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alt title(s): Undead "From every graveyard pour the hordes to strike before the dawn
A thousand years of death's carnage gathered 'fore the morn,
Their vengeance turned against mankind's unsuspecting head
There's no defense, there's no escape, you cannot kill the dead!"
—Pagan Altar, "The March of the Dead"
Dead folks who, whether due to magic, Applied Phlebotinum, lack of a funeral, or just plain bloody-mindedness, never bought into that whole lying-quiet-in-the-grave thing. Come in several varieties.
- Zombies: Just ordinary, run-of-the-mill walking corpses. Slow (usually...), weak (comparatively...), mostly blind, (unless they aren't) and stupid (at first...). Surprisingly squishy, but they don't really notice. Burn 'em if you can, and don't get bitten. Made with Hollywood Voodoo in older works, and The Virus in newer ones.
- Some of them die quickly when burned. Others...don't. Know the characteristics of your local zombies to avoid embarrassing mistakes!
- Vampires: Like zombies, only faster, stronger, and smarter. They suck blood, and spend a lot of time angsting about it. Usually highly attractive, and both genders tend to be somewhat... festive. Dislike holy stuff, bright light, and pointy sticks.
- Originally they were not attractive, at all (even the original Dracula, well, Looks Like Orlok), and they also tended to have ruddy complexions not pale ones. (From all the blood.)
- Ghosts: Walking corpses without the corpses, most are understandably ticked off about this. Depending on the genre, they can be harmless pranksters or Lovecraftian horrors; you'll know which one yours is once he starts smearing things on the wall. If it's crayon, you're okay; if it's blood, you're so horribly screwed it's not even funny. Unless you realize that you're already one of them...but hey, most people who run into them know who they're gonna call.
Unlike most forms of undeath, ghosts can be friendly. They may return to protect a loved one, or reward someone who arranged their burial, or the like.
- Frankensteins Monster: Or anything else made from human corpses and brought back with technology. The original was big, a quick learner, and pissed. The modern type is a bit more pitiable. Usually the stitches show, so you can tell them apart from zombies. The intelligence level varies. They seem to have universal Super Strength, so don't challenge one to arm wrestling. Also note that, depending on the work, these may not be "technical" undead, and hence not vulnerable to tricks like the trope namer of Revive Kills Zombie.
- Mummy: The mummy shambles towards the archaeologists who have defiled his tomb. Luckily for them, he doesn't move fast due to sleeping for three thousand years (although there are exceptions). He's wrapped in white bandages, and no one wants to see what's underneath them.
- Revenant: Your standard resuscitated corpse, however, unlike a zombie this undead isn't quite so rotting and falling apart, fairly intelligent, and, most importantly, an individual, since they retain their memories from their previous lives. They tend to seek vengeance for past wrongs, especially if they were murdered. While conceptually very old, and the prototype from which many other undead derive, this trope has fallen out of favor for the horde of zombies and the bloodsucking vampire.
- An unusual sci-fi version of the revenant occurs with the Reifications in Neal Asher's polity books, specifically The Skinner and The Voyage of Sable Keech. People who have chosen the unusual step of keeping their deceased bodies after a death which allowed some of their brain or consciousness to survive (as a mind-copy). Most people choose to have their mind copies uploaded into a new human or robotic body, whilst these guys prefer being animated with cybernetics and preserved with chemicals. May or may not have any living parts remaining. A splendid way to have undead IN SPACE.
- The protagonists of the film and graphic novel series The Crow are classic revenants who are brought back to life by the title bird in order to seek justice for themselves and the people they loved. As long as the bird is alive, and as long as they remain focused on their quest for revenge and do not develop emotional ties to the living, they can heal any wound dealt them and cannot be killed. They also have the ability to cleanse others of whatever poison is in their systems, and they have some measure of psychometric ability in regards to things that remind them of their former life and what happened to them, as well as the ability to transfer any memories they have by touch.
- Another unusual version of revenants is the Harrowed from Deadlands. These ones are re-animated by demons, who are capable of possessing them when it's least needed and wreaking havoc. Most times, hovewer, the Harrowed are normal revenants with the same souls and personalities they had in life (only angstier).
- The "slashers" in Hack/Slash are another rare example of a modern canon repeatedly depicting this kind of undead.
- The Black Lantern Corps is definitely this version; they retain the powers and attitudes of the live characters, but pursue those who appeared to have "cheated" Death. In the DCU, this could mean just about everyone, but there actually are SOME distinctions.
- Discworld zombies fall under this classification.
- The Forsaken in World Of Warcraft are basically revenants with some ghoul aspects.
- Kai from Lexx is essentially this, but with a few modifications.
- Ghoul : Originally deriving from Arabic folklore but popularized by H.P. Lovecraft's stories and subsequent media, their depiction varies from animated corpses to living beings, but when undead they usually are depicted as bestial and hyper-aggressive zombies. Intelligence and appearance vary; in the original folktales these creatures could sometimes be mistaken for (and marry) humans, but recent interpretations have made them animalistic in behavior and more obviously corpselike in aspect. Unlike zombies they generally retain some degree of free will. Some variations of ghouls tend to feast exclusively on the dead, but that only means they have to kill someone before they eat them.
- This troper once read a book on the various folklore origins of certain monsters, and found an interesting story about the origins of ghouls: the originals were the students of a powerful sage who, envious of the sage's favorite student, murdered the favorite, then cooked and ate the body to hide it. When the students returned, the sage asked the students where the favorite was. When the students lied, the sage caused the favorite to speak, from the stomachs of the students that had eaten him. Angered, the sage cast them out, and cursed them into becoming ghouls, forced forever to be monsters that ate the dead and dwelt in darkness, as well as giving ghouls a weakness: any ghoul who devours a tongue dies a slow, agonizing death.
- Ghasts, a larger and more dangerous species of ghoul named by back-formation from ghastly, are a Lovecraft invention popularized by Dungeons And Dragons. Note both Ghasts and Ghouls in HPL's original work are living races, rather than undead.
- Ghouls are also a radiation-caused mutation in humans in the Fallout games. They can retain their sanity, but they still look dead. On the other hand, this mutation greatly prolongs life, so there are ghouls who lived before the bombs fell. Feral Ghouls are basically mindless, radiation zombies, with no sanity or brains..
- Skeleton: A zombie without meat, so to speak. Tend to be difficult to hurt because they are all bone, so blunt weapons (or magic, if available) are required or at least useful. Other versions are simply cannon fodder undead. Most of them aren't particularly smart (not having a brain and all). Only really common in out-and-out fantasy as they're a little too fantastic for sci-fi or horror; expect them to be magically reanimated soldiers for the Evil Sorcerer or Vain Sorceress. Despite being fleshless, The Dead Have Eyes.
- Liches: Popularized in Dungeons And Dragons and common in modern Fantasy, a lich is an Evil Sorcerer who retains his or her magical powers after death - basically a smart zombie with a little somethin' extra. In D&D, the lich becomes undead by placing its soul in a Soul Jar, and can only be permanently destroyed by destroying said Soul Jar; in other fictions, the Soul Jar is optional. A lich's physical appearance can range from near-normal to zombie-like to completely skeletal, which usually depends on the lich's age. Because of their skill at magic, liches tend to be the most powerful and dangerous type of undead in settings where they exist.
- The Grim Reaper: The big guy himself, usually portrayed as Implacable Man in a Black Cloak carrying a Sinister Scythe. But not always. MAY SPEAK IN ALL CAPS. Is a very diligent worker, who truly deserves some vacation time every now and then. He might ask you nicely to Go Into The Light or he might try to send you there himself.
- Sometimes the Reaper will take offense at being called undead, since techinically he/it never died; in such cases he is understood to be a living skeleton.
- There are also variations that look similiar to The Grim Reaper but aren't unique beings, yet still more dangerous and rare as your run-off the mill skeleton.
- Death Knights: What liches are to sorcerers, these guys are to warriors. They rarely appear unless the undead are an organized army and when they do they function either as its generals, shock troopers or both. They are nearly always found on horseback (either skeletal or pitch black), their weapon of choice often is a one handed bastard sword with a skull on the hilt and their armor is richly decorated with skulls, bones, distorted faces and other heraldry related to death. Their actual appearance varies between a pale human, a skeleton and completely spectral, relying on a possessed suit of armor instead. Popularized by Lord Soth of Dragonlance.
- Undead Children: Take one of the above kinds of undead, but make it a Fetus or Enfant Terrible. Now they're twice as creepy and hard to shoot at.
- Werewolves: They are occasionally considered undead in older myths, but generally modern werewolves are not undead, being people who survive a werewolf attack, as those who die usually do not return as werewolves.
While not invariably, Undead often bring Evil Is Deathly Cold into play, since they are, in fact, deathly, and corpses are naturally cold.
See also Night Of The Living Mooks, Big Boos Haunt, Clown Car Grave, Animate Dead. Frequently, they find out Undeath Always Ends. But The Dead Can Dance!
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