Necromancy is evil?

[DMH]

When necromancy is mentioned, generally, people first think of those who create undead. Necromancy is much more than that, it is a study of death and the dying for a better understanding of how life works. In a campaign that has no divine casters, mainstream necromancers would be the leaders in healing (and undead creators would be considered aberant).

Recently I picked up AEG's Evil and read the first part. Though the main text is quite good (much better than BoVD), there is a sidebar example that confuses me. Sisters of Dust is a group of women who study necromancy is better heal the living. Since there is no mention of vivsection and is a mention of healers and midwives, I have no idea why they would be considered evil at all. The example given is a CG woman (in another sidebar) which makes their inclusion even more bizarre.

So just because they study the dead, they are evil?

 

[Thanee]

No, it's not evil.

However, people who focus on necromancy more often are evil than not.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Crothian]

well, it depends on how you do alignments...is it based off of some absolutes handed down by the gods, a true weighing of people's souls, or based on the perceptions and beliefs of the people in gerneal?

I can easily see where commoners would think the ladies would be evil since all they know is those strange women up there work in death. Sure, aunt matilda says they helped heal her 40 moons ago, but we discount that.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It is all in how it is used.

 

[Hjorimir]

Sophistry!

 

[Darkness]

It's not evil, just misunderstood.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

I've always wanted to play a good necromancer. I had this vision of an old man, clad in bones, with a giant army of undead following him, going into towns and building them a brand new town hall with this massive "union" of perfectly obedient, immensely strong, tireless workers. And he could dig river tributaries, wells, and all sorts of huge labor-intensive projects. The only problem was that A) In 3.0 at least, the wizard necromancy spells (that involve raising the dead) are few and weak, B) Clerics need a god who would support such activity and alas... we are brought to C) The laws of the DnD universe (at least the one I was in) said that raising the dead is an evil act. That last one is the biggest problem I have. Their reasoning is that raising the dead disturbs the soul at rest. But my thinking is that the soul is gone, the body is left to decompose without a true owner, so raising the corpse to do good works wouldn't upset the spirit at all. I just need a nice DM who agrees with me... I guess if I DMed my own game, I could fudge the rules and let it happen.

 

[Turanil]

I've always wanted to play a good necromancer. I had this vision of an old man, clad in bones, with a giant army of undead following him, going into towns and building them a brand new town hall with this massive "union" of perfectly obedient, immensely strong, tireless workers.

This is also an evil necromancer. He creates hordes of jobless people in putting out of work hundred of honest laborers who need a paid job to feed their families. Obviously, all necromancers are evil.

 

[Jupp]

In AD&D all healing spells where necromantic. Funnily enough this seems to have changed in 3E

 

[Crothian]

In AD&D all healing spells where necromantic

and don't think I didn't slay anyone who tried to heal me back then, either!!