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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zweischneid" data-source="post: 1744824" data-attributes="member: 11843">But they could do so only once, on the day of Ragnarök.Like the christian armageddon or similar scenarios, I'll make exceptions for when your whole campaign world comes crashing down in big ole apocalypse.Point is, they come back for battle and not for the unnatural extended long unlife of the undead, and even with that, I would find it tempting to classify ghostly norse ravagers as evil as they go if eyed throught the lense of classical D&D. I all Ghost Stories I've read, a parent/lover returning as a ghost tends to mean a bad thing. They refuse to give in the the natural rest of death and sooner or later make life a living hell for their spouse. People like to go on with their lifes and new lovers, children like to break free of their parents and start their own life. Sooner or later this will bring them fact to face with their ghostly "protector".As for ghost, banshee's, etc.. they are of course beings with unfinished business.. infact thats exactly what makes them evil. They cling to closely to mortal things, unable to "let go" and turn bitter over all they have lost but fear to pass on to an afterlife without earthly concerns.As mentioned above, the reasons for being evil are many, but they are still evil.Infact I very much prefer these kinds of evil as opposed to the "a necromancer who wants to rule the world raised them". Evil born of pain and tragedy as a much more bitter tang aswell as bringing much more satisfaction to the game when your players put those tortured souls to rest. Dracula also gained his undeath because of love after all.On the other hand, I have never found the "necromancer want's to conquer the world" story in fantasy fiction as far as I know, nor have I used it in a campaign of mine so far.Even if it does exist though.. to conquer the world is not necessarily an evil act. Conan conquered most of his world and he's considered the hero.The act of raising undead as a means to an end is what would be evil. Doesn't matter if that end is to conquer the world, revenge your own death or protect your favorite toys in your tombs.So 3000 years of storytelling are wrong and you are right? As many people told you here before.. your free to make up your own campaignworld as you choose. Many writers have chosen a different angle when writing about death and undeath as your own examples prove. But you shouldn't blame D&D and most of it's players for telling fantasy stories the way the've been told since before time, and that simply means undead=evil 99% of the time and for very good reasons.Going on a wild killing spree? I'd argue he's very much evil, thank you. Very cool but also very evil.Of course the universe of J.O. Barr's Comics doesn't divide the world into good and evil in the first place. Some very, very different assumptions the world is based on compared to D&D.Well here ya go with an interpretation of undead that differs a bit from the more common conception. There are also D&D Campaigns that try this. Have you tried Ghostwalk or Hollowfaust? Doesn't change the fact that the classic Ghost Story is about evil undead and that regular D&D tries to capture the classic feeling, not the exception to the rule.Again, noone's stopping you to build your setting on these parameters.That is, because by default, the act itself is evil and will turn on the culprit sooner or later. Fantasy fiction is full of people who want to raise dead for love, for revenge, for protection, etc.., etc..As mentioned above, I have yet to come across a story where a necromancer wants to conquer the world with dead servants.Honor does not equate to being good. Besides, in most pulp fiction and adventure stories, mummies are infact very evil. There are Games that do cater to a more noble image of old egyptan dead (did you try Mummy: the Resurrection?). But in the "classic" adventure story a mummy is a bandaged monstrosity thats after the life of the protagonists.I hope so.</blockquote>

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