Every month I answer interesting questions posed by my Patrons. Questions like…
Why do the people of the Five Nations have such a negative reaction to necromancy and necromancers?
It’s a good question. Sacred Flame and Toll The Dead will both kill you; why is one seen as “good” and the other as “evil”? Keep in mind that the practice of necromancy isn’t illegal in the Five Nations; even animating corpses is legal, as long as you have a legitimate claim to the corpse. But it’s still a path that’s largely shunned and those who practice it are often presumed to be evil. Why is that? There’s a few reasons.
Undead are a real, everyday threat. Always remember that Eberron is not our world. It is a world in which predatory undead are a concrete threat that can manifest at any time. Ghouls can spontaneously manifest in graveyards. Shadows can potentially appear in any unlit area, and they’re drawn to negative emotions—especially during the nights of Long Shadows, which is why everyone gathers around the light on those nights. Skeletons and zombies can spontaneously animate in Mabaran zones or when Mabar is conterminous, and when they do, they are predatory creatures that seek to slay the living. So any time people see an animated skeleton, there is an instinctive reaction beyond just the natural that’s a dead thing and it shouldn’t be moving—it’s that you’ve grown up KNOWING that the restless dead want to kill you.
#NotAllNecromancy. There are a number of Necromancy spells that are part of everyday life in the Five Nations. Spare The Dying and Gentle Repose are basic tools used by healers and morticians. No one’s complaining about Revivify or Raise Dead. Speak With Dead is employed by mediums and archaeologists alike. There are other spells in the school that most people don’t even know are necromancy. The common person on the street would likely say “Wait, so Poison Spray is Necromancy, but Acid Splash is Evocation? Who labels these things? With this in mind, a basic point is that appearance matters. If your False Life just looks like a green shield, it’s no different from Mage Armor. But if it’s a whirling shroud of whispering ghosts, or if it causes you yourself to take on a zombie-like appearance, that’s going to upset people. Same with Toll The Dead. If it’s a green bolt that kills people, no biggie. If it’s a bolt of howling shadows that causes flesh to decay, people will be upset. Because…
The problem is Mabar. Necromancy spells draw on different sources of energy. Spells that channel negative energy—pretty much any spell that inflicts necrotic damage or animates negatively-charged undead—draw on the power of Mabar. Spells that draw on positive energy and sustain or restore life—Raise Dead, Spare The Dying—are usually drawing on Irian. And spells that interact with the dead in a neutral way, such as Speak With Dead, typically draw on Dolurrh. People don’t have an issue with Irian, and Dolurrh is spooky, but it’s something that’s waiting for you when you die; it’s not going to come get you. Mabar actively consumes light and life. People know this. They know that crops wither in Mabaran manifest zones. They know deadly shadows and hungry dead rise when Mabar is coterminous. Here again, people have had it drilled into them that Mabar is dangerous—and as a result, any sort of magic that is perceived to have a connection to Mabar can trigger a you’re messing with powers better left alone reaction.
Not everyone agrees. For the reasons given above, most people want nothing to do with Mabaran necromancy. The Undying Court and Silver Flame argue that any invocation of Mabaran energy eats away at the life force of Eberron, and that it’s essentially damaging the environment; even if you aren’t doing something evil with the spell, you’re causing long term harm to get the effect. But the Seekers of the Divinity Within say that the reverse is true—that by channeling existing Mabaran energy into spells, they are actually drawing it OUT of the environment. The Seekers likewise dismiss fear of animating skeletons and zombies because of their deadly counterparts as the equivalent of refusing to use fire in a hearth because wildfires are destructive, or refusing to explore electricity because someone was once struck by lightning. The power of Mabar may be dangerous when it manifests spontaneously, but that’s all the more reason to understand it and to learn to use it safely. These are the principles that led Karrnath to embrace wide-scale necromancy during the Last War, and why undead are still used in many ways in Seeker communities—such as the city of Atur.
There’s no absolute answer here, and if Mabaran magic IS damaging the environment it’s doing it very very slowly. But these reasons are why public opinion is against the most dramatic forms of necromancy in much of the Five Nations—because the power behind it is seen as dangerous and fundamentally evil.
Who cares about corpses? The Church of the Silver Flame practices cremation, precisely to minimize the risk of spontaneous undead. Seekers of the Divinity Within believe that death is annihilation and that nothing important remains with the corpse; they have no sentimental attachment to corpses and feel that it’s practical and sensible to use them for undead labor. But the Five Nations have graveyards, crypts and mausoleums. Sharn: City of Towers describes the City of the Dead, a massive necropolis adjacent to the City of Towers. This is the work of the Vassals. The Pyrinean Creed maintains that the spirits of the dead pass through Dolurrh on their way to the higher realm of the Sovereigns. They believe that the corpse serves as an anchor for the soul; that while the soul may no longer reside within it, it steadies it on its journey. The destruction of a corpse doesn’t doom the soul, but it makes its journeys difficult. Thus, Vassals bury their dead and maintain cemeteries and crypts. The Restful Watch is a sacred order that performs funerals and watch over graveyards. This ties to the fact that Raise Dead requires an intact corpse; while it’s RARE, Vassal myth includes the idea that heroes may be called back to service after death. now, WE know that Resurrection can bring people back from ashes… but remember that in the Five Nations, wide magic tops out at 5th level. People know Raise Dead is possible; raising someone from ashes is the stuff of legends. Add to this the fact that once a corpse has been made undead, it can’t be restored with Raise Dead. With this in mind, this is another reason Vassals have a instinctive revulsion to animating the dead. While it’s legal as long as someone has a valid claim to a corpse, Vassals consider it a violation. And in the instances where Karrnath animated the corpses of fallen enemies during the Last War, Vassals saw it as a horrifying act.
And if you needed just a little more… The overlord Katashka is an overlord that embodies the horrors of both death and undeath. The cults of Katashka want people to be afraid of the restless dead; throughout history, they’ve unleashed countless undead terrors precisely TO sow fear.
That’s all for now. Thanks to my Patreon supporters for making these articles possible! This month, Patrons received a giant article on House Medani, as well as being able to participate in two live (and recorded) Q&A sessions. If that sounds like a good time, check it out!
Does the Karrnathi Church of the Silver Flame get into conflict with Seekers regarding the use of undead? Does the Karrnathi Church of the Silver Flame, knowingly or otherwise, wind up supporting the anti-undead warlords?
As noted in the ECS, “the Church of the Silver Flame has only a token presence (in Karrnath), with small conclaves in Korth and Vedykar.” Its numbers and support are so small that it plays no significant role. The few templars and exorcists do their best to deal with actual threats that arise. Think of them as firefighters; they can’t stop people from lighting bonfires, but they’ll help fight wildfires when they happen.
Thanks, Keith. Do you have a favorite necromantic spell from any edition (or game)?
I personally liked it when Cure Wounds was considered a necromancy spell; to me, this is in line with Revivify and Raise Dead. This is an example of Irianian necromancy and the fact that necromancy deals with life AND death. Personally, I still play with that.
To my understanding, since Aerenal is full of both Irian and Mabaran manifest zones, Aereni elves make use of even the “spookier” kinds of necromancy magic, so long as it does not involve the animation of undead. Thus, your typical ignorant Khorvairian might assume that because Aereni use the “spookier” tyeps of necromancy magic, then Aereni must also animate undead: especially given those creepy “mummies” walking around.
Is this correct?
The Aereni typically use necromancy that draws on Irian as opposed to Mabar. Their undead are sustained by positive energy rather than negative energy, and their spells typically deal radiant damage rather than necrotic. A typical person on the street might not always be able to tell the difference, sure; a ghost is a ghost. but it’s a vital distinction for the Aereni.
Is the Vassal (non-Dark-Six-worshiping, to be clear) stance also that the animation of undead is bad? Would a priest of the Host be loathe to animate undead?
Yes, for all the reasons presented here. Mabar IS a destructive force. Uncontrolled undead are dangerous. In the Pyrinean creed, the animation of the dead is seen as magic associated with the Shadow and the Keeper. It doesn’t have the concept that it’s corrupting the environment, but it’s still “playing with forces that should be left alone.”
Hey Keith, thanks for this! Good to have the necromancy stuff all in one place. In addition to Mabar, do you see Katashka the Gatekeeper playing any role in the negative perception of necromancy among folks in Khorvaire? Either as an innate aversion, an influence by the dragons subtly shaping culture, etc.
Yes! An excellent point. I’ve added a note to this effect at the end of the article.
An amazing article, Keith!
Question: If a spellcaster is talented enough, could they draw energy for necromancy from potentially any plane? Or not all realms would work? I’m kinda thinking in Lady Talon with their Thelanian connection, but she herself isn’t undead, but fey, so I’m not sure if that form of vampirism counts as necromancy.
Who is this Lady Rose Undertow? I’m intrigued.
In my Eberron, Lady Undertow is the matriarch of one of the powerful families of the city of Atur. I commissioned this piece of art for the campaign I ran in Atur at D&D in a Castle this year.
Given the threat posed by ghouls spontaneously animating in graveyards, why isn’t everybody just cremated?
Cremation is the standard practice of the Church of the Silver Flame, for exactly that reason. The Vassals are more sentimental about mortal remains, which is why we have the City of the Dead in Sharn and the Restful Watch; they believe that there is still a connection between remains and the ongoing soul, and that while the destruction of the corpse doesn’t doom the soul, it’s a bad thing. Which is a further reason that undead are seen as a violation.
So again: We don’t destroy every corpse because Vassal tradition believes the corpse still has a role; but we have divine forces like the Restful Watch specifically to watch out for the threat of ghouls and other restless dead. And again, that’s the Watsonian view; from a Doylist perspective, it would make more SENSE to have universal cremation, but that would mean fewer undead and fewer tombs, which would mean less opportunity for STORY. Haunted necropoli are great for stories, so we WANT the world to have them. But the Silver Flame has been explicitly called out as cremating their dead to minimize the threat of undead.
I’ve just added a bullet point about this to the article. It is a good question!
Thanks, Keith!
How involved would the Silver Flame get when it comes to certain powerful figures passing (in regards to their cremation agenda)?
Would the Silver Flame unite with another faction of some kind (that has larger numbers or influence) to make sure that figure can’t become undead? If so, what kind of faction or person would they be most likely to employ?
Is there a huge taboo in certain parts of the five nations that forbid using spells that can bring someone back to life even though they don’t have a physical body?
Would historians be the most against cremation? Would this be casual news or debate among the public?
Regarding the first question, I think that within most of the Five Nations people are expected to follow the funerary customs of the faith they practiced in life; I don’t see the Silver Flame demanding that an important vassal must be cremated. There’s a few points here…
… Spontaneous undead are a thing that CAN happen in the world, but it’s not an everyday occurance, as shown by the fact that there IS a massive cemetery next to Sharn. Beyond which…
… The Vassal faith has a group that specifically focuses on this danger: The Restful Watch. This sect performs Vassal funerals and maintains cemeteries—and part of the point of maintaining cemeteries is that they deal with spontaneous undead when they arise. So where the Silver Flame advises cremation to avoid the risk of ghouls or wights rising, the Vassal attitude is “We’ll keep an eye on it and deal with it if it happens.”
… The compromise between the two is the spell HALLOW, which prevents undead rising within its boundaries. While Hallow is a 5th level spell for player characters, I’d say that the Restful Watch has a ritual form that can be performed by a group of devout initiates of the sect. It’s not a casual or simple thing — you don’t have entire cemeteries blanketed by Hallow — but it’s absolutely the case that if there’s someone very important they don’t want to rise, they will cast Hallow on their crypt.
Speaking as a designer, this is because I WANT places in the world where I can tell the story of, say, the Hallow spell on Galifar’s Tomb breaking down and him rising as a wight; I don’t want the CotSF to be so efficient that there’s no place for that story in the world. So the CotSF ARE that efficient when dealing with the followers of their traditions, but they can’t impose their beliefs upon the Vassals, who instead trust in the Restful Watch.
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Becoming an undead creature prevents a person from being raised unless that undead creature is destroyed – at least in DND 3.5, covering all spells from reincarnation through to true resurrection. Even if it is an “unintelligent” undead like a skeleton or zombie.
This would suggest to people in-universe that there is some ongoing spiritual connection between the animated body and the deceased soul that is disrupted by undeath.
So if they are concerned with an idea of the ‘natural progression of the soul in the afterlife’ (e.g., that the fading of a spirit in Dolurrh is valuable or has some MEANINGFUL PURPOSE, either to the individual, or in the maintenance of the cosmos in some way) then this would worry them and make them consider the undead-state to be abominable.
(In non-Eberron settings may be seen as robbing a person’s soul of their rightful reward for good or them escaping their righteous punishment for evil.)
Do resurrected souls remember their time in Dolurrh?
Can they form be memories there? Have meaningful interactions with others?
If the Ennui could be prevented, how would being a shade in Dolurrh be distinct from just being alive but misty?
IME – I say NOT: A shade lacks ‘qualia’ or inner awareness, functioning like a ‘philosophical zombie’.
This adds another layer of mystery to the soul/afterlife aspect. Is the shade in Dolurrh fundamentally the ‘essence/consciousness’ of a person? Or is it just a planar manifestation as a repository of their memories? Maybe only the COMBINATION of this ‘memory shade’ + an ‘animating force’ (e.g. positive energy from Irian; directly for the living, or indirectly via Mabaran-hunger for undead) really constitutes a TRUE SOUL.
What is special about mortal remains that allows them to become “undead”? How is it different to animating an object?
Like – using ‘animate object’ on a skeleton vs using ‘animate dead’ on a wooden chair. Both are post-biological substances that start moving again due to magic.
Possibly a topic of PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE in-universe.
I will be participating in a Frontiers of Eberron campaign soon, and was hoping to play a Necromancer connected with the Blood of Vol. I was curious, though, if any of the cultures or races in Droaam used Necromancy?
Frontiers of Eberron makes this observation:
The Blood of Vol has no established shrines on the frontier, but there are rumors that there’s a community of Seekers in Graywall… though such Seekers are likely in Graywall because they’re war criminals or deserters, so if you’re a Seeker you’ll have to decide if you actually want to seek out your fellows. It’s also the case that most people on the frontier equate the Blood of Vol with Karrnath. Droaamites won’t care, and while they don’t have a strong tradition of necromancy, they revere the Shadow and the Keeper; they have no issues with the pursuit of “dark magic.”
… And also this, about the Venomous Demesne.
While the Maze of Mysteries is familiar with necromancy, the use of undead is quite rare in the Demesne… not because of any squeamishness, but simply because the traditions of the Demesne have other uses for the resources involved. Because all magic comes with a price.
“They believe that the corpse serves as an anchor for the soul; that while the soul may no longer reside within it, it steadies it on its journey. The destruction of a corpse doesn’t doom the soul, but it makes its journeys difficult.”
Under this, are effects like Disintegration that destroy a body entirely viewed as particularly heinous methods of dealing damage?
A devout Vassal certainly would. Though it’s worth noting that the majority of Vassals in the Five Nations are CASUAL Vassals; they follow the traditions because they’ve been traditions for generations, but they aren’t deeply invested in them. A second point is that Disintegrate, as a sixth level spell, isn’t part of the common experience of the Five Nations. So it would be doubly shocking, both as an astonishing display of magical power and an especially cruel fate for the victim.