Undead Origins

[Voadam]

Starfarer Adversaries: Legacy Bestiary
Starfinder
Lich: Liches are spellcasters that use their magical ability to extend their existence after they should have naturally died. This results in a powerful necromantic transformation that turns the once-living mage into a monstrous undead creature. The process allows that spellcaster to retain his intelligence and magical powers, while gaining a large number of new necromantic powers.
To become a lich, the spellcaster must place a portion of their life force into a specially-prepared object – a phylactery.
Liches are spell-casters who’ve decided they don’t give a [expletive deleted] about their mortal bodies and decided to prop it up for eternity with necromantic magic.
An integral part of becoming a lich is the creation of the phylactery in which the character stores his soul. The only way to get rid of a lich for sure is to destroy its phylactery. Unless its phylactery is located and destroyed, a lich can rejuvenate after it is felled.
Each lich must create its own phylactery. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The phylactery costs 1,200,000 credits to create and has a caster level equal to that of its creator at the time of creation.
The most common form of phylactery is a sealed metal box containing strips of parchment on which magical phrases have been transcribed. The box is Tiny and has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40.
Other forms of phylacteries can exist, such as rings, amulets, or similar items.
Cybernetic Human Lich Wizard: ?
Lich Template Graft: ?
Mummy: The creation of a mummy is a long and gruesome process, involving separating the internal organs of the prepared body. The body is then wrapped in expensive linens and anointed with sacred oils. When the tomb is finally sealed, the mummy awakens in an undead state.
While the creation of mummies has mostly fallen out of fashion, ancient civilizations and precursor worlds still have several ruins and tombs where mummies are encountered by unfortunate explorers and archaeologists. In particular the uramea – pregenitors of the deoxyian species – use this form of undead creation to maintain their biological modifications into undeath.
Mummy Guardian: ?
Mummy Ascended Uramae Mumiyah: ?
Shadow: Any living creature slain by a shadow rises as a shadow soon afterwards.
A humanoid creature killed by a shadow becomes a new shadow under the control of its killer in 1d4 rounds.
Spectre, Full-Fledged Spectre: If the creator of the spectre spawn is destroyed, the spectre spawn becomes a full-fledged spectre, and is no longer staggered.
Spectre Spawn: Any humanoids killed by a spectre’s drain life attack rises as a spectre spawn after 1d4 rounds.
Spectre Weapon Wraith: So called “weapon wraiths,” are, in fact, a variant form of spectre. These spectres have bonded to a specific weapon that was with them at their moment of death, and which has strong significance to them in both life and undeath.
Unextinct: These undead are dinosaurs animated and controlled by the magically-powerful Saurians to serve as protectors of their sacred territories. As dinosaurs die, or are slain, the Saurian necromancers transform the bodies of the fallen behemoths to create these specialized undead. Being possessed by the spirits of dead Saurians, the unextinct enjoy intelligence and supernatural powers far beyond those of a normal animated corpse.
Unextinct Clawtoed Giest: Animated from the bodies of deinonychuses, clawtoed giests travel and hunt in packs, seeking living creatures to slay and consume.
Unextinct Clubtailed Wight: Created from the body of the physically powerful ankylosaurus, the clubtailed wight is an exceptionally dangerous opponent.
Unextinct Devouring Knifedrake: Devouring knifedrakes are spawned from the dead bodies of allosauruses. They are empowered with exceptional spell-like abilities by their saurian creators.
Unextinct Sworddrake Ghoul: It is rare when one of these unextinct horrors are sighted, given the significance of Tyrannosaurs and their relationship with Saurians. But when necromancy is used to create a sworddrake ghoul, it is done to create a doomsday weapon.
Unextinct Vampire Trihorn: Vampire trihorns are created from the bodies of slain triceratops. Their undead reanimation gives them powers similar to a legendary vampire, including the ability to summon mists, transform into mist, and consume the blood of their enemies.
Unextinct Wraithwing: The wraithwing is a specialized type of unextinct created from the dead forms of flying pterosaurs: pteranodons, pterodactyls, and the like.
Vampire, Legendary Vampire: A vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided the slain creature is of the same type as the vampire’s base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire in 1d4 days.
Vampire Lord, Elf Vampire Magus: ?
Vampire Seducer, Human Vampire Envoy: ?
Vampire Warrior, Vishkanya Vampire Soldier: ?
Master Vampire: ?
Vampire Template Graft: ?
Vampire Spawn: A vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided the slain creature is of the same type as the vampire’s base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire in 1d4 days.
Wight: Those slain by a wight will soon afterwards arise as a wight themselves.
A humanoid creature that is slain by a wight becomes a wight itself in only 1d4 rounds.
A humanoid creature that is slain by a clubtailed wight becomes a wight itself in only 1d4 rounds.
Wight Spawn: Those slain by a wight will soon afterwards arise as a wight themselves.
A humanoid creature that is slain by a wight becomes a wight itself in only 1d4 rounds.
A humanoid creature that is slain by a clubtailed wight becomes a wight itself in only 1d4 rounds.
Free-Willed Wight: Spawn are under the control of the wight that created them and remain enslaved until the original wight is destroyed, at which point they become free-willed wights.
Spawn are under the control of the clubtailed wight that created them and remain enslaved until the original clubtailed wight is destroyed, at which point they become free-willed wights.
Lich, Monstrous Undead Creature, Spell-Caster: ?
Mummy, Undead Guardian: ?
Shadow, Incorporeal Undead, Wraith-Like Creature: ?
Spectre, Incorporeal Undead, Ghost: ?
Spectre Weapon Wraith, Variant Form of Specter: ?
Unextinct, Dinosaur Animated and Controlled by the Magically-Powerful Saurians, Protector, Specialized Undead: ?
Unextinct Clawtoed Giest, Ravenous Undead: ?
Unextinct Clubtailed Wight, Exceptionally Dangerous Opponent, Nigh-Unstoppable Undead Beast: ?
Unextinct Sworddrake Ghoul, Unextinct Horror, Doomsday Weapon, Unextinct Beast: ?
Unextinct Wraithwing, Specialized Type of Unextinct: ?
Vampire, Humanoid Undead, Blood-Sucker: ?
Vampire, Handsome Aristocrat: ?
Vampire Lord, Master: ?
Vampire Spawn, Weaker Vampire: ?
Vampire Spawn, Minion: ?
Wight, Undead Humanoid, Hateful Evil Creature: ?
Undead, Undead Creature, Necro: ?
Hateful Evil Creature: ?
Undead Soul of the Damned: ?
Animated Corpse: ?
Half-Consumed Undead: ?
Basic Animated Dead: ?
Rival Undead: ?
Free-Willed Undead: ?
Powerful Undead Master: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghoul: A creature that dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul within 24 hours.
It is rare when one of these unextinct horrors are sighted, given the significance of Tyrannosaurs and their relationship with Saurians. But when necromancy is used to create a sworddrake ghoul, it is done to create a doomsday weapon. The body of the dead Tyrannosaur is infused with so much negative energy that it causes any creature swallowed by the unextinct beast to rise as a ghoul or zombie under its control.
Wraith, Standard Wraith: A living creature slain by a wraithwing’s shadow strafe attack becomes a wraith in 1d4 rounds.
Wraith Spawn: A living creature slain by a wraithwing’s shadow strafe attack becomes a wraith in 1d4 rounds. These spawn are under the command of the wraithwing that created them until its destruction, at which point they become free-willed wraiths.
Free-Willed Wraith: A living creature slain by a wraithwing’s shadow strafe attack becomes a wraith in 1d4 rounds. These spawn are under the command of the wraithwing that created them until its destruction, at which point they become free-willed wraiths.
Zombie: It is rare when one of these unextinct horrors are sighted, given the significance of Tyrannosaurs and their relationship with Saurians. But when necromancy is used to create a sworddrake ghoul, it is done to create a doomsday weapon. The body of the dead Tyrannosaur is infused with so much negative energy that it causes any creature swallowed by the unextinct beast to rise as a ghoul or zombie under its control.
Flying Zombie: ?
Occult Zombie Template: ?

 

[Voadam]

Starfarer Adversaries: Sluagh
Starfinder
Undead: ?

 

[Voadam]

Starfarer Species Reforged
Starfinder
Yokai, Creature With Innate Supernatural Powers: ?
Necromantic Puppet: Necromantic Puppet Uplifted Animal Heritage.
Mumiyah, Undead Mumiyah, Mumiyah Uramae: Those who remained on the uramae home world mummifed themselves to survive on their barren planet, becoming the mumiyah.
The undead mumiyah are the ancient Terravian uramae who mummified themselves 3,500 years before the Nova Age to survive on their resource-depleted home world after the Yetisophites stole all they knew and loved.
The two groups debated endlessly until 3,575 PN, when the Yetisophites seized control of Uramaesh’s government, leading the population into absconding with Uramaesh’s resources. The Terravians remained behind, mummifying themselves so they could survive on their desolate world and, hopefully, one day restore it.
Undead uramae who mumified themselves to try and rebuild despoiled Uramesh.
Mumiyah, Ancient Terravian Uramae Who Mummified Themself, Shambling Remains of a Terravian, Undead Uramae: ?
Borai: You died and rose from the dead, animated by slivers of your soul that remained when you died.
An undead that retains a sliver of its former soul, often due to a botched resurrection.
Varculak, Soul Wight: You died with an intense desire to live, and with defiance in your heart you rose, your soul anchored within your corpse.
Also known as a soul wight, an undead body animated by a soul that refuses to pass into the afterlife.
Varculak, Undead Body Animated by a Soul That Refuses to Pass Into the Afterlife: ?
Kabeni, Corpsefolk: One infused with undeath and is either a walking corpse or was born from one.
Sometimes called corpsefolk, kabeni are creatures for whom death is a state of being. All kabeni exist somewhere in the divide between life and death, whether touched by death from birth or risen from the grave after a particularly traumatic end.
Kabeni, Sapient Undead: ?
Kabeni, Uramae: ?
Kabeni, Walking Corpse: ?
Deathly Undead: ?
Undead Progenitor: ?
Spiritual Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Ghost: ?
Vampire: ?
Vampire Mother: ?

Necromantic Puppet Uplifted Animal Heritage You owe your sapience to necromancy that bonds a sapient soul to your body, an animal corpse or effigy, which often appears to be a perfectly (or mostly) preserved taxidermy of your progenitor animal. You gain the deathly and multityped (undead) universal creature rules. You must be an animal with the magical subtype, a magical beast, or a monstrous humanoid to choose this heritage.

 

[Voadam]

Starfarer's Companion
Starfinder
Undead, Undead Being, Undead Creature: ?
Intelligent Undead: ?
Undead Overlord: ?
Undead Inhabitant: ?
Undead Monstrosity: ?
Evil Undead: ?
Abominable Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Ghost, Incorporeal Creature, Spiritual Entity: ?
Ghoul, Intelligent Undead: ?
Lich, Intelligent Undead: ?
Specter, Incorporeal Creature: ?
Vampire, Intelligent Undead: ?

 

[Voadam]

Strange Worlds: Dead Planets
Starfinder
Undead: ?
Bloodshade: Bloodshades are the remains of the dead, leftover after battles or massacres that killed tens of thousands of individuals. The amount of negative energy unleashed in those situations eventually coagulate, taking on an ooze-like form, the color of translucent blood.
Embalmed One: The embalmed ones are the remaining souls of destroyed planets. They’ve managed to cling on through all the hardships that their world suffered and were among the last to die, cursing the gods as they died. Mere days after their deaths, they rose once more, seeking out living creatures, to sate their hunger for life, their will to live on giving them this dreaded curse.
Brain Rot disease.
Blooshade, Remains of the Dead Leftover After a Battle That Killed Tens of Thousands of Individuals: ?
Blooshade, Remains of the Dead Leftover After a Massacre That Killed Tens of Thousands of Individuals: ?
Embalmed One, Remaining Soul of a Destroyed Planet: ?

Brain Rot
Type disease (inhaled); Save Fortitude DC 16
Tracks mental; Frequency 1/day
Effect progression track is Healthy-Weakened-Impaired-Befuddled-Comatose-Dead. Once the creature dies, it turns into an embalmed one, as described below.
Cure 3 consecutive saves

 

[Voadam]

The Widow's Tear
Starfinder
Undead: This silver-blue band is known as the Disquiet Veil. It is believed to be the remains of a rare cosmic event: two icy planetoids that collided on the edge of the system, blasting one another into oblivion. Gravity and time brought the icy remnants together into orbit and formed the Veil.
The name comes from two disturbing phenomena within the confines of the ice ring. First, the dead often spontaneously rise while within the boundaries of the Disquiet Veil.
The strange energies of the Widow’s Tear nebula cause increased occurrences of undead, especially from traumatic events such as mining accidents.
Skeleton: This silver-blue band is known as the Disquiet Veil. It is believed to be the remains of a rare cosmic event: two icy planetoids that collided on the edge of the system, blasting one another into oblivion. Gravity and time brought the icy remnants together into orbit and formed the Veil.
The name comes from two disturbing phenomena within the confines of the ice ring. First, the dead often spontaneously rise while within the boundaries of the Disquiet Veil. The most common undead are skeletons and occult zombies, uncontrolled and hostile to all life.
Occult Zombie: This silver-blue band is known as the Disquiet Veil. It is believed to be the remains of a rare cosmic event: two icy planetoids that collided on the edge of the system, blasting one another into oblivion. Gravity and time brought the icy remnants together into orbit and formed the Veil.
The name comes from two disturbing phenomena within the confines of the ice ring. First, the dead often spontaneously rise while within the boundaries of the Disquiet Veil. The most common undead are skeletons and occult zombies, uncontrolled and hostile to all life.
Nihili: This silver-blue band is known as the Disquiet Veil. It is believed to be the remains of a rare cosmic event: two icy planetoids that collided on the edge of the system, blasting one another into oblivion. Gravity and time brought the icy remnants together into orbit and formed the Veil.
The name comes from two disturbing phenomena within the confines of the ice ring. First, the dead often spontaneously rise while within the boundaries of the Disquiet Veil. The most common undead are skeletons and occult zombies, uncontrolled and hostile to all life. Accidental deaths due to decompression or suit malfunction occasionally return as nihili.
Marooned One: This silver-blue band is known as the Disquiet Veil. It is believed to be the remains of a rare cosmic event: two icy planetoids that collided on the edge of the system, blasting one another into oblivion. Gravity and time brought the icy remnants together into orbit and formed the Veil.
The name comes from two disturbing phenomena within the confines of the ice ring. First, the dead often spontaneously rise while within the boundaries of the Disquiet Veil. The most common undead are skeletons and occult zombies, uncontrolled and hostile to all life. Accidental deaths due to decompression or suit malfunction occasionally return as nihili. However, due to the ice ring’s other dangerous attribute, the second most common undead to rise within the Disquiet Veil are marooned ones.
Starships that pass into the Disquiet Veil experience strange anomalies with their sensors and navigation equipment. Despite its finite size, it is possible for a ship to become lost within the ice ring, wandering in circles until lack of resources or despair overcome the crew. Those that die lost in the Veil often rise as marooned ones.
Haunt Ghost Point: They are mystical imprints left by once living creatures, the psychic imprint of a brief fragment from a life, forever burned into the area. Their existence—and the existence of such a great number of them in the spaceship wreckage—has led to the hypothesis that some magical cataclysm occurred, obliterating not only life on the planet, but also in the collected ships that were above it at the time. Whether this was some planned and executed doomsday weapon, or some sort of accidental misfire or unexpected chain reaction, the end result is clear. The effect destroyed all life on the surface of the planet as well as miles into the immediate space around it. All that remains of the dead are the ghosts.
Haunt Ghost Point, Mystical Imprint Left By a Once Living Creature, Psychic Imprint of a Brief Fragment From a Life, Immobile Fixed Point of Mystic Energy: ?
Radiadead, Ghoulish Radiadead: Transformed and unliving, the ghoulish radiadead originate from a space colony in an uncharted system within the Tear.
The youngest races in the Tear are the radiadead and recogs, both having been born from the supernatural energies of the nebula within the recent era of colonization.
Radiadead are not native to any world or system. Archeron 3 was a research station in open space between systems in the Widow’s Tear.
Around a century ago, the station was the approximately three hundred human engineers and scientists aboard the space station had diverse specializations and had around 98 active research projects at the time of the incident. The Archeron 3 was not equipped with emergency escape pods and had no vessels other than two mid-size cargo ships. Without warning, the station was pelted with meteorites and saturated with a previously unknown form of exotic radiation. The entire population of the space station, some 300 human souls were exposed to the toxic wavelengths of energy. Due to the sudden and extreme nature of the incident, and the remoteness of the station, the researchers accepted that they would all die of radiation poisoning. Rather than die, however, they were transformed into unliving radioactive beings.
Their bodies shed radiation quickly, and it didn't take long for their scientific commune to surmise that they required the radiation to survive. Most, those who had accepted new forms, donned containment suits to preserve their lives. Those who refused, and wished to die, slowly desiccated into flickering embers of radioactive ash in a matter of hours. These new creatures, the Radiadead, set about repairing their station.
No matter the original race of a convert, any humanoid can become a radiadead, and therefore they are a threat to any humanoid.
Hiel Horror: Hiel Horrors are mutated humanoids who survived Liya’s supernova due to being underground.
Void Zombie: A group of miners discovered what they believed to be deposits of noqual on a previously unsurveyed asteroid. What they had stumbled upon were akatas (see Starfinder: Alien Archive 2). The miners escaped, but their wounded succumbed to infection from the akatas’ parasitic larva, becoming void zombies and killing the rest of the crew at their camp.
Ghost: ?
Conscious Undead Entity: ?
Radiadead, Pirate: ?
Radiadead, Raider: ?
Radiadead, Immortal Academic: ?
Radiadead, Militaristic Cultist: ?
Radiadead, Unliving Radioactive Being: ?
Radiadead, Immortal Scientist, Scientist: ?
Radiadead, Marauder: ?
Radiadead, Intelligent Raider: ?
Radiadead, Space Pirate: ?
Rogue Radiadead: ?
Exiled Radiadead, Exile: ?
Radiadead Adventurer: ?
Doctor Tardigrade, Radiadead: ?
Doctor Lupus, Radiadead: ?
General Thallium, Radiadead: ?
Instructor Polynomial, Radiadead: ?
Lieutenant Anguilliformes, Radiadead: ?
Professor Uranium, Radiadead: ?
Pupil Argentium, Radiadead: ?
Private Beteogallus, Radiadead: ?
Hiel Horror, Mutated Humanoid, Strange Meld of Necromantic Energy and Radioactive Superchargers: ?
Hiel Horror, Weapon: ?
Hiel Horror, Curiosity: ?
Hiel Horror, Arena Fighter: ?

 

[Voadam]

Tome of Aliens (SF)
Starfinder
Warp Wraith: Warp wraiths are the wretched spirits of those who have traveled into the beyond and been destroyed.
Warp Wraith, Wretched Spirit of One Who Has Traveled Into the Beyond and Been Destroyed: ?

 

[Voadam]

Wayfinder #19
Starfinder
Cryptogeist: The spirits of exceptionally twisted hackers sometimes return to possess the computer systems they used the most.
Stranded, Gap Echo: Scientists have several theories as to the origin of these rare apparitions. Some believe them to be the spirits of actual spellcasters from lost Golarion, trapped in a state of undeath by a failed magical ritual to survive through or temporally bypass the creation of the Gap. Because of this, they are sometimes also called gap echoes. Others believe that they do not originate from Golarion but are instead malevolent undead who feed on the obsessive desire by some to learn about the gap. Others maintain that, despite the colloquial nickname of these creatures, the stranded have nothing to do with the Gap at all and are simply the result of failed attempts at magical time travel made in the ancient past.
Cryptogeist, Incorporeal Undead Creature, Spirit: ?
Stranded, Undead Apparition, Rare Apparition: ?
Stranded, Spirit of an Actual Spellcaster From Lost Golarion: ?
Stranded, Result of a Failed Attempt at Magical Time Travel Made in the Ancient Past: ?
Stranded, Malevolent Undead Who Feeds on the Obsessive Desire of Some to Learn About the Gap: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Eoxian Goalie: ?
Ravenous Undead: ?
Scythe, Raina Barleymill, Borais Operative, Free Willed Boaris: Raina died from wounds delivered by her crewmates when the lich Cardoza cast a confusion spell on board the Aurelian Maru. Cardoza attempted to raise Raina as it had done with the rest of the remaining crew, but her spellbane caused something to go wrong, and Raina became a free willed borais.
Undead Eoxian, Tradition-Bound Meat Suit: ?
Marooned One, Corporeal Dead: ?
Ghost: ?
Cardoza, Lich: ?
Specter, Spirit: ?

 

[Voadam]

Wayfinder #20
Starfinder
Frostling: Frostlings are mindless undead found throughout the Diaspora, created when the living freeze to death in places where there is a high concentration of necromantic energy or fluctuating magic.
N'rasren, Diaspora Scourge, The Raging Dead: No one knows the exact origins of the N'rasrens. Many believe them to be the corrupted undead souls of Sarcesians that died in confict with the Corpse Fleet and rose from the grave to fight their hated foes once more. Others, who believe the theory that Eox was responsible for destroying Damir and Iwo, proclaim that N'rasrens are actually the souls of the original species of those planets, desperately seeking revenge for the destruction of their homeworld.
Necrosphere Hunter: Formed out of the necrotic mines which seed the region, necrospheres have managed to develop a malign artificial intelligence. Whether this intelligence was gifted accidentally by a passing Aballonian foundry ship, fostered through natural machine learning, or endowed by the Eoxians—believed to be the original creators of the Blocade—is unknown, but they possess an abiding hatred for all living species.
Frostling, Mindless Undead, Undead Abominaton: ?
N'rasren, Particularly Willful Undead, Hazard, Vicious Nasty Disturbingly Intelligent Undead, Cunning Undead Monster: ?
N'rasren, Corrupted Undead Soul of a Sarcesian That Died in Confict With the Corpse Fleet and Rose From the Grave to Fight Their Hated Foes Once More: ?
N'rasren, Soul of an Original Species of Damir Desperately Seeking Revenge for the Destruction of Their Homeworld: ?
Necrosphere Hunter, Terrible Amalgam of Technology and Necromantic Magic, Spherical Construct, Satellite Covered in Muscle and Putrescent Flesh, Undead Robotic Bogeyman, Orb: ?
Undead, Undead Being, Undead Creature: ?
Eoxian Undead: ?
Powerful Undead Enemy: ?
Incorporeal Spirit: ?
Corporeal Undead: ?
Ghost, Incorporeal Pilot With a Background in Espionage, Elite Agent: ?
Necrovite: ?
Shadow, Incorporeal Pilot With a Background in Espionage: ?
Greater Shadow, Incorporeal Pilot With a Background in Espionage: ?
Shadow: ?
Wraith, Incorporeal Pilot With a Background in Espionage, Elite Agent: ?

 

[Voadam]

Bestiary 6
Pathfinder 1e
Animus Shade: The typical intelligent mind exists as a war of aspects—primitive survival urges and base wants opposing intellectual reason and high-minded goals. Some of these aspects dominate the mind, defining a creature’s personality, while others are shackled away. Sometimes psychic injuries can loosen these shackles, revealing aspects a creature would normally control and suppress. When a creature dies from a psychic injury, its conscious mind may shear away, leaving only those subconscious aspects—the creature’s animus—behind. Called animus shades, these spectral undead are gripped with feral rage and lash out at the living. Individuals who engage in psychic combat are particularly prone to succumbing to this form of undeath, and their shades sometimes seek out their former opponents, not content until their one-time adversaries are slain.
Animus shades always bear a superficial resemblance to their former, living selves, but manifest in death as wild brutes, made powerful by their anger and feral by their long suffering. They often appear hunched and contorted after a lifetime of being crushed beneath the weight of the dominant psyches, and can sport wicked claws, overlong limbs, cracked flesh, severed (but still present) body parts, and other nightmarish deformities reflecting the fears their living selves harbored about the dark corners of their own minds. Any gear or items the creature had appear rotted, cracked, and torn in spectral form, though it may carry ghostly versions of the weapons it used in life, deadly implements still capable of harming the living.
Most often, animus shades linger near the sites of their deaths or wander without any specific purpose. As many psychic contests occur in mindscapes or on far-flung esoteric planes, animus shades are frequently found roaming such realms, endlessly raging over the sometimes centuries-old defeats that resulted in their demises. Even when not consumed by such losses, animus shades commonly target those they happen across who remind them of the dominant selves that repressed them in life—whether because of similarities in physical appearance, personality, or activity. However, some rare animus shades have greater clarity of focus and are gripped with the need to undo the accomplishments they achieved in life, taking pleasure in destroying those things they once loved or took pride in.
Because they’re created through psychic violence, animus shades usually appear among intelligent races and beings known for mastering occult forces. Among such races, these undead prove far more common within cultures and groups that cultivate psychic prowess. They’re easy to mistake for ghosts or other undead—often to tragic ends. Fortunately, in lands that value physical strength over mental prowess and in strictly martial cultures, animus shades are almost unknown. Members of races such as hobgoblins, kobolds, and orcs, which seldom give rise to psychically talented individuals, almost never return as animus shades.
Poisoned by the psychic violence that spawned them, animus shades rarely, if ever, cooperate. In death, even animus shades created from former allies slain by the same foe viciously strike out at each other. The mental trauma that fills them and holds them to the world scars these undead deeply, but ultimately makes them most resentful of themselves—they know it was their own weaknesses or distraction that resulted in their deaths. Much of their rage is thus pointed inward, and they take particular satisfaction in viciously unleashing their hatred on those who resemble them, especially if the resulting conflicts remind them of the battles in which they died.
“Animus shade” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature that has a Charisma score of at least 6 and an Intelligence score of at least 8.
Medusa Animus Shade: ?
Bloody Bones: Bloody bones are the creations of horrific creatures known as rawheads, which have the ability to command these gory undead to do their whims.
A rawhead can create a bloody bones from a Small or Medium helpless, living humanoid. As a full round action, the rawhead extends its finger tentacle to pierce the creature’s flesh, ensnares its bones, and attempts to rip the creature’s skeleton free. This deals 10d6 points of damage to the victim. If the victim is helpless as a result of Charisma damage, it takes 10d8 points of damage from this attack instead. If this damage is enough to reduce the creature’s hit points below 0, it is instantly slain as its skeleton is extracted from its body. The skeleton immediately animates as a bloody bones under the rawhead’s control. This is a death effect.
Combusted: Most scholars of the strange consider accounts of spontaneous combustion to be nothing more than superstitious folktales. But those with a deep understanding of the occult know it is indeed possible for a person to feel a sudden fever come on, only to find the heat within her body rising to incredible levels until she bursts into flames and perishes, leaving behind only a charred corpse. The sudden and violent deaths of such individuals make it easier for dark powers to reanimate their bodies, and sometimes for the victims to return from the dead on their own.
However they return, the undead creatures known as combusted all suffer the telltale signs of their demise: their corpses constantly burn and their desiccated flesh is never fully consumed by the flames. Roiling clouds of smoke, thick with the stench of burning skin and hair, surround them at all times, and may reveal their presence from over a mile away. These shambling horrors can arise at any location that has a particular affinity for undead,
Exiled Shade: An exiled shade is a wretched, undead remnant of an evil organization. Driven out and possibly even slain by its former allies, the exiled shade wallows in the pain of its betrayal and its paradoxical desires to simultaneously destroy and be reunited with its former comrades.
Exoskeleton: Found skittering through forgotten tombs, crawling through deep forests, and filling damp caverns, exoskeletons are animated carapaces of arthropods and other vermin. Most exoskeletons are the intentional creations of necromancers, but some of these undead monstrosities arise spontaneously from places awash with negative energy or are created by malfunctioning artifacts. Sometimes, the simple act of feeding on freshly destroyed undead creatures is enough to transform an insect into an exoskeleton upon its eventual death. Though exoskeletons are just as mindless as they were when they were living, they have become infused with an evil instinct in their new unlife that drives them to relentlessly attack all living creatures on sight, exploding in a burst of dusty remains when destroyed.
A spellcaster can create an exoskeleton using animate dead. An exoskeleton can be created from a mostly intact dead vermin that has an exoskeleton. This includes arachnids, crustaceans, insects, and even some mollusks, but not soft-bodied vermin such as jellyfish and leeches.
“Exoskeleton” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal vermin that has an exoskeleton
Giant Cockroach Exoskeleton: ?
Giant Stag Beetle Exoskeleton: ?
Titan Centipede Exoskeleton: ?
Haunted Exoskeleton: Rarely, an exoskeleton is haunted by the lost spirit of a stubborn soul.
Fallen: When a righteous crusader is denied the path to the afterlife in death, its spirit can rise as one of the fallen— undead driven to enact a crusade against all life in a frustrated corruption of their beliefs. The undead creature’s fall in battle remains the greatest disappointment vexing its soul. Driven by hatred and shame, the fallen wander battlefields and wildlands in constant search of someone to end their misery by performing last rites.
Herecite: Herecites are a particularly blasphemous form of undead created via an obscure ritual of sacrifice, wherein a priest of an evil god offers up at least five worshipers of a nonevil deity to her own deity. All of the sacrifices must worship the same deity. Upon the deaths of the sacrificed worshipers, their souls and bodies seethe and surge with negative energy and then melt away, only to re-form into a single entity—a herecite.
The ritual for the creation of a herecite is recorded in certain rare and blasphemous texts that are hidden away in dark libraries. It is also known to exist in certain texts describing the Outer Planes and their denizens, and likely exists in texts associated with powerful necromancy cults, although groups composed primarily of arcane spellcasters find herecites more of a curiosity than a viable addition to their ranks. The ritual to create a herecite often focuses on the torture and slaughter of young, inexperienced priests while a captured leader of the same faith is forced to watch the cruel torment of his flock. The overwhelming pain and anguish experienced by the high priest as his acolytes are forcibly converted into undead serves as the ritual’s catalyst.
Herecites never take levels in cleric or any other class capable of casting divine spells, for the ritual of their creation results in a tenuous awareness and an inability to ever again profess such powerful faith in a deity.
Herecite of Asmodeus: ?
Hupia: ?
Llorona: They form as the result of shame and sorrow paired with a tragic drowning of a child, whether it be accidental or murderously intentional, and they want others to share in their pain and misery.
Lovelorn: Vicious creatures driven by misery and suffering, lovelorns arise from the souls of those who die when love takes a tragic turn—star-crossed lovers who committed suicide and victims of abusive relationships and violent family confrontations. In death, the stubborn spirit fixates solely on its heart, animating the dead organ and bursting free from its body, dedicated to unmaking everything it cared for in life.
Psychic Stalker: Psychic stalkers are the undead minds of psychic spellcasters who suffered unexpectedly violent deaths. Such minds are sometimes powerful enough to persist even after their bodies’ destruction, transforming into incorporeal creatures composed entirely of thought, yet they retain no true memories or abilities from their former existence.
Siabrae: When druids are faced with threats to the natural world, they are steadfast and, at times, relentless in their defense of the land. Even in the face of overwhelming odds—an incursion of demons from the Abyss, a creeping plague of necromantic corruption, an unstoppable blight of magical radiation, or a similar supernatural threat to the natural world—some sects of druids refuse to give up or abandon their duties. In these tragic cases, the desperate druids adopt the blasphemous tactic of accepting the corruption into themselves and becoming powerful undead guardians. They fight on not only against the original source of the corruption, but against all living creatures, for these druids become siabraes, and are filled with bitterness and hatred for all others—particularly other druids, whom they regard as cowards.
Siabraes do not form spontaneously; they arise only as the result of the following horrific ritual [Welcome the Blighted Soul].
“Siabrae” is an acquired template that can be added to any druid who successfully performs the welcome the blighted soul ritual. A siabrae can’t have the blight druid archetype.
Old Human Siabrae Druid 14: ?
Trailgaunt, Dreaded Trailgaunt: Any humanoid creature killed by a trailgaunt becomes a trailgaunt itself at the next sunset as long as the body is both unburied and not within line of sight of a well-maintained road.
Legends hold that trailgaunts rise from the remains of seasoned travelers who became lost and then perished from exposure or starvation, suffering great shame and humiliation to have come to such unexpected and lonely ends in addition to their physical torment.
Unrisen: An unrisen is rarely created intentionally, as most come about when a resurrection attempt is poorly performed and results in a mishap, or through experimental alchemical processes that attempt to restore life to the dead.
Vrykolakas, Free-Willed Vrykolakas: A humanoid slain by a vrykolakas becomes a free-willed vrykolakas itself in 1d4 days if not blessed and given proper funerary rites. A blessing might entail either the spell bless or a more mundane consecration, but at the very least requires a proper prayer (with a successful DC 15 Knowledge [religion] check) invoking a good-aligned deity.
Reanimated corpses of wicked and vengeful souls denied even the most basic burial rites.
Yurei: When a person dies a violent death in the grip of extreme emotion, such as in a blinding rage or in overwhelming sorrow, she may return from the dead as a twisted and horrific undead creature known as a yurei.
Zombie Spore, Undead Spore Zombie: There are certain evil fungal creatures (such as fungus queens [see page 130], but also rare fungal growths or extraplanar blights upon the wild) that can infest vermin with spores that have been infused with sinister power and negative energy. These foul spores grow quickly in the body of a dead vermin, eventually bursting from its head to form disturbing, antler-like growths. At the same time, the spores animate the vermin as an intelligent undead creature.
“Spore zombie” is an acquired template that can be added to any vermin.
In certain wilderness regions, strange corruptions of nature fester and grow where the boundaries between this world and the Abyss grow thin. Dangerous and evil fungal creatures rise to power in these blighted reaches, such as sinister fungus queens or legions of undead spore zombies, but when fey creatures become infused with this corruption and are themselves blighted, the resulting monstrosities are particularly vile.
Zombie Spore Spore Burst power.
Giant Ant Spore Zombie: ?
Medusa Animus Shade, Spectral Woman: ?
Animus Shade, Spectral Undead: ?
Bloody Bones, Blood-Drenched Human Skeleton, Particularly Gruesome Skeleton, Gory Undead, Violent Undead Monstrosity, Childhood Terror: ?
Combusted, Shambling Horror: ?
Exiled Shade, Humanoid Figure, Wretched Undead Remnant of an Evil Organization: ?
Giant Cockroach Exoskeleton, Tattered Remains of a Dead Insect: ?
Exoskeleton, Animated Carapace of a Vermin, Undead Monstrosity: ?
Exoskeleton, Animated Carapace of an Arthropod: ?
Exoskeleton, Intentional Creation: ?
Fallen, Ghostly Crusader: ?
Herecite of Asmodeus, Decaying Man: ?
Herecite, Particularly Blasphemous Form of Undead, Human-Sized Creature: ?
Herecite, Curiosity: ?
Herecite, Guardian: ?
Hupia, Undead Woman, Frightening Undead Monster: ?
Llorona, Ghostly Woman, Vengeful Spirit: ?
Lovelorn, Sickly Pulsating Heart, Glistening Organ, Vicious Creature, Distressing Undead Monster: ?
Psychic Stalker, Horrific Ghostly Skull, Undead Mind of a Psychic Spellcasters Who Suffered Unexpectedly Violent Death,
Incorporeal Creature Composed Entirely of Thought: ?
Siabrae, Petrified Skeleton, Powerful Undead Guardian: ?
Trailgaunt, Filthy Pallid Figure: ?
Unrisen, Grotesque Tangle of Twisted Bones Decayed Flesh and Rotted Organs, Affront to Life: ?
Vrykolakas, Twisted Barely-Humanoid Monstrosity, Reanimated corpse of a Wicked and Vengeful Soul Denied Even the Most Basic Burial Rites, Unreasoning Vampire-Like Creature: ?
Yurei, Pale Woman, Twisted Horrific Undead Creature, Restless Spirit: ?
Zombie Spore, Intelligent Undead Creature: ?
Giant Ant Spore Zombie, Large Black Ant: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: Undead are once-living creatures animated by spiritual or supernatural forces.
Desert Undead: ?
Undead Ally: ?
Undead Minion: ?
Undead Horror: ?
Sentient Corporeal Monster: ?
Intelligent Undead: ?
Diseased Undead: ?
Undead Soldier: ?
Mindless Undead: ?
Undead Foe: ?
Corporeal Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Undead Animal: ?
Hungry Ghost: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghoul: ?
Lich: ?
Mummy: ?
Free-Willed Mummy, Desert Undead: ?
Giant Skeleton, Undead Minion: ?
Skeletal Champion: Up to three times per day, a nekomata can turn a dead body into an undead creature by licking it as a standard action. A skeleton rises as a skeletal champion, while a body with flesh animates as a juju zombieB2.
Vampire: ?
Zombie Giant, Undead Minion: ?
Zombie: ?
Zombie Lord: Creatures slain by Dispater’s mortal gaze rise again 1d4 rounds later as zombie lords (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 286) under Dispater’s control.
Swamp Mummy: All humanoid creatures that die within a swamp blight’s cursed domain rise from death as mummies. Creatures with 7 or fewer Hit Dice rise as swamp mummies, while creatures with 8 or more Hit Dice rise as mummy lords.
Mummy Lord: All humanoid creatures that die within a swamp blight’s cursed domain rise from death as mummies. Creatures with 7 or fewer Hit Dice rise as swamp mummies, while creatures with 8 or more Hit Dice rise as mummy lords.
Advanced Bodak: When a deathsnatcher kills via negative levels, negative energy damage, or a death effect, the body immediately rises as an advanced bodak under the deathsnatcher’s control.
Necrocraft: Tomb giants can cast make whole as a spell-like ability, but only for the purpose of creating undead creatures. For example, a tomb giant can use this ability to aid in the creation of a necrocraft, to restore armor to be used for the creation of a phantom armor, or even to repair the armor of a graveknight.
Phantom Armor: Tomb giants can cast make whole as a spell-like ability, but only for the purpose of creating undead creatures. For example, a tomb giant can use this ability to aid in the creation of a necrocraft, to restore armor to be used for the creation of a phantom armor, or even to repair the armor of a graveknight.
Graveknight: ?
Juju Zombie: A creature slain by a gravesludge animates as a free-willed juju zombie 1d4 rounds after it is slain.
Up to three times per day, a nekomata can turn a dead body into an undead creature by licking it as a standard action. A skeleton rises as a skeletal champion, while a body with flesh animates as a juju zombieB2.
Huecuva: The ritual to create a herecite often focuses on the torture and slaughter of young, inexperienced priests while a captured leader of the same faith is forced to watch the cruel torment of his flock. The overwhelming pain and anguish experienced by the high priest as his acolytes are forcibly converted into undead serves as the ritual’s catalyst. High priests driven mad or forced to lose their faith after they have witnessed such a ritual often rise again as huecuvas who then go on to gain levels as oracles of the ritual’s profane deity.
Nightshade, Notworthy Denizen: ?

Spore Burst (Ex): Once per day as a swift action, a spore zombie can spray a cloud of spores through the area. This deals 2d6 points of damage to the spore zombie and creates a cloud of spores that fills an area equal to the spore zombie’s reach. Any creature in this area must succeed at a Fortitude save or be nauseated by the spores for 1d6 rounds. Vermin that fail this save become infested for 24 hours. If an infested vermin dies during this time, it rises as a spore zombie 1d6 rounds after its death.

WELCOME THE BLIGHTED SOUL
School necromancy [evil]; Level 9
Casting Time 9 hours (only during a new moon)
Components V, S, F (ring of standing stones empowered with necromancy that cost 25,000 gp to create via Craft Wondrous Item), sacrifice (18 living intelligent beings of the same type as the caster, sacrificed every 30 minutes during the ritual’s casting time)
Skill Checks Intimidate DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (nature) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 4 successes
Range touch
Target caster
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; SR no
Backlash The caster is reduced to –1 hp.
Failure The caster is immediately slain.
EFFECT
After sacrificing 18 lives (traditionally, these lives are those of unwilling druids who would have tried to stand against the blasphemy the caster is attempting), the caster sacrifices himself and immediately rises from death as a siabrae.