Ideas for "Death"

[MRHAPPYFACEMAN]

I am trying to stay away from the stereotypical "skeleton in a black robe with a scythe" look for Death and his servants. Any good ideas out there how to make someone representing Death look super creepy and intimidating? I was suggested a leper-con once.... but the visual of a happy little fat man in green aint gunna to fly for me.

 

[Manofdusk]

Well, there's always Charon. Of course, sometimes he's depicted that way too... but sometimes he's depicted as an old man. In a few games, he's depicted as an old guy flooded by paperwork (I found this depiction of him particularly amusing) and it's a good way to go if you're wanting to have some sort of "pay to revive" mechanic.

 

[The Stranger]

In my written novel, death was seen as a little girl who was the identical twin of life - just a reflection of it. The common depiction of life and death was one of them always holding hands and dressed in plain, ragged, garments. They were known as The Twin Truths, and were neither good nor evil, but simply the reality (or truth) of all things; where life goes, death follows. Their symbol was water - not only could it give life, but it was also believed to be a gateway for the souls of the dead, as well as a purifying element. Water was used to cleanse newborn infants at birth, and the corpses of the dead.

 

[mogwai]

Avoiding the robed Reaper character or any Egyptian/Greek underworld god, I'm out of ideas.

You could make death an unseen/unstoppable force/entity like in Final Destination. That's different.

 

[Diretooth]

I usually depict Death not as an intimidating skeleton in a cloak with a scythe, but either as the manifestation of a person's death, such as an impaled man, or drowned woman, or as a friend come to take you to the afterlife/next world. For me, Death is an old friend we all must one day walk with, so I prefer that version of it.
Scythes are cool, though, so he definitely has one.

 

[Harosata]

You could try a blob or shadowy person, like a ghost made of anti-existence.

I should probably try that. Go into Sprite_Battler and change the blend_type to 2 (subtract) when that kind of enemy appears so that when you see through that enemy, you don't see life through it.

 

[The Mighty Palm]

"super creepy and intimidating"
The best way to do this imo would be to tackle both angles separately. Being creepy is unnerving and eerie. A small child laughing can be creepy, but that's not necessarily something that would intimidate you. Likewise a large spike covered monster would certainly be intimidating but it wouldn't creep you out. I think you should take inspiration from things that you personally find creepy/intimidating. I'm scared of loud sounds for example so I might portray death as a voice that you hear in your head. Make it something personal. Get inspired.

 

[Rhaeami]

Creepiest deathy ideas I can come up with:

- When you look at them, you see your own face or your loved ones'. Everyone sees a different face.
- They literally have no physical form. Can't hurt them with conventional weapons, or see them with the naked eye.
- They posses dead things to use as bodies - plants, animals, people, etc. Killing one just means it finds a new host.

I guess those are all a bit more than just an aesthetic look, but the thing is that most metaphors for death have been done... well, to death. Most of the creepiness factor comes specifically from the fact that they're recognized cliches. If it weren't for cheesy halloween costumes, who'd be afraid of some guy in a black robe?

 

[Starshine]

something emotionally connected to the character is likely to be the most creepy and intimidating to them and therefore have more of an impact on the audience; ie, a dead friend reborn as a hideous, gorey creature who blames them for their death, or their future self, decomposed; just some examples of the concept.

 

[HexMozart88]

I usually picture Death as the person you most want to see, so it varies from person to person. However, if you were to see Death before your time, they would just appear kind of like a member of Organization XIII.
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net...7/Cloak.png/revision/latest?cb=20110801173657
I had Time be their mother, and Life be their sibling. They alone can see each other's true form, which is a kind of doll-like appearance. However, they can turn into whatever they wish. A tad bit like what @Rhaeami said. I see Death as some sort of slave, but without chains. Eyes emptied of any kind of depth or humanity, with a ticking heartbeat, and seemingly entirely devoid of emotion. The most unsettling thing I can think of is dolls, or anything that reminds me in the slightest of porcelain dolls. I really don't understand why people think Death is dead. That doesn't make any sense. If they were no more than a skeleton, that would add too much humanity to them. Plus, how does he walk without kneecaps? Am I the only one bothered by this?

 

[TriceratopsX]

I have Death as an antagonistic character for my game I'm working on, and I just chose to go with the "Skeleton in black/grey robes weilding a scythe" though the reason he looks that way is kinda plot related so I don't really wanna say too much.

Though I agree with what the others have been saying about having it look different for each person, some cool/interesting ideas that can come from this are 1. After fighting/escaping it the party has a "wtH did we just fight?" moment where they argue about what it looked like. 2. If the party splits at some point after fighting/seeing it once at the second encounter (where the original party leader isn't present) have the appearance change. 3. I don't know if this is really possible/practical but I came up with the idea as I was writing this, have its appearance change during battle depending on who's turn it is. Just some ideas

 

[Alexander Amnell]

Spoiler: like many of my early morning posts, this one ended up way longer than it probably should be.

My favorite depiction of death has always been that of a small child. Wide-eyed and innocent, yet with timeless wisdom, removed from any of the avarice and anguish that us humans tend to experience when loved ones die and hence associate with death most often when we try to personify it. Not because it's without emotion but because it's simply dissociated from the turmoil, the turmoil doesn't register because it's not what death is about, that's merely what our limited minds make it about in our grief.

It would appear friendly, disarming even but at the same time completely implacable. Whatever arguments you might have, what ever bargains you might try to make for it to pass you by are casually dismissed by a sing-song rhyme that speaks to an immutable truth cutting to the heart of your contrariness and ringing whatever points you have hollow in your own ears. It provides all of the answers to the truths you don't really want to hear yet like a child with a secret to keep will glibly keep you stumbling as to the path ahead, for where is the fun in revealing that? It'll wear you down in time, for it's outside of time. It has no need to rush, no need for threats or prodding but patiently outlasting you, seeing to your heart and dismissing all your fears and hatreds and regrets with the same implacable wisdom until you willingly follow her.

For most of us, that's how it ends, we eventually surrender to death's innocent wisdom. Perhaps every now and then someone clever enough and with enough need convinces death to forestall their journey together for a time, and that someone wakes up from their coma or awakens with that last ounce of strength they need to crawl bloody and dying from the burning wreak of their vehicle or survive wounds in which all known sciences agree are inherently fatal or any other number of seldom-explained medical miracles that happen from time to time in this world of ours but most of us aren't so cleaver and most of us have no such need and thus our only course is to surrender...or to lash out.

In either action we reveal our hearts, those without malice eventually surrender to the inarguable wisdom or convince death of our need through sheer stubbornness and are given leave for a time, for them there are no other conceivable options. But for those with true malice in their hearts, who have lived a life without empathy and without limits of any kind there exists another option, that of striking out against death, against what, to all of their senses and every fiber of their being is a small, defenseless child.

Those find their damnation as they strike her, with eternity to regret that final mistake and all the others before which hardened their hearts and made them capable of making it in the first place. For good people can be forced by circumstance to do many horrible things, they can maim and kill and sow chaos they'll regret forever yet how many have the capacity to strike out against a little one? Innately aware of exactly what they are doing and for nothing more than telling them the truth, out of no inspiration save self preservation how can one then argue to any effect that they are redeemable and worthy of even the peace of death itself? So death abandons them, and they never find their way in the darkness that awaits the dying to whatever might lie ahead.

Not the most horrifying form there is, though I think you could make a really unnerving representation with such a depiction if you worked it right. I agree with @Diretooth though and like to think of death as a companion that shows you the way on a dark path rather than an emotionless horror that reaps you like chaff from a field of wheat.

 

[MRHAPPYFACEMAN]

Creepiest deathy ideas I can come up with:

- When you look at them, you see your own face or your loved ones'. Everyone sees a different face.
- They literally have no physical form. Can't hurt them with conventional weapons, or see them with the naked eye.
- They posses dead things to use as bodies - plants, animals, people, etc. Killing one just means it finds a new host.

I guess those are all a bit more than just an aesthetic look, but the thing is that most metaphors for death have been done... well, to death. Most of the creepiness factor comes specifically from the fact that they're recognized cliches. If it weren't for cheesy halloween costumes, who'd be afraid of some guy in a black robe?

this is a good idea, I may run with this one

 

[HexMozart88]

@Alexander Amnell Now that is a good idea. I love this topic because there are so many different thoughts of what Death is. It's also wrenching my gut to think about. In a good way of course, XD.

 

[Caitlin]

A little history lesson for people about 'death', so you understand where I am coming from. The typical death character was from the time of the Black plague of Europe where it was sweeping hundreds. It was a scary time for people, so that's why the image has mostly stuck around, even after all this time. How people saw death was different than the people of older times. Some people said there was no true death merely you were reborn, rejoined the something, etc... So here's my suggestion, what if you own internal desires, fears and such, created the form of death.

What you saw was a reflection of your own internal soul? A nice person could see someone they dearly loved, an angelic messenger, while a criminal might see that one person who reached out for them and the truly insane sees something that truly scares them in fear. What we would consider a demon. The tagline: It can either bring you peace and joy, or bring you pure terror in your last moments of life?

 

[MRHAPPYFACEMAN]

A little history lesson for people about 'death', so you understand where I am coming from. The typical death character was from the time of the Black plague of Europe where it was sweeping hundreds. It was a scary time for people, so that's why the image has mostly stuck around, even after all this time. How people saw death was different than the people of older times. Some people said there was no true death merely you were reborn, rejoined the something, etc... So here's my suggestion, what if you own internal desires, fears and such, created the form of death.

What you saw was a reflection of your own internal soul? A nice person could see someone they dearly loved, an angelic messenger, while a criminal might see that one person who reached out for them and the truly insane sees something that truly scares them in fear. What we would consider a demon. The tagline: It can either bring you peace and joy, or bring you pure terror in your last moments of life?

interesting you say that, the outfit that the doctors wore at that time bear strong similarities to the traditional death - minus the ugly snout thing they had on their faces. maybe that is why

 

[Alexander Amnell]

It is very likely that is exactly where the traditional black-robed reaper came from, because these doctors followed the plague in their desperate attempts to study it and work out ways to stop it it wasn't an uncommon problem for isolated villages to presume that they themselves brought the plague in their wakes.

The ugly bird mask primarily served as an aromatic filter, crammed full of medicinal herbs and flowers both to counteract the smell of death they were surrounded with and again in desperation with the hope that some of them might help the doctors stave off the disease itself. Some people theorize that the odd protrusion was intended as a means of keeping patients at bay (hard to cough up blood into the doc's eyes when you get impaled by a two-foot beak along the way) Or that it served a more mystical purpose of tricking the birds who were believed to carry the disease at the time into leaving the doctors be, though that second one has more the ring of new aged arrogance presuming the foolishness of our ancestors than a likely reality of intent to me.

Anyway, back on topic. It is likely that the medieval image of death as the reaper of souls started with the plague doctors since they were about the only ones who really came toward it and their clear resemblance with that depiction. At the time it was said that the reaper was often spotted in the fields from afar shortly before an outbreak and there are a couple of documented cases where plague doctors were murdered by the very people they were already risking a gristly death trying to save, so sudden and terrifying was that particular plague at the time.

@HexMozart88 Thanks, wish I could take credit for it but my first post is basically just the bastardized reiteration from memory of an English assignment from one of my peers in university that just sort of...stuck with me.

 

[Manofdusk]

There's another version of death that I used in a game I GMed a long time ago. When you died, the deeds you performed in life manifest over you in 2 forms, a devil (the evil deeds) and an angel (the good deeds) and they would argue over which one could lay claim to your soul. In this particular campaign, the reapers were judges.

... and there was a particular caveat to this form of death though. If you killed both your personal angel and demon, you became immortal. Neither side could lay claim to your soul because those who argued your case were destroyed. That said, such an existence was portrayed as a curse rather than a boon.

 

[bustedradio]

Hmm . . . well in my universe I have two death gods.

The first one is called The Great Forest King Naga. As his name implies, he is a white tailed naga and his forest is where spirits would rest. The second one is his spouse named Moose. He was a young child who wandered into the forest in order to look for a curative flower for his ill mother. Naga couldn't bare to kill Moose, but also could not let him go back to the human world because he was already tainted by the spirits. So Naga made a pact with Moose. Naga became the King of Death and Moose became the King of the Undead.

Most of the gods in my universe are based on animals, the the exception of The King of Undead and the Gods of Love and Sacrifice. I think they're just more interesting to look at and be creative with. (If you're confused about my naming terms, King is refers to the original old gods and God refers to the modern new gods, haha.)

You can always do research on the personification of Death from other cultures and draw inspiration from there.

- Greek had Thanatos, who was an attractive young man with wings or young boy. He was considered to be kind and gentle.

- In Celtic folklore, there was a figure named Ankou, who was kind of the local death spirit. They were the representation of the person who died recently, but taller. They looked either like a shadow or typical reaper with white hair or a wide hat and drove a cart or wagon full of corpses.

- Ireland had the dullahan, who were an entire species of headless horsemen/women. They would visit homes of people who were about to die, say their name, and the person would die. Dullahan hated being seen by human and lash at their eyes with a whip made of a spine. Ireland also had the banshee, which you may know is the wailing woman who heralds the death of a person.

- Scotland has the Cu-Sith, which was a huge, shaggy dog with green or white fur. They are the harbingers of death and would guide souls to the after life. They can hunt silently and will sometimes let out 3 howls. Those who hear these howls must reach safety or else they'll be overcome with crippling terror.

- East Anglia had the the Black Shuck, a large, ghostly, black dog with red eyes (sometime only one eye). They haunt coastlines, graveyards, sideroads, crossroads, bodies of water, and dark forests.

- Japan has he shinigami, who are gods or spirits that would to invite humans towards death. There's also the goddess of creation and death Izanami-no-Mikoto. She is often depicted as a woman with long black hair wearing a white kimono.

- In Korea, they have the Netherworld Emissary named Joeseung Saja. He is extremely pale with sunken eyes and wears long black robes with a tall, black hat.

This is all information that I got from just reading a wiki page, so the accuracy on some of these death figures may be dubious, but still pretty interesting.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

Handsome dude in a black suit a la Joe Black/Brad Pitt.