UNDEATH
UNDEAD ALIGNMENTS
Undead may have a variety of alignments, but are never good. They may have complicated relationships amongst their own kind, making alliances and enemies within their own faction, just as the living.
Undead may have several motivators in their lives just as the living do: power, money, love and family among their own kind, etc. But the end goal of all is to convert all the living to undead. Even with old friends and lost loves on the living side, the end goal should always be bringing them over to the glory of undeath and the wonder of Cenob’s immortal gift.
Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, and Chaotic Neutral are all possible alignments for undead. Detailed descriptions of alignments may be found on the Alignment wiki. While there is a lot of variation in motivations among the undead, it must be explicitly understood that they are the enemy of the living, and vice versa.
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LIVING
The living view them as abominations, and desecration of the souls trapped within these forms. While a real necromancer may have some control over the dead, those not under their control are just as dangerous to them as they are to any other living creature. Attempting to make deals with them is an incredibly risky venture that may result in you being a loyal addition to their ranks instead.
The undead are not tolerated in living settlements, but some of the more “living passable” may attempt to infiltrate these locations to spy on the living with measures in place to hide their nature (see Disguise rules). If found out, expulsion, fleeing, and/or death are the only options.
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The undead do occasionally kidnap the living without killing them for entertainment (bards, fighters for the arena), sustenance (blood dolls), or service (servants, liaisons to the living side to fetch items or spy).
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The one place where undead and living can intermingle is the black market trade tower in the Blight. Though unsavory to both sides, there are occasionally items that one or the other may need - exotic goods from Vyldarin or rare trinkets for the living, blood or meat products for the undead, and certain services that they might need each other for. This should generally be considered still an incredibly dangerous venture, a last resort, and having to swallow distaste for each other to complete trades. While shaky alliances might occur, it is contact based on mutual need. There is still the potential for conflict occurring here, for example Helgasker may launch a raid on the location, or a deal may go south. This can occur often, considering most of the patrons are pirates, mercenaries, and other unsavory types.
Undead and living should never be intermingling openly in opposing faction lands.
TYPES, APPEARANCE, & ABILITIES
Undead have the unique opportunity of choosing both a race and a type. You can be, for example, a Frost Elf and a Vampire. Or an Orc and a Zombie. Vampires, ghosts, zombies, lichs, and more are all playable, so there is tons of room for very creative builds! Any race can be any type of undead that suits the lore, though a character must still bear some resemblance to their living race and would not gain any additional appendages (like tentacles) that would put them far outside of their race. A helpful list can be found on the Undead wiki. There are also very helpful Undead faction players in the Discord that can help brainstorm character ideas.
There are far too many types of undead for us to try and create balanced abilities, and a list would put too many restrictions on what the players could do for flavor when their character is undead. As things progress in Vyldarin, certain groups may take on certain cultural characteristics, and that is something we are leaving up to you to craft yourselves!
The kind of undead you decide to be does not dictate your abilities in RP or the system. So someone deciding to be a ghostly undead cannot simply escape through the floor or walls, or fly away, though such a character could always be hovering a foot off the ground to go along with the flavor of their appearance. Likewise, someone deciding to be a lich does not gain magical powers when none of their system abilities give them magic. So, in the end, while you may choose the type of undead or even create a type yourself, it is simply visual and does not affect your character's abilities.