New Orleans: City Overview

New Orleans is, and has always been, one of the most colorful urban centers in America. Few cities in the United States can boast such a deeply rich and multi-cultural heritage. The city is a melting pot of Native American, Spanish, French, Acadian, and Creole influences mixed with later Haitian, Latin American, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern elements. This has resulted in an interesting cultural blend that cannot be easily defined or categorized. This fusion of cultures is perhaps best expressed in the city's world-renowned art, music, architecture, cuisine, unique dialects, and annual celebrations.

New Orleans is home to two separate thriving religions. It boasts a Catholic majority and a significant Voodoo minority. Yet, it is known far and wide as a city of vice, drawing millions of tourists who come to shed their inhibitions in yearly festivals such as Mardi Gras. The city is an endless combination of debauchery and faith, punctuated by tall cathedrals, flickering street lights, crowds of strangers, and entire neighborhoods that exude a complex culture and rich sense of place. In N'awlins, history struts as loudly as Carnival, and the supernatural is very prevalent if one knows where to look.

As with any modern city, New Orleans has its troubles. Crime is a significant issue, which is perhaps not surprising given the city's high number of visitors. Wealth disparity is also very visible, with the rich dwelling in the palatial houses of the Garden District, and impoverished, overcrowded neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward remaining devastated from the effects of Katrina. New Orleans struggles with infrastructure problems as it combats regular flooding, subsidence, and pollution (the city's fishing industry still suffers from the ecological damage caused by the BP oil spill in 2010). Each year the city sinks a little deeper into the surrounding swamp. And this is on top of all the ghosts.

New Orleans has one of the highest (if not the highest) population of ephemeral entities in the United States, earning among Sin-Eaters the appellation of "Most Haunted City in America." The municipality's tumultuous and tragic history is a large reason for this, as is the abnormally high amount of cenotes and Underworld gateways found within the region. Its many past battles, natural disasters, fires, outbreaks, and brutal slave trade, as well as more recent catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina and the global pandemic, have all contributed to the city's sheer number of hauntings. New ghosts are constantly being born, and older ghosts tend to be established and powerful. It's enough to keep the New Orleanian Bound busy and vigilant.

Being a Sin-Eater in New Orleans means having your work cut out for you.

Also Called: The Big Easy, Crescent City, N'awlins, NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Population: 383,997 (1,270,530 in the metro area)
Area: 349.85 square miles


New Orleans Geography

To be written...


Lexicon of the New Orleans Sin-Eater

Anchor: A person, place, or thing that keeps a ghost tied to the world of the living. Equivalent to a Sin-Eater's Burden. Resolving a ghost's emotional attachment to its Anchors allows it to Pass On.

Barghest: A term for the ghost of an animal, any species.

Bayou: As used in Louisiana, this refers to the vast wetlands, streams, and marshy lakes that comprise the Gulf Coast region of the Southern United States.

Cajun: An ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana. They are mostly descended from the French-speaking Acadians that came from Eastern Canada. Known for their vibrant traditions, cuisine, music, and unique dialect.

Cast-Off: A ghost object.

Chthonian: A term for one of the monstrous natives of the Underworld.

Cities of the Dead: New Orleans cemeteries. Because of the high water table, bodies in New Orleans tend to be buried above ground rather than under it. Elaborate monuments and headstones cluster together like small communities.

Corpse Cake: Due to Plasm's offensive taste, Sin-Eaters developed the practice of placing such ghostly residue inside small cakes or pastries before consuming it. The term "corpse cake" has now come to refer to any foodstuff used to mask the taste of Plasm. In New Orleans, local cuisine such as king cakes, po'boys, and beignets are common for this purpose.

"Eat Sin": A figure of speech for resolving a ghost's Anchors. To "eat a ghost's sins" means to take on a ghost's Burdens; to help it let go of its Anchors in order to Pass On.

Ectophagia: The act of eating a ghost. All Sin-Eaters are capable of committing ectophagia, which fully restores one's Plasm, but the act is terribly upsetting to geists.

Ghost-Eater: An umbrella term for any non-Bound individual who has learned how to eat ghosts and draw power from it.

Great Below, The: The Underworld.

Gris-gris: Pronounced gree-gree. Originally a term for a Voodoo talisman, New Orleanian Sin-Eaters have borrowed the word to use in reference to a memento.

Haint: Another word for "ghost." Derived from Gullah folklore.

Holy Trinity, The: Celery, bell pepper, and onion. The three vegetables that are staple ingredients in Cajun and Creole cooking.

Keener: A mercenary Sin-Eater. Although many of the Bound accept money for their services, keeners are motivated solely by profit. The term comes from the word for professional mourners paid to grieve at funerals.

Lagniappe: Pronounced lan-yap. This is Cajun French for "a little extra." Often used to describe something good or an unexpected benefit.

"Laissez les bon temps rouler": A Cajun French expression meaning "Let the good times roll." A common Mardi Gras catchphrase.

Louisiana Creole: People descended from the original inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the U.S. Their ancestry is mainly African, Spanish, French, and/or Native American. Although the word once implied mixed racial origins, it is not considered a racial label, and people of many different backgrounds identify as Creole. Creole culture has had a strong influence on the music, cuisine, and religious practices of Louisiana.

Loup-Garou: The term, as used by most Louisiana Sin-Eaters, refers to a werewolf.

Low Place: Another term for a cenote, on account of the fact that many cenotes are located in subterranean locations or far below sea level (i.e., literal low places).

Memento: An object saturated with death energy. Mementos are solid to ghosts and provide Sin-Eaters with access to additional Keys.

Ofrenda: Spanish for offering. This occurs when the living take an action to remember the dead; such remembrances generate Essence for the remembered ghost. An ofrenda can range from visiting a loved one's grave to full-blown festivals like Dia de Los Muertos.

Parish: Louisiana's equivalent to a county.

Picayune: An old Spanish coin that was 1/8 of a dollar. Connotes something small or petty.

Plasm: Ectoplasm. The residue left behind by a ghost when it manifests. Also generated when a Sin-Eater unlocks one of his Keys. It typically takes the form of a foul smelling and tasting jelly. Sin-Eaters use Plasm to fuel their Haunts. As a physical substance, Plasm cannot simply be absorbed by the Bound and must instead be consumed like food.

Sacrosanct: A Sin-Eater fundamentalist. Sacrosanct krewes follow extreme ideologies that make them dangerous to the living and/or the dead, including other Bound.

Shotgun House: A type of house popularized by New Orleans. Characterized by being long, narrow, single room wide, and a few rooms deep. Popular folklore says that the homes’ design allows a shotgun to fire a bullet through the open front door, straight through each room and out the back door unscathed.

Tick: A derogatory term for a vampire.

Twilight: The natural state of ephemeral beings when in the Material World. Beings and objects in Twilight cannot be seen, heard, or felt by mundane senses.

Vanitas: A memento crafted by a Sin-Eater.

Wanga: Another word borrowed from Voodoo. New Orleanian Sin-Eaters used it to refer to a curse or hex, usually of the variety imposed by The Curse Haunt.

Yellow Bones: An old ghost. Typically at least a century or older.

A Brief History

The earliest known people to inhabit the area that was to become New Orleans is the Tchefuncte culture. This hunter-gatherer society constructed scattered settlements of mud-caked thatch sometime around 600 BCE, leaving behind cultural artifacts in the form of pottery shards, tools, and jewelry that archaeologists still study to this day. They were followed by the rise of several Native American tribes, namely the Choctaw, Houma, Chickasaw, and Muskogeans, all of whom flourished for more than a thousand years along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. This would unfortunately change when a Spanish explorer by name of Alonso Alvarez de Pineda sent word of the discovery of an entryway to the heart of North America in 1519. He had found the Mississippi, and now all of Europe was eager to explore. Although Hernando De Soto made it as far as the river in his grueling, three-year trek overland from Florida in 1542, it would be a Frenchman named Robert Cavalier, Sieur of La Salle, who would finally settle and lay claim to the region for his king, Louis XIV (for whom the state of Louisiana was named), some 14 decades later. Afterward, once JeanBaptiste Le Moyne, Sieur of Bienville, located the river's muddy outflow in 1699, the area became a viable colony as well as a symbol of European ambition. Much like the indigenous people before them, Europeans valued the region for its abundant ecological resources and navigable network of rivers, bayous, and bays.

In 1718, Le Moyne dubbed the fledgling French colony Nouvelle Orléans in honor of the Duc d’Orléans. The outpost experienced an influx of French immigrants (many of which were criminals, misfits, and other "undesirables" that the French government was only too happy to get rid of), as well as slaves imported from the Caribbean. However in 1723, France ceded Louisiana to Spain in order to keep it out of the hands of the British, who were the victors of the recent French and Indian War. For the remainder of the 1700s, Louisiana was a Spanish colony, and New Orleans served as an important center of trade. It was during the Spanish colonial era that New Orleans transformed from a village-like environment of wood houses to a city of sturdy brick buildings with urban infrastructure, largely due to the labor of slaves. Disastrous fires in 1788 and 1794 prompted major architectural changes to the city, including Spanish contributions for which the city is now famous, such as wrought-iron balconies, courtyards, above-ground cemeteries, and more.

In 1800, the Spanish retroceded Louisiana back to France, only to have Napoleon sell the entire Louisiana colony, including New Orleans, to the United States as part of the $15 million Louisiana Purchase, finalized on December 20, 1803. In 1815, the city was the site of major fighting in the American Revolution - the Battle of New Orleans - which resulted in the victory of then Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson and his forces. Pirates, privateers, and smugglers operated heavily during this period, attracted to the city's flow of goods.

In the mid-1800s, the highest concentration of millionaires in America could be found between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Their wealth came largely from sugar cane plantations, which depended on the labor of thousands of enslaved African Americans. In the 1850s alone, Louisiana plantations produced an estimated 450 million pounds of sugar per year, worth more than $20 million annually. By 1840, New Orleans ranked as the third-largest city in the nation, the largest in the South, and the fourth-busiest port in the world. Despite the city's progress, there were still constant threats in the form of river floods, hurricanes, and fires, as were devastating epidemics of yellow fever, dengue, malaria and cholera.

Louisiana seceded from the Union in 1861, becoming a staunch member of the bourgeoning Confederacy. Union troops captured Confederate New Orleans in May 1862 and occupied the region for the remainder of the American Civil War. Afterward, a racially integrated Reconstruction-era government passed a new state constitution and sought to establish civil rights for emancipated slaves. But after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, white-supremacist forces steadily regained control, and racial subjugation and segregation would ensue for a century to come. In the late Victorian period arts and performance flourished, and it was at this time that jazz emerged, giving rise to the city's "Jazz Age" and "French Quarter Renaissance."

The 20th century saw industry grow in New Orleans, and the city modernized. New bridges and highways were built to access expanding suburbs, and skyscrapers began to break the city's modest skyline. New Orleans contributed to World War Two with its many shipyards, and the city's "Higgins Boats" were employed at the beaches of Normandy and the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific.

In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement brought dignity and new opportunities to Black New Orleanians. But, as elsewhere, resistance to school integration and a reduced tax base left some inner-city neighborhoods impoverished and divested. The oil bust of the early 1980s, coinciding with the mechanization of port activity and the decline of well-paying shipping jobs, led to a regional recession and population exodus. By the late 1990s, however, an increasingly robust tourism sector and a more diversified economy helped mitigate the losses, though they fell short of returning the metropolis to its earlier economic position.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina landed east of New Orleans, driving a storm surge into manmade canals and breaching federal levees and floodwalls in numerous locations. Eighty percent of the urbanized East Bank flooded, tens of thousands of people were trapped in the deluge for days, and over 1500 people would eventually perish. Many evacuees never returned, and some neighborhoods, particularly the Lower Ninth Ward, endure today with significantly reduced populations. While recovery proved slow and contentious at first, sheer grit got most New Orleanians through the crisis.

The city is still recovering to this day.

Ghost Hunting in the Big Easy

Ghosts are abundant in New Orleans. No one has an exact number (and in reality, it'd be next to impossible to ever get one), but some Sin-Eaters estimate that there may be roughly one ghost for every fifty living persons in the NOLA metropolitan area. With the city's many historic structures, sites of tragedy, and storied past, it's not shocking that the dead are everywhere in the Big Easy. Though the highest concentrations are found in historic neighborhoods like the French Quarter and Algiers, there is no lack of ghosts in any section of the city, new or old.

A non-trivial number of those dead are what have been dubbed "yellow bones" - ghosts of notable age and power. Mostly located in the ancient parts of the city, a yellow bones has generally been dead at least a century or longer. These ghosts are difficult to route or Pass On due to their deep entrenchment in the local communities of the dead. Most yellow bones have acquired a high number of numina and Anchors, and they possess decades - if not centuries - of experience in surviving on the Twilit streets of the living world. These shades have learned how to successfully compete against other ghosts and evade Reapers, and they hustle for Essence or Memories the way a streetwise urbanite hustles for cash. Such ghosts are challenging foes, even for the Bound. They are clever, connected, and can be surprisingly lucid for having been dead so long. If she can't overpower a Sin-Eater, a yellow bones often has the savvy and resources to outwit or escape one.

Essence keeps the dead out of the Great Below. Many yellow bones have become so good at acquiring Essence that their Corpus overflows with it. They take their surplus Essence and share it with other ghosts who are willing to serve them. This keeps many ghosts safe from the hungry jaws of the Underworld but creates a hierarchical system of dependence. Those serving a yellow bones in this manner often compare it to the feudal kingdoms of old. Sin-Eaters, however, recognize the practice for what it is: an abusive form of patronage. In the worst cases, the yellow bones has the clout to build a veritable small army of subservient shades that can prove too much for a single krewe to handle.

Against Reapers, the philosophy of many ghosts is "safety in numbers." As such, ghosts will frequently flock to the yellow bones since these old ghosts seem to radiant a narcissistic kind of strength and confidence, even in the face of Reapers. But in truth, ghostly gatherings mean little against a qualified Reaper, who can cut through throngs of lesser shades like slicing through a cake. Still, company brings comfort to the dead, so many cling together either in the service of a yellow bones or in cemetery-based refugee camps. The cemeteries of New Orleans, particularly Louis Cemetery No. 3 and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, contain relatively large populations of ghosts living in makeshift shanty towns comprised of cast-offs (ghost objects) scrounged from around the city.

Gentrification also affects the dead, as redevelopment often destroys their Anchors and plunges hapless ghosts into the Underworld. If a ghost is anchored to its childhood home, for instance, that ghost faces a trip to the Great Below should the city government decide to condemn and demolish that home. Consequently, Sin-Eaters try to keep abreast of plans for major construction and urban development, since such plans inevitably put one or more ghosts in danger. It's not uncommon for a Sin-Eater to find herself racing against the clock, trying to help a certain ghost Pass On before the city commences a scheduled construction project that would doom the poor soul.

The Sin-Eaters of New Orleans: The Six Krewes

There have been Sin-Eaters in Louisiana for as long as people have lived there. The earliest Bound were presumably members of the local indigenous tribes; Native Americans who returned from death's door with strange powers and even stranger wisdom. Such individuals undoubtedly rose to positions of power and status within their societies. The Europeans that followed brought some of their own Bound with them, but most Sin-Eater colonists died and took the Bargain after arriving in the New World. Regardless of their origins, it seems as though the Bound have always been drawn to the area that would become New Orleans. The region's growing problem with ghosts was something even historical Sin-Eaters noted, going as far back as the native tribes that first lived along Lake Pontchartrain.

History shows that the Bound population tends to fluctuate drastically, It's understood that spikes in the global number of Sin-Eaters occur in hand with large-scale losses of life: wars, famine, outbreaks of disease, etc. That number would then dip during periods of relative stability. Yet the last fifty years have seen the population of Bound on a steady rise without any sign of slowing or declining. No one is certain about the cause of this population explosion. Some argue that the sheer weight of human population has reached the point that even the normal daily mortality rate across the globe creates enough death resonance to fulfill the Bargain. Others say it's a sign that the Underworld is gaining too much power over the lands of the living. Whatever the case, no one can deny that New Orleans has more Bound than ever before.

The term "Sin-Eater community" is a loose one, since each krewe typically acts as an island unto itself. There are no official laws, treaties, or agreements between the city's Sin-Eaters. There is no central authority or governing body that oversees the krewes of New Orleans; each group functions independently. While some krewes may cooperate on occasion, most (with the exception of Necropolitans, of course) keep to themselves and manage their own affairs. When multiple krewes work jointly, it's frequently due to the existence of a major threat to the city. New Orleanian krewes will also meet annually for a so-called grand convocation - a gathering of the city's Sin-Eaters that takes place during Mardi Gras - where krewes can celebrate, catch up with one another, network, and hash out grievances.

Currently, there are six recognized krewes that operate within the New Orleans metropolitan area. These groups, all of varying size, age, and influence, are what keeps the Big Easy from being overrun with ghosts. This list, however, does not cover independent Sin-Eaters without krewes, as well as those Bound who do not fall under the definition of "Sin-Eater."


Le Krewe LaBas

Le Krewe LaBas is one of the founding krewes of the Sin-Eater community in New Orleans. In fact, it was this iconic group that popularized the term "krewe" in modern parlance.

LaBas formed in the aftermath of a 1920 rumble between two Mardi Gras Indian tribes, the Red Magnolias and the Burning Arrows, which turned lethal. During the melee, officers on both sides were slain — but they immediately returned as Bound, laughing and embracing to both krewes’ confusion. Mardi Gras societies’ organization, infrastructure, and secrecy founded a united krewe that grew to become one of the most powerful and influential groups in New Orleans. The krewe is still around today, mostly made up of elder statesmen, but still recruiting actively. They have business in the Underworld, but much of their contribution to the community is in organizing and supporting fledgling krewes with financial aid and mentorship.

In keeping with their Necropolitan outlook, LaBas works to maintain a strong relationship with other krewes, independent Bound, and ghosts. Its members will offer to help mediate conflicts between krewes, and they provide various forms of assistance to Bound that are tackling issues too formidable for a single krewe to handle. Given that most krewes function as independent operators, LaBas' efforts to foster cooperation and community among Sin-Eaters is not always appreciated. Competition between death cults can get fierce, and LaBas' intervention is sometimes met with resentment or suspicion.

Although Le Krewe LaBas has no official leader, per se, New Orleanian Sin-Eaters view Mamaloa Lavinia Aguillard as the group's unspoken matriarch. Known affectionately in the Bound community as "Grandmother" or "The Old Woman," Lavinia is the oldest Sin-Eater in New Orleans, and also perhaps the most venerable. At ninety-four years of age, this Creole native has worked tirelessly to better the lives of the city's ghosts and her fellow Sin-Eaters, not to mention her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the '60s and '70s. Though Lavinia has no authority over other krewes, many Sin-Eaters will often defer to her advice and wisdom out of sheer respect.

Now bed-ridden and close to death, Lavinia uses her final days to shore up her legacy. She hopes to leave behind lasting peace and solidarity. Rumors have it that Lavinia and the other LaBas Sin-Eaters were responsible for curtailing several conflicts between the Bound and the undead. While no one knows for sure, some believe that Lavinia forged a longstanding peace agreement with the vampires of New Orleans. Now that Lavinia doesn't have much time left, some worry about what happens to this agreement once she passes.


The Orphean Ensemble

The Orphean Ensemble is unique, even among Sin-Eater krewes. Part death cult and part traveling jazz band, the group's mission is a singular one: to give the dead one final show before they Pass On. These Bound draw on the power of music and its close association with death - everything from the ancient legend of Orpheus, to New Orleans jazz funerals, to the vocal laments of Irish keeners. With a mythology built on music, each and every member is expected to have musical skills of some sort. Some were musicians before the Bargain, while others learned to play after the fact. New Orleans jazz is the krewe's first love. Though members have experimented with other styles, from Hip Hop to Rock n Roll, they always seem to make their way back to the jazz genre and its siblings, blues and ragtime.

The krewe was founded by Jimmy "Fats" Parker, a New Orleanian jazz trumpetist who met his end when Hurricane Betsy struck the city in 1965. Unwilling to give up music (the one love of his life), Jimmy eagerly took the Bargain. He and his geist, The Whistler in the Dark, then went on the road, touring Louisiana and adding those with musical talent to their roster, both living and dead. It wasn't long before Jimmy had an ensemble of Sin-Eater and celebrant performers equipped with unearthly voices and eerie melodies; their geists singing songs that only the dead can hear. Though the krewe's founding members have all since passed, the group continues on and recruits those among the Bound with a love of music. The Ensemble plays all over New Orleans, and they are a fixture at many of the city's jazz clubs, speakeasies, bars, and music festivals.

The Orphean Ensemble perform for the living and the dead. They bring words of hope and peace to the spirits of the deceased; to brighten their existence with song and laughter. Members see themselves as modern day warrior-bards or poet-psychopomps who employ the beauty of sound to put the dead to rest. The krewe hopes to bring peace to the dead in one of two ways: to provide comfort enough for them to keep facing eternity, or to help them Pass On. The living who stop and listen to the Ensemble may feel their troubles slip away—at least for a little while. The krewe's musicians are talented and know how to draw a crowd. Not surprisingly, The Dirge is the krewe's Haunt of specialty.


The Bourbon Street Harbingers


The Chosen of the Pale Rider


The Catechists of Charon