Tacharzieri Garrenon was a Reaper, a calling often feared by mortals, but this was because they misunderstood the role of a Reaper. A Reaper, contrary to popular belief, was not the bringer of death. Reapers did not claim mortal lives, their job was to reap wayward souls entangled by their ghosts. Essentially this meant they hunted down and destroyed ghosts, freeing the souls of the dead to move on to the world beyond. Of course, not every death produced these rogue spirits, as many often came to terms with their passing. Those who were ready to move on, those who made peace with it, did so without incident or need of assistance. However, those who passed in fear, those who held strong resentment for the living, or those who were simply not ready to died often held on to the world of the living by becoming ghosts… empowering the fearful spirit within them to take form and bind them. This was the reason for which Reapers existed, since the dawn of time they had been tasked with protecting souls, the essence of the living, from the spirits of the dead.

Reapers were known by many names throughout history and across numerous cultures. Tacharzieri, who preferred to be called Rahzi, always liked the name Shinigami. What the Japanese had called the gods of death. Rahzi was a stylish Reaper after all, not that this was uncommon for Reapers who as a whole often indulged the drama and theater of Reaper lore. In fact, many of the first Reapers were very thematic types, with their deep hooded cloaks and oversized scythes. As if they had come to harvest souls in the manner as one might reap grains from a field. Rahzi preferred a Japanese naginata, though the form of the weapon was hardly relevant, it was merely a tool to focus the Reapers spiritual power when fighting ghosts. In many cases, particularly powerful Reapers didn’t wield weapons at all, their mere touch was sufficient to the task. More often than not, such strength was the result of age and experience, and such Reapers would use their chosen weapon out of habit. Occasionally, though rare, a reaper would emerge that had no need of such a tool even from the very beginning. However, Rahzi was not such a Reaper, though this was fine by him because he reveled in the dance between his foe, himself, and his weapon. Even if he were to gain such a power, he would not abandon the weapon to which he had invested such discipline in order to acquire the sublime skill he now possessed.

Rahzi had already reaped the 169 ghosts required to become a demon hunter. While ghosts were often not considered dangerous, they could occasional be troublesome to deal with, particularly if they held strong emotions. Emotions fueled these spirits of the dead, gave them access to certain abilities, and over time could turn them into demons. Younger less experienced Reapers were never allowed to hunt ghosts which had transitioned to this state. Demons could have even more dangerous and exotic abilities than ghost were ever capable of. Many even changed form. But the most dangerous were those capable of human possession, an ability which allowed them to dominate and ultimately claim more souls, the souls of those still living. Reapers grew in power with each ghost reaped, though it took at least 169 ghosts before a Reaper could hope to rival a demon in power. This was because even the weakest demon was as powerful as any 13 of the most frightful ghosts, and a Reaper could only ever acquire a fraction of any spirit’s power. Ultimately, this meant a demon’s power was magnified no less than 13 fold by the soul it carried at its core, while the possessed souls could increase this even further… though to a much lesser degree. Ghosts, on the other hand, used their souls to gather and manipulate emotional energy. This would be Rahzi’s first demon, it was a ghost who had only recently become a demon. Its form was in flux, and though it was technically weaker than many older demons it was no less dangerous because its behavior would be erratic. Furthermore, it was an unknown entity, its abilities had yet to be discovered.

As a ghost, the spirit was believed to have been the result of a death in anonymity. Typically such people moved on without resistance, having grown detached from the world, and even becoming tired of living. Rarely, however, they were so filled with resentment at having been ignored and rejected by the world that they were unwilling to leave without knowing that acknowledgement. Failing that, they often wished to pass judgement and render punishment upon the world for abandoning them to die unremembered. In the modern world these were the hardest ghosts to keep up with. This was because of the sheer size of the human population and the territory it occupied. Reapers lost track of people all the time, especially if they were not well associated with others. Reapers used bonds and relationships to identify groups of individuals, so that they could be managed collectively. However, when people died without ceremony it could take some time before even the Reapers noticed. Sadly, this was because these people’s death often went unnoticed by others for some time, having little to no impact on those around them. Not only did Reapers rely on the members of these groups to provide cues to indicate when someone was sick or had died, but they also relied on the interconnectedness of human relationships as a form of census. By tracking relationships which overlapped into other Reapers territories, they hoped to account for as many human lives as possible. However, there were always people who lived unnoticed even by the Reapers, like the hermits of ages past. Usually they were wandering vagrants, people who had purposely detached themselves from any sense of community, but sometimes they were the dejected outliers of human society.