Spontaneous
The most common form of undeath, spontaneous undeath occurs without the intervention of any agent other than the dead subject and the circumstances of their demise. Ghouls, for example, may rise due to improper burial in the vicinity of multiple other corpses; ghosts may rise due to the dead individual having some sort unfinished business in life;
Mädinäka Colcamin is known to have risen due to her family leaving her to her death; the residents of
Iskhak's Homestead were reanimated due to abandoning Mädinäka.
Deliberate
Colloquially referred to as
purposful, this form of undeath is caused by a reanimating agent, usually a necromancer wielding
Arcane Magic or
Divine Magic, but also by a variety of evil
Outsiders. There's an ongoing scholarly debate on whether reanimation as a divine act, such as in the case of
Deathlessness, should also be regarded as deliberate or not.
Spawn
Also referred to as
reproduction, spawned undead are in a sense a mix between spontaneous and deliberate undeath. Those who are slain or infected by certain undead may rise as undead themselves some time later, either controlled by their killer or possessing their own free will. The best known example of undead spawns are
Vampire spawns.
Other
Though rare, some undead may rise due to events taking place long after their death; most commonly this is due to disturbance of resting places, such as grave-robbing. A notable example is
Guillaume, who was reanimated two decades after his death as his sense of duty caused his soul to leave
Mount Celestia and return to the
Prime Material Plane as an undead.
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