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PostPosted: Jan 29th, '08, 13:08 
Twilight Council
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Location: In ur base killin ur doods.
Among scholars, debates rage about the multitude of forms, bodies, powers and abilities to be found among the undead. Why are they not all alike? The differences spring from the source of unlife itself, the dark elan that suffuses the necrotic tissue of the dead.

Undead manifests itself in various ways. One need only flit through the pages of a Necromancers bestiary to see the multitude of forms and states ascribed to the undead (Examples below:

Corporeal, rotting: Zombie
Corporeal, preserved: Mummy
Corporeal, preserved with feeding: Vampire
Incorporeal, transient: Wraith
Incorporeal, haunting: Ghost
Humanoid: Wight
Monstrous: Nightcrawler
Mindless: Skeleton
Sentient: Lich


One unifying element defines most undead creatures: Each must have been alive in the past, no matter how little of the original creature is left, even if just the spirit or memory remains. Although extreme and rare cases have seen small bits of the energy of unlife itself (Negative Energy) take on terrible form and purpose, almost all undead once had breath in their bodies before gaining their feared title. Numerous theories exist concerning the nature of undeath and though some hypotheses compete with or contradict one another, others reinforce or overlap eachother. While these conjectures may not agree on the origins of unlife, most of them at least asser that this condition is generally visited upon the bodies of recently deceased creatures.

Barring misfortune of their purposeful destruction, undead can expect to survive in good health for thousands of years, possibly even a great deal longer. Undead creatures differ from the livin in far more ways than just longevity however.

With rare exceptions, undead have little or no metabolism. Undead are essentially animated by negative energy, though this animation is sometimes dependant upon the undead ability to feed. Still, while biology plays little part in the existance of these creatures, the undead do have some similarities to living beings. Like ectothermic (cold-blooded) creatures, the unliving lack the ability to produce their own heat and must depend on their environment for warmth. This inability to produce heat is a defining undead characteristic, most remarked upon by scholars and thoe who encounter them, and often compared to "The chill of the Grave". To classify undead as ectothermic creautres would be innacurate, however, since undead are mostly bloodless. Like ectotherms, undead take on the temperature of their surroundings. However unlike their living cousins, undead are not unduly harmed by particularly low temperatures (unless they become frozen solid) or particularly high temperatures (unless they begin to burn).

Some undead exist for centuries without interacting with any living beings, while others seem to require, or at least crave with an unstoppable passion, the flesh, energy or life force of the still living. however, even undead that do not need to eat may have a preffered morsel. Essentially, some undead can choose ot eat if they desire, even if they have no requirement to consume. They could eat even ordinary food, if they desired to appear more normal or were interested in trying to tease out some hint of flavor; undead with tongues, such as ghouls and skirrs actually retain their sense of taste. Some undead glory on their ability to feed off of the living. others, especially the more intelligent, romanticize or even eroticize their need to feed on the living to maintain their strength (or to feed their addiction). Still, despite the fact that this feeding ability is often dangerous (or even deadly) to those who oppose them, the hunger behind it is a major weakness for many undead. With all of this in mind, undead feeding requirements can be broken into three types: Non Required, Inescapable craving and Diet Dependant.

None Required: Some undead have no feeding requirements, existing soley on negative energy.

Inescapable Craving: Some undead have no bodily requirement to feed, and could continue existing soley on negative energy, but are driven to their diet all the same by inescapable cravings. These cravings, denied too long could turn even a sentient undead to mindless hunger. ONce the feeding is accomplished and the hunger sated, the intensity of the craving drops back to a tolerable level, but it is a cycle doomed to repeat.

Diet Dependand: Some undead must feed on the living to retain their mobility or some of their abilities. The link to the negative energy plane for undead of these sort grows increasingly tenuous the longer they are denied the necessary food. At some point their mobility ot one or more specific abilities are suppressed until they can feed again. However, no matter how enervated by lack of feeding, the undead cannot be starved to the point of permanant deanimation. A fresh infusion of their preferred food can always bring them back to their full abilities. Most diet dependand undead can go for months before losing all mobility.


A living creature that is lethally hurt may become disabled or dying. During this time, aid or good luck can return the creature back to health and eventually full strength. Undead are not so fortunate. What would disable or render unconscious a living creature destroys an undead creature beyond recall. No aid, magical or mundane is sufficient to restore the undead to its previous state of animation. Since they are already dead, undead that are destroyed cannot be returned to existance through raise dead or reincarnation. resurection and true ressurection can affect the undead, but these spells turn the undead back into the living creatures they were before they became undead. Only undead with intelligence can recover lost hit points through necromantic healing, or through application of negative energy. Regenerative undead does not require either of the above.


Undead do not sleep and they almost never require rest, though some may recieve healing benefits from resting. However, as with all spell casters, those that cast spells require some time to refresh their consciousness. To regain the ability to cast or prepare daily spells an undead must have a clear mind. To clear its mind it must experience eight hours of restful calm -- it must refrain from moving, combat, spell casting, anything strenuous on its body. For these two reasons, creatures such as Vampires can often be seen "sleeping".


Many undead share at least on characteristic with living creatures -- they possess the means to propagate their own kind. several varieties of undeadcan cause their slain victims to rise from the grave, thereby creating a new unliving creature. Some have the ability to create a spawn simply by slaying their victims. Presumably, the undead must have drained the victim in some way before death. Taking a broader view, undead propogation might be regarded as an infectious disease: It's nasty, its easily spread and it kills its hosts. Of course, the plague of self-propagating undead is far worse than any common disease, but the cure is little different -- eliminate the source of the infection and you eliminate the malady itself. The unliving make use of several different methods to create new undead creatures, summarised below:

Drained before Final Blow is landed: Bleakborn, Blood amniote, Shadow, Vampire wraith

Killed Victim with Special Attack: Bodak, Forsaken Shell

Disease: Ghast, Ghoul, Lacedon.

Energy Drain: Crypt Chanter, Slaughter wight, Spectre, Vampire, Wight.

Magical Creation: Lich, Mummy, Skeleton, Zombie.

Split: Dream Vestige.


Unlike living creatures, which grow and mature throughout their life cycles, undead are usually changeless, frozen in the moment of their creation. Most are cursed to never adopt new philosophies, or change with the uncertainties of lessons of life, or ever find happiness. An undead that persists for century after century sometimes finds a way to grow in strength and knowledge. Its connection to the negative energy plane originally a meer trickle can become an actual current over hundreds of years, and given enough time, a mighty stream. This means that, where they do not change in appearance or shape or size, there is every possiblity that they may well change in their ability, and more likely than not, become fare more powerful.

As with other predatory creatures, undead have senses sufficient to reveal their prey and in some cases the senses are even enhanced.

The energy that eminates an undead extends to its organs of sight, giving all undead creatures the ability to see in the dark. They are never hindered by darkness and they are even able to see in pitch black conditions, when most living creatures are unable to discern the least visual clue.

The energy that animates an undead extends to the organs of scent and hearing as well. thus, undead can spell and hear just as living beings do. As with sight however, if an undead physically loses a particular organ, it can no longer use that particular abilitiy.

The energy also extends to the undeads organs of taste. However, if an undead physically loses its tongue it can no longer detect its envisonment in this fashion. Many undead fall into this category, uncluding skeletons. All incorporeal undead lose this ability, but can still smell and hear.

undead retain a blunt phantom sense of touch, more mechanical than biological. Its a pale, crude approximation of a real tactile sense. Incorporeal undead have no sense of touch.

Some undead, especially those without the customary organs that grant the ability to sense their environment might sense the world as a great darkness illuminated only by those that live. To such undead, each living creature gives off a light, illuminating all objects within its radius.


Like people, no two undead have the same outlook in unlife, however among a population thats composed of stale flesh, skeletal shells or insubstancial shadows of ill will, certain similarities emerge.

The ability to think is a quality the vast bulk of undead do not posess. Mindless undead merelly respond to command or stimuli, driven by nothing other than the energy that animates them. These undead have no outlook; they are robbed of thought. They are nearly mechanical in their actions and ofted those actions are as easy to anticipate as the revolution of a waterwheel.

On the other hand, sometimes mindless undead are agents of an intelligent master, whether undead or merely malign. Thus, even mindless undead may prove to be surprising foes, if their positions and responses to a given situation are properly coordinated and prepared. Only sentient undead have the luxury of posessing an outlook and comprehensible psychological state.

Those actually fanatical enough to seek undeath strive to escape the bonds of mortality and thereby gain a term of existance far beyond their natural life spans. Such mortals often presume that this gift of extended time comes without a price. They hope by having no temporal limits on their life spans they will soon accomplish all of their dreams and visions.

The living spend their time living life and gathering experience, thereby shaping their personalities and adjusting to the world as it changes around them. In contrast the undead mind sees the pasage of time very differently. Undead exist, they do not live. Life means change, and while undead endure over time and learn new facts, they rarely change or appreciate new paradigms. Aside from a rare few exceptions, an undead outlook remains stagnant over the decades, or centuries of its existance, despire new experiences and new situations it may encounter. This inflexible mental nature is the reason many ancient undead seem insane. In fact, they may merely be operating with goals and aspirations that are slightly out of step with the present world. Unfortunately, like any ambition that cannot be swayed by reason or tempered by changing curcumstances, the goals of the stubborn immortal undead become a cankerous evil that can only be excised. While a living creature may accept a compromise when life hands it a new challenge, undead can rarely do anything other than what they have always done.


Compassion is a choice amongst undead. When some one is percieved as a compassionate person, they have made a series of choices. Mindless undead are already out of the running when it comes to making choices, but what about sentient undead and compassion? Plainly, the choice to be compassionate is not something most intelligent undead consider. In many cases, the event that animated a particular undead is such a transformative exsperience that it imprints the new undead in its image. and in almost every case, that event is generated from an evil impulse or action. But is it something truly evil if it doesnt consider the consequences of its actions? Yes, of course, but consider evil for evils sake -- the ability to recognise that actions taken will cause horror, ruin and death, but take those actions anyway. Most intelligent undead retain enough memory of their former lives to know that their actions are horrendous. Some may even feel pangs of guilt, even going so far as to capriciously allow surviving victims to gofree. This act becomes more likely if the undead is a feeder that has recently fed on its preferred morsel. However, when hunger mounts again, as it must, the undead may curse its generosity, again seeking out those it previously allowed to escape.


All in all undead are a dangerous type; passion and love can be mimiced to trick you into being their next meal, so caution is always advised around them. Even the more powerful Necromancer need be cautious, for where there is one, more are sure to follow... But where? The darkness shrouds many things, after all, so should you decide, for some reason, to strole in the night time sky with a Vampire, do keep your eyes pealed for her friends.

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Never under estimate the power that language imparts. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can break hearts.

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PostPosted: Jan 31st, '08, 03:03 
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// I like. Nice.

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Rolled round in earth's diurnal course,
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PostPosted: Jan 31st, '08, 05:35 
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Location: In ur base killin ur doods.
// Great success! *Thumbs up*

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