The Soul and the Nature of Undeath

Some of the most compelling villains in fiction are, if done right, the undead. The ghoul, the vampire, the mummy, the zombie and similar creatures that represent humanity's deepest fears of death, disease and even, in the case of vampires, sexuality plug into an ancient and visceral dread that seems hard-wired into the human psyche. Cursed with an endless, bleak existence of either longing for their lost humanity (common in modern vampire fiction) or wholly falling into the madness of their inherent predatory malevolence, the undead are compelling villains indeed.

Orcus by Todd Lockwood

In the Wyrmshadows campaign setting, undeath is utterly and undeniably a curse. For the undead of Illythria undeath is not merely a warped blessing of eternal youth and vigor. Undeath, even for those outwardly blessed with the appearance of eternal youth and beauty is an empty, infinitely lonely, regret-filled hell because the Orcus, the Lord of the Undead, wishes it to be so. Himself transformed into a monstrous horror in his ascendency to the Throne of Anguish as sovereign of The Eternal Sepulcher, Orcus gains much in the way of petty gratification in the loneliness, regret, madness, endless hunger (or thirst), and pain of those who either willingly or unwillingly suffer his cruel attentions in the form of the curse of undeath. Though some mortals so cursed come to, at best, grimly accept their ghastly condition, undeath on Illythria is not an oddly romantic state of being. Undeath is manifest loss, bleakness and suffering that desires to lash out to destroy, taint and devour that which is beautiful and alive.

As satisfying a villain as the vampire, lich, ghoul lord or other undead mastermind may be, I have always, as a gamemaster, been dissatisfied with the implications of undeath as presupposed in some fantasy role-playing or fiction settings. A common trope regarding the curse of undeath is that the one so cursed loses his or her immortal soul in the process of transformation from human to unliving monster. This assumption has always troubled me insofar as firstly, the damned soul did nothing to earn it's fate and secondly, the curse of undeath is somehow able to undermined the metaphysical process of divine judgment (in most fantasy settings, just as in our collective mythologies, a deity usually sits in judgment over the fate of all mortal souls). So, for example, getting bitten by a vampire and rising to join the children of the night manages to countervene not only a sense of fundamental justice but even, where applicable, divine will.

I have, for the sake of internal consistency within the Wyrmshadows FRPG Setting, reimagined both the nature of the mortal soul and the nature of undeath. This reimagining is, in my opinion, a reasonable reworking of related concepts that allows the curse of undeath to be a truly fearful reality and yet not one that unjustly condemns an undeserving soul to an eternity of torment and suffering through no fault of its own.

Druid Ghost by Alan Lathwell

The Soul and the Nature of Undeath

The curse of undeath, the work of the dark god Orcus, is a source of visceral terror for all mortals (those not either lost to darkness or utter madness). This primal terror is rooted not only in the physical danger most undead beings represent, but for the spiritual danger the state of undeath represents as well. Long has it been assumed, by most, that the soul of those afflicted with undead is lost to darkness forevermore. However, this simplistic assumption is, thankfully, not entirely correct.      

Though it is not common knowledge outside of esoteric circles, the truth is that the soul of  *sapient mortals (humans, elves, dwarves, vitharr, orcs, etc.) and, non-divine, immortal beings (the evariel for example) is comprised of two portions, the Animus, and the Shade.

The animus is, quite literally, the vitalizing life-force. It is the animus, sometimes called chi, ki, prana, or by myriad other names, depending on the culture of the speaker, that is cultivated by some martial orders allowing the trained to focus this vital energy into devastating armed and unarmed attacks. In Westria and the Aranlands, for example, the animus is cultivated as a “rage” that allows some warriors to become lost in a kind of battle-trance that is legendary throughout Arvanor for its ferocity. When magic (such as the spell enervation), the undead (such as from the Constitution draining touch of a wraith to the level draining touch of a vampire), or some other force drains life from an individual, it is from the animus that this life-energy comes. At death, this aspect of the mortal soul dissolves into the environment where the mortal form took its last breath.

The shade is the aspect of the soul which contains the mortal personality, emotions, and intellect. When most people think of their “soul” they are, in fact, thinking of their shade. The shade contains the portion of the individual that is their recognizable identity. When an individual makes a bargain to sell her soul to an infernal in exchange for some boon, this is the aspect of the soul which is sold and the aspect which is (per such a pact) inexorably drawn to Tartarus upon mortal death. The shade is also the aspect of the soul which is trapped with trap the soul, magic jar or any spell of similar effect. The shade is also the aspect of the soul assigned by a lich to its phylactery (the process of lichdom splits the shade into two portions, the conscious portion which dwells within the body of the lich and the unconscious portion which is bound in the phylactery).

Game of Thrones White Walker Concept Art: HBO / Martin Rezard

The effect the curse of undeath has upon the shade is particularly chilling. When one rises as one of the sentient undead (such as a ghast, vampire, ghoul, wight, etc.) the shade remains trapped in the new, undead form but, while it still remains conscious, it is subsumed by a “mirror persona” constructed entirely of the malevolent spiritual energy  of the Eternal Sepulcher (commonly referred to as an “unclean spirit”).  This false persona contains the memories and general sensibilities of the shade, but is a wholly evil perversion of that aspect of the soul. The shade, trapped within this form and now powerless, must stand in mute witness to the horrors perpetrated by the indwelling mirror persona. Upon the destruction of the undead creature, the trapped shade is freed to journey to the afterlife for judgment. 

Non-sentient undead such as skeletons and zombies possess no shade. If a given form of undeath grants a non-sentient undead creature some of the skills it had in life, what remains is merely a spiritual “echo” of the personality (shade) now gone.

The shade is immortal and though it can be trapped,  bound, or even sold (by its owner and no other), it cannot be damaged or destroyed by any being of a less than divine nature (Wyrmkings, The Fallen, the Grey Lord, etc.). This aspect of the soul is, unlike the animus, truly immortal. The judgment a shade receives at the Court of Souls is less a moral judgment than merely the assigning of a soul to the afterlife most appropriate to its nature based on its beliefs, allegiances,  morality/ethics and actions while an incarnate mortal being. The true horror lays with those who believe themselves unworthy of an eternity in either Tartarus or The Eternal Sepulcher. It is noted by the psychopomps with some perplexity, just how few mortals believe themselves worthy of an audience with Orcus at the foot of the Throne of Anguish.

*Non-sapient mortal life-forms, including non-sapient magical creatures, possess both an animus (which dissolves upon death) and a lesser developed shade which, upon death, enters into the spirit world for a brief time before dissolving into a pure spiritual essence, it’s energy recycled and reentering the Mortal World adding to the potency of Nature and life itself.  Nothing is wasted.