History Main / NonHumanUndead

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* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} gives us the normal variant of undead, Undead Daemons created from the souls of those killed (NOT turned into the undead) by the undead plague, undead statue robots (wraithguard and wraithlords) Undead Wizard Statue Robots (Wraithseer and Warlock Titans). Undead Robots (necrons) and Undead Mecha (Dreadnoughts to a degree and Nurgle Titans). Surprisingly no Undead Dragons (then again, [[{{Warhammer}} their fantasy counterpart]] fills in whatever holes it has).

* ''{{Warcraft}} III'' has the undead Scourge side, and their ranks include more than undead humans. They also have undead spider-men called Crypt Fiends, undead elves called banshees, and a super flying undead dragon with ice breath. Plus, generic skeletons can be made with the corpses of any species. ''Frozen Throne'' later has Skeleton Orc creeps.

** VideoGame/{{Diablo III}} gives us the Witch Doctor class, who can raise zombie dogs and the "Gargantua", who is made from an undead bear.

This trope, on the other hand, is about those whose life started out "[[FantasticSapientSpeciesTropes fant]][[OurMonstersAreDifferent astic]]" even before they joined the ranks of the dead. Whether they were an [[OurElvesAreBetter Elf]], a [[{{Dracolich}} Dragon]], a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demon]], or even something [[EldritchAbomination completely divorced from reality]], the one thing common among them is that they're all dead (or at least resemble some combination of some sort of traditional undead and it's own base species) and still kicking.

* One interesting case In ''Anime/YuGiOh'' is in the first tournament. Yugi defeats Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon by fusing his Mammoth Graveyard into it... which, because both are incompatible types, was slowly weakening the resulting fusion and would cause it's eventual death. After this, [[NewRulesAsThePlotDemands the rule is never referenced again]].

** Visages are undead, raised from outsiders (this is type of creatures, including, but not limited to, angels, demons, devils and most servants of gods).

* D'Compose of the WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}} is a giant undead dinosaur-looking EldrichAbomination whose merest touch can transform others into giant, undead abominations until [[UndeathAlwaysEnds revived by]] [[WeaksauceWeakness sunlight]].

* In ''{{Diablo}} 2'' necromancers can get the ability to animate the corpses of their enemies as they were in life instead of somehow ending up with humanoid skeletons, as happens before this.
** {{Diablo 3}} gives us the Witch Doctor class, who can raise zombie dogs and the "Gargantua", who is made from an undead bear.

* ''InuYasha'' has had undead demons. They tend to get fleshier the more strength they recover.

** Later on in WorldOfWarcraft, when Death Knights became playable it meant that you could have an undead version of every race: dwarves, gnomes, werewolves, goblins, elves... You could even have an [[UpToEleven Undead Death Knight]], meaning a human who died, was raised from the dead, then was killed and THEN risen from the dead ''again''.
* Any kind of living creature in ''DwarfFortress'' can have a zombie or skeletal version, including monsters like dragons, giants, and imps.

* ''TransformersPrime'' gives us Zombie HumongousMecha.

* {{Warhammer 40000}} gives us the normal variant of undead, Undead Daemons created from the souls of those killed (NOT turned into the undead) by the undead plague, undead statue robots (wraithguard and wraithlords) Undead Wizard Statue Robots (Wraithseer and Warlock Titans). Undead Robots (necrons) and Undead Mecha (Dreadnoughts to a degree and Nurgle Titans). Surprisingly no Undead Dragons (then again, [[{{Warhammer}} their fantasy counterpart]] fills in whatever holes it has).

* The NewWorldOfDarkness - particularly ''GeistTheSinEaters'' - gives us the Chthonians, mysterious, powerful things that live in the depths of the Underworld. No one actually knows what they ''are'', but speculation paints them as the ghosts of entities that lived long before humanity walked the earth.

[[AC: Western Animation]]

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* ''DungeonsAndDragons''

* ''{{Shadowrun}}'' has a number of metahumans affected by HMHVV (Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus), its equivalent of undead. They include the banshee (former elf), goblin (former dwarf), wendigo (former ork) and dzoo-noo-qua (former troll).

** Later on in WorldOfWarcraft, when Death Knights became playable it meant that you could have an undead version of every race: dwarves, gnomes, werewolves, goblins, elves... You could even have an [[UpToEleven Undead Death Knight]], meaning a human who died, was raised from the dead, then was killed and THEN risen from the dead ''again''.

* In ''{{Battle for Wesnoth}}'' the sprite and characteristics of a living corpse depend on who it was before death: mounted corpses move faster, gnome corpses have better defence in mountains, and so on.

* One of the two inhabitants of the Nether in ''{{Minecraft}}'' are Zombie Pigmen, which are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

<<|UndeadIndex|>>

You may even see an Undead God. In that case, ''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel run]], [[EldritchAbomination run as fast as you can]].''

** Later on in WorldOfWarcraft, when Death Knights became playable it meant that you could have an undead version of every race: dwarves, gnomes, werewolves, goblins, elves... You could even have an [[BeyondTheImpossible Undead Death Knight]], meaning a human who died, was raised from the dead, then was killed and THEN risen from the dead ''again''.

* In one of ''TheDresdenFiles'' books, Harry encounters an extremely strong ghost he calls the Nightmare, and suspects it's one of these. [[spoiler: Specifically the ghost of the demon serving the sorcerer Kravos. He later learns that the ghost is Kravos himself, whose death had been concealed from him.]]

* One interesting case In ''YuGiOh'' is in the first tournament. Yugi defeats Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon by fusing his Mammoth Graveyard into it... which, because both are incompatible types, was slowly weakening the resulting fusion and would cause it's eventual death. After this, [[NewRulesAsThePlotDemands the rule is never referenced again]].

* In the YuGiOhCardGame, there are quite a few non-human undeads, including the variants of legacy cards (i. e. Summoned Skull -> Archfiend Zombie Skull, Red Eyes Black Dragon -> Red Eyes Zombie Dragon, etc.). Early non-human cards classed as zombies included dragons, ''boats'', and clowns (what?).

* ''{{Warcraft}} III'' has the undead Scourge side, and their ranks include more than undead humans. They also have undead spider-men called Crypt Fiends, undead elves called banshees, and a super flying undead dragon with ice breath. Plus, generic skeletons can be made with the corpses of any species. ''Frozen Throne'' later has Skeleton Orc creeps.

** The {{Dracolich}} ({{Lich}} dragon), which originated in the ForgottenRealms (it can now be found in most settings).
*** There are also vampire dragons.
** In early editions the groaning spirit (banshee) was the "spirit of an evil female elf".
** {{Ravenloft}} introduced vampires created from non-human creatures such as elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings and even DragonLance's kender.
*** Although to be exact, it's more that they gave them variant powers and weaknesses, as most of these races already could be turned into vampires.

** Bone Devils, while not actually undead, invoke the image of a skeletal-like devil that preys on the living.
** Vampire [[EldritchAbomination Mind Flayers]] suck blood with their tentacles. Fortunately (maybe), vampirism destroys most of their intelligence and turns them into animalistic predators.
*** Also, alhoon are mind flayer {{lich}}es. ''They'' keep all their mental faculties; [[OhCrap they need them for spells and psionics]].
** And zombies and skeletons can be made from just about anything that leaves a corpse.
*** In fact, many types of undead in 3rd Edition are created though applying a template to an existing creature, so you can wind up with medusa vampires, giant mummies, beholder ghosts, gnoll death knights, and many, many other combinations.

** Vecna used to be a human {{lich}}, but [[AGodAmI is now a god]]. Although as he's the god of secrets, that running bit won't help much considering [[ParanoiaFuel he probably knows your hiding place...]]
** And many, many monsters, that are considered as undead, but were not living creatures at all or are composed from many creatures.
*** As well as a some types specifically created from nonhumans.

* ''{{Eberron}}'': The Elves of Aerenal have [[DarkIsNotEvil their own versions of undead called the Deathless]]. These act as their rulers through the Undying Court, and are animated by positive energy rather than the usual Negative energy used by regular undead.

* ''FinalFantasyXII'' loves undead monsters, even if they're not human. Many of the monster types have an undead version. Examples include undead wolves, undead war horses, undead vampire bats, undead slimes, and undead ''[[ActionBomb bombs]]''. There's also the requisite undead boss who is a ConjoinedTwins demon with visible skull.
** ''FinalFantasyIX'' had a FlyingSeafoodSpecial Zombie whale.
** And in ''FinalFantasyI'', there was the boss of the Castle of Ordeals, a Zombie Dragon, as well as a few other monster undead.

* CaveStory featured the Undead Core, which was possessed by the evil Doctor. Also, Ballos.

* ''{{Xanth}}'' has featured zombie versions of just about everything, at one time or another.

* ''{{Xanth}]'' has featured zombie versions of just about everything, at one time or another.

You may even see an Undead God. In that case, ''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel run]]'', [[EldritchAbomination run as fast as you can]].

* In the YuGiOhCardGame, there are quite a few non-human undeads, including the recent variants of legacy cards (i. e. Summoned Skull -> Archfiend Zombie Skull, Red Eyes Black Dragon -> Red Eyes Zombie Dragon, etc.).