"Time is our endless shoal....

the void, our dark heart."

Dark Elder Tsa'ath

Description

The Deathrisen are a race of monsters that once lived and died as one of the mortal races but were retched away from the clutches of death to exist as an entirely new and dreadful creature. These beings exist through the manipulation of powerful negative energies on corpses. Most Deathrisen are unique creatures with their own interests, ambitions views and on their place in the Material Plane and their goals within the every expanding multiverse.

Once they are risen they go through an intense process of change. Each of the three stages of this transformation bring about extreme adaptions to their physical state as well as permanent derangement of their souls. Their once living essences that they had while living are slowly bound and forever corrupted by powers far beyond the effects of the gods they knew in life or indeed the underworld itself.

They become twisted Undead beings that after receiving their Dark gift continue to evolve as they master the powers that their Dark gift connects them to. They are the progenies of the Undead God Hod and seek through their unholy efforts an assured place among those who have gained corporal immortality and a place within the deep void with the God of Undeath.

The Deathrisen are monsters that have been separated from the living world but through a connection to the darkest known magicks from the deep void have been unnaturally risen up. are the progenies of Hod and the extensions of Hod's will. Death is our permanent state of being while the living is seen by our kind as a lesser form of existence. Life itself and the living are often thought of as something to siphon or consume.

Undead come in many forms and are the unliving horrors and abominations of most mortal races. Due to this the near infinite variations of these walking cadavers are often identified by the nature of their resurrection rather than their race in life. Only the living descendants of the first mortals that mastered the energies within the negative plane hold the key to the processes of creating deathrisen. The first of these were ancient forms of the Hobben race called The Dark Elders and although there are few remaining strains that still exist, they are powerful and channeled extensions of the void itself.

Although many of these teachings were lost to time after the destruction of the Halls of Crynnd and the defeat of Ackryrak’kel-Ashe-takesh. Eventually the remnants of these ancient text would would fall into the hands of various scholars, Spellcasters, Alchemist and Explorers adding their own knowledge and studies in hopes of rediscovering these ancient Hobben secrets for themselves. These new schools of Necromyc study outside the compendium of Hobben study would in turn caused new forms of Deathrisen horrors to arise over the centuries.

The way to undeath is known as The Dark Gift and those who are the carriers of this dark magick through connections with the legacy of the Dark Elders remain hidden and silent. But not for very much longer. For soon, it is said to be the age of the next great awakening. The recurrence of the tendrils of the void sweeping across the Material Plane and a revival of the most vile kind.

History

those who dream of days to come and the tragedy of those who bear witness? Who whispers of things to be undone into the ears of dreamers who would lie in blissful peace to then wake hungry for that which cannot be obtained?

For the Path was of countless steps and all taken in our time. But the Great Dreamer sought the Dragryyum. It crosses fire and loam and ice and gale and travels an edge no Allym’yyn can tread. Yet the Nightmare God sought the ochre. The lessons of the Path are naught without the courage to act upon them. Between realms of sleep and dream, Phobettus found the urn.

In the realm of Void and Marr’dun, Phobettus found the red Dragryyum, the sacred ochre, sealed in an urn bound in shadow, for it is here that no thing can be created and all are cast to be destroyed. The Great Dreamer took the ochre, using it to write the lessons of the Path into his flesh. And as he wrote the shadows binding the urn reached out to him and whispered. They spoke of the truth, of the wisdoms of the unknown realms, and this pained the Nightmare God more than all he had written, more than the three hundred and forty-three wounds now burned into his frozen skin. When there was no more ochre left to write, he sought to free himself from the clinging shadows, but the chains held fast. Phobettus cried but none would hear. He fought but none resisted. He wept though none could see. And so it was the Great Dreamer fell silent and surrendered.

He surrendered the hunger which drove him to glory. He surrendered his will to rule and command. He surrendered his spirit to use the wisdoms of the unknown realms. And as Phobettus pulled free of the chains of shadow, they claimed that which he left behind. Phobettus fled the realm of Void in terror, the endless dark, to the world of dreamers and the wakeful. These aspects of the Nightmare God were not destroyed, but bound anew in a form akin to the void of its birth. And the form knew itself to be Hod, Lord of the Void Realms and the Dead, Herald of the Empty Stars and the Shifting of Ages. Hod was bound to the emptiness but was of the Void so it could not hold them. And so they sent out their Chains of Shadow to seek that which was theirs to keep.

The ochre Dragryyum burned at Phobettus’s skin and formed scabs which pained the Nightmare God. He clawed at the wounds and the scabs fell to the earth, forever casting the lessons from his mind. There they remained, for no mortal thing could touch them without fatal pain, nor could the wind nor rains alter the lessons of the Path, for they are essential to all things. And so it was that a hob'khadyynn discovered one of the Phobettyyn scabs and knew it for what it was, for this was in the days Phobettus spoke of his deeds to his creations though never openly. And so the hob took the scab upon his hook and called it Prime, the first. For never before had the presence of their god been so strongly evident.

And it was thus how Hod discovered the lost ochre, for the Void has a hand in all things of change and all that will die one day. And they sent their chains to bind the hob and claim him as kindred. Hod spoke openly to the hob, sharing the first lesson Phobettus had forsaken. And the hob saw his god’s betrayal and that there would be others who found the Primes, for there were many lessons of the Path. And so he named himself Ga’Hadth, the First Defiler, an Acolyte of Bremmen, History, for he saw that the discovery of these Primes would change the writings of time. To keep the Primes safe, Hod made the Acolyte immortal, as they held power over death itself. And this they would do for the eight to discover the remaining Primes.

And the Acolytes gathered the Primes together and constructed a mighty fortress in which to house the sacred texts and they named it Thuul, the Temple Without Time. They spread the wisdoms of the Primes and the sundering of the traitorous god, for only he had the power to use the lessons of the Path for the eternal glory of the people. These became known as the Abhorrent Wisdoms, for there were those who denied the treachery of Phobettus and clung to their fallacies. But there were those who heard the truth and sought the Acolytes. And they welcomed those who proved loyal, granting the Dark Gift to the worthy. These would become the deathrisen, the Dthoum’yyn, the warriors of Hod charged with the protection of his sacred ochre, for they could not perish without Hod’s blessing.

This was our origin. The birth of the Dthoum'yyn race. Several strains that were manifested and as time passed, their numbers grew slowly for they recruited only the worthy, living and dead alike. And these came in many forms, humanoid and beastial, spectral and infernal, each sculpted by the hands of his Acolytes according to Hod's will. The nine Acolytes were changed by their keeping of the Primes, but remained ageless as their followers slowly rot. For this they were praised and reviled, but none could stand before their might for they held the powers of Death and kept the wisdoms of the Primes in their mind. And they came to be known as the Dark Elders, for their bond to the Void was so strong they extinguished every light. And the Allym’yyn began to worry, for each day the Dthoum'yyn amassed their armies and grew closer to match the living. The Allym’yyn rallied their forces against the strongholds of the Dthoum’yyn, and so began the Great Undead War.

But the Hobs of the age that began to raise the dead soon found that the dark arts were difficult to manage and soon the tide of undead became an scourge and a divisive wedge between the users of the Dark arts and the traditional users of Hobben Schools of Phobettyn Praxis. This rift eventually became a war that engulfed nearly every civilisation and population centre upon the mantle crust.

The war began in tragedy for the Allym’yyn, repelled by legions of Dthoum’yyn that rose after they were struck down. The passions of the war hungry ran cold upon the eternal deathrisen, for the dark god went among them and their ranks never dwindled. And so they sought ways to sever the chains of Hod. With the Primes in mind they constructed the Hobben dalamus and engram, two parts of a censer by which one can turn the alchemical forces of order and chaos to one’s will. With this they thought to disperse the chains that bound the deathrisen to this plane. But their plans were discovered by the Dark Elders, and they in turn cast a phylacteral basin to channel their power, the Dalamus of Maug’Aar’Uend, the second of the Dark Elders and the strongest in his art. And as they held the unadulterated Primes in mind, this Dalamus was stronger than any the Hobben could conceive. With the power of the Dalamus, the Dark Elders strengthened the bonds of Hod, and the Allym’yyn sought elsewhere.

One particularly well documented incident involving the necromancer known as Nagash had a massive undead army at his command but to continue his studies, Nagash required massive quantities of a mineral known as Warpstone. A substance leftover from when a race of Silverhelmed Jinn who were divided by a great schism amongst their kind causing them to go war over the very soul of the planet and it's people. Members of their number believed to have fallen from grace were referred to as referred to as "Arahat". at some point during the conflict one of these "abominations" would fall in battle and embed itself deep within the bowls of the surface crust like a living meteor. In time the it's remains would slowly begin decay melt and crystalize eventually molding itself into a large stone. However it seemed to have an adverse effect on the surrounding area poisoning any nearby fresh waters and killing plants as if the earth itself has been salted. To any living being this would be a nightmare, but for Nagash it was the perfect means of prolonging his work.

When Nagash finally found it he built a large fortess above the warpstone and dubbed it Cripple Peak, so naturally he and the surrounding Skaven clans quickly went to war over it. The battle raged on for years until Nagash was successfully assassinated, leaving the Skaven to claim Cripple Peak for themselves. Nagash's power over death was however too great and through currently unknown means he would return to Cripple Peak, getting revenge upon the Skaven, and destroying any of their clans that had settled within Cripple Peak. Nagash's revenge was in vane however, by by then the Skaven had mined most of the Warpstone leaving his power diminished. Through the combined effort of Plaugelords and Greyseers Nagash was eventually defeated but in his last moments he released a dark plague known by the Skaven as The Necromancers plague. Clan Skryre and the Warlocks of Clan Skryre played an important in the Battle For Cripple Peak and it's says that this battle may have been the first to truly turn the tides of the Undead War

This would eventually lead into the Age of Keepers named for the strident efforts made to control the undead tide and to keep it from destroying every living and sentient being. The war was ended with the defeat of the Dthoum'yyn paragons and their subsequent retreat into the shadowy underdark. But this was at a significant cost to the Hobben population during the age.

Many weapons were contrived by the Allym’yyn to fight the Dthoum’yyn and all have since been lost, for few survived to record the history of the war and its tragedies and only the Dark Elders remain from that time. The defeat of the Demi-Lich Ackryrak’kel-Ashe-takesh signaled the end, and the Dark Elders knew they did not yet have the strength to conquer the Allym’yyn. And so they culled the Dthoum’yyn, leaving but a few in their service and casting the rest to the depths of the Dalamus, for they understood they must wait and gather their strength. The Dark Elders retreated to their hidden citadels, always leaving one to guard the Temple of Thuul and the Primes and so vanished from the eyes and mind of the world above.

For an age the Dark Elders reigned in secret, securing their fortresses in shadow and keeping the wisdoms of the Primes while planning their inevitable return. And all the while Phobettus festered, for while he cast the Dragryyum from his body his mind remained fractured. And as his mind crumbled there came Regret and Terror, for these were all that remained from his journey upon the Path. To save himself from further destruction, the Great Dreamer further divided himself from these so they might no longer poison his mind. And this sundering released a Dark Cloud over the world, a plague of destruction and putrefaction.

The Dark Cloud infested the wind and rode its currents, infecting all in its wake. Those who would survive would be changed forevermore, but they would be islands among a sea of fetid corpses and putrid decay. The Dark Cloud found all of the hidden places of the world and came to the Temple of Thuul. It was the Elder Khal’Rhun’Kannon who stewarded the Temple, the youngest of the Acolytes for she was the last to discover the miracle of the Primes. She watched as the Dark Cloud fell upon her servants and turned them into hives for insects of plague, and she saw how these insects swarmed in hunger and knew they were of the Void but not of Hod. She wept as they discovered the Primes and consumed them, a thousand wings stirring a maelstrom, a hundred mandibles tearing at the ochre. And these insects that devoured the Primes were transformed by them, becoming the lessons of the Path they embodied. They became Kussts - not the Primes which Phobettus first shed, but only the scabs that remained from old wounds. Khal’Rhun’Kannon wept at the destruction wrought by the Kussts and struggled to protect the beloved Primes. She reached for her favorite of these, and in her desperation destroyed the fragile Prime. And it was in this that she understood the Prime and came to embody it as the Kussts did. In this metamorphosis she became Grimm, to walk the Path and know its truths.

Grimm Khal’Rhun’Kannon wept at the loss of the Primes, and it was then that Regret came to her. The Grimm took the hook she had once carried as an Acolyte to carry the Primes and used its point to open her abdomen. And she cried for the Kussts to come to her, for she was as one of them and had the will to command lesser creatures. They flew to her and entered the hollow within her, and she came to house and steward the Primes as she had been charged by her peers. And so Regret left her.

Grimm Khal’Rhun’Kannon allowed the Kussts to enter her, and it was then that Terror came to her. For as each Kusst entered her hollow she came to know its Prime and the power held in the ochre Dragryyum. She panicked as the insects swarmed about her, understanding the force they contained as one by one they crawled inside her. They did not bite nor scratch, but the Grimm burned as she grasped the might of the Primes within which tore at her spirit and mind. She contorted and writhed, bones broke and flesh tore as the primal force continued to be pressed into a body too small and fragile. She became awash in shock and horror but endured as the Primes flooded her overburdened mind and the Kussts made host of her hollow body. As the last Kusst entered her body, the Grimm Khal’Rhun’Kannon’s spirit collapsed, unleashing the force of the Primes in a wave that caused the earth to quake for nine days. The Kussts splintered and propagated in the blast, spreading across the land and leaving the Grimm Khal’Rhun’Kannon a ruined, empty husk. And so Terror left her.

The Temple of Thuul was leveled and the shock echoed across the realms. Those bound by Hod’s chains felt it most strongly, and the Dark Elders above all others, for they were the closest bound to Khal’Rhun’Kannon. It came as a dying scream across the Void, and the Dark Elders recoiled at its force. They fled to the Halls of Crynnd, the final sanctuary of the Dthoum'yyn, formed by the Chains of Shadow, binding all of the realms to their inevitable fate. But the Halls were in turmoil from the power unleashed and the Elders were hurled in the nine necromyk directions. They were lost to one another and our heritage lost with them.

When the Dark Elders were violently sent into the nine directions during the destruction of the ancient Temple Thuul, each took three manifestations of the void from their tombs within the walls of the Temple with them.

The first of these manifestations were their connection to the negative planes and the whispered voice of Hod, God of the Undead in their ears. For they had forsaken the first deity and had given themselves to the domains of eternal existences and to the void and to the endless hunger growing within them.

The second manifestation that escaped with them into the far and shadowed reaches was the secrets contained in their dark arts. For they were the first to write what would become known as the Abhorrent Wisdoms and the first to make tradition from these great hidden works.

Unfortunately however the penned copies of the Abhorrent Wisdoms had fallen already into the hands of Necromyc scholars outside the Hobben race. This meant that throughout the millennia some of these owners felt the need to change, remove or even replace information outright, likely considering preserving information already safe within the primed themselves redundant, outdated or simply ill fitting to their momentary needs. This meant that most of the original scrolls content had already been slowly being changed or lost to time without the Dark Elders even knowing. Among its text being the what would become the only remaining keys to Lichdom, and eventusl ascension to a Deminoulogus state.

The third and last manifestation that all of the Dark Elders held was the Ochreom'necrom. A single drop was the inheritance of each of them and it was as alive within them as much as they were dead they had long left within the living worlds. This material is the heavy heart of darkness itself. Each Dark Elder holds a single drop of the ochre in their wicked hearts. And that drop is the deepest and most vile of oceans within them. Their hearts are filled with those vilest oceans and it aches with terrors yet undone even as they wither and continue rotting away.

And they were the mortals to call forth the first energies ever to be pulled out of the Deep Void. These Necrom magicks remained hidden within the Dark Elders as they traveled the planet in the nine seperate directions. Each of them searching for a unique source among the various living and elemental regions of the world. There they would dig beneath the surface to feed on the life forces above them. And it was there for many centuries that they would wait and gather their strength.

It was when the Void within them found its ill repose that the greater void called out for them. And it was those of us that answered that call that would become the creatures known first as "Dthoum'yyn" and through the many centuries since that time there have been many name given to us. The most recent of these being Deathrisen.

Throughout this time the scrolls containing the Abhorrent Wisdoms would continue passing from owner to owner until it finally fell into the hands of Dakar'keth'ull'kymn'hep'dthom'nyn'keth'kor a Spellcaster seeking to prolong his own existence hoping desperately to master the Abhorrent Wisdoms for himself before his inevitable return to the void. Using his advanced skills in spellcraft he to attach the scrolls to an actual binding. The book in a leather cover made from a human face and was decorated with the bones of a demon. Framed in metal and written in various types of blood this Grimoire would be dubbed officially dubbed "Necro'nomycon: The Tome of Abhorrent Wisdom". The book was then sealed with a symbiotic lock and key enchantment making the book only usable by other Deathrisen or Necromancers specifically "chosen" by Hod in hopes that this newfound lineage of necromyc study would not end with him. Any pages added to this book would also be magically translated into a language only readable to other Deathrisen. Resulting the Deathrisen language slowly becoming a mix match of it's Hobben roots and whatever other monsters races the book came into contact with.

His legacy would pave the way for future generations of Deathrisen. It's possible that he may have even been the the last Ba'al 'Krynn left standing before the eradication of their undead strain. His spirit is rumored to have only appeared once since then, possibly speaking through the book itself. The symbiotic nature of his spell caused any false information written within the book to be magically erased shortly after being penned. Another notable side effect of the spell being that because his ultimate goal of mastering the Abhorrent Wisdoms unfinished, It caused the book to disappear the theory being that Hod himself had then been using it to bring about a golden age of Necromyc advancement by handing it from generation to generation until this ancient lineage was worthy to rise again.

the book would continue transferring from owner to owner and they would make their own additions to it often doing so without regard for its increasingly patchwork appearance, intending only to add the new findings their studies yielded. This time however the magic bindings of the book would force its owners to preserve whatever history and knowledge was written before. In hopes that if the original Abhorrent Wisdoms were to be rediscovered or expanded that knowledge would never be lost again. During The Age of Plagues, the book would fall into the hands of the Necromyc Acolytes of Bhogg'Murr a group of seafaring monsters hoping to use their combined teachings of the afterlife and the information within the tome to find the secrets to undeath, creating a new breed of Deathrisen known as the Draugr. This led to many similar studies spreading far across the Material Plane once again. At some point it would also fall into the hands of a curious Alchemist attempting to test the effects of these same dark energies on cobbled together pieces of dead flesh, resulting in the birth of what we now know as Flesh Golems.

Studies like this continued for centuries and because the book had become a mix match of various writings reaching far beyond the compendium of the Hobben knowledge. The book had become a scientific journal rather than the writings of a long forgotten faith. This however worked to the favor of Dakar'keth'ull'kymn'hep'dthom'nyn'keth'kor's ultimate goal. For in time the book went from a mere broken down collection of random discoveries and began slowly turning into a cohesive and diverse look into the ever expanding compendium of necromyc history through the eons. It's said that around this time the book had fallen into the hands of alchemist working under the reign of Atlanean royalty, seeking to use its contents to reverse engineer a secret to immortality without undeath. The results of which were also a failure that helped eventually bring about the current scourge of deathrisen centuries. Through unknown means, after the destruction of Atlantis The Book had then found itself adrift at sea and eventually washed up on the haunted shores of The Sea of the Damned.

During the Age of Strident Shifts (Our current age) while on a voyage through the Sea of the Damned the Tome would finally fall into the hands of it's current owner a draugr by the name of "Mad Jak Calavera". The book was found on the same island where the the Necromyc Acolytes of Bhogg'Murr had discovered it centuries ago. Shortly after returning to the Mortal Plane, Dark Elder Gorgas-Dat'amar-Tsa'ath had gotten into contact with Jak and informed him that another recurrence of the dead are being risen. powerful ancients from the time of the war and those even older have been called out of their repose. Hobgoblyns of this age know the lessons of their history and are allied with the new Deathrisen initiative which is being led by the Dark Elder Tsa'ath.

The Dark Elder Gorgas-Dat'amar-Tsa'ath has again begun the rights known to bring about the various Deathrisen races and is their mortal steward. He is the Elder of the Neckromyc Direction of Mnarr and has a direct connection to Hod The Kalyph of Shadow Chains is held by him and he is currently searching for the other Dark Elders that the Undead Initiative is swiftly brought about.

Hobben Kadimah brought about the Deathrisen race as an attempt to reverse the eradication of the sacred Ddromar. This motivation brought about split of Phobettus and the manifestation of the deity Hod. The Chains of Shadow from that time were extended from the Void And these chains were cast from the Negative aspects and energies and were entwined deeply into the cycles of the material planes.

Stages of Deathrisen resurrection

the Deathrisen are not just mere reanimated bodies. Evolution for the undead is not the same process as it is inside living cycles the dead grow powerful as time passes. When first risen they're commonly known as "zombies" simple undead beings with little to now sentient thought. They're what happens when the shadows and dark energies of the Negative Plane are used to resurrect the bodies of the living. More often than not this results in the common practice of exterminating these creatures with extreme prejudice. however this wasn't always the case in the days when the world was new the mortals were ill prepared for these new horrors arising from the shadow underdark. presuming that leaving them to rot would simply cause them to eventually decay and rot into nothing. This however nearly proved to be the undoing of all living beings, for it was soon discovered that not only do the Deathrisen have a slowed rate of decay from the average corpse, their prolonged existence and connection to the dark energies they needed to survive would transform them into whole new beings of ancient terror. Unlike the common undead mindless creatures you've likely encountered in the average dungeon or used by various evil overlords to endlessly circle empty moats; if they manage to survive long enough these creatures will reach their final stage of resurrection in which they become they're entirely new thinking feeling plotting terrifying creatures with their own wants and goals.

Though there are many undead out there, not all have risen to the rank of deathrisen, infact statistically speaking it's likely that a very small percentage of them survive past their first week of resurrection let alone the month years or even decades it takes to evolve to their final states. Those that do will often seek to increase their number by sheer necessity of needing large amounts of assistants willing to work with undead openly, something that for the most part seems to go against the very nature of being a living being who isn't a devout follower of Hod to begin with. For this reason Deathrisen of the modern era will often seek to assist the newly risen undead in their ascension. They commonly distinguish these stages of ascenscion by both the physical emotion and mental stages to the newly risen undead's evolution. With the most common, least intelligent but easily most single mindedly bloodthirsty Zombies. The slightly more evolved and methodical but still quite feral Ghouls. Fully thinking and feeling Undead after this stage will either stop evolving and give into the rot, or will ascend and become full fledge Deathrisen Wights. The following is a comprehensive breakdown of these events in succession.

Rotrending of the Zombie

When a soul is turned into shadow and the body is risen again the creature is held fast into a rending and horrible rot. It is a slow and languid existence which is usually horrific for those newly risen. Flesh begins to foul and if exposed to effluent environs it will begin to fall off the zombie's animated bones. The stage of Rotrending creature will have lost many of the senses that it knew in life. It can no longer taste or smell as they once did. Those senses are dulled deranged seeking out the essences that the living emit. They never again seek out food or drink, unless it gets them closer to an unwary victim. The sense of touch is largely diminished as the organic systems of the body wither and decay. Hearing remains unchanged although the sounds they hear and not taken in anymore by their ears. Nor do they need their putrefying eyes to see. But, during the darkest nights the faintest evil light will begin to pulse behind the remains of those empty orbs as the shadow within them gathers and writhes inside itself.

The newly risen is a horror unto even themselves. Tormented and lost unless guided by the one who raised them up. The Rotrend is torn apart from within with memories of a life just lived but without the living consciousness to tame the evil filling up where once there was life and the understanding of the coils of mortality. They are slowly rent from their former existences. And it leaves them inside a mindless and horrible deviation of will. Some that knew them in life will mistake this as grief. But it would be at their extreme peril to try to help their lost and departed. For the living are no more akin to the Zombies now than a priest is akin to a prowler.

The Shadow Chains of the Ghoul

Becoming a Ghoul happens after a zombie has found and consumed adequate sources of life energies. Devouring the bodies that they either kill or otherwise have access to are the most common on these. When the change happens the newly formed ghoul starts to be more directly linked to the deep void and ultimately to the deity Hod. The more successful the Ghoul becomes at finding sources of life to siphon the stronger the Ghoul's insatiable corrupted hunger gets and the stronger their connection to the source of void energies. This link is for the darkest divinations and it is known (although it is a simple term) as the "Shadow-Chains" or "Chains of Shadow". This is the link of the darkest and most evil of evolutionary stages.

The shadows within the Ghouls begin to form its own corrupted core and twisting gravities. Their form develops new affects during its evolution as a Ghast. The process of their rotting slows and only continues at an almost imperceptibly slow rate. Their skin usually starts to turn deep and lacquered tones of greys. The skin hardens upon their flesh which first rigours, dries and petrifies into lengths of unnatural and twisted chords of tissues across the body. The crawling creatures and larvae that once fed upon their flesh typically (but don't always) fall away from the changing body and rarely return since there is little left that could be used to sustain them on the well evolved Ghoul.

The ghoul starts to gain evolved undead senses and begins to see the world anew. The dim light within the sockets of the eyes start to become more defined and darkly brighter. Memories of their former life are almost totally lost by the Ghoul. Only nightmare images of what they were before being retched away form the tenuous cycles of living realms. Cycles that the Ghouls now find irrevocably fixated on. Constantly hungering to destroy and consume them.

As a Zombie within the state of Rotrending, their mind was a tourtured blend of blatant and mindless thrashing. But the evolving Ghoul finds that their thoughts begin to take on a form of reason. The once mindless obsessions begin turning into a more semblant ration of focus. Minds that begin taking on a more adapted and lurid cognisance. When enough time passes, and they find more to consume and as they begin to become more evolved they begin to hear the whisper from beyond their protracted suffering. It is not heard well enough to be any use to them yet, but the time will come when the voice will bring them closer to the source. Closer to the beginning of every horrible ending.

The Blessing of the Wight

The first known undead to ascend to this state were known as "Crowler Wights". These creatures are significantly mutated through horrible aspects of their undying hatred and the unholy effects of negative magicks. In the day's of the undead war the Wights were recognized by their twisted and marred bodies both horrible and deadly. Their limbs and fingers often lengthen into sharp jagged extensions. Their mandibles sometimes split and grow out from their heads forming the most distinct and feared weapon of the Wight (Sometimes referred to as "Rasps"). They were fast and frenzied creatures that were too unpredictable to control as a group. They were clever hunters and could steady themselves for years at a time to exact a revenge or to cause the greatest damage to a group that they are set against.

However this original strain of mutated and near formless undeath was eradicated alongside the Ba'al 'Krynn strain during the undead war. It is unknown of their retreat to the Underdark resulted in their demise or simply put them in hibernation as there are no Wights of such description that are still shambling among the wide regions of the material plane......... not yet that is.

However the Legacy of these early Wights lives on. For it is at this stage that Ghouls are transformed into new breeds of undead themselves named "Wights" in honor of the first legions of Undead. These Undead have survived and have found their own way to settle into the experience of soldiers. With the abilities they learned during life they can now start to improve upon during undeath. The last of the major changes that the undead will go through culminate within a process called "The Blessing". In many ways, it is the true beginning for the creature as it is the awakening of undead self awareness and is only granted to those who were able to make it through the first two stages of zombie and Ghoul and have learned to thrive inside their new horrific reality. And, for their ability to survive and for their service to the void they gain the first formal gift from Hod. The shade within them now is now deeply bound by the chains of shadow and are restored with a new un-living sentience. This state can be considered in some regards as the emergence of undead consciousness.

Wights don't just regain the abilities of speech and other social abilities that they knew while alive, but new languages and abilities can be learned to assist their dark aspirations. Their former lives are remembered, but it is with an imperfect and cruel recounting. These memories are now distorted and often emotionally charged versions of what actually transpired while they lived. It is often the conquest of those that gain this Undead reasoning and memory that they would make it a personal quest to right perceived wrongs that may or may not have happened to them. It is common that the Wight would find an constant obsession to exact extreme revenges upon individuals related to their hazy pasts. Total eradication of entire families to settle scores that they may imagine or are true are sometime the first real and feverish endeavor for newly realised Wights.

The many changes gone about the creature as it finds victims and sources to consume will find the Wights a new and horribly unrecognizable being. A being that until now had only rudimentary abilities to speak or complete complicated tasks. But with their newly established and coldly settled undead consciousness, the possibilities for more complex and interrelated connections to the world at large become possible. The realizations of logic and calculative reasoning within the cults and cultures for the Undead are made possible. As they develop this new consciousness and as they become aware of their link to Hod, they can again pursue new knowledges and talents. To again lurk among the hidden centres of undead learning. To actively seek to interpret the Three triangles of connection to Dark energies of the void. To make best use of the possibilities and promises of immortality.

For all undead creatures, becoming a Wight is the end of a protracted painful process that sees them nearly fully realised again but within a new identity. But it also marks the beginning. For it is the first form of the higher ranking echelons of undead societies. For although they do not live in the open, groups of undead have been known to inhabit spaces together. And history shows the the existence of the great halls of Crynnd and the sprawling underground lairs known as the Koptyc Crypts under the black sands of the Skeleton Dunes are proof that undead cities once existed. These were the centres of dark power while they were in use. found their own collaborative efforts during those ancient times. They were the pinicles of collective Undead power. And there are numerous hidden caches of these old societies hidden under layers of ages and dust. But ages change. And Hod stirs.

But still there is the spectre of a slow decay that haunts them. Although their flesh has become almost entirely resistant to the degradation a that dead material goes through they are not totally immune from times slow deterioration of their physical bodies. And when their bodies are slowly worn away from them the magicks that sustain their efforts of movement and whatever else the physical body provides them. Because of this they begin to pursue the arts that will keep their slow disintegrations at bay. What will be required to cease this process will be through the void and increase their connection to the shadow chains leading to it. The whispers that were heard but still not understood when they were Wights are now more frequent and clear. It is the sound caused by those that have studied the dark arts of Hod. And it is delivered to them by a very real and evil thrumming bug that is often harboured within their very skulls. It is then that the now full ascended Deathrisen will to follow the whisper and find their place among the new legion of undead masses about to rise. To be lead into the higher forms of unliving. To be found within the newly forming and second Undead Army. To fight in the war that will see the realisation of the new Age of Undeath which looms just ahead of us.

Deathrisen Ascension & Divergent Strains

"Rise, creation, follow my command,

Rise and be my undead hand."

Evolution for the undead is not the same process as it is inside living cycles. The stages beyond the horrific Rotrending are divergent casts of the same race if one wishes to see it such. All Deathrisen once began with hobben magicks, but throughout the eons as this Necromyc study passed on to others tribes and races; and this caused many divergent strains of undeath to come into being causing Wights to may take on many new forms as a result of various attempts at replicating these Necromyc Magicks through out history. Some with differences so drastic, you'd be hard pressed to find their connections without searching through the Abhorrent Wisdoms yourself. These Deathrisen often have unique identifiers, which distinguish them from an average Deathrisen strains. While some attempts have been more successful than others, it's clear that attempts by other fanatics of Hod to bring back a new wave of Deathrisen have been relatively successful given that the number of Deathrisen variants discovered seems to only increase with time. The following is a list of the divergent strains currently documented:

Ba'al 'Krynn

During the Great Undead War there was a tear within the conduits between the multi-plannar realms. In some cases, Void magicks were enhanced by the powers of planes that included Anomyyl (Abysm) and Illith (The unknown) to assist raising the dead. The undead that were cerated using the powers from these sources were unlike anything seen before and have not been seen since. It is written that mounds of the dead from the previous mortal wars were the first places where these beings were seen being created. The manner of these undead types were extreme and would often not be easily commanded by their creators. It is rumored that the existence of Corpsers are what caused the Undead War to begin. For the nature of these beings were partly influenced through Abysmal and Illithic energies and could not easily be controlled through traditional methods. The Ba'ale'Kryn would turn on their own ranks and evolved quickly into higher powerful and forms that with a quickened form of sentience would take charge of the more common versions of undeath and plot them against whom they wished.

The scourge of this new type of undead and their Ascended forms caused the Hobben race to cease their focus on material dominances on the planet. This shift in Hobben focus is what started the Great Undead War and what ultimately eradicated the Corpser strain. However, the war with the undead significantly weakened Hobben numbers by the end of the era but their efforts to overcome the magicks from multiple planes made them the keepers of Necromyc magicks and the experts on undeath power. Hobs to this day call their weapons "Korpsers" as an echo to this part of their deep history. Much is unknown about the original Corpsers, but based on what we know of Dakar'keth'ull'kymn'hep'dthom'nyn'keth'kor it's likely their designated names were likley the undead real which their legion reigned and an operating number among their ranks in order to identify themselves.

There are no longer Corpsers that are still among the wide regions of this world. None that are still animated......... not yet that is.

Revenants

Deathrisen that have been risen and transitioned well into the state of undeath neither slow nor awkward these form of undead are the most common amongst the Material Plane. They can understand the languages they knew in life and are generally resurrected and kept alive through sheer force of negative energy rage and willpower. This generally means they're usually born with one purpose in mind, vengeance. Sometimes however they're resurrected by actual necromancers who will give the revenant with a task of their own. They are usually known to travel great distances, even between the many Planes of reality itself to finish their unholy quests. They're particularly famous for their deathly banshee-like wails that have been known to frighten or stun even some of the most feared mortal fighters. These undead beings aren't quite as horrifically mutated deformed or changed from their original risen state like the original Wight strains of Deathrisen but do not mistake these beings as any closer to their living selves than their counterparts. Very rarely so Revenants survive the resurrection process without almost entirely losing themselves and who they once were in life for their quest for revenge. Many a mortal have made the mistake of approaching a Revenant in hopes that it was their long lost loved one returned from the dead only to be swiftly and tragically slain by their now bloodthirsty and hate filled husk.

Skeletons

Deathrisen who have either stayed within the state of accelerated Rot for an extended amount of time or were resurrected centuries after their death. In either of these cases the physical effects are the same. Skeletons have the same abilities that an undead within the Deathrisen stage would. Skeletons have none to very little flesh left on their form and notwithstanding their personal affect, being a walking skeleton is their most notable characteristic.

Draugr

Creatures that have been lost at sea and have been risen by the effects in the Necromyc direction of Bhogg'mur. The corpses of these individuals cling fiercely to undeath, attacking any living creatures that intrude upon them. Their attacks smear rancid flesh, rotting seaweed, and swaths of putrescence on whatever they hit. The transition to undeath is different for every Draugr as most are created through individual naughtical curses. However, many Draugr are created when seafaring vessels are sent to The Sea of the Damned. Crewed by the undead and captained by seafaring necromancers, these haunted vessels are often refered to as "Ghost Ships". Some Draugr have been known to sail alone and will often wash up along the shorelines of coastal regions all around the world spreading chaos and undeath. Draugr have been around as long as mortals have sailed the seas, and come in many varying shapes and sizes. Draugr are known to be an incredibly violent bunch, known for pillaging oceanside towns and devouring a majority of the inhabitants in the process. Draugr can be identified by their pale algae covered skin and bones, and water damaged barnacle encrusted nauhtical garb.

Flesh Golems

Purpose built, these hulking undead creatures are usually a significantly valuable possession to the individual(s) who arranged to have the Golem raised. Flesh Golems are the singularly raised animated creature constructed out of the pieces of two or more dead (usually bipedal) creatures. The rationale to create these creatures are too many to list but it is often to find Golems acting as strong-arm servants of the creator since they are known to have higher that average strength potentials (which the Golem is largely unaware of). It is frequent to hear of Flesh Golems becoming uncontrollable and killing their charges by accident or through a "deathrage" that are frequent in the early stages of undeath. After they find themselves alone they leave the place of their creation and continue somewhat aimlessly to travel the planet alone or to eventually join other forms of undead where they might find their own way into the deeper pathways into the Undead Ascensions.

Morrikynn

The Morrikynn are the descendants of an adept and culturally sophistocated race of blood fervent monsters that went extinct during the acts that began and have since become known as the Khyber Rebellion. The leader of the that race was known as Morryn and it was he who found a connection to the Void and it was he who found the remains of his race and rose them into an undying existance. Because of part that he has played in the resurrection of the group the group have been called Morrikynn since that time.

Wraiths

Commonly refered to as Ghost, Specters, and Clothshades. The dead become more powerful as time goes by. What was once just an unquiet lingering presence to your grandfather could be a full-fledged wraith to your grandchildren. After the Acolytes of Bhogg'Murr finished their work, their studies eventually fell into the hands of powerful necromancers who had learned to bend these presences and train them in certain directions like you would a vine. Similar to a farmer turning a seed to grow a tree, these necromancer could "plant" these lingering wills to one day grow a wraith. Wraiths could easily be considered a Deathrisen without a body as they too are simply what happens when a restless dead spirit comes into prolonged contact with a negative energy. However unlike the other deathrisen they are not just categorized as Undead but could also be considered Outsiders given their direct connection to the Ethereal Plane and their ability to phase between it and the Material Plane at seemingly free will.

Lurea'ag

The Lurea'ag are female undead that feed on the hopes of the living. The pinnacle of feminine prowess evolved over time. Mothers pass every thought and every wisdom to their daughter as they die and the cycle starts over when the ceremony of the death of the mother is ended. This cycle is a magickal art that perpetuates the power of the race.

The Lurea'ag are the moor of Death's seductive call beyond the graveyard's gate. The first of these creatures were known as "ladies of the hollow" today they're commonly referred to as "Plague Maidens". They were the keepers and oracles of what was once known as the Dolman altars. But they were all hunted down and horribly killed. Only to find their way beyond the veil. Their song is the call of your deepest desire.

The Undead Countenance

Undead are some of the most abhorable of creatures among nearly every living culture that exists on the planet. It is our job to ensure that we represent the best affect and image for the race and the theme. The goals for look can vary widely dependant on the type and style of Deathrisen sub-type that you choose to represent.

Racial Identifiers

1. Garb

Deathrisen Cowl

"The robe of flesh wears thin, but this cowl is my shadow's persistent face."

The primary garb item encouraged to be worn for all Deathrisen is the construction and use of a hooded cowl or robe. Types and styles of this item will be as varied as there are different individual Deathrisen representatives.

The entire look of your garb should make you instantly recognizable as an undead form from across the field of battle. This can include the use of black and grey tones as is typical for the theme. This can be achieved using a number of style choices and techniques.

2. Grey Skin

"Then I looked and saw a pale horse. Its rider's name was Death"

The flesh of the Deathrisen race moves through unnatural means and does not have the color of the living. Coloring the skin to show our undead complexion is an easy way to show that you are beyond the confines of mortal needs like oxygen, blood or nourishment. We are sustained by the void. Emptiness is the creator. Grey skin is ours.

3. "Our Fetid Face"

The face is of the Deathrisen combatant in to be obviously undead as is particular to their selected sub-variation of the race.

The Lost Codex

Deathrisen