The Mark
The Mark is Hezekiah's bargain. Accept it, and you live a little longer. But the Marked carry a cursed power, and when they die, they rise again as ghouls in the Immortal Lord's army.
Living with the Mark
The Mark is worn on the forehead. People take it to survive, or to protect someone they love. When the Undead attacked the city where Gideon grew up, many of his friends took it.
A Marked person who dies turns into a ghoul within minutes. The only way to stop it is to destroy the body before it rises, which is why Swordmasters behead the Marked dead.
The Mark is also the only cure for a ghoul's venom, which leaves its victims a simple, terrible choice: be marked or die.
Those who bear it are called the Marked Ones. In the City they are outlawed and imprisoned for life. In New Haven, they are welcome.
Spoilers up to Chapter 7Tap to reveal
Some take the Mark as children. Nisa took it when she was five, because the Undead rulers threatened her father, who was already Marked.
Spoilers up to Chapter 8Tap to reveal
New Haven's way of sparing the Marked from rising is to stop the heart, then destroy the brain.
