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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 8570657" data-attributes="member: 79428">I kind of miss how 4E's Open Grave explained undead by saying that creatures have both an animating spirit (animus) and a soul, and that some undead are sustained solely by damanged and tainted animuses (wraiths, skeletons, zombies, even ghouls) while others retain their souls in addition to a tainted animus (ghosts, mummies, vampires, liches). The influence of the Shadowfell, demonic spirits, and even psionic energy were given as possible reasons for an animus to stick with a corpse and rise in undeath rather than dissipating. Most undead were described as hating the living and even memories of their own lives as it reminds them of things they've lost in undeath, and soulless undead in particular subconsciously attacked living creatures out of jealousy and a desire to claim a new soul. Soulless undead were even noted to crowd around the exterior of the Raven Queen's realm in the Shadowfell in hopes she would return their souls to them (though instead her followers destroy these undead petitioners).As for 5E, there are a number of different spells and effects that give hints as to a separation of spirits and souls. Most notably, the spell Speak with Dead is described as returning the animating spirit, but not the soul. The spell also implies that, unlike spells that return a soul, the spirit of a creature can be returned no matter how long it's been dead. This implies that the animating spirits of everything that has ever lived may persist in the Ethereal Plane forever. Perhaps when a necromancer creates skeletons and zombies those immortal spirits are forced into their physical remains and distorted by the magic, and even after destruction and the spirits' release back to the Ethereal Plane they are forever tainted. In that way necromancy could taint the Ethereal Plane and attract the influence of the Negative Energy Plane, which might cause an increase in spontaneously generated undead.</blockquote>

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