Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 6 Agility: 6

Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 6 Precision: 6

Celestial Forces: 4 Will: 8 Perception: 8

Vessels: young Goth woman/4, +2 Charisma; seven-foot walking skeleton/3, +1 Charisma

Skills: Dodge/4, Emote/3, Fighting/4, Knowledge (Thanatology/6, Psychology/3), Large Weapon (sword/4, scythe/4)

Songs: Dreams (All/3), Entropy (Ethereal/6), Motion (Celestial/3), Shields (All/3), Tongues (Ethereal/3)

This is one of the nice Deaths.

Funny about that, really: previous generations weren't exactly ready to have sympathetic Grim Reapers running around. It probably says volumes about modern Western society that a personification of Death can thrive off of popular culture alone. On the other hand, this Death is well worth knowing, so maybe it's not so bad after all.

It should be explicitly noted here that this Death derives his/her major personality quirks and forms from the works of Mr. Gaiman and Mr. Pratchett (two authors, incidentally, whose unseen - and unsuspected - celestial bodyguard detail increases every year). While few if any of their corporeal readers actually believe in the authors' respective anthropomorphic personifications, most of them secretly wish that said APs did. That will do, actually ... at least for now.

Death has a plan, you see: he/she wants to go mainstream. Honestly, the world would be much better off if he/she did, right? That lunatic Saminga is doing disgusting things to humanity's heads - granted, he's a Demon Prince, that what they do, but that doesn't make it right - and he has to be stopped. Think about how much better life would be if nobody feared the Reaper. There'd be a whole lot less fear in general, for one thing, and that'd be worth it right there.

Of course, before this happy alleviation of human suffering can take effect, a few little details need to be attended to, such as surviving the increasingly - hostile attention of Beleth and Saminga. Then there's the minor difficulty of getting powerful enough to successfully challenge and eliminate the Prince of Death. After that, there's the formality of keeping the Host off of Death's back. Little things like that.

In his/her glummer moments, Death recognizes that he/she probably doesn't stand a chance - but what other choice is there, really? The ethereal was created from the unconscious hope of an increasingly-frantic humanity that there'd be somebody who cared on the other side of their last heartbeat. Death declines to weasel out of his/her side of the deal just because it's certainly going to be fatal, very soon.

However... it should be noted that, for some very odd and mysterious reason, there's an distinct lack of interest in energetically pursuing him/her among the celestial population. Sure, Beleth and Saminga send out kill squads, but they're about the only ones who seem to get worked up about Death. Blandine, in particular, is notorious for her public indifference - but then, so is Nybbas. When the subject of Death comes up among most angels and demons, the usual response is the usual orthodox party line on ethereals, modified by a heavy vein of wistfulness.

Well, after all, when you come right down to it, Saminga is a insanely gibbering idiot...