Thanatos

Thanatos was the original Reaper of Souls and a god of death.

### The Tragedy of Thanatos

Thanatos was one of the children of Eris, the Goddess of Discord and, like many of her children, was chosen to live with the Plutarei in order for Hades to find a place for his skill set, which had been a source of dismay and horror among the Olympians. His penchant for bringing death was discovered early on when he was discovered as an infant, clinging to the cold corpse of his wet-nurse. Still suckling as his twin brother, Horkus, lay bare on the floor in tears. He was clutched up by his dismayed mother who wrapped him in a cloak of black silk and gave him up to Hermes who would deliver the child to its new home.

Hades saw potential in the child and laid him in the care of Nyx and Erebos, who had recently had their own child named Hypnos and grew to care for Thanatos as much as their own. Over time as the two boys grew they became nearly indistinguishable from one another, until they would be called the Twins of Nyx. They were quiet and fastidious but not particularly unpopular, yet something seemed yet to be wrong with the boy Thanatos. When Hypno came of age he brought Thanatos along with him to work, yet while both brought rest and peace, the younger also brought misfortune and the heavy hearts of mortal and god alike. Thanatos and Hypnos both had a need, both had a purpose, yet where one was rejoiced the other was shunned.

Thanatos was unsatisfied and that grew inside of him a hole and with the hole he shunned his duties, he refused his natural calling, and his very essence began to grow unstable. The child of Eris became thrown into chaos and he killed indiscriminately. He brought a rash of infants dead in their cradles, he robbed the youthful of their years, and he disgraced the lands of Hades when his anger became placed at the gods themselves. He became feared by mortal and God alike until one day he suddenly stopped. No new souls would come to any afterlife. He chained himself to a stone in Pluton, refusing to move, and while he was bound mortals did not know death. For over a century the gods and the mortals proceeded as normal, but soon it was clear that all was not well. The sick sat for decades, becoming more weak and feeble without hope for relief, tyrants were unable to be toppled as their regimes could inflict suffering without the fear of death, and the wild things and monsters of the world became so numerous that many went hungry- starved nightly yet continued to live regardless. It was finally Ares, the God of war (who had grown tired of war without death) that created a council of the gods. He showed them what he had seen and begged Hades to bring Thanatos back to work, and after much deliberation it was decided upon. Death must always roam the material plane in some degree, but it must be without judgement or bias.

Hades set Hephaestus to work creating a tool that would help Thanatos break his chains and would empower his abilities, allowing him to fulfill his destiny and work without holding himself back. It was through the assistance and essence of Girzon, one who felt sympathy to the plight of Thanatos, that this tool was finally shaped: a magnificent black scythe.

The Lord of the Underworld convinced him that death was not an evil, but a necessity, and with a renewed passion Thanatos set to work. As a Reaper of Souls Thanatos learned that he had a purpose, and when one's time came he could bring them gently into the place they belonged. While he was still feared by many, mortals and gods came to understand him, understand the necessity of the balance of the cycles of life and death.

The mortals began to depict him, a beautiful seraph with black wings, arm in arm with Hypnos his twin as they performed their duties side by side in cloaks woven from the essense of Erebos.

Thanatos was Death and Death was Thanatos and while the former child of Eris began to grow in fame and respect, there was one among the gods that did not respect the new god of death. Horkos, the true brother of Thanatos and his brother in the womb grew to resent him. While Horkos had the duty among the gods as being an avenger, the executioner and torturer of those who broke solemn oaths, he had heard of this 'god of death' and his absence had filled the god of punishment with rage which was spurred on by his companions in vengeance the Furies. He confronted Thanatos, asking this god of death why he allowed so many to live, why he allowed those who had done wrong to go in peace as easily as those who had done right, and to him Thanatos had no reply. Horkos spat in his face. The oath of life was only taken with the promise of coming death, and his absence had not only ruined the cycle but broken the most solemn oath of existence itself. Thanatos held himself back, but Horkos did not. The god of law and justice, the god of execution of duty, he broke into a chaotic spasm. With several quick strikes he killed Thanatos, and then he further destroyed the body until nothing remained. Horkos, blinded by rage soon became blinded instead by a burst of impenetrable darkness as Nyx herself came to claim him with the fury of a mother in mourning, but the bloodshed was ended there. The mighty hand of Zeus came between them, clasping Horkos and taking him to the peak of Olympus where he would stand trial.

Staring in the face of the sisters of justice and truth Horkus was determined to be corrupt, following no law but his own. He had been sucked into the chaos he was sworn to prevent and his cruel streak had grown into a wide and vindictive one. When his mother Eris told him the truth, that Thanatos was his brother from the womb, he shed a single tear, but only because he realized he would only be able to see his brother die once. By proving that even Death could die he had exposed the biggest lie. He had corrected the problem and punished the oathbreaker. Horkus was sent into exile in the elemental chaos along with the Furies, who had corrupted his mind and twisted his ideals and he would not be seen again until the Dawn War, when he would be spared in battle by Nerull. Hades took the Scythe of the Reaper into his hands and imbued within it the eternal vestige of Thanatos, but he could not hold the artifact for long. The power of the Reaper held with it temptation that the god of the dead could not bear.

The heartbroken Gods, knowing that there must always be a Reaper, called upon one of their own, Aurom. Aurom, incorruptible, would fulfill the duties of the Reaper until his last day.