[insert image of ring-wraiths, warcraft liches, warcraft death knights, vampire lord, mummy lord]
Undead lords in publishing
The D&D canon generally acknowledges only a few varieties of lords: death knights, ghosts, liches, mummy lords, and vampires. Third party bestiaries have devised numerous ways to represent these more powerful undead. The official monster manuals give them statistics blocks and, in some editions, templates. Third party products, like Tome of Horrors, Advanced Bestiary and Pathfinder Bestiary, give them their own templates with names like "undead lord," "dread undead," "true undead," and so forth.Undead lords are known by many names: typically an adjective relating to death and a noun referring to profession (e.g. adjective: death, grave, zombie, skeletal, skeleton, undead, lich, mummy, vampire, ghoul, etc; noun: knight, master, champion, lord, warrior, mage, elder, etc). The typical kind is a more intelligent and powerful variety of the undead, typically with great prowess in martial arts or necromancy. They may ascend to greater heights by serving archfiends or binding their souls into objects or places of power (if they did not already).
Undead lords commonly lack the weaknesses of their lesser counterparts if any, possess a "rejuvenation" trait that allows them to revive after apparent destruction, and may reanimate and command their lesser kin. However, there may be a distinction between different ranks of lords since different supplements have different authors and assumptions. (I leave it up to GMs to reconcile these diverse portrayals.)
For example, the "skeletal champion" from Pathfinder Bestiary is merely a skeleton that retains their former life's intelligence and cunning, the "dread skeleton" from Advanced Bestiary may additionally command skeletons (including intelligent ones), and skeleton with the "undead lord" template from Tome of Horrors Complete may reanimate victims as skeletons, summon skeletons, speak telepathically with undead and exudes an unholy aura.
The terminology is often unhelpful, as obviously the ascending hierarchies lack consistent naming schemes. For example: vampires spawn, vampire, vampire lord; specter spawn, specter, specter lord; wraith, dread wraith, dread wraith sovereign; mummy, mummified creature, mummy lord; etc. Hence, I just referred to them collectively as "dread lords" in the title.
Undead lords in my setting
I would adopt a simplified depiction of undead ranks in my setting. Various powers like commanding undead, creating spawn, summoning undead, unholy aura, etc would be rated through some kind of point buy system. Much like ghosts and revenants are typically assumed to be, individual lords may be unique!The vampire (aka true vampire, head vampire) is a legendary undead formed by a demonic pact, but the vampire lord achieves further power through centuries of dedicated service. They may transform unfortunate victims into less powerful vampire spawn (aka lesser vampire). Lesser vampires are destroyed by stakes through the heart, whereas head vampires are merely paralyzed.
The skeleton mage or zombie master may advance into an "elder lich" (a term burrowed from the Overlord light novel because I know that lich alone means "corpse"). This grants them rejuvenation through their phylactery. Their study of necromancy usually grants them spells to animate, command and summon undead.
Likewise, the blood knight, skeletal champion, skeleton warrior, etc may advance into a death knight or graveknight, rejuvenating from their panoply (armor, sword, etc). Unlike elder liches and mummies, they may arise spontaneously like ghosts or from pacts with archfiends like vampires.
The true mummy (aka dune mummy, mummified creature) is the intended result of the mummy transformation. Their power is tied to their canopic jars or "sacred vessels," and if these are destroyed they become standard mummies. They lack the ability to spread mummy rot, as this curse only arises due to desecration of their sacred vessels (although there are profane versions of the mummification rite that create desecrated mummies). The dread mummy lords gain rejuvenation (tied to their heart, canopic jars, tomb, etc), may raise their victims as undead, command undead (typically mummies), etc.
In my setting, a composite of these portrayals exists. A la Standard Action, most wraiths in my setting are ring-wraiths and this helps to distinguish them from the droves of other interchangeable spectral dead in the bestiaries. The nine black riders in particular possess magic rings, vampiric runeblades, demonic undead steeds, and powers of demonology and necromancy. Much like the E Nomine songs "Die Schwarzen Reiter" ("The Black Riders") and "Der Ring Der Nibelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelungens"), the black riders serve the insane godless devil and search for the cursed golden ring that will grant the one who wears it the power to rule the world.
The Black Riders
The concept of death knights in fantasy fiction may be traced to the Nazgûl in The Lord of the Rings. Curiously, the Nazgûl aka ring-wraiths inspired the wraith monster in fantasy gaming as well. The death knight has undergone further transformation in fantasy fiction. In Warcraft, there were multiple orders of death knights: one was created by the orcish horde using the souls of warlocks, the magic of necromancers, and the bodies of human knights; the other were fallen paladins granted "vampiric runeblades" (based on Stormbringer) by the Lich King. More directly, the nine Nazgûl inspired (those less charitable would say "were ripped-off by") other circles of nine evil figures like the nine demonic knights of Orcus and the nine grim reapers of Golarion.In my setting, a composite of these portrayals exists. A la Standard Action, most wraiths in my setting are ring-wraiths and this helps to distinguish them from the droves of other interchangeable spectral dead in the bestiaries. The nine black riders in particular possess magic rings, vampiric runeblades, demonic undead steeds, and powers of demonology and necromancy. Much like the E Nomine songs "Die Schwarzen Reiter" ("The Black Riders") and "Der Ring Der Nibelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelungens"), the black riders serve the insane godless devil and search for the cursed golden ring that will grant the one who wears it the power to rule the world.
Undead nations
In the rare cases when undead are numerous enough to form nations and armies of their own, undead with similar traits will flock together. The basic flavors include what I name deathless dynasty, lichfield legion, spectral scourge, vampire voivodate, and mixes thereof. (This concept is based on RTS games like Total War: Warhammer, Heroes of Might & Magic, Disciples and Warcraft.)
- Deathless Dynasty: aka the Ancient Dead. Mummy lords leading armies of golems, mummies, and skeletons. The archetypal example would be the Tomb Kings in Warhammer Fantasy.
- Lichfield Legion: Death knights and elder liches leading armies of skeletons, zombies and summoned demons. The archetypal examples would be the Army of the Dead in Army of Darkness and the Undead Scourge in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
- Spectral Scourge: Ghosts and revenants leading armies of banshees, shadows, specters, will-o'-wisps and wraiths. The archetypal examples would be the Nazgûl and Dead Men of Dunharrow in The Lord of the Rings and the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from Disney's Fantasia.
- Vampire Voivodate: Vampire lords leading ghouls, mohrgs, wights and their other minions. The archetypal examples would be the Vampire Counts in Warhammer Fantasy and the Throne of Oblivion in Shadowbane.
Sources by publisher
- Bastion Press: the lesser vampire appears in Out for Blood.
- Bottled Imp Games: The arcane lich appears in The Lords of the Night: Liches.
- Eternity Publishing: The akalich appears in Immortals Handbook - EPIC BESTIARY: Volume One.
- Frog God Games: The death knight, skeleton warrior, and undead lord appear in the Tome of Horrors series.
- Green Ronin: The blood knight, dread undead and related templates appear in the Advanced Bestiary.
- Jon Brazer Enterprises: The spectre spawn and spectre lord appear in Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane.
- Paizo Publishing: The graveknight, mummified creature, mummy lord, skeletal champion, and zombie lord appear in the Pathfinder Bestiary series.
- Silverthorne Games: The true mummy appears in Book of Templates - Deluxe Edition 3.5.
- Wizards of the Coast: The demilich appears in the SRD's Epic Rules. The zombie master appears in d20 Past. The vampire lord appears on the archived 3rd edition D&D website.
Research links
- https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Lich
- https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Death_Knight
- https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Mummy
- https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Skeleton_Warrior
- http://overlordmaruyama.wikia.com/wiki/Elder_Lich
- http://overlordmaruyama.wikia.com/wiki/Skeleton_Mage
- https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/
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