Undead
Undead is a collective name for all types of corporeal and non-corporeal entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living. Undead of different varieties are featured in the legends of most cultures on earth and in many works of fiction, especially fantasy and horror fiction.
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Examples of undead
Corporeal
Corporeal undead still have a tangible body of some sort.
Incorporeal
Incorporeal undead have no tangible form, but exist in the world of the living as spirit entities.
Undead Originating in Fiction
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus introduced another variant on the dead that walk again, the dead brought back to 'life' by science.
A vast number of films have been made concerning the undead.
In some stories and settings, such as the Lorien Trust LARP, the word "unliving" is used as a preferential synonym.
In Dungeons & Dragons and similar systems, clerics can attempt to "turn" undead by achieving the state of lich. By tricking death, those clerics gain different abilities, such as becoming immortal while retaining all the knowledge in magic they used to hold in life. Undead beings can also be repelled or banned by the power of faith, or by wielding a sacred artifact or relic. This is derived from the traditional notion that vampires could be repelled by the cross. Clerics of evil gods can rebuke and control the undead in a similar fashion, by means of necromancy.
See also: