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Unlike Zombies, who are largely intact when called forth, Skeletons are reanimated with little or no flesh left on their bodies. Scavengers and the passage of time have left them with naught but bones. Skeletons are mindless and possess only vestigial memories of who they once were. All they seem to recall is how to fight and follow orders.
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[edit] Tome Text
The Old World is a contentious place. The remains of battles hard-fought, but long since forgotten, can be found under nearly every patch of earth. Many of the dead were left as they fell, while others were buried in mass graves, but all surrendered to the passage of time as the flesh moldered from their bones, and the earth swallowed them whole. Now, at the beck and call of a Necromancer, the bones of the fallen warriors can be awakened so that they may fight once more.