Why are undead inherently evil?

[RUMBLETiGER]

Commonly, those who create undead do so with evil intentions. Because it makes for good story plot.
What also makes for good story is the good guy who uses undead. I've seen many an interesting Dread Necromancer PC do cool things.

 

[Weather Report]

Also, should necromancy be the domain of mages and clerics.

 

[Henry]

As I recall from my classical upbringing, Hades was no more of a douche than the other Olympian gods, and pretty much everyone, whether god, monster or mortal, in Greek mythology. And then there's Arawn in Celtic mythology: despite his portrayal by Lloyd Alexander, in the Mabinogion he's a very nice and honourable bloke. (Interestingly, I can't recall any instance of apparitions/ghosts/undead in Celtic mythology.)

I agree that it's a cultural thing, though. But I think it stems mostly from very real risks, in pre-modern times, of disease caused by corpses and the probability of being killed by things that lived in the dark.

Arawn I think is the archetype of "non-malicious or good death god" in D&D. In the 80s I even cribbed him as death-god for a homebrew i ran because I wanted a "not Nerull".

And touche for the "douchey" greek gods comment - i was thinking mainly of the persephone thing. If there's one thing those ancient greeks liked it was a bunch of drunk frat boys for deities...

"Sure I cut off my old man's junk, but he had it comin'! Mom said so! Hey, Oceanus, wanna see how many babies I can stuff in my mouth at once?"

"HA! Cronus, you are one crazy mother..."

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Many legends about intelligent undead (vampires, draugr, etc) seem to have them be outright evil. Even those that were good in life seem to suffer "soul damage" that makes them evil. Doing that to someone is therefore an evil act too. In some settings, creating undead requires additional power in the form of ritual sacrifices and the like, and many communities would feel strongly about necromancers raiding the graves of their families for "research material" or worse. (This kind of attitude hampered medical research way back when.)

As for zombies, one of their origins is "voodoo" (Hollywood voodoo rather than the real thing, of course), and while the zombies might not be evil, whoever erased the souls from their bodies certainly is.

 

[Warbringer]

(Interestingly, I can't recall any instance of apparitions/ghosts/undead in Celtic mythology.)

Banshee (bean si) Brian Boru

RE the OP why evil? I think that mostly because it follows the perceptions of "undead" in popular writing and culture, be that Dracula, Lord of the Rings (Vampires, Wraiths), Walking Dead etc (here the zombies aren't undead, but to "actively" put someone into such a state by choice would be perceived as an evil act).

To have a significantly different position from this would put the game at odds with popular perception.

 

[Ahnehnois]

To have a significantly different position from this would put the game at odds with popular perception.

True, but I think it goes deeper than that.

After all, if undead did not have some very negative connotations, why wouldn't everyone want to be one? Why would anyone die at all? The implications of an eternal state of life being acceptable are world-altering.

 

[Cyclone_Joker]

True, but I think it goes deeper than that.

After all, if undead did not have some very negative connotations, why wouldn't everyone want to be one? Why would anyone die at all? The implications of an eternal state of life being acceptable are world-altering.

Except it's very difficult to become an intelligent undead safely and in a way that leaves you relevant. Liches require you to be a relatively high-level spellcaster and be willing to screw with your own soul, not to mention be Evil, ghosts require you to be a wizard to actually matter much, necropolitans require you to die a very slow, very painful death, and obviously causes some damage from coming back, what with the lost level and the XP cost, and all the others I can think of require you to be predatory and Evil or just a mind-slave of some high-level caster.

Necropolitan and ghost are the only ones that would even resemble being acceptable in most cases. Necropolitan isn't going to be readily available, because most people are level 1. Ghost has the problems that come with being incorporeal. And, really, I figure any wizard who really wants immortality can achieve it on their own anyways, it's not that hard and there are multiple spells that can get you there, so I don't see it changing much so long as the number of high level people are low.

 

[Warbringer]

True, but I think it goes deeper than that.

After all, if undead did not have some very negative connotations, why wouldn't everyone want to be one? Why would anyone die at all? The implications of an eternal state of life being acceptable are world-altering.

That's a good question, and I'd say in current popular vampire culture (from Interview to True Blood) the goal is to want to become a vampire and reap the joys of eternal life, even if that does necessitate the murder of "the cattle"*.

But in older culture, where these stores are conveyed by folktales, the undead want something from the living , be that blood, life or of course "brains" (a little more modern there), and so should be avoided. But I'd say at the heart of "they are evil" is the fear of death and the "undead" are a personification of that fear in that "they have returned from the unknown".

--
*In that context, the becoming of a vampire has more to do with Ubermensch, and is more in line with common with "X-men" than traditional vampirism

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Additionally, undead tend to kill the living when given the opportunity. Reproduction and hunger are powerful driving forces, and the primary way to make more undead and feed undead is to kill living.

That tends to be viewed as Evil by those living.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I've always done were the classic intelligent undead* could be any alignment. A reformed lich? Sure. A vampire in charge of the night watch? Why not. A mummy guarding the tombs of knights of the holy order? Of course! Heck, I ran a game once where a vampire noble owned all the slaughter houses around the city. He sold the meat to the mortals and collected the blood for his brethren.

Deathless, for me at least, was WotC trying to address good undead without massive errata.

*Things like the mohrg, which are born out of horrible atrocities are still typically evil.