Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Beginning

Every new life comes in two parts; the infant body and the clean soul. Unsullied by life experiences and memories, they grow and shape with the course that life takes.

A soul is not born with every life, however. Souls are reborn in an unending cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Memories and experiences that are accumulated in life are carried with the soul into death; and when the time comes for it to be reborn a soul is cleansed of its memories and is reborn into a new body. Though it has no memories, the soul retains many other characteristics that defined it, such as talents, morals, and strong personality traits.

The Living Soul

The soul is the essence and heart of a being, it strongly influences the underlying personality, the creative side, and the moral compass. Training and experience in previous lives have an influence on the current life in the form of 'natural talent'.

Normally, the body and soul exist within the same place, only on two different 'levels' of existence. Most living beings cannot perceive things in spiritual form, and many spirits have trouble perceiving the physical world accurately. When separated from a body, a living soul is still connected by a thread of life that signifies their connection to the physical body. If this thread is cut, by a Reaper's scythe, certain types of magical or spiritual assault, or the death of the body, the spirit is severed from its connection with the physical body and is, at that point, a dead soul.

Just like a body, a spirit may also become exhausted by expending itself. Certain spiritual beings can drain a spirit of energy, as well as the use of certain types of magic and spiritual ability usage putting strain on the spirit. Over time a spirit will regenerate this lost energy, but if too much is drained the link between the body and spirit grows weak; causing paralysis, unconsciousness, or even death when the link becomes too drained.

What happens when you die? Whence one has shuffled loose the mortal coil where does the soul go? More so, in all of the world, in all of the many existences home to life, what could location could possibly contain, sort and, judge the massive amount of death which occurs every second, every minute, of our lives?

The very scale of such a thing is mind boggling. Billions of souls freed from their body, every second of every day, all with equal need to be sorted, filed and set on their very own afterlife. Even for the grand machine that is Death, such a thing takes time.

For this reason, there is a line. A waiting line if you will, with every passing minute the line grows and shrinks by countless numbers as souls are processed and others are brought in. Beings have spent years waiting just to see whether they are destined for fire or feather. The pressure is extreme, the wait is nearly eternal.

And for some, the wait is entirely unbearable.

For those there is an out. A direct passage way back into the re-birth cycle. Souls that opt out are immediately and directly shunted back into life. Their memories are cleaned their lives removed from the annals of history.

And yet there is another way though only for those that have proven themselves exemplary. Those that have through heroism, courage, and strength, saved either a world. Or a large grouping of people. Such people are given the classification of Hero. As a reward for either their great sacrifice or their general great deeds, upon Death heroes are immediately escorted past the line and through the fame Pearly Gates.

For those mortals not gifted with the power or ability to do such deeds of greatness. For the precious few who have chosen virtue in life, above reproach. Or those who have not lived a life worthy of torment...there is something else.




Heaven is quite literally everything any good and pure mortal has ever wished it to be. Heaven is the absolute epitome of perfection and purity. To any being that passes through those pearly gates, congratulations you have done what only a select few before you have ever done. And now, you may live your reward.

Through the many religions across the many worlds, the good are always given a gift after death for their hard work in resisting the trials of the flesh and of the darkness and coming through life clean. But in that very fact lies the quandary of the ages, what is Heaven? Of those countless religions who was correct? Who was wrong?

The is all were right. And all were wrong.

Heaven is what you in life believed it to be, and more. Religions combine in this immeasurably vast landscape. From the Halls of Valhalla in the far north, to the Elysian Fields in the East, this massive country represents them all. Each Pantheon has a piece of land devoted to its loyal followers. Some allow guests some do not. And for those that have simply stood nondenominational through the years of their life, Heaven has residencies.

Here past the magnificent gates, lies a city, its streets paved in gold, its buildings purest white. Here, your every possible need is tended to. Just a thought and it is yours. Just a wish and you can touch and taste it.

Wish for food? And someone will deliver it into your hands. Wish for combat? And you will be led to the Hall of Champions, an arena of time as it were. Here the greatest warriors in history and legend are once again given mortal form and allowed to compete all in good sport. Wish to see how your family fairs with you? And in a blink you will be directed to the Watching Well, were you can watch for as long as you please as your family members venture about their lives.

Truly, this place can provide a soul with everything it can ever want or desire, save for one.

Heaven will never lie. It will never mislead.

The members of ones family that are lost and placed in either Hell, or rebirth. Cannot be retrieved. Heaven is beautiful...but it can also be lonely. And when the loneliness gets to strong there are ways of release. One may enter the rebirth cycle yet again, or be inducted into the Reaper Corps. (See Below)

Still, some are not so blessed. Some have into temptation, desire, greed, hatred, and become horrible things. For those not gifted enough to live amongst the feather, there is another place.

What is a Reaper? Surely you can't honestly ask that question. Everyone knows of the Reapers, even if they don't realize it. Every man, every woman, every child in every corner of the world knows of the Reapers and knows what they do.

A Reaper is the hand of Death. A proxy to Omega. The end of life.

Every culture and every religion has their beliefs about them. From the skeletal visage holding a scythe that is recognized in modern European cultures, to Charon the ferryman of the Greeks, to the popularized shinigami of Japan, the Reapers are known by all.

The Reapers exist to protect the balance between life and death. Too much of either and the world will fall to ruin. Souls of the departed must reach the afterlife, pure souls must be brought into the world with each new life, and everything, without exception, must eventually die.

Death

Death is a number of things, and Death is nothing. It is an abstract concept, and it is a definite one. It is a fundamental law that forms a basis for everything that happens in the universe, and it is the embodiment of that. It is that embodiment that this entry will focus upon.

Death exists without form. It can appear as anything of any type. Male, female, of human form or not. Physical characteristics do not matter, nor are they permanent. They could change from appearance to appearance or even dependent upon the perspectives of those who are looking.

What matters is the behavior of this embodiment. It is not one of the Reapers; the Reapers serve it. It is the overseer. Death possesses an absolute power over the world and exists without regard to the onward march of time. The vast majority of the dead never see the true entity known as Death, and only for the rarest of rare exceptions will Death appear to collect a departed soul. For Death to appear before a living being is almost unheard of... almost.

Drones



Drones are the type of Reaper that exists in the greatest numbers, and they are the type that are seen by those that pass on. Every drone is exactly like every other drone; they are unidentifiable from one another because they have had all the markings of an individual removed from them.

A drone is the mindless worker-bee of the cycle. A cog in the great machine that causes the world to continue turning. They have no names, no faces, and no memories. A drone exists only to perform its task and knows nothing else than that.

Drones were once normal souls, just like any that inhabit a living body or roam the afterlife. It was by choice that they became a drone, in order to serve the great cycle. Some chose a term as a drone as an alternative to Hell, others because they could not bear the thought of Heaven without their loved ones who had not passed on yet, and others still out of a sense of duty. Becoming a drone is a process of stripping everything that is unique from a soul; memories, feelings, free thought; and making it into a cold and unfailingly loyal machine.

It is because the drones have no consciousness of their own that they are the only beings gifted with the absolute power: the destruction of a soul.

A drone is invisible and incorporeal. Even beings that can see spirit forms cannot see a Reaper drone. Only Reapers and the dead can see a drone. There are exceptions, but few. In appearance they much resemble what the Grim Reaper is thought to look like. Cloaks covering their forms, faceless holes where their features should be, long, bony hands clutching a scythe.

Drones are given a target upon the death of a body. A single drone to a single soul, and it will continue to pursue until it retrieves that soul with cold, mechanical efficiency.

At times when a body is not dead, but only near death, the soul may become detached and drift; at these times if the drone arrives before the body is revived it will use the scythe in hand to cut the thread of life that connects the body and soul.

If a drone is prevented from reaching the target soul, it will persist until it accomplishes its task; the only exceptions being if it loses track of the soul. At these times the soul is then unmarked and continues to exist in the living world, often these types of souls are referred to as apparitions, ghosts, or poltergeists.

If a drone is attacked, it may retaliate by permanently destroying the soul.

The Reaper Corps

In life or death, there will always be a need for the law, and for those that enforce it.

The Reaper Corps is an organization that works within Heaven and Hell, but not outside of it. They are the militia of the dead; spirits that chose to uphold order even after their deaths. Members of the corps function within communities to keep order among the dead and report to their superiors.

Even in the eternal paradise of Heaven, there are still those that are not satisfied or what want only what they can take from others. Not all impure souls are dark enough to warrant time in Hell, and even of those that passed through the gates as righteous, time has a way of changing things. The Reaper Corps keep peace and order in the afterlife.

The organization may take many forms. Its members consist of a little of everything. Every culture, every time period, every race, and every creed. They could be likened to knights, soldiers, police, or protectors. In truth they are all of these and more.

Members of the Corps dress in uniform, but the uniform may change depending upon the community, the time period, or the individual in charge of a department. They do not have the capability to destroy souls like drones, but members of the Corps are gifted with weapons that can incapacitate souls so that they can be apprehended and brought to Hell for their punishment.

Assassin Reapers



An Assassin is a killer. Unlike the drones and the Corps, this type of Reaper does not simply collect a dead soul and it is not confined to the realm of the dead.

Assassin Reapers reside in the spirit world, but they are gifted with bodies that are used to slay the living form of a target before retrieving the soul and bringing it back with them. This type of 'kill and capture' methodology is unique to the Assassin class. The recruits merely kill. The drones merely capture. The Assassin performs both.

An Assassin is not stripped of its personality, feelings, or memories. However, it has the power to hide its identity if it chooses. Their body and spirit form resemble what they were in life, and they use their lifetimes of experience and skill to aid them in their tasks. An Assassin may possess any type of power or weapon, it all depends on what they were in life. If the mortal form of an Assassin is slain, it merely means that the Reaper must depart from the world of the dead once more and track down the target to engage it again. The only thing that remains true throughout the ranks is that an Assassin is one of the most dangerous beings in existence.

Assassins are dispatched to retrieve criminals who have broken one of the mandates. Mortals or Immortals that have overstepped their bounds, infringed upon the territory of the deceased, or interrupted the flow of the great cycle. The sentence for such transgressions is always death. The unlucky target of an Assassin is always guilty.

Many recruits become Assassins after death. Assassin Reapers do not possess the power to permanently destroy souls, but may 'destroy' them as a means of sending them off to the other side.

Recruits

The Reaper recruits are the only members of the Reaper organization that are still alive.

These individuals were targets of an Assassin Reaper, or they were confronted by Death itself. In either case, the result is always the same. They are given a choice: death or servitude.

A Reaper recruit is the most gifted killer that the world could ever produce. Their lives are stained with blood, and the paths that they walk are littered with the dead. For these individuals there is no other way to live than to take the lives of others. A cursed fate, brought upon by their own horrible talents.

They are few in number, and for very good reason. The task of a Reaper recruit is to enforce the law of the cycle in the living world. They are the first to be given tasks to kill those that wish to disrupt the balance or those that do so unknowingly. They may also be charged with other tasks, such as freeing souls that are trapped within weapons or gemstones, or ending the lives of immortals who have lived too long.

Many times, these recruits simply end up fighting amongst themselves.

A Reaper recruit has but one life, and one death, to give. But that is more than enough for these gifted killers. Traits commonly associated with this type of being are being extremely proficient at ending lives, and incredibly hard to kill.

All recruits are given the ability to see and speak with the dead and other Reapers. Though many possess these abilities even before their induction. Many recruits also possess some means of manipulating souls and spirit energy.

Recruits do not possess the power to permanently destroy souls, but may 'destroy' them as a means of sending them off to the other side.