Editing Kyuad's Lorebook (section)

===Undead of Aryth===
Izrador’s high priest, Sunulael, is himself an undead creature, but not a randomly risen Fell. He is the product of Izrador’s corrupting will, an eternal creature of jealousy and ambition, something unlike the others. All the other undead of the world have their origins in Izrador, and most came seeking him in order to extend their lives and grow their power. There are rituals known only to Izrador and his high legates that can bestow undeath on a creature, willing or not. Different rituals produce different undead—vampires, ghosts and that known as lich — all of whom reach the other side with new powers, new perceptions, and a complete and utter devotion to Izrador’s cause. For the most part, Izrador leaves these new servants to their own devices, secure in the knowledge that even as they fulfill the desires that led them to this choice they will also be furthering his goals. Sunulael often demands a period of service from those he transforms, and it is hoped that the commanders among his undead army at Cambrial may, if the offensive is stalled long enough, eventually desert his service. If such desertion can be timed just right, it could turn the tide of the war in Erethor toward the forces of good.

Cambrial is the nexus for undead in the world, and the groaning of its mindless denizens can be heard for 20 miles or more on clear nights. Those who wish to undergo the transformation into intelligent undead most often journey there to meet with Sunulael, an event that in and of itself maddens those with weak minds. Of those who survive the mere presence of the Priest of Shadow, many falter in their decisions. No matter to Sunulael, however—they are marked to become mindless slaves and sent to the front lines in Erethor. Those who persevere are rewarded with the curse of eternal undeath and subservience to Izrador. Their minds are scoured by the dark god, but left relatively intact, and then they are sent on their way.
Cambrial was once one of the largest cities in southern Erenland and home to a vibrant, mixed-race population. Among the Sarcosan majority lived Erenlanders, Northmen, elven traders, and even a few city-dwelling halflings. Even in the dark days at the end of the Third Age, the city remained a center for interracial trade and was known throughout the southlands as the home of Sarcosan wizardry. When the Shadow’s forces took southern Erenland, they attacked and razed Cambrial as a demonstration of their power and ruthlessness. They killed all who did not flee, filling the city’s streets with blood. At the command of the Night Kings, the bodies were purposefully left untended and soon every last one rose as Fell. Neither time nor decay seemed to diminish the undead horde’s numbers and many believe it is the black magic of Izrador that maintain them. Perhaps charmed by their tenacity, the Night King known as the Priest of Shadow has made Cambrial his most common lair, within which new undead monstrosities are constantly being born from the City of Dead and the Obsidian Spire as well. In the century since its fall, so many of the foul creatures continued to haunt the place that the ruins of Cambrial came to be known as the City of the Dead. The settlement and its environs have become so dangerous that even orc legions stay well clear of the region, if they can. Unfortunately, the Priest of Shadow and his legate servants require guards, servants, supplies, and all the other trappings of a community, so Sarcosans and Erenlanders are commonly rounded up and replanted in the various keeps and secured buildings of Cambrial, forced to do their best to raise food and meet their masters’ needs while avoiding the often uncontrolled Fell and other, more powerful undead that roam the ruined sections of the city and its outskirts. No more than 1,000 humans and halflings live here at any given time . . . though that number begins dropping from the moment a “fresh” shipment of transplants arrives, and must be supplemented every few years. No one knows how many undead roam the city and its environs, but those few who have escaped the place alive say that they must outnumber the living by a ratio of ten to one, at least.

Across Aryth, the more common undead creatures are each actually part of a continuum of decay and corruption, both physical and spiritual. While undead once existed on Aryth thanks to the normal means of restless spirits and foul necromancy, the Sundering caused them to be far more common thanks to a corruption of the natural cycle. Whereas once all souls ascended to some higher place or joined the spirits of their ancestors as part of the Eternal, now they are trapped, either in body or in spirit, to the world that birthed them, unable to pass the veil brought down by the Sundering.