What To Expect When You're (Not) Expecting Deadites: A Primer
What To Expect When You're (Not) Expecting Deadites:
A primer
By one_more_cherry
The Necronomicon: According to Evil Dead II, the Necronomicon Ex Mortis is an ancient Sumerian text made from the flesh and blood of the living. Its pages are scribed with incantations, spells and burial rites "not meant for the world of the living". Somehow the tome made its way to Medieval England, where it was excavated by Professor Raymond Knowby. Knowby made the mistake of translating passages of the book aloud, which resulted in him summoning a demon, which possessed the body of his wife. He was forced to kill and chop her up, then further dark forces took his life. Somehow, the evil is temporarily mollified by the time Ash and Linda get to the Knowby's vacation cabin, where Ash plays the incantation again and unleashes the evil once more.
How to Raise The Dead: There seems to be multiple ways to unleash Deadites upon the waking world. In Evil Dead continuity, simply playing aloud the recording summons them; in Army of Darkness simply touching the book without saying the magic words unleashes them. After the events of Army of Darkness, Ash's misspeaking of the magic words ("klaatu barrada nikktu") leaves the wall between the Deadite's hell dimension semi-permeable, which means the demonic forces can pass more easily between their world and ours.
Their appearance and attack patterns are completely and utterly random - the most obvious sign of an incoming Deadite attack is a sudden drop in room temperature, followed by a loss of electrical power. It's the small signs of life die first, such as plants and other organisms.
Methods of Possession: Deadites generally possess human bodies through two methods; either by rushing upon the person as a horrible-to-behold force of nature or by penetrating the victim's body via some method (IE: by breaking the skin or entering the body - yes, this can include violation of a physical nature). Possession can take up to an hour to occur after the initial attack.
Physical Attributes: When your body is inhabited by a Kandarian demon, you're technically, for all purposes, dead. You breathe, and your heart beats, but you're a living host for the demon in every other respect. You go from looking like this to looking like this in the space of a minute. The voice turns raspy and demonic; the skin turns pasty; the eyes turn pure white or a sickly yellow. Your skin peels or rots off, and your hair turns ratty.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Deadites posess the faculties of their human selves, with the addition of super strength and speed, the ability to levitate and a certain level of invulnerability to pain, as well as somewhat of a craving for the souls of others. What makes Deadites so deadly is their utter audacity in the face of conflict; they kill wantonly, without fear of damage to their own forms, and will saw off their limbs to better get at their enemies. Worse yet, they can temporarily shift appearence and voice, falsifying a return to their normal state.
There are two ways to dispose of a Deadite; total and complete dismemberment (as Ash says at one point, "there's no halfway job with 'em") or, in the case of Army of Darkness, defeating the leader of the Deadite infestation. In Evil Dead, once the demons are defeated, the human host body breaks down in a colorful display of gore; in Army of Darkness, the posessed returns to their former state (and the difference is, of course, never explained).
Please feel free to address any questions you have here :) . Oh, and it's completely possible to play the game without ever encountering a Deadite, so if you have plans for your character that don't include brushes with demons, feel free to play as you will!
A primer
By one_more_cherry
The Necronomicon: According to Evil Dead II, the Necronomicon Ex Mortis is an ancient Sumerian text made from the flesh and blood of the living. Its pages are scribed with incantations, spells and burial rites "not meant for the world of the living". Somehow the tome made its way to Medieval England, where it was excavated by Professor Raymond Knowby. Knowby made the mistake of translating passages of the book aloud, which resulted in him summoning a demon, which possessed the body of his wife. He was forced to kill and chop her up, then further dark forces took his life. Somehow, the evil is temporarily mollified by the time Ash and Linda get to the Knowby's vacation cabin, where Ash plays the incantation again and unleashes the evil once more.
How to Raise The Dead: There seems to be multiple ways to unleash Deadites upon the waking world. In Evil Dead continuity, simply playing aloud the recording summons them; in Army of Darkness simply touching the book without saying the magic words unleashes them. After the events of Army of Darkness, Ash's misspeaking of the magic words ("klaatu barrada nikktu") leaves the wall between the Deadite's hell dimension semi-permeable, which means the demonic forces can pass more easily between their world and ours.
Their appearance and attack patterns are completely and utterly random - the most obvious sign of an incoming Deadite attack is a sudden drop in room temperature, followed by a loss of electrical power. It's the small signs of life die first, such as plants and other organisms.
Methods of Possession: Deadites generally possess human bodies through two methods; either by rushing upon the person as a horrible-to-behold force of nature or by penetrating the victim's body via some method (IE: by breaking the skin or entering the body - yes, this can include violation of a physical nature). Possession can take up to an hour to occur after the initial attack.
Physical Attributes: When your body is inhabited by a Kandarian demon, you're technically, for all purposes, dead. You breathe, and your heart beats, but you're a living host for the demon in every other respect. You go from looking like this to looking like this in the space of a minute. The voice turns raspy and demonic; the skin turns pasty; the eyes turn pure white or a sickly yellow. Your skin peels or rots off, and your hair turns ratty.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Deadites posess the faculties of their human selves, with the addition of super strength and speed, the ability to levitate and a certain level of invulnerability to pain, as well as somewhat of a craving for the souls of others. What makes Deadites so deadly is their utter audacity in the face of conflict; they kill wantonly, without fear of damage to their own forms, and will saw off their limbs to better get at their enemies. Worse yet, they can temporarily shift appearence and voice, falsifying a return to their normal state.
There are two ways to dispose of a Deadite; total and complete dismemberment (as Ash says at one point, "there's no halfway job with 'em") or, in the case of Army of Darkness, defeating the leader of the Deadite infestation. In Evil Dead, once the demons are defeated, the human host body breaks down in a colorful display of gore; in Army of Darkness, the posessed returns to their former state (and the difference is, of course, never explained).
Please feel free to address any questions you have here :) . Oh, and it's completely possible to play the game without ever encountering a Deadite, so if you have plans for your character that don't include brushes with demons, feel free to play as you will!