For many years she trained, practiced, and worked to earn her position at the pinnacle of power that was the Tournament, only for her fame to be stripped away from her by the news of what had happened to Terxi. The great and merciless Terxi had given birth in the mortal realm while on a mission. With her she brought twin daughters to the realm of reaperdom. Though the older of the two vanished in a mysterious kidnapping, the realm lauded over the arrival of the child of Terxi, Sirius.

Once more, Mordecai had reached for her fame, only for it to be taken away from her at the last moment by someone else. She needed power, and a lot of it, and her methods of working for it were not working for her favor.

Then, after many weeks of watching the misfit child of accidents, an idea came to her mind. The man who had given her the power she had now. She would ask him for more, and if he refused her, she would take it by force. Several weeks were spent in the great Library, the Architect of the library assisting as she needed, though he always chilled her to the bone with nervousness when they were near each other.

In her studies, she discovered clues to what she would need to do, though many if not most were vague and very uninformative of what was required of her. Though she knew the risk, if it would give her power she wanted, she’d forsake everything and everyone for the right to control her own destiny and once more lead those she controlled on a bloody war, if not for the sake of war, than for the sake of defeating their newest enemy.

For a time, she attempted to summon the mysterious entity in the texts referenced only as the Goddess of Death. After many attempts, failures, and deaths in her experiments, she finally succeeded in summon the entity. She only managed to ask her one thing in the form of one word, before passing out from the overwhelming power the being exuded.

The day that she awoke, many days later, she felt herself surging with power unparalleled by even the purported great Reaper Extremis. She felt vastly older, her mind expanded and flooding with knowledge and information as she donned her newly acquired power. The first few battles she had within reaperdom resulted in her destroying not only her opponent, but nearly the entire city block that they battled upon, her body still adjusting to her new power.

After practicing her power, day in and day out and gaining quite the reputation as the Elder Mordecai, she faced an opponent who seemed to possess a power much like her own. This earthen spirit when by the name of Sly, and her cunning was that of a force to be reckoned with. They battled many time, drawing to a standstill on repeated occasions, before Sly provided the suggestion that they allied with each other.

Sly had come looking for a challenge, and was not disappointed. She had hoped to battle the Reaper Extremis herself, but Alexis had disappeared to Limbo for many months now, Terxi having taken control in her absence. The child by the name of Sirius had become a monster of the realm, causing chaos and destruction in her wake as she did as she pleased, her mother disowning her for her sheer destructive power.

Then, out of nowhere, Alexis returned home once more. But with her came a wave of sadness, destruction, and terror that none had thought they’d ever see. The woman wrought chaos and terror wherever she went, subjugating the masses and abusing her authority over the newly formed Homeguard, whom were brought into power by Terxi during Alexis disappearance.

For many centuries, reaperdom lived in fear of their ruler and her now seemingly endless vanguard of monsters. Under the new attitude of their ruler came the rise of the mysterious and uncontrollable monster she had found in Limbo. The mad genius who only went by the name Quill, calling herself the pen of eternity, and the Quill that would rend existence in two.

With the arrival of Quill, came the arrival of the Tenshi, mysterious beings of unimaginable power that followed the orders and laws established by Alexis, though none knew of where she acquired these strange beings.

To all, the Tenshi were simply monsters in the guise of beautiful women, but to Mordecai and Sly, whom had decidedly taken to hiding until they obtained the chance to challenge Alexis and overthrow her reign, they were terrifying monsters. The two had regularly fought with the defenders of Alexis’ fortress, only to be forced back by their mysterious strength, forcing them to flee for their safety from the endless army of demons.

For eons this reign of terror continued on, Alexis quickly growing in madness as rumors began to spread of a coup d'etat in the workings to overthrow her. However, on the day of the coup d’etat, Alexis was nowhere to be found in her fortress, Mordecai and Sly having challenged her to a battle.

Alexis accepted their challenge, arriving within the limits of the city when the two designated. “Come to challenge my throne, little welplings? Couldn’t assassinate me with my guardians, so you need to challenge me yourselves?” She scoffed at them, Mordecai sat beside Sly as she stared at her old friend with contempt and distaste.

Sly held her scythe to the reaper, announcing their intent. “Reaper Extremis Alexis, we challenge you for the title of your throne. You will suffer for your crimes against reaperdom!” Alexis merely waved them off with a dismissive sigh, sitting down and taunting them to attack her as they wished.

Mordecai stood, summon up her weapon as Sly nodded to her, the two fully intent on taking Alexis’ head on that day. The two surged forwards and unleashed their attacks upon their target. For a while dust kicked up, cloaking the chaos as the two swung and sliced at Alexis, trying to kill her, only for their strikes to fall short or miss entirely from their target.

Finally, after a great deal of attempting to take her head, and failing, they chose to unleash the power they had built up for this very battle. However, before they could even strike after unleashing their powers and their destructive force, something peculiar happened.

The sky dimmed, the Tenshi having vanished, Alexis knelt down in terror at the god that stood before the three of them. Mordecai and Sly could only stare in disbelief at the terror before them, the Goddess’ power cowing them to the point where they could barely hold onto their blades.

“You, chosen of the Elders, were granted my power to serve under me. You have chosen to turn your strength against your own kind, and for this crime you shall be punished.” She rose, power rippling from her as she towered over them, her black and stardust covered skin exuding force just by her mere presence. Mordecai could feel her power draining away, Sly standing defiantly against the goddess. “I refuse!” Before she could even bring her blade to bear, she was vanished in a cloud of stardust and destruction.

When Mordecai located her once more, she found her ally laid against the ground, spent and collapsed, the goddess approaching the two with what any could tell was murderous intent. Mordecai looked to the being and offered herself instead, closing her eyes and standing defiantly between the god and her fallen friend.

“you would sacrifice yourself for the sake of someone who would challenge a god? You are either exceptional foolish, or exceptionally brave and loyal. Then let us see how you deal with this final farewell.” She snapped her fingers, Sly suddenly writhing on the ground as the goddess vanished.

Mordecai could only panic as her friend suffocated on the lack of oxygen in the air, her powers draining rapidly as she choked and thrashed, gripping at the air for breath. It took her many moments to realize what she needed to breath, and in a few seconds she had conjured up her mask; normally meant for intimidation and concealing her identity; and altered it. In the few seconds before she passed out, she could see her ally lifting her and fleeing before Alexis could recover and destroy them both.

After yet another loss, Sly comatose for several days, Mordecai could only weep at her weakness and ineptitude in the face of every challenge she was given. She was gifted with power, but she could not use it.

In life she had fallen to a single foe, in death she struggled against a single rival, in ascension she failed against a single demi-god, and now she was left to her weakness, her friend on the verge of collapse. When Sly finally awoke once more, Mordecai was not there. The woman had fled, too disheartened by her weakness to face Sly on equal ground.

For the next many centuries, Mordecai lived in isolation, foregoing the workings of the world. She knew that Alexis had eventually been overthrown, Terxi taking control of reaperdom and conscripting the Tenshi as a personal guard of the newly named Reaper Ultimate, Quil forced to her own sub-section of the city after her attempts to alter a Tenshi backfired greatly and nearly destroyed half of the realm.

A new soul smithe came to the realm, known to many as Alice the Cruel, or to her clientele as Alicia. Many things happened, Mordecai disconnected from them all, only ever going to Alicia to have her scythe repaired after her training or missions.

Then the day came. Two powerful beings appeared in the realm at the same time. The mysterious Arius, whom she vaguely remembered seeing multiple times out on missions, usually on cleanup of his work, and the strangely powerful Lillith. Of the two, the one who interested her more was the girl Lillith.

After multiple attempts to contact her, Mordecai eventually came to find her out in the outskirts of the city, alone and being challenged by the cocksure and headstrong Elizia. The two battled repeatedly, Lillith crushing the High Lord on many occasions with exceptional ease and through the use of her overwhelming power through magic.

After several months had passed, Mordecai discovered that Lillith had conscripted the moon spirit as a follower, creating the newly named Counsel of Magic. In very little time, she gained the following of three others, Mordecai still hesitant to approach her. In the time that the five began to make their mark, so did the pet of Sirius. Brought to the realm on repeated occasions, but still a mortal, many thought it was some kind of ruse and a way to strike out against her mother.

Finally, on the day that the new arrival Arius became a reaper, so too did Mordecai approach Lillith. In less than a day, there was a falling out of the members, and on the day that Arius became the new hot topic of the realm, the counsels of Might and Magic clashed, the newly formed groups going at it.

After the loss of Elizia and Lillith, Mordecai approached them once more. Lillith offered to her a chance to join them. “Come with me, and I can show you magic the likes you’ve never seen before.” She held out a hand to the mute siren, smiling happily as she offered to join with Mordecai.

Less than three months later, the three would face their biggest test in the form of a cocksure wolf looking for power to take on a demi-god and ascend through the ranks of the tournament, then the realm itself. And Mordecai couldn’t wait for this adventure to begin.