Undead Origins

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Zor Draxtau Issue 3

Zor Draxtau Issue 3
OSRIC
Xerksis, The Mage-King: Seeking a means to quash the ranger’s ‘pitiful little band’ of rogue humans and pathetic demi-humans from the northern peninsula on the Usher Arm Peninsula, Xerksis created the Bone-Hilt sword; a thing of purest, darkest evil. And into the sword, Xerksis sacrificed a portion of his evil soul, so that whomever should wield the weapon, would also be invoking his spirit. And during this process, Xerksis also achieved his life-long desire to ultimately commit himself to the dark life of a lich.

 

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Romance of the Perilous Land

Romance of the Perilous Land
Romance of the Perilous Land
Ghost: Ghosts are the incorporeal remnants of the dead a restless spirit whose work on earth is not yet done.
Vampire: Vampires are the living corpses of those who had committed a cardinal sin.

 

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Saga of the Splintered Realm Book 1 Core Rules

Saga of the Splintered Realm Book 1 Core Rules
Saga of the Splintered Realms
Banshee: The banshee is a wailing spirit of a fallen mortal, often a female elf.
Ghost: A ghost is the spirit of a mortal that has been left behind, consigned to the realm of the living due to some curse.
Undead: Undead are the remains of the deceased infused with unholy power.
Skeleton: Animate Dead spell.
Zombie: Zombies, as mindless animated corpses of humans, demi-humans and humanoids, are often placed to guard treasures or used to perform mundane tasks.
Animate Dead spell.
Ghoul: ?
Wight: Wights, undead spirits indwelling human, demi-human or humanoid corpses.
Wraith: ?
Mummy: Mummies are the preserved remains of powerful creatures.
Vampire: ?
Skull Warden: The remains of a fallen paladin, the skull warden is a vengeful spirit, a skeleton clad in ruined armor wielding a cruel blade.
Lich: The lich is the undead remains of a powerful magic user from before the Great Reckoning.

Arcane Magic Sphere 5 Faith Magic Sphere 4
Animate Dead (60’). Create undead creatures (either skeletons or zombies) of total CL equal to your level. These will obey your commands until destroyed or another caster uses dispel magic to sever your connection to these undead. You may not have more than 2x your level in CL undead under your control at any one time.

 

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Saga of the Splintered Realm Book 2 Adventures

Saga of the Splintered Realm Book 2 Adventures
Saga of the Splintered Realms
Goblin Zombie: ?
Bugbear Skeleton: ?
Goblin Skeleton: ?
The Summoner, Wight: ?
The Lorekeeper, Goblin Vampire: ?
Skeletal Snake: ?
Skull Warden Captain: ?
Wight Crew Member: ?
The Painter, Goblin Lich: ?
Irdana, Vampire Magic User: ?
Undead Goblin Miners: Both the dwarves and the goblins have been cursed to fight perpetual battles on a daily basis as they search for the Gem of Crakjeko, the key to lifting the curse of the Necromancer that cursed them centuries ago.
Undead Dwarf Miners: Both the dwarves and the goblins have been cursed to fight perpetual battles on a daily basis as they search for the Gem of Crakjeko, the key to lifting the curse of the Necromancer that cursed them centuries ago.
Dwarf Provisioner: ?
Goblin Mummies: ?
Dragon Skeleton: ?
Dwarf Ghoul: ?

Zombie: ?
Banshee: ?
Wight: ?
Wraith: ?
Ghost: A ghost of a fallen human thief who attempted to steal from the goblins
Skeleton: ?
Ghoul: Gem of Skulls magic item.

The Gem of Skulls
The gem of skulls appears as a large black obelisk, nearly 6” long. Once per day, this magical gemstone will automatically turn one corpse within 120’ into a ghoul. It may be beyond the abilities of the PCs to destroy the gem, and this may require a special quest or journey to complete. The gemstone is worth 500 gp to the right buyer, but the gemstone will definitely prove deadly in the hands of the wrong character, allowing the amassing of a ghoul army.
The gem gives no power to control or influence ghouls once created, and this gem could quickly lead to a character’s death. A lawful creature touching the gem suffers 1d6 damage. Any creature dying within 120’ of the gem is re-animated as a ghoul within 1d6 rounds. While the gem is valuable (worth up to 250 gp on the market), it is an object of evil, and PCs who sell it will likely live to regret it.

 

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Scarlet Heroes

Scarlet Heroes
Scarlet Heroes
Undead: Slaves of Bone and Mist spell.
Ghoul: Some hungry ghosts are touched by the ice of the Hells, animating their unburied corpse with an endless, unbearable hunger for human flesh to warm them.
Hungry Ghost: Some spirits fear to pass on to their ultimate reward or everlasting punishment. Others are unable to leave the living world, having become lost without the guidance of funeral rites or snared by the demands of unfinished business among the living. Without the help of a priest to calm them and guide them onward, these shades are doomed to become hungry ghosts, maddened and anguished undead entities that torment the living.
Hungry ghosts are commonly found in the wake of mass slaughters, plagues, and famines. Even the complete burning of a corpse is not sufficient to prevent their manifestation should proper funeral rites be neglected; the hungry ghost will assemble a body from ash and dust if it must. Some necromancers also have the power to create or bind hungry ghosts, with the more adept among them torturing the maddened souls into new, more hideous forms of undead.
Defilement of the Unquiet Grave spell.
Slaves of Bone and Mist spell.
Jiangshi, Leaping Vampire: The dreaded jiangshi are undead most often produced by a misfortunate death far from home, where an unburied victim’s soul is left unable to find its way back to familiar places. Other jiangshi are the product of dark necromancy or a life of evil, when the soul is too fearful to face its fate in the afterlife.
Langsuyar, The Hungry Mother: These strange undead are the result of the childbirthing death of both a beautiful young mother and her child. Appropriate funerary rites usually prevent such creatures from manifesting, but every so often some poor woman or lonely mother perishes without the help of such rites, and thus leaves her soul vulnerable to the misfortune of this state. In darker cases, some bereaved husbands actually spoil the funerary rites so as to encourage the creation of a langsuyar, hoping only to regain their lost love.
Ma Ca Rong, The Filth Vampire: These loathsome undead creatures are the remains of men and women who uttered ruinous lies and practiced terrible deceits in life. Fearing the punishment that awaits them beyond the grave, their spirit animates their restless corpse as a ma ca rong, tearing loose their viscera as their head separates from the rest of their body.
Ma Lai, The Plague Vampire: A relative of the ma ca rong, the ma lai also is an undead creature, one born of the plague-slain or fever-killed. To observers, it appears that whatever sickness claimed them grew very dire before receding; in truth, the plague killed them, but their restless spirits refused to leave their corpses.
Nu Gui, The Vengeful Deceiver: The nu gui is created when placatory funeral rites prove insufficient to calm an outraged spirit, and their vengeful purpose is clothed in the power of an undead form. While many types of undead are the product of such unsatisfied purposes, nu gui are unique for the insidiousness of their actions, for they manifest as the friends and loved ones of their target.
Polong, The Bitter Servant: While most cultures of the isles honor their dead and seek only their dignified peace, some necromancers find the undead make excellent servants. A ghost slave is created from a victim sacrificed in a particular sorcerous fashion, one lingering and terrible. A single unbroken bone remains at the end of the process, most often a skull, and so long as the bone remains intact the polong is forced to obey its creator in all ways. If the bone is smashed, the polong is free to work its vengeance for one hour before it passes on to its eternal reward.
Fashioning a polong is costly, and even those necromancers who would not balk at the price are often leery of the risks of an uncontrolled ghost slave. Creating a polong requires ingredients worth 500 gp per hit die of the victim and a magic-user or cleric level no less than the victim’s hit dice. A necromancer may have no more polongs bound to him than he has levels.
Shui Gui, The Water Twin: The water twin is an undead creature produced by the terror of drowning and the anguish of the unlamented dead.
Skeleton: One of the simplest forms of undead, a skeleton is simply a set of bones animated by the decaying remnants of a spirit’s lower, animalistic soul.

Defilement of the Unquiet Grave Level 4
Duration: Special Range: Touch
The followers of the Nine Immortals cherish the peaceful sleep of their ancestors. That does not prevent other priests from having different ideas on the topic. This spell may forcibly create undead from corpses that were not buried with the correct funerary rites. A number of hit dice worth of undead equal to the caster’s level may be created at once, most often hungry ghosts as per the Bestiary chapter. These undead are obedient to their creator, becoming uncontrolled upon his death. Each ritual costs 50 gp in expendable implements for each hit die of undead created, and the ritual can only be performed on a night of the new moon. Most clerics can command no more than ten hit dice of undead slaves for every level they possess.

Slaves of Bone and Mist Level 5
Duration: Indefinite Range: Touch
Necromancy is profoundly repugnant to most of the cultures of the isles, but some sorcerers are unconcerned with the respect due the ancestors. With a supply of corpses that have not received appropriate burial rites the wizard can call up a number of undead servants. A number of hit dice worth of undead equal to the caster’s level may be created at once, most often hungry ghosts as per the Bestiary chapter. These undead are obedient to their creator, becoming uncontrolled upon his death. Each ritual costs 50 gp in expendable implements for each hit die of undead created, and the ritual can only be performed on a night of the new moon. Other, more powerful or costly rites exist to conjure more numerous or potent undead slaves.

 

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Godbound: A Game of Divine Heroes

Godbound: A Game of Divine Heroes
Scarlet Heroes
Undead: The undead of the realms are products of fear, longing, and dark sorcery. Ever since the fall of Heaven and the corruption of Hell the prospect of an agonizing afterlife has filled countless men and women with dread. While the rites of the Unitary Church, the ancestor cults, and other true faiths can serve to anchor a soul to its native realm in peaceful sleep, not every spirit has the advantage of that shelter. Those who die alone and far from solace might still cling to this world for fear of what comes next.
Others simply cannot endure the idea of leaving their work unfinished, and are sealed to their decaying corpses by their unquenchable will. Even when a spirit is absent and only the dead flesh remains, a skilled sorcerer can imbue the husk with a kind of half-life to create a mindless servitor.
A swarm of minor creeds can be found in the cities and villages of the realm, most of them revolving around a locally-important spirit or heroic ancestor. Few of these faiths have any real power to save, though a few have priests that actually can ensure a peaceful eternal rest to their followers. Sometimes this safety can be granted with a simple ritual or sequence of prayers, but other faiths require expensive or bloody rites to ensure that a soul is safely anchored to the sleep of the mundane realm. Occasionally these rites go awry, and the soul is left to persist as some form of undead. Less often, these rites are intended to create such revenants, either to serve the cult or to act as loci for their devout worship.
A Pale Crown Beckons Death Word Lesser Gift.
Ranks of Pale Bone Theurgic Invocation.
Draugr: The great majority of labor in the skerries is performed by draugrs, the walking dead beckoned up by the witch-queens and their priestesses.
Witch-queens measure their status by the number of living and draugr they command and the richness of their cold palaces. They do not love each other, but the great necromantic rituals they work require the cooperation of several adepts, and so they cannot afford to quash all potential usurpers.
Mob Undead Horde: ?
A Pale Crown Beckons Death Word Lesser Gift.
Lesser Undead: Lesser undead are purely corporeal in nature, dead bodies animated by magical power and imbued with a kind of half-intellect by the spell.
A Pale Crown Beckons Death Word Lesser Gift.
Ranks of Pale Bone Theurgic Invocation.
Greater Undead: Greater undead are qualitatively different. They have a human soul at their core, either animating a decaying corpse or manifesting as an insubstantial wraith. Their minds are usually dulled by the decay of their flesh or the confusion of their death, but they can remember their living days and reason as humans do. Spells to create them are substantially more difficult, and most necromancers must take care to keep greater undead safely bound.
A Pale Crown Beckons Death Word Lesser Gift.
Ancalian Husk: The eruption of the Night Roads in Ancalia has produced the dreaded Hollowing Plague which makes risen corpses of its victims. The desperate husks of those slain rise now as lesser undead, swarming in Mobs to devour the living.
War-Draugr: The biggest and best-preserved of the wretched draugr of Ulstang are swathed in mail and iron plates to become war-draugr.
Dried Lord: This greater undead corpse houses the burning soul of a great warlord or mighty high priest.
Hulking Undead Thing: ?
Greater Undead Revenant: ?

A Pale Crown Beckons Action
Commit Effort for the scene. You can call up undead, summoning parts instantly from the nearest source if necessary. A single greater undead of hit dice no more than twice your level is called, or one Small Mob of 1 HD lesser undead is created for each three levels you have, rounded up. A corpse made into a greater undead must not have received funeral rites or been dead more than a month. The undead are loyal, but dissolve when you use this gift again. Summoned entities or Mobs can be preserved indefinitely for 1 Dominion point each.

Ranks of Pale Bone
The theurge imbues corpses or other remains with an animating force, raising them as soulless lesser undead. For each hit die or level of the caster, 1d6 hit dice worth of lesser undead can be raised, assuming sufficient raw materials are available. The corpses need not be intact, as bones and tissue will merge and flow under the sorcery. Undead that have already been destroyed once, however, are no longer useful for further necromancy.
The great majority of human-sized corpses rise as 1 hit die undead, though the corpses of terrible beasts or fearsome Misbegotten may be more dangerous. The raised creatures are mindlessly loyal to the theurge or any lieutenants they nominate, but otherwise act as do most lesser undead. They remain animate until destroyed or until the invocation that fuels their existence is dispelled. If their creator is slain, the risen creatures will run rampant against the living.

 

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Ancalia: The Broken Towers

Ancalia: The Broken Towers
Scarlet Heroes
Husk: This ended five years ago, in 995. Without warning, nine massive Night Roads erupted in locations throughout Ancalia. Yawning gates of devouring darkness belched forth a sky-blackening miasma and an endless swarm of savage Uncreated abominations. While the darkness in Ancalia's sky cleared after nine terrible days, the tide of Uncreated had already overwhelmed most of Ancalia's cities and towns.Worse still, the darkness brought with it the Hollowing Plague.
Victims of the plague grew light-headed and feverish, their spittle turning black and their chests sunken. A gnawing pain inside their bellies grew worse and worse until the delirious sufferer could only dull it by choking down gobbets of still-warm entrails. The pain was so great that it robbed its sufferers of their reason, and many committed horrible acts against their own families simply to still the mad hunger.
Those who sought death as a relief from the pain were cheated by the grave. When their heart ceased to beat and the blood no longer flowed in their veins, the sufferers rose up once more as lesser undead that came to be called "husks".
There was no cure for the Hollowing Plague that mortal art could devise. It swept over the nation, decimating the survivors. It even managed to infect the corpses of the freshly dead, with perhaps one in ten lurching up from the charnel fields to hunt fresh prey. The worst outbreaks of the Hollowing Plague seem to be over, but anyone who lingers within Ancalia runs the risk of infection. Close contact with a husk may increase the chance, but no clear vector has been determined, nor any sure way of keeping back the sickness. A thousand folk preventatives are mustered, but none seem sure.
The origins of these restless abominations lie in a magical plague that came to Ancalia, and a curse that mere mortal magic could not efface.
The first symptoms of the Hollowing Plague appeared immediately after the opening of the Night Roads. The signs were fever, gluttony, and an irrationality driven by increasingly piercing hunger pains that could eventually only be satisfied by human viscera. The fever inevitably killed its victims within a month of the first appearance of symptoms, assuming that the victim wasn't killed by others in self-defense. By the time the Ancalians understood what was going on, it was too late. More than half the entire population was infected by the plague.
Anyone killed by a husk will inevitably rise as one within a few hours, if not immediately, as will anyone who dies from the plague's fever. The exact vectors of contagion are still not clear; bites don't necessarily seem to transmit it, nor does close contact with the victims. Instead, it seems to be a kind of psychic miasma that affects anyone within the former borders of Ancalia, potentially striking them down despite their best prophylactic measures. Some believe that being in the presence of large numbers of sufferers increases one's chance to fall ill, while others insist on the preventative power of one of a host of holy relics, peasant charms, or learned countermeasures. The reliability of such measures is altogether unproven.
Currently, the Hollowing Plague appears to be ongoing at a lesser rate of infection. There is a roughly one percent chance of developing the plague every month a person remains in Ancalia. Thus, the remaining living population of Ancalians is decreasing at a rate of approximately 11% a year, even aside from the violence and slaughter endemic to the peninsula. If the plague is not stemmed somehow, the population will be effectively wiped out within a decade from the disease's effects alone.
General scholarly opinion is that the plague does not manifest outside of Ancalia. Victims killed by Ancalian husks outside of the country will also rise as undead, but carriers of the Hollowing Plague do not appear to be infectious otherwise. As husks do not normally leave Ancalia unless driven by greater intellects, the chief danger of the infection is that some freebooter could take sick in Ancalia before returning to their homeland. Once there, a victim who dies, rises as a husk, and starts slaughtering their neighbors might form the nucleus of a dangerous outbreak.
Unbeknownst to the populace of Ancalia, the plague is not so much a biological malady as it is an otherworldly curse. The nine Night Roads that opened throughout Ancalia brought with them this magical contagion, and they exude it like a form of magical radiation.
Five years ago, in 995 AS, nine terrible Night Roads ripped open in various locations throughout the peninsula. A black miasma of disaster erupted from the roads, bringing with it a host of horrible Uncreated monsters. Just as awfully, the roads brought the Hollowing Plague; a maddening disease that turned its victims into cannibals before raising their corpses as ravenous, mindless undead "husks".
Deviant Husk: ?
Energumen: Sometimes a soul refuses to leave its corpse even after it's brought low by the plague or the teeth of the dead. Most souls instinctively sense the peaceful repose emanating from the prayers of Patriarch Ezek and will gradually fall into secure slumber over the course of a month, safe from the horrors of Hell and the agonies of their death. Yet those souls that led particularly vile or sinful lives may fear even this end, dreading what awaits them after death so greatly that their soul refuses to leave their body.
On other occasions, dark spirits infest a fallen husk, filling it with an evil intellect and an inhuman set of cravings. Sometimes these wraiths are Uncreated shades, while others are errant ghosts, constructs of dark sorcery, or malevolent natural spirits.
Energumen Depraved: The Depraved are normal men and women who have led lives of such wickedness that their spirits dread the grave.
Energumen Spirit-Ridden: The Spirit-Ridden are those energumen created when a spirit inhabits an empty husk, either the ghost of a fearful victim or another spiritual entity in search of a corporeal housing.
Energumen Uncreated Husk: An Uncreated Husk has been inhabited by an Uncreated spirit.
Energumen Eaten Prince: Eaten Princes are the most powerful variety of energumen, as they've carefully prepared themselves for the transition into an unliving husk. Most candidates fail the process, but those souls that remain clinging to the eviscerated shell of their former body gain great occult power from the gory transition.
Some exceptionally desperate cults have formed around men and women who choose to be devoured by husks in hopes of rising as an energumen. These half-suicidal initiates understand that the more foul and reprehensible a soul's life, the more likely it is to rise as one of these self-willed husks, though few realize that this result is due more to a dead soul's terror of judgment than any quality of spiritual vileness they bring to their grave. By enduring the brief horror of being eaten alive, they hope to win survival for themselves and their cultists, to say nothing of the ageless immortality that undeath brings.
Despite whatever qualms they may have, these candidates perform horrible acts in a ritualized manner in order to prepare themselves for "the new life". When the cult's leadership is confident that they have properly prepared themselves fully, they are shackled to a rack and killed by a husk. Most such souls fall into the dreamless sleep of the grave, but a few spirits cling to their mutilated bodies with such fervor that they rise as energumens, strengthening the leadership of the cult.

 

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The Secret Fire

The Secret Fire
The Secret Fire
Undead: Call Forth the Dead prayer.
Ghast: ?
Ghost Warrior: Some are bound by oaths that survive death, ties of loyalty or duty that compelled them in life and now do so in death. Ghost Warriors are such, often returning to the same site many times over and walking the same paths as they did when they were mortal. Ghost Warriors are often found in ancient ruins and battlefields, where it is not unknown for opposing forces of Shades to battle once again and forever. They often manifest in specific times and at specific places, or when they are summoned, as with the Avengers of the Fallen prayer.
Ghoul: They usually come into being as the result of a creature that has resorted to cannibalism, or by way of an ancient ritual found in certain necromantic texts.
Mummy: Their internal organs have been removed, stored in Canopic jars, and undergone powerful rituals and alchemical processes to ensure that their former host will endure for eternity.
None know which Elder God was involved in the process, but it is with the utmost cruelty that the god laid these powerful lords to rest, only to see them rise again as Undead, often imprisoned within tombs for eternity.
Revenant: Sometimes, a resurrection spell goes wrong and though the body dies, the soul and intelligence remain. This leaves the subject in a terrible twilight world in which their rotting body is driven by willpower alone.
Sandwalker: It is written in the Scrolls of Ytonethotep that anyone consumed by the Locust Swarm of a Mummy while within a tomb sacred to Horus will be cursed to an eternity of undead service. Forever will they serve the Mummy whose treasure they sought to steal.
Anyone reduced to 0 Stamina by a Mummy’s Locust Swarm attack will become a Sandwalker, so cursed for as long as its Mummy creator exists.
Skeleton: Skeletons are one of the more common forms of undead, and are the easiest to create for those with a penchant for necromancy. Essentially, Human and Eld remains are imbued with a semblance of life and rudimentary intelligence, allowing them to obey simple commands and have a basic understanding of their environment.
Skeleton Shattering: ?
Vampire: None know how they came into being, but they have fed on mortals from time immemorial. Sages whisper of an ancient curse, while others insist that Vampires are created, not damned. The sages whisper for good reason — any who pry too deeply into Vampire lore tend to disappear.
Vampires can create more of their own kind by draining a victim of all Health then restoring it. Their (possibly willing) victim is drained to the point of death when the Vampire opens one of its veins to enable the would-be Vampire, or Childer, to feed. This results in an intense bond between the creator, or Sire, and the victim. The Childer is dead for all intents and purposes, but rises three days later as a true Vampire at dusk.
Vampire Spawn: Stamina Points lost to a Vampire’s blood drain ability return after a d6 days of bed rest. During that time, the victim is linked psychically to the Vampire but remains in a delirium. Each Health point a Vampire drains gives it an Energy Point that it can use. A Vampire may return to the victim to drain more, but should the victim’s Health drop to 0 as a result, he or she will die — rising three days later at dusk as Vampire Spawn.
Whisperer in Darkness, Wraith: Characters killed from a whisperer in darkness' touch of death return from the grave as a Whisperer in Darkness in 1d6 hours unless they succeed on a Luck Throw.
Zombie: A rotting corpse shambles toward you, animated by the dark art of necromancy.
Zombies are the mindless corpses of beings that have been animated by necromancy.
Zombie Tomb: Mummies often create their own undead servants, called Tomb Zombies, using their Infect ability.
Tomb Zombies are withered corpses, created by a Mummy to enforce his will.

Call Forth the Dead (Death)
Circle: III Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 10 feet (2 squares) Resistance: —
Area of Effect: Sphere 6 (corpses) Duration: 1 hour/level
Description: Most Holy-Men dare not dabble in powers claimed exclusively by the Elder Gods. Only the worshippers of certain Evil Deities like Set or the foolhardy or utterly desperate, dare to challenge Death itself. Invoking this prayer, you imbue motive force into the corpses of the fallen, the murdered, and the massacred.
The vision of summoning a vast army, unfettered by morale or the base needs of sentience, overcomes any ethical questions or fear of reprisal from Death. You work this dark art in forgotten battlefields or near unmarked mass graves and it is from these macabre sites that large numbers of desiccated undead can be raised. The deeper your knowledge and experience, the more powerful the undead you may raise. Unfortunately, the dead curse the name of anyone who awakens them from their final rest. You have been warned….
Mechanics: All corpses within the area of effect are animated, a number determined by the location in which the prayer is cast (and deteremined ultimately by the MC). An attack roll is made against each corpse, which automatically succeeds, raising the target as an undead creature of the night (see below). However, on a natural roll of 1, 6, or 13, the corpse animates and turns on you, attacking you until destroyed.
The Holy-One determines the type of undead each creature becomes upon being raised, drawing from a pool of twice her own level. For example, a 2nd-Level Holy-Woman (who can create 4 levels of undead) might create a skeleton (level 3) and a zombie (level 1), or four skeletons (level 1), and so forth.
Animated dead automatically follow simple commands given by the Holy-One who raised them. These commands can be no more complex than those she might give a trained animal. The dead follow these commands to the best of their ability until destroyed or until the duration of the prayer expires. If the Holy-Man moves beyond shouting distance, the animated dead continue to perform the last command given them. The Elder God of Death has placed a strong limit on this prayer, preventing a destroyed animated dead from being animated again.
The newly animated dead know very little, and will only act in a manner befitting their existence while alive, namely performing repetitive tasks ingrained in them by years of combat or other occupation. This is another reason battlefields are best suited for raising an army of walking dead.

Curse of Nephren-Ka
Mummies and Tomb Zombies carry a particularly nasty magical curse. As a free action, the curse is invoked and the next melee attack will infect the victim with Mummy Rot. The affected creature immediately suffers great pain as their skin becomes desiccated and covered in lesions. The victim must make a Luck Throw to resist the effects or immediately suffer the loss of 2d6 points of Health. If they are still alive, they will also be scarred and lose 1d6 Presence as a result.
Anyone reduced to 0 Stamina will rise as a Tomb Zombie under the control of the spellcasting Mummy (in the case of Tomb Zombies, then it is their Mummy creator — if the creator still exists). The Tomb Zombie will rise from the dead during the next sandstorm in the domain of their Mummy creator.
Mummy Rot cannot be cured with conventional healing, and requires a remove curse or Aura flensing prayer. The disease also impedes healing, requiring a healer to pass a DC20 Healing check to use any healing spells on the victim.

Curse of Aryneops
Anyone reduced to 0 Stamina by a Mummy’s Locust Swarm attack will become a Sandwalker, so cursed for as long as its Mummy creator exists. Sandwalkers will rise from the sands only when summoned by their Mummy masters.

 

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Spears of the Dawn

Spears of the Dawn
Spears of the Dawn
Eternal: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them.
Eternal may be created by humans, but the new-made immortal is under no obligation to obey their creator, and will likely despise them for their hateful liveliness.
It was the Gods Below who taught the Eternal King the secrets of a twisted immortality, and even now they send dark dreams to their slaves in the living world.
Two centuries ago the eastern land of Deshur, the Sixth Kingdom, was driven to the brink of destruction by the armies of Nyala. The empire’s legions were hurled back into the black deserts of the east and Deshur’s king was driven to take shelter beneath the stones of the mountains in temples long since lost to men. There he discovered new teachers and an old power, and with it he bought a damnable salvation for his people, a salvation that made them Eternal.
The accursed creatures known as the Eternal are the result of a grim and forbidden lore. They are a product of the unholy rites dredged up by the pharaoh of Deshur in the face of his realm’s destruction, learned from serpentine teachers among the roots of the Weeping Mountains. Their existence is an abomination to the Sun and the spirits alike, but the satisfactions of their undying state still tempt many in the Three Lands.
An Eternal is created from an intact human corpse, one lacking no major limb or organ. Through a series of rituals of greater or lesser complexity, the hold of death is broken upon the remains, and the subject rises up as they did in life. Their flesh is in the same condition as it was upon their death, whole or torn, but it has all the warmth, pliancy, and response of life. Indeed, the most perfectly-restored Eternal are indistinguishable in every way from a living human. The Eternal do not age, or breathe, or eat common food, or drink mortal wines. They do not sleep or dream, and they do not weary as mortal flesh wearies.
The Gods Below are hideous things, their numberless names foul upon the lips and tainting to the soul. It was their whispers that taught the Eternal King the black secrets of immortality. Some men secretly worship them for the sorcery they teach, but their rites are invariably and unspeakably loathsome.
The Nyalan empire is blamed for setting off the Long War with their invasion of the eastern kingdom of Deshur. The Black Land’s pharaoh was not a good man but he had done little to earn Nyala’s wrath. Still, Emperor Shangmay would not be content until he ruled the whole of the Three Lands, and his legions pushed the Deshrites up the banks of the Iteru into the foothills of the Weeping Mountains. They made their stand near their stony throne-city of Desheret, and the pharaoh went down into the forbidden temples in the mountains’ roots to make bargains with the servants of the Gods Below.
The secrets he brought back transformed him and his people.
Eternal Dreamer: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them. Those who receive only the simplest and most cursory rituals rise as dreamers, men and women locked into a half-dreaming existence that leaves them only dimly aware of their surroundings.
The rituals of their creation require at least 1,000 si worth of obscene icons and hideous ritual tools, but once these implements are at hand any number of dreamers may be created with only fifteen minutes’ work each by someone with at least Occult-1 skill and training in the rituals.
Eternal Noble: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them. Those who receive better rites become nobles, reborn with their full intellect and a clear understanding of their new estate.
Creating a noble requires 10,000 si worth of expended ingredients.
Very rarely, a ritual meant to create a lesser Eternal will somehow result in the creation of a greater variety, either through blind luck or the natural strength of will possessed by the victim.
Eternal Lord: The Eternal come in several different varieties depending on the nature of the rites used to animate them. Those who receive the finest and most glorious rituals of translation will rise as lords, mighty beyond the dreams of ordinary men and gifted with great sorcerous powers.
Creating a noble requires 10,000 si worth of expended ingredients, while the revivification of a lord demands ritual implements worth 25,000 si and ingredients worth 50,000 more.
Very rarely, a ritual meant to create a lesser Eternal will somehow result in the creation of a greater variety, either through blind luck or the natural strength of will possessed by the victim.
Ghost: Both spirit and undead, the ghost is the disembodied shade of some poor, ill-buried wretch, or a victim so tied to the world by grief or need that they cannot pass on to the land of the spirits.
One of the most important functions provided by a priest is the conducting of funeral rites for the dead. While any family patriarch is familiar with the necessary rituals, the spiritual force of the priest is anxiously prized as a further guarantee against the deceased’s suffering in the afterlife. The people of the Three Lands believe that one who has just died is vulnerable and disoriented by their new condition, and must have help and guidance if they are to safely reach the spirit world. Those without this aid will often go astray, becoming tormented ghosts who share their suffering with their kinsmen. To die alone and unburied is a horrifying fate for any man.
The most minimal rites involve washing the body, arranging its limbs neatly, and burying it with appropriate prayers for its peace and right guidance. Such a pauper’s burial is better than nothing, but still a cause for fear and anxiety. A proper funeral involves the entire community, with a great funeral meal, priestly rituals, and sacrifices to the gods for their aid and favor. The Sun Faithful replace the sacrifices with prayer, but they too share the anxieties of their neighbors over safe passage to the Burning Heavens of their god.
Many peasants and common folk are too poor to afford such a grand funeral, and so instead place their reliance in secret societies of funerary adepts. These societies assure members of powerful magical rites to make up for the lack of material expenditure, and conduct elaborate secret rituals over their deceased members. While membership in these societies is common knowledge, the inner secrets of their practices are guarded jealously. Though a great comfort to the poor, they also sometimes form the nucleus of bands of rebels, dark cultists, and other malefactors meeting under the guise of innocent charity. Other societies restrict their membership to the community’s elite and count nobles, chieftains, and great priests among their number. They join not because they cannot afford the customary feasting, but because the society promises a still better place in the world to come for those worthies who aid it on earth. Sometimes that betterment extends to material concerns or the quiet advancement of their members in court society.
The stronger and better the rites, the more aid is given to the spirit of the deceased. If a dead man or woman is courageous and clear-minded their soul can win through to the spirit world even without any aid. Lesser souls require more help, or they may lose their way between this world and the next and forever haunt the living. Their pain and confusion makes them dangerous to everyone, and ngangas or other spiritual adepts must be called in for exorcisms.
Walking Corpse: Born of an unsanctified death, a walking corpse is an undead body
possessed by its furious soul, one baffled in its attempts to reach the spirit world. Those who die without the help of proper funerary rites risk arising as a walking corpse, to haunt the living as a decaying abomination of noisome flesh.
Spirit: Humanoid spirits are often the shades of restless humans who have returned from the spirit world for their own varied purpose, and qualify as undead for the purposes of certain spells and powers.

 

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