Necromancy
I can fix it... it doesn't have to be this way. I can fix it!Of all the types of Magic a citizen of Tairos can study, Necromancy has the most complicated history and dreadful stigma. Like all forms of magic, Necromancy is an intrinsic part of the fabric of reality. This name is merely a label used by many of those who study it. Others might call this force Shadow Energy, Death Weave, Black Dross, or a handful of other dour names. Some would even say its raw oblivion. The truth is that across Tairos, and even elsewhere across the tapestry of existence, this power has been used to save lives as frequently as it has taken them. Necromancy is the control over the breakdown of systems, over entropy. Its practitioners are able to reshape this downward spiral into useful forms, accelerate it when needed, or stave it off when desired. It can cause grievous wounds as well as erase them. It can court sickness into a body our lure it out. And, perhaps most classically, it can animate the dead. The act of creating something as simple as a skeleton assistant is incredibly complicated on a cosmological scale. The use user is pulling Shadow Energy (or whatever one chooses to call it) from the source and imbuing it into a former living receptacle. This energy has intelligence, is capable of following commands, and recognizes the caster as the one who harnessed it. None of that means its pleased to be here though. It is alien in both thought and motivation; the living world is anathema to it. Everything around it is a bright, blinding, and hateful light it wishes to extinguish. The only thing keeping it from ripping its terrestrial form to shreds and returning home is the will of the caster. This is the simplest form of Undead and the image most closely associated with Necromancy. More complicated examples such as Vampirism or phantoms are often associated with the tools of necromancy but this is not entirely the case. These are examples of once-living beings who linger on because of Shadow Energy and who require a constant source of kindling to fuel the black fire that sustains them. Be that blood, raw life energy, the psychic trauma connected to a place, whatever the case they are slaves to a furnace of sorts that is every hungry. Necromancy, like all forces, exists beneath the currents of reality but sometimes it can snag on things or even be forced to the surface. Where it bubbles up you will find these forms of undeath - the ghost birthed from anguish and pain, the wandering knight who perished with an oath unfinished, or the hateful curse sworn by those tied to the burning pyre. Yet, all of the above animations are just a single manifestation of necromancy's impact on reality. There are countless others means of using this power that few dwell on as much as they do the animation of the dead. It has the power to erase wounds and cure sickness. This fact has led to many cultures having a particularly complex relationship with it. While common people believe there is a stark divide between a healer and necromancer, those who are familiar with this power know they are one and the same. These more learned practitioners know that the only difference is the lengths one will go to claw back time from entropy. Afterall, curing a loved one's injury and curing a loved one of the injury that killed them are the same action merely at different points in entropy's plan, only the costs differ. Another common association with this energy is the pursuit of immortality. This winding back of the clock or pausing it indefinitely are purview of the Necromancy surely but this too exists on a spectrum. On the lowest end is curing disease, something few would look upon as an evil act. Far to the opposite end is immortality, the freedom from all forms of decay, which suddenly twists the stomachs of many. While a difference in effectiveness and cost yes but fundamentally the same action. Much has been said here about costs paid. All magic has a cost, usually in the form of key components, mana, an psychic energy (in the form of belief and effort). For some necromancy, life energy is a cost as well. Yet, what becomes of all these costs? Like all types of magic, Necromancy is best viewed as a flowing river who's only desire is to move faster and widen its banks. All these costs paid help do just that, increase the flow and spread. This is why some places seem steeped in a certain type of magic and others devoid of it. Finally, and perhaps the most nuanced point of discussion, Necromancy vs Oblivion. Many can look at the two and see obvious similarities, thus assuming they are one and the same. The truth is that Necromancy is a tool and Oblivion is... something else. It is an active and intelligent force who's end goal is total decay. Necromancy seeks out systems to break down yes, but in doing so it offers new ways to make use of that collapse. One need only imagine a child with their building blocks, breaking down a complex project only to use those pieces to make something new, before repeating the process over and over. Their favorite part being the smashing of a thing down to individual bricks. Oblivion is the end of the blocks, the tox box from which they came, the child who orders and smashes them, their house, their world, and ultimately time itself. Necromancy seeks to play with broken things. Oblivion wants there to be no things at all.
Execution
All schools or traditions of magic exist to help one connect on a psychic level with the one type of energy or another. Ritual exists to help reinforce belief and ultimately to aid in making the connection. Necromantic traditions do the same, giving users a performance of sorts to help align their thoughts and strengthen their will enough to shape the magic. Wizards have their complex formulae, hand gestures, and words of power. A bard has their songs. Sorcerers have their blood (as mentioned above, many of the flows of magic can bubble up or snag on reality from time to time. Sorcerers are examples of living "snags"). One should expect the execution of necromantic spells or rituals to align with how the user perceives their connection will manifest. Healing spells will often be soothing affairs while something meant to wither an enemy will likely be steeped in fear and curses of death.
Once the intent is demonstrated and the users mind makes contact with the energy they desire to manipulate, all that remains is combine the mana from the Leylines with the flow from the type of magic they've chosen and then shape it. Necromancy, like all types of magic, is on it's own nearly impossible to shape by a user of any skill level. Mana is the building blocks of reality, and the type of magic is the code that programs the formless raw power to become something. The caster acts as the bridge and the sculptor.
This is why, in Tairos' case, manacite is so valuable. Their leylines have become toxic to tap into and only fragments of manacite contain pure forms of this creation energy. The effects of The Queen's Rebuke are rather prominent and while much of its impact does serve to aid in the broadening of necromancy's potency it does nothing for aiding a Tairosian in actually using it. Mana is still needed, whether that means tapping into the cancerous leylines there or finding usable manacite.
Components and tools
Most commonly symbols of restoration or death. These aid in the psychic belief system that underpins the use of magic. Anything that furthers the belief and connection with a form of magic helps connect one with it, pull on its flow, and bend it to their will. In Necromancy's case, skulls, usually skulls.
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