Marcus “Shade” Kincaid
🕶️ Marcus “Shade” Kincaid – The Shadow Operative
Tradition: Euthanatos (possibly Ex-Union)
Essence: Dynamic
Arete: 5
Tags: Rogue Agent, Deep Cover, Burned Spy
Concept: Erased assassin on a recursive redemption loop
Status (1985): Reappeared without explanation in Madison. Records say he died years ago. Reality disagrees.
📜 History
🕵️♂️ Black Operations Origins
Marcus Kincaid was once a Technocratic wet-ops agent. A member of Project Catalyst, he was deployed during Cold War metaphysical skirmishes across Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and parts of South America.
- Specialization: Eliminating “unsanctioned Awakenings” and deleting rogue nodes.
- Known for: Entropy dampening fields, predictive counter-magick, and burning timeline anchors to sever resistance before it formed.
Somewhere in Vietnam, Marcus encountered a Dreamspeaker node that didn’t die when it was cut—it echoed. That mission ended in blacksite disaster, and Marcus disappeared from Technocratic records.
☠️ The Deep Umbra Erasure
Rumors suggest Marcus was recruited into the Euthanatos after this disappearance. Others claim he defected, or was “turned” by something older in the Deep Umbra during a breach mission.
What’s confirmed:
- In the 1970s, Marcus resurfaced within the Euthanatos as a ritual assassin.
- He began executing corrupted mages, using both bullets and karmic seals.
- In 1979, during a mission in Madison, he encountered a Nameless fragment. His pattern destabilized and he was erased from all known records—digitally, spiritually, even from memoryGen Con Event.
Only traces remained:
- Shadows that shouldn’t move
- Reports of “a man with no reflection” seen near dying chantries
- An Umbra echo that whispered only his code name: “Shade”
⏳ 1985: The Shadow Returns
Shade is back. No one knows how. He appears at the edge of Council meetings, sometimes unseen by scans, unremembered until spoken to.
He carries a bone blade etched with sigils no one recognizes, and speaks only when entropy deepens. When asked where he's been, he answers:
“Erasing the thing that tried to erase me. It didn’t work. I came back with interest.”
He is investigating the Nameless’ recursion breach, and may be:
- A ghost
- A reforged shard of the Seal
- Or a warning in flesh
✨ Paradigm: “Everything Dies. Some Things Deserve It.”
Shade believes in death—not as punishment, but as correction.
- Reality is a wound
- Magick is triage
- The Nameless is not entropy—it’s decay without meaning
He views his acts as surgical, karmic, and necessary. If the timeline must be cut, he’ll find the weakest thread.
🔧 Practice: Assassination, Karmic Precision, Pattern Severance
Methods:
- Gunfire aligned with fate math
- Blade drawn only when the soul is weighed
- Umbra walks timed to resonance decay
- Marking targets with sigils of ending
🛠️ Instruments:
- Bone Blade of Ash Spiral – Cuts soul and shadow. Said to be carved from a dead god’s tooth
- Old watch that runs backwards. Every time it stops, something dies
- Spirit tags from past contracts—each one still binds him
- Hollowed Eye Lens – Lets him see how close a soul is to collapse
🔮 Sphere Proficiencies
- Entropy 5 – Pattern collapse, fate manipulation, karmic tracing
- Spirit 4 – Shadow travel, ghost communion, barrier phase
- Mind 3 – Cloaking thoughts, detecting fear and guilt
- Correspondence 2 – Short jumps, sniper-line rituals
🧠 Traits
- Dexterity 5, Wits 5, Perception 4
- Stealth 5, Firearms 4, Occult 4, Subterfuge 4
- Survival 3, Awareness 4, Intimidation 4
🕯️ Secrets
- Marcus may still carry part of the Nameless, sealed inside his Paradox scars.
- He killed a Nephandus that looked exactly like himself in 1977. No one knows who survived.
- The bone blade is trying to whisper. He refuses to listen.
🎯 Role in Nameless Echoes
- Guardian: Appears when someone is about to breach karma
- Inquisitor: Might test players for paradox corruption
- Executioner: If someone falls to the Nameless, Marcus may be ordered to end them
- Sacrifice: He may be the only person who can cut the Nameless’ final tether—but doing so could erase him forever