Of Wights - I

Seventeenth of Calefact, in the year 218 after Deadhaus
Another southern fortress was lost, and with it, three hundred men. Deadhaus takes no prisoners. It has no need for them. Even the most loyal Imperial soldier will divulge his secrets without hesitation once he has been raised from the dead. And so these losses are unlike the casualties of any other war. Three hundred men fallen against Deadhaus bolsters their numbers by that very amount, along with any vital information they possessed. That is why it has become Imperial policy that, should a battle seem even slightly lost, officers must retreat immediately. It is why I've had to abandon so many to die, because if I did not, even more would die when my mind became an asset of Deadhaus. But the abandonment of leadership all but guarantees defeat where there might have been a chance under any other circumstances. There are no good decisions in this war... there are only desperate, grasping attempts to minimize losses.
The Empire's borders are receding. Where once we stretched from Thacea to the Silent Sea, now our southernmost territory is Fort Zaestra. How long before the dead are at our very doorstep? And what then? Will we be pressed into Northguard Ridge? Will the very mountains that have protected Thacea for centuries pen us in as the dead surge through the capital? Am I the last Grand Inquisitor of the Thacean Empire? No... no... so long as I draw breath, I will find a way. If the dead are truly unstoppable, then maybe that is the key to their defeat. What I write now would mark me as a heretic if it were discovered... but what if we could turn their strength against them?
I have been studying Deadhaus for many years, hunting and investigating their many horrors. But there were undead before this mighty house, just as there were empires before my own. And the inevitable conflict between them has been recorded in long-forgotten ruins. And I… I have found something beneath Malorum… a record of a weapon and how to build it… a record of madness. If I understand the translations correctly, I suspect the state of undeath could be induced in cadaverous components. With the proper device in place, constructs of dead flesh could be reanimated and bent to our will… to my will. If I am correct... if I could convince the Emperor to support this experiment, then perhaps there is hope in this war. The gods have failed us against the dead. Our sorceries have failed us, our soldiers. They can only delay the inevitable, just as death itself can only be delayed... but what if I can stop it? Yes... yes, this is the only way. I will make them see. I will begin tonight.
None will suspect my intentions if I should request a few cadavers. It is true to say that they will be used in research. All I need is to demonstrate proof of concept, to show that I can animate dead tissue through alchemy, and then I should gain the support I require, but until then I must move carefully... and quickly. The dead will not wait long before they head north again. They select each target and fall upon it until it is theirs, but they never pursue those that flee. It is as if they care only for their immediate objective, and all else is ignored. Methodically, ceaselessly they drive north. Fort Zaestra will be the next to fall, and by my estimation the attack will come five days from now. I will be there when it does. If I could collect the remains of an undead, convince the commander in such a way that did not raise suspicion, it would advance my research tenfold.
If I should fail... if someone should uncover these recordings after I am gone, know that I did what I had to... for the Empire.
Alaric von Beller, Grand Inquisitor of the Thacean Empire