Necromancy

Necromancy is a super rare power that Dark Fairies can inherit. Otherwise, it can also be practiced through spells or rituals. Necromancy is the revival of the dead, and is done by reconnecting a soul with its body, or getting a heart pumping again. For more information on souls, see Ghosts.   Necromancy is not an easy skill to master. Fairies who inherited the trait naturally will have an easier time, but even so, it still has a challenging learning curve. Performing necromancy through spells or rituals is even more difficult, and has a lot more room for failure.   All those with the inherited gift of necromancy are also able to see and communicate with ghosts. This helps aid in finding and bringing forth souls to re-attach to their bodies.  

Performing Necromancy

There are two ways to perform necromancy. One is an inherited power that a dark fairy can be born with. The other is through spells or rituals, often found within a book. These books tend to be pretty ancient, and can be hard to come by.   To perform a successful revival, one needs to collect both the body and the soul. The body can be in any state of decomposition to be revived, but obviously having a fresher body will result in a better outcome visually. Additionally, the longer a soul is left outside its body, the more it forgets itself. Performing the spell soon after one's death will lead to the revived feeling the most alive and there, both physically and mentally.   Performing necromancy using both the inherited and ritual spells can lead to the best result if all is done correctly.  

Inherited Power

As an inherited power, a fairy will not need to recite a spell. Rather, necromancy could be as simple as a snap of their fingers. But, typically it is not. There is still a lot of mental work that goes into performing a succesful revival.   With a necromancer's ability to see spirits, they have easier access to the soul needed to revive a fairy. This makes it easier for them to bring the two together, the soul and the body. However, spirits can still be fickle things, and this process is rarely easy.   Sometimes, all a necromancer needs to do is convince the soul to return to its body. This can be done with something as simple as a conversation with the deceased's spirit. But many ghosts are stubborn, some not even understanding they are dead, and may get bitter, scared, or angry if that's revealed to them. So, another way to do this, is simply by dragging the soul back to its body. Necromancers are able to channel all their energy and powers into doing this, guiding the soul with nothing more than a wave of their hand or a snap of their finger.   A botched revival is often the result of failing to properly reconnect the soul with its body. This will lead to the revived being able to move, whether that be one limb, or the entire body, but it will be nothing more than a hollow shell of itself.  

Through Rituals

Those without the natural ability to bring the dead back to life must use ritual spells to be able to do so. This is far more challenging, and a lot more experimental.   One will first need to find the appropriate spells for this. As stated above, these are usually found within ancient texts. These are hard to come by due to being pretty taboo. These spellbooks will then explain what is needed to perform the ritual.   Unlike those with the inherited gift, a ritual spell does not require a soul so much as the heart and brain. The heart/brain does not need to belong to the deceased, but it does need to be mostly intact. The less intact these organs are, the less there the revived will be. For a body that is particularly decomposed, many will find a fresher brain/heart to use instead. However, then the revived will draw upon the mind of whoever's organs those were previously, rather than their own.   One must make sure each part of the body is exactly in place before reciting the spell out loud. As the spell is spoken, the heart should hopefully start pumping again, and the deceased will be brought back to life.   Reciting the spell incorrectly will lead to nothing being brought back, or one coming back entirely wrong. Be careful.   Some may opt to also work with an inherited necromancer to bring the soul into the mix as well, which if done successfully will create the best result. However, there's a lot of ways this can go wrong.  

Effects

• A revived fairy will come back looking exactly how they did pre-revival. This means, a fairy that is largely decomposed will still look like that.
• Fairies brought back to life can not age. They will be stuck at the age they died/were revived. Solutions to this would need to be found through other means.
• Those brought back by connecting the soul back to its body will have more of their original personality than those who work with the brain. However, they may have less memory of their life, which the brain usually keeps intact.
• The revived do not need to eat or drink to sustain themselves. Whether or not they need sleep depends.
 

 

Limitations

• Necromancy should not be, and is not, a fix-all solution to death.
• Revival is more difficult the longer a fairy has been dead.
• Necromancy is not healing magic. It won't mend any wounds on the body. Limbs will not grow back. They will look exactly as they did in death.
• Necromancy will always come at some cost. Whether that be on the caster's or the receiver's end. These costs can be: losing years of one's life, losing lifeforce, chronic fatigue, bits of decay, etc.
• If you bring a soul in after reviving someone/something with a mismatched brain, this can lead to some confusion for the revived. They will be living with a contrasting soul and memories.