Well, since hair, toe and finger nails are still growing for a while after someone's kicked the bucket, I'd guess the Unburied's horns, spikes, thorns, whatever could be the result of this post-mortem process.
Which, because there's evil, demonic power involved, is amplified to a remarkable degree to fasten the growth, to bring the keratin in certain places into a certain shape, harden it, etc.

But in the end it really doesn't need a (scientific) explanation at all.
It's a freakin' hulk made of human corpses from mass graves, fused together and formed into shape by some unexplainable demonic power. 'Nuff said.

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Q u o t e:


Perhaps bits and pieces of tree roots that become tangled with the half-decaying flesh? Quite entirely possible.

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that could be a posibility, I got a few other ideas in the unburied thread

good to know

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Q u o t e:


The Unburied is formed by the fusion of soil, rock, human bodies and angry souls. The spikes that jut from its body are shards of stone ripped from the earth during the development of the creature.

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So they are not pieces of tree roots? I mean, flesh is not very permanent, especially dead; which makes tree roots a better explanation for the spikes than "shards of stone" - there shouldn't be this many spike-shaped giant rock pieces just laying in the soil.

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Q u o t e:


So they are not pieces of tree roots? I mean, flesh is not very permanent, especially dead; which makes tree roots a better explanation for the spikes than "shards of stone" - there shouldn't be this many spike-shaped giant rock pieces just laying in the soil.

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Are you serious?

I almost feel ashamed to be excited for the same game as you.

It's magic...

/argument

In the gameplay trailer, the Unburied takes massive amounts of damage. Its going to be fun kickin this guys butt! Thanks Bashiok for the info bud!

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Q u o t e:
The Unburied is formed by the fusion of soil, rock, human bodies and angry souls. The spikes that jut from its body are shards of stone ripped from the earth during the development of the creature.

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Thanks for the answer Bashiok. Now I can sleep well and have decent nightmares about the Unburied. <3 :)

the only thing that I dislike are the stitches. it'd be ok if Unburied were created by some crazed necromancers, but if they're just raising out of the graves because of negative energy of mass burials and demonic forces imbuing everything with magic, they would be just randomly mangled piece of flesh, bones and soil (as mentioned).

The only explanation is that somewhere there's a Mommy Unburied sending out her kids to school

"Oh, your third face looks like it's going to fall off, I'll stitch it for now and we're going to buy you new face tomorrow"

Also, there's something horribly wrong with the tunic. Look at the monster's right hip.

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Q u o t e:
the only thing that I dislike are the stitches.

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How about bodies on which autopsy or dissection has been performed on before being dumped in some mass grave?
Not sure if "modern" medical things (although autopsies were common since the 17th century) like that would fit into the Diablo universe, but we had an asylum at one point of the story too, hadn't we?

I totally agree that they could be effects of mangling with the dead (by say, necromancers or witch doctors), but from what I understand the lore is that they're just masses of bodies that raise up from common graves.

I'm obviously nitpicking, I love the design as it is :)

Bashiok should write on all the posts asking for more info "There"

Something else I'd like to suggest: make it eat corpses/gibs. Serves the dual purpose of increasing its survivability (replenishing health if the player doesn't focus their efforts on it), and cleaning the screen of corpses which will improve performance in that particular area.

Also helps satisfy and exceed the player's daily recommended dose of BLUD AND GOAR!

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Q u o t e:
Something else I'd like to suggest: make it eat corpses/gibs. Serves the dual purpose of increasing its survivability (replenishing health if the player doesn't focus their efforts on it), and cleaning the screen of corpses which will improve performance in that particular area.

Also helps satisfy and exceed the player's daily recommended dose of BLUD AND GOAR!

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I was just going to mention that as an ability. If the Unburied could replenish life by consuming zombies, thatd be damn freaking cool... :D

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Bashiok should write on all the posts asking for more info "There"

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Take that you rats!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday when I first saw on the diablo 3 main page that there wasn't the wizard in the middle I was all like OMG OMG OMG new class new class !

Then .______. still I'm glad we got to know another mob will get to kick in diablo 3,ty ! ^^

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Q u o t e:
Being born out of pits of human misery, these beings feed on human suffering. Wherever bodies are dumped together unceremoniously, the unburied may rise.

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That sounds absolutely epic. Meat Wagon, anyone? :D

...And what arises wherever bodies of the Unburied are dumped together unceremoniously? *shudders*

I am a bit confused about their creation though. Are they actually constructed or do they 'spawn' from the piles of bodies? From the story, it could be viewed either way.

And I like how in the story, they actually managed to kill it. It may sound stupid, but it adds so much more to the story than simply having another unstoppable monster on the loose.

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Q u o t e:

That sounds absolutely epic. Meat Wagon, anyone? :D

...And what arises wherever bodies of the Unburied are dumped together unceremoniously? *shudders*

I am a bit confused about their creation though. Are they actually constructed or do they 'spawn' from the piles of bodies? From the story, it could be viewed either way.

And I like how in the story, they actually managed to kill it. It may sound stupid, but it adds so much more to the story than simply having another unstoppable monster on the loose.

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Bashiok said they are basically formed by the mutation of piles of dead bodies, random environment stuff (rock, stone, soil, etc.), and angry souls. so it looks like in game we may see a pile of dead bodies mutate into it. If so I think a logical strategy to kill it would be to attack while it is mutating.

*Edit: Spelling*

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Q u o t e:
Bashiok said they are basically formed by the mutation of piles of dead bodies, random environment stuff (rock, stone, soil, etc.), and angry souls.

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Yeah, I'd read that, but still wasn't sure whether it naturally mutated or was constructed by a crazed individual, like it says on the lore page.

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Q u o t e:
so it looks like in game we may see a pile of dead bodies mutate into it.

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Meat Wagon!

...Epic.