Hey!!! Could you please share some undead folklore??? I am needing it for a story but it is very hard to go after it without only getting the modern conception of a "zombie"
Anon, anon I am blowing you kisses, I am utterly uninterested in modern zombies but I love me some undead folklore!
First things first: there are lots of words to refer to undead beings and they are often used interchangably. Personally I tend to call anything that was once human but died and then returned and is still a physical, corporeal being, a "revenant". This excludes ghosts and apparitions, which could definitely be called undead, but usually serve a different function in stories.
But, among revenants there is still a lot of variety! In their reason for being undead, in their appearance, their behaviour, and the rules they (seem to) follow. What kind of folklore you want to draw from for your story, will depend entirely on what kind of role they need to fulfill in your narrative. So here is some broad inspiration:
• In an earlier post I wrote about a category of revenant that I call "The Returning Recently Dead", who behave almost like a ghost with unfinished business and I mostly see in the types: the slighted (out for revenge), the grief-bound lover (could be tragic or horrific), the cursed with a duty (out to complete their task), the loving with a duty (out to protect their loved one). They all follow very different rules, but there's some great inspiration there! (Some more examples in this post.)
• There is also a specific folklore tale type called "The Grateful Dead" which usually involves someone being respectful of someone's burial place or otherwise kind towards the dead, who is later helped by a Mysterious Helper who can do fantastic things but doesn't seem entirely...human...
• Folklore also includes revenants that are more of a bad omen or a simply creepy sight to happen upon. The returning recently dead and the grateful dead tend to temporarily visit the land of the living, but some folktales depict The Dead as still very capable of interacting with life if they choose to, if only for their own amusement. This post about Dullahan has some great examples of that (dancing skeletons, undead processions, etc.) and this Icelandic tale is still one of my favourites.
• Of course most vampires are also revenants, but since most people will treat them as a category all their own, I will too. I do want to give a shout-out to what Montague Summers called "ghouls" and attributed to Arabic folklore. Especially the tales of Amine and Nadille, who each marry living human men, who then slowly find out that their pretty, pale wives, who hardly seem to eat anything and are only lively at night, are not what they seem. (You can read Summers' text here.)
One thing that is very important about all these undead, is that they are intelligent. Some of them can pass for human, others genuinely look dead, but most of them are capable of speaking and complex actions. They are not mindless killers or shambling creatures. Those do exist in folklore, but they usually end up more in the "don't walk across the graveyard at night or you'll be eaten alive" type of cautionary folktale that pops up all over Europe. Wich is all well and good, but makes for much shorter stories~
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PC can enter Robin's room naked and I think this should be taken to the next logical step where both of you are sitting naked and PC just casually cockwarms him the whole day. And they are playing games <3
You know what? Exactly my point, but since PC doesn't really come to school too often anymore cuz she's been busy fooling around with Wren, smashing stuffs in Remy's estate, go hunt the Ivory Wraith,... She'd prefer reading some books stolen from Sydney to maintain her school performance than playing games all day.
*Sigh* I wish PC and the school kids could graduate. School performance's such a pain to maintain when there are too many other things to do.
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i have some closeted friends online, and one of them just had something bad happen (not going into any specifics at all because of privacy) but like... THAT is why KOSA scares me. how are they supposed to get help? how are they supposed to feel safe ever? if the government can so blatantly try and censor LGBTQ+ identities, and neurodivergent people, and FUCKING GENOCIDE what's next?
and i don't really have to be scared like others. even though i am neurodivergent, it is not super severe, and i am cis straight white dude, i have life on easy mode. i hate when people have to hide and i want to help but i can't. i can't even hug them. the closest i can get is typing on my screen and hoping it reaches them safely and that they haven't died.
im not scared of KOSA because of what it would do to me, but because of what it will do to my friends, and people who are suffering like my friends, and people who are suffering in ways i can't begin to fathom. it's a very hard feeling to describe.
now the government wants to take that link away from me, from my friends who supported me in my times of need, and, hopefully, who i supported well too. it is a feeling of desperation and depression and anger.
im really just typing at this point, and im probably not making a whole lot of sense, but it basically boils down to this, and im directing this at YOU Senators and Representatives of the U.S.A:
Stop KOSA, keep our friendships intact, and ACTUALLY do something to protect kids you fucking inept dumbasses.
sincerely, a minor KOSA will not be protecting.
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