Meet Cerberus: Death's loyal companion.
Considering the fact that the game features very humanized animals and their ghosts, with a clear ability to have memories, it is likely that animals also have souls, which follow the same cycle of life and death as humans.
Thus someone has to take care of these souls... right? ;-)
A post about the latest arrival to Death's family, the difference between souls and ghosts, and about Death himself.
My idea of AFK Journey's world is that memories are a main form of (magical) energy that maintains Esperia and sustains life. This was triggered by the Timeless Gala event, where it was the magic within the memories of past adventures that lit up Merlin's magical bookmark.
Memories are created by all living things, in certain capacity and quantity, by experiencing time and are recorded and saved in both, brain and soul (even the environment can absorb memories to an extend). Upon death, the soul carries the memories back to the Tree of Life, where they are absorbed, recorded into the Tree itself, and transformed into energy that is used to give birth to and sustain life on Esperia. Memories can also be turned into magical power directly, by entities born from the Tree of Life, like the gods, and later mages.
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Soul & Body
Souls are unique containers which store memories. A soul is merged with a body at conception and they remain connected to each other until death alone will part them.
The moment of death is usually short, but can on occasion take a while - also known as "being on the brink of death". This separation of soul and body, a natural process, can be a painful one if consciously experienced by the soul.
Once dead, the soul automatically returns to the Tree of Life, where it passes on the energy of its memories. Once the memories have been fully given away, the soul has successfully gone through the cycle (it has been "recycled") and is merged again with a body at conception (incarnation). Memories can leave marks on or shape the soul, so some things (like talents, inclinations, tastes etc., but not memories) from a previous life will pass on to the next.
Healthy souls on their way back to the Tree, can take shape and still collect further memories. These new memories are volatile, though, and cannot eternally provide strength to the soul for a continued existence as a spectral being. Besides, the natural pull towards the Tree is very strong and most souls return voluntarily sooner than later.
Souls that cannot return to the Tree will weaken in their shell, and memories get lost. They bleed from the soul as magical energy, transitioning from one state of energy to another. The soul's shell still remains intact, however, and can be collected by Death to be returned empty to the Tree. The memory energy of souls can also be taken by force, a torturous method of obtaining a power boost.
As spectral beings with great energy concentration, souls can more easily interact with the world. They have full freedom to travel wherever they want.
Souls can use magic, if they know how. Usually, certain spells cast by mages will be interrupted and stopped upon the caster's death, but if strong enough, death can be experienced fully aware, allowing the soul to continue to cast the spell and, for example, self-resurrect as a Graveborn. Most Graveborn, however, have been resurrected by another mage.
There is a crucial time window to guarantee a successful resurrection as Graveborn: after death and before the soul has reached the Tree of Life. Souls that have already been absorbed by the Tree can still be called for resurrection, but the more memories and energy they lack, the weaker is the bond to their old, dead body, leading to faster decay in both, body and mind, compared to their healthier colleagues.
After a soul has been resurrected, Death must again act on his duty of impartiality, being unable to release them from their suffering until they naturally reach the end of their strength and "die" once more.
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Ghosts / Spirits
Ghosts are weak, non-autonomous and not truly aware copies of souls. They hold very low mana and cannot interact with the world as much as souls can. They are easy to dispel but if left undisturbed, ghosts can linger for a long time before finally falling apart. Similar to souls, ghosts can obtain new memories, but they are just as volatile and easily forgotten again, returning to Esperia as small amounts of magical energy.
Ghosts can always be created without time limitations, unlike Graveborn, who need their soul to be summoned as soon as possible after death. The only requirement for a ghost to come to be is that their memories are actually existent within their soul or within the Tree of Life.
The God of Death can create ghosts easily, but they are not limited to gravecalling magic. Ghosts can also be summoned/contacted/accessed by non-gravecalling magic types, like divination and time- or memory-related spells.
Ghost can also form naturally in the vicinity of their dead body, as the result of naturally occurring mana concentration along leylines (much like elemental magic).
Due to their weaker existence, a ghost's mobility is limited to the immediate area of where they were summoned or appeared, while their soul (and true self) continues to the Tree.
Despite their low mana, Ghosts can use a ghost-binding spell to "possess" something or someone and use that as means of mobility. The unexpected behavior of their target causes the association of "being haunted". Every time a ghost uses this spell, they loose a part of themselves to the target, until eventually so little of the ghost is left that they can no longer use the spell.
Ghosts cannot occupy a body like souls do (Graveborn).
While ghosts cannot interact with anything (except the boundary of any ground they step on), they still experience memories of sensation. They can still smell, taste or feel. A ghost attempting to eat something out of habit, will take its taste and leave behind an untouched but bland piece of food/drink.
Since ghosts are just partial copies of their original, they actually have limited awareness and self-understanding. Some don't know they are dead, or keep forgetting that fact. Those that do know, show a strange indifference about it. All ghosts seem to be very focused on one particular thing, with rare exceptions of greater autonomy, like Anathyme.
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The God of Death / Morgan
The God of Death's duty is to oversee the return of all souls to the Tree of Life, and step in if required. Even as, and perhaps particularly because he is, the God of Death, he must obey certain rules dictated by the cycle of life and death. The most defining one: impartiality. Death will not take life, unless the system itself calls for him to decide, for example, in some near-death experiences or prolonged deathbed scenarios. While nothing technically prevents him from doing so, the moment he causes premature death to any being, he falls from grace and inevitably into his own destruction. Morgan knows better than this and honors death, preserving the Tree of Life and Esperia.
Death cannot exert power over a soul still bound to a mortal/dead body, with one exception: a soul between life and death. This transitional state is normal and necessary, but usually too short for Death, who is as bound by time as mortals, to react. Only drawn out instances of this transition grant Death the opportunity and authority to either intervene or complete the process.
While Death's power is limited to the soul as a whole, he is able to access and read the memories within.
Death has the ability to take souls, currently in the process of recycling, from the Tree. Souls can be damaged or corrupted during life and this is a manual safety measure should automated processes not be able to deal with the problem.
There is no method in place to prevent Death (or anyone practicing his magic) from resurrecting souls. It does not count towards his duty of impartiality, as he did not kill, but it does constitute as withholding energy from the Tree, causing potential trouble should this happen on a very large scale. Death should not, and does not, keep energy from the Tree needlessly.
Everything, dead or alive, including Death, is bound by a linear progression of time. Given how many deaths occur per minute in all of Esperia, Death cannot actually meet every single soul personally.
Something to keep in mind:
In life, Morgan desired to master total resurrection. I am not certain Morgan knows that the best he will ever be able to achieve is returning a soul to their dead body, leading to a very long life of rejection and suffering. In CoE, as Death, he acknowledges this fact and warns Valka that her Graveborn existence will be shunned and rejected. I believe that Death is very considerate with his creation of Graveborn and for what reason.
Therefore, I hope that Death has not been involved in the creation of Bantus (as much as I know from AFK Arena) and I do hope, that if he appears in S8, that he will condemn their existence, having simply been unable to interfere with the actions of the living.
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The Dog of Death / Cerberus
Cerberus appeared as an appendix to the original God of Death. The separation of humans and humanoid species (like dwarfs and wildborn [and others unknown just yet]) and animals was always intended and it required, at least in death, two separate guardians. Cerberus' duty is to collect the stuck souls of animals and return them to the Tree of Life, matching exactly that which Ozaiah is doing for humans.
Cerberus cannot see and interact with the souls of humans, while Ozaiah cannot see and interact with the souls of animals. Only the God of Death can, by choice, see and interact with one or the other, or both. This includes conversations with them.
Despite his appearance, Cerberus is a dog at heart: kind, loyal, always eager to be petted, gentle towards the weak, fierce against enemies, and he runs faster than Athalia flies. Cerberus spends nearly every waking minute chasing after souls, and the other minutes he patiently waits by his master's feet, waiting for his command.
During the absence of the old God of Death, Cerberus too found himself busier than ever, with abnormal deaths among animals to skyrocket. Even though Ozaiah was the only companion during that time, Cerberus couldn't leave the animals unattended and so they have rarely met to provide comfort to each other.
When Cerberus felt his master's return, he hurried back to the Realm of the Dead to greet Morgan joyfully.
Unlike Morgan and Ozaiah, Cerberus has no mortal appearance. If he does show himself it is always in his hellhound form. Stories of his sightings usually focus on the contrast between his haunting appearance but gentle behavior towards animals and humans alike.
Animals know Cerberus as "Great Hound", the Guardian of Souls. They know that any animal able to hear his barks and howls is destined to die very soon, so naturally the living harbor a fear of him. The souls of dead animals, however, regard his arrival a blessing.
