Why don't flesh eating zombies eat each other?

[Wicht]

I think it is just one of those things nobody ever really thought about

I think about it every time I watch Resident Evil. The movie makes it clear that th zombies are driven by "the most basic of needs,...The need to feed." But in truth these zombies are highly social creatures, likely worthy of a documentary.

[cue documentary mode]And here we have the former living residents of Raccoon City, the Raccoon City Zombie. Though in appearance a mindless, appetite driven species, modern researchers now believe that these zombies and others like them have a complex social structure, little understood but evident in their cooperative skills.

Early researchers at first thought of zombies as pack animals, but the lack of any alpha discouraged this line of thought. We notice in this footage how the zombies press forward as one, leading some theorist to believe that there is a hive mentality of some sort at work, similar to that found in ants or bees. How and why a man-made virus would produce this insect like behavior is still a puzzle.[/end documentary mode]

 

[ejja_1]

I think that zombies just follow a simple set of programs:

1) Consume living humans.
2) Avoid obstacles.
3) Return to Number 1.

Fellow zombies aren't living humans so they are just obstacles. These simple lines of programming give you th zombie "horde".

And 28 Days was a well executed film that had major plot holes. The "virus" behaved in a way contrary to living virii. If it was a virus it would need an incubation period. If it was a poison the infected would need time to process more of the poison so that they could infect others. In the film you were converted in about 30 seconds. And were able to infect others as soon as you were converted. A "disease" that spread that fast is just silly. Not to mention how did it spread to other cities? Once infected you become an enraged ape. Enraged apes can't work cars, trains and planes. the authorities just set up perimeters outside of a city. Anyone that doesn't speak gets shot. Phone calls and radio waves move faster than enraged apes. Not to mention that the uninfected can use firearms. Which is why this film was set in England and not the US. Far too many firearms in the US. I personally could have stopped most of those infected attacks with what I have in my home.

Sorry if I hijacked this thread...

Further hijacking....
In the film they explained it as the virus spread so fast they couldnt kill them quick enough, blood spattering from close up combat converted the front line and all that muckety muck. Seems to me like a couple of sealed APC's and some hazmat suits for backup would take care of the problem quick enough.

Back to the thread.

My thoughts are that they are attracted to the life energy of the living, or for lack of a better term the soul of a living being. The fact that they are comprised of negative energy and have no souls would keep them from feeding on each other. But as brought up earlier then they would also attack just about every other living thing on the planet.
Zombies nawing on trees, grazing in fields and even eating soil would be common, maybe thats what they do when they cant get humans who are a stronger source of positive energy. But then wouldnt that same energy be the source of hallowed ground and a clerics turning? Hmmm.....

 

[Hand of Evil]

Zombies don't eat each other because they don't see, other zombies just are not there, zombies go after the life force, blind to everything else.

Movies made now forget the basic zombies of classic films going with fast, wire-fu zombies because that seems to scare people more but I say that is not a zombie, ghoul maybe.

 

[barsoomcore]

Zombies nawing on trees, grazing in fields and even eating soil would be common...

Right. You could like, raise them. Zombie ranches.

"Git along, little undead doggies! Yah!"

The Great Zombie Round-Up. Paint Your Zombie Wagon. Blazing Zombies. The Good, The Bad and The Undead.

 

[barsoomcore]

Movies made now forget the basic zombies of classic films going with fast, wire-fu zombies because that seems to scare people more but I say that is not a zombie, ghoul maybe.

Wire-fu zombies, ew. BOR-ing.

Shuffling, slow-moving zombies are WAY creepier. I mean, it shouldn't be, like, COOL to be a zombie. It should suck. I don't think wire-fu zombies are SCARIER -- was Resident Evil scarier than Night of the Living Dead? I don't think so.

It's just that without "martial arts" fun nowadays, movies can't get made. Everyone wants in on the Shaw Brothers' game now. Even zombie folks.

George Romero, your people need you!!!

 

[Sialia]

OK, this is a slight hijack, but it's a related question, and you guys sound like the experts on this kind of thing to me.

Somebody describe to me the undead creatures that eat living human flesh versus those that eat human corpses, in terms of canonical D&D creatures. That is, if I were writing a module and I wanted to use a corpse eating monster and not make a stupid mistake ("Zombies? Get real. Zombies only eat living flesh. What you've got there is ghouls.") what would I want to use? This isn't a movie, so I can't make 'em up whole cloth. I want to stick more or less to the the rules about these things.

Y'all can make a category for "omnivores" that eat living and dead human flesh, but let's not get sidetracked into generic carnivores that will eat any meat available. I want to stick to more or less classic and recognizable types of undead.

Also, if you were a corpse eating monster, and the only thing left around to eat was a living human, would it be kosher to kill him and then eat his body?

And if you were an undead corpse eating thing and you had a whole lot of buddies who were like you, what keeps you from eating them? The "I only eat live" argument goes right out the window if you're into corpses, don't it?

Have yourselves a merry . . .

 

[Wicht]

Ghouls aren’t picky and will eat anybody, living or dead. In D&D if you want flesh eaters you can’t go wrong with ghouls. Whether or not zombies eat flesh ingame is up to the DM.

And since ghouls are intelligent they will not eat each other first. I have been wondering though if they got too hungry whether or not they would eat each other.

 

[Sialia]

Ghouls aren’t picky and will eat anybody, living or dead. In D&D if you want flesh eaters you can’t go wrong with ghouls. Whether or not zombies eat flesh ingame is up to the DM.

And since ghouls are intelligent they will not eat each other first. I have been wondering though if they got too hungry whether or not they would eat each other.

Just can't go wrong with ghouls, eh?

I guess just to keep my records straight, I should make a column for "blood drinkers" and "energy drainers," too.

Is there a handy guide to this sort of thing already somewhere? Has anybody published a "Compleat Undead," or anythign like that?

(Although what I really want is a free cheatsheet online, of course)

 

[barsoomcore]

The word "ghoul" is actually derived from Arabic, and was used to denote an evil spirit believed to feed on corpses.

The answer to your question depends on whether you're asking about the general use of the terms or their specific meaning in D&D. For the specific meaning in D&D, just consult the MM. It'll tell you who eats what.

For example, in D&D, zombies don't eat anything. They don't even possess a bite attack -- you'd have to work pretty hard to remove an edible bit of somebody with a slam attack.

But back to your question: ghouls and ghasts eat corpses and living people -- though I suspect they kill living people and THEN eat them, so you could say they pretty much just eat corpses. I don't think any other undead does so.

Wights, shadows, bodaks, spectres, skeletons, zombies and ghosts don't seem to eat at all.

Vampires CAN drain the blood of the living but they don't seem to NEED to.

Many of the above drain levels.

 

[Arc]

So, zombies that eat other zombies aren't getting the energy they'd need to stay actively dead, as they'd be tertiary or even quaternary consumers. So the zombies go after things that eat less meat and more plants, like humans (good omnivores that we are).

Of course, this would mean that zombies would rather go after cows than humans, but most zombie hoards attack in urban areas.

Demiurge out.

Oh dear. Zombie cows terrorizing the countryside. And with four stomachs to digest you with, they're hungry.

Seriously though, someone should stat up a zombie cow.