Part One -The Undead but not Immortal
An undead is a creature that was once preivously dead has been given new life through necromancy, from the spirits, or from the Gods. The main distinction however between an undead creature and a living creature is that the undead's body or soul has simply been restored thier mind is not the same and all lack the basic skills and characteristcs that we consider mortals to have. They do not need food nor sleep, they are unable to change or properly interact with the mortal world. Yet they can be killed by mortal means, if you kill an undead creature you permenantly server thier soul from Andreval, they have no afterlife and all they will know is the void.
How the undead are created
There are four ways which the undead are created: Necromantic rituals, through the killing of deamons and fiends, denied access to the afterlife Gods, and Spiritifcation.
There are many ways in which the undead are created. Most are created by trhough acts of necoromancy, these acts aim to bring departed souls back through the veil into the mortal realms but in doing so they corrupt them, or they usue rituals to raise the dead for thier bodies only using the shabling skeletons or decaying flesh as thralls and thugs as well as energy stores which can fuel thier magics. However these rituals are perfomred on those already dead but there are a few ways in which a necromancer can turn the living into undead directly, performing these powerful rituals allows the subject to retain some of their memory/mind and so creating much more powerful creatures which never naturally die but are permenatly coruppted.
Deamons are extremely dangerous mad creaturs and if you kill them they will prgress into undead versions which are just as deadly if not more so for their ability to blend in with the mortals. However the type of deamon killed is vital in knowing what Undead creature it will progress to. A fear deamon will progress to a Husk while a Love deamon will progress to a remnant. So in truth to kill a deamon you actually have to kill it twice, and there is a lag time between the death of the deamon and the formation of the undead so be wary.
If a mortal is unfortuanlty killed by an Undead the gods consider this person's soul pollutted and will deny them entry to the afterlife no matter how devout and moral they were in life, the same is done for mortals who were never given rites, they are permenantly doomed to walk the mortal realms but never fully living in it. For some deprted the Gods are unsure and they force the soul to wander between life and death wandering until thye complete a duty, then they are free to enter the afterlife as they were awaiting judgement by the Gods.
Spiritification is a process known only to a few devout worshipers to the spirits so very rare in more religious nations like A'ular. Spritification is the process of appealing to the spirits to return a soul to the mortal realms to provide wisdom and protection to sacred places and those in need of advice. However this comes with great cost, the spirits often need a sacrice to return the soul - A soul for a soul - It also requires constant worship of the spirits so they maintain the helpful undead. Unfortuanlty beoming an ancestor spirit or guardian casues the soul to be in constant pain and suffereing, and if the spirits appealsal ceases the ancestor spirit will be lost either peacefully the connection severed or they will become something more tainted, depending on the spirits approval of the mortals.
How to kill the undead
You can kill most undead the same way you would kill mortals, stab, shoot, or smash them until they are no more. Some will bleed, others will just simply vanish after enough and while most forms of undead will have their soul servered when you kill them there are a few certain types that require the removal of an object known as a Phylactory in the physical world before they can be truly killed otherwise they just reappear somewhere else. These phylactoies can differ between undead.
Skeletons, Zombies, Vampires, Wights, Draugr, Husks, Wrath-Wights, Terrors, Remnants, and Phantoms can all be killed through both physical and arcane attacks. Some are alot more deadly than others but they can all be killed with either sword or spell. Ghosts, Wraiths, and Shades can only be killed by arcane means physical attacks do not damage them.
Liches, Revenants, and Death-Wights can be killed with physical or arcane attacks but these undead are extremely deadly and to permenantly kill them you must also destroy thier phylactory. For a Liches that is a glass bottle or tube containing the once mortal's blood. For revenants thier phylactory is thier 'duty' a revenent can only be killed if its duty has been completed sometimes that is destroying an ancient artefact or the assassination of a noble. A Death-Wights phylactory is body of the mortal it was once. If these phylactories are not destroyed the undead will be immune to all attacks and are unable to be killed.
Memoirs can only be killed if truly forgotten about where they then transgress to become ghosts. Ancestor spirits and guardians are only killed when the spirits stop the maintenance on the undead after the cease of apeal to the spirits the ancestor spirts or guardians are either let go peacefully or depending on why the spirits stoped can become more spiteful undead like shades or wraiths.
Types of undead
All undead are feared and those condisered 'good' are feared and shunned seeingone is considered a bad omen as they are here to fulfil a dying wish or power sense of devotion or emotion which usually means somting bad is goin to happen. Similar to gods the more they are 'good' the faster they go mad and some start to feel unbearable pain but they feel such a complelling feeling to do more 'good' - they are the harbingers of thier own death. Somtimes gods are undecied whether the depeared deserve the afterlife or not so this is a proving ground or testing to see thier true self.
- Ghosts - These are the simplest of Undead they are unable to interact with the world and can appear as specteral mortals, with the apperance of when they died or as simple reflections of thier previous vissage. Most ghosts are not malevelont and simply haunt the area they died however they attract the presence of other more dangerous undead so are often removed to ensure the saftey of others. Ghosts are formed in a number of ways including: lack of funeral rites, the extraction of souls from the afterlife by necromancers, or from progressed memoirs and ancestor spirots or guardians.
- Skeletons - These agressive undead are commonly used as thralls by necromances to help defend the necromancer as they lack the ability to store energy. Skeletons have the unnatural ability to walk and move as if they have muscles, they can be given weapons and armour and use them rather effectivly. Skeletons are created when a necromancer forces a soul from the afterlife to inhabit the old skelton or uninhabited body, they then inbue the skeleton or cadever with arcane power to allow them to move like any mortal.
- Zombies - Similar to skeletons they are agressive to all but its creators but unlike skeletons they are able to store engery which necromancers use to fuel thier spells and rituals. These undead are perticulary fearsome for they can spread diseases, both natural and magical, in mortal populactions. Zombies are created in the same way that skeletons are but they have been dead for less time usually in the past few days or weeks.
- Wraiths - A bodiless and mindless disembodied undead whos sole purpose is to find and devour life energy (the soul) of mortals, fortuanlty they can only devour small pieces at a time so it can take time before the effects are irreversable. Formed by necromancers forcing a departed soul back from the afterlife into the mortal realms.
- Shades - Are similar to ghosts but they can interact with the world more they have the same properties as ghosts but they can say the occasional word, pick up small objects. Shades are best desribed as Ghosts with a puporse they will often haunt areas that killed them or go and warn mortals as they are produced when necromanceers attempt to bring wraiths into the world, unfortuanlty far too few heed thier warnings.
These are Mortals who willingly or unwillingly became undead an were not previously killed before becoming undead.
- Vampires - Vampires are when a willing mortal performs a ritual where they drink the blood of a powerful undead creature like a Lich, this changes them completly, severs thier soul yet they keep thier mind. These Undead are forever corrupted and now rely on blood to sustain them otherwise going mad and becoming feral Vampires who are feared even by thier own kind. Now despite what you think a feral vampire is they are often said to be more cunning, stronger, and violent than vampires, but they have an ability to walk in the sun which gives them a major edge over other vampires. However the reason why vampires fear ferals is that they require Lich and other vampiric blood to maintain thier abilities, so ferals hunt vampires and bampires hunt ferals. Due to this near perfect mortal depecition they are able to seemlessly intergrate into mortal society, they live indefinatly but can have episodes of utter maddness with explosive violence, where they can kill hundreds if not thousands.
- Wights - Are when unwilling mortals have thier soul instantly severed while they still live, but before this the mortal will be sujegated to intense toture and interigation to change thier mind and make them loyal to the necromancers. Once this is completed and the soul is severed the wight will be bound to that oath or necromancer till death. These are often powerful warrioers who have kept thier skills with a weapon and maintain some intelligence. They look like semi-decayed mortals but are likly to be cladded in armour.
- Liches - These undead are extremly powerful as it is when a necromancer intentionaly severs his or hers soul while living. This is done through an extremly dangerous ritual where it can fail at any point preventing the necromancer from becoming undead and rather just dead. The ritual is very secretive and there are no books or infomation that I could find that speak about what this ritual comprises often. I have theorised that the ritual is passed on by word of mouth to one necromancer to another or is hidden in thier tomes. Liches take a similar apperance to Wights, but unlike wights and similar to vampires they maintain full controll of thier mind and memories which makes them dangerous, these undead have similar abilities to pure-demigods and with an indefinate life if allowed they could take over kingdoms.
These are undead created when a deamon or fiend is killed, they can take on the apperance and mimic the behaviors of other mortals to get close to thier prey howver they can never quite perfect this. This leaves them looking slightly worng or behaving strangly. The type of undead created when a deamon is killed depends on what that deamon was.
- Husks - Are undead created from the death of a Sadness deamon they feed off other mortals and polluted thier soul with dark thoughts which will eventually take over thier mind and drive them to the edge. They leave a trail of shadowy blood if killed/injured that if a mortal tourches becomes infected, while infected they can see, hear, and relive thier worst memories and greatest regrets reliving them over and over. While this infection can be overcome with divine healing many never recover from it, their mind permenantly changed.
- Wrath-Wights - They are formed when an anger deamon is killed they influence mortals to become agressive, violent, or extrmly posessive/greedy with an unending desire for vengence or power. At first the mortal will seem irritable but over time the possessed mortal will become more and more agressive until they snap and go on rampages, just simply being within the wrath-wights vicinity will make mortals feel iritable.
- Terrors - Are undead which formed after a fear deamon is killed they have the ability make people around them extremly paronoid, they grant hallucinations that show thier worse fears/case scenarios come true, making people desperate to protect them selves from non existant fears. This leads to panic and chaos the more they infect the worse the chaos is.
- Remnents - Are undead created when a love deamon is killed. They then seek out the ones they loved as mortals, they try to protect them. However while this may seem noble they kidnap and encage thier prey to ensure thier 'saftey' often forgetting about mortal needs like food leaving thier prey to die a long and painful death.
- Phantoms - Are the undead which are formed when a Joy deamon is killed they seek out mortals who are suffering the most and try to help by removing thier worst memory, trying to grant them a liitle bit of happiness. However they often get this wrong and make the memories even worse, similiar to a Terror or Husk but they do not complete this act with malice instead they have good intentions with bad outcomes.
- Death-Wights - Are formed from the death of a fiend and they are unique as they seem to be able to have some of the abilites of multiple deamon-undead. For example they may seek out a lost love while infecting those who harmed them with its wrath, therfore combining the abilities of a Remnant and a Wrath-Wight. This undead are extremely rare and deadly and must be eradicated as soon as sighted.
These Undead are often those who died with a purpose or fulfilling a duty and if that duty was uncomplete they are to return as most here are those who are waiting for judgement or were forgetten about.
- Revenants - Are undead who are waiting for judgement by the gods, and they are often sent back to the mortal plane to prove themselve by completing a sacred duty. These duties can range from the defense of an arteficat or freeing a village from a curse, unfortuanlty Revenants survive in an inbetween place and once thier duty is completed they must be killed to return to the gods provan. Revenants must then go and seek this death often asking for the aid of mortals, most will refuse to help and so the revenant can live in the inbetween space for eternity and this can drive them mad.
- Draugr - Are mortals who were curesed when they lived or those who never recived their rites for the living refused to give them. As penance for thier actions in life they are doomed to walk and guard the tombs, catacombs, and graveyards of the peaceful dead. This punishemnt makes them spiteful and agressvie they can never leave only wander the final resting places of mortals who have moved on. Thier apearance can vary with each individual some will be specteral in nature, others will be little more than skeletons, and some will still have flesh. Over time they have been given the nickname of Death-Walkers.
- Memoirs - Are undead who were not given proper burial rites, they are known as the memory-dead only at peace as someone somewhere remembers and prays for them everyday. If you go to the site they died you will see a small flicker of a spectre - these are memoirs. However once the mortals forget them and they become nameless they pass on to become ghosts never to be at peace again.
Undead created via the spiritification process tend to be more benenevolent creatues with them often being wise men and women who have been granted new life to advise the current generationsm or they were great warriors who now defend sacred sites. However this did not come freely for these undead live in constrant mind-shattering pain and to create one the spirits must be offered great sacrifices incluing mortal life, as well as continued devotion and offerings to preserve the undead and prevent them from becoming a tainted and darker version.
- Ancestor Spirits - Are the peaceful spirits of dead mortals brought back to share thier knoweldge and advice. These spirits will have asked for this in thier life time as it can be viewed as a great honour in some cultures. But if the the Ancestor spirit is let go suddenely and without the Spirits help to sever the soul they can become a wraith or shade.
- Ancestor Guardians - Are Mortals who were brought back due to thier great martial skill, they are the bodyguards and protectors of important mortals and areas, this is a great honour to be able to serve in undeath, but iddentical to Ancestor spirits if the soul is not severed properly with help from the spirits they can become a vengeful wraith or shade.
Both Ancestor spirits and guardians have a specteral apperance and retain thier full mind incluing memories, but unlike other spectres they are able to interact with the world completly.
Part two - What is Imortality
Immortality is when a creature lives indefinatly and is unable to be killed by mortal means. So an immortal creature cannot be killed by sword, disease, or old age immortap cretures that are not gods can only be killed when the gods allow it. Dragons and some demi-gods are examples of immortal creatures, dragons are called the 'children of thr gods' for a reason, many of this mythical species are immortal and unable to die as they act as the Gods physcical manifestations on the mortal planes - the eyes and ears of the gods. This is why during the Fall the dragons were not killed despite seeminlgy lethal injuries rather they fled to remote and areas inaccessable to the other mortals, and it is why there are still rare sightings of them.
Some Demi-gods can also be immortal in a similar way to dragons where they act as the gods missionary. Only the Gods and spirits themselves are the truly immortal creatures. They never truely die they simply change form even if forgotten and nameless they still 'live' while dimished they will still hold power greater than that of a mortal. But Gods can loose thier immortality, in a process unknown to all. Perhaps an ancient blade, or the will of the spirits can remove a Gods immortality, this process what ever it is, is likly to be the gods most closly guarded secret for it could destroy thier kind. I have found only one instance of godly death in this manner and that was when the mortal gods were cast down, yet I beileve these gods still have influence through the descendance of them - The true Kings and Queens of the nations. So can we really say that the Gods can die as even in death they still influence the world.
To that end to understand what immortality is we must first rediefine what we thought death was, when I started my research I naievly took death at face value - Death is when you are removed from the mortal realm to then celebrate eternally with the gods or be punished by them. Now after years of weathering and study I have realised death is a concept far more complex for is it the simply the inablity to live (breath, eat, sleep, or experiacne), or is death the inability to influence the world. Both definitions can be true and both can be false, for example is a mortal truly dead if we remember them everyday and use the technology they created in our everyday life. For they still influence the world despite no earthly connection, and in that same notion is a person dead when they are forgotten.
I am not here to dictate what you beilieve but when we speak and discuss immortal beings I think it is important to understand all views on death and how all views are applicable.
What is after 'death'?
There are four distinct places that people go when they leave the mortal realms. The Godly realm or afterlife or Overworld, the eternal punishment, the void, and land inbetween or horizon.
The Godly realm. In different religions this is called different things for example the Theonic people call it the Great dining hall as they belive those who died honourably get to dine with the gods for eternity (Fehadla is a nation of farmers - so it makes sense that they believe food to be a site of great importance, and Re'lak have a lack of food so they too find it sacred). But those worship the spirits simply beiliev they will return as a spirit so for them there is not differentiation between the 'Godly' and 'Mortal' planes. Simply put those who lived well, appealed to thier gods, and lived a moral life will be welcome here where they celebrate away from pain and suffering, with want for nothing among the gods.
The Eternal punishment. This is a place for those who lived a life fuled by greed, vengence, or a disrespect for the gods. Here the dammed will never be at peace, they experiance mind shattering pain every day unable to escape it here they are punished for the crimes they commited in the mortal planes. This is often why most nations resort to excution for punishment allowing the gods to judge them.
The void. This is where the severed souls go, no one knows what it is like, not even the gods will speak of it for they fear it to. I suspect it is a place of nothing, nothing lives, nothing dies, nothing moves or stops, simply nothing happens here.
The land inbetween. This is the area where those unwelcome in the godly realm but do not deserve the eternal punishent those who go here are sent back to the mortal realms as Ghosts, revenants or existing as memoirs. The land inbetween is refereced as the horizon in Zakorna due to their deep Spiritual beliefs which combine with Skall beleifs. This realm exists side by side with the mortal realms but it is also the boundary between the afterlife and mortal realms, those who exist in this realm are visible and able to interact with the mortal planes, but the mortals cannot interact with the land in-btween other than killing the undead which inhabit this strange realm.
Part three - The 'life' and 'death' of Gods
No divine deity or spirit is inheritly evil rather each God or spirit has two sides. Think how genius and madness are often said to be two sides of the same coin, you cannot have one without the other. The same can be said about Gods and Spirits, they may embody 'goodness' but they also harber 'badness' too.
When a god is 'killed' they are not 'killed' in the same sense that we mortals are, instead they loose power and a little of them selves. Similar to a spirit which inhabits a tree, when that tree is alive that spirit is a spirit of life and nature but when that tree dies the spirit is now a spirit of death and decay. This same idea is applicable to gods also, everytime a god is 'killed' they progress to the opposite of what tehy are now - they switch to the other side. How long this process takes is unknown but my theores and evidence suggests it can vary between each god and is reliant on a number of variables.
Some of these varibles include: Worship, strength, and the very thing they embody. A God of change will certainly progress instantly to the other side while a god embodying perserverance may take more 'deaths' before they switch. Gods will continue in this cycle, switching between thier two sides, between 'good' and 'bad' for eternity. I have theorised that the gods lost so much worship from the Pre-age societies it casued the majority of them to switch, creating chaos. This mass 'death' of gods created so much turmoil that the spirits had to banish them from the rhealm of mortals (the abondoment), yet they allowed some (the mortal gods) to return as dragons to help restore peace.
How gods die - temporaliy and permenantly
As previously memtioned when a god 'dies' we really mean a switch or a small advance to thier other side. For example if Caarin was killed she would become the goddess of Chaos and disparity rather than the Goddess of Civilisation and Order.
A God's power and influecne is fueled by thier worshipers they are as reliant on them as much as a mage is reliant on thier god for thier powers this is a symbiotic relationship which is advantageous for both. So the gods rely on worship, the more a god is worshiped the more powerful they are. The thing that they embody has little impact on thier power compared to level of worship. However if that worship and revernace is lost, a mortal may be cursed or may walk away unchanged and unharmed depending on the situation. But a God can loose huge amounts of thier power if large numbers of followers leave, this has ead to the death of many a god particully those with already small followings.
Some times a Mortal can kill a god, well not directly. If a mage performs extremly destructive deeds with thier powers granted by the god or they abuse them not only will the god take away those powers and curse them, but the god themself may be punished with a 'Killing' by others of thier kind. Godly murder is uncommon, most gods try to avoid conflict amonst themselves and it is the mortals who 'create' this godly conflict to prove thier religion or by doing the above. This may be becsaue the god should have been more careful to who they gave thier power too and for showing this lack of competance they are punished.
Spirits also punish the gods with death or by limiting thier ability to influence the mortal realms, the latter being more common. The spirits may do this for many reasons, they are the overlords of Andreval and perhaps we forget that, which is why we need to be reiminded with Spentalen, perhaps the gods too suffer thier own Spentalen. For us Spentalen is war and conflict, perhaps fro gods (immortal beings) it is absolute death, perhaps sme are granted with mortality, perhaps this is thier punishment after all God and Mortal are tethered together when one looses the other also losses.
As I stated earlier in this book, we had no knowlege or understanding of how gods can loose thier mortality. Perhaps neither do the gods, indeed it would make sense that immortal beings could not kill themselves. If the spirits have the power to make gods mortal, it would suggest the spirits themselves took pity on mortals during the absconding and allowed a few gods to return as mortals to help cease the hostility and calm the chaos. This of course is only a theory yet with no evidence explain how gods are able to become mortal I must start searching for other explanations.
The most 'natural' godly death is time it self, Time weathers all and non can escape not even the gods. As centuries and ages pass they slowly loose themselves and slowly progressiong to the other side with each passing decade.
Part four - The strange existance of Demi-Gods
We all know of demigods the True Kings and Queens are demigods they are the great descendants of the motal Gods, forever to rule over thier kingdoms and contiue to spread the dead gods influence. However there are others who walk among us those who are not kings and queens those who are commoners, soldiers, libarians, and crafters. You will have been taught that demigods are more powerful than mortals that much is true, but they live in world not desiegned for them. If you are a student I will also suspect you thing there are only one kind of demigod, that is not the case.
Demi-gods are mortals who have been imbuded with divine power, greater and more mystical than that of a mage for a demi-god is often both.
Descendant Demigods
These are the True Kings and Queens, they are descendants of gods and have godly blood. This blood makes them stronger, smarter, and healthier than mortals. They live longer and are more resitant to disease but they will die of old age eventually most live for around 350 years before passing naturally.
Pure Demigods
Pure demigods are imbuded with so much divine power they themselves gain immortality and characteristics of descendant demigods. However this is where there existance gets strange, they have to have been previously killed for them to be granted thier powers (often by the same god they were devout to in life - by my understanding Gods can only have one of pure demigod). However these demi-gods are not undead they are living, immortal creatures who retain everyting, they live and fully interact with the mortal realm, they cannot access the land inbetween. Yet they have been killed, and thier soul had previously departed.
I know no pure demigods they seem to keep thier presence hidden however we know of thier existance through ancient texts found in the vaults of some royal palcaces refering to a shadow organisation known as the Adden.
