Zombies in Warhammer

[scoopdeta]

So need some help with background for an Amry I am thinking baout making here in the near future and Zombies play a critical role.

So I have 2 questions for you all as it relates to Zombies in the Warhammer World compared to the Zombies we know if popular movies and fiction of today:

What happens when a Zombie bites you in the Warhammer World? Are you eventually turned into a Zombie yourself? Or are Zombies strictly held together by the necromancer of an Army?

What happens when you eat tainted Zombie meat? Say an Ogre tribe gutted themselves on a Zombie Horde? Would the tainted meat have any effect? Would the tribe eventually turn into Zombies as well?

[peterjameslewis711]

I was always under the impression from "the undead" army book onwards to vampire counts that the necromancer brought back the recently deceased,theres a bit with vlad saying to villages join me in life or serve me in death, or something to that effect.
I dont think its a plague like you see in movies and if it is its definatly not as quick or effective as a plague like "the walking dead" or "28 days/weeks later".
As such the tained meat wouldnt be an issue, it would be the same as a person eating rotten meat (meast tends to go off very quickly, especially the corpses from a battle).
Hope my thoughts help in some way.

[Denny]

I'd agree in general; Warhammer zombies a magically animated constructs, not victims of a plague.

(I’d expect, in original Night of the Living Dead style, their bites would still kill you; the bacteria in their mouths would be lethal to most creatures).

Having said that there are no hard and fast rules where magic is concerned. Perhaps enough magic infests the meat that eating a zombie has a zombification effect, or perhaps the magic that infest the zombie can be carried by its bite, slowly corrupting whatever is unfortunate enough to be bitten.

Rule of Cool trumps all.

[DarthSte]

I agree with both of the above, in addition, there were be no discernable effect on ogres as they are quite happy to eat just about anything anyway.

[The Devourer]

Zombies are magically animated corpses and so a ite itself shouldn't turn you into a zombie. However it is likely that a bite could carry enough disease to kill quickly. There are cases of undead rising "naturally" when large amounts of dark magic build up in area. This suggests you could become a zombie from being bitten but only in special circumstance- it would requirethe bite to kill you quickly and for there to be an extremely high concentration of dark magic in the area. Overall possible but very unlikely.

Eating a zomie is likely to be bad for almost any creature since it will be like eating any kind of infected meat plus it is also infused with dark magic which may cause extra damage (I havent heard any cases of anyone eating magic but there are mentions of it physicaly corrupting those in prolonged contact with it). Ogres however are probably one of the few species capable of eating a zombie with out any issue since they seem to be abke to eat almost anything.

[Ultimate Life Form]

Then again eating raw human flesh/meat seems to have the side effect of turning normal villagers into Crypt Ghouls and Minotaurs into Ghorgons. I would loathe to see what half-rotten magically infested warpstone dust infused Zombie meat can do to anyone not as naturally resistant as an Ogre. In the Warhammer world nothing ever is as it seems...

[Urgat]

Then again eating raw human flesh/meat seems to have the side effect of turning normal villagers into Crypt Ghouls and Minotaurs into Ghorgons.

Eating them for centuries, + wild blood-related mating, is just more than having a bite. As for ghorgons, my fluff about them (SoM book) states that they eat anything, all the time, including their own, not just man flesh. In short, they're gorging themselves with meat from chaos-tainted creatures. Can't be healthy, when you're already a chaos-tainted creature yourself.
On topic, I can't even remember a single mention that Warhammer zombies even bite at all. They don't seem driven by the hunger thing at all like in Hollywood movies. As for eating zombies, necrophagous creatures are probably the most numerous creatures in our world, I don't think it's any different in Warhammer. I don't think orcs hesitate to have their after battle meal just because the preys were killed twice, for that matter, and they did crush Morgheim to the ground till the end w/o ill effects. I suppose it's probably as foul as eating any old corpse in our own world (I'm growing sick discussing that, i'll end it with that sentence ><), but any creature that can and tend to eat pretty much anything (orcs, trolls, minotaurs, ogres etc) would probably be fine eating some. Can't be healthy on the long run even for them (well apart trolls I guess), but shouldn't be lethal right away for them.

[Ultimate Life Form]

Itchy. Tasty.

[Naanomi]

They are full of magic, so that isn't good food for most things. A good trip to Spawnhood or Chaos-Trollness for many species. Ogres though are specifically magic-resistant eaters and could eat the slow-meat without any struggles.

An aside, I wonder how they would handle eating the more deeply dhar-infused vampires? Even for an ogre it seems it would be a potentially unhealthy dinner choice.

Now, on topic, the traditional 'zombie plague' could happen if there were enough zombies in one place that they carried sufficient quantities of reanimating dhar with them to naturally raise up their victims... but that wouldn't be a very regular occurance, most zombie hordes would have a necromancer or vampire running the affair

[grumbaki]

What Naanomi said. And if you are dead set on a zombie plague, you can always "nurgle-fy" it. Say that it is a disease created by grandfather nurgle.

[LotlBotl]

Well, let's consider for a moment some of the weird ways that dark magic can (negatively) affect a normal human being:

- Eat too much human flesh? Human cannibalism draws in dark magic, and changes you into a ghoul
- Choose the wrong place to sleep the night? Wake up as a dried up husk.
- Alternately, dying to the wrong necromancer or vampire will have you as a banshee or a wraith.
- Spent too long going hungry on the coldest mountains in a hopeless situation where you refuse to just give up? You're gonna wish that you had slit your own throat because that is preferable to being a Mourngul.

So on, so forth.

So, to answer the question, would any old zombie turn you into a zombie with a bite? No, I don't think so.

Now, a zombie, animated by a particularly strong practitioner of the arts of Nagash, biting you on the other hand, I think you'd be in danger of becoming a zombie dangerously quickly.

[Sheena Easton]

Thankfully Warhammer Zombies are the traditional shambling magically animated corpses. The only way to become a Zombie after being "bitten" by one is to die and then some time after have a Necromancer or Vampire animate your rotting corpse.

[TheDungen]

its possible i guess that the bite might kill you and the necromantic field that reanimates the zombie that bit you could reanimate you. But that would require that the spell that raised the original zombie was made to do that.

[stazba]

closest thing I can think of that can create an instant undead would be the sword the DOW Richter had (also in older vampire books, but never looked at new one).

In this case you were killed by the sword and instantly joined his group as a skeleton (I prefer to think more that you were a zombie with better skills but thats personal taste).

Point of this is that obviously the sword was magically infused to create undead on the living creatures death by it. I think it would not be beyond the possibility for a necromancer sufficiently skilled enough to create special zombies also infused with similar magic so that when they kill an opponent, they rise up as again. A huge tactical advantage if they could be controlled.

In terms of current rules and fluff though, nah no night of the living dead zombies.

[MvS]

I suppose you could have plague zombies created by one of Nurgle's servants.

Also, being bitten or scratched by any zombie would likely result in an unpleasant infection...

[Lord Zarkov]

closest thing I can think of that can create an instant undead would be the sword the DOW Richter had (also in older vampire books, but never looked at new one).

In this case you were killed by the sword and instantly joined his group as a skeleton (I prefer to think more that you were a zombie with better skills but thats personal taste).

Point of this is that obviously the sword was magically infused to create undead on the living creatures death by it. I think it would not be beyond the possibility for a necromancer sufficiently skilled enough to create special zombies also infused with similar magic so that when they kill an opponent, they rise up as again. A huge tactical advantage if they could be controlled.

In terms of current rules and fluff though, nah no night of the living dead zombies.

The Tomb Blade. Used to be in the VC book, Arkhan has one, and so has Kemmler in some of his rulesets (I think the current one might, but can't remember and don't have my book on me atm).
The background for that is a little stronger than just making you a zombie though - it magically shrivels away all your flesh and then animates your bones as a skeleton - although current rules just heal the unit the wielder's in.

Richter Kruegar of the Cursed Company worked in the same way, but it was the result of a magical curse and affected all those slain by either him or one of his skeletal minions.
His curse was brought on by being a fairly unethical mercenary and betraying a powerful Necromancer he was working for because the opposing army paid him more. The necromancer cursed him with his dying breath, instantly killing him but causing him to resurrect each nightfall as a Wight and bringing on the army raising ability.

[TheDungen]

i wonder what could really destroy Richter Kruegar? A vampire lord? a greater demon?

[stazba]

i wonder what could really destroy Richter Kruegar? A vampire lord? a greater demon?

A 3 (or 2?) failed armor then ward saves to a tooled up dwarf lord in 6th edition (last time I played with a DOW char)

fluffwise, I can't see how he is anymore immortal then a vampire lord (or even less so). Maybe I am wrong, but then again I am not a real fluff bunny (see my lamish answer above RE richter)

EDIT- doh see now that he is raised each night as a wight.....guess you would have to go the Nagash route and burn all his bones in a warpstone smithy (and hope that he doesn't gather up and resurrect like Nagash does)

/OT

oh yes for zombie topic, and I would love to see a zombie special character who when he killed a 1W model it joined his group. Gives people somewhat of the night of the dead feel. Will it official happen nope, but mebbe a homebrew with really sucky stats would be acceptable to people in a friendly just for kicks game .

[Lord Zarkov]

Richter is more immortal than a Vampire Lord in that, while he's a lot easier to put down, when you put down a Vampire Lord it requires quite a lot of effort to get them back up again - there are a few spells and rituals to do it which require arduous conditions or you've got giving them shed loads of blood and putting them in a Black Coach, but that takes hundreds of years. By contrast Richter is back after the next sunset. Only Vlad with his ring does better.

[TheDungen]

honestly thats the kinda guy they need to attempt to close the polar gates.