Daemonic Tome on Necromatic Skills
From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki
Daemonic Tome on Necromatic Skills
by Naibock
A black book, with silver claps, and an upturned pentagram on the cover.
Necromancy is the mystic art of accelerating, preventing, reversing or otherwise shortcutting natural processes. This art involves the use of spiritual strength to accomplish tasks that can or do happen naturally. The difference is that though it is the spirit that causes these things to happen naturally, necromancers can actively apply their strength of spirit to the tasks to complete them much faster or more simply, though often at greater cost. Attunement Attunement is the art of bonding a spirit to another object, including other spirits. Naturally, this is found when someone becomes emotionally attached to something or someone. Natural Attunement never becomes very strong (to the first degree, and very rarely to the second), and will atrophy over time when separated from the object or person.
Attunements come in varying degrees. The weakest attunements are used only for maintenance of enchantments, and serve no other purpose. Stronger attunements begin to give the owner bonuses at skills when using the object, whether the object is being used as it was intended or not. The greater the attunement, the larger the bonuses. For very strong attunements, the owner begins to get a feel for the location of the object (when away from it), ranging from basic direction or distance to knowledge of exact location. The strongest attunements allow the owner to either see the place where the object is, or pull the object to him (or both). Natural attunements never become very powerful (the best only get minor bonuses) and will atrophy when separated from the object for too long.
At higher skill levels, necromancers can attune two people. This is called bonding. Lower level bonds only happen naturally, in the case of very close relationships, and give both of the bonded an empathic link, letting them know of the others' physical and emotional state, and gives bonuses to skills when working together. Higher-level bonds require a necromancer. On top of the empathic connection, these stronger bonds allow telepathic communication and location sense. A third kind of Attunement is called Spirit Locking, and involves artificially strengthening the bond between the spirit and body. A spirit locked person is a potential Lich. When the person dies, the spirit is not allowed to leave the body, creating an undead creature. Since the necromancer who originally did it can only undo spirit locking, it is often used to secure devotion and obedience. Usually this is a short-term situation to ensure that a person will follow through on a promise, such as penance for a crime.
Spirit Bonding One of the tasks available to necromancers, and the least often used, is spirit bonding. By leaving his body, a necromancer can 'possess' the body of another creature. Inside this body, the two spirits engage in spiritual combat. The loser dies, his spirit destroyed forever, but if the necromancer wins, he has the chance to attempt the Task of Spirit Bonding. This only works on magical creatures and the spirit must be bound to a container that can be opened or closed (like a box or bottle). A spirit bound in this manner becomes a genie. The necromancer has no special control over the genie. Any character holding the container controls the genie, and can give the genie instructions that it is forced to obey (if it can). See Undead for information on what a genie can and cannot do. There are several uses for bound spirits. To create the most powerful magic items, artifacts, the item must be attuned to a bound spirit. The necromancer loses the bond on the spirit, but holds the initial bond on the artifact. The enchanted item is now both self-maintaining and intelligent. Use of most artifacts requires a minimum WP and SA to compete with the bound spirit that is usually there against its will. Rarely is there a creature that will willingly become an artifact, though some do, seeing it as an opportunity for immortality other than becoming a lich.
The second type of creation using bound spirits is creating golems. Golems are constructed using salvaged body parts and require a high medical skill to make sure the body is constructed properly. These parts must come from a living donor and are maintained using a necromancer's spirit until the body is complete. This means that a recently deceased corpse cannot be used; neither can a whole body be used, since it requires the person to die before the bound spirit can be inserted (making it a recently deceased corpse). This is a difficult and tricky process, and since it requires the removal of parts such as heart and brain from a living donor, evil necromancers only ever do it. Once the body has been constructed, the bound spirit is bonded with the new body. If successful, the golem becomes a creature under the control of the necromancer that held the bonded spirit (this doesn't have to be the same person who made or even maintained the body). The golem gains certain abilities through its creation, including superhuman strength; inexhaustible endurance and can endure a great deal of damage. Golems cannot communicate in any way and are under the complete control of the one who holds their bond (the bond can be passed by the necromancer who first holds it, but rarely ever is).
Another object that can be created using bound spirits is the automaton. Automata are similar to golems, but have artificial bodies. Rather than requiring medical skill, this body requires engineering knowledge to create a body that has full range of movement. Otherwise, the construction of automata is identical to the construction of golems.Genies, once released as a ghost, have the ability to grant permanent powers, but will rarely ever do this except as a deal with it's owner, usually to completely destroy the genie's captor. This is where the wish-granting myth originates.