Undeath

[lane]

One of the major themes in WoW is undeath (death knights, forsaken, etc.), but this would apply to anything considered "dead" such as vampires. What exactly is the definition of life and why is that any better than undeath

Comments

[shirofan]

As somewhat of an aide to think about: the Victorian vampire stories (including Dracula) were largely more romantic fiction than horror stories.

The act of staking a vampire, note that it was a female vampire that suffered this fate in Dracula, was viewed as one of the most risqué sexual metaphors around at that time.

As for the life issue; scientifically the undead are not alive because they do not fulfill the criteria for life, even if some such as vampires have a diet.
However, if the oxymoronic living dead existed then it would be in the realms of the fantastic and the fantastic can by its very nature tell science to go forth and multiply.

Finally on necrophilia: while the criteria for being alive are not met, neither technically would many versions of criteria for being dead; thus the conclusion would be that a different term entirely should apply. I would be very surprised if such a term does not already exist, but have no real interest in looking to validate this.

[lane]

I'm sure there probably are communities dedicated to it somewhere. I remember when I first discovered furries. :P

I have seen a few programs/movies where they go into the downsides of undeath, but it still doesn't make much sense to me why nautral life is superior. I mean, most of the downsides are somewhat trivial like not being able to go out into the sun. At least with vampires there's usually some that truly enjoy it in contrast to the tortured souls who refuse to subject anyone else to their eternal suffering.