Mummy

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"What's the matter man? For heaven's sake, what is it?"
"He went for a little walk sir! You should have seen his face!"

– The Mummy, 1932

"Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence."

– An inscription upon the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamon

A mummy is a person (or an animal) who has been subjected to mummification, a form of preserving the body for prolonged periods of time. On /tg/ specifically, it refers to a unique form of undead created from such preserved bodies.

The most iconic kind of mummy in popular culture is the Egyptian mummy, a ritually prepared corpse who has select organs ceremonially removed before the body is dried out with natron (a kind of natural salt) and then intricately wrapped up in layers of bandages before being buried inside of an elaborate tomb. This was usually done for spiritual reasons, as it was believed that preservation of the dead would help ferry them to the afterlife easier.

Whilst there are several other forms of natural mummification, involving peat bogs, salt-pans, deep deserts and high, dry snowfields, these have not had so much of an impact on /tg/ media, mostly because they lack the grandeur and spectacle of the Egyptian mummy - "natural" mummies are often treated as little more than a gimmicky variety of zombie. Meanwhile, the Incan mummy, with its elaborate mud plaster and wind-drying-based ceremonial burial, is simply far less known.

Typically, mummies are portrayed as sapient, free-willed undead, often with potent magical abilities. They usually fear fire (mostly because they're almost always bandage-wrapped Egyptian Mummies, otherwise because mummification dries out the body to leathery kindling), but are often quite hard to kill.

D&D

In Dungeons & Dragons, the mummy is traditionally portrayed as (but not mechanically forced to be) the "Undead Cleric", in contrast to the "Undead Wizard" of the Lich. This is a tradition that Pathfinder has continued. Dragon Magazine #300 contains an Ecology of the Mummy article which provides tweaks for mud, peat and ice mummies. Beyond the traits expected of intelligent undead, the primary distinguishing ability of a mummy is causing Mummy Rot, a magical curse that's also a disease. In the Ravenloft setting, they're referred to as Ancient Dead, and are spoken of at length in Van Richten's Guide to the Ancient Dead.

In Eberron mummies are temple guardians of the Blood of Vol, commonly made out of old priests who dedicate themselves to specific tombs, temples or communities and cannot leave them, although keeping with a theme of progressing technology/magic newer "models" have their tethers a bit wider than older and some high-end mummies (including current leader of their church) can even travel freely with certain limitations. Becoming a mummy is seen as a kind of martyrdom, as only living people could find divinity within according to Seeker beliefs, so choosing undeath means you sacrifice your divinty to better nurture it in others and guide your community.

Pathfinder

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2e

An archetype that any class can take.

Warhammer

In Warhammer Fantasy, mummies were part of the original generic "undead" army, before being ultimately spun off to form their own faction in the Tomb Kings. Whilst 40k doesn't have any conventional fantasy undead, its closest equivalent would be the Necrons. Age of Sigmar, despite featuring some Egyptian themed units, lacks any significant Mummy-based factions after the squatting of the Tomb Kings.

World of Darkness

The World of Darkness has two game lines based around mummies; Mummy: The Resurrection and Mummy: The Curse, for oWoD and CofD respectively. Both feature you being an ancient, unkillable, fuck-off powerful undead being, although the exact manner of your existence varies.

In Resurrection, you are one of the Amenti, a servant of Osiris given power by the Spell of Life. Your goal is to maintain the cosmic balance after the underworld got nuked and to fight the servants of Apophis. Notable for the fact you can only maintain your power stat by staying in the Middle East or North Africa, which greatly limits play. In the more widely popular Curse, you are an Arisen, someone from the ancient empire of Irem that was bound to the Judges, eldritch death-gods of the duat. You exist to be their puppets, falling asleep for centuries on end and waking up to chase their knick knacks around the globe and to fight their enemies. One of them sounds a lot less grimdark, doesn't it?

Monstergirls

Just like the zombie and the vampire, the mummy as a sexy monstrous woman has appeared here and there. Female mummies seeking to regain their lives as beautiful human women have actually been portrayed in completely serious monster movies.

In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, the mummy is a variant zombie afflicted with overly sensitive skin; they bandage themselves to protect themselves from being rendered too horny to do anything from just the day-to-day sensations of moving around.

Gallery

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  Original D&D
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  AD&D Monster Card
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  Centaur Mummy
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  3e
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  Pathfinder

Bog Mummy

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