Skeleton Warriors – Your standard fantasy fare Skeleton with a bit of extra punch. Wearing some small amount of armor and wielding a sword and shield, Skeleton Warriors are the second most common undead in Kain’s forces. Skeleton Warriors are made from the bones of dead warriors that either were animated by a necromancer, were the remains of a warrior who was not buried properly or were the remains of warrior with incredible malice in their hearts. Either way, Skeleton Warriors are slightly more dangerous than regular Skeletons, mostly due to them being just intelligent enough to wear some armor or wield weapons. This does not make them capable fighters by any means, as they just flail their weapons wildly in a desperate attempt to hit something.

Skeleton Warriors are, like all undead, weak to holy magic and also have a weakness to blunt damage due to being nothing but bones. If a Skeleton Warrior gains enough experience with a weapon they will begin to wield it more effectively. Even though a Skeleton uses a bow enough times, they will become more effective with it and have some semblance of accuracy. Kain’s Skeleton Warriors are different from the norm in that they come into existence fully capable with a weapon as if they had spent over a year with it. They are still just as brittle as normal and are only about as skilled in combat as a rookie adventurer, but they make up for it in their abnormal ability to coordinate with other members of their unit, a trait shared by all of Kain’s undead.

All undead are immune to Fear, and Poison, and cause Fear themselves but summoned undead will quickly crumble if their master is slain or incapacitated. All of Kain’s undead are summoned in units of a certain number and unlike normal undead act as a cohesive formation rather than as individuals. This is radically different from how most undead work, which merely attack in swarms with no tactical or strategic capability besides the ‘human wave’ tactic.

Unit Size – 320 (Four times the size of a standard Human Swordsman Formation)

…

Skeleton Spearman – A Skeleton Warrior equipped with slightly more armor and a spear rather than a sword and shield. They are less damaging than Skeleton Warriors, but are an better counter to cavalry charges and have stronger defensive power. Other than those things they are the same as Skeleton Warriors. As a Skeleton Spearman unit grows in rank, they are more durable, and more proficient with their spears and ultimately gain a shield that helps boost their defense even higher. Despite the shields that veteran Skeleton Spearmen wield taking up one of their hands, their usage and potency with the spear does not decline, with their weapon hand being powerful enough to use the spear as if they had both of their hands grasping it. All undead are immune to Fear, and Poison, but in exchange will quickly crumble if their master is slain or incapacitated.

Unit Size – 320 (Four times the size of a standard Human Spearman Formation)

…

Skeleton Archers – Skeleton Archers are Skeletons with bows and arrows. Due to being low-tier undead they have little accuracy and merely fire inaccurate volleys in the general direction of their foe. They have no armor on them save for ratty cloth tunics and therefore are just as vulnerable in melee as a normal Skeleton. Unlike a normal archer, Skeleton Archers make use of arrows made solely of bone. Were it not for the slight amount of magic that fills each arrow they generate and fire, the arrows would be even less accurate and would likely fall short of their target. Bone Arrows are as strong as iron-tipped arrows, but as a Skeleton Archer unit grows in rank their fire becomes more frequent, more accurate and deadlier as the Bone Arrows become like solid steel crossbow bolts with the range of an arrow. All undead are immune to Fear, and Poison, but in exchange will quickly crumble if their master is slain or incapacitated.

Unit Size – 320 (Four times size of a standard Human Archer Formation)

…

Zombies – No viruses, no bacteria, no parasites and no fungi drive these risen corpses, only necromantic magic. Zombies are, for lack of a better way to put it, dumber than a doornail. They walk slowly towards a target, heedless of anything in their way. It is this mix of sheer stupidity and determined drive to kill their target that makes them dangerous, however. They will follow their target to the ends of the world if they are within their sensory range and will ignore any danger to themselves or those around them in their single-minded pursuit of their foe. While they are armed with nothing but their hands and teeth, this does not stop them from facing a second death head on and overwhelming their foe in a tide of rotting bodies.

Zombies, due to their rotting nature, are a festering nest of all manner of diseases and their fluids which, while not able to turn the living into undead, often leaves dangerous poison-like effects in those they bite or scratch. Zombies are relatively durable, but not because they have armor or hard flesh. Rather their durability comes from their ignorance of any harm that comes to them. Wounds that would kill a human or at least make them leave the battle are simply ignored by a Zombie, and only serve to inconvenience them at worst. The only way to truly kill a Zombie is to dismember it and spread holy water on the remains. Undead have a natural weakness to Holy magic and other such items, and this is true for Zombies as well. All undead are immune to Fear, and Poison, but in exchange will quickly crumble if their master is slain or incapacitated.

Unit Size – 320 (Four times size of a standard Human Military Formation)

…

Dire Wolves – Dire Wolves are horse-sized wolves that were raised into undeath. Thus, they do not tire and are far more dangerous than the hunting hounds of mortals. They have bony heads that just out from underneath rotting flesh and they are by far the fastest undead a novice necromancer can raise. They run across the field of battle as a large pack and can even catch up to and kill men on horseback that are not equipped with sturdy protection. They have the traits of both Zombies and Skeletons but have the truest strengths of neither. They are fast, but brittle and are best used to take out elements that are not suited to melee combat, such as archers and artillery crews. They may be used to deal with light cavalry, but against heavy cavalry they are woefully inadequate. All undead are immune to Fear, and Poison, but in exchange will quickly crumble if their master is slain or incapacitated.

Unit Size – 120 (Triple the size of a standard Human Light Cavalry Formation)

…

Fel Bats – Fel Bats are creatures the size of large horses that drain the blood of the living. While not undead, they are beings that are drawn to places where undead congregate and can be easily dominated by even a novice necromancer due to their simple minds. They have a connection to death and undeath that is unnatural for any living thing to possess and these things lead them to gather where powerful undead reside. Their flight is due to magic, as no natural wind could keep them aloft so easily, and when they attack they do so in groups that barrel into their target with unearthly force. When a beast the size of a large dog rams you as it drops from the skies, it is enough to bruise at best and break bones at worst. When you gather swarms of them together, they can darken the skies and blot out the moon with their number, but only a powerful undead or necromancer would be capable of binding such a host.

Wherever there are Fel Bats, undead are sure to be nearby. Kain’s Fel Bats are strong enough to carry ‘small’ objects into the air and will usually carry a jar containing some kind of chemical or incendiary for a one-time bombing run before then descending to attack Kain’s foes. Despite being technically alive they are counted as Undead by the system of magic that governs the world and as such Poison and Fear to not bother them but if their master is defeated then they will, unlike normal undead which simply fall apart, scatter to the winds to find a new master.

Unit Size – 90 (No equivalent Human Military Formation exists for comparison)