Undead Origins

Mystery Monsters Revisited
Pathfinder 1e
Ghast: ?
Ghost of a Young Girl: ?
Ghost: ?
Ghoul: ?
Vampire, Child of the Night: ?

Mythical Monsters Revisited
Pathfinder 1e
Undead: ?
Intelligent Undead: ?
Geb, Undead Wizard King: ?
Undead Horror: ?
Devourer, Spirit From the Darkest Reaches of the Multiverse, Mosnter of Mysterious Purpose: ?
Mummy: ?
Animate Skeleton Servant: ?
Vampire: ?
Wraith: ?
Zombie: ?
Animate Zombie Servant: ?

Advanced Class Origins
Pathfinder 1e
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Zombie: ?

Adventurer's Guide
Pathfinder 1e
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Undead Client: ?
Corporeal Undead: ?
Incorporeal Undead: ?
Haunt, Spirit: ?
Spirit: ?
Dangerous Spirit: ?
Vampire: ?

Bastards of Golarion
Pathfinder 1e
Undead Progenitor: ?
Undead Creature: ?
Vampire: ?

Blood of Angels
Pathfinder 1e
Gruesome Undead: ?
Undead, Undead Creature: ?
Powerful Evil Creature: ?

Blood of Fiends
Pathfinder 1e
Undead: ?
Undead Minion, Undead Servitor: ?
Unintelligent Undead: ?
Skeleton: Variant Tielfling ability 1.

Variant Tiefling Ability
1 You can animate a 1 HD skeleton, as per animate dead, once per day as a spell-like ability.

Talofa @Voadam

At some point in time I posted response this thread. As such, it appears in the "Threads with posts by doghead" list. Constantly in the the top five. Fourteen plus years, and three thousand plus posts, after the thread was started.

First of all I would like to congratulate you on your dedication to the undead. May they (someday) rest in peace.

Second of all, I must admit, I am curious as to drives your interest in the undead?

thotd

Blood of the Moon
Pathfinder 1e
Vampire: ?

doghead said:

Talofa @Voadam

At some point in time I posted response this thread. As such, it appears in the "Threads with posts by doghead" list. Constantly in the the top five. Fourteen plus years, and three thousand plus posts, after the thread was started.

First of all I would like to congratulate you on your dedication to the undead. May they (someday) rest in peace.

Second of all, I must admit, I am curious as to drives your interest in the undead?

thotd

Click to expand...

I find the story element of what causes undead one of the more interesting narrative elements of D&D. I like the story/mythmaking/cosmology elements of D&D a lot (though not always the specifics like the AD&D mummy positive energy connection or the 4e Open Grave complex soul explanations) and generally find it one of the fun points of the hobby and so stuff like 2e Ravenloft where you do a lot of investigations and there are stories behind the villains is a big part of how I run and like to play D&D. Ravenloft also added a bunch of different new undead with neat specific origins as did a bunch of different sources. Some of my favorite D&D sourcebooks are things like the 2e Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts and the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium appendix.

Over the years I acquired a lot of sourcebooks with different undead origin story elements and I thought it would be neat to document them for reference to keep it straight for myself or others. When I started this it was in the d20 era, so in addition to 2e Ravenloft and the 2e MC monster explosion there was the d20 wave of creative outputs. It was too much to keep straight and it was scattered over hundreds of sources. I would sometimes think "I know I've read about dead miners coming back who would fit in here. Dwarven tappers? Where was that? Were there others not dwarven specific?" Also there were a bunch of RAW ways to create undead with various spells and magic items, some of which were core and some of which were obscure but in sources I had.

From there add on borderline OCD once I start a project I am interested in where I can do a little bit every day.

And it keeps me actively reading and engaging with the sourcebooks I have gotten.