Undead

A blanket term used to apply to any and everything that died, definitivly and completely died, but then came back to life in some form. It is an unnatural state to be in, an inherent perversion of life and often a mimikry of it as well. The Beings stuck in this state are often condemed creatures. While commonly associated with evil, they are more neutral beings than anything else.   Still, I wouldn't recomend getting close to an unknown undead without some sort of insurance and /or protection.  

Definition and Examples

As stated before, the definition of being undead is that you had to have lived, then died, then have come back to life in some capcity-usually a bad one. But that could mean a lot of things.  

The Enchanted Chair

For starters, someone might say an animated chair should be considered undead under that definition. The wood used to make the chair came from a once-living tree and, through magic, the wood from the tree would be given new life. They would be wrong. The chair would simply be enchanted to imitate life.  

The Animated Chair

Similarly, If a chair were given a previously contructed and/or organic and still fuctioning mind that allowed it to move of it's own free will, that chair would still not be considered Undead. The chair would be altered into a mutation or at least some level of unholy creature, but not an undead one. This is because the chair did not posses that mind when it was a tree, and so the status of it's previous living was not altered but imposed upon. It would not matter if the mind were thrust upon a spoon or a currently living thing, the effect would be the same.  

The Mutated Chair

Now, if the chair were then inhereted by someone who possed a knack for biology and then that person managed to resurect some version of the trees previous capacity for life and embue it into the chair, then that chair might be undead. Especially if it began to grow or mimik behaviors exhibited by the average tree. This would be a very rare and a very questionable course of action, but the chair would then maybe be an undead tree in the shape of a chair.  

Types

There are several types of Undead creatures roaming Pangella, each with their own origins and peculiarities. When typing, the catagories are generally determined by how they died and what brought them back. While the types are decently contained within themselves, there is occasionally some overlap. when an overlap happens, the most prominet typing at the moment is used.

Spirits

Starting with the most debated of the catagories, Spirits are the lingering remnents of a person or creature who has died and yet still interacts with and effects the living world. The main debated characteristic is that a spirit is, by definition, non corporeal and many people belive the lack of a body to be seen as a lack of 'returning to life'. They may be right, and if one day the debate is settled and it's decided that spirits are not undead but just the dead lingering on, then this little blurb will be removed. For now they will be included in the typing options just in case.   To be a spirit, the creature must have died and refused to pass on to the 'great beyond'. and have retained a good bit of their congnitive abilities at the bare minimum. They 'haunt' their death location. Either of supernatural or divine origin, Spirits are considered guardians of Death and they warn the living of possible dangers they themselves failed to see. Overtime, spirits may deteriorate and become less of a warning and more of a hazard.

Magical

When a creature is resurected by Magical means, they are the classic undead creature. Often, they keep the title undead becuase Arcane practioners are anal about names and titles and prefer to use the 'technically correct' term rather than make their own.   Throught he use of Necromany specifically, a creature can be risen from the dead in a parody of life. These creatures are without thought and behave in a parody of life rather than a true imitation of it. They

Cognizent

In a few cases, an undead creature can come back virtually unchanged and completely cognizent. These people likely don't know that they are undead. usually, their dance with death was brief, not long enough for the decomposition process to take root, and the magic in their revival powerful and encompasing.   In these cases, their status as an undead creature really only maters in magical situations. It it affect their magical aspects for the rest of their life no matter what they do. To the perceptive, the touch of death may be apparent as a shadow looming over the Undead, a constant, unshakable presense.

Predatory

Controversly, an undead creature without any lingering ties to the living world will often try to suppliment with murder. These are the creatures that are risen through unteathered means. Either an illness or infection of some kind, or a product of badly weilded necromancy or unreleaced and corrupted magics. usually, creatures of this callabre are called 'Zombies' but Song Hollows fall under this catagory as well.

Skeletons

And last, but certainly not least, is the famous skeleton. A catch-all group for all the risen creatures that are old enough to become little more than functioning bones. these are risen from necromany alone and are perverbial puppets for their riser. Their grip on life is tenuous and their commitment to the bit admirable. there is little a skeleton wants more than to return to being a pile of dusty bones.