Not crossing running water makes me think of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Dracula. The first because of how most stories insist that the Headless Horseman always stops at an old bridge. Dracula is more obvious as most of the time vampires can’t cross running water. Hmmmm… I never thought of negative consequences for honoring one’s ancestors
In a world where you're dead relatives give you strength I can see cremation being frowned upon if not forbidden if some nobleman premieres his brother I can see the starting all sorts of negative rumors
I'm having more or less the exact opposite problem. XD Currently trying to make a necromancer and his undead hordes seem like a credible threat to... a country spread across a volcanic island chain where every adult has a fire-breathing dragon partner. Not my brightest move in selecting a villain, I admit. 😅
Make your undead able to manipulate water. Especially salt water is often seen as having magical protective properties (partially because of its ability to disinfect wounds. Let your undead use the salt water to shield themselves from fire.
Interesting. In designing my RPG worlds’ funerary customs, I’ve always thought about how the living want to be honored and remembered after they die, how the gods say things should be done, and getting the soul to the most desirable afterlife, but not about keeping them from coming back. I guess I always assumed that raising the dead was something that took considerable effort by a necromancer or dark priest, rather than something that would happen on its own if you don’t prevent it. Your video provokes me to think, why do we always fear that the dead will want to kill the living if they’re allowed to come back? Obviously vampires need blood to live, but not necessarily human blood, and ghosts are traditionally represented as not needing sustenance at all. Even the whole “zombies eat brains” thing is a recent invention; in traditional Haitian superstition, zombies could eat a normal human diet after reanimation. One possibility is that the dead envy the living and hate them. Or perhaps they have come under the dominion of evil demons or deities in the afterlife, who are using them for their own malicious ends. But maybe they’re just lonely, missing the living as much as the living miss the dead, and want us to rejoin them? Maybe they even find death more pleasant than life, and think that by killing us, they’re doing us good? Or maybe they’re completely misunderstood, and mean us no harm at all; it’s our own horror and fear of the dead that makes us assume they’re dangerous. There are so many possibilities.
If I put on my prosaic hat, the superstitions probably started because being around a corpse isn't good for humans and can cause the spread of deadly diseases, hence the dead reaching out the kill the living and hence the removal of burial places from homes and to separate contained graveyards. But from a fantasy perspective.... :D So many great options. Evil: The dead could need the living to stay away from whatever afterlife is trying to claim them. Not evil: The dead could be just misunderstood and actually are trying to warn the living about great disasters. And so on and so forth :D
This was great! About the cairns and the shifting landscape was fascinating! I think the first time I encountered water as a barrier to the supernatural was Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
Or what would happen if a party member fell in a graveyard, and when the other party members attended the resurrection, they had already been sealed away. That could be fun.🤷
This trope is inverted in one of my stories because ghosts are common and basically try to keep going about their undead lives
Running water was the actual barrier anime wealthy people with constant mobile swimming pools or living on boats
Wow! Was not expecting a Gutsick Gibbon reference! I love her channel!
Me too :)
Not crossing running water makes me think of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Dracula. The first because of how most stories insist that the Headless Horseman always stops at an old bridge. Dracula is more obvious as most of the time vampires can’t cross running water.
Hmmmm… I never thought of negative consequences for honoring one’s ancestors
Yeah the running water thing is definitely a theme :D
In a world where you're dead relatives give you strength I can see cremation being frowned upon if not forbidden if some nobleman premieres his brother I can see the starting all sorts of negative rumors
Absolutely, that would be a great taboo.
I'm having more or less the exact opposite problem. XD
Currently trying to make a necromancer and his undead hordes seem like a credible threat to... a country spread across a volcanic island chain where every adult has a fire-breathing dragon partner.
Not my brightest move in selecting a villain, I admit. 😅
Make your undead able to manipulate water. Especially salt water is often seen as having magical protective properties (partially because of its ability to disinfect wounds. Let your undead use the salt water to shield themselves from fire.
@@JustInTimeWorldbuilding Oooooh... I can use undead sea creatures with that, too. Giant zombie whale...
About to settle in and watch! I'm excited!
Happy Halloween! :D
Interesting. In designing my RPG worlds’ funerary customs, I’ve always thought about how the living want to be honored and remembered after they die, how the gods say things should be done, and getting the soul to the most desirable afterlife, but not about keeping them from coming back. I guess I always assumed that raising the dead was something that took considerable effort by a necromancer or dark priest, rather than something that would happen on its own if you don’t prevent it.
Your video provokes me to think, why do we always fear that the dead will want to kill the living if they’re allowed to come back? Obviously vampires need blood to live, but not necessarily human blood, and ghosts are traditionally represented as not needing sustenance at all. Even the whole “zombies eat brains” thing is a recent invention; in traditional Haitian superstition, zombies could eat a normal human diet after reanimation. One possibility is that the dead envy the living and hate them. Or perhaps they have come under the dominion of evil demons or deities in the afterlife, who are using them for their own malicious ends. But maybe they’re just lonely, missing the living as much as the living miss the dead, and want us to rejoin them? Maybe they even find death more pleasant than life, and think that by killing us, they’re doing us good? Or maybe they’re completely misunderstood, and mean us no harm at all; it’s our own horror and fear of the dead that makes us assume they’re dangerous. There are so many possibilities.
If I put on my prosaic hat, the superstitions probably started because being around a corpse isn't good for humans and can cause the spread of deadly diseases, hence the dead reaching out the kill the living and hence the removal of burial places from homes and to separate contained graveyards.
But from a fantasy perspective.... :D So many great options. Evil: The dead could need the living to stay away from whatever afterlife is trying to claim them. Not evil: The dead could be just misunderstood and actually are trying to warn the living about great disasters.
And so on and so forth :D
This was great! About the cairns and the shifting landscape was fascinating! I think the first time I encountered water as a barrier to the supernatural was Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
That is a classic :D The TV series by the same name is great too!
@@JustInTimeWorldbuilding I hadn't seen the show, I'll add that to my list lol. Still annoyed by the Tim Burton movie 😅
Chain the dead caught my eye. That's cool for sure
Thanks :)
When you mentioned ancestor worship what do you think of someone having superhuman strength in their home
That would be fun :D
In Japanese Shinto, running water is associated with life while still water (stagnant) is associated with death.
This is one I haven't developed too much. The only restless dead I have is someone who is bound by an oath which prevents them from resting
That’s a neat bit of world building. I like contract style magic.
TH-cam randomly recommended me this thanks TH-cam 😁
Welcome to my corner of TH-cam :)
Or what would happen if a party member fell in a graveyard, and when the other party members attended the resurrection, they had already been sealed away. That could be fun.🤷
Great hook for an adventure 😂