Heretica (Heret-icah)

Termed as Necromancy, Death Magic, or the Death Arts by The University of Arcaena. The Arts of Heretica are those Conductions of The Energy of Mana that utilize dead tissue and the souls of the dead. To either sap the life of a living thing while keeping it alive. Or to animate a corpse to become an unthinking, unfeeling slave. Its capabilities vary, but its predominant instrument, subject, and domain. Are always the same. The Dead. And the enslaving or feeding off of them.

The Death Arts were first encountered among the Akiiri Men. Who used the Death Arts to enslave their cousin kin. The Ammuli Men, and the Obuntu Men. The Akiiri would break their slaves down and work them to death. But even after death, they would animate the corpses and put them back to work. The Akiiri civilization was built on the backs of slaves. Living and dead alike. The Akiiri clung to the Death Arts long after they were deposed by their slaves with the aid of The Ellician Empire. And when the very last of them died out. The Death Arts fell into obscurity. Gratefully forgotten for thousands of years. 

Near the end of the Third Aeon. The Pariah Mage and Alchemyst, Albred Lorton Drenche, delved deep into the forbidden arts. Plunging deep into the ruins of the Akiiri civilization in search of untouched knowledge. Learning all that the Akiiri knew, and far more. His foul experimentation not only dubbed him the Father of Modern Necromancy. And he even published his works in a collection of twelve individual titles that pertain to the Death Arts. This collection today is called the Drenche Heretica. All of which are banned in the Fourth Aeon under The Treaty of Magai. But are freely read by the cult that follows his teachings and treats the man like a prophet. This order is called The Order of the Deathless. And they are the bane of The University of Arcaena. Giving Mages a bad name where ever they take root.

Necromancy is capable of many things. 

• Necromancy can take the Mana of a living thing.
• Necromancy can sustain the physical life of a living thing.
• Necromancy can animate dead corpses.
• Necromancy can peer into the memories of a corpse.
• Necromancy can enthrall the spirits of the dead.
• Necromancy can rip the soul of a living thing from its body.
• Necromancy can drain the youth of a living thing.
• Necromancy can take life from one living thing to bring life to another. 
• Necromancy can create Wraiths, a distorted, corrupted ghost.
  
  

For all those things that make Necromancy attractive to the naive Mage. Those bold hearts and minds that think only in absolutes, and live by impulse and emotion. Necromancy is also quite limited.

• Necromancy cannot restore the ghost of a dead person to its original body.
• Necromancy cannot make a Man a God.
• Necromancy cannot create enduring Independent Immortality.
• Necromancy cannot reconstitute the tissue of a long dead corpse.
• Necromancy cannot truly give life, only pervert it.
  
  

Necromancy is the magic of the Fugitive and the Foolish among Mages. Drawn in by promises of freedom from sickness, death, and the cruel fate society deals to the young and the unfortunate. Unimportance. But this is the trap of Necromancy. The products of its works are hollow and without spirit. In fact, many have said in both the Temples of the Faith of Aemar the All-Father, and in the Academies of The University of Arcaena, that the practice of Necromancy is the death of the soul. And its cost is made clear in the Death Arts Acolytes. Dark Hearted people who've sacrificed their compassion, their love, the essence of their humanity. All for the sake of power, and the hollow promises of godhood and freedom from death. It's because of these people, that Necromancy is forbidden. And combated at every turn.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane