Because Cofagrigus evolve from Yamask, who are remarkably tied to their past lives even by the standards of ghost pokemon, it was once believed that the Cofagrigus who guard ancient tombs were the spirits of the very individuals whose bodies had been laid to rest within them. But this is not true; the elaborate, booby-trapped and treasure-filled tombs of ancient times were constructed precisely to convey the souls of the deceased to the afterlife, and leaving said departed there as a Cofagrigus would be entirely missing the point.
In truth, the vast majority of these Cofagrigus are forced to guard these tombs as penance. In life, most of these individuals were criminals bound to coffins by the clergy after death, although the ancient definitions of crime differed considerably from modern standards; some of these people were guilty of nothing more than striving to escape from slavery. It was once thought that a single Cofagrigus was forced by these curses to stand watch for thousands of years, but if this ever occurred it is a remarkably rare event restricted to only the most obscure tombs. Cofagrigus bound to tombs have one way to escape, and that is to find a replacement – typically a grave robber who is forced to pay the ultimate price and then some for their desecration of the dead.
A few Cofagrigus, however, lived exemplary lives and volunteered to guard tombs as an act of supreme devotion. In some cases, these pokemon were motivated when human by love for the deceased; in others, by gratitude for them, and in all, by the idea that those bound to guard tombs by magic could never do so with as much skill or determination as those motivated to stand watch by the ultimate loyalty.
