Undead

Introduction

Reconstructed, patched up, and forcibly brought back from the grave, the undead are the leftovers of the living. Reanimated bodies, torn from the embrace of death who had their eternal rest denied by the will of twisted necromancers who wished for them to continue existing. They are feared and reviled, seen as abominations that disrupt the balance of nature itself. These individuals now lack the life force that animated living creatures normally have. Instead, they are sustained by magic and the soul who got granted to them as some sort of battery for them to keep going.

“Those things are abominations we must stop, plain and simple! It is our mission to purge them all from this world, to ensure they don’t spread their disgusting corruption any further.” An Attian guard stationed in Lunburg.

Infection Cycle

Initially, to become an undead, a person of any race must first die. However, the body needs to be in a decent condition; ashes or severely decomposed remains can’t be used for any kind of revival. That being said, the body can be restored if necessary, be it due to missing pieces or open injuries remaining in the corpse. A necromancer will find the corpse and cast a spell or activate an ability to reanimate the deceased. In the process, the necromancer may choose to grant the revived individual free will or bind them as a servant, permanently making their bodies dependent on magic as their new sustenance. Depending on the soul used at the revival process, the reanimated person will retain their memories and personality they once had in life. However, if the necromancer is using a different soul, the undead’s memory may flicker, leading to phantom memories of their new soul or gaps in the person’s past life. Regardless of the soul, there’s something that will always happen, and it is the transformation into a necromantic creature, gradually losing touch with their former self.

Appearance

As expected from a creature brought back from death, undead typically exhibit a wide range of different characteristics from one another. Still, there’s an invariably uncanny and almost inhuman vibe to their presence and a clear lack of living warmth, as they are as cold as a corpse. Adding to this, the appearance can vary depending on the corpse's condition at reanimation and the care taken by the necromancer who reanimated them. This variability means that while there are common traits among them, each has unique features, some undead even having bare-bone limbs connected to their bodies.

An undead's skin is noticeably paler and has more opaque hues compared to the ones they had in life. Their eyes get hazy, betraying their state of undeath, often taking darker or duller shades of their original color, the sclera of their eyes may turn yellow, an olive green, a bloodshot red, and in some cases, the eye may even take a fully rotten appearance.

One of the most remarkable features of the undead is their inability to regenerate their bodies or age naturally, which means they’re perpetually stuck in the physical state they were at the moment of death. The cause of death frequently leaves permanent marks, which may include stitches, scars, and open gashes unless these are healed through magical means, they will remain permanently. Because of these perpetual, and most of the time permanent scars, the movements of an undead might be stiff or jerky.

Symptoms

Undead have a unique biology due to their altered state. Firstly, they are entirely free from the passage of time and do not age, allowing them to remain in a state of physical preservation. Their bodies neither deteriorate nor succumb to illness, being immune to all diseases that plague the living. However, with this comes the total loss of fertility, as undead creatures cannot reproduce or create life in any form. Poison also has no effect on them, as their systems no longer function in a way that can be affected by toxins. However, the lack of regenerative capabilities means that any damage they sustain must be repaired through external means, often requiring magical intervention to restore their bodies.

Another defining feature of the undead is their physical numbness. They are largely unaware of typical sensations, such as touch or pain, which might seem like an advantage in battle. However, they are highly susceptible to magic. And overtime, there has been found another effect; mind deterioration. If an undead is neglected for long enough, their minds may begin to decay. Memories become fragmented and their thoughts more chaotic, and eventually, the sense of self may erode completely. Thus, while the undead may persist indefinitely, they require constant maintenance to avoid total collapse into madness.

Other Names	Zombie, Walking corpse, Abomination
Specialty	Chronic Disease
Classification	Necropathology
Prognosis	Lethal
Causes	The revival of one’s corpse