Is necromancy an act of reviving or merely re-animating the dead?
Does it still exist now?
And next question: did it exist at about the same time as wizardy and witchcraft?

We need to harness necromancy so that our socioty can begin the prosperous times of the necrocracy, that is, rule by the dead. We could raise all the best dead leaders to lead us again in thier new undead life, and preserve good leaders forever.

There is precedent for a necrocracy after all! The major religions of the world have been guided and ruled by dead leaders for thier entire historys! I think its an Idea that people would take to quite naturaly.

Haha, well how about you give us a timeperiod for the "Time of wizardry and witchcraft" and I'll get back to you on that one.

Uhm.... mmm, my History teachers never mentioned witchcraft era...... let alone necromancy...

You are the one who introduced the concept that these things had a specific place in time, curiocity :P. What were you basing that off of if you did'nt have a period of time in mind?

ikes, sorry....
more so if that's a <font color="DDDDDD">hidden rule</font>.

Ill tell you whats a psudoscience around here: trying to understand what curioucity is saying, thats what.

If I had a cyber boot, I'd kick you...

Umm, Banshee, I retract my past request.... one replier to this thread finally satisfied me....

Once its dead I’m going to use arcane alchemical rituals to bring it back with a green color scheme, It can be our pet zombie thread.

Silent Hill infiltration or Resident Evil infestation?

I was more thinking like what i read in the fantasy books there, curiosity, as I don’t sink my cash into gaming consoles, which can provide me only with tepid game play at exorbitant prices.

Necromancy was generally making spirits answer questions for you through simply asking or, more commonly, torture. It also invloved raising the dead to do your bidding.

It wasn't so much about giving new life to the dead. It wasn't about giving them control of an animated corpse. That is why its a dark art. Now i guess you could do all that resurection stuff and consider it white, or light necromancy, but why would you want to?

Its generally considered to be a branch of wizardry or at least magic as a while, but it was a dark art, so if you are using magic in its new age wiccan way of light and dark, then any good practitioner would stay way from it.

All magics have very old roots, so chances of them being practiced at the same time is high.

Good enough?

Thanks. That's an adequate explanation.
So necromancy is somewhat like 'puppet show', where the necromancer is the puppet-controller and the dead are the puppets, right?

well..yes, some of it could be veiwed that way.

Allright- I've been dying to get to this thread but life and her nagging you know...........fucking bitch.


Spymoose:
Say what?. Never heard of that.

Mephurio:
True enough. But more so about using the dead for psychiatry.

Its funny that the Anglican church would have outlawed it since right in thier fucking book you have King Solomon conjuring up the ghost of King Samuel to find out how he would do in a coming battle. This business of seeking the dead for cousil goes back to the very beginnings- Rome, Greece, Persia, Assyria.....etc. I used to think it was only narrowed down to Egypt and then transpired on to Rome but not so.

And its amazing to find how stupid humans have been- Umberto Eco paints the very picture of quakery. I knew about cults and satanism but my god I was not prepared to see how foolish men have been in their beliefs. Silly little Rosicrucians and their beliefs in the sephirots. Anal gnostics. Sophia. The Demiruge. Even down to these group of people in the fifth century known as Massalians who would eat their own sperm or menstrual fluids as a sign of loyalty. And if the female were pregnant, they'd reach up into her womb, snatch the baby out, boil it and eat it.


Insane.

Am I rambling?

Only slightly, but it's delightful nevertheless.
Yes, in the broadest sense it is any conjuring of teh spirits, or controling of the dead. Its a world wide event on that level.
Modern times have found a that necromancy has been more narrowly defined however.

Meph:
How so? If anyting I think this New Age business has made it fashionable. Not narrow. Only Cathoics do that.
Kidding.

Or you'd rather we let this thread up and die altogether? I'm only rambling becuae what I'm usually thinking refelcts what I'm currently reading about. And I've been dying to get my hands on this thread.

Well, while not as wide spread as the older defiinitions ( and why would they be) a certain emphasis has been place on the methods of the 'communication'.

Necroscopy would be listening to them. Also, sometimes asking them for aid.

Necromancy has developed a more 'black arts' reputation and generally refers to commanding the dead in one sense or another, be that for info or as a army of corpses.

Then we have the catch all of mediums which, in teh truest sense of the word, have no control over what dead do once the connection has been made. They merely act as a medium for the communication. Much like phone line.

as for letting it die (heh), up to you really.

It is easy for anyone to talk to "spirits": the supposed dead. Go to your local whitchcraft store, you can probable find some funky stuff in New Orleans, and buy an intstrument, like a Ouja board. I suggest you get someone who knows what they are doing before you use ane, you'll need two people anyway, and you can talk to the people of the past.