: Actually, there are a number of examples from fantasy of
: necromancers aiding good. Examples: Hexen2: the
: Necromancer is one of the four "hero"
: characters, going up against the Darkness because he
: wants their power for himself.
That's Neutral Evil.
: Moonrunner (a fighting fantasy book): Mawn Pretoragus, a
: necromancer, creates a hand of glory for your
: character. His motives are unclear, but he probably
: realises that the Darkness are well on their way to
: finishing the creation of their Ethereal Projector
: (think a magical version of a nuke), and, were they to
: use it, a) he might well die b) loads of other people
: would die.
a) sounds like a problem for a necromancer, what's wrong to him about lots of other people dying?
: One story from "Inferno" that I've forgotten
: the name of: a necromancer summons his best friend's
: murdered lover as a ghost (with independent will, not
: under his control).
Interesting...if you remember I'll look for a copy.
: More generally, there's a decent number of evil sorcerers
: who end up aiding good, like Medea, who used her
: sorcery to keep Jason alive through his various trials
: to get the golden fleece, and, when he was trying to
: escape from Colchis, chopped up her little brother and
: threw him into the sea, knowing that the persuing
: ships would stop to collect the pieces of the young
: prince for burial (well, I said she was evil...)
actually, Good became evil not the other way around from what I can tell in that myth.
: One could also argue that summoning someone as an undead
: creature is a less perfect alternative to actually
: bringing them back to life, as suggested in the
: "Inferno" story I mentioned. And
: resurrection by a human rather than divine agency
: isn't blasphemous?
speaking as an agnostic no. Relgion had darn better keep it's nose more in it's own business... resurecting the dead (as opposed to raising them as Undead) is none of it's business
: Assuming that there is only Black and White in this
: world, never any shade of Grey.
I warned you that all of this was my opinion, I'm not saying all Necromancers seek the end of the world as we know it, but Necromancy is a very dark grey practice, as the idea of raising the dead as mindless(and if you debate me on this part I'm going to be pissed off and showing it) corpses is not good. Mindless corpses have no morals, power corupts, Seraph is a cynic...
Seriously I haven't read an of the books you mentioned so I don't have a broader range of necro stuff to look at.
I think Necromancers are basically Neutral Evil (As a group, individuals perhaps not), they seek what is in their own best interests. If they actually are evil in the archvilain sense or not that's another story.
Seraph
