Introduction
Hypothesis: The Æther is sort of like a quantum foam, all things derived from it. For instance, the Earth and the Gods both were random creations popping out of the holes in the quantum foam. The Gods, being supernatural spirits of extreme power, then had the ability to create “life” on the Earth.
They did. Life is created by adjoining a partition or piece of the Æther, or perhaps snatching a spirit which pops out of the quantum foam, and adjoining it to the physical matter of the Earth, making a living creature. In theory, anything can have life, have a soul and be animated, but only organic life can reproduce on its own, without extraordinary measures being taken. This is a property of Earth, that organic material is self-replicating. Non-organic beings, such as the Trow, can not reproduce naturally, and are simply walking pieces of Earth that were sculpted into humanoid form, by Nyx, the Goddess of the Trow.
A note on organic life: Once an organic being is created, such as in a womb, it then slowly begins to take in amounts of spirit from the surrounding Æther as it grows, like slowly drinking it a fluid. It goes through stages of spirit-hood and soul, such as starting at a primitive insect level and ending up as, perhaps, a Human or a Ghôl. The insemination of the spirit into organic matter is a natural process which requires no divination, necessarily, though they can do such things.
Conversely, death is the destruction of the physical matter to the point where the soul, or spirit, cannot be withheld inside it any longer. The spirit then is detached from the physical matter. Since the Æther is everywhere, most likely, a sub-level of reality being much like the spatial fabric itself, it can easily absorb a spirit into it again. If the spirit is composed entirely of Æther, it rejoins it and remixes with it, waiting for its volume to be used again in constructing a soul.
Undeath
Then, from here, what is Undeath? or Unlife, for that matter? This subject is difficult to pin down as it has very sketchy definition. I believe the term “Unlife” can be disregarded for now as another term for “death.” We may return to it later. Undeath is the important one, for it is most used and logically seems to make sense.
Undeath seems to come after death. Death is reversed, made “un”, and therefore takes on some properties opposite to death, such as animation. A necromancer, which is actually a term which is vulgarized in meaning from simply one who communicates with the dead, is conscidered a riser of the dead in some form or another; a maker of zombies. A necromancer takes the dead flesh of a formerly living thing, usually an organic dead thing (as they are most common). He performs rites and recites spells, any of these generic magical things bridging the cap between the etherial Æther and the earthen world.
Let us concentrate on the example of a Ghast. A necromancer will take the body of a freshly dead corpse and prepare it in some way or another. Instead of using the original soul which left the body, summoning it to return, the necromancer uses a simpler, cheeper, and more artificial process. There are two possibilites: He uses a piece or extension of his own soul to inhabit the corpse (unlikely); he summons and pulls a small bundle or portion of the Æther into the corpse (far more likely). I tend to lean toward the latter, and will from here on. The piece of the fluid Æther, the artificial soul, is joined to the corpse. This artificial soul is very little in size/complexity, perhaps not more complicated than that of an insect. However, it is small enough so that the corpse can sustain it. Much larger, and it might be too heavy and be torn from the physical matter again, plunging back into the Æther. Besides, the simpler the better as far as minions go.
So, the necromancer creates an “undead” creature, undead because the organic tissue died, and is still relatively dead, but yet walks the Earth again. A soul of sorts is animating it, along with other spells that include preservation, strength, stamina, etcetera. This walking zombie is easily controlled by the powers of the archmage who created it.
Killing the Undead
Technically speaking, it seems redundant to kill something that is already dead. But then, how do Berserks and Warriors hack their way through the undead minions, seemingly killing them after they lose enough health and strength. Well, let us consider again what it means to die. Death occurs in any living creature, as we established, once the physical matter is incapable of sustaining the soul or spirit within it any longer. Though undeath is artificial, it can be ended just the same as with life. Once the physical matter, the zombie creature of a Ghast or, more preferably, a Thrall in our case, can no longer support the spirit within it that animates it, the spirit falls off of it, like the tether connecting to a lighter-than-air balloon cut or burning away. The spirit recombines with the Æther.
The Mandrake Problem
This comes to mandrake root problem which is prevalent to this sort of thing. If mandrake roots heal organic tissue, then why don’t they heal the tissue of, say, a Thrall and make him alive again (only physically, not spiritually)? Perhaps only living tissue can be healed…but then doesn’t that somewhat defeat the point? If my arm has been cut badly by a deep sword wound, or if I’m ill and may even be dieing, isn’t my problem dieing or dead tissue?
Perhaps then the healing powers of the madrake root to life, which cause opposite affects in undead beings, are of a different nature. Perhaps a mandrake instead rights and makes more natural or correct the being which is being healed. For instance, the healing powers of a madrake root on my gashed arm make things correct and right again, changing the damaged tissue back to its natural state, of health, or flushing out the disease which should not be in my body. The act of naturalization upon an artifical life force, like a being of undeath, would tear the artificial soul off from the physical matter, and then nothing would animate the physical matter, it falling to the ground in a great heap, as we’ve delightfully done many times to those who would attempt a sneak Wight attack.
Even further, maybe the madrake’s power is related to that of light magic, and expells dark magic. This is an equally compelling and resonable answer.
Levels and Types of Undeath
This section relates to one of the primary things that brought this predicament of undeath definition to my attention. Are the great Fallen Lords truly undead? How do Shades scale up from Thrall to SB?
Zombies
Zombies are the very simple and uncomplicated forms of undead. They are completely mindless and purely loyal to their unholy masters.
Ghasts are, to my knowledge, the simplest kind of undead creature any necromancer with two sticks to rub together can make. They have an artificial spirit conjured from the Æther and have other spells which preserve and strengthen the corpse, simulating life.
Wights, the “natural” evolution of Ghasts, are made when the skin of the Ghast becomes very waxy when decaying, eventually making a fully sealed body. The decomposition gasses inside, however, cannot escape. These gasses are very flamable too. So, after an excelerated aging process, such as walking in circles under the sun, the Wight has much pressure built inside it with these flamable gasses, and is very unstable. One knive blow to the chest gets it.
Thrall come next, as they require high specifications that “straight of the ground after death” or “a natural evolution.” It seems that the corpses must age first before being made Thrall, perhaps because of the devistatingly explosive effects that occur if left to decompose naturally while being animated. Once the offending tissue has rotted away, it’s time to make a Thrall. A spirit is ripped from the Æther, shoved inside the Thrall, and packaged with armor and an axe. Perhaps other spells are used to create the armor and axes from the metal material left from dead soldiers. I imagine that such doesn’t matter much for the likes of the Fallen.
The intrepid Soulless end this section with their brilliant and ever-skillful, long-ranged javelin attacks (not to mention their most useful mêlée attack). Apparently, they’re much harder to make, and we can see why: they have no legs, no real tissue left on their bones, they float (of all things), and they have quivers which endlessly generate poison-tipped javelins. These guys are impressive, and still are only zombies. They obviously have to age a while to lose all their flesh, some magical sledge hammer has to break their legs, and then a number of other necromantic spells performed on them to get them to do everything else.
Self-Aware
The term self-aware is used lightly in the section, but it does apply to all forms of undead above this level-barrier. These conscious creatures can think generally for themselves, but their Dark masters may not let them act for themselves.
Myrmidons were created by Balor when the Myrms agreed to eternal life in exchange to be bound to Balor and be in his service. This is very different from creating zombies. The souls of the Myrmidons are retained to their forms, for the most part, though artificially. This artificial binding of soul to body is what makes them undead, not to mention healing kills them (which is often a good indicator, especially in m1). Though the soul never actually left the Myrmidon body, the flesh technically can no longer hold on to the soul, at least naturally. Complicated spells and much magical energy were put into these Baloric creations, and they were definitely well worth it for their abilities and human-mindedness in battle. They are kept moving in a rather natural way because they still have minds, though Balor has his thoughts and objectives constantly overtoning the Myrmidons, so he controls them nevertheless. I also don’t doubt that, over time, bits and pieces of the souls may deteriorate, decaying like their exteriors, the Baloric spells engeneered to, as the body gives way, drop and detatch the moral and positive parts of the psyche to keep enough room in the contracting space.
Shades are another kicker, especially since they’ve been defined twice in very different ways. Going by Myth II, they are much like Myrmidons. They willingly bind themselves to the Dark in order to gain some advantage. (Though, as it was pointed out today, who wants to be tortured by the pains of undeath and Shadification to simply gain vengance on disloyal subjects? Perhaps they are more forced into the process than indicated.) The Shadification process is no doubt complex, as the complete, enormous soul (all its powers) must be retained in a body which will decay forever. The ritualistic pain must train (twist) the mind into being able to survive in a decaying body. The magicks and skill in battle Shades employ is very valuable, self-micromanaging an important part of the army. Going by m1, Shades themselves are undead because they died body and soul, most likely the body the only value to the Fallen. The body must still have powers remaining in it to employ magic attacks. However, I can’t imagine that they’d have more than a simple, artificial soul, though more complex than a Thrall or maybe even a Myrmidon to use magic. If that’s the case, then how could Sinis reminisce with Alric or command a small army? Then the old souls of these “long-dead” Avatara must have been resurrected somehow. But Soulblighter couldn’t get Shiver back without Tramist’s Mirror, and I doubt that’s a relic the Fallen like to share.
Fallen Lords
There are many types of Fallen Lords, each with unique abilities and histories to match. The pressing question should be answered now: are these guys undead or what? They are. Evidence? They could be healed in m1, but it seems they figured out how to counter that, creating a shield, or a mask which fools the magical forces of the simple mandrake root. Shades were able to figure this out too. It is logical that only archmages know how.
Shiver is actually a simpler character than her impossible story seems to be. In TFL, Rabican was able to kill her in the most direct sense, simply tearing her soul away from her body. I’m sure her body was vaporized. Her soul was cast onto the “ether” (I just call it Æther because it looks cooler :-), a spirit laying adrift within the expanse of time, like suddenly plunging back into the ocean and not needing to breathe. Well, Soulblighter was able to physically locate where her soul was, invisible as it was to most. Shiver’s soul, that of an archmage and perhaps strong enough to survive, most of the time, as an intact form in the afterlife of the fluid Æther, remained basically together for Soulblighter to patch up her soul and package her inside some body he found for her, or of which is a product of the Tramist’s Mirror…who knows? In any case, Shiver is simple a soul that lived, then died, then was made undead to live again in a new form. She’s definitely undead.
Soulblighter may not have died in the strictest sense, as Shiver seems to keep being able to do, but he did perform many rites and rituals, including mutilation, on himself and other sacrifices to fully preserve his “life” and make it strong. This process itself seems to have made him artificially live, and therefore be undead, as readily apparent when healing him on “The Great Devoid”, as I was so fond of doing. He certainly doesn’t live naturally anymore without a heart, so it’s likely he was just made undeath with the life sucked out of him, replaced by darkness and evil.
Didn’t Actually Die!
And finally, at the top of the scale, is Balor. We know he was undead because we could heal him into death…severed head and all. The Black Arts obviously clash with the Light Magicks’ madrakin’.
Connacht is fabled to have never died and merely returned with a twisted mind, unlike Soulblighter and the rest who probably killed themselves in one way or another and quickly self-resurrected. Since we don’t know what happened in the Untamed Lands, we can’t be sure about the exact circumstances of Connacht’s “death”, or lack thereof. With all the Darkness coursing through Balor, all the undeath that he controls and becomes a true part of, he really does embody undeath itself. This may be enough on its own. If not, we can imagine he sustains himself through artificial means of Black or Dark Magic. Besides that, he’s the GDed Leveler! That evil spirit is certainly worth something evil, and I think any number of things makes him qualify as undead.
Then again, I’m really tired and should off to bed. Tell me if I missed any kind of Undead or Undeath. Good night; I hope my research, as promised in a previous post, has been helpful.
