Necromancy

Necromancy is a magical school, which concerns itself with working with the soul and body of living beings to do various things.

Necromancy's Origins
Necromancy is a magical art that was created directly by Xulos, the God of Agony and Undeath. It was conceived when he created the Tome of Black Dawn. He wrote down many topics concerning the dead within, including funeral rites, proper burial, proper offerings, and the further into the book you go, necromantic incantations and rituals. Xulos sent the book down to the world below, hiding it within the tomb of a scholar. The village of Bayhelm, in the southwestern lands of the Aeron, would come to be the birthplace of Necromancy.

Years later, the middle-aged man, Garen Drexelhand, who Xulos had chosen to be his first necromancer, happened upon the village. Xulos intervened, giving him a vision and sending him into the tomb. When Garen emerged, he held the Tome of Black Dawn, thus becoming the first Necromancer.

Necromantic Spells
Necromancy comes in any various forms, but the most commonly used and known spells are these

Curses
Curses are spells that are cast towards other beings, and have a negative effect. Most curses don't last long, and they generally are used in battle. Below are the types of curses that currently exist.
 * Draining Spells, these spells sap the strength and vitality of the target, weakening them.
 * Corruption Spells, these spells call upon the powers of rot and decay to harm the target.
 * Binding Spells, these spells utilize the powers of both corruption spells and draining spells. Binding spells are used to render the target incapable of doing something. Whether that be walking, swinging a sword, casting a spell, or breathing. Binding spells are the most complex of curses, and take a long time to be able to use safely.

Hexes
Hexes are spells that act like curses, in that they are used on someone else and have a negative effect, except for a few crucial differences. First, they usually last longer than a curse. Second, they are USUALLY weaker than a curse, some hexes are stronger, but they are rare. Third, Hexes take more time to cast, though a master of Hexes can eschew some of the wards involved to cast them as quickly as a curse. Hexes come in the same types as Curses, with the added types below.
 * Dominion Spells, these spells render the target helpless to act against the caster and his allies. Targets affected by a Dominion spell may find themselves unable to strike the caster, even if they are trying to kill them. Dominion Spells are extremelly difficult to learn, and most people are only able to use the most basic of them.
 * Infection Spells, these spells call upon the powers of plague and poison to inflict a lasting disease or venom upon the victim. Infection spells are the quickest of hexes to cast, and are sometimes cast during combat.

Ensorcelments
Ensolcelments are spells that give positive effects. They are usually used to protect or strengthen the subject. The types of Ensorcelments that currently exist are below.
 * Wards are protective spells that block, avoid, or deflect harmful effects. These can be varying things, such as an invisible shield that protects you against a sword, or a shimmering aura that devours harmful magic. Wards are an integral part of any Necromancer's repetoire, and are among the first things taught to apiring students.
 * Charms are spells that draw upon the spirit of the subject to do various things. Levitation, heightened mental state, increased relfexes, slowing or speeding up time in a localized environment, and many more are Charms.

Incantations
Incantations are spells that require long phrases in strange languages to cast. They are of moderate difficulty, and do various things. Incantations can be used alongside Curses, Hexes, and Wards to make them more powerful, or alone.
 * Restorative Incantations, these are Incantations that restore the strength and vitality that other spells take away. These Incantations can be used to reknit broken bones and seal gushing wounds.
 * Destructive Incantations, these Incantations utilize various powers to harm and damage the victim. These Incantations can wrack the targets with pain, or cause bleeding wounds to appear out of nowhere.

Rituals
There are a vast multitude of rituals that Necromancy is associated with, and cataloging them all would take a library. The Rituals fall into several major categories.
 * Reanimation. These rituals create undead from corpses. Most Zombies.jpgd created through these are mindless, though it is possible to create undead that retain their mental attributes.
 * Sacrificial. These rituals are used to call blessings from Xulos and other dark gods down to the mortals who practice them. They generally require a living being to be slain during the ritual. the type of being varies from goats, to multiple sentient people.
 * Spirit Binding. these rituals create undead from the souls of the dead. Most undead created through these have sentience, and it is rare for a spiritual undead to be mindless. These rituals require something related to or important to the spirit in question. Be that a corpse, favored item, relative, or something else. The object required is destroyed in the process.
 * Resurrective. These rituals are the most difficult and complex of all rituals. They can take days to finish, and require vast amounts of sentient sacrifice to get right. Resurrective rituals restore a dead person to life for varying amounts of time.
 * Potion Brewing. Potions are liquids that replicate the effects of a spell. Creating a potion requires a length of time mixing magic and ingredients into a cauldron. Potions can replicate almost any spell, but there is a limit to how much magic can be bound into one drink...