Undeath Always Ends: Difference between revisions

 

Whether a vampire, lich, mummy, or rarer fare, you can rest assured that by the story's end any notable undead character will not be undead because of one of the following:

* The character is killed by someone else (hero, villain; doesn't matter which).

* The character, [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|unhappy]] with [[What Have I Become?|his/her undead state]], [[Driven to Suicide|commits suicide]] or convinces the heroes to slay/vanquish/exorcise him/her.

It seems that not all undeath is equal - some undead are deader than others. More living undead, such as vampires, are less likely to fit this trope than less living undead (such as zombies). This trope seems to apply most strongly to ghosts, who are often called simply 'dead' even though they're technically undead. Vampires favor [[Suicide by Sunlight]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* Averted in [[Anne Rice]]'s ''The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned.'' The Elixir of Life makes living creatures totally indestructible. If chopped to pieces, the parts will become independently animate. If incinerated, they will reconstitute. Naturally, the full ramifications of this are utterly horrifying once grasped.

* Averted and played straight in [[The Death Gate Cycle]]. Prince Edmund frees many of the undead in a drawn-out campaign of attrition, but remains undead himself. Hugh the Hand is allowed to die before the final battle against Sang-Drax.

 

 

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** In ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'', the Created want to end their undying, unliving nature by [[Humanity Ensues|completing the Great Work and becoming human]], but frankly, [[Blessed with Suck|can you blame them?]] Even then, Mr. Verney, [[Frankenstein's Monster]], is still going after several centuries, much to his regret. Note that, although Prometheans generally only get a couple centuries, "going to the wastes" (complete isolation from humanity and their powers) can extend this clock, which many take advantage of to extend their deadline to complete the Great Work; [[White Wolf]] leaves it open whether Verney and the other Progenitors (founders of Promethean lines) are truly immortal or just punctual about going to the wastes.

** In ''[[Mummy: The Resurrection|Mummy the Resurrection]]'', the Undying spend time 'temporarily undead'. When they die for the first time, they're undead until they receive the Spell of Life, which returns them to true life and grants them [[Resurrective Immortality]]. Every time they die after that, their spirit spends some time in the Underworld before resurrection. It takes exceptional circumstances to finally kill them - utter annihilation or a genuine desire to die.

** The wraiths of ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]'' have three options: Oblivion, and utter destruction; [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|Transcendence]], and an ambiguous fate; or remain in the Underworld. Some older wraiths have been around for thousands of years.

** ''[[Eberron]]'' being particularly notable, where one nation, Karrnath, employs intelligent undead in its armies and whose king is secretly a vampire—and is in fact the most peaceful, caring monarch around (just don't threaten him, his people, or the peace). The elven nation of Aerenal animate "deathless," undead fueled by positive energy, as a living afterlife for their greatest citizens. There's also a semi-popular religion that reveres undeath as the path to immortality.

** Second Edition AD&D also had a unique form of Elven Lich that 'lived' for the sole purpose of hunting down other undead and destroying them. As this would clearly not be possible simply because they occur more rapidly than the elven kind can kill them, and that such endeavors are innately dangerous, it's not certain whether or not they would live that much longer than a normal elf would, especially in worlds where Elves can count their potential lifespans in millenia and not centuries.

 

== Video Games ==

* All of the Unsent in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' and its sequel are eventually sent to the afterlife, generally by Yuna, willingly or not.

* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 3'': {{spoiler|The end of the campaign does multiple versions, the revived king Gryphonheart kills his original murderer in a darkly humorous cutscene. His soul then leaves his body.}}

* Anyone who is resurrected using the life crystals in ''[[The Dig]]'' is generally killed off again very quickly, from the alien wildlife (you can resurrect an alien turtle, but he'll just get eaten or explode seconds later...or if you screwed it up, he'll turn into slime) to major characters like {{spoiler|the Alien Inventor, who kills himself and seals himself inside a crystal after you're done talking to him, and Brink (as well as Maggie, if you choose to resurrect her), although Brink and Maggie's deaths are undone again at the end of the game}}.

* This is a major plot point of ''[[Tsukihime]]''. Dead Apostles, even though they're vampires, will eventually die sooner or later, so some of them have to get creative to extend their lifespans. Nrvnqsr Chaos does this by fusing with different beasts, Michael Roa Valdamjong does this through reincarnation, and Night of Wallachia does this by manifesting himself as a materialized fear or rumor.

* Zig-zagged in [[Professor Layton and the Unwound Future]], in which {{spoiler|Claire, was thought to be dead, is alive, albeit a few years later. But time travel is unstable, so she has to go back to the time she came from, and die.}}

* This is {{spoiler|the Underking}}'s goal in [[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall]], which is why he seeks the Mantella, {{spoiler|his heart}}.