Lore:Benevolent Necromancy, it Exists

Book Information
Seen In:	Elder Scrolls Online (Dragonhold)

Benevolent Necromancy, it Exists

by Yisareh of the Undaunted

A different take on necromancy

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When you hear the word necromancy, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Animated corpses and angry ghosts? That is necromancy, it's true, but it represents only a fraction of what this school of magic encompasses. The fact is that most of what you know about necromancy consists of untruths and superstition. Many of you reading this already dabble with necromancy every day. Soul gems, part and parcel to the widely practiced art of enchanting, are created through necromancy. If you've ever been severely injured, or deathly ill, and had a healer bring you back from the brink of death, you've benefited from necromancy. It's no more good or evil than any destruction spell. It all comes down to how you use the magic.

While a malicious necromancer might pull an unwilling spirit back to our world by force, I simply open a pathway and offer an invitation. I have done so quite often to briefly reunite loved ones, solve mysteries, and bring closure to restless spirits. Prayer and ceremony provide some comfort to the living and the dead, but necromancy serves to empower both, for good or ill. Rather than shunning this practice, the Mages Guild should regulate it. Forcing necromancy into the shadows only serves to drive away benevolent practitioners and conceal those who study it with bad intentions.

With as much war and death as there is in this world, the knowledge to help those cling to life or be released from it has never been more needed.