Differences of Zombie Disease in Sci-Fi fantasy vs. Magic fantasy??

[LilTV1155]

I am a bit conflicted now. Is there a difference in creating an apocalyptic zombie disease in Magic Fantasy setting vs. Sci-Fi Fantasy setting?

I know one uses scientific means to explain things like superbug, contagious viruses, alien parasites, and somewhat xenomorphic fungi spores.

But I'm really unsure of how a plague or zombie disease work or get spawned in a fantasy setting that involves Magic, Divinie power, Aura, Miasma, and etc.
How does the spawn, infection work?

 

[Lloyd]

Necromancy

 

[TotallyHuman]

Normal disease meets magical shenanigans and boom! Zombies.

 

[Syringe]

Difference is that in a fantasy setting you can chalk it all up to magic. Just call them the 'Undead' race. In Sci Fi much of the mystery comes from the origins and understanding how it works, etc which makes it fascinating.

In a fantasy setting, it could be due to an Undead God that refuses to let certain people/those infected with something die, resulting in the Undead.

Or if you're using magic, the Undead could be the result of a lack of mana/magic (particularly for settings that depict mana as an essence of life). If you go this route, you can mention certain rituals being made while burying the dead as to not turn them into zombies, etc, such as burring them with mana-rich stones, or burring if prohibited in your world and requires incineration.

Could be the result of infectious plants or fungi even. Fantasy doesn't have to limit itself to magic, but neither does it need to go super in depth like Sci Fi.

Or my personal favourite - Dead Space Necopmorphs, but in a fantasy setting. If you're looking to make zombies terrifying, then this scales them up to an existential threat.

You have aloooot of options with fantasy.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Most fantasy zombies just aren't infectious, or take a lot of work to spread their infection.

Since most fantasy has a medieval setting, you either get 'There's not enough population density for zombies to pose a real threat' or 'Everyone would die and that wouldn't be fun'.

Werewolves, ghouls, vampires, and necromancers are the classic Fantasy sources of zombie tropes.

Werewolves are only infectious one day of the month and tend to be fatal anyways.
Ghouls are always infectious, but only come out at night and are much more interested in dead bodies than people.
Vampires are intelligent and don't like each other.
Necromancers have to actively work to create more zombies.

In all cases, fantasy allows a powerful hero or a group of heroes to arrive and destroy the infection before it gets out of hand.

Futuristic sci-fi allows something similar to happen, but usually lets 'mistakes' happen, since there's a hundred billion more people hanging around, so sacrificing 10 billion for the plot is fine.

Most of the hurt in Apocalyptic stories comes from the modern setting. 'This could be happening in your backyard! Ooooh~ are you scared?' It does happen in other settings, but it's just a bit rare. If you want it to happen, there's absolutely nothing stopping you.

 

[Dani-Thorns]

 

[Deleted member 54065]

I am a bit conflicted now. Is there a difference in creating an apocalyptic zombie disease in Magic Fantasy setting vs. Sci-Fi Fantasy setting?

I know one uses scientific means to explain things like superbug, contagious viruses, alien parasites, and somewhat xenomorphic fungi spores.

But I'm really unsure of how a plague or zombie disease work or get spawned in a fantasy setting that involves Magic, Divinie power, Aura, Miasma, and etc.
How does the spawn, infection work?

Mine's got similar scenarios in the end of my first arc. What I did is, the saint involved used her power to resurrect zombies (soldiers killed in battle), and then pass the magic via bites.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Mine's got similar scenarios in the end of my first arc. What I did is, the saint involved used her power to resurrect zombies (soldiers killed in battle), and then pass the magic via bites.

Ah yes, very typical saint activity, there.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Ah yes, very typical saint activity, there.

Well of course, there's a reason for it. One only has to read the work.

 

[Cyberpunkpenguin]

The difference is that sci-fi zombies are killed by a plague and then become the vector by which the plague is spread. Fantasy zombies are a part of the undead horde.

There are many ways for the undead to occur in a fantasy world. That could happen by dead bodies being left to sit in a specific manner environment. Raise by magic ritual. A wizard could turn themselves into a litch.

The most significant difference between the traditional zombies and the undead is. The undead can come in different tiers, with some being significantly stronger than the regular people. The strong undead dead helps out the playing field, presumably because people will have access to magic and possibly some form of physical enhancement weld depending. The most dangerous type of undead Bing the intelligence wants. And something you won't get with zombies is intelligent undead that can be especially dangerous.

It's possible in a fantasy world for the undead to be far more mundane, where they could be treated just like monsters if they exist in the world. If not properly managed, they could turn into an undead horde that could wipe entire kingdoms off the map. Alternatively, you can have an undead Kingdom ruled by a noble class of intelligent undead where the commoners are replaced with unintelligent undead who do all the manual labour and fighting in the armies.

 

[IanWhite2105]

I am a bit conflicted now. Is there a difference in creating an apocalyptic zombie disease in Magic Fantasy setting vs. Sci-Fi Fantasy setting?

I know one uses scientific means to explain things like superbug, contagious viruses, alien parasites, and somewhat xenomorphic fungi spores.

But I'm really unsure of how a plague or zombie disease work or get spawned in a fantasy setting that involves Magic, Divinie power, Aura, Miasma, and etc.
How does the spawn, infection work?

Sci-Fi Fantasy is sort of redundant, Science-Fiction Fantasy would only apply to things like “Mana Engines used to power carriages” but that would more be labeled Modern Fantasy or Steampunk depending on which era the story takes place.

Yes, one of them uses viruses or fungi or parasites and the other uses literal magic. The best distinction between Sci-Fi and Fantasy is that Fantasy requires someone or thing to actively create more zombies and Sci-Fi is mostly passive.
If you want a writing prompt then here: A dark chruch that tried to make an eternal life spell instead made a zombification spell, wherein each priest acts only to increase the horde. The more powerful zombies would become things like Priests or Knights, and monsters would become an undead associated with their original form. Slimes become Graveminds, Cannibals become Ghouls, or they simply become zombified versions of said creature.

 

[melchi]

I am a bit conflicted now. Is there a difference in creating an apocalyptic zombie disease in Magic Fantasy setting vs. Sci-Fi Fantasy setting?

I know one uses scientific means to explain things like superbug, contagious viruses, alien parasites, and somewhat xenomorphic fungi spores.

But I'm really unsure of how a plague or zombie disease work or get spawned in a fantasy setting that involves Magic, Divinie power, Aura, Miasma, and etc.
How does the spawn, infection work?

A lot of setting just have high levels of negative energy / death mana / whatever you want to call it to result in formation of undead. So certain biomes can naturally spawn undead. Also, places where there are mass amounts of death can spawn undead. Certain undead have creating undead as part of their skillset as well. Vampires can create other vampires for example. Liches can animate corpses. Just be creative if a zombie plague is part of the story.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I am a bit conflicted now. Is there a difference in creating an apocalyptic zombie disease in Magic Fantasy setting vs. Sci-Fi Fantasy setting?

I know one uses scientific means to explain things like superbug, contagious viruses, alien parasites, and somewhat xenomorphic fungi spores.

But I'm really unsure of how a plague or zombie disease work or get spawned in a fantasy setting that involves Magic, Divinie power, Aura, Miasma, and etc.
How does the spawn, infection work?

Yer looking at it backwards. WHAT IS THE STORY? Add zombies that make the story interesting. Interesting zombies are not a story.

 

[Tempokai]

Alternatively, you can have an undead Kingdom ruled by a noble class of intelligent undead where the commoners are replaced with unintelligent undead who do all the manual labour and fighting in the armies.

if it was written as a sci-fi, it's like a AI Hive Mind that rules the drones that does manual labor.