Supernatural Power Data Files: Necromancy

Supernatural Power Data Files: Necromancy

Power Details: Necromancy is, to put it simply, ‘anti-life’. Whatever the strange force within us is, the source of our psychic powers and seemingly the source of both curse and holy magics, necromantic energy destroys. In many cases, it will devour that energy – growing itself through some corruption of life itself.

            Necromantic energy is channelled from ‘somewhere else’ (see Supernatural Power Data Files: Elemental Magic (excluding Necromancy) for theories, or relevant supplementary files), as with elemental magics. Its colour is black, and it can be bound into objects for later usage. Many necromancers bind power into themselves, despite this often leading to accidental deaths. As a necromancer utilises this energy, their ability to channel it will grow. However, even the greatest and oldest necromancers can barely channel more than a few solid threads (note, however, that the lich possesses a completely unknown level of power).

            Necromancers, like ordinary mages, often live longer than ordinary people. This is not due to a side-effect of elemental magic use – mages and necromancers both alter themselves with their magic to deliberately extend their lifespans. The most extreme case of this is, of course, the lich; but there are records of several necromancers reaching ages of over two hundred years.

            Many necromancers will also, near the end of their lifespan, turn themselves into undead creatures. This is a last resort for them, as it will cut them off from most (or all) of their power, and also prevent them from growing any stronger with necromancy. These undead creatures are greatly different from the ordinary undead necromancers create; perhaps most similar to the tainted. Most who choose to take this step were captured and tortured by their fellows for information – until the rise of the lich (see the Supernatural Entity Data Files: The Lich and Supernatural Organisation Data Files: Meander Corporation for more details, as well as the History and Theories section in this file).

            Necromantic energy can be used in two ways. Firstly, it is very effective at killing anything that is not necromantic in nature – the necromantic energy will destroy the ‘life’ of the living being. This ability is limited by several factors. Firstly, necromancy cannot be used to manifest any element – instead, the ‘raw’ form of almost incorporeal energy must be used. Secondly, this energy dissipates greatly when it passes through anything that is, or has been, alive or part of a living creature. As such, unlike the other elemental magics, necromancy dissipates when moving through the air. This decay prevents the use of complex ‘spells’ (carefully constructed and controlled energy) over anything but a short distance. Thirdly, and finally, necromantic energy is more difficult to store than the other elemental magics, for much the same reason.

            The second – and primary – use of necromancy is to create ‘undead’. Necromantic undead are very different from cursed beings (such as vampires and lycanthropes). Instead of being ‘alive’ through the power of some ancient curse, or being able to transform due to such, necromantic undead have had their ‘life’ replaced by necromantic energy. Details on the particulars are complex and (in some cases) unknown to us. In short, beings in which ‘life’ has been replaced by necromantic energy are capable of movement and in many cases capable of thought.

            If a being is not self-aware (or, not strongly self-aware) a necromancer is able to command it. Records of early experiments indicate that early zombies (an appropriate word for mindless necromantic undead) were unable to move without the necromancer controlling their limbs directly, a problem which persisted until nerves and some other reflex controlling parts of the zombie were preserved during or incorporated into creation to allow more natural motion (notably, abominations still suffer many of these issues).

            Modern zombies are the result of centuries of experiments carried out by necromancers, and suffer relatively few problems with mobility. However, they possess little intelligence and are incapable of doing more than acting as guards with the simplest of commands (such as none may pass, or none without necromantic taint may pass) without the active presence of a controlling necromancer. Another important to note improvement is that modern zombies are usually only able to be controlled by their creator or a small, trusted group (again, unlike earlier zombies).

            The true terrors of necromancy are, of course, those that retain their intelligence. There are several common types of necromantic, sentient undead – blackwings, ghouls and tainted – as well as numerous failed experiments, or even successful but non-contagious or low in number creatures. True retention of intelligence is believed to have come from necromancer experiments with prolonging their lifespans.

            Sentient necromantic undead are not directly controlled by their creators, however, wise necromancers often imbue emergency means of killing or disabling the being. For example, blackwings find garlic to be incredibly toxic, and many tainted can be ‘deactivated’ or even killed by any necromancer with the correct knowledge. It is thought that necromancers are capable of sending out faint command ‘pulses’ that mindless undead will willingly follow, but which sentient undead will feel and then choose whether to follow (evidence of this has been seen with necromancers passing information to tainted without direct contact, or even to each other).

            Though many details have been covered herein, full details of the possibilities and often despicable nature of necromancy can be found throughout the supplementary files and data files on various necromantic creature types and entities.

History and Theories: Necromancy emerged about two hundred years after elemental magic. As with elemental magic, this is a possibly inaccurate date – information from that time is scarce, and necromancy was long only in the shadows of the supernatural world. How necromancy was discovered is completely unknown, but it is known that rumours of the ‘night element’ emerged in magical circles around five hundred A.D. After being examined by the magical circles of the time necromancy was determined to be completely inimical to all life. As such, study of it was effectively banned – only a few mages dabbled with it, and none made any advances.

            Yet, on the edge of the community, dedicated necromancers emerged. Unlike elemental magic, necromancy was deeply unsettling – and thus possessed a dark appeal. It was not until the creation of the first undead (roughly seven hundred A.D.) that necromancy became truly despised by most mages. The unveiling of the creatures is a well-documented event – a necromancer revealed first a series of animals that he had raised and could control, before finishing with a human.

            The zombified human was too much for most of those present. All the zombies were destroyed, and the necromancer went into hiding or was slain. We believe he continued his work, but even if he did not, the seed had been planted. While most mages worked on their art – developing elementals, and great spells that even combined elements, news of new horrors created or perpetrated by necromancers continued to come.

            Shortly before the peak of the elemental magic societies, a war of sorts began. Necromancers desired the knowledge of the mages to further their own skills, and the elemental mages desired to cleanse the world of the necromancers once and for all.

            The elemental mages, as far as we can tell, failed. Their centralised societies each had several members who also dabbled in necromancy, and these traitors led killers straight to their fellows. Between the twelfth century (the peak of the elemental societies) and roughly the sixteenth century, almost every last mage has been hunted down and killed. Though the killings have continued up to the modern day, the societies have been broken since then.

            After destroying the elemental societies, the necromancer cults began to turn on each other. They desired knowledge, and like the mages before them, they were loath to share it. Unlike the mages, however, they were happy to kill freely for that knowledge. We possess records indicating the destruction, merging and creation of numerous cults, up until the creation of the Meander Corporation in the mid-nineteenth century.

            The Meander Corporation was once a small, secretive cult of necromancers – though in organisation they more resembled the elemental secret societies of old. With the rise of the lich, however, that changed. They absorbed or destroyed many other cults, and we have much evidence that they were the final nail in the coffin of the near-gone elemental societies (eliminating the last members of almost all of them). Although Meander has toned down their activities in the last fifty years (mostly, we believe, due to the ease with which information about the existence of supernatural beings could be spread should they be caught) and formed an alliance with us, they are not to be trusted. We are almost certain that their true means of income involves utilising necromantic energy to do something truly terrible.

            Returning to necromancy itself, it is believed that necromancy (as well as the other forms of elemental magic) bleed through into our universe from another that ‘presses’ upon ours. Although the four elements seem to ‘fit’ into our world, necromancy does not – and is actually incredibly dangerous to the natural ‘life’ of our world. The prevailing theory is that this is because necromancy is, in that dimension, life. Because of this, necromantic energy cannot co-exist with ‘life’ here, and will seek to replace and destroy it.