Varokar had not been infected, which was definitely good news.
It also showed that, although both were undead creatures, Zombies were less infectious than Ghouls. At least a slight scrape or touch would not infect someone.
Ghouls were surrounded by an aura of corpse plague and gave off something like poisonous gas. It felt as though being struck by one, or even getting close to it, would spread the disease.
And anyone killed by one would probably turn into a new Ghoul very soon.
With Zombies, though, perhaps infection required a bite?
Judging by their fighting ability and mobility, they did seem like weaker versions of Ghouls.
As for why there were both Ghouls and Zombies... perhaps it had something to do with the type of plague.
For instance, a plague concoction developed using better ingredients might turn people into Ghouls, while one made with other ingredients would turn them into Zombies.
Once humans ate grain that had been sprinkled with the plague, they would quickly fall ill, then die and become undead creatures.
Those undead creatures would then infect other people, and their numbers would keep growing...
That was much faster than having Necromancers laboriously cast spells to raise corpses.
Of course, sometimes their spells were still necessary. Humanoid corpses whose flesh had completely rotted away, for example, could still become decent fighting forces once Necromancy turned them into Skeleton Soldiers.
The Scourge was not made up solely of Ghouls, skeletons, Zombies, and the like. They fought well enough against civilians, but against trained professional soldiers or spellcasters, they could only overwhelm them with numbers.
Truly formidable Undead therefore had to be created using the Scourge's various bizarre technologies.
There were Abominations stitched together from assorted corpses, for example, as well as units transformed according to the race their