R'yuk kan is a god of itself and as such has free will just as it's creator intended. He is motivated to serve his master but may choose not to do so. That he does is largely due to the fact that they are together and he offers the most opportunities for social interraction.
His entire manse was raised as a study where he could live while he researched his project. He was working completely from scratch and and to work out the entire process himself. At the end of the year long procedure of making the staff he sacrificed a Third Circle Demon he kept in the boundary circle from Calibration to Calibration. Exactly one year since he started on the last night of Calibration, the most inauspicious time of the year, he completed his work at midnight and R'yuk came into being.
He takes great pride in the fact that he is unique, the only god created intentionally since the fall of the Primordials. Some gods wonder whether the demon was actually destroyed during his creation or formed part of his psyche. It certainly would account for his twisted personality. But then it's designed who based R'yuk on himself was quite similar. His powers against demons would certainly account for destroying a demon during his creation. This may have been R'yuk first act.
He also is effectively the god of deliberately created gods. His existence went unnoticed because he had no place in Fate when he was made. It was only when Sidereals stormed the manse they found what an abhorrent creation he'd made. His master was largely an unknown quantity among Exalted society and the creation of R'yuk had been kept absolutely secret. Not even his closest Dragon-blooded attendants had the faintest inkling of what he was doing. As a result the Sidereals assembled one of their most powerful groups to deal with him. As hand picked elders from among the most powerful members of the Bronze Faction they were horrified when they discovered what he'd done.
Rather than destroying the manse and risk raising the ghost of an elder Solar who'd seen the culmination of his life's work destroyed, they sealed the manse turning it into a mortuary where he could rest in private with everything he created. His spirit soon passed away and the powerful defences round the manse have been impenetrable to grave robbers ever since.
He used the supreme, specially focused, geomantic Solar Essence of the Manse the way a swordsmith would use the heat of a forge.
It's uncertain since R'yuk possesses unique characteristics if he actually is a god or a new type of supernatural creature. Since he has no star in the Heavens some wonder if he can actually be killed. Maybe his creator succeeded more than anyone could have thought of and he cannot be killed, then he is truly immortal.
Archive- they are unimaginably complicated writings written by someone who's understanding of Essence exceeds almost any living Exalted. As Creatures of Darkness are the Deathlords capable of learning Solar Circle Sorcery?
His creation as a result of it's effect may contribute to his antithesis of demons. At the end of the ritual which lasted for five days Amarec slayed the demon by driving the orichalcum staff through it's chest. His creation was in a way synergistic with the slaying of the demon and it was the first thing he was aware of.
R'yuk's name is written in emeralds, saphires and adamant on the staff in an apparently lost Primordial dialect prompting rumours that he travelled to Malfeas to learn the secret from the Yozis especially given his apparently anti demonic disposition. What did he plan to do with the staff once it was completed? Journey into Malfeas and conquer it for his own? Demons fear R'yuk's very name and quail at the sight of the staff.
A completely alternative possibility is that R'yuk is the result of a failure. Maybe what Amarec was trying to do was create another Solar Exaltation for a being that would do his will as just as the Solars did for the Unconquered Sun, an ultimate insult and blasphemy in his eyes. To wield Solar Circle Sorcery is to wield the power of the Unconquered Sun himself. Using it to try to recreate his achievements for your own advancement is an unprecedented crime against the Celestial Incarnae. Perhaps he saw himself as equal in power to the Unconquered Sun after the Solars long development of power during the First Age and sought to finally confirm it by creating an Exaltation as the Unconquered Sun did. Perhaps that's why the spell 'failed' and created a twisted version of him. Whatever his intentions he didn't seem disappointed with the results and found R'yuk was an adequate companion despite his low Essence and inexperience.
