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AABN:  16032
Title: Disciplines of Necromancy

abridged by the Dark Lord of Wolvesville

original text by Gisco the Necromancer

forward by Count Tarrant of Merentha


FORWARD

Modern necromancy was pioneered by my former apprentice and current
colleague Gisco the Necromancer, an orcish cleric of ancient origin, who
approached the Art from a superior perspective than previous sorcerers. 
For countless millennia, necromancy was treated as a school of standard
magecraft in similitude to to the school of alteration, but Gisco viewed
and later taught that necromancy was a class of magic unto itself, entirely
separate from that of mages, clerics and druids.  It was this unique point-
of-view that allowed the freedom necessary for the Necromancer to explore
the Art in a way that never been done previously and proffered him
opportunities to delve deeper into its mysteries than been done previously,
thus paving the way for contemporary necromancy.  Were it not for Gisco's
research, I would have never invented the spectral hand spell.  What
follows are excerpts from Gisco the Necromancer's writings.

DISCIPLINES OF NECROMANCY

"The simplest of the Dark Arts are those that meddle in the Spectral,
inflicting rot upon the very souls of  those spells' hapless victims.  The
key to unlocking this power is the ability to evoke coldfire, an element of
great potential and mystery present in Plane of Darkness.

"Another basic pool of spell-lore of the Dark Arts is that of Animation. 
Animation is one of the basic necessities of golemcraft (the other being
conjuration, a power clearly within the realm of teleportation magic), but,
on its own, Animation has the powerful qualities, granting a practitioner
of the Dark Arts the ability to channel his mana into otherwise inanimate
objects and bend them to his will, most often using them an unliving
shields to protect him while he rains death upon his enemies.

"The basis of blood magic, or Hematology, lies within the life-giving
energies that are specially bound to the substances common to the blood of
all living things.  Once harnessed, a necromancer can convert his own body
into the most powerful of wards or weapons.

"Complementary to blood magic is the Odontology school, which taps into the
special properties common to all dentine structures.  Especially worth
mentioning are curious qualities of dragon teeth, which can be expanded and
molded into skeletal servants to serve and attack.

"Spiritualism begins with the ability to detect spirits, which leads to the
power to manipulate the spirits of the dead, and is crowned with the
ability to alter the spirits of the living, whether of oneself or that of
others.  Spirits are essentially pools of mana, and one uses one's own mana
to feel them out.

"The disciplines of Reanimation could be considered the pinnacle of the
Dark Arts.  The humblest of these powers is the preservation spell, which
is used to prolong a cadaver's gentle repose.  From there, mana is
channeled into preserved corpses, and they are prepared to raised as
undead.  The rituals of Reanimation are some of the most complex and
time-consuming, but they permit the creation of a necromancer's most
reliable and dutiful servants.

"An aspiring necromancer would do well to study Demonology, for it is
largely by demons that a necromancer learns his craft beyond the initial
stages.  The greatest secrets of the Dark Arts are jealously guarded by
these beings, and appropriate consultation is requisite to learn those
secrets for oneself. I should mention that to study Angelology is of little
use to a necromancer, save to learn their weaknesses or to glean materials
from their bodies. Even when oathsworn, they are forbidden by the Accords
to divulge knowledge of necromancy, as not to interfer with the commerce of
soulstones that demons covet so dearly."

(The text continues in like manner, referring to several other books
written by Count Tarrant and Gisco the Necromancer about the specific spell
groups of necromancy.)