Orpheus Thracius (OR-fee-us THRAY-shee-us)
Poet-Musician
Orpheus Thracius (a.k.a. The Singer of Shadows, Eurydice’s Bard, The Living Head)
Orpheus was born October 9, 1274 BCE in Thrace, son to a mortal muse and an entity far greater than legend allowed—the being later known to mortals as Dream of the Endless. He grew into a youth of uncommon grace, a poet-musician whose every note stirred the veil between worlds. His love for Eurydice, and her untimely death, set into motion a tragedy that would echo across epochs. Denied his plea to restore her fully to life, Orpheus defied divine decree and ventured to the land of the dead. He failed—not because of weakness, but because he turned to hope one heartbeat too soon.
After returning from Hades changed and bitter, Orpheus eventually rejected the Dionysian rites and was slain by Maenads for his refusal. Yet he did not die. His father, in grief and guilt, refused to let his son pass fully into death. Orpheus's severed head, still animate, was placed in a sacred temple on the Isle of Naxos, where it sang prophecies and mourning songs for centuries. He was both honored and imprisoned—never aging, never dying, a relic of grief and divinity.
Over time, the songs turned bitter, then silent. By the modern age, only a few mystics and half-mad seekers remembered the truth: that the head of Orpheus still existed, a conscious fragment of a man sustained by the will of an Endless. It was not until millennia later—after ages of suffering, solitude, and silence—that Dream, his father, relented. In an act of mercy that broke his own laws, he granted Orpheus the oblivion he had long been denied. It was both a mercy and a reckoning, and it marked a turning point for Dream himself.
Mental characteristics
Sexuality
Heterosexual; deeply and exclusively bonded to Eurydice, whom he mourned to the exclusion of all others.
Species
Date of Birth
October 9, 1274 BCE
Date of Death
June 21, 1211 BCE / October 14, 1993 CE
Life
1274 BCE
1993 CE
3267 years old
Circumstances of Death
Murdered by Dionysian Maenads for heresy. Granted true death by Dream of the Endless, ending centuries of disembodied consciousness.
Birthplace
Thrace (likely near the Hebros River, in present-day southern Bulgaria)
Place of Death
Sacred vault on the Isle of Naxos.
Children
Sex
Male
Sexuality
Heterosexual
