Half-Undead and Pregnancy

[Breakdaddy]

Still, Vampire Hunter D isn't a bad movie. Right up to the point

Spoiler

his hand starts talking to him

. That little addendum drops the movie down to the MST3K level by itself, IMO. My brain just won't process anime -- there's always something that's like gravel in my yogurt.

Yeah, when *that* guy says talk to the hand, he means it.

 

[Umbran]

ISo, does anyone have a guess what are the odds that a random woman over the age of 15 in the middle ages would be pregnant?

Perhaps, more importantly, what are the odds that a random woman would be pregnant and run into undead of the sort that spawns. In the usual D&D world, undead are not generally roaming the streets and interacting with the townsfolk. Generally speaking, as soon as a community realizes there's spawning undead nearby (or just realizes that there's something causing trouble) they start hiding out in their homes and calling in the adventurers.

Thus, generally the undead interact with adventurers, not normal folk. And the adventurers aren't generally pregnant, if only for story reasons.

 

[woodelf]

In the last issue of Dragon there is an article on the half-undead and it states that most half-undead are caused by a pregnant female being turned into an undead and that they are very rare.

I was wondering though, in a medieval times, I would assume the odds of a female over the age of 15 being pregnant as being pretty good, so you would think that it would not be THAT rare to find half-undead.

So, does anyone have a guess what are the odds that a random woman over the age of 15 in the middle ages would be pregnant? Should this affect the rarily of half-undead?

Dunno Medieval Europe, but studies of still-extant pre-modern societies (!Kung bushmen, various other African, Indonesian, and Amazonian peoples), find that the women of childbearing age are more-or-less constantly pregnant or nursing. So i'd guess 50% would be pretty realistic odds for peasants--with her nursing the other 50% of the time.

 

[Aaron L]

The son of a living woman and a male vampire (vampyr, dhampyr, etc) was the only type of half undead I have ever heard of, I it never occured to me to call them that. I kept trying to picture a half zombie or somesuch, or a half ghoul. Half undead sounded to me like 3/4 dead. And I kept thinking to myself, what in the Abyss would a 3/4 dead creature be?

It just occured to me was that poorly thought out son of Angel a half undead?

 

[MerakSpielman]

It just occured to me was that poorly thought out son of Angel a half undead?

Nah. Conner, otherwise known as "the reason my wife and I stopped watching Angel," was inexplicably pure human. Go figure.

My problem with 1/2 undead creatures is that it seems to change undeath from a state of being to a race. Like being half-elven. That just doesn't work for me. Undeath should be a condition, something either IS undead or it ISN'T. Just like you can't be "A little bit pregnant," you can't be "partly undead" to me.

The Dragon article had 1/2 undead Ghouls, Vampires, and Ghosts, of all things. Maybe I can stretch my definition of undead to grudgingly include 1/2 Ghouls and Vampires... but 1/2 incorporial undead? Weird...

 

[Tonguez]

Long ago I played a character who was the sired by the ghost of his mother intended husband. The husband had however been murdered when his home was invaded by the bad guys. His mother used a magic boar tusk to scratch the ghost making it solid for one night.

The character could see and touch the ethereal

 

[Caliber]

Well lets see. In the movie Dead Alive two zombies have sex and give birth to a zombie baby (being a zombie speeds up the normal nine month process to like ... two days or something )

(and if you're wondering what happens to a zombie baby, the answer is its thrown in a blender, kicked out of a window, and eventually ... well you have to go rent the movie if you want to see )

In Shadowbane a MMORPG that recently came out (maybe a month or two back) one of the races is a "Shade", a person who's father died while he/she was still in the womb. The loss of the Afterlife caused the baby to be born "partially undead"

So I've seen it already a few times.

As for the actual article in question ... I thought it was pretty good. Although to be honest, I can see Half-Vampires. I can even see Half-Ghosts. Its the Half-Ghouls and Half-Zombies (they had those in the article right?) that I have trouble with. It just seems to me that an undead that isn't sentient wouldn't have any interest in having sex. I mean ... Zombies are constantly thinking about brains. Not boobs.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Its the Half-Ghouls and Half-Zombies (they had those in the article right?) that I have trouble with. It just seems to me that an undead that isn't sentient wouldn't have any interest in having sex.

Ghoul
Medium Undead
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 15, Con —, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12

Looks sentient to me

As for Zombies - their interests are irrelevant. They'll do as they're damned well told!

-Hyp.

 

[MerakSpielman]

As for Zombies - their interests are irrelevant. They'll do as they're damned well told!

-Hyp.

Ew. I mean, if they're fresh, it's not too gross, but otherwise...

Ew.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Ew. I mean, if they're fresh, it's not too gross, but otherwise...

Ew.

[Seinfeld]Not that there's anything wrong with that...[/Seinfeld]

-Hyp.