Necropolis discussions.

I have a question for all fans of Necromancers and others...

The laws of morality do not apply to dead creatures: they cannot be inspired by the prospect of victory, they simply do not care, but they do not fear death either. They cannot be poisoned or affected by mind-altering effects — for they are already dead and possess no consciousness.

Who are they, these Necromancers and their army? Are they alive, or not? And what does it mean to be unliving, yet not dead, as they are? Someone who "desires to embrace the void" and is "fascinated by death" must still possess a free spirit, a consciousness... The description also says that Necromancers renounce their senses, yet some level of sensory perception is observed even in a skeleton; it is not for nothing that it has eyes... and it needs them! And the further the creatures progress, the more complex their structure becomes... I think we should talk about intellect and the fact that they don't always not care about what happens to them next; though they may not fear it (by the way, even that is not always straightforward), some of them are free, and if they are united, it means they are united by some idea...
I'll try to consider them individually:

Skeletons, as I understand it, are unliving; effectively, they are just mechanisms composed of bones via magic, though some previous reflexes remain: the ability to see, aim, shoot, maintain balance, etc.
After all, they do this themselves, without the direct control of the one who "resurrected" them.

Zombies are also dead, but instead of just bones, they have a dead corpse. Although perhaps there is still some kind of instinct: for example, to kill. Something drives them from within, forcing them to attack... perhaps, like a golem, it obeys magic — like a robot executing a built-in program, perhaps following the order of the Necromancer sorcerer... or perhaps it has some primitive consciousness, not a spirit of course, but something like the consciousness of a worm, even simpler... with one single instinct...

Moving on — Ghosts. It's hard to call them alive, but still — they have consciousness and feelings, since they thirst for revenge. In theory, then, morale and mind control should affect them. They do have a mind, right?

Vampire. Now this is a truly special creature. He died once and now exists in a slightly different state of being than the living, but he has free consciousness and intellect, even if his soul is empty, and no joy, love, grief, or hatred can arise within it... nonetheless, he desires, he thinks... and if he drinks blood, it means his body lives in its own way...

Lich. What is there to say, he is practically alive. A wizard who turned to necromancy, and moreover, avoided the encounter with death; his body will not die because it is already dead, but this only concerns the body in which his spirit and soul are enclosed, and which he is able to control. In all other respects, he is the same mage; of course, his soul is probably special, being in a dead body, but nonetheless, it exists. On top of everything, he is trained in magic; he certainly has an intellect, and a highly developed one at that, capable of concentrating and directing magical energy.

Death Knight. Also a very strange creature... They might not even have a material body that can be touched... And yet they are capable of hate, which is important. And one whose weapon is fear must also have the ability to feel that fear... a certain empathy is required, a perception of the energy emanating from another soul.
So, they have a soul, and perhaps a not very developed, but an intellect. But the main thing is the soul! Though closed, turned toward darkness, tuned to destruction and hatred for all living things... nevertheless, where hatred lives, love can also be born, as strange as that may sound, but these creatures have a "heart"!

Ghost Dragons. These are simply dragons who refused to accept death and found a way to escape it — through necromancy. Their bodies are dead; they exist, like ghosts, somewhere between matter and the otherworldly realm... and yet they are, like dragons, free and powerful beings.
Furthermore, their unwillingness to accept death perhaps even speaks of a fear of that death... they found a way... but the fear of vanishing into oblivion could not disappear; in a sense, it supports their existence between worlds, not allowing them to release their spirit, to let it dissolve into the Universe.

Who knows, perhaps this same fear once drove the mages who found eternal life in a new eternal body. They defeated old age and decaying, but not death itself... for they can be killed, their body destroyed; well, will they continue to live..? I doubt it.

In the same way, the thirst for revenge keeps ghosts "between worlds," preventing them from letting go of their essence... Or Death Knights, in their relentless hatred, which somehow supports their existence on this side...

Where is the beauty, silence, void, and contemplativeness in this?

One gets the impression that those inhabitants of the Necropolis who possess their own consciousness are utterly miserable creatures... not grieving, of course, but completely empty, it is unclear why they cling to that weightless dust that still holds them here, preventing them from dying completely. They are truly living dead... like some people... dead because they do not accept and fear the changes and the flow of life, completely closed off from light, joy, and love, yet still dragging out their meaningless existence... that is why they are like shadows and dust...

What I have written is not even an opinion, but spontaneous reflections on the subject... what do you think?