Rise into the light
And walk the earth again
Now sits the face of God
Upon the face of men
Arise
Undeath is the phenomenon in which negative energy from the
Void animates dead creatures to move and act, defying the god-wrought laws of life and death. Dead creatures that are thus affected by negative energy become
Undead, trapped in a deathless existence that is difficult to escape. Undeath, also known as
unlife, is seemingly an opposite force to
Life itself -- where life makes matter grow, reproduce, change and ultimately die, unlife preserves matter perpetually in a pallid death-state, eternally unaging and undying but also unable to reproduce or develop.
To understand the cosmic significance of undeath one must understand the concepts of the
Soul and the
Afterlife. Every
Mortal and
Eternal creature has a soul. As a creature dies, the life-force of its body is depleted and the body ceases to function. Shortly after the creature’s soul is detached from its dead body as an ethereal apparition. Depending on the race or individual in question the soul of the creature must take a specific route to reach its afterlife -- among the gods, as a plaything for demons, on eternal battlefields, or perhaps as part of nature itself. Once in the afterlife, a soul can either remain there forever or slowly diminish and fade away into nothingness. Such an existence is ordained by the
Empyreal Gods, the creators of the
Universe, and to actively work against the cycle would not only be folly but also surely raise the ire of the death-gods of the Empyreals. Undeath was born of ancient evil and used on Amanor by corrupted deities and their dark servants in the mythical Dawn Age. In the tens of thousands of years since, necromancy has endured as a school of magic and undead monsters are not unheard of even in civilized lands. The death gods of the Pantheon regard undeath as an abomination, but arcane spellcasters among mortal races have ever striven to manipulate negative energy to raise the dead and perhaps even attain immortality.
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