Is Necromancy in-universe?

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Originally Posted by Mixt

Necromancy is by definition the manipulation of life energies. [...] It's not just to do with the undead, that sort of thing also falls under the necromantic banner if you take into account what the word means.

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Where are you getting that definition from? It's not one that's ever been expressed in the game. When it's talked about, it's very much about dealing with or 'calling back' the dead.

More broadly and back in the real world, my dictionary defines necromancy as "the art of predicting by means of communication with the dead", and the prefix necro- is from nekros, a corpse. It is very much centred around death and the dead (or undead).

I've never seen your "any manipulation of life energies" definition used elsewhere, either.

I believe the issue here is that language changes, a word that means one thing later ends up meaning another thing when you get enough people using it in another way.

Then confusion happens when the other meaning gets brought up due to just about nobody using it anymore. So that's on me.

And what typically powers the undead anyway in the cases where it's not caused by demonic possesion? Corrupted or inverted life force tends to be responsible when it's not demons or some biological agent doing it.

*Looks sideways at various other fantasy media* And then there is the whole deal with Liches, or "I used necromancy to put my soul into an inanimate object and am now remote controlling my own corpse, as long as the object containing my soul remains intact i am immortal, yay necromancy!" in both old folklore and things like Dungeons and Dragons.

Energy leeching types of spells being necromancy is tied in with vampires and various other forms of undead doing it pretty much all the time, and also a number of older fantasy media classifying spells that drain life from the target as a form of necromancy, getting the life ripped right out of you without physically harming your body. DND still does it by the way.

I know of several fantasy settings that refer to necromancy as the manipulation of death OR of souls, including the Elder Scrolls. Though it usually ends up being both at once.

In this game however it is true that it has never been refered to as anything else than messing with undeath, but the older/less common out of game definition and plenty of other settings has examples of necromancy doing other related things as well.

This is me being a nitpicker and getting hung up on technicalities that few care about, so feel free to ignore it.

The form of it that's dealt with in the WHM quests involves the use of corrupted aether to animate the unliving in a manner akin to a golem and the Seedseers note that it has some uncomfortable similarities to their own white magic.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Where are you getting that definition from? It's not one that's ever been expressed in the game. When it's talked about, it's very much about dealing with or 'calling back' the dead.

More broadly and back in the real world, my dictionary defines necromancy as "the art of predicting by means of communication with the dead", and the prefix necro- is from nekros, a corpse. It is very much centred around death and the dead (or undead).

I've never seen your "any manipulation of life energies" definition used elsewhere, either.

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When I generically "first thoughts" think of necromancer I definitely thing of bringing back the dead to do one's own bidding, usually with no self control, but when I had listed it in the title of my dark healer thread I had made comment that I was thinking more in lines of the curses and dark manipulation of energy. Which is, I think, the next major item that necromancer gets attributed to (magic relating to death, dead, and the dark). Maybe a warlock or a witch might do just as well to reference that, or perhaps a Lich (since Lich don't always have to be leaders of the dead), but I can easily see how someone might want to be a necromancer and not demand they raise the dead either, that mindset / series of concepts is why I listed it as one of the generic keywords in the title of thread.

Not saying I'd think of death magic over skeletons, first, but it would be a close second, an accepted (to me personally) secondary option, and generally that's also a reason why I occasionally push back on those who hard no things- since I think you can creatively wiggle around with different names but keep similar vibes. Sometimes a name can mean the world lol.

There's an entire piece of side content called "Palace of the Dead"

And also, the fat cat mount, as was said previously.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

The Tamtara Deepcroft (Hard) quest as well as its continuation in the Palace of the Dead both touch on that. The HW WHM quests also revolve around shutting down someone's experiments into the matter.

It does exist, but it's considered a forbidden art and is most commonly utilized by voidsent (Forgall in the Weeping City of Mhach being the most notable example, though multiple lesser voidsent summon undead as well).

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I was under the impression that the quest chain dealing with the one WHM girl explains that Necromacy is essentially a evil application of White magic? Maybe Im not remembering it right, but it was summed up to just because you could use White magic for it doesnt mean you should.

Tbh all i've gathered from this is that necromancy would be a cool class,

Maybe it could be some sort of healer or even dps, and function as kind of the class thats misunderstood by many but can still be used for good things, almost kinda like drk :/
For healers we'd probably get geomancer or chemist first, but still a cool idea that i think would fit the lore pretty well.

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Originally Posted by Palibun

it could be some sort of healer or even dps, and function as kind of the class thats misunderstood by many but can still be used for good things, almost kinda like drk :/
For healers we'd probably get geomancer or chemist first, but still a cool idea that i think would fit the lore pretty well.

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iirc necromancy originally refered to communing with the dead. we could pull an astro and refer to this version as sharlean necromancy, asking souls that have returned to the lifestream to protect and heal the group.

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Originally Posted by Melichoir

I was under the impression that the quest chain dealing with the one WHM girl explains that Necromacy is essentially a evil application of White magic? Maybe Im not remembering it right, but it was summed up to just because you could use White magic for it doesnt mean you should.

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It's similar but not the same as it required the aether involved to be corrupted, which the elementals were not pleased with.

Necromancers in Eorzea are just Black Mages on steroids. Both necromancy and black magic are considered extremely taboo, but necromancy is perceived to be far worse.