Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Undead Origins
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9315360" data-attributes="member: 2209"><p><a href="https://paizo.com/products/btpy9ujg?Starfinder-Alien-Archive" target="_blank">Starfinder Alien Archive</a></p><p>Starfinder</p><p><strong>Marooned One:</strong> There is a special psychological pain in watching your last chance of survival slip out of sight. Those who are left behind to die in the cold of space—whether on a deserted asteroid or a derelict ship—sometimes arise as a special type of undead called a marooned one. Whether they died of asphyxiation, dehydration, or starvation, unfortunate souls that arise as marooned ones have a desiccated look, with taut skin stretched across their bones. </p><p>While they have nearly as much intelligence as they did in life, their original personalities erode quickly under the corrosive power of the malicious energies reanimating them, and they use their cognition and what remains of their memories in service of a single purpose: causing other living creatures to suffer the same fate as they did. </p><p>The only time one of these undead feels something close to pleasure is when it forces or tricks a group of intruders in its territory into leaving one of their own behind. The marooned one avoids killing this castaway if possible, instead attempting to bond with the victim over their shared fate, increasing the chance that the intruder rises as a marooned one when it dies. This bonding can seem strangely caring; as soon as its victim’s fate is sealed, a marooned one gives every appearance of sympathizing with its prey, even giving advice on how to continue to survive in their current environment as long as possible. This emotion is hollow, however, for a marooned one can never be convinced to allow a victim to escape, and what personality the undead manages to manifest during these conversations inevitably fades again with the victim’s death and rebirth as a fellow undead. </p><p>Marooned ones are most often found in the hulks of dead starships and other places where spacefarers have been left to die slowly, adrift in the black due to mechanical failure or malicious pirates. Yet marooned ones can also arise in perfectly habitable but dangerously isolated regions: colonists and explorers stranded on new worlds, soldiers abandoned by allies on a battlefield—anyone who dies after being left behind can potentially turn into a marooned one. </p><p>When trespassers invade a marooned one’s territory, the marooned one often uses its superior knowledge of the layout of the locale to bypass the intruders and get aboard their starship. Once inside, the undead gains control of the vessel by killing any crew still onboard and either flies the starship out of reach or permanently disables it, leaving those stranded to gradually die in their new hostile environs and potentially become marooned ones themselves. </p><p><strong>Marooned One Template Graft:</strong> This poor soul was abandoned and left to die on a deserted asteroid, derelict ship, or other remote location. </p><p><strong>Necrovite:</strong> Long ago, when the native humanoids of Eox—called elebrians—destroyed two neighboring planets, the backlash devastated their own world as well, forcing them to turn to necromancy to survive. The most powerful spellcasters among these survivors combined their advanced technology with the ancient magical traditions of lichdom to achieve immortality in the form of eternal undeath. These were the first necrovites, and along with their colleagues who sought refuge in other forms of undeath, they took control of their ravaged planet to become the first bone sages, Eox’s notoriously aloof heads of state. </p><p>Becoming a necrovite is a long and arduous process, but the crux of the ritual involves extracting the spellcaster’s consciousness and soul and imprisoning them in a technomagical relic called an electroencephalon. The spellcaster dies but becomes undead, and as long as her electroencephalon remains intact she can continue her existence without fear of the passage of time. </p><p>In addition to constructing an electroencephalon to house her soul, a prospective necrovite must also research and learn the proper ritual to transfer her life force into the receptacle and prepare her body for the transformation into undeath. This ritual is unique to each body and soul—what works for one necrovite will not work for another—and likely has deleterious effects. The exact methods for each spellcaster’s transformation into a necrovite are left to the GM’s discretion, but the process should involve expenditures of hundreds of thousands of credits, multiple dangerous quests, and many difficult skill checks over the course of months, years, or decades. </p><p>An integral step in becoming a necrovite is the creation of the electroencephalon in which the aspirant stores her consciousness and soul. </p><p>Each necrovite must craft her own unique electroencephalon, which is a hybrid item with a level equal to the character’s caster level at the time of creation. The character must be a spellcaster and have a caster level of 7th or higher. Creating an electroencephalon otherwise follows the normal rules for crafting equipment. The cost to create an electroencephalon varies between individual creators and should be determined by the GM, but it is roughly equivalent to the price of a small arm with an item level equal to the creator’s caster level. </p><p><strong>Necrovite Template Graft:</strong> A spellcaster with this template graft has used a terrifying combination of magic and technology to transform itself into an undead abomination. </p><p><strong>Nihili:</strong> More so than any harsh desert or freezing tundra, the airless void of space is an unforgiving killer. Most life-forms can survive for about 90 seconds in a vacuum before dying, though rapid depressurization can cause unconsciousness in as little as 15 seconds. When an unprotected body is introduced to a vacuum, the gases inside it begin to expand due to the difference in pressure. While this causes discomfort, especially in the abdominal area due to the expansion of intestinal gases, the real danger comes from any oxygen still in the lungs. If that gas can’t escape (say, because the person is trying to hold his breath), the delicate pulmonary tissue can become severely damaged. Those who survive such an event can be left with permanent injuries, such as blindness, a collapsed lung, or worse. Those who do not survive spend their last few moments in terrible pain and mind-numbing terror, and sometimes such suffering prevents souls from passing on to the afterlife. These unfortunate creatures rise again as undead monstrosities known as nihilis. </p><p>Some scholars posit that nihilis are the embodiment of outer space’s cruelest aspects and exist only to punish those who sully its vacuum. While most scoff at the idea of ascribing a will to something so vast and pervasive as space, there is no denying that nihilis exist and are vicious killers. </p><p>Most nihilis occur naturally, but they can be created by powerful spellcasters using the animate dead spell. Animating a nihili in this way requires crushed rock from a planetoid with no atmosphere as part of casting the spell. Nihilis created by Eoxian necromancers are sometimes assigned to ships of the Corpse Fleet as engineers, as they can walk along the outside of the vessels with little difficulty in order to make repairs. </p><p>Rumors speak of a cult of nihilis in the fringes of the Vast who have discovered a small tear in reality that opens up onto the Negative Energy Plane. Calling it a “dark star,” these nihilis eject corpses (usually of victims they have killed) into the surrounding vacuum as sacrifices; some of these bodies are animated as nihilis who immediately attain honored positions in the cult, as they preach of sinister whispers from beyond the portal that encourage this gruesome form of reproduction. </p><p><strong>Nihili Captain:</strong> Nihilis created by Eoxian necromancers are sometimes assigned to ships of the Corpse Fleet as engineers, as they can walk along the outside of the vessels with little difficulty in order to make repairs. An ambitious nihili who proves its worth might eventually become the captain of its own Corpse Fleet ship. </p><p><strong>Nihili Template Graft:</strong> Any breathing creature can die in the pitiless vacuum of space, whether because of a hull breach, being forced out of an airlock, or having its space suit run out of power while on an airless asteroid. </p><p><strong>Undead Minion:</strong> Undead minions can be formed from the corpses of any type of creature, though most of those appearing in folklore from across the galaxy are animated versions of whatever culture is telling the tale. Humanoids tell of ambulatory corpses rising from their ritual burial grounds, while aberrations, dragons, and magical beasts have their own legends of mindless dead of their own species returning to plague the living. </p><p><strong>Undead Minion Skeletal Undead:</strong> Both occult zombies and skeletal undead are animated by magical or supernatural forces and created either in dark necromantic rituals (including the create undead spell) or by strange and mysterious reactions between the Material and Negative Energy Planes. </p><p><strong>Undead Minion Occult Zombie:</strong> Both occult zombies and skeletal undead are animated by magical or supernatural forces and created either in dark necromantic rituals (including the create undead spell) or by strange and mysterious reactions between the Material and Negative Energy Planes. </p><p><strong>Undead Minion Cybernetic Zombie:</strong> Cybernetic zombies, on the other hand, arise as the result of technological implants that continue to function after their hosts have died, causing the body to act in a sad, shambling imitation of real life. </p><p><strong>Cybernetic Zombie Template Graft:</strong> This mindless undead is animated not through magic or supernatural phenomena but by cybernetic implants in its body, which continue to function after its mind and flesh have died. </p><p><strong>Occult Zombie Template Graft:</strong> This mindless undead has been animated via a necromantic or supernatural phenomena, and it is often created or controlled by a powerful spellcaster or a greater undead creature. </p><p><strong>Skeletal Undead Template Graft:</strong> Faster than other mindless undead, a skeletal undead is animated by necromantic or supernatural phenomena, and it is often found wearing armor or wielding weapons it was trained to use in life. </p><p><strong>Elebrian Necrovite:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Necrovite, Greater Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Necrovite Template Graft, Undead Abomination:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Nihili, Undead Monstrosity, Embodiment of Outer Space's Cruelest Aspects, Vicious Killer:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Nihili, Engineer:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Ambitious Nihili:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Nihili Captain, Ambitious Nihili:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Undead Minion, Mindless Minion, Force to be Reckoned With, Scourge to the Living, Mindless Undead, Ambulatory Corpse, Mindless Dead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Undead Minion, Servant:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Undead Minion, Mindless Threat:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Cybernetic Zombie Template Graft, Mindless Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Occult Zombie Template Graft, Mindless Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Skeletal Undead Template Graft, Mindless Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Undead:</strong> Undead are once-living creatures animated by magic or advanced technological forces. </p><p>Ellicoths can survive just as easily on the necromantic energies that animate undead as on the soul energy of living creatures, and most of their diet consists of ghosts, zombies, and other spontaneously generated undead in Eox’s wastelands. </p><p>In the Pact Worlds, most undead hail from the dead world of Eox and were created by the bone sages, though zombies and skeletal creatures are also found among the wreckage of ancient battlefields on Akiton and the enigmatic, alien structures on Aucturn. </p><p>Those cultists of Urgathoa who see undeath as the pinnacle of being surround themselves with undead minions, both to use their abilities to terrorize innocent folk and to study their physiology in order to become undead themselves. </p><p><strong>Spontaneously Generated Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Undead Soldier:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Unintelligent Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Greater Undead, Greater Undead Creature:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Mindless Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Ghost, Spontaneously Generated Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Lich:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Skeletal Creature:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Skeleton:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Vampire, Greater Undead:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Zombie, Mindless Zombie:</strong> ?</p><p><strong>Zombie, Spontaneously Generated Undead:</strong> ?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Voadam, post: 9315360, member: 2209"] [URL=https://paizo.com/products/btpy9ujg?Starfinder-Alien-Archive]Starfinder Alien Archive[/URL] Starfinder [b]Marooned One:[/b] There is a special psychological pain in watching your last chance of survival slip out of sight. Those who are left behind to die in the cold of space—whether on a deserted asteroid or a derelict ship—sometimes arise as a special type of undead called a marooned one. Whether they died of asphyxiation, dehydration, or starvation, unfortunate souls that arise as marooned ones have a desiccated look, with taut skin stretched across their bones. While they have nearly as much intelligence as they did in life, their original personalities erode quickly under the corrosive power of the malicious energies reanimating them, and they use their cognition and what remains of their memories in service of a single purpose: causing other living creatures to suffer the same fate as they did. The only time one of these undead feels something close to pleasure is when it forces or tricks a group of intruders in its territory into leaving one of their own behind. The marooned one avoids killing this castaway if possible, instead attempting to bond with the victim over their shared fate, increasing the chance that the intruder rises as a marooned one when it dies. This bonding can seem strangely caring; as soon as its victim’s fate is sealed, a marooned one gives every appearance of sympathizing with its prey, even giving advice on how to continue to survive in their current environment as long as possible. This emotion is hollow, however, for a marooned one can never be convinced to allow a victim to escape, and what personality the undead manages to manifest during these conversations inevitably fades again with the victim’s death and rebirth as a fellow undead. Marooned ones are most often found in the hulks of dead starships and other places where spacefarers have been left to die slowly, adrift in the black due to mechanical failure or malicious pirates. Yet marooned ones can also arise in perfectly habitable but dangerously isolated regions: colonists and explorers stranded on new worlds, soldiers abandoned by allies on a battlefield—anyone who dies after being left behind can potentially turn into a marooned one. When trespassers invade a marooned one’s territory, the marooned one often uses its superior knowledge of the layout of the locale to bypass the intruders and get aboard their starship. Once inside, the undead gains control of the vessel by killing any crew still onboard and either flies the starship out of reach or permanently disables it, leaving those stranded to gradually die in their new hostile environs and potentially become marooned ones themselves. [b]Marooned One Template Graft:[/b] This poor soul was abandoned and left to die on a deserted asteroid, derelict ship, or other remote location. [b]Necrovite:[/b] Long ago, when the native humanoids of Eox—called elebrians—destroyed two neighboring planets, the backlash devastated their own world as well, forcing them to turn to necromancy to survive. The most powerful spellcasters among these survivors combined their advanced technology with the ancient magical traditions of lichdom to achieve immortality in the form of eternal undeath. These were the first necrovites, and along with their colleagues who sought refuge in other forms of undeath, they took control of their ravaged planet to become the first bone sages, Eox’s notoriously aloof heads of state. Becoming a necrovite is a long and arduous process, but the crux of the ritual involves extracting the spellcaster’s consciousness and soul and imprisoning them in a technomagical relic called an electroencephalon. The spellcaster dies but becomes undead, and as long as her electroencephalon remains intact she can continue her existence without fear of the passage of time. In addition to constructing an electroencephalon to house her soul, a prospective necrovite must also research and learn the proper ritual to transfer her life force into the receptacle and prepare her body for the transformation into undeath. This ritual is unique to each body and soul—what works for one necrovite will not work for another—and likely has deleterious effects. The exact methods for each spellcaster’s transformation into a necrovite are left to the GM’s discretion, but the process should involve expenditures of hundreds of thousands of credits, multiple dangerous quests, and many difficult skill checks over the course of months, years, or decades. An integral step in becoming a necrovite is the creation of the electroencephalon in which the aspirant stores her consciousness and soul. Each necrovite must craft her own unique electroencephalon, which is a hybrid item with a level equal to the character’s caster level at the time of creation. The character must be a spellcaster and have a caster level of 7th or higher. Creating an electroencephalon otherwise follows the normal rules for crafting equipment. The cost to create an electroencephalon varies between individual creators and should be determined by the GM, but it is roughly equivalent to the price of a small arm with an item level equal to the creator’s caster level. [b]Necrovite Template Graft:[/b] A spellcaster with this template graft has used a terrifying combination of magic and technology to transform itself into an undead abomination. [b]Nihili:[/b] More so than any harsh desert or freezing tundra, the airless void of space is an unforgiving killer. Most life-forms can survive for about 90 seconds in a vacuum before dying, though rapid depressurization can cause unconsciousness in as little as 15 seconds. When an unprotected body is introduced to a vacuum, the gases inside it begin to expand due to the difference in pressure. While this causes discomfort, especially in the abdominal area due to the expansion of intestinal gases, the real danger comes from any oxygen still in the lungs. If that gas can’t escape (say, because the person is trying to hold his breath), the delicate pulmonary tissue can become severely damaged. Those who survive such an event can be left with permanent injuries, such as blindness, a collapsed lung, or worse. Those who do not survive spend their last few moments in terrible pain and mind-numbing terror, and sometimes such suffering prevents souls from passing on to the afterlife. These unfortunate creatures rise again as undead monstrosities known as nihilis. Some scholars posit that nihilis are the embodiment of outer space’s cruelest aspects and exist only to punish those who sully its vacuum. While most scoff at the idea of ascribing a will to something so vast and pervasive as space, there is no denying that nihilis exist and are vicious killers. Most nihilis occur naturally, but they can be created by powerful spellcasters using the animate dead spell. Animating a nihili in this way requires crushed rock from a planetoid with no atmosphere as part of casting the spell. Nihilis created by Eoxian necromancers are sometimes assigned to ships of the Corpse Fleet as engineers, as they can walk along the outside of the vessels with little difficulty in order to make repairs. Rumors speak of a cult of nihilis in the fringes of the Vast who have discovered a small tear in reality that opens up onto the Negative Energy Plane. Calling it a “dark star,” these nihilis eject corpses (usually of victims they have killed) into the surrounding vacuum as sacrifices; some of these bodies are animated as nihilis who immediately attain honored positions in the cult, as they preach of sinister whispers from beyond the portal that encourage this gruesome form of reproduction. [b]Nihili Captain:[/b] Nihilis created by Eoxian necromancers are sometimes assigned to ships of the Corpse Fleet as engineers, as they can walk along the outside of the vessels with little difficulty in order to make repairs. An ambitious nihili who proves its worth might eventually become the captain of its own Corpse Fleet ship. [b]Nihili Template Graft:[/b] Any breathing creature can die in the pitiless vacuum of space, whether because of a hull breach, being forced out of an airlock, or having its space suit run out of power while on an airless asteroid. [b]Undead Minion:[/b] Undead minions can be formed from the corpses of any type of creature, though most of those appearing in folklore from across the galaxy are animated versions of whatever culture is telling the tale. Humanoids tell of ambulatory corpses rising from their ritual burial grounds, while aberrations, dragons, and magical beasts have their own legends of mindless dead of their own species returning to plague the living. [b]Undead Minion Skeletal Undead:[/b] Both occult zombies and skeletal undead are animated by magical or supernatural forces and created either in dark necromantic rituals (including the create undead spell) or by strange and mysterious reactions between the Material and Negative Energy Planes. [b]Undead Minion Occult Zombie:[/b] Both occult zombies and skeletal undead are animated by magical or supernatural forces and created either in dark necromantic rituals (including the create undead spell) or by strange and mysterious reactions between the Material and Negative Energy Planes. [b]Undead Minion Cybernetic Zombie:[/b] Cybernetic zombies, on the other hand, arise as the result of technological implants that continue to function after their hosts have died, causing the body to act in a sad, shambling imitation of real life. [b]Cybernetic Zombie Template Graft:[/b] This mindless undead is animated not through magic or supernatural phenomena but by cybernetic implants in its body, which continue to function after its mind and flesh have died. [b]Occult Zombie Template Graft:[/b] This mindless undead has been animated via a necromantic or supernatural phenomena, and it is often created or controlled by a powerful spellcaster or a greater undead creature. [b]Skeletal Undead Template Graft:[/b] Faster than other mindless undead, a skeletal undead is animated by necromantic or supernatural phenomena, and it is often found wearing armor or wielding weapons it was trained to use in life. [b]Elebrian Necrovite:[/b] ? [b]Necrovite, Greater Undead:[/b] ? [b]Necrovite Template Graft, Undead Abomination:[/b] ? [b]Nihili, Undead Monstrosity, Embodiment of Outer Space's Cruelest Aspects, Vicious Killer:[/b] ? [b]Nihili, Engineer:[/b] ? [b]Ambitious Nihili:[/b] ? [b]Nihili Captain, Ambitious Nihili:[/b] ? [b]Undead Minion, Mindless Minion, Force to be Reckoned With, Scourge to the Living, Mindless Undead, Ambulatory Corpse, Mindless Dead:[/b] ? [b]Undead Minion, Servant:[/b] ? [b]Undead Minion, Mindless Threat:[/b] ? [b]Cybernetic Zombie Template Graft, Mindless Undead:[/b] ? [b]Occult Zombie Template Graft, Mindless Undead:[/b] ? [b]Skeletal Undead Template Graft, Mindless Undead:[/b] ? [b]Undead:[/b] Undead are once-living creatures animated by magic or advanced technological forces. Ellicoths can survive just as easily on the necromantic energies that animate undead as on the soul energy of living creatures, and most of their diet consists of ghosts, zombies, and other spontaneously generated undead in Eox’s wastelands. In the Pact Worlds, most undead hail from the dead world of Eox and were created by the bone sages, though zombies and skeletal creatures are also found among the wreckage of ancient battlefields on Akiton and the enigmatic, alien structures on Aucturn. Those cultists of Urgathoa who see undeath as the pinnacle of being surround themselves with undead minions, both to use their abilities to terrorize innocent folk and to study their physiology in order to become undead themselves. [b]Spontaneously Generated Undead:[/b] ? [b]Undead Soldier:[/b] ? [b]Unintelligent Undead:[/b] ? [b]Greater Undead, Greater Undead Creature:[/b] ? [b]Mindless Undead:[/b] ? [b]Ghost, Spontaneously Generated Undead:[/b] ? [b]Lich:[/b] ? [b]Skeletal Creature:[/b] ? [b]Skeleton:[/b] ? [b]Vampire, Greater Undead:[/b] ? [b]Zombie, Mindless Zombie:[/b] ? [b]Zombie, Spontaneously Generated Undead:[/b] ? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Undead Origins
Top