Everything about Undead totally explained
Undead is a collective name for beings that the
superstitious believe are deceased yet behave as if alive. Undead may be
spiritual, such as
ghosts, or
corporeal, such as
vampires and
zombies. Undead are featured in the
legends of most cultures and in many works of
fantasy and
horror fiction.
Bram Stoker considered the term "The Un-Dead" for the original title for his novel
Dracula (1897), and its use in the novel is mostly responsible for the modern sense of the word. The word does appear in English before Stoker but with the more literal sense of "alive" or "not dead," for which citations can be found in the
Oxford English Dictionary. Stoker's use of the term refers only to
vampires, and the extension to other types of supernatural beings arose later. Most commonly, it's now taken to refer to supernatural beings which had at one time been alive and continue to display some aspects of life after death, but the usage is highly variable.
Creation
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus introduced a new variant of undead, the dead brought back to "life" by
science, though Frankenstein's creature bears some similarity to a
golem. Similar works include
H. P. Lovecraft's short story "
Herbert West—Reanimator" and the
Re-Animator film franchise inspired by the story.
Both legend and popular culture discuss various methods for creating undead creatures. Most involve the reanimation of a corpse, as with zombies, skeletons, and ghouls. Regarding ghosts, the spirit lives on after death, forming an intangible physical body that often mirrors the one the spirit had in life.
Rituals propitiating the uneasy spirits of the dead were a feature of
ancient Greek religion (
keres) and
ancient Roman religion (
lemures).
In some cases, the undead, especially skeletons and zombies, are under the control of a
necromancer. In other cases, such as zombies as depicted in film and vampires, the undead existence is passed on like a curse or disease. With liches, the powers of undead are sought after by the participant of a magical ritual that turns them from a living being to a lich. Ghosts are said to be kept in their undead state by willpower, either from a keen desire to remain with the living or from a wish to see something completed that they couldn't do during their lifetime.
Creation of Zombies
Zombies were a part of Voodoo, a religion which originated in Haiti. The necromancer was known as a Bokor, and selected a victim. The bokor placed a cocktail of poisonous substances, most notably
pufferfish. Over a course of a couple weeks, the victim would assume a death-like state, and be buried, only to be dug up by the Bokor. The victim, suffering from brain damage, would seem to many to be a reanimated corpse.
Vulnerabilities
In fiction and folklore, undead creatures are often hostile toward the living. Defending against the undead is often portrayed as difficult; most zombie movies, for example, usually depict zombies as being resistant to normal attacks. In such movies (for example
Night of the Living Dead), only a direct shot to the head seems to stop them. Some times it's even required to destroy the whole body, such as burning it. They are often shown as vulnerable to sacred or blessed objects, such as crosses and
holy water. This is seen in
Dracula, wherein a crucifix burns the vampire. In some games, undead are damaged by magic spells that normally heal a living being and by fire-based attacks. Additionally, a line of
salt is sometimes shown as a suitable barrier to the undead.
Vampires are traditionally depicted as being susceptible to a stake through the heart or decapitation, though various traditions have different means of dealing with them. Zombies are often portrayed as able to attack when dismembered, although the zombie-like ghouls in
Night of the Living Dead could be dispatched by a "shot in the head, or a heavy blow to the skull".
Incorporeal undead are frequently shown as being difficult to defend against, as in most depictions normal physical weapons pass harmlessly through their forms. In some
games (such as
Dungeons & Dragons) ghosts can only be dispatched by enchanted or silver weapons.
However, in other fiction the only way to get rid of them permanently is to discover what duty or task they failed to complete in life (such as in Chapter 4 of
The Monk by
Matthew Gregory Lewis).
Undead are often depicted as vulnerable to sunlight and fire. They may also perish when their creator is likewise dispatched, and may be unable to cross certain symbolic boundaries or even natural barriers like running water as in
Sabriel by Garth Nix.
In fantasy games, mummies are often depicted as being exceptionally vulnerable to fire due to the prescence of dry cloth filled with chemicals used to preserve their bodies. They have also been described as vulnerable to water as it dissolves the flesh and dampens the bandages, destroying them by using the damp bandages to crush its dusty core.
In some cultures, various plants are said to repel the undead. Examples include
garlic and
wolfsbane, as well as
rosewood,
rowan,
hazel,
willow, and
holly. This modern tradition appears to be based on pre-Christian belief that some plants are sacred.
Wolfsbane, in fact, is a powerful poison, and should be handled with extreme care.
Fiction and films
films have been made about the undead, usually vampires, zombies, and mummies, including such fiction as
Dracula,
The Crow,
Night of the Living Dead, and
The Mummy.
Games and popular culture
Undead are a popular adversary in fantasy and horror settings. They feature prominently in many
role-playing games,
computer role-playing games,
MMORPGs and
strategy games. In such games, special rules are often given for the undead.
In
Dungeons & Dragons and similar systems,
clerics can attempt to "turn"
undead by invoking their patron deities or channeling "positive energy" (other-dimensional life energy, which animates and heals living creatures, and is the antithesis of negative energy, which animates and heals undead creatures.) This forces the undead creature away from the cleric; powerful clerics are capable of completely destroying weaker undead creatures with this ability. Although the act of turning away the undead relies primarily on power of faith, a
holy symbol is usually required as a focus for the divine power being invoked. This is derived from the traditional notion that vampires could be repelled by the
cross. Clerics of evil gods can rebuke and control the undead in a similar fashion, by means of
necromancy.
In
Dungeons & Dragons and other games such as
Final Fantasy, undead can be damaged by using magical effects that heal normal living beings.
Undead characters appear in many roles, be it a mindless horde of opponents (such as zombies or skeletons) or a thoughtful, plotting villain (such as vampires). Some games feature undead playable characters, such as and
World of Warcraft. Others, such as
Diablo 2, allow the player to take on the role of a
Necromancer and raise undead from corpses.
In some stories and settings, such as the
Lorien Trust LARP, the word "unliving" is used as a preferential synonym. In reference to the
political correctness movement, the undead are sometimes jokingly referred to as the "living-impaired". Vampires were sometimes likewise referred to as "Undead Americans" by characters in the TV series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off
Angel.
In philosophy
Jacques Derrida used the myth of the undead as a means to
deconstruct the
binary opposition between life and death.
In science
Being a construct of mythology and superstition, the term "undead" isn't used in science. In science and medicine, a person that's revived from
clinical death is regarded as alive because biological functions associated with life have been restored. The capacity for dead matter to behave as though it were alive in fictional representations of the "undead" doesn't scientifically exist.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Undead'.
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