Ash Guard
An Ash Guard is an undead warrior animated from a humanoid corpse by a monk of the Ashkeepers. The monk raises it through mastery of remnant ki, and can either raise one from a corpse or spend more of the energy held in ashes to create a new one. The monk controls the Ash Guard's actions, and some of its abilities draw on the monk's own ki; with it, the monk can wreathe the guard's strikes in an aura of fear.1
The Ash Guard understands the languages it knew in life, but it cannot speak.1
Remnant ki
Ki is an invisible energy that flows through and connects all living beings, recognised by only a few scholars. It is absent in inanimate things, but it does not vanish entirely at the moment of death. The ashes of the dead keep a remnant of this ki-like energy, which Ashkeeper monks use in an unholy technique. The energy left behind after death differs from the ki of the living: it is corrupted and stagnant, and dangerous to use. Only monks who know the right techniques, ancient ones passed down to very few, can tap it safely.2
Notes
Sources
This article draws on:
- BoDBook of Dead(Bad Badger Games, 2024), pp. 28-29
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