Zombies in Warhammer

[Urgat]

Feed him to a troll, he won't come back when everything's been digested.

[zoggin-eck]

I too am glad GW didn't go for the whole "bitten by a zombie" style, but people do seem to ignore it. In 40k they've had a few half-hearted attempts at hollywood zombies, but then again WHFB style zombies aren't in it anyway

It's been funny the last few times Vampire counts have had an update, with people speculating about "bitten" and "brain eating" special rules for zombies. No, not in Warhammer!

[Drasanil]

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

Any sufficiently powerful mage should be able to just dispel the curse. Necros are good wizards but they aren't the pinnacle of sorcery. But then that would make for anti-climatic story line: "And lo did Beinhart Magister of Light speaketh thy syllables and rolleth thy box cars on his dispel roll, forever ending the curse of Kruegar. "

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As for the zombie plague, unless Nurgle was involved, the hypothetical scenario in question would be likely only happen in localised areas and be confined to those areas since dark magic animating them would dissipate once it was cut off from the source. Moussillon has a tonne of 'natural' zombies crawling all over the place but they don't pose a threat to surrounding lands unless some necromancer comes along to coral/sustain them.

[Cap'n Facebeard]

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

If he did close them he would probably achieve his final death That's how the fluff will end!

[TheDungen]

why would it? yes the gates are the reasons there's so much magic in the warhammer world but 40k shows us that energy from the realm of chaos can be brought over by other means (yes i know its a separate universe but they still follow the mechanics).

And we're also assuming that all magic effects need continuous feeding from the gates to continue to work. Its full well possible that the enrgy that the item used have been fused to it when it was enchanted. same thing for cursed objects (which a dead body basically is).

If destroying chaos would destroy all undead then why would Nagash want that?

[Bingo the Fun Monkey]

I too am glad GW didn't go for the whole "bitten by a zombie" style, but people do seem to ignore it. In 40k they've had a few half-hearted attempts at hollywood zombies, but then again WHFB style zombies aren't in it anyway

It's been funny the last few times Vampire counts have had an update, with people speculating about "bitten" and "brain eating" special rules for zombies. No, not in Warhammer!

I'll echo the first sentiment. I'm glad Games Workshop stuck to their guns with their Undead, seemingly unfazed by the contemporary "pop" bio-zombie. While I like the new Vampire Counts book and am seriously contemplating starting an undead army, I wish the "fresh corpse" aspect of the zombie that is present in the fluff would manifest in some way in the rules. How would I do it? I don't know. But I imagine such changes would alter the internal balance of the entire army.

[Lord Zarkov]

I'll echo the first sentiment. I'm glad Games Workshop stuck to their guns with their Undead, seemingly unfazed by the contemporary "pop" bio-zombie. While I like the new Vampire Counts book and am seriously contemplating starting an undead army, I wish the "fresh corpse" aspect of the zombie that is present in the fluff would manifest in some way in the rules. How would I do it? I don't know. But I imagine such changes would alter the internal balance of the entire army.

It is, that's why they're much easier to raise, IIRC the rule's called "The Newly Dead"

[Danny76]

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.

THIS.
As in the Warhammer world zombies are magically reanimated and not through bites. Though for fluff reasons, make it so if you wish =)
Also the people talking about ghouls: they're humans cannibalizing then becoming them, that's after hundreds/thousands of years of devolving down though isn't it? not just you eat a bit of human meat then pop into a ghoul...

[Lord Zarkov]

Not necessarily years - there are Empire villages that get famines and turn to cannibalism and turn to ghouls over a couple of months. If you apply enough dark magic you can speed it up - there's a story about a brettonnian knight who wants to join the Blood Knights and gets tricked into eating human flesh and they make him into a ghoul in a few days.

I think the original Dark Feasts under Nagash had a timeline of weeks.

[Cap'n Facebeard]

why would it? ...

I guess I should have put in smilies to show how I wasn't being 100% serious.

On topic, do you think the decomposition of the corpse really matters with regards to whether an Undead is a zombie or a skeleton, or is the spell more important? I know zombies are usually portrayed as fresh corpses, but some of the fluff makes it sound like the manner of raising is what makes the difference.

[redshylock]

there's a story about a brettonnian knight who wants to join the Blood Knights and gets tricked into eating human flesh and they make him into a ghoul in a few days.

On the bright side if he was trick into becoming a ghoul he probably have enough malice and hate to turn into a Mourngul when he die which is much better than Blood Knight.

[Lord Zarkov]

I guess I should have put in smilies to show how I wasn't being 100% serious.

On topic, do you think the decomposition of the corpse really matters with regards to whether an Undead is a zombie or a skeleton, or is the spell more important? I know zombies are usually portrayed as fresh corpses, but some of the fluff makes it sound like the manner of raising is what makes the difference.

Zombies have to be reasonable fresh corpses as the reason they're easier to raise is that the body is held together by the existing musculature, and controlled by implanting magical signals into an existing nervous system. Skeletons however require more magic as it is needed both to hold them together and to bind the soul fragment that animates them.

You could probably make a Skeleton out of a meaty corpse, but you can't make a zombie out of dry bones.

Edit: @ redshylock: Mourngul's require you to have frozen to death as well as starved, so it seems unlikely. Plus, as a ghoul he'll probably die violently.