History Main / UndeadAbomination

The very nature of an EldritchAbomination defies the natural laws of the universe. Therefore, an undead might count as one if the laws of said universe dictate that being 'dead' is considered a fundamental state of existence (for example, souls which 'live' in the afterlife are considered 'dead', depending on [[OurSoulsAreDifferent how different the souls in question are]]). In such contexts, being an undead might be an oxymoronic, abominable state, as it means the entity is 'dead' and yet somehow 'alive' as well.

Basically, it might as well be the origin for Schrodinger's Cthulhu: if Death is [[AnthropomorphicPersonification personified]] as an entity capable of thoughts and actions, [[LogicBomb then is it part of the living, or of the dead]]? If a dead being is capable of influencing the world no differently than when they were alive (assuming they ''ever'' lived), then what constitutes being 'alive' or being 'dead' for them?

* ''TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters'' has the Kerberoi and the Chthonians of the Underworld. The Kerberoi at least have some sense of purpose; they rule over the Dead Dominions and impose the Old Laws on the realms of the dead, even if those laws are often cruel and arbitrary. The Chthonians, on the other hand, are believed to be the ghosts of species that predate human existence, reshape the Underworld to their whims, and only seem to be driven by base urges and inscrutable logic. The second edition of the game goes so far as to suggest the entire reason the Underworld is so broken is because the Chthonians colonized it.

** In ''Gideon'', Silas's habit of [[spoiler: soul siphoning from his cavalier]] goes very, *very* badly when [[spoiler: some *things* climb into Colum's body while his soul is displaced]]. By the time of ''Nona'', [[spoiler: these entities are revealed to be devils. They were originally believed to be limited to the planet of Antioch, but they've shown up in force on the Ninth House (ruining the attempt to actually rebuild the House), can possess both the living and the dead, and will slowly transform the eyes of anyone possessed into fanged mouths]].

* At least certain of the [[TimeAbyss antediluvian]] master vampires in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' have become sufficiently inhuman to qualify as this, ranging from many-bodied horrors to virtual GeniusLoci of undeath and continent-spanning {{Living Shadow}}s.
* These make up the hierarchy of main threats to the player characters in ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion''. Starting at the bottom, we have Spectres, wraiths who either fell to Oblivion immediately after death due to the sheer trauma involved or gradually came to its cause after being worn down by their [[EnemyWithin Shadows]]. They have an entire caste system, at the top of which lie the Onceborn, Spectres who once walked the earth but have since reached the ranks of dread divinity in death. And above even them are the Neverborn, dead yet dreaming gods whose existence creates the Hive-Mind that binds all Spectres together and who basically emerged into the afterlife fully formed when Oblivion first screamed its way into being.
** The quasi-sequel series ''TabletopGame/{{Orpheus}}'' takes it up a notch with [[spoiler: Grandmother, the thing that birthed the Neverborn. Speculation on its true nature ranges from "the soul of a dead universe" to "God's evil twin," but it seeks to devour all life because it does not conceive the magnitude of beings lesser than itself.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The "Silver Weapon" is a giant undead monstrosity created from the unhappy ghosts of its victims and their repurposed bodies, along with some First Silver spelled to allow the Selver to warp the rules of reality within its confines. The whole thing has a mind, or several minds, of its own rather than being controllable like those who funded it were expecting.

** Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion were both present at [[WarIsHell Malachor V]] at the end of the Mandalorian War, and they only barely survived the catastrophe that destroyed the world. Nihilus survived by becoming a sort of Force vampire, an utter void in the Force who feeds on the lifeforce of others. The crew of his ship are all husks that have been nearly drained by just being in the proximity of the Sith Lord. You never get to see what's behind his mask, and it's implied that there is [[PowerOfTheVoid nothing]].
** Sion survived by focusing on his own pain, while his body was blasted to pieces. He has pulled himself together, but it's clear that he is only "alive" by sheer force of will, maintained by his agony. [[spoiler:If you convince him to let go of his pain, as a life in constant suffering is not worth living, he dies instantly]].

* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': The Resurrection Beasts are the ghosts of murdered planets, grown in power by [[PlanetEater devouring more worlds]] over millennia of insane hunger. Their physical bodies are thousands of miles wide, with thousands of Heralds that act as extensions of its will; their spirits [[HorrifyingTheHorror scare away]] even the other denizens of the River of Death; humans [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm can't perceive their true forms]]; and they're a SupernaturalFearInducer that works over light-years of distance.

Undead Abominations are often the more common breeds of [[UndeadIndex undead]] turned UpToEleven, including [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]], [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]], [[DemBones skeletons]], [[{{Mummy}} mummies]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], FrankensteinsMonster[=s=], even apparition-esque [[TheFairFolk fairies]] such as [[OurBansheesAreLouder banshees]] and [[HeadlessHorseman dullahan]]. Undead Abominations are non-euclidian entities which [[AlwaysABiggerFish make these various monsters look like inferior]], LovecraftLite xeroxes in comparison. [[OurLichesAreDifferent Liches]] are also extremely common candidates, especially when they are extremely powerful, difficult to destroy or have few restrictions on their ability to resurrect themselves, and have few or no restrictions on their ability to act on a large scale.

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' has the Prince of Death, also known as [[spoiler: Godwyn the Golden]], first of [[DemBones Those Who Live in Death]], the source of both the Deathroot that births them and the Deathblight they spread. A mutated, soulless being resembling a titanic merman with an upside-down face, [[spoiler: Godwyn's corpse fused with the roots of the [[WorldTree Erdtree]], endlessly replicating and spreading his body parts throughout the Lands Between, spawning copies of his eyes and face in places overtaken by Death. Aside from causing Those Who Live in Death to rise from their graves, creatures such as the basilisks and certain [[GiantCrab Giant Crabs]] living above his lair are tainted by him, bearing his mark and spreading Deathblight. His influence even exists where the Erdtree couldn't possibly have any roots, such as the local FloatingIsland Farum Azula, implying he's somehow corrupting the world itself and is powerful enough to overcome Farum Azula's nature as a PlaceBeyondTime.]]

** In the 3.5 add-on book Tome of Magic, characters can bind low-powered {{EldritchAbomination}}s called vestiges to their bodies. One of them, is Tenebrous. It is the remnant of what happened when the undead Archdemon Orcus achieved divinity, and then was overthrown. The life status of Tenebrous is deeply in question, but most who bind the vestige don't particularly care since it grants them control over undead and darkness. The book describes it as
"a shadow of a shadow", which seems very apt.

* The Titan from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', a massive decaying corpse that [[GiantCorpseWorld forms the Boiling Isles]] and exudes a BackgroundMagicField that witches use to cast spells. Death seems to be more of a gradient than an absolute state for it; the Titan's heart continues to beat despite its body's massive desiccation, and [[BigBad Emperor Belos]] insists that [[DeadPersonConversation it continues to speak to him]].

[[OurZombiesAreDifferent Some zombies are different]], so different that the human mind cannot even begin to comprehend what it really is.

* The Sanzhiyan Five Generals from ''Manga/SazanEyes'' are five extremely powerful Triclops who gave up their lives and most of their humanity to become, essentially, keepers of the streams of the "Naga", the life energy of the entire planet, and any Triclop who wishes to increase his powers must face their trials. The least mutated one, the Water Tomb General, resembles a mummified, four-armed skeleton merged with the ground able to unleash MindRape or corrosive water on whoever tries to undertake his trials, the others have even creepier form (such as a mummy emerging from the shell of a giant warty insect, a tapir-like gargoyle, a humanoid bird monster with sharp teeth and a [[FetusTerrible floating big-brained baby]]). While they're not overly malevolent, is because they're simply [[AboveGoodAndEvil devoid of any morals]]).

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Every time human transmutation is attempted, the attempt to resurrect the dead [[CameBackWrong ends with a horrible monster]] somewhere between "only approximately human" and "writhing mass of hideous limbs", and is soulless; the Elric brothers are actually relieved to realise that they didn't bring their mother's soul back in the monster. The undead parallel gets even sharper in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime]], where the horror gains some of the memories of the person they're based on but are not, eventually taking on human form and becoming a homunculus, and being vulnerable to the person's real body [[spoiler:except Wrath, who's made from it]]. The "abomination" part remains deep down, however, [[spoiler:as shown when Dante casually removes Gluttony's ability to reason...and he becomes a mindless, monstrous engine of consumption that devours her]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': Behold [[http://www.goblinscomic.org/03252011/ Mr. Fingers.]] an undead abomination in the best traditions of the clade composed [[{{Fingore}} entirely of fingers]], pulled from the dreams of a child. As per TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons he has [[http://www.goblinscomic.org/comics/20110524.jpg a stat block]], which says Mr. Fingers is a [[AlwaysABiggerFish 'lesser' Finger Horror.]]

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': Already some sort of Force vampire to begin with, Darth Nihilus took his eldritch nature to a whole new level as a Force ghost. Following his death, he became an incorporeal Dark Side entity who uses his mask as a HauntedFetter and sustains his existence by regularly feeding on the Force energy (and souls) of living people. His true form is a shapeless black miasma that possesses the bodies of mortals and transforms his hosts into a LivingShadow.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* ''Film/GodzillaMothraKingGhidorahGiantMonstersAllOutAttack'': Godzilla was killed in 1954, but was reanimated by the vengeful ghosts of everyone who died during the Asia–Pacific War, making him powerful enough to kill the divine Guardian Monsters.
* The version of [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' combines this with DraconicAbomination [[spoiler:and MechanicalAbomination, because the machine is driven by the soul of King Ghidorah, drawn from its skull, which was used as part of the control system]]; once it contrives its own freedom and enough power to do what it wants, it immediately starts trying to destroy the city it's in and kill Godzilla.

[[folder:Live-Action Series]]

* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': If ThePlague doesn't kill someone, it will instead change them into a horribly mutated PerpetualMotionMonster that operates like a PlagueZombie and can become part of a BodyOfBodies under the right circumstances.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Every time human transmutation is attempted, the attempt to resurrect the dead [[CameBackWrong ends with a horrible monster]] somewhere between "only approximately human" and "writhing mass of hideous limbs", and is canonically inhabited by some kind of spirit from Beyond; the Elric brothers are actually relieved to realise that they didn't bring their mother's soul back in the monster. The undead parallel gets even sharper in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime]], where the horror gains some of the memories of the person they're based on but are not, eventually taking on human form and becoming a homunculus, and being vulnerable to the person's real body [[spoiler:except Wrath, who's made from that body]]. The "abomination" part remains deep down, however, [[spoiler:as shown when Dante casually removes Gluttony's ability to reason...and he becomes a mindless, monstrous engine of consumption that devours her]].

** The Wither is a horrible creature made from the skulls of Wither Skeletons and the souls of the damned. It's easily the most dangerous mob in the game, thanks to its myriad of abilities (flight when above half health, a shield against arrows when below, explosive skull shots that do PoisonDamage, etc.) It will kill anything in sight that is not already undead if given the chance.