Adult Elza looks pretty classy.

... looks sure can be deceiving.

Whoa, let's back up a second here-Elza is undead?! When did that happen?

Byakugan01 said:

Whoa, let's back up a second here-Elza is undead?! When did that happen?

Long before the story started, I'd wager. "Ancient magician" and all...
Plus, necromancers tend to have trouble staying dead. Much to the hero's annoyance, usually.

Byakugan01 said:

Whoa, let's back up a second here-Elza is undead?! When did that happen?

She's not. It's a note that, if people realized that Elza, the necromancer, was still around after all this time, Meguru expects people would label her undead rather than immortal. She's been around long enough for people to have noticed Elza's still around, so Meguru's surprised nobody has come forward about her still being alive.

It may just be an awkward translation, based upon different ideas of what "undead" means in different cultures.

They said the same things about Mokou in Touhou, as well - it's possible they just mean it as another term for immortal in the sense that she's incapable of death or removed from the natural cycle of life and death. Characters that deal in life and death treat Yuyuko and Mokou as essentially the same thing - something that is an abomination for not having anything to do with reincarnation, regardless of the actual state of "living-like" or "ghost-like" they are stuck in.

NWSiaCB said:

It may just be an awkward translation, based upon different ideas of what "undead" means in different cultures.

They said the same things about Mokou in Touhou, as well - it's possible they just mean it as another term for immortal in the sense that she's incapable of death or removed from the natural cycle of life and death. Characters that deal in life and death treat Yuyuko and Mokou as essentially the same thing - something that is an abomination for not having anything to do with reincarnation, regardless of the actual state of "living-like" or "ghost-like" they are stuck in.

After re-reading it, I guess the sentence makes more sense in the context if it means "the fact that Elza died" rather than "that Elza is dead (undead)". I've changed the note to reflect this.

That clears things up. As for the second strip...I have a feeling that Elza teaching a class of magicians would lead to her loosing her position in record time.

NWSiaCB said:

It may just be an awkward translation, based upon different ideas of what "undead" means in different cultures.

You may have a point there: "It is not dead//which can eternal lie//and with strange eons//even death may die."

Well, it's basically the fallout of games like D&D that give us the notion that "undead" has a meaning associated with zombies, skeletons, and maybe the occasional lich. It all generally means "rotting flesh that moves because of magic" type of not-living, not-dead.

Undead in D&D, with it's black-and-white, violence-solves-everything morality was basically just there to give a "get out of moral quandaries over indiscriminate murder in the name of JUSTICE free card", where they even explicitly state that the classes expected to be pacifists can "kill" undead and demons with no moral repercussions. After all, most people play D&D to kill things, and paladins need to have something to be Always Chaotic Evil. Hence, "undead" = evil is part of the only Western sub-culture that really ever had to use the term.

Vampires, too, rarely get called "undead" unless they are more the mindless monster types; The warm-blooded Friendly Neighborhood Vampires like Karin aren't considered anything but some strange mutant species of living human.

Again, the term they use for "undead" may just have a connotation more like "immortal" to a Japanese audience. That is, they are removed from the normal mortal cycle of reincarnation in some unnatural way. (The Highlander would be "undead" in that case...)

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Seems like Raku's really getting into drawing Elza with that chibi-face.

So Elza is immortal as in no age limit plus body that will never break no matter what.
But she still can die...wait...brain does not compute.

/\/\ao said:

So Elza is immortal as in no age limit plus body that will never break no matter what.
But she still can die...wait...brain does not compute.

"Immortal" is not the same as "invulnerable"; you can still take enough damage to pass off as being dead without actually dying.

Seems to me that what it means is that no matter the damage done to their bodies, they cannot die, but stronger stuff can still hurt them if it attacks the root of their existence or destroys their souls, stuff like that.

Hiaki said:

"Immortal" is not the same as "invulnerable"; you can still take enough damage to pass off as being dead without actually dying.

Technically it depends on the type of "immortality", but in this case; 'immortality = reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hard to kill, but possible.'

They only die if they take aggravated damage in their last health box. Unlike normal creatures, they do not take aggravated damage if their health boxes are full of lethal damage.

So: Immortal might mean that they cannot die from illness nor age?
But they can die from Massive amount of physical and/or magical damage?
so,only if the A/physical form and B/ spiritual form is destroyed,right?

WritinfFox said:

So: Immortal might mean that they cannot die from illness nor age?
But they can die from Massive amount of physical and/or magical damage?
so,only if the A/physical form and B/ spiritual form is destroyed,right?

Just the spiritual form needs to be destroyed. Presumably, they'll regenerate from a single cell if their bodies are destroyed, but instantly turn to ash if their souls are destroyed.