One of if not the most dangerous of all Titan class enemies of humanity in the world. Rarely seen and even rarer for a single survivor to escape its power. It is only due to the immense danger of the Reaper that these fragmentary stories have been pieced into something approaching a cohesive whole and even now there is now proof that we have seen the full might that the Reaper can unleash or even use.
Unlike most other Titans or other Horrors, the Reaper stands apart in what is known to what is not known. It is a singular, for there have been no records of any duplicates of it in the world and due to the danger that it poses such information has been sought with the full support of Empires and Nations across the centuries. As such unless two or more are seen together or two or more attacks can be confirmed as a Reaper attack, it has been decided to list the Reaper as a Singular Class threat.
However, the lack of others of its type does little to reduce the danger of the Reaper in any way. Following is a brief overview of what has been confirmed and that will be followed by a series of logical extrapolations.
From what has been confirmed via the fragments and legends of its existence is that its a fully aerial threat. There have been no reported cases in which it lands or comes closer than fifty feet to the ground, of course due to the fragmentary data we have, we can not say that it never lands, but one constant is that while it is attacking it never lowers itself and only does so after it finishes its attack cycle. When it is attacking it is, based on the crude measurements we have to work with, in the range of three hundred to six hundred feet off the surface of the ground.
From legends it seems to move in three dimensions at once without any sign of fire or other emissions, which scientists claim is impossible and yet it is a constant thread of all legends based around its attacks. Thus, we have to conclude that it is using some forgotten technology to avoid the need for such systems. Of note is that most legends do point out that there are several massive orbs floating around it at all times and as they move so does the main Reaper move, based on this it is possible that those orbs are the source of its moveably and if destroyed would ground the Reaper for an easier kill.
However, its mobility which makes it difficult to target is not its true threat. Instead that goes to its weapons, from scattered reports it appears to have at a minimum of three weapon types or possibly systems that it can use. The one it uses seems to be based upon the type of threat it is facing and so far there have been no reports of what it uses in a case of a Titan on Titan fight. The one it uses when reaping a city is a beam array, these beams are able to carve through any normal building material within mere seconds and vaporize any unprotected humans or Mutated that they touch. The stories do state that this system can be feared via using steel shinned to a mirrored surface or even other more complex reflection systems.
With this system it seems to prioritize speed of firing over direct power per shoot, a particularly useful report comes from a poem by Kal of the Wastes, the important except is reproduced below for readers to draw their own interpretations from.
From the sun came forth a shadow
Darkness made real and aglow
Falling upon the windswept plains
Which held the Domain
As Darkness fell upon the Domain
Sanity and hope were slain
In a rain of pain
As the Darkness blazed with light
As the Darkness left on its cursed flight
All that remained was its spite
The land forever burned under its smite
As the Darkness faded out of sight
With this and other less complete records we were able to determine that the per shot power of this system was of minor power, but it could fire fast enough to make up for the lesser damage. However, as dangerous or otherwise horrifying this weapon system is the least dangerous of the three known systems that the Reaper uses.
The second system is kinetic in nature instead of energetic. This means that armor and other defenses tend to be much less useful and even Knights and Walkers have fallen to this weapon system as proven by records from the defunct nation of Lumariara, that was destroyed five hundred and seventy two years ago by the Reaper. From what we can tell from the records we have from them is that they effectively doomed themselves when they fought the reaper as their armies lead it to each of their cities by reinforcing the frontlines. Retuning to the weapon system, the rounds are approximately the size of a human head and are shaped in order to punch through even the heaviest armor we have access too. It is considered likely that the Reaper uses this system when it needs to balance fire power and fire rate, so that it can easily handle large armies while also being able to handle powerful single targets.
The final weapon system is geared towards slow but incredibly powerful fire power. It has only been used once in recorded history which possibly means that the Reaper can't use it again, but there is no reason to support such a theory as it does not seem to run out of ammunition as seen with the fate of Lumariara. The five records we have of this third weapon being used all come from Lumariara's final stand as the rulers of the nation evacuated their final city of all civilians. However, a good number remained near to the city and from them we found these few scraps that survived the ages. From what we can tell is that Lumariara had access to an Unique technology, that served as a powerful defense for the city and offensive weapon at the same time.
This is based on the reports referring to the Golden Shield and other such poetic references, along with more concrete references such as the paragraph, "The dark serpentine Reaper drifted forward surrounded by the orbs of death and the Golden Shield was all that stood in its path, as we waited with bated breath for the fateful moment. Would the Shield hold and send the vessel of doom to the void or would it fail as did everything else. Flashes of light dotted the Reaper as it approached and lines of fire tore towards the Shield only for them to fade away into light, and a faint cheer went up from the crowd as we saw the Shield hold strong. However, fate had turned against us as the Orbs slowed their dance and the Reaper drifted to a stop just beyond the shimmering barrier. Urged by some instinct or sixth sense I curled into a ball even as I lunged for cover behind an outcropping of rock nearby. The very moment I was behind the rock, the sun vanished as the sky turned white. For seven long minutes nothing but white could be seen, the others I could see faintly were staggering around and I would soon learn that I was one of the few to escape being blinded permanently. Once the light ended and I looked over the rocks all I saw was a field of scorched ground and rock, the city of Lumariara had been all but annihilated and the Golden Shield lost. The Reaper however, for the first time seemed damaged as smoke and other gases poured from holes in its surface and its darkness broken up by flickers of other colors. Over the next days I collected what information I could and have come to the conclusion that the Reaper unleashed the larger part of its stored energy in a single massive explosion so as to overload the Golden Shield." This is the best we have to go on and as such we can hopefully assume that such an attack is only done in a case where its other systems are insufficient to penetrate the defenses.
Beyond the weapon systems the Reaper acts much like a Butcher only less predictable, once sighted it follows their pattern of seeking out the largest concentration of living bodies and efficiently reaping them. However, based on scattered reports and timelines painstakingly crafted it can be accepted as fact for the most part that the Reaper travels the known world on an unknown and unpredictable path and only attacks twice a century. Most of its attacks end with the annihilation of a town or village as the folly of Lumariara has proven an effective deterrent to attempting to attack it with massed armies.
Of particular note is that the current century has yet to have a single rumor of a Reaper attack which based on past patterns implies that there are up to two attacks from it in the coming years.
