Undead

Bronze skeleton by Ivan Tamas

"Death should be an end, but the worst kinds of magic will never let you rest."

— Nicholas Flamel

The Undead

People think of the undead a certain way. We think of them as if they were still living. As if they have a will or a purpose of their own.
Scarily enough, some do. The Greater Undead certainly do - but most of those are more properly thought of as the Unliving.
Undead, as we know them, are, in fact, nothing more than animated corpses of various types and kinds, with various kinds of abilities and magic. They are imbued with will and given purpose, but it comes from those who create them or command them.
They are magical force imposed upon the remains of a living person. Some trap a soul inside - but as it is trapped, it is no longer inhabiting or influencing the body. Others just make use of what is left behind. Some remove the soul and send it on while allowing the body to remain.
But we do know that all of them are created by necromancy and all of them are (at least these days) considered abominations.

Known Vulnerabilities

All undead are vulnerable to fire; they are all highly combustible, and will burn well if lit up.
They are also vulnerable to soul magics and necromancy - no undead, even the greater undead - can resist the power of a properpy trained necromancer to command them. This weakness is bad for them, and it is also bad for everyone that necromancer wants to kill.
There is no undead that is immune to soul magic, though some mummies and particularly powerful Revenants may have some resistance.

Greater Undead

The greater undead are those who retain sapeince, personality, even a semblance of their former selves and their former lives.
As wtih all undead, the body and soul must die first before they can become undead.

Revenants

This is a very wide category, as it encompasses many kinds of undead, some of which are possibly unique. Such as, there are undead magician-knights who have turned into fearsome horrors that some call Death Knights - they are as powerful, if not more powerful, than some Unliving.
But in the most general terms, they are undead who retain their former personalities and sapience, but their soul has long since departed. They are walking corpses, like most undead, and therefore are capable of emotion, thought, desire - anything a human is emotionally capable of.
Many are undead magicians, and while they cannot learn new magic, they are still as able a caster as they once were. Any spell or effect they knew in life, they know in death. Revenants can learn new knowledge, new languages, new skills - but they cannot learn new magical powers.
Revenant powers are varied, but many of have some necromantic powers, and others can control insects, spread magical poison and disease, and some few have other magical powers they gain after being undead for a time.

Vampires

The best known variety of undead. Blood suckers, vulnerable to sunlight and fire. They retain a semblance of their personality and sapience, but make no mistake - they are walking corpses.
Vampiric powers are quite enough, thankfully - vampires cannot cast magic as a magician does anymore, though some very few have some blood magic abilities that come with their increased speed, strength, durability, and shapeshifting.
Their powers of seduction and enchantment are from the foul magics that created them, and they are a plague - they spread vampirism to about one percent of their victims. They are predators and parasites, and the nature of their magic makes them view humans as a food source.
Vampires can ape human behaviors, but their emotions are very different. Their bodies are cold, and they often smell of the grave. There are various ways to make a vampire, and thus, they have varying strengths and weaknesses, but they are all still undead. They are still parasitic predators and they spread a plague of undeath and should be destroyed whenever possible.
Revenants feed on death. Rotted flesh and food, decaying plants, or the flesh of people that have been killed. They will drink spoiled milk, rotted fruit - they feed only on death.

Banshees

Folklore has a few things wrong here. Banshees are not incorporeal, but one of their powers is to turn incorporeal, mostly when they use their scream - a magical howl that causes madness, physical pain, and even death in those exposed to it.
They can enchant those they wish to hunt, and they can appear to be a normal human woman until they reveal themselves.
They feed on life force, and drain it from humans with their scream.
While most banshees are female, there are some that are male.
The process for making a banshee is currently unknown, but occasionally one or two new cbanshee turn up. Most surviving banshees are quite old and quite powerful.

Wight

Wights are usually tied to a specific area or place (usually where they were raised), but are quite dangerous as they retain the corruptive touch and poison of their unliving counterparts. Their touch is like arctic ice, burning with cold.
Their touch drains the life out of anyone they touch. Successfully managing to drain a person to death will result in them rising again as a wight.
Wights appear as weird and twisted reflections of the forms they had in life. They existed in a state between being alive and being dead. When attacking their prey, wights' eyes glowed like white-hot embers. Their hands are twisted and clawed, and their bodies somewhat twisted, with grey corpse skin covered in scabs and peeling flesh.
They are twisted reflections of who they were in life; warriors are warriors, wizards are wizards - so forth and so on. They retain their memories and desires of their past life, and they retain free will.
They are nocturnal and tend to flee from sunlight. Though it doesn't hurt them, they just don't like it.

Mummies

Whether created on purpose or as a failed attempt to create an unliving, Mummies retain any magical spells they had before becoming undead. Many are cursed, and had no desire to be undead, and as the retain a semblanace of their former selves, they are often quite upset about it.
Even as undead, they are puissant magicians and often have other, more disturbing powers and desires. They are extremely hard to kill and to find, and are implacable, destructive foes - many of whom wish to turn the living into undead servants.

Lesser Undead

Lesser undead have no thoughts or sapience of their own; only what a necromancer allows them, which is usually little to none. Even when allowed, they are not capable of more than basic animalistic thinking.
They are soulless, often shambling. And they are always dangerous. They are harder to kill than a mortal. They feel no pain and physical damage does nothing to deter them. They just keep going.
Creating lesser undead is one of the simpler powers a necromancer can exercise. Raising skeletons or inferi is an easy spell that anyone who is willing to disturb the dead can cast easily. However, necromantic training is needed to command and control them - or to modify them.

Inferi

Inferi are corpses raised from the dead as shambling, rotting corpses following the most recent command given to them by their creator.

Zombies

Zombies are created through rites and magic that comes from Voodoo traditions and are usually only found in the southern US, Mexico, and South America these days, though some do occur on the Indonesian islands.
They are shambling, mindless corpses who just want to feed on human flesh - dead or live. Many humans bit by a zombie are infected with the magic that makes them, and are thus risen as new zombies.
This disease, known as Zombie Rot, can be cured if found soon enough. If it has spread too far, the limb has to be cut off. Without that, only soul magic or necromancy can cure the Rot - the person must be killed and their corpse lit on fire or they will rise again as a zombie.

Animated Skeletons

These are what they are.
Skeletons - some with some flesh on them, but mostly not - are raised as undead minsion for a necromancer. They often retain some semblance of the skills they had in life, such as fighting or knitting or cleaning, but they cannot learn new skills, and will not ptractice their old skills. They will always move slowly, and have no ability to think for themselves.

Ghast

Ghasts are undead who feed on corpses. They have a poisoned bite and poisoned claws, and exhibit more intelligence than most lesser undead. They tend to be raised in groups, and will hunt down other undead to devour them.
They are often used as guards or by necromancers to hunt other undead. They are fast, strong, and capable of leaping great distances.
They tend to ignore the living, unless ordered otherwise.

Flaming Skull

A flamiing skull is a skull encased in red, blue, or green fire and can only be created from the body of a magician.
Flaming skulls are relatively rare, and tend to be guardians of a greater undead or of a necromancer's place of power. They fly, are fast, and hurl great bolts of fire and the occasional spell.
They are quite dangerous, but are no immune to any fire but their own.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare