Death (Castlevania)

Death is Dracula's most trusted servant and the Deity of Death itself hence the name. He is a major antagonist within the Castlevania franchise.

## History

The mysterious Deity of Death itself who forged an alliance with Mathias Cronqvist back in the 11th century at some point after the death of his wife. Death itself became the most loyal and devoted servant to Dracula himself ever since.

## Information

### Background

* **Age:** Immortal
* **Species:** Undead Deity
* **Alignment:** Orderly Evil
* **Profession:** Lord of the Dead, Dracula's confidant and right-hand-man

### Equipment

* **Death's Scythe:** Despite the scythe itself being a piercing/slashing based weapon with dark properties, it is also a divine weapon as well due to the fact that Death is the Deity of Death. He uses this to slice and dice his foes and will even lend his weapon to Dracula should he ever have to. Death can even upgrade his weapon to a double-bladed scythe.
* **Death's Sickles:** Death's secondary weapon are the sickles, he can throw these at his opponent in various directions. They will deal piecing damage, fire damage due to the fact they explode on impact, as well as dark damage to opponents that are hit by them.
* **Expandable Spears:** Death can unleash three expandable spears that deal piercing damage to anyone pieced by the spears.

### Abilities

* **Jump and Slash Technique:** Death can actually jump and perform a jump and slash technique with his Scythe that will deal damage to anyone standing in his way.
* **Planner Domain:** Death can teleport himself and even his opponents into his divine domain. Once there, he is more powerful then he is on The Material Plane itself.
* **Strip Equipment:** Death can actually strip the main equipment off a single individual.

### Spells

* **Black Hole:** Death can conjure a black hole which allows him to suck his opponent to it.
* **Deadly Tempest:** Death can unleash a Deadly Tempest in which when he raises his arm up, he will shoot large fire arrows that will rain down on his opponent and explode on impact.
* **Divine Missiles:** Death can unleash up to seven missile-like projectiles at his target which will strike like homing missiles.
* **Fiery Explosion:** Death will unleash a fire ball that will cause a massive explosion thus dealing fire damage to anyone caught in the radius.
* **Flaming Frisbee:** Death can throw a flaming frisbee which will deal fire damage to anyone caught in the blast.
* **Giant Skulls:** Death can launch giant-sized skulls at his opponents, dealing damage to anyone caught within range. Furthermore, the Giant Skulls can also bite it's targets.
* **Lightning Orbs:** Death can launch two green-like lightning orbs at his opponent dealing lightning damage.
* **Pillars of Light:** Death can create pillars of light that will deal damage to anyone caught in the blast.
* **Shield:** Death can form a shield to prevent incoming attacks from dealing damage to him.
* **Spinning Red Skulls:** Death can unleash three spinning red skulls which will circle around him and deal damage to anyone caught by one of the skulls.
* **Vacuum:** While throwing his Scythe into the air, Death can manipulate the wind to suck his opponents towards him while his Scythe is tossed into the air in an attempt to deal slashing damage to his foes.

### Forms

* **Bone Armor Form:** In this form, Death can actually duel-wield two scythe-like sickles which he can throw at a distance.
* **Skeletal Snake-like Centipede:** In this form, Death will simply float around and attack his foes with his scythe-like arms, which have the same properties as his scythe.

### Feats & Stats

* Even if somehow killed, Death can't ever die.

### Resistances & Immunities

* Death can absorb dark-based attacks (Immunity)
* Death can't be affected by any form of poison due to his status as an undead (Immunity)
* Death is unaffected by curses (Immunity)
* Death is unhinged spells and abilities that affect time itself (Immunity)

### Faults & Weaknesses

* Despite the fact Death is weak against weapons (including fists and feet if able) and magic with holy/radiant properties, Death can only be neutralized for a short duration period as he gets sent back to his own plane of existence where he will eventually reform himself.
* Richter Belmont managed to shatter Death's Scythe with just a single lash of the Vampire Killer (even through Death can reform his Scythe at will).

## Trivia

* The only moment when Death served as the final boss in a Castlevania game is Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.
* Death has served as the 2nd to final boss in almost every Castlevania game.
* Note that, in Japanese mythology, a "death god" (shinigami) is the name for a *type* of being (of many) rather than the western idea of a single Grim Reaper, which may explain his status as a minion within the games. It is noteworthy, however, that Death is called "DEATH" in a minority of games - even the Japanese versions - making it possible that Death is, in fact, the sole Grim Reaper from western folklore.
* For some strange reason, despite his loyalties to Dracula, he fights Soma Cruz in both games that he has appeared in, even though, technically, Soma is the reincarnation of Dracula. In the light novel *Akumajou Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku,* Death explains that he will serve anyone who is willing to heed the calling of Chaos and take up Dracula's name. It is possible that Death wanted Soma dead to allow the power of Chaos to possess Soma, and therefore revive Dracula, or that he had no interest on Soma since he didn't want to heed the calling of Chaos while other candidates did.
* The fact that Death is mostly fought in or near a clock tower may be because the concept of death is sometimes associated with time.
* Death disguising himself as a priest in *Curse of Darkness* is inspired by a scene in Ingmar Bergman's classic 1957 film, *The Seventh Seal*.
* Death can't ever die, even if somehow he's killed. This is due to the fact that whenever the player character ends up vanquishing him, it is only temporary, but as a concept, Death never disappears.