Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead

Atrocity Calls to Unlife: Evil acts can resonate in multipledimensions, opening cracks in reality and letting the blightcreep in. A sufficiently heinous act may attract the attention ofmalicious spirits, bodiless and seeking to house themselves inflesh, especially recently vacated vessels. Such spirits are oftenlittle more than nodes of unquenchable hunger, wishing only tofeed. These comprise many of the mindless undead. Sometimesthese evil influences also manage to reinvigorate the decayingmemories of the body’s former host. Thus, some semblance ofthe original personality and memories remain, though the newlyawakened being is invariably twisted by the inhabiting spirit,resulting in an evil, twisted, and intelligent creature. However,this being is not truly inhabited by the spirit of the originalcreature, which has left to seek its ultimate destiny in the OuterPlanes. This amalgamation is something entirely new.Other times, atrocious deeds call dark, reanimating spiritsinto the fleshy form of the newly deceased, leaving the originalspirit intact. This might happen if the person was alreadyevil, or was tempted to evil in life. Alternatively, some goodspirits might be unnaturally trapped within their bodies,slowly being perverted to evil as the dark spirits convert thebody to undead status.Negative Energy as a Supportive Force: While atrocitymay serve as a trigger for unlife, it is not enough to bring abouta transformation of this magnitude on its own. It requires thevery energy that drives dark spirits and their unquenchablethirst for life. That which is dead has no vitality, so where doesthe energy of animation come from? Negative energy—a forcethat is marshaled, stored, and utilized mostly by evil creatures,malign deities, and their servants—provides the power for thismetamorphosis. Just as blood suffuses living creatures, negativeenergy suffuses undead, providing them all their abilities, frommobility to sentience, from flesh-eating to soul-devouring.Negative Energy as a Draining Force: Some claim thatundead exist concurrently on the Material Plane and the NegativeEnergy Plane. More precisely, they believe that undeadon the Material Plane are linked to the Negative Energy Planevia a conduit, just as life itself somehow partakes of positiveenergy.The Negative Energy Plane is the heart of darkness—thehunger that devours souls. It is a barren, empty place, a voidwithout end, and a place of vacant, suffocating night. Worse, itis a needy, greedy plane, sucking the life out of anything vulnerableto its grasp. Heat, fire, and life itself are all drawn into themaw of this plane, which perpetually hungers for more.The very existence of even the weakest undead produces aconstant drain on the energies of the Material Plane, whichaccounts for sensations of cold often attributed to the unliving.As part of the enchantment of their creation, undead “siphon”a bit of the energy flowing from the Material Plane toward theNegative Energy Plane. This “stolen” energy serves to powertheir ongoing existence.More powerful undead have a stronger connection to theNegative Energy Plane and are therefore able to siphon evenmore Material Plane energy for their own purposes before it isforever lost in the Final Void. This type of animation is knownas necromancy, but it could also be called entropic animancy.Wizards speculate that magic might be able to link objects orcorpses to the Positive Energy Plane, in this case reversing theflow of energy.Undeath as Contagion: Many undead have methods ofpropagating their curse among their previously living victims.For instance, those infected by the diseased bite of a ghoulmay contract ghoul fever. Those who perish from this rottingillness rise at the next midnight as ghouls themselves. Inthis way, some undead recruit the formerly living into theirshuffling ranks.Undead propagate in a sick parody of life’s method of multiplying.Worse yet, undead proliferation is far quicker, easier,and doesn’t require the consent of the creature to be madeundead—only a victim’s inability to drive off the grave-bornattacker.Purposeful Reanimation: Count on the knowledge-seekersto pursue too far the spark of life, and the dark fruits ofdeath. Some seek death’s secrets out of fear, thinking that byovercoming mortality, they will have no more to dread. Mageswho tread this road to its conclusion sometimes embrace deathcompletely, though they do not become immortal but simplyenduring. Spellcasters who adopt this existence are commonlyknown as liches. To their sorrow, most find that forsaking allthe pleasures of life while continuing to exist is a fate worsethan the absolution of true death. Others probe the boundariesbetween one’s last breath and the final silence solely for thesake of knowledge. Shorn of conscience or any passion otherthan the need to know the truth, these dabblers have beenresponsible for plagues of zombies, soul-snuffing winds, andother atrocities.Sometimes these learned mages also experiment withanimation of inert matter that shares many properties withthe animation of undead, especially when the inert matter inquestion is composed of the cast-off body parts of once-livingcreatures. Such creations are commonly known as flesh golems.However, as similar as a flesh golem (or any other construct)may appear to a zombie, constructs and undead remain separateentities, for two main reasons. First, negative energy isnot a requisite power for any common construct, includingflesh golems. Negative energy does not energize constructs,nor does negative energy play a part in the methods wherebyconstructs can afflict foes. Second, constructs are not animatedby evil spirits, but rather by elemental spirits. By some people’sestimation, this similarity is too close for comfort, but most feelthat the difference is great enough to warrant a clear separationof type.UNDEAD PHYSIOLOGY“Necromantic metabolism and faith are indistinguishable. What isanimation of fallow tissue if not faith so pure and undiluted that itcan reach past the grave?”—Gulthias, vampiric head of Ashardalon’s Cult“I know only this—I feed to live, and live to feed.”—Redbone, wight assassinBarring misfortune or their purposeful destruction, undead canexpect to survive in good health for thousands of years, possiblyeven a great deal longer. Undead creatures differ from theliving in far more ways than just longevity, however. This sectionexpands on the undead traits already noted in the description ofthe undead type on page 317 of the Monster Manual.CHAPTER 1ALL ABOUTUNDEAD7