Undead

WIP:

The undead are bodies animated by beings originating at the Oblivion Gate at the heart of the Abyss. Essentially, they're animated by jotnar (YOT-nar), effectively anti-kami. Where the kami are manifestations of nature and creation, the jotnar are manifestations of negation and corruption. Their existence breaks down creation and drains anima from the world. Thus, an undead infestation in an area is often signaled by reduced fertility (both of plant life and animal life, including intelligent life); a prolonged infestation will cause the area to be completely sterile. Jotnar are present at low levels in many areas but are only a significant threat where the land has become corrupted to some extent. Jotnar (especially the minor ones) are not sentient as we know it. Instead they're driven by urges and hate. They exist to kill living things and consume their anima; given enough anima they "evolve" into higher forms or replicate. So undead infestations are contagious, given a supply of corpses.

Lesser Corporeal Undead

The lesser corporeal undead (skeletons, zombies, and the like) occur in two major ways--spontaneously and artificially.

Spontaneous undead arise where the Shadow veil is thin (often due to mass deaths, especially traumatic ones) and/or the corresponding area of Shadow has been touched by the Waste. So battlefields, necromantically-active catacombs, plague-ridden villages, etc. are the most common sites of spontaneous animation. Minor jotnar, driven by a hunger for anima, find corpses (which are easy to animate because they still remember being alive) and flood in. Unlike most undead infestations, these types are generally relatively self-limiting as they need corpses and don't have the intelligence to hunt. When the supply of living creatures drops too far, they collapse and enter a stasis-like state, waiting for the breath of life to wake them again to feed.

Artificial lesser undead arise when a spell-caster (often of the demonic-cult variety, but there are others who dabble in necromancy) casts spells or conducts rituals to summon and bind yotnar to corpses. Unlike the spontaneous ones, these artificial ones are constrained by the spells and rituals to obey their master...as long as the spell lasts or is renewed. Being fueled by the spell's anima, they're much less dangerous to other life while under control. This does not make them safe--they still seek to destroy all existence and their presence still corrupts reality (and especially Shadow). But the draining/sterilizing effect is much less pronounced--a necromancer with a small stable of skeletons can go months before the symptoms become apparent. Of course, the necromancer does pay with his own vitality to some degree--prolonged contact with the undead causes premature aging and a particular pallor, along with dried, brittle hair and yellowed eyes.