Arcana Mortis
A Study of All Death's Instruments
Death magic has a complex history and has undergone many transformations in its long lifetime. It is widely considered the first genre of magic ever created, dating to well beyond the time of the Alfen Ancestors. Even back then, those who practiced it refused to acknowledge death as a horrifying concept. They celebrate death in the same way they celebrate life. The mages who find themselves around the arcane art of death notice that it is always vibrant and full of color. There are no blackened corridors and darkened ideals that are better suited for stereotypical necromancy.
It takes a rare type of person to specialize in arcana mortis. It is a genre filled with contradictions. These are fundamental rules which all who practice it must adhere to.
It takes a rare type of person to specialize in arcana mortis. It is a genre filled with contradictions. These are fundamental rules which all who practice it must adhere to.
- First and foremost, the spells of this genre can only be cast using the energies of death. These energies come about from natural entropy and exist everywhere, which means a practitioner does not need to overexert themselves to harvest that energy.
- Due to the fact that the energies of death are used, no spell in the genre can be used to kill. Attempting to kill with these spells can cause catastrophic failure, often resulting in the opposite effect, including healing the target.
Tolling bells
A staple of the genre, practitioners often use Tolling Bells as their primary catalyst for many reasons. The symbolism is certainly part of it.
Practitioners are drawn to tolling Bells due to the connection to the The Five Bells, a myth told and retold for millennia by the Nocturna. Tolling bells are also unique in the sense that they carry the spell one casts in the sound they make when they chime, allowing spells to target larger areas and at greater range
Practitioners are drawn to tolling Bells due to the connection to the The Five Bells, a myth told and retold for millennia by the Nocturna. Tolling bells are also unique in the sense that they carry the spell one casts in the sound they make when they chime, allowing spells to target larger areas and at greater range
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Necromancy is a bit of an issue in my own world metaphysic so I was interested to see someone else try to explain it. I was particularly interested in your take on the binding of the Soul into the corpse. I've taken a similar stance though I don't consider the mortal spirit to be a 'soul' per see, but use the more generic term of 'Spirit' or soemtimes 'Life Force' or 'Mortality' . But whatver its called I also consider it something that is independent to the body after death and thus not easily bound back to the corpse.
Thanks for the like and comment! See, I did the opposite. Souls and sprits are slightly different in this world, though the basics are the same. I didn't want true ressurection to be present since it really hinders the stakes. Raising the dead on the other hand is a bit different, as the souls are gone. They are just animated. So u can have an undead army, though it takes forever to build, but rezing a dead character, not something I wanted for it. I'm also curious how others go about switching it up with necromancy. I was debating so many things for it.
This was a subject of long and sometimes heated debate on the Critical Hit Forum when it was still in existence. Animation of corpses I found relatively easy to rationalise and I coined the term 'Necromantic Blu-Tac' to describe the method which involved binding the corpses in a magical shroud of energy that actually held the body together and provided its animation. However, like you, I baulked at the concept of a full resurrection including both the body and spirit of the dead returned to mortality. I accept that this might be the goal and motivation of many who study necromancy, but maintain that as yet it is beyond their power to achieve. Though the search goes on. Where this becomes awkward is in explaining the existence of sentient undead particularly those who have been raised by necromancy, but according to the 'fluff', are then capable of existence without the necromancers constant oversight and power. There are even examples if such creatures being able to control other undead independent of their masters, which suggests some sort of sentient spirit must be present. The best I've come up with so far is the ability to drag the spirit of the deceased back from the realm of the dead and somehow trap it into a corpse using necromantic blu-tac so that it cannot escape and is forced to do its masters bidding to win its freedom. But it's messy and I'm not really happy with it.
Idk. it sounds reasonable. It's a simple and elegant. Essentially slavery that the undead could Hope turns into indentured servitude. The only real issue I see with them is to explain what that sentient spirit is and how it functions, much more you may have to explain why it even wants to continue living in the first place. These are things that might actually already exist in your setting. Sentient Undead are a little tricky in my setting I haven't quite figured it out yet