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[Kot]

Depends on your mythology.
Strigoi in Slavic mythology are nicely represented by Witcher (though that one is heavily Polish-centric (UNSUPRISINGLY) and westernized). The original story where Geralt first appeared, with noble girl who slept during a day in a coffin and during the night turned into hulking monster with two sets of teeth and whatever is actually based on folk tales from Polish highlands. The monster and even the way she gets defeated is the same.

Strigas in the old stories are not technically undead. They are people who got born with two souls, optionally two hearts and barely noticeable two sets of teeth. Being a newborn with developed teeth was also a sign of being one. Literally all of them were heavily hurt in first life (usually unrequited love, BEING A STRIGOI HERE I COME) because only one soul (usually due to lack of knowledge and also because that's forbidden) was baptised (later beliefs, originally it was proably some pagan ritual of passing) and that brought insanely bad luck on them. Then they died, mostly every early, but the second soul still lived in the now dead body, which is why it raised at night and went off to drink blood and murder shit (it had to so it could keep alive). It should be noted that Strigas most often were not openly malicious to people, being mostly reclusive and sad creatures, but their cursed nature brought bad luck to others too and when it was hungry it could not give a shit about not eating a human.

I could talk for a bit about Slavic (though, more specifically, Polish) demonology and various monsters as I did some research in my time. It should be however noted that whatever I know could be wrong and very much different from what someone knows as really, there is no good monography about it and it still varied heavily from village to village, which is also exactly why whatever singular Slavic pantheon someone tries to shove down your throat is fucking wrong.
But yeah, again, Witcher got a lot of it right.

[Tack]

Was that the one where he has to sleep in its coffin overnight in order to break the curse?

(Also i'd term "a soul in a corpse, only able to sustain function through magical means" as undead)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

As I recall, the issue was waiting out the night of the transformation. Geralt just sealed himself inside the coffin as a convenient way to distract it while not having to do it the hard way.

[scriver]

Apparently Bruno Mars is not a Sacha Baron Cohen character, as I had previously understood it.

[Kot]

Was that the one where he has to sleep in its coffin overnight in order to break the curse?

(Also i'd term "a soul in a corpse, only able to sustain function through magical means" as undead)

As I recall, the issue was waiting out the night of the transformation. Geralt just sealed himself inside the coffin as a convenient way to distract it while not having to do it the hard way.

Exactly how it was solved in the original folk story.
Killing it is also a way out, but it's... bad way out. Since the second soul never got baptised (I am using Christian baptism here, but every time you could insert original Pagan rituals there too) it would be damned forever. In Geralt's case however, it wasn't the wellbeing of the soul important, but rather that she was a daughter of King Foltest and he wanted her alive.

[Shadowlord]

Skeletons are smarter and more agile than zombies because the flesh is weak.

but the spirit is willing? Wait, what?

[pisskop]

Skeletons are insidious and fleeting.  They are in the dark, hiding, and  can stay out of sight.  irl.  I imagine that the zombie is more like a very drunk guy, in a stupor.


whatever the reasons for it, zombies are slow tanky things and skeletons are fast and weakish on defense.  They fill very clear niches.  Something about having meat that is extraneous to functioning and being made of dried bones also probably plays into it.

[ChairmanPoo]

As I recall, the issue was waiting out the night of the transformation. Geralt just sealed himself inside the coffin as a convenient way to distract it while not having to do it the hard way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhfTU3mLnJY

[Sirus]

As I recall, the issue was waiting out the night of the transformation. Geralt just sealed himself inside the coffin as a convenient way to distract it while not having to do it the hard way.

Now that opening cutscene makes a lot more sense...

[scriver]

The original norse notion of elves were also spirits, dwarves were just a type of elf, and thus spirits as well.

I'm pretty sure one of the Eddas covered dwarves, and they were considered to be actual critters of their own origin.

It's messed up, I think a product of generations of storycrafting among isolated kingdoms.
The svartalfr, dokkalfr and dwarfs may have been seperate critters all living together in svartalfheim, or been the same critters. The skalds didn't agree on any of it so how the heck are we supposed to get a clear idea.
Makes it more fun IMO.

Indeed. There also isn't any particular difference between "materials" and "spirits" in Norse mythology/folklore. They both are and are not spirits. "Nature spirits", for example, are called so more because they are personifications of natural things, and often possess at least one or more physical forms, not because they necessarily are spirits in the "untouchable, souly thing" kind of sense. The closest you'd get to that would be the "mist spirits" that elves would evolve into in later Scandinavian folklore.

Though there is no obvious "also dwarves and dark elves are totally the same thing" sentence they seem too alike, as little as they are described, to not refer to the same mythical beings. It is possibly that there was an original difference but that they fused into one being over time, as well.

(Though, seriously, there were no "isolated kingdoms", tack :v )

[Sergarr]

Eh, I guess? After all, Poland got sold by our own king to Russia during the Partitions because Catherine's tits were great, so there's that.

...I don't remember that being mentioned in my history encyclopedia. Wait, what?

[pisskop]

Cathrine's Tits were all over the place.  I dont know how you didnt know ...

[Kot]

Eh, I guess? After all, Poland got sold by our own king to Russia during the Partitions because Catherine's tits were great, so there's that.

...I don't remember that being mentioned in my history encyclopedia. Wait, what?

Stanisław August Poniatowski. Really controversial person. On one hand, he gave us second constitution in the world and took steps to un-fuck the country, on the other he basically agreed to partitions because he was one of Catherine the Great lovers and she made him king of Poland in first place by threatening to invade it.
They apparently had a daughter, Anna Petrovna, but she died being like four years old.
If you were asking about tits - well, I actually have no idea, but he certainly liked them.

[ChairmanPoo]

Cathrine's Tits were all over the place.  I dont know how you didnt know ...

When you’re the king you can do anything. Grab ’em by the  tits...

[Kot]

So... Trump is going to grab Putin by the tits?