I can see skeletons and incorporeal undead not having it but it seems like everything else would.
Well... carcasses do smell awful. But they don't smell AS bad as you'd think. A tannery still smells far worse, for example.
Not every undead is in a state of decomposition or feasts on rotten flesh decayed enough to trigger powerful smells strong enough to induce nausea or vomiting. I am sure many of them smell unpleasant, and some don't because they take care of their corpses.
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The cause of a dead body beginning to smell is mostly two things. The first is bacteria breaking down the body. The second is maggots consuming the body. Once the body has decomposed the smell becomes a lot less potent. While an older corpse may not smell pleasant it will not have the stench of a decomposing corpse. Undead that have been around long enough to dry up will not smell anywhere near as bad as a fresh corpse.
An undead with a strong negative energy connection my actually prevent the body from decomposing. Bacteria and insects are still living thing. If the undead causes negative energy damage to anything touching it the bacteria and insects will not be able to survive and the body will not experience normal decay.
In some cases the nature of the undead will preserve the body. Vampires for example are for the most part not depicted as being rotting corpses. Mummies have been preserved and usually wrapped so would also probably not have the same amount of stench as some undead.
Last but not least is the fact that undead are not dead. The negative energy that animates also preserves them. If it did not eventually all undead would end up a looking like skeletons. Their flesh does not decay because it is not dead.
Any or all of these reason would explain why not all undead stink.
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I figure “because magic” is answer enough.
I figure “because magic” is answer enough.
Yeah, that only works for some people.
And as for any undead with cold energy? The bacteria or whatever are frozen too. I remember loving a line in one of Michael Scott Rohan's books where a guy asks a witch how she's beating infrared sensors and she explains that where the dead walk, there is cold. He shuts up fast.
Same reason this doesnt happen in most series, books...
While they might smell, it isnt expected that every single dead body would produce a stench bad enough to affect the characters.
So people will usually point out the smell, but it wont stop them on their tracts.
The cause of a dead body beginning to smell is mostly two things. The first is bacteria breaking down the body. The second is maggots consuming the body. Once the body has decomposed the smell becomes a lot less potent. While an older corpse may not smell pleasant it will not have the stench of a decomposing corpse. Undead that have been around long enough to dry up will not smell anywhere near as bad as a fresh corpse.
An undead with a strong negative energy connection my actually prevent the body from decomposing. Bacteria and insects are still living thing. If the undead causes negative energy damage to anything touching it the bacteria and insects will not be able to survive and the body will not experience normal decay.
In some cases the nature of the undead will preserve the body. Vampires for example are for the most part not depicted as being rotting corpses. Mummies have been preserved and usually wrapped so would also probably not have the same amount of stench as some undead.
Last but not least is the fact that undead are not dead. The negative energy that animates also preserves them. If it did not eventually all undead would end up a looking like skeletons. Their flesh does not decay because it is not dead.
Any or all of these reason would explain why not all undead stink.
Mummies would smell of chemicals though, as the embalming process involved a lot of preservatives. That being said, yeah decomposition is pretty much the sole cause of the stench, and unless a corpse is freshly dead and rotting it ain't gonna stink.
The 'chemicals' used to embalm mummies were spices, honey and incense. Bad smells would not be a problem.
The 'chemicals' used to embalm mummies were spices, honey and incense. Bad smells would not be a problem.
Not for the first several hundred years, but after a point the corpse would get a very musky smell to it. If you've ever been around fresh taxidermy, it's kind of like that.