Zombies

I was here to talk about raising the dead. Not resurrection. I'm not that good. I mean zombies. The shambling dead. Rotting corpses. Night of the living dead. That kind of zombie . . . . It's a job, that's all, like selling.

(Guilty Pleasures, page 1, paragraph 1)
Commentary * Zombies are the undead. They are people who have been raised from the dead by an animator or voodoo priest. They have no conscious thoughts of their own, and they are not considered beings with rights. They cannot be sustained for very long, unless drastic measures are used.

(1) Feeding a zombie flesh, or raw meat will allow it to retain it's appearance for a longer period of time. (GP-24)

(2) Capturing the soul at death and putting it back into a reanimated body will keep the body from rotting. (LaC-55)

* In order to be raised form the dead, a series of steps are required by the animator:

(1) The animator needs a death first. For newly dead, an animal is sufficient. The older the corpse, the bigger the animal required. For very old corpses, a human sacrifice or white goat is sometimes required, although a necromancer can use his/her own blood as a little death. The blood is also used to create a circle around the area where the zombis is to be raised. It will be unable to leave this circle, unless broken by the animator.

(2) The blood is then rubbed over the face (forehead and cheeks), both hands, under the shirt, and over the heart. Then it is rubbed onto the tombstone. Over flesh and stone, an ointment is rubbed in. (Comon ingredients: graveyard mold, rosemary-for memory, cinnamon or clove-for preservation, sage-for wisdom, thyme-to bind it together).

(3) A chant is made to call the zombie, and then when it is called forth, the blood is offered to the zombie in order to bring some kind of human rememberance to it. Using human blood quickens the zombie more readily and longer. A zombie can only be called from their grave by name. In theory, it is possible to call a zombie without naming them (Anita).

* When it comes time to lay the zombie to rest again, salt is first thrown against the chest
("With salt I bind you to your grave.")
Then the bloody knife used in the sacrifice is passed over their lips.
("With blood and steel I bind you to your grave. {Insert name}, be at peace and walk no more.")
The zombie is then swallowed up by the earth once more. (CoD-160)

* There has been talk about a bill to protect zombies from being used for manual labor (slavery). A committee is being formed of animators and experts to "look into the problem" and determine if legislation is required.

* If an animator is raised from the dead as a zombie, it can possibly bring ghouls back with it. Also an animator zombie comes out of the grave craving flesh. It requires fresh meat until it can remember what it once was. Possibly this can be bypassed if a gris-gris is used to keep the zombie alive. However, it cannot be killed by fire immediately by fire as other zombies can be.