Personnel Files: Hades

At the dawn of the era before the one in which you lived and died, three brothers drew lots to determine how the universe would be governed. To one, rulership of the sky was to be granted. To one, rulership of the sea was to be granted. And to one, rulership of The Underworld was to be granted. It is for this reason that Zeus reigns from his heavenly throne on Olympus, his rule enforced by his almighty lightning bolt. It is for this reason that Poseidon reigns over the vast seas, over its currents and its tides, and the many plants and animals within it. And it is for this reason that Hades reigns over the dead, sitting atop a lavish throne in the otherwise dismal land of The Underworld. Yet this partitioning of the powers was not left to mere chance. It was guided by the hand of Fate.

Though Hades cursed his fate to rule over the dead, his position is, in truth, by far the most important of the three. The Dead play a role of utmost importance in the grand design of The Fates. It would be impossible for The Moirai to carry out their schemes without the knowledge and consent of He who rules the dead. This is why Hades was chosen. Of the three brothers, he is the best able to keep a secret. This is imperative, as the god of the dead must be privy to sensitive information, shared only with The Moirai, kept hidden from even the king of the gods himself. Hades is also far less prone to letting his base desires rule over him than his brothers, though there is one historical exception to this, which one may read about in Personnel Files: Persephone.

Though it was never his wish to rule over the dead, it was always his wish to prove himself, to his brothers, the other gods, and himself. Thus, he takes his job as serious as the grave, and jealously guards his realm from those who would pervert the sanctity of Death. Though he longs for the acceptance of his peers, he tends to keep to himself. (I know you three technically outrank me, but could you leave my personal life out of this? You don’t see me blabbing to my servants about Lachesis’ inferiority complex -Hades) (What? I have no such thing –Sis) He loathes nothing more than outsiders trying to meddle in the affairs of The Underworld, be they from Olympus, the mortal world, or any of the other celestial spheres. There are but four beings in all the cosmos to whom he will acquiesce unquestioningly. It goes without saying that we, The Moirai, who weave the Fate to which all men and gods must answer, are among these. Yet the fourth is not Zeus, King of the Gods, as one would naturally expect.  Perhaps the identity of the fourth is a secret that Hades has requested we keep. Or perhaps it will be known to you, all in due time.

Miscellaneous Files: The Physiology of Mortals

The beings referred to in this handbook as “mortals” are actually two (2) discrete entities: a mortal body of flesh, and an immortal soul of Quintessence. The body shares a symbiotic relationship with the soul that is no different from the one that it shares with the bacteria that assist it in digestion. The body provides the soul with a corporeal form that allows it to inhabit the mortal world and experience sensation. In return, the soul provides the body with true cognizance. The bond between the two is so close that neither can survive long without the other without extensive external assistance.

Without the input of the soul, much of the body’s nervous system shuts down, and the body becomes incapable of voluntary action. The body can perform homeostasis, but unless intensive “life” support, if it may be called that, is provided, it will quickly experience physical death. Without an immune system to protect it, the body is broken down by bacteria and other microorganisms that return its elements to the Earth. Similarly, without the protection of a body, the soul falls victim to The Scourge. The body, of course, offers no physical protection against The Scourge, as they are incorporeal, unimpeded by the matter and space of the mortal realm. The body does, however, provide the soul with energy necessary for the functioning of its own immune system. Without this immune system, the soul decomposes, just as the body does. Reapers ensure that this does not happen by preserving the soul as soon as the mortal is Due (the body experiences physical death) and transporting it to The Underworld.

This distinction, between the mortal and the immortal, is key to the greatest secret kept by The Bureau of Death (at least, the greatest secret to be known by one such as yourself). When a new human is born, they are imbued with a soul, and a seed of quintessence is sown by The Bureau of Life. When this human dies, their soul is taken to The Underworld, and a fruit of quintessence is reaped by The Bureau of Death. To the gods, the mortal world is little more than a farm, a vast field growing a crop of quintessence. This quintessence is of priceless to The Gods, its value surpassed only by its rarity. It is the aether through which sentience propagates. An incorporeal substance whose motes of light, strands of shadow, and plumes of dusk form the atoms of thought and emotion. Yet it cannot be manufactured artificially, at least, not by any process known to men or gods. It can only be grown organically. This growth is carried out by the soul, and it is fertilized by hardship and pain. This is the reason for every heartache suffered by mortals, for all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Needless to say, it is of paramount importance that they not be made aware of this.

Bureau Files: Rules of the Reaper

Among mortals and immortals alike, nothing commands more respect and fear than Death. Most see death as an absolute, immutable law of the universe, beyond the reach of even the Gods. We at The Bureau of Death know that this is not the case, and The Rules of the Reaper ensure that we are the only who know this.  The Reaper is not an individual, but part of the greater whole that is Death, and it is by following these rules that The Reaper acts in the way that Death is expected to act. The Rules are listed in descending order of priority. That is, a Reaper is to break a rule if, and only if, the following of that rule would break a rule of a lower number.

1. A Reaper must obey any order from Atropos.
2. A Reaper must obey any order from Clotho.
3. A Reaper must obey any order from Lachesis. (There is a mistake in the order of these rules –Sis)
4. A Reaper must do everything in their power to ensure that no being possesses information related to The Bureau that is forbidden to them. The term “being” here includes, but is not limited to, mortals, deities (of The Pantheon or otherwise), Higher Ranking officials of The Bureau of Death, other reapers, and yourself. (And Sis –Chloe) See Bureau Files: Clearances of Classified Information and Personnel Files: Lethe for further details.
5. A Reaper must do everything in their power to prevent harm from coming to The Fates*, other Higher Ranking Officials of The Bureau of Death, deities of The Pantheon, themselves, or other Reapers, in descending order of priority. (exemplī grātiā If a Reaper must decide between protecting The Fates, and protecting another Reaper, they are to prioritize protecting The Fates)
6. A Reaper must do everything in their power to kill a mortal whom they know to be Due, in the present or near future, or otherwise see to it that the mortal is killed.
7. A Reaper must not kill a mortal who is not Due.
8. A Reaper must do everything in their power to ensure that harvested souls are delivered to Charon with minimal spirit decay.
9. A Reaper must obey any order from a higher ranking official of the Bureau of Death (See Appendix for more details on what constitutes a “higher ranking official”)
10. A Reaper must never let any memories of their mortal life influence any decision they make related to the business of The Bureau of Death.

*Reapers are not, under any circumstances, to perform any action which may, intentionally or unintentionally, harm The Moirai, even if ordered to do so by one of The Moirai. This can be thought of as a “Rule Zero” that supersedes even the first rule. 

Reaping Files: Special Tasks (ST)

OK, so, basically, “Special Tasks” is just an umbrella category for all the stuff that doesn’t fit into the other two categories. (Assigned Reaping and Patrol Reaping) I guess if we’re running with Chloe’s whole “the world is a stage” thing, Special Tasks would be… the boss battles? No, plays don’t have those. Probably the special effects. Like, the big pyrotechnic displays or cool laser lights. While AR and PR are both just as important as each other, ST is totally more important than both of them. Like [Atropos] said earlier, the Special Task Force is the best of the best, because special tasks are the kinds of things that we can’t trust to just anyone.

Like what, you may ask? Well, like I said, a Special Task can really be anything that a Reaper is assigned to do that isn’t AR or PR. So, like, if Hades asked a Reaper to go fetch him a glass of pomegranate juice, I’m pretty sure that would count as a Special Task. But that’s not what it usually means. I guess one common example of a Special Task would be Mass Death Events. (I’m not sure if that’s actually the official term or not) A Mass Death Event is when a very large number of mortals die in a short amount of time, like The Hiroshima Incident of 1945, or The Great Antimatter Catastrophe of (Double-check the date on this one –Chloe). Stuff like that is usually handled by ST, using specialized weaponry called Heavy Ordinance. (I’m pretty sure we don’t use the acronym for that one.)

The killing of anything expected to have the ability to fight back is also considered a Special Task. These can be mortals who are unusually attuned to the spheres of the divine, or demigods, born of a union between a mortal and a God (Zeus. Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that it’s probably Zeus.) They usually don’t put up much of a fight, but Death doesn’t take chances. There are all sorts of other things that are occasionally assigned as special tasks, but you don’t really need to worry about all that right now. Special Tasks are advanced-level reaping, and this Handbook is really meant more as an introduction. More information about Special tasks will be revealed to you in time, if you prove yourself worthy.

Reaping Files: Patrolling Reapers (PR)

However, not all mortals have a prophesized moment of death. There is only so much thread available to Lachesis, and even one of The Fates can have trouble keeping up with the sudden explosion in mortal population. (Could you make it sound a bit less like I don’t know how to do my own job? –Sis) In the analogy that was so colorfully introduced in the previous section, these mortals would be the chorus: shuffling on and off of the stage freely, drawing little attention to themselves. Though they are important, their importance exists only in relation to the main characters. Their deaths have little bearing on the so-called “script” of Fate, and so, their times of death are not prophesized. Such deaths are handled by the PR. At all hours, a network of PR is deployed around the mortal world such that every mortal is within range of at least one (1) PR. Naturally, this network is designed so that areas with high mortality rates, such as hospitals and areas of ongoing conflict, have a high PR density. PR must use specialized equipment, (to be described in greater detail later in this handbook) as well as their own judgement, to determine when a mortal is Unexpectedly Due (UD).

Though the mortals subject to PR are, in a sense, less important than those subject to AR, this statement should NOT be misconstrued to mean that PR work is, in any way, shape, or form, less important than AR work. Given the unpredictable nature of PR work, it is far more reliant on the faculties of the Reaper than AR work, which requires nothing more than following the orders of Fate. Thus, it is more prone to errors. As it was so elegantly put in the previous section, Death is unerring. There would be dire consequences if mortals, or even the Gods of Olympus, were to suspect otherwise. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that PR be efficient and flawless. Actions which constitute errors include, but are not limited to: killing a mortal who is not Due, failing to kill a mortal who is Due, being spotted by a mortal, or failing to obey an order from a Higher Ranking Official in the Bureau of Death. A more exhaustive list of punishable infractions can be found in the section Bureau Files: Rules of the Reaper.

Reaping Files: Assigned Reapers (AR)

Death is unerring. It is the inescapable hand of Providence which escorts actors from the stage of life at the precise moment their role is fulfilled. The stagehands who coordinate these timely exits are the Assigned Reapers, or AR. Though AR have the least trying job of the Reapers, their role is arguably of the greatest importance. For it is they who see to it that the mortal world is in accordance with the script penned by we, The Moirai. For The Fates, who weave, measure, and cut the very thread of life, the moment at which a mortal is meant to die is as apparent as the Sun in the sky. The deaths of the future are known to us as clearly as the births of the past; we need only measure the length of the thread. One can imagine the thread as a curtain, which is drawn over the stage when the actor’s scene is finished. Or perhaps the life threads of all mortals, past, present, and future, are woven into a single curtain, which obfuscates the stage in preparation for the real show. Though, if the mortal world is not the main production, then what could possibly lurk backstage? But you needn’t concern yourself with these matters. All you need understand is that, when one’s thread of life runs short, an Assigned Reaper is dispatched, with scythe in hand, and winged sandals on foot.  They patiently loom in the shadow of their prey, striking only at the appointed time: not a moment too soon, and not a moment too late. Unfortunately, the custom of placing coins under the eyelids of the recently deceased has fallen out of fashion, yet old Charon remains as miserly as ever. Thus, it is often up to the Reaper to scrounge up the fare to ensure the departed’s passage across Styx. Once the soul is in the ferryman’s care, the Reaper’s job is complete. Yet Death is rarely afforded the rest that it offers to mortals. It will not be long before the AR [sic] is given another task, and the cycle begins anew.

Reaping Files: Categories of Reapers

Death is the one thing that unites mortals, and it is the one thing that distinguishes them. It is a journey with countless paths, but only one destination. Every man dies differently, but the Underworld that awaits them all is unchanging. And just as Death varies, so too do the Reapers who carry it out. A Reaper is much like a cloud; though each one is unique, with its own set of skills and experiences, it is not impossible to compare them, as all may be described as belonging to one of three distinct classifications.

All working Reapers fall under one (1) of three (3) broad categories: Assigned Reapers (AR), Patrolling Reapers, (PR), and Special Task (ST) Reapers. New Reapers are typically employed as AR, while the more experienced typically serve as PR, with ST typically reserved for only the most distinguished Reapers. Unfortunately, this terminology has become a loathsome mire of ambiguity. The abbreviations AR, PR, and ST were originally intended to refer to Reapers themselves. However, they may also refer to the type of work carried out by such a Reaper (to be described in further detail in the upcoming paragraphs). Furthermore, note that the categorization of a Reaper is defined solely by their current work, exemplī grātiā, A Reaper is considered an AR if, and only if, they are currently assigned to kill a particular mortal, id est, they are performing the duty of an AR. Even if they tend to be given such assignments, a Reaper is NOT an AR if they are not currently carrying out such assignments. It is not uncommon for a Reaper who is usually given AR work to be erroneously categorized as an AR, even when they are between jobs. A Reaper who is between jobs does not fall under any of the three (3) categories, as they are, by definition, reserved for working Reapers. One might maintain that there could be a 4^th category for Off Duty Reapers, but this is not the official stance of the Bureau of Death.

This section would be incomplete if it did not mention the Special Task Force, (STF) a group closely related to, yet distinct from, the ST category. STF membership is conferred upon Reapers deemed capable of taking on Special Tasks. In all but the most dire of emergencies, Special Tasks will be assigned only to members of the STF. STF membership is different from the ST categorization in that it persists, even when the reaper is not currently assigned a Special Task.