The Undead: The Creatures of Shi

The Undead

Those Creatures of Shi

The undead are those that lack the vital essence that runs through all living beings, kah, and are instead filled with the essence Shi. Shi is as ancient an essence as kah and it draws from kah. Shi is built through the corruption of kah. It is taken from living things and then imbued in the dead and living which is used to create zombies, wights, vampires, ghouls, and other creatures. Shi is not inherently malefic and destructive. It is often used as such because shi relies on kah to function. Without the living, however, the undead only have inherent limited sources of shi. Shi is not self-propagating as kah is. Kah grows and radiates from the living but shi only exists in the quantities that are created from kah. Shi allows aeth-like abilities and those undead with willpower and intelligence can use both in casting spells or summoning powers. No deity rules over shi much like none rules over aeth, but anathema do exist that are dedicated to different aspects of shi. 

Creatures

Vampires

Vampires appear in multiple forms depending on their origin. Vampires of Velas are blood-sucking aristocrats of their own society that lurks in the dark places of civilization. They require blood to sustain their levels of shi as blood contains much of the circulating kah of the body. They can subsist on animals but to build their power and indulge in euphoric delights they dine on sapient blood. Many drain their victims down to a drop, seeing them as nothing more than cattle to be drained and then their corpses pilfered to create servants from. They have a compulsive need to do so. However, vampires can moderate themselves and practice temperance with the living. Those that consent to feeding pacts may find themselves in the company of multiple willing humans that they take a reasonable amount from and then move onto the next with the main side effects being lightheadedness or lethargy if the vampire is too greedy or excited. Many throughout history and today find the practice of feeding upon animals or these sorts of unions to be denigrating and condescending. A lion does not lay with the sheep, and many vampires are naturally prideful due to their abilities. Vampires are well-versed in aeth as their natural energies of shi can draw upon it like a siphon and shape it. Along with this, they are ageless and immortal in the ways kinds are not. They require a stake through the heart, decapitation, or the burning light of the kah-infused sun to destroy permanently. Anything else will set them in a state of torpor that will be lifted upon the next full moon when they vengefully rise again. Holy symbols and holy words only repel them as much as the user of them truly believes. A cleric that has lost all faith will find themselves the meal of these predators but a drunkard who truly believes in the soul-saving power of Sothe can cause vampires to be turned away in fear and even burned. 

Vampires are created by a ritual where they feed another being with their shi-infused ichor that replaces their blood when they turn. They must be able to place a body's worth into that being which usually requires them to stock up on their reserves using the blood of multiple living. The inducted that feeds upon it will die on the spot and then lay dead for 13 days. On the 13th night, they will rise again with concealable fangs and a thirst for blood that has them drink whatever unlucky victim they can find. Often, the sires of these new vampires take them under their wing and teach them the ways of the midnight aristocracy. 

Dhampirs

Vampires cannot procreate. They are sterile and infertile when they turn. However, they can influence another being's development. By biting the flesh of a gestating being, they can form a dhampir, or half-vampire. Dhampir's are extremely rare and their creation often fails because the bite either kills the gestator or that which grows within them. Those which survive are imbued with unique characteristics from their mortal and immortal sires. They create kah but can corrupt it to shi on a whim, which means they are able to become master kah users. They do not hunger for kah in blood but will not grow their vampire sire's gifts without it. They are able to walk in the sun without dying. They are magic blooded and are born attuned with magic. They can become perfect agents of their sires by having the strengths of a vampire and lacking their weaknesses... if they choose to bow. Dhampirs that feast upon blood will find the compulsion of their sire's heritage powerful and they may become insane and feral beasts if they do not control it. When they feed, they feel like a man who has been tortured under the sun for a century and then feels his first drops of water. 

Wights

Wights are those of the undead that with the help of very resourceful friend return to the waking world within their body or one constructed for them. They retain their powers and skills in life and are fully sapient and aware. However, they lack the magnificent force of a lich nor the trickery-laden guise of a vampire. Wights were originally created as servants that stole the thinking personalities of souls from the afterlife. They still can be created for this reason, but wights often chafe under their supposed submission and often go their own way. Many wights are warriors and serve as champions for their own gain or for the glory of a master they freely bow to. They are feared by the living as harbingers of certain doom. However, not all wights have to be dramatically malefic. Some wights were made of spirits that did not wish to be returned from their rest. These either go mad with the knowledge of their thinking consciousnesses separated from their reward or resolve to do something productive in their new unlife. Wights are powered by shi and their deaths require full destruction or complete removal of shi from their bodies. Kah practices are often called upon to eliminate them and exorcists can remove their soul from the waking world. A mundane warrior either needs a powerful weapon such as a flamethrower or a particularly gruesome bomb to consistently kill them. A wight hacked apart may reattach its severed parts over time by the force of the shi still within their body. These parts need to be destroyed to ensure its final rest.

Zombies

Zombies are those creatures that have been imbued with a minimum of shi to make them shamble upright and serve their masters. They are near mindless and their bodies mainly serve as conduits that their masters control. They can be taught to serve tea, tidy up spaces, kill the living, and other pursuits. They are similar to wights in that their shi must be destroyed to dispel them, but the damaging of their bodies will remove the tiny amount of connecting shi that powers them. However, their points of animation have to be known in order to do so, which makes ranged weapons like rifles and bows harder to use in guessing these points versus the less precise axe or sword. Those with a trained eye can learn where these points are, however. they are the parts of the body that are most active and most similar to how they were when they lived. Zombies can be made out of sapient and sentient beings including humans, elves, cows, and dogs.

Ghosts

Ghosts are spectral haunters that often stay around a single location or an entire area where someone or something has died. There are different varieties of ghosts. They are remnants of the spirits of the living whose kah turns to shi in their death, powering new spectral forms. In broad categories, there are those that linger around the spots of their deaths silently watching the world or bemoaning their living vessel's fate or wander around an area constantly searching for something that they cannot find. These are often harmless. Then there are vengeful ghosts that can maim and kill the living for the perceived misdeeds that were visited upon them in their waking life. Ghosts have varying degrees of personality depending on how much of the thinking conscious spark of the soul remains in them: the animus. The animus is often the unscathed portion of the soul without power that holds the memories, thoughts, wants, and the other parts of a being that makes them, them. Often the animus will escape soul sacrifice into the afterlife while the powerful part of the soul that allowed the animus to be formed can be used, the essence is used by denizens of the hells, certain anathema, or creatures that drink of that vital essence. At times, the animus can be tied powerfully to the worldly realm due to intense sadness, grief, rage, envy, or some other intense emotional state. These animi are the most cursed as without their passing on or exorcism they are trapped without the rest they wish. Although there are some ghosts that prefer this manner of living when their natural rest requires them to honor the deal of a devil or demon they swore a pact to.

There are certain defenses to ghosts. While they are not able to be touched by the living, certain material items can keep them away or harry them somewhat. Rocksalt is one of them, and the invention of the gun makes its use as a mobile defensive weapon much more easily done than a crossbow or unwieldy arrow. Rocksalt is often packed into shotgun shells in lieu of pellets and fired to cause the ghost intense pain while pushing them back dependent on how much of the salt hits their immaterial form. Why this works is unknown. The classic technique of surrounding one with salt also works well to stop ghosts from moving over. Pentagrams have had mixed successes. Sage can keep a ghost away temporarily.

Ghosts attack the living by targeting their victims' spirits. Envious of their targets' vessels, they claw at them past their armor and physicality to strike blows at them. Some ghosts also have magical powers which are sometimes the results of remnants from their waking lives and sometimes due to where their living body was left. A particularly magical place may infuse aeth into the ghost as well. 

One can remove a ghost by exorcism. Another way is to materialize them to strike at their essence much like one does to other undead. Banishment is also a broad-use form of removal one can use.

Liches

Liches are rare beings with immense powers of shi. They often take skeletal or other ghastly forms but they are beings with full control of the shi within them and choose how they are perceived. Liches are often master aeth users and commanders of armies of the undead with vampires and wights as their lieutenants and champions. The only consistent way to kill a lich is through banishment, a great exorcism, powerful kah use, special religious artifacts, or great magic power that equals their enormous mastery. Mundane combatants without any gifts will find it impossible to kill a lich as their weapons will bounce off. However, those enchanted as blades of vengeance against liches can be used to kill them. The presence of a lich most often means two things: One, you are upon its lands and territories and you should be afraid or two, they have decided to conquer the living and you should be terrified.

Undead Lands 

The Groza League

The Groza League (or Groza for short) is an "alliance" of necromancers, vampires, liches, wights, and other undead that are supposed to work together to further common goals. They are almost always found fighting in petty wars or going on their own ways. Groza began with those necromancers of Skalovia that were driven off their hereditary lands by the dragons of the Scale Princes. It has seen other shi users and those made of shi arrive on its shores but the oldest and greatest of the vampires and liches remember their ancestral claim.

The Court of the Night 

Shi has been an abhorred force throughout history. This is natural as it is the ruination of life. However, while shi can be used to create its fair share of monsters, beings, and abominations that are naturally malefic to the living, it is not necessarily an evil force to its core. There are vampires, liches, and other creatures that cooperate with the living. The Court of the Night is an entire nation of ruling shi creatures that are in accordance with the temple of Sothe, the god of death whose agents would normally eagerly bring on their demise. The Court is a relatively recent invention of only a few centuries before the beginning of the Epoch of Flame. It was created by influential, desperate, and opportunistic undead making an accord with the temple of Sothe. Essentially, the Court would become a constantly dark place with the sun blotted from the sky and serve as a giant nation-wide house arrest for compliant creatures of the undead to live in peace. In return, those that require sustenance from the living would receive blood pacts that would allow those of shi to feed upon consenting groups without murdering them. Vampires would become a true aristocracy in the light and serve as the rulers and wardens of the rest of the creatures underneath them. The one that bargained this deal is now known as the Viscount and they are the defacto head and face of the Court of the Night. The Court is surrounded by the lands of the Palatinate in a great buffer zone between the Court and the rest of Velas. Its gravestone templars and servants guard the borders of the Court and are allowed to make forays within the nation. By the Epoch of Flame, the court has become a tourist destination for those that wish to see the strange ethereal undead in their natural habitat. Many residents encourage this and put on great big shows and experiences essentially creating horror funhouses in exchange for blood. However, not all parts of the court are watched all the time, and a few unlucky visitors may find themselves becoming the attraction if they are not careful.

Tlacihuateto

Xatlan vampires are of a different breed. Rather than serving as underground aristocrats, they see themselves are the true eternal rulers of the world that would see the living become their cattle slaves. They deny diplomacy or anything that would be seen to them as condescending their power. They are the natural rulers and all else is to be ripped down or made to bow. Tlacihuateto are infamous among other vampires for their fanatical and zealous individualism. They are a constant threat to the Xatlan realms and most Xatlan cultures have the constant conflict between the living and the dead as founding facets of their societies and institutions. It is extremely difficult to combat the Cihuateto as their massive undead armies and abominations carry with them corrupting influences. Let alone their natural presence of shi, they use a form of woehl as well to blight the land through the use of their ties to demonic anathema. They are also the oldest worshippers of Xyz the Primordial god of death, who is said to have been slain by Sothe. Groza and the Court are home to very human grudges and those that at least would negotiate with the cattle they feed upon at worst. Tlacihuateto offers no pretense of common ground. They rule and kill.

Lands that use the Undead

Lusmia

Lusmia was the first land that caused the temple of Sothe to have second thoughts about its total interdiction of necromancy. It is a curious realm of mainly dwarves and those that use shi in a positive way. They believe that once the soul leaves the body, the body is no longer bound to mortal tradition and should be used in a productive way. As such, they use them on their farms, in their mines, and in their armies. Once simply thought of as heathens too inconvenient to purge, their vital work with the first incursion of the worms was convincing to the world to let their weird little nation continue to exist. They are also a force of benevolent necromancers where the Court's inhabitants are at least seen as self serving or profiting off of their permanent ceasefire with the living.