...One must remember that our culture and way of life is at stake against this most abominable practice. Our elders have for centuries if not millenia treated the dead with the reverence they deserve: who are we to question them?
— Excerpt from the Treaties on the Art of Nekromanti
"Treaties on the Art of Nekromanti - Condemnations Collected" is the work made in opposition of
Necromancy and its industrialization in the early days of its adoption. As centuries old taboos were broken and cemeteries begun to empty as factories looked for fresh supplies, a group of scholars and religious figures from across the world came together in solid condemnation of the necromancers and their supporters.
There has always been and always will be those who see progress coming and dig their heels in. Every advance has its detractor.
The work was widely published and disseminated, though friction between different religions on different theological points diluted its message and delayed its spread. While theologians bickered about details, necromancy continued to spread. In the end, several different versions of the work was published when the disagreements became too great. The "Condemnations Collected" have gathered all the different versions and put them together, published in its current state not by any church but by the leading
Nekrobiotek academy in the Republic.
...They trade the sanctity of the human body for material gain and that way lies damnation. Every man and woman has a right to remain human, not be reduced to dead meat made to work again.
— Excerpt from the Treaties on the Art of Nekromanti
The quality of the work varies between authors, giving it a slapped together and confusing presentation. While some sections were compelling and well-written, combining poignant observations about the human conditions with the plight of the poor left behind in the wake of progress, others are mere screeching creeds. Perhaps ironically, some Nekrobiotek use the more expertly written passages as a sort of humanist underpinning to their work: if a stiff reanimated means a child does not have to work in the mines, is this not a great thing?
...The dead walk the earth. There is no surer sign of the end times than this. This is where you must make a choice, if you stand with the gods and all that is good for humanity, or do you stand with the corpse-monger, the grave-robber, the wretched necromancers and those who profit from them. All will soon come to an end: the gods are watching.
— Excerpt from the Treaties on the Art of Nekromanti
In the end, the Treaties had a very limited effect. The material benefits were too great for any nation or industry to want to give it up. There was wide-spread unrest as unskilled laborers and factory-workers lost their jobs to the working dead, culminating in clashes like
the Riot of Red Rivers. But such protests had less to do with religion than unemployment, starvation and deprivation. It did inspire acts of terrorism and several assassinations throughout the world, until social reforms and well-fare benefits were put in place to help quell the troubles.
In the end, Necromancy proved too valuable to relinquish. The Condemnations are republished every now and then by the remaining religious institutes in a increasingly futile attempt to turn back the clock, updated to match the times. It doesn't have the impact it did when Necro-industry was young and the most avid readers of the original works continue to be the
Nekrobiotek.
Woah. Just the feel of this article from the formatting is...creepy. Well done!
Storyteller, Cartoonist,..pretty awesome friend =)
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Thanks :)
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.