Necrourgists (A to Z Challenge, N)

Necrourgists

(For an explanation of the term, visit this post)

Those who specialize in the magic and manipulation of death are not that rare in the Sea of Stars but they are rarely very popular, it strikes most people as something that is best left alone (though some states encourage its use such the Dark Star Dominion or the High Kingdom of Laccini).  The Empress does not favor it as a path of magic but nor does she condemn it, leaving it as just one of the many routes to magical power.

Necrourgy is a comparatively new field of open and accepted magical study, its study and use was suppressed  in the age of the gods leading to isolated practitioners and secretive organizations of necrourgists.  In the thousand years since the Sundering it has rose to be an accepted (if unpopular) part of the magical fields of study, the objections of the Sun Cult to such magic are tacitly ignored.

Necrourgists often find themselves classified with alchemists and other practitioners of practical magic and serve more in industrial than academic roles.  They are usually found serving in various militaries where their ability to “reuse” troops can make the difference between success and failure.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), the animated dead are only of limited usefulness due to their limited range of actions.

Creating intelligent awakened bound spirits and animated dead, while again not forbidden, is definitely frowned upon by the Empress and thus is only done well away from the centers of Imperial power.  While the living dead are only rarely able to spread their curse, the Empress has a unit of specially equipped soldiers and sorcerers available to burn out any such infestation that may appear as she has no intention of turning her realm over to the unquiet dead.

(In game terms: This means that only the rarest of undead in the Sea of Stars have the ability to create spawn and those that do, will find that a big Imperial hammer comes down on them if they use it too freely.)

Some necrourgists make their living as professional ghost hunters and spirit breakers, for there are many odd magical effect that create various dangerous ghosts and other forms of unquiet dead.  These necrourgists usually hide their magical specialty behind some sort of euphemism such as exorcist or slayer.

Notes: If you have magics that can create and manipulate undead, you should really think about how both it and the undead fit into your campaign world.  Nothing can end a game quicker than rapidly replicating undead.

Photo by Andrew and Annemarie and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license