Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Morality of Necromancy

  • October 7, 2015

    Do you mean resurrecting him on the battlefield to keep fighting, or after the battle when people are grieving?

    If the first, then that could actually be a very kind thing to do: since the spirit is still tethered to the body for a while after death, it shouldn't be too hard to cooperate with the original spirit of the lad and bring him back so he can finish the fight and then retire peacefully to Sovngarde or wherever.

    The second, however, I agree would be cruel. Not only to the family members, but to the lad himself: as explained in On Necromancy, and referenced in both my original post and earlier in this response, the spirit is still tethered to the body for a variable amount of time after death, usually days or weeks, but sometimes months or even years. Attempting to raise the body while this "spiritual umbilicus" is still in place will both make the process more difficult and cause distress to the spirit of the deceased.

    For these reasons, I believe a great step in the advancement of Responsible Necromancy would be the development of simple spells for determining the presence of the spiritual umbilicus, and, if it's there, easy communication with a willing spirit.

  • October 7, 2015

    Necromancy is what makes Skyrim stand out from all other RPGs I've played, I like it because it's so "evil" and "disgusting"  plus if you're a vampire and use the Ring of Namira to eat a corpse before resurrecting it you're technically a zombie :3    

    I think for a Neutral character wouldn't use necromancy though. Because even if it's not "bad" per say it's still leaning towards evil since you ARE desecrating a corpse.

  • Member
    October 7, 2015

    true.

  • October 7, 2015

    I can see how having a rotting corpse follow you around would be disgusting, I'd only use zombies as an emergency thing: for long-term servants I'd use skeletons or mummies.

    However, I don't agree that it's necessarily evil, or that it's desecration: in my mind it's an inherently neutral act and can be either good or evil depending on the specific acts and intentions of the practitioner.

    I'd like to hear your reasoning: why do you consider it evil?

  • October 7, 2015

    I don't consider it wholly evil, just leaning towards evil on the morality scale because pretty much every single culture both IRL and in lore respect their ancestors and just looting their graves is considered extremely disrespectful. Plus necromancy is pretty powerful if used correctly and that kind of power corrupts. A good example is the Elven Mage Northeast of Dawnstar, through his journals you can tell he started as a simple researcher but as he went deeper and deeper into necromancy he even turned to necrophilia. Which is the ultimate form of desecration to a body. The way we use necromancy in game can only be used to kill or use them at meat shields and that is in no way shape or form good.

    There is however a different and nicer way to use necromancy like how Vastarie did  http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_Legend_of_Vastarie

    But we can't use that kind of Necromancy because the art was lost. We only have access to the one Mannimarco used which is the "weaponized" necromancy.

  • October 7, 2015

    Ah, I see. I agree that grave robbing is wrong, but I don't believe that a corpse has any intrinsic sanctity, only sanctity imparted on it by ritual and reverence. So while I wouldn't dig up a corpse for use, I'd have no problem with using one I found on the road or in the wilderness or something. After making sure the spirit is laid to rest, of course. 

    And as far as only the "weaponized" form of necromancy being available: that's only in game, and this is an in lore discussion. I'm sure the kinder form is still around in lore, or at least could be rediscovered. The "weaponized" kind could also be used for nonviolent purposes too though, such as manual labor.

  • October 7, 2015

    "After making sure the spirit is laid to rest, of course"  that's the thing, the only necromancer who cared about that has been dead for hundreds of years and her research was lost since her Soul Geode method doesn't appear anywhere else in the lore. There are only 2 kinds of factions that openly use necromancy, the vampires and the necromancers. Sure Phinis, Nelacar and Falion talk about their experiments and experiences with necromancy but they never mention using necromancy on human bodies like the vampires and real necromancers do. Necromancy is the darkest you can go with magic since something like Destruction is considered Neutral. I can only see Necromancy as a bad thing because we've never met any good or neutral mages specializing in necromancy.  Falion is the closest thing because he's worked with vampires but he claims he doesn't actually practice necromancy. Actually Im gonna test that out, Im gonna aggro him with a dead body nearby and see if he revives it.

  • October 7, 2015

    I'm also working from the belief that necromancy is using magic to create a soulless puppet similar to a dwarven sphere, just made of bone and flesh instead of metal.

    It is not simply a matter of puppets of bones v.s. robbing a man of his free will. You could use a soul captured by a soul gem - which prevents that soul from passing into Aetherius and leaving them to roam the Soul Cairn - to power a corpse.

    Regardless, my point is that any tool could have a cautionary tale, whether it be illusion magic forcing someone to kill their family or a necrophile enslaving the souls and bodies of his victims.

  • Member
    October 8, 2015

    There is a quest in ESO that touches upon this - the Unquiet Dead: Video

    It shows that the spirit is in pain after being brought back to a mortal shell. Vastarie's comment afterwards indicates that it could've been a first step in conquering death: Link

  • Member
    October 8, 2015

    Dunmer are the very model of societal progression aren't they?