Undead

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Undeath is as its name implies, the vile imbalanced state between life and death. Creatures born from souls rejecting the inky embrace of the Chaos, Undead are spawned from any living thing, beast or man. There is a single thread among all undead that links them together, their lust for life and lifeforce. Every Undead must intake lifeforce of their kin, an Undead Orc must feast upon the flesh of another Orc at least once a month to prevent rot or witches plague.

Witchery, or more formally, dredgery is the magic which all subversion of the natural order comes from. A witch, or dredgern, can weave lifeforce back into a newly departed corpse, re-binding the mortal chains to which separate the soul and the Chaos. But not all is as it was, for this soul as touched and aspect of the Chaos and is now beyond the mortal. The corpse rejects the soul and lifeforce, refusing to let the magic stick for long, and thus, lifeforce of a similar spirit signature must be ingested to keep the soul attached to the body. Whilst Undead, the body functions as best as it can, often if all its blood has been bled, its heart will still beat. Worst of all, magic makes Undead bear the marks of death on their bodies, rot forming within them if they start to starve, and all the natural processes taking hold. In fact, once a soul has been bound by undeath, it is said that it can never be returned to the Chaos, existing in a state of in between.  Moreover, an undead may not practise magic other than holding a blight as they have been directly severed from the Chaos. In this, it is said they do not dream, even when they force themselves to sleep.

#### **Purpose and Uses**

Undead serve two purposes for witches: servitude and company. The most obvious motivation throughout time is the want for companionship, resurrecting a dead lover or great friend. Most witches, however, know true and well Undeath is often a fate worse than death. The constant agony of rotten organs clotted blood and a broken body is rarely worth the cost of returning a corpse. However, more commonly witches craft undead as minions. In combination with dredgery blood bonding, witches often make undead familiars, humanoid and animal, to serve the more easily than that of a typical blood bonded creature. Servant undead often acts as perfect slaves, easily overpowered by Will power and blood charms.

Undead will never truly die. It is said, whilst an undead is starved of lifeforce, they can still bare witness to the world about them. Slowly, their body wilt and contract witch’s plague, blackening and swelling, wrinkling and welting, feeling every last thing. Often a corpse rises from such a state maddened, barely managing a coherent thought long enough to sate their hunger. Such corpses often roam the naked wilds or graveyards, hungering for flesh and ravaging anything that comes near.

#### **Mythos**

In the blackest of creatures, there is a kernel gold. Undeath is often a cruel fate, but being cursed to wander craving for flesh and forever bound to the mortal plane sometimes breeds great scholars and questions. It is said the oldest of aged folk, withstanding Fae and Gods alike, were born at the hands of long-dead witches. And among this ancient lore-keepers, truth and powerful witchery is often found.

Among the Undead, it is not impossible to be resurrected without the help of a witch. In fact, a majority of Undead were resurrected by the natural fluctuations of magic throughout Scylla. These Undead are an interesting variety, often being a good deal less preserved than their Witchery wrought brethren, and have no memory of how they died. They also rise with a blood lust beyond that of a witch’s creation, though this is likely because they are already in a state of starvation when they rise.

It is rumoured that there is but a single cure to undeath - penance. To connect oneself to the Chaos, there are three possible avenues: making a perfect blood bond with a witch, becoming the same person as them; requesting an incredibly powerful dredgen move one soul into a new body, replacing someone else; and finally, finding a god willing to let one swear a pact, reconnecting them to the Chaos.