Why is creating undead Evil?

[Segev]

The flesh golem note is a good catch. I'd forgotten about that.

Worth noting that a flesh golem is also almost never going to be just ONE corpse. The ur-archetype is the movie version of Frankenstein's Monster, which is an amalgam of many corpses stitched together to form a complete body.

Solid question. No one's yet brought up a wraith (or shadow, or any other incorporeal undead that are created with the 'Create Spawn' ability), and the resulting body being left behind getting used to make a zombie.

HOWEVER, I think the answer would be that the identity lies with the incorporeal one. As evidence, I cite the Emancipated Spawn Prestige Class from Savage Species. I know a lot of people don't like that book, but it IS official content. That 3-level PrC allows a created spawn (such as a shadow, which is the example character), to gradually regain their full identity, to include all their class levels (which will, of course, DRASTICALLY affect their ECL, because now they have the HD of their undead creature type, any Level Adjustment thereof, 3 levels of that PrC, and all of their original character levels).

Granted, that can be used with corporeal undead, too. But since it requires the character to be turned into an undead creature with the Create Spawn ability (and the "master" to subsequently be destroyed), that means a singular undead creature if it's corporeal, because Create Spawn only works on living creatures killed by the undead. The only way it could be two is if it was incorporeal, and then the body was animated as something corporeal. And in that instance, the identity can be recovered by the one created with the Create Spawn ability.

As food for additional thought, one thing I thought was really cool from 2e (which is where I first saw it; no clue if it predates 2e) was the notion that the vampire and the crimson death mist were related by the latter being the former's soul. I've played around with a notion that vampire spawn can become true vampires by merging with their crimson death mists.

In the identity thing, I'd actually go with the identity and mind sticking with the vampire (spawn), while the crimson death mist is the soul.

Perhaps the soul contains volition? Hence why mindless undead and undead spawn are either without motivation (unless commanded) or are utter slaves to their creators: they lack their souls. Though this doesn't work very well for undead that ARE the soul. Wraiths creating and controlling more wraiths, and shadows creating and controlling more shadows.

Well, for shadows, perhaps, it's not such a problem if the shadow IS the body, not the soul, and being drained of all strength leaves only a shadow of the being that was thus drained.

I'm rambling a bit, here, but hopefully this is at least somewhat of use for further discussion on the subject.