Inside the mind of a necromancer

[Dausuul]

(Note: I tend to assume a darker version of necromancy than the mechanistic view one sometimes sees. The undead are not mere bone-puppets on magical strings. Their presence is a blight on the world and they spread death and decay wherever they go. Furthermore, those who practice necromancy risk being corrupted by the dark magic they wield.)

Philosophy: Power over life and death is not merely the ultimate power, but the only power. If you're going to die someday, any power you possess is meaningless. If you have the power to live forever, no other power is necessary. The army that cannot die is never truly defeated. The king who cannot die is never permanently overthrown. The person who cannot die can pursue any goal until she reaches it, however long it takes.

Personality/Character: Necromancers are obsessed with survival above all. Most are focused on self-preservation. Others--and these are often the strongest, most powerful and inventive of the breed--are trying to preserve lovers or friends, or whole nations.

To the necromancer, death is anathema. To buy continued life, anything and everything is on the table, including things that less clear-minded souls would say "make life worth living." The necromancer scoffs at such conceits. Life is worth living for its own sake, and even the most tortured and desperate existence is preferable to destruction. Most necromancers do not believe in an afterlife, regard it as equivalent to annihilation, or subscribe to Xykon's philosophy: "Be a vampire, or a ghost, or an immortal with a paint-by-numbers portrait in the rec room. Even a brain-in-a-jar, in a pinch. Anything to avoid the Big Fire Below."

Lichdom is, of course, the ultimate expression of this view, and many necromancers walk that road quite deliberately. Others try different approaches--just because you can live forever by becoming a cold, corrupt, dead thing doesn't mean it isn't worth looking into other options. Vampirism is popular among those who want a more lively and sensual existence. The boldest and most ambitious necromancers look for ways to become immortal while remaining alive.

As one might expect, necromancers are not the most balanced individuals. The popular stereotype regards them as cold, humorless, and grandiose, and many are exactly that, but those traits are far from universal--some are quite charming and witty. The one thing that unites all necromancers is their capacity for obsession. When a necromancer decides to pursue a goal, she does so ruthlessly, relentlessly, ignoring all other concerns and making any sacrifice needed. Often, by the time she achieves it, she has destroyed or forgotten whatever started her pursuing the goal in the first place.

 

[steeldragons]

Spells n' Thangs n' Thangs n' Spells

My initial thought when reading the initial post was that "a brilliant spellcaster" would opt to be a general/universalist mage vs. specializing in anything. Seeking, in their brilliance, to master ALL types of magic, not just a certain school.

But that is neither here nor there as the thread is re: Necromancy.

I think the various reasons have all been covered, but something that has not been thoroughly examined is the role of Alignment. The characters alignment should have some weight on the character's motivations.

I've been in games where the Necromancers, automatically, are "evil." I've been in games where the school of Necromancy is, by default for Neutral or Evil characters only...and I've heard of/seen games wherein a necromancer could be any alignment they like...I recall one where there was the "good necromantic school" and an opposing "evil" one.

So, I think, how necromancy is used/viewed in the game world along with the PCs alignment are primary factors in working up the character motivations for pursuing it.

Here's what I'm thinking from what we've seen thus far...
Pursuing Necromancy for:

• Power: the mage wishes to be "the best" he can for various ends. Increase his power to its zenith. This could result from seeking Power for: personal drive/gratification, personal gain (believing Necromancy to be the "most powerful" type of magic, whether that is true or not), personal conquest (bending life and death to their own use), the betterment of his understanding of Life & Death, aiding their society (as "good" necromancers/researchers/mystical "physicians").
• Personal Quest or Vendetta: the mage wishes to study/master powers of Life/Death for some reason. Communicate or "bring back" loved ones, achievement their own immortality (and possibly bestow same on others), punish those who have wronged them in what is perceived as the most controlling/painful/permanent/eternal way.
• Sincere Knowledge: the mage wishes to use their magic to fully research, comprehend and (probably) control the mortal body as well as the esoteric spirit for the gain/betterment or detriment/downfall of a person/persons, society...the world? Anatomy, disease, mundane and medical as well as magical "healing". I think of this as sort of a "Dr. Frankenstein" character, not necessarily "mad", but legitimately believing they are mastering/bettering the world through their discoveries and experiments. The ideas presented of using undead for manual/dangerous labor would fall in this slot, I think.
• Pure Evil: nuff sed. The mage, probably somewhat "unbalanced", outright "insane" or purely selfish, desires to further the forces of evil and master the "dark arts", literally because they ARE "dark arts" for their own sinister reasons.
• "Everyone Wants what They Can't Have": The character is a maverick who pursues necromancy because they are simply "anti-establishment" in their world view/won't be told what they can or can't do. Someone told them they "can't" or "cuz it's forbidden". A brillliant mage would be all about gaining "secrets" others (particularly other mages) don't have. So simply because Necromancy is more secretive/forbidden or illegal, lures them in.
• Thrill Seeker: Mostly like above, but the motivation is more of a personal "challenge"...seeking knowledge others are too timid, fearful, or "law-abiding" to attempt to master.

As I play it, in my game world (and granted it is somewhat homebrewed) the basic/public philosophy of the School of Necromancy, and the reason it is permitted to exist alongside the other magical academies, is that Necromancers are not about delving into the "dark arts" but that understanding those "dark" forces (controlling life and death) is necessary to combat/defeat those that pursue "evil".

Necromancers, mostly, perceive themselves to be superior to other specialists in general. Whereas the Enchanter or Transmuter practices their respective arts by "harnessing arcane energies innate to the world and bending it to their will to effect some change (the generic world definition of "magic"), the Necromancer pursues their craft to use these same energies to bend the power of life, itself. Their work with "magic" is peripheral to their seeking to use (and master) the energies of "life force" (or "Soul energy" to some).

Life force/Soul Energy is believed, by necromancers, to be a primal force much more elemental to the universe than simple "arcane energy".

This view is generally not held by other magical practitioners who view this "philosophy of necromancy" as anything from "mistaken" to "justification for their evil" to "utter nonsense.

Some schools think "Necromancers refuse to acknowledge the simple fact they use the same energy as any learned wizard." Some mages might recognize the legitimacy of Necromantic Philosophy but believe "those forces are forbidden/secret for a reason and not to be tampered with."

Still, most mages of any school are not likely to argue with the fact that the best way to fight [evil] Necromancy is WITH Necromancy. (Unless they are an Evoker, of course, whose answer for just about anything is "FIREBALL!")

So...yeah, that was long. But hope something in here is useful.

Have fun and happy undead-making.
--Steel Dragons

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My initial thought when reading the initial post was that "a brilliant spellcaster" would opt to be a general/universalist mage vs. specializing in anything. Seeking, in their brilliance, to master ALL types of magic, not just a certain school.

Maybe. But are Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo (or other archetypal "Renaissance men") more brilliant than William Shakespeare or Albert Einstein or other great minds that focused on a single area? The modern area, in particular, is full of brilliant specialists and very few who seek to achieve brilliance in multiple areas. (Richard Branson is arguably an exception, but some might just categorize him as a rich dilettante.)

 

[Yesway Jose]

Animating undead is not like working at a cemetary or funeral home where corpses are treated with dignity and respect.

A necromancer views undead as an ordinary tool no different than any other tool.

Clinically, then, necromancers have a personality disorder -- they are completely lacking in fear and antipathy towards the dead.

Choosing to specialize in undead is simply a logical choice -- to go for a niche that is less competitive than other magic schools.

Other than that, necromancers are usually completely normal.

Although many end up being antisocial, because people don't like their line of work and tend to avoid them.

A disproportionate number of necrophilliacs happen to be necromancers, not because necromancers are more disposed to necrophillia than anyone else, but mostly because they have easy access to that sort of vice.

There has been only one or two known cases of necromancer germaphobes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Clinically, then, necromancers have a personality disorder -- they are completely lacking in fear and antipathy towards the dead.

I've met funeral directors and gravediggers. Neither seemed to have personality disorders.

Viewing bodies as merely meat casings for the actual person doesn't seem particularly abnormal or unhealthy to me; it's actually a fairly common belief, in my experience.

 

[Yesway Jose]

I've met funeral directors and gravediggers. Neither seemed to have personality disorders.

Please re-read the first line where I describe them as treating bodies with dignity and respect.

 

[Yesway Jose]

Viewing bodies as merely meat casings for the actual person doesn't seem particularly abnormal or unhealthy to me; it's actually a fairly common belief, in my experience.

To reitereate, I have the utmost respect for funeral directors and gravediggers. A dead body is normal. Handling a dead body for burial is normal, and honorable too.

However, animating a dead body to do your dirty work doesn't seem particularily normal or healthy to me. To put that in perspective, just imagine in real life a person dancing with a corpse. That's the kind of comfort level that a necromancer has.

Why are animated robots usually sci-fi and animated zombies are almost aways horror? For some reason, most people find the image of undead to be scary. AFAIK, humans have evolved a natural fear of dead bodies, because something killed that body and it's wise to stay away from whatever killed it, and thousands of years later, we haven't completely buried that instinct.

In-game, I doubt any decent folk could like a necromancer. It might be barely tolerable until one day he comes over with *your* dead friend or loved one in tow.

So I don't know how to get into the mind of a necromancer without feeling that he's a sick bastard or a psychopath. Can't that be a coherent philosophy? Well, I suppose that any character who lives in a D&D setting has seen enough horrors to become desensitized to almost anything...

EDIT: I suppose that if a necromancer has written full consent from the family of the deceased, and the animated dead is used, much like a robot, to do dangerous tasks, instead of risking the life of living person, then I guess that necromancer can be good without a personality disorder per se.

 

[Celebrim]

I'm looking for a coherent philosophy as to why a brilliant spellcaster would devote himself to necromancy, as opposed to all other specializations. Bonus points if you can explain how this outlook would color other aspects of his life, personality and behavior.

Players, don't read:

Spoiler

Only outsiders to the art call it 'necromancy' in fear and disgust. The learned refer to the most noble of the arcane arts as 'vivomancy'. We do not study the dead; we study life. As a physician must study corpses in order to one day eventually master the knowledge of anatomy and chi necessary to perform surgery and mighty works of healing, so to the vivomancer must make his abode among the dead and make a study of the darkest arts - not for the sake of mastery of those arts, but to ultimately learn the greatest secret - the miracle of life itself. Think of the possibilities that would be unlocked should man come to understand the powers of life! Unlimited healing, unlimited food, the end of sickness, the end of decay, the end of poverty, and ultimately triumph over death itself! It is no wonder the gods of heaven forbid our art and call it evil! They fear the power that they we may obtain and jealously gaurd their secret understanding so that we must grovel before them for the simpliest of cures. But one day, we will finally be able to storm their gates, unbar their doors, and take what ought to be ours by right. Then, we will share life itself with anyone that asks. Seriously, do you think I love murder, or death, or the decay pestulant corpse, or the dark dank coldness of a tomb? I tell you I love none of these things, but it is necessary that I endure them for the ultimate good of all free peoples. I want a world of life and light and joy. Don't blame me if the only power I'm allowed to wield is over death; blame those that have hidden understanding and barred to doors to power! Yes, it's true that for the most part our search has be futile and unproductive. We have mastered granting the semblence of life and extending only existence and not true vitality. But as all power flows from its source to its opposite, so to is it true that positive power flows to and is controlled by its conduction to the negative. Direct manipulation of the positive may be barred from us for a time, but eventually with true mastery of the negative we can make ourselves masters over the positive as well and claim for ourselves a bit of the treasury of Heaven. Then will everyone hail us as heroes and their eyes will be opened to the true evil in the world!

 

[Celebrim]

To reitereate, I have the utmost respect for funeral directors and gravediggers. A dead body is normal. Handling a dead body for burial is normal, and honorable too.

However, animating a dead body to do your dirty work doesn't seem particularily normal or healthy to me. To put that in perspective, just imagine in real life a person dancing with a corpse. That's the kind of comfort level that a necromancer has.

It's a good deal worse than that. If that's all it was, it would be a rather depraved but perhaps minor foible.

In the real world, we have prohibitions against disturbing the dead primarily for the practical reasons of avoiding the spread of disease. The dead are buried or burned to avoid polluting water supplies or serving as a refuge for vermin and disease vectors. But the dead thing itself is harmless. Additionally we may have some social reasons for respecting the dead, because they were or are fellow members of the community of humanity. But, even the most religious believe that the person themselves are not there and have left.

In D&D, the situation is much much more serious. In the real world we have things like the bubonic plague, cholera, and small pox and these are terrible things capable of ravaging millions of people. But the pus filled blood vomiting worst cases of the plague are rather petty and unhorendous compared to the worst sorts of plagues that can be inflicted on people in a D&D world. Ebola is not so lethal or fast acting. Small pox is not so virilent. D&D worlds are regularly plagued by the sort of diseases of world ending apocalyptic fiction. Plagues that turn you into zombies are hardly serious on a D&D world; just run of the mill daily horror. Plus its worse than that, because their are sentient manifestations and agents of disease. All the horrors that the supertious medieval mind imagined to describe his fear are real in the D&D world.

But its even worse than that. Because D&D worlds are explicitly Manichean in nature. It's merely that death is the absence of life, but rather a thing of real substance in and of itself. Hense, life has a counterpart in unlife that is something beyond death. Darkness isn't merely the absence of light, but a force of its own having its own substance and particle (if you will). Evil isn't merely the absense of good, but a tangible thing that can be touched and can touch you.

So what does a necromancer do in a world like this? He brings more of the bad stuff - death, evil, darkness - into it. His every act taints and pollutes the world around him. Things get darker, more decayed, more malevolent. The world starts acting like its the movie Final Destination, only out to get everyone. He upsets the balance and literally drives good from the world. No matter how good his motives, he's a spewing fountain of filth. No matter what good deeds he does, he's offsetting them by literally assisting evil and death's conquest of the world. That's why spells in D&D can be marked 'evil' as if the intent, purpose, and even outcome of using them didn't matter; because it doesn't.

And its even worse than that. Because in the D&D world, the dead person doesn't necessarily just vacate and leave. They often stick around a while, and some of the less savory sorts tend to stick around a long time. So he isn't just polluting the world with evil, darkness, and death, but he's polluting it with souls most of whom are evil and even the better sorts likely to be drowning in pain, confusion, and anger. When he disrepects the bodies of the dead, he's literally disrespecting the dead themselves because they are probably still around here somewhere.

It's really important to remember that regardless of what you think the shape of this world is, we know alot more about the shape of the D&D world and its probably (or almost certainly) not like this one. That difference makes a real difference in the D&D world. If you have a D&D world where people have outlooks that basically could belong to this world, then you could learn much I think by stopping a bit and going, "Well, what if all this D&D fluff was really true."

 

[Wild Gazebo]

While historically know as ‘Necromancy’ the study of life and death has contemporarily been labeled ‘Vivomancy’ to the learned few who brave the rigors of magical knowledge. Unlike many other schools of magic, classified by source and medium in terms of nomenclature, Vivomancy has long been divided into sub-schools based on moral dictum.

The sub-structure of Vivomancy is classified into three groups of spells: The Black, The Grey, and The White.

The Black spells of Vivomancy have long been banned by guilds and governments alike: been the target of many crusades and almost universally despised. These spells subvert the will of life and the divine. Any spell that wrenches the will out of nature and subverts it to individual slavery or drains the force of life from its vessel is considered ‘of The Black’ in Vivomancy.

The Grey spells of Vivomancy are the true source of knowledge for the learned. Spells of The Grey study, dissect, adapt, coerce, and strengthen the forces of life and death. If negative or positive energy is channeled it is allowed to return back to the universe observed, manipulated, or even abused…but always returned. The study of life and death is wrought with emotion so it takes a professional detachment to truly study the way of the world through careful calculation and observation. The spells of The Grey remain within this conviction of thought and deed.

The White spells of Vivomancy have long been associated with other schools (mistakenly) and so there is some trouble with the classification. Historically the study of The White has been celebrated due to the strong emotional attachments people develop in life; but, this also causes a large degree of danger because the White deals with the infusion of life. While The Black takes the forces of life and subverts them to selfish goals, The White takes the forces of life and artificially prolongs the longevity of living creatures. While on the surface it may seem righteous it is just as self serving as the subversion of life.

Many spells of Vivomancy have been misunderstood, banned, hidden, and even stolen from the hands of mortals to only be doled out by the divine purview of the gods. But, let it be said that no other school of magic has been so dissected and vilified: no illusion or enchantment spells have been given moral grading, no transmutation spell has been forbidden by the gods, no evocation spell has heightened the glimpse of what is truly life, and no divination has succored the knowledge of what makes life…life.

To this end the study of Vivomancy is the greatest pursuit of the learned, the closest to the spark of creation and the furthest from the flash and pomp of the arcanist.


ps I swear I didn't steal 'vivomancy'...I've been using it for years!