Necromancy

This page addresses information about necromancy and its in-character uses as it applies to World 42 roleplaying. Any valuable contributors are welcome to add, especially as new content or ideas come out in-game.

The Basic Concept of Necromancy
In the world of Runescape, cecromancy can do two things: It can reanimate/control otherwise lifeless corpses, such as zombies and skeletons, and can resurrect deceased individuals given the right conditions and experience. A basic necromancer very often will also have the ability to magically communicate with the deceased. At its roots, necromancy is just a magical corruption of the mummification process. A necromancer uses magical spells, incantations, rituals, or combinations thereof to gain an influence over the forces that control life and death. Practicing necromancy is considered a dangerous activity as numerous individuals have turned insane while attempting to raise the dead.

Offensive Methods for Using Necromancy
The standard fighting method for a necromancer is to act as a puppetmaster. Rather than directly entering combat himself, a necromancer would most likely use his undead puppets - ghosts, skeletons, zombies, wraiths - to enter the fight in his stead. These undead work like expendable pawns in a military squad - with the necromancer playing commander, he could easily send them in to their deaths if it is to his advantage, but oftentimes it's a better plan to keep his servants animated and useful as long as possible. More powerful necromancers sometimes choose to summon a large number of weak undead and use them expendably - for example, they could be organized to fight like goblins for Bandos or they could be strapped with explosives and sent in to act as suicide bombers.

There is a direct relationship between the power/experience levels of a necromancer and the strength/number of undead followers he can animate and control. A young man around the age of 20-25 learning necromancy could at the very most handle one or two moderately weak animations. Not until middle ages would a necromancer really be able to call himself experienced, as this particular art is much more sensitive and dangerous than just about any other form of magic.

It should be noted, though, that even incredibly accomplished necromancers in roleplay can't animate an undead follower without complete or nearly complete focus - that means no summoning any zombies while being hassled by a knight or dealing with anything else distracting.

Defensive Methods of Using Necromancy
There are two sides to the necromancer's defensive coin. The first of these two sides is the age-old concept that a good offense is a good defense. In this context, that means that a necromancer could easily defend himself by sending his necromanced undead in to fight any attackers. Especially in a situation where the zombies/skeletons/etc fight in a defensive style, necromancing is not unlike travelling with bodyguards.

The other side of necromantic defense is that, when your life's work is committed to mastering and defying the forces of life and death, death is no longer a real consequence. In that sense, not only is a powerful necromancer a very useful defensive ally - he can resurrect his friends in some situations - but he can also preserve himself in the form of a wraith, should he anticipate his own demise and prepare for it.

Along the same vein of self-preservation, a necromancer is very able to make use of a phylactery. A phylactery, for clarity's sake, is an item to which one's soul or life force is bound and with which that life can be preserved upon the death of the body (think Voldemort's horcrux or Sauron's ring). To defend himself in this situation, a necromancer would protect that phylactery either by keeping it close or by giving it to someone trusted beyond all else. Most phylactery-using necromancers carry it around constantly, always on their persons or very close by. They tend to expel heat or a faint light and can be detected by any necromancer or experienced mage nearby. Chances are, the necromancer who chooses to use one of these items is extremely afraid of death. Also note that a character in roleplay can only have one phylactery at a given time and would have to wait through the withdrawl effects of a phylactery's destruction before making a replacement.

Miscellaneous Uses of Necromancy
Powerful necromancers have the ability to resurrect humans who have died without turning them into undead monsters. This process is very delicate and can be disrupted by an extensive list of issues. The following are the conditions necessary for a necromancer to successfully resurrect someone: It was also mentioned earlier in this article that one of the basic abilities of a necromancer is communication with the dead. This, along with their magic, allows them to command their undead servants and probably also to contact the spirits of those who they intend to resurrect.
 * There must be a complete, largely undamaged body. If any vital organs are pierced, removed, or otherwise unable to function, the victim would be resurrected only to die again. This includes the brain, heart, stomach, lungs, central nervous system, digestive system, circulatory system, etc. The body, obviously, must still have its head.
 * The soul must be available for resurrection - a body is only good for undead necromancy without its paired soul. If the soul is bound to an item not present, if it has already been reincarnated into a baby, or if it has been sent to the spirit plane, it cannot be used in a resurrective process.
 * Without extensive ritual or sacrifice, the resurrection must take place in a matter of minutes after death. When oxygenated blood stops flowing to the brain, brain cells begin to die. Resurrection that takes place after catastrophic cell death would bring the victim back to life with severe retardation, if not as a complete vegetable.
 * Resurrection must not be disturbed on any level or else it risks failure. Particularly in instances where there is not a sacrificial body in the ritual, any interference as simple as a touch or a startling noise could not only terminate the resurrection, but it also risks the death of the necromancer. (This is used in roleplay to balance the power - at the chance of restoring a life, the necromancer risks his own life.)
 * If the body of the victim has begun to decompose or if it is missing a vital component, then a sacrifice can be used in the resurrection ritual that would replace the original body. That is, if a sacrifice were to give his life (willingly or not), that empty body could then be used as a vessel for the person being resurrected.
 * The necromancer must be in a strong state to resurrect someone. The process is very magically exhausting, and would necessitate a recovery period (days or more) after completion.
 * It is worth a moment to consider the requirements of ritualistic resurrection used in Undreground pass; Kardia needed Iban's blood, shadow, spirit, and body to resurrect him with her necromantic powers.

Common Mistakes
This category addresses traits that players, often new ones, give their necromancer characters but that aren't actually legitimate or acceptable traits in users of necromancy.
 * A necromancer would not be Guthixian. Necromancy upsets the delicate balance between life and death, and therefore conflicts drastically with Guthixian ideals. If your character practices necromancy, he is not a Guthixian.
 * "Young" and "experienced" are not two adjectives that can both describe a necromancer. An experienced necromancer can appear young but actually be much older, but to have a genuinely youthful character who is experienced at necromancy is highly unrealistic.
 * If a character uses a phylactery, the player is required to announce in any important situation that the phylactery emits a magical aura detectable to any nearby necromancer or experienced mage. It cannot be hidden in your pocket or under your shirt; the only way to keep a phylactery undetected is to store it somewhere not on your person, which is a dangerous choice.
 * Sacred clay may not replace an entire body. While useful for replacing unvital body parts, all sacred clay degrades over time. A soul resurrected into an entirely clay body would simply die again.
 * It's important to know when to die, when to live, and when to be revived. As a player with the option of resurrection, be sure to consider if it's really reasonable for your character to be resurrected before you allow it to happen.

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