Wealcanlich (5e Creature)

Medium undead, unaligned

Armor Class 8
Hit Points 30 (4d8 + 12)
Speed 20 ft.

Saving Throws Con +5
Proficiency Bonus +2
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 8
Languages understands the languages it knew in life but can't speak
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the wealcanlich to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant damage or from a critical hit. On a success, the wealcanlich drops to 1 hit point instead.

Legends of the walking dead are found throughout Earth, most rooted in little more than human imagination and the reasonable fear and aversion to the dead. On Kaimere however, the living dead are much more common. For the simple fact that Kaimerans are host to hereditary magic that bolsters their immune system and health, and sometimes when a person perishes, that magic isn't ready to die. It is this reason that most Kaimeran cultures burn the dead and even then most of the time the magic dies with the host, but it has been documented enough times that the Assembly and Great Library can recognize it as a real phenomenon. These undead have many names, but the Assembly generally refer to them all under the umbrella term wealcanlich (Old English walking dead). While wealcanlichs have inspired many a story of warriors brought beyond the grave or revenants with unfinished business, the truth of what wealcanlichs are is perhaps disturbingly plain: a parasite refusing to give up the host.
Not Ready to Die. As stated above, wealcanlichs occur when the hereditary magic of a Kaimeran refuses to let its host die, even after its bodily functions have mostly ceased. This is because the magic needs a host that it is bound to and without it the magic will die, much like a tapeworm would without a host, but this may take weeks to even years in extreme cases. Unlike most conceptions of the living dead, wealcanlichs are highly variable in appearance, ranging from stalling the rot so much they could be mistaken for a lethargic living to a full on animated skeleton with only the connective tissues preserved.
Although the core systems of the body have deteriorated, wealcanlichs will still eat and sleep, presumably so the body and therefore the magic can recover. Fire will destroy the body and the magic quite easily, hence the common practice among Kaimeran cultures to burn the dead thus preventing wealcanlich formation from occurring in the first place. Although unnerving however, wealcanlichs are very rarely dangerous, generally moving around obstacles if impeded rather than fight and as a general rule they lack substantial intelligence. Despite this however, many do worry about the potential of a loved one being risen as a wealcanlich, although this is quite rare in Kaimere today and almost nonexistent in modern Earth.
Horrors Walking Again. While burning of the dead is said to have been a common practice in the Age of Witches even amongst the Pakardiant and Telmede, who in modern times generally do not burn their dead, wealcanlichs are very rarely even rumored let alone actually reanimated in modern times. Something that this is accounts of historical exaggeration, but others prepose that it is because the hereditary magic of Kaimerans was more potent during this time: Kaimerans possess magic within them that gives them extremely long life and health. Bone and tissue studies of bodies from the Age of Witches support this theory, showing not only higher concentrations of magic within the remains but also growth rings on the bones suggesting individuals regularly lived to be 1,000 years old, whereas modern Kaimerans generally begin aging rapidly at between 5-700. As one may expect this theory is not at all popular among Kaimerans, but it does seem to be consistent with archaeological evidence and actually does make some sense upon inspection: hereditary magic for all its benefits has an extremely high caloric demand, and while it may be appealing to some to live well into their 1,000s, it is plausible that the demands to maintain the magic beyond that point was eventually untennable and a more modest, less extreme form of magic was more successful over time.
Although a typical wealcanlich is benign, during the Age of Witches there were powerful necromancers that found it very efficient to more or less hack into a recently deceased individual's hereditary magic, bolster it, and raise the corpse as a slave to serve them. While an unenchanted corpse could still be raised, directing the hereditary magic is substantially easier, which explains why such armies were rare on Earth as well. A sufficiently powerful witch could have an elite guard of dozens of wealcanlichs and the most powerful could even have an entire army of undead, adding to the horde as they slaughter their way across enemy lines. While this is seen as a quintessential horror of the Age of Witches in many stories, there frighteningly have been witches and demons^[1] in modern times to have raised a the dead to serve their purposes. Hezuki, a wild magic^[2] demon from Kaishel, was the most recent creator of a wealcanlich horde, which she used to slaughter her way across many islands of the eastern Khalin Sea and consume the inhabitants. More well-known examples, mainely due to being more so in the Known World proper, are during the conquests of the Seridic Wetlands by the Cha'Khati Empire and subjegation of the Kenta Islands by the Qajarith Republic respectively, in which powerful witches of the defenders raised armies of their fallen kin and enemy soldiers to lead unexpected and brutally successful retaliation attacks against the invaders. Magic of any kind, witches included, is put down with prejudice by the Republic and in theirs and Imperial laws necromancy is forbidden so wiches with this power are supposedly extinct, at least within the territory of the Great Nations. Even so, rumors persists of powerful witch lords, with such power as to raise hordes of wealcanlichs and capable of much more, await those who dare to find them, on the fringes of Known World.