Was sitting around at work the other day and this random idea about necromancy popped into my head.
Thought it was kind of cool, so I tossed the idea out to an IRL friend of mine. After roughly 3 hours of blathering back and fourth, this is what I came up with. I posted most of this on FB, and being the lazy fuck I am at the moment. I'll just cut and paste and edit what I wrote a little so that it'll make sense here.
Please let me know what you think (if anyone actually reads this stuff)
WARNING BIG FUCKING WALL OF TEXT COMING
What do you think of a fantasy world where the art of necromancy is considered to be the norm, and the idea of using the traditional elements of earth, water, fire and wind is considered to be sacrilegious and heretical? The protagonists I have in mind are not evil, more that they are very fatalistic, and find the idea that through death you shed your weakness, to be risen is the ultimate form of immortality and is considered the greatest honor one can be bestowed.
The people of the world believe that you are escaping your mortal limitations in this world by "passing" through the veil. To be risen again is to be deemed worthy to continue whatever you were doing in life, as such it's a great honor.
To wield the magics of the elements is viewed as a an individual desiring power, it's an act of greed and ambition that goes beyond the norm of mortals. For such powers are reserved for the spirits and not for man to control, by using such magic you are usurping the natural powers of the world.
Elaboration:
would like to exapnd upon that and if possible get some ideas from the members here.
The world I've envisioned (all in the span of roughly two hours while bouncing ideas off of a friend IRL who's been more patient with me, and has had to get friendly with good ol Mr J Daniels because of it) twists the traditional role a necromancer plays in the universe.
A race that has yet to be named practices the art of necromancy, they believe that a persons death is not to be mourned but to be celebrated, as it is kind of a "coming of age" to them or that persons time to ascend to a greater plain by passing beyond the "veil" which is a barrier of raw magical energy that they believe sepearates this dimension or what have you from a realm they have come to call "The Higher".
When a person dies, it is customary for the ritual of the passing to be performed on their corpse, through this, they essentially creamate the body through magical fire. By doing so, it is their belief that they release their "essence" (which the soul is believed to be a form of magic in of itself) so that it can re-manifest itself beyond the veil. However, this is a period in which the individual may be ordained by their god(s) that their time on this planet is not yet finished. It is on these occassions that the individual is granted the honor of being raised and allowed to continue whatever their task that has been deemed of great import to the world.
This can take on many forms, such as continuing the research of a cure for a disease, or completeing a war. Upon completion of their ordained task, they are exalted and hold a place in the registry of the dead (a record of heroes of sorts) and are finally allowed to pass beyond the veil.
However, not all who are granted this blessing willingly submit themselves to the old ones. These individuals, who typically hold a desire to remain in the corporal realm refuse and become "runners", and flee. This is sacriligious and considered a slap in the face of their peoples deity, as all time in this realm is set for each person, and you are abusing the time gifted back to you that you normally would not have had otherwise.
Such individuals are hunted with great fervor, because they are unnatural and it goes against all their beliefs and what their deity has called them to do.
To further elaborate on this, Necromancy is not an evil art in this world, in fact, it is believed that to wield the raw elements of nature is to be something of great evil. You see, there is a level of judgement passed on each person who dies, their "sins" in life require penance so to speak, and this takes the form of the individual having to relive the pain and horrors they put others through as if they were in their shoes, they carry out this term of penance within the veil itself, a realm of purgatory so to speak. Not all souls accept this mind you, some revel in this others go mad with the pain that they must endure, this rage and anguish and wanton debauchery manifests itself at times in the corporal realm as malicious entities. Magic being the combination of all energy and life within the corporal realm is gives these emotions and thoughts of the trapped soul a body of sorts, and thus they wander, wreaking havoc without any true thought of their own in an effort to ease their suffering.
To wield the elements is to control the elementals, those being the souls of the damned, so not only are you using a power that is believed reserved only for god, you are also preventing the damned from being able to repent and finally being able to go beyond the veil.
The lead character is not a warrior, in fact, she's a priestess if sorts, a part of the dark apostles or some such.
He lot in life was cast as she was known to hold a unique mindset and view on how to approach redeeming the this far irredeemable (elementalist's), her views bordered on sacrilegious, if not down right heretical in the eyes of the more traditional members of her order, however, they could not deny the truths she spoke.
Her life abruptly ended when a catastrophic plague broke out and she succumbed to the ravages of the virus.
She was later found to have been ordained by their deity that her work was not yet finished and was granted further allowance to remain in the corporal world and this was raised from the dead.
Being undead she does not need to do things that normal mortals do, with an exception that she must enact rites and special communes in order to maintain the magical energies that sustain her and keep her body from decay.
Her research continues and she discovers a disturbing fact, that it's possible that the souls of the damned and the elementalist (which have become more and more frequent over the ages) may not be the doing of a darker deity, but in fact something that has artificially been enflamed by the actions of the priesthood
A persons soul, before the rituals were performed I. Days long past, used to pass beyond the veil regardless, it was not until the order declared the, period of penance be carried out which the soul is magically bound within purgation that this process was founded.
So in reality, the Emergancy of greater "demons" if you want to call them that, may be due to mortals deciding what is appropriate for the departed in regards to redeeming themselves rather than their deity.
The lead character reveals this and it was brought into consideration. It is at this point that they believe her time is done and she has fulfilled her purpose.
How do they figure you may ask? The order in essence believes in fate in a way, each person is born and is here in the corporal realm for a purpose( her purpose was to uncover this information, and it is why she was allowed to stay for a while longer despite dyeing.
She of course disagrees, she still has more to do, but that of course doesn't jive with the order. It is not her place to go against god and usurp the fate or duty of another. She was to lay the foundation nothing more.
She this becomes a runner, seeking a means to save those damned by mortals, and as she does so, her desperation slowly drives her to more extremes ultimately leading to commit the greatest sin of her order, that is to wield elemental magic when she was about to be sent into purgation for becoming a runner, an effort to save herself and this she is branded heretical and unclean, and is to be hunted and give the heftiest of judgements.
She now isn't only an enemy of her once loved people, but now that of other runners and elementalist as she is trying to find a means to redeem them all.
There is more, but I'll try to limit this wall a bit.
Thought it was kind of cool, so I tossed the idea out to an IRL friend of mine. After roughly 3 hours of blathering back and fourth, this is what I came up with. I posted most of this on FB, and being the lazy fuck I am at the moment. I'll just cut and paste and edit what I wrote a little so that it'll make sense here.
Please let me know what you think (if anyone actually reads this stuff)
WARNING BIG FUCKING WALL OF TEXT COMING
What do you think of a fantasy world where the art of necromancy is considered to be the norm, and the idea of using the traditional elements of earth, water, fire and wind is considered to be sacrilegious and heretical? The protagonists I have in mind are not evil, more that they are very fatalistic, and find the idea that through death you shed your weakness, to be risen is the ultimate form of immortality and is considered the greatest honor one can be bestowed.
The people of the world believe that you are escaping your mortal limitations in this world by "passing" through the veil. To be risen again is to be deemed worthy to continue whatever you were doing in life, as such it's a great honor.
To wield the magics of the elements is viewed as a an individual desiring power, it's an act of greed and ambition that goes beyond the norm of mortals. For such powers are reserved for the spirits and not for man to control, by using such magic you are usurping the natural powers of the world.
Elaboration:
would like to exapnd upon that and if possible get some ideas from the members here.
The world I've envisioned (all in the span of roughly two hours while bouncing ideas off of a friend IRL who's been more patient with me, and has had to get friendly with good ol Mr J Daniels because of it) twists the traditional role a necromancer plays in the universe.
A race that has yet to be named practices the art of necromancy, they believe that a persons death is not to be mourned but to be celebrated, as it is kind of a "coming of age" to them or that persons time to ascend to a greater plain by passing beyond the "veil" which is a barrier of raw magical energy that they believe sepearates this dimension or what have you from a realm they have come to call "The Higher".
When a person dies, it is customary for the ritual of the passing to be performed on their corpse, through this, they essentially creamate the body through magical fire. By doing so, it is their belief that they release their "essence" (which the soul is believed to be a form of magic in of itself) so that it can re-manifest itself beyond the veil. However, this is a period in which the individual may be ordained by their god(s) that their time on this planet is not yet finished. It is on these occassions that the individual is granted the honor of being raised and allowed to continue whatever their task that has been deemed of great import to the world.
This can take on many forms, such as continuing the research of a cure for a disease, or completeing a war. Upon completion of their ordained task, they are exalted and hold a place in the registry of the dead (a record of heroes of sorts) and are finally allowed to pass beyond the veil.
However, not all who are granted this blessing willingly submit themselves to the old ones. These individuals, who typically hold a desire to remain in the corporal realm refuse and become "runners", and flee. This is sacriligious and considered a slap in the face of their peoples deity, as all time in this realm is set for each person, and you are abusing the time gifted back to you that you normally would not have had otherwise.
Such individuals are hunted with great fervor, because they are unnatural and it goes against all their beliefs and what their deity has called them to do.
To further elaborate on this, Necromancy is not an evil art in this world, in fact, it is believed that to wield the raw elements of nature is to be something of great evil. You see, there is a level of judgement passed on each person who dies, their "sins" in life require penance so to speak, and this takes the form of the individual having to relive the pain and horrors they put others through as if they were in their shoes, they carry out this term of penance within the veil itself, a realm of purgatory so to speak. Not all souls accept this mind you, some revel in this others go mad with the pain that they must endure, this rage and anguish and wanton debauchery manifests itself at times in the corporal realm as malicious entities. Magic being the combination of all energy and life within the corporal realm is gives these emotions and thoughts of the trapped soul a body of sorts, and thus they wander, wreaking havoc without any true thought of their own in an effort to ease their suffering.
To wield the elements is to control the elementals, those being the souls of the damned, so not only are you using a power that is believed reserved only for god, you are also preventing the damned from being able to repent and finally being able to go beyond the veil.
The lead character is not a warrior, in fact, she's a priestess if sorts, a part of the dark apostles or some such.
He lot in life was cast as she was known to hold a unique mindset and view on how to approach redeeming the this far irredeemable (elementalist's), her views bordered on sacrilegious, if not down right heretical in the eyes of the more traditional members of her order, however, they could not deny the truths she spoke.
Her life abruptly ended when a catastrophic plague broke out and she succumbed to the ravages of the virus.
She was later found to have been ordained by their deity that her work was not yet finished and was granted further allowance to remain in the corporal world and this was raised from the dead.
Being undead she does not need to do things that normal mortals do, with an exception that she must enact rites and special communes in order to maintain the magical energies that sustain her and keep her body from decay.
Her research continues and she discovers a disturbing fact, that it's possible that the souls of the damned and the elementalist (which have become more and more frequent over the ages) may not be the doing of a darker deity, but in fact something that has artificially been enflamed by the actions of the priesthood
A persons soul, before the rituals were performed I. Days long past, used to pass beyond the veil regardless, it was not until the order declared the, period of penance be carried out which the soul is magically bound within purgation that this process was founded.
So in reality, the Emergancy of greater "demons" if you want to call them that, may be due to mortals deciding what is appropriate for the departed in regards to redeeming themselves rather than their deity.
The lead character reveals this and it was brought into consideration. It is at this point that they believe her time is done and she has fulfilled her purpose.
How do they figure you may ask? The order in essence believes in fate in a way, each person is born and is here in the corporal realm for a purpose( her purpose was to uncover this information, and it is why she was allowed to stay for a while longer despite dyeing.
She of course disagrees, she still has more to do, but that of course doesn't jive with the order. It is not her place to go against god and usurp the fate or duty of another. She was to lay the foundation nothing more.
She this becomes a runner, seeking a means to save those damned by mortals, and as she does so, her desperation slowly drives her to more extremes ultimately leading to commit the greatest sin of her order, that is to wield elemental magic when she was about to be sent into purgation for becoming a runner, an effort to save herself and this she is branded heretical and unclean, and is to be hunted and give the heftiest of judgements.
She now isn't only an enemy of her once loved people, but now that of other runners and elementalist as she is trying to find a means to redeem them all.
There is more, but I'll try to limit this wall a bit.
