Earth is… well, it’s Earth. The land of the living. Where people who have not departed remain. In terms of setting, consider it to be extremely similar to our present day Earth, but with the caveat of magic existing–not that magic changed all that many things in the end.

As the land of the living and the first step in one’s journey, Earth tends to be prone to the most issues coming from departed souls–in particular, wisps. Departed souls that linger too long on earth suffer from ego decay, which causes a slow-but-sure loss of self for the soul in question. Eventually, the soul loses itself and becomes something called a wisp.

Wisps can take on many forms, most of them reflecting regrets or things that a departed soul held powerful emotions toward. Generally speaking, wisps don’t start dangerous, but can very quickly become dangerous when they are exposed to negative stimuli.

Decibitus is a city that exists in the space between life and the afterlife–some might say it is the limbo of death itself, but that’s really far too dramatic a way to describe it. Decibitus is, effectively, a normal city for those that need a little extra time before they decide to move on to what happens after death. To that end, only a very small fraction of departed souls actually wind up in Decibitus, each with their own reasons as to why.

That said, Decibitus is not and was never meant to be a permanent place for people to stay, and is only the size of a city. As a result, there aren’t many houses, though there are plenty of apartments that are given to residents for free. It is important to go through proper channels to get this set up though–to ensure that you can be set up with necessities and to prevent anyone being sent to an already-occupied apartment. Because people do not age and generally are incapable of truly dying in Decibitus, people who do not have necessities don’t necessarily die, but comfort is still something that the city tries to offer to its residents, no matter how temporary said residents may be.

The most important part of Decibitus isn’t the fact that it has places to live or functions, effectively, as a city though-. It’s the Departure Rail, the train in the center of the city that ferries souls that are prepared directly to the After. Under normal circumstances, the Departure Rail makes a trip directly to the After three times a day to deliver departed souls prepared for their afterlives.

The afterlife, if one were to describe the After according to common human thought. This is the single destination for the Departure Rail, and is protected by an odd boundary that separates it from Decibitus and Earth in a more definite way. Departed souls that enter the After are not able to return to Decibitus or Earth. Because of this, very little is known about the After.

Reapers are the only beings known to be able to enter the After and return after, though they are only able to do so at the outskirts where the Kiln is located for short periods of time. Most information known about the After is from reapers who have delivered remains to the Kiln.

“There’s magic in your words.”

The basis of all magic in this world is Vertan, a language colloquially known as the “world script”. As far as anyone understands it,Vertan words are the vehicle for an individual’s inherent magic to create effects on the world. To that end, there are two approaches to magic: spoken and written. All formally trained users of magic will learn both systems, and simple spells of both are taught in general education as well.

Spoken magic is considered to be easier for most people to understand, particularly because it is much less stringent in being able to create an effect. As one might expect, spoken magic requires reciting Vertan words, and in the case of casting the same spell, is typically much faster than written magic. The speed and general ease of use makes spoken magic popular for casual magic users or for on-the-spot spells. However, in most formal settings, spoken magic is set aside for written magic, primarily because spoken magic tends to be less predictable and consistent than its written counterpart. Moreover, spoken magic has significant shortcomings when persistent effects are desired, can't be prepared ahead of time, and is prone to producing unexpected or unintended effects, even when trying to cast the same spell multiple times in a row.

On the other side of the magic spectrum is written magic. Where spoken magic is often valued for its speed and convenience, written magic is valued for its precision and its ability to be prepared in advance. However, it takes a considerable amount of time for each written spell to be prepared as magic must be inscribed into each word, which can be a time-consuming process. However, complex spells and persistent effects are virtually always done through written magic due to its stability and consistency. When a written spell produces unexpected effects, it is virtually always because of improper inscription rather than "magic being magic".

In both systems of magic, only the individual who creates the spell is able to actually cast it. This means that a spell inscribed or chanted by one magic user can’t be activated or hijacked by another magic user, and spells with multiple writers require all of the original writers to be cast. Furthermore, a script, whether written or spoken, can only work once before having to be rewritten or incanted again.

Upon completion of training, all reapers are given a weapon core from Miss Death. These are small gem-like structures filled with a black, smoke-like substance. These cores can be taken to Uchi to be forged into a reaper’s personal weapon–their “scythe”, so to speak. When inactive, they remain in their gem-like form, but when activated, the black substance takes the form of the reaper’s weapon.

Weapons made from these cores are unique in that they are able to unmake any soul–even those that are attached to a still-living person or a soul that exists in the After, should a reaper decide to use their weapon for such purposes. These are primarily used to handle Wisps, but due to their ability, are sometimes used to unmake souls in the Ligena Fati.

Oddly, it appears that these weapons are incapable of unmaking Miss Death herself.

“Congratulations, you’re a reaper!

Hm? Miss Death? Oh, she’s probably up in her office reading reports from Decibitus Hall. You know how it is with the Departure Rail situation–poor thing is probably up to her ears in extra work because of her position, so she doesn’t have time for the usual introductions. That’s okay though, I’ll handle it in her place as your good old fashioned senpai!

We’ll start with your standard job expectations:

First, the type of thing you’ll be doing most often is going back to Earth to go and unmake Wisps and bring their remains to the processing center in the After for reconstruction. This is something that only reapers can really do, which is why you guys get sent to these situations so frequently. Normally someone over in Decibitus Hall will catch wind of weird Wisp-y behavior before they become too nasty, but it’s still good to be careful. They’re the only things that can kinda-sorta unmake a soul other than you reapers, so… well, you can see how it gets risky for everyone.

Ahem, anyways, another one of your jobs is to help find people who have passed on Earth that haven’t made it to Decibitus. People don’t normally need the help, so it’s not that common, but sometimes a person gets a little lost or trapped back on Earth. That’s no good for a departed soul, and leaving them alone for too long will eventually cause their ego to degrade until they become a Wisp, and that’s trouble. A lot of times, this sort of thing is handled by someone from Decibitus Hall, but for ones that take a little more time or finesse, reapers like you are the best bet. After all, for whatever reason, reapers don’t suffer the same kind of ego decay as normal departed souls–maybe that’s why you guys can go to and from the After with no issue? Haha, well, even Miss Death doesn’t really know the answer to that, so we can only guess!

Let’s see… your last type of usual job is more of an oopsie on our side than anything happening on Earth. See, Decibitus does its best to keep tabs on everyone that goes back to Earth while trying to clear out any last regrets or anything before moving on to the After, but sometimes, people run off without getting that clearance. Why? Uhhh, well, some of them might be people that are supposed to go to the Depths, but a lot of them are just people that don’t know any better. Decibitus isn’t exactly what people cover in their afterlife beliefs back on Earth, you know. Ego decay and all that is a foreign concept, so they run off thinking it’ll be fine, but…

…

Anyways! That’s why reapers go out to find those types of people before it’s too late! After all, it’d be too sad if they lost their chance to go to the After just because they didn’t know any better.

Aaand that’s it! You’ll get some extra duties here and there too, especially as you rise in the ranks. Things like bringing remains of unmade souls to the After’s processing center directly or unmaking dangerous souls in the Ligena Fati and all that, but don’t expect that to happen all that often.

With that all out of the way, congrats again on becoming one of Miss Death’s reapers! I’m sure you’ll do a killer job out there.”