(Before I get ahead of myself, if you are interested in zombies, but also have the bone wolf creation, then I recommend you either download Jelidity's mod 'Bone Wolf  and Plague of the Dead - Spawns Corrected', or download my optional patch. The former will result in an equal spawning of zombies and wolves, whereas mine will favour zombies at a rate of 3:1.)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/55201


Introduction

Whether or not developers intended to, their design decisions have an influence in shaping the narratives of their games. The mechanics of Skyrim suggest that the 4th era has been something of a dark age for magic. Consider the dissolution of the mysticism school and the fact that certain spell effects have been lost to time. For example, Necromancers have lost the means of conjuring undead from Oblivion like they did hundreds of years before. As a result, they now rely on reanimation exclusively, or forfeit their lives brokering an arrangement with the ideal masters of the Soul Cairn. An unthinkable amount of risk just to be able to summon skeletons again.

The creation club mods have a reputation for being rather dubious in terms of the faithfulness to the games wider history, but this one at least acknowledged what I had observed. The brief quest featured in the creation follows some necromancers who are overjoyed to rediscover the lost art of summoning zombies; however in their hubris, they unwittingly unleash a horde of them in to Skyrim. These zombies are the ones you will meet in nocturnal random encounters.

There is something so exquisitely tragic about how Bethesda implemented zombies in to Skyrim. I daresay their situation reflects the creation club material as a whole. They once had a role, but have since been completely supplanted. Now they find themselves wandering the dark without purpose. One thing is for certain, these souls will find no home in Skyrim. In more ways than one they are unbidden here. 

This mod is an overhaul of the zombies in the same way as 'Heritage 2' was for Bandits and vampires. I wanted to humanize them, but also make them more compelling threats. Like the aforementioned mod, I have balanced the zombies according to the vanilla game, however as they are uncommon enemies, I feel emboldened to make some small deviations.

Specifically, this mod makes the following changes...

• Zombies can now equip most clothes, armour and jewellery. It would be easier to list the items they cannot wear, read further below for said list.  
• Zombies now have exclusive asymmetric unpaired boots, gauntlets and even damaged armour. Two zombies that draw from the same outfit record may vary considerably as a result.
• There were originally just 3 different zombie models reused for the 18 entries in to zombie levelled lists. The variation in the mod demanded has resulted in a levelled list of 1,300 variants of zombie based on strength and equipment. 
  

• My zombies have updated abilities. These abilities are lore -friendly and were chosen to imply that zombies gradually resemble their dread counterparts as they gain strength.
  

- Regular zombies have 30% fortified combat health regen, whereas dread zombies have 50%. Inspired by the regenerating zombies of TES: Redguard.
- Dread zombies and tier 4 zombies can now spit poison. Unlike the afflicted this has a 15s cooldown. Inspired by the zombies of TES: Online.
- Each zombie model can now afflict 2 different diseases each, thus altogether zombies are now vectors for 6 of the 7 diseases of the Special Edition.
- Zombies have a 1 in 3 chance of spawning with no head. Inspired by Headless Zombies from TES: Oblivion.
- The infamous 'Astral Vapours' has been reworked to a poison cloak debuff that stunts Magicka regeneration and reduces magic resistance for 15s.

• All the zombie models now share fully modelled eyes with accompanying special effects. They look much more like their other undead counterparts this way.
• Adjusted their loot drops to be slightly more diverse, to befit beings that were once people.
  

Know now that half of the 1300+ zombies are those boss variants, but unfortunately I have not added any boss zombie spawns in the main file, as I decided it was beyond the scope of the mod. It is something I will have to add in another supplementary file, or another solution can be reached. I'm not looking forward to placing those, trust me.

The boss zombies are can now be encountered in the same manner as the regular ones, enchanted weapons and everything. The potential synergy between the 'Astral Vapours' poison and the enchanted weapon damage is an element I don't want to give up. A more long term solution is being worked on, but at least you will get to fight them in rare instances.

As zombies can equip armour, you will be best served using another mod that also gives armour or equippable armour to draugr, skeletons and Falmer to balance my changes out.

Despite appearing in their games since the very first game, there isn't a lot of lore surrounding zombies. I have taken advantage of this by peppering my design decisions with theory based conjecture like I did with 'Sons of Akatosh'. This ultimately helps me make for more interesting compromises, while hopefully not alienating those looking for a lore-friendly experience. The central assumption of this mod was that these zombies are named as they are and look as they are, because these creatures were once the victims of one the several zombie plagues. A fate that could befall almost anyone.



Wearable Gear
The most important feature of the mod is that zombies can now equip gear and have said equipment show up on their character model. As I said my goal was to humanise them and help create some memorable emergent moments when the player is confronted by zombies of a multitude of possible backgrounds. Anyone can die of the mysterious diseases that cause them to resurrect as zombies, and to that end I have made most equipment compatible for their use. In effect they are now a kind of NPC as much as they are a creature.

I assumed the colour of the zombie's flesh that they were designed to have once been men of either Nord, Imperial or Breton descent. This informs the clothing, armour and jewellery that I decided to forgo when making the mod. Enclosed in the spoiler tags is an exhaustive list of equipment that I have not created meshes for with an accompanying rationale for why.



This mod does add new clothing/armour for the zombies to wear, but these are exclusive to these NPCs. From the beginning I had intended to merge this project with another one I had to allow players to wear a single boot or gauntlet, instead of a pair. The unpaired equipment really helps to make the zombies more dishevelled. These items were meant to be usable by the player, but I messed up at some point and I realised that my single boots didn't quite work for female NPCs. This is why you will not be able to loot any of the unpaired equipment, but as the armour and monetary values of these items were halved there was little point anyway. There are also incomplete cuirasses worn by some of the zombies, again these are unplayable, however still serve to increase visual diversity in the zombie population.

Jewellery has been distributed sensibly among my zombie population. Most zombies have a 33% chance to be wearing a levelled ring regardless of their "class". I repositioned the necklaces to fit exactly over the zombie's exposed necks, so there will likely be clipping in some instances. Priests and Vigilants of Stendarr will often possess religious amulets, whilst nobility might be found wearing the generic amulets. Zombies I have equipped with exotic armour have the greatest variety of amulets, because in most cases they are obscured under the cuirass mesh, and as such clipping is not an issue. Consider it a potential extra treasure for defeating what will be a rare opponent. Zombies based on jarls have a chance to be wearing a levelled circlet.

It is my hope that you will not see any two zombies dressed perfectly alike.

Obviously, this will provide an armour value to some zombie opponents, so it will complement mods that also adds lootable armour to draugr and falmer.

Races
The aforementioned feature was only possible, because the original 3 zombie models are now recognised as 3 separate races. These races are mostly identical, but they do differ in the diseases attached to their attack data. Regardless of the zombie's current loadout, they will have two attacks in their repertoire that will inflict two different diseases. Fighting carelessly amongst a group of them may result in the player catching a multitude of debilitating long term effects. It would pay to recognise which zombies carry which diseases.

Model A: One eyed, screaming zombie

• Brain Rot
• Witbane
  

Model B: One eyed, frowning zombie

• Bonebreak Fever
• Rattles
  

Model C: Two eyed, grinning zombie

• Rockjoint
• Droops
  

The mod doesn't change the diseases themselves, just that these zombies are now vectors for these diseases too. Zombies in the Elder Scrolls games have been able to inflict multiple diseases on their foes, so this is an interesting compromise. The angry zombie's diseases pose a great threat to mage characters, whilst the happy one can effectively neuter a warrior's offense if they are not careful.

I have altered some of the original race data as well. Zombies have better base health regeneration, so they start have 1 instead of 0. I have also halved their unarmed damage. Traditionally, zombies in the TES series fight barehanded like feral beasts, but it is impractical considering they are based on Skyrim's draugr this time. The unarmed scratch attacks of the draugr look impotent to me, and the developers similarly set their unarmed damage to 1, whereas the zombies had a value of 10! I could not take these moves seriously, so the zombies will now have to settle for having 5x stronger unarmed blows than a regular draugr. Weapons serve to complete the outfit of a zombie, whilst also making them more dangerous threats. 

Headless Zombies
A unique feature of the zombies of the Elder Scrolls is that they can continue to persist even without a head. In Oblivion, headless zombies were stronger than regular zombies, but at the moment in my mod they are saddled with a few fair restrictions that may make them weaker. Logically, they are completely blind, cannot wear helmets, vomit poison or emit sound. One interesting result, is that it much more difficult to determine the diseases a headless zombie may carry without being able to see their face. They are still capable of detecting threats and when they do, they fight as well as any other zombie.  A testament to their incredible supernatural durability, if nothing else.

Tiers
The gameplay abilities of zombies were made to parallel with the draugr more closely. The two undead possess the same abilities and the same attributes at comparable levels. Zombies are now able to spit 'vile vapours' at the same tier that regular draugr are able to use 'Unrelenting Force'. The zombie variant of the vomit ability has the same 15s cooldown period as the shout. 

Level 01: Zombie
Level 06: Foul Zombie
Level 13: Putrid Zombie
Level 21: Malignant Zombie
Level 30: Vile Zombie
Level 40: Abominable Zombie 

"Vile Zombies" were previously known as "Relentless Zombies". I just thought that the word "relentless" looked too much like "restless", which described a low level draugr. "Vile" keeps with the naming convention of the zombies being disgusting.

"Dread Zombies" make up the population of my boss variant zombies. You will give up the 3 dread zombies of the original mod for around 600 different possible units. An archaic interpretation of the word "abominable" is inhuman, which I thought perfectly signified their strength and degeneration.

A zombie will differ from draugr in the diversity of their weapons and equipment and the following areas...

• All zombies are now capable of regenerating their health in combat. Specifically, regular zombies have 30% fortified combat health regeneration.
• A Draugr's strength can be gauged by the armour they wear. Tier 1 zombies are exclusively citizens, but by tier 6 they can be clad in practically anything.
• The Draugr and skeletons are able to wield magic and bows, whereas zombies would not have the wit to use either. I have granted them the ability to use shields to supplement their melee combat, otherwise are exclusively melee based.
• Zombies wearing exotic armours will also be wielding matching weapons, this has been balanced by making them very, very, rare. There is a 1 in 108 chance that an abominable zombie will spawn with ebony equipment, for example.
  

I was inspired to have regular zombies regenerate not just because of this metamorphosis to a dread zombie, but also due to their implementation in TES: Redguard. In that game, zombies were effectively immortal and would resurrect themselves momentarily after being slain. I created a compromise that I feel makes sense for Skyrim. Both trolls and zombies share a severe weakness to fire, why not let them share regenerative properties too? It would also serve to strengthen the conditioning for players to use fire attacks on creatures that regenerate.

Dread Zombie Bosses
From what I could gather, there isn't a lot written on the subject of dread zombies. They are the strongest kind of zombie, they regenerate their health and are associated with the 'astral vapours' disease. That is it. I thought it would be more fun to design around the idea that regular zombies attain the characteristics of dread zombies over time.


Level 07: Foul Dread Zombie
Level 15: Putrid Dread Zombie
Level 24: Malignant Dread Zombie
Level 34: Vile Dread Zombie
Level 45: Abominable Dread Zombie

• All Dread zombies can use the "Vile Vapours" shout , but regular ones must be tier 4 before they can. This parallels with draugr and their thu'um abilities.
• The "Astral Vapours" poison cloak is exclusive to dread zombies. Like the Oblivion version it causes the target's magicka to stop regenerating and they will also be 50% more vulnerable to magic attacks. Zombies do not wield magic in this mod, but this weakness to magic synergises well with a dread zombie's tendency to carry enchanted weapons. Mages or similar characters would be wary of letting a dread zombie get too close.
• In the original creation, zombies get progressively less vulnerable to fire to the point that dread zombies no longer suffer from a weakness to fire at all. This was an interesting change, that I ultimately had to compromise with. Instead, regular zombies have a 50% weakness to fire (comparable to vanilla trolls), whereas dread zombies have a reduced 33% weakness to it (comparable to vanilla frost atronachs).
  

The astute would have noticed that I did not include new spawns or new encounters in my list of changes. This is true, therefore it is not possible right now to fight these new dread zombies without spawning them in via console commands. Originally, the mod was to modify the random encounters to have a dread zombie leading each group, but I ran in to some difficulty modifying the quest fragments of these creation club mods. It would have been the simplest method, but I can't make it work. The mod has changed since, and it now feels beyond the scope of this mod to add spawn points or mess with scripts. I intend to create a supplementary file that will attempt to increase the visibility of zombies including adding boss spawns. If there is a more favourable option then please let me know.

Classes
In Heritage I would give subclasses of bandit or vampire different names to help distinguish them, but I don't think it would make much sense in this instance. The tragedy of the zombie is that the victim loses their personality, their skills and their memories. Zombies can take on the appearance of all sorts, but they will all fight the same way. Here is how I have divided the classes of zombie throughout the tiers based on the weapons they wield. There is a nested levelled list within tiers 3 and beyond called "Rare". Within these levelled lists are all the zombies with strong or exotic equipment. 

Level 01: Zombie
- Regular: Citizens

Level 06: Foul Zombie
-Regular: Bandits, Citizens, Forsworn, Imperials, Mages, Priests, Sailors, Silver Hand and Soldiers.

Level 13: Putrid Zombie
-Regular: Bandits, Citizens, Forsworn, Imperials, Mages, Priests, Sailors, Silver Hand and Soldiers.

Level 21: Malignant Zombie
-Regular: Bandits, Citizens, Forsworn, Imperials, Mages, Priests, Sailors, Silver Hand and Soldiers.
-Rare: Akaviri, Companion, Dwarven, Elven and Nordic.

Level 30: Vile Zombie
-Regular: Bandits, Citizens, Forsworn, Imperials, Mages, Priests, Sailors, Silver Hand and Soldiers.
-Rare: Akaviri, Companion, Dwarven, Elven, Nordic, Dawnguard and Orcish.

Level 40: Abominable Zombie 
-Regular: Bandits, Citizens, Forsworn, Imperials, Mages, Priests, Sailors, Silver Hand and Soldiers.
-Rare: Akaviri, Companion, Dwarven, Elven, Nordic, Dawnguard, Orcish, Ebony, Glass and Stalhrim.

I will go in to detail below in to what these classes mean and included in the spoiler tags are the outfits attached to each class.

Citizens: Levelled town weapons and tools

Citizens are the most common kind of zombie and they appear in every tier. They represent civilians and they appropriately wield weapons from the civilian weapons levelled list, but one unique aspect is that they have a percentage chance of wielding a tool weapon instead. This percentage decreases as they get stronger, but there is still a 1 in 6 chance that an abominable citizen zombie is found wielding a pickaxe or hatchet.

If you have any mods that add junk weapons you can add them to the levelled list "_HOL_LItemZombieWeaponTool" and the zombies will wield them too, as long as they are not classified as daggers.



Bandits: Levelled bandit weapons
Represents Skyrim's criminals they will be the second most common zombie type alongside the soldiers. These zombies wear the regular levelled bandit outfits, but starting from tier 3 will also contain the outfits of Skyrim's criminal guilds and Solstheim's reavers. Just like in the regular game, they will be drawing from Skyrim's levelled bandit weapon lists.



Soldiers: Iron/Steel Weapons
Represent the standard Nordic warriors/guards and draw levelled stormcloak weapons.



Imperial: Imperial weapons
Represent the soldiers and guards of the Imperial Legion or guards from Imperial held cities.

If you have any mods that add new imperial weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HImperial" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HImperial" for two handed weapons, respectively.



Sailors: Scimitar
Represent ship workers. In the future I will be adding the creation club pirate outfits to their levelled sets.

If you have any mods that add new pirate weapons you can add them to the levelled list "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HSailor", but again no daggers.



Priests: Levelled mace/warhammer
Represent the Vigilants of Stendarr as well as generic priests and their predilection for blunt weapons. They draw from the merchant sold blunt weapon levelled lists, as this omits daedric and dragonbone equipment.



Mages: Nothing
Represent the spellcasters of Skyrim, however as zombies they are incapable of casting the spells that once served them well. 

They actually have a dedicated weapon levelled list:  "_HOL_LItemZombieWeaponMage", but as of release it is empty. If it hasn't already been done, I'd like to create a modded weapon set based on broken staves, that are wielded like warhammers. In the case that never happens, mage zombies just being reduced to mindless scratching can also make for a sobering sight.



Silver Hand: Silver weapons
Represent the hostile werewolf killers, these will be uncommon enemies. You may argue that they shouldn't be able to wield their signature silver weapons, but I posit that that the experience of being a zombie is inescapable agony, so would a zombie have the capacity to tell that what it was wielding was hurting them?

My silver hand zombies do not carry shields, so are fully compatible with mods that add weapons to the silver hands weapon levelled list.

I have not mentioned yet that boss variants draw from separate levelled lists, therefore it is possible for a boss variant enemies to wear different gear.



Forsworn: Forsworn weapons
Represent the undead members of the Forsworn faction. 

If you have any mods that add new Forsworn weapons you can add them to the levelled list "_HOL_LItemZombieWeaponForsworn". I had to do this in the event that any weapon mod that adds Forsworn weapons adds daggers to the vanilla list.


The following classes are submitted to my rare zombie levelled list. They are exceptionally uncommon enemies that for the most part represent mercenaries and adventurers.


Akaviri: Akaviri katana
Represent ancient wielders of the Akaviri weapons, be they Moth Priest or Blade. These zombies start appearing at tier 4.

If you have any mods that add new Akaviri weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HAkaviri" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HAkaviri" for two handed weapons, respectively.



Companion: Skyforge weapons
Represent members of the companions who were not protected by lycanthropy. These zombies start appearing at tier 4.

If you have any mods that add new Skyforge weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HSkyforge" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HSkyforge" for two handed weapons, respectively.

Dawnguard: Dawnguard weapons
Represent ancient members of the Dawnguard. These zombies start appearing at tier 5.

If you have any mods that add new Dawnguard weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HDawnguard" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HDawnguard" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Dwarven: Dwarven weapons
Represent warriors wielding dwarven gear. These zombies start appearing at tier 4.

If you have any mods that add new dwarven weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HDwarven" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HDwarven" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Elven: Elven Weapons
Represent warriors wielding elven gear. These zombies start appearing at tier 4.

If you have any mods that add new elven weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HElven" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HElven" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Nordic: Nordic weapons
Represent warriors wielding Nordic gear. These zombies start appearing at tier 4.

If you have any mods that add new Nordic weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HNordic" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HNordic" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Orcish: Orcish weapons
Represent warriors wielding Orcish gear. These zombies start appearing at tier 5.

If you have any mods that add new Orcish weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HOrcish" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HOrcish" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Ebony: Ebony weapons
Represent warriors wielding ebony gear. These zombies start appearing exclusively at tier 6.

If you have any mods that add new ebony weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HEbony" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HEbony" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Glass: Glass weapons
Represent warriors wielding glass gear. These zombies start appearing exclusively at tier 6.

If you have any mods that add new glass weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HGlass" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HGlass" for two handed weapons, respectively.


Stalhrim: Stalhrim weapons
Represent warriors wielding stalhrim gear. These zombies start appearing exclusively at tier 6.

If you have any mods that add new stalhrim weapons you can add them to the levelled lists "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon1HStalhrim" for one handed weapons and "_HOL_LItemZombieWeapon2HStalhrim" for two handed weapons, respectively.

You will also find boss versions of weapon levelled lists in the unlikely event that  a mod adds enchanted versions of the specialty weapons like the scimitar.

Summons
The zombies attached to the conjuring spells have also changed, as a result of my changes perhaps each one feels distinct enough to warrant existing. They all wear unlootable clothing and wield unlootable weapons, so it is no longer necessary for these summons to include the extra script that strips them on death to prevent exploits.

Conjure Zombie
Summons a tier 1 zombie that carries no gear. These summons were intended as a throwback to the traditional version of the spell from oblivion.

Conjure Foul Zombie
Summons a tier 2 zombie that wears farmer clothes and a random weapon of iron/steel/tool quality. These summons introduce weaponry.

Conjure Putrid Zombie
Summons a tier 3 zombie that is equipped with iron gear, perhaps even a shield sometimes. These summons introduce armour.

Conjure Malignant Zombie
Summons a tier 4 zombie that is equipped with steel gear and may even carry a shield. This is the only zombie summon able to vomit poison.

Compatibility and Issues

'The Unbidden' is by far the most problematic mod I have ever made, unfortunately!

• In order to make the gear lootable on zombies I had to attach the zombie armor addons to the vanilla armour records. These changes are additions, so it would just take 10 minutes in SSEEdit to resolve changes with any mod that edit said armour data.
• This mod uses vanilla meshes, while this means that the mod is fully compatible with texture replacers, it is completely incompatible with mesh replacers. Due to how thorough I have been, you can take it for granted that if you any armour/clothing replacers installed then there will be a problem.
  

• The mod adds more npcs to the zombie levelled list, ergo mods like mine that also add more zombies will need a patch.
• I had to alter the dialogue quest that handles their noise to instead check for the zombie voice instead of the race, so that might cause issues. At worst, they will make less noise.
  

I promised the users of my Heritage 2 and SRE mods that updates were forthcoming for both of those projects, but I got caught up with another interesting new idea yet again that distracted me. That "interesting idea" ended up taking 4 months and underwent 3 separate overhauls. The last 10 images in the gallery represent how the project looked in its first iteration when I initially planned to release in December. If it isn't already obvious from all the advice on how to improve the mod on your end, I've burnt out on working on this mod for the time being.  I'm open to making some patches, but the main issue with this mod won't just be armour mods, but armour replacers. 

If you run ANY armour/clothing replacer it will likely cause issues, because I worked exclusively with vanilla meshes. In theory, I'd just need to create patches with new meshes for the specific replacer. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I have no talent for skinning. It takes a long time for me get even one set of armour working on the zombies.

There are not many files on the Nexus that modify the 'Plague of the Dead'. My immediate priority is to provide compatibility for those.

It was a lot of work, and it will likely need a lot more work. As it is right now and by its very nature this project will have a very small install base, but I almost don't care. I just seek release from working on this project.

Thanks 
Thanks to PrincessAries and Eveos for their Bethesda Net ports.