Necromancer

Necromancer Guild
Image copyright of Simutronics Corporation
Primary Skillset:	Survival
Secondary Skillsets:	Lore, Magic
Tertiary Skillsets:	Armor, Weapon
Special Abilities:	Risen
Mana Type:	Arcane
Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Commoner - Empath - Moon Mage Necromancer - Paladin - Ranger - Thief - Trader - Warrior Mage

Joining/Playability

The Necromancer Guild is intended, by design, to be an advanced option. It is intended to be there for players who are already familiar with the game and want to try a profession that includes some novel and difficult permutations on the normal play experience.

This is not the same thing as an ultra-exclusive treehouse that only the most dedicated 1% of scripters can enter. The Necromancer Guild may be difficult to enter and advance in, but it will not be exceptionally so. If a player wishes to create a Necromancer PC after the guild is released, he will be able to do so with only a minor time investment. The sadism inherent in the design of this guild is meant to be playful, not an actual hindrance to your enjoyment of the game.

Note: The Veyne storyline has nothing to do with the development or release of the Necromancer Guild.

Ideologies

Ideology Overview

Why?

By more than any other quality, Necromancers define themselves on that question. While there is no such thing as a necromantic federation or "guild," cults and lone Necromancers have been known to align themselves along ideological lines. When even the gods themselves are against you, it's nice to have someone who can offer something even deeper than lore, wealth, or power: a broad understanding of you and your discipline.

With the end of the era of cults coming upon them, a number of the subtle shades of meaning and nuance that defined necromantic ideologies have been washed away. In modern times, the surviving Necromancers broadly recognize three different camps:

• The Perverse
• The Redeemed
• The Philosophers of the Knife

Ideology Differences

There's meant to be a level of symmetry between the Reedemed and the Philosophers, but they aren't quite the same.

Both seem to believe their power will somehow change the world or aid races.

There's a big difference here.

The Philosophers want to change the world. They believe that their atrocities will lead themselves and nominally the rest of mankind into some greater state of living. They imagine themselves as misunderstood geniuses who are only doing what they must so that they (and nominally the multitude) may cast down the natural order that condemns them.

The Redeemed are none of those things. While they might focus on trying to do good works, they do it as a form of redemptive suffering. The Redeemed accept the notion that necromancy is wholly selfish and evil, that it cannot possibly lead to the positive outcome that the Philosophers want. The best the Redeemed can do is take their broken souls and try to do some good on the gods' Elanthia with the scant tools they have left. "Some good" might be saving others from death -- or might be hunting down and murdering other Necromancers.

Changing Ideologies

The Redeemed have a mechanical definition. Your character needs to actively seek out the state, and then be mindful that they do not let it slip (ever; a Necromancer can only enter the state of redemption once).

The Perverse is a bit more fuzzy. You never officially "join the club" or anything, but if your Outrage meters pass a certain point, various NPCs will consider you one of the Perverse for better or worse -- usually worse.

The Philosophers are a little different, and we'll discuss them in more detail as we get closer to the release of the guild.

The cults have chosen to hate each other to the point of mutual destruction. Whether or not this has been a successful policy is open to interpretation.

Spellbook Overview

Magical theorists recognize two forms of necromancy: Perversion Necromancy and Corruption Necromancy. In a mechanistic approach to the discipline, this works well. Necromancy is the result of two distinct mixtures of mana, Life plus either Elemental or Lunar, which this separation embodies.

Necromancers are not mechanistic and they usually are not magical theorists either.

The tri-spellbook separation -- the ABCs of Necromancy -- was the standard among most cults, though variations existed. The Dragon Priests are notoriously bookish, classifying no less than thirty different Necromancy spellbooks across obscure cultural and magical lines. In sharp contrast, the doctrine of the Bone Elves states that any sort of classification system is the product of childish (non-Elven) minds attempting to comprehend the one, true path of power that encompasses mastery over all facets of death sculpting.

In recent years, the rogue Necromancers known as the Philosophers of the Knife codified the fourth spellbook, Transcendental Necromancy. This was not the discovery of some new source of power, but simply an organizational change reflecting their own priorities and values.

Animation

Animation is a thematic spellbook, borrowing spells that would otherwise fit into Blood Magic or Corruption if it involves meddling with the undead. Animation is used to create undead minions, manipulate the undead in various ways, and strike at the animating force behind other Necromancers' creations.

It is important to note that the undead creations of the Animation spellbook are always temporary, and often vanishingly so. Necromancers must invest the time and effort of creating a Risen -- a far more hands-on project than merely casting a spell -- if he wishes to have a long-term minion.

Blood Magic

In short, Blood Magic deals with the manipulation of blood, acid, and raw "life force" (vitality).

Blood Magic is one of the "pure" spellbooks, analogous to the Perversion Necromancy book. It deals exclusively with the results of mixing Life and Elemental mana, and is an omnibus for such spells that do not otherwise fit in the Animation or Transcendental Necromancy books.

The spellbook gets its name from the tone of its spells and the medium through which it usually works. The Life + Elemental mixture creates spells that are wild, visceral, and brutish. Blood Magic includes most of the Necromancer's arsenal of Targeted Magic spells and direct, lethal combat magic.

Appropriately enough, Blood Magic has a strong relationship to blood. Some of them work better if the Necromancer (or his victim) is bleeding freely, while others may require it to function at all.

Conjured acid falls under the domain of Blood Magic. Some Necromancers consider acid to be a physical manifestation of necromantic magic, in the same way that other disciplines have holy fire or living shadows.

Corruption

In short, Corruption deals with the conjuration of poison, disease, and more refined forms of illness.

Corruption is the second "pure" spellbook, analogous to the Corruption Necromancy book. It deals exclusively with the results of mixing Life and Lunar mana.

This mana mixture works through decay of various forms, from flesh-eating bacteria to diseases of the mind. Corruption includes many of the Necromancers' most subtle spells, some of which are "legal" by dint of the fact that no one around the Necromancer can detect anything wrong has happened.

Conjured poison and disease falls under this category, as well as obscure forces that corrupt the emotional balance and mental faculties of the target. Some of the effects of Corruption could be poetically said to cause a "soul sickness," but these spells cannot actually impact the health of the victim's spirit.

Transcendental Necromancy

In short, Transcendental Necromancy deals with spells that make the Necromancer more (or less) than Human.

Transcendental Necromancy is a thematic spellbook, devised in the same way that Animation is. While the tradition of organizing Transcendental Necromancy as its own spellbook is less than a century old, many of the spells that populate the book are as old as necromancy itself.

This spellbook focuses strictly on enhancing the magician who casts the spell: all Transcendental Necromancy spells are self-cast only. The spells are always beneficial, bolstering the Necromancer's own latent abilities or granting him entirely new ones, though sometimes Pyrrhic in nature. These spells are often monstrous to behold, making the Necromancer obviously inhuman under their duration.

Systems

Outrage

The "necro-meters."

Perversion

The gradual decent to evil.

Risen

Long-term minions.

Skills

Skillset

Since there may be some confusion here:

• Survival Primary
  
• Magic and Lore secondary
  
• Armor and Weapons tertiary
  

The central skill for Necromancers will be Scarification.

Light Edged

Necromancers will have a skill requirement in light edged weapons. Not especially large, but it's there and persistent through the character's entire career. In fictional terms, it's a ceremonial requirement. As you may have guessed by now, some very important Necromancers invest a lot of symbolism into knives.

Creation Lore

The Necromancer creation system focus will likely be in Alchemy, though this is not set in stone yet.

There are currently no plans for any Necromancer-specific enchantments or techniques. Armifer's intention is that they will not be able to produce anything guild-specific which will directly benefit other players.

Magic

Planned Spells

• It is unlikely that necromancy spells will released prior to the guild. There is a chance that a few might be released on scrolls first, but plan on seeing most (if not all) released concurrently with the guild instead.

• The old descriptions of Evocation and Domination Sorcery as Necromancer spellbooks have been thrown out. The Sorcery spellbooks still exist, they are just not a part of the Necromancer selection of spells.

• The necromancy spells listed on the play.net website are NOT accurate. Some have been changed significantly from their teaser descriptions, while others have been tossed out the window completely.

Self Buffs Only

I really don't want to hear people gwething for a Necro because their bone armor enchantment is out of charges.

Ding ding ding. This also goes into the design decisions behind Transcendental Necromancy: all Necro spell buffs are self-cast only.

If everything works out correctly, there will never be a legitimate reason to seek out the help of a Necromancer on the basis of guild. The only thing necromancy can do to anyone other than the user is harm.

While Redeemed

Two of the four spellbooks are prohibited when you're Redeemed: Animation and Transcendental Necromancy.

Should you choose to use either spellbook you will have the capability to do so. However, you will no longer be considered Redeemed. The gods will not stop you from using them, but they'll judge and punish you if you do.

Corruption and Blood Magic spells can be used as normal.

Sorcery

• Necromancy is a subset of Sorcery. Sorcery is dangerous and unstable magic that society abhors and that may or may not have some intrinsic evilness about it. Blackfire is an example of this. Necromancers are as free to dabble in Sorcery as any other guild, but they will not have any special access to the non-Necromatic parts of it.

• Necromancy is created by mixing Life mana with either Elemental or Lunar mana. Life mana is always used in the mix, by definition. Holy mana does NOT mix with Life mana.

Mixing Life + Holy

What would happen if someone theoretically tried to force Life and Holy mana together?

Nothing exceptionally interesting, outside the normal necromantic backlash.

The inability to mix Holy and Life has the very noticeable side effect of not allowing a "holy necromancy" to exist, yet it doesn't seem directly related to this end. The gods do not show up and smack you for doing it, it just...doesn't work. It appears that a divine edict has found an accomplice in natural law.

Perhaps the gods have meddled with the laws of the universe to prohibit it. Perhaps this proof there is some innate, cosmic evilness about necromantic mixtures, to the point where the very mechanism is repelled by the emanations of the gods. Or perhaps this is just one very interesting coincidence.

Combat

Necromancers will not have any particularly noteworthy combat abilities. They may get spells that are exceptionally potent versus corporeal undead, but nothing special against the non-corporeal. No reason they wouldn't be able to use a blessed weapon if a Cleric wants to give them one handle-first.

Consent / PvP

What's the point of being a Necromancer if you're not even going to get a chance to RP because everyone is going to be so gung ho about killing them? My personal view on it is that people want Necros to come out so they can fufill some twisted CvC obsession.

Assuming that you will have any special consent whatsoever against (or as) Necromancers is a bad idea, and one of the reasons that Armifer has repeatedly said this kind of conversation is inappropriate right now.

Everything you were told about Necro PvP is off the table. Armifer is not willing to go into further details yet.

Miscellaneous Notes

Surviving

The best way for a Necromancer to survive is to never let society know he's a Necromancer to begin with. If a Necromancer has reached the point where he needs to actively thwart scrying, he is already operating from a position of weakness.

Avoiding Necromancers

Armifer will go into the mechanical reasons to avoid Necromancers when the guild is closer to release.

Racial Issues

Will there still be racial weaknesses/strengths against Necromancers?

No. Armifer would argue that a Rakash or Prydaen that cares at all about his culture becoming a Necromancer is terrible roleplaying, but there's likely to be members of those species who are so dead inside that they feel nothing for the plight of their fathers. You can do it if you want.

I recall hearing something about how Prydaens would be more vulnerable to Necromancy magic or something. Is this true?

There was a single spell planned wherein one of the quirks of the spell was that Rakash and Prydaen were more vulnerable to it. That spell is no longer planned for release.

Prydaen Cultural Issues

"I feel we need to be clear on definitions here. One can in theory join the Necromancer guild and never create a Risen or in any other way fool with animating the undead. It is the animation of the undead, particularly Prydaen undead that offends the Three. How you personally choose to react, I leave to each of you individually, but shunning is most certainly a good and viable route. As for Judging of those who are necromancers or who deliberately and knowingly aid necromancers, that is again done only by the Three. Most likely any Prydaen Necromancer that has gone to the point of animating the dead has already gotten on the bad side of the Three as well as the 13 from that act. Those aiding a necromancer on the other hand are a whole other matter. They are certainly going to end up shunned. They will most likely find themselves in conflict with those that oppose the necromancer in question. However, since we are talking about random, unnamed Necromancers here in the east that are not necessarily event attacking Prydaens, let alone attempting to take over lands we are holding as our own, that doesn't quite equal the crime of a situation such as aiding Lyras. Lyras declared direct war on all in and around Eu's Lands. She is a racial enemy without a doubt. While many of you will no doubt take out your anger towards her on any necromancer that comes along (and you are more than welcome to do so) that does not mean that they are viewed the same in the eyes of the Three. Eh, who can really fathom the workings of the minds of Gods?

"On a final note, I know many view the Claw of Tenemlor as the judges of necromancy. It is true that they are often sent by Tenemlor to seek out those Prydaen souls that might have been tainted and to deal with them as needed. However, understand that they cannot declare anyone Cemsiat. Rather they simply attempt to remove the taint. Cusave did this for Bluewither by slaying the blood doll and removing the link to her soul. Declaring someone Cemsiat means marking them and kicking them out of the race to attempt to atone for their crimes. The Claw of Tenemlor is a bit more direct in their actions. So long as they act in accordance with Tenemlor's will and at her direction, striking down a tainted soul will not yield a claim of Cemsiat upon themselves as Tenemlor will not punish them for doing as she directs. But aside from that they have no actual authority among the Kin. They are not true judges of crimes, just a group of warriors seeking to remove taints from the souls of the Kin that they move among. Hopefully this helps clear some things up."

--GM Oolan Jeel

Slip

SLIP is being retooled as a Survival Primary verb. Thieves retain the most options of any guild, but it will be open to Thieves, Necromancers, and Rangers. (Bards will retain their coin tricks.) Most of the shared abilities are completely new abilities.

Thieves will be the only ones to be taught SLIP by the GLs, others must be taught by somebody who already knows the ability (regardless of guild).