When people think of the Grim Reaper, they are dead wrong. There are actually countless beings known as death entities that at least somewhat fit the description of a cloak-wearing skeleton that holds a scythe. While death is indeed the common denominator among such beings, there are significant differences between them. Today’s conversation will be about the new master of death, and how he came to be known as the Red Reaper.
In order to define who and what the red reaper is, we must first understand what a reaper even is in actual terms. A reaper is actually a skeletal being that wears a cloak, has feathered wings, and may or may not hold a scythe. Their cloaks can be different colors that denote what kind of reaper they are.
For example, a green cloak means that the reaper in question kills for the sake of life. Generally speaking, their’s are situations wherein someone has to die in order for another to live. Whether or not we agree with the killings from a moral standpoint is irrelevant because for most people, crossing paths with a green reaper is an obviously deadly encounter.
A black cloak symbolizes darkness. Black is actually the most common color of cloak for a death entity and it means that they kill indiscriminately and oftentimes, spitefully. A purple cloak denotes melancholy on the part of the skeletal killer that wears it. Death entities in general are very dispassionate beings, but the purple cloak-wearing ones are just sad.
A white cloak means that the reaper who wears it is characterized by nothingness. That is to say that they are numb to the act of killing, even when compared to other death entities. It makes sense that a cloak-wearing skeleton would find its existence meaningless. They cannot have families, friends, homes, or anything of the sort. That fact weighs particularly heavy on white reapers.
There has actually been only one blue reaper. The blue represents coldness, meaning that a blue reaper is particularly cold about the act of killing, even when compared to other death entities. A red reaper is one that is particularly brutal when going about the business of dealing death.
Only one has ever been blood red, and his name is Azrael. Incidentally, he was the first and only blue reaper, prior to manifesting a blood-red cloak. The other red reapers all wore crimson, which means that Azrael is particularly brutal compared to them. Especially since he killed all of the other reapers, regardless of their style of killing.
At some point thereafter, encountered the entity known as “death himself”. Commonly known as death, he is an eternal being that did not have to be born in the first place. He is the original cloak-wearing skeleton that holds a scythe. Humankind got their notion of him from twin wraiths that wanted people to know what they looked like.
By definition, he was not a reaper because he did not have feathered wings. He was however the highest ranked and therefore deadliest death entity of all. That was until he crossed paths with Azrael, the former archangel of death who is now the Red Reaper. The act of reaping the soul of death himself made Azrael the new “death himself”. A fitting title seeing as how Azrael is the first name ever to mean death. That means that the red reaper has replaced the being regarded as the “grim reaper” by way of usurpation.
It should be noted that the name Azrael has never belonged to an archangel that was created by some stupid old man that so many people try to acknowledge. It manifested for the entity commonly known as Dominus Rex after dwarfing the body count of all of the other death entities combined. The fact that he is the former archangel of death is a coincidence. He is also the only death entity that is not skeletal but rather wears a skull mask.
That is how the Red Reaper came to be known as Death himself. It’s what happens when the former archangel of death makes the conscious decision to become a death entity. He is, in fact, the first being to ever do so. He only found out later that the name Azrael can only manifest for a death entity with a high enough body count. The reason behind such a decision is simple. It is because being a death entity makes it easier to defend his realm. Of all the reasons to become Azrael, that is by far the best.
