Can a Zombie and a Ghost Come From the Same Person?

[Red_Judas]

Can a Zombie and a Ghost Come From the Same Person? That was a question I read earlier that sparked an idea.

My idea was for a dual set of quest specific monsters, collectively called Manes. The details of the quest aren't really of interest to me, but it's the concept of the monster that I really want to focus on.

A Manes (Mah-Neez) consists of a Spook (Spirit), and a Freak (Body). The Manes is supposed to be a person who has died and come back as two separate entities. The Spook preserves its own body as a sort of servant. If someone were to kill a Freak, the Freak would simply get back up with completely renewed energy, because the Spook has given it new life. The only way to kill a Manes is by destroying the Spook with negative energy, and then by killing the Freak before it can summon back its Spook.

The idea is that even though a Manes is one entity, it also works semi-independently.

A way this could potentially be implemented is by making the Freak an invincible summon of the Spook, but that would eliminate the chance of a Freak summoning back the Spook.

Alternatively, the Manes could be tied to a trigger, and they would set it off every time their companion died.

However this could be implemented is out of my element. I just thought it would be a cool idea.

[Garem]

It's probably not possible, since the "spirit" of the zombie - which AFAIK has never been well-defined or explained - stays with the zombie and is trapped.

But screw it. This sounds really awesome. Plus, ya know, MAGIC. So it could still be a really cool quest.

[Divine Intervention]

The general consensus on necromancy, and animating in particular is it involves the binding of a spirit to a vessel i.e. a corpse or summoning it directly, thus it is an evil action.  By that logic, a zombie cannot operate independently of a spirit being attached to it, or it is simply a construct powered by magic and not actual necromancy.  A ghost could potentially separate from a corporeal body if that body was destroyed and the spirit was independently strong enough to retain a link to the world.

The idea is an interesting one which may be considered in the future, if possible and not overly complex within the limits of the game, but in general, the answer to your question is no.

[NecronomiconV]

I suppose a variant of the vampire system COULD be used to make this happen as a side remark. If youve played the main story modes of nwn you know what im talking about. The system involves destroying the body which turns the vamp to a mist form which returns to its coffin and respawns as a vampire again until you destroy the coffin placeable. I could see altering the script up to something akin to this happening. As im not an experienced scripter i of course have no idea how difficult this would be of course.