Chinese
Yen lo wang
The God of Death and Ruler of the Fifth Court of FENG-DU, the Chinese Hell.
The Chinese version of YAMA, he was originally King of the First Court of Hell, but Heaven accused him of undue leniency. Far too many souls were crossing the Golden Bridge to Heaven and the place was getting crowded.
To prevent spiritual overpopulation, the JADE-EMPEROR put QIN-GUANG-WANG in charge of Judgment and assigned YEN-LO-WANG to the Fifth Hell of Wailing, Gouging and Boiling. Once there he developed a real relish for making souls miserable, so everyone was happy again. Except the souls, of course.
As a God of some importance, YEN-LO-WANG is far more than just a dealer of boiling oil. He rules over the whole of FENG-DU and has a team of deadly assistants. His filing system contains the records of every soul, complete with their allotted death date. MONKEY once paid him a visit and wreaked havoc, but we imagine security has been tightened up since then.
Hindu
Yama
Yama is the Hindu lord of death whose first recorded appearance is in the Vedas. He is one of the most ancient mythological myth beings in the world and parallel forms of one sort or another have been found all over Eurasia Eurasia. He is known as Yima by zoroastrians, and is considered to be cognate with Yimir of norse legend
Egypt
Anubis
As lord of the underworld, Anubis was identified as the father of Kebechet, the goddess of the purification of bodily organs due to be placed in canoipic jars during mummification.
Dogs and jackals often loitered at the edges of the desert, especially near the cemeteries where the dead were buried. In consequence, Anubis was usually thought of as a jackal, an association re-inforced by certain variations of his hieroglyph, which can be translated as young dog. Thus, ancient Egyptian texts say that Anubis, like a jackal, silently walked through the shadows of life and death and lurked in dark places, watchful by day as well as by night.
As king of the underworld, he was also considered to be the one who weighed the hearts of the dead against the feather of Ma'at (the concept of truth), gaining him the title He who counts the hearts. One of the reasons that the ancient Egyptians took such care to preserve their dead with sweet-smelling herbs was that it became believed Anubis would check each person with his keen canine nose. Only if they smelled pure would he allow them to enter the Kingdom of the Dead.
Greek
Thanatos
In greek mythology, Thanatos Thanatos was the personification of death. He was a creature of bone-chilling darkness. He was a son of Nyx and twin of Hypnos. He plays little role in the myths. He became rather overshadowed by Hades the lord of death. Night, the destructive, brought forth a horde of villainous immortals. Thanatos was one of that wretched lot.
Night's offspring are described as "horrible, painful, cruel, brooding, mocking and malignant." Thanatos might be poetically called the brother of Sleep and the son of Night.
In art, Thanatos was depicted as a young man carrying a butterfly wreath or inversed torch in his hands. He sometimes has two wings and a sword attached to his belt.
Roman
Mors
Equivalent of thanatos. see above
Aztec
Mictlanteculhtli
Mictlanteculhtli ("lord of Mictlan") is the god of the dead and King of mictlan, the lowest section of the underworld. His wife is Mictecacihuatl, and together they dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan and rule over the dead. Mictlanteculhtli is associated with, Spiders, owls, bats, the eleventh hour, and the northern compass direction. He is depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. His headdress is decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wears a necklace of human eyeballs.
Norse (scandanavia)
Hel
Hel is the goddess of the underworld, Helheim and niflheim, in norse mythology. Hel is a daughter of Loki and angerboda. She is the sister of Fenrisulfur and Jormundgand.
Odin threw Hel to the underworld and gave her authority over those who do not die gloriously in battle but of sickness or of old age. She has a body which is half black, half flesh-covered, and appears downcast yet fierce. Her dwelling place is the hall Eliundir . Her servants are Ganglati and Ganglot.
Heimskringla(norse saga collection) relates that she procured herself a spouse by having the Swedish king Dyggve, a natural death. Hel is cognate with the english word hell.