Death

**Death** is the CEO and Co-founder of Death, Inc., and the protagonist and playable character of *Have a Nice Death*.

## Employee Handbook

**Death — CEO & Co-Founder of Death, Incorporated**

This entity was created from the deepest void, and the person known as *"*Death*"* has been around since the dawn of time. Many people suggest that such a role may be better attributed to a woman; however, in keeping with the usual interpretation of the character in popular fiction, Death prefers to identify as a man. His work in the universe started out as a small family business, peacefully reaping soul after soul in the time-honored tradition of ancient passing rites. Those were *the good old days.* Back then, Death didn't worry about mundanities such as turnover or outsourcing.

Then the business began to take off. Death, Inc. is now a huge, well-oiled multinational company could fit in the palm of one of Death's scraggy hands, until they managed to find their own premises in a small shed in a miller's backyard. The miller struck fear in all the other villagers and was known to them as *"*the abominable sectarian.*"* Throughout the years and fashions, Death, Inc. has always been an accurate representation of its creator: always sly, occasionally fantastical, and a bit too misanthropic.

*"*I can't take it anymore. I'm done. I have one last round of inspections to do, then I'm off on vacation. That email will have to wait! I'll answer it when I get back, and that's all there is to it. I need to Have a Nice BREAK for a change.*"* — Death, on the crisis currently rocking Death, Inc. Unfortunately, the boss didn't want to elaborate any further on the circumstances of the crisis and got bitterly annoyed when the subject of Death, Inc.'s co-founder came up.

## Appearance

Death appears as a cartoonish skeleton who resembles the typical modern depiction of the Grim Reaper, the main difference being his short stature. He has an upper jaw, though lacks a lower one. Death's empty eye sockets behave in the same way that normal eyes do - they are able to squint, widen, and even blink. In the initial trailer and in-game intro cutscene for *Have a Nice Death*, Death is shown wearing a black business suit with an added hood. As the cutscene progresses, Death summons his Cloak, wearing it over his original outfit. He can also be commonly found carrying his trusty scythe.

## Personality

Death is short-tempered and appears to be annoyed throughout the game, due to the amount of work he’s been receiving. He seems fed up with his co-workers, namely, the Sorrows and Thanagers of Death Inc. Due to the Sorrows of Death Inc. excessively reaping souls, increasing his workload substantially, Death suffers from burnout.

Despite his apathetic attitude, Death does seem to genuinely care about at least *some* of his employees. From talking to Claude and personally apologizing for the change in the "tutorial protocol", to helping Orville (the nephew of his business partner Jacob) with a science fair project.

## Plot

Death Inc. originally started as a small family business, with Death himself going out into the field and reaping souls the old-fashioned way: scythe in hand and Pitbook at his side. Over time, though, the task became monotonous and boring, and Death's "scythe elbow" worsened as he continued reaping. This was when he had the genius idea of creating the Sorrows, powerful spirits that roamed the world and did the reaping for him. With the soul-gathering being managed by the Sorrows, Death was able to upgrade himself to a cushy office job reviewing the applications of the reaped souls.

Death ***really*** low-balled the amount of paperwork he'd be facing, though. With nobody to actually watch over them and keep them in check, the Sorrows became arrogant and stopped following his orders, caring only for the number of souls they reaped. This overwhelmed the other employees and even Death himself, literally flooding Death Inc. with application papers. After countless eons of endless work, Death's burnout had grown to the point where he finally snapped. Donning his Cloak and taking up his Scythe once more, Death proceeds to set the Sorrows straight, show them who's in charge, and hopefully save his vacation plans in Bora Bora.

## Trivia

* In the title screen and some artwork (notably, some promotional artwork and the banner shown in the Steam store page), Death is depicted with a large crack in his skull running up from the edge of his left (his left, our right) eye socket to presumably the top of his skull. However, this crack does not appear anywhere in the game ***except*** for the opening animation of the “Rest in Paperwork” screen, where the crack forms right before causing his entire skull to fracture (and consequently causing it to "explode").

* The Pitbook entry for the Slaygore outright states that Death is ashamed of and frustrated with himself, but never elaborates what he's specifically ashamed of. While not officially confirmed or explained, this *might* be a contributing factor to why Death doesn't seem to respond to or punish Mr. O'Shah for his sarcastic comments and backhanded compliments.

* In some languages Death Is referred to as female