Are they just animated carcasses or sentinent souls bounded to their (former) rotting bodies? Zombies? "Corpse" golems?
I would like "expert's opinion" .
Why do I ask? Nerevar was brought back as bonewalker, so I wander, was he a publicity stunt for his conjurers or a real altruist even after his death?

Based on nothing but looks a corpse golem comes closest, I think. How it exactly works or what they are made of besides corpses is never clarified.

Nerevar being restored as one strikes me as both a PR stunt - even Nerevar accepts and supports the Tribunal - as well as the Dunmer sense of duty - our ancestors ought to serve us and they're in no position to object.

As for Nerevar - it is supposed to be a great honor to be turned into a bonewalker, so it was only natural for the Dunmer to make him into one.

A bonewalker is nothing more than a glorified zombie with spikes drilled into it. Necromancers will say the same, while the temple will adamantly say they're holy and a great honor, especially if you were some lazy lout who was a burden on everyone.

As for Nerevar, it was a PR stunt by the Tribunal to say "Hey, even Nerevar, our awesome former king, wants to remain in the line of duty for us! We're that awesome!"

I still think zombies and bonewalkers are a disrespectful treatment of the dead, no matter how the denizens of Tamriel try to pretty it up. IMO Nerevar's soul wasn't in the bonewalker anyway. It was probably being reborn again and again, in what came to be called the "Failed" Incarnates.

No reason to let the accident of being dead stop somebody from serving their kin.

Or let a perfectly good body go to disuse.

Indeed, there's nothing like a guardian that can constantly damage its opponents strength.

I remember plowing through Kogoruhn, killing ash beasts and priests left and right. Then I saw a Greater Bonewalker running towards me.

That's what Falanu Hlaalu says. Hehe.

I think the fact that they can cast spells make them a little more then glorified zombies. As for corpse golems, I think that fits better with flesh atronachs ( I figure the name was based on there creaters misguided notion of a "flesh element", she does live in the shivering isle), which reminded me a bit of Frankensteins monster.

They take a dead body, stick spikes in it, and reanimate it...not much different with what necromancers do.

:tops:

There is a differance between an atranoch and a golem. An atonoch is a Daedra, a golem is a magical construct.

From "Legions of the Dead":

Flesh revenants, or 'zombies' as they are often called in the West, are known as 'bonewalkers' in Morrowind. Magic preserves the bonewalker's fleshy remains along with the bones and spirit. Bonewalkers are readily identified by the sharp protuberances of bone and metal employed in the rituals that bind them to this plane.

Where Nerevar's Bonewalker comes from? Is he depicted as bonewalker on Temple trioliths?

If I remember right, someone found a tapestry of Nerevar as bonewalker that was in a tomb or temple; though maybe it was a stone triolith at that.

I believe so, on the Shrines of Saint Nerevar.

Related: Why do zombies in TESIV look different from bonewalkers in TESIII? Just game mechanics?
I mean, drilling spikes and metal plates into a zombie still isn't going to make it look like a Greater Bonewalker.

Game mechanics I'd reckon. If you read the book quote posted up, it still labels bonewalkers are zombies, only zombies is a western Tamriel term and bonewalker is a Morrowind term for the same thing, a reanimated dead body.

That's why I said the name was misguided, I don't think they are actually atronachs, that's just what some crazy person in the shivering isles calls them.

Different magicks/techniques used for reanimation perhaps. The Dunmer are masters at ceremonial necromancy, therefore they consecrate the person into the form of a bonewalker - a much more efficient guardian than a zombie. Imperials aren't nearly as seasoned in the art, therefore they just reanimate a dead body.

I'd like to go so far as to say that a zombie is just a reanimated body, while a bonewalker is a reanimated person who is hallowed for a certain role (with a distinction being made between body and person - the bonewalkers are likely ancestors).

I love the Temple's legendary use of double standards.

It surely seems like a great *wink* honor to be reanimated looking nothing like what you looked like in life, then adorned with bones in your shoulders to look more menacing.