Undeath

Undeath is a state of continued life after death, though the undead almost never retains their full self.

Transmission & Vectors

While some forms of undead, such as ghosts or liches, are created through very specific circumstances, and others, like zombies or skeletons, are created only by infusing a corpse with negative energy, some can transmit their undeath. Most often, this is through a bite, which carries negative energy into the victim and corrupts them over time.

Causes

The ultimate cause of undeath is the perversion of void energy to animate bodies that were once fueled by vitality energy. The Forge of Creation and the Void are the source of the energies of creation and destruction, respectively. While each is capable of the other's function, after a fashion, converting a being from vitality to void energy defies the order of the universe. Doing so, at best, irrevocably taints the soul with evil, and at worst, creates a mindless husk that seeks only to destroy any life it comes across. Undead can rise spontaneously, especially in areas tainted by magical energy, or can be created through magical rites.

Cultural Reception

Most cultures are instinctively fearful and hateful towards undead. After all, most have an urge, somewhere within them, to destroy sentient life. Even those that don't, such as ghosts, can often cause harm to those around them simply due to their nature. Those that create undead intentionally are often ostracized, and undead hunters and exorcists are usually respected members of their communities.

Types of Undead

The following are some of the most common varieties of undead, and how they form. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Ghosts

Created when mortals die tragically or with unfinished business and their souls cling to the world, ghosts are incorporeal spirits bound to the locations they haunt. They are unable to move on to the afterlife until this injustice is set right or their unfinished business is resolved. While commonly evil, even if the soul was not evil in life, they aren't always. Nevertheless, their warped perceptions of the world can often lead them to hurt others without realizing.

Ghouls

Ghouls, first and foremost, crave the flesh of sentient creatures. While the first ghouls rose spontaneously from cannibals, the most common way for ghouls to form is for a mortal to be cursed by one, inflicted with the ghoul's craving for flesh, before dying and rising again as a new ghoul.

Graveknights

Once powerful warriors in life, graveknights are cursed, bound to their armor and given new life as undead. When a graveknight's body is destroyed, it reforms within its armor over the course of up to ten days. If another creature wears the armor, the process is accelerated as the graveknight takes over the wearers body, killing them and returning the graveknight.

Liches

Perhaps the most intelligent undead, liches were powerful spellcasters in life who, for whatever reason, sought immortality through undeath. By creating an item called a soul cage and transforming their body with a potion or ritual, a lich is created. Liches cannot be permanently killed unless their soul cage is found and destroyed, as a lich rejuvenates each time their body is destroyed.

A lich whose soul cage is destroyed or lost, but who is not destroyed, wastes away until they become a Demilich. A demilich has only its skull left of its former body, its eyes and teeth transformed into gemstones through concentrated magic. They sit dormant most of the time, only awakening when living creature draw near. The transformation into a demilich cannot be reversed, but the demilich can be destroyed.

Revenants

Revenants are created when a murdered creature's desire for revenge eclipses their death. They relentlessly pursue their target until they are killed, at which point the revenant is destroyed. They remember only that which is necessary to pursue their revenge. Revenants are the most likely undead to not be evil.

Skeletons and Zombies

Mindless husks created through necromancy, zombies and skeletons continually seek to destroy life, but can be controlled relatively easily.

Specters

Like ghosts, specters are mortal souls returned from the grave to haunt the world. However, specters do so out of pure malice. They form from evil creatures who desire only to inflict pain, and turn desperate when they are unable to hurt the living.

Vampires

Vampires feed on the blood of the living, and their curse gives them strange powers and weaknesses. Those they bite can be reanimated as the vampire's loyal spawn. They can transform into bats or other animals, control creatures of the night like bats, rats, or wolves, and control mortals through their stare. They revile garlic and religious icons and cannot come close to them, and direct sunlight burns them. A wooden stake driven through a vampires heart paralyzes them and allows them to be destroyed with holy water.

Wights

Wights are malevolent undead capable of draining life from the living. Those they kill rise again as wights under their control.

Wraiths

Like wights, wraiths can drain life and create subservient spawn, but are incorporeal and powerless in sunlight. The more powerful dread wraiths can feed on ordinary wraiths.

Type

Supernatural

Children

• Demilichdom

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Uncommon