Darkest Darkness: Necromancy Notes · 7:53am May 15th, 2015
A detailed introduction to Necromancy is as follows:
Darkswirl can't control the remains of Unicorns, and has a bit of difficulty with Pegasi, because she hasn't lived as one. It's like giving an Earth Pony wings, all of the sudden. They wouldn't know how to use them, because they'd be unfamiliar with the muscles used to work them, in addition to everything else that's entailed with flying. She has trouble with Unicorns because her own magical capabilities are quite limited due to her hybrid nature, despite being part Unicorn.
When practicing Necromancy in its most common form (i.e. ressurrecting the dead), the Necromancer acts as a puppet master, while the undead acts as a puppet. The Necromancer can't move while it's controlling its puppet, and can only control the puppet in ways that the puppet master would be able to move. For instance, a Necromancer wouldn't be able to make the puppet twist its head around in circles until it snapped off, because the Necromancer themselves can't do that. If concentration is lost in this form, the undead collapses. These rules do not apply to risen creatures who have a soul in them, however. In this state, a Necromancer can heavily influence the undead in question while freely moving about, although they may struggle to cast spells. In addition, the undead creature has free will, despite heavy influence from the Necromancer.
In the art of soul-storing, unless a suitable container is used (such as a vacant body or a magical device (i.e. Nightmare Moon's armor) the soul in question will not be stored, and may float around where ever it pleases. There you have ghosts.
However, if a vacant body (a body devoid of a soul) in suitable condition (nearly undamaged in its base form (flesh and organs may be absent, as only a skeletal structure is necessary)) is used, then we have a classic example of the living dead, which a Necromancer is able to control. If a magical container is used to store a soul (such as Nightmare Moon's armor), then a Necromancer cannot control the soul in question until it is removed from its prison and placed in a suitable body. This, however, can be a bit tricky depending on the soul in question. In the case of Nightmare Moon, one Unicorn alone would be unable to remove the entity from their prison and safely place it into a suitable body due to her immense power as an Alicorn, unless she assisted in her own escape.
On the subject of souls and suitable containers, a Necromancer will be unable to place the soul of an Earth Pony into the vacant body of a Unicorn or Pegasi, and vice versa. In addition to soul storing, when storing a soul in a magical container, a Necromancer cannot store a soul in an ill-suited container. Objects close to the soul in life work nicely, as the soul is familiar with it. Objects that the soul is uncomfortable with, like the sword that slew an Earth Pony, however, are much harder to contain the soul in question, but not impossible.
Darkswirl is able to preform standard Necromancy for puppettering soulless undead, but has difficulty in storing and controlling souls. As such, she has been unsuccessful in breaching the magical barriers of Nightmare Moons armor, for instance.
Chant for necromancy: "Rise kusukela kwangemva kokufa bese ahlangane le indiza of khona, indlovukazi the balahlwe beckons nawe ziphuma waphinda siphile futhi afeze amkhulekele wakhe."
A crate of pony souls is 57 echoes at Luna's Shadow. Eh? Necromancer black markets need their own currency after all.