Necromancy

The history of necromancy is a very confused and muddled one, dominated as it has been by the realtheologik of the Third Rising Sun which has erased most, if not all, verifiable truths of the matter, leaving only the bitter fag-ends of superstition cobbled together into a semblance of meaning.

The Cycle of Death
Necromancy is concerned with the manipulation of the souls and minds and bodies of the dead, according to the first thought-tenement of the Third Rising Sun. While students of philosophy, history and science have all offered up their own interpretations of the mechanics of necromancy, the totalitarian stranglehold on information held by those parties privy to any and all secrets holds strong.

The cycle of death in necromancy begins with the body of the deceased. Initially, the body is held to pass into the underworld - or afterlife, according to the heretical whisperings of the mad sorceress-kings of the left-bound lands (this article is not the place for a treatment on the subtle distinctions between the two, but rest assured that these differences entirely merit some of the most brutal acts of war committed in history) - where it regains control of movement and speech, without possessing any form of agency. While the oppressive realtheologik is very clear that this is a result of necromantic energies infusing a body with a vague motion towards life, the soul being very firmly absent, modern scientists have come to the consensus that it is merely a result of electrical stimulations of the nervous system triggering this mimicry of life, much as in the creation of a promethean.

The second phase of the cycle is the one in which the body travels through the underworld and, along with the rising Sun of the morning, returns to the living world along with its soul. While necromantic creations abiding by the first aspect of the cycle are well-known and, presumably, a part of the living world, modern doctrine holds that there is something special about the symbolism of the rising Sun of the morning that causes these dead people to have souls. Many philosophers, however, insist that there is no such thing as a soul, and that the emergence of agency and free will in these former-corpses is just the result of science, applied in some fashion. Others refuse to accept that free will exists at all, while others agree entirely with the undeniable truth of the doctrine of the Third Rising Sun. Finally, one renegade group of philosophers, entirely consisting of Kirk Soren, held that causation was bunk. However, since his death (starvation after attempting to prove that eating was not at all related to living), people have generally ignored his opinions and loudly questioned why anybody even took him seriously.

In the final stage of the cycle, the third Sun from which our benevolent necromantic overlords take their name, the souls of the dead fly free through the skies. When their journey is done, they become as gods. This has never happened and, generally, nobody outside the devout pay this part of the mythology too much thought.

History of Necromancy
Necromancy was first developed in the sand-kingdoms of either the scorpion-men or the scarab-transmen, or possibly some common ancestor of the two species. Humans later stole, borrowed or were graciously taught the arts, soon after which the original masters of death mysteriously died, their cities torn down to be replaced by human shrines to pomp and egotistical ceremony.

This much can be gathered from the records of contemparies of this era. At some point the Third Rising Sun took power, although their official position is that the universe is born from an endless cycle of reincarnation, and that the enduring nature of their craft shall see them through to the end of all existance and back to the beginning again. Thus they hold that they have always existed and will always continue to do so. Any texts under their domain that claim otherwise are burnt as offerings to the vengeful hippo goddess, that deadly seductress and tempter of mortal men. Citizens found to be in possession of such materials are also sent away to be burnt as offerings to the vengeful hippo goddess, but in their infinite benevolance, the Third Rising Sun occasionally sees fit to restore some of these misguided fools to the shackles of this mortal coil through their dark magic.

Besides all that, it is known that the Third Rising Sun has held power for hundreds of years, and the current political situation in their lands seems to ensure that they will continue to rule over their lesser neighbours. For truly, the combined forces of realtheologik, political science and homocidal undead monsters driven by unholy forces will always triumph over such fragile things as hope, democracy and a functional military not based on the desecration of the dead.