Unliving

Mausoleum Ruins by Enrique Meseguer

"From every graveyard pour the hordes to strike before the dawn
A thousand years of death's carnage gathered 'fore the morn,
Their vengeance turned against mankind's unsuspecting head
There's no defense, there's no escape, you cannot kill the dead!"

— Pagan Altar, "The March of the Dead"

Not of the Dead, nor of the Living

Everyone has heard of the undead - inferi,zombies, vampires, revenants, skeletons, mummies, etc. These creatures were once dead, and dark magics caused them to rise from their graves as something new and terrible.
The Unliving are not truly undead. They are something else entirely. They are still necromantic creatures, and they are still not truly alive as we understand the word. They are beings who have given up life in exchange for a form of undying immortality.
Being unliving is a magical state of being - a power enforced upon a person and used to transform and recreate a being. Unliving are powerful beyond hope or reason, and capable of dark arts far more puissant than a mortal magician. Even if a magician was not a Sorcerer before becoming unliving, they are after - they can channel, corrupt, and use ambient magic in all of their magical arts, in ways no other being can.
They are also corrupters. They can poison water with a touch, rot food and plants, and some can decay flesh by breathing upon it or touching it. They can taint wounds with dark magic that is all but impossible to cleanse.
One of the primary distinctions of the unliving compared with the greater (sapient) undead - the unliving do not require any form of sustenance. The very ambient magic they corrupt is all the sustenance they require.
The unliving remain who they were in life - changed by the transformation, but the same entity. The same soul, memories, intelligence, sapience, and sense of self.
One thing you must understand: the Unlving are no longer mortal. They can be killed, but they will not die.
And becoming unliving is the final step in the path to being a true Dark Lord.

Anchored Souls

One of the aspects of being unliving is that, in some way or another, their souls are anchored to our world. This can be accomplished in many different ways, including anchoring the soul directly to the body.
The methodology varies. It is a terrible thing, a frightening thing, that so many forms of this awful magic exists.

Horcrux

The oldest and most common form of a soul anchor, Horcuxes are somewhat clumsy and brutal compared to some of the other forms.
Killing another being fractures the soul, especially killing by magic, which is a fundamental and primal force of life and creation. Using a magic such as the killing curse - magic corrupted into a force to end life by removing the soul of another being from the body while ceasing all living functions of the body.
A dark magician can then split off a part of their soul and put it into a pre-prepared object - something of sufficient quality and capable of being enchanted for this purpose.
Horcruxes have an advantage in that they can be living beings, which allows the unliving access to the the mind and spirit of the creature holding the soul fragment.
This becomes a soul anchor, holding the rest of the soul to the mortal world, preventing it from moving on into the true death.

Phylactery

This is a sightly different form of the Horcrux. Where a Horcrux is only part of a soul - part remains in the univing body and part holds the soul to the world, a phylactery is a container for the entire soul of an unliving.
A phylactery is far more dangerous than a horcrux, because they are harder to destroy and harder to create - as long as the phylactery exists, the unliving body can and will regenerate from nothing more than a tiny molecular mote of mortal remains.
Like a horcrux, a phylactery must be created and prepared for the soul. However, where a horcrux can be created by High Magic - applying magic to an item - a phylactery must be created using Lore; the item itself must be magical itself, and thus harder to find and destroy than even the strongest horcrux.

Possession

In the case of some unliving, their soul then posses a body prepared for that purpose. These bodies are sometimes golems created from inorganic material, or even from parts of other bodies.
Often, the unliving will choose a body they like, even if it belonged to someone else. They will take that person and prepare their body - usually through dark ritual, torture and sacrifice, magically enhancing, changing, and sculpting the body into what they want it to be.

Other Means

We know there are other means, but what those means are is lost to history. While we are sure records of this exist, perhaps in the Grand Library, is it knowledge that should stay buried until it is necessary to counter these abominations.
There are those who know these means, but they are those who must know in order to stop them when they arrive.

Innate Abilities

All Unliving share similar traits and are granted similar abilities. These abilities come from the nature of being unliving, and the corruption of ambient magic as it flows through them.

Immortality

It is not true immortality - but they will not die from age, diseae, or infirmity. The will continue, ageless and unending, until something destroys them. Even then, many of the unliving will return from death.
There are many ways they can do this, and many ways their bodies can be repaired - or even replaced. Their souls have been changed.

Unnatural Might & Endurance

Unlivng bodies are far stronger than mortal human bodies, both in terms of endurance and hardiness as well as strength, agility, speed, reaction time, and other physical abilities.
While the degree of these changes depends on the specific unliving, all unliving possess these attributes to a greater or lesser degree.

Sorcery

All unliving have the ability to touch, channel, and use ambient magic, even if they didn't before their transformation.
This can great them immense power and access to at least the basics of most Lore, even if they could not use Lore before their transformation.
While it does limit their access to certain Lores, especially those that are purely light magic, they can use corrupted versions of almost every magic known - and possibly some dark magics that cannot be performed by any but an unliving.
Thier use of ambient magic changes it from an empowering source of life energy to corruptive, dark magic that does terrible things.

Necromancy

While many dark witches and dark wizards who seek to become unliving are necromancers - either through high magic or lore - there are some who employ or force other necromancers to make them unliving.
But all unliving have innate necromancy. They can command undead - especially lesser undead - overcoming any other necromancer who is not an unliving.
They can sense undead nearby, though the range on this ability varies. They can immediately tell if a magician is a necromancer upon seeing them.
They have the ability to raise undead from corpses - the exact kind of the undead they can raise varies, but they all have this ability, even if they never employ it. Inferi and animated skeletons are the most common, but there those who have raised wights and even created revenants.

Touch of Corruption

All unliving are corrupted abominations of life. The amounnt of corrupted ambient magic flowing through them is immense, and it often leaks out or creates an aura around them.
This aura - or their touch - chills the air, kills plants, ages and injures animals, and even rots and decays flesh. They taint and befoul water, curdle milk, and spoil food. Often, wounds caused by an unliving - either their magic or a physical attack - is tainted and poisoned with a rotting, necrotic disease that can only be cured by a healer who is also a sorcerer, though some soul magics have been known to cleanse, purify, and heal such wounds.

Magic Resistance

The unliving are resistant to damage from physical means, but they are also resistant to magical effects cast upon them, even from necromancers and other unliving. Stunning, torture - even the killing curse - are not effective on them. They are resistant to practically every form of magic we know.
Their thoughts cannot be read by legilimency. Their bodies are not affected by most magic. They cannot be harmed by fire or lightning or even such curses as Reductor.
While some magic obvioulsy affects them, such as Incarcerous, these spells are less effective. The ropes or chains used to bind them are less effective, and they are capable of quite easily breaking free or shrugging out of them.

Regeneration

All unliving, as long as their soul remains anchored to our world, can eventually come back to life, regenerate any wound, or reform in other ways.
This is an inevitability - not a chance. They will return, some with even more power than they had before.
This is also one of the key differencnes between undead and unliving. Undead - even greater undead - cannot regenerate like this. While some greater undead can eventually heal, if they are given the right resources, the unliving do so without any effort on their part.
And they can return in so many different ways.

Aura of Fear

All unliving have an aura of palpable dread and fear that surrounds them, and any who enter it without appropriate protections or mental fortitude will be overcome with despair and terror.

Many Forms

As necromancy is a very strange magical art taht barely conforms to any of the known branches of magic, it stands to reason that no two unliving are alike, even if they are created in similar ways. There are, however, specific 'classes' of unliving known to magical scholars that have appeared many times throughout history.

Lich

The lich is the most 'common' unliving (if such creatures can be said to be living).
A lich is simply an unliving magician. They are granted the same powers as other unliving, and are incredibly powerful magicians. Liches can channel more ambient magic than most other unliving and are capable of learning new magics once they transform.
Liches becomes such by creating a phylactery and removing their souls from their bodies and placing that soul in the phylactery. Their bodies die and rise again.
They retain their humanoid appearance, and some even retain their human appearance in their entirety - at least, for a time.
Liches must feed on the souls of the living to maintain their appearances, usually through necromantic sacrifice.
Eventually, they will decay, appearing as corpses or even as living skeletons. They are often grotesque and are obviously beings that should be dead and are not.
Liches have immense magical power and unnatural endurance, and will reform from even the smallest mote. They can heal their own wounds and regenerate if given enough time and ambient magic.
Unless their phylactery is destroyed; their soul will then return to their bodies, and they will then be able to be destroyed.

Horcrux

Some liches are created by using horcruxes instead of phylacteries. While these liches are not (often) as hideous as a true phylactery-born lich, they are most often created when they take over a created body or restore their own body.
Horcrux-born liches also do not become unliving until their original body is killed and they return to life throught he use of their horcrux. Without another horcrux, they are now simply a lich - powerful beyond hope or reason, but able to be defeated or killed eventually.
The primary advantage horcruxes have over phylacteries is the ability to return from death more than once, with as much power as they had right after their creation.
The more horcruxes a magician has, the more inhuman they become with each ressurection, but it is a price many magicians are willing to pay.

Lamia

Lamia are unliving witches who, much like liches, die and return to a state of unliving. Lamia are almost always created by forcing a witch to become unliving. Creating a Lamia is considered unwise, because when they return to life, their magic is as powerful as any lich.
While it is unknown what power they use to sustain themselves, Lamia have other, distinct magical powers not found in liches, most notably the ability to command even greater undead. They also have the powers of levitation and flight.
Lamia are bound to this plane not via their soul - which is anchored to their body - but by purpose. They are imbued with their purpose when they are created, and often this power acts as a geas upon them, twisting and warping their personlity and sense of self until they are driven only by their purpose.
The problem with this, assuming the necromancer(s) who created them survive the Lamia's awakening, is that even once a Lamia has fulfilled her purpose, they are still a puissant unliving who now has a plenty of time and power to seek vengeance.
Because a Lamia did not choose to become unliving, they lack some of the notable downsides to immortality, including the need to feed.
They often appear spectral and beautiful, and they are granted powers of enchantment over the living as well as the dead.

Lamashtu

Lamashtu are a particularly horrid kind of unliving. They are a witch who attempted to make themselves a Lamia, and failed - because Lamia can only be made by others - and unwillingly at that.
They have immense power, but cannot learn new non-necromantic magics without using a spell to learn spells. They are also walking corpses, falling apart and rotting away unless they consume the raw flesh and blood of sapent ceatures.
To aid in this, they have claw-like hands and pointed, tearing teeth designed to slice flesh from bone and tear it with teeth.
Eventually, they do lose their appearance and vitality and become more and more corpse-like the longer they live. The effect of restorig their appearance by consuming the flesh and life force of others fades and it eventually just keeps their magic from fading.
Their appetites are ravenous, and they prefer other magicians to muggles, but they can consume muggles as a food source.
Lamashtu are the weakest form of unliving, and are the easiest to destroy, because they are technically a failed attempt to create a Lamia.
They do, however, share a Lamia's ability to enchant, which can make them far more dangerous than their powers indicate.

Mummies

Possibly the most horrifying form of unliving. They have far more restrictions places on them than others, but they have far greater power than I think is really understood.
There are actually two kinds of mummies. There are those that are the true greater undead, and there are those who are unliving. The difference is in their creation.
Unliving mummies are mummified while they are still alive (which is a quite horrific process), their organs placed in receptacles. These receptacles can be just about anything, and what they are vary from culture to culture and region to region. Mummification is a delicate process and much can go wrong with the magics. More often than not, it fails. When it fails, there is a chance the magician will rise again as an undead mummy, but most often, they are simply dead.
Unlike other unliving with physical soul anchors, these receptacles are quite indestructible, even if they are found. Even by fiendfyre.
The only known exception to this is a combination of Alchemy and Artifice working in concert with soul magic.
The final step in the process is they are locked in a magically prepared tomb that is saturated with necromantic ambient magic, with very specific patterns of spells built into it. Once enough of this magic has passed through the, the mummy will return as either unliving or undead.
While this can happen quickly, it can also take time.
Mummies do not often rise or return from their stasis at once. Often, they are preserved for a later time. These are usually the greater undead variety of mummy, but some of the unliving can also sleep until something occurs to stir them.
Many ancient magicians underwent these rites in order to preserve themselves for the future - while many of them were what we would consider dark magicians, dark magic has not always had the association with evil that we have with it. Of course, they were still evil - but the moralities and ethics of the ancient world were vastly different than they are now.
Some magicians underwent these rites in order to preserve their knowledge or wisdom for a later time, such as to deal with a prophecy or a vision. Others were preserved because their rulers wished their wisdom and power to be available at a future time.
However, there are some who were punished with these rites, to condemn them to an eternal life of agony and depair.
Given what magicians give up in order to become unliving, this is, indeed, a foul punishment - and one, that like the creation of a Lamia - creates a potential damnation for the creator, should the unliving break free of their tomb or their curse enough to destroy them.
When the rites are successful, this was often the case.
Their appearance is horrific, especially after what was done to them in order for them to become unliving (or undead), but they often have powers beyond that of other unliving. While many unliing remove their wrappings or the trappings of the rite of unlife, some do not, wearing them as a badge of honor or a sign of their curse.
Mummies are harder to destroy than other unliving, because their soul cannot be easily released, leaving them vulnerable.
They have every power known to the unliving, but also have other powers, usually related to whatever culture or methodology was used to create them. These powers vary quite a bit, but they all serve one purpose - to make the unliving more powerful.

Destroying the Unliving

Destroying the unliving is a frightful prospect, but it is usually accomplished by destroying whatever anchors their soul to the world.
Some, however, such a Lamia and Mummies, can only be destroyed by soul magic or necromancy, because their soul must be removed from their bodies or their anchors, which can only be accomplished through necromantic magic or soul magic.
The depths of power most unliving have makes fighting them daunting, even for some of the most powerful magicians. Usually, only those such as Dueling Masters or other sorcerers can face them.
Even warlocks can be overwhelmed.
Magisters and Loremasters may be able to accomplish it, based on their skill and power, but it is rare for a singular magician to be able to face down and defeat one of the unliving. Their resistance alone makes them dangerous, to say nothing of their knowledge of magic, the amount of power they can use, and the significant advantages their unnatural might gives them.

Weaknesses

Unliving do have weaknesses - weaknesses most cannot overcome. These weaknesses come from the nature of their powers and creation.
There aren't many, and most what they are vulnerable to is correspondingly rare and hard to master.

Phoenixes and Dragons

Phoenix fire and Phoenix tears will harm any unliving. The fire will burn them, and tears will poison them, slowing their regeneration and weakning them both physically and magically.
Dragon fire and dragon's blood are also weaknesses of them - outside of a very few protective spells, nothing is invulnerable to dragon fire, and their blood works like an acid on unliving.

Necromancy

As they are created with necromancy, they are weak to necromancy. While an unliving cannot be controlled as an undead can, sufficiently powerful and skilled necromancers can use certain arts and spells to weaken them, damage or destroy their souls, find their souls and destroy the physical anchors, bind them to specific places, or put them into an enchanted sleep they must be awoken from using necromancy.
(Any necromancer who awakens an unliving with the belief they can command it is usually destroyed. While there are apocryphal tales of necromancers who can control unlivng they have awakened, even the Grand Library does not have records of this occuring, much less instructions on how to accomplish it.)
Their resistance to spells cast by a necromancer is far less than their resistance to other spells, but they are still resistant to them.
Some necromancers have the ability to destroy the souls of the unliving, but necromancers of this power are rare, because such a necromancer will have had to go far down the dark paths of necromancy in order to gain this kind of power.

Soul Magic

Soul magic either is the third branch of magic, is part of the mind magic branch, or is a kind of Lore - there is little known of it.
However, those with soul magic are able to influence the unliving in ways very few other magicians can. They can turn or destroy undead through the exercise of their power, blast the souls from the bodies of unliving.
Soul magic can overcome the magic and physical resistance of the undead, and their spells cause deep harm to the undead and unliving. Powerful soul magic leaves a magician immune to the corruptive touch and taint of the unliving and can allow them to harm the univing and the undead with a mere touch. They are immune to the fear caused by the unliving.
The unliving and undead have no counter for most soul magic, other than to meet it with corrupt ambient magic in a brute force attemtp to deflect or block it.
However, little is understood of soul magic, leaving us with very few in the world with these powers.

Patronus Charm

The Patronuc Charm causes pain to the unliving, though no real damage unless it is cast by one with the potential for soul magic. It can, however, drive back the aura of fear, block the touch of corruption, and reduce the power of unliving sorcerery.

Transmission & Vectors

Undead are raised from the grave. The unliving sacrifice their lives and mortality for the powers of undeath. Their bodies die during the transformation, but they still live through dark - often sacrifical - magics.
There are many processes for becoming unliving; many of them come to us only through the fog and sensationalism of myth and folklore, but there are still some that have been written down in scrolls and tomes of dark, twisted magics.
Some consider the making of or becomong of unliving to be the ultimate expression of necromancy.
The transformation is never simple or easy, and is always born of pain and blood. One of the most disturbing aspects of this magic is that the unliving retain their souls and their identity, traumatically warped by the terrors of death and unlife.
Each way of becoming unliving is dark and requires at least one murder, if not more. None of these rituals will recorded or written anywhere, because they should be forgotten and left to history.

Causes

The magic of the unliving is deceptively simple.
A living being, usually a magician, goes through a ritual in which their body dies or they come to the edge of death, and inhabit a new body - one that is not living in any way we understand the word. Unlike some kinds of undead, it is not a soul or spirit inhabiting a corpse; the body of an unliving is both more and less than a corpse.
The soul and essence of the magician lives in the body, which is often possess other powers that come from the nature of necromancy.
An unliving cannot use 'light' magics - they can heal, after a fashion, but true 'light' magic cannot be channeled or cast as an unliving. But the unliving are uniquely suited to channeling and using dark magics.

Symptoms

The unliving are cold, their skin clammy and cool to the touch. They breath, but only to speak. While the heart does pump blood, it is a sluggish, slow, and struggling sort of rhythym. They will always smell faintly of death, and the touch of the unliving is often corruptive, and their blood can be used to desecrate any magical site.
The tears and fire of a phoenix can be deadly to them, and the light from the Patronus charm can cause them great pain, if not destroy them all together.
The unliving cannot age, decompose, get sick, or die easily - even though the body might be broken or destroyed, they are often capable of living on as a wraith of some kind, still capable of casting and channeling magic.
They do not grow tired or hungry, and they lose much of their sense of touch, taste, and smell - but they can see much better than mortals and hear far more than a mortal.
They have limitless endurance, and heal or repair easiy.

Resistance & Immunity

All unliving are resistant to magic, physical attack and damage, and environmental effects.
They are also completely immune to compulsions, the Imperious and other forms of magical coercion and control.

Relationship with the Undead

The unliving have power over the undead. They can take control of lesser undead from a necromancer, no matter how powerful they are, and they can even compel or coerce greater undead with effort.
They can command any undead they create, greater or lesser.

Affected Groups

The old Societies - especially the Dueling Socieites - were most familiar with the traditions and culture surrounding the unliving. Many of the Societies and Orders were lead by Dark Lords or those very close to being Dark Lords - and during the various wars and conflicts, especially those between magicians, these dark wizards often became unliving.
The loss of the status of unliving hsa no doubt changed many aspects of the Societies as they exist now, but what those changes are would be up to a magician from one of those older socieites to explain.

History

Raising undead creatures is one of the earliest forms of necromancy and one of the oldest known magics. Along with healing and speaking to the spirits of the departed.
It is hypothesized that the first unliving were created by accident or as a defense against something scarier and more terrible. Often, it is possible the unliving were created as a necromantic answer to necromany, as many unliving are quite powerful against or in controlling undead.
There are many instances of unliving in history. They were quite common in ancient civilizations in the Central and South Americas, Egypt, Rome, and further back to recording sightings and stories from ancient Babylon.
Alexander the Great had several unliving in his army, as well as at least two liches and a host of necromancers and other kinds of Loremasters we would consider dark

Ancient Powers

Once, long ago, dark wizards were viewed quite differently than they are now. Dark wizards were viewed as the necessary evil, respected for the path they had chosen, and feared for their power. In those days, choosing to become an unliving meant a dark magician had given up their life and soul to be a champion of a nation or an army or a cause - even though many of them sought the power for their own purposes.
Other times, a person would choose to become unliving as a sacrifice to forgotten gods or to be a magical defender of a populace or tribe.

Dark Lords

Back during the era of the Wizards' Council and the great magical Societies, the title of 'Dark Lord' meant far more than it does now.
(Now, it's a very fuzzy sort of title given to any dark wizard who manages to amass enough followers to be dangerous or irritating, but has very little meaning beyond that.)
When the title of Dark Lord was something earned or conferred upon a magician, becoming a Dark Lord (often) involved becoming unliving, possibly as a means of gaining more power or being able to use even darker magics.
During this era, there were often many unliving wandering the world, but most ended up being destroyed by Dueling Masters or destroying themselves in the search for more and more power.
The innate powers that come with being unliving make it attractive to those seeking power at any cost, especially those who didn't care about the pain and suffering of others.
There were also many who failed to become unliving and ended up as lich or as little more than animated corpses - usually Revenants of some kind.
Most of the remaining unliving were hunted down and destroyed soon after the Treaty of Versailles by the few remaining Dueling Masters - the only people with the skill and power to defeat and unliving.
(Note: Many talk about how awful it was to hunt down and destroy the unliving, but we cannot forget the horrors and atrocities these being did to become as they were. It is very rare that one becomed unliving by accident or has it forced upon them, because there are so few ways to control the unliving - the price of forcing that on someone would be their immediate wrath upon rising with their new powers. Purging the unliving and hiding away the knowledge of how to achieve it were some of the only good things to come out of that Treaty.)
As they unliving were struck down, their tomes and grimoires were taken and hidden away in places like the Grand Library and in the Vaults of the Forgotten in Gringotts.
While becoming unliving isn't illegal in and of itself, the acts needed to become unliving are.

Cultural Reception

Even at the height of the Societies, the unliving were regarded with suspicion, fear, and disgust - even if the exact specifics were not common knowledge, everyone knew a magician had to do terrible things to become unliving.
They became a symbol for the evil, corruption, and dominions of dark wizards - no longer considered the dark champions of nations and armies as they were in the distant past. Now they are viewed as they should be: evil beings who need to be struck down as soon as they appear.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Extremely Rare