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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 2548055" data-attributes="member: 571">As a variant (used in BtVS, but Joss got it from folklore), undead are corpses inhabited by demonic spirits. The spirits have the memories of the deceased, and may believe themselves to be the deceased, but are really someone else entirely.Part of a cleric's job is to protect the bodies under his care from possession, until they have rotted away. In such a setting any measure that preserves the corpse would be discouraged at least, or under an outright ban. But cremation is not an option since it is an unnatural way to destroy a body.For an additional complication, demons and demonic spirits are not beyond redemption, and time embodied in a corpse prior to being born as a mortal might be a probationary period. The spirit's task in this case to learn how to deal with the hungers its undead state arouses. How to sate the hungers in a safe way. Safe for itself and for others. Tons of possibilities there.Paladin: Why are you dwelling here, in such a crowded neighborhood?Wight: Because if I dwelt away from people, all by myself, the hunger would grow so great as to drive me insane. So long as I reside here the life around me keeps the hunger at bay. Without these souls to provide me sustenance I would be a ravening beast. I take a little from the many so I don't take it all from one.</blockquote>