Thanatology skill
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Thanatology (from the Greek thanatos, meaning death) is the central skill for Necromancers. It replaced the originally proposed Scarification skill. It is a guild-specific Lore skill, which they will learn at a secondary rate.
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 Consume Flesh and Harvest rituals.
Zamidren Book nods slightly. "The Preserve ritual, while it does not completely stop a corpse from decaying away, will considerably lengthen the time before it does. This is particularly useful if you wish to perform other, more lengthy rituals on the corpse."
CONSUME FLESH
Requires a corpse to be present. The corpse can be PC or NPC. To heal a part on yourself, the corpse must have its corresponding part not already destroyed. The ritual will destroy the corresponding part on the corpse while healing it on the necromancer. It doesn't require the necromancer to literally eat the body part. It's a magical consumption.
Zamidren Book clasps his hands together. "The Consume ritual will properly prepare a corpse to be used in a Consumption spell. This is useful for a variety of things, but you will need to discover for yourself exactly what."
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.
Pacing back and forth lightly, Zamidren Book looks at you rather intently. "With the Harvest ritual, you will be able to extract a piece of flesh that will be useful in the pursuit of knowledge. Specifically, it can be used to make fetishes."
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.
Zamidren strokes his chin thoughtfully. "This is a ritual you should aim to be careful with, as people may wonder what you're doing with an undead creature following you around." He coughs. "In any case, performing this ritual will prepare the corpse of a creature to become one of the Risen.
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.
Zamidren Book nods slightly. "With the fetish ritual, you will be able to take a piece of harvested material from a corpse and turn it into a fetish." He smiles a bit. "What exactly this does, I will leave for you to discover on your own."
CUT HAND
Zamidren Book smiles at you slightly. "Ah... a simple, but very useful one. This ritual will allow you to extract a very small amount of your own blood from your hand without doing any real damage, which can then be used in blood magic."