Elstrenian Undead

DIFFERENT FORMS OF UNDEAD IN ELSTREN: Wights, Strigoi, Vampires, Returned, Interstitials, Tombspirits, Revenants, Zombies, Shades, Ghosts, Embers, Shadows, Fragmented, Broken

UNIVERSAL FEATURES: All Undead are affected by the 'sixth sense'. Sapient beings have an innate 'sense' for souls that are damaged or flawed in some way, resulting in people becoming nervous in their presence and being especially unnerved by their gaze.

WIGHTS: An immortal husk-like creature which viciously defends the last embers of humanity in its mostly withered soul, caused by extreme sorrow. Can be fully recovered from. Extremely rare.

STRIGOI: Violent, vicious hivemind creatures resulting from curse-based exposure to the Orchestrator Un. May create Vampires. Lacunae. Cannot be recovered from. Relatively common.

VAMPIRES: A tempered form of Strigoi that retain some degree of humanity. Cannot be recovered from. Second rarest form of Undead.

RETURNED: Complete, intact souls which have returned to life through sheer determination or force of will. Third rarest form of Undead. No downsides.

INTERSTITIALS: Typically mindless, violent beasts which must consume soul matter to maintain their form as both soul and body have been irrevocably damaged by Ichor. Extremely rarely sapient, in which case may recover. Otherwise, uncommon. Lacunae.

TOMBSPIRITS: Extremely powerful gestalt beings created from 'fragments' of souls, much like a Revenant. However, these Tombspirits merely act as mostly instinctual 'guardians' for places of honor like graveyards or catacombs, where they keep the place clean, lit, and violently defend against graverobbers. Rare, not considered negative.

REVENANTS: A gestalt being created when many pieces of dying souls 'meld' into one remaining soul, typically creating extremely powerful, somewhat unstable but still sapient Undead. Rarest form of Undead.

ZOMBIES: The result of negative energy or death permeating a place, causing the dead to rise from their graves. Mindless and violent, Zombies are slow, stupid but resilient and extremely strong. Reacts strongly to light. Common.

SHADES: A soul which clings to life through sheer hatred and spite, driven by an almost otherworldly urge to seek revenge for their death. Uncommon. Once their target is dead, they typically simply vanish.

GHOSTS: A soul, either intact or damaged, which remains in the Mundane Plane for any of a number of reasons. Sometimes completely the same as their original self, sometimes not, sometimes rendered completely non-sapient. Common.

EMBERS: Effectively the 'corpses' of sapient spirits, Embers are totemic beings that lack defining features and stare infinitely into the distance. Motionless and practically eternal, Embers are so weak that they are only visible in the Arcane Channels, but they do maintain a tiny amount of memory.

SHADOWS: The 'pall' left behind by a departing soul who had to cast off a vast weight to leave the Mundane Plane. People who exit great suffering or trauma may leave behind a Shadow, which infuses the area in which they died with differing kinds of negative energy that must either be allowed to decay over a long period of time, or dispelled in some way. Uncommon.

FRAGMENTED: People whose souls have been damaged to varying degrees by magic, resulting in varying anomalous interactions between the soul and body. Some minorly fragmented may have no visible defects at all, while the most fragmented become as walking corpses as their body begins to decay even as their soul remains, even if they may retain sapience. Relatively common.

BROKEN: An extremely rare kind of ghost, considered an evolution of the Fragmented. The Broken are irreparably and horrifically damaged souls which become unstable as a result of being completely dismembered. Unlike the Fragmented, the Broken are shattered into multiple pieces which act independently, though only one retains even hints of sapience, called the Locus, which is where the 'core' of the soul is. These Broken become irrational, unpredictable and lose most faculties, awash in data that their soul is too damaged to process and bleeding with unstable magic that they can manipulate without even noticing, making them among the most dangerous kind of Undead, prone to causing high magical damage to their environment and lashing out at others. The Broken are irreparable, irretrievable, and should be destroyed as soon as possible to end suffering, theirs and others. So profane and unnatural is this level of spiritual damage that the Broken are lacunae.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF 'ANIMAL SPIRITS' IN ELSTREN: Echoes, Doppelgangers, Demons, Phantoms, Wraiths, Leeches

ECHOES: Echoes are the 'inhabited' bodies of people who were left to die or left behind in dangerous situations. These beings are effectively 'perfect' doppelgangers that use a glamour to conceal the fact that they are usually just a corpse. They return usually to feed on the lifeforce of others, particularly to target those who left them behind. Some consider them a form of specialized Demon. Rare.

DOPPELGANGERS: Doppelgangers are created when a very famous or infamous person is completely different than the image that is presented of them. Effectively Faith constructs, Doppelgangers usually form in order to oppose or replace the person they were meant to be. A Doppelganger that replaces its original may act completely normally for the rest of its natural life, becoming indistinguishable from a normal person. Exceptionally rare.

DEMONS: Vicious, quasi-sapient spirits which exist to cause suffering and anguish that they may feed on. They 'haunt' people, frightening, hurting, and sometimes even killing them in order to feed on the resulting outpouring of negative energy. A form of Wraith. Uncommon.

PHANTOMS: The opposite of Demons, Phantoms feed on positive energy primarily. Phantoms attempt to care for the people whose homes they inhabit, but they often severely misunderstand people. Some ancient Phantoms may be sapient to the point of being fully trustworthy and kind, but most will do strange things in the name of pleasing their hosts, a famous example being cruelly and excessively killing intruders. Extremely rare.

WRAITHS: Neutral spirits that may turn into Demons or Phantoms if they feed on too much positive or negative energy. Often pass completely unnoticed through homes, having very little interaction with people. Most people accommodate Wraiths almost like any other house guest if they become aware of their presence. Some Wraiths are capable of conversation. Common.

LEECHES: Spiritual parasites native to the Briar Wilds. These beings 'attach' to a person and follow them around, simply 'watching' them as they sap increasing spiritual energy from them. Eventually, Leeches will kill their host, having consumed their entire soul. Rare.