What powers the undead?
Vampires don't have hearts, for instance. That's why they drink blood.
So, what force is keeping them alive?
inb4 "undead aren't real"
>>44289139
>Vampires don't have hearts, for instance.
Then what is it you pierce with a stake to kill them?
>>44289139
Vampires totally have hearts. They just don't produce any new blood while they're living blood deteriorates after death. They drink blood to keep their bodies functioning and their dead heart beating.
Also magic.
>>44289139
Being undead is magic, not a fucking medical condition.
>>44289242
tell that to every zombie movie and game about infections ever
necromancy =/= mainstream zombie bullshit
>>44289525
Movie "science" typically explains the theory behind a bunch of people all dying at once by "borrowing" from IRL events. The theories Hollywood then spews to later "explain" why all those dead people won't stay dead are the "creative" part.
Written by people with liberal arts degrees ...
>>44289139
As fucking always, depends on the setting.
>>44289525
They're usually not dead. They're infected by some condition (either viral, or parasitic (which is usually animal or fungal)... in some very rare cases memitic... mimetic... memetic, goddamn pontypool) which causes brain damage, and usually a cannibalistic hunger. Their state of decay comes from general neglect, they're not trying to prevent themselves from being hurt, and won't clean up wounds.
A though.
Is there ever a form of fiction where its okay for vampires to have children?
I once wrote something where they drink a potion that sorta reboots their body to do so.
Why?
Magic.
>>44289760
>Written by people with liberal arts degrees ...
Yeah, let's have engineers write all the fiction, istead of people who actually practiced writing.
That is quite a bleak hypothesis.
>>44289139
depends on the setting but i like to think of them similar to shadowrun ghouls
ghouls are just people who have been infected by a virus that makes their bodies decay rapidly and mutate, two things that make someone with weak will retract into a feral state, and rely on raw meat to survive
so they're not dead but their flesh is rapidly decaying and this drives them crazy and violent, and a similar condition could appear since there are uncurable necrotoxins IRL that could be applied by an airborn virus or a small carrier animal and bring those necrotoxins to a full-body scale
or even things like Krokodil that make flesh decay rapidly without killing the user
the possibilities are endless but most writers just go "lol you're ded and now ur not" which is completely fine because it's fiction but they try to justify it scientifically in all the wrong ways possible
>>44289760
the natural sciences are liberal arts.
>>44289525
I can tell you in the most archetypal of zombie games, Resident Evil, the zombies are not really dead. They're just humans with an incredibly mutagenic parasite dominating their actions. That's why they die when you shoot them, no need to go for the brain.
>>44289760
>Written by people with liberal arts degrees ...
This just in, writers are commonly people who have studied writing. Shock, horror, etc.
>>44289139
I always liked the traditional idea that they're just regular corpses possessed by evil spirits. As for incorporeal Undead, those are the one's who've actually not moved on into the afterlife - so regret, vengeance, hatred etc.
I usually try to limit the ability to "return from the dead" in my games, and make resurrections the stuff of myth (though not necessarily impossible).
>>44289139
>So, what force is keeping them alive?
Magic.
