Necromancers

The Necromancers are eerie, being tall and slender, almost the same build as the Starcourt Elves. They have short, pointed ears, large, slanted eyes, and a narrow, long nose. Their lips are usually quite thin, but expressive. Their heads appear to be just a little too large for their body proportion, though are generally taller upwards, rather than rounder. They are not comical looking, in any way. Necromancers have a grey-green skin tone that varies from almost slate to a patina green. Their skin is often punctuated by slightly brighter markings of silver, grey or yellowish green along their arms and backs. Their hair is wispy and fine, but can be quite long and often is either a lighter or darker shade of their markings. Their eyes are generally a dark green, from strong jade through ebony-green, and lack contrast of a white sclera, it is dark.

For those who get close to them, it’s also known that they have very short tails, less than a hand-span long, though some Necromancers have their tail removed since it is purely vestigial and only really ‘cute’ to a lover or as a child. They have six-fingered hands, and likewise six digits on their feet.

Necromancers are not immortal but they seem to be trying to attain that status, by any means possible. They already live naturally for over 400 years, and are immune to sickness and diseases common to other societies. They are however highly sensitive to toxins and poisons, and this had led to them being extremely discerning with their profoundly strong sense of taste and smell. Their dislike of the Grape Barons is obvious, but they know that the Barony produces the perfect potions for their systems. The Grape Barons on the other hand find it absolutely detestable that the Necromancers water down their wines like that. It seems odd to other cultures that a people who have such a strong sense of smell can even stand to be among the dead, like they do. However, the Necromancers are obviously well attuned to this lifestyle, and can distinguish just by a whiff of the passing air whether there is a particular body, how long they may have been dead, when they were reanimated, or whether they died of something other than injury. They don’t find any scents or tastes particularly bad, rather they’re interested in categorizing everything they come across and actually delight in the discovery of something new. They have words for smells and tastes that no other culture has a need for.

A Necromancer child is born after a year-long gestation, and there are never twins or more – always one child, and generally one child per century if they’re lucky. Because of their stunningly low birth rate, it’s guessed that the Necromancers produced their reanimation magic and rituals in order to pad their population and fill niches such as laborers and servants so they could get on living the high life themselves. Necromancer babies are covered in a fine down of silvery-green hair, almost like the fluff on a cheetah cub. This fades over time, but some teenagers often still bear a little of it around their rumps and underarms. Otherwise as adults their faces and limbs are entirely hairless save for eyebrows which are thin and usually arched. (Identifying a cross-bred Necromancer is possible if they’re male, as they might grow facial hair.) Babies are born with their eyes open and with a reasonable sense of self – they are highly intelligent people and begin training their offspring magically long before their exit from the womb.

The youth of a Necromancer lasts around thirty years, similar to the Elves. They grow taller and leaner, losing baby fat within a decade, but won’t achieve their full height for half a century. Almost all Necromancers are intensely adept at spell-based magic, and seemingly can read practically out of the basinet. A Necromancer babe who has not received any of their magical training before birth will be at a distinct disadvantage versus those who have. Because there are so few babies to these people, there are no formal schools for young folks – every child is tutored privately. They may attend other realms’ schools, in fact some do, to get a more broad education, but anything about their own culture and magic use is done privately. They are known to hire talented Lumin psionicists to help determine the best course of education pre-birth.

There are equal numbers of male and female Necromancers, and the differences between them are subtle since they all share the same elegant and smooth build (with the exception being while a female is pregnant as she will sport all manner of curves). However the females are of a brighter hue, and almost always have longer hair. Any Necromancer will wear a robe or dress on formal occasions, though women don’t tend to wear tight-fitting clothing such as pants unless their duties call for it. They don’t tend to wear dangling jewelry, but enjoy applying glitter-like gems or studs. They have no need to worry about disease from open wounds, and thus they often bear plentiful piercings. They don’t care for tattooing, as they feel it makes their own markings irrelevant and that’s not acceptable.

A female Necromancer is sexually mature around age fifty, males long before then. Arranged marriages are common, and the Necromancer culture allows for plentiful affairs and couplings in addition to any marriage agreements. Since they are so infertile, and it’s both male and female who experience these difficulties, the women appear to be extremely open to bedding whoever she meets on a casual basis just to produce any offspring. It’s far better when she does so with her husband, but not required, as any child that is produced to a married couple is automatically assumed to be ‘theirs’. No man can claim any kind of kinship from outside a marriage, the woman proclaims who the father is and that is final. They can and have interbred with other humanoid species, and generally those half-breeds are taken in to the Necromancer society rather than their other parent’s. They do not have a taboo against sex or bearing with another culture, perhaps because rather than the insistence their blood remain ‘pure’ they may try to enhance their fertility with other more easily born types. Any pleasure-seeker that finds themselves with a Necromancer male will be in for a nice surprise, as they are reasonably well endowed and unafraid to do whatever their partner desires. Bisexuality is the norm for males, in their culture, but not for the females. (On that note: yes, Necromancers love sex. They not only are frequent patrons of Barony pleasure houses, but also often enough are employed at them.)

The culture of the Necromancers is centered around enjoying life and celebrating death. They provide almost all funerary services for pretty much anyone who asks for it, anything from embalming and presentation, to cremation, and in some cases taxidermy. The entire culture is apparently ‘upper class’, not one of them knows how to sail a ship or plough a field. Every member of their population is adept enough to raise at least some kind of dead into a semi-living state. They start small with rodents or birds, often killing them directly and then raising them, increasing the amount of time passed between death and re-life. Very adept Necromancers will be able to take almost any complete skeleton and animate it no matter how long it’s been dead, but in general they will only do so for creatures that are non-sentient types – dogs and horses in particular seem to be popular, since they often have half-skeletal guard dogs on their properties, and carriages pulled by bizarre undead steeds.

Since their Realm is often clouded in the ash and smoke from the great volcano, their cities are generally dull and gritty. But inside any given home it is often spotless and while not bright, certainly well-lit enough to see. They tend not to collect artwork or sculpture unless it is secured against the endless ash from the volcano. The great Necropolis itself is a very busy township, and thus life moves a little faster than in the obsidian plains to the west.

Necromancers wear their age well, but it’s easy to see a young versus old one when they’re side by side. Since they are adept at the raising of the dead, it’s not uncommon to see an ancient Necromancer being raised by their family members at least temporarily for advice or celebration. The birth of any given child is almost always cause for such celebration, and who wouldn’t want deceased great-great grandfather there to see their new little progeny? … *shudder*

The raising of their own kind is only temporary, lasting for a year at most, though can be done many more times than just once. As long as the body is preserved well enough, however many incantations can be done, seems to be fine with them. The Necromancers alone retain all their memories and habits, where as other breeds of people only stand a small chance of that effect. Most raised people or creatures are little more than husks that shamble around taking instruction. Since they do often raise their own, most Necromancer households have a specific set of rooms for their beloved dead to remain in while they are ‘living’, and rest beyond while they’re dead. Crypt-beds are common, once they stop moving they can be put into the crypt, but above it’s a nice comfy bed. Guest rooms at Necromancer mansions are exceptionally creepy.

Though it seems a bit nasty, many members of almost all species around the world ‘donate’ their dead to the Necromancers to raise and continue working as long as they’re of use. This isn’t universal, and it certainly can be seen more as a punishment than a goal. There are still remnants of other long-dead cultures serving in some talented Necromancers’ courts, though more than likely criminals and the bodies of unknown wanderers are the most commonly used for general work.

Necromancers are omnivorous but prefer vegetarian foods, as it’s easier to maintain their lands without needing to feed animals as well as themselves. They will eagerly eat meat prepared well, and visit restaurants for such things, but hardly any of them know how to cook for themselves anyway.

Necromancers speak their own language and they all speak it perfectly alike. No dialect has ever been noted among them, even around the fringes of their society. The sound of their voice is often unnerving, as each one of them is fully capable of multiple harmonics – this has always aided them in their rituals and spellcasting. Obviously, they learn other languages more easily than other humanoids can speak theirs.

Their naming system is difficult to master, as their names very often involve several sounds happening at once. For this reason, when a Necromancer is out and about with their other-species friends, they adopt whatever name they’re given, and respond to it as easily and eagerly as they would their truly spoken one. Attempting to write out a Necromancer name in anything other than their own script would be non-Euclidian at best.

The government and system of the Necromancers is both complicated and old. They have an elected group actually doing the overall governing, but also rely locally on families of noble or royal descent to do immediate work. Their paper trail of records is immaculate, at least in terms of completeness. One can’t really say anything existing under the Sulfur Shadow is clean.

Prominent Necromancers of the Era

(none at present)