The Taskmaster Necromancer

The tall, pale figure of Eladrin Vars glided from body to body in the sepulcher. Each had been laid out in the armor it had been buried with, the sword it wielded in life clasped in its hands. The eyes had long since rotted away to nothing, and she placed an onyx gem in the left socket of every skill. Then, under the slimy remains of their tongues, a platinum coin.

"The wages of your work, my warriors," she said, gently closing the jaw of the last corpse before intoning the final verse of her spell. The limbs seized and spasmed, the stones crumbling to powder as dull, silver flames lit in the empty sockets. The undead rose, turning to their new commander. She smiled at them; a thin, grisly expression. "Let it not be said I did not compensate you for your service."

Ain't a lot of blackrobes out there who will pay you a dying wage.

Quid Pro Quo

While there are dozens of spells that fall under the school of necromancy, from incantations that sap a target's strength, to charms that grant you phantom resilience, these spellcasters are best known for filling the bodies of the dead with profane energies, and using them as pawns to serve their own needs. And whether a necromancer is using these undead servants to protect innocent townsfolk, or to care for the fields to avoid famine, there's still something inherently unsettling about the method behind these spells.

In short, it violates the person's bodily autonomy.

Not to worry, friends, we had an arrangement.

While The Veterinarian Necromancer gets around this sticky point by focusing their energies on beasts who do not have the same awareness as sentient beings, the Taskmaster instead allays this concern by making it clear that the person whose body is being used is being compensated in some way. In some cases it might be leaving an appropriate offering on the body, or in the grave, which balances the act in the eyes of certain death gods. In other circumstances the necromancer might have a standing agreement with a living person that they will be given a payment or a service now, so that their body may be used once they die. Or, if there was no time, then the surviving members of a person's family may be offered compensation for the use of their loved one by the necromancer.

But under no circumstances does this spellcaster simply take the bodies. There has to be some agreement in place, or if there was nothing given up-front, then the compensation must be rendered afterward along with a penance to appease the person's spirit, and the gods who watch over the cycle.

Why Do They Do This?

The individual beliefs and habits of necromancers can vary wildly, and why one might adopt this peculiar behavior is unique to that person. As mentioned, it might be a religious conceit of a necromancer who hopes to wash away the perceived sin of taking someone's body without their permission. It might simply be a quirk of that spellcaster's nation, where necromancers must abide by the laws and codes of their profession in order to remain in good standing. It might be something they personally do to assuage their conscience, or it could be considered good luck. It might even be a way to mark you out from other practitioners, similar to how a smith would stamp the blades made by their forges (particularly if the coins used in your rituals must be of a certain type).

Whatever the reason, it should be central to how they conduct themselves and their spells. Because you have to have standards and rules, otherwise there's nothing to separate you from the others.

Need to have standards.

While keeping these standards doesn't stop you from picking up a capital E in your alignment, thanks to the nature of these spells, it might allow you to hang onto that L. Because unless your powers come from a divine source, then the only person whose rules you have to follow is you.

Would You Like To See More In-Depth Tips For Wizards?

While I wrote my 5 Tips For Playing Better Wizards a while back, and you can find it along with a lot of my other class guides in the 5 Tips archive on this blog, I have been thinking about how each school of magic presents different and unique challenges, styles, and flavors. So I thought I'd ask my readers out there... would you like to see 5 Tips guides for each of the types of caster (necromancer, conjurer, diviner, etc.)?

If so, reach out to me on my Facebook page, or leave a comment below!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!

That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Veterinarian Necromancer

The caravan had been stranded at the base of the dune for three days, many of the animals dead from the sand-slide. A storm had come soon after, half-burying their valuable cargo. It would have been a death sentence to ride into that storm, but staying was proving no more fruitful.

That was when one of the scouts saw... something in the storm. It was hard to be certain through the sand, but a creature lumbered toward them. A huge, hulking thing, it creaked and groaned as it traversed the sand. As it grew closer, they saw it had huge tusks, the ivory glinting in the sun. A leather hood covered a fleshless skull, and empty sockets stared out at the world. The wind whipped the canvas that clung to its ribs, and just as the caravan guards were loosening their weapons in their sheaths, the skeletal colossus ceased moving. It raised its head up, and a tent flap drew aside. A man stuck his head out. He wore the heavy scarf of the Rada-shan, with silver bells along the fringe that named him a worker of death magics.

"My apologies if I startled you," the dark-eyed traveler said. "But you seem to be in dire straits. Do you seek aid?"

Death is coming for you... but death might lead you out of this place, too.

Of Beasts and Bones

When most people think of necromancers, they think of black-robed sorcerers attended by armies of skeletal warriors, or surrounded by hordes of rotting zombies. These warriors, by and large, were once men and women, and they act as a kind of mirror, showing the living that they fight against their own mortality.

The veterinarian necromancer, though, knows that most of what makes a human, an elf, or a dwarf special is erased by the process of animating their body. Even powerful warriors are little more than thralls, often dispatched with ease. And, let's face it, using the bodies of those who were once thinking, feeling creatures is a unique kind of blasphemy. A violation of their bodily autonomy as they are reduced even beyond death to nothing more than component parts for the necromancer's use.

Beasts, by contrast, have so many additional uses.

 

Whether out of practicality, or a respect for the bodies of intelligent creatures capable of moral decisions, the veterinarian necromancer focuses their talents on using the remains of beasts and lower animals for their needs. Whether it is using the sheer might of an undead mammoth to help pull a stranded caravan from the sinking desert sands, or raising a swarm of skeletal crocodiles to retrieve the treasure aboard a boat sunken in the black waters of a swamp, there are all kinds of uses that dead animals could be put to.

And while people are still going to be put off by skeletal beasts and shambling animals, they are less likely to see it as inherently sacrilegious in the same way they would if it were the bodies of men and women, elves and gnomes being put to use.

The key is to make this affinity with animals more than just a preference for the necromancer's servants; they must be involved in every part of the life cycle in order to truly stand out. From birthing calves, to caring for sick hounds, to trying to set broken bones, this character should have the skills to heal and handle animals. And while some may see what they do as a perversion of the natural cycle of life, there is no denying the results one can achieve with the proper application of necromancy to the right frame.

Alternatively, for those who are more interested in botany than biology, it's important to remember that turning a creature into a zombie only requires a corpse. This opens up your vistas, and makes a lot of different things possible. It can be particularly useful for forest-dwelling necromancers who keep a kind of death-dome for their experiments, seeing what can be done with the bodies of plant creatures once they have passed.

Also, for the sharp-eyed readers out there, this concept was inspired by the small-town doctor who just happened to be a necromancer found in my supplement 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern, published by Azukail Games!

Evil Doesn't Mean You Aren't Helpful

As some reading this will no doubt point out, creating permanent undead is an evil act in games like Pathfinder. This will reflect in your character's alignment, causing them to keep a capital E in their box if they twist the natural order of things too often. There is no moral difference between using this spell to revivify a squad of knights, an ogre, or a simple riding horse; casting the spell is still casting the spell.

The veterinarian necromancer is not necessarily good-aligned. Why they keep to bestial servants could be practical, personal, or even spiritual in its own way. Attempting to care for the living before using the dead also shows that they want to be sure they choose the most efficient means  while using the materials they have on-hand. But they are willing to embrace a much wider variety of possibilities, and to use tools others wouldn't even consider in unique and unusual ways.

 

For more suggestions to get your gears turning, don't forget to check out my 5 Tips For Playing Better Wizards!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!

That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

A Skull Armchair For The Necromancer In Us All!

It's been a while since I did a Monday post that was just about something fun, weird, and a little silly. And since we're elbow-deep in the Halloween season, I figured it was time to share something off my personal wish list with folks. Because I fully intent to DM a game while seated in a chair like this one before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Hell, if I owned this thing, I might have to haul it to conventions. Just because!

What you're looking at is a skull chair made by French designer Gregory Besson. The chair represents humanity's questioning of death, the designer says, and it shows how we often try to face away from our memento mori, even when our backs are resting right against it. The skull and frame are made from fiberglass, and the interior of the chair is made from high-quality leather. So it's probably lighter than it looks, but it will last for quite a time if properly taken care of. And given an occasional buffing by a minion in your doom fortress.

And, according to Besson's interview with Bored Panda, you can get one of these chairs custom made for your lair... living room, whatever.

Before you reach out to the artist, though, there are two things that are important to keep in mind. Firstly, and most importantly, these chairs are not mass-produced. As such, each chair is going to have unique features, coloring, etc. Secondly, because the pieces aren't churned out from a factory, you're not just buying a cool piece of furniture for your home... you're buying a piece of art. And, as we all know, when it comes to art, you pay for what you get.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday post. I figured I'd keep it short and sweet, but I'll likely get back into the thinky stuff next week. If you'd like more of my gaming articles, check out my Gamers archive. If you want to keep up with all my updates, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you want to help support Improved Initiative, head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to leave a little tip in my jar. Every little bit helps, but if you pledge at least $1 a month, I'll send you some gaming swag as a thank you!