Undead

*" 'tis but a flesh wound"*

The **Undead** is a catch-all term for creatures that used to belong to the world of the living but are being kept from rest by some outside, magical force.

## Origins and characteristics

The Undead are a result of outside influence, usually the work of some Necromancer who uses magic to manipulate the cycle of reincarnation that governs the movement of souls in The World as overseen by the Light.

No longer living and breathing creatures, most of their kind are resistant to most conventional forms of harm. A typical weakness of the Undead is their adverse reaction to Divine Light Magic.

Because of their limited autonomy, most Undead are either unwilling servants of the Dark or some of its greatest champions. Although by their nature alone, they are not aligned to either the Dark or the Light

### The Left-Handed Path

One cannot discuss the Undead without mentioning **Crowned Death**, the Dark God of Undeath and all things Undead.

The traditional, and by far the most spread, kind of Necromancy relies on the patronage of the Dark God Crowned Death. Necromancers often include a prayer to Crowned Death in their traditional and typically vile rituals to raise Undead. This prayer establishes the connection that allows the Dark God to provide the creature with a fraction of his own power. In many cases, the prayer is intentionally included, but often enough ignorant Necromancers say it unaware, as it is well hidden within ancient incantations or the setup of the ritual site. This tradition of Necromancy makes raising the Undead easier, but it also makes the Necromancer depended on the help of a Dark God, even if he isn't aware of it.

Since not many are aware of the Dark God's subtle manipulations only the most attentive or the most stubborn Wizards or Sorcerer Necromancers strike a different path, in which they use their own power and unique talent in Necromancy, to raise their own Undead.

In the end, it becomes a question of what does the Necromancer seek, true mastery of one self and the Undead, or a fast and easy way to power.

## Types of Undead

### Necromantic Energy Constructs

The most "vulgar" form of Undead if the word of Necromancers is to be taken for face value. By animating once living matter such as bones or decaying plant life certain Necromancers are capable of creating puppets with no autonomy or will of their own.

In some measure, these constructs do not even qualify as "creatures" or Undead and are simply tools being used by some caster. They are the go-to food soldiers of more-battle oriented Necromancers when they need to fight and have not been given time to prepare.

Since the Necromancer is providing the energy to power his Undead puppets from his own reserves, few can maintain their constructs for prolonged periods of time.

### True Undead

Undead beings raised with more care by their creator, with substantially more energy and time invested in them. These Undead are a permanent creation, capable to some degree of primitive thought and very basic problem solving, and sometimes consciousness as well as autonomy. At times even, the Necromancer manages to insert a simulacrum of a "soul" created out of entropic energy.

These are the most common types of Undead found under the service of Dungeon Keepers and include Skeletons and Ghosts.

To create autonomous Skeletons the fresher the corpse the better. Thus ritually sacrificing the life of the victim is considered the safest way to create a complete and fully functional Undead, but raising the fallen soldiers shortly after the battle is over will still have a sufficient rate of success. In the case of the Ghost, it is a base requirement that the person in question dies in agony and is bond and shackled in the moment of death – thus the pseudonym Tormented Souls. Some Necromancers make it a sport to see who can create the strongest ghosts by inflicting the most suffering.

### The High Undead

The pinnacle of Necromancy, these are Undead who are fully self-aware and autonomous (although at times their creator may be able to exert special influence over them). They still have a strong bond via Necromancy to their soul, that usually already resides in the hand of Crowned Death, like Death Priests, or are given a hollow "pseudo-soul" upon their creation, as it is the case with Vampires.

Some Undead of this kind are created using the living and then corrupting them into an existence that is no longer mortal while others are created by infusing some kind of body with the necessary powers to create an Undead. The rituals to create the latter kind usually involve major sacrifices to Crowned Death, since creating a link to a soul beyond the mortal coil or even creating a "Spark of (Un-)Life" without godly backing is a feat reserved only for the most strongest and skilled Necromancers.

In this category belong the most powerful of the Undead such as: Liches, Vampires and Death Knights.

## Classifications of Undead

For the sake of establishing how dangerous each type of Undead is and how much innate mana it possesses they are often grouped into Low, Medium and High Ranking Undead by the adventurers of Zyreema. This classification is not perfect however as many Undead possess the ability to absorb power and quantifying the danger posed by the intelligence of True Undead is often unfeasable. As such, each Undead classified here is placed assuming they possess the minimum parameters of their own kind (with notable exceptions appearing throughout history).

### Low Ranking Undead

* Skeleton
* Ghost
* Wraith

### Medium Ranking Undead

* Spectre
* Death Knight
* Vampire
* Bone Horror

### High Ranking Undead

* Lich
* Death Priest
* Corpse Colossus

## Undead of note

### Liches

Among the highest class of Undead, most Necromancers final goal is to attain Lichdom. The process of becoming a Lich is not a simple or quick one however, the is practice kept a well guarded secret by those who wish to keep the boons of such an existence to themselves. One thing that is known for sure is that the ritual involves the removal of a single one of the practitioners own vital organs, traditionally the Heart, and placing it into a minutely and painstakingly prepared container - turning it into a **Phylactery**. From that point onward the Lich's existence is strictly tied to the Phylactery, it being the anchor of the Lich soul and mind in this world.

Once his existence has been anchored by the Phylactery the body of the Lich becomes an incredible receptacle for the powers of Undeath. A Lich will find his spells to be much more powerful and his mana pool much larger then should be possible to any mortal. While possessing all the strength and weaknesses of the Undead the Lich's Phylactery renders the Lich neigh-impervious to complete destruction. Even if a Lich's whole body were to be destroyed as long as the Phylactery is safe his body will be reconstructed with no permanent harm. The Lich remains completely autonomous, conscious, and in possession of all his powers, skills, and memories, that he possessed during life.

### Death Priests

Death Priests are the divine counterpart to the arcane Lich. Willingly offering themselves to Crowned Death in return for power and eternal (un)life they are all bound to his will and are his most loyal servants. However, many of them also know a wide array of arcane magic which supports a theory that a sizable number of them were once wizards or warlocks, probably tricked into his service rather than joining of their own volition. The latest examination of a Battle Staff of Calarine made by Count Shambles at the behest of The Party further strengthens that theory.

### Vampires

Vampires are competent practitioners of magic, possessing unnaturally high strength and speed and an innate ability to drain life force via physical contact with a living creature - but these are only the most basic of the Vampires abilities.

One of the abilities that Vampires are most renowned and feared for is the ability to be resurrected at their coffin in case they were to fall in battle (as there are rare few things that could kill a Vampire outside of an intentional act of slaying them). This ability is the cause of many tales about Vampires who keep coming back, sometimes even stronger and wiser, even after they are slain countless times.

They can also turn into a swarm of small animals, usually bats, to travel even faster. The main weaknesses of Vampires are direct sunlight, bodies of water or Holy Magic.

### Death Knights

Death Knights are one of the most infamous and reviled types of High Undead. The only way to create a Death Knight is to preform a very complex and cruel ritual on a warrior of great prowess and mental fortitude - chipping away at their mind and body until all that is left is a shadow of their former self.

Death Knights seldom possess memories of their past life, their creators removing any part of them that would interfere with their newly given purpose. They still possess the skills and battle acumen they had in life, but enhanced by the dark energies which now animate them. They feel no pain and need no rest.

Immensely cruel Necromancers enjoy pitting their creation against the Death Knight's former companions or their homeland, the Death Knight usually not even aware that they are destroying everything they held dear during their life.

### Wraiths

Wraiths are unique form of Undead, created from Spirits. They can be made artificially but are usually the result of vile Magic tainting an area and wreaking havoc on the natural order.

Wraiths are incorporeal, shadow-like entities that fly trough the air in an everlasting desire to drain the life force of any creature they come across. They are usually very weak and small, easily destroyed of banished with the application of Holy Magic, but when gathered in large numbers they are capable of overwhelming and draining the warmth from even skilled individuals. Wraiths are a very unstable existence and their Body and Soul is in a constant state of collapse. The only way they can fend off their end is by feeding on life force which makes wraiths very difficult to control as they are always acting on the impulse of sating their perpetual hunger.

On few occasions, a **Grand Wraith** can be brought into existence either by many smaller wraiths fusing into a single being or by a wicked Necromancer preforming their horrific magic on a powerful Spirit. These Grand Wraiths can vary in power from mid-ranking to even high-ranking Undead.

### Ghosts

Ghosts are fragments of tortured souls shackled to the mortal realm. Any person who dies in pain and agony or who has strong attachments to the world might leave a bit of his being behind that manifests as a ghost. Necromancers and Dungeon Keepers have invented methods to refine this process and bind the resulting ghosts to their will. As a defining feature, ghosts created in a Dungeon Keepers Graveyard have chains wrapped around their wrists as a sign of their slavery.

Despite being physically weak ghosts possess the ability to take on an immaterial form that allows them to pass through most objects and are surprisingly resistant to magic - making them quite hard to defeat without the use of the weakness of all Undead: Holy Magic. They are also quite dangerous as their touch is unnaturally cold and is capable of draining the very life force out of anyone they are in contact with.

However, in the case of bound ghosts, there is an easier method of vanquishing them. The chains that bind it to the service of the Dungeon Keeper and/or Necromancer are also the ghosts weakness. Should these chains be broken the spell keeping the ghost bound will also shatter - setting the soul free to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation.

### Specter

Specters are an advanced form of Ghosts, created by much more complex Necromancy. Seeing one, you can see a clearer appearance of the person they once were. The shackles that they carry are less bulky, usually appearing as a collar and a simple shackle upon each limb.

Unlike Death Knights, Specters require the willingness to be bound to a person, place, and objects. The ritual to create a Specter is vastly more difficult to preform then one to create a Ghost. Due to their ritual requiring an individual that possesses a heartfelt willingness and the ritual itself having a low success rate, Specters are more uncommon than most of their other High Undead counterparts.

### Skeletons

One of the weakest forms of True Undead. By binding the portion of a living creatures Soul into its bones and corrupting it with Evil it is possible to create a tireless servitor to do its casters bidding.

Skeletons are not very fast, nor are they very strong and they possess next to no autonomy (relying entirely on instructions to complete anything but the most basic of tasks) but they require little upkeep in terms of mana when compared to other Undead. Many Dungeon Keepers frequently create and make use of skeletons as they provide tireless labor without question or hesitation unlike living minions (and create a much lower risk of backstabbing).

### Corpse Colossus

Weapons created rarely seen on Zyreema nowadays, these Undead monstrosities used to be fielded in almost every major siege against Good. They are formed as the result of the efforts of numerous skilled Necromancers and three Giant unfortunate enough to be caught and subjected to a fate worse then death.

The Corpse Colossus is an enormous Undead formed from the tortured bodies of those Giant, tall enough to loom over town walls and possessing the necessary strength and arcane firepower to tear those walls down if given enough time. They require immense amounts of mana to field but with the proper rituals or, even better, the power provided by a Dungeon Keeper they are a threat to towns and cities if properly utilized.

Their major drawbacks, after solving the the issue of giving them the energy to move, are their impulses for violence and their sluggish movements.

The Corpse Colossus possesses a fraction of the Souls from the creatures used to create it just like Skeletons and Ghosts, but the Souls of Giant driven mad with pain are nearly impossible for even master Necromancers to fully control. Those who mistakenly thought themselves prepared (or who may have merely stood too close by accident) soon found themselves just another victim in the monster's rampage.

The final drawback is their slow movement and reaction time. Their senses of their rotten bodies are dulled to the extreme so moving with any semblance of speed or grace is simply beyond them.

As mentioned above, they are rare in modern times due to the raw ingredients in their creation - Giant - being so scarce (as well as the necessary investment of time, resources and skill to make them are substantial even for well off Dungeon Keepers).

### Bone Horrors

Sometimes also referred to as 'walking graveyards'. After Corpse Colossi disappeared from the battlefields, these hulking masses of jagged bones were invented to fill the void in the necromancer's army. While not as massive and devastating they are still big and stong enough to tear down fortified walls and tough enough to withstand a lot of punishment. Since they were developed from the blueprint for skeletons they are incapable of autonomous thought and require constant supervision, but they are also a lot easier to control.

They resemble the skeletons of monstrous beasts on first glance while actually they are made of all kinds of bones of the beings they kill. Thus their size and appearance may vary. Bone Horrors made from the remains of powerful beings such as giants or dragons are considered even more dangerous, but thankfully they are quite rare. They are also infamous for repairing themselves with new bones after battle, literally pulling themselves back together.