Marinette

## OTHER NAMES

* Marinette of the Wires
* Dry-handed
* The Dry-Witch
* White-Hands

**Marinette** is an alukite and a member of the Ligeia Club. She is described as young and hungry, and called the hungriest of the Ligeians. ‘All her children cannot slake her thirst.’ She consumed the previous holder of the Flaying Key at the Red Grail’s bidding, and consumes seven followers in a Grail Apostle playthrough. She is said to reek of rotten blood. The Grail Apostle speculates that there may be a woman huddled beneath the cloth and bones, and that Marinette’s striking and inhuman appearance could be a puppeteer’s trick. When she appears to flay the Heart dancer, Marinette is described as having gleaming dark skin, glinting white bone, and claws bright as brass. She holds a ‘red Key that might be a bloody knife or a ruby wound.’

She owns **the Flaying Key** that opens **the Kingskin Gate** and 'was present at the birth of all the gods-from-Blood.' Her sacrificial animal is a **black pig, sow or boar**, and this sacrifice is necessary for the Flaying Key to occur. Her associated animal is the boar, lining up with her sacrificial animal and her historical counterpart.

## Other Notes

* Marinette is the name of a loa (a sort of spirit which serves as an intermediary between the Creator and humanity) in Haitian Vodou, sometimes called Marinette Bras Cheche (Marinette of the Dry Arms), and who is believed to be the Mambo (priestess) who sacrificed a black pig at the start of the first Haitian Revolution.
* When she appears ingame, Marinette communicates only through aspect icons, usually of principles such as Grail, Edge or Lantern. Especially Grail. However, she is clearly and explicitly described as speaking, not using some other occult means of communication. Also, she clacks her jaw each time she speaks.
* Marinette is usually referred to as ‘it’ in the ingame text, but ‘she’ is used in the text from Enigma and in a few other places. The significance of this is not known.
* In the lead-up to a Heart Dancer victory, Mr. Agdistis says the following, regarding Marinette, “‘One will come to lend you the key.' He looks you in the eye. 'I beg you not to take her hand, not to look upon her feet, and not to offer her to drink.' He begins, very softly, to weep. 'It will hurt. I love her.'” The reasoning behind these warnings, and the history and reasons for his love of Marinette are unclear.
* She always leaves the skin of those she consumes behind. Sometimes she also leaves their bones. She appears to eat very quickly.
	+ It is possible that all Ligeians similarly leave the skin (and sometimes bones) of their victims behind, especially given Klêidouchos’ mention of ‘gleaning’ skins.
* During the Vitulation, the Apostle must submit themself to ‘Marinette’s marinations’.
* The possibility of the Marinette's body being the "puppet" together with the fact that Sulochana disappears when Marinette is summoned has led to a theory among some fans that the Marinette encountered in a Grail Apostle playthrough is a puppet played by Sulochana, and that the Marinette encountered in the Heart Dancer ending (and presumably in Exile) is the ‘true’ Marinette. This theory has largely fallen out of currency because of the fact that the Marinette encountered in Exile looks and acts the same as the one encountered in Grail Apostle.
* When petitioned for a gift in Exile, Marinette gives the Stained Gloves, with the description ‘At first I think they're still warm. After a little while, I realise they'll always be warm.’ and the Pentiment aspect, which reads ‘Mistakes were made. But that was not what had been intended, not at the beginning.’ The meaning behind this gift is currently unknown, but it may imply that Marinette did not set out to be what she is today, and stumbled into it by making certain mistakes.
* Her epithet ‘White-Hands’ comes from the Mr Eaten twitter bot (@Mr\_Eaten), which responded to the names of each Ligeian with an epithet. Five were new epithets, while two (Echidna -> Monster-mother, and Morgen -> Sea-born) matched existing epithets and can be taken as confirmation that these epithets are canon to Cultist Simulator (since the bot is dubiously canon for Fallen London and had few ties to Cultist Simulator previously).

## Sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Marinette, 'Our Lady of Wires'
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Our Lady of Wires, Kiev
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Enigma Phase X – Solution
4. ↑ The Kingskin Gate
5. ↑ Read 'Kitling Ripe and the Moldywarp's Grave (and Other Stories)', Guise: Boar
6. ↑ Marinette (Vodou)
7. ↑ Petitioning Marinette of the Wires, Down In One, #op.marinette section, etc.
8. ↑ The Last Dance
9. ↑ Blood
10. ↑ Speak to the Woman in Black-and-White
11. ↑ The Last Elements of the Vitulation
12. ↑ Stained Gloves, Pentiment
13. ↑ White-Hands.