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Undead

The animated dead (or undead) are the bodies of formerly living creatures animated through fell magic. These night creatures can be created intentionally by a necromancer to serve him, or arise naturally from the dark energies of evil regions.

Although vampires are no longer performing the bodily functions of a living being, they are not considered the animated dead. Ghosts are called Undead in-game, but they are also not considered animated dead.

As long as the remains of a creature contain a body part capable of grasping, be it a hand or head or the entire upper half, those remains can be animated. Even some parts of creatures which should be incapable of autonomous movement can be raised, such as the hair or skin or even mussel shells. They are, however, predictably nonlethal.

A body part can be resurrected as a zombie even if it has already done so and been de-animated again. However, pulping damage ("exploding into gore", "cloven asunder", "torn into shreds" and so on) to the head, neck, lower body, or upper body will turn the corpse into a "mangled corpse", ensuring that the zombie cannot rise up again. Likewise, destroying the structural integrity of an animate body-part will stop its reanimation.

Traits

Upon animation, an undead gains a syndrome that fundamentally changes its physical characteristics and behaviour. Some of the traits they generally possess are:

Undead retain the wounds that killed them in life, as well as any they have sustained since or from a temporary de-animation. Undead vary in levels of strength depending on their form. The undead of butcherable creatures can still be butchered once de-animated, as long as they have not rotted; doing so will prevent them from re-animating again, though their untanned skins and hair can potentially become undead. Surrounding a butcher's shop with cage traps will help alleviate the problem.

Larger undead with who were building destroyers in life can still destroy buildings, though undead with special attacks like webbing will not be able to use them (zombie dragons, however, still use their breath). Undead thieves can still pick locks, but will not path to a locked door unless in pursuit of the living. If found underground, undead will usually path into a fort if they can.

Undead from necromancer towers are reported to carry armor and weapons.

Thralls, Husks, and Zombies

Certain kinds of evil weather can instantly turn any syndrome-vulnerable creature into a bloodthirsty undead killer, opposed to all life. These creatures are referred to by the sort of weather that transformed them, an identifier as a thrall, husk, or zombie, and their original creature name, e.g. a stray kitten unholy gloom husk. These procedurally generated syndromes of thralling evil clouds are functionally identical to that of animate dead, with the same extreme gains in physical stats, lack of pain or breath, etc.

Because the interaction can happen without first killing the target, thrall-like creatures retain any armor or weapons they were carrying. Perhaps worst of all, they may still be contaminated with the material leading to the transformation, infecting those with whom they wrestle in a chain reaction that can rapidly destroy a fortress if they are not stopped immediately.

Destruction

Pulping or severing an important structural body-part (head, neck, upper body, lower body) is guaranteed to kill an undead. Blunt weapons are effective weapons to use for animated corpses for they are not only less likely to sever off parts for further reanimation, but also are likely to inflict pulping damage, mangling the zombies so badly that they cannot rise up again. Of those available to dwarves, maces are more efficient at pulping than warhammers. Flails are better still if one can acquire them.

Beheading appears to sometimes work less reliably. Crossbow bolts can kill the undead if one of the previously mentioned important body-parts is destroyed by the shot, but as shots cannot aim at specific organs this method often relies on chance.

Cutting apart the physical form of undead can be dangerous if the source of reanimation is still active and present. The more body parts are about, the more can be re-animated again. In this case, either butcher the corpses (if they can be butchered), throw them into magma, or pulverize them with a drawbridge. Undead animals can be disposed of by cage-trapping them and trading them away to passing merchants.

Evil weather thralls may also require utmost caution. If the responsible evil cloud is in dust form, the thrall is still contaminated with whatever substance transformed it. If this is the case, any dwarves sent to fight the thrall will become thralls themselves if the thrall tries to wrestle them. In such cases it is better to not fight them directly at all, instead resorting to traps, atom smashers and other indirect ways to neutralise them.

Magma is another effective weapon, as is fire in general. The sheer heat of magma will eventually destroy the corpse, rendering it unable to rise again. Magma kills zombies fairly slowly though.

Discipline is a big obstacle to directly confronting a zombie horde. Without enough discipline, a troop sent to fight them may instead decide to flee in terror. It is important that any undead-fighting squad consists of severely hardened and disciplined soldiers. Additionally, the very act of fighting undead makes dwarves more vulnerable to insanity (particularly if the undead was acquainted with the dwarf fighting it in its former life), which must be countered with as many sources of good thoughts as possible.

Uses

Undead caught in cage traps can be used for fortress defense and executions if you are able to recapture them afterwards. They are hostile to every living creature, including siegers, megabeasts, forgotten beasts, and cavern inhabitants.

Other undead facts