Race: Undead

 Undead 

Undead are classified as Corporeal Undead and Non-Corporeal Undead. Both of these categories are divided as Greater and Lesser Undead. Greater Undead are sentient, Lesser Undead are governed mostly by instinct.

What is an undead? Undead. Not dead. Supposed to be dead, but not dead yet. Or maybe dead but still influencing the world in some way. A loose definition is “A soul or a surrogate of a soul bound to a body or something incorporeal”.

Not all undead have souls or life force. Ghouls eat flesh and suck out life force to remain ‘alive’ in some way, while Kuklus eat souls and implant surrogates to get more Kuklus and to nourish themselves. There’s a sub-category of ‘Biomagical Undead’, which are created by magic, living in some way, but with a very dead soul or a surrogate of a soul. All of these are different in their very undead nature, but they fall into the categories previously described, however, except Biomagical Undead, which get their own sub-category.

Almost all Undead can be destroyed with a wound caused by silver or a combination of silver with some other metals. This effect wanes and fades with less and less silver in the metal shoved into a wound, so only a trace of silver will do nothing.

Corporeal Undead

Let’s get these out of the way first. Corporeal Undead are basically souls, or surrogates of souls, bound to corporeal bodies and objects. These are mostly walking corpses such as Thralls, but there are some other things such as Towers, which are bound to objects. Moving is optional.

Lesser Corporeal Undead

Lesser Corporeal Undead are the most common out of the four (five if you count Biomagical Undead) classifications. Completely mindless, some are able to perform only simple tasks (bite off someone’s head) or follow their instincts in the wild (bite off someone’s head), but some are sophisticated enough to seem like they’re thinking and even obey complicated orders. Let’s go over a few. (There are more than what are mentioned here.)

Thralls

Thralls, along with Skeletons, are the most commonly met in the wild and in the hands of necromancers type of undead. These are sometimes named ‘zombies’ or ‘rotters’ by the uneducated crowd, and are basically just walking corpses. Thralls, like Liches, slowly decay, although much slower then average corpses. Light and heat speeds this up, and so they become slower and waddle more in the daylight. These, while being stronger then the average human being, aren’t faster, and are even slower, slowing down more as time goes on and they decay. Not the best soldiers, but not the worst, they are often used by Necromancers as one of the simplest types of undead to raise. Just wire some mana up to a corpse and you’re good, what’s the problem?

Skeletons

Skeletons are… Well, skeletons. To be exact, any skeleton can be raised and manipulated to do a necromancer’s bidding. They are even easier to raise and control then Thralls, and are often used as cheap soldiers. Therefore, necromancers don’t waste much time on them, so they usually die and break apart quickly and easily, and stop moving if their master is knocked unconscious or dies. However, if one were to truly put their time in raising skeletons... A Skeleton can be strengthened with mana, making their bones much less brittle, and allowing for them to be much better soldiers. A Skeleton can be wired up to a Ley Line, allowing for movement and following of basic orders after their master dies. A Skeleton can even, technically, contain the memories of its’ original fleshy body. Who knows what potential skeletons have?

Kuklus

Kuklus are a special case in that they are a lot like vampires in their sickly ways of reproduction - they turn others into those like themselves. However, not at all in the way of vampires. Kuklus look a lot like their original selves, and in fact do not decompose, but have transparent ulcers covering their body. These are filled with some sort of black goo. Kuklus, being a menace, have not really been studied, but it’s known that their bodies are reanimated upon their sickly resurrection, and do not even die if said Kuklus was turned from a living being by another Kuklus. Kuklus suck out living things’ souls (this can be done to almost all sentient creatures which have a soul, but demons and angels, for example, have a natural way of resistance). They then insert a surrogate of a soul inside said living thing, turning it into just another Kuklus.

Against a Kuklus it is important to pray, as devotion and belief in a god hurts them, preventing them from feeding on your soul.

Greater Corporeal Undead

Greater Corporeal Undead are all sentient creatures with a full soul or a surrogate of a soul. They are, like their lesser counterparts, bound to a body or a corporeal thing. Towers are in this category, among others. (There are more than what is mentioned here.)

Liches

Despite me starting with them first, Liches are a special case. These are of the only types of undead that do not get destroyed by silver. Not many liches exist, and only strong in willpower and in focus necromancers can become one. Not many actually want pseudo-immortality in a slowly decaying body for until it decays completely and turns slowly into an arm and the top of a skull or something along those lines over something like two thousand years. Liches do not regenerate naturally, and are not affected by healing spells, and therefore while being technically immortal (not amortal, mind you!) they decay slowly, eventually turning immobile and slowly losing their minds and powers. The remains of a lich make for a nice artifact, but definitely not a powerful necromancer and wizard which controls armies of the dead, the not-so-dead, and the ones pretending to be dead.

Liches are practically the stereotype of Greater Corporeal Undead, and are told of in stories (mostly read to children when they try to go to sleep and not have nightmares the entire night)(this is good practice for later adult life).

Bone Monsters

Skeletons. Giant, spiky skeletons with tough bones that are used as commanders and elite troops. What more can be said about them?

Skeletons

Skeletons which were created or made sentient also go into this category.

Towers

Occur only naturally, and are, in fact, sentient buildings. A high concentration of magic in a building will let it develop a surrogate of a soul and sentience. This can be done artificially, if difficult. Depending on the amount of magic that was concentrated in the building, it has limited amounts of power to limitless amounts of power, can develop poltergheists and anti-poltergheists.

Biomagical Undead

Technically, Biomagical Undead belong in their own category, but for the sake of convenience, they’re in the Corporeal Undead section. Biomagical Undead can be both sentient and completely mindless, but what unites them is that they’re sewed from dead body parts by, well, Biomages. A Biomagical Undead almost always has a surrogate of a soul, and almost never - a real soul, but sometimes a biomage adds one in for the sake of convenience. It practically never goes well for them.

Non-Corporeal Undead

A Non-Corporeal Undead is a soul, or a surrogate of a soul, loosely hanging in space, bound to something and holding itself from dispersing via a power resembling a mages’ Focus. Most of the time, Lesser Non-Corporeal Undead have a surrogate and Greater Non-Corporeal Undead have a real soul, but there can be exceptions.

Lower Non-Corporeal Undead

These aren’t sentient, or maybe have lost their mind in some way or form.

Poltergheists and Anti-Poltergheists

How simple are these creatures? Very. A Poltergheist is a surrogate of a soul loosely supported in space that is usually bound to a building. Often they’re either mischevious or even malevolent, taking care to mess up orderly things and scare children. They, like Anti-Poltergheists, are completely invisible, and can only be noticed by the way they bring chaos into orderly places. A good way to distract a poltergheist is to put down a bowl of sugar and a bowl of salt. It’ll swap them places. Or open some silverware drawers - It’ll mix up the silverware in every drawer. Anti-Poltergheists, however, are creatures of order, and spend most of their time undoing what poltergheists do. Such as - placing the silverware in its’ proper place, washing dishes, distinguishing salt from sugar, and so on and so forth. Anti-Poltergheists try to avoid children at all costs.

Eluns

Projections of life force upon the world, Eluns can be summoned by even non-mages. What is required to create an Elun is true mastery of oneself, being a reasonably powerful mage, or simple control of life force. If any of these requirements are fulfilled, one might create an Elun involuntarily, by accident, when distressed. Eluns appear as slightly reddish, tall, but otherwise completely featureless except a masculine shape of body (save, perhaps, for a very muscular torso, depending on the tastes of the individual who summons the Elun.) They are powerful physically, but cannot do anything magically, and are easily dispersed by a few physical (or magical) attacks. Technically, they have a corporeal body, but as it’s made of an incorporeal material and is extremely easy to disperse, they count as Non-Corporeals.

Akaronians

Named after Akaron, Necromancer of Great Renown, Akaronians are simply familiars. Buried in a church graveyard are always a few animals, otherwise the first human who is buried in one will become an Akaronian, guarding the holy place until it is destroyed. Akaronians appear as lame caricatures of their original, as well as slightly grayish - Pigs missing a leg, lambs with no head. However, they have no corporeal bodies, and cannot alter the world physically. However, all Akaronians are powerful aeromancers (natural aeromancers, of course, it is silly to assume a pig would become a master of the winds by learning and reading) and attack anybody who damages their church. However, they vanish if the church is destroyed despite their best attempts.

Greater Non-Corporeal Undead

Sentient Non-Corporeal Undead, usually in the form of a soul bound to the physical world. These usually can manipulate reality more than just causing visions.

Ghosts

The most stereotypical of the Non-Corporeal Undead, ghosts come in many shapes and sizes, but the simplest version is simply an astral shadow of the soul, floating quite morosely in mid-air and occasionally swooping down to scare somebody. However, there can be many varieties of ghost, even ones that build bodies of chunks of ground and flesh lying around to protect themselves.

Reverend Ancestors

The belief of some tribal creatures is that their ancestors guide them. They do, in the form of spirits. Reverend Ancestors can’t actually touch on the physical world, but they have their own pocket realms that exist exclusively to the mind, and only when enough drugs are smoked. Within them, they communicate to their children, grandchildren, grandgrandchildren, and so on. Reverend Ancestors can be summoned via shamans, and, occasionally, necromancers, as a help in battle or casting.

Enughabaki Murasi Vinaru

Surprisingly long name for an Undead. Enughabaki Murasi Vinaru (An old, dead language for Walker of Twilight, referred to simply as Vinaru, which means Twilight) are sometimes called Wraiths. Vinaru are born from old graves, or sometimes statues, and look like long, sweeping cloaks, sometimes with skulls in them. That is, in fact, the only corporeal part of a Vinaru’s body, and, therefore, they’re classified as Non-Corporeal Undead. They are powerful, but do not have a clear goal in the world, and so, some feast on energy, life force, the force that drives beings to exist, and others possess bodies to feel alive. Vinaru, however, will never be alive, and are simply shades of those living. Some are frustrated by this fact, and kill and terrorize living creatures with extraordinarily powerful dark magics, and manipulation of the previously mentioned life force to form short-lived Eluns, which were mentioned in the previous category, drain life, and even create a smooth material that reminds some of human flesh.

Written after accounts from Akaron, Necromancer of great renown.

Written by Sanrriorar/Sanrriorar#1264