Young Writers Society

Common Sense Necromancy

So, I was planning on participating in Camp NaNo this year, but some other real life obligations got in the way. I (hope) to write 10k for this project in the next 12 days, but that's unlikely to actually happen. Regardless, I figure that I would start up this thread in order to keep track of my thoughts on this novelette as I move forward.



My inspiration for Common Sense Necromancy (located in spoiler) was a piece of fanart that I saw for The Adventure Zone and it's kind of spiraled from there. @Lareine was also a huge chunk of inspiration, providing the title and providing the antagonist for the story.

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Cast of characters:

Liam Walker, 17, finishing up high school. He had his sights on becoming a wizard ever since he was a little kid, considering becoming an alchemist or an archivist. Tragedy struck the Walker household when Cory Cottage (his little brother's bunny) ended up dying. After seeing how distressed his brother was, Liam decided to join the Necromantic Society of Upper Suburban Clemont in order to learn how to bring the rabbit back from the dead. He didn't expect to run into... whatever the NSUSC was doing.

Distressed and distraught over the practices of NSUSC, Liam ends up hosting his own necromancer club -- Common Sense Necromancy -- in order to teach safe, sane, and ethical necromancy. He uses the meeting room at the library on Tuesday nights. Only one other person shows up.

Minerva Gallows, 17, dropped out of high school. She wanted to become a necromancer in order to raise her mother from the dead. She's not into killing people or animals for that matter.

Babara Mosher, 43, hasn't been to high school in decades. She's the founder of the Necromantic Society of Upper Suburban Clemont. She likes to murder and she likes to reanimate powerful officials to do her bidding. She's basically your every day soccer mom, right?

She mentors edgy teens, promising their parents that she's only helping them out. She's obviously only teaching all the goth children to love their authentic selves! Her little club is called the Nefarious Society of Unsealing Self Confidence. She has no clue where necromancy comes into all of this. (That's a lie, of course.)

Her main goal is to feed on the souls of teens and eventually rule the large town of [Undecided Name].

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Necromancy is so totally illegal.

Song to set the mood for the story! (Located under spoiler.)


I'll probably continuously update this as I find more songs that fit.

Weird fragment I thought of while pouring a glass of juice:

"Necromancy cannot achieve full-life. Once a human dies, a part of their soul departs from their body. With necromancy, you can summon some of it back; however, you have doomed that human to a half-life. They will lose core memories or parts of their personality. It is better to strive for immortality (which necromancy often tries to do) compared to allowing yourself to die just to be raised up.

Necromancy can heal, however. We don't talk about that."

I've given a bit more thought to the necromancy system.

Human necromancy is baaad. Like, in order to raise someone from the dead (with their soul attached), both sides of the transaction have to give something up. Most necromancers might give up childhood memories or a limb or a talent -- the soul on the other side of the bargain doesn't get to choose.

But, once you give something up, you can't get it back. There's no giving up a lock of hair, since that can easily grow back. I hope that makes sense?

Also, uh, if you want to raise a non-human entity (dogs, cats, rabbits, horses??), then you'll have to tie it to the life-force of something similar. So, if you raise a rabbit back from the dead, then you'll curse another rabbit to a half-life.

Hoopefully that makes sense.

Also, here's a potential cover under the spoiler.

Magic systems are diiifficult.

So, I've decided that an old god awakened roughly twenty years before the events of the story, breathing magic back into life. Because of this, a modern civilization is trying to adjust to the change and are trying to figure out the rules of magic.

I guess, in this universe, magic is dictated by manipulation and sacrifice. There aren't necessarily schools of magic -- magic is something to be feared and kept underground -- but there are certain sects that you could focus on. Some might gear their manipulation magic toward helping their plants in botany, while others may try to go for an elemental route. Everyone has some magic, but it's generally bad for social prospects to be caught using it.

Sacrifices are usually non-material things, although irreplaceable objects of sentimental worth could work too. You might sacrifice the memories of your mother in order to gain power, but I'm not sure exactly... how much power you'd gain in response?

I also need to work out the cost of necromancy again.

Ahhh, I need to have all of this worked out by November. Hopefully this'll start shaping up.