Subject: Death gods are too maligned!
Author:
Posted on: 2018-06-05 17:26:00 UTC

Yes, I agree! Writing death gods as mustache-twirling villains is pretty boring.

Here's an example of a non-villainous death god, from the D&D game I'm currently playing:

The Voice of Life and Death is an integral part of the universe who probably came into being when souls were created--or maybe she created souls; it's hard to tell. She's the one who maintains the cycle of reincarnation and determines when a soul is ready to pass on to the next world. Very occasionally, someone manages to get an audience with her, mostly to beg for the life of a loved one; she grants these requests sometimes, but only if she really thinks you have a good argument.

She cares about the world and its existence, and cares about keeping order between life and death. She doesn't mind necromancy, for the most part--creating zombies is fine in her book, since it doesn't mess with anybody's soul--but the second you interfere with the cycle of reincarnation, you're on her shit list. This is why necromancers who do experiment on souls often try to achieve immortality--they don't want to be anywhere near the Voice when she is riled up about their twisted experiments.

Nowadays, she presents as a middle-aged, heavyset black woman who is fond of tea and cookies and tries to sneak some reading in between souls. She hasn't always been female, though; she's been male, androgynous, or even an entirely bodiless force, and she's been known to change depending on who's looking at her.

Her clerics are midwives, doctors, morticians, and occasionally serial killers, though the latter don't seem to last long and she treats them more like annoying fanboys than serious followers, and soon sends them on to the next life, hoping they'll grow out of their immaturity. The Voice sees death as a normal part of life, but doesn't like it when the decisions of mortals force someone to die before their time. She dislikes war, partly because it causes so many untimely deaths and partly because it swamps her with work, which always makes her irritable.

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