Necromancy

Necromancy is a feared and often misunderstood school of Magic, focused on manipulating the forces of life, death, and the soul itself. While often associated with raising the dead as mindless thralls, its scope includes soul manipulation, curses, life-draining magic, resurrection, and blood magic. Necromancy evolved from the earlier practice of Dark Shamanism, where primal forces of spirit and life were first harnessed alongside the elements. Revered by some, reviled by most, necromancers are often viewed as the ultimate defilers of the natural order, wielding powers that unsettle even the most hardened of mages.

History

Necromancy, the dark art of manipulating life, death, and the soul, has a complex history rooted in humanity's struggle for power and survival. Its origins can be traced back to the ancient Ak'teshi Empire, where it began as an offshoot of primal magic known as Dark Shamanism. The Ak'teshi Empire, ruled by Giants, was a civilization built on elemental magic, with shamans wielding power over Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Dark Shamanism marked a significant deviation from this harmonious manipulation of natural elements, focusing instead on the control of life and death. Kusatta the Bloody, a Human shaman and one of the Mortal Heroes, is often regarded as the first practitioner of necromancy. Disillusioned by the limitations of traditional shamanism, Kusatta began experimenting with soul manipulation in secret. He sought power that went beyond the elemental forces, delving into the mysteries of life and death. Kusatta's earliest successes involved binding souls to the dead, creating crude and dangerous undead servants. This marked the birth of Dark Shamanism, a precursor to the more refined practices of necromancy.

Dark Shamanism

Kusatta's dark practices quickly gained followers. He formed covens of renegade shamans who, drawn by the promise of power, spread his teachings. These covens found fertile ground in the tribal societies that had long been oppressed by the giants of the Ak'teshi Empire. Dark Shamanism offered a new kind of power—one that could challenge even the mighty Ak'teshi giants. The rebellion of the Mortal Heroes, a pivotal moment in human history, was fueled in part by Kusatta's undead legions. His followers reanimated the fallen, sending wave after wave of undead thralls against the Ak'teshi oppressors. The giants, who had always viewed themselves as the unrivaled masters of magic, were horrified by this new and unnatural power. Though they wielded the primal forces of nature, they struggled to contain the growing threat of Kusatta's necromantic forces. Despite the eventual fall of the Ak'teshi Empire, Kusatta's legacy endured. His teachings spread across The Known World, carried by his surviving followers, who continued to practice Dark Shamanism in hidden covens and dark forests.

The Formalization of Necromancy

The magocracies of Nidea played a crucial role in transforming Dark Shamanism into a formalized school of magic. The Crimson Council, a powerful assembly of archmages, sought to categorize and refine all forms of magic. The teachings of Kusatta were seen as a potential tool for understanding the fundamental forces of the universe. The council stripped away the primal elements of Dark Shamanism, replacing them with structured, arcane rituals. This transformation marked the birth of necromancy as a formal school of magic. The magocracies of Nidea were particularly interested in the significant political and military advantages unveiled by mastering necromancy. The Council aimed to consolidate their power and maintain control over their territories, and the use of necromancy allowed them to create undead servants and soldiers, reducing their dependence on traditional labor and military forces. This influence extended deeply into Nidean culture, where those who mastered the dark arts were often elevated to positions of great authority. Necromancy became more accessible to scholars. The Crimson Council, recognizing the dangers inherent in necromancy, restricted its practice to those who had proven their loyalty. Forbidden texts were locked away in the Crimson Vaults, accessible only to the most trusted archmages. Despite these precautions, necromancy continued to spread beyond Nidea's borders, finding its way into the hands of those who sought power at any cost.

Modern Necromancy

In modern times, necromancy remains heavily stigmatized and misunderstood. In some societies, like the Dominion of Doubt, it is studied to understand life and death, while in others, such as the Tahosian Dynasty, it is embraced as a way to commune with ancestors. However, in the Commonwealth and the Kiteshi Empire, unsanctioned necromancers face capital punishment. Despite this, these same states often covertly employ necromancers for state purposes, attempting to avoid public and religious outrage. The legacy of Vauldis and the War of the Undying casts a long shadow, and those who wield necromantic power must tread carefully.

Applications

Necromancy, often feared for its manipulation of life, death, and the soul, is a versatile and powerful school of magic. It extends far beyond raising the dead, encompassing abilities such as soul manipulation, spirit summoning, cursing enemies, and drawing power from blood. Necromancers can shape battles, prolong life, and even seek immortality. Despite its dark reputation, necromancy serves various roles in rituals, governance, and spiritual practices. Its utility provides practitioners with both offensive and defensive options, granting control over the living and undead alike.

The Three Pillars of Necromancy

Necromantic practice revolves around three key branches: Soul Manipulation, Blood Magic, and the Conjuring of Diseases and Curses. Each branch reflects a unique aspect of controlling life, death, and the forces between them, allowing necromancers to command spirits, drain vitality, and unleash pestilence and curses. Together, these pillars define the necromancer's power over life force.

Soul Manipulation

Soul Binding: Soul binding involves the necromancer's ability to bind, transfer, or imprison souls within various vessels, such as objects, constructs, or even other bodies. This technique can be used to create guardians or servitors that are capable of guarding treasures or serving their master's bidding. More advanced necromancers often seek to achieve immortality by binding their own soul within a phylactery, preventing their death even if their physical body is destroyed, often referred to as Lichdom. Spells like Soul Cage and Magic Jar are examples of this subcategory, allowing necromancers to manipulate and bind souls for various purposes.

Soul Consumption: The act of consuming a soul grants a necromancer a powerful infusion of energy. This essence can be channeled to fuel other spells, extend the necromancer's life, or enhance their physical or magical abilities. Soul consumption is considered among the darkest and most dangerous practices, as it involves destroying a spirit entirely to gain its power. This practice often leaves traces of corruption on the necromancer's own soul, making it a risky pursuit even for the most ambitious practitioners of the dark arts.

Spirit Conjuring: Spirit conjuring is the art of summoning and controlling the spirits of the deceased. These spirits can serve a variety of roles, such as advisors, spies, or warriors. Necromancers establish a mystical link with the spirit, using their magic to force it into obedience, or to make a Pact with the spirit. The conjured spirits may retain some of their former knowledge and abilities, making them invaluable sources of information or formidable allies in battle. However, summoning spirits requires considerable skill, as a poorly executed conjuring may result in a hostile spirit seeking vengeance against the necromancer. Summon Undead Spirit and Speak with Dead are spells that exemplify this category.

Blood Magic

Life-force Extraction: Blood serves as a conduit for life-force, and necromancers skilled in blood magic can extract this energy to fuel their spells and rituals. This extraction often requires the use of sacrificial victims, whose life-force is drained and transformed into raw magical power. This can amplify the effectiveness of spells or rituals exponentially. A well-known example of this practice is the spell Vampiric Touch, which allows the caster to drain health directly from an enemy and use it to heal themselves. The power inherent in blood magic makes it a formidable branch of necromancy, though it is reviled by most societies for its inherently sacrificial nature.

Blood Curses: Blood magic is also used to inflict powerful curses on enemies. These curses may weaken the victim, sap their strength, or make them more susceptible to future necromantic influence. Blood curses are often cast by using a portion of the target's blood, either obtained willingly or forcibly. Once a blood curse has taken hold, it is notoriously difficult to remove, often requiring powerful magic or divine intervention. The strength of the bond between the blood used and the target makes these curses particularly potent and long-lasting. Blood Hunters, particularly those of the inner circle of the Hunter's Keep, utilize blood curses to afflict the monsters they hunt.

Bane Enchantments: Through the use of blood magic, necromancers can enchant weapons, creating specialized Bane enchantments. These enchantments make the weapons more dangerous to specific types of creatures, such as giants, Dragons, or even celestial beings. For example, a Giant Bane weapon deals increased damage to giants, making it a favored tool for those who seek to confront such formidable foes. The process involves using the blood of the targeted creature to forge a mystical connection, ensuring the enchanted weapon's effectiveness.

Vampirism: Vampirism represents the ultimate expression of blood magic. Through dark rituals involving the exchange or consumption of blood, a powerful necromancer can create pure vampires—immortal undead beings with incredible strength, speed, and regenerative abilities. These vampires often become servants or partners of the necromancer or go on to create their own progeny. Vampirism is seen as both a curse and a blessing, offering great power but at the cost of an insatiable thirst for blood and eternal detachment from the living.

Diseases and Curses

Curse Affliction: Necromancers have the power to afflict their enemies with a wide variety of curses. These range from physical ailments, such as blindness, paralysis, or intense pain, to spiritual curses that slowly decay the victim's soul. Curses are often designed to be persistent, causing prolonged suffering and weakening the target over time. Removing a necromantic curse is a difficult task that typically requires powerful magic or divine aid. One example of such magic is Bestow Curse, a spell capable of crippling an opponent in numerous ways, depending on the caster's intent.

Pestilence Magic: Pestilence magic involves the creation and spread of lethal diseases, weaponizing illness to decimate entire populations. Necromancers can conjure diseases that spread rapidly among enemy troops or within civilian populations, instilling panic and despair. The spell Contagion is a prime example, allowing necromancers to infect their victims with debilitating and often deadly ailments. Pestilence magic is particularly effective in warfare, as it can reduce the fighting capability of enemy forces before the battle even begins, while also allowing the necromancer to draw strength from the ensuing death and suffering.

Strengths

Versatility of Application: Necromancy's greatest strength lies in its diverse applications, ranging from reanimation and battlefield control to divination and curse infliction. The ability to reanimate fallen combatants as undead soldiers can dramatically alter the outcome of a conflict. Additionally, necromancers can commune with the dead, using spells like Speak with Dead to solve mysteries or retrieve lost information, providing access to knowledge beyond the grave.

Psychological Warfare: The fear evoked by necromancy is often as powerful as the spells themselves. The mere sight of the undead can strike terror into opponents, causing chaos and confusion before a battle even begins. Necromancers use this fear to disrupt enemy morale, forcing enemies into retreat. This psychological advantage can be invaluable in warfare, especially against unprepared or superstitious adversaries.

Great Power & Resource Acquisition: Necromancy excels at utilizing a resource often ignored: the dead. By reanimating fallen soldiers or enemies, necromancers gain reinforcements without draining manpower or supplies. Undead servitors, needing no rest, food, or pay, are also invaluable for labor, especially in regions where workers are scarce or costly, offering tireless productivity without the usual expenses. Additionally, necromancy offers a fast track to power. Through life-force manipulation and dark rituals, necromancers can quickly boost their abilities without the long study other magic requires. The allure of immortality through lichdom, achieved by binding one’s soul to a phylactery, allows necromancers to escape aging and death, pursuing knowledge and power indefinitely, making it an irresistible goal for many.

Healing and Sustenance: Necromancy also possesses the ability to preserve life. Spells like False Life provide temporary vitality, while Life Transference allows a necromancer to heal allies by sacrificing their own life-force. These spells demonstrate the school’s potential to protect as well as harm, offering life-preserving magic that complements traditional healing arts.

Ethical Practice Potential: While necromancy is often associated with unethical practices, it is possible to perform it in a more ethical manner. A necromancer can gain the consent of a soul before animating its body, ensuring that the reanimated entity serves willingly rather than being forced. This approach, though less common, shows that necromancy can be practiced with respect for the deceased.

Weaknesses

Social Stigma and Ethical Consequences: Necromancy's association with death, corruption, and the unnatural makes it one of the most heavily stigmatized schools of magic. Practitioners often face intense social rejection, persecution, or even capital punishment in many societies if they are unsanctioned, forcing them to operate in secrecy and limiting their access to resources, allies, and training. The manipulation of souls and the reanimation of the dead also lead to severe ethical dilemmas. Some necromancers struggle with the morality of enslaving spirits or desecrating the dead. Forcing a soul back into its body to serve as a puppet is far easier than obtaining consent, and far too many necromancers have historically choosen the easier path. This internal conflict, combined with societal pressures, can make the pursuit of necromancy psychologically taxing.

Vulnerability to Divine Magic. Necromancy's reliance on manipulating the dead and the soul makes it particularly vulnerable to divine magic. Clerics and paladins, often empowered by deities opposed to the undead, possess spells and abilities specifically designed to counteract necromancy. The divine ability to turn the undead or spells such as Dispel Evil and Good can neutralize or destroy undead minions, while divine smites can deal devastating damage to necromancers and their creations.

Corruption and Addiction: Frequent use of necromancy, especially dark rituals like soul consumption, often leads to the corruption of the caster's body and soul. This corruption can manifest physically as a gaunt, withered appearance, and mentally through increased detachment, paranoia, or madness. The uncontrolled pursuit of greater necromantic power can lead practitioners down a path of irreversible decay, making them more akin to the undead they command. Additionally, the rapid power acquisition that necromancy provides comes at a cost: addiction. The more a necromancer relies on consuming life-force or using powerful necromantic rituals, the greater the risk of becoming dependent on this dark magic. This addiction can lead to reckless behavior, as the necromancer seeks increasingly potent sources of life-force to maintain their power, ultimately resulting in moral and physical degradation.

Limited Offensive Spells: While necromancy excels at controlling and reanimating the dead, it lacks the broad offensive capabilities of schools like Evocation. Many necromantic spells focus on curses, draining, or summoning rather than direct damage. As a result, necromancers must often rely on their undead minions or curses to wear down enemies, rather than having access to powerful destructive spells that could quickly turn the tide of battle.

Dependency on Resources and Preparation: Necromancy often requires specific resources, such as corpses, bones, or blood, to be effective. Without access to the remains of the deceased, a necromancer's ability to summon undead or use certain spells is severely limited. In environments where such resources are unavailable—for example, in highly sacred areas where the dead are swiftly consecrated or cremated—a necromancer's effectiveness is significantly hindered. Additionally, maintaining powerful wards or raising undead often requires preparation and sustained magical focus. Many necromantic spells require concentration or specific conditions, which makes it challenging to respond to immediate threats. In high-pressure situations, a necromancer may find themselves overwhelmed due to the limitations of their spells' preparation time or the need to concentrate on maintaining multiple effects. The karmic consequences of exploiting souls—especially for darker rituals—may also lead to unforeseen repercussions, such as hauntings, spiritual torment, or a corrupted afterlife for the practitioner.

Necromancy Throughout History

Necromancy has left an indelible mark on the history of the Known World, often surfacing in times of war, rebellion, and arcane experimentation. From the rise of Kusatta the Bloody to the War of the Undying, necromancers have played pivotal roles in shaping the course of events. Below are notable examples of necromancy’s influence throughout history.

The Infinus Apocryphum: The Black Books—Infinus Maledus, Infinus Mortis, and Infinus Sanguis—are among the most infamous and dangerous artifacts in necromantic history. Originally a single tome, the Infinus Apocryphum, written by Kusatta the Bloody, the first Dark Shaman, it was later split into three volumes to prevent its immense power from being fully realized. Each book contains foundational necromantic rituals that grant mastery over diseases, death, souls, and blood, playing a key role in Kusatta’s rebellion against the Ak'teshi Empire. Over time, the Black Books resurfaced during pivotal moments, most notably when Vauldis, the First Lich, unified them during the War of the Undying, unleashing necromantic horrors upon the world. Now scattered and guarded, these books remain a symbol of necromancy’s ultimate power and peril.

Emperor A'latl: Emperor A'latl transformed necromancy into a respected practice within the Tahosian Dynasty, using soul magic to communicate with ancestors and reunite families with the dead. Guided by the dark shaman Vauldis, A'latl became known as the "Deathspeaker," deepening ancestor worship across the Dynasty. However, Vauldis’ manipulation led A'latl into a devastating civil war with his sister-in-law, Queen Xalaxos, where he raised the dead to fight her blood magic. The conflict resulted in massive destruction and loss of life. Wracked with guilt over the war, A'latl redeemed himself by guiding the lost souls of the fallen to the afterlife, rather than seizing more power. This act elevated him to godhood as Banzala, the Ferryman of Souls. His ascension shaped Tahosian spirituality, making necromancy both a revered and sacred practice, while his downfall became a lesson on the dangers of unchecked power.

Vauldis and the Awakened: While Kusatta was considered the father of necromancy, Vauldis is often considered the first popularizer of the practice, refining Kusatta's teachings and aiding its formalization into what is known as Necromancy today. He was a High Shaman of the Dynasty who was driven to exile and rose to power within the Crimson Council, becoming one of its most influential archmages. He also became the leader of a secretive faction known as the Awakened—a cult within Nidean high society that believed in undeath as the ultimate form of ascension. Vauldis' teachings attracted many followers, including powerful archmages and zealous cultists. He taught that undeath was not something to be feared but embraced, as it allowed individuals to transcend The Cycle of life and death.

The First Lich: Among many things, Vauldis was obsessed with achieving immortality. He uncovered ancient and forbidden knowledge, eventually discovering a powerful ritual known as the Ritual of the Black Sun, which he believed would grant him eternal life. To complete the Ritual of the Black Sun, Vauldis and his followers constructed a network of black towers at key Ley-line conjunctions, redirecting the magic through the Blacklands. At the peak of the Black Citadel in Sekkar, Vauldis gathered his most loyal followers and began the ritual. The unleashed magic was catastrophic, consuming the life force of his followers and causing natural disasters across the region. Amidst the chaos, Vauldis succeeded in transcending the boundaries of life and death, becoming the first lich—marking a significant milestone in the history of necromancy, demonstrating both the ultimate potential and peril of the dark art.

War of the Undying: In the year NC. 0, thousands of years after the fall of Nidea, the Awakened launched their assault, rallying roughly one hundred necromancer covens under Vauldis' banner. Vauldis journeyed to the cursed lands of the Morbog, where the veil between the Blacklands and the Materium was weakest. There, he wove a spell so destructive that it tore through the Astral Filament, causing hordes of the dead to rise across the world. The War of the Undying lasted for a century, as armies across the Known World fought against the undead forces of Vauldis and his followers. The nations of the world, united by fear of a common enemy, formed a loose coalition known as the Pact. Old rivalries were set aside as soldiers, mages, and clerics from across the Known World banded together to fight the undead hordes. The Pact eventually succeeded in defeating Vauldis, with the climactic battle taking place on Kalki Isle. Vauldis was ultimately betrayed by his most trusted necromancer, Mortaris Dredge, allowing the Pact's champions to strike the killing blow. Vauldis was defeated, and his hordes withered and collapsed, bringing an end to the War of the Undying.

The Ironsgate Accord. Following the War of the Undying, the surviving nations sought to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring again by establishing the Ironsgate Accord—a set of constitutional laws regulating necromancy. While necromancy was no longer outright forbidden, its practice was restricted to controlled environments under strict supervision. The Ironsgate Keep, a massive fortress constructed at the borders of the Morbog, became home to the Gatekeepers—an order dedicated to ensuring responsible necromantic practices. Written 450 years ago, the Ironsgate Accord has faced increasing scrutiny. Some view it as a vital safeguard against abuses like soul exploitation through spells such as Soul Cage or the animation of the dead. Others argue it is outdated and overlooks the benefits of necromancy, such as solving crimes using Speak with Dead or employing resurrection magic. Progressive voices advocate for amendments to clarify the Accord's terms, while conservatives and traditionalists point to necromancy's dark history as a cautionary tale.

Type

Metaphysical