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Is necromancy evil or only as harmless as talking to your dead grandmother?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mephistopheles" data-source="post: 5189840" data-attributes="member: 4460"><p>In a fantasy world, one in which the elements of religion are matters of fact as much as (or more than) faith, it could be said that a necromantic act that kidnaps a soul from wherever it has gone after the death of its body and enslaves it in some way is an evil act - it would be interesting, however, to parallel that against the perception of slavery of the living in that same setting to see if any contradiction emerges.</p><p></p><p>As for speaking with a soul that has moved on, whether that is an evil act would depend on the specifics of the method. Is the soul given the option to ignore the summons or is it compelled to respond? Is the process harmless for the soul, unpleasant, or even torturous? Again, parallels could be drawn against what would be considered evil in interacting with or interrogating a living subject as a baseline for how similar treatment of the soul of a deceased subject should be considered.</p><p></p><p>When it comes to reanimation of the body that has no impact on the soul that has moved on - and by reanimation I mean that while the body is active it is still dead and decomposing, such as a zombie - then it's harder to see why this is an evil act: the soul has moved on and has no further use for the body which would, in time, be reabsorbed by the environment. The same could be said for one who chooses to stay with his or her body rather than let it die and move on: he or she is choosing to prolong one stage of existence, perhaps indefinitely, rather than moving on to the next. Such acts may be considered distasteful by the living, but are they evil acts?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mephistopheles, post: 5189840, member: 4460"] In a fantasy world, one in which the elements of religion are matters of fact as much as (or more than) faith, it could be said that a necromantic act that kidnaps a soul from wherever it has gone after the death of its body and enslaves it in some way is an evil act - it would be interesting, however, to parallel that against the perception of slavery of the living in that same setting to see if any contradiction emerges. As for speaking with a soul that has moved on, whether that is an evil act would depend on the specifics of the method. Is the soul given the option to ignore the summons or is it compelled to respond? Is the process harmless for the soul, unpleasant, or even torturous? Again, parallels could be drawn against what would be considered evil in interacting with or interrogating a living subject as a baseline for how similar treatment of the soul of a deceased subject should be considered. When it comes to reanimation of the body that has no impact on the soul that has moved on - and by reanimation I mean that while the body is active it is still dead and decomposing, such as a zombie - then it's harder to see why this is an evil act: the soul has moved on and has no further use for the body which would, in time, be reabsorbed by the environment. The same could be said for one who chooses to stay with his or her body rather than let it die and move on: he or she is choosing to prolong one stage of existence, perhaps indefinitely, rather than moving on to the next. Such acts may be considered distasteful by the living, but are they evil acts? [/QUOTE]
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Is necromancy evil or only as harmless as talking to your dead grandmother?
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