Doodlin' zombies. Really rough doodles, I'm tired tonight. Thinking about how necromancy works in Giant Stories. A long time ago, I was reading Marvel Zombies and I was wondering exactly how zombies work in general. Eventually, I got sick of thinking about it and decided to make zombies that worked in a different way. I wanted a world where zombies are sort of expensive to operate over long periods of time and necromancers are techies who follow a process more complicated than "gesture and nonsense words near corpses".
The idea is that a natural gas reanimates corpses into relatively docile zombies. In the "wild", zombies might stand up and move around a bit, but they're not very coordinated. Necromancers use radio collars and distribution pumps to shift the gas (or compounds created from the gas) around and in doing so command the zombies. Since they move based on contractile tissue, these zombies don't need heads to function. Zombies preserved soon enough in the decomp process exhibit improved reflexes and a small amount of memory, vaguely recognizing situations and surroundings.
An improved process zombifies the heart first and uses it to circulate a gas compound that allows for autonomous movement on corpses with complete circulatory systems enough brain to coordinate various systems necessary for movement. A full tank of necromantic gas can power an adult male and stave off decomp for a few weeks, but more complicated efforts are needed for further protection.
Ghouls are a weird idea I had that I can't get rid of even though they're pretty cumbersome. They're semi-intelligent machines designed for use by humans, immediately before their creators went extinct. So now, they manipulate zombified human corpses into operating them. The original design was huge and clunky and totally setting inappropriate in every way. The newer design (the itty-bitty one down there in the corner) is a little better.
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