In Final Fantasy XIV, the @Reaper (*Soul Reaper* in the original Japanese) is a melee DPS job closely tied to the tragic history of the Garlean people. Long before they built a technologically advanced, magitek-driven empire, the Garleans were a displaced, persecuted people trying to survive in the fertile southern region of Ilsabard.
Here is the complete lore of the Reapers, from their desperate origins to their role as royal assassins.
The story of the Reaper begins with a fundamental biological deficit. In the world of Hydaelyn, almost all living beings can manipulate aether—the life-force of the planet—to cast magic. The ancestors of the Garleans, however, were born completely lacking this ability.
Because they could not use magic, they were easily overpowered, bullied, and driven out of their lush southern homelands by rival, magic-wielding tribes. Forced into exile, they migrated north across the central mountain range into the bitter, frozen wastes of northern Ilsabard.
Survival in the freezing north was brutal. Unable to rely on traditional magics to warm themselves or defend their new settlements, the Garleans became desperate. They needed a weapon that could level the playing field against magic-users, and they needed it quickly.
Desperation led the Garlean ancestors to look beyond their own star, turning their gaze toward the Thirteen Shared—a reflection of their world that had collapsed into a dark, warped dimension known as the Void. The Void was populated by voidsent: twisted, aether-starved monsters that constantly hungered for the life-force of living beings.
Through forbidden rituals, some Garleans discovered they could bridge the gap between worlds. While they couldn't manipulate their own internal aether to cast spells, they could offer a sacrifice of life-force to forge a pact with a voidsent.
This contract bound a specific type of predatory voidsent—known as a Avatar—to the Garlean practitioner. In exchange for a steady supply of aether (harvested from slain enemies), the Avatar granted the Garlean incredible physical power, agility, and a terrifying shroud of darkness.
Because these early pact-makers wielded massive, two-handed scythes originally used for farming, and because they literally reaped the souls of their foes to feed their voidsent partners, they became known as Reapers.
With the power of the Avatars at their command, the Garleans successfully defended their frozen territory. However, the Reapers did not stop there. They sought to avenge the ancestors who had been driven from their original homes.
The Reapers organized into a highly secretive, elite order of assassins called the Lemures. For generations, the Lemures operated in the shadows of Ilsabard. They fought a guerilla war against the southern nations that had wronged them, targeting oppressive rulers, corrupt generals, and powerful mages.
To a Reaper, the scythe was a symbol of grim irony. A tool meant to harvest life-giving grain was instead used to harvest the souls of tyrants. They were regarded by their enemies as terrifying specters who could step through the shadows, strike with lethal precision, and vanish into thin air.
For centuries, the Reapers were the hidden protectors of the Garlean people. But everything changed with the arrival of a brilliant young legatus named Solus galvus (who would later found the Garlean Empire).
Solus discovered ceruleum, a highly volatile, energy-dense fuel abundant in the northern wastes. Using ceruleum, he pioneered the development of Magitek—machinery capable of mimicking and overpowering magical arts without requiring internal aether.
With the birth of magitek warmachina, the Garlean military underwent a massive revolution. They no longer needed to rely on dangerous, forbidden blood pacts with voidsent to match the power of magic-users. Magitek gave the Garleans rifles, dreadnoughts, and magitek armor, allowing them to rapidly conquer their neighbors and form the vast Garlean Empire.
As the Empire grew, the Reapers were systematically phased out. The ruling class viewed the pacts with voidsent as crude, hazardous, and culturally backwards compared to the shiny, industrial future of Magitek. The order of the Lemures was largely disbanded, and the art of the Reaper faded into obscurity, preserved only by a few staunch traditionalists hiding in the underbelly of the imperial capital.
The bond between a Reaper and their Avatar is a delicate, hazardous symbiotic relationship. It is governed by a few core principles:
The Soul Gauge: As a Reaper slays enemies, the ambient life-force and emotion of the battlefield fill their Soul Gauge. This acts as sustenance for the Avatar.
The Shroud: When the bond between the Reaper and the Avatar reaches its absolute peak, the Reaper can perform a technique called Enshroud. Instead of just fighting alongside the Avatar, the Reaper allows the voidsent to physically merge with their body. This transforms the Reaper into a half-voidsent executioner, granting them blistering speed and devastating dark attacks for a limited time.
The Risk of Consumption: Forging a pact with an Avatar is inherently dangerous. If a Reaper's willpower wavers, or if they fail to feed the Avatar enough aether from external sources, the voidsent will turn on its master and consume the Reaper's own soul from the inside out.
In the modern era of the game, the Warrior of Light cross-trains in this forbidden Garlean art, keeping the ancient tradition of the Lemures alive long after the empire that birthed it has fallen into ruin.