Skeleton

Skeletons are considered among the lowest types of undead. They’re typically mindless creatures, lacking many of the abilities that make other undead a serious threat. However, the animated bones of dragons, giants, and other great beasts make for dangerous foes. Powerful living creatures can retain some of their might and intellect upon returning as a skeleton. Some necromancers turn their strongest enemies into skeletal undead servants, assuming they can keep control of them.

Skeleton adventurers were usually skilled and powerful in their former lives. Through unremitting force of will or extraordinary circumstances, their ego and ideals persist even in death. However, the very act of rising as a skeletal undead is traumatic. Memories of one’s former life are usually fractured or hazy, if anything can be remembered at all. For some, these memories return with time; for others, they’re gone forever. For the most part, this comes down to how the skeleton views themself: either as a continuation of the person they once were, or an entirely new being.

Some carve intricate “tattoos” into their bones or paint their skulls to maintain a sense of self that simple skeletons lack, and to signal to the living they’re not like other undead. Skeleton adventurers must come to terms with their new identity. They aren’t bound by the limitations of the living and are often underestimated.

Aside from their complete lack of flesh and organs, skeletons vary widely in appearance, reflecting the broad diversity of all living beings. They can be tall, short, or anywhere in between. Skeletons of creatures with horns, wings, or tails retain them, although they are usually useless in their skeletal state. Skeletons raised from fresh remains tend to have stark white bones, while older ones tend to be gray or yellowed. Skeletons who adventure for a while often possess faint lines crisscrossing their bones like scars, indicating where they were injured in previous battles.

Skeletons are rather solitary. Some might hide on the outskirts of society or move about in disguise, but it’s difficult for them to find acceptance among the living.