History Main / UndeathlyPallor

** Maria's case may bee FridgeBrilliance since not all Latins are brown-skinned.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Pharasma, the primordial Goddess of Birth and Death, usually [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith manifests]] as a humanoid woman with grey skin and [[MonochromaticEyes blank white eyes]]. However, any comparison to TheUndead is inadvisable, as they're among the very few things she despises outright.

* ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'' provides the page image here, though it's played with by having the living be [[DeliberatelyMonochrome colorless]] while the dead [[DarkIsNotEvil have much brighter colors]].

** Pandora, a female {{Frankenstein's Monster}} first introduced as she's being brought to life, has pale blue skin. However, people in this setting come in every color and shape imaginable, so that might just be the natural skin tone of whoever her parts were sourced from.

This trope is so common it's usually a [[IncrediblyLamePun dead]] giveaway that [[VirusVictimSymptoms something is wrong with Alice/Bob]] when they suddenly show up this shade of pale. Smart characters (let alone the GenreSavvy) will have their NotAZombie sense ping them as being "[[NotHimself somehow]] [[GlamourFailure off"]]. Which of course makes the [[DefiedTrope defiance]] of this trope a #1 priority on every smart undead's list of {{Masquerade}} reinforcing tricks. Settings where this trope is subverted have much more dangerous undead for being indistinguishable from the living. Another curious exception is that sometimes people who were brown-skinned or darker in life may look exactly as vivid after death as they did when they were alive for unexplained reasons. Probably something to do with the SpecialEffects budget and wanting to avoid a [[SpecialEffectsFailure gaffe]].

See also StringyHairedGhostGirl and UndeadBarefooter.

* In both ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' and ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'', vampires typically grow paler and less lifelike as they grow older -- not because of age, but because an older vampire is more likely to have fallen a few notches down the [[KarmaMeter Humanity]] scale and gotten closer to their Beast. The one exception may be the Assamites from ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', who invert the trope by growing ''darker'' as they age, to the point where the elders of the line look like they're made of polished jet.
** The Cappadocians, a clan-turned-bloodline in Masquerade take this a [[UpToEleven step further]]. They always appear corpse-like, unable to use Flush of Life to mask their pale faces regardless of age or humanity score. When they get older, they grow even more like wasted cadavers. [[spoiler:The Harbingers of Skulls (Cappadocian survivors), due to their time spent in the Underworld, are outright desiccated corpses.]]

* The zombies in ''VideoGame/{{Diacrisis}}'' have green skin.

* In the film commentary for ''Film/TheFellowshipOfTheRing'', Creator/PeterJackson discusses how Boromir's skin was paled ''just'' a little bit at the moment he succumbs to his wounds and dies. The change is so subtle that most viewers might not consciously pick it up, yet still provides his death scene a little extra punch.

* Lesser Shade in in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' who resemble pale white, monstrous versions of [[TheCorruption their former selves]], constantly weeping TearsOfBlood.

A living character who is just pale is usually a perfectly mundane case of an EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette, who [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore has heard all the jokes]] about waking up on the wrong side of the coffin. There may be some UnfortunateImplications here though since in fiction there's a [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance strong correlation]] between being pale and [[TranshumanTreachery going over]] to TheDarkSide. In addition, living characters who come into contact with the dead, undead, or infernal may have a [[PaletteSwap change of color]] and become HadesShaded. This is the case with necromancers, infernalists, those under ghostly DemonicPossession, [[VirusVictimSymptoms someone bitten]] by zombies or a vampire, or TheRenfield who has fed on [[ThePowerOfBlood vampire blood.]] It doesn't stop there either, centuries of sunless existence may turn the character into an evil albino.

A living character who is just pale is usually a perfectly mundane case of an EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette, who [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore has heard all the jokes]] about waking up on the wrong side of the coffin. There may be some UnfortunateImplications here though since in fiction there's a [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance strong correlation]] between being pale and [[TranshumanTreachery going over]] to TheDarkSide. In addition, living characters who come into contact with the dead, undead, or infernal may have a [[PaletteSwap change of color]] and become HadesShaded. This is the case with necromancers, infernalists, those under ghostly DemonicPossession, [[VirusVictimSymptoms someone bitten]] by zombies or a vampire, or TheRenfield who has fed on [[ThePowerOfBlood vampire blood.]] It doesn't stop there either, centuries of sunless existence may turn the character into an EvilAlbino.

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[-[[caption-width-right:330:Can ''you'' guess which of these two characters is dead? Check the film section for the answer!]]-]

Characters who become one of TheUndead will develop pale or sometimes blue or green tinged skin. In severe cases with visible (and deathly still) [[TaintedVeins purple veins]] underneath the skin. Even people of color[[labelnote:*]] (Or fake tan. Can you imagine facing an undead eternity with skin the color of a bleached out orange?)[[/labelnote]] who were dark skinned in life will have it turn [[HadesShaded ash grey, or dark like soot]].

A living character who is just pale is usually a perfectly mundane case of an EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette, who [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore has heard all the jokes]] about waking up on the wrong side of the coffin. There may be some UnfortunateImplications here though, since in fiction there's a [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance strong correlation]] between being pale and [[TranshumanTreachery going over]] to TheDarkSide. In addition living characters who come into contact with the dead, undead, or infernal may have a [[PaletteSwap change of color]] and become HadesShaded. This is the case with necromancers, infernalists, those under ghostly DemonicPossession, [[VirusVictimSymptoms someone bitten]] by zombies or a vampire, or TheRenfield who has fed on [[ThePowerOfBlood vampire blood.]] It doesn't stop there either, centuries of sunless existence may turn the character into an EvilAlbino.

This trope is so common it's usually a [[IncrediblyLamePun dead]] giveaway that [[VirusVictimSymptoms something is wrong with Alice / Bob]] when they suddenly show up this shade of pale. Smart characters (let alone the GenreSavvy) will have their NotAZombie sense ping them as being "[[NotHimself somehow]] [[GlamourFailure off"]]. Which of course makes the [[DefiedTrope defiance]] of this trope a #1 priority on every smart undead's list of {{Masquerade}} reinforcing tricks. Settings where this trope is subverted have much more dangerous undead for being indistinguishable from the living. Another curious exception is that sometimes people who were brown-skinned or darker in life may look exactly as vivid after death as they did when they were alive for unexplained reasons. Probably something to do with the SpecialEffects budget and wanting to avoid a [[SpecialEffectsFailure gaffe]].

* Sid from ''Manga/SoulEater'' is a zombie ''gym teacher.'' He once had normal colored skin, but after dying he became blue... Literally.

* ComicBook/LadyDeath is an undead sorceress and milk-pale. In the Avatar Comics, there is a term for people that are sentenced to the Labyrinth called "albinos", whom had willingly performed deals with the dark specters that rule it and become undead beings of extreme power, but hated by others.

* Drac and the female vampires in ''Film/BramStokersDracula''. While he doesn't display it in his younger form, his older form has has very pale skin. His brides have it though the dark lighting of their scenes make it hard to tell. Lucy on the other hand goes completely deathly white after turning.

* In the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' books, Maria the vampire looked "porcelain" despite being Mexican. The book is pretty inconsistent about what happens to People of Color when they become vampires. Maria was really pale and Laurent was olive-skinned (but it was never stated what race he was). There are some other vampires who are non-Caucasian, but their skin color isn't really mentioned. The male half vampire from South America was definitely dark skinned, though.

** Maria's case may bee FridgeBrilliance since not all latins are brown-skinned.

* Laura Moon on ''Series/AmericanGods'' gets a paint job from Mr. Ibis in order to avert this effect, although it deteriorates along with the rest of her. It's fairly subtle, since actress Emily Browning is pretty fair-skinned to begin with.

** The Cappadocians, a clan-turned-bloodline in Masquerade take this a [[UpToEleven step further]]. They always appear corpse-like, unable to use Flush of Life to mask their pale faces regardless of age or humanity score. When they get older, they grow even more like wasted cadavers. [[spoiler:The Harbingers of Skulls (Cappadocian survivors), due to their time spent in the Underworld, are outright dessicated corpses.]]

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' the Forsaken have skin in various shades of grey, green and blue. Death Knights also tend to be paler then a living character with the same setting of skin shade. They also have access to a several different skin tones not available to living players, mostly in greens and greys. Though some of them are a bit odd - blood elves apparently decay into charcoal.

* In ''Website/GaiaOnline'', the main zombie skintones tend to be gray-white or greenish, though alternate zombie skintones have been known to include dark blue, purplish, and bright scarlet. There are four vampire skintones as well; a crappy 100 Gold potion in Skin Tyte with an exclusively pale-white base, and three found only in The Treehouse and the marketplace, which range from "basically, we just improved the old skintone" to "Now you, too, can be AmbiguouslyBrown". Zhivago in the plot manga and Kamilla in ''[=zOMG!=]'' are also AmbiguouslyBrown vampires, and were rather famous for formerly being the only ones.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' Supernatural expansion, all the premade ghost characters have blue skin, hair and eyes, although they show up in game as different colors depending on what they died of.

* Being based off of ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' features various extremely pale Abyssals, the best-known of which is, of course, Secret.
* ''Webcomic/SchoolBites'': All of the usual vampires have chalk white skin, save Cleobatra who's [[TokenMinority African American]] but still sports a bit of paleness.
* Camille in ''Webcomic/BloodyUrban''has very light blue skin, despite the fact that she is of African descent. Recent comics show it changes back to its original pre-death color when she drinks blood.