~The Cursed Hoard of Horace the Wise~
Chapter 2: A Pertinent Excerpt from A Portrait of a Magus as a Young Man.
To my accusers know this: There is no bad knowledge. What I detail is not some imbecilic historian’s accusation of my ‘start of darkness,’ but rather the beginning of my true enlightenment. Only a fool would clutch their lantern close and fear the night. Only an idiot would call the necessity of nightfall, the gods-given period of rest, a force of evil.
So too then, is the force of necromancy much the same as darkness. That is, necromancy is a natural occurring force in the world in-so-much as what the layman considers natural to be works wrought from neither human or god-like hands. A haunting may be sourced from the human soul, it may draw its energy from such a thing, but a haunting is not within the purviews of the work of man. With this in mind there can only be one conclusion, magic itself is the force of the natural world.
It sets the mind awonder, does it not? But it simply makes sense. A pyromancer draws fire from the repository of nature’s natural forces, namely, that of flame. From this then, a lesson, MAGIC ONLY BECOMES UNATURAL WHEN PASSED THROUGH THE HUMAN CONDITION.
So too then, must the necromancer in fact draw his craft from some natural force. But what? Some would say the gods. But allowing that conclusion, from what force, in its drawing, does achieve the opposite of its natural conclusion? One does not draw flame from the purview of fire in order to extinguish it. No, one would draw from the seas. Necromancy is indeed a natural force of the world, as there is indeed numerous accounts of occurrences of accounts of spontaneous necromancy well documented and observed. The most interesting of these occurrences would, in fact, be the animated skeleton which we will return to in a brief moment.
So then on to my present question: from what god, what force, what plane does necromancy find its source? Following our present line of inquiry, it cannot be what the layman has originally believed, necromancy cannot find its source in death. Just alike, pyromancy is not born from dried kindle but rather feeds upon it from its original spark. Necromancy utilizes death, but its spark lies elsewhere.
<Sub Section, The ‘Anatomy’ of The Animated Skeleton>
Acknowledging this, let us return to the creature known as the animated skeleton, the most worthy necromantic creature of study. An interesting factor of this creature and the reason for its place as the greatest specimen of interest lies in the fact that the animated skeleton does not possess the consciousness of its original host. That which does is typically considered a higher order of being referred to as a lich. But in the case of the skeleton, my preliminary studies have proven this not to be the case. Even so, it would seem that skeletons possess rudimentary intelligence. In their naturally occurring states within the wild, they possesses knowledge of tools, the ability to engage in combat, and a serviceable spatial recognition of their natural habitat, for instance, they can recognize and open doors.
For my notes, I also do not believe that skeletons can see as obviously enough they do not possess eyes. The same could be said of all their other senses, except for perhaps, their touch. Though skeletons do not possess nervous systems, it is my hypothesis, that skeletons are highly sensitive to the vibrations in their surroundings which they detect through their bones. Skeletons have been noted to detect adventurers beyond their ‘line of sight’ and clearly skeletons do not possess ears. Noise has been one known aggravator of a skeleton standing ‘guard.’ This may also explain a skeleton’s ‘sight,’ as skeletons do, in fact, ‘look’ at things. This has been an observed phenomenon, but how can they see without eyes? My hypothesis is thus: the empty eye sockets of the skeleton have been repurposed as a paired set of gathering dishes for the air’s vibrations, much the same as the human eye gathers light around us in order to enable sight.
<End Subsection>
But, if a skeleton does not possesses the consciousness of the original host body, then from where does a skeleton access its rudimentary intelligence? This, dear reader, is the true source of my inquiry of youth and what in turn began my life’s work into the ordering of the cosmos. My hypothesis was thus, Necromancy does not draw its source from death, necromancy is the antithesis of death, it is the force in the opposite of direction. Yes dear reader, you have correctly surmised: Necromancy IS LIFE.
