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Death SD417
Death
Alias

Anubis[1]

The Grim Reaper

Characteristics
Race

God

Gender

None

Pronouns

he/him or they/them

Personal Status
Status

Missing[2]

Relative(s)

Cerberus (creation)

Drazil (creation)

Home

Death symbol Purgatory

Professional Status
Affiliation

Afterlife

Mother Gaia

Father Syndel

Occupation

Grim Reaper (previously)

First Appearance
Slightly Damned #417 [HQTS] (Flashback)
Image Gallery


For the Death shown in Slightly Damned #1 onward, see Darius Elexion.

Death is the god of death. He is the creator and ruler of Purgatory, and oversees dead Median souls and their reincarnation. He judges whether Medians are worthy of Heaven, deserving of Hell, or subjected to Purgatory.

Appearance[]

He appears as a black robed figure with no visible body except his hands and head. His head is dragonish, with a long snout and two "ears", and appears to be made of black smoke or fire, with blood red flames licking around the edges. He has white glowing eyes, and his hands are just bone with five claws.[3][4]

His exact size at any given time is subject to his whims, he is 'normally' around human size but can become a towering giant if the situation calls for it.

Personality[]

Cerberus RedGreenBlue Decapitation SD426

You won't like me when I'm angry.

Little is known about Death first-hand. He is shown to be cold and harsh, he has little mercy and does not care for the pleadings of the damned to be spared from Hell;[3] he also makes certain Cerberus fears his future wrath for failing him.[4] He is said to be very strict, adhering to procedures and ensuring "everyone stays where they belong".[5][6]

Contrasted to Gaia's 'Order' and Syndel's 'Chaos', Death appears more neutral, acting as a mediator. He was the one to see potential and encourage the other gods to work together to create Medius. Unlike the two of them, while he created a realm of his own, he did not make a species in his image to populate it; nor did he take direct part in the creation of Medius, keeping to the Afterlife and the handling of dead souls.

While he is said to be meticulous, this claim is disputed:[2] when he appoints Darius Elexion as the Grim Reaper, he fails to compensate for Darius only having one eye and being far-sighted.[1] On the other hand, it can be argued that Death did think of that and decided it didn't matter.

History[]

Past[]

Death has existed long before Medius' creation, along with the other gods. After Gaia and Syndel had created Heaven and Hell, Death convinced the two to work together to form the land of mortals that would become known as Medius. While he supervised the two of them as they worked, he didn't himself take part in creating Medius.

After its creation, the three gods decided not to interfere directly with Medius. Instead, they would only receive the souls of the mortals after death. Gaia and her Angels rewarded those who were good enough to reach Heaven, Syndel and his Demons gleefully tortured evil souls, and Death received all the rest in Purgatory. Death also created Cerberus and Drazil to guard Hell and Heaven respectively.[7]

The Great War[]

Main article: Great War

Death chose not to get involved in the war between Heaven and Hell, merely continuing his role as Grim Reaper. It isn't known if he attempted to broker another non-interference truce about Medius during this time, or if he felt it didn't matter.

Eventually the war "ended" after Gaia and Syndel had mysteriously disappeared.

​15 Years Ago[]

Main article: Fifteen Years Ago
Death's Deal

Death strikes a deal with Darius.

Roughly 15 years before the main events of Slightly Damned, Death met Darius Elexion. Darius was injured and possibly on the brink of death after battling with Cerberus so that his adopted children could enter Hell safely. Death did not appreciate his interference with Cerberus' guard duties. It seems likely that Death would normally have simply punished Darius at that time, but he had other problems. Seeing an opportunity, he instead offered Darius a deal: he would let Darius live, and let his adopted children enter Hell without pursuit, but only if Darius agreed to take on Death's identity and role as the Grim Reaper in his place.

Darius, although not having much choice, accepted. Death punished Cerberus for his failure by decapitating his middle (blue) head and fashioning the severed head into a still sentient skull helmet for Darius to wear. When Darius put on the skull, he assumed Death's voice, general appearance and a limited subset of Death's powers and abilities. He cautioned Darius that he would return every so often to check on him and make sure he was keeping his end of the deal.[4]

After the deal was struck, Death left in search of Gaia and Syndel and has not been seen since.[5]

Powers and Abilities[]

Creation Magic: Similar to how Gaia was able to create Heaven and Angels, and Syndel was able to create Demons and Hell, Death created Purgatory for himself. Death has not created a race of beings in his own image like the other gods did, though he created the immensely powerful guardian creatures, Cerberus and Drazil. Other than Purgatory, he convinced Gaia and Syndel to work together with him to create Medius, Death acted as supervisor to keep the resulting world balanced.[7]

  • Soul Reincarnation: [Undetermined] Death supposedly has the ability to reincarnate dead souls, allowing them to be reborn into a new life on Medius. This process is seemingly manual. After a soul has been dead for a few hundred years, Death will go to the afterlife he originally sent them, collect the soul and deliver it back into the world of the living to be born again as a new person.[8]
    • Darius notes that he was not told how to do this and is not aware if he was even given the ability to do so.[2] It is unclear if this was an oversight on Death's part, that Death had intended to do this himself when he "checked on" Darius (which he has been unable to do for some reason), or that the Ascension and Counterreaction have thrown things out of balance so reincarnation just doesn't happen at all any more.

Scything Strike: A magic spell of an undetermined element. It creates a devastatingly powerful energy wave that was capable of decapitating one of Cerberus' heads.[4]

Size Shifting: Death can effortlessly change size[9] (and increase his physical strength by doing so[10]).

Overal Abilities: As a god, he is immensely powerful but has only displayed a small number of abilities so far.

Immense Magic Power: As a God of Medius, Death has a vastly immeasurable amount of Magic Power, as he is capable of creating an entire world with the aid of two other Gods and manage his own domain while upholding his duties as the Grim Reaper.

Immortality: Death (along with Gaia and Syndel) has existed as a god long before Medius was created. He is inherently ageless and it is likely that he is also practically indestructible by anything less than the power of another god. Whether it is possible for him to be injured or incapacitated, if only temporarily, isn't known.

Conjured Items[]

In his role as the Grim Reaper, he has created several magical instruments to assist him, these instruments have been passed to Darius who is able to summon and use them.

  • Great Book of Records: A magical conjured tome that lists the name of everyone who dies and which realm in the Afterlife they earned. The tome is not completely infallible, it will sometimes give "undetermined" as its answer.[1]
  • Judgement Scales: A magical conjured set of weight scales. A mortal's soul can be weighed by the 2 sides filling with blue (good deeds) and black (evil deeds) fire. Death can then interpret the result of which side is heavier to pass judgement himself.[9]
  • Ferry Boat: A special boat that can cross the River Styx in a reasonable time.[11] It is possible for souls to swim from Purgatory to Hell[2], but the reverse is not true.[12] Only the boat can reach Purgatory from the Hell side.

Trivia[]

  • Up until around the time Darius revealed himself to Rhea as Death's substitute, Death had been referred to by male pronouns. Now they appear to be referred to with they/them.

References[]

Navigation[]

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