projected entities working together as a team.

Deadheads (projector slang)

Pigment addicts.

Death Merchants (projector slang)

Freelance mercenary projectors.

Drones

The weakest type of ghost; often called "static repeaters" for their tendency to repeat a set sequence of actions in a continuous loop.

Flicker (projector slang)

A Wisp.

Fumigation

A mission involving ridding a place of ghosts and projected entities, usually by destroying them; more commonly used by researchers than agents.

Gauze

A spook's body; a reference to its appearance.

Ghosts

Nonprojecting spooks; also called "post-life entities".

Go Zero (projector slang)

When a skimmer leaves her meat behind and projects out of her body.

Horrors

Powers used by projectors or ghosts.

Hue

A ghost who was a pigment user in life, essentially different from a spirit.

Jasons

Normal humans possessed by insane spooks or Spectres, and acting in a violent, homicidal, serial-killer sort of way.

Lament

A spook's type; defined as projector or ghost.

Malkovich (projector slang)

A term for a Skinrider's host or someone being controlled

Manifesting

A ghost's or projected entity's ability to appear and interact with the living.

Meat, The (projector slang)

Term for the physical body when a skimmer or sleeper abandons it to project.

Networking (projector slang)

Sharing vitality.

Nothing, The (ghost slang)

A rumour spread by some ghosts about what lies beyond death for them, and what happens when a ghost is utterly destroyed. Understandably, there's a lack of evidence.

Pigment

A new hallucinogen, also known as black heroin, currently on the streets. Addictive but cheap, and popular among the casual drug crowd (like college students and ravers).

Plasm

Technical name for gauze.

Post-life entity (PLE)

A ghost, spectre or any other non-physical entity. Though not precisely accurate, the term is also sometimes used to refer to projectors.

Project Echo

The Orpheus Group's investigation, creation and use of projectors.

Projectors

Humans who can send their souls out of their body. Most can only do this by 'sleeping' (see Sleepers), but roughly one third of Orpheus' projectors can also skim (see Skimmers).

Puppetmaster (projector slang)

Skinrider.

Quick, The (ghost slang)

Nobody at Orpheus knows how this term came into parlance, but it's a reference to 'the quick and the dead' and thus indicates the living.

Rave (projector slang)

Fight involving multiple spooks of any kind.

Reactive (projector slang)

A Blip (see entry above).

Ripcording (projector slang)

Act of a skimmer returning to his body immediately. Usually used as a last ditch method of escape, since it damages the body.

Screamer (projector slang)

Banshee

Shade

Type of ghost or projector. (For instance, Banshee, Haunter etc)

Skimmer

An agent who projects from her body using yogic techniques. This may take anywhere from moments to minut

Sleeper

An agent who has been flatlined and whose body is in cryogenic suspension. The process takes five hours each way.

Snow Job (projector slang)

A mission that looks too easy.

Special Effects (projector slang)

Any Horrors or Stains. Often used in public situations when conversation needs to sound innocuous.

Spirit

Most common type of ghost.

Spook

Term for anyone who is in gauze, whether ghost or projector.

Squatter (projector slang)

Haunter

Stains

Physical mutations that appear on the gauze of some older ghosts and projectors. Many of Beta Crucible have mastered the art of making some appear in useful occasions.

Vibe (projector slang)

The possible presence of supernatural elememts.

Vitality

The force of personality of a spook; the resonance of life within it. Drones and blips have scarcely any Vitality, but crucibles typically have a high Vitality.