Neurons and Necrosis: An Undead medical question.

[rentreality]

G'day, ladies and gents.

I was mulling a medical question over in my head earlier today, and I really couldn't give myself a satisfactory answer. I was hoping I could get your input on the matter.

The undead -- they have no need to eat, drink, or sleep. Breathing is apparently necessary (the chest animations of the undead, plus http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38520 ), but greatly slowed. My question is as follows: given the fact that they still require the use of their muscles for propulsion, would a broken or severed spinal cord be as debilitating to them as it is to a living creature? After all, the muscles won't move without orders from the brain...

[Hawk]

Well, surely if they had no spine, they'd just be flailing around because they couldn't hold themselves up?

[Touchseed]

The Forsaken are powered by magic forces, forces I think would probably course from the head down to the spine to everywhere else. Although Undead are not 'alive' I treat them structurally as something living. They have bones, organs, muscles, and some of them are really important in being able to operate on a physical level. I think this is one of those questions that are answered with an open-ended answer leaving you with the feeling like 'I should decide for myself'. I don't really think about things like this, WoW isn't something I try to scientifically explain, but to answer your question as best as I can, yes. I think the spine is important.

[Anski]

I've always taken Forsaken anatomy with a large, unmined flat of salt in the sense that many of their functions that have withered are bolstered by Necromantic energy. Acting as a micro crutch, I'd imagine that it would be this aforementioned energy that was keeping them aloof, rather than the dying or dead systems of neurons. A puncture to the spine that would cripple a human might phase the dead more than a glean to anywhere else, no? It might sever the line of energy for a while, rendering them near useless, but still moveable. Again, a grain of salt with this, seeing as I'm no Forsaken expert.

[Zunaj]

What Hawk said.

One of your skeleton's main purposes is to hold your body up. With a broken spine, your entire upper body would be loose, swinging around stupidly.

If a forsaken would suffer any problems from having nerves or veins ruined, I cant say, but he wouldn't be able to stand up without an intact spine. Much the same way you would fall over if your legs were broken.

[Vrahn]

I would assume that provided that while having a severed spine is not necessarily fatal to an undead, it would likely prevent them to be of any functional use until a necromancer gets a chance to fix up the problem. Thus while he would not die, he would be fairly incapacitated.

Of course there is always the other theory that the muscular system is only being controlled via dark magic. Thus as long as the body had some way to physically support itself and as long as the body was not completely cut in half, the undead would still retain all normal functionality.