Characters / Darksiders Horsemen

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Horsemen of the Apocalypse

From left to right: Fury, Strife, Death, War.

The Charred Council's most feared enforcers, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the central protagonists to the Darksiders series and are "Nephilim": half-angel, half-demon.

Long ago, the Nephilim were a wandering race of conquerors and warriors, rampaging across Creation in search of a realm to call their own. They slaughtered countless species and put whole realms to the torch in the course of this crusade, drawing the ire of the Charred Council and the other major Kingdoms due to their destructive rampage. Four Nephilim, fearing the war would greatly upset the Balance Between Good and Evil, made a truce with the Council: in exchange for great power and immunity from punishment related to the Nephilim's crimes, they would act as the Council's enforcers and personal hit squad, dealing with anything that tried to threaten the Balance.

In the meantime, the Nephilim's rampage had led them to the paradisal realm of Eden, which they sought to claim as their own; they were rebuffed by the Council, however, as the realm was already given to Mankind, the Third Kingdom. Outraged, Absalom led the Nephilim in a bloody assault on Eden and the armies of Heaven protecting it in an attempt to take this piece of paradise for their own. Unfortunately for the Nephilim, the Council decided it had finally had enough — the Horsemen were deployed, with their first task as the Council's enforcers being to annihilate their own race, collect their souls in an amulet, then cast the amulet into Oblivion.

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In General

• Action Pet: Fittingly enough, each of the Horsemen's steeds.
  • Beast of Battle: In Darksiders and Darksiders II, players can use Ruin and Despair respectively to charge through enemies. Cruelly Averted in Darksiders III as Rampage is mortally wounded.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Averted; the Horsemen's names are ultimately just names since they are not an interpretation of their Biblical counterparts.
• Anti-Hero: In spades. While they are the ones who are the closest there is to the franchise's heroes, they are all depicted as extremely ruthless and brutal Blood Knights who will stop at nothing to achieve their goal of protecting Balance. Even if it means committing genocide against their own race in the distant past.
• Blood Knight: All of them have been depicted as this in varying degrees in either the games or expanded material.
• Bond Creature: In the Death's Door graphic novel, the Horsemaster mentions that the only way to truly "bond" with a phantom horse is to tame it by sheer force of will alone.
• Born of Heaven and Hell: The Nephilim (and by extension, the Horsemen) were created from the essence of angels and demons.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In case players forget which color horse they have, here's a list.
  • Death: Pale (or green, according to the Greek translation of the Bible)
  • War: Red
  • Fury: Black
  • Strife: White
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Each successively playable Horseman is distinctly different from the last, both in terms of their personality and gameplay.
  • War is easily characterized as being a blunt but fairly quiet warrior eternally steeped in Tranquil Fury, who generally defeats his foes with brute force and sheer unrelenting tenacity. Death is an arrogant Deadpan Snarker who's not as heartless as he lets on, and uses his agility to dance his way around enemies and obstacles.
    • War also has this example with himself. In Genesis, he's still an experienced warrior, but he's much more aggressive and short-tempered than in the first game. Also in Genesis, he's much more adamant about showing the Charred Council respect and following orders, whereas in the first Darksiders and the The Abomination Vault, he's more willing to speak his mind to them. In the former, he calls them out on "consorting" with demons when they suggest he meet with Vulgrim^note To be fair, War was still pissed that he was being framed for a crime he didn't commit. In the latter, War almost turns down orders to infiltrate Heaven and destroy their Weapon of Mass Destruction twice; first, when he assumes that he's being sent to strike down Abaddon while he's injured, and then again when he assumes it's a stealth mission, both of which he finds distasteful.
  • Death is the de-facto leader of the Horseman and couldn't care less about it, opting to just do his job with utmost efficiency. Fury, meanwhile, covets his position and is motivated by her need to prove she's the greatest of the four. Also, Death sided with the Charred Council because the Nephilim needed to be stopped but holds regret over his role in their demise, while Fury is implied to have joined the winning side to save her own skin, though she neither confirms nor denies this.
  • Despite her arrogance, Fury has taken her job very seriously to pursue her ambition and believes wholeheartedly in the Council's mission of balance. Strife, from what has been seen of him, is much more laid-back about his duties and has intentionally gone against the Council's hidden agenda by aiding in the defense of humanity.
  • In addition to above, Strife is much more open about his enjoyment of combat. However, a few moments show that he feels some regret over the slaying of his race and some his more questionable past deeds.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • From the Nephilim. The Nephilim Horde destroyed many civilizations and became a threat to the universe. The Four betrayed them in order to put an end to their conquest. Ironically, it's Death, the one who led the Four into rebelling against their kind, who shows the most angst about the betrayal.
  • They've also become this to the Charred Council, due to certain revelations including how they knew who really started the Apocalypse and let War take the fall.
• Displaced Origin: In the first game, lore stated that the Nephilim were beings older than angels and demons. Darksiders II, however, reiterates this by saying they were born from angels and demons, Retconning their origins. In fact, Lilith explicitly states in the Sequel she is responsible for their birth.
• The Dreaded: To those in the know, though villains will still taunt you during boss fights. In his gambit to ambush the forces of Hell, Abaddon specifically avoided breaking the seventh seal because he didn't want the Horsemen summoned. When War showed up anyway, it induced a Mass "Oh, Crap!" on both sides of the conflict.
• Dual Wielding: Both Death and Strife do this - Death with his scythes and Strife with his pistols.
• Experienced Protagonists: They're all fearsome warrior who have been through countless battles even before their respective games start.
• Four Is Death: Or at least, death to those who would threaten the Balance. Played straight with the rest of the Nephilim, considering they died by their hand (with help from the Hellguard). Doubles as Punny Name since the oldest and leader of the Horsemen's name is Death.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Death (Melancholic): the brooding, harsh and pessimistic leader.
  • War (Phlegmatic): a stoic and quiet warrior who follows his own code of honor.
  • Fury (Choleric): a hot-tempered battle mage with a love for conflict.
  • Strife (Sanguine): a derisive gunslinger who is more willing to interact with others than his siblings, even if it's just to insult someone.
• Good Is Not Nice: One would think that as the series protagonists, they'd be a lot more heroic. Judging from their reputations, and their personalities, they are anything but that.
• Good Is Not Soft: They're the protectors of the Balance Between Good and Evil and yet, they're feared and hated by many with good reason.
• Hellish Horse: Standard for any portrayal of the Horsemen, but these are summoned to them once they are acquired.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Of note is the developers did away the traditional Horsemen of "famine" and "conquest" in place of Strife and Fury, due to being too archaic and unsuited for an Action Game with Strife replacing Conquest and Fury replacing Famine.
• Irony: Each of the Horsemen in their games is doing almost the exact opposite of their names:
  • War: Seeking to stop the Destroyer, which in essence would stop the current War.
  • Death: Seeks to resurrect humanity.
  • Fury: Averts this initially, but becomes more reasonable as the game goes on.
  • Strife: is the most willing to socialize and cooperative of the Horsemen (Even his game is a Co-Op game).
• Last of Their Kind: Zigzagged - Absalom comes back in Darksiders II, but the trope is Enforced in the ending when Death kills him, then dooms the majority of the Nephilim eternally in exchange for reviving humanity with his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Mysterious Past: Aside from having been part of the Nephilim Horde, breaking away from it, pledging themselves to the Charred Council, and wiping out their people, there isn't much information on each of the Horsemen's past at this time. Death, at least, seems to prefer it that way.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Death, Fury, Strife, War...truly, some comforting monikers. This also applies to their respective horses, Despair, Rampage, Mayhem and Ruin.
• Never Bareheaded: War, Death, and Strife are always wearing a hood, mask, or helmet, respectively, but Averted with Fury.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: The Four (and the Nephilim in general) are hybrids of angels and demons via their "dust".
• Oh, Crap!: A common reaction to seeing any of the Four when they enter the scene, due to One-Man Army (coupled with Good Is Not Soft).
• One-Man Army: The Horsemen are considered an equal side to the forces of Heaven, Hell and the Kingdom of Man.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Nephilim apparently had this as a hat, if the behavior of War and Death are anything to go by. The lore (as told by the Crowfather in the second game) notes that the Nephilim also rampaged across entire worlds, slaughtering entire species before they were finally stopped at the Gates of Eden by the angels and the Horsemen.
• Really 700 Years Old: They were around before humanity even existed; hell, they betrayed the Nephilim to ensure they wouldn't destroy Eden before "humans-to-be" would come and populate it. Keep in mind, Eden was the last world the Nephilim tried to conquer after destroying countless others in their long universal rampage.
• Restraining Bolt: The Seven Seals act as this for them - as long as they are intact, the Horsemen are under the control of the Council. Averted in the ending of Darksiders as the Horsemen are no longer bound to their former masters.
• Sensual Spandex: War, Strife, and Fury all wear bodysuits that hug their bodies so tightly that it shows off their muscles without them needing to strip. Death can potentially have this depending on what armor he equips, but most of the time, he simply goes shirtless, with the only clothing he wears being pants, boots, gloves, and his mask, with some armor here and there.
• Sibling Team: They call each other "brother/sister" and they've been known to team up when the situation calls for it.
• Super Mode: Each of the playable Horsemen have a powered-up state that they can temporarily enter. These are in fact stated to be the true forms of Nephilim born from the conflict of their angelic and demonic powers, at least in the descriptions for Death's abilities, so it is likely that all of them had something like this. Genesis reveals from Samael that their powered-up states are part of the power-up they got from the Council, though he elaborates that the Council simply "unlocked" their potential to unleash their "inner selves" which is why War and Death can still use them even cut off from the Council.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Death seems to have this with his younger siblings. Then they actually start maiming each other (as in the case of War, whose left arm was lopped off by Death when he wouldn't listen and go back to the Charred Council). They still care for each other, in their own unique way.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: They resort to some pretty brutal methods when it comes to protecting the Balance, such as genocide.

War

War, Rider of the Red Horse

"War. Bringer of world-wide fire. You are the juggernaut of all pain."

Voiced by: Liam O'Brien

"I choose what once... a coward did not."

The protagonist of the first game, War was tricked into starting the "End War" prematurely. For this, the Charred Council stripped him of his powers and sentenced him to death. However, he was able to convince them to give him the chance to prove his innocence. Under the eye of the Watcher, War is sent back to the desolated Earth a century later to uncover who was really responsible for starting the Apocalypse, killing anyone who stands in his way, or die in the attempt. His steed is Ruin.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: He and Strife share a laugh when he jokes that they were cleansed by being dragged into water by a dying Dagon, who earlier threatened to cleanse them in his waters after killing them.
• Artificial Limbs: Prior to Darksiders, his left arm was sliced off by Death and replaced by an over-sized prosthetic.
• Back from the Dead: Doesn't have this happen to him once, but thrice. Chronologically, the first (known) time War died and came back was during the Abomination Crisis when he was killed by the Big Bad in an attempt to get the key to awakening the Grand Abominations to the Charred Council for safekeeping (although, it turned out that the key he had was a fake and Death had the real key all along, but nobody ever found that out). Death managed to bring him back to life when that happened. The second time was on Earth when he lost all of his power and was killed by Straga (only to be brought back to life by the Council so they could wrongly punish him for setting off the Apocalypse too early). The third, and most well-known, time was during the finale of the first game. He killed Abbadon/the Destroyer but was betrayed by the Watcher who told him of the Charred Council's betrayal which bought Uriel enough time to complete the Nex Sacramentum, stabbing War from behind and killing him. However, Uriel quickly turned on the Watcher and broke the seventh seal, which restored both War's life and his powers... The guy's been through some stuff.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Death in The Abomination Vault novel. Could be counted with the rest of the Horsemen and Ruin too.
• Badass Boast: He drops several throughout the game, but probably his most well-known is his response to the Infernal Gladiator taunting him about his height. (Note that War is on foot and the Gladiator is mounted on Ruin at the time.)
  War: You can look me in the eye when I kill you.
• Bash Brothers: With Ruin. Death also applies to this in the novel.
• BFS: Chaoseater, which counting the handle is almost as long as he is tall. Later the Armageddon Blade.
• Berserk Button: Although War acknowledges that the Nephilim needed to be destroyed to uphold the Balance, he DOES NOT enjoy having to kill the corpses of his fallen brethren during his and Strife’s fight with Astarte. Furthermore, despite originally wanting to keep her alive for questioning, when Astarte mocks him for killing his kind, War is seething with rage and kills her once she starts insulting Strife.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted since he's actually the youngest of the Four, but War is very protective of his fellow Horsemen.
  • In Abomination Vault, he ends up risking his life and standing up for Death on multiple occasions.
  • In the first cutscene of Darksiders III, he desperately tries to warn Fury that someone or something is conspiring against the Horsemen and that she needs to be careful.
  • Despite his constant annoyance with Strife, he vows to ride together into oblivion with him and spends much of the game attempting to help Strife move past his grief over having killed the Nephilim.
• Big Little Brother: He's actually the youngest of the Horsemen, but by far the biggest, and his siblings aren't small by any means.
• Blood Knight: The book shows that War loves a good fight. In Genesis War is almost ecstatic when fighting to the point even Strife (who also loves fighting) thinks his little brother is a bit weird about it.
• Brought Down to Badass: The Charred Council stripped War of his horseman powers, but, like Death in the sequel, that doesn't mean he's defenseless or powerless, it does little hinder him from curb-stomping his enemies into submission.
• By-the-Book Cop: In Genesis he's MUCH more serious about his duty as the Council's enforcer especially in comparison to Strife to the point Strife gets annoyed about his broken record tendency of being "all about the Council".
• Character Development: In Genesis, by the time of Dagon's death, he not only becomes more open to questioning the Council, he also learns to be a bit more humorous around his brother Strife.
• Clear My Name: His motivation for Darksiders. War is falsely accused of bringing about the Apocalypse and wants to prove his innocence by exposing and executing the true culprits.
• The Comically Serious: In Genesis, he has a hard time understanding and coming up with jokes.
  Strife: You really need to lighten up. "The Council" this and "the Council" that. You wanna hear an actual joke?
  War: No.
  Strife: Knock-knock.
  War: ...
  Strife: You're supposed to say "who's there?
  War: Why would I give away my location? I would simply smash through the door and face my assailant.
  Strife: Ugh, you're hopeless.
• Deadpan Snarker: Though not at Death's level, he does deliver several gems, including this one:
  Straga: "Straga is the mightiest of the Destroyer's chosen!"
  War: "And the last. Your master chose poorly."
• Determinator: NOTHING will keep this guy from slaughtering those who framed him.
• Everyone Has Standards: Genesis reveals that he does not condone starving hellhounds for the sake of making them more vicious in battle.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In Darksiders: Genesis, he is the responsible sibling to Strife's foolish sibling.
• Genius Bruiser: While it may seem like he only uses brute force, War is actually confirmed to be more skilled in battlefield tactics than Death (something which the latter openly admits in the novel). His Thanatos Gambit in the first game definitely shows that just because he likes to tackle a situation head-on, it certainly doesn't mean he's careless.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Briefly speaks demonic with the Phantom General guarding Samael's prison.
  Phantom General: "Drum heim gol straga bor." [You have killed many of my warriors.]
  War: "Non straga sindora." [I have yet to find a warrior among you.]
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Has a nasty temper, and is quick to anger whenever someone provokes him.
• Hand Cannon: Mercy, one of Strife's two revolvers, which in game is mostly good for killing weak stuff that can't be bothered to kill in melee, despite what one might guess from the gun being downright huge even compared to War.
• Handicapped Badass: You see that absurdly large left arm of his? That's a prosthetic, courtesy of Death chopping off his arm for being insubordinate.
• Honor Before Reason: War hates resorting to underhanded means to win a fight and prefers to go at it as honestly as possible. Note this won't stop him from brutally murdering his opponent, but he prefers it to be the end result of a fight without needing to resort to trickery to reach. Death even calls him the most honor-bound of the Four Horsemen.
  • There are several instances where said honor does occur. One of these is when War is in the Ashlands and he is fighting against the Abyssal Gladiator. When the latter is knocked off of an enslaved Ruin, War actually kicks a sword towards him to make it a more even fight. Again, this doesn't stop him from giving the demon an absolutely brutal killing blow.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Chaoseater he keeps on his back when he's not using it. Everything else he more or less pulls out of thin air, including the optional scythe weapon, the handle of which is longer than he is tall.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Compared with Strife and Death, War feels less guilt about murdering his kind since they were a threat to the balance, even going as far as disassociating himself from his species by calling them The Nephilim. That being said, he still cares for his people as he was outraged by Astarte using Nephelim corpses as her soldiers and kills her when she mocks him and Strife for being kinslayers.
• Instant Armor: The Stoneskin ability lets him temporarily coat his body in an armor of stone, and at higher levels looks like he's wearing magma armor. The Immolation ability offers a more visually impressive armor, but it's more meant to deal contact damage than increasing his defense.
• In the Hood: He always wears his hood up.
• Insistent Terminology: During Genesis, when War makes a suggestion to take an alternate route into Samael's fortress during Moloch's siege, Strife repeatedly describes his strategy as sneaking in, to which War corrects him by saying it's "strategic".
• The Juggernaut: Exemplified in his Chaos Form; also counts as a rare Player Character example.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Subverted. He's willing and able to come up with pragmatic battle strategies if the situation calls for it, but at the end of the day, he prefers to simply charge headlong into battle and go wild. In Genesis he's very miffed at the idea of having to sneak up on Moloch's forces likening himself to a rat for it.
• Leitmotif: War's Theme.
• Lightning Bruiser: Type 1; the big guy is much faster than he looks. Especially in cutscenes. He also hits very hard and can take quite a few hits.
  • Mighty Glacier: In his Chaos Form, War gives up his speed and most of his move list for raw power. Even the most durable enemies die a five hits at the most and he can't be damaged.
• Master Swordsman: He is quite capable of surprisingly delicate moves with that metal surfboard he calls a sword.
• Mystical White Hair: That pokes out from under his hood.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His killing of the Destroyer's Chosen is brutal by the nature of him tearing their hearts out. But with the Griever he goes an extra mile, killing her by bashing her face in with a flat bed train car. Observe.
• Not So Above It All: In Genesis he is the one who makes the being "cleansed" joke after being dragged underwater by Dagon's last attack, something that gets a good laugh out of him and Strife. In Chapter 14 he goes an extra mile to tease Strife when he realizes his brother was actually paying attention to him all the time.
• Noodle Incident: In a flashback during Death's Door, there's a conversation between War, Fury, and Strife about "the Legions of Anubis". We never do get the full story; all we know is that War provoked them somehow and he ended up killing all of them single-handedly.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Chaoseater is longer than War is tall. He still wields it one-handed as a display of his sheer strength, though he's certainly not above using two hands for several moves.
• One-Man Army: The Horsemen in general are this, but War gets a special mention for being Brought Down to Badass at the start of the game and going up against the Destroyer's warriors. Lampshaded by Samael.
  Samael: [to himself] "The Horseman is broken, but there is still much power in him. For a moment, I saw one who would stand against the Destroyer's army."
• Perpetual Frowner: He stops frowning exactly once in the game, though it isn't a comforting change. He is a bit more expressive around his brethren in the Abomination Vault, and pauses for a minute to give an epic Slasher Smile when he figures out a way of breaking into the angelic tower where the Sacrament Bomb is stored.
• Power Fist: Tremor Gauntlet. Also has one for his left hand after Death cut it off.
• Prophet Eyes: A trait he shares with his sister, Fury. Though in certain lighting, it looks like they have a blue-ish tint to them around the edges.
• Red Is Violent: War is primarily associated with the color red due to his trademark cloak and his horse. He's also proficient in creatively slaughtering people.
• Revenge Before Reason: Everyone in the game expects his quest to turn into a bloodbath. They aren't wrong, but they aren't quite as right as they think.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner / Post-Mortem One-Liner: Genesis War is fond of doing both usually calling his opponents fools and how they're about to face/have faced the Council's judgment. Strife seems to like his brother's enthusiasm.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Crossblade, which basically works as a Shout-Out to the boomerang in The Legend of Zelda.
• Simple, yet Awesome: His Chaos Form has no attacks besides swinging his sword, and for the most part, that's all he needs.
• Super Mode: Chaos Form, turning him into a fiery demon with a Flaming Sword about the size of a trauma.
• Super-Strength: Mostly displayed by crushing heads and breaking open chests with his bare hands, but it really shines with feats as:
  • Punching Tiamat across the arena he fights her in and then ripping her wings off.
  • Beating The Griever to death with a train car.
• Super-Toughness: He can take hits the best of all the Horsemen. Whereas most of the Horsemen have weapons or abilities that make them work best constantly dodging around to cut down their foes without being hit, War works best just jumping into the thick of the fighting and letting enemies fruitlessly hack at him while he cuts them down. In gameplay, combining the Abyssal Armor with a fully-upgraded Stoneskin will make War invulnerable to all but the most powerful enemies.
• Sword and Gun: In The Abomination Vault, War while on a mission for the Charred Council spends quite a bit of time wielding both Chaoseater and a angelic Redemption cannon in either hand. Noticeably, the narration does note it's a bit awkward for him to properly use the cannon one-handed and he tries to use it with two hands as much as he's able, but the carnage he's able to get off using both at once in close quarters is... impressive, to say the least.
• The Big Guy: He's physically the biggest of the Four Horsemen and relies on brute strength the most.
• Thanatos Gambit: The Tree of Knowledge reveals he will die with the Armageddon Blade pierced through him. Although War does not know who the perpetrator is, he deduces it is Uriel, when she challenges him to "Nex Sacramentum". When she fulfills the death oath after War kills Abaddon, she destroys the Seventh Seal, resurrecting War and freeing him from the Council's hold on him.
• Tiny-Headed Behemoth: War's head is almost comically tiny compared to his massive frame. His hands and feet alone are nearly twice the size of his head. This is of course due to the armor he's wearing, but still.
• Tranquil Fury: While quick to anger, War doesn't waste time screaming save in dire circumstances and prefers to remain at a low tone. The only warning signs are that his voice gets even lower while thick with his anger and his slaughter is about to get even more brutal.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Inverted with Ruin - after War dies in The Abomination Vault, Ruin still remained by his side and would not let anyone, even Death, go near him. War seems to reciprocate this during the first Darksiders, where he refuses to fight a Brainwashed and Crazy Ruin even under the threat of death by either Watcher or the brainwashed Ruin.
  • Played straight with Death: insubordination aside, War would die for him if need be. He would do the same for both Fury and Strife where he says to Strife that he has his back in Darksiders Genesis.
• When He Smiles: Although he is normally frowning, he actually smiles twice in Darksiders Genesis. Once when he actually tells a joke after he and Strife kill Dagon and another when he agrees with Strife that their adventure was enjoyable. Strife gets especially excited over the latter, while War naturally denies it justifying he was thinking of the destruction he brought upon his enemies (either would be in character for him).
• Wings Do Nothing: His Chaos Form has wings, and they serve no purpose.
• Would Hit a Girl: Especially if said girl is trying to kill him. And boy, does he not hold back on Uriel during their nex sacramentum duel.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Zigzagged in The Abomination Vault — while he's not above at least knocking them unconscious, this is what War says to a younger Uriel from the early days of her Hellguard career when he tries to get her to stand down as she stubbornly tries to defend a Weapon of Mass Destruction that only kills demons:
  War: "Well, Uriel, I've no interest in killing children, and you have to know you've no chance."
• Wreathed in Flames: His Chaos Form has this naturally, and he can also do this to himself by using the Immolation ability.

Death

Death, Rider of the Pale Horse

"Death. Dark soul of eternity. You are the deepest decay. You are anti-life."

Voiced by: Michael Wincott (Darksiders II), Jason Spisak (Darksiders III)

"My brother War stands falsely accused of unleashing Armageddon on the human race. His fate concerns me; yours, does not."

The protagonist of the second game, Death is the leader and the oldest of the Four Horsemen, and is one of the Firstborn of the nephilim. In contrast to War, Death is very level-handed and mature. Although he is harsh on his siblings, such as cutting off War's left arm in order to teach him a lesson, he cares deeply for them. As the Horseman of Death, he often appears somewhat morbid and ominous towards those who speak to him. He also possesses a dark sense of humor and sees killing as an art rather than a duty as War does. His steed is Despair.

After learning that War is imprisoned and awaiting his sentence for his part in the End War, Death acts to save his life. Knowing that he won't be able to prove War's innocence, he instead acts to absolve his brother by seeking a way to resurrect humanity.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: At the end of II, he lets out a small laugh when he realizes that after all this hardship, slaying Absalom again, ending Corruption, and finally standing in front of the Well of Souls, he still has no idea how he's supposed to use it to resurrect humanity. This is Played for Drama, considering he was forced to kill his brother, Absalom, again and not only was he exhausted, the tone in his voice makes it clear that he's deeply saddened by this fact, despite it being necessary.
• Anti-Hero: Death is described as an arrogant, sarcastic, cold and calculating individual, alongside being resourceful and opportunistic. Despite having done things that can be called "evil", ranging from genocide, destroying worlds and creating weapons of world-ending power, there is a bit of good in him. He bears much burden and guilt for some of his past actions, such as the creation of the Grand Abominations, and he is very much capable of doing tasks for others that would offer him no benefit long term save for their gratitude.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: The in-story explanation developers have explained for his lack of a block maneuver relates to Death being too arrogant to believe someone could ever strike him. The only time he'll block in gameplay is he's using a buckler, and actual shield. Curiously, this contrasts his behaviour in The Abomination Vault, where he repeatedly blocks enemy strikes with Harvester as well as his actual shield.
• The Atoner:
  • Feels guilt over his part in the genocide of the Nephilim (more so than any of the other Horsemen, and at the very least the one the slowest to forgive himself about it), the creation of the Grand Abominations and other crimes. This does not, however, mean he is willing to revive the Nephilim if he needs to choose between them and humanity. There's also the fact, as the Crowfather's spirit notes, oblivion and final rest is far kinder than leaving their spirits trapped in their And I Must Scream fate within the amulet.
  • "The Abomination Vault" also shows he has guilt over creation of the Grand Abominations, especially since he played a part in it, and hid them away to cope with it. The same book hints that these aren't the only things he has guilt for. What they are exactly hasn't been made clear.
• Back from the Dead: Dies to revive humanity, but comes back from the Seventh Seal being broken.
• Bad Boss: While Death loves his brothers and sister, he's not above punishing them harshly when they've angered him. One such an example is War, whose left arm was chopped off by Death when he refused to return to the Charred Council when ordered. However, he has his moments of Benevolent Boss (see trope below).
• Badass Boast: "All who live know my name. All who oppose me shall know death."
• Barbarian Long Hair: He has unkempt long black hair, which combined with his shirtless appearance and eagerness for combat, makes him look very barbaric.
• Berserk Button:
  • Apparently people referring to Lilith as his "mother" is not something he's fond of. Especially when the person referring to her as such is Lilith herself.
  • Bringing up War's "crime" strikes a nerve with him whenever anybody does it.
  • Let's just say that trying to harm his brothers in general is not a good idea... Unless, of course, you want him to hunt you down and rip you apart in the worst way possible.
  Death: An attack on my brothers is an attack on me.
• Benevolent Boss: Flip-flops between this and Bad Boss. Despite being harsh to them, Death will go out of his way to save his siblings when they're in need. Darksiders 2 is the perfect example of this, as his entire motivation is proving that War is innocent of his supposed crime.
• Big Brother Instinct: Nothing will keep him from aiding his family in the second game. This includes dooming most of the rest of his race to oblivion if necessary, though that in and of itself can be considered a Mercy Kill given their current state.
• Blood Knight: Death is always eager for a fight.

  Thane: This blade is more ancient than you, rider. And taller to boot!

  Death: I shall break both it, and you, down to size.

  • There's even a counter in the game for tracking how much blood he spills.
• The Berserker: Unstoppable is Death's take on this trope, especially when upgraded with higher chances of dealing critical hits, absorbing health/wrath and inflicting high counts of increasing damage from various abilities.
• Combat Parkour: A vital combat mechanic in Darksiders II. Instead of blocking like War could do in the first game, Death dodges instead, which is crucial in surviving all of his battles.
• Combat Pragmatist: While he does have a sense of honor, Death will use any means necessary to gain the advantage in a fight. This is best displayed at the end of The Abomination Vault, where he convinced Azrael to use his illusions to disguise himself as Raciel to distract Hadrimon.
  Death: You two do realize that we won?
  Azrael: I dislike the deception you had me orchestrate. Masquerading as a demon is bad enough, but abetting the murder of an angel in the guise of his lost love? I feel... soiled. I understood the urgency when you came to me, but I wish I'd not agree to this.
  War: It may be a victory, brother, and a necessary one. But there is no honor in it.
  Death: Foolishness. It never matters how you win; only that you do.
• Comically Serious: Thinking Death has been sent by the Dead King's Chancellor to kill him, Draven's first words to him are a Badass Boast that he's beaten death once before and can do so again. Death has the rather deadpan response of:
  Death: I have no idea what you are talking about.
• Composite Character: The series combines the Biblical Pale Horseman and modern depictions of the Grim Reaper.
• Cool Mask: He is never seen without his white executioner's mask. Averted with his Heroic Sacrifice in the finale of the sequel, where he finally takes off the mask before casting himself into the Well of Souls (though we don't see his face)..
• Dark Is Not Evil: He's the Grim Reaper with deathly pale skin, long black hair, a skeletal motif and a creepy white mask and personality-wise, he's not the most approachable person, to say the least. But he also went out of his way to help his brother, stood alongside his siblings and against the rest of his species to protect humanity, revealed that long after the slaughter he wished it was possible to do things differently, and ultimately proves to be much more noble then he wants you to believe.
• Deadpan Snarker: No pun intended, of course. Although much more conspicuous in the novel, Death has a habit of making some sarcastic one-liners to... well, almost everyone. No one is safe from his sarcasm... not even his brothers and sister.
• Determinator: In a similar vein to War, Death shows himself to be rather persistent.
• The Dreaded: The most feared of the Four Horsemen, who themselves are already The Dreaded. Several characters willing to pick a fight with the others clam up when Death rears his head, and those that don't are either powerful enough they could take him in a fight or just think themselves above him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Emphasis on pale skinned. Death is insanely pale (his own bone-white mask is only a few shades lighter) to the point where in certain lighting, it actually looks like his skin is changing color.
• Exposition Fairy: Dust serves as Death's familiar and guide. However, it only helps find paths and important things in the environment (including Notice This style glowing) and cannot speak.
• The Faceless: Even when he takes off his mask in the ending of Darksiders II, his face is never shown. It's possible to manoeuvre the camera in such a way that you can glimpse under the mask, but his in-game model does not have a face under the mask, just an empty hole.
• Flash Step: Teleport Slash sees him perform one, coupled with the aforementioned slash attack.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • In the novel, Death possesses a regenerative healing factor that enables him to heal even lethal wounds. However, this was not applied to Darksiders II, most likely for reasons involving that it would make the game too easy for players.
  • In several cutscenes, he displays the ability to use his Reaper Form regardless of whether or not the player has the energy for it, and in a number of times actually flies while transformed, something impossible during gameplay. It should also be noted that despite the creative team claiming that Death doesn't block because he's arrogant to the point where he believes nobody can hit him, he can still be seen blocking in the cutscenes.
• Grim Reaper: Looks even more like the traditional version in his Reaper Form. Bonus points since he actually is the Grim Reaper.
• Hand Cannon: Redemption, which unlike Mercy can actually deal some good damage to enemies. Subverted as it actually belongs to Strife.
• Healing Factor: In the comics and books, Death has an extraordinary regenerative power, able to heal from War stabbing him with Chaoseater without batting an eye and in The Abomination Vault taking blows from the nephilim sword called Affliction, which inflicts poison and causes any wounds its victims receive from it to rot, and being able to heal from them (with difficulty) while the likes of Heaven's best medicines could only prevent the rot's spread. In his fight with the corrupted angel Makhala, she manages to literally reduce him to an upper torso and head and he manages to regenerate it all in short order.
• Heroic Neutral: Has shades of this. All he really cares about is keeping his family safe and doing his job of maintaining the Balance. Then events get War involved, and the Balance part goes out the window. He then spends a good deal of his time doing whatever it takes to clear his brother's name and undoing the effect of the crime, even if it requires lending a helping hand to the various denizens of the five realms.
• Heroic Willpower: The Abomination Vault shows that if one isn't careful while wielding a Grand Abomination, they will start to go insane as the weapons' hatred overwhelms their minds and dredges up their darker emotions up to and including the Abomination using them as a Meat Puppet. Death's willpower is such that he can suppress even a fully-awakened Abomination's influence on his mind.
• Hesitant Sacrifice: With the twist being that he's perfectly fine sacrificing himself to revive humanity and save War, but his hesitation comes from the realization that if he does this, the souls of the nephilim will be sacrificed forever and he will have finally finished the job he started thousands of years ago but hesitated to end then out of guilt. Death noticeably pauses and eyes the miasma coming off the amulet fragments and listening to the whispers of the nephilim's souls before he finally makes the choice to do it anyways.
• Honor Before Reason: Subverted. Death doesn't care for things like honor, but he seems to have some respect for those that follow this trope (or at least War). In fact, he's very opportunistic. Though his Jerk with a Heart of Gold tendencies sometimes place him as this on accident.
• Howl of Sorrow: Did one right after he was done slaughtering the Nephilim, complete with Skyward Scream.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Not as much as War with the weapons he directly equips, but he's still capable of pulling out weapons bigger than he is mid-combo.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His justification for wiping out his own people, since he believes they were too dangerous and too irredeemable to be kept among the living. It becomes apparent, however, that he sometimes second-guesses that fateful decision, and of all the Horsemen he has kept the guilt of the deed the longest and hardest.
• I Have Many Names: People refer to him as the Reaper, Pale Rider, Kinslayer, and Executioner among others.
• The Immune: No matter how much Corruption he wades into, sometimes grabbing corruption bombs with his bare hands, he never shows symptoms of infection throughout the whole game. Lampshaded by the Final Boss, who says he was the one who performed the act of Genocide from the Inside that created the Corruption in the first place, so it stands to reason that he's a Typhoid Mary. Alternatively, since the Corruption originated from mutating Nephilim corpses, the Nephilim Horsemen's genetics are similar to the disease's genetics and are unaffected as a result.
• In the Hood: In his Reaper Form, his face is never seen.
• Insult Backfire: Sometimes, his snarking doesn't always end in his favor, either when someone expresses thorough disapproval of his put-downs, or snark back harder (especially in the book).
• I Regret Nothing: Or so he claims. Whenever confronted of his guilt over betraying and wiping out his people, those exact words are his response, but a lot of other characters can see that it's all Blatant Lies, sensing that he still does have remorse over said betrayal. In a private moment with the Crowfather's spirit, he admits that if he had the chance, he would have saved Absalom rather than kill him if he could go back to that moment. It's definitely more obvious in the novel The Abomination Vault, where the story is told from his point of view. At one point, Death clarifies to the Keeper that while he may regret the necessity of his actions, he refuses to regret the performance of them.
• Irony: Despite saving the whole of creation from The Corruption along with most of the sane individuals he comes across, he ends up failing in his main goal of saving War. Indeed, he dies at the very end, and War is the one who saves him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Try as he might to deny it, he's actually this. While he's snide and willing to do morally questionable things, he's still an honorable warrior, shows concern for those under him and anyone he helps (his brothers and the Makers/Hellguard, respectively), offers his aid to the Makers in overcoming corruption almost unconditionally, and Uriel even acknowledges his noble nature when he does the same for her. Then there's the fact he stood up for all of mankind when his kinsmen wanted to slaughter us and take our world over. That was nice of him. As Karn puts it:
  Karn: You're a good man! Much more than your name would imply.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: While technically all of the Horsemen are guilty of doing this to the Nephilim, Death bears the biggest brunt of it as "The Kinslayer" for not only leading them into their rebellion, but personally killing the Nephilim's leader and his own brother Absalom himself. Ironically, he's also the only one of the four shown to still be struggling with the guilt of doing it.
• Lean and Mean: While still as muscular as his siblings, Death appears emaciated in-game^note Oddly enough, some of his artwork portrays him as a bit bulkier, especially in the biceps.. He's also prone to making morally questionable decisions and rudely sassing everyone he meets with despite the fact that he's capable of compassion; and that's not even getting into the fact that he's feared by everyone for a reason.
• Lightning Bruiser: Subverted. In contrast to War, Death's more of a Glass Cannon. However, with the appropriate gear, he can be made very resilient.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He finds to his growing annoyance there's much about the Tree of Life he was never told by the Council and was pretty much left completely in the dark about the Well of Souls' true power. As the Crowfather tells him, the Council did this because they didn't want him or the other Horsemen getting second thoughts about their genocide of the nephilim and attempting to bring them back.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: One of the Grand Abominations he has in his possession is Mortis, a buckler that can block and negate any attack small enough for it to cover Death from. Of course, what makes Mortis so dangerous is that it will then unleash a burst of profane energy that will target a loved one or ally from the attacker's memories and kill them. At full power, the Abomination's counter could hit a target from across a planet, and even in a weakened state as shown in The Abomination Vault it could still protect Death from the One-Hit Kill of the fully awakened fellow Abomination Black Mercy.
• Magikarp Power: His offensive Necromancer tree abilities, mainly Exhume and Murder, start off less powerful than his Harbinger tree abilities, but catch up later in the game once the upgrades for them start getting purchased, since the damage for them comes from inflicting repeated hits, therefore increasing their damage and effects which will start to pay off later.
• Mad Artist: Unlike War, who sees killing as a duty, Death sees it as an art.
• Made of Iron: In The Abomination Vault and the tie-in comic, he endures the likes of Chaoseater being driven through his chest without so much as flinching, and tanks numerous attacks capable of obliterating Angels, constructs, and even fatally injuring his brother, War.
• Magic Knight: Contrasting with War relying on brute strength, Death relies almost equally on his Wrath abilities and weapons.
• Mercy Kill: He can receive several requests in the second game to do this to certain bosses. Ultimately sacrificing the nephilim's souls to revive mankind can also be seen as this as well, since as the Crowfather's spirit tells him, they've been suffering an And I Must Scream fate ever since he pulled their souls into the amulet.
• Morph Weapon: Harvester has the ability to transform with a thought from Death into whatever implement he needs at the moment.
• Multi-Melee Master: Axes, hammers, bucklers, armblades, scythes... Could be related to the fact that those could be considered "instruments of death," which would tie-in with Death's view on killing.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Armblades give him the removable variety.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Maces.
  • Evil Weapon: "Possessed Weapons" grow in strength when "fed" inventory. Unlike most other examples of this trope, there aren't any consequences. And with the right build on him and the possessed weapons properly leveled, he's pretty much invincible.
  • Power Fist: Gauntlets and Bucklers.
  • Wolverine Claws: Claws.
• My Greatest Failure: In his more private and vulnerable moments, he seems to consider slaughtering his fellow nephilim without finding a more peaceful way to stop them to be this, even admitting to the Crowfather's ghost that if he had the opportunity, he would have saved Absalom on that day rather than kill him. The Charred Council definitely seems to think so, which is why they hid the knowledge of the Well of Souls from him to prevent him from getting ideas, though when push comes to shove he ultimately chooses humanity when it comes down to who to revive.
• Necromancer: One of his abilities involves this, summoning two ghouls who will attack foes. This can be upgraded to ultimately being able to summon three ghouls that are on fire and explode when they die or run out of duration.
• No Man Should Have This Power: Outside of his loyalty to his siblings coming before his loyalty to the Charred Council, "The Abomination Vault" showed that he decided the Grand Abominations, superweapons the Nephilim created that far exceed anything the Horsemen use, should not be used by anybody ever, and as such refused to tell anybody where he the titular Abomination Vault he hid them in was located, even the Charred Council. They didn't take well to this and only let him off because War vouched for him.
• Not So Stoic:
  • After the fight against The Scribe, when he demands to know where the Angel Key is he sounds very much pissed for the first time in the game, though considering this comes after a VERY long run around of not only the White Citadel but Earth as well, his anger is a bit justified.
    Death: Where...Is...The key!? WHERE IS IT!?
  • He also becomes absolutely livid when Lilith calls herself his "mother", it being the first time he's raised his voice at another for an extended period of time.
• Oh, Crap!: Several in the novel. Which makes sense, considering what the Grand Abominations his people made are capable of.
• The Older Immortal: While the Horsemen are rather ancient, Death holds the distinction of being the oldest of them, being one of the Firstborn of their race and thus technically the only nephilim definitely older than him would be Absalom, the first of their kind.
• Omniglot: Played with in the Death's Door promotional comics and The Abomination Vault novel. He breaks into what is described as a "dead" language (no pun intended) at least twice in the book, and seems to have a pretty good understanding of Greek and French in the comics.
• One-Man Army: Even without all his powers the Council granted him he still cuts quite the path of destruction across hordes of enemies of all sorts.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Death doesn't wait for things to happen; rather, he causes them to happen.
• Pet the Dog: See Big Brother Instinct and Jerk with a Heart of Gold. In fact, the entirety of the second game could be considered this to War.
  • The Hunter is also probably the only character that Death doesn't snark at. In fact, he's rather respectful towards him. Which is saying something.
  • The comics are this to humanity in general. Importance to the Balance aside, the only reason Death accepts Abaddon's requests for hunting down the "demon" that killed his followers is because of the human lives that are at stake. Furthermore, he comments on how far they've come and the look in his eyes when he realizes that they blame him for the Corruption that had plagued the village can be best described as sadness. He also declares that he will save them and he deliberately minimizes casualties when hunting down Makhala; he knocks most of them out of his way.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": A downplayed example, but if you use the instant kill on the undead scarabs, Death will let out a chuckle as he does so. However, it's played straight when he equips the Goldbringer scythes. If you listen closely, you can hear him letting out an occasional cackle.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Death is the leader of the Four, and the mightiest among them.
• Red Baron: "Kin-slayer," "the Reaper," and "Executioner."
• Sinister Scythe: Uses the Harvester, which can be split into two smaller scythes as a Morph Weapon, and becomes more sinister in Reaper Form, but he has other, secondary weapons he can add to his arsenal.
• The Stoic: Although nowhere near as much as War, as Death has a bit more humor in him, for the most part Death keeps his feelings well under control, even when The Crowfather refused his request to open a portal to the tree he sounded more 'annoyed' than angry. Although he DOES have his limits.
• Summon Magic: The Necromancy tree is based of this, primarily.
  • The Minion Master: His most basic spell is to summon a pack of ghouls who attack the closest enemy they see.
    • Incendiary Exponent: One skill sets them on fire.
    • Action Bomb: Another makes them explode when killed.
  • An Ice Person: One of his other spells that summons crows can be upgraded with ice damage than can freeze enemies.
• Super Mode: Reaper Form, in which Death looks far more like the typical depiction of The Grim Reaper with tattered cloak, skeletal wings, and an even bigger scythe. Notably, Death almost always uses this form kill a boss in the finishing cutscene, or will assume this form to finish particularly powerful opponents in his Execution animation.
• Super-Strength: Doesn't display as much as War, but still present. Most noticeable in the fight with Archon Lucien, where the boss tries to kill Death by telekinetically lifting a massive hunk of stone and chunking it right at Death. He cuts through the entire thing with a single swing of his scythe before impaling his foe.
• Super-Toughness: Being stabbed in the chest by War barely made him blink. He also takes a powerful holy blast from Archon Lucien that sends him flying off a tower, smashing into a few floating boulders, and landing on a floating platform implied by the distance of the tower to be at least a few miles off, and he's still ready to fight the boss.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: While not on the level of a Maker, Death is a skilled craftsman and has created various weapons and items, such as his scythe Harvester and Fury's Nephilim Respite. He also oversaw and instructed the creation of the Grand Abominations and even made a few himself.
• Underestimating Badassery: More than a few characters he bumps into assume without his powers as Horsemen they can take him. He proves them wrong.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The equipment system allows the player to cover his chest, but with muscles that good, why would you?
• Was It Really Worth It?: The Crowfather's narration of the Nephilim genocide makes it clear Death wonders this at times.
• Worthy Opponent: To Samael, after Death kicks his ass. Bear in mind this is when Samael is at his full power, Death beat the absolute second most powerful demon of Hell in a fight. However, there are some hints that Samael was holding back in order to toy with/test Death.

Fury

Fury, Rider of the Black Horse

"Fury. Terrible engine of rage. You are the machine that-"
"Are we to waste our time on ceremony, or are we to fight?!"

Voiced by: Cissy Jones

"This quest is about balance in the world... and within me, it seems. Lust showed me what I could become... it is not what I want to be."

The only female Horseman and the protagonist of the third game. Her steed is Rampage.

---

• Action Girl: She is the last living female Nephilim and the main protagonist of the third game in the series.
• All There in the Manual: Prior to the release of Darksiders III, Fury had only appeared in the comics and the novel The Abomination Vault.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: She acts like she could care less about her brothers, but when Lust shows her a vision of her brothers bowing submissively to her, she is more outraged by the defilement of their dignity than being deceived by an illusion.
• Berserk Button: For all her bad behavior and seeming aloofness, disrespecting her brothers enrages her. She erupts at Lust for her illusion, not just for trying to trap her with her brothers bowing before her, but "You should not have MADE THEM KNEEL!"
  • Mentioning Rampage or even that he's dead has become one for her as well.
• Bifurcated Weapon: The Stasis Hollow causes Scorn to become a broadsword composed of two separable single-edged blades.
• Big "NO!": When Rampage is killed, she lets out one of these.
• Big Sister Instinct: At the end of the game, she asks Ulthane to help her youngest brother War should he ever end up on Earth.
• Blood Knight: Just as much as her brothers, if not, moreso. Unlike her quiet, cold and calculating older sibling Death, she's much more short-tempered and prone to tendencies of unquenchable bloodlust that everything about her is the kill and nothing else. It's all in her name.
• Blow You Away: Storm Hollow grants Fury the power to slow her decent with wind and ride updrafts, it also makes her Wrath attack release electrified tornados.
• Break the Haughty: Dear Jesus. The last bit of her Character Development has her humbled by Envy, who leaves her to die. When she wakes up, Fury finally realizes how arrogant and selfish she has been, even sounding to be on the brink of tears.
• Canon Foreigner: Compared to The Bible. She's the only horseman without an obvious correlation (other than horse color) to the traditional Four Horsemen; she replaces Famine who only wields weighing scales.
• Character Development: Fury goes from an arrogant, hot-headed Jerkass to being much more humble and willing to protect humanity.
• Chainmail Bikini: Downplayed - she's not any less armored than War was, and certainly more than Death, but her armor hugs her figure closely and her breastplate molds to her impressive bust size. Her comic book depiction definitely plays it straight.
• Combat Parkour: Like her brother, Death, Fury dodges attacks as opposed to blocking them. Justified as a whip wouldn't be able to block much.
• Combat Stilettos: She wears plated high heel boots.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: She wears form fitting dark armor, high heels, cloth hanging from her waist between her thighs and uses a whip as a weapon. Her debut trailer invokes this, with her saying "With pleasure". That's without even going into how her interaction with the chained War are framed. She also displays some of these characteristics during combat.
  Fury: [to Wrath] I'll try not to enjoy this too much! (laughs)
• Dual Wielding: Fury does this with the Chains of Scorn flails of her Flame Hollow form, as well as with whips in her Havoc Form.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: According to an article, Fury wants the Horsemen as a whole to be respected. Considering their line of work involves destroying any threat to the Balance brutally and that their personalities are something to be desired (Fury's in particular being the nastiest of the bunch), that's easier said than done.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Having never appeared in the games before the third installment, she had a radically different design in the prequel comics: for one, she had dark purple hair, bleach-white skin and golden eyes◊ instead of light purple, fair-skin and white Prophet Eyes, her facial markings are slightly altered too and she had proportions and revealing dominatrix attire straight out of The Dark Age of Comic Books, rather than her more realistic figure and more practical full body armor suit from the actual game.
  • And then there's her personality. Fury was actually the most calm and collected of the Four in the comics and The Abomination Vault, but that was before the developers figured out who she was going to be as a character. Come the third game, Fury is just as ill-tempered and impatient as War, if not moreso. Lampshaded in Vault's foreword, which notes how the characters act at this point, eons before the events of the games, will likely be different by said games due to acts over the millennia changing them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a Jerkass, Fury does have limits over what she deems as acceptable behavior from her. For instance, she's downright horrified when she discovers that she had been manipulated into committing genocide in the DLC. Even if she doesn't mind that a race (such as humanity) is on the brink of being wiped out, she doesn't seem to be okay with being the one who actually does the deed. This may or may not be due to the fact that the Nephilim Horde wiped out countless races from the face of Creation, as well as the fact that she and the other Horsemen were forced to kill them off.
• Eye Color Change: In Flame Hollow form, her eyes go from white to yellow.
• Expy: Of Ivy, specifically her pre-game concept art. They wear both a similar outfit and use a bladed whip.
  • Gunfire Games has also compared her to Catwoman in the Batman Arkham games.
  • Visually, she greatly resembles Starfire, especially in her Flame Hollow form.
  • Also visually, her hairstyle, breasts, Prophet Eyes and makeup bring Sindel to mind.
• Fantastic Racism: Combined with Humans Are Bastards and Humans Are Morons. Fury is actively contemptuous of humans to the point that she finds the idea of physically touching one beneath her. Her main reasoning behind this is that humans keep finding ways to fight amongst themselves and that they are fragile, physically and mentally. She changes her tune by the end of the game.
  Fury: [regarding humans] A tribe of useless, hairless simians whose greatest talent was inventing ingenious new ways to divide and destroy one another! They could suffer forever or die tomorrow, and I won't bat an eye either way.
• Fatal Flaw: Fury has several. On top of her impatience, all seven deadly sins are her weakness. This is Lampshaded by her before the final confrontation with Envy.
  Fury: I have been jealous. I have been wrathful. I have been lazy. Worse and more. All the things the Seven Sins stand for and I have paid dearly for it.
• Fiery Redhead: Her hair is more wine-colored, but in certain lighting, it almost looks like a vivid shade of red. She also has the temper to match it.
• Fragile Speedster: Fury isn't as tough as War or necessarily as strong as War or Death, but she's easily as fast as Death is.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Despite her desire to be the leader of the Four Horsemen, Fury's Hair-Trigger Temper, It's All About Me and Jerkass attitude in general makes her the most disliked of the four amongst ally and enemy alike. Whereas War and Death are spoken of respect and fear even by their foes who often underestimate them due to their powers being weakened by various circumstances, Fury in general gets antipathy and various dressing downs from her foes. Wrath even claims his siblings always referred to her as the "dumb one" of the Horsemen, and Pride dismisses her as the least of the Four.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She certainly earned her name "Fury". Unlike her brother War, who almost always keeps his rage at a simmer and letting his brutal executions show his inner feelings, Fury lets loose on her anger and it doesn't take too much to set her off, be it insults (real or imagined) or just general irritation when things aren't going her way.
• Heroic BSoD: Fury is stunned when Ionos tells her that Vulgrim has tricked her into essentially genociding the Keepers. She's so shaken that she's unable to muster up any of her trademark bravado; her only response is "I... understand. Do your worst."
• Hidden Depths: Despite her arrogance and temper, Fury has displayed great insight and resourcefulness on a number of occasions. For instance, she was able to correctly deduce that Envy's talisman would lead her to the other Sins, as well as capture them.
• Hot-Blooded: Fury clearly didn't get her name for being mild and even-tempered.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Note she's not small by any means (she still towers over most human men), but she's very thin compared to both War and Death.
• Humans Are Special: Fury eventually comes to this view, reasoning that Heaven and Hell's obsession with dominion of Earth is because they recognise the unique potential and contribution to the Balance that humans possess... and fear them for it.
  Fury: Heaven, Hell, the Charred Council, they all wish to see [Mankind] annihilated. You know this, but perhaps you don't know the reason...Even before the Apocalypse, why were your lives so hard? Because you were created for a great purpose...and left unprotected. So those who fear you have set out to destroy you with false promises and wars and "sin" that they blame on you! They all fear you. That fear can be used against them. Humanity can win this war!
• It's All About Me: Fury is convinced that she is the best and most powerful of the Horsemen and wishes to unseat Death as their leader, with everything she accomplishes along the way being merely byproducts of her ambition. She's also insulted that the Council would assign her a Watcher to monitor her, until said Watcher begins to stroke her ego.
• Jerkass: Fury is... not a nice person. She has no respect for the Charred Council, has a Hair-Trigger Temper, is blood thirsty, and seems to completely disregard Heaven, Hell and humanity. This is best demonstrated when she hears about War's supposed crimes. Whereas Death was outraged about the accusations, Fury comments that she fully believed that not only did War do it, but that he was going to bring the apocalypse for a long time.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite the above trope, there are moments where Fury does display some genuine compassion.
  • Although she mentions she doesn't care about mankind and that they were beyond saving, she actually helps a bunch of humans reach Haven at Ulthane's request even though she could have left them to die (if coaxed on by Ulthane offering his own help to her in exchange). In one particular cutscene, she sees what she believes is a human child and actually tries to gently coax them into traveling to Haven. However, said child turned out to be one of Greed's minions, but it's the thought that counts.
  • Fury also tells her Watcher before her Character Development that she finds her useful.
  • In Keepers of the Void, Fury is guilt-ridden for having been tricked by Vulgrim into essentially wiping out an entire species.
  • In The Crucible, Fury realizes that Kargon is having issues with his brother, Targon, and asks if he wants to talk about it.
• Leitmotif: Fury's Theme.
• Magic Knight: Unlike her brothers, War and Death, she is not strictly a warrior but rather a blade mage relying on using a combination of magic and her bladed whip to slaughter her enemies and restore the balance of good and evil.
• Mind over Matter: When Fury interacts with certain puzzles and levers, she isn't touching them, but using some sort of telekinesis to move them.
• Morality Pet: Rampage. Later on though, we see that it applies to her brothers as well.
• Morph Weapon: Scorn can transform into various forms as Fury collects upgrades, though the default will always be the Barbs of Scorn.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite her thinner build compared to her brothers, Fury is capable of impressive feats of strength herself, especially when equipping the Force Hollow. Most noticeable is when she sends a train car weighing several tons flying along several dozen feet of track with a single well-placed charged maul/axe blow. She amusingly responds to her Watcher's incredulity at that feat with "it's all in the wrist".
• My God, What Have I Done?: Has this reaction(mixed with rage) in the DLC when she learns Vulgrim tricked her into killing the guardians of the Serpent Holes as revenge for them kicking him out. Her only response when the last remaining guardian berates her and promises to kill her for this?
  Fury: I... I understand. Bring your worst.
• Mysterious Woman: Her official bio describes her as enigmatic and unpredictable.
• Never Bareheaded: Inverted - she's the only horseman who doesn't wear some kind of face concealing headdress.
• Nonindicative Name: Played straight in the book, where she was much more level-headed. Averted in the actual game where, like War and Death, her name describes her pretty well.
• Pet the Dog: She allows Jones to live when he stands up to her. Hilariously, Jones is actually Strife disguised as a human.
• Playing with Fire: One of the forms Fury can take in combat is her Flame Hollow form, a fire elemental that gives her fire-based abilities and allows her to move in lava.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: All of her Hollow forms change the color of her hair and eyes to match the specific element. Her Flame Hollow form not only turns her hair color from purple to an orange-yellow, it also gives the impression that it's on fire.
• Prehensile Hair: While we don't see it "grab" anything, her hair in the trailer moves like this, turning and moving in violation of gravity and little concern to how she is moving.
• Prophet Eyes: Her eyes are white, with the irises and pupil just barely visible, not unlike her brother War.
• Shock and Awe: Storm Hollow gives Fury an electrical weapon in addition to the wind-based powers it confers.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Downplayed. As one of the Four Horsemen Fury is among one of the most dangerous beings in all of Creation...but Fury's ego leads her to arrogantly consider herself the best of the Four. That position still belongs to Death as much as she might wish otherwise, and her foes often bluntly and mockingly tell her they view her as the least of the Four Horsemen.
• The Smurfette Principle: Not only the sole female Horseman, but is also the last Nephilim female.
• The Spock: In the novel. While she doesn't necessarily approve of Death's decision to go stop the Big Bad on his own and have his brothers and sister stay behind (which the latter instantly accuses Death of his intentions being to "protect them"), she decides to obey him anyway, not letting her emotions get in the way and to respect her eldest brother's wishes. She's about as far as possible from this trope come her own game, with her characterization in the novel being a case of Early-Installment Weirdness.
• The Starscream: A rare heroic version. Fury wants to be the leader of the Horsemen, a position that none of her brothers seem to care about - even Death, who is the actual leader. Although, as Lust soon learns, that doesn't mean she wants them to be her slaves, with the illusion of them bowing to her only incurring her wrath.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's shorter than her brothers, but still a Nephilim, and therefore taller than most human women. And she's quite attractive, as Wrath points out.
• Stripperiffic: In the comics and some concept art in the previous games. She wears more covering and practical armor in her own game.
• Super Mode: Havoc Form, which makes her bigger (but not as huge as Chaos or Reaper Mode), invincible and has her use two whips to lash her enemies.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Goes from a total Jerkass who follows the orders of the Charred Council to a Defector from Decadence who serves as the protector of the remnants of humanity and gives a Rousing Speech about how the other sides in the Apocalypse fear them.
• Time Dilation: The Stasis Hollow allows her to slow down her enemies', movements in Time.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Charred Council, unlike War and Death. Ironically, she doesn't have much respect for them.
• Whip of Dominance: She uses a bladed whip called Scorn as her primary weapon, which she's shown to be very skilled with it in Darksiders III using it to kill demons in their hundreds, in addition to wearing dark, tight armour and high heels that make her look like a dominatrix. Fury also has a domineering and power-hungry personality (though those aspects of her get downplayed as she goes through her Character Development) and displays dominatrix-like behavior in her combat interactions, saying things like, "I'll try not to enjoy this too much!" And she definitely enjoys fighting as much as her brothers.
• Whip Sword: Scorn's default form is a bladed whip.

Strife

Strife, Rider of the White Horse

"Strife. Endless spirit of timeless unrest. You are all that is unsettled in the hearts of that which lives and breathes."

Voiced by: Phil LaMarr (Darksiders 3), Chris Jai Alex (Darksiders: Genesis)

"I know who I am. And I'll do the Council's dirty work. All I want is to know why I'm pulling the trigger."

A cheeky gunfighter and one of the two starring Horsemen in Darksiders Genesis. His steed is Mayhem.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: He and War share a laugh when War jokes that they were cleansed by being dragged into water by a dying Dagon, who earlier threatened to cleanse them in his waters after killing them.
• All There in the Manual: Prior to the release of Darksiders II and III, Strife has only appeared in the promotional comic book and the novel The Abomination Vault.
• The Atoner: On some level he feels regret over the slaying of his race on Council's orders as well as one other incident he wasn't too proud of, one involving a knife. That said, he doesn't internally brood on it nearly as much as Death does.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: As seen in the E3 boss demo for ''Darksiders Genesis'', Strife is momentarily distracted by a tiny rocking horse before he and War start fighting Mammon.
  Strife: [as Mammon is throwing things in a fit of panic] Come on, dude, we're the Council's enforcers. You really think you can buy us with this worthless—
  [catches the tiny rocking horse]
  Strife: Daaaaaaawwww!!
• Ax-Crazy: In a conversation with War, he admits that he used to be this. The specifics aren't known, but Strife claims that he used to kill people for no reason other than he wanted to.
• Berserk Button: Strife is enraged when Astarte resurrected the corpses of his Nephilim brethren to use as her soldiers, showing that a part of him still cares for his deceased siblings.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Strife's Anarchy Form gives him one growing out of his back, which can be used both as a whip-like melee weapon and to fire powerful energy beams.
• Beware the Silly Ones: In Genesis, at least, Strife acts like a happy-go-lucky goofball, but he's still a Horseman and very dangerous. Best seen in the trailer for Genesis: Strife marches nonchalantly right into Malgros's throne room, puts on a little show of sentencing the demon to death, then casually blows off his heads one by one before any of the demons have a chance to react.
• Big Brother Bully: According to the E3 gameplay demo for Darksiders Genesis, he's this for War. The former tricks the latter into touching an object that hurts him; said former also states that he despises the latter. However, the official website says that he and War are also close, so this is likely due to sibling bickering. A number of scenes in Genesis support this, such as one where he tells War he knows War has his back and hopes War knows he has his back.
• Blood Knight: In the comic book for the first game, Strife's answer to the possibility of him and the other Horsemen walking into a trap is "One can only hope". Genesis shows him to be very open about enjoying the fighting part of his job.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he kills Malgros in the trailer for Genesis. He has to do it three times, since Malgros has two heads.
• Caltrops: Strife can toss out a couple of large purple caltrops that explode when an enemy gets close enough or after a certain period of time.
• Canon Foreigner: Compared to The Bible. In there, the Rider of the White Horse is either called Conquest or Pestilence depending on what version you're reading.
• Characterization Marches On: As the last Horseman to appear in a mainline game, Strife's personality has changed heavily over the series.
  • The Darksiders prequel comic depicted him as a pragmatic Blood Knight who actively hoped they'd walk into a trap so they could fight their way out, with little more in the way of characterisation.
  • The Abomination Vault depicted him as the Black Sheep of the Horsemen, who constantly snarks at and needles Death during his tale about the Grand Abominations before being humiliated by his elder brother. This one also portrayed him as being much more like a pre-Character Development Fury than his later versions, being an insolent, arrogant Jerkass who even puts a gun to Death's head and almost challenges him for leadership before backing down.
  • Darksiders III reveals him to be The Heart of the Horsemen, actively siding with humanity out of genuine respect for them and calling Fury out on her Jerkass behaviour before ultimately giving her a much-needed pep talk after Envy tears her down and beats her over the head with her Fatal Flaws.
  • The series prequel Genesis portrays him as a Hitman with a Heart who recognises that destroying the Nephilim was necessary, but still carries a good deal of guilt over it and tries to cover up this guilt and his doubts about their service to the Council with snarky remarks and carefree behaviour. He's also much nicer in terms of personality, showing a bond with War and engaging in a degree of sibling bickering with him rather than wholesale dickery like his Abomination Vault personality.
• Combat Pragmatist: At least if Genesis' cinematic trailer is any indication. Malgros the Defiler gives Strife until the count of three to leave before he kills him and defiles the Horseman's corpse. Malgros gets as far as "one" before Strife calls out "Two-three!" and blows his heads off one-by-one.
• Deadpan Snarker: Darksiders Genesis, his speed to make a quip may rival his trigger fingers.
  Strife: (In the Inferno Vault) Goddamn, it is hot in here. My visor's fogging up.
  War: One of the many reasons I choose not to hide behind a ridiculous mask.
  Strife: Wait, that's not a mask? Oh, I am so sorry...
• Dual Wielding: Two-fold! He not only carries a pair of Hand Cannons, but also carries a pair of sabers for close combat.
• The Faceless: He is yet to be seen without his helmet assuming you don't count his "Jones" disguise in III, and considering that it fooled even Fury it's safe to assume he doesn't look like that anyways. Although, the novel does describe him without it, specifically as a sort of Perpetual Frowner like his brother, War.
• Foil: In Genesis he's the opposite of War in every aspect, from physical to mental. Strife is a jokester who's seemingly never taking things as seriously as he should which annoys War and he's constantly questioning the Charred Council which is a HUGE no-no for the blindingly loyal War. Gameplay wise while Strife is no slouch in melee combat he is by far more proficient with his guns while War is a brutish melee combatant.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Acts mostly as the foolish to War's responsible during Genesis. The foolish is mostly him running his mouth constantly or questioning the true motives behind the Charred Council's orders and encouraging War not to be a mindless drone working in their stead.
• Glass Cannon: In Genesis he's always lagging behind War's health and can take fewer hits, but he's much more agile and his skills and guns allows him to concentrate attacks against singular enemies and dish out damage much faster than War.
• The Gunslinger: If his use of guns is anything to go by. Redemption ends up in Death's hands while Ulthane makes a replica of Mercy for War. And out of the three Horsemen (War, Fury and Death) who all use melee weapons chiefly, he's the only one who uses guns.
• Hand Cannon: Uses two huge ones, named Mercy and Redemption.
• The Heart: Darksiders III reveals this to be his role to the other Horseman, as he definitively sides with and endeavors to protect the last remnants of humanity. While the other Horsemen have to be coerced into doing the right thing, Strife seems to side with humanity of his own free will with a genuine respect towards them.
• Hidden Depths: While seemingly quite frivolous about his duties, a few moments in Genesis reveal that he does think rather deeply on things, like the possibility that the Council tasking them to wipe out the rest of their race might be a test of loyalty/just how willing the Horsemen will follow their orders, causing the more dutiful War to think on it.
• Hitman with a Heart: Darksiders Genesis paints him as this — while he recognises that the Nephilim had to be destroyed, he's openly guilty about it and admits that while he'll carry out the Council's bidding, he at least wants to know why he's pulling the trigger on their targets.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Downplayed as he doesn’t defend his actions and is aware that the Nephilim were dangerous, but he is still distraught by the fact that the Council’s first mission was for him and his siblings to destroy the Nephilim. Out of the Horsemen, Death is the only who feels more guilt about the genocide.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Has a platonic version of this with War. Whenever War says something menacing, Strife becomes giddy about it.
• I Shall Taunt You: Strife is described as the most derisive of the Four, often tossing unprovoked insults at others' expense. He even sometimes yells, "Boop!" while dealing the finishing blow.
• Jerkass:
  • Is portrayed as this in the novel. He makes frequent rude remarks toward Death when the latter explains to the Charred Council and the rest of the Horsemen about the Abomination Vault (although Death eventually shuts him up).
  • Darksiders III reveals him to be the nicest and most selfless of the Horsemen. Whether he was always this, he got some Character Development like Fury, Early-Installment Weirdness on account of not getting his personality down yet like Fury, or if he just has a soft spot for humanity in particular has yet to be determined.
  • Seems to be played straight for Darksiders Genesis, though it's more the matter of the Council's orders and some of the things he did due to them is a sore spot and despite the bickering with War, the two show a bond of trust. However, he does mock other characters unprovoked, even when they're trying to help him.
• Light Is Good: Is the Horseman called the Rider of the White Horse, and is thus associated with white, and is the Horseman most concerned for humanity. Many of his attacks in Darksiders Genesis also involve him shooting out bright laser beams.
• The Musketeer: As shown in Genesis, Strife carries his two guns for long-range combat while switching to dual blades for close-range quick strikes.
• Mysterious Past: Strife is noted to keep his past close to his chest, and from what is hinted in Genesis, it's not a nice one. He eventually confesses to War he was a killer who didn't even need a reason for it, but not much is elaborated on. Astartes also alludes to Strife's past after being called a monster, and going by the choice of her words, she isn't talking about the part he played in the Nephilim's extinction.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The Makers had one of his guns by the time Death meets them. How this happened, they refused to say. As Darksiders III reveals, the reason they had one of his guns was because he was working with them the whole time.
  • Strife doesn't elaborate on whatever job he did with the dagger from Mammon's hoard, beyond expressing deep regret over whatever it involved and referring to it as "the worst kind of job."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Strife's wisecracking chattiness comes to an abrupt stop when he stumbles across something in Mammon's hoard. War notices it. It's about the only time Strife snaps at War. It's later revealed to be a dagger connected to something he did before he joined the Horsemen ("the worst kind of job", he says.)
  War: You're quiet. You're never quiet.
  • The aftermath of the battle against Astarte in Genesis also has him being nearly cathatonic likely over the guilt of having to kill his Nephilim brothers again. It gets to the point that Astarte is about to reveal some of his dark past and he's still unable to say anything back, War is the one that has to intervene and shut her up for good.
• Sad Clown: He spends much of Darksiders Genesis making wisecracks and generally not taking things seriously, but that hides the guilt he feels over killing the Nephilim and his doubts in the Council.
• Scarf Of Ass Kicking: Strife always wears a long purple scarf around his neck.
• Scary Black Man: Inverted. He, or at least his human disguise, is the only Horseman with dark skin yet Strife is by far the kindest and heroic of the four.
• Stealth Mentor: Teaches Fury the importance of humanity, humility, and a great deal more about being a good person before revealing himself. In Genesis he's constantly trying War to question everything around him and prevent him from turning into mindless killing machine who blindingly serves the Charred Council.
• Super Mode: Anarchy Form, which turns Strife into a horned purple demon with a long stinger tail, and turns his left arm into a tri-barreled gatling gun.
• Walking Spoiler: You can't talk about Darksiders III's story without revealing his surprise involvement.
• Wave-Motion Gun: One of Strife's special moves, World Ender, fires a giant multicolored blast from both of his guns that pushes back and damages enemies caught in it.
• You Monster!: Calls Astarte a goddamned monster for using his dead siblings as soldiers.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Holds the line alongside Ulthane and his fellow Makers so Fury and the humans can escape to another world.