side note in death mage Van did get his vengeance
Not sure this is the right place, but wanted to counter.
He stops shattering souls the moment he gains control over the cycle of reincarnation. Mercy of pragmatism.
He's so mechanical, as soon as he controlled it -- the root mechanism of power -- he didn't need to shatter anymore.
It almost felt as if he had more humanity when he was initially reincarnated, than at the end when he became a robot.
I'm upset the ONE granted clemency -- the ONE survivor of his revenge -- is the ONE who deserved it the absolute least.
And I'm not talking about the dhampir girl; who was indoctrinated simply since she didn't know any better. He rightly punted on her.
Tying back to this: I really with authors wrote consistently motivated characters, start to finish, in their stories.
They get caught up too much in genre drift. Perhaps due to the nature of fad cycles. Perhaps nature of episodic publication.
(As opposed to writers who publish entire novels at once, in coherent chunks of their own direction. Even if unpopular.)
I'm even OK if author can provide meaningful reasons why their characters' motives change. If done well: shown, not told.
That was demonstrated in chapter 1 here, briefly, when hero acknowledged there was nothing he could do, and moved on.
Although I
would have ideally liked to see his motivations and internal dialogue before that, leading up to the subjugation.