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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 3095806" data-attributes="member: 15538">Undead existence is inimical to life, and mindless undead attack the living. While negative energy is not per se, evil, the relationship of positive and negative energy to life is so essential that for an intelligent being to tap into that power is basically evil. In the case of turning and rebuking, the connection is powerful enough that turning undead is always good and rebuking them always evil. In the case of inflict spells, the negative energy basically just burns someone, which is not the same thing. While turning undead is a good act, it is not only the use of positive energy which makes it good, although that is part and parcel in it. Turning undead affects spirits and souls through positive energy. Now, something like a ghost has enough intelligence that it can have its own alignment, which can be quite different than an existence inimical to life. A ghost's existence might be, in some definition, evil or inimical, but the ghost may choose not to act in an evil fashion. Something like a shadow or a vampire (or a nightwalker) has a different relationship with negative energy, essentially being animated by a negative energy force rather than a shell of a person's soul. I think the final answers to these questions really depend on your campaign's cosmology, the nature of the soul, and so forth. IMC, at least, undeath is a condition that emanates from the Negative Energy Plane, but is not identical to negative energy. Undeath is hateful to life, and even a good ghost or reformed lich leads an existence that is ultimately draining on the living in both a physical and spiritual sense. Thus, a LG ghost either passes on, fades away, or evolves... possibly into a more vengeful ghost, but perhaps into something like a spectre. IMC, undeath is inherently parasitic. Even something like a nightwalker ultimately owes its existence to the spiritual energy of living things tinged with suffering. Without death, there would be no undeath.</blockquote>

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