Dec 21, 2018 16:06:23 GMT -6
Post by Rayne Valentine on Dec 21, 2018 16:06:23 GMT -6
♦ CHARACTER INFORMATION ♦
Name: Rai'zielle 'Rayne' Dominica Valentine
Gender: Female
Age: 58 (physically around 16)
Occupation: Traveler
Height: 5'5"
Appearance:
Personality: (Minimum 100 words.)
History: (Optional)
♦ SPECIES INFORMATION ♦
Name of Species: Shinigami
Baseline Dimension: What they were when they died, is what they shall be in death. Reapers don’t have a define appearance aside from the appearance of the soul forced to atone as one of death’s ‘happy’ little workers. What they were, race, age or appearance hardly changes as to change it would mean altering a person’s soul and that…aside from appearance is as impossible as a soul coming back as bone and flesh on their own. (We shall ignore necromancy here folks as anything messy with the delicate cycle tends to irk those trying to keep it in one piece.)
Baseline Appearance: Know how the eyes are the window to the soul? For a reaper it’s one of the tell-tale signs of how to tell one apart from the rest of the undead family. It’s their eyes, the eerie, almost ethereal glow they have once the light hits or whenever they’re using their abilities to channel their connection to death to collect a soul. That glow is just about the most unique feather a reaper has that shows their own covenant with death and a subtle reminder how their souls are practically bound to serve death as punishment.
Culture/Origin of Species: Death is and has been bound behind life since time few started. Life wouldn’t be complete without the hand of death holding out his hour glass to maintain a sense of balance. He is balance, the keeper who maintains the cycle of life that flows within each living creature. Where there is life, its twin is bound to be right around the corner watching over every living being until their time runs out and the very last speck of sand falls from the hourglass of time. Each mortal, small or large possessed their own hour glass from the day they were conceived to the day… they draw their last breath.
Now what happens if… the glass shatters? Or what happens if the sand hasn’t run empty and already the once brimming life it has was cut by the hand who owns it? What then?
What happens to a soul who’s time wasn’t meant to go but was now forced into a stuttering halt due to suicide?
This is where the long tale of reapers begin, since for as long as despair rains down on mortal minds then so does the thoughts of suicide. Death himself is a neutral being, but seeing a mortal spill his own life sand annoys the deity. Despite it shouldn’t be the case for him since he gains another soul but… the headache of closing down a half written chapter within the person’s book of life. It’s not right. But that’s not that tickled the deity’s the wrong way. It’s… the unholy backlog worth of paperwork. Yes, the afterlife does have paperwork. Nasty little creation that no one can escape. Life or death, the amount of records every soul has to their name needs be archived within death’s halls.
Even the after life… has a government of sorts, a way to handle the flow of upcoming decease waiting to be judged and sorted to their way within their journey through the realm of the ten kings? Bet you didn’t see that coming? People often expected their route to either end in god’s doorstep or the devil’s back porch but in reality it’s a long road with each stop being the palace of one of the ten kings of the afterlife. Each one judges a person through a glance at their book of life, or through their past actions before being sent further down the road. Through numerous trials and deep scrutiny from each judge. Normally a soul only has to reach the fourth king, the leader of the ten to receive their verdict but…not uncommon to go past the fourth king should the decease committed a far serious offense.
But back to the reapers. A reaper is a soul who personally chose to cut their own red threads by committing the act of taking their own lives in an act of suicide, no matter what the reason is be it selfless or selfish. They still ended their books prematurely. That… the council frowns upon. As such are condemned to work for their ‘final rest’ a condemned soul would know no rest. Upon their entrance into the afterlife they’re forced upon the mantle of a reaper. A being task with the collection of their fellow decease while in the side lines watch as those they collected earn their place within the land of the dead. A fitting punishment isn’t it? To watch those who can achieve what they wish while at the same time those guiding them aren’t allowed to touch such sweet peace.
But don’t fret, its not for eternity. Like a prison sentence it does have an end. The only thing is that the reaper wont know when their sentence will end. It could be two hundred years or three of service before they’re deemed ‘atoned’ and are able to finally cross to that sweet release.
A reaper’s life is one of loneliness. People cant see them, not every race is capable of seeing death’s little helpers unless they’re personally touch by dead themselves. Unlike ghosts they cant always manifest, for them it takes double the amount of required energy to turn themselves solid because their job had never been about interacting. A reaper’s duty is merely to observe.
Traits:
• Hand of time || Shinigamis from ancient times were labeled as messengers of death. Beings task with the retrieval of a decease soul back into the cycle of time to be judge through their actions. As such reapers can naturally see a person's lifeforce whether it be a healthy man or a near dead pauper hanging by a thread before a reaper comes and severs the soul's connection to their mortal remains. Appearing as ethereal hour glass over an individual's head the amount of sand on top shows the remaining time a person has before they pass. To the reapers its both a gift offered to them by the god watching over death and at the same time a curse that reminds them how fleeting life is and their choices when they first committed the sins that landed them into their current predicament.
• Death's blessing || “When a soul is newly inducted as a reaper death gives them a boon. A trinket if you will to guide the new reaper into their new life.”
A weapon, a tool. Call it what you must but to a reaper this is their new life line. To be able to do their jobs to the highest accord a reaper needs their specific blessing to be able to sever a dying individual ties it has with their bodies. This appears as a red thread connecting the soul of the decease with their mortal remnants for 'death' to happen a reaper needs to sever that thread to release the soul. Death is natural but sometimes it needs that specific little push to get a stubborn soul to vacate their mortal remains that’s what their blessing is for. Each one is unique to a specific individual, not one is the same as the other; as different people have different personalities that manifest their own gear.
The shape, form or appearance can be anything really. A pen, a sword or perhaps something as outlandish as a spatula. It depends on the person who owns it.
• Undying || Whats there to kill when the person they're trying to kill is already dead, gone, rotting somewhere six feet under? Reapers are still and technically by all legal standards dead souls. Thus, them dying a second time is highly unlikely when they're already exactly that. DEAD. +2 Vitality
• Fellow dead || Reapers just like your run of the mill ghost, dont have physical bodies to call their own. They're spirits, the same as their fellow spirits reapers possess the ability to turn themselves incorporeal allowing them the ability to turn invisible or phase through solid objects. And yes floating included in the package the only thing they have trouble doing would be full possession. +1 to resilience
• Glamour || What they want others to see... is what they'll get.
Glamour is a skill nearly all veteran reapers know how to use. Its a spell that allows them to alter to appearance right to the color of their share or the shade of their eyes. This however is a mere illusion to cover their real appearance. No spell weak or strong can alter the true appearance of a soul. What they can do however is manipulate how others see them by casting an illusion over their appearance in a way to 'change' it. The more added 'features' a person wants for example...anything beyond the scope of a regular human's appearance tends to be tricky. Even for the high practice reapers. Because of this most reapers tends to stick with either altering their age or hair and eye color. Like every illusion however this CAN be broken just like normal illusions all they need to do is break the reaper's hold over their glamour. Easier said than done, but doable.
• Gate to the afterlife || Just like the name advertise, given as their sole task is to guide the dead back to where they should go for judging. Reapers can open the gate connecting the living world to the world of the dead.
• Requiem || When someone said Daemons and Reapers get along... its the biggest understatement possible within the scope of the universe. No they 'rarely' and I stress that part get along so to speak. How can they? When said buggers feast on the souls they're task with to collect? Not exactly what any reaper would call productive? And being souls themselves... anything feasting on fellow souls is highly unlikely to sit well with them. The only pro bono they have against the buggers is unlike their fellow dead. They at the very least have the capabilities to defend themselves against the blighters. Requiem is more or less a secondary ability they have when it comes to dealing with Daemons. Every soul has the right of redemption thus given how reapers can connected to collecting souls they have limited capabilities, given the right timing in theory they can extract a soul from within the gullet of a newly fed daemon. Note the highly stress notion of timing. It has to be done approximately within the first two or three days after the daemon has ingested the poor soul and only in that time frame after the limit goes so does the chances of saving the eaten soul. (Please ask your fellow Daemon FIRST before you attempt this. Not everyone is keen on having a hand rummage through their gullet. AKA ask the guy playing it first. Godmodding is highly frowned upon folks.)
• Death's embrace || Feel that ghostly chill in the air? The sudden drop from what started as a humid afternoon now turned to something as cold as something running the air conditioner at full power. Like your average ghost, reapers possessed ability to drop the temperature around them. Not enough to cause a drastic change such as ice but enough to cause a primal sense of unease to those within their radius.
Flaws:
• Condemned souls || Reapers are dead yes, but unlike the rest of those who allowed time to decide when they'll go. The souls inducted into being reapers are those who decided to screw time and take matters into their own hands by taking their own lives. In other words, suicide. Thus they're condemned to work for their afterlife instead as a way to atone. Reapers are in a sense limited in what they could do to those who's time isnt anywhere from being cut. Unless given a really REALLY good reason they cant kill. They can hurt, but they absolutely cant kill/murder the living. Even if they try, their attack would simply phased through that person or in worse cases, their own bodies would simply not obey their commands. For example if person A wanted to stab person B their hand would simply stop an inch from reaching person B's throat or which ever part person A aims.
• Unseen || Another side effect of being a reaper, aside from the obvious being dead... is that unlike their regular ghostie counterparts there's only a limited set of species that can see a reaper without them manifesting first. The living arent supposed to see those task with collecting the souls of the departed. Those who's sole job is to wait by the dying person's bed side until the very moment the last drop of sand drops from their hour glass thus being given the go ahead to sever their strings. So far the only species able to see Death's little brigade are fellow undead, (Ghosts, Vampires, Grims ETC) Angelic beings, Fallens, Daemons for obvious reasons, and Phoenixes. As long as they touched with death then they would be able to see these condemned souls.
• Instinctive dislike towards Daemons and anything meddling with necromancy || They're dead yes, and more so they're still souls just with an added job description in their resumes. Like a prey who can fight against their mutual predator. There's bound to be a certain level of animosity there. Though for reapers the feeling is more instinctual. As for Necromancy... Who wouldnt be irritated if something messes with their job? Even some reapers has issues with paperwork.
• Manifestation || For a reaper to be visible outside the aptly named species list mentioned earlier they would have to force their bodies out of their spiritual forms and into a more solid appearance but unlike how a ghost can manifest themselves to be seen a reaper needs to take extra effort in order to be somewhat visible outside the undead spectrum. Frankly because of one... certain reason. Reapers are meant to observe. Not interact. Effort ladies and gentlemen, effort is key which sadly not everyone has the patience for.