Sometimes Zombies Happen

[Rhun]

Somewhat-related, but still something of a tangent: I noticed Honda has a commercial for the new Civic in which they show a zombie driving the car around all over the place and going about his daily business like he is a productive member of society. So, perhaps under certain conditions (and given enough media attention ), people would be able to live harmoniously with the living dead?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think that any world that has seagulls and rats is unlikely to suffer from zombies.

Zombies can operate pretty badly chewed up, especially if they're mobile enough to chomp down on the rats or zombies and slow down their own consumption.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've long had an idea for a setting based on New Orleans, where bodies are buried above the high water table or cremated, because any body that comes into contact with river water rises as undead.

The human colonists who make up the city population, you see, got into a war with the local lizardfolk when they arrived and ended up killing the demigod who ruled the local nation. Unfortunately, he really was a demigod -- the god of the river and cycle of life. Now, though, he's the god of death -- and the river -- and any bodies that come in contact with the river pass under his control. And he's pissed.

(There's a lot more to the setting, which makes it a pity that I'm unlikely to ever have a need for Blackwater as a setting to run.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Cool idea, WD!

 

[webrunner]

MTG's Ravnica plane was like this (well, before Time Spiral anyway)

Souls/ghosts/what have you can't leave due to the same thing keeping the world from being accessable by planeswalkers. As a result some guilds have taken to raising zombies as a workforce, some have taken to using ghosts for various intellectual tasks (hell, the Orzhov are run by ghosts).. it's all totally "okay" by the rules of the world.

 

[Stumblewyk]

I've long had an idea for a setting based on New Orleans, where bodies are buried above the high water table or cremated, because any body that comes into contact with river water rises as undead.

...

I like this. Since it's New Orlean-ish, the frequent flooding of the nearby river delta (and heavy seasonal storms) would be BAD NEWS. Frequent zombie uprisings. Ghoul cults actively trying to destroy levees. Graveyards as they were would be built on top of the highest land people could find, forcing them to live in the flood prone lowland areas.

 

[Rechan]

Nice, with the New Orleans idea.

Also I'm reminded of Hollowfaust, the Scarred Lands Neutral Necromancer city, which took a very Medical approach to dead/undead.

Zombies can operate pretty badly chewed up, especially if they're mobile enough to chomp down on the rats or zombies and slow down their own consumption.

Since Zombies are pretty much skeletons that are still "squishy", that's a lot of range of how decayed they could be.

Besides, I doubt rats/gulls would go after things that are still moving about. Scavengers typically wait til stuff dies before picking at it, and 'dead' for animals usually translates to 'it's not moving anymore'.

 

[SteelDraco]

In my setting, random undead rise as a result of spirits getting a taste for blood or flesh.

The world is infused with spirits, or small gods (if you've read the book Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett, same thing). They're everywhere, and for the most part they don't have enough impact to really do anything. However, they can be given power by mortals, such as when a mortal uses blood magic or makes a ritual offering incorrectly. When that happens, the spirit can gain power and learn to animate a corpse it runs across, and uses that corpse to try and experience life as a fleshy creature. Since most spirits are given a taste for blood or life, they turn into destructive creatures.

Unfortunately, there's an animist religion that doesn't realize the undead that plague their lands are a result of their religious practices. The larger spirits that have attached to a concept or location can be fed and grant power in return, but doing it wrong can also spin that power off and make zombies. Elves practice a similar animist religion, but abhor the concept of blood sacrifices because they know this is where zombies come from.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Well to be fair to D&D, a number of undead already arise "spontaneously" given the right conditions. Ghosts are, of course, an obvious example- just passing on with really strongly felt emotions or unfulfilled purposes (sometimes by freak accident). Several varieties of the mummies or other shambling dead (like the bog mummy) can form from bodies that don't receive burial rights.

You can also look to folklore and superstition for undead generated spontaneously, including the seemingly ludicrous like Vampire pumpkins and watermelons

A necrotic version of Abiogenesis may also be worth some pondering. Maggots were once said to spontaneously form from rotting meat, after all.

As far as undead serving a function, the closest thing I could come up with off the top of my head is the gravecrawler (from the 3.5 MMII). An odd wormlike creature, its aura calcifies corpses and prevents them from being animated into undead or consumed by ghouls, etc. Unlike most undead, it's mostly harmless.

Although not "undead" technically since they're powered by the Positive Energy Plane, the Deathless are revered by the elves of Eberron and this ancestor worship gives them sustenance instead of preying upon the living. I'd suspect you'd prolly get more people thinking of undeath as natural if it was powered by the positive energy plane rather than the dark forces of the negative material plane.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are only so many souls. Each one goes through a cycle of birth, life, death, and then 1000 years of rest before rebirth.

But there are flaws in the fabric of the universe, and if a soul accidentally falls through one, it mindlessly animates a dead body as it struggles to reach it's proper destination (rest or rebirth).

However, if a soul seeks out such a flaw, or is forced through one against it's will, it animates the body consciously.

Worse still, if the place of repose ever empties completely, it will collapse, breaking the eternal cycle.

So, undeath is like a leak in your plumbing: it happens, and in small amounts, it's a nuisance. But a major leak could mean disaster...