Emilia Fil Salbuveir starts the story en route to the gallows, being cruelly mocked by her former fiance, Crown Prince Altos, all the while, hearing the jeers of the populace. This is only the tail end of months long cruelty and despair as every last man, woman, and child was hunted down and executed on false charges of treason the prince himself came up with to justify dumping her in favor of another noble lady who caught his eye.
As the rest of her family was executed, the "charming" prince goads her one last time as she's marching up to the platform, insulting her for having no tears left to shed. She retorts that it will be too late to regret once her execution's carried out, Laughing Mad.
Despite his misgivings, the crown prince thinks it's too late to do anything and doesn't even bother to try and get his father the emperor to call that last execution off.
The moment Emilia's head is separated from her body, the entire Sabluveir fief rises up as undead, demanding vengeance!
Associated Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: The actions of the people who the entire Sabluveir fiefdom wants vengeance against are so unbelievably vile and sadistic that seeing Sabluveir putting them through a worse hell than they went through by putting them on the receiving end is cathartic.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Which gets repeatedly lampshaded. If Linea Margorg hadn't seduced Prince Altos away from Emilia, if Viscount Margorg, her father, had rebuked her instead of pushing her forward, if Prince Altos hadn't accused Emilia of treason falsely to justify casting her off in favor of Linea, if the rest of the aristocracy hadn't jumped on Prince Altos's false accusations to condemn the Sabluveir fiefdom out of greed & envy, and if Emperor Altonious II didn't order for the genocide of the fiefdom to the last infant child out of a selfish need to preserve his throne, or if the empire's top general Burling balked and refused to carry out such orders, leaving even a single survivor, then the entire population of the fiefdom wouldn't have risen up again as a Zombie Apocalypse fueled by an unquenchable desire for vengeance, wielding the kind of raw power to carry it out. And if the Empire's entire population didn't constantly celebrate the unspeakable and unjust treatment the Sabluveir clan got, they wouldn't have had enough hate miasma to become unstoppable juggernauts of hate either.
- Defensive Feint Trap: When the emperor's S.O.S. manages to bring in reinforcements from all the other aristocratic houses, a combined army of 200,000, the Sabluveir send 200 retainers and 800 unarmed conscripts to respond. While Burling smelled a rat, the rest of the aristocratic commanders, desperate for achievements to curry imperial favor, wind up having their armies tripping over each other in a mad charge. When the fighting starts, not only do the 800 conscripts transform into Death Knights and start tearing through the rank and file like a laxative, but the moles from the Sabluveir clan that smuggled themselves into the ranks start tearing their way through the army too, converting corpses as they go.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Played for Horror since despite having non-Sinitic names, the culture alone has shades of this: accusations of treason are Serious Business as they were and are in real life, but the real slap to the face was because of the hypocrisy; even the townspeople weren't spared from the Sabluveirs' wrath on the account of celebrating their brutal demise.
- Dissonant Serenity: The Sabluveir family and their retainers keep the same cheerful disposition they once had in life, even as they're about to slaughter thousands for doing the exact same thing to them.
- Downer Beginning: How else does the story start if the summary alone is barebones; failing that, what else would one expect from the title moving forward no less?
- Eaten Alive: One of the few forms of execution the Sabluvier perform that doesn't involve getting raised as an undead to continue the suffering. For maximum horror, the Sabluvier will transform their newly undead victims into Death Knights, but then removing the helmet to show that human face to their loved ones, just before the Death Knights open their wide enough to make a human head bite-sized and then slowly chew and swallow said loved ones to death, not leaving enough behind to raise a new undead conscript.
- Fate Worse than Death: After the horror that the Sabluveir endured at the hands of the Empire to which they've been loyal for many generations, and on false charges, they're not lenient enough to let death be the end of their enemies' suffering.
- Family Extermination: The plot of the web novel from start to finish, albeit exaggerated for horror: the Sabluvier fief gets executed on false charges down to the fetus only to comeback with a vengeance to takeover the Fildmerk empire by and large
- Genocide Backfire: An unusual take. This story is not a case of a genocide missing a survivor, or group of survivors, who then come back demanding vengeance. In this story, the genocide is brutal, complete, and excruciatingly thorough, even having pregnant women's bellies ripped open, the unborn child ripped out and crushed to death, right in front of their now helpless mothers, before the mothers are killed. The result is when Emilia, the last survivor, is beheaded atop the gallows where the rest of her immediate family has their heads on display in a sick mockery of their deaths, with the rest of the bodies cast aside, this triggers a blood-line curse where all the victims immediately rise again as undead with super-human powers and starved for vengeance.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: All Linea Margorg wanted was to marry the prince and become Queen: she never dreamed that seducing him away from Emilia would set off a chain of Disaster Dominoes that would bring about the horrific and unjust extinction of the Sabluveir clan; being wracked by guilt only serves to pin her and her own clan smack between the Sabluveir Zombie Apocalypse and the wicked aristocracy who set it off and are desperate to try and save their own lives by throwing as many scapegoats at the undead army that they can, a tactic which doesn't help in the slightest.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Burling's defeat was unavoidable for three major reasons. 1.) The combined army's own size made it impossible to form any valid battle formation on the roadway near or even in the capital, at least to any extent where the army's superior numbers could have been leveraged properly. 2.) Burling was only the titular commander, the army was not truly unified under a single, cohesive chain of command. 3.) Desperate for troops and accomplishments, Burling's "allies" never managed to vet their troops properly and wound up making retreat, tactical or otherwise, impossible once the Death Knights showed up and started going through the army like riding lawnmowers go through grassy fields.
- Emperor Altonius falls into this as well, HARD: later in the stage it dawns on Kulm and Emlia that the reason why the ruling hierarchy was so willing to take that poison to his ears from the schemers in his court, is because he felt the Salbuvier fief's growing popularity threatened the power of his sovereignty; he really blasted himself in the foot, thus blowing a hole in his monarchy no less, catering to the incredibly poor discissions presented to him by his petty, jealous council in order to remain in power for entirely selfish reasons.
- Hope Spot: The Sabluveir, as part of their vengeance, are fond of "sparing" a few of their enemies, or letting them escape to head back to their own families and loved ones, and when said enemies make it home and feel relief that the fighting hasn't reached them yet, are quickly horrified and driven to despair when they learn that said loved ones are already undead and turn on them, hitting them in the face with their own sins.
- Insufferable Imbecile: Both Altonious and his son Altos in a nutshell, had they not been so easily duped into making such an incredibly self-destructively string of poor decisions: the emperor taking that poison to his ear by the yes men in his court, his firstborn being strung along by his balls via a daughter whose father happened one of their number. In the end, both were idiotic swine rinds in their own right: Altonious II taking special mention given he threw the Salbuviers under the bus as he did to preserve his rule, only to abandon his family, placate his second eldest as emperor only to run with his tail between his legs as his mind steadily deteriorates.
- Intimidation Demonstration: How the Salbuvier's often coerce meek cooperation with their captives or demonstrate what'll happen to enemy conscripts if they should go against their wishes. Really, its a scare tactic to show what horrors they'll visit on the living they enthrall who displease them in anyway.
- Just Following Orders: Deconstructed. Some of the soldiers, especially Burling, the top commander, try to exonerate themselves by stating that they were following orders and had no choice. Ortho Sabluveir loudly proclaims that this is no excuse and refuses to spare them.
- Just Toying with Them: Knowing that the Margorg clan and Burling's army can do nothing to harm them, the Sabluveir clan accept their surrender and then send them at the imperial castle to force the surrender of the emperor's faction. This gets both the Margorg clan and the army under Burling labeled as traitors to humanity, permanently destroying their reputations, just like the two groups destroyed the reputation of the Sabluveir by falsely accusing and unjustly executing them for treason, and once they're done playing, the Sabluveir turn on and sadistically kill them all.
- Kangaroo Court: Once the fighting's done, the remaining nobles are put on trial. The nobles in question think they can bluster, hem and haw, and filibuster their way to being ruled innocent. Unfortunately for them, the Sabluveir aren't looking for "innocent" or "guilty." The trials are sentencing trials! The louder the protests, the ghastlier the executions. Only those rare few who admit guilt and throw themselves on the mercy of the court are shown any leniency. Like the second and third sons of the emperor who admit that the Sabluveir have been grievously wronged and the rampage is warranted.
- Late to the Realization: One of the commanders of the united force ensemble garnered under Burling's purview had come to the epiphany that, not only had the Salbuviers' agents infiltrated their forces before their paltry looking army confronted their attack force, but how those killed by them would become their undead slaves.
- Laughing Mad: What becomes of a once living former Emperor Altonious after months of torture, a week of injury derision humiliation and his eventual execution at the hands of the vengeful undead via burning at the stake; in addition, Emilia couldn't resist laughing even mere seconds before her execution upon seeing the remains of her immediate family
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The Sabluveir clan was the top clan in the Empire, the most prosperous, as well as most steadfastly loyal, even cursing their bloodline so should an enemy power breech the kingdom, they'd have a powerful undead army to contend with, protecting the rest of the citizens; when the emperor demanded their annihilation, on false charges of treason at that, they rose up again, seeking to destroy the very country that betrayed and abused them.
- Moral Myopia: The Imperial armies, civilians, nobles, etc. whom had brutalized the Sabluveir in every way imaginable, including Rape, Pillage, and Burn, not even bothering to spare infants, pregnant women, or even the young virgin daughters whom in particular were raped in front of their own parents, before killing them too, even after the fiefdom surrendered have the gall to call the Sabluveir "monsters" when the Sabluveir turn around and give back the exact same treatment to them.
- Morph Weapon: How the miasma generated by they're undead state works, the armaments crafted are medieval levels of rudimentary but given their incredulous levels of physical ability. The sophistication of which is irrelevant next to their efficiency of use.
- The Necromancer: For a revitalized Salbuvier member, their power works on a 'one keeps who's killed' mechanic: those slain by these bull revenants are revivified as undead servants, who in turn can become unstoppable monstrous ghoulies and/or beasties pulled straight out of the stuff of nightmares as zombified miasma clad knights or hellish cerberian creatures to maul and gore their masters' enemies.
- Never My Fault: The instant the Sabluveir rose up again, the nobles, emperor, crown prince, soldiers, etc. started screaming and pointing fingers at each other, trying to shift the blame; by this point, the Sabluveir don't care, considering the entire empire 100% guilty, not even sparing infants, because their own young weren't spared.
- The Power of Hate: Undead become stronger the bigger their unsettled grudges are: because of how horrifically the Sabluveir were treated, they've got a near-endless amount of the stuff.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Upon rising up again as undead, the Sabluveir become relentless juggernauts of death and destruction that won't stop until every last citizen of the empire that betrayed them is dead, or worse, has joined their ranks as part of the Zombie Apocalypse.
- Sanity Slippage: One could practically feel the loss of mental stability the former emperor of Fildmerk was displaying as he ran for the hills beneath the palace, stating that once the undead were taken care of, he'd relive his second son of his monarchial status to resume his duties as monarch.
- Secret Underground Passage: There are hidden tunnel ways beneath the empire leading to and from the palace known only amongst the imperial family: the marquise of the Salbuviers' was able to corner the Emperor there after needling it out of the converted first prince Altos after Emilia killed and resurrected him.
- Stupid Evil: As if subjecting the oldest, strongest, and most loyal of the fiefdoms in the empire to unprecedented and unspeakable levels of brutality on false charges wasn't bad enough, expecting their grudges to end on their deaths when they are a clan run by Necromancers?
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Once the Sabluveir fief rises from the dead, they spend the rest of the novel putting their murderers through the exact experience that they were forced to endure.Kulm: "Burling. Do you now understand the tears I shed back then?"
- The Scape Goat: What became of most anybody affiliated with the Emperor and his cronies:
- As if to mitigate the blame everyone within the palace walls of the capitol equally shared, Emperor Altonius put Linea Morgog and her rebound fling to the sword in order to put the screws to her father Vincent Morgog for his perceived betrayal by aiding the undead Salbuviers in infiltrating the imperial keep.
- Essentially what became of the royal family after the undead sect began their incursion: being the slimy dirtball that he is, Altonius ceded his throne to his second eldest son, Etra, leaving the rest of his family at the Salbuviers' mercy, all in a feeble attempt to shift their rage at him to another so as to save himself.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: When the emperor foolishly decries the Sabluveir clan the instant they rose from the dead and started retaliating, the Sabluveir top family retorts "you lot called us traitors, and brutalized us for it! So here we are, acting like it!"
- Torture Technician: Ooooooh, how the Salbuviers just love to repay past kindnesses: their whole revenge scheme pretty much entails visiting the same atrocities and abominations on the incredibly loathsome masses and petty jealous royalty, right alongside their jackbooted knights orderly's as ultimate crime and punishment towards those who took cruel glee in, or overlooked, their Undignified Death.
- Unfit for Greatness: Some of the last words Ortho Salbuvier said to the despicable Altonius before setting him ablaze in front of the very Feifdom he'd betrayed to their deaths.
- Zombie Apocalypse: With sentient zombie commanders, death is no escape: it doesn't matter if the death is by combat, illness, or even suicide; any corpse touched by The Horde spawned from the Sabluveir grudge will rise again and be assimilated into the ranks, unable to refuse orders, or worse, losing their consciousness and turning into unstoppable Death Knights.
