Resurrectionist

Magic isn't neat and clean. It isn't pretty. But it gets the job done, if you have the right tools. I bring you the tools.

— Andreas Sheer, Resurrectionist

Resurrectionist are Walkers who specialize in the retrieval of corpses or bodyparts for the purpose of ritual and magic. They're usually in the employ of those who either doesn't have the stomach for the grisly work, are too busy for it, or the rare few who have lost their ability to Walk between worlds. Others work for creatures who are no longer or have never been human, and these are trusted the least of all Ressurrectionists.
Some perform the work for mercenary reasons along, but others are obligated to by favors owed or bargains struck. Whatever their reason, they tend to be a grizzled and gloomy lot, shovel in hand.

Bring Out Your Dead

Bones of a violently dead, the stretched skin of a young man, and the cap of a skull - only thing missing now is my payment.

Magic often requires unusual things to work, to the chagrin of wizards and warlocks everywhere. And for as long as there has been magic, the human corpse has always served its need in a variety of grisly ways. Whatever the reason, it is the business model for the Resurrectionist. Most of them are more like vultures than anything, haunting cementaries or hovering over obituaries for the perfect specimen, counting down the days of an execution like a kid until Christmas.
Most work on commission, getting only what they're asked for and when they're asked for it, but a few forward-thinking Resurrectionist keep freezers full of dead for when the right order comes. Such crass materialism tends to spoil the magic, leading to sub-par components, but people who keep these sort storage units tend not to care too much.

It's the kind of work that tears on a soul. Alcohol and narcotics are a salve for many Resurrectionist, but at least corpses don't usually fight back.
Well, usually.

DIY

Sometimes, it can be hard to get the things needed. The world has, for the most part, moved past things like brutal beheadings or public hangings, and components such as Hands of Glory are becoming vanishingly difficult to produce. What's a unethical Resurrectionist to do?
Some skip the middle men of executioner, old age, accident, or violence and create what they need themselves. If the state won't hang criminals, they'll do it themselve. It isn't a path for the faint of heart, and those who engage in this practice tend to keep their secrets very close to their heart.

Of course, you can only bring in so many suspiciously fresh bodies before eyebrows are raised, so these kind of Resurrectionists tend to work for people just as heartless as they are.

by http://www.tribalartasia.com/

Devil in the Detail

Bone is bone, don't matter much if its human or cow.

Stripped of its macabre trappings, what Resurrectionists are retrieving at the end of the day is another form of reagent. Like the eyes of a newt or fillet of fenny snake, the human body can - if conditions are right - become part and parcel of magic, despite a tendency by magi to pretend humans are too unique, too important to be disassembled into common ingredients.
No such luck; humanity is just another bag of meat and blood, like any other critter in the world.
Others use human bodies as fundamental parts of their magic art, however. Necromancers wouldn't be much without a few corpses, and stranger arts coax unexpected uses from the dearly departed. No matter what, the Resurrectionists still get paid.

Looking for a human thigh bone dipped in blessed silver, or a mandrake root still willing to put up a fight? No better place to go than Axis - a city in the Shadow where reagent-peddlers, resurrectionists, and patrons all rub shoulders.