: I think that the Dream of Unlife is used to create undead
: out of still living creatures. That's how Balor turned
: the myrmidons into skeletal creatures. The myrmidon
: description says that no other sorcerer has been able
: to create myrms like that, so maybe Balor was the only
: one who had that dream? In the BLack company, The Lady
: used a similar spell on Whisper to turn her into a
: Taken. Hmmm... Anyone got any other ideas?
The only objection I can muster is that Shades also seem to be created from living beings, and also retain their consciousness. And they are, supposedly, createable by powerful Dark Lords other than Balor. Also, GURPS seems to suggest in the Myrmidon and Ghast sections that the spell for producing self-willed undead (the Myrmidons' self-consciousness is apparently what makes them so amazing) is highly complex, but not necessarily a Dream.
My thought is that there is a more or less ordinary spell that allows living creatures to be converted into self-willed undead, but it's very rare, very complex, very difficult and very energy-draining--except when converting archmages, whose innate power reserves and very strong will help their minds survive the conversion, into Shades. The Dream of Unlife, I think, can be used to majorly enhance whatever necromantic spells you've already got. Once the Dream is activated, it "opens the gates between the lands of the living and the dead"--the living in the area feel an urge to die and the dead feel an urge to rise. An archmage who could create fifty thrall with a wave of his hand can nowcreate a thousand; a Fallen Lord who could use a living-undeath spell on an archmage to create a Shade can now use it on non-mage Zerks to create Myrmidons.
So yes, the Dream probably helped Balor make his Myrms, but it may only have enhanced an existing spell. I think.
--SiliconDream
