# You Can Join the Undead. Which kind? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793 "2011-05-13T16:47:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/21 "2011-05-13T18:20:33Z")
It was a toss-up between lich, for the vast cosmic powers, and vampire, for the whole not-looking-like-something-the-dog-dug-up-and-dragged-in thing. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/22 "2011-05-13T18:29:09Z")
I go Lich for the cool mage powers. For looks and physical pleasures - well, there’s all that magic to cheat around the downsides. Possessing someone for the pleasures of the flesh; illusions to look better, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/23 "2011-05-13T18:29:10Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I chose wrathful wraith. You know, for the wrath. That’s the ticket for me. Imagine how long Osama would have lasted with a little voice whispering in his ear telling him hurting people was bad. Or a fellow barricaded into his house and holding his family hostage, time for a little wrath then, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Lorski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Lorski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorski)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/24 "2011-05-13T18:41:48Z")
Before I vote, what is a lich? ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/25 "2011-05-13T18:48:02Z")
> [@Lorski](#): > > Before I vote, what is a lich? Usually a person who was powerful in life that somehow finds the secret of immortal (undead) life. Their appearance is usually skeletal (obvious undead) in their natural state. > **[Lich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lich)** > > In fantasy fiction, a lich (/lɪtʃ/) is a type of undead creature with magical powers. > Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used lich as a general term for any corpse, animate or inanimate, before the term's specific use in fantasy role-playing games. The more recent use of the term lich for a specific type of undead creature originates from the 1976 Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game booklet Greyhawk, written by Gary Gygax... Hmmm. The main sorceror in “Big Trouble in Little China”, Lopan. Lich? I never thought of it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/26 "2011-05-13T18:49:20Z")
> [@Lorski](#): > > Before I vote, what is a lich? [Wikipedia to the rescue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lich) ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/27 "2011-05-13T18:50:38Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > [Wikipedia to the rescue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lich) Neener Neener. Can’t match my speedy little gnomish pigtails! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/28 "2011-05-13T18:59:53Z")
Wait, what? Since when are ghouls lecherous? In most myths I know of, they prowl graveyards eating corpses, not fucking them. The main exception I can think of is WoD, where they are the mortal but supernatural servants of vampires. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/29 "2011-05-13T19:03:40Z")
What, no zombies, mummies, ghouls, or skeletons, yet? ---
**Author:** ![Lorski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Lorski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorski)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/30 "2011-05-13T19:09:59Z")
Thanks **Oak** and **mlees**. Methinks I shall go with a vampire. They have a buncha cool powers and can interact with people. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/31 "2011-05-13T19:12:28Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Wait, what? Since when are ghouls lecherous? In most myths I know of, they prowl graveyards eating corpses, not fucking them. The main exception I can think of is WoD, where they are the mortal but supernatural servants of vampires. I could dig out hordes of cites for you … … but, really, I just thought it sounded funny. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/32 "2011-05-13T19:20:26Z")
If you want to be a ghoul, but not be lecherous, that’s fine with me. You can be a chaste ghoul. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/33 "2011-05-13T19:20:38Z")
I didn’t see anything that looks like what I would choose, which would be a [Deadman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadman)-style ghost. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/34 "2011-05-13T19:22:44Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I didn’t see anything that looks like what I would choose, which would be a [Deadman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadman)-style ghost. So, a “terrifying ghost,” then? From your cite: “Deadman is a ghost…” ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/35 "2011-05-13T19:26:59Z")
Vampire. The only thing I’d worry about is being arrested. How would I escape? They only let prisoners out in the yard in the daytime, so how am I going to fly away as a bat? Maybe transfix the guard and make him unlock my cell? Just blood-suck everyone that comes my way and walk right out? I guess I’d have to relocate every five years or so so that no one catches on that everywhere I go, pretty young things start dropping like flies. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/36 "2011-05-13T19:33:40Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > So, a “terrifying ghost,” then? > > From your cite: “Deadman is a ghost…” A ghost who “is given the power to possess any living being,” specifically. This is the element that I did not see addressed in the poll options. Basically, I’m just looking to find a way to become Dr. Sam Beckett. If I have to die to do it, well, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/37 "2011-05-13T19:44:20Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > A ghost who “is given the power to possess any living being,” specifically. This is the element that I did not see addressed in the poll options. Well, if you’re going to nitpick the options in a poll about what kind of undead you’d choose to be … :dubious: > [@mlees](#): > > Neener Neener. Can’t match my speedy little gnomish pigtails! Hmmm, sounds like “something else horrible and forgotten” to me! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/38 "2011-05-13T19:47:05Z")
What’s the difference between spectre and ghost? Anyway, it’s kinda hard to choose against vampire, they’re the only ones that can really “pass” and still keep up a relatively normal human existence (if they so choose). Assuming “Highlander Immortal” doesn’t actually qualify as undead, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/39 "2011-05-13T19:53:59Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > What’s the difference between spectre and ghost? Hmmm … a spectre is more ephemeral? More incorporeal? Something that primarily haunts the psyche? That’s all I got. > [@](#): > > Anyway, it’s kinda hard to choose against vampire, they’re the only ones that can really “pass” and still keep up a relatively normal human existence (if they so choose). Assuming “Highlander Immortal” doesn’t actually qualify as undead, anyway. But consider the merits of being a zombie: you get to eat brains, but never have to think about what you’re doing. Win! ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793/40 "2011-05-13T20:07:03Z")
Vampires get chicks, lots of chicks. Hell, even fake vampires get chicks, look at the Twilight fans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-join-the-undead-which-kind/581793.md?page=3)