If charity is the noble impulse to give of yourself to others, the Martyr turns this simple kindness into a sick, self-destructive parody.

Whether it stems from feelings of worthlessness, or an unreasonable fear of one deity or another, the result is the same: a Shadow who thinks that only through extreme self-sacrifice can one be truly worthy of existence. And the Shadow constantly preaches this truth to the Wraith, hoping to get her to think much more of others than of herself, to the point where she not only neglects her own well-being, but seeks to make herself worse just to make the others better.
 
Those who are overcome by the touch of the Martyr often look grotesquely messianic, or else take on the appearance of a raggedy pilgrim, star-eyed ascetic or complete wretch. The pathetic strangeness of their appearance puts them at -2 in all social rolls, except those that require the onlooker or listener to feel pity.

 

Heart's Thorn: No Greater Love
 
The power of the Martyr stems from self-sacrifice, and the Shadow can offer dice to help the Wraith perform an insane act of it. This might include such things as taking on an extremely superior foe {or far too many foes} to allow others to escape, or defend a Necropolis, or else bargaining as many favors as possible from a buyer while selling everything for the Wraith's favored cause.
 
The shared power makes others doubt their own intentions, and wonder if they, too, should lay down their lives on behalf of the Wraith. Each success on the Wraith's Presence + Angst takes away one from the Defense scores of each opponent in hand-to-hand combat range for the rest of the turn. Those who wander out of the Wraith's range get it back, until they return to it, and those who wander in lose it, until they wander out.