Skeletons

Skeletons are a type of creature in the world of Pillars of Eternity. Corporeal undead in this world all suffer from the same disease, and are merely in different stages of decomposition.

Description
The soul of an undead isn't leaving the body, but the body is slowly decomposing. The undead also get weird cravings after human flesh. If the undead eats human flesh the decomposing stops, but after a while they start to rot again. Eating humans and absorbing the essence from their flesh is the only way to stop decomposition. If they don't eat human flesh they rot and their IQ drops and in time, the mind goes as well as the body. They become feral, then near-vegetative, then purely mechanical - the body nothing more than a fleshless marionette.

Creation
One way to create undead is by binding the soul to the body, which can be performed by an animancer. The animancer sets up some bizarre tools and machines, has the person hold onto some copper wires and after this person dies he or she becomes an undead. But there are supposedly other ways - certain alchemical tinctures and ancient architecturally-embedded machinery.

Stages
There are five decomposition stages of corporeal undead:


 * Fampyrs are the most-recently alive. They are really no different from a normal person aside from a strong craving for human flesh, which is the only substance that can keep their minds lucid and their bodies from decaying. But even by this, they are only delaying the inevitable next state of undead.


 * Darguls are still somewhat intelligent and recognizable as persons, but show signs of physical and mental deterioration. At this stage they starts to lose control of their urges, and their memory begins to slip away. Darguls self-consciousness is flimsy.


 * Guls are a further step down the path, they are more bestial without hair, the flesh sags on the bones, and they live only to feed their hunger.
 * Revenants are visibly rotting, the skin having sloughed away and even the muscle beginning to lose form. Of the mind, only base instincts and the desire to feed remain.
 * Skeletons are what remain once all the flesh has rotted away. Without the ability or desire to feed, they are largely murderous automatons acting on pure reflex. Given enough time, even the bones will be reduced to dust which the soul will still be bound to.