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Let's have a grand taxonomy of the types of undead

Mr. DarcyMr. Darcy
edited 2013-11-21 23:25:14 in General

Disembodied souls: ghosts

Soulless bodies: zombies, skeletons

Souls attached to dead bodies: vampires

Let's fill it out.

Comments

  • HavenHaven
    Let me tell you. About Fallen London.
    image
  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    image
  • Previous CalicaPrevious Calica
    (flower path)
    zombie goasts leave this place
  • Yarrun XIXYarrun XIX
    Whores! we want "poems that kill."
    Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
    guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
    and take their weapons leaving them dead
    Geist? Geists???
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    Wraiths, liches, shades, ghouls, mummies.
  • Mr. DarcyMr. Darcy
    "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens
    Fossilmaiden said:

    Wraiths, liches, shades, ghouls, mummies.

    How is each categorized?
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    Hmm. Good question.

    Wraiths and Shades: Disembodied souls.
    Lich: Body with the soul attached to a different object.
    Mummies: Body with a soul?
    Ghouls: Soulless body.
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    I thought a ghoul was a higher-level zombie.
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
    Ghouls actually originated as a type of jinn in Arabian folklore. A bunch of them were converted to Islam in One Thousand and One Nights.
  • Mr. DarcyMr. Darcy
    "It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him." -- Charles Dickens

    I think D&D picked up "ghouls are undead" from Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. The character Ra's al Ghul was created in 1971 with the meaning being given as "head (of) the demon" and not "undead head".

    Though as noted, a bad jinn isn't quite a demon either, as they can be converted.

  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    edited 2013-11-22 16:10:32
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    There are several different and distinct kinds of zombies. The modern, post-Romero kind are quite different from the classical zombie, which has a mind and a soul but is bound by magic to serve a designated master.

    Revenants are yet another matter, the word being a catch-all for the resurrected dead but generally (in the European tradition) being bodies possessed by demons, sometimes feeding upon blood or live flesh for sustenance. They are not unlike classical zombies, but without a master and more malicious and rowdy; old-school vampires are a distinct subtype within them.

    Also, the loup-garou of southern France, Haiti, Canada and Louisiana are a kind of vampire, but also a kind of werewolf, sort of. Gumiho are the Korean analogue, being heart-eating fox spirits that can assume a human form, frequently that of a beautiful woman or a former victim (or both).
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