The Undead Horde 2022

The Undead Horde was a diarchy, ruled by the Night Monarchs with iron fists. Each "side of the Horde" that was Zombified by one or the other Night Monarch, or the minions that served them, was loyal to "their" Night Monarch.   Defeated Night Monarchs maintained some popular influence within the Horde, however, and AuthorGoddess continued to council both Monarchs, but "ICC DeadPeople" primarily, on strategy and affairs of state.

When a new Undead was welcomed into the fold, they were, by tradition, given a name by the reigning Night Monarchs to represent their new status. This was often wordplay on their living name. The Undead also refused to be bound by "living-supremacist spelling conventions."   The Horde of 2022 reveled in being villains. They existed to defeat the living, and if anything, they wrote harder than they did as living Tome Knights However, their villainy did not extend to each other, outside of some "sibling rivalry" between the two sides. Their thralldom to the Night Monarch assured that unlike in the living Great Houses, there was no betrayal.   Some Undead, however, missed their living House of origin and longed to return to them. They still acted upon their sinister impulses — to eat the brains, Literomantic Power, and blood of living Tome Knights, and devour their word-magic — but therein lay the tragedy. It was not uncommon for Undead to apologize even as they were feeding.

The Undead sought to destroy the living through their Literomancy and take The Iron Tome for themselves.

The Undead Horde first made its appearance in The First Word War) of 2020. Their first leader was The Nite Qing Erin Righ. They were ultimately defeated by the living, but not without a brutal fight. Upon their defeat, the Undead were all restored to life.   Prior to The Second Word War, Erin Righ disappeared. He was later confirmed to have returned to AuthorGoddess' The Undead Horde in 2021, and was a significant player in its hierarchy.   The Nite Monarq AuthorGoddess, the Living Dead Girl, succeeded Erin Righ and formed the Horde of 2021. She was apparently chosen by the Nite Qing while the zombie apocalypse was still going on.   Debate as to whether or not the Horde would return continued over the course of 2022. Sable Aradia, now Queen of the Lapin Protectorate, spent billions of the newly-minted nation's money building bunkers and financing her military and militia, which was widely criticized by her political opponents. Elsewhere, other Houses made their own preparations, just in case.   During a filking contest between Tempest Kwake and ECC Books, Librarian of House Sauropoda, ECC was approached by AuthorGoddess, who offered to grant him power in return for securing his oath that he would step into her place as the next Night Monarch. He initially resisted, but soon agreed to the terms.   In the meantime, most of the Tome Knights began to experience dreams of a "Night Monarch election," in which they were asked to "choose" their future Undead Overlord (much in the way that the Ghostbusters "chose" the form of the world's destructor as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man). In these dreams, "ICC DeadPeople" and "Lord GalaWight" sang filks and shared campaign messages.   On October 31, ECC Books fell to darkness and rose again as a new, would-be Night Monarch. He made his way to The Warren to take the Iron Tome, but he had been beaten to the punch by Prince Galakrond of House Meles, Queen Sable's biological son. Prince Galakrond assaulted a surprised Prinx Tempest, his entie, who was guarding the Tome while the Bunny Queen was indisposed.   "ICC Books" followed Galakrond to Windy Willows and a struggle ensued. It appears that since both of them were holding the Iron Tome at the turn of midnight in the Mountain Time Zone, both immediately acquired the powers of the Night Monarch. Galakrond, who was not yet undead at the time, became Lord GalaWight.   The two apparently decided to work together to defeat the living to secure possession of the Iron Tome, but the Horde that was "recruited" by each individual Night Monarch showed distinct characteristics. Lord GalaWight's undead showed exceptional self-awareness and intelligence, likely driven by Galakrond's understanding of necromancy. ICC's undead displayed a strange vulnerability to ketchup, which repelled them and caused them physical pain.   ICC concentrated on amassing Tome Zombies who could assist him in trying to access the Iron Tome, along with the usual swarming mindless eating machines. GalaWight amassed fewer undead, but made exceptional use of the knowledge they had possessed in life, including all the military training of a number of Zombified soldiers. He also embarked on a personal quest to convert all the literomancers in his family, perhaps with the intention of conducting a massive ritual that would amplify his own power.   Tensions between the two Night Monarchs and their Hordes arose. ICC disrupted GalaWight's efforts by acquiring his sister, Panda Polemarch Senna Nightshade through a literomantically-binding bargain, which secured a promise that the Undead would not touch the House Ailurus Storehouses that maintained vital supplies for the living forces.   The two apparently dueled over the matter in an epic filk battle, but with no clear winner, they continued to work together for the remainder of the war. House after House fell in devastating attack, finally rallying under the leadership of House Sauropoda and "Good King" DinosaurBob. Things seemed all but lost when The Missing House disappeared while under attack by ICC's Horde, and several other Tome Knights completely vanished from existence as well. Whether they were alive or undead at the time of their disappearance is unknown.   In the final conflict, the Battle of Mount Mitchell, Queen Sable, Prinx Tempest, and Duke Buddha Kwake somehow lured Lord GalaWight away from the battlefield and back to the Lapin Protectorate. While the Kwakes conducted some sort of technomantic ritual, the nature of which still remains unclear, Queen Sable dueled Lord GalaWight for several hours. The ritual completed, the Kwakes joined her at sunrise, and together, they defeated the young Night Monarch, and Queen Sable Resurrected him.   Back at Mt. Mitchell, the Horde that had been controlled by Lord GalaWight fell into disarray. Many simply wandered off into the Swamp. This exposed ICC's forces, which allowed King Bob to rally his forces and press the assault. King Bob and ICC dueled, and ICC was defeated.   Instead of writing in the Iron Tome to resurrect the dead, King Bob attempted to circumvent its destructive effects by Filking them back to life instead. The unforeseen consequences of this were that not only were the dead who were remembered by Tome Knights the only ones successfully resurrected, but even they were brought back still possessing the injuries that had killed them. Many died again immediately, and many more were long in recovery. Queen Sable and Prinx Tempest were both hospitalized with critical Magic Drain.   Overall, between the dead and The Missing, 4% of the world's population was eliminated by the end of The Third Word War.

December 2, 2022