Angus Archard
Prayist · ProtagonistA towering, dark-haired prayist — one of the damned few tasked with harvesting human souls for the coming war between Order and Entropy. Unique among his kind, Angus carries burdens for both sides at once, forcing him into a precarious, ongoing balancing act just to survive. Known instantly on sight by his black cassock, wide-brimmed hat, and a clerical collar he wears more as disguise than faith. A veteran of the pre-apocalypse Climate Wars, Godless by conviction, and weighed down by guilt — over the cause he left his family for, and over how little his killing costs him now — he is searching for Ella, the daughter he lost contact with when the world ended.
Angus believes himself beyond redemption for his violent past and has no real interest in the immortality his role promises — if anything, he wants to die. Part of that self-loathing traces back to a war he no longer believed in by the time it ended, and to a family he left behind for it; the rest comes from how easily he's made his peace with killing. What keeps him moving is a bargain struck with the Messenger: complete an assignment in exchange for a chance to pass one of his two burdens to Ella, giving her a shot at something like eternal life instead of himself. He never asks her whether she wants it. He commits, in advance, to giving her "whichever side wins" — without knowing which that will be.