“Why exactly can’t you raise the dead?” It seemed like such an odd limitation for such a powerful being to have. Why this of all things? Why would this be the one shackle on a god?
Dagon stroked his chin, smoothing down the beginnings of a beard. He’d been debating on letting it linger anyway. “There’s no one else with as much knowledge about death’s effects on the deceased as me. That’s not being egotistical, that is being factual.” He had been everywhere to prove it. There just wasn’t as much out there as he had collected and learned.
“But to the point. Why can’t I raise the dead? There’s a few explanations for that. One is this.” He conjured a simple ball of light for the inquirer to see. Harmless, just mere illumination. “Consider this a soul. Yes they are real.” This ball was not one. “All lives have souls. All of them.” No exceptions.
A pen scribbles along as the ageless speaks. “When a lifeform dies, their soul leaves their body. Unless circumstances prevent it anyway. The longer the soul is apart from the body, the more damage is done to the body. Brain damage, failing organs, all manner of things. Death becomes a mercy then.”
“Wait, what about a defibrillator then? That brings back dead people.” An understandable question.
“It does, but there’s a window of time before the soul leaves the body. Some even refuse to, choosing to stay in the body. The soul is a sentient thing and can leave or stay as it chooses, though it does require the death of the body to do so.” Thus explaining why mortals can do what he cannot. Sort of.
“So most choose to leave then? Why?”
“They do, and they do so to return to the Wheel. There they are reborn in a new body, and the infinite cycle continues.” He waved that off though, not wanting to discuss that topic in greater detail. “I can bring someone back without their soul leaving, but the real question is should I. Should I really stop death from happening?”
“Death can’t be so necessary that it would make you stop saving lives. Every life is-”
“Precious I know.” He cuts off the angered comment with ease. “What you fail to understand is the logistics of such a plan. What do you do with a populace that gets endlessly resurrected? What do you do when you can’t save them anymore? What do you do when you don’t have enough resources to care for all of these people who’ve lived and died so many times?”
“We find a way.” The ageless rolls his eyes at the naivety from the words.
“How. Expand to other worlds and consume them dry? Keep your aging populace on permanent life support and in constant pain?” Dagon narrows his eyes, sitting up straight in his seat. “There is no way. You either kill them slowly or kill everyone else. Where does your ‘Every life is precious’ mentality go then. Does it extend only to yourselves.”
There is silence in the wake of his biting words. He knows these truths well, and he knows how they hurt to hear.
“Reason two for why I cannot bring back the dead...” He begins, already moving on.
