Non-Human Undead: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

See [[Hybrid Monster]], when two ''living'' fantasy species are combined. Contrast [[Hybrid Overkill Avoidance]]. Also, compare [[Mechanical Monster]] and [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]].

 

 

[[Dracolich]] is a specific subtrope when the creature turns out to have been a dragon.

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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* {{spoiler|Asto}} in ''[[Nora]]''. {{spoiler|Knell likes making familiars from dead demons}}.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' has had undead demons. They tend to get fleshier the more strength they recover.

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In one of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' books, Harry encounters an extremely strong ghost he calls the Nightmare, and suspects it's one of these. {{spoiler|Specifically the ghost of the demon serving the sorcerer Leonid Kravos, an old enemy of his that he'd offscreen at some point. He later learns that the ghost is Kravos himself, whose death had been concealed from him.}}

** Then there was the time when he pulled out his trump card against a necromancer [[Big Bad]]. {{spoiler|Two words: ''Zombie Tyrannosaurus.''}}

* The [[Zombie Apocalypse]] in ''The Rising'' and ''City of the Dead'' has demonic spirits animating pretty much every corpse over a certain size, human and otherwise. Most notably, one character is killed by a zombie sewer crocodile biting his head off, [[Kill'Em All|while the last two humans are offed by zombie rats]].

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** The [[Dracolich]] ([[Lich]] dragon), which originated in the [[Forgotten Realms]] (it can now be found in most settings). There are also vampire, ghost, zombie, and skeleton dragons.

** The groaning spirit (banshee) is the "spirit of an evil female elf".

** The death tyrant is an undead beholder.

** The adventure I2 ''Tomb of the Lizard King'' had a lizard king who was changed into a vampire by a ''Wish'' spell.

** [http://www.lightning.eu.org/dnd/epicMonsters.html#atropal Atropals] are the [[Eldritch Abomination|undead fetuses of unborn gods]] (colloquially referred to as Undead Aborted God Fetuses).

** And zombies and skeletons can be made from just about anything that leaves a corpse. In fact, many types of undead in 3rd Edition are created though applying a template to an existing creature, so you can wind up with medusa vampires, giant mummies, beholder ghosts, gnoll death knights, and many, many other combinations.

** Necromentals are undead elementals.

** In ''[[Eberron]]'', the Elves of Aerenal have [[Dark Is Not Evil|their own versions of undead called the Deathless]]. These act as their rulers through the Undying Court, and are animated by positive energy rather than the usual Negative energy used by regular undead. Similarly, ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has baelnorns, a type of good-aligned elf liches.

** And many, many monsters that are considered as undead but were not living creatures at all (like nightshades), are composed from many creatures, or are specifically created from nonhumans.

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has a number of metahumans affected by HMHVV (Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus), its equivalent of undead. They include the banshee (former elf), goblin (former dwarf), wendigo (former ork) and dzoo-noo-qua (former troll).

** It should be pointed out that HMHVV infectees are not actually undead. They are mutants, yes, but not undead. [[Magic A Is Magic A|As one of the fundamental laws of magic in Shadowrun is that you cannot raise the dead]], "True" undead do not exist. Most undead are either dead bodies animated by magic (Think fleshy, magical robots), or possessed by something. The Sheddim (Corpses possessed by spirits from the far planes) are one such examples. As are Zombies (Corpses animated by mages). Cyberzombies are people kept artificially alive through cybernetics, magic, drugs and spirits. Their body is technically "dead", all that mojo is needed to keep it going. Note that all the above can be metahuman, or not.

* In the [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh! card game]], there are quite a few non-human undeads, including the variants of legacy cards (i. e. Summoned Skull -> Archfiend Zombie Skull, Red Eyes Black Dragon -> Red Eyes Zombie Dragon, etc.). Early non-human cards classed as zombies included dragons, ''boats'', and clowns (what?).

* ''[[GURPS]]'' has the Zombie Vehicle spell which is designed with spaceships in mind.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The humorous text-based adventure game, ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', has an undead monster in the Misspelled Cemetary area called The [[My Nayme Is|Bonerdagon]]. It's an undead dragon made of bones, but it might also be an undead dragon made of boners.

** Cthulu had a "star-spawn" named Dagon, and he was bad enough when made of terror...

* Any kind of living creature in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' can have a zombie or skeletal version, including monsters like dragons, giants, and imps.

* In ''[[Diablo]] 2'' necromancers can get the ability to animate the corpses of their enemies as they were in life instead of somehow ending up with humanoid skeletons, as happens before this.

* In ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'' the sprite and characteristics of a living corpse depend on who it was before death: mounted corpses move faster, gnome corpses have better defence in mountains, and so on.

* In the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' series, the T-Virus infects ''everything''. Zombie dogs, birds and plants are common, and we've seen oversized mutant snakes, sharks, worms, crocodiles, lions, an ''elephant''...

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' gives us Zombie [[Humongous Mecha]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Undead Index]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]