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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 98879" data-attributes="member: 545">The Real Answer is the mythic context decides what is evil, not the superficial details.Animate Dead or commanding the spirits of the dead is the standard fare of evil Necromancers in legend.&nbsp; Even if the practitioner happens to not be evil, such magic is &quot;always&quot; considered dangerous and corrupting.Golems as we know them come from the Jewish Cabalistic tradition.&nbsp; These are very dangerous creations, but were created by very morally virtuous, wise, and learned individuals.The flesh golem is Frankenstein's Monster, a 19th century melding of the golem tradition with trappings of necromancy and science.&nbsp; The creature was actually childlike and morally neutral--until everyday humans &amp; and his creator teach it to be otherwise.&nbsp; Interestingly the success of this project seems to have driven Frankenstein to the near edge of insanity, an echo of the dangers of necromancy.D&amp;D simplifies the picture by just saying golems are golems are golems.&nbsp; Animating the dead is evil.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; If you have to draw the line somewhere, that makes sense considering the cosmology of the D&amp;D universe.(There are indeed older traditions of legendary automatons, but the Caballah is the real source for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, so they are not considered here.&nbsp; Automatons, whatever they are make of, are typically much less morally interesting than the two mentioned here.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 98879, member: 545"] The Real Answer is the mythic context decides what is evil, not the superficial details. Animate Dead or commanding the spirits of the dead is the standard fare of evil Necromancers in legend. Even if the practitioner happens to not be evil, such magic is "always" considered dangerous and corrupting. Golems as we know them come from the Jewish Cabalistic tradition. These are very dangerous creations, but were created by very morally virtuous, wise, and learned individuals. The flesh golem is Frankenstein's Monster, a 19th century melding of the golem tradition with trappings of necromancy and science. The creature was actually childlike and morally neutral--until everyday humans & and his creator teach it to be otherwise. Interestingly the success of this project seems to have driven Frankenstein to the near edge of insanity, an echo of the dangers of necromancy. D&D simplifies the picture by just saying golems are golems are golems. Animating the dead is evil. Period. If you have to draw the line somewhere, that makes sense considering the cosmology of the D&D universe. (There are indeed older traditions of legendary automatons, but the Caballah is the real source for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, so they are not considered here. Automatons, whatever they are make of, are typically much less morally interesting than the two mentioned here.) [/QUOTE]

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