Mages who Awakened on their own and have no Mentor or mage group to train them. They have to learn magick themselves and while they advance more slowly are more flexible and versatile as a result.
In 1st Edition and early 2nd Edition Orphans were less fortunate “have nots” who had less access to knowledge, resources and allies. Mages of established groups looked down on them as wild cards and wondered why they didn’t join respectable mage groups. Hollow Ones were an Orphan group whose members had little magickal knowledge to pass on to fellow members. In later 2nd Edition and afterwards, Orphans were shown to be just as powerful and fortunate as other mages. The Hollow Ones became a Craft or Disparate group and Orphan meant a mage that refused to join an established mage group. Later editions of Mage state “Orphan” is derogatory but still use it a lot.
There is little setting info on Orphans