I noticed that different people describe Death with she, he and it. What is your Death like; maybe for example similar to Discworld’s Death, or maybe even Sandman’s Death? What is their appearance and personality?
I noticed that different people describe Death with she, he and it.
I noticed that different people describe Death with she, he and it.
The only time I’ve gotten to use Death in all my DW games (maybe I should kill more PCs?) was in an Eberron game. The character in question was a warforged artificer who was building his own god. He bombed the Last Breath roll, so his god appeared before him, exactly as he would have built him, and said, “Ratchet, it’s time to go home.”
Giovanni Lanza That is awesome!
For me Death is androgynous as a skeleton with a scythe and a cloak can be. “It” fits better than anything for me.
When I think of Death, I think of the Four Horsemen, and I picture him as the Death from the RPG RIFTS ( http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad246/OptimusZed/ww1death.jpg )
I like the idea of a personal death, something mirroring the personality or karma of the character. If they were nice to everyone maybe it’s a wise grandma type death that comes. If they slayed the innocent while alive with fireballs then maybe it’s a vengeful dragon-death that comes for them.
In my current campaign Death is different for all the characters, but the premise of the game is about the characters living in Limbo / Purgatory. So all the characters started the game by being killed as part of their introduction.
The thief has a filthy Hag who takes things that he cherishes, slowly eating him away (he has faced her 3 times).
The wizard, who is a storm mage, has only seen a glimpse of the gates through a dream she had (she doesn’t remember death from when she truly died). It was a a very calm place, no wind or clouds and an old man leaning on a cane staring peacefully almost asking her if she was ready to find her inner peace and give up her stormy nature.
And the Barbarian who met death, a vicious Barbaric God that warriors of her clan worshipped, only during her true death. She made a deal that all further blood she spilled was spilled in his name, and through her bloodlust she would claim the right to be his queen. He accepted her offer as long as she proved to him that she was worthy. So far she has been worthy of becoming a queen.
Death is at once androgynous and alluring. It appears as it must, personally, with a strange familiarity as if to suggest he or she knows you on the deepest level. To me, Death doesn’t judge, so it has no need to appear frightening to the wicked. Rather, it comforts in a disturbing way that causes the dying to succumb. It is only the rarest of mortals who can bargain with it, not because it is forceful, but because it removes the fear. Those who truly have unfinished business will argue their case and Death will grant them time at a price, for Death is nothing if not a child of nature, with the cool awareness that extending one’s time is most unnatural.
As for how the wicked get separated from the kind, Death is just a greeter and its Black Gates are not the end. Think of Death as the ticket master at an infinite amusement park where your permanent ride is the sum total of your life’s choices: regardless of what you’ve done or where you’re headed now, all pass through those gates, great and small.
I think i never really described Death herself. Only her to big skeletal hands.
In my game death is as per Terry Pratchett. Definitely a he, rides on a black horse, wields a scythe and speaks in CAPS LOCK
Wynand Louw Can wizards and witches see it roam the street then? 😛
Yesterday, in a side-campaign I’m running with 17-years-olders, we decided that every race has its own afterworlds. So there are at least 4 deaths. We saw the dwarven one in the very first session, a dwarven charon driving a marvelous cart pulled by two six-legged, giant goats. He asks you if you’re ready to join the warlike dwarven halls of the afterlife, and if you’re not, he usually sends you back after you make an oath of his own choosing.
My idea for death, which I haven’t gotten to use yet, is a woman with dark hair and a red dress, and (if applicable) some symbol/garment/whatever representing the fallen character’s deity.
As the character’s vision begins to fade, she is fully visible (only to that character). She walks over to him, says “Hello, hero. Let’s see…” and reaches into one of his pockets, pulling out a small appointment book. Leafing through it til she finds the day’s date and looks up the character’s listed fate. If he is to die (based on the Last Breath roll), she leads the departed spirit away from the body, through a large, Gothic, black stone archway/gateway in the distance.