How to make the undead feel exotic? Egyptians would be too Tomb Kings like so maybe Assyrians? Which culture would give the most sinister and distant vibe?
>>48107568
Exotic to a western audience I take it? Should be easy to just go ancient chinese or aztec then. Or is plate armor a must?
Inca. Part of the reason for their expansion was so the living emperor could have a domain alongside that of his dead ancestors.
The ancestors' wills were interpreted by sun priests
Go mongol or go home. It's cool, because then they can just raise skeleton horses as well and be annoying horse archers. The ultimate annoying horde faction!
>>48107625
So Zongolians?
>Chinese terracotta soldiers possessed by the actual army that they were constructed in the memory of
>>48107568
Death is powerless and too return to the physical world is as easy as telling him to fuckoff
>>48107606
>The ancestors' wills were interpreted by sun priests
Tacking on to this, the dead were still considered "sovereign," and still held all the property and assets they held in life. A "living" king could not go against the will of a "dead" king, and could not supercede his authority without SERIOUS repercussions (it was still done though).
>>48110802
>Massive undead army
>Led by extremely powerful death knight
>They all collectively believe that they are still alive and fighting for their long-dead Emperor
>Stopping them is as easy as convincing them that they are in fact dead, and their Emperor died centuries ago.
>Everyone fears them
>No one thinks to parlay with the Death Knight.
>>48107606
the Nazca from Dominions 4 are based on this. notIncas worshiping the mummies of ancient bird people
>>48107568
Have them be raised by the God of War as actual operators from a recent war.
They don't shuffle around but actually move, walk, and run. They are responsive, reactive, adaptive and fight using real tactics. They plan, perform ambushes, flanking maneuvers, even retreats. They commnicate with each other purely in a military fashion. You'll even hear the radio chatter when they attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t-wjO6gdm8
Don't make all of them skeletons either, make some of them zombies or some of them look like they were just recently killed with flesh still pink and bloody like they died yesterday.
When they attack, you don't get the feeling the army of the dead or some mindless horde is coming.
You feel like the dead are waging a war.
>>48113393
That makes undead fucking pointless might as well just use regular humans and ambushes are hardly anything out of the ordinary for the undead.
>>48107663
>terra cotta warriors have human remains inside that move and animate them
>this process was down thousands of years ago and why every warrior looks different
Thanks for the idea anon, time to build a dungeon around this
>>48113433
I see them more as like terminators, it's clear they can talk and communicate but it's as though their every fiber of being is devoted to killing programmed only to spread death. They don't make jokes, or laugh, or cry. They don't eat or sleep or tire. Their machines keep fighitng even with massive gaping holes in their armor. They don't accept parley or the geneva conventions. All they do is try to kill and exterminate "enemy resistance".
Mostly it's a reversal of the stereotype of military soldiers and swat teams taking down mindless shufflers and hordes of zombies.
South Africa has some pretty well developed traditions about zombies and the undead. Necromancers were a big thing there, and it's those traditions that eventually gave rise to Voodoo. So, maybe something modelled off of the Zulus, or Great Zimbabwe?
>>48113483
Anon a bunch of half naked spearchuckers are hardly menacing.
>>48113541
I dunno, Anon. A bunch of skeletons with spears running as fast as a kenyan and completely immune to The Maxim Gun?
The British would spill their tea.
>>48107568
Myanmar and or Cambodian.
The angkorian architecture is perfect for creepy dungeons, and you'll be assured that it's going to be exotic for your players.
>>48107568
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/he.aspx
Remember that the spooky part about undead is not that they're undead, but that they're the dead of your people, defiled. That means the English could have to deal with ancient Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and Viking corpses coming out of the ground. Hell, even Romans if you really wanted. The more recent dead could be recognizable, or perhaps still hold perverted memories and goals from their lives. Suppose it's 1067 and William the Conqueror is now having to put down his own dead from Hastings. There's men there who died for him and are now attempting to drag him down as well.
Foreign culture undead are the worst, so long as we're talking brainless zombie/skeleton type undead. Vampires, of course, work as symbols of foreign sexuality, but what's spooky about an Egyptian or Assyrian corpse coming after you? Mummies only work because of ancient curses, and/or antediluvian motivations brought back to horrible life. Problem is, no one really cares about mummies taking over Egypt to rule as Pharaoh, unless you live in Egypt. Otherwise, in a fantasy world, it's just horrible rumors. It has to be a home to cause fear.
>>48113393
This is good. The horror of the undead has always been about people you know now attempting to kill you.
Drop it into a fantasy setting so it's not too-close-to-home, and done.
-Antarctican. Penguins like to fornicate with things they're not supposed to.
-Neanderthal. We don't know much about them, but given what we do know, maybe they buried their dead for a damned good reason. Perhaps the spirits of the big game they hunted tried to take revenge in the most twisted way possible.
-Tlingit. Don't respect property rights? The dead guy you stole from is gonna come back with wooden armor and a musket.
-Polynesia in general. Every undead has jade growing out of their bodies. They're all warriors, tried and true, and now they've returned to put the evil invaders down once more.
>>48116370
Unless they've conquered their homeland and are coming after yours.
>>48117329
then they're just foreign invaders with a twist
what's the real difference between the huns advancing on Rome, versus the undead huns advancing on Rome? The outcome if they're victorious will still be about the same, plus or minus some necromancy.
>>48116798
>that neandertal idea
we need more neanderthals in fucking fiction ASAP. there should be way more speculative fiction on them in general
>>48119504
A Song of Ice and Fire has a race that's supposed to be based off them. They live in the northern part of Essos, but I can't for the life of me remember what they're name is. And regular humans can breed with them, but the results are basically deformed mules.
