Undead
From Free net encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Undead (disambiguation).
Undead is the collective name for all types of supernatural entities that are deceased yet behave as if alive. Undead may be spiritual, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as animated corpses. Undead are featured in the legends of most cultures and in many works of fiction, especially fantasy and horror fiction.
Bram Stoker was the first to use the term "The Un-Dead" as the original title for his novel Dracula.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Contents |
Examples
Traditional forms
Corporeal
Corporeal undead have an animated physical body that is otherwise biologically deceased.
- Draugrs, from Norse mythology
- Ghouls, from Arab folklore
- Hopping corpses, of Chinese folklore
- Medieval revenants, stories of undead from medieval chroniclers
- Vampires, of various cultures
- Zombies, from the Voodoo tradition
Incorporeal
Incorporeal undead have no tangible form, but exist in the world of the living as spiritual entities.
- Ghosts, common in many cultures — all types of non-corporeal undead could be said to be variations of ghosts
- Mylings, of Scandinavian folklore
- Phantoms
- Poltergeists, originally of German origin
- Spectres
- Will o' the wisps, sometimes said to be undead spirits in parts of Europe and North America
- Wraiths
In fiction
Corporeal
- Death knight
- Inferius, a mindless, dead body that has been bewitched by another to complete a task — referenced in the book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Liches
- Mohrg
- Mummies, in modern popular culture
- Skeletons
- Revenant, a sentient creature whose desire to complete a goal (usually to avenge its death) allows it to return from the grave as a creature vaguely resembling an intelligent zombie. Revenants exist primarily in role-playing games and horror movies. Examples include The Crow and Al Simmons, the protagonist of Spawn.
- Wights
- Zombie Ghouls, cannibalistic reanimated corpses from modern fiction (1954 to present)
Semi-Corporeal
Non-Corporeal
- Ringwraiths, from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". Also called "Nazgûl" and "Ulairi", the Ringwraiths were once mortal men of great power who passed from life into living death due to the power of the Nine Rings.
Additional notes
Many films have been made about the undead, usually vampires, zombies, and mummies.
Creation
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus introduced a new variant of undead, the dead brought back to "life" by science, though Frankenstein's creature bears some similarity to a golem. Similar works include H.P. Lovecraft's short story "Herbert West—Reanimator" and the Re-Animator film franchise inspired by the story.
Both legend and popular culture discuss various methods for creating undead creatures. Most involve the reanimation of a corpse, as with zombies, skeletons, and ghouls. Regarding ghosts, the spirit lives on after death, forming an intangible physical body that often mirrors the one the spirit had in life.
In some cases, the undead, especially skeletons and zombies, are under the control of a sorcerer. In other cases, such as zombies as depicted in film and vampires, the undead existence is passed on like a curse or disease. With liches, the powers of undead are sought after by the participant of a magical ritual that turns them from a living being to a lich. Ghosts are said to be kept in their undead state by willpower, either from a keen desire to remain with the living or from a wish to see something completed that they could not do during their lifetime.
Games and popular culture
Image:Undead mm7.png Undead are a popular adversary in fantasy and horror settings. In games, special rules are often given for the undead.
In "Diablo II" "Necromancers" have the ability to summon the undead from Monster corpses.
Undead characters appear in many roles, be it a mindless horde of opponents (such as zombies or skeletons) or a thoughtful, plotting villain (such as vampires). Some games feature undead protagonists, such as Mortal Kombat, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, and Vampire: The Masquerade.
In Dungeons & Dragons and similar systems, clerics can attempt to "turn" undead by invoking their patron deities or channeling "positive energy" (other-dimensional life energy). This forces the undead creature away from the cleric; powerful clerics are capable of completely destroying weaker undead creatures with this ability. Although the act of turning away the undead relies primarily on power of faith, a holy symbol is usually required as a focus for the divine power being invoked. This is derived from the traditional notion that vampires could be repelled by the cross. Clerics of evil gods can rebuke and control the undead in a similar fashion, by means of necromancy [1].
In Dungeons & Dragons and many other games, such as Final Fantasy, undead can be damaged by using magical effects that heal normal living beings [2].
Zombies are a popular choce of enemies in survival horror games such as the Resident Evil series (created by a virus) or supenatural survival horror games like Forbidden Siren and Silent Hill.
In Warhammer Fantasy Battles the undead are split in two parts: the Vampire Counts armies and the Tomb Kings. Both armies have animate skeletons, but are otherwise different, having separate backgrounds and units.
Undead are a race in the popular Warcraft series of video games and are separated into two opposing factions, the Scourge and the Forsaken. The Forsaken are a playable faction in the very popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.
In some stories and settings, such as the Lorien Trust LARP, the word "unliving" is used as a preferential synonym. In reference to the political correctness movement, the undead are sometimes jokingly referred to as the "living-impaired". Vampires were sometimes likewise referred to as "Undead Americans" by characters in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off Angel.
Defense against the undead
Undead creatures are often depicted in fiction and folklore as hostile towards the living. They are also often depicted as being resistant to normal attacks. They are often vulnerable to holy or blessed objects, such as holy water or crosses. Vampires are traditionally killed by a stake through the heart or decapitation, although various traditions have different means of dealing with them [3]. Zombies can often continue to attack when dismembered, so it is often necessary to destroy the head or the person who reanimated them. Incorporeal undead are difficult to defend against, as normal physical objects often pass through their bodies. In many video games and RPGs enchanted or silver weapons are required [4], but in some other fiction the way to get rid of them permanently is to find out what business or task that they could not complete (typified in Chapter 4 of The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis [5]).
Undead are also often depicted as vulnerable to sunlight, fire, or the destruction of the originator of the undead, and may be unable to cross certain symbolic boundaries, running water in particular. Shotguns are also known to be commonly used weapons against the undead, particularly zombies. Some plants, in particular garlic and wolfbane, but also rosewood, rowan, hazel, willow and holly in some cultures are said to repel the undead. This tradition appears to be a continuation of Pre-Christian beliefs in sacred plants that survived into modern times.
Undead in philosophy
Jacques Derrida used the myth of the undead as a means to deconstruct the binary opposition between life and death.
See also
- Monster
- Afterlife
- Maschalismos
- Philosophical zombie
- Death and death (personification)
- List of species in folklore and mythology
- List of species in folklore and mythology by type
- List of species in fantasy fiction
Footnotes and references
<references/>
External link
- The Ultimate Zombie Book List - Huge listing of zombie novels, anthologies, collections, comic books, and more.cs:Nemrtvý
de:Untoter fr:Mort-vivant it:Morto vivente he:אלמת hu:Élőhalott pl:Nieumarli ru:Вурдалак fi:Epäkuollut sv:Odöd zh:不死生物