Here, I will focus on what Necromancy means to Souls, and to Spirits.
Necromancy and Souls
To be short, Necromancy cannot affect souls.
To be perfectly clear, nothing can affect souls. No magic, no gods, no fiends, nothing. Only spirits, when they die, and are absorbed back into souls for them do digest the spirits' experience, and evolve from it.
Necromancy and Spirits
Spirits, which are the personalities of mortals, are mostly immune to everything, too.
One can't usually destroy a spirit, or even absorb it.
But, being strongly tied to the physical universe (i.e. mostly everything, including outer planes, the astral or ethereal plane, etc.), by their perception, their physical forms, spirits can be affected through these ties. It usually goes down to experience (mostly, how the mortals experience their life), but there are ways, through these ties, to actually damage the spirit.
Miscellaneous ways to affect a spirit
Spirit Reminiscence
When the physical form of the spirit dies, the spirit starts the process to join back to its soul, and be absorbed. But in the process, the spirit still exist for a specific time (during this time, for example, the spirit can still be contacted through magic, or even resurrected).
During this time, the spirit might remain near the physical universe. It is usually the case for dead mortals who join the realms of the gods they have an affinity for, enjoying a (time-limited) afterlife where they slowly fall asleep and lose their identity, as the soul inevitably absorbs it.
Spirit Damnation
Let's say you are a goddess who is very, very furious, against one specific spirit. At personal cost (and baring interference from other similar powers), that goddess could damn this spirit (which would essentially make it an undead), stopping it from fully dying, and joining back its soul and being absorbed.
By damning the spirit, the god can then inflict countless torments upon it, as vengeance, or as a way to corrupt it so little or nothing remains for the soul to absorb. For the poor spirit, the experience can be excruciating, and can even seem to last forever, even if the actual torment will, sooner or later, finally "kill" the soul, which would enable what remains to join back the soul.
To be fair, this is a very specific necromantic way to affect a spirit...
The Bloodstone Pendant of Fistandantilus
The infamous Bloodstone Pendant of Fistandantilus enables one spirit to actually absorb another, more or less resulting in the merge of the two. The absorbed spirit is as good as lost to its original soul, while the absorbing spirit is enriched (and will enrich its soul once absorbed back by it).
Mostly, the absorbed spirit becomes passive: It has no control over the absorbing spirit, who remains "in command", but it is not unheard to have the absorbing spirit showing traits known to have been the absorbed's. And it is theoretically possible that an absorbed spirit, if it is has more willpower than the absorbing one, actually takes over, either right on, or gradually, through time.
To be fair, this is also very specific necromantic way to affect a spirit...
Spirit Ascension
Similar to the damnation, the spirit is precious enough for a god (or gods) to "remember" it. This effectively makes the spirit ascend into a higher state, which could be described as angels, demons, devas, etc., depending on the god (or gods).
These are not technically undead, but outsiders. And sooner or later, then, like the reminiscent or the damned, they will fade away as they are absorbed back by their respective souls...
It is believed spirit ascension might be the final stage of a soul: Instead of being absorbed by its soul, the ascended spirit merges with the soul, who takes its place, and awakens to some kind of divine form.
Necromantic ways to affect a Spirit
In addition to damnation and the bloodstone of Fistandantilus, there are many known ways to affect a spirit through magic, and this magic is Necromancy.
Most of them will either bind the spirit to a physical form (which might be a ghost form), rebind it back to its original body (assuming it has been repaired), or reshape the spirit.
Resurrection
Any kind of resurrection has a pre-requisite of rebuilding the original body (or a clone) of the spirit, before rebinding the spirit to it.
Undeath
This is similar to resurrection, but instead of the spirit being bound to a living body, it is bound to either a dead one (the process making that body undead), or some other physical object of great significance (or power). This might be a fallen knight becoming a death knight because of a damnation, a mage becoming a lich to continue its existence, a mortal becoming a ghoul, or a vampire.
Another type of undeath happens when a spirit, whose will to continue to exist, or even their trauma, makes it come back, again, into some physical form, usually an object important to them, their own (dead, soon-to-be undead) body, or even as a ghostly manifestation (e.g. a wraith, ghost, banshee, etc.).
Necromancy as Arcane Magic
A necromantic aura has a very specific set of colors:
- cyan: related to the spirit and ghostly forms
- red: related to physical bodies animation (and unlife)
- purple: a mix of the cyan and red and/or unrefined necromancy magic
This means a sword inhabited by a ghostly spirit might radiate cyan-colored light, while the contaminating blood of a vampire might register as a deep, saturated red.
Animating dead would most probably register as purple, as it is usually unrefined necromancy, unless the wizard is trying to raise a ghoul, or a vampire, which are actually "living undead" because their bodies have a physiology (e.g. they need to "eat" to be active).
Anyway, by interfering with a "natural process" without the benediction of a god, arcane necromancy is usually considered as against nature, and at the very least, frowned upon, if not outright forbidden under death penalty.
Conclusion
I hope this clarify the relations between spirits, souls and necromancy and undead.
😊
No comments:
Post a Comment