In my mind, Magic is to evil as guns are to evil.
In other words, neither is inherently evil. It is a matter of the user and the use that the magic is put to. I would say that it is possible to find a good use for necromancy. Cant say I ever met a good necromancer, but its possible.

I can foresee this area getting a lot of abuse.
Now to the topic at hand. Magic is another tool for humanity to use, and like any tool it can be misused.
In the case of Necromancy you need to be very careful of course, as it can lend itself to misuse very easily.
KonThaak is trying to use it with the best intentions. He needs our support and aid along with maybe a few people to be a sounding board so he can insure he is on the right track. He does not need people telling him merely that he is wrong in using Necromancy plain and simple, because it is not plain and simple.
Just my take on things.

To make my views clear, I want to say this. My one and only concern is that KT might be creating a sort of paradox. He is a druid that is practicing necromancy. Certainly death is a part of life, but necromancy violates the natural cycle.

Now, I am a believer that magic is not inherently evil. It, like all sources of power, can be misused. Still, to me Necromancy has always smacked of darkness. This is only my personal feelings and it might not have any rational basis. I am only worried about his safety.

For myself, I only wish to continue to express my amusement over this topic. A Druid who uses necromancy.

Duh, didnt realize (wasnt paying attention) that KT is practicing Necromancy. But his "light" has never dulled in my eyes and I trust him explicitly.

Knowledge and Power aren't inherently evil. What is done with them may be however.

I'm also concerned about the conflicting natures involved here. Death and Rebirth are partsof the natural cycle, but using necromancy to break the cycle seems like it'd be a no no to me.

Perhaps a large part of the misunderstanding comes from not truly understanding what "necromancy" is...

I'm going to start up a thread on this board about magic in general, now that it's finally open (THANK YOU, PENDRAGON!!!), but in the meantime, lemme explain...

Druidry focuses on a kind of magic called "nature magic". Some of the basest spells in this form could hardly be called spells, by those of a learned nature... It is, as the name implies, magic that focuses on the natural world. I'll get into more detail later, but "the natural world" neither focuses on life or death... There are many applications of nature magic, from boosting one's own strength through self-confidence to protection to healing to shapeshifting. The shapes I adopt are absolute; I adopt not only the shape of the creature, but their mind, mentality, and spirit as well.

Sorcery, another form of magic, focuses more on manipulation of the energies; theoretically, anyone can learn this form of magic, through study and practice, whereas nature magic is usually more intuitive. Because of its "looser" nature, sorcery can imitate other forms of magic through careful study and applications of different magical formulae, to manipulate the energies in the same manner as mystics or psychics do. It's usually less energy-efficient, however, than to mystics or others who learn their abilities naturally... Of all the kinds of magic, sorcery has the most applications, and fewer limitations.

Necromancy is a form of sorcery, rather than nature magic or other mysticism. The applications of necromancy, as I have come to understand them, are, therefore, many and extremely varied. There are spiritual focuses, magic that interacts with the spiritual realm, ranging from being as harmless as simple communication to being as karma-damaging as subjugation of spirits. There are also magics that can capture a soul in a state of stasis at the point of death, allowing the necromancer the chance to plant the soul in another body, be it a golem (or homunculus, or other magical construct), an animated zombie or flesh golem, or in another living body that, for whatever reason, has no soul of its own.

There is, of course, the stereotypical "undeath" magic, the animation of corpses, skeletons, mummies, and whatnot... Contrary to what many people think, this doesn't necessarily go against my ways. It isn't unnatural to animate a corpse as a zombie; rather, in my most humble of opinions, it is far more unnatural to tell a tree to uproot itself to attack my enemies, which is what many people think about when they think of druids... Ask me which is more TASTEFUL, and I will wholeheartedly agree that, unnatural or not, I won't be raising zombies for any purpose whatsoever.

Much of the prejudice against necromancy comes from the animation of the dead, the desecration of the bodies of those who are resting. It seems unholy and terrible to raise someone's father, or sister, or cousin, etc, and force them to do your bidding... The fact of the matter is, the necromancer that does this is merely borrowing the fallen shells that those who have passed no longer need. Children play with cicada shells, in much the same way (minus the magical re-animation, and on a physical sense rather than a metaphysical sense).

There are other applications of necromancy, but most of them are far more advanced than I will ever delve, and I'm not entirely certain I understand how they work... The notes I have of them are sketchy, at best.

Again, I DO NOT CONDONE THE RAISING OF CORPSES. I DO NOT SUPPORT THOSE WHO DO. I simply do not condemn the act on its merit alone; rather, I condemn those who would perform the act based on the selfish reasons most of them do it.

I am a mystic by nature, but I have studied sorcery as part of my druidic training. I'm very good at mathematics, and sorcery came easier to me than it probably should've. This is why I can perform some necromantic abilities, despite being a mystic... It hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be; despite the fact that I am focusing myself on the more innocuous forms of spiritual magics, I feel rather more drained than I do performing other sorcerous acts... Perhaps the fact that I don't focus on "death" magic has something to do with this...?

Interesting.

What's wrong with ideals? His aren't hurting anyone.

See, that's what I'm talking about; misconceptions of what necromancy is.

As for why I'm practicing it at all... There's a dark druid, a druid that practices necromancy, deals with vampires, and seeks the destruction of society, who is going to be making a comeback from beyond the grave this year... I need to know how to foil his magics. I can possibly prevent his return... If not, I can at least help to stop what he's planning.

Kon Thaak, may I get some digital copies of any books used in your studies?

As for the topic at hand, I will echo that knowledge and power in any form, are innately neither good nor evil, rather it is the use of them that determines good vs evil.

concrete_Angel wrote:What's wrong with ideals? His aren't hurting anyone.

At the end of it, our ideals and how well we've lived up to them are what define us.

Kei Nakamura wrote:Kon Thaak, may I get some digital copies of any books used in your studies?

I'm hesitant to send copies of Windner's notes, but I can send you along the digital copies of the two books I got from GhostSpider...

Sure, but I warn you, Windner had been studying nuclear and quantum physics before he started practicing magic, and he had a damned good grasp of what he was studying. All the necromancy and sorcery he wrote about in his notes were primarily personal magical theory, practiced and refined until it worked as intended.

In short, he was a man who followed the philosophies of Middle Ages druidry, and taught himself necromancy between his mysticism and modern physics.

If I didn't have a good grounding in math, I wouldn't understand most of what this guy made notes about...

Alrighty, then. I'll look forward to seeing you when you get done out there in OH.

I think magic can be evil in two ways. The first is simply using magic to further your own evil intentions (the dark side if you will). I.E. Using it in greed, anger, hatred.

The second is the magic that goes against what nature intended. Some things are not meant to be changed, and I believe a druid would understand this point. For example, no one knows what lies beyond the veil of death. We do not know what we are bringing back from it or what consequences we are unleashing in the process.

Like creating zombies?

Haha very true.