Death (Darksiders)

**Death** appeared in the 2012 videogame called *Darksiders II*. Death is the playable protagonist of *Darksiders II*.

He is the leader and most powerful of the Four Horsemen. He is the eldest and currently the strongest of the surviving Nephilim ever since he and the other Horsemen carried out the extermination of the rest of their kind on the orders of the Charred Council. He is feared throughout the Darksiders universe, more so than any of the other Horsemen.

Death is described as an calm, arrogant, sarcastic, cold and calculating anti-hero who is resourceful and opportunistic. In order to achieve his goals he is perfectly capable of committing, at best, thoroughly amoral actions such as aiding in mass genocides, participating in the destruction of entire worlds, and providing the inception for The Grand Abominations. Death also appears to be quite cunning, as shown during the Abomination crisis. During the incident, he formulated an intricate plan, based on deceiving both his enemies and allies, to destroy the Ravaiim blood needed to power the Abominations. The plan, though requiring the sacrifice of his brother, succeeded entirely as he intended. He is typically extremely ruthless as well and has stated that victory by any means is preferable to him than losing. Though he was called honorable once by Uriel, Death himself has indicated that he believes honor to be a fool's prize. Unlike War, who considers killing to be a duty, Death sees killing as an art. He also possesses a dry, sardonic wit and sense of humor, and has no problem with speaking his mind to other people or directing his cold, biting cynicism towards them.

Despite his extreme pragmatism and ruthlessness, Death has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he is fully capable of feeling both remorse and empathy. For instance, Death has stated that, before the Abomination Vault Crisis, he had never regretted any of his actions, even the most terrible ones, because they were always taken in service to a greater cause, and never for his self-gain. For this reason, he also stated that while he has had cause to regret the *necessity* of some of his actions, he never regretted the *execution* of them. However, during the Crisis, Death expressed to the Keeper of Oblivion that he felt considerable guilt over having created the Abominations because the cause that he created them in service to was no longer something that he believed in. Additionally, he was apparently the only one of the Horsemen who showed remorse for the slaughter of the Nephilim (as far as Lilith was concerned at least; in reality Strife also greatly regretted the slaughter). He also felt terrible guilt and remorse for purposely allowing War to die as a result of his planning during the Crisis, so much so that he could not bring himself to tell War the truth about what had happened after resurrecting him. This guilt was further exacerbated by War's defense of him before the Charred Council, to the point where even the Council's torment was more or less forgotten in light of the anguish of his guilt.

The guilt and shame of his deeds when part of the Nephilim Crusade makes Death an extremely secretive and private individual. Death does not enjoy speaking about his past and prefers to keep it shrouded in mystery. Death's secretive nature makes him rather rebellious in regards to The Charred Council, as he disobeyed their orders to destroy the amulet housing his brethren's souls and refused to reveal the location of the Grand Abominations even when faced with the Council's threats.

Despite his considerably dim outlook on reality, Death is an adherent believer in the nature of upholding the Balance. One of the few races in creation that Death seems to have a care for is Humanity. Death holds the kingdom of man in pretty high regard, more to the point, he has great unspoken respect for mankind in general, shown while citing their underlying potential as he passed through their structures and works in the early 1700s. He even took a mission from the unscrupulous Abaddon without the Charred Council's knowledge and/or their consent in order to travel to Earth to protect the very nature of his job parameters. He even pulled his punches against the corrupt angel Makhala's servants when confronting her as she'd convinced them that the pale rider was the cause of their troubling hysteria. In that regard, the expression Death wore behind the mask as the people he'd come to save from their false prophet were charging at him, was akin to that of grief. This indicates that part of the reason why Death fights so hard to protect humanity coincides with the extremity of guilt he's carried around with him for millennia. All due in part to aiding the reviled nature of his sibling species, on top of leading their genocide as the Nephilim threatened the universal balance. This is shown in how far he was willing to go, despite the risk to body and mind, in order to save the tainted humans under the rogue angel's hold. Death showed great remorse in ending the life of The Hunter when asked too, doing so while sullenly looking away when he slit the former's throat upon his request. He even deferred to the mortal soul known as Draven with greater deference than most, offering the undead human release from his bondage to a debauched king and council as he knew and felt it was a fate worse than death.

Death is also kinder than his aloof and harsh demeanor would suggest, and has been known to help many in their endeavors, even if the end goal does not benefit him personally. During a brief sojourn to Earth, he also saved Uriel and her squad of Hellguard angels from a Suffering, though not without grumbling to himself about it. Death's tendency to help others was commented on once by the Guardian Oran, who observed that he was not as cold as he pretended to be, to which Death responded that he should keep it to himself.

As the oldest member among the surviving Nephilim, he cares deeply for all his siblings and is rather protective of them. He once took a deathblow meant for Fury and brought War back to life after being killed. He also showed that he was willing to stand up to The Charred Council itself more than once to do what he felt was right. Most prominently, to prove his brother's innocence, and said to Crowfather at one point that he would "storm the White City" itself if it meant saving War. Additionally, he sacrificed both himself and the souls of the Nephilim to erase War's supposed crime and resurrect humanity. Despite these traits, the only Horseman that Death seems to have a sour relationship with is his brother Strife but loves him nevertheless. However, not even his siblings are exempt by Death's harsh and secretive nature, shown by Death chopping off an out-of-control War's arm to teach him a "lesson" and keeping certain secrets like the Grand Abominations from them, despite being a part of their history. This attitude seems to cause some friction among the siblings as Death isn't above using his authority as the leader to make his younger siblings obey him, though he largely does this to protect them.

## Powers and Abilities

As the leader of the four Horsemens and correctly oldest and the most powerful from the surviving Nephilims, Death is an immensely powerful and skilled warrior.  He´s very acrobatic and uses his tremendous agility to climb, wall run and leap large distances. He primarily wields the shapeshifting scythe Harvester or other shapeshifting scythes when needed. He is capable of wielding a wide variety of secondary weapons, from bucklers, arm blades, gauntlets, and claws to massive maces, axes, and spears. The Horseman also wore many different pieces of armor though he eventually obtained the full suite of Abyssal Armor.

Death's physicality is significantly superior to most other beings, even those of divine nature. He possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, and combat prowess. His fighting style tends more towards speed than power, as opposed to his brother War, and he at one point demonstrated the ability to charge Abaddon himself so quickly that the general was unable to react to what could have been a fatal strike had Death followed through. Despite of that. his physical strength seems to be superior to his younger brother. Perhaps his most unusual physical characteristic is his extraordinary levels of durability and phenomenal regenerative capabilities, which are unmatched by any other entity seen thus far in the series. He has shown to be capable of being impaled through the chest by Chaoseater and thinking virtually nothing of it, which has, in fact, happened on two separate occasions (one of which was by his own hand). On another occasion, he was also run through the chest by the Nephilim weapon Affliction, a sword that inflicts wounds that become instantly necrotic. Abaddon, for instance, was grazed across the eye with it and not only could the supremely skilled angelic medics not save his eye, but they were barely able to keep Affliction's necrosis from spreading further. Had the blow been dealt to any lesser angel, they almost certainly would have died, and the blow greatly weakened Abaddon himself for a considerable time. Death, however, managed to not only survive his impalement but engaged his assailant immediately afterwards, and a few minutes later was completely recovered. During another fight with a corrupted angel, he had his torso cut in two along with his arms only to have them grow back. At the beginning of his confrontation with the Archon Lucien, he was struck by an energy blast that sent him flying for miles but was revealed to be unharmed upon landing.

Due to his power over death, Death has demonstrated the power to summon and converse with the spirits of the dead. He cannot, however, restore the dead to genuine, independent life, and its only temporary as any summoned spirit will fade back to the Kingdom of the Dead once Death's magic ceases. His command of magic, particularly of necromantic magics, is substantial. If given time to prepare, he can cast magical wards which range in effect to casting blasts of black lightning to creating storms of razor sharp bone or magically sapping a target of all energy, including life energy. He was also capable of summoning ghoulish constructs at will, and could summon small armies worth of them if given time to concentrate. He could also use his magics to shield himself, increase his own physical might, cast lightning blasts, teleport short distances, and summon bone storms similar to his wards but on a lesser scale. One of his most frequently utilized powers in combat is his command of telekinesis, which he utilizes constantly in conjunction with his scythes. This allows him to throw the scythes while spinning them, either separately or as a single double bladed scythe, in order to carve apart enemies at range. He is also capable of directing the much larger scythe that he summons in his Reaper form with telekinesis. His capabilities in this regard were great enough to resist and even repel the telekinetic power of Samael, the second most powerful demon in existence. Death could also gain power by feeding off of the deaths of beings around him, regardless of how they might have died.

Death's most potent ability is the power to transform into his Reaper Form. He becomes nearly invulnerable in this state, and his scythe attacks become tremendously more powerful than normal. During his battle with the archangel Archon Lucien wielding the Rod of Arafel, Death was able to kill him in a single strike once he transformed, and was able to slice off one of Absalom's arms in one blow as well. However, he cannot maintain this form for long time due to limiters placed on him by Charred Council.

Death, though not as skilled as a Maker, is an exceptional crafter. He apparently created Harvester himself, and was also responsible for the creation of the Grand Abominations, noting that while he only helped to personally construct a few, the idea originated with him. He was also able to craft items other than weapons, such as the lifegiving Nephilim's Respite, which he gifted to Fury.

His arsenal of weapons and powers includes:

* Redemption: One of Strife's handguns that Death wields.
* Death Grip: A power that allowed Death to use a ghostly hand to pull items towards him or pull himself to certain points.
* Voidwalker: A power that allowed Death to create portals in certain surfaces, it could also be used to travel through time once it had been upgraded with the Phasewalker.
* Wrath Powers: Death could wield powers from both the Necromancy and Harbinger skill trees.
* Soul Splitter: A power that allowed Death to split his spirit into two forms while turning his physical body to stone.
* Reaper Form: Death can transform into a large hooded being with skeletal wings and wielding a massive scythe. He can also summon this form for brief moments during battle and when opening chests and doors. Although this materialized shape is smaller and ghostly in comparison, transparent and smoky. His Deathgrip appears to be the hand of his reaper form.