Death

Death (死神 Shinigami, lit.transl. Death God), also known as the Grim Reaper, is a major villain from Konami's Castlevania series. He is said to be called "The Governor of the End of Living Things."

Death is Dracula's right hand man, thus he usually appears near the end of the hero's quest, often in the Clock Tower, to challenge them before they confront Dracula. He is also sometimes the first of Dracula's major servants to greet the hero, such as in Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night, and The Arcade. He has appeared in every game except Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge.

Death sometimes plays an equal or lesser role in Dracula's organization when someone other than he is the driving force behind Dracula's resurrection, such as Shaft, Elizabeth Bartley, or Carmilla. Two of Death's closest associates include Slogra and Gaibon, who directly report to him. He is also closely associated with the beast Cerberus. He has also been known to show respect to characters for their courage and skill. Death is also said to be Dracula's close friend.

Death can also use dark arts to summon the souls of the dead and defeat even the strongest of the living. Nothing can hurt Death as the attack will go straight through him with no damage. The only way to hurt Death is to attack with weapons or spells that have divine properties, namely the Vampire Killer.

Events of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
This mysterious being forges an alliance with Mathias Cronqvist - who later becomes known as Dracula - in 1094. Initially, Death pretends to be a servant to Walter Bernhard, owner of the Ebony Stone. However, Death later betrays him after Leon Belmont defeats him with the Vampire Killer whip.

It is revealed that Mathias Cronqvist has the Crimson Stone, a stone much more powerful than the Ebony Stone. With Walter defeated, Mathias gains access to Bernhard's Ebony Stone, giving him both of the Vampire Treasures. To add insult to injury, Mathias uses the Crimson Stone to suck out Walter's soul and place it inside the stone. The soul becomes a power source to fuel Mathias's dark desires.

Crushed by Mathias' turn to the dark forces of evil, Leon Belmont is ready to slay his former friend when Death arrives and challenges Leon in the final showdown of the game. Even though Death is defeated, Mathias makes his escape after some parting words with Leon. With Mathias Cronqvist gone, Leon Belmont swears that no matter where he should go, The Belmont clan will hunt him and his kind down forever.

Since then, Death has proven to be the Count's most loyal and devoted servant.

Events of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
After Trevor Belmont had successfully defeated Dracula, the Count placed a curse on all of Europe, with the intent that the corruption and misery bred from it would bring about his resurrection. To speed up the process, a mysterious priest by the name of Zead came across Hector, and appeared friendly enough with his wanting to help Hector defeat his nemesis, Isaac. What Hector didn't know was that the priest, Zead was actually Death in disguise. However, his disguise did not fool the time-traveling Saint Germain who knew that if either Devil Forger, Hector or Isaac should fall, then the dark lord Dracula could be revived. Both fought, and in spite of Saint Germain getting the upper hand during their first tussle (and mentioning he would return until Zead surrendered), Zead managed to trick him into the Eneomaos Machine Tower and freeze his powers until he was defeated in combat by Hector. After this, Saint Germain left the timeline, after asking Hector to give Zead his sarcastic regards.

In the reborn castle of Dracula, Hector fought Isaac and beat him to the brink of death. But before he knew it, the body of Isaac was whisked away into a coffin by Zead who had big plans for him to be the new host body for Dracula's resurrection. When Zead removed a scythe from his sleeve, it was then that Hector realized who Zead was. Shedding his disguise, Death appeared and battled Hector, and was defeated.

Events of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
This time around, Death wanders through Dracula's Castle searching for his Lord while trying to understand where his master has disappeared to. Death soon realizes that due to Maxim Kischine's eagerness to find and destroy Dracula's body parts the same as Simon Belmont did about half a century ago, he inadvertently had awoken the spirit of Dracula.

This led to Maxim slowly being taken over by the spirit of Dracula, and the split of Dracula's castle into two different castles. Death soon realized that Maxim Kischine's body would make a suitable host for the resurrection of Dracula, and soon sought to prevent Juste Belmont from finding his former friend and freeing him from Dracula's control.

Events of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
$Symphony of the Night$

After the dark priest Shaft's successful resurrection of Dracula, the Count is swiftly defeated by Richter Belmont in 1792. However, due to a sinister curse placed on him by Shaft, Richter is slowly possessed by an evil spirit. 5 years later, in 1797, Richter Belmont mysteriously disappears and Dracula's Castle appears once again.

This time, Dracula's son, Alucard awakens from his self-inflicted permanent slumber when he senses that something is terribly amiss. When he enters Dracula's Castle, Alucard is confronted by Death. Since Alucard is Dracula's son, Death gives him a chance to cease his attack and turn back. Upon refusing, Death steals all of his equipment and scatters it throughout the entire castle.

Later, when Alucard encounters Death again. Death notes that he has given Alucard ample warning, and with Alucard not backing down, he engages Alucard in combat and loses.

Events of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Death once again wanders through the castle seeking his Lord and Master: Dracula. However, when he runs into Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin, he learns of the interloper, Brauner, taking the role of Lord of the Castle for himself. Death initially rebuffs the idea of anyone except Dracula controlling the castle, saying the notion is "positively absurd". At first, he does not even try to fight the heroes, even hinting at a possible alliance to kill Brauner, albeit with different aims in mind. However, he is rebuffed and is confronted in the castle's Clock Tower. He leaves the battle when his energy is exhausted, saying he has other affairs to handle.

Later, after Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin defeated Brauner, Death materializes and slices through Brauner with a swing of his Scythe to finish him off. When Jonathan and Charlotte pursue him, they find the newly risen Dracula. Ready to take him out, Jonathan is blocked by Death who has come to Dracula's aid. In a surprising turn of events, Death and Dracula decide to team up for their battle against the two young heroes. When either Death's or Dracula's life is depleted, Death screams: "My power! Use my power!" At this point, Dracula holds out both hands and calls out "Soul Steal" allowing him to absorb Death's soul and change into the True Dracula. It's worth noting that this is likely a call back to Alucard's Soul Steal spell from SOTN as wells as a reference to Dracula's Power of Dominance as seen in Aria / Dawn of Sorrow.

Events of Akumajo Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku
After the ultimate defeat of Dracula in 1999, Death remained with the Castle in the eclipse and fought Soma Cruz there in 2035. He would fight him again the following year in Celia's castle. Dracula's former servant Olrox began attempting to conquer the forces of chaos. Death opposed this and set out to destroy him.

Tradition
Death is a Grim Reaper, as such he is never seen without his Scythe. His attacks and appearances may have been changing from game to game, but in basic, he always summons floating sickles out of thin air to hunt down his oppositions.

Gameplay
$Forms$

Abilities
$Abilities$

Castlevania: Judgment
$Judgment$ Death made his first playable appearance in the 3D fighting game Castlevania Judgment. His appearance is based more on his second forms (especially that which appeared in The Arcade, which is more human-like), which are more skeletal and lack a cloak. He is equipped with a scythe on his right hand and a hook that replaces his left. His battle theme is "Evil's Symphonic Poem" from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Just before the song's loop, an arrangement of "Poison Mind" can be heard.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Death is known as the Lord of the Dead. During the end of the game, after defeating the last of the Necromancers, Zobek reveals to Gabriel that he is the Lord of the Dead himself. Though Zobek apparently kills him in battle, it was revealed that Zobek was nothing more than Satan's pawn. Satan then burns Zobek.

After Gabriel revives, battles, and defeats Satan, the game ends and nearly 1,000 years has passed. How Zobek survived or is able to wander amongst the living has not been explained, however Zobek has been able to blend and adapt to the modern world as a wealthy businessman. During the present time, Zobek searches for Gabriel (Dracula in this form) and forewarns Dracula that Satan's acolytes are planning his return to vow vengeance against both of them. Zobek asks Dracula to join him against the battle and deliver what Dracula truly desires; an end to his immortality.

Zobek would help Dracula regain his strength by offering a family to fed on. He would send Dracula off to reclaim his powers and destroy the acolytes, sometimes along with Zobek's personal bodyguard.

After learning his lieutenant was an imposter, he sensed Dracula's betrayal and faced his nemesis in the Basilica. Zobek assumed his true form as Death himself, but was ultimately defeated.

Non-Castlevania Appearances
Death appears in another Konami game for the MSX system : Knightmare, where he is the boss of the second stage. His attack mirrors the one in Castlevania/Vampire Killer, as he throws scythes in a circular pattern.

Trivia

 * Note that in Japanese mythology, a "death god" (shinigami) is the name for a type of being (of many) rather than the Western idea of a single Grim Reaper, which may explain his status as a minion within the games. It is noteworthy, however, that Death is called "DEATH" in some games - even the Japanese versions - making it likely that Death is, in fact, the sole Grim Reaper from western folklore.
 * Galamoth has his own version of Death ten thousand years in the future, the Time Reaper. Interestingly, the Time Reaper looks like Death himself in Curse of Darkness.
 * For some strange reason, despite his loyalties to Dracula, he fights Soma Cruz in both games that he has appeared in, even though, technically, Soma is the reincarnation of Dracula. It was possible that Death wanted Soma dead to allow the power of Chaos to possess Soma, and therefore revive Dracula. However, this is open for debate, and even that doesn't explain why he wanted to kill Soma in Dawn of Sorrow, as Chaos was destroyed. However, Soma does not wield the Crimson Stone, so Death is not controlled by Soma. Death does not speak to Soma on either occasion.
 * In Belmont's Revenge, when you walk across the bridge that leads to Dracula, you can see statues in the background that resemble Death.
 * Often, Death's HP/EX values contain only fours, or they are multiples of four in some obvious way. This is a Japanese-language-specific pun. The pronunciation of the number four and the word for death are phonetically identical ("shi").
 * Death disguising himself as a priest in Curse of Darkness is inspired by a scene in Ingmar Bergman's classic 1957 film, The Seventh Seal.
 * In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Death is weak against his own Scythe. Even though he is weak against the holy power of Claim Solais, the Scythe does more damage, because it´s the strongest weapon in the game. This may also be a reference to his scythe beheading him in Rondo of Blood and Dracula X.
 * The fact that Death is mostly fought in or near a clock tower may be because he is sometimes associated with time.

Enemy Data

 * See Reapers