Necromancer

A necromancer is anyone who perverts the natural order of life and death whether by reanimating corpses, bringing the dead back ot life, or otherwise manipulating or using the souls of others. The school of magic known as necromancy broadly covers two categories of magic: animancy, which deals with the manipulation of souls, and corpomancy, the magical manipulation of bodies living and undead.

Legality

For as long as the Dominion has existed, it has enforced, with extreme prejudice, strict laws barring the practice of necromancy. While the practice is largely maligned because it is perceived as the desecration of the dead, it is especially egregious in the eyes of the Dominion as the empire's state religion, the Faith of the Nine, is dominated by the worship of the Stranger, the God of the Veil Between Life and Death. Broadly speaking, in the penal code of the Dominion, there is no greater crime than the act of performing criminal necromancy.
What the layperson defines as criminal necromancy and what the penal code defines as criminal necromancy, however, are not necessarily congruent. Under Dominion jurisprudence, it is established that in order for the act of necromancy to constitute a criminal offense, it must satisfy a two-factor test: (1) that the act of necromancy defiled the body of a deceased individual or an individual that was made deceased for the purposes of the defilement; and (2) that the act of necromancy defiled the soul of a deceased individual or an individual that was made deceased for the purposes of the defilement. That is to say, in order for a criminal defendant to be sentenced with the capital crime of criminal necromancy, the prosecution must demonstrate that they are guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the crimes of criminal corpomancy and criminal animancy.
It should be noted that, unlike any other criminal offense, none of self-defense, duress, insanity, necessity, or public interest are considered legal defenses for criminal necromancy. Instead, if a criminal defendant is found guilty of criminal necromancy, these are taken as mitigating factors.
Under specific circumstances outlined in Dominion law, it may petition the courts for the use of necromancy by qualified professionals such as fanes or priests blessed with the powers of the gods in order to serve the interests of the empire or a criminal investigation. This is typically taken only as a last resort, and only in cases that can have far-reaching consequences. Even so, the law dictates that in order for such a use of necromancy to be legal, even if state-sponsored, it must have the assent of the Stranger. Without this, the petition fails, even if it is brought forward by the Pale Imperator himself.

Type

Illicit