Are necromancers necessarily evil?

[kaynide]

While I personally don't see any reason why there couldn't be a necromancer hero (see Guildwars), there are some laws about the use of undead things in China, which is a money maker for FFXIV.

Guildwars also has an entirely different job that essentially summons ghosts that support (GW1) or semi-posses you to give you powers (GW2)..kinda like Reaper.

That said, Guildwars has some success in China so obviously there are ways around it. I assume they reskin things to be non-undead pets or some such, but point stands that there is a "way" around it.

All that said, it could just be that given the option between A) make a job and reskin it for specific regions or B) just make a job that is already good to go without extra work.. they will obviously go with B.

[Nihility]

I would imagine manipulating corpses for power would be considered unethical at best.

It is artistically neat but kind of hard to justify defiling graves to restock your supply of cannon fodder in a 'WWJD?' sort of good/evil concept

[Dyvid]

Necromancers are one of the most popular requested jobs, not only in FFXIV but in other MMOs as well (Wherever they're not available). However, the reason why we haven't and probably won't ever get a necromancer job is because of how they're morally viewed both in-game and irl. Among the various jobs we have, it can be said that necromancers are the most that cross the line of morality in a negative light.
A necromancer running around in town would raise alarms and spread fear among townsfolk if lore-prospective is to be taken, but thinking of it. Is it truly the case? Are necromancers necessarily evil? Black magic is considered to be a forbidden art by more than one culture, and while white magic provides beneficial effects, it's still considered less of the same (Thanks to the Padjal). We also have reapers who cross the line and directly deal with voidsents and dark knights who mostly do not give a good first impression.
Despite all the mentioned above, the WoL is capable of being all of them with no lore or moral issues, as they're not used for evil or selfish ends. Which makes me wonder if the same can be applied to necromancers?
Must the necromancer be someone who raises the dead? Or just a category that has some schools of magic under it? Ice (Frost) is an element often associated with death in many media. Would it be an issue if a school of necromancy focuses on using frost spells instead of utilizing zombie minions? Another example would be blood-themed spells, which focus on stealing the enemies lifeforce to empower your own. We already have this for DRK and RPR but it's another idea for a necromancer beyond the generic image.
I believe it's possible to pull out a necromancer job in a new concept that is different than what we already have from previous FF games, as it shouldn't be limited to one concept.

Well they hate pet jobs and you have Reaper so.....

[JisKing98]

Make necromancers the debuff/buff job with summoning/dots. half of the Dots we put on targets also come with a 3% or a 5% debuff that can only stack up to two times for some reason. The rest of the kit is summoning voidsent of all kinds to aid you. necromancers open up portals to have some flying voidsent do a bombing run on the targets aka our big aoe or have us summon from the void shades of former warriors to run in and do melee combat similiar to what mch get except we can summon up to 3. there are ways to get around the whole raising dead thing. sure in ff you wont be able to raise skeletons (which i wish you could but sadly china), but at least you still can get close to that itch we all have.

[Burmecia]

Is this some DnD bias to presume they are evil?

Surely there is million reasons why someone might go on their way to practice necromancy if it is possible.

If there is necromancy for evil reasons, there could be necromancy for as close to honourable reasons as there can be. Right?

[Vryn]

Necromancers are one of the most popular requested jobs, not only in FFXIV but in other MMOs as well (Wherever they're not available). However, the reason why we haven't and probably won't ever get a necromancer job is because of how they're morally viewed both in-game and irl. Among the various jobs we have, it can be said that necromancers are the most that cross the line of morality in a negative light.
A necromancer running around in town would raise alarms and spread fear among townsfolk if lore-prospective is to be taken, but thinking of it. Is it truly the case? Are necromancers necessarily evil? Black magic is considered to be a forbidden art by more than one culture, and while white magic provides beneficial effects, it's still considered less of the same (Thanks to the Padjal). We also have reapers who cross the line and directly deal with voidsents and dark knights who mostly do not give a good first impression.
Despite all the mentioned above, the WoL is capable of being all of them with no lore or moral issues, as they're not used for evil or selfish ends. Which makes me wonder if the same can be applied to necromancers?
Must the necromancer be someone who raises the dead? Or just a category that has some schools of magic under it? Ice (Frost) is an element often associated with death in many media. Would it be an issue if a school of necromancy focuses on using frost spells instead of utilizing zombie minions? Another example would be blood-themed spells, which focus on stealing the enemies lifeforce to empower your own. We already have this for DRK and RPR but it's another idea for a necromancer beyond the generic image.
I believe it's possible to pull out a necromancer job in a new concept that is different than what we already have from previous FF games, as it shouldn't be limited to one concept.

The ability to abuse the corpses and souls of the dead is inherently an evil act. However, it is no eviler than doing the same with a demon which is what a reaper is.

[Vryn]

Is this some DnD bias to presume they are evil?

Surely there is million reasons why someone might go on their way to practice necromancy if it is possible.

If there is necromancy for evil reasons, there could be necromancy for as close to honourable reasons as there can be. Right?

Your reasons for an evil act may be honourable; however, it is not inherently a noble act. Even if a culture practised necromancy as a religion and found it justified and ethical themselves, the rest of the world would find it gross mutilation of the sanctity of the body and the soul.

After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It can be applied to more than just necromancy. Usually, people try to rectify some systemic wrong with culture, society, and religion to cause more issues and death because it goes against human nature or the natural order. They may feel their reasons are honourable and just; however, their methods are not, which could be said with necromancy. Your reasons for doing it may be noble, but the act itself is not a gross violation of life.

Which is why it is metal as hell. LET ME BE ONE. I want to be able to play a bad guy for once in a game.

[Kranel_San]

Is this some DnD bias to presume they are evil?

I don't know. Ask YoshiP
I'm not exactly sure where he said it, but many people say he once has said no to necromancers because he thinks them to be evil.
The concept of reaper was his way of giving us a necromancer without it being a necromancer. However, in my opinion, reaper ended up being its own job instead of a cheap version of necromancer.

[GrizzlyTank]

In Guild Wars necromancers are often those tasked with putting spirits to rests. What happens with the dead persons body is whatever though.

Something similar can be found in the might and magic series.

[Tlamila]

I honestly don't much get the sanctity of the body thing when we talk about battlefields.
In all the stories where it's presented as evil in the game they actually go and raise corpses from the graves, one of them for..love????
Raising the corpses of your enemies to fight with you would certainly not be worse than, you know, the killing them we do before it. I don't think the WoL or any good characters ever bother with respecting them r their corpses anyway.
Guild Wars was a good example that I was also thinking about, in there Necromancy was considered normal, honorable, and serving the god of death. And while raising corpses was one of the specializations (in GW1) there were also curses and blood. All different types of magic necromancers can do.

I'm also thinking about the korean webcoming Solo Levelling, where the protagonist becomes an OP necromancer with a huge army of undead; his minions retain the status they had in life, and his stronger enemies become his valued generals, and they all grow in power as he does. Although I think this path is even less likely in the yoshi-p-verse.

I think this game moved a lot away from interactng with corpses in general. In 1.0 thaumaturges actually did a lot of Order of Nald'Thal things in the class quests, as they do per lore. Take care of the rites, dispose of the corpses, do transctions, basically a standard mortuary. Somehow in 2.0 they decided to put all that way and make them just elementalists. So in a way thaumaturge is supposed to be the closest we have to a necromancer, not so much for exploiting the dead but at least for taking care of them, but even that was taken away. Which makes me think they reeeally haave a problem with the whole topic.