Undead Origins

Voadam

Legend
Alien Bestiary (Starfinder)
Starfinder
Aetherwarped Undead: The bodies of aetherwarped creatures twist and mutate due to long term aetherite radiation poisoning, gaining hideous deformities and bizarre supernatural powers. The nature of aetherwarped creatures causes their lifespans to dramatically shorten, though some who perish from their sickened state often rise again as aetherwarped undead.
Akata Host: Akata hosts are formed by the infestation of akata larvae bringing on a plague called the void death. The victims of this dread affliction are slowly eaten from the inside out by wriggling larvae, though their ragged flesh is strung together by sticky filaments and scabrous tumors created by the larvae as they mature, giving the creature a hideous strength and savagery. Akata hosts rarely last more than a few weeks before their structure has become so thoroughly devoured that there is not enough left to hold it together, but while it retains shambling life the larvae guide its movements in search of new potential hosts for themselves and their akata progenitors.
A creature infected with void parasites that dies rises as a akata host 2d4 hours later.
Allip: Those who fall prey to madness and take their own lives sometimes find themselves lost on the path to the afterlife, trapped in a state between life and death.
Atoth: When a ceroptor dies within its host body during extra-dimensional travel, the material essence associated with the corporeal body tears free and jettisons into the void. The essence of the material form then reforms, creating the atoth.
Baykok: When hunters become utterly obsessed with the chase and indulge excessively in the savagery of the kill, their souls become progressively tainted. When such remorseless hunters perish before they can capture and kill their quarry, they sometimes rise from death as baykoks—flying undead horrors that kill purely for the ecstasy that only murder can bring them.
Bhuta: A bhuta is a ghostlike undead creature born of horrible death or murder in a natural setting. It is a manifestation of rage at the injustice of a death that interrupted important business or unsated desires.
Breathless One: A humanoid creature killed by a breathless one’s kiss of death or steal air becomes a breathless one under the control of its killer. A creature killed by kiss of death returns 1d4 minutes later, while a creature killed by steal air returns 24 hours later.
When humanoid creatures suffocate, the horror of slowly dying from lack of air drives them mad and they sometimes return as breathless ones.
Caller in Darkness: A caller in darkness grows from the psychic remains of a creature with psychic sensitivity that died a violent death, its restless spirit compelled to visit upon others the horrors that it suffered before dying. As more and more minds are absorbed, it grows, and the original spirit is lost in the swirling mass of hatred, confusion, and despair.
Devourer: Devourers are the undead remnants of fiends and evil spellcasters who became lost beyond the farthest reaches of the multiverse. Returning with warped bodies, alien sentience, and a hunger for life, devourers threaten all souls with a terrifying, tormented annihilation.
Ecorche: The bodyguards and spies of undead masterminds, ecorches appear as gory giants with musculatures overdeveloped by infusions of necromantic toxins and grafts of reanimated sinew.
Fext: Strange rituals, curses, or perhaps terrible fate or prophecy doom a child to becoming a fext, ensuring its twisted immortality. Usually male and usually human, the child is destined from birth to die young, but will shine in undeath as a great military leader. Wicked rites corrupt the child while it’s still in its mother’s womb, infusing it with a power that burns brightly during its development, only to dim upon reaching adulthood into a spiral of blackness followed by an immediate descent into undeath.
Flamewraith: Flamewraiths are the fading remnants of fire elemental creatures whose life force has been drained, either by contact with the undead or at the planar vergence between the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Negative Energy Plane. They are birthed into the cosmos amid the fading flames of dying stars, cast out into the void by collapsing neutron stars or in the explosive aftershocks of nova and supernova explosions.
Infestated Undead Creature: Undead are not harmed by an infestation of rot grubs.
Gearghost: Formed from the unquiet soul of an operative or spy wrenched from life by a deadly booby trap, a gearghost delights in rigging up the same threats and tortures to which it succumbed.
Ghost Shamanic: Shamanic ghosts are the assimilated remains of ancient wisdom kept alive by persistent ancestor worship among primitive cultures.
Harionago: ?
Mohrg: A mohrg is as much a product of the method of its execution as it is an undead manifestation of one who, in life, was a murderous criminal or warmonger. At times, unusual methods of execution can trigger equally unusual mohrgs. The extreme nature of these executions are such that these variant mohrgs are only rarely created by accident—more often, they are deliberate creations by officials who themselves dabble in necromancy and may in fact be as vile as those they put to death.
Pale Stranger: Sometimes death itself cannot come between a gunslinger and its final revenge. When a gunslinger is slain by a hated enemy or murdered before it can achieve vengeance against a hated foe, the anger and wrath can animate its remains as a vengeful undead monstrosity.
Radioactive Wind: A radioactive wind is an undead creature made up of the foul air and fallout dust sloughed off by the innumerable creatures wiped out in atomic holocausts or exposed to lethal doses of cosmic radiation.
Sayona: ?
Accursed Shadow: When a shadow agent is slain or is reduced to 0 hit points, a terrible curse activates. After 1d4 rounds, the agent’s shadow detaches from the agent’s body as an animated spirit to attack the agent’s foes. The accursed shadow also detaches immediately if the shadow agent is stunned for more than 1 round. Activation of the shadow curse immediately kills the shadow agent if it isn’t already dead.
Shredskin: A shredskin is a wretched undead creature created either when a humanoid is skinned alive to be preserved as a trophy or otherwise killed in a terrifying way that leaves much of its upper half unharmed, such as being dissolved feet-first in acid. A fragment of the creature’s soul animates the skin and seeks vengeance on those who created it, all the while trying to find a comfortable body for it to use as it did when it was alive.
Thirsty One: Thirsty ones are the disturbed remnants of creatures slain by the catastrophic infusion of negative energy even as their bodies were nearly on death’s door from thirst or from the anhydrous leaching of their body moisture by an alien environment.
Totenmaske: Consumed by the same lusts and excesses that led them in life, the souls of some sinners rise as totenmaskes, drinking the flesh and memories of living creatures and even stepping into their lives to once more pursue their base desires.
Tzitzimitl: Some claim ancient and forgotten deities of death and destruction created the first tzitzimitls as instruments of apocalypse, while others speculate they come from faraway worlds where immense planets teem with creatures of this scale, and that the immortal dead of these dark globes are banished to other worlds to spread devastation.
Tzitzimitls as a whole offer neither affirmation nor denial for these claims, and in fact seem to glory in such legends.
Blackfire Wight, Full-Fledged Free-Willed Blackfire Wight: Spawn are under the control of the blackfire wight that created them and remain enslaved until its death, at which point they lose their spawn penalties and become full-fledged and free-willed blackfire wights.
Blackfire wights are humanoid residents of the desolate prison planet of Terminus who rise as undead after being killed by the mysterious radiations of that planet’s blackfire.
Those who die from injuries caused by blackfire will rise as blackfire wights within an hour of death.
Blackfire Wight Spawn: Any humanoid creature that is slain by a blackfire wight becomes a blackfire wight itself in 1d6 rounds.
Witchfire: When an exceptionally vile hag or witch dies with some malicious plot left incomplete, or proves too horridly tenacious to succumb to the call of death, the foul energies of these wicked old crones sometimes spawn incorporeal undead known as witchfires. These ghostly creatures appear much as they did in life, although the grotesque undead energy that births them makes them appear young and attractive and wreathes their insubstantial bodies in a powerful aura of sickly green flame, a ghostly fire referred to as “witchflame” in local legends.
Wraith, Typical Wraith, Free-Willed Wraith: Spawn are under the command of the wraith that created them until its death, at which point they lose their spawn penalties and become free-willed wraiths.
Wraiths are undead creatures born of evil and darkness.
Humanoids slain by an atoth become wraiths in 1d4 rounds.
Wraith Spawn: A humanoid slain by a wraith becomes a wraith in 1d4 rounds.
Aetherwarped Corporeal Undead: Creatures killed by aetherite radiation or aetherite sickness have a 50% chance to rise as a corporeal undead with the aetherwarped template.
Akata Host, Shambling Corpse: ?
Allip, Malignant Cloud of Shadows, Unfortunate: ?
Atoth, Vague Outline, Hideous Headless Humanoid With Translucent Dead-White Skin and Clawed Hands a Gaping Fanged Maw Where Its Neck Should Be, Hideous Undead Parasite: ?
Baykok, Howling Corpse, Flying Undead Horror: ?
Bhuta, Ghostly Apparition, Ghostlike Undead Creature, Savage Primitive Humanoid Phantom: ?
Breathless One, Ash-Gray Figure, Vengeful Undead: ?
Caller in Darkness, Roiling Horror, Swirling Vortex of Darkness and Screaming Ghostly Faces: ?
Devourer, Dry Hovering Corpse, Withered Corpse: ?
Devourer, Undead Remnant of a Fiend Who Became Lost Beyond the Farthest Reaches of the Multiverse: ?
Devourer, Undead Remnant of an Evil Spellcaster Who Became Lost Beyond the Farthest Reaches of the Multiverse: ?
Ecorche, Abomination, Gory Giant, Terror: ?
Ecorche, Bodyguard: ?
Ecorche, Spy: ?
Fext, Great Military Leader, Undying Officer, Supernatural Officer, Undead Officer, Unkillable Foe: ?
Flamewraith, Misshapen Entity: ?
Flamewraith, Fading Remnant of a Fire Elemental Creature Whose Life Force Has Been Drained By Contact With The Undead: ?
Flamewraith, Fading Remnant of a Fire Elemental Creature Whose Life Force Has Been Drained at The Planar Vergence Between the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Negative Energy Plane: ?
Gearghost, Tangled Cluster of Debris and Mechanical Parts, Clanging Mess: ?
Ghost Shamanic, Translucent Spirit-Form, Assimilated Remains of Ancient Wisdom, Ancient Spirit: ?
Harionago, Deathly Pale Beauty: ?
Mohrg, Lurching Skeleton: ?
Mohrg, Undead Manifestation of One Who in Life Was a Murderous Criminal: ?
Mohrg, Undead Manifestation of One Who in Life Was a Murderous Warmonger: ?
Unusual Mohrg, Variant Mohrg: A mohrg is as much a product of the method of its execution as it is an undead manifestation of one who, in life, was a murderous criminal or warmonger. At times, unusual methods of execution can trigger equally unusual mohrgs. The extreme nature of these executions are such that these variant mohrgs are only rarely created by accident—more often, they are deliberate creations by officials who themselves dabble in necromancy and may in fact be as vile as those they put to death.
Pale Stranger, Nearly Skeletal Figure, Vengeful Undead Monstrosity: ?
Rare Pale Stranger: ?
Rare Pale Stranger, Murderous Idol, Unliving Horror: ?
Radioactive Wind, Sickly Warm Gust: ?
Radioactive Wind, Undead Creature Made Up of the Foul Air and Fallout Dust Sloughed Off by the Innumerable Creatures Wiped Out in Atomic Holocausts: ?
Radioactive Wind, Undead Creature Made Up of the Foul Air and Fallout Dust Sloughed Off by the Innumerable Creatures Exposed to Lethal Doses of Cosmic Radiation: ?
Sayona, Revolting Withered Corpse of a Woman: ?
Accursed Shadow, Animated Spirit: ?
Shredskin, Floating Creature, Animate Hollow Skin, Wretched Undead Creature: ?
Thirsty One, Rusty-Red Alien Skeleton, Desiccated Skeletal Creature: ?
Thirsty One, Disturbed Remnants of a Creature Slain By the Catastrophic Infusion of Negative Energy Even as Their Body Was Nearly on Death’s Door From Thirst: ?
Thirsty One, Disturbed Remnants of a Creature Slain By the Catastrophic Infusion of Negative Energy Even as Their Body Was Nearly on Death’s Door From the Anhydrous Leaching of Their Body Moisture By an Alien Environment: ?
Totenmaske, Spindly Skeletal Humanoid: ?
Tzitzimitl, Immense Skeletal Figure, Enigmatic Creature of Darkness: ?
Tzitzimitl, Instrument of Apocalypse: ?
Tzitzimitl, Immortal Dead: ?
Blackfire Wight, Withered Corpse: ?
Witchfire, Insubstantial Specter of a Beautiful Young Woman, Incorporeal Undead, Ghostly Creature: ?
Wraith, Ghostly Creature, Dark Shape With Two Flickering Pinpoints of Light Where Its Eyes Should Be, Undead Creature Born of Evil and Darkness: ?
Undead Minion: When an intelligent creature is sacrificed by a living idol’s worshippers, the living idol may spend a Resolve Point to reanimate the creature’s corpse as an undead minion (see Starfinder Alien Archive).
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Undead Mastermind: ?
Corporeal Non-Skeletal Undead: ?
Undead Monstrosity: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Mindless Corporeal Undead: A helpless body lying prone in a zygomind’s space takes 1 point of Constitution drain each day. A body that dies in this way rises as a mindless, corporeal undead (typically a skeleton or a zombie).
The cruel irony of the plant’s trap is that these soldiers likely live the rest of their lives believing themselves victorious, forming memories of defeating the insidious fungus, returning home to their loving families, and eventually dying after a long and productive life, while in the real world the zygomind’s mycelium sucks the nutrients from their helpless bodies and transforms them into undead minions.
Free-Willed Undead Mindless Corporeal Undead: Undead retain this connection as long as they remain within 10 miles of the zygomind. Undead beyond 10 miles of the zygomind become free-willed undead, losing their connection to the mindscape and the soporific spores ability.
Mindless Corporeal Undead, Infected Undead, Undead Minion: ?
Skeleton: A helpless body lying prone in a zygomind’s space takes 1 point of Constitution drain each day. A body that dies in this way rises as a mindless, corporeal undead (typically a skeleton or a zombie).
The cruel irony of the plant’s trap is that these soldiers likely live the rest of their lives believing themselves victorious, forming memories of defeating the insidious fungus, returning home to their loving families, and eventually dying after a long and productive life, while in the real world the zygomind’s mycelium sucks the nutrients from their helpless bodies and transforms them into undead minions.
Zombie: A helpless body lying prone in a zygomind’s space takes 1 point of Constitution drain each day. A body that dies in this way rises as a mindless, corporeal undead (typically a skeleton or a zombie).
The cruel irony of the plant’s trap is that these soldiers likely live the rest of their lives believing themselves victorious, forming memories of defeating the insidious fungus, returning home to their loving families, and eventually dying after a long and productive life, while in the real world the zygomind’s mycelium sucks the nutrients from their helpless bodies and transforms them into undead minions.
Occult Zombie: A humanoid creature killed by a mohrg rise immediately as a zombie with the occult zombie template graft under the mohrg’s control.
Ghost: ?
Spectre: ?
Shadow: ?
Banshee: ?
Attic Whisperer: ?
Winterwight: ?
Yuki-Ona: ?
Deathweb: ?
Ectoplasmic Creature: ?
Mummified Creature: ?
Warsworn: ?
Bakekujira: ?
Geist: ?
Kurobozu: ?
Mummy Lord: ?
Leechroot: ?
Saxra: ?
Tiyanak: ?
Vukodlak: ?
Bone Ship: ?
Duppy: ?
 
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Voadam

Legend
Alien Codex (Starfinder)
Starfinder
Elali Lich, Elali Lich Technomancer: ?
Tear-Warped Wretch: ?
Lich, Undead Spellcaster: ?
Tear-Warped Wretch, Hideously Malformed Hairless Pustule-Covered Corpse: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Undead Monstrosity: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Aetherwarped Corporeal Undead: Creatures killed by aetherite radiation or aetherite sickness have a 50% chance to rise as a corporeal undead with the aetherwarped template.
 

Voadam

Legend
Arcforge Campaign Setting: Gods and Peoples
Starfinder 1e
Nonsapient Undead: ?
Undead, Undead Being: In a world so charged by magic and so tainted with a long history of conflict, undead are a potent and common threat on Vandara. Be they the products of rogue necromancers or freak surges of magic accompanying great violence or trauma, undead are recognized universally as a threat.
This individual was named Wesmir, and he was a Maritish scholar who had studied the intricacies of divine magic since his youth. He was capable of creating and commanding vast undead legions, and also understood the many vulnerabilities they carried to healing and light magic.
Weaker Undead: ?
Undead Servitor: ?
Undead Soldier: Askyjoth, the Qlippoth Lord of Athanatism, dwells in a far corner of Eigenel, moving among the vast ruins. Many of these were created by his immense destructive abilities, which are capable of stealing or even obliterating the very souls of targets, or the legions of undead soldiers he creates and commands.
Devourer: ?
Ghast: ?
Lich: Lichdom is among the oldest and most well-known methods of achieving undeath, well-known enough that it has escaped Mariton despite the best efforts of the Circle. As this form of undead is not wracked with the same eternal feelings of hunger or hatred that most others are, it remains a desirable option for mages seeking to extend their lives. The rituals and techniques that enable one to become a lich are available to any who can access the libraries of Maytar, but the risks of failure are great and can dissuade all but the most dedicated students of magic. Mariton continues its ancient traditions of lich transformation to this day, and as many Circle members are liches themselves young necromancers often attempt to become such to curry their favour.
Psionic Lich, Being Which Emulates Many of the Abilities of Liches Using Psionic Means: ?
Psionic Lich, Psionic Undead, Abomination: ?
Self-Replicating Creature: ?
Shadow, Self-Replicating Creature: ?
Skeleton, Nonsapient Undead: ?
Wight, Self-Replicating Creature: ?
Zombie, Nonsapient Undead: ?
Atropal: Not all mortals succeed in the pursuit of godhood, with their legacies or abilities proving insufficient to make a permanent mark on the Convictus. When this occurs, the spirits of the dead usually fade. However, there are times when a mortal perishes on the cusp of godhood, just barely lacking the potency to achieve immortality. When this occurs, the person’s soul is transformed into an Atropal, a hateful and incredibly potent entity formed of some of the Convictus’ darkest magics. Regardless of what values they held in life, all Atropals seem to possess a genocidal hatred of the living, each stillborn god attempting to justify their all-consuming grudge in their own ways. Most Atropals tend to emerge from Mariton, although every culture possesses records of the destruction these strange beings have wrought.
Atropal, Hateful Incredibly Potent Entity, Stillborn God, Strange Being: ?
Incorporeal Spirit: ?

Pathfinder 1e
Nonsapient Undead: ?
Undead, Undead Being: In a world so charged by magic and so tainted with a long history of conflict, undead are a potent and common threat on Vandara. Be they the products of rogue necromancers or freak surges of magic accompanying great violence or trauma, undead are recognized universally as a threat.
This individual was named Wesmir, and he was a Maritish scholar who had studied the intricacies of divine magic since his youth. He was capable of creating and commanding vast undead legions, and also understood the many vulnerabilities they carried to healing and light magic.
Weaker Undead: ?
Undead Servitor: ?
Undead Soldier: Askyjoth, the Qlippoth Lord of Athanatism, dwells in a far corner of Eigenel, moving among the vast ruins. Many of these were created by his immense destructive abilities, which are capable of stealing or even obliterating the very souls of targets, or the legions of undead soldiers he creates and commands.
Devourer: ?
Ghast: ?
Lich: Lichdom is among the oldest and most well-known methods of achieving undeath, well-known enough that it has escaped Mariton despite the best efforts of the Circle. As this form of undead is not wracked with the same eternal feelings of hunger or hatred that most others are, it remains a desirable option for mages seeking to extend their lives. The rituals and techniques that enable one to become a lich are available to any who can access the libraries of Maytar, but the risks of failure are great and can dissuade all but the most dedicated students of magic. Mariton continues its ancient traditions of lich transformation to this day, and as many Circle members are liches themselves young necromancers often attempt to become such to curry their favour.
Psionic Lich, Being Which Emulates Many of the Abilities of Liches Using Psionic Means: ?
Psionic Lich, Psionic Undead, Abomination: ?
Self-Replicating Creature: ?
Shadow, Self-Replicating Creature: ?
Skeleton, Nonsapient Undead: ?
Wight, Self-Replicating Creature: ?
Zombie, Nonsapient Undead: ?
Atropal: Not all mortals succeed in the pursuit of godhood, with their legacies or abilities proving insufficient to make a permanent mark on the Convictus. When this occurs, the spirits of the dead usually fade. However, there are times when a mortal perishes on the cusp of godhood, just barely lacking the potency to achieve immortality. When this occurs, the person’s soul is transformed into an Atropal, a hateful and incredibly potent entity formed of some of the Convictus’ darkest magics. Regardless of what values they held in life, all Atropals seem to possess a genocidal hatred of the living, each stillborn god attempting to justify their all-consuming grudge in their own ways. Most Atropals tend to emerge from Mariton, although every culture possesses records of the destruction these strange beings have wrought.
Atropal, Hateful Incredibly Potent Entity, Stillborn God, Strange Being: ?
Incorporeal Spirit: ?
 

Voadam

Legend
Blood Space Gazetteer: The Solar Court
Starfinder
Undead, The Dead: Since Osoro’s death, numerous undead horrors have been sighted in the void of space, horrific amalgamations of corrupted soulstuff animated into unlife that remain strangely unfettered by Osoro’s immense gravity. Worse, collaborations with researchers from across the galaxy seem to confirm that the dead are over twelve times more likely to rise spontaneously in the Xa-Osoro System than in other systems, contributing immensely to the overall danger to those who dwell there.
Osoro the Emperor, Undead Star: Today, however, only a single sun illuminates the skies of the Xa-Osoro System’s planets. Amidst the fugue of the Nova Age, the star Osoro simultaneously exploded and imploded as its namesake deity died, collapsing into a miniature black hole while spewing a blood-red nebula into the surrounding star system.
Undead Horror, Horrific Amalgamation of Corrupted Soulstuff ?
Undead Invader: ?
Nightshade: Of the undead invaders who cross into the Mortal Universe through Osoro’s Ebongate, nightshades by far are the most prevalent and horrifying of these invaders, vile creatures formed purely of negative energy that distinctly resemble shadowy versions of existing creatures.
Nightshade, Undead Invader, Vile creature Formed Purely of Negative Energy That Distinctly Resembles a Shadowy Version of an Existing Creature: ?
Tormented Ghost: Reclamation agents discovered that the ruin is infested with hungry demons and tormented ghosts from a combination of blood space, the immense trauma and loss of life that occurred in the doomed city, and several sputtering portals located deep within the asteroid that connect directly to the Abyss.
 

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