Undead
| Creature Types: | Automatons • Beasts • Daemons • Mortals • Spirits • Undead • Unknown |
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Undead are a type of creatures that are animated to something similar to life through necromancy and dark magic. They differ from Spirits due to the fact that they are unnatural abominations.[1a]
Creation
Scholars who study the dark arts of creating undead usually classify the methods of creation into one of three types: the necro-evocus, the necro-procratus, and the necro-maledictus.[2a]
Necro-evocus
Necro-evocus is creating undead via reinvigoration of remains by necromantic magic. In its simplest form, it is using invocations to raise a corpse as a zombie or skeleton with no will or life of its own.[2a] More complex rituals can raise free-willed, intelligent undead such as Wights - though doing so is always a risk, for summoning them takes far less necromantic power than imposing one's will upon them.[3a]
Necro-procratus
Necro-procratus is the creation of undead by pre-existing undead. The bite of a Deadwalker Zombie, which can cause one bitten to rise as another zombie once slain, is the simplest type of this, but it also includes things like the Blood Kiss of the Soulblight Vampires or the dark creation rituals of the Ossiarch Bonereapers.[2a]
Necro-maledictus
The necro-maledictus is the most complex type of reanimation, for even in its simplest form it involves the soul as opposed to the body. A powerful hex or curse is cast on a spirit recently separated from its body, usually by the body's death. The spirit is prevented from passing on to the underworlds and forced to remain on the mortal plane. The most famous of these curses are the curses Nagash cast to create the various types of Nighthaunt, but there are many more types across the realms. In some cases, natural phenomena such as concentrated grave-sand deposits can cause bound spirits as well.[2a]
List of Undead
Sources
- 1: Soulbound Core Rulebook
- 1a: Creature Types, pg. 301
- 2: Battletome: Nighthaunt (2018)
- 2a: The Restless Dead, pg. 8-9
- 3: Soulbound: Champions of Death
- 3a: Dark Rituals, pg. 109-115