Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: The previous text posted contained a more detailed look into a specific instance of something that can be called a zombie. But the term is only descriptive, there are different ways in which a body can be controlled, manipulated and used by an entity, possibly even of cosmic origin. This work enumerates over recent cases of that exact nature.
♦ The Shenyang Incident, 1907
A number of animate bodies were encountered by a group mages seeking an apostate from their group in north-eastern China. The bodies were found to be infected with what is presumed to be the first encounter with the ZF-Entity. The details of the proceedings are sparse but seem to suggest that the bodies were destroyed at some loss to the mages. Also, refer to the Shenyang Re-emergence Incident in 1943.
♦ The Karachi Singing Cave, 1911
The exact reasons for the discovery around Karachi, Pakistan, are unknown. The records remaining from the incident are fragmentary and unclear in places.
“[we ?] discovered a cave containing many dozen mummified bodies. Though the bodies showed no sign of life they all emitted a constant low droning sound, looking in the direction of the setting sun. There was a queer scent of […?]”
“[the bodies ?] were leathery and dark, missing eyes or a tongue, however, they seemed to still be [… breathing?]”
“[again, the bodies were ?] marked with ritual laceration marks, including the Key of Ages and the Gate of Stars.”
The incident is considered quite curious as it does not correlate with any other instance of animated corpses. The fate of the corpses is unknown, but they are presumed to have been burned.
♦ The Abidjan Puppeteer, 1912
A hermit living north of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, was found to be an animated corpse after being shot by French military on suspicion of carrying the feared yellow fever.
A local mage took interest in the still moving corpse afterwards and managed to secure it for dissection. A life form known as the Abidjan Puppeteer was removed from the chest cavity. Though the creature suffered a mortal wound it was capable of communicating with the mage to a limited extent.
The document that resulted from this meeting is known as the Abidjan Prophesies. As of 1920, they were considered a forbidden tome. As of 1943, they were proven to be incorrect. Analysis of the document in 1962 suggests that it was not what it was initially assumed to be. The study was concluded in 1965 by Oluwayemisi Nkiruka Kariuki, showing that the document was, in fact, an attempted basilisk text for some kind of Xenomantic ritual. The execution was never attempted.
The original document was destroyed, though transcriptions of both the document itself and the basilisk text can be found in the wild. The latter document is considered a Class L Forbidden Tome.
♦ The Dongguan Infestation, 1912
Considered to be the second documented encounter with the ZF-Entity, multiple groups of animate corpses were encountered west of Dongguan, China. The corpses were eradicated by the local military. The events erased naturally via Postrationalisation.
An instance of what was later codenamed as ZF-Entity-Shen (Zhi Zhang, “The ZF-Entity – The Truth, The Myth, The Warning” 2003) caused several instances of Terminal Cognitive Dissonance before being destroyed, in addition to its rather formidable conventional killing power. The nature of the “zombies” as an incubative stage of the ZF-Entity became clear.
It is currently unknown what the ZF-E-Shen is and if it is the final stage of the organism’s life cycle. This is only one of two known instances of encounters with the creature.
♦ The Shenyang Re-emergence Incident, 1943
During the second Sino-Japanese war, a group of Chinese soldiers encountered the second known instance of the ZF-E-Shen, in addition to a group of approximately a hundred “zombies”.
Due to the lack of presence of mages in the area, it is unknown what happened exactly but investigations in 1982 by Jiang and Yeung reveal a likely scenario.
At the moment is assumed that the ZF-E-Shen was capable of destroying the detachment, but instead chose to attempt incapacitating the soldiers. The method the entity employed relied on breaking both arms and legs of the target. This proved to be a fatal mistake as, in an act of heroism never to be appreciated by the wider public, an unknown and unnamed soldier detonated an explosive, killing himself and severing the ZF-E-Shen lower body. Though still quite dangerous the creature fell under overwhelming firepower and the whole area, including the remaining animated corpses, was put to flame.
At the current moment, this is the last instance of a ZF-E-Shen being seen, though several more outbreaks of the ZF-Entity itself were reported in 1972 and 1977, both of these events are considered too minor to have possibly led to the next stage.
Several instances preserved ZF-Entity infected corpses are known to be held by various arcane institutions in China, though access to them is severely limited.
♦ The Pune Hermit, 1955
Another very unique case, the Pune Hermit was an animated corpse that held onto a semblance of consciousness for many years. The corpse was regarded as a holy man by the people, who would claim he did not need to eat nor sleep and would spend time meditating in a small hermitage north-east of Pune, India.
The corpse eventually came to the attention of local mages who decided to study it. Mysteriously, the corpse became inert within two days of the mages showing up. A dissection of the body revealed suspicious markings on the spine and skull, resembling the letter H.
This case is infamous for not fitting with any other known incident and the general lack of information about it.
Though it bears similarity to the Abidjan Puppeteer, the corpses in both cases appeared very different. Where the Puppeteer’s corpse was quite unhealthy looking while the Pune Hermit was perfectly preserved.
♦ The Addis Ababa Pit, 1972
The case of the Addis Ababa Pit is perhaps the most disturbing of the ones described within the compilation due to the involvement of the human element.
The Pit was an underworld “attraction” located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where a pair of “zombie” children (approximately 14 years of age) were kept in a large arena-like pit in the ground. The pit was designed to not let the children escape as they were repeatedly pitted against wild animals.
According to onlookers, the animals seemed to have some instinctual aversion to the children and would attempt to avoid them until cornered and consumed alive by the two corpses.
At the end of the Pit, both of the children were bloodless and in a tattered condition. Both of the corpses were cremated.
If the story told by their “handler”, the children were part of a family reanimated by some sort of shamanistic curse. The man claims to have quartered and burned their parents as they were too difficult to handle and capture, but had an idea for making money off the two children.
Editor’s note: Due to the rather touchy nature of the subject we have chosen to self-censor part of this text. The related information is currently considered Forbidden Tome, Class L/ML, material. We suggest not researching the incident any further.
The events underwent Postrationalisation. Currently, the Pit is considered to have been a particularly violent animal cruelty incident among the Normas.
♦ The Shenyang Echo, 1972 and 1977
Two more incidents of the ZF-Entity emerging close to Shenyang, China. Both events were met with a swift and decisive response from the local mage community. Incendiaries and acids were used to dispose of the affected corpses. No instances of ZF-E-Shen were encountered.
♦ The Sao Paulo Exhibit, 1981
This case is often linked with the Singing Cave incident from 1911. A corpse was discovered in an undisclosed location in the Amazonian jungle. The body was moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for study. While inert initially, the body became animated when an autopsy was attempted. The reason for the awakening is unknown. The awakening event caused Terminal Cognitive Dissonance in seven Normas before a mage (Ema Rios, the current leading expert on the so-called Singing Corpses) could handle the situation. During the awakening, the corpse spoke, the record is known as the Sao Paulo Fragment:
“The stars will go dim, but I will be with you.
My body will become ash, yet I will remain.
At the end of time, when all is dust, we will meet.”
The voice was noted to have an unearthly quality to it. E. Rios writes.
“I felt the voice was addressing me directly. It was quite a ghoulish experience, you’d need to be there to really understand, it wasn’t a simple thing, rather everything together. The bodies, the corpse, the voice… and yes, the words it spoke.”
Though the body bears no ritual markings it did exhibit a droning noise at random intervals. In 1985 the body was frozen and has remained frozen since then. The droning ceased at that point.
Analysis of the corpse shows some form of fractal spatial entanglement. Though with what the corpse is entangled remains unknown.
Editor’s note: In 2003 Ema Rios committed suicide. The text of this section was not altered to reflect this development.
♦ The Hyderabad Doll Incident, 1987
An Elb was discovered east of Hyderabad, India, using a human corpse as a Doll. This wasn’t the first instance of such misconduct in recorded history. The situation was handled by Doctor Sumati Gupta, an experienced Xenopsychologist. In the doctor’s own words:
“It’s hard for them to understand the reverence we hold for our departed. But I gave it a stern talking and I think it will behave better now. At least until it forgets.”
The incident is considered fairly inconsequential, as the corpse in question belonged to a woman who has died of natural causes.
Esoteric Musings... 