Undead

I don't know what to tell you about them there corpses, the rotters have been around for about as long as we have, just rise from the ground and carry on from where the living person left off. Though weird thing is, they look the same but... aren't the same if you get what I mean. Sure that may look like your wife, or your best friend, or your own child but they certainly don't know who you are. It's like they're an entirely different person. Not to mention whenever they rise their bodies go a little weird, the last corpse I kicked out of me Taphouse was one of those Drowned, bastard was so bloated it was disgusting, not to mention they had to upchuck water out from their lungs from time to time. Tough fuckers though, since their nerves don't work and all. Last I heard, they're trying to get the same rights as us from the Government, can you fucking believe that? The day a maggot-filled corpse is given the same pay as a living, breathing person is the day I'm renouncing faith in the whole fucking Coalition.
- Segment of an Interview with famed Innkeeper, Donivan Wright.

The Undead are a group of sentient/sapient people who are birthed through a strange, still unexplained phenomenon which causes the body of a once living person to rise up and live once again. However, unlike what many would expect the Undead who has risen does not retain the same memories, personality, or identity as the person they were before their initial "Awakening" as many of them would prefer to call their birth. Instead the Undead only retains the original body's appearance, and is by all accounts a completely different and unique individual. Any family members, friends, loved ones, etc. will not be remembered by the Undead as, to the Undead this is the first time they have ever met these people. This causes a lot of confusion and heartache as many believe their loved ones have come back to life, only to realize they are not talking to the person they just lost.
Undead have their own sense of identity as when they rise, their body's biological structure changes subtly to represent how the Undead's prior, living self perished. Whether that be by drowning, blood loss, asphyxiation, smoke inhalation, poisoning, or any other kind of death. The Undead's body begins to go through a biomagical shift from the moment they gain the ability to think and walk up until a full day after Rising. It is because of this that, as a group the Undead have separated themselves into many distinct races, which they refer to as their "Fate." This concept of fate, much like the human concept of ethnicity and race has been the cause of many inner group problems such as the discrimination of certain fates and stereotypes being slowly associated with many different fates despite not necessarily being true.
Examples of different fates and how they differ from one another include the Drowned, who while having a strange admiration for large bodies of water such as lakes and seas, also seem to appear as though they are always underwater. Skin that is almost always a bit damp and hair that seems to naturally float in the air as if it were still submerged. However, the moisture that the Drowned's skin produce never seems to stain clothing, or does it seem to ever actually drip from the skin, as if it is more like a skin texture than real wetness. Many Drowned, the males in particular also look a bit bloated in areas such as the belly, neck, arms and legs, though it's unexplained why most females and little of the males don't suffer from this condition.
Another example of Undead fate to be noted are the Bleeders, who've have gone through biomagical changes to reflect the fact their body originally died from blood loss. Bleeders are always pale, lacking pigmentation in their skin. They also have seemingly open sections on their bodies, similar in look to fatal wounds but instead looking as if they were intentional recessions of skin and muscle in their anatomy to reveal the arteries and veins and are not painful at all to the Bleeder. These open sections of the body are located at the wrists, neck, upper thighs, and on rare occasions the area of the chest which covers the heart. Bleeders also seem to have a secondary circulatory system interlaced with their original one. This secondary circulatory system carries a unique blood type known as O-, which has shown the ability to be compatible with any living creature who require a blood transfusion, regardless of blood type or species. This blood is constantly leaking out of the Bleeder's openings, this being linked to levels of stress and/or strain on the body. Similar to the Drowned, a calm Bleeder that is in no distress has the blood they leak never actually drip from the ground, though this does stain the skin where their openings reside.
Due to the fact that the Undead are the walking dead, they all have an enhanced fortitude regardless of fate. As the Undead's central nervous system has stopped working entirely, the Undead find the concept of physical pain completely foreign as they cannot feel it. This allows the Undead to use their entire strength at all times, and allows them to take devastating blows that would normally put a living person out of the fight. Although still the Undead need to eat food as their circulatory system is what helps them move around instead of their central nervous system, and as such they need to be able to eat to keep their blood healthy and flowing.
Within the Coalition, the Undead face discrimination from the living as the Undead make up around twenty percent of the RCC's population. They have been routinely used for manual labor with very minimal pay, subjected to poor, mentally straining conditions as due to the Undead's near universal fortitude compared to the living. This also makes many living workers resent them due to the fact that many Guilds prefer to hire Undead for much cheaper compared to fully human workers. This is gained the Undead community a reputation of unionizing more frequently compared to the living in an attempt to gain the same rights and pay as the living. This has given them a worse reputation in the eyes of the Guilds who run the factories which hire these Undead, and as such any protest made by the group is shut down with extreme force using the employ of gangs and militia. Of course, not all living people dislike the Undead, and many have been inspired by their plight to gain equal rights in many parts of the Coalition to do the same for all workers, regardless for their status of Living or Undead. The discrimination of Undead has also made Human/Undead relationships seen with scorn and in some cases are even considered an offense to the law depending on the country.
The Undead can be found in many areas of the Coalition as well as outside of the RCC's territory, due to being paid little the Undead within the Coalition often live in slums known to many outside of them as Necropolises or Crypts, cramped apartments with multiple Undead forced to live in areas which only have the capacity for half their number. It is here the Undead also suffer from their own diseases, such as Preemptive Necrosis Disorder (PND) Which causes the Undead to begin to decay and rot faster than they would during their normal lifespan. This can be slowed down through smoking dry and diced up animal hearts, but the condition is considered terminal. This also leads into the fact that many on first glance would assume that the Undead are immortal. For they are the literal risen corpses of the dead. However the average Undead lifespan is only around the same as a living person. As an Undead gets older, they slowly begin to decompose, losing skin and muscle mass until eventually they are nearly full skeletons, kept standing by their biomagical anatomy as well as the remaining skin holding them together. When an Undead dies of old age, they simply crumble to dust which is often kept in large Urns which hold the ashes of multiple Undead ashes, protected and cared for by the local community.
The Undead are a fascinating group of people, and although they are not considered a species due to their lack of ability to reproduce, they are still as capable of pulling their weight in society and fight every day to be accepted for what they truly are; living, intelligent people who deserve to be treated the same as any other person, regardless of the fact that they are walking cadavers.