Zombie

An artists rendition of a typical zombie.

A Zombie is a reanimated corpse driven by the fragmented remnants of its own soul. Created through a violent or profane ritual death, the soul of the victim is shattered during the transition between life and death. What rises is not a complete being, but a hollow, tethered husk seeking to reclaim what was lost. This hunger compels it to feed—on the souls of the living—in an instinctive attempt to restore its wholeness. However, every feeding shatters the soul of the victim in turn, perpetuating a chain of undeath and fragmentation. This form of Zombie may represent the original source behind later folkloric and pop culture depictions of the undead, preserving older spiritual fears about soul-loss and improper death.

Abilities

Zombies possess limited but dangerous capabilities, stemming from the supernatural nature of their origin and the metaphysical wound that sustains them. While they lack higher cognition, their undead state grants them specific traits that make them formidable and difficult to manage.

Soul-Fragment Hunger

Zombies are drawn to the spiritual integrity of living beings. They can instinctively sense individuals with strong or intact souls and are particularly attracted to emotionally charged locations, such as places of grief, violence, or ritual trauma. This unnatural awareness allows them to stalk victims silently and persistently, often appearing without clear tracks or signs of travel.

Aura of Decay

As their soul fragment corrupts the body, Zombies carry an ambient aura of spiritual and emotional decay. Prolonged exposure causes living beings to experience unease, dread, or hallucinations. In some cases, this aura can accelerate soul damage in survivors, making them more vulnerable to transformation without physical contact.

Relentless Endurance

Zombies do not feel pain, fatigue, or fear. They can continue to pursue a target despite grievous wounds, loss of limbs, or physical barriers. Their bodies continue to decay naturally, but decomposition does not diminish their aggression until structural collapse or destruction occurs.

Metaphysical Contagion

The most dangerous aspect of a Zombie is its ability to shatter a victim’s soul. Even a single successful bite or claw strike can begin the slow unraveling of identity and control. This process does not require infection in a biological sense—it is a spiritual contamination that spreads through violent contact.

Instinctive Memory Echo

Though devoid of true thought, Zombies sometimes display behaviors reminiscent of their former lives—such as returning to familiar places, repeating gestures, or pausing near objects of personal significance. This can make them unpredictable, occasionally hesitating or reacting irrationally to stimuli that trigger fragmented memory.

Behavior

Zombies exhibit a disturbing combination of predatory instinct and fragmented human memory. They do not attack in frenzied mobs but instead stalk their victims deliberately, often targeting individuals who are isolated or emotionally vulnerable. They are drawn to places, people, or objects that resonate with their broken memories—such as family homes, personal relics, or blood relatives. Though largely instinct-driven, they may pause or hesitate when confronted with mirrors, familiar voices, or names from their past.

When they attack, Zombies use their hands, teeth, and body weight to subdue prey. They bite and tear at flesh with brutal force, often dismembering or mauling the victim before death occurs. These assaults are not solely for consumption; they serve a deeper, metaphysical purpose. Through the act of feeding, the Zombie attempts to draw out spiritual essence to replace the fragments it has lost. In doing so, it damages the victim’s soul, breaking it in a similar manner to its own origin. Once the victim dies, their body begins the same transformation—rising as another fragmented, tethered Zombie.

These undead avoid sanctified spaces, fire, and symbols of peaceful death. They may linger near sites of ritual trauma or revisit old routines, but they do not communicate or form groups. Each Zombie is alone in its hunger, bound by its loss and compelled to feed by instinct, not design.

Cognition

• They may repeat words or actions from life without understanding
• They display moments of hesitation, confusion, or grief
• More rarely, some Zombies manage to gather fragments from others, becoming more lucid and dangerous—but never whole

Despite this, Zombies cannot speak coherently, plan strategically, or form social structures. They operate in a state of desperate instinct.

Containment

Zombies spread their condition through direct physical assault. Victims who are bitten, clawed, or otherwise wounded by a Zombie begin to experience progressive soul fragmentation. The feeding process is not merely physical—it draws on metaphysical energy, weakening the spiritual integrity of the victim. Over time, this leads to hallucinations, disorientation, emotional instability, and ultimately death. Once dead, the victim's body reanimates, carrying only a portion of its former soul, and the cycle begins again. Even minor exposure, such as surviving an attack, can result in eventual transformation if the soul damage is not healed or spiritually treated.

Zombies do not regenerate or recover from wounds. They continue to rot naturally even while mobile, with exposed bones, decaying flesh, and internal collapse becoming more evident over time. Despite this, their hunger and aggression do not diminish.

Prevention

Preventing zombification requires spiritual and physical measures. Victims of a Zombie attack must undergo immediate soul-cleansing rituals and protective rites to prevent the onset of fragmentation. Burial practices involving salt, fire, sacred symbols, or name-binding can prevent the corpse from reanimating. Environments associated with ritual violence or known contamination zones should be sealed and ritually warded.

Avoidance of known hunting grounds is also critical, as Zombies are often drawn to emotionally resonant or ritually charged sites. Individuals exhibiting symptoms of soul fragmentation should be quarantined or ritually bound to avoid escalation.

Destruction

While Zombies do not heal, destroying them requires decisive action. Severing the head or dismembering the body can render them immobile or largely harmless, but these methods are not permanent solutions. The only way to be certain a Zombie is truly destroyed is by incinerating the entire body—preferably with sacred flame or consecrated fire.

Head trauma disrupts the fragment's ability to control the body, often halting movement, but if the corpse is left intact, reanimation can occur if disturbed. Corpses suspected of being tethered should be burned completely to ensure the soul fragment cannot return.

Zombification

Victims of a Zombie attack begin the transformation well before physical death. The act of being bitten, clawed, or assaulted by a Zombie initiates a spiritual wound—an invisible fracture of the soul caused by the metaphysical hunger of the attacker. Even minor physical injuries can prove fatal if the soul is sufficiently compromised during the encounter.

In the hours or days that follow, the victim experiences mounting psychological and emotional symptoms:

• Persistent anxiety or paranoia
• Violent outbursts or agitation
• Loss of emotional regulation
• Hallucinations or auditory distortions
• Compulsive behaviors and intrusive urges

As the soul continues to fragment, the victim becomes increasingly unstable and prone to violence, often turning on those closest to them. This escalation is not contagious in the traditional sense—it is the consequence of spiritual unraveling triggered by the original attack.

Once death occurs, whether through injury, madness, or self-destruction, the transformation is immediate. The sliver of soul left behind animates the corpse. All higher reasoning and memory vanish, replaced by a primal, all-consuming need to feed. The body reanimates in a state of partial decay, driven only by instinct and the echo of spiritual hunger. The resulting Zombie is not truly the person who died—but a broken remnant, acting out its last trauma through an endless, mindless pursuit of life to consume.

Origins

Zombies of this type originate from deaths that disrupt the natural cycle—particularly violent, ritualistic, or sorcerous killings where the soul is intentionally fractured or trapped. In these cases, the body rises animated not by its full soul but by a shard of it, while the remaining fragments are lost, consumed, or scattered. The concept draws from multiple cultural sources: Haitian Vodou speaks of the zombi astral, where the soul is separated from the body through magical intervention; Japanese Yūrei are spirits bound to the world by trauma or unfinished business; the Greek vrykolakas are undead formed by sacrilegious death or improper burial; and the Filipino aswang are creatures that mimic life by feeding on the souls of others. Though differing in detail, these traditions suggest a common fear: that violent death can shatter the boundary between life and death, leaving something behind.

The legend of the Zombie likely spread through a combination of oral tradition, cultural exchange via trade and conquest, and the natural evolution of death lore across regions. As empires expanded and religions intersected, core themes—such as soul-fragmentation, hunger after death, and the danger of improper burial—were preserved and transformed in local storytelling. Maritime trade between Africa and Asia may have carried Vodou-like ideas to regions where Yūrei and Jiangshi beliefs already existed, while Indo-European migrations helped transmit burial and revenant folklore throughout Europe. Over time, these stories adapted to local customs, resulting in hundreds of culturally distinct but thematically related undead myths—all echoing the idea of a soul that cannot rest and a body that rises with a broken will.