The seas are home to many legends both living and undead, but the bakekujiras is perhaps one of the largest among these latter horrors. Some have trouble believing the old stories, but woe to anyone that discovers the truth. Bakekujiras were once whales that escaped from whalers' harpoons yet were mortally wounded, dying in agony and anger and arising to undeath bent on taking revenge for its demise. They relentlessly attack any vessels they encounter, capsizing them and inspiring terror in their crews. These embodiments of corrupted majesty prowl the seas, along with their flocks and schools of pestilent parasites. A bakekujira weighs about 50 tons, though sometimes less, depending on how long it has been decomposing. Bakekujiras are as large as they were in their former lives, measuring from 50 to 60 feet long.

Parasitic Scavengers. As a bakekujira goes about its new, corrupted existence, it continues to rot until all the flesh is stripped from its bones, leaving behind only an immense skeletal whale. The decomposition process draws all sorts of sea scavengers to the rotting whale, from gulls to fish. However, the flesh of a bakekujira is not only rotten-it is also toxic and deeply infused with negative energy. Any creature that eats of this flesh sickens and dies, only to rise shortly thereafter and continues its existence as an undead thrall inexplicably bound to the bakekujira. Normally these creatures take up residence in and around the putrefied body of the bakekujira, swarming throughout the creature and only emerging to push back any who would seek to do harm to their rotting host.