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I am hoping one of the developers can chime in on this with their interpretation or intentions.

In the core game they talk about the nature of undeath a little bit. Mostly in that it naturally occurs for the most part. Undead just kind rise up and go about their business until sure time as they find their peace and rest.

The Bitter Reach however does not really go into the death rituals in the new area. Probably due to page count and such. Cool. It makes sense that you need to be really particular about what you add to a book like that. Is undeath the same there? Is it the same everywhere else? Is undeath in the Raven Lands a historical issue or is it a issue that came about after the bloodmist? Is naturally occurring undeath increased by these events?

Basically... what is the nature of natural undeath? And how does it impact the different races? Does it occur mostly with humans? Elves wouldn't have undead since their bodies are more a construct than anything else. What about dwarves? Orcs? Halflings and Goblins? Wolfkin?

There are vague legends that the ”naturally” occuring undeath in Ravenland is a taint from ancient necromantic practices in The Drawn Lands west of Aslene. Possibly some future expansion into these arcane dominions might shed light on the subject.

Others however claim that undeath is an at least partially natural phenomenon that is exploited by necromancers. The Nightwalker god, also known as Watch, functions as sort of a death god bringing peace to the restless dead through his Order of Egression, but again, some claim that he (or it) just corrects what has been corrupted by others. Restless death is most common among humans, but occurs in other species too, elves excluded. Undeath might also arise through magic and curses. Some sages claim that undeath in dwarves, orchs, halflings etc has resulted from inbred human blood. On the other hand dwarves and halflings have been known to mess with nature on their own.

Concerning The Bitter Reach, I leave the lore to master Magnus.

Really interesting answer! Thank you very much Brior.

So maybe or maybe not such an issue with the demon portal and the bloodmist. But maybe or maybe not a result of something else from farther (but not too much farther) away.

Sorry if I barge in the discussion this late, but since undead are one of my favourite monster types I would like to ask if someone can shed some light on lichdom. From the monster description a deathknight/lich just wakes up as undead some time after dying, but the cover art of The Mellified Mage seems to suggest that he was encased in honey and become undead somehow (don't know anything about the adventure though and don't want to spoil it). Can lichdom also work in the "classic" rpgs fashion where you put your soul in a philactery ecc.? Thanks!

A Lich in forbidden lands is simply a Death Knight that knows magic.

To me, that doesn't mean someone COULDN'T put their soul in a jar, but whether that would produce some kind of undead is another question and what that undead would be is probably a unique single instance of this very particular monster.

An interesting thing about this is that manipulation of the soul is handled by blood magic and not necromancy, so that would probably involve a mix of the two disciplines in my opinion, which is very cool.