Thanatology skill

Template:NecroDEV Thanatology (from the Greek thanatos, meaning death) is the proposed central skill for Necromancers that, like the guild. It replaced the originally proposed Scarification skill. It is a guild-specific Lore skill, which they will learn at a secondary rate. It will be mechanically similar to the Empath healing ability, and the circling requirement is meant to parody their Empathy requirement. In order to form a link with an unwilling living subject, the Necromancer must make a successful slicing melee attack and a Thanatology skill check that's modified by the weapon used.

PRESERVE

The preservation ritual does basically what its name implies, preserves a corpse so that it will not decay at the accelerated rate species of Elanthia (that are not adventurers) seem to enjoy. A prepatory ritual for other things, the preservation ritual will make a dead body last much longer, or until skinned and searched. Utilization of this ritual requires some knowledge of first aid, and prevents the ??? and Harvest rituals.

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Knowledge of this ritual has been banned for high blasphemy.

HARVEST

The harvesting ritual allows a Necromancer to carve a piece of a corpse out for personal use to some diabolical end at a later point. Doing this ruins any possibility that the corpse could be skinned, but perhaps the Necromancer achieves some higher benefit from it later. Utilization of this ritual requires some knowledge of skinning, and cannot be done if the corpse has been SKINned.

ARISE

The most time-consuming ritual in the Necromancer's arsenal, the ritual to Arise is performed just before the sorcerous magic needed to imbue a corpse with false life is enacted. The corpse in question must have already been PRESERVEd.

FETISH

The only ritual that is not performed on a corpse, this blasphemous ritual imbues a necrotic item that the Necromancer is holding with the power of death. It is presently unknown what uses these fetishes hold, or how many variants there are. Initial observation suggests that the item must be properly set up beforehand, and this ritual is just the final touch.