Necromancy,
the art of manipulating negative energy.

I dedicate, with all my humble heart, this work to Takari whose cold beauty in some regards remind me of the finer aspects of this school, and I give special thanks to the vice Khazark Akhalia for her fitting metaphor about the colours of magic and tasking me with this work.

The colour of Necromancy is the purest black, just like the skin of my Khal Abbil, or as dark as purple ever gets to be. It is a school that involves using negative energy. Amongst laymen it conjures up images of ragged men in dirty old clothing wearing skull symbols who create armies of undead hordes and sends them off against the living, it creates the image of the very anti thesis of life. And while these pictures to a degree are true, they do not fully fathom the dept of necromancy, or how natural negative energy in all simplicity is.

To begin with the basics, necromancy is manipulation of negative energy, nothing else. It affects the lifeforce of those it targets in an adverse way, but it can also be used to affect the driving force of say allready existing undead, taking control over them and destroying them and in this it is very much like any other tool, it can be used for good and for ill. It relies both on the allready existing negative energy in the world, and to a degree on conjuring up some negative energy into the world. In this it somewhat relates to the school of conjuration, but where conjuration draws power directly through extra-material sources, the school of necromancy relies on the immanent materials present in the spells vicinity.

This is not inherently evil, nor inherently good, negative energy is as much a part of our world as any other energy, moreso than some energies, it is simply the byproduct and product of death, when someone dies his positive energy disperses, his soul goes to its rightfull resting place and his remainding energy is spread out where they belong, and a large part of this process creates negative energy, most of wich disperse, but some will remain behind and can serve as a catalyst, as can the dispersed energy. (1)

To take a classic example of what can power a basic necromantic spell, the spell ray of enfeeblement it works through altering the lifeforce of its victim, specifically the force powering the muscles and imposes upon the victim the possibility of the victim being weakened. There is nothing unnatural in this, nor anything that harms the victim in the long term, since the possibility allready exists within the victim. The spell meredly enforces the possibility by inserting a small bit of negative energy weakening the positive energy powering the muscles. Energy that in time will return quite naturally. It can be compared to running for a long time driving yourself to exhaustion, you will tire a lot from it and your muscles will feel like burning afterwards, this is because you have spendt much of your natural positive energy, it does not harm you, but it does weaken you. (note: This is a lose analogy, ray of enfeeblement does not help you build muscles!)

This is a rule of thumb for low circle spells in general, the weaker the spell the more it works by simply altering the immanent possibilities whereas a stronger spell requires more brute changing, for example the seventh circle necromantic spell ”finger of death” uses the material component of a fingerbone, the fingerbone being a part of a dead creature, is a conduct between the negative plane and our own plane, by enforcing his or her will the necromancer then forcefully sends a ray of negative energy directly into the victim, very often with such force that the victims possitive energy completly dissperses, leaving the victim very very dead. Wich would be the intent of the spell as well (see my introductory text concerning the simple basics of the weave and magic for more on intent).

Protection against negative energy and the attacks of necromancy as such comes in three forms, the first one is the simply countering of the intent of the caster as the spell is in progress (see more on this in my treatise on dispelling), the second one is to be absent from the spot in wich the spell is applied, wich can be hard. But I would not underestimate the value of a strategically placed couch, it can actually save your life, then there is putting up a shield in defense, of this there are three types in general. Firstly there are spells such as nightshield wich protects you somewhat from the effects, making you more likedly to resis the spell than you would otherwise. Then there are such defenses as the spellmantles who simply absorb the spells and dissipates the energies spendt in it harmlessly. then there are spells such as shadow shield, wich specifically targets negative energy, hardens the air around you and does several other fine things. It works by leading the negative energy back into the negative plane, through a connection on the plane of shadows (be warned: Casting the shadow shield spell is best done properly, these spells are no cantrips for the beginner, and casting it poorly can give hillarious effects, wich the caster might not find funny).
Finally, i’m told that there also are a few divine ways, wich in theory would be to put up a positive energy shield, wich counters and negates the negative energy. This is somewhat similair in nature to that of the spell mantle, be wary of spells overpowering the limit of the barrier however.

Necromancy as conjuration, or ’how to make my cousin useful’
The perhaps best known aspect of necromancy, conjuring forth beings empowered by negative energy, that is undead. The shambling legions of the dead pouring forth and so forth.
...it is a myth, no sane wizard will ever conjure forth a legion of the dead, firstly it is impractical, the energy spendt in making the dead far exceeds their efficiency. Secondly, wizards are in fact, not the real masters of keeping up a horde of the dead, clerics far outstrip us in this domain.
Third, have you seen a shambling horde of zombies and what a single well applied fireball can do to them? Or even easier, let us say a spell such as grease. Oh no! Save me from the legions of the dead wich cannot stand on their own legs!

Now, as it might be implied I do not hold this, the least, aspect of the art in high esteem, but for the sake of fullfillment I will include it anyway. The theory of it is quite simple, you are having
1), a corpse (with all the limitations such has), and
2) the components required
3) the intent to create an undead.
4) you infuse the corpse with the negative energies done, and voila! You now have your very own undead, it might be dumb as a priest of Lathander, or as driven as a priest of Sharess in a brothel, just driven to the destruction of all life (likedly with yourself as the main goal) but it is there. Congratulations. Idiot.
Oh and a tip: Creating more undead than you can control does not destroy some of the undead, it sets the creations loose, creations that hate you very much indeed. Did I mention that its a bad idea to create undead? That is, unless you are in such a state as say, being a lich, in wich case you would not be reading this tome anyway, except as amusement.

Nathra Zurn
(1): See the work ”The prime material, -a treatise upon the nature of energy”