The majority of mummies were created by cruel and selfish masters to serve as guardians to protect their tombs from intruders. The traditional method of creating a mummy guardian is a laborious and sadistic process that begins well before the poor soul to be transformed is dead, during which the victim is ritualistically starved of nourishing food and instead fed strange spices, preservative agents, and toxins intended to quicken the desiccation of the flesh. The victim remains immobile but painfully aware during the final stages, where its now-useless entrails are extracted before it's shrouded in funerary wrappings and entombed within a necromantically ensorcelled sarcophagus to await intrusions in the potentially distant future. While it's certainly possible to use other methods to create a mummy guardian from an already-deceased body, those who seek to create these foul undead as their guardians in the afterlife often feel that such methods result in inferior undead-the pain and agony of death by mummification being an essential step in the process.