Why necromancy is "evil" in most fantasy settings?
SorcererV1ct0r
Member Posts: 2,176
I an not talking only about D&D. In D&D necromancy is clearly evil. There are no "good" creature that can be created by necromancy. Necromancy in D&D uses the type of energy that is exactly the opposite of "positive" energy and most gods linked with necromancer domain are evil like Raven Queen. In Elder Scrolls, necromancy was a taboo and outlawed in many regions and when a reanimated body dies, you can hear "finally free". In movies and series it is represented as a bad thing too.
Here is a interesting discussion about necromancy in D&D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1USjbqdpWQ
But why this? Necromancy aren't suppose to be simple contact with dead and manipulation of a natural energy? Diablo 2 is the unique game that come in my mind who represents necromancy as "not evil". priests of rathma believe that life and death are part of nature.
"But it is this same isolation that allowed them to pursue their distinct kind of arcane science. For it is through the teachings of Rathma, as well as through years of research and physical experimentation, that these men have come to understand and hold sacred the delicate balance of life and death and are able to twist the line that borders the two. For although the minions of Hell have long possessed this power, among mortals the knowledge to reanimate and control the dead belongs to these priests alone. It is this practice that has lead outsiders to refer to them as Necromancers. They truly comprehend the balance of all things, and understand and accept their place in what they refer to as the Great Cycle of Being."
source : https://diablo.gamepedia.com/Priests_of_Rathma
I personally prefer spells that animate "non organic" things. Be able to create a living fire(Fire Golem) in Diablo 2, animate weapon in D&D...
Here is a interesting discussion about necromancy in D&D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1USjbqdpWQBut why this? Necromancy aren't suppose to be simple contact with dead and manipulation of a natural energy? Diablo 2 is the unique game that come in my mind who represents necromancy as "not evil". priests of rathma believe that life and death are part of nature.
"But it is this same isolation that allowed them to pursue their distinct kind of arcane science. For it is through the teachings of Rathma, as well as through years of research and physical experimentation, that these men have come to understand and hold sacred the delicate balance of life and death and are able to twist the line that borders the two. For although the minions of Hell have long possessed this power, among mortals the knowledge to reanimate and control the dead belongs to these priests alone. It is this practice that has lead outsiders to refer to them as Necromancers. They truly comprehend the balance of all things, and understand and accept their place in what they refer to as the Great Cycle of Being."
source : https://diablo.gamepedia.com/Priests_of_Rathma
I personally prefer spells that animate "non organic" things. Be able to create a living fire(Fire Golem) in Diablo 2, animate weapon in D&D...
Post edited by SorcererV1ct0r on
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You spend years upon years on this damn earth, living a life you didn't ask for.
Then, after years of this dreadfulness, you finally die and can actually rest forever.
But no! Along comes a good ol' necromancer.
"Awaken", he says.
"No, Necromancer. F*ck you, let me sleep!" I say.
Necromancers are evil.
Illusionist: Uh, no.
Necromancer: And if you... if you charm one gnome, they don't call you "Gnomy McGnomecharmer," do they?
Illusionist: No.
Necromancer: *breathes in deep and holds up one finger*
Necromancer: But you **** ONE corpse--
Personally, I quite liked how necromancy and the dunmer's ancestor worshipping went peacefully hand-in-hand in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. All without it being called as evil, vile or banned in society. Now that was an interesting take in video games when it freshly came out back in 2002.
Another instance of which I can think where necromancy isn't seen as evil would be in the country of Mulhorand, Faerun. Pretty much the only place where good aligned priests raise the dead to protect the country alongside good aligned paladins.
Healing spells belong to necromancy school in DnD, by the way.
Since the middle ages, the idea of necromancy was associated also to black magic in general, and from the XIX century gothic and fantasy literature popularized novels about the undead. But the word necromancy means that: νεκρός (nekrós), "the dead" + μαντεία (manteía), "divination".
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I remember in Overlord novel(based on D&D), the Golden Princess outlawed slavery in Re-Estize Kingdom but Slane Theocracy still using slaves mainly elves. And ironically some religious groups complain about the use of undead but they don't complain about the use of slave labor "One of these is the experiment in using undead in grid farming to form a cheap and efficient labor force. However, Fluder's experiments faces numerous opposition, especially from the priests of the temple, believing that the use of such unholy creatures is blasphemy against God." http://overlordmaruyama.wikia.com/wiki/Renner_Theiere_Chardelon_Ryle_Vaiself
In Arcanum(a fantasy world in a industrial revolution) there are a "capitalist" who uses undead dwarf for mass production. They are the perfect worker. No salary, no need to feed, will never age and die, why someone wanna use normal slave over undead?
Now take Skyrim for example and conjuration school. At first glance totally innocent - just conjure me a familiar, what ivl about it? Well, nothing, but you can also re-animate Nazeem or Carlotta or Isolda or even literally everyone and then just go to the Cloud District very often with all of them making "aaaaagggghhhhhhhhhh" sounds. And then they will just "poof" into a pile of ash. And that is sorta evil I guess. Considering that there is probably no difference in smell between living dwarf and dead dwarf (Korgan disapproves!), no sane capitalist would.
I've been declaring my good intentions for years... But apparently my whole demeanour is evil just because I am a soulless corpse! (Actually I have a soul... I just don't keep it on me... You understand...)
In other worlds, in other places, beyond Faerun, necromancers are known as doctors. You see this discussion has a very real basis on our everyday humdrum world.
People do not like there bodies tampered with after death.
BUT YOUR DEAD!
YOUR BRAIN HAS CEASED TO FUNCTION!
YOUR KAPUT!
NO MORE WORKY!
EXPIRED!
CEASED TO BE!
GONE TO MEET YOUR MAKER!
STIFF!
BEREFT OF LIFE!
METABOLIC PROCESSES HAVE A SYNTAX ERROR!
KICKED THE BUCKET!
YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT IS NO LONGER ACTIVE!
SHUFFLED OFF YA MORTAL COIL!
YAVE JOINED THE BLEEDIN CHOIR INVISIBLE!!!
Y O U --- A R E --- A N --- E X - H U M A N!!!
But for some reason you won't carry an organ donor card because your squeamish and that guy who needs a kidney, the lady who needs a heart and the little girl who needs a cornea transplant so she can see again can go cry some more for all you care.
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Now, I'm not saying all necromancers are good, but if I ruled the world I would ensure that they would meet certain standards and expectations. One undead army is enough, as they say.
After all, if nobody had a problem with it, there'd be a lot more of them, which would have some serious implications on the world's logic as a whole - for example, why maintain a levy when you can raise an army of skeletons from the local graveyard to do your fighting for you? Then every war simply comes down to who can field the best undead army... actually that might make for an interesting setting; a world run by feudal liches who field undead armies in order to protect their peasants, who in return for land, must grant their bodies to their lord for use in his undead army when they die...
But anyway, I think that's the main reason, to stop the world being full of necromancers fielding undead armies all the time and to add a bit of colour to the society of the setting.
Animating a corpse isn't seen as quite as evil, presumably because there is no manipulation of the deceased person's soul. You can purchase a spell to raise a zombie or skeleton from your local spell store; there is no real taboo against it (though leading a corpse around town would probably be seen as in poor taste).
In the Forgotten Realms, things are bit less clear. Mostly it's just an issue of ickiness, I think, and the fact that undead critters, especially sentient ones like liches and vampires, are overwhelmingly evil. Becoming a lich normally involves killing people, and surviving as a vampire is all about preying on folks.
But I think the real reason is thematic. Evil sorcerers seem more scary if they have an army of zombies rather than, say, an army of fluffy bunny rabbits, so when people come up with magic-using villains, they like to make them into necromancers, contributing to the stereotype that necromancy is evil by nature.
“The dying Tartars, stunned and stupefied by the immensity of the disaster brought about by the disease, and realizing that they had no hope of escape, lost interest in the siege. But they ordered corpses to be placed in catapults1 and lobbed into the city in the hope that the intolerable stench would kill everyone inside.2 What seemed like mountains of dead were thrown into the city, and the Christians could not hide or flee or escape from them, although they dumped as many of the bodies as they could in the sea. And soon the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply, and the stench was so overwhelming that hardly one in several thousand was in a position to flee the remains of the Tartar army. Moreover one infected man could carry the poison to others, and infect people and places with the disease by look alone. No one knew, or could discover, a means of defense.
Before Victorian times, people died, all the time. When I state this, I mean, you'd go to work one day and if colleague didn't turn up... You didn't presume he had a tummy ache or the flu, you'd presume s/he has died.
No penicillin. No doctors. No hospitals. The wounds you could survive were mostly physical injuries, but even a cut that went septic would kill.
Luckily no birth control... But lets not even touch on the horrors of infant mortality in the pre-industrial world.
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Death was feared, but not in the way it is today. Death today is to be avoided. Death just came and went in the past. You probably did not have long to fear its coming. You'd go about your pre-spring day slitting and skinning that venison you trapped (and finished off with a dismally blunt flint knife to the throat), placing the offal in a bucket for a tasty sandwich later without even considering your place in the universe, and how lucky you actually are to be alive. No, you'd think. I have fud.
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This then brings me back to my main point. There is taboos today about the dead. BUT THERE WAS NO TABOOS IN THE PAST.
It appears that burial mounds were not just erected, remembered by the next in kin before being forgotten (like our tombs of today) but actual places of ancestor worship. People would go in, feed the dead, have a chat with Uncle Lester about his last remaining vestiges of skin (although from evidence it appears they may well have partied and got very drunk...) and rearranged the bones, again and again.
One theory of why children's bones were found under the door posts of ancient huts and bodies under ancient hedge-lines (Probably the most ancient signs of human settlement in Britain) was to settle land disputes. They simply dug up the body and said "Seee! My great-granddad Ronnie was 'ere first! Look he has my cheekbones, bless him"
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Saying this however is total conjecture. We don't know how the ancients treated the death, but I can say they were not afraid or had taboos as we call them today. Why embalm a corpse, wrap it in fine linen and remove all its organs in such a drawn out and complicated way if YOU WERE AFRAID. The living back then feared the living. The dead were seen as harmless... Until that wise ass with the catapult...
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Zombies, Animated Skeletons, Walking Mummies, Vampires, Liches, Voodoo did not exist in the cultural landscape before the 19th Century. The charactures of death did not exist. Ghosts, Spirits and the things that could not be seen (a flu virus that wipes out half your village) however were the real fears.