Note: Mina’s dual alignment reflects her unique nature, outside of the strict divisions of the Gods of Light, Darkness, and Balance. Although she is not one of them, she is yet bound by the edicts of the Highgod, and thus she exists as a counterpoint to herself. In this way, she does not upset the Balance of powers in Krynn’s universe.
Disciples of Bone
The War of Souls created a vacuum in the seats of power among the pantheons of both good and evil. Unrest in the realms both divine and infernal has forced the gods to take a far more active role in the world than they have since the earliest days upon Krynn.
The Lord of Death, Chemosh, made the enigmatic Mina his prophet and messenger, creating the nearly unstoppable undead creatures known as the Beloved. Unfortunately for Chemosh, the Beloved proved to be something of a failed experiment. Though Mina created them in Chemosh’s name, the power that created them turned out to be hers. Chemosh found he could not control the undead. (For more information on the Beloved, refer to the Appendix in Amber and Iron, Volume 2, Dark Disciple.) Fortunately for the people of Ansalon, few Beloved are now found roaming Krynn.
After the debacle with the Beloved, Chemosh decided to return to a more tried and true model of disciple, one whose loyalty he could ensure.
Bone Warriors
Bone Warriors are fearsome opponents, extremely difficult to control, even by those who summon them to service. Their undead remains are covered and protected by bone armor. Their souls are bound to the Lord of Death in hatred and anger over their fate. If not controlled by a strong and powerful will, they will attack every living being in sight until there is no one left to kill.
Creation
Among his other duties, the Lord of Death serves an important role as adjudicator of souls. The souls of all who have lived upon Krynn must pass under his watchful eye. Those who strived to do good with their lives pass on to the next stage of the journey. Some may be bound to the service of other gods (such as Morgion) and proceed on to whatever fate awaits them. Some souls who cannot bear to be parted from life—for whatever reason—Chemosh claims for his own. These anguished dead might return to the world as an unquiet spirit, a ghost, or a specter. They might include a husband who comes back to watch over his wife or man who returns to haunt the place where he was murdered.
A Bone Warrior is one of these unquiet undead. In their case, they are warriors who died on the field of battle and who are so filled with hatred of the enemy that they refuse to quit the fight. Their one desire is to return to the world to inflict revenge on those they believe mistreated them. Chemosh will offer them the chance and, if they agree, he will seize them and force the rage-filled spirits to become Bone Warriors in his service.
It is interesting to note that even servants of Light may become Bone Warriors. For example, an elven warrior fighting minotaur in Silvanesti despises her enemy so much that her hatred lives on even after her death. If she cannot let go of her rage, her soul may well fall victim to Chemosh.
The Lord of Death allows the fallen warrior to keep his original body and the skills that go with it. Thus an elven swordsman will still retain his deadly grace, the ogre bandit his brutish strength. Those who knew the Bone Warrior in life will not likely recognize him in death, for Chemosh has quite literally turned the Bone Warrior inside out.
Through a slow and painful process, the soft and meaty innards of the Bone Warrior are drawn inside its skeleton while the bones are reshaped and strengthened to form a hard carapace that protects every part of the body. Chemosh allows his new disciple to feel every moment of this terrible ordeal, constantly reliving the moment of its death, thus reinforcing the rage that binds him to this plane.
A Bone Warrior “lives” in constant, burning agony. It hates the living, viewing them all as the enemy. It knows only pain and rage. It does not require food, drink, sleep, or shelter. Though it still understands the languages it knew in life, the horribly deformed mouth and tongue utters nothing except inarticulate cries of fury.
The Bone Warriors are extremely dangerous. If uncontrolled, the Bone Warrior will attack every living being in sight, making no distinction between friend and foe, until it is finally destroyed. And if the Bone Warrior ever encounters those it counted as its enemy, it will focus on that enemy to the exclusion of all others.
Since mindless rage does little to serve the Chemosh’s purpose, however, a Bone Warrior will almost always be under the control of one of his living servants—either a powerful dark cleric or a Bone Acolyte.
Bone Warrior Powers
Like other undead, a Bone Warrior remains unaffected by many physical and magical attacks. These include: sleep, poison, paralysis, disease, or spells that affect the mind. A Bone Warrior’s bone armor has the hardness of Solamnic plate mail, and it covers the entire body—with only the smallest openings to allow the flesh to move underneath the bone. Swords and arrows do little damage to a Bone Warrior’s armor. The rare weapon that manages to pierce it causes no more pain than the undead warrior already endures.
The pain-fueled anger is the key which grants the Bone Warrior supernatural strength. It is significantly stronger in death than it was in life, though any magical spells or abilities it once possessed are lost in the transformation, and it is incapable of taking any actions that require much in the way of focus or concentration.
Though it does not understand complex strategies, it does retain the warrior’s mind it possessed in life and can utilize battlefield tactics with cunning. Many enemies assume Bone Warriors to be mindless, a mistake a Bone Warrior gladly uses to its advantage. A Bone Warrior follows the orders of the person to whom it is bound, though it will constantly struggle against the will of those who control it, blaming them for keeping it bound to this terrible existence. If a Bone Warrior breaks free, it will first attempt to slay its master.
Bone Acolyte
The Bone Acolyte is a living disciple of the Lord of Death. Protected by unholy skeletal armor, the Bone Acolyte possesses a number of powers granted by Chemosh.
Bone Acolytes were known during the Age of Dreams, and there was a brief (though largely forgotten) time in which they were among the most feared servants of any evil god. Only the Plague Knights of Morgion rivaled the Bone Acolytes in the dark tales spun by the bards of that age. So feared were they that warriors and wizards and clerics devoted themselves to destroying them. Chemosh determined they were not worth the time and effort, and moved on to other schemes. After all these ages have passed, however, the tales of the Bone Warriors are known to only a few wizards and historians. The Lord of Death believes that the time is right for these fearsome undead to return to work his will among the living.
Creation
A Bone Acolyte is a powerful servant of Chemosh. Though he or she might be a dark cleric who calls upon the Death Lord for greater power, the Bone Acolyte is often a warrior of Darkness willing to trade his soul for the power granted to him by Chemosh. The unholy bone armor grants special abilities, though unlike that of the Bone Warrior, the bone armor allows the Acolyte to still enjoy the pleasures of the living.