Necromancer

Perhaps the most feared esotericists in the world, necromancers wield the grey energy msawhat. They corrupt the energies of life itself and create, command, and channel the undead. Dressed in shrouds, carrying bones, and speaking languages forbidden at the dawn of time, they are emblems of unrest even in eternity. They stench of rot and decay, and their bodies, hearts, minds, and souls reflect their corruption. To be a necromancer is to be in violation of all the natural and righteous laws of the universe.

Necromancy

As the energy of corruption, msawhat requires any user to be corrupted. Flesh, bone, soul, mind, emotion... some kind of sacrifice is necessary. The simplest use of msawhat is communication with the dead, hence the term "necromancy". However, since the early necromancers who merely used seances to speak to the dead, the profession evolved. Those dead which were most easy to contact were those who were corrupted, cursed, doomed to be undead, and these agonized figures sought relief and revenge upon the world through the necromancers who spoke to them. They corrupted the original dead-speakers, leading to the profession becoming taboo and the term "necromancer" to refer to those who command msawhat to do more than simply allow communication. Those who only communicate with the dead are now called mediums.

Because the undead are so diverse, necromantic ceremonies, rituals, and practices are diverse. They vary by culture, time period, and technology. Some necromancers in other cultures are so different they have their own titles, but most are just variations on a certain core set of rules and rites: the wearing of shrouds (or cultural equivalents) in order to appear to the dead as if they were one of them; the use of bones as vessels to unleash msawhat, and the corruption of the ordinal powers as a personal sacrifice to have the power to command msawhat.

The Undead

Every type of undead has its own particular ritual or practice that creates it, controls it, etc. See each undead's page for more information. The undead are split into orders: phantasms, corporeal undead, abominable undead, femmes mortes, the damned, tutelary undead, vampires, and greater undead. Phantasms, corporeal, tutelary, and abominable undead are more common and easier to create, control, and channel (generally speaking). The undead are also split into Dominions. These 13 Dominions reflect the cultural and esoteric backgrounds of the undead and are political structures that have arisen on Third Shem. Necromancers sometimes align themselves to a Dominion, but in doing so, they become subservient to powerful undead. Most necromancers seek independence so that they may be the masters, not the slaves.

Orders

• Phantasms: incorporeal undead. Ghosts. They are split into two families: apparitions (pure msawhat) and the forsaken (other energies). Weaker phantasms are the most common undead in the world. They are often messengers, servants, and guards for powerful necromancers, and fuel for weaker ones. Powerful phantasms like wraiths are servants only to the most powerful necromancers.
• Corporeal Undead: the foot-soldiers of the undead. Ambulatory corpses. They are split into two families: wights (who have flesh) and skeletons (who are just bone). Weaker corporeals are slaves, servants, and soldiers. More powerful corporeals, like gashadokuros and revenants have more independence and often work on contractual bases.
• Abominable Undead: undead who are either very distorted from their mortal forms or are made from non-sentient beings. Undead animals and plants, for instance. They are infrequently seen but not unheard of. The most common are grey beasts and jack o'lanterns. Others, like wiedergangers or kroles, are so warped from their original forms that they are difficult to even identify.
• Tutelary Undead: undead bound to a specific place or object in order to protect it. The most common and notorious are the uada domen, which is the technical necromantic term for a haunted house. Bato nanm are ghost ships, which are also common. Some of these occur (un)natually because of horrible events, but some are commonly employed by necromancers for protection of themselves, their domiciles, or their personal belongings.
• Femmes Mortes: the dead women. A special class of undead that is part phantasmal, part corporeal. Femmes mortes are the result of the suffering caused to women, distorted into evil. Most necromancers do not employ femmes mortes except in the most profane ways. Femmes mortes are not and never can be "good" but they can sometimes share an objectrive (revenge on an evil person/necromancer, for instance) with those who are "good".
• The Damned: those who became undead because of their crimes, sins, or personal corruptions in life, who violated an oath, a promise, or a law so horribly that it cursed them to undeath. These are rarely created by necromancers (unless the necromancers are very skilled manipulators), but they are often aligned with or contracted with necromancers. They work together easily.
• Vampires: Vampires exist in almost every culture on the planet in some form, and stories of them are common. They themselves are relatively rare, however--their reputations and evil make them seem more ubiquitous than they are. Vampires are undead who retain the powers and identities of who they were in life, so long as they feed on mortal blood regularly. They are created in many ways. There are greater vampires (which are very powerful and independent) and lesser vampires (who are still strong but often serve others). Necromancers often employ lesser vampires. Greater vampires will sometimes work with necromancers, and some necromancers choose to become greater vampires. But mostly, even necromancers fear powerful greater vampires.
• Greater Undead: the rarest and most powerful undead, rivaled only by the most ancient and evil vampires and wraiths. Greater undead all have the inherent power to control other undead beings. They almost all have a soul jar or similar object. And they all are extremely powerful. The most notorious of these is the bash tchelik, which many necromancers hope to become one day. Greater undead will sometimes ally with very powerful necromancers, but usually, they employ necromancers, being the masters and not the slaves. It is rare that a necromancer who is not themselves a greater undead can control the greater undead.

Dominions

• Agikaani Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the jungles of Agikaan, the heart of a massive, worldwide genocidal cult. Necromancers who join this Dominion are usually from Agikaan, but some who espouse the eugenic philosophies of that twisted cult sometimes come from other parts of the world. The Agikaani Dominion is separate from the Agikaani Cult, but their intentions and goals are the same. It is simply a split in leadership (based on the political philosophical difference of "I should be the leader!" "No, I should be the leader!"). The Dominion has embraced undeath as a form of perfection, and necromancers in this Dominion will usually focus on creating undead amalgamations and using necromancy to corrupt people on a genetic level.
• Campionese Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in a small Jesenyan city-state among the Talunese. Specficially, they dwell in the sewers of Campione, having split off from the notorious criminal underworld of the Talunese region to form their own undead criminal cult; however, many of their members masquerade among the living as business leaders. Necromancers who join this Dominion are usually seeking wealth and power and come from a criminal background beyond just violating the laws of nature.
• Druannan Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the massive Druanna swamps. Ruled by a very powerful jack o'lantern, it is a Dominion of undead vegetation and filth, disease and pestilence. This Dominion formed from a series of small cults who slowly drifted into one big cult within the deadly swamps. Necromancers who join this Dominion often also practice malherbalism or plague-bearing, have possibly an industrial background, or simply grew up near or in the swamps.
• Fellwood Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the forests of Cayo Madera in Ansulym. This dominion is ruled by three femmes mortes of extreme power who call themselves the Three Fell Crones. They use fear, deception, and lust to their advantage, and their Dominion is very much one of undead women even in other forms. Necromancers who join this cult are often women who seek the corrupting power of undeath to avenge themselves against a world that sometimes hates women.
• Godless Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the wastelands of the Starfall continent, where the outcasts from the Guardians of Mortality who have violated the rules of that prestigious but dangerous organization are banished. Only the eternal godless and the blasphemous undead are part of this Dominion, and the necromancers in this Dominion usually join because they have also rejected the Divines and also the mortalist philosophy in favor of blasphemies against the natural order.
• Kaanian Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the deep ocean country of Uth Kaan that is a faction of the Stillborn Cult. Their Dominion is one which is not just led by a powerful undead, but worships it as a manifestation of their God. Necromancers who join this Dominion are usually undersea folk who are also in the Cult.
• Pandemonian Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the Pandemonian Sea, a fleet of undead pirates and raiders. Their fleet is centered on a small group of islands around which the seas are so violently, only those already dead may reach it. Necromancers who join this Dominion are often part of pirate fleets or from nautical cultures, using their powers to help guide the non-undead ships to the islands or out on raids.
• Qhanuum Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the machine graveyards of Qhanuum in the Voidbarrens, deep underground. This dangerous, void-oriented Dominion is very technological and only the rarest of necromancers would join it, often being irritologers or engineers as well.
• Raesian Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the island country of Kael'Ras, the most powerful and largest Dominion. Most necromancers who join a Dominion join this one. They are the patroned country of the Grey Mother. Necromancers who join this Dominion do so in hopes of rising up the ranks and becoming a bash tchelik lord. They are called the Order of the Bone Orchids.
• Sangarian Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in Sangar, a rocky, forested country in Starfall. This is a Dominion of starvation, famine, and drought, those who suck the life out the land itself. Necromancers who join this Dominion are usually desperate and lost, joining only because it is their only recourse to power.
• Srisian Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the former halls of power in Srisia, ruled by the Prophetess of the Webweaver, manipulating their way back to glory. This Dominion exists now only in the fringes, the hidden spaces, waiting and working back to dominance. Though they are no longer the dominant force in the world, they are still feared and powerful, and many necromancers join to become part of their web. They are attracted by the subtle power, the former glory, and the gossamer evil. Many are simply eaten up by the more skilled and dangerous manipulators within the web already, but some rise to great power.
• Wapek Dominion: a Dominion of the undead centered in the cold of the polar south, this is a very small and scattered. They control a vast stretch of ice and snow that is haunted and forbidding. The necromancers who join this Dominion are usually locals who are attracted to the power in this region, the only dangerous power they know.

Seance

As mentioned above, communication with the dead is the simplest use of msawhat. Anyone can perform a seance, though most who do so get the ceremony wrong and only end up talking to no one but the air. Others use fake seances as part of schemes or hoaxes. But some, especially mediums, use seances genuinely and without ill intent. The corrupting power of the msawhat is so minimal that it poses no threat to them, used only to open a small passage to the Beyond. Necromancers use much more msawhat with a much more dangerous ceremony to contact the undead, those cursed to dwell between life and death. They make deals, contracts, demands, or trades for power instead of simply asking about lost loved ones.

Seance ceremonies vary by culture, but certain features are commonly found: a certain number of candles, a small table, and a group of people linking hands. Only a necromancer can hold a seance without any other people present. Some use soul trumpets, special horns that amplify the voices of the dead; soul slates, special boards that the dead could write upon; bone tables, tables that are strong vessels for the dead, who can make them float, spin, etc.; and soul boards, which are known in our world as Ouija boards. Most necromancers rely on candles, a table, and the spilled guts of any convenient animal (including mortals).

Channeling

The dead can be channeled safely through mediums, but the undead are more risky to channel. It is incredibly risky, as the undead sometimes have the power to take over and control a necromancer or medium. Most mediums stick to the weakest undead or the dead. Necromancers often engage with more powerful phantasms and other non-bodied undead in order to use their powers, take their powers, or briefly allow them to communicate to others in exchange for favors or power.

There are multiple ways to channel a phantasm. The most common involve seances, but other methods include using a circle of bones or cold iron to trap a phantasm then coercing it to enter a body, using a circle of candles which can be snuffed out in order to confuse and bind the dead, or use of a bone that once belonged to the specific phantasm.

Replicating

Replicating is the act of mimicking the powers of the undead while alive. Necromancers often use this when fighting the living. How to do this varies per undead, but common themes involve using part of that dead, candles or greyflame (msawhat energy as flame), special oils, etc. Mostly, though, they use bones that have been bonded to an undead being, which, when snapped, will unleash the msawhat and fill the necromancer for a limited time.

Controlling

To control the undead requires active use of a necromancer's will, which can be taxing if they intended to control an army of the damned. Therefore, they develop bone ornaments that link to the undead they control, transferring their will into a passive form that still maintains enough control that the undead will not betray them, but gives a little autonomy. This method has been used for Ages and is considered the core of most great necromancers' powers. Most necromancers can override the power of any undead through this method, but most undead also have specific methods that will work on them. See their individual pages for more information.

Creating

Once more, most individual undead have unique ways in which they can be created, but most necromancers will use generic ceremonies that will generate msawhat to allow them to create lesser undead without specializing. This ceremony requires bone powder and a nearly dead fire. Throwing the powder on the fire will ignite it into greyflame if the timing is right. Then all the necromancer must do is take something that belonged to their target, a piece of their target, or something suitably symbolic of their target and throw it into the fire, thus corrupting them. This method will create shamblers, skeletons, shades, phantoms, or ghosts easily. Varying this ceremony with other ingredients (usually burned in the fire in the first place) can create other kinds of undead. Some undead can only be created through specialized ceremonies or methods.

Greymastery

The ritual to become a greymaster is one in which a necromancer submits one of their ordinal characteristics (soul, heart, mind, body, or Name) to corruption in order to gain permanenet, inherent control of the energy msawhat. It has 13 steps after the ingredients are all gathered:

1. While naked, annoint yourself in oil made from the fat of a baby animal.
2. Put on your shroud, any bone ornaments you own, and a ring of cold iron.
3. Create a large, intense greyflame with bone powder and a large, low fire. Possibly in a firepit.
4. Take a living thing the size of a medium-sized dog, a goat, or a human child, for instance, and slit its throat over the fire. If it is a plant or other living thing, draining any kind of internal fluids that are necessary for life will work. Enough of the fluid to lessen a normal fire will work.
5. Pour four ingredients into the flame that symbolize the Name: water for mind, earth (salt) for body, fire (a candle) for heart, air for soul, for instance.
6. Cut yourself and produce 6 drops of blood into the flame. If you have done these steps correctly, the flames will spin, dance, and turn into a perfect ring.
7. Step into the greyflame while wearing a shroud.
8. While in the greyflame, take something symbolic of the ordinal characteristic you wish to submit into the flame: flesh or bone for the body, something of emotional value for your heart, a book or similar that you have read for your mind, a picture of yourself for your soul, or your written name for your Name.
9. Wait within the flames as the symbol burns. Breathe in the smoke that is produced.
10. Dance with the ring of greyflame while chanting your Name backward.
11. Take off your ring of cold iron.
12. At this point, your shroud will burn. Resist the fear and stand still.
13. And then, your ordinal characteristic will burn. Resist the pain, fear, and consumption while standing still.

If you resist until the whole characteristic is corrupted, you will have succeeded in the ritual and have power to command msawhat by will.

This is only possible after a process of grey binding or the performance of a profane ritual.

Profane Ritual

A profane ritual invokes pure msawhat by violating the laws of life and death. There are a few ways to do this, but the most common is to kill someone in a way that prevents their soul from passing through to the Beyond. This varies greatly by species and person, but common methods include sealing someone's mouth with a special seal (usually wax made from their children's ground up bones and fat), removing their still-beating heart and burning it, either plucking out the eyes without letting them blink or sealing them permanently with the bone and fat wax, creating a special Grey Circle out of grave dirt and bone powder, burying the coffin top-down, digging up the body and moving it to a strange place (or only part of it), tricking them into promising their soul to another fate then murdering them (or driving them to suicide), etc. The method must affect the soul or the body's connection to the soul. More complicated methods might invoke mental or emotional bonds to the soul as well, such as psychological torments that disconnect the soul from its traditional path. Once a profane ritual is performed, the invoker gains access to the pure, potent msawhat from the Grey Lands. The price of this is the corruption of their own Name, and the powers they get are based on various undeath powers (see Undead for now).

Grey Binding

The user of grey binding attaches their body, soul, mind, heart, or Name to the Grey Lands directly (or that of another). This is done by finding a location where the boundaries between your realm and the Grey Lands are weak and opening oneself to msawhat's corrupting presence. To be open to the corruption, one must commit a vile act that exposes the facet of themselves to it. This is often an act of murder, but sometimes, it can be other terrible things. Whatever it is, it needs to be violate and harm life itself. Once the act is performed, one must use meditate (not cleansing themselves in any way first) until the msawhat fills them. The powers that come with this vary (and are reflective of the powers of the Undead). However, the corruption is much, much more painful with grey binding, turning the user into an undead being within a few days at most unless the binding is somehow broken. The damage is typically almost incurable, however.

Grey Mist

The most common form that msawhat takes on Shem is grey mist. This mist causes intense unease in those it comes near, and if one becomes trapped in the mist (as it will actively try to confuse you), it will corrupt your ordinal characteristics one by one until you are undead. Necromancers can control grey mist, often employing it to guard their homes. They control it by use of bone ornaments, as if it were a conscious undead.

Shrouds

The tradition of necromancers wearing shrouds began in the very earliest days of magic use, as they would wrap themselves in the same kind of animal skins they wrapped the dead in, in order to seem to the dead as if they were among them. Over the millennia, it has evolved, but the idea remains the same: the dead can be tricked into seeing the living as one of them if they are adorned similarly. Burial customs vary by cultures, so in some areas, it may not be a shroud worn by local necromancers. But the larger necromancer groups have taken to shrouds as a uniform, regardless of their effectiveness.

Shrouds provide a bonus to necromantic ceremonies if they do match the bural customs of the dead being targeted. If the dead being targeted were not properly buried, they still expect those who were to be wearing the right outfit. If a shroud is inaccurate to the target dead's culture, however, it will not cause a penalty. If the necromancer is not wearing anything relevant to the dead, however, it will, though usually minor.

Bones

Bones are the most important ingredient to necromancy. Animal bones are commonly used for minor spells, but the best bones are those of intelligent mortal beings--humans, spirit folk, etc. For this reason, necromancers are often also graverobbers or at least employ them. In a pinch, just murdering someone will do. The kind of bone will determine different effects in a spell, and some necromantic arts require specific bones. The most potent bones are ones that have been previously corrupted, especially if they were potent with an antithetical energy beforehand. A corrupted elven or geliqurofi bone is the most powerful, but both are extremely rare. Bones of beings that are already undead are also very potent--a bash tchelik bone can do almost anything. Most necromancers use whatever bones of dead mortals are most common locally. Bones with symbolic importance are also effective; rabbit or rook bones make very useful tools.

Bone Ornaments

Bone ornaments work best when made from the bone of the kind of undead being controlled, but this is obviously not always possible with those who do not have bones. Any potent bone mentioned above is best for an ornament, but almost all bones work. To make a bone ornament, a necromancer must wash the bone in blood (their own or that of someone they have murdered) or the rancid milk of a dead mother (mortal or animal). The bone must then be shaped into some kind of form--the form varies by kind of undead and the necromancer's intentions--and left under the new moon for a night in the blood or milk. After this, the necromancer must pin or otherwise attach it to their shroud. If it ever comes off the shroud, they will lose control of any undead attached to that ornament. To link the ornament ot an undead being, they must touch that undead with the ornament (this is the only time they can detatch it from their shrouds, but only for a few minutes at most).

Stench

Eventually, any necromancer who practices consistently will begin to smell like the rotting dead. Either their actual bodies will begin to rot or they will simply be so entrenched in their work the smell never washes off.

Soul Jars

Soul jars store the soul and psyche of a necromancer or powerful undead being. Necromancers create these while they live in hopes to become powerful undead upon death or to live forever. The creation of a soul jar is a complex and difficult ceremony requiring many ritual murders and dangerous acts of profanity. However, the ceremony is different for every individual and must be developed by the necromancer.

Variations

Variations from around the world:

• Bonecaster: one who uses Raesian energy, that is, the energy of bones, to perform necromancy without msawhat.
• Ghost singer: either one who uses song as part of their undead rituals, or a literal ghost who sings.
• Grey knight: a knight who has performed the rituals to become a knight of Kael'Ras, but has not yet died and become undead.
• Greyrider: a necromancer who specializes in undead steeds.
• Leyak: a witch of northeastern Dabusen who uses msawhat and pravum in her rites.
• Maalgka: a necromancer who specializes in assassinations, killing and turning people into their spectral servants.
• Medium: one who allows phantasms to enter them so that they might communicate.
• Necrobotaner: a necromancer who specializes in undead plants.
• Necrothurge: one who studies necromancy but does not necessarily practice it. An expert on necromancy from a scholarly standpoint.
• Necrozoologer: a necromancer who specializes in undead animals.
• Nov'kael'orich: a necromancer who views it as an artform and uses their powers to create statues of flesh and bone.
• Osteologer: one who uses osteological sciences to enchance their necromancy, or vice versa.

Persecution

Necromancy is ostensibly banned in most countries, but its practice is only persecuted when it is used by people the ruling class does not approve of. It is completely legal in Kael'Ras (obviously) and Srisia, and partially legal in Stolzen, Agikaan, and most of the empires of Ansulym.

Skills

Some skills that are common:

• Anatomy
• Mortician skills
• Graverobbing
• Osteology
• History
• Botany
• Zoology
• Poisons
• Funeral practices/lore

Stats

The typical necromancer will have the following variations from the base stats of their nation/species:

PRO +1
ATH -1
STR -3
AWA +3
WIL +6
STH +2
PRS -4