Death

The Reaper of Death, also known as the Grim Reaper, the Reaper, or, more commonly and simply, Death, is a character in the World of Shaston.

Death is the physical manifestation of the metaphysical process of death, and acts as both a maintainer of the natural cycle of life and death and as a psychopomp, guiding souls to their designated afterlives. It rules over the plane of Purgatory, which all souls must travel to and through before reaching their destination.

Appearance and Personality
Death typically manifests as most people think it does. It appears as a tall skeletal figure wearing a long black cloak or robe and carrying a massive scythe. It is unknown whether this is Death's physical body or merely a manifestation of a greater force, and it is also unknown if the body is only the skeleton or if the robe and scythe are part of the body.

Death typically moves by hovering slightly off the ground, although it is capable of walking if it so chooses. Although it can move its jaw, it does not always do so when speaking, implying it uses some form of telepathy. Its eyes constantly emit a dull glow emanating from two small white flames within the sockets.

Death is the epitome of Lawful Neutral. It wants nothing more than to maintain the natural order and for the laws it has set in place to be followed. Death allows there to be exceptions to its rules, such as in the case of divine resurrection. However, Death sees it as a personal insult whenever a rule of life and death is broken in an unintended way. Souls are taken where they are to go based on how they acted in life, and there is nothing they can do to change or escape Death's judgement.

While Death allows most forms of undead to exist, as they do not possess souls or personalities, certain forms of undead (such a liches) are seen as egregious violations of law and order. Unfortunately, Death often finds itself in the awkward position of not being able to enforce its own rules without breaking other rules; attempting to hunt down and destroy a vampire, for example, often violates its desire to uphold free will and allow people to die when their time comes and not before.

Although Death technically has power and authority over the gods, as even they are subject to the force of death if and when it comes for them, Death does not consider itself to be a god, and will make this very clear to those who are able to ask it. It does not need or desire worship, and would much rather be ignored than revered.

Powers and Abilities
Death has incredible authority over the forces of life and death, and as such is incredibly powerful in terms of its ability to kill targets. Merely being within Death's presence can cause one to die if Death wills it, and one close to death will find themselves struggling to hold onto whatever life they have left. However, Death does have the power and authority to bring creatures back from the dead if it so chooses; it limits this to a maximum of once per creature, as per its own rules.

Regardless of its other powers, Death is very skilled at close-range combat. Its scythe is an incredibly deadly weapon, said to have the ability to cut through reality itself. It also has the potential to instantly kill any creature it touches, although this potential lessens the healthier and stronger-willed the target is.

Death has a variety of spell-like abilities at its disposal, most notably those having to do with necromantic damage and the summoning of undead. However, it rarely uses these, preferring instead to use weapon combat and only then if it becomes necessary for some reason.

Defeating Death would be extremely difficult on the face of it, and doing so would merely cause it to reform in Purgatory. Theoretically, if one were to defeat Death on its home plane, it would be permanently destroyed. However, because it is impossible to get to Purgatory without being dead and thus subject to Death's authority, it is nigh impossible that this could occur.

Purgatory
Purgatory is the native plane of Death. To the mortal mind, it appears as an infinite white void, with any objects that may be within it appearing as entirely black-colored versions of themselves. Generally, while in Purgatory, people (including Death itself) also appear entirely black; although, on the rare occasion when someone returns to the living world, they perceive themselves transitioning to white before leaving the plane. It is said that the appearance of Purgatory is a direct mirror of how Death perceives the mortal world: As a black void with objects appearing white and living people appearing white until the moment of their death, wherein they transition to black.

When a sapient creature dies, its soul is automatically sent to Purgatory, where it meets with Death. Souls who have been able to recall their experience with Death have provided various accounts of what happened to them while there. Some say Death conversed with them for a short while about their lives before physically escorting them to their afterlife. Other describe only a brief moment, where Death appeared, immediately attacked them with its scythe, and they woke up in the afterlife. Still others describe Death silently watching them as they moved around Purgatory until they eventually found themselves in the afterlife, as though by accident. There seems to be no correlation between the personality or deeds of the soul in question and the way Death treats them while in its realm, although those who conversed with Death do agree on its personality.