The Reaper
Among The Seven, The Reaper was the most enigmatic and feared. It was not a being of destruction nor cruelty, but rather the arbiter of the cycle of life and death. While The Nurturer gave life, The Reaper ensured that existence remained balanced by guiding all things toward their inevitable end. It was The Reaper who introduced the concept of mortality to the Eternal Universe, ensuring that nothing remained stagnant and that the cycle of endings and beginnings would persist throughout all of creation.
The Role in Creation
When the Eternal Universe was first formed, life had no conclusion. The beings created by The Nurturer flourished endlessly, and there was no decay, no renewal—just perpetual existence. However, this state of unchanging life led to stagnation. Over time, it became clear that a force was needed to maintain balance, ensuring that new life could emerge and evolve. Thus, The Reaper established the natural order of endings, ensuring that all living things would eventually return to Eternal Essence to fuel the cycle of renewal.
The Reaper did not revel in its role but accepted it as a necessity. It ensured that souls transitioned beyond the mortal realm, that civilizations did not grow unchecked, and that even the divine were bound to the same universal law. Unlike the destruction wrought by war, The Reaper’s influence was methodical, impartial, and inescapable.
Personality and Ideals
The Reaper was neither cold nor merciless. Rather, it was stoic and unwavering, embodying acceptance of fate. It did not take pleasure in death, nor did it mourn the passing of things—it simply ensured that all things met their appointed end. The Reaper did not judge; it only guided.
Despite its impartiality, The Reaper often clashed with The Nurturer, who struggled with the idea that life must come to an end. While The Nurturer viewed existence as something sacred to be preserved, The Reaper saw death as an act of mercy, allowing things to fade with dignity rather than be left to decay and suffering.
The Reaper was also deeply respected by The Balancer, who understood that for every beginning, there must be an end, and that unchecked life was as dangerous as unchecked entropy. In this way, The Reaper was not just a force of closure but also of renewal, as death made way for new beginnings.
Depictions of The Reaper
The Reaper is often depicted as a solemn, ethereal figure cloaked in flowing shadows, embodying the quiet inevitability of death. Unlike the grim and skeletal portrayals found in some mortal cultures, the Reaper’s form is described as ever-shifting, an indistinct presence that flickers between solidity and intangibility. Some accounts describe it as a hooded figure with piercing violet eyes that seem to see beyond time, while others claim it appears as a vast, unseen force that whispers through the wind before a soul’s final moment.
Symbols associated with The Reaper often take the form of a circle bisected by a single line, representing the transition between life and death. Some ancient inscriptions depict it holding a staff or a lantern, not as a weapon, but as a guiding light that leads souls toward their destined passage.
The Eternal War and The Reaper’s Role
When the Eternal War broke out, The Reaper took no pleasure in the conflict but recognized its necessity. It did not oppose the war itself, knowing that it was part of the universe’s natural evolution, but it did seek to prevent unnecessary suffering. The Reaper attempted to minimize destruction where possible, ensuring that those who perished did so swiftly and without needless agony.
Despite its neutral stance, The Reaper ultimately sided with the Rebel Ones. It saw their struggle not as an act of chaos but as a necessary shift in the cycle of existence. The Reaper believed that The Seven’s dominion over the Eternal Servants had prevented true evolution, and that by breaking free, existence would move forward rather than remaining frozen in the vision of The One.
The Reaper’s power played a crucial role in the war. Where The Nurturer healed and restored, The Reaper unmade. Its abilities could sever the ties between essence and form, causing beings to fade into nothingness. It wielded Eternal Essence in its most finite state, ensuring that those who fell would never return.
However, even The Reaper could not stop what was to come. When Tardok activated the Unstable Shard, the devastation that followed was beyond anything The Reaper had foreseen. The carefully maintained cycle of life and death was thrown into chaos, with existence itself nearly unraveling.
Imprisonment and Legacy
With the end of the war, The Reaper was imprisoned within the Eternal Plane alongside the other Seven. Stripped of its ability to guide the cycle, death became untamed—a force that no longer followed its precise design. The mortal realm continued to experience death, but with The Reaper’s absence, some believe that unnatural anomalies, such as undeath and soul corruption, arose as unintended consequences.
Even now, there are those who whisper that The Reaper’s influence still lingers. Some scholars believe that remnants of its power manifest in certain forbidden rituals or lost artifacts, and that those who understand its will can harness its abilities, either to grant peaceful endings or to wield death as a weapon.
The Eternal Shards of The Reaper
The Eternal Shards forged by The Reaper are among the most feared and misunderstood. They shimmer with a deep violet hue, embodying the cycle of endings and beginnings. Unlike the shards of The Architect, which build, or The Nurturer, which nurtures, The Reaper’s shards hold dominion over finality and transition.
It is said that a wielder of one of The Reaper’s shards can end any existence with a mere touch, severing the connection between life and form. However, these shards are not instruments of destruction alone—they also hold the ability to grant peaceful passing, to restore the balance of death where it has been disturbed.
Legends claim that at least one of these shards remains hidden, though none who have sought it have ever returned. Some fear that in the wrong hands, such a shard could unravel the very fabric of mortality itself.
The Reaper in the Present Age
Although The Reaper is sealed beyond the Eternal Gate, its presence is still felt wherever death occurs. Some believe that the passage of souls to the afterlife remains guided by its lingering essence, while others claim that undeath, corruption, and unnatural resurrections exist because The Reaper is no longer there to maintain the balance.
There are whispers that the return of The Reaper would bring a reckoning—that all those who have escaped their fate would be called back into the cycle. Whether this would be an act of mercy or destruction remains a matter of debate.
For now, The Reaper remains an ever-present force, unseen but inescapable, the Eternal keeper of the end, waiting beyond the veil of existence for the moment when balance must be restored.
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