🇬🇧 / 🇫🇷

A

FRIENDLY

necromancer

"Hardly have you penetrated the back shop of this strange antique dealer when a most bewitching scent of incense seizes you. You discern flavors of Amarian black pines, of silken sage, but also the almost suave smell of death. The affable Goene is already waiting for you there, busy adorning which you quickly understand to be a corpse with countless baubles. The dead man sits stoic, upright in a crimson velvet armchair. With a slow movement, he inclines his head and fixes you, making the trinkets that cover him jingle. Goene also turns around: 'I present to you the honorable Prince Sereno, cowardly betrayed by his own half-brother, our current sovereign, 24 years ago. Let us hear what he has to tell us.'"

What did this necromancer look like?
1 HERMIT - Slightly neglected, clothes patched up
2 AUSTERIOUS - Ritualistic, simple, and exceptionally clean clothing
3 EXTRAVAGANT - Many trinkets, slightly gaudy
4 LUXURIOUS - Long tailored coat, silk, golden details
5 MACABRE - Gaunt, dark clothing, bones, pallid complexion
6 LUMINOUS - Bright ritual attire, religious symbols
What attitude?
1 AFFABLE - Courteous speech, welcoming attitude
2 RIGOROUS - Methodical, taciturn but trustworthy
3 TALKATIVE - Very chatty. Passionate speech.
4 SENSUAL - Very tactile. A bit too much.
5 SHY - Quick to help, but evasive gaze.
6 PROUD - Head held high, confident, even noble.
Why raise the dead?
1 JUSTICE - To help solve crimes
2 KNOWLEDGE - To learn from the wise of the past
3 SALVATION - To ease them before the great departure
4 GRIEF - For a last conversation with a loved one
5 HONOR - To restore to the dead what was once taken
6 COMPANIONSHIP - Because they are peaceful company
Immediately, what does they need?
1 SHELTER - Find a suitable place to practice their art.
2 PROTECTION - A hostile faction relentlessly hunts the undead.
3 RITUAL - Help to perform an important funeral ritual.
4 ENERGY - A material, a resource, to continue their art.
5 DECEASED ONE- An important corpse, to locate or retrieve.
6 INFLUENCE - Connections, links with the powerful.

Commentary

Initially, I wanted to combine the themes of death and its rituals with a more glamorous, elegant, even benevolent side. Rather than the eternal necromancer, vile or murky, a kind disciple of death, putting their expertise at the service of others, or at least, a cause other than destruction and conquest.

I was influenced by my recent viewing of the film 28 Years Later, where a character particularly struck me, by its successful writing and the themes it brings. It's Doctor Kelson, a former doctor, dedicating his existence, since the beginning of the epidemic, to the construction of a memorial altar for all victims, contaminated or not. The character is surprisingly human in the midst of omnipresent death. He practices his art with humility and delicacy. I found this "trope" very striking.

I thus set about creating a series of characters (you can see one above) representing necromancers, but slightly different from usual morbid appearances. I loved the theme so much that I am still drawing new ones :D.

From there, I found it interesting to put the theme to use for TTRPGs. On the one hand because I like to create content to make available to other players/GMs and on the other because I think this trope of the benevolent necromancer can bring a lot to a session. Indeed, it makes it possible to address uncommon themes: death, the relationship with the past, taboo, the forbidden, rituals, … The particular aesthetic of this kind of NPC makes them memorable. Easier to roleplay for the GM as well, because less generic. I thus decided to create a small oracle, combining Appearance, Attitude, Cause and Need. It makes it possible to generate an NPC who can immediately bring tension (probably positive) to the table.

And ultimately, all of this also allowed me to put (and relearn) my HTML skills to use to create a nice oracle page to browse! I hope you enjoyed it!