A nice short read about various types of undead. From Morrowind, collected from the Imperial Library.
Makes me wonder about Bonewalkers further though...
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Undead commonly occur in three basic types: spirit, flesh, and fleshless. Spirit revenants like the ancestor ghost, wraith, and dwarven ghost, can only be harmed by weapons that are enchanted or made of refined substances such as silver. Ancestor ghosts, the most common spirit revenant, are harmless, apart from the minor curses they lay upon their victims. Wraiths are similar to ghosts, but they are capable of inflicting wounds to the careless explorer. Dwarven ghosts are more dangerous still, but they generally appear only in Dwarven ruins.

Flesh revenants, or 'zombies' as they are often called in the West, are known as 'bonewalkers' in Morrowind. Magic preserves the bonewalker's fleshy remains along with the bones and spirit. Bonewalkers are readily identified by the sharp protuberances of bone and metal employed in the rituals that bind them to this plane. All bonewalkers are malevolent and dangerous, but the greater bonewalkers are far worse than the more common 'lesser' bonewalkers. Thankfully, normal weapons harm bonewalkers.

It is difficult to generalize about fleshless revenants, or skeletons. The agility and fighting ability of the animated remains may depend on the abilities of the revenant's former life, and may therefore be weak or strong, or more or less capable with weapons and shields. Fortunately, enchanted weapons are not needed to destroy skeletons. An exception is the bonelord, a peculiar form of revenant that seems to derive its powers more from its spirit energies than from the substance of its skeletal remains. Bonelords are very powerful, and very dangerous. Normal weapons do not affect them.

Vampires were believed to be extinct in Morrowind for centuries. Dunmer culture has a special hatred for vampires, and in earlier times the Ordinators and Buoyant Armigers hunted them to extinction. In recent years, however, vampires have either begun to sneak into Morrowind, or long-dormant ones have been awakened. Vampires vary in their substance and power according to their age and accumulated lore, but even the weakest vampire is immeasurably stronger than most other undead. Note: Ash vampires are not vampires, and are not undead. Ash vampires are extremely dangerous. While their spirit and substance may indeed be preserved by some magical process, the holy warriors of the Tribunal Temple report that spell effects known to affect the undead have no effect on ash vampires.

Well let's see...

The Dunmer used to practice Necromancy quite a bit. They worshipped their ancestors and those that failed to serve the family in life would serve them forever as guardians of the families ancestral tomb.

The bits of metal holding them together seems to be copper which serves as a good conductor. I imagine that veins of copper run all throughout the dead creatures limbs. The corpse would be reanimated with electric magic and then sustained, with the copper veins causing it to continue to move. This technique was likely learned from the Dwemer, back when them and the Chimer were on better terms.

Greater Bonewalkers are hideous and deformed. I believe that the hunch on the Greater Bonewalkers back consists of embalming fluids, which due to the electric current has all gathered at the base of activity (AKA the Spine). The ragged holes we see in Bonewalkers may be where the body was cut open to remove organs in the way.

Just some ideas.

I like these ideas. I also enjoy thinking of Bonewalkers as mini in-game Frankenstein's monsters. ^^

This was interesting to read. I had really put no thought into the undead before. I feel more knowledgeable now. Cant wait for the Draugr in Skyrim. What kind of undead are they considered?

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This was interesting to read. I had really put no thought into the undead before. I feel more knowledgeable now. Cant wait for the Draugr in Skyrim. What kind of undead are they considered?

I am not entirely sure what kind of undead Draugrs are, but I do know they are undead Nords who served dragons long ago and were punished with undead because of betrayal.

I believe they would be flesh.

Ah ok makes sense. I did some research:

"A Draugr is an undead creature from Norse mythology. The original Norse meaning of the word is ghost, and older literature makes clear distinctions between sea-draug and land-draug. Draugar were believed to live in the graves of dead Vikings, being the body of the dead. As the graves of important men often contained a good amount of wealth, the draugr jealously guards his treasures, even after death."

This was taken from wikipedia. Search draugr on wiki for an in depth read on what draugr really were. I read the entire article on them and it was very interesting!

I believe there's a mention of Draugr in Beowulf as well =D

You know I wouldn't entirely trust what wikipedia it not that reliable.

DyingEmber wrote:

This was interesting to read. I had really put no thought into the undead before. I feel more knowledgeable now. Cant wait for the Draugr in Skyrim. What kind of undead are they considered?

In Morrowind Draugr were Nords who were condemned because they turned into cannibals and ate eachother. I think that's the jist of it. They're kinda like a zombie/skeleton thing, depending on how long they've been undead. But they're veeery far from daedra. If we were to use a type from Legions of the Dead, they would almost certainly be Flesh Revenants. Though personally, I've always considered them to be of their own ilk of undead, because of how specialized they are.