History of Necromancy on Aerath

Necromancy is often viewed as a horrible school of magic that defiles the dead and brings great and terrible ruin to all who dare access the forbidden arts. Necromancy has been the root of many crusades of the church and the weapon of choice for conquest hungry mages for centuries. Yet not all necromancy is truly as evil as the superstitious, religious, or paranoid may believe. It has a long history tied back to the earliest decades for sapient life on Aerath. Although, this ancient history does show it’s first use being for great and terrible evil in the late second era Nelocon Alderson, the legendary hero changed the nature of it’s use by discovering how to separate the soul from the vessel and use what remains to level the battlefield against superior enemies.

History

Necromancy in the First Era

The most ancient record of necromancer start with the rogue Arcanum Magister Neros the Exile. As history tell Neros was a Drow acolyte who was born to the church of Kalfa in the latter years of the Magus Arcanum just before the slave rebellion and the proceeding crusades that sunk the Continent of Danos into a dark age for several millennia.

Neros was a gifted mage and well-liked by his comrades and even was believed to be the chosen of Kalfa the death goddess, also known as the Inevitable. Neros’s extensive study of the dead and the dying revolutionized the arts of embalming and preservation leading to great recognition amongst the Drow and the Magus Arcanium, so much so that in his later years he was elected and served as one of the last Magisters of the Arcanum for over two centuries.

Neros studied under the vampiress Constantina Azrak who developed the first uses of blood magic to reanimate corpses. Prior to their collaboration only Elanatas the god of darkness was able to maintain undead servants and the knowledge of how to do so was kept secret by those who served him. Under Constantina’s tutelage Neros quickly mastered her blood magics and turned his attention to study of the undead and the nature of their reanimation. He soon began to unlock secrets that not even Constantina had discovered, creating spells and ritual to utilize the dead in ways that had been previously untouched. His fame began to spread and the demand for more research from the Arcanum grew exponentially. Neros soon built Blackspire Tower in what is now the central mountain of the corpse scar where he began to experiment with more and more magics.

At first Neros published countless papers, and books on Necromancy that were well received but after the publication of his most famous, and most taboo work the “Necronomicon Volume I” the Arcanum began to demand more oversight after discovering he was binding souls to corpses creating wild undead abominations that could not be controlled. The demand became mandatory by order of the council when a demonstration of his new techniques resulted in a Magister of the Arcanum being torn limb from limb by a flesh golem when she questioned Neros’s motivations. Neros published 3 more volumes of his Necronomicon before the Arcanum chose to act against him. It is believed that up to 10 volumes exist although they have been lost in myth and legend.

Neros refused to allow the Magisters or anyone else into Blackspire tower, and when the Arcanum tried to force his corporation by sending several wizards to destroy his defenses Neros slaughtered them all with his creations and resurrected them as the first ever known undead spellcasters. Several other attempts were made to infiltrate his tower but each failed resulting in the disappearance of the people sent. Soon after the Slave rebellion drew the full attention of the council and Neros’s research was left unhindered.

After the fall of the Arcanum the crusaders turned their attention to rebuilding and establishing order which was soon after disrupted as an undead army traveling from Blackspire Tower stormed the countryside killing and resurrecting countless humanoids and adding them to the Neros’s army of the dead.

Neros’s army wiped out almost the entire population of Danos before he was slain in his tower by the Heroes of the first era and his corpse destroyed to ensure he, and the evil he created would never return.


Coming soon: Necromancy of the Second Era....