Blood Dragon on 21/1/2005 at 16:36

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We all know that zombies are quite famous in Thief series.

How on earth did a zombie form? I mean, I know that HammerHaunts were formed when someone did something bad to their graves. How about the disgusting zombies?

It also seems that wherever there were Hammerites, zombies were around their temples or cathedrals. (Cragscleft, Haunted Cathedral, St. Edgar Cathedral, Graveyard, catacombs )Is there any connection between Hammerites and zombies?

Lytha on 21/1/2005 at 17:05

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There's definitely a connection between the hammerites and the undead. Though, there is not one single true answer. ;)

In Thief, we learn of the following ways how zombies come into existence:

1.) Someone is tortured badly, sometimes until he dies.
hammerites love torturing the "disbelievers." That's why you find so many zombies in proximity to hammerite facilities. Some examples for this kind of zombie-generation:
- The Zombies in the mine below Cragscleft Prison (this mine was probably sort of a "working camp" of the hammerites; the Zombies are probably both the result of the prisoners slaving away in the mine and of the torture in the prison itself.
- The Zombie in the basement of Truart's mansion (she was still on that rack, though I don't even want to try to imagine what happened there.)
- The Zombies in St. Edgar's Cathedral, Factory
- The "puppets" in the Shalebridge Cradle

2.) It's some kind of disease, related to the sea, perhaps.
That's another explanation for how people become zombies. In this case, the illness rotted the people away until all that was one alive was gone. Some examples again:
- In Shipping&Receiving, you find a dead body in Davidson's ship. This is not (yet) a zombie, but it already quite looks like one.
- In Framed, you find another dead body in the morgue. This fellow died by drowning, IIRC. Again, it is not alive, but looks like the zombies usually do.
- The Abysmal Gale is full of Zombies of this kind.

3.) Necromancers
("Someone did something bad to their graves.") That's the 3rd way how Zombies come into existence in Thief, and it's also quite common - and (mostly) unrelated to the hammerites. Examples again:
- Zombies in the graveyard in Fort Ironwood
- Zombies in the Necromancer's Spire in LotP
(- Zombies in the graveyard in Thief II)
(- Zombies in the Bonehoard)


The Undead in RTC and THC are an interesting topic though. There was probably a combination of these 3 ways happening (torture of the workers in the Cathedral; disease in the Old Quarter; perhaps some necromancy in the graveyard of the Cathedral, caused by people going mad as the bored Eye spoke to them.)


Also, don't forget about Apparitions in the undead mix. ;)
They're quite interesting, too: hammerite Apparitions in Thief I, civilian Apparitions in Thief II, cradle staff in Thief III. And of course the special ones: Murus and Lauryl. :D

doctorfrog on 21/1/2005 at 20:36

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POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW:

I'm going to revive my pet theory: Hammer tech done it.

If you look at the majority of lights in Thief Gold, and many in Thief 2, they are wireless, having little antennae that stick out to presumably receive energy. In one instance, I noticed that a light fixture had been broken off the walll and lay on the ground, with no evidence of wiring. It still glowed as brightly as any other light. Hammerite energy is apparently transmitted without wires, a la Nicola Tesla.

Also, in the bottom of the Cragscleft Mines, there are two Tesla-coil looking things transmitting energy between them. Presumably they are the source of power for the mine lights, and electricity is so cheap that even no one's ever bothered to turn them off in who knows how long, they're still going.

My theory came about here because this is where I made my first terrifying encounter with the undead. Something in the way that Hammers generate energy excites the bodies of the undead. You don't get all that cool wireless electricity, the moonbeam collectors, the neat flickering things on top of streetlamps, without some dire effects.

So here it is: Hammerite technology spews an active energy everywhere, in search of empty vessels. In the case of a dead lamp, it excites the material within to produce light. In the case of certain dead bodies, it excites the body, empty of a soul, to a horrifying sort of half-life. It is also possible that daily exposure to this energy over a lifetime can over-excite the body, producing a zombie upon death even when there is no Hammer tech around, such as in the Bonehoard.

Of course, there are about a dozen holes in this theory, but since it is mine, of course I prefer to believe it. I think it is much more interesting. One possibly interesting implication is the outbreak of a seeming plague, in which certain persons with too much exposure to Hammer tech develop psychosis, turn half-dead, etc.

S_Hole on 21/1/2005 at 21:08

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while i think that the last theory is just silly... weren't the T2 dancing zombies just next to one of those lightning lamps?

dr. cello on 21/1/2005 at 22:33

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I think the reason the bodies look like zombies, Lytha, are because the zombies are supposed to look decayed. Bodies decay faster in water, if memory serves.