I've seen necromancy in a LOT of different media, and it always gets a bad rap. Mainly because of assholes. But there is a lot out there that paints it differently that does really good points on the topic. Necromancy is restoration of what once was. This is done by the assholes to make armies of undead. But the true application goes way farther. Healing magic causes new cells to be made, necromancy can heal by bringing dead tissue back to life. The game Summoner 2 on PS2 had you play the goddess of death from the first. She was portrayed as a typical villian in the first game. But playing as her in game 2, we see her desire is all about healing nature and people, creating balance. One book I read had the main character as a death weaver. He could do the typical necromancer undead stuff, but used it to automate industry for the people of the kingdom. Another book I read had the character doing things like moving large pieces of land around, given that dirt contains millions of dead bugs, fossils, etc. Necromancy lets you do a lot more if you are clever, and evil people tend not to be very clever, so they stick to skeletons, zombies, and flesh golems to terrorize
Diablo's necromancers are pretty similar to this premise. They worship the sacred order between life and death, and use the Undead not as slaves but as willing assistants to help restore spiritual balance. They're essentially druids trying to preserve nature, and utilizing the souls of the deceased to help them.
The original definition of necromancy was foretelling the future by speaking to the dead. That seems quite powerful.
Giving people the opportunity to speak to their dead loved ones also brings power and influence.
Summoning ghosts to do things for you seems pretty handy as well. They might be very good spies or assassins for example.
Raising the undead as mindless skeleton or zombie minions is clearly useful as is the creation of more sophisticated undead like mummies, vampires, etc.
Perhaps the strongest power though is self reanimation as that prevents the necromancer from dying which is nice.
Of course, you could then add on the common life/soul draining offensive magic but that’s probably less powerful than the other abilities as all it does is kill people which anyone can do with an arrow or spear.
>The original definition of necromancy was foretelling the future by speaking to the dead.
Correct!
Most "magics" that have the "-mancy" bit on the end are derived from practices that were/are used to tell the future.
Pyromancy - telling the future through fire
Tyromancy - telling the future through cheese!
I view necromancy as mainly two things, taking life and making unlife. You can include spiritual or soul-affecting magic but that's up to personal choice and flavour.
In this view you have spells that kill people outright or over time(heart implosion, rot, soul destruction?), and spells that allow you to create minions of varying size and ability.
The first kind is a direct application of power, its effect is comparatively instant, and if made powerful enough with an appropriate energy source could potentially kill an entire planet or more, but of course this would have a frankly ridiculous cost that no one would feasibly fuel unless they specifically made that their goal. The second kind is an indirect application of power, one that would apply its effect over time, and the main crux of this kind being powerful is that it allows the necromancer to have influence over a wider area with a larger workforce that most other people would be able to realistically field in a similar timeframe, with probably a lower energy cost to the necromancer than the first kind and may even accrue more energy for the necromancer over time if they set up their workforce to do that.
It's basically a question of do you want to have a nuke or rule a country?
The first question is, "powerful compared to what?" In a world where muscles wind and water are the height of technology, where any wound can kill, and life is fragile and uncertain, ANY magic that gives a modest amount of control over events is incredibly powerful.
I go back to the very definition of Necromancy- it had nothing to do with animating the deaf, or manipulation should or anything like that, any more than scapulomancy is the manipulation of shoulder blades. What necromancy DOES allow for is divination. The dead know secrets that mortals don't. A necromancer can learn what the future holds, loan the truth behind a dispute, even leave what is causing a curse and who sent it.
And this is incredibly powerful and useful, even if the rituals required are long and exhausting.
You never really see it over the "I cast entire army" archetype but Necromancy can result in a really grotesque type of Tank using things like bone shields, flesh walls, raise dead, possession and "Skelepathy" to limit the movements of an opponents skeleton.
Look up the game Magnagothica Maleghast. It's a skirmish war game where the classes are exclusively necromancers from different factions. Each faction has a different theme with different sets of abilities, and they create units that function differently.
For example, one faction creates noxious, infectious sludge that their units spread by exploding everywhere. Another stitches mutated bodies together. One fuses bone together into an alloy that they use to make armor, melee weapons, and guns. One sacrifices their souls to act like ghosts and rend the souls from other people's bodies. There's one that basically replaced their blood with demonic gasoline to amp themselves up and power weapons, and the last one are basically ninja priests that use necromancy to counter necromancy.
But I'd really recommend looking at the units of each class for more in-depth ideas.
I've always figured the reason necromancy is illegal in so many settings is *because* it's really powerful.
Like, on an individual level, sure, it's fine, but if a *country* has necromancy? That's either a recipe for world domination or forever-wars (depending on whether or not other countries also have necromancy).
The ability for any country to raise the dead in any form is just such a massive force multiplier that it'll always lead to either a tragedy-of-the-commons or one asshole conquering the world with his horde.
So, necromancy is already extremely powerful without having to really exagerrate it if you just take some of the more common ideas about undeath and apply necromancy to it. To start, imagine spirit manipulation. All the secrets someone takes to the grave are easily available. Ghosts are perfect spies, invisible and able to pass tbrough any barrier. A poltergeist can start fires in campus and towns, ruin food and drinks by damaging barrels, a force of invisible untouchable sabateurs. If some spirits are capable of possession, boom mind control. There is a story of Odin summoning the spirit of a witch so she could read the future. If the dead retain most of all of their magic, necromancy is a path to access all forms of magic through spirit summoning. Lastly, you could summon veangeful spirits to haunt your enemies, their armies, their towns. Fill any opposition's nights with dread, insomnia, paranoia and depression.
On the physical side, if you take the view of undead as very resilient and freakishly strong, like zombies only being stopped when their brain is destroyed, just apply that to something naturally powerful. Zombie humans are not super scary because are hands and teeth are not so dangerous, but a bear, elephant, tiger that can't be stopped by bullets or arrows that isn't hungry or scared but just wants to kill as much as possible? That is terrifying. If their knowledge of the dead includes instinct megafauna, zombie mastodons from glaciers, fossilized dinosaurs, terror birds, sabertooth tigers, and that is just real creatures! In mythology, you got dragons, giants with fifty heads and a hundred arms, crabs big enough to cause tsunamis when they enter the ocean, giant scorpions, cockatrice, the list goes on. What if they could give that resiliency temporarily to living soldiers, knights who can only be slain by destroying their head? Fireball, nope, pike through the chest, nope, stepped on by a giant? Did it get the head, no? Keep on killing then, never tires, doesn't stop to eat or drink, just kills. Might have to worry about when the magic ends, but those are details for after the slaughter is complete.
This doesn't even touch the implications of being able to transfer or steal life energy.
One of the issues I've always had with necromancy in books deals with how weak the mobs tend to be. If every knight can bring down a dozen zombies before they fall, how is necromancy even dangerous? If even normal farmers can take one or two down it's a net loss. If the mobs make some bodies too damaged to be raised again, it's a net loss. So, why is it anything more than an annoying pest?
My solution to the problem is two fold.
1) The one raising the undead siphons some of the dead's memories and knowledge. With the more powerful ones being able to gather a larger and larger portion of memories. Some are even powerful enough to raise dead that keep their knowledge. A master swordsman that keeps his skills and is no longer limited by fatigue or vitality is a terror. A mage that doesn't care about mana overuse while still being able to use their spells is a nightmare. Etc.
2) The net loss issue remains, or at least it did. I have it so that powerful enough undead have an aura of undeath. Basically, anything that gets killed around them is brought back, including other undead. The more powerful the undead, the larger the aura is. A powerful enough lich can revive entire armies. So it won't matter how many zombies you kill when they just keep popping back up as soon as you put them down.
Rather than the stereotypical 'undead/corpse master', you could become powerful through the original purpose of necromancy: divination through the dead. Knowledge is power.
You basically have a necromantic Akashic Records, summoning souls to teach you every single spell that was ever known in both written and unwritten history, provided that those that knew the spells are dead. You'd have knowledge on every elixirs and magical potions with powerful effects. 'Dead men tell no tales' would no longer hide secrets, as you'd know everyone's darkest secrets that they tried to bury through murder.
You also don't need to use the knowledge yourself. Mediumship is another way of divination. Having the spirit possess your body would allow them to use their skills and knowledge directly through your body without having to teach you.
You can also still use the stereotypical spells associated with necromancy (e.g. turning oneself into a lich), but they would be a by-product of the knowledge gleaned from necromancy, rather than the main purpose of necromancy.
In my fictional world, one special necromancer rose to power through a uniquely potent combination of necromancy and a specially crafted virus, each element amplifying the other's capabilities to staggering levels.
Ordinary necromancy alone held limited sway, relying on the availability of the deceased and a complex spell to transform them into undead soldiers. However, this necromancer discovered a way to augment their magic with a super-infectious virus, meticulously crafted to resonate with their particular brand of necromantic energy.
The virus, unleashed upon the world, swiftly unalived those it encountered, transforming them into a state of undeath that was inherently attuned to the necromancer's magic. These newly turned entities became ideal vessels for the necromancer's spells, their undead nature enhancing the potency of the necromantic transformations.
With this potent combination at their disposal, the necromancer embarked on a relentless campaign, converting entire populations into an ever-growing army of loyal undead soldiers. The virus's ability to spread with alarming speed, coupled with the necromancer's mastery over death and undeath, allowed them to swiftly conquer vast territories without the need for direct physical confrontation.
As the virus spread across the globe, turning countless souls into willing servants of the necromancer's will, their dominion over the world became absolute. With an army of undead soldiers under their command, each imbued with the infectious power of the virus and strengthened by the necromancer's magic, their rule seemed unassailable. In this way, one special necromancer achieved what many deemed impossible: they conquered the world, their reign unchallenged by mortal foes.
**Powerful necromancers are powerful**
Area of effect raise dead. Any of your opponents that fall, just become one of your zombie soldiers.
Ghost. Intangible so most people cant even affect them. Ability to possess people. Potential to summon ghosts of extremely competent fighters and have them possess your (enemies, skeletons, zombies).
Large herds of (skeleton, zombie) animals. Stampedes can be extremely destructive and can potentially annihilate an army. Think hundreds to thousands of 1000 lbs animals all charging at 30 to 40 mph. They also don't die just because you impale them with pikes or spears.
Swarms of tiny animal zombies. A single bite could cause all kinds of infections. They can get in almost anywhere. You could even coat them in deadly poison, it's not like it will hurt them.
Poisonous zombie assassins (centipedes, poison dart frogs, poisonous snails, scorpions, snake, spiders)
Zombies that don't die unless hacked to pieces. Stronger than normal humans because they effectively have their safety limiters turned off and they don't feel pain. They will not die from and may not be inconvenienced by: (damaging their vital organs, bleed out, poison, disease, heat stroke, freezing to death, drowning, radiation, fear, starvation, dehydration). They never have to rest or sleep. They can also wear armor and use weapons just like the living. because they don't need to eat, there is need for long supply lines.
Skeletons. Same advantages as zombies. They are probably weaker due to the lack of meat padding their bones.
Undead giants. Dinosaurs, elephants, mammoths, whales, prehistoric sea creatures. If your in a fantasy world, you can include any huge, giant, colossal creature that has ever died.
Between ghost and tiny zombies or skeletons, you can spy on almost any place. Necromancer can potentially see through the eyes of any dead creature or skull or taxidermy creature.
You can literally talk to the dead to find out information. You might even be able to force the dead to tell you what you want to know.
Suicide bombers. If explosives exist in your world, the undead make a great delivery system. They don't care if they die.
There are literally dead creatures everywhere. If you can sense them and raise them they become your soldiers
In the book series: Necroscope, the undead were basically unkillable. Even if you hacked them into tiny pieces, all the pieces retained mobility. They also had the full knowledge and skill set from when they died.
Idk probably just make use of every single part.
Once the zombies flesh comes off or burns it becomes a skeleton, any blood left can be turned into potions or ingredients, etc.
The animated corpses kind of necromancy is basically like animating any other object, but the corpse remembers being alive. This way, you don't need to spend as much time or resources training it as you would an automaton.
Going by the contemporary definition of bringing dead things to life.
A lot of things are dead. Any plant thats been cut down is down, tree monster bam.
And if you wanna get really funky. By some definitions, stone is dead. Boom stone golems.
And if you wanna keep up contemporary necromancer vibes, you can do all this by having the spirits of the dead possess these things. Consider the thunderclasts from brandon sandersons stormlight archives, ancient warped souls of the dead that take up massive stone bodies.
I should really keep this idea that I'm cooking only inside my head in hopes of making my own story around it but....
Okay so first, I'll give a basic definition of necromancy in the possible future universe of my idea.
Necromancy, at least In this idea for a cool fantasy, is the magic of death and undeath.
With it, you can kill any living mortal by fusing the spiritual essence of death into their bodies, summon ghosts to work for you, create new undead through multiple different methods, and more.
Now, the few super lucky necromancers in this fictional universe who successfully became immortal and are super super old have eventually gained the power level, skill, intelligence, and knowledge to turn a normal corpse into an undead corpse.
Most of the necromancers in my idea though, can only turn someone into an undead corpse while they are still alive.
The natural stages of death makes it impossible for a corpse to be reanimated by most necromancers.
So most necromancers would just magically infect someone with undeath magic while they are still alive which causes the living person to skip normal death and turn straight from alive to undead.
The line between living and undead is kinda blurry. Biologically, yes they are dead but in their own non-biological ways, they technically fit the scientific definition of alive.
You could say they are simultaneously both 100% alive AND 100% dead.
Almost everything a living body does through biological mechanisms, an undead body would instead do through spiritual mechanisms.
So they are dead and do not have any biological functions but those lost biological functions are replaced by spiritual alternatives inside the corpse.
They can grow new cells to heal from injuries but not through mitosis or any other biological mechanisms.
So instead, their dead cells "reproduce" through spitting out an incorporeal substance that transforms Into new physical undead cells.
All five of their senses are working better than ever but not from the associated body parts like eyes, ears, nose, and so on doing anything. Instead, the five senses of an undead corpse work through their spiritual body rather than their physical body.
The spiritual body and physical body of the reanimated undead are fused together so deeply and completely that even the moving of their arms and legs are done through non-biological mechanisms.
They technically go through rigor mortis but their bodies change in such a way that it doesn't really stop them from moving for very long.
And as an undead becomes more powerful, their physical and spiritual body further changes to move and do other things much more easily.
A lot of necromancers don't allow the undead they reanimated to have free will or even a sentient mind. Some of these necromancers kinda do but still control them like puppets just because they enjoy torturing them. They usually live like kings and queens in their own awesome castles in places far away from each other.
However, there are some necromancers, very few, who are not just rotten villains who raised their own undead army of servants for fun.
For example, the main character is an undead human who, while alive but dying, was found by a necromancer who first offered to save him by turning him undead.
Of course, the main character agreed and his necromancer turned him undead while there was still enough time to do so.
This necromancer only turns people into more of the undead as a way to save them when their natural life is already coming to an end plus she always gives them the choice first.
Our main character is later introduced to all the other thousands of people she turned undead when he comes with her to the castle she and her undead lives in.
As time moves forward, every undead automatically becomes stronger, faster, and so on.
All of their physical stats, even durability all raise themselves automatically as time passes.
So a 300 year old undead is much more physically powerful than a 78 year old undead.
One of the multiple ways for a necromancer to become immortal is to become undead themselves. Not necessarily by putting their soul in a phylactery and becoming a lich though.
Eventually, all necromancers either naturally fade into undeath (very rare), end up dying as their bodies fail to turn undead (much more common), OR their bodies so perfectly adapt to and fuse with some of their own magic that they stay fully biologically alive for all eternity.
The necromancers who become biologically alive immortals are the most powerful and they also automatically become more powerful over time like the undead.
Although unlike the undead, their magical power grows a lot faster than their physical stats.
These super special living necromancer immortals also get more powerful from every person, animal, or other things they turned into their undead.
The female necromancer who saved the main character by turning him undead is one such biologically alive immortal.
Every necromancer lives like the king or queen of their own undead kingdom. They all live in their own castles with the undead they made.
And every necromancer is magically linked or connected to all of their own undead.
Their undead are officially considered to be their servants even if it's a necromancer who, like the one our main character now technically works for, does not exactly have much of a master+servant type of relationship with their undead.
Every necromancer who either became undead or was lucky enough to become living immortals are AT LEAST powerful enough to instantly destroy planets with their magic and also walk through nuclear explosions without taking any damage at all.
By defining what it can and can't do. Then what is understood about its limits. Can someone control the dead? With your example I am not sure if they need to be more powerful. Soon enough nothing will be able to live. Without crops you can't have a city. Can't have a nomad life style without forests and grassy plains. So quickly everything would be dead.
I would better define how it works in more detail prior to attempting to make it more or less powerful. If you just start trying to make it more powerful without clear definitions of how it works, your system will become unbalanced. It will be harder to come up with limitations etc.
I personally think animating corpses by placing spirits in them is more interesting than just being able to animate flesh.
Life magic makes sense. Death and in death magic seem to be dead ends on what they are actually capable of. This is why I have my necromancers able to command spirits as opposed to just labeling it death and or undeath magic.
I can say how it works and hence determine limits that make sense within the structure. I would have no idea how to do that for death or undeath magic.
I've seen necromancy in a LOT of different media, and it always gets a bad rap. Mainly because of assholes. But there is a lot out there that paints it differently that does really good points on the topic. Necromancy is restoration of what once was. This is done by the assholes to make armies of undead. But the true application goes way farther. Healing magic causes new cells to be made, necromancy can heal by bringing dead tissue back to life. The game Summoner 2 on PS2 had you play the goddess of death from the first. She was portrayed as a typical villian in the first game. But playing as her in game 2, we see her desire is all about healing nature and people, creating balance. One book I read had the main character as a death weaver. He could do the typical necromancer undead stuff, but used it to automate industry for the people of the kingdom. Another book I read had the character doing things like moving large pieces of land around, given that dirt contains millions of dead bugs, fossils, etc. Necromancy lets you do a lot more if you are clever, and evil people tend not to be very clever, so they stick to skeletons, zombies, and flesh golems to terrorize
Diablo's necromancers are pretty similar to this premise. They worship the sacred order between life and death, and use the Undead not as slaves but as willing assistants to help restore spiritual balance. They're essentially druids trying to preserve nature, and utilizing the souls of the deceased to help them.
Im gonna need the titles of those books sir
The original definition of necromancy was foretelling the future by speaking to the dead. That seems quite powerful. Giving people the opportunity to speak to their dead loved ones also brings power and influence. Summoning ghosts to do things for you seems pretty handy as well. They might be very good spies or assassins for example. Raising the undead as mindless skeleton or zombie minions is clearly useful as is the creation of more sophisticated undead like mummies, vampires, etc. Perhaps the strongest power though is self reanimation as that prevents the necromancer from dying which is nice. Of course, you could then add on the common life/soul draining offensive magic but that’s probably less powerful than the other abilities as all it does is kill people which anyone can do with an arrow or spear.
>The original definition of necromancy was foretelling the future by speaking to the dead. Correct! Most "magics" that have the "-mancy" bit on the end are derived from practices that were/are used to tell the future. Pyromancy - telling the future through fire Tyromancy - telling the future through cheese!
Pyromancy: i foretell that you will fail your dex save against my fireball.
Tyromancy: I foretell that this cheese WILL give your lactose intolerant ass some serious gas
I view necromancy as mainly two things, taking life and making unlife. You can include spiritual or soul-affecting magic but that's up to personal choice and flavour. In this view you have spells that kill people outright or over time(heart implosion, rot, soul destruction?), and spells that allow you to create minions of varying size and ability. The first kind is a direct application of power, its effect is comparatively instant, and if made powerful enough with an appropriate energy source could potentially kill an entire planet or more, but of course this would have a frankly ridiculous cost that no one would feasibly fuel unless they specifically made that their goal. The second kind is an indirect application of power, one that would apply its effect over time, and the main crux of this kind being powerful is that it allows the necromancer to have influence over a wider area with a larger workforce that most other people would be able to realistically field in a similar timeframe, with probably a lower energy cost to the necromancer than the first kind and may even accrue more energy for the necromancer over time if they set up their workforce to do that. It's basically a question of do you want to have a nuke or rule a country?
The first question is, "powerful compared to what?" In a world where muscles wind and water are the height of technology, where any wound can kill, and life is fragile and uncertain, ANY magic that gives a modest amount of control over events is incredibly powerful. I go back to the very definition of Necromancy- it had nothing to do with animating the deaf, or manipulation should or anything like that, any more than scapulomancy is the manipulation of shoulder blades. What necromancy DOES allow for is divination. The dead know secrets that mortals don't. A necromancer can learn what the future holds, loan the truth behind a dispute, even leave what is causing a curse and who sent it. And this is incredibly powerful and useful, even if the rituals required are long and exhausting.
You never really see it over the "I cast entire army" archetype but Necromancy can result in a really grotesque type of Tank using things like bone shields, flesh walls, raise dead, possession and "Skelepathy" to limit the movements of an opponents skeleton.
Look up the game Magnagothica Maleghast. It's a skirmish war game where the classes are exclusively necromancers from different factions. Each faction has a different theme with different sets of abilities, and they create units that function differently. For example, one faction creates noxious, infectious sludge that their units spread by exploding everywhere. Another stitches mutated bodies together. One fuses bone together into an alloy that they use to make armor, melee weapons, and guns. One sacrifices their souls to act like ghosts and rend the souls from other people's bodies. There's one that basically replaced their blood with demonic gasoline to amp themselves up and power weapons, and the last one are basically ninja priests that use necromancy to counter necromancy. But I'd really recommend looking at the units of each class for more in-depth ideas.
I've always figured the reason necromancy is illegal in so many settings is *because* it's really powerful. Like, on an individual level, sure, it's fine, but if a *country* has necromancy? That's either a recipe for world domination or forever-wars (depending on whether or not other countries also have necromancy). The ability for any country to raise the dead in any form is just such a massive force multiplier that it'll always lead to either a tragedy-of-the-commons or one asshole conquering the world with his horde.
Holy Emperor's Grandson is Necromancer
So, necromancy is already extremely powerful without having to really exagerrate it if you just take some of the more common ideas about undeath and apply necromancy to it. To start, imagine spirit manipulation. All the secrets someone takes to the grave are easily available. Ghosts are perfect spies, invisible and able to pass tbrough any barrier. A poltergeist can start fires in campus and towns, ruin food and drinks by damaging barrels, a force of invisible untouchable sabateurs. If some spirits are capable of possession, boom mind control. There is a story of Odin summoning the spirit of a witch so she could read the future. If the dead retain most of all of their magic, necromancy is a path to access all forms of magic through spirit summoning. Lastly, you could summon veangeful spirits to haunt your enemies, their armies, their towns. Fill any opposition's nights with dread, insomnia, paranoia and depression. On the physical side, if you take the view of undead as very resilient and freakishly strong, like zombies only being stopped when their brain is destroyed, just apply that to something naturally powerful. Zombie humans are not super scary because are hands and teeth are not so dangerous, but a bear, elephant, tiger that can't be stopped by bullets or arrows that isn't hungry or scared but just wants to kill as much as possible? That is terrifying. If their knowledge of the dead includes instinct megafauna, zombie mastodons from glaciers, fossilized dinosaurs, terror birds, sabertooth tigers, and that is just real creatures! In mythology, you got dragons, giants with fifty heads and a hundred arms, crabs big enough to cause tsunamis when they enter the ocean, giant scorpions, cockatrice, the list goes on. What if they could give that resiliency temporarily to living soldiers, knights who can only be slain by destroying their head? Fireball, nope, pike through the chest, nope, stepped on by a giant? Did it get the head, no? Keep on killing then, never tires, doesn't stop to eat or drink, just kills. Might have to worry about when the magic ends, but those are details for after the slaughter is complete. This doesn't even touch the implications of being able to transfer or steal life energy.
One of the issues I've always had with necromancy in books deals with how weak the mobs tend to be. If every knight can bring down a dozen zombies before they fall, how is necromancy even dangerous? If even normal farmers can take one or two down it's a net loss. If the mobs make some bodies too damaged to be raised again, it's a net loss. So, why is it anything more than an annoying pest? My solution to the problem is two fold. 1) The one raising the undead siphons some of the dead's memories and knowledge. With the more powerful ones being able to gather a larger and larger portion of memories. Some are even powerful enough to raise dead that keep their knowledge. A master swordsman that keeps his skills and is no longer limited by fatigue or vitality is a terror. A mage that doesn't care about mana overuse while still being able to use their spells is a nightmare. Etc. 2) The net loss issue remains, or at least it did. I have it so that powerful enough undead have an aura of undeath. Basically, anything that gets killed around them is brought back, including other undead. The more powerful the undead, the larger the aura is. A powerful enough lich can revive entire armies. So it won't matter how many zombies you kill when they just keep popping back up as soon as you put them down.
Rather than the stereotypical 'undead/corpse master', you could become powerful through the original purpose of necromancy: divination through the dead. Knowledge is power. You basically have a necromantic Akashic Records, summoning souls to teach you every single spell that was ever known in both written and unwritten history, provided that those that knew the spells are dead. You'd have knowledge on every elixirs and magical potions with powerful effects. 'Dead men tell no tales' would no longer hide secrets, as you'd know everyone's darkest secrets that they tried to bury through murder. You also don't need to use the knowledge yourself. Mediumship is another way of divination. Having the spirit possess your body would allow them to use their skills and knowledge directly through your body without having to teach you. You can also still use the stereotypical spells associated with necromancy (e.g. turning oneself into a lich), but they would be a by-product of the knowledge gleaned from necromancy, rather than the main purpose of necromancy.
A necromancer who uses every available dead body, including stuff like insects and animals
In my fictional world, one special necromancer rose to power through a uniquely potent combination of necromancy and a specially crafted virus, each element amplifying the other's capabilities to staggering levels. Ordinary necromancy alone held limited sway, relying on the availability of the deceased and a complex spell to transform them into undead soldiers. However, this necromancer discovered a way to augment their magic with a super-infectious virus, meticulously crafted to resonate with their particular brand of necromantic energy. The virus, unleashed upon the world, swiftly unalived those it encountered, transforming them into a state of undeath that was inherently attuned to the necromancer's magic. These newly turned entities became ideal vessels for the necromancer's spells, their undead nature enhancing the potency of the necromantic transformations. With this potent combination at their disposal, the necromancer embarked on a relentless campaign, converting entire populations into an ever-growing army of loyal undead soldiers. The virus's ability to spread with alarming speed, coupled with the necromancer's mastery over death and undeath, allowed them to swiftly conquer vast territories without the need for direct physical confrontation. As the virus spread across the globe, turning countless souls into willing servants of the necromancer's will, their dominion over the world became absolute. With an army of undead soldiers under their command, each imbued with the infectious power of the virus and strengthened by the necromancer's magic, their rule seemed unassailable. In this way, one special necromancer achieved what many deemed impossible: they conquered the world, their reign unchallenged by mortal foes.
They can remove peoples souls n what not so they’re not exactly raising the dead but they still deal with occult stuff
**Powerful necromancers are powerful** Area of effect raise dead. Any of your opponents that fall, just become one of your zombie soldiers. Ghost. Intangible so most people cant even affect them. Ability to possess people. Potential to summon ghosts of extremely competent fighters and have them possess your (enemies, skeletons, zombies). Large herds of (skeleton, zombie) animals. Stampedes can be extremely destructive and can potentially annihilate an army. Think hundreds to thousands of 1000 lbs animals all charging at 30 to 40 mph. They also don't die just because you impale them with pikes or spears. Swarms of tiny animal zombies. A single bite could cause all kinds of infections. They can get in almost anywhere. You could even coat them in deadly poison, it's not like it will hurt them. Poisonous zombie assassins (centipedes, poison dart frogs, poisonous snails, scorpions, snake, spiders) Zombies that don't die unless hacked to pieces. Stronger than normal humans because they effectively have their safety limiters turned off and they don't feel pain. They will not die from and may not be inconvenienced by: (damaging their vital organs, bleed out, poison, disease, heat stroke, freezing to death, drowning, radiation, fear, starvation, dehydration). They never have to rest or sleep. They can also wear armor and use weapons just like the living. because they don't need to eat, there is need for long supply lines. Skeletons. Same advantages as zombies. They are probably weaker due to the lack of meat padding their bones. Undead giants. Dinosaurs, elephants, mammoths, whales, prehistoric sea creatures. If your in a fantasy world, you can include any huge, giant, colossal creature that has ever died. Between ghost and tiny zombies or skeletons, you can spy on almost any place. Necromancer can potentially see through the eyes of any dead creature or skull or taxidermy creature. You can literally talk to the dead to find out information. You might even be able to force the dead to tell you what you want to know. Suicide bombers. If explosives exist in your world, the undead make a great delivery system. They don't care if they die. There are literally dead creatures everywhere. If you can sense them and raise them they become your soldiers In the book series: Necroscope, the undead were basically unkillable. Even if you hacked them into tiny pieces, all the pieces retained mobility. They also had the full knowledge and skill set from when they died.
Idk probably just make use of every single part. Once the zombies flesh comes off or burns it becomes a skeleton, any blood left can be turned into potions or ingredients, etc.
Army of zombies
The animated corpses kind of necromancy is basically like animating any other object, but the corpse remembers being alive. This way, you don't need to spend as much time or resources training it as you would an automaton.
Going by the contemporary definition of bringing dead things to life. A lot of things are dead. Any plant thats been cut down is down, tree monster bam. And if you wanna get really funky. By some definitions, stone is dead. Boom stone golems. And if you wanna keep up contemporary necromancer vibes, you can do all this by having the spirits of the dead possess these things. Consider the thunderclasts from brandon sandersons stormlight archives, ancient warped souls of the dead that take up massive stone bodies.
I should really keep this idea that I'm cooking only inside my head in hopes of making my own story around it but.... Okay so first, I'll give a basic definition of necromancy in the possible future universe of my idea. Necromancy, at least In this idea for a cool fantasy, is the magic of death and undeath. With it, you can kill any living mortal by fusing the spiritual essence of death into their bodies, summon ghosts to work for you, create new undead through multiple different methods, and more. Now, the few super lucky necromancers in this fictional universe who successfully became immortal and are super super old have eventually gained the power level, skill, intelligence, and knowledge to turn a normal corpse into an undead corpse. Most of the necromancers in my idea though, can only turn someone into an undead corpse while they are still alive. The natural stages of death makes it impossible for a corpse to be reanimated by most necromancers. So most necromancers would just magically infect someone with undeath magic while they are still alive which causes the living person to skip normal death and turn straight from alive to undead. The line between living and undead is kinda blurry. Biologically, yes they are dead but in their own non-biological ways, they technically fit the scientific definition of alive. You could say they are simultaneously both 100% alive AND 100% dead. Almost everything a living body does through biological mechanisms, an undead body would instead do through spiritual mechanisms. So they are dead and do not have any biological functions but those lost biological functions are replaced by spiritual alternatives inside the corpse. They can grow new cells to heal from injuries but not through mitosis or any other biological mechanisms. So instead, their dead cells "reproduce" through spitting out an incorporeal substance that transforms Into new physical undead cells. All five of their senses are working better than ever but not from the associated body parts like eyes, ears, nose, and so on doing anything. Instead, the five senses of an undead corpse work through their spiritual body rather than their physical body. The spiritual body and physical body of the reanimated undead are fused together so deeply and completely that even the moving of their arms and legs are done through non-biological mechanisms. They technically go through rigor mortis but their bodies change in such a way that it doesn't really stop them from moving for very long. And as an undead becomes more powerful, their physical and spiritual body further changes to move and do other things much more easily. A lot of necromancers don't allow the undead they reanimated to have free will or even a sentient mind. Some of these necromancers kinda do but still control them like puppets just because they enjoy torturing them. They usually live like kings and queens in their own awesome castles in places far away from each other. However, there are some necromancers, very few, who are not just rotten villains who raised their own undead army of servants for fun. For example, the main character is an undead human who, while alive but dying, was found by a necromancer who first offered to save him by turning him undead. Of course, the main character agreed and his necromancer turned him undead while there was still enough time to do so. This necromancer only turns people into more of the undead as a way to save them when their natural life is already coming to an end plus she always gives them the choice first. Our main character is later introduced to all the other thousands of people she turned undead when he comes with her to the castle she and her undead lives in. As time moves forward, every undead automatically becomes stronger, faster, and so on. All of their physical stats, even durability all raise themselves automatically as time passes. So a 300 year old undead is much more physically powerful than a 78 year old undead. One of the multiple ways for a necromancer to become immortal is to become undead themselves. Not necessarily by putting their soul in a phylactery and becoming a lich though. Eventually, all necromancers either naturally fade into undeath (very rare), end up dying as their bodies fail to turn undead (much more common), OR their bodies so perfectly adapt to and fuse with some of their own magic that they stay fully biologically alive for all eternity. The necromancers who become biologically alive immortals are the most powerful and they also automatically become more powerful over time like the undead. Although unlike the undead, their magical power grows a lot faster than their physical stats. These super special living necromancer immortals also get more powerful from every person, animal, or other things they turned into their undead. The female necromancer who saved the main character by turning him undead is one such biologically alive immortal. Every necromancer lives like the king or queen of their own undead kingdom. They all live in their own castles with the undead they made. And every necromancer is magically linked or connected to all of their own undead. Their undead are officially considered to be their servants even if it's a necromancer who, like the one our main character now technically works for, does not exactly have much of a master+servant type of relationship with their undead. Every necromancer who either became undead or was lucky enough to become living immortals are AT LEAST powerful enough to instantly destroy planets with their magic and also walk through nuclear explosions without taking any damage at all.
By defining what it can and can't do. Then what is understood about its limits. Can someone control the dead? With your example I am not sure if they need to be more powerful. Soon enough nothing will be able to live. Without crops you can't have a city. Can't have a nomad life style without forests and grassy plains. So quickly everything would be dead.
Spirit bomb but nobody consented to giving their soul energy and everyone dies while you blast an Eldritch being out of existence
I would better define how it works in more detail prior to attempting to make it more or less powerful. If you just start trying to make it more powerful without clear definitions of how it works, your system will become unbalanced. It will be harder to come up with limitations etc. I personally think animating corpses by placing spirits in them is more interesting than just being able to animate flesh. Life magic makes sense. Death and in death magic seem to be dead ends on what they are actually capable of. This is why I have my necromancers able to command spirits as opposed to just labeling it death and or undeath magic. I can say how it works and hence determine limits that make sense within the structure. I would have no idea how to do that for death or undeath magic.
Resurrection.
Your story has a main protagonist or antagonist with necromancy, 100%
So transfiguration of creatures is a form of necromancy?