Undeath and Burials

When a burial site is subjected to negative energy, the bodies buried there sometimes rise as undead, haunting the material plane. This process takes time, and is not hard to stop if discovered early. Watching out for the telltale signs of negative energy is one of the main tasks of any attendant where people are buried. A large mausoleum that belongs to a wealthy noble family might have a dozen attendants who ensure the sanctity of the crypt.

Most spontaneous infestations of undeath happens in long-forgotten tombs, or abandoned graveyards. Places who happen to be close to a passage to the Shadowfell are extra vulnerable. Since undead themselves exude negative essence, the process accelerates on its own. At first, only a single specter may haunt a graveyard. This adds fuel to the fire, and before long, the area might have scores of undead shambling around.

Simply keeping a burial site clean and lit goes a long way towards warding off negative essence from taking hold there, but there is also magical wards that can be placed over an area. One of the most powerful such wards is the Hallow spell.

There are also other forces that might tip the scale, such as the Death Weaver, an arachnid creature of unclear origin who seeks out burial sites and raises the corpses there as undead.

Burial rites

Burial practices differ depending on culture, deity, wealth, status, and many other factors. Regardless, the dead are often buried with their possessions, partly as symbolic gift to the deity that the dead hopes to gain an afterlife with. The concentration of valuable items often leads to grave sites being targeted by grave robbers. To combat this, many graves are protected with warding charms, traps, intricate locks, or even living guards, but charms can fade over time, traps can be bypassed, locks broken, and guards paid off or incapacitated.

The dead are often interred together with others who share their beliefs. A large city might have a cemetery that is dedicated to Heimdall, and a columbarium dedicated to Freya. Among the wealthier families, it is common to build a grand mausoleum.

Deity-specific practices

Followers of certain gods have special rites that they undertake with a body, but these are not always followed, nor are they necessary to be chosen for that deity's afterlife. Refer to each god for the specific practices that pertain to them.

• Human cultures
• Dwarves
• Elves
• Smallfolk

Types of Undead

The two major types of undead are corporeal and spectral. In rare cases, a further essence might also tinge the undead in question. For example, a powerful pyromancer might still have some of their fire magic if they rise as a skeleton or mummy.

The Thirst

All undead are united by their hunger for the living. This thirst appears in different ways for different types of undead. A zombie craves brains, a vampire needs to drink blood, and a lich must feed souls to their phylactery. If allowed to feed, an undead becomes stronger and can even evolve new powers.

If an undead is starved of their food source, they slowly wither away, becoming an empty husk. This takes place over a timescale of years, and a ravenous undead can be even more dangerous than normal.

Corporeal

Corporeal undead are more common, but also generally easier to overcome. These undead inhabit the actual body they had in their former life. Depending on the type of their burial and their actions in life, they take different forms. Corporeal undead only rarely have souls, and are in most cases animated husks void of sentience and sapience.

• Skeletons: corpses interred in dry places
• Zombies: corpses buried in the ground
• Ghasts and Ghouls: raised from corpses buried in wet places
• Wights: once powerful warriors imbued with hate
• Revenants: refuses to die before they get their vengeance
• Mummies: preserved remains imbued with magical rites

Spectral

Spectral undead are those that do not take physical form. Sometimes, these rise when the spirit has something that they have not finished in life. Common among all these is some way of sapping the life energy of others, in an instinctual hunt for sustenance. The more souls a spirit has consumed, the more dangerous it becomes, and the more of its former mind it regains. If a spectral undead is slain, this annihilates their soul, and they cannot be resurrected without major divine intervention.

• Shadows: echoes of souls that barely cling to this realm
• Specters: spirits who died with resentment or anger
• Poltergeists: psionic spirits who sometimes don't even know they are dead
• Banshees: spirits with an unresolved tragic event
• Ghosts: souls who left an important task undone
• Wraiths: malicious souls filled with terror and hatred

This only describes why a soul might return spontaneously. A necromancer or other outside force may agitate a once-pure soul into rising regardless of their previous disposition.

Created

The third major category of undead is the most dangerous. It holds fully sentient beings who chose undeath, and whose consciousness is (more-or-less) intact. Vampires and Liches are the prime examples of this type, but it also includes Flameskulls, Death Knights and Boneclaws. Undead of this category are usually created through vile necromantic rituals.

For liches and vampires in particular, succumbing to the Thirst means slowly losing what remains of their consciousness, a highly painful process. Fear of this fate drives them to commit unspeakable acts to sustain themselves.

Liches

Liches are the most magically powerful undead beings. They were often wizards or sorcerers in life, who underwent a profane ritual to capture their soul in a phylactery. As long as the container is intact, the lich cannot die, but regenerates if destroyed. Since the phylactery is the key to a liches' immortality, it is often guarded by the most powerful defenses the lich can muster. However, it cannot be completely hidden away, since a lich whose phylactery is not fuelled with mortal souls eventually becomes a demilich, a feral echo of their former magical majesty.

Achieving lichdom requires more than a desire to avoid death - it is fuelled by a desperate fear of what lies beyond, and a willingness to do anything to avoid the common fate of mortals. The ritual itself is secret, and must usually be learned from a previous lich, who likely would not share their hard-fought magical knowledge with just anyone. Many liches are served by necromancers, who in return expect to learn the steps to themselves achieve lichdom. What little is known about the ritual is that it requires the Magic Jar spell.

The plans and machinations of a lich often span centuries, with every detail meticulously planned. If the scheme is successful, no one will know who was behind it, or even what was gained in the process. They often desire arcane artifacts and knowledge of the most secret magic. Many adventurers dream of plundering a liches' lair, to read their secrets and take magic gathered over multiple mortal lifespans for themselves. However, these lairs are never easy to find, and they are protected by powerful magical wards, devious traps, and untold scores of undead minions.

Non-humanoid undead

Not all undead are formed from the remains of the mortal races. Some swear they have seen undead frost giants patrol in the mountains of Maeral, and the Shadowfell's corruption can even raise the bones of dragons and beholders into Shadow Dragons and Death Tyrants, respectively.

Cleansing the Infestation

Almost all civilizations consider undead an affront to life, and strive to eradicate these infestations when they arise. If someone comes across undead monsters, they are expected to destroy them if they have the means to do so, or otherwise alert the authorities.

Whoever cleanses the infestation are usually allowed to keep any valuables that the undead were buried with, especially if they are contracted adventurers. This has led some adventurers to specialize in this type of work. They are sometimes pejoratively called graverobbers or tomb-raiders, as it can be quite lucrative. In the late 1300s, there was a well-publicized scandal on Cottenhorn, where a band of adventurers allied with a necromancer to create undead infestations that they could later strike down, earning loot and fame in the process. They were discovered when a reporter with the Estian Bulletin became suspicious and put the pattern together.

Only rarely will gravesites that have seen an infestation be used for that purpose again. Resanctifying a place from a serious negative influence takes considerable skill, time, and resources. This often leads to a vicious cycle, where abandoned places soon fall to another infestation of undeath.

Necromancy

• If not illegal, at least highly unethical
• Necromancy