On the Matter of the Undead...

Question:

Just regarding undead, where do they fit into the whole religion/mythology system of Diomin? Are any of the Undead in the MM on Diomin? -posted on in the Forums by Snoweel, Jan. 30, 2001

Hyrum responds:

One of the underlying foundations of Diomin is the existence of the three "Realms". The Divine Realm (home of most of the Gods), the Spirit Realm (home of Kalaratri and well, spirits), and the Mortal Realm (what everyone sees around them).

Now, Kalaratri is trapped within the Spirit Realm, and she is constantly capturing spirits, and bending them to her will. (as well as consuming them.) What this means is that when you encounter a bodiless spirit, it's one of two things. Either it's a spirit that is tied to that particular place for whatever reason, (examples are given in the Shaman section of the Diomin worldbook), or it's a spirit under the control of Kalaratri and is being used to further her goals (and act as her eyes/ears within Diomin). Finding out which one will be hard, unless there's a Shaman around, so be careful.

The other type of undead are physical bodies without spirits. These undead (usually things like skeletons and zombies) are the result of Gadianti or Zeredite experiments, *or* wizards so corrupted by their magic they've gone completely insane.

The final type of undead are those mortals who have become Corrupted by the Taint of Cedron. This includes things like liches and vampires. They activly work to undo Creation and many are reputed to be in communication with The Liberator himself.

Of the three types of undead, bodiless spirits are by far the most common. Animated bodies are second, and the Corrupted are fairly rare.

In the forth coming "Gods of Diomin", we'll have more information on undead and the effects of the Taint of Cedron.