Greater Bonewalker
"A man can face a single corpse and find courage enough to strike it down. But a Greater Bonewalker is no single corpse, it is a graveyard given shape, a chorus of the dead bound together in hatred. Every strike you land shatters one life, yet a dozen more rise within it, clawing to reach you. And when it finally falls, the silence it leaves behind is worse than its screams."The Greater Bonewalker stands as one of the most feared products of necromantic craft, a towering, mismatched colossus of bone forged from the remains of many dead. Unlike the crude, singular form of the Lesser Bonewalker, this abomination is an intentional fusion of humanoid and beast skeletons, enhanced with extra limbs, elongated spines, and unnatural grafts to grant it size, reach, and ferocity beyond mortal limits. Its sockets burn with the hateful glow of countless bound spirits, each whispering their rage through the grinding of bone on bone. Whether serving as the spearhead of a dark army or roaming masterless in the wilds, the Greater Bonewalker is a relentless engine of slaughter, growing stronger with every corpse it claims.
Origins & Creation
The Greater Bonewalker originated as a refinement of the Lesser Bonewalker, devised by ambitious necromancers seeking a more powerful and durable servant. Its creation involves assembling multiple humanoid and sometimes beast skeletons into a single frame, binding them with necrotic sinew or magically fused bone, and implanting a binding core within the ribcage. Over a three-night ritual, the scattered remains are forced into unity through blood offerings and dark incantations, imbuing the construct with the strength and malice of the many spirits trapped within.Description
The Greater Bonewalker is a towering, misshapen mass of mismatched bones organized into a humanoid form, bound by necrotic sinew and blackened ossification, its sockets glowing with cold, hateful light. It reeks of grave soil, old decay, and acrid necromantic residue, a scent that lingers long after it passes. Its movements produce the grinding scrape of bone on bone, punctuated by faint, disembodied whispers or agonized moans from the many souls trapped within its frame.“If you hear it before you see it, you are already too close. If you smell it, you are already too late.”
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Greater Bonewalker’s anatomy is an unnatural fusion of multiple humanoid and animal skeletons, crudely or artfully assembled by necromantic craft. Its central frame is usually humanoid, but heavily reinforced with additional bones to increase height, bulk, and strength. Extra limbs, often mismatched in size and origin, protrude from shoulders, ribs, or hips, enabling simultaneous grappling and striking. Animal bones may be grafted into the structure for added speed or ferocity, such as clawed forelimbs or multiple legs. The spine is often lengthened and curved, with surplus vertebrae for stability, while ribs are layered or doubled for protection. The skull may be singular, stacked with additional craniums as armor, or replaced entirely with a more imposing beast skull. All components are bound together with necrotic sinew, leather strapping, or magically fused joints, making the creature’s proportions jagged, asymmetrical, and deeply unsettling.
Genetics and Reproduction
This skeleton cannot reproduce, replicate, clone or otherwise make more of itself. The only way in which this being can be created is through necromantic magic and dark powers.
Ecology and Habitats
The Greater Bonewalker has no natural ecology, existing solely as an unnatural construct sustained by necromantic magic. It is most often found in graveyards, battlefields, catacombs, and necromancers’ lairs, places rich in bones and lingering death. When masterless, it roams desolate ruins or haunted wilderness, drawn to sites of slaughter where it can harvest fresh remains to repair or augment its body.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The Greater Bonewalker has no true need for food, but its animating magic drives it to harvest fresh bones from the living or recently dead to replace damaged parts or increase its size. It does not consume flesh, instead discarding it or leaving it to rot, focusing only on skeletal remains. Some are known to stalk battlefields after the fighting, scavenging corpses to “feed” its ever-growing frame.
Behaviour
The Greater Bonewalker is relentless and single-minded, driven either by its master’s commands or by a deep, unnatural urge to hunt and kill. It shows no empathy or self-preservation, viewing the living only as prey and sources of new bones. The many spirits bound within give it a fractured, unstable psyche, sometimes causing it to pause, twitch, or mutter incoherently before exploding into sudden, violent action.
Additional Information
Social Structure
This species does not communicate and has no social structure at all.
Domestication
The Greater Bonewalker cannot be truly domesticated, as it remains a dangerous and unpredictable construct bound only by necromantic control. Skilled practitioners can command and direct it through a binding core and sustained magical dominance, but if that control falters, it will immediately turn on its handler or wander off to hunt. Attempts to tame one without magical compulsion invariably end in slaughter.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
The Greater Bonewalker is primarily exploited as a shock troop or guardian, valued by necromancers for its size, resilience, and ability to sow terror. They are used to break enemy lines, guard important relics or lairs, and intimidate foes through sheer presence. In rare cases, their remains, especially the binding core, are harvested after destruction for use in potent necromantic rituals or as components in other undead creations.
“They say a Bonewalker grows with every battle. I believe it, because the one that tore through our lines had more arms than I could count.”
Geographic Origin and Distribution
The Greater Bonewalker is rare and found only where skilled necromancers or warlocks practice their craft. They are most often encountered in war torn regions, ancient battlefields, cursed ruins, and territories ruled by dark magic, with scattered sightings in remote wilderness near sites of mass death. In lands where necromancy is outlawed, they appear almost exclusively in hidden lairs or deep catacombs, far from prying eyes.
Average Intelligence
The Greater Bonewalker possesses only rudimentary intelligence, capable of following complex commands and adapting tactics in battle but lacking true creativity or reasoning. When masterless, it acts on instinct, guided by a predatory drive and fragmented memories from the spirits bound within. These lingering echoes can occasionally grant it flashes of cunning, making it far deadlier than mindless undead.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The Greater Bonewalker lacks true eyes yet perceives its surroundings through "necromantic sight", sensing heat, life force, and movement within a wide radius. It can detect the living even in total darkness or through thin barriers, guided by the faint pulse of their vitality. Some possess a stronger spiritual awareness, allowing them to sense holy magic, other undead, or the lingering essence of death from great distances.
“I could bind one, yes. But I could never trust it. Such a thing doesn’t serve, it waits for a chance to betray.”
Scientific Name
Ossium Ambulo Major
Origin/Ancestry
These entities originate from any number of previously living creatures.
Conservation Status
This amalgamation, undead creature is not under any protection status of any nation. All who encounter it are encouraged to flee or destroy it if they can do so safely and/or report it to the nearest religious center or government agency.
Average Height
Taller than most skeletons, standing between 8 and 12 feet tall, depending on the original creature or creatures that make up this skeleton.
Average Physique
Roughly humanoid in size, shape, and physique, if somewhat disjointed.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
The Greater Bonewalker’s bones are stained in uneven shades of ashen grey, sickly yellow, and deep brown, the discoloration caused by age, soil, and the necrotic energies binding them. In places, the bone is blackened or cracked, as if scorched from within, with faint veins of greenish or violet light seeping through the seams. Around the joints and fused grafts, dark resin-like ossification or rotting sinew adds a grim, mottled contrast to its skeletal frame.
Strengths And Weaknesses
The Greater Bonewalker’s strengths lie in its immense size, unnatural strength, and ability to wield multiple limbs in combat, allowing it to overwhelm opponents with sheer physical dominance. Its layered, reinforced bone structure makes it highly resistant to cutting and piercing weapons, while its necromantic senses allow it to detect living targets even in complete darkness. However, its mismatched anatomy can make it slow or clumsy in tight spaces, and its dependence on a binding core presents a critical weakness, destroying this core instantly collapses the construct. It is also vulnerable to holy magic, strong dispelling spells, and sustained magical disruption, which can unravel the energies that animate it.“It is a warband made fleshless, a dozen dead in one body, each bone eager to kill again.”
Combat Tactics
The Greater Bonewalker favors direct, overwhelming assaults, using its reach and extra limbs to batter, grab, and crush multiple foes at once. It often charges straight into enemy lines to break formations, then switches to grappling or pinning prey while striking others. Against fortified positions, it smashes barriers with brute force, while master-controlled Bonewalkers may coordinate with other undead to encircle and overwhelm their targets.Known Variations
Known variations of the Greater Bonewalker include the Four-Armed Slayer, built for relentless melee combat, the Beast-Stalker, incorporating animal bones for increased speed, damage, and climbing ability, and the Wailer, which possesses an enhanced Soul-Echo Wail capable of stunning entire groups. Rarer still are Titan Bonewalkers, massive constructs made from dozens of skeletons, and the Bonebound Sentinel, heavily reinforced and designed to stand immobile as an unyielding guardian until provoked.Rumors
The Self Growing Graveyard: Some claim that a Greater Bonewalker never stops adding to itself, harvesting bones from every kill until it becomes a lumbering fortress of skeletal remains. The Lost Command: It is said that certain Bonewalkers, having outlived their masters, still roam aimlessly for centuries, following half-forgotten orders until the last spark of their binding fades. The Voice Of The Many: Campfire tales insist that if you listen closely in the dark, you can hear every soul it has consumed whispering, each one pleading, cursing, or laughing in madness. The Undying Sentinel: Gravekeepers speak of Bonewalkers buried deep beneath ruined cities, placed there as eternal guardians to cursed treasures or forbidden tombs. The Returning Hunter: Some insist that once a Greater Bonewalker sees you and you survive, it will track you for the rest of your days, appearing years later to finish what it began.
by by Me with Dall-E
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