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Message: <blockquote data-quote="[OMENRPG]Ben" data-source="post: 5621385" data-attributes="member: 6677983">As an aside, it is very interesting to me how many people wished to respond with in character thoughts or dialogue. Most peculiar; I'm assuming those of you who did have either thought of playing or have played as a necromancer.I have spent far too long during the design process of my campaign worlds trying to understand the process of necromancy, reanimation, and the entire school of necromantic teachings. One of my entire cultures, a group that must live on very scarce resources, resort to necromancy out of necessity for basic life. They are ruled by a powerful cadre of liches, who "preserve" their society by granting eternal life and the lack of necessity for basic sustenance.In a campaign that I DM'd some years ago, one of the primary NPCs who played a major role in the plot (read: primary villain) was an astute necromancer and indeed, a brilliant wizard. He was competent in most schools of magic, but preferred necromancy to achieve his aims. Aims which were not selfish or unemotional in nature, but simply pragmatic and in his eyes, magnanimous. You see, this necromancer very much wished to live in a state of harmony with life, fate, his past, and the volatile world which he resided. The incessant warring between various factions of men, whether driven by scarce resources or greed or hate, or any of the base emotions, simply led to the destruction of life. Why raise an army of living men, spend the resources to train, equip, feed, and sustain them through years or decades of battle, when a wizard powerful enough can simply start with a small enough force of undead that can quickly snowball into a far larger and more obedient force than any other in the land.This necromancer slowly acquired the dead to which to raise, enlisting the assistance of more powerful and cognizant undead creatures to serve as the captains and generals of his army, and slowly codified the fractured land into a single, beautiful, and harmonious empire. After a time, no army dared stand up against a host so formidable as an fifty thousand strong undead army (augmented by an artifact and maintained by thousands of lesser necromancers who trained under the principal necro) and the fighting ended. And all the while, no resources were spent, and every group that did fight, soon became "allies" (zombies) to the growing force lead by the necromancer.He came to the logical conclusion that an empire ruled by a brilliant, immortal, and arguably omnipotent wizard such as himself would be the most glorious civilization in all of history; the crowning achievement of man circumventing the natural destiny and cycle of life and death. Those that wished immortality would plea their case to one of his many lesser magistrates, and those who wished to stay alive would remain so. Manual labor work would no longer be necessary, as a host of free and infinite and inexhaustible workmen, the undead, could be provided to serve as economical and obedient slaves for every business and household. This would alleviate the stresses of the common man's arduous life, allowing him to focus on education, art, philosophy, and spending time with his family; possibly for eternity. What nation wouldn't want this? What people would refuse such a utopia brought about by necromancy? Peaceful, serene, and eternal.</blockquote>

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