The Boy Upon Death
My existence was as cold as my birth. I was born with both knowledge and will-an inevitability for my kind. Drawn to the final moments of mortal life, we came into being. Some of us became Reapers, tasked solely with ferrying souls to their afterlife. Others craved the power of souls, calling themselves-gods of Death-Shinigami. They believed that devouring or absorbing souls granted them greater might, but found that power only deepened their coldness and emptiness. Those gods of Death became husks, bored of their own immortality yet too frightened to end themselves. But being a Reaper can yield the same chill. Though I know the souls would be lost without our guidance, my own existence seems bound to a perpetual winter, drawn to the final beat of each mortal life.
Welcome to the Veil.
Have you ever wondered what the Reapers are and what the Veil is? In this discussion, I cover much of the lore. Some of it may contain spoilers, so I recommend reading the book first.
What are Reapers
What are the reapers? As we find out E’than Can make his own reaper out of part of him, part of the souls he now carries.
The Veil did this, making the reapers with two purposes: to help guide souls and to become a new Veil that can help lost souls.
Where did the concept come from?
The idea began with inspiration from Death Note. I was fascinated by the idea of death personified, but I wanted to explore it from a different angle-one focused not on punishment or judgment, but on sorrow, devotion, and the weight of impossible choices.
The Boy Upon Death started as a pair of short stories-just Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. I had no plans to turn it into a full novel. But the more I wrote, the more questions I had. And the only way to answer them was to keep writing.
What emerged was a dark and emotional tale of a Reaper who, through devotion, becomes something more. A Shinigami shaped not by power, but by refusal-the refusal to let even one soul disappear. And in that refusal, he became a Veil.
Why could Vail not take in souls that lingered too long?
Its core nature was transitional-designed to guide spirits from one realm to the next. But when a soul lingered too long without passing through, a slow corruption took root. The longer it remained, the more it drifted out of harmony with the Veil’s essence, becoming something incompatible… something unreturnable.
The Veil understood this flaw within itself. It mourned the souls it could no longer reach. In time, it gave rise to new beings-Reapers-born of shadow and sorrow, yet filled with a spark of purpose. The Veil hoped that among them, one might emerge with the will and wisdom to change what it could not. One who could defy the cycle… and bring the lost home.
Why was Veil Quiet?
Why did the Veil speak only through feeling, and rarely through words?
The Veil's nature was not one of language, but of presence. It communicated through emotion-weightless impressions, quiet urges, and subtle shifts in feeling. Words were a boundary it could rarely cross, not by choice, but by design.
Only at the moment a tether was breaking-when the connection between a Reaper and the Veil began to fray-could a few scattered words slip through. Imagine the tether as a string: as each strand unwound, the cosmic harmony that bound them weakened. This unraveling allowed for a final, fragile whisper-spoken thought echoing just before the bond was lost forever.
The Veil could never speak freely… not until E’than reached the threshold of transformation. Only then, on the verge of becoming something new, something beyond the original Veil’s limits, could true words pass between them.
What is the Veil
That’s a question I never answer outright-and I never intend to.
To some, the Veil might seem like God. To others, perhaps it’s simply the passage-the cosmic mechanism between the world of the living and whatever lies beyond. The truth is, even within the story, the Veil isn’t defined. And that’s intentional.
I wanted readers to feel free to bring their own beliefs, fears, and hopes into the story. To let their idea of the afterlife shape how they see the Veil. Is it divine? Mechanical? A living consciousness? A natural law?
What lies beyond the Veil is left unwritten-because what you see in it… says something about you.
Why do the gods of death become corrupt when they absorb souls?
What makes the Shinigami different?
And how did E’than transcend?
It all comes down to intent, restraint, and nature.
Most Gods of Death, regardless of their original purpose or ideals, fall to corruption because they use souls as a source of power. They consume the essence of the dead to fuel themselves. But the soul was never meant to be used this way. Treating it like a battery slowly takes a toll - not just on the soul being consumed, but on the one doing the consuming. Over time, each soul eaten chips away at the eater's own.
The Shinigami are different. Few in number, they do not rely on souls for power. And in the rare moments when they do draw from them, they show restraint. They do not overindulge. Their discipline protects them from the same corruption that overtakes Gods of Death.
As for E’than, he may seem like an exception, but he isn't. He never craved power. He never fed without cause. He held tightly to the value of saving souls rather than consuming them. That choice - that nature - shielded him.
Any Reaper, once severed from the original Veil, has the potential to become a new Veil. E’than simply became the first who did… without falling.
Where did Reapers come from, and why are they so different from one another?
The Veil first created Reapers to help guide souls to the next plane of existence. In the beginning, their purpose was simple: to assist the passing of the dead. But it wasn’t long before something unexpected happened. Not all souls were able to leave. Some clung to the world after death, and when too much time passed, they began to change. Corruption took hold the longer they were separated from their organic form.
The Veil, unable to bring these lost souls home, changed its approach.
It began creating Reapers in a new way - not just as guides, but as potential saviors. Beings who might learn, evolve, and become something more. Something that could do what the Veil could not.
Even in those early days, the Veil formed Reapers from the very souls it had already absorbed. These souls helped shape each Reaper’s personality. But because the Veil itself was part of the creation process, most Reapers bore some of its shadow - a quiet darkness at their core.
Not all Reapers were the same, however. Some were different.
One example is Annelise. Her personality stands apart from the others, and there is a reason for that. She was not made by the original Veil.
