After every Myth-related theory/explanation I've ever read, I think this was the one I agree with most, not to mention the fact that it was briliant and a nice read.
: 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.
