Reaper (GTSE)

Reapers hunt for ghosts to return to the Underworld.

Overview

Without their mask, there is nothing that distinguishes a Reaper from any other ghost. They begin as any other ghost, until they find or are given a Deathmask. Many Reapers say they received strange visions from the Cthonic Gods calling them to their work, but plenty others first don their mask out of curiosity, or for the power it provides.^[1]

Donning a Deathmask instantly raises the Reaper's Rank, and their traits change to match it. Their appearance also changes to fit the mask's unique identity. Reapers wearing their mask no longer suffer from Essence bleed when they leave the Underworld, and they gain new and terrible powers. One of these is the ability to engulf another ghost, trapping it inside their Corpus, only to vomit it up once they've returned to the Underworld. If a ghost is being particularly troublesome to catch, a Reaper has the ability to Descend: they plunge an entire location from the world into the Underworld, along with everything and everyone in it, living or dead. Mortals rationalize such disappearances as some more mundane tragedy: there was a gas leak, a sinkhole, a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, any of the living who fall into the Underworld this way are trapped and waste away unless they find some means of escape.^[2]

Reapers are driven to hunt ghosts, and begin to feel unwell if they've gone too long without it. Even if they don't exactly like how the Underworld currently functions, they've all rationalized why it's necessary to maintain the status quo. The dead belong with the dead, and Reapers are just trying to maintain the natural order of things. Sin-Eaters are interlopers, outsiders, trying to do too much and too fast, and even if their ideals are noble, their methods are too dangerous to tolerate. ^[3]

References