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Level9Drow — Undead, Zombie
#fantasy #undead #zombie #dungeons_and_dragons
Published: 2012-04-08 18:57:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 6007; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 0
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Description
This is a Zombie. And zombies DON'T move fast, ghouls do. Zombies DON'T eat brains, or anything else for that matter, ghouls do. Zombies DON'T make other zombies, ghouls make other ghouls. In American pop-horror zombies have been mistaken for ghouls this whole time.Real zombies are merely animated corpses, not mutants or "diseased" humans as other pop-horror videogames would mislead you to believing. Zombies can only move as fast as their legs allow in accordance to how rotten, broken or atrophied. So most proper zombies are slow moving. Zombies only maim, claw and bludgeon, they don't eat anything, and this is because many of them may not have a mouth, throat or a stomach . Zombies don't have super strength and are commonly weaker than humans, this is because their flesh is dead and rotting and they are the weakest of the unliving creatures.
For those who like pop culture zombie (not real undead or undead for 14 year old girls and mouth breathers) I refer you to the ghoul.
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Comments: 8
I'd argue against the idea that a zombie is weaker then a living human, though. The human body is capable of great feats of strength, but we're actually limited by our ability to feel pain, which prevents us from "overclocking" our bodies by straining past our ability to resist damage.
Zombies have no awareness of pain, and are unable to hold back their physical bodies to avoid damaging themselves. So a Zombie could use more of his body's physical strength then a living human could. At least until the decay and wear and tear set in, mind.
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I agree, this is why undead in general are immune to critical damage, things that would debilitate the living. However zombies, and just zombies, not ghouls, vampires and most other undead, are rotting and the flesh has lost a significant amount of tensile integrity and is weaker than living flesh. That is, the muscle tissue itself is turning to mush and is less stronger than living tissue, which is VERY strong. The ability not to feel pain itself doesn't equate strength. This would mean the those people with the disorder no to feel pain would be known to be very strong, and they're not, in fact, any more noticeably stronger than anyone else. So zombies in particular are less agile, less strong and lumbering compared to humans. This also has an effect in game mechanics as serving a "tier" of undead for low levels. Without them there would be no low level undead to fight, and there needs to be diversity among game encounters. However, Ghouls and Vampires, that's different.
These guys don't rot and some sort of necromantic power is keeping them together. So their muscles are just as adequate, and in some cases enhanced, my dark magic. Their tissue isn't digressing into mush. They are agile, strong and lethal. Essentially for higher level players. I hope that gives some insight to my reasoning.
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Disgusting. And suprisingly accurate, as usual.
Those typical pop-horror zombies really are dissatisfying when you think about it. A waddling maggot factory that doesn't possess any mind or consciousness or the need to feed shouldn't even act that hostile... Throwing their decomposing bits at people only makes them rot faster. Though, without the aggressive behaviour, their existance alone seems pretty pointless...
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I like the puking ones form Castlevania. They are terrible.
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much like my idea. however i go further, saying that they are not even a normal supernatural phenomenone, nor even undead. they are just defiled corpses made ot move again.
however, depending on the zombie's freshness, they can be dangeorus things. those like this guy are not so dangerous. fresh zombies from newly dead people are more so. they can act without the limitations of pain nor instinct. the human body actually holds a surprising amount of strength. we just can't use it because of our pain and instincts protecting us from inducing unecessary harm.
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Defiled corpses made to move again, dude that's what zombies are anyways. Animated corpses. Through what means is all to the flavor of your story/world. Mine is necromancy, others may be a corrupted meteor or a dark god, but the premis is the same, an animated corpse. And i totally agree with you when you say it depends on freshness, i also hold to that theory as well, it's just most zombies encountered are of the slower weaker type, only because of rot and even a fresh corpse starts to becaome slower and weaker in a mateer of a week or so. So most commonly encountered zombies are weaker, but it's their numbers that do it, however zombies are never fast, this is a higher function of a working brain. Enter the ghoul to fill this spot...
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i make it lesser than that. msot say it is because of demonic, black magic. i make it that it is just ANY form of magic puppetering the body, restarting its base functions of movement. an Angel could make a zombie in my mythos. a Priest can make a zombie, to further emphasis my point.
ghouls are another story. unlike most of my works, the undead are do not possess their own energy. a un energy, if you will, a corruption of the greater powers.
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