Sometimes Zombies Happen

[Rechan]

I'm sort of bored with the whole "Undeath is an abomination because it violates the natural order of things".

Sure, it's the natural order of things... in our world. But we're talking about a Fantasy world, where the "Natural" order of things could be anything.

So I'm trying to think of a natural order that would allow Undeath to fit in.

Now, undeath would not be Common. It's not an every-day thing where people expect Uncle Bob to sit up in his coffin at the wake. But it wouldn't send a Druid weep in fury over nature being disrupted.

Undeath (well, the lower forms of undeath) is similar to mental illness, mutation/birth defects, terminal illnesses, or the plague. It's uncommon-to-rare, sad, it's bad, it might even be seen as an ill omen or Serious Bad News, but it's not necessarily "Foul Evil Afoot". Sometimes Zombies Happen. Some may see them as wounded or rabid animals; they need to be put down, both as a danger to others but also simply taken out of their misery.

So what kind of natural order would permit this? As in, what could be some causes, and what role could it serve as a setting element? What could go wrong with a world to make this sort of thing happen?

For instance, it could actually be designed to deal with natural processes. If you have too many predators killed, and too many prey, you might end up with undead animals that prey on the prey species. The undead aren't eating for sustenance, now they're culling for the purposes of avoiding an ecosystem's collapse.

Or, low level undead happen from exposure to death, decay, death-magic pollution/radiation, or proximity of other undead. For instance, two armies clash, all that death and blood in such a short time concentrated in one spot is going to spawn a hand full of something.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Undeath as theological consequence of unfulfilled purpose.

A creature, most often sentient, is unable to finish a task that if found of paramount importance - be it fulfill an oath, protect a person or site, or simply tell someone that it loved him/her.

Revenants, ghosts, mummies, etc..

Death in the throes of strong emotion/stimuli.

A person dying during a fit of rage may become a wraith, a person who starved may rise as a ghoul.

The Auld Grump

 

[falcarrion]

Some may consider this as a form of recarnation.

 

[jedavis]

The Midnight campaign setting is kind of like this, actually. Ever since the Dark God Izrador was cast down to the material plane, the souls of the dead have been unable to leave, and so they often continue to inhabit their deceased bodies as undead, known as the Fell. Izrador fell long enough ago that the cultures of the campaign setting have figured out ways to deal with their dead rising - the humans burn their dead, the dwarves bury their dead beneath heavy blocks of stone, and the orcs eat theirs (I can't remember what the elves halflings, or gnomes did...). Undead are an omnipresent threat, but they just happen - it's not unusual, and it's been that way for thousands of years.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Someone volunteers to serve a cause...forever.

Someone else screws up the natural order (Death refuses to reap, Death is defeated in a contest, the gates to the Underworld are sealed, the barriers that prevent the spirits of the dead from returning are breached...).

Too stubborn to die (Tales from the Darkside, "A Case of the Stubborns")

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Souls have to be claimed; it doesn't matter whether a person is "good" or "evil" when it comes to their soul being claimed, what matters is whether a divine being is willing to take it.

At one time, unclaimed souls were sent to a "neutral" place; however, the gods decided that they weren't going to put up with non-believers and people unwilling or unable to commit. If you want eternal rest, you're expected to _earn_ it. So, they cleared out Limbo and sent all the souls that were waiting back to the world.

The catch was, it wasn't reincarnation. No, that would have been a reward (of sorts) that hadn't been earned. Instead they were sent back in a variety of forms that are now known as the Undead.

The unclaimed souls will continue to be sent back to the world, regardless of how many times they're set free from their physical incarnation; the cycle only breaks when a divine being claims the soul.

Death (not one of the "gods of death" but Death itself) does lay claim to some souls. These souls become Reapers, sent to end life in accordance with a set of rules that even the gods seem to be somewhat uncertain of. Death exists not so much as a person or even a god, but a fundamental principle that trancends almost everything and is self-aware.

It's thought by some that death gods are Reapers that have managed to overcome their initially limited existence; they're no longer mindless (or mostly mindless) creatures obeying Death's will, but are instead reasoning agents. They still follow the plan outlined by Death but as long as they do as they're supposed to do, they're left to their own devices.

Death gods make other gods nervous, for a variety of reasons; not just because it's a reminder to the gods that even they can persish. Because of their connection to Death, death gods potentially are far more powerful than other gods. The rest of the gods work hard to ensure that death gods don't acquire too many souls. This can be tricky because it's unwise to interfere with Death, but not all deaths a death god orchestrates are in the service of Death; sometimes they're a part of the death god's own agenda.

The Undead have a variety of ways of being dealt with, often related to the way in which they've become Undead in the first place. To put an Undead permanently at rest means that the spirit must be claimed by a divine being. This is one reason why clerics are so effective against Undead, regardless of the faith of the cleric or former Undead; spells, holy artifacts, blessed items, all contain a tiny portion of a god's power. Since Undead are souls that have literally been rejected by the gods, the touch of that divinity is incredibly painful to them. It's a reminder of the gods to the restless spirits that they will lack true peace until they are accepted.

Churches are usually the way in which a divine being accepts and marks a soul. Since the leaders of the church are truly representatives of the god, most gods leave the "administration details" so to speak to church. This allows churches a tremendous amount of power, but it's tempered by the knowledge that the gods _do_ "audit" the leadership; afterall, it's in the god's own interests to ensure that those which are supposed to be representing the god's interest in the mortal realm really are doing their job.

The rituals a cleric uses to put the Undead at "peace" are essentially a bargain being struck; the ritual offers the spirit rest and a god's acceptance. Often these have some sort of condition, the details of which depend on the god in question. Sometimes that condition is the actual destruction of the soul in question; Undead spirits can be surprisingly receptive to the idea of oblivion, after centuries of suffering and wandering the world.

It's important to note that the Undead are restless spirits, regardless of the corporeal or incorporeal form they take; this is also the case for Undead that are self-created or created against their will. A newly created Undead retains most of its memories and personality, only losing these as time goes on unless they've taken steps to ensure the retention of their essential selves. The loss of self occurs over time, due to the suffering and lack of rest the spirit suffers. The rate at which this occurs varies and despite many specualtions, scholars are ultimately uncertain why some Undead retain coherency as long as they do.

Vampires and Liches are some of the nastier Undead to deal with, in part because they have actively rejected the gods. In the case of Liches, they have actively worked to protect their souls and buffer them against the usual torment applied to them. Vampires are an interesting case, in that a person killed by a vampire can rise again. It's thought that vampires are tied in some fashion to Death, with the original vampire being a Reaper or death god.
----------------------------------------

I think that covers it. Not sure quite how coherent it is, but on first blush it's at least semi-consistent internally. I've framed it in a fantasy context, but it wouldn't take much tweaking to have it work for a modern setting either. The basic premise is simply trying to cover how/why undeath works, given many of the tropes that are around regarding them.

In a fantasy world, where gods actively court worshipers, this sort of thing actually doesn't make sense, unless Undeath is happening directly as a result of the god's decision. It's not so much a violation of the natural order as it is "this is what happens when you don't toe the line and worship us like you should." To serve any of the gods would in theory be a choice left up to a person, but that doesn't mean the gods don't have tools to _make_ people want to serve them.

In a number of ways, Undead are wildcards. Gods basically know what their powerbase is, since they know when someone is serving/worshiping them. Undead are potential increases in power, because they're uncommitted. Clerics go after them with great zeal, because the rituals being bargains means that if they're successful, the god just got a power bump.

 

[Rechan]

Dang Scurvy, that's some sweet material right there! I'm going to be making another thread and that's a great post to reference.

The Midnight campaign setting is kind of like this, actually. Ever since the Dark God Izrador was cast down to the material plane, the souls of the dead have been unable to leave, and so they often continue to inhabit their deceased bodies as undead, known as the Fell. Izrador fell long enough ago that the cultures of the campaign setting have figured out ways to deal with their dead rising - the humans burn their dead, the dwarves bury their dead beneath heavy blocks of stone, and the orcs eat theirs (I can't remember what the elves halflings, or gnomes did...). Undead are an omnipresent threat, but they just happen - it's not unusual, and it's been that way for thousands of years.

Hmm. That's a thought.

That's swanky. Although that raises the question "So, once the bodies are gone, where do the spirits go? Do we get ghosts and shadows now?"

This brings up another idea. Sort of unrelated. In the Felix Castor novels by Mike Carey (The Devil You Know, Vicious Cycle, etc) - in the year 2000, the dead rose up en masse. Ghosts. Zombies. Loup Garou (in this case, ghosts that possessed animals). Other things came out. The difference here is that 1) the dead are for the most part benign, and 2) people have adjusted to their presence.

Now, in a fantasy setting, something else could be finagled with so that say, 1/4th of the population is some form of undead. Most of whom are not necessarily a threat.

 

[Rechan]

Another idea. This uses the 4e cosmology of the Shadowfell. There, the dead go to the Shadowfell, and I'm not... quite sure how they get to where they're supposed to go. I think the Raven Queen is in charge of that - she's in charge of souls, at least.

Anyways. Remove the Raven Queen, and you still have the dead going to the Shadowfell. Let's say for the sake of argument that we're not quite sure what happens to them when they get there. Perhaps traversing that realm is a final quest in and of itself.

The Dead Go to the Shadowfell.

But sometimes that can just fail. Perhaps this is an area where the Shadowfell's connection is very weak, or some sort of planar event has weakened the connection everywhere for this date. Perhaps there is just a hiccup, a glitch in the system, maybe that soul is just funky.

Whatever the case, the soul is just stuck and missing its initial draw upon death, is never pulled back in.

 

[Dioltach]

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

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just a tangential thought: it might be kind of neat to play in a game where the PCs are hired by a mysterious figure...who happens to be Death.

And their job is to reap those who have somehow thwarted him, living or undead.