Reymmã
Your description of a Grim Reaper who loves the company of humans reminds me of the Discworld. If you're not familiar with it, you should read Mort or Soul Music, definitely a good look at a being who comes to like humanity but can never quite fit in. (And he has the same view of gods.)
If this being grows old at all, a mortal origin of some sort would fit, but you would also have to precise that he is only the latest to hold the position (and perhaps there are several active at the same time). Maybe that when they near death themselves (self-service?) they take on an apprentice. Say, a child who died tragically. Or they could be manifestations of collective feelings that the dead shed as they leave the world. Either way, they would have something human about them but still be alien to normal society.
The idea of a Grim Reaper that is not immortal defies our conventional way of picturing these anthropomorphisms, but raises intriguing ideas.
A blog that gets updated on a geological timescale.
Possibly. Another idea I had was to just leave his true nature ambiguous, especially towards the end - he could be a human, or maybe he actually is a god who somehow is able to age and die. He could be in charge of the cycle of life and death, but it's possible that it could run just fine without him.
See, one of the inspirations I have for his character is Qfwfq, the main character of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics. Each story in the book is actually Qfwfq recounting a story from his past, spurred by the mention of a (sometimes obsolete) scientific theory. Said stories include being smushed into an infinitely narrow space before the Big Bang with all his friends and family, and being the last dinosaur (which he's not at all sentimental about). We're never given an explanation about what kind of being Qfwfq is, or how he manages to get from one scenario or another, or if he's even telling the truth.
So my dilemma is how much I'd like to tell about this world and mythology (more of a Terry Pratchett approach), versus how much I would like to leave ambiguous even to myself (Calvino).
What do you think?
Out of the many fascinations I have, three seem to be the most common these days: Near Eastern history and mythology, death, and the works of Italo Calvino. So based on those fascinations, I've been trying to devise a psychopomp of my own (tentatively named Elaku), and describe episodes from his life in short vignettes.
There are things I have decided about him:
He carries about a small, thin sickle, which he finds much more maneuverable than a scythe.
He does not lead people to the underworld. Instead, he simply cuts people's souls from their bodies. In fact, he does not know if there IS an underworld, or any sort of afterlife.
The only souls he reaps are those he considers to be ripe. Some souls ripen faster than others.
The souls have two parts - an earthly part and an otherworldly part. He lets the otherworldly part drift away, but he likes to eat the earthly part as subsistence, if he can salvage it. The flavor of this mortal soul depends on the life of the individual it belonged to.
Although he is a god, he is not worshiped, which is why there is no mention of him in any extant mythology. Still, Elaku does not need prayer badly. Souls are enough. Still, he does age in a manner comparable to a human, albeit very slowly.
He is very lonely, and loves the company of other humans. Shame they never last.
He hates the company of other gods.
Of course, there are things I haven't decided, such as:
Do I write the tales in First or Third person? I tried third, but it seemed like there was something missing.
How was he created? As a product of two gods, or a god and a non-god figure? A human given apotheosis after his untimely death? Or just a force of nature with no history, besides the one he makes for himself?
Is he part of any official mythology, or another, forgotten pantheon, of a forgotten country?
Does he experience time linearly?
Sorry for dumping this all on you at once. But I need to get over this writer's block!
edited 7th Jul '12 12:48:33 PM by BentoDS