The Vorstfallen

Vorsthold is a citadel that has vast but still finite resources and they are very aware of this. As a result, they habitually make extensive use of all their resources - recycling metal and making use of every part of the animals they hunt or farm. Armour is looked after carefully until it can serve no more, when it is melted down and refined to serve in whatever capacity it still can - as arrowheads, prostheses or metal joints for construction.
The most valuable resource of all however, is the Vorstborn themselves - the people who live and fight for the community. Following the same principle, the Unending Circle are a group of highly respected necromancers in Vorsthold who spend their time carefully and respectfully gathering the dead and bringing them back to utility - the Vorstfallen. Soldiers who fall defending the Thunder Gates and, if the Circle has capacity, some of the labourers and wider citizenry, are stood back up with necromantic magic as undead - technically zombies. However, the Circle have a flock of attendants and lower ranking mages who prepare the bodies, preserving them, re-attaching lost limbs or sewing closed wounds so that the resulting zombie looks as close to alive as possible. The Circle as well use a special, extended ritual to animate each corpse, ensuring they keep more of the skills and dexterity of their former selves. They have yet to bring a mage back with magic intact, but the Vorstfallen who came from the Vorstguard still make fine soldiers.
Beneath the 5 mages who perform these rites at the top of the Undying Circle, a group of other necromancers have the task of controlling the Vorstfallen in their day-to-day usage and operation. The Vorstfallen are treated with a solemn respect by the population (those who aren't unnerved by it), and there will even be a few found in the rest of the city, helping with small labours in warehouses or foundries. Small magical rings are given to those few business owners or smiths who only have 1 or 2 of the Fallen with them, as dedicating a necromancer to be stationed with them at all times would be a waste of resources.
The frontmost Thunder Gate, the one exposed to the Underdark, is frequently guarded by what can only be described as a skeleton crew. From this, "joined the skeleton crew" is a phrase used euphemistically to refer to a soldier who died.

Type

Biomaterial