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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5757139" data-attributes="member: 386">I have Open Grave open before me and I'm going to quote some text about undead.[sblock]Soulless UndeadSentient living creatures have a body and a soul, the latter of which is the consciousness that exists in an departs from the body when it perishes.  A body's "life force" that drives a creature's muscles and emotions is called the animus.  The animus provides vitality and mobility for a creature, and like the soul, it fades from the body after death.  Unlike the soul, it fades from the body as the body rots.If "revived" in the proper fashion, the animus can rouse the body in the absence of a soul.  (This phenomenon is what makes it possible for creatures that were never alive, such as constructs, to become undead.)  In some cases, the animus can even exist apart from the body as a cruel memory of life.  Such impetus can come from necromantic magic, a corrupting supernatural influence at the place of death or interment, or a locale's connection to the Shadowfell.  Strong desires, beliefs, or emotions on the part of the deceased can also tap into the magic of the world to give the animus power.Most undead, even those that seem intelligent, are this sort of creature - driven to inhuman behaviour by lack of governance of a soul and a hunger for life that can't be sated.  Nearly mindless undead have been infused with just enough impetus to give the remains mobility but little else.  Sentient undead have a stronger animus that might even have access to the memories of the deceased, but such monstrosities have few or none of the sympathies they had in life.  A wight has a body and a feral awareness granted by the animus, but no soul.  Even the dreaded wraith is simple a soulless animus, deeply corrupted and infused with strong necromantic energy.The Shadowfeel most often serves as the source of this impetus.  In the Shadowfell, bodiless spirits are common, as are undead.  Something within this echo-plane's dreary nature nurtures undead.  This shadowstuff can "leak" into a dying creature as that being passes away.  It can be introduced by necromantic powers or rituals.  Or it can be siphoned into areas strongly associated with death, pooling there.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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