About Unlife and such

Well, the first thing to be mentioned about this topic is that most people have a very poor understanding of the subject, which often leads to misunderstanding. And, in our fighting-centered world, misunderstandings often lead to death. Therefore it is adverbial to all travelers and rulers to read at least this small note, which sums up the most important points of a greater work, The States Of Being, From Immortality To Death.

One central question about these matters is, of course: what in all the world is it that experiences all these states of being? Unfortunately, no certain answer is available, or even if there is something at all. For now, for practical reason, we’ll call this something Soul. It is not intended to have any of the meanings various religions might suggest, but is chosen in lack of a better choice.

Now, let us start with the second most commonly encountered state, Life. Even here, some problems emerge. Many people confuse this with Mortality. That is however a completely different state of Being, although the symptoms are almost identically. Life is the beginning of the Cycle of Being, and only the beginning. Statements as being “brought back to life” are therefore wrong, you only have one life. Life gives access to the Worldly Realm, and requires a living body. Life ends normally with Death, but there are ways to achieve other states of Being, as in ascension to Immortality.

Having died, you enter the state of Death. This is the most common state of being, and usually the final state as well; few ever get out of this state, especially unintelligent animals and plants normally stay at this stage. Many claim that there are many subcategories of Death, determined by the afterlife people find themselves in. However, it has been proven that all these afterlives lie within the Realm of Death, so for all practical purposes they can be considered as one state of Being. Death does not require a real body, as the Realm of Death is made up of thoughtenergy or similar things. Death is a so-called stable state of Being, meaning that if no action is taken, a soul will stay there.

As mentioned earlier, a soul cannot be brought back to life. The state it would enter instead is Mortality. One of the most noticeable difference is that since the soul in questions has had former states of Being, it can get memories from those, seemingly at random. However, not all people get them, so a lack of those memories isn’t a clear sign that you aren’t at Mortality. Other differences are mostly ethereal, for instance the signature of magic and life energy is fundamentally different, as is the aura. Mortality also features the so-called False Immortality, which is a state where a person is brought back to Mortality each time the person dies. While that ensures that the person stays alive, it doesn’t prevent them from dying, hence it isn’t real Immortality. Mortality gives access to the Worldly Realm.

Immortality is a state of being that prevents dying. It is usually entered when the Life-period of a potentially immortal being ends, but can in theory be entered from any other state of Being. Usually, strong powers are associated with immortal beings, both physical and magical, in addition to great wisdom. This is often true, but not required. The wisdom normally comes from having lived for a few millennia, so new immortal beings might not be as wise. Immortality is a stable state, just like death, so forceful methods have to be used to remove someone from that state of being. As it is impossible to die while immortal, the usual procedure is to change the person to Mortality, and then killing it.

One of the greatest problems people have with classifying states of being are those popular called the “Undead”. This name is used for ghosts, ghouls, zombies, vampires and lots of others, mostly mistakenly. In truth there exists several states of being, separating various “undead”.

For instance, there is an entire group of “undead” who are not at any state of being. That would be puppets, bodies who are devout of a soul and move only when controlled by their master. They are often very crude, and stand without doing anything at all for periods of time when not controlled. But due to their lack of ability to do anything on their own; even follow orders; they are pretty rare. Instead, a soul is often used, giving the body the ability to move on its own.

Unlife is a state of being much like life or mortality, with the noticeable exception that the body a soul is in isn’t alive. The names may be a little confusing; for some reason the undead have an unlife. However, this is standard naming, so we’ll stick to it. Undead have a much longer natural lifespan than mortals, because natural death occurs only when their body has rotted away, and not when it has died. However, they seldom have a completely free will, as their creator usually puts limitations on their choices in creation. Thus a half-free will is much more common for undeads than it is for mortals. Most of the walking skeletons around are undead.

Accordingly, there are also unalives, who basically are souls with a living body in the Realm of Death. Due to lack of compatible environments, such usually requires magic to work, and the body tends to die eventually. Mostly this is a temporary very limited state of being, only used to get something from the Realm of Death, and then returning to the Worldly Realm. Again there is terrible naming involved in this, and the state of being an unalive is going through is called undeath.

Beings lacking a body in the Worldly Realm are currently in the state of Spiritua. This includes ghost (who, thus, aren’t really undead), and living/mortals on a spiritual journey outside their bodies. As opposed to most other Realms, without a body the Worldly Realm almost can’t be affected at all. The exception is magic, but even that is weak without a body to support.

A large variety of beings mistaken for undeads are at a state called Viral. These are beings that are able to spread, much like a virus. Basically a Viral being can convert another being into a Viral of the same type. Examples are zombies, vampires and werewolves. Viral being vary in how much of the former beings character they retain, and in intelligence at well.

For minds that compass several bodies (e.g. Hiveminds, overminds, groupminds, …), several of these states might apply at the same time. However, they are usually restricted to one Realm at a time.