Necromancer (Other races)

For the other races, Necromancy is the power to utilize magic involving corpses and animi. Practitioners of this trade are known as Necromancers. 
The user's magical abilities revolve around reanimating the dead and the manipulation of animi (souls, ghosts and spirits). They can also communicate with the deceased either by summoning their animi or raising their body, imparting the means to obtain information or discuss with the departed. Necromancy is typically learned through two ways, either by learning from a necromancer, or when someone close to the potential necromancer dies, and the potentiate wishes to resurrect them. Many practitioners find a way to cheat death one way or another, whether by becoming some form of undead creature or by bypassing their own ability to die.
== Raising methods ==
Necromancers are able to animate dead beings, regardless of species or type. Animals, plants, or sentient beings are eligible for raising. If they are not dead, the necromancer cannot use them.
Deceased organisms have a chance of naturally rising from the dead, which prevents necromancy from being performed on the corpse. 
Necromancy isn't a neutral practice, the biggest danger for Necromancers is their undead running low on magic, and turning on the practitioner to consume them. 
=== Spirit throwing ===
Necromancers that use captured souls to reanimate corpses, this method is less damaging to the necromancers soul, but the undead require constant supervision and quickly turn feral without it. Spirit throwing uses a soul gem to project an animi at a corpse who will then be under the control of a the necromancer for a limited time. 
=== Soul Planting ===
Soul planting is the ability to create raised corpses using a piece of the necromancer's soul. 
The other races raise the dead by pushing parts of their soul into the dead body, preferably through the center of consciousness i.e. The Brain or from the center of pressure i.e. the heart in an attempt to “jump start” the organism back from death. Once the magic is inserted, they form an artificial sentience. This is similar to self splitting, but rather than fracture their own sentience, Necromancers make a lesser copy of their own. This gives them complete control over the being, but also makes the being unable to maintain any level of autonomy. When they are not controlled, they are left doing whatever it is they were previously commanded, until they are given a new command, or are no longer able to function.
The necromancer can provide initial fuel to allow the reanimated being movement, but they must be supplied fuel in order to continue, this can be magic or flesh. Because sentience is what creates magic and fuels them, they must feed on sentient or previously sentient flesh. If running dangerously low on energy, this desire to consume will override any commands and in rare cases, has led to Necromancers being consumed by their own creations.
Commands can be given to any creature reanimated by the same Necromancer that created them. Proper commands must be infused with the Necromancer’s magic for the reanimated to respond to them. Anything else will achieve no results. Artificially sentient undead cannot fight commands unless starved of magic. Soul Planted Undead, however, can resist commands. If they are planted in their original body, they can resist more effectively than if in another. The more magic a Necromancer puts into a Command, the tougher it becomes to resist. However, this can lead to depletion of their magic quickly, as it must be maintained for the entirety of the task, or the Undead will break free of the control.
==== Soul Eating ====
Eventually a Necromancer can gain the ability to control, manipulate and even consume the souls of others in order to strengthen their own. They do this by killing the being, and wrapping the escaped soul with their own magic. They then pull the soul into their body and begin absorbing it. During this Soul Empowerment time, the Necromancer doesn’t age, has no need to sleep, eat, drink, breathe, etc. A single soul typically lasts a single month.
The Necromancer can then use the souls it captures to immediately raise one or several corpses at once, instantly creating entire platoons of soldiers under its command.
=== Tooth fairy/Teething ===
Collecting a person's teeth and eating them gives the necromancer control over the person. Once the body dies, one can eat the teeth, giving control over the reanimated corpses. The reanimated corpse crumbles to dust once all of the teeth are digested. This withering effect is well documented, and is one of the most common method of reanimated corpse control due to its simplicity, but is limited due to the tooth being digested in 24 to 48 hours.
==== Indenture ====
In some cultures, being raised after death is a choice. Indenture in NPB's involves promising the free use of one's corpse after death in exchange for currency, goods or services, usually a one time payment. The insurance is replacing the debtors' teeth with dentures, ensuring the creditor can eat them to control the person once it dies.
=== Loss of anima ===
The complete loss of anima creates a reanimated corpse, in control of whoever possesses it until it is returned. Anima can be used as currency, and sufficient debt causes the debtor to become a vassal to whoever possesses its anima. Once the debt is paid, the debtor returns to its former state. Bank/Labor firms grew out of this practice, often tricking undead people into owing indefinite labour.
=== Cartouches ===
Involves a carved tablet bearing an inscription of the tasks the reanimated corpses can do.
=== Reanimation ===
Raising a body without its soul is necromancy, and the result is a zombie, raising an anima is necromancy, putting an anima in a body together is reanimation.
== Degrees of reanimation ==
Not all raised corpses have the same abilities and functions, this is mostly based on the necromancers skill.
=== Basic ===
These reanimated corpses are only good for repetitive actions, non complex tasks but are often considered too expensive to create. Most owners destroy these reanimated corpses once their usefulness diminishes, since retraining them is difficult.
=== Medium ===
Can use skills they had in their prior lives. For example, paper shufflers and guards.
Can work tasks they performed in life with necromancers to supervise, as they can reproduce learned skills but not adapt well to changing circumstances, and often end up mindlessly repeating whatever they were last doing to no effect without supervision.
=== Advanced ===
Some reanimated corpses are used in undead armies, these must be entombed after the conflict as they are difficult to reinsert in other jobs, and often wander off from their jobs and go on killing sprees without warning, creating warbands of undead. Sometimes warrior reanimated corpses can be converted to law enforcement, with mixed results.
=== Artificial Sentient ===
Are in actuality the animi of the entity bound to its skeleton, creating a much more intelligent, but not a true reanimated corpse.
== Professions ==
Despite it's controversial nature, there are several professions linked to the practice of necromancy, especially in necroponobasiliae, countries whose labour force is mostly or completely made of reanimated corpses.
=== Necromancers ===
The generic term for a corpse reanimator.
=== Necroticians ===
Necroticians are intermediate corpse reanimators, these technicians reanimate corpses for various uses, but mostly for labour purposes. They use less advanced methods of reanimation than necromancers. 
=== Anatomist ===
Person who studies the anatomy of the undead. Usually to dispense healthcare to reanimated corpses.
=== Inpu ===
While the term necromancer also applies it is reserved to those who create reanimated corpses. Inpu are reanimated corpses supervisors, in charge of ensuring the reanimated corpses do what they're supposed to, are secure and don't run off. Unattended or uncontrolled reanimated corpses will wander off and try to feed, making the inpu essential. 
They are essentially guardians of the dead, hence the name. Inpu are mostly found in necroponobasiliae, where they supervise the undead and use salt to destroy the undead that escape from their control. The latter gave rise to the moniker "saltshakers". The undead are resistant to curses, lightning strikes and most physical injuries, but salt is lethal to reanimated corpses, as it stiffens the muscles of the undead. As such it is always on hand of the inpu in case of rebellions or mutiny.
=== Body snatchers ===
Make their living corralling idle or rogue reanimated corpses back to their work sites. The term can be a pejorative, as some snatchers steal reanimated corpses to resell them.
=== Shambler ===
The exact opposite of a body snatcher is a shambler, is (traditionally) a non feral zombie who guides zombie groups to a certain location where they are harvested or eradicated. Shambling is an ancestral profession destined to kite animated corpses away from population centers. Traditionally sentient undead fill this role, usually to earn their keep among the living, but with the proper equipment, non undead become shamblers.
Shambling in a broader sense is a professional in corraling hordes of undead into a desired area. Moving a horde is a complex operation in which shamblers warn people away from the horde, deal with stragglers as well as stay within the horde at strategic areas to guide it to its destination.
== Society ==
Necromancy is a cultural clash among the other races, some abhor it, some use it to create a labor force (see necroponobasiliae), in some cultures it is limited to raising deceased family members to guard tombs and help their relatives. Using the corpses of anyone unrelated, even if willing, is considered a crime.
=== Necroponobasiliae ===
Main article: Necroponobasiliae
Necromancy is not very common amongst the other races due to its grisly nature. In some cultures summoning skeletons via necromancy, which are generally seen as weak, make an excellent and tireless farmhand workforce, in industrial jobs as well. Societies that capitalize on this workforce are called Necroponobasiliae, these countries are often the source of plagues, due to having so many walking decomposing corpses around.. 
Necroponobasiliae are countries whose labour force is mostly or completely made of reanimated corpses. The reasoning behind the creation of such beings is cheap labor, allowing the rest of the population to have skilled trades and art oriented jobs. A common criminal sentence in these countries is death and labor, meaning reanimation post vitam. In NPB's, reanimation is sometimes mandatory or even a feature of the land itself, but some can arrange to not become laborers to be made into intelligent undead instead. 
NPB's import vast quantities of salt but are rarely found  near saltwater surfaces, this is to ensure the compliance of the undead, since salt is lethal to them.
=== Necrocracy ===
Necrocracies are societies where the undead rule themselves. They usually source their citizens from naturally occurring undead, or from raiding graveyards that they forsake into becoming citizens. Forsaking is a necromantic ritual that shatters any spells controlling an undead creature and restores its full intelligence and free will, turning even a mindless skeleton into a fully independent and sentient being. Ethical necromancy as a movmeent sprung from this ritual. Necromancers and necroticians raise undead in a gentle, respectful manner that maintains the free will of the individual being raised or free the mindless undead from the grip of spells. Though the undead lose some of their freedom to a form of "old age" where their minds and free will slowly slip back into the spell's control, a condition for which euthanasia is the standard treatment.
Category:Undead
Category:Necromancy
Category:Other Race Magic
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