Its been an eternity since my banishment.
I have forgotten what my imprisonment is for.
I look longingly into the spectral beams that hold together my place of eternal damnation.
hoping....  wishing.. for a resolution..
.
I wait. wait for the blood of life.
wait for the blood of a mortal to free me from this eternal blackness that guards me ever so closely now.
wait....   for an answer... to this abyss...
.
the blood of life enters my tome of darkness.
I feel it, drawing ever closer.
Feeding from it, as it enters my crypt.
.
I feel my strength start to renew as this life enters into the utmost bowels of my eternal prison.
I yearn for it, loathe the thought of not having it.
I start to grow strong enough to try to reach out for it.
.
I feel the mortal's life force in his blood draw ever nearer as it enters the last level of my abysmal dungeon.
I start for it, then quickly withdraw when he enters the final chamber that imprisons me.
He seems to feed me, let me become ever stronger from the blood of life in him.
.
I start to reach out for him, and then... I remember. I remember...
My purpose... the cause...
the cause for this eternal imprisonment.
.
I feel the chains and shackles around my feet seem to disappear.
I look at the mortal.
He seems to be speaking, I struggle to understand the content of his words.
.
Then he finishes his speech, and in an instant I long, black, shiny protrusion from the ground rises into my hands.
I remember this artifact, this.... relic. It empowered me when I was free.
I look into the mortal's eyes.
.
When his speech had ended, a second happening occurred.
when I looked into his eyes, I beheld a great joy.
he had not been speaking... He had been chanting. chanting the lyrics to the spell.
.
with the chanting finished, he turns.
and there, behind him had appeared a great portal. he walks forward to it.
the item in my hands begins to glow an eerie color. This...  Scythe , it seems, finished the spell.
.
the great portal swirled into a a great swirling oval of greenish light.
The light in the portal entices me, beckons me.
the scythe stops glowing.
.
  The mortal turned to me, and he beckoned me forth with his outstretched hand.
 and I walked towards the portal of swirling light.
I feel my strength fully restored, and I follow the mortal into the light.
.
Then I realize who I am.
I realize my duty.
The place we entered into was engulfed in a great light...
a light I had not seen in 8000 years.
.
I see in the light a huge figure approach me.
the mortal kneels down, and gestures for me to do the same.
but I did not. the...  figure.... approached me and held me up.
I could feel the power of thousands and thousands of years held inside those huge bright blue tentacles.
.
the power pulsed in those... arms... as they held me.
I could hear the figure chanting.
I could see the mortal doing the same chanting I heard him do in my prison.
.
then I felt the full brunt of the power in those arms perform a spell on me so powerful I was thrown backwards many feet.
the spell seemed to have worked on my scythe as well.
for I feel the power in it to be able to pull the soul of a mortal into it and keep it.
.
Then the mortal, standing in front of the portal he had made,
 turned back to me, look deep into my eyes, and said," Archangel Tyreal, will you give the people of the world
back their Souls now that I have given back that which we imprisoned so many years before?"
The angel said in a thousand voices, " Death shall walk again. He shall lead the Souls of the dead to their place.
I shall give back the souls of the people of this world. Then the work of a many thousand years shall be finished.
People shall no longer cease to be. They will be damned, or blessed. return to the world,
 and tell the people that their repenting for their ultimate crime has come to an end."
.
The mortal turned back to the portal, and vanished.
The Archangel said to me, " Go forward Death. bring the Souls of the Damned to Hell.
Bring the Souls of the blessed to Heaven. your imprisonment is over. The people thought of you as the cause of death.
a thousand years passed before the people found that I had taken their souls, and their children's souls to an everlasting
 island of eternal death, life, and mourning. the people repented from that day forward, and hoped, and prayed for the
one who would enter your eternal crypt. the one who would fight the darkness and enter your tome.
He has come. he has set you free. now go. bring to heaven and hell the souls of the people who have mourned over you
 for seven thousand years."
.
I chanted a song of spells Tyreal told me, that gave me the powers of that which I am.
I am Death. The Harvester of Souls. The Soul Leader.
and I went forth, and I reaped the fields of souls of the dead and led them to their fate.
.
I then sealed all of the memories of my new life, and the imprisonment
into the mortal that had rescued me from my prison. I allowed him to become a book.
I made him into The Tome of Death.
.
.
.
    -  ancient manuscript of The Tome of DDeath

(matt carlson) 1