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<blockquote data-quote="Osgood" data-source="post: 9225456" data-attributes="member: 32792">I'm pretty late to this discussion (and apologies in similar points have been raised before), but I have a relevant anecdote.Some years ago, I decided to run a James Bond style spy campaign set in Eberron (I literally stole plots from old Bond movies, had every adventure start in media res at the tail end of some other adventure, and had villains and femme fatales with ridiculous names!). During session Zero I let the players choose which of the Five Nations' espionage services they would work for… and to my surprise they chose Karnath, who have a deep tradition of necromancy.Most of the group followed the Blood of Vol--a religion that valued necromancy and regarded undeath as a noble means of avoiding the oblivion of death, the wizard was a necromancer who was not shy about using animate dead.None of these characters were evil. In keeping with their nation's customs, they would have regarded being animated as zombies or whatever as an honorable way to continue serving their homeland in death. The people of Karnath thought of letting a corpse rot when it could be used to protect the living as wasteful--ideally the willing volunteers of their military, but a fallen enemy would be just as good (and some would say fitting).Sure, the turn to necromancy, or more specifical Vol, was one the king came to regret and it carried a lot of unsavory baggage (some of which was addressed in the campaign), but it also may have saved the country. The average citizen regards it as a good and patriotic thing. I would say, the good or evil of the act (or spell in this case) is a matter of perspective.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Osgood, post: 9225456, member: 32792"] I'm pretty late to this discussion (and apologies in similar points have been raised before), but I have a relevant anecdote. Some years ago, I decided to run a James Bond style spy campaign set in Eberron (I literally stole plots from old Bond movies, had every adventure start in media res at the tail end of some other adventure, and had villains and femme fatales with ridiculous names!). During session Zero I let the players choose which of the Five Nations' espionage services they would work for… and to my surprise they chose Karnath, who have a deep tradition of necromancy. Most of the group followed the Blood of Vol--a religion that valued necromancy and regarded undeath as a noble means of avoiding the oblivion of death, the wizard was a necromancer who was not shy about using animate dead. None of these characters were evil. In keeping with their nation's customs, they would have regarded being animated as zombies or whatever as an honorable way to continue serving their homeland in death. The people of Karnath thought of letting a corpse rot when it could be used to protect the living as wasteful--ideally the willing volunteers of their military, but a fallen enemy would be just as good (and some would say fitting). Sure, the turn to necromancy, or more specifical Vol, was one the king came to regret and it carried a lot of unsavory baggage (some of which was addressed in the campaign), but it also may have saved the country. The average citizen regards it as a good and patriotic thing. I would say, the good or evil of the act (or spell in this case) is a matter of perspective. [/QUOTE]

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