U is for Undead

The Old World is both blessed and fouled by the Winds of Magic. In the latter, the Winds can be manipulated and corrupted into Dhar, the Dark Wind. Dhar fuels Dark Magic.

Dark Magic is the tool of those that serve Chaos in all its manifestations: disease, indulgence, murder, and change. But necromancy holds a special attraction to the wielders of Dhar: to fuel the armies of undead mustered by power hungry and vengeful Necromancers. The Vampire Counts are also skilled necromancers and their subjects are often slaves in life and death.

The Undead in fact includes many forms that, on casual inspection, may appear to be alive. Vampires are the most common form of Undead in this category. It is said that many “upstanding" nobles of the Empire may be Vampires.

Ghouls are often placed in the category, but ghouls have been observed in “social groups" and often act alone without a Necromancer master. The greatest number of Undead are what we call “zombies" or the skeletal men, and possibly women, that are mustered in great armies.

Given “life" through the Necromancer, these skeletal armies might be raised from battlefields or cemeteries. Tattered clothing and rusted armor hangs on rotten leather from the bones of these Undead. They mass and attack in unrelenting and fearless hoards. These armies can be literally crushed into dust or the Necromancer killed. On killing the Necromancer wielding the Dhar these armies are robbed of the “life force." Armies of skeletal warriors have been known to collapse en masse with the death of their “master."

Necromancers are often recluses. Fueling their own lives with Dhar, necromancers seek to cheat death . Often a necromancer may pass into a form known by some scholars as a Lich. Lichs are another form of Undead, some say more evil than the Vampire Counts.

Editor's Notes

The Undead are a common adversary in TTRPGs. Vampires and Lichs make great villains with inscrutable plans that span centuries.