Soeki Halloway-Crowe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crowedthedead) wrote2018-11-21 04:33 am
crowedthedead) wrote2018-11-21 04:33 am
Entry tags:
World Information
A History of Necromancy ☠ Witchcraft ☠ HEADER ☠ HEADER ☠ HEADER
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OVERVIEW
Earth, circa 2015. The eastern United States. There is very little difference between this and the world we all know, at least on the surface. It shares a lot of the same pop culture and history, celebrities and political figures, literature and art. Particular media might be changed around to prevent fourth-walling other players but will hit a few of the same notes. Soeki will make reference to certain celebrities and bands/singers, especially, but not any controversial figures (unless you think Taylor Swift is controversial).
The major difference is that many myths, stories and legends about creatures and magic, those are based on true stories. Humans see the world about like you or I do, but some know better. Nearly all supernaturals keep hidden out of a sense of self-preservation: humans outnumber everything else thousands to one, and have not historically been accepting of those with strange physiologies or abilities.
A HISTORY OF NECROMANCY
The art of necromancy got its start hundreds of years ago in Germany. Not much of the first necromancer's writings survived this era, and so the exact truth is unknown, although the legend has survived through storytelling, likely with embellishments. As the story goes, Faust, the first necromancer, grew very lonely when his wife passed away young and early into their marriage. He spent years studying the occult and the theory of the soul in hopes of finding a way to bring her back. The book he stumbled across in his later years is theorized to have been a plant from Hell, something tossed wildly into the human world to cause chaos; either way, he discovered a grimoire with detailed instructions and incantations, and he summoned the demon Mephistopheles. This was, as far as anyone could tell, the first actual, successful demonic summoning in history.
Faust’s control over the demon was never perfect, but sensing an opportunity to change the world, Mephisto went along with his demand - revive Faust’s beloved from the dead, bring her back to life. They formed a contract, and he did revive her, retrieving her soul and remaking her body anew. No one can agree how much of her really came back, but she lived a long life with Faust, and they had many children together, who all exhibited the same uncanny abilities.
Modern necromancers know that a peculiar marker was left by the demon on their genetic code, and this marker is inherited consistently through the bloodline. Faust's children all had it, his children's children, and all the way down the lines to the modern day necromancers. This marker is a spark of demonic magic and necessary to cast necromancy spells or to manifest abilities such as seeing the spirits of the dead or sensing demonic presences. It isn't well-understood, but the generally accepted theory is that only angels and demons have power over life and death. Since necromancers bear the mark of a demon, they can draw on that same power, to a much, much lesser extent. Demonology, which is a subset of magic that very few practice or study anymore due to the dangers, is closely tied with necromancy.
Contrary to popular belief, true resurrections are unheard of; only the first necromancer is believed to have ever truly brought someone back from the dead, and it's nowadays a banned art form. Recorded attempts have all gone terribly wrong. Souls are not meant to be reunited with their bodies after passing, though necromancers can manipulate the soul and the body separately.
Over the centuries, necromancy was developed and extensively recorded by Faust's many children, and their children, and so on. The tendency toward being studious and curious is a constant for necromancers, who hoard knowledge over all else. Many of these ancient books still survive, kept by various elders of the community, and most have been transcribed into digital form, or typed into new books that can be more easily copied and distributed. Some of the oldest or most dangerous spellbooks remain original-only, however, and can be difficult to track down.
To this date, there aren't many practicing necromancers in the world. They keep to themselves in their own communities, usually centering their populations in the same handful of cities to be close to one another, and they live completely normal, human lives during the day. Necromancers tend to gravitate toward careers in medicine, mortuary services, forensics, and other jobs that have a lot to do with the dead. Plenty of others freelance as mediums or fake psychics.
Many say necromancy is a dying art these days, with fewer parents teaching their children the craft and more allowing their children's abilities to go dormant. Those who keep to the 'old ways' will often start teaching protection and banishment wards as soon as the child can hold a crayon. From a young age, kids inducted into the old ways also learn human anatomy and skeletal structure of humans and animals both, in order to perfect their reanimates, which are the cleaned and preserved skeletons of recent ancestors, used like marionettes to assist the necromancer.
Reanimates are regarded as important heirlooms in the family because they're literally the remains of family members. Donating your bones after death is a great honor; you may move on to the afterlife, but some part of you is still there protecting your loved ones. These do not have souls, awareness, or the ability to act on their own, and can only move as the necromancer commands mentally. A spell circle is required every time to reanimate a skeleton or control a corpse (which is unhygienic and not often done these days), and a lot of necromancers will get it tattooed on their body somewhere so that they can always be ready. Reanimates are used for defense, distraction, or to serve as a helper, but they require some degree of attention to maintain, which is why they're generally excellent multitaskers. A necromancer who is rolling out cookie dough while his skeleton stamps out cookies with the cutter is actively thinking about both actions at the same time.
Other abilities are much less concrete and involve the human soul. After death, a spirit generally moves on to the great mysteries of the afterlife, either heaven or hell, or sometimes purgatory. Spirits with a lot of strong, lingering feelings may find themselves stuck Between, unable to move on to the next stage. This is what's commonly referred to as a haunting, and the spirit becomes a ghost, or a poltergeist. Necromancers can see ghosts that regular people can't, and they can use spells to force the spirit to move on. It's considered a kindness: being stuck in the Between is the worst kind of torture. Ghosts that remain stuck for decades often become malevolent and lose their original identities. Necromancers can also temporarily summon the spirits of the dead that have moved on as well, but it requires a more elaborate ritual.
Because of this link with death, necromancers are susceptible to spirits and possession more so than humans are. Children, especially, can be easily taken over and forced into dormancy in their own bodies. Parents often ward their entire homes to make them inhospitable to the dead, layering extra wards on their children's nurseries until they're old enough to actively defend themselves with protection spells. Necromancer children adopted by unknowing human parents have suffered terrible fates, including death and permanent possession.
Necromancers, other than their magical capabilities, are otherwise human, but they're part of the larger supernatural world and privy to knowledge about demons, vampires, weres, etc. Demon hunters are sort of a cousin tribe, and necromancers and demon hunters will often work together. Weres are generally tolerated as long as they don't hunt humans. Vampires are considered abominations to both, as necromancers believe that the soul should not be remain tied to the body after death, which is what a vampire is - a dead thing with a soul.
WITCHCRAFT
If necromancy is a specialized course, witchcraft is Gen Ed. Witch magic is a very human magic drawing from the energies of the body and the earth, water, fire, plants, minerals, etc. Anyone with the right spellwork and the determination to, along with an understanding of the basic theory, can practice witchcraft. This information is also more readily available to the general public than the closely-guarded tomes of the necromancers. You can even find spells and incantations online if you look hard enough, and sift the gems out of the (ineffectual) new age wiccan sand.
Since anyone can be a witch, they function less as a large, connected community and more in small, local covens, although online message board "covens" are becoming more popular with the rise of the internet. Witches are generally considered supernaturals, although it depends on the coven and their location whether or not they know much about the rest of the supernatural world. Some are much more serious than 'hobby witches' and devote their lives to the craft.
Spells generally require some combination of: drawn circles, symbols, or runes, an incantation, burning herbs, different types of minerals or stones, or personal items if the spell is focused toward a person. Different spells can be passed around, or new spells can be written wholecloth, although developing something either completely new or cobbled together from parts of other spells can take a lot of trial and error to get it perfect. Any kind of magic can have side effects, nothing more so than a spell gone wrong.
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