The Awakened

The Awakened

Long, long time ago there was a great war between the gods. Their war, and the subsequent turmoil of the energy planes forever changed the land. From that time on anyone who dies without being Heart-smithed will rise again the next day as a walking corpse, and on rare occasions fully self aware. In communities where the majority of people are not Heart-smithed they avoid this by ensuring all members undergo a proper burial. The proper burial of course involves burning of the body so that there is nothing left that could be awakened the next day. Most of these people choose to be cremated after death, because walking around in a rotting body is not particularly appealing to the living. Unfortunately, not everyone can be given a burial in time and every once in a while people wake up dead. This is especially common occurrence after battles or in places hit by a deadly plague where there is simply no time or resources to burn all the bodies in the timely manner.

Waking up dead after a big battle

What happens when you wake up the morning after you died? First you realize that the world looks entirely different. The dead have no use for eyes, ears or taste buds – in fact, these organs rot out and fall off first so they would be doubly useless to you. Instead of the five senses the living use to navigate the world, the Undead have one which they dubber Wraithsight. They are completely oblivious to tastes and smells (which is actually a blessing considering their condition) and have no sense of touch and as a result feel no pain. They however can perceive objects around them and are aware when they touch something or are being touched. They can also detect vibrations in the air, and recognize them as speech or music, thought they can’t really enjoy it the way they used to.

Wraithsight is neither sight nor hearing – it is something in-between that is very hard to explain to the living. There are no specialized organs that the undead use for Wraithsight – more or less their entire body surface is capable of detecting changes in their environment. So in essence an Awakened undead would technically have 360 degree vision. Wraithsight cannot penetrate physical objects though, so any clothing he or she is wearing will occlude their perception – which is why they still typically retain mannerisms such as turning ones face towards something they want to examine.

While most living consider undeath to be undesirable, those who become Awakened typically find their situation to be more than tolerable. It turns out that while most animal needs and urges (such as hunger, thirst, sex drive and erc..) go away after death, the self-preservation instinct perseveres. Thus most undead prefer not to throw themselves into a fire, despite the society’s insistence that they should.

Being an undead creates a lot of other problems. Since the proper thing to do is to have your body burned and ascend to an afterlife those who “wake up dead” are still legally deceased. This means that their property is divided amongst their kin and their significant others are free to re-marry. Most families consider it to be rather shameful to have an undead relative and they are typically not welcome back home. There are exceptions of course, and sometimes love and attachment are stronger than social stigma and an undead can return to their family. Some are very well cared for and preserved, but usually it comes at a cost of social status.

Most undead need to start a new life somewhere else. Some try to pass for the living at first, and while it may work for a while, sooner or later their body deteriorates to the point where they can no longer hide their true nature. Living usually get pretty upset when you deceive them about the status of your un-life and many Awakened are lynched or burned at stake when found trying to pretend to be alive. When they are open about being dead they can typically avoid lynching, though some thing that throwing stones at the undead is the only way to properly welcome them to the community.

Undead trying to pass for a living

There are few people willing to hire the dead, and if they do, they don’t pay well. On the other hand, dead don’t really have that many expenses, seeing how they never need to eat or sleep. As a result most of Awakened sooner or later gravitate towards each other and settle down in smaller or bigger communities where they can help and support each other. These dead-towns are typically well maintained, albeit very stinky places. Their inhabitants are usually friendly to any passing undead, but mistrustful of the living. Still, if you can get into their good graces, holing up in their town might not be a terrible idea – especially if you are on the run.

Every once in a while you can see one or more children living with the dead. Sometimes these are orphans that couldn’t find their place anywhere else. Other times they are relatives of one of the Awakened who is their last of kin. Most undead villages have at least one touching story about one of their own taking in a grand-grand-grand-child after its entire living family was wiped out by a plague or killed by raiders.

Unded man taking care of his grand-son after entire family tree was wiped out by a plague.

Those raised by the dead tend to grow up to be more tolerant and understanding of the un-death condition. Unfortunately they are few and far in between, so life of the Awakened is typically full of prejudice and hardship. Their villages are often raided by the living, or visited by all manner of priests who offer to “cure” their condition with cleansing fire.

Racial Traits

• Average Height: 5"4 to 6"2
• Average Weight: 80-120
• Ability Scores: -2 Charisma, +2 Strength
• Size: Medium
• Speed: 5 squares
• Vision: Normal, Wraithsight 
• Languages: common
• Skill Bonuses: +2 Intimidate, +2 Endurance.
• Undead-Life: as an undead you are immune to age effects and disease.
• Unbreakable: An undead is immune to critical strikes

An undead creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

Traits 

• No Constitution score. 
• Wraithsight out to 60 feet. 
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). 
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects. 
• Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects. 
• Cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score, although it can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. 
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless). 
• Uses its Charisma modifier for Concentration checks. 
• Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed. 
• Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead. 
• Proficient with its natural weapons, all simple weapons, and any weapons mentioned in its entry. 
• Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Undead not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Undead are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor. 
• Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep. 

Undead may appear as the race they once were, but their undead nature consumes them into a new being.

Physical Qualities

Undead appear just as they did in life: standing as tall as they once did, their eyes appear dead and lifeless. They move in quick jerks and shambles, as well as have pale skin with a terrible odor.

Playing an Undead

Playing an undead is a second life full of bigotry, since you are constantly hated. You are the unbiased enemy of the divine. Although undead usually have villages or city's mainly comprised of their own, they sometimes find a person that is tolerant enough to be accepted.

Human Undead Characteristics: Undead are brash, impulsive, recluse, off-putting, and reckless. Undead are respected by fighters and barbarians for their bold, brave with a fighting spirit that seems almost devoid of reason on the battlefield. Ally's of undead are usually those of similar nature (fighters & barbarians), or polar opposites (bards & wizards). Reason for this is strictly in combat tactics. Divine classes will almost always refuse partnership with an undead, but when it is done, it can prove to be quite deadly.

Names: Most undead would keep the name they were given in life, yet others may want to start over in which case they give themselves a name that represents their new nature.

Undead Adventurers

Undead adventures are usually comprised of finding out their purpose in reanimation. Undead who lean towards the path of good can become powerful, however they tend to follow the path of a warrior instead. They find themselves being more greedy and worried about material possessions than they were in life, due to the fact that hunger is their primary thought pattern. This does not only apply to foods: they find themselves wanting anything that others have. They usually are found in dungeons said to have great wealth.