Mythical Creatures [EDITING]

Zombie

What is a Zombie?

Zombies are all the rage in today's horror and dystopian fiction. Their presence in book stores and movie theaters is inescapable, so you are probably already familiar with Zombie basics. They are undead. Mindless. Near invincible. And bloodthirsty.

CharacteristicsPhysical Description

Zombies come in all shapes and sizes. As long as the look is gruesome, there's probably a Zombie to match!

Early, folkloric Zombies resembled a cross between ghosts and the Zombies we know and love today. They had the best of both worlds: solid, physical bodies without signs of decay. Still, they were often disheveled and had un-focused eyes.

After Hollywood got a hold of Zombies, they began a series of rapid transformations.

In the 1960s, the Zombie image was dominated by a single franchise: Night of the Living Dead. For the first time, Zombies began showing signs of decay and oozing wounds. Their skin was pale, with sunken eyes, and they moved stiffly and slowly, with their arms outstretched in front of them.

In the 1990s, video games gave zombies a makeover. These zombies, usually infected with a viral disease, had gorier wounds than their ancestors, and their eyes glowed blue or white. They still moved slowly, but their movement was more fluid, with lolling heads and swinging limbs.

The early 2000s saw yet another reincarnation of the Zombie. This time, they were rabid monsters with inflamed skin and bloodshot eyes. They moved quickly and jerkily, appearing to be in a state of frenzy.

The latest Zombies have shrunken into a skeletal form, with yellowing skin, shriveled up to expose the muscles and fibers below. Despite sporting the goriest wounds of all time, these Zombies are faster and stronger than ever. They can run, climb, jump, and tear you apart limb from limb.

Personality

Zombies have always been mindless creatures, with no emotions or complex thoughts, but they have not always been the murderous terrors that we know today.

The very first Zombies were tragic figures. They were bodies left behind by souls who were trapped between heaven and earth, usually a result of violent death like murder or suicide. Without their souls, they had nothing to give them direction, so they were enlisted into slave labor.

After slavery was outlawed, the Zombies needed new masters. They were adopted by Voodoo leaders, called bokors, who claimed that they themselves had created the Zombies. The Zombies themselves did not change much. They were mindless, but not particularly dangerous (unless a bokor wanted you dead).

Hollywood added the bloodthirsty spin to the Zombie's personality, morphing them into monsters whose only master is instinct and whose strongest instinct is hunger.

Special Abilities

Even if they aren't the masters of their own actions, Zombies are still powerful creatures with a variety of bloodcurdling talents.

Hollywood's Zombies live to hunt, and like any hungry predator, they have finely tuned senses that help them detect prey. Early Zombies depended on vision and hearing, much like humans, but as Zombie-lore evolved, many of them lost their vision and began to rely heavily on their superb sense of smell. The emergence of nocturnal Zombies created a new breed with a talent for seeing in the dark.

Most Zombies hunt to eat, but when they ravage a town, the victims who get eaten are actually the lucky ones. Victims who are bitten, but not devoured, have a grislier fate. They have been exposed to the Zombie contagion, and unless they are executed by their friends, they will transform into mindless monsters as well. Because Zombies carry this plague, their numbers can quickly swell into an apocalyptic horde.