Scythe Faraday

fanart by dess-mid

### Aliases

* Redmond Herring, PhD, associate professor of archeological cartography at the Israebian University (false identity)

### Age

* 22 (Formidable)
* 224 (Scythe)
* 226 (Thunderhead)
* 229 (The Toll)

### Residence

* Shack in Kwajalein (former)
* Beach house in Playa Pintada, north shore of Amazonia (former)
* House in MidMerica (former)

## Affiliation

### Alignment

Old guard

> "*Remember that good intentions pave many roads. Not all of them lead to hell.*" — Scythe Faraday, *Scythe*
>
>

**Scythe Faraday** is Rowan and Citra's former mentor.

## Biography

### Early scytheship

Born Gerald Van Der Gans, he chose the name Scythe Faraday when he was ordained.

Faraday was twenty two when he had taken on seventeen year old Susan as his apprentice. Though he was still a junior scythe. She was infatuated with him but he misunderstood her interests after she went in his room to be with him. He thought she was trying to end him, and wrote about it in his scythe journal.

The next morning she broke down and confessed her feelings. He turned her down gently and then ripped the page describing his concerns from his scythe journal, but kept it. She remained his apprentice for two more months until she was ordained.

At Harvest Conclave, Year of the Marlin, Curie’s first conclave, they both kept their distance as they were being watched, judged, and gossiped about. The Scythedom disapproved of Marie because she was the only one out of five people to get ordained even though Faraday was a mere Junior Scythe. Though they were both looked down on, Curie bore the brunt of their disapproval.

Fifty years later, when they’d both turned a corner and reset to those young ages again, they became lovers. Their relationship went on for seven years until they were discovered by Scythe Prometheus. It was a huge scandal because it went against scythe law. Their punishment was seven deaths and separation for seventy years, to make an example of what will happen to others if they had a romantic relationship. Later in the book they find it endearing that the other died seven deaths for each other. Although they aren’t romantic partners anymore, Faraday and Curie have a platonic bond.

### Scythe

One day in November, Scythe Faraday went to Citra’s house. The family thought he wanted to glean one of them but he only ate dinner with them. After dinner, he revealed he was there to glean their neighbor, Bridget Chadwell, but she wasn't home yet. He pointed out to Citra that she would make a good scythe, much to Citra's horror, and handed her the knife he'd used in his gleaning.

Sometime later, Scythe Faraday went to Rowan's school, bumped into him and asked him to direct him to the principal's office. He was there to glean, Kohl Whitlock, the high school quarterback. Faraday eventually explained that he tried to keep the Age of Mortality percentiles about the same as they used to be. Rowan stayed until the end of the gleaning with the boy. Scythe Faraday noted his compassion, and thought he would make a good scythe as well.

Later, Scythe Faraday sent Citra and Rowan an anonymous invitation to the Grand Civic Opera. At intermission, Faraday appeared and asked them to meet him at an art museum the next morning. He took them to a display from the Age of Mortality.

At a diner later that morning, Faraday finally told them his purpose. He wanted them each to apprentice with him for a year. Then one of them would be ordained as a scythe.

Faraday soon came to collect them both, granting immunity to each family member in their household before they leave. He took them to his modest house and gave various instructions, including, a romantic relationship was not allowed between them, they would never be wasteful, and they would study many things (history, philosophy, science, human nature, and all forms of killcraft) while also accompanying him on his gleanings.

Faraday then took them grocery shopping, taught them to get just the necessities. When they finished shopping, he told them their other purpose: to choose a victim from the parking lot because that’s where a small percentage of deaths used to occur. He chose Mrs. Becker. They went to her office that afternoon to give her a death pill.

Faraday allowed her to write a letter to her family before the pill was administered. After her death, he told Citra and Rowan they would give the letter to her family at her funeral.

Faraday went alone to a gleaning and gave each Citra and Rowan a task to do while he was gone. Citra was to clean and polish all of the weapons. Rowan was to choose someone to glean tomorrow from the parameters Faraday gave him.

The next day, the three of them went to Bradford Ziller’s home to glean him, Faraday decided it would be by drowning. He’s proud of how Citra and Rowan handled the drowning.

Later, on a gleaning with Faraday and Citra, a man fought back. They took him into a bedroom so his family didn’t have to witness. He attacked them and broke Faraday's jaw when they get in there which would result in the gleaning of his entire family. Faraday instead grants immunity to the man's wife and children after Faraday told them Citra was the one who fought him.

At Conclave, Faraday attended with Citra and Rowan, the last few issues were being addressed before dismissal when one Scythe Rand stands up. She proposed that whoever prevailed between Rowan and Citra would be required to glean the loser. Faraday objected but the High Blade Xenocrates decided it was a good idea.

The following morning, Faraday went out and left Citra and Rowan to their studies. He had supposedly self-gleaned. Xenocrates notified Citra and Rowan. Faraday did so because apprentices are usually released from their apprenticeship if their mentor dies. Faraday sacrificed himself for them.

In reality, Faraday had gone to an off-grid beach house in Amazonia of the beach of Playa Pintada, and had faked his self-gleaning. The only person who knew about it was Scythe Curie.

One day Faraday was shot in the knee by Citra when out on the porch of his beach house. He passed out, with a lot of blood pouring from his leg. Citra had shot him oblivious to who he was. She got him inside and got his leg set and ready to heal. She told him everything that had happened while he was in hiding.

Citra stayed with Faraday and he resumed her apprenticeship with him with no interruptions for gleanings. Faraday told Citra that Rowan couldn't be trusted anymore, after 4 months of apprenticeship with Scythe Goddard.

At the Winter Conclave, when Rowan escaped from gleaning thanks to Citra who had planned and arranged his escape. Faraday was waiting for Rowan outside the building in a car, and they drove away to Amazonia.

### Thunderhead

Rowan lived with Scythe Faraday at his beach house in Playa Pintada for a while until Rowan decided to go back to MidMerica. Faraday stayed behind.

One day he decided to pay a visit to Rowan at his apartment. He snuck into the apartment and woke Rowan at knifepoint. Faraday questions Rowan about Scythe Lucifer, his new vigilante persona. He told Rowan he didn't agree with what he was doing, and believed only Citra could make a change within the Scythedom. Faraday then left to start his investigation on the Land of Nod, which Faraday suspected was not a fictional land.

One night, Faraday visits the Library of Alexandria in search of answers in the journals of the founding scythes. There he meets Munira Atrushi an employee at the library, she recognizes him, and he asks her to keep it a secret that he's there.

Faraday continued his research in the Hall of Founders section of the library and eventually told Munira his purpose—to discover where the Land of Nod is—so she could aid him in his search. She eventually found a clue when she was studying old flight patterns. There was a large blind spot over the waters between Micronesia and Hawaii which no plane ever flew over.

Faraday and Munira meet up with Curie and Anastasia to talk about the fail-safe, along with Curie’s bid for High Blade. Curie pleaded for Faraday to wait until the inquest was done but he refused, even after she put her hand on his. This causes his heart rate to accelerate, leading us to believe that he still has feelings for Curie.

Faraday and Munira head to Washington, D.C. to review books in the Library of Congress. They scoured a stack of books in one area piled with all the remaining physical books looking for maps from the Age of Mortality, and discover the blind spot was a group of islands called the Marshall Islands. Faraday and Munira heard a faint mechanical whir that turned out to be security cameras recording. The Thunderhead knew about their discovery. Faraday immediately realizes they made a huge mistake, as they had revealed to the Thunderhead something it was never meant to know.

### The Toll

Faraday and Munira found Kwajalein Atoll and two secret bunkers. One they could open with a scythe ring, but another scythe ring was required to open the bunker that would allow access to the fail-safe. With no way of escape, having crashed their plane, they learn to live off the land. Since Kwajalein is off-grid, the Thunderhead can't see it, so Faraday and Munira have no idea what is going on in the outside world.

Once Loriana, a former Nimbus agent, arrives with several other former Nimbus agents, Faraday learns about Endura's sinking and locks himself away from everyone for three years, losing all motivation. Faraday had be greiving over the loss of his former apprentice, though he seemed to be grieving over his former lover(Curie) more than he was anyone else. We can conclude this after his journal entry saying “Where are you, my dear Marie?”. The entry talked about afterlife and places like heaven and nirvana. Faraday said that he, and most others, had never entertained the thoughts of afterlife because nanites simply didn’t allow them to. But after Curie’s death, Faraday dwells on where she could be in terms of the afterlife.

Once Munira told the scythe that Scythe Anastasia and Rowan were found and revived from the ruins of Endura. Scythe Faraday refused to believe it. When Scythe Anastasia arrived on a Thunderhead delivery ship along with Jerico, Greyson Tolliver (The Toll), Sister Astrid, and Scythe Morrison. At first, Scythe Anastasia couldn't recognize Scythe Faraday, she later realized and embraced him. Together, they opened the deeper bunker with more notes from the founding Scythe Da Vinci.

As the rockets were taking off, Munira decoded the notes, and they activated the founders' fail-safe. The dark cores of the scythe rings contained nanites that infected every human with ten fatal diseases. Every 20 years, the nanites would glean 5% of the population, thus disbanding the Scythedom. Some of the old guard scythes, such as Faraday, began gleaning those already chosen by the nanites as to end their suffering and pain. This is called sympathy gleaning.

## Personality

Faraday is fair, logical, and compassionate. He was a respected scythe within the Scythedom who held old guard ideals by placing himself at an ethical and morally high ground. He treated gleaning as a sacred service and dedicated much of his time to researching and gleaning people. He also made sure all his apprentices developed their moral compasses in addition to learning the methods of killcraft.

## Physical description

Faraday has short gray hair with a salt and pepper goatee. Faraday's biological age is around 60 years old.

## Scythe robe

Faraday's scythe robe was multilayered and made of smooth ivory linen, and although it reached so low as to dust the floor, there was not a spot of dirt on it anywhere. He also wore slipper-like shoes. When on the atoll, it tore near the hem.

## Gleaning method

Scythe Faraday believed in using accidental death statistics from the Age of Mortality to choose his victims. For instance, he chose to glean a person because many people used to die saving their pets from drowning in rivers. And although Faraday took his vows as a scythe very seriously, he didn't always follow the rules. Once, when a man fought back—which, by law, means the scythe must glean the man's whole family—Faraday instead granted the man's wife and children immunity.

He was very creative with his gleaning methods, and never repeated the same method twice. He preferred to see each person he would glean as an individual deserving of an end that is unique. He also researched his candidates deeply. His style was described as: "swift, painless, efficient." He gave his gleaning subjects the chance to write a letter to their family members and the promise to deliver it to them. He attended the funeral of all the people he gleaned.

Since the Scythedom was taken down, Scythe Faraday currently performs sympathy gleanings in ways that are painless to the dying.

## Appearances

* *Formidable*
* *Scythe* (first appearance)
* *Unsavory Row* (mentioned only)
* *Thunderhead*
* *Anastasia's Shadow* (mentioned only)
* *The Toll*

## Quotes

* “My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There’s no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.”
* "Good intentions pave many roads, not all of them lead to hell."
* "Guilt is the idiot cousin of remorse."
* “Heaven and hell - nirvana and Valhalla, reincarnation, hauntings, and so many underworlds, one would think the grave was a corridor with a million doors”
* "I like to think I chose an appropriate *Patron Historic*. Like many scientist, Michael Faraday was underappreciated in his life, yet our world would not be what it is without him"

## Trivia

* Scythe Faraday never slept with his scythe ring on. He would always take it off before bed and place it on his nightstand as he was not afraid anyone would try to steal it since he had installed a security mechanism, a micro-coolant chip in the setting that would cause severe frostbite to anyone who put the ring on that wasn't him.
* Scythe Faraday is pictured in the scythe card collection as mentioned by Ben, although he is pictured when he was young.

## References

1. ↑ *Scythe*, chapter 11
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 *Scythe*
3. ↑ *The Toll*