Zombie

36. Zombie

A zombie is a fictional undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic. Modern depictions of the reanimation of the dead do not necessarily involve magic but often invoke science fictional methods such as carriers, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, scientific accidents, etc.

Characteristics

• Real Zombies-When first raised, their memories and personalities may be intact, and they can behave like normal, rational beings for several days before becoming violent and cannibalistic. Methods of dispatch generally involve beheading, staking, or fire.

• Virus Zombies- They lose their sense of reason and become unthinking murderous creatures. Widespread distribution of the virus is planned using a new vaccine being produced by Niveus Pharmaceuticals, one contaminated with the virus. The vaccine is being rushed to stem an outbreak of flu caused by Pestilence.

• Hell Zombies-A type of zombie created when God released all of the souls from Hell. Unlike other zombies, they are not the reanimated corpses of the people who died, but rather reanimated corpses possessed by the souls who escaped from Hell. This type of zombie proves to be fairly easy to dispatch with blows from iron fence posts downing them as well as angel blade stabs and angel smitings. When the zombie is taken down, the soul is released from the reanimated corpse.

Powers and Abilities

Being the walking dead, zombies are incredibly powerful in their strength and agility, and are highly regenerative.

• Super Strength - Are inhumanly strong, are able to easily overpower humans, despite this they're quite weak in comparison to most monsters.

• Super Senses - They have enhanced hearing and possibly sight. This includes having an enhanced sense of smell.

• Invulnerability - Although they can be harmed, they are very difficult to re-kill.

• Regeneration - While their body can receive damage, their wounds heal at a rather accelerated rate. Also, despite being effectively dead, they don't rot away.

• Super Stamina - While they get incredibly hungry, they do not tire easily.

Weaknesses

• Head shot - Kill them by shooting them in the head.

• Decapitation - Zombies can be killed by decapitation.

• Silver - necromancy-raised zombies can only be killed by driving a silver stake to the heart or by staking them in their graves. Silver bullets can wound a necromancy-raised zombie, but not kill it. On another occasion, silver handcuffs were able to restrain a zombie so he could be taken to his grave and staked to his coffin.

Lore

Zombie is a term used to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Of voodoo origin, the word initially referred to a curse cast by sorcerers (or bokors) allowing them to take control of a person's mind, therefore affecting his or her actions. However, due to significant influence of Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo on witchcraft mythology, this meaning soon morphed into that of a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore.

In popular culture, zombies take a number of forms. There are those raised from the dead by a spell or ritual or reanimated by some supernatural event (such as the movies of George Romero), or people turned into mindless violent cannibals by a virus (such as in the movie 28 Days Later or the Resident Evil franchise). Some are mindless, shuffling monsters, others cunning and quick. Methods of dispatch generally involve beheading, staking or fire.