| From: | Jeremy DeVore jmortir@*****.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Early Brainstorming: A Little Zombie Anatomy |
| Date: | Mon, 22 Feb 1999 00:49:02 -0600 |
I will be posting the later ones also, so that everyone can see where I am
coming from here.
On to the topic of my post here... Zombie Anatomy!
Any being who dies in an area of contamination (the alien Astral Field)
becomes a zombie within a few minutes. Also, a person bitten by a living
dead will die in a few hours and re-animate as a walking corpse. This corpse
is consumed with the desire to eat the living although it takes no
nourishment from it; in fact a zombie without a stomach will still gorge
itself on living flesh.
The living dead require no rest and shamble along endlessly, but they are
slower than a living being and very uncoordinated. They are easily shoved
out of the way or knocked over. That is a general statement. I have seen
especially in Day of the Dead where some fresh Zombies were moving damn fast
and were a big problem for the protagonists (the woman in the projects takes
two SWAT member to take down). I suppose it'd be an entirely random thing.
Unfortunately, wounds don't affect them very much. A shotgun blast in the
chest will knock one down, but won't truly hurt it. But how much damage
before the whole thing falls apart? There are weapons out there that could
rip a corpse to shreds. The zombie will drag itself back up and continue the
pursuit. The only way to kill it is to destroy the brain. Bullets, knives,
spikes: anything driven into the brain will cause the corpse to collapse,
but don't confuse this with decapitation.
Zombies rot, but much slower than would a normal dead body. As they rot
wouldn't the needed nerves and synapses for cybernetics slowly degrade to
the point where they are useless? <Maybe rules where the length of time dead
modified by the weather would equal how well it worked?> And there is always
the question if rotting flesh could support the weight of cyberwear. I can
remember images a shambling Zombie with it's arm falling off from it's own
weight. According to Dr. Logan in Day of the Dead, a living dead can
continue to function for ten to twelve years before rotting away. This makes
the likelihood of survival of humanity much less likely.
The mental capacities of a zombie are rudimentary at best. They do not
reason very well and do not employ any kind of strategy other than charging.
They do seem to have some memory of their old lives, often imitating things
they once did. These imitations are very basic, such as sitting behind the
wheel of a parked car for no apparent reason. In Day of the Dead, the zombie
Bub remembers how to fire a gun. The fact he actually hit someone suprized
the hell out of me, because a monkey could aim and fire a gun like that. He
also remembers saluting military personnel. But in no way does this
constitute that they remember any of their skills.
Zombies are weaker than living humans and they are very uncoordinated (again
I bring up the ferocious zombies). They generally attack in groups. They do
not use coordinated attacks or pack strategy; they just mill around and
swarm anything that looks alive. They simply drag prey down and start
biting.
I can already think of a damn good use of the Rot Spell! And in a very dry
and arid area Fireball would be "interesting". For obvious reasons Mana
spells will have no affect on them. I am theorizing that Illusions would be
ineffective against them too. And I feel sorry for any Petro houngan who
thinks he knows how to deal with these Zombies. A Detect Living Dead spell
could be useful, and a Detect Infection spell may be the only way to save
some people's lives...
Let's talk about the Infection for a sec here. When something becomes
contaminated with this alien Astral Field (I will cover that topic in it's
own post), it carries the field with it. A normal healthy Astral Field is
brought into existence by the living, while this one attaches itself onto
inanimate matter like a leech. The various liquids in a corpse (blood,
saliva, and I'll let you use your imagination on the others) carry this
Astral Field with it. When it enters the body of a living being the healthy
Astral is altered slowly until it is subsumed by the alien one. The
biological changes in the living person are a side effect of this Astral
battle. The time it takes between the initial infection and becoming a
Zombie is supposed to take a few hours. But with the addition of an alien
Astral Field that becomes a little more complicated. Essence would come into
play wouldn't it? If it came to battles between healthy and alien Astral
Fields wouldn't a magician fare better (well last longer) than a Street Sam?
And the only ways I can see anyone being saved from this Infection would be
to amputate before the infected material spread too far into the body, or
otherwise purge the infected material from their bodies.
If there are any comments on this ya'll would like to make or to remind me
of something I may of overlooked or forgotten (I hate surprises) I'd
appreciate it. Expect more posts from me on the various aspects of this
idea. I think the next one will be on the Astral Field itself. Who knows I
might write the entire thing by posting it (sure helps to get some ideas out
in the open and to expect some input :) )
Later
J
http://www.prysm.net/~jmortir/AWINS
ICQ# 27381095
"Tis a nobler thing I... Aw screw it! Bye..."
