Grand Unified Zombie Theory

(The following is a Fanon page originally by Cherrio01)
The strength of the enchantment that binds an undead to this mortal plane is a combination of factors: Person, Perishing, Plot, Prayer, Penchant, and Possession. Typically, positive amounts help keep a spirit bound, whereas a negative amount results, at best, in the restless dead who have unfinished business.
== The Six Ps ==
Variable 	Description
Person 	Who the body was before it died. It retains a strange echo of who it was, one that can determine what it wants to do (see Penchant), as well as general physical traits.
Perishing 	How the person died, and the condition of the body.
Plot 	From "grave plot", plot refers to where the body was kept.
Prayer 	How much love and ritual went into a proper sendoff for the dearly departed. Improper burials can result in restless dead, but not necessarily ones that want to listen to you.
Penchant 	The quirks associated with tricking a corpse into not knowing it's dead. Penchant represents the semi-retained skills of the orignal living person and their quirks. If the caster loses control of zombie, it'll return to its penchant or old behavior, often wandering off and scaring townsfolk.
Possession	This is the body or item that's being possessed. It's not always a body, and not always the body of the original spirit.
== Working Against Penchant ==
A zombie usually does rote motions or habits from its life, at least on some metaphorical level. Simpler zombies (low-power summons) tend to be less quirky but also less lucid, more similar to the tired and suggestible "zombi", and are able to perform only basic tasks, and probably won't learn. More powerful summons use more of the echo or "spark" or the original person, resulting in a more clever undead, but one that may not always take orders. 
Wrangling high-power undead is a constant contest of wills. A necromancer without stout nerve (and stern reason to keep such undead from their final rest) will quickly find they've bitten off more than they can chew. And subsequently, find themselves bitten. And possibly chewed.
== Plot and Prayer ==
Note that undead can show up anywhere, but their "plot and prayer" aspects tend to determine how happy they are when they arrive.
Plot 	Bonus	Description
Hallowed Tomb 	+? 	A crypt, mausoleum, or other highly-proper burial site. This is likely the reason draugr end up so strong.
Hallowed Ground	+? 	A church cemetery or other plot, one that's cared for.
Regular Ground 	+0 	Regular burial plots. Someone made an effort here, but it's not watched or protected particularly.
Forgotten Piles	-? 	Mass graves and battlefields.
=== What about cremation? ===
In the case of cremation (or bodily destruction via sky burial), this should count as Hallowed Ground or higher, and tends to prevent zombies since there's no body. The jury's out on where a spirit might return, if it needed to.
== Person vs Possession ==
Anchor 	Bonus	Description
Original Person, Restored	+10? 	Possessing the original body, that's been rebuilt for habitation. A supernatural clone or perfect sculpture might get up to +9. This is the best possible condition to perform a true resurrection.
Original Person, Damaged 	+5 	The body, but in poor condition--the one that killed it, usually. This should be a trivial possession for Summon Spirit. It doesn't matter if the body is unable to make words--the body is merely an anchor that the spirit can hold onto.
Similar Person 	+4? 	Sometimes spirits appear to--or possess--individuals who have a similar appearance or behavior to the original spirit. A well-attuned Medium may always count as a "similar person" when attempting to channel!
Similar Body Plan 	+0 	A spirit attempting to possess anything similar to its original body. This can include puppets, dummies, scarecrows, etc.
Different Creature 	-2 	Possessing a different body plan or creature altogether. This tends to limit a spirit's options, or make its appearance less frequent--only for emergencies. For instance, a bog ghost guiding someone's ox off the trail, towards their lost body.
When channeling a spirit through its own body, 
== Examples ==
Example 	Total	Description
Battlefield Dead	0 	Zombies and skeletons brought up from shallow graves. They retain a semblance of fighting spirit, but their spirits are not their own, merely echoing their old habits.
Restless Townies	+1? 	Zombies from recent burials, unhappy with some drama in their lifetime.
Draugr 	+5? 	Died in battle, wrapped in cloth, buried with weapons. This would normally be the end of things, but something has disturbed their slumber. Something stolen from their tombs, or something threatening their old family homes, may call the Draugr to remove the boulder from their cairns and fight once more.
Mummy 	+10??	There is no greater pomp and circumstance than the death of a god-king. As such, they tend to return with a bang, often more powerful than before...
== See Also ==
* :Category: Undead
== References ==
* Cherrio01