Zombies and Reanimated Dead

The biggest portion of the population in Necropolis are zombies. These range from merely body parts that are animated (hand! Hand! Get met that necklace!) to fully shambling people or animals. Almost all labor is done by these creatures, and they are in plentiful supply – given that the Summoners are able to actually bring the dead to the Necromancers for this purpose. Reaching through the multiverse only to find the thing you needed was dead, is not just entertaining (read: frustrating), but functional.

Zombies who have all their limbs and are freshly dead are of far more use than those who are skeletal or in pieces. Any of them can lift a box, but only those who have true muscles can do it without expending their magical ‘quota’. A Zombie has only a certain amount of magic left in it, and thus the Necromancers have to go through them regularly. Once a zombie has expended its energy, it crumbles to dust and is obviously unusable any longer or by anyone else.

While Summoners offer up the dead from other worlds or dimensions (no one really asks whether they wanted to be delivered), plenty of Dragondeep’s dead wind up in Necropolis. For some it’s the practicality of not having cemeteries or graveyards scattered around, and others, to make sure that their dead remain dead and/or distant from them. Some cultures absolutely forbid their dead to be used in such a manner, the Nomads being among them.

There is a huge difference between Zombies and the Reanimated, who also inhabit the place. The Reanimated are capable of speech, thought and expending their own personal reserves of magical energy, without ‘dying’ again. In fact sometimes it’s kind of hard to keep a Reanimated person dead, as they keep coming back somehow. There are around five million Zombies in Necropolis at any given time, with several million of them scattered around the countryside serving their masters at their homes or performing duties elsewhere. Reanimated however only comprise a very small number, less than one hundred thousand in total. Those who are Reanimated are often there for a reason: instruction of young, Zombie control (they’re quite good at keeping other undead in line), guard duties, and occasionally personal service such as butlery and bartending. They are capable of higher function than Zombies, and don’t generally serve the low class labor.

Reanimated individuals are usually Necromancers, but sometimes higher powered Summoners, Elves, even Jewel Witches have allowed their services or knowledge to be used after death.

The Necropolis houses many more people than this, but none in quantities larger than the ones described. Some otherworldly types might pass for Undead, many criminals and exiles live here.

Notably, however, the Underlanders that survive (somehow) from their long-ago destruction generally live in proximity to the Sulfur Shadow. They still prefer to remain underground, but nowadays they listen to the warnings that the Earth Elementalists around them offer. When to get out of their tunnels as the volcano is about to erupt – something which might have saved their entire race from near extinction so many thousands of years ago. (The Underlanders have their own full description elsewhere.)

Important Reanimated of the Era

(none at present, but some historically important people might just show up!)