Undead Origins


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World of Aetaltis: Gamemaster's Guide
5e
Lesser Bound Undead: Once a month, on the night of the new moon, the cleric [of Endroren] may summon forth a non-dark spirit of their choosing that has not yet left Aetaltis for Numos and forcibly bind it to a corpse. The result is a lesser bound undead that must serve and obey the cleric until either the cleric is killed, the cleric releases it from their service, or it is destroyed.
Lesser Bound Undead, Aggressive Fighter: ?
Bound Undead: Bound undead are corpses that have had spirits forcibly reattached to them, usually by dark magic.
A life-draining monster that results from a dark spellcaster forcibly binding a spirit to a corpse.
Bound Undead, Undead With a True Spirit Forcibly Rebound to a Dead Body, Life-Draining Monster: ?
Undead, Undead Monster, Undead Creature: ?
Walking Dead: ?
Animated Undead, Common Animated Undead, Animated Corpse: ?
Ghast: Both ghouls and ghasts are a special type of undead formed by a rare dark magic effect that kills the body but doesn’t sever its connection to the spirit.
Ghast, Special Type of Undead: ?
Ghost: Ghosts, specters, and wraiths are spirits no longer tethered to their physical form, but which have not yet journeyed on to Lensae. For some reason they remain tied to Aetaltis and are unable to move on.
Ghost, Spirit: ?
Ghostly Entity: ?
Ghoul: Both ghouls and ghasts are a special type of undead formed by a rare dark magic effect that kills the body but doesn’t sever its connection to the spirit.
Ghoul, Special Type of Undead: ?
Lich: Liches are arcane spellcasters that shattered their personal essence vessel by way of a ritual, killing their body but leaving their spirit attached.
Mummy: ?
Mummy Lord: ?
Mummy, Walking Dead, Animated Undead: ?
Mummy Lord, Bound Undead: ?
Shadow: [ S]hadows are effectively dark elementals, semi-sentient spirits of darkness formed from the essence of Endroren himself.
Wraethdari Animate Shadow legendary action.
Shadow, Dark Elemental, Semi-Sentient Spirit of Darkness, Sentient Evil: ?
Shadow, Animated Shadow: ?
Skeleton, Normal Skeleton: It is possible for a bound undead to degrade to a point that it is nothing more than a skeleton.
Skeleton, Walking Dead: ?
Skeleton, Animated Undead: ?
Bound Undead Skeleton: ?
Specter: Ghosts, specters, and wraiths are spirits no longer tethered to their physical form, but which have not yet journeyed on to Lensae. For some reason they remain tied to Aetaltis and are unable to move on.
Specter, Spirit: ?
Vampire, True Vampire: ?
Wight: Wights in the World of Aetaltis setting are undead of the same general variety as ghouls and ghasts; a dark ritual or other source of corruption killed their body but left their spirit attached to it.
Will-o'-Wisp: In the world of Aetaltis, will-o’-wisps are a type of ghost. Specifically, the spirits of some fey, especially fairies, become will-o’-wisps rather than ghosts when they’re unable to move on to Lensae.
Will-o'-Wisp, Type of Ghost: ?
Wraith: Ghosts, specters, and wraiths are spirits no longer tethered to their physical form, but which have not yet journeyed on to Lensae. For some reason they remain tied to Aetaltis and are unable to move on.
Wraith, Spirit: ?
Zombie: Victims of the wight that return as zombies are animated undead.
Zombie, Walking Dead: ?
Zombie, Animated Dead: ?
Bound Undead Zombie: ?
Haunted Mill: ?
Haunting: From creaking footsteps on the stairs when no one is there, to the strange lights seen in the window of the abandoned house on moonlit nights, strange supernatural events triggered by past traumas or ghostly entities are well-known on Aetaltis. In metaphysical terms, when a powerful enough emotional tragedy occurs or a spirit is trapped on this plane, the ambient essence in a place may take on a pattern creating magical effects observable in the physical world.
Haunting, Strange Supernatural Event: ?
Haunting Chilling Aura: A jealous neighbor poisoned the mead of a good farmer that once lived in this house. The result is a relatively harmless but somewhat unnerving haunting. The haunting brings to life the cold horror felt by the farmer in the face of his own impending doom, and it fills the room with a deep, otherworldly chill. To end the haunting permanently, the murderous neighbor must be brought to justice.
Haunting Dryad's Torment: For years, a greedy woodcutter went about chopping down the largest and oldest trees in the forest that surround this tower. At last, he made the mistake of chopping down the tree that served as a home to a dryad. Furious, the dryad cursed the hunter, creating the haunting in this tower.
Haunting Spectral Noises: A miserable old man lived alone in this house for many years. He hated everyone, and in the end he died alone in his bed, unmourned, unburied, and forgotten. His ghost is trapped here now, and each night when the sun sets the strange and terrible noises begin and continue until sunrise.
Haunted House: ?
Haunted Village: ?

Animate Shadow (Costs 2 Actions) The wraethdari creates a shadow by bringing nearby shadows to life. The shadow remains in service to the wraethdari until the next sunrise, it is destroyed, or the wraethdari dismisses it. The wraethdari may have a number of active shadows equal to its Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).
 



Iron Kingdoms Requiem Campaign Setting
5e
Undead, Undead Creature, The Dead, Unquiet Dead, The Living Dead, Restless Dead, Unquiet Spirit: Unearthed records tell tales of lords who summoned forth monsters from earth and sky to do their bidding and called forth the dead from their graves to take up arms against the dread kingdom’s enemies.
Undead Monstrosity: ?
Undead Soldier: ?
Gravel-Belching Undead: ?
Undead Servant: ?
Undead Inhabitant: ?
Undead Minion: ?
Powerful Undead Creature: ?
Enthralled Undead: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghost of a Slain Skorne: ?
Lich Lord: Toruk wasted no time in transforming the ruling pirate kings into the twelve beings known today as the lich lords, and they became the instruments by which the Dragonfather reshaped the islands into the seat of the Nightmare Empire of Cryx.
When the Dragonfather Toruk first arrived on the shores of the Scharde Islands, its people were ruled by thirteen pirate kings who were among the most cunning, vicious, and bloodthirsty mortals ever to ply the waters of the Meredius. The Dragonfather gave them a choice: kneel before his majesty or be consumed by it. All but one of the pirate kings bowed their heads and offered their crowns, and with a gust of his terrible breath, Toruk remade them all into the first of his lich lords, the most powerful and ruthless of all his many undead servants.
Lich Lord, Instrument, Most Powerful Ruthless Undead Servant, Right Hand, Terrifying Being: ?
Benign Shade: ?
Benign Specter: ?
Exalted Dead: Alexia had become the guardian of a powerful artifact known as the Witchfire, and she used this dread blade to summon the exalted dead of the Legion of Lost Souls, who repelled Vinter IV and his allies on the Longest Night.
Shambling Dead: ?
 
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A Strange Light Breaks
5e
Headless John, John Addelstow, Ghost, Specter, Spirit, Angry Spirit, Angry Specter, Moaning Crybaby of a Ghost, Figure of a Man: The spirit was once John Addlestow, a Cygnaran soldier of the 95th Trencher Division. Following a campaign against the Khadoran army in a border skirmish, the soldier was separated from his unit and made his way into the Ordic city. There he remained for several months, trying to scrape together enough coins to make his way home.
After a night dicing in order to earn funds, John got into a scuffle with an opponent who accused him of cheating. In the fight, John’s opponent fell back and cracked open his skull on the hearth of the tavern where they’d been playing.
John’s gambling partner was a distant relative of the Mateu family, an influential trade family in Ord. The Mateu’s pushed for John’s swift execution as reprisal for the death of one of their own.
John went to the executioner’s block, but the (already aging) headsman, a man named Lowen, failed to kill him cleanly. The axe fell most of the way through John’s neck, so he died bloody and slowly. His angry spirit remains, bitter about the circumstances that led to his sloppy execution.
Emil Todmann, Ghost, Chapter Head, Skinny Man With a Faded and Drooping Mustache Wearing a Threadbare Mail-Courier's Uniform, Man, Senior Field Agent, Undead Desk Clerk, Specter, Brown-Skinned Ordic Man in His Early Fifties Dressed in a Mail-Courier's Uniform, Insubstantial Specter, Former Postmaster, Stand-In Agent, Unusual Ghost: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Incorporeal Undead, Spirit: ?
Undead Creature With the Incorporeal Movement Trait: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghost, Incorporeal Creature: ?
Ghoul: ?
Shade: ?
Specter: ?
Specter, Incorporeal Creature: ?
 

An Echo in The Darkness
5e
Bile Thrall: ?
Brute Thrall: The brute thrall signifies a natural evolution for the proud meat smiths of Cryx, who have long enjoyed integrating local creatures into their malignant creations. These hulking monstrosities are cobbled together from the carcasses of Scharde trollkin and ogrun, along with masses of conduit, steel plate, and discarded mechanika powered by a necrotite furnace.
Mechanithrall, Undead Mechanithrall: Assembled from a horrific fusion of corpses and machinery scavenged from the battlefield, mechanithralls fill the ranks of Cryx’s armies. A mechanithrall’s reanimated body is augmented with two heavy gauntlets powered by dark energies and steam pressure.
Scrap Thrall: Scrap thralls are little more than the spare parts of a fallen ’jack slapped together and animated as a shambling delivery vehicle for necrotite-enhanced bombs.
Sovox the Resurrector, Necrotech, Mad Undead Engineer Who Specializes in the Fusion of Necromancy and Mechanika, Loyal Lieutenant, Squat Ugly Creature On Four Metallic Spider Legs: The necrotechs of Cryx are part necromancer, part mechanik, part evil genius, and spiced with a dash of deranged lunatic.
Bile Thrall, Walking Vessel for Volumes of Corrosive and Digestive Agents: ?
Brute Thrall, Hulking Monstrosity: ?
Brute Thrall, Hulking Undead Thrall, Oversized Brute, Oversized Brute Thrall, Most Powerful Thrall, Towering Brute of a Thrall: ?
Mechanithrall, Figure, Emaciated Undead With Green Glowing Eyes, Gaunt Figure of Meat and Metal, Raider: ?
Scrap Thrall, Ramshackle Undead, Figure, Emaciated Undead With Green Glowing Eyes, Gaunt Figure of Meat and Metal, Raider: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Cryxian Undead: ?
Undead Thrall: ?
Lich Lord Deneghra, Twin Sister, Undead Leader of Cryx: ?
 

Escape the Mind Slavers
5e
Shaft Wight: A humanoid slain by the shaft wight’s Constitution Drain attack or Gravel Vomit attack rises 24 hours later as a shaft wight unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed.
Using forbidden rites, Drinaal’s nemesis tainted the ore the city was famous for, transforming the city’s miners into murderous shaft wights.
A successful DC 14 Wisdom (Survival) check reveals that the exulon could not have been killed by a shaft wight, as they have not risen as one after death.
Exiled from Ghord during the Hundred House Rebellion, Drinaal had many enemies who wished to see her city fail. One of these rivals used profane magic—and, some whisper, infernal influence—to curse the minerals within the mine, causing the workers to transform into dreaded shaft wights, which immediately turned on one another in a fit of violence.
Any humanoid creature that dies from exhaustion caused by blighted malachite rises 1 minute later as a shaft wight.
Shaft Wight, Murderous Shaft Wight, Dreaded Shaft Wight: ?
Undead: ?
Lowly Undead: ?
Undead Body: ?
Half-Dissected Corpse of a Male Dwarf: The half-dissected corpse of a male dwarf strapped down on a slab. The corpse’s left arm has been replaced by a saw-toothed blade, and its open chest cavity is missing a heart. If the heart from area 3 is placed inside the chest cavity, the opening will seal itself, and the corpse will behave as a zombie with an Intelligence of 9 and the neutral alignment.
Zombie With an Intelligence of 9 and the Neutral Alignment: ?
 

Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game – Game Master's Toolkit
5e
Undead, Undead Creature: “So, are you wonderin’ why they call Corvis the ‘City of Ghosts’? There are as many stories about that as there are tavern keepers and old gossipmongers. They say the dead don’t rest well in Corvis, maybe on account of how the shifting soil makes it hard to sanctify graves. A lot of people died in bad ways in the early days of Old Corvis, and those ghosts linger on. Many folks believe anyone who drowns in the canals or the harbor is doomed to walk the city for eternity.”
Mechanithrall: ?
Ghost: “So, are you wonderin’ why they call Corvis the ‘City of Ghosts’? There are as many stories about that as there are tavern keepers and old gossipmongers. They say the dead don’t rest well in Corvis, maybe on account of how the shifting soil makes it hard to sanctify graves. A lot of people died in bad ways in the early days of Old Corvis, and those ghosts linger on. Many folks believe anyone who drowns in the canals or the harbor is doomed to walk the city for eternity.”
Errigan, Ghost: The Imprecator is a foul product of the Thamarite pistoleer Errigan, who once prowled the streets of Corvis in the late 400s AR. The pistol is rough and tarnished, its metal surfaces covered with pitting and stained a greasy greyish color. Its cracked grips are roughly carved from worm-chewed wood adorned by weathered Telgesh runes that are illegible yet still manage to suggest the profane rituals of the weapon’s creation.
Although Errigan created this fell weapon to exact final vengeance upon his enemies, he ironically became its last victim after he was cornered by the Corvis City Watch. Refusing to be taken alive, he turned the pistol on himself, and his ghost is now inextricably bound to the weapon.
Father Cappu, Hungry Ghost: This item once belonged to Father Cappus, a priest in Corvis who was murdered by the prelate Tommasen. Cappus became a hungry ghost that haunted the Undercity and fed on the spiritual energy of his victims.
Morbus, Lich Lord: ?
Lich Lord: ?
Iron Lich: ?
Tremulus, Iron Lich, Mad Iron Lich: ?
Shade: ?
Skeleton: ?
Shambler: ?
Boneswarm: ?
Deathbound Revenant: ?
Deathless: ?
Dread: ?
Goreshade, Eldritch: ?
Sythyss: ?
Entombed: ?
Excruciator: ?
Feralgeist: ?
Gatorman Husk: ?
Bile Thrall: ?
Bloat Thrall: ?
Brute Thrall: ?
Soulhunter: ?
Scylla Flock: ?
Sepulchral Lurker: ?
Risen Thrall: Unless shielded by divine rituals or contained within one inch of metal, the Witchfire radiates powerful necromantic energy that automatically raises the remains of dead humanoids as risen thralls within an area equal to 100 feet × your proficiency bonus.
Thrall Warrior: Unless shielded by divine rituals or contained within one inch of metal, the Witchfire radiates powerful necromantic energy that automatically raises the remains of dead humanoids as risen thralls within an area equal to 100 feet × your proficiency bonus. While you are attuned to the Witchfire, these thralls are under your control. Once per day, you can raise a humanoid corpse as a thrall warrior instead of a risen thrall.
Pistol Wraith: ?
Risen Thrall, Swamp Shambler: ?
Risen Dead: ?
The Burning Dead: ?
Walking Dead: ?
 

Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game – Legend of the Witchfire
5e
Dread Remnant: ?
Risen Gatorman: ?
Risen Thrall: Eight mangled bodies lie among the ritual detritus in the room. Any character who closely examines the bodies and succeeds on a DC 14 Intelligence (Arcana) check identifies the runes cut into the bodies as thrall runes, which allow a necromancer to animate corpses or skeletons as risen thralls.
Once the party has ascertained the location of the ritual, the corpses in the room spontaneously animate as eight risen thralls and lurch to attack the characters.
Alexia [the Wracked] can use her action to animate the corpse of one Medium or Small humanoid as a risen thrall.
Thrall Warrior: Alexia [the Wracked] can use a bonus action and expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to animate the corpse of one Medium or Small humanoid as a thrall warrior.
Dread Remnant, Desiccated Corpse With Cruel Blades Instead of Hands and Plates Grafted Onto Its Leathery Flesh, Blade-Armed Dread, Implacable Dread: ?
Dread Remnant, Horrifying Guardian: ?
Dread Remnant, Shock Trooper: ?
Waterlogged Risen Thrall: ?
Risen Thrall, Restless Dead, Lesser Undead: ?
Thrall Warrior, Armored Thrall Warrior Wielding a Jagged Greatsword, Skeletal Undead Clad in a Rusting Chain Hauberk: ?
Undead: Unfortunately, by the time the characters arrive, the cultists have been slain by undead animated with the assistance of the very artifact they stole.
Corvis is known as the City of Ghosts for a reason, and even though full-fledged undead incursions are relatively rare, the dead do not rest easy within the city. Curses, hauntings, and spontaneous animations are distressingly common and often fall under the purview of either the Church of Morrow or the local chapter of the Strangelight Workshop, an eclectic collection of adventurers and investigators with a penchant for the weird and fantastical.
Undead Thrall: ?
Marauding Undead: ?
Undead Orgoth Deathless: ?
Specter: ?
 
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