Lazarus Pit

"*There are waters in Nanda Parbat. They've permitted Ra's to live for over a hundred years. And in rare instances, told in legend, those waters have been used to restore the dead to life.*"
—Malcolm Merlyn[src]
The **Lazarus Pit**,[1] historically known as the **Fountain of Youth**,[2] was a pool of regenerative water that allowed the user to heal themselves of any wounds, or prevent aging . The only known such pool is owned by Malcolm Merlyn, located within his chamber in Nanda Parbat.

## History

The pit is once found by al-Khidr, who wrote about it in the religious text, the Quran. Later in history, in the 5th century BC, the historian Herodotus first wrote about the fountain, the first of many to do so. Nineteen centuries later, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León went in search of the fountain, but to no avail.[2]

As of 1854, Ra's al Ghul had become the leader of the League of Assassins and had begun using the fountain in order to maintain longevity.[3]

In late 2014, Nyssa arrived back to inform her father of Malcolm Merlyn's being alive. As she arrived, he stepped out of the fountain from bathing and was clothed.[4]

The following year, after Oliver Queen survived Ra's' stabbing him, he took him to the Lazarus Pit to explain what would be in store for him if he took his place as Ra's al Ghul. Later, after Ra's cut himself on Nyssa's blade, he healed the wound in the pool.[2]

After being stabbed by Ra's, Thea was taken to the hospital by Oliver, where the doctors were unable to restore her back to normal health as she was put on life support. Malcolm and Oliver agreed to take Thea to Nanda Parbat, where she was healed in a ceremony with the Pit. Upon being submerged in the water, she gained temporary enhanced strength and agility, as well as animalistic aggression. The second she woke under the water, she tore away the ropes on her hands and feet and out of the hands of Diggle, Maseo, Oliver, and Malcolm, with inhuman ease and speed. She angrily screamed as she leaped at least 30 feet from the bottom of the pit and kicked Oliver down. She then proceeded to land on the floor in a cat-like manner and pounce on Oliver, only to be pulled off by the League members present, as she had seemingly lost her enhanced abilities upon leaving the water, though not her mindless aggression, and was injected with a sedative that neutralized her.[1]

Malcolm used the pit to resurrect Sara Lance. After a disgusted Nyssa was forced to watch, Nyssa destroyed the pit, preventing Malcolm from using it any further.[5] This leaves Damien Darhk as having the only known supply of this water left in existence as he stole some prior to his defection from the League of Assassins.

A **Lazarus Pit** is a natural phenomenon that possesses restorative properties that instantly heal injuries and even grant immortality. The origins of the Lazarus Pit were accidentally discovered by Ra's al Ghul while digging a pit. There he discovered the restorative chemical pools while searching for a cure for a dying prince. Although the Lazarus Pit saved the prince's life, it also drove him mad and caused him to kill Ra's al Ghul's wife, Sora. This incident led to a series of cruel circumstances for Ra's al Ghul, eventually turning him into the feared "Demon's Head". For several centuries, the Lazarus Pits were used by Ra's al Ghul to prolong his life.

The Lazarus Pits have been later used by multiple people across the globe, including Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Nyssa, Black Canary[1], the Riddler,[2] Lady Shiva, Cassandra Cain and Kate Kane.

Ra's's daughter, Talia used the Lazarus Pit to heal Jason Todd's mind and body after his unexpected resurrection.[3]

The fanatical terrorist known as Kobra also had his own hidden network of Lazarus Pits after having analyzed and duplicated the chemical compositions of the Pits. Furthermore, Kobra's analysis of the Lazarus Pits' chemicals allowed him to control those he resurrected as mindless slaves.

Eventually all of the Lazarus Pits were apparently destroyed by Bane and Batman, except for one. Because each Lazarus Pit can reportedly only be used one time,[*citation needed*] Ra's had to accept the fact that eventually he would die (a notion that is subject to debate, as there is evidence of him existing in the 31st century). His daughter Nyssa, however, had discovered a way to make the Lazarus Pits last indefinitely, but rather than let her father use it, she stabbed him to death. Although supposedly only one pit remains, its location has appeared vague — at one point it appears to be in an island compound Ra's assaulted. Later it appeared to be in a completely different location, and another "last" pit was constructed inside the Batcave. This may in fact indicate that there is more than one pit remaining, or that Nyssa was able to create additional pits.

## Powers and abilities

The Lazarus Pit has the ability to delay a person's aging, allowing them to retain their health, physical prowess, and youthful appearance throughout this usage and likewise enables them to extend their lifespan at least for hundreds of years. The water also is able to instantaneously heal all the user's previous wounds with no lingering signs; to which it can also restore one who is close to death. The waters can even resurrect the dead, but only the body, while the soul stays apart from the body. This leaves the resurrected person a mindlessly aggressive animal, prone to violence and killing.

Usage of the water also increases one's physical abilities to super human levels, as the disoriented Thea was seen jumping 30 feet into the air after her submergence and pounced on Oliver with ease. This however appears to be temporary.The substance that fills each pit is a chemical blend of unknown composition, seemingly originating from somewhere within the Earth's crust. For an unknown reason, it bubbles to the surface only at certain key points around the globe, typically at the junction of ley lines. The chemicals can rejuvenate the sick and the dying (and even the technically deceased as long as they have not yet truly died), but will typically kill a healthy user. In addition, it appears to act as a youth restorative sometimes, decreasing the age of a user depending how long they were in the pit, and in many cases, resurrect the dead.

For maximum efficiency however, someone must be placed in the Lazarus pit within a relatively short period of time following their death. Although older bodies may be resurrected, there is no guarantee that they will return in perfect condition. On one occasion, Ra's exhumed the bodies of Thomas and Martha Wayne, threatening to immerse them in the pit, thus transforming them into undead zombies.[4]

When used to heal or to bring someone back to life, that person is also rendered temporarily insane — although in one instance when it was used for the Joker, the reverse effect occurred, i.e. it temporarily rendered him sane).[*citation needed*]

## Weaknesses

—Barry Allen[src]
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Despite the pit's immense restoration powers, it is not without limits and drawbacks. Apparently, the pit will gradually lose its potency on the same individual after an unknown number of uses, leaving each use less effective than the last.[2] In addition, usage of the pit can have a negative effect on the person's mental state, causing heightened aggression. If used on the dying, the revived person becomes mindlessly violent for a short period. After which, they become disoriented, even having their memories mixed up.

According to Malcolm Merlyn, this mental state happens because the Lazarus Pit contains traces of the souls of every person who has ever bathed in its waters. Those revived near or from death become so consumed by these negative effects that they become bloodthirsty once excited in battle. By giving into this impulse and killing, the person's bloodlust will subside for about a month. The longer a person goes without satisfying this bloodlust in any form, the more easily enraged into a psychotic frenzy the person becomes as Thea demonstrated when she viciously pummeled a man who bothered her. Only by killing the one who hurt them before entering the pit will the person be truly released from their bloodlust. In addition, if the bloodlust is not satiated in any form for a prolonged period of time, the restored life will begin to fade, leaving the person weaker and sickly before ultimately dying from a reemergence of the very injury that caused the initial death.

This bloodlust is even worse for one who was resurrected. While physically their being is restored, their soul remains missing, leaving them mindless savages with only fragmented memories and mental capacities to their former self, making their insanity and desire for murder all the more consuming. Only with a mystical restitutionism to recover the mindless reanimated's soul can allow for their true and complete resurrection, restoring them to as they were and without the need for killing, though the desire can still appear.

The only known way to permanently remove both the desire and need for killing is to be inject with a mysterious elixir called "The Lotus". There is a way to destroy the Lazarus Pit's waters. Nyssa's father, Ra's al Ghul, found a way to destroy it in case the waters ever fall into the wrong hands, through unknown means he created.