Zombies and ghosts and vampires, oh my!

[Dantius]

Pretty much what it says on the tin. Straight up poll, what is you favorite undead creature?

 

I was tempted to differentiate between Vampires(Nosferatu), ala Dracula, and Vampires(SPARKLY!), ala Edward Cullen, but then I decided that I would like to keep my spleen, thank you very much.

[Triumph]

I vote wraith, because the Ringwraiths rock every which way.

 

Except fire. They don't like fire.

 

You know, if you'd included an option for sparkly vampires, that some people would choose it just to spite you, so it was probably for the best that you left out.

[Slawbug]

I applaud the use of Exile/Avernum as a basis for this poll.

 

However, where are the Quickghasts?

 

Quickghast FTW!

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

I applaud the use of Exile/Avernum as a basis for this poll.

However, where are the Quickghasts?

Quickghast FTW!

The only one I added were mummies, which to the best of my knowledge never appear in Jeff's games, but do seem pretty common.

Just put down quickghasts as a subset of "ghasts"

[Slawbug]

Spirits, Devas, and Spectres would also belong on the list.

[Randomizer]

I went with lich because of a table top AD&D game where two high level characters were sleeping in an inn. The one on watch saw a lich at the window. The other character died when the lich killed him in his sleep. The one that was awake pointed out that he yelled his word of recall spell and it wasn't his fault that the sleeper failed his roll to wake up.

[RCCCL]

Ah, D&D stories, almost always amusing . I went with Liches as well, whether in Exile, or in most any other roleplaying game, it's hard to have a more evil magic incarnate figure than a Lich.

[Enraged Slith]

Liches and Vampires are tired.

[Nicothodes]

Zombies, mainly because you can't really go wrong with them in horror films.

 

I cannot wait to see Eph's reaction to this topic.

[The Ratt]

Mummies, just because I haven't thought about them in a while.

[cfgauss]

Mummies are sadly underrepresented in fiction.

CUUURRRRRSSE!

 

I voted vampire, though. Because, who wouldn't want vampires' awesome powers?

 

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

...failed his roll to wake up.

This is how I feel every morning.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

I was tempted to differentiate between Vampires(Nosferatu), ala Dracula, and Vampires(SPARKLY!), ala Edward Cullen

Vampires divide into many more categories than just those two. For their endless variety, they get my vote.

—Alorael, who does have to admit that he was tempted to go with slime zombies for sheer ickiness.

[Dintiradan]

I quite literally failed my roll to wake up today. Last night was an all-nighter, and when I got home at 3:00 in the afternoon I set my alarm for 6:00 so I could make it to the evening D&D setting. Slept through it. :-(

 

My vote goes to the liver zombies in Rats Aplenty.

[inni]

Liches, the name=total control is better than most vampire lore. (yes i know that name=control works for most fictional creatures but with a Linch you don't need to know their true name)

 

and what's this? no werewolves!

[Callie]

I think wraiths are cool, but there's also something appealing about vampires summoning other vampires.

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: 1 n33d n0 1n7r0duc710n

and what's this? no werewolves!

Werewolves are not undead.

[Frozen Feet]

Wraiths, especially of the ring variety. But liches are a close second. Especially few specific ones.

[waterplant]

Vampires have long been misrepresented. Francis Ford Coppola's version did a lot to correct this imbalance - it was one of the most romantic films I have seen. Gary Oldman was so cool in this - ('see me now'.).

I have often thought of writing a story centered on the idea that vampires aren't essentially evil for doing what they do any more than a lion is evil for killing a deer. Vamps have gotta eat.

[Thaluikhain]

Originally Posted By: waterplant

I have often thought of writing a story centered on the idea that vampires aren't essentially evil for doing what they do any more than a lion is evil for killing a deer. Vamps have gotta eat.

Um, I think that may have been done to death, and then a few hundred fanfics mors.

The problem with undead is that there's so many differnt interpretations of them. Zombie/vampire/ghoul/etc have all been used to describe a mindless undead thing that feeds off the living, but then all sorts of other different things as well.

I voted "hraithe" because it (and vahnavoi) are original...more or less everything else has become very tired and stale, and entombed in cliches. Why does everyone insist that you have to shoot zombies in the head? Because everyone else does.

A hraithe injects some fresh blood into the genre (so do vahnavoi, but "hraithe" is a cooler name). I don't really know anything about them, so (at least to me) they're only the bare bones of a really great undead monster, and need fleshing out. But anything is better than more of the same. That's one reason I like exile, the sliths, vahnatai and nephils are new (bar the odd use of the biblical term "nephilim").

Hmmm...is there any info on specific slith or nephil undead? I must add that to the list of "whenever I finally finish my first scenario, I shall look into this next"s.

[Milla]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

I applaud the use of Exile/Avernum as a basis for this poll.

However, where are the Quickghasts?

Quickghast FTW!

The only one I added were mummies, which to the best of my knowledge never appear in Jeff's games, but do seem pretty common.

Just put down quickghasts as a subset of "ghasts"

There is a mummified priest in Avernum 6.

Quote:

Hmmm...is there any info on specific slith or nephil undead? I must add that to the list of "whenever I finally finish my first scenario, I shall look into this next"s.

They do show up from time to time in the games (usually it's noted in game text that that particular bunch of undead are nephilim/slithzerikai) but there are no undead unique to either species.

[Student of Trinity]

A neighbor's kid was recently playing some kind of wallop-each-other-with-styrofoam-swords game at our place. After getting severely walloped at one point, he declared himself killed; then returned to the fray as 'a zombie'. After getting walloped some more, he declared himself destroyed. Then he returned as 'a zombie of a zombie'.

 

It was a "Whoa! You can do that?" moment. I consider the implications sobering.

[waterplant]

Originally Posted By: Thaluikhain

Originally Posted By: waterplant

I have often thought of writing a story centered on the idea that vampires aren't essentially evil for doing what they do any more than a lion is evil for killing a deer. Vamps have gotta eat.

 

Um, I think that may have been done to death, and then a few hundred fanfics mors.

 

Well that saves me some time don't it.

[Monroe]

[Thaluikhain]

Originally Posted By: Milla

They do show up from time to time in the games (usually it's noted in game text that that particular bunch of undead are nephilim/slithzerikai) but there are no undead unique to either species.

I remember that slith/ogre tribe/cult/thingy near Erika's tower in E3, which had a weird thing going on involving undead of both sides...that's always seemed weirdly interesting to me.

(Ok, now I'm really considering a nephil undead scenario.)

[cfgauss]

Originally Posted By: Monroe

That guy's got one hell of an STD if snakes are growing out of it...

[Enraged Slith]

Did the guy who drew that honestly not realize the horrors he was unleashing?

[Celtic Minstrel]

Yay liches.

[Student of Trinity]

Yet another hilarious misprint on the sticks to snakes spell.

[cfgauss]

You're my new best friend.

[Alorael at Large]

Mummies are known for carrying magical diseases, but rarely do adventurers inquire into what kind of disease or how it is transmitted until far too late.

 

—Alorael, whose other concern is that the, ahem, alterations are neither an illness nor an error. They could be a feature! Or, uh, three features. (And remember, folks, the undead need love too.)

[Sudanna]

I picked Vanhovoi, because in the Avernum mod for Dominions 3, the Vanhovoi was epicawesome.

[Dintiradan]

After giving some thought, I finally voted 'Lich'. The one that sticks in my head the most is Morda, from the Prydain Chronicles (don't remember which book). In retrospect, he was a pretty run-of-the-mill example, but he was the first one I read about, so there you go.

[Unplayable Playable Character]

Heh... in russian morda means face (or snout, I guess something in between a face and a snout).

 

Vahnavoi, because it is the most original sounding out of the bunch.

[Thaluikhain]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

Yet another hilarious misprint on the sticks to snakes spell.

Though, it does imply more than one to begin with, which is a tad odd.

[Frozen Feet]

Obviously, the spell was loaded with Metamagic. Twin and Split Spell come to mind...

[Thaluikhain]

I suppose so...

 

Gah...just been reminded of that comic where the hero is abducted and sexually assaulted by various Medusa like things, who have snakes instead of hair and not just on their heads.

 

(Oddly, that was played for laughs. After he escapes, rescues a heroine, and they go rescue all the other heroines and she repeatedly sexually assaults him while he is unconscious, that was also played for laughs. Jim Balent has issues.)

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

After giving some thought, I finally voted 'Lich'. The one that sticks in my head the most is Morda, from the Prydain Chronicles (don't remember which book). In retrospect, he was a pretty run-of-the-mill example, but he was the first one I read about, so there you go.

Wait, what? There's a lich in the Prydain chronicles? This being the series with a fortune-telling pig? Since when?

...maybe I should go re-read those.

[Alorael at Large]

There's Morda, who's a sorcerer who has a phylactery of sorts in that his life and death are bound to a bone fragment. He wasn't otherwise particularly skeletal as far as I can recall.

 

—Alorael, who also hasn't read those books in a very long time. It might be about time to pick them up again.

[Hypnotic]

Vampires, sparkly or not they're cool in general. Still human + Immortal = Win.

[Slawbug]

Everyone wants to live forever... thinking that it'd be a lot better. Whoa.

[Monroe]

[Ephesos]

I am pleased to see the image-posting game has begun. Well-played.

[Rowen]

Why do would people think that living longer is better?

[Triumph]

First, the Prydain Chronicles rock.

 

Second, I assume living longer is "better" relative to dying. People generally look upon dying as undesirable. Not always, but most seem to find it somehow unappealing. In math terms, (not dying) > (dying).

[JSMany]

I was going to choose lichs but they are so ugly, I couldn't do it. I'm too vain to live in eternity as a butt ugly skull face.

 

Has anyone seen that one anime with vampires and neo-nazis? I think it was called hellsing and the main vampire was pretty cool in insane sort of way.

[waterplant]

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

Everyone wants to live forever... thinking that it'd be a lot better. Whoa.

 

I this a line from a song. It suspiciously rhymes and is a baseless generalisation.

[Student of Trinity]

You could spiff up your ugly skull with bling.

[Enraged Slith]

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

You could spiff up your ugly skull with bling.

Alternatly, you could simply wear a badass crown:

[JSMany]

Doesn't matter how much bling you can cover you face with if you can't use it to impress girls. Besides I doubt lichs can even get laid since their danglies must have rotted off centuries ago.