Is Necromancy in-universe?

[hynaku]

There has to be Necromancers here look at all undead monsters there is in the world. Like the gentlemen zombies from Hildibrand quest.

[Mixt]

Necromancy is by definition the manipulation of life energies.

This includes stuff like human sacrifice, which would technically make incidents like the summoning of Titan using living sacrifices which led to that kobold child losing it a type of necromantic ritual. Or the whole summoning of Shinryu, because human sacrifice was kind of a big thing there.

Necromancy and Primal summoning work well together it turns out, due to the whole ritualistic sacrifice deal.

And then there is what happened to the Scions, though it was an accident, getting soul yoinked like that does count. Oopsie.

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.

However, the public perception has come to deviate rather drastically from the meaning of the word, so undeath is the only thing most think about when they hear about necromancy, even though that is not remotely the only thing that particular school of magic can do.

Heck, Energy Drain is technically necromancy due to it involving leeching energy from the target, same deal for the Drain spell. Not that anyone ever thinks about that particular technicality. Nobody goes shouting "NECROMANCER!" as soon as some Thaumaturge uses Drain, even though it does technically fall under the banner of Necromancy.
Vampiric properties? That's a necromancy spell fellas.

So uhh, Arcanists and Thaumaturges kinda already dipped our toes into the outer edges of the necromantic magic school. And it may be for the best to not go much deeper than that.

Simply put, Necromancy is magic that messes with souls and life force, usually but not always in a manner that produces undead abominations. Sometimes it just rips your soul out of your still living body, or gets used to turn people into fuel for other types of large scale magic, such as a Primal Summoning. Or leeches the vitality of the target, both wounding the foe and healing the user at once, or any number of other things of the same nature.

[Iscah]

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.

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.

[Shougun]

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.

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.

[Mixt]

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.

[KageTokage]

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.

[Averax]

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

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

[Palibun]

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.

[Lihtleita]

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.

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.

[Kazrah]

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.